Green Devotion

 I know it's been a long time coming, but here it is. Today I'll be talking about devotion to Green, splashing Red. Here's the list I've been using and one that won the SCGO: Seattle.

9 Forest
4 Stomping Ground
4 Temple of Abandon
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
2 Mountain
4 Voyaging Satyr
4 Sylvan Caryatid
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
3 Scavenging Ooze
3 Polukranos, World Eater
3 Arbor Colossus
2 Nylea, God of the Hunt
1 Mistcutter Hydra
4 Garruk, Caller of Beasts
3 Domri Rade
2 Xenagos, the Reveler
SB: 1 Domri Rade
SB: 3 Mistcutter Hydra
SB: 1 Chandra, Pyromaster
SB: 3 Burning Earth
SB: 2 Wasteland Viper
SB: 2 Nylea's Disciple
SB: 3 Mizzium Mortars

 The deck works as a synergistic/combo strategy by having massive devotion to green and activating Nykthos to essentially cast everything in the deck. We have four outlets for the large amount of mana from Nykthos, those being Polukranos, World Eater's Monstrosity, and Mistcutter Hydra. The singleton in the mainboard is for that reason alone, being a highly efficient mana sink. Arbor Colossus is also included in the main to increase our devotion by 3, while being a massive beater.

 

 The deck has resilience to a lot of removal by running Domri Rade, and the very powerful Garruk, Caller of Beasts. Lead the Stampede every turn is quite hated and feared by control, or even removal-heavy midrange decks. Another card that gives reach post-wrath is Scavenging Ooze, eating up your own graveyard for life and value in the form of +1/+1 counters.

 Another quirk with this deck is Xenagos, the Reveler. His main role is to provide mana through his Gaea's Cradle-esque +1 ability, making massive mana, and allowing you to put out your hand in a single turn or two.  Xenagos also helps out against aggro strats by putting out 2/2 blockers, and their haste does work when trying to alpha strike an opponent. Some versions of this deck use Reverent Hunter, but it has been excluded from this list as it's a little too clunky, and doesn't do quite enough on it's own. In fact, it's an overkill card in the situations where it is useful, and when you topdeck it post-wrath, you have a rare Grey Ogre. Not really the best, and beaters and monsters are preferred more.

 The rest of the deck is quite straightforward, as is playing the deck. Voyaging Satyr untaps Nykthos, and ramps into your best creatures, all the while adding more dorks and threats to the board. It's a very aggressive midrange strategy with quick wins, and has some degenerate board positions at times.

 The sideboard is a little more interesting, and helps against a lot of matchups. Domri, Mistcutters, and Chandra help out against control, as Chandra's 0 is card advantage in red, quite useful, while Domri fills your hand while still increasing in loyalty, and Mistcutter's "cannot be countered" clause is quite strong in those matchups. Chandra also helps against RDW decks, killing their Firedrinker Satyrs. Mizzium Mortars helps out against Blood Baron of Vizkopa, who has become a veritable bane of the standard format as it stands now. Nylea's Disciple works wonders against RDW and quicker midrange decks, netting you a lot of life occasionally.

 Overall, what you have here is a big mana, resilient, card-advantage based midrange, and sideboarding gives you a lot of range against most of the other top decks in standard right now.

Well, that's it for today, and as always, have fun playing Magic!

Cheers,

Brick