Wishful Thinking #1: Talking about the Throne!

Hey everyone, it’s Blue again, and in today’s Wishful Thinking, I’m here to talk to you about what I want to see in Throne of Eldraine. I’m really excited for the set and I want to share with y’all that excitement. Keep in mind though, this isn’t a predictions article, this is just me talking about what I’d personally like to see in the set. Before we begin, remember to check us out on Twitter @MTGOracle and follow me on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, and YouTube! Let’s get started!

As with every new set, there’s a lot of buzz around Throne of Eldraine and we haven’t even started spoiler season yet! It’s rumored to start sometime around the beginning of September, but until then, all we can do is speculate, predict, and hope it lives up to the hype. From what we’ve seen so far, I really like the idea Wizards had here. The art has me kinda freaked out, but it gives me this feeling that the set is a mashup of Lorwyn and Innistrad. Speaking of art, I can’t wait to see what Wizards does with The Gingerbread Man running away with a pie (pictured below.) I hope this is a creature and it’s type is “bread beast” or something stupid like that. Imagine the creature type “bread” being in an official standard set!

Seriously though, I think it’s time I actually told you what I want out of this set. Obviously I’m excited for the fairly tales, but I’m curious what lands we get out of it. I’ve heard a lot of people ask for pain lands like Adakar wastes, I’ve heard others ask to finish the scry lands like Temple of Enlightenment, but I think we need new lands. I think right now is the best time to finish the shadow land cycle, like Port Town. The last time we saw these lands in standard, we had Tango lands to have them enter untapped. Now, we have shocklands to the same affect. Eldraine gives us the same feel as Innistrad, the plane these were originally printed on, and on top of all that, we get to finish a cycle! There are loads of playable ally-colored lands, but hardly any playable enemy-colored lands. Though these aren’t the best lands ever, I’d be excited to see them just to have new enemy-colored lands around. I could also see them printing ally-colored canopy lands, like Horizon Canopy, to give us an untapped allied land to go with the tapped enemy scry lands for standard, and to give us more playable lands in modern. I won’t be upset if they don’t give us either of those, but it would be nice.

Of course, we’re practically guaranteed new lands with rotation coming up, so I’m not too worried about that. I’m more concerned with spot removal. With rotation happening, we’re left with not a lot. We keep Bedevil[c], [c]Mortify, Lava Coil, Prison Realm, Conclave Tribunal, Assassin’s Trophy, and Tyrant’s Scorn out of what sees play right now. As good as all of those spells are, I don’t think that’s enough for standard. Lava Coil is damage-based, so it’s a little hit-or-miss depending on what you’re playing against, Prison Realm and Conclave Tribunal are enchantments so they get destroyed by a lot of main deck cards, including half of the other four cards I named. On top of that, those other four cards are all multicolored black cards, so the removal we’re left with makes me feel like you’re being pushed into playing black-based 3-color decks. I’m hoping we get some good removal in Eldraine, preferably not black-based. I don’t think we should get Path to Exile/c], [c]Beast Within or anything of that power level, but I would love to see more removal in colors other than black.

Of all the things we could see in Eldraine though, there’s a mechanic that I personally think is perfect for it and I’m going to be upset if Wizards doesn’t bring it back. I think Transform is exactly the kind of thing I want in a horrified fairy tale world. Something like, Goldilocks is playing with the bears on the front half, but then she transforms into a bear-killing monster. The gingerbread man is an innocent little cookie fresh out of the oven, but then transforms into a 10-foot tall monster terrorizing old ladies. Thematically, it fits the plane and the horror-ification of famous fairy tales.

All in all, I think Throne of Eldraine has a lot of potential to be a great set. What do y’all want to see or think will be in the set? Let me know down below! Don’t forget that we are partnered with TCGPlayer! Click the link and any purchases made from that visit go to help support us! As always, check us out on Twitter @MTGOracle and me @TwoBlueUntapped to keep up with everything Magic. This is Blue, Signing out!