Back in December of last year, an enormous ban announcement shook up the Constructed world. Some formats saw minor nerfs to top-tier archetypes. For example, the banning of
Monastery Swiftspear
Monastery Swiftspear
Haste
Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
in Pauper did not stop mono-red aggro from being an elite deck choice. However, Pioneer saw a pretty massive metagame shift following the implementation of the bans.
Geological Appraiser
Geological Appraiser
When this creature enters, if you cast it, discover 3. (Exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card with mana value 3 or less. Cast it without paying its mana cost or put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom in a random order.)
getting the axe forced players to adapt, but
Quintorius Kand
Quintorius Kand
Whenever you cast a spell from exile, Quintorius Kand deals 2 damage to each opponent and you gain 2 life.
+1: Create a 3/2 red and white Spirit creature token.
−3: Discover 4.
−6: Exile any number of target cards from your graveyard. Add {R} for each card exiled this way. You may play those cards this turn.
combo is still a perfectly reasonable option in Pioneer. Mono-green Devotion, on the other hand, fell off the face of the Earth. As good as
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
{T}: Add {C}.
{2}, {T}: Choose a color. Add an amount of mana of that color equal to your devotion to that color. (Your devotion to a color is the number of mana symbols of that color in the mana costs of permanents you control.)
is as a card,
Karn, the Great Creator
Karn, the Great Creator
Activated abilities of artifacts your opponents control can't be activated.
+1: Until your next turn, up to one target noncreature artifact becomes an artifact creature with power and toughness each equal to its mana value.
−2: You may reveal an artifact card you own from outside the game or choose a face-up artifact card you own in exile. Put that card into your hand.
brought such a unique angle of attack. Beyond being an elite value engine, the card’s presence was responsible for a neat infinite combo in conjunction with
Pestilent Cauldron
Pestilent Cauldron
{T}, Discard a card: Create a 1/1 black and green Pest creature token with "When this token dies, you gain 1 life."
{1}, {T}: Each opponent mills cards equal to the amount of life you gained this turn.
{4}, {T}: Exile four target cards from a single graveyard. Draw a card.
out of the sideboard.
Since Karn’s banning, the deck has been forced to play a lot fairer and win through Creature combat, making many matchups worse. The deck lay dormant for the most part for nearly five months, but this weekend, it saw a resurgence. Mono-green Devotion won a Magic Online Pioneer Challenge, with two more copies in the top 16. Notably, all three decklists featured a playset of a severely underrated Thunder Junction powerhouse. Let’s dig deeper into the deck’s core gameplan to see how this card contributes to its recent success.
Building Up Devotion
On its surface, this deck functions like a ramp deck. Both
Llanowar Elves
Llanowar Elves
{T}: Add {G}.
and
Elvish Mystic
Elvish Mystic
{T}: Add {G}.
give this strategy a significant speed boost, allowing you to play a potent three-drop on turn two.
Wolfwillow Haven
Wolfwillow Haven
Enchant land
Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, its controller adds an additional {G}.
{4}{G}, Sacrifice this Aura: Create a 2/2 green Wolf creature token. Activate only during your turn.
is a nice two-mana ramp element that pairs quite nicely with
Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
Whenever a creature you control with power 4 or greater enters, draw a card.
−1: Untap target permanent.
. However, the real star of the show is Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.
Nykthos has the ability to tap for seemingly limitless amounts of mana, and enabling it isn’t that tricky. A common play pattern is to cast
Old-Growth Troll
Old-Growth Troll
Trample
When Old-Growth Troll dies, if it was a creature, return it to the battlefield. It's an Aura enchantment with enchant Forest you control and "Enchanted Forest has '{T}: Add {G}{G}' and '{1}, {T}, Sacrifice this land: Create a tapped 4/4 green Troll Warrior creature token with trample.'"
on turn two off an Elf. Now, a follow-up Nykthos already taps for extra mana.
Things can get really out of hand if you start the game with
Leyline of the Guildpact
Leyline of the Guildpact
If this card is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield.
Each nonland permanent you control is all colors.
Lands you control are every basic land type in addition to their other types.
. Leyline makes an appearance for one reason only: to fuel Devotion. While narrow, adding four Devotion at once is incredible, and leads to some busted nut draws.
Imagine starting with Leyline, then playing turn one Elf and turn two Nykthos. You have access to five mana on turn two, which you can increase even more by playing
Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
Whenever a creature you control with power 4 or greater enters, draw a card.
−1: Untap target permanent.
and untapping Nykthos. Any payoff, and you’re off to the races.
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Top-End
Karn may be out of the picture, so this deck relies a bit more heavily on the other two pieces of top-end that have been a crucial part of the deck for a while:
Cavalier of Thorns
Cavalier of Thorns
Reach
When this creature enters, reveal the top five cards of your library. Put a land card from among them onto the battlefield and the rest into your graveyard.
