Wilds of Eldraine has just released and we find ourselves back in the mythical land inspired by fairy tales from of old. But what is there something to be excited about in this new Magic the Gathering edition? Let’s review and Wilds of Eldraine and see if it’s an edition to focus on!
Note: The writer of this review is a collector and more of a casual player of MTG. If you wish to see how the set performs overall competitively, you may need to look at dedicated reviews from that standpoint.
The box is ripe with cards both old and new. Let’s open it up and see what’s inside. By the way, despite us getting this Set Booster box, there’s no box topper to be had inside. The box only includes the boosters that come with it and that’s it.
Adventures makes its return as a beloved mechanic. Players can choose to cast the “Adventure” part of the card and then cast the permanent effect, leading to multiple usage for a single card. These cards can help you ramp up your chances of winning a match so including a couple of them in your deck may not be a bad idea. Some Adventure cards support multiple colors so be mindful of these certain cards.
Roles are enchantments that attach themselves to creatures, giving either buffs or debuffs. Certain cards produce these roles as an effect so use them when you can to pump up weak creatures or to debilitate your opponent’s stronger ones.
| Role Type | Role Effect |
| Cursed |
Enchanted creature has base power and toughness 1/1.
|
| Monster |
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has trample.
|
| Royal |
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has ward {1}.
|
| Sorcerer |
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and has “Whenever this creature attacks, scry 1.”
|
| Wicked |
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 and “When this Aura is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, each opponent loses 1 life.”
|
| Young Hero |
Enchanted creature has “Whenever this creature attacks, if its toughness is 3 or less, put a +1/+1 counter on it.”
|
| Virtuous (Commander) |
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each enchantment you control.
|
It takes a party to bring down your opponent’s health to 0. Sometimes. This new mechanic is pretty straight-forward. Celebration triggers when two or more non-land permanents come into play. How do you do that constantly? Combo with token producers as tokens are considered as non-land permanents!
Aside from bargaining with your FLGS for booster packs and that specific card that you need, you also get to bargain in-game. Bargain allows you to choose one and sacrifice any artifact, enchantment, or token to bring out additional effects. These effects may be what pushes you closer to winning a game. Note that Bargain is optional and you can opt not to sacrifice anything to trigger the additional effect.
Similar to previous sets, Wilds of Eldraine features several unique designs for a number of cards. These range from borderless art to anime reimagining of reprinted popular cards. Opening packs for this edition has been quite fun as you might get a part of an art set that you would want to display on your binders or frames.
As a casual enjoyer of MTG, I often times set my eyes on the release of Commander Decks. For those not in the know, Commander is a popular game mode in Magic the Gathering. Unlike standard play, players start with 40 life points and 100 cards which also includes a dedicated commander. The kicker here is that the game is supposed to be played by more than two players. This type of play is fun in casual and the availability of pre-constructed decks makes it easy to simply jump in and cause chaos with your friends.
For Wilds of Eldraine, we have two Commander decks: “Virtue and Valor” and “Fae Dominion”. Virtue and Valor is a typical brute force deck that marries the pump qualities of the green color with the enchantments boosters of white. On the other hand, Fae Dominion specializes more in control with pestering flyers that have flash.
You can check out the deck list for both Commander Decks here.
The alternate art for this edition is what sells it for me. The number of cards from old editions reimagined with a different take is, in my opinion, something worth collecting. This is in addition to that satisfying feeling of opening new packs.
If you’re into buying and selling cards of this edition, be prepared to be a bit disappointed. The prices of the cards are not too high which may be attributed to the number of reprints in this current edition. However, as mentioned above, the alternative art styles of cards may net a higher price than the usual so if you’re aiming to resell cards, aim for the alt arts and of course, the alt art foils.
What strikes me with this current edition is that it does away with a quite a lot of complicated spell mechanics. While there are still some that can be a bit of a challenge to understand especially if you’re just starting with MTG, majority of the cards are simplified. If you are a beginner, Wilds of Edlraine is a good place to start.
Check out our review of the Lord of the Rings set and the March of the Machines set.
