It's been way too long since I last posted a monoblack deck and the recent sets have been absolutely amazing so I want touch on what cards are making the cut and why.
I agree with most of it. (for example, I love Defile)
Defile is amazing. It's one of the few spot removal spells that you can feel good about playing as a 2-4 of even in MP. It's definitely our version of Swords to Plowshares.
Field of the dead is great in Gates as an alt-wincon, although I generally win by playing Maze's End before I can grind people out.
Syr Konrad, the Grim This card is so much fun to play and really hoses some people. I was initially playing two but love the card that I got two more for virtually nothing. Highly recommended.
No Gary, as he's much hated in my playgroup. If it wasn't for this, he would obviously be a 4-of here, end of story.
Vilis doubles the card draw from Arena, Dread Presence, Kothophed and Rankle.
The deck has many synergies going on, but my favourite thing to do is to play Cavalier of Night, get his first ability on the stack and immediately sac him to Ayara, triggering the second ability to get Plaguecrafter back to play, getting rid of 3+ creatures, draining and gaining life and drawing a card in the process. If Zulaport Cutthroat is also on the field, well... It's just icing on the cake.
No love for Knight of the Ebon Legion? I realize that the one drop is quite saturated in black but I quite enjoy the card and it scales.
Nah I wouldn't consider playing that one in MP. It doesn't scale in a meaningful way and I don't want cheap, aggressive threats in my decks. Much like Dread Shade it doesn't have a big enough impact on the game to warrant a deckslot. I wouldn't fault anyone for playing them if they had a playset lying around from their Standard deck but these aren't the types of cards that interest me. I typically only want 4-8 one drops in my deck (excluding Defile, that one doesn't count) total and those slots are too hotly contested by Myriad Landscape, Dark Ritual, Bloodchief Ascension, Thrull Parasite, Gonti's Machinations, etc. Heck, it's so hard to justify running anything over Dark Ritual which can power out an Ayara or Arena on turn 1 thus setting you up to succeed. It's cheap, easy to acquire, iconic, feels good to play with, on and on and on. Why much around with 1/2s for 1 when you can jam an Phyrexian Arena instead?
Realistically every non-Cabal Stronghold version of the deck should be playing 1-2 copies of Urborg because it's such an amazing card in general. It does so much and asks so little. I've never needed an excuse to play them lol.
Throne of Eldraine
Ayara, First of Locthwain: extremely powerful drain + card advantage engine. One of the best things to Dark Ritual on turn 1. Staple 3-of.
Cauldron Familiar: fun combo with Witch's Oven, Zulaport Cutthroat and Ayara, First of Locthwain.
The Cauldron of Eternity: slow, inconsistent and terrible. Avoid.
Foulmire Knight: the best Typhoid Rats variant ever printed which can be useful in aggro-heavy metas. Very low power-level though.
Murderous Rider: marginal removal and marginal body makes for a marginal card. Playable but unexciting.
Rankle, Master of Pranks: stellar for Stax builds that include things like Dreadhorde Invasion, Ophiomancer and/or Chittering Witch.
Revenge of Ravens: utterly destroys aggro/token decks but completely useless vs midrange, ramp, combo, control, etc. Meta-specific.
Smitten Swordmaster: fantastic in Knight-heavy builds that include Lucky Clover. Tremendously powerful drain spell.
Syr Konrad, the Grim: extremely powerful drain finisher.
Chittering Witch: decent in Stax builds that include things like Rankle, Braids, Cabal Minion, Magus of the Abyss, etc.
Castle Locthwain: staple 4-of card advantage engine. Virtually all of my non-Cabal Stronghold builds play 4. Card is utterly insane.
Witch's Cottage: marginal recursion effect that excels in fetchland builds. There's way better things to be dong with these slots though.
Commander 2019
Mire in Misery: solid creature removal spell that occasionally hits an Enchantment or two. Worse than Liliana's Triumph in my experience.
