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Erebos.
No other god just simply shuts down any form of lifegain and provides you with a reliable means of card draw aside from scry 1. Plus he is the fattest of the bunch with power/toughness of 5/7.
Thassa and Purphoros have combo potential, but only Erbos and Heliod can be fully functional all by their lonesome.
And of those two, I'd rate one the lowest and one the highest.
I'm so glad I'm a black-alligned player...
Erobos. CA is king in the decks he'll fit in the most.
Oh, and his big butt, too!
everyone talks about Erebos and his 7 toughness. The gods are Indestructible anything past 4 is gravy. Not to many spells that give -5/-5 in standard. In other formats it might matter.
P/T are irrelevant when your devotion is less than 5. Thassa's scry 1 and targeted unblockability on a 3 mana enchantment is useful even in a deck with few other permanents (and thus being unliekly to hit the 5 devotion). Erebos is a close second, though.
You played JESUS?!?! I heard none of his guys stay in the graveyard, and once you think you have him beat he ALWAYS comes back to win within three turns. I like...WORSHIP him.
1. Thassa - Cheapest to get out. Scry 1 every turn is incredibly useful, and unblockability wins games.
2. Purphoros - In a sligh style deck you should easily get the devotion, plus both of his abilities become relevant. And 6 power is an advantage.
3. Erebos - Lifegain is merely a potential bonus. The card draw is probably the best or 2nd best activated ability. Makes a good SB card at the very least.
4. Heliod - Vigilance is mediocre. His activated ability is slow, but will inevitably win you the game against control decks if it sticks.
5. Nylea - A 6 power beater for 4, with not much else to offer. The pump is okay, I suppose. Can be powered out a turn earlier with mana elves, which will also help with devotion.
1. Phurporos - because I think mono red, gruul, or boros will be a thing early on. And that 2 damage to opponent is really good.
2. Thassa - her scry is too good to ignore, so hard to bet against her right now.
3. Heliod - has the established creatures in the RTR block, so if continuity being a trend then this god should do well.
4. Erebus - I haven't played that much Dimir and that much Golgari so I don't know how much impact he'll have. He seems a fitting enchantment for Orzhov.
5. Nylea - Could be the god that we might see more often becoming a creature than the others. Like Heliod she seems poised to enjoy the support of G and W established creatures. Her ability is not as good as the others so she's my number 5.
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Going back to Europe Tonight. will say goodbye to you all.
For standard,
1. Thassa : It's the most efficient god and I don't think U will have much of a problem getting 5 devotion in theros standard (multiple UU creatures at 2 and 3 mana). It also provides card quality advantage. It can also be run in the same deck as master of waves. The two together will be quite powerful
2. purphoros : It easily hits devotion and rapidly kills your opponent. Hard to complain about purphorus
3. helliod : because boros reckoner and purphoros are things. It should be fairly easy for a boros deck to hit devotion to both red or (and) white by turn 4 (6). There is also impressive synergy between the two.
4. nylea : because BTE and rubblebelt raiders and purphoros are things. If gruul agro sticks around, I'd expect both gods to be run.
5. Erebos : least efficient (in terms of Power/cmc). Static ability is probably irrelevant in most games. Isn't in a color which easily hits devotion(though there may be new BBB and BB cards printed). Its redeeming quality is its activated ability 1B shock: draw 1 card is quite good.
Those are my rankings anyway. Erebos would be better than nylea if Black had any good BB two drops and more than 2 decent XBB 3 drops. With standard as is, erebos will never be a creature so all you'd be getting is a slightly cheaper greed with a significantly more expensive activated ability. Also, I'm having a hard time imagining what kind of deck would want Erebos anyway. It's very slow card advantage, which adds up rapidly if used repeatedly. Any deck that wants the card draw is probably better off with underworld connections.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
- Manite
i havent yet seen someone mention bantchantments deck for thassa yet. seems good in it since she herself is an enchantment
Because in that deck, she is pretty much ONLY an enchantment. She will almost never reach the devotion necessary to become a creature. And as a 3 cmc enchantment, she just probably isn't good enough.
