MTG Salvation

Hi everyone, I'm looking to build a mono black in my mission to have one mono of each colour. Making a strong Black deck isn't difficult at all - the problem is making one thats interesting and not just good stuff.

I'm wondering, if you've got a cool black deck, or played against a black deck that you thought was really sweet, could you post about it here? Any random ideas are welcome because I'm drawing a ton of blanks with this colour!

Mono black mill with Chainer, Dementia Master. Mill the deck, rob the graveyard.

I've always thought Gonti was pretty unique.

Gonti is currently a leading choice. Problem is he's too similar to my UB clones and copy stuff deck.

Chainer and Drana both exist in my meta at the moment.

I'll take a look at He Who Hungers. Just seems a pity that card is B would be very strong in Bx. Hythonia looks interesting, but there are not that many creature heavy decks in my play groups now so she would feel like I'm kicking an archetype while it's down.

Horobi I've seen before, and Irini is way too niche!

Keep the suggestions coming, I'll check over them all.

At the moment the plan is to attempt Mono Black Control, using bad colourless answers to permanents that Black can't deal with on the table. With the big focus on artifact answers I'm inclined to something like mono-Black artifacts - problem is there is no effective general I can think of for this strategy.

You should check out Maralen of the mornsong if control is what you want

Toshiro Umezawa is a unique challenge.

Mono-black artifacts-matter? King Macar, the Gold-Cursed comes to mind.

I'm partial to Erebos, God of the Dead. He lends himself to a goodstuff deck since his ability is fairly generic, but I think he could easily be a goodstuff commander in an otherwise unorthodox deck. Card draw in the command zone is nothing to trifle with.

There was a neat idea with Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder awhile back. Here's the thread. A very interesting take on what I think is an underrated general. He also lends himself to stax and gives everyone a reason to play Sengir Autocrat.

It really doesn't get much more unique than Maralen of the Mornsong. It's a shame Chainer is in your meta, as that would've been my suggestion, but I've always thought Maralen looks interesting.

I can't believe none of you guys haven't mentioned Mikaeus, the Unhallowed!

I acutally have a list that runs only cards that has been printed with a modern border and it doesen't have any infcombos to kill players.

You play fun cards that lets you remove +1+1 counters from your creatures and even kill cards like Planeswalkers, neutralizing/buying time from a ticking Darksteel Reactor .
Some fun cards are:



Persist (the only one i run atm)
Puppeteer Clique (sick value and you can alpha strike with it if you got a sacc outlet)
PS: I don't really count this as a Infcombo but its so much value and its obviously dependant on your opponents graveyards.
Sure, you can grab all of your opponents creatures but its very situational.

He's cool tho, i bet the deck can get even more fun with older cards.

No love for Geth, Lord of the Vault?

Quote from daugarten »

Toshiro Umezawa is a unique challenge.

+1 for Toshiro! He's a ton of fun, and there are a lot of interesting instants you can run. Turning every Murder into a Malicious Affliction is very relevant, too.

I vote Toshiro Umezawa, as well. I love surprising people with cards they've never seen and don't expect from mono-black - stuff like Darkness, Withering Boon, Broken Visage, Sewers of Estark, and Nemesis Trap. Not to mention all the goodstuff/obvious includes. Being able to recast spells is usually UR, but there's some fun stuff in B.

Quote from FunkyDragon »

I vote Toshiro Umezawa, as well. I love surprising people with cards they've never seen and don't expect from mono-black - stuff like Darkness, Withering Boon, Broken Visage, Sewers of Estark, and Nemesis Trap. Not to mention all the goodstuff/obvious includes. Being able to recast spells is usually UR, but there's some fun stuff in B.

