Sorry! Meant “Wakeroot”. It just combo’s with Nykthos. I changed it after a while; but not in time
And right now we are just focusing on Modern here. I’m sure a Pioneer one will pop up if it hasn’t already somewhere else on the site :). It’s super powerful in Pioneer; so a lot of people will jump to play it and discuss it...but they should be separate just due to the different cards.
_______
I played some Pioneer and it was a blast; but it still wasn’t as fun a Modern Green Devotion:)
Here is the updated Walker list I’ve been playing:
We can work on a Pioneer Primer when the forum is up for Pioneer.
Having said that; did we dismiss Leyline too quickly? Or is it just Modern is too strong of a format for it?
I saw a ton of comments watching Todd
Play Pioneer where people said “so this is definitely good enough for Modern...”, “I feel like this could just port to Modern...”, etc. in a way they are right; but in another important way they are wrong. In Mondern we have approximately 1.5 less turns to set up our Devotion and we also have to worry about things like Force, Path, etc.
So I don’t think the popular Pioneer decks can be ported right over to Modern necessarily; but I do think we can still learn from them.
I think it's not coincidental that the experimentation involving Leyline of Abundance died with the rise of Wrenn and Six. (OK, Lava Dart and Gut Shot also killed it, but Wrenn and Six is probably keeping it down.)
It's probably a sign that Leyline of Abundance builds may still be at a disadvantage in Modern when Gilded Goose is rising in popularity. (Note that the best mana dorks that combo with the green Leyline all have 1 toughness, while Gilded Goose has 2 toughness.)
I think Goose is pretty meh unless your deck has Oko. Getting only 1 use out of the Goose, ain’t a deuce from a moose, or something like that. The decks that run Goose are completely different from Green Devotion.
LEGACY: Soldier Stompy WW // Blue Stompy UU // Fit Variants BGRW // Sol Land Brews BGRUWC MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
I think it's not coincidental that the experimentation involving Leyline of Abundance died with the rise of Wrenn and Six. (OK, Lava Dart and Gut Shot also killed it, but Wrenn and Six is probably keeping it down.)
It's probably a sign that Leyline of Abundance builds may still be at a disadvantage in Modern when Gilded Goose is rising in popularity. (Note that the best mana dorks that combo with the green Leyline all have 1 toughness, while Gilded Goose has 2 toughness.)
This is a great point. It’s one thing to have Arbor Elf die to ping...but at least Utopia Sprawl doesn’t. Really great historical point. I think it’s cool that the formats are different. We have access to cards they don’t; they don’t have to worry about cards that we do.
Another point to make comparing Pioneer Devotion to Modern Devotion is the relevance of Nissa, Who Shakes the World. She's generally slow for modern, and we don't often have all that many forests down early. Pioneer gives her time to shine and the inclusion of Once Upon a Time as land/creature search means that we'll generally have more lands on the battlefield in Pioneer. I do agree that the prevalence of early burn for t1 mana dorks in Modern is what largely kept Leyline of Abundance from taking off. I tried several Leyline builds in modern and none of them were as resilient as the traditional manabase. If you haven't found a leyline by t3, all you've got is a big pile of dorks that can't win.
Sup dudes. I've been playing a more midrangy devotion strat instead of the Tooth and Nail or other big mana spells. I guess that gives us more game against grindy decks, where you won't probably resolve your big spell and against aggro, when you'll be dead before you even attempt it.
Domri, Anarch of Bolas is a great removal maindeck. It also doubles as protection against Cryptic Command and other permission. Hydroid Krasis is also great against counterspells, because you get the cards and life regardless. Voracious Hydra is also pretty good, and when you don't have targets you can just make it a big boi. Sideboard Negate has also been clutch, nobody expects it from an almost mono-green list.
Nightmare matchup is Neoform or other fast combo decks that we can't interact very well. So I guess you just need to dodge that and try to grind the other ones.
I’ve been playing a deck with Oko’s in it (like everyone else in every format ); and his interactions with both Garruk Wildspeaker and Voracious Hydra are really quite interesting.
I don’t really know where I am taking the deck (as once you start getting interactive you move away from Devotion’s ramp strategy); but it is winning a lot...not sure if the wins are just because I have hit a lot of turn 2 Oko’s or because the deck is actually good. We are a strong Oko shell though.
P.S. I haven’t played Gilded Goose (i just can’t get myself to play it over Birds of Paradise even with Wren and Six)
I really hope Pioneer does not take over Modern, I have no interest in another, more limited format.
Moving on. Oko is a great card. It’s possible he could fit in a Simic Devotion strat. I’ll have to revisit Simic Devotion. Again, the only way I’d consider playing Goose is if I’m already playing Oko, and even then, I’m not convinced it’s worth replaced BoP for it, despite W&S being in the format.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Always wear protection kids, sleeve up your deck.
LEGACY: Soldier Stompy WW // Blue Stompy UU // Fit Variants BGRW // Sol Land Brews BGRUWC MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
I went 4-3 at the tournament, thus finishing 33rd out of 97 players. A reasonable performance. Details are included in the following spoiler. I felt that no matchup was unwinnable. The deck's main strength is its explosiveness. I also felt that being on the play made a huge difference, since the deck is excellent at being proactive.
Round 1 (Win, 2-1, vs Dregde)
Game 1 (Loss): My opponent assembles an early large army and uses Conflagrate to burn my Birds and my Courser. Left with no board, I just die pretty soon.
Game 2 (Win): I'm able to rapidly ramp into Primal Command and shuffle my opponent's graveyard, putting the game effortlessly into my favor. I can then develop a solid board for the win.
Game 3 (Win): I start with Scavenging Ooze and Surgical Extraction in hand. Meanwhile my opponent rapidly goes hellbent, with no dredgers in his graveyard, and only two Narcomoebas in play. I'm in full control of the game. He concedes pretty soon.
Round 2 (Loss, 1-2, vs Spirits)
Game 1 (Loss): My opponent assembles a solid board of flyers and kills me fast.
Game 2 (Win): I have an explosive start and I'm able to apply strong pressure. It feels like whoever is able to race his opponent first will win the game.
Game 3 (Loss): My opponent has a somewhat slow start, but is able to reduce my life total. Later in the game I attempt to play Primal Command to gain life and prepare a Wurmcoil Engine on my following turn to stabilize my position. My opponent has four mana open, plays Collected Company and succeeds to find Mausoleum Wanderer to counter my spell. He then proceeds to win. The game was tight.
Round 3 (Win, 1-0-1, vs GW Taxes)
Game 1 (Win): I'm able to greatly lower my opponent's life total, but we get to a board stall pretty soon. My opponent uses Giver of Runes and Sigarda to pressure my planeswalkers and my life total, putting the game in his favor. I use Primal Command to gain life and grab Hornet Queen, restoring a good offensive and defensive position. I break the board stall a later on.
P.S.: I kept a 0-lander during this game, confident in Once Upon a Time's power. At some point I had a single Forest enchanted with a full playset of Utopia Sprawls, a Birds and a Nykthos. Even if I clearly knew at that point that my opponent was playing Ghost Quarter, I needed to do this to develop my board position and have a chance to win the game.
