Its understated how much oath of nissa can affect your sideboard plans. especially for cards essential to match ups. often times you'll swap out 2/3 oath's for blood moon, cause you can't afford to mill your own sideboard card.
when it comes to board wipe options oath of nissa plays well with choices that don't seem the usual for devotion decks.
It is a first draft right now (so likely would change with tuning)...but this is an example of what I think we can do with a more “direct” build. I would like to see a little more reward for the Devotion; that may come with testing.
because CurdBro like the Hydra :D. But i don't know why as a 4off in the Sideboard?!
Collected Company is really the the better choice. and we have a lot of strong 3Drops that doing a better Job, as this slow BBE. BBE is good with a nearly empty Board to get even more Value and to cast anything with 3 or less. I know we have better Option to generate Value. Courser of Kruphix Eternal Witness Rhonas the Indomitable Tireless Tracker
With that amount of 3 Drops and creatures i think there is no Room for Nissa. And BBE into Planeswalker could be a Nonbo.
Overall to the Simple List. If i want Aggro, i prefer a simple fast Stompy List. A Devotion List, must have ways to use the big Mana. There are 2 Ways:
Mana Sinks (2x Duskwatch Recruiter + 1x Kessig is not enough
Our Big Beaters AllStars trough Hardcast
...or a hybrid card from the 2 points above
At the moment imho, it doing not enough from both sides. I know CurdBro you can do it much better even as a first draft
i really like Domri Rade. If "Power Matters Devotion" is a thing, i believe this Planeswalker is the right choice.
Not sure if this excerpt is right (source), but it says:
711.4b While a double-faced permanent’s back face is up, it has only the characteristics of its back face. However, its converted mana cost is calculated using the mana cost of its front face. If a permanent is copying the back face of a double-faced card (even if the card representing that copy is itself a double-faced card), the converted mana cost of that permanent is 0.
I believe this change was implemented in Shadows over Innistrad.
Doesnt fully answer the devotion question we have. Have to test this out in mtgo, see what happens there. That would also imply that they cant abrupt decay a flipped Garruk Relentless.
@Dos_Rouge: 100% Agree with you. That is my SB plan as well, taking out Oath for hight impact sideboard cards that canot be hit by Oath like Relic, Bloodmoon etc gives me something to take out which does not slow the ramp gameplan at all.
Genesis Hydra is most likely in the sideboard because it a big nonbo with BBE, but can come in vs control matchups.
@Curdbros: Have tested BBE out but I dont like it. The chances of hitting one of our Ramp cards is so high. Let us know how it goes for you.
@soulgix: That sounds like a good adaption. I've noticed a surge in Jund and UWx control that keep your ramp in check. So there's a higher risk of not being able to cast your expensive cards. Carnage Tyrant is propably not a bad call as its solid against both these decks. Keep the edict effect in Mind.
A good preperation for your tournament is to got to mtgtop8 and see the top decks and have an idea how to sideboard against each one. I'm mostly struggling of what to take out.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern: GNykthos Devotion - Eldrazi Tron - RW Boros Burn - UW UW Control
Domri Rade is quite strong but also again you have weird number all around your deck.
I'll show you a quick way to generate stronger deck but it's quite mathematical.
Basically you start by finding what is 100/D where D is number of cards in your deck. (usually 60 so its = 1.66)
Then you can multiple 1.66 per the number of draw, let's say 7 for a starting hand and its = 11.66
You then multiply the 11.66 by the amount of let's say mana dork you are running, in this example I'll be running 9 mana dork.
So it's 11.66 x 9 = 105 thus I have 105% to have a mana dork in my opening hand, note that even if it's 105% it's still a random chance and thus you might not always have a mana dork in hand with 9 in a deck of 60 but the odds should be in your favor.
==
After showing you a basic way to find the appropriate numbers for cards in your deck we can then look at the play you are referring with the following probability:
Turn 1 Land, 46.64% chance to play Utopia Sprawl
Turn 2 Land, I don't know what the Archer stands for and you are not running Growth
Turn 3 Land, 9 x 1.66 = 30% chances to play Beast Tracker
Also if you are running Domri Rade consider that playing 38 non-creature card might not be optimal, since most of the time his +1 won't work.
