Wilds of Eldraine (WOE) Limited Set Review: Blue

Hey everyone! I hope you’re ready to get wild in the crazy world of Eldraine. Things have changed since the last time we visited with a serious lack of Elk related humor. Instead, we are focusing on WotC’s strange takes on classic fairy tales. That means that it is filled with puns and dad jokes galore so it’s clearly designed to go along with my writing style.

On top of that I get to pronounce WOE exactly like Joey Lawerence every time. Granted most of you are thinking “What is this old man blathering about, someone get him his meds.” I can assure you it was a thing back in the day with Avatar of Woe  

Per usual, I’ll be grading the entire set for the purpose of limited as well as writing about a million other articles about it until they let me out of the content creation dungeon. With all that, you’ll be well prepared to crush some dreams.

For those of you wondering if I missed some cards, the adventures that require different colors for each part are in the multicolor section. The Enchanting Tales bonus sheet will have its own article as well.

Here’s the usual grading scale:

• 5.0: Disgustingly powerful and basically unbeatable. Either answer it the turn it comes down or just pack up your cards. (Tovolar's Huntmaster, The Meathook Massacre, Starnheim Unleashed)
• 4.5: Incredible bomb that still gives your opponent a slim chance. (Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, Alrund's Epiphany, Grand Master of Flowers)
• 4.0: Great rare or the absolute best uncommons and removal. (Froghemoth, Morbid Opportunist, Skullport Merchant)
• 3.5: Great role filler or removal that you never cut. (Magic Missile, Cathartic Pyre, Battle Cry Goblin)
• 3.0: Good playable that I’m basically never cutting. (Usher of the Fallen, Search Party Captain, Dragon Turtle)
• 2.5: Decent playable and the bar I hope nearly every card in my deck to reach. (Mourning Patrol, Steadfast Paladin, Goblin Morningstar)
• 2.0: Mediocre filler that normally is your 20-23rd card(s). (Contact Other Plane, Mindleech Ghoul, Timberland Guide)
• 1.5: Replaceable, overall bad filler. Could also be decent sideboard cards. (Secrets of the Key, Spiked Pit Trap, Village Rites)
• 1.0: Bad filler. Gets cut most of the time. (Secret Door, Mystic Skull, Funeral Longboat)
• 0.5: Very unhappy to main deck this, but maybe it has fringe sideboard applications. (You See a Guard Approach, Bramble Armor, Compelled Duel)
• 0.0: Unplayable in every possible situation. (Mimic, Change of Fortune, Curse of Shaken Faith)

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Aquatic Alchemist

Rating: 2.0/5

The adventure part is one of those effects that it’s better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. It just gives this some extra utility if you draw it in the late game.

It’s a decent two drop with a very low ask to turn into a 3/3 with the threat of activation holding back the average bear.

Archive Dragon

Rating: 3.0/5

They must have dug this one deep out of the archives because this would have been a bomb rare way back in the day. Now it’s a decent uncommon. Oh, how the mighty dragons have fallen.

It’s still a massive airborne beater that is hard to kill. You even get some value when it hits play with the scry. By the time you play this, you should be tossing any lands to the bottom of your deck so it will be much closer to the same value as drawing a card.

Asinine Antics

Rating: 3.5/5

Outside of being one of the best named cards in the set, this has potential to be a really powerful effect. All of your opponents’ creatures becoming 1/1s can swing a game pretty hard especially with the instant speed option available.

It would be asinine to think of this as a sweeper though. Against a deck packing a lot of small creatures with their own Roles, this can be pretty underwhelming. It also isn’t a Frogify effect since the creatures retain their abilities.

Beluna’s Gatekeeper

Rating: 2.0/5

The cheap bounce spell is nice in a format where there are a lot of token creatures and auras running around. It is limited on what it can hit and sorcery speed so don’t get too excited about it.

Paying six mana for a creature that’s not even a Colossal Dreadmaw is underwhelming, but you already got some bounce value out of it.

Bitter Chill

Rating: 3.0/5

I know that we discuss enchantment removal every set and the tap ones have historically gotten worse over time. I think this one is pushed enough at two mana that you won’t be too bitter over how it performs. 

It can even replace itself if they find a way to sacrifice the creature.

Chancellor of Tales

Rating: 3.0/5

Hey it’s Lucky Clover on a stick! This doesn’t limit itself to only instants and sorceries, allowing you to copy any adventure (which looking at the set are all instants and sorceries so that doesn’t really matter). Costing double the initial investment and being much easier to kill is somewhat balanced out by being a slightly understatted flyer.

