History, Restapled - The Wilds Bunch

Welcome back for another History, Restapled, a Commander-focused column that attempts to validate a newer card’s status as a staple by looking at how cards that are similar, synergistic, or competing have fared in the past financially.

Wilds of Eldraine looks to be chock full of goodies—some of the most exciting cards for Commander in recent memory. And, as of the set’s pre-release, they’re Commander-legal. Here are a few that caught my eye due to their playability and potential to grow in value, with the caveat that many prices are still settling.

Lich-Knights' Conquest

Holy hell, does this card seem busted or what? It requires a bit of a board state already, but not necessarily one flooded with creatures—though it certainly doesn’t hurt to have a few spare Saproling or Soldier tokens putzing about. If you can get the reanimation count up to three or more, you’ve exceeded the rate Animate Dead, a super staple, provides. Later in the game, when spare Signets abound, this is a one-sided game ender for the mana value of Living Death. And, even at its price upon release, it’s sitting at less than $1. It doesn’t grab creatures from your opponents, but odds are if you slide this card into your deck, you’ll have plenty of corpses to resuscitate.

Mass reanimation effects exceed Lich-Knights’ Conquest in both mana value and price. Rise of the Dark Realms, a seven mana spell printed in Magic 2014 (M14) and Jumpstart, is $17 and hasn’t dropped below $10 since 2019. Command the Dreadhorde, at six mana, is less than $1 but requires a fair amount of life to go wide; later in a game of Commander, it’s likely easier to find a handful of tokens or spare non-creature permanents than it is to pay 12-18 life. The aforementioned Living Death ranges from $3-$10 over multiple reprints and can occasionally bite players in the behinds if an opponent’s graveyard is stocked.

$0.50$0.69

$8.57$8.99

Lich-Knights’ Conquest is only going to get better over time, as stronger graveyard-based cards get printed, and at its current price is practically being given away. It’s a worthy bulk bin purchase and one you’ll be glad you grabbed.

STATUS: It’s a staple, on a steel horse they ride, and it’s wanted, wanted, dead or alive

Bramble Familiar

To the surprise of no one, Adventure cards make for powerful and flexible additions to any Commander deck with the color identity to run them. Many of the new ones fall under multiple color identities, but Bramble Familiar can slot into any deck running green, regardless of what other colors the deck carries. As a two-mana dork, it’s worse than Tangled Florahedron (one of the best), but better than most of the ones with one toughness or those requiring a few jumps through hoops to produce more than one mana at a time. But, of course, Bramble Familiar contains far more lines of text, the sum of which adds up to a resilient reanimation engine that puts permanents right onto the battlefield from the graveyard—in green, no less. It’s also rare in that it enables players to recast the Adventure mode even after the card is on the battlefield.

$14.04$12.99

$8.40

The price of Bramble Familiar is less than $0.50 and continues to drop. Other great two-mana dorks can’t boast this level of affordability; Biophagus, another banger, is roughly $5, and Bloom Tender is sitting around $11. Hell, even Lotus Cobra, a more niche but still strong option, is $3 after many reprints. It might go without saying, but none of those other cards can bounce themselves or save a monstrous creature from the clutches of the graveyard. Expect Bramble Familiar to find its way into a large variety of decks for its adroitness and potential to set you far ahead of your opponents in card advantage.

STATUS: Elemental-y, my dear staple

Woodland Acolyte

Here’s another Adventure that combines multiple effects across cards into an essential Selesnya toolbox. At its floor, Woodland Acolyte operates as a slightly lesser Reclaim or Priest of Ancient Lore, both modes of which are playable, but it also reads like an Eternal Witness for 2WG that can be cast in stages over the course of a turn for the financial cost of 1/8th of a load of laundry. Sure, both Eternal Witness and its partner Timeless Witness are cheap, but Woodland Acolyte offers redundancy with a particular fondness for blink decks looking to simply draw cards.

$0.20$0.35

$1.45$1.49

Status: Can I get a witness?

Lich-Knights' Conquest	CardKingdom $1.49	TCGPlayer $0.77
Bramble Familiar	CardKingdom $0.49	TCGPlayer $0.60
Woodland Acolyte	CardKingdom $0.35	TCGPlayer $0.20

Release the (Cardboard) Crack-en

With so many playable cards in Wilds of Eldraine, it might become hard to track how all of them are being used in Commander. Please share your experiences with me! You can find me on Twitter with the handle @steveheisler or on Bluesky under the same name. In particular, it would be helpful to know which cards have underperformed against expectations. I have my suspicions of a few, but more field testing is required. Until next time…hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend!

Check out these other articles:

Keep Rowan, Rowan, Rowan, Rowan. SCION! by Jason Alt

Competitive MTG Finance #1 - Wilds of Eldraine and Bowmasters by Edward Eng

Modern Times - Rakdos Scam, and the Unbanning of Preordain by Corey Williams