Return to Ravnica Guild Review: Azorius Senate

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Guild Bio

Also known as the High Judges, the Azorius Senate is Ravnica’s ostensible government. The guild considers itself to be the mediator and controller of all other guilds’ activities, even though most of its countless decrees are largely ignored. The Azorius Senate does wield real power, and other guilds are aware that if the Azorius had their way, they would be in charge over the entire metropolis. The Azorius’s reach has waxed and waned depending on economics, cultural trends, and other guilds’ activities.

Source: wizards.com

Playstyle

Azorius is Ravnica's blue/white guild. Azorius's playstyle is primarily control-based, utilizing counterspells and the new keyword Detain, which prevents and opponent's creature from attacking/blocking/using abilities until your next turn. An Azorius deck is designed to control the opponent's creatures and then swing over his head with small flying creatures. The white component brings enchantments to the table as well, allowing use of Pacifism and Oblivion Ring (both reprinted in M13). This deck is pure control, and is a lot of fun to play.

Notable Cards

Righteous Authority gives an enchanted creature +1/+1 for each card in your hand, and it enables you to draw an extra card at the beginning of each turn. Keeping cards in-hand is already very important for control decks, but now there's an extra incentive to having a full hand! Righteous Authority yields +7/+7 with a full hand, which is HUGE for such a conservative deck.

Martial Law allows you to detain one creature of your choice at the beginning of your turn. This card is extremely handy for creature control, letting you shut down your biggest threat on a turn-by turn basis. It is more versatile than most white control, as you can shift your target every turn if you need to. Not only is a detained creature unable to attack, but also it can't use its activated abilities. This includes mana, tap, and even sacrifice abilities!

This is definitely my favorite of the five charms in this set. It has both offense and defense utility and fits the control theme of the deck perfectly. Removing an attacker or blocker can change the tide of the game really quickly.

Syncopate is a fairly solid counter-spell that can play for as little as two mana, which is the same cost as the original Counterspell. This counter is great for early-game suppression, but is only as powerful as the mana you can put into it. If you take the art into account though, it's the breast counter ever! *ahem*