Gatecrash

Gatecrash

 

Event decks

 

Intro packs

 

Gatecrash
[[File:{{#setmainimage:GTC logo.jpg}}|250px]]
Set Information
Set symbol
Symbol description	The pointed arch of a gate
Design	Mark Rosewater (co-lead), Mark Gottlieb (co-lead), Joe Huber, Dave Humpherys, Ethan Fleischer
Development	Dave Humphreys (lead), Zac Hill, Mark Globus, Mark Purvis, Adam Lee, Max McCall, Gavin Verhey
Art direction	Jeremy Jarvis
Release date	February 1, 2013
Plane	Ravnica
Themes and mechanics	Gates, Ravnican guilds, Hybrid mana
Keywords/​ability words	Battalion, Bloodrush, Cipher, Evolve, Extort
Set size	249 cards (101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares)
Expansion code	GTC
Development codename	Line
Return to Ravnica block
Return to Ravnica Gatecrash Dragon's Maze
Magic: The Gathering Chronology
Duel Decks: Mirrodin Pure vs. New Phyrexia Gatecrash Duel Decks: Sorin vs. Tibalt

Gatecrash is the second set in the Return to Ravnica block. It is the sixtieth Magic expansion and was released on February 1, 2013.

Set details

Gatecrash contains 249 cards (101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares), including randomly inserted premium versions of all cards in the set. Like Return to Ravnica, the preceding expansion set, Gatecrash focused on the guild system and multicolor cards. The five guilds returning in Gatecrash were the Boros Legion, House Dimir, Gruul Clans, Orzhov Syndicate, and Simic Combine. Despite being a large expansion, Gatecrash did not contain any basic lands (Return to Ravnica had some extra). The set featured two planeswalkers; one, Gideon, Champion of Justice, was an established planeswalker, whilst the other, Domri Rade was new. The expansion symbol is a pointed arch of a gate.

Flavor and storyline

“

Fight for Your Guild

”

Jace begins to piece together the greater mystery of the Implicit Maze. It's now a race to see who will unlock its secrets.

Magic Story

Title	Author	Release Date	Setting (plane)	Featuring
Gruul Ingenuity	Adam Lee	2013-01-02	Ravnica	Kal, Durri, Nikya, Janik, Massacre Girl
The Fathom Edict	Brady Dommermuth	2013-01-09	Ravnica	Zegana, Yaszen, Bogumil Bem
The Absolution of the Guildpact	Adam Lee	2013-01-16	Ravnica	Gorev Hadszak, Pel Javya
Persistence of Memory	Adam Lee	2013-01-23	Ravnica	Sarusin, Mirko Vosk
The Burying, Part 1	Adam Lee	2013-01-30	Ravnica	Domri Rade, Lakkie, Whip, Sabast
The Greater Good	Adam Lee	2013-02-06	Ravnica	Gideon Jura, Aurelia
The Guild of Deals	Adam Lee	2013-02-12	Ravnica	Bosco, Jozica, Drovo
Experiment One	Kelly Digges	2013-02-18	Ravnica	Liana, Florin Ozbolt
Fblthp	Matt Tabak	2013-12-25	Ravnica	Fblthp, Parisha, Vadax Gor
The Burying, Part 2	Adam Lee	2013-03-06	Ravnica, Alara	Domri Rade, Sabast, Maklo, Elishta, Hasal, Murgul, Nasri
Bilagru Will Come for You	Ari Levitch	2013-03-13	Ravnica	Symond Halm, Ilona, Lord Kazmyr, Bilagru, Zandra
The Hard Sell	Kelly Digges	2013-03-19	Ravnica	Bartek, Zifka, Imrich, Nico, Andra
Behind the Black Sun	Adam Lee	2013-03-27	Ravnica	Deathpact Angel

Marketing

Gideon and Aurelia

Gatecrash 6-card booster

Gatecrash was sold in 16-card boosters, 6-card boosters, five intro packs, two event decks and a fat pack. Like its predecessor the set also featured Booster Battle Packs, which contained two Gatecrash booster packs and two semi-randomized, guild-associated 22-card decks. An early preview picture of the set shows Aurelia, the leader of the Boros Legion, adjacent to planeswalker Gideon Jura, mirroring the preview picture of the preceding Return to Ravnca, which featured Izzet League leader Niv-Mizzet and planeswalker Jace Beleren.

