So...the Superfriends archetype should get a boost from War of the Spark...considering there will be 36 new Planeswalkers in a single set!! Looks like Oath of Nissa is gonna be REALLY good soon
The only questions I’ve had after the weekend of play is:
1. Elvish Visionary ca. Coiling Oracle - I nearly always have the blue; so Oracle May be worth it. Started testing it today in place of Visionary.
2. Do I need more than 1 copy of Eternal Witness - I don’t love it by itself; but it is good with Command. May just run one copy.
1. If you almost always have blue, then it's worth testing. At 21 lands, the extra landdrop won't proc all that often, and rarely you'll blow up Nykthos, but if there's no other drawback, then it might be the better card.
2. I've been running a G/r Eternal-Command list using 3 Eternal Witness for a few months now with poor results. Too often I draw it early and have nothing to return with it except a fetchland, which usually isn't great. I'm not often in a position where chaining E.Wit + Primal Command is a great play because I usually need to search for a game-ending threat, not keep their boardstate down. I think I will drop down to 2 copies. 1 might be correct.
I do have to agree with a lot of what you say here after more testing....
Eternal Witness is just not great in a permanent-based deck. I tend to play more permanents than most; sonthis skews my opinion. I TOTALLY understand her use in a Genesis Wave deck and even on a more heavily dedicated Primal Command list...but I had too many times where she felt like a dead draw.
I may just return to Wistful Selkie as my 3-drop of choice. I never loved having ALL of my board having 2 or less toughness (for obvious reasons) but it simply may be the best option. In the past I’ve enjoyed Carven Caryatids; but not being able to attack can matter with Garruk Overrun’s and/or Kessig Wolf Run’s. The additional Devotion can come up though (when you’re really happy you played it!)
SIDEBOARD STUFF
so I got my Raking Canopy’s our again...it feels like two years ago (when I was making a big deal about Cannopy and Silent Arbiter :). There has been some success with Mono-Green land destruction decks (Corbin Bressler, etc.) somwe can definitely learn something from them.
Has anyone tried paradoxical outcome? I know it might sound weird but you can set up a loop of outcome bounce garruk witness recast. Is that unreasonable?
Paradoxical outcome is a very specific card, but could be a nice Fun build in a big mana deck. A Loop is possible.
Imho nobody had tried this card in Modern with success so far.
Hmm...and it's a Instant card. Maybe there is some Fun with Flash creatures and Wilderness Reclamation.
I just built the deck to bring to my Friday night magic and such and I’ll post over the next few weeks. I’ll see if there is a need for outcome. If you do get the loop you just win though. Because eventually you get more mana with sprawls and devotion and you can go infinite with primal commands. Leaving then with nothing. Including their graveyard shuffled into their deck.
Unfortunately I don't think Outcome will perform very well. In order to demonstrate the loop, you need 11 mana to break even (Garruk+Witness+Outcome), and 12 mana to go infinite... I don't think you'll have enough time to make that work. A similar thing can be done with Cloudstone Curio + Garruk + Xenagos...except with that you only need to net 9 mana to go infinite. And even then, that is hard to string together.
As much as I'd love to fit an infinite combo in devotion, a lot of times it is too taxing on the core gameplan. Sometimes it's just better to win with Craterhoof than try and go off. I'm keeping my eye out for anything with combo potential though. I've been playing Wilderness Reclamation in Temur to good success, and I think there could eventually be a devotion shell that could maximize mana output with Nykthos and the enchantment. However for now I think the best use for it is mana sinks like Walking Ballista/Polukranos.
Holding out hope for some sweet toys in Modern Horizons. I'm 95% sure that Wild Growth will be included so that will be a nice upgrade. I can see the core ramp suite to be 4x Arbor Elf/Utopia Sprawl/Wild Growth, cutting birds. That will be more resistant to interaction thankfully.
Holding out hope for some sweet toys in Modern Horizons. I'm 95% sure that Wild Growth will be included so that will be a nice upgrade. I can see the core ramp suite to be 4x Arbor Elf/Utopia Sprawl/Wild Growth, cutting birds. That will be more resistant to interaction thankfully.
Cheers
I'm really hopeful for Wild Growth as well. What lead you to be 95% sure it will in MH?
The only other deck besides green devotion variations that would benefit from it is Ponza I think.
The challenger decks have Jadelight Ranger, which should make it super affordable. I have become a huge fan of the card. It does exactly what we need in a "fair" ramp deck (by that I mean we play tons of cards devoted to ramping instead of e.g. tron). We always struggle to get the payoff at the right moment.
