Collapsed Theogony

CSG 138

Juanito “Alonso” Cole

Collapsed Theogony

“Atziluth was not one plane, but multiple that were held together by the belief of itself in other planes. Unfortunately, belief is a fragile concept and once the collective myths of Atziluth lost their faith the planes fell apart one by one. The rapidly depowering gods of these planes were either forced to scatter to other planes or band together in a new plane to call home. The largest of these groups was the Clan of Ugarit, a collective of numerous deities from Atziluth, all now led by the former highest deity of the Canaanite plane, El. Those of the Clan of Ugarit rely on El to partially restore their strength, and in return he grants them a new home. One that they all swear to protect until their last breath.”

The Collapsed Theogony deck has themes of divinity, enchantments, and power loss and restoration. Play as many enchantments as you can to bolster your deck’s effectiveness while also routinely casting them out to power up even more powerful enchantments and creatures. Later on you will also be able to restore enchantments from your graveyard with minimal or no cost. This will create a cycle of power loss and gain which, when coupled with numerous card abilities, will allow you to create a powerful and synergetic deck to either bide your time or take down your opponents.

Commanders

MECHANICS

• Non-Aura enchantment-based P/T scaling
• Power gain
• Player-controlled toughness gain
• Lifegain

THEMES

• El is based on the Canaanite supreme deity and is the main commander of this deck. He is designed with a single concept in mind: using what you have to restore what you used to have.
• Through the usage of enchantments you control, El uses that to ‘restore’ the cards of this deck to their former deific glory. This deck being both red and white also means his restoration capabilities affect both primary systems of Red and White decks: his passive allows offensive restoration, meanwhile his on tap ability allows defensive restoration and player life restoration.

RISK

• His primary risk is that his power gain is reliant on Enchantments. You need to be able to constantly put out non-Auras to increase his ability’s power gain more and more. However, if you do that too fast, you may be deemed a threat. Furthermore, increase in power doesn’t mean an increase in survivability.
• His toughness boost is only temporary and needs to be thought about before usage. Furthermore, his lifegain is reliant on you losing creatures meaning you need to be sure you can risk losing them.

REWARD

• His primary reward is a constant bolstering of your attack capabilities. If you use him correctly you may be able to become a formidable force.
• His defensive buffs improve single turn survivability and may enhance your own survivability as a player.

MECHANICS

• First strike
• Damage prevention
• Self-imposed aura removal

THEMES

• This card is based on the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, who had domains in both love and war. Her war aspect is shown in her first strike keyword ability. Meanwhile, her love aspect is meant to be shown through her on tap ability.
• Her on tap ability has the basis of soft protection, mainly damage prevention based on the amount of Auras you have cast on a single creature. The more auras you have, the most damage she can prevent for you, but also this cannot be done for free so you have to cast an aura away. Basically the idea of paying a goddess for a favor.

RISK

• Her ability is not useful in the early game or for creatures you have low amount of auras on. Especially since her aura removal may pose a problem for one or two-aura enchanted creatures.
• The self-imposed aura removal is in itself a risk as you need to discard an aura enchanting that creature if you use her ability.

REWARD

• The primary purpose of her ability is enhanced survivability for the creatures you want to keep alive. Use her ability on a creature you’re really buffing and they might be able to make it through some real heavy blows.

MECHANICS

• Enchantment scrying
• Lifegain
• Enchantment restoration

THEMES

• Nyame is based on the Akan sky deity and is designed with a concept regarding deities who still had some small level of worship to them. This makes him slightly more powerful than other cards and allows him to hone into his abilities more than some other cards are able to do. This is also why he is a Planeswalker, still able to drift through the planes like a cloud in the sky.
• His abilities represent three aspects that the Akan attribute Nyame to. The ability to see all, which is where his scrying ability comes in. The ability to create and aid life, which is where his lifegain ability comes from. And lastly his ability to triumph over death, hence the enchantment restoration.

