What set is Dissension in?

Dissension (set code DIS) is the third and final set of the Ravnica block, following Ravnica: City of Guilds and Guildpact. It was released in May 2006 and contains 180 cards.

What guilds are in Dissension?

Dissension introduces the final three guilds of the Ravnica block: the Azorius Senate (white-blue), the Simic Combine (green-blue), and the Cult of Rakdos (black-red). Each guild has its own keyword mechanic — forecast, graft, and hellbent respectively.

What mechanics does Dissension introduce?

Dissension introduces three new keyword mechanics: forecast (Azorius), which lets you activate a scaled-down version of a card's effect from your hand during your upkeep; graft (Simic), which places +1/+1 counters on creatures and lets you move them to new arrivals; and hellbent (Rakdos), which grants bonuses when you have no cards in hand. It also carries forward the haunt mechanic from earlier in the block.

What are the most valuable or impactful cards in Dissension?

Dissension's shock lands — Breeding Pool (green-blue) and Blood Crypt (black-red) — are among its most impactful cards, remaining staples in Modern and Pioneer mana bases for nearly two decades. Experiment Kraj is a popular Commander card known for copying activated abilities. Many other cards from the set have found homes in Commander, Legacy, and Vintage.

Is Dissension legal in Standard or Pioneer?

No. Dissension is not legal in Standard or Pioneer. It is legal in Legacy, Vintage, and Commander. Some individual cards — particularly the shock lands Breeding Pool and Blood Crypt — are reprinted in sets that are legal in Pioneer and Modern.

What is the story of Dissension?

The Dissension storyline concludes the Ravnica block narrative. The ancient Guildpact binding Ravnica's ten guilds is collapsing, and multiple factions — including Niv-Mizzet, Teysa Karlov, Momir Vig, and the awakening demon Rakdos — pursue their own agendas amid the chaos. The climax involves Project Kraj, a massive Simic bioweapon created by Momir Vig. The story was novelised by Cory J. Herndon in the book Dissension, published in May 2006.

Dissension (DIS): MTG Set Guide

Some sets end a block quietly. Dissension (DIS) is not one of them. Released in May 2006 as the thirty-eighth Magic: The Gathering expansion, it closes out the Ravnica block by bringing the remaining three guilds to the table - and with them, some of the most beloved and chaotic mechanics the game has ever seen.

If Ravnica: City of Guilds (RAV) and Guildpact (GPT) felt like the world being carefully constructed, Dissension feels like watching it tear itself apart. Which, lore-wise, is more or less exactly what's happening.

What is Dissension?

Dissension is the third and final set of the Ravnica block, completing the ten-guild arc that began with RAV in 2005. The set contains 180 cards and was released in May 2006, roughly a year after the block launched.

The Ravnica block is built around a simple but brilliant design premise: the city-plane of Ravnica is governed by ten guilds, each representing a two-colour pair. RAV introduced four guilds, GPT introduced three more, and Dissension brings in the final three - the Azorius Senate ({W}{U}), the Simic Combine ({G}{U}), and the Cult of Rakdos ({B}{R}).

Format check: DIS is not currently legal in Standard or Pioneer. It is legal in Legacy, Vintage, and Commander, and some of its cards have had long-lasting impact on those formats.

Themes and mechanics

The mechanical identity of Dissension is defined by its three guilds, each of which introduces a brand-new keyword mechanic alongside the returning haunt mechanic and the block-wide Ravnica framework.

Forecast - Azorius Senate ({W}{U})

The Azorius are Ravnica's lawmakers and bureaucrats, and their mechanic reflects that perfectly: forecast lets you reveal a card from your hand during your upkeep and pay a cost to activate a weaker version of its effect - leaving the card in hand for later. It's a mechanic about planning ahead, holding resources, and grinding out incremental advantages. Very Azorius.

Forecast rewards a specific style of play that I'd describe as deliberate and attrition-focused. You're not exploding onto the board; you're steadily draining value from your hand while keeping your options open.

Graft - Simic Combine ({G}{U})

The Simic are biomancers - scientists who fuse nature with magic, splicing creatures together in pursuit of an impossible ideal of perfection. Their mechanic, graft, puts +1/+1 counters on a creature when it enters the battlefield, and lets you move those counters to other creatures as they arrive. Every new creature that enters can absorb a counter from a grafted creature.

Graft creates a web of interconnected creatures that grow and evolve together, which is both flavorfully perfect and mechanically interesting. The Simic are also the guild most associated with the payoff creature Experiment Kraj, which has become a Commander favourite for good reason - it copies activated abilities of creatures that share a counter with it.

Hellbent - Cult of Rakdos ({B}{R})

If Azorius is careful and Simic is methodical, Rakdos is pure chaos. The Cult of Rakdos is a demon-worshipping performance cult that doubles as a criminal labour organisation, and their mechanic, hellbent, gives bonuses when you have no cards in hand. The reward for being totally reckless - spending everything you have - is raw, escalating power.

