I think you could get away with one or two less kill spells. There are a lot here. In fact, the Doom Blade s should probably just replace the Ultimate Price s entirely. Doom Blade is much more useful in standard right now.

I'm not sure the usefulness of the Orzhov Charm s in your deck, as only 2 of it's abilities will ever be able to help you.

I like Obzedat, Ghost Council , and I like Blood Baron of Vizkopa a lot. I think both are powerful cards. Shadowborn Demon benefits from flying, but when your upkeep comes around, I don't see any good targets for sac'ing. He feels counterproductive in that sense. I would stick to the Blood Baron, but that's just me.

Overall pretty solid deck man!

+1

Thanks for your feedback and suggestions ZettaFett :)

IF I were to add Shadowborn Demon it would sacrifice itself, and then be brought back with the whip for yet another removal. But I don't see much use for it as is. Haven't tried it out yet, I feel like there's quite a good synergy in the deck at the moment.

I like the versatility of the Orzhov Charm . Although you're right, usually I can only use 2 of its effects. But those two are quite good as well. And that little off chance of bringing back a High Priest of Penance for an unexpected block and yet another removal is just something the other cards don't give me :D

Had some fun playtesting this vs my mono black life gain Consuming Darkness. Pretty much came down to who gets erebos out first :P.

With the devotion to black theme you got going, it seems like Gray Merchant of Asphodel would be a great addition (also has synergy with Whip of Erebos ), but I'm not sure what you'd take out for it. Yours seems to play quite well as is.

Only change I'd suggest is Ultimate Price (as ZettaFett mentioned) out for maybe 2x Devour Flesh . It's a handy card as it can work as non targeted removal for hexproof, and can even use it on yourself to save a creature from getting exiled (by Selesnya Charm or Detention Sphere for example), letting you whip it back into action.

Other than that, looks good. +1 from me

Hmm, Devour Flesh is an interesting suggestion ZeroOneGoatToken. I'll have to give it a test and see if I like it. Although I'm not entirely sure what I'd remove. Most of the huge threats in the current standard are mono coloured, so Ultimate Price works quite well, and it has the upside of allowing me to choose a target :D

But the potential added benefit of sacrificing my own creatures is very interesting. On the other hand though, if my stuff gets targeted by Selesnya Charm or Detention Sphere I could just use my Orzhov Charm to return it to my hand, instead of killing it I guess :)

No Gray Merchant of Asphodel ??

Ghost7 Nah. If I had run it mono black devotion, I would definitely have used Gray Merchant of Asphodel , but since it's B/W I feel cards like Blood Baron of Vizkopa and Obzedat, Ghost Council are stronger :)

Nice deck :) Maybe add in Ajani, Caller of the Pride it'll beef up anything you want. High Priest of Penance makes for a good blocker for it and if the Whip is out you'll have 30+ 2/2 Cats in no time.

I think I "unsubscribed" instead of commenting... argh...

Anyway, since you're playing devotion, lifegain, and hand disruption, might I point you towards Gray Merchant of Asphodel (a wickedly undervalued common in Theros' devotion-heavy decks), and the Disciple of Phenax ? A pair of each in place of some of your redundancies (for example, maybe run 2 Lifebane Zombies and 2 Disciples) might make this a little nastier. For my money, Gray Merchant/Whip is just the neatest pairing.

Thanks for the suggestion peso_de_fuego :) My experience is, it's sort of rare for me to have access to 2 white mana in turn 3, and since I'd preferably would rather play Lifebane Zombie , Read the Bones or Hero's Downfall I think the 3 mana spot is kind of full :D

I do like the idea of beefing up High Priest of Penance for double the annoyance. I even like the idea so much I've thought about maybe doing a combo with Gift of Immortality and just watch the opponent hate every second of it :D

DrColossus I really do like those cards, I truly do. And they surely offer some powerful tricks and punches. But I'm afraid I've moved too far away from the devotion part of the deck to truly make them worth while. Gray Merchant of Asphodel is 5 mana for anywhere between 2-6 (realistically) damage in this deck. Which is of course decent, and it could win me a game.

My thinking is though, if it only hits for 2 damage, I've probably lost anyway at that point. And if it hits for 6 damage, I'm probably ahead and got control, and somewhat won anyway. So an Obzedat, Ghost Council , Elspeth, Sun's Champion (newly added) or even a Blood Baron of Vizkopa should fill the spot without the downsides.

I'm considering doing a mono black control/devotion deck and use cards such as those, and I honestly think it would be quite powerful :D

And of course, thanks for the comment and suggestions!