Theros Beyond Death Limited Set Review – Green

Drifter: A

Arasta has a good Giant Spider rate to begin with, and the Spiders are huge incremental value that will mean your opponents will really want to kill her (which isn’t easy to do). If you’ve played with Spider Spawning in Innistrad Limited (which I highly recommend if not), you know how annoying a bunch of 1/2 Reach creatures can be!

Drifter: D

This card is low investment for a reasonable amount of value but is really slow. You either want several Escape creatures or Enchantment payoffs, but even as a base case the three cards are likely to give you something okay to recur, or something is likely to die by then that you want to. The main problem with it is that it takes absolutely ages to get going, and is a really bad topdeck. On turn 2, you really want to be playing a 2 drop and not this, and it will be hard to fit into your turns. On that basis, I think I’m only going to give it a D, but it is a pretty high D, and this card is better if you don’t have a ton of 2s.

Drifter: B

This card is great – its body isn’t too bad in that it can trade for an x/1 and it might shoot down a Scavenging Harpy (the only x/1 flier in the set at common/uncommon), or set up a double block or a bigger flier with some damage already on it, but the important thing is that you don’t lose a card for doing any of this – the escape cost is cheap and at that point, it will completely eradicate flier decks. A recursive 4/5 reach creature is incredibly hard for decks with a lot of fliers to beat, and their best bet will be to use Enchantment-based removal on it, which there are plenty of answers for in this set, or to exile it outright. This card is also great with self-mill or looting, since it’s like you don’t lose a card when you ditch it with Thrill of Possibility. This patches up a major weakness in Green in an overwhelming way.

Drifter: B

Overstatted unit which hates on blue decks and has a strong activated ability in the late game? Sign me up!

Drifter: B

This is no Courser of Kruphix, but it’s still a great card. It combines a solid body with fixing for every colour, and possibly some minor ramp.

Drifter: A

If they’re forced to use removal on your 1/1 or just lose the game, I’m pretty into that, and that will be what this card forces them to do a lot of the time. Three mana is not a big investment, and this card provides a gigantic amount of value for that. If you do have other 4 power creatures, that helps, but a lot of the removal in the set doesn’t even hit the creature (though it does have a weakness to Enchantment removal). It takes a few turns to get going, but it’s a high A and I doubt I’m ever going to pass this card.

Drifter: C

This is a low C and a medium filler combat trick, but can be okay in some decks. As always with tricks, this is much better if you’re beating down.

Drifter: C

Removal seems good enough that this card isn’t particularly exciting, and it takes a while to get going. The payoff is there eventually, but I’m not that excited to play this card without something like Heliod's Pilgrim or other ways to make good use of auras. I would want to slam this on a disposable creature and wait around mainly, there’s no reason to put it on a good creature and risk being blown out.

Drifter: C

A 3/3 for 3 is a fine statline, and this is almost vanilla.

Drifter: C+

The base case of a card that ramps you and fixes your mana for such a low investment is always good, and this will enable strong splashes in a set where only Green is likely to be able to do so. I really don’t believe there are nearly enough pings to make this card bad: the good ones in red are all uncommon and Black only has a couple of awkward ones at common in Mogis's Favor and Grim Physician. The chances of playing against specific uncommons in Limited aren’t very high, especially when there’s only a couple in one colour. This is a high C+.

Drifter: F

I really think there is no reason to play this card. Even in decks with lots of enchanted creatures and auras, this card is incredibly situational, and you’ll run into other people with Enchantment creatures/auras where this won’t do anything at all.

Drifter: D

I don’t think there are many decks that will be interested in this. If you are playing close to mono green and you have a bunch of cards with heavy green mana costs, maybe this card will be threatening enough since at that point, it might be giving +5/+5 or so – but even then, you’re not going to have that many creatures; green tends to go wide rather than tall.

Drifter: C

A 3 mana 4/1 isn’t good, but this Escape ability is a lot of upside. In the late game when you’re out of other stuff to play, bringing this back over and over and it trading for something each time will be a way to win some very grindy games. This also enables 4+ power synergy cards like Nessian Hornbeetle and Furious Rise nicely.

Drifter: B

I think this card would be better in other sets, since a lot of the removal in the format tends to either be Enchantment-based or exile. This card is a lot better in Golgari or Gruul with sac outlets, since that ensures you can often get the 2/2 Wolves, and it’s still a high B.

Drifter: C

Moss Viper is a fine card in any non-aggressive deck, it can trade with whatever ground creature you need to at any point in the game, and I think ping effects are mostly at uncommon in the set (see my comment on Ilysian Dryad for more info).