CMC 3 and GG makes it one of the best T2 plays, setting up T3 nicely. Being able to put Primal Commands/Summoner's pact/T&N on top, something which Oath misses. We discussed the card back when it was released. Did anyone gather some more experience with her?
How competitive would we say this deck is? I went 0-2 bye went home last night. I know it is a small sample size but what are people having success with right now if anything?
R1 dredge
G1 He did his thing hit 4 amalgam in the first 3 turns and burned me out. I was too slow.
G2 I mulligan and keep an iffy hand with a turn 2 garruk but not much else. It wasn’t enough.
R2 4 color wish ascendancy.
G1 I mull to 5 and keep a mana hand. Don’t draw into anything he wins on turn 3
G2 I keep a hand that needs a 2nd land and it starts disrupting him with primal commands.
Overall I felt a turn short in most of my games. I did keep some sketchy hands. And one of my matchups was combo which I can’t imagine is good ever.
Edit: I am not playing paradoxical outcome as I had mentioned I might. Just a standard build with rubric thar.
Holding out hope for some sweet toys in Modern Horizons. I'm 95% sure that Wild Growth will be included so that will be a nice upgrade. I can see the core ramp suite to be 4x Arbor Elf/Utopia Sprawl/Wild Growth, cutting birds. That will be more resistant to interaction thankfully.
Cheers
I'm really hopeful for Wild Growth as well. What lead you to be 95% sure it will in MH?
The only other deck besides green devotion variations that would benefit from it is Ponza I think.
The challenger decks have Jadelight Ranger, which should make it super affordable. I have become a huge fan of the card. It does exactly what we need in a "fair" ramp deck (by that I mean we play tons of cards devoted to ramping instead of e.g. tron). We always struggle to get the payoff at the right moment.
CMC 3 and GG makes it one of the best T2 plays, setting up T3 nicely. Being able to put Primal Commands/Summoner's pact/T&N on top, something which Oath misses. We discussed the card back when it was released. Did anyone gather some more experience with her?
Pulled that number out my ass, I just see it as very safe for the format. Ramp decks won't get a huge boost from it, and those are the only ones that would play it. Also, I played Jadelight for a couple months after it was released last year... I was very high on the card. It's great as a draw engine, and ditching crappy ramp later in the game. Depending on your meta, it competes with other 3 drops though, like Courser/Selkie/Finks, etc. Very good card.
How competitive would we say this deck is? I went 0-2 bye went home last night. I know it is a small sample size but what are people having success with right now if anything?
R1 dredge
G1 He did his thing hit 4 amalgam in the first 3 turns and burned me out. I was too slow.
G2 I mulligan and keep an iffy hand with a turn 2 garruk but not much else. It wasn’t enough.
R2 4 color wish ascendancy.
G1 I mull to 5 and keep a mana hand. Don’t draw into anything he wins on turn 3
G2 I keep a hand that needs a 2nd land and it starts disrupting him with primal commands.
Overall I felt a turn short in most of my games. I did keep some sketchy hands. And one of my matchups was combo which I can’t imagine is good ever.
Edit: I am not playing paradoxical outcome as I had mentioned I might. Just a standard build with rubric thar.
Honestly it depends on your iteration of the deck. I would say the Summoner's Pact/Craterhoof versions are pretty consistently a turn 4 combo, within a linear format. However against control and midrange they are more fragile. Other Primal Command value versions are more resilient, but have a slower goldfish. In general, I think the deck is a little slow for current modern as a whole. Phoenix, Burn, Dredge are all poor matchups, and the deck isn't quite fast enough to compete with Tier 1. However it is very reasonable for everything else. The plus side of this type of deck too is that every new card printed with green symbols is a live card for the deck. There is a ton of potential and I'm hoping we could see some Devotion love in Modern Horizons. I think the deck is a good aggressive/resilient 2-drop away from being a real competitor honestly.
How competitive would we say this deck is? I went 0-2 bye went home last night. I know it is a small sample size but what are people having success with right now if anything?
Overall I felt a turn short in most of my games. I did keep some sketchy hands. And one of my matchups was combo which I can’t imagine is good ever.
Edit: I am not playing paradoxical outcome as I had mentioned I might. Just a standard build with rubric thar.
