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It's that time again! Not only is it a brand new year with brand new Magic offerings, it's also time for Theros: Beyond Death spoilers to begin pouring in. They started somewhere around the week of Christmas, and have slowly been ramping up.
This week I want to talk about the latest set, and some of the cards that have stood out to me so far, for better or worse. We'll go over more cards in the coming weeks, I'm sure, but there are already some serious surprises in the set that I wasn't expecting to find their way into Standard again.
Let's take a look.
Ashiok, Nightmare Muse
I can't get over how bad the new Elspeth is, Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis, but what I can accept is how good the new Ashiok seems to be. (Okay, to be fair, Elspeth is probably bonkers and I just don't know how to evaluate her, and I'm going to feel real stupid looking back on this in a few weeks, but we'll see.)
Ashiok is a five-mana planeswalker - which is pretty much the standard for a midrange-playable planeswalker - that uses its +1 to make 2/3 creatures. I mean, let's be honest here for a second, the typical Standard planeswalker model is as follows:
Five mana
+1: card advantage
-3: remove a thing
-X: ultimate
This has been the formula for Standard planeswalkers for so long it's basically a meme. I believe it started back in Battle for Zendikar, with Ob Nixilis Reignited. Then came Jace, Unraveler of Secrets. Then came Angrath, the Flame-Chained. Then Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Vivien Reid, Ral, Izzet Viceroy, and so on, and so on. The point is that this is an extremely common template for a five-mana planeswalker, but that doesn't make the card bad by any means. Trite, and a little played out, designwise? Maybe. But not bad.
Considering that the set has an exile theme built in, with the escape mechanic, you should actually have a lot of options in terms of what you might do with Ashiok's -7 ability, which isn't too hard to get to, considering the card starts at five, and immediately ticks up to six. Another thing to keep in mind is the 2/3 creatures exile the top two cards, not just one, and they do it on any attack or block. They don't need to connect. So if you opponent attacks with their own 2/3 or something, feel free to block with three Nightmares, as they will all trigger, exiling six of your opponent's cards.
Tymaret Calls the Dead
This is a card that underwhelmed me at first, but then I began comparing it to other, similar options in Magic's past. Most notably cards like Rotlung Reanimator and Xathrid Necromancer, or more recently, even a card like History of Benalia. While this saga doesn't have the same explosive payoff in chapter three, you're still getting two 2/2 Zombies for three mana, along with at least some life and scrying capabilities.
Another relevant aspect of this card is the fact that it's filling your graveyard in a set where the number of cards in your graveyard matters. This not only gives you more opportunities to use the escape mechanic, it could even end up putting cards with escape in your graveyard on its own.
One thing to remember is that you don't have to hit an enchantment or creature with the saga in order to exile it; you mill the top three cards, then you can remove any enchantment or creature that is currently in there to make your 2/2. This is a nice distinction so that you don't wind up not flipping the card type you want in the top three and end up with nothing.
Thirst for Meaning
Wow. This card is...just wow. I gotta be honest, when someone in my Twitch chat told me about this card, I was kind of blown away. I kept trying to clarify if it was a sorcery, if it let you draw three cards, etc. I couldn't actually believe it was a functional reprint of Thirst for Knowledge, especially because most three-mana spells that let you draw three cards had become sorceries. Take Compulsive Research, a card that was only printed a few sets later, or something like Painful Truths. In fact, if you do a search for instant-speed cards that allow you to draw three cards, you literally only find Thirst for Knowledge. Well, and Risk Factor, but that's more of a burn spell than a card drawing spell.
The point is that I thought we were past a time where you could draw three cards at instant speed, for only three mana, but apparently we're not. And boy, discarding an enchantment should be ridiculously simple in this Standard format.
Wrath of Storm
Sorcery
Wrath of Storm deals 4 damage to each creature and each planeswalker.
This card seems amazing. While it might not kill Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God, Hour of Devastation didn't either, and that's what this seems most comparable too. It should definitely kill Teferi, Time Raveler, although I guess it might not kill Nissa, Who Shakes the World considering how high up there she's able to get in loyalty.
Even so, this is pretty much on par with Languish, which is amazing, and it also hits every planeswalker on the board to boot, which should certainly help a Red deck that is reliant on burn spells to try and remove one planeswalker at a time. I love the idea of this card in a Red midrange or control deck, so I'm hoping such an archetype exists.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
I...I just don't even want to talk about this card. This is a card that wins me matches in Cube Drafts of all things. There's no way I want to deal with him again in Standard. I'm sorry, Gary. I didn't miss you. I already see people scooping up the 
Ayara, First of Locthwain in anticipation of dealing people 12 damage and gaining 12 life with Gary. Can we just not, please? No one is having any fun when Gray Merchant is being cast in multiples.
Ultimately, the set is looking...interesting. I'm not a huge fan of the Gods, because they usually only shine in mono-colored decks, and when they aren't creatures, it often feels like you're only playing with half a card. I can count the number of times on two hands that I've actually had Theros Gods that could attack or block.
That's basically how I feel about devotion as well, awkwardly enough; it's this weird mechanic that rewards you for already having a good board presence. It's the definition of a "win more" mechanic, and I think that's what never appealed to me: it rewards you for already being ahead. The other issue I take with the mechanic is that it often forces (or perhaps "encourages" is a better word) you to play with subpar cards, simply because their casting costs suit your needs. I remember decks like Mono-Blue and Mono-Black playing some underwhelming commons and uncommons, simply because their casting costs were or 
(I'm looking at you, Frostburn Weird).
I guess my hope for this go-round is that the format doesn't devolve into spamming mana symbols onto the board and figuring out who can slap their huge devotion-based card down first. I'm also not a huge fan of mechanics that use the graveyard as a resource, for what I hope are obvious reasons, but I fear devolving into some sort of curmudgeon here, so I'll digress. I just think graveyard shenanigans tend to lead to some of the most accidentally powerful abilities in the game, and I always accept them with caution, the same way I would with any sort of free spell. (Hogaak, coincidentally, is both!)
I would love to know what you guys think of the new cards, and which excite you, so be sure to leave those thoughts in the comments below. I love you guys, and I hope you all have a great new year. Remember to use promo code FRANK5 for 5% off all those purchases, and be sure to check back next Wednesday for some more insights. Thank you so much for reading, for making 2019 great, and for being awesome.
Frank Lepore
