Devotion in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Last updated on December 26, 2024

Thassa, God of the Sea | Illustration by Jason Chan

Devotion is a fun, flavorful mechanic that rewards your, well, devotion to a color. It’s been in MTG for quite a bit now, but it’s a popular and successful mechanic at the kitchen and tournament tables alike.

What’s notable about this success is that it comes in many different forms. There are tons of viable devotion decks across past Standard formats, Commander, Pioneer, and more. We have a good amount of ground to cover about the mechanic and its history/current usage, so let’s get started!

How Does Devotion Work?

Abhorrent Overlord | Illustration by Slawomir Maniak

To put it simply, devotion counts the number of mana symbols of a color that you have in play, giving you a bonus effect based on how many symbols of that color you have.

Let’s take a look at an example. You control Sanctuary Cat and play Evangel of Heliod. This’ll create three 1/1 white Soldier tokens because your devotion to white is three: from cat plus from Evangel, which sees its own trigger.

Having more white permanents would create more 1/1s, while losing Evangel or the Cat in response to the trigger would result in less. Devotion is a fairly straightforward mechanic. The more permanents you control with the associated color pips in their mana cost the stronger your payoff will be.

History of Devotion

Devotion's first appearance was in Theros as a sort of do-over of the chroma mechanic in Eventide, repurposing the mechanic with more flavor and simplifying it a bit. Compared to devotion, chroma cared about colored symbols on cards but wasn’t tied to permanents in play and counted symbols in your graveyard, in exile, etc., whereas devotion only counts the permanents you control on the battlefield.

Theros introduced five mono-colored gods and a variety of payoffs for stacking up devotion to each color spread out among all the colors and rarities. Devotion is also featured in Theros’ two companion sets, Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx, where we started to see devotion to multiple colors at the same time.

Devotion's most recent appearance as a mainline set mechanic was with Theros Beyond Death in January 2020, where it played out in the exact same manner without pulling the ability in any new directions. While flavorfully linked to the plane of Theros, devotion has also appeared on one-off cards from various sets, like Grim Servant, March of the Canonized, and Underworld Hermit.

Which Colors Have the Most Devotion?

Devotion appears on black cards more frequently than other colors, though it's a well spread-out mechanic that has appeared in each color. It offers a solid incentive to build five very different mono-color decks.

Do Cards with Devotion Count Themselves?

Permanents with devotion do count themselves. If they’re removed from the battlefield when the trigger resolves though, their symbols are gone and won’t be counted. Non-permanent spells with devotion, like Aspect of Hydra, do not count themselves because they're not permanents on the battlefield.

Do Copies of Cards Add to Your Devotion?

Yes, copies add to your devotion as long as the card specifies that the copies have the mana cost as the original. This wouldn’t be the case with a mechanic like eternalize (see Honored Hydra for an example), which specifies that the token has no mana cost. No mana cost equals no devotion!

Do Tokens Count Toward Devotion?

Tokens don’t count towards devotion unless the token is an exact copy of something with mana pips. It’s all about whether or not the permanent has a mana cost, which can vary depending on how the token that was created. Pack Rat tokens are exact copies with the same mana cost, so those will affect devotion, but the Rat tokens created by Marrow-Gnawer have no mana cost, and therefore have no effect on devotion.

Do Mutated Cards Count Towards Devotion?

A mutated card has a devotion equal to whatever the top card’s mana cost is. If you have Dreamtail Heron mutated under Regal Caracal, it’ll provide two devotion to white and none to blue. Mutated cards underneath the top card provide text to it but no devotion.

How Does Devotion Work for Gods?

The Theros-aligned gods become a creature if your devotion is five or more (or seven+ for multicolor gods). If at any point your devotion falters, it’s no longer a creature and will just be an enchantment. Removing your opponent’s Healer's Flock during combat could prevent their Heliod, Sun-Crowned from connecting with you since it would stop being a creature before dealing any damage.

Each of these gods has a passive ability that controls when it's a creature and rewards your devotion by making your god an indestructible creature.

Do Gods Enter the Battlefield as Creatures?

Yes and no! It depends on how much devotion you have as they enter the battlefield. If you control a single Lunarch Veteran, your Heliod, God of the Sun will enter the battlefield as an enchantment. But if you were to control four Lunarch Veterans, Heliod would instead enter the battlefield as a creature (and subsequently trigger each Veteran's first ability).

Do Lands Count Towards Devotion?

No, lands don’t count towards devotion. Lands are colorless unless stated otherwise. A Plains, for instance, has no mana value and no color identity. Even making your Plains white with a card effect still wouldn’t provide devotion, as the land still has no mana value.

How Does Hybrid Mana Work with Devotion?

Hybrid mana works great with devotion! As an example, Nightveil Specter would give you three devotion to blue and three devotion to black, though for the purposes of Phenax, God of Deception, this would only count for three total devotion. Specter and Boros Reckoner show up quite a lot in devotion strategies.

As another example, Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second counts as three devotion to green, one devotion to white, and one devotion to red.

Do Transformed Cards Count for Devotion?

A double-faced card only adds to your devotion if the side that's currently face up on the battlefield has a mana cost. For example, Valentin, Dean of the Vein adds +1 black devotion, and the opposite side of this MDFC, Lisette, Dean of the Root adds +2 green devotion, but only the face up side adds devotion at any given time.

Something like Search for Azcanta adds +1 to your blue devotion, but Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin has no mana cost, so it'll add no devotion once transformed. It still has the mana value of the front side, but devotion only counts the actual pips in the visible mana costs.

