MTG Salvation

I was brainstorming today, and I realized that a lot of the good devotion creatures tend to come back from the graveyard in some way shape or form, and I wondered if it was possible to make a mono black devotion deck that ramps up to a big death cloud. The idea is that this is both an aggro deck and a combo deck. The goal would be to play efficient black devotion cards that leave a favorable board state after wiping the board with a large Death Cloud that is ramped into using Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. The goal is to eventually have 2 or 3 creatures on board while your opponent is left without any lands, creatures on the battlefield, or cards in hand.

We play a full suite of discard to fight combo and grab troublesome cards like Mana Leak, Remand, Pillar of Flame, Anger of the Gods, etc.

All of our creatures recur, and this plays well with Smallpox, which is really just a smaller version of Death Cloud.



I think the strength of this deck lies in the fact that recursive creatures are good in a format where Lightning Bolt is everywhere. The other strength is that Path to Exile can help us hit our land drops and make up for lands lost to Smallpox or Death Cloud. Any thoughts on how this could do in the modern meta game?

I think you could probably cut one or two redcaps and apparitions and a thoughtseize for some targeted removal (darkblast comes to mind) against stuff like affinity which this list wouldn't be fast enough against--otherwise seems cool, do it!

Any thoughts on Nether Traitor or Bridge From Below? Both are extremely efficient with respect to their devotion, and Bridge could be nuts off of a giant Death Cloud if it is in your graveyard. Bridge just seems like a win-win because it is either 3 devotion or it is a token a generator in your graveyard. The tokens also help Gravecrawler, who needs more Zombies in this deck.

Also how does Bridge From Below and Smallpox work? If I used Smallpox as a discard outlet for Bridge would Bridge trigger off of the other effects that result because of Smallpox?

Edit:

Here is my second draft:



I decided to cut Smallpox since it hinders a turn 4 Death Cloud. Instead I included 3 Gray Merchant of Asphodel as a back up plan in case if I don't draw Death Cloud. So that gives the deck 7 cards to ramp up into once the devotion is pretty high.

Quote from cloudman »

Also how does Bridge From Below and Smallpox work? If I used Smallpox as a discard outlet for Bridge would Bridge trigger off of the other effects that result because of Smallpox?

If you discard Bridge to Smallpox, it's in the graveyard by the time you sacrifice a creature, so it'll see that creature die and make a token. If your opponent sacs a creature, it'll see that too and exile itself.

General comment: I think you're going too deep in search of devotion cards. Not everything you play has to be 100% black mana symbols -- doing so actually can make things incredibly awkward, when you get stuck with a bunch of BBB cards, two Swamps, and a Nykthos. You also end up playing some seriously sub-par cards (looking at you, Restless Apparition). If it doesn't recur or do anything besides sit there and attack sometimes, don't play it! Yes, mono-green devotion runs Wistful Selkie, but in addition to its devotion it gives an effect they badly need (card draw).

In particular, I'd recommend Phyrexian Arena. Double-black is good and always castable, it survives Death Cloud, and it helps you rebuild really quickly post-Cloud.

Rotting rats?

Crypt Ghast...? backup ramp card if you don't have Nykthos or if it gets GQ'd away

I'm actually thinking Suicide Black might be the way to go here:



Any thoughts? I like Death's Shadow post Death Cloud. Something feels really good about that. And there are scenarios where you can Death Cloud float an extra mana go down to 1 card in hand and then cast Death's Shadow. That seems like an extremely strong line of play. It also has the potential to be an amazing top deck during the late game.

I actually feel pretty good about how this deck would match up against the meta because Death Cloud recks Tron, Bogles, combo, control, manlands. You name it and Death Cloud recks it because every deck needs lands, cards, and life. Being an aggro deck it can race combo decks and other aggro decks. The deck overall seems resilient against Lightning Bolt and Lightning Helix. The deck has answers for Planeswalkers in Vampire Hexmage.

I think the type of decks that it would struggle against the most are any type of aggro, but that is why the deck has Gray Merchant of Asphodel who can come out of the sideboard. Since rdw/burn has been running Flames of the Blood Hand and Skullcrack I figured maybe a better card to combat burn would be Platinum Angel or Wurmcoil Engine? I also really like Vampire Hexmage out of the sideboard for Sangrophage in the burn match-up because it blocks Goblin Guide, Eidolon of the Great Revel, and Hellspark Elemental like a champ. I think I have a good idea here, but I am looking for more feedback to refine the list. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Phyrexian Obliterator says hello.

Quote from Artificial Alchemist »

Crypt Ghast...? backup ramp card if you don't have Nykthos or if it gets GQ'd away

I'm worried about it not passing the bolt test, and it doesn't play well with the aggro plan. I'm looking for good suicide black cards that have good devotion as well. So basically I need cards that support both the aggro plan and the Death Cloud/Nykthos/devotion plan. The deck needs to be able to win without drawing Death Cloud.

Quote from Happy Shaman »

Phyrexian Obliterator says hello.

But the question is what would you cut?

Perhaps Bob could fit somewhere into this feel like black's best 2-drop will help more than it will hurt (though it does hurt >.<)