Vexing devil
Modern forum
Posted on Dec. 15, 2021, 5:36 p.m. by magwaaf
We tried running vexing devil over Goblin guide in my brother's boros aggro deck and it was 100 times better than Goblin guide has been. Almost every game people bolt themselves on turn one to get a shock land. When you follow that up with a vexing devil you watch people's faces contort into confused angry expressions as they take the damage hoping it won't matter. The card is better in the current format than Goblin guide because I'm not just helping them with free land draws. After him top 8ing last week I will die on that hill lol
wallisface says... #3
I’m going to take a guess you’re referring to a “burn” deck here.
The big issue with Vexing Devil is your opponent gets to decide how they want to deal with it, at their leisure. The most damage it will ever do is 4, because your opponent will either have it die to its ETB, or deal with it via a killspell (and can even do so at sorcery speed on their turn, as VD doesn’t have haste). VD can provide some great damage very-early game, but quickly becomes irrelevant the second the opponent is in a good spot to take advantage of the etb.
The reason modern burn decks prefer Goblin Guide is that it can often get through more than 4 damage if the opponent has no immediate answer for it. Also, if the opponent does kill it, that leaves them with less resources to deal with your more important creatures (i.e, Eidolon, Swiftspear). Haste is SUPER relevant for this creature as it almost guarantees it’ll be doing something impactful.
The Goblin is very likely to do 4+ damage in a match, and still be alive on the battlefield. The only way the Devil can deliver 4 damage is by also dying in the process.
December 15, 2021 5:54 p.m.
Letting them choose how to deal with it is fine with me, if it hits play I get a 4 power attacker if it doesn't they take 4 against burn. If they choose to Kill the devil instead of Eidolon or Swiftspear then its even better. As someone who played and tuned the same sligh/burn deck from 1998 to 2010 and came in 9th place 5 times at legacy worlds I can say this,
Reds problem is that it needsa bigger quicker finish, we used to have that in fireplace, and since we will never see that again in modern our only 1 mana bigger than 3 damage spell is devil and the results spoke for itself.
December 15, 2021 7:01 p.m.
wallisface says... #5
magwaaf I was simply giving you the reasons people typically play the Goblin over Devil. Namely being that:
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Goblin can often deal more than 4 damage (or at least 4, while still being alive), Devil is restricted to ever only dealing 4 damage at best
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Goblin having haste is super relevant, even more so late game where Devil has no ways to deal damage in a turn, where as Goblin can often get through some pain
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Giving your opponent a choice is always dangerous. If they have an abundance of killspells, they’ll not find Devil an issue at all. If they are light on interaction, they can just let Devil kill itself and save interaction for those stronger creatures.
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If you’re behind and need a blocker, Devil provides nothing, making it very hard to catch up.
Saying this, i’m not hating Vexing Devil, i’m simply trying to offer some insight into why people pretty-much-always choose the Goblin over it. I can see the “heels being dug in” though, so i’m not expecting to change your mind here… just wondering then what you expect from this thread?
December 15, 2021 7:43 p.m.
Oh OK, misunderstanding lol
I know how good God is, it hurt my soul a little bit when I had to remove Jackal pup from my deck and replace it with guide because it was just better LOL. Part of my problem with him in modern is also how many times I played the deck and was just handing decks everything they needed. The worst was when I went double Goblin guide on turn2 and handed him two more Tron lands just to seal my own fate LOL
December 15, 2021 9:17 p.m.
wallisface says... #7
Giving lands to the opponent can be painful, but it depends heavily on the matchup. Burn normally aims to win the game super-quick, so most of the time giving the opponents lands doesn’t matter too much (and the free info you get when its not a land is great!)
The addition of Fury and Solitude in the meta does make giving the opponents lands in those matchups scarier, as it can accelerate them towards being able to hardcast these threats. Against the likes of Tron though, burn is heavily advantaged to win even if the opponent can get turn-3 tron (by turn 3 the game’s almost already over, with them likely being on at-max 8 life, with no boardstate)
December 15, 2021 9:45 p.m.
Oh, other thing, if they let me have him as a 4/3 with intent to ill it then it lets me keep my eidolon out which is the real mvp of the deck
December 15, 2021 10:24 p.m.
wallisface says... #9
magwaaf Yeah, same goes for Goblin Guide, but as mentioned above, they're likely to leave it on the battlefield if they have an abundance of killspells, so if it lives I'd be expecting the opponent to have a way to deal with it and Eidolon.
December 15, 2021 10:31 p.m.
wallisface says... #10
The kindof decks I've seen Vexing Devil have a better home in are the ones centered around putting a Chandra's Incinerator on the field turn-2. In scenarios like those, Vexing Devil seems to shine a lot stronger, as it can cause the opponent to misplay their etb-decision quite easily, and also provides a quick, aggressive creature-front that can be hard to cope with.
December 15, 2021 10:37 p.m.
plakjekaas says... #11
Vexing Devil also works great in , in combination with Unearth or Claim / Fame so you reuse the etb effect.
December 16, 2021 7:09 a.m.
Grubbernaut says... #12
It's playable but not great. Giving opponents choices is generally bad.
RNR_Gaming says... #2
Additionally, it works wonderfully with Lurrus.
December 15, 2021 5:52 p.m.