Hello, fellow Chainer player!

I enjoy using Thespian's Stage and Vesuva a great deal in my deck.

Kokusho, the Evening Star is the creature, alongside Gray Merchant of Asphodel, that I use to end games with more than most others. I build up a huge load of mana, and then sacrifice and reanimate Koko/Gary repeatedly to kill off the whole table. Koko could easily take Lord of the Void's place as he doesn't exactly seem to synergize well with the rest of the deck (he has a neat, if overcosted, ability, but I personally think Koko is too valuable to pass up).

I see very little reason to not be running Skullclamp. You have a lot of ways to get creatures into the graveyard, and for only 1 mana on top of those effects, you could also draw 2 cards. That's pretty huge.

PookandPie thanks for your comment! Us chainer players have to stick together haha. I love the idea of Thespian's Stage and Vesuva. I'm just worried about lowering my swamp number too much in case I see Cabal Coffers but not urborg. Do you think twenty swamps should still suffice, or maybe remove a different land for one or both of them? Kokusho is great and I see what you're saying about him. In my meta we have a mayael player, so Lord of the Void usually pulls more than his own weight when I steal something from him. I'll definitely test kokusho out though, and see who I like better. On Skullclamp, I never even thought about it that way. That is amazing. Do you have any ideas what to take out for it? Lastly, I was thinking of removing Jet Medallion for Extraplanar Lens and then switching to snow-covered basics. Do you think I should go ahead and do that? Thanks for your help!

You could replace Mortuary Mire and Polluted Mire if you're worried about your swamp count. Barren Moor is still the better cycling land, and you already have Volrath's Stronghold.

Maybe try removing Pontiff of Blight? I've never actually tried him in Chainer, and I'm unsure if extort is actually worthwhile to gain life in the face of things like Whip of Erebos, but he's a generally weaker card, I feel, since you only gain 1 life per extra mana you spend on each spell.

Either Extraplanar Lens with Snow Lands or Gauntlet of Power would fit well here. I actually have been swapping this slot around in my own deck depending on if another guy with a mono black deck comes around, lol.

As far as Skullclamp, maybe Lightning Greaves? I don't even bother with Greaves because of sac outlets, and my stuff ending up in the graveyard isn't a bad thing. I suppose it depends on how many players use Path to exile and Swords to Plowshares in your meta, but not things like Merciless Eviction, lol. If not that, then maybe Ashes to Ashes, since Chainer already loses a ton of life and you have a lot of creature removal already.

I agree with mortuary mire and polluted mire. Vesuva and thespian's stage could definitely take those spots. Pontiff of Blight give all of my other creatures extort, so the effects can stack and I also gain life equal to the life lost this way, so it's more than one in a multiplayer game. Plus he has a big butt that stops most attackers. I personally like lightning greaves as some protection for chainer so I don't risk my reanimated creatures getting exiled from him getting destroyed. Currently in thinking innocent blood gets removed for skullclamp since it's not really a huge effect and the draw off of skullclamp will help more in the long run. I'll have to try it out and see if I need the blood back in and what else I could replace instead.

Extort doesn't stack in a manner I find useful, is all I was saying. If you have Pontiff and 4 other creatures, that makes 5 extort triggers to pay for. If it's Koko vs Pontiff, sacrificing/reanimating Koko will give You more of a lead than extort triggers will. I originally misread your comment (I'm on my phone right now so going back and forth is difficult), and thought you wanted another option to remove for Koko besides Lord of the Void.

I just kind of considered the 4 sweepers you have when talking about Greaves (because a sac outlet in that case would keep you from exiling anything too), but if you prefer shroud on Chainer, then yeah, you can try Jet Medallion out for Lens/Gauntlet. The reduction is nice but Lens can really support getting up to 7 for your higher cost cards so long as it doesn't get destroyed. That still leaves you with 7 ramp cards, so you're probably good there.

I find that Innocent Blood and things like that are useful in a cutthroat meta, but if you're playing more casual games, Slum Reaper is way more useful since you can reanimate it in spite of being 3 mana more. Innocent Blood is easy to abuse with Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, but I'm unsure about recommending cards that expensive.

Alright I see your point on those. I'll definitely put extraplanar lens in and see how that works for me. Yeah I can't really put in Xiahou dun yet because he's so expensive. Most of this deck is still proxied, but my playgroup lets me use it. Maybe someday I'll put him in.