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Theros Previews: Wave 10

previews wave 10

by Steve ‘DDT’ Giannopoulos

Triad of Fates

triad of fates

Fate counters? Where have we seen that before?

I’m not going to try and pull the wool over your eyes to convince you that this card is going to fit into a competitive deck. The blink uses are fewer but still potent in the new Standard. We obviously already saw with Restoration Angel just how powerful that ability can be. Your mission, should you choose to accept it: Keep the Triad of Fates alive long enough to make good use of its abilities.

Note: when the exiled creature returns to the battlefield it will no longer have a fate counter on it.

Firedrinker Satyr

firedrinker satyr

Jackal Pup version 2.0 !

Is Red Deck Wins looking like the top contender next format? If it wasn’t before, it sure is now. Add some Boros Reckoners, Ash Zealots and Burning-Tree Emissary and you have the beginnings of a deck. It’s not all rocket science when it comes to magic, sometimes it’s just about cramming 20 damage quickly and efficiently.

This guys is probably not going to deal you as much damage as he is going to deal your opponent. If you’re finding yourself having to block with it, then you’re probably doing it wrong. You might as well not block unless the attacker has a ‘when this creature deals combat damage to a player’ clause.

Dauntless Onslaught

dauntless onslaught

Looks like there’s more than just Martial Glory now

I’m not sure even this will be worthwhile enough for interesting Heroic triggering, but we need something for the limited formats. Otherwise it’s basically a split pump spell that can potentially save two of your guys or kills a couple of theirs (combat trick of course).

Keepsake Gorgon

keepsake gorgon

Removal that eventually gets there

The Gorgons get to have the ‘built-in’ deathtouch ability I suppose. You can get in some interesting two-for-ones with this little hoarder. If you’re ever short on playables for your low-budget Commander deck, you can go ahead and sleeve this up.

Anger of the Gods

anger of the gods

It’s about time !

You can call it Pyroclasm, Slagstorm, Earthquake or whatever. It’s baaaaack! For quite some time we’ve had to put up with little weenie rushes dominating the early game and now we get to saw: No More!

It seems so long ago since I cast Slagstorms in Standard and it’s going to feel great doing it again. You also get the bonus of the creatures getting exiled if they die so that ‘when this creatures dies’ triggers don’t happen. I can appreciate that it doesn’t affect players so that random aggressive decks don’t run this. Sure we had Magmaquake (still do until Setp. 27), but that spell never really amounted to much.

I know that most of you are thinking: “but wasn’t there Bonfire of the Damned?” and the short reply to that is: “Sort of …”.

You see, it was sort of terrible to have this card in your opening 7 and then you had to hope to topdeck it before like turn 4-5 (when you are getting attacked by the more aggressive decks. Without any ramp spell we were forced to cast it for X=2 on turn 5 which wasn’t always good. This card comes down on turn 3 and does 3 (again, Bonfire would only hit for X=1 at that point since we have not even made our land drop on that turn if we Miracle it.)

We’ll be seeing a lot of this card in the new Standard format and that’s a good thing.

Agent of the Fates

agent of the fates

Agent of Liliana of the Veil is more like it

Here we have a creature with decent stats and an ability that is reminiscent of Lilian of the Veil’s. Thing is: it’s a Heroic ability in a color where our spells that target will usually be removal spells. I suppose that it can somehow fit in a Red/Black weenie style deck and can be used to get in some 2-for-1’s in combat sometimes.

We’ll see just how much effort people are going to put into making this card’s Heroic ability trigger. At the very least it will go toe-to-toe with their best non-flying non-first striker. Agent of the Fates being a human might also merit in a spot in some Black/White Xathird Necromancer deck, since Humans appear to be a thing in our upcoming Standard format.

Fabled Hero

fabled hero

Love that quote !

Reminiscent of Mirran Crusader from Scars of Mirrodin, Fabled Hero is going to be competing for the White Weenie/Boros deck 3-drop slot with Fiendslayer Paladin.  Both cards have their merits: Fiendslayer obviously stacks up better against the colors it has removal-protection against, while Fabled Hero can get a ridiculously huge amount of damage in quickly or trade with opposing 4-toughness creatures.

You also get Spear of Heliod that makes it into a 3/3 (or if you prefer, 6-damage dealing killing machine).  Any time the Heroic on this gets triggered, you can think of it as getting a permanent +2/+2 because of its double strike ability. It not having any protection like its Mirran predecessor makes it somewhat less good on its own, causing it to probably see considerably less play.

Spellheart Chimera

spellhear chimera

Magnivore and Cognivore had a kid

I really adore this card. It offers Izzet decks an effcinetly-costed finisher. Think of it as an evasive creature already coming into play equipped with a Runechanter’s Pike. I don’t know how prevalent reanimator or anit-reanimator strategies are going to be post-rotation, but Scavenging Ooze on its own doesn’t really count here. Every little burn or card-drawing spell can be used to grow this thing.

You can even use Steam Augury as a a mini-combat trick, dumping it and maybe another instant in the graveyard for some extra combat damage (potentially enough to take the game). The Chimera creature type is pretty odd though, I would have preferred Goat, or more specifically: Flying Goat. Chimeras do originate in Greek mythology, but this one seems out of place, all on its own with no fellow tribe members. While we see some of its cousins show up in Theros Block‘s two other sets?

To be Continued …

 

 

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Theros Previews: Wave 9

previews wave 9

by Steve ‘DDT’ Giannopoulos

 

Rise and shine! It’s time for more Previews!

 

Ordeal of Thassa

 

ordeal of thassa

Not a bad Or’deal’

Just like with Ordeal of Purphoros, the enchanted creature grows when i attacks then at a three counters you must cash it in for your reward. Drawing two cards after laying the beatdown with what will usually be a creature with evasion is not too bad of a deal. It will also sometimes cause a Heroic ability to trigger if you can target something you foresee attacking that many times without dying in combat.

Let’s take a look at the rest of the Ordeal cycle:

Ordeal of Heliod

 

ordeal of heliod

That’s half your starting life total!

This little Aura gives us a big boost in our life total. We can be racing with a little evasive creature or a stronger hexproof one, knowing we can catch up by gaining a whopping 10 life ! I guess this is represented on the card by the ‘Hero’ eating a ton of Minotaur meat or bringing it back to his village for a victory feast. Maybe has a Corpse Hauler with him to help carry the body, that guy looks like he can carry a LOT of corpses.

corpse hauler

That guy is deceptively strong

Ordeal of Erebos

 

ordeal of erebos

Lookout for the sneaky Cyclops!

The black ordeal is the antithesis of the blue one. You get to Mind Rot your opponent. I can see people trying it in more casual decks with a creature like Hypnotic Specter to get the most bang for their buck. You have the flying ability of Hypnotic Specter and its built-in discard ability. In fact, if all goes according to plan you will have had your opponent discard 8 cards and take 12 damage after sacrificing the Ordeal of Erebos. You will also be left with a 5/5 Hypnotic Specter and that’s nothing to sneeze at either.

and finally …

Ordeal of Nylea

 

ordeal of nylea

Reminds me of Shadow of the Colossus

Once you vanquish your fearsome foe you get the search for a couple of basics. Yeah, I suppose it’s allright. It can somewhat legitimately be played on a turn 1 Gladecover Scout and allow you to ramp three turns later. Your little hexproof guy gets bigger and they have to kind of keep up. Nothing’s stopping you from piling on the Auras, he is Hexproof after all. You might want to stop once you get the hint that a Supreme Verdict is coming though.

Swan Song

swan song

A slight variation on Annul

A cute little one mana counter with a slight drawback. Basically a Negate/Annul hybrid (yes, minus the artifact clause). It’s going to see some play (the Gods are enchantments after all, right?). It can protect your instants (Sphinx’s Revelation) by countering their counters. Seems like a good time to play Counterflux?

In dire times, you can even counter your own instant if you desperately need to ‘Flash in’ a blocker or creature at en of turn.

Nessian Courser

 

nessian courser

Yes! I called it!

Jam some into your Green sealed or draft deck and dominate.

 

Prognostic Sphinx

 

prognostic sphinx

Everything about this card is weird

You can’t help but notice the wacky art on this. It’s well drawn, but just odd. It actually seems like an older version of Sphinx of Lost Truths.

sphinx of lost truths

Speaking of odd…

It’s like he just got older and his hair grew  – a lot. Ability-wise, Prognostic Sphinx gives us some interesting options. The ability to give it hexproof is nice, but you have to tap it. This means our opponent can still toss a removal at it to let some of his attackers through before we get to declare blockers. Still, it’s somewhat ‘free’ (depending on what we’re tossing to give him Hexproof).

The other ability is pretty cool. He get to somewhat ‘Sensei’s divining top‘ while attacking. It’s obviously better than the 1 mana activation of Sensei’s Divining Top since we get to put whatever we don’t like at the bottom of our deck.  The 3/5 body is somewhat fair for the cost (again same size and cost as Sphinx of Lost Truths). I am still unsure how much play, if any, this particular sphinx will see in the next Standard environment. I just really want to try him in some kind of deck even if it has to come down to finding a slot for him in my Commander deck.

Soldier of the Pantheon

 

soldier of the pantheon

Savannah Lions just get better and better these days

I’ll try to avoid the whole history lesson on 2/1 creature for 1 white mana (usually referred to as Savannah Lions). For s single white mana we get a very relevant creature here. He can attack past things like Deathrite Shaman (not sure who would need to block with that, but still) and Boros Reckoners. Add in another Soldier of the Pantheon and they can take down the dread Boros Reckoners unscathed, though your life total might suffer a little.

If you’re not old enough to remember Savannha Lions, we can also call him Elite Vanguard. By virtue of being a rare isntead of an uncommon, Soldier of the Pantheon gets those extra perks for free (unfair, I know). You can be pretty sure he will be a four-of in any Boros or White Weenie deck that will come to be. If you plan on playing either of those archetypes you might want to pick up your playset early.

Heliod’s Emissary

 

heliod's emissary

Elk? Sure, why not?

We get our white Emissary which is just another decent ‘Hill Giant‘ with an ability and super expensive Bestow cost. Nothing particularly exciting, but you’ll need these in limited if you plan on going white no doubt. It would be simply mind-blowing if this were to somehow find its way to the promised land of the 60-card decks.

Favored Hoplite

 

favored hoplite

What’s the nickname for 1/2’s for 1 white mana?

