Did you playtested it on cockatrice? If you do, i think i am that GW Aggro/Midgrange with Rootborn Defences :)

@HardkoreezPL

No, I playtest on MWS and with some friends of mine. I've played against one of my friends yesterday, he was playing GW Aggro/Midrange aswell. It was 16-18 games and I can say: pre-board he doesn't stand a chance. post-board its 66-33 in my favour. The final standing was something like 12-6 or 11-5 or something along those lines.

I like the deck's concept +1 from me! But what is your counter for board wipe? (Such as Supreme Verdict , Mizzium Mortars , Anger of the Gods )

Also, I'm kind of a newbie to competitive MTG play (outside of my casual playgroup) and I was wondering if you could look at some of my decks and give me some feedback on them. I would really appreciate that.

Against UW/X control I side in the Pack Rat s and Golgari Charm . Mortars and AotG don't touch my important creatures (Reaper and DD).

Thank's for your +1. I'll see what I can provide :)

I think you answered you're own question in your latest update; Sylvan Caryatid all the way, you said 'always felt the impact', for me its tough to remove....mana fixes - speeds up your deck. Ok so its not so helpful T8 but the point being that you said (using Pack Rat )'against aggressive decks' I managed to win in the end but it was hard.....against great decks in tournaments and good players you may not, I wouldn't argue the Caryatids is the safer option, I would say it's the clever option, if it makes your win margin bigger, then I would say the majority of the time your win percentage will be high. OK UW or Esper Control is always going to be around, but I still think we'll be seeing a large chunk or aggro still. Games going down to the wire, is sometimes luck of the draw and you don't want that. I'd stick with Caryatid - Turn 3 DD is my final remark on it - who on earth wants to see that on their opponents board??? No one!!

Have you considered dropping down to 3 Caryatid and say a lifebane and add the 2 rats to the mainboard?

@ Alvn_isnt_Low If you run mana-dorks you run 4 of them or none. You want to see them in your open 7 and therefore it's best to maximize this possibility. Maybe I'll drop a Lifebane Zombie and add 1 Erebos, God of the Dead to the mainboard.

@WainwrightYeah, I guess you're right. Against control I can use my sideboard and side in the Rats. Against other decks I do fairly well with the Caryatids.

its good but I think the mono black devotion is a little more removal heavy and their lifebains will pay off and yours wont and nightveil will be a problem and pack rat on their side can also be a sack engine for DD so I think after watching BBD play Mono B and all the hype around it, I see this deck getting worse in competitive play unless you play where people dont pay attention to whats winning big venues and cant afford the deck or decks. This deck wont beat Master of Waves deck right now consistantly and I would like to see if it beats mono red devotion and B/W mid range. The only real good top tier decks this deck beats is Esper and R/G devotion I think. I also think it beats most any other Home Brews.

Nice deck though +1

@RedCloud2012

Why do my Lifebane Zombie s not pay off? Why is Nightveil Specter a problem for me? Why do I not win consistently against Fish - have you acutally read my Game-Day review? It would be nice if you could back up your assumptions with some arguments.

(Actually Mono B with green splash beats Mono B easily. I get to remove their UC and Whip, but they cannot touch mine. Also they have problems removing my Reaper and Caryatid, whereas I can kill all and any of their creatures including Mass Pack Rat because I have Gaze and they have no wipe.)

My deck does fairly well against B/W mid-range, against RDW it depends on the draws. If I get a T3 Reaper or DD and have some removal in my hand it's pretty much over.

Thank's for the +1

Nightveil will only be an issue if they can steal a Desecration Demon - that is the only situation I see Nightveil being a problem. And this is only if they are playing Fish with Temple of Deceit for a black splash.

So you just put Rock Lobster in your picture, and name it after the card that has nothing to do with your deck? That's a pretty attempt for views.

Mono black devotion is going strong everywhere! The deck looks great I also toyed around with BG devotion. It was pretty strong but I decided on a red splash for dreadbore and rakdos return. Which is crazy if you have lilianas emblem out or a nykthos. +1 from me tho lol

@ 2zettaslow thank's. Actually only half of the card has something to do with the deck, or had (The Rock, you know...). Now it's mostly black-devotion with green-splash.

@ Eerryykk1313 I think Abrupt Decay > Dreadbore . Simply for the reason, that you already have Hero's Downfall and Abrupt Decay can hit D-Spheres and Keyrunes etc. Also adding red doesn't really help you deal with the problem-cards for black-devotion: Enchantments. If you fail to take an Assemble the Legion before it hits the board you're going to have a bad time. Also in the mirror, being able to deal with their Underworld Connections is a huge deal!

Red adds more of the stuff black already does: kill creatures, disrupt opponents hand. I feel that you should compensate the weakness of a color by adding a second, not boosting it's strength even further. Just my thoughts. And thank's for the +1 :)

Yeah red was just my choice due to the fact that I don't have heroes downfall and I wanted to be better suited against my meta which is against control. And dealing with emchantments is a hard problem but there are ways you can deal with via slaughter games or illness in the ranks for assemble the legion. I also have skullcrack to counter the opponents gray merchants or a big sphinxs revelation. There were pros and cons to both but red stood out because I haven't seen anybody do it yet and it helps more against control for me. If you could check my deck out it would be greatly appreciated :)

@Putrefy

I have watched this deck evolve over the past couple of weeks. Have you given any thought to testing this version against the original version to see which you like better? I find it interesting how decks evolve around threats, play styles, and meta game. Just wondering if you have any thought as to the power/potential of this deck against your initial intention?