Thassa unlike what the hype suggest might actually be one of the worst two of the gods in standard environment until she finds a home that runs blue permanents to support her.
The ability to have your planeswalker representing a clock will be a big part of their power in standard where permanents to trigger devotion are easy to play and Thassa first needs a home that can reliably also trigger her devotion.
If you just have the scry1 it is decent , far from overpowered. a 3 Mana enchantment that lets you scry 1 is not really better than Underworld Connections drawing 1 card every turn for 1 mana and 1 life esentially is better than scrying 1 for free. If you don't use Thassa's devotion she still does something but that something is a poor mans effect version of something like phyrexian arena.
I would revise my standing for standard to
1. Purphoros - he fits right into red aggro decks and could fit in a boros deck due to boros reckoner along with heliod - and the synergy with his own hammer is the best of all gods so far
2. Heliod - boros reckoner being one of the best standard creatures also being the best enabler for devotion..
3. Nylea - will have an easy time reaching devotion early and in combination with her weapon giving trample and deathtouch to sizable green or green/red threats is a big deal in standard.
4. Thassa - she is more versatile than the other gods as you can throw her in random decks and get a decent effect with the scry. but that alone does not make her more powerful than the other gods if you totally neglect her devotion. If she can find a home in a deck running claustrophobia, tidebinder mages and other controlling permanents that can quickly enable her devotion she will definitely rise, if she is just going to be a 3 mana enchantment for scy1 then she won't. While this is a solid desirable effect it currently gets overhyped imo. Scry 1 is infinitely worse than Scry 2 which we are used to. Scrying 1 and deciding to put that away without knowing which comes next is a guessing game, sometimes you can put away a totally useless card but other times you see a semi useful card and are left with a bad decision that can result in drawing you a totally useless card instead. It still digs you threw your deck but it is not super strong as an effect.
5. Erebos - His static ability is absolutely situational and his card draw might be acceptable in standard where you don't suffer from life loss through dismember, dark confidants already but as for Thassa he needs to find a deck that supports his devotion because his static ability is totally situational and his card draw alone is almost always worse than Underworld Connections.
And if any powerful heroes get made agoraphobia is a pretty decent way to trigger Heroic which doubles as early game psuedo removal. I'm not saying the deck can be built already, But there are plenty of blue cards available which could make a Thass.dec viable in standard
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Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
- Manite
Purphoros might be too slow for the decks you want to play him in but we will have to wait and see.
I thought about that too, but I'm still convinced he is playable in sligh.
Firstly, that should be one of the easier decks to reach devotion in provided you are playing low cost creatures. Which makes him an indestructable 6 power beater for 4 mana. Not bad.
More importantly though, the biggest problem those aggressive decks tend to have is reach. If they run out of gas, they lose. Purphoros actually deals double duty in that department. The firebreathing is quite bad, but at least it is a mana sink if you've got nothing else. The 2 damage per creature is the only thing that really sold me on it. I still voted blue though.
That is exactly what I said above, Thassa needs to find a home for me to rate her higher right now in standard. She has the most consistent ability with the scry and her mana cost through all possible formats but for standard as of now she might be the weakest of the gods.
Actually, decks that play Thassa won't care about the devotion thing. Permanent Scry 1 every upkeep is a so huge card advantage you won't need her as creature.
She costs 3, and that is also a big point in her favor.
As for her activate ability, even as enchantment she will help you close the games by attacking with other creatures.
Never understimate permanent-Scry 1. The chances of dead draws are drastically reduced, and even without devotion, she'll be the most played...
Second come The red one ofc..and last the reeeeeeallly bad Black one.
Overall, I would say that Purphoros is the best God, because he has the potential to carry the game without even needing to become a creature. He also seems like he has the potential to be played in the largest number of styles. Purphoros could slot in well into a Gruul deck, because Red/Green tends to play huge number of creatures, so Purphoros' ability would hit every turn (probably multiple times). 2 damage per creature adds up fast: if you can drop 5 creatures in a few turns, Purphoros has already taken half your opponent's life without you even having to attack. Also, he is absurdly easy to rack up devotion for: drop a few BTEs on turn 2, and he starts as an indestructible beater.
