Theros Ability: ̶O̶f̶f̶e̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ - Worship
Custom Cards forum
Posted on Sept. 5, 2021, 9:13 p.m. by TypicalTimmy
Just thought of this.
Priestess of Karametra
Creature - Dryad Cleric
Worship - At the beginning of your upkeep you may pay . If you do, your devotion to your choice of green or white increases by X until end of turn.
Worshipping the God of Harvests comes with its own rewards, when your lineage is more Plant-than-Human. To the Dryad, Karametra does not just represent the seasons, the fertility of the land and the blessing of crops. She represents birth, life, death and history.
2/3
Devotion is a huge mechanic in Theros, but it requires a constant and large boardstate to maintain. I figure there could be 10 Priests, each tying into each of the 10 "Guild Gods". We got the Demigods for the five mainstay colors, so I think giving the ten other Gods something would be nice, too. All of them would have their names be "Priest / Priestess of -----", and Offering would be identical with the only change being toward the activation cost, which would represent their colors. For example,
Priest of Mogis
Creature - Minotaur Cleric
Worship - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay . If you do, your devotion to your choice of black or red increases by X until end of turn.
Many often wonder why the Minotaur choose to worship the God of Slaughter. There are theories, stories, lore... but all lend credence toward the ideas of rumors. The truth is much more simple; It is merely in their blood to worship one of their own.
3/2
I'd have all of them be 4MV with either a 2/3 or a 3/2 body, depending on what makes the most sense for their particular God. Each would have a base race representing their God the best.
They would also all feature a flavor text tied to their God.
All of them would occupy the Rare slot, which at first glance seems like a terrible choice. However, bare in mind how important Devotion is to Theros. Having a card permanently boost your Devotion by X for an entire turn is a very big deal, and should be more powerful than an uncommon. Though, a card like Fatal Push was an uncommon, so I can see them being downgraded if need be, for design purposes. Otherwise, getting the ten crap-rares out of the way in this method would be actually very nice and useful.
For reference, Devotion sees itself in 61 total cards across both Theros sets, with 25 being in Theros: Beyond Death. So it is a big deal. Perhaps save them for Commander Precons, if we ever return and get some for that Plane. With five Shard / Wedge Precons, we could have all ten printed easily, with 3x for each Precon. For example, Jund would see Klothys, Mogis and Pharika.
Now yes, Offering is a ability, but it is also technically only "part of" the ability. In this regards, it is no different from "Partners" and "Partners With". Otherwise, other potential ability names could be:
- Worship
- Praise
- Devotion To (God's Name), such as Devotion to Phenax
- Athreos - Zombie Cleric 3/2
- Ephara - Human Cleric 2/3
- Iroas - Human Cleric 3/2
- Karametra - Dryad Cleric 2/3
- Keranos - Human Cleric 3/2
- Klothys - Satyr Cleric 2/3
- Kruphix - Human Cleric 2/3
- Mogis - Minotaur Cleric 3/2
- Pharika - Gorgon Cleric 3/2
- Phenax - Human Cleric 2/3
There are 5x 2/3 bodies and 5x 3/2 bodies. Interestingly, most of the Humans are 2/3 and most of the beastial are 3/2. This lends itself to the idea that Humans are resolute and defiant, while the beasts tend to be brutish and vicious. Though, of course, there are a few exceptions for Iroas, Klothys and Keranos.
In fact, there are three Humans at 2/3 and two Humans at 3/2. Likewise, there are three non-Humans at 3/2 and two non-Humans at 2/3.
There are also 5x Humans and 5x non-Humans.
While it is true that Satyr would more rather live in the moment in their hedonistic lifestyle rather than focus on the vast expanse of the future, what is equally true is that the majority of them would have worshipped Xenagos, God of Revels first. When Klothys, God of Destiny arose back into power, they would likely see this initial flux of power and breaking of the status quo as something to celebrate and would only, in time, lose faith in her. But for the immediate time-being, I think they would revel in the delight of the pantheon being in an uproar.
Priestess of Klothys
Creature - Satyr Cleric
Worship - At the beginning of your upkeep, you may pay . If you do, your devotion to your choice of red or green increases by X until end of turn.
The Satyr are known for their rebellious and hedonistic nature. Worshipping a God of Destiny might make little sense on the surface, but the chance to revel in her tumultuous uproar of the pantheon is something that can not be ignored.
2/3
TypicalTimmy says... #3
shadow63, Scavenge is one that does. As does Mutate from Ikoria.
For Theros, specifically, there's Bestow.
September 5, 2021 9:31 p.m. Edited.
TypicalTimmy says... #4
Maybe the formatting needs to be more akin to something like;
Worship (: Your devotion to your choice of black or green increases by X until end of turn. Activate this ability only during your upkeep.)
The benefit of this style is that the reminder text can be sloughed off for full-art cards, cold-foils or other alternate arts. Though, again if these were in a Precon set, that wouldn't be a thing. So really it comes down to more of where they are printed, more than how they are printed.
September 5, 2021 9:35 p.m. Edited.
This is deceptively powerful. This mechanic with any type of untapper would essentially double the mana you have access to with either Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or Nyx Lotus. Helix Pinnacle, Gary, any win condition that can be expedited via Devotion becomes considerably more powerful, and these are much more efficient. All of a sudden, the traditional way to build Devotion is almost not worth it. I don't think it works only because it defies the original idea of devotion as a mechanic, but it is not busted or over powered. I think it is balanced fine. Would be fun to build with though. For sure
September 6, 2021 11:13 a.m.
tiffanyann says... #6
Don't know if it would work as a mechanic. They would probably print more rocks like Altar of the Pantheon but maybe stackable? (Devotion increased by the number of Charge counters on artifact, pay:add charge)
September 6, 2021 1:39 p.m.
Makes a lot of sense to me, though I think WotC tries to stay away from abilities that you would have to just "remember", so I kind of like tiffanyann's solution of having charge counters - it should be easy to count devotion without having to recall how much mana you spent I guess.
September 6, 2021 1:41 p.m.
I love the flavor
As stated it could be abused with nyx cards, but upkeep activation and paying x+2 definitely stops this from being overpowered
September 7, 2021 7:35 a.m.
Since none of the creatures do anything other than boost devotion, (i.e. you have 10 basically identical creatures from a flavour point of view), I feel like you could just have one creature that can manage all of this:
Priest of the Deities (some cost goes here)
creature - something something
At the beginning of your upkeep you may pay (X)(X) and choose a colour. If you do, increase your devotion to the chosen colour by X until end of turn.
Stat/Stat
I also agree with shadow63, this doesn't need a keyword. I get that especially in AFR they gave every ability a name however it's a tad much. And here "worship" is just on a cycle of creatures. If you designed it as a more adaptable mechainc that could be applied across a set, maybe. But it just seems like a forced keyword.
shadow63 says... #2
I'm not 100% sure this needs to be keyworded. Plus do any keywords have a cost attached to them?
September 5, 2021 9:26 p.m.