RED
GREEN
BLACK
WHITE
ARTIFACTS, LANDS COLORLESS
Animating Faerie
Wind Drake and friends haven't cut it for quite a while now, but Bring to Life is a card I'm a lot more interested in with Food tokens and various artifacts running around. This combines incredibly well with Weapon Rack as my friends pointed out to me, but I'm not sure if that cards worth playing with despite that. Think of the creature half of this as more of an insurance policy than anything else, as you're playing this card for the spell half. As Witching Well doesn't need to tap to activate, curving these into each other will be incredibly powerful, creating a must-kill creature that you can sacrifice to draw cards with once it gets targeted.
Rating: 3.5/5
Brazen Borrower
While nothing about this card is mythic whatsoever, it is powerful. This will often play like Man-o-War with flash and it has a ton of utility because of that. Casting it aggressively on turn 3 will often pay dividends as well, as 3 power 3 mana fliers kill incredibly fast. Using your imagination on Brazen Borrower is the best approach, as there are so many creative ways to use the whole package that you'll always find something strong to do.
Rating: 4/5
Charmed Sleep
This is an exact reprint of Claustrophobia from a bunch of previous sets, so it'll play identically. This is as close to Murder at Sorcery speed that Blue ever gets, and I've always liked this card an awful lot. This is a lot more vulnerable this time around than it is traditionally, but if the Aura dies the creature is still tapped so you don't have to worry much about getting destroyed in combat.
Rating: 3.5/5
Corridor Monitor
Implicitly there's a promise of utility, but at the end of the day this is a 2 man 1/4 that's an Artifact. Sometimes you'll have a powerful artifact to untap, or you'll make Charmed Sleep much less effective, but the vast majority of the time this will give something effective Vigilance.
Rating: 2/5
Didn't Say Please
Thought Collapse with a new, much sillier name, this card looks to line up a bit better than 3 mana counterspells usually do in Limited, as it's the easiest way to stop Adventure spells from generating value. I'm a huge Cancel apologist in Limited, so I'll resist giving this the 5/5 my heart wants me to, but I expect to cast this an awful lot and feel marginally less ashamed than usual. This operates best as a sideboard card against opponents with lots of expensive cards and strong rares/mythics.
Rating: 2.5/5
Emry, Lurker of the Loch
There's a lot going on here, as milling yourself and bringing back artifacts looks to be very powerful in this set. Combining this with a single artifact creature could just be good enough, as chump blocking forever or trading off repeatedly with opposing creatures is so strong when it doesn't cost you any cards. This will require a lot of Artifacts, not for the cost reduction which is always welcome but because this does nothing without one. Just like with White and Knights, I can't imagine many of your Blue decks won't have Artifacts, so you'll barely have to try to make this powerful. Corridor Monitor with this is incredibly powerful, as you'll get a free activation of Emry for close to nothing.
Rating: 4/5
Fae of Wishes
Rating this card for Limited largely must ignore the Adventure, as you'll have to put cards you want in your maindeck in your sideboard instead just for it to do something once in a while. I can foresee using the Wish ability to get an extra Disenchant sometimes, but I don't think it'll come up much. As a 2 mana 1/4 flier that you can bring back later on in the game at the cost of some useless lands, I think this card is good enough on its own. There won't be a lot of Adventuring going on here, but that's alright.
Rating: 3/5
Faerie Vandal
Triggering this a single time makes it worthwhile, and I dream of casting it, casting Thrill of Possibility, and eating an opponents creature all in the same turn. Some decks will have a real tough time getting rid of this once you get the second trigger, and winning from there should be fairly trivial. As long as you're willing to pay the cost of putting a bunch of Opts and Thrill of Possibilities in your deck, Faerie Vandal is a huge pay-off to the U/R Draw Two strategy.
Rating: 3.5/5
Folio of Fancies
As a win condition in a controlling Blue deck, this could certainly be powerful. With a lot of mana available, it's realistic to activate the card draw ability for the maximum on your opponent's end step and the mill them out on the following turn, without ever donating any castable cards to your opponent in the meantime. As that's an effect I don't expect many decks to want, this card is narrow but shouldn't be dismissed.
Rating: 1.5/5
Charmed Sleep takes a lot away from this one, as Blue decks shouldn't be hurting so badly for removal that they'll have to resort to this one. Clearing the air for your fliers is the primary usage of this card, as it's pretty awful to let your opponent get a block off with their 1/1 creature during a race. Frogify is acceptable in the desperate situation where you haven't seen any removal spells, but it's more of a fail safe than real card. Out of the sideboard this gets much stronger, as it's much more acceptable against big Green creatures.
