MTG Salvation

Very good points, thank you. I switched out the Bob's for sign in blood. We'll see how that goes on Friday.

Quote from catman2021 »

Very good points, thank you. I switched out the Bob's for sign in blood. We'll see how that goes on Friday.

Why not run phyrexian arena?

it also counts toward devotion.

I actually ran phyrexian arena for a while. I found that even though it added to devotion, it came down too late to be useful for me. Most of the time I would choose other higher priority 3 drops, and often wouldn't play it until turns 4-6.

Although Sign in blood doesn't add to devotion, I have played it on turn 2 on several occasions to get out of a mana screw/flood or to add fuel. Additionally, you get that extra card immediately, rather than two turns after playing phyrexian arena.

I ran Gatekeeper of Malakir for a while as well, in the place of slaughter pact and victim of night. It may be meta dependent, but I ran into a lot of Emrakul/Grislebrand decks, and I would often die with mana open and a gatekeeper of malakir in hand, wishing it was an instant speed kill spell.

But yes, Gatekeeper is a great card.

Quote from catman2021 »

I actually ran phyrexian arena for a while. I found that even though it added to devotion, it came down too late to be useful for me. Most of the time I would choose other higher priority 3 drops, and often wouldn't play it until turns 4-6.

Although Sign in blood doesn't add to devotion, I have played it on turn 2 on several occasions to get out of a mana screw/flood or to add fuel. Additionally, you get that extra card immediately, rather than two turns after playing phyrexian arena.

I ran Gatekeeper of Malakir for a while as well, in the place of slaughter pact and victim of night. It may be meta dependent, but I ran into a lot of Emrakul/Grislebrand decks, and I would often die with mana open and a gatekeeper of malakir in hand, wishing it was an instant speed kill spell.

But yes, Gatekeeper is a great card.

Thats why we run leyline of the void, etc.....

Been playing this lately and thought I would share. The deck is missing some upgrades but as of now I'm not planning on investing anymore. I feel I need another removal spell instead of Victim of Night as it doesn't hit my own zombies on the occasions you need to kill your own Geralf's Messenger for that game ending shock damage, or Relentless Dead when you need to reanimate Fleshbag Marauder, Geralf's Messenger, or Gray Merchant of Asphodel. The only removal I can think of is Dismember but it doesnt hit Titans or anything big as Victim of Night does. 1/1 split maybe? Ideas?

Quote from br1ngb4ckplut0 »

Pokerkingdave's DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Creatures - 23 4 Gifted Aetherborn 4 Relentless Dead 1 Gatekeeper of Malakir 3 Fleshbag Marauder 4 Geralf's Messenger 3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet 1 Phyrexian Obliterator 3 Gray Merchant of Asphodel	Planeswalkers - 4 4 Liliana of the Veil Instants - 5 3 Fatal Push 2 Victim of Night Sorceries - 7 3 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 Thoughtseize Lands - 21 4 Bloodstained Mire 4 Polluted Delta 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth	Sideboard - 15 1 Whip of Erebos 1 Erebos, God of the Dead 3 Fulminator Mage 1 Curse of Death's Hold 4 Leyline of the Void 2 Hero's Downfall 1 Collective Brutality 1 Profane Command 1 Sadistic Sacrament

Been playing this lately and thought I would share. The deck is missing some upgrades but as of now I'm not planning on investing anymore. I feel I need another removal spell instead of Victim of Night as it doesn't hit my own zombies on the occasions you need to kill your own Geralf's Messenger for that game ending shock damage, or Relentless Dead when you need to reanimate Fleshbag Marauder, Geralf's Messenger, or Gray Merchant of Asphodel. The only removal I can think of is Dismember but it doesnt hit Titans or anything big as Victim of Night does. 1/1 split maybe? Ideas?

I think you need to increase the land count to 23-24 so you can play on curve.

with so many zombies, gravecrawler or bloodsoaked champion are a budget bloodghast.
i would cut one kalitas for some cheaper threats like gatekeeper of malakir
maybe run go for the throat for those bigger creatures?

What is our plan against eldrazi tron?

fulminator mage is too slow against them. Should we be running a 2-2 split between fulminator mage and ghost quarter?

What's the verdict on Bone Picker in this deck? Just curious as I'm looking at making a budget mono-black devotion until I can fully invest in some LotV's and some other big money cards.

