Sets [ELD] Throne of Eldraine

Chris Taylor

Contributor
lovestruckbeastp.jpg
en_OnoAHjNCtA.png
inquisitivepuppet.jpg

I love the implication that Pinocchio grows up in to a pretty french lady
 
Random fact: on the "Wizards plays Magic" Twitch stream yesterday, Melissa DeTora said that [card]Bonecrusher Giant[/card] originally had the adventure half cost R and not 1R. Just straight up Shock++.
 
And if that card had been printed in literally any other set, I would say it's a Shakespeare reference. This set it's 100% Shrek.

Although there are a few Shakespeare references in here too. What's up, the Scottish Play?

Apparently Oko is a reference to A Midsummer Night's Dream as well...

I think we should have gotten a separate Shakespearian world. Maybe in combination with the Industrial Revolution britain world that was teased in Future Sight? I think using Shakespeare as inspiration for the world's history would be kind of interesting.
 
godfuckingdammit, there were SO MANY new cards released in 2019 that I just gave up redesigning my cube and took a breath to wait and see until there's more breathing room for me to do so. Throne of Eldraine actually makes me want to design the cube right now as it holds SO MUCH for it. Once again, I'll have to rethink my cube design as a whole. Now I'll definitely wait until the block's released completely as I have high expectations after the first set.

Cards I find interesting, Part 1 (W/U/Colourless)
en_N7O7Lha07f.png
en_XrjxBIPqKd.png
en_lOqGdUJLja.png
en_HmmMPtiQ2S.png
en_7Qpvu9CBPJ.png
en_eyI8YrthG7.png
en_FyW1R9dFHB.png
en_U9ygWvmTij.png
en_8m0lSh5iFH.png
en_RuR7syJQRZ.png
en_c5GHm9YAgQ.png
en_aoufBS2fHn.png
en_esEkGeUnVI.png
en_H9nB0aPIaB.png
en_JtauYcOnrF.png
en_9lDtbZJCPA.png
en_jfseKvGKC1.png
en_MMxRq0ED5D.png
en_r63H1SBJVU.png
en_VMuQcVP1AD.png

..and some more that are interested in casting Adventures or Food tokens, depending on how much we'll get of them in the whole block.
I have to say that I won't ever add all of the above cards to a single cube, it's just so many cards as I'm still not sure which powerlevel my cube should have. Lots of them just look somewhat interesting. Also, I have to say that I LOVE the uncommons in this set and it reminds me a lot of Dominaria. :) Hopefully, Throne of Eldraine will end up with a similar Limited environment!
 
There isn't a block, just this set. Next set is Thermos.


Oh fuck, that's right, somehow I thought that this will be a block and after that there'll be Theros, although I actually read that it's only a single set. Well, then that means I don't have to wait for more Food/Adventure cards and can start with the resdesign right away. :)

Still feel silly, hihi.

EDIT: Now I feel even more silly because there's a separate thread for inclusions. :D
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
It seems like Wizards keeps breaking their rules :p

From 2019:

Sorry, not going to give you this one. That's not from a standard legal set though, and it's a clear variation of Volrath's Stronghold, which set the precedent for Hall of Heliod's Generosity being legendary. I specifically mentioned standard legal sets, because those are a far better gauge of current design philosophy than supplemental sets. Just because Commander gave us Chaos Warp doesn't mean enchantments removal is in red's color pie either.

Also, there's this post from MaRo himself from not two weeks ago :p : https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/187783989713/mark-can-we-please-please-please-have-more
 
  • Like
Reactions: dbs
I never know how to react when someone adds something to a debate (something which is off topic) only to use it later like a tool.

Do you want me to say anything?

We weren’t talking about Standard sets. You only slipped that word in there at some point during the debate and I chose to ignore it since we were talking about lands that should be legendary and not Standard lands that should be legendary.

Here:
https://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/eld-throne-of-eldraine.2033/page-13#post-85004

As a conclusion:
But alas. As it turns out, the rule is something that is on and off depending on who the customer for a certain set is. Heliod is going to Commander players so they can easily make it legendary without hurting sales and Ardenvale is for Standard players and here it will hurt the sales. Wizards has a built in design flaw now.
 
