Pointed Discussion

hail thassa

My favorite God of Theros.
Would be a great addition to my unblockable Infect deck.

Thassa good card!

Okay, I'll leave.

I'm glad my sideboard has 4x Orings. Exile is going to be needed vs these gods.

lol Zur

Every time I look at the card I keep thinking she is in the sky. Then I look down and see the islands.

Yea, amazing art and very powerful effect. What more could you want in a card?

Well worth the cost even without devotion, that's how good she is.

Step one. Attack with Zur the Enchanter
Step two. Fetch Thassa, God of the Sea
Step three. Make Zur unblockable immediatley before blockers are declared.

This makes Spreading Seas and Claustrophobia Seem like they could fuel a bitchin deck.

Most pushed one of the Theros gods. Breaks the symmetry in cost & powerlevel :(

Great God, like its sibling, it seems a lot of fun... However, I think that maybe the blue one is the most difficult to "wake up", because blue has a lot of fragile creatures, and that maybe a challenge by itself. However, is good even without being a creature. Maybe it can be good even for the Scry effect only...!

An absolute house with Dark Confidant. Worth splashing in either direction for the interaction. It's like a free top that can eventually punch people.

Believe it or not; this is the most aggressive of them as well. She can get up and attack T4 with the right drops.

@jedijoe: That's sick. Get away from me.
@Continue: nah, you're good man. =)

The strongest god I would say.

Dat typeline doe

A great combo with Invoke Prejudice, both for mechanics and flavour.

A wonderful enchantment by itself, but if you're looking to awaken it quickly consider the following 3-drop permanents: Erosion, Patron Wizard, and Puppet Master. You also can try Charisma and Reality Twist, but Charisma suffers from the aura curse and Reality Twist has a cumulative upkeep.

Great, interesting card. Unfortunately, this represents one of like three cards in this whole set i'm interested in owning. Man, i'm getting tired of 96% of every set being bargain-bin fodder.

Simply being a 3 cmc indestructible that lets me scry every turn is good enough for me, not to mention she doesn't have to be awakened to make creatures unblockable. This is the most exciting card in the set.
5/5

Pulled a foil one at the prerelease :)

@leomisitco I think you forgot about wall of frost,my friend.

I pulled one of these at prerelease. Everyone I played against felt that she was way overpowered. 3 CMC is super cheap, and even if you never turn her into a creature, being able to Scry every upkeep and make any of your creatures unblockable for 2 CMC is incredible.

I still think Purphoros, God of the Forge is better, but being the only God costing 3 CMC has got to be worth it.

Also, she can make herself unblockable!

EDIT: Sorry, just have to brag... :P

I played horribly at the Sunday pre-release, went 1:4, but got a single prize booster like everyone else...

Mine had Thassa as a picture, so I hoped it would include Thassa... Then the rare turned out to be Soldier of the Pantheon (hey, not bad at all!)...

...

and then I uncovered the FOIL Thassa!!!

Whoopdeedoo!!!

I had already drawn a foil Heliod earlier in my blue pre-release pack (I mean in one of the normal boosters of the "Path of Wisodm" pack.

Powerful in Limited. She won me more then one game at the pre-release. As for constructed, time will tell. In commander, I say thumbs up. She will wreak people pretty hard even if you never turn her into a creature.

@AmericanVigor: Agree with your statements, not much to add, except regarding your remark about her scrying ability being unique: Witches' Eye. That doesn't mean it's any less impressive, mind you, and Witches' Eye requires tapping creatures to use it (though once it's in play, you could move it around to different creatures, maybe tokens, and keep using it for {2} as opposed to her {1}{U} ).

It amazes me she's only 3 mana, when the other Gods are all four-drops. Even if nothing else, having a 3 CMC 5/5 indestructible creature wouldn't be too bad, even if it's a bit conditional.

Thassa is extremely capable in Theros limited, and during the Theros Prerelease, her activated ability enabled a two-turn clock with monstrous Shipbreaker Kraken.

Her special abilities are so versatile and so useful for converted mana cost of three that after playtesting her in my Thraximundar Commander/EDH deck, I've determined her to be an especially capable card for the format. For those among y'all who understand the value of constructing a Commander/EDH deck that is capable of significant speed by turn 3, as this can enable you to establish a powerful position early that can endure over opponents with slower-tempo decks, Thassa could be a key component of early-game power establishment because her low cost combined with her Scry 1 ability enables you to have greater versatility in acquiring the cards you want to acquire early in the game to establish early-game power. It also should be noted that Thassa, as of the release of Theros, is the only card in the game that provides a guaranteed scry each turn via an ability that does not involve attacking or relying on another permanent to function.

