Wow, I've been getting a lot of great suggestions lately.. Thanks guys!!

I've made a lot of changes to the sideboard accordingly, and I've even made a small adjustment to the mainboard as well.. :)

@Noa: I really haven't came across re-animator decks, but I DO run into Snapcaster Mage , and I do like the idea of Tormod's Crypt over Grafdigger's Cage simply because the latter would ruin the effectiveness of Geralf's Messenger & Whip of Erebos .. Also I run Pithing Needle as a blanket solution vs planeswalkers & various other nuisances (So rather than killing one of four, instead render ALL FOUR as dead draws).. And finally Memoricide is there for vs UrzaTron & various combo decks..

@APPLE01DOJ: Just wow.. Thank you.. The main deal is that I DO own an old playset of Rain of Tears , I'm just not sure how to work it in..

Hymn to Tourach over Wrench Mind

Hymn to Tourach is legacy card, not modern!

sry mane missed the tag

How do you make the Picture of Phyrexian Obliterator . It looks very nice:)

@zZAZz: Thanks, I used an HTML code that I found in the forums, and then did a search for the pic..

@All: I took this deck out for a spin at a local modern tournament and came in 2nd place! I wrote up a little update on it if anyone wanted to take a look.. :)

lol I tried to tell u that about Go for the Throat . lol anyway Congrats on good results!

Bile Blight is going to be nuts. It's an upgraded more powerful Echoing Decay capable of dealing with more than Lingering Souls consider that when BotG comes out or Disfigure

I love the look of this deck! I'm gonna try to make it and maybe put my liliana, of the veil in there and urborg, tomb of yawgmoth . I'll see if a dark confidant could fit in

Though what cards would you pull? I pulled out a sign in blood and a land for liliana of the veil and dark confidant. And took out another swamp for urborg though I don't think it needs it

I would probably trade a Gatekeeper of Malakir out for a Liliana of the Veil if I had it, and personally I wouldn't do a Dark Confidant because of the relatively high CMC of the deck; but a Sign in Blood or Phyrexian Arena would trade out rather smoothly otherwise..

(+1)? :)

Thanks but I think dark confidant will help speed it up and there aren't many high mana drops that would injure you. The highest is the Gary otherwise it's an extra card draw

Well and obliterator

I'd run a couple of Deathrite Shaman coupled with Verdant Catacombs and/or Marsh Flats . It allows you to accelerate into your bigger stuff a turn earlier and is a good, reliable damage source if you exile your used up removal spells later on.

I have run several black decks similar to this to good results. I've never had any Obliterators, which seems to add a lot of power.

No idea if you can fit it anywhere, but I've found Haunting Echoes to be an insane finisher. With the amount of cards you're making them pour into their graveyard, you could get 1/2 to 2/3 of someone's deck.

@TitansFTW: Sorry, although I understand the power of various B/G interactions (and how it represents a VERY realistic threat in the current meta..), but as it stands, I simply cannot afford to be dropping $120~$200+ on fetch-lands alone just to feed a couple of Deathrite Shaman .. And even if I did, that would then open up the slippery slope into changing the general structure of my deck, and afterward would eventually beg the annoying question; 'Why no Goyfs??' (smh..)

Plus no fetch-lands means ZERO potential color problems AND I get to give Hatebears the finger in the process! ;)

I just want to have a competitively viable Mono-Black deck that at least somewhat sidesteps the current meta..

@shaistyone: Yeah; Obliterators are borderline retarded and Gary has made them even more-so.. ;)

And about Haunting Echoes ; I like the way you're thinking, and a pair would definitely be in here if this were more of a traditional Mono-Black Infect/Control with stupid amounts of discard. However I designed this as more of a strong Midrange-Aggro/Control hybrid w/ Gary as the potential late-game bomb, and I think Echoes would actually distract from that..

i suggest moving those Shadow of Doubt s into your main board. MOST good modern decks runs fetches. and being able to "destroy a land" of theirs after they pay 1 life is amazing. then you replace the card simultaneously.

Modern decks tend to play heavy control or fierce aggro. the aggro players tend to keep hands with 2 lands (sometimes 3). being able to keep them down to 1 land while not being a short a card yourself is tremendous. I'd main board that sucker. at the very least it will always replace itself if you find no use for it and game 2 it's a perfect card to SB out if you really want to.

hope that convinced you of it's power.

also, add 2 of the devotion shrines ( Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx ) and drop your land count to a total of 23. they will be tapping for 5 mana very quickly.

This is awesome +1.

To echo a lot of people, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx should be considered. Also, for ridiculous amounts of devo, try Ghastlord of Fugue , Divinity of Pride , Demigod of Revenge , or Deity of Scars .

I have a similar deck. I run Victim of Night instead of Go for the Throat . I also run 2-3 Black Sun's Zenith . It has great synergy with Geralf's Messenger . Also, super-secret tech: try out a singleton of Arena .

For your sideboard, try Praetor's Grasp . It's useful against caw blade - use it to steal swords. It does other relevant stuff like grabbing an opponent's Wurmcoil Engine from their deck and turning it against them, or exiling the single Iona, Shield of Emeria your opponent playing Tron just sideboarded in to hose you. Also, it's great in mirror matches.

@APPLE01DOJ: Yes you did tell me about Go for the Throat , and for competitive play I guess Victim of Night would be the way to go.. The only reason I haven't yet is because between a few different friends of mine; one of them runs G/R Werewolves & occasionally MB Zombies, another runs R/B Vampires a lot, and then a third has a mill deck w/ Wight of Precinct Six .. So, Victim of Night would be pretty much a dead draw against my friends..

@joshua_giraffe: I actually used to run an Arena in an earlier build of this, however I took it out after being mana screwed a couple times in a tourney because of it, and I probably won't be putting it back in until I have an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or two to offset that said problem..

But I like the idea of Praetor's Grasp , and I have a pair of them too; I'm just not sure what I'm willing to exchange for it ATM..

You realize that this deck cant be playtested effectively, right? Try drawing 3x Gray Merchant of Asphodel or 2x Phyrexian Arena

@Bofu: That's just silly; things like that happen occasionally in trading card games; that's what "Mulligans" are for...

Metroid_Hybrid I'm talking about the actual playtest system tappedout has used... you CANT draw those cards.

@Bofu: You mean not at all? That's strange..

Well, what do you think about the deck itself otherwise?

Wrote up a tournament update from this weekend if anyone was interested..