Altar of Shadows? It gets pretty nuts with Drana and is instant spot removal.

Hey, you wrote you'd play Thespian's Stage in combo with Dark Depths But what about the Legendary rule? Did you think of another combo?

The legend rule doesn't matter. You copy Dark Depths and put the original into your yard. You then resolve the state trigger from the copy and get your 20/20 Marit Lage.

ah ok so you copy it the moment you sacrifice Dark Depths?!

No.

You activate the copy ability. The ability resolves and you copy Dark Depths. After the ability resolves, state-based actions are performed and you put one of the Dark Depths into your graveyard. Then, you put the state trigger from the Thespian's Stage copy onto the stack. If you sill control that copy when that ability resolves, you sacrifice it and get your token.

Ok now i get it. I was confused because i was Used to the old legendary rules. Thx a lot.

So the legend rule is a sacrifice effect? Didn't know that.

It is not.

As I said, the original DD is simply put into your graveyard by the legend rule. This is not the same as sacrificing it. When they copy's state trigger (the last ability on DD) resolves, you sacrifice it per the instructions on the card and you get your token.

Yes, but DD reads when it's sacrificed by that effect. So you still get the token as long as it's put into the graveyard?

What Epoch is trying to get across is that the copy of DD made by thespian stage has no counters because DD says that those are placed on when it comes into play. So when you have two copies of DD, you ditch the old one that has a bunch of counters on it to the legend rule, then you sack the thespian stage copy: insta 20/20.

More on track, like the deck. +1

Ok. Let's take it from the top.

When you control two or more instances of a legendary permanent with the same name, you choose one of them and put the rest into their owner's graveyard as a state-based action. This is not sacrifice.

So in this case, you have Dark Depths with some nonzero quantity of ice counters on it. You also have a Thespian's Stage.

You activate Thespian's Stage's ability targeting Dark Depths. The ability resolves, and Thespian's Stage becomes a copy of Dark Depths. Because it didn't enter the battlefield as a copy of Dark Depths, it has no ice counters on it, so its state trigger goes off.

Before the state trigger is put onto the stack, state-based actions are performed and you put one of the Dark Depths into your graveyard. We'll assume you put the original into your graveyard, leaving up the Thespian's Stage copy with zero ice counters.

The state trigger goes onto the stack. When it resolves, you sacrifice the Thespian's Stage copy of Dark Depths. Because you do, you get your 20/20 token.

Is there any more confusion?

Thanks for the clarification. Didn't figure out that the ETB ability was overwritten.

Thespian's Stage still gets the ETB replacement effect, but it never enters the battlefield while it has that ability so it doesn't matter.

i would suggest Vampiric Tutor

bah-bammmm Vampiric tutor is already in the deck.

my bad i didn't see it. how about Phyrexian Tower?

I don't feel like I run enough recursion for Phyrexian Tower. I'm currently in doubt about Reliquary Tower actually, since it only really works wonders with Necropotence. I might replace it with a regular Swamp or Ancient Tomb.

First of all: Great Deck, I really like playing mono-black, and yours looks like a powerful way to do so. About Phyrexian Tower: I would only keep it, if you start getting either some tokens in there (I'm thinking maybe Ghoulcaller Gisa or something similar), or something else that works well with sacrificing creatures (Dictate of Erebos or Dark Prophecy might work). I still wouldn't let go of Reliquary Tower, in my opinion it's always nice to have. Last but not least In Garruk's Wake could be a very powerful boardwipe (considering your massive ramp)- although I have no idea what you should take out for it. I hope I could help :)

Thanks! I recently took out Reliquary Tower but haven't really played with the deck a lot yet, so I'll report back on the results if I'm ever really missing it. I don't play the deck as often as I'd like unfortunately :(

In Garruk's Wake used to be in the deck instead of All Is Dust. You're right in that it's a great card, but I'm just not sure if I need another boardwipe. When do you reach the point that a deck has enough boardwipes, you know?

Is Thought Vessel a good card for this deck?

How about Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger? He is a really good win con and can get rid of your opponent's 2 best permanents.

Palladium Myr could provide you with some more ramp, if you want it

What about silent arbiter or glaring spotlight, nice control with both basically makes drama unblock able with all the mana you have with silent arbiter, glaring spotlight I feel is underrated because not only does it get rid of hexproof which is beneficial to drana, for only 3 colorless all creatures you control have hex proof and are unblockable

I've tried Silent Arbiter but it also slowed down opponent's attacking each other, which is not really what I was looking for.

I've currently got two upgrades in the mail:Sign in Blood will replace a swamp. This is a classic carddraw spell that is good early and late game, and I got the full art which is just pretty. I think I'm safe removing one last swamp because I've always got enough mana.

I'm also going to try Basalt Monolith in the place of Magus of the Coffers. Magus is just too slow. It is a requirement to give him haste else he's basically useless. Basalt monolith combos with Rings of Brighthearth so i'll try that out for a while.

I'd also like to hear your guys thoughts on Graveborn Muse and Bloodgift Demon versus Ancient Craving and Ambition's Cost. Muse and demon give repeatable carddraw, however, only during your upkeep and they need to survive multiple turns to get value. The burst draw gives you the cards right away, so there's no risk of losing out on carddraw.

• Pros muse: Synergy with Grave Titan
• Pros demon: Evasive beater, good with swords
• Pros craving/cost: Get cards right away

Any thoughts on this?

I think that you should keep bloodgift and take out graveborn muse. Even if it has a synergy with grave titan, I think that it's too weak and people can get rid of her realy quickly.