DRAW CARDS AT WILL. When I look at this, I see
the reincarnation of Necropotence. Sure, the
mana cost means you can't just spam it and keep
your hand full of gas-- or at least if you do,
you won't have the mana to cast all those cards
you just drew-- but it's still basically "refill
your hand whenever you want". The life loss will
add up too, of course, but you can always use
Black's suite of lifelinkers and drain effects
to squeeze your life total out of your
opponents... who can't gain it back. The
"opponents can't gain life" part of this is the
least important part, to be honest, but you
might be glad it's there.
The potential to be a 5/6 for four mana can't be
denied either. Most games that I've seen a God
card in, it acts sort of like a giant haste
beast out of nowhere. Player A casts it, player
B reads it, then counts Player A's devotion,
sees that it's not a creature yet, and doesn't
bother to add it into combat math. A turn or two
later, Player A drops another permanent and
swings with a beefy God card that manages to
take the opponent by surprise despite having
already been in play since at least last turn.
There are a lot of things to like about
Erebos, not least the fact that whoever
concepted him actually read the source material
and didn't feel the need to add an arbitrary "lol
evil" descriptor like with Dungeons and Dragons'
Gray Waste of Hades or Gehenna. (Thank goodness
for house rules.) His activated ability finally
reintroduces Greed to the limelight, one of the
first cards that was ever identified as
game-changing. Laugh if you want, compare it to
Phyrexian Arena if you want, but the fact is
that almost every deck needs extra cards and
doesn't need every point of its life total, and
the ability to make such a trade exactly when
and where you want is powerful and reassuring. A
more subtle point that you may not have noticed
about Erebos is that he prevents your opponent
from recovering from any life payments they
make. Granted, if they also have Erebos, you're
in the same situation, but you can think of
plenty of ways to put them under enough pressure
that you still come out ahead - right?
Today's card of the day is Erebos, God of the
Dead which is a Legendary four mana Black
enchantment that is Indestructible, prevents
opponents from gaining life, allows you to pay
two mana and two life to draw a card, and with
Devotion of five or greater is also a 5/6
creature.
Devotion is fairly easy to achieve in a
mono-Black design as many of the best creatures
and enchantments have two or more Black mana
symbols. As a four mana 5/7 Indestructible this
is a top of the line threat for Black aside from
the lack of combat effects, though that is
mitigated by the prevention of life gain for
opponents. The draw a card effect is useful in
some situations and is a strong follow up to a
life drain effect such as Grey Merchant. Overall
this is an excellent card for Black and
alongside a Devotion theme is a viable
competitive deck in many formats.
In Limited this is clearly a bomb and obvious
first pick in Booster with basically no
drawbacks if a mono-Black deck can be assembled.
The 5/7 Indestructible body is a great blocker
or can apply pressure with minimal risk of
removal. The draw card effect is useful when
supported by life gain and preventing an
opponent from gaining life is particularly
beneficial in Limited. In Sealed running
mono-Black is more difficult, but focusing on
Black Devotion is still possible and even
without Devotion this has value for the other
effects.
Erebos, God of the Dead is an enchantment
creature that is hard to judge on its own. If
you hate it when your opponents gain life then
Erebos will definitely slow that down. Do you
have a stack of Alms Beasts lying around at
home? Maybe Erebos, God of the Dead would like
to play with them. Now let us look at this
greedy God’s ability to draw cards. (1)B & 2
life for one card is not bad, especially if you
are the only player that can gain life. If you
are a Standard player, then you might be a
little worried that Erebos, God of the Dead was
given 7 toughness. This leads me to believe that
a big -X-X kill spell is on the way in the next
few sets. Erebos, God of the Dead does not help
your creatures like the other Gods, but Erebos
can help your overall game. Of the 5 Gods,
Erebos, God of the Dead seems to be the least
“deadly”, but that can always change.
