Wilds of Eldraine: The Tribal Evaluation | PureMTGO

Wilds of Eldraine: The Tribal Evaluation

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By: Kumagoro42, Gianluca Aicardi
Oct 16 2023 9:00am

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WILDS OF ELDRAINE

Magic's second visit to the fairy tale-themed plane of Eldraine only four years after the original Throne of Eldraine, Wilds of Eldraine marks the beginning of a new year-long cycle of sets called the Omenpath Arc, which will deal with the consequences of the New Phyrexian Invasion, namely the newfound appearance of stable portals between planes. It's the reason a non-planeswalker Vedalken from Ravnica, Troyan, is part of the set. We'll see more of such anomalies in the expansions to come, with regular people crossing Omenpaths to other worlds.

For the rest, the set brings back all of the creature subtypes Throne of Eldraine had first introduced: Mouse (which now finally counts more than a single member), Noble, Peasant, and Warlock. The Arthurian theme is less prominent than it was the first time around, but Knight is still a major presence in the set, as is Faerie, due to their sovereign Talion being at the center of the story. Rat gets a tribal focus as the protagonists of the Pied Piper of Hamelin fairy tale. Other small tribes getting new members include: Otter, Ouphe, Rabbit, Raccoon, and Whale.

Let's have a look at the new creatures and their tribes. As always, the main focus is on all the Constructed applications, though Limited is occasionally touched upon; the tribes are presented alphabetically, and you'll find a hypertextual list at the end.

NOTE: Alchemy cards, Acorn cards, and other non-tournament legal cards aren't counted toward the tribal totals.

Infodump

Cards: 281 (+10 duplicated basic lands)
New cards: 266
New creatures: 165
Reprinted cards: 15
Reprinted creatures: 1 (Gingerbrute)
New Legendary creatures: 25
New Snow creatures: 0
New artifact creatures: 5
New enchantment creatures: 0
Triple-subtype creatures: 4
Creature types affected: 63
Tribes with more than 5 additions: Human (+52), Faerie (+24), Knight (+22), Wizard (+16), Warlock (+15), Peasant (+11), Noble (+10), Warrior (+10), Elemental (+9), Giant (+9), Elf (+7), Rogue (+6)

Advisor: +3

New Tribal Total: 93, online: 84

Related Tribes: Elf, Faerie

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: Fairy tale protagonists often have Advisors of some kind, so the subtype feels always at home on Eldraine. Charmed Clothier, for instance, is Cinderella's fairy godmother who gives her the fancy clothes for the ball – here fittingly represented by the ward element of the Royal Role. Similarly, the Redtooth Genealogist finds out about someone's Royal Blood (even if that someone is possibly a sewer Rat, casting serious doubts on the king's extracurricular activities). The Roles are a flavorful but also highly impactful component of the set, capable of interacting with all the other new mechanics, given that they're enchantments, they're expendable for bargain, and the permanents that create them inherently trigger celebration. Of course, the Clothier and especially the Genealogist are decent Limited cards and nothing more, but they do their assigned job.

Chancellor of Tales offers value for Adventure decks (of course Adventures are back, as expected), but in the Constructed world, a mediocre four-drop creature is really no match for Lucky Clover. Another nice bit of flavor, though: we can picture him recounting those stories to the Faerie Lord Talion.

Archer: +1

New Tribal Total: 99, online: 94

Related Tribes: Giant

Impact of the New Additions: Low

Highlights: Curiously, the only Archer in the set is a Giant armed with a huge bow. It's a strictly better Giant Spider, which is saying something but it's not saying much. The "mana value 5 matters" is the set's blue-green theme.

Archon: +1

New Tribal Total: 20

Impact of the New Additions: Low

Highlights: Archons are such enigmatic figures in Magic that they might well show up anywhere, including in a high fantasy world based on fairy tales. They usually leave an impression, as proven by the fact that there are only 20 of them, yet several are well-known. The suggestively named Archon of the Wild Rose, part of the reworked Beauty and the Beast homage that somehow involves Elves and Werefoxes, is certainly an impactful four-drop in the right deck, fully capable of suddenly turning our team into a lethal threat. Problem is, not many strategies involve a bunch of Auras, and the Roles aren't deep enough to become a candidate build for competitive Constructed just yet. Plus it does next to nothing in conjunction with other Archons – with the exception of Archon of Sun's Grace, which doesn't particularly need the help.

Artificer: +1

New Tribal Total: 191, online: 187

Related Tribes: Elf

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: This guy doesn't have a name but he's the second half ot the titular characters in the set's retelling of Beauty of the Beast, and we can see him appear in other cards from the sub-story, like Bestial Bloodline, Ferocious Werefox, and Redtooth Vanguard. His rare incarnation, as the young Archivist who incautiously meddled with the power of the mystical Wild Rose (I don't know if that really makes him an Artificer, but let's just roll with that), perfectly encapsulates all of the set's various mechanical concerns, being triggered by both Food and Roles. In Constructed, he's more likely to be associated with enchantment decks; unfortunately, he makes for poor redundancy to cards like Argothian Enchantress, with no protection and the hard limit of a single trigger per turn, which is the most damning aspect of all. In Limited he's kind of a bomb, though. And he could prove functional in aggressive Food decks.

Assassin: +1

New Tribal Total: 74, online: 71

Related Tribes: Faerie

Impact of the New Additions: Low

Highlights: This ability is getting close to requiring a keyword, or at least an agreed-upon nickname. It shows up often in Assassin, since it's most fitting. It's also mostly a Limited thing, but this is a strong common at that. In the opponent's end step, we can flash in a three-powered flyer that incidentally finishes off an attacker that we chump-blocked. On the other hand, this nasty little Faerie hits hard but is pretty fragile, vulnerable to any retaliatory ping.

Bard: +2

New Tribal Total: 19

Related Tribes: Human, Warlock

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: Totentanz (which is the German name for the Danse Macabre) is Eldraine's resident Pied Pier of Hamelin, which in this version is a lackey of the Rat King Lord Skitter – so he's more about bringing the Rats in rather than the children out. In fact, he's basically an Anax for Rat decks. He also makes them more problematic to block, but that seems beside the point of a go-wide strategy, although it can prove handy when one of the Rats does get blocked and the outcome is upgraded to a trade.

If a musician like the Piper is quite naturally part of the fast-growing Bard tribe, even more on point are the Merry Bards that sing the praises and weave the tale of a Young Hero in the making. It's just another Role-maker for Limited, but all of these cards are thematic wins. Although there's something weird going on with this artwork's perspective. The Bards aren't Giants, so is the foreground figure on the left just tiny? Like a small child, but more in a Tom Thumb situation? Was there going to be an extended Tom Thumb reference throughout the set that ultimately didn't make the cut?

Beast: +2

New Tribal Total: 470, online: 460

Related Tribes: Peasant

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: Howling Galefang (which might have just been a Wolf, if you ask me) is a solid Limited card, a slightly below-the-curve four-drop that could get better if we adventured before casting it; and there's a very decent possibility for any green-based draft deck to have done just so before turn four. Provisions Merchant is a mid-tier Food payoff from Jumpstart. They ended up not actually producing Jumpstart packs for Wilds of Eldraine, but their exclusive cards were already designed, so they included them in Set Boosters and Collector Boosters. I can't really tell if these 15 cards will see a non-zero amount of play this way, since they can't be drafted, can't be used in Jumpstart games, and are usually too weak or too casual for any form of Constructed.

Bird: +1

New Tribal Total: 332, online: 318

Related Tribes: Hydra

Impact of the New Additions: High

Highlights: Eldraine got its own Mother Goose, and she's a proper beating. Essentially a new take on blue-green instant-classic Hydroid Krasis, with less of an immediate impact on the hand and life total, but two bonus counters, the ability to keep drawing cards over time, the potential of gaining a ton more life. And there's more: the Goose Mother generates artifacts on the battlefield, which can trigger all kinds of effects and interacts with all manners of other cards. And she could just be played as a two-drop 2/2 flyer that turns all our Foods into fresh cards turn after turn. Bird decks hardly ever find reasons to splash for green, but even those white-blue builds should take a moment to consider the crazy versatility of this magnificent Hydroid Honker.

Boar: +1

New Tribal Total: 46, online: 44

Impact of the New Additions: Medium to High

Highlights: Little piggy from the displaced Jumpstart exclusives. It could have actually made for a pretty good uncommon in Wilds of Eldraine Limited, a combat trick Adventure paired with a high-powered two-drop that's bound to trade well and probably leave at least one Food token behind. A great addition to the tribe as a whole, too, given that to date the best Boar at that point on the curve is probably just Brindle Shoat.

Cat: +1

New Tribal Total: 268, online: 258

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: One-drop deathtouch on demand for Limited, albeit with some built-in potential for combos. It's not Cauldron Familiar, and the Rat-making ability is mostly meant to interact with Roles, but the card itself is cheap enough and vaguely useful on its own, there's no limit to the number of tokens we can make in a single turn, and no extra resources are required, so going infinite with it is conceivable.

