The theme is cool, but the cards themselves are meh. I can already pretty much tell what the format's gonna look like. There's gonna be the supreme verdict/sphinx's revelation deck, the green based midrange deck, and some bad aggro deck. Been there done that.
I'm a much bigger fan of multicolour blocks than monocolour blocks, and I took too much GD history and mythology in undergrad to be too, too excited for the theme. BUT I'm in a place where I can finally start playing some magic again, which means I'm bonkers excited for ANY new set. Seeing a few old faves like thoughtseize and magma jet in the spoilers helps.
I'm a much bigger fan of multicolour blocks than monocolour blocks, and I took too much GD history and mythology in undergrad to be too, too excited for the theme. BUT I'm in a place where I can finally start playing some magic again, which means I'm bonkers excited for ANY new set. Seeing a few old faves like thoughtseize and magma jet in the spoilers helps.
same for me. i sold all my innistrad cards (the ones which were worth something) a few month ago, because i wanted to get rid of them before rotation.
only played some pre-releases and 1-2 drafts untill then. im so excited now, that i finally will build a new standard deck
Now that we've seen the last 100 cards and they're pretty much all limited jank, can we start complaining about the set? Thoughtseize still the best card by a mile?
Well the set has the standard amount of EDH cards. so on the constructed front about as excited as other sets.
For limited though this set looks really fun. I can see there's a lot of different deck styles available and the gold card make each color combination interesting. So for limited it's much more excited.
Considerably less excited than I was before, that's for sure.
Awesome flavor? Yep, too bad that the dozens of cards referencing various myths leave the set unfocused and steal space from the actual mechanics and set themes.
Cool mechanics? Sure, but the few cards that actually use them are all hideously overcosted rubbish only fit for limited.
Enchantment theme? Yeah, that was pretty much just a lie.
I was kinda hoping that Gray Merchant of Asphodel wouldn't remain the most interesting card in the set after everything was spoiled. :/
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Trolljutai, YOLOghan, Swagumgar, Bromoka, and Derptarka, the Elder Dragons.
I voted early on, and I'm still very much excited for this set. I've always felt that enchantments have been neglected and now it's their time to shine. Granted, they could have done a better job with it, but overall I'm pretty pleased. Limited looks crazy as hell that I can't wait to be a part of, and Standard got tons of great cards to work with. Couldn't be more pleased.
Well, to repost again, theros is just like any other MTG product that WTC releases. At first you get all pumped up with excitement, then after the whole spoiler arrives, you go "MEH, ill just buy singles".
I was pretty excited at first but yeah it turned out to be somewhat a disappointment. A bunch of rather cool mechanics but like most of RTR's mechanics the execution was not well.
I find Monstrosity to be a rather dull mechanic and would rather see it as a reworked "Level Up".
Also if to keep to the current monstrosity, what was the matter of making creatures with a CMC higher than it's monstrosity cost? I understand that it feels more epic that you curve into monstrosity but as a mechanic it seems more casual-aimed. Not that aiming for casuals is bad but there could have been a few breaks in the usual system which might aim more for Spike or Johnny.
Heroic is somewhat interesting as a mechanic but play-wise it just doesn't make sense, especially as people who'd run creature-heavy, and in which deck heroic seems to be good, doesn't run a lot of self-targeting spells. I know we got a few enablers in each color but again it doesn't seem likely to mix Heroic with a good amount of enablers.
I do however like the Blue one, Triton Tactics, quite a bit even though I doubt we'll see Blue tempo-decks in Standard.
Bestow just got overcosted a ton, just like Cipher, and is useless. Again it puzzles me why they couldn't have made the Bestow be cheaper than the casting-cost, as it's harder and more risky to use bestow, as it requires a target and can be countered.
To make sense to actually play the creature normally the bestow-portion could be given to the bestow-creature when it's not an aura.
Alternate type of Bestow 1WW
Enchantment Creature - Subtype
Bestow 1W
Bestow grants +1/+1 and first strike.
