I would really appreciate help in this deck i am making. The deck is a devotion mono black with creatures with recursion like Gravecrawler, Nether Traitor and Geralf's Messenger.
Geralf's Messenger and Fume Spitter allows the former card to have undying constantly
Abyssal Persecutor helps with beating down
Desecration Demon and almost all the cards in the deck help drop creatures into the graveyard and start Blood Artist
Do you think this deck is fast/good enough for semi competitive Modern? If not, what could i do to make it so
Yea...not sure what happened to it. I was just wondering how it is that you have a devotion deck that is not running Gary? There are no devotion creaures here.
Yea...not sure what happened to it. I was just wondering how it is that you have a devotion deck that is not running Gary? There are no devotion creaures here.
Hm, i guess it accidentally became much more sacrificial/aggro than devotion, it did start off as a devotion deck
I guess i could drop 2 Gary for the 2 Abyssal Persecutors. and i was thinking of Profane Command but I'm not sure what to take out
i personally like the sacrifice angle and would love to keep it. I just feel that running Gravecrawler, Nether Traitor and Geralf's Messenger would mean not being able to block until turn 4
I'm also going to put in more disruption and targeted removals.
Does anyone have ideas on how to improve my deck? be as harsh as u want, i can take it
i personally like the sacrifice angle and would love to keep it. I just feel that running Gravecrawler, Nether Traitor and Geralf's Messenger would mean not being able to block until turn 4
I'm also going to put in more disruption and targeted removals.
Does anyone have ideas on how to improve my deck? be as harsh as u want, i can take it
If you want a sac/aggro deck you have a lot more tools at your disposal with BG using a zombie subtheme. Bloodghast, Gravecrawler, Lotleth Troll, Nantuko Husk, and if you are have them you can go Vengevine too. I have a couple of lists along this line that are quite fun, but they are pretty far from the decks promoted in this thread so I don't want to spam them.
You're right though, it can be really hard to manage the early game with too many critters who can't block.
I have started to look at this as a more serious deck option (as opposed to the for fun Demigod version I posted previously). One particular question I have is what are some other strong 4 drop options outside of obliterator? The price tag on a play set is just too much atm. I figure Abyssal Persecutor could fit in as long as I could force some self sac options, but I doubt 4 would be a smart choice.
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Follow up question, is it still worth it at all to splash green? Other than Abrupt Decay, I am not seeing much since in most situations Bile Blight will serve the same purpose as Maelstrom Pulse.
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“Your body is not a temple, it's an amusement park. Enjoy the ride.”
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
I will always firmly stand by the belief that Magic is a game first and a collectable second.
Follow up question, is it still worth it at all to splash green? Other than Abrupt Decay, I am not seeing much since in most situations Bile Blight will serve the same purpose as Maelstrom Pulse.
My thought is that there is no reason not to. Abrupt Decay destroys permanents so it gives you a main deck card that can take out something like Cranial Plating or Liliana of the Veil or Bitterblossom that can also take out Dark Confidant or Thalia. You don't need to run Verdant Catacombs in a version where the only splash is Decay, so it is not really making the mana base worse or much more expensive. In the grand scheme I just don't see a good reason not to run it unless you are wanting to splash a different color.
This is my first time posting in this forum. I love Black and when I made the switch to Modern MB Devotion was one of the decks that beckoned me to play it. Mine has a little twist with the addition of Birthing Pod. It was a lot of fun and maybe it'll help with ideas of where you can go with the deck.
The deck has evolved into some type of hybrid Black Devotion and BG Rock deck. Right now I have Woodland Cemetery and Temple of Malady as a 2-of to see which I like more. I have a feeling that I'll end up sticking with Cemetery, but I wanted to do some testing.
I'm really happy with the majority of the MB, the only card that I'm not sold on is Geralf's Messenger. I do like him in this list more than others list that play cards like Gravecrawler, Bloodghast, and other early drops creatures that can't block because I have turn 2 Goyf and Crusader.
