Pointed Discussion

Man I think at five mana this could have actually been a playable card. I know black will most likely never get Damnation again, but I feel like 3BB is balanced and could have made a nice splash in constructed.

Here's the thing. This can be a Plague Wind if used right. Picky board wipes carry an advantage over careless ones- you can tailor make your deck around them, while your opponent doesn't have that option.

I get that Phenax has ways to cheat death, but I would have associated Pharika's cures with offering life and Athreos's ferrying of souls with an offer of death. Phenax seems like the odd one out to me.

I'll stick with Life's Finale personally.

The Three Stooges of Nyx.

And then Back to Nature for the most convoluted board wipe ever.

"Nonenchantment" is not a drawback, it is an advantage.

People keep judging this by the standards of other boardwipes, but Extinguish All Hope is nothing like your typical boardwipe. You play enchantment creatures, and Extinguish All Hope becomes a Plague Wind.

It's nice that Black is represented as not being all that evil in this set. Of course, perhaps this isn't the right card to bring that up on.......

Paired with Athreos, God of Passage this get's MUCH meaner.

"Flesh dies - only ideas are constant."

I like the focus on black as a force of death in Theros. Power hungry too, but the gods aren't power hungry, they're intermediates of death. It feels very consistent with greek myth to me. Hades - unlike how he was portrayed in disney's hercules - is the eldest of the gods but he lets the youngest rule, content with his underworld - content with the dead.

Poison described as solace also comes up in greek myth. The apology touches on it - lots of greek tragedies use it. I think it fits. And it is Hermes messenger and psychopomp in one guise, but trickster in another, who allows men to cheat death.

How do Mogis and Athreos get worshippers if they have nothing to offer?

Well, its black....
I would still prefer planar cleansing, but this isn't a bad option for mono black players I guess.
I dunno if it will ever see constructed though, since Mono Black has been leaning towards agro as of late.
3/5

Official design-team nickname of this card is "Wrath of the Gods".

With the amount of enchantment creatures in this set, this is very relevant. Only problem is that your opponent is likely to have just as many enchantment creatures as you... I feel that this is too situational to be really good, but is has it's places. Not good but not bad.

The whole Phenax offers life thing is more than just a way to cheat death, I am actually pretty sure he is responsible for the returned, seeing as how he schemes to clear out cities for them to take over, and Erebos has agents made to specifically hunt the returned down. Plus the gold masks and everything.

Phrakia is more so associated with death even with her cures because of the other things she governs the things like old age and other death like things. I am more of a Phenax fan boy so I can't provide as much there

I am not sure there are enough super awesome enchantment creatures for this to be insanely powerful, but you can set it up to be in your favor rather easily, and win quite a few games on its cost tails. Although I might just be picky here, a quick search pulls up around 80 enchantment creatures. Plus it will be great for other black control combinations to not have to splash white for a while

I pulled two of these in my black pool at the prerelease and fully half of my creatures were enchantments in my Black/Blue deck. Worth every mana in the cost. Any cheaper and this would be broken.
@RedJaron. That's disgusting. I like it.

MEANWHILE, at the Legion of Doom...

I'm glad they gave monoblack devotion this instead of reprinting Damnation. Otherwise I'd probably quit out of Constructed for another year.

This art needs to be put into a playmat. Please.
The card is also quite nice - 3/5.