The wait is finally over and Ravnica Allegiance, the 80th set to be released by Wizards of the Coast is now upon us.

Across the globe, Planeswalkers are preparing themselves for epic battles as they attend their local pre-release events, carefully choosing the guild that best matches their playstyle, or personality.

Officially, Ravnica Allegiance booster boxes, Planeswalker decks and bundles ship out on January 25th, however, for the next week these pre-release events are going to provide a much needed scratch to your Magic the Gathering itch.

Although there are countless topics to talk about and discuss when exploring the new Ravnica Allegiance set, we are going to hone in on and explore one of especially important interest. Dovin, Grand Arbiter and the other Planeswalkers of Ravnica Allegiance.

Who Are the Planeswalkers of Ravnica Allegiance?

Although the focus of this article is going to be Dovin, Grand Arbiter, a card that can be obtained from booster packs of Ravnica Allegiance, he is however far from the only Planeswalker included in this set.

In total there are five Planeswalker cards in which you can add to your arsenal of spells, or collection:

Domri City Smasher and Dovin Architect of Law, although interesting and fun in their own right, are the lesser, more weak versions of their other copies that are included in the standard set.

These two cards are interesting additions however and will be highly sought after by both players and collectors alike.

They can be obtained by purchasing the Ravnica Allegiance Planeswalker decks, which offer a fun, exciting entry into Magic the Gathering for new players, or for those just looking for an exciting one on one pre-constructed match against a friend.

The other two Planeswalkers, Kaya Orzhov Usurper and Domri Chaos Bringer, as previously mentioned will need to be opened from booster packs within the standard set and are sure to create some exciting, interesting deck brews.

Kaya is a member of the white / black guild called the Orzhov Syndicate, while Domri is a member of the bloodthirsty Gruul clan.

This leaves one remaining Planeswalker, of which we believe will become a prominent player in the new Ravnica Allegiance standard format.

Dovin, Grand Arbiter of the Azorius Senate

Dovin Grand Arbiter is a member of the Azorius Senate of Ravnica. This guild focuses on the white / blue colors of magic and are responsible for governing the Plane of Ravnica, creating and enacting its laws.

The first thing that you will notice about this Planeswalker, is just how little mana it cost, three. This means that he will typically come out on turn three, which is incredibly fast.

Past versions of Dovin have always featured a controlling element, however, Dovin Grand Arbiter is obviously meant to be much more aggressive than his past incarnations.

His plus one ability is very powerful, especially when you build a deck that focuses on creatures that can easily attack and get around your opponents blockers.

Fortunately, this is one of the Azorius guilds specialties, as they feature a plethora of flyers within the Ravnica Allegiance set.

Crazily, the creatures shown above, are just a few of the flyers available to the Azorius guild.

What makes all this even better, is the fact of how well many of these creatures synergize with each other. Creatures such as “Spirit of the Spires” and “Windstorm Drake” buff all your other flying creatures, including the token Thopters that are going to be created by Dovin Grand Arbiter through his -2 ability.

With this many hard to block flyers, Dovin is going to rapidly increase his “loyalty counters”, making him incredible bulky, very fast, allowing you to easily trigger his “ultimate” -7 ability.

This ability allows for a heavy card draw, while putting the cards you don’t need on the bottom of your library, easily outpacing your opponents.

With this high flying strategy in mind, you will quickly create a board state that will leave your opposition in the dust, as you soar through the clouds.

In Conclusion

These are exciting times for any player of Magic the Gathering, as it is going through an intense boom, due to the massive influx of new players that Wizards of the Coast is bringing in through its smash hit program, Arena.

Many of these players are going to be attending pre-release events for the very first time, getting into the intensely fun and highly addicting paper scene.

Ravnica Allegiance has big boots to fill, following the hit success of the Guilds of Ravnica set, however, we have no doubt that it will not only meet expectations, but exceed them.

The Planeswalkers of this set are exciting and flavourful, and as we have mentioned, Dovin Grand Arbiter is of especially high interest to us.

However we would love to know which Planeswalker you plan on taking into battle? Will it be Kaya, Domri, or will you be wielding Dovin as well?