Purphoros also slots in well into Boros aggro and RDW, because, as many have noted, he has the best devotion enabler in Standard (apart from multiple BTEs): Boros Reckoner. Again, he swings for huge damage and has combo potential with R/W creature token enablers like Assemble the Legion. Having Purphoros and Heliod together also seems like it could be a thing.
Finally, I think that Purphoros's static ability is powerful enough to rack up wins without even needing Purphoros to become a creature. As harlannowick pointed out, we now have a good number of cheap, efficient blue creatures to stack up Blue devotion. Because of this, I think that we could see Purphoros in a Blue/Red deck based on quickly playing Purphoros, then dropping Master of Waves for an obscene number of elementals. Purphoros triggers for the Master and each elemental, so he could do a crazy amount of damage. You could use Thassa as the finisher card, as you would certainly have enough Blue devotion to power her, and as everyone is fond of saying, her unblockable active really does a lot of work. Potential start up:
Turn 1: Cloudfin Raptor
Turn 2: Tidebinder Mage (Cloudfin Raptor evolve, swing for 1)
Turn 3: Nightveil Specter (Cloudfin Raport evolve, swing for 2, 4 if Tidebinder Mage can go through unpunished)
Turn 4: Drop Purphoros
Turn 5: Drop Master of Waves. Counting the master's 1 Blue, you have 7 blue devotion. Purphoros shocks opponent for 16 (Master and 7 elementals). Swing for win.
Obviously, my potential start up is Magical Christmasland, but even if you change the numbers and the plays, it should not be too difficult to drop a Master for Devotion 3 or 4, and even then, that's 8-10 damage out of Purphoros. Call me crazy, but this seems like it could be a thing, especially with Thassa being able to come down and push through large damage numbers instantly through unblockable.
As for the other Gods, Thassa and Erebos rank in the same place: #2. Control doesn't really need Thassa, because it has AEtherling, and activating Thassa might be more trouble than it's worth for a control deck. However, if Blue Tempo becomes a thing, then I'd probably consider Thassa to be around Purphoros' level. Erebos, meanwhile, provides actual card advantage, rather than permanent scrying, but has a less than stellar static ability. Erebos will probably be better if good lifegain cards become more relevant (we already have Sphinx' Revelation). As is, however, he slots in well with and against Orzhov (Orzhov gets him online easy and can use Extort to pay for new cards, while against Orzhov, he shuts down the tempo aspect of cards like Ghostdaddy; it's harder for Orzhov to carry when it's just causing lifeloss, instead of healing you at the same time).
Heliod comes in 3rd/4th, because he just seems overcosted. Vigilance is probably one of the weakest abilities on the Gods; Standard has enough hard and soft removal that most of the time, getting rid of your opponent's cards is better than blocking them (especially against the likes of Boros Reckoner). As a result, Vigilance seems less than useful. His ability of creating a creature is extremely useful, but 2WW for a 2/1 with no other abilities seems lackluster. He could be a finisher in Boros, but Boros is a fast deck, and his creature token ability is anything but fast.
Finally, in last place comes Nylea. Nylea sits in last place essentially because she is a big, dumb beater. She has a large body, but grants trample to other creatures you control, meaning that she will often be chump blocked. Also, her activated ability is easily the worst of all of the Gods. Erebos creates card advantage, Heliod creates creature tokens, Thassa makes your dudes unblockable, and Purphoros enables large groups of creatures to be dangerous in a horde (lucky that Red is a color that tends to be played in decks with a lot of small, fast creatures). In comparison, Nylea simply pumps a creature +2/+2 for 3G, an ability which is quite weak because Green is the color of large, aggressive creatures, and 2 extra power and toughness will rarely be the difference between life and death outside of Limited. As a result, I feel that Nylea just doesn't do enough. If there are enough strong Green creatures, she might be played just for the universal trample, and the fact that she will almost certainly be a 6/6 for 4, but in terms of the Gods, I feel that Nylea brings the least to the table at the moment. However, we still have 2/3 of the set left to spoil, so if many incredible Green creatures are printed, then maybe Nylea will have a better showing than I predict.