Not quite the White Weenie powerhouse that Soldier of the Pantheon is eh? I’m not even sure he’s worth triggering Heroic on, since the payout is so-so. Sure, you can probably get s decent-ish trade in here and there with bigger creature. I guess I would consider giving it the +3/+0 half of Martial Glory in order to take out a 5 or less toughness creature though.

martial glory

Still looking like Boros decks’ best Heroic trigger option

Dissolve

 

dissolve

 A Cancel upgrade

I can’t even count the number of times I had to suggest to newer and not-so new players to take Cancel out of their decks and play Dissipate, which is strictly better. Dissipate is going away with the rest of the Innistrad block and this is probably its replacement.

You will probably really appreciate the Scry 1 ability on this card a lot. I know that in games that went long where I was holding a land and a counter (say Syncopate), I would get incresingly frustrated when countering a key spell and have my reward be yet another land off the top of my deck. This card can minimize these kinds of scenarios, but not by a huge margin. Still, you have Scry 1 lands this set as well that allow you to get some card-quality late game.

The artwork is pretty easy on the eyes too. I can see it as a 1-2 of in decks that can’t simply play Counterflux instead.

Whip of Erebos

 

whip of erebos

Lifelink moving more and more to black? Sweet!

I guess it was worth the wait for most people who were eagerly anticipating this nice legendary permanent. You get a slow Sorcery speed reanimation spell that’s reusable (reduce, reuse and recycle). Your huge or medium-sized reanimated creature will swing at your opponent and gain you some life.

I’m not 100% sure if this will be the best one competitvely, since Hammer of Purphoros probably holds that title. However, this is my personal favorite amongst the five. It ‘curves’ nicely after a turn 3 Dark Prophecy or Underworld Connections and allows you to recoup a lot of lost life (either from taking damage or drawing cards). Yes yes, you have to have some creatures in there somewhere but we’ll wait to see the rest of the set to figure out which ones make the cut. Of course there’s always Erebos himself.

erebos god of the dead

Gain some life and mock your opponent because he won’t be able to

The monoblack deck seems somewaht pre-built for us this set, but as we all know its a recurring pattern. It seems like a great deck and then you try to build it. Things start competing for the 3-4 mana slots and eventually fall apart. It’s funny as it’s quite fitting: Black is the color of despair after all right? (hence why it did not get a Miracle card in Avacyn Restored).

Tormented Hero

 

tormented hero

Diregraf Ghoul‘s replacement

Good ones drops in Black are always hard to find. They are usually Zombies and have drawbacks. Tormented Hero is no exception here, but he actually has a potential upside as well. The Heroic ability seems a little underwhelming here but can make the difference if you can enchant him as of turn 2 and start attacking. It’s obviously the point.

captain obvious

Which leads to the question: just how fast is the ‘Speed of Stupid’?

Fanatic of Mogis

 

fanatic of Mogis

50/50 on the playability scale

The first time I heard the name of this card it reminded me of another card. In face I thought it was for sure a reprint and that this was its Italian card name. What card is that you ask? Click here to see

Aside from that seemigly useless anecdote, this card is somewhat hard to gauge. The damage is deal to opponents only so you can’t compare it to say, Flametongue Kavu. By default it usually gets to deal at least 1 damage, hardly anything to get excited about. It’s 4/2 body for 4 mana is not particularly exciting. He does however belong to one of Theros‘ tribes: Minotaurs.

rageblood shaman

Ah! now we’re cooking!

If we can managed to chain together our Minotaurs properly, we will get to deal 3 damage when Fanatic of Mogis ‘enters the battlefield’.

If we then continue do ‘curve out’:

kragma warcaller

It’s going to hurt – a lot

For now it’s either Fanatic of Mogis or Canyon Minotaur. Tough choice, huh?

Medomai the Ageless

 

medomai the ageless

Time Walking Sphinx? Sure, why not

I didn’t want to post this thing without a confirmed final card art. It seemed so made up, no? Like they would actually let you Time Walk/Time Warp in Standard. Well it’s now a reality and we’re going to need to deal with it. For only 1 mana more than Time Warp we get a 4/4 flyer that can potentially get us more than one turn overall. I know, you can’t attack with it on your extra turns to go infinite. Thank goodness. What you can do to get more ‘value’ out of this, is this:

strionic resonator

It can get pretty out of hand quickly

Someone out there is going to try and break it as with most of the new Theros cards. Only time will tell if this card will live up to its ‘Power 9’ ability. What do you guys think? Yay or nay?

Steam Augury

 

steam augury

Now the decisions are reversed

fact or fiction

Getting old school with Squee and Hanna

Steam Augury seems to be the ‘fixed’ version of Fact or Fiction from Invasion. A card which was featured recently in From the Vault: Twenty. It also was a rather expensive FNM promo back in the day and even had a makeover with Jace in the alternate card art. It basically allowed you to get your best card amongst the top five residing in the top of your deck. Sometimes you would even get a little bonus, like a land. Other time your opponent feared one card so much that he would make a pile with just that card and a pile with the four others.

The roles have now changed.

You are probably getting the small pile or less useful one. Probably a couple of lands and less relevant spell. Still, you get some cards and that’s always good. It’s still better than Thoughtflare, or is it? I’m pretty sure that R&D knows what they’re doing and this card is not going to be that awesome. That being said, it’s still going to see some play. Decks that don’t already run the awesomeness that is Sphinx’s Revelation will probably run this or Opportunity for some card draw. I’m fairly sure a lot of players that were trying to get Grixis decks to work are rejoicing right now.

Akroan Horse

 

akroan horse

Nicely done Wizards of the Coast !

Essentially the fabled Trojan Horse of Greek Mythology (and not the computer virus), it goes to your opponent and allows you to slowly make tokens. The Greeks used it to invade Troy in and the soldiers came out of the giant wooden horse one by one at night and invaded the city.

Similarly, you are giving your opponent a creature that he cannot do much with, save block. Over a few turns you get token after token and slowly outnumber him. Not the best card of the bunch, but it’s funny in Zedruu Commander decks and it’s just a cool card overall. I wouldn’t be overly dissappointed to open one of these in a Theros Pre-release either.

We’re more than halfway there !

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Theros Previews: Wave 8

previews wave 8

by Steve ‘DDT’ Giannopoulos

Let’s get down to it with a card that’s going to see a lot, and I mean a LOT of play everywhere:

Hero’s Downfall

heros downfall

Is this for real?

It looks like Muder and Dreadbore got together and…well, you know. You get the flexibility of Dreadbore at the speed and mana cost of Murder. If the monocolored planeswalker removal surprises you, you needn’t think back too far back to Zendikar:

vampire hexmageOn top of doin silly things with Dark Depths, it sometimes even killed the almighty Jace, the Mind Sculptor

As you can see, it is not so unreasonable for this card to exist. What does this mean for Dreadbore? Well, it means that if your deck is still a Red/Black aggro deck that is tight on mana – you might not make the switch from Dreadbore to Hero’s Downfall. If you are a monoblack or slower Jund deck, you should probably consider adding this card somewhere in your 75. I’m not going to jump ahead and suggest you put this in all your black-based decks  just yet. We haven’t seen the whole set, plus there’s always Pithing Needle if planeswalkers ruin your day.

I expect this will be very sought after around Pre-release time and I’m not sure if it’s going to maintain its original hyped value or not. Most cards usually don’t, but there are quite a few that live up to the hype. Your best bet is to get your playset first and then focus on trading the extras for whatever else you really need to complete sets/decks.

Reaper of the Wilds

reaper of the wilds

Gorgons are back too!

At first glance, this card is a quality piece of cardboard. Then you start to wonder what you can fit this into and things start to fall apart. It’s got quite a few of the same problems as Blood Baron of Vizkopa. In a vacuum,  the card seems legit. Good abilities, cost and size. The mana costs are not too restrictive and the dollar value seems fair. That’s just it though: the card is just fair. It doesn’t straight up win you the game or at least turn the tide that much (like a Sphinx’s Revelation, Thragtusk, Olivia Voldaren, etc). Granted the aforementioned cards are a little hard to top, but this card doesn’t even seem to come close.

It has 3 abilities, isn’t it like a Golgari Morphling?

Actually, that title belongs to Deathrite Shaman. 3 very relevant abilities all at a very cheap cost. Reaper of the Wilds doesn’t  compare. It ‘dodges’ removal if you keep 1G up. How often is that going to happen in a Standard game? Not too often, at least not as of turn 5. Also, casting the card on turn 4, without acceleration means that you are basically casting a 4/5 for 4 mana more or less vanilla creature. Keeping one black mana up is fine if your opponent cast a bigger dude and you can hope to trade. With a lot of the Gods being indestructible, deattouch seems less powerful. The second ability still allows you to not walk into an Azorius Charm, Detention Sphere etc. Its Scry ability might be the best one overall, allowing you to trade in your dead creatures (and your opponent’s) for some free peeks at your topdeck.

Its body is just big enough for it to have survived a ‘Mutilate for 4′, if Mutilate were reprinted or didn’t rotate from Standard.

Psychic Intrusion

psychic intrusion

Not as situational as you’d think

This card is very particular: you get the usual ‘Cranial Extration/ Appetite for Brains‘ effect of exiling the card in their hand. However, you get to cast the card but need to pay the mana cost. This is much better than you think. You see: if you take a Sphinx’s Revelation and were able to cast it without paying its mana cost – X would be 0. By forcing you to pay the mana cost, Psychic Intrusion becomes less cute and more potent. It’s not limited to Sphinx’s Revelation’s X cost either. Last time I checked Rakdos’s Return was still a viable card.

All that being said, it still probably belongs in most Dimir-based decks sideboards. Exile an Atherling and save it for much later so you can win the game with it. Or get rid of a juicy counterspell and use it on a late game threat when it counts. Your opponent knows its coming, sure, but what can they do to stop it? Counter the spell? that’s pretty much about it. It’s not like they can do much to a card that’s been exiled, so you will probably always get to at least cast the card (because you can use your mana as any color mana to cast the card).

It’s going to be a fringe card, but one that is potent in commander as well. Since as with Daxos, I’m pretty sure it bypasses the whole color-identity clause when you produce mana.

Ashen Rider

ashen rider

I believe we’ve seen something similar to this before…

angel of despair

Death from above

It doesn’t really take a genius to notice that Ashen Rider is going to be bonkers is some kind of reanimator deck. What’s more is that you get value out of either end of a card like Rescue from the Underworld. Ready your Scavenging Oozes because you’ll probably need them.