Game 2 (Draw): My opponent brings in Gaddock Teeg and Worship. His board is unimpressive. I can't win unless I find Walking Ballista to break the lock. We go to a draw before we can do anything usefull.
Round 4 (Loss, 1-2, vs Jund)
(Loss, Win, Loss)
The games were exceptionally grindy, what a surprise. Game 2 was particularly long and fun. He goes through 2 Wurmcoil Engines, I go through 3 of his Liliana. I use a Primal Command to bound a Wrenn and Six with 7 loyalty. Game 3 he has three early Tarmogoyfs. The fact that I play enchantments, artifacts and planeswalkers doesn't help me...
Round 5 (Loss, 1-2, vs Jund)
(Loss, Win, Loss)
My opponent is a friend. We have interesting games, but there's not much to say. He junds while I try to have explosive starts. Well, apart from the fact the Veil of Summer is incredible. During game 2, when I won, he thought he had all the necessary tools to pick apart my board, but he wasn't ready to get his Maelstrom Pulse countered by Veil.
Round 6 (Win, 2-1, vs Tron)
Game 1 (Win): I play an early Acidic Slime, denying my opponent's tron. Meanwhile he plays... Trinisphere, which is completely useless after the first few turns of the game. I grab a Craterhoof Behemoth to close the game.
Game 2 (Loss): I try to pressure my opponent's life total, with a Collector Ouphe in play. I do not respect my opponent's hand and his ability to come back into the game. He surprises me by playing Weather the Storm and gaining a large amount of life. He then plays Thragtusk on next turn. He eventually finds Ugin to wipe my board. I still have a Wurmcoil Engine, but he plays an Ensnaring Bridge and I'm pretty much forced to concede, with no hope of winning the game.
Game 3 (Win): I play a Collector Ouphe to block his turn one Chromatic Star. I develop a small board and reduce his life total, while he uses Karn to grab Ensnaring Bridge. My opponent is unable to complete his tron. In a single turn I use Eternal Witness to grab a Primal Command previously put in my graveyard by Kiora, to bounce his Bridge and to close the game with Craterhoof.
Round 7 (Win, 2-1, vs Grixis Death's Shadow)
Game 1 (Loss): My opponent is my room mate. We train together often and we know the matchup is slightly in his favor. He has an early Gurmag Angler, all the proper answers, and beats me down fast. I had a strong hand and a good start, but he found everything he needed to counter my plays.
Game 2 (Win): My opponent is forced to mulligan to 5 cards. His hand is insufficient to pressure my board and I'm able to win the game easily.
Game 3 (Win): Second time I keep a 0-lander during this tournament. Even after a mulligan to 6. Once Upon a Time is exceptional at fixing starting hands. I'm not even trying to win game 3, because I know he will soon not be able to go through my creatures. I sit behind two Coursers and a large board, going back from 6 to 22 life, while Nissa transforms my board into an impenetrable fortress. I know my room mate's plan is to have enough mana to go Temur Battle Rage-Snapcaster Mage-Temur Battle Rage to kill me in a single strike, but my board develops too fast. He eventually concedes.
Here's what I will be modifying, after my tournament experience:
Cards I was testing for the first time in the mainboard Nissa, Voice of Zendikar: Fine card, but not exceptional. It definitely won me two games during the tournament, one against GW Taxes and another against Grixis Death's Shadow, by transforming a weak board into a definitively solid defense. Her initial purpose was to turn my early rampers (Arbor Elves and Birds) into something useful during longer games, while possibly providing a good source of devotion early on. While she succeeded to accomplish her first role in grindy games, the problem is that she is too slow and unimpressive otherwise. Even if you can generate enough plants to chump block and protect her during the first turns of a game, a single removal spell is sufficient to get her killed. Nissa is strong in grindy games only, and would be much better in a fully dedicated creature-based devotion deck. At that point, I feel like I would prefer a stronger card with a better initial impact.
Hornet Queen: Absolutely wonderful. Being able to develop a large board covers one of the deck's main weaknesses; being unable to deal with wide aggressive boards. Didn't get to play her often, but I would have liked to draw her more often, for example against Spirits or Dredge.
Walking Ballista: Didn't like the card. Its role is to deal with opposing creatures, but... it's just too slow. Whenever I had it in hand, I felt like it couldn't help enough. When playing against a Tarmogoyf, a Gurmag Angler or a buffed Supreme Phantom, even a decent Ballista isn't enough. I have the same problem with Ballista that I had with Polukranos before. You need a large amount of mana to make it worth, and most of the time you wish you had better and faster interaction. There is one game against Jund where I played a 9/9 Ballista, but that was completely unnecessary and I could've won with any other wincon. The Vivien+Ballista combo is still excellent, but it's a fringe play only.
Vivien, Arkbow Ranger: Much better than expected. Her +1 was always useful. Buffed Coursers make for great defense, buffed Birds can destroy opposing planeswalkers with ease, 7/7 wurmcoil spawns are nothing to laugh about. The difference between Nissa and Vivien is that Vivien works well even with a small board, remains at a high loyalty and her +1/+1 counters are used wherever they are useful. I used her -3 with care, only when my opponent was tapped out, hellbent or clearly out of interaction. I didn't use her -5, but I always felt safe when having that option available. All my opponents felt that she was a good threat and had to respect her. Her devotion is exceptional. I will modify my mainboard to include a Kitchen Finks, since Vivien and Finks are absolute best friends. That combo did happen in a few post-sideboard games and always felt good. I will also modify my sideboard to include a wincon, maybe a second Craterhoof, to turn Vivien's "ultimate" into a Garruk's Overrun. Vivien is nice, but there is strong competition for the 4-mana planeswalker spot, so having her as a 1-of feels right.
Once Upon a Time: Marvelous, but I wouldn't play a full playset. It was always exceptional in opening hands. Between finding a Forest, a ramper, an early Courser or Nykthos, it grabs everything you need. Late game, I was always happy to draw one, since it digs deep and always finds something relevant. However! Some mulligan decisions were made exceptionally harder (especially the two 0-landers I kept during the tournament) because of its inclusion. Sometimes, it sat in my hand for a long period of time, because I drew it after my first turn and I didn't have time to play it. Modern is a fast format and a Turn 1 ramper into a Turn 2 Once is particularly slow. I can also mention that drawing 2 early Once feels really bad.
I will also modify my deck to include more creatures, since Once Upon a Time doesn't find planeswalkers like Oath of Nissa. Between the two, I was always more excited about Once. Oath seems like a fine card, but its impact is much more subtle. Maybe I could simply replace Oath by Once, I will need to make some tests.
Mainboard modifications
+1 Kitchen Finks
-1 Walking Ballista
-2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
-1-2 Kiora, Master of the Depths?
-0-3 Oath of Nissa? (Fine card, but slightly meh. Its impact is hard to evaluate)
+3-7 ???
I need a better board early on (since my planeswalkers are somewhat weak and slow), some way to weaken aggressive opponents (the deck is better if it can survive long enough to stabilize), I want a resilient source of devotion (because Nykthos needs to be "turned on" fast, even if my opponent has disruption) and... I want more creatures (since I run Once Upon a Time and Kiora). Kitchen Finks feels like a natural fit, and I will therefore include at least 1 in the mainboard. Turn 1 ramper into Turn 2 Finks into Turn 3 Vivien is also pretty solid and natural.
