I've noticed that the general consensus is that black sucks. Honestly, I mostly agree that black didn't get as many great cards like the other colors. Yeah it has things like Barter in Blood, but the other colors have Mist Raven, Seraph of Dawn, basically tons of better cards and at common too.
This being said, i think monoblack can be very good if you get certain cards.
Last night in a draft I started out blue, but i quickly went into mono black because of all the good black being passed my way. I think that black may be viable right now merely because black is considered a horrible color. This means while everyone is fighting over the good cards in the other colors, you can just snag great black cards all day long with little or no competition.
This is my decklist from last night, that i went undefeated with:
As you can see, my deck is literally only made up of creatures and removal.
In my opinion, you should almost never pass Butcher Ghoul if you are in mono-black. Butcher Ghoul is the meat of the deck. Without him this deck would be much worse
So, what is everybody's opinion of mono-black in draft?
Most color combinations work if they're underdrafted. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. What I'm more interested in hearing about, OP, is what cards you took as signals that this was worth aiming for. A finalized decklist isn't the most useful info you could be offering here.
Wit's End is the PERFECT answer to your opponent's Monomania however.
Just hold on to your Wit's End when they Monomania, so you can Wit's End them on your next turn!!!
I think this is fairly reminiscent of the "Jace Battles" we have seen in past standards.. My guess is we will soon witness the great Monomania-Wit's End battles.
Most color combinations work if they're underdrafted. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. What I'm more interested in hearing about, OP, is what cards you took as signals that this was worth aiming for. A finalized decklist isn't the most useful info you could be offering here.
I started out with a first pick Stern Mentor, then was passed a second pick Barter in Blood. I know that removal is light in this set, so I took it. Then i took a Mist Raven, and was passed a Blood Artist and snagged that. I mostly drafted blue for the rest of pack 1, except for a Bone Splinters and a Butcher Ghoul.
Then, I opened a Barter and first picked it, and I got passed a second pick dark Impostor. This and a 3rd pick Blood Artist made me decide to go into black.
I got passed a couple of the Corpse Traders too, and I picked up a like 10th pick Death Wind. That's really when i realized that nobody was in black, andI was right. The only black at my table was a R/B deck that happened to get another Barter early, but I cut his black badly and forced him into a second color.
I started out with a first pick Stern Mentor, then was passed a second pick Barter in Blood. I know that removal is light in this set, so I took it. Then i took a Mist Raven, and was passed a Blood Artist and snagged that. I mostly drafted blue for the rest of pack 1, except for a Bone Splinters and a Butcher Ghoul.
Then, I opened a Barter and first picked it, and I got passed a second pick dark Impostor. This and a 3rd pick Blood Artist made me decide to go into black.
I got passed a couple of the Corpse Traders too, and I picked up a like 10th pick Death Wind. That's really when i realized that nobody was in black, andI was right. The only black at my table was a R/B deck that happened to get another Barter early, but I cut his black badly and forced him into a second color.
10th pick death wind makes me question the reliability of this table. That card can be easily splashed into any green deck (borderland, abundant), and is potentially splashable into almost anything. Heck, if I'm green aggro or dinosaurs (which I usually am ;)), I probably take death wind OVER on color cards late in draft. Unless we're talking about top-tier green creatures, death wind provides an effect that a green deck sorely needs but doesn't have. The meat factory (especially at 5+) is quite extensive, but there's no removal. In a draft, in pack 2-3, I can understand seeing it midpack, because people might have found better on-color options, but the card should pretty much never wheel, as there are so few playables in this format. A wheeled wind is just something that should never happen.
Also, as much as I love mentor (and I REALLY love mentor), it's not a first pick.
I think 90% of the time, monoblack decks that win will include homicidal seclusion. THAT is the card that makes you want to go into monoblack.
10th pick death wind makes me question the reliability of this table. That card can be easily splashed into any green deck (borderland, abundant), and is potentially splashable into almost anything. Heck, if I'm green aggro or dinosaurs (which I usually am ;)), I probably take death wind OVER on color cards late in draft. Unless we're talking about top-tier green creatures, death wind provides an effect that a green deck sorely needs but doesn't have. The meat factory (especially at 5+) is quite extensive, but there's no removal. In a draft, in pack 2-3, I can understand seeing it midpack, because people might have found better on-color options, but the card should pretty much never wheel, as there are so few playables in this format. A wheeled wind is just something that should never happen.