If you’re a fan of Commander, you now have your Angel of Despair # 2. More nice black/white destruction cards to join your army (which probably also contains Merciless Eviction).  The Archon creature type is a pretty odd one that they haven’t given the tribal treatment yet and I doubt that will come anytime soon, still never say never,eh? On another random note, it pretty much helps you fullfill half the devotion requirement on either both Erebos or Heliod.

Boon Satyr

boon satyr

Is this the Rancor you’re looking for?

We now get a nice replacement for our Wolfir Avenger or Rancor. While you can’t compare directly to either, there are similarities.

The obvious trade-off on Wolfir Avenger is 1 more power instead of the ability to regenerate. Worth it? Too early to tell, but probably not, unless you are basically using it as ‘removal’. I’m also not sure how relevant the Satyr creature type will be in the set.

As for the comparison to Rancor, it was basically because you get some value either way and it’s one of the ‘lower’ Bestow costs so far. It can trigger Heroic in a ‘Flash’ . It’s low-risk as Rancor was, even versus decks packing quite a few removal cards. It can also allow you to animate Nylea out of nowhere, thus gaining two surprise blockers (something you can’t do with a ‘surprise’ Advent of the Wurm). The card is also a Rare as opposed to Rancor and Wolfir Avenger‘s Uncommon rarity, so it’s probably going to be worth a considerable amount as well if it ever gets popular.

Hythonia the Cruel

hythonia the cruel

non-Gorgon? That’s like 99% of Magic: the Gathering creatures!

Not quite Medusa, but close enough. You can get a veritable Supreme Verdict once Monstrous or at least something comparable to Mageta the Lion‘s ability. Feel free to just add it to that Gorgon deck you’ve been waiting to bust out. I know I’ve dreamed of the day since I read Masked Gorgon. I couldn’t help but noticing that they were getting increasingly more powerful as the years went by. You can even have a Gorgon General, you get to choose:

damia

Probably the best choice

sisters of stone death

Blocking/attacking? We’re in Commander here, those words are stictly for ‘flavor’

visara

How to have Avatar of Woe in your commander zone

You can also just play all 4 of these lovely ladies in a BUG Gorgon-based Commander deck. Might as well try to be different and go for a more flavourful approach when playing a casual format. In Standard, who knows? She might be your deck’s ‘End Boss’ in the very late game, allowing you to kill numerous opposing creatures and offing your opponent in a couple of fell swoops. I wouldn’t bet on it though.

Spear of Heliod

spear of heliod

Glorious Anthem with a nice bonus

We’ll close out today’s Wave with this little gem. It’s a strict upgrade to Glorious Anthem aside from the fact that you can’t really stack them since it’s a Legendary card. The activated ability on it is a nice bit of removal, destroying creatures that ping your life total on top of those that simply deal you combat damage. Unfortunately, this still does nothing versus Deathrite Shaman (it’s just too good to keep down).

This card might usher in another era of White Weenie or Boros aggro decks, either of which we’ve seen a lot of lately. Sure, there’s always the odd guy playing the WW/r Craig Wescoe deck from Worlds. That’s still something we don’t see often these days. It’s poised to make some kind of comeback with the Heroic abilities as well as the Boros guild’s Battalion mechanic.

Spear of Heliod is probably a bit slow, but in White Weenie decks it’s not uncommon to have nothing to do with excess mana mid to late game. This thing says: ” I dare you to attack” to their best offensive creature. If the bluff is called, the same will be then said to their second best offensive creature the following turn.

Fear the Spear! (Unless you’re a God, of course).

Up Next …

You guessed it! More Previews to come tomorrow. Leave some comment and come back tomorrow for more.

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Theros Previews: Wave 6

previews wave 6

by Steve ‘DDT’ Giannopoulos

We now have a third planeswalker in the set! You heard right: three planeswalkers so far in Theros.

Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

ashiok

Weird in every way imaginable

As usual, I’ll do the ability play by play:

ashiok 1

A mini-mill

One of the rarer +2 loyalty planeswalkers, Ashiok’s + ability is rather unimpressive. Clearly it builds up to something. If you take it at face value, you’re basically activating a Nephalia Drownyard each turn. Meh! I supposed with enough protection he can be a win condition just based on that. You save 4 mana a turn when compared to Nephalia Drownyard. Mana that can be used to do cool stuff like play cards such as Far/Away.

nephalia drownyardNot sure how many people will actually miss this card once it rotates

The random part where Nephalia Drownyard wins out is that

A) it’s uncounterable

B) You can mill yourself to dig for flashback cards or some cards to use when you cast Snapcaster Mage

Next ability:

ashiok 2

Yeah, sorry I couldn’t get a larger picture of Ashiok

Yay! Free Ornithopters and Dryad Arbors! Or you can just grab a 4 cost creature after you’ve +2 ‘ed your opponent once. In a sense he can probably ‘protect’ himself. It’s a funny way of looking at it, but it is more or less luck-based and limited to what you have exile with Ashiok. Better practice your milling skills boys!

In order to prevent any kind of abuse, Ashiok’s + ability is limited to your opponent’s library. I haven’t really fathomed all the stupid stuff you can do if you were allowed to target your deck, but there are quite a few.

You also probably won’t be using the second ability on Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver often if your opponent is playing a control deck that runs little to no creatures. No idea how many of those are going to be floating around, but there sure are a heck of a lot of ‘Superfriends’ aka. planeswalker options.

And ultimately:

ashiok 3

Um, not quite a Jace, the Mindsculptor ultimate eh?

So how do you win with this again? Exactly. It’s somewhat cryptic. Does it fit in a ‘Turbo Fog’ style deck? Not quite sure. Still, you get to do a Wit’s End, which can’t be all too bad.

wits endClearly, Nicol Bolas can’t be wrong

I imagine that against control decks you can get him to 11 loyalty, use his ultimate and then continue grinding his library away. So on the fourth activation gets you one ultimate, then every 6th activation gets to be an ultimate (if you wish). You get to blank his has of counters, dead cards and whatever other nasty comeback cards he may be holding. Also, these cards are gone for good off to join their other exiled friends in From the Vault: Exiled. Yes, it’s a bad removed from game joke.

Speaking of Remove from Game, I want to take this moment to promote one of the coolest product I have seen as far as card protection goes.

www.removefromgame.com

stacks_image_663

These sleeves are awesome!

They don’t split when you shuffle them, nor do the corners break (because they’re rounded). The cards are a little tight to fit at first, but it gets easier after. I highly suggest you go purchase some and get back with your feedback so that people don’t think I’m shamelessly promoting weird card protectors. I’m not sure if they still sell them on their site, but I’m sure you can purchase them if you search hard enough.

Lightning Strike

 

lightining strike

Fear the Spear !

The somewhat unexpected ‘Searing Spear‘ reprint. It was looking like Magma Jet was taking over as the 2-cost burn spell and red decks were going to go for a more ‘Devotion’-based approach (with Boros Reckoners, Ash Zealot ,etc) to get Purphoros online as soon as possible.

What is left to say about this card except that you will be seeing a lot for the next 2 years of Standard. If you want to pack it in Modern, knock yourself out. Between this, Incinerate, Searing Spear and Lightning Bolt – you can mix and match as you wish.

The Same-Color Hate Cycle

 

Glare of Heresy

 

glare of heresy

I was wrong about this card’s name

Gainsay

 

gainsay

I was wrong about this one as well

Dark Betrayal

 

dark betrayal

Strike Three!

Peak Erruption

 

peak erruptio

… I’m soooo out!

Yep! every single one wrong. Still, the cycle of same-color hate was fairly evident and a really interesting twist on sideboarding. I am fairly certain they will all see a great deal of play with all the multicolored cards that the Return to Ravnica block brings to the table.

Gainsay is going to be big versus Sphinx’s Revelation decks (of course) and winning counterspell wars. Other than that, It counters a few planeswalkers (even Ashiok) , Aetherling and some draw (Opportunity).

Dark Betrayal is going to hit quite a few scary creatures for really cheap, so black creatures are ‘somewhat’ riskier. Doom Blade for non-black and Dark Betrayal for the rest (like Underworld Cerberus).

Glare of Heresy is just wow! Any white permanent? Detention Sphere, Elspeth, Archangel of Thune? Nice sideboard card versus all the really annoying bomby white cards. Problem is how many can you fit in the sideboard? Also, how many is your opponent going to be siding in versus your white deck? Let’s not forget it also exiles Heliod.

Finally, Peak Erruption is a little different from its other sideboard buddies. It can effectively Stone Rain your opponent’s land and potentitally set him back a color (lets not forget Ravnica block duals already). The 3 damage is very appealing, especially at times you can two-for-one their land and planeswalker. It can become increasingly good versus decks running Chained to the Rocks if you’re into getting full value.

Fleecemane Lion

 

fleecemane lion

Part Watchwolf, part WTF?

The Watchwolf comparison is rather unfair, because that’s what this card is in the worst case scenario. Once Monstrous, good luck doing anything to it. There are not many ‘edict’ (sacrifice a creature) effects left in Standard, save Devour flesh. Why is it that Cats are always better than Hounds in Magic: the Gathering ?

Before you start thinking that it’s a shoe-in for some kind of Hexproof deck – don’t forget that most of that deck is rotating ( Geist of Saint Traft, Spectral Flight, Invisible Stalker). It might make it in some kind of Bant midrange deck since you can have it survive your own Supreme Verdicts. Either way, the way this set is looking Supreme Verdict is not going to be much of an answer to anything anymore.

geist of saint traft invisible stalker

You have less than a month to enjoy these cards in Standard

At the very least you have a rather hard to remove planeswalker protector. You can also make an opposing removal spell whiff since you can activate Monstrous at instant speed. Keep in mind that it can always be responded to, so try to activate it when your opponent is low on cards in hand or tapped out at the end of his turn.

Kragma Warcaller

 

kragma warcaller

Angry Angry Minotaurs

Black is not a color that comes to mind when thinking of minotaurs, we have been more accustomed to seeing them in Red and sometimes White. I guess those terrible Black Minotaurs in M14 were there to prepare us for the horrors to come. This Rakdos minotaur is very much superior to his M14 counterparts (not that it’s hard to beat). Essentially, he’s a 4/3 haster himself the turn he comes down. It’s too early to say if he makes the cute in a Standard Minotaur tribal deck, but I’m betting on ‘No’.

Arbor Colossus

 

arborcolossus

Pretty much confirmation enough that the M12 titans are not returning

If you ever wanted to try out the big creature Green deck or Green/White deck now is probably as good a time as any. This guy is very good for his mana cost. We know that being in the color of mana ramp you will have no problem casting him 1-2 turns ahead of time. Monstrous means beating your opponent down for 9 and potentially taking down some annoying flyer like Archangel of Thune or the Stormbreath Dragon.

