Klothys, God of Destiny – Theros Beyond Death MTG Review

David
Fanany
Player
since
1995

According to one of Wizards of the Coast’s official Theros Beyond Death videos, Klothys has emerged from the Underworld after a long time there. This raises yet more frightening metaphysical questions, such as how the concept of destiny worked while she was down there, what her relationship with Erebos and Athreos is, and whether Xenagos may yet return to challenge her for the mantle of Theros’ Gruul-colored divinity.

In the meantime, I strongly suggest using her to revitalize your Gruul-colored Magic decks. Her ability to target problem cards in graveyards (or your own, when your need for her bonuses is great enough) adds a dimension of versatility and responsiveness to an archetype that can occasionally fall into a rut of just casting creatures and attacking. It’s a little slow for larger formats, but it will likely be a more serious threat to graveyard decks in Standard.

Her stats are also definitely maindeck material, even if she’s less often active in a “normally” constructed deck of her colors. Even that last point may be different in the current Standard: other enchantments are a good way to keep any Theros god in creature form, and War of the Spark‘s planeswalkers will also make a lot of difference in this regard.

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

The long-lost replacement for the now-dead Xenagos in the pantheon of Theros, Klothys offers a fair amount of intriguing power to her. While enchantments that do nothing on their first turn out are oft a bummer, Klothys at least has indestructible and the ability to be an indestructible creature later in the game. The Theros gods have the interesting quirk of toggling between creature status and non-creature status based on how much you believe in them; this is both boon and bust, enabling them to dodge the creature removal they are vulnerable to (such as exile and -X/-X effects) but giving an out to their unstoppable onslaught. She’s not as big as most gods are, but she’ll do work all the same!

Her passive ability is a pretty neat one, a bit of anti-graveyard tech for a set with a surfeit of Stuff and Things happening in and around the graveyard. You can turn land into a bit of acceleration, or you can knock out their problem card in the graveyard (with or without escape) and bleed out your opposition in the process. Both are good, and Klothys gives red-green shells both a tool to end the game and a tool to come online faster.

I like her, but she (like most gods) doesn’t do the best job of ending the game on her own. Support her, though, and the God of Destiny will help your opponents’ games end in grisly defeat.

Constructed: 4
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 4.25 (can end games on her own, but Theros Beyond Death has a heavy amount of removal for enchantments, and she’s susceptible to it all!)
Multiplayer: 4
Commander: 4.25

Phat
Pack
Magic
YouTube

Hello everyone and welcome back to Pojo’s Card of the day, we’re looking at some of the new cards coming out in Theros Beyond Death and today is another preview from the new set!

Today we’re looking at Klothys, God of Death, who took the place of Xenagos after he was 86ed by a certain white planeswalker. She’s got some big shoes to fill after how powerful Xenagos proved to be during his time in Standard as a Minion Maker and a Mana Generator. So how does Klothys match up?

For 1RG, you get a 4/5 with devotion 7, standard for multicolor gods, but it’s ability that makes it really shine. Much like the most amazing mana dork, Deathrite Shaman, Klothys interacts mainly with the graveyard. Which is really strange for Gruul’s color pie I might add. But ramping for R or G each turn if you hit a land, and with Fabled Passage in the format it has a good hit chance, or pinging them for 2 damage and gaining you 2 life is fairly relevant against control decks which might not have an answer if you’re able to ramp it out with a certain gilded goose.

In Booster Draft this card is going to be a nightmare, as with many of the gods, mainly because it’s ability is going to slowly eat away at Escape Creatures and the fodder they need to work.

Multiplayer and Commander are going to be great formats for this card as it deals damage to each opponent and gains you life in the process, making it fair in a political sense.

I’m actually pretty excited for it in Cube Draft where Gruul has been needing a boost and this offers a bit of reach and acceleration in a format with a few fetchlands.

While it is still VERY early in deciding how strong a card is and all of these statements are opinions based on how strong Deathrite Shaman is, I think that this card is definitely going to make a spot in my Vintage Cube.

Constructed 3/5 – Much better in a format with fetchlands but still a strong indestructible creature that provides value to the graveyard.
Limited 5/5 – First Pickable for sure, chew up them yards! NOMNOM!
Commander 5/5 – A great ‘fair’ political card that can scavenging ooze away some of the graveyard value in opponents decks
Cube 3/5 – I think it’ll be a fine pick for Gruul but definitely not worth switching into.

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 YouTube.com/PhatPackMagic