The above card is one of many cards of the new Adventure mechanic that looks to define Throne of Eldraine's Limited environment. Every card with Adventure can be cast for its Adventure cost, where you can later cast the creature from Exile. In Rosethorn Acolyte's case, you get the ability to filter a Green mana into something else early on, and then can cast it as a 2/3 mana creature on turn three, meaning this card begins its relevancy on turn 1, and carries it until turn 3 where it's a pretty powerful common creature. What's cool about this card is that if you're trying to splash a spell or two, you can instantly cast it using Seasonal Ritual right when you draw it, rather than having to wait a turn and crossing your fingers. Rosethorn Acolyte seems pretty atypical for the mechanic, but is a good example of how flexible Adventure can be.
Order of Midnight is a much more typical Adventure card, and falls into one of the two main camps that seem to define Adventure cards. You have cards like this, where you can cast them early on in order to facilitate a good curve, or you can wait in order to get more overall power. The other camp is the exact opposite, where you can get some effect early and then get something that works with it on curve, such as Love-struck Beast.
Adventure cards will take a bit longer to evaluate than your normal limited fair, as you're going to have to add both parts together, but also look at them separately to value the flexibility correctly. Order of Midnight is closest to Gravedigger from every core set ever, although it differs in that it effectively costs 2BB, has flying, and can't block. 2/2 Fliers can be quite strong when played on curve, and the Raise Dead mode won't always be turned, especially early in the game. I expect this card to get cast an awful lot as its 2 mana version, even though the 4 mana version is much more powerful.
The implications of having decks full of cards like this is massive, and will define how this limited format plays out. Most decks in this format will have something reasonable to do every turn of the game, which will make hitting land drops paramount and flooding out a lot less likely. I already expect 18 lands to be the baseline of this format, based off of this mechanic alone, and I know that's where I plan to start. I also expect this format to be slow, although with that being said everyone will have access to some sort of curve most games. You'll be able to put piles of cheap and expensive split cards in your deck, ensuring that you'll be able to spend your mana effectively every turn of the game. Mulligans will likely be pretty punishing as a result as every resource will always matter, but every hand of "lands & spells" will be a keep.
Here's a quick example of the opposite type of Adventure card, as the basic half of this card is a 1 mana 1/2 that can hit the opponent to disenchant something, and the other half is 7 mana for three 2/2s, with access to the 1 mana 1/2 later on. I'm not quite sure how good this card is going to be as I don't know how valuable either a 1 mana 1/2 or a mediocre disenchant will be, but with that being said I think starting your curve on turn 1 will be a good way to get ahead in a metagame where Limited decks are handing out mana efficiency like candy. Remember not to evaluate Adventure cards as inefficient, but as flexible.
I'm gearing up for Montreal for the next month, and as such I'm going to be exploring every facet of Throne of Eldraine Limited that I can in the meantime. Expect a lot of articles as spoiler season gets into full swing.
Until next time,
Kevin
@sealedawaymtg on Twitter
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