Bargain

Bargain implies paying an additional cost while playing a spell to give it an additional bonus, much like a sacrificing cost, that can only be paid by sacrificing an artifact, enchantment, or token.

A good example of a card with bargain and probably one of the most iconic cards in the set is 《Beseech the Mirror》 – It searches for any card in your deck and puts it in your hand, but if you bargain it and its mana value is 4 or less you can also play this card without paying the mana cost.

Celebration

Celebration is a mechanic that activates if 2 or more non-land permanents enter the battlefield under your control within a turn.

The idea here is to put multiple permanents in play as fast as possible, which pairs really well with cards that enter the battlefield and produce food or a Role enchantment, allowing you to put 2 permanents into play with just 1 card.

I think 《Belligerent of the Ball》 sums up pretty much the idea of what this mechanic is trying to do, having a creature get +1/+0 and menace in the beginning of combat if Celebration was triggered.

Roles

Roles work pretty much like enchantments; they are attached to your creatures to give them some bonus power or to the opponent’s creatures to lower their status. There are 6 types of roles introduced for limited in this set: The wicked role, The sorcerer role, The young hero role, The cursed role, The monster role, and The royal role.

The tip here is that you can only have 1 role controlled by you attached to a creature at a time, so remember that to cast a second role in a creature you will have to sacrifice the first one.

Another thing to keep in mind with this mechanic is that it goes well with both Bargain and Celebration. There are creatures that enter the battlefield and create a role like 《Charmed Clothier》 that instantly triggers Celebration and later you can also sacrifice that role for a bargain.

Adventure

This is not exactly a new mechanic but it is an important one to mention in this set. While previous adventures had both sides of the card being of the same color, in Wilds of Eldraine this ability has a new twist: some of the spells can have different colors in each of its sides, like 《Decadent Dragon》.

By playing cards with adventure you can use the ability of the same card twice, firstly playing the adventure side of the card and sending it to an “Adventure” in the exile zone and then casting the other side, getting more advantage of the same card.

It is important to remember that you can play both or just one side of the card, making splashing colors viable or also, while not optimal, playing a card just because of one of its sides.

Black

This is the color that I’ve been enjoying the most so far, the possibility of being in 3 of the best archetypes of the edition UB Faeries, BG Foods, and BR Rats is a big upside to this color. The amount of choice you have in removal spells in the edition is over the top. Common cards like 《Candy Grapple》《Feed the Cauldron》 and 《Shatter the Oath》 are some of the options.

In Uncommon rarity we have also cards like 《Taken by Nightmares》 and 《Faerie Fencing》, really good removal spells in any deck that can play with black.

In addition to the removal toolkit, the color is almost self-sufficient and works really well with most mechanics of the edition, you have cards with bargain while also generating food, playing adventures and role tokens. 《Mintstrosity》《Voracious Vermin》《Sweettooth Witch》 and 《Twisted Sewer-Witch》 are the creatures you are looking for when playing this color.

Red

Red won the silver medal for me in this edition. The color has cheap removal spells and a variety of beefy and small creatures that give the color a large range of possibilities. 《Torch the Tower》《Cut In》 and 《Frantic Firebolt》 are the common removal spells I would be looking for in this color for a draft.

《Ratcatcher Trainee》 and 《Grand Ball Guest》 are small creatures to keep an eye out for, they interact really well with the new mechanics of bargain and celebration while providing early game options that can take over the game.

Talking about the beefy creatures, 《Bellowing Bruiser》 and 《Grabby Giant》 are not only good for putting that pressure on the board but also have very playable adventure modes that can help finishing the game or ramping and fixing your mana.

In the uncommon section 《Witchstalker Frenzy》 is just another really good removal spell for the color, often cast with only 1 red mana cost. 《Belligerent of the Ball》 is a powerhouse with the celebration mechanic and 《Two-Headed Hunter》 is another creature with adventure that is really good in both of its modes.

Green

Green takes the third spot in the podium. Green is here mostly because of the good creatures it can provide and its versatility. 《Hollow Scavenger》《Ferocious Werefox》《Hamlet Glutton》 and 《Curse of the Werefox》 are the cards I would be searching for in the common green slot.

In the uncommon slot, green creatures shine even more with 《Tough Cookie》《Howling Galefang》, and 《Stormkeld Vanguard》, they are all amazing creatures for early, mid and late game.

Additionally, fixing the color can be done with cards like 《Rootrider Faun》 and 《Brave the Wilds》 which can also allow you to be open to splash powerful cards from different colors and put those big creatures in play even faster.

Blue

This here is a tough call because blue and white are really close in power level for this edition, I would say that it’s a technical tie between the colors, but I decided to talk about the blue cards first because I’ve been enjoying playing blue-black archetype a lot.