Walking Ballista was unimpressive, whereas Nissa was too narrow, so I will replace them. Kiora feels... ok. She was the main reason why I went into blue when I played a Genesis Wave devotion deck back in the days, to act as Garruk 5 and 6. But now I went away from that game plan, going for a value deck. Her -2 is her main appeal in order to find gas, but since I do not run a large amount of creatures, I feel like I whiff often. Finding a land through her -2 and using her +1 to ramp is fine to get to your costly threats. And her -2 puts stuff into your graveyard for Eternal Witness to find it. Well... Kiora is good, but I'm unsure about her place in my deck right now. I will try something else in order to better understand her utility.
Sideboard modifications
-1 Kitchen Finks (going in the Main)
-1 Thrun, the Last Troll (felt unnecessary)
+1 ???
+1 ??? (Creature for Vivien)
Things I want to try
Chord of Calling (since I'm naturally deviating towards a toolbox deck, and I don't want pure draw. I want to find what I need, not draw more lands and rampers)
Hydroid Krasis (life gain, draw, good threat, flexible, all in one. A good reason to play simic.)
Oko, Thief of Crowns (discouraging price tag)
I know your playing simic, so that makes choosing new cards hard, but alot of the games you lost even with a wormcoil, might have been won with Ruric Thar, the Unbowed You lost to jund who killed 2 wormcoils and you killed 3 Lili's... Either one of those wormcoils spells would have cost them 6 life to kill...12 if you would have casted it twice
I went 4-3 at the tournament, thus finishing 33rd out of 97 players. A reasonable performance. Details are included in the following spoiler. I felt that no matchup was unwinnable. The deck's main strength is its explosiveness. I also felt that being on the play made a huge difference, since the deck is excellent at being proactive.
Round 1 (Win, 2-1, vs Dregde)
Game 1 (Loss): My opponent assembles an early large army and uses Conflagrate to burn my Birds and my Courser. Left with no board, I just die pretty soon.
Game 2 (Win): I'm able to rapidly ramp into Primal Command and shuffle my opponent's graveyard, putting the game effortlessly into my favor. I can then develop a solid board for the win.
Game 3 (Win): I start with Scavenging Ooze and Surgical Extraction in hand. Meanwhile my opponent rapidly goes hellbent, with no dredgers in his graveyard, and only two Narcomoebas in play. I'm in full control of the game. He concedes pretty soon.
Round 2 (Loss, 1-2, vs Spirits)
Game 1 (Loss): My opponent assembles a solid board of flyers and kills me fast.
Game 2 (Win): I have an explosive start and I'm able to apply strong pressure. It feels like whoever is able to race his opponent first will win the game.
Game 3 (Loss): My opponent has a somewhat slow start, but is able to reduce my life total. Later in the game I attempt to play Primal Command to gain life and prepare a Wurmcoil Engine on my following turn to stabilize my position. My opponent has four mana open, plays Collected Company and succeeds to find Mausoleum Wanderer to counter my spell. He then proceeds to win. The game was tight.
Round 3 (Win, 1-0-1, vs GW Taxes)
Game 1 (Win): I'm able to greatly lower my opponent's life total, but we get to a board stall pretty soon. My opponent uses Giver of Runes and Sigarda to pressure my planeswalkers and my life total, putting the game in his favor. I use Primal Command to gain life and grab Hornet Queen, restoring a good offensive and defensive position. I break the board stall a later on.
P.S.: I kept a 0-lander during this game, confident in Once Upon a Time's power. At some point I had a single Forest enchanted with a full playset of Utopia Sprawls, a Birds and a Nykthos. Even if I clearly knew at that point that my opponent was playing Ghost Quarter, I needed to do this to develop my board position and have a chance to win the game.
Game 2 (Draw): My opponent brings in Gaddock Teeg and Worship. His board is unimpressive. I can't win unless I find Walking Ballista to break the lock. We go to a draw before we can do anything usefull.
Round 4 (Loss, 1-2, vs Jund)
(Loss, Win, Loss)
The games were exceptionally grindy, what a surprise. Game 2 was particularly long and fun. He goes through 2 Wurmcoil Engines, I go through 3 of his Liliana. I use a Primal Command to bound a Wrenn and Six with 7 loyalty. Game 3 he has three early Tarmogoyfs. The fact that I play enchantments, artifacts and planeswalkers doesn't help me...
Round 5 (Loss, 1-2, vs Jund)
(Loss, Win, Loss)
My opponent is a friend. We have interesting games, but there's not much to say. He junds while I try to have explosive starts. Well, apart from the fact the Veil of Summer is incredible. During game 2, when I won, he thought he had all the necessary tools to pick apart my board, but he wasn't ready to get his Maelstrom Pulse countered by Veil.
Round 6 (Win, 2-1, vs Tron)
Game 1 (Win): I play an early Acidic Slime, denying my opponent's tron. Meanwhile he plays... Trinisphere, which is completely useless after the first few turns of the game. I grab a Craterhoof Behemoth to close the game.
Game 2 (Loss): I try to pressure my opponent's life total, with a Collector Ouphe in play. I do not respect my opponent's hand and his ability to come back into the game. He surprises me by playing Weather the Storm and gaining a large amount of life. He then plays Thragtusk on next turn. He eventually finds Ugin to wipe my board. I still have a Wurmcoil Engine, but he plays an Ensnaring Bridge and I'm pretty much forced to concede, with no hope of winning the game.
Game 3 (Win): I play a Collector Ouphe to block his turn one Chromatic Star. I develop a small board and reduce his life total, while he uses Karn to grab Ensnaring Bridge. My opponent is unable to complete his tron. In a single turn I use Eternal Witness to grab a Primal Command previously put in my graveyard by Kiora, to bounce his Bridge and to close the game with Craterhoof.
Round 7 (Win, 2-1, vs Grixis Death's Shadow)
Game 1 (Loss): My opponent is my room mate. We train together often and we know the matchup is slightly in his favor. He has an early Gurmag Angler, all the proper answers, and beats me down fast. I had a strong hand and a good start, but he found everything he needed to counter my plays.
Game 2 (Win): My opponent is forced to mulligan to 5 cards. His hand is insufficient to pressure my board and I'm able to win the game easily.
Game 3 (Win): Second time I keep a 0-lander during this tournament. Even after a mulligan to 6. Once Upon a Time is exceptional at fixing starting hands. I'm not even trying to win game 3, because I know he will soon not be able to go through my creatures. I sit behind two Coursers and a large board, going back from 6 to 22 life, while Nissa transforms my board into an impenetrable fortress. I know my room mate's plan is to have enough mana to go Temur Battle Rage-Snapcaster Mage-Temur Battle Rage to kill me in a single strike, but my board develops too fast. He eventually concedes.
