Why not Go for the Throat over Victim of the night, I also just realized you got Mutilate which can kill all your creatures. Is it meant for situational purposes? say when you have no creatures or only have four lands with a Phylactery Lich on the board? I would also recommend at least one more Vampire Nighthawk problem is what to take out!

You know what card has sort of got my attention as of late that works well with the lich is Worldslayer , However, it's an expensive card to play but a mean card if it resolves..

no Cranial Plating ? i feel like that would be pretty good here.

Or perhaps Swiftfoot Boots ? I was running a very similar deck about 6 months ago, and boots on a lich make for one very-hard-to-remove creature.

I've been toying with Cranial Plating . I only have 14 artifacts, and 4 of them are 1-toughness creatures. It's not often that a Cranial Plating will be bigger than a Darksteel Axe . Plus, they're just a little bit more pricey (I'm super budget) so I don't really want to shell out for them.

Swiftfoot Boots might be better, but Phylactery Lich is already really hard to remove anyway. I'm open to the idea, but I don't know if it will do enough to be worth the slots. Thanks for the feedback!

Just being indestructible isnt a huge threat. he's still subject to Path to Exile Vapor Snag , All Is Dust ect, and haste is just a good thing to have.

I don't play competitive, so indestructible has worked for me so far, the biggest threat I have is Dismember . But the deck works very well without a Phylactery Lich , I can win with either of my flying lifelinkers and some equipment (looking at you Lashwrithe ). Swiftfoot Boots can go in the maybeboard, but I don't think it's quite good enough in my environment to be worth it.

I would go for Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx because you get SOOO much devotion

There are several problems with that.

1. It costs too much money for me.

2. It produces no colored mana for actually playing down Phylactery Lich or Gatekeeper of Malakir , it just sits there until I actually get one out. Early game, it's not very good.

3. Late game, I don't have anything to do with all that mana. Just because I can get high devotion numbers doesn't make Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx good. Although I am considering adding Gray Merchant of Asphodel .

i recommend splashing white for a few things, Cloudshift being what i can think of off the top of my head, for Gatekeeper, also finding room for Geralf's Messenger and Gray Merchant of Asphodel for lots of guys with good ETB effects. take out Nighthawk and Imp for one. find room for Whip of Erebos cause that adds nice devotion, lifelink and is an artifact.

shinobigarth I don't think splashing whitening a good idea here, since I'm on a tight budget and don't think Cloudshift is that good anyway. Geralf's Messenger is very nice, I want to add one of them, but what should take out? I'm not sure what to think of Gray Merchant of Asphodel . I could try one. I don't think the Whip isn't good enough here. I already have several ways to gain life, and several of my creatures (Lichtenstein and Messenger) don't want to die. Thanks for your time!

Cloudshift is amazing in the right deck, like where your creatures have ETB effects you want to happen multiple times. it can also save a creature from dying in combat or if targeted by a removal spell. it was probably the best common in the Avacyn set.

if i was you i would replace the Vault Skirge with the Geralf's Messenger . i wouldnt want to put Voldemort's counter on a creature only to have him be destroyed by numerous spells (even if he never attacked) and lose 2 creatures with 1 shot.

I can see Cloudshift being good, just not good enough to risk not being able to cast Lich and Messenger.

I never put a phylactery counter of a Vault Skirge . Ever. They're in there to apply tons of early pressure. I've often done turn 1 skirge, turn 2 Darksteel Axe and swing (1 damage), turn 3 equip and swing (4 damage total), turn 4 Lashwrithe , equip and swing (11 total damage). That's hard to recover from, especially when I'm up 9 life. I think I'll take out a Vampire Nighthawk (Vault Skirge 's big brother) for the Geralf's Messenger for the time being, we'll see if I want those back.

LOL just looked through my last comment and saw what autocorrect did to it. Dug up such gems as "I don't think the Whip isn't good enough" and changing Lich to Lichenstein.

Anyway, do you have ideas for how to fit Gray Merchant of Asphodel in?

i dont think you need 4 Sign in Blood would be one option

It actually comes in really handy. I need to push my liches through, and the way I do that is with spot removal. So I need to keep up my card advantage. Plus it helps me dig to an artifact if I don't have one. But I'll look at them carefully while I play the deck. Thanks for all the help!

Hey i have rebuilded that deck (kinda) because it's really nice for budget.I have slightly altered it and i have found Essence Harvest to be a great to push even further while also keeping myself alive, since its almost 5 Lifeloss and 5 life for 3 mana

Interesting idea. My first reaction is that Phylactery Lich is a great push. With enough kill spells, the Lich will get through and win the game. It can almost always win a race, because it's huge. Without Phylactery Lich , Essence Harvest becomes pretty useless. If I don't have a creature, I'm behind, and Essence Harvest doesn't help at all with that. It only works when I'm already ahead. So I'll consider it, but I don't really intend to add it. I'd rather stick to lifelink creatures like Vault Skirge and Vampire Nighthawk with Equipment to gain life and kill spells to push them through.

just to let you know, my vamp deck went 2-0 against this deck despite your deck killing several of my dudes.

shinobigarth: OK, good to know. Did I just not have enough removal, or not race fast enough, or what? Is your vamp deck on the site?

it didnt have enough staying power or removal yeah. and i have 2 bleeder playsets (Blood Artist and Kalastria Highborn ) that made sure i usually got the better end of the deal whenever one of my vamps did die. i have like every vampire lord pretty much, and you have to either deal with vamps early on or have board wipe, otherwise you get overrun pretty quick.

its on the site, im having trouble getting it to link here, so just click my name and its at the top of my decklist called "There Will be Blood"

Hmm... so I need boardwipes? I do have the pair of Mutilate and the Drown in Sorrow in the side... do you think that would be enough?

Mutilate in the side for sure over the other. there's practically no time when Drown in Sorrow would be a better play, as Mutilate in this deck is always a guaranteed -4/-4. you dont really need to mainboard Mutilate though, just have it against the "im gonna play a million creatures" type decks.

If it belongs in the side, what would you suggest putting in to replace it? Would Gray or Messengers be a good idea?

well because you dont have any way to abuse Geralf's Messenger and you dont like my suggestion to splash white (Cloudshift ), replace Geralf's with Vampire Nighthawk cause he is just useful much more of the time, so that would be +3 Nighthawk. or you could go +2 Nighthawk and 1 Gary if you wanted, he might be a nice alternate WC but at 22 land you dont want to see him that often.

That's what I was thinking. The actual deck has Nighthawks rather than the Messenger. I didn't think about that land count, good point. Though I do have those Sign in Blood s that help he hit those land drops. But, yeah, Gary probably isn't the best here.

I have found Mutilate to be pretty effective, and I often play this casually which means that if it isn't in the main, you don't have it (nobody likes to see a sideboard at the kitchen table). I'll watch those closely but keep them in the main for now.

Thanks for all the help shinobigarth, appreciate it.