Having Reach even without being Mosntrous means you won’t see many opposing creatures swinging back at you with this guy in play. It’s a great piece of cardboard, one that will surely make more than a few people ‘green with envy’.

Prophet of Kruphix

 

prophet of kruphix

Seedborn Muse just ‘Evolved’

In the beginning, there was this card:

awakening

Seems fair … unexciting

It didn’t quite catch on because there was not much of an upside to it, so they created this:

seedborn muse

It became everyone’s favorite Commander card (after Sol Ring and Sensei’s Divining Top)

Then there were some variants :

murkfiend liege

Also a Commander favorite

then they decided to bring it back to Standard in an updated form:

prophet of kruphix

Prepare to have some multiplayer fun

I’m not entirely sure as to how effective this card will be in Standard what with it not having Flash itself. Still, there are some nice possibilities here. If you land it on your turn 5 with a tapped out opponent, you can simply Flash in a Prime Speaker Zegana (probably not the most efficient play) whenever to draw up some cards before it’s your turn again. You can also try for a Progenitor Mimic and copy a Prophet of Kruphix so that you can double up on the untap effect each time it’s your opponent’s untap step.

Again, you can probably do a few nice tricks here and there but it’s all a matter of our dear Prophet staying alive long enough. Your patience and proper timing may very well be rewarded in the proper deck. Everyone and anyone playing some Simic or Bant Commander/EDH deck will be hunting down the foils, try to keep that in mind if you happen to open a shiny copy of this card.

It’s a nice twist on last Standard format’s ‘enter the battlefield’ gimmick. Now you have to try to keep creatures and other permanents in play before you get to reap the rewards. I think it will make for a somewhat slower format and a much more enjoyable one at that.

Still more to come ..

 

Keep checking back here to catch a glimpse of more Theros Preview cards. See you tomorrow!

 

 

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Theros Previews: Wave 5

previews wave 5

by Steve ‘DDT’ Giannopoulos

Back so soon? I figured you would be. After all, new Theros spoilers are being revealed daily and who doesn’t like some good news every day of the week? It’s like opening a little Christmas gift each day.

We have some pretty heavy duty cards to preview:

Stormbreath Dragon

stormbreath dragon

Thundermaw Hellkite v. 2.0?

This thing is pretty huge as far as new mythics go. It’s almost everything we had in Thundermaw Hellkite and then some. We get one less power but a very awesome protection ability. This is one dragon that will NOT be getting Chained to the Rocks. Protection from white means you will be dodging things like Detention Sphere, Azorius Charm and the odd Pacifism.

It also mean attacking past things like Archangel of Thune. The Monstrous ability is not insane, but it does punish some more control decks that tend to keep a few cards in hand and grows this bad buy to a 7/7 as well. Not impressed? Then I don’t know what else to tell you. Oh wait! It’s also immune to Selesnya Charm, so you don’t have to fear making it Monstrous. What else … ? The card art is super sweet. You can also deal decent damage with it in a multiplayer Commander game. He’s a really great follow up to Purhphoros as he is bound to trigger the Devotion requirement and make him a creature. That’s a lot of damage in a small amount of time. Potentially 12 damage if it all goes unanswered. Or just a tame 6 if we deal the 2 damage from the Purphoros trigger ans only get to attack with our Stormbreath Dragon here.

I’ll spare you any makeshift decklist this dragon will appear in as I’m sure it won’t be tough to pretty much auto-include him in a Red/Green or on the high end of a monored list.

Master of Waves

 

master of waves

I’m now officially scared of Merfolk

If Modern Merfolk ever topped their curve at 4, I’m sure this guy here is a shoe-in. With just a Lord of Atlantis in play you can have 3 2/1’s. Not impressed? Well, with a Grand Architect things can get rather disgusting (even without the Lord of Atlantis). You can just tap all your newly made elementals to cast a Wurmcoil Engine for starters. Not to mention that the tokens would now be 3/2’s. This is without having even cast anything on the 2 first turns of the game.

Oh yeah, he’s also pro red. just in case a burn spell might have ruined your day. Of course if your opponent removes him with another color spell you’ll lose your elementals too. Truly tragic, I know. You can always just have some kind of team pump enchantment in play or something of the sort. It’s not too hard to get creative on that front plus the rest of the set might have a goody or two.

At the very least he will be doing his fair share to fend off the hordes of red decks popping up on Theros‘ release. Don’t say you weren’t warned…

Observant Alseid

 

observant alseid

Nymph.dec in Pauper format?

Not the greatest of creatures or not the greatest aura? Which to choose? Beats me, but I’ll probably always sleeve this if my draft or sealed deck is packing some Plains. Not the game winning card you are looking for, but a solid team player.

Nimbus Naiad

 

nimbus naiad

So many Nymphs, what is the Magic world coming to?

With all these Nymphs flying around, I was going to make the apropos Nymph enthusiast or one who is crazy about Nymphs joke. You might even say they are maniacal. Nimbus Naiad gives us another bestow creaturs with which to complete our potentially 3-5 color Nymph deck in Pauper. Someone’s going to break it, I just know it!

Spearpoint Oread

 

spearpoint oread

They’re all so adorable!

For some odd reason the Bestow on this one is higher. Whatever, we’ll be too busy beating down our opponents with our Nymph army to even care. If only they had like a queen of Nymphs and it made all their abilities apply to all Nymphs if they were in enchantment form (kind of like a weird Sliver effect). Also, anyone else think this is Wizards of the Coast‘s other ‘revamped’ mechanic that failed the first time (aka. Licids).

Cavern Lamphad

 

cavern lamphad

But wait, there’s more

We get the fourth Power Ranger here and she’s as expected. Nothing too great, but what did you really expect? You can’t have one outshining the others, can you? The cycle is almost complete.

Leafcrown Dryad

 

leafcrown dryad

Best one yet? Perhaps

What? A Grizzly Bear that I can Naturalize? That’s terrible!

Actually, on top of having the Nymph AND Dryad creature types, costing the least to Bestow and the least to cast – she can block flyers to boot. Yes, she is pretty much the best of the bunch. Now all they need to do is to actually make some kind of lord for them so we can all cry as we open what might have been a more enjoyable rare.

Unless they make the Nymph Lord and Uncommon, then I’d be down for that.

Xenagos, the Reveler

 

xenagos the reveler

Domri’s planeswalker sidekick

I don’t think anyone really expected another Red/Green planeswalker so soon. Let’s see: we had Sarkahn Vol first, then Domri Rade and now Xenagos. Wizards of the Coast realizes that there are 2 color combinations/guilds that have yet to even see one planeswalker, right?

A: What are Selesnya and Simic

Even if he seems to  mostly fit in a more mana ramp/creature swarm deck, I believe he’s basically just going to be sided into Red/Green decks for when they need more gas versus the most Control decks (probably Blue/White as usual). Xanagos allows those decks to recover very nicely from a Supreme Verdict. Pump out a 2/2 hasted Satyr and continue to apply pressure.

Let’s take a more detailed look at those three abilities:

xanagos 1

More manas!

So we get a nice little mana dorkish planeswalker ability. It can be pretty awesome or rather useless. Hopefully the next ability helps us in making it slightly better.

xanagos 2

Oh! that’s spicy!

Here we get the Red/Greem Haste-related ability. Very much appreciated. It gives us so much game against our opponents, it’s not even funny. However, it does not boost Xanagos’ loyalty. You can even take down opposing planeswalkers with your little Satyr army. He works pretty well with Return to Ravnica block’s battalion ability as well. That might still end up being a ‘thing’.

Finally,

xanagos 3

Nice, not broken, but it’ll do.

So in Commander you get to put some big nasty creatures (Eldrazi) in play and do wrong things. Yes, yes. A lot of other cards will allow us to do that anyhow.

What’s great is that since technically the Gods count as creatures everywhere but the battlefield even when you don’t have devotion. Essentially you can still put all revealed God cards in play. Five color God tokens deck for the win! In a creature-based deck it’s hard for this ability to fail/whiff. As with Chandra, Pyromaster‘s ultimate, I don’t really see this being something the Red/Green decks will stive to do but as something that is a nice option if anything.

The card is also drawn by Jason Chan (who also illustrated Jace, the Mind Sculptor). That probably means Wizards of the Coast is expecting really big things from this guy. Just putting it out there.

One thing is for sure: with quite a few planeswalkers starting out at 3 loyalty and jumping to 4, it might be nice t have this card in your deck:

warleaders helix

Probably going to see more play in Standard than Lightning Helix ever did

That’s going to have to be it for today. Until tomorrow, may we see what other goodies will appear in what is looking to be a very epic Magic: the Gathering expansion.

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Theros Previews: Wave 4

previews wave 4

by Steve ‘DDT’ Giannopoulos

… And we’re back for another Wave of Spoilers!

Battlewise Hoplite

battlewisehoplite

Represetin’ the Blue and White

Battlewise Hoplite is sure to make it in any Azorius Aggro deck that sees the light of day once Theros becomes Standard-legal. The bonus you get is pretty huge in my opinion. Again, we just need to figure out what good spells, Bestow or otherwise, we will be incorporating into our decks in order to take advantage of his ability.

I’m obviously a big fan of the artwork (I chose it as the article banner) representing a battle-ready ancient Greek soldier wielding a smidgeon of blue magic. The Scry is really nice on this sort of aggressive creature as it allows you to not draw ‘dead’ (aka. late game lands) later in the game. Of course this will required to use the Heroic ability moderately and with good judgment instead of going ‘all in’ just to get in one extra point of damage.

Polis Crusher

polis crusher

We get another ‘Crush Underfoot‘ angle

Perhaps one of the most impressive Cyclops released so far (although I also like Nivix Cyclops). Even if he does not become Monstrous, he is going to be a pain to deal with. Protection from enchantments means he can’t be Detention Sphere‘d or whatever other anti-creature enchantment there is (Chained to the Rocks).  Trample is always a problem for more controlling decks to deal with, hence the keyword ability you want most in a green creature.

Once Monstrous, Polis Crusher can start taking down opposing enchantments. Break your allies out of Detention Spheres, Pacifisms, etc or destroy Underworld Connections, Sphere of Safety,etc. I’m not sure how Polis Crusher is an appropriate name, as ‘poli’s usually means city. He doesn’t destroy lands or artifacts, so the name is a little misleading. I know that’s probably irrelevant to most of you, but it bugs me just a wee bit.

