The incredible Magic the Gathering card game are always evolving. For every few months there will be new expansion sets coming out which means new cards, new abilities, new power, new tactics, new decks, new combos and new fun. In May 5 2006, a great set has released which was called the Dissension set. It was already the 60th set ever released in Magic the Gathering.
There are three sets in the Ravnica Block, with Dissension being the final and the most powerful set in the block. In the plane of Ravnica, ten guilds dominate the area. Seven of them were introduced in the Ravnica: City of Guilds set and the Guildpact set. The last three powerful guilds arose in the Dissension set. They are The Azorius Senate, The Cult of Rakdos and The Simic Combine.
The Guilds
The Azorius Senate corresponds to combination of White and Blue mana. The Azorius Senate makes the law of Ravnica. It is committed to protect the status quo with all it cost. The leader of the guild is Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. He sticks to rules and make up even more rules to rule the plane. With the power of White and Blue forces, it is capable of ruling the sky and the earth.
The Cult of Rakdos corresponds to the combination of Black and Red Mana. They possess the power of death and destruction and with which they try to take over the plane. The leader of the cult is Rakdos the Defiler. Combining the two troublesome powers, this guild is sure to give others some hard times.
The Simic Combine corresponds to the combination of Green and Blue Mana. The Green loves life and nature and was supposed to be the guardian of natural environment in Ravnica. But obviously they failed the task because the whole plane is filled with concrete. In anger and despair, they turned to the Blue. And with their knowledge, they formed a new guild which creates the most fearful creatures of all time and are ready to fight back! The leader of the Simic Combine is Momir Vig, Simic Visionary.
New Abilities
There are new abilities for the guilds to fight against each others which you should employ to triumph over your opponents.
Hellbent
Hellbent is for Black and Red. It is almost the same as the radiance ability in the Boros Legion Set. When the player has no cards in his hand, the cards with Hellbent gets power ups. This is a crazy ability which would give you much adventage. For example, the Gobhobbler Rats gets +1/+0 and has B: Regenerate Gbhobbler Rats as long as you have no cards in hand. Nice effects in multiplayer games.
Graft
Creatures with the Graft abilities has one or more +1/+1 counters on them. And when you summon new creatures you can move these counters on them from your existing graft creatures. For example, the Cytoplast Root Kin has Graft 4 which means it has 4 +1/+1 counters on it. This ability is for the Green and Blue creatures.
It is better to be used in multiplayer games. And in order to use graft creatures effectively, you must build your deck deliberately to accommodate this powerful ability.
Forecast
Forecast is for the White and Blue mana Azorius Senate. Once in each turn, you can reveal a card with Forecast ability from your hand. You pay the required mana cost and you can use the special power of the card. With forecast, you can use the card again and again without affecting its normal abilities. For example, the creature Pride of the Clouds gives each flying creature on the battlefield a +1/+1 power up. And it has the forecast ability which put a bird creature onto the battlefield each time you reveal it so that when it comes into play, it has more beneficial to the player. Sometimes Forecast appears as a weaker form of the main spell. For example, the instant Steeling Stance’s main ability is to give the creatures you control a +1/+1 power up until the end of the turn. With Forecast, you can do the same power up on one target creature as you pay only one White mana as cost.
This is a really cool ability and very easy to add into a deck when you try to build one. You can build a very powerful deck with Forecast cards which allows you to continuously draw cards, add life and much more.
Other Features
Powerful Creatures
The Simic Combine has some humongous monsters for you to use, like the Experiment Kraj, the champion of the Simic Combine. It has all the activated abilities of other creatures with a +1/+1 counter on it. As its oracle text put it, “Of course it will grow beyond control – it was designed to choose its own evolution.” Besides, the leader of the Cult of Rakdos, Rakdos the Defiler is a 7/6 strong creature. When it deals damage to your opponent, he has to sacrifice half the non-demon permanents he controls. Despite the fact that it does the same to yourself, it is still a powerful monster to use.
Split Cards
Dissension brings back the famous Split Cards. It contains 10 gold split cards which represent combinations of the other guilds of Ravnica, some uncommon split cards which represent allied color guilds and some rare split cards representing the enemy color guilds.
Mono-color Cards
In the Ravnica Block, multiple color plays are encouraged. So there are two groups of mono-colr cards in the Dissension set. First, some mono-color cards have some abilities that are activated with mana of color other than its own main color. Second, some mono-color cards have abilities related to two mana colors but the card must be sacrificed if the player lacks the kind of mana. For example, the Azorius Herald is a White card, it has both healing and unblockable abilities, however, when it enters the battlefield, it is sacrificed if the player did not spend one Blue mana.
Conclusion
Dissension is a great set. There are a lot of awesome Magic cards in the Dissension Expansion. But in order to release the power of the cards, you always need to build decks with tactics. You might also need to get a few booster packs. For newbie, familiarize yourself with some dueling skills before building Dissension decks.
Related posts: