Spoiler season for MTG Secrets of Strixhaven is just around the corner, but already we're drowning in leaks. For the most part, I'm trying to avert my gaze, but we couldn't very well stay away from this one: a creature that lets you play a piece of the Power Nine in Standard.
Emeritus of Ideation is a Mythic blue creature with ward 2 and flying, but if your eyes have skimmed the image already, you're probably much more interested in what's on the right hand side of the card. Yep, that's the name and rules text for Ancestral Recall alright, one of the most powerful cards in all of Magic, a spell created before Wizards had really figured out the whole game balance thing, when one mana to draw three cards seemed a perfectly reasonable rate.
We can't be exactly sure how this works, of course, but it's fairly obvious this Emeritus won't just let you cast Ancestral Recall from your hand. Wizards isn't about to print a Power Nine card with upside into Standard - power creep hasn't gotten that bad yet.
Instead, it seems like this has something to do with the new Prepared mechanic that appears on the card. Presumably, when you jump through whatever hoops allow a creature to become prepared, you're then able to cast its prepared spell.
In this case, Emeritus of Ideation enters the battlefield prepared, and then can be 'reloaded' by exiling a bunch of cards from your graveyard when it attacks. So, if we're correct about how these mechanics work, this is a 5/5 flyer with Ward 2, which you can play for five mana, then draw three cards for one more.
To be honest, I'm not sure many decks will want this over Edge of Eternities' Quantum Riddler, though being able to bounce the Emeritus to reuse the Recall is pretty sweet. Exiling eight cards is no small feat, so without blink effects it might be quite tricky to get repeated value out of this card, though perhaps there'll be other Strixhaven cards that'll 'prepare' your creatures. Okay, there definitely are. I confess, I lied earlier about averting my gaze.
This mechanic seems like an interesting and clever way of celebrating the game's most iconic instant and sorcery cards, something the first Strixhaven set did through its Mystical Archive bonus sheet. It's also a fun way of bypassing the Reserved List without ruffling any feathers, though hopefully Time Twister and Time Walk don't have their own prepared versions, else this MTG set will be very lopsided in blue's favor.
This is not the first time Wizards has let players access Power Nine cards outside of Vintage, as the digital-only Alchemy card Oracle of the Alpha would add all nine to your deck. But this is the first time an effect like this has appeared on paper.
What do you reckon, folks - obviously it's a Limited bomb, but in Standard is this card busted or unplayable? Cast your vote in the Wargamer Discord.