Brews From Scratch: Explorer Mono Black Gix Devotion

Hey everyone! I’ve had feedback from a number of people saying they’d be interested in seeing the deckbuilding process rather than just the final result, so I’ve been doing a series over on the MTGAzone Youtube channel called Brews From Scratch, where I record myself building a new deck from the very beginning and explain my thoughts as I go. This is the third installment in the series, and this time I’m building Mono Black Devotion in Explorer.

My main focus with this deck was to build a deck that was good without Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, but had a lot of good mana sinks when you do have it – a big issue I’d seen with a lot of other Mono Black Devotion decks is that they tend to run a lot of expensive payoff cards like Peer into the Abyss (to combo with Underworld Dreams) or Gray Merchant of Asphodel which I’m not a big fan of personally.

The issue with these cards is they’re often uncastable when you don’t have Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx since Black doesn’t have access to great ramp outside of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx (which you’re not always going to have), and it doesn’t have great ways to tutor for Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx either. Here’s the list I ended up on:

Mono B Gix Devotion

by Altheriax

Buy on TCGplayer $590.99

Buy on Card Kingdom $652.57

Explorer

best of 3

7 mythic

35 rare

4 uncommon

14 common

0

1

2

3

4

5

6+

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Planeswalkers (3)

3

Liliana of the Veil

$68.97

Creatures (28)

4

Evolved Sleeper

$3.96

4

Knight of the Ebon Legion

$9.96

4

Dread Wanderer

$3.16

4

Gifted Aetherborn

$2.76

4

Misery’s Shadow

$9.96

4

Murderous Rider

$7.96

4

Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor

$79.96

Instants (4)

4

Fatal Push

$9.96

Lands (25)

14

Swamp

$3.50

4

Castle Locthwain

$11.96

2

Hive of the Eye Tyrant

$9.98

4

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

$171.96

1

Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

$7.99

60 Cards
$402.04

Sideboard

2

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

$139.98

4

Thoughtseize

$63.96

3

Bloodchief’s Thirst

$1.05

2

Invoke Despair

$1.58

4

Leyline of the Void

$43.96

15 Cards
$250.53

Overall I’m happy with how the deck came together, Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor alongside an aggressively slanted curve meant we were capable of going underneath the slower decks like Azorius Control, but the mana sinks we had available meant we were also able to grind well against the more attrition-based midrange decks too.

In the constructed event I ended up going 3-2 (beating Azorius Control, Mono Green Devotion, and Boros Heroic, and losing to Mono Green Devotion and Abzan Greasefang), but I believe both of the losses were punts on my part, and I think I had a good chance of potentially getting the 5-0 if I’d played better.

Overall, I think the deck is a lot of fun, is definitely powerful, but there’s also room for improvement so I’ll be working some more on this going forwards. If you’re interested in seeing how the deck came together and three of the games from the constructed event then definitely check the video out, and I’ll catch you in the next one!