The curse of the Wicked Slumber roils through the fairy tale lands of Eldraine, and while Wil and Rowan do their best to save their kingdom and perhaps their plane, we’ll be taking a look at how the new multicolored cards seem poised to shake up formats with the upcoming release.

Agatha of the Vile Cauldron

Marcy: Agatha here starts us off with a card that is… kind of confusing, really? She’s cheap, which is good, but she’s also a 1/1, meaning that you’d have to do something to boost her power to get a lot of value out of her ability, which can’t lower anything below 1 anyway, and she can only make her own ability 5 mana instead of 6, so… I really don’t know. She’s cheap to cast though as a commander, but I think she’d almost only be valuable for her own ability than anything else; I certainly don’t see her doing much in other formats.

BPhillipYork: Seems really built to play in a weird way that would possibly lead to infinite mana or weird huge pings, there are some red cards that you can pay a lot of mana and then ping. Obviously you could get Agatha’s power way up and then just RG to give all your other creatures +1/+1 over and over again, seems like some possible synergy with Raggadragga, Goreguts Boss in a deck that wants to generate a lot of mana. I am a little baffled as to what this seems to be really for. There are tons of creatures with much better built in Overrun. It’s possibly just a RG cheap commander that fits okay into red greed themes.

Beluna Grandsquall

Marcy: Ok first of all, Queen. I love the design of this card, the idea of a fairy tale giant collecting pieces of other fairy tales is really cool and a cute idea (and there’s some really fun easter eggs in the things visible on her art). I think Beluna could be fun to run as a commander that makes use of Adventure cards, of which this new set has quite a lot, but there are some older ones that are very strong. Perhaps something that also takes advantage of self-mill would make her fun, although I don’t know if she’d be extremely strong. The instant version of Beluna is pretty expensive, though, which makes it hard to cast it often, even from the Command Zone.

BPhillipYork: I really like the idea of an adventure commander for playing adventures in commander. They didn’t translate that well to a 1-of format, but having a solid 3 color commander to support them makes it much more realistic to make a fairly chill laid back adventure deck. There’s also the reality that if you want to go hard a recastable sorcery from the command zone that mills and returns means you can channel infinite mana through it, mill out and use recursion to grab a Thassa’s Oracle. But that’s kind of blah. Probably more fun to just cast Bonecrusher Giant and go for it.

Eriette of the Charmed Apple

Marcy: Eriette might be a contender for very strong card in some format archetypes and in a Commander deck that focuses on auras and enchantments in general. The problem is that… there aren’t a lot of really strong auras in Black or White that make building a deck around her card ability powerful enough to ‘win’ you the game easily, but Eldraine has a lot of cards that allow you to attach Aura tokens to creatures, which might be the in to making her good in a black/white control deck.

BPhillipYork: This is a pretty neat Orzhov commander, actually something to do with white and blacks’ negative auras that has some payoff, a slow life drain linked creature control auras and curses is pretty cool in my book. It’s also a fairly beefy 2/4 for 3 mana, so tough to clear the board with damage based clear.

Hylda of the Icy Crown

Marcy: I think my problem with this card is she relies on other cards to make her work, and while her ability is very strong, you have to have the extra 1 mana to cast, and then also have something that lets you tap an opponent’s creature. She’s moderately priced at 4 CMV though which I think gives her some viability if you have something consistently helping her to generate control of the board.

BPhillipYork: This pay off for tapping down opponents creatures is decent, though it’s such a unique effect that I worry that players wouldn’t want to deal with you constantly generating 4/4s. More support for an aura based commander control deck is nice to see.

Rowan, Scion of War

Marcy: Do you think WOTC has some odd rule that the Rakdos colored ‘sibling’ has to suck really bad in a set? Rowan’s cost reduction seems interesting until you realize it’s limited to the colorless costs of Black and Red spells, and you have to have some way to functionally cause yourself to lose life in order to trigger, and you can only do it on your turn and without priority, AND she dies to almost any removal except Cut Down (and does at least survive Fatal Push unless you’ve got Revolt triggered). I feel like if she had Haste instead of Menace, we’d be talking business, but I think she’s slow, weak, and kind of confusing as to what to do with her.