[1/2]
So as an aura it grants +1/+1 and first strike for 1W and can be played as a 2/3 first strike for 1WW.
This is merely an example and not very balanced as the mechanic is now because it does give incredible value in a vacuum.
This might demand some changes to the mechanic as a whole. Perhaps you'd have to pay something to get the bestow-creature out. The bestow-portion could be limited to only affect the creature itself when you play the creature as normal, thus the "dropped" bestow-creature from another creature is merely a 1/2.
But as long as the mechanic is something you can consistently work with and not feel dumb trying to force yourself to play these over-costed cards it could be awesome to play with.
It could also open up the possibility of a self-saccing layout to get Bestowed creatures out cheaper. Their inherent disadvantage of being an enchantment brings them down a notch in power.
Perhaps it would press the need for enchantment hate but if every color had proper bestow-creeps and answers it could have been a cool mechanic (Blue could get a bounce including auras on the target into it. Black could get a destroy-effect + sac of any creatures coming out of this. Red could have something like Incinerate with modifications.)
Not entirely sure whether Devotion will work at all. That's still somewhat unclear to me. Personally I thought it would've been smarter to make devotion count creatures(or permanents) of the color and color symbols in manacost. That way tokens have influence as well. To balance it out they could raise the Devotion-requirement.
Lovely to see Scry back but it seemed kinda weird to just slap it on different spells and lands. I don't know if it's worth it, as it seems most of the spells it's slapped on are outperformed by other cards in broader formats than Standard or even within Standard.
Overall I like the idea behind Bestow and Devotion and partially Heroic, while Monstrosity is just a dumb dull mechanic but the execution I think is faulty.
Heroic might surprise, especially as a few of the enablers seem decent and first and foremost cheap.
Bestow is entirely aimed at limited and 100% fail for constructed and I wouldn't expect any of those being played under bestow in Standard (with the only possible exception being Boon Satyr entirely due to its Flash-element and relevance both as creature and aura and not sickly overcosted Bestow-cost).
Monstrosity is likewise mostly overcosted but near all the rares could see play as their standard body is fine, and if you can eventually fire up Monstrosity that's just a bonus and at instant-speed. Here talking about cards like Stormbreath Dragon, Hundred-Handed One, Fleecemane Lion, (Ember Swallower), Arbor Colossus, Polukranos and Polis Crusher.
Devotion is a tricky one and will be attempted as a build-around but overall it seems hard to achieve good results. Most people who have play-tested speak of a hard time getting enough to have a major impact.
Either this and the fact that Thragtusk and RestoAngel rotate. Won't miss ya!
This is a great reason to start playing Type 2 again. Absolutely nothing in Theros standard looks to be as powerful as these monsters. There are some strong weapons in Ravnica block which may take over the format in the their own rights but I find there is an opportunity with a new set that is underpowered in constructed to revitalize certain strategies which before had no chance.
That said I'm not very excited about Theros limited even though the set was clearly designed for it. Enchantments have always been my least favorite card type/mechanic- they give your opponent too many opportunities to 2 for 1 you even in limited where instant-speed removal is sometimes sparse.
The Gods at first looked to have big value but they're very hard to turn into creatures. Thassa looks like the strongest in my opinion even without becoming a creature. Purphoros needs a crew. Erebos is situational and the permanents base isn't there for black. The other two are just not that strong for 4 cmc.
Its possible devotion will be more accessible with the advent of Theros expansions but that remains to be seen. I'd wait until they drop to 5$ then pick up the R B U gods and profit later. Thassa at the very least looks sexy in a Modern folk deck.
Overall the set looks weak, which pleases me. Someone at development fell asleep and Black got Hero's Downfall. Finally the planeswalker HKM I've been waiting for.
Love:
The Gods - Seriously, I think Wizards nailed these cards, and they are all interesting in their own unique ways. Purphoros and Thass are immediately impressive, but I think the others might shine in the right context as well. I wish there had been a little more diversity in their CMC, but that's a minor gripe.
