The fairy tale-themed Throne of Eldraine is infamous inMagic: The Gatheringas being one of the game’s most powerful sets. Launched in 2019, it had a massive impact on the Standard format for the entire time it was legal, and continues to be a big presence in other formats.
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Even years later, these fairy tales are causing nightmares for those who must face them. Here are the best cards from Throne of Eldraine, without a single Once Upon A Time or Escape To The Wilds in sight.
10Chulane, Teller Of Tales
Chulane does it all: he helps you ramp, lets you repeat creatures’ enter-the-battlefield triggers, and lets you draw cards. He’s just such a generically fantastic legendary creature that he’s since become a menace in formats like Commander.
It’s hard looking at a card like Chulane and finding faults, but if you needed to nit-pick, you could criticise the mana cost for requiring three different colours, or the fact that it doesn’t come with any ways to reduce mana costs for creatures you play. But they are such minor things, and Chulane is an absolute beast as a result.
9Hushbringer
For just two mana, Hushbringer completely shuts down a huge number of deck archetypes. Blink decks? Gone. Aristocrats? No thanks. Your opponent could have a billion Panharmonicons andElesh Norn, Mother of Machinesout in play, and none of them would matter thanks to this tiny 1/2 Faerie.
You do need to be careful when playing Hushbringer, though, as it doesn’t just turn off your opponent’s triggers, but also your own. If you rely on any kind of ETB or death trigger, Hushbringer will put you at just as much of a disadvantage as your opponents.
8Korvold, Fae-Cursed King
Much like Chulane, Korvold was an absolute monster during its time in Standard, and continues to be popular in Commander. It’s another of those legendary creatures that seems to just do everything you need, giving you ways to sacrifice permanents, draw cards, and hit harder all in one, neat little package.
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The fact that we saw “once per turn” effects become more popular after Throne of Eldraine is no surprise, as the fact that this guy lets you just draw cards whenever you sacrifice permanents is incredible. As a Dragon, there’s also plenty of synergistic cards out there to make Korvold hit harder, be more difficult to remove, or even cheat into play to bypass that pricey mana cost.
7Rankle, Master Of Pranks
While Rankle does make a solid commander, you generally tend to see him as a key part of other sacrifice-heavy decks. By rushing out and dealing combat damage, Rankle can force each player to sacrifice a creature, among other effects (including Eldraine’s infamous surplus of card draw) to sweeten the deal.
This is not just a great way to get blockers out of the way by making your opponent sacrifice them; it also fits very nicely into decks that want you to bin your own things (such as Korvold). It’s even highly evasive thanks to having flying, making Rankle a real problem when it enters play.
6Questing Beast
It’s become a meme in Magic that nobody can remember off the top of their head what Questing Beast does. It may be an utter wall of text that can be all but impossible to remember, but it’s still a powerhouse of a card.
When you break it down, Questing Beast is a lot. It has vigilance, deathtouch, and haste, can’t be blocked by creatures with two power or less, stops combat damage from being prevented (such as by a Fog), and will also deal damage to a Planeswalker if it manages to deal combat damage to its owner.
All of these clauses are individual too – Questing Beast doesn’t need to attack to prevent damage, I just does it as default through a static ability. This makes it a great counter for repetitive Fog decks. We did it, we finally broke Questing Beast.
5Fabled Passage
After numerous nightmare cards, it might be funny to see Fabled Passage. It’s a land, how powerful can it be? However, Fabled Passage is a strictly better version of Terramorphic Expanse and Evolving Wilds, two of the game’s most ubiquitous fetch lands.
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It might not be quite as good as the land-type-centric fetches like Scalding Tarn, but Fabled Passage has a huge advantage over other generic fetches thanks to its ability to have the lands enter untapped. Giving you access to that mana as soon as you find it is incredibly powerful, and made the endless Evolving Wilds reprints we saw in sets after Throne of Eldraine feel a little underwhelming in comparison.
4Brazen Borrower
As already shown by Questing Beast and Rankle, any card that can do more than one thing at a time is generally good. Throne of Eldraine had an entire central mechanic built around this, withAdventure cardsbeing both permanents and instants and sorceries, depending on which bit of it you cast first.
Leading the way for Adventure spells is Brazen Borrower. Not only is it a way to get potential threats out of your way, but you can also even flash in the creature half if you need to block a flying creature coming at your face. This little Faerie is incredibly flexible, and is a benefit to almost any blue deck that needs some removal.
3Oko, Thief Of Crowns
Perhaps the most infamous card from Throne of Eldraine, Oko to this day remains one of thestrongest Planeswalker cardsever released for Magic. Banned in Modern, Pioneer and Legacy is a rare thing few cards can brag about, but Oko is one of them.
For just three mana, you’re able to turn any artifact or creature into a 3/3 Elk. And as that is a +1 loyalty ability, you can just keep doing it every turn for as long as Oko stays in play. Add to that his ability to make Food tokens (which only becomes more useful as more Food-caring cards are released), and you’ve got a removal magnet your opponents will need to focus all their efforts and resources on to get rid of.
2Embercleave
Part combat trick, part Equipment, Embercleave is a classic game-ending win condition for aggro decks, provided you’re able to get enough creatures on the board to bring that cost right down. Being able to equip this to any of your attacking creatures for free also makes it a tricky thing to counter – if your opponent takes out one attacker, just equip this to another instead.
During Throne of Eldraine’s time in Standard, everyone anticipated the Embercleave, and would try and keep removal or other interaction open for when it inevitably dropped. Now that it’s rotated out and somewhat fallen out of favour, it feels easier than ever to pull off the Embercleave win.
1The Great Henge
A running theme of Throne of Eldraine was how cards seemed to just do everything for you. Case in point, the Great Henge not only has ways to give you mana and draw cards, it’s even kind enough to reduce its own casting cost if you have a big enough creature.
As long as The Great Henge is out, even the smallest 1/1 enters as a 2/2 and gives you another card to maybe keep the engine going. It works in a pinch by giving you two life whenever it’s tapped, and even its most basic ability – giving you two green mana – isn’t something to be sniffed at.
The Great Henge is emblematic of why Throne of Eldraine is considered one of the most powerful sets of all time, and still sees regular play in a number of formats to this day.