BPhillipYork: Sort of a mini Rakdos, Lord of Riots, you could potentially channel some life loss into enormous life drain with cards like Exsanguinate and Torment of Hailfire. Pretty fun 4/2 for 3, though on a commander you’d typically prefer to see more toughness and less power so you don’t get taken out by a Shock, or more likely things like Delayed Blast Fireball or Flame Sweep. However Searing Touch and a cast trigger can easily be GG.

Talion, the Kindly Lord

Marcy: The Fae Folk are frankly eating good in this set, and I think Talion is probably the weirdest of the cards in the Faerie type for this article. That said, if you figure your opponent is likely to cast a lot of spells in a certain CMV (like 2 or 1), this card can be a nightmare unless they… just immediately use a 2 mana removal spell to kill Talion. But hey, you still get 2 life off them, and draw a card, for the cost of 4 CMV. Maybe a fun disruption card in a Faerie tribal deck but I don’t think a good commander.

BPhillipYork: This seems absolutely brutal to me, choosing 1 at a solid table is going to mean enormous card draw. A 3/4 for 4 that should net you massive card draw and deal damage.

Will, Scion of Peace

Marcy: A far cry from Urza in this sibling set, Will is still a pretty good card. While the sorcery limit is kind of awkward again on his ability, he’s a 2/4 with Vigilance, and gaining life comes pretty easy to UW decks. Imagine some Soul Sisters style deck that just Entreats the Angels for a bazillion and then gains that much life also? Yeah. Will might have some decent synergies to watch out for down the road.

BPhillipYork: I dunno this twins being opposite thing gets kind of lame after a while, but frankly reducing the cost of all blue spells by a lot is dangerous because you could easily be drawing a lot of cards or buybacking Capsize, though red has a much easier time going infinite here. The Sorcery thing makes a bigger impact because you want to potentially be mass drawing right before your turn to go off.

Faunsbane Troll

Marcy: Convoluted removal at 5 CMV (4 to cast, 1 to trigger), but it comes with a thick butt to deal with and Eldraine really seems to like the idea of Aura enchanting, so I think this card might be pretty strong. I could see it even in limited being fairly nice. Not an astounding card by any means, but certainly one with good use for what you’re paying for it to do. Problem in limited is that it is a rare, so… Might be interesting to toss into Fight Club style decks, of which there are a few in Standard at the moment.

BPhillipYork: This is neat but not a huge deal, really kind of expensive to fight and exile something.

Likeness Looter

Marcy: I think this is a good card, just in general. 2 mana gets you an evasive body that lets you loot on a stick, and for X can become something you threw into your graveyard. While it dies to a whole host of cheap and easy removal, Likeness Looter probably sees play in a bunch of interesting decks that can take advantage of its activated ability, which you can even use when it enters the battlefield (but, sadly, not with priority due to it being sorcery speed), but if you’ve got good stuff that has strong ETB triggers, Looter seems like a good combo piece to play around with, and fits great in a Faerie deck or self-mill deck.

BPhillipYork: Potentially dangerous with cards like Asmodeus, the Archfiend floating around, but the X cost means that’s fairly balanced. A solid 1/1 flying Faerie with a decent rummage draw on top is fine for Dimir fair folk decks though.

The Apprentice’s Folly

Marcy: Take Reflections of Kiki-Jiki, and then make it, uh, bad. Ok, maybe bad is harsh, but this feels extremely mid at the moment I am writing this.

BPhillipYork: There’s ways that this can go kind of broken-ish but really it’s a long way to walk to make one copy and then another.  Sure if you have 3 Storm-Kiln Artists you can probably generate treasures, but so what.

The Goose Mother

 

Marcy: Wizards really likes this Goose, and I think it’s also pretty neat, but we probably have different reasons for that. Theirs is that it makes for a funny set mascot, mine is that this card is going to absolutely make token decks even more of a horror to deal with than they already are at the moment; there are a lot of really strong token generating decks that abuse Food Tokens especially, and the fact that it rounds up isn’t that bad; for X = 5, you’d get a 7/7 Flying Goose that generates 3 Food Tokens. Seems good to me as a solid bomb and token shenanigans for sure.

