Mono Green (White/Red) Devotion
Posted: Sat May 24, 2014 2:58 pm
Small project I am currently trying to develop in modern. Played around 50 games so far with quite a good results so far (around 60% win percentage so it is quite good in modern) plus I am enjoying it so far. My current deck is different from the "stock" list found on salvation or in articles.
I will try to make this thread later similar to salvations primer with videos and stuff.
Relevant reads:
https://www.starcitygames.com/article/2 ... odern.html
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the- ... thos-green
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/a ... ily/rc/276
http://www.gatheringmagic.com/ jarvisyu ... in-modern/
http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/c ... -devotion/
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/devotion ... -blossoms/
http://www.cmus.cz/dnn/%C4%8Cl%C3%A1nky ... kthos.aspx
Videos:
http://www.twitch.tv/magic/b/494644928?t=77m
Core of the deck:
4 Arbor Elf
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
Good accelerators that combos well together. Arbor elf and Garruk untaps utopia sprawled forest to produce twice a mana. Garruk also have synergy with small
creatures for his overrun ultimatum.
3 Wistful Selkie
4 Eternal Witness
Card advantage and devotion enablers. Some lists use only 2 Selkies, however I found them quite good especially with restoration angels.
4 Primal Command
Our "combo" with eternal witness. From my testing I found that I dont really like genesis wave or Tooth and Nail as they cost too much mana and arent relevant in mid game. They only works when your opponent isnt interracting with you, however even combo decks such as Twin or Storm have ways to interact (Lightning Bolt, remand, etc) so you are stuck with them and watching them winning. Primal Command however can lock your opponent out of the game by bouncing land every turn while slowly getting mana to cast craterhoof or ulti garruk. Another thing is the fact that Primal Command + Witness can be broken to 2 turns and used separately.
3 [card]Primeval Titan[/card:
30sdd7jw]
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
Our creature lategame. Craterhoof wins most games on the spot, Elesh Norn wipes opponents team. Primeval titan fetches relevant lands (Nykthos, Kessig Wolf Run) that lets you win on next turn most of the time.
Cards from above (28 of them) are a core of this deck that mostly are same in every read I linked. Elesh Norn is sometimes 2nd Craterhoof, Xenagod, or other big monster, and number of Selkies floats from 2 to 4.
Lets get into last 2X cards that are currently in my deck.
Additional Mana ramp
3 (0-4) Birds of Paradise
1 (4) Burning-Tree Emissary
1 (0) Lotus Cobra
1 (0) Knight of the Reliquary
Only deck that used Lotus Cobra and Knight of the Reliquary was Petr Brozek's from GP Vienna. Michael Jacob (
DarkestMage on twitch) is another person who was trying out Knight of the Reliquary as an 1 off as an additional tutor target for Primal Command (usuful when you are constricted on mana and cant cast Primeval Titan).
As for Lotus Cobra I am currently testing if I want more of them. They give massive burst of mana (such as potential 8 mana on turn 3).
Birds of Paradise is a last 1 mana accelerator worth bringing into this deck, however a lot of decks mentioned earlier dont bring them. In my testing and experience starting with turn 1 accelerator is crucial, and because of that I settled on 3 Birds of Paradise.
Burning Tree Emissary is a stock 4 off in most decks mentioned earlier. I also started with 4 of them, however they combo of only with Nykthos. Without nykthos they are outclassed by virtually anything. 1 is crucial to fetch with Primal Command when you have nykthos but lacks colored symbols. Having 1 also allows you for turbo starts such as turn 2 Primeval Titan or Turn 3 Elesh Norn.
nLifegain, relevant blockers, card advantage, durable devotion
1 (0) Courser of Cruphix
2 (0) Kitchen Finks
Midrange aproach:
3 (0) Restoration Angel
Blinks card advantage bodies (Eternal Witness, Wistful Selkie), resets Kitchen FInks, protects cards from removal. Good bodies and good blockers that can close a game on their own (with a little bit of help from Kessig Wolf Run). Another thing I notices is the fact, that this deck was previously stone cold to flyers. With restoration angel it isnt the case anymore.
