Elder Legends: Providence Review #3

Written By - Thomas NeilsonFebruary 21, 2024

We've covered 6 of the realms so far, so let's break down the Heroes and Undead, and the final Essence cycle of Elder Legends: Providence!

Heroes - Magi

The Magi archetype has gotten a huge wave of support in ELP, with 2/3 of the hero cards in the set going straight into the archetype. The Ancient Magi Academy offers a backline powerhouse, letting you play your Hero Fortified cards off the top of your deck, shielding you from burn damage, and giving you 10 damage every single turn, potentially for free with enough Magi cards in play.

Sanctum Of The Ancient Magi gives the archetype a little bit of card draw and card selection, sending Magi cards to discard to be picked back up with Cornelius, The Magi Changeling. Additionally, it gives a new way to push in damage for Heros, giving your Magi Warriors Condemn to push in chunks of 5 while clearing off your opponent's Warriors. Speaking of Magi Warriors, Cornelius gets a friend in the set with Almeric, The Magi Arc-Lighting. With Surge, this once again supports you for splurging on the Magi cards, letting him enter the board buffed, with a Perish to either push in damage or clear off Warriors from the board.

Last but certainly not least, is the Hero False God: Emrys, The Magi Magnum Opus. Not only is this another Magi Warrior to help out Sanctum, Almeric, and Academy, but Emrys' ability makes some of your strongest cards significantly cheaper. For Magi Temporal Barrier, Magi-Swordstorm, and Ancient Magi Academy, Emrys does some extreme couponing for you, making your control tools disgustingly cheap.

While the Magi tools may still depend on support from other archetypes, when has a Hero deck not needed that. I think that the new pieces available make Magi a notable and appealing option for choosing a deck out of the Mortal Realm.

Undead - Mortis Grimm

Between Exalteds, Locations, and a new Grimm Rare and Common, there's a lot of reasons to like the Shadowhand with ELP. Grimm Skeleton Key and Graveyard Of The Doomdrake both offer Mortis easy access to removal for breaking through lock pieces like Topaz Amulet, Land Of Dreams, and Radiant Orb Of Divine Light which have heavily hurt the deck in competitive play since GCD. Having access to these removal pieces may remove one swingy element from the deck and give it a much better chance to play against hate pieces. Additionally, Grimm Skeleton Key offers a funky alternative win-condition for Mortis, letting him buff up his punches by the warriors in his discard pile. Graveyard Of The Doomdrake also makes the Shambling Skeleton Support just a touch more appealing, being able to push in some incremental burn damage, and allowing your Skeletons to get buffed by your Grimm Grimoires and Slow But Grimm Decay.

The new Undead False God, Sacratum, is also best friends with Mortis, with it's (Rites) ability letting you get unneeded cards out of your hand, while activating impactful, but expensive Grimm cards from discard for absolutely free. In combination with any of the Grimm Grimoires, this can help save plenty of DCM and AP. While his (Immunity - Unified) may be more of a burden then a benefit, with him not being able to sacrifice to Windmill Of Corpses, and being unable to receive the buffs from Slow But Grimm Decay and the Grimoires, his 8 Atk will be great for pushing in more damage without Grimm Decay, and may make Mania, Grimm Goddess Of Death a more appealing addition, with the potential to put 14 Attack on the board easily.

For the Rares and Commons, Grimm Soul Transfer lets you swap out a Warrior in play for a Warrior in hand, with 3 keywords great for reusing Warriors, clearing out unnecessary ones from hand, or potentially getting rid of annoying Warriors like Helios & Luna, Chaos Divine Lovers. Speaking of getting rid of annoying Warriors, Unhallowed Grimm Burial does just that, while also offering a big chunk of card draw on mill.

Ancient Essences

In ELP we've recived a cycle of Essences, but not quite the same ones seen in Frontiers. This cycle offers each Legion a modal utility spell, with a wide variety of uses and combos, while also working with essence support cards like Middiogin Majik Soldier, and Valley Of The Ancestral Firestar.

Regardless of these mini synergies, each one offers some unique effects to their respective legion, making them an exciting prospect in any deck imaginable.

Heroes - Essence OF Ancient Aegis

The Essence Of Ancient Aegis offers an exciting tech option for a variety of Hero decks, with a flexible way to shut off keywords, and to wipe an annoying board, while also offering a way to make your warriors just a bit more sticky with Valiant. With the boardwipe ability of the Essence, it's nice to be able to first either protect 2 of your Warriors, or strip an opponent's Perish ability.

Orcs - Essence OF Ancient Rancour

The new Orc Essence offers some great utility, providing easy access to revival, a solid board buff, and a nice way to destroy a card on either side of the field. Whether breaking through opposing player's boardstates, or clearing up your own zones and triggering your own abilities, the utility here is fantastic for setting up a wide variety of playlines.

Angels - Essence OF Ancient Purity

For Angels, the ability to load up your board with holy counters, or to revive a Warrior offers some great utility on it's own, but the most interesting option here is the ability to move all of your Holy Counters from 1 card to another. For Michael, this could be used to move all of your counters from an Ascension To The Seraphim onto a Warrior to buff up with Sacred Seraphim Blade, or in Castiel to move your counters from your Empyrean Empire Of The Lost Messiah onto a Warrior to double with Hall Of The Heavens.

Demons - Essence OF Ancient Torment

For the demons, their Ancient Essence offers an incredibly efficient way to steal your opponent's Warriors, and to strip away copies of important Warriors that a strategy may depend on.

For many decks, hitting a key draw or utility Warrior may heavily limit certain lines and strategies, such as hitting a Retrieve Warrior, like Lambug, Gatherer Of The Orcbane. Against decks like Orcs or Undead that rely on specific engine Warriors being revived and reused, being able to eradicate 2/3 might be huge to shut down your opponent's card flow.

Undead - Essence OF ANcient Death

The Undead essence offers a few unique ways to keep your engine going and flowing, by letting you sacrifice away cards like Windmill Of Corpses to play another, clear away some unneeded Warriors, and giving you the ability to reuse some of your key pieces, or to bring them back from eradication. While nothing on this Essence stands out as a build-around, the variety of tech options is fantastic for keeping your engine going.

Titans - Essence OF Ancient Liberation

The new Titan essence offers a flexible revive and eradication trigger which also makes it easier to setup Pummel to use with Crius, Shimmering Starborn and Unfettered Devotion. While you can already do this with Reformation, being able to grant Pummel temporarily, and to all Titan Warriors makes it much more flexible. This combo will be especially potent in combination with Perses, The Unbound Cataclysm for an Inevitable burst of Effect Damage.

Mythical Beasts - Essence OF Ancient Enchantment

For Mythical Beasts, the Essence offers two very appealing options, with the ability to Recover 1 for every Token being an interesting build around, particularly for Sh'Lara, and with the ability to easily manifest additional tokens being an interesting addition to Merrisod. The final ability isn't the most exciting, but in combination with one of the first 2, having the ability to push in an extra chunk of damage is a solid addition.

Dwarves- Essence OF Ancient Gelid

The 3 abilities on the Dwarf essence are all relatively small on their own, but add up to more than the sum of their parts. By taking a peek at the top card of each player's deck, you can gain a little bit of info, while your essence replaces itself, or you can use the mill to gain value off of your own discard, or take a good card off the top of your opponent's deck. Where this card will really shine is in combination with deck stacking cards, like Welcoming Of Wintertide and Quartzheart's Special Ability.

Snapshot Elder Legends: Providence Spoiler Review #1 | Snapshot Elder Legends: Providence Spoiler Review #2

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