Spoiler season for Edge of Eternities is right around the corner. There are bound to be lots of exciting outer space-themed cards revealed tomorrow in the set’s debut. For fans of Spacecraft and all that the new card type has to offer, though, it appears we’re getting a sneak peek of some gnarly Spacecraft thanks to a handful of leaks.
Four new spacecraft were just revealed. While these are just leaks, considering the sheer number of leaks we’ve seen over the last week, chances are they’re legitimate. If you want to wait for something official, though, consider this your spoiler warning.
Extinguisher Battleship
First up, we have the most expensive Spacecraft of the bunch. Extinguisher Battleship isn’t the easiest to get into play. If you can manage it, though, the payoff is certainly there. You get to blow up any noncreature permanent, wipe away all small and medium-sized creatures, and you’re left behind with an enormous, evasive Spacecraft with a reasonable Station cost.
The problem, of course, is that eight mana is a lot to come by. Your best bet is to find a way to cheat this card into play. In Commander, Extinguisher Battleship feels like a slam dunk for Daretti, Scrap Savant and Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer EDH decks.
Daretti, Rocketeer Engineer is especially strong alongside Extinguisher Battleship because it’s big enough to both Station the Spacecraft and survive the four-damage blast. Technically, these two cards will be Standard legal as well. Considering that Portal to Phyrexia has had very little impact on competitive Standard over the last two years, I have my doubts about Extinguisher Battleship’s competitive viability.
The Eternity Elevator
If you’re looking for a mana accelerant that sets you up nicely to cast Extinguisher Battleship ahead of schedule in EDH, look no further. The Eternity Elevator has Commander written all over it.
At a baseline, you get a five-mana card that produces three colorless mana. A worse Gilded Lotus isn’t super exciting, but there are Eldrazi ramp decks that will be happy to play this type of effect.
Eldrazi decks tend to play a high volume of huge creatures to help with Station. If you manage to get 20 Charge counters on this artifact, you’ll be able to start tapping it for absurd amounts of mana. Desolation Twin conveniently charges The Eternity Elevator up enough by itself, which is cool. This is certainly a “rich get richer” sort of deal. Regardless, EDH is all about going big or going home, and this card delivers.
Entropic Battlecruiser
Keeping up the trend of cards that seem best suited for Commander, Entropic Battlecruiser is a neat payoff for discard decks. On its own, this card is extremely weak. Even if you can charge this Spacecraft up all the way to 8, you need to keep attacking to get your money’s worth.
The decks that will want this card are those that can abuse the prior ability. Enabling it is trivial, and with Wheel of Fortune-style effects in the mix, you may be able to win the game in short order.
Other Commanders with a discard focus, such as Tergrid, God of Fright, should make great use of Entropic Battlecruiser. Just don’t expect a four-mana card with no immediate impact on the board to make waves in Constructed.
Sledge-Class Seedship
The same thing can be said about Sledge-Class Seedship. This card does absolutely nothing until you make it an artifact creature.
The good news in this case is that in a deck with lots of big bombs, Sledge-Class Seedship can pull you far ahead when it attacks. High-powered Commanders such as Ghalta, Primal Hunger give you your best shot to set things up.
From there, there are tons of enormous creatures you can cheat into play. Putting in Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant lets you live the dream. Sometimes, cheating in Craterhoof Behemoth will let you win the game right then and there.
From Elvish Piper to Kona, Rescue Beastie, we’ve seen this effect time and time again. Sledge-Class Seedship is next in line, and with the right support, can be one of the most feared cards in your deck.
Archenemy’s Charm
Lastly, we have one non-Spacecraft leak to share. Archenemy’s Charm is reminiscent of Archmage’s Charm, which also costs three mana of one color and gives you three modes to choose from. Unfortunately, this time around, the modes on Archenemy’s Charm aren’t all that impressive for Constructed.
The first mode is a solid removal spell. This isn’t a bad mode, but black has access to cheaper and stronger removal options in Standard.
The idea here is that you’re sacrificing efficiency for versatility, since you have the option of bringing back two creatures to your hand or buffing one of your threats on board to get a big life swing. Still, none of these three modes is worth the mana investment on its own.
Compare this to Gix’s Command. Gix’s Command lets you choose two modes instead of one and features a mode that can act as a pseudo-board wipe versus aggro decks. Sure, it costs five mana, but this mode more than makes up for the mana inefficiency, and most of the time, you’ll pull ahead on resources when you cast it.
By contrast, Archenemy’s Charm either lets you impact the board or pull you ahead on cards, but not both. You also need to have two creatures and/or Planeswalkers in your graveyard to make the second mode worthwhile.
It’s possible the flexibility still makes it worth playing in small quantities in mono-black midrange, and it seems decent in mono-black EDH decks. The card just has minimal upside and is extremely color-intensive, which makes it tough to maximize.
Plenty More to See
All in all, the four Spacecraft leaks and Archenemy’s Charm seem far from Constructed all-stars. They make up for this by being sweet designs at least, and Commander enthusiasts should be thrilled with how Edge of Eternities looks so far as a whole.
Thankfully, if these Edge of Eternities leaks aren’t up your alley, the set has plenty more in store. During the debut tomorrow, we’re bound to see tons of exciting cards that aren’t just overcosted Spacecraft. As always, we’ll be covering all the latest and greatest reveals as they happen, so just watch this space.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage!