[Deck] Bx Devotion

Yawgmoth
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Post by Yawgmoth » 4 years ago

This is the thread to discuss the Bx Devotion archetype in Modern.

Yawgmoth
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Post by Yawgmoth » 4 years ago

Mono-Black Devotion (MBD) is a fringe modern deck which has emerged over the past 6 years since the introduction of devotion mechanic in Theros. The deck will occasionally post respectable results but has yet to really break out.

There have been a number of good articles about the archetype as well as an old thread on salvation which offer insight into the development of the archetype. I will link this below. I see no point in ignoring the work of others before me and do not claim to have any ownership in the development of this archetype. I welcome any input from others.

I find mono-black Devotion immensely fun. I think that this deck has a lot of potential to grow and recent additions to modern may offer just the tools it needs to become viable in a competitive setting.

This thread has two aims:

1. Distill the contents of existing sources into a primer outlining the card choices that make up the core of the deck and the basic game plan.
2. Open up the discussion here on the Nexus into further refining the deck.


Gameplan: Play lots of permanents with high devotion to black.

I have purposefully chosen to build around mono-black devotion for two reasons. First, devotion benefits from committing to a single color. While some people have tried splashing in a second color, primarily for artifact/enchantment removal, I feel like this detracts from our goal of getting the highest devotion to black as fast as possible. Second, I think that a couple of recently printed cards make splashing a second color unnecessary now.

Once we have high devotion to black we ramp into large amounts of black mana using Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and cast either a large black creatures like Phyrexian Obliterator for cheap and/or cast Gray Merchant of Asphodel (affectionately known as Gary). Gary either wins on the spot for us if our devotion is high enough or creates a large enough gap between our and our opponent's life to allow us to win by grinding out the game in a ground war or second Gary. Lots of incremental lifegain and a recurring board presence allows us to drag games out against faster decks until we can turn the corner.

A few notes on what makes this build different from its predecessors.

My twist on this deck adds Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and tries to use the card to its fullest. I personally think this card has untapped potential in modern and mono black devotion seems like the perfect place for him (for both strategic and fluff reasons).

I've seen a number of MBD lists that don't run any one drops. I think this is a mistake.

I also include an alternate win condition based on Yawgmoth's interaction with the Undying mechanic. While initially aiming for a meme-ey infinite loop playing around with this combo led me to an interesting deck which differs from previous MBD builds. Yawgmoth + 2x Geralf's Messengers creates an infinite loop wherein you drain your opponent's life by paying your own.

However, this is super risky and relatively difficult to assemble so I decided to make a few changes. Enter Zulaport Cutthroat. This little dude rewards you for sacrificing your own creatures. This works wonders with both Yawgmoth and Carrion Feeder. With Yawgmoth in play you can draw cards, give out -1/-1 counters, and drain your opponent's life as long as you have sacrifice victims. With Feeder out you can drain your opponent's life while growing Feeder as long as you have sacrifice targets.

While the infinite combo is fun if it happens, it is not one of the win conditions we are actively working towards. Instead, the various pieces of the combo actually work very well with the devotion strategy. Thus, playing around with these pieces led me to include Gravecrawler and Relentless Dead which give me recurring sacrifice targets for Feeder and Yawgmoth.

The list: Mono-Black Devotion

Card choices:

Creatures:

Carrion Feeder
A new addition to the format. Carion feeder can grow big very quickly.

Gravecrawler
Carion Feeder's best friend. If you have Feeder out you can cast Gravecrawler and sacrifice him to Feeder as many times as you have black mana. We often have lots of surplus black mana from Nykthos and this little loop gives us an outlet for when we don't have something bigger like Obliterator or Gary on hand.

Relentless Dead
Adds to our devotion. Another possible recurring sacrifice target for Feeder although more expensive. However, his ability to resurrect zombies, Gray Merchant in particular, is why he makes the list.

Zulaport Cutthroat
Rewards you and punishes your opponent each time you sacrifice a creature. We make use of lots of creature sacrifice so Cutthroat ends up doing a lot of work for us. He's one of the only creatures we include that does not maximize our devotion but his interaction with Yawgmoth and Feeder is worth it. His incremental life gain helps to offset some of our other things which cost us life.

Geralf's Messenger
My least favorite of the bunch, comes in tapped but adds 3 to our devotion. Activating Nykthos for a net gain requires at least 4 devotion to black and Geralf's Messenger helps in that endeavor. His ETB life drain is nice particularly when paired with undying and the resurrection ability of Relentless Dead.

Phyrexian Obliterator
Adds a ton to our devotion. Is a great defender and attacker. This big baddie doesn't see a lot of play in modern due to his restrictive casting cost. In this deck his casting cost is a non issue and we actually get rewarded in the form of 4 devotion which can be spent to either bring in more Obliterators or help cast a Grey Merchant.

Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Lord of Phyrexia, black mana incarnate. The perfectly flavorful addition to MBD curtesy of Modern Horizons. Yawgmoth lets us trade surplus life for card draw and -1/-1 counters to pick off enemy blockers our problem creatures. His proliferate ability is also handy when combined with ratchet bomb or blast zone to remove artifacts and enchantments as needed.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel
A central part of the deck and one of the primary win conditions. While holding on to Gary for an extra turn can win the game on the spot, I often find that this is a mistake. Modern is a fast format and a lot can change if you give your opponent another turn. Sometimes a non-lethal Gary can give you the breathing room that you need to set up a comfortable win.