《Spell Stutter》 is a cheap counterspell that can be a very important tool for this color and 《Vantress Transmuter》 and 《Beluna’s Gatekeeper》 are really good creatures as they can be used in both early and late game.

In the faerie archetype, there are cards like 《Obyra’s Attendants》 and 《Mocking Sprite》 that at first look don’t look really powerful, but they can be important to raise the faerie count of the deck. 《Obyra’s Attendants》 adventure can be used as a combat trick and reducing the cost of your spells can allow you to make those counterspells, removals, and draw spells work even better for you.

The uncommon slots 《Archive Dragon》《Bitter Chill》 and 《Icewrought Sentry》 pretty much embody what Blue is trying to do in this set. 《Archive Dragon》 is a really hard creature to deal with, both because of its ward ability and also because of its toughness. Scrying late game can also mean that you won’t be wasting draw steps drawing not needed extra lands.

《Bitter Chill》 and 《Icewrought Sentry》 work pretty well with the tapping archetype that can extract extra advantage while disabling the opponent’s creatures for one or more turns.

White

As I said before it was a hard call between blue and white to occupy the last spot. What made me choose white to be the last in this list is the fact that most of the cards that make you want to play this color are in the rare and mythic slots, as you will be able to see when I rank my top 10 of the edition further on.

The white color goes well both in the aggressive and auras strategies. Some of the commons I would be looking for in this color are the cards that deal with creatures like 《Cooped Up》 and 《Kellan’s Lightblades》 or creatures that can aid you in triggering celebration like 《Stockpiling Celebrant》 or 《Charmed Clothier》 that is also pretty decent in the auras strategy.

A tip with playing with 《Cooped Up》 is that you can put the exile enchanted creature ability in the stack and then if you have an instant spell with bargain you can use 《Cooped Up》 as a sacrifice outlet, since the creature is going to be exiled already anyway.

As for the uncommons, 《Dutiful Griffin》 and 《Knight of Doves》 are creatures worth mentioning. The griffin is pretty much a 《Serra Angel》 with an extra ability and 《Knight of Doves》 can make sure that you will take extra advantage of your aura (mainly roles) cards.

Black Red Rats

This archetype is trying to swarm the table with a lot of creatures, not only does it play with my two favorite colors of the edition but also it has a great toll kit of removal spells available to take down opponent’s creatures and make it possible for your rat tokens to attack.

《Totentanz, Swarm Piper》 represents what this deck is trying to do, creating a rat every time a creature you control dies, it makes sure you will keep attacking with your creatures while giving your rats death touch which will also make defending a bit harder to your opponents.

Black Green Food

Black Green Food excels in removal and creature quality with green having one of the best creature options of the edition and black having the best removal tools this archetype can be a very powerful one.

The bargain ability here is a key one as you will usually generate a lot of food to sacrifice for various uses. 《Greta, Sweettooth Scourge》 is a perfect card to represent the deck as it generates food and also gives you 2 different uses for it.

Red Green Ferocious/Adventure

This combination of colors is trying to put big creatures into play fast, having cards to generate additional mana early game and taking the board with huge creatures.

It is important to prioritize some removal spells and combat tricks for this combination because your opponents will have a hard time dealing with your big creatures, and a combat trick can take over the game. 《Ruby, Daring Tracker》 can ramp you up in the early game and also very often be a 3/4 creature with haste for 2 mana.

Red White Celebration

Winning the game fast and playing multiple permanents in a turn is what this color combination is trying to do. Having cheap creatures and gaining bonus status for playing 2 permanents can win games early and punish the strategies that are trying to play the long game.

《Ash, Party Crasher》 is what a deck like this wants, it enters attacking and can become bigger every turn you put 2 permanents in play.

Blue Black Faeries

This archetype has a lot of resources, the removals of black, plus the counterspells and drawing sources of blue can make you take control of the board. Here you are trying to answer any kind of threat your opponent is presenting either countering or destroying it, while you are drawing some extra cards and putting creatures with evasion into play.

《Obyra, Dreaming Duelist》 is a great option to keep yourself open during the opponent’s main phases and then cast a creature with flash and evasion at the end of his turn.

Green White Auras

Green-White aura is trying to mainly use the new role mechanic to enlarge your creatures and give them additional bonuses. The strategy of this archetype is pretty linear and opening a card like 《Syr Armont, the Redeemer》 can be a good reason to try to play these colors.

White Blue Tappers

White-Blue tapper is trying to remove the opponent’s creatures out of the way by tapping them and putting stun counters so they do not untap in the untap step.

Another part of this strategy is playing creatures like 《Sharae of Numbing Depths》 to take advantage of other tapping cards and take control of the game.

Blue Red Spells

This archetype is all about playing as many more instants, sorceries and adventures cards as you can so you can make the most of your cards and draws.

《Johann, Apprentice Sorcerer》 is willing to do exactly that, playing instant and sorceries straight from the top of your library before you even have a chance to draw them.

