While the Lord of the Rings set is still fresh in our minds leaving great memories, and the Commander Masters gave us this distaste (I am glad we didn’t crack any), we can finally move forward towards a set that we sure were looking forward to. In this MTG Wilds of Eldraine Set Booster Cracking and reviewing the set – it’s safe to say that despite the lower and more affordable price tag, the Wilds of Eldraine is a great set, but not for reasons you think.
MTG Wilds of Eldraine Set Booster Review
Watch our Un-cracking Video
Wilds of Eldraine Lands
Basic Lands: Very Fairytale-like
Starting off with the lands, personally, I am a huge sucker for the full art kind and this one definitely stands apart a lot more than the others we have seen so far. Wilds of Eldraine has 2 versions of the lands: you have the basic one, and then the full art. This time we get a fairytale-like treatment similar to the Enchanting Tales card style. And granted how rich these colours are – it is absolutely beautiful to look at, be it foil or non-foil.
Personally, these are one land sets I would want them foiled in my deck. Hari and Deepti, the artists behind these lands have absolutely killed it. I do hope to see this art style in future sets, similar to how Innistrad lands have been a thing for a while.
The Bizarre Creature Lands (that comes in tapped)
This time around, the lands are a little bit unappealing from a functionality perspective. Most of the lands come in tapped, except for Crystal Grotto which is a scry-plus-pay-one-mana for a color mana.
But the most important land that we need to talk about are the Rare ones, The Restless lands. For the most part, these lands – all of them come in tapped, which also means that you will have to wait for one whole turn to end to play these cards. However, in a way, it may be for the better (or worse), because these lands have an activated ability where you can use them as creatures. It is pretty epic alright, but some have the “end of turn” text whereas Restless Bivouac stays as a creature permanently on top of being a land.
It depends on what kind of play style you are going for, but personally, I am going to get the Alternate art cards solely for the art.
The List Cards We Cracked
Starting with Wilds of Eldraine, Wizards have updated the list of cards you could get from this set and it’s a lot better. It can range anywhere from getting a Ketria Triome all the way to a Meathook Massacre. But that said, our pulls weren’t too shabby either as we got more WOE support cards from previous sets all the way from C16 – which is Faerie Artisans. Following that, we got Gluttonous Troll from C21, Leap from Stronghold, Empyrean Eagle from M20 and Enchanted Carriage from ELD.
But what makes this set a lot more exciting in the list slots are…
… The Walking Dead List Cards
Yep, starting from this set, you can finally get any of the Secret Lair exclusive The Walking Dead cards in a new coat of art, which looks inspired by Strixhaven or Innistrad. However, lucky for us – we cracked two out of the six cards. Greymond, Avacyn’s Stalwart which happens to be Rick, Steadfast Leader and Hansk, Slayer Zealot which is Daryl, Hunter of Walkers.
These list cards are extremely hard to hit as we did ask Classroom Café about it. Ability-wise, these are ridiculous cards to play with – Greymond with a Human Tribal and Daryl have an interesting draw engine going on with your opponents. That said, value-wise, Greymond happens to be the most expensive at $44 (Listed Median Price) on TCGPlayer as of 7th September 2023.
Wilds of Eldraine Mechanics: Bargain and Role Enchantments
If you have played other Eldraine sets in the past, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Enchantment Auras were a thing, and it still is. (Given how LoTR sets have their own kind.). That said, the Wilds of Eldraine introduces 2 new mechanics.
Bargain – This mechanic gives the player an option to sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast the spell. Once you have sacrificed one of the above, the card’s “if it was bargained” ability comes into effect. Say in the case of Realm-Scorcher Hellkite, where if you bargained, you get to add four mana in any colour combination. This varies according to different cards which you can check out in the article below.
Role Enchantments – This is a pretty impressive mechanic. There are token cards with upto 6 roles – Monster, Sorcerer, Royal, Young Hero, Virtuous, Cursed and Wicked. These can either limit your opponent or improve your gameplay for the better. It can be pretty disgusting as some roles really limit you in the worst way possible, like Cursed which dumbs down your big creature to a 1/1 base power and toughness.
