[Official] Theros Beyond Death in Modern

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ktkenshinx
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Post by ktkenshinx » 4 years ago

2020 hasn't even started and we're already kicking off yet another preview season. Official Wizards previews won't start until 01/02/2020, but we're seeing other sites launch their preview season with a bang. Here's the MTG Nexus official preview page:

previews/theros-beyond-death/

Feel free to discuss all the new THB cards in this thread, their impact on Modern, and any standouts for your favorite decks/archetypes. Here are some cool new cards that caught my eye on a cursory scan of the list:

Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis: Escape looks extremely powerful in both grindy decks and as a discard/mill synergy. Tack it to a planeswalker and you have an awesome late game engine/threat.
Thirst for Meaning: Thirst for Knowledge, but with enchantments! Not sure who wants this but it's a cool concept and a great card for Standard.
Woe Strider: A FREE SAC OUTLET IN STANDARD??? Not sure about Modern applicability (Viserca Seer will often be better), but escape is sweet and the return of free sac outlets is sweeter.
Setessan Champion: Modern Enchantress lives! Probably not good enough for competitive application, but cool to see the effect.
Gallia of the Endless Dance: 2/2 haste with the ability to cycle garbage for gold is awesome. Also, the concept/art of this card is amazing.
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cfusionpm
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Post by cfusionpm » 4 years ago

My predictions:

Any card doing anything fair will be mostly unplayable.

Any card that can be broken with old cards, or cheated on cost, or allows repeated use will be ridiculously powerful.

Underworld Breach scares the crap out of me, and the Escape mechanic in general seems like it's asking to be broken.

Edit Update: Ox of Agonas now officially scared the crap out of me even more. Looking forward to more broken graveyard decks.

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The Fluff
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Post by The Fluff » 4 years ago

the 2 cmc red enchantment looks really strong. Maybe this will help revitalize graveyard strategies in modern?

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Post by idSurge » 4 years ago

With the new Heliod, Balista, and T3feri, there is a for sure issue present as Wizard's is not fond of 2 card win conditions that go infinite.
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ktkenshinx
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Post by ktkenshinx » 4 years ago

idSurge wrote:
4 years ago
With the new Heliod, Balista, and T3feri, there is a for sure issue present as Wizard's is not fond of 2 card win conditions that go infinite.
There's nothing inherently problematic with two card win combos in Modern. Saheeli and cat is perfectly fine for us, although busted elsewhere. Although this is better in some regards, and Collectable off Company with Feeder for arbitrary life, it still seems totally within the current Modern power level.
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Post by idSurge » 4 years ago

I disagree that Copy Cat was too much for Pioneer, I believe its more about the principle of those lines of play. But.../shrug
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Post by MAGUSZANIN » 4 years ago

The Fluff wrote:
4 years ago
the 2 cmc red enchantment looks really strong. Maybe this will help revitalize graveyard strategies in modern?
Underworld Breach is a very good card. A friend of mine is looking at this for use in his UR Storm list, as it is almost a strict upgrade over Past in Flames for Storm. A little hard on the graveyard, and so the deck might start playing some bigger yard filling cards (Thoughtscour, etc), but still, the ability to spam Grapeshot 4+ times at the end of a storm chain is pretty good, and streamlines the deck tremendously.

With a mere storm count of 4, Grapeshot casts for 5 damage on the first cast, 6 more on the second and 7 on the third. That's 18 damage for 6-9 cards in your graveyard and 6 mana. If you had it in hand to start it's good. Going into Breach-> Grapeshot-> Remand-> Grapeshot->Grapeshot is even more brutal. With two other spells that's probably lethal right there at 17 damage while only needing to see 3 specific cards.
idSurge wrote:
4 years ago
I disagree that Copy Cat was too much for Pioneer, I believe its more about the principle of those lines of play. But.../shrug
Eh. Supposedly they had data saying it was the second best winrate deck in the format at the time. That might or might not be true, but I don't think doubting that kind of statement is helpful either way unless evidence is presented to the contrary.

And I could see SaheeliCat being harder to interact with in some ways than HeliodBallista. Easier in some other ways, but both are vulnerable to instant speed interaction, and planeswalkers are notorious for having little of that available for use on them and what there is available is expensive on mana. On the other hand, artifacts and creatures are much easier and without an extra counter on Ballista and extra mana for a second lifelink activation you can't just power through it when they time it right. Functionally that makes it the same as SaheeliCat in 90% of cases. While it might see Modern play, as such I doubt it. It's only saving grace is that you can CoCo into some of it, which is just now as good as it once was.

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Post by izzetmage » 4 years ago

Whole spoiler is out.

Underworld Breach feels insane in Emry Jeskai Ascendancy and would be my pick for best card of the set. The addition of Breach + Grinding Station increases the <turn 4 kill rate, not just because it's another fast combo, but also because with Grinding Station, any 0 will work with Emry + Ascendancy. (Without it, the 0 must be able to bin itself, so only Bauble or 2 of the same Mox will work). The current Ascendancy decks have Urza and Paradoxical Outcome, which makes them slower, but not reliant on the graveyard, and better against discard (though the Breach combo can go off if you topdeck it while all the other pieces are in the graveyard).

Playing 8 Moxen in a deck feels almost criminal.

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