Sometimes life gets in the way. I had planned on recording videos for this article shortly after the prelims happened, but I was kinda mad at myself. I had talked myself into play Brad Nelson's build of Naya Control, but decided against it at the last minute because I had streamed earlier in the day with a Black Green deck. I went 5-0 in the stream and was dominating. None of the games were even close! I thought there would be tons of devotion decks in the field for the MOCS prelims, and I knew I had the weapon to beat them into submission. I went 0-2. I leant a copy of the Naya Control deck to one of my friends and he promptly went 5-1 to qualify for the MOCS that crashed over the weekend. Of course, I was very happy for my friend, I love it when they are playing well, and getting rewarded for it.

A part of me was licking my wounds and angry. I had put in so much time trying to solve the format that I thought I would play against. I figured there would be Mono Black Devotion decks in droves, and I think I was right. I also thought Mono Blue Devotion would be heavily played, so I set my sights on the two most popular decks at the time and went to work. I wanted a deck that would stop both of them in their tracks. A deck that would make the removal of the Mono Black deck dead draws, and a deck that would be able to control the devotion of the mono blue deck. I browsed the daily event results for a while, and it dawned on me. Multicolored creatures made Ultimate Price an awful draw. Black creatures made Doom Blade a wasted draw. Hexproof creatures made Hero's Downfall a tragic top deck. Regenerators made the targeted removal very mediocre. Of course coupling these creatures with cheap efficient removal helped to make sure that Mono Blue would not get huge Master of Waves into play against me, or turn on Thassa, God of the Sea. Add in some disruption with Thoughtseize and I was really on to something!

I thought I was on to something at least. Success in the two man queues did not translate to same thing in the prelims, as I was taken to task in the two rounds I played by Mono Black Devotion. I could have stayed in to may grind out the 4-2 and get a foil Scrubland (By the way, Scrubland is the perfect land for a player like me!) but I was upset and decided to not force it. If you're not having fun than what is the point in playing? Dejectedly, I dropped from the event, thinking that I wasted my time, and went about looking at other formats. I'm not grinding qps this season, and I guess no one is really grinding qps for the foreseeable future.



While I missed out on the qualification for the MOCS during my prelim run, the deck has played pretty well for me since then. It's set up really good against Mono Blue Devotion, Mono Black Devotion and the Mono Red decks of the format. It's pretty good against UW and Esper, but like any deck if the game goes super long the GB deck is probably not winning. It's not great against Naya Control, but we're gonna have some bad matchups somewhere since we've devoted a ton or resources to be better against the other decks. It's also not great against Red Green. Their threats are just as big as ours, they have more planeswalkers for card advantage and the deck is fast when it wants to be!



Anyways, we should take a look at the deck I am talking about, and after that we should watch a video deck tech for it!

Deck Tech





I hope that the deck tech answered any questions that you may have had about the decklist. Believe me I understand that seeing Deathrite Shaman in Standard list is kind of shocking, but he really does hold his weight in so many matchups. We're not looking to ramp into our threats, as I believe with this deck hitting a turn four Reaper is not that different from a turn three Reaper. (Yes I understand that increases our clock.) I just think the fundamental turn of this deck is turn three. That's when we want to start holding the ground with our Witchstalkers or mangle faces with our Dreg Manglers. I can see the point in wanting to accelerate into the bigger cards, and I will test Elvish Mystic a bit more just to see if those three slots are being used properly.



Anyways, let's lool at some matchups, and then some sideboarding guidelines. I recorded these videos before the great Daily Event Shutdown of 2013. I'm gonna miss you Daily Events, get well soon! The fifth round was created because I wanted to have five game play videos with the deck.



Round One



Round Two



Round Three



Round Four



Round Five





Sideboarding Guidelines



I rely on mtgo-stats.com for metagame information. With that said I'll be offering sideboarding guidelines for a select group of decks usually the top 5 or 6 played. Let's kick this section off.



Against Mono Blue Devotion.



