Flavour-wise, Theros has to be my absolute favourite plane in all of Magic: the Gathering. The colourful aesthetic of the Nyxborn, Enchantment-typed creatures each blessed by one of the many gods and given power beyond most mortals, coupled with its juxtaposition with the darker set that was very dominant at the time, Innistrad, really drew me into the world and digging into it's lore proved exceptionally fulfilling. As a kid, I grew up very interested in mythology, and the Greeks were a civilisation I would return to many, many times in my research. Wizards took their own liberties with it, but there's no doubt that the entire plane of Theros shares many parallels with the Greek Pantheon and its stories.
Enchantment creatures debuted in the original Theros block in 2013, pioneering not just a mechanic centered around them (Constellation) but also the mechanic Devotion, which counts coloured symbols in the mana costs of permanents you control in order to meet certain conditions. As always with brand-new mechanics, Wizards of the Coast had to be rather careful to draw the line on what they could do with it, and what they should do with it. Theros was a block that suffered from poor diversity, at least in its standard format, due to the fact that Constellation proved to be fairly unplayable competitively, with very many cards overcosted and generally underpowered.
This might have been a less-than-optimal solution, sure, but how can you blame them? Constellation works very similarly to the Ally mechanic from Zendikar, that is that they are permanents that enter the battlefield, trigger when they themselves (with few exceptions) enter the battlefield or another card that meets the same condition (Allies cared about allies, and Constellation cares about enchantments) enters the battlefield. When you're dealing with a vacuum of cards, like the Allies were, it's easier to balance as the cards simply interact with themselves and you can adjust any element of the mechanic in testing accordingly. Constellation cards check for enchantments. That could be any enchantment from any point in the game, past, present and future. The sample size is much, much larger and can be exploited much more easily, in a much more cancerous way. It makes sense that the mechanic took a step back in power, taking that into consideration.
Escape is the new flagship mechanic being leaked in Beyond Death and currently it looks like a case of deja-vu, with players already skeptical on the power of the card that's meant to be the face of the set. Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis carries this interesting mechanic, but does she carry the set as a whole? Is 6 mana AND 4 cards exiled from your graveyard worth it for a few small creatures and some life gain? I personally find it fairly hard to justify her at 6 mana and white isn't exactly a colour that inherently finds ways to mill itself, usually. I smell some Esper Control shenanigans with the new Ashiok and utilising proliferate cards from War of the Spark (which may even see play in Standard) but it doesn't look like Elspeth will make the cut in any of my current white-inclusive Commander decks.
So now we're in 2019. We're seeing Theros make it's triumphant return in Theros: Beyond Death, Commander as a format is being pushed hard and cards like Paradox Engine, Smothering Tithe, Urza, Lord High Artificer and (i can't say this name in the store) Oko, Thief of Crowns are being printed. It's becoming very obvious Wizards are taking more liberties with their game and allowing already powerful mechanics like Treasures, Affinity and Planeswalkers to thrive in modern magic, some even more so. Constellation took some hits for the betterment of the game in 2013, but can it define itself as a powerhouse in 2019, where even more powerful enchantments, cards like Thousand Year Storm, Mirrormade and the recent reprints of the Leylines in Magic: 2020 have entered the fray?
So far, with our leaks being mostly commons and uncommons from the set, the question still holds. A new Enchantress (a creature that draws cards from enchantments being cast/entering the battlefield) has been leaked, and that fills me with hope, even if it comes in the form of a non-enchantment, for some reason.
Like i mentioned above, Theros is being revisited with a focus on it's Underworld and it's denizens and I for one could not be more happy. The lore implications from the last set, where a literal Green-Red God, Xenagos, was smote down by the Planeswalker, Elspeth, who was then smote by a White God, Heliod, the same god who essentially tricked her to kill Xenagos in the first place, give plenty of room in the pantheon for new characters, and we already have leaks of a new God, Klothys, who looks like she could easily fill that void.
Klothys is a name that won't resonate with many people, unless you're really into God of War 2 for the Playstation 2 but, much like most of Theros, she's actually based off a real character depicted in Greek Mythology. Klothys, or more accurately Clotho, was actually one of the 3 Fates (or Moirai) of the Greek Pantheon. She was the one that spun the threads of all lives of mortals, as well as the one to decide when a person would be born or killed, along with other similarly important decisions. Her sisters were Lachesis and Atropos, who each aren't represented in Theros, yet, so there's even more room for story development there. Klothys in Theros has allegedly escaped the underworld due to Elspeth's escape causing a tear in the fabric that separates the mortal realm with the underworld, and now she's on a 1-woman journey to 'fix' Theros' destiny, Kronika-style (for those MK11 fans out there).
So, Constellation is making it's return, Devotion is also represented in this new set, and we have a new mechanic Escape debuting in Theros: Beyond Death. Another keyword that actually existed in the original set, Heroic, has been omitted so far, being replaced with "Whenever you cast a spell that targets X" which seems like a step back, but maybe having 4 different keywords was a bit of a soup, and WotC likely decided to cut it in favour of the same effect, but wordier. Theros is one of the most beautiful sets in magic, so it's sad to see it be defined by the inherent gate-keeping of it's otherwise potent and relatively unique mechanics. Hopefully, our concerns aren't proven correct once spoiler season starts in the new year.
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