RISK

• His +1 ability only works on enchantments and may stump the gain of other cards you may want such as Artifacts and Lands.
• His lifegain is reliant on the amount of enchantments you control and main prolong his -8 ability.
• His -8 ability takes a really long time to charge, meaning you have to find a way for him to live long enough to cast it.
• Since he’s a Planeswalker, he cannot be healed or restored under normal means. This means unless you build your deck in a specific way, once he’s at 0 loyalty counters he’s gone.

REWARD

• His +1 ability will allow you a constant influx of enchantments, especially enchantments that you may want or need.
• His -3 ability aids in life prolonging especially if you have a lot of enchantments on the field.
• His -8 ability can basically restore your boardstate to it’s previous glory, which helps a lot when in a bind.

CREATURES

MECHANICS

• Self-power gain
• First strike

THEMES

• Agadzagadza is based on the Bura trickster figure of the same name, a lizard with immense speed who used his gifts to trick humanity into learning about death.
• These two elements of his identity are incorporated into this card’s design. The element of speed is handled via his ability to be granted first strike. Meanwhile his associations with death is shown through his ability to be empowered by enchantments in the graveyard.

RISK

• Agadzagadza is reliant on you being able to cycle enchantments into the graveyard. This means that he becomes the most empowered when you have a lot of discarded enchantments, which in itself is a high risk if you decide to play in a way that throws enchantments into the graveyard constantly.

REWARD

• If you do play in that kind of risky gameplay style, you will get a card that can potentially get extremely powerful very fast. Especially if your deck has a lot of enchantments and enchantment creatures. This coupled with his first strike ability means he might be able to routinely destroy other cards one by one.

MECHANICS

• Flying
• Lifelink granting
• Enchantment sacrifice and equivalent exchange enchantment casting

THEMES

• The Dreamtime Snake is based on a high ranking deity in Aboriginal mythology. A serpentine god who has elements of being a creator deity and a being who upholds all living things.
• It being a sky deity justifies it having flying, and it’s importance to upholding life is why it grants every creature lifelink when in play. The elements of it being a creator deity is shown through it being able to allow you to cast enchantments from your hands freely, albeit with a cost of creation by exchanging an enchantment of similar type.

RISK

• The Dreamtime Snake’s signature ability needs you to sacrifice an enchantment of a similar type to use it. This means that you really need to weigh risks and options to see if the enchantment your sacrifice is worth the one you want to cast.
• This also means that no matter what your field will retain it’s net amount of cards, at least with this specific card’s abilities.
• Its ability requires you to tap the creature to use. This means that you cannot use it’s highly valuable flying ability if you decide to double cast.

REWARD

• You may be able to cast very high cost spells for the lower cost of a tap and RW with its ability.

MECHANICS

• First strike
• Card draw
• Enchantment restoration

THEMES

• Lahmu is an entity in Mesopotamian mythology that has multiple representations. Their card design takes in two of these interpretations:
• His card draw is derived from the interpretation that Lahmu was a servant to the creator deity Enki.
• His connection to the graveyard is his interpretation as a demonic entity. Although in this case it’s representing him being able to grant destroyed or discarded power to himself, which is why he can only restore enchantments from the graveyard.

RISK

• Lahmu is a creature that is reliant on balance.
• If you want to restore enchantments from the graveyard cost-free then you must have less than five enchantments on the field. This means that having more than that makes this ability inaccessible.
• Equally, you need to maintain a high enchantment concentration to access his card draw. Drop below five and you’re out of luck.
• Likely an easy target for others to attack and get rid of.

REWARD

• He rewards high-risk play of low enchantment amount by being able to restore enchantments that die. If you have multiple enchantment creatures this may be very reward.
• He rewards high-enchantment play by allowing you to draw more cards, which in turn would ideally allow him to constantly maintain that ability.

MECHANICS

• Flying
• Card discard and card draw
• Revival into an Aura

THEMES

• Simurgh is based on the mythology bird in Iranian mythology who is described in being able to purify the land, bestow fertility, and perch on others to grant them wealth.
• Their ability to bestow fertility is shown with their eye-for-an-eye card discard and draw. By discarding a card (which represents giving Simurgh an offering) you can in turn draw a card (or be granted with fertility/productiveness). Furthermore, his ability to transforms into an Aura that replicates his own personal abilities is how his perching and wealth granting is translated into the design.

