I'm not sure if this thread is appropriate, but i figured black devotion was pretty similar to what I'm looking for feedback on.
I'm hoping for some opinions on this list in the current meta. it's pretty aggro based so I figured I could finally go mono black again.
it's still a rough draft, i'm a little iffy on running collective brutality over a doom blade or something but I figured one slot won't hurt too bad. my meta doesn't run too much tron or affinity but does have a decent bit of jund so i picked go for the throat over victim of night.
it plays more like a control deck than regular black devotion decks. I don't think I really need gary in here but i can probably fir 1 or 2 in the flex spots.
Skmbc your list is a bit strange hahaha but could work. Your main flaw is that your win condition is in your creatures and maybe in liliana and obliterator is very susceptible to path amd nighthawk and gatekeeper to bolt, the most played removals in modern. They are also so many 1 drops and no so many 2 ones. I would cut sign in blood, funeral charm, some nighthawks and 1 or 2 desfigure.
I'm running the same basic shell in mono black infect. it works pretty well. I have too many creatures for an opponent to use removal on ALL of them, in addition I'll most likely be grabbing their removal with inquisition and thought sieze. I have a ton of removal so im not really trying to take out creatures with those.
I was actually thinking i don't have enough 1 drops. I tried to keep the curve low. Sign in blood is my only card draw and can hit as a burn spell. Funeral charm is versatile and can be a pump, removal, discard, or even avoidance if i need to connect. Disfigure is awesome early interaction, it hits tons of relevant creatures. against faster decks like infect and affinity disfigure and funeral charm shine. I could see cutting a nighthawk or 2 but im not sure what i would put instead that fits.
I think the addition Relentless Dead potentially makes Lashwrithe a better route than Gary these days. I've been testing both versions and I'm actually liking Lashwrithe more right now.
CoCo is a great card, but we don't play the type of creatures to take full advantage of it. To use CoCo you either want to be very aggro, using CoCo to rebuild or overrun, or you want to load up on ETB effects and abuse them, using CoCo as a back breaker. We don't do either. We use disruption and extremely recursive creatures to push the game into the long game, where we have a good chance to grind out a win.
@HotchiI
I've cut my Obliterators. I love the card to death, but Kalitas can get you out of some very bad situations. The rest of the deck is also pretty synergistic, so for me, it's an easy swap game play wise. It also lets me fetch less aggressively, allowing me to grab my single basic forest earlier, which has helped VS unexpected Blood Moons. Right now I think Kalitas is the best four drop we have, but I do play a very different build than most.
You playing the GB version, I completely understand the use of it, but for you it's even more obvious. Many of times I draw Mutivault as one of my mana sources and it makes it impossible to cast turn 4, whereas a Kalitas, Erebos, and Lashwrithe are much easier to cast on that turn when that happens. If I cut, I would put an Erebos and Lashwrithe back in, as they are powerful for the mono black version. I'll have to test to see how it fairs. I think if I ran just straight black mana, it would be much better.
Actually, now that I think about it, the one card I did completely forget about is Korlash, Heir to Blackblade that as a four of is a resistant threat, and it has the relevance of Lashwrithe, and if you draw extra it ramps and gets larger. I may need to proxy some up in the obliterator spot and test him out.
I have kind of a goofy, odd-ball idea that I wanted to shoe-horn into a Black Devotion shell. Looking at strange combos & build-around cards, I saw Phyrexian Etchings and realized it has a hilarious potential with Harmless Offering like the old-school Illusions/Donate combo while also offering great Devotion potential as a BBB enchantment.
Why don't you guys like gatekeeper of malakir? He is a 2 for 1 and provides 2 devotion all for only 3 mana. He seems like one of the reasons to play the deck, at least he has been great in my experience. What am I missing?
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Took the sample devotion lists and added setessan tactics to the deck. Looks hilarious with obliterator. Opinions? Can be good or too cute? Haven't decided about the sb yet
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
2 Overgrown Tomb
10 Swamp
1 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Bloodghast
4 Dark Confidant
4 Geralf's Messenger
2 Phyrexian Obliterator
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
What do you guys do against burn? It seems to be able to consistently kill us before we can play grey merchant and before kalitas attacks.
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Collective Brutality and Duress in the mono black version does very good at stabilizing. That card is hands down the best early game answer to burn in order to help us stabilize in the next few turns to drop our 3 and 4 drops to turn the tide and clock them. Pharika's Cure is a possible tech. You just need to stem the bleeding and get a few blockers in before you go beating. If you can stay above 8 life by turn 3 you can start to turn the corner. Also, Filigree Familiar is decent as well. Green has many options if you do dual colored version too.
