Wilds of Eldraine is a set full of wonder. From intriguing fairy tale Sagas to unique Storybook Adventures, this set has a lot to offer. One of the new aspects of the set is the Enchanting Tales bonus sheet. These cards are featured in every boost pack, with one slot in every draft or set booster, and three to four slots in every collector booster. There are 15 mythic rare, 30 rare, and 18 uncommon Enchanting Tales cards, all of which are Enchantments from Magic’s past.
Of the 63 Enchanting Tales cards, 20 of them have the opportunity to feature gorgeous anime artwork. These cards can again be found in any booster pack. However, these 20 anime art cards also have foil confetti version that appear only in collector booster packs. Each Enchanting Tales card is designed to showcase aesthetics from the Eldraine plane. As reprints, their legality in major formats does not change. As a result, these cards will not be Standard legal.
Notably, this will be the first time that some of these cards will be featured on MTG Arena. As a result, they would indeed become Historic legal, since the Historic format focuses on the entire Arena card pool. Much like how bonus sheet cards were handled during Strixhaven with Mystical Archive cards and the Brother’s War with retro Artifacts, some of these Enchanting Tales are being banned preemptively. There’s a bunch of new Enchanting Tales cards that were just recently spoiled, some of which are getting this initial ban. To start things off, let’s take a look at the Enchanting Tales cards that are getting the banhammer early.
Historic Bannings
Six cards total from the Enchanting Tales bonus sheet are being preemptively banned in Historic on MTG Arena. They are, however, legal in Historic Brawl, as well as Wilds of Eldraine Limited, so long as the card is in your card pool. While some of these cards are extremely powerful, there are certainly some interesting inclusions to go over. First up, we have a card that is banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage. This Enchantment is none other than Necropotence. Obviously, Necropotence is much scarier when paired with cards like
Dark Ritual
Dark Ritual
Add {B}{B}{B}.
. Even still, this card can draw A LOT of cards very quickly, and it makes sense why it would get the axe.
Next up, we have a card that was actually banned in Premodern earlier this year.
Land Tax
Land Tax
At the beginning of your upkeep, if an opponent controls more lands than you, you may search your library for up to three basic land cards, reveal them, put them into your hand, then shuffle.
lets you search your library for up to three basic Land cards and put them into your hand. This card was banned in Premodern for its ability to be abused alongside
Scroll Rack
Scroll Rack
{1}, {T}: Exile any number of cards from your hand face down. Put that many cards from the top of your library into your hand. Then look at the exiled cards and put them on top of your library in any order.
to generate lots of card advantage. With lots of powerful cards already on Arena, this one is a bit of a weird inclusion.
Third on the list of cards banned from day one in Historic is
Sneak Attack
Sneak Attack
{R}: You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. That creature gains haste. Sacrifice the creature at the beginning of the next end step.
. Sneak Attack is an excellent when paired with huge Creatures to cheat into play, and it appears Wizards of the Coast is taking a very cautious approach with these decisions.
The last group of cards banned can both heavily effect your opponent’s mana development.
Blood Moon
Blood Moon
Nonbasic lands are Mountains.
and
Spreading Seas
Spreading Seas
Enchant land
When this Aura enters, draw a card.
Enchanted land is an Island.
have the potential to prevent your opponent from being able to cast their cards on curve. Blood Moon especially can be backbreaking against multi-color decks with lots of nonbasic Lands. Still, Spreading Seas is a rather tame card, so seeing it in the same group as Necropotence is rather strange.
It’s also safe to say that not everyone approves of this initial list of banned cards. This is especially true when outrageously powerful cards like
The One Ring
The One Ring
Indestructible
When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
{T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring.
are still legal. It will be interesting to see how these decisions play out in Historic.
Notably, while we only went over five cards, there will be a sixth card getting banned from the start, but we don’t know the last card yet. Expect it to be spoiled some time in the near future. Beyond these bannings, though, there are a bunch more Enchanting Tales to take a look at.
