Theros, a land of myths and legends. Where gods reign over the land and monstrous creatures rise from the depths to devour man. Many heroes will arise to take on the beasts and appease their gods. And so the journey through the Theros block begins. With the creative minds of Innistrad, Theros is looking to be an incredible set of cards tying into greek mythology. The intro packs cover different areas of the set including heroes, gods and mythical creatures. Today we will be looking over one of the more monstrous decks, Blazing Beasts of Myth. Will this red/green deck rise above the rest? Let’s take a look and find out.

First off let us have a look as to what the sixty card deck contains.

25 Lands: 11 Forests/14 Mountains

Creatures:
x2 Borderland Minotaur
x1 Ember Swallower (Foil)
x1 Ill-Tempered Cyclops
x2 Minotaur Skullcleaver
x2 Nemesis of Mortals
x2 Nessian Asp
x1 Nessian Courser
x1 Polis Crusher
x1 Rootwalla
x2 Satyr Hedonist
x1 Satyr Piper
x2 Satyr Rambler
x2 Stoneshock Giant
x2 Voyaging Satyr

The creatures in the deck are the main engine. Early on you will be looking on spending mana to cast the Satyrs to start threatening your opponent. Minotaur Skullcleaver is a very good turn three or turn four card to cast as you will get a great amount of early damage dealt. When you start running into five or more mana, this is where you can start considering your monstrosity creatures. These beasts cost a certain amount to summon, like the other creature cards, but have a new ability in the form of Monstrosity. By paying mana after the creatures been summoned, you can make your seemingly normal creature incredibly powerful. Let’s take an early game monstrosity creature like Polis Crusher for example. If you have the right mana when it comes to turn four you can summon this creature to bring in a 4/4 threat. Now your opponent has to try and get rid of this target, maybe even using valuable cards in the process. If they fail to sort out this threat then, by turn six at the earliest, turn this 4/4 into a 7/7 that can get rid of enemy enchantments. Monstrosity has been made to create on field threats for your opponent. Do you cast them early to make you opponent loose card advantage, or do you cast them when you have the mana to get them monstrous as soon as possible? That is a crucial choice that you as a player will have to make.

These two Satyr cards are great early game. Both helping out your mana pool

The number one creature in this deck is in fact not the Ember Swallower, but instead the Nemesis of Mortals. You may be wondering why this creature is better than the swallower. It’s as simple as its ability. At first you may think that it is a very expensive uncommon card, as you need to use six mana (2 Forests/4 Non-colours) to summon it. But this card is not meant to be played as soon as you have mana, but rather when you have creatures in your graveyard. If you have at least four creatures in your grave by the time you pull Nemesis of Mortals then you can cast it for an amazing two mana (2 forests). So now you have paid two mana for a 5/5, next turn that creature can become a 10/10 depending on what other creatures go to your grave and what mana you have. If you play and manage the deck right, you can cast this and in two turn win the game.

Spells:
x1 Artisan’s Sorrow
x1 Destructive Revelry
x1 Dragon Mantle
x2 Lightning Strike
x2 Magma Jet
x1 Portent of Betrayal
x2 Rage of Purphoros
x2 Volcanic Geyser
x1 Windstorm

As with many decks that have big cost creatures, it would be a good idea to have some form of card searching. Luckily Theros brought back an interesting mechanic known as Scry. When you Scry a card you are able to draw one, look at it and either place it back on the top of your deck or on the bottom. You may think that this is a little stupid at first, but let’s put this into perspective. Cast Magma Jet to take out one of your opponents creatures early on and Scry 1. If you are low on lands, take a land. If you need more creatures take the creature. But, if it is a card that does not assist in your current situation then place it at the bottom of your deck. This gives you a better chance of pulling something that will help you next turn without getting rid of the previous card entirely.

The two best damaging spell cards you will find in the deck are these two. Just remember to Scry with Magma Jet

There are a few cards here that are heavily situational and may not see a lot of play. Destructive Revelry for example will be great against enchantment and artefact decks but would not see much play against swarm creature decks. Portent of Betrayal is better off being used as a late game tide turning card, due to its ability of stealing powerful or annoying creatures. This in turn would mean that it won’t see much play when facing control decks, since they use less or smaller creatures. Lastly there is Windstorm that is only usable against flying creatures. If it damaged all creatures, as a board wipe move, then this would see more play in this deck.

Overall, Blazing Beasts of Myth is a deck that caters to the aggressive, creature swarm players of Magic the Gathering. This is a great buy for anyone wanting to look into the Monstrosity mechanic. It is also a good buy for those who are new to the game and want to delve deeper into straight up aggro play. Although the deck may not be to everyone’s liking and there are a few spells that will not be useful against certain decks, this is a great addition to your card collection and a great introduction to the more brutal play styles of the Theros set.

So what do you think of the intro pack, Blazing Beasts of Myth? Do you think it is a monstrous force of nature of nothing more than a tiny insect? Let us know what you think of the deck in the comments below.

Should you buy?