My personal opinion the gods should be ordered as follows.
1. Prophuros: He is the perfect red god. He has synergy with creature based RDW strategies, builds up to an alpha and has an incredibly high chance of hitting the battlefield as a 6/5 indestructible creature for 4.
The fact that Chandra's Phoenix and all the other red haste creatures makes him amazing. At the moment he is also the god who has the highest degree of synergy with his weapon (I have a feeling Erebos's whip might destroy a creature and a player gains life equal to the creatures toughness).
This guy will win games once he hits the table, period.
2. Erebos: People are seriously under estimating Erebos. Life gain has become a crucial part of the meta game, and so long as the shocklands are in standard it will remain important. He also stops Sphinx's Revelation decks.
People are also underestimating the power of his activated ability. Being able to draw a card every turn is worth 2 life and 2 mana, especially when BW control decks have access to Blood Baron as a finisher and GB have cards like Deathrite Shaman and Scavenging Ooze to keep their life total stable.
Of all the gods he has the biggest impact on the board once he hits the table and he can function perfectly as an enchantment on his own. His devotion aspect is just gravy.
3. Thassa: She is powerful, but she is being over hyped. Scry 1 every turn should not be confused with proper card advantage. It's card filtering, which is great, but needs something behind it to make it properly effective.
Remember Scry 2 is equivalent to drawing 1 card, because you can chose one of three cards, either the top two cards of your deck, which you know, or risk the "mystery" third card. Scry 1 just lets you lessen your chance of a dead first draw, but it doesn't garuntee that the second card isn't something worse. It is useful and it is worthy of using a card slot, but it won't win you the game in the same way Purphoros and Erebos will.
Her activated ability is nice, but most blue beaters are already evasive and generally blue wants to save its mana to do other things. It does have nice synergy with Frostburn Wierd et al. but you'll be paying 5 mana to deal 4 damage... it just doesn't seem worth it. Most of the time she'll be a three mana scry machine, which can do other cool things.
Moreover, she also has the hardest time with devotion. She needs to be built around, and that makes her a little worse. Don't get me wrong I think she is very powerful, but thinking that scry 1 is better than repeatable card draw is crazy. Erebos is much stronger.
4. Nylea: The only reason she is above Heliod is because she is easier to activate. The way I think of her is as a 6/6 conditional creature, who can give your big guys trample if they don't have it. There are allot of cards which play well with Nylea, but I don't know how many of them actually care about her.
In terms of abilities she is easily the weakest god overall.
5. Heliod: He is okay... Vigilance is nice, but in terms of abilities its not really what you want. Making clerics is very flavourful, and his ability is balanced, but it requires too much investment to be competitive.
He won't be hard to turn into a 5/6, but you want him to have vigilance. If white gets the cards it needs to make a permission based control deck and they can slow down the format, he might see some play, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen.
He is probably the second best god in limited though, but that's a different topic.
As a stand-alone card, Thassa is easily the best by virtue of having a static ability that doesn't require creatures, and costing 1 mana less. Erebos would be second because even if he's a cheaper Greed, his static ability won't always be relevant.
But obviously, the standard metagame is about creatures, and I would say Purphorous is the best for being able to squeeze extra value out of any creature you can throw down as well as synergizing with Red's general strategy, he's also probably the easiest to get Devotion live on thanks to BTE and Reckoner. Purphorous also synergizes well with his Hammer.
I'm actually not all that crazy about Purphoros. Unlike aggressive red 4-drops, he doesn't have an immediate impact if he's played on-curve. Cards like Hellrider are a lot better because they get to work immediately, but this guy just sits on the table doing nothing for a turn, which isn't what a red deck wants.
Granted, he becomes AMAZING when you untap with him, but I think red wants their turn 4 to be full of action.
