Garruk Green Devotion (w/ Combo)
Modern* Competitive Devotion Infinite Combo Mono-Green Ramp RG (Gruul)
Creature (23)
Land (21)
Planeswalker (8)
Enchantment (7)
Artifact (1)
Sideboard
Creature (6)
Sorcery (4)
As some know, I've been playing Green Devotion since it's inception (and currently run the Green Devotion Thread/Primer on MTGSalvations); and I LOVE Garruk Wildspeaker. He is the king of devotion! I always wanted to play Garruk Wildspeaker and Garruk, Caller of Beasts together (as they are both amazingly powerful in devotion and work extremely well in tandem...as one ramps like crazy and the other fills your hand and the board)...to my utter amazement; WOTC has now removed the Planeswalker Uniquness rule (with the release of Ixalan)...SO I CAN!!!
The thing is that this isn't just an idea for fun's sake. The deck with the two combined is REALLY powerful. They combine to fill up the board and more importantly allow for Green Devotion to become the best Craterhoof Behemoth deck in Modern!
Thanks to the new Legendary Walker Rule (or more correctly, the removal of the Uniqueness rule), the deck can now focus on playing the Baddest Green Walker there is:
While there is an infinite combo in the deck (I'll explain that later) for opponents that gain infinite life; the main goal of the deck is to fill the board with creatures and overrun them (what Garruk does best). Every card either ramps, draws cards, or wins the game. The deck is surprisingly fast. Because you draw and dig so much; you will hit a Nykthos pretty much every game and becomes pretty crazy what you can do with all of the cards you have. You don't need a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx though...Garruk, Caller of Beasts means Craterhoof Behemoth can be on the board with only 6-mana. Anywho, here it is...
Deck Strategy
The deck takes advantage of the devotion mechanic, card drawing, and the synergy of Garruk Planeswalker cards to overwhelm the opponent. After 2-4 turns of filling the board with permanents, you can either overrun Garruk Wildspeaker or cast one or more Craterhoof Behemoth for lethal in one attack. The deck generally will have lethal by turn 4. I've had a few turn-3 wins; and of course many after turn 4 against highly disruptive opponents; but most games where the opponent only interacts a little you will have a lethal attack on turn 4-5.
The removal of the Planeswalker Uniqueness Rule now means we can have a Garruk Wildspeaker, Garruk, Caller of Beasts, AND Garruk Relentless on the same board AT THE SAME TIME! This is HUGE for green devotion in particular (as Wildspeaker and Caller are both incredible). While I'd like to play a Garruk, Primal Hunter as well; I haven't found the card to replace him with yet.
The deck out-values pretty much every deck currently in the Modern format. Against "fair" deck, most match ups are about 90-10. Control is also not an issue. This and other synergies to gain HUGE sums of both mana and card advantage (it wouldn't be a Curd Bros deck if it didn't focus on card advantage and synergy). While you can and do want to hit the infinite combos; the focus on "resource advantage" allows you to win even if you don't hit an infinite combo.
The deck's strategy is quite simple (even though the deck can be a little complex to play at times due to thinking ahead about what cards you may draw into). As a devotion deck, the mana ramp aspect is extremely important. The main "lines" the deck can take are:
Ramp and fill up the board and hard-cast a Craterhoof Behemoth to Overrun your board.
Ramp and fill up the board with creatures and Ultimate Garruk Wildspeaker to give your entire board +3/+3 and Trample (again...to overrun the board).
Ramp into a HUGE Walking Ballista (or keep adding counters sinking mana turn-by-turn) and ping the opponent to death.
Use Garruk, Caller of Beasts to "cheat" in a Craterhoof Behemoth to overrun the board.
Hit the infinite combo with 2 Garruk's and a Cloudstone Curio then draw out and cast the entire deck.
Fill the board so much that just "regular" attacking wins the game :)
There are multiple ways to win with this deck, but a majority of the games will be won with Craterhoof Behemoth...he tends to end games the moment he is played :) A surprising amount, however, end with the infinite combo as well...
The Infinite Combo
Because Cloudstone Curio was made prior to the creation of planeswalkers; the wording does something _VERY _interesting with Planeswalkers that generate mana...they can be utilized to "bounce" one another for BOTH infinite mana AND infinite triggers...this can only work, however,
if the mana produced by one or both planeswalkers exceeds the sum of their converted mana costs
Because of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Garruk Wildspeaker can create obscene amounts of mana...this allows us to generate infinite mana with another green planeswalker (or any color with Oath of Nissa...but that is another deck on my account :)).
