Hey guys! A couple of days ago the Gods Unchained devs gave us a document with all of the cards that will be in the new expansion, Trial of the Gods. Here's a link to the document: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qJBtnGvIP7pxWMP12aIe-Bs43-XRMwGaGXhz22iVvLg/edit#gid=0
DISCLAIMER:
All of this data is subject to change before and after the release of Trial of the Gods.
Many card names are placeholders. Many cards do not have tribes assigned, but will prior to release.
Rarity of cards are not final. Some of these cards may be deleted. We may add cards prior to release."
There is a lot to cover so I will split this into parts where we will be looking at only one set of cards, for one God, or more specifically this time we will start with Neutral cards.
Aphrodite Warpriest
A 5 mana 4/4 creature with the Roar: if you have no spells in your void, gain +3/+3.
Potentially a 7/7 for 5 mana is pretty strong. We won't see this fella used a lot in Magic but easy use case in Forage Nature decks where most of the time your void will be empty for an easy Roar requirement fulfillment. Aggressive War decks tend to have only a few spells on the list so this might be something you would take out those spells for, to get more consistency. Definitely a strong card, it might get slightly nerfed later.
Aquaduct Architect
A 3 mana 1/2 creature with the Roar: Delve a structure, add it to your hand, and give it +1/+1
Structures are pretty weak right now and giving them +1/+1 doesn't make a big of a difference. For cards like Sentry Fort, Ballista, and Catapult it can help to give them a bit of staying power on the board so that they can generate more value by using their Ability once or twice more. On the other hand, you are playing a 3 mana 1/2 before that so you kinda sacrifice more board control than you might get back from it.
Arete, Teacher of Cyrene
A 7 mana 6/6 legendary creature, with Ward and Roar: Draw a card. Give each other friendly creature +1/+1 and remove sleep from them.
A 6/6 ain't that big for a 7-drop but having Ward and Drawing a card kinda compensates for it. The problem is that it doesn't leave a big enough impact on the board the turn it was played. I know, yes it does counter that evil lambo demon, Demogorgon and in that scenario is pretty great, even awesome I would say. Other than that it is basically a strong tech card that is going to see play but it won't be a permanent part of many decklists.
Council of the Gods
A 2 mana spell that reads: Delve a common god power from your god. It replaces your god power. You cannot use it this turn. Gain 5 favor.
At first glance, it doesn't appear that useful but it might just be something that enables cards like Death, Unborn and Magic, Unburduned to end up on some lists that don't necessarily want to use those God Powers and want to revert back to the ones that fit them better. Not the best card but it has some niche usability.
Desert Mercenary
A 3 mana 3/2 Guild creature with the Roar: Reduce the cost of each Guild creature in your hand, that costs 4 or less, by 2.
A 3-drop with 2 mana worth of body but with an incredible tempo potential. This isn't the only Guild support card we get so I can say that this one will be a part of the new archetype that will be available for Deception and War. There is quite a number of Guild creatures already that fit in the 4 and lower mana cost and reducing the cost on at least one of them makes this card worth it. In some circumstances, this card will enable you to unload your whole hand in a turn and it might be a bit too powerful in the end. A possible nerf for this one is up ahead.
Divine Messenger
a 7 mana 7/7 Aether creature with Roar: If you have 80 favor or more, each creature in your deck gets +5/+5, then lose your favor.
Umm... Wow! Okay, this card is nuts, hard to say if it's actually viable but if you can pull it off the effect is crazy! Accumulating 80 favor is definitely hard, in most games with Midrange I had acquired around 60 but rarely I didn't spend any because sometimes you just have to take a card to deny your opponent to screw you over with it. We can expect that this will be a card that people will experiment a lot with. This card existing is a slight buff to control decks that use Aether core with the Planetar Centurion which can Delve this one and create a massive value advantage over the course of the game.
Dragonkin Caller
A 4 mana 3/3 Mystic creature with Roar: Pull a random Dragon from your deck into your hand.
Dragon tutor card is a nice start for some dragon action but it doesn't bring that much to that tribe's archetype. The one thing it fits perfectly is that Clone combo deck in Magic that uses Leyhoard Hatchlings. This could be a beginning for real Combo archetypes. Hope to see similar cards in the future.
