Pointed Discussion

Say what you will about the usefulness of this cycle,
but the art on this one is simply jaw-dropping.

I can't wait to see it in Foil, even if I never play it.

It's purple.

This is an excellent common land that pros like me will use in our blue/red decks.

A "win more" card.

Hopefully Gatecrash will bring with it some Gate relevance. And maybe a use for Street Sweeper as well.

Finally, some common dual lands! Every time I throw a casual 2 or 3 color deck together, I have the same problem: do I spend 20 dollars just so I can have a good manabase? But these lands definitely help. I want 8 of each one. It's like the second coming of Terramorphic Expanse (oh wait, that already happened.)

I think they somehow mixed up art comissions. o.o

Of all the guilds, this is the only where the WEAKEST of the four guild lands (Karoo, Old Shock, Guildgate, and Shock Reprint- Gates are worst obv.) has the BEST art.

I wish that "Izzet Boilerworks" had the art for Reprint "Steam Vents" and I wish they'd thought of some other name that is just flamboyantly brilliant to describe this (somehow name it after Niv-Mizzet) and make it the Shock Land of Izzet Guild.

Ignore the trolls, these cards are absolute GARBAGE! Come into play tapped is a strict minus and almost never worth fixing your manabase for, unless they print some good support for gates, these are a very very poor mans shocklands if you think otherwise you are lying to yourself.

Thanks wizards, keep on reminding why I haven't played magic in a long long time. Corrupt A** holes

Great? No, but not bad, and decent in Commander where superior multi-lands might not work because of color ID. This will be a welcome addition to enemy color decks, which have always been short on decent dual lands.

I love all of the gates. They're not ideal for constructed play, but they make limited far, far more enjoyable to play. Their existence greatly improves the draft format.

Works nice with an Amulet of Vigor on your board.

@D34D2R1T35: DO you realize those are dual lands at common level rarity? Coming into play tapped is the minimal they could have done to maintain a healthy power level. Otherwise they would have been even better than Ravlands in decks that don't care about land types.

Now that the new Guildgates are spoiled, I noticed the letters of the flavortext of the guild gates have a secret message. The letters are slightly raised. Consistently. On all the gates.

Azorius: TIFI
Izzet: HLRC
Rakdos: EDAA
Golgari: GSV
Selesnya: UON

THE GUILDS OF RAVNICA

Orzhov: WEYO
Dimir: ISET
Gruul: LTAH
Boros: LRCE
Simic: DOHR

WILL DESTROY EACH OTHER

So, uh yeah. Dead serious.

Meh... Not worth even in standard.
Great art, though.

I empathize with D34D2R1T35: This cycle of common lands definitely illustrates my main complaint with MTG very well. Pretty much strictly worse than their rare counterparts, in the same set. These lands show that, to the company, rarity is supposed to translate into card quality.

This is an idea I've heard echoed even in the comments of players, who can't wait to rid themselves of forty dollars just to get a set of utility rares. Bagilis's above reply to D34D2R1T35 shows this thinking in action. Another example, from the comments on the uncommon Homicidal Seclusion: "I would really like a rare version of this!" Would a rare version of that somehow be better, just because it's rare? I see comments on Gatherer that indicate this sort of thinking all the time.

Rares should not just be more powerful. Sometimes rares are rares because they are more complex, more interesting, or difficult to figure out how to use. These cards are legitimately rare. But far too often, rares (and their illegitimate child, 'mythic' rares) are self-synergetic or overpowered cards that commons and uncommons simply can't compete with. Rare lands are the most inexcusable cases. There is nothing interesting, complicated, or difficult to use about a dual colored land that enters the battlefield untapped most of the time. You also can't credibly claim that putting these lands in common slots would ruin the limited environment. All dual lands (such as the continuing M10 cycle, the Ravnica shocklands, and the Innistrad cycle) should be commons. This would free up five more rare slots in the set for things that are interesting, complex, or difficult to cast or use.

I urge the Magic community to protest by agreeing to use this cycle of commons as though they were the rare shocklands. I call this liberation through proxies. Just agree to consider every Izzet Guildgate as a copy of Steam Vents. Pay two life and put it down untapped! You have the power! You can do it without giving your money away!

This is worth it only for one reason: The price tag of a playset (x4) is $1.