Cleric: +1

New Tribal Total: 547, online: 516

Related Tribes: Human

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: A former Knight turned into a healer (according to the flavor text), and another very playable Adventure card for Limited, giving us instant-speed library manipulation (handy to perform during the upkeep, as it asks us to invest only one mana for the turn), plus a straightforward two-for-one body, essentially a better Priest of Ancient Lore. Most of the Adventures are extremely advantageous in Limited, as they're two spells occupying one card slot. In Constructed, we'd probably need a mechanically synergy of some kind before putting them in our deck. Cleric builds also rarely care to ensure access to green, and the creature side alone isn't gonna cut it in a world where Inspiring Overseer exists.

Construct: +2

New Tribal Total: 181, online: 180

Impact of the New Additions: Low

Highlights: Two animated objects, one of which, Living Lectern, feels definitely more fairy tale-ish than the other. It's not a bad design, but the cash-out sacrifice being sorcery-speed is severely limiting. And Unruly Catapult is just a more expensive Thermo-Alchemist (variations of which have been appearing quite frequently over time). Effective at gluing together your regular blue-red spellslinging strategy, but worthless anywhere else.

Dog: +1

New Tribal Total: 108, online: 103

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: Dogs that side with Rats? What has this world come down to? (I guess they share a hatred of Cats). Edgewall Pack is the typical "four mana, two bodies" card that thrives in Limited, but it's too mild or too costly elsewhere. The main body being a menacer sends this peculiarly mixed Pack to the top tier of commons, but it's still not a viable option in any Constructed format, nor something Dog builds would be interested in – at the very least, they'd have to incorporate some use for the sacrificial Rat, and Dogs tend to sacrifice themselves instead. They're good doggies that way.

Dragon: +4

New Tribal Total: 328, online: 323

Related Tribes: Warlock, Wizard

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: There's a treasure trove of three rare Dragons in Wilds of Eldraine – plus the uncommon Archive Dragon, which is a sturdy six-drop flyer with a relevant ETB for Limited. Truth be told, none of them feels right out of a fairy tale, unless we concede that all Dragons inherently are. The more aptly named Malevolent Witchkite, a remnant of the cancelled Jumpstart packs that can't be found in Draft Boosters, is a less effective God-Eternal Bontu: it costs more, doesn't let us convert lands and nontoken creatures into fresh cards, and it's not "immortal". On the plus side, it's a flyer, and the ability still carries a potential lot of card advantage. Perhaps not the best curve-topper for a monoblack Dragon (though it's actually hard to say which of those with mana value 6 or more holds that distinction), but a legit inclusion in Commander decks with access to black that are prone to have a surplus of odd permanents lying around.

The other rare Decadent Dragon looks kind of Goldspan Dragon at home, but it is one mana cheaper and comes accompanied with an off-color Adventure that's basically a roundabout way to get a black instant-speed Divination. It's been often remarked how stealing cards off the top of an opponent's library is significantly worse than just drawing from our deck, because the cards in our decks are meant to play together. In this case, we're not even guaranteed we'll have the means to actually cast those cards, and we might have to rely on the uncertain Treasure output from the Dragon side of the card. All this said, it's still not a bad four drop. If we manage to untap with it, it'll ramp us from four to six, and the access to black makes it into a solid card overall.

But the centerpiece here is clearly the mythic Realm-Scorcher Hellkite, a hasty finisher with the mana sink ability of the old Shivan Hellkite and which can be easily return two thirds of its mana investment, provided we have an expendable permanent to bargain. In fact, it even filters the color of that mana, though that's probably not going to matter too often. To be fair, it's not exceedingly easy to find this card a competitive home, given that it still has to be a deck that ramp to six in the first place, but it remains a brilliant specimen of a Dragon, with the any-target pinging ability ensuring the extra mana never goes to waste regardless of the board condition. Although, in the worst case scenario, where we just drop and swing with our 4/6 and kill a two-toughness creature, this Hellkite might feel a bit like Glorybringer at home. Designing new Dragons is far from simple.

Druid: +1

New Tribal Total: 283, online: 279

Related Tribes: Human

Impact of the New Additions: High

Highlights: This mystical Druid is already enjoying a fair bit of Constructed success, with appearances in a number of older formats. And that's because it's a strictly better version of former competitive darling Quirion Dryad, i.e. a two-drop that keeps steadily growing just due to us playing the game, provided we're smart enough not to put it in a monocolored build. Which is the very minimum level of smart enough. In addition to that, this version of the card also gives us the chance to impulsively draw two cards for just two mana, a sort of averaged Light Up the Stage, with the same full turn cycle as the time limit to play the cards. The fact that the Adventure is red strongly suggests the Druid should be preferably played in Gruul builds, possibly in aggro lists where green is secondary to red – even if we want to make sure we'll have access to green mana on turn two.

Dwarf: +4

New Tribal Total: 122, online: 114

Related Tribes: Knight

Impact of the New Additions: Low

Highlights: Aside from the straighforward Adventure card Minecart Daredevil, all these new Dwarves are thematically based on food, and yet, curiously, none of them is mechanically linked to Food token in any way. The major mechanical gist here seems to be celebration, with Stockpiling Celebrant (the name kind of gives it away) acting as a way to enable it, although at the mana-intensive cost of casting a three-drop and then recasting another of our permanents. They're all Limited filler, I'm afraid. On the bright side, we learn that the Dwarf women don't have beards on Eldraine. We never saw any of them during our previous visit.

Elemental: +9

New Tribal Total: 522, online: 514

Related Tribes: Elk, Raccoon, Snake, Soldier, Wizard

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: A lot of ground to cover in the Elemental department. Let's start with the rares. The Raccoon (!) Bramble Familiar is an apparently unremarkable two-drop mana dork that doesn't even fix our colors, except in the late game we can send it back to hand at instant speed and cast its seven-mana Adventure side that digs for a permanent, hopefully not a land, and cheats it directly into play. After that, we can play the Familiar again from exile and keep going. It's a simple self-feeding design, but an effective one. Less so is the ridiculously named Rotisserie Elemental (it honestly sounds like something out of an Un-set, and it's not the only case in Wilds of Eldraine), which makes us think of a slower, barely functional Bomat Courier. The comparison is actually embarassing, as the Rotisserie monstrosity doesn't have haste, it has to connect to accumulate potential cards (menace can only does so much to help with that), and only gives us one turn to play them all. A complete failure.

The last of the rare Elementals is Scalding Viper, a pretty solid combination of a blue bounce spell and a cheap creature with out-of-combat damage output. The issues here are that the bounce is sorcery-speed, and the damage from the Viper is entirely dependent on what the opponent does. They sure are bound to cast low-cost spells, especially in the early turn, but if we're already behind on board, the Viper doesn't help us, and its contribute might just amount to the opponent's removal spell dealing one damage to them.

If some of these rares feel underwhelming, there are some decent new uncommon Elementals, too. Tempest Hart is another card with an off-color Adventure side, in this case performing a double looting. The Elemental itself, which takes the form of a storm-loving Elk, is a trampler that grows when we cast big spells, following the set's Simic theme. The two components of the card don't particularly seem to go together, unless we look at the looting as a way to dig for the five-mana spells that'll make the Elk bigger, but the end result is not awful. The same goes for Hearth Elemental, one of those cards designed to support fast red builds that exhaust their hand quickly, so they can cast the Adventure with no real downside. Afterwards, they can probably also cast the 4/5 creature side for cheap. Nothing game-breaking, but a good potential for tempo advantage, provided everything goes according to plan.

The two monoblue uncommon Elementals are meant for different strategies. Icewrought Sentry, as the name implies, is part of the "Ice Queen" white-blue army of tappers. It's not a very smooth operatore in that regard, requiring to attack and pay mana, even if by doing so we get a vigilant 4/4 for the turn. Splashy Spellcaster is more streamlined: just cast instants and sorceries and you'll enjoy as many free Sorcerer Roles as you have creatures. Which also means free scry, in all likelihood, since that's what the Sorcerer Role grants, besides the mandatory +1/+1 bonus. Four mana for a 2/4 are hardly the stats of a Constructed card, though.

As for the two common Elementals, Aquatic Alchemist is an efficient quasi-prowess two-drop for "Izzet spells" decks in Limited. Frostbridge Guard is another one of Hylda's tappers, and we've fully crossed into Frozen territory with its iconography.

Elf: +7

New Tribal Total: 565, online: 550

Related Tribes: Advisor, Artificer, Fox, Knight, Noble, Warrior

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: The Elves of Eldraine count the same number of new additions they had in the original set, but with twice the amount of rares, which is a factor that contributes to make their presence feel more conspicuous overall. The corrective is that they're not the generic Elves of any high fantasy setting; they're mostly involved in the self-referential fairy tale "Curse of the Werefox" (treated as a known folk tale in-universe), a retelling of Beauty and the Beast starring the red-haired Elf from Elvish Archivist, Redtooth Vanguard and Fercious Werefox playing the part of the "Beast" (his "Monster Role", if you will). The bond between the Elves and the Foxes of the plane was already established in the artwork for Throne of Eldraine (where giant versions of the latter were mostly the former's mounts), and it feels particularly right to have Elven lycanthropes turning into graceful Foxes, constrasted with Humans turning into brutish Wolves on Innistrad.