Often times this fish deck can flood the board with their creatures. You have to control devotion because nothing is worse than that taking five unblockable damage from Thassa. When you are worried about the devotion make sure you focus on Nightveil Specter above all else. The three Blue in its cost makes turning Thassa on easy. After that worry about Tidebinder Mage. Sure you have hexproof guys, but getting your Mangler locked down is pretty sad. Frostburn Weird is the next one, and while Sir Mix A-lot may have enjoyed the massive derriere, but butts are not a thing 3/3s enjoy. Of course Abrupt Decay answers a ton of these guys. Save your Downfalls for Jace and Master of Waves (though Golgari Charm is pretty amazing against the Master as well.) and this matchup while tense in the early game, can be easily won in the late game.



In: 4 Mistcutter Hydra 2 Pithing Needle

Out: 4 Desecration Demon 2 Golgari Charm



In theory Demon is just not enough of a threat. They sac a guy, and you never get to attack with him and they beat you while Demons Run, err while Demons Tap. Mistcutter Hydra is a good replacement for the demon. It is a good early game threat, and a great late game finisher. Pithing Needle does so much against Mono Blue, it stops Jace, Thassa (Not the scry ability) Frostburn Weird, Mutavault. While it may mainly be there for Jace and Thassa it really does a pretty good job in the slots it takes.



Against Mono Black Devotion.



The deck was built to take this menace on. That's why there are so many gold cards in the deck. Can't Ultimate Price or Doom Blade them. It leaves their removal outs as Hero's Downfall. That's not a ton of outs. Golgari Charm in the main shines here. They hit turn two back rat? Charm with the -1/-1 mode. They get an early Underworld Connections? Charm deals with that. Trying to downfall a non regenerator? Meh, really depends on what the board looks like. Charm is there mainly to deal with Ratty Connections. You still want to control devotion against this deck, as Gray Merchant is a beating if he is draining for you a ton. Remember you put the enters the battlefield ability on the stack, and kill something to lessen the blow. Mono Black and the BG are pretty close to be the same deck. We both have tons of removal, good creatures, and disruption, I just feel we're set up better because we have answers to most of their stuff, while they flail about with deck Ultimate Prices and Doom Blades hanging out in their hand.



In 2 Underworld Connections 2 Pithing Needle 2 Duress

Out 4 Desecration Demon 2 Golgari Charm



You can bring in Whip if you want to, I do every so often because the lifelink is sometimes useful, but since we are losing four creatures it's kinda hard to justify it. Pithing Needle names Pack Rat first, as an unanswered Pack Rat ends the game quickly. Then it typically names swamp. It names Swamp because that's the land Underworld Connections is on. Do not name Underworld Connections. Pithing Needle on Connections are like the goggles, they do nothing. Speaking of Connections, make sure you get a connection on a non swamp land. Don't shut down your own connections!



Against Mono Red Aggro.



This matchup is a race, if they flood the board you're probably going to die quickly. If you have an early Lotleth Troll do not be afraid to discard creatures to it. A giant regenerating threat makes life hard for them. Demon is good here because it acts as a removal spell. You're overloaded on great removal that hits most of their men, just again be careful because a Fanatic of Mogis can be deadly.



In: 2 Whip of Erebos 2 Lifebane Zombie

Out: 2 Vraska 2 Golgari Charm (unless they are running the version of mono red with a bunch of x/1s.) If they are take out 2 Thoughtseize.



Lifebane is another blocker, and sometimes takes a Boros Reckoner. Whip gets us much needed life against the aggro deck.



Against UW or Esper Control.



If the game goes long and they cast multiple Jaces or Revelations you're not winning. Charm is great here. It helps against Supreme Verdict and Detention Sphere Ultimate Price is not really great here



In 2 Duress 2 Underworld Connections 2 Pithing Needle 2 Lifebane Zombie (If they are playing Blood Baron, if not ignore this) 4 Mistcutter Hydra

Out 4 Desecration Demon, 2 Ultimate Price 3 Dreg Mangler 2 Abrupt Decay



Mistcutter comes in for Demons. They are immune to their charms and Spheres. Pithing Needle names Jace and Elspeth in that order with Aetherling coming into third. Our Downfalls should be saved for the planeswalkers. Duress takes Revelations. We kept in threats that are good against verdict. Shaman really gets a chance to shine here.



I'm ready to put a wrap on this article, I hope you enjoyed the videos and the sideboarding advice, if you have anything that you would do differently please let me know in the comments!



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