We've got some fun stuff to look at today as we continue with new spoilers for MTG's next expansion, Theros: Beyond Death. This set will release on January 16 for MTG Arena and on the 17th for physical cards. Do you think any of these revealed today are going to be auto-includes in standard? What are your thoughts?
Card revealed by Ladee Danger
Card revealed by Magic Mics
Card revealed by Cool Stuff Inc.
Card revealed by Card Kingdom
Card revealed by Dicebreaker
Card revealed by Eurogamer.de
Card revealed by InMagic Daum Café
Card revealed by Making Magic - Daily MTG
Card revealed by MTG Taiwan FB
Card revealed by Michael Sigrist
Card revealed by The Vorthos Cast
Card revealed by Weibo
Card revealed by Young Mage
Card revealed by MTGArena
Comments
Pharika's Spawn doesn't look to promising. In limited it will probably be super good just for being two okay creatures bundles into one card, but it is far too slow and unimpactful in constructed.
Nessian Board is probably going to end up being bad except for a finisher. The extra stats will probably be irrelevant most of the time, and forcing your opponent's creatures to block isn't good when your opponent gets to refill their hand. The only way this will end up being good is if you need a way to get all of your other creatures past your opponent's blockers. But we already have Prized Unicorn, which is admittedly smaller, but with an effect like this that doesn't really matter.
Nylea's Intervention isn't a good card. Tutoring lands is great except they go into your hand so you can still only play one a turn. Sucking all of the lands out of your library does mean you are going to draw more spells in the future, but it is still far too slow. Being able to destroy flyers is nice but that isn't enough to make the card good.
Drag to the Underworld is exactly the kind of card that I am going to end falling in love with (Murder is probably my favorite Magic card), black, instant, cheap, hard removal. It is not a bad card, amazing for limited. This is better than a lot of other removal spells out there (Such as Consign to the Pit). If you can control one or two black permanents then this is 2 mana destroy anything instant, which is amazing. This will probably end up out-classing Murder, but still be worse than Murderous Rider.
Tectonic Giant is interesting, it can either push extra damage, or give you a little extra steam, this will be a no brainer pick in draft, and it might end up seeing play in red aggro decks in the future. If you can get it to survive attacking more than once then you can get a lot of value from this. The only way I see this not being played is if it simply ends up being too slow. Mono-red aggro decks are amongst the most aggressive decks in standard, they have a super low mana curve, so a 4 mana card that doesn't do anything the turn you play it and won't reliably make it until the turn after will probably end up getting cut for faster, more reliable cards.
Blood Aspirant is interesting, I am always open to aristocrat-type cards, but this probably needs more setup than aggro decks want. You have to have extra mana and an extra creature to make this work. You are sacrificing a potential attacker and tapping a potential attacker to get rid of a single blocker, this better be a big blocker and that better be a small creature you sacrificed. If you are playing a deck that really cares about sacrificing things and getting things into the graveyard and whatnot then you might consider this card, but I don't think any competitive deck wants this.
Arasta of the Endless Webs looks interesting, Mammoth Spider is one of my favorite draft picks. It has prime stats plus reach, this will ward off some attackers. The extra mini-spiders will be useful, they won't be the reason the card is good because they rely on your opponent playing the right kind of deck for them to work, but they are a bonus. This will not be a must-have, but it looks like fun in the right midrange deck.
Polukranos, Unchained looks redonkulous, there is just so much going on with the card. 4 mana 6/6 but then it is a 6 mana 12/12 with escape and it takes a ton of hits to kill but it also gets smaller and it is able to fight other things. For self-mill decks this looks like it will be good, by turn 6 you can probably get this into your graveyard, and a 12/12 on turn 6 is incredible. Made even better by the fact that it can kill any blockers before the attack faze via it's triggered ability and then go face for 9-10 damage. There are other cards that work similarly with the +1/+1 counters and they lose a counter when they get hit such as Ugin's Conjurant or Oathsworn Knight, but they are all burdened with heavy downsides, or simply lack of upsides, btu Polukranos has enough upsides to warrant being played in a deck. *edit* nevermind I just noticed that it lost a +1/+1 counter for each point of damage it took, I thought that it lost a single +1/+1 counter whenever it took damage. This card is bad and I am a little disappointed.
Rebirth for Glory seems interesting, There are plenty of other 5 mana cards that put creatures from the graveyard onto the battlefield and none of them have really seen play. The fact that this can bring back an aura might make the difference, but I just don't know what you would do with this, maybe there is a combo where you make a big creature with haste/flying/a ton of attack/lifelink or something like that. I don't know all of the creatures and auras that you can combine, but there might be something there for johnny players to play around with.
Wavebreak Hippocamp looks like it will end up seeing play somewhere, but I don't see any competitive decks using this. There is such thing as a 'flash' deck where you don't play any cards on your turn and your deck is full of counterspells and flash creatures, maybe that deck needs more draw and this card will be a huge help. The issue is that this doesn't have flash so it can only be played on your turn and you don't want to be spending mana on your turn.
Final Death is just a reprint of Final Reward just with a different name. Final Reward wasn't played, so this won't be. There are better, cheaper ways to remove a creature.
Omen of the Sea looks amazing. It is basically just Opt with an extra scry for an extra mana. But on top of that you get the extra scry later in the game and it is an enchantment for enchantment synergies and it has a mana cost for devotion synergies. The best part is that you can do all of this stuff at instant speed. This is a nice little way to cycle through your hand and deck, there is a deck somewhere that wants this.
Nyx Herald is not going to be played very much. It is synergy with enchantment creatures and auras, and that is nice. But is a small buff on a small creature that requires a lot of build-around. Even if you get this "enchantment" deck to work out you still wouldn't want to play this guy, there are just better cards in the game you can play instead.
Stinging Lionfish, like Wavebreak Hippocamp, looks powerful and like it might help the aforementioned 'flash' deck, but it might not be used for the simple fact that it doesn't have flash. But who knows, maybe the deck will allow some non-instant speed cards in the list if the payoff turns out to be good enough, and so far the payoff looks big enough. Just keep in mind that these effects will only trigger once per round, this is "the first card you play on your opponent's turn" not "each card you play in your opponent's turn".