Hey everyone! Are you starting to get burnt out from drafting Wilds of Eldraine? Luckily WotC has decided to drop another Alchemy set to try to stoke the fires in the relationship. I’ll be reviewing and grading each of the cards in the set for limited purposes.
There is even a theme of this set based upon piggies. That reminds me of the time I saw some racing pigs. There was one named Shakin Bacon and let me tell you that was the most motivated pig I have ever seen. That little dude was sleek and slender, no way he was getting turned into delicious bacon.
Enough about my random adventures and back to the Magic. In these drafts, one common will be replaced by an Alchemy card. That means you could get some seriously stacked packs where you see unpassable cards coming pick three. The Alchemy: Eldraine premier drafts will be running from Tuesday October 10th through Monday, October 16th.
Another big thing to note is that alchemy cards are all designed for constructed. That means they tend to either be massively overpowered or completely worthless in limited. Some may still end up in the middle, but mostly it’s a U shaped distribution of grades.
This is the kind of land that really does it for me. If I lose the coin flip (and you know I will) then this just comes into play untapped for the color of my choice. If I win the flip it comes in untapped once I hit turn four. That’s pretty sweet even if it doesn’t thin your deck like Evolving Wilds or do anything else like Edgewall Inn.
I’m happy trading off coming into play tapped for a later scry three that stuns the next creature my opponent plays. Seems like a great tradeoff for me as long as I don’t have too many other comes into play tapped lands. I prefer to wait until later in the game to activate it since I’ll have a better idea of what I should scry away.
I defaulted to thinking this was riding a Pegasus and thus had flying. As you can imagine, a Baneslayer Angel with card advantage thrown in would have been an insane limited card. It’s still really good, but the lack of evasion takes it from table flipping anger down to merely throw a drink in their face level. Luckily it is only on Arena so the only victim will be your screen.
It is extremely difficult to block a five power first striker profitably, especially considering that they can Archon's Glory if you try to eat it with a Hamlet Glutton (or just fly over for seven). Pump tricks will play great with this both in making it a nightmare to block and in letting you hunt up anything you have that is supersize.
Getting the most expensive card from your deck (as long as you gained that much life) is a massive step up from draw a random card in the point of the game where this is active. You can also pop a food or use another lifelinker to get the card the turn that you play this.
This can turn anything into a token so you can do even more shenanigans with Three Blind Mice. It can also reset any Saga you want to start over with. It even combos nicely with Johann's Stopgap to bounce their suddenly token permanent permanently. I can keep going on with this, such as playing it to hit your Hopeful Vigil to get another knight token or The Princess Takes Flightto remove another creature.
An extremely versatile card that can do a whole lot more than it looks like it can.
A much better Run Away Together that lets you save your creature while bouncing theirs. The modality is a big step up and the mana cost changes are just some extra gravy on top.
In the words of Mr. Horse, “No sir, I don’t like it.”. This doesn’t give any form of evasion or bonuses, just needs to be equipped to something that is going to be connecting with the face. That’s not providing nearly enough upside for something that is awful when you are on defense.
It does have a nice spellbook for a spells focused deck, but nothing life changing. The problem remains that it does nothing until you are in the position to successfully attack. Since most of the spells are cheap cantrips, it realistically needs to hit twice to be functionally an expensive Divination.
Reminiscent of Vensor, Shaper Savant that exchanges a point of toughness for flying. It’s also not legendary and allows you to bargain to make the target cost two more mana. I’m sure your opponent is going to be thrilled when you use this to sacrifice Hatching Plans to draw three cards while setting them back and adding an evasive threat to the board.
It might not read like a busted bomb, but this has so much versatility built in that it will play like one. I will say that Flick a Coin and Rat Out can be a bit of a problem, but at least you are still getting some value out of this.
I’ve heard some of my friends discuss The Conundrum of Bowls but that was an entirely different situation. Medically approved, of course.
Drawing two cards and then getting to potentially play something for free is a little overcosted at four mana. It’s really the shenanigans you get to pull with it that make it worth playing. Bouncing it, bargaining it, etc…
A 3/1 for two that gives your next creature a Wicked Role would be a really nice card on its own. The bargain Gravedigger effect bumps this up to a premium uncommon.
This looks like it is one of the only boons in town so you’re going to have to use itself to turn into a card advantage engine. This will setup some tension between continuing to draw cards and draining your opponent for five. You really wants some creature tokens to bargain away because your opponent usually won’t be too agreeable to getting domed for five.
Of note, the boon doesn’t go away when this dies so if they trade two of their creatures for it, they are getting drained on the end step.
This is a massive deathtoucher that can really screw some stuff up if your opponent tries to double block it. We already have a common version of that with Scream Puff whose stats I like better than this. I’m going to be pretty cranky when they bust this up with a Cut In.
In most cases this is going to just be a Fireball which is a really solid card. Sometimes it’s a slightly overcosted removal spell, sometimes it just kills them. If you get to play a discounted dragon off of this, well let’s just say that your opponent isn’t going to be happy about it.
I know some people are thinking that taking turn three off to “do nothing” isn’t optimal, but you’re just paying for your Shivan Dragon in discounted installments. Doing that followed by double spelling with this the next turn is a huge start.
If you draw it later, its just a massive 5/5 flyer with Firebreathing for five. That’s still going to be one of the best top decks in your deck.
Now this is interesting because it provides both enablers and payoffs out of one card. Food Fight can be a very good card in the right deck even if it is dead in a lot of others. This will usually let you get a few of them out and give you some food to start blasting things for three or four points each.
Having another sweeper in the format may keep some people from overextending. That was a valid attempt, but let’s be honest, people aren’t going to be doing that.
