Magic Untapped takes a look back at Journey Into Nyx, the final set in Magic's Theros block.

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Video Transcript:

Taking the Theros story from the realm of the mortals and into the realm of the gods is Journey into Nyx, which came out May 2, 2014.

The set concludes the Theros storyline in card form and, as such, continues the block’s overall ancient Greek theming.

As far as that story is concerned, it follows story protagonist Elspeth Tirel and her friend and companion, Ajani Goldmane, as they travel into Nyx to confront Xenagos, a planeswalker who had ascended to godhood and, as such, is causing mischief across the plane.

The entire story summary can be found in our Theros video, if you would like to check that out.

As for this video, let’s just focus on Journey into Nyx as a Magic set.

The set had Dave Humpherys as development lead.  This was Humpherys’ second set leading development, having previously led development on Avacyn Restored during the Innistrad block.

Design was led by Ethan Flescher.  This would be Ethan’s first time as design lead for any Magic set.

<Maro DTW Theros 4: “Ethan found out that we were doing Greek and Roman mythology, he was very excited. And so I said, “Okay, I’m going to tap into this.”>

<Maro DTW 2014 6:22-30 “He was on the…his own set.”>

Just like the previous two sets in the block, Theros and Born of the Gods, Journey into Nyx continued the ancient-Greek themeing complete with mythological tropes.

The set consists of 165 cards (including four reprints).  In line with the block’s enchantments matter concept, a whopping 59 of those cards carry the enchantment type.

The set was sold in traditional booster packs, five intro packs, an event deck, and a fat pack.  It also continued (and concluded) the Theros block’s “Heroes Path” side event series, with those who completed all nine of the block’s trials being given a promotional Hall of Triumph promotional card.

As for other promotional cards, the set’s buy-a-box promo is Eidolon of Blossoms.  Game day participants were provided a full-art Squelching Leeches with top-eight finishers receiving a full-art, foil Dictate of Kruphix.  The set’s launch promo is Dictate of the Twin Gods.  And, as for the set’s prerelease promos, Journey into Nyx followed the same mono-color setup as the block’s previous two sets – this time around with the promos being the cards Dawnbringer Charioteers, Scourge of Fleets, Doomwake Giant, Spawn of Tharaxes, and Heroes’ Bane.

There was also something else special about Journey into Nyx that wasn’t exactly publicized:  God packs (quite literally).  Randomly inserted were booster packs that, instead of the normal assortment of commons, uncommons, rares, and mythic rares, contained all 15 gods found in the Theros block.  So, yeah, it was literally a god pack.

<Maro DTW 2014 5:30-6:05 “[It] was a play on…we made a god pack”>

As for the rest of the cards worth a mention in the set, there’s…

• Banishing Light, once a staple removal card in white that still sees occasional play;
• Dictate of Erebos, a punishing card in EDH against creature removal and for creature sacrifice-centric strategies;
• Eidolon of the Great Revel, a staple in Modern and Legacy burn decks;
• Eidolon of Rhetoric, a combo-strategy sideboard card;
• Iroas, God of Victory, which has since become moderately popular as a commander in EDH;
• Mana Confluence, a five-color land that is situationally better than City of Brass, considered by most the game’s gold-standard five-color land beforehand;
• Twinflame, thanks to its synergy with the card Dualcaster Mage from the set Commander 2014, and;
• Worst Fears, one of the few cards in Magic to give a player control of their opponent’s turn.

As for as cycles, as opposed to individual cards are concerned, Journey into Nyx features nine.  Of those, the most notable include:

• The set’s five enemy-colored, dual-colored gods: Athreos, God of Passage, Keranos, God of Storms, Pharika, God of Affliction, Iroas, God of Victory, and Kruphix, God of Horizons;
• Dictates, which are five enchantments with flash that match up with two of the block’s mono-colored gods (Heliod and Erebos), as well as (technically) four of the block’s dual colored gods.  Four because the card Dictate of the Twin Gods refers to both Iroas and Mogis;
• Fonts, a common cycle of five enchantments that each have a sacrificial activated ability;
• X-land creatures, which is a cycle of creatures that each care about the number of a specific land you control, and;
• Strive spells, which is a cycle of Instant spells at common that each have the Strive ability, which is an ability that makes its debut in Journey into Nyx.

Speaking of Strive, it’s one of two new mechanics brought forth in the set to join the carry-overs from Theros: bestow, heroic, scry, monstrosity, inspired, and devotion.

Strive is a mechanic on spells that lets its caster pump more mana into it to increase its number of targets.

As for the other new mechanic, it’s something called constellation.  Enchantments with constellation mean its ability triggers every time it or another enchantment enters the battlefield under that player’s control.

Competitive-wise, Journey into Nyx was featured at Pro Tour Atlanta in mid-May, 2014.

<Maro DTW 2014 8:13-51 “It had a…the World Championship.”>

So, what are your thoughts on Journey into Nyx?  Do you think it’s a championship-caliber set?

Whatever your thoughts, please leave your opinion in the comment section.

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Thank you for watching.