Flavor - While I don't think the overall set has nearly as much flavor as Innistrad, some of the individual cards have them in spades (ie: Chained to the Rocks, Fleecemane Lion, Curse of the Swine, Hundred-Handed One). Key cards like these really bring to life the mythological world, Wizards was going after.
Hate:
The keyword mechanics - Seriously, every single one of them besides maybe Devotion falls completely flat for me. Bestow, and monstrosity are all balanced around their keyword abilities costing more than the the base creature. I hate that kind of design, as there is just not enough variance in card power. Just means that the few standout efficient cards for their base CMC will get used and nothing else. Heroic I don't like at all because it just doesn't feel at all heroic in any way to me. Battalion often times feels more heroic to me than the actual mechanic. Plus, Wizards still hasn't given me a great reason to be targeting my own creatures with spells.
The Mana costs - Not only does most everything cost a ton of mana to get the most out of, but so few of the cards actually play nice with devotion. Why isn't there a single permanent card in this set with a mana cost of double of a single color? It blows that the best devotion enablers are all from the last block (Ash Zealot, Boros Reckoner, Nightveil Specter, Frostburn Weird, etc.). I was seriously hoping to see some strong cards at 2 or 3 mana that really helped get that devotion going since almost all the gods cost 4.
Enchantment theme - It doesn't really exist in the form most players were hoping. While I wasn't expecting too much at first, after I saw the gods, I was excited for Wizards to print some strong enchantments to go along with them.
Meh:
Scrylands - They aren't the worst dual lands I have ever seen printed at rare, but they are getting close. They also just spit in the face of any of the aggro guilds from Return to Ravnica, which I really don't like. It still remains to be seen how strong Scry 1 on ETB is going to be though.
Top-down design - I'm not sure if I like how Wizards goes about it. I haven't yet been able to make my mind up on this completely, but my favorite blocks from the last five years have been the most bottom-up ones (Ravnica and Zendikar). I was not a huge fan of Innistrad for the most part, and Mirrodin didn't click with me until New Phyrexia.
I will have to say that the design of this set has been incredible. A lot of things seem underwhelming and beneath the power level of previous cards (Restoration Angel, Snapcaster Mage, Thragtusk, etc.) and I couldn't be happier. I am not sure if any of the Besiege cards (except Boon Satyr) will ever make it to constructed play, but I think that was the sacrifice needed for flavor and also, well, limited as well.
A lot of people had complained about monstrosity and while it could have been done with level up, the flavor just doesn't translate that well and wouldn't meet the second major theme of theros: being "heroic", creating legends.
Compared to previous sets in the past few years, this started out looking very exciting to me, then really fell off as the bulk of the set spoiled. There just isn't a lot going on. Basic limited mechanics which don't upset the meta of "creatures, creatures, creatures" and almost nothing that looks strong for constructed beyond a few solid haterade cards and some creatures. The planeswalkers are definitely getting weaker each set, but that's understandable after things like Jace 2 and Liliana 2 reached absurd power levels.
Those kinds of cards impact eternal as well as standard, so they can be scary if they're too good.
What seems to be a recurring complaint/disappointment for players going into this set is the lack of devotion enabling. Why design an easy to use mechanic and then make to impossible to use...... ?
I'm quite excited for this set. It looks to be full of some crazy interactions, which will reward creative gameplay. It will be a lot more fun than staring across from Thragtusk and Huntmaster of the Fells every other game.
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The world is on fire
and you are here to stay and burn with me.
After glancing the spoiler, I found myself going, "Is that it?"
Agreed.
On one hand: I've studied Greek mythology and history for several years now and find myself enjoying the flavor here. It's an interesting take on Greek mythological views about the world (for instance, WotC's take on the Hecatoncheires [Hundred-Handed Ones] is curious; where Hesiod's Theogony paints them as more powerful than anyone else around, WotC chose to instead portray them as omnipresent defensive creatures, a unique view). It's not perfectly accurate, but honestly that's alright. I like that WotC looked at myths and then interpreted as they thought would make something fun.