Also, as much as I love mentor (and I REALLY love mentor), it's not a first pick.
I think 90% of the time, monoblack decks that win will include homicidal seclusion. THAT is the card that makes you want to go into monoblack.
I know the mentor isn't first pick, but I opened a rather weak pack.
It was in pack 2 when i saw the Death Wind. I saw the pack before and it was very strong, and had great common and uncommons in every color. I was honestly surprised how late it showed up too, especially because the table had mostly very good players.
Like I said though, only one person played black other than me...
Actually a second person played black but they were a G/U deck splashing black for a Homicidal Seclusion but that was their only black card
I drafted black last Friday after going the guy to my right was picking UG, the same colors that I was picking. I saw a Barter in Blood, and took it at pick 6. I ended up in Bg, splashing green for Blessings of Nature. I also had a few solid green creatures, that would be able to block for the first few turns. Black's biggest weakness as a color is not being able to survive until the later turns, but with a few blockers from a secondary color, it's not too hard.
I generally swim against the current when it comes to limited metagaming. I was the dude who drafted mono-G in ZZZ because's 5th pick Nissa's Chosens played stellar defense. I enjoyed drafting control decks in 3xINN despite the speed of the format because of all those 10th pick Fortress Crabs. Etc.
However my early experience with this format suggests black really is stone unplayable. On the splash for a few powerful cards like Homicidal Seclusion, Death Wind, or even Marrow Bats, sure. But any time I've played with, or played against, anyone playing black as a main or secondary color in a draft deck it has not been close in a single game.
I had an opponent last night play turn 3 Dark Impostor (AKA "the nuts" for any black deck) in both games and STILL lose in ugly fashion to my UG soulbond deck - the games were not even close. He was not mana screwed or flooded, neither of us mulliganed, he played plenty of spells, and he didn't make any obvious play mistakes that I saw. He just got completely steamrolled by my army of Forcemages, Wolves, Lookouts, etc.
Yes we're still early in the format. But early signs to me are to avoid drafting black for pretty much any reason.
Last week I drafted a Br deck with just a splash for a couple burn spells I stole from the red player next to me. I got passed like a p1p5 barter and was confused so I took it. Then picked up 2 Undead Executioner still p1. I went on to take 2 deathwinds, 3 grave exchanges, Harvester of Souls, 2 Butcher Ghoul and a Corpse Trader. If I hadn't run into mana troubles I'd have cleaned up.
Mono-Black seems very easy to do if you watch the signals. A middle of the pack barter or deathwind probably means noone is playing black and you should be at least pairing it with something.
Totally disagree with you, ddm. Turn three Dark Imposter is not the 'nuts' - it's just a 2/2 for 3 until turn 6 (or later). I have had two drafts now where I've went totally undefeated in draft playing heavy black decks. Sounds like your opponent didn't have much removal, and even so, one match is not reason to write off an entire color.
Obviously yes, that's very fair. I brought up that match as an example to illustrate the broader point: this set is FAST. Black's creatures are so bad, and it's removal is so bad as well, that it just can't keep up with the tempo generated by G/x and U/x aggressive decks, to say nothing of the R-based Thatcher's Revolt decks, which green and blue can beat fairly easily but give black or white decks fits.
When your absolute premium removal involves tapping out early to trade 1-for-1, typically at mana parity or 1 mana behind vs green decks (Death Wind), you are in trouble in a format that can present a pair of 3/3s as early as turn 3 thanks to Trusted Forcemage.
Bone Splinters is hardly a disadvantage if played correctly, and they certainly have stall critters like Butcher Ghoul to help. Yes, facing two 3/3s on turn 3 is difficult but I don't think any deck is going to handle that with grace. I certainly never had trouble with Thatcher decks (especially with a Blood Artist out)
I would agree that mono-Black is tough to get going and is weaker than say, mono-Green, but I can't see how you can be anti-an entire color. If there's less than 2 other people playing Black you're almost certainly getting solid Black passed your way.
