Magic Untapped takes a look back at Eldritch Moon, the second half of the two-set SOI block.
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Video Transcript:
Eldritch Moon is the 71st expansion for Magic: The Gathering.
Releasing on July 22, 2016, it continues the story from its predecessor, Shadows over Innistrad, with a story arc that technically began in 2009’s Zendikar, but really didn’t pick up steam until 2015’s Battle for Zendikar.
On Innistrad, the weird keeps getting weirder.
And that’s due, pretty much exclusively, to the plans of Nahiri.
Nahiri is one of the planeswalkers whom originally sealed the plane-threatening Eldrazi away on her native plane of Zendikar.
When they were released some thousand-or-so years later, she called out to her fellow Eldrazi sealer, the Innistrad-native planeswalker Sorin Markov, for help. When he didn’t answer, she got… well… pissed.
As such, she devised a plan for payback as she felt slighted rather than simply unheard.
Now, while two of the three Eldrazi titans – the ones that met their supposed demise on the plane of Zendikar – tended to project themselves onto the plane via their own spawns, the third, Emrakul, did so by altering the very living beings within her vicinity.
And that brings us to the story of Eldritch Moon…
As things became more and more disturbing to those unaffected (or not yet affected) by Emrakul’s nature, the humans of Innistrad prayed and cried out for the protection of Avacyn, unaware that she had been unmade by her creator, Sorin Markov, due to her own corruption.
The citizen’s prayers were answered by little more than a calling to be one with Emrakul, the plane’s new, corruptive patron.
Emrakul was everything. Everything was Emrakul.
Jace, whom had been having difficulties with reality shortly after arriving on Innistrad, continued having difficulties keeping her out of his mind. Still, he knew there were few options as to what to do.
Tamiyo, an academic planeswalker who seemed to be, on the surface, unaffected by Emrakul’s pull, shielded the mind mage’s mind well enough to allow him to focus and planeswallk to Zendikar.
There, he finds Gideon, Nissa, and Chandra, and informs them about the odd happenings on Innistrad.
After all, the four of them have already taken out two titans – Ulamog and Kozilek – so, why not a third?
Meanwhile, Sorin, rather than looking to take on Emrakul, instead focused not just his efforts, but the efforts of his allies on the plane, towards Nahiri, seeing her as the larger overall threat.
Seeking revenge for the destruction of his home, the causation of the unmaking of Avacyn (whom he saw as a daughter), and the coming of Emrakul, he sought her destruction.
Nahiri, easily making her way through Sorin’s volunteer vampire army, soon makes her way to Sorin.
After some ill-spoken words and quips between the two of then, they draw swords and clash.
Each planeswalker duel excellently, but Sorin, still seeing the younger Nahiri as little more than a child needing to be taught a lesson even after all of these hundreds and hundreds of years, wasn’t prepared for her fury.
As Sorin laid what he thought would be a killing blow on the lithomancer planeswalker, Nahiri maneuvered and, instead, trapped the vampiric planeswalker in the very stone that made up his manor. The sensation wracked him in agony.
Just like how Sorin had trapped the lithomancer in the Helvault many, many years ago, Nahiri had now trapped him in the home of his namesake’s own making.
Nahiri then planeswalks away, leaving Sorin to witness the fate of his world – whatever that fate might be.
Separate from Sorin and Jace, the necromantic planeswalker, Liliana Vess, had been working behind the scenes with a number of Innistrad’s better (if not more disturbed) minds including the vampire, Olivia Voldaren, and zombie stitcher, Geralf Cecani, (amongst others) to try to free herself of the curse of the Chained Veil that she wielded.
Sadly for Liliana, nothing seemed to work.
Now, with Emrakul on the plane, she felt obliged to use the Veil’s power whether she liked it or not as, it seemed, she was Innistrad’s last hope.
Thraben, Innistrad’s greatest city, was beginning to fall. And that’s despite the efforts of one of the Church of Avacyn’s greatest cathars, Thalia, leading the defense.
With the blessing of the Church’s Geist of Saint Traft and using Avacyn’s own spear as a weapon, the cathar (along with Sigarda, the plane’s last archangel) led the defense of Thraben against Brisela and the other newly-corrupted angels.
Once Emrakul herself arrived at the battle, however, tides turned for the worst.