On the other hand: Magic is a game. Games should have good rules. The new rules Theros gives us (namely, the new mechanics) pretty much all blow.
Heroic is interesting, but looks to be 60-card constructed only which makes me sad (I had hoped that the "hero" mechanic would be a little more broad in application, not focused so hard on Limited and Standard but also usable in EDH).
Devotion is similarly interesting, but feels fundamentally flawed in that devotion cards tend to be worth it only if you already have a strong board presence, which is almost the definition of win-more.
Bestow is a fascinating idea. Unfortunately though, WotC did the same thing here that they did throughout RtR: they were way too conservative with the mechanic, not risking anything or pushing it at all. Additionally, Bestow seems incredibly limited, being all upside. I really hope that we see some Bestow dudes in Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx that negatively affect your opponents creatures but turn into dudes on your side when their dudes die. That'd be awesome, and could easily turn around my opinion on Bestow.
Monstrous is the only mechanic that I feel like WotC got pretty much right. It's kind of the logical progression of the Timmy "RAWRGH I LIKE BREAKING FACES" world-view: big dudes who get bigger and do big splashy things when they get bigger. As someone who appreciates the occasional need to break faces with fat guys, I enjoy Monstrous. Of course, it's not exactly a competitive mechanic. I do think we'll see some really cheap Monstrous guys in the rest of the block though (something like 2G for a 2/2 with Monstrous 2 for GG that gets trample when monstrous; maybe even something actually good along those lines). Monstrous is decent flavor-wise and is fun to play with (shuffle up Colossus of Akros in a big-mana EDH deck, you'll crack a smile when you crush someone's face in with a 20/20 trampling indestructible guy).
I think my big issue with Theros can be summed up like so: it is schizophrenic. Looking at the mechanics, looking at the feel of it, I feel like the design team sat down at their initial design meeting and said the following:
Head Guy: "So, what do we want Theros to do?"
Designer 1: "I think it needs to have a good Limited environment. Innistrad and Modern Masters both do and Limited is getting more and more popular."
HG: "Agreed. What else?"
Designer 2: "Didn't we agree on mechanics for heroes, gods, and monsters? Let's give each of them their own ability word."
HG: "We can do that, seems fine."
Designer 3: "Weren't we doing enchantments this year too?"
HG: "That's right! We'll get that in here somewhere too."
Designer 4: "Prophecy was a big damn deal in ancient Greece. What about having Scry return?"
HG: "Fantastic idea! It's going in too!"
The only problem with the above is that both enchantments and the hero/god/monster trifecta could have carried an entire set, but in Theros they have to fight for space. When you then mix in Scry (and really don't support or expand on it like they did when Cycling returned in Onslaught block after originally appearing in Urza Block) *and* have to include a handful of cards that help grease the wheels of limited, things get really clogged really quickly. Honestly, I'd have preferred they dropped either the enchantments or the trifecta and focused on the other one. That way, we'd have gotten a set with a specific focus and a great deal of depth to it.
Of course, there's two sets left. Born of the Gods/Journey into Nyx could well salvage my concerns. Honestly, I hope they do. I like the ideas here and wouldn't mind seeing them expanded on. As it is though, Theros is underwhelming in my eyes.
First, and most importantly, Innistrad is going away. Im sick to death of seeing Geist of Saint Traft, Snapcaster Mage, and Restoration Angel. These cards were broken in standard and if you disagree, you most likely were using them and your biased opinion holds no merit. All in all, Innistrad was a wildly overpowered block and I am glad it is gone.
Second, Mono-colored decks can be a thing again. I would love to see a standard where deckbuilding was a matter of synergy and strategy, and not pasting together expensive rares from three colors stuff going on in standard right now.
same for me. i sold all my innistrad cards (the ones which were worth something) a few month ago, because i wanted to get rid of them before rotation.
only played some pre-releases and 1-2 drafts untill then. im so excited now, that i finally will build a new standard deck
Choose one of these judge of creation:
Make Strionic Resonator shine!
You can not grasp the true form of Ashiok's attack!
