Wilds of Eldraine is set to release on September 8, which is coming up awfully fast. This means that players all over the world are preparing to battle at their local prereleases this weekend. As with every premier MTG set, most players will be dueling in the Sealed format, where everyone will be building a deck from scratch. Outside of basic Land cards, every card in your deck will come from your Wilds of Eldraine prerelease kit.
Obviously, everyone is hoping to open expensive foils and prerelease promos from their kits and walk away with some pricey cards. Beyond simply opening expensive cards, however, players generally have the opportunity to win prize packs for doing well at their prereleases. In this sense, players are incentivized to build the best decks they can from their card pools. Of course, not every Wilds of Eldraine card is created equal.
While some rares are capable of winning games of Limited singlehandedly, there are others that can be complete duds. Today, we will be focusing on the biggest Limited bombs in the set. These cards are the best of the best and are often worth going out of your way to play in your Sealed deck. If you’re looking to go undefeated at your prerelease, definitely keep an eye out for these heavy hitters.
Tons of Power
Gruff Triplets does cost six mana, three of which needs to be green, but it is well worth the price. To start, similar to Precursor Golem, you get nine power across three bodies. In many games, this alone will be an overwhelming amount of power on the board for the opponent to deal with. However, the fun doesn’t stop there. If the opponent tries to use a removal spell on one of the copies of Gruff Triplets, or even if you are able to have one of your three-power Creatures die in combat, both of your remaining copies of Gruff Triplets get three plus-one plus-one counters each.
Now, your power on board has actually grown from nine to twelve even though one of your copies of Gruff Triplets is gone. Even if the opponent can deal with the second copy, your remaining Gruff Triplets will grow to twelve power, demanding yet another removal spell from the opponent. Oh, and each copy has trample, making them difficult to chump block. This card makes combat a nightmare for the opponent and is difficult to kill in an effective manner. Barring board wipes and a quick aerial assault, this card will be tough to beat when it hits the table.
While not quite as devastating as Gruff Triplets, Redcap Gutter-Dweller provides you with five power across three bodies for only four mana. While each Rat token isn’t individually that threatening, they can easily be used as sacrifice fodder for Redcap Gutter-Dweller’s triggered ability, providing a consistent flow of card advantage that grows Redcap Gutter-Dweller in the process. At only four mana, this is a great deal.
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Huge Fliers
While Gruff Triplets is great at gumming up the ground, there are a handful of enormous Fliers that demand removal in short order. Realm-Scorcher Hellkite, much like Gruff Triplets, is a bit on the expensive side, but can easily take over the game. On the surface, you are getting a huge Hasty Dragon with an excellent activated ability. If you get to untap with Realm-Scorcher Hellkite, you can immediately start pinging your opponent’s Creatures to death, or simply burn your opponent out. The powerful Dragon, however, also gives you the option to sacrifice an Artifact, Enchantment, or token to generate four extra mana when it enters the battlefield. Paired with its activated ability, it’s a good option to have.
Another top tier Flier, The Goose Mother, is also one of the most flexible cards in the set thanks to the X in its mana cost. You have the option to play the Creature as a two-mana two-power Flier, but for every extra mana you spend, it enters with that many plus-one plus-one counters. In addition, you get a number of Food tokens equal to half the value of X, rounded up. This means that if you spend even one extra mana towards the X cost, you get to a Food token. From there, each time you attack with the Goose Mother, you can sacrifice a Food token to draw a card. This card is great with other ways to produce Food tokens, but also simply fantastic on its own.
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Top Tier Adventure Cards
Another fantastic Flier from the set is Decadent Dragon. For four mana, you get a four-power Flier that makes a Treasure token when it attacks. This is already a great rate for a Creature, but it also comes with a bonus Adventure attached that lets you exile the top two cards from your opponent’s library for three mana and play them at any time. Card advantage on a big, efficient Dragon. What more could you want?
Decadent Dragon isn’t the only great Adventure card, however. Mosswood Dreadknight is an efficient threat with card advantage stapled to it, just like Decadent Dragon. Unlike the Dragon, though, if Mosswood Dreadknight dies, you can play the Adventure portion of the card until the end of your next turn. Once you do, you can recast the Creature as well. Outside of exile effects, this makes it quite difficult to actually remove.
In addition to Adventure Creatures, there are also some very powerful Adventure Enchantment cards. Virtue of Loyalty lets you make a two-power Creature for two mana, then later can be cast as a five mana Enchantment that provides a permanent power boost to your whole squad on each of your end steps. Virtue of Persistence acts as a solid two-mana removal spell but can also be utilized as a seven-mana win condition later in the game, threatening to reanimate a Creature from your graveyard every turn. The value of having a serviceable early play and a threatening late-game bomb combined into one card cannot be understated. The versatility Adventure cards provide is simply top-notch.
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An Elite Planeswalker
Last but not least, we have a Planeswalker that can run away with the game on its own. For five mana, you get a Planeswalker with five Loyalty that you can keep ticking up for card advantage. If you need additional board presence, you can use its second ability to make two one-power Creatures that grow each combat, so long as you put a card into exile that turn. That includes both Ashiok’s first ability as well as casting an Adventure spell.
Ashiok may not be quite as game ending as some other Planeswalkers in the past, but its ability to give you a consistent flow of cards is no joke. These cards are not only quite threatening to the opponent, but they are also extremely difficult to deal with efficiently and effectively. For anyone attending their local prerelease event this weekend, watch out for these haymakers, and may luck be on your side.
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