When was Born of the Gods released?

Born of the Gods was released on February 7, 2014. It is the 63rd Magic: The Gathering expansion and the second set in the Theros block.

How many cards are in Born of the Gods?

Born of the Gods contains 165 cards. It is a small expansion, which was typical for mid-block sets released during this era of Magic's design.

What are the new mechanics in Born of the Gods?

Born of the Gods introduced two new mechanics: inspired (triggers whenever a creature you control untaps) and tribute (opponents choose whether to pay a tribute cost or let you receive a bonus effect when the creature enters the battlefield). It also continues the devotion and heroic mechanics from the first Theros set.

What block is Born of the Gods part of?

Born of the Gods is the second set in the Theros block, sitting between Theros (released September 2013) and Journey into Nyx (released May 2014). The block is set on the Greek mythology-inspired plane of Theros.

What preconstructed decks came with Born of the Gods?

Born of the Gods came with five intro packs — Gifts of the Gods (White/Blue), Inspiration-Struck (Blue/Black), Death's Beginning (Black/Green), Forged in Battle (White/Red), and Insatiable Hunger (Red/Green) — plus one event deck called Underworld Herald, which was a Black deck.

Is Born of the Gods legal in Modern?

Yes, Born of the Gods cards are legal in Modern, Legacy, Vintage, and Commander. The set is not legal in Standard or Pioneer, as it predates Pioneer's earliest legal set (Return to Ravnica, October 2012 — note that Pioneer's cutoff is after BNG's release window in some printings, so always check individual card legality on Scryfall or the official format pages).

Born of the Gods (BNG): Set Guide & Card List

The middle child of a block has a tough job. It has to carry forward the world that the first set built, deepen the mechanics players are just getting comfortable with, and do it all in a smaller card count. Born of the Gods - the second set in the Theros block, released February 7, 2014 - does exactly that. Set on the sun-drenched, mythology-soaked plane of Theros, it's where the gods get more crowded, the heroes get more desperate, and the stories get more interesting.

What is Born of the Gods?

Born of the Gods (set code: BNG) is the 63rd Magic: The Gathering expansion and the second set in the Theros block, slotting between Theros (THS, September 2013) and Journey into Nyx (JOU, May 2014). It was released on February 7, 2014, and is a small expansion - 165 cards in total, which was standard for mid-block sets of that era.

As a small set, BNG was designed to draft alongside the larger Theros set rather than stand alone. This is worth knowing if you're picking up packs today: the set's Limited format was always intended to be played as part of a THS/THS/BNG (or later THS/BNG/JOU) draft environment, not as a standalone Draft format.

Format check: Born of the Gods cards are not legal in Standard or Pioneer. They remain legal in Modern, Legacy, Vintage, Commander, and Pauper (where individual card legality applies).

Themes and mechanics

Theros block is Magic's love letter to ancient Greek mythology, and Born of the Gods leans hard into that identity. The set expands the pantheon of Theros's gods and the constellation of enchantment-based mechanics that Theros introduced.

The core mechanical themes of BNG include:

Devotion - returning from Theros, this mechanic counts the coloured mana symbols in the mana costs of permanents you control, powering up certain spells and turning the minor gods online as creatures.
Heroic - also returning from THS, heroic triggers whenever you target a creature you control with a spell, rewarding aggressive, spell-forward strategies.
Inspired - a new mechanic introduced in BNG. Inspired triggers whenever a creature you control becomes untapped, rewarding players for finding ways to tap their creatures repeatedly (attacking, using tap abilities, or combining with other effects).
Tribute - another new BNG mechanic. When a tribute creature enters the battlefield, your opponent chooses whether to pay a tribute cost (putting counters on it) or let you get a bonus effect instead. This is a classic design that forces an uncomfortable decision on your opponent - both options are usually bad for them, just bad in different ways.
Enchantment matters - the broad theme of the Theros block. Auras, enchantment creatures, and cards that reward you for having enchantments in play are woven throughout BNG, continuing the block's identity.

The five intro packs showcase the two-colour pairs that BNG supports, each built around one of the set's non-primary gods or mythic creatures.

Preconstructed products

BNG shipped with five intro packs and one event deck, giving players entry points across the colour pairs.

Intro packs

| Deck Name | Colours | Foil Rare | |---|---|---| | Gifts of the Gods | White / Blue | Silent Sentinel | | Inspiration-Struck | Blue / Black | Arbiter of the Ideal | | Death's Beginning | Black / Green | Eater of Hope | | Forged in Battle | White / Red | Forgestoker Dragon | | Insatiable Hunger | Red / Green | Nessian Wilds Ravager |

Each intro pack was built around its foil rare and designed to introduce the set's mechanics through a playable preconstructed shell.

Event deck

BNG had one event deck - Underworld Herald, a Black deck designed for Friday Night Magic and similar competitive-casual events. Event decks of this era were stronger than intro packs and built to be competitive out of the box, though they typically needed some tuning to keep up with fully optimised Standard lists.

Lore and setting

Born of the Gods continues the story arc begun in Theros. The plane of Theros is a world where the gods are real, ever-present, and actively involved in mortal affairs. They exist in the Nyx - the divine starfield night sky - and their power waxes and wanes with the devotion mortals pay them.

As the name suggests, BNG turns the spotlight toward beings born of divine origin - demigods, monsters, and champions touched by the gods of Theros. The set expands the pantheon beyond the five major gods introduced in THS, introducing the ten minor gods who each represent a two-colour pairing. This is mirrored in the intro pack lineup, which covers all five two-colour combinations.

The broader Theros block story follows the planeswalker Elspeth Tirel, a hero seeking redemption and belonging, navigating a world where the gods' favour is everything and their wrath is catastrophic. Born of the Gods deepens the political and divine tensions that Journey into Nyx will eventually resolve.

Set legacy

Born of the Gods occupies that middle-set space that's easy to overlook when you're looking back at a block. It didn't introduce the sweeping new world of Theros or provide the dramatic conclusion of Journey into Nyx, but it did meaningful work: expanding the pantheon to twenty gods total across the block, introducing inspired and tribute as flavourful mechanics that fit the Greek myth setting, and deepening the enchantment-matters theme that made Theros block distinct.

In my view, tribute is one of the more underrated design ideas from this era. The "your opponent chooses, but both choices are punishing" space is genuinely interesting design, and it shows up in various forms across Magic's history. Inspired, meanwhile, was a solid attempt to create a mechanic that rewards players for building around tapping - an interactive design challenge that's harder to crack than it looks.

The set is also a useful snapshot of what mid-block small sets looked like before Wizards moved away from the block structure entirely in 2018. Born of the Gods is, in some ways, a product of its time - but that makes it a fascinating artifact of how Magic used to be structured, and the Theros setting it helped build has proven beloved enough that Wizards returned to it with Theros Beyond Death (THB) in 2020.