So it’s been awhile but I’m back with a deck, Eldritch Devolution! I know it’s been while since we brewed night and day with this card, but I’ve recently started having success on mtgo against many top 8 decks out there. Let me know what you think.
This deck can consistently interact on turn 2 by either sacking a dork or a BTE. It has a main board answer for just about everything. It plays so many of my favorite cards. This deck operates great with just 3 mana, so less chance of getting mana screwed with uncastable fatties in your hand. Lots of creatures with pump abilities, to pour in all of our mana. A few notable cuts recently: Avaricious Dragon, Eternal Witness, Thrun, the Last Troll, Nylea, God of the Hunt. These are all cards that did well in testing, and might keep testing with later on.
This deck can consistently interact on turn 2 by either sacking a dork or a BTE. It has a main board answer for just about everything. It plays so many of my favorite cards. This deck operates great with just 3 mana, so less chance of getting mana screwed with uncastable fatties in your hand. Lots of creatures with pump abilities, to pour in all of our mana. A few notable cuts recently: Avaricious Dragon, Eternal Witness, Thrun, the Last Troll, Nylea, God of the Hunt. These are all cards that did well in testing, and might keep testing with later on.
I see a lot of land destruction decks these days not doing much land destruction. I'm all about casting turn 1 blood moon or stone rain so I decided to build around that idea. It's been very fun to play, but I'm sure can be improved upon. Let me know what you think:
4 Arbor Elf
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Eternal Witness
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Acidic Slime
1 Deus of Calamity
2 Chancellor of the Tangle
Sideboard:
Mixture of creature removal, more LD, and anti-burn
Using a mixture of Chancellor/Gemstone Cavern/Simian Spirit Guide, I am able to either put a ton of ramp down turn 1, or begin with the land destruction right away. The goal is to get to Primal command (which happens a lot on turn 2-3) to start the soft-lock with Eternal Witness. Eternal witness is key to buying more time by letting us reuse our LD spells. I was at 4x Chancellor, but found it a little unnecessary to have multiples of him in my hand.
A little disheartened after my first GPT here in Hawaii. I started off the day 2-0 against soul sisters(2-0) and ad nauseum (surprisingly 2-0 again), but then I ran into a brick wall. Next game was against Jund and game one was super grindy. He was able to deal with all of my threats one after another until he ran out of disruption and I craterhoof for the win. Games 2 and 3 were extremely frustrating as he was able to get goyf and lilli on the battlefield too quick for me to do anything, and he had the perfect amount of disruption to go with it... next match was against a kitchen finks combo deck where again game one I was able to do everything correctly, but then I was mana screwed the next game and couldn't find a finisher fast enough the game after. He was able to turn 4 combo me both games.
My 5th game was against burn and he wiped he floor with me game 1. I had a thragtusk in hand the entire game, but he would prevent life gain each turn I could cast him. Game 2 I was able to cast a turn 3 Elderscale Wurm and survived a massive deflector palm after I played craterhoof. Game 3 I played a turn 4 elderscale wurm that he was able to path, but I already had nissa generating enough tokens to hold off his attacks and once he tapped out I played craterhoof for the win. Deflector palm is terrifying....
So I made it into the Top 8 (7 of 8) and got to play once again the same Jund player. This go around was even more frustrating as I mulled to 6 both games and was stuck on one land for several turns. Game 2 I was stuck with nykthos on the battlefield and unable to cast any spells the entire game, it was sad. I thought I was so prepared for Jund with mainboard Chameleon Collosus and side board blood moons and obstinate baloth, but I never saw a blood moon and he had path ready for Chameleon.
Overall I am happy to have my first Top 8 in the states, but I'm left wondering how to take on so many Jund decks out there running abrupt decay, Lilliana, Goyf, and Push...
If you are playing bellower, you should give unyaro bees a try! So many times I've been able to finish out games because they can't deal with the evasive bees. Usually you have enough mana the following turn to do lethal, and this will help avoid needing kessig... just saying...
I've only recently added Fauna Shaman to my toolbox deck and I would say it has not been too slow for me. In a bellower style deck where you have many options at 3cmc to dig for, fauna shaman will shine. I've had situations where I have a craterhoof in hand but he wouldn't be enough to win, so I discard with fauna shaman and pull out Atarka or Bellower. I could see a build dropping all sorcery and instant spells and using fauna shaman being the primary creature tutor (along with dusk watch recruiter and maybe oath of nissa)
Sideboard
4 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Magus of the Moon
3 Blood Moon
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Acidic Slime
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Elderscale Wurm
So they did put down that I was running 1x Prophet of Kruphix, but it was definitely a Courser of Kruphix. I have put a lot of thought into incorporating Propet into one of my lists, but haven't found a place yet.