Devotion in Competitive Magic

Past Standard

Devotion took a few weeks to catch on, but it was a major fixture in competitive Magic after its debut. The mechanic had four successful flavors across that Standard format, with only mono-white failing to deliver tournament results.

Mono black devotion, featuring Gray Merchant of Asphodel and surprise all-star Pack Rat, was a very memorable tournament deck. It basically ran the show with blue devotion (a tempo deck featuring four Thassa, God of the Seas and lots of average creatures) and Azorius control (draw-go deck that won with Sphinx's Revelation) for over a year. Nightveil Specter was an all-star in both blue and black flavors of devotion since it provided / and played well in the very common mirror matches.

The other two devotion flavors that succeeded in Theros’ Standard were red and green devotion. Red devotion had decent success at the first Pro Tour but had poor matchups against mono-blue and Azorius control which kept it from seeing future success.

Green devotion was a later breakout. It came about years later in Selesnya builds featuring Mastery of the Unseen as a late-game mana dump. This culminated in an incredible finals at Grand Prix Miami in 2015 where Daniel Cecchetti broke 100+ life and we got to witness an insane board state:

Recent Standard

Unfortunately for all you devotion fans out there, there hasn't been anything new with regards to devotion printed into standard since Theros Beyond Death. This isn't too surprising, as there hasn't been another god-centric set since TBD, and devotion is very much tied to that plane thematically.

Historic

Devotion hasn’t really had any competitive success in Historic yet, but this isn’t for lack of effort. Phyrexian Obliterator is a pretty exciting reason to try it! Historic is a powerful enough format that Gray Merchant of Asphodel and friends have struggled to do much at the top tables. Other flavors of devotion have gone mostly un-played, and many of the better payoffs for the mechanic (Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx most of all) are absent.

Pioneer

Mono-green devotion/ramp was an awesome deck at the start of the format. It had incredibly explosive draws with Leyline of Abundance plus Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, excellent anti-interaction with Veil of Summer, and free consistency thanks to Once Upon a Time. Although 3/4 of the cards I just mentioned have been banned already, the deck is still trucking along as one of the best decks in the format. Karn, the Great Creator, Cavalier of Thorns, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and eight copies of Llanowar Elves go a long way!

Mono-white devotion was another dominant deck in Pioneer. It was a combo deck with Heliod, Sun-Crowned and Walking Ballista that also managed to play a passable midrange game with Arcanist's Owl and other white dorks. It could play decently fair Magic while holding the looming threat of combo over your opponent’s head. Sadly, bans came for this deck too and no one has seen a copy of Heliod, Sun-Crowned since.

Modern

There have certainly been attempts, but Modern is a fast, punishing format that’s proven much too powerful for something like Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Mono-green devotion has been the most successful shell in Modern as it’s capable of fundamentally broken draws with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx that makes 10+ mana on turn 3!

Commander

Devotion is certainly viable in EDH, either as a payoff/choice for your commander (with one of the many available gods helming your deck) or as individual card choices. Purphoros, God of the Forge, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, and Thassa, Deep-Dwelling are particularly nice cards that care about devotion, though Purphoros and Thassa are arguably more about their other abilities than attacking.

Best Devotion Cards

#6. Thassa, Deep-Dwelling

Along with Teleportation Circle, Conjurer's Closet, Soulherder, and a few others, Thassa, Deep-Dwelling makes blink decks tick, giving you an immediate manaless blink on each end step. You'll actively avoid making this a creature if possible, and the tapper ability is useful, though not a strong selling point for the card.

#5. Heliod, Sun-Crowned

The Walking Ballista combo is Heliod, Sun-Crowned‘s real claim to fame, but this devotion card is also an excellent lifegain payoff, especially with the increased proliferation of Soul Sister creatures in Magic.

#4. Purphoros, God of the Forge

There have been many more Impact Tremors effects as of late, but Purphoros, God of the Forge is still unmatched, doubling the amount of damage any of those other cheap effects can deal. The firebreathing rarely matters, but it's an extra later of power on one of Commander's best red cards.

#3. Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Gary made waves in Standard, sees occasional play in Timeless, and is a hallmark black card in Commander, ending games about as frequently as the next best casual black card. Even when it doesn't just close out the game, Gray Merchant of Asphodel drains a significant amount of life and heavily bolsters your life total.

#2. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

It was a dangerous move to make Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, since by this point in Magic history they didn't really mess with lands that have the potential to create a ton of mana. And that's exactly what Nykthos does in decks that are strictly dedicated to devoted to a single color.

#.1 Thassa's Oracle

Thassa's Oracle isn't the best showcase of the devotion mechanic, since that part of the card is often largely irrelevant. Combine this with some sort of hyper self-mill combo (Doomsday, Demonic Consultation) and land this 2-drop for an immediate alternate win.

Wrap Up

Callaphe, Beloved of the Sea | Illustration by Zack Stella

Devotion is a mechanic I personally like a fair bit. It’s fun to set up, flavorful, and easy enough to fight against that it never felt too oppressive. We likely haven’t seen the last of devotion, as it's a popular mechanic and a great improvement on WotC's first attempt with chroma.

Do you think it compares well with the old chroma mechanic? Would you change anything about devotion? Let me know in the comments below! Be sure to follow us on Twitter for more great articles like this and to check out the rest of the blog.

Until next time, may your gods always be creatures!