Genesis Hydra is in the side for Control match ups (of which I’m seeing a LOT).
Bloodbraid Elf is essentially a sorcery version of Collected Company that ALWAYS hits a 3/2 with haste and another 1-3-drop. Company is an instant that sometimes hits 6-mana worth of spells, sometimes less, and sometimes whiffs altogether. Bloodbraid also can hit Nissa and Domri Rade.
I don’t really see Bloodbraid as “slower” as they are both 4-cmc (and BBE has haste). I will absolutely try out Company though!
Having said this, in a combo build I do think Collected Company is preferable.
because CurdBro like the Hydra :D. But i don't know why as a 4off in the Sideboard?!
Collected Company is really the the better choice. and we have a lot of strong 3Drops that doing a better Job, as this slow BBE. BBE is good with a nearly empty Board to get even more Value and to cast anything with 3 or less. I know we have better Option to generate Value. Courser of Kruphix Eternal Witness Rhonas the Indomitable Tireless Tracker
With that amount of 3 Drops and creatures i think there is no Room for Nissa. And BBE into Planeswalker could be a Nonbo.
Overall to the Simple List. If i want Aggro, i prefer a simple fast Stompy List. A Devotion List, must have ways to use the big Mana. There are 2 Ways:
Mana Sinks (2x Duskwatch Recruiter + 1x Kessig is not enough
Our Big Beaters AllStars trough Hardcast
...or a hybrid card from the 2 points above
At the moment imho, it doing not enough from both sides. I know CurdBro you can do it much better even as a first draft
i really like Domri Rade. If "Power Matters Devotion" is a thing, i believe this Planeswalker is the right choice.
I do agree with what you’ve said here. As I’ve said in the past...we do have to answer the question “if we’re making a bunch of mana; what are we doing with it?” I prefer card advantage and mana sinks
IMO Oath of Nissa is not as strong in a list that uses vital cards that cannot be fetched with it. Mostly Primal Command. Exactly for the reason you mentioned.
However since we are a 20 / 21 land deck and a "fair" ramp deck in the sense that we run up to 12 cards just for ramp (Arbor Elf, Utopia Sprawl, Birds of Paradise) we run into two main issues:
*We dont find our lands when our ramping pieces get removed since we only run 20/21 lands. Leaving us stranded with our CMC >4 cards.
*We have all our ramp and none of our payoff cards
Oath helps tremendously in those situations, given we can fetch our threats with it. Don't think of it as a T1 play. Because honestly it's not advisable to keep a hand without a T1 ramp card. But consider the interaction you dont receive when you goldfish: your T1 Ramp gets removed.
Now you can T2: Another ramp card + Oath, helping you to find a CMC4 card for T3 or maybe just another fetch land if you have a Tracker in hand for example.
The Keyword is consistency.
That's a great point. I'll add a few dorks to the point I'm comfortable with their number, but I'll give its chance to the Oath that can for sure be super useful if we run out of mana and/or gas.
I'll show you a quick way to generate stronger deck but it's quite mathematical.
Basically you start by finding what is 100/D where D is number of cards in your deck. (usually 60 so its = 1.66)
Then you can multiple 1.66 per the number of draw, let's say 7 for a starting hand and its = 11.66
You then multiply the 11.66 by the amount of let's say mana dork you are running, in this example I'll be running 9 mana dork.
So it's 11.66 x 9 = 105 thus I have 105% to have a mana dork in my opening hand, note that even if it's 105% it's still a random chance and thus you might not always have a mana dork in hand with 9 in a deck of 60 but the odds should be in your favor.
I'm not sure what's the mathematical justification behind your technique. Especially since, statistically speaking, it doesn't make any sense to conclude you have >100% chance to obtain something when you actually can miss it. 100% is supposed to mean 100% ^^
To know the probability to get at least 1 pull from out of your 9 mana dorks among a 60 cards deck, you need to use what's called hypergeometric distribution. This website does it : http://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx
Conclusion : with 9 mana dorks, you have 70% chance to get at least one in your opening hand.
