Between Urza lands and Primeval Titan, Amulet of Vigor, and Eldrazi Temple, there are plenty of powerful ways to ramp your mana early in the game. However, one of the most explosive and inconsistent engines is the combination of Arbor Elf and Utopia Sprawl. There are a number of shells that people have used to try to take advantage of this interaction, but the only one that has had consistent success is a Mono-Green devotion ramp deck that utilizes Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to cast huge spells early in the game. Let’s take a look at how DerLumberZack has built that deck for this Modern format:

Mono-Green Devotion ? Modern | DerLumberZack, 5-0 Modern League

• Creatures (25)
• 1 Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1 Polukranos, World Eater
• 3 Wistful Selkie
• 4 Arbor Elf
• 4 Birds of Paradise
• 4 Burning-Tree Emissary
• 4 Eternal Witness
• 4 Primeval Titan

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Garruk Wildspeaker

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Genesis Wave
• 4 Primal Command

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Oath of Nissa
• 4 Utopia Sprawl

• Lands (21)
• 9 Forest
• 1 Kessig Wolf Run
• 2 Stomping Ground
• 2 Windswept Heath
• 3 Wooded Foothills
• 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Ancient Grudge
• 1 Courser of Kruphix
• 2 Creeping Corrosion
• 1 Deglamer
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Harmonize
• 1 Nature's Claim
• 1 Nylea's Disciple
• 2 Relic of Progenitus
• 1 Scavenging Ooze
• 2 Summoning Trap

Buy This Deck

Even if you don’t have access to Garruk, Primal Command isn’t much further off, and allows you to do a number of unfair things. This deck can chain Primal Command by finding Eternal Witness and either gaining life or putting a land on top of your opponent’s deck. This helps you build a board presence while buying yourself time and draw steps to find the action you need to close out the game.

At the top of the curve, you have a handful of threats that can end the game on their own. Primeval Titan can find cards like Kessig Wolf Run and Nykthos, the combination of which can turn any random creature into a potentially lethal threat. If you have to play a more attrition-oriented gameplan with Garruk, Wistful Selkie, and Eternal Witness, then you have the option of finding Craterhoof Behemoth off of a Primal Command to close out the game.

Lastly, there’s the flashy way to go off, which involves casting Genesis Wave for enormous amounts. The advantage to Genesis Wave is that it has the potential to net you a bunch of cards off of Eternal Witness and Wistful Selkie while allowing you to put a new Nykthos and Garruk into play to then cast all your new cards.

If you’re looking for a deck that has enormously explosive starts and some limited ability to grind games out with value creatures, this is a reasonable place to start. There are few decks that can compete with the top end that this deck presents, especially when you have a fast start. However, this deck does have a high rate of misfiring. Your engines are vulnerable to spot removal and discard, both of which are always prevalent in Modern. Additionally, this deck is particularly vulnerable to sweepers, which are becoming more common as a means of fighting against Death's Shadow variants. All in all, this is a fun deck that is powerful, but inconsistent – a perfect choice for your next FNM!