Went a perfect 5-0 with this list today at Game Day. I made it first place into my store's Top 8 Tournament. Unfortunately, both games of the first match of that I got really opening hands (mulling to 5 and still no lands for 4 turns....), and since it was single elimination then, I lost. BUT, this deck absolutely wrecked a Mono-Green, Naya, Boros, Mono-Red, and a rival Selesnya deck all without a single mulligan and a single loss during the matches. I suppose such success warranted a flunk later in order to appease Lady Luck, but I am still very proud of this deck. It did a lot better than I thought it would!
Rogue's Passage actually won more games than I expected and was extremely useful sniping planeswalkers. Bow of Nylea, which I slipped in for lack of anything else, only popped up once, but it won me my game against Naya, as my opponent was unwilling to block Experiment Ones with his Sylvan Caryatids.
Banisher Priest is INSANE against Mono-Green and is the sole reason I won my second game. First game he had rough mana, but second he was able to win out hydras and Nylea scary fast, which would have killed me if I didn't have the priests in addition to my charms. All in all, I'm pleased with my results. I would have destroyed a normal FMN. My loss in the Top 8 at my store was a fluke, and I think in no way a poor reflection of the design of this deck. Just some unlucking shuffling, which happens...
I like the Last Breath plan. It gets rid of blue threats nicely and it allows us to get rid of other critters as well - it targets enemy Voices, mana dorks, it can possibly kill an ooze before it gets out of hand and against red aggro, it could be used even on elvish mystic or charm token for our own lifegain.
I've been running the 4 exp one, 3 dryad militant build for a while with pretty good success, but I've also noticed that the militants don't really do anything relevant... And I only run 3 to begin with...
What are y'all's opinion with just running the exp ones? I currently only run 3 smiters , and 2 call of the conclaves... So I feel that it might be more beneficial to remove them and bump those up to 4.
Everything kills the dryad. So if we play a turn one dryad.. It might get two damage in if we are lucky... And after that it's a pretty dead card.
I love Experiment One! Its the only one-drop I play. If you don't run Mystics, then everything evolves it. Its often overlooked by your opponent, but gets bigger with every threat. And if its got 2 counters on it, it survives Wrath and then evolves again if you had a Voice of Resurgence die.
Sniping Master of Waves is huge. Assuming a Tidebinder Mage and a Cloudfin Raptor are already out, the Wave Master gives them extra 10 points of power to hit us with and 4 bodies to block with. Aggro hates that more than life gain and Pit Fight can't target Master of Waves because it has protection from Red. Last Breath does.
I don't think Gideon is enough to deal with Master of Waves. He gets huge by X, where X is the number of creatures your opponent controls, so if all your opponent had were 1/1's, then he could absorb all those hits. But Master of Waves puts out 2/1, so they'll kill Gideon with about half of them and the rest will still go at you.
Since the bulk of Blue's power comes from its devotion, then stripping Blue of devotion is the best way to beat them aside from fireballing every turn with Mistcutter Hydra (so do both). I think we already have a lot of very good answers to Blue; Mistcutter bashes face, Selesnya Charm exiles Thassa, Sundering Growth destroys the Bident, and Last Breath snipes Master of Waves and Tidebinder Mage.
The things to think about now are what will Blue do to counter us and how we can deal with that. We also shouldn't discount other decks. One of the guys I play with built a Golgari Scavenge deck to counter Devo-Blue with Golgari Charm, but its also pretty scary to fight with G/W. He was able to make creatures more than twice as big as mine with Corpsejack Menace, Varolz, the Scar-Striped, and Vastwood Hydra.
Someone on a page I follow for magic posted about this card, and I searched the thread to find we've never discussed it, however what do you guys think of Paladin of Prahv?
If you're playing a slow grindy game, I think the repeatable uncounterable lifegain could be useful. It's a great mana sink, and if for whatever reason you decide to run more than one in your deck and happen to have them both, it stacks. (Note how it wasn't errata'd to Lifelink).
6cmc for a 3/4 is way too much and the lifegain isn't super relevant. Yes, gaining life is nice and keeps us around longer, but we have no way to capitalize on that like decks that run Black or Soul Sisters do. In Modern, some of the top decks run infinite life/creature combos, so every card we play has to either disturb the opponent's plan or hurt them. At 6cmc, I'd rather play Elspeth, Sun's Champion to break the stalemate or sink 7 mana into Martial Coup.
