Turns out manifest is a real thing.
G/W Devotion ended up storming the beaches of Miami, taking down first and second place. If that was the deck’s beta run, I’d say it was a rousing success.
Plenty of skilled players ended up running the deck, after all it was posted on this very site by the deck’s creator Sam Black, hidden in
plain sight if you will, which is appropriate for a deck centered around Mastery of the Unseen.
It didn’t take anyone long to realize the deck’s potential, assuming you tried it. You can expect for it to explode in popularity now that the morph’s
completely out of the bag. I think we need to stamp down hard in an attempt to cull the G/W menace, especially since the mirror is particularly grueling.
First things first though.
How Good is G/W Devotion?
Creatures (31)
- 4 Elvish Mystic
- 4 Polukranos, World Eater
- 4 Sylvan Caryatid
- 2 Fleecemane Lion
- 4 Voyaging Satyr
- 4 Courser of Kruphix
- 4 Genesis Hydra
- 4 Whisperwood Elemental
- 1 Temur Sabertooth
Lands (24)
Spells (5)
Creatures (30)
- 4 Elvish Mystic
- 3 Polukranos, World Eater
- 4 Sylvan Caryatid
- 4 Fleecemane Lion
- 3 Voyaging Satyr
- 4 Courser of Kruphix
- 4 Genesis Hydra
- 4 Whisperwood Elemental
Lands (24)
Spells (6)
G/W Devotion is a new threat, but I think it’s a very strong one. Not a believer yet? Based on my limited time playing with G/W Devotion, against G/W
Devotion, and seeing it in action, I think it’s the best deck in Standard by a fair margin. At least in the Standard format as it currently stands. It
doesn’t happen often nowadays that a strategy seems overwhelmingly powerful, but I think G/W Devotion makes the grade. Perhaps I’m a little biased because
it placed first and second in Miami and I’ve only had a weekend to play with it, but I still think this deck is, as they say, the realest of deals. At the
very least you should respect the deck and have a plan to beat it.
It’s too early to tell exactly where it will fit into a metagame that reacts to it, but it has a lot of things going for it right now.
I think it’s a clear “play it” or “beat it” situation. So how do we beat it? What cards, decks, and strategies might excel against G/W Devotion?
Aggro Decks
Traditionally G/W decks have a natural advantage against other fast creature decks, especially aggressive red ones with burn. Green and white are the
colors of “Ox” and “Beast” and “Titanic.” They are the “brick wall” colors, and puny goblins don’t like cheap big butts being ramped onto the battlefield.
Going under G/W is not usually a winning strategy, but there’s some room for hope here.
Mono-Red
– Has at least decent game since it’s hyper-focused. There aren’t too many good cards with lifelink specifically or board sweepers for a swarm of goblins,
which is what Mono-Red is usually going to fear the most. G/W can take some time to get going without Elvish Mystic starts. Mastery of the Unseen, Genesis
Hydra, and even Whisperwood Elemental are all pretty slow. It’s games where you’re facing a turn 2 or 3 Courser of Kruphix or Polukranos, World Eater that
are going to be a struggle. I think you want to build the red decks as fast as possible with a bunch of burn. Dragons of Tarkir will provide some excellent
one-drops to do just that.
W/U Heroic
– It doesn’t seem unreasonable that you can build a large enough creature before G/W gets their engine going. Gods Willing won’t allow you sneak large
creatures past morphs, so Aqueous Form might come back in style.
Abzan Aggro
– Seems poorly positioned versus G/W Devotion, since it’s not as blisteringly fast and will stumble and get ground up in the midgame too often.
Jeskai
– Jeskai Ascendancy in particular seems like a great card here. It’s just a matter of figuring out which decks engine wins in a heads up fight, but it
seems like G/W will be more consistent at least. Aggressive versions with Mantis Riders and Stormbreath Dragons should also perform well since hasty fliers
are capable of taking down a G/W player before they start mastering themselves.
The Top 8 of GP Miami had five aggro decks, and two G/W Devotion met in the finals. That alone says bad things about the future of aggro decks against G/W,
although this might’ve been an outlier. Though it seems like there are some aggro strategies that have a chance, I would personally look elsewhere.
Combo Decks
They’ve fallen so far off the radar, it took me a while to even think of them. Jeskai Ascendancy Combo seems like an excellent way to absolutely crush G/W
Devotion if that’s what you’re in the market for. Altar of the Brood doesn’t care how much life you’ve gained. Although I don’t think Jeskai Ascendancy
Combo is well-positioned against the Pre-G/W Devotion metagame, at the very least it is a failsafe if nothing else works.
