Day 1 has come to a close - lets recap what some of the breakout cards were:
It's hard to call Elspeth, Sun's Champion a breakout card - everyone knew it was incredibly overpowered. With the ability to catch you up from behind, put you ahead on board, or simply kill your opponent, Elspeth is likely the most powerful card in the block. If you aren't playing Elspeth, you're either killing your opponent before Turn 6, or you're a member of ChannelFireball, who opted to play
Prognostic Sphinx - A card that naturally trumps Elspeth. Its power is low enough to dodge her -3 Ability, and the pseudo-hexproof and 5 toughness means it's nearly impossible to kill in a format with virtually no generic wrath effects, save Extinguish All Hope (which nobody played). The Scry 3 is hardly irrelevant either. With that kind of card selection, and a difficult-to-remove threat, control decks have a great finisher in the long games.
Eidolon of Blossoms is almost certainly the most intriguing card to be featured this weekend. At first glance it's a green can-trip attached to a 2/2 body for 4 mana - in other words - nothing too exciting. It's the effect it has afterwards that has lead so many pros (including most of Team MTGCanada) to play this card. In an enchantment-based block, there's a good chance you're playing a hefty number of them, regardless of your archetype. When a large portion of the cards you play also start replacing themselves, the massive card advantage engine soon takes over the game. I'm sure tons has been said about this card already, but I wouldn't be surprised if this card becomes a staple in the upcoming Standard format.It's worth noting that the tokens Pharika, God of Affliction creates are in fact Enchantments, which triggers Eidolon of Blossoms. Perhaps that card is worth taking another look at!