Anyway, the nameless protagonist gets his own vertical cycle, with his rare, Elvish Archivist, being a soft build-around that interacts with both artifacts and enchantments – i.e. with both Food tokens and Role tokens. It's clearly well-positioned within the set, but could do some work outside of it as well, although almost certainly by focusing on only one of its two abilities. The more appealing has to be the enchantment-based one (also because green cards in the affinity style of decks are unusual), but the hard cap to one card drawn per turn makes the Archivist nothing more than a poor man's Argothian Enchantress. Certain Commander builds might appreciate its versatility, though.

The recurring, cheap trampling threat of Redtooth Vanguard is uniquely linked to enchantments, and that's also what Ferocious Werefox creates with his Adventure – that's because the were-curse is an enchantment, while only the Rose is an artifact. It's a story thing. These and Redtooth Genealogist (which is the guy who investigated the curse in the Redtooth elves' bloodline) are strictly Limited players, though, even if pretty solid ones. The Vanguard might come in handy in some Commander deck that simultaneously runs a lot of enchantments and has some use for a reusable sacrificia fodder.

This leaves us with the other three rare Elves. Yenna, Redtooth Regent is the leader of the afflicted clan from the Werefox Curse tale. She's a powerful if slow combo piece in larger-than-life enchantment decks. For two mana, we can duplicate any enchantment, which is great with Sagas, and can lead to broken plays with older cards. Just think of what would happen if we were to use Yenna on Doubling Season (which, very appropriately, was reprinted in the "Enchanting Tales" slot of Draft Boosters, alongside its colleagues Parallel Lives and Primal Vigor). I'll tell you what what would happen: we would get THREE Seasons, because Yenna's copy is a token, so it'd be doubled by the original. And after that, every Saga we play would hit the battlefield in EIGHT copies, with all of their chapters would triggering immediately. It's some dizzying prospect for sure, but clearly a bit on the casual side. Still, Yenna's ability is unique, it comes attached to a perfectly reasonable 4/4 body for four, and can default to a two-mana scry 2 ability if we keep copying the same Aura over and over again, which has also the extra benefit of being repeatable, or else granting Yenna a form of vigilance. Wilds of Eldraine even provided a novel combo for Yenna, in the shape of an infinitely self-copying Three Blind Mice, since the Saga itself becomes a token under Yenna's tutelage.

The remaining two Elves of high rarity are similarly versatile, but more straightforward. Sentinel of Lost Lore is a below-the-curve three-drop with high stats and a triplet of useful ETB triggers, although it mostly only works within an environment where Adventure cards are commonplace, which might not bode too well for its Constructed chances. Werefox Bodyguard is, even more simply, an exiler in the Banisher Priest's grand tradition, to the point of replicating its blueprint's mana value and body, but with the additional flexibility of being able to target one of our creatures as well, at instant speed (hence the "bodyguard" moniker). Such move could either be performed with the goal of saving the creature from danger, or just for the value of having it re-enter the battlefield, since we're also given the option to let the Werefox go at any point, and we even extract two life out of the deal. The Bodyguard is not going to affect Elf decks too much, due to the double white in its cost, but its other subtypes are definitely rejoicing on having such a powerful removal-on-legs on retainer.

Elk: +2

New Tribal Total: 27, online: 26

Related Tribes: Elemental

Impact of the New Additions: Low

Highlights: What Eldraine would be without Elks? Oko's signature animal is back, albeit mostly as a reminder of its past glory. Rimefur Reindeer is not even a good Limited pick, because of the general underperforming of the white-blue "tapping matters" archetype. Tempest Hart is an okay blue-green card, but far from the best green-based uncommon.

Faerie: +24

New Tribal Total: 130, online: 127

Related Tribes: Advisor, Assassin, Human, Noble, Rat, Rogue, Scout, Shapeshifter, Warlock, Warrior, Wizard

Impact of the New Additions: High

Highlights: Faeries are smack in the middle of Wilds of Eldraine's narrative, due to their leader Lord Talion (a nonbinary version of the Wicked Fairy from Sleeping Beauty, the one Disney renamed "Maleficent") being the main responsible for the Wicked Slumber – a curse that ended the Phyrexian invasion on Eldraine, but the execution of which involved trusting the help of the three Wicked Witches ("wicked" is a very common appellative on Eldraine, because of course it is). Talion boosted the witches' magic by giving them their signature artifacts, and ultimately they went mad with power and had to be put down, which is more or less the synopsis of the set's story. Talion is not a villain, though, as the Kindly Lord moniker suggests. Their card exudes both power and cheekiness, but it also requires some strategizing on our part. We get to pick a number so that the opponent will be punished and we'll be rewarded, every time that number shows up on the opponent's side, either as a spell's mana value and/or a creature's power and toughness. Unless our deck includes ways to reset Talion, which number to pick for the ability becomes a minimage in and of itself. If we choose poorly, the ability risks to be wasted, leaving us with just a 3/4 flyer for four, which is far from the kind of card we should put in a Constructed deck. Even if our choice is on point, though, Talion is not immediately game-breaking; the effect will accrue advantage over time, so we should aim for a long game. Nonetheless, Standard Faeries has embraced Talion's quirkiness, if as a one-of curve-topper – sort of a different take on Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.

Only other two new Faeries earned a spot on their revitalized Standard deck, alongside established March of the Machine specimens like Faerie Mastermind and Halo Forger. One is the set's signpost tribal lord Obyra, Dreaming Duelist – Talion's own curse-afflicted daughter. She's a no-nonsense two-drop with flash that makes all other Faeries attack the opponent's life total by just entering the battlefield, an extra damage output that might add up quickly. Similarly aggro-oriented and equally affected by the Wicked Slumber is the one-drop Sleep-Cursed Faerie (turns out the Faeries are deadlier while asleep). A 3/3 flyer with ward 2 for one mana is obviously an insane deal, but the catch is that she's not ready to wake up until three turns later – fewer if we sink mana into the little sleeper, something we might possibly do in the late game, but it's more fruitful to just consider this Faerie a one-drop with suspend 3 or 4 (we might manage to manually remove one of the stun counters). After she wakes up, the last ability turns into pseudo-vigilance, for that matter.

The other "Faeries matter" creature in the set, Talion's Messenger didn't enjoy as much success so far. A free looting plus a +1/+1 counter every turn is a neat package, but the starting stats might feel a little meager for three mana. The graveyard manipulator Likeness Looter and the adventurous Twining Twins are desirable cards for Limited that don't seem to translate well into Constructed. The Looter is underwhelming on the board and can't really cheat a big creature into play by copying it, since we have to pay the entire mana value. The Twins provide a non-harmful flicker effect if we have access to white, but otherwise are just a four-drop 4/4 flyer with a couple minor extra keywords.

The true hero of the story is Oko's secret son (Kellan, the Fae-Blooded), born of a Human woman. He's a fantastic commander for Boros Equipment builds, being able to search for our best one and then wear it like a double-striking champ, while also simultaneously boosting the rest of the team. Unfortunately none of the above, and especially his colors, suits the Faerie subtype in the least.

The last rare, Lady of Laughter (representing Cinderella's fairy godmother), also comes in a color that Faeries don't really care for. She's a solid celebration payoff, if probably more on the casual side of operations. Not surprisingly, it's one of the card that was designed for the aborted Jumpstart packs. The same is true for the Upheaval-adjacent sorcery Faerie Slumber, the "Adventures matter" critter Storyteller Pixie, and the "Food matters" Rat hybrid Old Flitterfang, while Barrow Naughty and Picklock Prankster are minor "Faeries matter" cards that are merely meant to complement the Limited blue-black Faeries archetype.

Among the remaining uncommon Faeries, none of which manages to transcend its Limited environment, two that are worth mentioning boast removal capabilities: the conditional Dream Spoilers and the slow Threadbind Clique, which requires an off-color splash for its Adventure. This is also a good a place as any to note that a lot of these Faeries feel like they could come from Lorwyn/Shadowmoor – which is strange, because a future return to that plane has been recently confirmed. Here's hoping a more definite distinction will be made between the Faeries from Eldraine and those native of other planes, now that the former have come more sharply into focus.

Finally, here the common Faeries with secondary subtypes from other heavily represented tribes. They're mostly unremarkable – Snaremaster Sprite has some relevance as one-drop in conjunction with Curiosity, which is part of Wilds of Eldraine Limited via the "Enchanting Tales" bonus sheet. On the other hand, the Faerie-based counterspell Spell Stutter and the removal Faerie Fencing are efficient enough to make the jump into Constructed. And going back to the Lorwyn overlap, Spell Stutter is clearly a new take on a classic from that set, Spellstutter Sprite.

Fox: +2

New Tribal Total: 43, online: 41

Related Tribes: Elf, Knight, Warrior

Impact of the New Additions: Medium to High

Highlights: Werefox Bodyguard is a milestone for the Foxes, giving them their own Banisher Priest/Fiend Hunter type of removal built-in within the tribal base. And it's also a more versatile version of those older cards, since in a pinch it can be used as a flicker spell that gains us two life. The green Werefox is just for Limited, though, even if it's very well-positioned there, playing much better than it looks.

Giant: +9

New Tribal Total: 208, online: 201

Related Tribes: Archer, Noble, Soldier, Warrior, Wizard

Impact of the New Additions: Medium to High

Highlights: Brilliant showing for the Giants, which are the protagonists of the "Jack and the Beanstalk" section of Wilds of Eldraine. The Noble giantess Beluna Grandsquall is directly inspired to the antagonist of that English fairy tale, but she's ultimately not a baddie. As the only three-color card in the set, she's designed as a commander or centerpiece for Temur Adventures builds. She's got the colors, the very appealing cost/body ratio, the mana discount, and an Adventure of her own that digs for more Adventures. When placed in her element, she's going to deliver. How much that element is gonna be worth, that remains to be seen.

