Throne of Eldraine Spoilers: Bonecrusher Giant, Faeburrow Elder, More

Going in alphabetical order with today’s releases, we have the first card which is Barge In. This is a strangely named card that is equally strange but useful in function. Barge In is a red color instant spell card that can be used anytime, be it your turn or your enemy’s turn.

It only costs one red mana to use the Barge In instant spell card on the field, no matter when you decide to use it. What it does is give a target attacking creature plus two/plus two until the end of the current turn. It also gives each of the attacking non-human creature cards trample until the end of the turn.

Barge In is bizarre since it doesn’t make sense as an instant card for playing on a turn other than your own, but as a typical spell card to buff your attackers, it’s pretty great. Plus two/plus two is a substantial boost for only one mana, but that’s not all you get with this card.

Players who use decks that are built of creature cards that aren’t human creatures will benefit substantially from Barge In. The added trample feature will ensure that your opponent truly feels the damage coming from your beasts.

Speaking of non-human red color cards, we have one of the most important reveals today in the form of the new Adventure card Bonecrusher Giant. Bonecrusher Giant is a red color giant creature card that costs only three mana to summon to the field, one of which must be red color mana.

Bonecrusher Giant arrives on the field with the sweet stats of four/three for its relatively low cost. However, it also has a nice ability that will ensure that players will regret trying to take it out by any means other than fighting it off.

That ability is that whenever Bonecrusher Giant becomes the target of a spell, it will deal two damage to the player who is using that particular spell card. This is awesome because you can make them regret ever touching your Bonecrusher Giant Adventure card.

That’s right, the story of this giant doesn’t end here as it is an Adventure card. Adventure cards are the new type of cards in this latest expansion. They can summon as a normal creature but are also available for use as an entirely different card in the form of an instant spell card.

If you send off Bonecrusher Giant on an adventure, it will be used as Stomp, which is an instant spell card. Stomp costs less than Bonecrusher Giant does at only two mana, one of which must be red. What this instant spell card does is deal two damage to any target you want, and the damage can’t be prevented this turn.

Needless to say but Bonecrusher Giant is a showstopper in terms of the red, aggressive cards coming out with this new set. It can be summoned early on with few creatures able to take out its great stats. This would force many players like blue to use a spell to take it out, but that would result in punishment as well.

Then the epic Stomp version of this card allows you to deal instant damage and prevent the player from stopping the rest of your damage for that turn. Couple this card with the previously revealed Barge In, and you can already start to see how this will benefit mono-red aggro players significantly.

Dance of the Manse is a hybrid-like spell card that costs an X number of mana to use, two of which must be one white and one white blue mana each. The variable required mana for Dance of the Manse is strange, but it makes sense once you see what this card does.

You select how much mana you want to use from one to the sky being the limits. To understand how much you should do, you need to look at the ability. Whatever number you pick will be how many target artifact and/or non-aura enchantment cards that you can summon from your graveyard to the field.

They will all have the converted mana cost of X or less, with X being the number of mana that you chose to use for this card. If you choose to use six or more mana to represent X, then those permanent summoned will all be four/four creatures in addition to their other types.

Dance of the Manse is a pretty wild card that has the most beneficial effect when used with at least six mana in addition to the one white and one blue. Suddenly, you have not only brought back some solid cards from the grave, but you have some four/four creatures as well. However, it should only be used in this way when you have enough cards brought back to make up the mana difference.

Speaking of showstoppers, Faeburrow Elder is the next staple card that will be almost a requirement in the upcoming expansion for hybrid color decks. Faeburrow Elder is treefolk Druid creature card that costs three mana to summon and has the strange stats of zero/zero at first.

Of the three mana that you must use to summon it, one can be anything, and the other two are divided up between white and green. Also, Faeburrow Elder will have the vigilance keyword on the field. It has two main abilities that emphasize being part of a hybrid deck.

Though it has zero/zero stats, those stats will increase plus one/plus one for every color that you have among the permanents that you control on the field. So, if you have all five colors, Faeburrow Elder will suddenly become a five/five creature card.

However, the likelihood of that being the case in a solid deck is unlikely. It is more likely that you will be using this gorgeous treefolk card for the second ability. You can tap Faeburrow Elder to gain some solid mana on your side of the field.

For every different color that you have among the permanents that you control, you will get additional mana of each color. This is extremely impressive as you are likely to get at least two mana right off the bat from using this in just one turn.

Heading back to the red color for a minute, Ferocity of the Wilds is red enchantment card that costs three mana to summon, one of which is red. It is a simple enchantment card that gives any non-human creatures you have plus one to attack and also the trample ability.

It is a simple but effective enchantment card that will be an excellent combination with other cards like Barge In and Bonecrusher Giant. If you are running a non-human red aggro deck in this upcoming expansion, this is yet another solid card that you should consider adding to your stat-boosting arsenal.

Folio of Fancies is a blue artifact card that costs two mana to summon to the field, one of which must be blue. Folio of Fancies is one of the few cards revealed thus far for the upcoming expansion that seems likely meant solely for the Commander and Brawl match variants.

To start things off, players have no maximum hand size so you could be holding dozens of cards. There are two main abilities that you can use with Folio of Fancies, and both are meant for ending a Commander match. They also require you to spend some extra mana.

The first ability requires you to pick an X number of mana (one, three, etc) and it looks like you’ll have to pay double that number. Then each player will draw that X number of cards; one, three, etc. The second ability for Folio of Fancies is far more aggressive but equally able to end the match.

You will pay three mana, one of which must be blue, and tap this artifact card to make each player put a number of cards equal to the number of cards in their hand, from the top of their deck into the graveyard instantly. This is a solid finisher card for those blue control decks who want to end the Commander match differently.

Grumgully, the Generous is a legendary goblin shaman creature card added with the latest expansion. It costs only three mana to summon Grumgully to the field, with one mana needing to be red and the other being green.

Grumgully, the Generous has the equally solid stats of three/three, perfect for those early turns. Being a hybrid between red and green, it is interesting that this legendary goblin shaman is an excellent fit for both colors in terms of boosting the stats of them.

Grumgully, the Generous can give plus one/plus one to every non-human creature that you have that enters the field with it is also on the field. This is decent enough and will likely work well when paired with the likes of Bonecrusher Giant, Barge In, and so on for some seriously strong non-human decks.

Rounding out the list today is the Irencrag Feat card that is, yet again, an excellent fit for the red color players out there. Irencrag Feat costs four mana to use, three of which must be red mana. This spell card is an insane one that will be changing up aggro decks entirely when it comes out.

For four mana in total, Irencrag Feat lets you add a whopping seven red mana to your side of the field. The catch is that you will only be able to cast one more spell this turn. For a mono-red aggro deck, that catch will mean nothing as you will want to use that mana for the big beasts or a ton of smaller ones.

Regardless of how you use that seven red mana, it is an insane number. If used correctly, it could change the entire match and potentially, end it much earlier than you would expect.

The other color decks, especially those with few answers early on, will need to watch out for this insane card that is going to shake up the meta game considerably when it releases in Throne of Eldraine. Of course, the best counter for a deck like this will be another red color deck featuring this card, too.

Players won’t have to wait too much longer for the upcoming fall expansion. It is set to release later this month digitally on September 26 with a full physical release set to happen in tabletop card stores around the nation on October 4.

Stay tuned for the next week and a half as we get more spoilers leading up to the release of the card set.