The Ravnica common print-runs were solved as a StarCityGames.com forum project. While most of the analysis was done by three of us, numerous others contributed booster contents. As you might guess, this took a lot of work. Alas, our interim work, including errors we have since corrected, was taken and posted in an article on another website (without attribution for the whole print run). Here, for the first time, is the correct version of the complete Ravnica common-card print run, both online and real-life.

As you open a Ravnica pack, you will see:

5-6 “Rock” cards (solid)
3 “Paper” cards (chaff)
2-3 “Scissors” cards (good)
3 Uncommon cards
1 Rare

Foils can replace one of the cards in the pack.

The Rock Run
The Rock run consists of 55 solid common cards (two instances of each card). The entire run is:

Induce Paranoia -- Mortipede -- Torpid Moloch -- Terrarion -- Woodwraith Strangler -- Drift of Phantasms -- Strands of Undeath -- Coalhauler Swine -- Dimir Aqueduct -- Courier Hawk -- Convolute -- Golgari Rot Farm -- Dogpile -- Civic Wayfinder -- Votary of the Conclave -- Terraformer -- Gaze of the Gorgon -- Goblin Spelunkers -- Greater Mossdog -- Selesnya Sanctuary -- Stasis Cell -- Roofstalker Wight -- Viashino Slasher -- Golgari Rot Farm -- Consult the Necrosages -- Tattered Drake -- Strands of Undeath -- Barbarian Riftcutter -- Terrarion -- Votary of the Conclave -- Drift of Phantasms -- Gaze of the Gorgon -- Coalhauler Swine -- Civic Wayfinder -- Wojek Siren -- Convolute -- Dimir Aqueduct -- Goblin Spelunkers -- Farseek -- Woodwraith Strangler -- Induce Paranoia -- Roofstalker Wight -- Torpid Moloch -- Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi -- Boros Garrison -- Tattered Drake -- Mortipede -- Dogpile -- Selesnya Sanctuary -- Wojek Siren -- Terraformer -- Consult the Necrosages -- Barbarian Riftcutter -- Greater Mossdog -- Courier Hawk -- Stasis Cell -- Guardian of Vitu-Ghazi -- Viashino Slasher -- Farseek -- Boros Garrison -- Thundersong Trumpeter -- Ordruun Commando -- Golgari Rotwurm -- Tidewater Minion -- Stinkweed Imp -- Sabertooth Alley Cat -- Gather Courage -- Boros Fury-Shield -- Vedalken Dismisser -- Dimir House Guard -- Fists of Ironwood -- War-Torch Goblin -- Screeching Griffin -- Vedalken Entrancer -- Golgari Rotwurm -- Incite Hysteria -- Scatter the Seeds -- Benevolent Ancestor -- Surveilling Sprite -- Clinging Darkness -- Bramble Elemental -- Ordruun Commando -- Nightguard Patrol -- Muddle the Mixture -- Stinkweed Imp -- Sparkmage Apprentice -- Fists of Ironwood -- Centaur Safeguard -- Tidewater Minion -- Sadistic Augermage -- Scatter the Seeds -- War-Torch Goblin -- Boros Fury-Shield -- Surveilling Sprite -- Dimir House Guard -- Sabertooth Alley Cat -- Bramble Elemental -- Benevolent Ancestor -- Vedalken Entrancer -- Thundersong Trumpeter -- Gather Courage -- Sparkmage Apprentice -- Nightguard Patrol -- Vedalken Dismisser -- Clinging Darkness -- Incite Hysteria -- Centaur Safeguard -- Screeching Griffin -- Muddle the Mixture -- Sadistic Augermage -- [loop back to the beginning]

In the 5-6 Rock cards, there are two possible scenarios. Some of the time, the Rock run will consist of a contiguous selection of 5-6 cards from the Rock run. Other times, the first 2-3 cards will be from one part of the Rock run, while the other 2-3 cards are from another portion of the Rock run.

In general, the cards are in UBRGW order, but there are so many exceptions and substitutions with gold cards, artifacts, and lands that relying heavily on this order can really mess things up.

The Rock run is a lot of data without much use, unless you are playing online and can have the entire list to peruse immediately. There are, however, some simple ways to determine if the player drafting ahead of you has drafted one of the stronger cards in the Rock run.

These strong Rock cards include Vedalken Entrancer, Golgari Rotwurm, and Thundersong Trumpeter. We submit that if somebody first-picked a card from Rock, it's probable that it was one of these three cards. More importantly, if you see one of these three cards when a Rock card is missing, then only one of these three cards reasonably could have been taken as an early pick.