Her synergy with Sensei's Divining Top is astounding, further emphasizing her strategic value for Commander/EDH, and enabling her to have strategic value for Legacy and to a lesser extent Vintage. If you have a Thassa-Top duo on the battlefield, you can choose at the end of an opponent's turn to use the Top's reorder ability to look at the top 3 cards of your library, determine which card among these is the least strategically useful, and place it on the top of your library, with the card you want to draw next turn second from the top. Then, at the beginning of your upkeep, you can use Thassa's Scry 1 ability to take the strategically undesired card and place it at the bottom of your library and then draw the card you wanted for the turn. By doing this, the only other card you examined with the Top that is still near the top of your library is the the single card at the top, enabling your next reordering of cards with the Top to be all the more versatile because there are now TWO cards that had not been in the top three cards of your library during the prior reordering, instead of just ONE, as would have been so had Thassa's Scry 1 not been available. Especially for the purpose of establishing early-game advantage, the Thassa-Top duo provides significant versatility for card selection.

Edit: As NobuTheBard identified, Witches' Eye also has the capability of providing a scry ability each turn without attacking. However, I do not consider this ability to be "guaranteed," as Witches' Eye, unlike Thassa, requires another permanent for its scry ability to function. I've clarified my above comment, that Thassa "is the only card in the game that provides a guaranteed scry each turn via an ability that does not involve attacking," with the added clause "or relying on another permanent to function."

My only issue with the new god types as a practicing Christian is that they aren't nearly bad ass enough.

I mean come on. Even Jesus had Islandwalk.

@jedijoe:

Step 4: Next turn, search out Puppet Master, Charisma, Erosion, or Reality Twist.

Steal Enchantment for a laugh

Scrying 1 every turn is really interesting. I feel like it is related directly to the amount of situationally unplayable cards in your deck. If we can't consistently hit devotion on the gods (and we can't) then it is important to figure out how many turns it takes of scrying 1 to make Thassa worth it.

Example: A Sphinx's Revelation deck. The deck wants to hit at least nine lands over the course of a game to play Aetherling with counter magic open or rev for 5, so that means your landbase has about 18 dead cards. There are probably another 4 cards that are situationally terrible against the different match-ups. This means that about a third of your deck is comprised of cards that you can scry away (we can probably conclude something similar for almost any deck), so every three dead cards you scry away effectively nets you one card if you have no shuffle effects. This means that Thassa will have to scry away at least 6 cards to reach the card advantage of Divination if she never becomes a creature.

It is harder to evaluate the unblockability, but red seems to think that five mana and a card gets you four or five damage while seven mana and a card should get you at least seven damage and as much as ten. So, every time Thassa herself connects, she is breaking even on cards, thought probably netting some sort of tempo advantage as you can break up the costs. If something bigger connects, I'd call it a profit and I'd say you could go as low as 3 power before you were actually hurting yourself in terms of efficiency.

All this means that Thassa will probably break about even on CA and give a slight tempo advantage. Something that likes tempo and netting at least even on cards in Standard? I'd say probably Simic, hey?

"I am Thassa, God of the Sea!" -Tarland
"No you're not, I am, and you know nothing of my work!" -Thassa

would love it for my unblockable deck, especially when ghastlord of fugue hits. i could definitely take out a deep-sea kraken for it.

This is exactly what esper needed, a good way to be able to cycle dead cards and make Blood Baron or Obzedat, Ghost Council Unblockable. I made three spots just for her in my Esper Control deck 4.5/5 because devotion is difficult to get in blue.

I don't care what wizards says, the proper term is GODDESS.


Nevertheless an amazing card, as many have said, will become a staple for the coming year of standard.
Despite being the smallest god, she is easily the most powerful.

@cha0sc0w: Lulz mono blue devotion just put 3 players in top 8 of the pro tour yesterday and dominated the field. Shes not meant to be a control card.

Master of cruelties anyone?

My local store, was out of booster packs. So I bought a precon W/G theros deck. Figured at the least, I'll get Nylea's Bow. Pulled this and a Stormbreath Dragon, out of the boosters. More than paid for the precon from both boosters!

I plan to sell the dragon, but I'm keeping her for sure. I don't see how this card wouldn't have a place in any deck that I run blue in. Even my mill decks, are blue heavy, and her scry ability, and ability to make creatures unblockable, is great. I can personally think of several creatures that being unblockable would be a "good" thing for, hehe.

I do love Thassa. She's my favorite of the Gods, though I haven't, admittedly, played with any of them. The only thing that I complain about is that I don't get which god she's supposed to be.

Erebos is a spot-on Hades. He lives in the realm of the dead and is melancholy, but by no means actually evil. The whole "being accepting of one's fate" thing is very Hades-like.

Heliod is a good Apollo. The god who literally makes the sun shine? And it shows in his personality? Even down to using the spear, he screams "Apollo".

Nylea is Artemis, though the name seems more inspired by a portmanteau of "Nymph" and "Diana".

