A typical mono-black control list will run somewhere in the region of 4-6 killspells, 4 liliana and then the rest discard. Obviously you're going for creatures over discard so you have to expect more threats to hit the opponents side of the board. I would suggest 6-8x killspells, 4x liliana.

I would also mention that most modern decks just run Sign in Blood or Night's Whisper . It's cheap and effective card draw.

Desecration Demon is shut down by any token deck, especially faeries, while Abyssal Persecutor eats faeries for breakfast and tramples on.

I would run Geth's Verdict or Go for the Throat over Doom Blade . geth's verdict is an answer to Emrakul, the Aeons Torn

Yeah I like creatures better than discard. It still is a devotion deck with early to midrange stall and then. I wreck them in the face with Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Phyrexian Obliterator

Yeah I have copies of Sign in Blood so I will put those in :)

I missed using that draw spell in standard. <3

I like this. It should be good.

Play around with -1 or -2 Sign in Blood and +1 or +2 Doom Blade / Victim of Night .

Just need to get the numbers right.

I would suggest getting +1 / +2 liliana if you can but I know she's pricy. Take out the Vampire Nighthawk s in her place. You don't need to over saturate the 3-drop slot.

And then you need to consider how this deck plays out. You may find that the goal is to rush as much devotion as you can up to T5 without particularly removing their threats and then trying to win with Gary. If it fails you fallback onto the killspells which help you push through damage.

Yeah I think that is my main win strategy, just rushing out devo generation, be it creatures or what have you. I will play around with some cards, I am sure I have Victim of Night lying around somewhere.

I can get 2 Liliana, but that's all haha she is crazy. Last I saw $70...

ChiefBell what do you think about me splashing green for Abrupt Decay and Golgari Charm for enchantment hate?

Damnation is counter to how the deck is trying to work. If you blow up your bombs, you've screwed yourself.

I would swap them for Scepter of Fugue and Bloodghast . I would actually take out 1 Geth's Verdict , 1 Go for the Throat , and 1 Gatekeeper of Malakir to fill in the other three Bloodghast slots. Also, they recur, which means you can keep devotion up by dropping lands (always fun).

Yeah, that is what I was thinking as well.

I love those cards for Devotion.

So if I remove 2x Damnation and add in 2x Scepter of Fugue

I will remove 1x Geth's Verdict , 1x Go for the Throat , and 1x Gatekeeper of Malakir for 3x Bloodghast .

Do you think it's wise to use Thoughtseize ?

110% disagree with the above, for a variety of reasons.

Damnation will always be useful in some situations where other decks outrace you. Keep them in. You just never know what's going to happen, and no-one's FORCING you to play them. They'll save you against Jund, I guarantee it.

Bloodghast is awfully ineffective. At 2 power and 1 toughness he's not making a massive impact on the boardstate and actually does very little. He's more of an irritation when the rest of the cards here are highly effective.

Furthermore with an average cmc of around 3 and a mana curve that ends at 5, I would recommend dropping the land count down to perhaps 22 or thereabouts. This will further render ghast ineffective.

Finally removing killspells for a creature with 2 power is a laughable idea in a format that is renowned for playing massive and economical creatures (looking at you Tarmogoyf ). This isn't an aggro deck, it's not as if the ghast is going to help you win before Goyf and other scary things come out. It's just not going to happen.

About splashing green - I would say no because it would completely transform the entire deck. You'd have to get shock and possibly fetchlands and it would open you up to all sorts of new recommendations.

Oh god, that was a horrible change.

I think that Thoughtseize is good, but would be better elsewhere. It can be risky to play in a deck like this, just by spreading it too thin, but I'd keep one or two around. If SoF is in, then you have a constant stream of discard, and won't need to worry about it as much. Also, try and fit in the fourth Bloodghast . I think they'll do you a lot of favours.

Oh sorry haha. I am reverting it back to what ChiefBell suggested.

Bloodghast in this deck wouldn't be for aggro. It's nice if it can do that, too, but it would mostly be for recurring devotion. Also, with 4 Sign in Blood , I think it'd be easy to hit several land-drops, if not all of them. Plus, Damnation is great. No arguments here. But it also wipes out the core of the deck. All the devotion is coming from creatures. Destructible creatures.

