Mono Black Devotion, done on a Budget
DECK DESIGN:
This is a slightly budgeted version of mono-black devotion that is extremely popular in the current standard environment. The largest deviation is the lack of
Mutavault &
Thoughtseize which is necessary to work in our lower budget. Other cards such as
Hero's Downfall are reduced in numbers to bring our budget down further. Mono-black devotion is built to beat down an opponent while removing everything worthwhile they try to put on the field. It can be a frustrating deck to duel against due to its consistency and relentless removal. I'm personally fond of mono-black, as it was the first deck type I piloted that managed 1st place in a tournament at our LGS, way back in 1996.
SYNERGY:
Nightveil Specter is absolutely astounding against mirror matchups, as well as helping stunt aggro decks. Great mana for devotion, avoidability, I absolutely love dropping this card onto the battlefield.
Desecration Demon is great power for the cost, and forces the opponent to make a decision each turn.
Pack Rat can make any card useful, depending on the level of board control at the time.
Gray Merchant of Asphodel & Whip of Erebos are both excellent cards to help counter the life lost to use Underworld Connections to feed our hands.
Bile Blight is the almost a Lightning Bolt for black, that additionally handles multiples of a creature and some forms of avoidance such as indestructible.
SIDEBOARD:
Additional removal can be sideboarded in to help compete against Jund, White Weenie, or other creature heavy decks that force us into a race.
Dark Betrayal and
Erebos, God of the Dead assist us in the mirror match.
BUDGET:
I build every deck under a $100 budget, to be affordable for most casual players. While this removes many of the higher priced and sought after cards from my potential pool, it also forces me to be creative and look into a wider scope of cards. Occasionally I have a deck that exceeds this amount, either due to price inflation over time, or getting a few lucky pulls in packs that I opted to keep, and in those rare cases, I will attempt to annotate replacement options that would bring the deck back in line with this budget.
FEEDBACK:
This is a pretty extensively tested deck that should fare well as is, however, with M15 we lose access to
Duress and
Lifebane Zombie.
Thoughtseize is the obvious replacement for
Duress but I'd prefer a more budget replacement. Questions, comments, and ideas are all welcome!
View my other decks here: Deck Archive.
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