 | |||
| Released | January 24, 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Size | 254 cards | ||
| Development code | Baseball | ||
| Expansion code | THB | ||
| |||
Theros Beyond Death is a Magic: The Gathering expansion set. [1] It is not part of a block. It was released on January 24, 2020. [2] The set's development codename is "Baseball", [3] and its expansion code is THB.
Like Theros , Theros Beyond Death takes place on the fictional plane of Theros, which is inspired by Greek mythology. [4] This set was a top-bottom design; [5] "top-bottom sets and blocks are centered around a distinct flavorful theme, as though they were a movie or a comic book with a card game tie-in. [...] The world of Theros is another top-bottom design, with ideas of ancient Greece dictating how the original Theros block and the subsequent Theros: Beyond Death set were designed. Spartans, gorgons, hydras, satyrs, seaside temples, sirens and more populate these sets, with an enchantment-based theme to represent the omnipresent power of the gods". [6]
Elspeth and Ashiok are two of the returning Planeswalkers in this storyline. [7] [8] In the story trailer, "Elspeth attempts to escape the underworld of Theros". [9] "Elspeth is a planeswalker who hasn't been seen since the last Theros set, having been slain by the god Heliod after serving his wishes as he feared her power and ability to kill deities on the plane. Ashiok most recently appeared during War of the Spark, the set that released dozens of planeswalkers into Standard at the same time, but didn't have a starring role in the narrative". [9] Screen Rant called Elspeth "a fan favorite" and highlighted that "Ashiok's design is unique" and that "they're extremely well-suited to being Elspeth's foil". [9]
Theros Beyond Death also introduces the new Planeswalker Calix who was created by Klothys, the god of destiny, to be her Agent of Fate with the goal of trying to stop Elspeth from leaving the Therosian underworld. [7] [10]
Theros Beyond Death introduced a new keyword called Escape. Spells with escape can be cast after being discarded for an additional cost. Some creatures receive an additional bonus when they escape. [11] [12]
Mythic Odysseys of Theros (2020) was the second Magic: The Gathering campaign setting adapted for Dungeons & Dragons [13] [14] and was released in the summer of 2020 after delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [15] In February 2020, Screen Rant reported that "As popular as the setting has been thanks to its Greek influences, the most recent set has experienced some controversy. Following the poor handling of the novel that accompanied the previous set War of the Spark, the story material for Theros Beyond Death was delayed indefinitely; no novel was released, and story updates were never posted on Magic's website. This has disappointed fans greatly, as some very popular characters appeared in Theros Beyond Death and players bemoaned missing the chance to learn more about them. The official statement from Wizards is that it is waiting for the proper time and channel to release the story materials. A return to prominence for the setting in the form of a Dungeons & Dragons book could be just the opportunity they're waiting for". [14]
When asked in an interview on what elements from the card game were carried over and what elements were cut during development, James Wyatt said, "I think the process was more addictive than anything else, we took the world guides that were created for Theros for the card sets and expanded those to flesh it out. I think of Magic worldbuilding like building a movie set. The old-fashioned stereotype of the movie set where you walk down the streets of the town in the western and it's just a facade and there are no actual buildings behind them. The Magic team is very good at creating the illusion that there is a world beyond those walls, but D&D players need to be able to go there, in ways that the card set doesn't. So, we did a lot of fleshing out". [16]
Cameron Kunzelman, for Paste, highlighted the set's use for new Magic players. He wrote, "Theros: Beyond Death, the new set of cards from Magic, should obviously be evaluated from the angle of what it does to all of the various bizarro formats and ways to play this game. But on a fundamental level, what you need to know right now is if it is approachable and if it allows for cool gameplay situations. [...] [This] set really rewards some highly synergistic strategies. [...] The other synergistic strategy you’re encouraged to work with in the set is the new Escape mechanic. [...] Beyond those two particular mechanical synergies, Beyond Death does all the things a good Magic set does. There's a wide variety of cards and interactions that all seem to work in tandem with one another, and it doesn't seem as if certain ways of playing the game are fundamentally broken in either a good or a bad way. This is a perfectly playable set of Magic cards that would be a good introduction to the game, although probably not as good as one of the Magic 20XX products that are intended to give players a baseline expectation of what the game is about". [5]
