I have an Iroas aggro deck that really takes off once I get a few creatures on the field. There are several options when it comes to the gods, but personally I enjoy running Erebos as a volttron aggro myself, but do not have much luck with him as my play group shuts him down as soon as poosible
Heliod- White control/good stuff.
Purphoros- tokens.
Nylea- Green stompy.
Thasa- Sea Monsters.
Erebos- Black good stuff.
Ephara- Blink (but it almost always could be switched out with Brago for a better general)
Karametra- Ramp aggro with fatties on the top end, like Worldspine Wurm and Eldrazi.
Xenagos- Super aggro gogogo. Sometimes with an infect theme.
Mogis- group slug/griefer cards like Painful Quandary and the like
Phenax- Mill God with wall tribal. Eater of the Dead is almost always a GG.
Athreos- Cleric tribal.
Iroas- Weenie aggro.
Keranos- U/R control. Storm works better with spell slinger commanders like Melek and Mizzix.
Kruphix- U/G ramp with stuff like genesis wave and other big X spells. It really lost a bit of power without prophet, but still has plenty of ways to untap lands on other player's turns.
Pharika- I've never played against her, but the coolest concept that I've seen was an enchantress build on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm4o7-Y7zew
Ephara really wants to throw down cheap creatures every turn. She's made for U/W aggro, and works well with soldiers, merfolk, and humans. She's a solid beater herself so that helps. The key is that she lets you keep fueling your hand while building your board, and does so early.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
For Kruphix, God of Horizons, I've been toying around with building a draw-go deck. I never got around to actually building it cause I haven't played in like a year, but Kruphix's abilities seem really good for draw-go. One of the biggest concerns for a control deck is having enough mana untapped to deal with things and Kruphix plays to that nicely. Just a fun build that I've wanted to do for a while but never had the actual reason or motivation to do it.
Heliod- White control/good stuff.
Purphoros- tokens.
Nylea- Green stompy.
Thasa- Sea Monsters.
Erebos- Black good stuff.
Ephara- Blink (but it almost always could be switched out with Brago for a better general)
Karametra- Ramp aggro with fatties on the top end, like Worldspine Wurm and Eldrazi.
Xenagos- Super aggro gogogo. Sometimes with an infect theme.
Mogis- group slug/griefer cards like Painful Quandary and the like
Phenax- Mill God with wall tribal. Eater of the Dead is almost always a GG.
Athreos- Cleric tribal.
Iroas- Weenie aggro.
Keranos- U/R control. Storm works better with spell slinger commanders like Melek and Mizzix.
Kruphix- U/G ramp with stuff like genesis wave and other big X spells. It really lost a bit of power without prophet, but still has plenty of ways to untap lands on other player's turns.
Pharika- I've never played against her, but the coolest concept that I've seen was an enchantress build on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm4o7-Y7zew
those are all really cool but I like the ideas that everyone has given
There are several known builds for each god, but also some lesser builds as well:
Mono-colored
Heliod, god of the sun - Heliod's token production is a bit expensive, so plays well to a control style deck, to buy the time needed to ramp up to bigger mana. An indestructible token producer is a good addition to that strategy, allowing you to toss out speedbumps, while the vigilance allows you to poke in for damage while leaving defenses up. The vigilance then pairs well with other defensive abilities, like first strike, allowing you to set up an imposing wall of razors. Key important attributes to note are that since the clerics are enchantments, they pair well with constellation effects like Skybind and other enchantment matters cards, like Serra's Sanctum. Getting both out together adds a combo spin to the deck that closes games out quickly. A number of builds focus on a heavy enchantment theme, but I prefer a devotion-light build, favoring leaving the god offline as long as possible to not open him up to removal. Note that Heliod does not give himself vigilance, which is annoying if planning to activate him early. Self sacrificing devotion granters, like Aura of Silence can be nice to activate him in a defensive role, but still be able to turn him off at will if you need to didge creature removal.
Thassa, god of the sea - This is going to be a creatures matters deck of some sort, due to the unblockable. Since you don't want to spend large amounts of mana making an entire army unblockable, there are three paths possible to take: Big things, On hit matters (swords, card draw on hit, etc), and Voltron. The last requires devotion in a color that typically isn't high on it, but it's possible and can be combined with the on-hit matters/voltron aspect, running creatures like Thada Adel, Acquisitor for the early game.
Erebos, god of the dead - Erebos' card draw means that he can helm any type of mono-B deck, though he's usually favored as a control deck. Use the card draw to keep your hand full while using mass removal to clear the board, allowing for Erebos himself to also be a win condition. Erebos provides both a strong finisher, as well as a hard to disrupt card draw engine in the Command Zone, which is huge for control decks.