I have been testing a Bg version of this deck for a few days now and am having a good amount of fun with Lotleth Troll and Bloodghast/Gravecrawler. A slight green splash is what this deck needs in my opinion. It lets you dump your bloodghast into the yard, run both Abrupt Decay and Maelstrom Pulse, Golgari Charm ( I have found this is a decent sideboard option), and Noxious Revival. The only issue I have run into is I lack a early game board and aggro just messes me up. I will post a list when I'm not on my phone.
Best play was turn 5 against my buddys mill deck. He has me down to 5 cards an I am on the draw. I have Phyrexian Arena out along with a Lotleth Troll, two swamps, a Llanowar Wastes, and an Overgrown tomb. I had a Gary in hand and drew into my Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and my last Bloodghast (the rest had been milled). I feed the troll with the ghast, slap down Nykthos return four Bloodghasts at once, tap two and Nykthos, getting 11 black mana and then cast my gary for the win. Every game after that, he exiled my ghast as soon as they hit the yard!
It has a good devotion, solid draw, life gain/loss control, disruption and an awesome board presence.
Tombstalker is a situational card. It's true that this deck won't fill the graveyard, cause geralf's will be exiled, gravecrawler can comeback. But, Even with only 2~3 cards, it'll come to the board as a 5 mana, 5/5 flying body in the late game. But it's not a locked slot.
Gatekeeper has a awesome sinergy whith gray and the whip; even with geralf's for causing the opponent to lose another 2 life and coming back as a 3/3.
About Bloodghast, i think it's whole potential will only be explored by having fetch lands, since i won't play them, i didn't put it on my decklist.
yeah. i gave. it's a good card. but i just don't see how it's "better" than any onther card to exchange it for.
all the other creatures (besides gravecraler) have an effect that can target the opposite player, without costing more mana, but shade can just pump itself.
I have a ton of zombies in my lists to reliably get gravecrawler back, I mention this because I am unhwppy with Stillmoon Cavalier. I find it just doesnt do enough work for me. Has anyone done a Death Baron or Cemetary Reaper build?
I was thinking of adding a 3rd Cavern to the Mainboard with all of the counterspells and snapcasters going around now. Besides that what does everyone think of it?
Also what do people think about using Phyrexian Crusader instead of Vampire Nighthawk as a 3 drop to go with Messenger?
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Decks I play:
Modern:
BR Control
Grixis Bloo
EDH:
Food Chain Prossh
Land Wipe Maelstrom Wanderer
Selvala, Hearth of the Wilds Eldrazi
I have a ton of zombies in my lists to reliably get gravecrawler back, I mention this because I am unhwppy with Stillmoon Cavalier. I find it just doesnt do enough work for me. Has anyone done a Death Baron or Cemetary Reaper build?
I once was helping to develop a Zombie Tribal deck that sort of turned into a more grave focused deck and less specifically Zombies. In the deck I was far more happy to draw Death Baron than any other Zombie lord. Toss in a singleton Whip of Erebos and your zombies are really dangerous.
Interesting. If i am to cute the stillmoons I will have 4 slots open, 3 for Death Baron, and I could easily slot in a whip. Time to test! Thanks for the insight.
Round 1 I played some sort of random Boros good stuff deck. It wasn't very well put together and I won easily. I think it may have been the player's first tournament. I tried to be encouraging, but they went 0-2 and then dropped.
Round 2 was against an Ad Nauseum combo deck. The first game I got lucky and had a gravecrawler and a thoughtseize. I took a combo piece and got there with the gravecrawler. The second game I mulliganed looking for hand disruption and kept a hand that included 1 thoughtseize and 2 inquisition of kozilek. I decimated his hand and killed him with a gravecrawler.
Round 3 I played a Melira pod list. This round went to time but I eventually won 2-1. The pod list has a huge amount of card advantage and I had a really tough time keeping up with the seemingly endless critters. The all-star of the match was Gray Merchant. Several times, I was nearly dead then resolved a big Gray Merchant to get back in the game. Withered wretch out of the sideboard was also key, as I was able to use it to break up the persist combo with Redcap and Kitchen Finks. Finally, mutilate was also good out of the sideboard as I was able to wipe his board late in the third game when he had a seeming insurmountable lead.
