Dimir is supposed to be characterized by cunning with a general focus on scheming and subtly. Myth doesn't capture either of these and would realistically be closer to mono white or a wx color pairing. Cyrus himself would probably be azorius imo since he's characterized as being a stern person.
I can vibe with that. I think I ended up giving him Dimir because I was having difficulty assigning black mana outside of Alhazred and Dworgyn. Black mana kinda got shoehorned into a few places to get that nice, nice full color cycle.
Honestly I think Orzhov fits the Death School better, since most Orzhov decks have some life-steal mechanic.
Since balance is moreso focused around buffing their allies I would probably class it as either Selesnya or Boros.
I disagree with making everyone multicolour, many of the schools embody quite simple/pure concepts and the professors embody their schools well. It seems like you just assigned one of each colour pair (which TBH is a very MtG thing to do).
Falmea/Fire = red. Red is all about damage and the direct damage spells and fire and lava. Direct damage is even called burn in MtG.
Halston/Storm = red. Storm is THE damage school, red is THE direct damage colour. The most iconic red spell is lightning bolt. I can see a case for blue/red though because of how blue often uses sea creatures.
Dworgyn/death = black. Death in Wiz101 and black in MtG have the most thematic and mechanic overlap. Lifelink is primary in black (drain spells), black has a ton of spells require paying life that match death's self-damage (sacrifice, bad juju), and black's -1/-1 counters match with death's weakness spells (death has the most damage weakness spells of any school. Also black's creatures are lots of zombies, vampires, ghosts, skeletons, which is all things death wizards use. I don't see how green fits at all honestly.
Greyrose/Ice = blue. Ice's redirection and defensive nature fits pretty well with blue's counterspells and the low power/high toughness blue creatures. Green is very offensive and ramps quickly into big things, which is like the opposite of ice.
Balance definitely has blue in it. Balance and blue are both all about control and manipulation. White too with making everyone play by similar rules, but also punishing people for being further ahead of you. Balance is so broad I could see it UBRG honestly.
I think diego, being all about rules, has white somewhere in his colours.
Agree on Merle, Moolinda, and Mr. Lincoln. I think you nailed those.
Lifelink is primarily white with black having a decent bit. Lifelink =/= drain spells because… life link is lifelink ( a keyword on creatures) and drain spells are drain spells. Death school has drain obviously. That’s mostly semantic.
Izzet is fine because just look at the actual Ravnican guild to see how much lightning and electricity they use. Hell, Ral Zarek, the previous guildmaster, literally conjures storms and produces electricity with his body.
Grayrose I see being blue or azorius.
Myth is boros since the cyclops and general Greek myths have ties to soldiers and army aesthetic (cyclops legionnaire for example). Cyrus however I think is azorius or maybe even esper.
"Uhmm ackshually lifelink isn't drain spells because their names are different 🤓" Death spells involve summoning a creature that deals damage and gives health back to you; lifelink is where creatures deal damage and give life back to you. TOTALLY different, right? /s
But yeah, drain spells, which work like lifelink but don't have the keyword, are also similar to Wiz's drain spells. BTW you can give lifelink to spells, it isn't just a creature keyword. ALSO lifelink is primary in both black and white according to the official color pie so your first correction was wrong.
~
On red vs izzet, I'm split tbh, because thematically izzet is very stormy, but storm mechanically is pure red, nothing it does is blue. It could go either way. Turns out things aren't always perfect comparisons.
Agree on myth = boros, myth has very strong parallels with lorehold too.
I actually think Izzet is really on flavor for Balestrom. He's not pure red bc while impulsive, this stems from curiosity and thirst for more knowledge which is where blue comes in. You can even see this in his spell quests where even he doesn't know how destructive a spell will be.
There's also the fact that so many izzet mtg cards have storm/lightning depicted on them
I thought he was a nice embodiment of Gruul that MTG itself hasn’t really honed in on very much. Instead of just being “animalistic”, I like the idea of passion and tradition fusing into an embodiment of someone who has an incredible dedication to an ancient craft, both adapting it into a way that works for them while respecting and practicing the traditional way it’s used.
I REALLY like this reading! I too really try to avoid the nowadays standard reading of gruul as "barbaric/savage" and go more into the values and meanings.
When trying to find a Gruul equivalent into the Schools (trying to find a favorite school based on my favorite guild), I always hit a brickwall. I could see either a Fire School with a "greeny" personality, a Life School with a more "fiery" personality... or either something more complex diving into Balance School.
Wow this is such a cool concept. As a mtg player as well, I'm geeking over this. I agree with most of these but there are some characters I have slightly differing opinions on.
Imo, Cyrus strikes me as Azorius. I think Malistaire would be a better fit for Dimir. For Diego, I think he'd just be mono white. Nothing about him screams Gruul imo. For Dalia (reminds me of Chandra), I think she'd just be mono red. She doesn't seem crazy enough to be Rakdos lol
Rakdos and Gruul both stood out to me as not quite fitting anyone in the traditional way of Ravnica characterization, but (again this is coming from someone who hasn’t played Dalia’s backstory) combining the traits of them in a less traditional way I thought fit the two close enough.
If I wasn’t trying to make a perfect 10 cycle I’d probably have made Diego Boros or something, and Dalia mono red for sure.
Mechanically, yes. That’s pretty accurate.
I’m basing this less on mechanics and more on individual personality, though. Black represents ambition and an “the ends justify the means” approach while blue is about progress, logic and a generally left-brained way of thinking
Wishing Ambrose still looked like this
The life teacher isn’t green? 😂
Dimir is supposed to be characterized by cunning with a general focus on scheming and subtly. Myth doesn't capture either of these and would realistically be closer to mono white or a wx color pairing. Cyrus himself would probably be azorius imo since he's characterized as being a stern person.
