Card choices
Liliana, the Last Hope - Insane value, all three choices, she stumps a small dude. Gets a creature back, or win condition if you ult
Ob Nixilis Reignited - Card draw, removal and a win condition
Noxious Gearhulk - Removal, lifegain, and beatstick
Pilgrim's Eye - chump blocker and mana fixing
Filigree Familiar - life gain and card draw
Distended Mindbender - turn four after a 3drop can wreck some hands
Thought-Knot Seer - sheer value
Collective Brutality - all three options seem useful, between lili and ever after, pitching cards isnt too big an issue
Ever After - late game gets back two value dudes.
Transgress the Mind - good against a lot of matchups
Grasp of Darkness - best removal in format
Succumb to Temptation - card draw
Essence Extraction - removal and lifegain
17 Swamp - Id run islands(I hear they are better) but i wouldnt get very far
2 Westvale Abbey - potential win con
2 Blighted Fen - Late game removal
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium - potential card advantage
3 Warped Landscape - can turn into a swamp and help with delirium
SB: 2 Transgress the Mind - control matchup
SB: 4 Whispers of Emrakul - control matchup
SB: 2 Pick the Brain - control matchup
SB: 3 Lost Legacy - control matchup
SB: 3 To the Slaughter - aggro
SB: 1 Remorseless Punishment - flex spot
As Ive said Ive been out of the loop for a while. Seems like a fun deck with no etbt lands, a lot of control aspects as well as midranged.
only thing im considering is replacing grapss with spatial contortion. Is -4 better than -3 in the upcoming meta. I have no idea. My viewpoint is grasp can also soak 4 damage, while spatial can put out 3 more damage, as well as be removal.
Why play landscape? Evolving Wilds will still be legal....
two reasons. wilds puts into play tapped which sets you back a turn. landscape produces colorless for thoughtknot and smasher. doent enter tapped, and if you get colorless flooded, it turns into a swamp, also thins a card out late game.
SB: 2 Transgress the Mind
SB: 3 Pick the Brain
SB: 3 To the Slaughter
SB: 1 Harsh Scrutiny
SB: 3 Reality Smasher
SB: 3 Lost Legacy
Current iterations, harsh scrutiny is insane pseudo removal. pilgrims eye is crucial for getting land drops.
still debating on spatial contortion or not.
If you will be tapping devoid C mana, then spatial contortion is worth it. Takes out an attacking Smuggler's Copter, Shambling Vent, and Hissing Quagmire to name a few. Cut Essence Extraction. If you want life gain, you already have Collective Brutality. And there is also Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet.
To help emerge Distended mindbender, Matter Reshaper is a premium target. Hedron Crawler works here to. Also tapping for devoid mana and acting as a blocker. With four lands in play, you can tap Crawler to add your fifth mana, then emerge off of Crawler's 2cmc to give you the 7 you need.
Your mana could also benefit from Sea gate Wreckage proving devoid and late game card draw. And Aether Hub gives you black and devoid mana while being renewable from Live fast
Is Spatial Contortion worth it in a deck already running 4 Grasp of Darkness and with access to Essence Extraction? That's the question. It's normally a good card, but monoblack has better options. His manabase can't even support both, since there are no Devoid+Black duals left after rotation. If you increase the colorless sources to reliably get Contortion as early as turn 2-3, it'll be harder for him to have BB early for more powerful spells like Grasp and Ruinous Path. So far there is more payoff for early game black mana than early game colorless mana.
With that in mind, I like his colorless plan as a lategame thing (Thought-Knot Seer) instead of an early thing (Spatial Contortion, Matter Reshaper).
In a control deck with many instant tricks, I think he's better off with instant Succumb to Temptation than with sorcery Live Fast to get energy, especially if he doesn't need the Devoid mana early.
I'm glad that someone else is realized that Harsh Scrutiny is really solid. Even in G1 versus a creatureless control deck, you still get the benefit of seeing hand plus the scry.
My version is a bit more midrangey. Gonti, Lord of Luxury can be really powerful, and the ability to recur him with Liliana shouldn't be understated. Kalitas helps stabilize versus aggro, and Asylum Visitor / Sea Gate Wreckage are for the long game.
I'm not sure if warped landscape is necessary if you're already running 4x Pilgrim's Eye.
