BORN OF THE GODS SPOILERS!
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Jan. 13, 2014, 12:17 a.m. by cschiller
Alright everybody, BNG spoilers have officially dropped! Here's the new stuff we got:
Ephara, God of the Polis
2WU
Legendary Enchantment Creature - God
Indestructible
As long as your devotion to white and blue is less than seven, Ephara isn't a creature.
At the beginning of each upkeep, if you had a creature enter the battlefield under your control last turn, draw a card.
6/5
Pharagax Giant
4R
Creature - Giant
Tribute 2
When Pharagax Giant enters the battlefield, if tribute wasn't paid, it deals 5 damage to each opponent.
3/3
Pain Seer
1B
Creature - Human Wizard
1B
Inspiration - Whenever it becomes untapped, reveal the top card of your library and put it into your hand. You lose life equal to its converted mana cost.
2/2
Oreskos Sun Guide
1W
Creature - Cat Monk
Inspired - Whenever it becomes untapped, you gain two life.
2/2
Nyxborn Shieldmate
Enchantment Creature - Human Soldier
W
Bestow 2W
1/2
Everflame Eidolon
Enchantment Creature - Spirit
Bestow 2R
R: +1/+0 until end of turn.
1/1
Skyreaping
Sorcery
1G
Deals damage to each creature with flying equal to your devotion to green.
Ashiok's Adept
Creature - Human Wizard
2B
Heroic - Each opponent discards a card.
1/3
Archetype of Imagination
Enchantment Creature - Human Wizard
4UU
Creatures you control have flying.
Creatures your opponents control lose flying and can't gain flying.
3/2
I wanna see the rest of the "Archetypes". Also, being just Uncommons, shouldn't be hard to come by and see play in FNM/tourneys
January 13, 2014 12:30 a.m.
That God seems like it is going to be pretty darn dumb in the mono-blue list. Easy to cast and enable, gives you cards every turn and is hard to remove. Seems pretty snazzy. The Green card on the other hand also kinda stomps on a lot of the cards in that deck. The black creature is pure ridiculous and the rest seem mostly just ok. I really like the art on the 1 drop white enchantment creature though. The flavor text on that one is also pretty stellar.
January 13, 2014 12:34 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #6
Is it just me or is pain seer BETTER than Dark Confidant ?
January 13, 2014 12:39 a.m.
Please tell me I'm not the only one who sees the Akroan Horse -Ephara combo? Play Akroan Horse , get a token during their turn, draw 1 card on their upkeep and 2 during your turn? Seems pretty good to me.
January 13, 2014 12:45 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #10
If I'm reading her right you would have to get a creature into play on your opponent's turn and you can only draw one additional card for that. Seems like the Simic flash deck would love her.
JWiley129 she says "your upkeep" not "each upkeep".
January 13, 2014 12:48 a.m.
The Doctor says... #11
Unless you have something to untap, I don't see how he's better.
January 13, 2014 12:48 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #12
The Doctor well he's not worse, you get the same effect as Dark Confidant and have the potential to draw more.
January 13, 2014 12:50 a.m.
@Ohthenoises: Actually, Ephara does say each upkeep.
January 13, 2014 12:53 a.m.
However, if the opponent has a fatty and you're not built around him he's just a bear.
January 13, 2014 12:53 a.m.
Ohthenoises says... #15
So it does, MTGsalvation has it worded wrong on the list:
"As long as your devotion to white and blue is less than seven, Ephara isn't a creature.At the beginning of your upkeep, if you had another creature enter the battlefield under your control last turn, draw a card."
January 13, 2014 12:54 a.m.
The Doctor there are a butt load of cards in standard right now that let you untap stuff. Hidden Strings , Ral Zarek , Breaching Hippocamp , Burst of Strength , Triton Tactics , Prophet of Kruphix , Ready / Willing this card can be a potential bomb, I'm actually happy to see pseudo Bob. Pain Seer will see play and for the budget Modern/EDH players, he'll be awesome
January 13, 2014 12:55 a.m.
Am I the only one who loves the Golden Nyx-infused border? I really like it.
January 13, 2014 12:59 a.m.
To DukeNicky's point, Pain Seer has sold out on SCG several times and is now at $4.99 for preorders. It started at $1.99 for those wondering.
January 13, 2014 1 a.m.
The Doctor says... #20
While those exist, they aren't really practical. I can see him in B/W Human decks, but not much else. [At least in standard]
January 13, 2014 2:39 a.m.
I think the issue is less about him untapping and more about him tapping. You get the free untap every turn. But in order to get him tapped you must attack with him (unless you're using some sort of combo with the aformentioned Springleaf Drum ). that's why he isn't as good as Dark Confidant and much less likely to be as broken.