Round 4 was against an Assault Loam deck. The first turn on the play, he raven crime's me and I discard Bloodghast. My turn I drop a swamp, get back the Bloodghast and cast a gravecrawler. He was never able to recover. In the second game, withered wretch allowed me to remove the life from the loam's from his graveyard to disrupt his combo. With a phyrexian arena, a gravecrawler and a bloodghast in play, Erebos was a creature at last and finished him off.
I was pretty happy with the deck. Gray Merchant is what makes the deck possible. I was usually gaining 8-12 life off him. It closes out games well, which is a problem for the deck as the gravecrawlers and bloodghasts usually can't attack profitably by the midgame. The blasting station is also a good way to finish off games. I was never able to get the gravecrawler/blasting station combo to work, but I did kill the pod player once with blasting station and geralf's messenger to get the last 6 points of damage I needed in.
There are a couple of changes I would like to make. First, I would find space for the fourth phyrexian arena. The games where I did not have one in play were much harder, and it got abrupt decayed several times, so I wouldn't mind having one in hand with one in play. Second, I would like to replace one or two of the Erebos with Phyrexian Obliterator. This latter point is mainly a budget issue as Erebos is $5 a piece and I can't afford $30 a piece for the Obliterator, but I think it would improve the deck to have access to one or two of them.
Thanks for the feedback. I think that affinity is pretty close to an auto-loss for me the first game, as I don't have any creatures that can block until turn 3 or 4. By that time, unless the affinity player is unlucky, I will either be dead or close to it. For the second game, I take out the Go for the Throat and bring in sweepers and more removal. I haven't actually played against affinity with the deck, but I am pretty sure I am weak to it even after board. I just don't think there is much that can be done about it when I have so many creatures that can't block. The main reason I chose Go for the Throat mainboard is that it cannot be redirected by Spellskite.
On the other hand, I think we are strong against a number of archetypes that rely on targeted removal, like Jund and the Blue/Red control decks that rely on lightning bolt and lightning helix. Those cards are not that effective against our creatures, although we do have to worry about graveyard hate after sideboarding.
The vampire hexmages in the sideboard are my response to Tron because they can take out Karn.
I wish that I had some answer to artifacts in the sideboard (particularly relic of progenitus), but black seems to be pretty weak in that area. I have even thought of adding a red or green splash just to get access to abrupt decay or some sort of artifact destruction.
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I'm sorry, did u have a comment about my deck?
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
Hm, i guess it accidentally became much more sacrificial/aggro than devotion, it did start off as a devotion deck
I guess i could drop 2 Gary for the 2 Abyssal Persecutors. and i was thinking of Profane Command but I'm not sure what to take out
I'm also going to put in more disruption and targeted removals.
Does anyone have ideas on how to improve my deck? be as harsh as u want, i can take it
You're right though, it can be really hard to manage the early game with too many critters who can't block.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
I will always firmly stand by the belief that Magic is a game first and a collectable second.
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential
I will always firmly stand by the belief that Magic is a game first and a collectable second.
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
4x Bloodghast
1x Disciple of Bolas
1x Entomber Exarch
1x Fleshbag Marauder
3x Geralf's Messenger
4x Gravecrawler
3x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1x Murderous Redcap
2x Phyrexian Obliterator
3x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
2x Blood Crypt
4x Marsh Flats
3x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4x Overgrown Tomb
6x Swamp
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Abrupt Decay
3x Dismember
1x Putrefy
4x Birthing Pod
Sideboard (15)
1x Anathemancer
1x Damnation
1x Fleshbag Marauder
3x Fulminator Mage
2x Leyline of the Void
1x Putrefy
2x Rakdos Charm
3x Shadow of Doubt
1x Whip of Erebos
4 Overgrown Tomb
2 Woodland Cemetery
2 Temple of Malady
7 Swamp
4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Liliana of the Veil
3 Phyrexian Arena
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
3 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Profane Command
The deck has evolved into some type of hybrid Black Devotion and BG Rock deck. Right now I have Woodland Cemetery and Temple of Malady as a 2-of to see which I like more. I have a feeling that I'll end up sticking with Cemetery, but I wanted to do some testing.