RISK

• His requirement to discard a card to draw a card is a net-gain risk. You need to determine what card you want to discard and if the risk is worth it. This is increasingly risky with smaller hands and completely useless when you constantly have no hand. This means you need to have a good amount of cards in your hand constantly while also being willing to weigh whether the cards you have are worth using his card draw ability.
• He is one of the only cards in this deck that can be permanently removed from the game. Once he’s put into the graveyard a second time he’s exiled and cannot be brought back. This means you always need to think about how you handle him.

REWARD

• His main reward is his card draw ability. However, his card discard ability can also be beneficial when taking into account how other cards in this deck are designed to function when it comes to bringing enchantments from the graveyard onto the field.
• His ability to turn himself into an Aura is also rewarding since it grants himself a second shot at being on the board, which further allows you to continue bolstering your card draw.

MECHANICS

• Treasure token generation

THEMES

• The Vohu Manah is based on one of the Amesha Spentas in Zoroastrian religion. He represents the aspect of thinking good thoughts.
• The idea of ‘thinking good thoughts’ is represented in his ability to generate Treasure tokens. Since Treasure tokens give you mana, they themselves are the good thoughts that are being brought by the Vohu Manah.

RISK

• The Vohu Manah is a very easy threat for being targeted by other players. Unless you have any counters planned, you may end up losing him very easily.
• His ability is depending on your ability to bolster his power. If you can’t do that reliably then you won’t get an ideal token generation.

REWARD

• He will grant you Treasure tokens which highly bolsters your ability to generate mana. This in turn will allow you to cast more and more enchantments at a higher rate. Especially since, when paired with El and some good card draw, you might be able to made it so he creates a very very high amount of Treasure tokens each turn.

enchantments

MECHANICS

• Charge Counters
• “Eye for an Eye”-style Enchantment removal

THEMES

• The card is based on the Maori deity Tangaroa, who primarily had domains of the water and tides.
• His domain is then reflected in the card’s ability to remove enchantments from the field, which is akin to submerging them to the depths. However, he needs an offering to do so, which the charge counters reflect by requiring a certain amount of mana to be pooled into him.

RISK

• You need to put in a large amount of mana to get good enough mileage out of this card.
• The card triggers based on whenever your enchantments are removed, meaning you may also end up being seen as a threat if this card is constantly triggered.
• Once it’s used all its charge counters it becomes somewhat useless, making it not a good choice to revive after its been used.

REWARD

• If used at the correct time you may be able to remove a large amount of annoying enchantments and artifacts from the battlefield.
• Other players may not want to target you lest they want to risk activating this card’s ability more often.

MECHANICS

• Lore counters
• +1/+1 counters
• Non-basic land removal
• Second main phase land untapping

THEMES

• The card is based on the Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish. Particular the aspect of it where the world was plunged into war, destroyed, then recreated.
• This is reflected by the three lore counter abilities of the Saga: war (bolster card P/T), destruction (destroy non-basic lands), and recreation (untap your lands).

RISK

• This card can be easily viewed as a target for removal. You have to decide if you want to play it, especially since it takes up to three turns to use its best abilities.
• Cannot be cast more than once in a game unless you can restore cards from exile.

REWARD

• If you’re able to keep the card out for long enough without it being removed you will be able to:
• Potentially cripple your opponents on Lore Counter 2 if they use a not of non-basic lands.
• Give yourself a fully functional second main phase on Lore Counter 3.
• Have up to three turns where your cards have +1/+1 counters.

MECHANICS

• Power/toughness equalizing
• Single turn indestructibility with damage reflection and lifegain

THEMES

• The card is based on the Canaanite craftsman deity Kothar-wa-Khasis.
• It’s abilities are meant to represent smithery. It’s ability to equalize your P/T alongside granting toughness is almost like a form of magical armor, which is accentuated by that armor being able to reflect damage and restore life to you.

RISK

• It’s unique indestructibility granting requires a lot of mana in order to be used. It also only lasts until the end of a turn, meaning its most useful when it comes to your own attack phases.
• It’s primarily ability cannot be put into play if your opponent does not block.

