New Prahv Guildmage MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 2 |
| Rarity | Uncommon |
| Type | Creature — Human Wizard |
| Abilities | Detain |
| Released | 2012-10-05 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Return to Ravnica |
| Set code | RTR |
| Power | 2 |
| Toughness | 2 |
| Number | 181 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Karl Kopinski |
Key Takeaways
- Offering instant speed versatility, the Guildmage manipulates the battlefield, disrupting opponents’ strategies effectively.
- The Guildmage’s detain ability adds to strategic depth, requiring opponents to outmaneuver its board control.
- While potent, New Prahv Guildmage demands careful mana and resource management to maximize its potential.
Text of card
: Target creature gains flying until end of turn. : Detain target nonland permanent an opponent controls. (Until your next turn, that permanent can't attack or block and its activated abilities can't be activated.)
Card Pros
Card Advantage: New Prahv Guildmage offers unique versatility, enabling players to protect their key creatures or frustrate the opponent’s strategy by detaining their threats each turn. This can potentially generate a card advantage by nullifying your opponent’s plays and allowing you to draw into more responses or threats.
Resource Acceleration: While not directly providing mana acceleration, the Guildmage’s abilities can effectively slow down the opponent, indirectly accelerating your own game plan compared to theirs. By keeping an enemy creature detained, you may delay their resource development or crucial plays, giving you the upper hand.
Instant Speed: The Guildmage’s abilities can be activated at instant speed, providing a tactical edge by allowing you to react to your opponent’s actions during their turn. This flexibility ensures that you can make the most informed decisions possible without committing resources preemptively.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: New Prahv Guildmage demands precise resource management. Unfortunately, it includes an ability that requires a player to discard another card. This condition can potentially hinder your game, especially when your hand is already dwindling and each card’s value is at a premium.
Specific Mana Cost: This card’s abilities are locked behind a color-specific mana cost, necessitating both white and blue mana. This restricts its use to decks that can consistently generate these two types of mana, possibly excluding it from multicolored decks that have a broader color spectrum or from mono-colored decks that can’t meet its mana requirements.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: The activation cost of New Prahv Guildmage’s abilities is not on the lower end of the spectrum. This can be particularly challenging in faster-paced games where mana efficiency paves the way to victory. As such, decks that are tuned for speed might find the guildmage’s cost too steep, considering other cards may provide similar or greater effects for less investment.
Reasons to Include New Prahv Guildmage in Your Collection
Versatility: New Prahv Guildmage provides dual abilities that can adapt to various situations on the battlefield. With the ability to make creatures fly for a turn or to detain opposing creatures, it can serve both offensive and defensive roles in a deck.
Combo Potential: The Guildmage’s detain mechanic can be a cornerstone in lockdown combos, helping maintain control of the game by restricting the opponent’s potential moves. Additionally, its ability to grant flying can unexpectedly turn any grounded threat into a game-ending aerial assault.
Meta-Relevance: In a meta where evasion tactics or board control are key, New Prahv Guildmage can shine by altering combat dynamics and tempo. It’s particularly potent in multicolor decks looking to exploit Azorius synergies or in any deck that values flexibility in its creature abilities.
How to beat
New Prahv Guildmage is a versatile and strategic option for players who like to control the battlefield in Magic: The Gathering. It wields abilities that can fortify your creatures or lock down an opponent’s with detain. Although it presents a challenge, there are strategies to outmaneuver its capabilities.
When facing this Azorius card, there are several tactics to employ. First, instant-speed removal can be key. Utilizing spells that can interrupt or remove New Prahv Guildmage before its controller can activate its abilities is crucial. Cards like Lightning Bolt or Fatal Push offer quick and efficient ways to take it off the board early in the game. Furthermore, playing around the detain ability by spacing out creature plays will prevent the Guildmage from completely disrupting your battle plan.
Denying resources or limiting mana accessibility is another effective method. If the opponent doesn’t have the resources to activate New Prahv Guildmage’s abilities, its impact is greatly diminished. Cards that force resource discard or land destruction can be pivotal here. Ultimately, efficient creature removal and resource disruption are the keys to dismantling the control New Prahv Guildmage aims to establish in a match.
Cards like New Prahv Guildmage
New Prahv Guildmage stands out in the realm of versatile creature cards within MTG, drawing parallels to other influential guildmages. Like its kin, Azorius Guildmage, both offer modal abilities allowing choices that cater to evolving game states. However, where Azorius Guildmage can counter spells or tap down opposing threats, New Prahv Guildmage leans into Azorius’s penchant for law and order by granting detainment capabilities to halt opponent’s assets and also providing a stat bolstering effect that can turn the tide in combat scenarios.
Exploring further, Deputy of Acquittals functions as a flexible creature and emergency defense mechanism similar to the guildmages. It lacks the ongoing utility provided by New Prahv Guildmage but compensates with an immediate impact by rescuing a valued creature from peril. Stepping outside of the Azorius’s white-blue color combination, we encounter Simic Guildmage. This creature brings adaptability in manipulating +1/+1 counters and relocating auras, showcasing the Simic’s mastery of mutation against New Prahv Guildmage’s vision of order.
To summarize, while each guildmage presents unique strategic opportunities, New Prahv Guildmage offers MTG players the ability to enforce control on the battlefield while bolstering their forces, echoing the very essence of the Azorius Senate’s values.
Cards similar to New Prahv Guildmage by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase New Prahv Guildmage MTG card by a specific set like Return to Ravnica, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the New Prahv Guildmage and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where New Prahv Guildmage has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Restricted |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering New Prahv Guildmage card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2013-04-15 | Activated abilities include a colon and are written in the form “ -ost: -ffect].” No one can activate any activated abilities, including mana abilities, of a detained permanent. |
| 2013-04-15 | If a creature is already attacking or blocking when it’s detained, it won’t be removed from combat. It will continue to attack or block. |
| 2013-04-15 | If a noncreature permanent is detained and later turns into a creature, it won’t be able to attack or block. |
| 2013-04-15 | If a permanent’s activated ability is on the stack when that permanent is detained, the ability will be unaffected. |
| 2013-04-15 | The static abilities of a detained permanent still apply. The triggered abilities of a detained permanent can still trigger. |
| 2013-04-15 | When a player leaves a multiplayer game, any continuous effects with durations that last until that player’s next turn or until a specific point in that turn will last until that turn would have begun. They neither expire immediately nor last indefinitely. |
