Wilds of Eldraine - Minotaur Set Review

Witch's Mark
by Justyna Dura

White | Blue | Black | Red | Green | Artifacts & Lands | Allied Colors & Shards | Enemy Colors & Wedges | cEDH | Reprints

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to Eldraine! Since were last on the plane properly, Oko was running rampant Elking everyone, and the Fires of Invention were blistering. Since then, the Phyrexian Invasion came, only to be stopped by a plague of sleep, and only a few heroes can set things right. Only by seeking answers in the Wilds past the Five Courts can the curse be lifted.

And with this exploration into the wilds, we are sure to discover new, exciting cards to bolster the Minotaur typal. As with the formation of the multiverse Omenpaths, the gates are wide open for cards to support Minotaurs.

As always, this review is targeted toward the formats of Pioneer and EDH, but by all means, your welcome to apply my thoughts to other formats.

Now let's get into the review and eat some gingerbread men!

Black

Hopeless Nightmare

At a glance, Hopeless Nightmare

seems like an inconsequential thing, but at one mana, this black enchantment is actually doing a lot for Minotaur decks in Pioneer and even EDH to a degree. The biggest aspect is that it forces our opponents to discard a card. Stripping resources from our opponents early in the game is very impactful, and it allows us a little breathing room to set up our proceeding board states.

Other one-mana hand attack spells, like Thoughtseize

or Duress

, are arguably better, as they allow us to see the hand of our opponent and select a card to be discarded. However, Hopeless Nightmare

sweetens the pot to make up the reduced utility.

The next aspect is that this also causes our opponents to lose two life, making this card reminiscent of Shock

in its usage. Getting early damage in is important for Minotaur typal in Pioneer, as, in my experience, even point of damage can make all the difference.

The fact that Hopeless Nightmare

loses two life and causes opponents to discard is already very good, but the last part of the card is what makes it very interesting. For three mana we can sacrifice the card to scry two. I cannot tell the number of games I have had where I'm top decking and searching for a little gas to end the game, so having a semi-cheap mana sink to achieve that can be exactly what you need to find that extra bit of gas to finish the game.

Finally, this card plays well with Angrath, the Flame-Chained

, as his +1 loyalty ability is Hopeless Nightmare's ETB effect, so if you're building your deck to be a bit more grindy, this is a way to add more redundancy to that gameplan.

Lord Skitter's Blessing

I'm on the fence about this card. I like what this card can do, I'm just not sure if Minotaurs can support it effectively. Buffing a creature and drawing extra cards each turn is a very powerful effect, even more so if you have extra copies of this in play, but it's not all gravy here, so let's get into why.

Let's start with what I don't like about it. The simplest answer is that Minotaurs barely run Auras for the Blessing

to activate its effect of drawing a second card. In Pioneer, it just isn't beneficial to use up deck space for Auras when you could be playing more Minotaurs.

The only exception is Gnarled Scarhide

, which currently is the only one-cost Minotaur available outside of eternal formats. Scarhide

can be used as an Aura enchantment, thanks to bestow, but that's very unlikely to happen, as it's often just better to play it as a Minotaur rather than to bestow.

But let's look at this from a more positive angle now. When the Blessing

is played, it adds a Wicked Role token to a creature. This buffs the creature by +1/+1 and adds that opponents lose one life when the role is in the graveyard. This helps make our Minotaurs more effective in combat and perhaps adds a disincentive to kill the Minotaur we enchanted.

In addition, if played properly, the Blessing

doesn't need any support as it creates the enchantment for a creature, so, if placed on a creature not likely to be used in combat, then we can draw the extra cards unless our opponent wastes resources to remove it.

Overall, I'm very interested to experiment with this card to see how effective it actually is, even though I'm not entirely certain of its application.

Rankle's Prank

Rankle maybe be pranking, but this card is not a joke. This card, while costly, is doing a lot of things Minotaur decks want.

The first is that it causes everyone to discard two cards, and anyone that knows Minotaur typal knows that Minotaurs like self-discard synergy, and this is a great way to enable Neheb, the Worthy

or Glint-Horn Buccaneer

. At the same time, our gain is our opponents' misery, as we strip away valuable resources from them, especially when in a midrange match-up, where discard can decide games.

The second is that everyone loses four life; this might seem to be rather inconsequential, as four mana for four damage is not a very efficient, but in games of EDH or Pioneer, sometimes that four life can make a difference, especially when a board state has stalled out.

Lastly, everyone sacrifices two creatures. Now, I'm less keen on this mode, but it can still have its uses. For one, this can be an effective way to remove chump blockers from our opponents' boards, making our attack force a more difficult decision. On the other hand, it also forces us to sacrifice our own Minotaurs, something that works against our intended strategy, so while it is useful, it is also double-edged.

In the end, it's not one mode of this card that gives it potential, but the fact that it can be any of these three options. It allows for more flexibility for a given situation and helps cover more weak spots our decks might have.

Virtue of Persistence

This card I can see being more useful in EDH rather than Pioneer, for the simple fact that it costs too much to cast in the average game of Pioneer. In EDH, though, with mana rocks and ramp spells, this card becomes more tantalizing. Having the Adventure makes this card flexible, as it can still provide advantages without needing to be cast proper. The Adventure is well-suited to pick off utility creatures that hide behind blockers, such as Blood Artist

or Esper Sentinel

The actual card, though, is very strong, as it creates a problem for the other players. The enchantment will revive our best Minotaur from the graveyard on our upkeep, so it disincentives killing our creatures when they attack, which only lets us grow stronger. Then pair that with the inherent discard synergy of Minotaurs, and, with the right set-up, we can essentially be casting cards for free here.

