Strange Strixhaven Bulk Rare Gives Dead Devotion Deck New Life!

Over the past week, the talk of the town amongst Constructed players has been the recent ban announcement. Banning Violent Outburst Violent Outburst Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn. created some shifts within the Modern metagame. Even though Cascade decks are far from dead, players had to turn to other replacements, such as Ardent Plea Ardent Plea Exalted (Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
Cascade (When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.) . With less Cascade decks to worry about on average, Yawgmoth, Thran Physician Yawgmoth, Thran Physician Protection from Humans
Pay 1 life, Sacrifice another creature: Put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature and draw a card.
{B}{B}, Discard a card: Proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.) combo decks have been performing extremely well.

Meanwhile, in Vintage, Ponder Ponder Look at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order. You may shuffle.
Draw a card. was unrestricted. This doesn’t appear to have created major change in the format, but decks like Doomsday Doomsday Search your library and graveyard for five cards and exile the rest. Put the chosen cards on top of your library in any order. You lose half your life, rounded up. combo have become more consistent as a result. The biggest part of the ban announcement that had many players up in arms, though, was the fact that no changes were made in Pioneer or Legacy. Treasure Cruise Treasure Cruise Delve (Each card you exile from your graveyard while casting this spell pays for {1}.)
Draw three cards. and Grief Grief Menace
When this creature enters, target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
Evoke—Exile a black card from your hand. have been absolutely dominant in Pioneer and Legacy, respectively.

In Pioneer, with no changes being made, it was tough to believe that many decks outside of maybe Abzan Amalia Benavides Aguirre Amalia Benavides Aguirre Ward—Pay 3 life.
Whenever you gain life, Amalia Benavides Aguirre explores. Then destroy all other creatures if its power is exactly 20. (To have this creature explore, reveal the top card of your library. Put that card into your hand if it's a land. Otherwise, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature, then put the card back or put it into your graveyard.) combo, Lotus Field Lotus Field Hexproof
This land enters tapped.
When this land enters, sacrifice two lands.
{T}: Add three mana of any one color. combo, Izzet Phoenix, or Rakdos Vampires could perform super well in this hostile environment. As it turns out, one archetype had a bit of a surprising breakout performance: mono-green Devotion.

When 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. was around, mono-green was everywhere. Since then, the deck has suffered quite a bit. However, with a recent top 16 finish in a Magic Online Pioneer Challenge, perhaps we shouldn’t be overlooking this shell as much as we have been.

The Usual Suspects

The majority of the cards featured in this deck overlap with the core of the old mono-green Devotion shell. First and foremost, the deck wouldn’t be complete without Elvish Mystic Elvish Mystic {T}: Add {G}. and Llanowar Elves. These premier one-drop accelerants make it easy to play your cards ahead of schedule. It’s very common to cast Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner Whenever a creature you control with power 4 or greater enters, draw a card.
−1: Untap target permanent. or 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, setting up for a big follow-up.

Old-Growth Troll and 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.) are solid threats that put a lot of pressure on the opponent right off the bat. However, they do much more than just that. With Kiora in play, your burly three-drops become cantrips as well. With access to 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.) , these three-drops immediately add three Devotion to help you cast big spells. In games where you play Troll or Polukranos turn two after playing an Elf turn one, your opponent now has to fear 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. coming down the following turn thanks to Nykthos.

Part of what makes this green deck a pain is that removal isn’t exactly super effective against Troll or Cavalier. If you kill Troll, it becomes an Enchantment that not only ramps your opponent further, but adds three Devotion for Nykthos all the same. Cavalier is a monster that helps dig you towards Nykthos, and if you kill it, your opponent gets to make sure their next draw is a good one.

Additionally, Cavalier can mill copies of 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.) , which is the ultimate Devotion payoff. Getting to put two potent cards into play is already good, but the fact that it has Flashback makes it incredible. Sure, it costs ten mana to Flashback, but this is surprisingly easy with Nykthos in the mix.

