Preview season for Magic: The Gathering’s next set, Theros: Beyond Death, has officially begun, and fans are now getting a look at some of the cards that they will be playing with when the expansion releases in January. To that end, Wizards of the Coast recently revealed an interesting new Theros: Beyond Death God, Klothys, God of Destiny, and now the developer is back to confirm that an iconic MTG creature will also be returning in the forthcoming set.

Specifically, it is now known that Gray Merchant of Asphodel will be reprinted in Theros: Beyond Death, and this powerful creature will almost assuredly see play in Magic: The Gathering’s Standard format. Costing two black and three generic mana, Gray Merchant of Aspohdel first appeared in the original Theros set, and he was a centerpiece of one of the undisputed best decks of Theros Standard: Mono-Black Devotion.

For the uninitiated, devotion is a mechanic in Theros: Beyond Death that is focused around having permanents in play. A player’s devotion to a color is calculated by counting how many pips of that color appear across the permanents that they control, and a number of cards offer powerful payoffs for maximizing that count. The Gods are one such group of cards that care about devotion, as is Gray Merchant of Asphodel, whose enter the battlefield ability continually improves as a player’s devotion to black increases.

This ability states that all opponents lose life equal to a player’s devotion to black when Gray Merchant comes into play, which is an extremely potent effect for closing out games of Magic: The Gathering. Additionally, the player casting Gray Merchant gains life equal to their devotion to black, making the zombie an exceptional tool for stabilizing against hyper-aggressive decks. This flexibility is one of the reasons that the card is so powerful, and is in part why it is likely to appear in the forthcoming Standard format.

That said, for Gray Merchant of Asphodel to really shine, a devotion-focused black deck will be required, and it remains to be seen if all of the tools exist for such a strategy to be competitively viable. However, with cards like Murderous Rider, a removal spell that also adds two devotion to black, and the engine of Cauldron Familiar and Witch’s Oven already in Standard, it seems that black could be primed for great things upon the release of MTG’s Theros: Beyond Death set.

Magic: The Gathering’s Theros: Beyond Death set releases January 24, 2020.

Source: Twitter