Emrakul, the World Anew – Modern Horizons III
Date Reviewed: June 25, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 4.25
Casual: 5.00
Limited: 5.00
Multiplayer: 4.37
Commander [EDH]: 4.63
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Emrakul is generally the most purely powerful in-game of the Eldrazi titans, and the head of every ancient Zendikar pantheon (she had almost as many names as Odin does). As such, it’s fitting that her new card once again made everyone’s jaw hit the floor. It has the promise of unbeatable table swings and scales massively to formats where people tend to build up the table – most commonly, Commander. Madness is a nice bonus, but it’s probable that more of the time you’ll be finding ways to cast her earlier than turn 12, and there are some very nice ways to do that. It’s also notable that she doesn’t remove herself from the graveyard like her very first card; while this means you still need to find a way to formally cast her rather than just put her into play, there are, conveniently, ways to do that too, and we all know by now that graveyards are often the best place to keep something valuable.
I should point out that her protection ability should be read as “protection from spells, and protection from permanents that were cast this turn”. “Spells that were cast this turn” doesn’t really mean anything, because instants and sorceries only have an effect when they’re cast and not generally on later turns, which is why it’s confusing if you accidentally read it in that way.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4.5 (resolving her will make you the archenemy for a year or two, especially for her madness cost, but it’ll be fun)
Commander [EDH]: 4.5
Here to fully unleash The Tentacling, Emrakul, the World Anew continues the trend of her past cards: being absurd and hard to remove. The absurd comes in the form of her cast trigger stealing all of a player’s creatures, and the hard to remove is in the form of being safe from most instants, sorceries, and permanents that came in on that given turn. While she does cost you your board if she goes, she’s hard to get off of the board (absent a board wipe), and she’s also a flying tentacled abomination that flies over heads. The madness trigger is an interesting angle; six maa, even if forced to be colorless, is an excellent deal for what normally would cost 12 mana, and it can be a great way to “flash” her in with the right set-up. I think it’s maybe a bit more flavor than the main attraction, but it is still a tantalizing line of text.
Emrakul 3.0 is maybe not as stupid as her past outings have been, but she still does the job of absolutely wrecking your nemesis in short order. I definitely feel like she’s going to put in a lot of work; while she’d rather be cast than cheated out, she’s still 12 evasive damage that’s hard to out, and that can carry a lot of weight in a pinch.
Constructed: 4.5
Casual: 5
Limited: 5
Multiplayer: 4.25
Commander [EDH]: 4.75
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