Now my only issue is that I have so many 2 cmc drops. :/

But putting somethign in purely for devotion is a wasted slot. It has to add devotion AND do something else. You can't add in any old card that has a BB or BBB casting cost.

I realise Damnation is like shooting yourself in the foot. You run 1 or 2 purely for situations in which you are obviously losing. You don't play it at any other time. The opponent has 6 creatures down. They've gone full midrange. You're staring down 2 Goys, a Huntmaster and probably a ton of other scary midrange things. You wipe the board. That's about the only time. It's a backup. A play that will stop you from being utterly crushed by certain decks.

Gatekeeper of Malakir is ineffective at T2, you really want to play him at T3 so you could consider him as a 3 drop. Otherwise I would suggest cutting a few of him for more Liliana of Nighthawk.

I am not adding in anything purely for devotion. I do it for both devo and wrecking them in the face.

I think Damnation will save me in games against Jund and faster decks like you said.

He is a bad t2 but t3 he is great, and that is when I will be playing him. I do consider him as a t3 creature.

I was at 56 cards so I decided to include Geralf's Messenger

Phyrexian Crusader is a 3-drop that adds a decent bit of devotion, has first strike and pro white which is all useful. Furthermore he uses infect which puts some pressure on.

or the messenger yeh,

Drop the Sceptre. Get rid of it. Just... no.

The Case for Thoughtseize

Thoughtseize is perhaps the best black card ever printer in my opinion. It's cheap, effective and at minimal cost to your life. The trick with this card is knowing when and where to use it. It's a tricky card to get right, but it punches holes in your opponent's game plan faster than anything else in the format. The best part is, unless you're facing Aggro, it's good all game. Keep it, and do not rely on the Sceptre.

The Case for Damnation

While Thoughtseize is the perhaps the best black card, Damnation is by far my favourite. The only time this card is no good is against a control deck, those decks simply lack creatures to make this an effective card, also Mana Leak exists. However, Damnation shines against creature decks like Jund and Affinity. You want to see how fast you can lose in Modern, go find an Affinity deck and play without Damnation . Again, part of the game is knowing WHEN to play. Just because you have something in hand doesn't mean it needs to see play immediately. If you ever need to learn the importance of patient play in Magic play a heavy control deck like UWR Control.

Why Sceptre of Fugue is Bad

Well, against control you're likely to find it getting countered by Spell Snare . And against everything else you're not deciding what they're removing from hand. They could be holding a bomb that isn't going to go anywhere. Also, it's too much of a mana sink to be any use in Modern. Again... speed kills.

I would rather remove their life with the Messenger. I do love that night though.

I did remove the scepter

Very solid deck, I really love what you've done with this. This merits a +1 from me.

Some minor tweaks I would suggest would be this: Drop Geralf's Messenger for Vampire Nighthawk . Now hear me out, although the Messengers deal direct damage and count for one more point towards Devotion, they enter tapped which makes for a pretty slow turn 3. Nighthawks have flying, deathtouch, and lifelink, they can be used as very good walls since they have that nasty deathtouch on them AND flying. I feel like dropping one of those turn 3 would be a better investment of mana, and if it makes it to the late game and you're hurting for blockers you'll never be disappointed to see a Nighthawk whereas dropping a Messenger and not being able to block could cost you the game.

Another suggestion would be to drop the 2 Damnation from the mainboard, sideboard them, and put in two more Liliana of the Veil . Damnation in a deck where you need to maintain board presence in order to drop Gray Merchant for heavy damage, and also to make Nykthos worth it seems a little counter productive. It;s good on the Sideboard as a fail safe, but adding the two more Lilanas would act as removal, helps with devotion, and if left unchecked she can be nuts. Overall I think filling out your playset of Liliana of the Veil would be more helpful.

Tell me what you think. :)

-MagicMike

MagicM is right. Damnation is an amazing card but perhaps consider sideboarding.

One more point to Devotion doesn't really mean much to me. I do happen to like the Nighthawks and since I already have them I think I should use them.

I like the idea of moving Damnation to sideboard, the only issue is then I have to dish out 240-280 dollars just for Liliana of the Veil and I don't have that much atm. I don't have trades either.

So in place of 2x Liliana of the Veil what would you recommend for now?

My Grand Prix I am attending isn't until May, so if I want to get 4 I have plenty of time. Also I can playtest with the two and see if she is worth it(which I assume she is haha).