I just put my old Green Devotion deck back together give it a whirl and do some play testing. I really wanted to play genesis wave again. I had some of the funnest games of MtG ever with that card, so a more combo oriented is the build I’m going with.
Card Choices: Vessel of Nascency over oath of nissa - feels better to bin a G wave than bottom it if we can recur it with eWit. hour of devastation over primal command - I’d much rather tutor a creature directly to play rather than hand. The team pump + haste is gravy but still useful as a late game mana sink. strangleroot Geist & old-growth troll - sources of ‘sticky’ early devotion enabler with good aggressive stats and resistance to removal
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)
Went 0-3, but not surprised, still learning the ins and outs of the deck. Learned a lot as a result.
Round 1 RG Tron 0-2
I manage to stall out the game quite a bit, but my opponent eventually manages to land a haymaker I'm unable to deal with both games. A lot spinning tires by drawing air. Didn't draw my hate and not enough main deck counter spells.
Round 2 Bant Coco
I draw 3 of my terminus early game, miracling 2 of them on the opponents early creatures and dorks, but I draw nothing useful for the rest of the game. My opponent eventually stabilizes and wins with creature beats. Game 2 was much the same. spell queller is a beating.
Round 3 Storm
Game 1, I can't do much in the way to disrupt my opponent and promptly lose.
Game 2 goes long, I use a combination of counter spells and land destruction to hit my opponent's mana. I miracle a an Entreat for x=7 but my opponent bounces the tokens and lose to a bunch of goblin tokens. Made the mistake of boarding out all four of my terminus
Take aways: I'm getting better at playing the deck, but I've got a long way to go. I'm switching out cryptic command for a couple of negate mainboard. They're just too clunky a lot of the time due to the colourless lands. The sidebard needs a bit of refinement, but I'm getting there. Might also consider running 1 main deck secure the wastes
I played 4 rounds the other night at my LGS and went 0-4 with a UW Miracles build I scrabbled together roughly based on counterbalancetop's list . Here is my deck list:
Round 1: Boros Burn 0-2
He had the nut draw both games and even with path and a handful of mediocre counter spells just wasn't good enough.
Round 2: Grixis Shadow 0-2
Similar situation, except my hand got shredded in short order and was followed up with a huge swinging shadow. This deck seems to falter a lot due to how inefficient and clunky our answers are to our opponents' threats.
Round 3: Bye
Round 4: RG Ponza 0-2 My opponent manages to land a couple of dorks I'm unable to effectively answer and is off to the races with land destruction. Game 2 I mulligan to a shaky hand, and my opponent manages to land an early blood moon cutting me off of white entirely, which sucks because he soon lands a Titan and a dragon, then I lose. I could have terminused them if I had white mana. In retrospect i missed the ability to activate my own field of ruin on an opponents land to get me the plains that I needed.
Take aways: I need to beef up my mainboard counter suite with more hard counters. remand just seems too ineffective. I also need to effectively answer fast aggro strategies better and have ways to deal with resolved non creature permanents along the lines of detention sphere And I'll make sure to include 3 leyline of sanctity in the board to better hedge against burn.
This is the list I came up with:
4 wooded foothills
2 Windswept heath
4 nykthos, shrine to nyx
7 forest
2 Stomping ground
1 Kessig wolf run
Creature
4 Arbor Elf
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Strangleroot Geist
3 Old Growth Troll
3 Eternal Witness
2 Courser of Kruphix
2 Primeval Titan
1 Craterhoof Behemoth
1 Hornet Queen
4 Utopia Sprawl
4 Vessel of Nascency
3 Garruk Wildspeaker
3 Hour of Devastation
3 Genesis Wave
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Veil of Summer
2 Scavenging Ooze
3 Blood Moon
1 Beast Within
1 ruric that, the unbowed
1 acidic slime
2 primal command
Card Choices:
Vessel of Nascency over oath of nissa - feels better to bin a G wave than bottom it if we can recur it with eWit.
hour of devastation over primal command - I’d much rather tutor a creature directly to play rather than hand. The team pump + haste is gravy but still useful as a late game mana sink.
strangleroot Geist & old-growth troll - sources of ‘sticky’ early devotion enabler with good aggressive stats and resistance to removal
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?
