Wilds of Eldraine previews are nearly upon us and the story is almost over — so it’s time for some predictions! I make no guarantees beyond these being educated guesses since they’re mostly based on what I think would be neat. Just take everything here with at least a pinch of salt. That said, let’s get to the prognosticating!
Prediction 1 – The colored Mythic Artifacts will Return…Sort of.
Throne of Eldraine had a cycle of mythic artifacts in each color, some a little more impactful than others. I don’t think we’ll be seeing a straight reprint of any cards in the cycle, but I do think we’ll see them in the set…indirectly.
Reprinting all of them would take up a lot of space, but featuring them as backgrounds or being used by characters in the story and on card art is completely on the table. I can see Rowan wielding Embercleave in her quest, some important event happening in the ruins of The Great Henge and…something happening with the other three.
I kid, I kid, and I actually think this is a good place for the other three (The Circle of Loyalty in white, The Magic Mirror in blue and The Cauldron of Eternity in black) to shine alongside their far more played cousins.
One of the best things about revisiting a plane is getting to see how things have changed, and highlighting parts of the world that maybe didn’t quite get a turn in the spotlight the last time. These five artifacts seem like the perfect chance to get some good worldbuilding in without needing to devote a card solely to the actual items in question.
Prediction 2 – Mill will not be a Limited Archetype…but a Standard one
Merfolk Secretkeeper was a powerhouse in Throne of Eldraine Limited, with mill being a legitimate draft archetype at the time. Sadly, I don’t think the Secretkeeper will make a return in WOE, especially given how divisive mill can be when it’s powerful enough.
But that’s not to say mill will be gone entirely. We’ve already seen the Adventure side of Merfolk Secretkeeper mirrored in Cruel Somnophage, although the shift in rarity from Common to Rare and charging an extra mana for the effect is a pretty strong signal that the Limited environment isn’t going to play out the same way as last time. Somnophage will show up much less than the Secretkeeper did before, after all.
But Standard is an entirely different story. There’s enough control and pseudo-mill in the format already that grindy games are often determined by one opponent milling out the other, and a card or two like the Somnophage could be enough to shift the main angle of attack of some of those blue-black based decks. With cards like Breach the Multiverse and Siphon Insight already seeing a lot of play, a Standard mill deck could be found in the Wilds.
Prediction 3 – We will learn nothing about Ashiok
Look. Ashiok is cool. They’re mysterious, powerful, aloof and have some killer character design. But other than having a penchant for wreaking havoc wherever they go and being drawn to places where the line between dreams and reality gets a little blurry… we don’t really know a lot about them.
We don’t know if they have any name other than Ashiok, where they are from or even what race they are (or at least once were before their nightmare magic twisted them). We don’t have any great insight into their motivations, or even what they were fully up to during some pivotal moments in the Magic story for which they were definitely present (War of the Spark, for those keeping score at home, where they were one of the Rare Planeswalker cards despite not really seeming to affect the story).
And… I think things are going to stay that way for a while. The closest Ashiok has come to being the main protagonist of a set or storyline has been in Theros Beyond Death. And even then, they were mostly just creating chaos and seeing what they could do in a grand experiment with their magic.
I don’t know how much we’ll ever truly know about Ashiok, but I don’t think many revelations will come until they’re ready to step a little more into the spotlight.
Prediction 4 – Will and Rowan will remain at war
Sibling rivalry can cause quite a conflict. But when that rivalry develops into a full-blown battle, things can get real nasty, real fast.
Will and Rowan Kenrith have been aligned in goals, if not methods, the entire time they’ve been in Magic. They were even introduced as the premier team-up characters in Battlebond.
They showed up as one card in The Royal Scions in the original Eldraine set, and as the two sides of a double-faced Planeswalker card in Strixhaven. They have always been a team and intrinsically linked in one form or another.
Yet here in the Wilds of Eldraine, the first time we see them without their spark, and they are at odds. Charged with the rule of their kingdom, each has a different definition of what that means, and that duty finally pulls them apart.
I, for one, hope that they do not reconcile easily. Having dual protagonists at cross purposes is such a rich vein for drama and plot, so I don’t want an easy fix here. And if they were to end up on opposites of a larger conflict…
Prediction 5 – This is the beginning of the Omenpath Saga
Hot off the heels of the end of the New Phyrexian Invasion storyline, you’d think maybe Magic would take a set or two just deal with the Afterm…er, aftermath of that event, and ease into the new normal before the next major plot kicks into high gear.
But Magic is a lot different than it used to be back in the Block era, when there were maybe one or two major product releases a year that fell outside the Standard set rotation.
Since March of the Machine and Aftermath, we’ve had two full sets come out — The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth and Commander Masters. While this might technically be the next mainline Magic set, we’ve had some palate-cleansing already.
So, with that said, I don’t think we’re going to be wasting any time getting into the story of the Omenpath Saga. With the mass loss of Planeswalker sparks, mysterious portals known as Omenpaths have opened up across the multiverse, creating a risky form of travel between the planes.
Mapping and controlling these Omenpaths is going to be a massive source of strife, as whoever controls these paths automatically become some of the most powerful and important people on either side of the portal.
We don’t have a ton of details yet about these Omenpaths, like how they work, how hard they are to find and use and if they are here to stay or not. But I’m willing to bet this set’s story ends with the beginning of a much larger one.
End Step
The story of Wilds of Eldraine wraps up today, and previews officially start tomorrow, so there’s not too long to wait to see how well my predictions hold up. So far, I have a better batting average with these than I expected I might when I started writing these articles. Let’s see if I can keep that up!
In the meantime, Card Kingdom’s presale is already live, and you can order all the Sealed products you’ll need from Wilds of Eldraine right now. Singles will start going up alongside previews, so keep an eye out for the cards you need to fill out your decks!
Chris is the Marketing Communications Coordinator (and editor of the blog) at Card Kingdom. He would like to apologize to his son for not holding onto more cards from when he first started playing, as that likely would have paid for college. He enjoys pretty much all formats of Magic, but usually ends up playing decks that make other people dislike playing those formats with him.