More Theros Stuff: Gods and Monsters, for Scrying out loud!

Zoners, Planeswalkers, whatever you consider yourself, welcome to yet another Theros article.

Good(?) Gods, It's Time to Scry

So GG has talked a lot about the Theros set and UL mentioned a whole lot of legendary stuff, so Thassa's already been talked about quite a bit.

Still, she strikes my fancy. I know she's not the most blue card out there, but I like what she bring to the table though. I've had many a deck focused around library manipulation in order to get the most out of cards like Djinn of Wishes, Conundrum Sphinx, and Future Sight.

Planning future plays is helpful and a big part of my style as a Blue player. In a "God" creature type, I expect some foresight and mystical fortune-teller-esque abilities. Thassa delivers.

Scry 1 doesn't sound like much, but it can prevent an annoying land to get in the way of that crucial part of your combo, or get an annoying non-land out of the way so you can get another land drop in.

Other cards in this set that make me happy:

This soldier is a 2/2 for two, already a good start. I mentioned last time that I wasn't all that impressed with Heroic, but then I saw this card.

I'm still not going to say that I like Heroic, but in terms of this card, it kind of makes sense. The more spells cast on him, the stronger he gets and the more cards you get to preview/stack in your favor. His trigger makes him a hero in my book.




Now here's a little something nice. Control with a touch of control.

Counter spells have seemed to get better (for the most part) in recent MTG sets. Render Silent was my favorite from Ravnica, but Syncopate was another good one from that block, and who could forget the ubiquitous Dissipate reprint from Innistrad.

Now, Dissolve here isn't as powerful of a counter spell, but it does two things that I like, and at not much of an extra cost. Why Cancel when you can counter and look ahead at your own deck?

For fans of Condescend, this card may be laughable, but I say that it's worth putting in a deck alongside the beloved Condescend. Don't settle on one over the other I say; have your cake and slightly less appealing sweet bread with it.




This card will conclude my ramblings about the benefits of the Scry mechanic.

What I see in this card is a less powerful, but cheaper and easily repeatable Sphinx of Uthuun. The purpose of Fact or Fiction is to get card advantage and choice. The purpose of this is to stack the library so that future card draws are more fruitful. It is loosely comparable.

What makes this click for me is the beauty of Scrying each attack. High toughness and evasion will let it attack as much as possible.

The card's first ability is also a point of interest. Discarding a card to give it Hexproof until end of turn seems like a great idea, but tap it as well? Maybe not the best choice that Wizards has made, but balance is necessary for limited so trade-offs are inevitable.

"Ooooh... Look at that Big Scary Monster"

Monstrosity is a new keyword which has caught some attention. There's even a duel deck Heroes vs. Monsters out, which, you guessed it, features a preview of Heroic and Monstrosity as new mechanics.

This mechanic is almost more confusing than Heroic to me, though, so I'm uneasy about what types of shenanigans this will bring to MTG. I have to ask myself: What exactly makes a creature Monstrous? Is it the fact that it gets X counters on it? What if it loses the counters? Will it function in a similar manner to Undying if it does lose Monstrous along with the counters? Why does it cost so damn much? You get the gist of my concerns.

As expected with anything dealing with classical Greek literature, these monsters have a nice mythological flavor to them (in name only at least).

Here, we have a new kraken to add to the Blue late-game beat-down cards. It's like a more powerful Dungeon Geists without flying. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Turn 6 it can come out, and two turns later you could theoretically have a 10/10.

That may be cool, but you're still spending a lot of mana on it. 14 mana to be exact, for those who, like me, aren't the best at arithmetic.

Is it worth it? For me, that's hard to answer. I can't justify this card until I see it in use, but based on how it works, it will have all the faults that Dungeon Geists or any of those other "tap creature as long as you control ________" cards. It's too easy to get around. And without Islandwalk, Unblockable, or any other offensive boost, it's a rather poor excuse for a kraken creature.

If I'm spending 14 mana on a sea monster, I want it to be totally awesome, which means it could at least have Shroud so no one can blow it up with a kill spell or Trample so that it can still deal damage against puny blockers.

But anyway, what do I know about monsters?

Until next time Planeswalkers, just keep playing and whenever someone drops a monstrosity, just kick it in the nards.

-VJ



Theros Set Review: The Legends

Earlier this week, Grandpa kicked off the set review with some of the better threats in Theros (say that five times fast).