Purphoros, god of the forge - Often built as a token combo deck, Purphoros is pretty straight forward and kills people quickly.
Nylea, god of the hunt - Nylea is a bit of the tricky spot. She sadly gets easily outclassed by Khamal, Fist of Krosa. Her advantages is that the trample doesn't need mana to be online, and that she can pump individual creatures more effectively. She'll still want lots of mana though, so generic rampy into big stuff works well for her. Tossing in her bow is thematic, but also strategically sound, as the deathtouch + trample is an effective combo. Other DT granters can be useful in that regard, though note that Nylea herself does not have trample, making the Voltron route more difficult.
Multicolored
Ephara, god of the Polis - There are a number of good builds for Ephara. The most popular would be token producers or blink engines, in order to trigger her repeatedly. While nice, it's not actually needed. Even getting one card a turn on a hard to remove card draw engine is huge. ISB has a great aggro list, though I think a few valuable token producers, like Sacred Mesa will pay off in dividends. Keeping the mana costs low and effective will allow you to empty and refill your hand quickly.
Athreos, god of passage - A more aggressive stance is needed on this deck. I haven't found a combo that works well yet, but smart players will simply take the bolt to prevent you from gaining overwhelming value, at least, until you can get someone down low enough that you can keep targeting the lower-life player. Politics is also possible here, but since you have to kill your guy to remove a threat, by the time the threat is gone the other player won't see a need to bargain with you anymore. But you can still wing it.
Iroas, god of victory - Straight up aggro. Not only does he have built in evasion, which unlike Nylea or Heliod actually includes himself, but he has an impressive 7 power, making him a 3 hit wonder. Devotion up in enchantments and other indestructible creatures, like Tajic, and Wrath away to constantly get in for damage. Red grants extra combats to drive the point home. You can also build up an armageddon/jokulhaups variant of him to capitalize on the indestructible aspect, and seal the aggro, but talk to your group before adopting such tactics.
Karametra, god of harvests - A powerful big creature and X-creature (hydra) commander, Karametra ramps you insanely quickly, getting you into the power plays faster. Card draw will be the limiting factor, so Tireless Tracker and Elemental Bond effects will be allstars, as will good recursion from Genesis, or self recusrion from Masked Admirers.
Phenax, god of deception - A deceptively powerful commander, I've seen and heard of even non-combo variants quickly milling people out. Wall tribal is actually a possible thing with him, which is pure style. Eater of the Dead is one of the known combos to insta-kill a table, but Intruder Alarm is a powerful combo as well.
Keranos, god of storms - Often seen as a storm commander, but really, what U/R commander isn't a potential storm enabler? Card draw and free bolts loan themselves well to a control aspect early on, with your choice of finishers late. Very open ended, though a point can be made that the God of Storms heading up a Storm deck is somewhat thematic.
Kruphix, god of Horizons - Floating extra mana that turns into colorless is great for some draw go (though you'll still need to get it into colors for some of your spells), but it's also great for casting the world-ending horrors that are Eldrazi.
Mogis, God of Slaughter - Mogis often heads up stax/punisher lists due to his ability, but simply going a more aggressive pain route, with Sulfuric Vortext and aggroing him up with Pestilence to clear the way can end games quickly due to his 7 power. Why play a slow game when you can kill people in 3 hits, or less?
Pharika, God of Affliction - "Hi, are you playing reanimator? No you're not, you're playing Snake Tribal!" is simply one of the greatest things to be able to say to another player. While Pharika might be a bit more reactive in that sense, she also plays well on your own snake tribal (quite thematic), as there will always be some mana elves in your own graveyard that won't be the prime resurrection targets. Also, the option to have on-demand death touch blockers can go a long way to discouraging attacks. Add in some pestilence fun, and you can give gifts AND take them away! Then give another snake to keep the pestilence around long term.
Xenagos, god of revels - Big thing, hits face. He's about as straight-forward as you can get.
hmm... for some reason, i kept thinking about a Athreos, god of passageshadowborn apostle-demon/reanimation deck. keep churning out those little buggers, sac 'em all, your opponent has to seriously consider the 3 life for each of the 6 apostles, then face down the demon that comes with it.
a couple of mass-reanimation spells like living death and patriarch's bidding would start to really set your opponents back too. could be good..
I play Athreos the way that I play Daxos (actually, replaced Athreos with Daxos as Commander): sac sac sac.
You have to be careful because tokens don't really help Athreos, but if you can't recur creatures in WB...
Also, there is a definite political element to Athreos, in that you can target opponents. So one way to play him is to Pillowfort so people don't attack you, and once someone gets low enough in life, you just reanimate all day. Another approach is to buddy up to someone who just chooses not to pay the life and gives you your creatures back.