It’s roughly now, though, that the Gatewatch arrive on scene to do what they can against this eldritch threat. After all, they were able to handle two Eldrazi titans at once on Zendikar. How hard could this one be to defeat?
The team put the same plan in motion as they had on Zendikar, but something was off. Nissa was unable to attune herself with Innistrad’s leylines. The trap, in short, could not be set and the Gatewatch found themselves beginning to be overrun by Emrakul’s spawn.
They needed a new option and they needed one now.
That’s when the zombies came... with Liliana Vess leading them into battle.
Using the power of the Chain Veil, the necromancer planeswalker had raised a legion of the undead to fight against Emrakul and her horde.
Emrakul, however, was no normal opponent.
Once yet another planeswalker arrived on scene, the scholar, Tamiyo, Emrakul showcased her true power. The Eldrazi opened up and bolts of energy shot out from her, striking each planeswalker where they stood.
Every one of them fell. Every one, save for Liliana. The chain veil had protected her, though the relic was trying to tell her to run for safety. Instead, the necromancer dug deeper into the power of the veil.
Now stronger than ever, she began shooting bolt of energy back at the titan. With each blow, Emrakul appeared to grow smaller and smaller. Liliana’s body, however, was having trouble with all of this extra power and it wasn’t going to last forever in this state.
She started to bleed through the etchings on her skin and, between each of her blasts, Emrakul seemed to grow back in size.
For the first time in a long time, Liliana was truly afraid.
Jace, meanwhile, despite being incapacitated, had been using his mental magic to keep himself and the rest of the Gatewatch shielded from Emrakul’s mind-warping powers.
Their five minds tethered together, they experience a collective hallucination. In this vision, Jace is walking down a winding staircase. As he descends, he passes by windows where he is able to see a glimpse of each of the others’ specific nightmares.
Then, Jace encounters his own.
In the hallucination, he encounters an angel named Emeria – essentially an angelic depiction of Emrakul from Zendikar whom was worshipped after the original stories of the Eldrazi had faded into antiquity.
Emeria told Jace that everything had gone wrong. Everything should be a paradise, rather than what it is.
She then challenged the mind mage to a game of chess, stating that she would leave Innistrad should he defeat her in the game.
As Jace was going in for checkmate, however, Emeria reversed the board and took control of Jace’s pieces. When Jace protested, Emeria simply told him “They are all my pieces, Jace Beleren. They always were. I just no longer want to play.”
Jace then found himself in his old home on Ravnica. With him in the room was a double of himself. His dream-double told him two things: First, he needed to find a way to talk to Tamiyo. Second, that Liliana was on the brink of death.
In a shock, Jace came back to reality with the other planeswalkers awaking in the moments that followed. What they found was Liliana laying in a pool of blood on the ground before them.
Telepathically, Jace reached out to Tamiyo. The moonsfolk planswalker reminded him of Avacyn’s words shortly before she was destroyed: “What cannot be destroyed must be bound.”
They looked up at Innistrad’s silver moon – the very thing from which the Helvault had been created.
Everyone knew what needed to be done.
Nissa, this time succeeding in connecting with Innistrad’s leylines, created a glyph on the moon as Tamiyo began casting a sealing spell with Jace amplifying and focusing that spell onto Emrakul. Their efforts, however, weren’t enough and Nissa collapses; her connection to the plane’s leylines collapsing with her.
That’s when Jace witnesses Tamiyo put away the scroll she had been using to cast the binding spell, opting instead for a different, larger scroll bound in iron. Jace then felt a swell of energy fill his entire body. He focused this energy directly onto Emrakul.
Innistrad’s silver moon lit up brightly and beams of energy radiated from it, striking the Eldrazi titan.
Emrakul’s form began to change. It warped, seemed to fold in over itself, then, in a snap, was pulled into the moon. Emrakul had been, once again, imprisoned.
It wasn’t until after the dust had settled that Tamiyo confessed to Jace that, in that moment when Nissa’s leylines failed, she felt Emrakul take control of her. It was Emrakul who made her change scrolls during that final moment of the battle. It was Emrakul, not Tamiyo, whom had sealed herself away in the moon willingly.
Emrakul, it seemed, no longer wanted to play. It just wasn’t her time… yet.
