This is my first attempt at a modern legal deck, any pointers on things I'm overlooking would be really helpful.
Modern version of my casual deck Legion of the Night's King. The focus is on sacrificing undying zombies to fuel Blood Artist and Grave Pact, dealing damage and eliminating potential threats as quickly as possible.
Mainboard Breakdown:
Blood Artist: Big time damage dealer once the sac game gets set up. Helps stave off early damage with the lifegain, and even inflicts damage when opponents' creatures die (works nicely with Grave Pact and Retribution of the Ancients.
Butcher Ghoul
: More or less here for chump blocking. Goes from blocking annoyance to threat however once Death Baron and/or Retribution of the Ancients hit the field.
Death Baron: Makes all of my little annoying zombies much more threatening with deathtouch. Gravecrawler gets even more annoying on offense and
Butcher Ghoul
is no longer just chump blocking. Tempted to drop a few more bills
Geralf's Messenger
: A fantastic direct damage dealer by itself, made even more potent with Retribution of the Ancients and a sac engine. Also has a solid body for blocking when its not bouncing in and out of the graveyard.
Gnawing Zombie
: More or less just here for its sacrifice ability. On the other hand its got a decent body for a 2 drop and can help defend in my weak early game.
Go for the Throat: Removal, 'nuff said.
Grave Pact: Pretty much a board wipe if I can get anything cycling through the graveyard. Plus any creature killed while Blood Artist is out counts for damage. That's a twofer.
Gravecrawler: Really annoying 1 drop. Doesn't need anything but another zombie to bounce in and out of the graveyard. As previously mentioned, with Death Baron he can really be put to good use one offense.
Lord of the Undead: Nice little buffs for my hordes of zombies, plus he can bring back any of my undying buddies if they had to die before a RotA dropped. Used to have 3 of these instead of the 2 Barons, and I think I'll look to phase this guy out in favor of another Baron when I get the necessary funds together.
Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx: Insane fuel for the sacrifice game by turn 4 or 5. With a single
Geralf's Messenger
the activation pays for itself, but once you've got that and a few friends down, bonus points for high devotion pals, it starts generating absolutely silly amounts of mana to clear your hand and/or go crazy with the sacrifice game.
Phyrexian Crusader: Absolutely nasty blocker, immune to most removal, and the buffs from Death Baron and Lord of the Undead can make him a potent offensive weapon if the sacrifice game stalls. Having said that, he is out of place here since he can't actually deal damage to players, and if anyone knows of something that would work better I'd love to hear it (Crusader is probably the only reason LofU has stuck around too).
Retribution of the Ancients: RotA was made for the undying ability. It had to be. The ability to cycle your creatures via the sac game while at the same time knocking out problem creatures is just lovely. Plus, since you can remove all +1/+1 counters from your creatures at the same time, the effects are multiplied the more undying creatures you have out. Two Messengers, a Viscera Seer and RotA and its pretty much game over.
Thoughtseize: Graveyard hate is the bane of this deck, so the ability to pluck hate cards out before they can be played is crucial. Thoughtseize is the card to do it, plus even in the absence of graveyard hate it is a great tool for disrupting your opponent's strategy.
Vampiric Rites: Like
Gnawing Zombie
, Rites is here mostly for its sac ability. It's a tad expensive to activate, but it lets me draw so I can hopefully get to a Viscera Seer faster and the life gain is kinda cool... I guess. Definitely looking to swap one or both of these out for a cheaper sac ability, probably a pair of
Plagued Rusalka
s.
Viscera Seer: The Seer is my ideal sac engine; a no cost sacrifice ability that also gives me value with the sac and he drops for 1. Love it.
Probably going to toss in a pair of Blasting Stations when I get my hands on them to round out my sacrifice options. They don't contribute anything to devotion, but can function as removal, additional direct damage, and they are a 'free' sacrifice.
Ultimately I'd like do something crazy and toss a splash of green into my mono-black devotion deck. 4 each of Woodland Cemetery and Overgrown Tomb so I can swap in 3 Abrupt Decays for the Go for the Throats and 3 Evolutionary Leaps for a few odd cards. Leap gives me a cheap sacrifice ability with some great returns and Abrupt Decay lets me hit troublesome enchantments and artifacts like Rest in Peace and Tormod's Crypt in addition to its creature removal.
