Nice - I like it. I'd like to see you put 4x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and 4x Pack Rat to destroy your opponent. Maybe take out the Scourgemark and play the Whip of Erebos . I'm going to playtest this now against my deck Tehehehe. . . and see how I do. +1

I dont think a playset of Nykthos is recommended, simply because it can end up being a dead draw if you have it in your hand since you are only limited to 1 on the board.

Mogis's Marauder has a really nice devotion ability for black

AstralSoul00 Oh man, I never noticed it is a legendary land! Thanks for informing me! Maybe 2 then...

Finished my first playtest. I pretty safely won, but that's probably because I am a pseudo control deck. I'll tell you what though; Gray Merchant is a powerful card. I stand by you needing Nykthos in this deck because you had Abhorrent Overlord forever wasting space in your hand. You need to speed it up to get him out.

In sideboard, you will need stuff for control. I would sideboard Duress and Thoughtseize (if you can afford / trade)

I was just about to say the legendary thing... maybe Whip of Erebos will enter.. but I'll wait a few more comments for it. Duress is definitely on my sideboard now.

Ever thought of Crypt Ghast ? It's nice doubling the amount of mana you can put out.

Also, since you have 2 7 drops and 4 5 drops I would suggest adding some more mana to this deck.

Hi JoyousCloth! I.. initially had Crypt Ghast here BUT really this thing is devotion based so.. while it would help me to cast Abhorrent Overlord and Gray Merchant of Asphodel faster.. I wouldn't be able to make much damage as a later turn cast so.. I think it's kinda counterproductive.

Yeah, 22 land isn't enough if you're running 7 costs. I would up that to at least 24. Or add a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx or two.

ok, done.. anything else?

Yeah, I have to second the Whip of Erebos as a companion to the Gray Merchant. Also, since you're playing up devotion, do you have any interest in Disciple of Phenax ? As a 4-drop I'm not sure what, if anything, it could replace, but it does give you some neat control effect.

Whip of Erebos is crucial in these devotion decks. 2 of them would be great to have. If you get cards like Disciple of Phenax and Mogis's Marauder in there, they could help you out, too and have some pretty mean effects. I mean, Disciple of Phenax is pretty much Thoughtseize with putting more devotion on the table!

I made a mono black deck with a very similar idea that I took to an FNM and did pretty well with if you wanna take a look at it for any other suggestions: Devotion to Black - Input Needed!

Oh also, when I had Crypt Ghast out, it was doing some awesome mana ramping plus the extort is awesome, too. Looking for a second one to put in my deck. Maybe you should try using it again and see how it works here?

The good Black Devotion decks I have seen so far haven't been fast, but have been better than the other colors at getting Devotion in different ways than creatures. With that in mind, I would bump up the Underworld Connections count to at least 3, if not 4. Also, Whip of Erebos is a must-have for the lifelink and so you can re-use your Merchant, and Rescue from the Underworld serves the same function while giving you an out against boardwipes.

Since there's really no way for mono Black to keep up with mono White or Red creature-wise in this format, you need to have a healthy amount of cheap removal like Doomblade and Hero's Downfall . Thoughtseize is another good "removal" option that's good against almost any deck.

Finally, I think you could remove a lot of the Heroic stuff since there's not enough self-targeting here to make it consistent and it gets in the way of high Devotion.

So.. you're suggesting getting rid of the heroic stuff and replace it with removal... Whip of Erebos is definitely something I will include in the future. THANKS GUYS!!

I'm currently building a mono B devotion deck myself, no decklist yet, tho.I highly recommend Bloodghast since he's like "always on the field".Also -2 Underworld Connections +2 Phyrexian Arena .The Gatekeeper of Malakir has also proven it's utility in my deck.

Cheers!

Sorry for the double-post, but Geralf's Messenger is also crazy good as a devotion kicker.

well.. that wouldnt be quite standard, right?

My bad, thought it was modern. Nevermind then. ;D