My favorite, by far, is Thassa. She's one mana cheaper, she helps fix your draws, and she can help you close out a game. I can definitely see her in control.
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
you people think the static ability on purphoros is great? tell me then, are you going to hold creature in hand until you play him to deal 2 extra damage per creature? i think he's hardly playable because his abilities are better in tokens deck (decks that make a lot of creature, even in the lategame) while the devotion part requires you to cast your stuff early to be any good.
Erebos' problem to me is that the best spell i could think of to get devotion was liliana of m14 and underworld connections, and they both accomplish the same goal as erebos (CA). it is a good card, though, and could be good in certain matchups since i do think people will now remove your underworld connections a lot.
also, do you realize that every god depending too much on creatures is ridiculously soft to supreme verdict? i mean, you can curve alright in a red deck to get purporos online, opponent plays verdict (or 2 spot removal) and purporos is dead card again. thassa is better because you have some good enchantments to use with her and even if opponent wipes the board you are still scrying 1, which is better in slow games.
Tapping out in turn 3 with a control deck and letting your opponent play?
Putting her in control gives you scry1 per turn for 3 mana and will never turn her into a creature?
If you put thassa in control what makes her better than underworld connections or in other formats phyrexian arena?
Even in red aggro strategies not all creatures have haste.
Thassa being cheaper in control gives you one more mana to leave up against your opponent later in the game.
You're right, I can't ever tap out on turn 3, lest my opponent resolve a Boros Reckoner or something else that I can kill with my dozens of removal spells.
The problem with defining this format by what is "fun" is that everyone seems to define fun as what they don't lose to. If you keep losing to easily answered cards, that means you should improve your deck. If you don't want to improve your deck, then you should come to peace with the idea that you are going to lose because you chose to not interact with better strategies.
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- Heliod, God of the Sun
- Thassa, God of the Sea
- Erebos, God of the Dead
- Purphoros, God of the Forge
- Nylea, God of the Hunt
Vote in the poll, and make your argument in the thread!
- Jon Finkel believes in maintaining a healthy, balanced diet. He gets all his fiber from eating Magic cards for breakfast, and all his protein from eating Magic players for lunch.
No other god just simply shuts down any form of lifegain and provides you with a reliable means of card draw aside from scry 1. Plus he is the fattest of the bunch with power/toughness of 5/7.
And of those two, I'd rate one the lowest and one the highest.
I'm so glad I'm a black-alligned player...
Oh, and his big butt, too!
—Karn, silver golem
everyone talks about Erebos and his 7 toughness. The gods are Indestructible anything past 4 is gravy. Not to many spells that give -5/-5 in standard. In other formats it might matter.
—Karn, silver golem
My 180 Modern Bordered Only Cube
2. Purphoros - In a sligh style deck you should easily get the devotion, plus both of his abilities become relevant. And 6 power is an advantage.
3. Erebos - Lifegain is merely a potential bonus. The card draw is probably the best or 2nd best activated ability. Makes a good SB card at the very least.
4. Heliod - Vigilance is mediocre. His activated ability is slow, but will inevitably win you the game against control decks if it sticks.
5. Nylea - A 6 power beater for 4, with not much else to offer. The pump is okay, I suppose. Can be powered out a turn earlier with mana elves, which will also help with devotion.
2. Thassa - her scry is too good to ignore, so hard to bet against her right now.
3. Heliod - has the established creatures in the RTR block, so if continuity being a trend then this god should do well.
4. Erebus - I haven't played that much Dimir and that much Golgari so I don't know how much impact he'll have. He seems a fitting enchantment for Orzhov.
5. Nylea - Could be the god that we might see more often becoming a creature than the others. Like Heliod she seems poised to enjoy the support of G and W established creatures. Her ability is not as good as the others so she's my number 5.