That's the last line, "Cumulative Probability: P(X >= 1)"
(also : after mulligan you still have 36% chance to miss. Thus you have 30%*36% chance to miss both, that means you have 11% chance to miss both times. Thus you're 89% likely to find at least one mana dork in your 7 cards opening hand or after your first mulligan )
@soulgix: That sounds like a good adaption. I've noticed a surge in Jund and UWx control that keep your ramp in check. So there's a higher risk of not being able to cast your expensive cards. Carnage Tyrant is propably not a bad call as its solid against both these decks. Keep the edict effect in Mind.
A good preperation for your tournament is to got to mtgtop8 and see the top decks and have an idea how to sideboard against each one. I'm mostly struggling of what to take out.
The side is the ONLY thing i'm pretty sure about. Even after checking mtgtop8 i think i'm pretty good. Here's the details
3x Stony Silence: I-WIN button against Affinity, Helps against Tron
1x Creeping Corrosion: I-WIN button against Affinity. I'm using it together with Stony Silence in case i draw the enchantment too far into the game
3x Angel's Grace: I-WIN button against Ab Nauseam deck. Can buy you a turn against Storm/kiki-Jiki/Valakut. I started using it because it is the ONLY option against Ab Nauseam. Without it...i have an auto-lose against that deck unless i manage to kill him by turn 4...and thats not very reliable
4x Crumble to Dust: I-WIN button against Valakut, and helps a lot against Tron. It's a 4-of cos if Valakut combo out before i draw it..i'm dead, and same thing goes for Tron. Drawing it after he has a Karn or Ugin in play is pointless
So, every card i have in my side has the Auto-Win option against a certain deck. I don't really like to use cards that "may help" but will not win you the game right away.
As for the rest of the field..let's see
Death's Shadow. Primal Command can kill their shadows. A well placed Nissa can lock them out forever, and a Hornet Queen win me the game. So i have options
Eldrazi Aggro/Jund. These are the decks i struggle more, but it mostly depends on their opening hands. If they start destroying my hand with 2-3 discards by turn 2-3..then i'm in trouble. If they keep it normal...i can manage.
RDW. If i manage to reach 5 mana i have the command. Before that, Caryatids are a nightmare for them. Plus Ballista can kill almost anything they play.
Control. If they get into control-mode with 7 cards in hand, 7 lands in play...GG. Before that happens i have a total of 10 PW, 1 Tyrant, and a lot of fingers to cross
Now...i built my side so not to have a deck that is auto-lose on the spot. I can play my game against every deck on the field.
Never bothered to check the win %, but i tried to make it so it is not 0% against any deck on the field
The issue with Thrun is that most creature will be 5/5 or better. I assume Tarmogoyf to hit 5/6 and it's the reason why I've started using the list with Primeval Titan instead.
@Walk: Your analysis of matchups is incorrect. I've won several of the matchups you indicate are unwinnable, as have most of us here. Also, if you indicate that odds exceed 100%, you are not doing the statistical analysis correctly; you may want to check your math.
It would be appreciated if you stop putting down the deck and its users on a regular basis. You clearly aren't interested in the deck anymore, as you've said many times. Why not just focus on your new primer?
@Soulgix: You can also beat ANT with other methods. They have a lot of difficulty winning through Rule of Law effects, for example.
@masxivz
If you look at my posts from a couple months back, I ran a Troll Worship devotion deck. What I found so was that Ascetic didn't really cut it as far as a creature... But it looks like you only have one so that's probably fine. Also, Rhonas can't be fetched by Bellower, due to the legendary clause.
Overall I wouldn't say there was a reason why I stopped playing it, other than I missed playing BTE in the deck. It's always a good thing to have sticky devotion, especially in a control/jund meta, so really it depends on what you expect. A deck like yours would probably do totally fine.
@masxivz
If you look at my posts from a couple months back, I ran a Troll Worship devotion deck. What I found so was that Ascetic didn't really cut it as far as a creature... But it looks like you only have one so that's probably fine. Also, Rhonas can't be fetched by Bellower, due to the legendary clause.
