Theros Visual Spoiler (Complete)
Posted on September 10, 2013 by General
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The art on this set is awesome
As a greek mythology buff, I do love the flavor of these cards and how well they capture the feeling of the characters and stories while also telling it’s own.
Purphoros, God of the Forge – Mythic
R3
Legendary Enchantment Creature – God
6/5
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to red is less than 5, Purphoros isn’t a creature.
Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, Purphoros deals 2 damage to each opponent.
2R: Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn.
thoughtseize. Stupid expensive already. Too bad I like black so much.
The gods aside, Daxos of Meletis will make for an extremely interesting EDH general. Exile effect, life gain, casting opponent’s spells… That’s quite a package for a 3 CMC 2/2 evasive.
Purphoros’s Emissary
Enchantment Creature — Ox Uncommon (R3)
3/3
Bestow 6R (If you cast this card for its bestow cost, it’s an Aura spell with enchant creature. It becomes a creature again if it’s not attached to a creature.)
Purphoros’s Emissary can’t be blocked except by two or more creatures.
Enchanted creature gets +3/+3 and can’t be blocked except by two or more creatures.
If the mythics and rares in this set turn out to be as powerful in the set as a whole as they appear to be, people in limited are going to want cards like Thoughtseize to get rid of them before they get played and it will probably be worth it.
Anyone have a translation for the bull 3/3 card that’s 3R?
It’s right above your comment.
Yes, I see that, somehow you managed to post your answer during the time I was writing my question. That’s pretty impressive service I have to admit.
Am I noticing a theme with this set of large creatures without trample and tons of ways to generate tiny little tokens with which to block? It also looks like there’s going to be some significant advantages to going mono-colored or being mostly one color with a splash of another. Might be mostly relevant for the rares/mythics, but it looks like some of the other cards are going to care as well.
Should be interesting.
Agreed, Clypheous. I see the non-evasion/token design element as well, though — to echo your point — I’m very curious what the rare creatures (rather than mythic rare creatures) will bring to the table in this regard. Mythics hardly shape a limited environment, but if a number of rares are similar (no evasion, no trample, or token producers), then the trend would seem to hold.
Can’t wait to see what else is revealed in 15 minutes!
Really hoping that good removal at common is coming, because right now this feels like an AVR style bomb fest with few answers outside of combat. The few cards that clearly draw from Greek mythology are cool, particularly Curse of the Swine and Chained to the Rocks.
i am SOOOOOOOOO excited for this set. i get a little TOO excited for anything greek mythology
Will cards that say destroy target enchantments affect enchantment creatures? Loving this theme and the powerful feel of this world Something magical about it.
@David: Yes – anything with the super-type “enchantment” is affected by cards that affect enchantments. Of course, any enchantment destruction can’t hurt the God cards due to their indestructibility, but that goes without saying.
Enchantment is just a type, not a supertype, but Maestro is right otherwise.
Yes Naturalize (Destructiv Revelery) will be the “Doom blade” against Theroes!
At the moment you can handle the “gods” with: Exile-Effects like Chain to the Rock, or Curse of the Swin. Or the other plan is, to keep the devotion of your opponent down… I don’t know difficult it is to keep devotion 5…
The new Mill-Walker looks very interesting, but I think the Mill-Jace is better. In limited the Mill-Walker is clearly a first-pick.
Anyone think the Sylven wall may show up in -Melira pod-modern- since hexproof is very relevant when you need something to sac?
Magma Jet – R1 (Uncommon)
Instant
Magma Jet deals 2 damage to target creature or player.
Scry 2.
Kragma Warcaller – RB3 (Uncommon)
Creature – Minotaur Warrior
2/3
Minotaur creatures you control have haste.
Whenever a Minotaur creature you control attacks, it gets +2/+0 until end of turn.
Fleecemane Lion – GW (Rare)
Creature – Cat
3/3
3GW: Monstrosity 1
As long as Fleecemane Lion is monstrous, it has hexproof and indestructible.
Any rules experts out there to explain the second ability on Tymaret, the Murder King to me? Can you activate the second ability with Tymaret in the graveyard? Or are you supposed to use one Tymaret to bring back another one? And can you meaningfully activate that ability with Tymaret in play and no other Tymaret in graveyard (by sacrificing Tymaret or otherwise)?
@PlanetWalls – sorry about the improper term.
@jkennethcarr – Tymaret is referring to itself in that ability, so it has to be in the grave to use it.
Does anyone else want to just slam those Fleecemane Lions in Selesnya aggro?
A plains should be plain, not with hills lol
Indestructible Hexproof. Soooo, you better hope for non-targeted removal (which I haven’t seen any of yet) or a board wiper (which I haven’t really seen one of yet either). Otherwise, you’re just going to need an infinite stream of tiny chumpers, or you’re going to be in serious trouble. I suppose it could be worse, it could have added trample or flying too.
