I am revisiting the Guildmage review for the other five guilds of Ravnica found in the latest set. The pattern is the same as Guilds of Ravnica, so I am only repeating a bit of the introductory info I used in my last article.
Guildmage is a creature design that started way back in the Mirage set. They were originally 1 mana 1/1 Wizards and there was one for each color. In addition, each of them had two abilities with each ability having an activation cost of an allied color.
All five Guildmages are two mana, two color creatures with 2/2 for power and toughness, one for each of the guilds represented in Ravnica Allegiance. That is the extent of our ability to say that all Guildmages are created equal..... Some of these are going to be great and maybe see some competitive play. All of them, are good enough to play at pre-release and other sealed events. Most of them will be playable in draft.
All of them are susceptible to removal, unless they are enhanced in some other way. Their abilities are very flexible and should be used in support of your decks objectives. They should never be relied on as key aspects of your deck for Guildmages are not hard for your opponent deal with. They can get pesky, enough so that your opponent may well make an effort to get them out of play. Consider that an effective use of your Guildmage, as that takes some focus away from your key spells and permanents.
Clan Guildmage - As both a
Human and an Shaman, there really isn't any tribal synergies in the current standard. The red ability on this card is not very exciting, although it should cause your opponent to
think twice about just leaving up one or two blockers. This also allows you to bypass the Vigilant ability, provided your opponents deck isn't full of them. It can be a useful combat trick, but nothing you can build a deck around. It would be better if it didn't require the
Clan Guildmage to tap. The green ability could be a bit more useful, but only if you have more than 3 lands. Again, because it requires the
Clan Guildmage to tap, it boils down to doubling the size of your block or attack for the turn. It also puts your land at risk to creature removal. The animation of the land is only in effect until end of turn. Other than the potential of removing a blocker for a creature that was just played using Riot on hasty mode, the
Clan Guildmage does little to support the new Gruul ability.
Combine Guildmage - The
Combine Guildmage has the extra bonus of being a Merfolk and a Wizard, so that allows for some more interesting scenarios in the current standard as both of those have a tribal presence. The green ability is very potent within the Simic guild, although it could keep Adapt cards from being usable. The way this card is worded, it seems you only get to add one if you were already going to get +1/+1 counters to begin with. That would certainly limit the usefulness of this ability. The blue ability is certainly useful as a combat trick, a way to save another creature from dying, and more obviously, allowing a creature to activate their Adapt ability, if you moved the last counter.
Combine Guildmage certainly allows for many subtle decisions that can really mess with your opponents plans. As the
Combine Guildmage's abilities directly support the new Simic guild Adapt ability, this is a powerful card in a Simic guild or a Merfolk deck, maybe even with Wizards.
Cult Guildmage - As a
Human Shaman, again there is little synergy for the
Cult Guildmage for tribal purposes. The black ability is way over costed for its effect, plus they have restricted it to only being usable at sorcery speed. It can be used as a mana sink in the mid to late game, and I would think that having an activated ability to force an opponent to discard is a better option in the later stages of the game if an
opportunity arises than drawing a discard spell that may well be
dead in your hand. The red ability is appropriately costed, and has good flexibility. Knowing that you will always have a target opponent to use it on make the ability very useful. Keeping an opponent's Planeswalker from gaining in loyalty is also nice. For most Planeswalkers it also makes using the second ability risky, as your
Cult Guildmage can often finish them off with a single point. The red ability can single-handedly enable the new Rakdos Spectacle ability, which makes it a key player in any Cult deck.
Senate Guildmage - As a
Human Wizard, there is at least one tribe in Standard that the
Senate Guildmage could be useful. The white ability is correctly costed and is a very useful effect even if it is just being used as a mana sink. The blue ability is actually under costed, and to be able to loot pretty much at will is really powerful. The
Senate Guildmage has two excellent abilities that are value priced, and if you are playing with it expect it to be a target. You will see this card in competitive play. This is my vote for the best Guildmage of the set even if it doesn't directly support the Azorius Guild's Addendum ability.
Syndicate Guildmage - Ah, another
Human Cleric as the guildmage. The white ability is decently priced and is a nice mid to late game combat trick, or it can be used to
disrupt your opponents bigger creatures, if they are using creatures. The black ability is quite a bit more expensive for its effect, but the effect itself is always useful, as you will always have an opponent. Although more effective than it's Cult counterpart, 5 mana is large price for 2 damage. The
Syndicate Guildmage is more useful than some considering it does not support the Orzhov's new
Afterlife ability. That being said, it will still see play in limited formats.
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