Magic the Gathering: Journey into Nyx Spoilers

The current Magic: The Gathering block is based on Greek and Roman mythology and it is my favorite block yet. Journey into Nyx represents the journey into the underworld. There are going to be five demi-Gods released in this set.

The five Gods in the original set were named Heliod, God of the Sun, Nylea, God of the Hunt, Erebos, God of the dead, Purpheros, God of the Forge, and Thassa, God of the Sea. In the following two sets, which are Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx, they have offspring - dual-colored Gods.

Nyx represents the Godess of the night, and she has her own shrine, although she is not a creature.

Note that as with all good art, there is symbolism embedded in all aspects. That is one reason I never think that it is too out there for there to be hidden meaning in art, as an artist, there is almost always hidden meaning in art.

The five new Gods
It is interesting to see the five new Gods and their artwork.


This God is very O.P. in my opinion. Yes, it is a centaur.


Looks like Thor.


Looks like a martial arts Pokemon.


Looks like a Gorgon. That is what the kids call Medusas these days. And they do turn creatures to stone a lot. And it is dangerous to look into their eyes, even after they are beheaded.


Looks like Old Greg.


Constellation - a new ability probably based off of the Greek's navigation of the seas or astronomy usage for farming. Naiads are a type of Nymph - a Nymph is a spirit that protects a certain place, like a lake, for example. If someone does something good for the lake, then the nyad will give him or her its blessing.


I like the Starfish creature, this makes me want to make a starfish deck now. Scrying is the ability to see the future. All of the ten temples in Theros have the ability to scry, as they are home to the oracles. This starfish seems to have a prophecy written on it using runes.


Here is a Merfolk, good for any Fish decks out there - I am working on Modern Fish. Don't forget the theories that the truth is out there... about remaining merfolk civilizations even today. I believe that the black and white pearls could be referencing Urim and Thummim from The Alchemist - these stones are used to help make choices to follow one's destiny.


A non-enchantment board wipe - a bit costly, but black board wipes are rare. I believe the God in the center there is Erebos, God of the Dead.


Minotaurs are big in Theros. This mangled guy is just one of the many, many, many - and yes, I could not resist making a Minotaur deck. What I need to do is throw in some Maze's End in there just because Minotaurs like mazes. My decks can be very trollzy.


It is rare for a green creature to have vigilance.


Satyrs are the other big creature in Theros besides Minotaurs. They are often hedonists. One of them meets up with the four children in the original Chronicles of Narnia, I believe.

reply to post by darkbake


Man that centaur card is way OP lol, I haven't played in prob 6 years but I can't imagine much has changed that wouldn't make that OP.

Cool idea for new set of cards though.

Also, isn't the classification of medusa being a gorgon correct?
That Medusa was a women that got turned into a gorgon, but Medusa is in fact her name not the name of the creature she is?

reply to post by darkbake


Nice... I just got back into MTG in the past month or so...

Used to play years ago, and I just bought a deck builder set... but I don't have anyone to play with

Though im considering magic online... it seems they use almost all the cards from all the sets from the past

I wonder if its possible to play a game on a forum?

reply to post by Sremmos80


Yeah no kidding, that white red centaur is broken - it is ridiculous. And I think you might be right about Gorgons - although in Heroes of Might and Magic, have you ever played that? They thought Gorgons were these oxen with scaled skin that breathed fire.

reply to post by Akragon


I spent like 8 hours playing Magic: Online today, I did 4 standard tournaments using a Red Deck wins and a sealed tournament... I came out about even overall. I do go to the Friday Night Magic play groups, but playing online gives me more play experience...

www.mtggoldfish.com

This site analyzes the games being played on Magic: Online and breaks them into decks and then shows you which cards are played the most often in each deck... I use it to help research the meta game these days. Although I still make casual decks if I can find people to play with.

