We've got spoilers today for MTG's next expansion, Theros: Beyond Death. This new set will release on January 16 for MTG Arena, and on the 17th for paper pre-release events. What cards are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments section below!
Cards revealed by TheAsianAvenger
Card revealed by dogdog
Cards revealed by Vana
Card revealed by Brainstorm Brewery
Card revealed by Commanderin'
Card revealed by Day9
Cards revealed by Everyeye.it
Card revealed by Fazendo Nerdice
Cards revealed by Merfolk Podcast
Card revealed by NGA.cn
Card revealed by MTG Facebook
Comments
Nadir Kraken looks like a very useful tool for tempo/aggro/midrange blue decks in the future. 1 mana is a small price to pay to generate an extra 1/1 token every turn. It looks like there are enough tools in this set to give blue a decent creature based deck. I think what the deck is mainly missing is a way to protect your creatures similar to Dive Down. If we can get a nice card like then we should have a pretty good blue aggro/tempo deck.
Escape Velocity looks like it could be good, or it could be bad. We already have Crystal Slipper and that card doesn't see hardly any play, this card might be different though. The Slipper is 2 mana to get it on the field and then 1 mana to attach it to something, whereas Escape Velocity is 1 mana to get it on the field and 2 mana to attach it, plus it will immediately buff a creature as soon as it enters. This small difference is a very important one, it makes the card faster, and much more impactful. On a side note, that art is just amazing.
Kunoros, Hound of Athreos is incredible. Regardless of whether or not you need the anti-graveyard tech, this is still a 3 mana 3/3 Lifesteal, Vigilance, Menace, and that is super good. As we can see with cards like Questing Beast, and to some extent Zilliax, creatures with a bunch of Keywords are often very good. The only downfall is that there are so many colors that you won't be able to play it in as many decks.
Treacherous Blessing is bad. 3 mana to draw 3 is good, but then you will start to lose life until it gets targeted by a spell or ability. Your opponent won't want to target this so you will have to, so now it is 3 mana draw 3 then you have to spend one of your cards to get rid of it, which will deal at least 1 damage to you. At its very best, this will be 3 mana draw 3, lose 1 life, throw away a card from your hand.
Cling to Dust looks like it will be a decent card. It is a tech card, but it can do more than just exile things. 1 mana to draw 1 at instant speed is only slightly worse than Opt, and 1 mana to gain 3 life at instant speed is only slightly worse than Healing Salve (which is pretty bad, you probably won't be using the gain 3 option very often. Drawing cards is almost always better than gaining life). So yeah, this is basically just Opt without the scry and ability to ruin graveyard strategies. This isn't a card you would want to play unless there are graveyard decks in the meta, but this isn't a bad tech option because it is still okay even if your opponent doesn't care about the graveyard.
Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths is a very interesting card. I don't think it will see a lot of play in the competitive scene because it isn't reliable, it forces you to take risks, and your opponent is allowed to mess around with your cards. But this is a very interesting card, there is so much strategy needed from both players to make this work right. I don't think this will be any good, but it will be a lot of fun.
Idyllic Tutor isn't a bad card. You don't have to be playing an "Enchantment" deck to be playing this, you could run maybe one or two key enchantment cards and play this as well to make your deck more consistent. Obviously 3 mana is a lot to only gain a single card, so there would have to be a very powerful enchantment that needs tutoring. The playability of this card mostly depends on whether or not there is already a good white control deck, and whether or not there is a good enchantment in that deck that needs tutoring.
Heliod, Sun-Crowned already has a deck it will fit in. Orzhov Lifegain is already a deck that you can play, this card fits right in. The deck mainly wins by getting either Ajani's Pridemate or Bloodthirsty Aerialist and then gaining a ton of life to make them huge. With Heliod, you can effectively turn any creature into an Ajani's Pridemate. This may not make the deck tier one, but I know that Orzhov Lifegain players will be happy!
Banishing Light is an awesome card. For one, in limited this is amazing removal, but also in constructed this is incredible. Compare this to Murder. It isn't an instant, but it has less colors in it's cost making it easier to cast, it can hit any nonland permanent, so planeswalkers, enchantments, and artifacts are all fair game, and it exiles them. There is the possibility of the enchantment dying and your opponent getting their permanent back, but 95% of the time this enchantment will stick. Truely a 5 star removal card.
One with the Stars is interesting. Blue traditional has the worst removal (Ignoring counterspells of course) but here we are with a 4 mana straight up remove a creature. But to be fair this is a pretty bad removal card, it is very slow and it doesn't even kill planeswalkers or enchantments. Note though that if you hit an aura it will lose the aura type and become useless. Honestly, I have no idea why you would play this over cards like Kasmina's Transmutation or Frogify.
Inspire Awe is obviously meant to be played in a deck with a lot of enchantment/enchanted creatures. You can "fog" your opponent's creatures but leave yours un-touched. I don't know if this deck will take off, I don't think this card is enough to push the deck. And even if this "enchantment" deck works I don't know how good this card will be. Obviously the effect is powerful, but to gain the most value from this card you will have to have a lot of creatures on the field, and then play Inspire Awe so that your opponent's creatures will take damage and die but yours stay alive. But that won't happen every game, and you won't need this card most games. Most of the time this card will just end up being an over-costed fog.
Towering-Wave Mystic is neat but probably too bad to be played. You want to keep on hitting your opponent over and over again, but a 2/1 is pretty small and easy to block, and it will only mill 2 cards. This creature is just too small and underwhelming. There are better ways to mill, and there are better creatures to fight with.
Mire Triton is much better than the aforementioned Towering-Wave Mystic. It is still a 2/1 for 2, it still mills you 2 cards. But it also gains you life (which is fairly small), and you don't have to hit your opponent to mill yourself, plus it also has Deathtouch. This isn't a bad 2-drop, it will be relevant at all stages in the game thanks to deathtouch, and milling yourself is very useful. I am still waiting for something like Stitcher's Supplier that can just plop a ton of cards into your graveyard by itself, but until then I will be playing Mire Triton.
Aphemia, the Cacophony is not a bad card. For one it is a 2 mana 2/1 flying which will be enough for it to see play in limited, but it can also make a 2/2 Zombie every turn. This will trigger at your end step so you can start to gain value from it the same turn you play it. I could see a midrange/graveyard type deck being made with this card in it. Being able to make a free token every turn is a very powerful ability, all you have to do is keep the graveyard full. Hopefully we get more cheap self-mill cards in this set and a Graveyard deck might be viable.
Devourer of Memory is another great self-mill payoff card. This card will get +1/+1 for each card you mill, which means that you can mill yourself 3 cards and smack your opponent for 5 unblockable. This will be a very intimidating card that will keep your opponent on their toes. And the second ability will help make sure that even without any other way to mill yourself, you can do at least 3 unblockable damage each turn. Hopefully we get more cheap self-mill cards in this set and a Graveyard deck might be viable. (Please reprint Stitcher's Supplier. Please. Please? Please reprint him).
Gotta hand it to you, KANSAS. Your insight and evaluation of these new cards has been great! I've done card rating and evaluation for years, so I understand the kind of time and effort that goes into it. Thanks for sharing with us!
Thanks for the encouragement! These reviews do take up a fair amount of time and energy. There are just too many cards being revealed too quickly! When I was writing this one the internet went out and I had to restart my computer and write the whole thing again, that was pretty disappointing. And then after I had finished it another batch of cards was revealed. *Ssssssiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggghhhhhhhh*
Communion with the stars:
I'm sure by looking at that card "incantesimo - aura"
that it should read: enchant a creature or enchantment.
As aura's always read "enchantment - aura" just under the picture