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you have to get over the fact that their life total matters, because it doesn't.  The deck you're playing (even before changes) is a control deck and life totals are irrelevant in control matches.  As soon as you own the game, they can't do anything and you just kill them.  Trust me

if you use erebos it alos limits their ability to gain life while you can have a whip in play to gain your own life too.

No... no... i don't like ethereal armor, that's for aggro decks which you are most definitely not. Here's my suggestions.  You're not far off a BW midrange, but you're lacking some of the bomb cards.  I might go heavier black and lean towards a mono-black devotion since you appear to have some of the important removal.  Cutting some of the white really makes the deck more consistent since you don't really have a lot of "power" cards that are in white like Blood Baron or obzedat.   I'd like to see underworld connections if you had them for additional card draw, but I tried to stick with what was in your inventory already or common/uncommon.

Lands, go up to at least 25 lands, with more black than white.  Obviously BW shocks would be ideal.  Mutavaults would be nice, but again, you said budget.  Cut it back to about 2-4 plains and the rest swamps keep your temples/gates

Before

4 Orzhov Guildgate
8 Plains
8 Swamp
4 Temple of Silence

After

4 Orzhov Guildgate
2 Plains
15 Swamp
4 Temple of Silence

Creatures need to provide some amount of devotion. i think fate unraveler is just cute and not doing that much for you, the ram as well.  I would cut those.  Athreos can be neat i suppose.  But you need a better outlet to abuse him.  also drop heliod.  You can't really support the mana dump or turn him on consistently.
Find 4 Gray Merchants and put those in.  Master of feast might be okay since you're picking apart your opponents hand some.

Before

4 Brain Maggot
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
4 Underworld Coinsmith
2 Athreos, God of Passage
4 Grim Guardian
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
2 Fate Unraveler
1 Heliod, God of the Sun

After

4 Brain Maggot
2 Athreos, God of Passage (could also be replaced with lifebane zombie or something similar perhaps maindeck sincollectors, if control is a problem)
4 Grim Guardian ( I don't really like these, you're mising a solid 4 drop, like desecration demon, if you can find some I'd highly recomend using them. )
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
3 Master of feast (kind of taking the place of desecration demon and underworld connections)
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

The hard removal is good, but the board whips don't play well with your plan all that much.  The discard plan works. To take care of that.  More removal belongs here imo.

Before

4 Banishing Light
4 Hero's Downfall
3 Master of the Feast
4 Thoughtseize
2 Whip of Erebos
2 Dictate of Erebos
2 Extinguish All Hope
1 Merciless Eviction

After

4 Doom Blade
4 Hero's Downfall
4 Thoughtseize
1 Whip of Erebos
3 Devour Flesh (hex proof killers, very good, go up to 4 if MD if you need)
1 Deicide

Plug up some holes in the mainbaord. with more hand disruption.  Drown in sorry, is a concession to aggro decks. Bile blight might also work here.

Before

Sideboard:
1 Dark Betrayal
3 Aegis of the Gods
1 Blind Obedience
3 Deicide
2 Spirit of the Labyrinth
1 Eidolon of Rhetoric
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
1 Heliod, God of the Sun
1 Doomwake Giant
1 Fated Retribution

After
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
4 Duress
2 Deicide
1 Whip of Erebos
2 Dark Betrayal
2 Sin Collector
3 Drown in Sorrow

Overall I feel some changes like this will make the deck more consistent.  If you haven't read the article about how to thoughtseize and how best to use it suggest you give it a read.

http://www.starcitygames.com/article/26 … e-You.html

Mono black can do well against hexproof, if you lean on thoughtseize and devour flesh.  Typically the deck has good game against control if played right.  Without the ability to go all in packrat you're lacking some pressure so.  I think the gods are good here if you can get the devotion to turn them on obviously, erebos stops life gain and getting your creatures back with athreos is good.  You can devour flesh your own dudes and bounce them with Athreos.  Gain life and recast them if needed.  A good way to recycle gray merchants for extra life loss.

that's the point I was making.  Different strokes for different folks and all that.  Also, there are people like me that work fulltime, kids, wife, etc... I just don't have time to eat sleep and  breath magic the way I'd like to really be competitive so I have to do like the fantasy football guys do and "draft" a deck played by my favorite pros.

Sometimes decks work for them because their pros and falls flat for me (see the amulet of vigor deck). Sometimes it works because the cards are "good" and provide consistent value (standard esper) and usually it's a little of both for them.

Looks okay, I'm not a modern expert or a merfolk expert, but I've seen similar lists around.  The last version I played against had master of waves in it.  Have tried that?  It seemed good.

here's a similar list.

http://www.mtgtop8.com/event?e=7413& … 4&f=MO

how about some more information?

have you played many games?  what gives you trouble?  What's your FNM like?

I think the blue is pushing it too far. You'll have too many lands that come in to play tapped and could push first cast of land destruction back a turn.  Your goal should be to have a bramblecrush or something go off turn 3 ever time and I think 3 color makes that a little too difficult.   If you let a control deck get to 3 mana before you start putting threats down you're going to have a hard time beating them if they can start countering your destruction spells.

that being said, You'll still have some tough matchups and depending on how competitive you're FNM is I wouldn't expect it to go more than 2-2 unless RNGesus is looking over your shoulder.

@ ty, kind of harsh calling people dicks for playing control.  It hurt a little

you're seriously undervaluing courser's power.  especially in this style of deck.  I'd try to get them back. 

I'd swear on a stack of black lotuses i didn't see those cards in the list when I opened it to look.  I could have overlooked them though *shrug*. 

not a good idea imo, you're opening yourself up to a 2/1 scenario.  I'd rather see a couple golgari charm/selesnya charm if anything.  heroe's downfall would be ideal, but you said you're on a budget currently.

edit: another thought on courser, here's the thing. courser does the same thing as the ram, and underworld connections for 3 mana instead of 5 and in one card instead of 2.   Courser draws you cards, not by actually drawing them, but making sure you don't draw land.  It gains you life when you play a land which is about every turn/ever other turn, which evens out to be the same as gaining a life with the ram and losing one with UWC.   It is the premiere value card in the format and will see play until it rotates.  It will be in multiple top decks and will (has already started) to break into modern.

you've got an elspeth and a manaconfluence in your inventory that merit inclusion.  You're playing without shocks so you need every edge on mana you can muster.   I'd also say that without courser and some of the other card draw you should run 1-2 more lands anyway.

Elspeth is a bomb and can close the game very well.  Now she's not an enchant on her own and won't synergy with some of the other effects, but it doesn't really matter.  Trust me.

You've got some stormbreaths, i'm a fan of you trading these for some courser's and trying to polish up this list some more.  you've also got boon satyr which is a strong card and fleecemane lion.  Both of these would be strong additions to the deck.  The trick is not to synergize everything, but to just have enough so that the eidelon draw engine works.

I haven't seen too many UWR modern decks run the resto angel. Not that it's  bad it's not and it synergies with snapcaster well. 

It really depends on your meta.  I do think I like a couple of sphinx's rev in the deck if possible.

It's all perspective man.  You go ahead and put in all the extra effort you want... I traded within deckbox exclusively because of ease of use.   I don't have time to mess with everything you're suggesting and will not be trading online until deckbox fixes their stuff or i find another website that's equally as useful. 

There are high volume traders on here that will feel the same way, i guarantee it. And judging by the comments to your post most people already do.

Edit: And as I said in response to Sebi's response.  I"ll be back and I'm rooting for them, but I just don't have time to waste using a site that doesn't provide the features I'm looking for.  I was fine trading with people in person before. I'll go back to that as a primary source for trading.

Bottom, line deckbox had a customer base built in that respected them and the service they provided.  This hiccup is a major over-site because it sends a message. If they can't handle a transaction to a market place based system that uses their own information how will they mange the market place when it's in full force?  Consumer confidence is important to this type of business.

Website is nearly unusable as is... I realize the website is provided as a "free" service, but ads to provide a form of revenue and i think that will drop sharply after this.

From a business prospective this isn't a shocker, starcity and others have already handed out CNDs to others.  Seems like all of this was poorly executed.  This is surely a result of the market place announcement and that should have been withheld until a suitable replacement was in effect.  It puts you in direct competition with TCG player how could you think it wouldn't be an issue?

I'm not going to stop using deck box and I may even take part int he market place once everything is finalized, but I can't justify using the site in it's current state. 

GLHF until then.

obviously you'd want the other muta's and another template.  I liked running a 1 of nykthos, but a lot of lists don't run it at all anymore, so i guess it's personal taste.

it should be either lifebanes or herald's really, but not both, at least not in those qty's.  You might try a 2/2 split or something, but the removal is just to important.  Drop the herald's and come up an underworld connections and 2 devours or a devour/ultimate price.