Magic Untapped takes a look back at Theros Beyond Death as Magic: The Gathering returns to the ancient Greek-inspired plane of Theros.
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Video Transcript:
The 83rd expansion for Magic: The Gathering, Theros Beyond Death came out on Jan. 24, 2020, and returned the collectible card game to its Ancient Greek inspired setting for the first time in nearly six years.
As such, it made use of many of the mythological tropes found in the original Theros block such as magnificent monsters, heroes, and gods.
<MARO DTW THB 9:10-38 “We said we’re going back…out of the underworld.”>
Due largely to the blowback from the novel War of the Spark: Forsaken (which we talk about in our War of the Spark video), no e-book or weekly Magic Story updates were released, whether that be on the official Magic: The Gathering website or elsewhere.
Some of the story was told in the cards, though, and, in the time since, Wizards of the Coast has filled in the blanks here and there to round out much of the story of Theros Beyond Death. And it’s through sources like these that we bring you this story summary.
Centuries ago, before the gods of Theros rose to power, the plane was ruled by the titans – horrific manifestations of primal urges brought to life. They roamed the mortal realm, leaving death and destruction in their wake.
The mortals, powerless against the titans, turned to prayer and faith. It’s through these unbridled shows devotion that Theros’ gods were born.
Imbued by seemingly limitless power through the faith of their worshippers, the gods sealed the titans away in the underworld with one of the gods, Klothys, the god of destiny, volunteering to act as the titans’ personal jailer. For all of eternity, she would stand watch over the titans as they lived out their sentence in Theros’ land of the dead. And while the underworld was ultimately ruled by Erebos, it was Klothys who acted as its lock and key.
And so it was that the gods ruled Theros completely. Completely, that is, until Xenagos, a satyr with illusions of grandeur would challenge their rule by ascending to godhood on his own.
Heliod, god of the sun and de-facto ruler of Theros’ pantheon, sent his champion, the planeswalker Elspeth, to destroy this newfound god. And, while she succeeded, the mere fact that this ascension happened at all shook Heliod to the core. After all, if the people shifted their devotion away from him and towards his champion instead, then she might be able take his place in the pantheon.
This simply would not do.
Fearful, he struck Elspeth down during her moment of triumph and cast her into Erebos’ underworld where she would be forgotten.
Elspeth was dead. Dead, but not forgotten after all.
It so happened that there was another planeswalker lurking around in Erebos’ realm. Ashiok, a nightmare mage who thrived on fear, was visiting Elspeth in her dreams and providing her nightmares filled with her former love, Daxos, whom she was coerced into killing, of Heliod striking her down, and of her childhood torment at the hands of horrific Phyrexian terrors buried deep within her memories.
The visions Ashiok provides his victims are more real than most dreams, though. And it’s in one of these dreams that Elspeth grabbed hold of Heliod’s spear. Once that vision had passed and she awoke, she found that she was holding a twisted version of the sun god’s weapon dripping with the power of shadow. But it was the visions of these nightmarish Phyrexian creatures that would gain Ashiok’s attention. Now that the nightmare mage knows of these horrific beasts, they planeswalk away in search of them, leaving Elspeth to her own dreams for the first time since she appeared in the underworld.
Meanwhile, back in the realm of mortals, Heliod contemplated how fragile a god’s existence can be. Determined not to allow anyone to take his place on the pantheon, be it mortal or another of the gods, he pulled the soul of Daxos through from Erebos’ realm and transformed him into a demigod – one who will be his new champion as he sought to erase the trace of all other gods from within the capital city of Meletis.
Theros’ other gods, of course, took notice of this affront. Many called upon their own demigod champions to take up arms against Heliod’s. The gods were at war.
As with any war, there are consequences. One such consequence, thanks to Erebos’ personal hatred of Heliod that caused him to neglect his duties as the lord of the underworld, was the emergence of fissures from his realm. From these fissures emerged numerous terrible monsters into the realm of the living.
In the underworld, Elspeth hears word of these fissures. She hopes to find one so that she, too, can make her escape back into the realm of mortals, realizing that she still has much work to be done.
Elspeth wasn’t the only one looking for an escape.
Klothys, still charged with keeping the souls of the departed in the underworld, was furious with everything that was happening. She continually dispatched agents of fate against those who would defy fate and seek new lives. For Elspeth, who maintained a planeswalker’s soul, however, she needed something stronger.
The god of destiny weaved together her masterpiece – a special agent of fate designed specifically for Elspeth. She named this new agent Calix and sent him off in pursuit of Elspeth in order to keep her in the underworld where she belongs.
As Elspeth made her way towards freedom, she found new friends, allies, and faithful along the way. After each encounter – some against monsters and others against Calix – she would raise her spear up high so others can gaze upon it, proclaiming to all who could listen that she carried Heliod’s iconic weapon and that the one he bares is nothing more than a fake.
Finally, she found her exit. Waiting for her on the other side was none other than Heliod, the sun god having learned of her escape attempt through Daxos.
He stood in her way, disallowing her exit from the underworld as her escape could mean the end of him. He charged at her, his spear ready to strike. His spear, though, shattered in his hands.
Elspeth had succeeded in convincing her followers that she held the sun god’s true spear and, due to Heliod’s lack of devotion compared to hers, the spear was no longer his to wield. Defeated, the sun god yielded.