The 16-card boosters featured artwork from Duskmantle Guildmage, Prime Speaker Zegana, Skarrg Guildmage, Vizkopa Guildmage, and Sunhome Guildmage. The small booster featured artwork from Domri Rade.

Wizards of the Coast created a "Choose Your Guild" interactive quiz and Planeswalker Points Web page for the expansion, allowing Magic players to choose their guild. At the expansion's prerelease events on January 26–27, 2013, players chose their guild; a choice that affected gameplay, as, in addition to receiving five Gatecrash boosters, players received a guild-specific sticker, an acceptance letter from their guild leader, a spindown life counter, a promotional prerelease card, an achievement/challenge card, and an additional guild-specific booster. The launch party was on February 1–4, 2013, and the Game Day on February 23–24, 2013.

Promotional cards

As was the case with Return to Ravnica, there were five promotional prerelease cards, with the card received dependent on the guild chosen. Another novel feature of the Gatecrash prerelease was the fact that the card could be played in decks at the prerelease itself, unlike previous promotional prerelease cards, were:

• Boros: Foundry Champion
• Dimir: Consuming Aberration
• Gruul: Rubblehulk
• Orzhov: Treasury Thrull
• Simic: Fathom Mage

These cards were also available in the intro packs as foils, albeit without the alternate art and prerelease date.

Other alternate-art promotional cards were:

• Game Day: Full-art Zameck Guildmage
• Game Day (Top 8): Full-art Firemane Avenger
• Release-day Friday Night Magic: Skarrg Goliath
• Gatecrash League: Soldier creature token
• Buy-a-Box: Nightveil Specter

Tokens and emblem

The sixteenth card in the boosters is a token or emblem card. Although there are advertising cards, there are no Tips & Tricks cards associated with Gatecrash

1. 4/4 Angel creature token with flying produced by Urbis Protector
2. 1/1 Rat creature token produced by Ogre Slumlord
3. 3/3 Frog Lizard creature token produced by Rapid Hybridization
4. 1/1 Cleric creature token produced by Deathpact Angel
5. 1/1 Spirit creature token with flying produced by Beckon Apparition
6. 1/1 Horror creature token with flying produced by Call of the Nightwing
7. 1/1 Soldier creature token produced by Assemble the Legion and Sunhome Guildmage
   • The creature tokens produced by Assemble the Legion and Sunhome Guildmage have haste. The absence of "haste" on the printed token is attributed to additional flexibility, considerations as to the art aspect ratio, and the necessity of a one-turn relevant keyword, especially in light of its benefits.
8. Emblem for Domri Rade

The following named tokens were released with Return to Ravnica:

1. 2/2 Knight for Knight Watch
2. 1/1 Soldier for Murder Investigation
3. */* Ooze for Miming Slime, Mystic Genesis, and Ooze Flux

Themes and mechanics

Like the preceding set, Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash revisits five of the ten bicolored guilds of Ravnica. Each guild has its own keyword or ability word. The guilds returning in this expansion are:

Guild	Colors	Crest	Legendary guild members	Keyword or ability word
House Dimir			Lazav, Mirko Vosk	Cipher
	"Grind" ("Target player reveals cards from the top of their library until they reveal n land cards, then puts all cards revealed this way into their graveyard.") and, more broadly, "Milling" subthemes "Graveyard matters" subtheme (viz., Consuming Aberration, Diluvian Primordial, Duskmantle Guildmage, Lazav, Dimir Mastermind, Sepulchral Primordial) Saboteur subtheme
Gruul Clans			Borborygmos, Ruric Thar	Bloodrush
	"Number of lands you control" subtheme
Orzhov Syndicate			Obzedat, Teysa Karlov	Extort
	"Bleeding", or life gain and life loss, subtheme
Boros Legion			Aurelia, Tajic	Battalion
	Weenie token subtheme
Simic Combine			Zegana, Vorel	Evolve
	"+1/+1 counters matters" subtheme

To note: the Guilds are presented in the official order, but they were originally displayed alphabetically by Wizard: Boros Legion, House Dimir, Gruul Clans, Orzhov Syndicate, Simic Combine.

The Simic mechanic evolve was inspired by a similarly named mechanic submitted by Ethan Fleisher for the Great Designer Search 2, and the Boros mechanic battalion was Shawn Main's "assault" mechanic, which was submitted for the same competition. Main also designed the Orzhov extort mechanic; he is noted as being a contributor to the Gatecrash development team.

