Just like Throne of Eldraine before it, Wilds of Eldraine is absolutely loaded with incredible cards. Featuring incredible art, flavor galore, and oodles of Typal support, this set has something for everyone. Beyond just offering fun, however, Wilds of Eldraine also has plenty of incredibly powerful cards, primed to warp formats.
Following the Prerelease weekend for Wilds of Eldraine, some cards have already started doing exactly that. Specifically, one card, in particular, is making itself known by topping tournaments. Considering it’s perhaps Wilds of Eldraine’s best card, it’s no surprise
Beseech the Mirror
Beseech the Mirror
Bargain (You may sacrifice an artifact, enchantment, or token as you cast this spell.)
Search your library for a card, exile it face down, then shuffle. If this spell was bargained, you may cast the exiled card without paying its mana cost if that spell's mana value is 4 or less. Put the exiled card into your hand if it wasn't cast this way.
is already causing trouble. For better or worse, this is only the beginning.
Breaking the Meta
Given all the hype around Beseech the Mirror being released, it really shouldn’t be a surprise it’s topping tournaments so soon. After all, the card fits so well into the current meta of multiple formats that it’s practically an auto-include! Able to tutor Sheoldred, the Acopalypse or
The One Ring
The One Ring
Indestructible
When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
{T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring.
, the card’s strength was obvious.
Despite definitely having a home in formats like Standard, Modern, and Commander, that’s not where Beseech the Mirror is making waves first. Instead, the card has debuted in Legacy in absolutely spectacular fashion. Reinvigorating a fairly popular combo, Beseech the Mirror is already showing its strength in one of the most competitive formats around.
Over the weekend, Beseech the Mirror popped up in Legacy lists of “Mono Black Helm.” In doing this, the deck was utterly transformed from being a consistent underperformer, into an absolute all-star. Winning a highly competitive European Legacy Masters tournament, this deck is well and truly breaking the established meta.
In case you’ve not heard of it before, you might be wondering what on earth Mono Black Helm even is right now. As the name suggests, this combo deck revolves around
Helm of Obedience
Helm of Obedience
{X}, {T}: Target opponent mills a card, then repeats this process until a creature card or X cards have been put into their graveyard this way, whichever comes first. If one or more creature cards were put into that graveyard this way, sacrifice this artifact and put one of them onto the battlefield under your control. X can't be 0.
. Thanks to the unique wording of this card, you can mill an opponent’s entire deck easily in the right conditions.
To enable those conditions, you simply need to have milled cards go to exile, rather than the graveyard. Thankfully, this is quite easy to do with cards such as
Leyline of the Void
Leyline of the Void
If this card is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield.
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
and
Dauthi Voidwalker
Dauthi Voidwalker
Shadow (This creature can block or be blocked by only creatures with shadow.)
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, instead exile it with a void counter on it.
{T}, Sacrifice this creature: Choose an exiled card an opponent owns with a void counter on it. You may play it this turn without paying its mana cost.
. Once either of these is in play, activating Helm of Obedience wins you the game instantly.
Why Is It Good Now?
Obviously, game-winning combos have the potential to pop off, however, Mono Black Helm has previously struggled somewhat. This is due to a lack of consistency in finding and paying for all the combo pieces.
In order to keep up with the ultra-competitive pace of Legacy, Mono Black Helm has to move incredibly quickly. Unsurprisingly, this means
Dark Ritual
Dark Ritual
Add {B}{B}{B}.
and
Chrome Mox
Chrome Mox
Imprint — When this artifact enters, you may exile a nonartifact, nonland card from your hand.
{T}: Add one mana of any of the exiled card's colors.
are both four of inclusions. While useful, however, these cards obviously add additional required complexity to the two-card combo.
While it cannot help in the early game, Beseech the Mirror provides some much-needed consistency to Mono Black Helm. After all, as a tutor, it can find any of the required combo pieces that you may be lacking. Sure, it costs four mana, but so does Leyline of the Void and Helm of Obedience. The only change is needing to pay the Bargain cost.
By adding this consistency, Beseech the Mirror allows the decklist to be trimmed down significantly. In the tournament topping list, for example, all but one copy of Helm of Obedience and
Karn, the Great Creator
Karn, the Great Creator
Activated abilities of artifacts your opponents control can't be activated.
+1: Until your next turn, up to one target noncreature artifact becomes an artifact creature with power and toughness each equal to its mana value.
−2: You may reveal an artifact card you own from outside the game or choose a face-up artifact card you own in exile. Put that card into your hand.
are removed. This allows it to run four
Urza’s Saga
Urza’s Saga
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — This Saga gains "{T}: Add {C}."
II — This Saga gains "{2}, {T}: Create a 0/0 colorless Construct artifact creature token with 'This token gets +1/+1 for each artifact you control.'"
III — Search your library for an artifact card with mana cost {0} or {1}, put it onto the battlefield, then shuffle.
s, alongside extra discard effects with
Hymn to Tourach
Hymn to Tourach
Target player discards two cards at random.
.
Thanks to these dramatic changes by František Juda, the deck was able to break its usual run of form. Typically, it’s incredibly rare to see this deck finishing beyond the top 8, let alone winning an event!
Currently, while František Juda’s revamped Mono Black Helm is obviously strong, it’s unclear if this is the new meta. After all, this wouldn’t be the first time an expected deck wins a tournament thanks to improvements and the shock factor.
The Best Is Yet to Come
Having topped a Legacy tournament just two days after release, Beseech the Mirror is obviously off to a good start. This, however, is just the start of what the card is surely bound to do. After all, as we mentioned before, Beseech the Mirror absolutely has a home in Standard, Modern, and Commander. With Wilds of Eldraine releasing today on MTG Arena, Standard is sure to be the next format rocked by this powerhouse card.
Ultimately, while Beseech the Mirror is starting off with a very strong showing, the meta is far from solved quite yet. Thanks to this, we’re sure to see plenty more unorthodox and meta-breaking brews over the coming days and weeks. After this, however, we should return to some sense of normalcy that actually reflects the true new meta. Within this, there’s no doubt that Beseech the Mirror is going to have a home. So long as it doesn’t get banned, that is.
Read More: These Wilds of Eldraine Cards Are Extremely Underrated!