"Protection from monocolored" is such a strange
ability to try to evaluate. At the time of its
printing, it was considered worse than its
counterpart, Enemy of the Guildpact (look it up)
because most of Ravnica's best and most-played
kill spells were multicolored. Guardian couldn't
stand up to Lightning Helix, Putrefy, Mortify,
or Wrecking Ball, but there were plenty of
creatures running around that were powerless to
block it or get past it. Trouble is, a 2/3
didn't strike fear into anyone's heart.
But here's the thing-- Ravnica block shared a
Standard format with Kamigawa first, and then
Time Spiral. And in those two blocks, Guardian
of the Guildpact had protection from pretty much
everything! Except for a few legendary
creatures, and of course artifacts (which meant
it could easily wield a Sunforger and swing for
a hard-to-block 6). As time goes by, Magic keeps
revisiting the multicolor or the artifact theme,
so there's really never been a time since it
first came out that there hasn't been a buzzcard
that could cope with it. But the majority of
Magic sets contain almost entirely monocolor
cards, and so Guardian is always a hard card to
deal with. As a 2/3 for four it may not look
like much, but you'd be surprised how many games
you can win with it.
This fall, all roads lead to Ravnica again. But
every road has two directions, and this week
we're going the other direction, back to the
first time we saw the great ecumenopolis.
Today's card has always been a personal favorite
of mine, despite the fact that it never got a
huge amount of time on tournament tables, which
tended to lean towards rare champions like
Loxodon Hierarch. The Ravnica block
was constructed very differently from, say,
Alara Reborn, and the guilds themselves employed
a lot of people and spells that were only one
color, making the Guardian nearly untouchable by
a lot of decks. To this day, he's a powerhouse
in casual settings and in the Pauper and Peasant
formats, especially any place that uses
equipment.
Welcome back to an interesting week readers todays
card of the day is Guardian of The Guildpact a
3/3 white creature with protection from mono
colored. Having not played heavily during the
Ravnica era I can’t comment on the effectiveness
of this card during its hay day, there is a lot
of powerful single colored creatures and spells
making this an interesting choice I can attest
it’s pretty awesome in the pauper format for its
competitive use. In legacy and vintage I don’t
think this card has made much of a splash so its
probably a dud in that area. In casual and
multiplayer having a ground blocker that dodges
most forms of removal is awesome. In limited it
seems to be a solid ground creature. Overall a
highly interesting ability and a somewhat
competitive one this card shines in pauper and
perhaps in casual and multiplayer.
Today's card of the day is Guardian of the
Guildpact which is a four
mana White 2/3 with protection from monocolored.
This is an excellent
defense to block creatures without Trample or
evasion and with and
equipment can be an offensive threat that is
very difficult to stop.
Artifacts are an issue, as would Eldrazi, but
otherwise this is a solid
card overall that is slightly too slow by itself
to really shine.
For Limited games that include this set this is
a nearly unbeatable
annoyance on either offense or defense that can
lock down an attacker or
regularly pick away at an opponent's life
points. The single White
allows reliable play in multicolor decks and
multiple copies are
possible and welcome in Sealed. Even though it
is a common the
difficulty in removing it and value in nearly
any scenario, particularly
a topdeck, make it worth picking very early in
Booster.
In Multiplayer the somewhat slower format allows
this to enter play at a
more beneficial time and can be put to use as a
defense against any
number of attacks from different opponents.
Accorder's Shield, Avacyn's
Collar, Batterskull, or Sword of Vengeance
drastically boost the
potential long-term gains by adding Vigilance
and shouldn't be
overlooked when including Guardian in a
multiplayer deck.
Welcome to our return to Ravnica week! This week
we will be looking back at some cards from the
original Ravnica block. Just a reminder about
Return to Ravnica being the next block, coming
October 2012! So to begin the week, we are
looking at Guardian of the Guildpact from
Dissension. Guardian of the Guildpact is a
common white creature spirit that costs three
generic and one white mana. Guardian of the
Guildpact is a 2/3 that has protection from
monocolored.
Man, I do love the Guardian of the Guildpact.
Protection from monocolored is amazing. Anything
that is only a single color is made useless
against this guy. No Path to Exile, or
Dismembers here. The only drawback becomes that
you need multicolored spells in order to beef
him up. Luckily, that is where it is so
wonderful having Hybrid cards around! Even if
you run a mono-white deck, you can still use
great enchantments such as Steel of the Godhead
or Scourge of the Nobilis to beef this guy and
grant him some amazing abilities, and since it
is hard for your opponent to deal with him, you
well could sail him to victory!
