Throne of Eldraine is Magic: The Gathering’s fairy tale-themed 82nd expansion, and Wizards of the Coast is currently counting down to a major announcement, showing off new cards for the first time at every step along the way. And we’re a part of that countdown - just 5 stops from the end - and we’re going to reveal four brand new cards to you: 'Syr Konrad, the Grim', 'Smitten Swordmaster', 'Order of Midnight' and 'Foulmire Knight'.

Syr Konrad, the Grim

The card’s strengths: "When I see this card, I start thinking about how I can get creatures into a graveyard as quickly as possible! That could be by killing off my opponent’s, sure… But it’s also fantastic with ways that let you sacrifice your own creatures, or even effects that put cards from the top of libraries into graveyards."

Possible combos : "To potentially do a huge boost of damage, consider pairing this with cards that put a ton of cards from a library into a graveyard!"

Where the design process began: "Every color in Eldraine has its own royal court of knights. We wanted to make sure there were plenty of cool, monocolor legendary knights running around – and so we made Syr Konrad to make sure black had one at uncommon. Every other color has one at uncommon, too!"

How it might affect Limited or Constructed play: "One of the most popular ways to play Magic are multiplayer formats that ask you to choose a legendary creature as your Commander: Brawl and Commander! We wanted to make sure there were plenty of legendary creatures in Standard especially to support Brawl – and Syr Konrad makes for a fun Brawl commander to build around!"

Foulmire Knight

The card’s strengths: "Any time you can get a creature that draws you a card and replaces itself, it’s a great deal – the card didn’t force you to spend a card to play it! Losing one life is a near inconsequential cost to play for the power this affords you."

Possible combos: "It’s a knight – and there’s a strong knight theme running throughout the set! So this works great with your other knight cards."

Where the design process began: "With adventures, there’s only a small amount of room in the text box so you really have to think about staple effects that can work in a color. Deathtouch and drawing a card at the cost of a life are two very black effects!"

How it might affect Limited or Constructed play: "Foulmire Knight is an excellent limited card: I’ll often play a one mana 1/1 deathtouch anyway, so to also draw a card with it sometimes makes it even better! And as a cheap Knight, I wouldn’t be surprised to see it show up in a constructed Knights strategy as well."

Smitten Swordmaster

The card’s strengths: "This is the perfect card for a Knight deck, where your deck has a ton of knights! The creature side is totally fine, but the real exciting bit is the adventure half: making your opponent lose 1 life for every Knight you control is a huge manuever that can truly end games!"

Possible combos: "This card is all about Knights, Knights, Knights! Anything that boosts up your number of Knights, such as a card which creates Knight tokens, is perfect for this."

Where the design process began: "Knights span red, white, and black. The red-white version of the knights deck has plenty of ways to deal damage to the opponent to finish the game… But the white-black version was missing that! It’s a key element of aggressive decks. So, we wanted to make sure that black had a way to deal a bunch of damage with a “burn” style spell. And so, Smitten Swordmaster came into being!"

How it might affect Limited or Constructed play: "A two mana 2/1 lifelink is usually good enough to play in Limited anyway, so the extra damage on top of that is just gravy! And for constructed, any kind of Knight deck which includes black will likely use this to deal damage directly to the opposition."

Order of Midnight

The card’s strengths: "Creatures that give you an extra card are always worth a look – and this one gets you a creature back from your graveyard! This one is especially potent, because with two you can “loop” them back and forth: using one to return the other! Just keep in mind that it can’t block, so you’ll need to find some other way to get it into the graveyard."

Possible combos: "This card is great in conjunction with another copy of itself… Or any other adventure creature, for that matter! Return it, send your other creature on an adventure, and you’ve suddenly got the full value on it!"

Where the design process began: "A staple black effect is the “Gravedigger” – a creature that returns another creature. With the adventure mechanic around, it made a lot of sense to make that our gravedigger for the set!"

How it might affect Limited or Constructed play: "This is an excellent Limited card: a two mana 2/2 flyer is always something you’ll play... who needs to block anyway? But it also has a ton of constructed potential. I would expect this to show up. It’s so good to rebuild with later on in the game, especially in multiples!"

Even better, we’ve got Senior Magic Product Architect, Gavin Verhey to run down the benefits of each card we’re unveiling, and how you might be using them in the very near future. But, if you’re a seasoned player, you’ll immediately notice that these cards look a little different. That’s down to a new mechanic in Throne of Eldraine:“One of the really cool new mechanics in this set is called adventure”, explains Verhey. “This represents how the various knights and characters of the world go out on… well, adventures! You can tell which cards are adventures from their very unique frame that looks a bit like a storybook. You can always play a card for it’s normal mana cost, in the top right… Or if it’s in your hand, you can pay the adventure cost and send it away on an adventure! It’ll do the effect in the adventure textbox, you’ll exile the card, and then you can still cast it later on. It’s a great way to get extra value out of each and every one of your adventure cards!”So, with that knowledge tucked away, let us introduce you to our cards (including three with alternate art), and Gavin’s observations about each one:Throne of Eldraine prerelease events will take place on September 28 and 29, and the full release follows on October 4. If you want to see the next step in the countdown, head on over to ChannelFireball