Empowered Minotaur
A 6 mana 5/6 with Protected and Roar: Give ward to your god. Remove sleep from each friendly creature.
For the start, a 5 mana worth of stats with Protected is amazing on a 6-drop. Giving ward to your god gives it even more use cases, versus burn spells, Cutthroat, etc. On top of that, it removes sleep from ALL of your creatures, this can be seen only as a bonus but not the reason you use this card although it is another sweet counter to Demogorgon. Probably getting a bit nerfed.
Enter the Arena
A 3 mana spell that read: Pull into your hand from your deck, a creature of your choice that belongs to your god, then shuffle your deck.
Definitely an interesting one. It will be a great asset to control and combo decks that need to find their win-condition as fast as possible or just need a creature to save them in the pinch. That's pretty much it though.
Foreign Diplomat
A 2 mana 2/2 creature with Roar: You gain 3 favor. Your opponent gains 1 favor.
Just a meh card. Doesn't see to do much and the body is awful. Maybe for some crazy Divine Messenger favor pump, you need to reach 80 after all haha.
Fortified Acropolis
A 6 mana 0/6 Structure with Backline, Ward, and Ability: Deal X+2 damage, where X is the number of structures you control.
Pretty bad, much like Catapult. It can be good if you are already winning so your opponent doesn't have time to deal with it, but in those cases, you can certainly find even better cards to use. Won't see much play if at all.
Frumentarii Researcher
A 3 mana 2/4 Mystic creature that reads: After you summon a Mystic, deal 2 damage to a random enemy character.
Magic already has a lot of cheap Mystic creatures that can serve well in a tempo/aggro kind of setup. This fits perfectly that kind of playstyle and after all Magic Champion Pallas is also a Mystic with aggressive capabilities so this is going to be used in that archetype for sure.
Frumentarri Instigator
A 4 mana 3/3 Guild creature with Roar: Draw a card for each other Guild creature on the board.
As mentioned earlier Guild is getting much-needed support and this card is definitely a good support for that tribe. If this card can consistently draw a single card it would be good but if you can do more it becomes amazing. With the other Guild creature that discounts your Guild creatures in hand, this will be a nice fill up after you unload your hand. Might get nerfed slightly but we need to test this before jumping to conclusions.
Giant Artificer
A 6 mana 6/6 creature with Roar: If you have 10 or more favor, lose all your favor and this creature gains +3/+3.
Potentially a 9/9 6-drop is pretty insane and the requirement doesn't seem too hard to fulfill. Trading 10 favor for +3/+3 is a pretty good deal but it won't be like that in most cases. Since you lose all of your favor this might cost you 15, 18 or 25 or even more. Of course, you can spend some before playing this card but then it comes in question should you. Because now you might reveal a new card that will help your opponent. Another thing is that you will now have 0 favor and your opponent will have no risk in taking cards from the Sanctum as you won't be able to take the new ones that pop up for a couple of turns. This card might appear stronger than it is but it certainly won't be garbage.
Hydna, Pontus' Favored
A 5 mana 4/6 legendary creature that reads: At the end of your turn, if you have more favor than your opponent, deal 3 damage to the enemy creature with the least health.
Now, this is a nice one! A nice body for a 5-drop, nothing special but if the condition is met, it will start removing creatures basically for free. This will "prevent" you from taking cards from the Sanctum but that isn't a problem since you are getting constant value. Since the target of the damage isn't random it makes it even better in taking control of the board a getting value out of it. Might get nerfed also.
Injured Hetairoi
A 4 mana 4/6 that reads: After this creature is healed, gain 2 favor. Roar: Deal 2 damage to this creature.
It is a Neutral card but it looks like a Light card. On the face of it, a 4/4 that can be healed right after it is played. A good way of generating favor for the Heal god power users. Fits nice with Golden Harpe and High Thaumaturge draw combo. It will be a good addition in some of the Light lists.
Macedonian Strategos
A 5 mana 2/6 creature with Frontline and Ability: Gain 7 favor.
Since it can't attack it is a bit bad and also it has Frontline so being able to use the ability more than once it a bit of a stretch. I don't think this has a place currently. This card should get some buffs to be able to compete for a deck slot.