All that said, I still feel like his potential alone will make him amazing. Just a single card or two off of him and you've obtained all the value you really need off a bear.
January 13, 2014 2:51 a.m.
beakedbard says... #23
So the minor gods require 7 devotion welp seems like Nightveil Specter and Boros Reckoner will go up in price even further if their respective gods are any good. Seems kinda annoying really its hard enough to keep the gods we have now as creatures seems like it will be almost impossible to make them creatures. The ability for her is also somewhat lackluster in my opinion it would work better if there was still tons of W/U flash stuff but that's gone now as well. The first minor god seems meh to me. Definately no Thassa who was the first shown for Theros.
The Dark Confidant like creature seems like it could be cool but it requires other interaction to maximize its potential. Seems like it could be very fun with Ral Zarek but that isn't really playable atm. Springleaf Drum kinda works but you want something to untap him as well. I can see some U/B decks being build around him with all of blue's untapping but I'm not overly amazed by him.
I can only hope there's some more epic releases in this set I'm still debating if its worth buying a box especially considering how bad the promo is.
January 13, 2014 3:16 a.m.
Karametra killed off Elesh Norn and made a throne out of her head.
January 13, 2014 3:28 a.m.
The Doctor says... #27
If there is a god that requires both blue and black, would Nightveil Specter count towards both?
January 13, 2014 5 a.m.
From what I've been reading, it requires 7 total mana symbols that either count as blue or black. I found a good example I will shorten here:
Erebos searches your permanents for mana symbols that count as black and sees 3 on Nightveil Specter .
Thassa searches your permanents for mana symbols that count as blue and sees 3 on Nightveil Specter .
Phenax searches your permanents for mana symbols that count as either blue or black and sees 3 on Nightveil Specter .
tl;dr -- Hybrid mana symbols still only count towards one total devotion.
January 13, 2014 5:16 a.m.
i second Spootyone's answer. was curious about the same thing so I looked it up -- alas, they're only counted once
January 13, 2014 5:43 a.m.
Idk why people thought hybrid would count twice. That would just be way to OP. But 7 sounds about right since the minor gods already give you 2 devotion to them. That way you only need to get 5 more devotion to turn them on (the major gods required 4 other devotion in case you forgot).
January 13, 2014 5:53 a.m.
ShadowLand says... #31
I love the triggered ability with the card draw, that's just fun.
January 13, 2014 6:52 a.m.
I'm seeing Bob the Bear at about $8. Standard aggro decks with B will use him, and he'll be a budget bob for cheap modern players.
January 13, 2014 6:55 a.m.
Really hope Fleshmad Steed can be useful with some new "Inspired-Enchantment". Why Because winning a game with the Steed would be awesome. Just me though.
January 13, 2014 7:01 a.m.
ShadowLand says... #34
I was actually wondering the same thing Hider1120. I had my eyes on that card for awhile as an oddity and thought its ability might be explained in the next sets. Now it makes complete sense. It would instantly stop all kill spells and attacking if the enchantment effect was good enough.
January 13, 2014 7:09 a.m.
harrydemon117 says... #36
I think Ephara paried with Prophet of Kruphix is going to be a thing
Or perhaps a BUG lists that uses the new "Bob" along with the Prophet :)
I love spoiler season! I look forward to trying to "break" ever new card :)
January 13, 2014 8:10 a.m.
Dalektable says... #37
Super pumped about Bob Jr. there, it almost makes me want to play black...who knows, maybe next standard season. (I can't quite afford to build another deck, one deck a season for me :p)
But here is a question to everyone, most cards at this stage are pure hype value and nothing else, but what do you think about Bob Jr's value? Will he hold around the eight dollar mark? Or will he go down in price? Possibly go up?
January 13, 2014 8:17 a.m.
Pain Seer is awesome, budget bob, fine by me.
ephara is ok, dont really see the white in it, feels for U/G to me, but still, the gold enchantment-creature border looks very nice.
January 13, 2014 8:22 a.m.
do you guys think Corpsejack Menace and "tribute" will be a thing?
January 13, 2014 8:51 a.m.
Am I the only one who really likes Everflame Ediolon? It is an inexpensive bestow cost (2R) to give a creature +1/+1 and fire breathing
January 13, 2014 9:16 a.m.
well it may be the cheapest bestow, but you still need to sink mana into it to get anything worthwhile out of it, i personally prefer Hopeful Eidolon lifelink is worth the one extra mana, and hopeful's color is more relevant to enchantment
January 13, 2014 9:56 a.m.
