With so many permanents in play, Gray Merchant of Asphodel could be punishing to say the least.

Maybe if this were more of a control deck--sure, or maybe for multiplayer, but other than that I really wouldn't see myself playing that in an aggro deck in a 'Modern' setting.. Besides that; what would you even exchange that for anyway?

Yeah true, it'd be an inefffective switch that's for sure. Just an idle thought on my art I'm afraid. Still, +1 for a cool deck.

Did you think about Deathrite Shaman ?? He can definitely help you accelerate your mana and can synergize with Pooling Venom .

Thanks DoomsdayXIII! :)

and..

@Shinkari Hmm, no I haven't.. I'm actually surprised it's not still a $30+ card.. Seems appealing, since people sure do love their Goyf's & fetch lands, and a third turn Obliterator would be very satisfying indeed.. But I dunno.. What would you trade out for it?

Oh, and for the record--I really don't run Pooling Venom for it's second ability at all, and even so, the potential synergy between it & Deathrite Shaman wouldn't even occur untiI after I already have 4 mana to work with in the first place...

Two Suggestions: Erebos, God of the Dead or Whip of Erebos . The whip gives your obliterator lifelink, which is fun, but more importantly it gives you a chance to effectively Fling an already killed Phyrexian Obliterator (potentially with Lashwrithe attached for added fun. Against control decks with a lot of creature hate (Like my American Superfriends deck, your scary creatures won't mean much, especially since none of them have haste, so they are all subject to Supreme Verdict before they have the chance to be effective.

Speaking of anti-control... I'd hate to have you have an Erebos, God of the Dead blocking me from gaining life while you pay life to draw yourself more threats. And then, with a single Phyrexian Obliterator on the board (possibly animated by the God's very whip) you can swing with a 5/5 Obliterator and an animated 5/7 that I hadn't been able to even touch (since he's indestructible and wasn't a creature before, leaving him immune to 90% of removal) before. I doubt I'd be able to handle that without a miracle draw into a Terminus.

+1 I run a similiar Mono-B deck. BLΔCK ::MBC:: Leftovers

You might want to squeeze in a few Swiftfoot Boots and swap some swamps for a couple of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx .

Arena , need I say more?

I can see the chaos now.... "I tap 3 and activate my Arena , choosing my Phyrexian Obliterator ... have fun with that!

Throw in Inquisitor's Flail for Kicks and Giggles.

You might want to consider Dauthi Slayer ; it is usually an unblockable 2/2.

Hello! I'm new here. First of all I'm sorry for my english...I'd like to know your opinion about some things.1) What do you think about Maddening Imp ? I know that it is very expensive to cast, but it can be useful in mono black deck.2) Here is a problem for this deck. It's Kiku's Shadow . This card can ruin your day. What can you do in this situation?

1) Maddening Imp isn't legal in Modern, which is the format for which this deck is built. 2) I personally use Spellskite as my foil for these types of cards including Kiku, Night's Flower and Wrack with Madness .

Why Duress over Thoughtseize ? I'd also suggest Mutilate mainboard.

Cool deck, I hadn't thought of Arena , I might try it out in my obliterator deck. +1

Phyrexian Obliterator is definitely underrated. +1

I'm just going to throw out some random ideas that came to mind as I looked over this since this is basically what my current standard mono-black is going to look like after I leave that format.

drop Dash Hopes and sideboard Hero's Downfall , increase Dismember to 2-3x, and either drop the Runechanter's Pike or the Lashwrithe to increase either the Bad Moon or Phyrexian Arena . and maybe drop 1x Inquisition of Kozilek and increase the count of whichever artifact to chose to keep. also work on getting a 2x of both of those enchantments since they are both really good to have 2 of.

try not to mess with your mana to much since it is at an almost perfect area for your intentions. unless you get your hands on 2x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

I feel this will make the deck a little more streamlined and reliable.

This deck is just great! Congratulations! I'd love to play with it!

Whatever u do, don't run Doom Blade that card sucks, and in modern it's a bad joke. If u go that route try Vendetta instead. I really like Devour in Shadow but most of the time Victim of Night is just as good. (other options instead of Go for the Throat which doesn't hit Lashwrithe or Vault Skirge , Affinity, Ichorclaw Myr , Wurmcoil Engine Batterskull etc. I think the only thing Victim of Night misses is Vampire Nighthawk and Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip which may or may not even be ran in it's own deck. Jund.

Would love it if you would check out my suicide black deck. Maybe even play test it once and let me know what u think. I know a fellow mono-black player will be able to appreciate it.

deck-large:suicide-black-09-12-13-1/

I made a deck similar to this. Found a card named Nantuko Shade , thought it was pretty good.

Why the use of Runechanter's Pike ?

awesome deck! I have pretty much all these cards so I will probably be building this.

+1

Hey, I like this deck, it's pretty cool so you've earned a +1 from me!

Some minor changes I would make would be: Drop the Dash Hopes .. It is a fun little idea, but if you really need something countered the opponent will almost always take the 5 damage.. I think it would better be replaced with another Dismember .

Dismember is one of the strongest bits of removal in Modern and makes appearances in decks that don't even use black. And since you've got the ability to gain a fuckton of life back with Gray Merchant of Asphodel means you can essentially cast your Dismember s for 1 colorless. That's pretty powerful.

I could also see replacing Runechanter's Pike with another copy of Lashwrithe . It can come down as a beater if need be, or it can buff up one of your beaters.. all around I think it would be more versatile than the Pike.

The last thing I would consider would be dropping Bad Moon for another copy of Phyrexian Arena . It will count as one more towards your Devotion to black, and it will give you very nice card draw. It's a great card for decks like this. :)

Also, for added ramp, you could add a copy or two of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx . With such heavy mana symbols this card would rule in this deck.