cephille's First Look at Wilds of Eldraine (WOE) Limited — Black

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

This article follows the Limited grading scale and writing format that LSV and Reid Duke published on the Channelfireball (CFB) website for The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth (LTR).

Grading Scale

The retired overlords who made the Limited bomb Hall of Fame: Pack Rat, Umezawa’s Jitte, The Scarab God.

• 5.0: Chrome Host Seedshark. Breach the Multiverse. Sunfall.
• 4.5: Doomskar Warrior. Archpriest of Shadows. Borborygmos and Fblthp.
• 4.0: Preening Champion. Bloated Processor. Invasion of Amonkhet.
• 3.5: Final Flourish. Ephara’s Dispersal. Stormclaw Rager.
• 3.0: Vanquish the Weak. Eyes of Gitaxias. Zhalfirin Lancer.
• 2.5: Oracle of Tragedy. Ichor Drinker. Marauding Dreadship.
• 2.0: War Historian. Gloomfang Mauler. Order of the Mirror.
• 1.5: Expedition Lookout. Akki Scrapchomper. Infected Defector.
• 1.0: Disturbing Conversion. Tenured Oilcaster. Coming In Hot.
• 0.0: Invasion of Arcavios. One with Nothing.

Black

Limited rating: 5.0

As WOE’s only Planeswalker, Ashiok comes with an official statement that upcoming sets won’t have as many walkers as before, so we can look forward to the uniqueness of the walkers to come. Back to the card’s abilities:

• The [-2], making four 1/1 Nightmare tokens that can grow, is very strong. These Nightmares get bigger whenever cards are put into exile before combat on your turn, which fits perfectly with WOE’s main mechanic, adventure.
• After you -2 to make Nightmares, you can keep using [+1] to earn card advantage and grow your Nightmares.
• The [-7] ultimate is not necessarily needed in Limited, but a mill effect has always been strong in Limited, so try it when the timing is right.
• The static ability is hard to use in Limited, so we’ll leave it to the Constructed players to brainstorm.

Basically, as a five-mana Planeswalker, Ashiok earns a huge advantage by repeatedly using [-2] and [+1]. If you open it, happily put it in your deck.

Limited rating: 2.0

A four-mana 3/3 is an ordinary body, and the card draw only triggers when an enchantment goes to the graveyard, so you need a specialized build to make use of it.

Limited rating: 3.0

Without bargain it’s a three-mana sorcery that returns two creatures from your graveyard, but with bargain it can also dig up a creature with mana value four or less. If you have a suitable four-drop, I strongly recommend bargaining it! Black’s bargain is a lot more attractive, so let’s keep looking at how black’s ambitious bargain cards perform.

Limited rating: 3.0

A two-mana 1/3 flying Faerie is nothing special, but gaining lifelink when you control another Faerie is very strong. With built-in growth and the evasion of flying, she is well worth picking up along with some other Faeries, paired with Roles or pump spells to earn life-total advantage.

Limited rating: 3.5

Here it comes, the card king of the set!
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”
”…Rui”
“What? Hui-Rui? Who is that woman!?”

A four-mana Diabolic Tutor is a bit tempo-draining in Limited, but this card lets you cast a spell with total mana value four or less directly when you bargain it. When you’re short on removal, or what you’re looking for happens to be four mana or less, bargaining it is a great choice!

Limited rating: 3.5

An instant-speed -3/-3 for two mana is already very efficient, and getting to bargain it for -5/-5 is even better.

Limited rating: 3.0

A three-mana 2/3 with menace is a very decent body that can attack and block. The adventure side can make a Wicked Role to boost your creatures, and doing both in one turn for four mana is also quite nice.

Limited rating: 2.0

A four-mana 2/2 flyer is terrible, and triggering its ability requires casting spells on your opponent’s turn, which takes lots of instants or flash cards. I just checked, and this set’s 277 main-deck cards include

• 62 instants
• 5 cards with flash

I can’t work out the probability, it’s too complicated, but I know you’d have to draw those cards first, then get this onto the battlefield first, and only then cast spells to trigger a few -1/-1 effects and kill the opponent’s creatures… I don’t think the success rate is high, and even when it works it isn’t really that strong… so I won’t play it. At most I’d swap it in from the sideboard when I’m short on flyers.

Limited rating: 1.0

Only getting a 2-for-1 trade each time you cast it seems terrible to me, and the same goes if your deck doesn’t have many Faeries. In a deck with lots of Faeries it will of course perform better, but it’s still just a card that upgrades into a strong discard effect. If I want a 1-for-1, I’d rather play more removal or at least counterspells.

