Vintage W/g Devotion

[DubDub]

A while ago I was laughing about how Theros had ushered in a mono-colored devotion deck for each color into Standard.  As a fun exercise I tried to think up what mono-colored decks would look like in Vintage.  Of these, I think the White one (with a miniscule green splash) most resembles a deck one could conceivably play in a tourney.

Controlling/Protective Enchantments (and Swords to Plowshares)
3x Aura of Silence
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Runed Halo
4x Leyline of Sanctity
4x Rest in Peace
3x Stony Silence
1x Privileged Position

The Privileged Position and Runed Halo are probably questionable, but the rest of these are definitely playable.  These cards will sit on the battlefield, preventing a loss to Oath/Tendrils (Leyline gives shroud), Bazaar of Baghdad/Yawgmoth's Will (because Rest and Peace), True-Name Nemesis/Tarmogoyf (Runed Halo lets you ignore selectively one of them), and Time Vault combo (Stony Silence).  Hopefully Aura of Silence and Swords will knock out or slow down Workshops' Robots.

Controlling/Protective Creatures (and assorted non-creature Win Conditions)
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Helm of Obedience
3x Spirit of the Labyrinth
2x Kataki, War's Wage
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1x Elspeth, Knight Errant
2x Aven Mindcensor
2x Leonin Relic-Warder
1x Brimaz, King of Oreskos

Gaddock Teeg requires the single green mana of the deck, but has two powerful abilities that we may want to see randomly.  Helm of Obedience may allow us, in combination with Rest in Peace, to win the game rapidly.  Spirit of the Labyrinth (which is also an enchantment) staples a powerfully limiting effect we ignore onto a 3/1 for 2.  Kataki and Thalia are disruptive bears, and if all goes well we ought to have ample mana to ignore their effects.  Elspeth is basically a win condition, and another way not to lose to Tarmogoyf etc.  Brimaz is an efficient beater and blocker, who can swing effectively even in the face of a True-Name Nemesis.

Mana Sources
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Pearl
1x Black Lotus
1x Lotus Petal
1x Sol Ring
2x Serra's Sanctum
2x Karakas
2x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
2x Plains
2x Savannah
1x Windswept Heath
1x Flooded Strand
1x Arid Mesa
1x Marsh Flats
1x Strip Mine
3x Wasteland

We limit to just the very best artifact mana in our colors, because of the potential for splash hate from our own Stony Silences.  Karakas has utility against Griselbrand/Iona/Emrakul, or by saving Thalia/Kataki/Brimaz/Teeg from removal.  Serra's Sanctum and Nykthos give us the possibility of producing gobs of mana and flooding the board.  Plains, Savannahs, and the assortment plains-fetches fix our mana.  Strip Mine and Wasteland give us additional game against greedy manabases.  Possibly Cavern of Souls could fit in, though there is no unifying creature type shared by more than two creatures (Spirit gets two, Soldier gets two, Cat gets two).

I want to stress that this is just a product of a thought experiment, because I don't own enough of these white cards to test.  I don't usually play white cards....  But looking at the list, and seeing that the deck reasonably could have Leyline, Spirit, Thalia, and Rest in Peace out on turn two, I see a deck that attacks what many common decks try to do.

Obviously one of the major issues with the deck is that you'd be highly dependent on your opening hand.  With no way to draw or sift through cards (and indeed, punishing that partially with Spirit of the Labyrinth), you may draw Rest in Peace when you need something that impacts the board against Workshops, or you may draw a duplicate Leyline on turn three that's just a blank (although it would power up Nykthos/Sanctum further).  This is basically why I personally don't play white decks in general, but it has to be weighed against the potential power of the static abilities of our cards.  Not rolling over to Dredge in game one is huge (because of RiP and Strip/Waste), and the deck can present similarly large and overlapping obstacles to other decks as well with a good draw.

[Soly]

I posted a Monowhite Devotion Decklist in the Spirit of the Labarynth Forum, just FYI.

[DubDub]

I posted a Monowhite Devotion Decklist in the Spirit of the Labarynth Forum, just FYI.

I see that now.  I've been sitting on this list for a while because I wasn't sure it was worth posting.  I was going to wait until I had similarly constructed lists for each of the five colors, but the other colors can't really do it.  I think I have this link correct for your post: link.  Many of the ideas are similar because the deck basically builds itself once you decide you want to experiment with devotion/Nykthos/white-cards.

It seems like we both think a deck like this would be a decent choice as a 'fun' fringe deck to play, and not much more.

[xouman]

well, I can't find devotion out of those shrines. And shrine feels poor in a list that typically plays spirit guides in order to empty the hand as soon as possible. That list is not close to my idea of a GW vintage deck

[MaximumCDawg]

Shop owner near where I live has tried to make this work for awhile.  His idea was to take Mono White devotion and Shrine, and then add cards that were good without shrine but went bonkers with it: Figure of Destiny and that one Knight with Level Up from Zendikar.  Seems like a good idea in practice, but in theory they're just too slow for Vintage. 

