In Magic: The Gathering’s third Standard set of 2023, we’re going on a trip to a fairy tale land in Wilds of Eldraine. In our first visit to the plane in 2019, we explored a world of big bad wolves and gingerbread houses, but also Arthurian knights and feats of derring do. In MTG Wilds of Eldraine, we’re expecting to go deeper into the woods, seeing more of the fairy tale folk and less of the castles and courtship.
Either way, Wilds of Eldraine will be the first Standard set in a good while that’s not part of the Phyrexians plotline. This spanned four sets, beginning with Dominaria United and wrapping up in April with MTG March of the Machine and its Aftermath set. We love ‘em as much as the next player, but it’ll be a breath of fresh air to get a Magic set with no creepy robots. Check out our MTG 2023 release schedule to see where Wilds of Eldraine fits in.
With the set still a few months away, there’s little concrete information about Wilds of Eldraine right now, but read on to find out what we do know currently and what we can infer. And be sure to check back in – we’ll be updating this page the moment fresh news arises.
MTG Wilds of Eldraine release date
We now have an exact release date for this set. MTG Wilds of Eldraine is releasing September 8. That’s when its global tabletop release is, but a couple of days before that, it’ll come to MTG Arena on September 5.
Leading up to Wilds of Eldraine’s release, we’ll have a couple weeks of spoilers, starting on August 15, followed by prerelease events (where cards are now legal as soon as you buy them) on September 1-7.
MTG Wilds of Eldraine spoilers
While MTG Minneapolis revealed plenty of new artwork, we haven’t any Wilds of Eldraine spoilers or leaks to show right now, though we’re itching to see more cards inspired by classic fairy tales.
As we mentioned, there are a few new pieces of art from Wilds of Eldraine to pore over. There’s the above image of Evolving Wilds, for instance, a reprint that comes up in plenty of sets. (This is artist Alayanna Dayner’s second take on the same card, in fact!)
We’ve also got art for some new cards, like the lass in the top image. According to this piece’s title, this is Eriette of the Charmed Apple. Looks like a black legendary creature card if we ever saw one; she’s doing all kinds of witchy things, from magic apples to (judging by her reflection) beautifying spells.
Then there’s a furious looking gingebread man, atop her trusty steed. This creature, named Syr Ginger, The Meal Ender seems destined to hate on Food strategies, and she looks like she’d run you through before you can say “not the gumdrop buttons”.
As for what’s been going on in Eldraine, well, the Phyrexian invasion left things in quite the turmoil. The King and Queen of the plane have both been killed, as seen in the Aftermath card The Kenrith’s Royal Funeral.
One last thing to examine – there’s a new Eldraine Planechase card named The Wilds. In terms of its effect, it’s all about Food – a mechanic from Throne of Eldraine. It does feature new art showing the Wilds however, with strange green lights glowing between the trees. Clearly the plane has been invaded by UFOs! Possibly…
MTG Wilds of Eldraine story
In the Wizards Presents 2022 video, we were told that in Wilds of Eldraine, “We’re taken away from the cities and castles, and into Eldraine’s wilds”. It seems clear that the Camelot subtheme, which sat somewhat uneasily alongside the fairy tale tropes in Throne of Eldraine, will this time be taking a backseat. Which makes sense, since the courts fell in the big bad robot invasion.
At MTG Minneapolis, plenty of new artwork from the set was shown off. It appears Will and Rowan Kenrith, newly-orphaned heirs to the throne are taking very different approaches to their plane’s (and their personal) tragedy. Presumably these two planeswalkers will have also lost their sparks, but that’s not confirmed yet.
What will take the place of the chivalry and questing knights? We assume it’ll be the faeries, elves, witches, and beasts that live in the less civilised parts of Eldraine, away from all the boring humans. But we’ll have to wait for more details to drop to get any more specific than that.
It also sounds like a mystical sleep has been unleashed and is starting to “prey on the inhabitants of Eldraine”. Apparently used to defeat the Phyrexians, this power now doesn’t want to go back in the box. And it looks like nightmare beast Ashiok is lurking to take advantage!
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MTG Wilds of Eldraine Commander
Wilds of Eldraine will have two Commander decks releasing alongside it, a green/white deck called Virtue and Valor, and a blue/black deck called Fae Domination.
The Selesnya deck here sounds pretty generic – buffing creatures possibly hinting at yet another +1/+1 counter deck in these colours. But Fae Dominion, that one looks like a crowd pleaser, since it’s bound to be full of faerie reprints. Could we be getting a Bitterblossom reprint?