BPhillipYork: So goose Hydroid Krasis, except bad, for a pun. Well okay whatever, fun commander I guess.

Yenna, Redtooth Regent

Marcy: Green/White Enchantments is already a strong meta deck in Standard right now, and Yenna here feels like a great addition to the already strong Calix as a potential finisher or end-game condition. She’s expensive for that deck at 4 mana and then 2 to activate on your turn, but enchantment copying on a stick for things like Ossification, Audacity, Hallowed Haunting and the like means she could turn a near victory into a victory. Ironically, I’m not sure where else she fits; she certainly doesn’t fit in most Elfball decks, so it seems like GW Enchantments is the home for her.

BPhillipYork: I think this is potentially really obnoxious, some enchantress triggers are enters play, and doubling down on Smothering Tithes and things like that is bonkers. Can lead to truly gross situations, and also can get a land tapping for huge amounts of mana by cloning land auras so you can hit some threshold to go infinite.

Ash, Party Crasher

Marcy: This is a good card. 2 mana Haste in Boros colors that can easily generate +1/+1 counters on herself seems like an easy win. She seems like a great, cheap aggro commander, and could possibly even see some play in Boros Aggro decks that struggle currently in the Standard meta. I don’t know if she’s a game ender, but she’s certainly got some strength to her that makes her hard to ignore.

BPhillipYork: This kind of reminds me of Dreadhorde Butcher, but turbo Boros (or Rakdos) isn’t super strong in commander. In my opinion the celebration trigger is a bit hard to hit early so it’s not going to pay off enough.

Greta, Sweettooth Scourge

Marcy: I wanted to take a moment to mention that Eldraine is a favorite set of mine because I love fairy tales, and I love the thematic fun that the WOTC team is bringing to this set. There are a lot of ways to easily generate food tokens, and I think Greta here has some legs with token shenanigans style decks. The LOTR set has a TON of G food token generators, so she may have some legs in Commander, giving you options for card advantage, growth, and other possibilities utilizing the tokens and her activated abilities. Pretty solid body too at 3/3 and cheap at 3 CMV, I think Greta can do some work!

BPhillipYork: Actually having something solid to do with food is nice, buffing creatures via food potentially quite utilitarian, card draw always good, a decent if not exactly explosive commander for Golgari, and a good include for any food deck that has those in its color identity.

Neva, Stalked by Nightmares

Marcy: Return from the graveyard effects always have the chance to be powerful, and while Neva can only fetch creatures or enchantments, that’s still pretty good. In an W/B deck that wants to make use of a lot of enchantments, Neva could be very strong as a recovery piece in the event of losing something you really wanted and giving it back to you; her other ability is interesting, as well, because while Enchantments are sometimes hard to get rid of once they stick, giving you the option to grow Neva and scry when that does happen makes eliminating enchantments (even the Aura tokens from Eldraine) a lot more enticing to ‘lose’.

BPhillipYork: Solid with the seals and stuff and various other killing auras, also really solid as a trigger for Ghen, Arcanum Weaver, though kind of low.

Obyra, Dreaming Duelist

Marcy: Can someone explain to me why this card is an uncommon? This card is absolutely bonkers. A 2 CMV flash Faerie that makes opponents lose life combined with even just Bitterblossom seems like a really bad time, and while it might seem an odd choice for a Commander, I think the color split here makes Obyra dangerous and interesting to consider. I certainly would like to try her out in Historic Brawl, and even think it could be interesting to try her in Eldraine standard or other formats that have cards like Vendillion Clique in them.

BPhillipYork: This is a bonkers Fairie, just solid and utilitarian, flash, 2/2 flying for 2 and that trigger. Wow. So basically just put his card in your Dimir Faeries, or make it your commander. Does, exactly what it does. Potentially really dangerous with Oona, Queen of the Fae so each milled away card generates a Faerie and a trigger. Also you could clone her with any of the ignores legendary clones and start really stacking up triggers.