Might be fertile soil for research, though?

[Lurker101]

A while ago I was laughing about how Theros had ushered in a mono-colored devotion deck for each color into Standard.  As a fun exercise I tried to think up what mono-colored decks would look like in Vintage.  Of these, I think the White one (with a miniscule green splash) most resembles a deck one could conceivably play in a tourney.

I agree that White is probably the best color for this but I think blue and black could work too. I threw together a blue list and a black list but haven't tested them yet and probably won't for awhile. If they're worthwhile I'll post them. I like this list a lot too. I'm a big Aura of Silence fan.

[MaximumCDawg]

Black is potentially a good place for Devotion in Vintage, too.  I mean consider the juicy targets:

1cc
Gravecrawler - The 1 devotion that never dies.

2cc
Withered Wretch - Good body, good utility, 2 devotion.
Bloodghast - Doesn't stay dead, awesome with Clamp.
Natuko Specter - Seems amazing with lots of B.

3cc
Nightveil Specter - Saw some marginal play as a variant of Ophidan, but sadly dies to Delver and bolt...

4cc
Phyrexian Obliterator - Holy crackers what does RUG even do against this dude?

And that's not even looking into cards like Bob, Hyppie, Sin Collector, or others with not-entirely-black casting costs.  Trouble is, what do you do with all of that mana?  The only card I can think of here that plays nicely with Temple and without temple, while helping devotion, is Natuko Specter.  I don't think there's much else there.

[Lurker101]

Black is potentially a good place for Devotion in Vintage, too.  I mean consider the juicy targets:

1cc
Gravecrawler - The 1 devotion that never dies.

2cc
Withered Wretch - Good body, good utility, 2 devotion.
Bloodghast - Doesn't stay dead, awesome with Clamp.
Natuko Specter - Seems amazing with lots of B.

3cc
Nightveil Specter - Saw some marginal play as a variant of Ophidan, but sadly dies to Delver and bolt...

4cc
Phyrexian Obliterator - Holy crackers what does RUG even do against this dude?

And that's not even looking into cards like Bob, Hyppie, Sin Collector, or others with not-entirely-black casting costs.  Trouble is, what do you do with all of that mana?  The only card I can think of here that plays nicely with Temple and without temple, while helping devotion, is Natuko Specter.  I don't think there's much else there.

This the list I've been messing around with so far:

Mono B Devotion

Artifacts:
1 Black Lotus
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Mox Jet
1 lotus petal
1 sol ring

Creatures/Walkers:
2 Braids
3 Dark Confidant
2 Deathrite Shaman
4 Gravecrawler
3 Phylactry Lich (I've always wanted this guy to work out somewhere he's a favorite of mine)
2 Pyrexian Obliterator
4 Liliana of the Veil

Enchantments:
3 Gate to Phyrexia (You feed them with Gravecralwers or bitterblossom tokens and Bloodghasts depending on preference)

Insant/Sorceries:
2 Imp's Michief (with a lot of Abrupt Decay around these can get very useful. I've stolen Ancestrals with them too.The life loss is usually miniscule)
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Duress
2 Mind Twists

Lands:
2 Lake of the Dead (Another card I've wanted to see work for a long time and Two Lakes might be too many)
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nix
1 Strip Mine
5 Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vault of Whispers or Darksteel Citadel (for Phylactery Lich)
1 Volrath's Stronghold
3 Wasteland

I haven't tested it much but I think theres an alright deck in there somewhere.
Another that might do good in a Mono B Devotion list is Vampire Nighthawk

[Protoaddict]

I'm just gonna go ahead and say that if you can make mono black zombies work in vintage Geralf's Messenger seems pretty nuts, and is a zombie for Gravecrawler.

I know legacy had a goblin bombardment zombie list that was doing pretty well, what if you try to take the mono black thing 1 step further? Just spitballing cards here:

4 Gravecrawlers
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Gempalm Polluter
4 Sarcomancy
4 Bloodghast
4 Withered Wretch
1 Gray merchant of Asphodel

4 Duress
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

4 Null rod

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
4 Dark ritual
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Cavern of souls
4 Verdant Catacombs
5 Swamps

x some other cards

I mean full zombie tribal sounds great to me and then the fact that Gempalm Polluter is uncounterable by any reasonable means in Vintage and since it counts all zombies in play it can also zap a dredge player by surprise makes it pretty appealing wincon. Maybe some more hand disruption and spot removal or whatever, and an engine to actually pitch cards that come back, but like turn 2 or 3 you can easily drop Nykthos and get like 6 mana and just start cycling and attacking at all sorts of different angles.

[serracollector]

Necropotence should def be in the black build lol. I always wanted to make a mono green devotion personally based around aspect of hydra. There are so many creature that are great that cost gg and even that 4/5 for ggg   and primordial hydra i believe thats like ggggg  it would not be hard to have aspect of hydra pump any one creature to ten plus damage.