I went 3-4 in the Main event and 3-1 in both side events I played. I changed the list and splashed white for 3 paths to exile mainboard and some sidebaord techs, it helped a lot with interactions for Vizier Combo and Storm matchups, here is my final list:
Round 1, Abzan Combo 1-2
G1: In the first game he tries to manually installs combo on turn 3, I path the druid in response. Next turn he chords for another druid and wins.
G2: I play graffdiggers cage turn one, and proceed to victory, my opponent showed me 2cords/2coco in his hand after.
G3: I mull to 5, install turn 1 cage, but opponent had combo in his hand and has a Qasali Pridemage to destroy the cage.
Match up feels bad, but the hands on the other side were also pretty fantastic
Round 2, Soul Sisters/RW Prison
G1: Opponent wraths my potentially lethal board on turn 3, through simic spirit guide, installs Gideon and kills me.
I sideboard against RW prison, taking out removal and adding grindy package.
G2: Turn 1, I see Martyr of Sands, Turn 2 Serra Ascendant. I assemble the board myself, while being on 3 turn clock. When I am at 2 lifes, I cast Craterhoof and swing for 38, but opponent was already at 42 lifes, so gg.
This is great matchup for us, which I played online a lot. I screwed up because I misunderstood what I play against.
Round 3: Lantern Control 1-2
G1: Easy win, build the board, Primal command the bridge, and swing for lethal.
G2: He assembles the lock and I never get to see the command/witness.
G3: I Primal Command too early, while having two turn clock. Opponent is at 9 and is able to stirrings for another bridge. Later I was able to find Kessig+Birds to swing for 8, but next turn Kessig gets ghosts quarter. I have Woodland Bellower. I cast him just to find our that all of my eternal witnesses are already milled to my graveyard..
Starting 0-3 was really rough, especially with realization that 2 of 3 rounds were completely winnable and were lost mostly due pilot mistakes. At that point I was playing single elimination.
Round 4, Bogles: 2-0
G1: Scout, Enchant, Enchant, Enchant, brings me to 4 on turn 4, but by that time I already built my board to Primal+Witness. So I gained enough life to hold for another turn, found Craterhoof, swing for 45
G2: Very similar story, I assemble my thing, he does his. This time he gets stuck on 2 mana and I stall him by putting the most powerful enchants on the top of his library, while building enough devotion for lethal.
Round 5, Jund Death Shadow: 2-1
G1: I draw 3 paths to exile and get rid of all the threats on that side, while slowly killing my opponent with Wistful Selkies and Arbor Elves.
G2: T2 Goyf, T3 DS, T2 Ranger of Eos for two more DS, I chump block for a while but eventually just run out of resources.
G3: I T2 Blood moon and my opponent picks up his cards.
Round 6, Burn 2-0
G1: Opponent kept a slow hand, I was able to survive until Primal command on turn 4, and then gained life/found Tragtusk,
G2: I see goldfish, T1 Elf, T2, Utopia Sprawl into Garruk, into Kitchen finks while two goblin guides and a Swiftspear were looking at me from the other side of the table.
Round 7, Grixis Control:
G1: T2 Tasigur, and then 3 counterspell in a row and I have to concede.
G2: I install T2 Blood Moon and opponent scoops
G3: A lot of back and forth, Opponent is at 6 I have Oooze with 4 counters, eternal witness, utopia sprawl and a 4 lands one of which was Nyktos. Opponent has 5 lands. Here I make the biggest mistake of the tournament, knowing that opponent has a terminate, instead of just attacking and making my opponent tap, I decided to play Primal Titan first while I still have the devotion to do it. He casts cryptic command into my titan and bounces the Ooze.. I was not able to recover after that.
In the side events, I only lost to once to DS and once to Vizier Company deck, while beating some more burn, tron, uw control and DS.
Some afterthoughts:
Nobody expects us to have blood moon in the sideboard, and even more people are trying to side it against us. Turn two blood moon won me at least 3 games during this weekend.