I have had a few Vampiric Links in my side, throwing them on either their Goblin Guides, or better yet, their Eidolon of the Great Revels. If you can land it, it helps a ton. I have been trying to find room for 4 in my side, but it's been hard to make the room.
I would swap your Bile Blights for something like Doom Blade or GftT. All three options are limiting, but Doom Blade and GftT can hit larger creatures. You could even do a split between Blight and the other options to have main board solutions to tokens.
Also, I've always wanted to run a dedicated Korlash deck using Lord of the Undead. Snag two swamps from Korlash's ability, then next turn use the Lords ability to return it to your hand to do it all again. It would be a slow engine, but once it gets going it would be impressive. If you do go down this rout I would suggest a few Lashwrithes, just as extra finishers.
I was so excited about Gifted Aetherborn that I ran here and I don't even play this. It's an auto-four, I imagine: the two slot is VERY weak outside of Dark Confidant. Gifted Aetherbornplays defense MUCH better than Bloodghast, and I don't think the recursion of the latter is worth missing this new one.
I don't have much interest for the Aetherborn. I'm more interested in long term devotion. Both Bloodghast and Relentless Dead help generate devotion for the long game, while also synergizing with Liliana to some degree. I don't recur Bloodghast in the late game for aggro purposes, but to fuel a larger Gary, something the Aetherborn can not do.
If you are looking to play defensively, Relentless Dead can block forever as long as you can cast it every turn, and can keep one black mana up. With the new Fatal Push, we should have a much better aggro game plan than before as well. The Aetherborn will probably be a good budget card, but I don't see it cracking into most main decks, and even then the budget players already have Gatekeeper of Malakir over this.
Edit: On a more positive note, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner looks to be the best bad Bob we've seen for some time. Menace means he'll be hard to block, so you should be able to swing with him in the early game most of the time. He'd make for an interesting recipient for Lashwrithe for those who play it.
That's what I could brew out of the top of my head. I think the deck has potential to be a tier 2/2.5 deck, it may be niche but it could work in some metas.
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In Lorwyn's brief evenings, the sun pauses at the horizon long enough for a certain species of violet to bloom with the fragrance of mischief.
I'm hoping for some opinions on this list in the current meta. it's pretty aggro based so I figured I could finally go mono black again.
it's still a rough draft, i'm a little iffy on running collective brutality over a doom blade or something but I figured one slot won't hurt too bad. my meta doesn't run too much tron or affinity but does have a decent bit of jund so i picked go for the throat over victim of night.
it plays more like a control deck than regular black devotion decks. I don't think I really need gary in here but i can probably fir 1 or 2 in the flex spots.
1x Collective Brutality
4x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Raven's Crime
3x Sign in Blood
2x Thoughtseize
Land (23)
4x Mutavault
16x Swamp
3x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3x Disfigure
2x Dismember
3x Funeral Charm
2x Go for the Throat
Creature (12)
4x Gatekeeper of Malakir
4x Phyrexian Obliterator
4x Vampire Nighthawk
Planeswalker (4)
4x Liliana of the Veil
2x Flaying Tendrils
2x Geth's Verdict
1x Grafdigger's Cage
2x Nihil Spellbomb
2x Pithing Needle
2x Ratchet Bomb
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Vampiric Link
I'm running the same basic shell in mono black infect. it works pretty well. I have too many creatures for an opponent to use removal on ALL of them, in addition I'll most likely be grabbing their removal with inquisition and thought sieze. I have a ton of removal so im not really trying to take out creatures with those.
I was actually thinking i don't have enough 1 drops. I tried to keep the curve low. Sign in blood is my only card draw and can hit as a burn spell. Funeral charm is versatile and can be a pump, removal, discard, or even avoidance if i need to connect. Disfigure is awesome early interaction, it hits tons of relevant creatures. against faster decks like infect and affinity disfigure and funeral charm shine. I could see cutting a nighthawk or 2 but im not sure what i would put instead that fits.
I think the addition Relentless Dead potentially makes Lashwrithe a better route than Gary these days. I've been testing both versions and I'm actually liking Lashwrithe more right now.
I want to make a Mostly Black Devotion deck that features Collected Company. What are your thoughts on using a light splash to fit it?
@HotchiI
I've cut my Obliterators. I love the card to death, but Kalitas can get you out of some very bad situations. The rest of the deck is also pretty synergistic, so for me, it's an easy swap game play wise. It also lets me fetch less aggressively, allowing me to grab my single basic forest earlier, which has helped VS unexpected Blood Moons. Right now I think Kalitas is the best four drop we have, but I do play a very different build than most.