And I just noticed that there appears to be an entire cycle of what appear to be completely unplayable in limited single color targeting spells (at uncommon no less). I am not paying 1U for a counterspell that only counters blue spells. I doubt I’d play that even against someone playing blue unless they were mono-blue. Same with all the other ones too. Maybe handy in the sideboard, but for uncommons, it just seems like they are going to be 12th+ picks unless I’m seriously missing something here.
If I recall, Gainsay was played all the time in Invasion Block Constructed in sideboards, and even occasionally as a 1- or 2-off in the maindeck. With Absorb and Undermine and no Negate, it was warranted.
Reaper of the Wild – 2GB (rare)
Creature – Gorgon
4/5
Whenever another creature dies, Scry 1.
B: Reaper of the Wild gains deathtouch until end of turn.
1G: Reaper of the Wild gains hexproof until end of turn.
So I don’t want to sound dumb, but I’m not really getting how Tymare’s (the murder king) second activated ability works – can any activated ability work from the graveyard? shouldn’t it specifically say, “you can use this ability only if tymare the Murder King is in your graveyard?
So happy thoughtseize is a rare.
Carrot, if you look at the oracle text from Ashen Ghoul, you’ll note that there’s no clause about the ability needing to be activated when the card is in your GY. http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=184601
Same with Reassembling Skeleton. My presumption is that Wiz judged these clauses to be redundant and to take up valuable rules text space on the card, when player intuitions understood what was going on anyway. With that said, I also did a double take on Tymare and thought it looked a little strange, but I think it might just be that his second ability appears that it can be activated either from the battlefield or the graveyard. However, this isn’t the case. It can only be activated when TtMK is in the grave:
112.6k An ability whose cost or effect specifies that it moves the object it’s on out of a particular zone functions only in that zone, unless that ability’s trigger condition, or a previous part of that ability’s cost or effect, specifies that the object is put into that zone.
Example: Reassembling Skeleton says “{1}{B}: Return Reassembling Skeleton from your graveyard to the battlefield tapped.” A player may activate this ability only if Reassembling Skeleton is in his or her graveyard.
why not leave out the basic lands? they just take up space. if someone wants to see what the art looks like, wait until the set comes out.
@PlanetWalls @Carrot: Can you sacrifice Tymare’s (the murder king) to Tymare’s own ability, so that Tymare is in the grave on resulution? And would come back into play? So any comes into play ability would trigger (like the red god)?
@jimbo: A lot of people care about the art.
@Random: No, TtMK can’t activate the second ability unless he’s in the GY when the activation is declared. This means you can’t pay costs (sacrificing him to himself) and then resolve the ability, as far as I can tell.
Just looking at the cards so far, which admittedly leaves out a lot of uncommons and commons I’m sure, the speed of the format looks positively glacial. That could just be because most of the big stuff is taking 6+ mana and then sometimes even more for becoming monstrous. Some of the monstrosity’s certainly look like full out bombs at the 7-8 mana level, but that’s asking a lot for a fast format, and if it’s a slow format, I wonder if it’s going to be about who gets the biggest bomb out the fastest. i.e. I wonder if there’s going to be a lot more land and mana generating creatures and stuff taken highly for drafts.
Time will tell I’m sure, but it’s the highest average cost for rares and mythics I’ve seen so far. (although again, without everything spoiled, it could be that everything else is much cheaper as the expensive bombs typically are more exciting to spoil and generate press on so they are leaked first)
And I second PlanetWalls, this game is partly about art. Art is also an amazing shorthand for the cards themselves, if you give me a set I play a lot of, I can tell you if I want a card just by the art and my recollection of the card that goes with the art. It makes drafting so much easier, if the art was crap, it would make drafting quickly much more difficult as you would have to read every card, every time.
@PlanetWall if you look at the “unless-part” of the rule 112.6k, I mean this: “unless that ability’s trigger condition, or a previous part of that ability’s cost or effect, specifies that the object is put into that zone.”
Afaik the part before “:” is the cost of the ability. So you pay with sacing him…
But I’m no Judge, they will almost certainly write a rule-tip about this guy…
Why the wouldn’t write two times “another” if they mean two times “another”?
@random – my guess is they wrote it that way because it doesn’t say “target Tymaret” in the text. I don’t know about the exact ruling on saccing him -> returning him to hand, either, though.
When Tymaret is in your graveyard, he’s not a creature (even though he’s a “creature card”), so sacrificing himself wouldn’t even be an option to begin with. In that case, should the card read “Sacrifice another creature,” the implication would be that — were ‘another’ not in the rules text — you could sacrifice himself to activate the latter ability, which is what I interpret 112.6k to be precluding.
