Dismember Kill almost everything, can be paid with 1 2 or 3 manas (sugestion Max 2 copies)

Duress Removes things that you can not handle (ex Ensnaring Bridge)

Dakmor Salvage + Raven's Crime Discard Lock

Other cards

Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Gatekeeper of Malakir

Thanks for the suggestions Agahdaur. I do run Gatekeeper sometimes, probably should be on the sideboard here but I haven't touched on that yet. And I chose Raven's Crime over Duress for it's retrace ability. Both cards have their strengths. I'm kind of torn between the sac and removal routes for opposing creatures. What do you prefer? The Dakmor plus RC combo is one that I didn't know of though so thank you for that. Gotta find a way to add a couple Gray Merchants still.

Sac AND spot removals. I think you should mix both Gatekeeper of Malakir with Dismember

4 copies of Dash Hopes can flood you a little bit, if something is really important players will pay 5 life to cast. 2 copies are great! Check out Imp's Mischief.

Dismember > all other removals that you are using but use only use 2 copies of it.

Desecration Demon

PROS:

• Great agains small numbers of creatures
• 6/6 fly for 4 manas

CONS

• Tokens
• Can be tapped both on your turn and enemy's turn

Suggest: 1 or 2 copies

About Duress and Raven's Crime lock, both cards are great but in my opinion choose a card to discard is better than your opponent's choice, so 3 Raven's Crime and 2 or 3 Duress.

And if you want some draws Sign in Blood, Asylum Visitor (great with Pack Rat) and Arguel's Blood Fast  ^Flip should help your with it.

Ps.: Check out Nyxathid

Agahdaur you rock, thanks for the detailed write up. I'm going to make the Dismember purchase eventually, just being cheap right now. I like the idea of Nyxathid, but I don't like the situational aspect as much. Have you used him in similar decks with success?

Thank you and you are wellcome jgc10.

When I started to play mtg I had a 8-rack (The Rack) deck and sometimes I used Nyxathid. Was great but was a discard-deck. So as your deck has discards but isn't your focus Nyxathid will be a 5/5 or 4/4 for 3 mana.

Comparing with other creatures you use, nyxathid does not seem to be a good choice, as you would probably take another vampire for him, which would generate disadvantages as mana cost increases and kalitas have one less creature to sacrifice.

Other sugests

• Leechridden Swamp
• Murderous Cut (max 1 copy)
• Nihil Spellbomb SB 2x
• Languish SB 2 or 1

Agahdaur funny you mention 8-rack bc that's the deck I was trying to build before this one. I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Do you think I could get away with Bile Blight in my sb instead of Languish to protect my creatures?

The ideia is to clean the board.

In a matchup against decks with a lot of removals, you may not have any creature on board, so Languish will be better than Bile Blight.

Btw kalitas with 2 counters, erebos and the demon won't die.

Against tokens -> Bile Blight

I've piloted a bunch of mono black ranging from £15 lists ( Budget mono-black! ) to... uhh way too much.

By biggest peice of advice is to commit to a striaghtforward plan, which fights well against your dominant metagame strategies, with a sideboard dedicated to hating out the most visible other strategies. This'll take some practice, but you don't have to break the bank to make it work.

There are two sets of cards you should absolutely spend money on- if you're going fetches/sacrifice, Fatal Push, if you are going mono-swamp Inquisition of Kozilek. Sideboard you want whatever meta artifacts are out there Damping Sphere or w/e, and Ratchet Bomb.

Judging by your current list, I reccomend piloting a vampire/lifelink build. The idea is to play 1/2/3 drop lifelink vampires and strap a Lashwrithe to them. Aggro strategies will have a really hard time fighting through the volume of lifegain you can get, and you win fast enough that combo and control actually have to draw their cards (enter Delirium Skeins sideboard). Indulgent Aristocrat, Gifted Aetherborn, Vampire Cutthroat, Call the Bloodline to pitch lands to, with a second big payoff card in Blade of the Bloodchief. (also, holy shit those cards went up in price)

The big thing that makes budget mono-black tick is the large amount of cards that aren't gamechanging on their own, but offer relaible small synergies. Much like jund, you don't have to worry about failing to 'go off', so lots of high-variance opponents beat themselves. There are cards to meet almost any need in black, you just have to pick them and dedicate to it.

A 1-of Nykthos and gary is a waste. Similarly, Kalitas is a great card, but outside of strategies which can reliably threaten a Dictate of Erebos there are better alternatives (for the price).

Similarly, you can do an awful lot with 4 Languish and 4 Mutilate, especially if your wincon is not creatures. Its just all more effective if you pick one thing that you want to be doing lots in your games, and pack as much of that as you can in your deck.

Let me know what you want your deck to do, and what you value as a player and I'll point you in the direction of some of the lesser-known options.

lagotripha hey thanks for the detailed response, I appreciate it. Would you mind taking a look at another deck of mine that is a little more streamlined in terms of strategy? It's where I'm thinking of taking my main deck and moving away from this strategy. Mono Waste Not

So... why is this deck called Garlic Bread?

Definitely need a playset of Cordial Vampire he’s a BOMB. Depending on your budget I’d also suggest at least 2 Cavern of Souls, 2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, 3-4 Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord, a playset of fetches to thin out your deck like Prismatic Vista since you’re mono colored. A sac engine works EXTREMELY well with cordial and sorin, things like Viscera Seer & Silversmote Ghoul are great with cordial & sorin. Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose works nice in a drain and gain build and nykthos gives you A LOT of mana with all the devotion.