Nearby, Erebos laughed.
In his centuries of existence, nothing has ever pleased him more greatly than seeing Heliod’s surrender. Erebos gathered the defeated sun god and placed his body beneath an immense boulder where he would suffer for all eternity, or (at the very least) until his followers forgot about him and he would simply cease to exist.
As for Elspeth, Erebos allowed her passage back into the realm of mortals. And, after a brief reunion with her former love, Daxos, she planeswalked away.
And, as for Calix, he was in agony as his literal only purpose had just departed from Theros and was now beyond his reach. In his sudden depression, a strange idea sparks within him and he simply planeswalked away after her.
And that does it for the story of Theros Beyond Death, but (of course) there’s still more to tell in terms of the set in card form.
With design being led by Ethan Fleisher, development co-led by both Sam Stoddard and Mark Gottlieb, and art direction headed up by Dawn Murin, Theros Beyond Death brough to the game more than 350 cards (including variants and reprints).
The set was sold in regular booster packs, mono-colored theme boosters, collector boosters, a bundle containing ten booster packs, a spindown life counter die, and other goodies, and two planeswalker decks. The face cards of the planeswalker decks are Elspeth, Undaunted Hero and Ashiok, Sculptor of Fears. This marks the final non-core set that would feature planeswalker decks as a product as they would be discontinued after Core Set 2021 that ensuing summer.
The set sees the return of the enchantment subtype Saga, first used in Dominaria. It also sees the return of enchantment creatures.
Two mechanics return in Theros Beyond Death: Constellation, which triggers every time it or another enchantment enters the battlefield, and Devotion, which cares about the number of mana symbols of a certain color among the mana costs of permanents that player controls.
New to the game is Escape. Spells with escape can be cast from the graveyard for their escape cost, which includes exiling a specific number of other cards from the graveyard. Some cards with Escape receive a boost when brought into play this way.
<MARO DTW THB 27:33-28:25 “What if the graveyard is…instants and sorceries as well.”>
In terms of cycles, Theros Beyond Death features a dozen. Most notable among them are:
· Gods – five mythic rare legendary enchantment creatures, each with both a static ability and an activated ability;
· Demigods – five uncommon legendary enchantment creatures that have power or toughness equal to their controller’s devotion to their specific color;
· Interventions – Five enchantments at uncommon that have flash and an enters-the-battlefield ability. They can also be sacrificed to scry 2, and;
· Temples, which are reprints of the allied-colored scry lands that were introduced in the original Theros block.
In terms of individual cards of note, Theros Beyond Death has a handful despite the set not being considered to be all that great overall by players. These cards include:
· Dryad of the Ilysian Grove, which is a key inclusion in the powerful Amulet Titan deck in Modern;
· Gallia of the Endless Dance, a fan-favorite card that is most noteworthy for its fun artwork done by the talented Johannes Voss. Now, who’s excited for some bananas?
· Gray Merchant of Asphodel, a reprint from the original Theros set that is a fan favorite and can be a win condition thanks to its devotion enter-the-battlefield ability;
· Heliod, Sun-Crowned, one of Theros’ gods. Caring about life gain, it helps buff your creatures with +1/+1 counters whenever your life total increases;
· Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger, a 6/6 for only two mana (a red and a black), but must be sacrificed unless it was brought in via escape. It’s considered a rather powerful card in Rakdos combo and sacrifice decks;
· Nyx Lotus, an artifiact that makes mana equal to your devotion to a color. It sees play in Commander;
· Nyxbloom Ancient, a 5/5 for seven mana (four generic plus three green) that has trample and (more importantly) triples the amount of mana your mana-producing permanents create;
· Shadowspear, Elspeth’s new weapon-of-choice (lore-wise) and a very capable one-drop artifact that not only buffs the equipped creature, but can also remove hexproof and indestructible from your opponents’;
· Thassa, Deep-Dwelling, another of Theros’ god creatures. It plays well into enter-the-battlefield combos;
· Underworld Breach, an enchantment that gives all nonland cards in its controller’s graveyard escape with the escape cost being the card's mana cost plus exile three other cards from your graveyard. Due to its potential for enabling nearly unbreakable combos, the card was banned in March 2020 in Legacy and, in August of that year, also received a ban in Pioneer. In March 2025, it became banned in Modern as well.
· Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath, another highly undercosted creature with escape that has proven to be a powerful card in the right decks. The card was powerful enough that it was banned in Standard in September of 2020 as its life gain buffer, ramp payoff, and anti-midrange capabilities made it more than difficult to deal with. In February 2021, the card received bans in Pioneer, Modern, and the MTG Arena format Historic.
In terms of promotional cards, prerelease participants each received the customary date-stamped foil rare or mythic rare. The buy-a-box promo was a foil Athreos, Shroud-Veiled. The bundle promo is a foil, alternate art Arasta of the Endless Web.
As for the set’s reception, as mentioned previously, it didn’t do nearly as well as Wizards of the Coast had hoped it would.
<MARO DTW 31:40-32:44 “One of the fun things about…devotion and stuff.”>
So, what are your thoughts on Theros Beyond Death? Let us know what you think of it in the comment section.
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