Here's what I will be modifying, after my tournament experience:
Cards I was testing for the first time in the mainboard Nissa, Voice of Zendikar: Fine card, but not exceptional. It definitely won me two games during the tournament, one against GW Taxes and another against Grixis Death's Shadow, by transforming a weak board into a definitively solid defense. Her initial purpose was to turn my early rampers (Arbor Elves and Birds) into something useful during longer games, while possibly providing a good source of devotion early on. While she succeeded to accomplish her first role in grindy games, the problem is that she is too slow and unimpressive otherwise. Even if you can generate enough plants to chump block and protect her during the first turns of a game, a single removal spell is sufficient to get her killed. Nissa is strong in grindy games only, and would be much better in a fully dedicated creature-based devotion deck. At that point, I feel like I would prefer a stronger card with a better initial impact.
Hornet Queen: Absolutely wonderful. Being able to develop a large board covers one of the deck's main weaknesses; being unable to deal with wide aggressive boards. Didn't get to play her often, but I would have liked to draw her more often, for example against Spirits or Dredge.
Walking Ballista: Didn't like the card. Its role is to deal with opposing creatures, but... it's just too slow. Whenever I had it in hand, I felt like it couldn't help enough. When playing against a Tarmogoyf, a Gurmag Angler or a buffed Supreme Phantom, even a decent Ballista isn't enough. I have the same problem with Ballista that I had with Polukranos before. You need a large amount of mana to make it worth, and most of the time you wish you had better and faster interaction. There is one game against Jund where I played a 9/9 Ballista, but that was completely unnecessary and I could've won with any other wincon. The Vivien+Ballista combo is still excellent, but it's a fringe play only.
Vivien, Arkbow Ranger: Much better than expected. Her +1 was always useful. Buffed Coursers make for great defense, buffed Birds can destroy opposing planeswalkers with ease, 7/7 wurmcoil spawns are nothing to laugh about. The difference between Nissa and Vivien is that Vivien works well even with a small board, remains at a high loyalty and her +1/+1 counters are used wherever they are useful. I used her -3 with care, only when my opponent was tapped out, hellbent or clearly out of interaction. I didn't use her -5, but I always felt safe when having that option available. All my opponents felt that she was a good threat and had to respect her. Her devotion is exceptional. I will modify my mainboard to include a Kitchen Finks, since Vivien and Finks are absolute best friends. That combo did happen in a few post-sideboard games and always felt good. I will also modify my sideboard to include a wincon, maybe a second Craterhoof, to turn Vivien's "ultimate" into a Garruk's Overrun. Vivien is nice, but there is strong competition for the 4-mana planeswalker spot, so having her as a 1-of feels right.
Once Upon a Time: Marvelous, but I wouldn't play a full playset. It was always exceptional in opening hands. Between finding a Forest, a ramper, an early Courser or Nykthos, it grabs everything you need. Late game, I was always happy to draw one, since it digs deep and always finds something relevant. However! Some mulligan decisions were made exceptionally harder (especially the two 0-landers I kept during the tournament) because of its inclusion. Sometimes, it sat in my hand for a long period of time, because I drew it after my first turn and I didn't have time to play it. Modern is a fast format and a Turn 1 ramper into a Turn 2 Once is particularly slow. I can also mention that drawing 2 early Once feels really bad.
I will also modify my deck to include more creatures, since Once Upon a Time doesn't find planeswalkers like Oath of Nissa. Between the two, I was always more excited about Once. Oath seems like a fine card, but its impact is much more subtle. Maybe I could simply replace Oath by Once, I will need to make some tests.
Mainboard modifications
+1 Kitchen Finks
-1 Walking Ballista
-2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
-1-2 Kiora, Master of the Depths?
-0-3 Oath of Nissa? (Fine card, but slightly meh. Its impact is hard to evaluate)
+3-7 ???
I need a better board early on (since my planeswalkers are somewhat weak and slow), some way to weaken aggressive opponents (the deck is better if it can survive long enough to stabilize), I want a resilient source of devotion (because Nykthos needs to be "turned on" fast, even if my opponent has disruption) and... I want more creatures (since I run Once Upon a Time and Kiora). Kitchen Finks feels like a natural fit, and I will therefore include at least 1 in the mainboard. Turn 1 ramper into Turn 2 Finks into Turn 3 Vivien is also pretty solid and natural.
Walking Ballista was unimpressive, whereas Nissa was too narrow, so I will replace them. Kiora feels... ok. She was the main reason why I went into blue when I played a Genesis Wave devotion deck back in the days, to act as Garruk 5 and 6. But now I went away from that game plan, going for a value deck. Her -2 is her main appeal in order to find gas, but since I do not run a large amount of creatures, I feel like I whiff often. Finding a land through her -2 and using her +1 to ramp is fine to get to your costly threats. And her -2 puts stuff into your graveyard for Eternal Witness to find it. Well... Kiora is good, but I'm unsure about her place in my deck right now. I will try something else in order to better understand her utility.
Sideboard modifications
-1 Kitchen Finks (going in the Main)
-1 Thrun, the Last Troll (felt unnecessary)
+1 ???
+1 ??? (Creature for Vivien)
Things I want to try
Chord of Calling (since I'm naturally deviating towards a toolbox deck, and I don't want pure draw. I want to find what I need, not draw more lands and rampers)
Hydroid Krasis (life gain, draw, good threat, flexible, all in one. A good reason to play simic.)
Oko, Thief of Crowns (discouraging price tag)
I know your playing simic, so that makes choosing new cards hard, but alot of the games you lost even with a wormcoil, might have been won with Ruric Thar, the Unbowed You lost to jund who killed 2 wormcoils and you killed 3 Lili's... Either one of those wormcoils spells would have cost them 6 life to kill...12 if you would have casted it twice
Ah yes that's definitely right. There are multiple match-ups where Ruric Thar shines; Phoenix comes to my mind. And I always feel that I'm missing some good cards by playing Simic and not Gruul. But Simic are my natural colors and I'm willing to try them. Maybe I will eventually switch to Temur if I feel that I've some blatant weaknesses. Ruric is a card that I appreciate and he has a special place in my heart for his ability to punish combo decks.
Maybe I wasn't clear enough. I won game 2, even if my opponent killed 2 Wurmcoils. I lost game 1 and 3 because my opponent had a few threats (ahem, Tarmogoyf) and all the appropriate answers to clear my board and kill me before I could land an unanswered threat, such as a Wurmcoil or a Hornet Queen. The deck I play struggles with aggro-control/disruption strategies. In those kinds of games, where I'm at a disadvantage, the lifegain is more important than doing some damage to my opponent. Eventually, if the game drags on, I will just win and that is what happened in game 2. So I believe Wurmcoil is a correct choice as a 6-mana curve filler.
I should precise that Wurmcoil is a powerhouse against Jund. It is true that Ruric is more agressive (a fat trampler) and that my opponent would've lost a lot of life by trying to remove it. However, the games were all about grinding your opponent. Some life loss could've helped me to apply more pressure on my opponent, but I was nowhere near a kill most of the time. We each tried to kill our opponent's planeswalker as soon as possible, and we mostly ignored our opponent's life total. The main advantage of Wurmcoil in this type of games is its resilience. The two wumrcoil spawns need to be removed as well. And for many opponents, Jund included, this can be excessively costly and time consuming. Deathtouch is also excessively relevant. In game 2, my opponent had an 8/8 Scavenging Ooze (that I forgot to mention) and Wurmcoil helped me deal with it nicely.