Limited rating: 4.0

A four-mana instant that outright kills a creature and occasionally handles Ashiok too is great. Having the Lobotomy effect on the exiled creature is a bonus, and if you can earn an extra card out of it, even better; the cost reduction when you’re hanging by a thread (if you have 5 life or less when you cast this spell) is something I hope you never get to use.

Many people probably already know this, but let me say it anyway. The Traditional Chinese name for The End is “故事結局”, referring to the ending of a fairy tale, similar to how early black-and-white films ended with a big “The End” or “完” popping up. It echoes, of course, Once Upon a Time from ELD (Traditional Chinese name “很久以前”), the starting point of every story. The art for Once Upon a Time shows King Kenrith, before he was crowned High King, on the trial of the “High Quest” given to him by the Questing Beast; in the art for The End, a woman who looks like a witch shatters the image of a knight in a stained-glass window, and the meaning of this picture is left for the WOE story to reveal.

As fairy tales always say:
“Once upon a time, there was a…”
“…and in the end, the prince and princess lived happily ever after.”

Limited rating: 2.0

A four-mana Mind Rot that also gives you a Wicked Role. So-so, and it basically won’t make the main deck.

Limited rating: 1.5

A one-mana 1/1 flyer that surveils 1 when it enters, and from the graveyard you can pay three to exile it, lose 1 life, and draw a card. I think its threat to the board is too low and it isn’t worth playing.

Limited rating: 3.5

Flexible removal; with a Faerie on the battlefield it starts at -3/-3, which is very efficient. It’s worth playing even if you aren’t a Faerie deck.

Limited rating: 3.0

Destroys a creature with mana value three or less, and if you cast it on your turn you also make an extra Food. Basically it’s a 1-for-1 with no mana gained, but making a Food makes it pretty good.

Limited rating: 3.0

The adventure costs two to return a card from the graveyard, then you can pay four to call a 3/3. I think it’s pretty good, and one copy in the deck should run quite smoothly. By the way, most Eldraine Zombies that die seem to crawl back to the bottom of the library, like Murderous Rider.

Limited rating: 4.5

I treat her as a five-mana slam of a 3/2 lifelinker that gives a target creature at least -3/-3 on entering. Those 3 points, of course, come from using the adventure side first to make a Food and eating it before she enters to gain 3 life. Having lifelink herself keeps earning life-total advantage after she lands, which is nice, and she is also a great target to dig or return from the graveyard.

Limited rating: 4.0

A five-mana 3/5 flyer is a very strong body, and if you bargain it, it can turn into a Vampire Sovereign.

Limited rating: 1.5
Limited rating: 3.5 (if you have 10 in your deck)

Basically I don’t want to play one or two at all, but maybe some future insane drafting approach will be to pick this card like crazy, since it should be passed very late.

Limited rating: 3.5

Generally, digging up two creatures is already quite a gain, but needing enough artifacts/enchantments/tokens on the battlefield means the timing won’t always be ideal. And when you know your opponent has a sweeper, this becomes a great topdeck.

Limited rating: 4.5

I wanted to give it a 5.0, but the Rats it makes can’t block, which holds it back a little. It wins just by sitting there, making Rats while exiling graveyards. If you open it, congratulations!

Limited rating: 4.0

A two-mana enchantment that makes a Wicked Role when it enters, and then each of your draw steps, if you control the enchanted creature, you may draw a card and lose 1 life. It’s a smaller, less stable Phyrexian Arena. When using it, don’t forget to include more cards that make Role tokens; being a card ahead of your opponent every turn is truly overpowered in Limited.

Limited rating: 4.0

The Ratatouille chef eyes the human body, thinking about where to cut later… Uncommons really are getting stronger these days. Out of the three enter abilities, there is always one that fits the situation perfectly:

• On an empty board, make a 1/1 Rat,
• When the board is a bit weak but you have a Rat, and you’re missing a key card, eat one for scry 2 then draw a card,
• When you have a pile of Rats and the opponent has few creatures, give everyone menace and swing

It looks airtight on the top, middle, and bottom lanes alike.

Limited rating: 2.5

A two-mana 3/1 that makes a Food when it dies, a respectable early beater.

Limited rating: 1.5

If your deck has quite a few creatures with good enter abilities, you can consider putting it in to get another use, but I’d probably still honestly take the graveyard-recursion cards.