I never know how to react when someone adds something to a debate (something which is off topic) only to use it later like a tool.

Do you want me to say anything?

We weren’t talking about Standard sets. You only slipped that word in there at some point during the debate and I chose to ignore it since we were talking about lands that should be legendary and not Standard lands that should be legendary.

Here:
https://riptidelab.com/forum/threads/eld-throne-of-eldraine.2033/page-13#post-85004

As a conclusion:
But alas. As it turns out, the rule is something that is on and off depending on who the customer for a certain set is. Heliod is going to Commander players so they can easily make it legendary without hurting sales and Ardenvale is for Standard players and here it will hurt the sales. Wizards has a built in design flaw now.


But not wanting legendary lands in standard is completely relevant as to why the castles from this set aren't legends. Hall of Heliod's Generosity is both a card that is a callback to something older and not something that's ever going to be a part of a standard mana base. Therefore, it is easier for Wizards to make a legendary land without causing headaches for 90% of their high-profile tournament events, mainly Mythic Champions. If, say, Castle Vantress, that could lead to some non-games in their perceived money-making format at their events with the most eyes on them. There have been a lot of lands over the years that represent specific locations that aren't legendary, the most high-profile of them being Valakut, The Molten Pinnacle. This has been going back to at least original Ravnica block, with the Guild Hall lands not being legends. They've been doing this for years, it's just that they finally decided to choose a standard for, well, standard.

Legendary Lands are bad for competitive gameplay so the only time it's appropriate to make a land a legendary is when it isn't for constructed or for when it needs a drawback. The castles were specifically made to go into Mono-Color Standard decks. That's literally the reason why they're not legendary, and that's probably correct. Gameplay trumps flavor.
 
Defintely!

And it’s just a flaw in their game. Like football needed an offside rule in order for it to not be broken to stay on enemy turf.

It would be easy to design them as legendary without it changing much gameplay. If the marketing department decides they can’t sell the consumers on monocolored decks, they could easily just bump some of the other monocolored cards. Or add more monocolor support.

Anyways that is my take on it. And I know there are many solutions that are better than “Blaa we don’t know how to solve this issue so we just ignore it and cut the legendary part of the card type.”

I won’t complain about this issue again.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
I won’t complain about this issue again.
For the record, I was just arguing from their point of view. I actually think you're not wrong in how you feel about these lands not being legendary. It seems silly from a Vorthos point of view, and their explanation of "you can have multiple mana taps in a single location" doesn't make seeing three Castle Ardenvales in play under the control of a single player any less jarring. I do agree with WotC that legendary lands are pretty sucky in practice, because you will either run 4 and randomly lose games because you draw too many mana sources that can not coexist, or you will run 1 or 2 and not see the land over half of the time. It's a lose/lose situation as long as they keep trying to marry putting important geographic locations on land cards with said lands providing good game play.
 
Ultimately, Wizards is working with a 25 year-old game that was the first of its kind. There are a lot of flaws and design issues that aren't done away with because they would require a schism, would go against audience expectation's or would affect older cards. After all, Wizards could fold instant and sorceries into just one card type. They could stop printing two practically identical permanent types and just have colored artifacts to everything. If Garfield designed Magic again, he would put resources outside the deck, like in posterior card games. But they are working on an existing product, flaws and all. They can try to minimize them but they have to live with them for some degree.
 
So far, I have to say that I'm in LOVE with this set! Never had so much fun in Sealed (still a bad format imho) and in this very early phase, it changed Standard for me from 'unfun planeswalker-heavy piece of shit of a format' to 'TRY ALL THE NEW CARDS THAT ARE GOOD AND FLAVOURFUL AND HAVE BEAUTIFUL ART AND MAKE NEW DECKS VIABLE'. Maybe that's because it's my first rotation as I never played Standard before MTGA, but you get the point I guess. :D

After playing ELD a bit, I'm pretty sure that I'll implement a lot of the cards. Besides DOM and original Innistrad block, this set will be defining my redesigned cube, calling it out.
 
Top