Spoiler Highlight: Beseech the Mirror in Competitive Formats

Since several Wilds of Eldraine cards were leaked five days before the official previews, Beseech the Mirror has become the set's most discussed card due to its high-power level and its interaction with other cards in non-rotating formats.

In this article, we present our first impressions of the new card, and evaluate its potential in the competitive environment!

In a vacuum, the Bargain mechanic is another variant of Kicker without having that name, and with a specific clause where, instead of paying an additional mana cost, its controller needs to sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token.

Without the Bargain cost, Beseech the Mirror is a Diabolic Tutor with a greedier mana requirement, while by paying the additional cost, the spell becomes one of the most powerful tutor effects released in the game - where, for four mana, a permanent, and the right decklist construction for it, the card can become any spell in your deck for four mana. That is, a black Bring to Light.

From that point, the possibilities are endless: from threats like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, card advantage engines like The One Ring, or even as an efficient tutor and wincondition with Doomsday and Tendrils of Agony, Beseech the Mirror becomes what you need for every situation in every format.

However, such flexibility doesn't come without compromises: in addition to a restrictive mana cost, the spell requires you to have something to sacrifice to perform its full effect, which limits its automatic inclusion in every deck that is interested in it and establishes some rules, such as including sacrifice fodders to pay its additional cost.

Given that their requirements are easy to meet, either with naturally powerful cards like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and Wedding Announcement, or cards which make up a broader theme like Witch's Oven, it is likely that Beseech the Mirror will be one of the most important cards in Wilds of Eldraine.

The real question is not if Beseech the Mirror will see play, but where it will. While in some formats its inclusion seems easy, in others it needs to find an ideal home and the right cards to impact the Metagame.

Standard

Fortunately, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is banned from Standard, as the saga would be too powerful alongside Beseech the Mirror, as it alone guarantees at least three permanents to pay its additional cost. But that doesn't mean the format lacks enablers.

The cards featured above are the ones that stand out as enablers for the new spell. Some of them offer sweet advantages, like Wedding Announcement and Spirited Companion, while others are attached to cards that do something besides generating a token.

If we consider other Wilds of Eldraine cards revealed so far, Beseech the Mirror's potential grows even more.

As for what we're after, the most obvious choice is to use Beseech the Mirror as extra copies of the best threat in the format today: Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.

The question is whether Sheoldred does enough to deserve, in 60-card lists, the same concessions that Niv-Mizzet Reborn receives in theBring to Light lists, or whether we should consider diversifying threats and effects to take advantage of Beseech's flexibility, going from a must-answer threat like Sheoldred, or a sweeper, or a removal, to even a Sideboard-specific hate in Game 2 or 3, like The Stone Brain.

The new set's previews end this week. With them, we'll have a broader sense of the best ways to take advantage of this card in Standard.

Pioneer

I don't think decks like Rakdos Midrange and Rakdos Sacrifice need Beseech the Mirror that much. Both rely on mana efficiency to execute their plays, and while Rakdos Midrange has a higher cost cap to the point of playing with three copies of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, I don't imagine it can support more than one or two copies of the tutor.

Rakdos Sacrifice, on the other hand, despite having the highest number of expendable permanents in the format, has a very solid strategy based on low-cost permanents, and in many situations, the inclusion of Beseech the Mirror seems like a "win more" move rather than a necessity.

Abzan Greasefang has some great interactions, such as sacrificing Esika's Chariot or Skysovereign, Consul Flagship to cast Greasefang, Okiba Boss and reanimating any vehicle in your graveyard, including the one you sacrificed to Beseech the Mirror.

In addition to the vehicles, Greasefang lists also feature some artifacts and enchantments, such as Scrapwork Mutt and the tokens created by Esika's Chariot. But its addition raises two questions: whether paying four mana and sacrificing a permanent is more useful and consistent than creating a set-up for Traverse the Ulvenwald and/or Eldritch Evolution, and whether the cost of is too high, or too heavy a color requirement for the deck.

Modern

Modern doesn't lack for methods of enabling a token to pay the bargain cost, and Lord of the Rings brought two cards that interact very well with Beseech the Mirror: Orcish Bowmasters and The One Ring.

While Orcish Bowmasters isn't the best payoff to fetch with the spell, sacrificing its accompanying token to fetch another bomb, such as The One Ring, is an excellent option for archetypes that run both cards. , such as Dimir Control.

And speaking of The One Ring, its interaction with Beseech the Mirror borders on the absurd, where you can sacrifice a copy of the artifact that's already in play to fetch another one, and since Beseech the Mirror casts the card it finds, its controller will get protection from everything again, making it the 5th to 8th copies of one of the most powerful cards in the current Metagame.

Mono Black Coffers is certainly one of the strategies with the greatest potential to take advantage of the new card in Modern, in addition to the aforementioned Dimir Control.

Despite speculation, three-color decks that take advantage of Urza's Saga already have too sensitive a mana base to support its mana cost, and even though it interacts well with some of its cards, Golgari Yawgmoth already has more efficient tutors, who fit better into what the archetype proposes.

Legacy

While in other formats Beseech the Mirror seems best used as a value card, in Legacy its main function seems to be linked to combos, especially those that resort to Dark Ritual.

Alongside powerful mana artifacts like Chrome Mox, Mox Opal, or even Lotus Petal, the spell can fetch the exact card its controller needs to proceed with the combo, or to end the game, be it a Doomsday, or another ritual or effect to continue the spell streak that will culminate in Tendrils of Agony or Empty the Warrens.

In Storm, however, Beseech the Mirror encountered a new obstacle with the latest banned and restricted announcement: the unbanning of Mind's Desire, which rebuilt the archetype to the point where Burning Wish seems much more useful for ending Storm chain when we cast another more spells for free for .

However, Gaea's Will becomes a pseudo-Yawgmoth's Will when you cast it through Beseech, and given how absurdly powerful this Urza's Saga spell is, to the point it's often called "YawgWin" (as you'll most likely win the game the turn you cast it), it's likely that we'll find some new and faster Storm variants showing up.

Beseech the Mirror is one of the main Wilds of Eldraine cards with enough potential to become a staple. But like other promising cards that ended up seeing little or no presence in the competitive scene, it has certain restrictions and deckbuilding concessions that put it in a sensitive position in certain Metagames, while it can be favored in others.

So far, the new spell looks like the most powerful card in the new expansion, and it won't be long before the players' hive mind come up with creative means to use it.

Thanks for reading!