I hope everyone had an opportunity to play in a Wilds of Eldraine (WOE) Prerelease this weekend! I had a blast, and cannot wait to start drafting. Today I’ll submit my votes for the Limited prom kings and queens of WOE, based solely on appearance, outlining the Top 3 commons and best uncommon for each color. Let’s take a look at what I’m going to be picking early!
White
Hopeful Vigil does a lot. Two mana for a 2/2 Knight token with vigilance and an enchantment not only triggers celebration, it also provides two bargain enablers, with the enchantment being the more appealing bargaining chip. Hopeful Vigil also enables cards that care about enchantments, like Knight of Doves, Slumbering Keepguard, Dutiful Griffin, Ashiok’s Reaper, and Warehouse Tabby. The card is a huge enabler for most archetypes, while also providing a solid on-rate creature with vigilance.
Cooped Up, the set’s Pacifism variant, is looking pretty nice this go-around. While we don’t have access to Flicker of Fate to pair with this new Dreadful Apathy, you can gain some additional value via bargain. By putting the exile ability on the stack, you can sacrifice Cooped Up to cards like Archon’s Glory, Candy Grapple, Rowan’s Grim Search, and Torch the Tower. The activated ability also allows you to exile problematic creatures with a static effect.
Stockpiling Celebrant is going to be a huge sleeper in this set. The floor of a vanilla 3/2 for three is not low enough to negate the potential upsides, which I will try to sum up succinctly. First, you can bounce your own creature that has been cursed, Cooped Up, stunned, or longing to go back on an Adventure. Next, consider enters-the-battlefield triggers, like those on Prophetic Prism and Hopeful Vigil. Last, this card has some very strong individual card synergies, like Cursed Courtier, Three Bowls of Porridge, and The Princess Takes Flight. There will also be times when scry 2 is the most desirable part of the card’s text, even if you have to bounce a token.
The Princess Takes Flight is going to be another early sleeper, as the card’s potential isn’t intuitive. Similarly to The Apprentice’s Folly, Chapter III is when the clock strikes midnight and the fun ends. If you are able to bargain, bounce, or Break the Spell before the final chapter, it simply exiles a creature and provides the Chapter II bonus as well!
Blue
This one may be one of my bolder claims, but I just see a lot of potential in Aquatic Alchemist. I think the strength of the card is based on the creature itself, with the Adventure portion being a late-game bonus. With Living Lectern and Stormkeld Prowler the other common two-drop creatures in blue, this is by far the best option. The 1/3 stat line makes for a great body for early roles, especially with it potentially becoming a 4/4 during combat. I think an initial misconception will be that you need to be a spells deck for this card to be good, but around a third of the creatures have built-in instant/sorcery spells via Adventure.
Johann’s Stopgap is a bit reminiscent of Gust of Wind. However, Johann is pulling out all the stops with this one, allowing you to bounce your own permanents, which is highly relevant. Most of the same logic I stated about Stockpiling Celebrant applies here as well. You will likely be targeting your opponent’s permanents most of the time, but you also have the ability to bounce Sagas, Adventure creatures, cursed creatures, etc. It’s a bit slow, but you should be able to bargain something away in a pinch.
Divination 2: Tokyo Quick. There are few instant-speed draw options here in the wilds, with Sleight of Hand and Into the Fae Court at sorcery speed. Quick Study allows you to threaten counterspells or tricks like Water Wings, while having a fail-safe of drawing cards if nothing lines up. It seems like a solid addition to all blue archetypes, and provides some freedom in a very sorcery-speed-oriented format.
Bitter Chill out with this card. It’s more than just a Pacifism, working well with Azorius tap payoffs like Sharae of Numbing Depths. It also can draw you a card if your opponent sacrifices/bounces the creature, or destroys the enchantment. In addition, you can sacrifice the Aura with bargain and scry 1, draw as well.
Black
Candy Grapple is pretty straightforward – cheap instant-speed removal that can scale up into the late-game. This has potential to be the best common in the set.