@random: Yes, that’s a good point, but my suspicion is that the ‘unless’ clause you point out refers, not to costs, but to parts of the completion of the effect, e.g., “exile this until end of turn, then return it to the battlefield.” I could very well be wrong, though. (Believe me, I would love for Tymaret to be able to murder himself to come back to your hand. Greek kings were constantly on the verge of, and sometimes in the act of, killing themselves.)
Swan Song – U (Rare)
Instant
Counter target enchantment, instant, or sorcery spell. Its controller puts a 2/2 Bird creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
Is the heroic mechanic exclusively for use with the hybrid enchantment/creature cards? I just can’t see targeting a creature with a spell often enough to make that worthwhile for most of them, especially given this set doesn’t appear to be heavy with combat tricks.
Maybe I am missing something, but it just doesn’t look like something that will be of use in limited. Maybe there’s some insane combos in constructed that will use heroic, but that’s not my bag so maybe someone else can point one out to me so I can see how it’s supposed to work.
Things like Giant Growth trigger it as well. There are plenty of combat tricks that will use that as a bonus effect.
Consider that most of the commons/uncommons have remained unspoiled so far. Until we see those, it’s hard to say how effective Heroic will be without enchants.
*in limited.
Demonheart Chimera – 1RU (Uncommon)
Creature – Chimera
*/3
Flying, trample
Demonheart Chimera’s power is equal to the number of instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard.
Anger of the Gods – RR1 (Rare)
Sorcery
Anger of the Gods deals 3 damage to each creature. If a creature dealt damage this way would die this turn, exile it instead.
I don’t understand how one would use Firedrinker Satyr.
As a very aggressive one-drop against non-red decks?
I don’t see either David. That card is just awful. With my luck I’ll be opening that as one of my rares in my sealed pool.
@David, Bobby: Thats not a limited card! This guy will may be see play in a mono-red aggro deck! If you have a really fast deck it could be good enough!
I’m with David here, how is Firedrinker Satyr worth its rarity? I’m no expert, but it just doesn’t seem very good
You look at the Firedrinker as aggressive, but then you have Soldier of the Pantheon holding down the Savannah Lion spot in white with a benefit instead of a drawback at the same rarity. Firedrinker looks like a common, but is set at rare… I think Johnny Combo has hidden something in this set for that Satyr to be friends with.
In fact, curving Favored Hoplite into Ordeal of Heliod looks sound in draft with both being uncommon. That’s a turn two 3/4 with damage prevention. Who goes 4/5 on 3 then 5/6 on four with no other investment. With Phalanx Leader and Wingsteed Rider both uncommon and common, those pants fit a lot of favorable targets.
I would think the ordeals will tend to go late as well, especially one that’s life gain.
Rules question: If a have a creature with Bestow, like Boon Satyr. And I pay the 3GG and use it as an +4/+2 aura on my Mistcutter Hydra (who’s say a 3/3, having paid 3G for him the previous turn.) My opponent has a Triad of Fates, drops a fate counter on the Hydra, then pays W to blink it. What happens?
Does the Hydra Blink, come back with 0 +1/+1 counters and die?
What happens to the Satyr? It no longer has a valid target, so does it go to the graveyard? Or does the Satyr, having no creature to attach to, become a creature on it’s own?
What if the Hydra is just destroyed? Does the Satyr go with it? Or does the Satyr hit the board as a creature at that point?
Bestow look interesting, but I want to know the rulings before I decide how highly I draft it.
Part of the rules text for Bestow (on the cards, anyway) says that the card with Bestow “becomes a creature again if it’s not attached to a creature.” I don’t know if this means it has to be attached to a creature to begin, or not.
Was wondering the same thing, and based on what i read here http://www.gatheringmagic.com/carlos-gutierrez-news-previews-08282013-theros-mechanics-overview/
I think it would happens like this;
1You pay 3GG to cast the Satyr with bestow
2 Your opponent removes the target with an instance or ability (blink or destroy both mess with targets on the stack so same difference)
3 The aura doesn’t have a valid target
4 The enchantment is now a creature
5 You just paid 5 for a 3 mana creature, but technically did not get 2 for one’d.
The rules update will hopefully make things more clear, but I’m still not sure if a bestowed aura still a creature. Does it die to doomblade as an aura enchantment creature? Shock? Because that just seems silly to me. If not it may just be time to mainboard naturalize or something like it at the pre-release.
@Rez: The Hydra comes as a 0/0 and will be put into graveyard! The Satyr looses target, but becomes a creature. If you pay the bestow-cost you will always get at least a creature, only if your opponent counters the Spell you will get nothing.
I think you should read the offical mechanics guide of theros: http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/therosmechanics
They explain everything! Wizards will make also make a faq for theros, with answer to most of the obvious question.
@random: There’s the article I’m looking for! Thanks! Okay, so they do get a double life as an aura, then a creature if you bestow. Not too bad. Kind of in the vein of undying…