Eldritch Moon is the second set of the Shadows Over Innistrad block, the second block under the new two-set structure. Battle for Zendikar block, for all its flaws, showed the possibilities that the new structure offers. The second set continues the story of the first, using the mechanics of the first set as a basis, but adding enough new mechanics to be a new experience. Shifting the draft structure to focus predominantly on the new set allows the new mechanics space to shine.
The original Innistrad, as a top-down gothic horror design, laid an emotional foundation of terror and foreboding through both its flavor and mechanical elements. Shadows Over Innistrad built on those foundations, with a shift toward psychological horror with madness and investigate. Eldritch Moon has the challenging task of taking the horror of Innistrad in an entirely new direction, diving deep into the genre of cosmic horror. Building a top-down set in one genre on top of a foundation laid in a different genre risks diluting the feel, but if done well, it can result in a delightful blend that Magic can call its own. The goal here is to convey the emotional tone of the new direction while staying true to the original setting. I hope to examine how well Eldritch Moon accomplishes that.
The reception to the Eldrazi in Battle for Zendikar has been lukewarm, and especially poor with more enfranchised players. They were not sufficiently alien, being depicted as mindless predators rather than eldritch horrors. Add to that their overexposure, and their detrimental effect on the Modern format, and many players are fed up with the Eldrazi. Eldritch Moon, as another Eldrazi-focused set, has a major hurdle to overcome in redeeming the mistakes of Battle for Zendikar.
Now, onto the cards and mechanics.
Spoiler: Emrakul, the Promised End
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Emrakul is the marquis card of the set and the first card spoiled. She is the driving force behind the story, and as such, is crucial to the success of the set. In my opinion, Emrakul is a resounding success.
While she does not have the raw power of her first iteration, Emrakul is a very splashy mythic, with an ability that perfectly illustrates her presence in the story. It is not difficult to imagine all kinds of scenarios with Emrakul wrecking your opponent, and with a perfectly affordable casting cost due to her cost reduction ability, it won’t be difficult playing them out either.
The original Eldrazi titans suffered from being too much alike. While they each had different abilities illustrating their domains, their annihilator abilities largely overshadowed everything else and led to them playing very similarly. The new Eldrazi have much more distinct abilities and feel much more unique. Their abilities can’t be compared one-to-one, and I’ll leave it to more experienced players to determine which one is the most powerful in practice, but Emrakul’s ability reads in a way that says “absolute control” in a way that none of the others do. Add to that her higher stats, and a unique form of protection, and Emrakul certainly feels like the greatest of the titans.
Protection from instants on Emrakul is very clever. It protects her on the turn she’s cast, and allows you to control your opponent and spend their removal before they have a chance to use it. It’s a very powerful interaction that makes Emrakul very difficult to kill, while still not being an automatic win.
Spoiler: Ulrich of the Krallenhorde
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This card is disappointing. It’s a legendary werewolf, and it is powerful, but it does not feel especially unique or interesting. It compares unfavorably to Huntmaster of the Fells. It’s not of much use to commander players, who were the main audience asking for a legendary werewolf. And particularly, it’s very out of place in this set.
Ulrich is the only traditional werewolf in the set, and the only card with the original transform symbol. His presence dilutes the feel of the set, where the traditional threats of Innistrad have been subsumed by the horrors of Emrakul. Everything is different now… except Ulrich. Raf Gyel, here’s the plain old werewolf you’re looking for. It seems that Wizards was just box checking when they designed Ulrich. The fans demanded a legendary werewolf, so they gave them one, even though it doesn’t belong in the set and it doesn’t actually fulfill what the fans actually want.
I think it would have worked much better if Ulrich and Arlinn Kord switched places. Let the legendary werewolf get its presence in Shadows Over Innistrad, where the resurgence of the werewolves was a major plot point. Arlinn Kord, being a planeswalker, would have less need to fit in to the set, and she would make a compelling planeswalker character in Eldritch Moon, representing a remnant of the old Innistrad.
