20 land is too few. Try the Playtest a bit, and you'll see. I suggest cutting at least the Liturgy of Blood s, at least for more Swamp s. I'd shoot for between 24 and 26 land for a competition-level deck.

Anything else besides the Swamp proportion?

up your combo pieces to 4 each. that's 4 Bogbrew Witch es, 4 Bubbling Cauldron s and, as you've seen, 4 Festering Newt , cutting Liliana's Reaver , sideboarding the 4 Vile Rebirth s. Play Vile Rebirth against the odd reanimator deck that survives rotation. Others may have more suggestions.

Since you said you're willing to invest a bit of money into this deck, Lifebane Zombie is pretty fantastic, and Desecration Demon is a wincon in and of itself. Since you're going the lifegain route, Gift of Orzhova can help there. It's better than Mark of the Vampire in my opinion. Since Bogbrew Witch can tutor the other parts of the combo you need, you can probably cut the Bubbling Cauldron down to 2 or 3 of. And with all your 1 cost creatures, Immortal Servitude is a pretty good spell as well.

Thanks Jace the Firebrand, I've followed your recommendations.

thePESSIMIST, I'll wait for a few more buying suggestions before investing and will let you know.

I'd consider replacing Dark Prophecy with Altar's Reap . It's much faster. Also consider bringing the lands down to 23. Trading Post is also unwieldy in that Bubbling Cauldron and Altar's Reap do the same things but better and cost less. Nightmare is your win condition here so it needs some protection. Might I reccomend something that brings cards back from you graveyard such as Corpse Hauler or Grim Return ? These cards also let you recur the newt multiple times. Also consider switching out one Bogbrew Witch with one Diabolic Tutor . Hope that helps.

Hello Sphinxy I have Dark Prophecy because I'm continously sacrificing Festering Newt and more commonly Tenacious Dead . I agree in the Trading Post thing..

I'll wait a little bit more comments for the Corpse Hauler /Grim Return things..

Since you'll be gaining a lot of life, maybe two or three Underworld Connections to keep your hand full and dig for those big cards you need, as well as supply you with a steady stream of land to aid Quag Sickness .

And maybe Devour Flesh in the side for protection/hexproof and anything else your enchantment can't touch.

MistaMint Ok, I've included the Underworld Connections

You really could splash a bit of White in here, at least for geting Angelic Accord , card is too good not to put it into lifegain deck. Also Rise of the Dark Realms might be really hard to play without any form of ramp (like Crypt Ghast for example), consider either limiting it to 1, removing it out completely or getting some mechanism that will bring you more mana.

If you're having mana troubles in a Mono-Black deck, you may wanna consider the rather fetching Liliana of the Dark Realms ...

DannyG I tried the Angelic Accord , unfortunately.. at least the original deck was not fast enough to make more than 1 angel every two turns or so.. after turn 5. And the Corrupt became terribly soft because of the white mana. Samuel_The_Seer I'll phisically try the deck before fetching Liliana of the Dark Realms

Pigenio, if u want to get a stepped more advanced u can run 4x Deathrite Shaman and u won't have to splash white to run Angelic Accord

APPLE01DOJ I was thinking more of Shimmering Grotto .. i think it's the easiest way to get white mana when I need it and not messing around with mine.... to get Deathrite Shaman I had to discard lands or somehow get another player's land in graveyard.. anyway.. I don't think I'll run the Angelic Accord .

DS would make this deck a lot better. The reason being is that he is low cost and multi function. I run both DS and Scavenging Ooze with Lotleth Troll and Grisly Salvage. U can run Encroaching Wastes and if u have them already Ghost Quarter . I would use the transguild promenade instead of shimmering grotto.

I run a similar deck, and I've found you dont ever want more than a bogbrew but always want a bubbling cauldron in your opening hand. Immortal Servitude is great, Desecration Demon is a good finisher, and Tenacious Dead is a real good stall card.

I would actually drop the number of Bogbrew Witch to maybe 2. Bogbrew combo is good, but not enough to make it your main win condition. The thing is once you have your Bubbling Cauldron in play and no Festering Newt left in your library, any witch you draw will be a vanilla 1/3 for 4 mana, which doesn't cut it for constructed. I'm not very fond of Tenacious Dead either.

Suggested replacement would be:Lifebane Zombie Pretty good G/W hoser and difficult to block for non black decks.Thoughtseize Strong pick in any black control deck.Whip of Erebos Can reuse your newts/cauldron combo to clear way for your Liliana's Reaver

YouGotFranked I was also considering replacing 2 for Lifebane Zombie .

The thing with Tenacious Dead is that you can repeatedly get 4 lifes for 3 mana with Bubbling Cauldron . I usually run this combo at least 5 times each game.

Right now I have 4 Bogbrew Witch to get it as fast as possible in the game. That way I could have life advantage early in the game. However I will consider the replacement.

I'm using the Elixir of Immortality to reuse the newts/cauldron combo. Do you really think if should be replaced by Whip of Erebos ? I mean.. the elixir is worth 1 mana.. and you could sacrifice it for 2. It gets you 5 lifes plus it gets you the newts back on the deck. Then you can call it back with witch for 2. and sacrifice it again. total spent is the same 5 mana but it gets you 5 extra lifes. And you could repeat it anytime you get elixir of immortality.

Uhm, Mountain ?

Its the next best thing to Island

Swamp image wasn't working so.. I had to choose mountain to playtest :P

looks much improved from your first version!

APPLE01DOJ it's all thanks to you guys! You people are really the best :)