You could turn this into a Bogles deck with a penchant for recursion? That would make even greater use of all those auras.

Bogles is even a modern deck (albeit not one of the topdecks), so there are certainly some things to draw inspiration from.

That was a really good suggestion. I looked through several Bogles decks and added Silhana Ledgewalker and Gladecover Scout. I can't bring myself to take out the Aura Gnarlid (way too good) or the Bestow creatures (need more enchantments to make Kruphix's Insight net 3 cards). I did however find that the secondary color in most Bogles decks were most often white and not black.

I really like the synergy that Kruphix's Insight and delving with Moldervine Cloak has with Font of Return. There is some really big card advantage happening. And if I can get a Necromancer's Magemark on a hexproof, then my creatures are generally indestructible.

But what I am seeing thought is that Font of Return and Necromancer's Magemark are really mid-to-late game cards that only really work once a lot of other cards have been played. And while they are good, I wonder if just playing for straight beat down would be better. And in that case, white has better support cards for an Aggro approach than black does.

I really like how decks organically evolve and that as it sits right now, the best possible Necromancer's Magemark deck I could possibly make (the original intent of this deck) may not actually include Necromancer's Magemark. [smiles widely]

THIS WAS THE ORIGINAL DECK DESCRIPTION AND HISTORY. LOGGING AS A COMMENT.

I've seen quite a lot of pauper decks that center around either putting out a large creature fast (e.g. Ulamog's Crusher or Gurmag Angler) or around beefing up a creature (e.g. Carrion Feeder or Kiln Fiend). But often it takes many supporting cards to make these creatures work and if the threat is neutralized the deck kind of fizzles. I can generally do the same thing with a decent creature and a decent creature enchantment. As such that's what this deck sets out to do. Along the way, I intend to make the creatures difficult to kill and keep them on the battlefield.

I set out to create a mono-black deck focused on getting the most out of Necromancer's Magemark. But after playtesting several mono-black variants it was clear that green's hexproof was better than black's regeneration and cards like Rancor and Moldervine Cloak were huge improvements over black's creature enchantments. So it turns out that the best Necromancer's Magemark I can make does not actually include Necromancer's Magemark. Go figure.

KEY SYNERGIES

Many enchantments and Kruphix's Insight net a 3:1 card advantage for a simple three CMC spell.

Other decks I've seen that are similar play Abundant Growth and lands that come into play tapped. I prefer Wild Growth and basic lands to those alternatives to keep the deck fast. The sooner you can attack with a 20/20 creature with hexproof, trample, lifelink, first-strike and reach, the better.

Many enchantments with Aura Gnarlid, Ethereal Armor and Ancestral Mask, especially Wild Growth and Utopia Sprawl.

I archived the old development comments. Now that the deck is in a stable state. We can start comments anew.