We now know all ten MTG Wilds of Eldraine draft strategies, with the first big batch of spoilers revealed for this fairytale Magic: The Gathering set on August 15. Interestingly, each MTG color combination in Eldraine is associated with one particular fairytale. For instance, Black-White, containing cards like Glass Casket and Neva Pursued by Nightmares, is Snow White, while Red-Green is Little Red Riding Hood.
Set design lead Ian Duke told Wargamer in a press event that this means while drafting MTG Wilds of Eldraine that “each color pair feels like you’re putting that story together”. Conversely, players new to the MTG draft format can throw together cards that belong together based on their stories, and end up with a synergistic, functioning deck.
| Color Pair | Fairytale | Strategy |
| Red-Green | Little Red Riding Hood | 4+ power creatures |
| Black-White | Snow White | Bargaining (sacrificing artifacts, enchantments, or tokens) |
| Blue-Green | Jack and the Beanstalk | Ramping to play 5+ mana cards |
| Black-Green | Hansel and Gretel | Food midrange |
| Red-White | Cinderella | Celebration (two permanents entering the battle each turn) |
| Green-White | Beauty and the Beast | Enchanting own creatures |
| Blue-Black | Sleeping Beauty | Control/Faeries |
| Red-Black | The Pied Piper of Hamlin | Aggro/Rats |
| Red-Blue | The Sorcerer’s Apprentice | Instants, Sorceries, and Adventures |
| Blue-White | The Snow Queen | Tapping opposing creatures |
We were already told many of the fairy tales for the color pairs (six out of ten) in Wilds of Eldraine during Barcelona Magiccon, but now we know the mechanics and strategies associated with them.
For instance, Red-Green is all about four power creatures, with the Red Riding Hood card growing stronger if you control a big fella. Snow White (Black-White) meanwhile is about sacrificing tokens, artifacts, and enchantments, letting you Bargain cards (a new mechanic) for a stronger effect. Cards like Cursed Courier and Knight of Doves will fit well in this archetype.
Then there’s Jack and the Beanstalk (in Blue-Green), which wants to ramp up to big five mana or more spells, like a hefty Goosemother. And Black-Green is doing the Food making and saccing thing again, only this time it’s explicitly connected to Hansel and Gretel and the gingerbread cottage. See Sweettooth Witch or Restless Cottage for clear examples.
Celebration is the new mechanic central to the aggressive Red-White deck, themed around Cinderella crashing the ball. It requires you to play two permanents a turn, so is likely to make good use of adventures, and cheap Role token-making spells like Besotted Knight. Another color pair more explicitly focused on the new Roles is Green-White. This archetype, whose story is Beauty and the Beast (but with a group of werefox beasts?) wants you to enchant your own creatures.
The two tribal archetypes are in the ‘villain colors’ Blue-Black and Black-Red. Rakdos, based on the Pied Piper, is about making lots of rat tokens in an aggressive go-wide strategy, while Dimir is more controlling and plays faeries. (Its fairytale: Sleeping Beauty).
Finally, Red-Blue is based on the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and is doing traditional Izzet things with Instants and Sorceries (though in Wilds of Eldraine this also means Adventures). While Blue-White’s fairytale is The Snow Queen, and it wants to be tapping down creatures.
Overall there seems to be a lot of overlapping synergies and strategies in Wild of Eldraine’s draft archetypes. We also see a couple of them resurfacing in the Wilds of Eldraine commander decks, which have also just been revealed.
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