There were a few new treats that got spoiled and figured it would be a good time to go over them as well. Here we go.
Athreos, God of Passage- Wow…here we have a really aggressively costed God. For 3 mana (1 black, 1 white, 1 colourless) you get a 5/4 indestructible enchantment creature God with the same devotion mechanic as the other minor Gods. Whenever a creature you own dies, return it to your hand unless your opponent pays 3 life. At the mana cost of 3 this is very aggressively costed and will most assuredly see play in Constructed formats. Orzhov Mid-range has already proven that it can hang with the big boys of Standard, but this has pushed it into a whole new stratosphere. The ability that basically ensures your creatures continue to threats even after they have died is huge or you opponent can punish himself in order to keep it dead. That’s potent stuff. I really like the art, the cost is super aggressive, and the ability makes your creatures very resilient to removal…it’s safe to say that this is probably an A+ bomb that will really shake some things up.
Forgeborn Oreads- a 4 mana 4/2 creature…well, that’s fairly reasonable for an uncommon. What is neat about this little guy is the Constellation ability that says whenever Forgeborn Oreads or another enchantment enter the battlefield it deals 1 damage t target creature or player. This gives Red yet another threat to burn out their opponents without ever having actually fight them . The more I read through Red the more in appears as if Red Mage’s are going to have to consider very carefully how they want to proceed to burn out their opponent. Do they want to go the route of spells like lightning strike or bolt of Keranos to go straight to the dome? Or with they opt for the Purphorous/Eidolon of the Great Revel/Forgeborn Oreads to light them up. The choices will be plentiful and this is just another option. I see this being a solid B in limited environments where the body is very serviceable, but you may not have enough enchantments to trigger the Constellation ability enough to really see a huge benefit, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it caught on a little at Constructed as someone dabbles with a burn deck featuring some of these new treat.
Hydra Broodmaster-A 6 mana 7/7 hydra. We’ve already see one massive hydra, and this one is better, but still not good enough. What makes this guy interesting is the Monstrous ability where for xx and a green it gets +X/+X and puts X hydra tokens at the X/X where X is equal to the mana spent in the ability. So, you could absolutely flood the board with Hydra tokens and have them run amuck of everyone. At least the creation of tokens allows you to rush your opponent and overwhelm them to seal the win, but again, the lack of trample is what sets this guy back. I want something this large to punish my opponent, but it will get chump blocked by a 1/1 every time meaning I can’t get through to smash face. It’ll be a bomb in limited, but a 6 mana and no trample, it will likely sit out Constructed games. He gets a B+ from me.
King Macar, the Gold-Cursed- This is a super flavourful card obviously stemming from the story of King Midas. For 4 mana you get a 2/3 legendary Human with inspired that says whenever King Macar untaps you may exile target creature and place a Gold token on the battlefield. We’ve seen the Gold token before and it allows you to sacrifice it to produce 1 mana of any colour. This is a super fun card and I could see the Inspired trigger being very powerful. The problem with Inspired is that it just hasn’t lived up to the hype. If Pain Seer, and the quasi “bob” like effect can’t see Constructed play, I doubt that this card will see play. The exiling ability is very powerful and might just be enough to push someone down the road to try this guy out, but I doubt it. Now, the fact that it is Legendary might make it appealing to EDH players as I bet someone out there could do something nutty with him, but otherwise he’s just a cool card that won’t see much play. B-
Kruphix’s Insight- This is a three mana sorcery that allows you to reveal the top 6 cards of your library and place 3 enchantments into your hand and the rest in your graveyard. This is actually quite solid because the ability to burn through your library and dig up 3 enchantments, including enchantment creatures, is very powerful. It plays perfectly with the emerging B/G dredge style deck that is popping up and has far more reach to dig deep into your deck than Commune with the Gods or Satyr Wayfinder. Not every deck will be looking for this ability, but those that do now have another terrific weapon to dig deep into their deck and find the tools they need. I give this guy a C because of the somewhat narrow scope of the ability, but don’t be deceived, decks that want this guy will consider it a soild B or maybe even a B+ and decks that don’t want him will treat him like a D. So, the middle road is a C.
Polymorphus Rush- This 3 mana instant is going to take combat tricks to a whole new level in limited. This Instant allows you to change target creature and have it become a copy of another target creature until the end of turn. That’s cool, because when you attack with your biggest bomb and a little guy, you can suddenly have a pair of big ol’ critters bearing down on your opponent. But you know what makes this even better folks? It’s the Strive ability! For each additional 1 blue and 1 colourless you get to pick an additional target for this spell. So, what’s better than attacking with 2 Nessian Asps (or fill in your favorite big, scary monster)? The answer is attacking with LOTS of Nessian Asps thanks to this spell. It won’t be super useful in the early game, and will usually be a dead card, but when you need, my GOD will it mess up combat. I’ll give it a C+ because when it’s good, it’s REALLY good, but when it’s bad…well…it’s REALLY bad
Pheres-Band Warchief- So, Centaurs now got a lord, huh? For 4 mana (3 colourless and a Green) you get a 3/3 Centaur with Vigilance and Trample and gives other centaurs you control +1/+1 and vigilance and trample. It’s a fun flavourful card, and will assuredly see play in limited, but this is mostly casual card to entice someone to play a Centaur themed tribal deck. The abilities are all super relevant because Vigilance let’s him play Offence and Defence, and trample can just be punishing, but Standard won’t run enough Centaurs to make his other abilities matter. Now, Voltron this guy up with some Bestow guys and your limited game just swung around in your direction, for sure. He’s a solid B and very playable but won’t break anything.