There are of course other midrange cards menioned earlier: Kitchen Finks, Knight of the Reliquary, Courser of Krupnix - cards that are good on their own and works well together.
Time to wrap it up - manabase.
From earlier reads we can see that this deck often have 18-22 lands. Decks with more lands have less accelerators and vice versa. My current aproach
is 20 as I have 11 turn 1 manadorks plus additional 2 mana generators in Knight of the Reliquary and Lotus Cobra. Notice 8 fetchlands to support those 2 cards (as well as Courser of Krupnix, as having option of shuffling bad card from top is quite relevant).
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Stomping Ground
2 Temple Garden
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Forest
Notice red splash here. Only red card I use in main deck is Kessig Wolf Run. From amount of mana this deck can produce, in my oppinion this is better option than Gavony Township, however much less consistent. Sometimes this 1 stomping grounds allows use of relevant sb cards (currenly not there anymore).
From another good read (http://www.channelfireball.com/articles ... ur-spells/) I should have 19 green sources for turn 3 double green card and 22 for tripple green card. With turn 1 Manadork I always have double green on turn 2 and need 19 green sources for trupple green card. I might be scientific person, however I would rather make a simulator than make calculations, so I would love help of others how to build this manabase. Sometimes I feel like having 1 more land(forest) wouldnt be bad choice, however I currently dont know what to cut (probably some cards from flex slots that arent birds of paradise).
Overall I am quite happy from a maindeck, in my oppinion it is within 5 cards from optimal - probably need 1 more land, probably one from lotus cobra and knight of the reliquary is better than the other, probably kitchen finks and courser of kruphix have similar situation, probably 3 Restoration angels are too much).
Sideboard:
As always
sideboard is one of the hardest and most important part of successful deckbuilding. I found the fact, that building sideboard to meta similar to MTGO is the best way. Modern metagame can be found here: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/modern
1 Arena
1 Beast Within
1 Courser of Kruphix
2 Damping Matrix
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Path to Exile
1 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Wolfbriar Elemental
From the top:
Arena is a fightland that is much better now when we have access for bigger bodies. It works around hexproof (as your opponent is choosing target), can prevent
attacking with tapping the target. Works good when creatures are involved. This doesnt produce mana, so never cut lands for it!
Beast Within is catch all removal spell with multiple purposes. Blowing up lands is one thing, however killing your own creature in response to removal, reseting kitchen finks, blowing your own land, etc gives you plenty of options.
Courser of Kruphix is good vs agressive decks where big butt is relevant, and vs lightning bolt decks where keeping devotion high is crucial. Also awsome as a card advantage machine, especially in matchups where keeping mana dork alive is almost impossible.
Damping Matrix is a card I am currently testing as a catch all card vs Twin, Pod and affinity. It might be that it would be better to personalize those matchups to have more slots dedicated to those matchups (such as stony silence vs affinity, etc).
Ghost quarter is additional land that is brought vs decks where keeping manadork alive is really hard. In addition to that, it have some
lategame potential of blowing celestial colonades vs UW or keeping scapeshift of mountains. Works wonder vs Tron with combination of Eternal Witness.
Path to Exile is catch all removal spell. With much harder white splash than before, I merged Dismembers and Combusts to this.
Polukranos, World Eater & Wolfbriar Elemental - in testing I figured out that in some matchups having access for big spell is relevant. I wanted to have Tooth & Nail or Genesis Wave in the sb, however I just thought that maybe big mana sink creature would be better. Here comes those 4 mana monsters. Polukranos is awsome vs small dorky decks, affinity and Jund, where often it is biggest thing on a board, Wolfbriar Elemental is good vs decks that plans 1 for 1 you all the time, such as UWR and Jund.
Scavenging Ooze - good graveyard hate card.
Spellskite - good vs bolt decks, jund, scapeshift, twin.
Thrun, the Last Troll - in testing right now, should be relevant vs blue decks.
Other cards not
in the deck:
[card]Summoner's Pact[/card] - fetching creature that is needed at this specific turn. It however is card disadvantage and blocks your next turn often.