Round 1: 2-1 Eldrazi and Taxes
-The only game I lost all night long was the first one and it was one of the more exciting games I've played. He had all of his crazy stuff out right away, but somehow I was able to fight through a lot of it with polukranos. Sadly it came down to me not having a blocker for his flicker wisp. Game 2 was a blow out on my end as a turn 2 blood moon hurt him badly and I was able to finish with Garruk + Atarka after wiping his board. I was very afraid being on the draw game 3 but felt much better after I draw into 2 blood moons and a magus of the moon. He focused all of his efforts into destroying those pieces while I was able to build enough mana for Craterhoof win.
Round 2: 2-0 Grixis Control
-No issues here as this deck usually has more threats than they have answers. Woodland Bellower grabbing Unyaro Bees always put a funny face on my opponent. Game 2 blood moon completely shut him down.
Round 3: 2-0 mono-white something?
- Game 1 tutor for Atarka was enough to win, game 2 he couldn't find lands while I had turn 4 garruk overrun. Never got a chance to see what his finisher was, but I can only assume Sun Titan?
Takeaways: Adding Fauna-Shaman to this deck worked out to perfection! She turned all of those top deck birds and burning trees into bellowers and atarkas! Not once did I tutor up Veredous Gearhulk. I really do love that card, but I may need to look elsewhere to fill that 5cmc slot. I can't stress enough how important it was to have cards like Unyaro bees, scavenging ooze, and fauna-shaman. Devotion decks can play their hands out very quickly and be left with unspent mana the turns after you drop your hand, so having these low cmc creatures available to dump mana into is huge. One change that I have already made and can't wait to test out more is taking out leatherback baloth and a stomping ground for a Knight of the Reliquary and temple garden. Im hoping that she can solve the no-nykthos issues, and adding white can help with my sideboard options.
That seems like it would have some pretty interesting tutoring situations, but it being a sorcery and 3 colors doesn't excite me very much. Have you had much luck testing knight of the reliquary for a nykthos tutor? I've always stuck to red as my main splash, but I'd like to give white a chance.
I have no problem with that at all! The deck really can be fun to play (especially on paper), but can also be frustrating when your opening hand curio gets taken away. I'm usually able to flood the board with creatures very quickly, but I prefer to keep them in hand until the combo is ready. This might change if I end up testing garruk in this deck as I have had many games where 4 mana is easily available turn 2, and garruk would easily end the game on turns 3-4. I really would like to keep the deck as low CMC as possible though. I also thought that Nykthos would be awkward in this deck, but it has been amazingly helpful creating fast mana to loop some of my draw spells.
I'm definitely thinking about adding Priest of Urabrask and a few other cards at the moment. I have already taken out most of the leylines and testing out a few 1-of creatures like managorger hydra and forgotten ancient. Still don't know what is the best route, but it will probably end up being the leyline route as it helps ramp if in opening hand, and it is an easy infinite life combo to assemble. It is very fun to play and I love the serious card draw when I mix BTE/Herbalist and Elvish Visionary. Purphoros, God of the Forge might come off the sideboard for me, just in case I can't swing with hydra or gain infinite life. I think it is important to have multiple different combos in the deck.
I'm very curious to see other peoples take on a combo deck like this, and what other lists people might come up with!
So I finally decided to jam hidden herbalists into a deck to have some fun, and boy it has been fun gaining infinite life and doing infinite damage on T3. Idea is to gain infinite life or enough life to stall out until we have grapeshot combo. Summoners Pact can go grab whichever tool we need, either our second BTE for the combo, Essence warden for life, or Elvish Visionary to draw out the combo. I would like to find another green creature like Essence Warden that can be found with Summoners Pact to enable other combos, but nothing comes to mind right now...I did think of add more leyline to protect the creatures from counters, but I would like to keep the CMC low. Most of the combo can be kept in hand until enough mana is on the board to just combo off on the same turn.
I see what you mean when you say that are at odds, but that's what makes it so frustrating when I win so many games after I sideboard in 4x blood moon. I started off with 2x in my sideboard, and keep going up after I see how important of a tool it is against more than half the decks I play. If only I was playing mono-red devotion I wouldn't feel so guilty about it. I really do want to find the best tools available to green devotion builds that have synergy with nykthos, but I don't think I can ever justify taking out blood moon. I'm 100% devoted to devotion so dropping Nykthos is a no go for me.
I have run Acidic Slime in many of my decks as it wrecks so many decks, but it is also pretty ineffective against others. For example, many elf decks can just win on turn 3 many times, and my turn 3 Acidic Slime will do nothing to stop that game 1. So now I would have to rely on mulling heavy to get one of my sideboard cards, but I have never seen this deck play well when going down to 5..
