Hey, what’s up, everyone! Corey Baumeister here, and today I’m going to tell you everything I know about my favorite deck in Pioneer, Golgari Devotion.
Now, Golgari Devotion is not revolutionizing Pioneer by any means, as a lot of the card choices you are going to see spill over into what Mono-Green Devotion is already doing. The main difference or benefit we get by adding black is dealing with some otherwise troublesome creatures while having a sweet new Karn, the Great Creator target that can take over the game when paired with Vraska, Golgari Queen!
I’ll also go over every Karn choice in the sideboard and when to use those cards. You will even get something that you will never get with traditional Mono-Green Devotion deck primer, a sideboard guide, as this deck actually sideboards cards.
The List
Let’s take a look at the list!
Creatures (16)
Planeswalkers (11)
Lands (21)
Spells (12)
Card Options
I messed around with a ton of different versions of this deck, but in the end I wanted to stick with the traditional Mono-Green Devotion cards, mixed with the power of black for removal spells.
Another card that I was very close to including in high numbers was Lovestruck Beast. Not only is it generically powerful, it works very well with Vraska by giving you another permanent to sacrifice with the +2 ability. It is also great against Brave the Elements out of Mono-White Aggro, a tough matchup even with the black removal spells. In the end, the lack of explosiveness you get from Lovestruck Beast and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx was too noticeable, so I ended up landing back at four copies of Old-Growth Troll, even though I think that card is just okay with all the exile removal spells available in the format.
Meet the Queen
Let’s talk a bit more about Vraska, Golgari Queen, as it’s the most important addition to this already powerful shell. The #1 reason to play the deck is the interaction between Vraska and Ugin’s Nexus out of the sideboard. Mono-Green Devotion needs a ton of mana + a high devotion count + having another Karn, the Great Creator + Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner in the graveyard to fully combo off and win on the spot by milling your opponent to death. Vraska leads to a lot more combos from much lower levels of resources. If you have Vraska and Karn on the battlefield and five mana available, you win the game. You must always highlight that in your brain when you play this deck. There are some situations where you don’t win on the spot with that, but those situations are very rare.
How Does the Combo Work, Anyway?
What you do is Karn for Ugin’s Nexus, cast it, and sacrifice it to Vraska. That puts Ugin’s Nexus into exile, where we will be picking it up on our first extra turn. Now you are able to attack with any creatures that could get in some points of damage before we untap and take our first extra turn.
During our first extra turn, think to yourself, “What can I do this turn while still leaving five mana up to eventually -2 Karn for the Ugin’s Nexus to cast it and sacrifice it to Vraska once again?”
- If you have enough mana to use The Chain Veil a few times, then they are actually dead, as you can tick Karn up to 4, then downtick for Ugin’s Nexus, and then the following turn, -2 for Pestilent Cauldron to return Karn and Ugin’s Nexus and establish a loop where you will be taking all the turns until Vraska can ultimate and you can attack and connect with a creature.
- If you even have one extra Karn in hand, that is game as well as you can legend-rule, and when you are out of Karn activations, you just get Pestilent Cauldron and return two Karns or a Karn and Ugin’s Nexus and establish that loop until Vraska ultimates.
- You can also win the game by just attacking with your creatures the turn after you take an extra turn. Always keep in mind how much power you have. You might just be able to untap and animate a Lair of the Hydra and get in there for lethal on your first extra turn. That is a little complicated, but it is much easier to accomplish than comboing off with Pestilent Cauldron.
Most of the time, when you take the first extra turn, your opponent will just pack it in, as it’s usually too much to overcome.
More Vraska Fun
Vraska also has some other fun synergies with its +2 ability. These are a bit more on the “cute” side than the extremely powerful side like with Ugin’s Nexus. My favorite is sacrificing Oath of Nissa or Nykthos, Shrine of Nyx before you cast another copy of those legends. You can also sacrifice Old-Growth Troll to net yourself one mana if you really needed a push to cast Storm the Festival or some other powerful spell. Vraska unfortunately doesn’t work the way we want it to with Cavalier of Thorns, as you draw the card before you put something on top with its exile ability.
Vraska does all these awesome things for the deck, but we can’t forget what the most important aspect of the card is, and that is killing something the turn it enters the battlefield. The -2 ability is great against the biggest three matchups in the metagame right now, Izzet Phoenix, Mono-Green Devotion, and Rakdos Midrange. Being able to kill Ledger Shredder or Thing in the Ice while still leaving a permanent they have to deal with on the battlefield is great. Being able to kill Kiora or Elves from Mono-Green is huge at slowing down your opponent in the mirror. Last but not least, killing Misery’s Shadow is very important, as that card is quite good against us. If Rakdos doesn’t play that card, Vraska is just okay against them, but we are favored in that matchup already.
Did you get all that on Vraska?! There will be a test at the end of the article! [Copy Editor’s Note: That’s a sideboard guide, not a test.]
That may be a bit of information overload on one card in a deck, but it is that important and the reason to be playing this deck over traditional Mono-Green Devotion.