My two favorites are Moonlight Bargain (can generally freely let any instants I find go to the 'yard, too, since Toshiro will let me flash them back) and Tsabo's Decree. Especially if I'm against a tribal deck, for a surprise one-sided board wipe plus mass discard. :3

Quote from Lithl »

Quote from FunkyDragon »

I vote Toshiro Umezawa, as well. I love surprising people with cards they've never seen and don't expect from mono-black - stuff like Darkness, Withering Boon, Broken Visage, Sewers of Estark, and Nemesis Trap. Not to mention all the goodstuff/obvious includes. Being able to recast spells is usually UR, but there's some fun stuff in B.

My two favorites are Moonlight Bargain (can generally freely let any instants I find go to the 'yard, too, since Toshiro will let me flash them back) and Tsabo's Decree. Especially if I'm against a tribal deck, for a surprise one-sided board wipe plus mass discard. :3

I'll have to give those a try sometime. Haven't faced too many tribal decks lately, but I hear there's about to be an increase of them soon.

Quote from Smuttny »

No love for Geth, Lord of the Vault?

I used to play regularly against Geth. It was big mana mono-black control, but the win condition was unique. The pilot would use Geth, Ashnod's Altar, and utility creatures from other people's deck to grind out the victory.

We once had to scoop to near-infinite Venser, Shaper Savants.

I'll never not recommend my girl Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief. She acts as a consistent threat-remover, can buff herself, and allows either vampire tribal, reanimation or whatever you feel. Maybe not the most unique in her effects, but for flavor, flexibility and if you just enjoy good old-fashioned removal, she can't be beat.

I will throw another vote for Toshiro Umezawa. He is a very cool commander with a lot of flexibility in design.

Having played quite a few of them, my vote goes to Geth, Lord of the Vault. The deck is simple to build, just a bunch of ramp and some removal, but the wincon will be different every game depending on what you get. Very consistent, very fun.

Second place is Xiahou Dun, the one-eyed and third place is toshiro umezawa. XHD's biggest weakness is that he can be a bit linear if you built it optimally, though I think he's among the most fun decks to build. Toshiro is a great control piece but doesn't offer a lot of hints as to how you're supposed to win, so the deck feels a little more directionless than the other two imo.

Quote from DirkGently »

Toshiro is a great control piece but doesn't offer a lot of hints as to how you're supposed to win, so the deck feels a little more directionless than the other two imo.

Gary.... its always Gary

aww thanks for the shout out, JDviant.

My personal fav is He who hungers as J said. I love He just for the what the heck does he do factor but I also find thoughtseizeing people's hands is always fun.

Another one who gives way to fun builds is Kalitas, traitor of ghet especially when paired with a grave pact effect

Quote from ISBPathfinder »

Gary.... its always Gary

In a deck that's packed with instants? I mean you can always corpse dance a million times but that seems like a boringly goodstuff way to win.

Quote from DirkGently »

In a deck that's packed with instants? I mean you can always corpse dance a million times but that seems like a boringly goodstuff way to win.

Yea.... I didnt say it was interesting.... there are a lot of ways to loop him though.

Lashwrithe / Nightmare Lash aren't half bad either. They are hilarious when comboed with Altar of Dementia. Some have also gone the direction of Hatred too. In the right meta, False Cure can catch some for a kill on occasion too.

Quote from ISBPathfinder »

Quote from DirkGently »

In a deck that's packed with instants? I mean you can always corpse dance a million times but that seems like a boringly goodstuff way to win.

Yea.... I didnt say it was interesting.... there are a lot of ways to loop him though.

Lashwrithe / Nightmare Lash aren't half bad either. They are hilarious when comboed with Altar of Dementia. Some have also gone the direction of Hatred too. In the right meta, False Cure can catch some for a kill on occasion too.

Personally I went with a mass-reanimation win with sepulchral primordial, rise of the dark realms, etc, since toshiro is good at getting things into graveyards. XHD also works as a decent role-player in my experience, since he can be looped with corpse dance to put together any number of wincons, starting with most of the black tutors. Though then it starts to feel like you should just play XHD as your commander.

Mostly I wish he had a second color. His ability is super cool but black's wincon-level (non-permanent) spells tend to be sorceries.

Seizan, Perverter of Truth