Let’s get the downside out of the way first, which is that Voracious Vermin is weak on defense, similarly to Unruly Mob. But on offense, Rats what it’s all about (sorry). There are plenty of Rat tokens to throw into the fray, as well as use for bargain, to grow the Vermin. It gets out of hand very quickly, and can be difficult to deal with during combat. I think this card will be amazing in Rakdos and Orzhov, and potentially bad in Dimir and Golgari.
Sure, it’s a slow removal spell, but Hopeless Nightmare is far from hopeless. While this will be killing a creature the majority of the time, the ability to kill an enchantment should not go overlooked. There are plenty of scary enchantments within the set that can easily dictate a game, like Lord Skitter’s Blessing, A Tale for the Ages, Sagas, the Virtue cycle and Virtue of Persistence in particular, and plenty of potential problems from the Enchanted Tales bonus sheet. A bonus Wicked Role as a consolation prize for playing the slow removal tips the scales for me toward thinking this card has some strong potential.
Exile can be very relevant in this set, as there are plenty of annoying recursion cards, like Dutiful Griffin, Back for Seconds, and Edgewall Inn, among many others. Most decks shouldn’t have too much issue with getting the scry 2 bonus, making this a great catch-all removal spell.
Red
Young Hero is my favorite Role in the set, and Cut In is one of the few cards that creates it. It should be a fairly common play to kill the opponent’s best creature on Turn 4 and attack with your two- or three-drop to start getting counters. It’s also great from a flavor standpoint
Torch the Tower is a potent removal spell that works very well in combat due to its cheap cost. When bargained, the scry 1 is a pretty sweet bonus in addition to the additional damage.
I’m going to take a bit of a swing with my third choice, Witch’s Mark. I’ve always been a Tormenting Voice truther, and they keep getting small buffs. While I was a huge fan of Quarrel’s End, I’m ready to get back to two mana. This is a great hand refill tool for Boros and Rakdos, where the Wicked Role can help keep pressure going. It’s a welcome addition to Izzet if you don’t end up with any blue draw spells. It may be a bit awkward in Gruul at times, but it is still one of the few tools available to refill your hand.
Witchstalker Frenzy will be very difficult to play around. The cost reduction when either player has attacking creatures makes it a fantastic removal spell on both offense and defense. A nice bonus is that it reduces mana cost based on creatures that attacked, meaning you can take out a new creature post-combat for that same rate you’ve come to expect!
Green
Gone are the days of Hunt the Weak. We’re in Werefox country now. Not only is Curse of the Werefox one mana cheaper, it now has trample and a bargaining chip. I think this will lead to some very powerful sequences that can dictate entire games. During a Simic Prerelease, casting Turn 2 Aquatic Alchemist into Turn 3 Curse of the Werefox let me dictate the pace for the rest of the game. I even have a weird feeling that this is better than Graceful Takedown, as Turn 3 is exactly when you want to cast this card.
The option to cast Hamlet Glutton for five is almost as big as the Glutton itself. This is a gigantic creature that helps pad your life total, reminiscent of Hill Giant Herdgorger. Meeting both the five-mana cost requirement of cards like Up the Beanstalk and four power for cards like Territorial Witchstalker, the muffin Glutton does it all… as long as it doesn’t get cursed.
There’s typically not much action on Turn 1, so starting off with a Food is always nice. Hollow Scavenger will make combat an absolute nightmare for whoever’s across from it. Attacking with a 5/4 on Turn 4 is a very real threat, with future Food readily available in green. This is also another great creature for Roles and… rolls – I think it’ll eat anything.
The floor on Welcome to Sweettooth is a 3/3 Human creature token and a Food token for two mana, which is a pretty sweet deal. If you get this in the mid-game with Food on the battlefield, it can become a huge problem for your opponent. This technically provides three bargaining chips as well: the 1/1 token, Food, and the Saga itself. I really like this card.
By the time you read this, I’ll already be drafting the new set, and I hope to see you at the table!
Lose and Learn, Learn and Win!