Ginberbread Hunter is arguably the best uncommon in the set, sort of a black-green reworking of Throne of Eldraine's master of efficiency Bonecrusher Giant. That one was rare, though, so the numbers are a bit less cost-effective. The Adventure deals with the same level of toughness, but is one mana more expensive and can't go face. And the body is larger but it's a five-drop rather than a three-drop, and trades the extra incidental damage for a Food token. It's still a pretty strong uncommon, though, and the same goes for Stormkeld Vanguard, which pairs a Naturalize effect with a huge, hard-to-block body. It's always handy to have incidental artifact and enchantment hate for free in the main deck. This said, these are still Limited cards, their numbers aren't quite enough for Constructed. More so for the red Two-Headed Hunter and the blue Galvanic Giant, whose Adventure is also rarely cast because it doesn't follow the usual pattern where the sorcery or instant side of the card occupies a lower spot in the curve than the creature side.

Interestingly, almost all of the Giants in Wilds of Eldraine are Adventure cards (that was true of only half of those from Throne of Eldraine). Of the two that aren't, one is the mostly meaningless Giant Spider replacement Skybeast Tracker. The other is a true star of this set's Limited environment, the resident, super-charged version of the Honey Mammoth type of green curve-topper that stabilizes the board through body presence and lifegain. Hamlet Glutton doesn't just do that, while also being a trampling attacker; he threaten to come down on turn five if not four, thanks to bargain. Green is almost guaranteed to have a random Food token lying around by then in Limited, and the Glutton or two are often enough to end games right away. This flashy common is one of the main reasons its color is in the Limited top tier, win-wise, for Wilds of Eldraine.

Goblin: +3

New Tribal Total: 414, online: 398

Related Tribes: Rogue, Warrior

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: A vertical cycle for the Goblins of Eldraine. Redcap Gutter-Dweller is the rare, a 3/3 menacer plus two 1/1 Rats, which is a lot of power and toughness for just four mana, almost on par with all-time great Siege-Gang Commander. The Gutter-Dweller can't throw the Rats at its enemies, but it can transform them, or other expendables, into impulsive drawings while also growing its own body. It might be a bit slow as a card-advantage engine for Constructed, but we can all appreciate what it's capable of.

The other Redcap is just a decent Limited filler that gives back one of its three mana in the form of a Treasure token, while Picnic Ruiner (yet another name that feels like a remnant of an Un-set) is the odd Goblin with a green component. Both its sides aren't without merit, since a sorcery that lets us distribute three +1/+1 counters is almost worth a card, and a two-drop 2/2 that potentially attacks with double strike is a creature that means serious business. This is a case of an Adventure card where the Adventure side comes later in the curve than the creature side, but it's worth waiting for that, since the boosting is designed to enable the creature itself. The issue is, Gruul Aggro decks aren't usually that patient.

Golem: +1

New Tribal Total: 141

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: Here's another Un-set worthy pun, for a very valuable new "living" Food artifact. Not exactly the heir of Gingerbrute, not least because it's not colorless, but two mana for two Food plus a 2/2 plus the chance to turn a Food into a 4/4 are a deal worth taking, at least if we're in the market for that kind of permanent. Were Food decks to emerge as a real thing in Standard during this (long) cycle, this Cookie is going to be there.

Griffin: +1

New Tribal Total: 53, online: 52

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: Just a filler wincon for Limited. The recursion clause is slow and almost never coming into fruition. A dutiful dude, indeed.

Horror: +3

New Tribal Total: 275, online: 274

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: All the Horrors in the set are associated with the haunted Sweettooth Village, where candies turned into monsters. As a result, they have ridiculously punny names like Minstrosity and Scream Puff – two good Food-related commons for the black-green archetype in Limited, by the way, the former trading up at the beginning of the curve and leaving a Food behind, the latter standing in the way of attackers in the mid-to-late game and threatening Food proliferation.

The rare is an intriguing take on those old-school Demons that used to require a sacrifice, or else. In the case of Devouring Sugarmaw, the "or else" part just causes our 6/6 trampler menacer to tap for the turn. And we even get access to an extremely efficient two-mana off-color instant that procures two turns' worth of sacrificial fuel for the Sugarmaw. It's hard to find a real Constructed home for a card like that, but it can be a meaningful threat if not dealt with immediately. Imagine turn-one accelerator, into turn-two Have for Dinner, into turn-three Sugarmaw. Abzan Midrange, assemble!

Human: +52

New Tribal Total: 3191, online: 2985

Related Tribes: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Faerie, Knight, Noble, Peasant, Ranger, Rogue, Scout, Soldier, Warlock, Warrior, Wizard

Impact of the New Additions: Irrelevant

Highlights: Humans are still the most prominent ethnic presence on Eldraine. Now they even mate with Faeries!

Hydra: +1

New Tribal Total: 61

Related Tribes: Bird

Impact of the New Additions: Medium to High

Highlights: We have seen some pretty silly Hydra heads over the years, like Turtles and Goats, and of course the Jellyfish from Hydroid Krasis. Geese might well take the cake, though, despite this improbably Hydra giving the Krasis a run for its money.

Knight: +22

New Tribal Total: 415, online: 402

Related Tribes: Dwarf, Elf, Fox, Human, Spirit, Zombie

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: One of the most dire consequences of the Phyrexian invasion on Eldraine has been the fall of almost all of the courts of the Realm. This in turn means the Arthurian knightly theme was severely underplayed in this second visit – which is not incidentally focused on the "Wilds" of Eldraine, the territories outside the courts and castles. Nonetheless, the Knights are still around, sometimes taking forms that betray their war experiences. Take for instance Imodane, a key character in the new storyline, a renegade bandit leader who's tasked by the Faerie Lord Talion with a witch hunt. We can see from the artwork that she has an artificial limb, after losing it to the Phyrexians. And she's become kind of an anarchist, which is not what's expected of a righteous Knight. Her card is a one-trick pony, turning every burn spell into Searing Blaze. Functional in the right build, but a bit too narrow to become the new Torbran. Much better is faring her Recruiter, at least in Limited, where it's arguably the format's deadliest uncommon, almost single-handedly elevating Boros to the very top of the archetypes' ranking. It's an Adventure card with a "counter-intuitive" curve (i.e. the Adventure spell costs more than the creature), but for which it's strongly recommended to wait and cast the Adventure first, making two vigilant 2/2s that are going to swing for 3 the turn after, alongside another 3-powered attacker, the Recruiter himself. The creature half granting both a boost and haste means any cheap body we can muster on the precombat phase of the turn we deploy the Recruiter is going to contribute to the massive alpha strike he facilitates. He didn't show up in too many Constructed lists yet, possibly due to the fact that Monored Aggro is usually more streamlined than Boros Aggro, but the potential is there to make the jump.

A Boros rare that's probably not going to matter outside of Limited is Heartflame Duelist, given that the burn spell is too inefficient for Constructed and the creature side not relevant enough. Moonshaker Cavalry is a white Craterhoof Behemoth, and just goes to show how moving the same card to another color is not guaranteed to pay off. Aside from the lack of haste, a heavy white deck is not going to have the tools to ramp into or cheat onto the battlefield the Cavalry the way green does with the Behemoth. And in general, white is never about this type of "big plays" strategy, so this feels like a true waste of a mythic slot.

Luckily, white gets at least one valiant Knight with the exiler Werefox Bodyguard, the first effect of this type in the tribe (if we disregard the conditional Éowyn, Fearless Knight). But it's green the most represented Knight color this time around (everyone did run to the woods, after all). Sentinel of Lost Lore is a gainful three-drop even if no Adventures are involved in the present board state, as the body and the graveyard hate are always going to be relevant. Agatha's Champion is a monster in Limited and still playable otherwise. And the most overt take yet on the Green Knight of Sir Gawain fame, Mosswood Dreadknight, has already made the leap to Standard. We can say why: it's essentially a four-mana self-replacing 3/2 trampler, payable in two installments, that keeps coming back for no extra cost. In a long game, this guy's advantage is just going to bury any opponent that has no access to it.

And then there's Syr Ginger, who you may remember from the trailer of the original Throne of Eldraine. That character had instantly become very popular, and now she's finally got her own card. And it's not a bad one, although her first ability is only active when we're facing a planeswalker, something we have no way to predict; and the second ability requires a degree of build-around, and at the very least points towards a Food build. Regardless, she's a super-Food that attacks as a 3/1 or greater and only costs 2 colorless mana. I'd file her under "fairly playable".

The rest of the Human Knights appearing at uncommon have various functions in Limited, as well as highly variable success at performing them. Embereth Veteran is okay in aggro lists. Syr Armont, the Redeemer (who plays the Belle/Beauty role within the "Curse of the Werefox" retelling) complements white-green "enchantments matter" strategies, specifically where Roles/Auras are concerned. The more generic Knight of Dovers doesn't work as well, because the trigger for the death of an echantment just doesn't happen often enough, if at all. Tenacious Tomeseeker is useful in any deck with a decent number of instants and sorceries. Bargain is really easy to pay for in the format.

