cephille's First Look at Wilds of Eldraine (WOE) Limited — Enchanting Tales (WOT)

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

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

Grading Scale

The retired rulers that sit in 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.

Masterpiece Series

Enchanting Tales

Note: Masterpiece Series cards opened in draft boosters can be used in Limited.

Limited Rating: 4.0

Blind Obedience was a powerful standalone card in GTC Limited and even Constructed back in the day, and it is just as strong in WOE Limited. It not only slows down or even wrecks an opponent’s plan of slapping down creatures to defend, it also forces the opponent’s Foods and Treasures to wait an extra turn before they can be activated. The Extort ability also lets you widen the life gap in the mid to late game when you have plenty of mana. Incidentally, life gained from Extort also interacts with the activated ability of Will, Scion of Peace, which reduces the cost of white/blue spells you cast this turn when you gain life.

Limited Rating: 4.0

A permanent that makes soldiers in Limited is just great. The creatures it makes have lifelink, and whenever you gain life you can pay two mana to draw a card, which is a real bargain! That said, in my own play I still treat it as a mid to late game mana sink, and mainly rely on other sources of lifelink or life gain to draw cards and generate value.

Limited Rating: 3.5

In Limited it is simply a Banishing Light, and a nonland catch-all answer like that is always welcome.

Limited Rating: 2.0
Limited Rating: 4.0 (if you have many sources of Role tokens)

The more Role tokens or enchantments you have, the stronger it gets. Note, though, that it grants Shroud, not Hexproof, so occasionally you will be unable to target your own enchanted creature when you need to use a trick on it. The reason I gave this card a high score is that making enchanted creatures should not be hard in WOE Limited, and Shroud restricts the opponent to trading with creature combat, which is crucial in a Limited format dominated by creature battles.

Limited Rating: 2.0
Limited Rating: 4.5 (if you have many Foods)

Eating a Food for 3 life before your end step each turn to make a 2/2 flier is just too strong! But if you can’t gain life, don’t play it.

Limited Rating: 2.0
Limited Rating: 4.0 (if you have many sources of creature tokens)

The Glorious Anthem for tokens. It is strong when you can make plenty of creature tokens, but don’t play it if you can’t make many.

Limited Rating: 2.5

Creatures are usually what matters most in Limited, and if the opponent just removes your creatures, they won’t face any retribution. But when you have many powerful enchantments that trouble the opponent, you can also add this card to make them even more miserable. Oh, and it can also blow up the opponent’s lands!

Limited Rating: 3.5

A powerful Aura, but note that the 2/2 vigilance Knight it creates on entering the battlefield cannot be the target it enchants.

Limited Rating: 4.0

Landing it on turn one on the draw is outrageous… but it is less useful when topdecked late.

Limited Rating: 0.5

Leyline of Sanctity is a defensive standalone card. Bring it in from the sideboard if the opponent has many annoying spells that target you. The main deck should be left to other standalone cards that directly help you win.

In Limited with this set, you should now and then see the amusing situation of a Leyline already on the battlefield at the start of the game.

Limited Rating: 5.0

When you would lose because your life total hit zero, you have to be dealt another 10 poison counters before you die. What sort of sorcery is this?

The Phyrexians have already been defeated, and in the WOE environment there are no other sources of Toxic, Infect, or even Proliferate.

Limited Rating: 0.5

Limited shouldn’t really need graveyard hate, but if you want to shut off the opponent’s dies triggers or enchantment-to-graveyard triggers, you could bring it in from the sideboard to mess with them.

Limited Rating: 4.0

With this in play your Treasures will overflow…

Limited Rating: 0.0

I can’t think of a moment when it is good in Limited, but I could be wrong, so you are welcome to slap me in the face.

Limited Rating: 3.0

Any permanent in Limited that can reliably filter your cards deserves a 3.0 to start, but if it were just four mana to draw a card, it would be terrible.

This card is an early reprint from the Torment (TOR) set. Perhaps at the time there wasn’t yet a strict requirement that blue mostly loots draw first then discard, and so it ended up as one of the few blue cards that discards first and then draws (nowadays most of those are on red cards).

Limited Rating: 3.5

Since WOE is an enchantment-themed environment, this card is a case of “the stronger the enemy, the stronger you are.” Bring it in if the opponent has an enchantment bomb, and putting it in the main deck is fine too. Still, pay attention to the timing of use; of course, if there is no target, paying three mana to make an enchantment for its enters trigger is not out of the question either.

Limited Rating: 3.5

Attach it to a creature that can get through, so that you draw cards steadily by attacking. Draw a few extra cards and you pull ahead on resources.

Limited Rating: 2.0

Spending six mana to do nothing, and then the opponent casts a spell and draws seven cards. That trade doesn’t seem very good… But if the opponent casts two more spells, they’ll probably deck themselves. The timing is delicate, so it is a card that is very strong when it is strong; cast at the wrong time, it may be you who suffers.

