Today’s Deck Tech features an archetype that I piloted a lot during Return to Ravnica/Theros Standard. Whilst not as prominent as Mono-Black or Mono-Blue, Mono-Red Devotion was still a powerful deck, both performing well and winning at my local FNM. Sadly, the days of chaining Burning-Tree Emissaries are behind us, but fast forward to today and the deck has recently had a surge of interest with the printing of Mardu Scout and Flamewake Phoenix in Fate Reforged, with many arguing this gives the deck enough ground to have a home in standard.

While this remains to be seen, it is an interesting strategy that is certainly worth testing, so without further-a-do, let’s bring it back!

Mono-Red Devotion

Mainboard

Creatures (28) 4x Eidolon of the Great Revel

4x Mardu Scout

4x Goblin Rabblemaster

4x Flamewake Phoenix

3x Ashcloud Phoenix

1x Purphoros, God of the Forge

4x Fanatic of Mogis

4x Stormbreath Dragon Other Spells (8) 3x Fated Conflagration

2x Crater’s Claw

3x Lightning Strike

Land (24) 21x Mountain

3x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx Sideboard 3x Anger of the Gods

2x Chandra, Pyromaster

2x Hammer of Purphoros

1x Lightning Strike

2x Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker

1x Shatter

4x Stoke the Flames

Deck Breakdown

These are the decks mandatory 2-drops. They are both here for the same purpose, to give us two devotion as early as possible. Eidolon of the Great Revel’s ability is unimportant in this strategy, but the way it interacts with the meta-game will strongly dictate how playable this deck becomes in the coming weeks. If decks like Jeskai Tokens stick around – decks with the majority of their cards costing three or less – then it’ll be great. If Abzan Midrange et. al become the most prominent decks in the field then Eidolon become significantly worse.

Mardu Scout and his ability are more interesting however. While this deck wants him to stay alive for as long a possible, he can still be an very aggressive creature if you have to change game plan or post side boarding. A 3/1 with haste for two mana can be scary, even if you have to cast it from your hand each time. Both of these creatures have their strengths and weakness’ and the state of the meta-game will determine how good these creatures are and whether the deck is viable at a competitive level.

Goblin Rabblemaster might be a bit of a odd fit in a devotion deck, but because he can still singlehandedly take over games, without any interaction, he is still an auto-include in most red decks.

Flamewake Phoenix is the other new card from Fate Reforged which is resulting in Mono-Red Devotion looking more promising. While not as outwardly powerful as Goblin Rabblemaster, providing a flying 2/2 body with two devotion that can be recurred from the graveyard by many of the creatures in the deck makes it very good. A lot of comparison has been drawn between this and Chandra’s Phoenix. The similarities are definitely there and regardless of which one is ‘better’, Chandra’s Phoenix was good during it’s run in Standard and I expect Flamewake Phoenix shall be as well.

The second phoenix of the deck, Ashcloud Phoenix, is another resilient, flying body with two devotion that can also trigger ferocious on it’s baby brother. The one toughness is negligible as flipping this back for 4RR will be very achievable in this deck. It also curves nicely into Sotrmbreath Dragon for 8 power in the air.

These are the card which utilise all of the devotion that the creatures creates. Fanatic of Mogis is the core of the deck and where the strategy originates from. He will most likely be able to hit for anywhere between 3-5 damage is played on curve. After that it could be even more. He can also be used to trigger ferocious on Flamewake Phoenix when he attacks.

Purphoros, God of the Forge is an addition to the deck that provides an answer should pushing through damage become difficult. He synergises well with Goblin Rabblemaster, making sure that your token generation does some damage while also creating a pump effect which, with the right amount of devotion, could seriously add up.

Stormbreath Dragon fulfils three functions in this deck: two devotion, a top end finisher and a mana-sink. The current meta-game is a good place for the dragon as well which will hopefully continue into the coming weeks. His monstrous ability is the main reason why he is used over Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker though. Seven mana is very achieve and in a world of Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time, this can become very painful for the opponent.

Crater’s Claw gives the deck it’s best mana sink. It’s one of your best late game top decks and, with ferocious tagged on, can help close out games before your opponents can stabilise.

Because of the commitment to mono-red, the deck’s removal options are fairly slim. Lightning Strike is great at killing an opposing Fleecemane Lion, Goblin Rabblemaster, Monastery Mentor, Sidisi, Brood Tyrant etc. Whereas Fated Conflagration is red’s best answer to cards like Siege Rhino and Sorin, Solemn Visitor and Elspeth, Sun’s Champion. The lack of Convoke – in comparison with Stoke the Flames – is awkward, but dealing that extra point of damage will prove critical in situations with the cards mentioned previously.

Sideboard Breakdown

The deck runs a transformational sideboard. Anticipating the removal people will likely bring in in order to turn off your devotion, cards such as Eidolon of the great Revel and Goblin Rabblemaster can be removed for more resilient threats/devotion enablers like Chandra, Pyromaster, Hammer of Purphoros and Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker, creating a more ‘Big-Red’ style midrange deck.

Anger of the Gods, Lightning Strike and Stoke the Flames round off the creature removal, which can be adjusted in game two to fight the deck you’re playing against. With the later two, the deck can take on a more burn orientated theme, cutting cards like Fanatic of Mogis for Stoke the Flames against removal heavy, control decks where you need to be faster.

Finally, the one copy of Shatter is for Whip of Erebos. The deck can obviously struggle against lifelink, especially when combined with efficient removal in post-board games which can keep the devotion low, so an extra answer to these situation could make a big difference. This might turn out to be a mistake, but for the mean time I want to keep it in and see how it performs.

Honourable Mentions

Originally when I played Mono-Red Devotion last season, I was a big fan of playing 1-drops in the deck. It gave the option in game one of being very aggressive and still counting towards the total devotion. These days however I don’t believe the they are worth running. Monastery Swiftspear is the best one mana, red creature in Standard and sadly the prowess abilities doesn’t fit into this deck well at all. Firedrinker Satyr might be okay as an early mana sink, however it isn’t worth running one creature at this cost, to make the aggressive curve consistent you would need at least two and there isn’t another one at the moment with enough upsides.

These were the creatures that fought Goblin Rabblemaster and Flamewake Phoenix for the 3-drop slots that also provided to devotion. While Archetype of Aggression does give all the 4-power creatures trample and Prophetic Flamespeaker can provide card advantage, nether of them can compare to the ‘need to answer’ mentality that Rabblemaster has earned, nor are they as resilliant to removal as the phoenix. For these reasons they didn’t make the cut.

Soul of Shandalar is a card that would make sense in a deck like this. A decent mana sink with an ability that isn’t terrible, even if he dies. Perhaps as time goes on it will make it into the deck, but for now the comparison between him and Stormbreath Dragon as the best late-game threat is enough to keep him out of this build.

Conclusion

So that’s the analysis for the post Fate Reforged Mono-Red Devotion deck. The numbers may need tweaking slightly and the sideboard may need some work, but with the addition of Mardu Scout and Flamewake Phoenix to Standard, the strategy will hopefully see some competitive play and from there the deck list can be adjusted appropriately. I am personally looking forward to trying the deck out at FNM to see how it fairs.

What do you you about Mono-Red moving forward? Do you think any devotion strategies will improve with the cards from Fate Reforged or will Standard still be a world of 3-colour decks? Also, how would you go about building Mono-Red devotion? As I said before, this list is not set in stone and it would be good to get people’s opinion on how to build around it. Leave your comments and deck lists in the comment section below.

You can play the deck on Tapped Out here.