Set Up
This deck utilizes an incredibly fast ramp to get enough mana to get the lock into play. The initial goal is to get as many or or into play as fast as possible. You do this by using cards like Utopia Sprawl to generate not only devotion but mana acceleration as well. With a turn one Arbor Elf plus turn two Utopia Sprawl you can generate 4 mana (after casting Utopia Sprawl) for your use. Which you can follow up with a Garruk Wildspeaker which you can then +1 to untap lands and generate 3 more mana. Yes this is a fairly difficult draw but the deck does it. You can also daisy chain Burning-Tree Emissary.
Set Up Cards
Abundant Growth-card draw and mana fixing
Arbor Elf -mana ramp combo with Utopia Sprawl
Birds of Paradise - Mana Ramp and color fixing, in a pinch can be used as a win-con with Kessig Wolf Run
Burning-Tree Emissary- Mana Ramp, high devotion card
Garruk Wildspeaker- This guy falls under both set up and combo. Early you can untap forests for mana ramp and after you untap Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx for massive mana to combo or hit them with a win condition. There is also an infinite combo with this card, see below.
Joraga Treespeaker- Mana Ramp. This card dropped turn 1 and then leveled up turn 2 turns into a very effective source of ramp as well.
Utopia Sprawl- Mana Ramp that combos with both Arbor Elf and Garruk Wildspeaker. Multiples of these stacked on a single land can really boost mana acceleration.
Wistful Selkie- Provides 3 devotion and is also card draw. This card always gets an eyebrow raised when played but it's a great card.
The Lock
The combo of Eternal Witness + Primal Command
locks your opponent down while you gain enough mana to cast one of the win-cons. The deck is designed to lock or slow your opponent through the use of Primal Command to bounce you opponents land to the top of their deck while also tutoring a creature to your hand, specifically an Eternal Witness that allows you to Regrowth the Primal Command. Eternal Witness also boosts your devotion count by
Win Conditions
Primeval Titan -Primetime wins by simply pulling out Kessig Wolf Run and overrunning the opponent with massive trample damage. It also helps pull a ton of land after a couple turns of swinging, pulling out the missing lands needed as well as thinning the deck out by quite a bit.
Craterhoof Behemoth -This guy is the primary win condition for the deck, you pull him out towards the end of your combo when you have 10+ creatures on the board and swing big for massive trample damage.
Birds of Paradise + Kessig Wolf Run
can also be used in a pinch as a win-win if they can stop ground threats.
Utility Cards
Genesis Wave -early in the game it can pull enough devotion to set the combo off, later in the game you can pull out your win condition.
Temur Sabertooth- Allows you a ton of trick by bouncing a bunch of creatures back to your hand for their ETB effects, mainly used on Eternal Witness. This card allows you to permanently lock your opponent down mid to late game. An opponent who knows how this deck runs will typically scoop when the Temur Sabertooth hits the board.
Infinte Combo
While playtesting I discovered that there is an infinite combo in the deck, it's not intended but it is there to use if you get the cards. Here is what you need:
Temur Sabertooth on the field, an Eternal Witness on the board or in hand, A
nyktos, shrine to Nyx
on the field, and a Garruk Wildspeaker on the field and a second Garruk Wildspeaker in your hand. You also need 11 devotion to .
- Tap Nyktos and another land for 12 .
- Use Garruk +1 to untap Nyktos and Land.
- Cast Garruk sacrificing the old Garruk leaving you with 8 .
- Cast Eternal Witness (mana pool 5 ) putting Garruk Wildspeaker back to you hand.
- Use 2 mana to tap Nyktos and also the other land (Mana Pool 15
- Use 2 mana to return Eternal Witness to you hand (mana pool 13 ).
As you see you originally started with 12 mana but end with the same board state with 13 mana, or a +1 each time you run the combo.
If you have Wistful Silkie on the board, once you have built up a surplus of mana you can bounce those to draw your deck out by bouncing then those to draw. This sounds a lot more difficult then it really is, hardest part is keeping track of the Mana.
Opening hands:
The most important card to get on the board is Arbor Elf. A great opening hand is 2 Forest, 1 Arbor Elf, 1 Utopia Sprawl, 1 Garruk Wildspeaker, and 1 Wistful Selkie or other 2 or 3 drop. WTurn 1: Forest, Arbor Elf, Go. Turn 2: Forest, Cast Utopia Sprawl on Forest, Tap Forest for , untap Forest with Arbor Elf, Tap again for , with 4 floating cast Garruk Wildspeaker, +1 to untap both Forest, tap both for to cast Selkie or other cards.
With this up opening hand you have 7 mana available turn 3 without dropping a land, your devotion will also be sitting around you 6 or 7. If your turn 3 land drop is a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, you can start combing out, effectively locking the game down at that point.
Deck Play Breakdown
To be continued
Original: Mono-Green Devotion by Darkest Mage
Change 1: - 1 Genesis Wave +1 Temur Sabertooth. Replaced fetches with KTK Fetches.
