Casual Devotion

Standard* Budget Mono-Black

MagicMoniker

Creature (25)

• 1x Abhorrent Overlord
• 4x Baleful Eidolon
• 2x Basilica Screecher
• 2x Blood-Toll Harpy
• 3x Cavern Lampad
• 4x Child of Night
• 2x Disciple of Phenax
• 4x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 3x Mogis's Marauder

Land (24)

• 24x Swamp

Enchantment (4)

• 2x Gift of Orzhova
• 2x Stab Wound

Artifact (1)

• 1x Whip of Erebos

Instant (6)

• 1x Doom Blade
• 3x Pharika's Cure
• 2x Rescue from the Underworld

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Sideboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Baleful Eidolon
• 1x Mogis's Marauder

Instant (8)

• 2x Boon of Erebos
• 3x Dark Betrayal
• 2x Lash of the Whip
• 1x Pharika's Cure

Sorcery (5)

• 3x Duress
• 2x March of the Returned

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Maybeboard

Land (1)

• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Enchantment (2)

• 2x Gift of Orzhova

Artifact (1)

• 1x Whip of Erebos

Instant (5)

• 2x Devour Flesh
• 3x Doom Blade

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I'm looking for ways to improve this without going too overboard on the budget end.

My first attempt at building a semi-decent deck out of what I had between two starter decks and an FNM Theros draft, this deck mostly relies on dropping Gray Merchants to win. It comes with a lot of lifegain between the Whip, Child of Night, Gift of Orzhova, the Merchants and Pharika's Cure. Rescue from the Underworld and the Whip gives me a few chances at bouncing back the Merchants from the graveyard, though I do try to play a bit more conservatively with the creatures on the board to keep devotion up. Doom Blade, Stab Wound, and Pharika's Cure have done okay for removal against my friend's creature heavy decks, and Mogis's Marauder actually ended up being a decent game winner the few times I've drawn it late in the game. Probably my biggest concern is board wiping control, where the only real chance of stopping that I have is getting it out of someone's hand before it can be played with Disciple of Phenax or a sideboarded-in Duress.

Aside from dropping a lot of money on a playset of Hero's Downfall, my removal is going to be kind of lacking. And I'm worried about the Marauder becoming useless against another black deck. So I'm looking at a few ways to give me better spot removal against threats that'll kill me before I can get my Merchants out, or something to either replace the Marauder in my Mainboard or act as the understudy in the Sideboard.

Date added	11 years
Last updated	11 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Rares 11 - 4 Uncommons 23 - 11 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.22
Tokens	Harpy 1/1 B