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Pilgrimage to Theros

Commander / EDH Casual Devotion Enchantment Jank

projectneptune

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Land (36)

Instant (1)

Creature (32)

Sorcery (4)

Commander (1)

Commander: The Prismatic Bridge  Flip

Enchantment (20)

Artifact (6)

Maybeboard

Enchantment (6)

Creature (2)

Land (1)

EDIT: Obviously this deck is no longer valid since the Golos ban. Esika will be the new commander.

Golos is on a pilgrimage to the plane of Theros to have its prayers answered. Will Golos reach Theros or will Golos's enemies thwart its plans? Win by slowly amassing indestructible enchantments and becoming a devoted follower.

Welcome

With a return to Theros around the corner, I thought it might be an appropriate time to unveil my God / Devotion / Enchantment jank deck.

Overview

Who says a colorless artifact creature can't be at the helm of a 5-color devotion/enchantment deck? It's a hilarious juxtaposition, but Golos, Tireless Pilgrim is one of the better fits for the commander. We get a fairly diverse toolbox at our disposal:

Casual? Inconsistent, but resilient. Probably what you'd expect from a 5-color devotion/enchantment theros-themed Frankenstein of a deck. Golos certainly helps to smooth things out but I still find the early game to be all over the place.
  1. You play in a casual/battlecruiser environment. This deck has a very unstable board state given it's strong enchantment theme (less creatures) and the devotion mechanic in a 5-color deck, and it'll take several turns (maybe turn 7 or 8) to have the defenses up.
  2. You enjoy the Theros Gods and the cards that are on theme
  3. You like enchantments
  4. You like Timmy/Johnny plays
  5. You get just as much enjoyment out of a game when you lose, as long as you got to do cool shit
  6. You don't mind decks that skew towards "solitare". Once you reach a critical mass of enchantresses / mana doublers you can drop like 10 cards in a turn
1. You want a competitive deck / play in a competitive environment 2. Having a deck that completely flops in a game or two (or three...) is unacceptable 3. You prefer decks with a lot of interaction

The 99

Disclaimer

It's important to note that a lot of the card choices are intentionally "suboptimal" and that's to ensure we have a healthy mix of both enchantments and devotion-enablers while also rounding out the functional groups of the deck.

Not a functional group but I wanted to address this first since they are the thematic focus of this deck. Having the 15 Theros gods in the deck gives you a long list of unique effects. Their Dictates and weapons are also useful to some degree but I've had to remove some.

Athreos, God of Passage - Lifedrain; recursion (rare)

Athreos, Shroud-Veiled - Recursion; theft

Ephara, God of the Polis - Card draw

Erebos, God of the Dead - Card Draw; prevent lifegain

Heliod, God of the Sun - Gives your other creatures vigilance; creates creature tokens (enchantments)

Iroas, God of Victory - Gives your creature menace; prevents all damage to your attacking creatures

Karametra, God of Harvests - Ramp

Keranos, God of Storms - 33% card draw; 66% lightning bolt

Klothys, God of Destiny - Graveyard hate, ramp; lifegain/burn

Kruphix, God of Horizons - No max hand size; mana doesn't empty from pool

Mogis, God of Slaughter - 2 damage to player or sac a creature

Nylea, God of the Hunt - Gives your other creatures trample; can pump one creature

Pharika, God of Affliction - Graveyard hate; can create creature tokens (enchantments)

Phenax, God of Deception - Mill

Purphoros, God of the Forge - 2 damage to each player when your creatures ETB.