Diminisher Witch

Rating: 1.5/5

The value of a Cursed Role is dependent on your opponent having a creature that is worth shrinking. You also have to strike a Bargain to make that happen which isn’t always a sure thing. Otherwise, this is just a 3/2 for three which is not where you want to be.

Disdainful Stroke

Rating: 1.5/5

I’m down on this coming into the set because it can’t counter most of the adventures leaving you to only counter half of a card with it sometimes. It’s an odd upshift to uncommon, but that’s probably because it’s best use is being a really good sideboard card against bombs. 

Extraordinary Journey

Rating: 3.5/5

Obviously if this functions as a four-mana sorcery speed bounce spell that is quite a bit below the curve. It does get better in that you’ll draw a card when they replay it. The late game “pick em all up” option is a nice option to have.

The big thing is that this is an Edgewall Innkeeper (that can only trigger once a turn) that also gives you cards for their adventure creatures. The funny thing is that there are certainly going to be times where just dropping this on turn two is the right play. (Before I get the messages, I am aware that this requires the adventure to be played first while Innkeeper could be playing anything with an adventure)

Farsight Ritual

Rating: 3.5/5

I saw a lot of people compare this to Memory Deluge, but the lack of flashback makes that a bad comparison for me. More like a Dig Through Time because you get to go deep for two cards.

How good that is will be really dependent on what else is in your deck. If you just cast it without the Bargain, it’s significantly worse as well. 

Freeze in Place

Rating: 2.0/5

The faster a format is, the better this type of effect gets. To quote Dafore, “Tap is the new removal”. Tapping something down for four turns is like playing Hide and Go Seek, but one kid hid so well that they didn’t come back until they realized everyone else already went for pizza an hour ago.  They suddenly pop up and everyone is like “Oh yeah, you were playing too”. 

If the format is fast enough that it’s functionally a two-mana removal spell with Scry two, then that’s busted. If the games tend to durdle, then this is pretty bad. It’ll probably end up somewhere in the middle leaving this as decent filler.

Gadwick’s First Duel

Rating: 2.5/5

This is another reminder that Cursed Role doesn’t remove abilities so your value off of the first ability is going to vary. You’re not often going to cast this on turn two unless you really need the scry the next turn so it’s a bit of a later game card despite the casting cost.

The third step will play great with removal or even Quick Study. If you don’t have at least a few things worth copying, you should probably leave this on the bench.

Galvanic Giant

Rating: 2.0/5

Playing this on turn four feels super underwhelming unless you are planning on continuing to curve out perfectly with five and six mana spells. The adventure being so expensive means that you’re never playing it unless you draw it super late so you can’t really consider that too much when grading it.

Horned Loch-Whale

Rating: 3.5/5

I love the adventure part of this even if it requires an attacker because you’re already up a card since it goes into their library.  Two mana is so cheap for that type of effect and they usually won’t play around it because it’s a rare.

If it was on its own the creature half would be very lackluster filler. Since it can deal with a problem early on and then turn into a chonker later, it’s pretty great.

Ice Out

Rating: 2.0/5

While I don’t like Disdainful Stroke because it can usually only counter the back part of an adventure, this one can ice them out of both halves. Still mostly a Cancel, but the Bargain option is nice to have in an emergency.

Icewrought Sentry

Rating: 2.5/5

While two mana a turn is a pretty heavy commitment this will be hitting them like a brick of ice to the face.  It does also trigger off of other taps so it can become abnormally large and gets downright nutty with Sharae of Numbing Depths turning it into a card draw engine.  

Ingenious Prodigy

Rating: 3.5/5

Interested in a potentially large creature? How about a card advantage engine? This prodigy manages to pull off both. The reason it’s not higher is that it does die to removal, potentially without giving you any value.

Into the Fae Court

Rating: 2.0/5

I would be higher on this if the 1/1 was able to block non-flyers. It’s still a solid card whose value will really depend on how fast the format is.

Johann’s Stopgap

Rating: 2.0/5

Appropriately named because bounce spells tend to be stopgap measures for dealing with problems. This would be a really high pick If this cost one mana less or was an instant. It’s still a really solid card where it was printed. The nonland part does add some intrigue since there are some choice targets you can replay for some extra value.

Living Lectern

Rating: 1.5/5

This appears to be a sufficiently annoying blocker early that can turn into a Role while replacing itself with a new card. Good in any deck that’s trying to durdle around, but pretty bad if you’re trying to be aggressive.

Merfolk Coralsmith

Rating: 1.5/5

The pump does let this potentially trade up with a scry two tossed in. Not even being a Centaur Courser at it’s base stats is pretty sad though.

