There are a lot of creatures running around Standard at the moment. The two biggest decks by far take advantage of the devotion mechanic, which requires putting a number of permanents on the battlefield. Many times, you'll find yourself facing down a small horde of creatures headed by an indestructible God. With how common this situation is, it seems that a card that can pull you out of it would do pretty well. The card I decided to try was Merciless Eviction. It wipes the board of all creatures, even the indestructible ones. If you need to, you can also use it to get rid of another card type.

Esper control is an obvious route to go with a Merciless Eviction deck, but I decided to try something a bit different. Since almost all the things you need to worry about are creatures, why not try getting rid of the counterspells entirely? It's a risk, but using removal gives you a much larger window of opportunity to respond. Therefore, I decided to ditch the blue altogether.

"W/B Control"

• Creatures (11)
• 3 Ashen Rider
• 4 Angel of Serenity
• 4 Keening Apparition

• Spells (23)
• 2 Devour Flesh
• 2 Hero's Downfall
• 4 Murder
• 4 Ultimate Price
• 3 Planar Cleansing
• 4 Merciless Eviction
• 4 Underworld Connections

• Lands (26)
• 13 Plains
• 13 Swamp

Buy This Deck

Paying 6 mana is a bit expensive for a wrath effect, but Merciless Eviction is worth it. It will permanently get rid of every creature on the battlefield, despite indestructible, hexproof, or any other abilities the creature might have. The ability to exile other card types is just gravy, but it might come in handy every once in a while.

Hero's Downfall is the best removal spell in Standard at the moment. Not only does it destroy almost any creature, it can get rid of troublesome planeswalkers as well. I've only included two here due to budget concerns, but I'd recommend adding more if you can.

Murder is a decent substitute for Hero's Downfall, lacking only the ability to kill planeswalkers. With cards like Nightveil Specter boasting immunity to both Doom Blade and Ultimate Price, it's good to have a few ways to kill creatures regardless of color.

With mono-black devotion remaining a pretty big player in the format, Ultimate Price seems to be a much better choice than Doom Blade at the moment. Although there are several hybrid creatures that are immune, the ability to take down both Master of Waves and Desecration Demon makes it worth playing.

Devour Flesh can get rid of anything, with the downside that your opponent is able to choose what dies. This is mostly a problem in the middle stages of the game. Early on, your opponent will have only played one or two creatures, and Devour Flesh can be used to prevent a good deal of future damage. Late in the game, your opponent might also have only one creature, as your board wipes and removal spells will have taken care of the rest.

Underworld Connections keeps your hand loaded with removal spells. The life-loss shouldn't be too much of a problem since you should have enough removal to prevent your opponent's creatures from ever having a chance to deal damage. It also helps you find a win condition—or a second one if your first is killed.

Angel of Serenity was a major powerhouse in Standard only a few months ago. Since then, it has faded off the map, making it a great option for budget players. It's still a very powerful card, and it will set any creature deck back by miles as soon as it enters the battlefield. It also helps with the issue that this deck's win conditions are vulnerable to removal. With two Angels, you can use one to exile the other from your graveyard repeatedly, ensuring that you never run out of threats.

Ashen Rider is expensive, but it boasts a big, flying body as well as a powerful ability. Since it can exile any permanent, you can deal with cards you wouldn't normally be able to, such as Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. If you opponent does manage to kill it, it will exile another permanent on the way out, making it easier to stay alive until you find a new threat.

Playtesting

Mono-Blue Devotion – Game 1

I drew another Swamp, played it, and passed the turn. My opponent played an Island and cast Frostburn Weird. He ended his turn.

I drew Planar Cleansing, played a Plains, and cast Underworld Connections on a Swamp. I passed the turn. My opponent played an Island and hit me for 1 with Frostburn Weird. He cast Nightveil Specter and ended his turn.

I drew Angel of Serenity, played a Swamp, and passed the turn. My opponent played Mutavault and attacked with both creatures. I cast Murder on Nightveil Specter and took 1. He cast Cloudfin Raptor and Thassa, God of the Sea and then passed the turn. I used Underworld Connections at the end of his turn, drawing another Underworld Connections.

I drew a Swamp for my turn and played it. I drew another card with Underworld Connections, gaining Ultimate Price. I ended my turn. My opponent cast Master of Waves, making five Elemental tokens and turning Thassa into a creature. Cloudfin Raptor evolved twice, and he attacked with it along with Thassa and Frostburn Weird. I cast Ultimate Price on Master of Waves, making Thassa no longer a creature. I took 3, and my opponent passed the turn.