The main reason why I prefer Wurmcoil in the main right now is because it's excellent against a large part of the field; Jund, Death's Shadow, Dredge, Burn, etc. And because my deck is slower than Gruul versions.
Thank you for the comment @natesroom I'm always looking for sweet techs!
I know your playing simic, so that makes choosing new cards hard, but alot of the games you lost even with a wormcoil, might have been won with Ruric Thar, the Unbowed You lost to jund who killed 2 wormcoils and you killed 3 Lili's... Either one of those wormcoils spells would have cost them 6 life to kill...12 if you would have casted it twice
Ah yes that's definitely right. There are multiple match-ups where Ruric Thar shines; Phoenix comes to my mind. And I always feel that I'm missing some good cards by playing Simic and not Gruul. But Simic are my natural colors and I'm willing to try them. Maybe I will eventually switch to Temur if I feel that I've some blatant weaknesses. Ruric is a card that I appreciate and he has a special place in my heart for his ability to punish combo decks.
Maybe I wasn't clear enough. I won game 2, even if my opponent killed 2 Wurmcoils. I lost game 1 and 3 because my opponent had a few threats (ahem, Tarmogoyf) and all the appropriate answers to clear my board and kill me before I could land an unanswered threat, such as a Wurmcoil or a Hornet Queen. The deck I play struggles with aggro-control/disruption strategies. In those kinds of games, where I'm at a disadvantage, the lifegain is more important than doing some damage to my opponent. Eventually, if the game drags on, I will just win and that is what happened in game 2. So I believe Wurmcoil is a correct choice as a 6-mana curve filler.
I should precise that Wurmcoil is a powerhouse against Jund. It is true that Ruric is more agressive (a fat trampler) and that my opponent would've lost a lot of life by trying to remove it. However, the games were all about grinding your opponent. Some life loss could've helped me to apply more pressure on my opponent, but I was nowhere near a kill most of the time. We each tried to kill our opponent's planeswalker as soon as possible, and we mostly ignored our opponent's life total. The main advantage of Wurmcoil in this type of games is its resilience. The two wumrcoil spawns need to be removed as well. And for many opponents, Jund included, this can be excessively costly and time consuming. Deathtouch is also excessively relevant. In game 2, my opponent had an 8/8 Scavenging Ooze (that I forgot to mention) and Wurmcoil helped me deal with it nicely.
The main reason why I prefer Wurmcoil in the main right now is because it's excellent against a large part of the field; Jund, Death's Shadow, Dredge, Burn, etc. And because my deck is slower than Gruul versions.
Thank you for the comment @natesroom I'm always looking for sweet techs!
Wormcoil definitely makes games grindy and a good 6CMC filler.
I’ve been thinking about rebuilding my Green Devotion deck lately, but keep getting stuck on deciding what sort of build to throw together. I know I’d like to take it in a sort of quasi-linear combo-centric version. The ones that caught my attention were:
1.leyline ofabundance combo. Something like what Jon Stern piloted a while ago or similar build involving the enchantment
2. Tooth and Nail Nothing like turboing out lands with rampchantments to cheat out fatties
3. Genesis Wave Blast from the past fun.(adapted to the current meta of course)
My Choice is 1.
In Pioneer the Leyline along with the Devotion mechanic was a Tier 0 Deck and getting the first ban. It's worth to tested it in Modern as well and this time not only with Mana Dorks but as example with reanimated Lands like Nissa, Who Shakes the World. As a "free" cast we can build the whole Deck around it.
2) is nice, but maybe a bit "old fashion" . Pro tip: If you play this, use "Old Spice"
3) Genesis Wave is mostly a meme deck. if its work its great , if not - awful
4) hmmm...
If you had a good idea just do it. Its fun on its own how good/bad your ideas are working.
speaking off the wall and rogue , my last rogue devotion concept for modern:
Wiskful Selkie is the glue of this Deck. It gives a lot devotion and blue(!) Devotion for Master of Waves. If you cast him Risenreefs produce a ton of card draws and/or direct Land ramps. a real surprising exploding concept.
stacking Risen Reef's the more the better . For this reason i'm choosing copy effects.
Getting the pieces in the right order is more important in Devotion than nearly any other archetype. It’s actually one of the weaknesses of the deck...but with so many cards that replace themselves (both in terms of cards and mana) and so much digging; we get the advantage of Devotion (the massive ramp and turn-2 4-mana possibilities) while greatly reducing the downsides (drawing the “wrong half”, etc,).
My biggest “complaint” With devotion is that we have to spend at least 2 turns building the board...but if you can build the board quickly without drastically reducing your hand by playing cards that either “paying for itself” figuratively with a Nykthos on board or literally in the case of turn-one OUAT and BTE every turn); and with most cards replacing themselves in your hand (by drawing) we can be both fast and resilient.
Using mana sinks (Karn, Ballista, etc.) rather than 7+ drops also reduces the opponent’s ability to keep up from getting enough mana. It also allows us to go to 20 lands (although this may be greedy). I may very well go to 21 and play 61 cards (with Kessig Wilf Run, Castle Garenbrig, Blast Zone, Etc that is effectively a land and a spell).
The deck just fills up the board so quickly that it can get to 10 mana for Karn consistently while also giving a secondary ability to just attack and overrun with.
It is a little straightforward; but it’s a good place to start.
The deck started as my Curio build (with two of the three “flex” spots being Xenagos the Reveler and Cloudstone Curio....) as I've been playing different versions of that recently
The sideboard is not remotely set. Would LOVE any ideas from the community. Any color can be splashed.
P.S. Oko has also been quite good...so it may end up being one of the “flex” spots (another color for walkers in particular is nearly free to this deck in particular).
And right now we are just focusing on Modern here. I’m sure a Pioneer one will pop up if it hasn’t already somewhere else on the site :). It’s super powerful in Pioneer; so a lot of people will jump to play it and discuss it...but they should be separate just due to the different cards.
_______
I played some Pioneer and it was a blast; but it still wasn’t as fun a Modern Green Devotion:)
Here is the updated Walker list I’ve been playing:
4x Arbor Elf
3x Birds of Paradise
4x Wall of Blossoms
1x Eternal Witness
1x Omnath, Locus of Mana
3x Genesis Hydra
3x Oko, Theif of Crowns
4x Garruk Wildspeaker
1x Kiora, Master of the Depths
4x Karn, the Great Creator
4x Oath of Nissa
3x Abundant Growth
1x Cloudstone Curio
Instant/Sorcery (3)
3x Genesis Wave
I know it looks odd in paper but it plays extremely consistently. It has both the Karn + Lattice Combo as well as the Walkers + Curio Combo.
All of the card draw makes it super consistent. I feel comfortable playing Abundant Growth again now that I have main deck answers to Chalice on 1.
I known it’s a little different than most Decks; but I’m going to try some leagues with it and let you know how it goes
Having said that; did we dismiss Leyline too quickly? Or is it just Modern is too strong of a format for it?
I saw a ton of comments watching Todd
Play Pioneer where people said “so this is definitely good enough for Modern...”, “I feel like this could just port to Modern...”, etc. in a way they are right; but in another important way they are wrong. In Mondern we have approximately 1.5 less turns to set up our Devotion and we also have to worry about things like Force, Path, etc.
