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 Allied Gold cards!
Stop the presses, the Rakdos guy picked a Rakdos legend as one of his top allied coloured cards of the set.
The desparked Rowan is kind of a mana dork in some ways. She can’t tap at instant speed and she reduces only black and red cards’ costs. That said, there is an embarrassing amount of ways to lose life and take damage in black and red. Just a Phyrexian Arena hitting you for 1 life means that Rowan can tap and say “red and black spells cost one less to cast this turn”.
Necropotence is a card in the format! Paying life is something you do in Commander all the time without even thinking about it. Then you can squeeze out a two mana Exsanguinate or Torment of Hailfire where X = 15 without even trying.
There are some rumblings about Rowan, Scion of War being a cEDH card, but the lack of haste relegates it to lower tiers.
Since Talion has been previewed in the First Looks, people online have been going off about what the ideal number to choose for them. The Command Zone dedicated a whole episode to determining it. It’s 2 or 3, but also can be 1. That said, I’m a fan of Irenicus’s Vile Duplication and Helm of the Host and Sakashima of a Thousand Faces and Sakashima the Imposter and Spark Double and Storm of Saruman.
You can pick all the numbers if you want to. Or you can choose the same ones and make a Sakura-Tribe Elder cost your opponents an extra six life and draw you three cards.
Talion is going into a few decks to try them out for sure, but I think this Dimir legend might have to lead a deck in my roster soon.
The Prosper, Tome-Bound player in me simply must mention the card that snags cards from your opponent’s library into exile for you to cast later and an adventure that already finds a way for you to play the Dragon from exile.
This is a great curve on its own too. While the Dragon doesn’t have haste, it still gets to swing hard and give you Treasure which means any token doublers appreciate this too.
The text on Yenna was restricted for a good reason – you shouldn’t get to copy Smothering Tithe over and over.
Yenna rewards you for leaning into Auras which is great considering the precon that comes out with this set. Get an Umbra Mystic and start copying Bear Umbra and Eldrazi Conscription. You can scry and untap if you’ve got the mana and if you target an Aura which means as long as you’ve got the mana and eligible targets, you can keep the train rolling.
Does this go in all Constellation decks? Yeah! Definitely. Make a copy of Eidolon of Blossoms. Make a copy of your Grasp of Fate and make way for your enchanted creatures to smack face.
This card is sick. I love Lazav, the Multifarious. And while Lazav can turn into a creature in your graveyard while retaining his name at instant speed, he doesn’t feed the graveyard for targets but that one time off of Surveil and that’s not guaranteed.
Enter Likeness Looter. The Looter requires you to activate at sorcery speed but gains flying and a much more important ability – Looting.
Being able to draw a card and discard a card means that you can turn this into whatever you want. While you can’t do something that full surprises like tossing Phage the Untouchable into the bin and turning Looter into her to kill an opponent, you can definitely turn it into something scary like a Junji, the Midnight Sky.
“Mike, you’ve got to pay X, why not play the creature?” Smart, yes. Sometimes you need to loot before you can cast the creature and you’ll be sad to see something go but no fear, you’ll have the Looter to impersonate them later. Or whatever cards with difficult mana costs like the Nephilim – sure is easier to pay four generic than having the exact colours.
Honorable Mentions
- Agatha of the Vile Cauldron – This can be very, very spicy! Red and green have ways to pump their creatures, even if just for the turn, that would make for interesting abilities being activated more than once. See Zirda, the Dawnwaker.
- Hylda of the Icy Crown – I’ve seen some interest in Hylda on Twitter and while she’s not my cup of tea, I get it. Rhoda, Geist Avenger / Timin, Youthful Geist decks can include her or have her at the helm, but Hylda is swimming in those same circles.
- Obyra, Dreaming Duelist – Corpse Knight but for Faeries that lives in your command zone seems pretty sweet.
- Ruby, Daring Tracker – Not everything needs to be a legend, WotC.
- Sharae of Numbing Depths – This goes into the Hylda of the Icy Crown decks or leads it when you want to power down.
- Syr Armont, the Redeemer – Goes into the Aura precon – oh, it’s already in there? Cool.
- Totentanz, Swarm Piper – This might find room in my Lyzolda, the Blood Witch deck. A two colour creature that turns all your nontoken creatures into more creatures to sacrifice is pretty good for that deck. Not to mention, if you swing with a Rat you can dare an opponent to trade with it. Decent!
- Will, Scion of Peace – Everything I said about Rowan but about gaining life and a little less impressive since white and blue like to be way more reactive in their play style.
- Callous Sell-Sword – I love the Fling effect on this plus this can come town huge.
- Cruel Somnophage – A sort of Lord of Extinction with incredible art on both versions. The adventure is whatever though.
- Pollen-Shield Hare – A token anthem is fine and a combat trick. I don’t know that this is worth it in most decks, but adventure decks’ll want it. Gorion, Wise Mentor, run this.
- Questing Druid – Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald gets another Reckless Impulse.
- Twining Twins – If the creature wasn’t just better Serra Angel, it’d probably see play in EDH but the blink is Ephemerate’s spot.
- Woodland Acolyte – Noxious Revival with a Roving Harper stapled on it. Not a bad deal.
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