Unless they have the ability to exile cards from graveyards handy, the Virtue of Persistence is only going to make things worse and worse.

Kindred Dominance

This reprint is a must-have for any Minotaur typal deck in EDH. While it does cost a lot of mana, being able to board wipe without killing our own cows is a huge deal. Not only does it reset our opponents' boards and momentum, but it also allows us to attack unopposed.

With Minotaurs, being able to freely attack like this is a sure way to eliminate one player from the table and potentially buy some political good will if you remove the game's Archenemy.

Red

Charming Scoundrel

Much like Rankle's Prank

, the Charming Scoundrel

offers a lot of flexibility that is suited for our gameplan. She can rummage, which adds to the Minotaur discard synergies, she creates Treasures for future ramping, and she can buff a creature with the Wicked Role token (which also plays into Lord Skitter's Blessing

). In addition to all of this, she has haste! So she can jump into the combat the turn she is played.

All of this sums up to be a flexible creature that is relevant at any point in the game.

Witch's Mark

This card is very interesting. At a glance, it's just a reprint of Tormenting Voice

with a set mechanic added to it, but that's exactly why it is so interesting.

It's hard to argue that Tormenting Voice

has lost favour due to Thrill of Possibility

being the instant-speed version of it. and an instant is infinitely more useful than a sorcery for the same effect.

However, this is where things get a little tricky for me, because Witch's Mark

gives a creature a Wicked Role token, thereby buffing the creature and make our Minotaurs better at attacking.

So this is the big question: is it better for a card to be at instant speed, or to be sorcery with extra combat bonuses? I'm really unsure at the moment if this is better than Thrill of Possibility

for Minotaurs. I lean toward Witch's Mark

, at least with how I play them, but I suppose it's entirely dependent on how you value a card's mechanics.

Aggravated Assault

I don't think any introduction is needed for the power of this card, but as a reprint I think it's one many Minotaur typal decks could benefit from picking up, so let's discuss why.

The primary reason is that Minotaur decks primarily depend on winning through combat, so the more combat steps we have, the better our chances are at winning the EDH game. This is very important for decks that are helmed by Magar of the Magic Strings

, as the power of the deck hinges on the created tokens dealing combat damage.

In addition, Moraug, Fury of Akoum

both facilitates and encourages extra combat steps, making our creatures hit harder with every combat on our turn.

This card is a slam dunk in Minotaur decks, and I'm very excited to pick one up for the stated reasons above.

Fiery Emancipation

This card really helps speed up an EDH game by tripling all damage we dish out. However, this is a doubled-edged sword, as we'll also suffer the triple damage should the table's politics turn against us.

I think the card is particularly suited for a Mogis

deck, because on each player's upkeep, Mogis

forces them to take damage or sacrifice a creature, so tripling Mogis

' damage from two to six makes that choice a little harder to swallow as the game progresses, and while Mogis

not a commander designed for Minotaurs, I still count him, as he is the Minotaur patron god on Theros.

Court of Embereth

I see the red Court being useful due to it giving red access to the monarch mechanic, which isn't very common compared to black or white, but in addition to the extra card draw, if we're the monarch we get a 3/1 Knight token, then it deals damage to each opponent equal to the the number of creatures we control. If played right, this can melt our opponents while also building our board for extra blockers or bolstering an attack.

Multicolored

Rowan, Scion of War

I'll just say it: Rowan

is dangerous! It's always dangerous (especially in EDH) to cheat on mana costs, and Rowan

facilitates it by losing life, which is very easy to achieve in red and black. All you need is one shock land and suddenly all of your cards now cost two less generic mana, and that doesn't even account for Phyrexian Mana or other life loss cards.

But the danger here is to our benefit, especially in Pioneer. If we play a shock land (hell, we can just cast Shock

on ourselves), we can just pop off with all our Minotaurs by removing the generic mana costs on all our cards. Then, if you pair that with Ragemonger, our cards cards can literally be free!

Callous Sell-Sword

I won't drag analysis on this out. It's Thud

with the upside of a having a creature attached. Better yet, if the "Burn Together" Adventure is countered, then our creature isn't sacrificed as a cost, unlike Thud

or Fling

, which is huge to squeeze out a little extra damage to win a game or remove a problem creature of our opponent.

Colorless

Collector's Vault

This is a very interesting discard-enabler, as it not only rummages for us to synergize with the Minotaurs that care about discard, but it helps us stockpile Treasure tokens for a big push when ramp is needed.

This is pretty good for EDH if our commander is removed several times and the tax becomes hard to pay, but, at it's worst, the Treasure token helps to reduce the cost of further activations of the artifact.

Conclusion

And with that, we rise from our slumber, the curse is lifted. Eldraine is saved, but at what cost?

But fear not, as the Omenpath will soon lead us to another familiar plane: Ixalan! Home of Dinosaurs, Vampires, Merfolk! And who knows, maybe we'll even see Angrath

once more.

Until then, be sure to check out the other set reviews found on the Commander's Herald for other perspectives on this new set.

See you later.

Witch's Mark by Justyna Dura