Magic: Online has a lot of cards, yeah - and there are casual lounges to just sit back and play in, although cards will cost a tiny bit of money, it is a fraction of real life cards.

reply to post by darkbake


I haven't played might and magic so I can't speak for what they call gorgons.
I may be wrong on the fact that Medusa is a gorgon, just that she is not a "medusa".

Also, only the description of the centuar show up? Or is that another one of its abilities, that it wipes the info off of the other god cards!?

DP

Sremmos80
Also, only the description of the centuar show up? Or is that another one of its abilities, that it wipes the info off of the other god cards!?

That's because it is so O.P. the other Gods go into shock

reply to post by darkbake


Honestly I've never played someone who actually knows the game with the real cards...

I've always played two decks against each other solo mostly... but it gets complicated sometimes lol

Im seriously considering getting MTGO...

I've been playing the trial verion for a week or so... now im itchin

reply to post by Akragon


I am darkbake on MTGO if you want to add me. I think... hmm... start with a Swiss Draft. That means you build your deck on the spot and also win a pack for every round you win, it minimizes losses.

The entry is 1 Born of the Gods pack, 2 Theros packs and 2 tickets - if you buy the packs from independent merchant bots you can get the cost down to 12 tix, or $12.00. Also, some cards you draft can sell for Tix.

I just think draft would be relatively easy place to start, and you could try Pauper, which is building decks of only commons. Or make casual standard decks to start and play at non-competitive tables.

I always enjoy having a play group in person, but it gets harder as I get older. Although our FNM is mostly adults.

reply to post by darkbake


Nothing makes an MTG player squirm like new spoilers.

Honestly, I'm just excited that I get to talk about my old addiction on my new addiction.

That centaur god is definitely op. To answer the question about what happened to make him so op is that creatures have become way more powerful as of late. So much so, in fact, that combo decks are non existent in standard play most sets.

Also, yes Medusa is a gorgon.

Dp

Those cards are really cheap to cast! My buddy has a hydra that costs two of every color, and its not even as good as those god cards!

Nice..

im about to put in my pre order for the NYX stuff.....

I have only been playing for 6 month or so, love it....

reply to post by AfterInfinity


I know! Andrew is right. The cards have gotten more powerful, so much so that a collection of individual bombs could outmatch a thought out deck.

What I'm finding is that synergy can still be important but O.P. Cards are becoming more important than before.

That cost 4 God is crazy.

reply to post by darkbake


Dammit I need money.

I haven't been playing much for the last couple of years if I play its usually EDH or a twelve spell variant.

Those dudes are pretty brutal looking. I don't understand, are there no gods that are also planeswalkers? I don't know BotG very well... I might be missing something.

If I had the credits I might just be tempted to get back into MTG again...

reply to post by CagliostroTheGreat


What is this twelve spell variant? Actually! There is one Planeswalker, Xenagos, who ended up becoming a God. Kruphix happens to be the oldest God in the Theros pantheon.

In Kamigawa there were Myojins, who were basically Gods (they were all indestructible as well). Gods are usually Gods of their Realm - Planeswalkers can walk between realms, it seems to me that when Xenagos became a God of Theros, it was like him settling down... but I don't know much about the lore. The player, that would be you or I, also represents a Planeswalker.

I think the Myojin of Night's Reach is still out there, at large.

reply to post by darkbake


12 spell is a 60 card deck, Singleton format with no more than twelve non-creature spells. Its pretty fun and presents a new way of deck building. It is kind of like a very watered down and less mana intensive version of EDH.

Thanks for clearing up the god/planeswalker debacle. It just seemed to me like if you were a god you could easily be a walker too. It makes sense that the gods would want to stick around their home plane though.

When Nyx came out I went into a comic book shop and purchased one little booster pack. Opened it and, feeling very much like Charlie Bucket, found "Athreos, God of Passage" in the back.....

Needless to say, the entire store clapped for me as I had been their FIRST sale! I was super excited!

...Until I heard that, two days later, someone had opened a booster pack that literally had all the Gods in it.

Way to smash my ego.