The word is out! Monsters have taken over Theros, and our standard format. Some monsters are black, such as Desecration Demon. Others may be red, like Stormbreath Dragon. Green however, gives us huge, powerful beings, such as Polukranos, World Eater or Arbor Colossus. These monsters have many appearances in the top charts of both MTGO and in paper magic as well. Devotion is very important in Theros standard, and can sometimes mean life or death against others who believe their devotion might be higher. At first I didn't embrace the devotion, and at the beginning of the new standard went to Patrick Chapin's B/W Midrange deck from Pro Tour Theros. While the deck was powerful, and it landed me 7th at an invitational qualifier, I finally saw the light after getting pummeled by multiple devotion decks at GP Louisville. It was time for me to get devoted.

At the time, I glanced at a few different devotion decks. The one that stuck out to me most was the G/R Devotion deck that I had been consistently losing to. I lost to it in the top 8 of that IQ. A few losses from GP Louisville also could be blamed on the very devoted deck. I looked at the list, and two things stopped me from wanting to play it. First, my Wallet. (Jokes Aside) And second was experience. I liked the deck, but it didn't have the finish I wanted. I decided I wanted to try to find a different deck, in hopes that I could beat the thorn in my side of Theros standard.

My personal circumstances sometimes keep me from paper magic, so I play a lot online. I like to brew random, and sometimes bad decks to play with. As I looked for a new competitive deck that I could settle on, I had a standard pillow fort deck built revolving around Sphere of Safety,Assemble the Legion and Strionic Resonator. It worked pretty well, but obviously wasn't too competitive. The turning point for me was a match against a Mono Blue devotion deck. I had him stalled with triple Sphere of Safety and about 3 other enchantments. He couldn't attack me. I was pretty sure he wasn't going to win. I passed priority to end my turn, and he activates his Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx for 9 mana. Overloaded Cyclonic Rift. Normally I would have cursed under my breath and taken the beating. But I looked at that wonderful Instant and knew I wanted to play a deck with that in it. A user on Tumblr had suggested a build, so with a little work and a lot of tweaking, I finally had a deck I could call ready.

Monsters Inc. Other Spells

3 Garruk, Caller of Beasts

3 Cyclonic Rift

6 cards



Creatures

4 Arbor Colossus

2 Nylea, God of the Hunt

4 Polukranos, World Eater

4 Sylvan Caryatid

3 Voyaging Satyr

4 Burning-Tree Emissary

4 Elvish Mystic

2 Prime Speaker Zegana

3 Reverent Hunter

30 cards Lands

4 Breeding Pool

4 Temple of Mystery

4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

12 Forest

24 cards



Deck Tech:

I'm hoping the deck tech helped answer a few questions you could have had. The most important thing in this deck is to have a high devotion count. Powering up Reverent Hunter off Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is very important for the mid to late game. The more devotion you have, the bigger your creatures are as a threat. I'd like to play around with cards like Prophet of Kruphix a little bit, and I'm not entirely sure if Witchstalker would be better mainboard. I said something in the deck tech about needing a three drop spot. The reason I felt this way was because more often than not I would feel that I could cast a three drop at certain points, or would like to curve off that way more often than going from two drops to four drops. Ever since making that change the deck has been running more consistently.

Now for the gameplay videos. I didn't record with audio commentary, but I did leave notes in important areas.

Monsters Inc. VS White Weenies

Monsters Inc. vs Dega Pyromancer

These are just a few of the videos I posted with this deck. I'm still testing it and tweaking it every day, so if you want to see more you can always check my youtube channel here. I recently changed it but I'll be posting a few games a week.

Sideboarding Suggestions:

2x Witchstalker

2x Pithing Needle

2x Bow of Nylea

4x Mistcutter Hydra

3x Nylea's Disciple

2x Fade into Antiquity

Here's what I have for my sideboard right now. Not sure if it is the final sideboard version, but I like these cards for tons of reasons. If you happen to know of better cards go ahead and use them! I rarely use a sideboard anyway since I like my mainboard so much. Now, I do have some suggestions versus specific matchups.

Aggro / Mono Red / RW Devotion

This is usually not too bad of a matchup for us. Really we just need to keep our life total high enough to get our huge monsters out, because most of the time they have to 2 or 3 for one just to kill it, and then you can just play another. The best mainboard cards in this matchup are Polukranos, and Arbor Colossus for that exact reason. The key to this matchup is not to be hyper fast, but to stall out using the 1-3 drops in the deck to block and trade for theirs, and then slamming bigger guys down, ones they can barely get past. Sideboarding for this matchup is usually fairly easy. Games are almost never drawn out, so usually I'd trade in Nylea's Disciple for lifegain, and lower our curve by taking out the Garruk's. Coupled with a high devotion, these disciples are going to gain you just enough life to survive. I also like to side in Witchstalker for this matchup as well, because since they can't Lightning Strike it, it serves as a really good blocker.

-3 Garruk, Caller of Beasts, -1 Arbor Colossus, -1 Prime Speaker Zegana, +3 Nylea's Disciple, +2 Witchstalker

Control / Esper

Mistcutter Hydra and Pithing Needle are sided in for these matchups. Uncounterable, and very hasty. Enough mana can be a 2-3 turn clock. Pithing needle is for their Jaces and Elspeths, and if it's a very enchantment heavy deck you might consider Fade into Antiquity. Bow is also good in this matchup if they are very mill focused.

+2 Pithing Needle, +3 Mistcutter Hydra, (Depending on the deck would depend on what I'd take out.)

Mono Blue

The key cards to side in here are Mistcutter Hydra and Fade into Antiquity. Fade is for Thassa, which can be the largest issue in this matchup. Hydra servers almost every roll it possibly could. In a pinch, it can be a blocker. With tons of mana, it can be a threatening force. The only answers Blue has against Hydra is overloading rift, or blocking with Mutavault. So usually this isnt too hard of a matchup for us, despite Tidebinder Mage.

+3 Mistcutter Hydra, +2 Fade into Antiquity, -2 Garruk, Caller of Beasts, -1 Cyclonic Rift, -2 Reverent Hunter

Mono Black

We are usually a lot faster than mono black, so the key is to flood the board as quickly as possible. They'll have removal, but the key is to keep putting down dudes for them to kill until they have no more removal. Pithing Needle and Fade into Antiquity could come in, for Underworld Connections or Erebos.

+2 Witchstalker, +2 Pithing Needle, -3 Reverent Hunter, -1 Polukranos, World Eater

Well it's time to wrap things up. Hopefully you'll give the deck a try, and enjoy it as much as I have been lately. It seriously is a lot of fun. If there’s any suggestions you might have, or changes you'd make don't be afraid to leave me comments! Stay tuned for more from me, as I delve into other decks, and subjects!

kriskurse@gmail.com

@kriskurse

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