Planeswalker Looping Show
I call this "looping" the walkers. In this deck's case, once Garruk Wildspeaker can generate 10-mana with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx you can continually bounce Garruk Wildspeaker and Garruk, Caller of Beasts to create mana with Wildspeaker and then Draw out the deck of creatures with Caller...then start "cheating" your entire deck in once in your hand..
From there you can of course generate infinite mana and pour it into a Walking Ballista or just keep bouncing a Craterhoof Behemoth to make every available attacking creature infinitely large.
Cloudstone Curio is not just a combo piece, however. By utilizing creatures with ETB or Cast Effects; Cloudstone Curio allows us to utilize all that extra mana to continually "loop" cards to reuse their ability. This includes:
- Elvish Visionary to draw multiple times with another creature.
- Carven Caryatid to draw multiple times with another creature.
- Oath of Nissa to dig multiple times with another enchantment.
- Genesis Hydra to dig and play permanents multiple times with another creature.
- Kitchen Finks to gain life and "reset" the Persist.
- Eternal Witness to recur multiple cards per turn.
- Craterhoof Behemoth to re-trigger it's Overrun Buff.
- Hornet Queen to make four more deathtouch insect tokens.
- Woodland Bellower to grab another 1-3 drop out of the deck.
- Wolfbriar Elemental to bounce and create more 2/2 tokens with excess mana.
There are TONS of other cards (some are even in the board) like Reclamation Sage, Loaming Shaman, and plenty of other enchantments that can be utilized as well. Of course, planewsalkers can be triggered multiple times as well with enough mana.
Why Garruk?
Green Devotion is an amazing archetype...having said that, there are a few constraints to devotion:
- You have to play Green permanents early and often.
- You want to quickly get to Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.
- Once you've done it, you want to have something to do with all that mana.
So you (a) have to play low-drop mana-dorks and green permanents to build your devotion; but once you have high devotion and tons of mana you want huge cards (and/or mana sinks) to pour that mana into. I've found that the best way to bridge the two "worlds" is to ensure cards either (1) Ramp, (2) Draw Cards, or (3) win the game. Also..you want to do so with ALL PERMANENTS. By doing so, your hand (and board) are always full, which leads to more devotion, which leads to more mana, which leads to more cards on the board...and the cycle continues until you win!
Garruk Planeswalker cards, however are the PERFECT bridge cards for the deck. You don't want to play all creatures and make yourself vunerable to board-wipes; but you do want to meet the "permanent, ramp, draw, or win" rules I outline above.
Garruk Wildspeaker's +1 "untap lands" ability is the key to HUGE sums of mana with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx....once you have that mana, however, you have to have something to do with it...this is where and Garruk, Caller of Beasts's +1 "Draw a bunch" ability digs not only to more "draw" creatures; but also more most importantly to Craterhoof Behemoth...also, garruk, caller of beast's -3 allows you to cheat in Craterhoof through a counterspell or if/when you only have 6 mana left! I've had many games I won with 8-mana only because I could play 1-2 other creatures BEFORE cheating a Craterhoof into play.
Also...when it comes to the Infinite Combo; the walkers have to create more mana than the sum of their Casting Costs...this means you either need (a) one walker that makes A LOT of mana, or (b) two walkers that can generate at least one more than their casting costs between the two of them. There are plenty of walkers you can look (and it becomes pretty easy with walkers like Xenagos, Reverent Hunter, Nissa, Worldwaker , etc....see my other Walker Deck)...but Garruk Wildspeaker is far and away the best of them because he naturally untaps Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Garruk creates FAR more mana than most walkers, so often he is all the mana you need to create and infinite loop (and allows you to "loop" with another walker that has two non-mana abilities).
Simply put...Garruk is the Key
The Support
The rest if the deck is meant to either:
- Ramp
- Draw Cards / Create Card Advantage
As a devotion player, we are all well aware that Arbor Elf, Utopia Sprawl, and Oath of Nissa are all a must. They ramp like crazy, draw cards, and each "pays for itself" with their cost equaling their devotion. These are no-brainers.
From there, there is no better ramp option than Birds of Paradise. Birds of Paradise again ramp while having a cost the equals devotion. Also, having a flyer that can be pumped with Kessig Wolf Run is HUGE.
Carven Caryatid is great because it is a 2/5 body that instantly draws a card and adds 2-devotion.
Couser of Kruphix is another great option. With a 2/4 body and the ability to "Draw" even more than one card (assuming you play enough turns with a land on top), he works within the deck's "Overwhelm" philosophy. While a bit slower, the life gain adds up, he can dig through lands, and it is nice to see what is on top of the deck for value-Genesis Hydra and Oath of Nissa, etc.