Check out my expected lands table at:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Airj6A6lYAz_dG05T2JETnVTak1xQ0tqOHNSdEJLWVE&hl=en_US#gid=0
1. Thassa : It's the most efficient god and I don't think U will have much of a problem getting 5 devotion in theros standard (multiple UU creatures at 2 and 3 mana). It also provides card quality advantage. It can also be run in the same deck as master of waves. The two together will be quite powerful
2. purphoros : It easily hits devotion and rapidly kills your opponent. Hard to complain about purphorus
3. helliod : because boros reckoner and purphoros are things. It should be fairly easy for a boros deck to hit devotion to both red or (and) white by turn 4 (6). There is also impressive synergy between the two.
4. nylea : because BTE and rubblebelt raiders and purphoros are things. If gruul agro sticks around, I'd expect both gods to be run.
5. Erebos : least efficient (in terms of Power/cmc). Static ability is probably irrelevant in most games. Isn't in a color which easily hits devotion(though there may be new BBB and BB cards printed). Its redeeming quality is its activated ability 1B shock: draw 1 card is quite good.
Those are my rankings anyway. Erebos would be better than nylea if Black had any good BB two drops and more than 2 decent XBB 3 drops. With standard as is, erebos will never be a creature so all you'd be getting is a slightly cheaper greed with a significantly more expensive activated ability. Also, I'm having a hard time imagining what kind of deck would want Erebos anyway. It's very slow card advantage, which adds up rapidly if used repeatedly. Any deck that wants the card draw is probably better off with underworld connections.
- Manite
Because in that deck, she is pretty much ONLY an enchantment. She will almost never reach the devotion necessary to become a creature. And as a 3 cmc enchantment, she just probably isn't good enough.
Thassa already has a fair bit of support. I could easily see it being played in a U tempo deck. We already have...
cloudfin raptor
frostburn weird
tidebinder mage
claustrophobia
nightveil specter
duskmantle seer
domestication
water servant
master of waves
And if any powerful heroes get made agoraphobia is a pretty decent way to trigger Heroic which doubles as early game psuedo removal. I'm not saying the deck can be built already, But there are plenty of blue cards available which could make a Thass.dec viable in standard
- Manite
I thought about that too, but I'm still convinced he is playable in sligh.
Firstly, that should be one of the easier decks to reach devotion in provided you are playing low cost creatures. Which makes him an indestructable 6 power beater for 4 mana. Not bad.
More importantly though, the biggest problem those aggressive decks tend to have is reach. If they run out of gas, they lose. Purphoros actually deals double duty in that department. The firebreathing is quite bad, but at least it is a mana sink if you've got nothing else. The 2 damage per creature is the only thing that really sold me on it. I still voted blue though.
Actually, decks that play Thassa won't care about the devotion thing. Permanent Scry 1 every upkeep is a so huge card advantage you won't need her as creature.
She costs 3, and that is also a big point in her favor.
As for her activate ability, even as enchantment she will help you close the games by attacking with other creatures.
Never understimate permanent-Scry 1. The chances of dead draws are drastically reduced, and even without devotion, she'll be the most played...
Second come The red one ofc..and last the reeeeeeallly bad Black one.
1. Purphoros
2. Erebos/Thassa (tie vote)
3. Heliod
4. Nylea
Overall, I would say that Purphoros is the best God, because he has the potential to carry the game without even needing to become a creature. He also seems like he has the potential to be played in the largest number of styles. Purphoros could slot in well into a Gruul deck, because Red/Green tends to play huge number of creatures, so Purphoros' ability would hit every turn (probably multiple times). 2 damage per creature adds up fast: if you can drop 5 creatures in a few turns, Purphoros has already taken half your opponent's life without you even having to attack. Also, he is absurdly easy to rack up devotion for: drop a few BTEs on turn 2, and he starts as an indestructible beater.
Purphoros also slots in well into Boros aggro and RDW, because, as many have noted, he has the best devotion enabler in Standard (apart from multiple BTEs): Boros Reckoner. Again, he swings for huge damage and has combo potential with R/W creature token enablers like Assemble the Legion. Having Purphoros and Heliod together also seems like it could be a thing.
