Magic: The Gathering Drive to Work Podcast - #724: Theros Beyond Death Cards, Part 2

Episode Date: March 20, 2020

This is the second part of a series (of five) of card-by-card design stories from Theros Beyond Death.

I'm pulling on my driveway. We all know what that means. It's time for the drive to work. Okay, and last time I started talking about cards, card designs, from Pharaohs Beyond Death. And I will continue today. Okay, first up, I ended up in the middle of blue. One with the stars, three in a blue, so four men in total, one of which is blue. Enchantment aura, enchant creature or enchantment. Enchanted permanent is an enchantment and loses all other card types. So the idea here is that it, this is kind of a creative one.

It sort of deals with a creature, and the wheel deals with a creature, well, it deals with any permanent. creature, and the wheel deals with a creature, well, it deals with any permanent, and the way it deals with the permanents is it becomes only that card type, and it loses other card types. The reason that matters for creatures is, if you're not a creature, for example,

you can't attack or block. And so, now this also allows you to do some creative things, because enchantments can matter in different ways. But this is a good example of something where it would be a weird card to do in a random set, but in a set which is flavorfully about enchantments,

like one of the things I'm always looking for is are there cards we can make that it might be odd to normally make, but here we can make it. Because as the guy who cares about, like, sort of overall card design space, when you make a card that can only be made, or not only made, but is more easily made in the place you're making it, you're just increasing the amount of cards you can have. So I appreciate a card like this, that is doing something that is, it makes a lot of sense here, but it would

be weirder in a lot of other places. Okay, Protean Thaumaturge. One in a blue, so two men in total, one of which is blue. Creature or human wizard, one-one. Constellation. Whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control, you may have Protean Thaumaturge become a copy of another target creature, except it has this ability. Okay, so in Alpha, Richard made two cards. One was called Clone, and one was called the Suvin Doppelganger. So Clone,

when it enters the battlefield, you chose a creature, it became that creature, and permanently, that's what it was. It was a copy of that creature. But the Suvin Doppelganger, every upkeep basically lets you pick a new creature. So it could keep changing what it was. And so we still do both those things.

We still make clones, and we still make doppelgangers, essentially. This is a doppelganger. The idea here is that one of the cool things on Constellation is you want to find utility in ways by which enchantments matter. Now, one of those things can be just generating general effects. You know, whenever I play an enchantment, an effect happens. This one's a little bit different. This is saying, okay, I'm going to make a doppelganger,

but I'm going to limit the doppelganger to you need to have an enchantment for it to take it. So when I play this, nothing happens. It's not until I play an enchantment that my thaumaturge can even become something else. And this is kind of neat space in the sense that, A, it's both interesting doppelganger space and interesting constellation space. So from a doppelganger standpoint, the idea that I don't quite control exactly when things change. I mean, I do control in the sense that playing enchantments will do it. But I don't control necessarily that I'll always have an enchantment. So it's a doppelganger with a different kind of trigger, you know what I'm saying?

Meaning it's something that I can change, but I don't have complete control of when it changes. Although I have control in the... It's funny. In some ways, I have less control than Vesuvian doppelganger. In some ways, I have more control. Less control in the sense that, you know, doppelganger is going to, you're going to have an opportunity every turn. You don't necessarily have an opportunity every turn with this card, but you could change it multiple times during your turn. You know,

like you, it's like you have more and less control in different ways, which is kind of cool. From a constellation standpoint, the thing that's kind of cool about it is it's just a different kind of thing to care about. A lot of the things that we tend to do in Constellation are very synonymous to spells. Oh, I'm doing a spell. Every time I do this, the spell goes off. And this is a little different. It's sort of changing the nature of a creature.

So anyway, I just think this is a cool card. That's why I chose to talk about it. Okay, next. Next is Sage of Mysteries. So so sage of mysteries costs one single blue mana it's a zero two creature a human wizard um as consolation whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control target player puts the top two cards of the library into their graveyard it mills them um so one of the things that we tend to do is, so when Richard made Alpha, he knew that there needed to be a backup way to win just in case somehow the game stalled

out. The way to do that was if you ever can't draw a card, you lose the game. Then in Antiquities, the Antiquities designers made Millstone, and Millstone was the first card that said, okay, I'm going to try to actively win. I mean, there were control decks that might use milling as, okay, I'm going to stall until you lose. But it really wasn't until Millstone that milling became sort of a strategy.

