Welcome, Gathering Magicians! Devotion continues in its massive influence over the Standard format, although some multicolored deck have begun to rise up against them. Today, I'll be looking at another devotion-based deck, this time using green. Green is an interesting color for this mechanic. It has some of the best enablers of any color, yet its devotion cards are, on the whole, weaker than perhaps every other color, save white. Nevertheless, Reverent Hunter on its own is enough for me to want to try this out. With the right deck, you can easily have a 6/6 or 7/7 creature on turn three, beating out even the fastest Gods.

GG - Standard | Mike Cannon, Budget Theros Standard

• Creatures (32)
• 2 Nylea's Disciple
• 3 Arbor Colossus
• 3 Deadbridge Goliath
• 4 Boon Satyr
• 4 Burning-Tree Emissary
• 4 Elvish Mystic
• 4 Experiment One
• 4 Kalonian Tusker
• 4 Reverent Hunter

• Spells (4)
• 4 Pit Fight

• Lands (24)
• 24 Forest

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The Deck

Experiment One is the next-best 1-drop we have access to at the moment. It will grow along with your other creatures, and with Arbor Colossus at the top end, it can become quite large. Usually, it will end up at around 3/3 or 4/4, but even that is pretty enormous for a 1-drop. The one downside is that it doesn't play nice with Reverent Hunter. Since the Hunter doesn't enter the battlefield with the counters already on it, it won't trigger evolve.

Kalonian Tusker is a pretty sweet 2-drop for a devotion deck. As a 3/3 for 2 mana, it's a solid creature in its own right. Having a mana cost of makes it even better, helping you build up your devotion extremely quickly.

Boon Satyr has proven to be a much better card than I anticipated. Although it's easy for your opponent to kill it with a smaller creature, it's also easy for you to kill a larger creature with it. Bestow adds a lot of additional value late in the game, letting you make one of your ordinary creatures gigantic instead of putting another small threat on the board. It also has in its mana cost, helping devotion tremendously.

Reverent Hunter is the primary reason for building this deck. Being able to cast a 6- or 7-power creature for 3 mana is awesome, and this deck can make that happen pretty consistently. The only issue is the annoyingly indestructible Gods. You'll often be able to sneak an attack or two in before they become creatures, however, and your other large creatures can help you present an overwhelming battlefield presence later.

Deadbridge Goliath gives you another large threat to immediately follow up a Reverent Hunter, although, oddly, it will usually be the smaller of the two. It does have the advantage of scavenge, however. If your opponent kills it, you are able to make one of your other creatures even bigger than the Goliath was.

Nylea's Disciple is experimental, but it seems quite valuable against certain decks. It obviously makes thing extremely difficult for aggressive decks, often giving you 8 to 10 life in one go. It seems that it might also have value against mono-black. That deck's primary win condition is Gray Merchant of Asphodel, and Nylea's Disciple can effectively counter one of those. It will often gain you even more life than you lost—this deck has a much easier time gaining a high devotion than mono-black does.

Pit Fight is a fine removal spell for mono-green. Although it does require you to have the larger creature, that will often be pretty easy, as only Desecration Demon can stand up to the massive creatures this deck presents. Even that can be killed by Reverent Hunter much of the time. One other downside is that, unfortunately, it's a red card as well, leaving it unable to kill Master of Waves. That might end up being a problem, but I'm not yet convinced it's worth paying an extra mana for the mono-green version.

Playtesting

R/G Midrange – Game 1

My opponent played a Forest and passed back. I drew Kalonian Tusker and played a Forest of my own. I cast Experiment One and then cast the Tusker to evolve it. I ended my turn.

My opponent played a Forest, cast Mizzium Mortars on Kalonian Tusker, and then ended his turn. I drew a Forest, played it, and cast Burning-Tree Emissary. I then cast Reverent Hunter, which gained five +1/+1 counters. I attacked for 3 with Experiment One and Elvish Mystic and then ended my turn.

My opponent played a Forest and cast Polukranos, World Eater. He passed the turn. I drew a Forest, played it, and attacked with Experiment One, Burning-Tree Emissary, and Reverent Hunter. My opponent blocked Experiment One with Polukranos, and I cast Boon Satyr for its bestow cost before damage, putting it on the Experiment. Experiment One and Polukranos died, my opponent took 8 from my other creatures, and Boon Satyr became a creature. I passed the turn.

My opponent killed Boon Satyr with Mizzium Mortars, cast Kalonian Tusker, and ended his turn. I drew a Forest, played it, and attacked with everything. My opponent blocked Burning-Tree Emissary, and I flashed in Boon Satyr enchanting Reverent Hunter to make the damage lethal.

Game 2

My opponent played a Forest, cast Kalonian Tusker, and passed. I drew Arbor Colossus and played my Forest. I cast Experiment One, evolved it with a Kalonian Tusker, and ended my turn.

My opponent cast Domri Rade, used his +1 ability without success, and ended his turn. I drew a Forest, played it, and cast Nylea's Disciple. I gained 6 life, evolved Experiment One, and then attacked Domri with the Experiment and Kalonian Tusker. My opponent traded his Tusker with my Experiment One, and Domri dropped to 1 loyalty. I ended my turn.

My opponent used Domri Rade's +1, finding a Boon Satyr, and then ended his turn. I drew Elvish Mystic and attacked Domri with my pair of 3/3s. He flashed in Boon Satyr to trade with Nylea's Disciple, and Domri Rade bit the dust. I played a Forest, cast Arbor Colossus, and ended my turn.

My opponent passed the turn with no play, and I drew a Forest. I played it and then attacked with everything except Elvish Mystic. My opponent flashed in another Boon Satyr and blocked Kalonian Tusker. I made Arbor Colossus monstrous before damage, dropping my opponent to 11. I then ended my turn.

My opponent played a Mountain, cast Kalonian Tusker, and ended his turn. I drew Experiment One and cast Pit Fight, targeting Arbor Colossus and the Tusker. I attacked for 10, cast my two 1-drops, and ended my turn.

My opponent drew his card and conceded.

Wrap-Up

With only four noncreature spells, this deck is very good at putting threats on the table. Removal-heavy decks such as mono-black can have a tough time handling the sheer quantity of 5/5-or-larger creatures you can put out. Nylea's Disciple didn't do much in this match, but then again, this isn't the type of deck it's meant for either. Moving forward, I would replace them with the fourth copies of Deadbridge Goliath and Arbor Colossus, but keep the card in mind for the sideboard. If you want to have massive threats at every stage of the game, or if you just like playing creatures, give this deck a try at your next Friday Night Magic.