Theros Beyond Death Chase Cards

Nalthazar

Hey all,

After going through the Theros Beyond Death card list a few times, I compiled what I would consider to be the prime cards to keep your eyes on as you're opening packs and which cards you should be targeting with your Mana Jewels. As always, feel free to weigh in your opinions too and let me know if you think I missed anything. Just like with the Eldraine set I broke this into two videos. One for Mythics/Masterpieces and one for Common/Uncommon/Rare cards. Spoiler alert Godsend is nuts. REALLY nuts.

PS: When I said Sunbreaker when talking about Chromanticore I meant Sunforger. Epic fail...

Mythic/Masterpiece Video:

https://youtu.be/sF9UH-6Av8E



Common/Uncommon/Rare Video:
https://youtu.be/5tgsyn-NO0I

Gunmix25

Godsend.... your explanation of how this works...good lord    

Reminds me of that clear the wreckage card that was popular for awhile... and this stays on the battlefield. 

Holy heck, dude

Nalthazar

Yeah, it is pretty nasty. So many uses.

jtwood

I don't have time to watch the videos, but I assume we're just jamming Godsend on something like Swiftblade and loving life, right?

Nalthazar

jtwood said:

I don't have time to watch the videos, but I assume we're just jamming Godsend on something like Swiftblade and loving life, right?

Or Razia yes. I also really like how it will interact with with a pair of creatures. One which has Reach or Flying + Defender/Vigilance and then the other being Szadek. With Godsend disabling the first creature in your opponent's hand during your opponent's turns it should make it so that when Greg has a creature first in their hand, if you have a consistent source of massive mana drain like Szadek, you can completely lock your opponent down barring a cascade that is able to fill up both the creature and the card behind it. Think of it as a better version of something like Insidious Will against Greg. Greg won't move cards around in its hand much. It settles on playing something, so if you can get the combo going, you should be able to negate your opponent from playing anything at all and ride the match to an easy finish like a match with Bolas 2 + his flipped 3rd ability, and an opponent with an empty hand. There are significantly more things that I go over in the video, but as you're specifically asking about Godsend, that is what I talk about regarding the card. It is SUPER powerful. 

Bil

It is even too powerful Somehow.

I Hope the blocker/blocked creature will be exiled AFTER dealing damage ... But according to the wording ...it doesnt sound so ...

On the one hand i like powerful tools, on the other hand, i don't think gamebreaking cards have a positive impact on the game ... And this one looks pretty absurd actually.

jtwood

There are answers to a support/piece equipment. You just have to adjust your deck and play style based on how often it actually comes up. 

When BSZ was everywhere, I ran Lavinia in so many decks. Now, I hardly play her in Standard. Instead, I always have some sort of versatile destruction card ready to go, like Casualties of War or Assassin’s Trophy. 

We will adjust to Godsend as long as they print answers. 

Ampersand

@Nalthazar thanks for these vids, I’m pretty excited for this set

Gunmix25

jtwood said:

There are answers to a support/piece equipment. You just have to adjust your deck and play style based on how often it actually comes up. 

When BSZ was everywhere, I ran Lavinia in so many decks. Now, I hardly play her in Standard. Instead, I always have some sort of versatile destruction card ready to go, like Casualties of War or Assassin’s Trophy. 

We will adjust to Godsend as long as they print answers. 

I agree,  I did the same thing. The Meta always changes, and in turn so must we.

Support removal is already a big thing and will likely be even bigger with the addition of the next set.  

Gunmix25

Ampersand said:

@Nalthazar thanks for these vids, I’m pretty excited for this set

I too am grateful. Thank you,  and see if you can have your cat become an honorary MP

Bil

There's always an answer ... But is it a valid reason to design gamebreaking cards?

You don't light a fire just because you know there's an extinguisher nearby. 

I'm part of the players that will have very early access to the card, but i fear it won't bring faster or funnier games ... On the contrary.

I'm probably pesimistic though...

Nalthazar

@Ampersand and @Gunmix25 thanks! I don't know about the cat becoming a MP. That cat is the devil. She knows when I am recording and even if she is sleeping upstairs and across the house, she wakes up just to be a part of the videos. Complete diva. 

Gunmix25

@Nalthazar feedback for ya buddy.  Godsend unfortunately didn't work like you thought it might.  It allows the attack to occur and resolve. The exile kicks in afterwards. Advisable to have first strike,  double strike or prevent damage on the blocking unit.  Thought you'd like to know.  Thank you for your videos.  

Kalazan

Is Godsend combined as  Gods End or God Send?...

jtwood

Kalazan said:

Is Godsend combined as  Gods End or God Send?...

God send

Nalthazar

Gunmix25 said:

@Nalthazar feedback for ya buddy.  Godsend unfortunately didn't work like you thought it might.  It allows the attack to occur and resolve. The exile kicks in afterwards. Advisable to have first strike,  double strike or prevent damage on the blocking unit.  Thought you'd like to know.  Thank you for your videos.  

Thank you! I didn't wind up getting it, so I wasn't able to test it. I'm glad they made it more reasonable. 

Aeroplane

Unfortunately, the new mechanics are quite tedious to come to into play.

 Graveyard Gems are limited like adapt gems on the board, cost is to high to summon from the graveyard, and there's no synergy between alike cards so you can't fill your deck with too many as you can be filling simple spells instead of targeted cards. Jump-start card are way more effective and easier to use and there are much better supports/spells to interact with your graveyard in standard. I don't have Gravebreaker Lamia so I don't know if she is limited to created to only 2 gems on the board at any time.


