It seems like only yesterday since I was here covering Magic: The Gathering - Final Fantasy for Pauper, but it's already time once more to talk about a new set! We're going deep into space with this sweet new in-universe set, Edge of Eternities. This set is looking like it's going to be an awesome experience for Magic players everywhere, but especially for Pauper. Several cards look like they could impact the format in a big way, and I'm here to break them down!

As with past reviews, I'm going to talk about the new mechanics first and the cards that utilize them. After that, I'll be covering several highlight cards that are either legitimately good or seem like the sort of card that some players might look at with interest. There is a ton to cover, so let's not waste any time and jump right into the review!

Spacecrafts

Spacecrafts represent perhaps the most notable new mechanic of the set. These - along with the mythic exclusive planets - start essentially locked and become unlocked with a bit of work. These are somewhat uncharted waters, but thankfully Pauper only has two to worry about at this point.

Neither of these seems particularly spectacular. Wurmwall Sweeper isn't great value for what you get out of it, and Pinnacle Kill-Ship is difficult for anything except perhaps Tron or Gruul Ramp to make use of. Unless you're stationing something like an Annoyed Altisaur to get it going, though, it's likely not worth it. Even dealing ten damage is often going to just be overkill in most situations.

Given how setting specific spacecrafts are, I'd be somewhat surprised if we see more of these in the near future. However, it's almost a certainty we'll see more of them with time, so I'm interested in seeing how they turn out in the long run.

Warp

Next up is Warp, which is essentially the latest variant of adventure, or perhaps evoke. It acts a bit like evoke in that the creature comes into play, then goes away, but it goes to exile instead of the graveyard. You can then cast it again properly that way later on.

Nine total cards have the mechanic on them at common and I gotta say, I'm not super impressed with them. Most don't have good rates that make it worth casting them for either their warp cost or their normal cost. That means that while it's cool design space to play in, it might need a second time around to really shine in a later set.

Still, there are a few I like. Knight Luminary making a token makes it a solid option, acting sort of like a weird Mogg War Marshal in a way. Weftblade Elite is pretty modest in that it pumps your board, though the cost to actually cast it is probably a bit too high. The one I really like, though, is Red Tiger Mechan.

For two mana, you get a 3/3 with haste. In some ways, the rate is comparable to something like Keldon Marauders but without the enters and leaves damage. However, there's some positive tradeoff in the fact that you can recast it later. Even if the rate is probably a little higher than I'd like, it's a great way to use mana and get more value off something that you've already gotten value out of to start. I could see this one showing up in the format, though probably at lower numbers the way the Marauders have in the past.

Void

Next there's a little five-card mechanic called void. This essentially is riffing off of revolt from Aether Revolt but does so in a way that also cares about the warp mechanic. Two of the cards - Insatiable Skittermaw and Kavaron Skywarden - aren't worth talking about, but the other three are, so let's take a look.

I love this card. We've seen tons of cards that offer this sort of ability before but they always only hurt you. Decode Transmissions subverts this by harming your opponent instead, offering you a solid way to generate card advantage while also dishing out some pain. It's been a long time since something like Read the Bones saw play, but maybe this gives it another chance in the format.

A number of people have also talked about this doozy of a card. A one mana Thoughtseize without the life loss is a big deal, provided you can set it up effectively to do so. You can't use a fetch land like Escape Tunnel or similar, but you can do something like turn one Blood Fountain, turn two sacrifice a blood token and then cast this for 1 mana. If you can set it up effectively, it's awesome, but it might be a bit too inconsistent to rely on all the time. Players will try it, so it'll be interesting to see where it lands long term.

Once again, if you can consistently find a way to trigger Warp, this just becomes a Lightning Bolt. That might sound easier said than done in a Red aggro deck, but you might be surprised. Kuldotha Red decks were running four Voldaren Epicure and three or four Implement of Combustion. Now they still run the Epicure, but have dropped the Implements. Perhaps this might be a good reason to bring them back so you can dish out heavier damage to your opponents, though you risk it getting stuck in your hand as a meager Shock as well.