I've out comboed a combo player with my Athreos, God of Passage/Shadowborn Apostle deck using the apostles, an Edgewalker and an Altar of Dementia. I convinced another player that the combo player was going to combo out on their next turn (I knew the combo player's deck and he was really about to combo out). I then asked the other player to never pay the three life and I then milled the combo player to death.
I also play a Karametra, God of Harvests list that is mostly hate bears that I bring out when I come to a table full of blue players. This is because her ability is an on-cast ability, so even if your creature spells get countered you get to search for a plains or forest card and put it into play tapped (so she can find non-basic lands that have those land types as well like Mistveil Plains and Dryad Arbor).
I started from a simple 'draw-bolt' idea with Keranos, God of Storms. Which I reckon could work: basically spellslinger distilled to its' purest: cheap draw and Lightning Bolt variants, aim to draw your deck and bolt it to someone's face. Eventually. (Jori En, Ruin Diver who was released later seems a lot better for this archetype tho.)
Much like Mogis-with-every-hate-enchantment.dec, it's not a, shall we say, friendmaker.
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X Hope of Ghirapur Swordpile W Ghosty Blinky Anafenza U Nezahal- Big, Blue and HERE! B Gonti Can Afford It R Etali, Primal 'Whatjusthappened?' G Polukranos Wants More Mana WU The Exalted Vizier Temmet WB Home, Athreos WR Basandra, Recursive Aggression WG Karametra, Momma of Lands UB Wrexial Eats Your Brains UR Arjun, the Mad Flame UG The Fable of Prime Speaker BR Hellbent, Malfegor Style BG Jarad, Death is Served RG Running Thromok WUB Varina and ALL the Zombies WUBYennett, the Odd Pain-Train WUR Zedruu the Furyhearted WUG Arcades' Strategy, Shmategy, Sausage and Spam WBR A Case of Mathas' Persistent F*ckery WBRLicia's League of Legendary Lifegain Layabouts WBG The Karador Advantage PackageWRG Gahiji Rattlesnake Collection UBR Jeleva... does... things UBG Damia's Just Deserts URG Yasova's Has More Power Than Sense BRG Wasitora, Bad Kitty WUBRBreya, Eggs, Breya'd Eggs WUBG Tymna and Kydele, Extended Borrowing WURG Kynaios and Tiro, Landfall Impersonations WBRG Saskia Pet Card EnchantressUBRG Yidris of the Chi-Ting Corporation WUBRG Tazri's Amazing Allies
Keranos, God of Storms can be played as a Stax commander, since with cards like Winter Orb and ilk he could just keep shooting bolts at you while keeping the board locked down. Ruination also contributes to this strategy.
Karametra, god of harvests can be played with hate bears as well since they are usually cheap in cc thus triggers more frequently, then use cards like Chord of Calling to get the necessary creatures out.
Mogis, God of Slaughter creatureless deck is a thing, alongside typical disruptive B/R enchantments. Add land destruction to make it even more painful.
While we're on topic: What would be a good 3-god combination?
Keranos, God of Storms can be played as a Stax commander, since with cards like Winter Orb and ilk he could just keep shooting bolts at you while keeping the board locked down. Ruination also contributes to this strategy.
Karametra, god of harvests can be played with hate bears as well since they are usually cheap in cc thus triggers more frequently, then use cards like Chord of Calling to get the necessary creatures out.
Mogis, God of Slaughter creatureless deck is a thing, alongside typical disruptive B/R enchantments. Add land destruction to make it even more painful.
While we're on topic: What would be a good 3-god combination?
I've seen a Grixis Marchesa the black rose deck with all the on colour gods in in. Not really God Tribal but still cool
Xenagos is the best gruul fatties commander I've ever played. Focus on one fatty at a time to keep devotion off, and to keep the card requirement down (not the greatest draw colours). Only took mine apart when I felt that the only remaining avenue for improving it was to add infect
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EDH RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
I've got Karametra and Xenagos built. Karametra is built around landfall triggers, while Xenagos is the typical "play fatties, pump, add extra combat phase, one-shot someone (or everyone with Hydra Omnivore), repeat" deck. I've thought about using Thassa as a tribal Merfolk commander but haven't gotten around to building it yet.
has anyone made a deck for Theros Gods and what is the theme?
Here's what I had thought of for themes:
Purphoros: Token agro
Xenagos: monsters
Phelanax: mill
Keranos: storm/control ?
Iroas: agro?
Erebos: control
Thasa: voltron agro?
not sure on the rest
at this point its just an idea but it seems cool
Heliod- White control/good stuff.
Purphoros- tokens.
Nylea- Green stompy.
Thasa- Sea Monsters.
Erebos- Black good stuff.
Ephara- Blink (but it almost always could be switched out with Brago for a better general)
Karametra- Ramp aggro with fatties on the top end, like Worldspine Wurm and Eldrazi.
