I built this deck so that I would have a lower powered deck that was still capable of winning. The deck isn't necessarily bad. I realize that I probably need more two drops and should remove trash like Vampire Nighthawk, but overall, it has won a few games and taught my opponents how deadly Gray Merchant of Asphodel truly is, but I dislike it's inability to interact with non-creature permanents. While playing the deck, it feels that as soon as my opponents can lay down a Panharmonicon or reliably clear the board they've won the game.
I want to change the deck in order to make it more resilient to non-creature based strategies if possible. Unfortunately, this will almost certainly mean that I have to splash a second color like Green or White and I was wondering whether any of you add attempted to do that before in this type of deck.
At the moment, I am gravitating towards White, since it gives me access to Disenchant effects and Sorin, Grim Nemesis, a potential non-Devotion based win condition.
I will update the list later, but in conclusion, if you have has success with small splashes to this type of Devotion deck, please post it and thank you for any advice you may provide.
Not at all what you asked, but... Instead of splashing, I toss in Disks or O Stones or AiDs (I know this doesn't deal with most artifacts, but it deals with lots of enchantments) or Gate to Phyrexia.
With the caveat that I haven't tried this - either Vraska planeswalker might provide spot removal - and can add to B devotion. I'm not sure those are better than the Spine suggestion from Thijs1301, though. (Sidisi is pretty good for searching for silver bullets.)
Out of curiosity, what does your opponent play after sticking a Panharmonicon that makes you insta-lose?
As for recovering from (creature) board wipes - Demigod of Revenge is pretty resilient. (And someday, the cost of Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet will come down - the card can help if you retain a presence if you aren't the only player with creatures when that Wrath hits.)
Thank you all for your responses.
The particular Panharmonicon deck I was referencing usually follows it with Siege Rhino or Thragtusk and then later blinks both repeatedly with various effects, but my mention of Panharmonicon was really just to say "troublesome permanents with which I cannot interact." As a primarily Control player, my first response is to load my deck with tech options to remove them, but perhaps I am misunderstanding how to play the deck and instead of focusing on dealing with enchantments and artifacts, I should concentrate on making the deck faster or at least more inevitable.
Those Reclamations are very nice. But you’ll need sacrifice and life to get an engine.
You have some of both but maybe not enough.
I like Disciple of Griselbrand but there are more options.
I’d drop the Aetherborns for one extra Marauder, one extra Nighthawk and two new Disciples.
I’d probably drop all Machinations and one Pestilence so I could run one more Reclamation and four Crypt Ghast.
Maybe even drop all the ‘howlers for an extra copy of the Whip and two copies of the man himself, Erebos, God of the Dead...
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My meta: 3 or 4 player free for all, anything goes but boring games or broken decks cause a vote to end that game.
With the knowledge that I don't mind sinking some money into the deck over the course of a few months, what would you guys change?
You don't need to change much of anything. Just shave some of the 3 and 4 drops for 4x Beast Within/Anguished Unmaking and call it a day. If you want to invest money in anything make it fetches/shocks because those are only going to go up. Alternatively you could always add some Nytkhos fueled Exsanguinates into the mix and/or other big bombs such as Army of the Damned and/or Rise of the Dark Realms. If people aren't killing your dudes then Crypt Ghast is a monster and I'd gladly play 4.
With the recent revival of the Mono Black Devotion thread, I have been reevaluating my own Mono Black Devotion deck seen below:
24 Swamp
4 Gonti's Machinations
2 Mutilate
3 Pestilence
4 Phyrexian Arena
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Whip of Erebos
4 Gifted Aetherborn
2 Gonti, Lord of Luxury
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
3 Nighthowler
2 Sepulchral Primordial
3 Vampire Nighthawk
I built this deck so that I would have a lower powered deck that was still capable of winning. The deck isn't necessarily bad. I realize that I probably need more two drops and should remove trash like Vampire Nighthawk, but overall, it has won a few games and taught my opponents how deadly Gray Merchant of Asphodel truly is, but I dislike it's inability to interact with non-creature permanents. While playing the deck, it feels that as soon as my opponents can lay down a Panharmonicon or reliably clear the board they've won the game.
I want to change the deck in order to make it more resilient to non-creature based strategies if possible. Unfortunately, this will almost certainly mean that I have to splash a second color like Green or White and I was wondering whether any of you add attempted to do that before in this type of deck.
At the moment, I am gravitating towards White, since it gives me access to Disenchant effects and Sorin, Grim Nemesis, a potential non-Devotion based win condition.
I will update the list later, but in conclusion, if you have has success with small splashes to this type of Devotion deck, please post it and thank you for any advice you may provide.
If I do play multicolor it’s more evenly distributed so the other color can field it’s strength as well.
That said... a splash of white for Necrotic Sliver might be nice. It’s on a stick so it can be revived...
My meta: 3 or 4 player free for all, anything goes but boring games or broken decks cause a vote to end that game.
Out of curiosity, what does your opponent play after sticking a Panharmonicon that makes you insta-lose?
As for recovering from (creature) board wipes - Demigod of Revenge is pretty resilient. (And someday, the cost of Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet will come down - the card can help if you retain a presence if you aren't the only player with creatures when that Wrath hits.)
The particular Panharmonicon deck I was referencing usually follows it with Siege Rhino or Thragtusk and then later blinks both repeatedly with various effects, but my mention of Panharmonicon was really just to say "troublesome permanents with which I cannot interact." As a primarily Control player, my first response is to load my deck with tech options to remove them, but perhaps I am misunderstanding how to play the deck and instead of focusing on dealing with enchantments and artifacts, I should concentrate on making the deck faster or at least more inevitable.
Adding Demigod of Revenge backed up behind Phyrexian Reclamation or Tortured Existence can certaibly help add that inevitability. Sorin, Grim Nemesis would add the same pressure along with card advantage and Kalitas may trend down after this winter.
With the knowledge that I don't mind sinking some money into the deck over the course of a few months, what would you guys change?
You have some of both but maybe not enough.
I like Disciple of Griselbrand but there are more options.
I’d drop the Aetherborns for one extra Marauder, one extra Nighthawk and two new Disciples.
I’d probably drop all Machinations and one Pestilence so I could run one more Reclamation and four Crypt Ghast.
Maybe even drop all the ‘howlers for an extra copy of the Whip and two copies of the man himself, Erebos, God of the Dead...
My meta: 3 or 4 player free for all, anything goes but boring games or broken decks cause a vote to end that game.
You don't need to change much of anything. Just shave some of the 3 and 4 drops for 4x Beast Within/Anguished Unmaking and call it a day. If you want to invest money in anything make it fetches/shocks because those are only going to go up. Alternatively you could always add some Nytkhos fueled Exsanguinates into the mix and/or other big bombs such as Army of the Damned and/or Rise of the Dark Realms. If people aren't killing your dudes then Crypt Ghast is a monster and I'd gladly play 4.
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