REWARD

• You will make your card a one-turn unstoppable juggernaut, especially if your opponent blocks. It’s ability to reflect damage may also put more annoying cards out of play, especially if the opponent needs to block with them.

MECHANICS

• Enchantment copy token generation

THEMES

• The card is based on the Babylonian sun deity Shamash, who had also been a teacher in mythology.
• This aspect is represented by the card’s ability to create a copy token of any non-creature enchantment card on the battlefield provided the enchantment you sacrificed shares a subtype with the enchantment you wish to make a copy of. This is like being watched by the sun, then being granted it’s knowledge when you pay a cost.

RISK

• You need to sacrifice an enchantment of the same subtype as the enchantment you wish to copy. So you can only copy another Aura if you sacrifice an Aura, etc.
• There is a pretty high mana price put onto this card as well. You have to think about if your sacrifice is going to be worth the enchantment you want to copy.
• The copied enchantment does not go into the graveyard if it’s destroyed.
• This card is an easy target for exile. You may also become a target if you copy a highly-threatening enchantment.

REWARD

• The biggest reward is that if you copy a good enough enchantment you may be able to alter the game for yourself heavily. Especially if you sacrifice a relatively meager enchantment to copy one that’s extremely powerful.

artifacts

MECHANICS

• Clay counters
• Enchantment revival

THEMES

• This card is based on the Hawaiian creation myth where humanity was made from the clay of the world.
• This is reflected by the card’s ability to intake mana for a clay counter. Then on later turns you can revive enchantments from the graveyard with the clay counters you’ve accumulated. A concept that can be summed up as clay being used to bring life back to something.

RISK

• This can only be done once per turn. You also cannot create a clay counter and revive a creature on the same time.
• While you can amass clay counters over the course of many turns, you are at risk of losing them all if this card is removed by an opponent.
• You need to put in mana to create a counter.

REWARD

• The general reward is that you’re able to revive some cards. Especially if you’re constantly adding counters to Clay of Creation, meaning if you lose a heavy hitter you’ll be able to bring him back.
• Alternatively, if you amass a large chunk of counters, you may be able to restore a large amount of your board state if you lose it on a single turn but don’t lose the artifact.

MECHANICS

• Mana addition

THEMES

• This card is based on the Babylonian creation deity Anu. Although in light of it being an artifact, it’s a statue of Anu.
• The primary theme of this artifact is a statue of a high ranking figure giving you power. The Icon of Renewal being a statue of a creation deity allows you to regain some magic freely. This is shown as once per turn you will gain mana equal to the amount of colored mana symbols on the first enchantment you cast.

RISK

• Can be seen as an easy target for removal.
• It’s primary ability can only be used once per turn. This means that you need to know what you want to cast first ahead of time because if you cast something and realize you could’ve used something better, you may not be able to reverse it.
• Might work best with high mana value cards with multiple colored mana nodes.
• Useless with colorless mana cards.

REWARD

• The primary reward is you’re constantly being granted extra mana per turn, even if it’s just a little bit.
• If you cast a high colored mana cost card, your return-on-investment may be huge when it comes to mana gain at least on that turn.

MECHANICS

• Toughness gain
• Self-imposed aura removal

THEMES

• This card is based on the Azi Dahaka, an evil king in Zoroastrian mythology that worked alongside the supreme evil Ahriman. He is also said to have a cunning tongue, able to make many people commit acts of sin with ease.
• This aspect is reflected in the card’s flavor text and overall ability. It grants a boon of increased toughness, but at a price that if you’re enchanted you have to discard those enchantments away. A concept of if you have a boon of another, you need to cast it away to possess a boon of evil.

RISK

• The biggest risk comes with your ability to supply Auras to bolster the armor’s capabilities. If you can’t cycle in auras, you won’t be able to use it effectively.
• Needs the creature to be blocked to be the most effective.

REWARD

• One primary reward is the +3 increase in toughness you get if you can supply auras to the card. This will increase card survivability in the long run, especially if you can pair it with other cards that boost toughness.