Overall I wouldn't say there was a reason why I stopped playing it, other than I missed playing BTE in the deck. It's always a good thing to have sticky devotion, especially in a control/jund meta, so really it depends on what you expect. A deck like yours would probably do totally fine.
It is quite relevant indeed to run devotion that stick and we can expect UWR to come back after dominaria.
Public Mod Note
(Xaricore):
Warning issued for trolling — Xaricore
@Soulgix: You can also beat ANT with other methods. They have a lot of difficulty winning through Rule of Law effects, for example.
Ya, but..Angel grace against ANT will win you the game. Rule of Law will slow them down, true, but i will still need to work to win.
Angel grace is probably the funniest sidecard you could bring, using their card against them.
Split Second also helps since they can't interact with it.
Creeping Corrosion is a tiny bit too slow since depending if you are on the play or draw they might already be in a strong position, I prefer Ancient Grudge.
Also against control deck,Summoning Trap is really useful if you run a lot of high costed creature like primeval titan.
I Will update more once I’ve tested heavily against the current meta. I always start very simple and go from there.
I will post my match up analysis as well (just to aid in the current discussion based on the Devotion decks I play)...I don’t wish to argue about match ups or pretend i know everything about all match ups...I’m just going to post what I’ve found in the past with my decks.
I'm looking at getting into modern to play at my LGS (just local events, no GPs or circuit tourneys). Green Devo is totally up my alley in terms of play style, but looking at discussions and event results, it doesn't seem to perform reliably. As I haven't put a deck together yet, I don't know what the meta will be like, but I expect it to be rather on the competitive side, using established, popular decks. Is Green Devo worth putting together for my first modern deck, or would I be better served by building a different archetype, like Tron or Elves?
Frankly not many people play devotion. I think this may partially explain the lack of results. I also think that a lot of people do not take the time to feel out the deck. From what little coverage/videos there are, most devotion lists are pretty old-fashioned, featuring Genesis Wave, Primal Command, and Wistful Selkie. These are pretty classic, however in today's meta I don't think they are successful.
The playstyle is very similar to Elves, but BIGGER. If you unsure if you'l like that, it might be a tough sell, simply because a lot of the cards are not usable by many other decks. The only things I can think of are the fetches, Arbor Elves, and Utopia Sprawls (for Ponza). If you don't end up liking it, I would not suggest it as you'll be out some amount of money. If you think you'll be fine, I personally believe Devotion is a great choice
It is a very adaptable deck. Depending on your meta, you can choose from a variety of different creatures and planeswalkers to give you the best edge in those matchups. I would not go as far to say that it is a "toolbox" deck, but because the nature of devotion is simply "green permanents", you can customize your cards to fight the meta you're in very well. Card examples - Kitchen Finks, Chameleon Colossus, Scavenging Ooze, Thrun the Last Troll, Carnage Tyrant, Hornet Queen, Acidic Slime, Courser of Kruphix, etc.
If you think that variety is the spice of life, I would recommend devotion. If you want a more tuned/spikey deck to play, I would look elsewhere. Good luck in your decision!
The deck actually performs pretty well. Lots of people have had luck with it. It is not a tier 1 deck, and while not tier 2 is probably just shy of that. It catches a lot of people off-guard, and is very flexible in its attack patterns. It's also not terribly expensive, with reprints of most signature cards recently.
Obviously, any build's efficacy depends on the meta. Tron and Elves are in higher tiers, and perform consistently, but tend to be a pit pricier and susceptible to hate. Additionally, the new hate card coming along in Dominaria is going to hit them much harder than us, as does the presence of control decks.
If you want to give it a try on something like Xmage first, that might be a good idea. Note that there are easily a half dozen major variants, and you may want to mess around to see which you prefer. I tend to like BTE-based aggro builds and controlling builds with Command and Devoted Druid, but others like Planeswalkers, Stompy, mid-range, or other variants.
