What happened to White in ELD?
Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 7:33 pm
So, I play a lot of white decks across several formats and while I don't tend to hate on Wizards with their creation of new sets, ELD has me a little alarmed when it comes to the playability of white. There are a number of metrics that have me more than a little concerned with what the heck happened to white in this upcoming set:
- I looked at pricing (On Cardkingdom for transparency) and the MOST expensive card containing white in it is currently Faeburrow Elder at the 17th most expensive card of the set at $4.50. The most expensive mono white cards only come in at $4.00. Keep in mind this is not the cheapest prices you can get and prices on these level of cards usually drop given time.
- I am primarily a commander player. The most playable commander white card might be a common? This is obviously open to interpretation but I don't feel that there is a white card that is clearly better than this.
- From a standard / historic standpoint, it looks like the only likely white playable cards are all knight tribal aggro cards. Its possible that some of these cards might be playable in some other aggro decks as well but the starting point looks like knight tribal. It doesn't look like white got really any midrange or control effects that seem playable in these formats. EDIT: Ok, I guess Realm-Cloaked Giant is a playable standard wrath.
- I did some breakdowns on the rares / mythics and as a whole most colors kind of break even when you look at counts. There are a few that are up or down one rare or mythic for mono color but usually make it up on multicolored. White has Happily Ever After though which is clearly being considered a white rare though. Maybe we can just discount that as an unplayable card but it happened to have taken up a slot for white which irritates me when its really a 5c meme card. This is also not the first time they have baggaged white with a card they intended to be a 5c card either and reduced the number of white rares thanks to it.