Misleading Motes

Rating: 2.0/5

This will be fine when you need to have some interaction and your curve isn’t already too high. Just don’t get misled into playing too many of them.

Mocking Sprite

Rating: 1.5/5

You’re not even a Wind Drake! Not cool when someone is mocking you, now is it sprite?

It really depends on how much value you can get off making instants and sorceries cheaper. If you don’t have much use for that, then this is probably relegated to the side board.

Obyra’s Attendants

Rating: 2.0/5

Both sides are overpriced by one mana, but it’s fine since you can get both. Though you’ll probably be disappointed If you end up sitting on it and casting just the creature.

Picklock Prankster

Rating: 2.0/5

You need to have a decent concentration of instants, sorceries, and faeries in your deck to want to play the adventure half of this. Whiffing on that hurts because being four mana into a 1/3 is not where you want to be.

Quick Study

Rating: 2.5/5

Power creep has finally caught up with Divination. The instant speed is a huge upgrade because it allows you to hold up a counterspell and still have something relevant to do if they just pass back to you.

Sleep-Cursed Faerie

Rating: 3.0/5

Can you really blame them for not wanting to miss nap time? I feel like everyone would be more productive if they got one of those in the middle of the work day.

This is great on turn one, bad in the midgame, and fine if you draw it once you hit the point you could use a mana sink. Once you’ve cleared the stun counters off, it’s a nice little evasive beater that you can untap at instant speed.  

Sleight of Hand

Rating: 2.5/5

When this was originally printed, it was the point in Magic history where you always had to watch for the Sleight of Hand where they just drew two cards off of this.

One mana card selection that never misses has always performed well in limited. I expect that to continue as sets get more efficient.

Snaremaster Sprite

Rating: 2.0/5

Scryb Sprites in the streets, Frost Lynx in the sheets.

This will perform much better in the deck with a bunch of the tap payoffs like Sharae of Numbing Depths and Icewrought Sentry.  It’s kind of questionable if you’re not in that lane though.

Spell Stutter

Rating: 2.5/5

While not an unconditional Counterspell, this is pretty close to Mana Leak. There are plenty of Faeries running around so this will be able to counter most things cast until the late game. Having a cheap way to counter an adventure will be huge in this format.  

Splashy Spellcaster

Rating: 2.5/5

Unfortunately, this can’t hook itself up with a Sorcerer Role. It still lets you pass them out to the rest of your team as a throw in on any instant or sorcery. This being on board requires your opponent to account for that during combat to avoid getting totally blown out.

Sigh…I know I could make a pun about splashing here, but that’s low hanging fruit even for me.

Stormkeld Prowler

Rating: 1.5/5

While a two drop that grows in the late game seems like it would fit the good early, good late model, the one toughness can be pretty bad with cards like Rat Out running around.  It’s also really bad if you draw it after playing your high end.

Succumb to the Cold

Rating: 1.5/5

Basically, you have to be in the “tap opponent’s creatures” deck to actively want this. If you’re just very aggressive, it is fine filler as a way to get in those last points.

Talion’s Messenger

Rating: 3.5/5

This can trigger on the turn you drop it if you have another faerie ready to attack. Even if it’s the only one you have, it can still keep looting and growing itself into a truly noble Faerie.

It also gives you free reign to make jokes about “sending a message” every time you attack.

Tenacious Tomeseeker

Rating: 2.5/5

The potential to get back a key piece of removal or card draw spell is well worth the downside of this being a poorly statted creature.

Vantress Transmuter

Rating: 1.5/5

Playing a 3/4 for four isn’t going to get it done so you really want to get some value out of the adventure to make this worth it. Unfortunately, Cursed Roles are usually not going to perform well earlier in the game, but it does get another game piece on the board if you have nothing else to do.  

Virtue of Knowledge

Rating: 2.5/5

You really need to have a lot of ETBs to make playing a five mana do nothing worth it.

This is a build around with a huge range. In the right deck, this can be a game breaking card that buries them under an avalanche of value. In the wrong deck, you shouldn’t even be playing this.

Water Wings

Rating: 1.5/5

Take these Water Wings and learn to fly again…

While costing two mana is a big step down from Shore Up, this provides a ton of versatility on top of hexproofing your monster.  Turning a dork into a 4/4 flyer is sure to steal a few games or unexpectedly win a combat.

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Wrap Up

Would you be shocked if I told you that Blue had multiple forms of counterspells and card draw?  It’s also packed with a lot of cheap evasive creatures and bounce spells. Basically they focused on what blue does best in limited and ran with it.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back tomorrow for my limited review of the black cards of Wilds of Eldraine. Until then, stay classy people!

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.

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