The Wicked Slumber has fallen over Eldraine, the prankster Faeries have come out to play, and the literal cookie-cutter creatures are as furious as ever.Magic: The Gathering’s Wilds of Eldraine follows 2020’s wildly overpowered Throne of Eldraine, porting some of the original set’s most successful mechanics into a new environment.
Related:Magic: The Gathering - The Best Reprints From Enchanting TalesWith a twist on Adventures, a feast of Food tokens, and the introduction of Roles, the cards from Wilds of Eldraine are ripe for the picking. Wilds of Eldraine has something for every level of cube, from Peasant to Powered, and everything in between. There are plenty of generically powerful cards, as well as niche cards to flesh out more stylized and thematic cubes. Just be careful not to pick out any cursed apples.
10Embereth Veteran
Embereth Veteran is the first ever 2/1 uncommon for a single red mana with no downside. It has an upside even, with a sacrifice effect that sticks a Young Hero Role to another creature. That Role allows a smaller creature to pick up a few +1/+1 counters over time, which is excellent for dorks with attack triggers, like Bomat Courier or Dreadhorde Arcanist.
Mostly, this will just be another 1-mana 2/1 that you can slot into your aggressive red decks, and hopefully Veteran plus the Cheeky House-Mouse are signs of more pushed aggro creatures at lower rarities in the future.
9Back For Seconds
Back for Seconds is apotent recursion toolthat can even give you a mana advantage, so long as you’re able to bargain. Not every cube is set up to bargain easily, but creature and artifact tokens tend to be fairly common.
This type of card isn’t usually cube-worthy, but tack on the ability to put one of the returned creatures directly into play and suddenly the 3-mana double Raise Dead becomes more interesting. It’s a grindy midrange card that’ll occasionally feel fantastic, and pairs perfectly with creatures that create their own tokens, like Bloodtithe Harvester or Prosper, Tome-Bound.
8Hearth Elemental
Hearth Elemental looks like a solid replacement for Bedlam Reveler in spell-heavy cubes. Reveler costs two mana minimum, whereas Elemental can get down to a single mana and asks less of you. It even comes with a freebee ‘prowess trigger’ when comparing the stats between the two.
Related:Magic: The Gathering - The Best Adventure CardsThe main difference is the card advantage mode. Reveler always draws three, but comes down later. Elemental is easier to cast, but drawing cards is tied to its Stoke Genius adventure. The two cards compete for the same slots at the very least, which is fascinating given the rarity difference.
7Gruff Triplets
The Billy Goats Gruff was casually referenced on Clackbridge Troll in Throne of Eldraine, but it would seem the goats have received a glow-up since then. Gruff Triplets looks like three goats in a trenchcoat, but there are a few 6/6’s and the occasional 12/12 hiding in there too. One question: Why are these satyrs?
When one triplet dies, the others essentially absorb its power, leaving behind a collectively higher power than there was while all three were on board. Combine any stat-boosts orflicker effectsand the whole package gets absurd, which means a gruff time for your opponent.
6The Irencrag
Wizards doesn’t print two-mana colorless accelerants like The Irencrag that often. The upside isn’t even all that impressive, as it turns out Magic’s version of Excalibur is just a clunkypiece of equipment, but cubes in the market for more generic mana rocks could do worse.
Related:Magic: The Gathering - The Best Mana Rocks For CommanderMind Stone and Everflowing Chalice are the direct competitors here, both of which have more relevant upsides than the times when The Irencrag becomes an Equipment. Still, cubes are incidentally full of legendary creatures, so it’s likely the transformation will take place even when players aren’t actively trying to make it happen.
5Up The Beanstalk
Cubes tend to be lean and focused on cheap interactive spells, so it seems counterintuitive to run a card that incentivizes players to draft a bunch of expensive cards. You certainly could make Up the Beanstalk work in a Peasant cube with a ramp theme and some top-end threats, but it shines in powerful cubes with high mana value spells that aren’t meant to be cast the fair way.
The ideal payoffs are cards with built-in discounts, like Treasure Cruise and Leyline Binding, orfree spellslike Solitude and Force of Will, which all cantrip with Beanstalk in play.
4Witchstalker Frenzy
Witchstalker Frenzy is so much more than the average five-damage burn spell. Assuming you’re attacking in any capacity, you’ll be able to reduce this to a reasonable rate, and shaving even one mana off the cost places it amongthe best burn spellsout there.
Notably, Frenzy gets discounted by your opponent’s attackers as well. you’re able to proactively reduce its cost, or you can play defense and let your opponent’s creatures do the work for you. Three or more attackers from either player makes this a 1-mana spell that deals with just about any creature.
3Gadwick’s First Duel
Gadwick’s First Duel gives you just the right amount of advantage in between chapters to make it worth the wait. The Saga’s only in consideration for cubes with a spell-heavy component, but that describes a lot of blue sections in cubes.
Related:Magic: The Gathering - The Best Sagas In MagicNot removing abilities is a huge knock against the Cursed Role. Many cube creatures have utility outside their combat stats, so a Cursed Role isn’t guaranteed to do much. However, it can hold off aggressively-slanted creatures, while chapter two digs towards a spell to combine with the payoff on chapter three. Best luck on your second duel, Gadwick.
2Feral Encounter
How appropriate of Eldraine to have a card that reads like a fairy tale. For all its fancy wording, it’s basically a Rabid Bite and a creature cantrip wrapped up into one card, but the damage-dealing effect is delayed until your combat step so you can ‘bite’ with the creature you just found.
Green removal spells generally meld together, but rarely do they offer opportunities for card advantage. Feral Encounter gives green sections another cantrip-style effect for added consistency while sneaking another removal spell into the same cube slot. That all seems ferally reasonable.
1Virtue of Persistence
Cubes are often hostile towards flashy, expensive finishers, but Virtue of Persistence feels like a natural fit for almost any cube, regardless of what the environment looks like.
The Virtue itself is lackluster, and Locthwain Scorn is below-rate for a removal spell, though still reasonable. Combine them together, and you get an all-in-one wincon and interactive tool without dedicating a cube slot to an otherwise unimpressive finisher. The enchantment might not even matter most games, but the fact that it’s mostly bonus text stapled to a removal spell makes it a perfect fit for most cubes.
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