Although Matter Reshaper is a prime target for Emerge, I'm hesitant to include it if if you're already running 4x Though-knot Seer. Because of the loss of pain lands in this new standard, I'm rather concerned about the consistency between colorless and colored mana. If you look at Owen Turtenwald's Temur Emerge deck, it runs only 3x Matter Reshaper with 2x Reality Smashers in SB, and that's with painlanda.
That being said, I think there's going towards an Emerge build seems like a pretty sweet idea for mono black. Distended Mindbender is on par with Elder-Deep Field as the best Emerge creature, and 2-3x Abundant Maw isn't too shabby either (reminiscent of Siege Rhino in the old standard).
Other good black cards to consider:
-Kalitas
-Ob Nixilis
-Liliana
-Murder
-Collective Brutality
-Harsh Scrutiny
So the deck has all the tools we need to be successful... Except for a good sweeper. The problem with going mono black is that we lost our best sweeper, Languish. Which means decks like RG Energy Aggro, heck, ANY good aggro deck may run right over us. Plus there is an over-abundance of 2 drop creatures with 3 Toughness running a muck in Standard, which makes cards like Flaying Tendrils ineffective in wiping the board. The key for this deck, and many of the other decks listed in this thread, is to hate out creatures as quickly as possible via discard. We achieve this via a combination of Harsh Scrutiny, Collective Brutality early game (Transgress the Mind and Lost Legacy SB as well), Distended Mindbender mid to late game, and use our kill spells mid to late game as mop up. The deck also has plenty of lifegain via Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Filigree Familiar, and Westvale Abbey (if you manage to flip it into Ormendahl, Profane Prince). So theoretically, we should be able to take quite a few hits early game without too big a fear of dying between the first few turns.
CARD CHOICES (I didn't go with)
Thought-Knot Seer: I forwent this card because the 4 drop slot is already taken up by Kalitas. While Seer does indeed exile a card, it's ETB trigger is too expensive for his cost, even though he does have a good body. And he provides CA to your opponent, something I'm a little bit afraid in a deck that isn't as fast as Aggro or plays value creatures the way many Midrange decks do.
Gonti, Lord of Luxury: I wanted him in the deck. Again, Kalitas. Maybe I'll include him as a "2 of" in the SB instead of Tendrils, and add another Harsh Scrutiny.
Drana, Liberator of Malakir: No one, and I mean no one was as excited as I when Drana was first revealed. I have a full set of the original Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief, and wouldn't give theme away/sell them for anything. That being said, I don't believe she belongs in a control deck. She doesn't do anything when she ETB and she gets chump-blocked all day by other creatures with flying and dies to all kinds of removal. In midrange or Madness deck? Sure, she may be able to do some good there.
only thing im considering is replacing grapss with spatial contortion. Is -4 better than -3 in the upcoming meta. I have no idea. My viewpoint is grasp can also soak 4 damage, while spatial can put out 3 more damage, as well as be removal.
Even in your own deck, Thought-Knot Seer, Noxious Gearhulk and Kalitas die to -4 but not -3. These cards should all see play in the new Standard. There are a lot of other relevant cards in standard that die to -4 but not -3, especially after factoring in Lord effects and +1/+1 counters. -4/-4 also lets your dorks like Filigree Familiars take down 5/6s and survive (e.g. Elder Deep-Fiend). Contortion wouldn't. That gives you a pretty wide range of things it can kill.
Spatial Contortion does have some use on offense as a +3, but since you're a control deck you shouldn't be wasting a card as a pump spell just to push damage through (unless it's their last 3 life). Monoblack gets to use Grasp the way most decks can't. Grasp is good.
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2 Ob Nixilis Reignited
3 Noxious Gearhulk
3 Pilgrim's Eye
4 Filigree Familiar
2 Distended Mindbender
3 Thought-Knot Seer
3 Collective Brutality
2 Ever After
2 Transgress the Mind
3 Grasp of Darkness
3 Succumb to Temptation
2 Essence Extraction
2 Westvale Abbey
2 Blighted Fen
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
3 Warped Landscape
Thats what Ive come up with.
Card choices
Liliana, the Last Hope - Insane value, all three choices, she stumps a small dude. Gets a creature back, or win condition if you ult
Ob Nixilis Reignited - Card draw, removal and a win condition
Noxious Gearhulk - Removal, lifegain, and beatstick
Pilgrim's Eye - chump blocker and mana fixing
Filigree Familiar - life gain and card draw
Distended Mindbender - turn four after a 3drop can wreck some hands
Thought-Knot Seer - sheer value
Collective Brutality - all three options seem useful, between lili and ever after, pitching cards isnt too big an issue
Ever After - late game gets back two value dudes.
