Alchemy: Edge of Eternities releases in three days, and we have now seen all this set has to offer. There are some pretty wild designs, including a five-color Sliver that makes for a fun leader in Brawl.
Interestingly, there are also a decent number of cards that could have a major impact on the Alchemy and Historic metagames.
Historic Affinity
The first strategy that’s receiving some intriguing options is Affinity in Historic. Historic has a slew of strong enablers for players to build around. This includes artifact lands like Seat of the Synod that make it trivial to build up your artifact count in the early game. From there, payoffs like Kappa Cannoneer can come down quickly and completely take over.
Affinity has already drawn some extra attention thanks to the Edge of Eternities main set and the arrival of Pinnacle Emissary. Now, there are two big support pieces that are on their way to MTG Arena that could make their way into the deck.
Right away, Machinist’s Dismissal feels like a solid way to interact with problematic combo cards. As fun as Affinity is, keeping up with a fast Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord is easier said than done. Machinist’s Dismissal gives you an extremely efficient way to counter a wide variety of spells.
Notably, Metallic Rebuke is a common disruptive element in Affinity that also answers creatures, so it’s possible Machinist’s Dismissal doesn’t slot into Affinity decks right away. Nonetheless, there are metagame considerations that would warrant playing extra counterspells, and it’s hard to go wrong with an option that consistently costs one mana and doesn’t require you to tap any artifacts to cast on the cheap.
Drix Interlacer, meanwhile, is a gnarly piece of card advantage if you play it on turn one. It triggers off of artifact lands as well as tokens produced by Pinnacle Emissary, Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student, and Retrofitter Foundry. You can even rebuy it with Emry, Lurker of the Loch after sacrificing it.
The main downside is that Drix Interlacer isn’t an ideal draw in the later stages of the game. Still, as a one-mana artifact, the opportunity cost to include this card is pretty low, as it fuels all of your Affinity cards so well. Competition for slots is steep in the Affinity deck, but we’re excited to see how these cards perform.
Alchemy Mono-Black Aggro
Going from Historic to Alchemy, we have a series of cards that could help give rise to a new archetype in the format. All three of these new cards synergize perfectly together. In a similar fashion to the mono-black aggro shells of old in Pioneer, having access to an assertive gameplan utilizing recursive creatures that line up well against removal could give mono-black in Alchemy the boost it needs to succeed.
This all starts with the new one-drop addition: Cantor of the Refrain. Cantor is your classic 2/1 that can’t block but can be brought back from your graveyard if it were to die. The key is to pair Cantor with other Warp cards to help bring it back.
Well, Voidcalled Devotee is a great option to use in the mono-black deck. As a 3/3 with Haste, Devotee keeps the pressure on your opponent. If you choose to Warp it, you’ll get an attack in for cheaper and get to trigger any copies of Cantor from your graveyard.
Here’s the kicker, though. Devotee also Conjures copies of Cantor to your graveyard when it attacks. Between Devotee and Song of Point Prime as a removal spell, you’ll end up with a bunch of copies of Cantor in your graveyard in no time. All you need now is some other aggressively costed cards with Warp to tie the theme together.
Timeline Culler immediately comes to mind as an addition to this type of deck. The Warp cost is cheap, it’s aggressive, and once again, it’s recursive to keep your engine rolling. With so many threats that are easy to resurrect, perhaps Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER might work its way into the equation as well. There’s a lot of room for exploration.
Bant Midrange in Brawl
Finally, we wanted to highlight an exciting legend that we think looks poised for Brawl play. Vv’viza is a value-generating machine that sets you up nicely for the late game.
The turn you play it, you get to Conjure one of the mythic rare Planets from the Edge of Eternities main set (such as Evendo, Waking Haven) onto the battlefield, ramping you closer to any of your big bombs. Assuming you have any creature ready to attack already on board, you then get a bonus Lander token for your troubles that doubles as a 2/1 flier.
All of this upside attached to a 4/4 with Flying and Vigilance for four mana is nothing to scoff at. Alchemy: Edge of Eternities didn’t hold back on power level, offering an array of sweet designs for different MTG Arena formats. We can’t wait to see how players make use of all these new cards.
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