Hornet Nest is very solid Sideboard card, which stops both DS and Eldrazi.
Being able to splash white for paths, RIPS and Stony Silences feels strong as well. In general I like my sideboard a lot, and feel like every match was getting significantly better post sideboard. MonoG devotion is not afraid of hate cards, its only enemy are board wipes, and no one playing a lot of those.
CoCo combo is annoying, we're losing G1 by default, post sideboard I feel like I need to mulligan to paths/cages. Paths made it feel better but its still not good, I considered playing more cages in sideboard instead of splitting Cages/RIP 2/2, but RIP is so much better against Goyfs/Tasigurs.
Also piloting this deck is hard, I probably played around 200+ games in MODO in the past month and still made unacceptable mistakes on GP. There are a lot of matchups when we pretty much trying to be MonoG control, knowing that late game is ours, because we can come back from any lock/hit point amount.
It was my first GP in 3 years and I had a blast, so looking forward to more big tournament through out the year, and helping promote Devotion around the world.
I am really looking into sideboarding options against tron. My current sideboard plans is:
+3 Blood moon
+2 Hornet Nest
+1 Pithing Needle
+2 Dismember
-1 Chord
-1 Garruk
-2 Primal Command
-1 Courser of Kruphix
-1 Eternal Witness
-1 Elvish Visionary
-1 Oracle of mull Daya
The match up still doesnt feel good, I would highly appreciate any other techs/suggestions
Is Nissa so good to splash 2nd (technically 3rd color) just because of her? The main draw back of playing UG is that you no longer play blood moons in the sideboards. In my experience after sideboard turn 2 blood moon is the best play we can make agains Tron/Valakut/Death Shadow and bunch of other decks.
What do you guys think about having Manglehorn in the sideboard? Is 3cmc too slow?
Also I've been considering putting 3 blood moons in the sideboard, the surprise effect might be significant
My meta has a lot of Storm, Death Shadow, Abzan-Coco, so I usually want to see an Oooze per game and tutoring it with PC is way too slow. I am also considering playing some amount of Chords/Pacts in the deck, but haven't got a chance to test. Also what other green two drops would you suggest to keep the curve consistent?
Hey, guys I read about this deck about a month ago and quickly assembled a budget version in MODO. After playing there for couple weeks I got myself a paper version as well. Today went to a first big tournament with it. Ended 3-0-1 and then split in top 2. Here is my list:
I am also planning to play GP Copenhagen and wanted to discuss our sideboard options and maybe even try to write in detailed sideboard plan.
What kind of different option people are running now and what matchups other then DeathShadow do you think we need to concentrate on?
I've cut to two from 3 because I feel like with 3-4 we are getting too many slow hands. Also as great as it is it still dies from bolt/fatal push wiht revolt and helix/path which is 80% or the removal in the format
Played yesterday with this build at local event for 20 people. Went 3-0-2, in top 8 got to the finals. Trying 4 serum vision. Lost in the finals to merfolks
My main problem with Serum Visions is that you never wanna cast it except for turn 1. On turn two, you want to have a counter/bolt. Turn 3 either Geist or Snapcaster/bolt or Spell Queller. I feel like Mana Curve of this deck is extremely nice and you always want to have something to do on opponents turn. I would be open to suggestion about the alternatives though, I used to play couple of think twices but its very slow.
I went 4-0 and the deck did exceptionally great. All the matchup were 2-0. I Played against UWR control, then 5c Aggro Slivers, then against Valakut and finally against Abzan Midrange.
I also played decent amount online over last two weeks. The lesson I learned might seems obvious to some of you but I still feel like sharing for anyone who is new to the deck.
1. You play 4 geist or 0, not 3 not 2. If you're on the play, you want it in the starting hand, because the meta does not have good answer how to kill it and you can always clear the way with paths/bolts/castle etc.
