You should be able to easily delve out a Become Immense. It's be really funny.

I cannot believe that I didn't even think about Become Immense for the deck. That's not a bad solution as a "screw you, you didn't see this coming" type of thing. I'll definitely look to see what I can do for it. Maybe take out a Go for the Throat or even a Smallpox since I have so much removal. Thanks for the tip!

With your cmc of 1.82 you are losing an average of ~1.2 life per card draw with Dark Confidant. That's gonna be even less once you remove the Arena. Imo there is NO reason to play Arena over Confi in this deck. Cheaper, eats paths that'd hit your grave creatures else way and goes hit by himself.

A serious problem I see with this deck is the lack of Zombies for your Gravecrawler and maybe even mana problems because of Smallpox with Bow and Bloodsoaked Champion.

I'd probably remove Thoughtseize entirely: you will have had the enemy discard quite some cards with Inquisition/Smallpox/Liliana and had him sacrifice lands with smallpox so that having the advantage to let him discard a higher cmc card isn't worth the 2 life imo. In those two slots you could for example place your fourth Confidant and/or the Quest for the Gravelord for your Zombie revival.

You could try equipments rather than Tablet of the guilds: Umezawa's Jitte, Basilisk Collar, Sword of Light and Shadow (brings back one of the Zombies so that you can cast the others) all seem so much better than this artifact. Additionally they provide the power bonus to make your undeads a threat rather than a nuisance.

However, you'd probably have to add 1-2 lands if you want to include the equipments (could be the 2 Thoughtseize mentioned above).

Nerezzar Thanks for the comments. Looking at stuff to gain life is definitely my major problem and yes zombies for Gravecrawler has been a nuisance however with the draw power generally I do get a second one at least, but the power with Quest for the Gravelord can help with Gravecrawler and a 5/5 zombie basically for free can be a welcomed present for my battlefield. Sword of Light and Shadow Requires damage to my opponent so maybe Basilisk Collar to help gain the life and just to keep attacking.

Quick question for you as well. Do you find my landbase (not just the number) adequate for cards like Smallpox? If I'm keeping in Dark Confidant maybe I can take out some of the fetches and keep either basics or checklands?

Thanks for the suggestions for Thoughtseize it will definitely be taken to heart and Umezawa's Jitte but that is banned for modern.

Also Nerezzar Do you believe I have the need for Bow of Nylea anymore with Basilisk Collar?

Sry, I mostly preferred Legacy and just thought that Jitte had to be legal, too.

Depends on the number of Basilisk Collar you play. If you play at least three, there shouldn't be any problem with life gain. For the Sword: it'd also allow you to return one of your zombies so that you can cast the others. However, the quest could potentially be better because it's faster.

I'd probably go for 6 Fetchies (4 Verdant) 1 basic Forest and 23 lands in total. That's still 6 fetchies + 9 Twilight Mire / Overgrown Tomb / Woodland Cemetery / Forest for a total of 15 potential green sources. More than enough for your splash.

When you cut the Bow, you don't need GG any more and can replace Twilight Mire with Swamps.

Maybe Reassembling Skeleton would fit the deck? I personally prefer it ti Gravecrawler cause it can be activated on the opponents turn, allowing you to choose between returning it endstep or casting the Go for the Throat you held your mana for.

Also, seeing how much dying is going on it is a shame that Grave Pact is too high curve for you :)

Could Mutavault potentially help with the Zombie count for Gravecrawler? Not tapping for colored mana is problematic, but that could be mitigated with the inclusion of a couple of Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Just a thought.

Also, ive found that sacrificing a recursion creature that would die after declare blockers by activating Bubbling Cauldron can be quite helpful.

Araganor Mutavault could definitely be a potential candidate. I've been looking for an excuse to through an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and maybe add in Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to see what could happen. However, a 5/5 for one mana is probably more efficient, not to mention the Ghost Quarters and Tectonic Edges that're out there. I will definitely give it some thought and playtesting.

Bloodspawn Reassembling Skeleton is an interesting thought. My only concern would probably be the difference in mana. Playing Smallpox which sacrifices lands and now with the addition of Quest for the Gravelord to fix the zombie count I have a more mana efficient way to bring back my creature. I will definitely give it some thought though.

And I agree with Grave Pact. Honestly I am seeing if Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx could possibly fit so I could put Grave Pact in, but in competitive modern there aren't too many decks, if any, that really flood the board with creatures. And those that have creature heavy decks I can somewhat outrace with lifelink, deathtouch, and my ways to make them sacrifice.

Thanks for yal's comments!

Bubbling Cauldron could definitely be a sideboard card against burn or decks that could potentially be faster than me, helps with lifegain tremendously. Thanks for the thought!

