“It goes without saying that all of the people, living, dead, and otherwise, in this story are fictional or used in a fictional context. Only the gods are real.”
The day before Grand Prix Louisville, I had narrowed my deck choices down to one of two devotion decks. I had tested a bunch with both (nearly) mono-green devotion and mono-black devotion and was leaning towards mono-black. That morning I even ventured out and bought the last few cards I needed for the deck, completing my set of [card]Hero’s Downfall[/card]. But, at the final testing session that night I was still straddling the fence. Mono-green was EXPLOSIVE. It felt like I was playing a Modern deck in standard! I flip flopped back and forth to the chagrin of my play group until they settled it. “Travis, which deck will you have more fun playing? Play that one.” And then, I knew in my heart that I wanted to play the green deck.
Well, let me tell you kids, “the heart” is one great big asshole. Seriously, screw that guy.
I went 4-3 at GP Louisville, disappointing but not crushing. I had fun. The deck performed about like I thought it would. I went 4-2 against control decks (and 0-1 in the mirror when I drew all the mana dorks and he drew all the Planeswalkers), and if you’d told me going in that I had a 66% matchup with control, I probably would have taken it. But, I just kept playing match after match of [card]Supreme Verdict[/card] and [card]Jace, Architect of Thought[/card]. All day long I kept wishing I’d brought a deck with [card]Thoughtseize[/card]. And then I get home and see that mono-black is the deck of the tournament, crushing fools left and right.
Seriously, me and my heart are going to have to have a long talk.
“Take one, and you cannot take the other,” she said. “But neither path is safe. Which way would you walk — the way of hard truths or the way of fine lies?”
With my horizon cleared of standard events for the next couple of weeks, I finally get to focus on my favorite format, Modern. I haven’t been able to turn my brewer’s eye toward the format since Theros was spoiled, and given the major shake-up Theros has given Standard, I’m excited to dive into a broad format full of interactions again. But, where do we start? How about… mono-black devotion:
[deck title=Travis Hall – Like I Like My Coffee]
[Lands]
3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Urborg, Tomb to Yawgmoth
1 Bojuka Bog
2 Ghost Quarter
12 Swamps
1 Overgrown Tomb
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
3 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
3 Phyrexian Obliterator
2 Shriekmaw
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
[/Creatures]
[Planeswalkers]
3 Liliana of the Veil
[/Planeswalkers]
[Spells]
3 Thoughtseize
2 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Genju of the Fens
2 Go for the Throat
4 Phyrexian Arena
2 Dismember
1 Hero’s Downfall
1 Whip of Erebos
3 Damnation
1 Consume Spirit
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Damnation
1 Thoughtseize
2 Spellskite
2 Hero’s Downfall
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Leyline of the Void
2 Sadistic Sacrament
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
“Organizing gods is like herding cats into straight lines. They don’t take naturally to it.”
Loosely modeled off the Standard version, the Modern approach to mono-black devotion has a ton of upgrades. Most notably, Modern gives us a bona fide board wipe in [card]Damnation[/card]. You still get the awesome power of turn one Deathrite Shaman into turn two powerful three drop (and you can’t really go all that wrong with either Liliana of the Veil or Phyrexian Arena on turn two). You still get a smattering of the best spot removal in the format. You still get an insane discard package. It may be that you only make the deck “casually” mono-colored, by running only permanents of one color but dipping into instants and sorceries of another, given the awesome mana bases that Modern affords.
Card choices:
[card]Erebos, God of the Dead[/card]: He shuts off Soul Sisters. He takes down the “infinite life” win condition in Melira Pod. He draws you cards. He survives a Damnation and attacks for 5. I’ve even heard he does windows.
[card]Whip of Erebos[/card]: The list started out with two and I cut one. It’s good late game and gives us another non-creature source of devotion, but two main felt like overkill. I’m not sure if this is good enough for Modern, but it seems like the graveyard is still largely unappreciated in the format. It may be that this is too cute to work out in the long run.
[card]Genju of the Fens[/card]: I want to find a way to play at least one more of these, but I can’t figure out what to cut to slip it in. It racks up devotion early and becomes an effective beater in the late game, especially after a Damnation. This is a fantastic mana sink that can finish the game in 1-2 swings.
[card]Phyrexian Obliterator[/card]: The Big O’. If you untap with him and Nykthos, you should be able to generate all the mana your twisted little mind could want. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s the best wall in the format and is an effective finisher too.
[card]Gray Merchant of Asphodel[/card]: Three may be too many, two may be too few, what to do? This may prove to be too weak for a format like Modern, but curving Obliterator into Grey merchant can be a lot of damage and can end a game very quickly.
Cards to consider:
[card]Arena[/card]: I mean, if you’re going to be running Phyrexian Obliterator anyway, why not run it as a one-of to really screw your opponent? You can mitigate the “damage” of running a land that doesn’t tap for mana by increasing your Urborg count.
[card]Bloodghast[/card]: You could go an entirely different direction with this deck and run a heavy zombie theme with [card]Gravecrawler[/card] and [card]Geralf’s Messenger[/card], and that could be the correct plan. But, I don’t want to be too reliant on creatures in this metagame. All that aside, Bloodghast was the hardest card to keep out of the list, because it’s so easy to keep it on the board and it is such an easy boost for devotion. If he could block, I’d run 14. I keep coming back to him, so he may make it into later versions of the deck.
[card]Death Cloud[/card]: I wanted to. I really, really did, deep in my heart. But, like I said earlier, the heart’s an asshole and it loves to tell lies. Death Cloud seems better suited for BG Rock decks, where you can capitalize off of cards like [card]Garruk Wildspeaker[/card]. If I were to try to go the Death Cloud route, I would look at something like [card]Underworld Dreams[/card] as a way to gain the post-Cloud advantage in the damage race.
[card]Gatekeeper of Malakir[/card]: If I were going the zombie route, I would probably make room for this. He’s a modest two-for-one, but I don’t think he’s good enough.
[card]Reiver Demon[/card]: Confession: totally stole this one from @theboozecube. He does so much, as both a mass [card]Terror[/card] and a 6/6 flying beatstick, and the only downside is his mana cost. I can definitely see testing this thing in the future.
I think mono-black devotion has proven that it is tier 1 in Standard, and I believe that it has the potential to make the leap to Modern. It may be that the format has too many powerful combo decks, but I think any deck with both Thoughtseize and Liliana of the Veil has the potential to put up a fight. After testing with it for two weeks, I’m more than impressed with the power of Nykthos and I definitely see it making an appearance in Modern. The format has so many good spells that once used heavy mana commitment as a drawback. So much so that I think I’ll have another Nykthos deck for you next week. Until then:
“What should I believe? thought Shadow, and the voice came back to him from somewhere deep beneath the world, in a bass rumble: Believe everything.”
All quotes courtesy of Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. If you haven’t read this book, you should, and soon.
If you like my suggestions, you can follow me on Twitter: @travishall456. I throw around random observations and deck ideas every day. You can also hear me on the Horde of Notions podcast each week, discussing deck ideas for FNM level events and the PTQ grinders.
Travis Hall is a resident Mana D rogue deck brewer with an unhealthy addiction to Heartless Summoning and Birthing Pod.