Viability of devotion decks outside of green?
Modern forum
Posted on March 29, 2015, 10:17 a.m. by DrewsBrews
Most people know by now that Green Devotion is a fairly strong deck, but could other colors pull off anything similar? I don't personally think it would work that well with white or blue due to the lack of extra ramp. Black and red however seem like they could potentially make for decent devotion decks. Maybe not anything overly competitive, but decent nonetheless. Thoughts?
There's also opportunity cost involved. Red's got the most accessible dev in Fanatic of Mogis, but if it's burn you want, you're losing out on simply playing burn. Blue's token's get wiped out if Master of Waves dies and you don't have access to an anthem. Black's restricted by the 5 mana you need to pump into gary.
March 29, 2015 10:25 a.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #4
Green Devotion isn't a fairly strong deck, but OK.
I don't think other colors could do it. MBD tries to with Obliterators and Gary, but it lacks explosiveness and doesn't have appropriate control tools. Red just has so many better things to do. White and Blue just don't have the power cards (Merfolk plays Master of Waves, if that counts).
March 29, 2015 10:25 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #5
None of them are even good outside of standard. As Glistener said, Merfolk plays Master of Waves but that's about as high as it gets. For casual play, you can use anything outside white, but competitively, none of them stand up.
March 29, 2015 10:30 a.m.
DrewsBrews says... #6
I wasn't saying Green is a T1 deck or anything but it's far from the worst thing out there. I agree completely with white and blue just not having what it needs to make it work, and understand where you are all coming from on red considering there's burn and several other viable red decks. Black was the main one I was looking at considering all of the tools black has to work with, but I do agree with GlistenerAgent that it lacks the explosiveness of green.
March 29, 2015 10:32 a.m.
lemmingllama says... #7
As a fun brew, Mono-
does it fairly well. You get to run Phyrexian Obliterators and Gatekeeper of Malakirs mainboard, which is always awesome. You also got targeted removal and hand disruption, so it can win games if you get a nice curve of Thoughtseize/Go for the Throat/Gatekeeper of Malakir/Phyrexian Obliterator/Gray Merchant of Asphodel
March 29, 2015 10:42 a.m.
Kirito_swo says... #8
Are you joking? Black is a good devotion deck in modern. you pump out threat after threat and have the best removal and disruption you can get. Ive been playing mono black devotion with a green splash for abrupt decay and can beat the twin decks, abzan, amulet, infect, and just about any other deck
March 29, 2015 11:58 a.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #9
Kirito_swo Then you obviously have not played control-type decks or Scapeshift. Trust me, they rapes MBD.
March 29, 2015 11:59 a.m.
Kirito_swo says... #10
I have played against them, I have Thoughtseize and Duress side aswell as Sadistic Sacrament and Extirpate pre side they can beat me post side as long as i see some sided cards there combo goes away. Like I said black has some of the best disruption the game has to offer
March 29, 2015 12:03 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #11
If black devotion was good in modern, it would be played. And it's not. Phyrexian Obliterator is in some modern rock decks, but that's it.
March 29, 2015 12:04 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #12
So, you're playing mono-black and splashing black for Abrupt Decay...
Why not splash white for Lingering Souls and Siege Rhino?
March 29, 2015 12:04 p.m.
Kirito_swo says... #13
if i splash 2 colors i might as well play abzan, ive considered a white splah instead of a green, but abrupt decay is better the souls in my opinion. abrupt decay is to good aginst the twin decks.
March 29, 2015 12:07 p.m.
Kirito_swo says... #14
If people have the money to shell out for a tier 1 deck i would tell them to go that way first, but if you lack money and want a deck that can keep up with tier 1 decks i would 100% suggest MBD.
March 29, 2015 12:09 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #15
That was the joke. Abzan is just a better deck.
My issue with MBD is that you're not doing good enough things. People can kill Obliterator (especially with Roast that will be in some maindecks), and the other cards you have aren't excellent. You're rather dead to most blue decks as well, which doesn't help.
March 29, 2015 12:20 p.m.
lemmingllama says... #16
@GlistenerAgent I love it when people Roast a Phyrexian Obliterator, them losing their entire board is a pretty good deal in my opinion.
March 29, 2015 12:25 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #17
Sorry, was thinking Siege Rhino when I said that. Dismember is the card of choice, but even Twin can Remand you into oblivion, tap it a bunch, etc.
Obliterator is good, it's just not good enough.
March 29, 2015 12:30 p.m.
Kirito_swo says... #18
Like i said part of it is the disruption and removal package. And if they Roast obliterator it did its job. Ive beat twin with just a Viscera Seer and a couple Geralf's Messenger obliterator isnt the only way to win game
March 29, 2015 12:41 p.m.
Kirito_swo says... #19
Half the time I dont even win with gary, I just win because I pressured my opponent with small things that they dont think matter
March 29, 2015 12:42 p.m.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #20
I would love it if someone were to Roast my Obliterator! Hell, I would encourage it.
March 29, 2015 12:43 p.m.
I have a friend who ran mono black devo and he could handle anything. The deck has the tools it's just figuring out the configuration.
March 29, 2015 2:37 p.m.
I actually haven't considered, or seen for that matter, any sort of mono-green devotion decks in modern. I suppose mono-green devotion can play all the good ramp, mono-black has good recursion in Bloodghast and Geralf's Messenger, mono-blue gets Shorecrasher Elemental and Master of the Waves, I'm not sure if mono-red has anything good outside of Fanatic of Mogis, mono-white from what I've seen, is just a prison deck with Heliod as a finisher. Given this, I think most devotion decks are just shied away from, they certainly seem playable, but most people shy away from certain archetypes (like tribal for instance).
March 31, 2015 12:53 p.m.
jandrobard says... #23
No. Red sucks, Blue sucks, White sucks. Black at least can masquerade as a good deck.
I think the green devo list the OP was referring to is the Primalcrux deck.
March 31, 2015 4:36 p.m.
OtakulordAndrew says... #24
Green devotion tends to show up in the Genesis Wave combo decks where you ramp into a giant genesis wave hopefully hitting more land, creatures, a Garruk Wildspeaker, and Eternal Witness, which fetches Genesis Wave, repeat process untill you hit Craterhoof Behemoth, they also usually have a beat down plan with Primeval Titan, and Kessig wolfrun aswell as a secondary combo with Primal Command land bounce fetch for Eternal Witness repeat until you run out of witness then finish with an Acidic Slime. Elfwave also sometimes shows up which is similar although it's tribal elfs with craterhoof and a back up artifact infinite elf pump combo. These green devotion decks tend to be tier 2-3, they are fun to play though and help make up the fun spunky little tier 2-3 decks that make the modern format interesting and help keep it from feeling to stale or repetitive. The other devotion decks are usually not regarded as being as strong as green but they are still viable in modern as lower tier decks.
March 31, 2015 5:57 p.m.
DrewsBrews says... #25
As OtakulordAndrew said above, Genesis Wave is the basis of a large portion of devotion decks. Some run a Tooth and Nail combo variant instead, making use of things like Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. The list I usually play with is the one I have listed here on T/O, which can be seen here MODERN: NyxWave Devotion if you are interested.
CanadianShinobi says... #2
No, Green is really the only thing that can pull it off. Everything else doesn't have enough ramp to be fast enough for Modern, or enough staying power.
March 29, 2015 10:22 a.m.