Drifter: C+

This is a really efficient and powerful rate for removing an Enchantment, and prevents it ever coming back. That being said, only 1/3 of the creatures in the set at common and uncommon are Enchantment Creatures (data here and here), and it’s easy to imagine getting beaten down by a regular creature while having this stuck in your hand. It is nice that it hits a lot of utility Enchantments also, but a bunch of them get their value before you do so – this is really good against Enchantment-based removal specifically, but I don’t think you want to main too many copies of this and Return to Nature, or to take too many copies highly, so I’ve given it a C+.

Drifter: F

I don’t consider this a playable card – it might trade with a few creatures, but they’ll get a bunch of draws in return. It’s specifically good if you can set up board states where your other creatures can kill them while they’re all forced to block the Boar, but this is like playing a 10/6 Defender for most of the game, and that’s not where I want to be.

Drifter: B

Here we have 2 drop that becomes a huge threat very quickly and stays relevant later on in the game. Even if they get rid of it using Enchantment-based removal, it’s easy to imagine killing the Enchantment in the late game with a Return to Nature, and by then this creature might well be a 6/6 or 7/7.

Drifter: B

In a deck with a lot of Enchantments, Nessian Wanderer ensures you never miss a land drop and you essentially draw an extra card a turn that’s a land. That’s a really strong effect, and the card combos very well with looting or rummaging effects of which Red and Blue have several at common each. This card evokes Dryad Greenseeker from M19, which was an insane card (though this isn’t quite as good). If you have shuffle effects or the game just goes long enough, the thinning of having a bunch of lands removed from your deck becomes very relevant. The card is hurt by a bit by the fact that Green doesn’t have as many Enchantments as the other colours, but those have tons. All that value for a 2 mana 1/3 means this is a very solid B, and I would be happy to first pick this card.

Drifter: C+

This is the sort of card that can singlehandedly destroy an aggro deck. Gaining 2 life per Enchantment is a fantastic rate, and this has a very strong blocking statline especially against fliers. Most decks will be happy to have this card.

Drifter: S

Five devotion isn’t hard to hit in Limited, and Nylea has insane stats and is hard to kill once you do. Her abilities are nice but not amazingly strong; I wouldn’t recommend splashing Nylea as I did some of the other Gods as most of her value does come in that fantastic statline once activated. It is nice that her abilities have synergy: in making creatures cheaper, she leaves you more mana available to activate her, and that second ability is strong in the late game, giving you a 40% chance to draw a card and surveil 1 for 3 mana if you don’t.

Drifter: D

Nylea’s Forerunner has a really bad statline, and I think you’ll generally be able to do better on 5 drops. It is nice that there’s a lot of Constellation in Green and it doesn’t have that many Enchantment creatures, but Wardscale Crocodile is not a great card. I will run this card if I have a lot of 4+ power payoffs, but I will never be happy to. Still, this is a high D.

Drifter: C

This is mostly a 4 mana 4/3, but that ability is decent upside in that you can just attack your 2 drops or other expendable creatures in and force them to trade, or take a bunch of damage.

Drifter: C

3 mana to get your splash colour or search up two lands is a fairly weak rate, and that is the main use of the card; there aren’t many good utility lands. The set isn’t flier-heavy – against a lot of decks, this won’t do very much. This is an incredible sideboard card though, and I would take it highly if I already had a good number of playables. I would be okay to maindeck this card, but consider it a pretty low C and could easily see cutting it in a lot of decks.

Drifter: B

This card functions mostly as a 3 mana 3/4 Trample most of the time – it does die to 3 damage removal, but the ability to instead buff other attackers is great. Green doesn’t have too many Enchantment creatures and has a lot of Constellation effects, so the Enchantment creatures it does have are in high demand, which is gravy on top of this great card.

Drifter: F

This card is not great – a 7 mana 5/5 trample is a really bad rate and if you’re casting a 7 drop, you don’t need more mana. This card gets better with mana sinks, but this format doesn’t have a ton of those by any means. I don’t foresee this card as being worth the investment in more than say 1 in 100 decks (these would be ones that have a couple of the rare x spells and then a bunch of the few mana sinks in the set), and that’s too low for me to give it anything but an F. Playing 7 drops with bad statlines that don’t have relevant abilities is a recipe for making the vast majority of your decks worse.

Drifter: D

You don’t want that many 6 drops in your decks, this is a hard to cast and mediocre one in a set with a bunch of great ones at Common/Uncommon. In a deck with 9 green sources, you only have a 59% chance to have the green to cast this on turn 6 averaging play/draw (see here to learn how to calculate this yourself and improve your future Limited deckbuilding!) – that’s a terrible rate because 40% of the time, you just won’t be able to play the card.

Drifter: C

Flash helps this card a lot, and it will approach C+ in Simic. It’s not that exciting outside of that, just a low C, but Green will be able to splash thanks to it and Ilysian Caryatid while other colours won’t be able to, and that’s an omen of success for the colour.

Drifter: B

As we saw with Blight-Breath Chimera, Ravenous Chupacabra for 6 is still great.

