This is my own variation on exploiting the devotion mechanic for devastating wins. The goal is simple, generate a lot of mana and use Clan Defiance, Savageborn Hydra or
Mistcutter Hydra
to deal game winning damage.
Features of the deck:
Several mana weenie (and not so weenie) creatures.
Ghor-Clan Rampager
for bloodrushing trample damage through.
Burning-Tree Emissary for added devotion and board presence.
Mutavault and a trio of Planeswalkers for board wipes.
Garruk, Caller of Beasts and Domri Rade for card draw.
Vs. Control:
You will be dealing with Supreme Verdict and counter spells so it's important to deal damage as swiftly as possible.
Out:
3x Clan Defiance
3x Polukranos, World Eater
In:
2x Savage Summoning
4x
Mistcutter Hydra
You will need to utilize the haste from
Mistcutter Hydra
and combo Savageborn Hydra with Savage Summoning at the end of their turn. Fortunately UW doesn't typically have a lot of board presence so getting the damage to connect should be easy. If they do have blockers you can always use bloodrush to trample the damage through. Also, take every opportunity to whittle your opponent's life total down. Don't be afraid to attack with mana weenies if they aren't being used for anything else.
Vs. Aggro:
The trick here is stabilizing the board before you get run over. This is where Polukranos, World Eater comes into play. You can use his monstrous ability to wipe out a few of your opponents guys off the battlefield and still have a big bad to combo with bloodrush.
Vs. Blue Devotion
I've not faced any blue devotion decks in my local meta so my suggestions here are based on what I know about the deck from online articles. It seems the big killers in that deck are
Master of Waves
and
Nightveil Specter
. If they're playing a lot of flyers you can sub in
Windstorm
but the key will be
Mistcutter Hydra
Out:
3x Burning-Tree Emissary
3x Savageborn Hydra
2x Polukranos, World Eater
In:
4x
Mistcutter Hydra
1x Savage Summoning
3x
Witchstalker
Vs. Black Devotion
I have faced several variations of the Black Devotion deck. This is probably the toughest match-up there is for this deck. Between the instant speed removal and Duress and Thoughtseize we can quickly run out of cards to play. I've yet to find a solid strategy where I can confidently say that it will be mono-black devotion. Most of the time its the luck of the draw. I've included
Witchstalker
in the sideboard to at least make them pay for using instant removal. I'm also going to try out
Mending Touch
Out:
3x Burning-Tree Emissary
1x Clan Defiance
2x
Messenger's Speed
In:
3x
Witchstalker
3x
Mending Touch
Conclusion
I'm enjoying this deck quite a bit. I'll keep posting my results with it as I get the opportunity to play it more. Thank you in advance for any feedback or comments.
