Which god/goddess is the most powerful?

[Doctor Strategy]

Which god/goddess do you feel is the most powerful? Any why do you think so?

They all have their strengths and weaknesses. I would probably go with the Goddess of Magic. Are you surprised? The ability to re-roll ones on attack and defense is the bomb. Also, you don't have to pay any faith to activate her miracle cards which are played immediately. Her labor is hard to get sometimes and at other times you are extremely lucky. It is all left to chance. :D The only drawback is that there are multiple cards that destroy or steal artifacts.

[StarvingWriter82]

I had to go with "They are all fair and equally balanced." The two most powerful in terms of ability are of course, the war god and the magic goddess, as they directly influence the board and are exceptionally brutal when used together. This is balanced out, however, by the fact that they are weakest in terms of cards. The cards themselves are powerful and balanced, but in the case of the war god, you most likely will not be able to purchase cards after turn 2, and in the case of the magic goddess, the value of purchasing her cards drops dramatically after turn 2 as well. This means starting with a war/magic approach will allow for a brutal opening, but a weaker mid and late game as you stop the onslaught to summon more gods. (This doesn't even take into account that the magic goddesses cards are almost always destroyed or stolen before you get any significant use out of them.)

The death god has the ability to tip things in your favor in the underworld, as well as the surprise sucker punch cards like crops wither (arguably one of the most powerful miracles in the game), Ragnarok Cometh (functioning much like crops wither when attempting to stop sky cards in the late game) and the dead walk. However, this superior card quality is balanced by expensive costs (compare Fire Rains Down to The Temple Falls) and by the fact that there are cards that are random or just plain aren't very good at all, forcing you to invest more faith to get to the good stuff (as opposed to the other three decks, where it's rare you don't get something of value).

The Sky God is perhaps the weakest of the four in terms of ability (I would rather tip the odds by having more armies than by getting an extra 1D6) but he has some of the most potent cards in the came. They are typically cheap, dramatically alter your opponent's plans when they are played, and perhaps most importantly, unexpected. If I am in a strong position, or if I got suckered into going sooner than later on epoch 5, a Sky God is going to make the difference between winning and losing.

Note: All these analysis assume a 4-5 player game... you could easily make the case that the war/magic combination is much stronger in a 2 player game (as you have more time to draw war cards, and it will be less likely that your opponents end up with the steal/destroy relic cards, and even if they do they will probably take longer to get to them) but the death god is extremely crucial in a two player game (for his underworld regulating abilities) so I think the gods are still pretty even.

The last game I played (5 players) I was going to win with the sky/war combo, then I made the mistake of growing too powerful too early (taking germania and atlantis) and then I was immediately hit by The Temple Falls, The Trojan Horse is Revealed, The Sea is Your Tomb, Crops Wither and more (less relevant) stuff, followed up by Ragnarok Cometh on epoch 5. Lesson learned... raise the ire of four other players at once, and you pay accordingly. :)

[Brknlf]

I have to go with the magic goddess myself. She is more equally balanced in a game of 4 or 5 players, but in the 2-3 player games she does have an edge. Even in the 4-5 player games, the ability to reroll 1's is helpful; especially in a godswar when both sides are roughly about equal, if I know we'll roll the same number of dice and we have about the same number of troops and I have the benefit to reroll 1's on my side, I would heavily consider taking the risk, if only to banish some gods from the board. With the amount of dice you can roll in a turn with the underworld, you can almost bypass trying to buy her miracle cards and still get a few in play. Overall, I do think she is a beneficial god.

[StarvingWriter82]

Looks like I am clearly getting outvoted here... I'll have to sit down and do the percentages on the ability to reroll 1's sometime to figure out how much it really helps your rolls (I think I read somewhere on here that it was something like half a point, but it wasn't backed up by any formula or any sort, so I dunno). The thing to remember is that when rolling 3 dice, you will get a 1 about 50% of the time, but from there, you will only roll a 5 or a 6 on the reroll 40 % of the time, meaning you will only turn a 1 into something substantial on 20 % -about one out of five - of your rolls. (Of course, this doesn't factor in a war god, where the magic goddess' ability becomes significantly more powerful).