Finally, I think that Purphoros's static ability is powerful enough to rack up wins without even needing Purphoros to become a creature. As harlannowick pointed out, we now have a good number of cheap, efficient blue creatures to stack up Blue devotion. Because of this, I think that we could see Purphoros in a Blue/Red deck based on quickly playing Purphoros, then dropping Master of Waves for an obscene number of elementals. Purphoros triggers for the Master and each elemental, so he could do a crazy amount of damage. You could use Thassa as the finisher card, as you would certainly have enough Blue devotion to power her, and as everyone is fond of saying, her unblockable active really does a lot of work. Potential start up:
Turn 1: Cloudfin Raptor
Turn 2: Tidebinder Mage (Cloudfin Raptor evolve, swing for 1)
Turn 3: Nightveil Specter (Cloudfin Raport evolve, swing for 2, 4 if Tidebinder Mage can go through unpunished)
Turn 4: Drop Purphoros
Turn 5: Drop Master of Waves. Counting the master's 1 Blue, you have 7 blue devotion. Purphoros shocks opponent for 16 (Master and 7 elementals). Swing for win.
Obviously, my potential start up is Magical Christmasland, but even if you change the numbers and the plays, it should not be too difficult to drop a Master for Devotion 3 or 4, and even then, that's 8-10 damage out of Purphoros. Call me crazy, but this seems like it could be a thing, especially with Thassa being able to come down and push through large damage numbers instantly through unblockable.
As for the other Gods, Thassa and Erebos rank in the same place: #2. Control doesn't really need Thassa, because it has AEtherling, and activating Thassa might be more trouble than it's worth for a control deck. However, if Blue Tempo becomes a thing, then I'd probably consider Thassa to be around Purphoros' level. Erebos, meanwhile, provides actual card advantage, rather than permanent scrying, but has a less than stellar static ability. Erebos will probably be better if good lifegain cards become more relevant (we already have Sphinx' Revelation). As is, however, he slots in well with and against Orzhov (Orzhov gets him online easy and can use Extort to pay for new cards, while against Orzhov, he shuts down the tempo aspect of cards like Ghostdaddy; it's harder for Orzhov to carry when it's just causing lifeloss, instead of healing you at the same time).
Heliod comes in 3rd/4th, because he just seems overcosted. Vigilance is probably one of the weakest abilities on the Gods; Standard has enough hard and soft removal that most of the time, getting rid of your opponent's cards is better than blocking them (especially against the likes of Boros Reckoner). As a result, Vigilance seems less than useful. His ability of creating a creature is extremely useful, but 2WW for a 2/1 with no other abilities seems lackluster. He could be a finisher in Boros, but Boros is a fast deck, and his creature token ability is anything but fast.
Finally, in last place comes Nylea. Nylea sits in last place essentially because she is a big, dumb beater. She has a large body, but grants trample to other creatures you control, meaning that she will often be chump blocked. Also, her activated ability is easily the worst of all of the Gods. Erebos creates card advantage, Heliod creates creature tokens, Thassa makes your dudes unblockable, and Purphoros enables large groups of creatures to be dangerous in a horde (lucky that Red is a color that tends to be played in decks with a lot of small, fast creatures). In comparison, Nylea simply pumps a creature +2/+2 for 3G, an ability which is quite weak because Green is the color of large, aggressive creatures, and 2 extra power and toughness will rarely be the difference between life and death outside of Limited. As a result, I feel that Nylea just doesn't do enough. If there are enough strong Green creatures, she might be played just for the universal trample, and the fact that she will almost certainly be a 6/6 for 4, but in terms of the Gods, I feel that Nylea brings the least to the table at the moment. However, we still have 2/3 of the set left to spoil, so if many incredible Green creatures are printed, then maybe Nylea will have a better showing than I predict.
1. Prophuros: He is the perfect red god. He has synergy with creature based RDW strategies, builds up to an alpha and has an incredibly high chance of hitting the battlefield as a 6/5 indestructible creature for 4.