Hey all,

I've got over half of the staples for monoblack devotion chilling in my binder. I'd appreciate feedback on this prospective build before I start trading/buying towards completion: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/11-05-17-devotion-to-darkness/

The biggest question for me is the four-drop slot. Obliterator is the go-to staple, but I'm seeing some people run Kalitas instead of or in addition to the Obliterator. Ashenmoor Liege is also in consideration, it seems, even if for budget reasons, at least to some degree.

Could any Bx Devotion veterans give a breakdown of the pros and cons of our four-drop options? I own none of them at the moment, and since they're the biggest investment as well as a crucial component in how the deck seems to function, I don't want to pull the trigger on purchases haphazardly. Thanks much!

Quote from SavageGaul »

Hey all,

I've got over half of the staples for monoblack devotion chilling in my binder. I'd appreciate feedback on this prospective build before I start trading/buying towards completion: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/11-05-17-devotion-to-darkness/

The biggest question for me is the four-drop slot. Obliterator is the go-to staple, but I'm seeing some people run Kalitas instead of or in addition to the Obliterator. Ashenmoor Liege is also in consideration, it seems, even if for budget reasons, at least to some degree.

Could any Bx Devotion veterans give a breakdown of the pros and cons of our four-drop options? I own none of them at the moment, and since they're the biggest investment as well as a crucial component in how the deck seems to function, I don't want to pull the trigger on purchases haphazardly. Thanks much!

phyrexian obliterator isn't so good at the moment. I would make room for 3-4 pack rat. It is absolutely bonkers and takes over games by itself.
also, go up to 4 geralf's messenger. when you have the nut draw, you will regret not having one turn 3.

mindwrack demon is a decent 4-drop budget as well.

kalitas, traitor of ghet gives you incidental graveyard hate. its also a combo with bloodghast.

Quote from Pokerkingdave »

phyrexian obliterator isn't so good at the moment. I would make room for 3-4 pack rat. It is absolutely bonkers and takes over games by itself.
also, go up to 4 geralf's messenger. when you have the nut draw, you will regret not having one turn 3.

mindwrack demon is a decent 4-drop budget as well.

kalitas, traitor of ghet gives you incidental graveyard hate. its also a combo with bloodghast.

Wow, interesting. That's not what I expected to hear at all--I was thinking Obliterator is a cornerstone of a Devotion build. Pack Rat seems promising, but I'd probably have to find room for other creatures besides Bloodghast that I can play from the yard as well...or perhaps include tech like Victimize, in order to cheat out some discarded Gray Merchants.

Good call on the Kalitas/Bloodghast synergy. Mindwrack is cool; I'll have to finalize the rest of the desired build first and then run the numbers on the Delirium condition.

Thanks!

What do people think the best version of this deck would be to take to SCG Baltimore this weekend? What would be some possible SB strategies against Eldrazi Tron, especially?

I'm also interested in that question, what's the base mono black devotion to use?
How about demigod of revenge? With Liliana of the veil, collective brutality, it can be a good devotion enabler and can hit hard on turn 5. You just have to have one in your graveyard and hit for 10 with two flying creatures.

Quote from Elguur »

Hello guys !
I play a similar deck.
A friend is playing mono U extra turns and I can't figure out how to beat him.
Maybe you have an idea ?

@ Elguur - you do have some tools that can help vs Turns, mainly your discard targeting their *draw* engine cards (Dictate of Kruphix and Howling Mine are the prime targets in the older Turns builds, otherwise Ancestral vision, or in the new builds As Foretold is huge for them). Post-side Fulminator Mage is solid vs Turns, because they need to survive to a critical mass of lands with an engine in play. Unless they're playing Baral, all removal can come out in favor of more hand disruption or land destruction. Other than that once they hit 4 mana generally don't play anything on your turn until second main phase, so that if they need to cryptic to tap down your board, they can't counter/tap, but have to draw/tap instead. If you really want to dedicate to beating the deck, you can run some copies of boil in the side as well - if you have one in hand you'd need to prioritize taking counter-magic with your hand disruption spells so that the coast is clear to resolve boil. Targeting counter-magic rather than engine cards could leave you exposed to them comboing off to an early Temporal Mastery though so there's some risk to that strategy. Still, it's something you can try for cheap if you are struggling in the matchup and want to try some targeted hate. Hope that helps!

https://www.channelfireball.com/videos/modern-monday-mono-black-devotion/
This seems to be a pretty good list, matches up pretty well against DS decks.

Kalitas and Phyrexian Arena seem pretty slow and I'd probably move them to the SB.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet does work. Just his ability that exiles opponents creatures does a ton of work in the current meta. You are absolutely right about Arena, I run 4x sign in blood over Phyrexian Arena because even though the devotion is nice, it is way too slow to be effective.