As bad as black is at common. It is one of the better colors in the set at UC if not the best. If your the only one in black and if the better black Uncommons are opened then it can be the place to be. With that said your deck is playing 9 Uncommons and 1 rare all in the same color which doesn't happen very often along with 11 of top 4 Black commons. This is clearly one of those cases. Its better to view Death's wind as a green card that requires fixing and avoid the color otherwise IMO.
"I have no idea what it's like not to be a straight white male, and the experiences of others are irrelevant." -Conservative Motto
Calling someone a Commie is flaming and must be stopped, but turning the word Conservative into a loaded pejorative and using it over and over again is perfectly acceptable.
Obviously yes, that's very fair. I brought up that match as an example to illustrate the broader point: this set is FAST. Black's creatures are so bad, and it's removal is so bad as well, that it just can't keep up with the tempo generated by G/x and U/x aggressive decks, to say nothing of the R-based Thatcher's Revolt decks, which green and blue can beat fairly easily but give black or white decks fits.
When your absolute premium removal involves tapping out early to trade 1-for-1, typically at mana parity or 1 mana behind vs green decks (Death Wind), you are in trouble in a format that can present a pair of 3/3s as early as turn 3 thanks to Trusted Forcemage.
Black does not have bad removal at all.
If you look at the other removal in the set, black shines. There is only a couple of real removal spells outside of black, and 3 of them are red damage spells. The others are Banishing Stroke and Righteous Blow.
The removal in this set is actually to bad that people are maindecking Goulflesh and Guise of Fire as removal. Black got the best removal in this set by far. The only downside I can see to that is that some of great black removal, like Death Wind and Human Frailty, only has one B symbol in it's cost, so they are picked up by people looking to splash.
Barter in Blood is a wrath 70% of the time. Also, if you build your deck right, you can easily outlast anything. Dropping a Blood Artist then following it up with even something as simple as Butchered Ghoul + Bone Splinters, both of which are commons, leaves you with a 2/2, a 0/1, you are up 2 life and they are down 2 and they just lost their best creature. Playing multiple Ghouls and things like Driver of the Dead for even more recursion gives you so much card advantage your opponent just loses to all the 2-for-1s going on.
The only downside I can see to that is that some of great black removal, like Death Wind and Human Frailty, only has one B symbol in it's cost, so they are picked up by people looking to splash.
This is the real issue as the draft season moves forward. People are still avoiding black but it won't take long before we start seeing a lot of X/b or X/X/b decks that splash for whatever removal they can get their hands on. All the other removal (except thunderous wrath or rares) have trouble with anything 4 toughness or more on the ground. This is why that soulbound +2/+2 guy is such a high picked uncommon.
Black does not have bad removal at all.
If you look at the other removal in the set, black shines. There is only a couple of real removal spells outside of black, and 3 of them are red damage spells. The others are Banishing Stroke and Righteous Blow.
The removal in this set is actually to bad that people are maindecking Goulflesh and Guise of Fire as removal. Black got the best removal in this set by far. The only downside I can see to that is that some of great black removal, like Death Wind and Human Frailty, only has one B symbol in it's cost, so they are picked up by people looking to splash.
Barter in Blood is a wrath 70% of the time. Also, if you build your deck right, you can easily outlast anything. Dropping a Blood Artist then following it up with even something as simple as Butchered Ghoul + Bone Splinters, both of which are commons, leaves you with a 2/2, a 0/1, you are up 2 life and they are down 2 and they just lost their best creature. Playing multiple Ghouls and things like Driver of the Dead for even more recursion gives you so much card advantage your opponent just loses to all the 2-for-1s going on.
You're missing the point.
I agree with you that black has the best removal in the set, bar none, hands down. However, even the "best removal in the set" is still terrible compared to the efficient things you can be doing in the other colors. I want to be casting a Forcemage or a Lookout on turn 3, not Death Winding their 2-drop for an overall loss in mana or assembling Butchered-Ghoul-Tron so I can cast terrible removal like Bone Splinters without wanting to punch myself in the face.
