*local opinions may vary
8. Font of *
The Font cycle is pretty sweet in general. They represent fairly iconic effects for each color, only in the form of enchantments, true to the style of Theros block. All of the Fonts have a CMC of 1 or 2, making them prime targets for Sun Titan to recur. Auramancer and Odunos River Trawler also help you reuse these effects and they fit well into Enchantress decks with cards like Argothian Enchantress and Eidolon of Blossoms. Font of Return (usually) provides the most raw card advantage of the bunch and isn't exactly the same as its inspiration, so it'll be the poster-child. It also happens to create loops with most of the aformentioned spells, so that's pretty solid.
Oblivion Ring is a pretty strong effect. Sometimes, you need a permanent gone now and you want a cheap way to do it. Banishing Light is the spiritual successor to O-Ring and lets us play two of this effect in our Commander deck and heaven knows I likes me some redundancy. Remember, though, the effect has been reworded to eliminate the "trigger on the stack" shenanigans and also cannot target your own permanents. More recently, this allows us to permanently exile creatures with Containment Priest, which is worth noting.
6. Daring Thief
Most cards that exchange control are one-shot effects (Switcheroo) or give the ability to your opponent (Phyrexian Infiltrator). Daring Thief allows you to have your opponent's permanent and keep your effect, too. Ral Zarek and Icy Manipulator make it easy to tap Daring Thief if combat gets hairy, and Tumble Magnet can even donate itself to opponents once it runs out of counters. Finally, Mycosynth Lattice and Enchanted Evening make this ability absolutely crazy, allowing you to switch control of any two permaments. Shoutouts to Freed from the Real for letting you trigger the ability multiple times per turn!
5. Twinflame
Sometimes one Craterhoof Behemoth trigger isn't quite enough. Other times, you just want more Hellriders. Twinflame is essentially the red Cloudshift, except it's slower and more explosive. It can double your alpha strike damage out of nowhere with the Strive mehanic and becomes absurd when combined with "enters the battlefield" or "when [creature] attacks" abilities (I'm looking at you, Inferno Titan). I even came up with a weird infinite combo with Priest of Urabrask, Anarchist, and Mana Echoes, but that seemed tough to pull off. Dualcaster Mage does the combo better anyway; just target any creature with Twinflame, flash in Dualcaster, copy the Twinflame targeting Dualcaster, rinse and repeat.
Tormod's Crypt effects are very useful, and putting them on creatures makes them even more powerful. Agent of Erebos is very reminiscent of Angel of Finality, (which made her top 8 list), but the Zombie subtype in tandem with Unholy Grotto or Lord of the Undead give this creature a lot of staying power. The Constellation mechanic, however, makes this card insane. Passively getting a graveyard nuke every time we resolve an enchantment can put a big hurt on a lot of decks. Reusable enchantments like Rancor or Cage of Hands allow you to repeat the effect several times during a game and Flash enchantments like Dictate of Erebos or the ability of Pharika, God of Afflictions give you the chance to respond to opposing reanimation spells at instant speed. Shoutouts to Ghitu Firebreathing for having both of these characteristics!
One of the three Gods that cost 3-mana, Athreos starts affecting the battlefield fast and hard. Creatures with sacrifice costs put your opponent in the catch-22 of having to choose between a Lightning Bolt to the face or returning your creature. 3 life may not seem like much compared to your 40 starting life, but you can just choose a player who doesn't care about the effect. Creature-less decks won't mind returning your Fleshbag Marauder of False Prophet and if someone is going crazy with artifacts and enchantments, other players will likely give you back your Qasali Pridemage. More like God of Politics, amiright?! Kaalia of the Vast makes good use of this God-chantment by putting a lot of damage pressure on the opponent, then doing so one more time when each creature dies.
The Gods of Theros represent an important change in the Commander metagame. Wrath effects and spot removal make generals like Rafiq of the Many or Krekno, Mob Boss easy to disrupt and thus keep under control. Then there are creatures like Tajic, Blade of the Legion or Lazav, Dimir Mastermind who are immune to some effects, but still die to others. Not only are the Gods of Theros indestructible, but they are also creatures only some of the time, which makes them difficult to remove. Sure, you can Return to Dust these commanders, but then the player recasts their commander and you no longer have your Return to Dust. The dual nature of these Legendary Creatures makes them highly attractive candidates for the coveted Command Zone position.
I picked Kruphix, God of Horizons for the top spot because among all of the gods, he is in very potent colors and his abilities get out of hand very quickly. Seedborn Muse and Prophet of Kruphix (who knew!) give Kruphix's controller access to copious amounts of mana and prudent deck-builders will add Winding Canyons and Alchemist's Refuge to their land-base to make sure that mana stays in the pool. Then they use Spell Burst to counter everything until one big Genesis Wave or Blue Sun's Zenith wins or otherwise takes over the game.
Honorable Mentions:
Eidolon of Blossoms - Another Argothian Enchantress effect, only this one is on ETB, rather than cast. Unique in that it draws a card for itself, unlike the other cards with similar effects.
Dictate of Kruphix - Awesome in Nekusar decks, hilarious in decks playing Notion Thief. Three mana feels like a lot, but Flash makes this super cool.
That concludes the long overdue look at Journey into Nyx. Hopefully I'll have the chance to finish the rest of these in the coming weeks but for now, I have a paper to write. Good luck on the battlefield, fellow Commanders!
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-Javier Remy
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