@Pheardemons: I don't see why you can't run both Quest for the Gravelord and Mutavault for extra redundancy. Tectonic Edge is not really an issue, you won't have enough lands out for it to matter, and if you do you probably already have your 5/5 zombie from Quest. Ghost Quarter would be kind of annoying, but really it would hurt them more than you since you are the beat down deck.

Araganor Thanks for the advice. I'll definitely take it to heart and playtest.

Nice deck! With all the dying from both parts this deck involves, maybe you could try to run a couple of Blood Artist?

Also, you need some bigger creatures (beside that 5/5 zombie) imo: I think Lotleth Troll or Scavenging Ooze could work. Or you could pump the little ones with Bad Moon.

By the way, another nice creature is Nether Traitor.

TheLivingCME Thanks for the suggestions! Blood Artist is a definite possibility. I'm somewhat surprised I hadn't thought of it myself. Nether Traitor is one I had considered, but I didn't like the two mana for a 1/1. Scavenging Ooze would be no go because I want to constantly want to return my creatures and Scavenging Ooze not only exiles them, but dies to just about every removal. Lotleth Troll could definitely be a possibility, but I would like to keep my creatures to be discarded for Smallpox or Liliana of the Veil and somewhat of the problem with the removal. Bad Moon could be a possibility. What cards do you think I should take out for any of your suggestions?

I think Blood Artist would replace perfectly Basilisk Collar.

If you want to run Bad Moon, I'd cut off a Smallpox and a land, and additionally you could swap a Quest for the Gravelord maybe. Your choice here. :)

TheLivingCME I'll definitely try to playtest your suggestions. Blood Artist seems the most probable. Smallpox and Quest for the Gravelord have served me pretty well so I'll see what happens with those. My only concern with trading Basilisk Collar is that it also gives my creatures deathtouch so I can at least trade their creatures while gaining life AND bringing mine back. However, like I said, I'll playtest and see what suggestions I can make work. Thanks again for looking!

No problem, bro, let me know how it performs!

I wouldn't worry too much about the deathtouch clause of the Collar, since you pack enough removal in the deck to take care of any threat you could face. :)

TheLivingCME I just wanted to let you know my decision on Blood Artist. After playtesting while it did help in the mainboard, Basilisk Collar seemed more versitile and I was able to gain more life with it overall (obviously some games differed but it was more consistent). In creature heavy decks it helped a lot more than Blood Artist because usually they were able to outrace me and Basilisk Collar was able to hold off creatures from attacking (attaching it to a Faerie), gain more life overall (attaching it to the creatures that can't block anyways), and taking down their creatures eventually when I was able to do enough damage that they had to block to live. Also Path to Exile is a big creature destruction so it doesn't trigger Blood Artist and I hate Path to Exile with a passion against this deck. That being said it made an impression enough to where I am putting it in the sideboard against certain decks. Burn it helped A LOT because my kill spells were destroying their creatures and my deck was fast enough where burn had to kill some of mine to last a turn or two which gave me even more life. Any deck that may be able to outrace me it helped as well to keep me in the game. Thanks for the suggestion!

Well, I'm glad my advice was useful to you, even if in an unexpected way! :D

Reading again through your list, I noticed another thing: have you tried Black Sun's Zenith as a sweeper instead of Damnation? I'm trying it in my devotion build, and it's really nice! Maybe it could work in this deck too! (Sure, Damnation stays a beast.)

Black Sun's Zenith would be somewhat of a problem being that for four mana it will only kill creatures with toughness 2 or less. I don't have the devotion background to get my mana up especially with Smallpox. Thanks for the suggestion but I think I'll stick with Damnation even though my wallet hurts just typing that haha.

Also if you could take a look at some of the cards I found for my sideboard and tell me what you think. I was actually debating on taking out Damnation as I had it in there most for token decks which can be destroyed by Maelstrom Pulse. Also debating on Ghost Quarter, but not exactly sure it is necessary for my type of deck.

If you're worried about aggro in general (and not only tokens), I would try Drown in Sorrow, it's really effective.

Otherwise, you could also try other kind of cards, like Pithing Needle (really a catch-all) or some form of grave-hate, like Leyline of the Void or Nihil Spellbomb.

As for Ghost Quarter, it helps against Tron and manlands, and sometimes can disrupt their manabase. If you're interested, I'd say run 2 in the mainboard. I wouldn't side them.

Thanks for the suggestions! I really like Drown in Sorrow. Leyline of the Void is pretty good too to cast for free. I'll definitely look into those. Try some out. My only problem with playing cards like Ghost Quarter is most of my cards need colored mana, and to add in Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth isn't consistent as I can't fetch for it. Also to add cards to fetch for it means disrupting the deck in a way that might slow it down. I might be thinking too hard on it, but I just can't make up my mind. Thanks though it's good to hear a third party's opinion.