I'm really happy with the majority of the MB, the only card that I'm not sold on is Geralf's Messenger. I do like him in this list more than others list that play cards like Gravecrawler, Bloodghast, and other early drops creatures that can't block because I have turn 2 Goyf and Crusader.
Thoughts?
Currently Playing:
Modern:
Tron
Titan-Shift
Best play was turn 5 against my buddys mill deck. He has me down to 5 cards an I am on the draw. I have Phyrexian Arena out along with a Lotleth Troll, two swamps, a Llanowar Wastes, and an Overgrown tomb. I had a Gary in hand and drew into my Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and my last Bloodghast (the rest had been milled). I feed the troll with the ghast, slap down Nykthos return four Bloodghasts at once, tap two and Nykthos, getting 11 black mana and then cast my gary for the win. Every game after that, he exiled my ghast as soon as they hit the yard!
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
4x Gravecrawler
4x Gatekeeper of Malakir
4x Geralf's Messenger
4x Phyrexian Obliterator
4x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2x Tombstalker
2x Whip of Erebos
4x Pphyrexian Arena
Instant (2)
2x Victim of Night
Sorcery (6)
2x Consume Spirit
4x Inquisition/Thoughtseize
Land (24)
3x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
21x Swamp
1x Geth's Veredict
1x Bojuka bog (or 2x Leyline of The Void)
1x Vampire Hexmage
1x Extirpate (and maybe more with Surgical Extraction)
1x Drown in Sorrow (small aggro sweeper)
1x Evil Presence (or Contaminated Ground) (Huge against TRON decks, or highly reliable on their manabases)
SIDEBOARD: Ajustable to the local metagame.
It has a good devotion, solid draw, life gain/loss control, disruption and an awesome board presence.
Tombstalker is a situational card. It's true that this deck won't fill the graveyard, cause geralf's will be exiled, gravecrawler can comeback. But, Even with only 2~3 cards, it'll come to the board as a 5 mana, 5/5 flying body in the late game. But it's not a locked slot.
Gatekeeper has a awesome sinergy whith gray and the whip; even with geralf's for causing the opponent to lose another 2 life and coming back as a 3/3.
About Bloodghast, i think it's whole potential will only be explored by having fetch lands, since i won't play them, i didn't put it on my decklist.
all the other creatures (besides gravecraler) have an effect that can target the opposite player, without costing more mana, but shade can just pump itself.
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
3 Bloodghast
3 Geralf's Messenger
3 Vampire Nighthawk
3 Phyrexian Obliterator
3 Grey Merchant of Asphodel
3 Victim of Night
3 Thoughtseize
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
3 Mutavault
2 Nykthos, Shine to Nyx
2 Cavern of Souls
4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
13 Swamp
2 Torpor Orb
3 Damnation
2 Doomblade
1 Thoughtseize
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Doomblade
3 Nihil Spellbomb
I was thinking of adding a 3rd Cavern to the Mainboard with all of the counterspells and snapcasters going around now. Besides that what does everyone think of it?
Also what do people think about using Phyrexian Crusader instead of Vampire Nighthawk as a 3 drop to go with Messenger?
Modern:
BR Control
Grixis Bloo
EDH:
Food Chain Prossh
Land Wipe Maelstrom Wanderer
Selvala, Hearth of the Wilds Eldrazi
Reprint Opt for Modern!!
FREE DIG THOROUGH TIME!
PLAY MORE ROUGE DECKS!