In my humble opinion, this limited dice fixing isn't worth 1) the fact that buying her cards usually isn't too good of a strategy either earlier (because they'll get wrecked) or later (because there's no time to reap the benefits) in the game and 2) it is substantially both more difficult (due to randomness) and less helpful (due to the reasons in number 1) to get her cards via labor...

In short, this that means that by purchasing a magic goddess, you believe the ability to reroll 1's is stronger than the ability to get and play cards - up to 5 free (in the case of the sky god, the death god is effectively only 4 since you won't be able to use the last card you draw) plus whatever you might buy during the purchase cards section of your turn.

Again, this train of logic is for a 4-5 player game (I should probably just put that in my signature or something).

[Brknlf]

Thing 1: I don't think anyone is saying she is ridiculously overpowered, just that there is a slight edge (and again, my opinion comes from the fact that she increases in usefullness for the fewer number of players in a game (not everyone plays 4-5 player all the time), which is why she is better).

Thing 2: If it wasn't for the potential to destroy relics, then her cards would probably be overpowered or need to be balanced by an activation cost as well (making them worth even less). That is, without the relic destruction capabilities of some cards, she probably would be stand out a little more as the most powerful god in the game.

As a side note, its boiling down to too much math in your analysis I think. I beleive there was a post on the 2210 board by Brewcity Warmasterz that compared statistical probability with what they have seen happen in games they've played (ie, it boils down to statistically speaking there is a 50% chance of flipping heads on a quarter, but if someone flips 4 heads in a row it isn't mean its a miracle).

[VID-IOT]

I would say that the most powerful God in your lineup will have to depend on your tactic at the time. If you need to expand quite a bit, the War God and Magic Goddess are going to be your best pairing. Not only will you win all ties, but you may reroll all ones. Meaning that if your opponent rolls a two, you win regardless. Plus you have access to the war cards which in my opinion can make or break the game for a person. The magic cards not so much, as while their effects are nice, they are easily taken away from you.

The death and sky gods may not seem powerful in the long run, but again it depends on a persons tactic.
If you plan on making a huge underworld offensive, you want the death god in play so you can limit the number of units your opponents can place there. Plus you have access to the death cards which are the game devastators. One single card has the potential to completely change the plans of a player. If he is planning a huge offensive on one border, but suddenly His largest army is suddenly halved and now seems weak in comparison to the army next to it, he's going to have to greatly reconsider pushing forward his next turn. Plus let's say you have Atlantis. The death god suddenly becomes GREATLY important if you want to save Atlantis from sinking.

The sky god is best when you have finished attacking by the third or fourth epoch and want to start accumlating men for a grand invasion on the last epoch. Sky cards also have the potential to change the plans of an attacking army. Or in my case once, completely remove me from the game.
I was pretty much defeated by the last epoch. I had only 4 armies split between two countries. As everyone had decided to go last that epoch, I was able to at least get in my turn. I put my three extra armies into one country, used my three faith to get my death god back, and used the 4 faith I saved to play the Halve the three largest armies card. I just wanted to have a lasting effect on the game before I went out. Then I decided to go after the guy who had took me out in the first place, attacking his army of 5 (now that it was halved) with my army of five.
In response he played "Swords become Plow Shares" and rolled a five. The entire country was reduced to farmers like that.
Deciding I was going to at least cause some damage, I also attacked with my country with two armies. Again he played the remaining "Swords become Plow shares" and suddenly I found myself being wiped off the board on my own turn.
Now that was fun.

[Albi Bacque]

I voted that they were balanced, because like others, it depends on tactics. The situation you find yourself in, and your own personal bias or preference, will dictate the best appropriate god. With the crew I play with, one guy almost always but the magic goddess and many relics as he can, the other guy death all the way. I flip-flop between magic and sky, and rarely buy death. We all have gods that fit our style of play, we don't have gods that the crew feels they need to win, so to me that's balance.

[Doctor Strategy]

There needs to be more voter interaction to resolve this.

[StarvingWriter82]

I've said my piece about it, specifically how I think that voting the magic goddess as the clear winner is an incredibly incorrect choice, given the nature of the other cards.

[DocD]

I say god of death...takes out a whole bunch of armies. But really...the gods are fairly balanced....as someone pointed out, it depends on the tactic at hand.