So I don’t think the popular Pioneer decks can be ported right over to Modern necessarily; but I do think we can still learn from them.
It's probably a sign that Leyline of Abundance builds may still be at a disadvantage in Modern when Gilded Goose is rising in popularity. (Note that the best mana dorks that combo with the green Leyline all have 1 toughness, while Gilded Goose has 2 toughness.)
MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
This is a great point. It’s one thing to have Arbor Elf die to ping...but at least Utopia Sprawl doesn’t. Really great historical point. I think it’s cool that the formats are different. We have access to cards they don’t; they don’t have to worry about cards that we do.
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
5 Forest
2 Stomping Ground
2 Breeding Pool
1 Kessig Wolf Run
3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Creatures [28]
4 Arbor Elf
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Scavenging Ooze
3 Llanowar Tribe
4 Steel Leaf Champion
2 Eternal Witness
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Thrashing Brontodon
2 Hydroid Krasis
2 Primeval Titan
1 Voracious Hydra
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
4 Utopia Sprawl
2 Domri, Anarch of Bolas
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Primal Command
1 Genesis Wave
2 Negate
2 Blood Moon
2 Pithing Needle
2 Dismember
2 Force of Vigor
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Collector Ouphe
1 Firespout
1 Scavenging Ooze
Domri, Anarch of Bolas is a great removal maindeck. It also doubles as protection against Cryptic Command and other permission. Hydroid Krasis is also great against counterspells, because you get the cards and life regardless. Voracious Hydra is also pretty good, and when you don't have targets you can just make it a big boi. Sideboard Negate has also been clutch, nobody expects it from an almost mono-green list.
Nightmare matchup is Neoform or other fast combo decks that we can't interact very well. So I guess you just need to dodge that and try to grind the other ones.
I don’t really know where I am taking the deck (as once you start getting interactive you move away from Devotion’s ramp strategy); but it is winning a lot...not sure if the wins are just because I have hit a lot of turn 2 Oko’s or because the deck is actually good. We are a strong Oko shell though.
P.S. I haven’t played Gilded Goose (i just can’t get myself to play it over Birds of Paradise even with Wren and Six)
Moving on. Oko is a great card. It’s possible he could fit in a Simic Devotion strat. I’ll have to revisit Simic Devotion. Again, the only way I’d consider playing Goose is if I’m already playing Oko, and even then, I’m not convinced it’s worth replaced BoP for it, despite W&S being in the format.
MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
Here's the Simic devotion list I played at a recent Face to Face Open in Quebec City, if it interests you.
10x Forest
4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4x Windswept Heath
3x Breeding Pool
Creatures [18]
4x Arbor Elf
3x Birds of Paradise
3x Courser of Kruphix
2x Eternal Witness
1x Acidic Slime
2x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Hornet Queen
1x Craterhoof Behemoth
1x Walking Ballista
4x Utopia Sprawl
3x Oath of Nissa
Instants & Sorceries [6]
3x Once Upon a Time
3x Primal Command
Planeswalkers [8]
2x Garruk Wildspeaker
2x Kiora, Master of the Depths
2x Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
1x Nissa, Steward of Elements
1x Vivien, Arkbow Ranger
2x Collector Ouphe
2x Force of Vigor
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Veil of Summer
2x Disdainful Stroke
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Kitchen Finks
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
1x Acidic Slime
1x Cyclonic Rift
I went 4-3 at the tournament, thus finishing 33rd out of 97 players. A reasonable performance. Details are included in the following spoiler. I felt that no matchup was unwinnable. The deck's main strength is its explosiveness. I also felt that being on the play made a huge difference, since the deck is excellent at being proactive.
Round 1 (Win, 2-1, vs Dregde)
Game 1 (Loss): My opponent assembles an early large army and uses Conflagrate to burn my Birds and my Courser. Left with no board, I just die pretty soon.
Game 2 (Win): I'm able to rapidly ramp into Primal Command and shuffle my opponent's graveyard, putting the game effortlessly into my favor. I can then develop a solid board for the win.
Game 3 (Win): I start with Scavenging Ooze and Surgical Extraction in hand. Meanwhile my opponent rapidly goes hellbent, with no dredgers in his graveyard, and only two Narcomoebas in play. I'm in full control of the game. He concedes pretty soon.
Round 2 (Loss, 1-2, vs Spirits)
Game 1 (Loss): My opponent assembles a solid board of flyers and kills me fast.
Game 2 (Win): I have an explosive start and I'm able to apply strong pressure. It feels like whoever is able to race his opponent first will win the game.
Game 3 (Loss): My opponent has a somewhat slow start, but is able to reduce my life total. Later in the game I attempt to play Primal Command to gain life and prepare a Wurmcoil Engine on my following turn to stabilize my position. My opponent has four mana open, plays Collected Company and succeeds to find Mausoleum Wanderer to counter my spell. He then proceeds to win. The game was tight.
Round 3 (Win, 1-0-1, vs GW Taxes)
Game 1 (Win): I'm able to greatly lower my opponent's life total, but we get to a board stall pretty soon. My opponent uses Giver of Runes and Sigarda to pressure my planeswalkers and my life total, putting the game in his favor. I use Primal Command to gain life and grab Hornet Queen, restoring a good offensive and defensive position. I break the board stall a later on.
P.S.: I kept a 0-lander during this game, confident in Once Upon a Time's power. At some point I had a single Forest enchanted with a full playset of Utopia Sprawls, a Birds and a Nykthos. Even if I clearly knew at that point that my opponent was playing Ghost Quarter, I needed to do this to develop my board position and have a chance to win the game.
Game 2 (Draw): My opponent brings in Gaddock Teeg and Worship. His board is unimpressive. I can't win unless I find Walking Ballista to break the lock. We go to a draw before we can do anything usefull.
Round 4 (Loss, 1-2, vs Jund)
(Loss, Win, Loss)
The games were exceptionally grindy, what a surprise. Game 2 was particularly long and fun. He goes through 2 Wurmcoil Engines, I go through 3 of his Liliana. I use a Primal Command to bound a Wrenn and Six with 7 loyalty. Game 3 he has three early Tarmogoyfs. The fact that I play enchantments, artifacts and planeswalkers doesn't help me...
Round 5 (Loss, 1-2, vs Jund)
(Loss, Win, Loss)
My opponent is a friend. We have interesting games, but there's not much to say. He junds while I try to have explosive starts. Well, apart from the fact the Veil of Summer is incredible. During game 2, when I won, he thought he had all the necessary tools to pick apart my board, but he wasn't ready to get his Maelstrom Pulse countered by Veil.
Round 6 (Win, 2-1, vs Tron)
Game 1 (Win): I play an early Acidic Slime, denying my opponent's tron. Meanwhile he plays... Trinisphere, which is completely useless after the first few turns of the game. I grab a Craterhoof Behemoth to close the game.
Game 2 (Loss): I try to pressure my opponent's life total, with a Collector Ouphe in play. I do not respect my opponent's hand and his ability to come back into the game. He surprises me by playing Weather the Storm and gaining a large amount of life. He then plays Thragtusk on next turn. He eventually finds Ugin to wipe my board. I still have a Wurmcoil Engine, but he plays an Ensnaring Bridge and I'm pretty much forced to concede, with no hope of winning the game.
