Magic the Gathering (MTG) Eternal Masters - 9 Rare Downgrades to Uncommon!

by    Phoenix Desertsong

With most reprint sets, Magic the Gathering sometimes has some older rares shifted to the uncommon rarity or even to common! In Eternal Masters, nine former rares became uncommons and one even became a common, Emperor Crocodile. Here, we will take a look at the new nine uncommons and see which of these will have an impact on their original printings.

Battle Squadron

This 5-mana flying Goblin originally is from Mercadian Masques. It sees a bit of play in Commander. Overall, it’s a pretty simple card,having a power and toughness both equal to the number of creatures you have in play. It’s definitely not a card you would see printed at rare these days. It was already a bulk rare, and now there will be a good number of uncommon copies available for those who want to play it in their Goblin decks.

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Emmessi Tome

This artifact was reprinted at uncommon previously in Tempest Remastered, a Magic Online only set. It rarely sees any play, since its draw and discard ability is quite overcosted in today’s Magic. It costs 4 just to cast, and its ability costs 5 to activate. Netting a single card for 5 mana simply isn’t worth it anymore. It was a bulk rare before, and now no one will want it.

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Field of Souls

This Enchantment is pretty decent. Field of Souls sees play in a number of token strategies in Commander, most notably in Teysa, Orzhov Scion decks. It was already a bulk rare. But unlike the Tome, it definitely has a home (rhyme not intentional!) Extra flying Spirit tokens are always welcome things to have!

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Havoc Demon

While it’s quite powerful in Limited, Havoc Demon sees very limited play otherwise. It was nice to not have this card take up a rare slot in Eternal Masters. When it dies, all creatures get -5/-5 until end of turn. It’s a good rattlesnake card, and some Black decks in Commander will play it on occasion. But at 7 mana, even with a 5/5 flying body, there are just much better cards to play at that mana cost.

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Mesa Enchantress

Probably the best bulk rare of these nine to be downgraded, Mesa Enchantress sees a ton of play in Commander. She's run in just about every Enchantment based deck that can run her. Drawing a card every time you cast an Enchantment is extremely useful. Obviously, this is not a card you would want to open at rare in Eternal Masters, but it is a card people do want.

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Mindless Automaton

This artifact creature is decent in Limited, and some Commander decks can abuse its +1/+1 counters to draw a decent amount of cards. Its discard ability also happens to be relevant in a number of decks, especially ones that love to reanimate high mana cost artifacts from the graveyard. It’s cool to see this at uncommon, especially in the Eternal Masters draft environment. Commander players will be happy to pick them up as draft chaff, too.

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Phyrexian Ingester

The Ingester was a very good card in Limited when it was first released in New Phyrexia. It actually saw a small amount of Standard play, too. Otherwise, it’s just been a super solid card in mono-Blue Commander decks looking for a way to remove big creatures.

Seven mana sounds like a high price to pay, but with commanders such as Braids, Conjurer Adept and Jalira, Master Polymorphist around to cheat the Ingester into play, it’s pretty solid. Commander players will be happy to get this as an uncommon.

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Sprite Noble

Here’s a cute little flying lord. Sprite Noble gives all of your other flyers a toughness boost, plus the ability to pump your flying team’s power with a tap. As a rare, the Noble was rather under-powered. She’s perfectly fine as an uncommon, and is a boon to flyer strategies in Limited. The Sprite Noble does see some play in Isperia the Inscrutable and Oona, Queen of the Fae Commander decks, both of which are heavy on fliers.

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Tooth and Claw

This Red Enchantment is actually a key piece to Purphoros, God of the Forge decks. It’s not so much the 3/1 tokens themselves that are important, but the fact that you’re sacrificing creatures to bring new creatures into play for essentially free.

Purphoros is all about dealing damage to your opponents each time a creature enters play. This is a dirty way to do just that. Just like all of these downgraded rares, this was always bulk. But again, Commander players will be happy to take your copies off of you. It’s also pretty solid in Limited.

While none of these nine rares were ever worth that much to begin with, there are a few cards here that Commander players are happy to have. In particular, Field of Souls, Mesa Enchantress, Mindless Automaton, Phyrexian Ingester, and Tooth and Claw are the ones you’ll want to hold onto. While they aren’t the best value uncommons of the set, they were once rares. So, they will still retain some value.

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