The Sideboard Situation
Now let’s talk about the sideboard and all the applications/reasons to search for each of these Karn targets. Let’s start with the most important one!
- Pestilent Cauldron is the backbone of the Karn targets, searched up when you are either comboing off or desperate for life. This card can either return Karn and Kiora to gain both a mana advantage and card advantage, or you can get Karn and Vraska to get Ugin’s Nexus to start comboing off. Any way you slice it, when you get this card, you are probably winning the game.
- Treasure Vault is a really nice one. I’ll often cast Karn and go get this land right away when I don’t have the fifth land for Cavalier of Thorns. You can also turn this land into black mana to mill your opponent out with Pestilent Cauldron if you are in a pinch and need to win that turn without access to black mana.
- Tormod’s Crypt is not that great of a card, but it comes up against Greasefang and Izzet Phoenix. Half the time you will Karn aggressively in those matchups just to get this Crypt and stop your opponent from bringing back Parhelion II or a bunch of Arclight Phoenixes, or stop them from taking extra turns with Temporal Trespass.
- Haywire Mite is insane! This might be the card I get the most these days. Not only is it great at dealing with important artifacts and enchantments, it’s also an option if I only have one free mana and need another blocker. That comes up a solid amount of time against White Aggro, since it plays around Brave the Elements a decent amount.
- Pithing Needle is really for planeswalkers only. Teferi, Hero of Dominaria has to be my most popular target, but I have named Karn, the Great Creator in the mirror when I am behind on the battlefield.
- Damping Sphere is a very important tool against any combo deck, especially Lotus Field combo. It straight colds their deck, as it turns Lotus Field into a one-colorless-producing land. I have also brought it in against Phoenix to control their turns when I was ahead on the battlefield and in the Green Devotion mirrors when I need to stop them from winning the next turn with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Be aware this effect is universal, so make sure you think out both of its abilities before you deploy it.
- The Stone Brain hasn’t impressed me, but I’m not quite ready to cut it yet. It’s good against Lotus Field and the mirror if you are already ahead on the battlefield and cast Karn with four mana left over.
- The Chain Veil is a big one that you should make sure you are super-familiar with, as it’s the second or third most important card in the sideboard. One good key I always have in my head is if I have Karn, Kiora, and Nykthos on the battlefield, I should always be thinking about The Chain Veil. If you have ten mana available before you cast that card, you can cast it, activate it, untap Nykthos with Kiora, and activate it all in the same turn. Ten is your magic number here.
- The next-level play with The Chain Veil if you have much more mana than that is to cast the Chain Veil, activate it, and untap The Chain Veil with Kiora. You repeat that process until you only have two mana at the minimum in your pool, and then you start untapping Nykthos over and over until you have enough mana and planeswalker activations to win the game via Ugin’s Nexus or Pestilent Cauldron. This is the most complicated card in the sideboard, so make sure you think out your lines, because you could be leaving some value on the table if you don’t maximize it.
- Skysovereign, Consul Flagship is probably my most popular get with Karn. Since it is a five-drop, it curves perfectly right after you cast a Karn. You can even Karn on Turns 4 and 5 for Treasure Vault and Skysovereign if you don’t already have the fifth land. From that point on, do what a boat does best and start cruising!
- Ugin’s Nexus I went into detail on earlier in the article, but pairing up with Vraska is the only thing I have ever used that card for. Even so, it’s still one of my most popular Karn targets in this deck.
- Cityscape Leveler had me skeptical because it costs eight when Meteor Golem only costs seven and effectively does the same thing. Still, I have had quite a few games where this card just takes over, or it being a cast trigger has been important in the face of a counterspell.
Honorable mentions would be Shadowspear and Circuit Mender. Shadowspear is great at catching up against fast decks like red or white, but against those decks, they kill all of our creatures on sight, and if they don’t, they are just dead, so I cut that one. The one aspect of that card that I do miss is bringing it in against Sheoldred to race the ability of the card and allow Old-Growth Trolls to attack into it.
Circuit Mender is not a very good card, but it has come in handy just because it cost three mana, and we don’t have a ton of good Karn targets that are four or less that actually hit the battlefield. That being said, the card just isn’t good enough. If I weren’t playing black cards in the sideboard, I would have both of those cards in the sideboard.
Sideboard Guide
This is going to be a pretty easy guide, as we only ever bring in four cards, but the list is still worth spelling out.
Rakdos
No changes.
Mono-Green Devotion
Out:
In:
Izzet Phoenix
Out:
In:
If you are on the draw and you see many copies of Ledger Shredder and Thing in the Ice, consider bringing in two Abrupt Decays for two Wolfwillow Havens.
Mono-White Humans
Out:
In:
Azorius Control
No changes.
Abzan Greasefang
Out:
In:
Gruul Midrange
No changes.
Lotus Field Combo
No changes.
Four-Color Fires
No changes.
Bant Spirits, Mono-Blue Spirits, and Selesnya Angels
Out:
In:
Mono-Red Aggro
Out:
In:
Thank you so much for reading. Have fun taking all the turns with Golgari Devotion!
