After playing with Lili, I'm wondering if maybe she's just unnecessary with all our draw power anyway. I might try Liliana of the Veil instead and see how that goes.
After some extensive testing against a variety of deck types today, I've made a few changes. The Gilded Lotus, while great for Grixis, did end up being too clunky, so you were right about that. The decklist now looks like this:
Trading Post has been stupidly strong in all the games I've used it in, and it's fairly amusing as well. I'm considering dropping 1 Markov for another Mutilate, but I'm unsure. Haven't taken it to a tourney yet and have 1 empty spot left in my sideboard, can't decide on what. Also, what do you guys think about Staff of Nin?
Give it a shot. I've tried most of the alternatives, and BW seemed very clunky. This build has been very fluid and has done very well in all my testing.
I have to ask, why are you playing Gilded Lotus??? especially since you're playing mono black...
It was originally in my Grixis Control/Nicol Bolas deck, but I've been trying it out for mono black. I've had good success with the additional mana, and it's far more useful than additional solemn simulacrums and Mycosynth Wellsprings.
I've had some pretty impressive luck with it so far. Liliana of the Dark Realms is amazing for finding lands and her ult is great if you're having to play around mana leaks. Mutilate is definitely better than Black Sun's in most cases, and I might add 2 more if I can find the spots, as mass creature removal really helps out. The only decks I struggle against are Delver and some Zombie decks.
I also want to find a third bomb. I'm currently using geist-honored monk, but I feel like Grave Titan probably isn't the answer either.
EDIT: What do you think about Sigarda? She sounds like she would be great vs Delver later on and against control matchups, which Elesh Norn and Wurmcoil aren't as good against.
Sigarda's a possibility I think, but she wouldn't do much against Delver. She's just another victim of SoWaP, which every list I've seen locally runs 3-4 of. As far as dealing with flyers with SoWaP, I haven't found an answer. I like Grave Titan as he is the last creature you'd ever want to Vapor Snag, but again, doesn't do much against flyers. I guess I could give Nefarox a shot, but I dunno. We'll see.
Seeing as this is the Birthing Pod Primer, I assumed it had all the relevant information pertaining to birthing pod. I did a search throughout the thread for the word "Silverblade" and got no hits. So I posted. I'm sorry if I didn't read all the threads.
Thoughts on Silverblade Paladin in Naya? The 2 white mana hurts it, but it could give something to hardcast to improve our beaters, and increase our speed a bit, and double strike is a way out of deathtouch.
I've noticed, especially on MWS, a major spike in various colored infect decks running Rancor. While good hate cards can destroy the decktype, it can still be rather frustrating to deal with. I'm curious if there are any cards in standard that have any way to remove poison counters or handle infect, aside from Melira.
How do you guys win with this deck? Not trying to be rude or anything, as I have a Boros Humans deck that I play on the side, and I love the build, but I can't win with it. Against Naya Pod or RG Aggro, they simply clog up the board and prevent my attacks from getting through. Delver is a pretty good matchup as long as no swords or pikes are involved. Control decks can be hit or miss depending on their luck with board sweepers. I play a janky junk superfriends (BWG) in FNM and have yet to lose to any human deck. I want to play my humans, as they're fun and I feel like they have real potential, but I don't know how to get around these bad matchups. Most of my meta is either RG aggro, pod, or tokens. Any advice?
That seems like a rather small prize pool. The price at our store per contestant was $25, we each got 6 packs to build with, obviously. The top 4 got, in order, a box, 15 packs, 10 packs, and 5 packs. It was a 32 man tourney. The second prerelease, we only had 9 contestants, and the top four just split a box. I only got anything from the second one, in which I got 3rd. I suck at limited formats.
I actually just replaced Sun Titan in my list with Entreat the Angels, which seems strong. I'm skeptical about grave titan, but maybe I'll take your suggestion and give him a whirl.
Grave Titan's more of a test than anything. I have an Entreat that I'd like to add, but I'm unsure of what to take out. I like three creatures, because they synergize so well with Garruk's -1 ability, although Elesh Norn and Wurmcoil Engine alone are sufficient game changers. I also plan to give Sublime Archangel a shot when M13 is legal. I pulled one in a prerelease and her exalted abilities might go well with tokens. We'll see. She might end up being another failed experiment like Geist-Honored Monk was.
I like your list a lot. I might try the mainboard Timely Reinforcements, that seems good. 2 things: How did Grave Titan work for you? Have you tried Gavony Township? I've found that card to be a house.
I threw in the Timely's because of the sheer amount or R/G Aggro and Pod decks in our meta. Grave Titan is good. I like him more than Sun Titan, because he doesn't share a color with Elesh Norn, so he can block War and Peace. He's also very prone to being hate carded, leaving the field open for your other big plays. I might have to try Gavony Township also.
Trading Post has been stupidly strong in all the games I've used it in, and it's fairly amusing as well. I'm considering dropping 1 Markov for another Mutilate, but I'm unsure. Haven't taken it to a tourney yet and have 1 empty spot left in my sideboard, can't decide on what. Also, what do you guys think about Staff of Nin?
It was originally in my Grixis Control/Nicol Bolas deck, but I've been trying it out for mono black. I've had good success with the additional mana, and it's far more useful than additional solemn simulacrums and Mycosynth Wellsprings.
I've had some pretty impressive luck with it so far. Liliana of the Dark Realms is amazing for finding lands and her ult is great if you're having to play around mana leaks. Mutilate is definitely better than Black Sun's in most cases, and I might add 2 more if I can find the spots, as mass creature removal really helps out. The only decks I struggle against are Delver and some Zombie decks.
Sigarda's a possibility I think, but she wouldn't do much against Delver. She's just another victim of SoWaP, which every list I've seen locally runs 3-4 of. As far as dealing with flyers with SoWaP, I haven't found an answer. I like Grave Titan as he is the last creature you'd ever want to Vapor Snag, but again, doesn't do much against flyers. I guess I could give Nefarox a shot, but I dunno. We'll see.
Seeing as this is the Birthing Pod Primer, I assumed it had all the relevant information pertaining to birthing pod. I did a search throughout the thread for the word "Silverblade" and got no hits. So I posted. I'm sorry if I didn't read all the threads.
Grave Titan's more of a test than anything. I have an Entreat that I'd like to add, but I'm unsure of what to take out. I like three creatures, because they synergize so well with Garruk's -1 ability, although Elesh Norn and Wurmcoil Engine alone are sufficient game changers. I also plan to give Sublime Archangel a shot when M13 is legal. I pulled one in a prerelease and her exalted abilities might go well with tokens. We'll see. She might end up being another failed experiment like Geist-Honored Monk was.
I threw in the Timely's because of the sheer amount or R/G Aggro and Pod decks in our meta. Grave Titan is good. I like him more than Sun Titan, because he doesn't share a color with Elesh Norn, so he can block War and Peace. He's also very prone to being hate carded, leaving the field open for your other big plays. I might have to try Gavony Township also.
The deck runs surprisingly well, far better than I had expected. I don't think anyone else really expected it either.