Midrange Decks
This format is a chunky midrange soup. Not necessarily a bad tasting one but still soupy and midrangey nonetheless. This is what happens when you make the
sweepers cost five mana…
It is very difficult to beat G/W Devotion at its own game, and I think it is the ultimate midrange style deck in the format, even if it is a Devotion/Ramp
deck, definitions definitely start to blur with this format.
Say you want to build G/R Devotion that finishes with Crater’s Claws. Well you’re going to be incidentally stymied by the lifegain from Mastery of the
Unseen.
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon seems like it would be great at cleaning up a slowish herd of green creatures, except it just so happens that the Whisperwood
Elemental and Mastery of the Unseen are great against it. In fact, most planeswalkers and creatures are completely outclassed and obsolete in the face of
Whisperwood Elemental and Mastery of the Unseen.
Elspeth, Sun’s Champion matches up very poorly since it costs more than Whisperwood Elemental and can’t profitably minus without just dying to a morph. The
soldiers Elspeth makes are smaller than morphs, and while they might buy some time, they won’t keep up for long. It also doesn’t disrupt G/W’s mana
production engine, so a Mastery of the Unseen can keep on pumping out morphs left and right.
The planeswalkers we have available are incredibly outclassed by the devotion engine or would be best used to fuel the engine (like in the case of Xenagos,
the Reveler). Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver might have a shot at being decent against G/W, but we’ll get to that later.
Hornet Queen is outclassed. Whip of Erebos decks as they stand are going to struggle, since they just can’t make as many creatures or gain as much life as
G/W Devotion can. Even the mighty Siege Rhino is not efficient enough. Siege Rhino has been out-durdled. (In before Siege Rhino just ends up in these
Devotion decks anyways.)
I think the way to beat G/W Devotion is by going over or under. If you try and power straight through, you’re gonna have a bad time.
Control Decks
Going over the top of G/W Devotion and either dealing with all their threats or presenting game-ending ones will not be easy against a deck with Mastery of
the Unseen and Genesis Hydra. Abzan Control is definitely straddling the midrange/control fence, so it naturally struggles a little at dealing with the
mana threats G/W Devotion can pump out. While I don’t think it’s a great choice right now, for posterity, here’s where I’m at with Abzan Control in this
format.
Creatures (15)
Planeswalkers (1)
Lands (25)
Spells (19)
Since I feel Elspeth, Sun’s Champion has dropped in value, it’s getting replaced with Whisperwood Elemental. This is a change I’ve been slowly making for a
while and one I’m happy with. Whisperwood is essentially a “win the game by itself if left unchecked” card, which is perfect for a deck with a bunch of
removal and disruption. It also works surprisingly well when casting your own End Hostilities when you profit a couple morphs off of your Sylvan Caryatids.
Bile Blight is a card I’m not a fan of, especially right now since it doesn’t kill morphs. Drown in Sorrow, on the other hand, is a card I like very much
right now. It kills most things that Bile Blight does and is capable of much larger swings. It essentially single-handedly wins games against Mono-Red and
also sweeps up mana accelerants, Goblin Rabblemasters, and morphs alike. Although it’s a temporary solution to Mastery of the Unseen or Whisperwood
Elemental’s morphs, curing the symptoms and not the cause, it can buy you a lot of time.
Abzan Control has many of the same type of cards as G/W Devotion, along with black for removal, Thoughtseize, and Siege Rhino. The issue is that answers
aren’t good enough, you’re just diluting the Devotion engine side of the deck. Even if you do strip their hand with Thoughtseize and have some timely
removal, they can always just topdeck a Genesis Hydra.
Creatures (6)
Planeswalkers (6)
Lands (25)
Spells (23)
Sultai Charm seems great right now, since it kills almost every creature in G/W Devotion and Mastery of the Unseen. The best way to deal with Whisperwood
Elemental is to never let them see the end step. Ultimate Price being reprinted in Dragons of Tarkir should help in this regard as well.
Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver is the win condition of choice for me now, since the bigger walkers seem so weak against G/W Devotion. Stealing a Courser of
Kruphix or Whisperwood Elemental can give you an insurmountable lead. The investment for Ashiok is low, and Ashiok shines when green cards are doing well.
