So the Sinful Devils must rotate and evolve with the coming of Kaladesh. This drops 12 slots from the Mainboard and 5 slots from the Sideboard with the loss of
Embermaw Hellion
, Impact Tremors,
Molten Vortex
, Pyromancer's Goggles,
Rending Volley
, and
Roast
. I'm the most upset over the loss of the Hellion and the Tremors, but I think I can still pull off an update that will work out in a different way and maintain flavor.
The best replacement for Impact Tremors turned out to be Zulaport Cutthroat, but it does the extra damage on their way off the board instead of on impact. This changes things a bit. The nice part about this is that you are gaining life as well, but the downside is that I'd have to splash Black. Well, things have to change and the tribe must be willing to accept new members, so I started thinking about what else in Black can work with this.
The answer was Demon of Dark Schemes. Not only does the name fit marvelously but his abilities do too. He can force the death of all tokens along with things from your opponent's board. They lose 1 life per Zulaport on the table for each creature that dies, and another 1 per Devil token death trigger. Of course you could use the death trigger to pick off other creatures that are already weakened by the mass -2/-2. You should gain enough energy from the death triggers on the Demon to start buying back creatures from your graveyard. Did your opponent make you discard a Combustible Gearhulk? That's ok, just buy him back with the Demon for 4 energy and 3 mana to get it's ETB effect anyway! It does come in tapped so you can't use it to block, but you will either get to draw 3 cards or drop 3 cards from the top of your library for anywhere between 0-18 damage (combined CMC of the three cards). Absolute value right there. You could even buy back another Demon that same turn to give the surviving creatures another -2/-2 which leaves the board mostly empty except you now have two 5/5 Flyers that should be able to just attack and win the next turn. That's a dirty trick. I love it.
Now, about that Gearhulk. I absolutely love how it mimics the decision posed by the Sinful Devil. The huge difference is that they don't get to see what the cards are before deciding. This could lead to a poor lethal decision as early as turn 4. This assumes that you played a Vessel of Volatility on turn 2, a
Sin Prodder
on turn 3, and then a Gearhulk on turn 4. This also assumes that both times they were asked if you should keep the card(s) or bury them the choice was to bury and the CMC of those 4 cards were greater than 20. You may even get to attack with that Sin Prodder and go unblocked because of Menace so you have a little wiggle room. Either way, if they survive they should be in a pretty bad place if that's how it went down.
A new opponent that doesn't know you are running a ton of high cost cards will learn quickly that you should always choose to make me keep the cards unless the Prodder reveals land. This will give me the advantage of drawing a lot of cards, but it could draw me too many cards and force me to discard. It's a tough decision because the Gearhulk could just end up drawing me up to three lands and then I'm set to play anything in the deck over the next few turns. Mind games are fun.
The final change is the addition of
Diabolic Edict
which can be anything from drawing that winning card you are looking for to a very expensive land grab. Either way it's a good card with a fitting name and with 4 CMC it adds to the "decision" damage. I think it's a worthy addition.
Flameblade Angel
is still a great 4/4 body in the air that discourages your opponent from blocking your tokens or even attacking into your tokens. Attacking with 4 tokens for example left unblocked deals 4 damage. If those tokens got blocked to "avoid" this damage, they take 4 damage anyway from the Angel and then when the tokens die they either take another 4 or you can spread out that damage to take down a 4 toughness creature or pick off a few smaller creatures. More decisions your opponent has to make that are difficult. This of course pairs very well with
Dance with Devils
since you can drop two tokens at instant speed before declaring defenders and deal that damage unexpectedly. Even better if you have a Cutthroat as well.
Impetuous Devils
pair nicely with the Cutthroats too since they aren't exiled at the end of the turn but just sacrificed. This triggers the loss/gain effect as well as giving you an energy if you have a Demon out. It also pairs well with the Angel because you can force a creature to block it so they take 1 damage no matter what. It's a great turn 4 move for a burst of damage that can pick down your opponents creatures one at a time. Unfortunately when the Demon buys back a creature it comes in tapped so there's no way to buy them back and attack. Too bad. That would have been amazing.