I've been on the eternal-command list for the last couple months and I wouldn't consider it competitive right now. It's about a turn too slow and early disruption can really set it back. I chose this version because I expected more grindy matchups like Jund (and because resolving Primal Command against burn is always a winner), but the meta hasn't shifted that way. I think the faster Pact Devotion lists are better positioned against a fast meta, but it's still a struggle. When I get some more money to dump into MtG, I'll pick up some Pacts and try it out.
Has anyone tried paradoxical outcome? I know it might sound weird but you can set up a loop of outcome bounce garruk witness recast. Is that unreasonable?
I haven’t but it sounds fun!!
———
I agree that straight land destruction isn’t perfect for Devotion...but a lot of the interaction they use are good tools for us.
Unfortunately I don't think Outcome will perform very well. In order to demonstrate the loop, you need 11 mana to break even (Garruk+Witness+Outcome), and 12 mana to go infinite... I don't think you'll have enough time to make that work. A similar thing can be done with Cloudstone Curio + Garruk + Xenagos...except with that you only need to net 9 mana to go infinite. And even then, that is hard to string together.
As much as I'd love to fit an infinite combo in devotion, a lot of times it is too taxing on the core gameplan. Sometimes it's just better to win with Craterhoof than try and go off. I'm keeping my eye out for anything with combo potential though. I've been playing Wilderness Reclamation in Temur to good success, and I think there could eventually be a devotion shell that could maximize mana output with Nykthos and the enchantment. However for now I think the best use for it is mana sinks like Walking Ballista/Polukranos.
Holding out hope for some sweet toys in Modern Horizons. I'm 95% sure that Wild Growth will be included so that will be a nice upgrade. I can see the core ramp suite to be 4x Arbor Elf/Utopia Sprawl/Wild Growth, cutting birds. That will be more resistant to interaction thankfully.
Cheers
1 million percent in the same boat. The way I like to play Devotion lends itself perfectly to an infinite combo...and lord knows i love the Walker Curio Combo....but often requires “do nothing without the combo” cards or just too many slots...Craterhoof works a lot like a “combo”...my only complaint is that many times it doesn’t win the game outright and it comes with its own deck building constraints.
The Walker Curio Combo is viable in certain metas; but that is only because the pieces tend to be useful outside of the combo itself...but in fast metas with ample artifact removal; three mana on a non-green card is a large constraint. I’ll always play it when I can...but even with all of the synergy between the cards there still is a downside. I’ve always wondered why a Doubling Season deck wasn’t a Devotion shoe in...but playing a 5-mana engine (I.e a card that has no immediate effect of its own that relies on other cards) is a huge ask.
I’ve been practicing with cards like Wild Growth, Wall of Blossoms, etc. just to get a feel for them....I haven’t even thought about the silliness of however they are doing the 36 Walkers (as Spark comes before Modern Horizons)....but I don’t want to get too crazy with it until we get the actual spoilers and know what we are working with.
I do, however, think that we will be one of the “fringe” decks that gets multiple new and powerful cards for the archetype from Horizons. Who knows about Spark
————
I also agree we are a good 2-drop away from competing with the faster top of the format decks.
We tend to struggle in a meta that is hyper efficient, turn 3 decks (infect, storm, some Phoenix, Grishoalbrand, etc.) as we are 1/2 turn slower than them (so we can win on the play; but are at a huge disadvantage on the draw).
We can build for speed (and with the correct sideboards we can build to be effective in nearly all metas)...but it is a LOT of work to switch up the deck for each meta 🥵
How competitive would we say this deck is? I went 0-2 bye went home last night. I know it is a small sample size but what are people having success with right now if anything?
R1 dredge
G1 He did his thing hit 4 amalgam in the first 3 turns and burned me out. I was too slow.
G2 I mulligan and keep an iffy hand with a turn 2 garruk but not much else. It wasn’t enough.
R2 4 color wish ascendancy.
G1 I mull to 5 and keep a mana hand. Don’t draw into anything he wins on turn 3
G2 I keep a hand that needs a 2nd land and it starts disrupting him with primal commands.
Overall I felt a turn short in most of my games. I did keep some sketchy hands. And one of my matchups was combo which I can’t imagine is good ever.
Edit: I am not playing paradoxical outcome as I had mentioned I might. Just a standard build with rubric thar.
This depends VERY heavily on the build you are playing and the meta. Devotion is a very difficult deck to play simply because often (a) we are a 1/2 turn to a full turn slower than the fastest decks in the format, (b) we don't have as much disruption as the most disruptive decks in the format.