Thassa, God of the Sea - Scry; Makes a creature unblockable

Xenagos, God of Revels - Gives one creature haste and gives them +X/+X where X is their power

Dictate of Karametra / Dictate of Kruphix / Dictate of the Twin Gods - mana doubler, draw an extra card, damage doubler

Bident of Thassa / Bow of Nylea / Hammer of Purphoros / Whip of Erebos - Card draw, deathtouch, lifelink, haste, goad, token generator, recursion, pump a creature, ping a flying creature, life gain, move cards from your GY to library

Prototypical 5-color mana base, albeit a little greedy. I don't plan on talking about every land choice here. I'll note that the Zendikar fetches are not included for price reasons--I have the 5 Tarkir fetches, Verdant Catacombs and Prismatic Vista. I used to run the 5 mirage fetches (e.g. Bad River but the ETB tapped really hurt the deck.

Command Tower / Exotic Orchard / Mana Confluence / Reflecting Pool / Grand Coliseum / Gateway Plaza / card:Ruptured Spire - Rainbow Lands in order of preference.

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx / Serra's Sanctum - Both of these had to be included in a enchantment+devotion deck.

Cascading Cataracts - Helps with the WURBG constraint on Golos's ability as well as several of our spells. Indestructible makes it a fun target for Genju of the Realm.

Hall of Heliod's Generosity - Low opportunity cost enchantment recursion if we're in a pinch

Herald of the Pantheon - Supports the enchantment theme; flavorful (sidelined)

Trace of Abundance - Enchantment; good value for devotion. The shroud is not completely irrelevant either as we have a few lands that are easy removal targets for land hate.

Altar of the Pantheon - 5-color devotion; Perfectly on theme for our Gods.

Dryad of the Ilysian Grove - Enchantment; Exploration + Prismatic Omen on one card for 3 mana?

Sanctum Weaver - A second Serra's Sanctum on a body

Smothering Tithe - Hopefully no explanation needed

Dictate of Karametra - Flashing this in at end of turn can lead to a huge play with Golos / Sunbird's Invocation; flavorful

The Prismatic Bridge / Esika, God of the Tree   - We'd prefer to use the backside of this card for its insane value, but using the front face is fine if it's in our opening hand

Golos, Tireless Pilgrim - Fetches any land

Honorable mentions

Klothys, God of Destiny - Can typically serve as ramp early on if people have been cracking fetchlands (including us)

Karametra, God of Harvests - It's nice that our other gods will trigger this even if they don't ETB as a creature

Argothian Enchantress / Enchantress's Presence / Satyr Enchanter / Setessan Champion / Sythis, Harvest's Hand - Your standard "play an enchantment, draw a card" effect.

Dictate of Kruphix - Draw an extra card per turn.

Bident of Thassa / Kestia, the Cultivator (sidelined) - Combat-related draw triggers

Erebos, God of the Dead - Pay life and mana to draw at instant speed

Honorable mentions

Keranos, God of Storms - Draws 1/3 a card a turn

Courser of Kruphix - psuedo-draw

Detention Sphere - Spot removal; and also checks our enchantment and devotion boxes

Doomwake Giant - Can do work on low-toughness creatures

Wrath of God / Blasphemous Act - Two flavorful board wipes that don't hit our gods

Honorable mentions

Keranos, God of Storms - Casting a lighning bolt every 2 out of 3 turns ain't bad

Bow of Nylea - Kind of narrow, but it's there if you need it

Replenish - This is the star in the recursion category. Can be replaced with Open the Vaults as a budget option with little downside.

Starfield of Nyx - Returns an enchantment to the battlefield on each of our upkeeps.

Hall of Heliod's Generosity - Puts an enchantment card on top of our library. A low opportunity cost land.

Whip of Erebos - Returns a creature card from our to the battlefield for one turn. More useful for the lifelink.

Honorable mentions

Nightmare Shepherd - psuedo-recursion.

Athreos, Shroud-Veiled - Kinda recursion, kinda psuedo-indestructible. Can be used to prevent one of our creatures from being permanently removed or to steal an opponents creature.

Athreos, God of Passage - I see Athreos as more of a lifedrain tool than a recursion tool.

Enlightened Tutor - No surprise here

Sterling Grove - Gives shroud to all our enchantments, and can be cracked as a tutor. Recurrable with Hanna / Starfield of Nyx / Hall of Heliod

Academy Rector - No surprise here

Idyllic Tutor - No surprise here

Seeing how this deck is not very focused, a lot of the cards fall into the "Utility" bucket.