Xenagos- Super aggro gogogo. Sometimes with an infect theme.
Mogis- group slug/griefer cards like Painful Quandary and the like
Phenax- Mill God with wall tribal. Eater of the Dead is almost always a GG.
Athreos- Cleric tribal.
Iroas- Weenie aggro.
Keranos- U/R control. Storm works better with spell slinger commanders like Melek and Mizzix.
Kruphix- U/G ramp with stuff like genesis wave and other big X spells. It really lost a bit of power without prophet, but still has plenty of ways to untap lands on other player's turns.
Pharika- I've never played against her, but the coolest concept that I've seen was an enchantress build on youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm4o7-Y7zew
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
EDIT: And yeah, Xenagos is aggro fatties, but the good Xenagos decks I've played against also have a very strong extra combat steps theme.
WBG Karador, Ghost Chieftain
B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
those are all really cool but I like the ideas that everyone has given
thanks everyone
Mono-colored
Multicolored
Retired EDH - Tibor and Lumia | [PR]Nemata |Ramirez dePietro | [C]Edric | Riku | Jenara | Lazav | Heliod | Daxos | Roon | Kozilek
a couple of mass-reanimation spells like living death and patriarch's bidding would start to really set your opponents back too. could be good..
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
You have to be careful because tokens don't really help Athreos, but if you can't recur creatures in WB...
Also, there is a definite political element to Athreos, in that you can target opponents. So one way to play him is to Pillowfort so people don't attack you, and once someone gets low enough in life, you just reanimate all day. Another approach is to buddy up to someone who just chooses not to pay the life and gives you your creatures back.
I also play a Karametra, God of Harvests list that is mostly hate bears that I bring out when I come to a table full of blue players. This is because her ability is an on-cast ability, so even if your creature spells get countered you get to search for a plains or forest card and put it into play tapped (so she can find non-basic lands that have those land types as well like Mistveil Plains and Dryad Arbor).
I've won games by playing a bunch of two & three drops (Voice of Resurgence, Grand Abolisher, Spirit of the Labyrinth, Aven Mindcensor, ect...) and then ramping into a massive Genesis Hydra that was promptly countered and it's on-cast ability reveals a Avacyn, Angel of Hope or Craterhoof Behemoth and the table more or less scoops if they don't have an answer to the card when the hydra's ability resolves. Karametra is also a really fun deck that can put to use that copy of Panglacial Wurm you have just sitting in a binder somewhere.
I started adding creature hate to the deck... and sort of just kept adding it. Nowadays the hate is a stronger theme than the bolt, which is the win condition of a deck that makes it very hard to cast(Portcullis, Overburden, Feroz's Ban), keep(Pendrell Mists, Sunken Hope), use abilities of(Torpor Orb, Cursed Totem), attack with(Meishin, the Mind Cage, Propaganda) or even lose(Repercussion, Burning Sands) creatures. Some big draw-burn and things like Sphinx-Bone Wand and Pyromancer's Goggles and the win will eventually come... usually by killing the last one standing of your opponents as no one has been able to attack you all game.
Much like Mogis-with-every-hate-enchantment.dec, it's not a, shall we say, friendmaker.
Athreos, god of passage was considered to be the best Cleric tribal general till Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim came out.
Karametra, god of harvests can be played with hate bears as well since they are usually cheap in cc thus triggers more frequently, then use cards like Chord of Calling to get the necessary creatures out.
Mogis, God of Slaughter creatureless deck is a thing, alongside typical disruptive B/R enchantments. Add land destruction to make it even more painful.
While we're on topic: What would be a good 3-god combination?
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
I've seen a Grixis Marchesa the black rose deck with all the on colour gods in in. Not really God Tribal but still cool
Thanks for all the cool ideas everyone
RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck
RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
Arena Standard
UUUU Tempo, since before it was cool
Various Wx decks running Fountain of Renewal and Day of Glory
Anything I can cram Chaos Wand in to
UBDragonlord Silumgar WGKarametra, God of Harvests
BRUNekusar, the Mindrazer BGMazirek, Kraul Death Priest
URMelek, Izzet Paragon UGPrime Speaker Zegana
WUHanna, Ship's Navigator BWUSydri, Galvanic Genius
WUBRGSliver Queen RBBladewing the Risen
WBKarlov of the Ghost Council RGXenagos, God of Revels
GFreyalise, Llanowar's Fury RWAurelia, the Warleader
RIb Halfheart, Goblin Tactician BDrana, Liberator of Malakir
UAzami, Lady of Scrolls WNahiri, the Lithomancer
WBGDoran, the Siege Tower CEmrakul, the Promised End
Club Flamingo Wins: 1!