Fairy tales and Arthurian knights
Throne of Eldraine is Magic's fairy-tale plane, half Arthurian court and half Grimm, and it is remembered as much for its power level as its theme. Several of its cards were banned in multiple formats, which is a rarer outcome than the flavour suggests.
Adventure is its lasting design. A creature card carries a second, cheaper spell in its lower left; cast that half, exile the card, and you may cast the creature later from exile. One card that is two spells, without the usual cost of being worse at both.
Food is the other. A colorless artifact token you sacrifice with two mana to gain three life, which sounds minor and turned out to be a permanent addition to the game. Wilds of Eldraine brought both back four years later.
Themes
Adventure
Cast the spell half from your hand, exile the card, then cast the creature later from exile. Two cards in one, and the reason a deck can play a removal spell that becomes a body if the game runs long.
Food
A colorless artifact token: pay two mana, tap and sacrifice it to gain three life. Beyond the lifegain it is an artifact you can count, sacrifice or discard, which is what made it stick.
Knights and the court
Not a keyword, but the set's typal spine. Knights matter in the red and white end, and the Arthurian half of the plane is where its aggression lives.
Where You Can Play It
Throne of Eldraine shipped under a single code and has left Standard, which is the only format it left.
Not Standard-legal. Standard only ever holds the last few years of sets, so everything this old has long since left it. These cards are still playable in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander. Commons from any set are Pauper-legal; that isn't listed per set here.
Limited
A full ten-pair format. Adventure cuts across most of it, because a card that is a spell now and a creature later fits any curve.
All ten two-color pairs
Full ten-pair format
Knights anchor red-white, Food and lifegain sit in green-black, and the blue pairs lean on artifacts. Adventure turns up in every color, which is why the format plays longer than its curve suggests.
FAQ
No. Standard only holds the last few years of sets, so a 2019 release left it long ago. ELD cards are still legal in Pioneer, Modern, Legacy, Vintage and Commander, although several of the set's cards are banned in individual formats.
The card has a second, cheaper spell printed in its lower left. Cast that half, and instead of going to the graveyard the card is exiled and you may cast the creature half later from exile. One card that is two spells at different points in the game.
A colorless artifact token with one ability: pay two mana, tap and sacrifice it to gain three life. Because it is an artifact, anything that counts, sacrifices or cares about artifacts counts it too, which is most of why it stuck around.
Several of its cards ended up banned across multiple formats, which is unusual for a set at all and very unusual for one aimed at a storybook theme. Adventure cards in particular gave decks two spells for one card with almost no cost to either half.
Yes. Wilds of Eldraine returned to the same plane in 2023 and brought both Adventure and Food back with it.
All card names, art, and mechanics belong to Wizards of the Coast. Throne of Eldraine released on Oct 4, 2019; details reflect the set as published. Sources: Wizards of the Coast set pages and release notes, Draftsim, Untapped.gg.
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