Wilds of Eldraine/Trivia
Mark Rosewater gave his traditional teaser with the following hints.[1]
First up, here are some things you can expect:
- A new type of token (at least done as a cohesive theme) — Roles: aura enchantment tokens
- A card that can activate to copy enchantments — Yenna, Redtooth Regent
- Adventures on a new permanent type — Enchantments - Virtue of Knowledge//Vantress Visions
- An artifact that has two different artifact subtypes normally associated with artifact tokens — Candy Trail, a Food Clue
- A creature type from Alpha gets a draft archetype — Rat in
- Fairy tale Sagas — The Apprentice's Folly; The Princess Takes Flight; Three Blind Mice; The Witch's Vanity
- Multiple legendary Foods — Eriette's Tempting Apple; Syr Ginger, the Meal Ender
- A new card with a lobotomy effect — The End
- A creature with two triggers, one for artifacts entering the battlefield and one for enchantments — Elvish Archivist
- A new mechanic that batches together three items that have been in the game since Alpha but never batched before — Bargain: artifact, enchantment, and token.
Next, here are some rules text that will be showing up on cards:
- “If a permanent entering the battlefield causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.” — Virtue of Knowledge
- “Look at the top twenty cards of your library.” — Thunderous Debut
- “It produces three times as much of that mana instead.” — Virtue of Strength
- “Sacrifice all Reflections you control.” — The Apprentice's Folly
- “Creatures you control with +1/+1 counters on them have all activated abilities of all creature cards exiled with CARDNAME.” — Agatha’s Soul Cauldron
- “Have base power and toughness 4/4 and flying.” — Archon of the Wild Rose
- “exile up to one other non-Fox creature” — Werefox Bodyguard
- “Land creatures you control” — Blossoming Tortoise
- “Whenever you tap an untapped creature an opponent controls,” — Hylda of the Icy Crown
- “X is 2 plus the number of cards in your graveyard that are instant cards, sorcery cards, and/or have an Adventure.” — Frantic Firebolt
Here are some creature type lines from the set:
- Creature – Mouse — Armory Mice; Cheeky House-Mouse; Raging Battle Mouse
- Creature – Rabbit Unicorn — Regal Bunnicorn
- Creature – Faerie Shapeshifter — Likeness Looter
- Creature – Elf Fox Knight — Werefox Bodyguard
- Creature – Giant Archer — Skybeast Tracker
- Creature – Plant Wurm — Beanstalk Wurm
- Creature – Elemental Raccoon — Bramble Familiar
- Legendary Creature – Rat Noble — Lord Skitter, Sewer King
- Legendary Creature – Vedalken Scout — Troyan, Gutsy Explorer
- Legendary Creature – Human Warlock Bard — Totentanz, Swarm Piper
Finally, here are some names in the set:
- Candy Grapple —
Instant - Charming Scoundrel — Creature — Human Rogue
- Food Fight — Enchantment
- Protective Parents
- Scream Puff —
Creature — Horror - Stroke of Midnight —
Instant - A Tale for the Ages — Enchantment
- Three Blind Mice — Enchantment — Saga
- Three Bowls of Porridge — Artifact — Food
- Up the Beanstalk —
Enchantment
Cultural references
Cards throughout Wilds of Eldraine reference the Arthurian legend of Camelot on the one hand and Grimms' Fairy Tales on the other. Other fairy tales, not especially compiled by the Grimm brothers, are also referenced. The following is a list of specific analogs and references in cards within the set.[2]
Fairy tales
Other references
| Card(s) | Influence | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Agatha of the Vile Cauldron Eriette of the Apple Hylda of the Icy Crown |
Three Witches (Macbeth) | The weird sisters trope. |
| Decadent Dragon | Fáfnir (Sigurd's Saga and Nibelunglied) | A hoarding dragon from German and Norse mythology. |
| Ingenious Prodigy | The Once and Future King | "Wizard who Ages Backwards".[4][5] |
| Korvold and the Noble Thief | Robin Hood | Korvold is robbed. |
| Moonshaker Cavalry | Wild Hunt | A ghostly host from European mythologies. |
| Song of Totentanz | Danse Macabre | An artistic genre of allegory of the Late Middle Ages on the universality of death. |
| Tangled Colony | Rat king | A collection of rats whose tails are intertwined and bound together in some way. |
| Three Blind Mice | Three Blind Mice | Nursery rhyme. |
| The Irencrag | The Sword in the Stone | Arthurian reference (Excalibur) |
Miscellaneous
- Throne of Eldraine and Wilds of Eldraine's four-year gap is the shortest turnaround for a plane's full return since the 54-month gap between Innistrad and Shadows over Innistrad if one disregards the heavy use of Dominaria before 2006. The median gap for first returns is six or seven years due to the block structure, and Throne was the first post-block set (if one treats Guilds of Ravnica block as a block).
- Moonshaker Cavalry takes multiple design cues from Craterhoof Behemoth; 5MMM cost Mythic Rare creatures that give a scaling pump and evasion effect to all one's creatures.
- Questing Druid // Seek the Beast creature card with an adventure is a callback to the iconic Questing Beast from the original Throne of Eldraine. Mechanically, it's a combination of Quirion Dryad and Reckless Impulse.
- Spell Stutter refers to Spellstutter Sprite, exchanging mana value scaling for mana tax scaling. Both are two-mana counterspells that scale with the number of Faeries controlled. Similarly, Dream Spoilers is a near-reprint of Dreamspoiler Faeries with a slight change in templating.
- The Huntsman's Redemption depicts the Chain Veil, marking it specifically a call back to Garruk's story in Throne rather than anything from fairy tale lore.
- The art of Asinine Antics is a callback to Unhinged's Donkey-folk.
- Throne of Eldraine refers to the unreturned Adamant mechanic and is another card named after a set.
- The art for each of the Mythic rare Virtues cycle depicts the uncommon Knight from the Throne of Eldraine's Syrs cycle.[6]
References
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (August 7, 2023). "Maro’s Teaser for Wilds of Eldraine". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/15xtwkl/references_in_wilds_of_eldraine/
- ↑ Jason Engle (August 18, 2023). "Agatha's Champion, for MTG Wilds of Eldraine. The big bad wolf of the story, her cursed thrall and dark guardian.". Twitter.
- ↑ Chris Mooney (August 18, 2023). "While WOE is mostly focused on fairy tales, we did want to make sure we hit a few Arthurian references we didn't get last time.". Twitter.
- ↑ Merlin Sickness. Tropedia.fandom.com.
- ↑ Chris Mooney (August 20, 2023). "Though the Virtues changed many times, the core concept came from vision design.". Twitter.