Theros Beyond Death Review for Highlander, Part 3

Welcome to the third installment of my Theros Beyond Death set review for European Highlander! Let us keep our focus one last time in order to look at a wealth of interesting green cards. Then we will try to crack the code of complex-colored and colorless candidates. Finally, I'll leave you with my personal Top 10 cards of the new set. Enjoy reading, and as always, if you think I'm wrong somewhere or blatantly ignored a cool card, let me know in the comments!

Green

: I like this card because it is hard or at least unfavorably to kill and a real pain for spell-heavy decks like Grixis, Izzet, and Jeskai. Green decks can pump this out very quickly and up the pressure from there, creating a kind of necessity for your opponent to play into this. A legendary enchantment is prone to more removal including or , though, so be aware of that when comparing Arasta to other options in the highly contested 4-drop-slot.

: The dream is to snipe a , , or and then block another flying threat. This even comes back as a decently sized creature and can wreak more havoc in the skies. But I doubt this has a home, as the 1-mana slot is usually occupied by mana dorks and premium creatures like and .

: This control hoser, in contrast to , can be countered itself. However, it does hit the battlefield a turn earlier, often before your opponent can pass with open mana, and thus protects your curve much more efficiently. The activated ability is nice to have as a mana sink in the late game, although it will rarely be used. Destiny Spinner has decent stats as well and survives a bunch of popular red burn spells. Green-based aggro decks will love this, and Destiny Spinner is my pick for the best monogreen card in the set.

: This card is pushed. and on a body? What is not to love? While the effects are certainly powerful, they can only really shine under specific circumstances. In decks not centered around lands, the Dryad will often just speed up a land drop or two and then be a medium-sized creature. decks can now win with six lands in play; counts itself as a Mountain and spits out 18 damage when it sees itself and five neighboring peaks. But that plan is also quite risky: If your opponent can kill your Dryad in response, your likely does nothing. This is undoubtedly a strong card, but it needs to find a home. Maybe the rumored Lands archetype, which Jund is toying with, gets a much-needed push?

: This may actually be a decent beater for Gruul and Green Stompy. Once it dies, the recursion is not that hard to enable.

: This Aura brings a lot of value as it circumvents the problem of opening yourself up to a two-for-one once it resolves. There have been players trying to brew up a Bogles-esque Highlander deck for a while and this might be a new toy for them. The rate on this may be good enough to make Gruul and Selesnya players at least interested as well.

: There are certain decks that are in the market for -like creatures, meaning 2-drops that naturally grow in size during the course of a game. The Hornbeetle is not hard to trigger with such decks, and only triggering it once or twice already leaves a reasonable return on investment. Unanswered, this can become quite powerful and enable an earlier swing for the kill.

: This may actually be a decent enchantress for 2 mana. It only finds lands, but in the early turns that is often exactly what you need, especially if you are looking for .

: Nylea's design is a bit uninspired, but once active the card is quite a threat. Green Stompy usually gets green pips quite fast with creatures such as and , so Nylea could be a nice curve topper in that deck. Reducing the cost of creatures is a cute added bonus, but by the time you play this, you will not have many creatures left in your hand to really capitalize. Kind of solving the issue is the activated ability, which synergizes with Nylea's passive. It makes for a decent mana sink for and is a bit better than the ability of . Nylea is archetype-specific but can be a powerhouse in Green Stompy as both threat and grind engine. Now explain to me why a skyscraping creature with a bow does not have reach and we're good.

: 4 mana to grab and ? Pay 1 extra to also get or ? This spell is worse than and much worse than , but land-centric decks may be interested in the extra redundancy. Add to that that you can sometimes a blue tempo deck and we have got quite a card to consider for Lands.

: Once you untap with this, your ramp deck can go wild. However, it usually goes wild anyway with its natural game plan, so why bother going above and beyond with this clunky creature? Nyxbloom Ancient is a prime example of a win-more card and I only see potential in weird combo decks that cheat it out.

: This is another enchantress, one that can grow into a threat and get out of -range fast. Enchantress revels in all the new redundancy in this set and an improved [Verduvian Enchantress] is exactly what that archetype needed.

: A for 2 mana is nothing to be particularly excited about, but this can be another option for decks that want to ramp with enchantments instead of lands or creatures. The activated ability is a nice bonus but will rarely make a difference in decks whose strategy revolves around ramping into something huge.

Multicolor

: This seems like a nice archetype-enabling planeswalker for Enchantress. But normally you would rather resolve a powerful 4-cost enchantment instead of a fragile walker. Calix's abilities are fine and an extra is somewhat exciting, but planeswalkers do suffer in decks that cannot reliably protect them. This feels like a deck building trap.

: I went back and forth on this card, but now I think it is one of the very best cards in the set. This does so many things at once: Klothys ramps, races the opponent very well, hoses graveyard strategies, and can become a formidable beater all in one neat package that is cheap to cast and easy to tutor up. People have been comparing the God to because it creates a similar sense of urgency. Klothys has already popped up in some legacy control lists, which is funny as it is the Gruul God after all. Do not sleep on this card — you will realize Klothys's power once you sit across from it and feel like spiky walls are closing in.