So I had a chance to test my deck out a little bit. I won one, lost one, and got a bye, so I didn't get as much testing in as I would've liked. But I think the deck played pretty well.
My first match was against Junk Melira Pod and I crushed it pretty solidly in Game 1 and 3. Mirran Crusader hits really hard and sets a really small clock, especially when backed by Elspeth. Game 2, I got to see more of what his deck was about and I lost to his infinite life combo. Game 3 I sided in Rest in Peace and Suppression Field and he made the mistake of taking out Qasali Pridemage. That made his Deathrite Shaman and Voice of Resurgence pretty much useless, and his Birthing Pod harder to use, so I won with better creatures.
Match 2, I played against Soul Sisters and lost both games pretty quickly. Game 1 he gold-fished a turn 2 6/6 Serra Ascendant and I didn't have a Path or O-ring to deal with it. Game 2 lasted a little bit longer, but his creatures quickly outgrew mine and he won.
Because I play Elspeth and we all play Knight Exemplar, I think I'm going to add Wrath of God to my deck. It resets the board if we get out-aggro'ed and with Knight Exemplar making our knights indestructible anyway, we can Wrath away any blockers and swing.
I heard that the price of Master of Waves pretty much tripled over the weekend, so to me that's a good indicator that Devo-Blue is going to get huge over the next week or two. Aside from Mistcutter Hydra and maybe Skylasher for the sideboard, what do you guys think of Last Breath as spot-removal against Master of Waves, and even Tidebinder Mage? That way, we don't have to rely on racing them to win.
After watching PT Dublin, what is the best way to fight these Mono X devotion lists? Do you guys think they will stick around or did they just hit the meta in a very unexpected way? Thoughts and opinions?
I think...
- Against White, Glare of Hersey
- Against Green, we have stronger 2cmc-4cmc options and Selesnya Charm for their big guys.
- Against Red, they have to 1-for-1 us to win, so high-toughness creatures like Smiter and Trostani shine here because it's tough for them to efficiently kill them. If you can survive the early onslaught and recover, then you've got them (Druid's Deliverance for a major psych-out and counter-swing?)
- Against Black, not too sure. Charm the Demon and beat face with better creatures?
- Against Blue, Mistcutter Hydra and Skylasher?
All the gods can be Charmed away when they become creatures. Their weapons can be dealt with Sundering Growth. Populate is one of our strongest mechanics and our BEST source of card advantage, so put it to work on your Voice, wurm, and even knight tokens if you have too.
Went 4-1 last night for a total of 9 rounds to 2. Lost to B/W control. Overall, trostani only had an impact on one match versus big boros. Other than that she was completely dead. However Ajani did serious work against control..
Trostani doesnt even make an impact untill turn 6 at best... IF ... we have a token in play.. I'd rather have something a bit more aggressive.
I think in the dublin deck that +3 smiters -1 ooze -2 trostani would be more beneficial.. even if we do play tokens.
However if your like me an mainboard unflinching courages that you probably dont have room
Trostani is the reason I won most of my games. 2/5 is apparently pretty hard to efficiently kill without Black, and when I drop her turn 4, turn 5 I can start populating my Voice token, which I got turn 2 or 3 after my opponent killed my Voice asap.
I say that as long as we're running Advent, Voice, and Charm, populate is a mechanic that is too good to give up. Trostani lets us keep populating while gaining us life, which generates advantage for us in two different ways. I think we should keep her at least as a 1-of in this deck.
I played against a mono-red pyro, boros aggro, and an Esper control. In fairness, I feel like my Esper opponent had some really bad draws, but I went 2-0 against him and won purely with X1's, Voice, and Knight tokens. I'm still in favor of keeping Loxodon Smiter in, because he outclasses so many other creatures at similar cmc against aggro, but playing against control decks, siding him out for Mistcutter Hydra is effective as well.
How so? She's great but Blood Baron has pro white. You can't block her with Elspeth tokens. Advent and Satyr are our best options before splashing.