Out of the common Human Knights, Besotted Knight is the only one to see regular play in Limited. A 3/3 vanilla for four wouldn't be playable in modern Magic, but the addition of the one-mana Role makes it viable. On the other hand, Savior of the Sleeping and Slumbering Keepguard both rely once again on that enchantment-based gameplay that just didn't come together in white; and Verdant Outrider is a very minor, additional homage to the Green Knight.

Merfolk: +2

New Tribal Total: 266, online: 262

Related Tribes: Wizard

Impact of the New Additions: Low

Highlights: Sadly, the Merfolk of Eldraine lost all relevance in this second visit. No Lady of the Lake or Little Mermaid this time around. Instead, we have Sharae of Numbing Depths, the signpost for the white-blue "tapping matters" archetype, which massively underperformed in Limited; and the forgettable common Merfolk Coralsmith. Both are also painfully generic Merpeople, and Sharae has no story whatsoever explaining who she actually is, despite the artwork making her look like some kind of ruler.

Mouse: +4

New Tribal Total: 5

Impact of the New Additions: Extreme

Highlights: Mouse was one of the new subtypes introduced in Throne of Eldraine as the tokens made by Enchanted Carriage – it just felt wrong for Cinderella's Pumpkin Coach to be pulled by Rats. In the four years since, the tribe was kind of forgotten, though, only randomly resurfacing once as Canyon Jerboa in Zendikar Rising. So Wilds of Eldraine had the responsibility to make things right for the neglected little rodents, and it certainly increased their ranks considerably, at least relatively to a tribe that was still stuck at one member. Now they branched into red, with their first rare, Raging Battle Mouse. As the name implies, it's an aggressive little sucker, using a discount to enable celebration, and then celebration to trigger a little bonus. Nothing too crazy but it doesn't ask much of us, has decent power for a two-drop, and the way it facilitates double spelling shouldn't be underestimated.

The same ability word returns in two other new Mice, with the designed-for-Jumpstart uncommon Pests of Honor using celebration as a straighforward way to grow itself, and the common Armory Mice as a temporary defensive boost. The other uncommon, Cheeky House-Mouse is the tribe's strictly better Savannah Lions, and even its Adventure is suitably aggressive and fits a white weenie strategy to a tee.

Of course, this is still not enough to turn Mouse into a proper tribe, but the new members are all nicely cheap and reasonably playable, and more Mice are expected to show up next year in the anthropomorphic animal plane of Bloomburrow.

Nightmare: +3

New Tribal Total: 71

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: There were no Nightmares in the previous Eldraine set, but the subtype surfaced here due to Ashiok's presence on the plane as well as the Wicked Slumber. The former case is exemplified by the unsubtly named Ashiok's Reaper, while the Slumber curse produced Wicked Visitor and Cruel Somnophage. We can dismiss Reaper and Visitor as mechanical failures: they both care for enchantments hitting the graveyard, which just doesn't happen with sufficient regularity, if not in some extremely dedicated build that's probably going to be clunkier than most. The Somnophage is moderately interesting, though. The off-color Adventure can be easily disregarded, which is quite unusual. But the two-mana body is primed to be huge in the late game. Far from classic Lord of Extinction's numbers, of course, but also less than half its cost. Which deck of which format is most likely to get in business with the Somnophage is not clear yet; but one might well exist.

Noble: +10

New Tribal Total: 107, online: 106

Related Tribes: Elf, Faerie, Giant, Human

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: Noble was one of the new tribes in Throne of Eldraine, because princes and princesses, queens and kings are traditionally the stuff of fairy tales. The subtype returns in force for this second visit , and we've already looked at the number-calling Lord Talion and their looting courtier for the Faeries, which also include the celebrating fairy godmother Lady of Laughter from Jumpstart; the Adventure centerpiece Beluna for the Giants; and the enchantment-copying Yenna for the Redtooth Elves.

Lord Skitter, King of the Rats, is nobility too, not to mention one of the very first talking animals we meet on the plane (they were deprecated during the design of the original set, as they belong to fables, not fairy tales, but we're gonna meet so many of those in Bloomburrow anyway, so it appears the ban was lifted for Eldraine as well). With his solid stats and free token per turn, he's an excellent new addition to sacrifice strategies, and he's obviously going to become a staple in Rat decks; not so much in Noble builds, perhaps, although he's still a very strong card that requires no setup whatsoever to improve any board.

Goddric, Cloaked Reveler is the prince from Wilds of Eldraine's version of Cinderella, in which the titular character is played by the not exactly demure Ash, Party Crasher, attending the ball disguised as an armored Knight. Goddric hides his own little secret, since he's actually a Dragon disguised as a Human. They sure make a lovely couple. And they're both early drops with haste, so we could concoct a curve where we drop Ash on turn two, Goddric on three, and then we celebrate on four and attack with a 3/3 and a 4/4 flyer with firebreathing. Curiously, Goddric's mana sink is extended to all Dragons we control (because he's a Noble?), so technically he has that offer to Dragon tribal, though it's hardly going to be relevant.

The last legendary Noble is the uncommon Neva, Stalked by Nightmares, which is supposed to be Snow White – she has the looks and her name sounds similar to "neve", which is "snow" in Italian and Portuguese. Like her fairy tale counterpart, Neva does absolutely nothing in the story, except falling asleep due to the Wicked Slumber curse, then being placed in a Glass Casket, and finally waking up, and then presumably living happily ever after. Her card is much busier than that, if not particularly in flavor (the black component also feels unjustified), and could be a nice support player, or even a commander, for strategies based around Orzhov infinite enchantment combos like Danitha, Benalia's Hope plus Kaya's Ghostform and a sacrifice outlet.

Only three of these new Nobles are uncommon (you don't meet aristocrats every day, after all). The other two other than Neva include the flavorful Cursed Courtier, which gives us a Role to bargain away, but for a markedly inferior profit than the similar Spiteful Hexmage; and the land owner Discerning Financier, a peculiar mix of Land Tax and Smothering Tithe that can draw us cards by giving Treasures to the opponent. So is he collecting taxes and then lending money at interest? He might be the most accurate representation of the upper class.

Ogre: +3

New Tribal Total: 121, online: 116

Related Tribes: Warrior

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: Ogre Chitterlord from "Jumpstart" is the only rare the tribe gets in the set, and is basically a red Grave Titan for Rat decks. The bodies he makes are smaller and can't be used to block, but his combat keyword is more relevant, and if he sticks around long enough to trigger the boost, the game will probably be over.

Belligerent of the Ball (that's the second Eldraine pun on the expression "belle of the ball", after Belle of the Brawl from the original set) is an aggressive three-drop that uses celebration to improve itself of a companion. A chase uncommon in Limited, whereas the simple Bellowing Bruiser is not particularly effective.

Otter: +2

New Tribal Total: 5

Related Tribes: Wizard

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: The aquatic mammal tribe crosses the five-member threshold while showing up on a plane other than Ikoria (Lutri, the Spellchaser and Thieving Otter were from Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths, and Eon Frolicker from Ikoria Commander). The entire tribe is still playable in monoblue, but this time the splashes into Temur colors are strongly recommended. Elusive Otter in particular is more of a green card than a blue card, because the Adventure is the real meat here. It also rewards running multiple copies, since we'd really like to put a bunch of +1/+1 counters on the Otter itself, to create a virtually unblockable threat, but we lose access to Grove's Bounty once we cast it. Prowess still helps making our little guy's attacks hard to stop.

Frolicking Familiar (why do Otters frolic so much?) has a similar pattern, but to a decidedly lower power level. The creature side is more expensive, its pseudo-prowess is restricted to instants and sorceries, and the off-color Adventure is just a Lava Dart. On the plus side, the body has flying. Lore-wise, is a Wizard's familiar really a Wizard in its own right? Does this mean this Otter is sapient? I guess Lutri might be self-aware too, but he's an Elemental. A regular Otter casting spells in a Wizard's hat seems silly. Maybe it's instinctual magic, and the hat is just a visual joke.

Ouphe: +2

New Tribal Total: 16, online: 12

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: Not many planes host Ouphes (despite the fact that they're just a type of Gnome-like Faerie, so any world with Faeries in it should be allowed to have Ouphes). Eldraine is one of them, though the only Ouphe to show up during our first visit was Bramblefort Fink from Oko's Planeswalker Deck. This time we get two in the main set, with Toadstool Admirer being too clunky even for Limited, but Troublemaker Ouphe proving to be a legitimate two-drop "bear" bringing useful artifact and enchantment hate to the table. It's also just a common, but the tribe is happy with anything remotely playable at this point.

Peasant: +11

New Tribal Total: 44

Related Tribes: Beast, Human, Rat, Wizard

Impact of the New Additions: High

Highlights: The counterpart to Noble, Peasant is another signature tribe of Eldraine. And the reason is evident by just looking at these new arrivals: there are so many fairy tales referenced in this group of assorted jolly commoners! The most prominent is Ash, Party Crasher, who's an empowered take on Cinderella (ash, cinder, get it?). In this reimagining, she asks her fairy godmother (which is the Lady of Laughter from Jumpstart) for a more martial type of fancy dress, so she can go to the grand ball as a Knight. Once there, appropriately enough, she'll meet and fall in love with a Dragon. Ash is a celebration payoff, a two-drop with haste that grows bigger and bigger as long as we keep double-spelling. A minor application of this type of Boros Aggro pattern is Grand Ball Guest, which is basically the "background extra" version of Ash.

