Daygl0's Return to Ravnica

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Happy Monday (again) MTG peeps,

We think all Magic the Gathering players can agree that today belongs to forum user Daygl0 who had delivered almost an entire set of Return to Ravnica spoilers.  It would have been nicer to have this container ship of new cards delivered over the course of the week in order to digest it all but we'll take what we can.  Our Return to Ravnica Spoiler list now sits at 263 / 274 so expect numerous posts over this week as we churn through it all.  Anywhoos - let's get some some cards now, and don't forget to plan your MTG Mint Card pre-orders . . .

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Palisade Giant, 4ww
Creature - Giant Soldier, Rare
All damage that would be dealt to you or another permanent you control is dealt to Palisade Giant instead.
2/7

For 6 mana, this is a decent insurance policy against game damage.  Opponents will need to take card of business with the Palisade Giant first before moving onto your life total.

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Rest in Peace, 1w
Enchantment, Rare
When Rest in Peace enters the battlefield, exile all cards from all graveyards.
If a card or token would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.

Well doesn't this just nail graveyard shenanigans right in the tenders, and it's an early game drop as well.  We think that the survivors on AMC's 'The Walking Dead' would appreciate an enchantment like this.

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Grave Betrayal, 5bb
Enchantment, Rare
Whenever a creature you don't control dies, return it to the battlefield under your control with an additional +1/+1 counter on it at the beginning of the next end step. That creature is a black Zombie in addition to its other colors and types.

Dang.  This is a decent card but it does come down pretty late game.  We want to hear from Zombie players as to whether this card may make the cut into their standard Zombie decks, or perhaps just hang in their sideboards for use in a mirror-match.

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Mana Bloom, xg
Enchantment, Rare
Mana Bloom enters the battlefield with X charge counters on it.
Remove a charge counter from Mana Bloom: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only once each turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, if Mana Bloom has no charge counters on it, return it to its owner's hand.

This is solid mana-fixing in a set which has a truck-load of gold coloured cards.  We can't really see players with a mana ramp strategy really wanting this because of the 'one mana per turn' throttle but we could be wrong.

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Righteous Authority, 3wu
Enchantment - Aura, Rare
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each card in its controller's hand.
At the beginning of the draw step of the enchanted creature's controller, that player draws an additional card.

We don't really expect the average blue mage to have a significant number of cards in their hand in a standard consturcted game when this card on turn five but we think there may be some love for this card with EDH / Commander players.

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Deathrite Shaman,  (b/g)
Creature - Elf Shaman, Rare
{T}: Exile target land from a graveyard. Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.
{B}, {T}: Exile target instant or sorcery card from a graveyard. Each opponent loses 2 life.
{G}, {T}: Exile target creature card from a graveyard. You gain 2 life.
1/2

The Shaman here has exile on his mind.  He wil exile lands, instants, sorceries and critters from any graveyard and provide Golgari gravy for it in the form of mana, ping, or life.  Not at all a bad one-drops swiss-knife. (EDIT - Thanks to cheshire vash again for the correction - we misread the text spoiler and did not even look at the card when we posted - the Shaman is a one hybrid mana.  We agree - RIP feels like it belongs in Avacyn rather than Ravnica flavour-wise, but we guess the Golgari / Orzhov have intentions on any creature's corpse and soul)
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