Elvish Visionary is just a great cantrip. A 2-drop creature that draws a card does quite a bit. It adds one devotion, replaces itself, and is another creature for BOTH Garruk Wildspeaker's ultimate Overrun and/or Craterhoof Behemoth.
Eternal Witness is a green devotion staple. Allows us to literally recur any card we want and with Cloudstone Curio it allows us to recur multiple cards :)
There are other cards I've used in the past as well that work well. For the sake of fellow brewers, here are a few of them:
Woodland Bellower is a GREAT devotion card. It allows us to play a single copy numerous great 2- and 3-drops in the deck and reliably see them often. It also follows the "draws a card" rule while being a huge body and always filling up devotion by at least three symbols.
Genesis Hydra is a perfect Green Devotion card. "Scaleable" cards and options are always good options in green devotion. While Genesis Wave is obviously a more explosive card (and generally is the "go to" card in devotion decks; Genesis Hydra offers a few distinct benefits that are great in this deck:
First, it's a creature. This matters for two reasons. The first is that it will often be the biggest body on the board (very rarely anything less than a 5/5. This blocks nearly every creature in Modern.
This also means that with a Curio on board (in games where it's in) you can easily bounce him right back to your hand and dig again!
Thirdly, even if countered; we still get what we are searching for! Because the card reads "when you cast..." that means that even if the opponent counters the Hydra; you still dig and put your permanent on the board. There isn't a card in the deck that is stronger against control.
A big body, that draws and digs, AND offers two devotion that STILL gets value when countered...well worth a slot. The only issue is that it is not great in multiples and is not strong off of a wave; so one really is the best number. One thing is for certain...the combination of Genesis Hydra and Cloudstone Curio is amazing :)
The synergy, however, doesn't stop there...while these cards are all great for the deck on their own (ramping, drawing, digging, etc.); Oath of Nissa digs for all of them, Genesis Hydra can hit every single one of them, and Cloudstone Curio bounces every permanent with a ETB effect AND every planeswalker if you want to use their ability more than once per turn!
Interaction
While the deck is somewhat linear in nature; it does have Interaction do deal with "problems".
This is where Garruk Rentless comes into play. His "Deal three" symbol:loyalty-0 helps deal with any small problem creature...after that, he become a tutor all his own AND quickly gets to his own Overrun...it's like Garruk was made for Green Devotion :)
Walking Ballista is a newer card that changed the way Devotion can be played. By giving mono-green decks the ability to generate direct damage; we are now able to do things that used to require a splash of another color.
Garruk Relentless Interactions
Some Garruk Relentless interactions can be difficult to see. Two in particular are ways to proactively flip him if the opponent doesn't have a great target to "fight":
Walking Ballista can "ping" Garruk Relentless for one and IMMEDIATELY flip him to Garruk, the Veil-Cursed . This means you can use his tutor ability (or pump him up to 3 to overrun the next turn) the same turn you play him!
You can "fight" a Courser of Kruphix or Carven Caryatid and they will flip him. While you can't tutor until the next turn it does flip him when you don't have another good target on your opponent's side.
There are other small interactions I will add in "Spoiler" tags and drop downs over the next few days...and of course the sideboard will be detailed in full as well...but I will do this in drop downs as well so as not to take up too much space.
Sideboarding
Coming Soon
Summary
By taking advantage of a change in the Planewalker Rules...Green Devotion was in a rare place to be able to actually profitably utilize the same walker in many formats. It actually improves the deck to a point where it could potentially be THE Craterhoof Behemoth deck in the format. I will of course keep tuning and updating the list; but so far I have found it to be VERY successful in the current meta.
As always, +1's are welcome, as are any criticisms, ideas, thoughts, kind words, and improvements. Thanks in advance for taking the time to aid in making this deck the best it can be!
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| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 7 years |
| Last updated | 6 years |
| Splash colors | WR |
| Legality | This deck is Modern legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 11 - 2 Mythic Rares 31 - 8 Rares 0 - 5 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 2.72 |
| Tokens | Beast 3/3 G, Emblem Garruk, Caller of Beasts, Human 2/2 G, Insect 1/1 G w/ Flying, Deathtouch, Wolf 1/1 B, Wolf 2/2 G |
| Folders | Modern Non-budget ideas, Mono-green, Nifty, Cool Shit, USER Modern Decks I like, Deck modern standard, Deck idea, Modern decks, Modern, Saved Decks to Try |
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