Eldraine's red Peasants are also into Rats, with Tattered Ratter making them bigger in offensive combat, and especially with Ratcatcher Trainee's Adventure creating two Rats for three mana, and then adding another body to the battlefield – one that has no synergy with the Rats, but still plays well within the same type of red aggro shell. On top of that, we have the evil doppelganger of Remy from Ratatouille, namely Lord Skitter's Butcher. It's one of those three-drops with multiple-choice ETBs, like Callous Bloodmage, Aether Channeler, or this set's Charming Scoundrel. They're becoming frequent lately, and they're typically good value creatures. In most cases, the Butcher will either make an additional body, or turn an expendable into Preordain.

Moving to monowhite, alongside a couple of flavorful but underwhelming Role-makers like Protective Parents and Unassuming Mage, we have the only rare Peasant of the lot, Spellbook Vendor, who also creates Roles, except she does it every single turn – including right away, if we cast her during the precombat main. And that's attached to an already perfectly functional 2/2 with vigilance for two. Of course we can't keep piling Roles onto the same creature (unless we're trying to trigger some effect that looks at enchantments going to the graveyard), but we can be sure to have one for each member of our team, which is great synergy with cards that care about creatures being enchanted, like Syr Armont, the Redeemer or A Tale for the Ages. It's also funny that the Vendor may decide to just keep a spellbook for herself and see what all the fuss is about.

Finally, three Peasants come out of the canceled Jumpstart packs (so exclusively out of Set Boosters and Collector Boosters). They're the other "Rats matter" beater Charging Hooligan, plus two Food-based cards. Experimental Confectioner breeds a Rat every time we consume Food (off the left-overs, I guess), while Provisions Merchant uses Food as universal trampling boost, provided he attacks alongside the team.

Plant: +1

New Tribal Total: 61, online: 57

Related Tribes: Wurm

Impact of the New Additions: Low

Highlights: Whis is Beanstalk Wurm a Plant, when Beanstalk Giant wasn't? Aren't they just both beanstalk dwellers? At any rate, this is just a Limited common. The Adventure will only occasionally result in turn-two ramp, but the creature side is nicely big and stops flyers.

Rabbit: +2

New Tribal Total: 10, online: 9

Related Tribes: Unicorn

Impact of the New Additions: Severe

Highlights: Rabbit has a knack for showing up in the most unexpected places while taking the most unlikely forms, and if the latter is still true here, at least Eldraine's fairy tale vibes accommodate fluffy animals more organically. Still, Regal Bunnicorn is utterly and completely a misplaced Un-set card, from concept to name to artwork. The rule text is very straightforward, and can lead to a mostrously large two-drop. And the other Rabbit, Pollen-Shield Hare (so it's a hare, not a rabbit, but we'll let it slide), is also a rare! These two are the first two rare Rabbits released in a premier set. And the Hare is not bad too, has an Adventure that similarly becomes more powerful the better our board state is, and the ability to boost creature tokens – which is a bit random, but not without merit.

Raccoon: +1

New Tribal Total: 4

Related Tribes: Elemental

Impact of the New Additions: Severe

Highlights: I still think the only reason Raccoons were inducted into Magic is because someone in the creative department is a fan of Guardians of the Galaxy. Regardless, there are four of them now, and Bramble Familiar is their first rare and a very solid card in general.

Ranger: +1

New Tribal Total: 48

Related Tribes: Human

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: Rummaging for free can be a strong effect, particularly in the late game when we can pitch all the surplus lands. And the basic stats of this new Ranger are well within the realm of playability. He's hardly an exciting card, though, or one that has any chance to earn a Constructed spot in the kind of Gruul Midrange deck that includes four-powered three-drops.

Rat: +5

New Tribal Total: 76, online: 69

Related Tribes: Faerie, Noble, Peasant

Impact of the New Additions: High

Highlights: In The Pied Piper of Hamelin, the Rats are mostly a plot point to make the titular character valuable for the town, but in Wilds of Eldraine, they're the very architects of the whole mischief. Lord Skitter, Sewer King, himself inspired to a character from The Nutcracker, might just be the best lord the tribe ever had, just because he keeps summoning more Rats turn after turn, without asking for anything more than the initial mana investment, already entirely repaid by his 3/3 body. The accompanying graveyard hatred is just gravy, but it's often relevant. It's easy to recognize Lord Skitter's power level when we compare it to his Butcher, which is still a solid card, but for the same cost has less power and summons a Rat once instead of every turn. The common Voracious Vermin is similar, with an even lower starting power, but the opportunity to grow over time.

All these new Rats are extremely playable, with the possible exception of the clunky curve-topper Old Flitterfang, a relic from the Jumpstart packs that never were. It's a weird Rat-Faerie hybrid with flying, can generate some free Food, but five mana are way too many for a sacrifice outlet that demands an extra three mana for each activation – even if it can potentially attack as a 7/8 on turn six. Just too casual.

That is the not the case of Tangled Colony, the second rare Rat in the set. It can't block, like all the Rat tokens in Wilds of Eldraine, but it's a 3/2 for two that dies into a number of 1/1s potentially amounting to a higher combined power. We cannot trigger that effect defensively, but the opponent won't be able to ignore three damage per turn for long, and they'll either elect to use non-damage-based hard removal on our two-drop, or we'll get at least a couple of replacements. It's easy to picture this card as a new staple for Rat tribal decks.

Rogue: +6

New Tribal Total: 415, online: 395

Related Tribes: Faerie, Goblin, Human

Impact of the New Additions: Low

Highlights: Nothing too impressive from the new Rogues that are either Faeries or Goblins. As for the Humans, Stormkeld Prowler is a minor payoff for the "mana value 5 or greater matters" blue-green Limited archetype, a strategy that is inherently almost impossible to translate into Constructed (except, perhaps, in Commander; but not with this kind of payoff). The rare Charming Scoundrel is a decent "multiple choice" value creature. She can either be a 2/2, or a 1/1 that boosts something else or gives one of its mana back or performs a one-time rummaging and can be used as sacrificial fodder later. If none of these modes is too exciting, at least they're all accompanied by haste. Charming, not fascinating, but enough to earn herself a place in the current Standard configuration of Monored Aggro, alongside more prestige two-drops like Feldon, Ronom Excavator and Bloodthirsty Adversary.

Satyr: +3

New Tribal Total: 34

Related Tribes: Scout, Warrior

Impact of the New Additions: Medium to High

Highlights: The presence of Satyrs in Wilds of Eldraine is a little controversial, since they're from Greek mythology, not fairy tales (that's why they have been seen mostly on Theros). They do look like fairy tale characters, though, so maybe tha's enough?

In any case, this is an admirable vertical trio of new Satyrs. The common Rootrider Faun is the best mana dork in the set: it ramps, it fixes, and it blocks fairly well. It won't replace any of the very few Constructed-worthy two-drops of the same kind, but at least it leaves a mark on the entire Limited environment, almost single-handedly enabling green-based four- and five-color builds.

And out of the cards that cares about Auras, Tanglespan Lookout is the most playable. It's not quite an "enchantress" (too narrow, too expensive), but does its job in the right build. And then there's Gruff Triplets, the absolute bomb of the Limited format, a trio of 3/3 tramplers that dies into a duo of 6/6s that die into a 12/12. If the opponent can't bounce or exile the tokens, it's unsurvivable. Triple green in the cost hinders somewhat its Constructed applications, but it's been already sighted in Vintage Cubes (where it interacts favorably with both Natural Order and Flash), so the power level is definitely there.

Scarecrow: +1

New Tribal Total: 40, online: 38

Impact of the New Additions: Low

Highlights: We haven't gotten a new rare Scarecrow since Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block. In fact, the tribe seems to have been relegated to the role of last-resort mana fixer for Limited. But at least Scarecrow Guide is a vast improvement on that blueprint, way ahead of cards like Signpost Scarecrow from Throne of Eldraine and Shire Scarecrow from Lord of the Rings. The Guide has power, is not a defender, gets reach as a bonus and, most importantly, its mana conversion ratio is 1:1. A decent common, for once.

Scout: +4

New Tribal Total: 186, online: 178

Related Tribes: Faerie, Human, Satyr, Vedalken

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: The Scout detachment of Wilds of Eldraine comprises the mana dork extraordinaire Rootrider Faun as well as a forgettable white Faerie that's a minor payoff for celebration. But Scouts are also the protagonists of the set's take on Little Red Riding Hood and Jack and the Beanstalk, respectively. Ruby, Daring Tracker is another two-drop mana dork for Gruul, with the peculiarity of having haste, so she can immediately repays half of the mana investment, plus she might temporarily self-upgrade to a 3/4 body at a certain point in the game, subscribing to that new school of thought that tries and finds late-game uses for mana accelerator creatures. We've seen it with Armored Scrapgorger and Wose Pathfinder, for instance. Ruby is less versatile than the former, and less impactful than the latter, but she's still a quite desirable pick in Limited.