Baron's pro-white doesn't protect him from Wrath of God effects, so Elspeth's -3 would kill it. I think as a 1-of, Elspeth is good, especially if you're running a bit of ramp coupled with a Spear of Heliod in the flex spot. At the very least, she's a decent sideboard for long games.
Wanting to try out the following cards in my deck and go for a more all-out aggro attempt with backup in both the main board and side just to see how they work in various match ups.
Depends on your deck. If you're running lots of lands (like 24), if your deck has the tendency of giving you more dead-draws than you like, and if your deck is more creature-heavy, then Gods Willing is useful for its scry.
They all more or less do the same thing, but some are strictly better than others in different situations. Don't be afraid to try using different combinations. Like if you're suffering from Red AOE's but don't want to leave your Swords or Aether Vials unguarded, then try a 3-2 mix of BtE and FS if you want.
Sword of Fire and Ice and Puresteel Paladin are the best ways to go for card draw in this deck. Everything else is sub-par IMO. Either build your deck including those two, or tweet your deck to heighten the chance of getting a powerful top-deck.
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Nope, never. I always drew it after I already had 3-4 lands out.
4x Experiment One
4x Voice of Resurgence
4x Fleecemane Lion
4x Boon Satyr
2x Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
Spells: 17
4x Advent of the Wurm
4x Call of the Conclave
4x Selesnya Charm
4x Rootborn Defenses
1x Bow of Nylea
2x Ajani, Caller of the Pride
Lands: 23
4x Temple Garden
4x Selesnya Guildgate
8x Forests
6x Plains
1x Rogue's Passage
4x Banisher Priest
2x Glare of Heresy
3x Mistcutter Hydra
2x Sundering Growth
4x Unflinching Courage
Rogue's Passage actually won more games than I expected and was extremely useful sniping planeswalkers. Bow of Nylea, which I slipped in for lack of anything else, only popped up once, but it won me my game against Naya, as my opponent was unwilling to block Experiment Ones with his Sylvan Caryatids.
Banisher Priest is INSANE against Mono-Green and is the sole reason I won my second game. First game he had rough mana, but second he was able to win out hydras and Nylea scary fast, which would have killed me if I didn't have the priests in addition to my charms. All in all, I'm pleased with my results. I would have destroyed a normal FMN. My loss in the Top 8 at my store was a fluke, and I think in no way a poor reflection of the design of this deck. Just some unlucking shuffling, which happens...
I'm thrilled someone likes my idea! Definitely let us know how it goes for you!
I love Experiment One! Its the only one-drop I play. If you don't run Mystics, then everything evolves it. Its often overlooked by your opponent, but gets bigger with every threat. And if its got 2 counters on it, it survives Wrath and then evolves again if you had a Voice of Resurgence die.
It also snipes Tidebinder Mage, Nightveil Specter, and even Mutavault, all potent threats in mono-blue arsenal. In fact, Mutavault is the only creature that they can actually block Mistcutter Hydra/Skylasher with, so why not have an answer to that?
Since the bulk of Blue's power comes from its devotion, then stripping Blue of devotion is the best way to beat them aside from fireballing every turn with Mistcutter Hydra (so do both). I think we already have a lot of very good answers to Blue; Mistcutter bashes face, Selesnya Charm exiles Thassa, Sundering Growth destroys the Bident, and Last Breath snipes Master of Waves and Tidebinder Mage.
The things to think about now are what will Blue do to counter us and how we can deal with that. We also shouldn't discount other decks. One of the guys I play with built a Golgari Scavenge deck to counter Devo-Blue with Golgari Charm, but its also pretty scary to fight with G/W. He was able to make creatures more than twice as big as mine with Corpsejack Menace, Varolz, the Scar-Striped, and Vastwood Hydra.
6cmc for a 3/4 is way too much and the lifegain isn't super relevant. Yes, gaining life is nice and keeps us around longer, but we have no way to capitalize on that like decks that run Black or Soul Sisters do. In Modern, some of the top decks run infinite life/creature combos, so every card we play has to either disturb the opponent's plan or hurt them. At 6cmc, I'd rather play Elspeth, Sun's Champion to break the stalemate or sink 7 mana into Martial Coup.