Blue Green Good Stuff

This was the hardest archetype to label because while green is very focused on food and bargain mechanics, and trying to cast big creatures, blue works well with trying to control the game, counter some spells, and draw extra cards. It is one of the archetypes of the edition the thematic of which you can’t actually spot at first glance.

Apart from that, you are willing to put big creatures really fast into play while trying to draw some extra cards. 《Troyan, Gutsy Explorer》 is the chosen card to represent this archetype.

White Black Sacrifice

At the bottom of the list, I chose to put the White-Black color combination. Much like what happened with the Blue-Green archetype, it is a bit hard to spot what is the strategy here at first look. This archetype is trying to explore the bargain mechanics the most, with cards like 《Neva, Stalked by Nightmares》, to take some advantage of that.

Despite Black being a really good color in the edition, this was one of the weakest combinations in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, you can still end up your draft with a pretty strong and synergic White-Black deck, as you can do in all those archetypes with the right card combination but here the cards seem to be a bit all over the place.

Wilds of Eldraine: Enchanting Tales

Very similarly to The Brothers’ War Retro Artifacts and the spells of Strixhaven Mystical Archive, every Wilds of Eldraine pack comes with a reprint of remarkable enchantments from past editions.

Whereas some of them are constructed staples like 《Leyline of the Void》《Leyline of Sanctity》《Rhystic Study》《Omniscience》《Rest in Peace》 and 《Land Tax》, some of them can also be played in Limited.

Top 10 picks

1. 《Virtue of Persistence》

《Virtue of Persistence》 is a powerhouse that can basically win the game alone. For me it is the strongest card of the edition and is also in my highest rated color.

Not only you can destroy a creature and gain some life in the early-mid game but also, if you manage to play the enchantment side of the card with a stable board, it is really hard for the opponent to come back to the game. It is important to not forget that you can also put creatures from his graveyard into play under your control.

2. 《Virtue of Loyalty》

Just like the black virtue, 《Virtue of Loyalty》 has a pretty good adventure side of the card, especially because you can put a 2/2 vigilance token with instant speed into play. It can also take over the game by itself, giving +1/+1 to all your creatures every turn and untapping them to make sure you can attack and block really well.

3. 《Realm-Scorcher Hellkite》

A 4/6 Dragon with flying and haste that if bargained can already deal 2 damage to any target while still being a mana sink for dealing even more damage? Sign me in.

《Realm-Scorched Hellkite》 is all of that and more so it takes the bronze medal and is played in the second best color of the edition.

4. 《Gruff Triplets》

Another card that can win games by itself is 《Gruff Triplets》. It’s a pretty insane card, for 6 mana you can have access to 3 times 3/3 creatures that when one of them dies it buffs the other 2. This card gets even better when you think how early you can put it in play with green being pretty good at ramping up spells.

This is the first card of the list that is not a mythic rare, so expect to see a lot of 《Gruff Triplets》 when playing Wilds of Eldraine Limited, hopefully, on your side of the table.

5. 《Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator》

《Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator》 takes not only the fourth place in the list but also the honor of being the only planeswalker in the entire edition.

A planeswalker that can protect itself by creating creatures is always a good addition to a deck, if it can also draw cards while making these creatures bigger makes it look even better.

6. 《Hylda’s Crown of Winter》

《Icy Manipulator》 is a really good magic card since ancient times, especially in limited. Wilds of Eldraine just made it better by reducing its cost to activate during your turn and giving the ability to cash it in for some extra cards. Truth be told, I didn’t see myself wanting to sacrifice my 《Hylda’s Crown of Winter》 yet, but maybe it will happen at some point.

This card is great with the White-Blue tappers archetype but it can fit basically in any deck that you might play with.

7. 《Archon of the Wild Rose》

Usually your enchanted creatures in the edition will have role enchantments on them. That said, with 《Archon of the Wild Rose》 in Play the enchanted creatures will often become 5/5 flyers, plus the ability that role is already giving them. This fact plus the 4 mana 4/4 flyer creature is enough to put this card in our top 10.

8. 《Expel the Interlopers》

One of the few mass removal effects of the edition is 《Expel the Interlopers》. It is a very flexible “Wrath” effect as you can play it in a small creature agro deck and use it to take out only the bigger creatures of your opponent. It can also be used in a classic control type deck.

Try slow playing it to get as many opponent’s creatures as you can. I really liked the design of this card and I think it has great potential in Limited.

9. 《Hylda of the Icy Crown》

《Hylda of the Icy Crown》 is a really good reason for playing the White-Blue tappers archetype. With any tapping effect you can start creating as many 4/4 creatures as you can.

This card is just insane if you also manage to put a crown to the queen with 《Hylda’s Crown of Winter》 creating the best synergy possible with this card.