Red (And Black) Devotion!

Last time out
, a gauntlet was thrown down. An assertion was made that devotion decks just weren’t good any more. An assertion made by contributors to this very website,
in fact. It was a challenge begging to be answered, and I vowed so to do.

challenge

noun

1. a call or summons to engage in any contest, as of skill, strength, etc.

2. something that by its nature or character serves as a call to battle, contest, special effort, etc.

This is war, people. It won’t be easy, but it will be fun and we will, nay, we must prove that Nykthos is still good outside of
green decks. These claims are outrageous, and they shall not be forgotten! For our honor, our pride…let them eat their words!

Or, you know, just build a deck and play some Magic. Both are fine.

The Red Devotion list from my last article proved to be rather frustrating in testing. When you curve out, the deck is very powerful and capable of
chunking the opponent to zero out of nowhere. Despite not being an aggro deck on the face of it, games can and do end on turn 5 reasonably often. Other
games you get a decent opening hand, but one or two well-placed removal spells or a fast start that requires chump blocking can completely throw you off
your game. Lacking the mana generation of Green Devotion or the strong removal of Black Devotion certainly feels more reliant on both Nykthos and a lack of
disruption than the others do. Would the payoff be worth it?

Here’s the list I took to battle. I’ll explain the changes shortly.

Mono-Red Devotion

Chris Lansdell

Test deck on 03-18-2015

Standard

Creatures (29)

Planeswalkers (2)

2 Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

Lands (24)

Spells (5)

Sideboard

Changes

I know, I know. Nobody was sadder than me, but Prophetic Flamespeaker not only got cut from the maindeck, but it was the first cut. In a world of Coursers,
Caryatids, Bile Blights, and Lightning Strikes, a 1/3 just wasn’t cutting it. Sure, it had good synergy with Purphoros, but there were only two in the
deck. Against control, it does provide a must-kill threat that will provide inexorable card advantage, but otherwise it’s just not good enough. I did
consider Archetype of Aggression in this slot to take the sting off Siege Rhino while also improving Purphoros in combat, but I don’t think that upside is
any higher than Rabblemaster. Rabbledaddy is vulnerable to even more removal than Flamespeaker is, but it’s also an “I win” button in some situations and
has great synergy with Purphoros.

If you’ve been paying attention to Standard lately, you’ll have seen that Outpost Siege has all but replaced Chandra, Pyromaster in almost every red deck.
Strange though it may seem, a planeswalker is just easier to remove than an enchantment for some reason. I guess people are afraid to run Erase, Abzan
Advantage, Unravel the Aether, Back to Nature, Revoke Existence…regardless, it does a lot of the same work that Chandra did while not being susceptible
to maindeck removal like Hero’s Downfall. In the event you draw a second, it can actually be significantly better than the backup Chandra in hand. I won’t
pretend it didn’t kill me to slide those sweet, sweet SDCC promo Chandras into the board, but at least foil Outpost Sieges are beautiful too.

I added the black lands and sideboard splash for a couple of reasons. I really like dash against control, both in tandem with Purphoros and to avoid
sweepers. Kolaghan hits really hard on her own, and if you can ever combine her with Sarkhan or a Stormbreath Dragon, the beatdowns will be real
and delicious. Mogis is really hard for control decks to beat; most of them have two or three ways (at most) to remove it. In the meantime it just sits
there and dings them for two while also making it hard for Pearl Lake Ancient to ever be relevant.

Gameplay

Very early on the synergies in this deck became obvious, and I was very impressed by how well the deck fits together on curve. Flamewake Phoenix, Goblin
Rabblemaster and Ashcloud Phoenix all play very well with Purphoros, as does Mardu Scout on the occasions where it’s correct to dash him every turn. He’s
also really easy to turn into a creature, at which point the game generally ends pretty darn quick.

There are of course the more obvious synergies, like the one between Flamewake Phoenix and creatures with four power. Sadly there’s no way to stack your
triggers to make your Goblin Rabblemaster big enough to bring back Flamewake Phoenix, but every creature higher up the curve can return the bird.

