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 Enemy Gold cards and the rest of ‘em!
This is my favourite commander in the set, hands down.
Eriette of the Charmed Apple takes a space that hasn’t been very explored beyond the Silverquill of Strixhaven with Killian, Ink Duelist in Auras.
However, while Eriette does hint at playing creature Auras, she hints at playing creature Auras on your opponents’ creatures to keep them from swinging into you. Moreover, she rewards a critical mass of Auras because at each of your end steps, you drain the table for the number of Auras you control.
But that last ability doesn’t care if they’re on creatures. Land Auras, Artifact Auras, Creature Auras, Player Auras.
That’s right, this is a Curse commander. This is a land Auras commander. What a legend. I am so excited to get my hands on her and play this deck!
If you had any doubt that this set would give us a commander that does more with Food, I present you with Greta, Sweettooth Scourge.
Being able to pump creatures with Food is great on theme and the cost is nice. Being able to pay two mana for card draw instead of life gain is a game changer.
As I’ve mentioned previously, Food usually sits around as a bonus to all the stuff you’re making already thanks to Academy Manufactor and being part of decks that want to make a lot of tokens or artifact tokens regardless. Greta turns those trinkets into cards or power and that’s really good. A 3/3 for three that ETBs with a Food and can do more with them – that’s a great deal on a rare.
Wait, this is uncommon? Fantastic.
He’s back.
One of the banes of Commander, Korvold, Fae-Cursed King, is back in a new form. This time, he seems a little less busted but it’s not impossible to make him worth your time.
Compared to old Korvold, this one doesn’t help you sacrifice anything but rewards you for doing so. When he deals combat damage, he only gets bigger just as your hand does. What are the permanent types anyway?
Land, creature, artifact, enchantment, planeswalker.
Lands – cyclers like Barren Moor get into your graveyard easy. Crystal Vein does double duty sacrificing itself to reduce the cost effectively being like a colourless Jeweled Lotus for Korvold and guaranteeing that you’re at least drawing one card when you hit.
Creatures – Sakura-Tribe Elder! Come on, next!
Artifacts – Executioner’s Capsule or Expedition Map kind of cards are perfect here.
Enchantments – Seal of Doom, baby! Think about it!
Planeswalkers – Down tick ‘em til they’re gone!
But wait! What if I mill myself? That’s cool. But how about taking a page out of Baba Lysaga, Night Witch’s book and start playing artifact lands or enchantment creatures.
A Bant commander that wants your creatures to die so it can bring them back as artifact tokens? Golems no less? What in the hell is going on! This is aristocrats shenanigans. Somebody call Myrkul, Lord of Bones!
Turning the cards into Foods and Golems means that you can take advantage of Food cards like Night of the Sweets’ Revenge and Precursor Golem.
“Oh wow, Rite of Replication kicked on my Golem token version of Craterhoof Behemoth. Oh, but wait, Precursor Golem is out and I’ve got a Crashing Drawbridge.” – Views from Magical Christmasland. Doesn’t that sounds nice?
Short and sweet, this goes in your GUx decks that love their noncreature spells. Maybe Unbound Flourishing decks want this too, but an Otter that gets absolutely huge and can’t be blocked seems like an easy include for literally just one mana. This might have Edric, Spymaster of Trest vibes to it even.
Honorable Mentions
- Ash, Party Crasher – Honestly, a solid aggro commander that basically says make tokens swing with commander. Straight forward.
- Faunsbane Troll – This is definitely seeded for limited and Standard. I don’t see real EDH applications.
- The Goose Mother – Hydroid Krasis, this is not. But it’s in your command zone and can be massive and it draws you cards on attack. What’s not to like? Magus Lucea Kane decks are eating good this set.
- Johann, Apprentice Sorcerer – There are better legends that do something like this. If you’re into this character and this card calls to you, I look forward to your build.
- Neva, Stalked by Nightmares – Similarly to Johann, I don’t see this being a commander, but I see more utility to her than others in the set. Enchantments “dying” is getting lots of support this set and I am thrilled about it. Not to mention she Regrowths a creature or enchantment on ETB and has built-in evasion. Not bad!
- Troyan, Gutsy Explorer – The restriction is fine if you’re built around it, but if you’ve got low cost stuff or no X spells, this feels bad. That said, looting is always great.
- Beluna Grandsquall – A truly underwhelming offering for a new Adventure commander. It’s great that she reduces the cost of permanents with Adventures whether they’re on Adventures or not, that’s nice. But the Adventure itself means that you’ll basically only be able to play Adventure cards in the deck and that means it builds itself, which isn’t super fun.
- Devouring Sugarmaw – Not a bad beater that needs to be fed like an old school Demon from Magic’s early days.
- Frolicking Familiar – Look at this cute little guy!
- Gingerbread Hunter – The art on this is hilarious, but the card itself isn’t incredible.
- Heartflame Duelist – Firesong and Sunspeaker get a little redundancy. Maybe a Brash Taunters damage wipe deck could use this!
- Imodane’s Recruiter – Board-wide haste on ETB is pretty sweet. The adventure is less so.
- Kellan, the Fae-Blooded – I’m not a fan of tutors but being able to do it from the command zone means that an Aura or Equipment can basically be your secret commander which I simply must stan.
- Mosswood Dreadknight – While it’s one of the coolest designed cards in the set, this is mainly going to be in Standard decks.
- Scalding Viper – I enjoy punisher mechanics, but don’t know how far this guy will go in our format.
- Tempest Hart – Double loot at instant speed and eventually you curve from the Hart with counters. It’s not amazing, but it fits the archetype well.
That does it for part Gold, check back in soon for the rest of the Commander precon’s new cards!
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