Other themes and mechanics include:

• Hybrid mana
• Defender
• Enchantments
  • Land auras
• Gates

Creature types

No novel creature types were introduced in this expansion.

Cycles

Cycle name
Primordials	Luminate Primordial	Diluvian Primordial	Sepulchral Primordial	Molten Primordial	Sylvan Primordial
	Each of these rare Avatar creatures costs MM, has a combat-related ability, and has an "enters the battlefield" triggered ability, the effect of which scales up with the number of opponents.
Denizens	Court Street Denizen	Sage's Row Denizen	Shadow Alley Denizen	Foundry Street Denizen	Ivy Lane Denizen
	Each of these common creatures has a triggered ability, which triggers whenever a creature of color enters the battlefield under your control.
Land Auras	Debtor's Pulpit	Skygames	Contaminated Ground	Tin Street Market	Verdant Haven
	Each of these Auras enchants a land and grants that land an activated ability with a in its cost or a triggered ability, which triggers when that land is tapped.

Guild cycles

For cycles that are part of the guild mega cycles, see Return to Ravnica block#Mega cycles.

Guild cycles in Gatecrash each comprise five members, one for each guild featured in the expansion. Along with many of the Return to Ravnica guild cycles, many of the Gatecrash guild cycles form Return to Ravnica block mega cycles

Cycle name	Dimir	Gruul	Orzhov	Boros	Simic
Multicolored spells	Mind Grind	Clan Defiance	Immortal Servitude	Aurelia's Fury	Nimbus Swimmer
	Each of these rare multicolored spell cards has a cost including . Notably, Aurelia's Fury is a mythic rare; Immortal Servitude has a hybrid mana cost; and Nimbus Swimmer is not merely any spell but a creature card.

Reprinted cards

The following cards have been reprinted from previous sets and included in Gatecrash:

• Act of Treason, first printed in Magic 2010 was last seen in Magic 2012 and for the first time in an expert-level expansion.
• Assault Griffin, first printed in Magic 2011 was last seen in Magic 2012 and for the first time in an expert-level expansion.
• Cinder Elemental, first printed in Mercadian Masques was last seen in Planechase.
• Beckon Apparition was last seen in Eventide.
• Contaminated Ground was last seen in Rise of the Eldrazi.
• Ember Beast was last seen in Odyssey.
• Frenzied Tilling was last seen in Invasion.
• Naturalize, first printed in Onslaught was last seen in Magic 2013.
• Prophetic Prism, first printed in Rise of the Eldrazi was last seen in Commander.
• Righteous Charge, first printed in Portal Second Age was last seen in Starter 1999 and for the first time in an expert-level expansion.
• Shock lands were last seen in the Ravnica block.
• Skyknight Legionnaire was last seen in Ravnica: City of Guilds.
• Smite, first printed in Stronghold was last seen in Rise of the Eldrazi.

Functional reprints

• Angelic Edict is a functional reprint of Iona's Judgment from Worldwake.
• Gutter Skulk is a functional reprint of Walking Corpse from Innistrad.
• Rapid Hybridization is a quasi-functional reprint of Pongify from Planar Chaos; creature subtype is different
• Shielded Passage is a functional reprint of Indestructible Aura from Legends.

Strictly better

• Burst of Strength is strictly better than Battlegrowth.
• Crowned Ceratok is strictly better than Argothian Swine, Golden Bear, Nettle Swine, Order of the Sacred Bell, Spiked Baloth, Vintara Elephant, War Mammoth and Wild Elephant.
• Gateway Shade is strictly better than Frozen Shade.
• Slate Street Ruffian is strictly better than Alley Grifters.
• Legion Loyalist is strictly better than Raging Goblin.

Strictly worse

• Millennial Gargoyle is strictly worse than Primal Clay and Tin-Wing Chimera.
• Totally Lost is strictly worse than Vanishment.

Notable cards

• Enter the Infinite is a powerful combo enabler, including with Omniscience from only a few sets prior.
• Thespian's Stage is notorious for its' combo with Dark Depths to instantly create the legendary Marit Lage, forming the backbone of a Legacy Lands-based combo deck and ensuring that Dark Depths remains banned in Modern.
• Rapid Hybridization saw play in Devotion to Blue decks in Standard which could not play stronger removal in other colors, and sees play in the Commander format for similar reasons
• Boros Charm is a strong spell for typical aggro decks but also Boros Burn decks in Modern, which focus on its direct damage mode.
• Biovisionary and Hellkite Tyrant are alternate-win cards.
• Blind Obedience and Crypt Ghast are two cards with Extort that see heavy play in the casual Commander format, and which also have resulted in numerous rules questions caused by the color symbols in their reminder text not being considered for the Commander format color identity rules.
• Legion Loyalist was a strong card for Standard and Pioneer versions of Red Deck Wins, making it impossible to block your board of creatures and adding to the battlefield immediately
• Boros Reckoner saw substantial play in Standard, where it was difficult to block and could resist damage-based removal, while Nightveil Specter from the same cycle saw play in Standard control decks and devotion decks, where its unique mana cost contributed to both blue and black devotion.

