Hello folks! I hope that your day is going well! Last week we got a chance to see the entire Guilds of Ravnicaset in all of its glory. With this time invested over a few days of reviewing the full set and various cards therein, we've all gotten a chance to let many of these new cards sink in.

Now it's time! There are certainly a lot of cards in the set that are going to make the cut in any number of decks and projects throughout people's collections. But what are the top cards for casual, everyday play? What are the best for multiplayer, Commander, and laid back kitchen table play?

Here are my choices for the Top Ten Cards from Guilds of Ravnica!

10. Burglar Rat

They finally made it! They finally made a multiplayer version of Ravenous Rats. Burglar Rat is now the obvious card that's better in every multiplayer situation, and sometimes 1v1. For example, even in a duel, it's better because it doesn't target. Therefore it won't be stopped by something that gives your opponent hexproof. In a multiplayer match, forcing everyone else to discard on turn two while also slipping a 1/1 body out there is nice. This compares incredibly well to cards like Elvish Visionary that are pretty sweet 1/1s with useful abilities, only it's better than those.

I enjoy this in a way not dissimilar to Ravenous Chupacabra vs. Nekrataal

Everyone knew that we needed a cleaner Nekrataal, but we never got one. This one trades a wider range of targets for losing the ability to stop regeneration (which isn't really supported much) and swaps a toughness for first strike. It's arguably the better card because it can now hit anything and isn't a dead draw against artifact or Black decks. It's good that we are cleaning up and getting multiplayer versions of cards like this and Burglar Rat above!

9. Assassin's Trophy

It's no surprise that Assassin's Trophy is making a top ten Guilds of Ravnica list. It might be a surprise to you that it is only getting my #9 slot despite mega-hype. It's going to be a good card in Modern, Standard, and likely other tournament formats, sure. A staple of removal? Sure! And in multiplayer and casual formats such as Commander, it will get played too. It's an instant Path to Exile that hits anything but only destroys the target instead of exiling it. It's two colors, and it's a good, solid removal spell for multiplayer and casual. Just like Path to Exile, it's actually card disadvantage, (you trade your card to exile/destroy one of theirs and they get a land - total cards - You lost 1, they lost 1, and gained one, for a net of 1 card their way). But the value of emergency removal is usually worth it. There are Commander decks out there with few basics, so they have few options to fetch out when you use this, and this could have more value in those metagames. Otherwise, it's a great emergency removal spell that can hit anything from Academy Ruins to Teferi, Hero of Dominaria to Phyrexian Arena to Mind's Eye to Wurmcoil Engine. It all falls before the Assassin.

8. Impervious Greatwurm

I talked about this card at length in a previous article where I looked at some cards that had inspired me, and I had multiple brews and ideas around this card. What makes it great is convoke, and its size, plus the indestructible. The Indestructible helps to keep it around, which is a big boon after you've invested mana and/or dorks into getting it onto the battlefield. It's also a strong option for a lot of decks, from ramp to go wide to a lot more. You are going to see this card at kitchen tables. I am going to run it myself in some builds!

7. Divine Visitation

This is a unique card that plays into an interesting space. It works well with token making strategies that make small dorks like the 1/1s you see with Soldiers, Squirrels, Goblins or Saprolings. However, as you rise in size and abilities, the added value of this drops. Turning your 2/2 Zombie tokens into 4/4 flying Angels? Sure, even Liliana would have to approve of that power upgrade. But what about 6/6 Wurms? Populate and other abilities were often about getting one or two big creatures and then duplicating them. But this card is great, and it works incredibly well with a lot of cards already out there like Doubling Season. That makes this an easy addition to any White deck that makes smaller token creatures. Are you ready to swing with your newly created Angel horde?

6. Vraska, Golgari Queen

Vraska, aka Jace's #1 "Wuv Muffin" is Vraska. I'm sure a lot of folks will be interested in seeing where the "Vrace" relationship will be going in Guilds of Ravnica and beyond. But her card? It's pretty saucy! Four-mana planeswalkers with 4 loyalty to start tend to be solid. This version of Vraska ain't no different. Her +2 ratchets you to 6 loyalty and can do the "Sacrifice into cards and life," which is a pretty cool edition of a typical Golgari theme - sacrifices for benefits. And you have many cards out there that will fire off triggers when they die, such as Solemn Simulacrum, as well as things like spare lands all while loading up the loyalty double speed. Meanwhile the -3 Abrupt Decay is sick, and with the mass counter procreation, you can fire off Decay's pretty quickly. It doesn't take long to ultimate Vraska up and out. Her ultimate is very similar to, but more powerful than, the player killing Assassins she made in her first iteration.