Rating: 1/5
Gadwick, the Wizened
Comparing this to it's WWW counterpart is quite the joke, as this card is pretty powerful cast on curve in aggressive Blue heavy deck, and absolutely amazing when cast on all subsequent turns. There's some real flexibility and some amazing power here, and I'd go quite out of my way to have a chance to cast Gadwick reliably. It's also great with Instants, as you can use them to slow your opponent down and set up for a lethal attack.
Rating: 4.5/5
Hypnotic Sprite
Unless you're committed to Blue you'll rarely have the option to cast this on turn two, but the weird two installment Mystic Snake is strong enough in it's own right. Like its cousin Prohibit this gets a whole lot better on the Play vs. the Draw, so keep that in mind every time you sideboard. Hypnotic Sprite is still worthwhile to just cast without the Adventure, although some devotion to Blue goes a long way in maximizing this.
Rating: 3.5/5
Into the Story
If you can fulfill the condition this card is incredible, and without it it's heinously expensive. To some extent this combines well with Didn't Say Please, but seven cards in graveyard is an awful lot, especially with Adventure causing a lot of cards to hang out in the Exile zone when they'd normally be headed to the Graveyard instead. Power isn't this cards problem, but you're going to have to build your deck either knowing you can often cast it for 4 later on in the game or knowing you're always paying full retail and accepting it.
Rating: 2/5
The Magic Mirror
The build around cost here is really high, as you need to get this to 6 mana before it's particularly realistic to cast, and you have to specifically lean on Instants/Sorceries to get this one going. After going through all of the work to get this into play, it can just get destroyed before you get any return, or if you're low enough on cards in library already your opponent can just stall the game until it kills you. If I'm putting The Magic Mirror in my deck, I'm going to make sure I have some way of killing it or bouncing it so that it won't kill me before I can finish my opponent off.
Rating: 2/5
Low creature counts will often be a major attribute of decks that are effectively using the Draw Two mechanic and a card that will only pump a creature I already have in that circumstance just doesn't do it for me. If you can't trigger the ability, the equip cost of 3 is incredibly high. The decks that want this don't look like they exist, so leave this one in the packs.
Rating: .5/5
Merfolk Secretkeeper
Milling your opponent is a common way to get tricked into playing a bad Limited deck, but Merfolk Secretkeeper could be an exception to that, especially if you draft a bunch of them. I'm a lot happier to include a card in my deck that just mills my opponent when it's attached to a creature, and this will play like a more flexible but harder to cast Wall of Lost Thoughts from Ravnica Allegiance. Playing this alongside Run Away Together seems like a real game winning combination, and with both pieces of that synergy having individual merit, I'm pretty happy to include Merfolk Secret Keeper in Blue decks in general.
Rating: 2.5/5
Another card I love that doesn't look like it'll win a whole lot of games, Midnight Clock is just as slow as the clock in your office during a bad day at work. You don't have to bog down the game for this to be effective, you have to stop it completely, in which case I'd rather just include a couple Merfolk Secretkeepers to ensure my opponent decks out before me instead of spending upwards of 18 mana for a personal Timetwister. The ramp side of this isn't the worst, but as you need Blue to cast it it doesn't look nearly as good as Spinning Wheel at uncommon. I envision casting this, investing millions of mana in it, only for my opponent to Disenchant it at the 11th hour.
Rating: 1.5/5
Enchantments and Artifacts is a huge swath of cards to copy for this set, and I expect this to perform well even if you're lacking in targets from your own deck. This can get incredibly tricky if you have the option to copy a detrimental Aura like Trapped in a Tower, as your opponent has no idea what you're going to attach it to until it's too late for them to do a whole lot about it. While my eyes won't pop out of my head when I open this, Mirrormade is still a welcome addition to the vast majority of Blue decks.
Rating: 3.5/5
Price-wise, the body you're getting for mana invested is incredibly anemic and inefficient. As such, you're largely playing this for the ability, and with 5 toughness this will be awful difficult to kill at the time it comes down. I envision a scenario where it gives you a few damage the turn after it comes down, and then it'll help you shut the door later on in the game while providing some real defense until then. Non-human is an awkward restriction here as it'll be close to useless if you're U/W, so keep in mind this is an every color but White kind of card.
Rating: 2/5
By the time you're casting this, I'd take it for granted that you'll control an Artifact or Enchantment. This can't rebuy Adventure spells, but it will generate some mana advantage to help offset it's massive asking price. As I expect this format to skew slow, I think you'll be able to justify Moonlit Scavenger to top your curve, but this is not as exciting as the usual Man-o-War style creature. On the rare times when the ability is in active, this card is horrific, so make sure you're not overzealous sacrificing Food tokens before this can come down.