Also think about what you said in that second paragraph. On turn 4 you have a 2 point drain, a 2/2, a 0/1 and a removal spell. That's your nut draw.
UG's nut draw is Wingcrafter into Wandering Wolf into Tandem Lookout into Druid's Familiar.
Agreed that Black's nut draw isn't as good as the other big decks, but I don't think that's the point. Undead Alchemist + Bone Splinters can ruin that "nut draw", but whatever. As mentioned a lot of Black's strength is in great uncommons - Barter in Blood wrecks many decks, Blood Artist can singlehandedly beat Red-based decks, Human Fraility is super-efficient, and Homicidal Seclusion can result in 12+ point life swings every turn. Draft is a self-correcting format - your G/U 'nut draw' doesn't happen if G/U is being drafted heavily, but Black/x can lend itself to all sorts of great starts if nobody at the table is taking it!
Also "Butchered Ghoul tron" is a pretty ignorant comment - first of all ,the card is a great board staller, and it combos with quite a few other Black cards. If you can't figure out how to make it work, perhaps you're right, and Black just isn't your color?
Draft is a self-correcting format - your G/U 'nut draw' doesn't happen if G/U is being drafted heavily, but Black/x can lend itself to all sorts of great starts if nobody at the table is taking it!
Also "Butchered Ghoul tron" is a pretty ignorant comment - first of all ,the card is a great board staller, and it combos with quite a few other Black cards. If you can't figure out how to make it work, perhaps you're right, and Black just isn't your color?
I really like how you phrased the first bit, and I (generally) agree with you. I guess what I am trying to say is that, for me, for the first time, AVR/AVR/AVR doesnt appear to be able to produce a decent black deck even if you are the only one at the table drafting it. I'm sure you agree that, were this true, draft cannot "Self-Correct"; black would just be bad. I get that we disagree over the truth of my premise, and even I would acknowledge it may be wrong because the format is so young, but you see my point I hope that the "Self-Correction" is not a given.
RE: Butchered Ghoul... come on. The card is just low-powered. That doesn't mean it's bad in this format. I get that it has synergies in the format and it blocks reasonably well due to the higher-than-average (it feels - havent checked the math) number of X/1s for 2 or even 3 in the format. But I don't particularly want to be drafting around him at common when the other colors offer cards with much, much higher intrinsic power levels.
Plus, what happens when you draw Bone Splinters/Driver of the Dead/Etc without a Butchered Ghoul? It's not always snowing in xmasland folks.
I would disagree with ddm that you can't produce a decent black deck out of triple AVR.
I went 3-0 last week with a mostly-black deck and a red splash. Had the usual suspects: Barter in Blood, Butchered Ghoul, Evernight Shade. I did get passed the Demonlord of Ashmouth p2p3, and it was a *house*, but I won games when I didn't draw it (and one of my 2 losses was one I did, where I played it t4 and my opponent countered with Mist Raven). It's harder to build a strong mostly-black deck but if it's open, you can build a pretty good one.
Fair. I'm probably wrong. Just relaying my meager 5 MTGO prerelease drafts worth of experience.
Just for reference btw, I've drafted:
UG Soulbond
WB midrange
RW Humans
UG tempo/goodstuff
UG tempo/goodstuff
I 3-0'd all 3 UG drafts very easily. RW humans got double flooded in round 1 and I dropped, though I felt the deck was strong. WB got annihilated round 1 and round 2 (then I dropped) despite having what I considered quite a decent deck with Demonlord of Ashmouth, 3 Death Wind and the usual suspects (Butcher Ghouls, Bone Splinters etc).
My experience playing the deck, but even moreso my experience playing against B/x decks leads me to think they are just outclassed in terms of tempo and board presence by G/x and U/x.
Will be interesting to reflect on this in a month or two and see if I still feel the same way, but as it stands today I have quite literally never seen a deck with black in it take even a single game from a decently constructed UG deck.
I've been trying to avoid mono black as I've been told I should, but at the same time I squirm every time I pass an Evernight Shade, as they inevitably come back to wreck me later in the draft. That, Blood Artist, and Death Wind seem pretty good to me, but I don't know about the rest.
