I’ve never really cared about looking up at distant galaxies and stars; they’re just too far and unknowable, and there’s enough to think about down here on our home planet. What I have enjoyed are the imaginative settings that people have created which embrace the sheer potential strangeness that might exist somewhere out there - Star Wars and Dune and Alien and so much more. Edge of Eternity looks to follow in the footsteps of these universes with Wizards’ own take on the space opera genre.
I admit - I was initially a bit skeptical that the set would be able to hold my interest. But when spoilers were released, my trepidation turned into cautious curiosity before morphing into an eagerness to get my hands on the cards and try them out for myself. Let’s take a look!
Mechanics and Themes
Station (Spacecraft and Planet)
A permanent with Station can be charged up by tapping creatures (at sorcery speed). Doing so with an X power creature puts X charge counters onto the card - and once the card reaches a certain number of charge counters, it gains additional abilities. The bulk of cards with Station are Spacecraft: artifacts that turn into flying creatures that zip around the battlefield. There’s also a cycle of mythic lands - Planets - that gain powerful abilities once they’re fully Stationed.
I’ve seen complaints that Spacecraft require far too large of an investment to become a creature that just dies to removal. I’d consider them slightly overcosted sorcery spells - Wedgelight Rammer creates a token, and Specimen Freighter bounces two creatures - that have the potential to become a creature. I also believe that the Limited format is designed to allow players to have time to power up their Spacecraft; expect to see a lot of combat taking place high among the stars!
Warp
A card with Warp can shoot its way onto the battlefield much faster than expected by paying its cheap Warp cost - only it will only last a turn before being exiled. Afterwards, you can cast it from exile by paying the card’s full mana cost. Why would you want to do this? Warp cards have useful abilities that you may want to take advantage of on an early turn. Maybe you want to sneak in a successful combat with Sinister Cryologist, or maybe you have two extra mana to gain two life with using Germinating Wurm.
There are extra shenanigans you can do with Warped creatures - give them haste, blink them, or use them as sacrifice fodder. It’s a deceptively straightforward mechanic with excitingly complex play patterns!
Void
A card with Void gains an alternative or additional effect if a nonland permanent has left the battlefield this turn, or a card was Warped this turn (and note that Void does not specify that you must have controlled the nonland permanent or Warped the spell). Examples include Kavaron Skywarden, which gains a +1/+1 counter at the end of your turn if the Void conditions are met; and Decode Transmissions, which changes your life loss into your opponent’s life loss. Note that all Void effects will only happen on your turn - either at the end of your turn, or on a sorcery.
Lander
A Lander is a new artifact token with a neat ramp ability; simply pay 2 mana, tap it, and sacrifice it, and you’ll be able to search your deck and put a basic land into play tapped. There are roughly a billion effects that generate Lander tokens, from Sunstar Expansionist to Sami’s Curiosity, and roughly a billion ways that Landers can be used. There’s mana ramp; there are Landfall cards; there are cards that care when artifacts enter the battlefield; there are cards that care when permanents leave the battlefield; there are cards that ask you to sacrifice an artifact. Lander tokens simply fill a ton of roles in EOE, and I think they’ll be incredibly valuable.
“Stellar Sights” Bonus Sheet
EOE does contain a bonus sheet with some very pretty cards. However this bonus sheet consists entirely of lands, and a “Stellar Sights” card only appears in one out of eight Play boosters (meaning there’ll be an average of three total in any 8-person draft pod). As a result, their effect on the Limited format will likely be a light one - especially since some of them are very playable (Mutavault) and some are not (Mirrorpool). Regardless, they’re all extremely cool to open and look at, and once in a while they’ll swing a game in unexpected and exciting fashion.
Archetypes
There are ten two-color archetypes, each with a single signpost uncommon.
White/Blue: Second Spell
It’s always nice to double-spell, and the White/Blue archetype in EOE makes it even nicer with cards like Brightspear Zealot and Station Monitor that give you a little extra bonus for being mana efficient. Obviously, this strategy requires a deck full of cheap spells (or cards with Warp) - or you can use a creature like Uthros Psionicist to take a lot of stress out of finding the mana to cast your second spell. Add in some card draw to replenish your hand, and your opponent will melt beneath your barrage of spells.
White/Black: Go-Wide
A go-wide strategy requires a couple of things. Syr Vondam, the Lucent provides one: an excellent payoff that supercharges an army of little creatures into something deadly. Knight Luminary provides another: a single card that stretches your opponent’s defenses thin by putting multiple creatures onto the battlefield. And Susurian Voidborn gives your strategy reach by providing an alternative route to victory if your attacks begin to fail. This combination of effects is pretty typical for any go-wide strategy, and it’s one that’s been proven to succeed again and again and again.
