When you're enjoying a few months of unemployment, your friend had leftover champagne from their wedding and gave you a bottle. It's a beautiful day outside. Corona virus at our shores. Smoke on the horizon and basketball players falling from the sky. What's left to do but get drunk and write a Theros: Beyong Death Highlander set review? Perhaps I will discover the afterlife.
Let's start with the themes:
Enchantments
We haven't seen a successful enchantment strategy yet (despite many efforts!). Replenish, Argothian Enchantress and Serra's Sanctum are begging to be broken. Another visit to Theros will hopefully provide these decks what they need.
The plethora of Enchantment Creatures may help delirium strategies.
Devotion
It's been years since a pure mono-colour deck has been victorious at a major event. Last one I remember was Mono Green Stompy in 2014:
Escape
'Cast from graveyard' = busted. At least graveyards are already taxed by delve.
Sagas
I love this subtype. I've grouped them all together towards the end of the article.
First card of the rank earned +2 points a week after the prerelease for its performance at the 68 player Highlander Nationals at CanCon 2020:
By now you're probably well aware of this card's power.
In case you weren't sure, you still win even if she dies before the trigger resolves.
There are many ways to get rid of your library:
Thassa's Oracle + Spellseeker (finding Demonic Consultation) + Wild Cantor.
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If you're worried about Mental Misstep and you have a spare mana, you can tutor for Tainted Pact instead of Demonic Consultation.
If you've already used Spellseeker earlier in the game you can instead use Sacred Guide to exile your library (bear in mind that Sacred Guide must be the only white card in your deck a la Cody Zeller 2020). Also means you need one more generic mana to pay for Sacred Guide's ability.
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Next!
You can win the game with any combination of spells which pay for themselves manawise and mill ≥3 cards per spell. All you need then is a storm spell from anywhere. Here are some examples of Underworld Breach combinations:
Lion's Eye Diamond + any card which mills ≥5 cards for 2 mana or ≥4 cards for 1 mana
Brain Freeze + any combination of rituals that net at least 1U
Grinding Station + Lotus Petal + any 1 mana artifact
Faithless Looting + Stinkweed Imp + Rite of Flame
I realised yesterday that you can Gifts Ungiven or Intuition for Underworld Breach + Sevinne's Reclamation and whatever combo piece(s) you need.
You don't even need a whole combination available. If you just have a bunch of mana and cards in graveyard, you can cast a draw spell several times to potentially dig into one.
Flicker and bounce spells can save your Underworld Breach with the trigger on the stack repeatedly if you want.
I have a story about this card from CanCon, albeit it was a Pioneer tournament and the story is more about a rule. I'm not attacking any players or judges here, everyone played by the rules. It was just the rules that surprised me.
So it was a win-and-in for top 8 of the PTQ at CanCon. It's Competitive Rules Enforcement Level. It's game 3. The game is close. My opponent rips his card for the turn, says "kill you", throws down Underworld Breach and taps his mana. I pause and look over at his graveyard... Now he looks at his graveyard... He then picks up the Underworld Breach, untap his mana and says he isn't going to cast Breach after all.
Basically he had all the pieces but not enough cards in graveyard to start the combo and would've had to sac Breach end of turn. Judge comes over. Back and forth, etc. I had a couple mana untapped and a card in hand but it was deemed that he gained no extra information from his play and was allowed to take it back as per the following rule:
4.8 Reversing Decisions
Players are expected to consider their options before taking an action and players are not usually allowed to take back an action that has been communicated to their opponent, either verbally or physically.
Sometimes, a player will realize that they have made a wrong decision after making a play. If that player has not gained any information since taking the action and they wish to make a different decision, a judge may allow that player to change their mind. Judges must carefully consider whether the player has gained information since making the play that might have affected the decision; in particular, players may not try to use opponent reactions (or lack thereof) to see if they should modify actions they committed to. If the judge cannot be sure no information was gained, they should not allow the decision to be changed.
Examples
- A player plays an Island and, before anything else happens, says “Sorry, I meant to play a Swamp.”
- A player says “No blocks” immediately followed by “Wait, no, I block with this creature.”
- A player says “Go. Wait, land, go.”
I dunno, it's a grey area. I'm sure I'll fuck up and be on the other side of this rule eventually!
Infinite life with Spike Feeder.
You can make 'spite' creatures like Boros Reckoner infinitely large by shooting themselves, whilst gaining infinite life. Boros Reckoner is good devotion for Heliod too.
There is a critical mass building for a midrange life gain subtheme: Deathless Knight, Karlov of the Ghost Council, Archangel of Thune, Ajani, Strength of the Pride. Those plus generally good cards which gain life and then some cards which spend life for value, e.g. Dark Confidant, Sylvan Library.
Improves with anthems.
Stoneforge Mystic recently dropped to 0 points, so Skullclamp is more accessible for gobbling up those humans.