Creatures (2)
Lands (27)
Spells (31)
The hardest of hard control. Perilous Vault is where it’s at for dealing with G/W Devotion. There isn’t a speedy clock from G/W, so Vault can really shine
as one of the few cards that efficiently deals with every single threat.
This U/B Control list is more tap out style with fewer counters and more Drown in Sorrows. I’m not sure how it will fare against the entire format, but
it’s where I’d want to start to beat G/W Devotion specifically.
G/W Devotion does have some effective answers out of the board in the form of Nissa, Worldwaker, who conveniently dodges the brunt of Perilous Vault, as
well as Reclamation Sage, who can just blow up the Vault.
There is also room for a Red control deck with Anger of the Gods and even more so with Roast coming into the format.
Updating G/W Devotion
G/W Devotion also gets to improve. This was its debut tournament, so there is plenty of room for growth (although it’s hard to top getting first and second
at a big tournament).
How well is it going to withstand hate and bad matchups? I actually think it’s a pretty sturdy deck and there aren’t that many cards or strategies that
completely destroy it. With some tuning and improvements I could see it staying a top deck, if not the top deck, even despite some hate and new cards
entering the format with Dragons.
This is a potentially interesting and I believe unique situation where it appears that the best deck isn’t ridiculously broken but is very annoying to play
with and against logistically, especially mirror matches. Fortunately we should be able to make it so we have cards that can break the mirror open, which
should help speed things up a little. Here’s my current list.
Creatures (30)
- 4 Elvish Mystic
- 4 Polukranos, World Eater
- 4 Sylvan Caryatid
- 2 Fleecemane Lion
- 3 Voyaging Satyr
- 4 Courser of Kruphix
- 3 Genesis Hydra
- 1 Soul of Theros
- 4 Whisperwood Elemental
- 1 Temur Sabertooth
Lands (24)
Spells (6)
Nothing too special to see here, just some cards to help out the mirror.
The mirror is all about acquiring mana and dumping it into something. Once you have enough mana and a Polukranos, World Eater, you can start eating their
morphs and other creatures faster than they can make them. Throw in Temur Sabertooth and you can bounce Polukranos and repeat. Soul of Theros also acts as
a stalemate breaker by making it so you can just attack with everything and win.
Cards For Consideration:
Serves as a dual purpose anthem to break stalemates, or lifegain on a stick against Mono-Red.
Blow up all their creatures. Requires your own creatures of moderate size, which isn’t a guarantee after sideboard when removal gets brought in.
Niche cards that are likely inferior to other options. Sorry, Nylea. Call me?
Seems like a reasonable card to have access to, but probably not quite good enough for the cost.
Possibly the trumpiest trump in the mirror since it attacks on a different axis, but I’d probably rather be Souling.
Seems like a good card to have in play when you’re pumping out morphs or to unmorph off a manifest.
This seems like it makes the cut for sure. Being able to kill other Whisperwood Elementals or just slam out on turn 2 against Mono-Red seems like a big
deal. Good removal is hard to find in G/W, and this fits nicely.
Eternal Witness was a pretty good card. We already have the morph theme going, so why not throw a couple of these in? Being able to return a high impact
card like Genesis Hydra or Mastery of the Unseen seems like it he might see some play. It’s also possible this effect is really really good and it’s an
automatic four-of pushing out cards like Fleecemane Lion.
Closing
Ideally this isn’t the best deck for long because the mirror is dreadful. Keeping track of morphs, Courser lifegain, Mastery lifegain, combat math,
Polukranos math, Nykthos math, cards left in library, and physical space available.
The phrase “Slowly Being Roasted For All Eternity Trapped In The Fifth Circle Of Hell” is thrown around a lot these days, but it still just doesn’t do the
mirror match justice.
I kid, I kid (a little) and now that the deck is a known entity there are minds hard at work solving the mirror, so this issue shouldn’t be as much of a
problem. Hopefully it won’t be necessary to break out the double wide tables and make rounds 100 minutes long for Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir.
The fact that this deck appeared shows how deep and incredible the format is, even if the mirror happens to suck.
It would be an interesting situation where a deck was approaching ban worthiness in Standard because it was so annoying logistically. But before we let
loose Tasigur and his ban-ana, see what we can do to beat the deck, especially with a format change and Pro Tour coming to shake things up.
So what sick tech did I miss? What’s the best way to combat G/W Devotion or break open the mirror? What cards from Dragons of Tarkir will up-end the
metagame?