Its understated how much oath of nissa can affect your sideboard plans. especially for cards essential to match ups. often times you'll swap out 2/3 oath's for blood moon, cause you can't afford to mill your own sideboard card.
when it comes to board wipe options oath of nissa plays well with choices that don't seem the usual for devotion decks.
board wipe - Caldera Hellion Chandra, Flamecaller cloudthresher
tech - phyrexian revoker gaddock teeg Dosan the Falling Leaf Ruric Thar, the Unbowed magus of the moon spellskite
isn't there something cheaper than ruric thar thats green and locks down storm for this list?
4x Arbor Elf
4x Birds of Paradise
2x Duskwatch Recruiter
4x Steel Leaf Champion
2x Reverent Hunter
2x Kitchen Finks
4x Bloodbraid Elf
2x Woodland Bellower
Other
4x Utopia Sprawl
3x Beast Within
1x Domri Rade
3x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
4x Garruk Wildspeaker
Land
7x Fetch Land
7x Forest
3x Stomping Grounds
3x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Kessig Wolf Run
4x Genesis Hydra
2x Scavenging Ooze
3x Abrade
2x Bonfire of the Damned
3x Blood Moon
1x Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
It is a first draft right now (so likely would change with tuning)...but this is an example of what I think we can do with a more “direct” build. I would like to see a little more reward for the Devotion; that may come with testing.
why is genesis hydra in your side?
Collected Company is really the the better choice. and we have a lot of strong 3Drops that doing a better Job, as this slow BBE. BBE is good with a nearly empty Board to get even more Value and to cast anything with 3 or less. I know we have better Option to generate Value.
Courser of Kruphix
Eternal Witness
Rhonas the Indomitable
Tireless Tracker
With that amount of 3 Drops and creatures i think there is no Room for Nissa. And BBE into Planeswalker could be a Nonbo.
Overall to the Simple List. If i want Aggro, i prefer a simple fast Stompy List. A Devotion List, must have ways to use the big Mana. There are 2 Ways:
i really like Domri Rade. If "Power Matters Devotion" is a thing, i believe this Planeswalker is the right choice.
Doesnt fully answer the devotion question we have. Have to test this out in mtgo, see what happens there. That would also imply that they cant abrupt decay a flipped Garruk Relentless.
@Dos_Rouge: 100% Agree with you. That is my SB plan as well, taking out Oath for hight impact sideboard cards that canot be hit by Oath like Relic, Bloodmoon etc gives me something to take out which does not slow the ramp gameplan at all.
Genesis Hydra is most likely in the sideboard because it a big nonbo with BBE, but can come in vs control matchups.
@Curdbros: Have tested BBE out but I dont like it. The chances of hitting one of our Ramp cards is so high. Let us know how it goes for you.
@soulgix: That sounds like a good adaption. I've noticed a surge in Jund and UWx control that keep your ramp in check. So there's a higher risk of not being able to cast your expensive cards. Carnage Tyrant is propably not a bad call as its solid against both these decks. Keep the edict effect in Mind.
A good preperation for your tournament is to got to mtgtop8 and see the top decks and have an idea how to sideboard against each one. I'm mostly struggling of what to take out.
Shh.
==
Maxivz, I just want you to realise how poor your numbers are, If you are looking to cast a card on turn 3 you should run a playset of it.
I really love shapers' sanctuary.
Domri Rade is quite strong but also again you have weird number all around your deck.
I'll show you a quick way to generate stronger deck but it's quite mathematical.
Basically you start by finding what is 100/D where D is number of cards in your deck. (usually 60 so its = 1.66)
Then you can multiple 1.66 per the number of draw, let's say 7 for a starting hand and its = 11.66
You then multiply the 11.66 by the amount of let's say mana dork you are running, in this example I'll be running 9 mana dork.
So it's 11.66 x 9 = 105 thus I have 105% to have a mana dork in my opening hand, note that even if it's 105% it's still a random chance and thus you might not always have a mana dork in hand with 9 in a deck of 60 but the odds should be in your favor.
==
After showing you a basic way to find the appropriate numbers for cards in your deck we can then look at the play you are referring with the following probability:
Turn 1 Land, 46.64% chance to play Utopia Sprawl
Turn 2 Land, I don't know what the Archer stands for and you are not running Growth
Turn 3 Land, 9 x 1.66 = 30% chances to play Beast Tracker
Also if you are running Domri Rade consider that playing 38 non-creature card might not be optimal, since most of the time his +1 won't work.
