ELP has finally released, and we've got our first SRL list of the new metagame, with a few hits against early top performers in the meta, and some spring cleaning taking a pile of cards off of the SRL list entirely!
Additionally, we can see a return of one card mechanically fixed in it's ELP reprint, pointing towards more potential future SRL adjustments in the future, to bring favored old cards back off the SRL list!
With this SRL list, we've seen four Limited cards be entirely removed from the SRL list, helping to simplify the list down quite a bit.
While the early success of Sapphire Storm out of GCD raised some concern, the deck has fallen into a healthy metagame position, kept in check by a variety of unique tech pieces available across the realms. As the SRL safety valve of the deck, The Hood Become The Resistance coming off should give the deck a little bit more consistency in sticking around.
A bigger change than the last two, Chaos Divine Reconnaissance returning is a great addition to Angels, and especially a nice boon to the Chaos Divine/Ascendant support pieces added in ELP. It'll be excited to test if the third copy is worth the inclusion in various Angel lists, and to see how the change bolsters both Angel decks in the meta.
Another Demon piece being slowly returned, Paymon's Ceremony Of The Fallen is a control piece and discard outlet, but one not frequently seen at a full 3 copies before it's SRL hit. As such I don't expect this card to make a huge splash in the success rates of Demon lists, but it's another piece of cleaning to simplify the SRL list.
The last of our cards brought back to 3, Across The Soul River Styx is a strong generic revive for the Undead realm, but not one which has seen concerning play rates or use cases. Additionally, the mill focus of Undead means that Across is already a card which can be found rather consistently, and this change shouldn't significantly buff how often the card can be found.
Additionally, two cards previously restricted to a single copy have had a second copy returned as a result of Errata or other SRL adjustments.
A powerhouse of early LRAW, For The Love Of Carnage is coming back to 2 copies, as a powerful backline disruption piece. The on-play ability of the card is relevant into matchups such as Angels, but the key use of the card is with it's in-discard ability to destroy fortified cards, which has historically been powerful in combination with Pits Of The Outer Rim as a way to wipe an entire backline. With other SRL adjustments to the Orc draw engine, this return should help to maintain the deck's consistency.
One card which saw cost-Errata in ELP, Fallen Brimstone Sky has been returned to two copies, as a strong draw and removal piece for Onoskelis. As an archetype which has been contending with multiple other strong control archetypes pushing for the top of the metagame, It'll be interesting to see how this adjustment pushes Onoskelis in the ELP metagame.
Last but not least, a few other notable decks are getting some cards reduced, or taken off of the SRL list
A constant main-stay of Sharn's draw engine, recent Orcbane additions have pushed Sildud's Call just a bit too far, and the card has been adjusted as such.
With future cost-errata similar to what was seen in ELP, this is one card I could certainly see returning for Orcs in a future SRL list.
A card returned to 3 to give the Majik Mask archetype an early push, Three Eye Dark was successful, but evidently a touch too successful as a threatening burn piece for the archetype.
As such, returning the card to 2 copies limits how much burn the archetype is able to push out, and especially how much early burn.
A constant powerhouse negate for the Necro Realm, with pushes to Mortis in ELP the hit to Denial By Doomfire should keep the archetype in check, especially by reining early strong boardstates where 3 Doomfires could be active in discard as early as turn one.
This change should help alleviate situations where either Undead Warlord could threaten 8 active fortified cards available on turn one.