I'm going to mill you out. And we have found that it's just a fun... People like mill strategies. They like to draft mill strategies. They like to play mill strategies. They like to play mill strategies. So the thing we like to do is make cards that allow you to have the potential to at least have an option of milling somebody out. So whenever we have a repeatable ability, whenever we do a mechanic, we're always on the lookout. So when we're doing Constellation,

we like the idea that, okay, well, Constellation is going to be a repeatable thing. So let's figure out how to do that and tie it in. Usually the way Constellation will work, it's not like your whole deck is necessarily milling them out. It's more like I have different things going on, and one of the routes to victory could be this card and milling people out. Now, there are a few other mill cards, and there's not a big, big mill strategy in the set. Some sets, like, for example, Dimir often in Ravnica sets will have a plan B mill strategy that they can do. Usually millings are a little bit lower than that.

But we like cards like this. And this is the kind of card that if you first pick, you really... I mean, I think Sage of Mysteries is an uncommon. Meaning that if you pick it up early, and maybe you can even pick up a second one or a third one depending on common it's not the kind of card that a lot of people are going to take early so they will float a little bit in the draft

so you have some chance if you're going down the strategy to try to pick them up but anyway it's something we tend to do not in every set but a lot of sets an uncommon repeatable miller

is a very common thing that we'll do okay next Shimmerwing Chimera. Three and a blue, so it's four mana, one of which is blue. Enchantment creature, Chimera. It's a 3-2 flying creature. At the beginning of your upkeep, return one other target enchantment you control to its owner's hand. So one of the things that we tend to do is,

one of the ways to help something like Constellation is there are multiple different ways that you can trigger it. One way is just play a lot of enchantments. Another way might be to flicker enchantments so they leave and come back. Another way is bouncing enchantments. So one of the, normally,

the traditional creatures we do is, we actually do it in green. White sometimes will have ETB bounce something, but green is the one that, as an upkeep cost, you have to bounce a creature you control. That goes a ways back. So this is a little different. We're trying a tweak on that, because it's Constellation. Like, if it's a Landfall set, hey, maybe there's more ways to bounce lands.

Well, as it's a Constellation set, maybe there's more ways to bounce lands. Well, as it's a constellation set, maybe there's more ways to bounce enchantments. So we made a card like we normally would in green. Green really isn't the color to be bouncing enchantments, though. So we stuck it in blue. Blue being the color that does more bounce than any other color. We're returning things to its owner's hand. And so this was us doing an archetype that we would do in green, but doing it in blue. And it definitely is something that allows you, you know, like four mana for a 3-2 is not too bad.

And the fact that you get a bounce enchantment, which for the deck that wants this, it's more upgrade than downgrade. It's more advantage that you get it. Okay, next. Sleep of the Dead. It costs a single blue. It's a sorcery. Tap target creature. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step. Escape two in blue. Exile three other cards. So this is what we call freeze in R&D. You freeze a creature so it doesn't untap for a turn. This is another escape spell. So one of the things we like about escape spells is something that we want you to be able to do, but not too often and not too easily.

So for example, I get to freeze you once for a single blue mana, and then, okay, every other time I want to use it, it costs three mana, a two and a blue, and it costs three cards in your graveyard. So it's the kind of thing that if you work towards, you know, you could end up freezing a bunch of creatures.

It won't happen every turn. You know what I'm saying? Like, the resource you need to do it is something limited. But it's the kind of thing when you're trying to break through, you know, in the late game, especially when you have more mana and more cards in your graveyard, it allows you to help do that breakthrough for the end game. Okay. Okay. Next.

Sage of... Oh, no, I did Sage. I did Sage of Mysteries. Sorry. One second. Okay, next up. Sweet Oblivion. One and a blue. Target player puts the top four cards of their library into the graveyard. Escape three you.

Exile four other cards from your graveyard. So I was talking about how we had the card, the Constellation Mill card. Well, this is an Escape Mill card. So the idea is we give you a couple different strategies. We stretch them across different mechanics in the set. And then if you want to do a Mill strategy, oh, well, you can take that card and you can take this card for example. So there are some, I mean there's a couple of different ways you can do it. It could be, this particular card by the

way, if you're playing a more control strategy where the idea is I'm going to control the game and then later in the game when I have more mana and access to more cards, I might be able to finish you off by milling you out. It's cool. Next, Thassa, Deep Dwelling. Three and a blue, so four mana total, one of which is blue. Legendary enchantment creature, God. Six, five. Indestructible.

