Dissension

Guildpact Coldsnap
Dissension
broken seal of the Guildpact
Released May 5, 2006
Size 180 (60 rares, 60 uncommons, 60 commons)
Keywords Graft, Hellbent, Forecast
Mechanics Multicolored cards, Hybrid cards, Split cards
Designers Aaron Forsythe (lead), Brandon Bozzi, Mark L. Gottlieb, and Mark Rosewater
Developers Matt Place (lead), Mark Rosewater, Brian Schneider, and Steve Warner
Dev. code Delete
Exp. code DIS
Third set in the Ravnica block
Ravnica Guildpact Dissension

Dissension is the 60th Magic: The Gathering set, 38th expert level set, and the third and final set in the Ravnica Block, released on May 5, 2006.

Contents

Design

Ravnica was conceived following the success of Invasion. Invasion, released in 2000, emphasized interactions between the colors, and it was one of Magic's most popular releases ever. Lead designer Mark Rosewater wanted to expand on the multicolor theme in a new way. Therefore, the design of Ravnica block is based around ten two-color pairs, including cards in which those pairs of colors work in concert.

Guilds

Of the ten guilds that rule the city of Ravnica, three are the sole focus of this third set in the block. The previous expansions, Ravnica: City of Guilds and Guildpact, focused on seven of these guilds. Dissension brings it to a close by introducing the last three guilds. Each guild corresponds to a different two-color combination. The three guilds featured in Dissension are:

Mechanics

Ravnica block includes many mono-color cards which encourage people to play with multiple colors. Ravnica: City of Guilds featured cards which have activated abilities that use mana of different color from the cards' color. Guildpact introduced cards which are enhanced if another mana color is used to play the card. In Dissension, in addition to the first 'group' of abilities, another group of mono-color cards have abilities associated with two colors, but must be played with mana of a different color or else the card must be sacrificed. An example is Azorius Herald. It is a white creature with a life gain effect (white's specialty), as well as unblockability (blue's specialty). However, if Azorius Herald is played without blue mana, it must be sacrificed just after it comes into play.

External links