Which is the most powerful guild?

Orzhov probably. There's enough stability on Ravnica that the overwhelming wealth they have can basically do anything.

>>52900204
So just like real life then

>>52900204
I don't think Orzhov holds up without the Guildpact backing them. Nobody would put up with their crap if they aren't forced to.

>>52900294
You forget
> slave wards
> debts
> religious ferver (for some people anyway)
> more debts
Orzhov can buy out most people because communism doesn't exist aside from with the godless hippies

>>52900110
no one expects the golgari

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>>52900110
It's a predominantly blue plane.

Dimir never accomplishes anything.
Simic never finished recovering from Kraj.
>So who's the most epic-level guild right now, and why?
Probably Azorius or Izzet?

>What sort of dastardly plot can you see the guilds planning in the future?
Speaking of which, each blue guild (and only blue guilds) has been the villain.

>>52900356
> Golgari "devoured by dawn" Swarm
> Golgari "if it's rotten, it won't be forgotten" Swarm
> Golgari "the corpses are warm" Swarm

>>52900386
>>What sort of dastardly plot can you see the guilds planning in the future?
>Speaking of which, each blue guild (and only blue guilds) has been the villain.

Rakdos says hi.

>>52900350
Gruul straight up doesn't care about money, though, and Rakdos would probably set their tax report on fire after doing it. I really doubt Golgari or Izzet would just pay up either without magical peacekeeping. The point is, PAY YOUR DENBTS only works if the debtor wants to stay on good terms, which won't be the case.

>>52900110
>Gruul can't be pact-arrested
But they can be normal arrested or detained by normal law magic.

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>>52900110
In terms of raw power Rakdos is by far the strongest when the Capital R is awake. The whole reason they gave him a guild when making the first Guildpact was to keep him entertained. Otherwise half the plane would've been destroyed trying to stop him.
After them I say the Boros. It was a plotpoint that the Boros mobilizing for war wasn't a good thing during Gatewatch, especially after Aurelia restructured it and added a fuckload of Izzet science with the Warmind Initiative

>>52900386
>>52900414
It's only predominantly blue because the guilds work like an interlocked machine, using a perfect system to guide society.

t's not like Innistrad, where black can basically solo all the other colors put together.

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>>52900453
The Orzhov have quite an enforcement agency though.
They're the banks and IRS, already the two most dangerous agencies in America, as run by magical 1920s mobsters.

The Orzhov even gives "Gas the Dimir, Guild war now!" Aurelia pause.

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>>52900449
Rakdos is a nusiance, but he did more good than harm in Dissension.
He wasn't too helpful in Retrun to Ravnica, but no worse than the other guild leaders.

The Rakdos Cult, meanwhile, are one of the better intention organizations in the city.

The main thing that has stopped the Golgari in the past is that they literally can't stop throwing coups. Jarad seems good at not dying, or at least is able to reanimate himself anytime he does take a dirt nap.

>>52900204
The Orzhov also have a room where thry are exempt from.the rules of the Guildpact

>>52900911
never heard about this tho.

Did they ever say anything about what was up with mermaids suddenly rising up from the long lost oceans and taking over the Simic? I mean that's more than a little suspicious.

>>52900947
One of the Uncharted Realms posts.

Teysa and Tajik try to end the Obzedat, but end up both getting captured and they reveal that their private sanctuary is free from Guildpact control

>>52900972
Stranger things have happened in/to the Combine.

>>52900604
Hang on a fucking second
Who are the artisans/craftsmen/what we'd consider actual guild jobs? Architects, stonecarvers, woodcutters, actual tradesmen? They seem like they'd fit under the R/W banner if we're saying that's a creative job.

>>52901197
Source please?

>>52902472
I legit think wizards forgot about them

>>52902626
Honestly the Azor could fill the Boros role and Boros could have been badass gobbo tradesmen, craftmen and blacksmiths. What trash wizards are if they forget about guilds in a setting about guilds.

>>52902472
I mean, its kind of split between a lot of the guilds I would think, like Selesnya doing "woodcutting" with magic or Boros smithing metal for various needs, but I figure a lot of the crafstmanship in Ravnica is Guildess by necessity

Each guild has their own emergency people to go to for guild specials, but a lot of the craftsmen and women just make stuff and sell it to everyone, because everyone needs it.

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>>52902472
>Architects
Izzet, he just said they're all the STEM majors
>Stonecarvers
Either the Rakdos or the Gruul, who are both in charge of menial labor in some sort of way
>Woodcutters
Gruul

In general there are plenty of smaller guilds of tradesman and the like that don't get a lot of focus because they aren't any of the big and gameplay fun guilds, or are themselves offshoots of the fun guilds.
Like the smelting, metalworking, and industrial districts are in the Boros/Rakdos parts of the foundry district, represented on the "Mountains"

>>52900604
How many agents has Dimir sent to their death on a mission to get a picture of Teysa's gimpy leg?

