Gatecrash

Gatecrash is the second set in the Return to Ravnica block. It is the 60th Magic expansion and was released on February 1, 2013.

Set details
Gatecrash contains 249 cards (101 commons, 80 uncommons, 53 rares, 15 mythic rares), including randomly inserted premium versions of all cards in the set. Like Return to Ravnica, the preceding expansion set, Gatecrash focused on the guild system and multicolor cards. The five guilds returning in Gatecrash were the Boros Legion, House Dimir, Gruul Clans, Orzhov Syndicate, and Simic Combine. Despite being a large expansion, Gatecrash did not contain any basic lands (Return to Ravnica had some extra). The set featured two planeswalkers; one, Gideon, Champion of Justice, was an established planeswalker, whilst the other, Domri Rade was new. The expansion symbol is a pointed arch of a gate.

Flavor and storyline
Fight for Your Guild Jace begins to piece together the greater mystery of the Implicit Maze. It's now a race to see who will unlock its secrets.

Marketing
Gatecrash was sold in 16-card boosters, 6-card boosters, five intro packs, two event decks and a fat pack. Like its predecessor the set also featured Booster Battle Packs, which contained two Gatecrash booster packs and two semi-randomized, guild-associated 22-card decks. An early preview picture of the set shows Aurelia, the leader of the Boros Legion, adjacent to planeswalker Gideon Jura, mirroring the preview picture of the preceding Return to Ravnca, which featured Izzet League leader Niv-Mizzet and planeswalker Jace Beleren.

The 16-card boosters featured artwork from Duskmantle Guildmage, Prime Speaker Zegana, Skarrg Guildmage, Vizkopa Guildmage, and Sunhome Guildmage. The small booster featured artwork from Domri Rade.

Wizards of the Coast created a "Choose Your Guild" interactive quiz and Planeswalker Points Web page for the expansion, allowing Magic players to choose their guild. At the expansion's prerelease events on January 26–27, 2013, players chose their guild; a choice that affected gameplay, as, in addition to receiving five Gatecrash boosters, players received a guild-specific sticker, an acceptance letter from their guild leader, a spindown life counter, a promotional prerelease card, an achievement/challenge card, and an additional guild-specific booster. The launch party was on February 1–4, 2013, and the Game Day on February 23–24, 2013.

Promotional cards
As was the case with Return to Ravnica, there were five promotional prerelease cards, with the card received dependent on the guild chosen. Another novel feature of the Gatecrash prerelease was the fact that the card could be played in decks at the prerelease itself, unlike previous promotional prerelease cards, were:
 * Boros: Foundry Champion</c>
 * Dimir: Consuming Aberration</c>
 * Gruul: Rubblehulk</c>
 * Orzhov: Treasury Thrull</c>
 * Simic: Fathom Mage</c>

These cards were also available in the intro packs as foils, albeit without the alternate art and prerelease date.

Other alternate-art promotional cards were:
 * Game Day: Full-art Zameck Guildmage</c>
 * Game Day (Top 8): Full-art Firemane Avenger</c>
 * Release-day Friday Night Magic: Skarrg Goliath</c>
 * Gatecrash League: Soldier creature token
 * Buy-a-Box: Nightveil Specter</c>

Tokens and emblem
The sixteenth card in the boosters is a token or emblem card. Although there are advertising cards, there are no Tips & Tricks cards associated with Gatecrash
 * 1) 4/4 Angel creature token with flying produced by Urbis Protector</c>
 * 2) 1/1 Rat creature token produced by Ogre Slumlord</c>
 * 3) 3/3 Frog Lizard creature token produced by Rapid Hybridization</c>
 * 4) 1/1 Cleric creature token produced by Deathpact Angel</c>
 * 5) 1/1 Spirit creature token with flying produced by Beckon Apparition</c>
 * 6) 1/1 Horror creature token with flying produced by Call of the Nightwing</c>
 * 7) 1/1 Soldier creature token produced by Assemble the Legion</c> and <c>Sunhome Guildmage</c>
 * 8) *The creature tokens produced by Assemble the Legion and Sunhome Guildmage have haste. The absence of "haste" on the printed token is attributed to additional flexibility, considerations as to the art aspect ratio, and the necessity of a one-turn relevant keyword, especially in light of its benefits.