Genesis Hydra is in the side for Control match ups (of which I’m seeing a LOT).
Bloodbraid Elf is essentially a sorcery version of Collected Company that ALWAYS hits a 3/2 with haste and another 1-3-drop. Company is an instant that sometimes hits 6-mana worth of spells, sometimes less, and sometimes whiffs altogether. Bloodbraid also can hit Nissa and Domri Rade.
I don’t really see Bloodbraid as “slower” as they are both 4-cmc (and BBE has haste). I will absolutely try out Company though!
Having said this, in a combo build I do think Collected Company is preferable.
I do agree with what you’ve said here. As I’ve said in the past...we do have to answer the question “if we’re making a bunch of mana; what are we doing with it?” I prefer card advantage and mana sinks
That's a great point. I'll add a few dorks to the point I'm comfortable with their number, but I'll give its chance to the Oath that can for sure be super useful if we run out of mana and/or gas.
I'm not sure what's the mathematical justification behind your technique. Especially since, statistically speaking, it doesn't make any sense to conclude you have >100% chance to obtain something when you actually can miss it. 100% is supposed to mean 100% ^^
To know the probability to get at least 1 pull from out of your 9 mana dorks among a 60 cards deck, you need to use what's called hypergeometric distribution. This website does it : http://stattrek.com/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx
Conclusion : with 9 mana dorks, you have 70% chance to get at least one in your opening hand.
That's the last line, "Cumulative Probability: P(X >= 1)"
(also : after mulligan you still have 36% chance to miss. Thus you have 30%*36% chance to miss both, that means you have 11% chance to miss both times. Thus you're 89% likely to find at least one mana dork in your 7 cards opening hand or after your first mulligan )
Unless I misunderstood your method...
Modern : Solemnity Prison Martyr Proc Devotion to Green 8 Whacks Eldrazi Processor Bogles Landfall Aggro
Legacy : Goblins
The side is the ONLY thing i'm pretty sure about. Even after checking mtgtop8 i think i'm pretty good. Here's the details
3x Stony Silence: I-WIN button against Affinity, Helps against Tron
1x Creeping Corrosion: I-WIN button against Affinity. I'm using it together with Stony Silence in case i draw the enchantment too far into the game
3x Angel's Grace: I-WIN button against Ab Nauseam deck. Can buy you a turn against Storm/kiki-Jiki/Valakut. I started using it because it is the ONLY option against Ab Nauseam. Without it...i have an auto-lose against that deck unless i manage to kill him by turn 4...and thats not very reliable
2x Rest In Peace/Relic of Progenitus: I-WIN against Dredge AND Living End. Can use it against control to negate their Snapcaster Mage
4x Crumble to Dust: I-WIN button against Valakut, and helps a lot against Tron. It's a 4-of cos if Valakut combo out before i draw it..i'm dead, and same thing goes for Tron. Drawing it after he has a Karn or Ugin in play is pointless
So, every card i have in my side has the Auto-Win option against a certain deck. I don't really like to use cards that "may help" but will not win you the game right away.
As for the rest of the field..let's see
Death's Shadow. Primal Command can kill their shadows. A well placed Nissa can lock them out forever, and a Hornet Queen win me the game. So i have options
Eldrazi Aggro/Jund. These are the decks i struggle more, but it mostly depends on their opening hands. If they start destroying my hand with 2-3 discards by turn 2-3..then i'm in trouble. If they keep it normal...i can manage.
RDW. If i manage to reach 5 mana i have the command. Before that, Caryatids are a nightmare for them. Plus Ballista can kill almost anything they play.
Control. If they get into control-mode with 7 cards in hand, 7 lands in play...GG. Before that happens i have a total of 10 PW, 1 Tyrant, and a lot of fingers to cross
Now...i built my side so not to have a deck that is auto-lose on the spot. I can play my game against every deck on the field.