Ruby, Daring Tracker

Marcy: Is Tracker Tribal possible in yet? Anyway, Ruby is an odd one; she’s got haste, she’s a mana dork, but she only produces half what she costs to cast, and it is unlikely that you are going to get her activated trigger the first time you’re able to cast her. Still, a hasty red/green manadork at two makes her fun to consider using, possibly also in a format like Historic Brawl in a Werewolf themed aggro deck that really likes these colors and will produce big bodies faster with a leader that lends extra mana.

BPhillipYork: Another kind of weird Gruul cheap commander, a mana dork in the command zone is really solid, the +2/+2 isn’t going to stack up much unless you are stacking combats, and it’s not that great of a payoff for that, but if you want a deck to really consistently hit 3+ mana on turn 3 there’s just a lot of utility in that predictability.

Sharae of Numbing Depths

Marcy: Has there been a UB Merfolk before? I can’t seem to recall one, and if there was, it probably wasn’t great, which this… card also is not. The stun counter ETB trigger is nice, and that might allow Sharae to disrupt your opponent’s defenses, but you only get a single draw trigger off of it, and I don’t think most Merfolk decks care about this anyway since they tend to abuse Islandwalk.

BPhillipYork: Okay so a second payoff for tap down makes it a bit more realistic to play as a deck, and if your Elsa gets blown up you still have this. Also potentially could be strong in a blink deck, since her trigger will reset each time, each blink will draw you a card and a blink.

Syr Armont, the Redeemer

Marcy: I find this card very weak for the cost. 5 CMV gets you a single +1/+1 enchantment and then a generalized ‘enchanted creature lord’. Compared to Yenna in the same set, I don’t really think Syr Armont has the same power or possibility to end a game.

BPhillipYork: Just seems too pricey to get any good, auras are kind of meh, the roles make them better but this seems like a support card for a cares about auras Selesnaya deck.

Totentanz, Swarm Piper

Marcy: Rat tribal seems like a good time, and there’s already a lot of rats that Totentanz can take advantage of. The flavor is fun, the ability is pretty strong, and giving Rats deathtouch means your 1/1 swarm or bodies become very annoying for decks with valuable creatures to deal with. I don’t know if this card is going to set the world on fire, but it seems really fun to mess around with with cards like Relentless Rats, Rat Colony, Pack Rat, and Karumonix, the Rat King. Geez. That’s a lot of rats. You know, all this talk of rats is making me crazy. Crazy? I was crazy once. They locked me in a room. a rubber room. a rubber room with rats. And rats make me-

BPhillipYork: Nice to start seeing some rat commanders that aren’t mono-black, doesn’t really lord buff your rats in the way you might want unless you have a sacrifice plan, and then you’re probably just talking Rakdos aristocrats, just not very… rat like?

Troyan, Gutsy Explorer

Marcy: Uh, anyway! Onward and upward, literally, as our good Vedalken here scales a beanstalk. I like the loot ability here, and I like the double mana ability, because even though it is limited to expensive spells, the X trigger is also quite interesting. There are many cards that are ‘good’ with low X investment, but if you had the ability to ramp a bit, Troyan could be dropping 5+ CMV bombs on your opponents during turns 3 or 4, which seems quite troublesome to deal with.

BPhillipYork: This just seems like a lame, do what it do Simic card to me. It does what it does, if you want to do that thing, kind of boring, meh.

Johann, Apprentice Sorcerer

Marcy: I probably don’t need to draw attention to the fact that Wizards made the “Apprentice Sorcerer” B/R, but it is a cute flavoring to a card that is actually pretty strong. The limit to Johann’s ability–that you can only do it once each turn, is important, because that means you can do it on yours AND your opponent’s turns. Johann likely isn’t your commander, but in an Izzet deck, Johann would be great for topdecking an answer, literally, when you might need it most.

BPhillipYork: Pretty solid for a cares about casting on other people’s turns deck, which is getting more and more support, and hopefully gets more and more so people play interaction and control cards in Commander. I’d definitely consider making a deck around this guy, just to be Abrade-ing and Lightning Bolt-ing on people’s turn with a Mischievous Chimera and other triggers.

