Spoiler season for Theros: Beyond Death is in full swing! While we do not have a complete spoiler as of my writing this, we do have a good chunk of cards available to look at. Today I would like to take a look at some of the things that have stood out to me so far and talk about how they might fit into Standard, Historic and Pioneer moving forward.

Let's start with the easy one shall we?

For those who haven't seen the buzz around Heliod - in Pioneer (and possibly Modern) he is likely to create a bit of commotion due to going infinite with Walking Ballista. The way this works is - with your Ballista on at least two counters, you target it with Heliod's activated ability. This means every time your Ballista deals damage, you gain a life, which trigger's Heliod's static text to put a new counter onto Ballista. This means you get to deal as much damage as you would like.

This is a big deal because two card combos like Splinter Twin are famously banned in Modern and more recently Saheeli Rai + Felidar Guardian was banned in Pioneer. While Heliod plus Walking Ballista is a bit more mana to execute than these other combos, it is also far easier to cast in terms of colors of mana required. Needing no specific colors for Ballista and only a single White for Heliod.

Past just being easy to cast, this combo seems especially relevant due to how Constructed playable Walking Ballista is on its own. There were already a variety of decks in Pioneer playing Ballista and every one of them will likely want to splash in Heliod now for combo potential. Past this - every deck that can make White mana will likely want to experimenting with including 4 Walking Ballista and 2-4 Heliod as an alternate win condition.

I do not think Heliod's applications just stop at Pioneer though. While it is hard to say if White will get enough playable cards to support this God in Standard, I think Heliod will make an excellent curve topper to the Soul Sisters archetype in Historic. The best opening hands Soul Sisters has, in my experience, involve Ajani's Pridemate, and Heliod is essentially a hard to remove version of Pridemate.

While we are on the topic of Historic Soul Sisters - they've gained a decidedly male counterpart in Theros:

While Daxos does not trigger on our opponent's creatures, the fact that he provides double White devotion to help turn Heliod into a creature will probably be relevant. While being Legendary likely means we do not want four Daxos, I would be surprised if some number of him are not present in an ideal Historic lifegain aggro deck.

These next two cards are tools that seem like they might go well in the various Fires of Invention decks:

Purphoros seems like it could potentially act as a pseudo additional copy of Fires when paired with Cavalier of Flame. Specifically you can curve turn five Purphoros into turn six double activate to put Cavalier, plus an additional Red creature into play and then attack with three large threats. The fact that Purphoros makes your sacrifice the creature at end of turn could very well end up being upside with Cavalier's dies trigger.

Ox of Agonas is another tool the Fires decks will have to churn through cards in the midgame to find what they need for lethal. Having Escape as well could mean the Ox provides some late game resilience the Fires decks have previously lacked to play through counter spells.

Past Standard, I think Ox could end up in something like Modern Dredge, while also encouraging Pioneer self mill decks to explore the possibility of splashing Red. The fact Ox has a converted mana cost of five even when Escaped could mean it might pair nicely with a more graveyard focused version of an Elder Deep-Fiend deck.

Up next we have a pair of modal cards that will likely both see plenty of Standard play in their lifetime:

Erebos's Intervention seems like exactly the type of card Black control decks need to be competitive. Against Aggro this card will stem the bleeding in the early game and lock up a late game with a huge amount of life gain. Against Midrange and Control decks this will be main deck graveyard hate to let you combat various Escape cards that are bound to see play. This is exactly the type of flexibility control decks are interested in so they can avoid having the "wrong half" of their deck as often as possible.

On the other side of the spectrum Purphoros's Intervention seems like exactly the type of card an aggressive deck is interested in playing. When you need some reach, we can smack our opponent with a large elemental. When we need some interaction, this Intervention can remove a key threat from the opponent's side of the battlefield for a reasonable rate. I expect Purphoros's Intervention will find a home in some number in most aggressively slanted Red decks in Standard.

