With a name like "Eldraine" there was definitely a bit of trepidation coming in to Wilds of Eldraine. Throne of Eldraine was a wildly overpowered set that caused major issues across almost all Magic formats, so there are two main fears with a new Eldraine set. The first of course is a repeat showing of broken cards, but the more likely scenario is the Mercadian Masques scenario where they're super cautious and the set is very under powered.

Well, early results are in and it is looking like Wizards of the Coast has gotten the porridge just right!

There's a lot of fun stuff happening in the set, with much of it being cool and powerful without going over the top, which is of course a very exciting place to be. Standard has already been revitalized from the bans earlier this year, meaning we can expect a hopefully large impact and some new decks. Standard is also the format at the upcoming World Championship this month, and it looks like the set also has some tools for the older formats as well.

Today we're going to look at some of the cards that have already made an impact, and stand to make more noise going forward. These are the cards you're going to want to either be getting on board with now or figuring out to beat, because there's a good chance this success will continue and they will become staples.

So, let's go!

Regal Bunnicorn

Yes, this is a bunny-unicorn hybrid on a Magic card. And yes, it looks very silly. However, Regal Bunnicorn has done nothing but impress in this first week.

We've seen this type of card before, both on actual cards as well as tokens like the Voice of Resurgence token, but never this efficient and never counting your non-creature cards, and this is the element that helps push Regal Bunnicorn over the edge. Counting your Wedding Announcement, artifact tokens, Planeswalkers, Glass Caskets, and more adds up very quickly, all at a cheap and easy to cast cost. While Regal Bunnicorn lacks natural evasion, there are plenty of ways to grant it some, and even if you can't two mana for a 5/5 or bigger is a great deal.

The most successful deck from Ten New Brews last week was a token deck with Regal Bunnicorn at the center, and sending it into the air for 15 damage with an Archangel Elspeth made excellent use of a planeswalker that has been fairly underwhelming. Regal Bunnicorn also has potential in older formats, where decks like Boros Convoke are capable of putting a ton of game objects on the battlefield very quickly, while also being a really fun Cube card. And that's to say nothing of mixing it with old favorites like Embercleave!

Regal Bunnicorn is one of the stand out cards from the set.

Mosswood Dreadknight

Throne of Eldraine showed us how powerful good adventure cards can be as midrange two for ones, and now Wilds of Eldraine continues the trend with an excellent midrange two-drop in Mosswood Dreadknight.

Mosswood Dreadknight is no Sheoldred, the Apocalypse or Farewell, but it is a great nuts and bolts early creature that attacks and blocks well, being a great card to both pressure with as well as trade off. The ability to recur it while gaining card advantage and the limitless ability in longer games is excellent. There will definitely be games where you never recast or adventure Mosswood Dreadknight, but that's okay! The stats are good enough that it has a reasonable floor if not needed, but you're going to love it in those longer games.

Green has had a pretty rough go of it in Standard lately, but if there's one way to try and make some moves it's buddying up with Black, by far the best color in the format.

Up The Beanstalk

Moving on to older formats, the oddball Up the Beanstalk has been a surprising monster in Modern and Legacy.

The reason?

Up the Beanstalk is wild with pitch and cost-reduced spells. This obviously isn't relevant in newer or MTG Arena formats, but when it comes to Modern and Legacy, Up the Beanstalk is the real deal. Being able to cast Up the Beanstalk on turn two and immediately follow it up with a pitch-cast Solitude or Fury to deal with your opponent's board at card parity or advantage is very impressive, as it serves to make up the card disadvantage which is the one fundamental flaw of pitch spells.

Add in how well it plays alongside Leyline Binding, one of the most important removal spells printed in a while, and Up the Beanstalk may be one of the best eternal cards in the entire set. It may look silly, but Up the Beanstalk is the real deal.

Not Dead After All

Hey wait, that's cheating!

Well... kinda! Not Dead After All is a middling Limited combat trick in the same vein of Feign Death or Undying Malice, an afterthought in the world of 60 card Magic. Except of course for how these effects interact with the pitch elementals, which gives us one of the best decks in Modern in Rakdos Scam.

Not Dead After All isn't revolutionizing the archetype or anything, but it is a pretty much strict upgrade to the prior scam effects. Being able to occasionally ding for an extra point with Wicked Role is great for a deck that's looking to kill quickly on its best draws, so Not Dead After All may amusingly just go down as the most played Wilds of Eldraine card in Modern.

Horned Loch-Whale

Horned Loch-Whale looks very tame.

After all, we recently had Undersea Invader at common, and a big creature entering the battlefield tapped loses a lot of the luster that a flash creature would normally have. That being said, Horned Loch-Whale has a lot more going on that just a vanilla flash creature.

Adventure cards need to be judged on both sides of their coin, and the big draw to Horned Loch-Whale is Lagoon Breach. Azorius Charm is a card with solid tournament pedigree, being cheap enough to defend against early creature attacks while doing so at card parity, unlike a bounce spell. Just like how neither Stomp nor Bonecrusher Giant are good enough Constructed cards on their own, it's the combination of Lagoon Breach alongside Horned Loch-Whale that is the major draw here.

Horned Loch-Whale is seeing some play in Pioneer Azorius Lotus Field Control decks, which are looking for cheap interactive spells early as they set up, but also big things to spend their mana on late, both of which Horned Loch-Whale provides.

It's an unassuming card, but just goes to show how powerful good adventure cards can be.

Still Much to Explore

We have barely scratched the surface of Wilds of Eldraine.

This is a pretty complicated set overall, with a ton of mechanics that have a lot of crossover both in set as well as with the many other sets currently legal in Standard and other formats. That means there's still a lot to discover.

Is Faeries actually good? Do roles help out the enchantment decks? Will midrange reign supreme?

Hopefully we'll be able to answer all of those questions and more in a few weeks at the Magic 2023 World Championship!