Sets (ELD) Throne of Eldraine Testing and Includes thread.

[TrainmasterGT]

This is a testing/includes thread. Post pictures or a text list using /c with what cards you plan to include and what cards you plan to test.​

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For me, I'm only going to include a few cards from this set to start with. It was pretty decent over all, but there just weren't a ton of cards that make me want to go out and get them as singles day 1 of release. That said, there are some very nice upgrades that I for sure want to jam into my list!

Spoiler: Includes

Spoiler: Include if I open

Spoiler: Testing

Spoiler: Cards that get better after ELD

Thank you!!

 

[Laz]

Testing Results:

I have been running this for a year or so now (Ok, mine was just Tormenting Voice with 'Instant' written on it). Card is a good little role player and even if you can't hold up removal/counter magic, the flexibility of simply waiting to see how a board state evolves in order to determine what to discard really improves how the card feels.

Includes:

Spoiler

A couple of easy flexible cards - while I want to see how Emry plays, she reads very nicely. I am also really keen to test most of the Adventures.

My other consideration is whether I want to lean into the 'draw your second card in a turn' theme. I really like a lot of the cards, and it gives me an excuse to increase the overall velocity of my list.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Testing Results:

I have been running this for a year or so now (Ok, mine was just Tormenting Voice with 'Instant' written on it). Card is a good little role player and even if you can't hold up removal/counter magic, the flexibility of simply waiting to see how a board state evolves in order to determine what to discard really improves how the card feels.

Includes:

Spoiler

A couple of easy flexible cards - while I want to see how Emry plays, she reads very nicely. I am also really keen to test most of the Adventures.

My other consideration is whether I want to lean into the 'draw your second card in a turn' theme. I really like a lot of the cards, and it gives me an excuse to increase the overall velocity of my list.

I think Improbable Alliance and Faerie Vandal are definitely worth playing even if you don't expand the theme beyond them.

Modern Horizons also had a bunch of card-draw matters stuff in U/R:




I don't think this archetype has very deep Payoffs, but it's so deep on enablers that it's basically a free archetype if you want to add it. There's almost no opportunity cost with substantial benefits.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Spoiler: Includes

Alela, Artful Provocateur
Charming Prince
Emry, Lurker of the Loch
Maraleaf Pixie
Midnight Clock
Opportunistic Dragon
Rankle, Master of Pranks
Thrill of Possibilities

Spoiler: Testing

Beanstalk Giant
Bonecrusher Giant
Embercleave
Embereth Shieldbreaker
Escape to the Wilds
Faerie Guidemother
Gingerbrute
Glass Casket
Grumgully, the Generous
Inquisitive Puppet
Kenrith's Transformation
Order of Midnight
Rimrock Knight
Scalding Cauldron
Shambling Suit
Shepherd of the Flock
Stolen by the Fae
Wintermoor Commander
Witching Well

 

[Aston]

The only card I want to try for sure is Emry, but I'll see how other things feel after having played with them a bit.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

So far, off the testing cards, Embercleave has been potentially too good, and Inquisitive Puppet has been underwhelming. Gingerbrute, Glass Casket, Grumgully, Scalding Cauldron, and Shambling Suit have all been gas

 

[TrainmasterGT]

So far, off the testing cards, Embercleave has been potentially too good, and Inquisitive Puppet has been underwhelming. Gingerbrute, Glass Casket, Grumgully, Scalding Cauldron, and Shambling Suit have all been gas

I am not surprised at all that Inquisitive Puppet has been underwhelming for you. It looked super janky to me.

I'm glad Embercleave has been putting up results- that card is very interesting to me.

What did you take out for Grumgully? I'm kind of considering him in place of Rhythm of the Wild, but I'm not sure losing the ability to give a guy haste is better than giving +1/+1 counters to tokens.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

What did you take out for Grumgully? I'm kind of considering him in place of Rhythm of the Wild, but I'm not sure losing the ability to give a guy haste is better than giving +1/+1 counters to tokens.

When testing cards, I just add them to the file. Only when it tests well will I look for a cut. That being said, I'm probably taking out Borborygmos. That looks like a weird cut, but I've found that the monocolor, tricolor, and artifact sections contain enough high cmc ramp payoffs, that I think RG doesn't need an additional one in its own section.

