Throne of Eldraine: Weekend Spoiler Round-up

We had a relatively uneventful weekend pertaining to spoilers, but there were still some real spicy ones for us Limited folk.

The two cards above, Henge Walker and Clockwork Servant, give us a pretty big insight into Throne of Eldraine's limited format.  First off, mono color decks will likely be realistic, as cards like the above facilitate drafting any mono color deck that'd you'd like.  Second to that is that it'll be worth it to put a Shatter/Disenchant in your main deck, just like you would in the various Mirrodin formats, as these cards are what I'd consider enough to tip the scales in that direction.

Without Adamant, both of these cards are quite terrible, but both are still castable without their 3 color requirement in a pinch.  You won't get punished as hard when playing a splash color in your supposedly mono colored deck, as you would with Goblin Chainwhirler and friends from Dominaria, but you're still putting these cards in your deck expecting to cast them for their Adamant cost.

Henge Walker is not super exciting, but if you're Blue, Black, or Red specifically, I'm a lot more inclined to want it as those colors very rarely get something so efficient at common.  Green and White will maybe want Henge Walker as a 23rd card, so keep in mind that despite its "colorless" nature, Henge Walker is a strange, Grixis card that needs you to be only one of those colors.  If my earlier statement about Shatter/Disenchants being main deck cards comes to fruition, it'll be a pretty big liability on this card that it dies to such effects.  I except Henge Walker to be mediocre, but playable.

Clockwork Servant is a pretty incredible card by comparison, and is the type of card that might push me toward trying to draft mono color.  A 2/3 for three that can be cast by anyone is the type of card that often makes decks, begrudgingly, but a 2/3 for three that draws a card is very exciting.  Once you're bringing it back with Order of Midnight, or bouncing it with Run Away Together to get yet another free card, the cascading advantage you can generate can win games.

The above card was translated at this website, just to give credit to those who translated this card from Spanish.  Keep in mind that Fires of Invention has a small chance of not ending up as the card's actual English name.

We're making a called shot here, but I expect this to be one of those rares that no one ever takes in Limited, so if one is opened and you want it, you can get it.  Fires of Invention  looks like it does absolutely nothing for Limited; it costs 4 total mana and doesn't replace itself either.

I certainly missed something when I first looked at Fires of Invention; you can cast anything, regardless of mana cost or color restriction, as long as you have enough lands in play.  The turn you cast Fires of Invention for example, you can play any 4 mana card whatsoever, including the various 4 hybrid mana cost cards available throughout the set.  I'm not familiar with any card at this cost that allows for such massive cheating of mana costs, and it's even Red which is certainly not the mana fixing color.

My general gameplan for this card would be to build my deck with a relatively high curve, with some ways to use the mana you're not using once this is in play, such as with activated abilities.  I would likely want to be R/G, as when Fires of Invention isn't in play you need some way to cast your spells, and Green is the color that facilitates that best.  You want to have enough other 4/5 mana cards in your deck so that you can cast Fires of Invention and another 4 mana spell on the same turn, and then cast a five mana card  plus something else the following turn, generating an effective 9+ free mana in the process.  You can't go super crazy when it comes to putting whatever you want in your deck, as sometimes you won't draw Fires of Invention, and sometimes your opponent kills it or counters it.  Lastly, don't forget that you can't cast spells on your opponents turn anymore, so counterspells are totally off the menu and instants must be cast during your turn.

Adamant isn't getting turned off here despite the restrictions, as you still have the option to pay full retail for spells if you'd like, just keep in mind you're still under the 2 spell per turn restriction.

Sleep on this card at your own peril, I expect its value to go up substantially once people start to pick up on what this card can really do.

We're going to leave off here on this bizarre card; I can't think of any other cards in Magic that have Death/Discard triggers.  This is the type of card that you can play totally agnostic to its mana cost, as any deck with a bunch of ways to discard cards will want this to generate Food for nothing.  Once you have 3 ways to discard things for value this becomes a consideration, and at 4+ I'm pretty happy to jam this in my deck with no way of casting it.  I'm a lot less keen on boarding this in vs. opponents with Mind Rot effects, even if you know they have quite a few.

At the time of this writing, there hasn't been a single card in the entire set spoiled that involves discarding cards, except for mythic rare The Royal Scions.  As that trend has no obvious signs of changing, Bartered Cow looks like a mediocre playable in White decks, especially ones that can use Food for something more than 3 life.

I'm really excited for what spoiler season has to show us this week, as the later in the season we get, the more commons and uncommons we usually see.

Until... tomorrow!
Kevin
@sealedawaymtg on Twitter