Today though, we're going to take a quick break from GG's review and extend the conversation we had on the Stack last weekend about the Gods, and by extension, the rest of the Legends from Theros.

QUICK OVERVIEW

For those who haven't figured it out yet, I am a rankings slave. I love Top 5 lists almost as much as I love land.

Therefore, we're going to be doing this a little different than GG's card-and-chat style. Continuing in the same vein as last weekend's Stack installment, we've got my real ranks for the Gods, as well as some of the other newer options for Commanders out of Theros.

THE GODS, AND MY RANKINGS

I feel I may be repeating one of my TGZ homies, maybe even myself, when I say that I believe all of these cards are going to be played in Commander.

There are three main reasons why, and they're printed on every single card:

Indestructibility
Pretty self-explanatory, but in case you didn't hear what GG said about Fleecemane Lion on Tuesday, here's the gist. Mass Removal is much more prevalent in this format than the kinds of spot removal required to get these cards out of here.

Aggressive costs
The value is enormous. In general they provide a solid set of card advantage and function at a fraction of the price. We've also talked before about the CMC-to-P & T ratio. Devotion obviously makes this a little more "fair" in terms of these cards being creatures, but it still doesn't make up the difference. EDH is the big game format. Nothing's going to stop people from getting an attack with Devotion if you can help it.

Devotion
I have a feeling most people will be playing a preventative style game around the gods, keeping people off of the Devotion trigger to avoid Commander damage or extra beatings.

Let's be real though. Just the presence of one of these guys is good enough. We don't always play Commanders simply because we want to smash face with them. In fact, I'd argue the better decks in most metagames are probably ones where your Commander isn't smashing face every turn.

Also, remember that in the same way that Devotion may keep your Commander from being a creature, it also keeps your Commander from being exposed to the more commonly used pieces of spot removal in the format- Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile. This makes some of the Gods that need to be creatures a lot worse, but it makes most of them better.

The flexibility makes for some great design space too. The Gods that I ranked higher tended to be useful in either sphere, supporting designs that could manage both sides of devotion.

Gods Ranked as Commanders

5. Nylea, God of the Hunt
Again, this doesn't mean she's terrible, just comparatively not as good when compared to the other Gods. Having a 6/6 indestructible creature is good value- it just doesn't go too much further than that. She's definitely the one I most expect to show up as a creature. Green puts a lot of G's in their converted mana cost, and they tend to have more stuff on the table versus other decks.

As herself, she doesn't pose much of a threat though- even when devotion is activated. Most noticeably, she doesn't give herself Trample, which doesn't sit well with me. Also, opponents will have a field day interacting with her Devotion because of Wrath and having Disk/O-Stone effects sitting up on an opponent's turn. The bottom line is Nylea still needs dudes to win, and that's a plan that can be most easily dealt with if she's your Commander. In terms of Mono-Green, there's just better options for that.

4. Heliod, God of the Sun
Heliod is surprisingly not the worst here. It is a little more expensive for his tokens, but there's also some extra value to be had with some of the better white cards in the format. Serra's Sanctum and Ajani's Chosen provide great support and combo potential, and with access to other tutelage, this is a perfect "enchantment-themed" deck, if you're into that.

This is the one I'm most unsure about. If I'm playing against him, I don't think I care about whether or not he's a creature. His tokens aren't going to turn on Devotion either, and I find it hard pressed to think of a white card with four W's in its cost. That just doesn't exist.

I imagine this one being pretty mediocre overall. There's a Wrath/Tempo game that could be played, but it just involves too many White mana symbols, and it looks like a lot of work. Heliod's probably just another option in White for breaking Skullclamp.

3. Purphoros, God of the Forge
This is actually the card I'm most excited about, but he's gonna be so-so as a Commander. I'm still sure Krenko is a better to have for consistent token generating, but that's what Purphy's going to want to do. Whittle down life totals to enable aggro beats.

The upside is that he probably won't become a creature if all you're doing is making tokens- so removal isn't going to help your opponent so much. The bad news is you're still playing Red, which has a lot more ways to make tokens than it used to, but probably still isn't enough.

Overall, I think Hidetsugu is probably just quicker at doing this same thing- but if you like tokens, and you wanna take a shot, I think the space is there for this deck.

