If you enjoy devious schemes then the "Devotion to Darkness" intro pack may be for you. Players will be able to get their hands on this new full 60-card deck from Wizards of the Coast's upcoming "Magic: The Gathering" set "Theros" at the midnight prerelease of the set tonight Sept. 21, 2013. Those who don't attend the prerelease will have to wait another week before the full set hits retail shelves on Sept. 27, 2013.
"Devotion to Darkness" boasts two rares: A premium foil Abhorrent Overlord and Whip of Erebos.
"Devotion to Darkness" intro pack
Creatures (20)
1 Abhorrent Overlord
2 Blood-Toll Harpy
2 Child of Night
2 Disciple of Phenax
2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Horizon Scholar
2 Insatiable Harpy
1 Minotaur Abomination
2 Mogis's Marauder
2 Returned Phalanx
2 Undead Minotaur
Other Spells (15)
1 Boon of Erebos
2 Glimpse the Future
1 Griptide
1 Lash of the Whip
1 March of the Returned
1 Ordeal of Thassa
1 Pharika's Cure
1 Rescue from the Underworld
1 Sea God's Revenge
2 Sip of Hemlock
1 Voyage's End
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Witches' Eye
Lands (25)
9 Island
16 Swamp
"Devotion to Darkness" stalls with defensive creatures while you build your devotion to black, slowing down your adversary's advances with Voyage's End, using the scry from it, Witches' Eye, and other cards to help dig for more answers or threats. Gray Merchant of Asphodel can keep you alive while eating a chunk of your opponent's life and Rescue from the Underworld can be particularly nasty if there's one Gray Merchant of Asphodel in your graveyard and another on the battlefield.
As for making improvements, the deck's insert suggests adding Dark Prophecy. If you do, one idea might be to add the trio package of Bogbrew Witch, Festering Newt and Bubbling Cauldron. Because you'll be sacrificing creatures to kill your rival's threats, Shadowborn Demon will be able to stick around and is nasty when reanimated. Elevating your manabase with Temple of Deciet, Watery Grave, or Dimir Guildgate can help fix any early color issues. If you keep a high concentration of Swamps Liliana of the Dark Realms is an attractive planeswalker to consider, allowing you to gain card advantage while thinning your deck and increasing the chances of drawing a business spell at the same time and able to take out threats.
We'd be negligent not to mention Thoughtseize, however one of the biggest upgrades you can make is switching the costly removal spells to Hero's Downfall. You should be able to acquire a full play set of the latter card for less than the aforementioned one's price and still have change to spare. With so many black permanents in the deck, there's a good chance you'll have a high enough devotion to transform Erebos, God of the Dead into a creature. If not you'll be gaining a significant amount of card advantage in the meantime.
The value of "Devotion to Darkness" is certainly there, especially since the deck comes with two additional booster packs for just $14.99. If the play style doesn't appeal to you, then one of the other four intro packs from the set might.
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