Pointed Discussion

I like how MTGSalvation's preview list of the cards listed a gag rewrite of this card's flavor text:

"It is rumored millions of angry Dredge-haters paid an exorbitant sum to ensure its symbol would appear on the bottom."

I love how it's mostly better than any two lucky charms, and for half the cost.

If you have 2 tablets in play, does that mean you get 2 life per spell?

5/5 for an adorable little fence! :D

It's crap, like 99% of the cards that do nothing but gain life.

Since infect is finally gone this card will see play. Gaining two life per multicolor spell is clutch, and more than one in play makes gaining life even better. Itll be great with selesnya and azorius... Even golgari could since you'll be playing that pay life - draw card land aura.

I may not use it in all my decks but if I draft two of them.... Yep, ill use it. 3/5 for cost effectiveness and utility but its not very flashy or interesting. Could use an activated ability since it is taking up an uncommon slot.

It's a lucky charm, and terrible. What else is there to say?

@Nucleon: Isn't "on the bottom" exactly where Dredge WANTS it's symbol? :p

I laugh at the non-pros who think this is bad. Pros like me can gain a lot of life with this card, especially with it being in a multi-colored block.

"They're after me lucky charms!"
"Here, we'll keep them safe for you. Right in this Vault. Go ahead, put them ALL in"

ebachtiar - Yes. :)

I have a question, I f I cast Rakdos Cackler, do I gain 2 life because its a red, black hybrid spell?

This card served me very well at the Prerelease with my Azorius deck.

I'm surprised at how many players keep telling me this is a good card. Everyone knows the lucky charms were bad, and everyone knows that life gain is bad. How this is a good card somehow eludes me.

Wait just a gosh darn second, isn't Dimir not even recognized as a guild? maybe something in the story has changed but i feel like they wouldn't just have their symbol up there for everyone to see if most of ravnica just thinks they are a myth. i might be totally wrong on this

It's odd, because it's literally just as good as the lucky charms when you consider that the charms would give you life from an opponent's spells, whereas this is your own.

I am tempted to try it, since consistent lifegain can be pretty irritating if a match hits a stalemate, no matter how short. I'd much rather Angel's Feather or Demon's Horn though, just because most people round my end tend to use those colours often.

@roborapter "Information control, it's the bread and butter of the Dimir... It works, and has for nearly ten-thousand years. Monuments tower in the city's plazas with the Dimir Signet plain to see, and yet the Dimir have convinced the city that they are a myth."
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/mc12b

Just think of it, Red and Blue...

Dealing damage with a counter-burn deck while gaining life?! Fun ;)

@Silverscar
Aye

(Blatant casual reporting in)

Using it for my Izzet deck in Standard and it's had some variable success, being more useful early game but a dead draw late game. But still, I can cycle it out with Desolate Lighthouse if need be.

It's just great dropping Guttersnipe down and then playing Counterflux if they try any funny business. Or casting Nivix Guildmage and gaining 2 life for casting a 2/2 with some handy mana abilities.

Half-decent in limited if, for some reason, you've decided to draft a Selesnya lifegain deck with Centaur Healer, Heroes' Reunion and such. Otherwise, not so good. Still, 1.5/5 since it at least has a little use.

Personally I don't really like the card, but the art amuses me. At first it seems like the guilds are ordered in a random order, especially by what it says in the flavor text. However once you look at where the guilds are it makes more sense. The wheel of guilds starts with the allied colored guilds, the first being Azorius because blue and white are the first two colors to appear on the back of a mtg card. Then a space is left for the enemy-colored guilds. The guild shown is Orzhov because it is in between a guild with white in it (Azorius) and a guild with black in it(Dimir).

Some people have wondered which guilds are the primary enemies of each other and using this card's art you can find out. Here is how it works: The allied colored guilds' (Azorius, Rakdos, etc.) have enemies across from them and enemies adjacent to the guild across from them. For example Rakdos's enemies are Simic (its across from it), Azorius, and Selesnya (they are adjacent to the Simic guild)

Finding the enemy-colored guilds' (Simic, Golgari, etc.) is quite simple as well. The first enemy is directly across from the guild. The next two enemies are two spaces to the left and to the right of the enemy guild. For example Golgari's enemies are Azorius (it's across from Golgari), Boros, and Izzet. (They are two spaces away)
I am quite positive in these pairings as proof has been given that they are true. Some examples of proof are the izzet vs Golgari duel decks, the article in which Azorius arresters captures Vraska, Rakdos encounters with Selesnya and Azorius, and Selesnya flavor texts referencing "stopping Izzet progress". If my concepts are confusing here is an example of Azorius (Black pen) and Golgari (Red pen). http://i.imgur.com/yj9Zg.png?1

