Wilds of Eldraine

The Importance of Reading the Card

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

The Professor from the famed Tolarian College is famous for his “Read the card explains the card” line. And for good reason! Magic is not an easy game to learn but everything (okay, nearly everything about how cards work) you need is explained on the cards themselves. I was painfully reminded of this once more when I started playing with Questing Druid on MTG Arena.

Imagine my surprise when I would play the Adventure and then would watch the two exiled cards disappear. I would look to my opponent’s cards to see why my exiled cards did not appear to the right of my hand. There never was anything there to explain this odd behaviour. A bug, I wondered, but nothing online about such an issue. So, what was going on? I’d reread the adventure text. Nope, nothing there to explain this either. And then I read, I mean really really read the card.

It says “Exile the top two cards of your library. Until your next end step, you may play those cards.” That emphasis is mine and explains why the cards kept vanishing. Because I would often play it on my turn. And what happens at the end of your turn? Yes, there is a little something called an end step. And the cards disappear. But if you play the card after your end step, say, on your opponent’s turn or just before yours starts, guess what happens? Yep, exactly what it says on the card.

Lesson learned (for now) but I expect I will make it again if not on this card (okay, maybe not for this one) but definitely for another one.

The Prof is right: Reading the card explains the card.

Wilds of Eldraine Pre-Release

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

Our Wilds of Eldraine Pre-Release was a most unusual one. The boys and I normally go down together to play and often find at least two of us paired up for a game at least once per event. Scheduling conflicts meant that we could not go together this time around. I headed off alone Friday night for Face to Face while the boys met up with some friends and went Saturday morning.

My pool was better than I have seen in recent events. I drew four Mythics: Virtue of Knowledge (my promo), Virtue of Courage, Rowan, Swion of War and Land Tax. Just there, I was pretty happy, especially with that last card. But looking at the rest of my pool, I ended up with a Rakdos deck focused around rats that used none of them. I toyed with the idea of using Virtue of Knowledge but I just did not have enough cards with abilities to make it worthwhile to splash a card costing 4 and a .

I lost my first round in two games. A mental mistake on my part cost me the first. Archon of the Wild Rose gives all creatures flying, not just to itself. Small distinction that I failed to catch and left myself wide open to an aerial assault that sealed my fate. In the second game, no mental mistakes but simply overwhelmed by the power of Agatha’s Soul Cauldron.

Archon of the Wild Rose
Agatha's Soul Cauldron
Agatha’s Soul Cauldron

In the second round, I easily won the first round with my rats overwhelming my opponent struggling to keep creatures on the board thanks to my removal spells. I was not so lucky in the second game as momentum shifted to the other side of the table, leaving me on the backfoot. Our third game went to time and we settled for the draw.

My rats finally showed what they could do in the third round (or maybe the stars aligned a bit better). I won the round, giving me a 1-1-1 record for the pre-release. That’s the same result as I had for the LOTR Pre-Release.

The game store promo card was a Reine des frelons (Hornet Queen). While not a powerful card, I do have it in my Kamahl and Jeska Commander deck. Maybe I’ll sub in this French version. It always infuriates the boys when I play French cards.

As for the boys, Christian went 1-2 while Noah went 1-1-1 on Saturday morning.

I’m definitely looking forward to Caverns of Ixalan in November. I loved the lore of the original Ixalan sets and hope that revisiting the plain (even if we’re going to the middle of it) will be as much fun this time around!

Orzhov Cleric Tribal in Wilds of Eldraine

/ Jerome / Leave a comment

It’s once again time to take a look at how the latest set will help me improve my Standard B01 Orzhov Cleric Tribal deck. Wilds of Eldraine has been fully spoiled and Pre-Release weekend is only days away. Unfortunately, this is going to be a short post as this latest set is not Cleric friendly. Even if I expand my search to include the supplementary Wilds of Eldraine Commander Decks and Wilds of Eldraine Enchanting Tales, there are only two Clerics to be found!

Starfield Mystic

Starfield Mystic is a reprint from Core 2020 that will unfortunately not make its way into my Standard B01 Orzhov Cleric Tribal deck if only because it is not Standard-legal as it is from the Commander set.

Woodland Acolyte is an Adventure card that will also not be invited into my deck. In this case, the first big reason is that the Adventure requires a Green pip pip, something an Orzhov deck does not offer. Setting aside the adventure for a moment, the creature side of the card is no less uninviting. I’m not going to cut any 3 mana cards for this one.

So, no changes to the deck at this time. It will stay like this until The Lost Caverns of Ixalan hopefully gives us a better slate of clerics:

  • 3 Infernal Grasp (MID) 107
  • 2 Anointed Peacekeeper (DMU) 2
  • 2 Fateful Absence (MID) 18
  • 3 Evolved Sleeper (DMU) 93
  • 9 Plains (THB) 250
  • 7 Swamp (THB) 252
  • 3 Shadow-Rite Priest (DMU) 106
  • 2 Voice of the Blessed (VOW) 44
  • 3 Shattered Sanctum (VOW) 264
  • 4 Lunarch Veteran (MID) 27
  • 2 Scoured Barrens (NEO) 274
  • 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire (NEO) 278
  • 2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire (NEO) 268
  • 2 Loran’s Escape (BRO) 14
  • 4 Markov Purifier (VOW) 241
  • 2 Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim (DMU) 198
  • 2 Phyrexian Missionary (DMU) 27
  • 2 Liliana of the Veil (DMU) 97
  • 3 Metropolis Reformer (MAT) 0004
  • 2 Annex Sentry (ONE) 2

Sideboard:

  • 2 Farewell (NEO) 13
  • 1 Cut Down (DMU) 89
  • 2 Chaplain of Alms (MID) 13
  • 1 Voice of the Blessed (VOW) 44
  • 1 Intercessor’s Arrest (NEO) 20

Sadly, Wilds of Eldraine is going to be remembered as a big disappointment for Clerics!