Ethan Gach, for Kotaku , wrote that "the cards are lovely, full of bucolic groves, sun-soaked marble buildings, and people decked out in soft robes and shimmering armor. The mechanics are easy to wrap your head around while still having deeper implications for those who love to get way into the weeds of theory-crafting and deck-building. [...] Theros Beyond Death has strong thematic underpinnings too. Devotion plays off Greek polytheism and treats faith as an accruable resource to alter events in the material world. Escape treats death as the imprisonment of the body rather than its destruction. [...] That duality between order and chaos feels more elegant in Theros than in many past sets, and Arena remains a better vehicle than ever for navigating it". [17]
Gina Lees, for PCGamesN , commented that "Magic: The Gathering’s latest expansion, Theros Beyond Death, pushes me out of that comfort zone. Before I know it, I’m creating decks that previously would have made me slightly nauseous". [18] Lees also highlighted that "Theros Beyond Death doesn't just boast new mechanics; there are plenty of new spells that I’ve been slowly chewing my way through. The Green cards are proving to be the most effective so far [...]. Theros Beyond Death also adds a bunch of new Artifacts that you’ll surely want to make room for in your deck. [...] It's a courageous, radical expansion that has created edge-of-your-seat games and reignited my sense of adventure in Magic, something that Throne of Eldraine’s Adventure cards never could". [18]
Joshua Nelson, for Bleeding Cool , reviewed a Theros Beyond Death Booster Draft Box, a Theros Beyond Death Bundle, and the two Planeswalker decks. [19] [20] [21] [22] The two Planeswalker decks are themed around Ashiok and Elspeth; Nelson highlighted that, "Elspeth is a fairly strong candidate for decent decks built around her in Oathbreaker [...]. Ashiok is a very different sort of Planeswalker card than Elspeth. [...] Each Planeswalker deck not only features a 60-card deck with a foil Planeswalker that the deck is built around, but also comes with a deck box, a nifty and convenient starter guide for new players, two booster draft packs from Theros: Beyond Death, and a code for each deck for use on Magic: The Gathering: Arena! [...] A final note, the Planeswalker deck series actually is being discontinued after Theros: Beyond Death". [22] Nelson also wrote: "As for the booster box, let me just say that not all booster boxes in the set have the same level of luck to them. [...] I got a resounding… Four mythic rare cards. That is about a 1:12.25 rate, which is over 1.5 times worse than the average, one-in-eight rates", [20] however, when using the booster box for Sealed gameplay Nelson reported that they "did quite well. I can attribute that pretty easily to the amount of prior research I have conducted about the set, and I implore all players to do research before going into a Limited environment for sure. [...] I find that Sealed is swingier than Draft because of the amount of variance in the contents of the packs". [19]
Magic: The Gathering is a tabletop and digital collectible card game created by Richard Garfield. Released in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast, Magic was the first trading card game and had approximately fifty million players as of February 2023. Over twenty billion Magic cards were produced in the period from 2008 to 2016, during which time it grew in popularity. As of the 2022 fiscal year, Magic generates over $1 billion in revenue annually.
The Multiverse is the shared fictional universe depicted on Magic: The Gathering cards, novels, comics, and other supplemental products. Though Magic is a strategy game, an intricate storyline underlies the cards released in each expansion. On the cards, elements of this multiverse are shown in the card art and through quotations and descriptions on the bottom of most cards. Novels and anthologies published by HarperPrism and Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), and the comic books published by Armada Comics expand upon the settings and characters hinted at on the cards. WOTC also publishes a weekly story in the Magic Fiction column, previously known as Official Magic Fiction and Uncharted Realms.