Alela, Cunning Conqueror

Marcy: As I mentioned above, the Fae Folk are doing great in this set, and Alela is a really strong and interesting commander card that could work as your leader or just as a good body in a Faerie tribal deck. She has fantastic synergies with Obyra, and the create a token on your opponent’s turn trigger makes Faerie cards and instants great for messing up your opponent’s plans by suddenly putting a body on the field that wasn’t there before. The goad rule is perhaps one you don’t see often, so just as a reminder, it forces a creature to attack a player other than yourself, if possible. The creature’s controller still chooses the target, but this is meant to stir up trouble in 3+ player games.

BPhillipYork: Again buffing interaction and playing the game with your opponents is just good and glad to see more cards to support it. Personally not the strongest Alela by a long shot, but if you want to generate Faeries this way and then goad things that’s very on brand for the fae.

Brenard, Ginger Sculptor

Marcy: That’s right folks, it’s time for cookie tribal. Or, I wish, but I don’t actually know if there are really enough creatures that fit that category to make this work without dipping into Golem and Changeling territory. Still, this is a fun card and probably the most flavorful of the commander set leaders, and the type of Commander I’d love to mess around with. Frankly, the dies trigger makes it even more interesting if you pack your deck with strong ETB threats in this color wheel that come back again as a cookie version of themselves!

BPhillipYork: This is a totally fun commander for Golem tribal which I’ve tried different ways to make fun, so I’m really happy to see it, just to support that tribal archetype. Probably some neat foodie things you can do with it as well, but mostly just for buffing your Golems, sacrifice your Splicers which will ETB a new one which will make another Golem, etc..

Ellivere of the Wild Court

Marcy: I will be honest, it’s a shame this card is limited to the commander set, because it’s probably the best ‘enchantment tribal’ leader in the new cards and would have fit great in Standard W/G enchantments and the like. Still, another fun card that isn’t overpowered for what it does and provides some options for a fun but not overpowering commander option.

BPhillipYork: So it’s solid card draw, potentially, but there are better ways to get “draw a card when a creature you control deals combat damage” so why play this over say Dhalsim, Pliable Pacifist.

Gylwain, Casting Director

Marcy: I hate this card just because it’s making me have to keep looking up what all of these tokens do without explaining them on the card, so just as a reminder, we discussed all of them here. It is important to remember that these count as Auras for cards that care about Auras, and that these also trigger cards that care about enchanted creatures, so Gylwain, as annoying of a card that he is, is a very strong commander even just in the Eldraine block alone, even in a supporting role to other W/G enchantment commanders.

BPhillipYork: If you really want “cares about auras” or cares about enchantments this is probably the way to go, kind of a neat concept and decently cheap, so just a fun commander for a new kind of aura beats deck.

Korvold, Gleeful Glutton

Marcy: I often find cards that have triggers they themselves cannot trigger odd, but B/R/G has no problem getting sacrifice triggers on the stack, so it is possible to make Korvold here cheap pretty easily, which is good, because he’s kind of terrible otherwise. The card is  whopping 8 CMV for… a 4/4 body, but boy does that activated damage trigger sound enticing if you’ve been sacrificing or self-milling your library to put permanents in your graveyard.

BPhillipYork: It’s hard not to compare this to the other Korvold, so I won’t not compare it, and compared to Korvold, Fae-Cursed King this is not good and not playable. It’s like, fine, if you want, I guess, you can pretty consistently sacrifice a treasure and a land (fetch land) to get this Korvold cost down to 6 but 6 for a 4/4 trample haste that will draw you maybe 3 cards is pretty lackluster.

Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor

Marcy: Somewhat ironic that the other Faerie commander is a Faerie Lord, and also kind of like… the worst one in the set. Drawing a card is great, I guess, but not really at the cost of losing life over it, especially since Faeries are pretty fragile as a creature type goes, and if you’re running B/U Faeries, you’re probably running Bitterblossom, meaning your little 1/1 tokens getting nuked into oblivion is costing you 2 life a turn now, and I’m not even sure the +1/+1 offsets that enough?

BPhillipYork: So much Faerie pay off, Fae decks will be everywhere. Just a solid, kind of boring, Faerie lord with payoff. So like, really good.

 

Next Time: Monocolor Cards

That wraps up our look at the set’s mechanics. Join us next time as we review the sets monocolor cards, picking out our favorites, and talking about the future build-arounds. In the meantime, if you have any questions or feedback, drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.