Read More: Six New Tokens Headline Unique Wilds of Eldraine Mechanics
New Anime Treatments
While not all 20 Enchantments that will receive anime artwork have been revealed yet, another group of them have just recently been spoiled. Necropotence, Blood Moon, Land Tax, and Sneak Attack are all receiving beautiful anime art, but there’s still more goodies to go over. First up, we have
Kindred Discovery
Kindred Discovery
As this enchantment enters, choose a creature type.
Whenever a creature you control of the chosen type enters or attacks, draw a card.
. Kindred Discovery is a fantastic Commander card for any deck focused on a specific Creature type. This Enchantment is capable of drawing you quite a few cards when built around, and the artwork is very heartwarming.
Speaking of the heart, another card receiving cool anime treatment is
Defense of the Heart
Defense of the Heart
At the beginning of your upkeep, if an opponent controls three or more creatures, sacrifice this enchantment, search your library for up to two creature cards, put those cards onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
. Defense of the Heart is a unique Enchantment that has an extremely powerful ability, but there’s a catch. The catch is that you only get the bonus of Defense of the Heart if an opponent controls three or more Creatures. If they do, though, you get to search for two Creatures and put them directly into play. This card can be quite good in multiplayer Commander, forcing everyone else to keep their Creature counts low or risk potentially dying to the likes of cards like
Craterhoof Behemoth
Craterhoof Behemoth
Haste
When this creature enters, creatures you control gain trample and get +X/+X until end of turn, where X is the number of creatures you control.
.
Additionally, two more cards are receiving anime treatment.
Polluted Bonds
Polluted Bonds
Whenever a land an opponent controls enters, that player loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
is another card that is stronger in multiplayer Commander, draining each of your opponents whenever a Land enters the battlefield under their control. For opponents looking to ramp a ton, this can definitely ruin their day. The Enchanting Tales bonus sheet would not be complete, however, without
Bitterblossom
Bitterblossom
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life and create a 1/1 black Faerie Rogue creature token with flying.
. It’s iconic, produces Faeries in a fairy tale-themed set, and now has fantastic anime artwork. What more could you want?
Read More: Official Wilds of Eldraine Spoiler Can Tutor and Cast Spells for Free
Additional Enchantments
While not every card is receiving anime artwork, like Spreading Seas, there’s still more cards to look forward to. Along with Polluted Bonds, we are also getting an Enchanting Tales version of
Sanguine Bond
Sanguine Bond
Whenever you gain life, target opponent loses that much life.
. Sanguine Bond is great if you are trying to gain lots of life by punishing your opponents at the same time. Pair it with
Exquisite Blood
Exquisite Blood
Whenever an opponent loses life, you gain that much life.
and you’ve got a plan! Another black Enchantment that can mess with your opponents is
Oppression
Oppression
Whenever a player casts a spell, that player discards a card.
. This card makes it very difficult for your opponents to chain spells and can even act as a discard outlet for you for some reanimation shenanigans.
Showing off the “wild” aspect of Wilds of Eldraine,
Unnatural Growth
Unnatural Growth
At the beginning of each combat, double the power and toughness of each creature you control until end of turn.
is on the bonus sheet too. This card can make your Creatures each into massive threats in combat, threatening lots of damage. Another card that threatens a ton of damage is
Fiery Emancipation
Fiery Emancipation
If a source you control would deal damage to a permanent or player, it deals triple that damage to that permanent or player instead.
, greatly increasing the power of your Creatures and burn spells alike.
Finally, we have an Enchantment that can be any Enchantment your heart desires. This card is none other than
Copy Enchantment
Copy Enchantment
You may have this enchantment enter as a copy of any enchantment on the battlefield.
. Does your opponent have a super powerful Enchantment in play? For the low cost of three mana, you can get a copy of it for yourself! Importantly, it’s still possible that some of these cards receive anime treatment, but none have been confirmed yet. These Enchanting Tales cards provide an excellent opportunity for anyone looking to add some extra pizazz to their decks.
Read More: Wilds of Eldraine Debut Reveals Amazing New Typal Commanders!