As long as your devotion to blue is less than five, Thassa isn't a creature. At the beginning of your end step, exile up to one target creature you control, then return that card to the battlefield under your control. Three and blue, tap another target creature. Okay, so the idea here is Thassa has two abilities, one of which flickers every turn, and the second ability that taps down creatures. So the idea is, I mean, she's just efficient in general.

Obviously, when you get five, Devotion of Blue for five, she's just efficient in general. Obviously, when you get 5 Devotion of Blue for 5, she becomes a 6-5. That's pretty potent for 4-mana. And she has the ability to tap creatures, so you can get things out of the way if you want to hit them. The first ability really is the strongest ability here. And it's funny. It's caused a little bit of controversy in R&D,

which is we are really looking for more ways to just strengthen white in a bunch of different formats. And one of the ways we're doing that is looking at where white strengths lie and trying to push in directions where white can do things. This is a perfect example of a spell where blue and white get to flicker. White's primary flicker, blue's secondary flicker, but both colors get to flicker. So it's not like blue can't do this, blue has access to this, but it's a really powerful flickering effect, repeatable flickering effect, and we ended

up sticking on a blue card. One of the things we're looking for in the future is, I think you're going to see us being a little more aggressive with flickering in white. Not that blue won't have it, but blue flickering will be a little more the kind of thing you see that is relevant maybe in limited or if you're really focused on the theme, blue will have access to it. But that some of the stronger flickering stuff might be in white as we're trying to sort of help cement white and give white some tools. Part of that is taking things that white can do and sort of solidifying that it's the primary color, meaning it does the most of the strongest cards.

Fastest intervention, X, blue, blue. So X, X plus two blue. Instant, choose one. Look at the top X cards of your library, put up to two of them into your hand and the rest of the bottom of your library in a random order order or counter target spell unless its controller pays X twice. So this is part of the intervention cycle. So either it's a land searcher or it's a counter spell. Both of which are generally useful.

You know, most blue decks want to find cards that it can use and want to counter your spell. And the nice thing about it is that it's, because it's an X spell, it scales, meaning it gets more powerful as you have more mana. And it's an instant, so that you can do, I mean, it needs to be an instant to be a counter spell,

but also it's nice that the searching is an instant, so that you can do that at the end of the player's turn before your turn. Okay, next, Thassa's Oracle. Blue, blue, so two mana, both of which are blue. It's a 1, 3 merfolk wizard. It's a creature. When Thassa's Oracle. Blue, blue, so two mana, both of which are blue. It's a 1-3 Merfolk Wizard. It's a creature. When Thassa's Oracle enters the battlefield, look at the top X cards in your library, where X is your devotion to blue. Put up to one of them on top of your library,

and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. If X is greater than or equal to the number of cards in your library, you win the game. So, this card doubles as two things. One is it helps you go search out a card. So it's card filtering. It's not card drawing because you don't go up a card, but it is card filtering.

And the neat thing about it is, and one of the reasons this is a rare card, is it also is a all-to-win card. So the idea is if you can get enough blue mana, if your devotion to blue is equal to the number of cards in your library, and you play Thot's Oracle, you'll win the game. So that is a different kind of win condition. It's kind of neat. And basically what happened, I think, is, I think this card, my guess is this card started

as the win condition, but the idea of a card that didn't have any value until you win the game with it was problematic, so they said, okay, well what if you give you a reason early in the game you might want to cast this card, so that later in the game when you draw it you can win, but you can cast early. It is a 1-3 for 2 mana. If you get this early, you can cast it. It has 2 blue mana

at its cost, so at bare minimum enter the battlefield, look at the top 2 cards of your library, and then you put one of them on top, and then you get a scry, essentially. Scry for two, essentially. Anyway, I think it's a neat design, and I know, actually, it's seeing some play.

Thirst for meaning. Two and a blue, instant. Draw three cards, then discard two cards, and let's discard an enchantment card. So I think I made the first of these... I think it was Mirrodin? So the idea is draw three cards, then discard two cards, unless you discard a specific card.

In Mirrodin, it was an artifact. We've made a bunch of these. I think this is the first time we did enchantment, unless we did this in original Theros. We might have done this in... This might be a reprint from original Theros. Seems like the kind of card I would have made in original Theros. But if I didn't, somehow I forgot to, then we made it here.