I agree with you that black has the best removal in the set, bar none, hands down. However, even the "best removal in the set" is still terrible compared to the efficient things you can be doing in the other colors. I want to be casting a Forcemage or a Lookout on turn 3, not Death Winding their 2-drop for an overall loss in mana or assembling Butchered-Ghoul-Tron so I can cast terrible removal like Bone Splinters without wanting to punch myself in the face.
Also think about what you said in that second paragraph. On turn 4 you have a 2 point drain, a 2/2, a 0/1 and a removal spell. That's your nut draw.
UG's nut draw is Wingcrafter into Wandering Wolf into Tandem Lookout into Druid's Familiar.
Guess who wins that game?
That scenario is far from a nut draw, I was just describing something that happened to me multiple times during the draft. A nut draw would be something like Appetite for Brains into Butchered Ghoul into Demonic Taskmaster into Bone Splinters and and Triumph of Cruelty into Homicidal Seclusion. That draw murders just about every aspect of U/G's nut draw, and provides a 7/4 flying lifelinking monstrosity that U/G has no way to deal with.
Also, you admit Barter is good, but you say Bone Splinters sucks? They are nearly the same card, just Splinters can't be cast without any creatures, but it also costs 4 times less. It's basically a mini-Barter
Bone Splinters is fine w/o Butchered Ghoul. Undead Alchemist is just as powerful. Also, even with card disadvantage, Bone Splinters literally blows up anything for one mana. That's really good vs. all but the most dedicated R/W aggro decks. In my experience, if nobody else is drafting black, I can draft black and basically go undefeated.
Bone Splinters is fine w/o Butchered Ghoul. Undead Alchemist is just as powerful. Also, even with card disadvantage, Bone Splinters literally blows up anything for one mana. That's really good vs. all but the most dedicated R/W aggro decks. In my experience, if nobody else is drafting black, I can draft black and basically go undefeated.
With Ghoul or Undead Alchemist, or anything else that gives value when it dies, it's not card disadvantage. It's usually a 1-for-1
Laughing pretty hard at the "Bone Splinters is premium removal!" arguments. I *know* it is one of the best removal spells in the set. Did you not get the memo that the removal in this set is terrible, though?
In most sets, Bone Splinters is complete crap. It isn't any less crappy because there are no Doom Blades in this format; it just means you are even more card- and tempo- negative in terms of board development than usual when you are trying to play the black "trade 1 for 1 and grind you out" game.
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This being said, i think monoblack can be very good if you get certain cards.
Last night in a draft I started out blue, but i quickly went into mono black because of all the good black being passed my way. I think that black may be viable right now merely because black is considered a horrible color. This means while everyone is fighting over the good cards in the other colors, you can just snag great black cards all day long with little or no competition.
This is my decklist from last night, that i went undefeated with:
2 Blood Artist
4 Butcher Ghoul
2 Demonic Taskmaster
1 Dark Imposter
2 Soulcage Fiend
1 Bloodflow Connoisseur
2 Corpse Traders
2 Driver of the Dead
2 Undead Executioner
3 Barter in Blood
2 Bone Splinters
1 Death Wind
As you can see, my deck is literally only made up of creatures and removal.
In my opinion, you should almost never pass Butcher Ghoul if you are in mono-black. Butcher Ghoul is the meat of the deck. Without him this deck would be much worse
So, what is everybody's opinion of mono-black in draft?
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I started out with a first pick Stern Mentor, then was passed a second pick Barter in Blood. I know that removal is light in this set, so I took it. Then i took a Mist Raven, and was passed a Blood Artist and snagged that. I mostly drafted blue for the rest of pack 1, except for a Bone Splinters and a Butcher Ghoul.
Then, I opened a Barter and first picked it, and I got passed a second pick dark Impostor. This and a 3rd pick Blood Artist made me decide to go into black.
I got passed a couple of the Corpse Traders too, and I picked up a like 10th pick Death Wind. That's really when i realized that nobody was in black, andI was right. The only black at my table was a R/B deck that happened to get another Barter early, but I cut his black badly and forced him into a second color.
