I am going to try and take a look at some of the legendary creatures since I won't get a chance to talk about them in the set review. This guy is obviously very powerful. Extra turns are easily abused and often lead to completely imbalanced game states. Getting them for free sounds like a surefire way to break a game wide open. Not only do you literally generate additional tempo you also get twice as many combat steps and draw twice as many cards. Many commanders are scary with a pair of lightning greaves in play, but this could mean game over if not answered immediately. A few hits from this guy will sew up just about any game. I expect to be seeing plenty of this guy around the Commander tables.
Out of all of the God cards spoiled, I am most excited for this one. This has the perfect price tag to be dangerous. Greed is a underplayed and only slightly underpowered card. Some bonus riders are just what it needs to reach mainstream playability, like say...being an Indestructible 5/7. And your opponents can't gain life? Sure, why not? Drawing extra cards will help you commit more permanents to the board to raise your Devotion, but will also help you avoid getting blown out by mass removal. Black cards should also have easy time building your devotion up to five because of the characteristically heavy color requirements on popular cards such as Necropotence and Phyrexian Arena (can you tell I like drawing cards?). In order to beat these God cards you are basically looking at using tuck effects, of which there are very few. Exiling them once they turn into creatures isn't much of a problem, but they are so cheap that it will be purely academic. Eventually they will run out of exile effects and each of these cards plays very well in attrition situations. The Theros Gods will dramatically alter the Commander landscape, expect to see them just about everywhere.
I have to jump off the train for a second here. This card is a house. I am calling it now: this is the Green Jitte. It just offers so much flexibility. Each of these options has relevance in a typical game situation and even just gaining three life a turn when nothing important is happening should give you a great advantage in the long term. The 'primary' mode gives all of your little duders Deathtouch which is absolutely huge. It lets you trade up for nearly any of your opponents creatures on offense and gives you a nearly impenetrable defense in a board stall. With the abundance of token effects in this color you can start pumping out DIY Deadly Recluses and sending green Doomblades at your opponents grill. Pretty nasty. Of all the cards in the set this is the one I am most excited to get my hands on.
How do you ever kill it? Why?! Why is it so ridiculous? This card has been given the juice...and then was juiced a little more. I have been quoted as saying that a pure beater isn't usually good enough in cut it in EDH. Life totals are so high that small amounts of incremental damage aren't as appealing. This card looks like it could change my mind on a few things. If it goes monstrous its pretty much there for good. It will be the only thing left after every board sweep, giving you the opportunity to get in a bunch of free hits even later in the game. It can block almost anything for the entire game and Hexproof will let you hook up auras and equipment with impunity. This card is kind of out of hand. I have some serious mixed feelings about this guy. This card may not be as scary as I am imagining, but it could very well change the way that Magic in Standard and Legacy...maybe a little bit dramatic, but if Tarmogoyf were a bit smaller in exchange for being completely immune to removal would that cause quite a shake up?
Okay, back to the fancy new legends! This card looks super sweet. Tough to block, provides steady card advantage, and should give you a healthy boost in life. Even just hitting a couple extra land drops off of this would be plenty of value to satisfy me, but can you imagine flipping cheap removal? It gets even more silly if you snag a high impact cards like Solemn Simulacrum or Jace, TMS. There are sure to be a lot of new potential generals so this may not see as much play as it deserves, but keep an eye on this guy.
This is the last card I'm going to talk about today and it is definitely an interesting one. Getting to repeatedly Oblation your opponent's creatures is a pretty sweet deal, especially when it doesn't cost you a card to do so. It can also provide a steady source of card advantage by re-triggering ETB effects and acting like a walking Skullclamp. Black/White is an interesting color combination and one that could use a few more generals to choose from. This is certainly a welcome addition to the the format, but I am not quite sure where it is going to fit in yet.Well, that's all for today Zoners! Be sure to check back next week for TGZ's set review of Theros!
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