I don't care that this set is lower-powered than quite a few others in recent memory; there are bound to be playable cards in it. So this is the place to make your own Top 10 lists for Throne of Eldraine! I'll kick things off with my Top 10 New to Modern, as usual:
Hushbringer: Dagnabbit, a sideboard card is the most likely to see play in Modern, IMO. Shutting off "dies" triggers as well as ETB triggers is pretty good, though.
Witch's Vengeance: Wiping out most Humans and Spirits is worth it in sideboards alone, and then there are more fringe tribes like Merfolk, Elves, Goblins, Elementals, and Faeries.
Drown in the Loch: A card that can be a counterspell or a spot removal spell is pretty darn versatile, especially at 2 mana. Modern loves exiling its opponents' entire graveyards, though, which is why this isn't ranked higher.
Once Upon a Time: Creature-based combo just got faster. Being 2 mana on its off days is quite good, too, as is digging for lands.
Beanstalk Giant: It's a ramp spell that doubles as a big threat later in the game. That should give it major brownie points.
Wishclaw Talisman: Whirza's seen a steep rise in Modern, and this conditional-in-practice tutor should give it a boost in fast match-ups. Whirza has the sac outlets to support it and the tutors to find it, at any rate...
Emry, Lurker of the Loch: She's similarly only here because of Whirza. She find your desired artifacts more poorly than Goblin Engineer does, but she might produce card advantage more easily, and she's often cheaper. Turns out she's also an infinite combo with Jeskai Ascendancy and something like Mishra's Bauble or double Mox Opal, so maybe I should rank her higher.
Fae of Wishes: An expensive but colour-friendly tutor, and jump through some hoops and you can tutor again with it. Might see play in decks capable of pumping out big mana.
Castle Locthwain: It's another draw engine on a land! The life payment price can be steep at times, but surely you can go Hellbent more easily in decks that want it...
How in the world is Beanstalk Giant a Modern playable card? Mystic Sanctuary has a much higher chance of seeing Modern play than an overcosted beatstick with an overcosted ramp spell attached
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
Yeah i cant deny it. This set is lower on powa-level.
BUT: All 3 Plabeswalkers are very good.
Especially Oko.
This is the powa -level i expect from Plameswalkers.
I dont care about Eldraine after this. It seems like a filler anyway.
Lets go to Theros & see Elspeth !
How in the world is Beanstalk Giant a Modern playable card? Mystic Sanctuary has a much higher chance of seeing Modern play than an overcosted beatstick with an overcosted ramp spell attached
I initially put Mystic Sanctuary in 10th place in my Modern list, but then I remembered that Witch's Vengeance exists. Beanstalk Giant seems like an easy fit for RGx Valakut variants: they've gotten as desperate as sideboarding Chandra, Awakened Inferno at times, so more threats are always welcomed.
In my testing of both so far, Beanstalk Giant hasn't been cast as a creature so far, while Mystic Sanctuary has topdeck recurred two spells so far. However, the wait required to make Mystic Sanctuary good has definitely hurt it, and in comparison, Castle Ardenvale swung a game in its favour.
Yeah i cant deny it. This set is lower on powa-level.
BUT: All 3 Plabeswalkers are very good.
Especially Oko.
This is the powa -level i expect from Plameswalkers.
I dont care about Eldraine after this. It seems like a filler anyway.
Lets go to Theros & see Elspeth !
The planeswalkers seem OK overall if niche in Modern, and I've tried Oko, Thief of Crowns with some success in Whirza. If he didn't keep destabilizing mana bases so hard, I'd try him in my current Emry Ascendant Whirza variant list--he's good at hosing multiple pieces of permanent-based graveyard hate, and he can hose, kill off, or at least dance around Stony Silence and friends.
Its just flat out efficient and flexible, with a free creature attached to it.
In black/red decks you can rebuy it even with Kolaghan's Command and the like, which is already a backbreaking curve of removal, even more so if you get it all back with a Snapcaster Mage or do similar nonsense.
----
Irencrag Pyromancer with lots of cantrip and cycling, and all the blue cheap draw lots of cards stuff, this is shooting 3 damage around every turn, in your and the opponents.
That wins fairly quick, especially in a Living End deck, that has lots of cycling creatures anyway.
----
Once Upon a Time , any deck that just wants to tutor for specific creature quickly, this might just be what you need.
Getting the first for free gives you 11 cards to look at, snatching your combo piece to win.