Only hitting for four damage seems like it would be great to combine with big green creatures, but the damage staying on the creatures means that your guys are probably going to die as well even if it is the next turn or two. A sweeper is still a sweeper.
A three mana Gilded Goose is a bit pricy, but as long as it lives you can turn some artifacts into a couple of extra cards. The problem is the serious lack of birds in the set (don’t tell me about The Goose Motherand Knight of Doves) so if they light Goosey up with Torch the Tower, you aren’t going to get anything else out of this.
I really wanted this to be a good boi, but it’s unfortunately falling into the rare bad dog category. You need a bunch of adventures spells to even consider this because the stats are subpar on it’s own. It seems way too slow to me especially when you consider that you always have to exile it if you want to cast an adventure. The upside just isn’t there to play something this clunky.
Swine Rebellion sounds like what happens when Waffle House runs out of bacon. Seriously they will throw down over that there (and pretty much anything else, it’s like the wild west of breakfast establishments).
While I highly doubt you are ever going to pull off the trifecta to drop all three of them on the battlefield, it will be pretty backbreaking if you do. Getting two piggies of your choice is a bargain for three mana considering one of them starts on the battlefield. You can even choose two of the same piggle if lets say you wanted to get to stompin’ in your air force twos.
Izzet spells is going to go Otter-ly bananas over this. I’m going to call its ability perma-prowess since that is how it functions.
Against decks with cheap removal I am going to want to get this in exile and build it up before it makes an appearance. Hopefully, I can get someone early on with the temporary Frogify effect before my otter gets chonky.
The mana cost is pretty rough, but you can manage to splash it with a Prophetic Prism or some treasure. It is 7/7 (or 7/8) worth of stats across two bodies for five mana with the bonus of some nice modality.
You could be living the boar dream and bring back the whole pack from the graveyard. While that is unlikely to happen, even getting two back is some nice upside.
This doesn’t require sacrificing it to activate the ability so you can pick something off while keeping your piggy around. Decent bear with upside that give you the chance to pick off a key artifact or enchantment such as Bitterblossom without having to hold it in your hand.
As far as the card goes, this is a really strong version of Quick Study that only grabs creatures and makes everything in your hand bigger. Early on it means your whole hand is going to be pumped up and later on it (almost) ensures that you “top decked” two creatures.
Fair warning, it is possible to miss on this. However, if you didn’t have any creatures in your top ten cards, it was probably not looking good for you anyway.
Ignoring everything else on it, a 1/4 flying deathtouch can cause some serious problems for the opponents plans to finish the game. If you’re the aggressor, it can just come down as a four-power flyer to push damage. I wouldn’t recommend that mode against Flick a Coin or Rat Out decks though.
The real power is being able to neuter a Hamlet Glutton while giving yourself a six-power flyer. That seems like a pretty mean prank to pull.
If this didn’t have that hidden “then shuffle”, this would have been one of the stupidest limited bombs of all time. It’s still relatively insane, but not quite an all timer. Just the thought of chaining a pile of Seven Dwarves was potentially angering even to me.
As it is, it’s still a Centaur Courser that provides card advantage every turn if they don’t deal with it. It also sticks seven cantrip creatures in your deck that are much more than your average bear.
This comes in as a 6/6 trampler for four. It does lose the equipment when they deal damage to it, but you’re still getting multiple cards in exchange for this one. You can also just move the equipment off of it to something else if you don’t want to lose it. The Steelclaw Lance is especially reasonable to move if you have a Knight hanging around.
Three mana to exile a creature at instant speed is excellent and it even has a top tier name in Lend a Ham. After that I don’t even care what else this card does, but this tosses in the piggy of your choice with a bit of a bump in stats. That’s a whole lot stuffed onto one piece of cardboard.
The stat line will usually let it win combat early in the game before becoming a large evasive threat later on. Since it’s a perpetual effect and not a put a new one into play, it can be attacking on the turn you upgrade it. This feels like it will be the default pig chosen from the piggy spellbook.
By the time you play it, this turtle will be huge from steadily growing while mutating in the ooze. Just dropping your rabbit turn one and attacking means it’s already a 4/4. You’ll probably get at least one or two more attacks in making them a relative bargain considering it’ll keep growing every time you get in the redzone.
This can be a real game ender providing you hit the right combination of auras off of the adventure. For those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to play with it, Staggering Insight with any form of evasion is a total scam.
Since you can return them from your graveyard, you can use the cheaper auras you get on your other creatures before playing this. Once they deal with them, you get to drop chonky kong here who can bring the whole house of auras with him. That’s usually going to be a deal with this or die type of situation.
The three toughness means that you should be able to attack with it early to get the second copy. Once that happens, you’ll be double battle crying your way to a quick victory.
Why is it only a 3.5 then? Because Candy Grapple, Torch the Tower, Cooped Up, etc. If they deal with it before you get the second copy, then you don’t get any extra value out of it. It’s also not the best late game top deck because it requires an attack before it really matters.
Unless you get a ton of conjure cards, this is often going to be just a bear. It’s also templated to prevent you from getting multiple counters off something like Jewel Mine Overseer so the upside is limited.
Wrap Up
Thanks for reading! I’ll be back in the next couple days with some more sweet limited content for you. Until then, stay classy people!
I’m always open to feedback, let me know what you loved, what you hated, or just send dog pics. You can contact me at:
Josh is a member of the elite limited team The Draft Lab as well as the host of The Draft Lab Podcast. He was qualifying for Pro Tours, Nationals, and Worlds literally before some of you were born. After a Magic hiatus to play poker and go to medical school, he has been dominating Arena with over an 80% win percentage in Bo3 as well as making #1 rank in Mythic.
