yeah i guess i was mainly asking about the red and white ones
though if i run any of them i probably wont run the white one anyway
General Color matters / devotion
- Thread starter CML
- Start date
though if i run any of them i probably wont run the white one anyway
CML
Contributor
Purphoros is really good, the other gods are questionable power-wise. I guess I just like a black theme for Erebos, and Green is easy enough for Nylea so that she's an interesting 4-drop. Thassa is the best of the gods by far but always lacks permanents in Cube, and Heliod is just a piece of shit
I don't think there's anything particularly wrong with her being active later instead of turn four, blue has plenty of great double and even triple-
cards. She actually makes an annoyingly fast finisher compared to grindy stuff like Meloku.I actually added both fade into antiquity and revoke existence just in case gods were too good, but they haven't been. Just that most are do-nothings without creatures or enough other do-nothings is enough of a handicap IMO. I had all 5 since release (ten full 8-mans) and this is the number of times they've been played:
Thassa - 7 / 8
Nylea - 7 / 8
Purphoros - 6 / 7
Erebos - 2 / 7
Heliod - 2 / 7
My drafters are more set with stuff like hero of bladehold and ranger of eos as four-drops, and there's a general distaste for erebos's passive doing nothing the vast majority of the time, and his active being so costly.
Thassa ends games absurdly fast when she gets online, and is just an engine with pals like ninja of the deep hours and Edric, Nylea is actually still powerful but far more fair when someone isn't making 20 devotion mana to pump with, and Purphoros has been good without being too good; makes people actually hesitate to run out their plays sometimes while he's in-hand. Someone DID play him in
and, with purphdaddy in play, cascade off maelstrom wanderer into both siege-gang commander and beetleback chief.
I know my cube's not built for it, but I seriously doubt my cube has ever presented a board state where somebody's devotion to blue was 5 or greater.
CML
Contributor
i am cutting my blue section down to a single copy of invoke prejudice and Thassa and she will be not only turned-on but dripping wet
Last night I was presented with the following "in case devotion gets cool enough to push:"
Clearly there are a few legitimate replacements; the wasp will become Nightveil Specter at the very least. I'm actually not sure how I feel about boros reckoner over the goblin, but the Cavaliers and Stalker Hag will likely be replaced by their lieges because they're so similar or they suck, respectively.
I really really really hate plumeveil, though, and none of its replacements are particularly exciting. augury adept is it, I suppose. I like it more than the liege.
Getting handed these also made me think of the following, as they instantly "turn on" all the gods. And make posts really long.
Thoughts? I think most of these are respectable. It would also put the foil set I collected to good use...
Clearly there are a few legitimate replacements; the wasp will become Nightveil Specter at the very least. I'm actually not sure how I feel about boros reckoner over the goblin, but the Cavaliers and Stalker Hag will likely be replaced by their lieges because they're so similar or they suck, respectively.
I really really really hate plumeveil, though, and none of its replacements are particularly exciting. augury adept is it, I suppose. I like it more than the liege.
Getting handed these also made me think of the following, as they instantly "turn on" all the gods. And make posts really long.
Thoughts? I think most of these are respectable. It would also put the foil set I collected to good use...
I ran godhead of awe in my cube before Theros came out, and it was never too high impact. Demigod of revenge made quite a splash once you managed to get it into play. I've got a Nobilis of War lying around, but it seems a bit slow for Boros. Of course, that is when I think about the Boros deck you can get in magic christmasland. I run Ram-Gang, and like it well enough. I have thought about Deus of Calamity, but it seems it comes out too late for its ability to be useful, unless you manage to power it out on turn three or something. Which isn't that hard with a lumbejack...
I don't like the synonyms-for-god cycle, just from a castability perspective. I'm also not excited about most of those 3-drops. The two lieges look cool, Augury Adapt looks cool, and we already know Boggart Ram-Gang is awesome. The other ones really don't look worth it.
Adding extra support for devotion just doesn't seem like something I'd do in a "normal" cube, I would rather try to tie it in with themes in a different cube. On the other hand, running 20 fetchlands and duals and whatnot and/or filterlands in the utility land draft goes a long way to making these cards reasonable. Even then the problem is basically this: there aren't devotion cards worth mangling your cube for yet, and they're aren't really enough good hybrid options to mangle your cube decently. The hybrid cards have got to be good on their own, and the ones I mentioned above are the only ones that interest me (reckoner is amazing, but he's too powerful for my cube). Maybe someone can prove me wrong by listing some awesome hybrid cards, I'm too lazy to do the research...
(I haven't doubled my fetchlands and I don't have a utility land draft, so this theme has never been attractive for me)
Adding extra support for devotion just doesn't seem like something I'd do in a "normal" cube, I would rather try to tie it in with themes in a different cube. On the other hand, running 20 fetchlands and duals and whatnot and/or filterlands in the utility land draft goes a long way to making these cards reasonable. Even then the problem is basically this: there aren't devotion cards worth mangling your cube for yet, and they're aren't really enough good hybrid options to mangle your cube decently. The hybrid cards have got to be good on their own, and the ones I mentioned above are the only ones that interest me (reckoner is amazing, but he's too powerful for my cube). Maybe someone can prove me wrong by listing some awesome hybrid cards, I'm too lazy to do the research...
(I haven't doubled my fetchlands and I don't have a utility land draft, so this theme has never been attractive for me)
Yeah, this really comes down to, are you building a multicolor cube or a mono? Most of these cards really cannot be cast in three-color decks.
