I feel like you could cut a land out for a Pack Rat .

Also why are you running Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth when you only run swamps? It helps your opponent.

dsagent, I am running Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth for the off-chance of closing a game with Swampwalk through Funeral Charm . If I find that the Urborg helps the opponent often, I'll replace it for a swamp.

I'm against singleton cards since I go for consistency in deck design. With that said, I don't think Pack Rat has enough utility on its own to justify inclusion in this deck. Moreover, it doesn't seem to synergize very well with the theme of swamps + mana.

Thanks for leaving feedback!

i think personally the whole "swamp devotion" theme could get in the way. if you want an effective card that plays to that stratigy just keep running lashwrithe and mutilate. but keep in mind the amazing upside to mutilate is that it can let your large creatures survive. however your creatures will never survive if they are all the same size as the mutilate. advice wise i think packrat would be an amzing replacement for at least 2 nuntuko shades. i know its a fun card but if you dont trigger it correctly it can end up eating all your mana and then dying to a bolt or a path. the fact that it can tap you out is scary. black is known for its responses alot of the time. with that ill lead into control and removal. alot of the top decks run a full playset of thoughtseize and a full playset of inquisition. there is a reason for this. its that packrat eats the spells you dont want and turn 1 hand disruption usually means you either win the game or extremely cripple your opponents plays. with that in mind i think you could get away with 3 of each and still be fine considering you have your 2 funeral charms. but you could definately use some better spot removal. alot of creatures in magic are at least 3 or more toughness

so id recommend a playset or combination of Go for the Throat , Victim of Night , and Doomblade depending on what your meta sees alot of. for example if theres alot of affinity and artifacts dont run as many go for the throats. also i think 2 goths verdicts is fine but you really want to be able to target some creatures. with that in mind alot of decks run 8-14 removal/kill spells total.

anyways nice deck +1 from me and my over all recommendations are 1x Doom Blade , 1x Go for the Throat and 4x Victim of Night along with 2 of the geths verdicts you already have and top it off with 2-4 Pack Rat as a replacement for some nuntuko shades. again plus one i love mono black its my baby.

oh and your opinion questions liliana of the dark realms is to expensive to warrent play because thats when your win condition should be hittin gthe field. mutilate isant always the best idea mainboard but in aggro heavy metas i dont think anyone would blame you. lastly i would say no to hypnotic specter but thats just me personally id like a garenteed killspell and a 2/2 versus a situational 2/2 with an ok discard ability. but i would say the thing id like to see least is a liliana of the darkrealms in this deck. its just not going to be effective. lashwrithe should never leave your board 2 of is just to good and keep in mind lashwrithe on a late game vampire nighthawk is extremely good.

Hey Tragic, I agree with the swamp devotion theme getting in the way, especially with Mutilate conflicting with Korlash, Heir to Blackblade and Lashwrithe , but it's such a fun and classic theme for mono-black! I do agree though, so I'll pick up a playset of Pack Rat and Desecration Demon and see how they do.

I also agree about getting rid of Funeral Charm and Disfigure , Modern != Legacy, so I think I can get away with not having turn1 removal. I switched from Sign in Blood to Phyrexian Arena to free up an additional slot as well.

Other than the Korlash and Lashwrithe adjustments, how does the new list look?

it definately looks alot better the 8 dicardspells is a must so thats good. other than that iv found that draw power is only useful in 2 ways for mono black. either your against an aggro deck and when you both run out of spells you start to gain the uper hand. hover with this theory mono blacks draw power has a habit of being EXTREMELY self destructive. mainboarding draw power against burn or naya or fish or affinity usually gets u pinged down for the lose. on the other hand draw power can be useful against control to continuosly generate creatures to overrun your opponent however this also conflicts with the suicidal tendencies of mono black because if they can pin down your threats ur stuck taking small amounts of damage throughout the entire match which can ultimately lead to a devistating lose at your own hands. when it comes down to it as dump as it seems i would only ever sideboard 2 Underworld Connections for drawpower at best because u have the ability to shut the valve to ur carddraw engine off and it only ever helps against control being the fact that u give ur opponent to much lead by playing the damaging spells with so little life gain. i tried to remedy this by playing Corrupt and Tendrils of Corruption but in the end the easiest way to not take damage is to stop doing it to urself in the first place. after that the only other thing i need to say is if ur running urborg there should be a reason. i run it because i run destructive lands. but u have all ur black sources so all it would do is fix your opponents mana base should they need black. i recommend running 2 total urborg but ONLY if you free up a space to make a total of at least 24 lands and u add 4 of either Tectonic Edge or Ghost Quarter so u can effectively deal with decks like tron and 3-4 color control. i can say from experience that tron dies if u knock them off there mana source and ever color running deck in the world takes a big hit when they cant generate the colors they need. one more thing though Extirpate might be a better option then surgical extraction. its not much more expensive but splitsecond stops combo, spells in response, all forms of countermagic, and can eat a scavaging ooze target so they cant gain life on the ocasion that u would need to do that. but yea you will instantly notice how useful packrat is the second you hit top deck mode and u both keep drawing lands and useless spells that packrat just eats and its end game at that point.

