Another take on Green Devotion (with our first version being Devotion to Green (Modern) (NEW)). This take is built around the idea of buliding up devotion to ramp into quick gods (both Xenagos, God of Revels and
Nylea, God of the Hunt
) as well as our beater Gaea's Revenge. The deck has a few lines to victory; but all are meant to occur by turn three or four.
The Win-Cons include:
Gaea's Revenge - This card is an extremely good haste creature in green that can't be countered and pretty much can't be removed by any removal in modern (save Beast Within. With Xenagos, God of Revels help, he is a 16/13 attacker the turn he drops! And it is extremely easy to have 7 mana by turn three or four in this deck.
Xenagos, God of Revels - This god is amazing. He can turn a Leatherback Baloth into an 8/9,a Vengevine into a 8/7 or even a
Nylea, God of the Hunt
into a 12/12. And with the aid of either
Nylea, God of the Hunt
or Kessig Wolf Run; all of these creatures would be trample as well! With the amount of green mana symbols in this deck; Xenagos also becomes a creature in more matches than you would think (as technically his devotion is only one higher than
Nylea, God of the Hunt
's as he accounts for two of his own devotion where she accounts for only one of her's).
Nylea, God of the Hunt
- Nylea works for two reasons; (a) With the amount of devotion that is in the deck, she become an active 6/6 Indestructible creature 75%+ of the time she is on the battlefield and (b) She is an excellent "mana sink". If you build up a ton of mana; and don't have a Kessig Wolf Run on hand; you can use her secondary ability to pump up one of your smaller Haste creatures.
Kessig Wolf Run - While not a new idea; having a Kessig Wolf Run on hand is any green mage's dream when splashing red. Even a late Strangleroot Geist can be a huge threat if you are sitting on 10+ mana :) Doesn't take much explaining, as we've seen this before; however often times it is triggered with X at Zero (simply to give one of the big guys trample) if
Nylea, God of the Hunt
isn't on board.
The rest of the cards are somewhat of a "core" for a devotion build"
Arbor Elf - He untaps Forests and Stomping Grounds that are enchanted with Utopia Sprawl and/or Fertile Ground for super-ramping.
Garruk Wildspeaker - An absolute must in any ramp-devotion deck. HIs +1 can net you TONS of mana (as he can untap any enchanted land as well as Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. His 3/3 wolf token ability is especially useful in this build; as Xenagos, God of Revels can quickly make it a 6/6. And of course, he can be Overrun the turn after he is +1'd which is particularly powerful when many of your creatures have haste.
Elvish Visionary and
Explore
this deck has a little less card draw and a little less ramp than most devotion decks (although it does not have to top out nearly as high thanks to Xenagos) so
Explore
helps smooth this out. Arbor Elf provides +1 devotion along with card draw to keep the engine moving.
Leatherback Baloth - Can block 90% of
tarmogofy
's the moment he drops and adds 3-devotion to our count. He also pairs well with Xenagos, God of Revels where he jumps to 8/9.
Vengevine - Haste is important to this deck (as it wants to kill quickly with high pressure creatures) and the Ram-Gang does this well while adding 2-devotion to our count . It is also extremely resilient. With the amount of low cost cantrips (Elvish Visionary, Abundant Growth, etc.); you often cast two creature spells and can get Vengevine right back for another 4 hastey damage!
Strangleroot Geist - A generally powerful card that fits perfectly into this build. It's resiliency is perfect for a devotion deck (as even if destroyed once, it comes back to continue to add 2-devotion to our devotion count). The haste makes it perfect for the speedy nature of this deck as well.
Utopia Sprawl and Fertile Ground - Simply the best ways to ramp in a devotion deck like this. As enchantments, they still add to devotion; and as mentioned above, the "combo" with both Arbor Elf and Garruk Wildspeaker. In a mono-green devotion deck, we would run four Utopia Sprawls and two Fertile Grounds; however given the red we want to produce; we have gone with three and three.
Also, with Fertile Ground, Utopia Sprawl, and Abundant Growth; you never have an issue getting the red mana you need without running any fetches.
The deck is relatively straight-forward; but we've found it to be quite powerful. While it may not be as consistently "large" or as resilient (due to its lower amount of draw and lack of
Sylvan Scrying
) as our other Devotion build Devotion to Green (Modern) (NEW); it makes up for this with pure SPEED.
Let us know what you think. One of us (we are brothers) has been obsessed with the devotion mechanic lately; and this is one of the three Devotion decks we thought to try. We'd love to hear any suggestions, comments, and or +1's. Thanks in advance for any help provided!
Sample Gold-Fish
Turn One
- Play Forest
- Cast Arbor Elf
Turn Two
- Play Stomping Ground
- Cast Utopia Sprawl (place on Forest)
- Cast Garruk Wildspeaker with enchanted forest (re-tapped with Arbor Elf)
- Untap both lands and cast Leathback Baloth
Cards in Hand = 2Devotion = 7
Turn Three
- Play Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
- Tap enchanted land to trigger Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx for 7 mana.
- Cast Abundant Growth (draw a card)
- Cast Xenagos, God of Revels
- Untap lands with Garruk Wildspeaker - Retap for 9 mana.
- Cast Elvish Visionary (draw a card)
- Cast
Nylea, God of the Hunt
- Attack with Leathback Baloth (now 8/9 Trample due to Xenagos and Nylea's abilities.)
Cards in Hand = 1Devotion = 13
Turn Four
- Play Forest
- Tap Enchanted Land to Trigger Nykthos for 13 mana.
- Cast Gaea's Revenge
- Use
Nylea, God of the Hunt
's secondary ability to give Gaea's Revenge +2/+2
- Attack with everyone.. Give Xenagos, God of Revels bonus to Gaea's Revenge.
- Use Garruk Wildspeaker's Overrun ultimate.
At this point you are attacking with:
a. 10/9 Trample, Indestructible Xenagos, God of Revels
b. 9/9 Trample, Indestructible
Nylea, God of the Hunt
c. 26/23 Haste, Trample Gaea's Revenge
d. 7/8 Trample Leathback Baloth
e. 4/4 Trample Elvish Visionary
f. 4/4 Trample Arbor Elf
60 Power (all Trample) of damage on Turn-4
Needless to say, the combination of all of the pumping abilities along with the ramping and haste in this deck leads to HUGE attacks in very early turns (as early as turn 3). As always, let us know what you think!