Hi DimirPlagueLord,

thank you for following my deck and adjustments for such a long time. I can give you some thoughts on how my "decks" fair against the common types of decks around.

I feel my match-up against aggro has been weakend by a huge amount. The loss of Sylvan Caryatid hurts the most. Especially if I'm on the draw and they curve out really good the first game is really tough. Also the Reaper was doing work there. Post-Board I can stand a chance, I can side in more 2 mana removal and the Gazes. However my experience is: if they have a nutdraw, and I don't get early removal the game is done. (It might be surprising, but I don't really fear mono-white. Soldier and Dryad have both 1 toughness, so Golgari Charm suddenly turns into a mass-removal)

I took quite some time to value Reaper against Specter. The main-reason Specter did it in the end: without the Caryatids the Reaper drops a turn too late. So if I can drop a T3 Specter followed by a T4 DD and T5 Gary aggro can scoop. No way to come back from that point. Also with all the mono-black and mono-blu devotion decks floating around and running Specter, Reaper wasn't doing much there. I basically gave them a free card each turn if I didn't have the removal at hand. Also the devotion Specter gives me was a huge and deciding factor.

My match-up against control got boosted quite a lot. Post-board they don't stand a chance. Hand-disruption, cardadvantage, I deny their lifegain with Erebos, so no T9 Rev to save their ass. I don't care about wrath, because I have sooo much devotion from enchantments, that Erebos mostly does it in the end. Their Elspeth is basically 3 Token for 6 Mana and more often than not I can hit an Aetherling with my TS.

Against Midrange decks my deck shines pre-board and devastates them post-board. There shouldn't be a need to explain why. I have lifegain, removal and a big flying dude.

Against MBD I should have the upper hand, as I can disrupt their lifegain and cardadvantage where-as they cannot do the same to me. Post-Board it's all about who hits Erebos first (my experience) as both have no way of removing him (maybe if they play Liliana of the Dark Realms and have 7 swamps to hit Erebos with her -3, but srsly, who plays this joke of a planeswalker?!)

Against Fish I definitely have the upper hand post-board. Gaze is the ultimate answer.

Naya-Control is a complete joke if you ask me. They cannot touch me most of the times. I run more and better removal than they do. I can destroy their Chained to the Rocks , Elspeth, Sun's Champion and Assemble the Legion with ease and also I can revive my threats and bring them back for more funzies. Also: CA. I don't know how Brad was able to take the invitational with his deck, maybe it's because he is a very good player but most of the time naya control doesn't stand a chance against Black Devotion (with or without greensplash).

All in all I feel much more confident in my deck. The power-level of Pack Rat is just huge, though I do get too greedy some times, so I run it over the Caryatid. The thing with Caryatid that bugged me the most, that I hated drawing her in the later stages of the game. When I draw a Rat in the later stages of the game: "Well, hello there win-con".

Even though one of my match-ups got weakend (aggro), I must say that overall my deck is stronger than before. I think a match between my old and current build would be amazing to see, but I'd say the deck right now wins against the deck before. The game would go long and this is where sustained ca beats the immediate ca Read the Bones offers. Also the Lifebane Zombie of my old deck is basically a dead card. It can hit nothing in my deck and it cannot attack safely (mine can hit a Reaper at least :D). Also the Specter would be troublesome, and having to waste the removal on Specter denies the option of using it against the UC and/or DDs.

Awesome. I really do like this deck. I want to try and splice together a Golgari Control type deck. The biggest card I am going to have trouble with acquiring is Mutavault , refuse to spend 20 bucks a pop for any card. And I can't seem to trade out for the playset. :-P

I am going to steal some concepts from this deck as I build mine. The conversation and evolution of this deck has been very interesting. I've learned a lot.

Only question, and I haven't read through the thread so if you've answered it I'll go look. Why did you splash the B/G lands? Am I missing something?

I want to run 11 green sources but also I want to ensure I can cast my Nightveil Specter on turn 3. So if I draw a Forest and 2 Swamps with Specter at the start it's meh. But if I have 1 Temple of Mystery and two Swamps in my open 7 it's awesome. Also the scry-effect is really nice.

Needs more Rock Lobster

Any updates? Great deck, gives me good games thanks! +1

Hi Mightywiggy

thanks for the +1. I wasn't playing it a whole lot lately so no updates. I'm still not sure yet what to take to the PTQ I will attend on 18th of January. Maybe it is my version of MBD. Maybe I will try to go rogue and play the Dredge deck.

I play a little different version:

-1 Golgari Guildgate-1 Vraska the Unseen-1 Swamp (23 land)

+1 Pack Rat+1 Whip of Erebos +1 Erebos, God of the Dead

I like to play +2 Devour Flesh mainboard. This gives me the option to play it on a Gray Merchant when i have a Whip out, and whip the Merchant back again. (Play Devour Flesh, in your opponents endstep, on your own Gray Marchant, gain 4 life, and in your own turn Whip him back again).

This is great with a Sanquin Bond on the table. But this version makes the deck slower and you have to sideboard your burn spells.

Well hope to see more comments and updates, thanks again and good luck.