Likewise, Purphoros is Hephaestus. They even got the "ph" in there! He's totally god of the forge and mountains.

But Thassa? Poseidon is male and not (often?) said to be serpent-like. Triton, the more minor deity, also has more or less the same problem. I'd say she's supposed to be Athena, but Athena isn't really associated with the sea. (She's the daughter of an Oceanid, I guess? Is that close enough? She should have patronage of a small body of water? Not all sources seem to agree on it.) Athena definitely strikes me as very blue, after all, and serpents are one of her symbols. Is it because Poseidon lost patronage of Athens to Athena that inspired Wizards to sort of make an amalgamation deity? I dunno, I just feel like she has a lot less direct Greek myth parallel. I think that someone much better versed in it would say "mikee, you dumb, it's " but if you have to be that educated I think that the parallel would kind of be lost on most people.

I mean after all this thinking about it, I guess she's Athena. It's just that the sea connection isn't as strong, so it felt weird at first and I would think would be to most people who, like me, have only a passing knowledge of Greek Myth.

Addendum:

So I decided to do some more 'research' (i.e. reading wikipedia.) I knew Erebos was actually a word in Greek Mythology, and apparently it can refer to a personification of darkness, which is even more fitting. That said, I do think that the Erebos presented in Theros has aspects of Hades as well, particularly the grim "acceptance of fate".

Anyway, the more important thing is that there is a primordial sea goddess named Thalassa. That has to be the inspiration for Thassa. She's even depicted as a serpent! mikee, you dumb.

I'm sticking by Heliod being Apollo rather than Helios, partially because of their identification with one another and partially because Heliod just seems more Apollo-y to me. I think that the phenomenon of gods often being mushed together, particularly when disparate groups come together and assume that they're worshiping the same god(s) under different names.

You know, there might be some flavor articles that would take the guesswork out of this. But the guesswork is the fun part.

I traded this card to me for 2 rares and 2 uncommons, was it worth it? Please answer :3

Really solid include for my Oloro EDH, unblockable will always be a strong option but more importantly it enables Hatred. And if you're running Oloro you're running Paradox Haze which also combos beautifully into her scry 1 turning your upkeep/draw steps into a makeshift Preordain every turn.

Food for thought :P

If you don't see why is this card is great, consider that this card would still be incredibly good:

Thassa, Inanimate Object of the Sea | 2U
Legendary Echantment
Indestructible
At the beginning of your upkeep, scry 1.
1U: Target creature you control can't be blocked this turn.

The activated ability is good for obvious reasons, one of which is Bident of Thassa. But three mana to Scry 1 before your draw step in every turn for the rest of the game? Stop and think about that for a moment, it might be a lot better than you think.

Then they added the ability to become a 5/5 indestructable creature with pseudo-haste, which by the way, is pretty easy to achieve with Bident, Nightveil Specter, Tidebinder Mage and Frostburn Weird, which are all very good cards in their own right?

WotC is practically begging us to play this card.

Worldslayer. 'Nuff said (assuming devotion can be maintained at >5)

Without even being a creature she's extremely powerful. Her scry ability says that for the rest of the game after turn three you get to decide, "Do I want this card next?"

Her activated ability allows you to sneak in a couple of hits if you have the extra mana in most cases, but opens up a huge amount of combos if desired.

I assume she has such a low cost and retains her high power because blue typically doesn't keep around too many permanents to bring her out as a creature. In some settings, I would say the most powerful of the gods, and she's definitely my favorite.

Lets just say i miss montheistic magic.

@GrayWizard: How many indestructible blue permanents do you know of?

After seeing some play in Pro Tour Theros, mono blue devotion is possible, and Thassa helps get it along. She doesn't add much devotion, but when devotion is active it's pretty hard to deal with a 5/5 indestructible. The monoblue devotion decks put a lot of pressure and drop the opponents to low life, and what this does is give an inevitability to the deck where every creature has to be answered and the opponent can't just throw "blockers" out because Thassa just laughs at the idea. Scry 1 every turn is fine, as you will normally tuck lands at that point so it's almost like draw an extra ~1/3rd or ~1/2 of a card every turn (assuming lands make up ~24 of the 60 cards). And she's only 3 mana, so you can spend a turn early on to play something that doesn't immediately affect the board.

In EDH she's pretty strong even in decks that aren't monoblue. To my knowledge, she is the lowest mana cost card that has the ability to repeatedly make something unblockable (glaring spotlight is less mana but is a one-time use thing, etc), and to top it off she's incredibly hard to remove. This already has pretty strong EDH implications for blue decks that want to kill with general damage, such as Rafiq or Maelstrom Wanderer.

Personally a really mediocre card for control, and since there isn't any streight blue aggro like merfolk to turn her into a creature in standard, I don't see much of a place for her. I could see her at a 1 of in certain decks but in control until Aetherling rotates out the unblockable isn't amazing and scry 1 is pretty bad, it either does nothing, or give you a random card to the top.

