From Beyond - A Magic the Gathering (MTG) Card Review

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Is From Beyond poised to be a better version of Awakening Zone? Like the popular Rise of the Eldrazi rare, this Enchantment makes Eldrazi tokens that can be sacrificed to produce colorless mana. However, this one makes 1/1 Eldrazi Scion tokens every upkeep instead of 0/1 Eldrazi Spawn tokens. Tokens with power are definitely better than those without. From Beyond costs one more mana than Awakening Zone does, but it also has a second ability to be sacrificed for 1G to search out any Eldrazi card and add it to your hand.

This is obviously pretty good. The combo that From Beyond will undoubtedly make along with Evolutionary Leap using the Scion tokens as sacrifice fuel should go a long way in making this Constructed playable. Being able to literally turn a 1/1 token into an Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger feels like a strong play. At worst, it’s a more splashable Thopter Spy Network, although the tokens don’t fly. From Beyond is definitely Standard playable and is going to be quite good in Limited, too, as it doesn’t really commit you too much one way or another and it provides free chump blockers each turn.

The sheer amount of Eldrazi support in this set leads me to believe that in Commander we’ll see both From Beyond and Awakening Zone seeing play in the same deck. However, From Beyond is clearly a bit better, as having the power to begin with makes a difference. The tutoring option is absurdly cheap, too, and being able to say hey here’s an Eldrazi Titan that you’ll be seeing really soon for only 1G is not bad. The most popular target will probably be All is Dust, which is in plenty of EDH decks, but there should be plenty of Eldrazi now that you’ll want to get with this. I’m not sure we’ll be seeing this 4-mana enchantment in Modern, but seeking out Emrakul the Aeons Torn seems legit.

From Beyond is a pretty sweet Enchantment. This was a card that players were hoping for and not only did we get a slightly better Awakening Zone, but we got a cheap Eldrazi tutor, as well.

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