In my opinion, we can make up for this in many metas by (a) being the most resilient deck in the format and by (b) attacking from an angle other decks in the format do not (i.e. making much of the meta's disruption less effective against us). If we can't at least do the second part; we fall into "this is just a worse X deck" trap. There is nothing wrong with being realistic if that is the case. You may like playing the deck so much you are ok with being a very slightly worse Tron, a slightly worse Amulet, etc. Even in those cases you can absolutely win. We just also have the ability to be our own "best X" option in many cases.
We will traditionally need our disruption to also be extremely effective for the meta we are in as well...but the one absolute blessing we have is that we have more tools we can use than pretty much ANY deck in the format. It can be a curse too (as we often have too many options to choose from); but it does give us the ability to play Green Devotion even when the meta may move away from either a "pure" ramp version, or a hyper efficient Pact version, etc.
I'm working on a way to outline this in the Primer (i.e. what to play when the meta moves to X, etc.) but it can be tough (as rarely is the meta straightforward in the purest sense). I think even just saying, "these 10 cards are great when things are super linear, these 10 cards are great in a heavy combo meta, this type of deck is great when graveyard decks are everywhere, etc..." could be helpful.
I've been taking a more mid-range approach too Devotion rather than going full on big mana. Tooth&Nail, multiple copies of Genesis Wave and those big payoff cards tend to sit in your hand more often than not, while they've just interacted with your early ramp. In my testing, Bloodbraid Elf has been pulling weight against most of the non-combo part of the format. A cheap and honest modern deck that can fight through the tiers (and lose to combo miserably, specially Living End and Ad Nauseam).
I only play Flame Slash because of Thing in the Ice, I can't afford to let that dude flip. If I could, those three slots would be 1 Overgrowth, and one more copy of Garruk Wildspeaker and Primal Command
I really hope Wild Growth comes in Modern Horizons, that would definitely make this deck a LOT better and more consistent in the big mana plan. I'd love to cast big Genesis Waves again.
Sweet Deck GurmagAngler. Flame Slash is a good meta call when you have tons of Phoenix, i would suggest Raking Canopy in the SB if you want more answers for that deck.
When it comes to midrange I always played GB Devotion which gives you Vraska's and fatal push/Abrupt decay/ass trophy which also works against Death's Shadow or a flipped TiTi.
Any particular Reason why you're running 0 copies of Oath of Nissa?
My experience with bloodbrad is not that positive. There's always the chance to hit a ramp spell, in comparison to Jund. doesnt provide significant devotion or other synergies. Obviously always feels great casting it T2, but personally I didn't like him in the devotion archetype.
Very Cool List Gurmag! I'm interested to hear how it has performed against the current meta. I like the Flame Slash (as you are right that Thing in Ice is everywhere
I love it. I've been testing a lot lately; but am kinda trying out things that may or may not be in Horizons. I am excited for War spoilers; but Horizons is likely to be more beneficial to us. I agree that it would be fun to start casting Waves again
So Kiora, Behemoth Reckoner seems perfect for us Walker players... Untap a permanent! Am I missing something?
P.S. I will also be trying a 1-of Karn's Bastion (I can untap it with Garruk, Kiora, or Kiora
P.P.S Domri, Anarch of Bolas also seems strong for creature heavy builds...uncounterable creatures, a small buff (not great, but just exttra), ramp at 3-CMC, and removal when you need it. I like it.
I do have to agree with a lot of what you say here after more testing....
Eternal Witness is just not great in a permanent-based deck. I tend to play more permanents than most; sonthis skews my opinion. I TOTALLY understand her use in a Genesis Wave deck and even on a more heavily dedicated Primal Command list...but I had too many times where she felt like a dead draw.
I may just return to Wistful Selkie as my 3-drop of choice. I never loved having ALL of my board having 2 or less toughness (for obvious reasons) but it simply may be the best option. In the past I’ve enjoyed Carven Caryatids; but not being able to attack can matter with Garruk Overrun’s and/or Kessig Wolf Run’s. The additional Devotion can come up though (when you’re really happy you played it!)
SIDEBOARD STUFF
so I got my Raking Canopy’s our again...it feels like two years ago (when I was making a big deal about Cannopy and Silent Arbiter :). There has been some success with Mono-Green land destruction decks (Corbin Bressler, etc.) somwe can definitely learn something from them.
And trinisphere has been quite strong.
As for Green Control, land destruction isn't really my favorite play style, but Trinisphere does seem sweet.
