Leechridden Swamp

Land — Swamp

(: Add to your mana pool.)

Leechridden Swamp enters the battlefield tapped.

, : Each opponent loses 1 life. Activate this ability only if you control two or more black permanents.

Discussion (50)

Flooremoji on Merchant, Messenger, Murderer

3 months ago

I think the only point to playing mono black devotion in modern is winning the standoffs where Leechridden Swamp would be making a difference, so unless it's a one-of and you have fetchlands to find it I think having a tapped land is too big a downside to justify it in a deck thats already happy to be in a board stall.

StoryArcher on Merchant, Messenger, Murderer

3 months ago

Flooremoji,

Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to respond. I hadn't been aware of Vampire of the Dire Moon, I consider that an immediate upgrade!

Raven's Crime has proven very effective for me in the mid-game at times, catching opponents off-guard when I double or triple-cast it to empty their hand (especially in the second or third game of a match when they've boarded out all their graveyard hate). It's worth a one-of imo. I detailed my reasons for Leechridden Swamp above, but I'm open to dropping it. Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx ramps into a hand full of cards from a Phyrexian Arena or two.

I'll definitely try Bloodchief's Thirst in the sideboard over Victim of Night for its value against Planeswalkers but I really like the instant speed of the latter. Contaminated Ground is intended to interfere with land strategies like Tron while Withered Wretch allows me to cycle multiple cards out of a graveyard AND gives me a body that increases my Devotion.

Flooremoji on Merchant, Messenger, Murderer

3 months ago

I think you can find better cards than a 1/1 deathtouch creature for . Maybe even Deadeye Tracker but it might not be worth it.

If you like that slot though there are at least three strictly better cards I can think of right now, Vampire of the Dire Moon, Foulmire Knight, and Ruthless Ripper.

Raven's Crime is middling, Leechridden Swamp is bad, and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx dosen't have anything to ramp into.

You don't have much maindeck creature removal (for dorks, creatures relevant to combos etc.), I would reccomend Bloodchief's Thirst as it can also answer planeswalkers and is only 1 mana without kicker.

Your sideboard could use some work too, while I understand that you want to build devotion, Contaminated Ground and Withered Wretch aren't amazing at what they do. I guess I never have seen contaminated ground and its pretty cheap so you could test it and see how it does, but I would reccomend playing cards like Relic of Progenitus or Grafdigger's Cage over wretch in every case but maybe tribal zombies.

StoryArcher on Merchant, Messenger, Murderer

3 months ago

Metroid_Hybrid, Balaam__

I appreciate the feedback, guys. It's good to be going Black again. I took your advice land-wise into consideration and compromised a bit on it. I like the pressure that the Leechridden Swamp allows me to put on people and they are still Swamps, so I'm not hurting for black mana. I actually haven't minded them coming in tapped because I usually seem to be playing one-drops on turn two and, to be honest, their pinging nature as a potential mana-sink have often been the difference between that Gary finishing a foe off or letting them linger. I did drop Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth as superfluous (and expensive), removed one Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and added three additional Swamps. I personally don't love the ratio of 23 lands in a 60 card mono-colored deck but I split the difference by increasing the deck size to 61. 61-card decks have always seemed lucky for me for some reason, don't know why.

I dropped 1x Ayara, First of Locthwain, 1x Erebos, God of the Dead and 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel, replacing them with an additional Phyrexian Obliterator, Geralf's Messenger and added in 1x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. Collectively this increased my Devotion and smoothed out my mana curve to a greater degree.

At the moment I'm pretty happy with the deck, I just have concerns about non-creature removal, particularly artifacts and enchantments that could potentially wreck me - but then, that kinda comes with the Black territory, doesn't it.

StoryArcher on Modern Mono-Black

3 months ago

Greetings guys & gals!

I've been playing R/G Ponza for the last couple of years but going all the way back to the beginning (Fallen Empires for me), mono-black has been my true love. I've been playing around with it but I just don't have enough experience in the broader format to feel secure in the deck build. I was hoping to run it by a few of you experts before I crack open the piggy bank to put it together.

You can find the deck here...

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Mono-Black Aggro Devotion

Modern StoryArcher

SCORE: 7 | 14 COMMENTS | 206 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS

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...but the breakdown is pretty much as follows:

So I'm experimenting with mono-black Devotion with a little disruption worked in.

My initial plays Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, Knight of the Ebon Legion and Gifted Aetherborn are intended to simply slow down fast combo decks or aggressive aggro decks while I stabilize, though none of them are ever bad draws which is something I always look for in cheap creatures, the ability to add value in the midgame. Duress is a nice budget option in place of Thoughtseize. Sign in Blood is a solid two-drop that can be used early or late with equal effectiveness.