Transgress the Mind - good against a lot of matchups
Grasp of Darkness - best removal in format
Succumb to Temptation - card draw
Essence Extraction - removal and lifegain
17 Swamp - Id run islands(I hear they are better) but i wouldnt get very far
2 Westvale Abbey - potential win con
2 Blighted Fen - Late game removal
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium - potential card advantage
3 Warped Landscape - can turn into a swamp and help with delirium
SB: 2 Transgress the Mind - control matchup
SB: 4 Whispers of Emrakul - control matchup
SB: 2 Pick the Brain - control matchup
SB: 3 Lost Legacy - control matchup
SB: 3 To the Slaughter - aggro
SB: 1 Remorseless Punishment - flex spot
As Ive said Ive been out of the loop for a while. Seems like a fun deck with no etbt lands, a lot of control aspects as well as midranged.
only thing im considering is replacing grapss with spatial contortion. Is -4 better than -3 in the upcoming meta. I have no idea. My viewpoint is grasp can also soak 4 damage, while spatial can put out 3 more damage, as well as be removal.
two reasons. wilds puts into play tapped which sets you back a turn. landscape produces colorless for thoughtknot and smasher. doent enter tapped, and if you get colorless flooded, it turns into a swamp, also thins a card out late game.
current deck
2 Ob Nixilis Reignited
3 Oath of Liliana
4 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Noxious Gearhulk
3 Filigree Familiar
4 Pilgrim's Eye
2 Distended Mindbender
3 Grasp of Darkness
3 Succumb to Temptation
2 Essence Extraction
3 Harsh Scrutiny
17 Swamp
2 Westvale Abbey
2 Blighted Fen
2 Warped Landscape
1 Wastes
SB: 2 Transgress the Mind
SB: 3 Pick the Brain
SB: 3 To the Slaughter
SB: 1 Harsh Scrutiny
SB: 3 Reality Smasher
SB: 3 Lost Legacy
Current iterations, harsh scrutiny is insane pseudo removal. pilgrims eye is crucial for getting land drops.
still debating on spatial contortion or not.
Another thought is splashing red for unlicensed disintegration or white for fumigate
To help emerge Distended mindbender, Matter Reshaper is a premium target. Hedron Crawler works here to. Also tapping for devoid mana and acting as a blocker. With four lands in play, you can tap Crawler to add your fifth mana, then emerge off of Crawler's 2cmc to give you the 7 you need.
Ruinous path is an absolute must have. Along with Grasp of darkness being a 4x without question.
Your mana could also benefit from Sea gate Wreckage proving devoid and late game card draw. And Aether Hub gives you black and devoid mana while being renewable from Live fast
C Long Live Eldrazi C
With that in mind, I like his colorless plan as a lategame thing (Thought-Knot Seer) instead of an early thing (Spatial Contortion, Matter Reshaper).
I agree with Sea Gate Wreckage being good.
In a control deck with many instant tricks, I think he's better off with instant Succumb to Temptation than with sorcery Live Fast to get energy, especially if he doesn't need the Devoid mana early.
My version is a bit more midrangey. Gonti, Lord of Luxury can be really powerful, and the ability to recur him with Liliana shouldn't be understated. Kalitas helps stabilize versus aggro, and Asylum Visitor / Sea Gate Wreckage are for the long game.
3x Asylum Visitor
2x Matter Reshaper
2x Distended Mindbender
3x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
2x Gonti, Lord of Luxury
3x Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3x Harsh Scrutiny
3x Ruinous Path
Planeswalker (5)
3x Liliana, the Last Hope
2x Ob Nixilis Reignited
Artifact (5)
1x Metalspinner's Puzzleknot
4x Smuggler's Copter
4x Grasp of Darkness
Land (25)
2x Blighted Fen
2x Sea Gate Wreckage
21x Swamp
I hadn't thought of Spatial Contortion or a lot of the other Eldrazi cards, but they definitely seem good here.