My issue now revolves around the speed of the deck. I constantly flip between faster Summoner Pact builds and slower Primal command builds but always seem to run into the decks that I don't fair well against. The toolbox (pact) build is very top heavy and extremely weak to disruption but can win more often on turns 3-4, while Primal command build is slower but more resilient with 4x Eternal Witness. I have yet to try a Curio build yet, but I would like to know how the results are turning out against certain decks (tron, elves, burn, jund, etc...)
31x creatures-
4x Arbor Elf
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Burning-Tree Emmissary
3x Strangleroot Geist
3x Kitchen Finks
3x Tireless Tracker
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Magus of the Moon
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Rhonas the Indomitable
1x Hazoret the Fervent
1x Avalanche Riders
1x Obstinate Baloth
1x Chameleon Colossus
1x Polukranos, World Eater
1x Stormbreath Dragon
8x Spells
4x Utopia Sprawl
4x Eldritch Evolution
21x Lands
6x Forest
4x wooded foothills
4x windsweapt Heath
4x Nykthos
2x Stomping Ground
1x Temple Garden
Sb
1x Nihil Spellbomb (I had a game where storm bounced three of my Relics at once... never again.
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Katati, War’s Wage
1x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Eidolon Rhetoric
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Reclamation Sage
3x Blood Moon
3x Bonfire of the Damned
This deck can consistently interact on turn 2 by either sacking a dork or a BTE. It has a main board answer for just about everything. It plays so many of my favorite cards. This deck operates great with just 3 mana, so less chance of getting mana screwed with uncastable fatties in your hand. Lots of creatures with pump abilities, to pour in all of our mana. A few notable cuts recently: Avaricious Dragon, Eternal Witness, Thrun, the Last Troll, Nylea, God of the Hunt. These are all cards that did well in testing, and might keep testing with later on.
31x creatures-
4x Arbor Elf
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Burning-Tree Emmissary
3x Strangleroot Geist
3x Kitchen Finks
3x Tireless Tracker
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Magus of the Moon
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Rhonas the Indomitable
1x Hazoret the Fervent
1x Avalanche Riders
1x Obstinate Baloth
1x Chameleon Colossus
1x Polukranos, World Eater
1x Stormbreath Dragon
8x Spells
4x Utopia Sprawl
4x Eldritch Evolution
21x Lands
6x Forest
4x wooded foothills
4x windsweapt Heath
4x Nykthos
2x Stomping Ground
1x Temple Garden
Sb
1x Nihil Spellbomb (I had a game where storm bounced three of my Relics at once... never again.
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Katati, War’s Wage
1x Ethersworn Canonist
1x Eidolon Rhetoric
1x Sigarda, Host of Herons
1x Reclamation Sage
3x Blood Moon
3x Bonfire of the Damned
This deck can consistently interact on turn 2 by either sacking a dork or a BTE. It has a main board answer for just about everything. It plays so many of my favorite cards. This deck operates great with just 3 mana, so less chance of getting mana screwed with uncastable fatties in your hand. Lots of creatures with pump abilities, to pour in all of our mana. A few notable cuts recently: Avaricious Dragon, Eternal Witness, Thrun, the Last Troll, Nylea, God of the Hunt. These are all cards that did well in testing, and might keep testing with later on.
Edit- Nevermind, I just needed to read the cards more closely... but does the tapped land outweigh less Devotion?
4 Arbor Elf
3 Birds of Paradise
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Eternal Witness
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Acidic Slime
1 Deus of Calamity
2 Chancellor of the Tangle
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Blood Moon
4 Stone Rain
4 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
4 Primal Command
6 Forest
4 Gemstone Caverns
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Windswept Heath
3 Stomping Ground
Sideboard:
Mixture of creature removal, more LD, and anti-burn
Using a mixture of Chancellor/Gemstone Cavern/Simian Spirit Guide, I am able to either put a ton of ramp down turn 1, or begin with the land destruction right away. The goal is to get to Primal command (which happens a lot on turn 2-3) to start the soft-lock with Eternal Witness. Eternal witness is key to buying more time by letting us reuse our LD spells. I was at 4x Chancellor, but found it a little unnecessary to have multiples of him in my hand.
My 5th game was against burn and he wiped he floor with me game 1. I had a thragtusk in hand the entire game, but he would prevent life gain each turn I could cast him. Game 2 I was able to cast a turn 3 Elderscale Wurm and survived a massive deflector palm after I played craterhoof. Game 3 I played a turn 4 elderscale wurm that he was able to path, but I already had nissa generating enough tokens to hold off his attacks and once he tapped out I played craterhoof for the win. Deflector palm is terrifying....