Sign in Blood can also be used as a finisher against opponents.

Skimming through the lists, I'm not seeing too much anti-Burn tech in people's sideboards. I'm probably better equipped to take on Burn than the average Devotion player with 3x Collective Brutality, 3x Gifted Aetherborn, and 1x Kalitas in the main, but the matchup still worries me.

Options I'm considering:

Vampiric Link (usually enchanting an enemy threat, but rather hilarious when slapped on Obliterator)
Alms of the Vein (pretty amazing when pitched to Brutality; firmly mediocre otherwise)
Gonti's Machinations (lower value ceiling than Alms, but less dependent on other cards to make it worth the mana. Adds +1 Devotion in fringe scenarios)
Another Aetherborn or Kalitas in the side

How has the Burn matchup treated you guys? Any thoughts on the above possibilities? Alternate suggestions?

Quote from SavageGaul »

Skimming through the lists, I'm not seeing too much anti-Burn tech in people's sideboards. I'm probably better equipped to take on Burn than the average Devotion player with 3x Collective Brutality, 3x Gifted Aetherborn, and 1x Kalitas in the main, but the matchup still worries me.

Options I'm considering:

Vampiric Link (usually enchanting an enemy threat, but rather hilarious when slapped on Obliterator)
Alms of the Vein (pretty amazing when pitched to Brutality; firmly mediocre otherwise)
Gonti's Machinations (lower value ceiling than Alms, but less dependent on other cards to make it worth the mana. Adds +1 Devotion in fringe scenarios)
Another Aetherborn or Kalitas in the side

How has the Burn matchup treated you guys? Any thoughts on the above possibilities? Alternate suggestions?

Well, if you run a set of Gifted Aetherborn and two Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet main, and two Collective Brutality in the side, that should mitigate a lot of burn damage.

In addition to the Vampiric Link you mentioned, I guess you could always try Basilisk Collar or Pharika's Cure?

Cure is decent tech in light of the other options. Thanks for the heads up on that.

This deck has been performing quite well for me in testing. No tourney action yet--I'm still a few (important, expensive) pieces shy of completion--but the signs are all good.

Liliana, the Last Hope has been an absolute boss for me--so much so that I'm starting to wonder whether she's better than Liliana of the Veil for us.

+1: Last Hope's is never dead; worst case, you tick her up without targeting. Veil's ability ceiling is massive (enemy is forced to pitch CoCo or a similar key piece, while we smile and ditch a Bloodghast), but personally, this ability makes her worse on T3 than Last Hope if we're curving out well. If I play a LotV and have an Obliterator/Kalitas, Gray Merchant, and Swamp in hand, even considering the discard +1 hurts my soul.

-2: LotV's effect is more obviously powerful, but it's worth noting that we're one of the only Modern decks that can reasonably play this effect on a stick in the maindeck via Gatekeeper of Malakir. Last Hope's -2 has been surprisingly effective over long, interactive games, where I've found myself ticking up and occasionally down instead of just racing for the ult.

-7: They're both dope. Different enough and rarely seen enough to make this comparison unnecessary, IMO.

TL;DR: I'm starting to like Lili, the Last Hope over Lili of the Veil. Am I crazy?

It seems to me like Liliana, the Last Hope's utility is more meta and matchup dependent than Liliana of the Veil, whose abilities are more outright powerful. That being said, I do think that LotV is more powerful in Jund (when Jund was dominant) than she is in Bx Devotion. If I had one more LotV, I would run a 2-1 split LotV - LtLH, and be quite happy.

But that's just me, I'd love to hear others respond to this debate, especially as it relates to the current meta.

Quote from catman2021 »

It seems to me like Liliana, the Last Hope's utility is more meta and matchup dependent than Liliana of the Veil, whose abilities are more outright powerful. That being said, I do think that LotV is more powerful in Jund (when Jund was dominant) than she is in Bx Devotion. If I had one more LotV, I would run a 2-1 split LotV - LtLH, and be quite happy.

But that's just me, I'd love to hear others respond to this debate, especially as it relates to the current meta.

I run the 2-1 split between veil and last hope. liliana, the last hope is great to recur geralf's messenger, and gray merchant of asphodel, and picks off spirit tokens from lingering souls. liliana of the veil is better against decks like death's shadow, etc...

Long time lurker and player of Bx Devotion. It's been a while since I've checked the thread, but what are your thoughts on Bloodghast vs. Relentless Dead vs Gifted Aetherborn? I apologize if this was discussed before.