Note, she may nombo with your sideboard Rest in Peace or Grafdigger's Cage.
Don't expect Thassa to be a creature often. You may not even want that because she'll be easier to deal with.
He can be Abruptly Decayed and Fatally Pushed despite being so huge.
Another 'win the game' 5-drop planeswalker. If you can disrupt your opponent enough to untap with this, then you should win.
The incidental library exile is nice, you might hit your opponent's critical tutor option.
This is another answer to onboard enchantments for UB.
Klothys is thiiiiicccc.
You will almost always have access to a land for acceleration if you want it, thanks to fetchlands. Otherwise drain for 2. Great inevitibility.
Green Sun's Zenith and Collected Company friendly.
Incidental graveyard removal is very nice.
I think Klothys could go in any non-combo deck.
Kuneros
No persist, no reanimate, no escape, no flashback, no Hogaak, no Yawgmoth's Will.
Surprisingly good stats for such a good hatebear hatedog. Who's a good boi!
May not look like much, but like the previous couple cards, he stops you losing against a lot of broken graveyard things.
There are enough recurring threats now that Grixis coloured control decks
should have exile removal at least in their sideboard.
Kroxa was in the sideboard of Dillon Kikkawa's RB aggro from the finals of Nationals. I think Kroxa is even good enough to maindeck if you want.
The double negative "didn't discard a nonland", is not unconfusing at all. I don't not understand why they didn't not do it though; it's incase the opponent discards no card at all.
Pretty cool with manifest.
Straight up value. Fuels delve. A little low impact but I like it more than Fact or Fiction, which sees play.
Notably you don't draw the cards, so it gets around Narset, Parter of Veils and Leovold, Emissary of Trest.
Abusable with Shape Anew and Reality Scramble.
Lots of strong new planeswalkers from 2019. Good to have another tool against them.
Taxes Wrenn and Six and Liliana, the Last Hope but is still bad against them.
Tangent: card names with "and" or commas in their name look terrible in sentence lists #sickofit.
Very meaty for a blue card. Not far from Kitchen Finks.
Decent in a Birthing Pod chain.
You can un-enrapture him with Minamo, School at Water's Edge.
Value with Karakas.
Amazing flavour. Imagine being so in love with yourself.
Possible combo win condition, e.g. Animate Dead + Leonin Relic-Warder.
"No, no, and ... no"
If Eldrazi are popular in your meta, this can counter Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger and its trigger. Same for Emrakul, the Promised End.
Counters storm spells.
Counters cascade spells.
Double Negative never looked so bad.
Some combo decks are so desperate for 'choice discard' that they're willing to go all the way down the ranks:
1. Thoughtseize
2. Inquisition of Kozilek
3. Duress
4. Hymn to Tourach (technically not choice discard but close enough)
5. Collective Brutality
7. Agonizing Remorse
The option to exile a graveyard card is nice; could get you out of a Strip Mine lock and you won't get owned by Loxodon Smiter in hand or whatever.
Strong enchantment payoff. Very hard to set up but kills fast.
One of the strength of enchantment decks is their ~immunity to creature removal. Aphemia reduces that strength by providing a target for removal. However, like Jace, Vryn's Prodigy and Thing in the Ice, her power may be worth the risk.
Another enchantress. This one even doubles as a win condition. Now we have:
Probably the best 'enchantress' after Argothian Enchantress. These decks are pretty good at protecting planeswalkers, they often use Sphere of Safety and Moat, etc.
Maindeckable, particularly if you're worried about Strip Mine locks or Time Walk recursion.
If you're not using your graveyard for delve, then this can be card advantage.
Not necessesarily better than Cremate because you often want to exile creatures. Against aggro you may even prefer 3 life to drawing a card.
Snake, Serpent, Naga, Lamia!? Cummon. Loxodons are still elephants. Lets get some consistency happening.
Strong with Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis. You just need another black or green dude and four cards in your graveyard.
You may want to consider Ancient Grudge or Ray of Revelation for your sideboard.
Finds Squee, the Immortal if you're looking for more ways to combo with Food Chain.
Persist combo.
Other ≤4 cmc options include:
Goat token was a weird choice.
Good sacrifice outlet for persist combo. Same role as Viscera Seer except a much better card by itself and can still hit off Collected Company.
Anax would like to be around the persist combo but his colour doesn't match and he's not really required.
Niche mono-red beatdown card. Decent value against removal and sweepers.
Triggered by fetchlands (me too buddy, me too). Can end up pretty big for a red 2-drop. Will probably need more than fetchlands to get consistently large, e.g. Seal of Fire, Keldon Marauders, Wasteland, Strip Mine, etc.
See Blood Aspirant above. Can deal a bunch of damage, especially if you can sac lands with something like Greater Gargadon, Devastating Summons or Thoughts of Ruin.
