So looking over the gods and their trials, I noticed that:
the green god is automatically turned on by simply casting his trial;
the blue god gains +3 cards for -2 (the discard, and casting the trial itself) for +1/7 of his 'active' condition;
but the white, black and red trials do absolutely nothing positive for their gods (although the white trial at least synergizes the other direction, the god makes the trial much better), although I guess it could be argued that by casting a card, red gets +1/7 of it's condition as well, reducing hand size by the one card you just cast.
Then looking at the monuments:
the white monument progresses the god's activation doubly (the creature being cast, plus a token);
the green monument will almost always activate the green god, or even better, give the god his much needed trample;
but
the red, black and blue monuments don't interact with their gods at all, cycling, draining life and tapping permanents respectively.
Sure, the blue monument is a powerful control card and you can assume a player trying to keep his hand full at all times is the control player.
But I'm not sure what it is about the black god that screams 'drain life'
and the red god, well I would much rather his monument do 'when you cast a creature, you may discard a card: if you do, that creature gains X until end of turn', or 'creatures you control gain +1/+0 and haste until end of turn' or something positive, that can work well with the strategy, and to activate the god. Even just pushing to "you may discard a card, if you do, draw a card at the beginning of the next end step" so the redraw doesn't slow the God down would be useful.
Overall: This makes the black god look pretty weak and miserable, just from the perspective of card support. Even his cartouche doesn't turn him on (although you do have the option of using it to kill your own creatures, his ability does so better and for more benefit), which all the other cartouches work wonderfully with their gods.
Finally, just to clarify, this isn't about the power levels of the gods (although the huge vertical synergies for the green god do speak volumes for my personal rating of him). The various gods have their various homes, and their various win conditions, which apparently was a major concern when designing them so some of them aren't meant to be supported (the red god probably doesn't care about turning on, because red decks frequently have 'too few cards' as a disadvantage so progressing that counter might have seemed redundant). That said, from a Melvin (or is it Vorthos? Melthos?) point of view, I just find the interactions of these designs to be lopsided if not lacking in some significant way.
That's an interesting point, and a bit of a flavor fail too. It is disappointing that a deck jammed with all the "Oketra" cards + random Exert and Embalm dudes is going to be a strong, viable, fun deck (at least at the kitchen table), while a deck jammed with all the "Hazoret" cards is going to struggle to activate Hazoret in a reasonable time period.
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Commander - Currently Playing: RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G) RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B) WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
The blue god is pretty solid, lets you draw cards and bounce lands to their owner's hands (could be great if you are trying to do something with landfall). And he's a 5/5 for 3 mana.
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the green god is automatically turned on by simply casting his trial;
the blue god gains +3 cards for -2 (the discard, and casting the trial itself) for +1/7 of his 'active' condition;
but the white, black and red trials do absolutely nothing positive for their gods (although the white trial at least synergizes the other direction, the god makes the trial much better), although I guess it could be argued that by casting a card, red gets +1/7 of it's condition as well, reducing hand size by the one card you just cast.
Then looking at the monuments:
the white monument progresses the god's activation doubly (the creature being cast, plus a token);
the green monument will almost always activate the green god, or even better, give the god his much needed trample;
but
the red, black and blue monuments don't interact with their gods at all, cycling, draining life and tapping permanents respectively.
Sure, the blue monument is a powerful control card and you can assume a player trying to keep his hand full at all times is the control player.
But I'm not sure what it is about the black god that screams 'drain life'
and the red god, well I would much rather his monument do 'when you cast a creature, you may discard a card: if you do, that creature gains X until end of turn', or 'creatures you control gain +1/+0 and haste until end of turn' or something positive, that can work well with the strategy, and to activate the god. Even just pushing to "you may discard a card, if you do, draw a card at the beginning of the next end step" so the redraw doesn't slow the God down would be useful.
Overall: This makes the black god look pretty weak and miserable, just from the perspective of card support. Even his cartouche doesn't turn him on (although you do have the option of using it to kill your own creatures, his ability does so better and for more benefit), which all the other cartouches work wonderfully with their gods.
Finally, just to clarify, this isn't about the power levels of the gods (although the huge vertical synergies for the green god do speak volumes for my personal rating of him). The various gods have their various homes, and their various win conditions, which apparently was a major concern when designing them so some of them aren't meant to be supported (the red god probably doesn't care about turning on, because red decks frequently have 'too few cards' as a disadvantage so progressing that counter might have seemed redundant). That said, from a Melvin (or is it Vorthos? Melthos?) point of view, I just find the interactions of these designs to be lopsided if not lacking in some significant way.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG