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Villainous Pact Deck Tech & Tournament Report

Villainous Pact is a Green/Black devotion deck that splashes Blue. It focuses on powering out early creatures like Polukranos and Reaper of the Wilds, ramps into big payoff spells like Hornet Queen and Genesis Hydra, and uses X spells like Damnable Pact and Villainous Wealth to break parity and finish the opponent.

It’s flexible enough to become the beatdown when it needs to be, or to control all-out aggro decks, but it is at its best preying upon a meta full of midrange decks.

The deck is an updated version of this deck by redditor square_two, which is in turn a version of this deck by Bennie Smith.

Please note that this deck tech and tournament report are written from Jennifer’s perspective, so any instance of “I” refers to my wife.

Deck Tech

If you’d prefer, here’s a TappedOut link.

High-mana Payoff Cards

2 Villainous Wealth

It’s an incredibly fun card built for Timmy and Johnny, but in the right shell a Spike can use it to win. Against aggro decks, an early Wealth for X=3 can be enough to stabilize and settle in for the long game. However, that runs the risk of whiffing and hitting lands. This deck likes to cast at a minimum of X=6, and is extremely happy casting for X=10 or more.

You get their creatures, their planeswalkers, their removal, their burn, their impactful enchantments, their synergy. This wins by burning the opponent out with their own Strikes and Stokes, stealing their constellations, nabbing their control finishers, or simply overwhelming the board with all the creatures they were hoping to cast.

2 Damnable Pact

Most people see this card as a bad Skeletal Scrying. However, in a ramp shell that can make BB, this card is much more flexible. On numerous occasions, I have finished the game when we are at parity by casting Damnable Pact for X=15 targeting my opponent. It’s also a powerhouse against control decks, as I can refill my hand with all the threats I pack using my largely irrelevant life total. And in the early game, it can indeed be a bad (but castable) Skeletal Scrying, which is still pretty great.

2 Genesis Hydra

Genesis Hydra is value town, because it doesn’t die to Doom Blade. That is, even if it gets countered or hit with a Downfall, you still get your nonland permanent. Plus, this deck gives you enough mana that it’s often a 7/7 that comes with a free Hornet Queen.

In this deck, the 4-drop slot is the sweet spot, so we want to be casting this for at least X=4. That will hit Kiora, Polukranos, Reaper of the Wilds, Bow of Nylea, Reclamation Sage, Courser of Kruphix, and the mana dorks.

2 Hornet Queen

This is a card that has proven again and again that if you can get it onto the battlefield (whip or ramp), it’s worth playing. It stops most attackers cold, stabilizing the board to give me time to dig for a finisher. This deck doesn’t mind being at parity near the end with enough devotion to make 10+ mana, because it has the reach to finish them off with Damnable Pact or Villainous Wealth. It also helps that it’s 6 power on 5 flying bodies, which tend to take out opposing planeswalkers pretty quickly.

Utilities

2 Bow of Nylea

Every mode is relevant, and its static ability is fantastic. Giving attackers deathtouch is very synergistic with Polukranos, but also just fine for any other creature. Also, giving 2 devotion is extremely relevant in this Nykthos-powered deck.

Also, it’s a confusing card with lots of rules, which can cause opponents to forget parts of what is there. Opponents forget about deathtouch, and block my Voyaging Satyr with their Thunderbreak Regent. They forget about counters, and line up bad blocks. They try to burn me out when I’m low, and I respond with life gain so it resolves first.

All in all, the bow is a superstar that I’d easily play more of if it wasn’t legendary.

1 Reclamation Sage

Enchantments have become a big deal this standard, and targeted enchantment removal that comes on a 2/1 body that can be tutored for with Genesis Hydra is pretty great. This has slowly creeped into the main board, as cards like Whip of Erebos, Jeskai Ascendency, Mastery of the Unseen, Outpost Siege, and now Impact Tremors have become more relevant. If nothing else, it can kill an opposing Courser game 1 before it gets sideboarded out.

4 Hero’s Downfall

If you can cast 1BB, this should be in your deck. Kills their biggest threat, even a planeswalker.

Midrange

2 Kiora, the Crashing Wave

At her very worst, she’s a 4-mana spell that draws a card, lets you play an extra land drop, and gains a bit of life. At her best, she neutralizes their largest threat and tries to become a 9/9 Kraken factory when you can protect her. This deck hits parity enough that the latter is often the case, forcing the opponent to play sub-optimally to deal with the looming threat.

4 Polukranos, World Eater

Never underestimate the power of 5/5 for 4 in a meta dominated by Siege Rhino and Tasigur. In a ramp shell, you’ll be going monstrous for large enough amounts that he’s a great removal spell with a giant body attached. Plus, this deck runs Bow of Nylea so your attacking Polukranos has deathtouch, making his monstrous ability a one-sided board wipe. He’s so important that we run 4, even though he’s legendary. We are fine drawing more, because he explodes doing his deathtouch monstrosity, he attracts kill spells like flies to honey, and it’s not even the worst thing in the world to cast another post-combat and be ready for another monstrosity.

2 Reaper of the Wilds

This came as a suggestion, and it took me a while to see her value in this shell. Being a 4/5 for 4 with an upside, it was worth considering. The threat of activation of deathtouch for B is great, and giving her hexproof to counter a kill spell is not irrelevant. However, the real reason she’s in the deck is because of the Scry 1 every time another creature dies. We’re killing plenty of enemy creatures and throwing hornet tokens under the bus, so we get the scry triggers we need to dig for our finishers. Scry 1 six times doesn’t seem as good as Scry 6, since you can’t set up the next few turns – but I really care about digging to one spell, so it’s equally as good.

Green Devotion Shell

4 Courser of Kruphix

If you’re in green and you’re not aggro, you’re probably playing Courser. It smooths your draws and your land drops, it blocks and eats plenty of aggro creatures, it gains you life, and it can get in for some damage when it needs to.

The only downside is that it can give away the surprise factor of Villainous Wealth, Damnable Pact, and Negate if the opponent sees it before it has been cast. Nobody plays around Crater’s Claws in a G/B/u deck. Still completely worth it.

4 Sylvan Caryatid

Again, you’re probably playing this if you’re green and not aggro. It ramps, it blocks more creatures than you’d think, and it is incredibly important color fixing for those early Bile Blights and Negates.

4 Voyaging Satyr

It combos with Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx for absurdly high amounts of mana, which this deck loves taking advantage of, it can also help cast those double-color spells even if you only have one color source, it eats 1/1 tokens, and if nothing else it can swing for 1.

Manabase

Pain lands

This deck needs the fast mana because it loves casting a 4-drop on turn 3 after a turn 2 Satyr/Caryatid. Plus, the life loss isn’t too bad with Courser and the Bow.

Scry lands

Scrying is still useful enough to include come-into-play-tapped scry lands. They smooth out your early land drops, and they help you dig for answers later.

Other

Sideboard

2 Arbor Colossus

Provides 3 devotion, and a 6/6 body for 5 mana. Still, it only usually comes in against decks that have a high enough concentration of dragons that Hero’s Downfall isn’t enough.

3 Bassara Tower Archer

A hexproof creature that comes in under counterspells and hits multiple times before board wipes are online is extremely relevant against control. Plus, if you get the Bow to stick it grows every turn, forcing them to 1-for-1 with a board wipe, which is not where control wants to be.

1 Reclamation Sage

See the explanation in the main board. If Sage is relevant, the second copy comes in. If it’s not relevant, they both come out.

4 Bile Blight

We don’t need Bile Blight on turn two like U/B control does, but it’s still very relevant. This deck isn’t always the beatdown, so Bile Blight comes in when we need to become the control deck until we stabilize and turn the game around. It helps greatly against token strategies, and acts as Hero’s Downfall 5-8. Plus, people usually overextend against a G/B/u deck that plays Courser and Polukranos, so hitting two Mantis Riders on Game 2 happens more often than not.

1 Damnable Pact and 1 Villainous Wealth

Against certain decks, these two cards are more or less relevant. By running a 2/2 split in the main, and leaving 1 of each in the sideboard, I get a lot of flexibility in post-sideboard. Sometimes all 6 make it in, sometimes just 3 Pact, sometimes just 3 Wealths.

3 Negate

Comes in when my opponent plays enough relevant targets. Helps my threats stick against control, and helps control the token decks.

Cards that didn’t make the cut

Nissa, Worldwaker

This deck doesn’t run enough Forests to make her untap ability relevant, and control has changed enough that instead of the 4/4 Elemental Lands playing around Perilous Vault, they die to Crux of Fate.

Nylea, God of the Hunt

While giving trample and providing a mana sink was very relevant when I hit parity and needed to finish the game, Nylea got cut for Damnable Pact’s flexibility.

Tasigur, the Golden Fang

My graveyard is empty most of the time because the deck is full of creatures and doesn’t run Satyr Wayfinder. That means that he’ll usually cost more than 4 mana, and by the time I’ve reached that I want to be casting large Genesis Hydras or making my Polukranos monstrous.

He does have great synergy with the Bow’s last mode, allowing me to sculpt my graveyard so my opponent doesn’t give me a mana dork, but that’s a bigger opportunity cost than it sounds like.

