Thanks to the often-high prices of dual lands, it's frequently easier to keep you budget lower with the fewer colors you play. Mono-colored decks have the advantage of being able to avoid pricey dual lands with little to no downside. Thanks to Theros, mono-colored decks also receive a nice new treat in the form of devotion. Although Ravnica made three-colored decks the standard for Standard last year, devotion, along with the slower dual lands in Theros, is swinging the pendulum back toward playing fewer colors. Devotion in particular wants you to play one color—or at least skew your deck heavily toward one color. Today, I'll be experimenting with a mono-black deck designed to take advantage of devotion. Here's the list I put together.

"Devotion to Black"

• Creatures (19)
• 2 Disciple of Phenax
• 2 Shadowborn Demon
• 3 Thrill-Kill Assassin
• 4 Abhorrent Overlord
• 4 Festering Newt
• 4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

• Spells (16)
• 4 Doom Blade
• 3 Corrupt
• 3 Dark Prophecy
• 3 Underworld Connections
• 3 Whip of Erebos

• Lands (25)
• 21 Swamp
• 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Buy This Deck

The Creatures

Thrill-Kill Assassin builds up your devotion a bit more, and with deathtouch, it remains a relevant blocker throughout the game. The addition of unleash also makes it more relevant against control decks—you at least have a bear to attack with. It may not be the greatest 2-drop, but unfortunately, there really aren't very many choices for mono-black at the moment.

Disciple of Phenax adds a couple points to your devotion, and it gets rid of card in your opponent's hand as well. Being a creature also enables it to trigger Dark Prophecy and allows you to gain a second use out of it with Whip of Erebos. With several different cards to add to your devotion earlier in the game, it shouldn't be uncommon for this to force your opponent to reveal his entire hand.

Gray Merchant of Asphodel is one of the primary reasons for building a deck like this. With this list's devotion to devotion, it's not uncommon to see the Merchant drain 8 to 10 life from your opponent. As if that wasn't enough, you can block with it, draw a card from Dark Prophecy, and then return it with Whip of Erebos to do it a second time. This is the first of the two primary win conditions in this deck.

The other main win condition is Abhorrent Overlord. Not only is it a 6/6 on its own, but it can dump a massive number of Harpy tokens onto the board when you play it. If you have Whip of Erebos, you can even sacrifice it to itself and return it for another round of tokens or bring it back after a Supreme Verdict for an instant army. Although 7 mana is normally too much to pay for almost anything in Standard, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx can easily make that much mana here.

The Spells

Underworld Connections also adds significantly to your devotion, and it is much harder to get rid of than a creature that does the same. It also gives you more cards to work with, helping you gain card advantage even over players with Sphinx's Revelation. This card, along with Dark Prophecy, goes a long way toward helping you maintain a high devotion to black.

Whip of Erebos is, without a doubt, one of the best cards in this deck. For one thing, it has two black mana symbols in its cost and isn't a creature, making it easier to keep your devotion high. Lifelink helps you hold out against aggressive decks and recuperate the life-loss from Dark Prophecy and Underworld Connections. Even more valuable is the ability to return creatures from your graveyard to the battlefield for a turn. With powerful enters-the-battlefield abilities such as those of Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Abhorrent Overlord, you're generating far more value than just a temporary attacker. Of course, having a 6/6 with flying, lifelink, and haste for a turn isn't bad either.

Doom Blade has regained its throne as the premium removal spell in the format, and with W/U, G/W, and mono-red as three of the most popular decks at the moment, it's looking better than ever. If you do by chance run into a black creature you need to take care of, Shadowborn Demon and Corrupt are happy to help. Otherwise, being able to kill any creature at instant speed for just 2 mana is a huge boon to just about any deck.

Nykthos isn't a spell, but it's really the key card to this deck. Having a high devotion to black lets you produce a huge amount of mana with this land, which lets you cast expensive spells, such as Abhorrent Overlord, which benefit from you having a high devotion. Thanks to the card-draw from Underworld Connections and Dark Prophecy, your hand will usually be stocked with spells, and Nykthos allows you to play multiple cards each turn. Unless you run into a streak of bad luck, you should never be left with a ton of mana and nothing to do with it.

Playtesting

Naya Midrange – Game 1

My opponent paid 2 life for Sacred Foundry, cast Fleecemane Lion, and passed back. I drew another Swamp, played it, and ended my turn.

My opponent attacked for 3, and I took the damage. He played Temple of Abandon and passed the turn. I drew a Swamp, played it, and cast Dark Prophecy. I attacked for 1 with Festering Newt and ended my turn.

