Theros Beyond Death predictions

Theros Beyond Death predictions


In this article I’ll be covering 15 predictions for the upcoming standard set, Theros Beyond Death.  I’ll be going over five predictions I feel are safe to assume they will happen as well as five that are pretty outrageous and unlikely to happen.  The other five will be somewhere in between. 


The safe
1. We will see the rest of the scry land cycle.  We got the first bunch in M20 but with cards coming in every color pair and the check lands having rotated out we need a little better fixing for two color decks than just the shock lands and guildgates from the Ravnica sets and the life gain lands that seem to be printed in almost every standard format.  I have a feeling that between this new Theros set and the next few standard sets we will see some sort of need, or even a benefit from being able to scry.
2. Elspeth escapes the underworld.  When she “died” the last time we visited the plane she was sent to the underworld to serve under Erebos as a slave.  I don’t think she took too kindly to this however, and spent her time there fighting against him.  With this fighting, she maintains her color identity of mono-white.  She manages to refrain from the corruption of the underworld and uses what she learns while there to escape from enslavement by Erebos.
3. We will see “new” planeswalkers that were previously sent to the underworld that get help escaping.  Theros is a plane that has been around for a long time.  With the history of the plane we will see characters that are new to us but very well known on the plane.  It’s likely our “new” characters are just ones that we’ve seen in the various supplemental products since the last visit and don’t know much about.
4. We see Kynaios and Tiro with their own individual cards as well as a new version of Tymna.  This is part of the “new” character suite we will see.  They were all featured in C16 pre-constructed decks but we don’t have a whole lot of history on any of these characters.
5. We will only get one “God”, Erebos.  We will however see demi-Gods, his underlings, with varying color identities based off of their previous life as well as what they’re directly in charge of in the underworld.  If we translate this to Greek mythology, which this plane is based loosely on, we know Hades had plenty of underlings to do most of his bidding for him.  I feel the Theros underworld is no different and we’ll see plenty of that here.


The in between
1. We get all of the mono-colored “Gods” fighting against Erebos and his plot to take over the plane now that Gideon is gone.  We know we’re not getting all the “Gods” and we’re only there for one set focused on the underworld run by Erebos, a mono-colored “God” which leads me to believe we will be seeing something from all of the mono-colored “Gods”.
2. Elspeth comes back with a slight shift in color identity.  She is now Orzhov after spending time as a slave to Erebos.  With Elspeth having died after our last visit to Theros, she was sent to the underworld to serve Erebos, the leader of the Theros underworld.  From her time as his slave we’ll probably see some sort of color shift from her.  Probably leaning black.  It’s likely she’s just Orzhov though.
3. In learning of the death of their hero and leader, a citizen of Akros gains their spark and is the new leader of the polis and even more powerful than Gideon.  Maybe this is Kynaios and/or Tiro.  It’s likely it is one or both of them just because they’re characters already established in the world.  It’s doubtful that they create a whole new character to fill this role.
4. Thassa goes after Thrasios in his quest to find the lost polis of Olantin and gains her spark in the process.  Following the events that took place the last time we were here, we know Thrasios went out to find the lost city of Olantin.  I believe Thassa went after him because she believes there might be something there that would give him his spark.  On her quest to find Thrasios she is also looking for and finds Olantin and gains her spark during the quest.
5. Kynaios and Tiro gain their spark and it’s similar to the Kenrith twins where they share it.  These two were featured on a card in one of the C16 pre-constructed decks so it’s likely that we see them again either as two separate cards or as one card again.  I have a feeling however, that these two will be the new planeswalker for the set as Gideon is now dead.  I feel their color identity if they share a card again will have a hybrid mana cost.  If they each get their own card they will each probably have a 2 color combination color identity. 


The outrageous
1. Thrasios actually found and visited the ruins of Olantin and he gains his spark from the visit.  Thrasios, following the events that took place last time we were on Theros, went on a quest of his own to find Olantin, a long lost city similar to Atlantis as we know it.  I believe there’s a possibility that he does find Olantin and finds something there that ignites his spark and he is now a planeswalker.
2. Elspeth actually joined forces with Erebos and we see a color shift on the card they give her.  She now has a black color identity.  She died at the hand of Heliod the last time we saw Elspeth.  When she died she went to the underworld to serve as a slave to Erebos.  It’s possible that she may have had a change in belief after getting there and serving him to actually join his side.  In doing so her color identity shifts to black entirely.
3. The Wanderer from War of the Spark is actually Elspeth in a weakened state from being under the control of Erebos for so long.  Could Elspeth have already escaped the underworld of Theros and now goes by “The Wanderer” as we saw in War of the Spark?  If so is she back there without a spark as Nicol Bolas took it during those events?
4. Karn makes an appearance to see what the plane is all about and to bring news regarding Gideon to the people of the plane.  He constructs a monument that we see in the form of Rest in Peace.  Karn, being who he is and wanting an understanding and knowledge of things similar to Ugin, might make an appearance here despite not really having any ties to the plane.  If he does I predict he will construct or oversee the construction of a monument that we see in card form as a legendary artifact with a similar effect to the card Rest in Peace.
5. We don’t get devotion like we did previously.  We instead get devotion to a specific card type.  The last time we were here we saw a whole lot of enchantments.  Now that we’re in the underworld it will be artifacts lost to time.  We will see this in the form of creatures with power and/or toughness equal to the number of artifacts you control and other similar pro-artifact effects and abilities.  I don’t believe we will see things like Ornithopter but we will see some simple 0 and 1 cmc artifacts to assist with this.  We will possibly see the legendary enchantment artifacts as equipment as well. 
I don’t believe we get any multicolored “Gods” in this set.  It’s focused on the underworld which is run by Erebos and a potential escape from it by Elspeth who was killed by Heliod.  I believe that these are likely the only two “Gods” we get but I’m leaning more towards just Erebos.  There is a slight chance we see one of the mono-colored “Gods” as a planeswalker now but doubtful.  The scry lands are a given although the check lands in SOI and EMN should’ve been a given at the time too so I’m not guaranteeing they’re in the set but the likelihood of them not being there is very slim.  I also believe devotion will be coming back as a mechanic given the way these new land cycles from ELD work requiring a certain number of a specific land type in order to come into play untapped however, I do believe it will be based on a specific card type in that color/combination of colors.
While those of us that have been following the storyline for the last five years or so since Origins are split on our feelings on the Gatewatch I feel we won’t be seeing much of the group as a whole anytime soon.  They’ve gone through and cleared out Zendikar and Innistrad of the eldrazi.  They went to Amonkhet and Ixalan to try and stop Nicol Bolas and Tezzeret.  Then they ultimately went to Ravnica for the final fight against Bolas and his plan.  Now that that’s over for a while because Bolas is in hiding I think it’s time for the writers to take the story in a different direction.  Given that we know one of the upcoming sets will be based on Zendikar we will likely see Nissa as well as other planeswalkers from the Gatewatch we are familiar with on other planes though I doubt the stories on each of those planes will involve the Gatewatch as a whole.