Hello! Welcome to my set review of Wilds of Eldraine, where I will pick cards of each colour and discuss my five favourite cards from them. Yes, there will be and artifact and lands review as well as a multicoloured review.
Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article. The set booster and Jumpstart exclusive cards from this set will be in their respective colour reviews.
Without further ado, here are my favourite Artifact/Lands/Colourless cards!
The vertical cycle of the evil sisters’ items is incredible. Uncommon, Rare, and Mythic items that belong to each of the evil sisters and each does something thematically in line with their associated character while also having applications beyond them.
Hylda, as we’ll see in the gold review, is all about tapping down your opponents’ creatures. The first ability on the Crown here shows that. But what a cool ability that second one is. Three mana – no tapping required – to sacrifice and draw a card for each tapped creature an opponent controls. This can come down and be sacrificed in one fell sweep for six mana and net you a surprise grip of something silly like 10 cards, which is honestly the low end! If you’re up against a player who’s got mana dorks, or a token player who just swung their army, or maybe you’re playing a goad deck, Hylda’s Crown of Winter is a banger. It might dissuade attacks altogether. Maybe you played Blind Obedience and Living Death! Who knows! This card is very strong in a lot of situations. Great rare.
The Restless land cycle is enemy pairings on creature-lands. They all enter tapped, tap for mana in their respective enemy colour pair (Boros, Golgari, Izzet, Orzhov, Simic), have an activated ability to become a creature, and finally each one has an attack trigger.
The best of the bunch in my opinion is the Restless Cottage. It was definitely a toss up against the Vinestalk. But the Cottage is black-green land that becomes a 4/4 black-green Horror creature for 2BG until end of turn. The attack trigger creates a Food token and lets you exile up to one target card from a graveyard. This could have been either Food or exile and I’d have been happy with it. A 4/4 that gets both of those on attack is amazing!
I love to see more monocolour support. This card is named after a full set, which I always appreciate as we’ve seen in recent times with Urza’s Saga and Rise of the Eldrazi. With these cards named after sets, there’s a call back to the set itself and in this one, we get a shout out to Adamant, the ability that rewards you for using the three of the same colour to cast certain spells.
Throne of Eldraine makes you commit to a colour, which is easy if you’re playing it in a monocoloured deck, for sure. You can only tap this for the colour you choose and it MUST be spent on a monocoloured SPELL of that chosen colour. This won’t pay for activated abilities.
The three mana draw two ability gives you a repeatable instant speed Divination (aka Quick Study) in any colour and you can crack Treasures to make sure you’re hitting the colour requirement.
I expect this in monocoloured decks that aren’t artifact heavy and maybe in two colour decks that skew towards one colour more. I appreciate this design, it’s neat.
I don’t have much to say besides this just seems pretty good. A loot for two mana and get a Treasure so it’s a little fixing – not bad. Zirda, the Dawnwaker decks will eat this up for sure.
I think reanimator decks, decks with three or more colours, decks that aren’t crazy competitive – all of them can probably use this pretty sweet little artifact.
Agatha’s Soul Cauldron is the card getting a bunch of folks excited about silly brews and I love that.
Being able to colour fix your creatures’ activated abilities for two mana is pretty good. Cromat might not be en vogue, but Kenrith, the Returned King still is. All versions of General Tazri can use this.
The piece de resistance is that this gives your creatures with +1/+1 counters on them the activated abilities of cards exiled with the Soul Cauldron. This reminds me of Mairsil, the Pretender – a commander that can be absolutely busted.
This is also amazing graveyard hate. You can target any card in any graveyard so you can not only build around your graveyard but your opponents’. Then you get to pop a +1/+1 counter onto a creature you control giving it all the abilities. I love the idea of having a Horseshoe Crab, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, and a Sauron, the Lidless Eye as a build-an-infinite-combo finisher.
Honorable Mentions
- Candy Trail – One mana to scry two and then two mana to get both Food and Clue abilities? That’s half price baby!
- Eriette’s Tempting Apple – I really love this even if Act of Treason effects are normally three mana. This is on an artifact’s ETB which can be Panharmoniconed. Artifacts can be copied and returned from the graveyard and bounced and all kinds of stuff. I like this one a lot! Especially for non-red decks!
- The Irencrag – I don’t know what to do with this. Two mana rock that can become an Equipment that Equips for 3 mana just for a permanent Giant Growth? I don’t care enough about it. Disappointed!
- Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender – Lots of people who build this will be annoyingly cute about it and that’s nice, let them have it.
- Three Bowls of Porridge – This is a beautiful flavour win!
- Restless Bivouac – Boros Restless Land that puts +1/+1 counters on creatures you control when it attacks. Not bad!
- Restless Fortress – I like that this is clearly a control finisher for Standard, but I want to include it in my Orzhov decks because who cares, it’s so sick.
- Restless Spire – Probably the most aggro of the bunch. Izzet 2/1 first striker for two mana that scries one on attack. It’s pretty neat but again, it’s seeded for Standard for sure.
- Restless Vinestalk – Of course the Simic one is a big boy and can buff another creature.
Get all your board game news from The Bag of Loot! www.thebagofloot.com
Get all your board game needs from Three Kings Loot! www.threekingsloot.com
