Not Human

Over spoiler season thus far, we've seen non-human as a major set mechanic in Throne of Eldraine.  Today we were gifted with Rosethorn Halberd, a card I could not have possibly envisioned just a few years ago.  Rosethorn Halberd is Unholy Strength that only hits non-humans, but has the upside of equip later on in the game.  I expect most aggressive green decks to want this, as it gives you some serious punch for very little early, and makes your creatures a lot more threatening down the road.  5 mana is a ton, and shouldn't be underestimated; so don't play this unless it hits the vast majority of your creatures.  I'm unsure how this plays as an artifacts vs. an enchantment, but I expect this to be yet another reason to main deck disenchants.

Some time ago, we saw Grumgully, the Generous for the first time, and I expect to base my R/G decks around maximizing it.  Good-Fortune Unicorn was an absolutely incredible card in Modern Horizons, and I expect this to be substantially better as long as we're aware of the condition.  The jump from 3/3 to 2/2 is enormous, as what would normally be a glorified enchantment now battles with its peers with ease.  Combining Grumgully with Rosethorn Halberd can give a massive creature sizing advantage, and if we can get some Prey Upon style cards in the mix we have the promise of a powerful archetype.  Just based off the Grumgully alone, I expect R/G to be very powerful, as if R/G as an archetype falls flat you can expect to use this card to make it playable anyways.

A quick note about the poor wording on this card, it always gives a +1/+1 counter to any creature that comes into play with it in play.  Additional doesn't need it to already have counters, despite what that would mean if you were taking it literally.

Not Human as a Mechanic

Normally creature types are pretty irrelevant in Limited, but with this mechanic Humans will have a large knock against them in terms of overall playability.  The more seriously you take this restriction the better, as it gets so much better if you really commit and don't play a singular Human aside from Rares/Mythics.  Although it's easy to justify, don't fall into the trap of "just playing a few" humans and not expecting to be punished.  You're not going to outsmart your pile of cards.

From the opponents side, remember as a rule to always pay attention to their creature types here as well.  As Knights is the other major tribe (with many of them Humans), knowing what are Knights, Humans, and everything in between will be important to mastering Throne of Eldraine Limited.  

"Deathless Knight" as it's speculated, in Italian above, has the following text.

"Haste

Whenever you gain life for the first time each turn, return Deathless Knight from your graveyard to your hand"
Credit to Mythic Spoiler for this translation, available here. 

"Skeleton Knight" is the biggest thing that pertains to us today, as there looks to be very few non-human Knights in the set.  It's going to take some real work color-wise, but this card works well with both Joust and Grumgully, so a Green heavy deck splashing Red could maximize this off creature types alone, ignoring the life gain text altogether.

Until next time,
Kevin
@sealedawaymtg on Twitter