Really fun mono black value deck. Think this deck will be competitive enough to compete with the meta, but would love any and all suggestions!!!
Every card is meant to hold strong value and synergy:
Mainboard
Gatekeeper of Malakir gets rid of something and leaves a body so almost always a 2-1, especially against decks with a low threat-density like Death's Shadow, Bogles, or helps regain some ground from fast decks like Humans.
Dread Shade took the place of Geralf's Messenger, because coming in untapped is huge in creature heavy/aggro meta with Humans. Also, running Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx can get out of hand with this guy on the field!
Gifted Aetherborn allows us to chump a larger creature and kill it while gaining some life to even slow down aggro decks/help alleviate Phyrexian Arena and Thoughtseize life loss.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel can be a HUGE gain & drain effect with a body, the ultimate game ender in Mono Black!
Phyrexian Obliterator is the staple of any competitive mono black deck and is just SO good! Without a specific answer it takes over the board, and might as well be unblockable, because if they block to kill it they probably lose their whole board!
Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek are some of the best plays you can start with in the modern format, and running seven total because there are so few matchups that they are bad in.
Phyrexian Arena is consecutive card draw that allows us to really pull ahead in he late game! Specifically in here for the more grindy matchups because without it, we have no form of card-advantage. It is also better than Dark Confidant because we have seven 4 drops, and 3 five drops, which means he would HURT!
Fatal Push is one of the best removal spells in the format, being able to take out a shockingly large part of the format for only 1 mana!
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is a great value card no matter what, either gaining us life with a big toughness blocker against fast matchups, or helping us shut down graveyard shenanigans, or just helping us get a better board state of 2/2 zombies, all while being able to possibly grow herself!!
Collective Brutality is good no matter what, a removal spell, something that hurts combo, or flat out life loss/gain for matchups like burn!
Liliana of the Veil is just so good!!!! Removal, discard, and a near game-winning ultimate is always needed!
Liliana, the Last Hope is some removal for little creatures, but also recursion for the good creatures and an ultimate that almost certainly wins the game if I live for even 2 turns!
Bojuka Bog is some mainboard hate to anything in graveyards like Hollow One and Dredge.
Bloodstained Mire is here to thin the deck, as well as ensure that I can use the revolt trigger on Fatal Push.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is great only because it helps us use Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx in the early game, as well as save our fetch lands for when we need them with revolt triggers on Fatal Push.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is bad on its own early games, but now that I use Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth it makes it more reliable and not completely dead, as well as now having the big mana dump of Dread Shade and even hitting the kicker cost for Sadistic Sacrament against certain decks I bring it in for.
Field of Ruin is a maindeck way to deal with decks like Tron, but also blow of Manlands, and even stuff like Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin and replacing itself with a Swamp.
Sideboard
Fatal Push to finish up the playset for the creature heavy decks.
Extirpate is a card that is just to good against any kind of combo deck, and having split second means that KCI or Storm can't just go off with it on the stack like Surgical Extraction.
Fulminator Mage is great hate for mainly Tron, but can help with the multiple man lands in the format like Inkmoth Nexus, Blinkmoth Nexus, and Raging Ravine, or a flipped Search for Azcanta
Damping Sphere is an extremely solid card to side in against some very common combo decks (KCI and Storm) as well as Tron, so why not run this?!
Leyline of the Void is some graveyard hate that is able to start on the battlefield, automatically crippling decks like Hollow One, Vengvine, and Storm.
Damnation is a sweeper against the fast wide decks like Humans, Spirits, and Elves.
Sadistic Sacrament is great for combo decks like Scapeshift and Storm, but can even hit a tron land, or just hurt a deck with a VERY low threat density.
Ob Nixilis Reignited is for matchups like Jund and Control, where the game will go long and it is all about card-advantage and who has the best cards.
