Why Ravnica is One Of The Most Popular Magic Planes of All Time

Ravnica has maintained its status as one of Magic: The Gathering's most popular Planes, giving players many intriguing reasons to revisit it.

Magic: The Gathering has always captivated players with its sprawling stories set across fantastical planes, but not all of these mystical landscapes have left quite the same impression. While the likes of Eldraine and Innistrad have caught audiences up in their respective genre fueled trappings, only a few have become something of default settings for players to feel at ease in. Of those that have, Ravnica is absolutely the most recognizable.

Home to ghosts, goblins, and Planeswalkers of all sorts, the city Plane that is Ravnica is replete with everything Magic: The Gathering fans love and more. Better yet, its very nature is tailor-made to help players discover exactly what it is about the game that they love, not to mention what aspects of it they most closely identify with on multiple levels. For that reason alone, Ravnica would be worthy of being called a fan-favorite, yet there is so much more that makes it worthy of Wizards of the Coast's repeated returns to its towering skyline and ominous underbelly.

The Guilds of Ravnica Help Define MTG Decks - And Players

On a social level, Ravnica is a Plane rooted in factions not unlike other Magic: The Gathering fans are familiar with. Rather than simply a handful of these factions as most other Planes would have, Ravnica is filled with options as the home to ten unique Guilds strewn across its streets, sewers, and uncharted ruins. Each Guild has its own unique personality, such as the Azorius with their justices and lawmages, or the menacing Rakdos who are quick to put on grotesque displays of death and dismemberment. Just as each Guild is unique in its general demeanor, so too are they in the magics they wield. This has been a boon to players both in terms of finding a favorite Guild of their own and in defining how they play Magic: The Gathering.

With each Guild calling upon a distinct two color combination of mana, names such as Izzet and Selesnya have become shorthand for those same combinations even outside the confines of Ravnica as a setting. Besides adding to the game's lexicon and making it that much easier for players to identify what decks or strategies they and their opponents are employing, this allows for players to distinguish themselves as individuals by their favorite Guild. Similar to the Timmy, Johnny, Spike, Vorthos spectrum of psychographic profiles that every player falls somewhere on, the Guilds provide an easy, familiar foundation for players to root their own play styles in — assuming there is one that piques their interest that much more than the others.

Ravnica Provides Easy Access to the Best Magic: The Gathering Gameplay

Even for players who aren't so concerned with finding a personal connection to the game through its lore, Ravnica still provides one of the best experiences that any could ask for. By leaning on the Guilds and their respective color combinations, every single Ravnica set has ample lines of play for limited competitors to follow when drafting and building their decks. Ravnica's Guilds also allow for those same players to adjust their strategies as necessary, especially when it comes to drafting. Whereas in other sets taking a first pick gold or hybrid card could be a major misstep, Ravnica's Guild based system affords players the opportunity to mitigate those risks by allowing them to shift from one strategy to another with greater ease than in other draft environments.

For players with a focus on constructed formats, Ravnica offers much of the same advantages as it does to those with their eyes on draft and sealed. Thanks to Ravnica sets being rooted in two color combos, each of them is almost guaranteed to have numerous viable additions to a slew of strategies. Although only a few cards from most Standard legal Magic: The Gathering sets make their way into Eternal formats, the design restrictions inherent to Ravnica mean that a greater number are more likely to make it into wider card formats like Modern or Pioneer. Similarly, the two color focus means that a greater number are more likely to end up in a wider variety of decks, putting Ravnica in a space where format defining all stars is expected.

Ravnica's Story is Compelling and Worth Returning to Time and Time Again

As much as it offers players in game, where Ravnica shines brightest is its story. The ten Guild political structure already lends itself toward plenty of mystery and intrigue. Meanwhile, the more memorable denizens of Ravnica are happy to weave their own tales ranging from high-flying adventures to the most sordid of plots. The original Ravnica block may have laid the foundation for what the Plane's storytelling, but subsequent returns to it have proven that there will always be something new to be found even in the most familiar of territory. Between tightly woven narratives and wider spread conflicts, Ravnica has a storyline for fans of nearly every genre, especially those with a taste for epic confrontations.

Though most stories set on Ravnica have revolved around it and those who call it home, the Plane has also become something of a central hub for Magic: The Gathering's wider cast of Planeswalkers. Ravnica isn't just a key location in the Multiverse in theory. It's key in a tactical sense as well, leading to it becoming the final battlefield for the War of the Spark which drew in almost every Planeswalker alive. Ravnica already held a special place in the hearts of fans before then, but once Nicol Bolas' invading forces arrived, it was clear that it meant just as much to the characters who waged war across it. This not only elevated Ravnica's importance in-universe, it highlighted how it could serve as the center of stories that stretched far beyond its own bounds.