This card has gotten a bad reputation because all of the charm cards leading up to it have sucked. If you play UW control, I suggest you try running it. I win more games with it than without it. Oh and by the way, if you don't feel like paying twenty dollars for Sphinx's Revelation, how about running Drogskol Reaver along side 4 of these? You'll usually have 2 out by the time you play the reaver. That's 4 life for 7 mana on top of a 3/5 double strike lifelink that will often net you 4 cards per turn (or more). Oh, and Don't worry about early card disadvantage. Supreme Verdict.

@Parasitian why so much work? Just say that two guilds are enemies when they share no colors.

Well, it's a lucky charm more than anything else, which is bad. Yeah, you select two colors, but your opponents spells doesn't give you life like the originals. 2/5 for SOME application on draft.

Anyone else interested in that symbol in the center of the tablet? Hopefully it'll be significant in DGM.

I was going to say that this is better than the Dragon's Claw/Demon's Horn/Angel's Feather/Kraken's Eye/Wurm's Tooth/Golem's Heart cycle of 2-cost life artifacts, but it only activates when you play a spell.

Sure, you choose two colours, but again, if you opponent plays something, you don't gain anything.

Also, if Azorius paid money to put their guild on top, I don't think they're as smart as they are. I mean, White's usually on the top of the colour wheel as it is, and blue is right beside it...

the wording on every magic card iv ever seen is so *** that u can definitely play with almost no knowledge of the game, however me and my friends have been debating about this, the card clearly says "choose two color's" not "two different colors", so i argue that in a mono colored deck you could simple name that color twice (example: pure black deck plays tablet of the guilds and chooses black twice) this would mean a 2 life gain for ever black spell that player cast's, am i wrong and why?

i think when it says 2 colors it means 2 different or it would specify otherwise

Dose casting Extort trigger the effect?

Dimir officialy does not exist.
Whoops, someone put them into official tablet.

They're getting close to a decent one. If this also counted opponent's spells I think it'd be 3.5 and see play in sideboard, albeit maybe not in standard. For example; in a tendrils of agony combo you'd be guaranteed to protect half of your life from the final burn it hits you with, meaning that they need another 5 spells to achieve lethal. Similarly it would work as anti-multicolor tech OR, even better, you'd choose your color and the opponent's primary color in mono or nearly mono-colored decks facing eachother.

Gaining a life for *every* spell played (due to choosing each decks' primary color) would really put one of these mediocre cards on the map and probably see play in strange places.

Why is it I think this card should've costed like {4} and instead have said:
"When Tablet of the Guilds enters the battlefield, choose two colors. Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, if it is those two colors, draw a card."

"Well, I liked it!... And I'm writing a letter to say I wasn't offended."

@deep_shadow
Nice trick! I'm not a huge fan of Drogskol Reaver, but suddenly I like him a little better.

guys, i will tell you how this card goes berserk: HYBRID MANA.

play R/U cipher with Nivmagus Elemental and Hidden Strings and you will see exactly what i mean.

I love how this thing has the guild aligned. If you think about it, each guild symbol is across from it's polar opposite.

Azorious and Golgari: Life and Order / Death and Rebirth
Orzhov and Gruul: Society and Wealth / Nature and Fury
Dimir and Boros: Espionage and Secrecy / Warcries and Blunt Power
Izzet and Selesnya: Science and Research / Community and Nature
Simic and Rakdos: Intelligence and Growth / Death and Chaos

I'm fairly certain someone else can come up with something better than that, but Whatever. It's still really nice flavor.

This basically combines any 2 staffs, except its one spell and it costs 2 mana total instead of 6

@Gosu_Ghost - no, you have to choose 2 separate colors. the rulings on this website for the card say "You must choose two different colors. Colorless is not a color." magic cards that seem unclear can often be cleared up by applying common sense (not saying you don't have any, just that your interpretation of "choosing the same color twice," while not expressly forbidden by the text of the card, is implied through reading the text). choosing black would be choosing 1 color, and choosing black twice would be choosing one color 2 times, not "choosing two colors" if you want this type of effect for a monocolored deck, there are a series of mono-colored charms that give you lifegain whenever anyone casts a spell of the specified color, not just you, for 2 mana, and 3 mana options that trigger of your spells and a basic of the specified type entering the battlefield.