Rating: 2/5
Mystical Dispute
Against other Blue decks this card is almost unfair, as it's so trivial to hold this up whenever to either massively slow down your opponent or trade at insane efficiency. When you're opponents not packing Blue cards this is markedly worse, but it's still about as good as Didn't Say Please as you trade the guarantee of efficacy for an easier time casting the spell.
Rating: 2.5/5
I wrote an entire article about this card already, available here. To summarize, this card is always pretty mediocre but gets a lot better if you have strong cards to find, or in Throne of Eldraine's case if you care about the Draw Two mechanic.
Rating: 2/5
Overwhelmed Apprentice
There's a ton going on here for just 1 mana, and I expect this to perform pretty well if you care about Milling your opponent for the various cards that care. As this isn't the most relevant draw during later turns it still loses major points, but getting to mill the opponent before you actually Scry is really cool when you're casting this turn 1 in the dark. Overwhelmed Apprentice doesn't impress, but in decks that care about milling it'll be good enough.
Rating: 1.5/5
A vastly inferior version of Ardenvale Tactician is still a good enough card as it turns out. This skews much more defensive than its White Flying Cousin, and will hold the ground very effectively. I wouldn't feel all that bad about just firing the Adventure half on turn two if you've got nothing else going on, as the body is relevant enough on turn 3 that it's not much of a cost to pay. Blocking this and attacking into it with similarly sized creatures will be pretty awkward, as there's a real punishment for bouncing off Queen of Ice.
Rating: 3/5
Despite that I already reviewed this one and a few others during spoiler season, the context for this one has really changed since day 1 of spoiler season. Run Away Together looks incredible, as it rebuys Adventures, blows out detrimental Auras, and makes combat tough to navigate all for just two mana. This card skews defensive, but has enough utility that I want 2+ in any Blue deck.
Rating: 3.5/5
Blue is flush with non-Humans, and this is also a fantastic and repeatable enabler for Draw Two decks as well. 2/5 is good stats for what's largely a utility creature, although for 5 mana it is quite inefficient. As lands are so dead by the time this comes down in general, it will play an awful lot like a big Elvish Visionary with future upside, and that's a package that excites me an awful lot.
Rating 3.5/5
Many of us are sick of hearing this comment in our personal lives, and it looks an awful lot like we'll be hearing it in Limited just as often. At one mana this is a strong card that can get us ahead on mana early on in the game, and much later in the game this is effectively Swords to Plowshares. This scales really poorly in multiples past the first two, but So Tiny is a strong virtual removal spell that turns on various cards because it doubles as an Enchantment that sits in play. 1 mana is the part to really harp on here, as that makes every aspect of this card much more appealing.
Rating: 3/5
Steelgaze Griffin
Conditional Air Elemental won't have the smoothest play pattern in the world. You're going to turn your Opts into burn spells and maybe surprise the occasional opponent, but the cost here is really steep when you're not triggering it. Steelgaze Griffin does have effective blocking stats until the time when you're ready to trigger it, but this is a point of power or toughness short of appeal.
Rating: 1.5/5
Continuing the theme established by Brazen Borrower where Faeries steal things by bouncing them, which I'll admit makes absolutely no sense, Stolen by the Fae is incredibly powerful although it's going to be really awkward to cast sometimes. You're always gated by the mana cost of what you can bounce, so there won't be a whole lot of late game flood out dreams of casting this for X = 8 and just winning the game on the spot, but even bouncing your opponent's two or three drop with this is very powerful, and the utility provided alongside Adventure makes this a great rare.
Rating: 4/5
Syr Elenora, the Discerning
Discerning that this is a card you should happily jam into your deck shouldn't be very difficult, as the absolute floor on this card is a hard to target 1/4 draw a card, and once you have a fat stack as a hand this is incredibly threatening. While I really wish this had some form of evasion, expect this to play incredibly well alongside Run Away Together on both sides and to trigger Draw Two, meaning it'll be great in every Blue deck imaginable.
Rating: 4/5
Tome Raider
Flying Elvish Visionary is a tad less appealing at 3 mana, but I still expect this one to perform well as having no card cost is just so nice on any cheap creature. As this triggers Draw Two and works effectively with Run Away Together just like Syr Elenora above, you can easily jam this in any Blue deck and expect results. You can even shave a land if you have a bunch of Tome Raiders as it's cheap enough, although you'll still have to mind the color restrictions you've got.
