Archetype of Imagination (FOIL)

Like, Archetype of Courage, Archetype of Imagination is a popular Commander card. It’s for a much different reason, however. The regular non-foil printings are about 0.05 - 0.10 USD on buylists, rivalling Courage. But foils buylist for as much as 1.25 USD. It turns out making your creatures gain flying and make all others lose it is a lot better. The Commanders who take advantage of this Archetype most include Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor, Tibor and Lumia, and Tromokratis, among many others.

Setessan Tactics is a Magic: the Gathering card from the Journey into Nyx set. It features the Strive ability, which allows you to pay additional mana in order to target multiple creatures with its effect. It's one of the better cards with this ability. This  costs 1G to cast,and for each extra Green mana you add, you get to target an additional creature. Each of the target creatures get +1/+1 and gain a tap ability to fight another target creature until the end of turn. By fight, that means each creature deals damage to the other creature equal to its power.
 
During the Theros block, Heroic decks were very popular. The Heroic mechanic depended on spells targeting a creature to activate their Heroic abilities. Spells with Strive were particularly relevant for these decks. Most Heroic creatures already would gain a +1/+1 counter upon being targeted. So gaining an additional boost and being able to tap to fight another creature can be quite handy, as well.
 
It's a pretty simple combat trick, but Setessan Tactics offered a very inexpensive way to trigger Heroic while getting a good deal of value, as well. It's one of those cards that the later in the game that you cast it, the better it will usually be. The printing of this card seemed to make a good deal more Heroic creatures playable. However, Setessan Tactics never worked its way into competitive Heroic decks. It did, however, see a fair amount of Standard play in sideboards alongside a card that wasn't even from the Theros sets.

The Setessan Tactics and Hornet Nest Combo

 It turned out that Setessan Tactics worked very well with a creature called Hornet Nest in a rather clever way. By allowing the Nest to be able to fight a creature, you could get a bunch of flying tokens with deathtouch. For example, say your opponent had a Stormbreath Dragon, an extremely popular creature at the time. You would be able to get 4 hornet tokens by tapping the nest to fight the dragon.

 Another trick people would use involved Aspect of Hydra, a spell popular in mono-Green Devotion decks at the time. You would cast the Aspect of Hydra on the creature you intended to fight. Considering that Aspect of Hydra considers the green mana symbols in permanents you control (which would be a lot in that deck), you could end up making a ton of tokens, while assigning a token to block the creature you were trying to deal with anyway.

 Alternatively, you could have it fight one of your own big creatures, giving you a bunch of tokens to attack with on the next turn. Green decks in Standard at the timehad some big creatures, including Polukranos, World Eater and later Dragonlord Atarka. While the Setessan Tactics & Hornet Nests were usually relegated to the sideboard, it definitely was a solid way for Mono-Green Devotion and Selesyna (Green & White) Aggro decks to steal a game out of nowhere.

 Setessan Tactics is a great little card that probably could have seen a lot more competitive play than it did. It's actually a Modern playable card, and I'm a bit surprised that we haven't seen it more than we have.

Heroes' Bane wasn't an exciting pre-release promo card for Magic the Gathering's Journey into Nyx set. As with many pre-release promos at the time, they were chosen with an eye on making them playable in Limited - drafts and sealed deck. For Limited purposes, Heroes' Bane is pretty good. Also, being a Hydra, Heroes' Bane isn't bad for the ever-growing popular Hydra Tribal Deck.
 
While a 4/4 for 3GG isn't marvelous, being able to double its power for 2GG as many times as you have open mana can make it extremely scary. Granted, it doesn't have trample on its own. Without help, it can be chump-blocked all day. But were it to gain trample and be played alongside say Xenagos, God of Revels or perhaps a Hunter's Prowess, it can kill a player very suddenly. It had some potential, that's for certain. Red-Green Monsters and Mono-Green Devotion were seriously good Standard decks at the time. With the amount of mana available to those decks, it seemed that it just might work at the top end of the mana curve.
 
