Yep, the title of the thread is a mouthful and it is ambitious, but that is what I am trying to build and I would like some feedback on my card choices. I had been been brainstorming monoblack zombie devotion because Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Geralf's Messenger, and Gravecrawler all have nice synergy with devotion and share the zombie sub-type. So the core of the deck was:
As I continued brainstorming monoblack zombie devotion I couldn't help trying to incorporate Phylactery Lich into my build because it rocks with devotion and it is a zombie as well. The problem that I ran into is the type cards that you have to run with it are artifacts, and artifacts typically don't go well with devotion. I am still going to try to run it, though, because I think artifacts like Darksteel Sentinel, Vault of the Whispers, Lashwrithe, Conjurer's Closet, Executioner's Capsule, Darksteel Axe, Vault Skirge, and Scepter of Fugue are good enough cards to make this deck work. The idea behind this deck is to play cards that contribute to the following synergies:
1) Monoblack Devotion
2) Zombie Tribal
3) Reusable ETB Triggers (Conjurer's Closet)
4) Play Well With Phylactery Lich
It is not necessary for a card to contribute to all 4 synergies, but ideally I think I want cards that are powerful and play off of at least two of those synergies.
1) There are 24 zombies total. All of them outside of Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Skinrender have the maximum devotion possible for their mana cost.
2) There are 20 non-creature artifacts total, 8 of which are indestructible. None of them are useless without Phylactery Lich. 12 of them are on curve to be played before Phylactery Lich.
5) The weakness of the this build definitely seems like the lack of removal, which might be a necessary evil if this deck is going to work. I also am not sure how good Lashwrithe will be with only 16 swamps. Maybe I should I replace Lashwrithe with Erebos, God of the Dead and then trade out 4 more swamps for 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.
6) If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions about how to tweak the deck I'd love to hear them because I am not quite satisfied with the deck and I am open to suggestions.
You certainly mean Darksteel Citadel, not Sentinel. :lol: I would consider playing a black Borderpost over it. Works like an etbt artifact land with your high basic count. It also adds one to your devotion count. Colourless mana at the wrong moment really can screw you over.
The weakness of the deck is its early game, you only have a bunch of zombies that can't even block properly, and have little buisness being in a deck with this late game potential. You could think of replacing the cheap zombies and Axe with removal and card draw.
I'd cut atleast Lashwrithe for some mana rock, helping you to get to five mana faster and adding an artifact you can cast before Lich.
I'd reduce Closet to three cards. Whip of Erebos and Divinity of Pride are solid cards for the deck. I personally use them and not Closet. Whip adds devotion, and you often don't need more than an additional trigger per creature. Divinity followed up by Gary is a winning move.
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4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
As I continued brainstorming monoblack zombie devotion I couldn't help trying to incorporate Phylactery Lich into my build because it rocks with devotion and it is a zombie as well. The problem that I ran into is the type cards that you have to run with it are artifacts, and artifacts typically don't go well with devotion. I am still going to try to run it, though, because I think artifacts like Darksteel Sentinel, Vault of the Whispers, Lashwrithe, Conjurer's Closet, Executioner's Capsule, Darksteel Axe, Vault Skirge, and Scepter of Fugue are good enough cards to make this deck work. The idea behind this deck is to play cards that contribute to the following synergies:
1) Monoblack Devotion
2) Zombie Tribal
3) Reusable ETB Triggers (Conjurer's Closet)
4) Play Well With Phylactery Lich
It is not necessary for a card to contribute to all 4 synergies, but ideally I think I want cards that are powerful and play off of at least two of those synergies.
The deck I have in mind is something like this:
4 Gravecrawler
4 Highborn Ghoul
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Phylactery Lich
4 Lashwrithe
4 Skinrender
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4 Conjurer's Closet
4 Darksteel Sentinel
4 Vault of Whispers
Some thoughts on this list:
1) There are 24 zombies total. All of them outside of Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Skinrender have the maximum devotion possible for their mana cost.
2) There are 20 non-creature artifacts total, 8 of which are indestructible. None of them are useless without Phylactery Lich. 12 of them are on curve to be played before Phylactery Lich.
3) Conjurer's Closet does a lot of work in this deck. It can remove a counter from Geralf's Messenger while reusing its ETB trigger. It also can effectively reuse the ETB triggers of Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Phylactery Lich, and Skinrender. It's too bad it can't flicker Lashwrithe.
4) Gravecrawler, Highborn Ghoul, Geralf's Messenger, and Phylactery Lich are all great targets for equipment like Darksteel Axe and Lashwrithe.
5) The weakness of the this build definitely seems like the lack of removal, which might be a necessary evil if this deck is going to work. I also am not sure how good Lashwrithe will be with only 16 swamps. Maybe I should I replace Lashwrithe with Erebos, God of the Dead and then trade out 4 more swamps for 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx.
6) If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions about how to tweak the deck I'd love to hear them because I am not quite satisfied with the deck and I am open to suggestions.
Cruel Revival and Noxious Ghoul are interesting zombie-oriented removal options, but you already have the Gray Merchant in the 5-drop spot.
Death Baron is a tribal lord with pseudo-removal, but it's also $10 per copy.
Zombie Trailblazer is worth looking at in this deck, both for devotion and for its evasion potential.
The weakness of the deck is its early game, you only have a bunch of zombies that can't even block properly, and have little buisness being in a deck with this late game potential. You could think of replacing the cheap zombies and Axe with removal and card draw.
I'd cut atleast Lashwrithe for some mana rock, helping you to get to five mana faster and adding an artifact you can cast before Lich.
I'd reduce Closet to three cards.
Whip of Erebos and Divinity of Pride are solid cards for the deck. I personally use them and not Closet. Whip adds devotion, and you often don't need more than an additional trigger per creature. Divinity followed up by Gary is a winning move.