Rating: 3/5
Turn into a Pumpkin
We haven't seen a Repulse without some drawback for a long time now, and this one is quite close but has an extra mana tacked on to compensate. Blue doesn't look like it cares an awful lot about Adamant in general, so I expect it to be good late game upside in Blue decks here rather than something to pull me toward playing incredibly Blue heavy decks. As Blue generally lacks Food pay-offs aside from wanting to control an Artifact, the Adamant here is largely a Kicker cost that can be paid later. Turn into a Pumpkin is a nice card to have, but it's expensive enough that it's not great in multiples.
Rating: 3/5
Unexplained Vision
Adamant here once again functions as extra late game pay-off, as this is also not much of a pay-off for trying to go mono Blue. Some decks will certainly want this, but I expect Witching Well to be the contested Blue draw spell, not Unexplained Vision. If you are very Blue heavy this card is pretty incredible, as it gives such massive card selection. Like the White Adamant +1/+1 counter spell, I expect this to see more play than it's power level would dictate.
Rating: 2/5
Early on in the game this is a brick wall, as it's so massive that it'll often trade for a creature and combat trick together. Later on you have a hyper-efficient gigantic Flying attacker, and with the tap ability this card helps turn that synergy on while it's stuck having virtual Defender. This card is incredibly punishing if you mulligan, especially on the Play, as if you're casting any other spells at all this is just in play with no text whatsoever. There's always a bit of a subgame with this in play of managing how many cards in your hand that you play out, but as long as you've got ways to draw extra cards it won't be too hard to manage.
Rating: 3.5/5
As none of the other Blue Adamant cards seem like real pulls into mono Blue, Vantress Paladin is going to be left on the sidelines an awful lot. 4 mana 2/2 fliers are just not acceptable, and this is only a toughness above the curve for a card that effectively costs 1UUU. Any time you happen to already be Blue heavy this will really pull it's weight, but that looks to be a rare enough circumstance that I really just like this one (feat. Kylie Minogue).
Rating 1/5
Wishful Merfolk
Potentially the perfect two drop for any controlling Blue deck, this is capable of trading with most creatures early on and is effective at turning the corner later on. You'll turn off non-Human text when you activate this, which will have occasional relevance, but it doesn't knock any points off the card as it's so rare. Keep this out of your aggressive decks, as the extra power over what you'd normally get doesn't remotely out weigh the two mana tax.
Rating: 2.5/5
The winner of the "Most Mispronounced" card in the set, Witching Well fulfills a lot of roles that Blue decks will be looking for, as it's a cheap Artifact but it can also trigger the Draw Two mechanic whenever you need it later on. As you're paying for this in installments, it won't often feel like it costs 5 mana unless you draw it around that turn or if you're playing an incredibly mana efficient game as is. Blue decks with an aggressive slant without synergies won't really want this, but it'll be an important role player for everyone else, and will need to be picked before things start wheeling.
Rating: 3/5
Takeaways
Blue has a lot going for it this time around, and very few discernible weaknesses outside of a general lack of strong rares/mythics. I expect to end up Blue after taking early copes of Charmed Sleep, rather than by taking a rare or uncommon, but that shouldn't have too much of a detriment once the draft plays out. Blue skews controlling, with numerous ways to generate value, draw extra cards, and with plenty of efficient interactive spells at common. Synergies aren't plentiful here, but Draw Two looks trivial to turn on as does Artifact/Enchantment controlling synergies, so while you won't get a ton of power from building a synergistic deck you'll make up for that by not having to work for it.
Charmed Sleep
I'm not as stoked about Aura removal spells as I'd normally be, but this one is close enough to Sorcery speed Murder, as well as there being a few Blue cards that want you to control an Enchantment that I think Charmed Sleep will perform really well in Throne of Eldraine Limited.
Best Uncommon
Syr Elenora
An effective finisher that doubles as a synergy card is exactly what I'm looking for in Blue. This is even really difficult to target which makes bouncing it back to your hand in response feel sickening, and I expect this card to kill a lot of people.
Best Rare/Mythic
Gadwick, the Wizened
Gadwick does have a huge Blue commitment attached, but while it's rotting in your hand it's getting more and more powerful over time. I expect playing against this card to feel incredibly oppressive, as it feels unbeatable cast on pretty much any turn whatsoever. It's not even that it's a super powerful draw spell, 3/3s are just relevant threats on most boards and the tapping ability attached will means that it's also going to need to be killed.
Until next time,
Kevin
@sealedawaymtg on Twitter
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