Here are simple rules to identify if these cards have been taken early. The best part is that simply focusing on these three cards (when a Rock card has been taken early) will help a great deal in identifying the actual early pick.

Let's say you see a Rock card has been taken, but a Vedalken Entrancer remains in the pack. The first pick was probably Golgari Rotwurm or Thundersong Trumpeter. If you also see a Gather Courage or a Benevolent Ancestor, the person feeding you probably took the Trumpeter. Otherwise, the Rotwurm was probably taken.

ROCK RULE 1 (Rock Rules apply only if a Rock card is missing): Vedalken Entrancer next to Gather Courage or Benevolent Ancestor = Drafter feeding you is in Boros.

ROCK RULE 2: Vedalken Entrancer without either Gather Courage or Benevolent Ancestor = Golgari.

If you see a Golgari Rotwurm in a Rock run, when a Rock card is missing, what the heck else would the player have taken? The likeliest pick was Vedalken Entrancer or a Thundersong Trumpeter (both are within the three-card range). The give-away is the presence of Ordruun Commando, which is next to the Trumpeter but not the Entrancer.

ROCK RULE 3: Golgari Rotwurm + Ordruun Commando = Boros

ROCK RULE 4: Golgari Rotwurm but no Ordruun Commando = Dimir

Finally, let's suppose you see a Rock card has been taken and a Thundersong Trumpeter remains. Look again for the Ordruun Commando. If you see it, the card taken was probably Golgari Rotwurm

ROCK RULE 5: Thundersong Trumpeter + Ordruun Commando = Golgari

ROCK RULE 6: Thundersong Trumpeter but no Ordruun Commando = Dimir

The Paper Run
After the 5-6 Rock cards come exactly 3 “Paper” cards (i.e., those that are pretty worthless). These cards are mostly useless in determining the color of the person feeding you because these cards are so seldom first-picked.

Here is the paper run (30 cards, with each card printed twice):

Smash -- Rally the Righteous -- Dromad Purebred -- Grayscale Gharial -- Necromantic Thirst -- Perplex -- Dryad's Caress -- Caregiver -- Drake Familiar -- Thoughtpicker Witch -- Goblin Fire Fiend -- Sundering Vitae -- Leave No Trace -- Zephyr Spirit -- Boros Recruit -- Smash -- Golgari Brownscale -- Conclave's Blessing -- Quickchange -- Sewerdreg -- Seismic Spike -- Stone-Seeder Heirophant -- Dimir Infiltrator -- Grayscale Gharial -- Shred Memory -- Rain of Embers -- Dryad's Caress -- Dromad Purebred -- Dizzy Spell -- Infectious Host -- Rally the Righteous -- Elvish Skysweeper -- Conclave's Blessing -- Dimir Infiltrator -- Necromantic Thirst -- Goblin Fire Fiend -- Perplex -- Gate Hound -- Zephyr Spirit -- Lurking Informant -- Surge of Zeal -- Sundering Vitae -- Caregiver -- Dizzy Spell -- Thoughtpicker Witch -- Seismic Spike -- Elvish Skysweeper -- Boros Recruit -- Quickchange -- Infectious Host -- Rain of Embers -- Stone-Seeder Heirophant -- Leave No Trace -- Drake Familiar -- Shred Memory -- Surge of Zeal -- Golgari Brownscale -- Gate Hound -- Lurking Informant – Sewerdreg -- [loop back to the beginning]

It's a sad day when a Paper card is a first pick. Still, it can happen. In this case, the UBRGW order is your best clue as to what is missing. Still, one has to think that only Lurking Informant and Rally the Righteous among the Paper run have the chance to be first-picked, if the rest of the pack is awful.

The Scissors Run
Finally we come to the Scissors run of strong cards. The Scissors cards are the most obvious first picks among the commons. There are, however, a few cards of questionable strength in the Scissors run (e.g., Peel from Reality and Sell-Sword Brute). Wizards R&D obviously thought that the Signets would be important in Limited play, as they all appear in the Scissors run.

If you can only remember one print run, make it Scissors.

There will be 2-3 cards in the Scissors section. If there are 6 Rock cards in the pack, there will be 2 Scissors cards. If there are 5 Rock cards, there will be 3 Scissors cards.