Nightmare and Squelching Leeches would be good here, consider running Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

I would put in 2 Liliana of the Dark Realms because you can never have to many swamps for this kind of deck and i would replace 2 Inquisition of Kozilek since you've already got 4 Thoughtsieze. I would also replace Gatekeeper of Malakir for Nekrataal because he can target a creature and he has first strike which would be awesome with Lashwrithe . also Leechridden Swamp would go well in this deck because its still a swamp.

shifting away from the swamp theme does not mean you absolutely have to drop lashwrithe remember its also an equipment think about it u kill a creature with gatekeeper of malakir and suddenly u now have a body to pump and wreck face with, the same thing can be said for vampire nighthawk with its lifelink and flying deathtouch on a now 8/8 body your opponent is screwed if they cant draw removal. i presonally think you should stay with the mono black theme but move more towards midranged again its only my opinion but if u wanna take my aproach look up the rock decklist at:

http://mtgtop8.com/archetype?a=194&meta=51&f=MO

this is were i get my sources from actuall tournament style decks if you feel like taking my road im currently trying to make a mono black rock deck kinda to the style of what you would see in the pro tour minus black i still love ur list hope it works out well. packrat is OP give it some more time it might settle into your plan.

If you did swap out for the obliterator and the rat, the one thing that really comes to mind as a Lashwrithe replacement is Coat of Arms . It only costs one more mana, and would be a really fun way to make Pack Rat absolutely rediculous. Your rats would juice each other, your vamps would, too. Even your Phyrexian Obliterator s could potentially be 8/8.

How much would this deck cost if I scratch the maybeboard and take out Lashwrithe and add Coat of Arms Pack Rat and Phyrexian Obliterator and 2 Lilliana of the Dark Realms for what they swap out for in this deck according to comments? In decent condition

If you are going to run Phyrexian Obliterator and Pack Rat , a set of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx would be great. Also I think Dismember would replace Black Sun's Zenith . If you are looking for another 2-drop, Bloodghast is excellent. Gray Merchant of Asphodel could also be really good here.

I agree with tclaw12! Even if you want to keep it budget, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Gray Merchant of Asphodel can make a great addition! nice deck! +1

I feel like 4x Inquisition & 4x Thoughtseize is a bit too much. I'd think you could get away with running 2x of each, and then add 4x Gravecrawler , which you could keep replaying from the graveyard thanks to Korlash. This would help you be able to apply a lot more replenishable pressure.

Then maybe trade out your Victim of the Nights for 2x Hero's Downfall and 2x Bile Blight to help you keep pesky planeswalkers/problematic creatures that you couldn't target with Victim of the Night off the field, and Bile Blight to help combat token decks and other aggro decks.

I'm not a gigantic fan of Nantuko Shade here, but I can see how late game he has the potential to be good. Maybe drop 2x of him for something else problematically reocurring as well. Maybe Bloodghast ? Then you could drop a Phyrexian Arena for Blade of the Bloodchief to turn any of your vampires into super problems.

Swap one pact for a Dismember

Swap Phyrexian Arena for Night's Whisper or Dark Confidant

Don't run 6 4-drops. Try to run a max of 4.

It occurs to me that Ghoulcaller's Chant could be used to abuse Korlash's Grandeur ability, potentially netting you 4 swamps. Also, Lord of the Undead could be a lather-rinse-repeat way to pull swamps until you have ALL of your swamps out. Also, Leechridden Swamp could be a thing.

Hey Buckminsterfullerene, I dig the Lord of the Undead idea, especially with Stromgald Crusader . If I were to replace Vampire Nighthawk with the Lord, any idea what I could replace Gatekeeper with? Skinrender sounds like a good fit, but it's mana-cost is one too high...

Thanks!

Blood Scrivener has good utility, Sangrophage is a heavy hitter, and Yixlid Jailer is good for graveyard hate. Spiteful Returned could also be beneficial. And that's assuming you want a CMC of 2. If you're good to go 3, the best you can do for that slot is hands-down Death Baron .

Sweet deck! +1

APPLE01DOJ, thanks!

Have u considered swapping the excess copies of Black Sun's Zenith with Mutilate or Drown in Sorrow?

The issue with Mutilate is that it'll wipe my Korlash and Lashwrithe's unconditionally. In addition, BSZ's ability to scale with mana and to be re-usable was super attractive, much more than scry 1.

Replace the Lashwrithes with Nantuko Shades then.