Athreos, God of Passage is a card that I am really interested in building around. I think there are two fundamental ways to approach Athreos for a competitive list. First avenue is voltron strategy where you get your devotion count up quickly and start swinging. The second one is a abusing the 3 life recursion aspect; this is what I want to focus on. How do you make the deck in a manner that the 3 life matters? I don't see many situations where the opponent would prefer the creature to be in your hand vs. in your yard nor situations where 3 life is worse than returning the creature.
In a 4 player game, you would need to return 40 creatures to kill everyone based on Athreos's ability. Most games I have seen, people go through 30 cards of their deck, which is about 7 creatures. B & W are not strong draw colors and as such, could mean less digging through your deck.
I built my Athreos arround Shadowborn Apostle. The list is all about abusing the apsotles so there is a lot of value on every death trigger and a lot of ways to mass rez them as well as to try to chain into large portions of draw. Due to how cheap they are to drop things like Ad Nauseam can actually dig deep into your deck with very small life loss per card.
I think too many people try to think hatebears and such when they think of Athreos. In my opinion keeping the mana per creature low so you can loop them easily is important.
My list is in my sig but it needs a little updating.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I have officially moved to MTGNexus. I just wanted to let people know as my response time to salvation decks being bumped is very hit or miss.
I'd focus more on the "getting a guy back when it dies" aspect rather than the "someone loses 3 life" part of it. Politics go a long way here. Sacrifice Silverchase Fox, remove player A's enchantment, then target player B (who has no enchantments) with Athreos' ability and it'll come back over and over again. Same with Necrotic Sliver when you target the player with the worst stuff. You can police the board like this like you wouldn't believe.
Also, Phyrexian Reclamation/Oversold Cemetery for sure. When you have it on board, people will give you your creature back with Athreos 95% of the time. Why should they pay the three life when you're just going to reclamation the guy back to your hand anyway?
If you really want to make the "pay 3 life" hurt - Wound Reflection.
I second the thought with things that want to be sac'ed - repeatedly. W/B has no shortage of (cheap) creatures that want to die for you.
Think of Athreos as one more cog in the machine of your creatures just never dying permanently unless exiled. (Champion of Stray Souls and Hell's Caretaker, Reveillark come to mind for some reason...)
X Hope of Ghirapur Swordpile W Ghosty Blinky Anafenza U Nezahal- Big, Blue and HERE! B Gonti Can Afford It R Etali, Primal 'Whatjusthappened?' G Polukranos Wants More Mana WU The Exalted Vizier Temmet WB Home, Athreos WR Basandra, Recursive Aggression WG Karametra, Momma of Lands UB Wrexial Eats Your Brains UR Arjun, the Mad Flame UG The Fable of Prime Speaker BR Hellbent, Malfegor Style BG Jarad, Death is Served RG Running Thromok WUB Varina and ALL the Zombies WUBYennett, the Odd Pain-Train WUR Zedruu the Furyhearted WUG Arcades' Strategy, Shmategy, Sausage and Spam WBR A Case of Mathas' Persistent F*ckery WBRLicia's League of Legendary Lifegain Layabouts WBG The Karador Advantage PackageWRG Gahiji Rattlesnake Collection UBR Jeleva... does... things UBG Damia's Just Deserts URG Yasova's Has More Power Than Sense BRG Wasitora, Bad Kitty WUBRBreya, Eggs, Breya'd Eggs WUBG Tymna and Kydele, Extended Borrowing WURG Kynaios and Tiro, Landfall Impersonations WBRG Saskia Pet Card EnchantressUBRG Yidris of the Chi-Ting Corporation WUBRG Tazri's Amazing Allies
Bloodcrank might do it, and you're in the best colors for tutoring artifacts and enchantments.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
I'd focus on the fact that it's a huge, undercosted, indestructable beater and play cards like Pestilence, or The Abyss to clear the way and supply devotion for Athreos, God of Passage.
In a 4 player game, you would need to return 40 creatures to kill everyone based on Athreos's ability. Most games I have seen, people go through 30 cards of their deck, which is about 7 creatures. B & W are not strong draw colors and as such, could mean less digging through your deck.
What am I missing?
I think too many people try to think hatebears and such when they think of Athreos. In my opinion keeping the mana per creature low so you can loop them easily is important.
My list is in my sig but it needs a little updating.
Signature by Inkfox Aesthetics by Xen
[Modern] Allies
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Also, Phyrexian Reclamation/Oversold Cemetery for sure. When you have it on board, people will give you your creature back with Athreos 95% of the time. Why should they pay the three life when you're just going to reclamation the guy back to your hand anyway?
If you really want to make the "pay 3 life" hurt - Wound Reflection.
Think of Athreos as one more cog in the machine of your creatures just never dying permanently unless exiled. (Champion of Stray Souls and Hell's Caretaker, Reveillark come to mind for some reason...)
Think things like Benevolent Bodyguard, Bone Shredder, Children of Korlis, Doomed Necromancer, Flesh Carver, Garza's Assassin, Gatekeeper of Malakir, Kami of False Hope, Lieutenant Kirtar, Prowling Pangolin (heh), Ronom Unicorn, Shriekmaw, Wispmare, Loyal Sentry... the list is pretty long for creatures that get all kinds of stupid if you get to use and re-use them a lot.
The list of potential sac outlets is even longer but I don't think need to repeat them all here, heh.
Meadowboon, Maw of the Obzedat, Selfless Cathar, Cathars' Crusade (...ew!) and the like can make all those weenies pretty deadly in quick order.
And yeah, Wound Reflection.
Emille, Seven-Sting Dancer Shalin Nariya
On phasing:
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
Staff