Does nothing else, but if your combo deck wants this kind of spell, this does it.
----
Wildborn Preserver actually a obscene creature in itself, as it "combos" with any other undercosted creature.
Also works well with fetchland on Dryad Arbor to get a free creature, pay 2+ mana to pump this guy to 4/4 and go to town.
They have to kill it, or it wins reasonable quickly.
Having flash on its own is a big seller, as you can play this in a deck with counterspells and just wait till they untap for something big, like a planeswalker, then play this and eat whatever they did.
In standard the UG flash deck is just building itself.
Could be a thing in older formats too.
----
Faeburrow Elder , being a 2/2 on its own to tap for 2 is already ramping in 6+ fairly quickly ; which will usually just win the game right away.
If you can untap this with some cheaper mana over and over, its infinite mana right there.
This card will either be just plain good, or combo win on the spot ; neither is healthy for a format.
----
Stonecoil Serpent , the kind of card that is flat out efficient, and being a 0 mana artifact can on its own be a means to combo.
Hardened Scales and friends can scoop this up.
Against opponents with lots of multicolor cards this delivers quite a lot.
Maybe the Mystic Forge storm deck can take off with the amount of 0 mana artifacts it has already, gimp on lands and you play your entire decks with the Forge immediately.
----
All the rare lands are EDH commander goodness.
Grab them, hold them, they are guaranteed to get more expensive, as they have no real drawback in commander.
From the common lands Mystic Sanctuary is the big offender.
Get it, especially foil.
It combos so easily with Time Warp effects and getting it back over and over for infinite turns isnt "that" complicated.
Even works as a pseudo lock with Cryptic Command, bounce your land, replay it every turn, get the command back and repeat.
This either means, you counter whatever they do over and over, or you tap all their creatures over and over ; whatever you do, it simply wins the game and you get all that for a fetchable Island that will produce value with all your spells.
Its simply never a fair card if you put it in a constructed deck and works with dual lands, so you dont need to play mono-blue either.
Its probably even good to have for a storm deck, as a 1-of to fetch for simply to get your one spell back for the winning turn.
----
The planeswalkers seem to be just "ok" for standard.
They dont really look like cards you want anywhere else ; they are even just "meh" in EDH , as they dont really produce value before they are killed.
Having a lot of loyality for the 3 mana walkers at least helps to not be dead instantly, but its still not too amazing what they do.
Might be enough to get the Phoenix back on rolling in modern, also possible inclusions for Dredge anyway.
----
Almost all these cards are "possible" combo cards in some way or another.
They are not flat-out crazy on their own, but they might slot in some decks or produce changes in decks to get them to their full potential.
All of these cards are worth buying into when they are really cheap (1 buck and under) , get the foils of the commons if they are almost free to get ; and if any of these sees play, the value will sky rocket fairly quickly so you can either unload, or got your cards cheap.
If they tank and do nothing, you lost not much money anyway, so theres no really a loss at all.
Mystic Sanctuary has a much higher chance of seeing Modern play than an overcosted beatstick with an overcosted ramp spell attached
BUT: All 3 Plabeswalkers are very good.
Especially Oko.
This is the powa -level i expect from Plameswalkers.
I dont care about Eldraine after this. It seems like a filler anyway.
Lets go to Theros & see Elspeth !
I initially put Mystic Sanctuary in 10th place in my Modern list, but then I remembered that Witch's Vengeance exists. Beanstalk Giant seems like an easy fit for RGx Valakut variants: they've gotten as desperate as sideboarding Chandra, Awakened Inferno at times, so more threats are always welcomed.
In my testing of both so far, Beanstalk Giant hasn't been cast as a creature so far, while Mystic Sanctuary has topdeck recurred two spells so far. However, the wait required to make Mystic Sanctuary good has definitely hurt it, and in comparison, Castle Ardenvale swung a game in its favour.
The planeswalkers seem OK overall if niche in Modern, and I've tried Oko, Thief of Crowns with some success in Whirza. If he didn't keep destabilizing mana bases so hard, I'd try him in my current Emry Ascendant Whirza variant list--he's good at hosing multiple pieces of permanent-based graveyard hate, and he can hose, kill off, or at least dance around Stony Silence and friends.
It kills planeswalkers quite effective.
Being 1 toughness is a big downer due to Wren&Six.
----
Emry, Lurker of the Loch, chances are this will get banned in modern, as this is just way too easy to play turn-1 and then combo off turn 2.