Lander Tokens

The last new mechanic are the Lander tokens.

These tokens basically act like a Wayfarer's Bauble or a colorless Rampant Growth - whichever you prefer. Most interestingly, they appear on colors not typically known for offering mana ramp like this, including Blue and Black.

Only six cards have the mechanic on them. Most don't seem all that great to me, as they all seem fairly basic if you don't factor the token in. I'm not thinking any of these are good enough, but I could be wrong. Either way, it represents a pretty cool new token that will be interesting to see if it makes an appearance in other sets going forward.

Now that we've covered the mechanics, let's take a look at the other cards!

Gaea's Gift doesn't see any play and this is a (admittedly mildly) worse version of that. I wouldn't bank on this being playable.

A three mana 4/3 with vigilance is great, and in the kind of deck that might want this (White Weenies) you should easily be able to cast two spells a turn regularly. I wouldn't want to play too many copies of this, but it might be worth testing out a copy or two.

I had to give a nod to the most adorable cyborg this set has to offer, but it's simply not a rate you can reliably get value out of in Pauper. Even if you had a way to infinitely make this gain life somehow, there's certainly more efficient means of doing so without utilizing such a fragile creature in the process.

While the rate is comparable to Brightspear Zealot, I'm less sure of this one's impact. It's a bit more challenging to have a steady stream of artifacts unless you're an Affinity deck, and at that point this likely isn't something you'll want. That having been said, I do like the idea of having a reliable way to sacrifice cards like Ichor Wellspring that double as a beater, even if it probably doesn't even end up being very good at doing that. It'll be awesome feeding copies of Cryogen Relic to this in Limited, though.

When I see a card like this, my instinct is to look at something like Rupture Spire or something along those lines. This one is markedly different, as it allows you to tap any untapped permanent. That's far better than most previous versions, which either required you to tap a land, an artifact, or in some way or another a creature. Here, you can tap anything. You can even tap a random enchantment sitting on the battlefield. I still don't think this is going to exactly take the world by storm, but it's a far better rainbow land than the other variants of its type we've seen up to now.

With most sets, there's often some cards that stand out, but it's not always apparent what's the best among a number of potential options here. That's not the case with Edge of Eternities. Cryogen Relic is a nutty little card. The format is no stranger to similar cards like Ichor Wellspring, but that card and Mephitic Draught require you to sacrifice them for the extra value. This one does not, meaning you can use it with cards like Kor Skyfisher, Glint Hawk, and Ghostly Flicker for crazy amounts of card draw.

Oh, yeah, and you can sacrifice it to close out a game, I suppose.

This card is going to be everywhere shortly after this set releases as people try finding the best home for it. Be ready for it, or else try finding the best way to beat it yourself.

This isn't the sort of effect Blue gets very often. It's a great way to shut down virtually every creature in the format short of an Annoyed Altisaur, Ulamog's Crusher, or mega-powered Writhing Chrysalis. Best of all, if the creature's then damaged at all, it's destroyed. No shot of it coming back. Cards like Bind the Monster and Unable to Scream have made the cut in the past, so I could see this making a showing as well, albeit a bit more niche due to still allowing creatures to tap for value effects.

In case you missed the memo, reading the card does not, in fact, explain the card. This has received a day zero errata to be little more than an expensive Bite Down. In other words, it's sadly not very playable in Pauper. Frankly, though, I'm not sure a three-mana removal spell would be good regardless - even in Green - if it used an opponent's creature against itself.

These kinds of counter creatures are popular enough with a subset of players who like to try building decks with them. This one's significantly worse than many predecessors by costing two mana for the one counter and probably won't set those decks on fire or anything as a result.

This one probably doesn't do anything in Pauper right now given how few spacecrafts there are and that there are only mythic planets. However, as with anything brand new like this, it's only a matter of time until we see more options emerge. I'd keep this one in the back of your mind for when that eventually happens.

