In the last few weeks we’ve gotten Commander Masters… but that’s not all! We got a sneak peek at the new Wilds of Eldraine set and the Doctor Who Commander decks.

Wilds of Eldraine is looking crazy so far and I’ve got a few cards I NEED to talk about.

Before we get into the new cards, Wilds of Eldraine is also bringing back the bonus sheet like the Strixhaven Mythical Archives and MOM Multiversal Legends. WOE brings us Enchanting Tales, which has me SCREAMING! I love enchantments so much but check this list out. These aren’t all of them, but the list is stacked!

What bonkers inclusions!

Time to discuss a few things from Wilds of Eldraine.

Restless Fortress

This is a creature land or a “manland” and this is a good sign for standard. An Orzhov land that becomes a 1/4 for four mana and drains two life on attack means that we’ve got some late game control being seeded in standard. Fingers crossed the game slows  down a little. I love seeing stuff like this!

Tough Cookie

A 1G 2/2 Artifact Creature – Food Golem that ETBs to make a Food token? Grizzly Bears have come a long way. Because Tough Cookie is a Food, it can be sacrificed for life as well, but the interesting big is the 2G ability to turn target noncreature artifact you control into a 4/4 artifact creature. There are lots of ways to take advantage of creatures and sometimes an artifact isn’t a creature and you think man if only this were a creature. I could twiddle stuff or what if I could block with my Mycosynth Wellspring. I think this card is sneakier than it looks.

Cruel Somnophage

Our first two colour adventure card. A blue sorcery and a black creature on one card. Cruel Somnophage is also a real tank. It’s no Lord of Extinction, but let’s say it does a two mana impression of the Lord. Most importantly, this card is a mill card. Fingers  crossed for standard mill! That’d get me to play standard again.

Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator

WotC mentioned that planeswalkers were going to be coming only one per set so Ashiok has all the space to be strange. A five loyalty Ashiok for 3BB with very interesting abilities. Their static ability is “If you would pay life while your library has at least that many cards in it, exile that many cards from the top of your library instead.” A glass cannon if I’ve ever seen one.

+1 – Look at the top two cards of your library. Exile one of them and put the other into your hand.

-2 – Create two 1/1 black Nightmare creature tokens with “At the beginning of combat on your turn, if a card was put into exile this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.”

-7 – Target player exiles the top X cards of their library, where X is the total mana value of cards you own in exile.

The +1 is excellent utility to smooth out your turn, feed the -2 Nightmares, and ultimately wreck an opponent for the -7. You’ll really need to protect Ashiok and feed them at the right time.

Exile means it’s gone, so be careful when you “pay life”. You could also go hard on Plague of Vermin.

Moonshaker Cavalry

This card was called White Craterhoof in play testing as confirmed by the set designers. For 5WWW, this 6/6 Spirit Knight has flying and enters the battlefield with “creatures you control gain flying and get +X/+X until end of turn where X is the number of  creatures you control.”

WHITE CRATERHOOF! Another finisher that can finally go in decks I play! Thalisse, Reverent Medium, we’ve got a buff Spirit!!!

Talion, the Kindly Lord

We just had White Craterhoof, how can we top that?

Great question. How about another mythic from the set. A 3/4 flying Faerie Noble for 2UB with “As Talion, the Kindly Lord enters the battlefield, choose a number between 1 and 10. Whenever an opponent casts a spell with mana value, power, or toughness equal to the chosen number, that player loses 2 life and you draw a card.”

There are so many cards that have two power and toughness that see so much play. If you play Sakashima of a Thousand Faces picking Talion, you can pick another number. You’ll have so many cards, you’ll be discarding at each end step.

Remember it only triggers when your opponents cast spells with the criteria. Talion doesn’t care about enters the battlefield triggers. Talion is going to be real popular.

That’s it for a first look at Wilds of Eldraine! I can’t wait to see what else this set holds.

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