Modern Merchants

by Haloshark on 15 April 2019

Main Deck (60 cards)

Sideboard (15 cards)

Sorceries (8)


Planeswalkers (2)

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Deck Description

Back when I started playing Magic (Theros), I had a lot of Gray Merchants lying around and wanted to build a deck around them. Never really could figure out how to take the best advantage of them, but here's my best shot. Please feel free to give constructive feedback! I'm not used to playing Black, so I need it!

How to Play

Basically just try to accrue as much Devotion as possible while keeping control of the board, then play and re-play Gray Merchants to drain your opponent.

Deck Tags

  • Mono Black
  • Modern
  • Sacrifice

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

2
Likes

This deck has been viewed 966 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

006400

Deck Format


Modern

NOTE: Set by owner when deck was made.

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Modern Merchants

A great card when building up devotion and using sacrifice mechanics would be [[Geralf's Messenger]], bringing 3 devotion and the undying mechanic into the deck. Gatekeeper of Malakir or Skinrender could be used as alternative to Plaguecrafter while Gifted Aetherborn/ Vampire Nighthawk help you to stay alive while bringing devotion.
Undying Evil could be an interesting way to re-use your Merchant without having to pay for him again. Sacrifice/ block with him, use the spell on him and voila...re-enteing. Lord of the Undead could be another way to re-use him and even make him tougher.

Further suggestions:
Vampire Hexmage, Dread Shade, Phyrexian Etchings, Phyrexian Obliterator, Creakwood Liege

Greetings
Muktol

1
Posted 16 April 2019 at 09:11

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Thank you for all the advice! I'm still pretty new to modern, but want to try to understand the format better. When I've got a minute I'll add in some changes.

1
Posted 16 April 2019 at 21:32

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Depends an what you have played before. Legacy can be a lot faster and more complex to play, while Standard is normally slower than modern.
Something that I just recognised is that you have Dark Prophecy and [[Altar's Reap]] for card-draw. I would swap [[Altar's Reap]] to get some removal like Tragic Slip, Doom Blade or Bone Splinters

0
Posted 17 April 2019 at 08:15

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Yo Muktol!
I'm also building a similar deck in Modern. There are some pretty great 'new' toys that just got reprinted in Modern Horizons: Diabolic Edict, Carrion Feeder, Cabal Therapist, and Unearth. You know what's great about these cards...? They're super cheap right now! Not sure if these are things you'd want to include in your deck, but they really help with the sacrifice theme you've already got going on here.

0
Posted 19 June 2019 at 17:06

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PS: Getting to 5 mana in modern can be tough, depending on your local meta. Keep in mind that modern is a format that often sees turn 4 or less than turn 4 wins, so you might wanna rethink Gray Merchant, which I know probably hurts to hear since this deck revolves around him. That being said, you might wanna consider ways to 'cheat' some mana into your pool like Priest of Forgotten Gods, or Dark Ritual-esque effects (sadly Dark Ritual isn't legal in Modern). You're not always gonna get there with the Cabal Stronghold, so you might consider Crypt Ghast, which can also get you closer to a win con with its Extort effect.

0
Posted 19 June 2019 at 18:48

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