We've been getting a lot of these Bone Splinters variants over the last few years. I don't think this one's going to be a huge player for most situations seeing as we already had other ways to do the same thing with artifact sacrifice. However, if spacecrafts take off as a real thing somewhere down the line, this could have some amount of potential to it.

It's far worse than options like Kor Skyfisher and Glint Hawk, but if you really want an additional bounce effect stapled to a creature, here you go. It might see a little play in very small numbers, but likely only one or two for the deck that wants just a little extra of the ability. Three mana is a substantial enough of a difference from two, though, to suggest it likely stays in the draft chaff bulk box in the end.

Pauper is not a format known for playing lots of differently named lands. The cost reduction here is real, but good luck pulling it off to where you can reliably reduce it to the point that you feel like you're getting a serious deal out of it. As more lands enter the picture, though, it might have the potential to show up somewhere down the line, but most decks rely too heavily on small numbers of different lands for this to be worth playing at this time.

I'm extremely curious to see how this one plays out. We've seen enough of this ability to know that it's at the very least playable, but the ones in the past require a bit of context to understand why they're playable. Saruli Caretaker is good because it counts toward Overgrown Battlement and Axebane Guardian in Walls Combo and Jaspera Sentinel works in decks like Elves as both a mana dork and a foil to Faeries. This allows you to utilize any permanent to make the mana, which is certainly notable, but it still will need to find the right home to be worth running and I'm not sure that exists now.

I normally don't like "Wind Drakes" like this, but generating a 2/2 token on death is likely more substantial than it might seem on first read. Once again, though, three mana is a really rough cost in terms of Pauper so I'm not holding out for it to show up in decks, but it's a nice rate for what it is.

Much like Dockworker Drone, there's a certain subset of players who like their small deathtouchers. Normally they're not very good, but this one might be worth a look more than your standard Typhoid Rats solely because it's an artifact creature. Given how big artifact synergies are in Pauper, it wouldn't surprise me to see this show up here or there, though if it does, it'll be more of a niche roleplayer than a meta-defining card.

This one might get me in trouble with some people. A number of players have gotten hyped for this with Faeries decks. The reason is obvious enough: it's a creature that you can flash in on your opponent's end step when the coast is clear, then attack and bounce it for a ninja. It can also be utilized to block and/or simply cantrip itself away once it stops being useful.

My issue is that, well, have you seen Faeries lists lately? They're pretty tight and don't have a lot of room to change things up without removing key elements like the faeries, ninjas, countermagic, or other tricks. I'm sure people will try it, but I can't help but feel like it's going to face stiff competition and not be as good as the hype makes it seem. Time will tell, but definitely expect this one to see play at least while people figure out if it is in fact good enough.

If you really want a Starlit Mantle in artifact form, here you go. That one never sees play in Pauper and unless something like Affinity really wants it for some reason, I don't see this one making an impact either.

As long as you can cast multiple spells in a single turn - something Blue decks are more than capable of - this can get really big really fast. I'm not sure what kind of shell would even want this, but I'd keep my eye on it in the coming weeks if an aggressive Blue shell shows up.

The price isn't bad here. It's a basic bear that provides a good mana sink later. The problem is that the pump can't be used at instant speed, so you can't wait until your opponent passes priority on their end step before taking advantage of it. That'll likely stop it from being good enough, unfortunately.

Whew, this card is a certified beater. Is it largely a big vanilla idiot that gets chump blocked forever? Sure, but that's a legitimately nutty rate when it comes to Pauper.

Picture this: you have a board that includes four artifact lands and then some combination of three artifacts and/or creatures. Not something that'd be uncommon in, say, Mardu Synth or an Affinity build. In this situation, Luxknight Breacher comes down as a 9/9! For four mana, that's an insane rate! It's also worth mentioning that it enters with the counters, meaning that it's not a trigger your opponents can respond to with a Lightning Bolt upon entry.