I love how no one seems to be employed in the Cyclops tribe. They are just Cyclopes, seemingly all equal. It would be nice to see a Cyclops Shaman or something. Just sayin’!

Underworld Cerberus

underworld cerberus

Three Head, three relevant abilities

We get a Rakdos powerhouse of a creature in a 6/6 for 5 mana with 3 abilities. What deck will this fit into? I’m guessing the next iteration of Jund will like it quite a bit. It has the blocking restrictions of Phyrexian Colossus (card that actually saw tournament play back in its day) without the doesn’t untap drawback. You also get a Ground Seal on legs in a totally different color.

Finally, the third ability can be somewhat seen as a drawback. I’m not sure how much of a drawback it is when you’re trying to gauge if you should shove this into your constructed deck or not. Being Rakdos or even Jund colors usually means you are pretty high on low drop aggro creatures or a medium amount of ‘value’ creatures. It also doesn’t suffer from any random other drawback such as being legendary.

Of course it had to be mythic so that its initial value gets somewhat inflated. Whether it will maintain any value/hype is hard to say. One thing is for sure: you’re going to need to find space for it if you’re running a Rakdos-colored EDH/Commander deck.

Pyxis of Pandemonium

pyxis of pandemonium

Like a weird symetrical, slow Primal Surge

I’m not grasping any obvious strategy for this cards, except that it can very well be a sort of anti-control card. Just tuck away a bunch of permanent that would ‘obviously’ otherwise be countered because we know that that’s all that Control decks do (*sarcasm*). When you have your 7 mana flow, you just open the floodgates and you clearly gain the advantage in permanents in play. This works becasue clearly your opponent will only have boring stuffs like Instants and Sorceries exiled.

Yes, that was a silly way of explaining it but maybe there will be some cool Scry tech with it or something.

Witch’s Eye

witch's eye

I guess they needed a follow-up to Jar of Eyeballs

It’s a shame they didn’t reprint Crystal Ball, eh? This is obviously less good but it fits in the flavor and stuff. It’s at its best in limited as most cards with the Scry ability are. Thematically it might even fit into a casual Bogbrew Witch deck since you can use her to fetch a Festering Newt and Scry with the Newt until you need to sacrifice it to the Cauldron and destroy some annoying creature.

Moving along…

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

nykthos

A weird take on Cabal Coffers

Not the most exciting of Legendary lands, but monocolored decks ( obviously) will probably run a copy if they need to ‘accelerate’. The term is used somewhat losely since you’re probably needing it to cast something at 7-8 mana to warrant its inclusion. Maybe with the new legend rules in place you can activate one and then play another to get an insane amount of mana.

The art on this is really awesome and I for one would love to get a fooil one for any monocolor Commander deck I plan to build in the future.

Purphoros’s Emissary

purphoros emissary

Moo? Do oxen moo?

A slightly more playable Emissary than Thassa’s Emissary that we saw just prior. It’s ‘unblockability’ makes it somewhat of a consideration but not a definite inclusion in any deck. I’m pretty sure you just jam this into your sealed or draft deck if you’re even playing a small red splash though.

It’s not the coolest card to end a Spoiler Wave with, but I’ll be posting more as they are revealed! Don’t forget to check out our Theros Pre-Orders !

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Theros Previews: Wave 3

previews wave 3

by Steve ‘DDT’ Giannopoulos

We last left off with :

Magma Jet

magma jet

There just had to be a good 2 drop burn spell with Searing Spear gone

If there was ever a Scry card I loved, it’s definitely Magma Jet. I often pick it high enough in Cubes if I am splashing or maining Red in my deck. It is Shock + Scry and works relatively well. Zap one of their early drop and scry for either you 3-4th land or late game burn your opponent to the dome and dig for more gas.

The only small drawback is that now you will probably need to run something like Flames of the Firebrand to hit creatures with 3 toughness. While not all too bad, it’s sorcery-speed removal (not a fan) and a turn late. You do basically pay for the versatility of potentially 2/3 for one’ing your opponent.

Red was never really a card-drawing color but with cards like this and M14’s Academy Raider I like that they do get to quickly rifle through a few cards in search of relevant cards instead of just having to draw clumps of land, unable to end the game.

Purphoros, God of the Forge

purphoros

Nice mini one-sided Pandemonium

Nice static ability on him that just makes the whole idea of going all in with tokens interesting (eventhough the 5-color Gods + tokens concept was more of a joke in the previous article). You get an 6/5 body for 4 with haste if you managed to get the Hammer of Purphoros in play the turn before and stick a few non-token creatures in there (or just an Ash Zealot).

Speaking of which….

Hammer of Purphoros

hammer of purphoros

Fervor was never this good

Here we have our godly weapon and what a potent weapon it is! Granted no one really enjoys sacrificing lands anymore, but it can be well worth it in a monored deck. Of course with a Purphoros in play it also means that your opponent will be getting hit for a free 2 damage as well. As mentionned above, you can get a hasty turn 4 6/5 creature down on turn 4. This is undoubtedly why Purphoros only has 1 Red mana in his casting cost. You ‘need’ to play a couple of dudes beforehand and keep them in play to accomplish this, but Red is anything but short on low-curve aggressive creatures.

If you absolutely needed some Red Devotion, look no further than this overlooked card:

awaken the ancient

It really seems like ‘mountains matter’ in Theros too

Unfortunately though, it will not trigger Purphoros’s 2 damage ability since the actual creature (the Mountain) was already in play. Still, it can seem like an interesting route to take with the deck. It’s not like Awaken the Ancient is a heavy investment money-wise. Another really nice thing to not overlook is that it produces a colorless token which may not mean much right now, but it will when you have to potentially face off with creatures who have protection from red either built-in or obtain it from another source (equipment, etc).

Rageblood Shaman

rageblood shaman

The Minotaur tribe is back to help out Boros Reckoner

I recall joking about Didgeridoo and Changeling creatures as a Legacy deck a few years back with some friends. One of them played the flute so we thought the deck was a perfect fit. It was obviously really bad since even Boros Reckoner was not in existence yet. Once Reckoner was released, the jokes resurfaced but didn’t last long. When the Theros block was announced it was almost a certainty that Minotaurs would be one of the tribes. Didgeridoos suddenly started creeping up in value and wether or not they will actually see real Legacy play is yet to be seen.

didgeridoo

Super Aether Vial – for manly Minotaurs Only

Much like Giants, I don’t really imagine there being small Minotaurs. It might just be more for flavour than them actually being a real tribe (as Vampires did in Zendikar block). I think they are probably going to become a real deal as the block progresses and we are just going to get some glimpses in Theros. Perhaps even a reprint? Hint: it’s NOT a creature

Stoneshock Giant

stoneshock giantSeismic Stomp now has a face

It’s going to help break some stalemates in Draft/Sealed affairs. Other than that, it’s no Inferno Titan ( a cycle that some speculate might get reprinted this block, but I personally doubt).

Titan of Eternal Fire

titan of eternal fire

Basically mythology’s Prometheus

A nice way to represent the story of Prometheus in card form. Prometheus being the titan that shared the gift of fire that had long been kept from the humans. He was punished by the Gods by having to be consumed by a giant bird each day and having his body regenerate each night. That’s vaguely how I remember it, but hey! you can Google that stuff in these modern times.

I suppose if there are enough mana dorks that are human (like Avacyn’s Pilgrim was), you can feasibly accelerate into this guy and then start pinging away with your little dudes. It seems more cute than effective. Still, the image of a bunch of little humans pitching their torches at a bigger creature and killing seems somehow appropriate. He sure as heck didn’t teach them the art of the Hadouken.

hadouken-statue

While it is a statue, it’s not a Greek statue

Perhaps when we return to Kamigawa block, eh?

Two-Headed Cerberus

two headed cerebrus

About damn time!

I’m rather surprised that it took so long for red to get a small double striker printed. It also makes sense in this case since it’s a two-headed creature. I guess the left side bites first then the right? You can’t really expect them to coordinate their attack right?

Bow of Nylea

bow of nyleaThis thing essentially has 5 abilities. It’s like a mini-planeswalker

Once you get past the initial WOW! aspect of this card, you get to realize that it’s quite ordinary. These are very control-ish abilities except for your attackers having deathtouch. They couldn’t really give you unconditional deathtouch and have even your lowliest hang back and just take down big attackers. It would be somewhat wrong, wouldn’t it?

You get a nice mix of ‘useful’ abilities. Snipe a flyer, pad your life total, pump a creature or recover from some milling. If there was a good shuffle effect in Standard it could pass more for a reload your deck with good stuff you’ve already used or had countered over the course of the game.

If you’re thinking that this belongs in the Commander bin then I’d wager you are correct. Unless some totally over-the-top mono-green control surfaces with this and Primeval Bounty at its core, i’ll just maybe consider siding it in versus whatever mill deck may surface in Type 2. The graveyard recovery ability may have been nice if it targeted any graveyard so that it would also simmer down some potential reanimator decks, but I guess they figured Scavenging Ooze is hate enough.

scavenging ooze

Will it still see play or just get lost in the shuffle?

Nylea, God of the Hunt

nylea god

Yes, this is a real card.

You get a potential 6/6 trampler (indestructible too, might I add) for 4 and potentially as early as turn 3. Ready to attack on turn 4. Of course it involves a mana dork or two and probably a certain 3/3 for 2 mana. Still, having a Primal Rage in play means your beefy creatures matter more and your attacks are not stymied by your opponent chump blocking each turn.

primal rage

‘Rancor‘ for all my creatures? Don’t mind if I do

Yes, I am fully aware it’s not quite Rancor. That’s why Rancor is in quotes. It’s close enough. Historically in Magic: the Gathering, having the biggest creature to attack with didn’t mean squat if it had no built-in form of evasion. Now green mages can dig up their mana efficient fatties because they can matter. That little number in the bottom right before the ‘/’. Yep, that one. Just tap some mana, play some dudes and Nylea then turn them sideways! Make Garruk proud (even though he’s probably not in this block).

Commune with the Gods

commune with the gods

Aka. ‘Private Messaging the Divine’

It’s an ‘upgraded’ version of Commune with Nature. I imagine this will get some play seeing as how the gods are enchantments and well, so is almost everything else. You get to ‘dig’ five deep and hit a relevant creature, enchantment, legendary artifact enchantment or God. Not too shabby. Also going through what might have been a small clump of lands is a bonus (pseudo-Scry).

A nice way to give green more card draw without actually being straight-up card drawing (aka. Harmonize).

