How has encrust been working for you? Personally I prefer Singing Bell Strike, but with a devotion shell I can see why you'd be running it.
February 8, 2015 5:46 a.m.
Dr-Electrik says... #3
As long as the format has a meta playing a solid number of dooomwakes and drown in sorrow. I can't see this deck being competitive. The removal against is just too good. This deck would also have fits against the new kid on the block, temur aggro. Maybe we see a resurgence with cards from dragons but until then. Mono devotion will remain in the teir 2 and below.
February 8, 2015 9:01 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #4
So I decided to play a best out of 5 game between this deck and a green devotion deck much like this one. Here is what I saw.
1- The weenies don't really do much unless you have Hall of Triumph out, because it pretty much doubles their power. Otherwise, you only deal insignificant amounts of damage that don't really make a difference in the game.
2- If you don't get out one of your win-cons out, you lose. Seems pretty obvious, right? Unfortunately, I think that your weenies, unless they get boosted by Hall of Triumph, can't win the game, because after turn 3 or 4, they were needed to block bigger creatures that would have ended the game for you.
3- I think that there are a tiny bit too many lands. This deck can honestly win with 3 lands, 4 is optional. A lot of the time, I was pretty much plagued by mana (sometimes around 6 or 7 lands in a game) when I really didn't need it.
So what I would change is:
Less lands (maybe down to 21)
More Hall of Triumph because it can really win games
Some card draw - First of all, you're playing blue. That should be enough of an excuse. Second of all, because you have so many weenies, you are often down to a hand size of 1 or 2 by turn 3. To win with weenies, you have to have a lot of them, not just the 2 or 3 that came with your hand. Something like Divination or Font of Fortunes (the last one helps devotion anyways) would really be handy.
Hope I helped you!
February 8, 2015 9:45 a.m.
bloodshed343 says... #5
Play testing with my Budget Standard Monoblue Devotion (which went 3-0 at fnm, though the list isn't up to date) shows that Ordeal of Thassa is a must-play in this deck. If you protect your Triton Shorestalker with Triton Tactics and Thassa's Rebuff, the damage can win a game before your opponent draws a threat.
Military Intelligence also proved it's worth. In many games I was able to drop a creature every turn and ramp it up with Ordeal of Thassa after drawing out all of my opponent's removal. The card drawing from the ordeals was icing.
Cloudform didn't work out well enough to play more than 2 for me.
February 8, 2015 11:42 a.m.
manuterraboy says... #6
I played a deck like this one last FNM. However was a disaster, I played against 3 Mono - Red and they just f***ed me.
February 8, 2015 12:06 p.m.
@ manuterraboyOmg 3 mono-red in a row!? What a boring meta...
My meta is very cool, 2 Abzan aggro, 1 Abzan control, 1 U/B control, 1 Sultai Ramp, 1 G/R monsters, 1 Mardu midrange, 1 mardu aggro, 1 jeskai tempo, and me who plays Sidisi Whip. As you can see it's very diversified and competitive!
You have to adapt to your local meta, if you wanna have some fun you have to win a game out of two at least... High toughness and lifelink is the way to go against those annoying mono-red. Abzan is the way to go as they're the clan with the best ''toughness to mana cost ratio'' and multiple ways to gain life back. I don't know about your budget, but Abzan is 50% of MTGtop8 right now...
February 8, 2015 12:51 p.m.
manuterraboy says... #8
@EssTea Yeah I know what you mean . But this week was the fashion of Mono-Red in the FNM and I guess that next week will be the same. The problem of Mono- Red is that is not funny at all play against it, because you cant play anything and at turn 3-4 yu are almost dead. ( Yeah I am cry baby but is frustrating)
I think that only Monastery Siegue is good againts Mono Red, just to slow him using Instants,.
February 8, 2015 2:19 p.m.
Even then... you're wasting a turn to cast it, which might mean game. I know what you mean by not funny at all to play against, one of my teammates plays mono-red as his ''other deck'' and it's just always the same thing : he blitzes, I try to stabilize. The early game is incredibly fun for him and incredibly annoying for me, if I stabilize, the rest of the game is incredibly fun for me and incredibly annoying for him... Mono-red just annoys both players in my opinion.
The only reason we don't see too many top 8 mono-red is because abzan completely shuts them down. It's rather impressive that 3 players in your local meta decided to play mono-red even though abzan dominates 50% of the meta right now. They're probably budget players, cuz U/W heroic and boros aggro is a wayyyyyyy better aggro strategy.
February 8, 2015 2:28 p.m.
awesomemaxi69 says... #10
To the people losing against mono-red i don't know what they are doing wrong but the match up against mono-red should be a good one. You have master of waves which wins the game as soon as it lands. You also have cheap one and two drops that will trade with their creatures unless they burn your dudes which is also good. Every match up with this deck is good except mardu because of Crackling Doom. This deck is surprisingly competitive and has good sideboard options.
February 9, 2015 12:29 a.m.
This archetype is picking up some steam now, kevin crimin just 3-2'd on mtgo with a list very close to this. The series is up on youtube.
February 9, 2015 2:46 p.m.
SaschaCory says... #12
This may just be me but I've never seen a deck last so long as #1... It's been, what, a week?
February 10, 2015 10:30 p.m.
SaschaCory says... #13
Omg the irony is real... As soon as I mention that I've never seen a deck at first place for so long it isn't first place anymore D:
February 10, 2015 10:42 p.m.
