Plane-cation Chronicles Ravnica – Guild Battle Guide

The Plane-cation Chronicles series of events kicks off this Sunday July 28, and each week for the next five weeks we will be getting a different format to play in! For the first event, we will be visiting Ravnica, and the format is called Guild Battle.

Event Information

Start: July 28 2019 8 AM PT (15:00 UTC)
Sign up End: July 30 2019 8 AM PT (15:00 UTC)
End: July 30 2019 11 AM PT (18:00 UTC)
Format: Guild Battle
Cost: Free
Match Structure: Single matches (BO1)
Rewards: Depending on amount of wins, up to 6 wins:

• 1 Win: Return to Ravnica Plains and 1000 Mastery XP
• 2 Wins: Return to Ravnica Island
• 3 Wins: Return to Ravnica Swamp
• 4 Wins: Return to Ravnica Mountain
• 5 Wins: Return to Ravnica Forest
• 6 Wins: Unhinged Forest

What is Guild Battle?

The in-game event description is as follows:

Pick your favorite guild event deck and battle it out with other guilds!
Note: Event decks will not be added to your collection.

You won’t see a “Most Popular Planes in the Multiverse” without seeing Ravnica on the list! It’s easy to see why this is a place that so many Planeswalkers love to return to. It’s got city, city, and more city! Be sure to save up your zibs and zinos if you plan to check out the Tin Street Market!

Each player will be able to pick and choose between ten preconstructed decks based on the ten guilds of Ravnica, and play against opponents with the same condition. You will be able to swap decks in between rounds, if you wish. The cards are not added to your collection.

These decks are the same as the new New Player Decks that was updated with the July 2 patch. On a sidenote as many people are wondering, existing players will get a copy of these decks before the next set is released.

For existing players: We currently intended to grant all players these updated decks by the time rotation happens so everyone will have access to decks that are Standard legal. There’s some tech we need to implement first to make this happen, but we’re working on it!

https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/magic-digital/mtg-arena-state-beta-june-27-2019

Guild Battle Decklists

Here are the ten decks you can use for this event for your reference – images courtesy of u/Menarch from reddit.

Azori(o)us Senate

Boros Legion

Cult of Rakdos

Golgari Swarm

Gruul Clans

House Dimir

Izzet League

1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun (GRN) 192
1 Expansion // Explosion (GRN) 224
2 Crackling Drake (GRN) 163
2 Radical Idea (GRN) 52
2 Chemister's Insight (GRN) 32
3 Goblin Electromancer (GRN) 174
1 League Guildmage (GRN) 185
1 Thousand-Year Storm (GRN) 207
3 Wee Dragonauts (GRN) 214
3 Shock (M20) 160
2 Lava Coil (GRN) 108
2 Augur of Bolas (WAR) 41
3 Murmuring Mystic (GRN) 45
1 Firemind's Research (GRN) 171
1 Steam Vents (GRN) 257
4 Izzet Guildgate (GRN) 251
10 Mountain (GRN) 263
10 Island (GRN) 261
1 Spellgorger Weird (WAR) 145
1 Winged Words (M20) 80
3 Jaya's Greeting (WAR) 136
1 Commence the Endgame (WAR) 45
1 Electrodominance (RNA) 99
1 Ral's Outburst (WAR) 212 

Orzhov Syndicate

Selesnya Conclave

Simic Combine

What Deck(s) Should I Play?

All decks are not meant to be tuned or powerful by any stretch as they were designed to give new players some cards to start their collection. This event is also meant to be for fun – but since there are rewards on the line, it would be better if you didn’t have to spend too long to reach your 6th win! We would rate the decks in this order:

1. Boros Legion
2. Orzhov Syndicate
3. House Dimir
4. Cult of Rakdos
5. Golgari Swarm
6. Selesnya Conclave
7. Gruul Clans
8. Azorius Senate
9. Simic Combine
10. Izzet League

Let us know what you think of the ranking – we will revise them once the event is available!