Limited Rating: 5.0

After the opponent is enchanted with this Curse, whenever they cast an instant or sorcery, have a permanent go to the graveyard, or get milled, they also have to mill an equal number of cards at the end step. Basically this card is a super disruptive piece of the Limited experience. After all, it’s a completely different class of card, so if you run into it you lose eight or nine times out of ten, and if you have it, it’s simple, brutal, and wins.

Incidentally, the Curse enchantment subtype also suits Eldraine’s flavor very well. I had originally thought “Wicked Slumber”, the focus of this story, would be printed as a Curse card (but it wasn’t, QQ, maybe because a card with the same name already came out in MOM). My idea was this:

Wicked Slumber Spell 3BB

Enchantment ~ Aura/Curse

Enchant player
When Wicked Slumber Spell enters the battlefield, or at the beginning of each end step, for each player, you choose a creature, artifact, or land they control that has no awake counter on it, and put three stun counters on each of them. When the last stun counter is removed from such a permanent, you choose one:

1. Sacrifice it,
2. Or exile it and return it to the battlefield with an awake counter on it, or something like that.

Limited Rating: 3.0

Perfect fodder for bargain!

Limited Rating: 3.5

At first glance, aggressive decks should love this card. As long as you can keep deploying creatures and the opponent can’t keep up, one day you will break through their defensive line.

Limited Rating: 4.0

If you pick the right creature type, you draw a card whenever a creature of that type enters the battlefield. It is perfect for a featured tribe such as Rats or Faeries, and you can rake in a fortune.

Note: Food is an artifact subtype, not a creature type, so it can’t be chosen.

Limited Rating: 3.0

Spending four mana to give all your spells flash… I’m not sure it is a good investment; but I do know that if the blue Leyline appears directly on the battlefield in your opening hand, the tempo of your whole game will be explosively good.

Limited Rating: 0.5

When you have ten mana to cast it, you aren’t short on mana anymore, and most of the time it will undoubtedly get stuck in your hand. I’m giving it 0.5 so that everyone can try it out and tell me how it goes; Limited always has infinite possibilities.

Limited Rating: 4.0

Like the earlier tax-heavy card, you will soon have more cards in hand than your opponent. However, because it only charges a one-mana tax, most opponents will still choose not to let you draw, but once you choke the opponent’s tempo you will eventually get to draw.

Limited Rating: 0.5

Use it if you need to deal with the opponent’s two-color creature land, or simply want to trigger an enchantment’s enters effect without losing card advantage.

Limited Rating: 5.0

Land it on turn two and you’ve basically won. However, when the opponent has a flier or a reach blocker and you can’t remove it, the side effect of losing one life each turn will still make things a bit uncomfortable.

Limited Rating: 3.0

A three-mana enchantment version of Dark Confidant. It’s a great deal, but be careful not to be hurt to death; if your deck has quite a few cards costing more than five, don’t play it.

Limited Rating: 4.0

As long as you have slightly more creatures than the opponent and they are weak, the opponent easily ends up with no creatures; it’s even better paired with this card if you have sacrifice outlets.

Limited Rating: 0.5

I give it the same evaluation and score as Rest in Peace.

Limited Rating: 5.0

Once this resolves you will never lose the resource war, and paying life to draw is something you decide whether to do yourself, so the side effect is controllable and relatively safe. Note that the card it exiles from the top of your library is put into your hand at the beginning of your next end step, so when you have no answer in hand but want to draw an instant that kills the opponent’s creature, you need to activate it before the end of your own turn; and if the card you want to draw is a sorcery, it is the other way around: do it before the opponent’s end step.

Limited Rating: 2.5

It may be stronger when played with few cards in hand than with many, and when you topdeck with an empty hand you can freeload off the opponent.

Limited Rating: 4.0

In Limited, creatures are resources, and one extra card that lets you recur from the graveyard in the mid to late game is no different from drawing an extra card every turn.

Limited Rating: 3.0

If you can gain a life gap of 6 or more points, it’s quite strong, though the opponent can also choose to stop playing lands to get around this card’s effect.

Limited Rating: 4.0

The more sources of life gain you have, or if you have another permanent on the battlefield that gains life steadily, adding this card basically means you are about to win. This set has plenty of Foods, so triggering the effect that makes the opponent lose life shouldn’t be hard.

Limited Rating: 3.5

A good card that combines weakening, killing small creatures, and steadily draining the opponent’s life.

Limited Rating: 3.0

When your deck has lots of creatures that are no loss to sacrifice, this card will be quite good; otherwise it will feel a bit awkward to use.

For example, Rats, and more Rats…

Limited Rating: 0.0

Play it when you’ve taken enough Hopeless Nightmare.

Limited Rating: 4.5

An extra combat phase and postcombat main phase for every five mana! Basically, when you are ahead on board, attacking twice each turn means you’re about to win; when you are behind, you can also simply use it to reset your creatures for defense.

Limited Rating: 0.0

Don’t play Blood Moon in Limited.