Several video games based on the Magic: The Gathering franchise exist for multiple systems. Some have attempted to translate the card game to electronic play nearly exactly; others have taken more liberties and drawn more from the setting than the actual rules of the card game. Benefits of successful video game versions of the card game include convenience, practice, and challenge. However, artificial intelligence for a game such as Magic is an extremely hard problem, and such software usually must be continuously updated to stay current with recently released card sets. Video game versions often expand on artwork, and may include unique cards that rely on randomness, effects which would be difficult or annoying to duplicate in real life.
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Magic: The Gathering is a video game published by MicroProse in March 1997 based on the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering. It is often referred to as Shandalar after the plane of Shandalar, where the game takes place. The player must travel the land and fight random enemies to gain cards, and defeat five wizards representing the five colors. The player must prevent one color from gaining too much power, and defeat the planeswalker Arzakon, who has a deck of all five colors. Adventure and role-playing elements are present, including inventory, gold, towns, dungeons, random battles, and character progression in the form of new abilities and a higher life point total. An oversized version of Aswan Jaguar was included in the game box.
The rules of Magic: The Gathering were originally developed by the game's creator, Richard Garfield, and accompanied the first version of the game in 1993. The rules of Magic have been changed frequently over the years by the manufacturer, Wizards of the Coast, mostly in minor ways. However, major rules overhauls have also been done a few times.
Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 is a video game based on the popular collectible card game of the same name, first published by Wizards of the Coast in 1993. The game was released on June 20, 2012, via Steam, Xbox Live Arcade, the PlayStation Network, and iPad, and is the third game in the Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers series. The gameplay follows that of the original card game, however within a more restrained framework. It received mainly positive reviews and was number one in the PlayStation Network sales for June. The sequel, Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2014, was released in 2013.
Theros is a set of three expansions to the Magic: The Gathering game, consisting of the sets Theros, Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx. The setting was later used for a Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook, Mythic Odysseys of Theros (2020). The lore and aesthetics of the game setting was based on Greek mythology.
Magic 2015 – Duels of the Planeswalkers is a video game based on the collectible card game of the same name, first published by Wizards of the Coast in 1993. The game was released in July 2014 on PC (Steam), Xbox 360, iPad (iTunes), and Android devices. An Xbox One version was released in November 2014. It is the fifth game in the Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers series. The gameplay follows that of the original card game, however within a more restrained framework. The game, like all the previous installments, is priced $10 on most platforms. On the iPad, the game is free for the first realm but has in-app purchases for the remaining realms, more cards and additional features.
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Mythic Odysseys of Theros is a sourcebook that details the Theros campaign setting for the 5th edition of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game published in June 2020. The plane was originally created for the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game and first appeared in the card set Theros, which was released in September 2013. It is inspired by Greek mythology and has a powerful pantheon of Gods that are present and active in both the world and the lives of the player characters.
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Kaldheim is the 86th Magic: The Gathering expansion and is not part of a block. It is set on the plane of the same name. It was released on February 5, 2021. It also became available in MTG Arena on January 28, 2021.
Guilds of Ravnica is the 79th Magic: The Gathering expansion; while it is not part of a block, this set is functionally the first part of a Ravnica focused storyline set on the plane of Ravnica. It was released on October 5, 2018.
Zendikar Rising is the 85th Magic: The Gathering expansion and is not part of a block. It is set on the plane of Zendikar. It was released on September 25, 2020. The sets development codename is "Diving", and its expansion code is ZNR.
Ravnica Allegiance is the 80th Magic: The Gathering expansion; while it is not part of a block, this set is functionally the second part of a Ravnica focused storyline set on the plane of Ravnica. It was released on January 25, 2019.
War of the Spark is the 81st Magic: The Gathering expansion; while it is not part of a block, this set is functionally the third part of a Ravnica-focused storyline set on the plane of Ravnica. It was released on May 3, 2019. It also became available in MTG Arena on April 25, 2019.
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