Compare to price tags of other worthwhile {R}{U} land playsets:
Izzet Boilerworks $1.5
Shivan Reef $18
Sulfur Falls $33
Steam Vents $34
Cascade Bluffs $48
Scalding Tarn $128
Volcanic Island $450

Yeah the whole idea of "Limited" is really just employed by Wizards to keep us buying booster packs.
Lining up the rarity of a card with its power level further keeps us buying boosters so as to avoid the price on the second market. If all the good cards were commons, then you would only ever need to buy a handful of boosters from each set to keep up. It's sad but it's true.
I mean if you look at Intro Pack rares, for the most they are all way to clunky to ever see play in Standard. And you know what that means right? Wizards knows this, and that's the reason they are the Intro Pack rares. Not because they synergize the best they can with the deck in question, but because they suck.
/rant

The problem with guildgates is that they aren't very good no matter when you play them. Late in the game you should already have plenty of mana out of each color and most of your large spells will have a significant amount of colorless, so you won't really get much use from this. On the opposite hand, if you're dropping this early in the game the option to tap for either is certainly nice, but the fact that it comes into play tapped is a significant downside, making you wish you just had another mountain or island.

odd... Caldera Lake is rated higher than this...

Call me a fool, but I think I like this cycle, and I'd like it even more if it wasn't a Gate: the Invasion TAP-land (like Elfhame Palace) are the perfect simple card. I wonder why it took so long to print a simple common enemy dual land... It was almost time!
I'd like that they gave more love to the enemy-color pairs. Conveing the enemy relationship by printing less cards is not the way to go, I think. They should show it with the mechanism, and with some color hosing card, but I'd like to have the cards that I need for my deck, even if it isn't a ally color pair, and have the same quantity of card to choose from... Now, I'd like to see the other side of some cycle of land:
Scars land: Darkslick Shores and others...
Man-land: Celestial Colonnade and others...
Storage land: Molten Slagheap and others...
Snow land: Arctic Flats and others...
Refuge: Akoum Refuge and others...
Slow land: Waterveil Cavern and others...
Talisman: Talisman of Dominance and others...
Borderposts: Fieldmist Borderpost and others...
My favourite are the Refuge, the Storage and Man-land! I have a soft spot even for the Slow lands, beacuse I played them during Tempest era, and I liked them very much (keep in mind that I didn't know the painland...).

And another cycle of land that I would really love to see is something like this:
~ enters the field tapped.
When ~ enters the field, add to your mana pool.
: Add or to your mana pool.
and its siblings... In this way, you don't get the specific mana the turn that you cast it, but you don't lose tempo in the late game. And at the beginning you could cast a one mana artifact, like a Spellbomb or a Sensei's Divining Top.

However, why all the hate on this card?
Yes, it's (almost) strictly worse than Steam Vents, and the gate mechanism isn't so interesting, but it's simple, and common is the place for simple cards. It's a weak card? Yes, a little, but not so much... There are better cards, yes, but it's not garbage (like Caldera Lake: I like its art, but it's quite awful...), and a simple card is alway welcomed. Being common is great for newer player that doesn't have to invest a lot of money in shockland and others, and they learn a lot about double lands. And it's quite natural that rare cards are better than common, and land over all, because lands are quite difficult to design, there are a lot of restriction behind lands...
Also, note that a common dual land is something very rare (pun intended...). Other are:
bouncelands: Simic Growth Chamber and others...
Panorama: Bant Panorama (kinda) and others...
Odissey land: Abandoned Outpost and others...
Invasion land: Ancient Spring and others...
Broderposts again...
For artifact there are also Signets and Cluestones...

I use one in my EDH Izzet deck, because it's another double land that doesn't cost me about 15€ to get. And it's not a Transguild Promenade or Shimmering Grotto, that are worse in a 2-color deck.
Maybe with time I will get more better lands, but I have the feel that I would keep my Izzet Guildgate in the deck, because the art, the flavour text, the utility... The flavour text in particular, I like this much more than the Dragon's Maze version, and I like the Italian version better than the English one...!

@ Vandarringa: A rare version of a card isn't automatically better, but it can be more complex, therefore can do something more funny, or more useful, or more specific, without be strictly better...

Edit: some days ago, Wizards announced that they are going to print an equal number of land for all color pair, ally and enemy, like I wished for! YEAH! Great news!

WarioMan, you just BLEW MY MIND

The way I play, this is one of the best common lands out there: R or U with the only penalty being that it comes in tapped (I don't like paying life, but the 4 max/deck means that I'd throw in some shocklands anyway), I'm trying to get my hands on a Maze's End for my 5-color deck, and my Izzet deck loves this card. Definitely one of the best common lands (in some ways even better than Izzet Boilerworks)