Hunt the Hunter

hunt the hunter

Green hate versus Green?

Very interesting take on sideboard cards. If anything it might help create more diversity amongst the Tier 1 decks since you can avoid the mirror-match hate. Or, it may just do the opposite and give you tools to break the mirrors. I’m very curious to see what the outcome will be or even if this is part of a cycle.

What would the others be called?

Shock the Shocker?

Rebuke the Rebuker? 

Bounce the Bouncer?

Assassinate the Assasin?

I know, I know. Pretty unoriginal card names there, I’m sure the real card names are much better.

Karametra’s Acolyte

karametras acolyte

Guess they got fed up of being called ‘mana dorks’, so they buffed up

I heard some people comparing this to Elvish Archdruid and it seems about right. Elves are really not part of Greek Mythology so they had to get the other ‘mana dork’ tribe: humans (druids too, but that’s more like their ‘job’). Still, this guys can potentially gives us a more stable mana supply if we plop down early enchantments and cast primeval bounty or some other expensive card much earlier. It allows us to not have to try and play around something like Supreme Verdict. Then again, with creatures like Nylea we may not need to.

Also, contrary to Elvish Archdruid, he makes a mean blocker. I know this isn’t the most exciting feature that comes to mind when evaluating a new Magic: the Gathering card, but it’s surely something to consider in a Standard format that becomes increasingly more about creatures.

Nessian Asp

nessian asp

Vanilla Monsters

Does this mean we will get to see a certain card from Future Sight?

nessian courser

Just kidding!

Reverent Hunter

reverenthunter

It’s not easy being green

Mana dorks and creature spam is heavily encouraged in this block. While I’m not a big fan of that unless Elves are involved, it may be worth trying out. Remember that there are still about 150+ cards to be spoiled/previewed, so hang in there. Still, the later you hold off casting this, the less damage you are potentially dealing. The earlier you drop this, the smaller it ends up being. Nothing exciting about casting it on turn 2, or is there? It can basically be your Kalonian Tusker # 5-8. Of course it just becomes awesome when you cast it after a Kalonian Tusker has entered the battlefield. It also interacts favourably with another Kalonian: Kalonian Hydra!

Sylvan Caryatid

sylvan caryatid

Got ramp?

I can’t believe I almost completely dismissed this cards as a bad Birds of Paradise rip-off. I literally blazed through the rules text and totally forgot it had hexproof. Normally I am not a fan of the ability as it takes away a lot of the game’s interaction as we saw with the bant Hexproof not too long ago. In this case though, hexproof is pretty well implemented. It somewhat makes this into another Darksteel Ingot in the sense that it tends to remain on the battlefield longer.

I went from being disappointed that this was the Buy-a-Box promo card to being pretty excited about it. Sure, they could have reprinted Rampant Growth or something, but this is far more nice. It’s a permanent that accelerates us and counts towards our ‘Devotion to Green’. Will it be played alongside Mana Bloom so that you can have 8 cards in your deck that accelerate you on Turn 2? I think there is a good chance of that with enchantments mattering and Mana Bloom being an enchantment.

Daxos of Meletis

daxos of meletis

Are we about to see the second coming of Geist of Saint Traft?

If the name sounds familiar to you, it’s because it is. He was a character in 300 (the movie). I’m unsure if there is a relation there, but I just recall hearing that name before.

I’ve read and heard many comparisons to other cards. Geist of Saint Traft, Nightveil Specter and Augury Adept. I believe that they are all very appropriate and am personally very glad that this card is not a Mythic. You have the pseudo evasion of Nightveil Specter, the stats and mana cost of Geist of Saint Traft and then the combined ‘when combat damage is dealt’ ability of Augury Adept and Nightveil Specter (sort of). You even get the added bonus of casting the card with mana of the colors you do not even have in play.

I doubt the power level of the card is anywhere near Geist of Saint Traft’s, since he dies to almost all the removal availalble in Standard. You get some ‘random’ but interesting benefits which are more suited to something like Commander. He also circumvents the ruling about only being able to produce mana of your general’s ‘color identity’ (at least it seems that way, I’ll have to get some kind of confirmation on that). Anybody have a clear answer?

More to come …

We’ll continue with more Previews tomorrow. The set is shaping up really nicely thus far!

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Theros Previews: Wave 2

previews wave 2

by Steve ‘DDT’ Giannopoulos

A whole lot has been revealed since the last Wave, so let’s get down to it.

Elspeth, Sun’s Champion

elspeth thero

The ‘big’ Elspeth

The first thing you’ll notice is the increase in mana cost over the previous two Elspeths. Of course there has to be some reason behind it, right? Well, we get a +1 ability that gives us a nice ‘comeback’ ability. Putting three tokens a turn for the initial investment of 6 mana is really not a bad deal. She pretty much protects herself really nicely (as Elspeth has historically been known to do).

At -3 loyalty we get a Retribution of the Meek.

retribution of the meek

Last time I saw this was in my Legacy ‘Death and Taxes’ deck a few years back

We can immediately activate this ability and potentially have Elspeth stick around long enough to continue churning out three tokens a turn. Not too shabby! Especially if we consider that we are playing a white-based deck versus cards like Blood Baron of Vizkopa, who is especially against us. We get to kill quite a few ‘monstrous’ creatures as well, since they pretty much all grow past 3 power once their ‘monstrosity’ ability is activated. This is probably why she is shown slaying a Hydra in some of the promo art.

elspeth promo art

Monster Extermination service fee: 6 mana

This ability becomes even more relevant considering that our opponents will probably be enchanting their creatures as well It works so-so versus bestow, since it will kill the original enchanted creature but the aura then becomes as creature itself. So far I don’t think there’s any Bestow creature that seems particularly competitive so that might just be a moot point.

Let’s take a look at that ultimate:

-7: You get an emblem with “Creatures you control get +2/+2 and have flying.”

Nice ultimate bro! Once you finish coming from behind, you get to lay the smackdown on your opponent by buffing your team forever. If you’re really lucky you can even ultimate twice in one game (though it’s doubtful that your opponent isn’t dead by that point). I’m sure the Doubling Season casual decks will have tons of fun overkilling with that ability, since you can ultimate the turn she comes into play.

In a regular Standard game of Magic: the Gathering, I’m not sure how often you’ll get to even ultimate once. I would just content myself with the three tokens a turn. All in all, this Elspeth wasn’t as awe-inspiring as the original but she’ll definitely see some play. People tend to dismiss the higher costed planeswalkers, but I think that last Standard season showed that some of them (like Garruk, Primal Hunter) are quite good despite the higher than average mana cost.

Chained to the Rocks

chained to the rocks

Journey to Nowhere, with a twist!

Of course the initial thought  is: ‘ I’m going to need some Sacred Foundry‘. While the card is a cost-reduced Journey to Nowhere, it does require you to probably splash red (unless there is a Blood Moon effect that is yet to be spoiled). Imagine a mountain enchanted with both this and the following card:

awaken the ancientThen again, maybe not

The card is 100% playable in a format where each color has at least one indestructible ‘God’ card (soon to be previewed). You get to handle them once they become creatures. Thing is, they are all pretty content in remaining in play as enchantments too. You might never get to really use it on their ‘Legendary Enchantment Creature – God’ cards. It might just become a test of patience in which they delay in ‘animating’ their God card until you play your ‘Chained to the Rocks‘. Will the other colors get some good creature removal such as this?  Continue following the spoilers to find out.

Gift of Immortality

giftofimmortality

Great flavor and sweet card

So not all Auras are going to be Bestow creatures, but this one has a heck of a lot of value attached to it. Whether it’s saving your creature from ‘Supreme Verdict‘ effects or repeatedly sacrificing it each turn to get its ‘entered the battlefield’ ability to trigger over and over, Gift of Immortality has you covered. This is also going to go into many Bruna, Light of Alabaster Commander decks as well (so are quite a few other Auras in this set).

You can also maybe use this on one of your creatures that the opponent took from you and then regain control of it when it dies (or more likely when you use a removal on it). Imagine this thing with a sac outlet on an Acidic Slime ? Good times! This is probably why the slime did not get reprinted in Magic 2014, on top of beeing really good versus an ‘enchantment matters’ block.

Heliod, God of the Sun

heliod god of the sun

from the greek ‘Helios’ meaning Sun

Another God card revealed in Theros! At first glance he seems pretty good although not nearly as good as the blue one – Thassa. He can spam some tokens at a steep cost, but for some reason they are enchantment creature tokens? This is obviously relevant, with cards that are soon to be spoiled no doubt. The Serra’s Blessing your team ability is better in Standard than any other format, where creatures are more dominant.

Maybe he can team up with Gideon, Champion of Justice and form some kind of ‘creatureless’ weird control deck. You can be sure that with the increasing number of  noncreature permanents that are likely to see play in Standard, Gideon is in a good position to shine. We can always hope right? You can always run some weird 5-color God control in which you do nothing but spam tokens and never have devotion to make them creatures (to obviously make them even more ‘indestructible’, since they can’t be unsummoned, -x/-x’d and ‘sacrifice a creature’d. It’s probably just sill talk, but if this game has taught us anything it’s that almost anything is possible.

Like Thassa, Heliod is pretty undercosted for a creature. You can easily run him in a White-based aggressive deck just for his statistics and Vigilance to all your creatures ability. If the two gods spoiled so far are any indication, these cards are going to be one of the hottest commodities in recent memory.

Hundred-Handed One

hundred-handed one

Ninety-Nine!

On statistics alone, this guys is pretty decent but his Monstrosity ability is soooooo flavorful and feels almost Unglued-like. He basically becomes a 6/8 vigilance and can block up to 100 creatures. It seems fairly ridiculous that it would ever need to block that many creatures. I can think of a Modern deck that can make that many creatures, times a hundred or more : Splinter Twin/Pestermite or Kiki-Jiki/ Deceiver Exarch. The problem is that they make infinite tokens and that this guy doesn’t get a bonues when he blocks, so he’ll just die to one wave of attackers.

I know, I know, it seems harsh. The truth is that it’s the kind of card that has a good casual appeal as well as being borderline playable. Since Monstrous can be activated at instant speed and he has vigilance, he can shut down most would-be opposing counterattacks.

Phalanx Leader

phalanx leader

Finally, a smaller creature!

Here we have another example of the Heroic ability (the anti thesis to the Monstrous ability). It’s actually not a bad Heroic ability, since you get to put counters as opposed to just temporarily boost your creatures (as we saw with a few other Heroic abilities before). He includes himself in the boost, so understandably he’s just a 1/1 creature to start.

