CCC: Guilds of Ravnica Set Review - Red

We're excited to continue Coast to Coast Casual (CCC), a blog series written by East2West, published on MTG Cardsmith.

I will be going over most cards in this set excluding most commons and uncommons. Each card will be given a ranking between 1 and 10 based on how playable I believe it to be in Standard, Modern, Commander, and Draft respectively.

  1. - Unplayable
  2. - Bad card tribal
  3. - Uninteresting
  4. - Could see play but doubtful
  5. - Playable
  6. - Seems deece
  7. - If you have the room run it
  8. - Make the room to run it
  9. - Spicy
  10. - Why aren't you playing this?

Red


Arclight Phoenix
Standard - 6
Modern - 5
Commander - 5
Draft - 6

Arclight Phoenix is a solid card for any spellslinging deck in almost any format. In Standard and Draft any Izzet deck would be happy to have this creature since it can almost always be free casted. In Commander it's cool but nothing impressive so although it's playable personally I wouldn't. For the Modern meta I think this card could see play, it's gotten out turn 1 or 2 easy enough, I'm just unsure if it's a truly viable strategy.

Erratic Cyclops
Standard - 6
Modern - 5
Commander - 8
Draft - 5

Erratic Cyclops lives up to the name. A super solid creature for spell decks Erratic Cyclops essentially has power equal to your available mana. It can be buffed as a combat trick to for amazing effect. In Standard and Draft it's a 0/8 body which is a great blocker (Watch out for white's toughness based removal though). In Modern I can see this being a win con for some powerful storm type decks. And in Commander, the world of insanely high mana cost and of great ramp this guy is gonna take names.

Experimental Frenzy
Standard - 6
Modern - 4
Commander - 6
Draft - 5

In all formats Experimental Frenzy has some disturbing text, you can't play cards from your hand and you can only play the top card of your library. It's a cheaper, weirder Future Sight that can totally lock you out of a game. The reason this is playable though lies in alternate ways to cast spells. In Standard (and Draft) right now Surveil and Jump-Start respectively work well with this. Surveil lets you fill your grave with Jump-Start cards as well as letting you control your top. You can cast Jump-Start cards from the grave making it a good way around the drawback. In Modern there aren't as many ways I could find to effectively use this enchantment but maybe someone else will. In Commander this card is amazing since Shared Fate is a thing. This can make a super jank, super fun game of Commander with some crazy politics. Also Zedruu is a thing.

Goblin Cratermaker
Standard - 5
Modern - 5
Commander - 5
Draft - 6

I wanted to highlight Goblin Cratermaker just really quickly. It's a solid Goblin with amazing abilities and I think this is going to be an auto include in most Goblin decks. Also it's ability hits Eldrazi so this little guy can actually kill 5 of the 6 Eldrazi Titans. There's not much to say about this guy but I know I'll be keeping an eye on him.

Legion Warboss
Standard - 7
Modern - 6
Commander - 6
Draft - 9

First pickable, combat trickable, probably enjoys pickles, Legion Warboss is an amazing card. Sort of the weaker cousin of Goblin Rabblemaster he still manages to be amazing. In Standard and Draft he's an easy slot into most red aggro decks. He's also an auto-include into any Goblin deck in Standard. In Commander and Modern he's good and I think he'll see play but there are also better choices (like the aforementioned Goblin Rabblemaster.) so he may be overlooked.

Risk Factor
Standard - 10
Modern - 6
Commander - 3
Draft - 8

Browbeat is one of my all time favorite cards, Risk Factor brings my dream of 8 Beat Burn to life! In Standard this is a better Divination in the right shell and I wholeheartedly expect to see this card in most red decks. In Modern and Draft this is just a powerful card, obviously better in Draft but Modern is a place where I think Risk Factor will find a steady home. Commander is Risk Factors big weakness. High life totals means this is almost always going to be a pseudo Char. I'm super excited for this card and I'm certainly gonna get a playset.

Runaway Steam-Kin
Standard - 6
Modern - 6
Commander - 5
Draft - 5

Repeatable Pyretic Ritual on a stick? Seems deece. In Standard I think this will sort of just slide into any Mono-Red deck and it even opens the door for some sort of combo. In Modern this could possible give birth to a new Mono-Red Storm deck but I don't know it that will even be playable so for now it's score remains a speculative six. In Commander and Draft Runaway Steam-Kin is just decent, it can enable certain things but there may very well be better options to slot into your deck. All in all Runaway Steam-Kin is an interesting card that I think will breed new decks as well as slot into old decks.

Bring on the final entry next: Green
Go back to the beginning of the series: White

East2West is an aspiring writer from NJ currently seeking fame and fortune on the internet. She's been playing Magic since Zendikar block (the original one) and is a commander player with one deck for each two color pair and one for each single color. The only non EDH deck she plays is her own personal Pauper brew, Pauper Eggs. Follow her on her newly created and probably soon to be underused twitter @East2WestMTG.

Oct 24, 2018 by East2West
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