Top 20 Best Ravnica Remastered MTG Cards, and Where to Play Them

What should you be getting from our re-return to Ravnica?

Today, I’m talking about Ravnica, my personal favorite plane in all of Magic. In terms of individual sets, Ravnica: City of Guilds is my favorite set of all time. Many of the cards in Ravnica Remastered have a long history, and I’m going to go over some of the best cards to be on the lookout for, and what decks they can go in. 

20. Liliana, Dreadhorde General

Liliana, Dreadhorde General

Ravnica Remastered, Mythic

Liliana, Dreadhorde General is a nice value planeswalker that is a perfect addition to a Cube or Commander deck. During its time in Standard, Liliana saw a fair amount of usage and will break a game wide open very quickly. 

19. Lightning Helix

Lightning Helix

Ravnica Remastered, Uncommon

Lightning Helix remains perhaps the best removal spell that gains life for the caster. It does have a somewhat restrictive mana cost, but we have seen this card perform nicely in Boros Burn decks and Jeskai Control decks where the extra life is extremely relevant. Any deck playing red and white aiming to play a midrange or control game can benefit from Lightning Helix. 

18. Copy Enchantment

Copy Enchantment

Ravnica Remastered, Rare

Copy Enchantment is primarily a Commander card where we do sometimes see enchantment-based strategies. Notably you can copy opponent’s enchantments as well, so with multiple opponents, there should be more options to choose from. 

17. Cindervines

Cindervines

Ravnica Remastered, Rare

Cindervines is a very powerful sideboard card. It is a good way to attack slower combo strategies that have lots of noncreature spells, but the ability to sacrifice Cindervines and use it as a Naturalize is quite strong as well. The card is very versatile and perfect for Gruul Aggro in Pioneer.

16. Farseek

Farseek

Ravnica Remastered, Uncommon

Farseek can go find a shockland, making it better than Rampant Growth, since the land you find doesn’t need to be a basic. Farseek used to see a lot of play in Modern Scapeshift, but currently Farseek is primarily used as a Commander staple. Having two-mana ramp can be hard to come by, and Farseek is perfect for that role. 

15. Guardian Project

Guardian Project

Ravnica Remastered, Mythic

Guardian Project is a powerful card draw engine, and is mostly used in Commander, where it will provide a consistent stream of extra cards if left unchecked. 

14. Dark Confidant

Dark Confidant

Ravnica Remastered, Mythic

Dark Confidant may not be the Modern powerhouse it used to be, but that’s because newly printed cards continue to be stronger and stronger, and the two-drop slot in a deck like Modern Jund is hotly contested. It doesn’t help that Wrenn and Six is around as an easy way to get rid of Dark Confidant. These are reasons Dark Confidant – otherwise known as “Bob” – isn’t higher on the list. This will always be a well-loved card whether it’s in Commander, Cube or even future Standard decks (who knows!)

13. Bird of Paradise

Birds of Paradise

Ravnica Remastered, Rare

While we are talking about classics, it doesn’t get more classic than Birds of Paradise. For those familiar with the history of Magic, this is a card that should look familiar, and it has been printed numerous times. One-mana ramp is hard to come by, and once you add in producing a mana of any color and flying, Birds of Paradise is the card that fits the bill. 

12. Infernal Tutor

Infernal Tutor

Ravnica Remastered, Rare

Good tutors are hard to come by and Infernal Tutor is the perfect enabler for combo decks. This is a card that has been used in Vintage, as decks like Storm want to increase their consistency. 

11. Life From the Loam

Life from the Loam

Ravnica Remastered, Rare

I’m hoping we see more Life from the Loam in the future, as its popularity has ebbed and flowed. With Modern Dredge not being very popular at the moment, we don’t see as much Life from the Loam as we once did. However, this is a card that is really powerful for graveyard decks like Dredge as a way to generate extra value in the middle of the game. 