A little later, Gideon offered both Tamiyo and Liliana a place in the Gatewatch. While Tamiyo refused, Liliana, whom had been recuperating from her near-death experience, surprisingly accepted.
“I’ll keep watch. Happy now?” she told Gideon.
And that ends the story of Eldritch Moon, but there’s still much more to talk about when it comes to the actual set.
With design led by Ken Nagle, development by San Stoddard, and art direction by Jeremy Jarvis, Eldritch Moon brought to Magic: The Gathering 205 cards (including nine reprints).
It was sold in 16-card booster packs (with one card being a marketing card), five intro packs, and a fat pack. This is the last Magic set to feature a fat pack as, after Eldritch Moon, the product would be re-branded as a “bundle,” which it still is today.
A cosmic horror themed set, it carries over four mechanics from its predecessor, Shadows over Innistrad: Delirium, Madness, Skulk, and Transform. Furthermore, three new mechanics are introduced:
- Escalate, a keyword ability that appears on modal instants and sorceries. Players can choose more than one mode for each time they pay the escalate cost;
- Emerge, which is an alternate way to cast a creature. To use emerge, a player may cast the spell by sacrificing a creature and paying the difference between that creature’s converted mana cost and the emerge cost, and;
- Meld, a keyword action that literally melds two specific cards together, flipping those cards into one giant card. In the entire set, only three of these giant cards exist – one at common, one at uncommon, and one at rare.
<DTW 10:14-11:07 “So, Ken Nagle had…the BFM.” 12:40-13:13 “But Ken…two cards as one permanent.” 14:24-31 “And the feedback…not enough meld.”>
As far as cycles go, Eldritch Moon only had two:
- Enemy-colored uncommons, and;
- Allied colored rares/mythics.
Eldritch Moon did, however, complete three other mega-cycles:
- The mono-colored “Oath” enchantments, which began two sets earlier in Oath of the Gatewatch,
- The three-card new Eldrazi titans cycle of Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger from Battle for Zendikar, Kozilek, the Great Distortion from Oath of the Gatewatch, and, of course, the new card Emrakul, the Promised End, and;
- A three-card Delver cycle that began with Delver of Secrets in Innistrad, Aberrant Researcher in Shadows over Innistrad, and Docent of Perfection in Eldritch Moon.
As far as individual cards are concerned, Eldritch Moon boasts a nice variety worth mentioning, including:
- Bedlam Reveler, a very aggressive creature that can often be seen in Pioneer and Modern burn and red aggro decks;
- Collective Brutality, an escalate spell that was a Modern sideboard staple;
- Eldritch Evolution, a key card in creature toolbox decks in the Modern and Pioneer formats;
- Eternal Scourge, one of the few Magic cards ever printed that can be cast from exile;
- Grapple with the Past, a card with an art and mechanical call-out to the Innistrad card, Make a Wish;
- Grim Flayer, a powerful midrange threat that was a popular inclusion in Standard delirium decks at the time;
- Liliana, the Last Hope, a powerful planeswalker card that sees play in a variety of formats;
- Mausoleum Wanderer, a “spirits matter” card that works well in mid-range control decks;
- Sigarda’s Aid, a card that is a “must include” in equipment-focused decks such as the powerful “Hammer Time” deck in Modern;
- Spell Queller, a creature that can put a spell basically “on hold” while it’s in play;
- Thalia, Heretic Cathar, which sees play in white aggro and death-and-taxes-type decks;
- Thermo-alchemist, a Pauper staple for burn decks thanks to its ability to untap itself, and (of course);
- Emrakul, the Promised End, a very powerful card that could be cast as early as turn four or five if a player fills their own graveyard appropriately enough. The card would wind up becoming banned in Standard.
As for promotional cards, Eldritch Moon prerelease packs came with a foil, date-stamped rare or mythic rare along with a double-sided foil zombie token. Identity Thief was the set’s launch promo. Game day participants received a full-art Unsubstantiate while top-eight finishers also received a foil, full-art Heron’s Grace Champion.
Thalia, Heretic Cathar was the set’s buy-a-box promo.
But in getting back to Eldritch Moon on the whole, how was the set received overall by Magic players?
<DTW 8:10-40 “One of the responses…cosmic horror world.” 28:30-29:44 “It’s funny…a different world.”>
So, is Eldritch Moon one of your preferred Magic: The Gathering sets? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
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