Today is the last day for scheduled spoilers for MTG's next expansion, Theros: Beyond Death (THB). The set releases for MTG Arena next week on January 16. Which color do you think got the best new cards to offer? Be sure and visit the MTG Arena website, download the client, and play for free.
Card revealed by Alliestrasza
Cards revealed by Daily MTG
This is special promo artwork available in THB promo packs.
Card revealed by Akihabara Blues
This translation has not been confirmed yet.
Hero of the Games
2R
Creature - Human Soldier
Whenever you cast a spell that targets Hero of the Games, creatures you control get +1/+0 until the end of turn.
Card revealed by Drawza
Card revealed by Olivier Rofellos
This translation has not been confirmed yet.
Acolyte of Affliction
2BG
Creature - Human Cleric
When Acolyte of Affliction enters the battlefield, put the top two cards of your library into your graveyard, then you can return a permanent card from your graveyard to your hand.
Card revealed by Shazoo.ru
This translation has not been confirmed yet.
Slaughter-Priest of Mogis
BR
Creature - Minotaur Shaman
Each time you sacrifice a permanent, Slaughter-Priest of Mogis gets +2/+0 until the end of turn.
2, Sacrifice a creature or enchantment: Slaughter-Priest of Mogis gets first strike until end of turn.
Cards revealed by Stopgame.ru
This translation has not been confirmed yet.
Protean Thaumaturge
1B
Creature - Human Wizard
Constellation - Whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, you may have Protean Thaumaturge become a copy of another target creature except it has this ability.
This translation has not been confirmed yet.
Labyrinth of Skophos
Land
T: Add (Colorless Mana)
4, T: Remove target attacking or blocking creature from combat.
Card revealed by Vgtimes.ru
This translation has not been confirmed yet.
Mischievous Chimera
UR
Enchantment Creature - Chimera
Flying
Whenever you cast your first spell during each opponent's turn, Mischievous Chimera deals 1 damage to each opponent. Scry 1.
Card revealed by Wizards Magic
Card revealed by AliasV
Card revealed by CobaltStreak
Cards revealed by Kotaku AU
Cards revealed by MtG
Comments
Dream Trawler looks very powerful, you get to draw extra cards and you can also give him Hexproof at any time you want! This will be a pretty useful win-condition for control decks.
Wolfwillow Haven is going to be played in a lot of ramp decks. It is a 2 mana ramp spell that cannot be easily removed, that is just great value. It is a little very useless in the late game, but that didn't stop ramp decks from playing Llanowar Elves.
Hero of the Games I am a little unsure about. There a lot of 'hero' cards in this set that all buff your creatures by 1 power whenever you target them with a spell. But I am a little unsure about how useful that will be, you either have to amass a lot of creatures or target the 'hero' with a lot of spells in a single turn to get a very significant buff, or you can do a little bit of both (which is what will probably happen). You are going to want to have a lot of ways to draw/tutor auras specifically, and also you are going to want a significant number of token engines. Then you can either play all of the auras on the 'hero' or simply overrun your opponent with tokens and a lot of auras. I can see this deck working if we have enough cards that can do multiple things at once, such as both making tokens and drawing auras, or auras that make tokens, or heroes that make tokens. And I do think there are enough cards like that in this set that a deck like this can be made possible.
Nessian Wanderer like most of the commons in this set will mostly only see play in draft, and this isn't a bad draft card. It is safe to assume that your draft will have a fair number of enchantments, so this will probably draw you at least one land every time you play it. A 2 mana 1/3 draw a land isn't bad, a 2 mana 1/3 is fair, but a 2 mana 1/3 draw several lands is incredible value.
Acolyte of Affliction is basically a Gravedigger but it also mills you. Gravedigger hasn't seen a whole lot of play, it is a bit slow, but milling yourself is a pretty big upside and I think that might be enough for this too see play in some sort of off-meta self mill deck. Also, this can bring back any permanent, not just a creature.
Slaughter-Priest of Mogis like most commons in this set, isn't bad for draft. There are a couple of ways to generate tokens in black/red that you wouldn't mind sacrificing, and a 4/2 First Strike is not something to ignore.
Protein Thaumaturge probably won't see any play. There are already much better ways to copy creatures in standard that don't force you to play enchantments. This creature does allow you to change from one creature to another every time an enchantment enters, but usually you don't want to change from one thing to another. Plus, this doesn't even trigger the enters-the-battlefield ability.
Labyrinth of Skophos isn't bad, I will probably play this in a lot of my control decks. Though I am not sure if the payoff is big enough for you to want to play Skophos Maze Guardian (or whatever it is called, I have seen a ton of different translations of its name).
Mischievous Chimera is a very good creature for draft. I am not too sure about in constructed though where a 2/2 flyer isn't nearly as impressive. Being able to scry and slap your opponent for 1 damage every turn is pretty useful. In a board stall this will still get damage through, plus a 2 mana 2/2 flyer is worth it by itself.
Relentless Pursuit looks pretty good. Green doesn't get too much draw, but this card is able to get you a creature and a land for 3 mana. There is a chance that you won't get a creature or land and you are paying 3 mana to only draw 1, which is pretty bad. But as long as your deck as a high concentration of creatures and enough lands, this can be a very consistent 3 mana draw 2 cards.
Shatter the Sky is awesome. 4 mana to destroy all creatures and it is in a single color which makes it way easier to play than say, Kaya's Wrath. I don't think you will care much about having a creature with power of 4 or greater when you play this, it is enough that this kills everything. If cards like Settle the Wreckage saw play, then this will too.
Entrancing Lyre is a pretty cool card. It is a colorless card and it can tap down any creature for as long as you want. But I don't think it is very good, you have to pay 3 mana to get it onto the field, and then another X to tap the creature down. It is just too slow and too much mana.
Heliod's Intervention doesn't look too good, the option to destroy artifacts and enchantments is nice, but that isn't going to be useful every game. And the gaining health option also doesn't look that great considering that this will be the option you are using most games. Amassing a ton of life usually isn't the best strategy as it doesn't actually do anything to hurt your opponent. There are decks that do care about gaining life, but they don't care about how much life they gain, they just care that they are gaining life so that they can trigger things like Ajani's Pridemate. In short, the first option is nice but not going to be useful in a lot of games, and the second option also isn't going to be useful most of the time.
Heliod's Punishment is pretty good. 2 mana to effectively kill something for four turns isn't bad. Four turns is a lot and a if you can play this early enough then by the time the creature is alive again then it will probably not be too useful. If nothing else though this can save you some time and help you survive.
Elspeth Conquers Death is interesting. The first ability may or may not be useful, you can target the thing you are killing, but sometimes you want to hit the small guys. The second ability will only sometimes be useful, what if your opponent is playing 70% creatures? Or what if they don't have non-creature spells that they want to cast this turn? This is a nice tech ability against control decks, but not reliable. The third ability is good, I cannot deny that. But I don't think it is worth 5 mana to wait 2 turns to resurrect a single creature or planeswalker. The first 2 abilities aren't impactful enough for this card to be worth it, it will probably just feel really slow and clunky to play.
Hero of the Pride is about the same as Hero of the Games which I talked about above and I don't want to write effectively the same thing twice.