Liliana Planeswalkers HELP!
Modern Deck Help forum
Posted on Aug. 19, 2018, 9:07 p.m. by Gsmith88
I'll start this off by stating I'm fairly new to magic. The guys I play with have given me all the advice they are willing to give because it would be redundant for them to do more seeing as they're my opponents.
I am in the middle of trying to retool my deck, I will spend the money to get what I need if I end up needing to, but I have no idea what i need to leave out or trade out to make my deck run better. Any contstructive advice and tips are valued and appreciated.
Deck list
Planeswalkers:
- Liliana, Death Wielder
- Liliana Vess
- Liliana, The Necromancer
- Liliana, The Last Hope
Creatures:
- Arisen Gorgon x3
- Gravedigger
- Skeleton Archer x2
- Fell Specter
- Drudge Sentinel
- Nightmare
- Butcher Ghoul
- Two-Headed Zombie
- Sultai Emissary
- Tattered Mummy
- Abattoir Ghoul
- Festering Mummy
- Tree of Perdition
- Demon of Catastrophes
- Reassembling Skeleton
Spells:
- Lich's caress x3
- Murder x2
- Liliana's Influence
- Supernatural Stamina
- Trespasser's Curse
- Aspect of Gorgon
- Triskaidekaphobia
- Never/Return
- Final Parting
- Dread Return
- Dying Wish
- Rise from the Grave
- Eviscerate
- Oath of Liliana
- Diabolic Tutor
Artifacts:
- Bontu's Monument
- Staff of the Death Magus
Lands:
- Cabal Stronghold x2
- Swamp x21
65 cards
(Also, let me know if I typed this up wrong)
Yes. It's the best way to pass around decklists here, rather than asking about big chunks o' text. Set it up, and be proud with your first deck.
August 19, 2018 10:43 p.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #5
I understand that you're a begginer to magic and I don't intend to discourage you but the best Liliana planeswalker in modern is Liliana of the Veil. Typically you would want 3-4 copies of her.
Now that's out of the way your deck is kind of all over the place which is fine good stuff decks are totally viable in modern but you have to have some consistency to them. So take Murder for example, this is a card you would want most games so 4 copies would be a good number to run. That being said, Murder isn't usually played because better (Hero's Downfall) and cheaper (Fatal Push, Cast Down) options exist.
Lastly you should under stand the strengths of Black are cheap creature removal (see above), discard spells like Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek, as well as cards that trade life for advantage such as Dark Confidant, Phyrexian Arena, Bitterblossom or again Thoughtseize.
Creatures in black are typically overcosted or come with a significant down side (see Master of the Feast), Some are viable but must be built around like Abyssal Persecutor, Nyxathid, or Death's Shadow but the other option is to splash another color. Green pairs nicely with black thanks to cards like Tarmogoyf or Scavenging Ooze.
August 19, 2018 10:44 p.m.
ArchonBlue says... #6
Yea Gsmith88 you're going to want to repost this under the Creat Deck tap as suggested, then we can give you a feedback on it. At a quick glance though APPLE01DOJ is right, this deck is going to have to be mostly scrapped to make it modern competitive and Liliana tribal is not cheap because you'll want 4 copies of Liliana of the Veil to begin with. I also would not recommend mono black anything in Modern because you won't have enough answers to most of the decks in the format. You can splash green for B/G Midrange or green and red for Jund, but I don't think mono black is great in Modern, especially not the way you want to build it. Check out MTG Goldfish, under the Modern section, they have some good ideas.
August 19, 2018 11:23 p.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #7
The best mono black deck in modern right now is Mono Black Devotion (with a green splash) followed by the only true mono black deck in modern 8Rack. Both decks run 4x Liliana of the Veil and if you own the cards to make them you should probably just play BG/x instead.
August 19, 2018 11:54 p.m.
Hi, welcome to modern, which is a faster format than you probably think.
You will get clobbered over the head by a 4/4 Hollow One by turn 2 on a regular basis. Having Lich's Caress as you removal spell of choice is then not very useful - the golem is just about done flattening you by the time you get to kill it. So... something much easier on the mana is needed. Fatal Push is the most popular, but for more budget-conscious deckbuilders, Victim of Night, Doom Blade, Hero's Downfall, and Go for the Throat are all possible alternatives (along with a bunch of other black removal spells - there are plenty to choose from).
You can also get removal with legs. Gatekeeper of Malakir is a decent enough card in a budget meta. Fleshbag Marauder is better if you are heavily into zombies (or other creatures), that can come back from the graveyard on their own.
Discard is more or less a necessity when playing black in modern. Thoughtseize is the better option, with Inquisition of Kozilek in the second place, and Duress as the very budget alternative. Don't bother discarding creatures out of your opponents hand with Despise - you're playing black, you'll have plenty of creature removal. You can get more powerful discard effects than these... but they also cost more mana. And the strength of 1-mana discard is that you trade your discard-card for the best card on your opponents opening hand, which you can't do the same extent with more mana-expensive cards. Also of note is Collective Brutality, both for the discard, but also because it can be used for set-up with your own graveyard. Technically speaking, Smallpox is also a discard spell - pretty strong, but takes a lot of set-up.
You can try to win on discard. Then you just have a look at an 8-rack deck somewhere, and try and make that. A card that sometimes shows up instead of expensive liliana, is Necrogen Mists. I guess you could use it in a budget monoblack control deck too - if you have a lot of recurring creatures. It could also be played with Howltooth Hollow (but that's not good if you want mana out of your Cabal Stronghold or if you can't get both players discarded to 0).
In terms of card draw, someone else already mentioned Phyrexian Arena and Dark Confidant (a.k.a. Bob). There are a bunch of bob look-a-likes too (all of which are much worse, though), and if you play in a budget meta, some of those might appeal to you. Personally, I like Asylum Visitor in my 8-rack deck, but I guess it would be good in any deck that tries to set the game into top-deck-mode.
Why all the different lilianas? Mostly, they aren't really good enough for modern, Liliana, the Last Hope being an exception (not good enough = too much mana for too little effect). Also, you've forgotten one of the better lillis: Liliana, Heretical Healer Flip.
legendofa says... #2
Welcome to the club! My first tip is how to list a deck. In the top corner, there's a folder symbol. Under the tab is the selection Create Deck. Put the deck together, throw on a description and a couple of hubs (shameless self-promotion: A Complete Hub Glossary for TappedOut), and link it as {{deck:deck-name-here}} or {{decklarge:deck-name-here}}, using square brackets instead of curly. This will make it much easier to review and comment on.
If you need any help, just ask around. Most people here are very willing to give advice.
August 19, 2018 9:28 p.m.