Time of Need - fetches legendary permanents such as Nykthos, Elesh Norn, sb specific legendary hatecards such as Kataki, Linvala, Polukranos.
Both of those cards are much better when placed in sb when we have more relevant hate bears such as Kataki, Linvala, Polukranos, etc.
Stony Silence - good sb card vs affinity, potentially better than Damping Matrix
[card]Kataki, War's Wage[/card] - another good sb card vs affinity. Creature, legendary, good synergy with summoner's pact, time of need, primal command.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence - good sb card vs pod and twin, relevant flying body. Creature, legendary, good synergy with summoner's pact, time of need, primal command.
[card:
30sdd7jw]Summoning Trap[/card] - in previous version of the deck, spells were mostly important, so the were often countered. In this version however, mayority of things we do is connected with creatures. It has cascade effect with eternal witness and restoration angel blinking witness, where you can rebuy Trap and cast it again till you find your haymaker (Hoof, Titan or Elesh).
Cavern of Souls - another way of interacting vs counterspells, similar to trap.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All - much better in heavier spell version of the deck.
Wurmcoil Engine - possible another 6 drop good in midrange fights. Might find place in md / sb.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - good sb card vs storm, Creature, legendary, good synergy with summoner's pact, time of need, primal command.
Thorn of Ametyst - similar to Thala, but permanent
[card]Rest in
Peace[/card] - anti graveyard card, however no synergy with eternal witness
Wheel of Sun and Moon - anti graveyard card, have synergy with a deck with eternal witness and nykthos, however not a good topdeck similar to rest in peace.
Those are cards that might be placed later, needs more testing and thoughts what is needed (as well as making sb plans vs most decks to see how many slots we have).
Finally, decklist:
[deck]
4 Arbor Elf
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Birds of Paradise
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Eternal Witness
3 Wistful Selkie
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Restoration Angel
4 Primal Command
3 Primeval Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
Lands
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Forest
2 Temple Garden
1 Stomping Ground
1 Kessig Wolf Run
Sideboard
2 Damping Matrix
2
Ghost Quarter
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Wolfbriar Elemental
1 Beast Within
1 Spellskite
3 Path to Exile
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Arena
[/deck]
I will try to make this thread later similar to salvations primer with videos and stuff.
Relevant reads:
https://www.starcitygames.com/article/2 ... odern.html
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the- ... thos-green
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/a ... ily/rc/276
http://www.gatheringmagic.com/ jarvisyu ... in-modern/
http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/c ... -devotion/
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/devotion ... -blossoms/
http://www.cmus.cz/dnn/%C4%8Cl%C3%A1nky ... kthos.aspx
Videos:
http://www.twitch.tv/magic/b/494644928?t=77m
Core of the deck:
4 Arbor Elf
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
Good accelerators that combos well together. Arbor elf and Garruk untaps utopia sprawled forest to produce twice a mana. Garruk also have synergy with small
creatures for his overrun ultimatum.
3 Wistful Selkie
4 Eternal Witness
Card advantage and devotion enablers. Some lists use only 2 Selkies, however I found them quite good especially with restoration angels.
4 Primal Command
Our "combo" with eternal witness. From my testing I found that I dont really like genesis wave or Tooth and Nail as they cost too much mana and arent relevant in mid game. They only works when your opponent isnt interracting with you, however even combo decks such as Twin or Storm have ways to interact (Lightning Bolt, remand, etc) so you are stuck with them and watching them winning. Primal Command however can lock your opponent out of the game by bouncing land every turn while slowly getting mana to cast craterhoof or ulti garruk. Another thing is the fact that Primal Command + Witness can be broken to 2 turns and used separately.
3 [card]Primeval Titan[/card:
30sdd7jw]
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
Our creature lategame. Craterhoof wins most games on the spot, Elesh Norn wipes opponents team. Primeval titan fetches relevant lands (Nykthos, Kessig Wolf Run) that lets you win on next turn most of the time.
Cards from above (28 of them) are a core of this deck that mostly are same in every read I linked. Elesh Norn is sometimes 2nd Craterhoof, Xenagod, or other big monster, and number of Selkies floats from 2 to 4.