Some Standard players indeed tried to make Heroes' Bane work. Cory Weber made the Top 8 of the 2014 Colorado State Championships with a copy of Heroes' Bane in his Devotion to Green deck. Early in 2015, Andreas Pettersson included a copy in his Devotion to Simic deck, which made the Top 8 at the Scandinavian Open in Stockholm. While this is pretty much the extent of any competitive play for Heroes' Bane, this was a card that people did try in their Standard decks.
 
Even well after its time in Standard, people still find uses for Heroes' Bane. As with many of the Hydras in Magic, Heroes' Bane shows up in plenty of Commander decks. While he sees play alongside a great many different Commanders, it should be little surprise that Xenagos, God of Revels is at the top of the list. While he made few waves in competitive play, Heroes' Bane has proved to be a versatile creature. ​

As the final revealed mythic rare from Magic the Gathering's Journey Into Nyx spoiler season, Prophetic Flamespeaker looked like a winner. But was he going to sell the set? First of all, anything that has double strike and trample is already good. Add to that having a great effect that activates upon doing combat damage to player, and you definitely have a winner.
 
Being able to exile the top two cards of your deck with the chance to play them that turn is perfectly useful. Yes, you'll burn through some cards. We would see this sort of ability useful around this time with Chandra, Pyromaster, and much later with the release of Abbot of Keral Keep - although these cards only exiled one card at a time.

Also, there were a lot of ways to make this guy truly threatening during that time in Standard. In particular, Titan's Strength, which gives a target creature +3/+1 until end of turn, could make this guy a bit ridiculous, especially considering his trample ability. Plus, Titan's Strength lets you Scry, so you can put a card you don't want to be exiled by the Flamespeaker's effect to the bottom of the deck. So, the potential to hit for 8 damage and accelerate your deck was just plain absurd.
 
While it wasn't quite clear at the time how exactly Prophetic Flamespeaker would play out, he was simply too good not to see play. At the time, I could imagine a red/black deck Bestowing a Herald of Torment onto him and making him a 4/6 flyer! The most likely scenario I envisioned at the time was becoming part of some Red/Green aggro deck that finds ways to consistently pump their Flamespeakers. This was during the Standard heydey of Ghor-Clan Rampager, a creature you could discard from your hand to give an attacking creature +4/+4 and trample until end of turn. Obviously, the Flamespeaker didn't need the trample, but becoming a 5/5 with double strike is extremely powerful.
 
Such Aggro decks would play a lot of cheap creatures anyway, so the top-deck exiling could be advantageous - especially with all the Scrying you're probably doing anyway. It's also important to note that if his exiling reveals a land card, you'll want to be sure that you can use that land that turn or you will lose it forever.
 
It seemed with both Chandra's Phoenix and Boros Reckoner leaving Standard that following October, there was going to be a lot of brewing going on around this card. In my opinion at the the time of his release, the guy had a bright future ahead of him. I even considered that he could be the Voice of Resurgence of the set.
 
None of that happened. What happened? Channel Fireball even had a Devotion to Red deck in which  Prophetic Flamespeaker would play a key role. What was the problem?
 
The problem lies in Prophetic Flamespeaker being so fragile. He has only 1 power, and 3 toughness. Objectively, he was great. But, getting him to actually activate his ability could prove difficult. Channel Fireball also admitted at the time that he wouldn't make it in Modern with Lightning Bolt running amok.

Despite being relatively fragile, Prophetic Flamespeaker did see some Top 8 play during his time in Standard. On Magic Online, he popped up in some Red Deck Wins lists in Theros Block Constructed. He also popped up as a playset in a winning Jund list in a Magic Online Modern Daily event, although this appeared to be a fluke. It would pop up in some top 8 lists at State Championships in Boros decks, but for the most part, it wasn't a card that really did as much many players hoped it would.
 
Later on, Prophetic Flamespeaker made another appearance in Modern as part of an All-in Red deck that had a strong finish at a Star City Games Modern event in Las Vegas in December of 2015. Then, the Flamespeaker would appear in a couple of Dragon Stompy Legacy decks in April of 2016 as a three-of in the main deck. In fact, in one event, two similar lists placed first and second. Armed with Sword of Fire and Ice and/or Umezawa's Jitte, the Flamespeaker actually was able to get in some attacks. Then, outside of popping up in some Commander lists, the Flamespeaker basically disappeared from view.
 