Finally, having 4 mana as the “magic number” for my high-impact creatures gives Genesis Hydra and my turn 3 plays more stability and consistency than including Tasigur would be worth.

Hedonist’s Trove

This is a bad card that does a bad impression of Villainous Wealth. It’s narrow, only hitting graveyard decks or only making an impact in the late game. It’s expensive, costing as much as a Hornet Queen and making a much tinier impact. And finally, it’s just plain bad.

PPTQ Top-8 Tournament Report

Round 1 - Bye

I took this time to study my sideboard and think about sideboarding strategies. I think that contributed greatly to my performance in this tournament. If you get a bye, use it wisely!

Record: 1-0

Round 2 - Mono-Red Aggro (2-1)

Game one, my opponent curved Lightning Berserker into Impact Tremors into Hordeling Outburst while I stumbled on mana for a quick win.

Sideboard:

I became the controlling deck, siding out Damnable Pact as I couldn’t afford to lose the life nor would I have a chance to burn him out. I brought out Hero’s Downfall for Bile Blight both to cast it earlier, and because it’s an easy 2-for-1. The extra Wealth came in because an early Wealth against aggro helps to stabilize, and the Satyr left because I don’t need the double-digit mana generation once I’ve stabilized and they’re out of gas. The main reason I didn’t leave Satyr instead of Caryatid was because the opponent ran burn for early blockers, and Caryatid is a safer blocker against Monastery Swiftspear. The Reclamation Sage came in because Impact Tremors was surprisingly impactful.

Game two, my opponent played 3 copies of Impact Tremors in the first 4 turns, and I kept his creatures down with Bile Blight. Without a critical mass of creatures, the Tremors weren’t as impactful. It seems like a card he wants to see one of, but he was running 4 copies. An early Courser of Kruphix clenched the early game, and I won from there.

Game three, a turn 3 Polukranos stabilized my board, a turn 4 Bow of Nylea helped keep my life total stable, and from there it was simple enough to make Polukranos monstrous to wipe his board, and beat him down as he ran out of gas.

Record: 2-0

Matchup: Favorable.

Round 3 - Jeskai Fireworks (2-1)

Game one, I lost to an early unanswered Mantis Rider backed up by burn to the face.

Sideboard:

My opponent had a painful manabase and cheap spells, so both Pact and Wealth were valuable even without X being double-digits. I sided out of the Satyr combo, and into Bile Blights to deal with the aggro side of things.

Game two, an early Villainous Wealth got me a Mantis Rider and Soulfire Grand Master, with which I stabilized and beat him in the long game.

Game three, he failed to play around Bile Blight since he didn’t see it in Game 2, so a turn 4 blowout getting both his Mantis Riders made the rest of the game smooth sailing.

Record: 3-0

Matchup: Favorable post-sideboard.

Round 4 - Sidisi Whip (1-0-1)

Game one was extremely long, lasting a full 45 minutes with no slow play on either side. Opposing Hornet Queens clogged up both sides of the board, but my Bow picked his off turn by turn, allowing me to attack over most of his creatures. He stole my Kiora with Dragonlord Silumgar, and got her to 4 before I could Downfall the Silumgar. From there, I continued to minus her to draw cards and drop lands, but he stole her back, and eventually got a Kiora Emblem. Scry triggers from kraken tokens attacking into hornet tokens helped me dig to my Damnable Pact, which I drew and burned him out with before I was overrun by my own planeswalker’s ultimate.

Sideboard:

Game two, we went to turns and drew at parity.

Record: 4-0

Matchup: Favorable.

Round 5 - Jeskai Tokens (0-2)

After Round 5 I was at the top of the standings, and we could draw into Seed 1 in the Top 8 and go grab dinner. However, my opponent wanted to be Seed 1 to get the better quarterfinals matchup, so he insisted on playing. We went to turns, so I went into the Top 8 hungry.

Game one, he went off fairly early, gaining entirely too much life off of Seeker of the Way and going wide around my threats. Quick and painful.

Sideboard:

Game two, an early Villainous Wealth stabilized the board, and in the late game I had nearly run him out of resources when he landed a Treasure Cruise. He chained it into a Hordeling Outburst into another Treasure Cruise, and burned me out from 12 that turn.

Record: 4-1

Matchup: Difficult.

Top 8 Quarterfinals - Red/Green Monsters (0-2)

Games one and two were over by turn 6, as I stumbled on draws and he curved out beautifully. It happens sometimes.

Sideboard:

Matchup: Difficult.

Record: Top 8 at the PPTQ, and ended up 6th place overall.

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