Instants // sorceries

MECHANICS

• +1/+1 counters
• Damage doubling
• Unblockable or trample

THEMES

• This card is based on the portion of the Epic of Gilgamesh where Gilgamesh had to slay the Bull of Heaven, who was sent to kill him by Ishtar.
• The card itself is meant to represent Gilgamesh’s tremendous strength. Based on the amount of Auras you have on the card you cast this on you’ll boster a card’s P/T. No matter what it’s damage will be doubled, but depending on whether or not you have an aura on it your card will either be granted unblockable or trample. A design meaning to represent a concept of being stronger when empowered with magic.

RISK

• This card can only be cast at Sorcery speed, so you need to think about if you want to card it or not beforehand.
• While the spell can be cast on a card without an aura, it is most beneficial on a card with one. You have a higher risk of losing a creature if you use it on a card without an aura.

REWARD

• The most consistent reward is the damage doubling.
• If you cast it on a card with many auras, you will be able to increase its damage to a really high degree that you may be able to knock down a massive chunk of another player’s life.
• You can also cast it on a cast without auras if you think it may be useful to bolster a unit’s damage enough to kill an annoying opposing creature instead.

MECHANICS

• P/T swap
• Choice: Enchantment sacrifice or enchantment exile

THEMES

• This card is based on the concept of syncretism, or a god being represented under different names (or even different domains) in various religions in the same region. Primarily that of Ishtar, one of this deck’s sub-commanders.
• The idea of a god being represented by various domains is represented by this card being able to swap power and toughness. Furthermore, using Ishtar as a template, the card functions as a variation of her unique abilities like how different region’s deities are variations of herself. However, these abilities (such as enchantment loss and toughness bolstering) are still slightly similar enough to be recognizable as hers.

RISK

• The primary risk comes from it being an instant and you needing to decide if it’s good to cast or not at the right time.
• You also need to make sure you have enough enchantments to sacrifice, especially if you intend to block with that creature.

REWARD

• The primary award comes from the temporary and instantaneous boost in toughness, albeit with the potential drawback of losing power.
• The enchantment sacrifice can be rewarding if you wish to increase the stats of a card that require graveyard enchantments.
• Furthermore, enchantment exile can be useful if you want to get rid of an enchantment you don’t really want to play again.

MECHANICS

• Choice: Lifegain or enchantment revival

THEMES

• This card is based on the supreme Zoroastrian deity, Ahura Mazda.
• As displayed in the flavor text, the card is meant to represent light being used to fix destruction. This is shown by the card being mono-white, but also being able to restore life based on the amount of damage done to your board state (in this case amount of cards in your graveyard), or restore the topmost enchantments from your graveyard to your deck.

RISK

• The risk changes depending on your choice:
• You might want to have a high amount of cards in your graveyard for the lifegain to be effective.
• Ideally you’d want a selection of good enchantments at the top of your graveyard to restore.
• So you need to decide which one would be more beneficial to you at a specific time, or if you want to wait until it becomes more beneficial later on.

REWARD

• The primary rewards are:
• You regain life. If you have a lot of cards in your graveyard you may be able to regain an extremely high amount of life.
• You regain some enchantments that you can play again. If you lost some pretty valuable enchantments previous turn this can be very helpful.

Artwork Citations

• Card Art References
• Avestan Deity: Amesha Spenta - Vohu Manah by DiabloKrom on DeviantArt. (2023, July 30). Deviantart.com; DeviantArt. https://www.deviantart.com/diablokrom/art/Avestan-Deity-Amesha-Spenta-Vohu-Manah-974454115
• Imagine AI Art Generator. (n.d.). Www.imagine.art. https://www.imagine.art/
• Welcome to Old World Gods, Your Reference Site for All the Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Cultures - Old World Gods. (2023, November 27). Oldworldgods.com. https://oldworldgods.com/
• Presentation Background References
• Column PNG. (2024). Column PNG image with transparent background. Pngimg.com. https://pngimg.com/image/15848
• Tokyo Afterschool Summoners. (2020, July 18). Backgrounds - Tokyo Afterschool Summoners. Tokyo Afterschool Summoners. https://housamo.wiki/Backgrounds