Theros: Beyond Death has finally released! The whole team at Vault Games is buzzing about all of the new cards, decks and interactions it has brought us, and no card has demanded as much conversation as Nyxbloom Ancient.
"What is Nyxbloom Ancient?", you may find yourself asking. To that I say, "What? Are you best friends with Spongebob? It's only the chase card of the set!" But in all seriousness, Nyxbloom Ancient (or NA from now on) is a seven mana 5/5 Elemental Enchantment Creature. Not super impressive, until you get to his meaty text box. This absolute unit comes with a whopping passive ability,
"If you tap a permanent for mana, it produces three times as much of that mana instead."
Oh, and NA has Trample. Yeah. A 5/5 Trampler that triples your mana generators. Impressive, sure. Explosive? Absolutely. But how viable is this card in commander? At face value, having access to a Mana Reflection on a 5/5 body that generates even more mana is insane! It's fairly obvious how the interaction here starts. Forests tap for 3 mana a piece and Sol Ring is now generating 6 mana a tap. What other cards exist that this can exploit, though?
Signets are probably the first example that came to mind, and it's already proving a doozy. Usually, when newer players start using signets, they can get a little confused with how they operate. They require a single generic mana to use, but generate two mana of a specific combination. This generates one mana extra, so you as a player net one mana. This means that, assuming you have 2 lands and a signet, the interaction is that you tap all three for three mana, so the signet only generated one mana, essentially. This isn't technically true, though. Because the signet generates two mana, NA can force it to churn out six mana. Now each signet on your field is handing out five mana a piece.
This can apply to so many cards. For me, Karametra's Acolyte immediately comes to mind. With her ability to generate green mana equal to your devotion, she's already fueling most of the top-end plays you're making, but now that's being tripled. With just her and NA on your side of the field, the Acolyte sees all three of the NA's green symbols, and her one as well. So, tapping her for four devotion nets us twelve mana in one tap. Again, absolutely wild. This same interaction works for Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, and Nyx Lotus, as these cards operate in a similar way.
Slaps side of the elemental This bad boy goes infinite with so many cards! To step away from NA's obvious application in mono-green devotion, we can talk about it's flexibility in other colours. Peregrine Drake and Palinchron are generating a tonne more mana, with Palinchron going immediately infinite with this card. Basalt Monolith and Grim Monolith are both also going infinite with this card, generating infinite colourless mana, which could go into a huge Genesis Wave/Blue Sun's Zenith/Jaya's Immolating Inferno for the win. Finale of Devastation, Chord of Calling and cards like Sylvan Tutor and Worldly Tutor can finally fetch a Mana Reflection now, so that's increasing this card's viability, too.
Nyxbloom Ancient is definitely going to be a key piece in a lot of decks, but is it actually an auto include in commander? Let's break it down.
Seven mana is a lot of investment. Sure, you could use cards like Natural Order, Sneak Attack or Show and Tell (all fairly expensive cards currently) to cheat the creature out early, trying to make the most use out of it the fastest. You could try and resurrect it with an Entomb, followed by a clutch Reanimate or Animate Dead, but at face value is the card worth all the effort? A card that shares a lot of similarities with NA is Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger.
For a single mana more, at eight converted mana cost, and only two of it being green, you get a 7/6 body that still has Trample. Albeit you can't triple your mana, only double I guess, and his effect only applies to lands. Realistically, you're often going to find that double compared to triple is a negligible downgrade, usually having only double mana (at least in the examples of Palinchron and Peregrine Drake) is going to result an infinite combo, and Vorinclex does hinder your opponents at the same time, forcing them to lose a solid amount of advantage over the next turn in order to remove it, which is a form of protection as well.
Vorinclex is almost strictly a better target for every card mentioned earlier, and the only advantage NA has over Vorinclex is simply that he doesn't negatively impact your opponents' experience (unless you count losing as a negative impact on your experience), so they would feel less obligated to remove him. Unfortunately, the card still demands an almost instant answer, so the decision might be a little subjective. Does your pod hate out every huge card on the field? Can your pod handle a card as powerful as Vorinclex? Is forcing your opponents to tap down their lands what you genuinely want to do?
Nyxbloom Ancient has the opposite problem to Vorinclex. Being an enchantment creature, even more spells and abilities in the game can remove it. Acidic Slime pops it, along with Krosan Grip (which you just have to accept, thanks Split Second) and Aura of Silence, which is making NA harder to cast and it's going to destroy it anyway. Nature's Claim is only one mana and an instant, Wear // Tear is also a single-costed removal instant spell and cards like Aura Shards just clean-cut the heads off of cards like NA at the neck. Easy to cheat out, sure, but in most of the examples given above would you not prefer a Vorinclex? Elvish Piper for a Nyxbloom Ancient looks a lot worse when you get blown out by a single Return to Nature, and the next opponent in turn order drops an Omniscience.
That's not all, either. NA is going to suffer from plenty of super common wipes found in all colours and all flavours of EDH. Austere Command looks a lot nicer when you don't have to make a decision between big creatures or enchantments. Cleansing Nova and Wear // Tear (mentioned above) falls into the same "decision-making" category, too.
At the end of it all, Nyxbloom Ancient is an awesome card that represents what Wizards can accomplish when they really take the time to design a card, give it incredible effects with enough downsides that it becomes a great risk to play in order to reap a greater reward. Green's identity happens to be that they don't take many risks, and rely on strong bodies with tonnes of abilities, interactive removal and land-based ramp. This kind of encapsulates the entire game, unfortunately, so green has had many problems (at least in EDH) with a power budget far stronger than the other colours. This kind of design is, by most rights, healthy.
It's obvious that Wizards of the Coast designed this creature with enchantment-based removal in mind, and it seems to have balanced the card fairly well. Maybe Nyxbloom Ancient is an overrated card that needs too much to go right to do anything, or maybe it's an abuse able beast with a bodacious body to boot. Personally, I don't care if the card is a 1 or a 10, I just love Theros.
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