Hellbent is one of those mechanics that perfectly captures a playstyle: all-in, all the time. You're not saving anything. You're spending every resource to hit as hard as possible, then relying on your hellbent cards to close the game from an empty grip.

Returning mechanics

Dissension also carries forward haunt from the earlier sets in the block. Haunt is a triggered mechanic where a spell or ability can exile itself to a creature when it resolves, and then trigger again when that creature dies. It's a mechanic that rewards patience and punishes opponents who trade creatures carelessly.

Limited and Draft

Dissension drafted on its own (as the third pack in a RAV-GPT-DIS draft) adds a fascinating layer to the Ravnica block experience. The three guilds in DIS have very different draft identities:

Azorius ({W}{U}) plays a controlling game. Forecast cards offer repeatable value, and the guild has access to flyers and tempo plays to close games out once the opponent is exhausted.
Simic ({G}{U}) goes wide and tall simultaneously. Graft creatures can pump each other as you develop your board, and the combine rewards a dense creature count.
Rakdos ({B}{R}) is the aggro guild of the set - hellbent synergies push you toward fast, empty-handed play, and the guild has the burn and removal to back that up.

In a full RAV-GPT-DIS draft, guild identity matters enormously, and Dissension's guilds slot into the broader ten-colour ecosystem of the block. I think Dissension is one of the most flavorfully cohesive limited environments Magic has ever produced, even if the draft format itself is complex by modern standards.

Notable cards and impact

Dissension contains several cards that have left a real mark on the game - particularly in Commander and older formats.

Experiment Kraj became a Commander staple almost immediately after release, and it's easy to see why: an Ooze Mutant that copies activated abilities and can untap creatures with counters on them is exactly the kind of card that Commander was built around.

Prahv, Spires of Order and the other guild lands from the block helped cement the template for future dual-land cycles.

The set's three shock lands - Hallowed Fountain ({W}{U}), Watery Grave ({U}{B}, from GPT), and Stomping Ground ({R}{G}, from GPT) - are part of the block-wide cycle, and the DIS entries (Steam Vents equivalent was in GPT, while DIS contributed Blood Crypt for {B}{R} and Breeding Pool for {G}{U}) have remained among the most played dual lands in competitive Magic across Modern, Legacy, and Pioneer for nearly two decades.

Format check: Breeding Pool and Blood Crypt are both legal in Modern and Pioneer, and both see consistent competitive play in multicolour decks across those formats.

Lore and setting

Dissension takes place entirely on Ravnica, the city-plane that covers an entire world under a single vast metropolis. The story concludes the arc that began when the ancient Guildpact - a magical contract binding the ten guilds to an uneasy peace - begins to unravel.

The novel Dissension, written by Cory J. Herndon and published in May 2006, completes the Ravnica cycle. It features a remarkable cast: Niv-Mizzet, the firemind dragon and Izzet guildmaster; Teysa Karlov, the Orzhov representative who has since become one of Magic's most enduring recurring characters; Feather, the fallen angel; Szadek, the Dimir guildmaster; Momir Vig, the Simic biomancer orchestrating the creation of Project Kraj; and the demon Rakdos himself awakening from centuries of slumber.

The central conflict involves multiple factions attempting to exploit the Guildpact's collapse for their own ends, while the synthetic horror Project Kraj - Momir Vig's masterwork - threatens to consume the city entire. It's a genuine ensemble piece with a huge cast, and Herndon does a solid job of weaving together threads that had been building across all three novels.

Lore aside: Teysa Karlov has appeared in several subsequent Magic sets, most recently in Ravnica Allegiance (RNA, 2019), cementing her status as one of Ravnica's most durable characters. She's one of those rare non-Planeswalker figures who has genuinely persisted through the game's evolving storyline.

Set legacy

Dissension is, in my opinion, one of the most mechanically and flavorfully satisfying set conclusions in Magic's history. The three guilds it introduces each have a distinct identity - legally rigid Azorius, experimentally obsessed Simic, and nihilistically chaotic Rakdos - and their mechanics genuinely reflect those identities rather than just wearing them as costume.

The shock lands it contributed to the Ravnica block cycle have remained cornerstone cards in competitive mana bases for two decades. Breeding Pool and Blood Crypt in particular show up in deck after deck across Modern and Pioneer.

Ravnica as a plane has returned in multiple subsequent sets - Return to Ravnica (RTR, 2012) and its block, and Guilds of Ravnica (GRN, 2018) and Ravnica Allegiance (RNA, 2019) - a testament to how compelling the setting proved to be. That enduring appeal traces back directly to how well the original block, and Dissension in particular, sold the world.

If you're exploring Magic's history or building a Commander deck with Ravnica flavour, Dissension is the set where the original vision crystallised. The guilds feel complete here, the lore pays off years of setup, and the mechanics are genuinely inventive even by today's standards. ✨