I can picture him in a Boros-style deck (one that didn’t quite materialize in Return to Ravnica/Innistrad Standard). Play a few efficient Red/White creatures and then a cheap instant/sorcery that can target 2 or more creatures (unfortunately ‘Overload’ won’t work in that respect, but Martial Glory seems good now).

martial glory

Maybe, just maybe ….

Vanquish the Foul

vanquish the foul

Removal at a great cost

I really don’t like much about this card, save maybe the artwork. It’s sorcery speed for starters, which is something you almost never want your removal to be. It feels like we’re basically paying too much for the ability to Scry in white. Reprisal cost only 2 mana and was Instant speed. I can understand that it might not seem quite fair comparing newer cards to older ‘powerful’ cards, but Reprisal was hardly a power card.

In sealed formats (which most of you will be participating in during Theros Pre-releases), feel free to include this in your deck as the format is much slower. There’s almost no excuse to put this in your Constructed decks, ever!

Gods Willing

gods willing

Some reasonably costed Heroic action

As opposed to the above card we reviewed, Gods Willing is not charging us much to Scry. In essence, it’s practically free.  Apostle’s Blessing saw a bit of Standard play and continues to see some play in various Infect builds in Modern. For one less mana (or 2 less life), we get the ability to Scry as well. With Snapcaster Mage gone from Standard, we won’t be abusing this any time soon. This is not to say that it’s not going to find its way into a deck or two.

Wingsteed Rider

wingsteed rider

More white cards featuring Pegasi

Before you ask: Yes, I had to Google the plural of Pegasus! Other than that, there is not much to say about this card. It doesn’t benefit the rest of your creatures for its Heroic Trigger. Pht! Some ‘Hero’ this turned out to be.

Artisan of Forms

artisan of forms

Conditional Clone. Good of Bad?

Before even getting to compare this thing to Clone, there’s an important keyword that appears on this and is not on Clone: Target. I’m not talking about the retail giant that has taken over Zellers here in Canada either.

target store

We basically now have to work harder to copy another creature. The card costs half as much. The creature can exist on the battlefield on its own. We can’t copy shroud or hexproof guys. We can switch what we copy by simply targetting our creature. The clone ability can be responded to. We don’t get to copy ‘enters the battlefield’ abilities.

The above is a quick summary of Pros and Cons initially observed on Artisan of Forms. We do get to potentially copy an Monstrous creature, activate Monstrous and potentially copy a creature that can then make further use of the +1/+1 counters. It just seems like som much work in a Magic: the Gathering world where we have become increasingly accustomed to ‘instant gratification’ on our creatures (with about two years of ‘enter the battlefield’ effects.

There are probably going to be some neat tricks to perform with this card, although none come to mind at the moment where I have to review about 30 or so new cards. I would pick up four early just in case.

Curse of the Swine

curse of the swine

Mono blue gets ‘mass’ removal too

Based more or less on Circe from Homer’s Odyssey as seen here. This card may seem rather funny at first, but it’s potentially very playable in Standard. It exiles, for starters. This means that the ‘Gods’ are not safe from it due to indestructibility. It’s good early and late game as well. There may be the odd play that requires you to ‘upgrade’ a few 1/1 creatures on your end into 2/2 green boars ( don’t laugh! ok, maybe giggle a little).

“Ready your boar tokens, because tonight we swine in hell!”

Lost in a Labyrinth

lost in a labyrinth

Look out for those Minotaurs!

Not a particularly exiting card, Lost in a Labirynth is clearly destined for some Limited action. Perhaps if Wizards of the Coast had contacted us to have an exclusive preview on this card, I would have a more detailed account on how ‘awesome’ it is.

Omenreader

omenspeaker

It’s clearly no Sea Gate Oracle

At one mana less than Sea Gate Oracle, this card is just not quite good enough to make the cut in any competitive deck. It does not net you a card (like Augur of Bolas could) and that is argument enough to not consider it when deckbuilding. Unless of course some combo deck were to see the light and you absolutely need to Scry mad for all the pieces.

Sealock Monster

sealock monster

Another candiate for Quest of Ula’s Temple

Perhaps even more evidence that Kiora Atua is in this block?

kiora atua

Dare we dream?

Thassa’s Emissary

thassas emissaryNot too ‘ shcrabby’ eh?

A decent-sized creature that’s bound to be picked up high enough in drafts and thrown into a couple of Sealed decks. Good ability, Hill Giant-sized body/cost and potential bonus later game with the Bestow ability. Unfortunately for you sea creature lovers out there: does not ‘combo’ with Quest for Ula’s Temple.

Voyage’s End

voyage's end

Unsummon+ Scry = this little gem

Yes, you are basically paying extra for the Scry cost. If you were dissapointed that Unsummon was not in M14, you should be glad right now. You can prevent Monstrous from triggering since it checks on resolution to activate the actual Monstrous ability as per the F.A.Q.

Both Unsummon and Vapor Snag saw their fair share of Constructed play so it’s not a stretch to imagine this in some kind of temp-oriented deck.

Wavecrash Triton

wavecrash triton

Such a rude little Merfolk!

So you get to tap their creatures while pumping your Wavecrash Triton? I somehow don’t see that occuring in the realm of the playable. In limited it can get interesting with a 4-drop Bestow ability to get a lead when damage racing. I do like how at first glance you think the merfolk wizards seems gigantic compared to the ships until you realize that he’s simply in the foreground and the ships are in the background.

Cavern Lampad

cavern lampad

Nymphs are black?

So here we have another Bestow creature or, as I like to call them ‘Reverse Living Weapon’. As opposed to the Living Weapon Mechanic, you cast these as enchantments first THEN they become creatures. Interesting … Other than that you get a generic enchantment which then becomes a generic creature. Not so interesting …

Gray Merchant of Asphodel

gray merchant of asphidel

An interesting take on Corrupt

This innocent enough looking card can get out of hand quickly enough. You can run cards like Dark Prophecy and Underworld Connections to ‘ramp’ up into this. Assuming you had a turn 1 or turn 2 black permanent as well, that can add up to an 8-point life swing!

Allright,I might be stretching it a bit. The fact remains that this card should not be totally ruled out as unplayable. To top it off, it doesn’t target an opponent. Your opponent will not be able to save himself by making himself Hexproof.

That is also the most cartoonish Zombie I have ever seen on a Magic: the Gathering card.

Read the Bones

read the bones

Let the Sign in Blood comparisons begin!

Part Divination, part Sign in Blood, part Serum Visions. All very very decent. You can pretty much dig up to 4 cards deep with it but not be able to potentially kill your opponent with it (like with Sign in Blood). It also allows you to splash another color to your black deck more easily. Well, maybe not if you run blue (as they usually have the bulk of the card draw).

Also, the quote is very philosophical/creepy. I expect it will be fighting with Underworld Connections for the 3-drop slot in an enchantment matters block.

Rescue from the Underworld

rescue from the underworld

Just when you thought reanimator was dead

A two for one if it’s countered or a two for one the other way if it’s not. You essentially want to sacrifice a value creature so that you get more out of it when it returns to the battlefield again. Sacrificing a Monstrosity seems ok too, if you wish to remake it Monstrous and activate its sweet effect.  Angel of Serenity anyone?

angel of serenity

Just when you thought it was out of the question …

The instant speed on this is reminiscent of other great reanimator cards like Makeshift Mannequin. With more or less enough hate, the reanimator archetype has been left alone at the time being. I believe that it is poised to make a comeback at one point or another. What better time than the very beginning of a new format?

Whether it ends up being the reanimation target or the sacrificed creature, you’ll be glad either way.

Thoughtseize

thoughtseize

Is that Socrates? I mean, is that really Thoughtseize?

The great moment most Modern players have been waiting for is at hand: Thoughtseize reprint is confirmed! For starters, this will probably know down the ridiculous 60$ price tag of the Lorwyn version by quite a bit. It’s great to have it back. Not simply because it obviously increases the value you can open in Theros, but because it gives you a very good reason to play Black. You see, black has been very very underplayed in Standard as of late (criminally underplayed, even).

Thoughtseize is a bit of a skill-testing card (especially now with Snapcaster Mage gone). Sure, sometimes you will cast it on turn one and completely punish a greedy opponent who kept a bad hand. For example, someone who kept a one Forest hand with Elvish Mystic and 5 2-cost or higher cards.

The thing is: you don’t necessarily want to cast it on turn one. Against slower decks, you have much more time to cast it at an opportune time. It can force a counterspell so that you can then cast and resolve your threats. It can also stop their ‘bomb’, gamechanger,etc by casting Thoughtseize it the very turn before they can possibly play it. Of course that last part applies a little less versus decks packing countermagic.  The main card it may end up hitting on like turn 4 is Sphinx’s Revelation which is sure to still be a heavy hitter in the new Standard format (eventhough  it’s usually the time where quick red decks tend to appear).

Sphinx's Revelation

You’re only kidding yourself if you think you’ve seen the last of this card

In older formats, however, it’s not uncommon to see Thoughtseize cast on turn one. The format is much faster and more combo-oriented. Sometimes you may even end up discarding an opposing Thoughtseize/ Inquisition of Kozilek just to protect your hand from backlash.

Akroan Crusader

 

akroan crusader

Sweet art and abilty

Akroan Crusader is going to no doubt be part of some kind of Boros Weenie deck in the new Standard environment. You might have to target him pre-combat to fully benefit from his Heroic ability, but you will at least always get the 1/1 token. As with many heroic cards you want to try and find multi-target instants and sorceries to trigger more than 1 Heroic ability each times. Remember: cheap Auras also do the trick. It’s a shame Rancor just rotated, but if you’re more into casual Magic nothing’s stopping you from playing it in conjunction with Heroic creatures.

rancor

You will be missed once October rolls around, little Rancor!

Flamespeaker Adept

 

flamespeakeradept

Scry me a river!

This card is rather odd in the usual red card + set mechanic combo. Cards like Lightning Rift and Burning Vengeance actually pump out damage while you go around cycling cards and flashbacking stuff. This card does not guarantee any kind of damage, it only provides a few tricks here and there without possessing any form of evasion. Still, decently sized to continuously attack as a 4/3 first strike and can do somewhat ridiculous damage with Magma Jet in the set as well.

For now, strictly a card you would see in a 40-card deck.

Magma Jet

 

More to come later today…

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Theros Previews: Wave 1

 

previews wave 1

For the next month or so, we will be examining what’s been spoiled in the latest Magic: the Gathering set – Theros.

