Syr Elenora, the Discerning – MTG Throne of Eldraine Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

Where are the simple joys of maidenhood? Are these sweet, simple pleasures gone for good? Probably not, although I suspect Elenora isn’t quite as purely powerful as some of the past cards with the “Maro” mechanic. She’s not quite evasive enough to be a top-tier control finisher, nor quite cheap enough to be a top-tier tempo threat. She’s fairly good when accelerated into as a midrange threat, and applies more pressure as you do what blue does so well; having some resistance to targeted removal is always a good thing in a card like this, too. I will be interested to see if anyone adopts her in Brawl or Commander, because I think you easily could – she offers an interesting alternative theme or route to victory compared to what you would usually expect from a mono-blue legend.

Constructed: 2/5
Casual: 3/5
Limited: 3/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
EDH/Commander: 3/5 

While Syr Elenora is a bit of a card with a fairly wide gap between best-case and worst-case scenarios, she does have a fair bit going for her. She replaces herself in your hand, usually making her a 1/4 at worst, and she’s pretty resistant to a lot of removal spells. The resistance to removal helps her a lot with maintaining board presence, particularly in Limited, and her variant power has the good fortune to be defined by a characteristic blue is pretty good at excelling in (lots of cards in hand). As a five-mana creature without a ton of board presence or evasion, though, she’s not really going to make it in Constructed, especially with competition in the five-slot for her effect. By no means is she bad, but she does wind up being resolutely underwhelming at the end of the day.

Constructed: 2
Casual: 3
Limited: 3.5
Multiplayer: 2.5
Commander: 2.75