10th pick death wind makes me question the reliability of this table. That card can be easily splashed into any green deck (borderland, abundant), and is potentially splashable into almost anything. Heck, if I'm green aggro or dinosaurs (which I usually am ;)), I probably take death wind OVER on color cards late in draft. Unless we're talking about top-tier green creatures, death wind provides an effect that a green deck sorely needs but doesn't have. The meat factory (especially at 5+) is quite extensive, but there's no removal. In a draft, in pack 2-3, I can understand seeing it midpack, because people might have found better on-color options, but the card should pretty much never wheel, as there are so few playables in this format. A wheeled wind is just something that should never happen.
Also, as much as I love mentor (and I REALLY love mentor), it's not a first pick.
I think 90% of the time, monoblack decks that win will include homicidal seclusion. THAT is the card that makes you want to go into monoblack.
*DCI Rules Advisor*
I know the mentor isn't first pick, but I opened a rather weak pack.
It was in pack 2 when i saw the Death Wind. I saw the pack before and it was very strong, and had great common and uncommons in every color. I was honestly surprised how late it showed up too, especially because the table had mostly very good players.
Like I said though, only one person played black other than me...
Actually a second person played black but they were a G/U deck splashing black for a Homicidal Seclusion but that was their only black card
You can find me on MTGO. My username is gereffi.
However my early experience with this format suggests black really is stone unplayable. On the splash for a few powerful cards like Homicidal Seclusion, Death Wind, or even Marrow Bats, sure. But any time I've played with, or played against, anyone playing black as a main or secondary color in a draft deck it has not been close in a single game.
I had an opponent last night play turn 3 Dark Impostor (AKA "the nuts" for any black deck) in both games and STILL lose in ugly fashion to my UG soulbond deck - the games were not even close. He was not mana screwed or flooded, neither of us mulliganed, he played plenty of spells, and he didn't make any obvious play mistakes that I saw. He just got completely steamrolled by my army of Forcemages, Wolves, Lookouts, etc.
Yes we're still early in the format. But early signs to me are to avoid drafting black for pretty much any reason.
Mono-Black seems very easy to do if you watch the signals. A middle of the pack barter or deathwind probably means noone is playing black and you should be at least pairing it with something.
When your absolute premium removal involves tapping out early to trade 1-for-1, typically at mana parity or 1 mana behind vs green decks (Death Wind), you are in trouble in a format that can present a pair of 3/3s as early as turn 3 thanks to Trusted Forcemage.
I would agree that mono-Black is tough to get going and is weaker than say, mono-Green, but I can't see how you can be anti-an entire color. If there's less than 2 other people playing Black you're almost certainly getting solid Black passed your way.
Flame infraction. - Blinking Spirit
Calling someone a Commie is flaming and must be stopped, but turning the word Conservative into a loaded pejorative and using it over and over again is perfectly acceptable.
Black does not have bad removal at all.
If you look at the other removal in the set, black shines. There is only a couple of real removal spells outside of black, and 3 of them are red damage spells. The others are Banishing Stroke and Righteous Blow.
The removal in this set is actually to bad that people are maindecking Goulflesh and Guise of Fire as removal. Black got the best removal in this set by far. The only downside I can see to that is that some of great black removal, like Death Wind and Human Frailty, only has one B symbol in it's cost, so they are picked up by people looking to splash.
Barter in Blood is a wrath 70% of the time. Also, if you build your deck right, you can easily outlast anything. Dropping a Blood Artist then following it up with even something as simple as Butchered Ghoul + Bone Splinters, both of which are commons, leaves you with a 2/2, a 0/1, you are up 2 life and they are down 2 and they just lost their best creature. Playing multiple Ghouls and things like Driver of the Dead for even more recursion gives you so much card advantage your opponent just loses to all the 2-for-1s going on.
This is the real issue as the draft season moves forward. People are still avoiding black but it won't take long before we start seeing a lot of X/b or X/X/b decks that splash for whatever removal they can get their hands on. All the other removal (except thunderous wrath or rares) have trouble with anything 4 toughness or more on the ground. This is why that soulbound +2/+2 guy is such a high picked uncommon.
You're missing the point.
