If it's a mono black deck why are you using 4 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth?

Hi tyranpt,

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is used primarily because it colorfixes Mutavault. Additionaly, it has very good synergy with Funeral Charm, as it can make any creature unblockable.

Cool deck, so +1. I have a few suggestions,

1. Move Ensnaring Bridge into the main, likely over Asylum Visitor, While I do like the concept of Ayslum Vistor drawing you cards, Ensnaring Bridge can save you from the aggro decks in the meta. Also, any deck you face will already be bringing in their artifact hate in game 2, giving them more targets to destroy. (Tom Ross made this an excellent point in his article about 8-rack)

2. I'd reccomend Pack Rat over death's shadow, as Pack Rat is far more efficient at overruning your opponent, and any deck you bring it in against will likely be an unfair deck like Tron or Scapeshift, or a control build that'll get rid of their removal post board.

3. I'd try out Delirium Skeins, it's a little gem that sees some play in some 8-rack builds as a one of, and is also a game ending card, because lets just say you need to deal 3 to your opponent to win, but they have 3 cards in hand, this card not only can get rid of your opponent's hand, it also ditches any dead removal cards you have been keeping in your hand.

Cheers!

Out of curiosity, have you considered Nyxathid over Death's Shadow? Seems like it might help out a bit more, although I'm not an expert on 8-rack. I like the deck, good luck with the brew!

Hi TeamSDBags,

First of all, cheers for the elaborate suggestions!

1. I've grown very fond of Asylum Visitor over time. Due to its Madness it synergizes very well with Liliana of the Veil. I can however see Ensnaring Bridge outperforming it in any meta that is heavily reliant on creatures. My kitchentable meta is leaning towards creature based decks. I'll definitely do some playtesting this weekend with bridge in the mainboard.
2. I used to play Pack Rat in the main, but found it difficult to get it to work for me. Agreed, if it's ignored for a couple of turns, it does tend to go out of control. Unfortunately my opponents rarely let me swarm the board with it. I'm quite curious to how you utilize it? The idea behind my Death's Shadow in the sideboard is to fight decks like Burn. Just let them hit me, and retaliate with an unblockable 8/8 or better a turn before they can strike for lethal damage.
3. I'm not too sure about Delirium Skeins though. Its use seems niche. It is a finisher, and it activates Bridge quite nicely, but in many cases I would not like to topdeck this.

Thanks!

Hi WhisperingBlade,

Yes, I did consider Nyxathid, but Death's Shadow outperforms it for its intended use: killing Burn using Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth with Funeral Charm.

That's a clever usage of Funeral Charm that I I've never realized. I think at first glance that looks like an irrelevant mode, but I'm happy it sees use!

indroow

Pack Rat was put in my old Rack deck sideboard as a way to beat out the decks that use Leyline of Sanctity, as even though Lilli can be fantastic at keeping hand size down, many decks in the format can combo off well before you get them into top deck mode, and as we both know, Pack Rat gets out of hand very quickly. (It was swapped in over bridge if bridge was not effective game 1)

The article I was talking about Tom Ross on 8-Rack

The other card I'm suprised to not see in your deck is Smallpox as it sets most decks back at least one turn, and is a spectacular way to beat decks like infect that can kill you on turn 2.

The other fun card you can play is Hunted Horror, since they can't get the tokens if you can't target them.