MTG Wilds of Eldraine’s best card brings stories and strength in equal measure. We’ll help you sort the enchanting from the wicked and pick out the best new cards that the set has to offer.
MTG’s Wilds of Eldraine is already making waves by bringing back powerful enchantments in its Enchanting Tales bonus sheet. But the set is far more than just old options with a new coat of paint.
From versatile adventures to brand-new tutors and powerful game-enders, there are dozens of strong and flavorful new cards just waiting to be pulled in Wilds of Eldraine. We’re going to give you our picks for the best of the best and help you build up a fairytale force to be feared.
1. Beseech the Mirror
At first glance, Beseech the Mirror might not seem all that special. After all, there are better, cheaper tutor options out there for those willing to pay. Especially in black, with Demonic Tutor offering a two-mana tutor for any card with zero downsides. But what makes Beseech the Mirror the best card in Wilds of Eldraine is that it not only tutors any card in your deck for a cost of four but that it puts that card directly onto the battlefield if the Bargain cost is paid.
The targetted card can only have a mana value of four or less to be directly playable with Beseech the Mirror, but this isn’t a significant enough downside to curb the card’s power. There are so many cards of four-cost or less that can utterly change the game when they hit the field, and Beseech the Mirror just gave you easier access to any number of them.
2. Agatha’s Soul Cauldron
Targeted graveyard removal every turn for an initial cost of two is already extremely useful, and that’s just the start of what Agatha can cook up with this cauldron. While the card may take a little while to kick into gear, it starts accruing value the second that cards begin to leave the field.
Agatha’s Soul Cauldron offers a combination of making your abilities’ costs generic, negating opponents’ recursion, buffing creatures, and building up a stack of abilities across your board. This makes it one of the best cards you can find in Wilds of Eldraine, and comfortably the strongest Artifact.
3. Moonshaker Cavalry
Any card that can reasonably be compared to Craterhoof Behemoth is bound to rank highly, and Moonshaker Cavlary certainly fits the brief. Bestowing all your creatures with evasion and a huge power boost makes an unanswered Moonshaker Cavalry extremely difficult to survive or recover from.
The only thing holding Moonshaker Cavalry back from being a truly devastating Craterhoof equivalent is its mana cost. While green can acquire eight mana relatively easily, it takes a while longer for white to gather similar resources. Thankfully, with Wilds of Eldraine’s Enchanting Tales containing powerful white reprints like Land Tax and Smothering Tithe, Moonshaker Cavalry should have all the support it needs to have maximum impact and regularly close out games.
4. Virtue of Knowledge
Panharmonincon-like ETB effects are becoming increasingly popular and widely printed in MTG, and Virtue of Knowledge brings this powerful ability to blue.
Doubling ETB effects can make decks that rely on ETB triggers extremely difficult to deal with in little time at all. While Virtue of Knowledge isn’t the speediest spell with a mana value of 5, the Instant half it gains through being an adventure is much cheaper and still frequently useful. Providing early-game value through a specific copy, and runaway late-game boosts through its blanket ETB doubling, Virtue of Knowledge is as powerful as it is reliable.
5. Rowan, Scion of War
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An interesting and powerful new way of reducing cost and bringing out exceptionally powerful spells. Rakdos colors are hardly lacking in ways to inflict self-burn, and will happily pay the risky price to play spells for so much cheaper. Add in Treasure and other ways of stockpiling and generating mana in these colors, and Rowan, Scion of War will be able to facilitate huge, explosive plays with relative ease.
Rowan is going to absolutely shine as a Commander. When paired with black staples like Bolas’ Citadel, Rowan can create huge gains in an instant.
6. Elusive Otter
The Elusive Otter’s Instant side is a situational – albeit flexible – buff to creatures in a +1/+1 counter strategy, but it’s the combination of prowess and being situationally unblockable that really makes it shine. Even just one Elusive Otter can be a consistent source of damage that can be strategically boosted to slip through opponents’ defenses.
Elusive Otter likely isn’t going to make too many waves in highlander formats, but there are many other applications for this cheap, tricky little creature.
7. Decadent Dragon
Adventure was a powerful and flexible mechanic in Throne of Eldraine, and its inclusion in Wilds is already living up to that legacy. Decadent Dragon’s Instant half gives you a shot at stealing your opponents’ best cards before they even draw them, and its creature side is a perfectly respectable flier with good stats and regular Treasure generation.
Anyone who’s had the misfortune of playing against Prosper, Tome-Bound will know that Rakdos players can absolutely run away with the game if allowed to rack up too much Treasure, and Decadent Dragon is the perfect enabler for most red/black Treasure strategies.
8. Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender
Having a cheap, speedy, specific answer to Planeswalkers is a real treat. With a colorless cost of two, Syr Ginger can be run just about anywhere. Given the prevalence of Treasure, Food, and many other sacrificial artifacts, it can quickly grow to monstrous sizes. Syr Ginger’s instant-speed sacrifice is the icing on the cake, potentially getting you out of a jam with a huge boost of life.
9. Kellan, the Fae-Blooded
Kellan is an adventure card with a clear, consistent game plan. He serves as a cheap, easy tutor for your best auras and equipment, and then makes the perfect target for equipping them once he comes out as a creature. Being able to stack your hand with your best equip options and then boost all your creatures as a side-effect of stacking them on Kellen makes this card an auto-include for any red/white deck with an equip focus.
10. Mosswood Dreadknight
For a surprisingly low cost, Mosswood Dreadknight is an easily recyclable draw card, stacked on top of a creature with great early-game combat potential. Having a recursive blocker with trample can go a long way toward making the first few turns run that much smoother for green/black.
