Thursday, October 3, 2019

Throne of Eldraine Overview

Here we go, the new set is on display! Let's talk about it.

The mechanics:

Adventure: I think this one is a win. It's a spell you can bank into a creature later; it's auto value, unless the spell is countered. Some of them are exceptionally well tied together from a mechanic/thematic perspective, too, and I like to appreciate that when I can.

Adamant: I'm not sure how to evaluate this one. In Limited, when you pull it off it'll feel amazing...sort of. Silverflame Ritual? Yes, that's really cool. It might even be a constructed worthy card for a heavy or mono white deck. Turn Into A Pumpkin? Not so much.

Maybe this is one of those mechanics that is a test, especially in Limited. The Adamant is just a bonus, the card has to be accepted at it's baseline value. This doesn't read so well for me, but I'm also used to a conventional wisdom that says that limited decks are usually 2 colors, not monochrome.

Food: So is Wizards telling us that 3 life = 1 card? Because these aren't Investigate tokens. That mechanic was incredibly well received, since it helped smooth out draws in limited formats, and even had use in constructed formats.

But this isn't that. Investigate gave you a resource you always needed: a card. By default, that gives you more of everything be it time, mana, or spells, because card games run on cards. Food wants to give you time but historically lifegain just doesn't give players the boost that they need or want. 

Worse, it feels like they didn't do anything interesting with this mechanic. Giant Opportunity seems to be as unusual as it gets. Now; one possibility is that lifegain or a lifegain mechanic becomes something in the next block: Theros: Beyond Death. In which case, we have a foundation and some possible cross-pollination. But for now: meh.

Knights vs Non-Human tribes: here's something that might be a bit more dynamic for the larger Constructed format, since there are plenty of non-humans in Standard and 62 knights...at least some of which won't rotate out in two weeks!

Colored Artifacts: this isn't a mechanic so much as a thing that is now officially happening, as opposed to the "cool" thing they did in Kaladesh. Which was, of course, a riff off the "cool" thing they did in Mirrodin.

Sarcasm aside; artifacts have always been problematic, blue and to a lesser extent, white, have always had a strong alliance with them and that's shored up or in some cases overpowered the color, and having a way to rein in the card type is a good thing.

One thing I really like: Obvious cycles. I just do.

Let's get into the colors!

White
So what is up with Flutterfox? The flavor text says white. That fox is clearly not white.

What...is going on with the art for Hushbringer? Heck, give us more weirdness like it, I say. Very cool card, too.

People are down on the legendary white noble, Linden, the Steadfast Queen but I think she's pretty good! 3/3, vigilant, gains life for three mana? What, exactly, is the problem?

Blue
People seem to be really high on Brazen Borrower and while it's good is it THAT good?

Charmed Sleep is winning my award for favorite art so far.

I see that WotC is making a push in Blue/Red again for 'second card drawn each turn' triggers. These always seem like wish fulfillment-the payoff isn't that great for the work you have to do, and drawing a card is already its own reward. There's an 'insult to injury' element (you're just drawing a card AND getting to punch me for four damage?) that feels awful if you're on one side, and excessive on the other. However, this is the second time that they've promoted this mechanic, so perhaps there are enough cards to build around it. (Note to self, check that out).

The blue legendary knight is oddly weak, but maybe I'm not counting the card draw effects enough. Vantress Gargoyle, though: That's a weird card with cool art.

Black

Blacklance Paragon seems like the weakest rare I have seen in a long time. I am not sure what's to be excited about.

I appreciate the mechanical and thematic tie in of Cauldron Familiar, as someone who lives with a black cat. At the same time, they missed a lot of opportunities to add more warlocks to the game. I know knights are one of the tribes Black needs to support in this set, but witches are referenced more than seen here and that's a disappointment, especially considering how central to lore they are.

Maybe it's just me, but Malevolent Nobel is a missed opportunity, or maybe just misnamed. Why is he malevolent, if he's killing witches-who clearly want children's bones? That doesn't seem so bad.

I could've used a little more of Ayara's weirdness; I don't recall seeing "black widow" style characters in Magic often-and as an elf, that makes her very unusual. I like that.

Red
I feel as if Red is where they're starting to throw a lot of experimental and weird mechanical ideas in. I'm not objecting but I don't see Irencrag Feat in any other color, even though there's no reason why one couldn't put it in Black or Green, even White, with a little color pie hoodoo.The color needs some weirdness though, to give it more dimension so I'm not unhappy.

The Burning-Yard Trainer and Redcap Melee storyline seems odd, but maybe it just means that BYT isn't as awesome as he thinks he is.

I wish Robber of the Rich had some kind of evasion. Shouldn't thieves be stealthy? It might be overpowered with evasion and I'm not sure if there's a way to represent evasion that is thematically fitting. Still, looks like a fun card as is.

Thrill of Possibility might be one of the more powerful draw spells Red has seen since Faithless Looting. Previous effects (Wild Guess and Tormenting Voice) have been sorceries: being an instant is an important add on.

Green
Where the food (mechanic) mostly is, has been covered.

The Great Henge is probably the oddest of the legendary artifact cycle, mostly because the others do what I would expect them to do. The cost is crazy, but the benefits? Probably not worth it. Sigh.

Rosethorn Halberd seemed good on first glance, but the equip cost is (understandably) too high. It's a bad Giant Growth for Constructed but may be a Limited all star.

Once Upon A Time seemed exciting when I thought it read "first spell this turn". That said the cycle of Chancellors in New Phyrexia had something going on and I think this effect is stronger overall. Maybe not hype worthy but still useful.

Multi
Doom Foretold! That's a neat card, even though it is totally a 'glory of cool things'.

The rest are OK: which makes sense, this isn't the set for flashy multicolored cards, buuuuuuut then why include ten hybrid mana cards? All of which are the OK-est? Limited, I suppose but I'm not seeing much that is exciting or odd. Even if those cards are there to buttress a theme in Theros, why are they so weak?

Artifact/Land
I don't see much in the way of interesting artifacts, though the artwork for Sorcerer's Broom is pretty sweet.

The Castles have expensive abilities that will be fine in Commander, and the "lower houses" have weaksauce abilities that will be OK in Commander. Not really much to get exited about, except that the "lower houses" all have their respective basic land type. I haven't seen that since Shadowmoor and while that may not be powerful, it IS interesting.

Now, all in all I think there's some really solid design. I don't think this set is full of deep cuts, but I do believe that it'll be plenty of fun!

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