The following named tokens were released with Return to Ravnica:
 * 1)  2/2 Knight for <c>Knight Watch</c>
 * 2)  1/1 Soldier for <c>Murder Investigation</c>
 * 3)  */* Ooze for <c>Miming Slime</c>, <c>Mystic Genesis</c>, and <c>Ooze Flux</c>

Themes and mechanics
Like the preceding set, Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash revisits five of the ten bicolored guilds of Ravnica. Each guild has its own keyword or ability word. The guilds returning in this expansion are:

To note: the Guilds are presented in the official order, but they were originally displayed alphabetically by Wizard: Boros Legion, House Dimir, Gruul Clans, Orzhov Syndicate, Simic Combine.

The Simic mechanic evolve was inspired by a similarly named mechanic submitted by Ethan Fleisher for the Great Designer Search 2, and the Boros mechanic battalion was Shawn Main's "assault" mechanic, which was submitted for the same competition. Main also designed the Orzhov extort mechanic; he is noted as being a contributor to the Gatecrash development team.

Other themes and mechanics include:
 * Hybrid mana
 * Defender
 * Enchantments
 * Land auras
 * Gates

Creature types
No novel creature types were introduced in this expansion.

Guild cycles
Guild cycles in Gatecrash each comprise of five members, one for each guild featured in the expansion. Along with many of the Return to Ravnica guild cycles, many of the Gatecrash guild cycles form Return to Ravnica block mega cycles

Reprinted cards
The following cards have been reprinted from previous sets and included in Gatecrash:
 * <c>Act of Treason</c>, first printed in Magic 2010 was last seen in Magic 2012 and for the first time in an expert-level expansion.
 * <c>Assault Griffin</c>, first printed in Magic 2011 was last seen in Magic 2012 and for the first time in an expert-level expansion.
 * <c>Cinder Elemental</c>, first printed in Mercadian Masques was last seen in Planechase.
 * <c>Beckon Apparition</c> was last seen in Eventide.
 * <c>Contaminated Ground</c> was last seen in Rise of the Eldrazi.
 * <c>Ember Beast</c> was last seen in Odyssey.
 * <c>Frenzied Tilling</c> was last seen in Invasion.
 * <c>Naturalize</c>, first printed in Onslaught was last seen in Magic 2013.
 * <c>Prophetic Prism</c>, first printed in Rise of the Eldrazi was last seen in Commander.
 * <c>Righteous Charge</c>, first printed in Portal Second Age was last seen in Starter 1999 and for the first time in an expert-level expansion.
 * Shock lands were last seen in the Ravnica block.
 * <c>Skyknight Legionnaire</c> was last seen in Ravnica: City of Guilds.
 * <c>Smite</c>, first printed in Stronghold was last seen in Rise of the Eldrazi.

Functional reprints

 * <c>Angelic Edict</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Iona's Judgment</c> from Worldwake.
 * <c>Gutter Skulk</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Walking Corpse</c> from Innistrad.
 * <c>Rapid Hybridization</c> is a quasi-functional reprint of <c>Pongify</c> from Planar Chaos; creature subtype is different
 * <c>Shielded Passage</c> is a functional reprint of <c>Indestructible Aura</c> from Legends.

Strictly better

 * <c>Burst of Strength</c> is strictly better than <c>Battlegrowth</c>.
 * <c>Crowned Ceratok</c> is strictly better than <c>Argothian Swine</c>, <c>Golden Bear</c>, <c>Nettle Swine</c>, <c>Order of the Sacred Bell</c>, <c>Spiked Baloth</c>, <c>Vintara Elephant</c>, <c>War Mammoth</c> and <c>Wild Elephant</c>.
 * <c>Gateway Shade</c> is strictly better than <c>Frozen Shade</c>.
 * <c>Slate Street Ruffian</c> is strictly better than <c>Alley Grifters</c>.
 * <c>Legion Loyalist</c> is strictly better than <c>Raging Goblin</c>.

Strictly worse

 * <c>Millennial Gargoyle</c> is strictly worse than <c>Primal Clay</c> and <c>Tin-Wing Chimera</c>.
 * <c>Totally Lost</c> is strictly worse than <c>Vanishment</c>.

Notable cards

 * <c>Enter the Infinite</c> is a powerful combo enabler.
 * <c>Biovisionary</c> and <c>Hellkite Tyrant</c> are alternate-win cards.

Banned and restricted cards

 * <c>Balustrade Spy</c> and <c>Undercity Informer</c> both use the grind mechanic, which were largely irrelevant in the history of Magic until the printing of the double-faced card lands in Zendikar Rising, which do not register as lands for the purposes of the ability. Hence, this meant Pioneer had a variant of the <c>Hermit Druid</c> combo, which have limited interaction points. These two cards were hence banned in Pioneer in February 2021.

Intro packs
Gatecrash has five bicolored guild-centric intro packs.

Event decks
Gatecrash has two event decks.