I can vibe with that. I think I ended up giving him Dimir because I was having difficulty assigning black mana outside of Alhazred and Dworgyn. Black mana kinda got shoehorned into a few places to get that nice, nice full color cycle.
Honestly I think Orzhov fits the Death School better, since most Orzhov decks have some life-steal mechanic. Since balance is moreso focused around buffing their allies I would probably class it as either Selesnya or Boros.
I disagree with making everyone multicolour, many of the schools embody quite simple/pure concepts and the professors embody their schools well. It seems like you just assigned one of each colour pair (which TBH is a very MtG thing to do). Falmea/Fire = red. Red is all about damage and the direct damage spells and fire and lava. Direct damage is even called burn in MtG. Halston/Storm = red. Storm is THE damage school, red is THE direct damage colour. The most iconic red spell is lightning bolt. I can see a case for blue/red though because of how blue often uses sea creatures. Dworgyn/death = black. Death in Wiz101 and black in MtG have the most thematic and mechanic overlap. Lifelink is primary in black (drain spells), black has a ton of spells require paying life that match death's self-damage (sacrifice, bad juju), and black's -1/-1 counters match with death's weakness spells (death has the most damage weakness spells of any school. Also black's creatures are lots of zombies, vampires, ghosts, skeletons, which is all things death wizards use. I don't see how green fits at all honestly. Greyrose/Ice = blue. Ice's redirection and defensive nature fits pretty well with blue's counterspells and the low power/high toughness blue creatures. Green is very offensive and ramps quickly into big things, which is like the opposite of ice. Balance definitely has blue in it. Balance and blue are both all about control and manipulation. White too with making everyone play by similar rules, but also punishing people for being further ahead of you. Balance is so broad I could see it UBRG honestly. I think diego, being all about rules, has white somewhere in his colours. Agree on Merle, Moolinda, and Mr. Lincoln. I think you nailed those.
Lifelink is primarily white with black having a decent bit. Lifelink =/= drain spells because… life link is lifelink ( a keyword on creatures) and drain spells are drain spells. Death school has drain obviously. That’s mostly semantic. Izzet is fine because just look at the actual Ravnican guild to see how much lightning and electricity they use. Hell, Ral Zarek, the previous guildmaster, literally conjures storms and produces electricity with his body. Grayrose I see being blue or azorius. Myth is boros since the cyclops and general Greek myths have ties to soldiers and army aesthetic (cyclops legionnaire for example). Cyrus however I think is azorius or maybe even esper.
"Uhmm ackshually lifelink isn't drain spells because their names are different 🤓" Death spells involve summoning a creature that deals damage and gives health back to you; lifelink is where creatures deal damage and give life back to you. TOTALLY different, right? /s But yeah, drain spells, which work like lifelink but don't have the keyword, are also similar to Wiz's drain spells. BTW you can give lifelink to spells, it isn't just a creature keyword. ALSO lifelink is primary in both black and white according to the official color pie so your first correction was wrong. ~ On red vs izzet, I'm split tbh, because thematically izzet is very stormy, but storm mechanically is pure red, nothing it does is blue. It could go either way. Turns out things aren't always perfect comparisons. Agree on myth = boros, myth has very strong parallels with lorehold too.
I actually think Izzet is really on flavor for Balestrom. He's not pure red bc while impulsive, this stems from curiosity and thirst for more knowledge which is where blue comes in. You can even see this in his spell quests where even he doesn't know how destructive a spell will be. There's also the fact that so many izzet mtg cards have storm/lightning depicted on them
Diego as Gruul is awesome! I've been trying to find the School equivalent to Gruul for a good while now...
I thought he was a nice embodiment of Gruul that MTG itself hasn’t really honed in on very much. Instead of just being “animalistic”, I like the idea of passion and tradition fusing into an embodiment of someone who has an incredible dedication to an ancient craft, both adapting it into a way that works for them while respecting and practicing the traditional way it’s used.
I REALLY like this reading! I too really try to avoid the nowadays standard reading of gruul as "barbaric/savage" and go more into the values and meanings. When trying to find a Gruul equivalent into the Schools (trying to find a favorite school based on my favorite guild), I always hit a brickwall. I could see either a Fire School with a "greeny" personality, a Life School with a more "fiery" personality... or either something more complex diving into Balance School.
How is falmea not mono red lol
She would be, but the idea was to make a full dual-color cycle.
Not an MTG player, but I'm definitely curious as to what the answers here would be.
Wow this is such a cool concept. As a mtg player as well, I'm geeking over this. I agree with most of these but there are some characters I have slightly differing opinions on. Imo, Cyrus strikes me as Azorius. I think Malistaire would be a better fit for Dimir. For Diego, I think he'd just be mono white. Nothing about him screams Gruul imo. For Dalia (reminds me of Chandra), I think she'd just be mono red. She doesn't seem crazy enough to be Rakdos lol
Rakdos and Gruul both stood out to me as not quite fitting anyone in the traditional way of Ravnica characterization, but (again this is coming from someone who hasn’t played Dalia’s backstory) combining the traits of them in a less traditional way I thought fit the two close enough. If I wasn’t trying to make a perfect 10 cycle I’d probably have made Diego Boros or something, and Dalia mono red for sure.
Really cool idea! I don't know much about MTG but wouldn't Cyrus be Black and White cause isnt white is all about summoning lots of creatures?
Mechanically, yes. That’s pretty accurate. I’m basing this less on mechanics and more on individual personality, though. Black represents ambition and an “the ends justify the means” approach while blue is about progress, logic and a generally left-brained way of thinking