I don't usually say that a single card renders something unusable in a format... but yeah, Lightning Bolt forces her out of modern almost entirely on it's own.
I would have to disagree with you.
If you use her -1 ability the turn it hits the board and they bolt it lets look at the game state now:
You have net 0 cards, a free exploration
They have net -1 cards and used one of their combat tricks.
@ Welt Krieg COMPLETELY forgot about Lilianna. You are completely right. I am transfering this from standard and in standard there is a good deal more life gain out there. Also can't forget about Melira-Pod I would at the very least SB him for that reason alone.
Will think about the list more and incorporate these in. Thank you for the Feedback!!
Why are you running arid mesa? It fetches plains and mountains..in a mono black deck? If you are running more fetches, possibly consider marsh flats as an additional, and then how about deathrite shaman as a one drop mana accelerator and additional grave hate? Often enough, you can just as easily hit your opponents fetches and slow them down in the process while accelerating your own game plan.
More targeted hand removal over some of the sacrifice and destruction might be useful. Possibly inquision of kozilek, duress, or even despise if you're worried about planeswalkers that much.
Sign in blood seems interesting. Straight up question, though. Is it performing superior to dark confidant (a permanent for devotion count and an attacker in its own right) or phyrexian arena? I acknowledge it isn't as fast for card draw and will probably get blown up pretty quickly.
So you are 100% correct in most of these!
I accidentally put Demise instead of Downfall and Arid Mesa instead of the aforementioned (shows how tired I am these days! lol)
With regards to the deathrite that is a perfect choice and I will find room to fit it in. Complete oversight on my part.
For Bob I thought long and hard and that is the conclusion that I ran into when I considered him. He will get blown up and I won't get the value that I need out of him.
I would Drop 1 Messenger, 1 Obliterator and 1 Geth's Verdict for 3x deathrite shaman.
I am presupposing that there are no enchantments on the field. The ability does not get to resolve, it is removed from the stack before that happens. But does it trigger and go on the stack long enough for it to be targeted. Hence the dilemma.
@ Lectrys THANK YOU!!!! Finally someone who actually addressed the question as opposed to side swiping it and avoiding the answer by saying it is a 2nd Tier Deck. Would you suggest Lingering Souls as well? (for more chump/stalling)?
I would probably take out
1 Pontiff
1 Melira
1 Ranger of Eos
3 Chord of Calling
1 VoR
replace it with
2 Dismember
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Lingering Souls
I find that it is too much because you have so many ways of searching for them (i.e. Ranger of Eos, Pod (off of tokens), and Chord of Calling).
I have used Witness after saccing my VoR to pod and then it comes back. So much value there. or you can sac your melira to get witness and bring it back. Just gives you more card advantage. I have also -1'd a wall of roots into a witness to get wall of roots back, played it and casted another 1 cmc card. So depending on what shenanigans you wanna do its more versatile.
If i'm going to sac a Kitchen finks for example to pod, I would rather get a resto angel instead of a metamorph to copy the finks.
Yes there are other targets on your opponents board, but that is very situational while the resto angel is based on your board (which you have more control over)
@Rickster - My mind has been blown. The insight and improvement that I received from switching a Woodland Cemetery for a marsh flats was astounding. Thank you for the constructive helpful criticism
This is the list that I am going to start testing again. Hopefully it will fix the aggro issues. I am going to test with Wasteland Viper. I think that it will truly be a magnificent edition. It is something that I will be searching out with a Ranger of Eos. A way to inhibit Aggro. We'll see how it goes.
I would have to disagree with you.
If you use her -1 ability the turn it hits the board and they bolt it lets look at the game state now:
You have net 0 cards, a free exploration
They have net -1 cards and used one of their combat tricks.
So using Grey Merchant of Asphodel. So its a different take on MBC than the regular version and plays significantly different.
Mono Black Control wouldn't consider Geralf's Messenger but I do because of the BBB cost.
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
2 Nantuko Shade
3 Geralf's Messenger
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Spells (18):
3 Geth's Verdict
3 Hero's Demise
4 Thoughtseize
4 Sign in Blood
4 Liliana of the Veil
3 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Verdant Catacomb
1 Marsh Flats
10 Swamp
2 Uborg tomb of yawgmoth
2 Overgrown tomb
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
6 other
Will think about the list more and incorporate these in. Thank you for the Feedback!!
So you are 100% correct in most of these!
I accidentally put Demise instead of Downfall and Arid Mesa instead of the aforementioned (shows how tired I am these days! lol)
With regards to the deathrite that is a perfect choice and I will find room to fit it in. Complete oversight on my part.
For Bob I thought long and hard and that is the conclusion that I ran into when I considered him. He will get blown up and I won't get the value that I need out of him.
I would Drop 1 Messenger, 1 Obliterator and 1 Geth's Verdict for 3x deathrite shaman.
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Nantuko Shade
4 Geralf's Messenger
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Erebos, god of the dead
4 Geth's Verdict
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Thoughtseize
4 Sign in Blood
1 Consume Spirit
3 Nythkos
4 Verdant Catacomb
1 Marsh Flats
14 Swamp
I am pretty sure you can get a turn 5 win fairly easily with this. Given Nythkos
Thoughts? Let me know.
as an additional cost to play this Sacrifice a creatures it is black
Return two target creatures from your GY to play
I am presupposing that there are no enchantments on the field. The ability does not get to resolve, it is removed from the stack before that happens. But does it trigger and go on the stack long enough for it to be targeted. Hence the dilemma.
If you cast Aven Cloudchaser with no legal targets on the board does the ability still go on the stack long enough for it to be targeted?
I realize that as soon as it is put on the stack it is removed due to there being no legal targets.
But for the sake of argument if I wanted to Stifle it. Could I?
I would probably take out
1 Pontiff
1 Melira
1 Ranger of Eos
3 Chord of Calling
1 VoR
replace it with
2 Dismember
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Lingering Souls
Thoughts?
EDIT: Potentially Harmonic Sliver as well
I have used Witness after saccing my VoR to pod and then it comes back. So much value there. or you can sac your melira to get witness and bring it back. Just gives you more card advantage. I have also -1'd a wall of roots into a witness to get wall of roots back, played it and casted another 1 cmc card. So depending on what shenanigans you wanna do its more versatile.
If i'm going to sac a Kitchen finks for example to pod, I would rather get a resto angel instead of a metamorph to copy the finks.
Yes there are other targets on your opponents board, but that is very situational while the resto angel is based on your board (which you have more control over)
1 Wasteland Viper
2 Viscera Seer
2 Deathrite Shaman
4 Birds of Paradise
Two CMC (6):
1 Melira, Sylvok Outcast
1 Qasali Pridemage
1 Wall of Roots
3 Voice of Resurgence
Three CMC (7):
1 Eternal Witness
1 Spike Feeder
1 Orzhov Pontiff
4 Kitchen Finks
Four CMC (4):
1 Restoration Angel
1 Ranger of Eos
2 Murderous Redcap
1 Archangel of Thune
1 Reveillark
1 Shriekmaw
Spells (7):
3 Chord of Calling
4 Birthing Pod
Lands (23):
1 Godless Shrine
1 Temple Garden
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Swamp
2 Overgrown Tomb
3 Forest
3 Gavony Township
3 Razorverge Thicket
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Aven Mindcensor
1 Spellskite
1 Harmonic Sliver
1 Sin Collector
2 Dismember
2 Abrupt Decay
3 Lingering Souls
4 Thoughtseize