Nemesis seems like an easy pick here.

Is it? I haven't had the chance to play with it, but Anthousa, Setessan Hero always looked pretty damn solid to me.

I hate the fact that mender is in the same pack as nemesis. They work so well together (as in, they both fit in the same archetype).

What stops a 5/5?

A 10/10.

Easy peasy. Having one creature in the graveyard makes this guy bananas. It's entirely possible to monstrosity him on turn six or seven, or use threat of activation to expand your board.

A 10/10 doesn't stop 5 2/2s and a 4/5 though.

But yeah, nemesis can be pretty crazy.

I like relative points, except when I don't.

I have no idea what that means.

I haven't seen a single Nemesis in any of my drafts yet. Not on my team, not on their team, nowhere. But I hear rumors that a BG graveyard-centric deck is very possible and somewhat good in this format. IDK what all it includes, but I do know that this is the keystone.

Anathousa is kind of bad, other than her combat stats. 4/5 for 5 is OK, but don't expect her heroic to go anywhere or do anything: it's kind of difficult to trigger heroic and hers doesn't have any permanent benefit, which is what makes heroic triggers good. So, you can mostly treat her as a vanilla. Nemesis is better.

Stare at the word "relative" for a minute.

Also, Anthousa is a crappier Nessian Asp.

guys anthousa is like rudeawakening on a dude how can this be baad.

As I said, I haven't played with it, but I can't see how getting heroic trigger and attacking with 5+ 2/2s plus all your other guys doesn't win the game right there and then. What have you been doing all game?

It's not a combat trick when it isn't in combat? I mean, that's a thing. Also, having 3 lands die is kind of a bad thing.

Not if you win in the process.

How are you getting 5+ 2/2s? You get at most 3 from a single heroic trigger, they only stay creatures until end of turn, and triggering heroic multiple times in one turn is straight-up bull to try to pull off. You MIGHT be able to do it, but there are only so many cheap, positive heroic triggers (I've seen opponents use Lost in a Labyrinth to trigger a really important heroic, so don't ignore that), so even if you trigger her twice in one turn without nerfing her, you've probably tapped a lot of your lands in order to do it.

As a general note, I've played with heroic in limited. with 13 possible enablers (some of which were bestow creatures and some cheap tricks), I ended up triggering heroic four or five times per game in most cases, and I was augmenting 1-3 drops, not a 5-drop.

I also kind of discount lots of little creatures in Theros. They're not amazing, especially when they don't stick around to chump when their usefulness on the offense has been degraded.

To make Anathousa's heroic do awesome, stupid things, you need three things: lots of land, spare cards that can trigger heroic, and a decently open board (since ramming lands into chaff isn't a winning game plan when you have to burn cards and mana to do it). You're unlikely to have both the first and the second at once if you're playing a faster game, and if you're playing the long game, you'd rather have a Nemesis to dominate the board.

I'm not saying she's not a potentially early pick, even a potential first pick in a weak pack... but she's a top pick because she's got good stats and a "maybe sometimes" upside ability, not because she's going to rule games. She isn't. There are bigger, scarier things than her, and those animate lands will all too often run into whatever Returned Centaur nonsense your opponent did in the early game that's been hanging back, and get killed for little appreciable game.

If I was already heavy green and taking heroic picks, I might consider her over Nemesis. Particularly if I had multiples of Aqueous Form, since that keeps her from getting ganked by whatever the other guy has put out by this point as well as getting some land soldiers for a turn. Pack 1, Nemesis all the way

What really kills her heroic ability, I think, is that "until end of turn" clause. If she animated lands permanently, she'd be a great source of board position. As it is, though, you've got to manifest a mad rush in a single turn to be viable. To attack with 5 land soldiers you need at LEAST 7 land up, more likely 8-10, and Yawgmoth help you if you're relying on bestow, it's not happening.

I can't read and thought all your lands became creatures. That makes it severely weaker.

Move along, nothing to see here.

MM-HMMM.

Why nemesis over asp or naiad? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just curious as to why that was your pick.

Nemesis is cheaper late game, there is the potential for build-around, and its bigger. Or you can trade all of that for reach.

As for the Nimbus Naiad, it isn't a bad choice at all. It helps guarantee that your opponent is more likely to be in green, and seeing 0 other (real) blue cards in the first pack, you can try to force blue.
Taking Nemesis also means you are passing multiple powerful green cards (the hero, the asp, and the mender)

I'd go with the Nemesis. First, it's not a stretch to get it for 2GG, making it monstrous for only 5GG. Second, it makes those last-wheeling Commune with the Gods worthwhile. Third, in my limited experience, blue is the least-desired color so I wouldn't be surprised to see the Naiad wheel.

However, I've seen the Crusader do gross things too.