Bonds of Mortality - Only we can be God. Fits perfectly as a cheap enchantment that replaces itself

Agent of Erebos - Exile a GY when an enchantment ETB

Helm of the Gods - Fun card for this deck, and perfectly on our theme

Chromanticore - Enchantment with WUBRG devotion

Genju of the Realm - Enchantment with WUBRG devotion, and can be a sizable threat

Courser of Kruphix - Dig deeper by playing lands from the top of your library

Faith Healer - My pet card. Instant speed sac of any of our pieces that is about to get exiled / stolen / buried.

Maelstrom Archangel - WUBRG flying angel that can cast spells out of our hand for free

Privileged Position - Great protection. Can setup an impenetrable boardstate with this and Sterline Grove

Maelstrom Nexus - Insane value

The Prismatic Bridge - Insane value

Sunbird's Invocation - Insane value

Estrid's Invocation - Just a fun card. Can setup for some ridiculous plays.

Propaganda - Solid Protection. We are going with the blue version of Ghostly Prison to balance out the devotion.

Omniscience - Can dump buckets of value onto the battlefield

Sigil of the Empty Throne - Insane value. Get a 4/4 angel everytime you cast an enchantment

Replenish - Can give us a winning board state with 4 mana.

Nylea's Colossus - Dropping just 2 enchantments onto the battlefield can bring some of our threats into 1-shot territory.

Starfield of Nyx - It's a risky play, but you can turn all our basic enchantments into creatures.

Phenax, God of Deception - Mill, if that's your thing

Strategies / Synergies

Phenax, God of Deception + Replenish - Mill yourself for 20 then bring all the enchantments back

Nylea's Colossus +

Phenax, God of Deception + Nylea's Colossus - If we can't break through with combat damage, we can always mill them.

Golos, Tireless Pilgrim + Enlightened Tutor / Sterling Grove / Hall of Heliod's Generosity - Putting any enchantment on the top of our library before a Golos activation

Sunbird's Invocation + Argothian Enchantress / Enchantress's Presence / etc. - Since we mostly have enchantments, we'll typically get two draw triggers here to keep the chain going. Throw in a Dictate of Karametra to push it over the top.

Sunbird's Invocation + Sigil of the Empty Throne / Nylea's Colossus / Doomwake Giant - Allows us to get 4+ enchantment ETB triggers per turn

Faith Healer + Replenish - Sac all of our enchantments for X life and bring them all back

Privileged Position + Sterling Grove - Gives all of our enchantments hexproof/shroud, and gives all our other permanents hexproof

Estrid's Invocation - Can double up most of the effects listed above and switch from turn to turn as our board state changes. Have two Smothering Tithes for one turn, then switch it to Sunbird's Invocation / Maelstrom Nexus / Dictate of Karametra on the next turn. Or have two of Privileged Position / Sterling Grove.

Starfield of Nyx + Replenish - Build up an army for 4 mana

Mostly depends on what our board state currently looks like.

Omniscience - Best time to target this is when Golos's activation is on the stack

Sunbird's Invocation / Dictate of Karametra - Setup for an explosive turn

Maelstrom Nexus / Chromanticore / Genju of the Realm - Good targets if we're at a critical mass of Gods on the board and we want to turn them online.

Dictate of the Twin Gods / Hammer of Purphoros - Good targets if our board state is more combat-centric.

Devotion to turn God(s) online - If 1 or 2 Gods are a couple mana symbols away from being a creature, you can consider tutoring for a permanent that would turn them online

Deck Building considerations

Fingers crossed for a 5-color God in the new Theros: Beyond Death set but I'm not holding my breath.

Ramos, Dragon Engine and card:Morphon, the Boundless help with casting spells.