In the midgame the goal is just beatdown with efficient creatures that build up Devotion. Nighthawk Scavenger and Phyrexian Obliterator will draw all the removal your opponents can get their hands on, because just one can win the game for you. Murderous Rider is swiftly becoming my removal card of choice, but be careful how you time it.

If all of that isn't enough to finish the job, the end-game goal of the deck is to drop a big Gray Merchant of Asphodel or two.

Coward_Token on Belbe, Corrupted Observer cEDH

4 months ago

I mean if you just want to make people lose life at CMC 2 there's always Sanctum of Stone Fangs (more niche: Lim-Dul's Hex & Shepherd of Rot

Leechridden Swamp is a thing but you've probably already seen it

PaulMuadDib on Vito, Thorn of Dusk Rose

7 months ago

You are going to need more than 12 lands. Whenever I build a deck, I always start with 40 lands and then for every 3 pieces of ramp, which for a mono black deck would be a mana rock or swamp doubler or ritual spell like Dark Ritual, I remove a land.
Please retune the deck with 12 non-land mana sources and 36 swamps for starters and you can think of non-swamp lands you want to include later.
My suggestions for those sources are any 12 of the following, depending on your budget:
Sol Ring
Star Compass
Commander's Sphere
Crypt Ghast
Charcoal Diamond
Soldevi Adnate
Songs of the Damned
Worn Powerstone
Dark Ritual
Everflowing Chalice
Ashnod's Altar
Cathodion
Guardian Idol
Hedron Archive
Mind Stone
Magnifying Glass
Millikin
Prismatic Lens
Cabal Coffers <- could replace a swamp
Bubbling Muck
Pristine Talisman <- defiantly want that

After that you've got the commander, which takes up 1 card slot, so that leaves you with 51 cards to choose from.

I see the bare beginnings of either an aristocrats or a reanimator deck. In my opinion you should push more for aristocrats. It can draw you tons of cards and gain you quite a lot of life. There's no harm in keeping some reanimation spells in there though.

You want a good number of sacrifice outlets. I haven't heard of what a hard number should be so I'd shoot for at least 5. Here's a list of some that I remember off hand:
Witch's Cauldron
Vampiric Rites
Ashnod's Altar
Infernal Tribute <- has a funny synergy with Spine of Ish Sah
Gnawing Zombie
Altar of Dementia
Attrition
Blood Bairn
Bloodflow Connoisseur
Bloodsoaked Altar
Bloodthrone Vampire
Carnage Altar
Carrion Feeder
Corpse Blockade
Culling Dais
Dark Privilege
Diamond Valley
Disciple of Griselbrand
Gutless Ghoul
Lampad of Death's Vigil
Mind Slash
Spawning Pit
Phyrexian Plaguelord

For this strategy you'll need recurring creatures or token generators
Ghoulcaller Gisa
Reassembling Skeleton
Endless Cockroaches
Tenacious Dead
Nim Devourer
Bridge from Below
Open the Graves
Sanitarium Skeleton
Gravecrawler

value
Pitiless Plunderer
Bolas's Citadel

Lifegain
Blood Artist is a staple
Plunge into Darkness is something you might want for the pure lifegain of 3 per creature you sacrifice. Not sure that you want to use the "exile a bunch of your deck" too often.
Bontu's Monument
Corrupt
Drain Life
Shadows of the Past

reanimation
Living Death
No Rest for the Wicked
Sepulchral Primordial
Zombify
Rise from the Grave
Victimize
Apprentice Necromancer
Call of the Death-Dweller

spot removal/board wipes
Mutilate
Damnation
Defile
Hero's Downfall
Vona's Hunger

draw
Read the Bones
Sign in Blood
Damnable Pact
Smothering Abomination
Ransack the Lab
Minions' Murmurs
Harvester of Souls

and so forth. I'd look through some already built aristocrats decks to see exactly whether you want to take that strategy.

Oh yeah, for utility lands I'd choose any of the following within your price range:
Leechridden Swamp
Bojuka Bog
Reliquary Tower
Cabal Stronghold
Volrath's Stronghold
Phyrexian Tower
Myriad Landscape
Terrain Generator
Geier Reach Sanitarium

Brutal_B on Cabal Coffers Hero

1 year ago

You have the colors to run Kruphix, God of Horizons, he'd help you ramp and/or store colorless mana. Another swamp worth considering is Leechridden Swamp; especially if you can untap it at every upkeep. Find a spot for Mirage Mirror... you'll thank me later.