10. Utopia Sprawl

Utopia Sprawl

Ravnica Remastered, Uncommon

There are multiple strong green ramp spells in Ravnica Remastered, and Utopia Sprawl is one of them. Finding a Forest shouldn’t be hard, especially for decks that have fetchlands in them. Utopia Sprawl being an enchantment is a benefit in more ways than one. Not dying to creature removal is nice, but this can also be used in dedicated enchantment decks that consist of almost all enchantments. 

9. Bruvac the Grandiloquent

Bruvac the Grandiloquent

Ravnica Remastered, Mythic

For Commander players that enjoy milling opponents, this is the card. Bruvac is the perfect Commander to go alongside the many blue cards and artifacts that can cause the opponent to mill and make their 100-card library seem like not many cards at all. 

8. Golgari Grave-Troll

Golgari Grave-Troll

Ravnica Remastered, Rare

Golgari Grave-Troll is the best dredge creature ever printed because it can dredge 6. This is a card that is strong enough to be banned in Modern, and without Golgari Grave-Troll, Modern Dredge has really suffered. For decks that want to get lots of cards into the graveyard, this is the ticket. For players looking to play Dredge, Vintage is the place to do it, though Golgari Grave-Troll is restricted there so you can play only one copy! You know a card is good when it’s restricted in Vintage. 

7. Chord of Calling

Chord of Calling

Ravnica Remastered, Rare

Chord of Calling goes in creature-based combo decks like Golgari Yawgmoth in Modern. The card allows decks to play one-of creatures that it can go grab, and this is very helpful for decks that need multiple different specific creatures to execute a combo. 

6. Karn, the Great Creator

Karn, the Great Creator

Ravnica Remastered, Mythic

Here is another card on the list that was strong enough to get banned in a format, as of a couple of weeks ago, Karn, the Great Creator is no longer legal in Pioneer. However, this is a planeswalker that can be found in Modern, where we see it in big mana decks like Tron and Mono-Black Coffers, and we can’t forget that Modern includes The One Ring as one of the artifacts that can be grabbed from the sideboard. 

5. Cyclonic Rift

Cyclonic Rift

Ravnica Remastered, Mythic

Cyclonic Rift leads to some huge blowouts as overloading this in a game of Commander will completely change the game, and often leads to winning on the spot. I have also included Cyclonic Rift in my Pioneer Izzet Phoenix sideboard, as a bounce effect that can be found with Pieces of the Puzzle, though this use case is fairly uncommon. 

4. Teferi, Time Raveler

Teferi, Time Raveler

Ravnica Remastered, Mythic

For those players who are familiar with the Historic format on MTG Arena, you likely are aware of the nerfing that often takes place, and Teferi, Time Raveler was deemed too good for that format in its normal form. Right now, Modern is the perfect place for Teferi as a card that works well in control and midrange decks and can be used to bounce a copy of The One Ring as necessary. 

3. Arclight Phoenix

Arclight Phoenix

Ravnica Remastered, Rare

Arclight Phoenix has been a dominant card across multiple formats, as Izzet decks use a number of noncreature spells to loot Arclight Phoenix into the graveyard and repeatedly bring it back onto the battlefield. Arclight Phoenix is a card that enables an entire archetype by itself, and Izzet Phoenix is currently one of the best decks in Pioneer.

2. Deathrite Shaman

Deathrite Shaman

Ravnica Remastered, Rare

Here is another card that is strong enough to have been banned in Modern, but it’s also banned in Legacy. Deathrite Shaman is amazing in decks with fetchlands, as it becomes a mana accelerator, but also is graveyard disruption and a win condition. On rare occasions, it even makes sense to gain life yourself. 

1. Shocklands

Market Price: $13.66

Market Price: $14.23

Market Price: $20.58

The 10-land cycle of rare Ravnica lands often referred to as shocklands have been Magic: The Gathering staples for a very long time. These lands are all over the place in many formats, such as Pioneer and Modern. Shocklands feel like they will always be loved by players, no matter how many times they get reprinted.