>>52900110
Orzhov by far.
Rakdos and M'at Selesnya are the most powerful beigns in the planet followed at a considerable lenght by Niv Mizzet. But the Obzedat know all the guildless population's guilty secrets and have people in and out of every guild bought or enslaved, not to mention a whole army of ghosts, thrulls and devotees who are not in the barracks, but right behind people of power as bodyguards or servants.

The Orzhov didn't give much of a shit about either RAV or RTR block plots because they had nothing to lose and everything to gain from people's despair. And they're set to be the antagonist of the next Ravnica block because of course you can't have a Gatewatch plot without the Jacetice league subverting a government except for the first time they'll actually be fighting a poisonous oligarchy instead of the Lawful Good council or Bolas' idyllic desert snowglobe.

>>52905486
Fucking Jacetice league makes me shake when I think about them fucking Ravnica. Lay your bets, do they topple all the guilds and introduce fully automated luxury gay space communism, or do they only destroy the "bad" guilds, which somehow does utterly fuck the balance of power?

>>52900110
Here's another question. Glistening oil has made its way on Ravnica. What happens to the guilds and Ravnica as we know it?

As far as survival, my money is on the Orzhov. The Obzedat are not going to let their flock be forcefully converted to some shitty cult of machine worshipers, so they're going to take action against them. Corrupting them from the inside is too difficult, because you can't infect ghosts.
Azorious, Selesnya, and Boros will be against Phyrexia, but unlike the Orzhov they are vulnerable to corruption.
Izzet and Simic are going to try to find a cure, but their curiosity is going to get the better of them as they try to experiment on it.
Golgari and Dimir are likely the first to find out about it. Might have a chance if they get help, though, and the Golgari have gorgons.
Gruul and Rakdos are the most vulnerable due to lack of sanitation and the inability to follow rules in dangerous times.

>>52906285
Holy shit it goes deeper
> Obzedat are the only ones who could fight off Momma Ems because they have both zombies and ghosts
> Can exile, which planeswalkers are fucked by, so they can defeat them (mechanically at least) meaning Bolas would get shrekt if he started anything.
Guys... Are the Obzedat the perfect form in the multiverse? Have they found the balance to repel all invaders?

>>52906251
If they fuck with the Dimir or Izzet...
I'm more worried about them touching Phyrexia/New Phyrexia.

>>52900110
>Now that Jacepact is off playing hooky from his full time job, what's stopping the guilds from going full post-dissolution scheming again?

They don't know Jace is away.

>>52906285
I'd put Gruul at least likely to get corrupted. They're defined by artifact hate and returning to the natural order.

>>52907166
They are very Vorinclexy

>>52907163
I think the Obzedat and Lavinia know.

>>52907225
Obzedat is behind everything, but they actually don't like rising to action much. It's a waste of money and effort.

Lavinia won't tell anyone, she's too lawfu for that.

I think Niv suspects, but cannot quite work out what the fuck is happening (and the longer it continues, the better.)

Ral also knows, he's in fact keeping Niv Mizzet distracted about the whole planeswalker business.

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>>52900110
Orzhov.

Assuming Teysa doesn't get ahead of the Orzhov Elders in the internal power struggle, anyway, or at least abreast of them. It's been two or three years now since the last revelation surrounding Ravnica and the Orzhov, are they EVER going to pick that plot thread back up again?

Other honourary mentions I'd say are Rakdos (only if the big guy is awake) and *maybe* Selesnya. Outside option is Dimir, but only because nobody fucking knows what they're really up to anyway.

>>52902483
It's in the Uncharted Realms Archive anon.

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>>52903280
Mage guilds anon
>>52900850
Jaraad encourages assassination attempts. He believes it keeps everyone sharp and motivated.
>>52900582
Their debt contracts are magically enforced, it's not an issue of societal or lawful compliance. Hell, most of the contracts keep spirits and zombies as vasals.
>>52900435
Kek
>>52900503
Rakdos himself is arguably the strongest single being on Ravinia without prep time, assistance etc. Though one could argue for almost any other guild could beat the cult of Rakdos, if the Paruns were dropped into an arena with no foreknowledge, Rakdos would fashion the rest of them into a festive hat
>>52900110
Orzhov. In lore, already up to shit that scares Teysa, the author of the non-magic guildpact.

>>52906335
The Obzedat are immortal beings that have been in a position of great power, accruing power since time untold. As Ravnica is an incredibly strange plane in terms of isolation, flow of souls, and the semi-permiable wall separating it from the rest of the multiverse, I believe any frontal assault on the plane (overlay, invasion or whatever) is very likely to fail. Because of the ridiculous politics and meta-scheming, I believe that even Bolas's consortium is secondary to whatever larger organization holds it's agents. That said, glistening oil may be a problem or non-issue, depending on how they handle it.