The spoiler season for Ravnica Allegiance has formally started with the mothership site releasing the promo cards and packaging of the various products of the set i.e. booster packs, boxes, planeswalker decks. They have also released the Ravnica Allegiance set trailer which you can check on the video below.

It was somewhat a huge lot of cards that were previewed so I will just highlight three cards for now. There is a lot posted on the card previews at Reddit so I just chose three for this batch. First of is The Haunt of Hightower.

This Legendary Vampire ain’t that solid with just 3 toughness but then given that six mana means it will be more efficient in the later game. The first ability to discard a card is quite beneficial for control matchups but then again talking about its vulnerability to spot removals, you might want to have it as a sideboard card against them. Grixis control or the straightforward Blue Black discard deck might have this in their lineup.

Next is Gate Colossus.

 

Finally, a creature that benefits from the Gate lands of Ravnica. I am foreseeing a five-color Gate-based midrange deck with a playset of this card. Having an 8/8 power and toughness is already solid and in addition to that is it can’t be chump blocked by a random soldier or knight tokens. The late game recursion is also a plus. I just hope it won’t be hit by a Vraska’s Contempt. I am pretty much excited to brew this one once the complete Ravnica Allegiance spoiler is out.

Last but not least, Lavinia, Azorius Renegade.

She might be just a regular bear in Standard, but seeing the Modern metagame will surely get her a place either in Hatebears or in Five-color Humans decks. Her first ability literally stops Tron shenanigans of early Karn or Ugin and her second counters free and alternately-paid spells like Force of Will. She will surely become a staple in the older formats.

That is a wrap for the first batch of RNA previews in this blog. I have only learned of the Rakdos’ mechanic of Spectacle which I think is just slow unless they will have something that will be relevant in midrange decks. You can check the articles posted at Wizard’s Daily MTG site.

Until the next blog post.