Once upon a time, this deck was strictly "God tribal" and Karona, False God was the obvious choice for the commander. The Theros gods and the Amonkhet gods didn't play nice at all and the deck was all over the map. When I took out the 8 Amonkhet gods and the strict tribal support, I switched focus to Enchantment / Devotion and it was much more enjoyable for me.

Niv-Mizzet Reborn can get us more gas and is a sizable threat by himself.

Progenitus might be the best thematic choice choice (and is essentially a God), but has a steep cost to cast. This is probably my second choice behind Golos, as it is a wincon by itself if nothing else is working.

Other than what's on the Maybeboard already...

Abundant Growth, etc. - I could have jammed 8 of these effects into the deck and the deck would probably be more consistent but I wanted to have more "fun" cards

Hanna, Ship's Navigator - A very recent cut. Returns any enchantment/artifact to our hand. I found that it was useless early game, gets eaten by removal/wipes too consistently, and I have more efficient ways to spend 3 extra mana late game. Hanna + Sterling Grove is quite silly, however.

Luminarch Ascension - The condition of "not losing life" means you're too obvious a target for chip damage. Otherwise, this would be a more self-sustaining Sigil of the Empty Throne

Opalescence - I think Starfield of Nyx is risky enough as it is, but this might fit your style.

Grasp of Fate - Seems strictly better than Detention Sphere since you'd get a 3-for-1, and arguably better than Decimate since it's an enchantment. I probably will end up substituting this in for Decimate, however the "temporary" removal of the most dangerous threat from each player seems more risky.

Trace of Abundance - Not sure if the shroud/enchantment/devotion justifies taking up one of our 2-mana ramp cards. Something like Weirding Wood or hell Abundant Growth could be a better fit to keep the engine going.

Oath of Lieges - Enchantment ramp; I also find that this is generally not targeted by opponents because it's viewed as "symmetrical" even though we benefit quite a bit from it since we have the least land ramp.

Dance of the Manse - Recently printed card, could be good value.

Unfulfilled Desires - Could be a potent combo with Replenish already in our hand.

Wild Research - A repeatable Gamble for instants or enchantments.

Spirit of Resistance - Hinges on us having all 5 colors out, but has a very potent effect. A high risk, high reward version of Ghostly Prison.

Fevered Visions - Similar effect to Spiteful Visions with red/blue devotion.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Theros: Beyond Death changes — Feb. 1, 2020
Edit

I'm still considering a lot of the new cards but these are the swaps so far:

Debtors' Knell -> Athreos, Shroud-Veiled: Serves a similar function but it's also a God so bonus points

Herald of the Pantheon -> Klothys, God of Destiny: Serves a similar function but it's also a God so bonus points.

Eidolon of Blossoms -> Setessan Champion: This might just be a flavor of the month swap. Setessan Champion is the latest enchantress and the +1/+1 mechanic will make it a decent threat. Eidolon is my weakest enchantress. If I don't have enough enchantresses I'll put Eidolon back in.

Bring to Light -> Idyllic Tutor: Serves a similar function, but is more reliable. Bring to Light could fetch any of the gods as well as some key creatures/sorceries, but it just makes more sense to have an enchantment tutor in an enchantment deck.

Dictate of Erebos -> Dryad of the Ilysian Grove: I just had to put Dryad in when I saw the spoilers, and Dictate of Erebos is a card I just don't play when I have it in hand.

Farseek -> Altar of the Pantheon: Farseek is the last of the traditional ramp cards. I've already had success with Altar in the first game with it... the devotion and the lifegain can both help.

Krosan Verge -> Verdant Catacombs: Krosan Verge was too slow

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Date added 6 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

26 - 0 Mythic Rares

61 - 0 Rares

3 - 0 Uncommons

5 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.95
Tokens Angel 4/4 W, Copy Clone, Enchantment Cleric 2/1 W, Enchantment Golem 3/3 C, Enchantment Snake 1/1 BG, Treasure
Folders .EDH decks built, for review
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