Nothing can replace casting Devils' Playground with Pyromancer's Goggles to create 8 Devil tokens and cause 8 Impact Tremors and possibly doubled with
Embermaw Hellion
adding an extra damage to each one for 16 damage all at once on turn 5. Since all of those cards are gone it just makes 4 tokens and nothing else. However, as another 6 CMC card it can be devastating if you drop one or two to a Gearhulk. Since the tokens themselves still get a lot of work done with the rest of the deck I couldn't part with this one.
I'd considered adding Bomat Courier as a one drop but with testing I found that losing more cards wasn't ideal. The Prodder and Gearhulk can actually end up milling you by burning your library at an alarming rate, especially if your opponent keeps multiple Prodders on the board and can sustain themselves with defenders and lifegain or something. It's nice to start the game with quick damage, but it'll probably only get one or two free hits in before waiting to run down your hand to replace it with those one or two exiled cards. Not as good as I wanted it to be. Too bad.
I also do not have a 5 drop anymore without the
Embermaw Hellion
or Pyromancer's Goggles. This mostly means that I do not have a good bomb to drop on turn 3 with a Vessel of Volatility, but I can play a two and three cost card together if I wanted to, or just wait until turn 4 and drop a 6 cost card like a Gearhulk or Angel. Playground isn't a bad choice either. It would be too fast to make good use of the Demon drop, that should pretty much be hard cast on turn 6 or later (especially if you dropped those 4 tokens on turn 4 and used a
Make Mischief
on turn 5 along with dropping a Zulaport Cutthroat).
Before anyone flips out at a Rakdos deck featuring cards from Kaladesh not Mainboarding Unlicensed Disintegration, keep in mind that the only artifact in the Main board is the Gearhulk. I know you can still just destroy a creature with it and it would probably be a better 3 drop than
Make Mischief
, but I'm more about flavor in the Main board and the token with the extra ping damage from Mischief can actually end up doing more than 3 damage simply by having a Zulaport Cutthroat. Having a body to block an attack from the thing you might want to kill and have it punish the other player is more on theme for this deck anyway. It's not as terrible of a decision as it may seem, and I stand behind it.
The other sideboard changes include the addition of
Malevolent Whispers
. This is nice for stealing a fatty like an Eldrazi to use against your opponent before they get to attack you. This pairs very well with Bone Splinters since for 5 mana you can steal and buff an opponent's creature, attack with it along with the rest of your creatures, and then sacrifice it before giving it back while also killing another one their remaining creatures. It's the ultimate slap in the face that works well against slower decks that don't flood the board with smaller creatures and try to get the job done with bigger creatures. The cool part is that you could do this to a Gearhulk that your opponent may be using and then for 3 mana and 4 energy your Demon can buy their Gearhulk out of their graveyard and give you their ETB effect. Hilarious.
Spark of Creativity
turns the tables a little bit and allows you to look at the top card and decide whether to play it or burn the hell out of a creature. For one mana this is likely to do 4 or 6 damage which is huge. The option to play the card is nice. Side this in if you are having trouble getting past defenses. One copy of
Eliminate the Competition
allows you to blow up a ton of Devil tokens to straight up kill that many creatures on your opponents board which will at the very least set off the death trigger from each of those tokens, but hopefully you also have a Cutthroat to double up the damage to your opponent and gain you some life. Could be an amazing swing in your favor and should only need to be used the once. Diabolic Tutor makes sure it's there exactly when you need it.
And there it is, the charred remains of Sinful Devils. It takes on a slightly different play style, but the added life gain from Zulaport Cutthroat will help keep you in the game and the other additions in Black add a board wipe, reanimation, and Tutor. I am satisfied with these changes and can't wait to try them out after the actual release in a few days.
Thanks for reading, let me know what you think in the comments. If you haven't seen it or wish to pay your respects to Sinful Devils, check it out here:
Standard Hobbez9186
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