Imagine getting these back:
Farkin' BOOM!
If you happen to have Golgari Grave-Troll, Stinkweed Imp or a combination of the lesser dredge cards, then you can refill your graveyard and not worry about losing too many resources.
If you want to play fair this is a good curve topper for a deck with lots of discard and land destruction.
Decent sweeper for control. Hitting planeswalkers is big.
I had a look at the popular planeswalkers and considered how it would play out. Basically you really need to kill a creature or three AND take a chunk of loyalty out of a planeswalker.
Always wanted to cast Last Stand with Prismatic Omen. This is a lot more playable than Prismatic Omen so my dream may come true.
Of course Dryad also turns on Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle from your sixth land onwards, including itself. Priority doesn't pass between your consecutive land drops, so at 4 lands you could go, Dryad, land, land, Valakut trigger.
Dryad is also good with Strip Mine and Wasteland recursion, allowing you to kill two lands per turn to truely lock them out.
It also enables Dark Depths to tap for mana, thus speeding up Marit Lage's entrance from Thespian's Stage.
Combos with Splinter Twin or Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Doesn't have flash like other pieces so your opponent will know what's up. It does have 3 power though; desirable in a build where Plan A is midrange and Plan B is combo.
Slow compared to Sylvan Scrying and Pir's Whim. Possibly too slow for maindeck but definitely good enough for sideboard against fliers.
Decent in a homogeneous deck of burn. As long as all your spells aren't useful to the opponent, then this effectively becomes 5 mana draw 5. I dunno, it's just a cool card. No one has played Promise of Power yet.
Also, that art gives me chills.
Perhaps in a jeskai equipment deck. Particularly good with the Sword of Fire and Ice family.
Near unbeatable once resolved. Much harder to remove than a planeswalker. I like this in control decks which are planning to completely blank removal.
Lick it Rip-Clan Crasher.
You're more likely to get that strong attack trigger if you include token makers/haste creatures/manlands.
'Satyrs' will never be a Highlander tribal deck; At best you might pump Blood Aspirant.
Legendary for Mox Amber. Naya is the best Mox Amber combination as it has all the good legendary 1-drops.
The best part of this card by far is the character in the background...
Gets me everytime.
I think I've watched Troy like 5 times.
If all your lands tap for white or red, get this guy in there! The game winning potential is so high.
Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon are other good reasons to be pure Boros.
Haktos should be naked in the art because all that equipment will fall off from protection. It's ok though, he's good enough without equipment.
All-in tempo deck. Max out on cheap dudes and free counterspells. Curious Obsession as well.
Some sweet enchantments to sacrifice include:
Even just sacrificing enchantments with strong ETB triggers is good.
Enigmatic Incarnation is very powerful but quite hard to build around. I look forward to trying it.
Here's another nice enchantment to sacrifice:
Decent if you can sacrifice it easily:
Or incidentally destroy it with a sweeper or target it without losing much. For example, Scepter of Dominance, Ajani Vengeant or Gideon of the Trials.
Going deeper there are some more targetters:
Time Vault shell
Saga shell
Blinking sagas is strong, e.g. Felidar Guardian. Doing it at instant speed is best because you get the final chapter trigger twice.
Great aesthetic too. They're all lists. I like lists.
2G 4/4 which draws two cards if it survives. Seems playable when you (over)simplify it.
Easy to disrupt but if you manage to draw those two cards, that's enough to win a game.
Best to include cheap creatures in case you need another target for the 3 +1/+1 counters. Note that the chapter II trigger won't go on the stack until the beginning of your main phase, so you'll have time to flash in a creature or crack a green fetchland for Dryad Arbor if need be.
Including a healthy number of 4 power dudes will help in case your big dude dies between chapter II and III.
Often better than Control Magic. Potentially devastating.
The majority of the time you'll wait for a creature to steal, but if you have excess mana and cards, casting this without a target is an option, e.g. after a Mana Drain.
This is actually worth 7 mana if you can resolve it.
Blue control decks have so many good options. It's hard to get a spot on the team. This may not get there.
It's like Ior Ruin Expedition but with lots of information; Useful for fetchland timings, etc.
This is 2 mana not contributing to your tempo, so it'll need to be in a deck that can recover, i.e. combo, cheap removal, sweepers.
Chapter III only draws two cards in your turn, so you'll need some amount of non-counterspells to take advantage.
That's all the cards I think are playable from Theros: Beyond Death. There are 47, that's a lot.
Here are my top picks:
Tier 1
Tier 2
Hopefully you got some ideas from this review. Now to cap it off with some event stuff:
I played Goblins for fun and the detriment of my win record.
For a few years now Airbnbs in the city have been worse than hotels. However, in the suburbs there are still some good ones. We had 9 people, 3 on couches, group meals, birds in the garden, beers and board games:
Thanks to everyone for the good times,
Mulch
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