Devotion cards are way too slow  and costly for a buff that you can do summoning a creature instead of 5-7 mono cards. The passive ability on the mythic supports don't warrant an inclusion in any deck either. Erebos seems like a good card teamed with Kroxa for a draw death dealing deck, though. Gives black an unexpected quick card ramp.


Anticipation, Constellation, Heroic are fine and I can see some possibilities.


Protean Thaumaturge reminds me of Fathom Mage instead of the card draw.


Whelming Wave as there are some good Kraken cards and synergy in this set. Hydras seem to have quite of few cards to play with in standard , too.


Shadowspear is much better than all those high cost devotion mythics and only for 10 mana.


Bronzehide Lion and Haktos look good for straight up creature cards depending on the PW.

Hall of Heliod's Generosity and Atris look amazing and maybe the top cards paired with gemstones caverns.

Tilwin90

I had some good pulls from the new set but like Eldraine it feels like most of the goodies are mythics or masterpieces. Therefore I can only give my opinion on the cards got so far. 

Green feels incredibly powerful. Sure, it's the past sets supporting it in the first place but the mythics from Theros surely don't disappoint.

- Nyxbloom Ancient is a beast, and now replaces Golos in my green decks as it ramps really well. It doesn't take long into the match to start really benefiting from. I wouldn't build around it though, as ramp is just a means of getting your deck going. So no need to get it haste or double strike while washing out my deck - sooner or later it does go coo-coo really fast.

- Nylea is the only god I got, but boy is she amazing. Getting a creature every end of turn helps with objectives and makes sure you dig through the goodies. Her and Beanstalk Giant are bffs (giant triggers twice the devotion thanks to it counting on both sides, and she can fetch it and give it 2 mana immediately). The fact that she is not a creature herself is even better - instead of taking a creature slot, she is an amazing utility support.

- Godsend is good for sure with first strikers, but nowhere near as broken as people expected. It's an okay equipment, but then again I was never a fan of the swords either. If you want to build voltron-style decks, it can be fun, but it's not a game breaker.

- Shadowspear on the other hand is absolutely ridiculous. People were using Sorin for lifelink, but I feel it superseeds Sorin. The fact that it removes indestructibility and hexproof makes it super useful even if you have no creatures on the board. And that's the kind of flexibility I want from my supports to begin with.

- Eat to Extinction is good utility, though unfortunately right now people will still go for good old Casualties of War that deals with both vanguards and creatures (plus as a bonus lands and sometimes a random enchantment or artifact though I wouldn't necessarily chase those anyway).


Now onto the super bad mythics and rares:
- Nyx Lotus is so bad. I suppose after Gilded Lotus, there was a bit of fear around trying to end up with something more broken, but in its current form it's way too slow. You don't need to work that hard for devotion in one, maybe two colors, and I know how a +4 bonus looks on paper, but given the speed of matches it's not a big deal in standard. Thanks, I'll pass.
- Enigmatic Incarnation requires SO MUCH build around that in MTGPQ it's not even worth the effort. In paper magic it's a cool card, as converted mana costs are not so distanced. Would've made more sense if it fetched something with converted mana cost X-1 or less. Not to forget that while I understand this is an enchantment deck it's much trickier to chase specific support subtypes in MTGPQ. This one is a big disappointment as the original was such a fun card.
- Why make Rise to Glory exile itself? I doubt there are ways to go infinite with it, it's not even comparable with Quasiduplicate in terms of combo potential. Big meh.
-  Klothys is another "lost in translation" card. You can't choose the card to exile (though I wouldn't bother with it even if you could), asnt eha mount of life drain it does is strictly from paper magic, specifically bad. Add on top of this that dual-colored gods do not up your devotion in any of their colors (the irony) and you have one super meh mythic. I'd play Nylea in its spot any day.

Keeping my eyes open on Phenax, Kiora Bests the Sea God, Atris, Haktos, Chromanticore and Thassa as potentially power cards I still want to try if I get my hands on them, and curious what are people's opinion on them.

mrixl2520

Got greedy and bought a premium pack of Theros, and the only rare I got was the gauranteed: Dalakos, Crafter of Wonders. Kind of meh, but I might give him a whirl.

So I spent the next day or so grinding for more gold to crack another premium pack. Got a Klothys (also kind of meh, with a side of "huh?"), and my gauranteed rare? Dalakos AGAIN. Bad feels.

Now a card I am excited to play with is Impending Doom. Where my double strikers at?!

jtwood

"- Eat to Extinction is good utility, though unfortunately right now people will still go for good old Casualties of War that deals with both vanguards and creatures (plus as a bonus lands and sometimes a random enchantment or artifact though I wouldn't necessarily chase those anyway)."

I play Casualties of War because it can kill a Vanguard and Killer Instinct or Divine Intervention at the same time. There are some bonkers enchantments these days. The creature is the extra bonus for me.

Regarding cards that have been worth their weight, Nadir Kraken is really fun and easy to build around. As mentioned above, it's just stupid with Divine Intervention.

I also think Idyllic Tutor is worth playing, because, as mentioned above (again), there are some bonkers enchantments these days.

Nalthazar

@Tilwin90 I love pretty much everything you said in your post. Great insight.