Paupularity Contest: Theros Top 10

For many years between Lorwyn and Innistrad I complained that the design of sets had become increasingly poor. Rares became more and more overpowered and polarizing, some were ridiculous and some were just ridiculously awful. Meanwhile, cards of lower rarities became essentially irrelevant. A variety of factors led into this, but the main consequences were that booster packs increased in price, but decreased in value; Limited environments became particularly stagnant, weighed down by uninteresting gimicks and impossible-to-defeat bombs; cards no one cared about got reprinted with abandon and the high-profile cards people wanted went under-printed (with the notable exceptions of Titans and some Planeswalkers). I was fed up. Suddenly, a change came! Innistrad drops and the world is upside down. We have commons in the tier one decks of every single format. Delver dominates Standard, Modern, Legacy, and even sometimes Limited for months on end. The draft format is fresh and engaging. It requires skill and there are clearly defined archetypes in addition to the typical two color nonsense decks. There are common/uncommon combos being discovered even late into the pro season. I was so excited. There were constructed quality cards at every rarity! Imagine that! Well the trend has continued through RtR block and now here we have Theros, which looks to be one of the juiciest sets ever. There is quality everywhere you look on this plane.

That was a lot of preamble, I know, but I am trying to cope with the wellspring of emotions that I am feeling. This is a rare thing for me, you see. Today, I am going to be breaking down my Top 10 new commons from Theros. Let us jump right in!

Honorable Mention: Boulderfall
I get a huge kick out of this card. Brad Nelson, in The Magic Show's Theros Set Review called it "just Bogarden, because you don't get the Hellkite." I think that's funny enough to warrant a mention, but the card really is pretty sweet. This format looks to be a little on the slow side and removal spells will be at a premium. I am eagerly awaiting the first time I get to send one point of damage at my own guy to trigger a Heroic ability. In that context, this card is the Overrun of the Heroic decks; it pumps your whole team and you just send in the clowns, let them sort out the blockers. This card is pretty far away from being Rolling Thunder, but let's face it. Rolling Thunder is o.p. It was later fixed as a more expensive Rare...and then subsequently un-fixed a decade later as a potentially less expensive mythic, oh well.

#10 Voyage's End
A little bit of a strange pick here. This card doesn't read like the cards people typically get excited about. This isn't flashy. It's not a bomb. It probably isn't a high draft pick. But what it does, it does well. A strong tempo card that will fill out your deck and win some games. With so many Enchantments in the set this will rarely be pure card disadvantage. This reminds me of Vapor Snag, a burst of tempo with a small but tangible benefit attached. In aggressive decks Scry finds gas to help keep the pressure on. When you have to use this on defense it isn't as good, but the Scry effect will help you find a more permanent answer a lands to drop a big blocker.




#9 Two-Headed Cerberus
This little guy is pretty sweet. 2/3 Vanilla creatures for three mana have become pretty standard at common in recent sets. Which is a cool thing to see. Grey Ogres were never exciting and always felt strange when compared to Bears. They have a higher cost so it sends a bad message in design if they aren't superior in some way. The power/cost curve is central to the integrity of the game, although it often feels like it is defined by exceptions instead of the rules.

This creature is a cool upgrade to a standard 2/3. It's first point of damage has first strike and it packs on a huge upside if you can increase its power. Double Strike gets out of hand very quickly and if it gets above 4 you basically have The Abyss.



#8 Aqueous Form
It is hard to underestimate this card. It has a lot of raw power and as the game goes on it makes it almost impossible to lose. The immediate damage provided by having an unblockable threat is backed up by recurring card selection letting you out gas your opponent in long-sequence exchanges. These pseudo-race situations occur pretty often in Commander. This isn't some janky combat trick. This is an engine and the output is beatdownz.



#7 Cavalry Pegasus
Take to the sky! Giving your whole brute squad evasion is pretty sick and definitely worth much more than two mana. This is an efficient, low-cost beater than can quickly begin chipping away in your opponents life total early in the game and represent a crazy breakthrough attack later in the game. The fact that this can play the same role as an Overrun and just push through lethal in a board stall makes it an excellent draw later in the game as well. This only does one thing, but it does it very well. I expect to be seeing a lot of this card on my opponent's side of the Pauper table.


#6 Minotaur Skullcleaver
Inner-Flame Acolyte and Viashino Firstblade are super sweet aggressive threats. This is much easier to cast and therefore a pretty significant improvement. Four is a substantial amount of damage and later in the game people are not going to want to take a hit like that. This will create situations where you can set up a favorable trade or even a chump block. Haste is a proven quantity. It's awesome. It wins games.

#5 Akroan Crusader
Tokens are super sweet. It only takes a few for them to really start paying dividends and if you really get a chance to go off you sometimes end up with so many that you can't ever lose. One drops are also super sweet. They don't really have to do much before paying dividends either. Sometimes early pressure can put you so far ahead that your opponent will have trouble coming back even if they stabilize. Sometimes you opponent is able to keep pace and outclass your one drops with bigger threats. The cool thing about crusader is that he can stay on the table and still be relevant even if he isn't attacking.



#4 Leafcrown Drayd
I see this as a DIY Thragtusk at common. Check it out, if you Bestow this onto a reasonably sized guy then you will be getting a pretty sizeable body on the board. If they deal with your monster, it leaves behind a smaller replacement guy in its place. Reach isn't exactly the same thing as five life, but oh well, what can you do? This is an awful lot of value for a card that can also fill the curve just like a regular two drop. Commons usually aren't this good people, this is something to get excited about!



#3 Nimbus Naiad
I am unsure about these next two. I have gone back and forth about which is better. This card reminds me a lot of Drake Umbra, which some of you may recall was absolutely insane in limited. That card was an uncommon and when the creature got destroyed you just had to ditch the aura. Naiad gives you a similarly huge flier for the same cost, but when it gets removed you are left with a creature that still has Flying. Wind Drake now with added value.



#2 Breaching Hippocamp
Look guys. I am not going to try and defend the flavor. It is bad. I don't know why the horse if a fish. I don't know why it jumps out of the water. I get that the surprise attack from below the surface is modelling Flash, but I don't get how that maps onto untapping another guy. Luckily though, this card is crazy good. Having three power means that it will probably be able to trade straight accross with one of your opponents creatures, so in that sense it is basically like a clunky removal spell. The extra blocker is a huge kicker though. You will usually get to just eat one of your opponent's attackers for free. I can't wait to finally use my Ulamog's Crusher on defense, this is going to be so sick. Even if you can't force any awkward combat exchanges or generate any card advantage this is still a relevant, albeit unimpressive, body. It can attack and pick up swords just like everybody else. Any creature is good on an empty board.

#1 Read the Bones
Read 'em and wheep! You might have been able to guess this was going to make an appearence on the list based on how I gushed for it in the set review. I can't help it. This card is the bees knees and everybody knows you shouldn't threaten your old Grandpa with a good draw spell. I will take advantage of that every time. I won't beat around the bush; I am unabashedly saying this: You will see this card in tournament decks. This is Top 8 deck list kind of stuff.

I am excited by the flavor text as well. It sets up so many jokes about learning your lesson and it is actually appropriate and relevant in actual teaching situations.

That's all for today Zoners. See you next week.

-GG