But it's a cycle of cards that we've done. 2-U, draw 3, discard 2, enlace, discard, and we named it specifically to discard. We've done a bunch of different things with that. So whatever the theme of the set is, we try to match those themes. Okay, we're almost done with blue in fact are we done with blue

let's see nope one more blue card I believe okay wave break hippocamp two in the blue

so three mana total one of which is blue enchantment creature horsefish two two whenever you cast your first spell during each opponent's turn

draw a card okay so one of the things we do is we try to take the mechanics in the set and we try to build up themes for them. So there was some number of cards that escaped things, and some did devotion things, and some did constellation things and enchantment

things, but not every archetype. Normally we make 10 archetypes for drafting. The default is the 10 two-color pairs. Obviously here there's a devotion thing that's monocolor, but we tend to map out the two-color pairs. In a three-color set, we might do three-color pair, but in a normal average set, normally when you're drafting, you draft two colors on average in a normal set. So we make archetypes out of all the colors. We tend to start by leaning into what the set is doing that's unique to the set and taking the mechanics from that set and building archetypes around those mechanics

because that's unique and something we don't do every set. But not every color combination will fit there. And then normally what happens is where we can, we try to find small themes where we can weave in a few cards that reinforces that theme. Red and blue in this set has a playing during your opponent's turn theme. Red and Blue naturally have a spell theme that's the base case for Red and Blue. It's the two colors that have the highest percentage of spells. They tend to play spell oriented decks when you get them together. So this one we're saying okay Red Blue's going to play a

spell oriented deck. That's what Red Blue does. this time, what's going to make it a little bit different is we're going to mix in this caring about playing stuff on your opponent's turn. And so both there are rewards that do that, and then there are—this is a reward, for example, this card—and there are cards that enable it, and there are cards that reward you for doing it. And this is a reward, for example. Okay, next we get to black. Okay, first up, Ophemia the Cacophony. So one and a black. It's a 2-1 legendary enchantment creature.

It's a harpy. It is flying. At the beginning of your end step, you may exile an enchantment creature card from your graveyard. If you do, create a 2-2 black zombie creature token. So one of the things going on in this set is there's an underworld theme, which means there's a graveyard theme. So one of the mechanics of the set,

escape, uses graveyard as a resource. So one of the things the set does is, black especially, just because black is the most graveyard-centric color, is just giving you a few other means by which. Like one of the things about having graveyard as a resource is we give you cards to help you with that. Whenever there's a strategy, we'll give you enabler cards.

So there are more cards than average in the set that can do things like mill yourself. That's one of the reasons also there are a bunch of mill cards is yes, you can mill at your opponent, but you also can mill yourself. You also can enable your mill strategies. That's another reason, by the way, you'll play mill cards in this environment. It's not that you're milling out your opponents.

I forgot to mention this on the mill cards I talked about. And this, because there is a graveyard component and a graveyard as a resource component, milling yourself can be very valuable. So the thing that Aphemia does is she just gives you a different means by which you can use your graveyard. Note that Femia cares about enchantment cards.

So it turns enchantment cards in your graveyard into zombie creature tokens, which is a valuable resource. So if you're playing an enchantment-themed deck and you're playing in black, because you're playing Femia, it gives you another reason, another value for them. Maybe you have a bunch of constellations, so you're playing Femia, it lets you, you know, it gives you another reason, another value for them. Maybe you have a bunch of constellations, so you care about playing them, but also now, for every enchantment in your graveyard, this card turns them into

another resource, which is a zombie creature token. Okay. Next up. Discordant Piper. So one and a black for a 2-1 zombie satyr, a creature obviously when discordant piper dies

create a 0-1 white goat creature token so one of the things we're trying to do here black has a sacrifice creature theme it's a common thing for black to do, Black likes to sacrifice things. So this is an enabler for that theme. And the reason is that it is really two bodies for one card. So I can play this 2-1 that has value in the early game. But at some point, you know,

a 2-1, you know, they're going to get a blocker pretty quickly that can block your 2-1 and not die. And then once that happens, now your 2-1 can become fodder for sacrifice. But what makes this card extra good is when you sacrifice it, you get a second body, so you can sacrifice it twice. And so that is enabling that strategy. Next, Drag to the Underworld. 2BB instant, so 4 mana total, 2 of which is black, it's an instant. 2BB instant, so 4 mana total, 2 of which is black, it's an instant. This spell costs X less to cast, where X is your

devotion to black, and it's destroy target creature. Once again with devotion, you're looking for different ways to use that number. Cost reduction is one of the such ways. So this is interesting in that it's a 4 mana spell, but it can be a 2 mana spell. It's really not that hard

to be a 2 mana spell. So really what this says it's really not that hard to be a two mana spell. So really what this says is, look, if you're playing a Modicrum of Black, and it's double black, so it's not really splashable. You really need to be playing black anyway. Really what this is, is in most decks at most times, this is a kill spell for two mana. It requires a little bit of black on your part, so it's something

that, you know, it's not always that, but it is most of the time. But anyway, a cool card for your Devotion deck. Okay, next, Erebos, Bleakhearted. Three and a black. So Erebos costs four mana, one of which is black. It's a five, six, legendary enchantment creature god. It's indestructible. As long as your devotion to black is less than 5, Erebos isn't a creature. Whenever another creature you control dies, you may pay 2 life if you do draw a card. And 1-B, sacrifice another creature.