Edit: demidracolich, sorry this was posted before the top 8 happened, and I did mention that she would be mediocre at best in control and at the time there wasn't a mono-blue agro deck in the standard environment.

EDH Zur, The enchanter can tutor this, that's just neato.

Enchantment creatures are a sucky mechanic. My friend played it and because he was so depressed that he couldn't use it to its full potential and attack with it, he foreited the game and I never saw from him again.

-Swag_Crow

Ephara, God of the Polis anyone, Daxos, Nightveil Specter and Medomai all work well in this deck, as well as possibly Vassal Soul and a little control

She is amazing and I hope to pull one at pre release, staple for the next year almost certanly

5/5 Stars

Edit: Three times I drafted Theros, and all three of them, this lovely lady showed up ftw

It's kind of annoying to me that the female gods aren't called goddesses.

There's one thing I don't understand about this cycle. Why does Thassa cost 3 while the other four cost 4? If anything, Think Tank costed 3 while Primal Rage and Serra's Blessing costed 2. You'd only think Nylea's abilities are as good as Thassa's if you assumed every game to be Nyxthos mirror with mana going into the double digits, and we're not even taking into account that Thassa costs one less. While Thassa is slightly smaller than the rest of the major gods, since gods are indestructible and usually used as finishers, this difference in size (small to begin with) rarely matters.

I think she would have been perfect at 4. I don't know why they felt the need to deviate. (And guess which god out of the five has been the centerpiece of a top-tier deck?)

@mikeejimbo
"Heliod is a good Apollo. The god who literally makes the sun shine? And it shows in his personality? Even down to using the spear, he screams "Apollo"".

Greek mythology has more fitting preimages for at least 2 Theros gods. Down to the names:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erebos

Dear god Thassa, Why do you have to be so awesome?
She's good in the following: Simic, Ninjitsu, Mono blue agro, A deck with blue in it


Also: Anyone else wondering why Thassa is the only god without clothing? Seriously!? Why is the goddess of the sea naked!?

Why does Thassa not have clothes?? Maybe that's why she's only three mana.....

My hair is a lobster. Your fateseal is invalid.

This card is ridiculous. When it's active, it one-shots most planeswalkers. It softens your draws. It applies pressure even when it's not a creature because you can force in other creatures. It plays very well with the Evolve mechanic. It 's seeing a little play in Legacy Merfolk because it A) pitches to Force of Will, B) gets turned on by lords extremely easily, and C) comes down out of an Æther Vial with only 3 counters on it.

Outside of competitive formats it gets turned on by Invoke Prejudice. It is fetchable with either Zur, The Enchanter or Enlightened Tutor. It's recursible with Sun Titan. It curves into Annex and Control Magic. Overall a fantastic card.

Easily the curviest god under the curve.

To anyone wondering, a better question: Why WOULD the god(dess) of the sea have clothes? Most sea-dwellers are most happy stark naked (minus the scaly parts). This is Magic, not Disney, and thus means Cool is Cool and Sexy is Sexy.

Combos with Ninjas for epicness. Can further team her with Godhead of Awe to keep receiving damage low, while making Ninjutsu bounce all over, with two nice goddesses ruling it all!

@mikeejimbo:

Thalassa is just the Greek word for 'ocean' or 'sea'. It is also sometimes the name of a deity, because several deities are like that: e.g. 'Helios' means both the god of the sun and the sun itself, or 'Ouranos' refers both to the sky god and to the sky itself.

WotC really hasn't been very good with Greek mythology or language in Theros. You mention that they got a 'ph' into Purphoros' name, referencing Hephaestus? It's not a reference. 'Purphoros' is just a Greek word. It means 'fire-bearer' or 'fire-carrier'. ('Pur' is 'pyr': the same Greek letter can be transliterated as 'u' or 'y'. Compare also Polukranos, whose name is just the word 'many-headed': think poly-cranium.)

Anyway, if you can read any ancient Greek, the names of Therosian things are hilariously dumb. (My favourite is 'Perisophia', which literally means 'about wisdom' or 'concerning wisdom'. 'Perisophia the Philosopher' sounds about as silly as the great Roman thinker Philosophus Maximus.)

Thassa is pretty much teh best of the five higher gods, and the minor gods dont even compare. Her, Ephara and Pharika (art wise, ability wise she is poor) are my favorite gods. Goddesses rather but you know logic there Wizards.

I find it ridiculous that her little starfish is better than her for the early game.

Three-drop Gods, like Planeswalkers, are pretty damn powerful. This one is certainly no exception.

In all honesty, she is the strongest of the Gods. The only one that sees play across a variety of formats, and is a force to be reckoned with in every single one. 5/5.