Limited rating: 4.0

A strong resource-war card, but only if you choose more modes than your opponent can, or you’re barely affected (no cards in hand, no creatures on the battlefield), so that you can keep your advantage going.

Limited rating: 2.0

Rat Out ~ hold this for me!

-1/-1 on a creature and make a Rat, but the Rat being unable to block is truly terrible.

Limited rating: 3.0

If you need card selection but you aren’t blue, use this. If you have a suitable bargain source, you can also consider bargaining it; looking at four and taking two for three mana while losing 2 life is quite nice.

Limited rating: 4.0

Burst-filling cream puff! Seeing it, I can’t help but think of M15’s Rotfeaster Maggot. Of course it isn’t as mindlessly busted, but note that 5-toughness creatures are usually top-tier in Limited, and WOE is no exception. A five-mana 4/5 with deathtouch is basically a wall of death on defense; on offense, 4 power plus deathtouch puts the opponent in a painful dilemma between blocking with two or more creatures or taking 4 damage and letting you gain a Food, and if the opponent is careless with blocks and gets hit two or more times, the life-total gap will probably be huge. Basically, a card I’d love to have when I go black.

Limited rating: 3.0

Five-mana removal that can also destroy an enchantment, and on top of that it gives you a Wicked Role. If you’re short on better removal, you can main deck one or two outright.

Limited rating: 4.0

A five-mana 3/3 flyer that usually gives every other creature another -2/-2 or more on entering. A decent bomb, but the timing should be handled more carefully: try to keep high-toughness creatures in hand or on the battlefield, and use small creatures to trade and build up ammo in the graveyard.

Limited rating: 1.5

Played early it’s just a 1/1, and played mid to late game, sticking the Cursed Role on another creature probably won’t make you happy either, so why would I play it?

Limited rating: 4.0

A stronger Manticore, and a 3/1 flyer is deadlier at attacking! In this set black easily gets some expendable Rats, so you can bait the opponent’s big creature into blocking and then slam this to send it to the afterlife. What a beautiful tempo play to think about!

Limited rating: 1.0

So you’re Sugar Rush and not Candy Crush, whatever! In one sentence: don’t play it.
Of course, if you have lots of first strike/double strike creatures, that’s another story.

Limited rating: 2.5

A three-mana 3/2 that gives you a Food, fine.

The flavor text has the witch saying, “Have a taste! Your brother gave up his heart and liver for it!” which is truly grotesque, tsk tsk.

Limited rating: 4.0

Four-mana exile removal, and if you control an enchantment you also scry 2, which shouldn’t be hard to achieve in a WOE Limited format where Roles are everywhere.

Limited rating: 3.5

Attack, Tangled Colony! Yes, this creature wants you to keep attacking, expendable as it is; after it dies, make at least three Rats and attack again! Squeak! A Rat is never a coward! The remains of the Rats before us are the great cornerstone of our ratty hegemony! Squeak!

Limited rating: 5.0

The floor is casting it on an empty board for five mana as a 3/4 plus a 2/2 Rat token, but basically you won’t be satisfied with just that; usually you’ll wait until you have 2 to 3 Rats on the battlefield before casting her, and then the board’s power inflates at a shocking speed.

Limited rating: 5.0

If my opponent slams the enchantment side and I can’t answer it in time, I probably won’t want to play anymore. It’s absurdly strong; the adventure side gives -3/-3 and also gains 2 life. Basically if you open it, just throw in all your removal and land-fetching/ramp, and the deck should be great.

Limited rating: 3.0

Two mice~ Two mice~ Run fast~ Run fast~

Getting two bodies for three mana is not bad and fits the Rat theme, and when other creatures die you can put +1/+1 counters on it, so it can grow quite big.

Limited rating: 1.5

A one-mana 1/1 that needs payment to get deathtouch is terrible, and I won’t be very excited about making Rats when an enchantment goes to the graveyard.

Limited rating: 2.0

It’s just black’s Grizzly Bears; the extra 1 life loss for the opponent when an enchantment goes to the graveyard isn’t worth expecting much.

Limited rating: 2.5

Chapter I can only kill creatures with mana value two or less, which isn’t strong enough, and the Food and Wicked Role that follow aren’t enough reasons to insist on it, so I probably won’t play it.

That’s all for this WOE black Limited analysis. I hope everyone finds their own fun in the upcoming sealed and draft events!