There can be no doubt that devotion is making an enormous impact on Standard right now. With mono-black and mono-blue at the forefront of the format, players are capitalizing heavily on Nightveil Specter and the weapons of the Gods to make sure Thassa is always a creature and Gray Merchant of Asphodel drains for plenty of life. Well, I aim to throw a big ol' wrench into that plan, and on a budget to boot. Here's the deck I built to do it.

"Rakdos Aggro"

• Creatures (26)
• 2 Splatter Thug
• 4 Firefist Striker
• 4 Gore-House Chainwalker
• 4 Hellhole Flailer
• 4 Rakdos Cackler
• 4 Tormented Hero
• 4 Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch

• Spells (11)
• 2 Doom Blade
• 2 Ultimate Price
• 3 Rakdos Charm
• 4 Dreadbore

• Lands (23)
• 10 Swamp
• 9 Mountain
• 4 Rakdos Guildgate

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The Creatures

There are surprisingly few good 2-drops in black and red right now, but at 3/2, Gore-House Chainwalker has a solid body for its cost. This prevents it from being slaughtered by creatures such as Frostburn Weird and Nightveil Specter without taking the other creature down as well.

Firefist Striker helps you mitigate the impact of tough blockers such as Frostburn Weird and even the Gods. Killing a God may be extremely difficult, but convincing one not to fight for a turn is apparently much easier.

Hellhole Flailer carries on the theme of getting more power out of your creatures than the mana you put in. A 4/3 is going to crush most other 3-drops, and having the ability to sacrifice it to deal damage directly to your opponent gives you some extra reach.

Splatter Thug isn't quite as powerful as Hellhole Flailer, but it does have the advantage of being able to take down creatures with lower toughness easily. No matter how you pump a Frostburn Weird, it's not going to kill Splatter Thug.

Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch can deal a big chunk of damage right off the bat, and few creatures other than the Gods and Desecration Demon can kill her. She also gives almost every creature in the deck haste. Having Exava on the board means your opponent can never be sure how much damage is coming at him next turn.

The Removal

One thing Dreadbore doesn't kill is Master of Waves. Fortunately, the other four removal spells in the deck can handle that. Ultimate Price and Doom Blade split up to handle different threats. Ultimate Price can handle, well, the entire mono-black deck. Doom Blade, on the other hand, can kill multicolored creatures such as Frostburn Weird. If you haven't figured it out by now, Frostburn Weird can be a pretty big roadblock for this deck—and for aggressive decks in general. Having six ways to outright kill it helps a lot.

Rakdos Charm is my little piece of secret tech I want to try out. Mono-blue devotion can make quite a few tokens with Master of Waves, and mono-black sometimes does the same with Abhorrent Overlord. Rakdos Charm can potentially kill your opponent instantly if his devotion is higher than his life total. You can also use it to kill artifacts such as Bident of Thassa and Whip of Erebos. It may end up being best in the sideboard, but given the way the format looks right now, I want to try it out in the main.

Playtesting

Mono-Black Devotion – Game 1

He played Temple of Deceit to scry 1 and ended his turn. I drew Ultimate Price and attacked for 2 with the Cackler. I played a Swamp and cast Tormented Hero before passing.

My opponent played a Swamp and cast Nightveil Specter. I drew a Swamp, played my Mountain, and killed the Specter with Dreadbore. I attacked for 4 and ended my turn.

My opponent played Mutavault and cast Desecration Demon. He ended his turn. I drew Dreadbore and cast Ultimate Price on the Demon. I dropped him to 10, played a Mountain, and ended my turn.

My opponent played a Swamp and passed back. I drew a Mountain, played my Swamp, and attacked for 4. My opponent cast Devour Flesh, and I sacrificed Tormented Hero, gaining 1 life. My opponent dropped to 8, and I cast Hellhole Flailer and passed the turn.

My opponent cast Gray Merchant of Asphodel, draining 2 life. He ended his turn. I drew Tormented Hero, played my Mountain, and cast Dreadbore on the Merchant. I attacked for 6, and I sacrificed Hellhole Flailer to finish the job.

Game 2

My opponent played another Swamp and cast Pack Rat before passing the turn. I drew Dreadbore, played a Mountain, and cast Gore-House Chainwalker. I ended my turn.

My opponent played a Swamp and attacked for 1 with Pack Rat. He passed the turn. I drew Firefist Striker, played a Mountain, and attacked with my Chainwalker. My opponent killed it with Doom Blade, and I cast the second one before passing the turn.

My opponent played a Swamp and attacked for 1 with Pack Rat. He passed the turn, and I drew Firefist Striker. I attacked for 3 with Gore-House Chainwalker, and my opponent killed it with Doom Blade. I cast Firefist Striker and ended my turn.

My opponent cast Desecration Demon and passed the turn. I drew Tormented Hero, cast Dreadbore on the Demon, and attacked for 2 with my Striker. My opponent took the damage, and I ended my turn.

My opponent played Mutavault and cast Erebos, God of the Dead. He ended his turn. I drew Rakdos Cackler and attacked with Firefist Striker. My opponent took the damage again, and I cast my Cackler along with a second Striker. I ended my turn.

My opponent played Mutavault and attacked with Erebos and Nightveil Specter. I dropped to 8, and he exiled a Rakdos Cackler. He cast it, choosing not to unleash it, and ended his turn. I drew a Swamp and cast Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch. I attacked with everything except Tormented Hero, making the Cackler and Pack Rat unable to block. My opponent killed Exava with Hero's Demise and then animated a Mutavault and used it to block a Firefist Striker. He dropped to 12, and I ended my turn.

My opponent attacked with Erebos and Nightveil Specter, and I blocked Erebos with Tormented Hero, taking 2. My opponent exiled Gore-House Chainwalker and ended his turn. I drew Rakdos Guildgate and played it. I cast Exava, choosing not to unleash her, and attacked with Rakdos Cackler. My opponent took the damage, and I ended my turn. He paid 2 life to draw a card with Erebos at end of turn, and he then discarded one to make a Pack Rat.

On his turn, he animated Mutavault and attacked with everything, and I couldn't block enough of it to survive.

Game 3

I drew a Swamp and attacked for 2. I then played my Mountain and cast Firefist Striker before ending my turn. My opponent played another Swamp and ended his turn.

I drew Rakdos Cackler and attacked for 4. He killed Firefist Striker with Doom Blade and took 2 from the Hero. I played my Swamp, cast Hellhole Flailer, and ended my turn. My opponent played Mutavault and passed back.

I drew a Mountain, played it, and cast Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch. I attacked for 10, and my opponent killed Tormented Hero with Ultimate Price, dropping to 8. I ended my turn. My opponent killed Hellhole Flailer with Hero's Demise, but on my next turn, I cast another Hellhole Flailer and a Rakdos Cackler, and thanks to the haste from Exava, I attacked for more than lethal damage.

Wrap-Up

With a number of decks in Standard that rely on building up to high devotion, a removal-heavy deck is a good place to start. That's a big part of mono-black's success as well, with versions these days packing upward of eight removal spells. Taking it one step further, with all the removal that is—or soon will be—flying around, you might want to look at a deck that isn't heavily affected by it.

Control decks don't care much about creature removal, but not presenting a clock makes it easier for cards such as Erebos and Underworld Connections to work their magic. On the other hand, playing aggressively making those cards decidedly less attractive, and although it can be difficult to push through a threat when your opponent draws several pieces of removal, having creatures that are immune to one or more of those removal spells can make things much easier.

If you're looking to attack the devotion decks from an angle your opponents might not expect, or if you're just a die-hard Rakdos mage, give this deck a shot.