So, gods. Theros had them, and with at least an Egyptian and a Norse themed block pretty much guaranteed to be a thing at some point, many are wondering what role gods might play on other top-down planes inspired by real-world mythologies. Some people (especially in places like Salvation) seem to be taking for granted that they'll just copy the Theros model and have a cycle of actual creatures with the God type. What kind of approach to other mythology-inspired planes would you like to see? What do you think how it might be handled?

Personally, I don't think they'll do anything too close to Theros again, and I certainly hope I'm right. Just doing the same thing again (even without the connection to enchantments) would take away the uniqueness of Nyx and the Theran pantheon. I don't think all settings are equally strongly defined by the gods of their source material either. I think it was the right thing to do for Magic's Greek-inspired plane, as the gods in Greek mythology interact with mortals quite a lot and are probably the most well-known mythological gods. But those of, say, Egyptian mythology aren't quite as well-known and hardly seem to bother with mortals directly. They were involved in creating the world, and some of them are relevant when you die and go to the underworld, but the actual myths I'm aware of have the gods interact only with each other (well, except for the vague mythological past when the gods walked on Earth). Also note that the pharaoh acted as a kind of intermediary between the mortals and the gods, and it was even forbidden to show gods and mortals together in visual arts. What I'd like to see on an Egytian-themed plane then are no actual gods but races that resemble the gods from the source material. You know, jackal people, leonin, various species of aven, minotaurs, snake people etc.

A really awesome concept I'd like to see explored more are cults or gods based on Oldwalkers. That would allow for some great and subtle references to older canon and be a perfect fit for something like a Norse plane. I mean, take characters like Fiers for example. A dwarven Oldwalker who was vaguely associated with mountains and forging and worshipped as a god anyway? Could totally be part of a Norse Magic pantheon. Bonus points if his symbol is a hammer. Or what about Freyalise? She was worshipped as a nature goddess and even has 'Freya' in her name. Could be depicted with her eye-patch to evoke random associations with Odin. Not all gods in the pantheon would have to be based on Oldwalkers, but one or two as little easter eggs for the old fogeys would be brilliant.

The only good application of the God type I can think of outside of Theros would be a cycle of Dragon Gods if they ever do something Chinese-inspired...

In the case of other planes, I could see an intense focus in caring about where the cards are. Particularly, I could see the Egyptian plane caring about having the god cards in the graveyard akin to the Incarnation cycle like Anger and Wonder.

I've really thought of doing a MEM works with heavy Egyptian inspirations, but ultimately I've just not want to do what I know WotC is going to do at some point.

Glass cannon gods would be interesting. Like, say one of these gods is in a duel with a planeswalker or what have you. The god's so intent on crushing the planeswalker that a mortal could come up behind it and lay it out with a well placed fist to the back of the head. Perhaps these gods can turn whole planes into pocket realms rife with their own creatures or something similar.

Gods based more on sacrifice could be interesting. Like He Who Walks Behind the Rows from Children of the Corn. Sort of done with the Patrons from Betrayers of Kamigawa, but I'd like to see it revisited. The mechanic strikes me as a more barbaric spin on Convoke.

Revisiting both Offering and Divinity counters are something I really expected out of Theros. I'm not unhappy with Devotion, but they could have done more.

You know, I still hope they'll tweak the rules of Devotion a bit to make it work with Phyrexian mana specifically, so we can have rules text saying "Devotion to Phyrexia".

Or maybe they'll be in the background like most deities so far and not get a card.

Yeah, I'd definitely prefer gods on most planes to either not even exist or to be several levels below the Theran gods in terms of power and significance. Maybe like those from Shadowmoor. They could also do interesting things in an Indian-based setting with each deity being represented by several Avatars, so you only see scattered aspects of each god.

That would be nice, yes. Avatars, I feel, should be the only true representation of deities to begin with.

Yeah, I still think God is a somewhat unfortunate creature type to begin with. Technically, the gods of Theros are nothing more than avatars of people's beliefs and ideas. The only thing that sets them apart from other avatars is their sheer power. And before Theros, divinity was just in the eye of the beholder as pretty much everything with enough power or significance could be worshipped as a god (Karona, Progenitus, the Nephilim, you name it). Just slapping 'God' on a typeline is a bit bland for my taste.

The problem there is that they've diluted the use of avatars to the point of meaning nothing.
Most modern avatars should, by logic, be incarnations.

Frankly, I think the one broad 'hit' of Theros (one that is more than a single card idea big) was that the Gods are something OTHER than a pure creature. You don't just summon them and see them walk around. So I'd like to see Gods stay things that animate if you fulfill their conditions. For instance, I could see

StabbyMcKill, God of Blood

Legendary Artifact Creature - God
Whenever a creature is dealt damage, destroy it.
Whenever a creature dies, put a blood counter on StabbyMcKill, God of Blood
At the beginning of each upkeep, you may sacrifice a creature. If you don't, StabbyMcKill isn't a creature this turn.
StabbyMcKill's power and toughness are each equal to the number of blood counters on it.
*/*

It's a 30-second sketch, but it gets the idea across.

That's a good point, yeah. Devotion was a great mechanic, and using it on the God cards that way was a really neat idea. I think that sort of thing probaly works best with enchantments, though. And they did amazing things with the enchantment creatures and the Nyx starfield in the visuals as well. I'm still pretty disappointed I didn't pull a single foil enchantment creature from any of my Theros packs.

I would be disappointed in an Egypt plane without god cards. When I think of Egypt I think of their gods, pyramids, period attire, and pharaohs. I didn't spend all those years of watching Stargate to not get Apophis in an Egypt plane set.

If we get Egypt Block with gods, I reserve the right to run one as my EDH general and shout "Jaffa CREE!" as I attack with everything but the God in question

Please no more indestructible EDH-warping gods. I'm putting stuff like Angelic Purge in my deck just to deal with indestructible non-creature enchantments. Sigh.

On the other hand, it's amazing to exile one and then be like "Puny god!" in a rumbling Hulk voice

Gods from the lands. Something akin to the Westvale Abbey, except with an Offering cost and possibly divinity counters.

Alternately something like the Genju.

I hope there will be at least a loose mechanical connection between lands and kami when/if we return to Kamigawa. Something like DFCs that start as lands and then transform into land creatures. Plus maybe stuff like Landfall, which would also play well with that silly land bouncing mechanic of the soratami from the original Kamigawa block.

Edit: @Pantera Canes: Apophis is closer to a demon than an actual god, though, as far as we can apply those concepts to Egyptian mythology. I'd definitely want to see a legendary Snake Demon as a stand-in for Apophis. Things like Ammit would probably be demons as well. Egyptian-style Magic demons would probably look cool with animal heads, possibly several of them. They should also totally bring back Bird Maidens. Those look exactly like Ma'at.

Bird maidens would just be cluttering up space that they could use for angels, the more popular and safer choice.