If I play Athreos, God of Passage, but I only have 7 to devotion to black, does this devotion count to devotion to white and black?
Or do I need at least 1 to devotion to white to have devotion to white and black?
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Devotion to either color is fine. You don't need to have devotion to both. "Devotion to A and B" just counts all mana symbols of color A and/or B in permanents you control. (Notably hybrid symbols are just counted once.)
See a Gatherer ruling found on Athreos and all the other two-color gods, emphasis added:
Your devotion to two colors is equal to the number of mana symbols that are the first color, the second color, or both colors among the mana costs of permanents you control. Specifically, a hybrid mana symbol counts only once toward your devotion to its two colors. For example, if the only nonland permanents you control are Pharika, God of Affliction and Golgari Guildmage (whose mana cost is {B/G}{B/G}), your devotion to black and green is four.
You do however have some devotion to white, from Athreos himself. As long as he's out he's giving you +1 white devotion and +1 black devotion; a god's own mana cost counts towards its own devotion. This also means Athreos actually only needs 5 white and black devotion from sources other than himself.
answered Jan 18 '18 at 11:59
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1Devotion to A and B doesn't count A/B hybrid mana symbols twice, whereas devotion to A plus devotion to B does, so it might be worth clarifying your first paragraph to reflect that.– David ZJan 18 '18 at 14:10
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@DavidZ Yep, good point. Thanks for that. How's this wording sound in the first paragraph? Jan 18 '18 at 14:12
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@DavidZ I rephrased again actually, this way of structuring that information feels a lot better. Jan 18 '18 at 14:37
If you had devotion 7 black before you played Athreos, you now have devotion 8 black and devotion 1 white, since Athreos has one mana symbol of each color in his casting cost, giving one devotion to each. From the comprehensive rules(emphasis mine):
700.5. A player’s devotion to [color] is equal to the number of mana symbols of that color among the mana costs of permanents that player controls. A player’s devotion to [color 1] and [color 2] is equal to the number of mana symbols among the mana costs of permanents that player controls that are [color 1], [color 2], or both colors.
As for the hybrid gods as a whole, while you don't need devotion to be split between the two colors for them to work, they always will, there is no card in magic that looks for devotion in a color that it isn't. In the case of permanents that means it always provides at least some devotion to the colors it is looking for. Non permanents, like Acolyte's Reward have the possibility of 0 devotion, since you could play them without permanents with mana symbols of the card's color.
