MTG Salvation

3R
Indestructible
"Devotion clause"
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control, ~ deals 2 damage to each opponent.
2R: Each creature you control gains +1/+0 until end of turn.
6/5

I'd worship him.

This is awesome. Two highly relevant abilities and 6 power is sweet. I will certainly be testing this one.

Not to mention Elspeth, Sun's Champion.

I also like the fact that he can randomly "animate" out of nowhere in red with cards like Blistering Firecat and Ball Lightning available.

Seems better than the white and green gods, but I don't know how much I like it. The 4cc slot, as always, is super stacked.

Perhaps the only negative is that he doesn't really do anything on an empty board but as I said I'm willing to overlook that to try him out. That gives some crazy reach.

3 mana is a lot for a battle cry trigger. 4 mana is a big investment for an effect that requires you to play additional cards before you get any value from it. And red doesn't have a ton of double-mana cards to help with the devotion. I don't think this card is that stellar.

Quote from Goodking

Perhaps the only negative is that he doesn't really do anything on an empty board but as I said I'm willing to overlook that to try him out. That gives some crazy reach.

Gods do need worshippers to be effective.

Quote from BubbaKanoosh

Gods do need worshippers to be effective.

Apart from Heliod, who makes tokens on an empty board. I'm not complaining, mind you.

Think this is the best god by a decent margin.
The 2R: +1/0 is basically just flavor text.

edit: LOLL thought it was target creature, not each creature. This card is bannanas.

But,
a) most likely to animate out of all the gods (green being a close exception)
b) the 2 damage to player each PER creature provides very insane reach.
c) Synergizes with optimal deck design. Token makers and his hammer work insanely well with him.

If recurrable life gain were more prevalent in cube, he wouldn't be nearly as good, but I think the reach he provides is almost unmatched.

One issue I have with most cards that require other cards to be good, is when you draw the wrong half of the deck, or your opponent is distrupting your game plan, the card is dead. With this one, the wrong half of your deck is like burn spells.. And your opponent can barely disrupt the synergy, short of countering your creatures.

I even speculate this is good enough to be splashable in token decks? But...Maybe not..

I think hes good enough to warrant testing over some tried and true red 4 drops, but he MIGHT not crack the elite status.

Quote from LucidVision »

a) most likely to animate out of all the gods (green being a close exception)

I don't think this is accurate.

Quote from wtwlf123

I don't think this is accurate.

thought about my statement some more and I'll take it back =P
It might actually be second to last lol.

Want to rephrase it to:

Likely enough to animate that It's body is relevant and valuable.. Unlike say the blue god.
This we might disagree with, but I should make more accurate statements!

I think it's powerful enough effect to be slightly drafted around too.

The blue god isn't that hard to activate, actually. A good amount of blue permanents have UU in the cost, making it trigger more often with less permanents.

Fair enough, might be underestimating how often she activates.
But I highly doubt its as much as the red god. Simply because mono U decks rarely exist, whereas mono R decks are everywhere.
Partially a function of U being the best color and hardest to get 23 playables in just that color.

I proxied her in my cube last night.
I played an insane G/U opposition deck yesterday that I built to take advantage of her.

(lots of blue permanants, a deck that goes into attrition wars well as well as edric to take advantage of 1U: unblockable).

Could just be a biased sample size, but she only animated one turn out of 7 games, many of which she was cast in.
That being said, the scry 1 every turn, was f**** amazing.

Cast her on turn 2 in about 3-4 different games and a few of them went 10-15 turns long. Lost none of those games.

Quote from LucidVision

Fair enough, might be underestimating how often she activates.

I think the issue is overestimating how often any of them will activate. I mean, having RRRR worth of mana symbols in play is the exception, not the norm.

The value has to come from the static abilities. And I think a bad anthem that I have to pay 2R to get is rough, and the creature damage is okay, but certainly not worth 4 mana.

I think his hammer will bring more damage on average than the god will (from the other creatures having haste instead of dealing 2 damage and creating 3-power hasted threats instead of paying 3 mana for a battle cry trigger). Plus, it's less mana, and doesn't compete at the 4-drop slot during deck construction.

I would rate thassa as the greatest god simply because her noncreature self is the best value.
The red god seems like it would be insane for 3, but for 4 he is at the top end of a curve, where he wants to be at the very beginning.
Heliod is vastly underrated, though I don't know if he will be good enough for cube..
Green one just seemed uninteresting and overcosted on the pump ability.

Purphoros is powerful but competes with some of the best cards in an unpowered cube. Pretty sweet with black's recurring creatures and many of the cards already mentioned.

Thrassa has the best value no doubt, plus she's the cheapest all around and in one of the best colors to be in. Here is to hoping that black gets something sweet!

We've still have 11 gods (including the black god in Theros) to see in the block and 2 more planeswalkers for Theros the set. Plenty of room for potential!

I have high hope for multicolor gods. If they required devotion amongst two color, there's a chance they'll be easy to trigger enough in 2 color deck, which is rather normal for limited.

Sweet with Deranged Hermit and Siege-Gang.

Quote from simpygdog

The red god seems like it would be insane for 3, but for 4 he is at the top end of a curve, where he wants to be at the very beginning.

I agree with this 100%. If he were 3 mana rather than 4 I'd be on board, but at 4 he isn't providing the game close-out that other 4's provide, just the potential for a game close-out.

I have a gut feeling that they tried all the gods at 3 and found all be the blue one were too cheap. Blue will be easier to trigger but only because it like 4 and 5 cmc permanents.

I wanna live the dream and drop
Sulfuric Vortex
Purphoros
Siege-Gang Commander

Quote from bondafong

I wanna live the dream and drop
Sulfuric Vortex
Purphoros
Siege-Gang Commander

C'mon man, why dream small?

Goblin Guide
Ash Zealot
Sulfuric Vortex
Purphoros
Siege-Gang Commander

He seems pretty mediocre as a curve topper. In the the above, example, I feel like if Purphoros were Hellrider or Hero of Oxid Ridge you wouldn't even need the Siege-Gang Commander to win that game.