When this creature dies, you may exile it. If you do, put another target card from your graveyard on top of your library.
and
Storm the Festival
Storm the Festival
Look at the top five cards of your library. You may put up to two permanent cards with mana value 5 or less from among them onto the battlefield. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Flashback {7}{G}{G}{G} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
. Cavalier is a massive threat that does everything you want. It’s a great blocker. It digs for Nykthos, potentially milling Storm the Festival to Flashback along the way.
Even if the opponent kills it, you get to put the best card you milled on top of your deck, which could be another Cavalier. Thanks to the busted Leyline of the Guildpact start described above, it’s possible to play Cavalier turn two, which many decks will be unable to beat.
From there, Storm the Festival acts as the primary closer. Obviously, you have the potential to high roll off of Storm and hit two copies of Cavalier. However, with enough Devotion, the card is absolutely cracked. It’s not uncommon in the late game to cast Storm with mana floating off Nykthos, find Kiora to untap Nykthos, and Flashback Storm the Festival in the same turn. Kiora’s card-drawing ability comes in handy, too, making sure you don’t run out of gas.
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Adding Outcaster Trailblazer to the Mix
Up to this point, even with access to all of the cards above, mono-green Devotion had faltered. Part of the problem is that, with Karn gone, closing games wasn’t always easy. The deck is naturally filled with a lot of air, especially with Leyline taking up slots. If you didn’t draw Storm the Festival, you’d risk having nothing to spend all of your Devotion mana on. Even casting Storm only digs five cards deep for action, and without Karn, you’re much more likely to brick on something impactful. If either Cavalier or Storm got countered, you could be in rough shape.
Fortunately, Outcaster Trailblazer is here to save the day. Outcaster Trailblazer does a lot of different things for the deck at all stages of the game. First, it’s a strong card to Plot with three mana, greatly increasing your chances of playing Cavalier turn three. Plotting Trailblazer turn two off a turn one Elf lets you follow up by playing a Land and Trailblazer for free, netting a mana, and slamming Cavalier.
Second, just like Kiora, Trailblazer draws you card when Creatures with power four or greater enter. Troll, Cavalier, and extra copies of Trailblazer all keep the cards flowing. In attrition battles, it’s often worth Plotting Trailblazer with the intention of casting Trailblazer and another four-power Creature on the same turn. Of note, unlike Kiora, Trailblazer isn’t legendary, so it works extremely well in multiples.
As such, Trailblazer’s presence makes Storm the Festival much more powerful. Storming into Trolls or other copies of Trailblazer can draw you a bunch of cards. In some cases, the mana Trailblazer provides can be super relevant, too. For instance, if you cast Storm with one mana floating, hitting Trailblazer alongside another Nykthos lets you add a bunch more mana and chain spells together.
Between Trailblazer, Kiora, and Storm, you will see a large portion of your deck in the late game. Eventually, if you find
Ulvenwald Oddity
Ulvenwald Oddity
Trample, haste
{5}{G}{G}: Transform this creature.
, you can transform it and attack with a huge, Hasty, Trampling army. Oddity isn’t a huge piece of the puzzle, but letting you build a board and attack in the same turn can be necessary against
Sunfall
Sunfall
Exile all creatures. Incubate X, where X is the number of creatures exiled this way. (Create an Incubator token with X +1/+1 counters on it and "{2}: Transform this token." It transforms into a 0/0 Phyrexian artifact creature.)
and the like.
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Strengths and Weaknesses
Overall, Trailblazer has given this deck new life. Against decks like mono-black
Waste Not
Waste Not
Whenever an opponent discards a creature card, create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token.
Whenever an opponent discards a land card, add {B}{B}.
Whenever an opponent discards a noncreature, nonland card, draw a card.
, getting to recoup some card advantage is critical. When facing control, Plotting it can allow you to cast multiple impactful spells on a later turn, making it more likely you can stick a threat through counter magic. Versus aggro where the card is definitely weakest, it still sets up Cavalier nicely, which is a beating for small Creature decks to get through. Troll and Cavalier have historically been excellent against removal-heavy decks and aggressive strategies, and not much has changed there.
Where things remain dicey is against fast combo decks. Decks like Abzan Amalia combo can largely ignore your board presence. With minimal pressure or interaction, mono-green simply has very little recourse in the matchup.
Fortunately, your matchups against other top tier archetypes are decent. Izzet Phoenix’s damage-based removal isn’t ideal against your beefy threats.
Vein Ripper
Vein Ripper
Flying
Ward—Sacrifice a creature.
Whenever a creature dies, target opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.
can be scary out of Rakdos Vampires, but without it, you are well set up to grind through anything else. Trailblazer’s role can truly not be overstated, and Devotion’s performance last weekend cannot be denied. Make sure to keep this archetype on your radar, as it has a lot going for it.
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