Hey guys, welcome to another edition of the War Torn Front blog. Aside from it being later than normal, it is still business as usual here at War Torn Front. This week we will take a look at Theros, as the full set has been spoiled and talk speculation on some of the hyped preorders. We will discuss the mechanics of the set and I will talk a bit about the few cards in Theros that have caught my eye. However, we still have some shout-outs to get to before we start.
First, I would like to thank Josh Romano. Not only for his encouraging words, but his updates on the Krier's tournament scene. Two weeks ago, Casey Reid took down Krier's Sunday Standard with Naya Midrange, defeating Josh Romano piloting Jund Aristocrats. Following them were Chester Moon on Jund Aggro, and Navdeep on Red Deck Wins. Casey walked away with a FTV:20, while Josh collected a FTV: Legends. Great job guys and here is to more earnings in your prize pools! Remember, today is Krier's Sunday Standard, so go on out and battle with your Standard lists one of the last times before rotation.
Second, I would like to thank Vicente Davis for doing an amazing job of encouraging and keeping this community running. Not only as a level 2 judge, but as an administrator and constant supporter to these blogs. I appreciate all the the details you point out in these articles and look forward to working with you more closely in broadcasting the details of the MTGNorCal and magictcg's groups exploits.
Finally, thanks to Chia Lee, Thor Barerra and Placido Galvin for encouraging and feeding me info to write these articles. Without their support, I do not think this blog would be on the post count it has. Now with all the waterworks, lets move to the show.
Theros is, well, amazing. This set knocked it out of the ballpark in flavor, card quality, and mechanics. Rather than swarm this entire post with thoughts on Theros' individual cards, I figure i will touch upon the cycles of things in this set and talk mechanics. First off, my least favorite mechanic: Heroic.
Heroic is an interesting attempt to make the normal creature of Theros into something awe-inspiring. It reflects the everyday person stepping up and becoming something different than they once were. By making the trigger for heroic a spell you cast, seems kinda underwhelming. Do not get me wrong. From a flavor standpoint, it makes sense that some sort of god-like figure would grant normal humanoids abilities beyond their own capability. However, it seems like to get the most bang for your buck that you will have to repeatedly target your own creatures, presenting plenty of two-for-one opportunities. I feel this is the worst mechanic in Theros, but even still, this mechanic will see some play because of the fact it is attached to low costing creatures that can immediately impact the board state early. Next up on the mechanics is devotion.
Devotion is a returning mechanic. In case you may not know, take a look at Chroma from Eventide and come on back. Done reading it, good! Moving on. The biggest proponent to this mechanic is the five mythic god cards. Each of these gods starts off as an indestructible enchantment with a static and activated effect. However, if you control permanents with 5 or more colored symbols of the specific god, the god transforms itself into a creature. These God cards and the other devotion mechanic let you play around with your deck's construction and decide if valuing mono-colored permanents is better for the giant indestructible body or crazy mana/life/dude effects that comes with it, or should we stick to just playing better multi-colored spells.
Next up is Monstrous. This effect captures the flavor of a creature suddenly becoming empowered and wrecking havoc upon the world. Most of the monstrous creatures have cool and splashy effects that make the game state hectic. From our mythic legend hydra to the one hundred hand giant, these creature off more bang for your buck as the game progresses later.
Much like Monstrous, Scry is also a great late game mechanic. I love how many of the spells and creatures in this set have scry values higher than just one. These cards allow for better early and late game play, as it helps smooths and controls the draws of the player using scry. Having scry back seems like Standard wont be nearly as draw-dependant as it used to be.
Finally, my favorite mechanic from the set: Bestow. No matter how many times I look at Bestow, it just reads quite a bit of upside. If you cast it as an enchantment-aura and your targeted creature dies in response, you still get your aura, now instead he/she is a creature. This also works in regards to spot removal and wraths later on. An opponent removes the board thanks to a Supreme Verdict and you only had one dude with 4 Bestow enchants on him. Well, looks like your opponent is looking down 4 dudes. This mechanic just made enchantments, specifically, auras many times better.
There you have it ladies and gentleman, a quick overview of Theros and the mechanics, I feel are great or matter for this coming season. Right now hot predictions are on the red god, the new Elspeth, the new r/g walker, the white god, Reaper of the slums, aka Spiritmonger 2.0, and many more.
Players, if you get the chance, go out and support your local game store for the Theros Pre-releases! These are some of the most exciting times to be a Magic player and no one should miss it. If you happen to be in the Manteca area for this coming weekend, come on by and sign up to play at War Torn Front: The Only Place to Play in Manteca!
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