Drifter: F

This is a plummet from grace, but I don’t think you should run this card in your Limited maindeck this format. Still, take it over any real trash you encounter since it’s an okay sideboard card.

Drifter: D

This is just too little for 3 mana unless your deck really has a lot of Escapes, and good ones at that. If it does, it’ll still be only a C or at most C+, and that’s 1 in 10 decks maximum.

PS: This also has a pretty big failcase. To learn more, check the comments section at the end of this review, where I elaborated a bit more on my rating! See here to learn how to get the percents used.

Drifter: C+

Renata gives you good value, but she comes down at a point where you’ll already have played a bunch of your creatures and you might not have too many, and she’s a little understatted. Still, her ability improves your late game draws and is especially good with token effects, such as in Selesnya. I consider this a high C+.

Drifter: C+

Only 1/3 of the creatures in the set at common and uncommon are Enchantment Creatures (data here and here). There are a lot of Enchantments, but a lot of them give value before they’re removed so it’s important to keep in perspective that it often won’t be killing what you want or having that strong an effect. That being said, this card is efficient and versatile enough to be worth a C+. It’s important to note that you don’t want too many of these – I think a deck wants at most two Enchantment removal spells, and those that already have other kinds of removal may only want one, but will be happy to have this as a great Sideboard card.

Drifter: A

This card is absurd, but it takes some time to get going and most S tier Bombs do more than just draw you a card. There aren’t a lot of 1 mana Enchantments in the set, so you’ll often be waiting until turn 5 at least to play this if you don’t want to open it up to removal, where its statline isn’t as useful. If you have to just run this out on turn 3 when you’re behind, that’s not going to end well. The card is still a solid A, but it’s worse than it looks.

Drifter: D

This card is good for enabling devotion, but there really isn’t a huge payoff for that at common/uncommon in Green. This card’s base rate is too inefficient and ineffectual to merit a better grade. Feel free to take it a little higher if you have Nylea (the only rare or mythic green Devotion payoff), but most decks should stay away.

Drifter: D

This card doesn’t attack that well, and will often just trade for 2 drops even if you play one Enchantment. They’re not so cheap and abundant that you can get two triggers in one turn that often. I consider this about the same as a 2 mana 2/2 with no ability (which is a high D).

Drifter: D

I think this card is too inefficient to be a high pick. It does buff your 3/xs to 4 power for the synergies and enable your Enchantment payoffs, but it does so at too expensive a rate for most decks and it opens you up to instant speed removal (you won’t even draw the card). It can be worth it in decks where you want the synergies and have a lot of naturally beefy creatures, but it’s not a very exciting use of mana regardless. Enabling Heroic with it isn’t even good, as you’re playing a fairly aggressive go wide deck then, and this is terrible in those kinds of decks. If this cost 1, I’d be giving it a much better grade, but as it is I think it’s just a high D.

Drifter: C

A 2/2 Enchantment creature for 2 is a good rate, especially in Green, which has a lot of Constellation cards and not a lot of Enchantment creatures. In a deck with Enchantment synergies, this card will be a 2 drop you want. The abilities are very minor upside and not worth much; 3 mana to enable your Escape synergies isn’t that exciting when you only mill one card and get nothing else, but it might be okay in the late game when you really have nothing better to do. Even with a lot of Escape creatures, I don’t think this actually helps them that much except in the very late game.

Drifter: B

Voracious Typhon is great in every way – it has a good statline on turn 4, and will win late games by itself as a 7/7 that they have to get rid of potentially several times. It’s a bit weaker than it would be normally in a set full of Enchantment-based removal, but this is still the best Escape common in the set by far and a decent first pick.

Drifter: C+

This not boosting power takes it out of the B range, but it’s still super strong. In Green, most of your creatures will naturally be bigger than theirs anyway this set and being an Enchantment is nice upside. That being said, watch out for instant speed removal, especially against Black! Ideally, go for this when they don’t have mana up (although that won’t always be feasible against Blue).

Drifter: C

Wolfwillow Haven provides ramp at a cheap rate, and you can cash it in in the late game when you don’t need it anymore. Sometimes it’ll be okay to replace a land with this but if your curve is on the expensive side, you’re better off not counting this as one.

Drifter

Green has some weak commons in this set, but overall the good commons it has are great and its uncommons are fantastic. It’s a shame that it has a lot of Constellation but its Enchantments at common aren’t that exciting, and you’ll have to lean on your other colour heavily for those (which is mostly fine, since the other colours have a lot of good Enchantments). Its synergies aren’t as well-supported as Blue (but I think it has a higher power), and on power level it’s somewhat weaker than Black. Black Green Escape and Red Green Big Creatures Matter look like the best things to pair with it.

My rough colour rankings for the set are as follows in order: black, blue/green, red and then white. I look forward to seeing how that pans out!