The Future of GW Devotion?
Standard forum
Posted on April 7, 2015, 4:27 p.m. by BoromirOfGondor
What do we think about the viability of GW devotion going forward? With the format shaken by DTK, I can't tell if the deck just got a whole lot better or a whole lot worse.
UpperDeckerTaco says... #3
I chose to take the less traveled path and made my own Mastery of the Unseen deck...instead of G/W, I chose Abzan...check it out. Abzan Mastery
April 7, 2015 4:48 p.m.
alexthegreat38 says... #4
Splashing 
for the two most broken Abzan cards seems like a fine strategy! :P But seriously, that list does look pretty cool.
April 7, 2015 4:50 p.m.
JakeHarlow says... #5
To say nothing of Atarka's Command, which could allow some of the more aggressive decks a chance to swing through GW's life gain.
April 7, 2015 5:02 p.m.
Atarka's Command is one reason why GW Devotion might fall by the wayside. Another card that hates on the strategy is Seismic Rupture. While you can flip some creatures face up in response, odds are you won't be able to flip them all. This gives Big Red decks a way to stop the madness of manifests every turn.
April 7, 2015 5:11 p.m.
Rasta_Viking29 says... #7
I haven't seen the deck do much since it's weekend in the spotlight. The deck itself is better but the meta has shifted away from the deck. It's fairly easy to hate on, needs a slower meta, and runs the risk of drawing multiple matches at competitive tournaments. Playing the deck at a high level can be very taxing over the course of a long tournament and requires a skilled pilot. For those reasons I see it as a meta game call moving forward and not a pillar of the format.
April 7, 2015 5:27 p.m.
mathimus55 says... #8
I played 3 copie of g/w devotion at the pptq I played in this weekend with my jeskai heroic deck and went 2-1 against it. I would have gone 3-0 I feel but I kept a very greedy 6 card hand and it bit me in the butt. It's a powerful deck for sure, but I agree that it chugs along a bit too much. Whisperwood Elemental is a fine card but I don't think the deck is the clear no. 1 deck. But then I don't think there is a clear cut best deck to begin with. Which is why standard is so interesting right now
April 7, 2015 5:34 p.m.
abzan mastery, this is my Abzan deck that utilizes Mastery of the Unseen and Whisperwood Elemental. It's done very well in the local meta and is extremely resilient. Unlike the G/W devotion deck though, it doesn't rely just on inevitability to win games.
April 7, 2015 5:41 p.m.
It's a good deck but it's best draw is worse than most of the other aggressive decks best draws. It's strength comes with its consistently and the ability to go off and be an unkillable monstrosity. I would bet that a more aggressive version of the deck will come out that will be able to best take advantage of the new cards like Surrak, the Hunt Caller and Dromoka's Command with the option to go big with your hydras
April 7, 2015 7:16 p.m.
The deck is incredibly strong. If a meta shift overtakes it, it should be able to simply switch over cards to adapt. I mean, the core is just Mastery, Whisperwood, Voyaging Satyr, Polukranos, and those combine to overwhelming longterm advantage. Choose the other 5 cards to manage the meta and the game should be favorable. Mainly aggro and flyers are the trouble now, so Elvish Mystic, Courser, Fleecemane, Dromoka's Command, Arbor Colossus might be a good set.
April 7, 2015 9:14 p.m.
The deck is really nothing but a green ramp deck that splashes white at heart. Take away Whisperwood Elemental and Mastery of the Unseen and that's all your left with. Whisperwood and mastery just provide so much additional value that they have a tremendous advantage in the late game.
My thoughts were that the deck needed some way to interact with the opponents board so they can push through with all of these 2/2's. Like I said before it's just a green ramp deck. Once I saw that the deck didn't really need to be built around the manifest cards to be effective I thought to myself, "what's good right now?". Since I was already playing Abzan, and we all know how well all of the different variants of that have done, I decided to adopt the "aggressive" midrange deck that I had to add in the additional value from the manifest duo. That's how I came up with the deck list that I've been playing and posted earlier. Games start off just like I'm playing a normal Abzan midrange deck and then layers the value of the G/W deck over top in the late game. It's able to get going fast enough that it can stabilize against heavy creature strategies and has enough raw late game value and "synergy" that it's resilient enough against the attrition based decks. At least in my experience.
Decks right now are either trying to go wide and be fast (aggro and some aggressive midrange decks) or they're trying to exhaust you of resources and take over with large powerful things (traditional midrange decks and control). I feel like the abzan version is positioned well right now. Abzan is already a strong deck and a good base to start with. It has more answers against the aggro decks than the G/W deck to prevent from being overwhelmed early. It also has Siege Rhino's lifegain to help stabilize along with the life gain from the Mastery to help. The Mastery decks are also well positioned against control. They can't afford to 1-for-1 you all day long when your making un-counterable 2/2's and become reliant on board wipes, which Whisperwood has some built in protection against and Grim Haruspex can provide a ton of card advantage in these situations. Not to mention the value Den Protector provides by itself. My deck: abzan mastery, just as a reference in case it helps understand me.
alexthegreat38 says... #2
It seems like Deathmist Raptor and Hidden Dragonslayer have definitely strengthened it. Its place in the metagame might be a little worse, though, since more than a few playable Dragons have appeared that can just fly over GW's entire board. The deck's probably going to cease to exist once Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx rotates (unless they print some new way to make ungodly amounts of mana), but that's not for a while now.
April 7, 2015 4:39 p.m.