Magic's ten two-color combinations each have an official name and identity, most famously established by the guilds of Ravnica, a plane literally divided among ten competing factions. Every possible pairing of Magic's five colors maps onto one of these guilds.
Five of the ten pairings are allied colors, sharing a border on the color wheel and generally cooperative philosophies, while the other five are enemy colors with more openly opposed worldviews. Both kinds of pairings produce real, competitively viable strategies.
Learning the ten guild names is more than trivia. Guild identity is shorthand the entire community uses for deck archetypes, from Commander precons to competitive Standard decks, so knowing what Azorius or Rakdos means saves real time when reading strategy content.
This guide runs through all ten guilds, their color pairs, and the core strategy each one is known for.
The ten guild names come from the Ravnica plane, introduced in the original Ravnica: City of Guilds block in 2005 and revisited multiple times since. Each guild governs part of the city and represents one of Magic's ten possible two-color pairs.
Even outside cards actually set on Ravnica, the guild names have become the community's standard shorthand for a two-color strategy, so a deck described as Rakdos or Simic tells an experienced player its color identity and rough game plan. Many collectors sort a growing guild collection using EVORETRO 9-Pocket Binder Pages, keeping each two-color pair on its own sheet.
Azorius (white-blue) is the guild of law and control, built around efficient fliers, counterspells, and card draw working together toward a slow, grindy win. Dimir (blue-black) channels that same control instinct into something darker, mixing card advantage with discard, mill, and reanimation.
Rakdos (black-red) is pure aggression fueled by sacrifice and burn, Gruul (red-green) smashes forward with the biggest, fastest creatures either color can produce, and Selesnya (green-white) builds a wide board of tokens and creatures backed by life gain and anthem effects.
Orzhov (white-black) turns life total into a resource, gaining and draining life while grinding through removal and card advantage. Izzet (blue-red) is Magic's classic spells-matter guild, chaining cheap instants and sorceries together for value and reach.
Golgari (black-green) builds around the graveyard, recurring resources that would be gone for good in any other color pair. Boros (red-white) is one of the fastest aggressive strategies in the game, and Simic (green-blue) pairs ramp with card selection for an overwhelming late game.
Azorius decks tend to play a fair, patient control game, using counterspells and removal to survive early turns before closing out with efficient fliers or a single powerful finisher. Its plan rewards careful sequencing and knowing exactly when to hold up interaction.
Dimir takes a more proactive route to the same control philosophy, often disrupting an opponent's hand directly through discard or attacking their graveyard and library instead of only reacting to what's on the battlefield.
All three of these guilds are built to end games quickly, but each does it differently. Rakdos wins through attrition and sacrifice value even as it deals damage, while Gruul simply outsizes whatever the opponent can put on the battlefield.
Boros splits the difference, using a wide field of efficient creatures backed by combat tricks and haste to punish any opponent who cannot answer a threat the turn it appears.
Selesnya and Golgari both play a longer game than the three aggressive guilds above, Selesnya through a resilient wide board and life total, Golgari through recurring resources an opponent cannot permanently remove from the graveyard.
Izzet and Simic take that patience even further, building toward a late game where either a stream of spells or a stack of ramp and card selection has completely outclassed whatever the opponent brought to the table. Whichever value guild you land on, an EVORETRO Magnetic Deck Box keeps the sleeved deck safe between rounds.
Ten, one for every possible pairing of the five colors.
Allied guilds sit next to each other on the color wheel, while enemy guilds sit two colors apart.
The original Ravnica: City of Guilds block in 2005, later revisited in several Ravnica-set returns.
No, all ten guilds have supported real, competitively viable decks across Magic's history.
Whichever guild's strategy sounds like your speed, keep your two-color deck organized and easy to shuffle with an EVORETRO Magnetic Deck Box sized for a full sleeved deck.
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