Game 3 (Win): I play a Collector Ouphe to block his turn one Chromatic Star. I develop a small board and reduce his life total, while he uses Karn to grab Ensnaring Bridge. My opponent is unable to complete his tron. In a single turn I use Eternal Witness to grab a Primal Command previously put in my graveyard by Kiora, to bounce his Bridge and to close the game with Craterhoof.
Round 7 (Win, 2-1, vs Grixis Death's Shadow)
Game 1 (Loss): My opponent is my room mate. We train together often and we know the matchup is slightly in his favor. He has an early Gurmag Angler, all the proper answers, and beats me down fast. I had a strong hand and a good start, but he found everything he needed to counter my plays.
Game 2 (Win): My opponent is forced to mulligan to 5 cards. His hand is insufficient to pressure my board and I'm able to win the game easily.
Game 3 (Win): Second time I keep a 0-lander during this tournament. Even after a mulligan to 6. Once Upon a Time is exceptional at fixing starting hands. I'm not even trying to win game 3, because I know he will soon not be able to go through my creatures. I sit behind two Coursers and a large board, going back from 6 to 22 life, while Nissa transforms my board into an impenetrable fortress. I know my room mate's plan is to have enough mana to go Temur Battle Rage-Snapcaster Mage-Temur Battle Rage to kill me in a single strike, but my board develops too fast. He eventually concedes.
Here's what I will be modifying, after my tournament experience:
Cards I was testing for the first time in the mainboard
Nissa, Voice of Zendikar: Fine card, but not exceptional. It definitely won me two games during the tournament, one against GW Taxes and another against Grixis Death's Shadow, by transforming a weak board into a definitively solid defense. Her initial purpose was to turn my early rampers (Arbor Elves and Birds) into something useful during longer games, while possibly providing a good source of devotion early on. While she succeeded to accomplish her first role in grindy games, the problem is that she is too slow and unimpressive otherwise. Even if you can generate enough plants to chump block and protect her during the first turns of a game, a single removal spell is sufficient to get her killed. Nissa is strong in grindy games only, and would be much better in a fully dedicated creature-based devotion deck. At that point, I feel like I would prefer a stronger card with a better initial impact.
Hornet Queen: Absolutely wonderful. Being able to develop a large board covers one of the deck's main weaknesses; being unable to deal with wide aggressive boards. Didn't get to play her often, but I would have liked to draw her more often, for example against Spirits or Dredge.
Walking Ballista: Didn't like the card. Its role is to deal with opposing creatures, but... it's just too slow. Whenever I had it in hand, I felt like it couldn't help enough. When playing against a Tarmogoyf, a Gurmag Angler or a buffed Supreme Phantom, even a decent Ballista isn't enough. I have the same problem with Ballista that I had with Polukranos before. You need a large amount of mana to make it worth, and most of the time you wish you had better and faster interaction. There is one game against Jund where I played a 9/9 Ballista, but that was completely unnecessary and I could've won with any other wincon. The Vivien+Ballista combo is still excellent, but it's a fringe play only.
Vivien, Arkbow Ranger: Much better than expected. Her +1 was always useful. Buffed Coursers make for great defense, buffed Birds can destroy opposing planeswalkers with ease, 7/7 wurmcoil spawns are nothing to laugh about. The difference between Nissa and Vivien is that Vivien works well even with a small board, remains at a high loyalty and her +1/+1 counters are used wherever they are useful. I used her -3 with care, only when my opponent was tapped out, hellbent or clearly out of interaction. I didn't use her -5, but I always felt safe when having that option available. All my opponents felt that she was a good threat and had to respect her. Her devotion is exceptional. I will modify my mainboard to include a Kitchen Finks, since Vivien and Finks are absolute best friends. That combo did happen in a few post-sideboard games and always felt good. I will also modify my sideboard to include a wincon, maybe a second Craterhoof, to turn Vivien's "ultimate" into a Garruk's Overrun. Vivien is nice, but there is strong competition for the 4-mana planeswalker spot, so having her as a 1-of feels right.
Once Upon a Time: Marvelous, but I wouldn't play a full playset. It was always exceptional in opening hands. Between finding a Forest, a ramper, an early Courser or Nykthos, it grabs everything you need. Late game, I was always happy to draw one, since it digs deep and always finds something relevant. However! Some mulligan decisions were made exceptionally harder (especially the two 0-landers I kept during the tournament) because of its inclusion. Sometimes, it sat in my hand for a long period of time, because I drew it after my first turn and I didn't have time to play it. Modern is a fast format and a Turn 1 ramper into a Turn 2 Once is particularly slow. I can also mention that drawing 2 early Once feels really bad.
I will also modify my deck to include more creatures, since Once Upon a Time doesn't find planeswalkers like Oath of Nissa. Between the two, I was always more excited about Once. Oath seems like a fine card, but its impact is much more subtle. Maybe I could simply replace Oath by Once, I will need to make some tests.
Mainboard modifications
+1 Kitchen Finks
-1 Walking Ballista
-2 Nissa, Voice of Zendikar
-1-2 Kiora, Master of the Depths?
-0-3 Oath of Nissa? (Fine card, but slightly meh. Its impact is hard to evaluate)
+3-7 ???
I need a better board early on (since my planeswalkers are somewhat weak and slow), some way to weaken aggressive opponents (the deck is better if it can survive long enough to stabilize), I want a resilient source of devotion (because Nykthos needs to be "turned on" fast, even if my opponent has disruption) and... I want more creatures (since I run Once Upon a Time and Kiora). Kitchen Finks feels like a natural fit, and I will therefore include at least 1 in the mainboard. Turn 1 ramper into Turn 2 Finks into Turn 3 Vivien is also pretty solid and natural.
Walking Ballista was unimpressive, whereas Nissa was too narrow, so I will replace them. Kiora feels... ok. She was the main reason why I went into blue when I played a Genesis Wave devotion deck back in the days, to act as Garruk 5 and 6. But now I went away from that game plan, going for a value deck. Her -2 is her main appeal in order to find gas, but since I do not run a large amount of creatures, I feel like I whiff often. Finding a land through her -2 and using her +1 to ramp is fine to get to your costly threats. And her -2 puts stuff into your graveyard for Eternal Witness to find it. Well... Kiora is good, but I'm unsure about her place in my deck right now. I will try something else in order to better understand her utility.
Sideboard modifications
-1 Kitchen Finks (going in the Main)
-1 Thrun, the Last Troll (felt unnecessary)
+1 ???
+1 ??? (Creature for Vivien)
Things I want to try
Chord of Calling (since I'm naturally deviating towards a toolbox deck, and I don't want pure draw. I want to find what I need, not draw more lands and rampers)
Hydroid Krasis (life gain, draw, good threat, flexible, all in one. A good reason to play simic.)
Oko, Thief of Crowns (discouraging price tag)
I know your playing simic, so that makes choosing new cards hard, but alot of the games you lost even with a wormcoil, might have been won with Ruric Thar, the Unbowed You lost to jund who killed 2 wormcoils and you killed 3 Lili's... Either one of those wormcoils spells would have cost them 6 life to kill...12 if you would have casted it twice
Thats’ awesome! Great write up!