Never bothered to check the win %, but i tried to make it so it is not 0% against any deck on the field
It would be appreciated if you stop putting down the deck and its users on a regular basis. You clearly aren't interested in the deck anymore, as you've said many times. Why not just focus on your new primer?
@Soulgix: You can also beat ANT with other methods. They have a lot of difficulty winning through Rule of Law effects, for example.
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB
If you look at my posts from a couple months back, I ran a Troll Worship devotion deck. What I found so was that Ascetic didn't really cut it as far as a creature... But it looks like you only have one so that's probably fine. Also, Rhonas can't be fetched by Bellower, due to the legendary clause.
Overall I wouldn't say there was a reason why I stopped playing it, other than I missed playing BTE in the deck. It's always a good thing to have sticky devotion, especially in a control/jund meta, so really it depends on what you expect. A deck like yours would probably do totally fine.
Also my match up are correct and since you are now ignored I won't answer back.
It is quite relevant indeed to run devotion that stick and we can expect UWR to come back after dominaria.
Ya, but..Angel grace against ANT will win you the game. Rule of Law will slow them down, true, but i will still need to work to win.
Angel grace is probably the funniest sidecard you could bring, using their card against them.
Split Second also helps since they can't interact with it.
Creeping Corrosion is a tiny bit too slow since depending if you are on the play or draw they might already be in a strong position, I prefer Ancient Grudge.
Also against control deck,Summoning Trap is really useful if you run a lot of high costed creature like primeval titan.
I Will update more once I’ve tested heavily against the current meta. I always start very simple and go from there.
I will post my match up analysis as well (just to aid in the current discussion based on the Devotion decks I play)...I don’t wish to argue about match ups or pretend i know everything about all match ups...I’m just going to post what I’ve found in the past with my decks.
Frankly not many people play devotion. I think this may partially explain the lack of results. I also think that a lot of people do not take the time to feel out the deck. From what little coverage/videos there are, most devotion lists are pretty old-fashioned, featuring Genesis Wave, Primal Command, and Wistful Selkie. These are pretty classic, however in today's meta I don't think they are successful.
The playstyle is very similar to Elves, but BIGGER. If you unsure if you'l like that, it might be a tough sell, simply because a lot of the cards are not usable by many other decks. The only things I can think of are the fetches, Arbor Elves, and Utopia Sprawls (for Ponza). If you don't end up liking it, I would not suggest it as you'll be out some amount of money. If you think you'll be fine, I personally believe Devotion is a great choice
It is a very adaptable deck. Depending on your meta, you can choose from a variety of different creatures and planeswalkers to give you the best edge in those matchups. I would not go as far to say that it is a "toolbox" deck, but because the nature of devotion is simply "green permanents", you can customize your cards to fight the meta you're in very well. Card examples - Kitchen Finks, Chameleon Colossus, Scavenging Ooze, Thrun the Last Troll, Carnage Tyrant, Hornet Queen, Acidic Slime, Courser of Kruphix, etc.
If you think that variety is the spice of life, I would recommend devotion. If you want a more tuned/spikey deck to play, I would look elsewhere. Good luck in your decision!
The deck actually performs pretty well. Lots of people have had luck with it. It is not a tier 1 deck, and while not tier 2 is probably just shy of that. It catches a lot of people off-guard, and is very flexible in its attack patterns. It's also not terribly expensive, with reprints of most signature cards recently.
Obviously, any build's efficacy depends on the meta. Tron and Elves are in higher tiers, and perform consistently, but tend to be a pit pricier and susceptible to hate. Additionally, the new hate card coming along in Dominaria is going to hit them much harder than us, as does the presence of control decks.
If you want to give it a try on something like Xmage first, that might be a good idea. Note that there are easily a half dozen major variants, and you may want to mess around to see which you prefer. I tend to like BTE-based aggro builds and controlling builds with Command and Devoted Druid, but others like Planeswalkers, Stompy, mid-range, or other variants.
Modern: Merfolk UU // Green Devotion GG // SkRed Red RR
Legacy: Death & Taxes WW // Burn RR // Death's Shadow Delver UB
Commander: Brago UW // Karlov WB