: This can be a punishing card if you can enable escape quickly. Five cards, however, is a considerable cost and so is double black and double red. I can see Grixis Tempo, Rakdos Aggro, and Mardu decks being interested. Notably Kroxa triggers on-death effects such as , so Aristocrats may once again have a new toy. Also note that all Titans can be cute with in response to the death trigger.

: What is up with 3-mana Simic cards these days? Uro has seen considerable hype prior to the release, but I think only part of it was warranted. As a that gains 3 life for 3 mana, Uro feels alright to resolve, ramping while simultaneously making sure you do not die in the process. The power, of course, lies in the escape mechanic that can start generating tons of value in the mid- to late game. The cost of 4 exact mana can be hard to pay, though, and Uro loses some of its initial wow-factor. Where does Uro slot in in European Highlander? Ramp decks usually don't play blue. Decks like Simic Flash and Bant Midrange would rather have a body on the battlefield on initial cast. Temur Tempo can often not pay the double-Simic mana cost for escape. Uro may join the club of Powerful Cards Without a Home. Can you adopt it?

: On first glance, this may be the perfect card for Four-Color Blood (Midrange without blue) as Polukranos is a huge threat that can generate value. It loses counters on damage, so its ability usually is a one-time affair. Recurring a dead card for only 6 mana and six other cards in the bin and getting a 12/12 that also fights the board? Now that is impactful. If there is a self-milling graveyard deck somewhere — think and — Polukranos may become a powerhouse.

: People will give this a chance simply because it is so much fun to play. I love the design as well and the mind games it creates, but Atris just does not impact the board enough to matter for 4 mana. Decks that are interested in quality draw spells rather play instant-speed options. Plus, is arguably a better card in the same slot, so Atris faces strong competition.

: Selesnya Aggro gets another with upside, but this is not. Bronzehide Lion enables some free swings, but holding up Selesnya mana all the time will be painful. The weird recursion-as-an-enchantment ability is cool, but it has the same problem. You would have to severely limit your board development in order to protect the creature it enchants. I can see this slotting into decks that simply want good rates on their 2-drops, but other than that, this will likely not beat other options.

: This Sphinx is an absurdly pushed control finisher that is hard to kill, hard to race, and hard to outvalue. 6 mana is a steep cost and it does compete with the likes of , , and . Control players in all formats are very high on Dream Trawler, though, so I can definitely see myself becoming very frustrated in the future sitting across from it.

: I never got the chance to play with before it was banned, and this new card will certainly not give me the same raw power. As a card in Enchantress, one could sacrifice permanents in order to get a [Argothian Enchantress] or into play. The Incarnation triggers in the end step, which is good because it will generate value the turn you play it; but that also means your new creature has to survive your opponent's turn or generate immediate value itself.

: The wealth of abilities reeks of . The three-headed hound hoses Reanimator while being decent on offense and defense. If Death and Taxes ever manifests in Orzhov, this will likely see play, and given the right metagame it can be another in Abzan and Four-Color Blood.

: People have experimented with decks in the past and one of the major problems for that deck was consistency. Siona offers very deep selection and a decent ability after that — sacrifice fodder for an opposing , perhaps? Note that this goes infinite with , but it's a very fragile combo.

: There are some decks that would want another copy of and , but these decks have almost always been monoblue in the past. I doubt that this printing alone will push those brewers into Azorius, but it is a piece to consider.

Colorless

: This is right up the alley of White Weenie because now can find a very good racing tool that is cheaper than, say, . White Weenie is often suffering in the midgame against Midrange decks when its creatures get outclassed by the likes of or chumped by tokens. That's what the Spear is here for — to pierce through the competition. The activated ability can sometimes help against a or , which will be relevant every full moon or so. Shadowspear is a powerful piece of equipment and even other aggressive decks like Green Stompy will be interested in its great rate.

: Very similar to and , the Lantern is a great option for decks using . This can even exile your opponent's graveyard while you are tapped out and therefore buy you a decent amount of time while you fill your board with further artifacts.

: Tapping five lands in total for this is really expensive, but a hard control list may favor this over or consider it as a second Maze. Then again, White-Blue Control rarely plays which is similar but way cheaper to activate.

Top 10 Highlander Cards of the Set

Whew. Look at all these words. I am quite a fan of Theros Beyond Death, because it manages to provide options without featuring too many automatic inclusions — looking at you, War of the Spark and Modern Horizons! This set rather ventures into new directions design-wise and powers up some niche archetypes. I am personally excited to see what players will do with the new cards. To conclude this article series, here's my personal Top 10 of cards for European Highlander:

1. (I have now played against this a few times, and it is that good.)

Disagree? I'm eager to see your Top 10 in the comments below. I hope you enjoyed reading my set review as much as I enjoyed writing it. See you on the battlefield!

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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.