Limited Rating: 2.5

It doesn’t lose you a card and comes with Firebreathing built in. Attach it to a creature that can get through and you can win very fast.

Limited Rating: 4.5

The triple-damage enchantment has been downgraded, but when you land this enchantment with six mana, as long as your board isn’t too weak you basically win.

Limited Rating: 4.0

You can eat your creatures to turn them into bombs to pick off the board, or to deal the final points after attacking. Quite good.

Limited Rating: 3.0

In a normal build, slamming this enchantment down early should earn you at least 4 damage. I treat it as a burn spell that has a chance to deal lots of damage in installments.

Limited Rating: 3.0

Basically not as good as Blind Obedience, but you can still use it if you need to.

Limited Rating: 1.0

Slamming this down first so the opponent accelerates first just doesn’t feel right.

Limited Rating: 2.0
Limited Rating: 4.0 (the more creatures with power 2 or less in your deck, the stronger it is)

Just by looking at the art you know it’s meant for red-black Rats.

Limited Rating: 2.0

I take a bunch of defensive creatures with power/toughness like 1/3 and 0/4 together with this card, wouldn’t that be very strong? But it’s so bad if you don’t draw it…

Edit Sep 7 2023
Thanks to a reader for the correction: this enchantment makes each creature deal damage equal to the damage dealt to it to its controller, so what I originally wrote about tanking the reflected damage with a bunch of high-toughness creatures was wrong; that only makes you die faster. If you play this enchantment when things are even, combat for both sides becomes very complicated. If you are the attacker, you need to calculate the power of the opponent’s defending creatures and work out whether you would die to that damage after attacking; if you are the defender, it is the other way around. Since I don’t know in what situation this enchantment would be very strong, I am keeping the original score.

Limited Rating: 3.0

You again, red-black Rats!

Limited Rating: 1.0

In Limited, only creatures that can stand their ground have the capital to trade with the opponent. Using this card to get your big creature out early to land a punch, but having it live for only one turn, doesn’t seem very worthwhile.

Limited Rating: 4.0

Use it against decks like red-black Rats that are good at flooding the board. Having it bring out two big guys at your upkeep to teach the opponent a lesson is explosive.

Limited Rating: 5.0

As long as your deck isn’t all vanilla creatures or spells that can’t make tokens or add counters, once you land it and trigger it once or twice it’s hard to lose.

Limited Rating: 3.5

Put it in the right deck and you can draw plenty of cards, and giving your whole team trample is very strong.

Limited Rating: 0.0

If you want to play it, you might as well play graveyard hate, and remember this card’s effect is global: if you play it and later want to recur from the graveyard, you will block yourself and be unable to.

Limited Rating: 2.0

It seems the room for +1/+1 counters in this set was all converted into making Role tokens, but if you have a pairing you can try it.

Limited Rating: 4.5

An extremely strong ramp. With it on the battlefield from your opening hand, you are very unlikely to lose.

Limited Rating: 4.0

A very strong ramp. Once you slam it down for four mana, whenever your creatures connect it untaps all your mana. Remember that when you have a creature with first strike or double strike that can deal damage to the opponent, after the first-strike damage is dealt you can trigger the untap-all-lands effect once, and then trigger it again after regular damage resolves. If needed, you can use the mana in between to cast instant/flash spells or pay for activated abilities.

Limited Rating: 4.0

Remember that your deck needs enough sources of tokens for this card to be worth it; but in WOE Limited that shouldn’t be hard: Foods, Roles, Treasures, and lots of creature tokens, even copy effects, can all trigger it.

Limited Rating: 4.0

Remember its effect is global: both your tokens and counters and your opponent’s are doubled. Don’t happily slam it down and end up helping your opponent win.

Limited Rating: 3.0

Great fixing. Once you open it, you can play all the bombs you picked up.

Limited Rating: 4.0

In a deck with more tricks or Auras it can generate quite a lot of card advantage and is very strong, and scrying 1 whenever a creature enters the battlefield makes your next draw better. Considering that many of the Adventure cards in this set target creatures you control, and coming back from Adventure can again trigger the scry 1 from a creature entering, I gave it a higher 4.0.

Limited Rating: 4.5

Same score as the red Fiery Emancipation. Doubling the power and toughness of all your creatures at the beginning of each combat is insane.

Limited Rating: 3.5

A great one-mana ramp. Remember that if your deck includes this, try not to have fewer than 10 Forests, since drawing it with nothing to attach it to is awkward.

That wraps up this Limited analysis of WOT Enchanting Tales. I hope everyone finds their own fun in the upcoming sealed and draft events!

Looking it over, I feel most of the reprinted enchantments in Enchanting Tales (WOT) might be better suited to being added to some XX Masters set. Putting them into WOE Limited raises the power level by too much all at once. Limited is supposed to build advantage through small combos and careful combat, but in WOE Limited you might get flipped over by the opponent topdecking a single well-timed WOT card. It feels like enchantment removal has to go in the main deck, otherwise getting blown out by one of these game-swinging enchantments would be incredibly frustrating.