Top 10 Adventures from Wilds of Eldraine

Adventures are a very pleasant card type. With a design that allows them to be used in two steps, one as an instant spell or sorcery and another as a permanent, it is quite easy to see the stacked value that these cards can offer to players who use them in their decks.

Adventures' effects are many times simple, but designed to work best with the card's other half, creating good synergy among both of them. Besides that, in Wilds of Eldraine we had for the first time permanents which aren't creatures as Adventures, such as Virtue of Strength's case and its cycle of similar enchantments. It is also the first time cards such as Gingerbread Hunter have come up, in which the Adventure has a different color than the permanent, forcing players to spend more time working on their decks.

So, in today's chapter on our adventure through Wilds of Eldraine, we'll list the top 10 best Adventures in the new set focusing on draft formats, explaining their value, their abilities and how to use them to play a beautiful Magic: The Gathering match.

The ability to exile and return a creature to the board is always very welcomed, be it to protect it from a removal or to trigger its abilities and the abilities of other permanents in play once again. This has great synergy with White and Blue, the color identities this card belongs to and whose creatures are full of effects like this one.

To put the icing on the cake for these twin Faeries, they have the same mana cost and power and resistance stats as the famous card, Serra Angel, a crown jewel from past eras. Just like the Angel, Twining Twins also has Flying and Vigilance, but this blue card is graced with Ward 1, making it a relatively worse target for enemy spells and abilities.

Twining Twins is still a very simple creature, which is why it isn't higher up in our top 10, but, still, it can do a lot of damage with its stats, be it aggressively or defensively, and it also has Flying.

In true Merfolk Secretkeeper style, we have here a creature capable of milling four cards from the target player's deck. The main difference is that Cruel Somnophage is a card with a much more antagonistic approach than the Merfolk from the first Eldraine set. With its power and resistance based on the number of creature cards present on all graveyards combined, this Nightmare-type creature can reach impressive numbers, be it in duels or multiplayer formats.

This way, you can always use your Adventure in the best way possible, be it trying to mill yourself or targeting another opponent whose deck is quite heavy on creatures, to eventually grow Cruel Somnophage - and, like so, place a big creature on board quite early in the game, capable of acting aggressively or defensively, depending on the game state.

Here we have an extremely strong addition for Token decks, which is exactly one of the first strategies that comes to mind when you think of White and Green. Its creature side is a great Lord for Tokens, capable of growing them, and, in traditional duel formats, capable of creating effect redundancy, making your tokens bigger and bigger.

On its Adventure side, we have a cheap spell, capable of highly increasing a creature's stats based on the number of creatures on board, giving it Vigilance, and allowing it to attack without tapping. It is a simple effect, but which can transform itself into an indirect removal if the creature grows considerably. Nonetheless, I'd easily prefer Trample to Vigilance for this creature.

This is one of my favorite cards in this set, and it will fit nicely in any spellslinger deck. This otter's focus is precisely its ability of being a creature easy to stick on the board with Prowess and an evasion which will protect it from being blocked by small creatures, which would usually try to absorb as much damage possible.

Besides, considering how Red doesn't struggle to create Treasures, which is something Prowess decks aren't strangers to, it is possible to cast Elusive Otter's Adventure as a global boost for all your creatures, which will benefit from this counter and Prowess, and will be capable of ending the game with a well-constructed, devastating attack.

Here we have an extremely powerful Adventure which complements this card's creature side well. Decadent Dragon has a good cost, and good power and resistance stats, which can be taken advantage of with its Flying and Trample abilities. But this creature's main trait is its ability to create a Treasure token every time it attacks.

It is precisely this Treasure token we'll use to cast exiled cards with Decadent Dragon's Adventure, which exiles cards from the top of our opponent's deck and allows us to use them. As this spell doesn't allow this card to be cast by any mana color, the creation of Treasures helps us correct our colors to pay for the adequate cost of the exiled spells.

As the icing on the cake, this creature is a Dragon, which always helps when it is time to build decks - be it to create strategies or find synergies with other abilities and effects.

