OK, here we go with the usual official link and the readable one. (Although I feel like the readable one is getting a little more cluttered now). Let's get to it.
Mechanically this set seems to want to go s l o w. That's what I get when I see Station-this is an iteration on Crew which takes longer but leaves the object in question with the abilities permanently; becoming a creature if it's a Spacecraft, gaining an extra ability if it's a planet.
Since the costs for Station activation swing pretty widely, there's two considerations: first, is the permanent worth playing to begin with? Second: if the Station cost is fulfilled, does that matter?
My feeling is that because this is a Limited mechanic we are talking about, the answer is at best, 'maybe'. WotC has gotten pretty good at developing Limited formats, and it does seem like even in colors like White and Red who often get the good small creatures, the 2/2s for 2 just aren't there. Which suggests there will be time to achieve the Stationing.
But will players enjoy going that slowly? I know that the Aetherdrift format was just not for me and Crew played a big part of how that felt.
However, some of the speed may be mitigated by the Warp mechanic, which might as well have a big sign on it saying "I'm here to make Station playable".
Again: there aren't many creatures that have a value of Warp being 2 at common (which is where you will find the enablers for a strategy) -I count 3- which again, suggests a more deliberately paced game.
That said; looking at Warp as a "sorcery with benefits" is probably the best thing and I think it's fairly useful!
Is it enough to make Station worthwhile, though? I'm very dubious. Maybe just play good Magic instead?
Void is a nice take on Revolt, a mechanic that is just fine and lander tokens are this set's mana fixing-which because they cost an additional 2 beyond whatever you just paid for, suggests again: Slow set. I wish the cost had been 1 because this seems expensive for what it does.
Let's get to the colors!
White
Emergency Eject might be one of the best spells of it's type in awhile. I get to destroy your best permanent AND you have to pay 2 mana to get a land?
Hell yeah.
There's some useful cards (Starfield Shepherd) and the traditional "I will cost $30+" tokens card (Exalted Sunborn. Note; I'm not mad that these exist I just wish that they didn't cost an insane amount of money every time.) but not a lot that interests me.
Blue
I do appreciate how innovative they are getting with Blue removal--Desculpting Blast (a very bad name) has all kinds of versatility to it, from taking away their best attacker, especially if it's Stationed, to saving one of your creatures and replacing it with a flier.
I also dig the flavor of Tractor Beam. Good stuff there.
Black
Here's a great example of my concerns about Station: Entropic Battlecruiser. That is a 4 mana permanent that I have to tap another creature to turn on. That other creature represents an investment of mana from 1-X, so turning it on is cheap but the larger cost of creating a non-attacking or defending creature is hidden and that isn't cheap.
Now obviously this is just one example and there are plenty of Station permanents that do something when they arrive. But Entropic Battlecruiser is a rare, and as such is meant to be a marquee card, one that shows off the mechanic that WotC is doing! And it does so but maybe not they way we're hoping.
One card I do like is Timeline Culler. It's not incredibly strong but it is recurring damage and my experience is that this quality is good.
Red
Continuing my concerns from Entropic Battlecruiser; Debris Field Crusher. How should we feel about a 5 mana sorcery that does only 3 damage to any target and becomes useful with an 8 power investment?
I like the flavor of Cut Propulsion, and I think Memorial Team Leader is a great example of the Warp mechanic as Sorcery With Benefits that I was talking about earlier. Weapons Manufacturing looks like a cool build around card. It may not be the best thing (spoiler; it isn't) but it seems like fun!
Green
I am almost always excited about cards like Frenzied Baloth, because they do one thing pretty well; get around countermagic. Anytime I see that quality, I think there's a shot for it in older formats like Modern or Legacy.
One other interesting thing is that Green is the only color to have Warp on non-creature permanents. Red offers you a creature that can give artifacts you control Warp too but it's a unique implementation of the mechanic that is restricted to this color.
But I don't see a lot of exciting stuff here, aside from that.
Multi
There's a lot of nice payoffs for the underlying themes of the set; Artifacts, things leaving play, +1 counters. and so forth. One card I'm really excited about is Singularity Rapture, but this is mostly because I have a Szadek, Lord of Secrets commander deck.
Colorless/Artifact
C'mon; Thrumming Hivepool and no Slivers in the set??
There's definitely some big swings here-from Tezzeret to The Dominion Bracelet they do some splashy things....but why aren't they interesting?. Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnaught is a great example. 100 damage to something! AWESOME!
Wait. Why do I need to do that if I am attacking for 20 in the air to begin with? And I need 20 counters on it to get there?
Land
These...are meh. Sure, the effects look awesome if they are active, but as with many things in Magic, once effects like Evendo or Uthros are available to players--shouldn't they just have attacked for 12 instead?
It's win more.
Which...really starts to get at how I'm feeling about Edge of Eternities at large. This set feels really safe. That isn't inherently bad--my friend Noah pointed out that you don't want every set to break eternal formats. And that is true. I've lived through it and the game was either chaotic as hell or "We know the Best Deck and will play nothing else".
Neither of those are good places to be in.
However, this set feels dull. I hope it isn't! I hope I'm wrong about the gameplay being slow and not very dynamic. But there are echoes of Aetherdrift, a set that was supposed to be about racing and speed and instead felt like a drag.
Space travel is an incredibly dynamic notion, rich with storytelling ideas and possibilities!
And in Edge of Eternities I instead see the mundane.
Commander
There's handful of interesting cards here-for me the best is Patrolling Peacemaker. Getting to do things in response to actions your opponents must take? I'm in.
Uthros Research Craft, Planetary Annihilation, Exploration Broodship, Surge Conductor and the dual lands round out the other cards I'm interested in.
The reprints look fine-nothing amazing but I ain't mad.