My first match was against Junk Melira Pod and I crushed it pretty solidly in Game 1 and 3. Mirran Crusader hits really hard and sets a really small clock, especially when backed by Elspeth. Game 2, I got to see more of what his deck was about and I lost to his infinite life combo. Game 3 I sided in Rest in Peace and Suppression Field and he made the mistake of taking out Qasali Pridemage. That made his Deathrite Shaman and Voice of Resurgence pretty much useless, and his Birthing Pod harder to use, so I won with better creatures.
Match 2, I played against Soul Sisters and lost both games pretty quickly. Game 1 he gold-fished a turn 2 6/6 Serra Ascendant and I didn't have a Path or O-ring to deal with it. Game 2 lasted a little bit longer, but his creatures quickly outgrew mine and he won.
Because I play Elspeth and we all play Knight Exemplar, I think I'm going to add Wrath of God to my deck. It resets the board if we get out-aggro'ed and with Knight Exemplar making our knights indestructible anyway, we can Wrath away any blockers and swing.
I think...
- Against White, Glare of Hersey
- Against Green, we have stronger 2cmc-4cmc options and Selesnya Charm for their big guys.
- Against Red, they have to 1-for-1 us to win, so high-toughness creatures like Smiter and Trostani shine here because it's tough for them to efficiently kill them. If you can survive the early onslaught and recover, then you've got them (Druid's Deliverance for a major psych-out and counter-swing?)
- Against Black, not too sure. Charm the Demon and beat face with better creatures?
- Against Blue, Mistcutter Hydra and Skylasher?
All the gods can be Charmed away when they become creatures. Their weapons can be dealt with Sundering Growth. Populate is one of our strongest mechanics and our BEST source of card advantage, so put it to work on your Voice, wurm, and even knight tokens if you have too.
Trostani is the reason I won most of my games. 2/5 is apparently pretty hard to efficiently kill without Black, and when I drop her turn 4, turn 5 I can start populating my Voice token, which I got turn 2 or 3 after my opponent killed my Voice asap.
I say that as long as we're running Advent, Voice, and Charm, populate is a mechanic that is too good to give up. Trostani lets us keep populating while gaining us life, which generates advantage for us in two different ways. I think we should keep her at least as a 1-of in this deck.
4x Experiment One
4x Voice of Resurgence
4x Fleecemane Lion
4x Loxodon Smiter
4x Boon Satyr
1x Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
Spells: 16
4x Advent of the Wurm
4x Call of the Conclave
4x Rootborn Defenses
4x Selesnya Charm
4x Temple Garden
2x Selesnya Guildgate
9x Forest
7x Plains
1x Rogue's Passage
2x Druid's Deliverance
3x Glare of Heresy
3x Mistcutter Hydra
2x Pithing Needle
2x Sundering Growth
1x Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
2x Unflinching Courage
I played against a mono-red pyro, boros aggro, and an Esper control. In fairness, I feel like my Esper opponent had some really bad draws, but I went 2-0 against him and won purely with X1's, Voice, and Knight tokens. I'm still in favor of keeping Loxodon Smiter in, because he outclasses so many other creatures at similar cmc against aggro, but playing against control decks, siding him out for Mistcutter Hydra is effective as well.
Baron's pro-white doesn't protect him from Wrath of God effects, so Elspeth's -3 would kill it. I think as a 1-of, Elspeth is good, especially if you're running a bit of ramp coupled with a Spear of Heliod in the flex spot. At the very least, she's a decent sideboard for long games.
Depends on your deck. If you're running lots of lands (like 24), if your deck has the tendency of giving you more dead-draws than you like, and if your deck is more creature-heavy, then Gods Willing is useful for its scry.
If you use anthems or artifacts to support your knights, then Faith's Shield is good because it protects Honor of the Pure from Abrupt Decay.
If you're going for alpha strikes, or if your meta uses things like Pyroclasm, Earthquake, Volcanic Fallout, and Anger of the Gods a lot, then Brave the Elements is for you.
They all more or less do the same thing, but some are strictly better than others in different situations. Don't be afraid to try using different combinations. Like if you're suffering from Red AOE's but don't want to leave your Swords or Aether Vials unguarded, then try a 3-2 mix of BtE and FS if you want.
Sword of Fire and Ice and Puresteel Paladin are the best ways to go for card draw in this deck. Everything else is sub-par IMO. Either build your deck including those two, or tweet your deck to heighten the chance of getting a powerful top-deck.