Consider siding out doomblades for devour flesh when it comes to blood baron. I play esper control and the only thing that really stops it is far and away or devour flesh in the colors you're playing. I would consider nightveil spectres in place of liliana's reaver also. at least in the sideboard of a control matchup. And also, have you thought of sideboarding some counter spells for a control matchup? dissolve is a great card. but yeah i love this deck it seems really good. I'm going to make a black blue control after born of the gods comes out.

Thanks for the +1's! It's technically not a devotion deck, but it's a great spin off the typical black devotion deck. It's essentially a dimir control version of the mono black devotion deck with Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver , Dimir Charm , and Far / Away adding great dimir control value. Devour Flesh does sound like a legitimate sideboard option, however, I have been extremely underwhelmed by Nightveil Specter in play. And as I do have 6 non-colored lands, I dont get the chance to utilize him early as I might not have 3 black/blue land combination to play him turn 3. And against control decks, not like he would stay out in play long either. I like Whip of Erebos , Pithing Needle , and Ratchet Bomb against control.

Use Rapid Hybridization to deal with Blood Baron of Vizkopa . Nobody sees it coming and it's quite effective against hydras, demons, and other big critters. Quag Sickness is also a very handy removal/disable card against gods and other hard-to-kill nasties. It's effect is not limited to a single turn so even putting it on a big creature early is helpful.

are you gonna put phenax in here?

Rapid Hybridization is the sideboard answer you need for Blood Baron of Vizkopa.

Qeshtine if I make this deck with out mutivalt will it ruine the deck?

no, it will help streamline the deck, because you will have 4 less mana inconsistencies...and it will theoretically allow your earlier draws to be smoother for you, instead of you having to hold back plays because you don't have the right mana to play the cards...like Dimir Charm and Thoughtseize who have hard mana costs.

Well then say I replace the mutivalts with shock lands whude that make it just as consistinte

Well I'm back in the have after a hiatus. Had fun with the deck last night, can't wait to see how my new cards will improve the deck. I'm also looking into a possible Master of the Feast / Notion Thief combo to fuel Pack Rat and give a huge draw advantage while boosting people with the 3 drop 5/5 flier.

Your deck is amazing =), I really like playtest it, even if I can't playtest it against my black/blue because of infinite loop draw of 2 notion thieves

+1 Dude, long live the black decks

Thanks. Yeah the notion thieves cancel out against each other and if a player has more than the other on the board, that player gets the draws. What made that combo so easy to incorporate is I was already using a dimir devotion deck, all I had to do was swap this for that and it was good to go. I can't wait to go up against a control deck, they bust out Sphinx's Revelation and I flash in a Notion Thief , hahah!

Oh and since they'll be tapped out anyways without means to counter, follow it up on your next turn with Whispering Madness . GG.

I like this! I don't play a ton of standard (99% Modern) but I love seeing great ideas and synergies in any format (especially when they may be in Modern some day). Great deck idea. +1!

correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the Notion Thief +Master of the Feast combo not work since their abilities trigger on separate steps? Nice deck though +1

Notion Thief says if an opponent would draw a card except for the first one in their draw step, I draw a card instead. Master of the Feast says at the beginning of my upkeep, each opponent draws a card. Since that card is not their first card of their draw step, I draw the card instead. If I'm up against two opponents, I draw two, one for opponent #1 and another for opponent #2. If I have two Master of the Feast on the board, it triggers twice, so with 1 Notion Thief out, I draw two cards for each opponent. However, 2 Notion Thieves with 1 Master of the Feast still only nets one extra card since Notion Thief is a replacement effect, not a trigger.

Great deck! I was wondering if you could give me some tips on what to do with my dimir deck which is similar to yours but uses a slightly different strategy. I'm trying to stay away from using too many RTR, Dragon's Maze, M14, or Gatecrash cards so the deck will be viable in the fall as well.

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/ub-standard-mind-intrusion/Thank you in advance!

I like the thoughts about your setup, however, I fail to see how Whispering Madness can be any good against control - unless it gets out there, and they don't have a dsphere for it.

And could you please explain to me, how the combo with Master of the Feast and Notion Thief works ?

Really good competitive deck!

+1 for sure :-)

Master of the Feast states that at the beginning of my upkeep, each opponent draws a card. It is a trigger effect that is triggered by my upkeep step which means if I have multiple Masters out, it triggers for each one on the board.Notion Thief states that if an opponent draws a card except for the first one of their draw step, I draw the card instead. It is a replacement effect. When combined, Master of the Feast triggers for the opponent to draw a card at the beginning of my upkeep, but since it is not the opponent's first card of their draw step, Notion Thief's replacement effect comes into effect and I draw the extra card(s) instead.

Whispering Madness is a really interesting card. How it works into my game play is this: Control decks often hold onto most of their hands for counters and removal. Because I know they will just prevent anything I play and they aren't immediate threats, I wait for them to make a play such as turn 4 Jace, turn 6 Elspeth, etc. With them unable to counter, I flash in Notion Thief before the end of their turn and on my turn, follow with Whispering Madness . This empties their hand and allows me to draw all the cards. It's a game changing move. Another way it plays is after it is ciphered to a creature such as Master of the Feast, I can empty my hand into Pack Rat , attack and redraw cards, then empty my hand into Pack Rat again (mana provided by Nykthos and Liliana). This move would not be advised against board clears and detention spheres though.

I know the intention behind the card, but I would imagine, that this would only work the first time you played this combo on your opponent. Nonetheless I like the deck - I like the sneaky comboes. In 10 matches, how many times, do you get to experience your combo with Master and Thief ?

Now when you have explained how the combo works, I want to suggest Dictate of Kruphix to you.

Whispering Madness would only catch a control deck off guard once, but it would have a major affect on that game. It also serves another function to draw cards to fuel Pack Rat as well. I get the Notion Thief / Master combo out 2/3 games. I run four copies of each card and good draw power which makes it a consistent two card combo.I had thought of your suggestion, but it's UU1 which makes an early game play unlikely and does not add to black devotion.

I feel that you may be limiting your access to blue mana source just a bit try taking out 4 swamps and replace them with Islands and I think you'll find that your mana will be distributed more evenly.

I almost never run out of access to blue mana. Particularly being that I can pull my scry and shock lands with Liliana of the Dark Realms , it feels just right 9/10 games.

AJohnson9x - Temple of Deceit cannot be fetched by Liliana. It is not a "Land - Swamp" like a basic or "Land - Island Swamp" like Watery Grave . I would suggest playtesting with 3 or 4 Diabolic Tutor in the Maybe Board.

Oh yep, brain fart, still the concept is there. I can tinker with Diabolic Tutor , but I generally haven't had great success with it in the past and I dont know what I'd remove to fit it in.