Banned and restricted cards

• Balustrade Spy and Undercity Informer both use the grind mechanic, which was largely irrelevant in the history of Magic until the printing of the double-faced card lands in Zendikar Rising, which do not register as lands for the ability, allowing their controller to mill their entire library and easily win through a variety of combos. These two cards were banned from Pioneer in 2021 to prevent additional degenerate combos, but still see play in Pauper, Modern, Legacy, and Vintage variations of the deck
• Burning-Tree Emissary is a Grizzly Bear that pays for itself and has seen play in aggressive Gruul decks in Standard, Modern, and Pioneer. It is so strong that it was suspended in the Historic format, which was overrun with red-green aggro decks that could dump almost their entire hand on turn 2 thanks to the Emissary.
• Sylvan Primordial has had a minor impact on Pioneer but most notably has been banned in casual multiplayer formats like Commander and Oathbreaker, where its ability to destroy numerous permanent types from each player and be recurred easily with flicker effects made it too strong

Preconstructed decks

Intro packs

Gatecrash has five bicolored guild-centric intro packs.

Intro pack name	Colors Included					Foil rare
Dimir Dementia		U	B			Consuming Abberation
Gruul Goliaths				R	G	Rubblehulk
Orzhov Oppression	W		B			Treasury Thrull
Boros Battalion	W			R		Foundry Champion
Simic Synthesis		U			G	Fathom Mage

Event decks

Gatecrash has two event decks.

Event deck name	Colors Included
Rally and Rout	W			R
Thrive and Thrash		U		R	G

Gallery

• 

  Boros Legion guild acceptance letter

• 

  House Dimir guild acceptance letter

• 

  Gruul Clans guild acceptance letter

• 

  Orzhov Syndicate guild acceptance letter

• 

  Simic Combine guild acceptance letter

• 

  A Gatecrash booster pack depicting Duskmantle Guildmage

• 

  A Gatecrash booster pack depicting Skarrg Guildmage

• 

  A Gatecrash booster pack depicting Prime Speaker Zegana

• 

  A Gatecrash booster pack depicting Vizkopa Guildmage

• 

  A Gatecrash booster pack depicting Sunhome Guildmage

• 

  Domri Rade, a preview card, one of the two planeswalkers featured in Gatecrash, and the first incarnation of Domri

• 

  GTC Game Day (Top 8) promotional card Firemane Avenger

• 

  GTC Buy-a-Box promotional card Nightveil Specter

• 

  GTC release-day Friday Night Magic promotional card Skarrg Goliath

• 

  GTC League promotional Soldier creature token card

• 

  GTC Game Day promotional card Zameck Guildmage

• 

  GTC Boros prerelease promotional card Foundry Champion

• 

  GTC Dimir prerelease promotional card Consuming Aberration

• 

  GTC Gruul prerelease promotional card Rubblehulk

• 

  GTC Orzhov prerelease promotional card Treasury Thrull

• 

  GTC Simic prerelease promotional card Fathom Mage

• 

  Firemane Avenger, the Orzhov "Holiday Preview" card showcasing Battalion

• 

  Whispering Madness, the Orzhov "Holiday Preview" card showcasing Cipher

• 

  Rubblehulk, the Gruul "Holiday Preview" card showcasing Bloodrush

• 

  Treasury Thrull, the Orzhov "Holiday Preview" card showcasing Extort

• 

  Fathom Mage, the Simic "Holiday Preview" card showcasing Evolve

• 

  Orzhov Guildgate, a Gate

• 

  Gateway Shade, a Gate-associated card

• 

  Tin Street Market, a land aura

External links

• Gatecrash product information page — Wizards of the Coast
• Monty Ashley (December 31, 2012). "Gatecrash Trailer". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
• Mark Rosewater (May 22, 2023). "Lessons Learned, Part 3". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.