K'rrick, Son of Yawgmoth: utterly bonkers mana engine. Easily one of the best things to be casting on turn 4 or Dark Ritualing on turn 2. My favorite curve is turn 1 Gonti's Machinations/Thrull Parasite (or any other spell really), turn 2 Dark Ritual + K'rrick, Son of Yawgmoth, turn 3 Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Crypt Ghast also works and I'll typically play those alongside K'rrick to ensure that I always have an oppressive ramp spell in play on turn 2/4.
Core Set 2020
Cavalier of Night: much like Murderous Rider this card is "fine" but nothing special in MP.
Dread Presence: reasonable card advantage/removal engine but too vulnerable to removal for my blood. Good in removal-light metas.
Leyline of the Void: utterly oppressive graveyard-hate spell that boasts immense synergy with Nykthos and Gary. Good time to pick them up on the cheap.
Vilis, Broker of Blood: impressive finisher for ramp builds that include things like Cabal Stronghold and/or Cabal Coffers.
Yarok's Fenlurker: staple 4-of. 2 black pips, global effect, good mana sink, you couldn't ask for a better 2 drop.
Field of the Dead: I love this card but I'd rather assemble Cabal Coffers + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth or whatever.
Modern Horizons
Defile: staple 4-of. It's by far and away your best option for spot removal.
Endling: much like Dread Shade this card isn't even good monoblack devotion. Not enough impact on the game.
Mind Rake: staple 4-of in Waste Not Devotion decks.
Plague Engineer: amazing 1-2 of in any Black deck. It doesn't even matter if people play tribal; this card always seems to over-perform regardless.
Rank Officer: marginal/budget-minded anti-aggro card that also doubles as a drain finisher.
Sling-Gang Lieutenant: same idea; decent anti-aggro/budget card. Unfortunately this is now outclassed by Chittering Witch.
Undead Augur: staple 4-of for Zombie Devotion. Think Plague Belcher, Grave Defiler, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, Rot Hulk.
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician: tremendously powerful value engine for builds that include things like Ophiomancer and Chittering Witch.
Barren Moor: good card but outclassed by alternatives such as Cabal Stronghold, Castle Locthwain, etc.
War of the Spark
Bolas's Citadel: utterly insane card advantage + drain engine. Shines brightest in extort builds but playable in anything with Gary.
Command the Dreadhorde: another extremely powerful 6 drop finisher that abuses the mass lifegain present in Gary decks.
Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage: too weak to make the cut in "serious" builds but a fun inclusion in casual discard decks.
Dreadhorde Invasion: fantastic engine for builds that include things like Ayara, First of Locthwain and Rankle, Master of Pranks.
The Elderspell: bonkers finisher for PW-heavy builds. 2 card combo with Liliana, the Last Hope and Liliana, Dreadhorde General.
God-Eternal Bontu: ridonkulous finisher for the Dreadhorde Invasion, Ophiomancer, Chittering Witch, Grave Pact, etc. Stax builds.
Liliana, Dreadhorde General: this set has a million 6 drops but they're all busted so I can't complain. Get a JPN alt art if possible, they're magnificent.
Liliana's Triumph: Black's best 2 CMC removal spell. I always have 4 at the ready in case I want to jam some additional interaction into my lists.
Massacre Girl: powerful mass removal spell that often makes the cut as a 2-of. Easily recurrable which is incredibly useful.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
I agree with most of it. (for example, I love Defile)
I must confess I prefer Vona’s Hunger over those Triumphs though. (I know, I know 3 CMC)
And K’rrik seems to need a lot of building around to me. (Or do you mean that for a 40 life game?)
My meta: 3 or 4 player free for all, anything goes but boring games or broken decks cause a vote to end that game.
Syr Konrad, the Grim
Mire in Misery
Liliana's Triumph
...it's hard to make room for new stuff.
