Magic: The Gathering’s head designer Mark Rosewater officially kicked off the 12 days of Throne of Eldraine spoilers today with eight new cards.
Rosewater described how the MTG design team worked European folklore and fairy tale stories into the creation of the Throne of Eldraine (ELD) set. Using the story of Cinderella as a guideline, Rosewater revealed eight new cards within ELD. From creatures and Artifacts to an Instant that doesn’t cost any mana to cast, the MTG design team was able to tell a story from start to finish.
The tale within ELD starts with Once Upon a Time, as all good folklore stories should begin.
Once the storyline has been established, the MTG design team introduced the villain: Wicked Guardian. Due to the high mana cost, Wicked Guardian isn’t a good Standard card, but it’ll likely see play in Limited Draft.
With every villian in a fairy tale story, there’s a Faerie Guidemother (in Magic, anyway). Faerie Guidemother is a showcase style card featuring a creature spell split with an Adventure mechanic. While it might fit in with White Weenie decks, it’s overall value is on the low end.
The good and bad characters have been established, so now the tale needs a pumpkin ride, according to the MTG design team. Enchanted Carriage is a solid Artifact-Vehicle that’s introducing mouse tokens to Magic.
After taking a ride in a pumpkin, someone should turn into one via the Instant, Turn into a Pumpkin. This four mana blue Instant bounces a creature and produces card draw. It also uses the mechanic Adamant and has the ability to produce Food tokens.
After the story has taken a few twists and turns, the design team brings the tale back to its foundational roots with Return to Nature. For only two mana, this ELD Instant is slightly better than Naturalize in that a player can either destroy an artifact, enchantment, or exile a creature from a graveyard.
But the tale isn’t finished yet. There still needs to be a Crystal Slipper that equips a creature and a Wildwood Tracker.
Despite not being closely related, Crystal Slipper is a solid Artifact-Enchantment for two mana. Wildwood Tracker, on the other hand, has the added benefit of gaining a possible +1/+1 until the end of turn.
The Throne of Eldraine set releases on Oct. 4 via tabletop and on Sept. 26 via MTG Arena.
