Two Leylines Unite to Help Revive Dead MTG Archetype!

Since the ban of 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. in Pioneer, it’s safe to say that mono-green Devotion has faltered. Despite putting up occasional results, the 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.) 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.) core has been significantly weakened in the format.

When 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. was first spoiled, there was some hype around its ability to singlehandedly fuel Nykthos. Its presence even offers players the potential to cast 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. on turn two. However, this strategy was a bit inconsistent, and the payoff for assembling a boatload of mana just wasn’t the same without Karn in the mix.

Interestingly, though, the combination of Leyline and Nykthos has been getting some buzz in Modern. A unique take on mono-green Devotion put up a solid performance this weekend in a Magic Online Modern Challenge, making use of some potent upgrades that aren’t legal in Pioneer. Despite the power discrepancy between Pioneer and Modern, the emergence of this shell in Modern shows just how strong Leyline, Nykthos, and Karn are together.

Classic Devotion Elements

All things considered, this deck doesn’t actually stray too far from the traditional elements of the Pioneer Devotion decks of old. Kicking things off, we have the one-mana accelerants. Instead of Llanowar Elves Llanowar Elves {T}: Add {G}. and Elvish Mystic Elvish Mystic {T}: Add {G}. , we see Utopia Sprawl Utopia Sprawl Enchant Forest
As this Aura enters, choose a color.
Whenever enchanted Forest is tapped for mana, its controller adds an additional one mana of the chosen color. , Delighted Halfling Delighted Halfling {T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a legendary spell, and that spell can't be countered. , and Ignoble Hierarch Ignoble Hierarch Exalted (Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
{T}: Add {B}, {R}, or {G}. fill this role. While these are minor upgrades, they still accomplish the same goal of adding an early ramp element to the board.

We also see very similar win conditions available in the Modern version. Both 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.) act as excellent pieces of top-end to accelerate into. These cards also synergize quite nicely together. Cavalier is a great card to hit off of Storm the Festival, and Cavalier can mill copies of Storm to Flashback later. Even with a hefty Flashback cost of ten mana, Nykthos does a ton of heavy lifting.

Read More: Thunder Junction Two-Card Draft Death Combo Discovered!

Karn Package

Of course, the major mana sink this deck makes use of once you have Nykthos going is Karn, the Great Creator. Karn is an excellent card when you have a lot of mana to work with. Grabbing Cityscape Leveler Cityscape Leveler Trample
When you cast this spell and whenever this creature attacks, destroy up to one target nonland permanent. Its controller creates a tapped Powerstone token.
Unearth {8} or Sundering Titan Sundering Titan When this creature enters or leaves the battlefield, choose a land of each basic land type, then destroy those lands. can spell doom for the opponent. With a big enough Devotion count, however, you can actually combo-kill your opponents thanks to the existence of 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. in the sideboard.

The combo revolves around a few key cards: Nykthos (with a high Devotion count), two copies of Karn between the battlefield and graveyard, and two copies of Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner between the graveyard and the battlefield. First, you start by grabbing The Chain Veil The Chain Veil At the beginning of your end step, if you didn't activate a loyalty ability of a planeswalker this turn, you lose 2 life.
{4}, {T}: For each planeswalker you control, you may activate one of its loyalty abilities once this turn as though none of its loyalty abilities have been activated this turn. from your sideboard with Karn and untapping Nykthos with Kiora to float a bunch of mana. Then, activate The Chain Veil, letting you float even more mana and grab Pestilent Cauldron with Karn.

From there, you can utilize the back side of Pestilent Cauldron, Restorative Burst Restorative Burst {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. , to grab copies of Kiora and Karn from your graveyard, while gaining four life as a bonus. Use your floating mana to cast Karn and Kiora (make sure to keep the newly played copies via legend rule). You can use Kiora to untap Nykthos and Karn to grab Pestilent Cauldron from exile once again.

