Magic the Gathering - Mages of the Guild - Dimir Guildmage VS Duskmantle Guildmage

by  ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

In this mini-series, we've been taking a look at the Guildmages of the various Guilds in both the new Ravnica block and the old Ravnica block and compare and contrast them. Yes, some are far superior to others, and while some of the newer ones have way cooler abilities, let’s just see how much better they are compared to their predecessors in their respective guilds, shall we? 

Today, we take a look at the two from the blue/black guild of Dimir: Duskmantle Guildmage from Gatecrash and Dimir Guildmage  from Ravnica: City of Guilds.

First up, we have the newer Guildmage from Dimir: Duskmantle Guildmage. For one blue and one black, you get a 2/2 body with a couple of interesting mana abilities. First for 1UB (1 colorless, 1 Blue, 1 Black), whenever a card is put into an opponent’s graveyard from anywhere this turn, that player loses 1 life. Honestly, with the mill strategies being played in Standard today, that’s pretty relevant. Not only that, this ability affects cards going to the graveyard from ANYWHERE. So, if your opponent plays an instant, they lose a life. If your opponent has a creature die for any reason, they lose a life. If they’re forced to mill cards, they lose a life for each card that hits the bin. I will say: a mana sink of only 1UB for that powerful of an effect is pretty darn good, especially if you have a way to make them mill a whole bunch of cards.

The second ability for 2UB is a bit underwhelming compared to the first ability. You just mill the top two cards of your opponent’s deck into the graveyard. There are much more effective ways of doing this in Constructed, but it has Limited applications, and if nothing else, you have four mana open to do it, and nothing better to do, it can’t hurt, really. In Commander, however, if you get infinite mana, you can mill everyone for game. Of course, that’s only true as long as one or more of your opponents doesn’t play an Eldrazi in their decks. Then again, the good news is that if you use his 1UB ability before-hand, which would make lots of sense, you’ll probably kill them with the life drain anyway.

Overall, Duskmantle Guildmage is a pretty nice little uncommon. For Constructed, it fits very well into the Dimir strategies, and three mana for a potential major life drain is pretty darn good, I must say. Also, in multi-player formats, EDH especially, that first ability can do serious harm in multiple situations, as it affects any of your opponents.

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So what about Duskmantle’s older brother, the original Dimir Guildmage? First off all, he has a hybrid mana cost of 2 blue or black, so he may drop on turn two more often than his newer counterpart on the basis of his more convenient casting cost. After that, though, his abilities are a bit underwhelming. For 3 and a blue, target player draws a card. For 3 and a black, target player discards a card.

Don’t get me wrong, they’re not bad abilities, especially considering that if you have the mana open you can draw and discard a few cards, especially in Commander. However, you can only play them any time you could play a sorcery, as in during your own main phases.

For Constructed purposes, the new Guildmage blows this one away, but I can see this card still being relevant in Commander as a decent mana sink. But not being able to play those abilities at will really makes this card nowhere as good as it would be if they didn’t have that limitation of being only played at sorcery speed.

Winner:  Duskmantle Guildmage. He’s just a great solid card and he has great utility in Standard, Limited, and EDH. It remains to be seen how and if he is utilized in other Constructed formats, but in any case, he’s just a great card to have in your deck-building arsenal.

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