2. So far I've developed only two efficient sideboarding packages. You either play against aggro deck or everything else. Against aggro I found that siding 2 extra planeswolkers and Verdict/Angers + an ability to snapcaster them, basically kills any kind of board they can develop. Against Valakut/Thron/Eldrazi you try to early that Geist/Snap/Clique and kill opponent before he develops the boards.
3. Bolts/Helix's and Snapcasters are real win condition. If you know that you're playing against control/combo its perfectly fine to cast empty snapcaster end of turn 2 and attack->attack->attack.
4. Izzet charm is surprisingly good card, basically its a 2 mana bad cryptic command. Its very good in this aggressive build.
5. Both Elspeths do a lot, the 4 mana one has amazing synergy with geist and 6 mana one can solo win games.
6. I am down to 2 serum visions and I might end with 0, I have a strong feeling that its not that good of a card and people are playing it just because there is nothing better.
I am still working on the sideboard, just picked up surgical extractions and other nice things yesterday.
Whats peoples opinion on Serum Visions? I played a lot online over the weekend and it feels like a lot of games when I don't wanna cast it on turn 1/2/3 instead preferring to sit on bolt/path/mana leak. Also it very average cantrips in the first place comparing to Preordain/Ponders and all the other good banned things.
If I want to play a singleton of planeswalker in the main deck, between two Elspeth, Adjani Vengeant and new Chandra what do you think is the best option?
I went 3-4 in the Main event and 3-1 in both side events I played. I changed the list and splashed white for 3 paths to exile mainboard and some sidebaord techs, it helped a lot with interactions for Vizier Combo and Storm matchups, here is my final list:
4 Arbor Elf
1 Thragtusk
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Wistful Selkie
2 Birds of Paradise
1 Woodland Bellower
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Fauna Shaman
3 Scavenging Ooze
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Elvish Visionary
3 Eternal Witness
1 Acidic Slime
1 Primeval Titan
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
Spells:
3 Primal Command
1 Harmonize
3 Path to Exile
Lands:
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Windswept Heath
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Kessig Wolf Run
6 Forest
2 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
2 Hornet Nest
1 Pithing Needle
2 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Harmonize
2 Rest in Peace
2 Stony Silence
1 Kitchen Finks
3 Blood Moon
1 Dismember
About the games:
Round 1, Abzan Combo 1-2
G1: In the first game he tries to manually installs combo on turn 3, I path the druid in response. Next turn he chords for another druid and wins.
G2: I play graffdiggers cage turn one, and proceed to victory, my opponent showed me 2cords/2coco in his hand after.
G3: I mull to 5, install turn 1 cage, but opponent had combo in his hand and has a Qasali Pridemage to destroy the cage.
Match up feels bad, but the hands on the other side were also pretty fantastic
Round 2, Soul Sisters/RW Prison
G1: Opponent wraths my potentially lethal board on turn 3, through simic spirit guide, installs Gideon and kills me.
I sideboard against RW prison, taking out removal and adding grindy package.
G2: Turn 1, I see Martyr of Sands, Turn 2 Serra Ascendant. I assemble the board myself, while being on 3 turn clock. When I am at 2 lifes, I cast Craterhoof and swing for 38, but opponent was already at 42 lifes, so gg.
This is great matchup for us, which I played online a lot. I screwed up because I misunderstood what I play against.
Round 3: Lantern Control 1-2
G1: Easy win, build the board, Primal command the bridge, and swing for lethal.
G2: He assembles the lock and I never get to see the command/witness.
G3: I Primal Command too early, while having two turn clock. Opponent is at 9 and is able to stirrings for another bridge. Later I was able to find Kessig+Birds to swing for 8, but next turn Kessig gets ghosts quarter. I have Woodland Bellower. I cast him just to find our that all of my eternal witnesses are already milled to my graveyard..
Starting 0-3 was really rough, especially with realization that 2 of 3 rounds were completely winnable and were lost mostly due pilot mistakes. At that point I was playing single elimination.