Here is the Scissors run (25 cards, with each card printed twice):

Peel from Reality -- Seeds of Strength -- Galvanic Arc -- Selesnya Evangel -- Faith's Fetters -- Compulsive Research -- Last Gasp -- Viashino Fangtail -- Transluminant -- Selesnya Signet -- Snapping Drake -- Dimir Signet -- Fiery Conclusion -- Siege Wurm -- Boros Signet -- Flight of Fancy -- Disembowel -- Sell-Sword Brute -- Elves of Deep Shadow -- Conclave Equenaut -- Compulsive Research -- Brainspoil -- Shambling Shell -- Transluminant -- Faith's Fetters -- Snapping Drake -- Golgari Signet -- Viashino Fangtail -- Seeds of Strength -- Veteran Armorer -- Flight of Fancy -- Last Gasp -- Galvanic Arc -- Elves of Deep Shadow -- Selesnya Evangel -- Peel from Reality -- Shambling Shell -- Fiery Conclusion -- Skyknight Legionnaire -- Conclave Equenaut -- Golgari Signet -- Disembowel -- Boros Signet -- Selesnya Signet -- Veteran Armorer -- Dimir Signet -- Brainspoil -- Sell-Sword Brute -- Siege Wurm -- Skyknight Legionnaire -- [loop back to the beginning]

If a common is missing, the Scissors run is the place to look. Unfortunately, with only two cards or three in the Scissors set, figuring out just what was taken is a real pain. Again, here are some simple rules. If somebody leaves a really common behind in the Scissors run, that person probably took something of similar value. If we focus on the best-of-the-best, the first picks include Selesnya Evangel, Faith's Fetters, Last Gasp, Snapping Drake, Siege Wurm, Galvanic Arc, and Disembowel.

Assuming that a Scissors card is taken and one of these cards remain, we can identify the missing Scissors card. The first rule is incredibly easy. Both Selesnya Evangel and Snapping Drake adjoin Faith's Fetters, but nothing else of first-pick quality:

SCISSORS RULE 1: Selesnya Evangel or Snapping Drake = Faith's Fetters was picked

What is harder is if you see that a Scissors card is missing and find that a Faith's Fetters remains. Assuming another good Scissors card was taken, then that card was likely Selesnya Evangel or Snapping Drake. If we assume that most people would first-pick Faith's Fetters over the Evangel in G/W, then the Drake becomes the likeliest pick.

SCISSORS RULE 2: Faith's Fetters = Snapping Drake (but possibly Evangel) was picked

The only card comparable to Last Gasp (that is also next to it in the Scissors print run) is Galvanic Arc.

SCISSORS RULE 3: Last Gasp = Galvanic Arc was picked

Siege Wurm sits next to nothing that be classed a better pick. If a Scissors card is missing and Siege Wurm remains, the drafter ahead of you is probably forcing Boros and picked a Skyknight Legionnaire.

SCISSORS RULE 4: Siege Wurm = Boros

Galvanic Arc is uninformative. Both Last Gasp and Selesnya Evangel are picked ahead of it. The only thing you know from a Galvanic Arc is that Boros is open ahead of you. This is the same thing you knew without knowing the print runs, so there is no reason to make up a rule here.

Disembowel is also uninformative. We think that if a Scissors card is missing from pack 1 but a Disembowel remains, the drafter feeding you is a nutcase. Honestly, who drafts a Signet, a Flight of Fancy, or a Sell-Sword Brute ahead of Disembowel in the first pack? If you see Disembowel remains after the first pick of pack 2 or pack 3 (and a Scissors card is missing), then the person feeding you clearly is not in Black, or a foil common screwed things up.

Conclusion
We hope this information and analysis help you all in reading and sending signals in your next draft. Here are all ten rules in one place:

Rock Rule 1: Vedalken Entrancer + Gather Courage or Benevolent Ancestor = Boros.
Rock Rule 2: Vedalken Entrancer - Gather Courage or Benevolent Ancestor = Golgari.
Rock Rule 3: Golgari Rotwurm + Ordruun Commando = Boros
Rock Rule 4: Golgari Rotwurm - Ordruun Commando = Dimir
Rock Rule 5: Thundersong Trumpeter + Ordruun Commando = Golgari
Rock Rule 6: Thundersong Trumpeter - Ordruun Commando = Dimir

Scissors Rule 1: Selesnya Evangel or Snapping Drake = Faith's Fetters was picked
Scissors Rule 2: Faith's Fetters = Snapping Drake (possibly Selesnya Evangel) was picked
Scissors Rule 3: Last Gasp = Galvanic Arc was picked
Scissors Rule 4: Siege Wurm = Boros

Thanks for reading.
Jeffrey Stewart, Mark Wilson, and Chris Wolf (if he likes the article)*

*Chris Wolf from the StarCityGames.com forums contributed heavily to the analysis in this article, and broke one of the runs; unfortunately, we have not been able to contact Chris to confirm that he wishes to be coauthor. If Chris hates this article, he is not responsible. If Chris likes the article, he is a full coauthor.