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Where Things Differ

Where things get interesting is with the inclusion of Garnled Professor in the typical Karn slot. In old Devotion lists, Karn provided the deck with an infinite combo utilizing 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. , the flip side 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. , and looping Planeswalkers. With enough Devotion and multiple copies of Karn and Kiora between the battlefield and the graveyard, you could gain infinite life with via the flip side of Pestilent Cauldron. From there, the front side of Cauldron provided a way to deck your opponent, making winning trivial.

While this combo was a bit convoluted, it meant that the mono-green deck didn’t have to worry about winning via traditional combat. Karn also provided a lot of utility in different spots, letting you tutor for various cards depending on the situation and matchup. Without Karn, this deck turns to another intriguing toolbox-style card: Gnarled Professor.

Gnarled Professor is a big Creature in its own right, but its real power comes from its Learn ability. If you have a decent amount of Devotion, you can grab Mascot Exhibition Mascot Exhibition Create a 2/1 white and black Inkling creature token with flying, a 3/2 red and white Spirit creature token, and a 4/4 blue and red Elemental creature token. and flood the board, preparing to win the game the following turn. Otherwise, you could grab Environmental Sciences Environmental Sciences Search your library for a basic land card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. You gain 2 life. to help hit your Land drops, or cheaper pieces of interaction, like Containment Breach Containment Breach Destroy target artifact or enchantment. If its mana value is 2 or less, create a 1/1 black and green Pest creature token with "When this token dies, you gain 1 life." or Introduction to Annihilation Introduction to Annihilation Exile target nonland permanent. Its controller draws a card. .

While certainly weaker, Gnarled Professor helps provide a similar mix of options as well as a mana sink that could be used as a win condition. Unlike Karn, Gnarled Professor only requires a few sideboard slots to be utilized. As such, this deck uses playsets of Damping Sphere Damping Sphere If a land is tapped for two or more mana, it produces {C} instead of any other type and amount.
Each spell a player casts costs {1} more to cast for each other spell that player has cast this turn. and Scavenging Ooze Scavenging Ooze {G}: Exile target card from a graveyard. If it was a creature card, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature and you gain 1 life. to provide some relief against Izzet Phoenix and Lotus Field combo.

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Strengths and Weaknesses

Between the size of the Creatures this deck plays and the value cards like Professor and Cavalier can generate, this deck has a decent gameplan against Izzet Phoenix. Azorius control, despite having access to counter magic, can struggle against the deck’s massive mana advantage if even a single payoff resolves. Midrange decks have historically struggled against value-oriented beaters like Troll and Cavalier, so adding Professor to the party has its benefits.

The main issue with this strategy is how poorly its position is against combo decks. Damping Sphere is obviously strong against Lotus Field, but the matchup can be tough without it. Not being able to combo yourself with Karn or grab The Stone Brain The Stone Brain {2}, {T}, Exile The Stone Brain: Choose a card name. Search target opponent's graveyard, hand, and library for up to four cards with that name and exile them. That player shuffles, then draws a card for each card exiled from their hand this way. Activate only as a sorcery. to help cheese combo matchups is a big deal.

Speaking of which, the Abzan Amalia matchup is awful. This deck plays little interaction, and now having to rely on Creature combat against the deck’s life gain package means that your clock isn’t generally fast enough.

Also, while the midrange matchups are favorable, Rakdos midrange in particular is much less popular nowadays. This is largely due to the rise of Rakdos Vampires. Rakdos Vampires can present a Vein Ripper Vein Ripper Flying
Ward—Sacrifice a creature.
Whenever a creature dies, target opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life. on turn three, which can be extremely hard for the Devotion deck to beat. In this sense, mono-green has pretty polarizing matchups in the current Pioneer metagame. If you’re a fan of this style of deck and don’t expect a ton of Amalia combo, mono-green Devotion is a reasonable choice, but it’s important to acknowledge its limitations.

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