2. Thassa, God of the Sea
Probably going to be the most unfair, due to counterspell access to protect devotion and the ability to get there with Commander damage that you can send unblocked. With her Bident, all the scrying she does is incredibly efficient, and it inhibits an even more definitive mono-U Aggro-Control strategy than Thada Adel.

I really see no downsides. There's no fairness, and no way anyone wins a game against it without some serious battling. Gonna be almost too good. It doesn't have to commit to a serious amount of creatures like Azami does, so it can focus its threats and play a lot of counterspells while also getting damage in. Thassa is going to be featured in a metagame near you. I've already heard it said in mine.

1. Erebos, God of the Dead
Like GG, I'm also excited about this one. Consistent ways to stop incremental life gain is incredibly underrated, and will be great against mirror matches that rely on Exsanguinate. It's not Phyrexian Arena, but card draw is still card draw, and there's plenty of ways to make it up.

Of all the Gods, Erebos is the most equipped to handle the Devotion/Non-Devotion modes I was talking about. Being a 5/7 is sort of irrelevant when you're indestructible, but it's the highest toughness of all of them, so it seems a little better as a chump blocker. I'm guessing that this will be a big function when you tell everyone they can't gain life.

Having this in your Command Zone is a thousand times better than having to waste a tutor on it. The power of having relevant hate that's tough to deal with oozing and flowing out of this card.

Gods Ranked as Support Cards

5. Heliod, God of the Sun
Sure, he's more tutorable- but I can't find a situation where I want to waste a tutor on this. Multicolored decks aren't going to want to be friends with him any more than his home in mono-W. That tutor probably also wants to be another Land Tax, if that's the case.

Again, I'm really unsure how he's going to get played- and I think pre-sale values reflect accurately just how much weaker the card representing "Zeus" really is.

4. Nylea, God of the Hunt
Not being the center of attention helps Nylea's case a little bit. I'm unsure how Trample is going to be though, and here's why. Most Green decks are going to have access to this, so it might be redundant. Also, her chances of getting in for damage increase slightly, being that she's no longer threatening to kill someone with 21 damage.

3. Erebos, God of the Dead
Erebos gets worse as a support card, in my opinion. At four CMC, Erebos is the first card an Erebos EDH is probably going to play unless an opponent plays a relevant threat. He wants to be out and available as early as possible, and putting him in the deck versus making him a Commander doesn't help you much. Drawing cards and paying life are much easier to do early on in the game. Also, drawing into life gain is probably what you want to be doing anyway.

2. Thassa, God of the Sea
Thassa is the most reliable card, which is to be expected. Unlike Nylea and Heliod, Thassa is one of the most useable threats across color lines. Lots of decks would love access to her. She's tutorable with Zur and Transmute-able via Drift of Phantasms. It's stupid how good she is.

1. Purphoros, God of the Forge
So perhaps this is a little biased, but I think he will be one of the most welcomed additions to some of the weirder token and dude-based decks that have come out in the last couple years. Animar, Ruric Thar, Rosheen Meanderer/Wort, Rith, Krenko/Ib Halfheart, and the relatively new Anax and Cymede deck will all seriously value the extra damage. It's a sleeper, and kind of a stretch, but I think it is more of a need for these kinds of decks than Thassa is to whatever deck she fits into.

NOW, FOR THE REST OF THE SET...

We start with one we've had plenty of time to talk about.

Honestly, I'm not a big fan of Boros. Different people mean different things when they make a statement like this. Sometimes it means bias. If you were to hear GG say it, that usually means he wouldn't be caught dead playing it.

For me, saying "I'm not a big fan of Boros," will probably mean, "I'm really bad at playing this color combination. I need to improve."

I actually like A&C. Not sure I'll play it, but I think it's definitely a card people have not fully understood yet.

(Combat) Trick Voltron is much more possible than people realize yet. Several months ago I helped to design a fairly casual but pretty quick Lu Bu deck aimed at playing spells to pump up Lu Bu and give him extra combat phases, etc.

I see a good version of this deck being similar to Lu Bu, possibly quicker.


There's one thing we can like about this card, and none of these things can be found in Anthousa's text box. I really dig this art, and I'm sure someone's going to come up with a real hipster-y deck here, but seriously- don't try. This is extremely unplayable.

I'm even more skeptical about the flavor here. You're telling me that Anthousa, the very hero of Setessa, a woman that can hold two minotaurs in a chokehold, is AT BEST going to turn a few lands into creatures? And Wizards' plan was to PRINT THIS CARD?

