Can Devotion (besides green of course) make a comeback?
Standard forum
Posted on March 21, 2015, 10:45 p.m. by xxINS4NExWoC
With cards like Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit, Shorecrasher Elemental, and Dragon Whisperer does mono devotion have a shot to come back?
Red devotion is a thing right now. We have Ashcloud Phoenix and Flamewake Phoenix as staples of it. It still uses Fanatic of Mogis and Monastery Swiftspear is the ideal 1 drop for it.Blue...I think we will see it come back with Dragons of Tarkir.White isn't really an option and green is obvious.Black...I think that's done right now, too.
March 21, 2015 10:56 p.m.
I actually think black devotion could get somewhere. It certainly won't be the same as it was at its height, but I saw this decklist for zombie tribal post DTK ( http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=12425 ) that includes Gray Merchant of Asphodel, and I think it could be tweaked to make it work. Probably using Whip of Erebos and other reanimation to basically attrition your opponents.
March 21, 2015 11:01 p.m.
Put together a Mono-Black Devo deck list last week using some DTK cards. Seems decent enough. Couldn't find a two drop creature I liked, but I think it's good enough as a starting point.
March 22, 2015 midnight
Flamerush Rider as a 1 or 2 of to copy Fanatic of Mogis seems fun.
March 22, 2015 2:15 a.m.
Devotion will see some play, but I think it depends on how you look at devotion. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx decks that try to power out big stuff only really works with green because it's alredy a ramp deck that is just adding more ramp. While devotion deck in other colors might run some small number of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx the devotion mechanic will work best if it's just something added to a decks main plan, and not the main plan in itself.
Looking at black, blue and green devotion as a base for how devotion is done right you'll see that, Black was a control deck using life as a resorce with Gary as way to buy back life. Blue was a aggro/tempo deck where Thassa and Master just added more to what the deck was alredy doing(aggro creatures with evasion/tempo abilitys for a good cost). And Green is a ramp deck, take out the devotion and the deck is still ramping into fattys while the devotion only added more of the same.
So my take on devotion in standard right now is that Big-Red might be a thing again, and the devotion aspect of the deck will be minimal since it will likely want to add Green for ramp instead. Green devotion will still be ramping. but the other colors will not want to give up suport colors for the devotion mechanic since it adds nothing to what the decks are trying to do. This is from a competative stance, there will be loads of casual brews with devotion/mono-color. But they will all have glaring weaknesses for exluding suport colors and the 2-3 color decks will all be running a higher density of actual good cards instead of cards who's only reason is to add devotion.
March 22, 2015 1:51 p.m.
Dalektable says... #8
I am almost positive Blue Devotion will be a thing, however small. It has potential.
March 22, 2015 2:02 p.m.
March 22, 2015 2:12 p.m.
I'm a little more sceptical of Mono U Devotion coming back. It's worse than it was last season and I think this is a more powerful standard overall than last season. I think it's all hype, Shorecrasher Elemental isn't going to be nearly as good as Nightveil Specter, and you're missing a good 2-drop.
Red's got a shot I think, like someone up above said Big Red's got potential.
I think White has the best shot though. Mastery of the Unseen is exactly what it needed, so it's got lots of mana through Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to dump into it. But it'll depend on how much play Stormbreath Dragon sees.
March 24, 2015 3:46 a.m.
Green Devotion has always been a thing since Khans, two people run the deck at my local shop and they're doing excellent (even ended in finals against each other last week). I don't know much about red devotion but my card vendor seems really hyped about making one featuring Dragon Whisperer. A lot of people look up to him for advice so I guess the deck could be serious.
As for Blue devotion, I think I'm the owner of the most popular MUD deck on tappedout. I playtested in real life against a lot of decks and my conclusion is that the deck performs very good against control, ok/good against other aggro but horribly against midrange. Midrange is just a pain, they alaways manage to stop the aggro/evasive strategy with removal and lifegain and drop high impact cards that mono-blue has no answer to. The deck is incredibly fun to play though, not much thinking required and it's pretty much all in every game.
FAMOUSWATERMELON says... #2
White devotion was never really a thing, so no.
Blue definitely.
Red meh. It could but I doubt it because there are better RDW decks in Standard.
March 21, 2015 10:48 p.m.