Haru, Hidden Talent is “One of the Most Interesting Cards in the Set”

Meet Haru, Hidden Talent

• Haru, Hidden Talent 1G
• Legendary Creature – Human Peasant Ally
• Whenever another Ally you control enters, earthbend 1. (Target land you control becomes a 0/0 creature with haste that’s still a land. Put a +1/+1 counter on it. When it dies or is exiled, return it to the battlefield tapped.)
• 1/1

Um… Come again?
This — this — is one of the most interesting cards in the set? How can that be?
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We already know from previous episodes how into low power Earthbending Patrick is. But this card? It doesn’t even trigger on its on enters.

It’s a 1/1 for two mana… So not exactly a rate monster.

I mean I suppose if you have a lot of cheap allies and Evolving Wilds-type lands you can do some Earthbending. Is that what Patrick is getting at?

Nope.

There is a Splinter Twin alert!

Retreat to Emeria is Pioneer-Legal

Retreat to Emeria

If you have both Retreat to Emeria and Haru, Hidden Talent on the battlefield, all you need to do is play a Brokers Hideout or Cabaretti Couryard from Streets of New Capenna!

Guest Starring: The actual Streets of New Capenna

So what happens next?

Your Brokers Hideout or Cabaretti Courtyard enters. Now two triggers go on the stack.

First you put the land’s own sacrifice trigger on the stack, then you put Retreat to Emeria’s Landfall trigger on the stack.

You resolve Retreat to Emeria’s trigger, putting a 1/1 Kor Ally onto the battlefield. When the Ally enters, Haru, Hidden Talent’s trigger goes on the stack.

That first trigger still hasn’t resolved. Haru can quickly Earthbind the Brokers Hideout or Cabaretti Courtyard that is still in play. Once that resolves you can finish the sacrifice trigger.

The Brokers Hideout or Cabaretti Courtyard goes to the graveyard, triggering Earthbending’s trigger to put it back on the battlefield. At which point you can start the loop all over again.

You don’t even have to find lands.

I mean you will probably build your deck with Forests and Plains; it isn’t the worst to dig all the basic lands out of your deck (essentially Ramping past your opponent at the speed of infinite triggers). But the important thing is that even once you’ve exhausted all the basics out of your deck, Haru can continue to give you a high number of 1/1 Kor Allies and all the life you could ever want.

The only wrinkle is that you have to use the Streets of New Capenna lands because Earthbending returns lands to the battlefield tapped (so you can’t just do it over and over with an Evolving Wilds). But if you’re doing this in Pioneer anyway, expanding to Streets of New Capenna isn’t a big deal.

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