Current decklist:
3 Bloodghast
2 Crypt Ghast
4 Abyssal Persecutor
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Syr Konrad, the Grim
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Sepulchral Primordial
1 Griselbrand
1 Sol Ring
4 Skullclamp
Enchantment (2)
2 Necromancy
Spells (11)
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Liliana's Triumph
2 Mire in Misery
1 Torment of Hailfire
1 Virtus's Maneuver
1 Syphon Mind
2 Tendrils of Corruption
1 Rise of the Dark Realms
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Cabal Coffers
17 Swamp
Defile is amazing. It's one of the few spot removal spells that you can feel good about playing as a 2-4 of even in MP. It's definitely our version of Swords to Plowshares.
Nope, 20 or 25 life too. You're correct that he needs a dedicated shell but it's all cards that we're running regardless. Gonti's Machinations, Bloodchief Ascension, Thrull Parasite, Gifted Aetherborn, Basilica Screecher, Exsanguinate, Crypt Ghast, Gray Merchant of Asphodel, do I need to twist anyone's arm to convince them to play with these? Also, for protection you get to run Supernatural Stamina/Kaya's Ghostform if you want and it's not like those cards are bad in Gray Merchant of Asphodel decks either.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
No love for Knight of the Ebon Legion? I realize that the one drop is quite saturated in black but I quite enjoy the card and it scales.
Dread Presence loves Urborg, Tomb of yawgmoth allowing you to splash it with another color if you desire.
Field of the dead is great in Gates as an alt-wincon, although I generally win by playing Maze's End before I can grind people out.
Syr Konrad, the Grim This card is so much fun to play and really hoses some people. I was initially playing two but love the card that I got two more for virtually nothing. Highly recommended.
Black really received so much love in the recent sets that I also thought it was a good idea to run a pure monoblack list.
Here's the list I've been toying with:
4x Yarok's Fenlurker
2x Priest of Forgotten Gods
4x Zulaport Cutthoat
3x Plaguecrafter
3x Ayara, First of Locthwain
3x Dread Presence
2x Sangromancer
1x Rankle, Master of Pranks
3x Shriekmaw
1x Cavalier of Night
1x Syr Konrad, the Grim
1x Kothophed, Soul Hoarder
1x Meteor Golem
1x Vilis, Broker of Blood
1x Oversold Cemetary
4x Phyrexian Arena
1x Recurring Nightmare
Lands (24)
18x Swamp
2x Cabal Stronghold
2x Witch's Cottage
1x Castle Locthwain
1x Bojuka Bog
No Gary, as he's much hated in my playgroup. If it wasn't for this, he would obviously be a 4-of here, end of story.
Vilis doubles the card draw from Arena, Dread Presence, Kothophed and Rankle.
The deck has many synergies going on, but my favourite thing to do is to play Cavalier of Night, get his first ability on the stack and immediately sac him to Ayara, triggering the second ability to get Plaguecrafter back to play, getting rid of 3+ creatures, draining and gaining life and drawing a card in the process. If Zulaport Cutthroat is also on the field, well... It's just icing on the cake.
Nah I wouldn't consider playing that one in MP. It doesn't scale in a meaningful way and I don't want cheap, aggressive threats in my decks. Much like Dread Shade it doesn't have a big enough impact on the game to warrant a deckslot. I wouldn't fault anyone for playing them if they had a playset lying around from their Standard deck but these aren't the types of cards that interest me. I typically only want 4-8 one drops in my deck (excluding Defile, that one doesn't count) total and those slots are too hotly contested by Myriad Landscape, Dark Ritual, Bloodchief Ascension, Thrull Parasite, Gonti's Machinations, etc. Heck, it's so hard to justify running anything over Dark Ritual which can power out an Ayara or Arena on turn 1 thus setting you up to succeed. It's cheap, easy to acquire, iconic, feels good to play with, on and on and on. Why much around with 1/2s for 1 when you can jam an Phyrexian Arena instead?
Realistically every non-Cabal Stronghold version of the deck should be playing 1-2 copies of Urborg because it's such an amazing card in general. It does so much and asks so little. I've never needed an excuse to play them lol.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold