Eriette of the Charmed Apple – Wilds of Eldraine
Date Reviewed: September 5, 2023
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.13
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 4.00
Multiplayer: 3.88
Commander [EDH]: 4.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Eriette was definitely, in hindsight, the most glaring absence from Throne of Eldraine – Snow White was one of the best-known fairy tales even before Disney did their take on it, and the role and metaphor of the apple has only been reinforced by things like Assassin’s Creed. And on a similar note, it took me a surprisingly long time to realize that Wilds of Eldraine is doing an enchantment theme because of the way fairy tales are described as enchanting, or as taking place in an enchanted world. It’s fitting, then, that she rewards you for basically enchanting the world, so to speak; her first ability is pretty redundant in constructed, where you’d usually be using auras that make opposing creatures unable to attack you, but it’s obviously worded for multiplayer so you can make a pillow fort and watch everyone else attack each other. At least, until they start losing a lot of life and decide to target you in some other way. She gets a big boost from Wilds‘ Role mechanic, which makes her very versatile and powerful in limited; as for constructed, it’s kind of too bad that she wasn’t around in 2005, when there was a rogue deck based around Tallowisp and Pillory of the Sleepless. But she’d have been one of the strongest creatures in Standard had she been around then, and while that may not be the case now, her abilities might well tempt people to make a similar deck again.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Wilds of Eldraine is leaning even harder into the fairy tale tropes than we saw in our first visit, and Eriette of the Charmed Apple is certainly in that vein, seemingly referencing the tale of Snow White. While she looks narrow at first, Wilds of Eldraine is very much an Enchantment Set, making use of token enchantment auras called Roles that stick to creatures and provide either a boon or a burden. Eriette ncentivizes providing roles to opponents’ creatures to lock them out of doing anything, all while slowly bleeding them dry.
This can be a very vicious way to bleed out a game…if you set it up. Eriette doesn’t provide the tools she needs to really get rolling on her own, only the way to tighten the screws once they’re in place. And as a 2/4 with no keywords, that’s going to be a win condition with very little protection. I do think she has a clear shell she slots into, and she’s good in that shell, but her talents are limited outside of it.
Constructed: 3.25 (I need to see it in action before I’m sold; I think her gameplan i a bit too slow to really do what it needs to)
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4 (if they can’t kill her fast enough, they’re going to suffer)
Multiplayer: 3.75
Commander [EDH]: 4
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