Even if it doesnt combo, you still get to play it for value.
This card just flat out makes Mox Opal even more degenerate as it already is.
Any Affinity deck wants to play this , Urza decks want to play it, lots of Vintage decks slam it for free too.
Its the kind of card you have to wonder what they where thinking and who actually play tested this card at all.
----
Bonecrusher Giant in almost any burn deck this will be welcome.
Its just flat out efficient and flexible, with a free creature attached to it.
In black/red decks you can rebuy it even with Kolaghan's Command and the like, which is already a backbreaking curve of removal, even more so if you get it all back with a Snapcaster Mage or do similar nonsense.
----
Irencrag Pyromancer with lots of cantrip and cycling, and all the blue cheap draw lots of cards stuff, this is shooting 3 damage around every turn, in your and the opponents.
That wins fairly quick, especially in a Living End deck, that has lots of cycling creatures anyway.
----
Once Upon a Time , any deck that just wants to tutor for specific creature quickly, this might just be what you need.
Getting the first for free gives you 11 cards to look at, snatching your combo piece to win.
Does nothing else, but if your combo deck wants this kind of spell, this does it.
----
Wildborn Preserver actually a obscene creature in itself, as it "combos" with any other undercosted creature.
Also works well with fetchland on Dryad Arbor to get a free creature, pay 2+ mana to pump this guy to 4/4 and go to town.
They have to kill it, or it wins reasonable quickly.
Having flash on its own is a big seller, as you can play this in a deck with counterspells and just wait till they untap for something big, like a planeswalker, then play this and eat whatever they did.
In standard the UG flash deck is just building itself.
Could be a thing in older formats too.
----
Faeburrow Elder , being a 2/2 on its own to tap for 2 is already ramping in 6+ fairly quickly ; which will usually just win the game right away.
If you can untap this with some cheaper mana over and over, its infinite mana right there.
This card will either be just plain good, or combo win on the spot ; neither is healthy for a format.
----
Stonecoil Serpent , the kind of card that is flat out efficient, and being a 0 mana artifact can on its own be a means to combo.
Hardened Scales and friends can scoop this up.
Against opponents with lots of multicolor cards this delivers quite a lot.
Maybe the Mystic Forge storm deck can take off with the amount of 0 mana artifacts it has already, gimp on lands and you play your entire decks with the Forge immediately.
----
All the rare lands are EDH commander goodness.
Grab them, hold them, they are guaranteed to get more expensive, as they have no real drawback in commander.
From the common lands Mystic Sanctuary is the big offender.
Get it, especially foil.
It combos so easily with Time Warp effects and getting it back over and over for infinite turns isnt "that" complicated.
Even works as a pseudo lock with Cryptic Command, bounce your land, replay it every turn, get the command back and repeat.
This either means, you counter whatever they do over and over, or you tap all their creatures over and over ; whatever you do, it simply wins the game and you get all that for a fetchable Island that will produce value with all your spells.
Its simply never a fair card if you put it in a constructed deck and works with dual lands, so you dont need to play mono-blue either.
Its probably even good to have for a storm deck, as a 1-of to fetch for simply to get your one spell back for the winning turn.
----
The planeswalkers seem to be just "ok" for standard.
They dont really look like cards you want anywhere else ; they are even just "meh" in EDH , as they dont really produce value before they are killed.
Having a lot of loyality for the 3 mana walkers at least helps to not be dead instantly, but its still not too amazing what they do.
----
Thrill of Possibility and Merchant of the Vale, both discard and draw cards ; so everyone in the market for that kind of effect can snatch these up and get value.
Might be enough to get the Phoenix back on rolling in modern, also possible inclusions for Dredge anyway.
----
Almost all these cards are "possible" combo cards in some way or another.
They are not flat-out crazy on their own, but they might slot in some decks or produce changes in decks to get them to their full potential.
All of these cards are worth buying into when they are really cheap (1 buck and under) , get the foils of the commons if they are almost free to get ; and if any of these sees play, the value will sky rocket fairly quickly so you can either unload, or got your cards cheap.
If they tank and do nothing, you lost not much money anyway, so theres no really a loss at all.
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
👮👮👮 #BlueLivesMatter 👮👮👮
SFM just got unbanned and this thing equips swords and Sunforger to itself for free.
If you control the Sunforger, you can pay 3 mana to draw 4 cards (chaining together manamorphoses) before grabbing any trick or spell you may need.