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
4 x Gravecrawler
4 x Bloodghast
4 x Geralf's Messenger
4 x Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 x Erebos, God of the Dead
4 x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 x Thoughtseize
3 x Inquisition of Kozilek
2 x Go for the Throat
2 x Victim of Night
2 x Blasting Station
3 x Phyrexian Arena
21 x Swamp
2 x Nykthos, Shrine of Nyx
Hopefully, that adds up to 60 cards because I am doing it from memory. The sideboard was
2 x Doom Blade
2 x Geth's Verdict
3 x Mutilate
1 x Thoughtseize
1 x Inquisition of Kozilek
2 x Vampire Hexmage
3 x Withered Wretch
1 x Mind Slash
Round 1 I played some sort of random Boros good stuff deck. It wasn't very well put together and I won easily. I think it may have been the player's first tournament. I tried to be encouraging, but they went 0-2 and then dropped.
Round 2 was against an Ad Nauseum combo deck. The first game I got lucky and had a gravecrawler and a thoughtseize. I took a combo piece and got there with the gravecrawler. The second game I mulliganed looking for hand disruption and kept a hand that included 1 thoughtseize and 2 inquisition of kozilek. I decimated his hand and killed him with a gravecrawler.
Round 3 I played a Melira pod list. This round went to time but I eventually won 2-1. The pod list has a huge amount of card advantage and I had a really tough time keeping up with the seemingly endless critters. The all-star of the match was Gray Merchant. Several times, I was nearly dead then resolved a big Gray Merchant to get back in the game. Withered wretch out of the sideboard was also key, as I was able to use it to break up the persist combo with Redcap and Kitchen Finks. Finally, mutilate was also good out of the sideboard as I was able to wipe his board late in the third game when he had a seeming insurmountable lead.
Round 4 was against an Assault Loam deck. The first turn on the play, he raven crime's me and I discard Bloodghast. My turn I drop a swamp, get back the Bloodghast and cast a gravecrawler. He was never able to recover. In the second game, withered wretch allowed me to remove the life from the loam's from his graveyard to disrupt his combo. With a phyrexian arena, a gravecrawler and a bloodghast in play, Erebos was a creature at last and finished him off.
I was pretty happy with the deck. Gray Merchant is what makes the deck possible. I was usually gaining 8-12 life off him. It closes out games well, which is a problem for the deck as the gravecrawlers and bloodghasts usually can't attack profitably by the midgame. The blasting station is also a good way to finish off games. I was never able to get the gravecrawler/blasting station combo to work, but I did kill the pod player once with blasting station and geralf's messenger to get the last 6 points of damage I needed in.
There are a couple of changes I would like to make. First, I would find space for the fourth phyrexian arena. The games where I did not have one in play were much harder, and it got abrupt decayed several times, so I wouldn't mind having one in hand with one in play. Second, I would like to replace one or two of the Erebos with Phyrexian Obliterator. This latter point is mainly a budget issue as Erebos is $5 a piece and I can't afford $30 a piece for the Obliterator, but I think it would improve the deck to have access to one or two of them.
Hope this info helps.
Thanks for the feedback. I think that affinity is pretty close to an auto-loss for me the first game, as I don't have any creatures that can block until turn 3 or 4. By that time, unless the affinity player is unlucky, I will either be dead or close to it. For the second game, I take out the Go for the Throat and bring in sweepers and more removal. I haven't actually played against affinity with the deck, but I am pretty sure I am weak to it even after board. I just don't think there is much that can be done about it when I have so many creatures that can't block. The main reason I chose Go for the Throat mainboard is that it cannot be redirected by Spellskite.
On the other hand, I think we are strong against a number of archetypes that rely on targeted removal, like Jund and the Blue/Red control decks that rely on lightning bolt and lightning helix. Those cards are not that effective against our creatures, although we do have to worry about graveyard hate after sideboarding.
The vampire hexmages in the sideboard are my response to Tron because they can take out Karn.
I wish that I had some answer to artifacts in the sideboard (particularly relic of progenitus), but black seems to be pretty weak in that area. I have even thought of adding a red or green splash just to get access to abrupt decay or some sort of artifact destruction.