It's "Born of the Gods," not "Bored of the Gods..."

Now that most of the cards are spoiled in the second Theros expansion, Born of the Gods, it's time to do some pre-reviewing before the pre-release next week. 

Today, we're going to examine and re-visit some of the spins being done on previous set mechanics as well as the two new ones. 

Let's begin.

NEW MECHANIC- INSPIRED

Our first example is a card I've already heard people call, "The New Dark Confidant." 

I hope I don't need to point out the irony that comes attached with this "Inspired" mechanic.

Now, I have no idea how good Pain Seer is going to be in Commander, or any other 60-card format. I'm using this card strictly as an example of what seems to be the best card with this mechanic, and I'm really not seeing it.

What I know is that the thing about Dark Confidant is that he really doesn't want to attack. He wants to stay in the shadows until the board is clear of other little Goombas so that he doesn't lose his 1 toughness. 

That's why I believe that if this is supposed to be what Wizards calls, "Inspired," it's not. There's a rule taught in writing and reinforced in everyday life that we define ourselves how we want to be seen, not what we are. 

This is the inherent problem with this design of most of these cards. I don't see anything here that feels truly inspired. The mechanic itself is so innate to the game that it's obvious, and the majority of triggers that happen feel very similar to the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block cards with untap symbols.

While it appears to be a pattern Wizards is showing us, Devotion is actually awesome across most of the formats being played. It's in the strongest decks in Standard, and it's rewarding people who play mono-colored decks in Commander.

Again, I don't have any in-game experience yet with these cards- but all signs point to flop. 

PAYING TRIBUTE

Tribute, on the other hand, feels a little more interesting.

For Commander, the best Tribute card revealed is probably this hot-lookin' Hydra. 

Though Wizards seems to be catching up for lost time with all the Hydras printed in the last year, I feel like I can still get behind some of the designs.

Here, I'll be willing to admit that I like NWR because it fights, which isn't as much about the Tribute as it is about the fight mechanic.

Clearly, Fighting is much better than Tribute as a mechanic because of elegance, natural color inclination, and simplicity (Fighting doesn't have numbers!), but still- I can see Tribute creating an entire Doctorate-Level course in Magic Player's Psychology. Some of our staff's favorite cards are Realms Uncharted, Fact or Fiction, and the always banned Gifts Ungiven. Though not the same, Tribute has a similar, tricky quality that just might be compelling. 

MULTICOLORED DEVOTION- NOT TERRIBLE, NOT BROKEN

Reddit was all abuzz a few days ago with the discussion on how the new gods make everything a little more complicated this time around with their color-split allegiances. 

So, in case you were probably wondering, but too afraid to ask, or too smart and thought you could make a great rules assumption, let's clear this all up:

1) Devotion on multicolored Gods is combined. For our example, it is not seven devotion to Green AND seven devotion to Red to turn our evil Planeswalker pal turned God into a creature. It is a combination of seven Red OR Green mana.

2) Hybrid mana symbols do not count double. Naturally, Deus of Calamity turns on Xenagos as a creature. That's because combined, they create 7 red and green devotion. 

The best way to look at this is to count number of non-numerical circles in a converted mana cost, not the color(s). With Deus' 5 symbols and Xenagos' 2, our Legendary Enchantment Creature God is a Creature.

However, your individual color Devotion is a different count (SIX devotion to red, and SIX Devotion to Green), and obviously never add up to twelve. 

Ultimately, I think this makes Devotion possibly better than it was in the first block. This isn't necessarily because of the strength of the cards spoiled either. I didn't think I was going to like it before I looked up how this is being counted, but I'm digging it. Devotion creates a fresh angle of game design which was already printed on every single non-artifact/colorless card in Magic, and it's going to force us to read the game in a different slant of light. 

Well, that's all I got for today. Continue to look for more Born of the Gods stuff once the full set's spoiled.

Until next time, devote yourself to something inspired so we can pay tribute. 

-UL