Nylea, Keen-Eyed – Theros Beyond Death MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

It’s actually very fitting that we got new versions of the gods in Theros Beyond Death, because an element of Greek and Roman gods is that they have different aspects or domains based on the context and sometimes even location. For example, Athena is Athena Polias when she founds and protects cities, and Athena Promachos when she leads soldiers into battle. Jupiter Feretrius is the face of the god relevant when Rome conquered countries and took spoils of war, and Jupiter Terminalus the face that protected the empire’s boundaries.

Nylea’s new aspect happens to be the exact same mana cost as her previous one, which means that unless you’re in Commander, you probably won’t be running the maximum possible number of both. They also perform quite different functions, and it’s quite possible that not every deck would want both. The newer Nylea’s acceleration effect is fairly relevant in smaller formats, and her card-drawing and/or graveyard-filling ability has potential in all sorts of formats. If you just need to beat down and deal as much damage as you physically can, the older version is better suited to that; if you have a slower deck and/or a more involved interaction, the newer one is a great choice.

Constructed: 4/5
Casual: 4/5
Limited: 4/5
Multiplayer: 4/5
EDH/Commander: 4/5

Both of Nylea’s abilities play well into one another, and that makes her a reasonable threat overall. A discount on all of your creature spells is neat (particularly coming in the color that does the most with big creatures), and being able to draw more creatures is also good. Even if you don’t reveal a creature, that filtering effect is also rather powerful, getting you past cards you don’t need and fueling the powerful escape spells of the set. A 5/6 indestructible body is also nice, even if she isn’t always a body, and green tends to put enough things on the board reliably to get her online; four mana is maybe a bit high, but still workable enough!

Nylea is strong, but she won’t win games on her own; she’ll help you get there, though, and sometimes that’s good enough.

Constructed: 4
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 4.5
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander: 4

Phat
Pack
Magic
YouTube

Hello and welcome to Pojo’s Card of the Day! Today we’re taking a peek at one of the not-so-looked at Theros Gods, but then again with Heliod’s insta-kill combo with Walking Ballista it’s not surprising that she isn’t getting a lot of fanfare.

So let’s take a look at how Nylea evolved since we last saw her in Theros!

The first two lines of text are a familiar landscape, it requires 5 devotion to be a creature and is indestructible, but her new abilities are stormalicious! Creatures cost (1) less to cast, and you’re able to pump some extra mana into her to reveal the top card of your library and chuck it into the yard, or put it into your hand if it’s a creature.

Seriously. When did Green become so fixated on card draw?!

In Limited this thing is absolute badonka-bomb. I know from experience, one of Green’s strengths is gumming up the board with plenty of dudes that just stack on each other, and Nylea allows you to pump all that extra mana in to making more dudes appear in your hand! Card draw is so rare and incredibly powerful in this format to where it’s hardly seen, even Blue has it’s card draw neutered by being a ‘loot’ effect below Rare.

It’s a great way to toss out irrelevant spells in a format where board stalls are less a rarity and more a certainty! Oh and it also fuels escape too. First pickable without a second thought, unless there’s another foil rare in the pack..

In Constructed this is probably going to be more of a sideboard card, I don’t see it mainboard since having lots of leftover mana isn’t usually an issue except in control matchups. Now if you’re running into control, and you can lay this down underneath their countermagic or after baiting something else, you’re gonna be in a good position if they don’t have a banishing light to strike it down. Control is all about card advantage and this goddess is able to provide the green decks with that ability which means you can keep the pressure up on them even after a wrath!

Commander and Multiplayer are also a great option for this card, I’m not sure about her as a general, but possibly if you’re really dedicated to Mono Green and you’ve got a bunch of Un-Sanctioned Forests burning a hole in your collection. The fact that she makes your creatures cheaper is probably one of the main attractions as in Commander you want to get the most bang for your buck. Also drawing cards is pretty good too.

I’m very excited to try this card in Cube, I think it’s going to be a great addition to Green since again, drawing cards is awesome! Green also has a lot of ways to generate mana and can fall victim to shoddy topdecks of useless lands or excess mana dorks, and she’ll be able to chew through the library until she finds a Craterhoof to finish off the game.

Ratings:

Constructed 2/5 – I don’t see her running away with anything in particular in Standard, then again Standard is kinda trash right now, and she doesn’t Auto-Win in Pioneer so she’ll probably be left behind for the Commander players to enjoy.

Commander 5/5 – I think if you’re in Green and playing creatures this should be a staple for your deck.

Limited 5/5 – BahBOOM. Did I say this was a bomb? Cause this hits like a Nuclear Explosion!

Cube 3.5/5 – While it’s not first pickable, it’s a great card to wheel if you’re already in Green.

Phat Pack Magic is a channel dedicated to Magic: the Gathering and creating awesome coverage of local events for formats like Cube, rare pack drafts, and now FNM Pioneer videos! Check it out at https://YouTube.com/PhatPackMagic