Mono black eldrazi sounds really fun
2 Ob Nixilis Reignited
2 Distended Mindbender
14 Swamp
2 Westvale Abbey
2 Blighted Fen
3 Thought-Knot Seer
2 Noxious Gearhulk
3 Harsh Scrutiny
1 Wastes
4 Filigree Familiar
3 Oath of Liliana
4 Aether Hub
3 Matter Reshaper
4 Spatial Contortion
2 Sea Gate Wreckage
4 Collective Brutality
2 Live Fast
SB: 3 To the Slaughter
SB: 3 Reality Smasher
SB: 2 Lost Legacy
SB: 3 Ruinous Path
SB: 3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
Although Matter Reshaper is a prime target for Emerge, I'm hesitant to include it if if you're already running 4x Though-knot Seer. Because of the loss of pain lands in this new standard, I'm rather concerned about the consistency between colorless and colored mana. If you look at Owen Turtenwald's Temur Emerge deck, it runs only 3x Matter Reshaper with 2x Reality Smashers in SB, and that's with painlanda.
That being said, I think there's going towards an Emerge build seems like a pretty sweet idea for mono black. Distended Mindbender is on par with Elder-Deep Field as the best Emerge creature, and 2-3x Abundant Maw isn't too shabby either (reminiscent of Siege Rhino in the old standard).
Other good black cards to consider:
-Kalitas
-Ob Nixilis
-Liliana
-Murder
-Collective Brutality
-Harsh Scrutiny
2 Blighted Fen
2 Westvale Abbey
4 Aether Hub
1 Wastes
15 Swamp
CREATURES
3 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
2 Noxious Gearhulk
3 Matter Reshaper
4 Filigree Familiar
2 Distended Mindbender
3 Liliana, the Last hope
2 Ob Nixilis Reignited
INSTANTS AND SORCERIES
3 Harsh Scrutiny
3 Collective Brutality
3 Live Fast
4 Grasp of Darkness
2 Murder
1 Ruinous Path
ENCHANTMENTS
1 Oath of Liliana
2 Transgress the Mind
3 Flaying Tendrils
3 Lost Legacy
1 Murder
2 Ruinous Path
2 Oath of Liliana
2 Demon of Dark Schemes
So the deck has all the tools we need to be successful... Except for a good sweeper. The problem with going mono black is that we lost our best sweeper, Languish. Which means decks like RG Energy Aggro, heck, ANY good aggro deck may run right over us. Plus there is an over-abundance of 2 drop creatures with 3 Toughness running a muck in Standard, which makes cards like Flaying Tendrils ineffective in wiping the board. The key for this deck, and many of the other decks listed in this thread, is to hate out creatures as quickly as possible via discard. We achieve this via a combination of Harsh Scrutiny, Collective Brutality early game (Transgress the Mind and Lost Legacy SB as well), Distended Mindbender mid to late game, and use our kill spells mid to late game as mop up. The deck also has plenty of lifegain via Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Filigree Familiar, and Westvale Abbey (if you manage to flip it into Ormendahl, Profane Prince). So theoretically, we should be able to take quite a few hits early game without too big a fear of dying between the first few turns.
CARD CHOICES (I didn't go with)
Thought-Knot Seer: I forwent this card because the 4 drop slot is already taken up by Kalitas. While Seer does indeed exile a card, it's ETB trigger is too expensive for his cost, even though he does have a good body. And he provides CA to your opponent, something I'm a little bit afraid in a deck that isn't as fast as Aggro or plays value creatures the way many Midrange decks do.
Gonti, Lord of Luxury: I wanted him in the deck. Again, Kalitas. Maybe I'll include him as a "2 of" in the SB instead of Tendrils, and add another Harsh Scrutiny.
Drana, Liberator of Malakir: No one, and I mean no one was as excited as I when Drana was first revealed. I have a full set of the original Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief, and wouldn't give theme away/sell them for anything. That being said, I don't believe she belongs in a control deck. She doesn't do anything when she ETB and she gets chump-blocked all day by other creatures with flying and dies to all kinds of removal. In midrange or Madness deck? Sure, she may be able to do some good there.
Even in your own deck, Thought-Knot Seer, Noxious Gearhulk and Kalitas die to -4 but not -3. These cards should all see play in the new Standard. There are a lot of other relevant cards in standard that die to -4 but not -3, especially after factoring in Lord effects and +1/+1 counters. -4/-4 also lets your dorks like Filigree Familiars take down 5/6s and survive (e.g. Elder Deep-Fiend). Contortion wouldn't. That gives you a pretty wide range of things it can kill.
Spatial Contortion does have some use on offense as a +3, but since you're a control deck you shouldn't be wasting a card as a pump spell just to push damage through (unless it's their last 3 life). Monoblack gets to use Grasp the way most decks can't. Grasp is good.