Target creature gets minus 2, minus 1 until end of turn. Okay, so this plays into black's theme of saccharine creatures. So, first off, it has the activated ability. The activated ability is basically a kill ability that allows you to trade your creatures for your opponent's creatures. The nice thing about it is minus two, minus one is pretty good

for when I get in combat. It really messes up the combat math. And so if I'm attacking and I have creatures I can sacrifice, you know, mana up and Erebos, it becomes very intimidating to be able to block me. And then the other cool thing is when your creatures die, it allows you to pay life to draw a card, something else that black can do. And obviously, we like to have synergy between the things. So if you're sacking creatures, they're going to die,

you're sacking them. And so you also can sacrifice creatures, not just to kill your opponent's creatures, but also to net you cards. So you can, it's very valuable when also can sacrifice creatures not just to kill your opponent's creatures, but also to net you cards. So you can, it's very valuable when you can sacrifice a creature and get two utilities out of the same sacrifice, which is what this card will let you do. Another thing that's nice is Erebos doesn't care who dies or how they die. Yeah, yeah, you can sacrifice your own creatures with Erebos, but if things die in combat, and it's not just, or I just um, it's creatures you control. But also, I can be aggressive with my creatures,

I can threaten, you know, I can threaten with my ability to mess with you, but even if you get in the way, even if you start killing my things, there's still a reward for that to happen. So it allows you to be pretty aggressive in a way, um, it allows you to be aggressive in a way that

it's pretty, pretty potent. And it turns into a five-six, by the way. So, like all the gods. Yeah, it starts out not a god, usually. But the fact that it can become a creature, and mostly become a creature by you just playing cards, playing permanents, is pretty potent. Okay, next we get to Erebos' invention. This is Erebos' X spell.

So, X and a black. Instant. Choose one. Target creature gets minus X, minus X until end of turn. You gain X life. Or exile up to twice X target cards from graveyards. Interestingly, it's kind of a drain. I think they made it minus X, minus X to kill gods.

Because it is hard to kill gods. And if you just drain something for X x it wouldn't kill a god but minus x minus x can just kill indestructible things which is why it was done that way and you also can x off to twice x so one of the things you'll notice before we did it in blue as well is when you're dealing with x sometimes it's tricky in that having the same effect works so sometimes what you do is say well this, this effect's smaller, but I'll double the axe. So, for example, exiling cards out of graveyards, no one near as powerful as killing a creature, so I kind of double the axe. So if I use four mana, I can minus four, minus four something and gain four life,

or I can exile eight cards from the graveyard. In a set that cares about graveyard as a resource, you know, yeah, the first ability is better generally. And usually if you can kill something, you're more likely to kill something. But if you have some threat, and there's a lot of ways in this set where things in the graveyard can be threats,

or just the graveyard as a resource can be a threat, this allows you to answer that. Final death, four and a block, instant, exile target creature. So this is the common kill spell. Normally what we like to do is make the common kill spell balanced for limited, meaning we want to make sure that, like, if we want to make a very efficient kill spell for constructed, we don't often put it at common because it's a little bit unbalancing and limited. We tend to make the common spell price for limited. Like five mana is about right for limited.

We want, creatures are more important than limited because limited is more of a creature based game. And so we want to give you something. It says exile. The same reason that Intervention had exile is gods are a major role here. We want the gods to be really powerful. We pushed them. We made them indestructible. But that means giving you some answers to deal with them. mentioned had exile is gods are a major role here we want the god to be really powerful we pushed them we made them indestructible but that means giving us some giving you some answers to deal

with them so um people often ask about when when so white is the color that exiles the most in any normal set white will often get an exile spell most colors do not get exile spells on average um but uh every color has access to exile if they need it. So, for example, if we do something like God, indestructible gods, that colors need access to it. Anybody's allowed to exile. White is supposed to do it more in general. Because of a bunch of situational factors,

environmental factors, I know black has been exiling a little more than normal. I think once things like the indestructible gods are out of the environment, it'll settle back down some. Black is not supposed to, on average,

black is not supposed to be exiling more than white exiles. White is supposed to be the color that does it the most. But due to certain circumstances and needs to do things, it can change up a little bit. Okay, next.