I think tappedout rotates #1s to give chances to everyone (or else it would always be the same decks). I'm happy it's not top 1 anymore since I'm aiming for that position with the deck I actually play haha! Don't know why but even though my sultai whip deck is rank #4 it doesnt show on top page...
February 10, 2015 11:17 p.m.
MooneBoyIrish says... #15
EssTea do you think my deck is any good and If you have any advice please tell me. It is quite like yours with a few different cards. If you can think of a good name I would be happy, I can't think of one. +1 Upvote for your deck
February 13, 2015 7:36 a.m.
MooneBoyIrish says... #16
By the way it's my mono blue devotion deck. Thanks
February 13, 2015 7:37 a.m.
EssTea, I played with almost this same list yesterday, testing for game day tomorrow, just in case it might be useful, i'll share the experience here. I had the same list except Singing Bell Strike instead of Encrust, and no fetches.
Round 1: totally beaten by a Grixis control deck. A very original (as far as I know) idea of a fellow player. Black and red massive sweepers and spot removal, blue countermagic, Ashiok, Chandra, Sarkhan, Ugin, and Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury and Silumgar, the Drifting Death. He would bounce, kill, exile, discard, counter, or steal anything I could drop, bring me to lethal range with Chandra, and then kill me in 2 turns with both dragons, which pump themselves as well as each other... Probably only Triton Tactics to save the creatures from sweepers aside of Hall of Triumph, but I was not packing them in SB.
Round 2: against test build of Morph Simic deck, see my second comment in my page (don't mean to promote here my deck whatsoever), Manifest Fate Reforged. I lost game 1 but won the second after being less reckless in dropping my evasive wheenies in the first turns, saving counters against his own counters, and exiling only lethal big stomper unmorphed threats...
I will very probably take this to game day tomorrow as my FRF Boss Sligh would lose to any control or abzan midrange deck, and my Manifest deck aforementioned or my other new Red Devotion are still ongoing building...
February 13, 2015 9:37 a.m.
EssTea, I will be taking tomorrow your list as of now, with the following changes based upon my testing this week:
- 2x Singing Bell Strike instead of 2x Encrust
- 3 fetches and 1 temple, not 4 fetches
- 3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, not 2
- 22 land overall instead of 23
- Third Hall of Triumph instead of 4th Cloudform
- singleton Polymorphist's Jest
SB:
- 2x Tormod's Crypt
- 1x Clever Impersonator
- 3x Negate
- 3x Disdainful Stroke
- 2x Wall of Frost
- 1x AEtherspouts
- 1x Polymorphist's Jest
- 2x Monastery Siege
Good luck in Game Day everyone!! -
February 13, 2015 7:58 p.m.
Hey Abubroki, thanks for the story!
A week ago I had made changes without really thinking about them... I don't focus on this deck that much since all my time and energy go towards my Sidisi Whip deck which I enjoy playing the most and has something like a 70% win rate! I'm looking forward to bringing it to game day (which is on sunday for me).
Anyways, here's my new list for blue devotion!
Peace.
February 13, 2015 10:16 p.m.
MooneBoyIrish says... #20
The only problem with Master of Waves is when it dies so do all the elementals. Unless you control Hall of Triumph which is annoying but is still a great card and definitely works with with Mono Blue Devotion.
February 13, 2015 11:13 p.m.
EssTea, I took the list I mentioned 3 comments ago to Game Day... shabby performance, placing 8th of 8 players. The full description is available in my deck update in case monoblue players would be curious about actual game performance...
To summarize, I misplayed against winner Abzan Midrange, and could not beat another Abzan midrange nor a blitzkrieg RDW, even after SB. Maybe Dragons of Tarkir will bring some missing pieces, but for now, winning with this deck is extremely challenging...
February 16, 2015 6:08 a.m.
Here is a list that has given me quite a bit of success...
Take from it what you will...
BTW... in the weaponsmith's spot I have from time to time swapped him with omenspeaker (for scry to maximize cloudform))
February 16, 2015 9:07 a.m.
awesomemaxi69 says... #23
EssTea, I took my mono blue devotion to my stores Saturday gameday. I made the top 8 out of 26 people and lost because of a mistake in the first round of top 8. I took it again to the sunday game day and I won the game day with the same amount of people again after a few tweeks. I believe I have gotten the list to near perfection and my sideboard is pretty spot on. FYI I versed like 6 abzen aggro decks on sunday and wall of frost and dragon's eye savants won me all of those games. I updated my list to the current version you can check it out
February 16, 2015 9:48 a.m.
Piloted MUD to a 4-1 second place last night. Seems like a legit deck to keep up with.
February 21, 2015 4:05 p.m.
awesomemaxi69 says... #25
The deck just catches so many people by suprise. They have to keep checking if Thassa is online, they have to play around manifest with the cloudform. They have to use their removal spells on certain things. Has a lot of play to the deck
EssTea says... #1
@ Phenomenologist
Thanks for your input! What you've just said sums up why I took out Chasm Skulker and came back to the original build I had brewed. The deck shines by deploying 4 creatures in 3 turns and then going all in with unblockables. Master of Waves and Thassa, God of the Sea come in as back up finishers if all the unblockables did not manage to win the game.
So in resume... Game 1 all in aggro. Game 2 Aggro/control.
Treasure Cruise is a good card, but I found that if I was casting that card I was probably already losing the game. The deck ain't going to win on attrition matches!
The Vaporkin build is my initial one, it's the one I tested the most and it's the one who won the most. I'm still hesitating between Encrust and Disdainful Stroke though...
February 7, 2015 11 p.m.