Up next we have what appears to be control's answer to "uncounterable" cards like Chandra, Awakened Inferno:

An interesting Counterspell /Nevermore split card, I would not be surprised if this saw play in sideboards of control decks. The fact that when removed Erasure returns the card under it to the opponent's hand means that enchantment removal often won't result in much tempo loss.

Up next we have what might be a decent enabler for Escape in Black:

While this card is no History of Benalia, in certain midrange decks gaining some life and setting up your future draws will often be more valuable than a damage burst. I think there is a chance that this card might even see play in the Pioneer self mill decks. Flipping over six cards is close to the 4-5 cards they currently see for two mana and this creates some threats on its own.

While we are on the topic of Sagas - up next we have one that is very likely to be a format staple:

This card is everything control decks want against aggro. Land drop? Check. Blocker? Check. Life buffer? Check. Not to mention that playing Birth out on two curves nicely into Teferi, Time Raveler picking it back up on turn three. The Birth of Meletis has a lot of parallels to Wall of Omens which has been plenty playable in a variety of formats over Magic's history.

Speaking of control cards - up next we have what is likely to be a staple in any Blue-Black midrange or control deck while it is legal:

While the +1 on this Ashiok is not strictly card advantage, the fact that this planeswalker pluses to defend itself is a big deal. Past this a 2/3 body is relevant against most aggro decks and the fact that these Nightmare tokens deck the opponent means they will likely be relevant against Control as well.

The -3 on Ashiok, Nightmare Muse is a really elegant way to give Blue-Black the ability to interact with troublesome cards without really breaking the color pie. If you are able to keep your opponent's hand empty the -3 basically reads "exile target non-land permanent" which is something Grixis and are very much in the market for with regards to enchantments.

While Ashiok's -7 is far from the normal "you win the game" text we are used to with five mana planeswalkers, it is powerful enough to still be useful on occasion. Most notably is that you can cast any card they have exiled - not just cards that Ashiok has exiled.

While on the topic of cards the color combination also gained this subtly powerful threat:

While a 3/2 with menace for four is nothing to write home about, the fact that this card will always draw at least one card makes it pretty reasonable. While there will definitely be some fun mind games to casting this card, I think even in a worst case scenario Atris ends up being very reasonable in most situations.

Up next we have a card that I think will likely be quiet powerful in Pioneer and Historic:

While seven devotion sounds like a lot at first, the fact that this will be playable alongside Steel Leaf Champion and Goblin Chainwhirler makes that requirement fairly reasonable. Even when we do not manage to make Klothys a creature, it will act as pseudo graveyard hate and a steady flow of damage that is hard to interact with. A four point life swing every turn will be hard for other aggro decks to race and chipping away at control for two every turn will likely be fairly good as well. In a world where Klothys is paired with Fabled Passage we can also use it to ramp from three mana to five mana on turn four as well.

Then there is a flavorful dog that is sure to chase some of the cats out of the current Standard format:

The stat line on Kurnoros likely means that any deck interested in it can justify playing it main deck. Having both Vigilance and Lifelink means that this card will be a tough one for most traditional aggro decks to contend with. One interesting thing to note is that unlike a lot of hate cards printed in recent memory - Kunoros is symmetrical. This means any deck we wish to play it in must forgo using its graveyard as a resource.

The last card I would like to mention today is a reprint of an old Standard staple:

While Pack Rat is not around this Standard season, I would be surprised if Gray Merchant did not have some kind of impact. There are a number of Constructed playable cards in Standard that give you devotion to play, such as Ayara, First of Locthwain and Cavalier of Night, as well as potential comboish payoff with Bolas's Citadel.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel provides a method to stabilize against aggro as well as a tool to burn out control decks. I would be surprised if it did not find a home again this time through Standard like it did last time.

Wrapping Up

While there are still a number of cards left to spoil from the new Theros: Beyond Death set, I think it is likely safe to say that its impact will be felt across a variety of Constructed formats. I know I am looking forward to brewing with it when it releases digitally on the 16th and in paper soon after!