The fact that Chandra's Phoenix and all the other red haste creatures makes him amazing. At the moment he is also the god who has the highest degree of synergy with his weapon (I have a feeling Erebos's whip might destroy a creature and a player gains life equal to the creatures toughness).
This guy will win games once he hits the table, period.
2. Erebos: People are seriously under estimating Erebos. Life gain has become a crucial part of the meta game, and so long as the shocklands are in standard it will remain important. He also stops Sphinx's Revelation decks.
People are also underestimating the power of his activated ability. Being able to draw a card every turn is worth 2 life and 2 mana, especially when BW control decks have access to Blood Baron as a finisher and GB have cards like Deathrite Shaman and Scavenging Ooze to keep their life total stable.
Of all the gods he has the biggest impact on the board once he hits the table and he can function perfectly as an enchantment on his own. His devotion aspect is just gravy.
3. Thassa: She is powerful, but she is being over hyped. Scry 1 every turn should not be confused with proper card advantage. It's card filtering, which is great, but needs something behind it to make it properly effective.
Remember Scry 2 is equivalent to drawing 1 card, because you can chose one of three cards, either the top two cards of your deck, which you know, or risk the "mystery" third card. Scry 1 just lets you lessen your chance of a dead first draw, but it doesn't garuntee that the second card isn't something worse. It is useful and it is worthy of using a card slot, but it won't win you the game in the same way Purphoros and Erebos will.
Her activated ability is nice, but most blue beaters are already evasive and generally blue wants to save its mana to do other things. It does have nice synergy with Frostburn Wierd et al. but you'll be paying 5 mana to deal 4 damage... it just doesn't seem worth it. Most of the time she'll be a three mana scry machine, which can do other cool things.
Moreover, she also has the hardest time with devotion. She needs to be built around, and that makes her a little worse. Don't get me wrong I think she is very powerful, but thinking that scry 1 is better than repeatable card draw is crazy. Erebos is much stronger.
4. Nylea: The only reason she is above Heliod is because she is easier to activate. The way I think of her is as a 6/6 conditional creature, who can give your big guys trample if they don't have it. There are allot of cards which play well with Nylea, but I don't know how many of them actually care about her.
In terms of abilities she is easily the weakest god overall.
5. Heliod: He is okay... Vigilance is nice, but in terms of abilities its not really what you want. Making clerics is very flavourful, and his ability is balanced, but it requires too much investment to be competitive.
He won't be hard to turn into a 5/6, but you want him to have vigilance. If white gets the cards it needs to make a permission based control deck and they can slow down the format, he might see some play, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen.
He is probably the second best god in limited though, but that's a different topic.
But obviously, the standard metagame is about creatures, and I would say Purphorous is the best for being able to squeeze extra value out of any creature you can throw down as well as synergizing with Red's general strategy, he's also probably the easiest to get Devotion live on thanks to BTE and Reckoner. Purphorous also synergizes well with his Hammer.
Standard:
UR Ral Combo
Modern:
U Merfolk
R Goblins
Commander
RB Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
R Feldon of the Third Path
Granted, he becomes AMAZING when you untap with him, but I think red wants their turn 4 to be full of action.
My favorite, by far, is Thassa. She's one mana cheaper, she helps fix your draws, and she can help you close out a game. I can definitely see her in control.
Erebos' problem to me is that the best spell i could think of to get devotion was liliana of m14 and underworld connections, and they both accomplish the same goal as erebos (CA). it is a good card, though, and could be good in certain matchups since i do think people will now remove your underworld connections a lot.
also, do you realize that every god depending too much on creatures is ridiculously soft to supreme verdict? i mean, you can curve alright in a red deck to get purporos online, opponent plays verdict (or 2 spot removal) and purporos is dead card again. thassa is better because you have some good enchantments to use with her and even if opponent wipes the board you are still scrying 1, which is better in slow games.
Thassa being cheaper in control gives you one more mana to leave up against your opponent later in the game.
You're right, I can't ever tap out on turn 3, lest my opponent resolve a Boros Reckoner or something else that I can kill with my dozens of removal spells.