Spoiler: Meld
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Meld is a very bold move, a new direction with double-faced cards that pushes the boundaries of Magic design. It’s a very flavorful and exciting mechanic, and a great way to show the alienness of Emrakul’s influence. But it’s also a very risky mechanic with a lot of inherent problems. Having a lot of cards that require another specific card to function fully is extremely problematic for a Limited environment. Wizards decided to tackle this by limiting the number of meld cards, with only three pairs total, and only a single common pair for limited. This is a safe approach, though it also severely limits the impact of the mechanic in the set.
Another obvious issue with meld is that combining two creatures into one invites being blown out when the opponent kills a melded creature. One obvious approach to solve this would be to make melded creatures resilient to removal, or get one of their component pieces back when removed. But Wizards decided to go for a different approach. In two of the meld pairs, one of the cards in the pair is itself a two-for-one, able to retrieve the other half from the graveyard when played. Thus even if the melded creature is killed, you’ve broken even on card advantage. This also solves another problem with meld, namely the difficulty of getting the two pieces out at the same time.
All three pairs of meld cards are very flavorful and delightfully creepy. Though the melding won’t happen very often in practice, the presence of these cards in the set contributes a huge amount to the atmosphere of the set.
Spoiler: Emerge
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Emerge hails directly from offering, a mechanic that wasn’t explored to its full potential when it was released. It’s a great flavor fit for the set, conveying horrific body transformation as well as cultic sacrifice. Alternate casting costs and the potential to make big plays for cheap are always exciting for players and add a great strategic dynamic to the game.
I’m particularly impressed by how Emerge allows a high colorless concentration without breaking color balance in limited. Devoid in BFZ was a pretty artificial and unsatisfying solution to colorless Eldrazi, but emerge nails it. The standard casting cost of emerge creatures remains colorless, so that the creature feels truly colorless rather than just pretending to be. Meanwhile, the emerge cost, the primary way to cast the creature, is colored, effectively restricting the creature to a deck of its emerge cost’s color.
Emerge is inherently card disadvantage, so it is a risky mechanic. It seems that Wizards is well aware of this and taking steps to address it. The one common emerge card spoiled so far, Wretched Gryff, draws a card upon casting, offsetting the card disadvantage of casting it with emerge. Elder Deep-Fiend has flash, making it likely to kill something in combat when it enters the battlefield, another way to offset the card disadvantage. It remains to be seen what other emerge cards there are, especially at common and uncommon, but spoiling Wretched Gryff first was a clever move that assures the players that they know about the downside of emerge and considered it in design.
Spoiler: Escalate
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Escalate is a direct evolution of entwine from Mirrodin block. While neither entwine nor escalate are particularly flavorful mechanics, the do great things for the game by allowing players more choices and acting as a mana sink. It replaces investigate in its role as a mana-sink mechanic, and like investigate, it will add depth to the game in a subtle way. It’s also very open-ended and has the potential for a great number of fun designs. My main problem with escalate is the wording: It’s worded as a downside mechanic in the reminder text, which substantially lessens its appeal. It would not have been too difficult to word it as an upside, especially since reminder text is not rules text and they can make clarifications in the comprehensive rules as needed.
Spoiler: The New Werewolves
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The old Innistrad werewolves are gone, replaced by the new Eldrazi werewolves. (With the exception of Ulrich—get back in the Shadows, Ulrich.) I feel that they are a step down from the original werewolves. The transform trigger of the classic werewolves is very flavorful and feels very exotic in gameplay, whereas mana-activated abilities to pump creatures is nothing new.
While I mourn the loss of the old werewolves, I believe that moving to the new werewolves was the right choice. It’s a different world, and the loss of the old werewolves represents the loss of the familiar, a defining theme in the cosmic horror genre. The set needs a consistent set of transform triggers at lower rarities to avoid complexity overload, and paying mana to transform, while boring, is a simple implementation that helps players get a foothold in the set.