For limited though this set looks really fun. I can see there's a lot of different deck styles available and the gold card make each color combination interesting. So for limited it's much more excited.
There's not a lot I want from the set, but the cards I do want I REALLY want.
UBBreya's Toybox (Competitive, Combo)WR
RGodzilla, King of the MonstersG
-Retired Decks-
UBLazav, Dimir Mastermind (Competitive, UB Voltron/Control)UB
"Knowledge is such a burden. Release it. Release all your fears to me."
—Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver
Pros:
- Slowing down Standard a bit
- Some fun stuff for my Elesh EDH deck
- Good job on flavor
- Reprint of Thoughtseize
- I think the god are awesome both flavor and mechanic wise
Cons:
- They went a little crazy with the stamp for Enchantment
- No cheap blue cantrip (I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see any due to scry though)
Overall I think WotC came up with some interesting mechanics, and I'm looking forward to playing with them.Standard
W.I.P.
EDH
WNorn Tokens
Awesome flavor? Yep, too bad that the dozens of cards referencing various myths leave the set unfocused and steal space from the actual mechanics and set themes.
Cool mechanics? Sure, but the few cards that actually use them are all hideously overcosted rubbish only fit for limited.
Enchantment theme? Yeah, that was pretty much just a lie.
I was kinda hoping that Gray Merchant of Asphodel wouldn't remain the most interesting card in the set after everything was spoiled. :/
I find Monstrosity to be a rather dull mechanic and would rather see it as a reworked "Level Up".
Also if to keep to the current monstrosity, what was the matter of making creatures with a CMC higher than it's monstrosity cost? I understand that it feels more epic that you curve into monstrosity but as a mechanic it seems more casual-aimed. Not that aiming for casuals is bad but there could have been a few breaks in the usual system which might aim more for Spike or Johnny.
Heroic is somewhat interesting as a mechanic but play-wise it just doesn't make sense, especially as people who'd run creature-heavy, and in which deck heroic seems to be good, doesn't run a lot of self-targeting spells. I know we got a few enablers in each color but again it doesn't seem likely to mix Heroic with a good amount of enablers.
I do however like the Blue one, Triton Tactics, quite a bit even though I doubt we'll see Blue tempo-decks in Standard.
Bestow just got overcosted a ton, just like Cipher, and is useless. Again it puzzles me why they couldn't have made the Bestow be cheaper than the casting-cost, as it's harder and more risky to use bestow, as it requires a target and can be countered.
To make sense to actually play the creature normally the bestow-portion could be given to the bestow-creature when it's not an aura.
Enchantment Creature - Subtype
Bestow 1W
Bestow grants +1/+1 and first strike.
[1/2]
So as an aura it grants +1/+1 and first strike for 1W and can be played as a 2/3 first strike for 1WW.
This is merely an example and not very balanced as the mechanic is now because it does give incredible value in a vacuum.
This might demand some changes to the mechanic as a whole. Perhaps you'd have to pay something to get the bestow-creature out. The bestow-portion could be limited to only affect the creature itself when you play the creature as normal, thus the "dropped" bestow-creature from another creature is merely a 1/2.
But as long as the mechanic is something you can consistently work with and not feel dumb trying to force yourself to play these over-costed cards it could be awesome to play with.
Perhaps it would press the need for enchantment hate but if every color had proper bestow-creeps and answers it could have been a cool mechanic (Blue could get a bounce including auras on the target into it. Black could get a destroy-effect + sac of any creatures coming out of this. Red could have something like Incinerate with modifications.)
Not entirely sure whether Devotion will work at all. That's still somewhat unclear to me. Personally I thought it would've been smarter to make devotion count creatures(or permanents) of the color and color symbols in manacost. That way tokens have influence as well. To balance it out they could raise the Devotion-requirement.
Lovely to see Scry back but it seemed kinda weird to just slap it on different spells and lands. I don't know if it's worth it, as it seems most of the spells it's slapped on are outperformed by other cards in broader formats than Standard or even within Standard.