Lets get into last 2X cards that are currently in my deck.
Additional Mana ramp
3 (0-4) Birds of Paradise
1 (4) Burning-Tree Emissary
1 (0) Lotus Cobra
1 (0) Knight of the Reliquary
Only deck that used Lotus Cobra and Knight of the Reliquary was Petr Brozek's from GP Vienna. Michael Jacob (
DarkestMage on twitch) is another person who was trying out Knight of the Reliquary as an 1 off as an additional tutor target for Primal Command (usuful when you are constricted on mana and cant cast Primeval Titan).
As for Lotus Cobra I am currently testing if I want more of them. They give massive burst of mana (such as potential 8 mana on turn 3).
Birds of Paradise is a last 1 mana accelerator worth bringing into this deck, however a lot of decks mentioned earlier dont bring them. In my testing and experience starting with turn 1 accelerator is crucial, and because of that I settled on 3 Birds of Paradise.
Burning Tree Emissary is a stock 4 off in most decks mentioned earlier. I also started with 4 of them, however they combo of only with Nykthos. Without nykthos they are outclassed by virtually anything. 1 is crucial to fetch with Primal Command when you have nykthos but lacks colored symbols. Having 1 also allows you for turbo starts such as turn 2 Primeval Titan or Turn 3 Elesh Norn.
nLifegain, relevant blockers, card advantage, durable devotion
1 (0) Courser of Cruphix
2 (0) Kitchen Finks
Midrange aproach:
3 (0) Restoration Angel
Blinks card advantage bodies (Eternal Witness, Wistful Selkie), resets Kitchen FInks, protects cards from removal. Good bodies and good blockers that can close a game on their own (with a little bit of help from Kessig Wolf Run). Another thing I notices is the fact, that this deck was previously stone cold to flyers. With restoration angel it isnt the case anymore.
There are of course other midrange cards menioned earlier: Kitchen Finks, Knight of the Reliquary, Courser of Krupnix - cards that are good on their own and works well together.
Time to wrap it up - manabase.
From earlier reads we can see that this deck often have 18-22 lands. Decks with more lands have less accelerators and vice versa. My current aproach
is 20 as I have 11 turn 1 manadorks plus additional 2 mana generators in Knight of the Reliquary and Lotus Cobra. Notice 8 fetchlands to support those 2 cards (as well as Courser of Krupnix, as having option of shuffling bad card from top is quite relevant).
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Stomping Ground
2 Temple Garden
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Forest
Notice red splash here. Only red card I use in main deck is Kessig Wolf Run. From amount of mana this deck can produce, in my oppinion this is better option than Gavony Township, however much less consistent. Sometimes this 1 stomping grounds allows use of relevant sb cards (currenly not there anymore).
From another good read (http://www.channelfireball.com/articles ... ur-spells/) I should have 19 green sources for turn 3 double green card and 22 for tripple green card. With turn 1 Manadork I always have double green on turn 2 and need 19 green sources for trupple green card. I might be scientific person, however I would rather make a simulator than make calculations, so I would love help of others how to build this manabase. Sometimes I feel like having 1 more land(forest) wouldnt be bad choice, however I currently dont know what to cut (probably some cards from flex slots that arent birds of paradise).
Overall I am quite happy from a maindeck, in my oppinion it is within 5 cards from optimal - probably need 1 more land, probably one from lotus cobra and knight of the reliquary is better than the other, probably kitchen finks and courser of kruphix have similar situation, probably 3 Restoration angels are too much).
Sideboard:
As always
sideboard is one of the hardest and most important part of successful deckbuilding. I found the fact, that building sideboard to meta similar to MTGO is the best way. Modern metagame can be found here: http://www.mtggoldfish.com/metagame/modern
1 Arena
1 Beast Within
1 Courser of Kruphix
2 Damping Matrix
2 Ghost Quarter
3 Path to Exile
1 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Spellskite
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Wolfbriar Elemental
From the top:
Arena is a fightland that is much better now when we have access for bigger bodies. It works around hexproof (as your opponent is choosing target), can prevent
attacking with tapping the target. Works good when creatures are involved. This doesnt produce mana, so never cut lands for it!
