So, after hundreds of games with this, I've decided this deck needs 4 basic things:
- Early game
You need to have Arbor Elves and Utopia Sprawls. This is non-negotiable. They are the only way to get a turn 2 Garruk and thus a turn 3 Primeval Titan. If you find in your meta you’re having a difficult time with spot removal, you can up the amount of resilient devotion you have by including 2 Fertile Ground. If your meta is more combo-based, 2 Birds of Paradise will help you with either activating your Kessig Wolf Runs or they will be evasive targets for your Kessig, as well as evasive creatures for your Craterhoof Behemoth. Additionally, you need a solid 2-drop. Early versions of this deck touted 4 Burning-Tree Emissary, because you could have an explosive turn 2 with burning-trees and, maybe 1 out of 7 games, you’d get a turn 3 or turn 4 win. If you like explosive, combo-based decks that basically lose when you stumble on your mana/draws, this is the card for you. It’s fun! But not quite as competitive once your opponents understand your deck. In my case, I chose Strangleroot Geist because it is resilient, and if I Genesis Wave into a Geist it changes the board state immediately, particularly if I wave into a Craterhoof Behemoth. (You can stack the enters-the-battlefield trigger so, even if you hit the hoof first, its +/+ ability resolves on the stack last.) Some people try Elvish Visionary, but I find its lack of resilience and low devotion count disrupt the benefit of its card draw. It’s usually dead by the time you get a hoof out, chump blocking or succumbing to sweepers. Abundant Growth does basically the same thing, while helping with your Kessig Mana and not being soft to sweepers/Pyroclasm/etc.
- Middle game
This is the most difficult part of the deck to field. Here you want a combination of resilient devotion enablers that do something else. This makes cards like Predator Ooze and Leatherback Baloth seem like a good idea—however, sometimes you don’t end up getting enough devotion/forests on the battlefield to cast these on or before curve. Additionally, they are simply beaters in a deck already filled with beaters. Optimally, you want cards like Wistful Selkie if you want that much devotion, as the card draw+devotion they provide is immense. However, they run into the same problem as the Elvish Visionaries above: they’re super weak to removal and creature-based strategies. In my testing, I’ve found that Carven Caryatid does the job just fine: being difficult to removal in combat, with burn, etc. Being a defender is generally irrelevant because it blocks so well and still adds to your hoof count. It does everything Visionary does, but better. I also am running the full four of kitchen finks: a 2-for-1 that provides life is nothing to scoff at with people running burn, sweepers, and spot removal. My final mid-game creature is probably the best green utility creature ever printed: Eternal Witness. She lets you wave multiple times. She soft locks your opponent with Primal Command. She lets you dig up whatever threats/etc. your opponents made you discard. She is a boss, and no Mono Green Devotion deck should go without her. An easy-to-cast, devotion-enabling creature that provides resilience for your entire deck. The last “midgame” card is, of course, Garruk Wildspeaker. As a cheap guy that poops out beasts or untaps your shrine, he is critical to the deck. No deck running Genesis Wave should be without him.
- Finishers
There are a lot of people running lists with regal force, Khalni Hydra, and a bunch of other things with a crapton of G symbols in their casting costs. Why? Because it’s awesome to slam that many mana symbols onto the battlefield? The amount of devotion they add to the battlefield is irrelevant by the time you can cast them. Again, if this is for fun and games, who cares? Go for it! But if you want to compete, you want to stack your deck with as much advantage as possible. This is why I only use Primeval Titan (4) and 1 Craterhoof Behemoth. They’re huge. They have trample. One fetches your land-based win conditions. The other wins you the game. What else do you need?
- The spells
3 Primal Commands
3 Genesis Waves
Primal commands is a toolbox card that helps all of your matchups. It forces burn, splinter twin, GBx, and tron to topdeck lands as you build devotion. It demolishes Living End’s graveyards and shrimpifies all those nerdy goyfs. It gains you life against burn and 8rack, and also ships ensnaring bridges back to your opponents’ hands. It fetches your hoof or your Primeval Titan. It just does everything, and for once the 5-mana cost isn’t prohibitive. Genesis Wave is preferable to Summoner’s Pact and Tooth and Nail. Why? Because most of your deck is super cheap, and what a low-cost G-wave whiffs gets shipped to the graveyard and you can get it back with a witness! I know some decks running Pact do it for the “free” Burning-Tree Emissaries—I just don’t think it’s worth it. You can lose a whole turn to Pact in some matches, and in any competitive environment, that’s just like punching yourself in the face.
- The extra
(An aside: sideboards I generally think our meta-based. Fracturing Gust, Beast Within, something against Control like Defense Grid, and Dismember are what I prefer, as well as a Boseiju, Who Shelters All, again for control). I have 1 extra slot in my deck for 1 more utility creature. I’m going back and forth between Acidic Slime, Garruk, Primal Hunter, and Tectonic Edge. Slime helps our worst matchup: splinter twin. Garruk helps us against Jund. Tec edge is universally good, and, admittedly, the 21 lands I run sometimes ain’t enough. Up to you to decide, obviously.
So here’s the updated deck. I appreciate all the feedback I can get. Thanks!