Manticore Hulk
a 4 mana 4/5 Nether creature.
I don't like this. We already have the same card with a different tribe, Wetlands Ogre. Why is this a thing? I would expect something more imaginative, even with a creature that doesn't have effects. It could've been a 5/4, or 3/6, 6/3 or any vanilla stats for a 4-drop. I wasn't expecting to get disappointed with such a basic card.
Metaphysical Chariot
A 3 mana 2/3 that reads: After you or your opponent summon a creature, gain 2 favor. Afterlife: If you have 40 or more favor, summon a Metaphysical Chariot.
This is broken! I mean, if you reach 40 favor and can consistently stay above it. Eventually, this will give you enough value to win any matchup. If your opponent doesn't have any removal with transform effects like Light's Levy or can steal it with something like Umber Arrow, you will get some much advantage, value, and favor-wise. Maybe I'm wrong and this is really bad but I don't think so.
Militant Politician
A 1 mana 3/1 creature with Roar: Steal 2 favor from your opponent.
Just meh... Can't see why would you use that. Divine Messanger all-in?
Outcast of Pan
A 1 mana 1/3 creature with Roar: Give ward to your god, and gain 1 favor.
Nice tech versus cards like Cutthroat and burn damage, more so like Empowered Minotaur we've seen earlier but fit a more aggressive curve. Not super good but it's cool to have it as an option, sort of a tech choice.
Parthene Guardian
A 2 mana 1/1 Olympian creature with Frontline and Roar: Summon a Parthene Guardian. Afterlife: Give all friendly Olympians protected.
Another card that might be broken. Since this is obviously and Olympian archetype deck choice it's as good as if it says, Afterlife: give all friendly creatures Protected and this is nuts. Even in the scenario where you don't have other creatures on the board and you play this for some reason. You get 2 1/1s with frontline and if they don't get removed at the same time the other one will get protected. This alone is worth 2 mana if not really close to it. Imagine this giving protected to Hector or Hercules or any bigger creature, just too much. Will get nerfed for sure.
Philosophic Warrior
A 3 mana 2/4 creature that reads: After this creature attacks, gain 2 favor.
Meh, boring card. Pretty weak, yes you might bet a bit of extra favor but how much is it worth it? 2, 4, more?
Student of Blades
A 3 mana 3/3 creature that reads: After a friendly creature attacks, gain 1 favor.
Similar to the last card but not as boring. You can set up a board where you have enough creature to be satisfied with extra favor you can get. 3/3 also isn't as bad as 2/4 on a 3-drop. Still doesn't look like it will get much play but with a mass of similar cards like this, it might just be... Divine Messanger all-in.
Student of Society
A 1 mana 1/2 creature that reads: After you summon a creature, gain 1 favor.
Really weak, maybe as a 2/2 or a 1/3 it would be nice. This way you can probably easily get around 3 favor but you sacrifice having a normal card that might get you just that while doing something also.
Student of Truth
A 2 mana 2/2 creature that reads: After you draw a card, gain 1 favor.
We already saw this one when the GU team was teasing us with the favor mechanic. Now that we know how favor works I can pretty surely say that this is... meh. It is dumb to expect to draw more than 3 cards while this is alive consistently so like with the last student. You might rather include something like Skeleton Heavy that will accumulate the same amount of favor while also help you control the board.
Students really need some kind of slight adjustments to meet the desired power lever
Vow of Champions
A 2 mana spell that reads: Choose one -- Draw a card / Gain 7 favor / Deal 2 damage, or / Heal your god for 4.
I can't say this one lacks versatility but is it going to be any good? For slower decks it definitely will, it can be used for cycling for finding win-conditions, removal against aggro, sustain in the pinch, and even pumping favor in needed situations. A card that is going to be much more powerful in skillful hands, hard to say if it is going to be too strong or not.
That's it for today's review of new cards. We can see that Guild is getting some nice support in this set as well as Mystic. Lambo demon holders might not like how we are getting many tech choices against it, but it is a healthy approach for the game. I can't wait to see how Divine Messanger deck will work and if it will be consistent enough to make into the make because that would be crazy to watch/play.
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Thank you for reading!
,z3ll