Grey Merchant of Asphodel. Three black blacks, so five mana total, two of which is black. It's a zombie. It's a creature. Two, four zombie. When Grey Merchant of Asphodel enters the battlefield, each opponent loses X life, or X is your devotion to black. You gain life equal to life lost this way. So this is the players who nicknamed him, Gary. Gary was a common in original Theros.

He is back as an uncommon in Theros Beyond Death. He was probably the most popular devotion card, probably because he's super, I mean, very powerful. Also, notice he says each opponent. So in a multiplayer game, you're not just draining one player. You're draining from every player. And for every life that is lost, you gain life. So for example, if I'm playing a...

Let's say I'm multiplayer. I'm playing a four-player game. And my Devotion to Black is five. I'm not... I'm... Every opponent is losing five life. I'm gaining 15 life. So it is a really powerful card in a multiplayer environment.

And in limited, it's quite powerful. In fact, in a Devotion deck, if you're playing Black Devotion, even a constructed deck, you're going to play Gary. Gary's very good. We brought him back in Uncommon because he was a little bit unbalancing in Limited. So we wanted to adjust that. But anyway, he is a very popular card. So I was happy we brought him back.

But anyway, he is a very popular card, so I was happy we brought him back. Okay, next is Inevitable End, Two in the Black, Enchantment Aura, Enchant Creature. Enchant Creature has at the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature. So one of the cool things about this card is I put it on a creature, and then I give my opponent a choice. Not a great choice for them, but basically a choice is, look, you've got to feed this creature. It's sort of like turning into a Lord of the Pit.

Now you've got to feed the creature. Now the cool thing about this is they could always feed it to itself, so you're going to put it on their best creature, because what you want is them to get rid of their best creature. But they have the option of getting rid of smaller creatures to sort of stall time. But fundamentally, this creature is going to keep eating. So it eventually is going to kill the creature and they have to kind of figure out, do they want to just kill it outright or do they want to sort of keep it around at the cost of losing other creatures? It's a very black spell. So I like it. I like it. Okay. Nightmare Shepherd, two black black, enchantment creature, demon.

It's a 4-4 flying creature. Whenever another non-token creature you control dies, you may exile it. If you do, create a token that's a copy of that creature, except it's 1-1 and it's nightmare in addition to its other types. So, interestingly, blue is number one at cloning. Green is number two at cloning. Green is number two at cloning. Black is number three? Black does not do a lot of cloning. Black and red, like red will do kind of temporary, like for the turn cloning. On some level, this, I mean, one of the things about black is black gets reanimation. So, black can kind of copy dead

things because it can just go reanimate the dead thing. So this is similar to essentially it reanimating it, but to keep it from being confusing since it changes its power toughness changes, it's easier to do with the token. But this is block because it's,

I mean, I know we one time did a blue card, which I think was in Planet of Chaos. Copping things out of the graveyard is more of a black thing, just because copping a creature out of the graveyard is a lot like reanimating the creature, which is what black does. So this is a neat twist on kind of a reanimation spell. The idea is that when my creature dies, it's a non-token, so it doesn't... We say non-token whenever something makes tokens.

When you die, make a token. We tend to say non-token so it doesn't... We say non-token whenever something makes tokens that when you die make a token. We tend to say non-token so that it doesn't trigger again. The other trick we do sometimes is we say non the creature type that the token is. So let's say the token's a zombie. We might say non-zombie. In this case, I think we

didn't want the 1-1 to die and stay as a 1-1. So we wanted you to have a full body creature. It dies into a tiny version, and then it just dies. But anyway, this is kind of a cool card. It's sort of, when your creature dies, it reduces them to 1-1s, but they get to stick around. And in the right deck with the right kind of creatures, this can be quite powerful,

because you're making the token, meaning it's entering the battlefield. And so you trigger and enter the battlefield effects. And then when it dies, it'll trigger death triggers. So anyway, a cool card. Next, Omen of the Dead. A single black mana. Enchantment. Flash.

When Omen of the Dead enters the battlefield, return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand. And then two black sacrifice Omen of the Dead. Scry 2. So this is a cycle, the Omen cycle. I didn't talk about the white or blue ones, but in each case, you do something. It's an enchantment.