Prophetic Flamespeaker is the perfect example of an objectively powerful card that simply never found the legs to be consistently part of a competitive strategy. He would latch on as a part of existing decks, and while the deck would win, it seems that he didn't actually improve the deck enough to become a permanent fixture. With powerful creatures continuing to be printed all the time, there just isn't really a slot for the Flamespeaker to fit into anymore.
 
Still, Prophetic Flamespeaker is a good creature with the ability to potentially finish off an opponent with the right pump spells. He also can provide some powerful card advantage if the deck is able to support casting spells quickly. Prophetic Flamespeaker was indeed powerful on paper, but in practice, he never really panned out competitively. For a card that's worth roughly a dollar, he's a fun creature to try out and brew with in Kitchen Table Magic decks. Sadly, many people have forgotten about him.​

With the introduction of the Heroic mechanic in Theros, many players were hopeful that Wizards had introduced a truly competitive archetype. Although Heroic has never done what Wizards R&D hoped that it would in the competitive game, it's had its moments winning minor tournaments here and there and placing well in Magic Online daily competitions.

Though the Heroic mechanic was printed on plenty of decent cards, Dawnbringer Charioteers from Journey into Nyx was never going to be another stalwart card in the archetype. It’s a 2/4 with Flying and Lifelink for 2WW, which isn't incredibly exciting. Its Heroic ability is that each time that it’s targeted, you put a +1/+1 counter on it. This is an ability that's appeared on a good number of Heroic creatures, and it's not bad for an uncommon.

Unfortunately, this isn't an uncommon. That's a gold symbol there for the rarity - it's a rare. It was even a featured card in a Journey into Nyx Intro Pack. In Limited, this card was always a decent pick, though. A flier with lifelink for 4 mana is a strong play, especially with how easy Heroic was to build around in the Theros block Limited environment. Having this at uncommon would've made it a format All-Star rather than just an okay rare-draft.

However, a 2/4 for 4 mana simply isn't too fantastic in Constructed, as it doesn't do anything outside of get a bit bigger. Competitive Heroic decks need to conserve their mana and a 4 drop Heroic creature just isn't going to cut it with such underwhelming stats.

From a casual perspective, the Charioteers are a Human Soldier, so it’s playable in a Heroic Soldier deck in Commander if you desperately need one more Heroic creature. But besides that, it's just a bulk rare with no long-term value.

The Dictate cycle is definitely quite fascinating. It's a cycle of Enchantments that bring an old, powerful effect from Magic’s history, increase its mana cost a bit, and give it Flash. In this case, this card is much like Heartbeat of Spring from Champions of Kamigawa, except that Enchantment cost only 2G, whereas this costs 3GG.

There have been other enchantments with a similar effect, but with drawbacks. These include Winter’s Night from Alliances and Overabundance from Invasion. Zhur-Taa Ancient, a creature from Dragon’s Maze, also happens to have that effect, and it’s a 7/5 for 3RG.
 
So does giving this card Flash suddenly make it a bunch better? Interestingly enough, this card works best with Kruphix, God of Horizons, and not Karametra, God of Harvests. Since the effect works for all players, Kruphix’s ability to turn any excess mana into colorless mana is really good. Five mana is a bit much for an enchantment like this, though. It is more stomach-able if you’re playing a Kruphix deck in which you’re using leftover colorless mana and only paying 2 Green for it. That’s something I’m sure R&D took into consideration in costing this card, as Heartbeat of Spring with Flash could've proven to be pretty powerful.
 
While it's a bit expensive to cast in Standard, it's going to see some Commander play, certainly. It's especially good alongside Kruphix, for a bit of extra redundancy along with the cards mentioned earlier. It's important to note that this effect does stack upon multiple instances. It’s definitely a usable enchantment, and using the Flash to cast it at instant speed can help you take advantage of it first.