In the "first rares ever" week a while back, I
had a blast reviewing Verduran Enchantress -
though she wasn't my actual first rare, she was
certainly the first one I ever tried to build a
deck around entirely, and I still do so now. I'm
glad to see that her ability is still (at least
partly) in green, even in an era of constant
flux and adjustment and retooling. Maybe she'll
be back in M15?
I'm not sure this card is quite strong enough on
its own to be the foundation of a deck the way
its famous ancestor was. The extra mana in the
cost and the fact that the enchantments actually
have to come into play to get you the extra card
introduce another degree of vulnerability to the
strategy. However, as a backup, it's quite good.
Plus, the fact that it's an enchantment itself
may be relevant when you're also using Sphere of
Safety and the like.
Magic The Gathering Card of The Day:
Eidolon of Blossoms
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
an interesting card advantage engine. In
standard a deck that runs a large amount of
enchantments would obviously benefit from this
creature, mono green decks have made decent use
of testing this card, the ongoing card advantage
is just too strong to ignore making it a solid
card to build around. In modern an enchantress
style deck could gain some steam as the tools
are in place. In other eternal formats its mana
cost holds it back compared to other enchantress
cards similar to this. In casual and multiplayer
it’s a solid card advantage engine and the power
level is right due to the influx of
enchantments. In limited it’s a solid card to
build around and is pure card advantage if you
can get it going. Overall a card with solid
constructed and casual applications, a powerful
effect across the board.
Today's card of the day is Eidolon of Blossoms
which is a four mana Green 2/2 enchantment
creature with Constellation that has you draw a
card whenever it or another enchantment enters
the battlefield under your control. This
is similar to the enchantress theme that has
been around since the beginning in Alpha, but
with the added benefit of including itself for a
card draw at the price of a higher mana cost.
The mana cost is a notable drawback without
acceleration, but getting the draw from itself
and counting non-cast cards make up for it in
most situations. Also, this is the first
enchantress with card drawing with power greater
than one which makes it a slightly better target
if the deck's wombat analogue is unavailable.
Overall a very solid card in a dedicated
acceleration and enchantment deck and it will
see play in Casual, Commander, and Multiplayer
as an addition an already popular theme.
For Limited this is at worst a four mana 2/2
that draws a card, but in a block with a quarter
of the cards being enchantments it is likely to
get at least one other trigger. The card
advantage this can enable makes this a strong
first pick in Booster, if supported with later
choices, and almost always worth playing in
Sealed when using Green as a primary or
secondary color.
First, the positives: In a deck with lots of
enchantments - and perhaps more constellation
abilities - this guy is the linchpin to keeping
the cards going. Green isn't historically very
good at drawing cards, so that makes the Eidolon
all the more desirable. In the right situation,
he's going to look awesome.
Next, the problems: A four mana investment for a
2/2 creature is pretty underwhelming. Most of
the time, green decks want to be playing
something more offensively minded like
Polukranos, World Eater. Then, once you get the
Eidolon out, you have to have and be able to
play another enchantment to get any value out of
him. If you don't have a few pretty good
enchantments to whip out, the Eidolon is going
to look pretty weak, sitting there doing
nothing.
So how does it all add up? My guess is that he
will see play in a few decks, but will fall
short of his potential. He has some utility, but
there are just too many better, more consistent
options on what to play. Even in limited, he's
only very good if you happen to get a lot of
good on-color enchantments to go with him.
Eidolon of Blossoms shares some things in
common with yesterday's card, surprisingly
enough. Maybe not the high damage potential,
it's actually quite weak. But the ability
to grant card draw to a colour that tends to
lack it, that's something pretty special.
Do you like enchantment creatures? Do you like
bestow cards? Do you like auras? Well then
Eidolon of Blossoms is your best friend. This
card will reward you for all that stuff you were
already going to do anyway. And it does it in
the best way possible: card advantage. If you've
heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times.
Card advantage wins games. More cards means more
options, more responses, more ways to attack.
With the right deck you'll just flat out be able
to overwhelm your opponent.
Eidolon of Blossoms is not a perfect card,
though. For one thing 4 mana is a bit steep for
a 2/2. And it doesn't have the benefit
yesterday's did with some incredibly potent
combat abilities. But then this isn't a card
used for smashing face. This is a support card,
a piece of tech designed to be held back and
combo repeatedly with your other, better cards
in order to get as much of an advantage as
possible. 4 mana for a card like this is not
actually the worst, because there's very little
reason to play it before turn 4. By turn 4
you've started playing out your hand, and you
could start to appreciate a little card draw.
And this is one Eidolon that doesn't disappoint.
Right away, our dryad friend replaces herself,
and she's just getting warmed up. Honestly this
is probably one of the best cards with
constellation out there, which I guess doesn't
really say a lot since there are only 16 of
them. But trust me, this is good. So good that
you're opponent's going to want to deal with it
right away.
That 2/2 body isn't going to be much help when
it comes to keeping this thing alive so that it
can draw you more precious, precious cards.
You'll probably want to do something to help
keep it alive. Hexproof is always nice. This is
actually probably one of the best times to use
something like Alpha Authority or Canopy Cover.
And as with most things that trigger off of
something entering the battlefield, you'll want
to run a decent amount of fairly cheap ones so
you can trigger the card draw as much as
possible. A nice assortment of inexpensive
enchantment creatures and bestow creature/auras
will really make this card shine.
Now for the best part. And I'm only going to
tell you because you've read this far into the
review. You deserve it. You see, Eidolon of
Blossoms makes anything that generates
enchantment creature tokens AMAZING. All of the
sudden Fated Intervention reads 'For 5 mana, put
two 3/3's into play and *draw two cards.*' The
various creatures with inspired that generate
enchantment creature tokens also become a lot
better, especially God-Favored General. And
that's not all. What if you had... TWO Eidolon
of Blossoms out on the field? Or dare I say it,
three or four? With two or more out, the mind
starts to boggle at the amount of card draw
you'd get. Imagine a Pheres-Band Raiders or
Renowned Weaver drawing you 2-4 cards. Imagine
Rise of Eagles getting you 4-8! Even casting a
second Eidolon of Blossoms with one already on
the field gets you 2 cards for free. You can see
what I meant when I said that a smart opponent
will consider this a priority target.
A lot of different decks are going to want to
try and use this card. Constructed really wants
to, but a 2/2 with no evasion and a giant target
painted on its face likely won't survive long
enough to get the most out of its ability, plus
the 4 mana cost really hurts it there. It's
still good, however its flaws become more of a
hindrance. Casual will adore this. Absolutely
adore it. In limited it's certainly pretty good,
you'll likely have some other enchantments to
play, though not a ton. And for multiplayer,
it's actually kind of amusing. There are more
people who will have an opportunity to kill it
in multiplayer, but card draw is also extremely
useful in multiplayer. So it sort of evens out.
If this is the kind of power a tree blossom
spirit has, than maybe we should all become
gardeners inside Card Advantage Forest.
