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By: romellos, A. Atasoy
Feb 20 2014 1:00pm
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              Heaven & Hell photo Heaven_and_Hell_zpsbc8b6235.jpg

    Pure Mtgo is hosting the special theme of the month for a while and up to now, we had very exciting concepts shaped under these themes. Personally, I couldn't able to attend in the previous organizations due to some personal developments. Now, I'm here and I don't want to miss any one of these entertaining special occasions. And for the February, we will have the clash between "Heaven & Hell". 

My Modern deck concept will be purely focused on the Hell side to abuse the alternative casting cost of Demon of Death's Gate in a Mono Black Midrange build that can easily see play in the semi-casual or PRE environments. 

Now, let's open the Gate of Death with our unholy sacrifices. ..

 

This is a themed deck with a specialized creature base to support the sacrificial factor in many separate ways. Our creature base is well balanced in the matter of CMC curve, to preserve our game pace. But, we also have a great defensive weakness from the most of our creatures as many of them can't block. 

Gravecrawler  Bloodghast

Gravecrawler and Bloodghast can easily be the most troublesome creatures in this deck with their nearly unlimited pop up advantages. We have total eight Zombies in this deck and I think this is a fair number to rise Gravecrawler over and over again. On the other hand, Bloodghast's return can be more restrictive as it depends on the Landfall triggers. 

Nether Traitor

Nether Traitor is another good sacrificial option that we can utilize without any much restrictions. Other times, it will continue to poke our opponents with its shadow attacks.

Gatekeeper of Malakir  Vampire Nighthawk

During the draft stages of this deck, this creature spot was in chaos. I have tried several options here, but I didn't satisfy from their synergy. Actually, I was looking for a creature that can give me some anti-tempo advantage against my opponents and also something that can keep me alive during the early turns. Then, I have narrowed my candidates to two as; Gatekeeper of Malakir and Vampire Nighthawk. Gatekeeper of Malakir was great to eliminate the early threat and also to stop the next upcoming attack. On the other hand, Vampire Nighthawk was good at stabilizing the board with its Deathtouch & Lifelink. But, it was lacking the immediate board impact of Gatekeeper of Malakir.

Geralf's Messenger  Disciple of Bolas

Geralf's Messenger is our reverse Kitchen Finks with its exactly same Life points manipulation and card advantage. Its only drawback is, to come into play tapped, otherwise it's a great creature. Geralf's Messenger is still a novice in the Modern, but it has potential to see play in several deck types. 

Disciple of Bolas is our secret weapon to provide us some extra card & life advantage. We have various creatures with different rise abilities that can continue to come back.  When these factors have been combined, Disciple of Bolas can create a fake bubble boost to utilize his ETB bonus with much more potential. It's really amazing and worth to try.

Sengir Autocrat  Delraich  Demon of Death's Gate

Sengir Autocrat is one of my favorite old school cards. During the standard with UZ & MM & 6th Edition, I was playing a casual Mono Black Midrange deck that utilizes the combination play of Sengir Autocrat & Delraich as the high end. And, it is the same story today.  The only difference is on the protagonist role and much more improved supportive creature base. 

Demon of Death's Gate is my All Star, dedicated for this special week.  When I learned about the "Heaven & Hell" theme, Demon of Death's Gate was the first thing that came into my mind and rest shaped around this idea.  As a creature, it is pretty big enough to finish the game with two turn clock by itself. Our main plan to cast Demon of Death's Gate is by sacrificing three Black creatures & with a 6 life loss. But, there will be definitely times that we can cast it normally  with the help of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. As, our creature base contributes very aggressively to the Black  devotion. 

Inquisition of Kozilek  Thoughtseize  Liliana of the Veil

I choose to go with several cheap disruption options, instead of including spot removal spells.  Inquisition of Kozilek and Thoughtseize will do their job effectively and they will atop nearly all the possible threats that we can face.

Liliana of the Veil is here to provide us extra options with her sacrifice & discard abilities that will help us against other decks. If you don't have any Liliana of the Veil, you can easily replace her with few Inquisition of Kozilek & spot removal spells. 

 
 

My sideboard options are pretty generic solutions against the most of the meta strategies. 

Relic of Progenitus  Damping Matrix  Defense Grid

Relic of Progenitus will be a good cantrip against any graveyard strategies, while Damping Matrix hosers specific deck builds that rely on the artifacts & creature's tap abilities. 

Defense Grid will give us the time we need with its taxing effect against the Instants & creatures with Flash ability that will pop up during our turns. 

Dismember  Sudden Death

Normally, I'm a Dismember fan all the way, but this time I have decided to give a shot to the Sudden Death due to its Split Second advantage.  
 
Damnation  Mutilate
 
These days, lots of various new aggressive decks are emerging. And it will be a safe call to include some global answers against them. In that regard, you can either include Damnation as a guaranteed solution or Mutilate as a budget option. 
 
 
 
Finally, here are some game videos from my test games. This game is against a Naya aggro deck.
 
 
 
This game video is against a Dredge deck, actually it's a Legacy deck. What can I say, I have joined that game by a mistake. 
 
 
 
 
 

WRAP UP:

Deathrite Shaman is no more. So, this is the best time for me to re-visit my old Mono Green Stompy deck(s). See you next time in the "Modern Days"...

2 Comments

Demon of Death's Gate has by Kumagoro42 at Thu, 02/20/2014 - 16:32
Kumagoro42's picture
5

Demon of Death's Gate has been totally forgotten. His price range is the same of Sphinx Ambassador, which is the embodiment of a bad Mythic.

I might even try one copy in a mono-black devotion deck I'm brewing.
I decided to try a mono-colored deck per color. My mono-green midrange stompy has been quite successful lately, I have a big red one with Koth and Braid of Fire, and a mono-blue with Grand Architect and Vedalken Shackles.
White and black are trickier. White because it's bad at exploiting Nykthos (I sketched a deck that resorted to use Opal Guardian! Which is not a bad card, but still. I wish Dawn Elemental was Modern-legal). And black, I don't want to just do the Gary.dek everyone does, so I want to make it flashier, with Phyrexian Obliterators and Divinity of Pride. And I have Bloodghast and the Gatekeeper and lots of creatures for Nykthos and Gary's sake (also Royal Assassin! Why people don't play Royal Assassin anymore?), so the Demon might fit.

Mono colored deck per color by romellos at Fri, 02/21/2014 - 11:33
romellos's picture

Mono colored deck per color sounds really cool. I'm looking forward to see your deck lists. As you always have a unique perspective for brewing.

I will also continue to review Mono colored decks here, at least my next three week schedule is dedicated to them.

White devotion deck is indeed trickier as you need to find a correct shell & concept to it.