 

[N0oh]

On grumgullky VS Rhythm, what I expect to be the most relevant change is that Grumgully can be searched with Pod or Green Sun Zenith

 

[Velrun]

Grumgully, the Generous vs. Rhythm of the Wild.

I like my players to have in-game decision making. For me it is a simple choice because I like interesting games where the outcome is sleightly less based on luck and the loser feels like they could have made some different decisions and will Ponder upon that.

 

[psly4mne]

I'm not a fan of the non-Human clause on Grumgully and a few other ELD cards, when a significant fraction of red's beaters are Humans.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Even if Rythem is the better card, Gurmgully is infinitely more interesting.
Rythem even removes lines from your opponents fwiw

 

[ravnic]

I'm adding these 4 cards for sure:



I've been very happy with Goldmeadow Harrier, but this card just seems to be more interesting with more possible decussions and a cooler frame - all without really raising the powerlevel.





I hope the ramp part is not so weak that people don't play it, because I think the upside of a stupid giant later for free is preeeeetty neat.





I was looking for a cool black 2 drop that can beat down. And I got one that's also a Gravedigger variant AND on of the most beautiful magic cards in existence. Yeah.





I always wanted Tormenting Voice to be a little bit better. Thanks wizards.


There are a few more maybes, mostly adventures, but I'm biased since I'm so in love with that frame.

 

[Chris Taylor]

Current Adventures I'm running/considering:

This mechanic is the truth people, even something as lowly as a 1/1 deathtouch with it is intriguing. It reminds me of evoke in that you can roll dice and make a cool card with this mechanic, but we've got modern design behind the wheels so there's less dross like offalsnout

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Current Adventures I'm running/considering:

Spoiler: a bunch of cards

This mechanic is the truth people, even something as lowly as a 1/1 deathtouch with it is intriguing. It reminds me of evoke in that you can roll dice and make a cool card with this mechanic, but we've got modern design behind the wheels so there's less dross like offalsnout

Oh for sure. Every adventure except for maybe Garenbrig Carver is playable in some cube format- which is not true for very many mechanics. Wizards did an amazing job balancing these. Adventure may very well be the first dudless mechanic in a very, very long time.

 

[Peter LaCara]

This mechanic is the truth people, even something as lowly as a 1/1 deathtouch with it is intriguing. It reminds me of evoke in that you can roll dice and make a cool card with this mechanic, but we've got modern design behind the wheels so there's less dross like offalsnout

A 1/1 deathtouch you can cast over and over with Haakon, even.

But yeah, Adventure is like a better Evoke, and I didn't even know Evoke could be better. It doesn't hurt that the art is some of the best Magic has had in 20 years.

 

[Peter LaCara]

Anyway, my picks:

Spoiler: Stuff that is currently in my list on CubeCobra

 

[Peter LaCara]

Spoiler: Other stuff that I like the look of

Also, ALL THE OTHER LANDS IN THE SET ARE NUTS, HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS. I'm not sure how I'm gonna fit all these mono-colored lands I want to run from this set.

 

[TrainmasterGT]

Other stuff that I like the look of

[/spoiler]

Also, ALL THE OTHER LANDS IN THE SET ARE NUTS, HOLY CRAP YOU GUYS. I'm not sure how I'm gonna fit all these mono-colored lands I want to run from this set.

What's with these particular picks? All of these seem really weak compared to a number of the other options at your power level.

 

[Onderzeeboot]

Stolen by the Fae is testing well, and nobody is talking about it. A scalable Mist Raven that makes multiple bodies is preeeeetty solid! Sure, you can't usually curve it out as an answer to their curve, but UG ramp adores the heck out of this card!

 

[Peter LaCara]

What's with these particular picks? All of these seem really weak compared to a number of the other options at your power level.

I... don't think they're weak? I don't know. Card evaluation is hard.

Vantress Gargoyle - UG has a bit of a top of library manipulation thing going on (or it did at one point... I'm not sure any of the pieces survived). I'm also trying to find a spot for Nephalia Drownyard, and a nice defensive creature that can turn into a beater late in the game just by playing Magic seems like something blue would be interested in.

Epic Downfall - This card just seems really strong. Like, constructed playable strong. I could easily be wrong, but exile is relevant and even aggressive decks have 3 drops.

Irencrag Pyromancer - You have to build around her, but she just seems insane if you do. Merfolk Looter bolts something every turn. Blue/red and black/red already have incidental card draw and they both love any bit of extra burn you can throw in there.

Syr Carah, the Bold - I'm astonished this card is an uncommon. You could bump her stats to 4/4 and she'd be an easy mythic. A pinger that also acts as a card advantage engine? You can just hit people with her to. AND she's a spell payoff.

Arcanist's Owl - Another build-around that gets really powerful if you do build around it. A Phantom Monster that draws a card on ETB is preeeeetty strong. I'm also considering adding a bit of Devotion back to the cube depending on what we get in Theros.

Now, I could easily be way off the mark on my evaluations (I'm much better at the end of a format than I am at the beginning of one), but I think each of these cards can hang with the rest of my cube just fine.

 

[Velrun]

In my opinion you could cut the Owl and the Gargoyle and you would have some solid includes.

 

[ravnic]

I actually really like this little lady too, but she's also in a weird spot somehow. I don't really find a creature to cut for her, and I'm also not sure I wanna increase the amount of counter magic in my cube. But on the other hand, cutting something like Exclude feels not quite right as well and I don't want to lower the number of spells for Rise from the Tides and such. aarrrg

 

[Nanonox]

Spoiler: Inclusions

I'm not 100% sure on the Serpent, but I like having a scaling artifact threat that can attack and block well. Also, the +1/+1 counters further ties artifacts into green which is a nice bonus. Not a huge fan of the protection, but it doesn't feel oppressive since most of my removal is mono-colored.

I'm thrilled with both blue 3 drops as I always felt it was a weak spot for the color. These fit nicely into existing themes as well.

Gilded Goose seems like a fun 1 drop mana dork. I like that it still provides value in the later game and if it gets killed instantly.

Embercleave gives me an other sweet Welder target, encourages attacking and can kill out of nowhere. It acts like a combat trick which I miss in cube compared to regular limited.

I can't wait to try Rankle. He is especially powerful in multiplayer, but can bring a lot of hate your way. I do love playable mass discard cards for MP games as Thoughtseize and friends aren't really good in that setting.

The other cards are just good stuffy but give you lots of options to chose from.

Spoiler: Testing

A 3CC mana rock isn't great, but a one sided Timetwister sure is. It would take 3-4 turns to activate in my setting without working for it. The downside is that it makes you a huge target and it's not easy to defend against 2-3 other players. (kind of like Luminarch Ascension or Bloodchief Ascension)

I'm curious about Oko. I always like to have more "removal" for my Simic decks and this guy has bonus abilities. His ultimate is for from oppressive and food tokens can be useful for a bunch of synergies.

Most good black 2 drops either can't block or are really small. Piper can at least hold back early attackers and is a nice mana sink. I'm tempted not because I think it's great, but because other options suck.

The giant seems really good. I think I can get away with a few 5 mana wraths and the extra vigilance body is nice. You also have some fun plays of bouncing your guy to go back on an adventure if you want to get tricky.

The Great Henge does a lot of things and all of them seem sweet. Green naturally has a bunch of fatties so I'm not too worried about casting it. Cheating it out is also an option. I really like that green is slowly getting in on the artifact train!

Love the set. Some interesting designs that seem powerful, fun and can slot into different archetypes.

 

[shamizy]

I'm going to test out all of the following cards:

I was expecting more of a power down set, but this is the year that just keeps on giving. So many cool designs to try out. Adventures are great, fill in a lot of holes here and there that I wasn't too happy with previously. Black and Red are getting a lot of new toys to try out in my cube, the other colors are mostly getting support for existing archetypes and one-to-one swaps were more easy to come up with.

I'm conflicted on Questing Beast. I'm all for more ways to push aggressive strategies and planeswalker hate, which it does very well, but it's also just so generically powerful. My removal suite is at a high enough level that I don't think it'll be an issue, but I don't think it'll slot into the aggressive leaning R/G decks I'm envisioning and will instead just be a generically good Green 4 drop to deploy in any G/x deck. I wish it leaned more aggressive than just generic, would have been great to just have another Vengevine analog. I think it'd like this a lot more as a 4/3 but I see why they needed the 4/4 to push it for Constructed play.

Also trying out full Castle cycle + Island that puts instant/sorcery back on top of library for my ULD.