What Conley woods currently has this deck sleeved up as is completely different from what it originally was. It was an awesome graveyard games deck that not only let you dig through your deck and find the answer or fatty that you are looking for but also rendered your opponents thought seizes, counterspells and creature removal useless And that was the main appeal to me. Your graveyard is just as important as the cards you draw from the main deck and in some cases much more important. You were able to put creatures into play Via mana dorks and cheaper mana costs and if they were killed off or countered, you were able to whip them back into play the very next turn and they would still be a threat even if just for a turn. And if Whipping a creature back into play wasn't good enough, let us not forget the fun part of the deck, the part where we launch fatties with Jarad for a tiny cost. One of my favorite parts honestly, but this deck has so many layers and that’s what most people miss.

As I said, this deck renders your opponents answers to your threats quite useless for two reasons. 1! Whip of Erebos is I think the most important card in the deck. It keeps you in the race with fast decks like White Weenie, Red Deck Wins and Mono Red Akoran Crusader decks and it also lets you have answers late game by gaining a life advantage from a very large Nighthowler or Jarad, or in the late game just throwing out a Nemesis of Mortals with a very cheap Monstrosity cost of GG. Ten life and the potential to get in that lethal damage sounds good no? And 2! honestly ask yourself, if you had never seen this deck before and had planned for lets say Mono Black and White Weenie, how are you going to side against this? You have the upper hand playing a relatively unknown deck with many powerful angles to attack your enemy with while they are stuck thinking of how to stop your larger creatures or stopping Jarad from doing a sweet sweet launch at them while forgetting that Whip brings back duders or that Nemesis of Mortals can come down on turn three... and Four... and Five, it happens and its awesome and oh the amount of pressure you opponent is under when they don’t have board wipes. And while your opponent may have heard about this deck, there is a very very slim chance that they have actually played against it enough times to know how to strike you or make you struggle to win the match.

So while Conley has slowly but surely strayed away from the whip plan into the “hey! Look I can make fat guys over time” this is what I am currently working with

Der Land

4 Golgari Guildgate

4 Overgrown Tomb

5 Forest

6 Swamp

The dudes

4 Nighthowler

4 Lotleth Troll

4 Herald of Torment

4 Nemesis of Mortals

4 Sylvan Caryatid

4 Elvish Mystic

3 Shadowborn Demon

2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

Non-Creature spells

3 Whip of Erebos

4 Grisly Salvage

4 Commune with the Gods

I am currently tweaking the sideboard so that’s why I didn’t post it but uhhhh Thats dope right? I know right, thanks. As you can see the dynamic of the deck is a little different but I am keeping a lot of what makes the deck awesome...well awesome and I am testing out a new way to attack your opponent when there is a stalemate or you just want to get ahead on life while taking away your opponents.

On a recent Top 8 Magic podcast, Mike Flores brings forth an interesting question about the future of black decks and questions whether black decks could just become Heralds, Merchants, Specters and Whips for maximum devotion damage. While the idea didn’t stem too far( it was a set break down and obv there are tons of cards to go over) it got me thinking about how I could just use Merchant to hit along side Jarad. While having 3 Jarads main deck, there are many ways to get him into your hand or graveyard you are only allowed to have one in play at a time and yes you can make them fodder for the Troll, you could also just change them into Merchants for an automatic 4 ticks of life loss with Whip in play.

Perhaps the two biggest changes from my list and Conley’s list are what I consider his biggest mistakes with the deck. He removes the whips completely from the list and making the cards he casts and draws the only resources left. No longer is the graveyard resource and no longer can he catch up in the late game against decks like Mono Black that have fantastic removal and Thoughtseizes while still having creatures that hit hard at your life total. He doesn’t even have them in the sideboard... easily the biggest mistake. And the second mistake he made with the deck is removing Shadowborn demons form the list completely then adding them to the sideboard only. The deck has zero removal main deck and has no way of clearing the way for the fatties to get through other than attacking into your opponents creatures and that’s where Demon comes into play. A hasted flying fatty that takes someone with him seems like a fantastic card to have in the main deck not only that but its reasonably costed. Yes, Mono black does run a Demon of their own but Specter isn’t a demon nor is Merchant and There are targets for the demon to hit and getting a demon of your own to stick is great isn’t too bad either.

As you see I have also added a new card from Born of the Gods, Herald of Torment, into the deck and it was something that involved a ton of thought. You already don’t have a lot of wiggle room to add and remove cards, but I felt that having a cheap flier that stops Specter, Precinct Captain and Pack Rat would improve the match up against aggressive creature based decks. While you do lose a life each turn, you have Whip to counter that ability and he has a reasonable Bestow cost that allows your fatties to fly over and get in that extra damage. So far my favorite interaction is with Nighthowler, Whip of Erebos and Merchant as you are able to stack so much Black Devotion to get in extra damage. As I said earlier you get four points in with Merchant and Whip but with the cheap cost of Herald and Howler you are able to get in more damage.

One creature card I am hesitant to add into the deck Is Satyr Wayfinder. Yes it is a creature that digs into the deck for more lands while pitching threats into the bin, but I have had a few problems with it in testing. The main one is that it is of 2 CMC and that is the same as Caryatid, Commune with the Gods and grisly salvage and potentially putting something down with 3 mana cost. There are just other things id rather be playing to further my board advantage or fill my hand with cards I actually want. Sure its a creature that add to the graveyard count for Jarad and Howler, but I dont think its enough. With the land count already at 19, simply digging for a land will most likely find you a creature you actually want or perhaps throwing away a Whip and yes you could be potentially throwing away a Whip with Grisly Salvage, you can choose to take a creature instead

Well, this is what I have been playing and if I am able to playing at the Large Channel Fireball event in the beginning of march, that is what I will most likely be playing as I know the Mono Black match up very well and feel the deck has a 50-50 chance against it. I have tried to stay as close as I can to the original list because I feel what Conley has turned it into is a different way to approach the “Dredge” and is slightly weaker compared to what it once was. No longer being able to attack from different angles and using your graveyard as another resource is no longer an option in his current build.

Which is this

Main Deck 4 Deathrite Shaman 4 Elvish Mystic 3 Sylvan Caryatid 4 Satyr Wayfinder 4 Lotleth Troll 4 Nighthowler 4 Herald of Torment 2 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord 4 Nemesis of Mortals 4 Commune with the Gods 4 Grisly Salvage 8 Forest 4 Overgrown Tomb 7 Swamp Sideboard 3 Golgari Charm 3 Shadowborn Demon 4 Skylasher 4 Thoughtseize 1 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

Well, thats all I have for now, thanks for reading :B