This Vraska is immediately my favorite! Our Queen is cheaper, has a slightly worse Abrupt Decay vs any size target isn't that much added range, has a better plus ability and a stronger ultimate. The Queen is the better card!

5. Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice

A 4/5 flyer (usually) for four mana with vigilance, trample, and this new mentor ability is going to be very hot at the kitchen table. Plus the ability to give the +2/+0 and potentially trample/vigilance to another is also cool. You can swing after playing her on turn four and then get the power bump immediately. On future turns you can pump her, mentor your attacking buddies, and then keep on with the smashing. The cheap cost twinned with the flexibility and smash-ability is strong enough to make a mark with a lot of decks. Welcome home, New Aurelia!

4. Mausoleum Secrets

There are two reasons why this card is so good. Here they are:

Very few tutors have been printed that are instant speed. Those that are typically are card disadvantage, such as Vampiric Tutor or Enlightened Tutor that don't put the fetched card into your hand. Only a few, Eladamri's Call or Mystical Teachings, will get something at instant speed. The added flexibility of twinning a tutor effect to instant speed is incalculable. Now, this card isn't perfect. It has two real restrictions: It only gets a Black card and it only gets a card with a CMC equivalent to or less than the number of dorks in your graveyard. But other than that? The world is your oyster! Here are some cheap Black cards to consider for instant speed fetching:

I'm sure you get the idea. You can fetch out a lot of instant speed answers! You can also grab bigger answers such as Damnation or some problems of your own! Enjoy the awesomeness that is Mausoleum Secrets!

3. Ral, Izzet Viceroy

Hello everybody. This is Ral. He likes to +1 and basically Impulse for two cards instead of four. That's a pretty strong +1 ability, especially as the extra card heads to your graveyard. Hey, if you don't want it, then there's no sense clunking up your deck with it. Plus, the graveyard is an incredibly strong place for you to chuck cards you don't want. Everything from graveyard abilities like flashback and Izzet's new jump start to older ones like threshold and delirium through classics like dredge really want a freshly stocked larder. Your cards are going linger, ready to be used and pulled back alike. It's a perfect theme for the current Standard with abilities like Amonkhet's embalm or three abilities in Guilds of Ravnica that care about that graveyard, or getting cards therein. His +1 is both raw card drawing now and a lot of value later. Then his -3 is strong as you can build up a graveyard with his +1 or other similar effects that synergize with a plumbed graveyard. You can easily shoot a critter all dead-like, see? His -8 ultimate is fine for the Lightning-mancer of Ral Zarek. Overall, he's a strong package; so let's bring him out!

2. Mission Briefing

Sure thing! Mission Briefing is one of the best cards here for lots of places. I would not be surprised to see it making traction at tournament tables in formats like Modern or Standard. I also expect to see this fair instant make the cut for casual kitchen tables too. I like it lots! For two mana, you can surveil, then cast an instant/sorcery card from that stocked 'yard and then exile it. You still have to add the casting cost onto the card as it's not a free effect, which is not dissimilar to how Regrowth works. The additional layer of being an instant and adding two cards to your graveyard to give you additional options is pretty cool though. Ready to Brief some Missions?

1. Knight of Autumn

Hello Knight of Autumn! Better than Reclamation Sage? Check! Better than Kitchen Finks? Typically! Better than Watchwolf? Usually!

Now, there will certainly be times when these three are better options than Knight of Autumn. You might not be playing White, so Reclamation Sage could still be better. You might want the Elf creature type of the Sage. You might value the persist of the Kitchen Finks. You might want the cheaper 2-drop. And in a Commander shell, you may want to include multiples of these, so you get it playing alongside the Sage or Finks. I suspect that, like Eternal Witness, this will be a virtual auto-include 3-drop 2/1 in its colors in any Commander deck.

This is an iconic addition to the kitchen table. Consider Cloudblazer. It was printed in a recent set and it's already made it into a Masters set. (Another example of this is the afore-mentioned Ravenous Chupacabra) Do you really think that'll be it? How soon before it makes a Commander deck? Next year? The same will be true of Knight of Autumn as well. It's era has begun. Long may it reign!

Whew!

And there we are! Those are my picks for the top ten cards from the set. Where did I go wrong? Anything I miss? Anything I have too high or low? Something you think should be added? Thanks for reading!