I drew Ultimate Price and activated Underworld Connections, drawing Hero's Downfall. My opponent activated Mutavault and attacked with it, along with Tidebinder Mage. I used my two new removal spells to kill them both, and my opponent played another Mutavault before ending his turn.

I drew Angel of Serenity and used Underworld Connections, drawing a Plains. I played the Plains and ended my turn. My opponent dropped me to 7 with Mutavault and then cast Frostburn Weird and passed the turn.

I drew Hero's Downfall and activated Underworld Connections, drawing another Plains. I played the land and ended my turn. My opponent attacked with Mutavault and Frostburn Weird, and I killed the Weird with Hero's Downfall, dropping to 4. My opponent ended his turn.

I drew another Angel of Serenity and cast Ashen Rider, exiling Mutavault. I passed the turn. My opponent cast Bident of Thassa and passed back.

I attacked for 5 with Ashen Rider and then cast Planar Cleansing, exiling Thassa with Ashen Rider. I ended my turn. My opponent played an Island and cast a new Thassa before passing the turn.

I drew Keening Apparition and cast Angel of Serenity, exiling the Ashen Rider from my graveyard. I ended my turn. My opponent cast Frostburn Weird and ended his turn.

I drew Ashen Rider and attacked for 5 with Angel of Serenity, dropping my opponent to 10. I cast a second Angel of Serenity, exiling the Weird, and ended my turn. My opponent drew his card and conceded.

Game 2

My opponent followed up with a Tidebinder Mage and attacked for 1 with the Cloudfin Raptor. He ended his turn. I drew Ultimate Price, played a Plains, and passed the turn.

My opponent played Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. He attacked with both creatures, and I killed Tidebinder Mage with Ultimate Price, taking 1. He cast Thassa, God of the Sea and ended his turn. I drew Ashen Rider and played a Swamp. I cast Keening Apparition and ended my turn.

My opponent played a Mutavault and cast Master of Waves, making three tokens. He attacked for 2 with the Raptor and passed the turn. I drew a Swamp, played my Plains, and ended my turn.

My opponent cast Frostburn Weird, activated Mutavault, and attacked with everything. I cast Ultimate Price on Master of Waves, killing it and the tokens and turning off Thassa. I blocked Mutavault with Keening Apparition and took 3 from Cloudfin Raptor. I drew Merciless Eviction, played my Swamp, and ended the turn.

My opponent played an Island and cast Master of Waves. I cast Hero's Downfall on Cloudfin Raptor in response, and he made four tokens. He attacked for 1 with Frostburn Weird and ended his turn. I drew a Plains, played it, and cast Merciless Eviction, exiling everything except Thassa.

My opponent cast Tidebinder Mage and passed back. I drew Planar Cleansing and passed the turn.

My opponent cast Bident of Thassa and ended his turn. I drew Underworld Connections and attacked for 5 with Angel of Serenity. I cast Planar Cleansing, destroying everything but Thassa, Keening Apparition returned to my hand, and my opponent got back Frostburn Weird. I ended my turn.

My opponent cast Cloudfin Raptor and Frostburn Weird and then ended his turn. I drew a Swamp and cast Ashen Rider, exiling Thassa. I passed the turn.

My opponent played an Island and passed back. I drew Keening Apparition and cast Underworld Connections, activating it to draw Ashen Rider. I cast both Keening Apparitions, attacked for 5 with Ashen Rider, and ended my turn.

My opponent cast another Frostburn Weird and attacked with the first. I blocked with Keening Apparition, and my opponent pumped the Weird to 2/3 to kill it. He passed the turn, and I drew a Plains. I played it and cast Ashen Rider, exiling Cloudfin Raptor. I attacked for 5 with the first Rider and then ended my turn.

My opponent drew his card and conceded.

Wrap-Up

Having a deck that's almost entirely removal makes it much easier to keep the Gods from being creatures, and it makes otherwise-dangerous threats such as Master of Waves look a bit silly. Although it may seem odd using a removal spell to kill a glorified Grizzly Bears like Tidebinder Mage, you usually have enough gas to keep all the threats off the table, and minimizing devotion is important. If you want to play a deck that can shoot creatures down all day long, give this one a try.