In Magic: The Gathering’s third Standard set of 2023, we’re going on a trip to a fairy tale land in Wilds of Eldraine. In our first visit to the plane in 2019, we explored a world of big bad wolves and gingerbread houses, but also Arthurian knights and feats of derring do. In MTG Wilds of Eldraine, we’re expecting to go deeper into the woods, seeing more of the fairy tale folk and less of the castles and courtship.
Either way, Wilds of Eldraine will be the first Standard set in a good while that’s not part of the Phyrexians plotline. This spanned four sets, beginning with Dominaria United and wrapping up in April with MTG March of the Machine and its Aftermath set. We love ‘em as much as the next player, but it’ll be a breath of fresh air to get a Magic set with no creepy robots. Check out our MTG 2023 release schedule to see where Wilds of Eldraine fits in.
With the set still half a year away, there’s little concrete information about Wilds of Eldraine right now, but read on to find out what we do know currently and what we can infer. And be sure to check back in – we’ll be updating this page the moment fresh news arises.
MTG Wilds of Eldraine release date
We don’t have an exact release date for Wilds of Eldraine yet, but we do know that the set is coming in the third quarter of 2023. That’s July, August, or September. Based on the release cadence of the last couple of years, we’d put our money on a September release date for Wilds of Eldraine. Both 2021 and 2022 had their second set in April and third set in September, and right now it looks like 2023 is going to follow this pattern too.
Leading up to Wilds of Eldraine’s release, we’d expect a couple weeks of spoilers, followed by a prerelease event (where cards are now legal as soon as you buy them). Wizards experiment with keeping the digital and tabletop releases close together seemed quite popular, so we’d expect the cards to come to MTG Arena close to the global release date.
MTG Wilds of Eldraine spoilers
As you’d expect, we haven’t any Wilds of Eldraine spoilers or leaks to show right now, though we’re itching to see more cards inspired by classic fairy tales.
The only thing we have that comes close to a spoiler are a few pieces of art from Wilds of Eldraine. There’s the above image of Evolving Wilds, a reprint that comes up in plenty of sets. (This is artist Alayanna Dayner’s second take on the same card, in fact!)
We’ve also got art for one new card, the lass in the top image. According to this piece’s title, this is Eriette, Charming Witch. Looks like a black legendary creature card if we ever saw one; she’s doing all kinds of witchy things, from magic apples to (judging by her reflection) beautifying spells.
MTG Wilds of Eldraine story
In the Wizards Presents 2022 video, we were told that in Wilds of Eldraine, “We’re taken away from the cities and castles, and into Eldraine’s wilds”. It seems clear that the Camelot subtheme, which sat somewhat uneasily alongside the fairy tale tropes in Throne of Eldraine, will this time be taking a backseat.
What will take its place? Now that’s less clear. We’d assume it’ll be the faeries, elves, witches, and beasts that live in the less civilised parts of Eldraine, away from all the boring humans. But we’ll have to wait for more details to drop to get any more specific than that.
Source: Wargamer
