Welcome all to the last day of previews here on the Daily Dose of Guilds of Ravnica. The full set has been spoiled and everyone is trying to decide what guilds they want to be playing next week at their local prerelease. Even know the full set has been spoiled there are still three cards that I want to highlight that I haven’t been able to talk about yet. This includes one Golgari creature, one Dimir sorcery, and one Boros sorcery that gives you one last push to win the game. Including the cards I’ll be talking about today, the thing that excites me the most about Guilds of Ravnica is that there are multiple cards that I want to build decks around. I just want to keep deckbuilding and trying new combinations of cards out to see what works.
The first card I want to talk about today is a Golgari creature that reminds me a bit of Lotleth Troll. Here is Charnel Troll.
This is the type of creature that fits perfectly in what Golgari is trying to accomplish. It wants to put cards and more specifically creatures into your graveyard so that it can take advantage of them with cards like Charnel Troll. There are some cards that will help you get some cards into your graveyard in the first few turns like the new Glowspore Shaman.
This will help you so that if you cast Charnel Troll on turn three you will have food for it to survive the turn after you cast it. Don’t worry if you don’t have any creatures in your graveyard since in response to the trigger during your upkeep you can use its ability to discard a creature card. This means it will be a 6/6 trample creature on its first attack. There will be times where it will have to be sacrificed, but I believe there are enough cards in the set to make sure you can keep your graveyard filled with enough food in it.
Next is a card that is best played later in the game so that you can maximize its value. Here is Mnemonic Betrayal.
It will be tough to hide when you have this card sometimes as you will want to constantly see what’s in your opponents’ graveyard, so you can calculate all their spells you are going to cast. There are times where you will want to cast it on turn four of five so that you can cast one removal spell they’ve already used. Ideally you would like to wait until later in the game when you are able to cast 3 or more spells to really gain value from the card. Due to the cost of the spell, in the early to mid game this will be a dead card in your hand waiting for the time when you can use it. I wouldn’t expect multiples copies of this card to be used in a deck. One seems like the right amount to have in your deck so that you can have a large swing in card advantage for one turn.
Finally, I want to talk about a card that I believe will fit in very nicely into an aggressive Boros deck in Standard. Here is Chance for Glory.
This card is one that intrigues me to the point where I want to start building a Boros deck to take advantage of its power. The part of the card that provides the most interesting design choice is that the card is an instant. Ideally with this card you would want to play it during your turn so that you are able to get in two attack steps to try and kill your opponent. If you played Chance for Glory during your opponents turn, you only get one turn to try and kill them as you will lose the game once you hit your end step. A possible reason to cast it during your opponents' turn is if your opponent tries to use a removal spell to kill your creatures and you only need one more attack to kill them off. This gives your creatures indestructible and saves them until your next attack phase. I would try and use it though mostly during your own turn, either when your opponent is tapped out or when you know that the additional turn of attacking will finish off your opponent. Like Mnemonic Betrayal, I don’t think I want this as a four of in my deck but having 1 or 2 will be a great way to surprise your opponent to kill them off in quick fashion.
We’ve done it folks, we’ve got to the end of previews and we are ready to move on to the next phase of Guilds of Ravnica hype, prerelease week! Thanks again for reading the Daily Dose of Guilds of Ravnica. Join me again next week for prerelease week where I’ll help you prepare all week long for prerelease weekend. I’ll go over the best cards from each guild that you want to be playing and even have a video of a prerelease deck build!