It has an Enter the Battlefield effect, and then I think for two and colored mana, you can sacrifice it to Scry for two. So what we're doing here is, this is an Enchantment Matters set. So one of the ways you make Enchantment Matters is you take cards that would normally be in a different card type and you move

them here. For example, there are creatures that are Enchantment creatures, so in the Creature slot, you're filling with Enchantments to help get more Enchantments in your deck. This slot is basically filling for Instants and Sorceries. They might all be Sorceries, essentially.

No, this one's Flash, so it's instants or sorceries. And the idea is, hey, raise dead is a black spell. Get a creature card out of your graveyard is a black spell. So we would make that spell. So what they did is, we did that and then stapled onto it, okay, it's an enchantment rather

than instant. And the reason it's an enchantment is you can later trade it in for value. But it lets us make a spell that is that is something, like, it lets us take something that normally would be an instant or a sorcery and turn it into enchantment. Now, if I have

constellation, or I'm counting my enchantments, or I care about having enchantments in my graveyard, all of a sudden this is that resource, and it's filling the slot of what would normally be a spell, an instant or sorcery spell. And so those are quite valuable. So there's a whole cycle of them. I didn't talk about all of them, but there's a whole cycle of them.

And that is the reason that the cycle exists, is so that we can enable enchantment strategies. Okay, next. For Rika's Libation. So two and a black instant. Choose one. Target opponent sacrifices a creature or target opponent sacrifices an enchantment.

So during the summer, we made our first... We decided that black being unable to destroy two different card types, which is artifacts and enchantments, was problematic. We decided, and there are only two colors that destroy, like white, red, and green all destroy artifacts. But right now, white and green are the only two colors that destroy enchantments. We decided we wanted a third color to do it.

After looking at the cards, blue doesn't destroy permanents. Red not destroying enchantments is a big part of its weakness. So black made sense. And that means that black won't be able to destroy artifacts. So green can't destroy permanents. Red not destroying enchantments is a big part of its weakness, so black made sense, and that means that black won't be able to destroy artifacts. So, green can't destroy creatures, red can't destroy artifacts, black can't destroy artifacts, red can't destroy enchantments. And white doesn't do land

destruction, although every once in a blue one we do arm again, but it doesn't do pinpoint land destruction. Anyway, we decided we wanted black to be the worst at enchantment removal, so worse than both green and white, but we are experimenting, we wanted black to be the worst at enchantment removal so worse than both green and white but we are experimenting we will continue to experiment right now this one

is sort of like making them sacrifice it but you get to choose the one that came out during the summer they had to sacrifice a creature or enchantment so if they had creatures it was hard for them to get rid of the enchantment this one you get to pick so they only have one enchantment that's causing you trouble. You can get rid of that one enchantment. They have multiples. Okay, it's not as good yet. But anyway, we are messing in this space. You

will see us mess more in this space. We are trying to figure out what makes the most sense. So, anyway, you will see us playing more in this space. We are expanding the color pie in this area. Next, Farika's Spawn. Three and a black for a 3-4 Gorgon. So it's a creature, obviously. Escape five and a black. Exhale three other creature cards from your graveyard. Farika's Spawn escapes

with two plus one, plus one counters on it. When it enters the battlefield this way, each opponent sacrifices a non-Gorgon creature. Okay. So this is an escape creature.

I mean, obviously, it's a Gorgon, a 3-4. But, this is, there's a bunch of escape creatures that do what this one does, which is when it escapes, it gets more powerful. It gets bigger. So, yeah, it's normally a 5-4. I'm sorry, it's normally a 3-4, but it becomes a 5-6 when you escape it.

And it requires three cards. It's not that hard to escape. I mean, it's a little bit more expensive than it is when you escape it. And it requires three cards. It's not that hard to escape. I mean, it's a little bit more expensive than it is to normally cast it. And even better, when it enters the battlefield, it does this thing that we like to do with Gorgons, in which it hates everything but Gorgons. And so when it enters the battlefield, it gets to destroy something. But from a flavor standpoint, Gorgons can't kill other Gorgons. At least in Magic, they can't. And so whenever Gorgons do kills, whenever we call it out,

we often will say it can't kill other Gorgons. So that is a little bit of a flavor thing. Okay, next. Scavenging Hippie. Two and a black for a Harpy. Two, one Harpy. It's a creature. Flying.

When Scavenger Harpy enters the battlefield, exile target card from an opponent's graveyard. So this is another example. When you have a theme in your set, you want to make sure you have answers for those themes. Okay, this set has a graveyard theme, and a lot of the underworlds often escape. So we want to make sure there's some answers to that.