This is the exact kind of card that would make me lose all my confidence in Chancellor Valorum, if he existed, and I was part of the Galactic Senate. I get that not all cards are things I'm supposed to like. I don't see why that sometimes means making cards no one wants to play.

And then we have the beatdowns.

Kids, this is the hero we need right now. I will be bringing him to a theater near me shortly after he comes out, and I'm relatively excited about it.

I liken Daxos to a potentially more abusive Thada Adel. Though his ability doesn't give you the opportunity to search for what you want, it's going to be a house against creature-heavy metagames.

The lifegain provides another great dimension for design space too. Equip this guy and go to work. He's going to be a house.

Faith restored. Onto the next lull in this rollercoaster ride.

Okay. Hythonia is not bad. Loved the artwork when I watched the Comic-Con presentation.

I just wanted it to be two colors- and I was hoping for some blue. The Mermaid tail had me hopeful. It'd be a whole lot more exciting, even if it was traditional Gorgon Black/Green.

Don't get me wrong. This is a quality threat. Wraths that create advantages for you are always welcome in my decks. Deathtouch furthers its presence as a "rattlesnake" card, either swaying opponents from attacking, or keeping blockers away early. Making her monstrous not only eliminates threats, but also puts your opponents on a short three-turn clock. And if you activate her during attacks, chances are that clock could be even smaller.

Perhaps the most unfair card they printed for Commander in this set is this- the most ageless of Sphinx Technology.

This is one I'm not particularly happy about for our cozy little Magic variant. I find it to be more offensive than the Gods.

Someone over at R&D is really pushing these oppressive U/W cards out like a fiend. Render Silent, Lavinia, and now Medomai.

I wish they'd spread the hate around a little. In my playgroup we talk a lot about the Timmy/Johnny/Spike aspect, and there's a working theory that there is a couple hidden player types.

If this theory is true, this is definitely a card for Dave, the "Asshole."

I like powerful cards, but this is just too much.

Speaking of which, it's time to talk about Wizards' latest fetish.

This is particularly exciting to me. I like a lot of the fight-style cards that Wizards has created, and I'm glad the two of us could find a nice compromise between their insatiable desire to make everything Hydra-powered, and my need for cool creatures that provide removal.

Polukranos also sports a great CMC-to-P/T ratio. I like him both as  support card main deck and a Commander. Recasting him in Green seems very likely, and with access to things that give him deathtouch, removal has never been so easy amongst those who favor Forests.

The one thing I don't get- Why this art over the one from Heroes vs. Monsters? This close-up is a little less endearing.

My Magic OCD kicked in on this one.

Let's run down the checklist:

Name: Triad of Fates.
Artwork: Has Three People In It.
Abilities: Three.
P/T: 3/3
CMC: 4

Do you see what's wrong with this picture? There's no argument in the 'verse that can convince me this would be so busted at 1WB. It still takes a two turns to create anything. Original Teysa is 1WB, even with all her annoying combos, and it's not encroaching on similar territory at all.

It hurts my heart to see this tragic flavor slip. Normally, I wouldn't be so up in arms about a CMC, but I think this one missed the boat. There's a big difference between 3-cost and 4-cost Commanders in non-green decks, and the Triad really need all the help they can get. Without access to something like Thousand-Year Elixir, Triad will be operating on two-turn blinks, which seems slow to me. And the only other card I can think of that has fate counters is Oblivion Stone, which is even more mana-intensive.

We'll see. I'm definitely interested in trying to prove these initial reactions wrong.

The name Murder King has such a horribly wonderful ring to it. Of all the names in this block, it's one of the cooler ones.

I also like the art. The gold masks really make this piece pop.

I'm mostly worried about the rest of the card. Competing with Lyzolda is no joke. She provides a ton of flexibility (creature or player damage, and drawing cards), including the fact that the change in the sacrifice mechanic hurts Tymaret's chances at edging the Blood Witch out for control of Rakdos beats.

I see Tymaret as a decent support card, acting as a worse Lyzolda in her decks, as well as a mediocre Zombie Tribal deck or an engine-creator for Sedris Unearth builds. Nothing more.

That's what we got for today.

Per usual, we love to know what you like and don't like about what we say. So speak up if you've got an opinion.

Stay tuned as we continue to talk Theros through the weekend.

