Mono Red Devotion

[The Crow's Eye]

Figure of Destiny and Kargan Dragonlord make me want to give this a shot here.

4 Boggart Ram-Gang
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Kargan Dragonlord
4 Figure of Destiny


4 Lightning Bolt
4 Flame Javelin
4 Koth of the Hammer

4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
12 Mountain


Eidolon seems like it could be good in modern. Aether Vial lets me build devotion and get around the damage from Eidolon. Kargan and Figure are your Nykthos targets. Not sure if I need Fanatic of Mogis or not. I am willing to go into Rg; seems like Domri Rade and Xenagos would be great for this deck. Thoughts? Dipping into Rb, I could add Thoughtseize to get some measure of protection, plus Terminate. I feel BTE might be the weak link in this build, as she mostly just lets me cast another BTE or get a Nykthos activation. I could remove her for Fanatic of Mogis or Boggart Ram-Gang, maybe. My SB will def include Vexing Shusher.

[Phoenix Ignition]

I got blown out by a mono-red devotion deck recently. I think it had a better lineup of cards (and I'm not a fan of Aether Vial at all in this list, there's just no reason for it when you're pumping mana out with nykthos already).

It ran some Fanatic of Mogis and Koth of the Hammer. Koth is irreplaceable, it's just too good to play in a mono-red deck in case you play against a deck that can handle your wave of creatures. Fanatic could stay or leave, I'm not a huge fan but it is good at what it does. Boggart-ram gang is actually pretty good, I'd play them but not at the expense of BTEs. BTEs are just too good with Nykthos and pump creatures. I don't think you need to go black or green splash, Eidolon is really all you need against combo/tron.

[The Crow's Eye]

I could cut Ash Zealot for Boggart Ram-Gang. What do you suggest in place of AEther Vial? Something like Banefire or Bonfire of the Damned to take advantage of Nykthos? Out of curiosity Phoenix, what kind of deck were you running? I know aggressive little decks are sort of up the creek in Modern; does this build look midrangey enough to survive>

[Phoenix Ignition]

I was playing BG midrange and seeing a basic mountain made me play as if I was against a burn deck, which really threw me off the first game. But Abrupt Decay, Inquisitions, and BG's normal answers aren't good against big stuff and can't disrupt enough to stop an overrunning of creatures (2/2 first strike is really powerful early on).

For your build I'd try out:
-4 Stormbreath Dragon (Koth is better)
+4 Koth
-4 Kargan Dragonlord
+2 Fanatic of Mogus
+2 Boggart Ram Gang

I guess I didn't say it before but Kargan is a bit win-more in my opinion. Paying 6 for a creature to try to get him out of lightning bolt range isn't worth it, and considering he can be bolted in response makes it even worse. You have 4 mana dumps already and Figure gets really big anyway, so I don't think you really need more. I like Ash Zealot, first strike cuts through the normal blockers that people would buy time with (Scavenging Ooze before creatures in graveyard, Dark Confidant, Qasali Pridemage, Snapcasters, vendilion cliques, etc.) and the added bonus of making Snapcasters painful is always nice.

I'm not terribly sure of the fanatics and boggarts, but I think they're worth trying out at least.

[The Crow's Eye]

I'll flex around some things and see what happens. The Kargans have done well in testing, while the Stormbreaths are holdovers from one of the snow red decks. I would be tempted to use Fanatic before the boggarts, simply because he can get some damage in before getting killed whereas Boggart would eat a Lightning Bolt without any benefit. I did see a mono b devotion that used Expedition Map. It fits the vial's slot, and it gives me something to do with BTE's RG if I don't have a Nykthos at the moment. Thank you for your suggestions and backing up your suggestions. :smile:

[apple713]

I was playing BG midrange and seeing a basic mountain made me play as if I was against a burn deck, which really threw me off the first game. But Abrupt Decay, Inquisitions, and BG's normal answers aren't good against big stuff and can't disrupt enough to stop an overrunning of creatures (2/2 first strike is really powerful early on).

For your build I'd try out:
-4 Stormbreath Dragon (Koth is better)
+4 Koth
-4 Kargan Dragonlord
+2 Fanatic of Mogus
+2 Boggart Ram Gang

I guess I didn't say it before but Kargan is a bit win-more in my opinion. Paying 6 for a creature to try to get him out of lightning bolt range isn't worth it, and considering he can be bolted in response makes it even worse. You have 4 mana dumps already and Figure gets really big anyway, so I don't think you really need more. I like Ash Zealot, first strike cuts through the normal blockers that people would buy time with (Scavenging Ooze before creatures in graveyard, Dark Confidant, Qasali Pridemage, Snapcasters, vendilion cliques, etc.) and the added bonus of making Snapcasters painful is always nice.