Overall I like the idea behind Bestow and Devotion and partially Heroic, while Monstrosity is just a dumb dull mechanic but the execution I think is faulty.
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This is a great reason to start playing Type 2 again. Absolutely nothing in Theros standard looks to be as powerful as these monsters. There are some strong weapons in Ravnica block which may take over the format in the their own rights but I find there is an opportunity with a new set that is underpowered in constructed to revitalize certain strategies which before had no chance.
That said I'm not very excited about Theros limited even though the set was clearly designed for it. Enchantments have always been my least favorite card type/mechanic- they give your opponent too many opportunities to 2 for 1 you even in limited where instant-speed removal is sometimes sparse.
The Gods at first looked to have big value but they're very hard to turn into creatures. Thassa looks like the strongest in my opinion even without becoming a creature. Purphoros needs a crew. Erebos is situational and the permanents base isn't there for black. The other two are just not that strong for 4 cmc.
Its possible devotion will be more accessible with the advent of Theros expansions but that remains to be seen. I'd wait until they drop to 5$ then pick up the R B U gods and profit later. Thassa at the very least looks sexy in a Modern folk deck.
Overall the set looks weak, which pleases me. Someone at development fell asleep and Black got Hero's Downfall. Finally the planeswalker HKM I've been waiting for.
Oh and Thoughtseize is back.....yeah.
The Gods - Seriously, I think Wizards nailed these cards, and they are all interesting in their own unique ways. Purphoros and Thass are immediately impressive, but I think the others might shine in the right context as well. I wish there had been a little more diversity in their CMC, but that's a minor gripe.
Flavor - While I don't think the overall set has nearly as much flavor as Innistrad, some of the individual cards have them in spades (ie: Chained to the Rocks, Fleecemane Lion, Curse of the Swine, Hundred-Handed One). Key cards like these really bring to life the mythological world, Wizards was going after.
Hate:
The keyword mechanics - Seriously, every single one of them besides maybe Devotion falls completely flat for me. Bestow, and monstrosity are all balanced around their keyword abilities costing more than the the base creature. I hate that kind of design, as there is just not enough variance in card power. Just means that the few standout efficient cards for their base CMC will get used and nothing else. Heroic I don't like at all because it just doesn't feel at all heroic in any way to me. Battalion often times feels more heroic to me than the actual mechanic. Plus, Wizards still hasn't given me a great reason to be targeting my own creatures with spells.
The Mana costs - Not only does most everything cost a ton of mana to get the most out of, but so few of the cards actually play nice with devotion. Why isn't there a single permanent card in this set with a mana cost of double of a single color? It blows that the best devotion enablers are all from the last block (Ash Zealot, Boros Reckoner, Nightveil Specter, Frostburn Weird, etc.). I was seriously hoping to see some strong cards at 2 or 3 mana that really helped get that devotion going since almost all the gods cost 4.
Enchantment theme - It doesn't really exist in the form most players were hoping. While I wasn't expecting too much at first, after I saw the gods, I was excited for Wizards to print some strong enchantments to go along with them.
Meh:
Scrylands - They aren't the worst dual lands I have ever seen printed at rare, but they are getting close. They also just spit in the face of any of the aggro guilds from Return to Ravnica, which I really don't like. It still remains to be seen how strong Scry 1 on ETB is going to be though.
Top-down design - I'm not sure if I like how Wizards goes about it. I haven't yet been able to make my mind up on this completely, but my favorite blocks from the last five years have been the most bottom-up ones (Ravnica and Zendikar). I was not a huge fan of Innistrad for the most part, and Mirrodin didn't click with me until New Phyrexia.
A lot of people had complained about monstrosity and while it could have been done with level up, the flavor just doesn't translate that well and wouldn't meet the second major theme of theros: being "heroic", creating legends.
All in all, I still think this set is amazing.
Those kinds of cards impact eternal as well as standard, so they can be scary if they're too good.
What seems to be a recurring complaint/disappointment for players going into this set is the lack of devotion enabling. Why design an easy to use mechanic and then make to impossible to use...... ?