Round 4, Bogles: 2-0
G1: Scout, Enchant, Enchant, Enchant, brings me to 4 on turn 4, but by that time I already built my board to Primal+Witness. So I gained enough life to hold for another turn, found Craterhoof, swing for 45
G2: Very similar story, I assemble my thing, he does his. This time he gets stuck on 2 mana and I stall him by putting the most powerful enchants on the top of his library, while building enough devotion for lethal.
Round 5, Jund Death Shadow: 2-1
G1: I draw 3 paths to exile and get rid of all the threats on that side, while slowly killing my opponent with Wistful Selkies and Arbor Elves.
G2: T2 Goyf, T3 DS, T2 Ranger of Eos for two more DS, I chump block for a while but eventually just run out of resources.
G3: I T2 Blood moon and my opponent picks up his cards.
Round 6, Burn 2-0
G1: Opponent kept a slow hand, I was able to survive until Primal command on turn 4, and then gained life/found Tragtusk,
G2: I see goldfish, T1 Elf, T2, Utopia Sprawl into Garruk, into Kitchen finks while two goblin guides and a Swiftspear were looking at me from the other side of the table.
Round 7, Grixis Control:
G1: T2 Tasigur, and then 3 counterspell in a row and I have to concede.
G2: I install T2 Blood Moon and opponent scoops
G3: A lot of back and forth, Opponent is at 6 I have Oooze with 4 counters, eternal witness, utopia sprawl and a 4 lands one of which was Nyktos. Opponent has 5 lands. Here I make the biggest mistake of the tournament, knowing that opponent has a terminate, instead of just attacking and making my opponent tap, I decided to play Primal Titan first while I still have the devotion to do it. He casts cryptic command into my titan and bounces the Ooze.. I was not able to recover after that.
In the side events, I only lost to once to DS and once to Vizier Company deck, while beating some more burn, tron, uw control and DS.
Some afterthoughts:
Nobody expects us to have blood moon in the sideboard, and even more people are trying to side it against us. Turn two blood moon won me at least 3 games during this weekend.
Hornet Nest is very solid Sideboard card, which stops both DS and Eldrazi.
Being able to splash white for paths, RIPS and Stony Silences feels strong as well. In general I like my sideboard a lot, and feel like every match was getting significantly better post sideboard. MonoG devotion is not afraid of hate cards, its only enemy are board wipes, and no one playing a lot of those.
CoCo combo is annoying, we're losing G1 by default, post sideboard I feel like I need to mulligan to paths/cages. Paths made it feel better but its still not good, I considered playing more cages in sideboard instead of splitting Cages/RIP 2/2, but RIP is so much better against Goyfs/Tasigurs.
Also piloting this deck is hard, I probably played around 200+ games in MODO in the past month and still made unacceptable mistakes on GP. There are a lot of matchups when we pretty much trying to be MonoG control, knowing that late game is ours, because we can come back from any lock/hit point amount.
It was my first GP in 3 years and I had a blast, so looking forward to more big tournament through out the year, and helping promote Devotion around the world.