Until then, strive to be the Hero we deserve. Not the one we need right now.
-UL

All the memes in this post remixed with little success by Uncle Landdrops

Theros Spoileez Part 2

Welcome back Zoners'. Grandpa Growth here. Spoiler season is in full swing and more than half the set has been spoiled, including most of the mythics and rares! Some exciting stuff has been previewed so far and I want to share some first impressions.

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!

Paupularity Contest: Theros Spoileez

We have had some great preview cards streaming in from the Theros.

This is looking to be a power house set chock full of high quality cards for every format. We have a confirmed Thoughtseize reprint, which completely needed to happen, tons of new legendary creatures, and new threat centric mechanics: Heroic, Monstrous, and Bestow.

There is going to be plenty of discussion of the new mythics and potential generals here on The General Zone as well as other places around the MtG blogosphere, plus I will be authoring our regularly scheduled set review as soon as the full spoiler drops so I am going to leave those discussions for other days/commentators.

Today I am going to take a look at the first round of Common spoilers and tell you what I can't wait to jam into my Pauper decks/cube.

To kick things off we have the latest iteration in a long line of Green Impulse effects. Grisly Salvage in RTR block was one of the best versions of this card ever and was almost as good as the original. Being multicolor though, it was a little restrictive so it isn't ever going to see much play in Pauper.

This has more of a chance, but isn't as strong of a card. It is easier to cast, but not being an Instant hurts. Also, picking up a land is much better than an Enchantment in my book, so that is definitely a downgrade.

For limited, this is an appropriate change since the theme of the block is Enchantments. This will find an easy home in my pauper cube where green card draw is difficult to come by. This -> Citanul Woodreaders. Living the dream.


Oh boy...WE HAVE A ONE DROP! This is craziness. They block you go to pump it and get a token even if they have a response. This is just oozing value.

This could very well be the best Red one drop in Pauper. I know, I know, it is too early to start voting for Heisman, but this guy is going to be doing work. Seeing this guy really makes me wish Heroic triggered off of abilities and also your opponents junk as well.

That would be pretty insane, no? Bonesplitter this, get a guy. They kill it, you get another guy. Now they have to deal with two 1/1 instead of just the one and you still have the equipment? How sick would that nonsense have been? Probably too sick. I imagine they changed it for this reason exactly, although I haven't seen any equipment spoiled yet.

You might not have heard this, but I am huge fan of drawing cards. I loved Night's Whisper and I am still waiting for a reprint at common. I love Sign in Blood and the flexibility/reach it gave Pauper Storm decks.

This is probably too expensive for constructed Pauper, but in Pauper Commander and C/Ube it is ridiculous. Don't underestimate how good Scry is.

This is light years ahead of Divination, something that it will take Magic online drafters weeks to figure out. Beat them over the head with it until they figure it out. That's flavor. Educate people about the game with a card that models learning knowledge from the remains of the dead. I should get paid more for this kind of stuff.


In-depth analysis here: Sea Gate Oracle was good. Being cheaper is a plus, but getting to draw a card is a definite down side and kind of a bargain at 1 colorless mana (assuming you get to pick the card in both cases here). In EDH and P. Cube you are probably fine waiting an extra turn for an extra card. You will at most be taking 3 for that privelage.

In constructed Pauper you could be taking as much as 5 or 6, but the mono Blue Pauper decks were already playing Sea Gate Oracle and loving it. Altogether I think that this card is worst, but not by a whole lot. Time will tell if that conclusion is correct because I will be playing a good bit of this card I suspect.

Yes, more things to compete with Squadron Hawk! Just what I needed. This card is good no doubt. Very aggressive, evasive and an excellent topdeck on a stalled board. There are a whole slew of playable humans in Pauper so this guy jumping 3-4 of your dudes per turn isn't much of a stretch.

White Weenie/ Ramosian Rally decks want this I think. Although they are already very clogged at the two spot, like pretty much every good Pauper deck. If it isn't a straight up home run then it definitely has potential looking forward to this one.

Well, that's all I've got for today, but that is just barely scratching the surface of Theros. Five indestructible gods, three different planewalkers, a functional reprint of Searing Spear...jeez. This set was given the juice. No one is going to argue that. I expect this to rival Worldwake and Innistrad as some of the highest selling boosters of all time. Get them while they are hot kids, this set is going to get pricey fast.