The world is on fire
and you are here to stay and burn with me.
Agreed.
On one hand: I've studied Greek mythology and history for several years now and find myself enjoying the flavor here. It's an interesting take on Greek mythological views about the world (for instance, WotC's take on the Hecatoncheires [Hundred-Handed Ones] is curious; where Hesiod's Theogony paints them as more powerful than anyone else around, WotC chose to instead portray them as omnipresent defensive creatures, a unique view). It's not perfectly accurate, but honestly that's alright. I like that WotC looked at myths and then interpreted as they thought would make something fun.
On the other hand: Magic is a game. Games should have good rules. The new rules Theros gives us (namely, the new mechanics) pretty much all blow.
I think my big issue with Theros can be summed up like so: it is schizophrenic. Looking at the mechanics, looking at the feel of it, I feel like the design team sat down at their initial design meeting and said the following:
Head Guy: "So, what do we want Theros to do?"
Designer 1: "I think it needs to have a good Limited environment. Innistrad and Modern Masters both do and Limited is getting more and more popular."
HG: "Agreed. What else?"
Designer 2: "Didn't we agree on mechanics for heroes, gods, and monsters? Let's give each of them their own ability word."
HG: "We can do that, seems fine."
Designer 3: "Weren't we doing enchantments this year too?"
HG: "That's right! We'll get that in here somewhere too."
Designer 4: "Prophecy was a big damn deal in ancient Greece. What about having Scry return?"
HG: "Fantastic idea! It's going in too!"
The only problem with the above is that both enchantments and the hero/god/monster trifecta could have carried an entire set, but in Theros they have to fight for space. When you then mix in Scry (and really don't support or expand on it like they did when Cycling returned in Onslaught block after originally appearing in Urza Block) *and* have to include a handful of cards that help grease the wheels of limited, things get really clogged really quickly. Honestly, I'd have preferred they dropped either the enchantments or the trifecta and focused on the other one. That way, we'd have gotten a set with a specific focus and a great deal of depth to it.
Of course, there's two sets left. Born of the Gods/Journey into Nyx could well salvage my concerns. Honestly, I hope they do. I like the ideas here and wouldn't mind seeing them expanded on. As it is though, Theros is underwhelming in my eyes.
Radha, Heir to Keld, Vorel of the Hull Clade, Kemba, Kha Regent, Vela the Night-Clad, Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, Barrin, Master Wizard, Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer, Patron of the Orochi, Oloro, Ageless Ascetic, Thraximundar, Roon of the Hidden Realm, Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, Marath, Will of the Wild, Teneb, the Harvester
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First, and most importantly, Innistrad is going away. Im sick to death of seeing Geist of Saint Traft, Snapcaster Mage, and Restoration Angel. These cards were broken in standard and if you disagree, you most likely were using them and your biased opinion holds no merit. All in all, Innistrad was a wildly overpowered block and I am glad it is gone.
Second, Mono-colored decks can be a thing again. I would love to see a standard where deckbuilding was a matter of synergy and strategy, and not pasting together expensive rares from three colors stuff going on in standard right now.
UR Melek, Izzet ParagonUR, B Shirei, Shizo's CaretakerB, R Jaya Ballard, Task MageR,RW Tajic, Blade of the LegionRW, UB Lazav, Dimir MastermindUB, UB Circu, Dimir LobotomistUB, RWU Zedruu the GreatheartedRWU, GUBThe MimeoplasmGUB, UGExperiment Kraj UG, WDarien, King of KjeldorW, BMarrow-GnawerB, WBGKarador, Ghost ChieftainWBG, UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU, GWUDerevi, Empyrial TacticianGWU, RDaretti, Scrap SavantR, UTalrand, Sky SummonerU, GEzuri, Renegade LeaderG, WUBRGReaper KingWUBRG, RGXenagos, God of RevelsRG, CKozilek, Butcher of TruthC, WUBRGGeneral TazriWUBRG, GTitania, Protector of ArgothG