Imho nobody had tried this card in Modern with success so far.
Hmm...and it's a Instant card. Maybe there is some Fun with Flash creatures and Wilderness Reclamation.
i really like to see brew with your ideas
As much as I'd love to fit an infinite combo in devotion, a lot of times it is too taxing on the core gameplan. Sometimes it's just better to win with Craterhoof than try and go off. I'm keeping my eye out for anything with combo potential though. I've been playing Wilderness Reclamation in Temur to good success, and I think there could eventually be a devotion shell that could maximize mana output with Nykthos and the enchantment. However for now I think the best use for it is mana sinks like Walking Ballista/Polukranos.
Holding out hope for some sweet toys in Modern Horizons. I'm 95% sure that Wild Growth will be included so that will be a nice upgrade. I can see the core ramp suite to be 4x Arbor Elf/Utopia Sprawl/Wild Growth, cutting birds. That will be more resistant to interaction thankfully.
Cheers
I'm really hopeful for Wild Growth as well. What lead you to be 95% sure it will in MH?
The only other deck besides green devotion variations that would benefit from it is Ponza I think.
The challenger decks have Jadelight Ranger, which should make it super affordable. I have become a huge fan of the card. It does exactly what we need in a "fair" ramp deck (by that I mean we play tons of cards devoted to ramping instead of e.g. tron). We always struggle to get the payoff at the right moment.
CMC 3 and GG makes it one of the best T2 plays, setting up T3 nicely. Being able to put Primal Commands/Summoner's pact/T&N on top, something which Oath misses. We discussed the card back when it was released. Did anyone gather some more experience with her?
R1 dredge
G1 He did his thing hit 4 amalgam in the first 3 turns and burned me out. I was too slow.
G2 I mulligan and keep an iffy hand with a turn 2 garruk but not much else. It wasn’t enough.
R2 4 color wish ascendancy.
G1 I mull to 5 and keep a mana hand. Don’t draw into anything he wins on turn 3
G2 I keep a hand that needs a 2nd land and it starts disrupting him with primal commands.
Overall I felt a turn short in most of my games. I did keep some sketchy hands. And one of my matchups was combo which I can’t imagine is good ever.
Edit: I am not playing paradoxical outcome as I had mentioned I might. Just a standard build with rubric thar.
Honestly it depends on your iteration of the deck. I would say the Summoner's Pact/Craterhoof versions are pretty consistently a turn 4 combo, within a linear format. However against control and midrange they are more fragile. Other Primal Command value versions are more resilient, but have a slower goldfish. In general, I think the deck is a little slow for current modern as a whole. Phoenix, Burn, Dredge are all poor matchups, and the deck isn't quite fast enough to compete with Tier 1. However it is very reasonable for everything else. The plus side of this type of deck too is that every new card printed with green symbols is a live card for the deck. There is a ton of potential and I'm hoping we could see some Devotion love in Modern Horizons. I think the deck is a good aggressive/resilient 2-drop away from being a real competitor honestly.
I've been on the eternal-command list for the last couple months and I wouldn't consider it competitive right now. It's about a turn too slow and early disruption can really set it back. I chose this version because I expected more grindy matchups like Jund (and because resolving Primal Command against burn is always a winner), but the meta hasn't shifted that way. I think the faster Pact Devotion lists are better positioned against a fast meta, but it's still a struggle. When I get some more money to dump into MtG, I'll pick up some Pacts and try it out.
I haven’t but it sounds fun!!
———
I agree that straight land destruction isn’t perfect for Devotion...but a lot of the interaction they use are good tools for us.
1 million percent in the same boat. The way I like to play Devotion lends itself perfectly to an infinite combo...and lord knows i love the Walker Curio Combo....but often requires “do nothing without the combo” cards or just too many slots...Craterhoof works a lot like a “combo”...my only complaint is that many times it doesn’t win the game outright and it comes with its own deck building constraints.
The Walker Curio Combo is viable in certain metas; but that is only because the pieces tend to be useful outside of the combo itself...but in fast metas with ample artifact removal; three mana on a non-green card is a large constraint. I’ll always play it when I can...but even with all of the synergy between the cards there still is a downside. I’ve always wondered why a Doubling Season deck wasn’t a Devotion shoe in...but playing a 5-mana engine (I.e a card that has no immediate effect of its own that relies on other cards) is a huge ask.