Ah yes that's definitely right. There are multiple match-ups where Ruric Thar shines; Phoenix comes to my mind. And I always feel that I'm missing some good cards by playing Simic and not Gruul. But Simic are my natural colors and I'm willing to try them. Maybe I will eventually switch to Temur if I feel that I've some blatant weaknesses. Ruric is a card that I appreciate and he has a special place in my heart for his ability to punish combo decks.
Maybe I wasn't clear enough. I won game 2, even if my opponent killed 2 Wurmcoils. I lost game 1 and 3 because my opponent had a few threats (ahem, Tarmogoyf) and all the appropriate answers to clear my board and kill me before I could land an unanswered threat, such as a Wurmcoil or a Hornet Queen. The deck I play struggles with aggro-control/disruption strategies. In those kinds of games, where I'm at a disadvantage, the lifegain is more important than doing some damage to my opponent. Eventually, if the game drags on, I will just win and that is what happened in game 2. So I believe Wurmcoil is a correct choice as a 6-mana curve filler.
I should precise that Wurmcoil is a powerhouse against Jund. It is true that Ruric is more agressive (a fat trampler) and that my opponent would've lost a lot of life by trying to remove it. However, the games were all about grinding your opponent. Some life loss could've helped me to apply more pressure on my opponent, but I was nowhere near a kill most of the time. We each tried to kill our opponent's planeswalker as soon as possible, and we mostly ignored our opponent's life total. The main advantage of Wurmcoil in this type of games is its resilience. The two wumrcoil spawns need to be removed as well. And for many opponents, Jund included, this can be excessively costly and time consuming. Deathtouch is also excessively relevant. In game 2, my opponent had an 8/8 Scavenging Ooze (that I forgot to mention) and Wurmcoil helped me deal with it nicely.
The main reason why I prefer Wurmcoil in the main right now is because it's excellent against a large part of the field; Jund, Death's Shadow, Dredge, Burn, etc. And because my deck is slower than Gruul versions.
Thank you for the comment @natesroom I'm always looking for sweet techs!
1.leyline ofabundance combo. Something like what Jon Stern piloted a while ago or similar build involving the enchantment
2. Tooth and Nail Nothing like turboing out lands with rampchantments to cheat out fatties
3. Genesis Wave Blast from the past fun.(adapted to the current meta of course)
4. Something rogue and completely off the wall
Any suggestions?
In Pioneer the Leyline along with the Devotion mechanic was a Tier 0 Deck and getting the first ban. It's worth to tested it in Modern as well and this time not only with Mana Dorks but as example with reanimated Lands like Nissa, Who Shakes the World. As a "free" cast we can build the whole Deck around it.
2) is nice, but maybe a bit "old fashion" . Pro tip: If you play this, use "Old Spice"
3) Genesis Wave is mostly a meme deck. if its work its great , if not - awful
4) hmmm...
If you had a good idea just do it. Its fun on its own how good/bad your ideas are working.
speaking off the wall and rogue , my last rogue devotion concept for modern:
https://deckstats.net/decks/41703/1355566-risen-reefs?share_key=OVdve3gCso1rImP8
4 Arbor Elf
4 Chord of Calling
4 Coiling Oracle
3 Ice-Fang Coatl
3 Master of Waves
1 Mirror Image
2 Omnath, Locus of the Roil
4 Phantasmal Image
4 Risen Reef
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Wistful Selkie
//Lands
2 Breeding Pool
6 Forest
4 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Stomping Ground
3 Windswept Heath
1 Mu Yanling, Sky Dancer
1 Repudiate // Replicate
1 Roil Elemental
4 Veil of Summer
1 Aether Adept
4 Collected Company
2 Creeping Trailblazer
4 Embodiment of Spring
1 Familiar's Ruse #Bounce Fun
1 Ghostly Flicker
1 Incandescent Soulstoke
1 Leafkin Druid
1 Marit Lage's Slumber #B-Devotion+Finsiher on own
1 Neoform
1 Ohran Viper
4 Quasiduplicate #?
1 Spark Double
2 Tilonalli's Summoner
1 Undergrowth Champion
1 Waterlogged Grove
2 Yarok, the Desecrated
1 Zameck Guildmage
1 Zendikar's Roil
Wiskful Selkie is the glue of this Deck. It gives a lot devotion and blue(!) Devotion for Master of Waves. If you cast him Risenreefs produce a ton of card draws and/or direct Land ramps. a real surprising exploding concept.
stacking Risen Reef's the more the better . For this reason i'm choosing copy effects.
4x Arbor Elf
2x Birds of Paradise
4x Burning-Tree Emissary
3x Wall of Blossoms
1x Wolfbriar Elemental
2x Walking Ballista
2x Voracious Hydra
Planeswalker (8)
4x Garruk Wildspeaker
4x Karn the Great Creator
4x Utopia Sprawl
4x Oath of Nissa
2x Abundant Growth
4x Once Upon a Time
Land (20)
7x Green Fetch Land
1x Breeding Pool
1x Castle Garenbrig
7x Forest
4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1x Mycosynth Lattice
1x Grafdiggers Cage
1x Dampening Sphere
1x Ensnaring Bridge
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Pithing Needle
2x Oko, Theif of Crowns
1x Dovin, Hand of Control
1x Ashiok, Dream Render
3x Veil of Summer
2x Primal Command
* been going back and forth on whether last payoff creature should be Wolfbriar Elemental, Voracious Hydra, or some other payoff... *
Once Upon a Time really smooths the deck out to a point where even I am playing Burning-Tree Emissary
Getting the pieces in the right order is more important in Devotion than nearly any other archetype. It’s actually one of the weaknesses of the deck...but with so many cards that replace themselves (both in terms of cards and mana) and so much digging; we get the advantage of Devotion (the massive ramp and turn-2 4-mana possibilities) while greatly reducing the downsides (drawing the “wrong half”, etc,).
My biggest “complaint” With devotion is that we have to spend at least 2 turns building the board...but if you can build the board quickly without drastically reducing your hand by playing cards that either “paying for itself” figuratively with a Nykthos on board or literally in the case of turn-one OUAT and BTE every turn); and with most cards replacing themselves in your hand (by drawing) we can be both fast and resilient.
Using mana sinks (Karn, Ballista, etc.) rather than 7+ drops also reduces the opponent’s ability to keep up from getting enough mana. It also allows us to go to 20 lands (although this may be greedy). I may very well go to 21 and play 61 cards (with Kessig Wilf Run, Castle Garenbrig, Blast Zone, Etc that is effectively a land and a spell).
The deck just fills up the board so quickly that it can get to 10 mana for Karn consistently while also giving a secondary ability to just attack and overrun with.
It is a little straightforward; but it’s a good place to start.
The deck started as my Curio build (with two of the three “flex” spots being Xenagos the Reveler and Cloudstone Curio....) as I've been playing different versions of that recently
The sideboard is not remotely set. Would LOVE any ideas from the community. Any color can be splashed.
P.S. Oko has also been quite good...so it may end up being one of the “flex” spots (another color for walkers in particular is nearly free to this deck in particular).