Beluna Grandsquall – Wilds of Eldraine
Date Reviewed: September 19, 2023
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.88
Casual: 4.50
Limited: 3.63
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 4.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Beluna plays at least three or four roles in Wilds of Eldraine, not all of which are gameplay-related. She is a reference to the greedy giant from story of Jack and the Beanstalk, but with a healthy dose of DnD’s cloud giants and thus the heritage of mighty elemental beings like Norse mythology’s Utgard-Loki, which I really like to see. I suspect a lot of people are going to be equally excited that she’s a commander for “adventure tribal” decks, and a similar type of card for Standard and other comparatively small formats. She’s probably not a power-up on the level of Lucky Clover, but cost reduction is always worth looking into; and we know that just one mana in cost is sometimes enough to take a spell from limited to constructed. And on top of all that, she’s a three-mana 4/4 for a deck that can meet her restrictive cost – I remember well how strong Anafenza was, even in games where her abilities didn’t come up.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Adventures are certainly a card class that has a healthy amount of intrigue, and Beluna Grandsquall is a sort of “adventure matters” support card, able to dig them out and enable them a bit. Five mana to potentially draw seven is a very good rate of return; you’re not likely to draw seven, of course, but even three or four cards is fine, and just one is acceptable if it’s a good one. She can then come out as a slightly above-rate creature that makes the second half of each adventure cast a bit more impactful.
In general, adventures are stronger than average because of their nature as a two-for-one card type; you get one effect then, and you get a permanent later. Beluna Grandsquall helps set up the first halves and makes casting second halves easier or just casting the permanent halves at a discount. The downside is that three colors is hard to finagle at times, especially with Wilds of Eldraine not being explicitly multicolor; it’s powerful, to be sure, but the color demands may well make Beluna Grandsquall sit dead more often than you might like.
Constructed: 3.75
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4
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