I agree with you that black has the best removal in the set, bar none, hands down. However, even the "best removal in the set" is still terrible compared to the efficient things you can be doing in the other colors. I want to be casting a Forcemage or a Lookout on turn 3, not Death Winding their 2-drop for an overall loss in mana or assembling Butchered-Ghoul-Tron so I can cast terrible removal like Bone Splinters without wanting to punch myself in the face.
Also think about what you said in that second paragraph. On turn 4 you have a 2 point drain, a 2/2, a 0/1 and a removal spell. That's your nut draw.
UG's nut draw is Wingcrafter into Wandering Wolf into Tandem Lookout into Druid's Familiar.
Guess who wins that game?
Also "Butchered Ghoul tron" is a pretty ignorant comment - first of all ,the card is a great board staller, and it combos with quite a few other Black cards. If you can't figure out how to make it work, perhaps you're right, and Black just isn't your color?
I really like how you phrased the first bit, and I (generally) agree with you. I guess what I am trying to say is that, for me, for the first time, AVR/AVR/AVR doesnt appear to be able to produce a decent black deck even if you are the only one at the table drafting it. I'm sure you agree that, were this true, draft cannot "Self-Correct"; black would just be bad. I get that we disagree over the truth of my premise, and even I would acknowledge it may be wrong because the format is so young, but you see my point I hope that the "Self-Correction" is not a given.
RE: Butchered Ghoul... come on. The card is just low-powered. That doesn't mean it's bad in this format. I get that it has synergies in the format and it blocks reasonably well due to the higher-than-average (it feels - havent checked the math) number of X/1s for 2 or even 3 in the format. But I don't particularly want to be drafting around him at common when the other colors offer cards with much, much higher intrinsic power levels.
Plus, what happens when you draw Bone Splinters/Driver of the Dead/Etc without a Butchered Ghoul? It's not always snowing in xmasland folks.
I went 3-0 last week with a mostly-black deck and a red splash. Had the usual suspects: Barter in Blood, Butchered Ghoul, Evernight Shade. I did get passed the Demonlord of Ashmouth p2p3, and it was a *house*, but I won games when I didn't draw it (and one of my 2 losses was one I did, where I played it t4 and my opponent countered with Mist Raven). It's harder to build a strong mostly-black deck but if it's open, you can build a pretty good one.
Just for reference btw, I've drafted:
UG Soulbond
WB midrange
RW Humans
UG tempo/goodstuff
UG tempo/goodstuff
I 3-0'd all 3 UG drafts very easily. RW humans got double flooded in round 1 and I dropped, though I felt the deck was strong. WB got annihilated round 1 and round 2 (then I dropped) despite having what I considered quite a decent deck with Demonlord of Ashmouth, 3 Death Wind and the usual suspects (Butcher Ghouls, Bone Splinters etc).
My experience playing the deck, but even moreso my experience playing against B/x decks leads me to think they are just outclassed in terms of tempo and board presence by G/x and U/x.
Will be interesting to reflect on this in a month or two and see if I still feel the same way, but as it stands today I have quite literally never seen a deck with black in it take even a single game from a decently constructed UG deck.
I can add that UG Soulbond is a total house.
That scenario is far from a nut draw, I was just describing something that happened to me multiple times during the draft. A nut draw would be something like Appetite for Brains into Butchered Ghoul into Demonic Taskmaster into Bone Splinters and and Triumph of Cruelty into Homicidal Seclusion. That draw murders just about every aspect of U/G's nut draw, and provides a 7/4 flying lifelinking monstrosity that U/G has no way to deal with.
Also, you admit Barter is good, but you say Bone Splinters sucks? They are nearly the same card, just Splinters can't be cast without any creatures, but it also costs 4 times less. It's basically a mini-Barter
With Ghoul or Undead Alchemist, or anything else that gives value when it dies, it's not card disadvantage. It's usually a 1-for-1
Laughing pretty hard at the "Bone Splinters is premium removal!" arguments. I *know* it is one of the best removal spells in the set. Did you not get the memo that the removal in this set is terrible, though?
In most sets, Bone Splinters is complete crap. It isn't any less crappy because there are no Doom Blades in this format; it just means you are even more card- and tempo- negative in terms of board development than usual when you are trying to play the black "trade 1 for 1 and grind you out" game.