Blue/Black: Control
I’d hesitate to give this archetype a label more specific than “Control”; sure, Alpharael, Dreaming Acolyte encourages you to play artifacts, but it’s really his card selection text that matters. Grab efficient 2-for-1s such as Cryogen Relic and Monoist Circuit-Feeder, and you’ll find yourself ahead in resources - and if you survive long enough, that’ll be enough to win you the game.
Blue/Red: Artifacts
Mm’menon, Ulthros Exile makes it clear that all Blue/Red wants to do is dump out artifacts and overwhelm your opponent. Mechan Shieldmate is an excellent companion to this strategy: a defensive two drop that will be able to attack - as long as you’ve put the requisite artifacts in your deck. You’ll want to chip away at your opponent’s life total with cheap creatures and evasion - and if that fails, drop a Weftstalker Ardent or three and ping them into oblivion.
Black/Red: Void Aggro
Both Interceptor Mechan and Insatiable Skittermaw are evasive creatures that grow a little bigger if the Void condition is met at the beginning of your end step. That’s - pretty much it; that’s the Black/Red deck in EOE. The best way to get Void is to remove your opponent’s creatures; however aggressive Warp threats such as Red Tiger Mechan do the trick as well. And if you end up needing to kill one of your own creatures for Void - well, that’s a small price to pay for a future victory!
Black/Green: Reanimation
A reanimation deck needs two things, and Seedship Broodtender provides both of them: a way to get cards into your graveyard, and a way to get creatures back out. You’ll want some redundant ways to accomplish these goals of course, and finding cards to do so may take some effort. Self-mill is hard to come by in this set; you’ll need to rely on cards like Thawbringer to (slowly) populate your graveyard. There also aren’t a ton of reanimation spells, but that’s less surprising; Scrounge for Eternity will do the trick. I think this archetype is hard to get going - but if you manage to make it work, the reward is more than worth the effort.
Red/White: Self-Tap
The Red/White archetype might be called “self-tap”, but it may as well be called “Spacecraft” since that’s the most effective way of tapping your own creatures without risking them in combat. The payoffs are huge - creature tokens from Sami, Ship’s Engineer, or a big buff for your board with Dawnstrike Vanguard, or an opportunity to refill your hand with Vaultguard Trooper. And, of course, if you are playing Stations, you also get evasive threats up and online and ready to blow your opponent to smithereens.
Red/Green: Landfall Midrange
The days of busted 1- and 2-drop Landfall creatures are long gone, but Remnant Elemental still does a credible job of attacking during the early turns of the game. However, what Red/Green really wants to do in this set is to hit two Landfall triggers a turn - and Lander tokens are an excellent way to do that, making Seedship Agrarian a particularly effective creature for this strategy. Once you get that Lander engine going, Remnant Elemental becomes far more dangerous - and so does Tannuk, Memorial Ensign, who will start doing two damage a turn while also drawing you a card. Good luck to any opponent trying to keep up with that!
Green/White: +1/+1 Counters
A +1/+1 counters strategy is extremely difficult for your opponent to deal with - unless they have pesky interaction spells to tear down a creature you’ve painstakingly built up with Haliya, Ascendant Cadet. Fortunately there are plenty of ways to get some value from your creatures as they pass away - a small token from Rayblade Trooper, or some nice card draw from Meltstrider Eulogist. These contingencies give this archetype a level of persistence that will wear your opponent down until your big burly buffed creatures can swing through for the victory.
Green/Blue: Ramp
You’ve seen this before: play cards like Biomechan Engineer to ramp yourself with Lander tokens; and once you have enough mana, reap the rewards with crazy amounts of value. There’s not much else to add, except to say that Green has some interesting alternatives to get your lands out - Pull Through the Weft encourages just a little bit of self-mill; and Blue, normally relegated to defense and control, may be able to get into some of that ramping action with spells like Divert Disaster. That being said, I don’t think that this archetype will play all that differently from Green/Blue ramp decks featured in other sets; it’ll simply be both effective and powerful.
Key Commons and Uncommons
White
Creatures
All-Fates Stalker: The base non-Warp case for this creature as a (maybe temporary) removal spell is already pretty good. The Warp ability makes it incredible, allowing you to remove counters on a creature, get rid of a token, push a blocker out of the way, or blink one of your own creatures with an “enters the battlefield” effect.