If Ruby is a local heroine who goes on to join the set's central hero Kellan in his anti-witch quest, Troyan is anthing but. In fact, a Vedalken on Eldraine is so evidently wrong to immediately give us pause. This is where Wilds of Eldraine reveals its larger commitment to the Omenpath Arc, highlighting the fact that the post-Invasion Multiverse has now highways between planes. Troyan was bored with his life within the Simic Combine on Ravnica so he took a left for Eldraine, where he could be the daring adventurer he's always wanted to be. His card is the signpost for blue-green, and yet another mana producer, the third in this small group of Scouts. Troyan, Gutsy Explorer only adds mana for big spells (or X spells, which usually tend to be big, though they don't have to), but he can also loot to better dig for those. Another worthwhile uncommon for Limited.

Shapeshifter: +1

New Tribal Total: 120, online: 117

Related Tribes: Faerie

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: Any creature that's able to take the form of another creature has good chances of bearing the Shapeshifter type, and Likeness Looter is no exception. For the tribe, its novel Looter angle might occasionally prove beneficial, if we want to try and set up cards like Body Double. Plus it's a native flyer, which is always a big benefit. Having to hardcast the target is exceedingly clunky, though.

Snake: +1

New Tribal Total: 105, online: 97

Related Tribes: Elemental

Impact of the New Additions: Low

Highlights: Red Snakes – not really a thing. For what it's worth, this is the first to come in Izzet colors exactly.

Soldier: +5

New Tribal Total: 852, online: 791

Related Tribes: Elemental, Giant, Human

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: Nothing to write home about where the new Soldiers are concerned. The two Human ones, which we haven't examined yet, are a red one-drop for aggressive Rat builds; and the black-red Callous Sell-Sword, which offers an Adventure that's just a different wording of Fling, then a body that exploits the Adventure's inevitable result to become an attractive 3/3 for two. We're strongly recommended to go adventuring in the same turn we plan to deploy the Sell-Sword, but there are other conditional setups that might make it even bigger – like just dropping it as a follow-up to a combat phase where a lot of trades happened.

Specter: +1

New Tribal Total: 26, online: 25

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: This is one of only three Specters whose main ability doesn't involve removing cards from the oppnent's hand or top of the library, which has been basically "the Specter thing" for 30 years. And the other two, Dread Specter from Mirage and Specter of the Fens from Strixhaven, are pretty terrible cards, so Spectre of Mortality has the responsibility of taking its tribe into a whole new dimension. The idea is strong: an ETB sweeper. The execution can turn into a complete blowout for the opponent, if we're facing an aggro deck with low toughness and we have a couple of creatures in the graveyard by turn five. It's entirely situational, though, and if the stars don't align perfectly, this new generation Specter might well do nothing (other than being a disappointing 3/3 flyer for five). In the late game, odds are it'll be a board reset in most cases, but Constructed decks won't probably care to run a five-mana conditional sweeper just in the off-chance that'll leave a small flying body behind, since it's not even good with flicker effects. Points for effort, though.

Spirit: +2

New Tribal Total: 591, online: 581

Related Tribes: Knight, Warrior

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: Just a pair of Spirits in Wilds of Eldraine, trying to bring different angles to the tribe, with mixed results. Shrouded Shepherd is a decent two-mana "bear" for Orzhov lists, good for killing some small things then boosting one of ours. Moonshaker Cavalry is the larger-than-life colorshifted Craterhoof Behemoth – and that's just something white is not equipped to take advantage of.

Treefolk: +1

New Tribal Total: 97, online: 95

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: This lone Treefolk is part of the Jumpstart group of displaced cards that only exist in Set Boosters and Collector Boosters. It's a "tokens matter" card, with a "double attack" routine, because it grants its own power as a boost to another attacker. Tolerating a 1/1 for three mana is a big ask, but Treefolk does have some support for token strategies, albeit nothing particularly inspiring.

Troll: +1

New Tribal Total: 53, online: 52

Impact of the New Additions: Medium to High

Highlights: For being a relatively small tribe, Troll gets a very relevant Constructed-worthy member every now and then – cards like Golgari Grave-Troll, Lotleth Troll, Old-Growth Troll, or the Thruns. Wilds of Eldraine challenges that group of bridge-dwellers with Faunsbane Troll, a veritable bomb rare in Limited with serious ambitions of Constructed play. Four-mana 5/5 plus a potentially renewable removal spell for one extra colorless? Everyone can easily see how immensely playable this guy is. It only needs a strong Golgari Midrange home, and its future will be guaranteed for years to come. Especially since it'll be legal in Standard until the end of 2026.

Turtle: +1

New Tribal Total: 32, online: 30

Impact of the New Additions: High

Highlights: Unlike similar-sized Troll, Turtle is not a tribe that has produced too many cards with Constructed applications. They usually show up as common blue filler. None of the previous rare and mythic Turtles has ever seen any amount of Constructed play outside of Commander (and even there, none of them is anywhere close to top tier). This is all going to change with Blossoming Tortoise, arguably one of the best creatures in the entire set. And deceivingly so, because its cost/body ratio doesn't look inviting, and the two abilities that are all about running creature lands and/or lands with activated abilities are not particularly impactful (although, they do make Mishra's Foundry into a sort of 3/3 Mishra's Factory). But the key here is the "Titan trigger" that ramps us via self-milling. The Tortoise almost guarantees us two extra lands on the battlefield – one right away, one by attacking the next turn – plus a selection of cards in the graveyard to take advantage of. In the right deck, it's solid gold.

Unicorn: +1

New Tribal Total: 28, online: 25

Related Tribes: Rabbit

Impact of the New Additions: High

Highlights: Does the fact that Regal Bunnicorn is a Rabbit/Unicorn hybrid make it more fairy tale-like? Perhaps it does, but at least the placid-looking and quite ridiculous little guy is now one of the best Unicorns ever printed. In fact, it's only the third rare Unicorn after Emiel the Blessed from Jumpstart and Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn from Commander Legends. Therefore the very first nonlegendary rare Unicorn released in a premier set. It still looks like a bunny that's cosplaying as a Unicorn and not very into it, though. Like the bunny's owner dressed it like that for Halloween or something, and the poor fella had to go along with it.

Vedalken: +1

New Tribal Total: 66

Related Tribes: Scout

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: The blue-skinned Vedalken are one of the races that Magic created out of nowhere, so if the goal was for the planar-misplaced Troyan to feel particularly jarring while juxtaposed to all the fairy tale themes, the result is successful enough: an alien-looking creature in the role of the titular Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk. The Ravnica native is not the first green Vedalken, by the way. In fact, he seems directly based on Gyre Engineer from Ravnica Allegiance – a Simic three-drop that taps for two mana. However, Alara had Vedalken Heretic and Kaladesh had Empyreal Voyager, so it seems like the tribe is not extraneous to the occasional green dab.

Warlock: +15

New Tribal Total: 86, online: 85

Related Tribes: Bard, Dragon, Faerie, Human

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: The three witch sisters, Agatha, Eriette, and Hylda are the main engine of the story, the trio of antagonists whose power hunger the fairy Lord Talion is trying to stop, and the dynamic duo of Kellan and Ruby have to directly face. They're also the aunts of the Kenrith twins, since a fourth deceased sister was the birth mother of Rowan and Will, via an affair with the late Algenus. Agatha is inspired to the cannibalistic witch from Hansel and Gretel; Eriette is Magic's take on the Wicked Queen from Snow White; and Hylda is the Snow Queen. Their cards are all dual-colored mythic rares (whereas their items of power are, disappointingly, a vertical cycle), but we can safely say none of them is actually living up to their narrative importance.

Agatha of the Vile Cauldron has a very specific and very limited impact on the board, discounting the activated abilities of creatures. Her own activated ability starts as an Overrun for Overrun mana, since it gets the discount; but it doesn't even get cheaper the more we activate it, since it doesn't affect Agatha herself. Slightly better is Eriette of the Charmed Apple, who wants to be the centerpiece of an Aura deck, so she can turn every Aura we play on an opposing creature into a Pacifism (not even, since those creatures can still block). The idea is to use her in conjunction with Cursed Roles, but all the cards that create a Cursed Role attached to an opposing creature are blue, so they can't even share a Commander deck with Eriette. At least any build that features a lot of Auras can use her as a wincon, due to the last ability's lifedrain effect. It's basically all that Eriette has going on for her, and it's not like Orzhov Aura.dek is an extremely popular strategy.

Hylda of the Icy Crown is similarly positioning herself as an extreme build-around piece, this time based on tapping down opposing creatures, something that has legitimately been associated with ice and chill for a long time now. Most of the cards that generate such result aren't exceedingly appealing, but at least Hylda's payoff is pretty great and very versatile. Her own artifact, Hylda's Crown of Winter is also a fairly playable Icy Manipulator variant.

What's left in the higher echelons of the Warlock department (which still sounds wrong as the name of a tribe, by the way; especially when, like here, they're mostly female witches, whereas "warlock" is used almost exclusively to indicate their male counterparts) is just a couple of rares. Gumdrop Poisoner is good in Limited, decent enough as pseudo-removal in Food lists or generally lifegain-heavy builds; Spiteful Hexmage (okay, this one's actually a Warlock!) employs the Cursed Role mechanic in a clever way, giving us a big-bodied one-drop that fits perfectly in any build that's able and willing to sacrifice a permanent as soon as turn two. We're not even forced to place the "curse" on the Hexmage himself, though it's going to be hard to have a suitable token around early on.

