Devotion to the Merchant

Standard* Discard Mono-Black

mind_rot

Creature (17)

• 3x Child of Night
• 2x Desecration Demon
• 3x Disciple of Phenax
• 2x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 3x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 3x Nighthowler
• 1x Nightveil Specter

Land (22)

• 22x Swamp

Enchantment (4)

• 2x Shrieking Affliction
• 2x Underworld Connections

Artifact (1)

• 1x Whip of Erebos

Instant (7)

• 3x Devour Flesh
• 3x Doom Blade
• 1x Hero's Downfall

Sorcery (9)

• 2x Corrupt
• 2x Mind Rot
• 2x Read the Bones
• 3x Thoughtseize

---

Sideboard

Creature (10)

• 4x Accursed Spirit
• 2x Nightmare
• 4x Sewer Shambler

Instant (3)

• 3x Dark Betrayal

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Rise of the Dark Realms

---

Maybeboard

Creature (4)

• 4x Lifebane Zombie

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Dark Prophecy

Instant (2)

• 2x Rescue from the Underworld

---

A mono black deck that gives you all the tools you need to take apart your opponents hand, build up some devotion and then cash in with the Gray Merchant of Asphodel.

Being a bit of a noob I was a bit intimidated with some of the fancy multi-colored decks popular here and at various other sites. So I decided to put together a few mono colored decks cards I had on hand and with the assistance of some online primers. This is a slightly improved version of the mono black deck that I originally put together. I still have plans to improve it (the cards in the maybe board are the planned changes). Anyways, enough with the background, let's talk about what's in the deck.

It starts off with a lot of 1, 2 and 3 drops that focus on disrupting the opponents hand and removing early but threatening creatures. These actions accomplish a few goals:

1. Break up combos or address and remove early threats.

2. Get a few creatures into the opponents graveyard for Nighthowler.

3. Slow down the pace of the game and build up swamps to get some devotion going around turn 4.

Once turn 4 hits we can start deploying creatures like Disciple of Phenax and Nighthowler which should be coming in at 2/2. Once we have some devotion out there, and possibly an Erebos, God of the Dead we can plan for a Gray Merchant of Asphodel to drop in for a nice chunk of life swap.

I'm not entirely sold on keeping the Shrieking Affliction but against aggro decks and decks without card draws I think it can draw a little bit of life off an opponent that just may be enough.

The sideboard is set to deal with other black decks by swapping out the Dark Betrayal for the Doom Blade and the Nightmare for the Sewer Shambler which can just attack at will.

Future changes:

1. Swap out the Accursed Spirit for a playset of Lifebane Zombie. There seem to be quite a few R/G and Junk decks around me.

2. Possibly drop the 3x Child of Night for 2x Rescue from the Underworld and 1x Hero's Downfall.

3. I like the 3 devotion provided by the Dark Prophecy but without the child of night I don't know how frequently creatures will die so I'm thinking about swapping it out for Underworld Connections.

That about sums it up for where I'm at with this and where I'd like to go. I would greatly appreciate any critiques or recommendations.

Date added	11 years
Last updated	11 years
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 2 Mythic Rares 9 - 2 Rares 8 - 3 Uncommons 16 - 8 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.03