Theros Mechanics

This last weekend, I participated in the prerelease for Theros, the newest set for Magic the Gathering.  It was my third prerelease event (I've previously played for Mirrodin Besieged and Innistrad) and, well, I wasn't exactly impressed by my own performance.  I ended the night 2-3, so no placing for me.  But it did give me a chance to play around with some of the cards, and come up with an idea of what I thought of the mechanics of Theros.

Heroic
Heroic turned out to be one of my favorite mechanics, though pulling a Fabled Hero and Phalanx Leader may have influence my decision.  Normally, I'm not a fan of pump spells or auras, though the heroic mechanic really adds an incentive to run them by giving already efficient creatures additional benefits.  Typically, this comes in the form of a +1/+1 counters, but additional effects, like opponents sacrificing a creature (Agent of Fates) or scrying (Battlewise Hoplite), are also quite prevalent.  Theros also provides the spells to make this work with its multitude of auras and multi-targeting or scrying pumps.

Monstrosity
It's amazing in limited, the format of the prerelease, due to a major lack of creature removal available within the Theros set.  I kind of wish I'd taken better advantage of it, considering I had plent of mana to ramp into it.  Making a large creature even larger at a later point can be kind of painful.  And, this mechanic is featured on one of my favorite cards in the set, Fleecman Lion:  a 3/3 creature for two mana, that becomes a 4/4 creature with hexproof and indestructible for 5 mana.  It's not the biggest creature, but its definitely one of the most resilient creatures out there.  However, for the most part, these creatures are not very efficient for the investment that needs to be put in them, and only a few may actually be played in a competitive scene.

Devotion
The flavor is strong with this mechanic.  Theros is based on Greek mythology, and this set featured a pantheon of 5 gods, each corresponding to a color in Magic.  Devotion works heavily on permenants and the colors in their mana costs.  The higher amounts of this color you have on the field, typically the stronger the effect.  This is best featured by the God cards themselves, a set of 5/5 indestructible Enchantment Creatures that only become creatures once your devotion hits 5 for their color. I think the devotion mechanic will be fun in the casual format, but I'm curious about how it will work competively, and worried that outside of the gods (which come as strong enchantments), that it won't see much play.