Magic: The Gathering’s latest set, Throne of Eldraine has just released, and fans of the trading card game and fairy-tales are in for a treat. 

Throughout its 25-year history, Magic has drawn heavily from fantasy tropes as inspiration for its worlds, stories and characters. 

Throne of Eldraine is the first time that players will get to experience a high-fantasy medieval setting with Magic’s own take on classic fairy-tales.

The World of Eldraine

Eldraine has two main settings – The Realm, consisting of five courts, each of which is aligned with a specific colour of mana, exemplifies a virtue, and has a sacred treasure that is represented in the game through a Legendary Artifact. Each of the five courts, Ardenvale, Vantress, Locthwain, Embereth, and Garenbrig, are ruled by kings, queens, wizards or knights.

The second main setting of Eldraine is The Wilds – a world of enchantment, filled with monsters and curses. As opposition to the civilised world of The Realm, the two are in conflict for control over territory, and ultimately rule over the entire kingdoms. For a long time, The Realm has managed to keep the unsavoury magic of The Wilds, and the ambitions of its dark elven rulers at bay.

The peace is being threatened after the kidnapping of The Realms supreme ruler, High King Algenus Kenrith, by the trickster Oko. Oko is a fey Planeswalker from an unknow world and is a brand-new character in the Multiverse. Being a mischievous, shape-shifter with powers of mind control, Oko seeks to plunge The Realm into chaos, for no reason other than that he can. Upon his arrival on Eldraine, Oko encounters another Planeswalker that hasn’t been mentioned in Magic’s story or featured as a card in many years – the Beastmaster Garruk. The last time we saw Garruk he fled into the unknow after being cursed by the Necromancer Liliana and her artifact of incredibly powerful dark magic, the Chain Veil. What better setting to lift a curse than on a world where curses are a commonplace? The last Planeswalker character to be featured in Throne of Eldraine, are the royal twins, Will & Kenrith (first introduced in Battlebond), who embark on a mission to find the ruler of the realm, but unbeknownst to them, Oko has transformed the king into an elk… this has complicated their quest to find their father and restore him to the throne, and with it, return stability to The Realm.

Throne of Eldraine: The Wildered Quest

You can get the complete story on Throne of Eldraine, visit this link for the Ebook by Kate Elliot.

The Mechanics of Throne of Eldraine

The world of Eldraine is unlike any we’ve seen before, and as with any new setting, there should be new ways to use your cards. 

As one can imagine, certain creature cards in the set can embark on their own adventures. How so? Adventure cards have two parts to a card – the regular creature with its own abilities but including a Sorcery or Instant component as well. When you cast the card, you choose which portion you are playing: creature or Adventure. Adventures have their own name, mana cost, type line (including the new instant and sorcery subtype Adventure), and rules text. The difference being, that when a spell is played for its Adventure, the creature can be played at a later stage of the game! A coming-home of sorts.

Adamant is another new mechanic that rewards you for the specific types of mana spent on a card. Casting a blue spell with a cost of 4? Now you can gain an additional benefit, by spending a certain amount of blue mana on that spell.

The last new mechanic introduced in Throne of Eldraine is that of Food. Similar to its predecessor, the Treasure tokens from Shadows over Innistrad; Food tokens are a predefined token created by several cards in the set. A Food token is a colourless artifact token with “2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”

The Art of Throne of Eldraine

A new setting brings with it a new look for cards, such as extended borders and the never-before-seen Showcase Frames. Extended-Art Frames can be found on Planeswalkers and other cards, with the difference being that Planeswalker cards with the Extended-Art treatment will feature different artwork to the normal version – a definite plus for collectors!

Throne of Eldraine has cleverly incorporated many familiar fair-tale themes into cards. How many can you recognise?

Magic Open House

Throne of Eldraine is on sale from Friday, 4 October. If you would like to join in the fun, but don’t know how to play Magic, then you need not worry – the weekend of 12-13 October is Open House. Open House demos are free events hosted at selected Wizards Play Network stores across the country where you can participate in a learn-to-play demo and stand a chance to get a free copy of a Welcome Deck. There is no easier way to get started with Magic, so be sure to check out the Locator tool for a participating venue near you.

You can learn more about OPEN HOUSE here.

Magic: The Gathering is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast LLC, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc.