Playing Monored Devotion

After playtesting with a Gruul Aggro deck for a few weeks, I wanted to drop Green and just go with a monocolor deck to make the manabase more consistent. I still wanted to pressure the opponent and to use burn spells to finish the game up or destroy early game blockers, so I new I need to keep playing red.

MonoRed Devotion

The transition from Gruul to mono red devotion is not that difficult. The playing style is similar and to increase the devotion count, we need to play Chandra's Phoenix and Fanatic of Mogis instead of the Fanatic of Xenagos and Ghor-Clan Rampager as the 3 and 4 mana-drops of the deck. Playing with no dual lands also gives us the liberty to just run 20 lands thus increasing our creature and spell counts.

Chandra's Phoenix

Chandra's Phoenix is just great for this deck. Along with Ash Zealot, Chandra's Phoenix will quickly trigger the Battalion ability of Firefist Striker, thus letting you push early damage when your opponent leaves just 1 blocker. Phoenix also flies through most of the defenders in standard and the ability for recursion and the 2 red mana in the mana cost is an auto-include to any red devotion list.

Fanatic of Mogis

Fanatic of Mogis might be the reason to play Red Devotion. This card comes down with the possibility of finishing your opponent after the early damage dealt by your other creatures in the deck. Even when you drop this creature after your battlefield is wiped out, 4 mana for a potential 4 damage attack while dealing at least 1 damage from devotion is still a good card. Also, your haste creatures will give you the extra damage when your opponent will tap out for the 4th turn Supreme Verdict.

Magma Jet vs Searing Blood

For several weeks, I tried to playtest Searing Blood and I wanted to believe that it will be an auto-include in all red decks. Don't get me wrong, Searing Blood is still a very good card, but in this deck, I found the scry ability of Magma Jet to be more valuable than the possible extra 3 damage of Searing Blood. Scry fixes your draw when you are waiting for the 4th land to be able to cast your Fanatic of Mogis on the next turn. And the possibility to cast Magma Jet via the mana produced by Burning-Tree Emissary is a plus.

MonoRed Devotion by Bryan Inno Wong

Lands: 20 Mountain Creatures: 4 Rakdos Cackler 4 Firedrinker Satyr 4 Burning-Tree Emissary 4 Ash Zealot 4 Firefist Striker 2 Archetype of Aggression 4 Chandra's Phoenix 4 Fanatic of Mogis Instants: 2 Shock 4 Lightning Strike 4 Magma Jet

Sideboard: 2 Hammer of Purphoros 2 Mizzium Mortars 3 Frostburn Weird 3 Act of Treason 3 Skullcrack 2 Peak Eruption

I finished 1st place in our local FNM last week. Although many may question the addition of Archetype of Aggression in the main deck instead of Boros Reckoners, I thought that the card can give us trample against token decks. It also prevents your opponent's creatures from having trample in late games (especially via Nylea or Ghor-clan Rampager). This allows us to survive late game matchups while using burn spells and Chandra's Phoenix to grind out a victory. However, I found myself siding out these 2 Archetype of Aggression in ALL of my games, so I think we can put in 2 Boros Reckoners or 2 more Shocks to take their place in the maindeck. For the sideboard, I like to increase the number of Mizzium Mortars since I am expecting to face more Brimaz, King of Oreskos and Courser of Kruphix in the future. For now, here are my matchups from last week's tournament.

Matchups:

Monored Devotion vs Bant Kiora Control splash Black: (2-0)

Monored Devotion vs Mono Black Devotion: (2-0)

Monored Devotion vs GW Hexproof : (2-1)

That's it for now. Next time, I will post my sideboard decisions and some tips on how to play differently on some matchups. I will try to continue to edit the deck and post updates on how I will be doing in the local tournaments.