Welcome all to another edition of the Daily Dose of Theros Beyond Death. I’m kicking off a brand-new week talking about a classic Theros subtheme returning in the new set. That’s right, enchantments are back and back in numbers! There will be tons of enchantments, auras, sagas. and enchantment creatures for you to play with in Theros Beyond Death. Today I want to highlight a pretty strong aura and an enchantment matters value green creature.
The design space around enchantments are interesting because they are all permanents, but often are not on the battlefield for a long period of time. Basic enchantments will usually stay on the battlefield for most of the game. Auras are often powerful, but can also put you behind in the card advantage race if your opponent has a well-timed removal spell. Sagas are great spells that provide different abilities but will be gone after a few turns. Enchantment creatures are the most interesting as the enchantment part of their card type is mostly a bonus thrown on. It can also open your creatures up to removal that wouldn’t normally be used on a non-enchantment creature.
I want to start by talking about an aura that reminds of an Ixalan card that we just got rid of in October. Here is Staggering Insight.
Staggering Insight
The immediate comparison to this card is Curious Obsession. That card ruled Mono-Blue decks for months in Standard and was a turn 2 way to start gaining advantage. Staggering Insight is better in some ways, but worse in others. Where it loses against Curious Obsession is that it cost two mana to cast and two different coloured mana to boot. This makes it a little more difficult to provide protection for the creature you are casting it on for turn two. There are some advantages though for Staggering Insight. Opening up your mana base to white allows you to have Gods Willing as one mana creature protection since Dive Down doesn’t exist, although realize that it will remove enchantment if you choose protection from white or blue. Another bonus is that it adds lifelink to your creature as well. This can go a long way to making sure you gain some needed life early in the game. Another advantage is that unlike Curious Obsession, you don’t need to attack with a creature each turn for the aura to survive. This means you can save attacking until the right time.
Next is a variant of the old card Eidolon of Blossoms, but with an extra advantage. Here is Setessan Champion.
Setessan Champion
Welcome to the Edgewall Innkeeper of enchantment decks. When I see this card, I instantly want to build a value oriented constellation deck. Being able to cast enchantments repeatedly is where my mind goes first and the best two currently in Standard for that are Dovin’s Acuity and Disinformation Campaign. These will get you playing 3 colours, but could be a way to gain some major card advantage. If that doesn’t work for you, you could always just make a sweet all-enchantment deck using removal like Prison’s Realm and Conclave Tribunal. There will be plenty of enchantment creatures to come in Theros Beyond Death, including Gods. Even using the above mentioned Staggering Insight directly onto Setessan Champion makes it a 3/5 lifelink creature that draws you a card for playing the Aura and subsequent cards if it can deal damage to an opponent.
As you can see, there is plenty of design space and play space for a set full of enchantments. Based on the overall strength of the enchantments in the set, it will be interesting to see if a full deck of enchantments can be made for Standard. It needs to right mix of enchantments and enchantment payoff cards to make it work. Thanks again for reading the Daily Dose of Theros Beyond Death. Join me again tomorrow as I talk more about this wonderful new set coming out next month!