Other spells:

Thoughtseize
Entire guides have been written about Thoughtseize, this isn't one of them. Basically it's easier to remove a threat from your opponent's hand then their board. Knowledge of their hand I also a plus.

Collective Brutality
All of its modes can be useful and having options is always good.

Phyexian Arena
Card advantage in exchange for a little life. Considering the lifegain that we have access to, this is a great trade off. Also adds 2 to our devotion. When games go long and hands start running low it's really nice to be drawing 2 cards per turn.

Lands:

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Gives us black mana for our devotion. Until your devotion hits 4 this card is not doing anything so hitting that point ASAP is our top priority. In fact, because most of our creatures require black mana, having Nykthos with low devotion can actually be a problem. This is why we run Urborg. Drawing multiple Shrines feels bad but tapping one for 10+ mana feels great. Always run four.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
Makes our inactive Shrines and Blast Zones into swamps so that we don't miss casting creatures turns 1-3 for a lack of black mana. This is critical to reach the magical 4 devotion to black by ASAP. It's legendary, I run two.

Blast Zone
Gives us access to permanent removal (ie artifact, enchantment, or planeswalker) which is otherwise impossible in mono-black. Yawgmoth can help tick up the charge counters count so that you don't have to wait a turn before setting off the bomb.

Snow-covered swamp
Could just as easily be a normal swamp but I like Dead of Winter for crowd control in the sideboard.

Sideboard:

I'm not fully committed to some of these sideboard picks, would love input.

Fulminator Mage
Blows up non-basic lands, handy against big mana decks.

Plague Engineer
Anti-tribal. Pretty self-explanatory.

Bitterblossom
I love this card. Here it gives us fodder for sacrifices and flying blockers in case our opponent has flyers.

Ratchet Bomb
Additional artifact/enchantment removal. Like Blast Zone, Yawgmoth's proliferate ability is relevant to Ratchet Bomb in allowing us to bomb things quickly.

Dead of Winter
Good for dealing with swarms.

Dismember
Great way to use excess life. Straightforward creature removal.

Leyline of the Void
Shuts down graveyard-dependent strategies (dredge or Urza Thopter). Also adds to our devotion.

Whip of Erebos
Brings back Gary for another ETB life drain. The lifelink is also helpful if you need to drag things out.


Ive seen a number of other (older) lists run the following creatures. I left them out to make room for Yawgmoth and the other creatures that work well with him like Zulaport Cutthroat. Because Gravecrawler and Relentless Dead care about zombies I dropped all of the non-zombies I could. However I can see the merit in running them so they are worth considering. I like Bloodghast in particular as a recurring sacrifice target (I've also considered Nether Spirit for the task). There's no good reason for excluding Fatal Push, I should probably fit it in. I really don't like playing planeswalkers so I'm not super motivated to shell out the $$$ to play Liliana but this could also be a good choice for those who are so inclined.

Honorable mention: Articles about MBD: I highly recommend reading these other articles on the deck if you are interested, they certainly inspired me while crafting my current incarnation of the deck.

https://www.channelfireball.com/videos/ ... -devotion/

https://www.channelfireball.com/article ... on-modern/

https://www.flipsidegaming.com/blogs/ma ... -in-modern

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/14-01-17 ... -devotion/

https://blog.cardsphere.com/mono-b-devotion/

http://www.mtgadept.com/articles/2017/3 ... -deck-tech

http://www.starcitygames.com/articles/3 ... Combo.html

Relating to the Yawgmoth combo

https://www.channelfireball.com/article ... commander/

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The Fluff
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Post by The Fluff » 4 years ago

perhaps the new castle locthwain could be used as a single? It provides card draw when things become grindy.
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Yawgmoth
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Post by Yawgmoth » 4 years ago

The Fluff wrote:
4 years ago
perhaps the new castle locthwain could be used as a single? It provides card draw when things become grindy.
I could see dropping 1-2 Yawgmoth to accommodate this. Gives you card draw turn 4 but on a land rather than a creature body. I'm not sure it's better than Phyrexian arena which also adds devotion but I was never super happy with 4x Yawgmoth.

Yawgmoth
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Post by Yawgmoth » 4 years ago

With this week's b&r looks like Yawgmoth may finally get his day in the sun (or whatever the Phyrexian equivalent of a sun is).

It looks like the deck lists which are going around are Black/Green to take advantage of the tutors, 1 mana persist wolf, and mana dorks that green offers. These variants go all in on the persist combo. This may be better than a mono black version but I plan on sticking with my list (although my interest is definitely renewed so I'll likely make some changes). One change I made since writing the primer was to add in 2 Liliana, the Last Hope to really help get that zombie train going.

The advantages of mono black is the insane amounts of mana that you can generate with Nykthos and bb creatures. Additionally, monoblack can hard cast Phyrexian Obliterator which is loads of fun for obvious reasons. Finally, you can get a fair bit of zombie tribal synergy with cards like Relentless Dead, Gravecrawler, and Carrion Feeder (see primer above).

I have primarily deck tested against Urza Thopter and E Tron and this deck can definitely hold its own against these two. I'm encouraged now to try it out against a broader field at my LGS FNM.

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