Beast Within is catch all removal spell with multiple purposes. Blowing up lands is one thing, however killing your own creature in response to removal, reseting kitchen finks, blowing your own land, etc gives you plenty of options.
Courser of Kruphix is good vs agressive decks where big butt is relevant, and vs lightning bolt decks where keeping devotion high is crucial. Also awsome as a card advantage machine, especially in matchups where keeping mana dork alive is almost impossible.
Damping Matrix is a card I am currently testing as a catch all card vs Twin, Pod and affinity. It might be that it would be better to personalize those matchups to have more slots dedicated to those matchups (such as stony silence vs affinity, etc).
Ghost quarter is additional land that is brought vs decks where keeping manadork alive is really hard. In addition to that, it have some
lategame potential of blowing celestial colonades vs UW or keeping scapeshift of mountains. Works wonder vs Tron with combination of Eternal Witness.
Path to Exile is catch all removal spell. With much harder white splash than before, I merged Dismembers and Combusts to this.
Polukranos, World Eater & Wolfbriar Elemental - in testing I figured out that in some matchups having access for big spell is relevant. I wanted to have Tooth & Nail or Genesis Wave in the sb, however I just thought that maybe big mana sink creature would be better. Here comes those 4 mana monsters. Polukranos is awsome vs small dorky decks, affinity and Jund, where often it is biggest thing on a board, Wolfbriar Elemental is good vs decks that plans 1 for 1 you all the time, such as UWR and Jund.
Scavenging Ooze - good graveyard hate card.
Spellskite - good vs bolt decks, jund, scapeshift, twin.
Thrun, the Last Troll - in testing right now, should be relevant vs blue decks.
Other cards not
in the deck:
[card]Summoner's Pact[/card] - fetching creature that is needed at this specific turn. It however is card disadvantage and blocks your next turn often.
Time of Need - fetches legendary permanents such as Nykthos, Elesh Norn, sb specific legendary hatecards such as Kataki, Linvala, Polukranos.
Both of those cards are much better when placed in sb when we have more relevant hate bears such as Kataki, Linvala, Polukranos, etc.
Stony Silence - good sb card vs affinity, potentially better than Damping Matrix
[card]Kataki, War's Wage[/card] - another good sb card vs affinity. Creature, legendary, good synergy with summoner's pact, time of need, primal command.
Linvala, Keeper of Silence - good sb card vs pod and twin, relevant flying body. Creature, legendary, good synergy with summoner's pact, time of need, primal command.
[card:
30sdd7jw]Summoning Trap[/card] - in previous version of the deck, spells were mostly important, so the were often countered. In this version however, mayority of things we do is connected with creatures. It has cascade effect with eternal witness and restoration angel blinking witness, where you can rebuy Trap and cast it again till you find your haymaker (Hoof, Titan or Elesh).
Cavern of Souls - another way of interacting vs counterspells, similar to trap.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All - much better in heavier spell version of the deck.
Wurmcoil Engine - possible another 6 drop good in midrange fights. Might find place in md / sb.
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben - good sb card vs storm, Creature, legendary, good synergy with summoner's pact, time of need, primal command.
Thorn of Ametyst - similar to Thala, but permanent
[card]Rest in
Peace[/card] - anti graveyard card, however no synergy with eternal witness
Wheel of Sun and Moon - anti graveyard card, have synergy with a deck with eternal witness and nykthos, however not a good topdeck similar to rest in peace.
Those are cards that might be placed later, needs more testing and thoughts what is needed (as well as making sb plans vs most decks to see how many slots we have).
Finally, decklist:
[deck]
4 Arbor Elf
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Birds of Paradise
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Eternal Witness
3 Wistful Selkie
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Restoration Angel
4 Primal Command
3 Primeval Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
Lands
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Forest
2 Temple Garden
1 Stomping Ground
1 Kessig Wolf Run
Sideboard
2 Damping Matrix
2
Ghost Quarter
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Wolfbriar Elemental
1 Beast Within
1 Spellskite
3 Path to Exile
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Arena
[/deck]