The last rare Warlock is Malevolent Witchkite from Jumpstart. We've already reviewed it as a Dragon, it's a bad God-Eternal Bontu that doesn't impact the Warlock tribe much, if at all.

The two uncommon Human Warlocks both deal with the Rat theme from the Pied Piper of Hamelin folk tale. Totentanz, Swarm Piper is the Pied Piper himself, who conjures Rats out of dead creatures and then sends them against his enemies, as they've become properly lethal. A Rat deck might also use Twisted Sewer-Witch as a curve-topper, since she's essentially empowering the whole team with expendable Auras. A 3/4 vanilla body is not too much of an extra bonus for five mana, but the effect of her ETB trigger on the board could be considerable, and repeatable with flickering.

The common Human Warlocks are, once again, all witches. They're all pretty okay in Limited: decent bodies, decent additional value, whether they're a Wicked Role adventure; the quasi-removal of a Cursed Role; or a Food token for free plus the ability to turn all Food into a veritable finisher, which makes Sweettooth Witch the most legit of the three.

Warrior: +10

New Tribal Total: 961, online: 937

Related Tribes: Elf, Faerie, Fox, Giant, Goblin, Human, Ogre, Satyr, Spirit

Impact of the New Additions: Medium to High

Highlights: We've seen the deadly squad of Satyrs from Gruff Triplets, already turning heads in Vintage Cube setups. It's inevitability on a stick for heavy green builds, or builds that are able to cheat the trio of Gruff Warriors into play in one of the many ways they respond to. Also part of the varied new additions to the Warrior tribe is the Faerie tribal lord Obyra, Dreaming Duelist, and the Rat-themed Ogre Chitterlord and Redcap Gutter-Dweller.

The only new legendary is Greta, Sweettooth Scourge, Wilds of Eldraine's novel take on the second half of Hansel and Gretel, after Throne of Eldraine had done a different nonlegendary homage with Curious Pair. This Gretel lost her brother to the candy monstrosities of the haunted Sweettooth Village, and now she sacrifices Food with glee to get cards and +1/+1 counters. The activation cost is reasonable, the body/cost ratio is quite good, and there's one Food free of charge that comes with Greta's casting cost. The end result is kind of a "mythic uncommon" in Limited, but she's not far from Constructed playable either.

Indeed, the Warrior tribe as a whole might have the highest average quality of the entire set. All the remaining common and uncommon Warriors are high picks in Limited, as we've seen while discussing their other tribes. Strangely enough, Greta is the only Human of the lot.

Whale: +1

New Tribal Total: 13

Impact of the New Additions: High

Highlights: Don't ask why there's a Whale in what appears to be a fairly small lake. Just roll with it. Horned Loch-Whale (see? It's a "loch-whale", obviously!) is a resilient 6/6 six-drop that can be deployed with flash (though it can't ambush), so it synergizes well with all blue instants, and comes equipped with an instant of its own in the form of a cheap interactive Adventure that might just turn into removal if timed right, and at the very least temporarily eliminates a threat while negating a card draw to the opponent. Maybe not exactly a new Hullbreaker Horror, but still pretty good, and a great addition to the still tiny roster of Whales – a tribe that exists since 1995, but admittedly it's not too easy to expand upon.

Wizard: +16

New Tribal Total: 977, online: 953

Related Tribes: Dragon, Elemental, Faerie, Giant, Human, Merfolk, Otter, Peasant

Impact of the New Additions: Medium

Highlights: The two new Wizards that immediately catch the eye are the sadly separate, desparkened versions of Rowan and Will. Now that their parents have died in the invasion, the twin siblings have taken different roads, with Will trying to keep the realm together as the new king, while Rowan went to the Wilds and set up to rediscover her witchy heritage by apprenticing with Eriette. Things didn't go as planned for either of the young Kenriths, but something that still unites the two is the symmetry of their cards. Along with the fact that they both, well, kind of suck, especially considering they occupy two mythic slots. Rowan, Scion of War at least is a decent four-powered menacer for three mana, but the discount ability that requires loss of life during our turn is not going to matter almost entirely. It only applies to black and red spells, but it only discounts the generic mana portion, so it's even hard to make it work with Phyrexian mana or something along those lines. And you have to tap Rowan to access it, even. Will, Scion of Peace is the same, but mirrored. His body is skewed towards defense, and the discount is related to lifegain, which is simpler to achieve, but do we really care enough for conditional acceleration in an Azorius deck to the point of running what's otherwise a Limited-looking vigilant 2/4 three-drop?

The Human Wizards quota also include the homage to Johann W. von Goethe's The Sorcerer Apprentice (best known in the Mickey Mouse animated version from Fantasia). The aptly named Johann, Apprentice Sorcerer doesn't particularly feel like it's referencing the poem's story (other cards from The Apprentice's Folly subset are more on point, including The Apprentice's Folly itself), but it's a pretty solid Future Sight on a stick for instants and sorceries. Strong Commander potential, too, especially with such a high toughness protecting Johann from most damage-based removal.

Ingenious Prodigy works as a card-drawing battery, in that we get a scalable threat that gives us fresh cards, at the pace of one per turn. It's slow, but skulk makes it so he can deal some damage when he gets smaller. We can also recharge the whole deal if we're able to put +1/+1 counters on the Prodigy. Nothing amazing, but a neat design.

On the lower rarities, the only one Wizard we haven't covered yet is Vantress Transmuter, which is a solid removal-like Adventure with a dignified body attached. Very popular in Limited, even if blue is not the best color in Wilds of Eldraine drafts.

Wolf: +2

New Tribal Total: 81, online: 73

Impact of the New Additions: Low

Highlights: Two straightforward Limited cards, not without their merits. Territorial Witchstalker (I wonder why Wolves are so against witches) is a nicely defensive two-drop. But Hollow Scavenger is the superior specimen here, good pumpable body plus a Food-making adventure that gives us something to do on turn one. It basically goes in every green deck in WOE Limited.

Wurm: +1

New Tribal Total: 102, online: 97

Related Tribes: Plant

Impact of the New Additions: Null

Highlights: Yeah, this is a vegetable Wurm, somehow. Beanstalk Giant wasn't made out of beanstalks, yet Beanstalk Wurm is. We have to deal with it.

Zombie: +1

New Tribal Total: 539, online: 529

Related Tribes: Knight

Impact of the New Additions: Low

Highlights: This undead is the only black Knight in the set, another sign that the Arthurian influences are waning. It's technically immortal, but you have to be able to fish it back from the bottom of the library (or else reshuffle and hope for the best), which is not impossible but not a trivial endeavour. Certainly not one that's worth running a four-drop 3/3, even if the Raise Dead Adventure is nice and flavorful.

SUMMARY

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KUMA'S TRIBAL EVALUATIONS

Core sets: Magic 2013, Magic 2014, Magic 2015, Magic Origins, Core Set 2019, Core Set 2020, Core Set 2021
Commander Series: Commander 2017, Commander 2018, Commander 2019, Commander 2020, Commander Legends, Commander 2021, Forgotten Realms Commander, Midnight Hunt Commander, Crimson Vow Commander, Neon Dynasty Commander, New Capenna Commander, Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate, Dominaria United Commander, The Brothers' War Commander, Phyrexia: All Will Be One Commander, March of the Machine Commander, The Lord of the Rings Commander, Commander Masters
Masters series: Eternal Masters, Modern Masters 2017, Iconic Masters, Masters 25, Ultimate Masters
Innovation Products: Battlebond (plus Global Series: Jiang Yanggu & Mu Yanling), Modern Horizons, Jumpstart, Modern Horizons 2, Jumpstart 2022
Special sets: Legendary Cube Prize Packs, Treasure Chests, Forgotten Realms Commander
Universes Beyond: The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
Mirrodin block: Mirrodin, Darksteel, Fifth Dawn
Kamigawa block: Champions of Kamigawa, Betrayers of Kamigawa, Saviors of Kamigawa
Innistrad block: Innistrad, Dark Ascension, Avacyn Restored
Return to Ravnica block: Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, Dragon's Maze
Theros block: Theros, Born of the Gods, Journey into Nyx
Khans of Tarkir block: Khans of Tarkir, Fate Reforged, Dragons of Tarkir
Battle for Zendikar block: Battle for Zendikar, Oath of the Gatewatch
Shadows over Innistrad block: Shadows over Innistrad, Eldritch Moon
Kaladesh block: Kaladesh, Aether Revolt
Amonkhet block: Amonkhet, Hour of Devastation
Ixalan block: Ixalan, Rivals of Ixalan
The "War on Ravnica" block: Guilds of Ravnica, Ravnica Allegiance, War of the Spark
Three-and-One Sets: Dominaria, Throne of Eldraine, Theros: Beyond Death, Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths,
2020-2021: Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim, Strixhaven: School of Mages, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms
Innistrad Double Feature: Midnight Hunt, Crimson Vow
The 2022 premier sets: Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty, Streets of New Capenna
The Second Phyrexian Invasion: Dominaria United, The Brothers' War, Phyrexia: All Will Be One, March of the Machine, March of the Machine: The Aftermath