The synergies aren’t even the best part. It wasn’t immediately obvious to me in either the building or planning stage, but this deck really does love the
flying mechanic. Not only that, but very few decks are equipped to repel aerial firepower of this magnitude. More than once while playing I joked that this
was a flying theme deck, a Phoenix theme deck, and a Dragon theme deck. I guess it’s all those things, but the word that best describes it is “explosive.”

One card that really overperformed for me was Hammer of Purphoros, possibly enough that a second copy should be in the 75 somewhere. Cards like Ashcloud
Phoenix and Goblin Rabblemaster are good already, but giving them haste takes them up a level. Well, not literally. This isn’t Zendikar. The only reason I
put Hammer in the deck to start with was to provide two devotion in a hard-to-remove way, but it more than earned its place. Along with Outpost Siege, it
also helped ensure I wasn’t completely dead money against control in game 1.

Against aggro decks you have a hard time, hence the Arc Lightning and Angers in the board. This is where we really miss Boros Reckoner and Frostburn Weird,
both of which did an admirable job of shoring up our defences early and allowing us to develop our board. I suppose I could have played Wall of Fire, but
even I have my depth limits. I’ve seen some of the more adventurous local players trying Circle of Flame, and I actually don’t hate that out of the board
against the ultra-frustrating R/W Aggro builds. It also stops Boss Sligh cold.

Against control you are heavily leaning on your sideboard plan. I’ve been siding out the Fanatics and Eidolons for Kolaghan, Mogis, Chandra, and the
Flamespeakers. While still far from favourable, this does turn the matchup into somewhat of a coin flip, and a strong draw really pressures them into
having the sweeper on turn 5. With any luck you untap and start the Dragon plan, and if you can bring back a couple of Flamewakes the next turn, you are
likely to win.

My own results with the deck have been tempered somewhat by an inability to avoid the hyper-aggro matchups. When I did play against midrange or green
devotion strategies I was able to win relatively easily, thanks in large part to Nykthos and Purphoros. Oh, and flying. That’s a heck of a mechanic kids.

Imagine Adding Dragons

Look, I’m sorry. I know you have seen that joke and variations on it a hundred times in the past couple of weeks. But I have to meet expectations here
folks, and if I didn’t make that joke there are people who would be disappointed.

I’ve heard people in Wizards R&D say before that the third set in a block often seeds some cards to work with the mechanics from the about-to-rotate
block. I don’t know if that will change with the new block design paradigm, but I do know that this set certainly seems designed to help out a lot of
rotating strategies, and devotion is near the top of that list.

The second Dragon Whisperer was spoiled, I had it preordered. We’re so starved for choice at the two-drop slot that it was going to be a consideration
regardless of abilities, but it has some very good ones both on an empty board and on one where Nykthos is putting in heavy effort. On turn 2 it gives you
a potent threat that starts you down the devotion road and makes sure you can use your mana every turn. It also means you don’t need to overcommit to the
board against control. Later in the game the third ability becomes a real threat. This plus Hammer plus Purphoros is eight power, and then the
dragon-making just gets silly.

If you give me the chance to add a dragon to any deck, I will probably take it. Thunderbreak Regent competes with Ashcloud Phoenix at the four slot, the
only question being whether the resilience of Ashcloud is better than the higher toughness and removal deterrent of the Regent. He may even replace
Sarkhan, lowering the curve a little. It all comes down to how relevant the ability is, which of course, requires testing. Not as much of a slam dunk as
Whisperer but definitely on my radar.

The final consideration is Berserkers’ Onslaught. Topping the curve with something that basically makes my entire team unbeatable in combat…okay, I can’t
keep that joke up any longer. I’m actually considering Commune with Lava over Chandra in the board. Although it won’t contribute to my devotion, Chandra
has been falling off greatly for me recently. Commune can be played at instant speed if you need to, possibly in response to an end of turn Dig Through
Time. Just because it has X in the cost doesn’t mean you have to max out on it, and having essentially 1.5 turns to enjoy the flow of cards makes
this a hot little number.

New Set Hype

For the next couple of articles I’ll be focusing on ideas inspired by Dragons of Tarkir. This set is an interesting one with a lot of cards that seem
incredible at first glance, but when you really sit down and try to brew with them you realize that they are more roar than bite. That’s not to say I don’t
have ideas, including a Modern combo deck and a chance to build around a powerful yet underused M15 rare.

Until then…brew on!