I'm not terribly sure of the fanatics and boggarts, but I think they're worth trying out at least.

This is all good advice. Not sure ram gang is bis but im failing to find a better card. Stigma lasher?

Edit

After some thought stigma lasher is almost required cause there is lots of lifegain in modern. Griselbrand, kitchen finks, scaveging ooze and others.

[Phoenix Ignition]

I would not play expedition map. That card is too slow, even for a big stuff deck. You don't need a Nykthos and half of the time it isn't even that great (I'm sure you've had games where it only was used for its :1: ability). It's always a bonus when you have one and can pump like 8 mana, but I would never waste 3 mana and a dead card slot for it. Map doesn't replace a land in your list so mid-late game you're just giving yourself worse draws.

Stigma lasher would be so much more playable if it had haste. Attacking turn 3 with a 2/2 that doesn't even first strike just doesn't seem worth it to me. It would be great to stop life gain but I think that's something you'd rather have sideboard. Ooze gaining a couple life isn't even really a big deal if you get some of your bigger cards in this deck out.

Boggart ram gang isn't that flashy but 3/3 wither makes really tough choices for the blocker. I like it here because it combos well with BTE using the green mana (though you'll rarely be casting a BTE into a BRG since BRG has to have 3 mana, but if you wanted to play a RR creature turn 2 it's possible), and gives you a nice Nykthos boost you otherwise wouldn't have.

A card I've always wanted to use is Obsidian Fireheart as its ability can really take some decks out, and after it resolves it keeps burning people. :r::r::r: for nythos isn't bad and it's another card to dump mana into while having an okay size.

[The Crow's Eye]

Fireheart does have nice art and I could see where the landburn becomes annoying. I will try Manamorphose rather than the map. That way I have more uses for BTE's RG besides a Nykthos activation. Plus the cantrip will be helpful.

[Piceli89]

The usual problems of Devotion decks in Modern:

- Burning-Tree Emissary is deceptively good because she provides RG and all your creatures but Boggart cost only specific reds, meaning you won't be able to drop her into another dude like Ash Zealot. When I was trying out Green Devotion I always had this issue and ended up cutting her; I think BTE was designed for and suits Gruul decks that aim to swarm quickly whereas here she is not ideal.

- Similarly Nykthos, the card apt to bust your specific casting costs, will often give you problems as it taps for colorless and you don't even have aUrborg-like land. I'd play no more than two, also considering that unless Green Devotion you don't have any real big X spell like Genesis Wave to dump tons on mana into.

- The design costraint of devotion decks is that you have to pick guys with the most specific mana costs to abuse Nykthos (and Fanatic of Mogis here) resulting in a very restricted selection among the whole cardpool and you usually end up with subpar choices just to stick within the theme. Your creatures are very bad individually for the power-level of Modern (Ash Zealot compared to Tarmogoyf and Snapcaster isn't a fair fight) and lots of them don't even provide utility effects. I'd try to look into stuff like Magus of the Moon and as suggested Koth, which although not being the most devoted (:D) can cripple certain manabased and give blue decks fits.

- You lose to Splinter Twin pre-board and probably also to Pod. Try to look for something like this.

In short:
I'd rather try not to stick with Devotion too much and if I were to do I'd probably prioritize Fanatic over Nykthos for the lifeswing. Nykthos in red doesn't offer anything really broken to bother too much.
Also, try to look up to some lists, I remember one placing quite good in a GP some time ago. Good luck.

[The Crow's Eye]

I've changed up the list, having agreed somewhat with piceli's observations on BTE etc. If I see Pod, Twin etc, I'll go for that green plash for Destructive Revelry. I was also thinking something that skews more toward Big Red might be fun. Such a deck might run


4 Figure of Destiny
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Demigod of Revenge
4 Koth of the Hammer


Plus maybe some sweeps like Anger of the Gods, though it is skewing into a totally different deck.

EDIT:

I decided to kick Ash Zealot in favor of Simian Spirit Guides. She wasn't putting in as much work, or drawing as much removal, as the Eidolon and Dragonlord, both whom I believe are deadlier threats.

EDIT II:

Added Boggart Ram-Gang. Nice devotion, haste and wither. Added Flame Javelin for 4 instant speed damage that gets around Eidolon.