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Riverwise Augur
Spells
4 Opt
4 Serum Visions
4 Path to Exile
4 Mana Leak
4 Telling Time
2 Search for Azcanta
1 Detention Sphere
2 Cryptic Command
4 Terminus
2 Entreat the Angels
4 Flooded Strand
4 Field of Ruin
2 Celestial Colonnade
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Island
3 Plains
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Dispel
2 Negate
2 Stony Silence
2 Rest in Peace
2 Blessed Alliance
3 Leyline of Sanctity
Went 0-3, but not surprised, still learning the ins and outs of the deck. Learned a lot as a result.
Round 1 RG Tron 0-2
I manage to stall out the game quite a bit, but my opponent eventually manages to land a haymaker I'm unable to deal with both games. A lot spinning tires by drawing air. Didn't draw my hate and not enough main deck counter spells.
Round 2 Bant Coco
I draw 3 of my terminus early game, miracling 2 of them on the opponents early creatures and dorks, but I draw nothing useful for the rest of the game. My opponent eventually stabilizes and wins with creature beats. Game 2 was much the same. spell queller is a beating.
Round 3 Storm
Game 1, I can't do much in the way to disrupt my opponent and promptly lose.
Game 2 goes long, I use a combination of counter spells and land destruction to hit my opponent's mana. I miracle a an Entreat for x=7 but my opponent bounces the tokens and lose to a bunch of goblin tokens. Made the mistake of boarding out all four of my terminus
Take aways: I'm getting better at playing the deck, but I've got a long way to go. I'm switching out cryptic command for a couple of negate mainboard. They're just too clunky a lot of the time due to the colourless lands. The sidebard needs a bit of refinement, but I'm getting there. Might also consider running 1 main deck secure the wastes
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Riverwise Augur
Spells
4 Opt
4 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
4 Telling Time
2 Logic Knot
2 Search for Azcanta
3 Entreat the Angels
4 Terminus
4 Foooded Strand
4 Glacial Fortress
4 Field of Ruin
2 Celestial Colonnade
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Island
3 Plains
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Dispel
4 Negate
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Stony Silence
3 Geist of Saint Traft
Round 1: Boros Burn 0-2
He had the nut draw both games and even with path and a handful of mediocre counter spells just wasn't good enough.
Round 2: Grixis Shadow 0-2
Similar situation, except my hand got shredded in short order and was followed up with a huge swinging shadow. This deck seems to falter a lot due to how inefficient and clunky our answers are to our opponents' threats.
Round 3: Bye
Round 4: RG Ponza 0-2 My opponent manages to land a couple of dorks I'm unable to effectively answer and is off to the races with land destruction. Game 2 I mulligan to a shaky hand, and my opponent manages to land an early blood moon cutting me off of white entirely, which sucks because he soon lands a Titan and a dragon, then I lose. I could have terminused them if I had white mana. In retrospect i missed the ability to activate my own field of ruin on an opponents land to get me the plains that I needed.
Take aways: I need to beef up my mainboard counter suite with more hard counters. remand just seems too ineffective. I also need to effectively answer fast aggro strategies better and have ways to deal with resolved non creature permanents along the lines of detention sphere And I'll make sure to include 3 leyline of sanctity in the board to better hedge against burn.
Here's the deck by counterbalancetop :
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Riverwise augur
Spells
4 Opt
4 Path to Exile
4 Serum Visions
4 Remand
4 Telling Time
2 Search for Azcanta
3 Entreat the Angels
4 Terminus
4 Celestial Colonnade
4 Field of Ruin
4 Flooded Strand
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Glacial Fortress
2 Hallowed Fountain
4 Island
3 Plains
2 Dispel
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Blessed Alliance
1 Disdainful Stroke
2 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Kor Firewalker
3 Negate
2 Stony Silence
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
tarmogoyf
thrun, the last troll
azusa, lost but seeking
scapeshift