Cheeri0sXWU
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You playing the GB version, I completely understand the use of it, but for you it's even more obvious. Many of times I draw Mutivault as one of my mana sources and it makes it impossible to cast turn 4, whereas a Kalitas, Erebos, and Lashwrithe are much easier to cast on that turn when that happens. If I cut, I would put an Erebos and Lashwrithe back in, as they are powerful for the mono black version. I'll have to test to see how it fairs. I think if I ran just straight black mana, it would be much better.
BMono Black DevotionB RMono Red ControlR
BMono Black DevotionB RMono Red ControlR
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mardu-black-devotion/ - Rough sketch decklist.
4 Bloodghast
3 Bloodsoaked Champion
4 Geralf's Messenger
2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Korlash, Heir to Blackblade
4 Relentless Dead
Enchantment (2)
1 Demonic Pact
1 Phyrexian Etchings
2 Collective Brutality
1 Harmless Offering
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Thoughtseize
1 Profane Command
Instant (7)
3 Anguished Unmaking
1 Disfigure
3 Dismember
4 Marsh Flats
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Arid Mesa
3 Swamp
1 Blood Crypt
2 Godless Shrine
2 Leechridden Swamp
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
Any thoughts or opinions are genuinely appreciated/welcomed.
Modern Tallowisp Spirits - A Modern Tallowisp Deck UW
Eldrazi Ninjas - Summoning Octopus Jutsu YYYYAAAHHHH!
STANDARD
Naban Wizards
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
2 Overgrown Tomb
10 Swamp
1 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Bloodghast
4 Dark Confidant
4 Geralf's Messenger
2 Phyrexian Obliterator
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Setessan Tactics
4 Liliana of the Veil
SB: 4 Leyline of the Void
SB: 4 Fulminator Mage
SB: 2 Damnation
Edit: use of wrong word
Seems that you will take a lot of damage of your own Bob with such a high curve (3 5-cmc, 4 4-cmc and 9 3-cmc).
True, i figured i'd gain most of it back with kalitas/gary and brutality.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
BMono Black DevotionB RMono Red ControlR
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
Also, I've always wanted to run a dedicated Korlash deck using Lord of the Undead. Snag two swamps from Korlash's ability, then next turn use the Lords ability to return it to your hand to do it all again. It would be a slow engine, but once it gets going it would be impressive. If you do go down this rout I would suggest a few Lashwrithes, just as extra finishers.
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
If you are looking to play defensively, Relentless Dead can block forever as long as you can cast it every turn, and can keep one black mana up. With the new Fatal Push, we should have a much better aggro game plan than before as well. The Aetherborn will probably be a good budget card, but I don't see it cracking into most main decks, and even then the budget players already have Gatekeeper of Malakir over this.
Edit: On a more positive note, Glint-Sleeve Siphoner looks to be the best bad Bob we've seen for some time. Menace means he'll be hard to block, so you should be able to swing with him in the early game most of the time. He'd make for an interesting recipient for Lashwrithe for those who play it.
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
4x Fatal Push
4x Gifted Aetherborn
4x Dark Confidant
3x Gatekeeper of Malakir
2x Collective Brutality
4x Vampire Nighthawk
2x Dismember
1x Liliana, the Last Hope
2x Mutilate
2x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4x Blinkmoth Nexus
10x Swamp
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Marsh Flats
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
3x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Disfigure
2x Ratchet Bomb
3x Liliana, the Last Hope
3x Rain of Tears
1x Lost Legacy
1x Night of Souls' Betrayal
That's what I could brew out of the top of my head. I think the deck has potential to be a tier 2/2.5 deck, it may be niche but it could work in some metas.
(which is practially Terminate as it only really misses Kalitas and Gurmag Angler).
3x Fatal Push + 4x Victim of Night seems like a reasonable removal package to me (I had Dismember there previously).
I also don't like Bloodghast in this deck and will go with Relentless Dead (good with Geralf's Messenger and Gray Merchant of Asphodel) + Gifted Aetherborn as my 2-drops.
Forcing fetches into Mono-Black seems rather strange imho though and without them Fatal Push is mostly an early game removal spell in this deck.
Is Lashwrithe good enough for Modern ? It seems rather slow.
Wouldn't a big demon like Desecration Demon/Abyssal Persecutor be better (I don't have Phyrexian Obliterator) ?
How is Asylum Visitor as a Dark Confidant replacement for this deck (given all the high-cmc cards) ?