My opponent hit me for 3 with the Lion and then played a Forest and cast Polukranos, World Eater. He ended his turn, and I drew yet another Swamp. I played it and passed the turn.

My opponent activated Polukranos to kill my Festering Newt, and I drew Abhorrent Overlord from Dark Prophecy. I gave Fleecemane Lion -1/-1, and he attacked with both creatures. I killed Polukranos with Doom Blade and dropped to 11. He ended his turn. I drew another Festering Newt and cast it. I activated Nythos to produce 4 mana and then played a Swamp and tapped it to cast Gray Merchant of Asphodel, draining 6 life from my opponent. I ended my turn.

My opponent attacked with Fleecemane Lion, and I decided not to block. I took 3 damage, and he cast Boros Reckoner and passed the turn. I drew another Swamp and played it. I activated Nykthos for 6 and cast Corrupt, targeting Fleecemane Lion. I went up to 19 and ended my turn.

My opponent paid 2 life to play Temple Garden untapped and cast Stormbreath Dragon. He attacked with both creatures, and I took the damage, dropping to 12. I drew Doom Blade and played my Swamp. I made 6 mana from Nykthos and tapped a Swamp to cast Abhorrent Overlord, making eight tokens. I attacked for 3 with my other two creatures and passed the turn.

My opponent drew his card and conceded.

Game 2

My opponent paid 2 life for Stomping Ground and cast Fleecemane Lion. He ended his turn. I drew a Swamp, played it, and passed back.

He attacked for 3 and then played a Plains and cast Loxodon Smiter. He ended his turn. I drew Doom Blade and passed, and he attacked with both creatures.

I killed the Smiter and dropped to 14. My opponent cast Boros Reckoner, played Temple of Abandon, and ended his turn. I drew another Swamp, played it, and cast Underworld Connections. I ended my turn.

My opponent dropped me to 8 and then played Temple of Triumph, cast Voice of Resurgence, and ended his turn. I activated Underworld Connections during his end step, drawing a Swamp. I drew Disciple of Phenax for my turn and played a Swamp. I cast Gray Merchant of Asphodel, draining 4 life from my opponent before ending my turn.

He killed the Merchant with Mizzium Mortars and dropped me to 3 life. He then cast Loxodon Smiter and ended his turn. I drew Whip of Erebos and conceded.

Game 3

I drew Whip of Erebos, played my Swamp, and cast Thrill-Kill Assassin, without the counter. I ended my turn. My opponent played a Plains, cast Voice of Resurgence, and passed.

I drew a Swamp, played it, and passed the turn. My opponent attacked for 2 with Voice of Resurgence, and I took the damage. He paid 2 life for a Temple Garden, cast Boros Reckoner, and passed the turn.

I drew a Swamp, cast Whip of Erebos, and passed back. He attacked with both creatures, and I blocked Boros Reckoner with Thrill-Kill Assassin. I dropped to 16, and my opponent played a Forest and cast Polukranos, World Eater.

I drew Underworld Connections and ended my turn. My opponent played Temple of Triumph and attacked with his creatures. I killed Polukranos with Doom Blade and took 2. He cast Domri Rade, using his +1 without finding a creature and ending the turn.

I drew a Swamp, played it, and cast Corrupt to kill Domri and gain 6 life. I passed the turn. My opponent hit me for 2 with Voice of Resurgence and then cast a second Voice and ended his turn.

I drew Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and activated Underworld Connections, drawing Festering Newt. I cast the Newt, tapped Nykthos for 5, and cast Gray Merchant of Asphodel, draining 7 life from my opponent. I ended my turn, and my opponent flashed in Boon Satyr. On his turn, he killed the Merchant with Mizzium Mortars and attacked with everything. I blocked Boon Satyr with Festering Newt, and but he used Ghor-Clan Rampager to pump it up and get in for a total of 12 damage, dropping me to 11. He ended his turn.

I drew Dark Prophecy and cast it. I used Underworld Connections to draw a card, seeing a Swamp, and I then activated Nykthos for 7. I activated Whip of Erebos, bringing back Gray Merchant of Asphodel. I drained 9 life, putting my opponent at 2. I attacked for 2 with the Merchant to finish the job.

Wrap-Up

This deck certainly has some late-game power once you have time to assemble some devotion, but it's early-game isn't the greatest. Landing a Whip of Erebos seems deadly for an opposing control deck, since even a countered Gray Merchant of Asphodel or Abhorrent Overlord can be brought back for its ability. As we saw in that match, midrange decks will have a lot of trouble killing you once you get started, so they have to hope for an aggressive draw. If your local standard environment is a bit on the slower side, or if you're just a big fan of mono-black, give this deck a try.