So fellow MTG fans, as most of you already know, the Theros set has been completely spoiled from the MTGO leak. I've already begun updating the card database on Tappedout.net so the community there can playtest how cards interact in the upcoming standard. I am ShadowLand on there, just to unveil my identity in case, you know, you were interested. A shameless plug for TappedOut as well, I love the website and would highly recommend it for playtesting and building decks, its a well utilized tool and a great community for both trading and just bouncing ideas off of people. If you get a chance, go check it out.
Anyways, I digress. Back to what's at hand, and that being Theros. I'm not going to lie, this set is almost overwhelming with the options presented. There are SO many ways to branch out in this, it's almost hard to pick a direction. So I just want to go over a few cards right now that catch my eye as being possible meta changers in their own rights.
Let's go through this by color just to make it easier. We'll start with my favorite color of course, black. Which I might add, with this set there is a very real possibility to have a strong mono black out there.
Now first up is this guy, the God of the Dead. His static ability alone could be devastating to Life Gain (LG) decks.
The Indestructibilty is a nice feature when he is a creature, and the card draw is excellent for a black deck.
Looking forward, I see this pairing nicely with things like Blood Scrivener and Read the Bones, as far as card draw for black decks is concerned.
The problems I forsee with him, are he is very subject to Enchantment removal in this set, so have your counterspells ready. In my opinion, he is probably going to be best paired in with either Blue or White, or a combo of both. But we will see for sure.
This pretty much takes the mainboard spot for removal in any deck playing black. I will be sideboarding my Putrefy's to make room for these in my Golgari Lotleth Troll deck.
The added or planeswalker makes all the difference in the world.
The drawback, easily counterable, but that's why they invented the sideboard. Still, all in all, a playable card.
My prediction is that this will see standard as the common removal go to, with other options sideboarded in decks that include a heavy Swamp base.
This is one of my favorites. If you just look at what it does, it's amazing. This is going to be a creature heavy, drawn-out-game set, and that means trading lots of creatures. And even if you are using re-animator or something of the like, it still feeds off of everything in their graveyard as well.
There are less drawbacks to this card if you play it for its Bestow cost, because if it gets countered, it automatically becomes a creature, if the target creature it's attached to were to be destroyed, it becomes a creature. So you get at least 2 uses out of it.
My opinion, is that this card will be widely ignored, even though it has a ton of potential. If I decide to run a mono black deck, next to things like this, Hythonia, the Cruel
Hythonia that will be devestating if you drop a Nighthowler on them late game.
And then of course we have the black bombshell of the set, the removal before it even gets played. Sure, it costs 2 life, but who wouldn't pay 2 life to get rid of the opponents best card?
I see a drawback to this in the form of not knowing the opportune time to play this. But cards like Duress
will help with figuring out the best times to play the Thoughtseize.
I see this card being a bomb in midrange control decks, as well as even a few aggro decks that want to get lucky.
And now there is this. Linked with Erebos, would give you lifelink and your opponent cannot gain life. Plus, it lets you return a creature from your graveyard for a turn to do even more damage.
The downside is it costs 4 mana, and of course is subject to enchantment removal. That's pretty much it.
I see this working well in conjunction with things like Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
once it's been brought back, you could use it to semi-Fling
something at the opponent before the end phase of combat, so it ends up dealing it's damage twice. Also would be great to use in conjunction with Lotleth Troll
Caption to discard to pump your troll and then re-animate the card to actually get it's use and then use Jarad to deal another set of damage. Needless to say, it has many functional uses.
Let's go over a couple that aren't rares that strike my fancy in black. There are a select few that I will feature and discuss here, some because I like them and some because I just want to rant about them.
This is one I actually want to talk about here for a minute. At first glance it seems like it's not much to look at. But if you really think about it, in a deck that uses the Whip of Erebos featured just before this one. This guy can really turn a swing in a mono-black deck.
I mean, you have to have 5 mana to cast him, so by turn 5 if you have this guy in your hand, you have the potential to have at the very least 5 devotion if not more on the field, so he is hitting for a total of 7 damage straight to the head and netting you 7 life right back. And he is a solid blocker at a 2/4.
Now I don't see him getting much play realistically, because he will be overlooked as people continue to try and play 2-3 color decks. But in a mono black deck, I really think he deserves at the very least a sideboard slot.
This I see being very useful for the re-animator scene, I like it, and I will most definitely be using it. I mean, it serves the same function as the Whip of Erebos, an easier to reach CMC with the one Black over two, and you get to recast them from your hand and they stick around. Not bad at all.Somehow or another I see a Zombie deck coming, and it really wasn't what I expected to see with a Greek themed set release.
Once again, not sure it will hit a top deck, but I see it being extremely useful.
I'm not really sure why this is a common. I mean, it's SO good. Especially with all the Life Gain out there right now. Even in mono black we have LG, so why not.
If we follow the order. I get to look at the top two cards, choose one or both that I want to draw, then draw two cards. Then lose 2 life. Just perfect for fixing your card draws. Fits great with an Erebos, God of the Dead card draw function. And will work great with a Blood Scrivener type deck as well.
I dig it. You still got a blocker, but all of your cool abilities are gone. Seems like a perfect control card to me.
Drawback, ummmmm, enchantment removal perhaps . . .
Won't really do anything except be a great draft card for the set, and maybe see some constructed mono-black and mid-rangey control decks.
And now for my rant. I don't like cards like this, never have. It serves such a limited purpose that it's almost virtually useless. I mean it might, MIGHT get used to destroy a multicolored creature, but chances are, you are going to go with something like Murder or Doom Blade rather than this. It will never even deserve a sideboard slot. Useless waste of a small piece of cardboard. Its a decent sideboard in limited, but then again, in limited, every card is your sideboard, so you might use it then. It might be the LAST card you pick in a draft when it gets handed to you because nobody else picked it.
I digress.
It may just be me, but I don't really understand the point of this card. Yes, it's a 2/2 for 2, but it taps when something else dies . . . I mean, what use is that to anyone? It seems like the kind of thing that could have just not been on there and left it as a vanilla card.
It's not like we have a card out there right now, currently that says whenever a creature becomes tapped deal X damage to opponent that is it's devotion to a certain color.
But yeah, it may be a decent draft card if it's in your colors, but I don't ever see this hitting even constructed.
So there's my wrap of the black coming out in this set. If I missed something you would like to see my opinion on (because of course I didn't get to everything, after all I have 4 more colors and then multicolored yet to get to before this weekend) then please leave a comment and I will definitely go back and cover it for you! Look forward to my next post (hopefully tomorrow) as I cover the Blue in this upcoming Theros release. As always, thank you for reading, and please come again and check us out.