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Windswept Heath
2 Wistful Selkie
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Birds of Paradise
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Acidic Slime
1 Chord of Calling
1 Woodland Bellower
1 Oracle of Mul Daya
1 Thragtusk
2 Stomping Ground
3 Scavenging Ooze
1 Courser of Kruphix
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
2 Elvish Visionary
4 Eternal Witness
7 Forest
4 Garruk Wildspeaker
1 Harmonize
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Primeval Titan
3 Primal Command
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Harmonize
1 Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
1 Nature's Claim
2 Dismember
1 Reclamation Sage
3 Blood Moon
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Kitchen Finks
2 Hornet Nest
1 Pithing Needle
I am really looking into sideboarding options against tron. My current sideboard plans is:
+3 Blood moon
+2 Hornet Nest
+1 Pithing Needle
+2 Dismember
-1 Chord
-1 Garruk
-2 Primal Command
-1 Courser of Kruphix
-1 Eternal Witness
-1 Elvish Visionary
-1 Oracle of mull Daya
The match up still doesnt feel good, I would highly appreciate any other techs/suggestions
Also I've been considering putting 3 blood moons in the sideboard, the surprise effect might be significant
4 Arbor Elf
2 Birds of Paradise
3 Eternal Witness
1 Hornet Queen
1 Primeval Titan
3 Scavenging Ooze
2 Voyaging Satyr
1 Tireless Tracker
1 Courser of Kruphix
2 Tragtusk
2 Wistful Selkie
2 Elvish Visionary
2 Oath of Nissa
4 Utopia Sprawl
Planeswalkers
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
Sorceries
3 Primal Command
2 Harmonize
Lands
11 Forest
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Stomping Ground
2 Windswept Heath
3 Wooded Foothills
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
I played with UR Storm, Scapeshift, Mardu Tokens, And MonoU Extra turn deck.
I would appreciate any comments/deck techs.
What kind of different option people are running now and what matchups other then DeathShadow do you think we need to concentrate on?
2 Flooded Strand
3 Arid Mesa
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Eiganjo Castle
4 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Spell Queller
2 Vendilion Clique
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
3 Lightning Helix
2 Mana Leak
2 Remand
1 Spell Snare
1 Negate
1 Cryptic Command
1 Izzet Charm
1 Kor Firewalker
1 Celestial Purge
1 Lightning Helix
1 Dispel
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Rest in Peace
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Crumble to dust
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Izzet Staticaster
3 Celestial Colonnade
2 Flooded Strand
3 Arid Mesa
1 Ghost Quarter
2 Hallowed Fountain
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Island
1 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Steam Vents
1 Eiganjo Castle
Creature
4 Geist of Saint Traft
2 Restoration Angel
4 Snapcaster Mage
2 Spell Queller
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Elspeth, Knight-Erant
Spells
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Path to Exile
2 Serum Visions
4 Lightning Helix
2 Mana Leak
2 Remand
1 Spell Snare
1 Spell Pierce
1 Electrolyze
1 Cryptic Command
1 Izzet Charm
1 Kor Firewalker
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Celestial Purge
1 Dispel
1 Negate
1 Ceremonial Rejection
1 Supreme Verdict
2 Rest in Peace
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Threads of Disloyalty
1 Crumble to dust
1 Anger of the Gods
I went 4-0 and the deck did exceptionally great. All the matchup were 2-0. I Played against UWR control, then 5c Aggro Slivers, then against Valakut and finally against Abzan Midrange.
I also played decent amount online over last two weeks. The lesson I learned might seems obvious to some of you but I still feel like sharing for anyone who is new to the deck.
1. You play 4 geist or 0, not 3 not 2. If you're on the play, you want it in the starting hand, because the meta does not have good answer how to kill it and you can always clear the way with paths/bolts/castle etc.
2. So far I've developed only two efficient sideboarding packages. You either play against aggro deck or everything else. Against aggro I found that siding 2 extra planeswolkers and Verdict/Angers + an ability to snapcaster them, basically kills any kind of board they can develop. Against Valakut/Thron/Eldrazi you try to early that Geist/Snap/Clique and kill opponent before he develops the boards.
3. Bolts/Helix's and Snapcasters are real win condition. If you know that you're playing against control/combo its perfectly fine to cast empty snapcaster end of turn 2 and attack->attack->attack.
4. Izzet charm is surprisingly good card, basically its a 2 mana bad cryptic command. Its very good in this aggressive build.
5. Both Elspeths do a lot, the 4 mana one has amazing synergy with geist and 6 mana one can solo win games.
6. I am down to 2 serum visions and I might end with 0, I have a strong feeling that its not that good of a card and people are playing it just because there is nothing better.
I am still working on the sideboard, just picked up surgical extractions and other nice things yesterday.