Mosswood Dreadknight doesn't stand out straight away. Its effect as an Adventure is to pay one life point and draw a card. It is quite standard, and nothing that Foulmire Knight didn't do in the past for less mana. However, when we deeply analyze this card, we realize that, actually, this is Foulmire Knight's way to return from the graveyard to the board.

Every time this knight dies, it can come back to the board using its Adventure straight from the graveyard. Its Adventure will bring it to its exile, from where it can be cast. Like so, Mosswood Dreadknight can use an almost infinite recursion, which will also benefit you with cards. It is perfect for longer games and Midrange strategies.

Just this card's Adventure side is enough to make Virtue of Persistence fit most black decks. Capable of removing various creatures, even those with Indestructible, and of creating situations in which opponent blocks are discouraged, this card gives your game an extremely favorable panorama. All that as it gains a little bit of life.

After you spend the painful-to-get seven mana, which will usually only happen on Commander matches, every upkeep will provide you with a Reanimate of a creature from a graveyard, just like Sheoldred, Whispering One. This is one of those "snowball" enchantments which will consecutively hoard value throughout the game, which nicely justifies its cost.

I'd say this is the creature that most stood out to me in this set, and, definitely, it is capable of finding its niche in certain formats. Its Adventure side can return non-land permanents to its controller's hand, and can be useful in certain situations. Unfortunately, this Adventure has sorcery speed, so the great defensive focus this type of effect can bring is impossible.

What really shines in this card is the creature's ability, which works as an adapted Eidolon of the Great Revel. On one side, it does deal less damage than Eidolon, but on another, it punishes the opponent for playing low-cost spells, breaking the symmetry the enchantment creature has. The change in this ability allows you to sequence your Lightning Bolt and Monastery Swiftspear without being afraid of losing life points, which is perfect for a mirror match, and will help you break the damage parity which Eidolon usually has.

With an Eidolon on the opponent's board and a Scalding Viper on yours, you get dealt just two damage for each spell which costs 3 or less, and the opponent get dealt three, increasing the damage speed on your side and helping you achieve victory faster.

Questing Druid, clearly, is a reference to the card Questing Beast, an extremely powerful creature from the Throne of Eldraine set, responsible for causing countless headaches in draft formats. Fortunately, or unfortunately for some, this Druid is a creature with fewer abilities and the ones it has are simpler to understand, all that while still being powerful on its own.

Its Adventure side is a Wrenn’s Resolve, a card that exiles two cards from the top of your deck and allows you to play them until the end of your turn. However, it is even better, because it is an instant spell instead of a sorcery, allowing you plays at a better speed and being capable of catching the opponent off guard with your top cards, instead of leaving them in full view in exile during a long turn, which allows them to prepare for the cards that will come.

Its creature side is a Quirion Dryad, which was thoroughly used in the past by Midrange decks before the arrival of Tarmogoyf, and is capable of growing as white, blue, black and red spells are cast.

With a great ability as an Adventure and a great capacity to naturally grow throughout the game, Questing Druid can easily reach a high spot in this list, ready to be used in many formats.

Spending two mana to have a 2/2 token with Vigilance at instant speed is a good deal. You place a body on board with a good ability and can both surprise your opponent by having a favorable block and use it at the end of their turn, during the pass, to place on the board a knight ready for a more aggressive strategy, Weenie style.

Afterward, when you have your five mana, an adequate value for most formats, it is time to cast your Virtue of Loyalty. This enchantment grants your creatures a type of pseudo-Vigilance, untapping them at the beginning of your end step, and enabling them to block and activate abilities which tap them. Besides that, all of them get a +1/+1 counter, which is capable of making strategies which favor a wide board much more attractive and apply constant, relentless pressure. Unquestionably, these abilities are worthy of the best Adventure from this set.

This is the second article on Adventures I have written for this set, with the first one being Beluna Grandsquall's Deck Tech. Adventures are an interesting addition to Magic, as they give us more space for plays and strategies, even more now when they can be added to other types of permanents without being creatures and can also come in different colors.

Adventures can have a bright future in this game and, as long as they have the same quality found in this set, I'm sure they will.

See you next time!