Number one in Enchantment, sorry, not Enchantment, in Graveyard Removal is Black. Other colors have some access to it, but Black is primary in it. So we wanted to make sure to do that. This is a nice, it's a small card. It's a little flyer, you know, a 2b2, 1 flyer. It's something you might play in Limited. It's got Evasion to it, but it also does a great job of dealing with Escape cards and with other threats in the graveyard. And so, this is the kind of card that maybe you wouldn't main deck

in a normal environment, but you will consider in here, because there's so many threats that you might need to run into. And so, it's a neat way to give you a card that you can play in your deck that will help deal with those things. Okay, how are we doing here? How much time do I have here?

Okay. I'm going to do two more cards, and then I'll call it a day. I'm not going to quite finish with black. Oh, let me click. I'm going to finish with black, just so we get through black today. Temple Thief, one black. Creature, human rogue, two, two. Temple Thief can't be blocked by enchanted creatures

or enchantment creatures. I just wanted to point out that's something we did a bunch in this set, that we cared about both enchanted creatures, creatures with enchantments on them, and enchantment creatures, creatures that are enchantments. It was a neat little thing. Once again, it's the kind of thing we can't do normally. This is space we can't do normally.

But it's a neat way to connect two different things in the set that are thematic, which is, I want to care about enchantments, so I want to play enchantment creatures, and I want to play auras, which are enchantments. And this sort of hits both of them in a cool way, so I like that. Timurek calls the dead. Two in black. Enchantment saga.

As the saga enters after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after chapter three. Chapter one and two, put the top three cards of your library into your graveyard. Then you may exile a creature or enchantment card from your graveyard. If you do, create a black 2-2 zombie creature token. Chapter three, you gain X life and scry X, where X is the number of zombies you control. So this card is kind of cool. It's a card that self-mills, which is something that blue and black can both do.

Blue, for the longest time, has been king of milling. Black is secondary in milling, and we've raised black in milling. You're seeing more milling in black than you used to, just because milling is a theme that we like, particularly in a set like this where graveyard matters. Black can mill the opponent. Black does more self-milling than milling the opponent, but black is allowed to mill the opponent.

Anyway, this is kind of neat. It's letting you mill things. It's turning resources. This card cares about both creatures and enchantments, but it's turning things into zombies. And then, the final reward, which is nice, is it rewards you for zombies, but not just zombies created by this. So if you

want to put it in the zombie-themed deck, it'll reward you for zombies in general. Timurit, Chosen from Death, Black Black. So 2 and Star for his toughness. Legendary enchantment creature, Demigod. Timurit's toughness is equal to your devotion to Black. 1 Black, exiled up to and star for his toughness. Legendary enchantment creature, demigod. Timur's toughness is equal to your devotion to black. One black, exile up to two target cards from graveyards.

You gain one life for each creature card exiled in this way. So the cool thing about this is this is another of the demigods. Each of them has a variable power toughness equal to devotion. This is his toughness for him. And he has an ability where he's using... Notice that he's exiling from graveyards. Not from your graveyard necessarily. So not only is he

sort of answering your opponent's threats, but he's also gaining life while doing it. So that's cool. Finally, the final black card and the final card of today is Underworld Dreams. So Underworld Dreams, a black, black, black enchantment. Whenever an opponent draws a card, Underworld Dreams deals one, Underworld Dreams, a black, black, black enchantment. Whenever an opponent draws a card,

Underworld Dreams deals one damage to that player. The interesting thing about this card is we made it long ago. I think it's from Legends. It was actually banned for a while, or at least restricted for a while. It turns out that it was part of the reason it was so good was the

environment it got played in. Less so than the card into itself. We brought this back before in, less so than the card into itself. We've brought this back before in standard. It's a card that can be in standard. And it just was the perfect fit for this set. The card is old. Like, black nowadays probably would make you lose life and not do damage. And black, caring about your drawing cards, is a little weird. But it's all within, you know, it's a little bit of a bend for black.

Not a major bend for black. And it's just such slam-dunk flavor in the underworld set that we couldn't pass it by. So we put it in. Okay, guys. Yep, we had a little traffic today and I stayed to do a few months. So that finishes with black. So next time we'll pick up obviously with red. Anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying this podcast.

But I'm at work. So we all know what that means. It means it's time to end my drive to work. So instead of talking magic, it's time for me to be making magic. I'll talk to you guys next time. Bye-bye.