Playtest session revealed issues with the numbers in use and the tactics employed. Thinking of the deck as a pure TF style forced me to put in some cards that never belonged there to begin with. This is not TF and is run very differently. I got here by trying to bring the deck to Modern, but ended up with a hybrid that runs very differently.
- Non-whip reanimation is out.
- More control is in.
- More zero-drop artifacts in.
- A few artifact lands out.
- Better Mana fixing in.
- Azusa is out ;_(
- Claws of Gix and another Gary are in.
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Non-whip reanimation as geared toward a game ender with emrakul and may end up in the SB after this, but it has no business in the MB. I struggled with this concept as you can with 4 mana early game an Emrakul in and just win. But with a good draw in this deck I can hardcast Emrakul on turn 5 potentially, so... tradeoffs.
One of the biggest hurdles on original TF's thinking is going for the turn 1 win. It is not going to happen with my current card pool in Modern, and I needed to let go of the early game scenario. Switching to a midrange scenario, opened up my options a lot and led me to focus more on control. To achieve this multicolor goal without loosing my Devotion mechanic, I kept it simple to Rock style removal and control options.
Consistent Metalcraft has been an issue in comboing and I struggled for easy ways to do this. As my initial concept focused on Azusa I figured that just using the Citadels would be enough, but was constantly having to dig more than 21 cards to find another land and didn't always have a land drop to use. I messed around with several options and finally settled on a Claws of GIx, a Tormod's Crypt, and a pair of Pentad Prisms. The Claws I will get into in a min, the Crypt I am assuming is obvious in functionality and the Prisms return their value of Devotion Black mana into whatever is required (usually white or red). This caused me to drop some of the artifact lands to make room for better land-mana fixing, some basics, and more fetches. Losing the lands and having better answers for mana fixing made Azusa irrelevant. I was winning outright so didn't need to attack manabases, had more mana than I needed already with the Moxen and Shrines so she went away too.
Biggest goal was to fix consistency for endgame and add some additional life gain to make the midrange plan more feasible. I added 2 things to accomplish this:
The 2 of them work in tandem and have separate functions as well. Claws gives me better 0-drop fixing for Opals and bumps life count to ensure better life ranges with multiple Grizzle-bro activations. Gary is an alternate wincon and can be repeated with Claws of Gix assuming my primary win path of Grapeshot is out for some reason and I can't get through with the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