I've played enough Elvish Vanguards in my time to know how even through chump blocks, a big idiot with no real abilities can go the distance. If you can further build around it with removal or evasion granting spells/abilities, this card will decimate opponents left and right. It needs the right kind of home to make it shine, but if players can figure it out, this is a very real threat that you need to respect.

Turning this on is trivial in Pauper. If you're playing this, you likely can simply turn it on by making a land drop. In an aggressive artifact deck this is an easy inclusion. If Affinity decks start going back to aggressive strategies over the current midrange ones, then I'd definitely look at including this.

These sorts of rummage effects have gotten very popular with Madness Burn becoming a major force in the format. It's hard to consider playing this over something like Highway Robbery that you can plot to set up a big turn or Grab the Prize which deals extra damage on its own. However, the artifact synergies and the fact that you can sacrifice it to make a creature is solid in the right deck that can take advantage of it.

We get one of these every so often, but this is basically just a strictly better version of Rosethorn Halberd. I wanted to say the card has seen a nonzero amount of play in the past, however looking it up I can't find any lists that did. Still, a better rate - and more importantly reach - on this might make it playable in the right deck but it needs the right home to do so.

This not requiring you to attack with it to get the untap makes it seem like you can get up to shenanigans of some kind with it. Unfortunately, though, three mana, a fragile body, and a once-per-turn rider make it unlikely to work well for most players.

This is a very amusing card from a flavor perspective. In terms of raw playability, I'm curious to see where it will land. Unlike something like Lembas, it doesn't replace itself when you play it, but rather does so when you sacrifice it. However, it does cost only one mana which makes it worth testing with despite the other obvious downsides. This reads like it should have an impact on the format, though we'll have to see where it lands. I'm certainly glad Deadly Dispute doesn't exist with this one, though.

This is wildly easy to trigger. So long as you have the mana to sink into it, this will get very big very fast. I wouldn't be surprised to see this show up in Affinity strategies in the future, though it would probably need a more aggressive build to work best.

You wanted a way to get even more value out of your Ichor Wellsprings, Experimental Synthesizers, and now Cryogen Relics? You got it. This little robot is quite fragile, but can be a decent card advantage engine if it sticks around. I doubt you'll ever see it in high quantities, but it seems like a reasonable rate that it might show up in small numbers from time to time.

Several self-equippers in one set? I like it! We usually see these kinds of flash combat trick-style cards in Red, so it's interesting to see this one in White this time around. I could see it showing up in small numbers in certain decks like White Weenies or Heroic for a little extra oomph, but probably as a one-of or two-of at best.

Once again, we have a pretty decent method to sacrifice stuff for extra value every turn. This one's 4 mana though compared to Comet Crawler's three, making it feel dead on arrival.

Right now, this is way too expensive to be reliable. If spacecrafts show up enough in the future to be Pauper playable, this might be a solid rate to have around, but that's a pretty big ask in my opinion.

Most Burn Bright variants (yes, I'm using this term for a White pump of the same type) don't have the bit about untapping all of your creatures in addition to the pump. This could make the card decent enough, but it's fighting for some very real space against other arguably more effective mass pump spells.

Whoa, that didn't take long! We saw a common Red dork in Aetherdrift that needed a lot of work to set up (Endrider Catalyzer) and a simpler one at uncommon in Tarkir: Dragonstorm (Sunset Strikemaster). As such, it's a bit surprising to see one this clean at common, and with upside at that! This is some uncharted territory so I'm honestly not sure how to weigh this. There's better options for something like Gruul Ramp, Burn doesn't want this, maybe some of the non-Green midrange builds might be interested in trying it out? I'm very curious to see what happens with this and if players can find a cool way to take it somewhere.

That wraps things up for this Pauper set review! Edge of Eternities looks like it's almost certainly going to have quite a big impact on the format in the coming weeks. I for one am very eager to see how these cool new cards impact the meta!

Next up is Magic: The Gathering - Marvel's Spider-Man and previews start sooner than you might think! I'll be back in a few months with another awesome Pauper review but until then, have a blast brewing with this cool new release!

Paige Smith

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