Keep casting Restorative Outburst, looping copies of Karn and Kiora between the graveyard and battlefield. You will end up with infinite life and infinite mana in the process. Eventually, you can cast the front side of Pestilent Cauldron and use it to mill the opponent’s whole deck!

What’s nice about Karn is that it is powerful in a wide range of matchups. Having access to the combo is great, as you won’t need to enter combat at all to win. In some matchups, getting to grab hate pieces like Cursed Totem Cursed Totem Activated abilities of creatures can't be activated. against Golgari Yawgmoth or Ensnaring Bridge Ensnaring Bridge Creatures with power greater than the number of cards in your hand can't attack. against Hammer Time can be backbreaking. The combination of power and versatility makes Karn an elite finisher.

Read More: New MTG Thunder Junction Equipment Showcases Surprising Versatility

Uniqueness of the Modern Shell

Where the Modern version of this archetype differentiates itself from traditional Pioneer variants is with the lack of three-drops. Part of what made the Pioneer deck so scary was the ability to slam 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.'" or Polukranos Reborn Polukranos Reborn Reach
{6}{W/P}: Transform Polukranos Reborn. Activate only as a sorcery. ({W/P} can be paid with either {W} or 2 life.) on turn two. This alone was rather problematic for midrange decks of the format to deal with.

In Modern, neither of those cards make an appearance. Only two copies of Kiora can be found as well. At first glance, this might seem a bit strange, but it makes a lot of sense when the existence of Leyline of the Guildpact and Leyline of Abundance are factored into the equation. Leyline of the Guildpact provides an easy path to generate four Devotion for Nykthos.

If you begin the game with Leyline of the Guildpact, playing either Sunken Citadel or a mana dork turn one and Nykthos on turn two will enable you to play a four-drop. Even without Nykthos, Leyline of Abundance and a turn one mana dork can get you to four mana on turn two.

As such, this deck is more focused on powering out Karn and The One Ring The One Ring Indestructible
When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
{T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring. ahead of schedule instead of Old-Growth Troll or Polukranos. You’ll also find a playset of Scion of Draco Scion of Draco Domain — This spell costs {2} less to cast for each basic land type among lands you control.
Flying
Each creature you control has vigilance if it's white, hexproof if it's blue, lifelink if it's black, first strike if it's red, and trample if it's green. here to further maximize Leyline of the Guildpact. The most important three-drop this deck plays is Archdruid’s Charm to help make sure you have consistent access to Nykthos.

Read More: MTG Designer Confirms New Battle Cards Are Coming Soon… Ish

Competing in a High-Powered Environment

The biggest downside to playing this deck in Modern is having to contend with potentially busted starts from the opponent. At the end of the day, this deck is still mono-green, meaning its interaction is limited. With the full Karn tutor package, you also don’t have room to play playsets of cards like Force of Vigor or Endurance to help swing some otherwise poor matchups. With this in mind, a turn one Grief+ Ephemerate Ephemerate Exile target creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control.
Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.) from Esper Goryo’s or a turn one Amulet of Vigor out of Amulet Titan can be too much to overcome right off the bat.

Luckily, this deck can have some explosive starts of its own. We all know the power of Leyline of the Guildpact and Scion of Draco by now, but Leyline+Nykthos is an amazing combination in its own right. Any slower deck or strategy that relies on Creature-based combat likely matches up poorly against Cavalier and Storm the Festival, and getting to slam Karn or The One Ring turn two is certainly strong. Given the deck’s lack of interaction, you are more reliant on these quick starts, so make sure to mulligan aggressively.

At the very least, it’s cool to see strong cards like Nykthos and Karn still get respect, even if it’s in a different environment. This isn’t the most competitive shell, and if you expect a lot of fast combo decks, I’d recommend looking elsewhere. Nonetheless, there are certainly metagames where this deck will shine. For mono-green Devotion fans who have become discouraged in Pioneer and want to break out Karn and Pestilent Cauldron once more, definitely give this deck a chance.

Read More: Powerful Vampires Core Makes Big Splash in Alternative Format!