So I made it into the Top 8 (7 of 8) and got to play once again the same Jund player. This go around was even more frustrating as I mulled to 6 both games and was stuck on one land for several turns. Game 2 I was stuck with nykthos on the battlefield and unable to cast any spells the entire game, it was sad. I thought I was so prepared for Jund with mainboard Chameleon Collosus and side board blood moons and obstinate baloth, but I never saw a blood moon and he had path ready for Chameleon.
Overall I am happy to have my first Top 8 in the states, but I'm left wondering how to take on so many Jund decks out there running abrupt decay, Lilliana, Goyf, and Push...
20 lands
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Stomping Ground
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
6 Forest
28 Creatures
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Arbor Elf
1 Strangleroot Geist
1 Genesis Hydra
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Elvish Visionary
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
1 Leatherback Baloth
1 Unyaro Bees
1 Prophet of Kruphix
1 Eternal Witness
1 Wistful Selkie
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Polukranos, World Eater
1 Verdurous Gearhulk
1 Woodland Bellower
1 Dragonlord Atarka
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
4 instants
4 Summoner’s Pact
4 enchantments
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 planeswalkers
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
Sideboard
4 Bonfire of the Damned
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Magus of the Moon
3 Blood Moon
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Acidic Slime
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Elderscale Wurm
So they did put down that I was running 1x Prophet of Kruphix, but it was definitely a Courser of Kruphix. I have put a lot of thought into incorporating Propet into one of my lists, but haven't found a place yet.
Round 1: 2-1 Eldrazi and Taxes
-The only game I lost all night long was the first one and it was one of the more exciting games I've played. He had all of his crazy stuff out right away, but somehow I was able to fight through a lot of it with polukranos. Sadly it came down to me not having a blocker for his flicker wisp. Game 2 was a blow out on my end as a turn 2 blood moon hurt him badly and I was able to finish with Garruk + Atarka after wiping his board. I was very afraid being on the draw game 3 but felt much better after I draw into 2 blood moons and a magus of the moon. He focused all of his efforts into destroying those pieces while I was able to build enough mana for Craterhoof win.
Round 2: 2-0 Grixis Control
-No issues here as this deck usually has more threats than they have answers. Woodland Bellower grabbing Unyaro Bees always put a funny face on my opponent. Game 2 blood moon completely shut him down.
Round 3: 2-0 mono-white something?
- Game 1 tutor for Atarka was enough to win, game 2 he couldn't find lands while I had turn 4 garruk overrun. Never got a chance to see what his finisher was, but I can only assume Sun Titan?
Takeaways: Adding Fauna-Shaman to this deck worked out to perfection! She turned all of those top deck birds and burning trees into bellowers and atarkas! Not once did I tutor up Veredous Gearhulk. I really do love that card, but I may need to look elsewhere to fill that 5cmc slot. I can't stress enough how important it was to have cards like Unyaro bees, scavenging ooze, and fauna-shaman. Devotion decks can play their hands out very quickly and be left with unspent mana the turns after you drop your hand, so having these low cmc creatures available to dump mana into is huge. One change that I have already made and can't wait to test out more is taking out leatherback baloth and a stomping ground for a Knight of the Reliquary and temple garden. Im hoping that she can solve the no-nykthos issues, and adding white can help with my sideboard options.
Let me know what you guys think!
3-0 with green devotion toolbox! I'll post about the matchups when I get some more time.
I'm very curious to see other peoples take on a combo deck like this, and what other lists people might come up with!
Creatures:
4x Arbor Elf
4x Burning-tree emissary
4x Hidden-Herbalist
4x Elvish Visionary
1x Essence Warden
Spells:
4x Utopia Sprawl
3x Leyline of Vitality
4x Summoners pact
4x Manamorphse
4x Grapeshot
4x Cloudstone Curio
Land
4x Nykthos
8x fetch land
2x stomping ground
6x forest
I have run Acidic Slime in many of my decks as it wrecks so many decks, but it is also pretty ineffective against others. For example, many elf decks can just win on turn 3 many times, and my turn 3 Acidic Slime will do nothing to stop that game 1. So now I would have to rely on mulling heavy to get one of my sideboard cards, but I have never seen this deck play well when going down to 5..
My issue now revolves around the speed of the deck. I constantly flip between faster Summoner Pact builds and slower Primal command builds but always seem to run into the decks that I don't fair well against. The toolbox (pact) build is very top heavy and extremely weak to disruption but can win more often on turns 3-4, while Primal command build is slower but more resilient with 4x Eternal Witness. I have yet to try a Curio build yet, but I would like to know how the results are turning out against certain decks (tron, elves, burn, jund, etc...)