So, expect loads of interaction when you go against a Wilds of Eldraine deck. And unpopular opinion, I prefer this mechanic over the March of the Machine’s Battle Seige card.
Enchanting Tales: Reprints of Great Staples
One of the many reasons why I was looking forward to this set happens to be Enchanting Tales. Now, I started my journey with Magic: The Gathering from Battle of Baldur’s Gate. That also means I do not have most of the popular and expensive staples or powerful cards in any colour. So, this set gave me the gateway to own some of the best staples which makes pretty much any deck go berserk.
We got a bunch of Commons and Uncommons, in every colour but my favourite happens to be anything that falls under the Temur colours.
I have been slowly picking up White which has a bit of a god complex and getting cards like Rest in Peace and Greater Auramancy most definitely makes me extremely happy. I have already replaced my go-to decks older versions of Sneak Attack and Garruk’s Uprising with the Enchanting Tales version.
But these aren’t the only cards under the Enchanting Tales. There are Anime art-based ones too. For this, we got Nature’s Will – a 4 Mana (2) (2G) card that restricts the opponent from countering or playing anything by tapping their lands and untapping yours. That means more things to do in your second main phase. There are nicer anime cards you could get too – such as Greater Auramancy, Parallel Lives and my personal Favourite, Doubling Season.
But I might end up getting them as singles. So, I will wait for it.
On to Mythics and Rares from WOE
Here are all of the Rares and Mythics we have cracked from Wilds of Eldraine. Yes, the Adventure cards are back – which excites me the most as it saves a precious slot in an EDH deck and crams two functions into one.
There are also variants you can get in this set, for instance, Elusive Otter is a good example as we cracked both versions – the normal and the alternate enchanted border art. The same thing applies to the Pollen-Shield Flare where the alternate art is just an “angy bunny”. This time around, with this set, expect people to swarm with bunnies or rats or just go ham on your face because Black, White and Red happen to be absolutely strong in more ways than one.
And yes, we got our Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender.
The Commons and Uncommons
It’s safe to say that the Commons and Uncommons in this set are pretty broken when you combine with the Lord of the Rings set. There are artifacts that abuse and even trade mana to draw a card, discard a card, and create a treasure – It’s called Collectors Vault. I have seen people abusing this card in Sealed events, helping them tutor for the end-game cards they want.
The character-based creature cards are pretty amazing in this set as they are very thematic. Definitely worth considering them for casual EDH decks.
Finally, here are all the Commons and Uncommon cards from every single colour we have gotten in this set. We have filtered out the duplicates and took pictures of one copy of each for easy viewing.
Verdict: This is a Great set, not for the reasons you think…
Truth be told, ever since the announcement of this set, the cards that without a doubt overshadowed the treat Wilds of Eldraine is supposed to offer are the Enchanting Tales cards – regardless of the Anime or the non-anime art – which both look absolutely beautiful.
But what makes this set epic are the cards from WOE | Wilds of Eldraine which has amazing abilities, power and adventure element, which combined with the Lord of the Rings set, makes it broken. There are already combo pieces just in the uncommon that are powerful and not to forget, Beseech the Mirror which pretty much gives you the power to tutor cards like Sholdred for free. We even have modern staples that are going up in price such as Agatha’s Soul Caldron and so much. You can check out Starcity Game’s article for this.
Again you can’t deny the fact that the Wilds of Eldraine Enchanting Tales do make a lot of players extremely happy, giving the chance to own most of the staples for a fraction of the cost when the originals were printed and reaching a price majority could never obtain. Some good examples are: Doubling Season (WOE: $39.99 vs. 2XM: $64.99)*, Rhystic Study (WOE: $34.99 vs. J22: $44.99)*, Smothering Tithe (Non-Anime WOE: $12.99 vs. RNA: $22.99)* and the list goes on.
If you want to crack a box of Wilds of Eldraine for the fun of it – granted how affordable this set is, compared to the abysmal pricing of CMM – and granted many people have this urge to crack packs from the lack of cracking, go for it. Although you can get the singles which you didn’t crack, because of the looks of it, the prices are already creeping up.
So, have fun. We did. Now, it is time for us to build our WOE deck and put our woes away.
*- Pricing from Card Kingdom as of 7th September 2023.
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