Yeah, the whole thing started because someone handed me a stack of the uncommons just in case devotion got good. These are by no means going in now. And even then a few of them are icky enough to not force devotion with, they're just part of the cycle. Devotion is already much more heavily green and black than the other three colors (see the first page of the thread) and I believe Maro made a tumblr post stating that devotion was designed to be skewed that way, so I really doubt you'd want all the hybrid combos regardless of what comes out.
Either way I think there are some pretty neat cards here, and the 'gods' mostly have neat/unique effects, on top of all being finishers at the 5 slot. As far as "I can't cast these in 3-color decks" goes I'm not sure I would want to play a 3-dolor deck that wasn't vastly two-color with a small third color splash, and then you'd only not be able to cast these bros if you had a straight-up basic of the off-color or had colorless ramp.
Here are a few more powerful devotion-enabling cards from that era (which is still new-ish ground to me, I started during RoE)
Alright, I just love cracklerburr's art/name combo, and Gilder Bairn is a pet card.
Either way I think there are some pretty neat cards here, and the 'gods' mostly have neat/unique effects, on top of all being finishers at the 5 slot. As far as "I can't cast these in 3-color decks" goes I'm not sure I would want to play a 3-dolor deck that wasn't vastly two-color with a small third color splash, and then you'd only not be able to cast these bros if you had a straight-up basic of the off-color or had colorless ramp.
Here are a few more powerful devotion-enabling cards from that era (which is still new-ish ground to me, I started during RoE)
Alright, I just love cracklerburr's art/name combo, and Gilder Bairn is a pet card.
I think I have a full CFB article worth of material on why I dislike Devotion for traditional cubes at a fundamental level, and none of it really has to do with the existing devotion cards but instead with drafting dynamics and set design. It's possible I'm totally off-base though.
CML
Contributor
Oh boy EVE cards.
I've gone through pretty much all of these and only run ram-gang and gouger with sometimes deus of calamity, then sygg and redcap and fulmy mage below. i would run plumeveil but i have no devotion theme in UW
wilt-leaf cavaliers and nobilis of war (for the token thing) might be worth trying
these cards are super-castable in 3c decks that either (a) have good fixing with possibly filters or (b) are predominantly one color. even at 6 the "synonym-for-god" cards are pretty good
I've gone through pretty much all of these and only run ram-gang and gouger with sometimes deus of calamity, then sygg and redcap and fulmy mage below. i would run plumeveil but i have no devotion theme in UW
wilt-leaf cavaliers and nobilis of war (for the token thing) might be worth trying
these cards are super-castable in 3c decks that either (a) have good fixing with possibly filters or (b) are predominantly one color. even at 6 the "synonym-for-god" cards are pretty good
What are people doing to enable black devotion? I tossed in Erebos and Gray Merchant on a whim, but I'm preeeeeeeeeetty sure they're both horrible right now. I guess this is a result of cutting back on and cards bit by bit over the years.
and cards bit by bit over the years.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
Moar dimir/rakdos hybrids?
Dom Harvey
Contributor
Bloodghast, Geralf's Messenger, Rakdos Guildmage, Ashenmoor Gouger, Nightveil Specter
How has Ashenmoor Gouger been for people? I remember it being pretty iffy back in Standard even when there were mono-red and R/B Demigod of Revenge aggro decks.
Ooh, I just remembered I'm running Creakwood Liege already. That helps.
Maybe the Whip needs to come back in...
Ooh, I just remembered I'm running Creakwood Liege already. That helps.
Maybe the Whip needs to come back in...
What are people doing to enable black devotion? I tossed in Erebos and Gray Merchant on a whim, but I'm preeeeeeeeeetty sure they're both horrible right now. I guess this is a result of cutting back on
I've just chucked in erebos and Gray merchant and upped the black casting costs on other permanents: Geralfs messenger and grave pact. Thinking about swapping out shadowmage infiltrator for nightveil spectre too. For me it's not so much about ramming in permanents with heavy casting costs but if you have the mana to cast them. I've added twilight mire and graven cairns[\c] to go with the b/w one which helps. Thinking about adding:
FlowerSunRain
Contributor
One of the simplest ways to help black devotion is to include permanents that aren't casually removed as well as spells that put permanents back on the table.
Bloodghast, Nether Traitor, Reassembling Skeleton, Enchantments in general (but those that bring back creatures even moreso), Unearth, etc.
Bloodghast, Nether Traitor, Reassembling Skeleton, Enchantments in general (but those that bring back creatures even moreso), Unearth, etc.
this thread helped out my custom cube. devotion has been pretty good and non-parasitic because of a large mass of hybrids (37 of 400). i was completely thinking devotion is unfun garbage until i saw creakwood liege and erebos, god of the dead together in the OP and then i was sold
the devotion cards i'm running:
thassa, god of the sea
gray merchant of asphodel
erebos, god of the dead
purphoros, god of the forge
nylea, god of the hunt
the devotion cards i'm running:
gray merchant of asphodel
erebos, god of the dead
purphoros, god of the forge
nylea, god of the hunt
Has anybody at Wizards explained why they gave Blue an army-in-a-can card?
Because everybody loves blue and blue can do everything.
I gotta say, in the abstract, the multicolor gods are in a much better space design-wise than the monocolor ones. I hope they print some sweet ones so that we can abolish this "encourage monocolor decks in a multicolor draft format" nonsense.