NobodyPicksBulbasaur says... #42
Two main thoughts:
1) I thought this set was supposed to introduce minor gods. Ephara is by no means minor. She's just as big as the other gods, costs about the same, and isn't really that hard to "turn on". I wanted fun little crappy gods that did goofy things, like the maze runners gave us in DGM.
2) PseudoBob is pretty overhyped at the moment. He'll make a pretty good fit in B/W humans, and maybe another deck will come about that takes advantage of him, but that's about it. He's not splashable like ActualBob is in Legacy because good cards in Standard cost more than 2 mana and he needs to turn sideways to work. I would argue that this guy is less good than Duskmantle Seer , who sees exactly zero play.
The difference between Pseudo and Actual Bob is the format. Bob is good in Legacy and Modern because most of the cards you expect to see only cost 1 or 2 mana. Not to mention that you don't need to combo out to use him.
January 13, 2014 10:54 a.m.
... Anyone else think "Pain Seer" + Witches' Eye could be interesting?
Not sure it would be Constructed playable, but it gets him tapped without attacking, and let's you scry the top card so you can mitigate the damage, and/or get what you want faster.
Perhaps if there are more effects that trigger from scry, like Flamespeaker Adept it could be okay.
In general, "Pain Seer" will be bolstered by scry.
January 13, 2014 11:34 a.m.
Wait a minute, Spootyone and cr14mson. I'm not getting how Boros Reckoner or Nightveil Specter only would count once. Each adds three to each respective devotion and the new god cares about your total devotion between the two colors unless I'm gravely mistaken somewhere. To further back that up there is this line from the Born of the Gods Spoiler/Q/A page under Ephara's entry:
"Hybrid mana symbols such as W/U Mana count toward both their colors but aren't counted twice."
The only thing this thing seems to be saying in the negative is that each devotion check won't ring in the symbols for the other color even though the symbols are hybrid. Anyway, yeah, I did just wake up so there is a chance I'm incorrect here but I'm just not seeing the counter-argument in any of the things I've read so far or in Ephara's text. Thoughts?
January 13, 2014 1:55 p.m.
Your quote is actually the answer you seek. The hybrid symbol can count towards black devotion, and can count towards blue devotion, but it's less about what the card is "giving out" and more about what the god's are "bringing in".
They aren't so much looking for the total amount of X devotion sources + the total amount of Y devotion sources. Rather, they're looking for the total amount of devotion sources that count as X and/or Y.
January 13, 2014 2:24 p.m.
Ephara needs 7 mana symbols of any combiantion of U and W to be a creature. So if I have Ephara, two Silent Artisan s and an Omenspeaker , I have 5 white devotion and 2 blue devotion, making her a creature.
However, a Judge's Familiar is not worth 2 devotion to Ephara. It counts as one devotion to white, one devotion to blue, and one devotion to blue and white. In another example, if I have Ephara, one Silent Artisan, one Omenspeaker, and a Judge's Familiar, Ephara will not be a creature, because despite having 3 devotion to blue and 4 devotion to white, I only have 6 devotion to white and blue.
I think that is what they meant by isn't counted twice.
January 13, 2014 2:25 p.m.
Alright, I can see what you guys are saying, and it does make some sense, but, it just seems to be contrary to the way Devotion would logically be calculated. Every time I try and logically run though this (and the problem isn't adding up the devotion, I get that part) I end up running into the problem where every other card so far will recognize the separate devotion totals because they are an intrinsic part of the card's identity.
Boros Reckoner always adds 3 to each devotion. The R/W version of this god would require (presumably) devotion to Red and White equal to 7. I just don't see how it isn't an additive check. I mean, the second half of the sentence is up for some debate but the first half "Hybrid mana symbols such as W/U Mana count toward both their colors" seems to pretty much be cut and dry.
Anyway, I don't know, I'm medicated and under the weather so I'm just going to chalk this one up to me being wrong until we get more information on the matter.
January 13, 2014 2:55 p.m.
Dritz: Lol feel better soon. I think one of the reasons for the first helf of the sentence to be worded that way is so that if you were to have Nightveil Specter on the board with both Thassa and Erebos, you don't have to choose between the symbols going towards one or the other. They go towards both. And similarly, if you had Phenax on the board, too, the symbols could also go towards him as well.
...I may have just made things more complicated-sounding again...
January 13, 2014 3:01 p.m.
Thanks, definitely appreciate the sympathy. :)
January 13, 2014 3:22 p.m.
Schuesseled says... #50
U/W god kicks some serious ass if you can spawn a creature on every turn, (including your opponents)
The Doctor says... #2
Pretty Lackluster so far except for the psuedo-Dark Confidant .
January 13, 2014 12:24 a.m.