I’ve been practicing with cards like Wild Growth, Wall of Blossoms, etc. just to get a feel for them....I haven’t even thought about the silliness of however they are doing the 36 Walkers (as Spark comes before Modern Horizons)....but I don’t want to get too crazy with it until we get the actual spoilers and know what we are working with.
I do, however, think that we will be one of the “fringe” decks that gets multiple new and powerful cards for the archetype from Horizons. Who knows about Spark
————
I also agree we are a good 2-drop away from competing with the faster top of the format decks.
We tend to struggle in a meta that is hyper efficient, turn 3 decks (infect, storm, some Phoenix, Grishoalbrand, etc.) as we are 1/2 turn slower than them (so we can win on the play; but are at a huge disadvantage on the draw).
We can build for speed (and with the correct sideboards we can build to be effective in nearly all metas)...but it is a LOT of work to switch up the deck for each meta 🥵
This depends VERY heavily on the build you are playing and the meta. Devotion is a very difficult deck to play simply because often (a) we are a 1/2 turn to a full turn slower than the fastest decks in the format, (b) we don't have as much disruption as the most disruptive decks in the format.
In my opinion, we can make up for this in many metas by (a) being the most resilient deck in the format and by (b) attacking from an angle other decks in the format do not (i.e. making much of the meta's disruption less effective against us). If we can't at least do the second part; we fall into "this is just a worse X deck" trap. There is nothing wrong with being realistic if that is the case. You may like playing the deck so much you are ok with being a very slightly worse Tron, a slightly worse Amulet, etc. Even in those cases you can absolutely win. We just also have the ability to be our own "best X" option in many cases.
We will traditionally need our disruption to also be extremely effective for the meta we are in as well...but the one absolute blessing we have is that we have more tools we can use than pretty much ANY deck in the format. It can be a curse too (as we often have too many options to choose from); but it does give us the ability to play Green Devotion even when the meta may move away from either a "pure" ramp version, or a hyper efficient Pact version, etc.
I'm working on a way to outline this in the Primer (i.e. what to play when the meta moves to X, etc.) but it can be tough (as rarely is the meta straightforward in the purest sense). I think even just saying, "these 10 cards are great when things are super linear, these 10 cards are great in a heavy combo meta, this type of deck is great when graveyard decks are everywhere, etc..." could be helpful.
7 Forest
4 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
2 Stomping Ground
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Kessig Wolf Run
4 Arbor Elf
3 Birds of Paradise
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Steel Leaf Champion
2 Tireless Tracker
2 Eternal Witness
1 Wistful Selkie
1 Thrashing Brontodon
4 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Surrak, the Hunt Caller
2 Primeval Titan
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
2 Garruk Wildspeaker
2 Primal Command
1 Genesis Wave
3 Flame Slash
2 Damping Sphere
2 Alpine Moon
2 Cindervines
2 Rhythm of the Wild
2 Firespout
2 Ravenous Trap
2 Obstinate Baloth
1 Creeping Corrosion
I only play Flame Slash because of Thing in the Ice, I can't afford to let that dude flip. If I could, those three slots would be 1 Overgrowth, and one more copy of Garruk Wildspeaker and Primal Command
I really hope Wild Growth comes in Modern Horizons, that would definitely make this deck a LOT better and more consistent in the big mana plan. I'd love to cast big Genesis Waves again.
When it comes to midrange I always played GB Devotion which gives you Vraska's and fatal push/Abrupt decay/ass trophy which also works against Death's Shadow or a flipped TiTi.
Any particular Reason why you're running 0 copies of Oath of Nissa?
My experience with bloodbrad is not that positive. There's always the chance to hit a ramp spell, in comparison to Jund. doesnt provide significant devotion or other synergies. Obviously always feels great casting it T2, but personally I didn't like him in the devotion archetype.
Nissa, Vastwood Seer might be interesting for your midrange playstyle.
I love it. I've been testing a lot lately; but am kinda trying out things that may or may not be in Horizons. I am excited for War spoilers; but Horizons is likely to be more beneficial to us. I agree that it would be fun to start casting Waves again
So Kiora, Behemoth Reckoner seems perfect for us Walker players... Untap a permanent! Am I missing something?
P.S. I will also be trying a 1-of Karn's Bastion (I can untap it with Garruk, Kiora, or Kiora
P.P.S Domri, Anarch of Bolas also seems strong for creature heavy builds...uncounterable creatures, a small buff (not great, but just exttra), ramp at 3-CMC, and removal when you need it. I like it.