Let’s get things started:

Polukranos, World Eater

polukranos

Hydras are getting mighty popular as of late

When it was first spoiled a lot of players were in disbelief. It’s a 5/5 for 4 mana with a pretty sweet ability. I know I mentioned this before with Deadbridge Goliath (eventhough it saw some competitive pay in BG Fight deck), but this guy is even more legit.

You get to choose what you ‘fight’ for starters, as opposed to just lashing out at all opposing creatures and risk dying. You can activate this ability as an instant, but of course it costs a lot of mana. You can easily slam it down early and just use it as a beatstick, no need to activate Monstrosity right away. I had a rather heated argument with a local gaming store employee as to how ‘good’ this guy is. He basically used the lame Doom Blade argument, which is pretty much a shame if that’s how you gauge creatures. He was willing to bet that it would not see much play in Top 8 lists and said it was not nearly as awesome a creature as Snapcaster Mage.

In my humble opinion, a creature that can remove opposing creatures will putting the beatdown to your opponent definitely merits a spot in ‘competitve decks’ (ie: Angel of Serenity). You just need to gauge the card on its own merits and on how well it would fit in the new format ( one that has yet to be defined). I believe that Wizards of the Coast is trending more towards creatures having abilities while in play versus the past 2 years of come-into-play abilities of Standard that we had. I might be completely wrong, but it sure seems that way with M14 and what’s been show in Theros so far.

I know that I will be trying to snatch up every copy of this card, despite it being printed in the Heroes vs. Monsters Duel deck. At very worst, I know it will be an auto-include in various Commander decks where you sometimes have more than one opponent. We all know how crazy mana ramp can get in those duels.

Anax and Cymede

anax and cymede

Boros represent!

Here we have an example of the Heroic Keyword (as opposed to Monstrous that we saw just above). It encourages you to cast ‘pump’ spells or does it? That’s what you would originally believe. The truth is: enchantments matter!

When you cast an Enchantment – Aura, you are targeting the permanent already. In the case of Anax and Cymede, even if your target were to expire – you would still get the Heroic ability to trigger.  It sometimes seems minor, but you have to think big. Big, as in what happens if you had an Assemble the Legion in play with quite a few counters and tokens in play. Yeah, it can get pretty ‘interesting’.

As we will see later, the Aura aspect can become even less ‘risky’ than we are used to. Will we no longer live in fear of two for one’ing ourselves? Maybe…

Destructive Revelry

destructive revelry

Shock meets Naturalize

I know, big deal right? Well, actually it is quite the big deal. In a format where we will see some enchantments being cast, this card is going to be in many many sideboards. The 2 damage is quite relevant because we can always redirect it to a planeswalker and possibly finish it off. It also gives Gruul decks a little more reach so that they can continue to churn out damage, as opposed to drawing a late-game Naturalize when they need that little bit of burn to win.

Satyr Hedonist

satyr hedonist

Let’s hope there’s no random child that happens to walk by …

We get a rather interesting fusion of red and green here. Satyr Hedonist can be cast on turn 2 as a ‘bear’ and then attack for two, sac himself and we get to cast some turn 5 fatty, planeswalker or other exciting card. Not too bad overall. More ‘explosive’ than a regular mana dork, but you only get that one-shot burst of mana. Fair enough, right?

Cavalry Pegasus

cavalry pegasus

Humans get to ride in style in Theros

Humans and Pegasus working side by side, isn’t that what Magic: the Gathering is all about? Well, not really. We get a cute little quote from Cymede (that was previewed just above) and a small hint that ‘Humans matter’ also in this block, but probably not as much as they did in Innistrad block

In limited it’s bound to be a high enough pick as it does what Trained Condor does in M14, only for potentially more value.

Basic Lands

We get 20 new basic lands here, detailing the wonderful landscapes of Theros (or ancient Greece). Thank goodness that these were reprinted because if they weren’t we would be stuck making all non-basic land manabases and we all know how costly those are, right?

Ordeal of Poruphoros

ordeal of poruphoros

Interesting way to ‘quest’ a Lightning Bolt

Whether or not this will get played in constructed is up in the air, but it’s an interesting take on the enchantment genre. It somewhat reminds me of the Zendikar ‘Quests’ , but also does something extra before you get to the quest reward. Another thing is that I noticed as a Greek-speaking person: Wizards has used the letter u (which sounds like an e in Greek) where they would otherwise put the letter Y (because in Greek u is y).

Pyrphoros – you get a sense of the ‘fire’, like with Pyro.

Poly-kranos – Poly as in many and kranos (cranium or head)

Just thought I’d point that out, most of you probably caught on to that anyways.

Bident of Thassa

bidentofthassa

Weird mix of Types and subtypes we don’t commonly see

So instead of getting Neptune’s Trident (Roman Mythology) we get the Greek Sea King’s (Poseidon) Bident. One less tooth. Also Thassa seems to be a shortened form for Thalassa (the Sea, in greek).

It’s essentially a Coastal Piracy with a random bonus. In the worst case scenario, it allows you to force would-be chump blockers to swing at you and die so that you can Counterstrike with your bigger dudes. It’s a cute combination of complimentary abilities, I’ll give it that much.

Anthousa, Setessan Hero

anthousa

At first, I thought she was tugging on their beards

Another nice Heroic ability on a reasonably costed body. You just don’t get to untap the lands (like with Rude Awakening), but you can easily just get a big ‘surprise’ swing to finish a somewhat long game or ‘flash in’ some blockers when you’re outnumber on defense. A simple Giant Growth cast before combat can lead to a potential 13 damage. Not bad at all! The Giant Growth example was just a random one, I’m sure we will get better cards to target her with in Theros.

The important point is that if you’re planning to attack with her AND her friends, you will probably need to waste your would-be combat trick before combat.

Ember Swallower

ember swallower

Even less than half of the Wildfire effect is pretty good

You might overlook this little guy, but it’s effect is quite insane, especially if you accelerate the Monstrosity ability with a Satyr Hedonist (above). There has not been much in terms of decent land destruction and it’s understandable since it usually grinds games down to a halt. It makes people unable to cast things and rage quit. Standard is not meant to be as ‘tight’ on mana as its Legacy and to a certain extent, Modern counterparts.

As with most red creatures, it seems rather strong at first until you realize that it doesn’t really fit into the flow of a regular game. Say you get it off to monstrous on turn 5 (with Satyr) , you basically sacrifice your 3 lands, going down to 2 lands and your opponent would go down to 1-2 lands. Sure, I can kind of see that happening barring any other kind of interactions occuring. It’s just that it can be slightly awkward sometimes, plus you don’t get to resolve the Monstrous ability if he gets dealt with prior to it getting +1/+1 counters (Doom Blade, lol).

It can reward you for building a sort of land destruction deck around it, but I’m not convinced that will be effective with all the playtesting that goes into Magic: the Gathering sets these days.

Abhorrent Overlord

abhorent overlord

Yet another Lord of the Pit

If we take it for face value, we get 2 little harpies and a big flyer for 7 mana. By the time we need to attack, we lose a harpy on upkeep then maybe get a big 6 damage in. Next upkeep, we ditch the harpy and swing in for another 6. On the next upkeep we lose our Abhorrent Overlord.

I know I made it seem a little on the bad side, but it really isn’t. The even worse scenario is he gets killed before his Devotion to black ability resolves on your empty board. The ability would check and see that the Abhorrent Overlord is no longer in play and you have no permanents with black mana symbols thus giving you zero harpies.

Despite all these bleak scenarios, there are times where you’ll just be getting insane value with this hitting play and you having a Dark Prophecy or two in play. Good times!

Shipbreaker Kraken

shipbreaker kraken

Release the Kraken indeed!

A reasonably costed kraken? Woah! there must be a catch. Nope, no usually ‘can only attack if your opponent controls an island’ garbage. The Monstous ability makes it a semi- Lorthos. If anything this thing will turn up in some casual Quest for Ula’s Temple decks.

quest for ula's temple

Perhaps it’s time for that Sea Creature blue-green planeswalker to make an appearance

If that much rumoured planeswalker does not appear over the course of this block, I doubt she’ll ever become a card. Kiora Atua is her name and she is found in one of the Duels of the Planeswalkers games.

kiora atua

Come out come out, wherever you are!

Celestial Archon

celestial archon

The new ‘safest way’ to travel

Remember how I had mentioned above that there was a better way to trigger Heroic with Auras? Well, this is it!

The main drawback of Auras is basically negated by the Bestow ability. Your enchantment targets no longer in play? No problem, you still get your enchantment as a creature into play. Think of it as a ‘Safe Kicker’ ability, you pay more but you are pretty much guaranteed to get something (barring counterspells).

This one is just the tip of the iceberg too, we will probably get lots more interesting ones spoiled later. The other bonus to note is that it will also basically become a creature if say – your opponent plays Supreme Verdict. You will get to recover from that pretty nicely. It will be interesting to see how control decks play around this strategy or if the format will still continue being mostly aggro.

Let’s hope we get to see more cool cards like Celestial Archon (note: he is a starter deck Rare) as the weeks pass.

and finally, we have a ‘God’

Thassa, God of the Sea

thassa god

Puts the ‘G’ in OMGWTF?

It’s pretty much confirmed on various other sites, so I’ll go ahead and show it anyways. I’m not sure what the ‘God’ subtype does but it seems strangely familiar to another to another CCG I played, Epic. I remember the ‘God’ type being talked about , but that was right before the game ceased to exist. However, I vaguely remember it being meant as a blatant rip-off of the planeswalker card type. Oh well…

Let’s examine this multi-faceted card.

I’m not entirely sure if the ‘isn’t a creature’ ability applies only when it’s in play or regardless of what zone it’s in. We will probably have to wait for the Theros FAQ for confirmation. It is a nice bonus even if it doesn’t feel that way. You basically have a kind of swiss army knife enchantment.

You get to scry every upkeep, reminiscent of Sensei’s Divining Top, only not as broken. You have protection from things that would otherwise destroy enchantments, since it’s indestructible even in enchantment form. You can cast a board whipe like Supreme Verdict since it’s also indestructible in creature form. Oh, and just in case you decided you need to win, you can make it or any other creature you control indestructible. In essence, this thing is like a planeswalker without actually being one.

The answers to it are going to be things like Detention Sphere and Celestial Flare or an instant ‘exile target creature or enchantment’ effect. So basically if you think this card is rated ‘R’ (for Retarded), you are very much correct. Thessa is going to cause a lot of headaches for the next 2 years. Of that you can be sure!

More to come …

 

Stay tuned for Wave 2