Dual-Sun Adepts: A three mana 2/2 is… not all that exciting - but double strike makes it a potentially lethal threat. Throw on a buff or two, and if your opponent doesn’t have removal then they’re probably just dead.
Starfield Shepherd: Well this is just card advantage and guaranteed land drops.
Non-Creatures
Banishing Light: Unconditional removal for three mana is always great.
Emergency Eject: Instant-speed unconditional removal for three mana is always great, and giving your opponent a Lander token is a fair trade-off.
Focus Fire: It’s always risky to cast a removal spell that depends on the number of creatures you control, but this one mitigates that risk by ensuring that you always do at least two damage.
Blue
Creatures
Codecracker Hound: Free cards are always nice (and you can always ignore the Warp ability if you’re in dire need of a creature that sticks around).
Mechan Assembler: You’ll have to work a bit to trigger the free Robot generation, but I kinda think you won’t have to work that hard.
Mechan Navigator: This isn’t quite a free looter, but Station makes it pretty close.
Non-Creatures
Cryoshatter: This doesn’t get the target creature or even tap it down, but it does make it pretty well useless for your opponent.
Desculpting Blast: A fun little bounce spell that can net you a fun little token. Note that you can use it on your own permanents as well!
Tractor Beam: Can you do much with the creature you take? Maybe not, but your opponent won’t be able to do much either, and maybe the thing you steal has some nice passive abilities.
Black
Creatures
Faller’s Faithful: Will you kill an opponent’s creature that took damage? Get a blocker out of the way to swing for lethal? Or kill one of your own creatures to draw a few cards?
Monoist Sentry: A bizarre creature that will either trade well in defense or Station your Spacecraft at turbo speed.
Voidforged Titan: I don’t think it’s that hard to draw a bunch of cards with this creature, so it shouldn’t be too hard to win with it as well.
Non-Creatures
Gravkill: Well, yeah.
Hymn of the Faller: This is not great if it draws you one card, but it is pretty great if it draws you two.
Tragic Trajectory: Kill a small thing early or (with a little bit of effort) a big thing late.
Red
Creatures
Galvanizing Sawship: Yeah yeah, this Spacecraft isn’t technically a creature - but its Station cost is so low it might as well be. Enjoy your hasty six power flyer!
Memorial Team Leader: +1/+0 is no joke.
Molecular Modifier: Drop this on turn 3 and it’s possible your opponent will never be able to profitably block ever again.
Non-Creatures
Cut Propulsion: This isn’t quite unconditional Red removal, but it’s pretty close.
Full Bore: Sometimes this will let you win combat, sometimes it’ll let you win the game.
Invasive Maneuvers: The rate is decent if you hit something for three damage, and incredible if you hit something for eight.
Green
Creatures
Glacier Godmaw: Seven mana is a lot, but get this creature into play and you should win the game within a turn or two.
Harmonious Grovestrider: This creature likely starts out as a 5/5 for five mana, and it only grows from there.
Icecave Crasher: This feels like a curve topper - and a game ender - for an aggressive Landfall deck.
Non-Creatures
Close Encounter: Instant speed punch effects are great, and this one can dodge your opponent’s removal.
Diplomatic Relations: This one is vulnerable to your opponent’s removal - but it’s still pretty good. Note that this card has an errata, and should read: “Target creature you control gets…”
Meltstrider’s Resolve: I’d rate this a lot lower, except the added buff this Aura gives your creature is super nice.
Other Cards to Know
Mana Fixing
EOE is notably sparse on colorless ways to fix your mana:
This doesn’t mean that the set is light on mana fixing however, as every color has at least one card that can create a Lander token (with Green having the most cards that do so and Blue having the least). Green has a few additional mana fixing spells on top of that:
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Creatures with Reach
Make sure you’re ready to knock down all those Spacecraft zooming high up overhead!
Summation
So what should you keep in mind when playing Edge of Eternity?
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I’ll say it again: I think Wizards designed this set to give players time to fully Station their Spacecraft. Warp and Lander tokens are slow mechanics as well, rewarding planning and deliberate play.
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Speaking of mechanics: I don’t think any of the archetypes are meant to fully embrace one mechanic or another; in other words, you won’t see a deck that’s all Warp cards or Lander tokens. Rather, the mechanics are meant to support the archetypes; Warp cards are good for casting two spells or Stationing, and Lander tokens are good for ramp and artifact strategies.
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And remember - those Lander tokens make splashing a little easier (unless you’re playing a super-aggressive deck).
Good luck!
