Here are some sac options for you.

• Nezumi Bone-Reader
• Viscera Seer
• Bloodthrone Vampire

get at least 1 more Nykthos if you can, and a 4th Nantuko. you can make a lot of black mana that Nantuko can light stuff up if unchecked.

i would probably cut Geralf's Messenger, add in a sac outlet like perhaps Thoughtpicker Witch to let you dick with your opponent's draws, but then you could have a guarantee for Tragic Slip to be your main removal.

also might want to put Whip of Erebos in sideboard.

awesome guys thanks. what i was thinking was maybe adding Mind Slash Gravecrawler Bloodghast and with their reoccurring ability and the Undying Evil in running and Geralf's Messenger which already has undying i would have plenty of shit to sac to the Mind Slash and tons of devotion thats pretty much impossible to keep off the feild. AND tragic slip would be easily triggered as well. Is this a reasonable strategy??????

AND SIDE NOTE: Mind Slash does not specify "non land card"

would whip just be redundant at this point?

Gravecrawler doesn't really do much in here, he's for a zombie tribal with zombie lords as he often becomes quite a large drop for only .

Mind Slash could work out. Kinda like Thoughtseize on a permanent with an initial cost. put it in place of the Geralf's Messengers.

And no the Whip is not redundant if your plan is bringing Gary back reliably. Won't always draw your Undying Evils.

well i had figured Gravecrawler Bloodghast Geralf's Messenger and Grey Merchant of Asphodel would be enough zombies to insure i could keep the Gravecrawler flowing and a constant source of sacrifices to Mind Slash. i was intending on desecration demon and nightveil specter to be the first to get cut to make the room. replace all ultimate price with Tragic Slip

-3 Nantuko Shade + 3 Bloodghast -2 Desecration Demon +2 Mind Slash-3 Nightveil Specter +3 Gravecrawler-4 Ultimate Price +4 Tragic SlipNo all i would need to accunt for would be where to fit in the whip and maybe more Mind Slash

this is what i was thinking at least

just realized Bloodghast isnt a zombie. my bad

now you're just getting silly. Desecration Demon is good, if he stays unanswered, he can make your opponent sac their whole board to prevent the threat of a huge flyer in their face. him with Obliterator is scary.

Nightveil Specter is pretty nice as he takes away your opponents toys and lets you use them. whatever he exiles, they lose for good, even if he dies. a whole lot more useful than Geralf's Messenger overall really. but if you're really set on keeping Messenger then take out Vampire Nighthawk, or at least sideboard.

Bloodghast returning over and over is a neat enough trick, but without any way to pump him, he ends up being more of a pest than anything usually. sure he might eventually start swinging into an empty field later on. if you really want to help him do that though, keeping Dessy in (Desecration Demon) does help.

Dessy can often go a game without ever attacking cause the threat of him attacking is enough. and when, once this is tweaked, you have Gary dying and coming back all the time, they can't afford to let Dessy swing so long as they have creatures, cause before long he will get out-of-control big.

another thing, you probably don't want to splash any colors but, just so you know, Alesha, Who Smiles at Death is a great way to bring Gary back. if you run out of Undying Evils or whatever, she can make sure he keeps coming back for tea and crumpets. she can also bring back some of the other guys you currently have in the list as of now. another great target for her, which if you wanted to gain some life and draw cards as well as saccing Gary: Disciple of Bolas.

4 surgical extraction. 4 dark rituals, they are cheap and a 2nd turn phyrexian obliviator can be amazing. surgical extraction + thoughtsiez can be great. especially against twin. you can discard their twin and destroy the rest. tragic slip is very good, but vampire nighthawk doesnt have a place here. a Crypt Ghast can combo well with the nantuko shade, and it gets you some mana. not a bad four drop.

Dark Ritual is sooo not modern legal.

I think Geralf's Messenger is still better for modern than Vampire Nighthawk. Yes the Lifelink, Deathtouch is cute. But it still only takes 1 removal spell for it to dissapear, especially on turn 3, you want to be doing something proactive against your opponent rather than just dropping a nighthawk. With Geralf's Messenger your getting alot more value tapping out your . You get the 2 life loss off of them and a big devotion upswing. The biggest bonus is if he eats removal, he has undying. That means they have to take another 2 points loss and then they have to deal with a bigger 4/3 body all the while having to deal with the idea of should they use 2 removal spells on 1 creature, or save out and hope for the best.

He just has much more impact on the board and a bigger board presence that's not so easy to remove.

Well he seems to be doing his own thing despite asking for help.

He just needs to understand the impact in modern. It's a quick format so turn three is crucial. Can't just be dropping nobody's in a field of Abrupt Decay and Terminate with Snapcaster Mage.

Hey guys thanks for taking the time to comment on my deck. The changes I mentioned in the update were due to advice I recieved in a thread I made in modern deck help. 3 people made a very persuasive arguement that the messenger coming in tapped is too slow for modern. The reluctance to use removal on my messenger would mean they would be using it on my obliterator which is worse in my opinion. Abzan is a difficult match for me and nighthawks are gonna be more difficult to swing in with tarmagoyf or siege rhino. But without the messenger I lose the possibility of a turn 4 merchant with nykthos so I'm definitly conflicted. You're the first one to defend the messenger and I do love that card so I'm definitly open to putting him back in

I liked the messenger when I played him, every time I saw him it was good. If your playing mono black everyone knows your going to be running obliterators top end so they are going to clutch those killspells anyways, at least running the messenger you can just turn him sideways everytime and get value out of him when the are finally forced to play.

If your playing devotion, you want all then , you can get. I'd also recommend trying to squeeze in a Whip of Erebos to haste animate your obliterators and gary's for another life splash.

I have two whips that I was using but took them out. Would you suggest taking out a merchant and Ann obliterator to move them in or something else? I'm just not trying to have too many four drops

there are some situations where you want to see Nighthawk over Messenger, like when you need a blocker, and one thats actually a threat. Messenger can't block the turn he comes in, while Nighthawk can, and he's actually a threatening blocker for things they want to swing with like Weedneedle was saying. the Whip also doesnt do anything for Messenger except for the 2 life loss, which Nighthawk can do anyway if he isn't blocked, but Messenger can't attack off of the Whip.

and i would much rather have my Nighthawk eat removal than the Obliterators.

Like I said in the update. I feel like I could drop a merchant and an obliterator to minimize higher cost cards. Also could maybe drop a phyrexian arena and nighthawk. Maybe even a swamp as well. That would be 5 spots and potentially I could run both nighthawk and messenger but I feel like it would be too heavy with 3 drops. I am also considering a few Wrench Mind just to ensure hand distuption during the first two turns, or I could do more removal. Not sure the best way to go

Yeah, the deck is pretty saturated with 3 drops. Just depends what you want to run, Playtest them both out and see how you feel running them.

Lifebane Zombie might be a good option in your SB if your meta is abzan heavy.

Wow! This is the first time time I'm hearing about this guy. I this is going to be an immediate sideboard addition. Speaking of sideboard, I have three extra removal spells in my sideboard (specifically for abzan) do you think with the 4 main board removal spells, 3 gatekeepers, and lili that the extra sideboard removal is now redundant and the lifebane can go in their place?

I would say so yes.

dont forget Whip of Erebos in SB at least