Deconstructing Theros: Devotion

Alternate title: Why Chroma was a bad mechanic, but Devotion will be good.

Chroma was pretty much a dud when it debuted in Eventide. It was certainly not as beloved as Persist/Wither, but probably more popular than the untap symbol. Still, a mechanic needs a stronger recommendation than "more popular than the untap symbol" to get a second shot. The success of individual cards like Primalcrux and Light from Within suggests that perhaps the problem wasn't with Chroma itself. Perhaps the execution was flawed. Devotion is an improvement on Chroma in three crucial aspects: flavor, consistency, and as-fan support.

Oh, I understand the flavor now!
No, wait. I don't.

Chroma had no particular flavor. There was a major "color matters" mechanical theme in Shadowmoor and Eventide, but the flavor connection was sorely lacking. If anyone can explain to me why Glen Elendra Liege pumps up Noggles and Selkies, I'll eat my hat. Devotion, however, has extremely clear flavor: it measures your commitment to a god or to that god's general domain. Simply changing the name of the mechanic goes a long way towards making it seem natural.

In terms of mechanical consistency, Chroma was a hot mess. It counted mana symbols on cards, but which cards? Maybe it counted them on all permanents you control. Or just on a creature you're sacrificing. Or on each creature separately. Or on some cards you reveal from your hand. Or the top ten cards of your library. Or your entire graveyard. 

Mechanics shouldn't work like this! Whenever you have an effect of the form, "Look at A, and depending on that, do B," the cardinal rule is that A should not vary. B should vary. For example, consider Allies, Battalion, or Metalcraft. They all take the same input each time (play an Ally, attack with three creatures) and create variable results. It is much easier for our brains to pay attention to one input than to many. When you're checking for Metalcraft, all you have to do is look for three artifacts; similarly, to find Devotion to a color, you just need to count mana symbols on your permanents.

"All right, I'm forcing mono-white goats
this draft," said nobody ever.

Perhaps the biggest failing of Chroma was that it was unsupported. As a linear mechanic, it needed a significant as-fan presence to be viable in limited and casual constructed. But Chroma appeared on one -- count 'em, one-- common! There was only a single blue card with Chroma. Sure, you could run Sanity Grinding in a deck full of the appropriate Demigods or Lieges, but there just wasn't enough incentive to get chromatic.

And now? We've already seen a healthy number of Devotion cards. They're mostly at higher rarities so far, but that's the nature of previews. I'd bet the farm that Gray Merchant of Asphodel will not be the sole common Devotion card. And let's not forget that we'll have an entire block's worth of room, rather than a single cramped small set.

With all these factors going in its favor, will Devotion be popular? I certainly think so. The Gods are clearly the centerpiece of Theros, and players will enjoy building around them. Linear themes by color have always been popular with a certain segment of the player base, as evinced by the continual reincarnations of the Ivory Cup / Angel's Feather / Staff of the Sun Magus cycle. Hybrid cards such as Boros Reckoner and Burning-Tree Emissary will play well with it. It's not a game-changer mechanic like Evolve or Transform that creates an entirely new play experience, but that's hardly a strike against it. Sometimes, doing one thing simply is enough.