I personally do not play Black Devotion, I played it well in my area and felt that it was played alot like control, not my cup of tea, but it doesn't mean that the deck is not a strong deck.
The color splashes do the minimal things BD needs to actually have a stronger showing. The deck already has one of the best showings against other devotion decks due to its removal. The problems it does have is against Aggro and Esper. My personal favorite splash is Green now your running Abrupt DecayGolgari Charm both able to answer the real problems both decks show, not to mention the charm can save you from a board wipe.
I don't understand the point about esper. Mono black is designed to beat esper. I haven't had any problem doing so. It has better draw and the creatures have staying power. The only decks that have effectively trodden over mono black in my testing are high aggro decks on the Boros spectrum. If these decks are seeing a huge revival, and I am going to face multiples of them at the scg open, it doesn't make sense to play mono black.
What's the problem if you feel confortable playing mono B and if you believe in it ? Are you playing according mtgtop8 results ?
See the post above. I want to stand a chance of winning, and it seems per mtgtop8, a lot of the decks are gearing themselves anti black, so I am here to ask for opinions about whether/how it should be altered to compete at an scg open, or whether I should build another deck in anticipation of a fast meta game.
I don't understand the point about esper. Mono black is designed to beat esper. I haven't had any problem doing so. It has better draw and the creatures have staying power. The only decks that have effectively trodden over mono black in my testing are high aggro decks on the Boros spectrum. If these decks are seeing a huge revival, and I am going to face multiples of them at the scg open, it doesn't make sense to play mono black.
Ahem...
Esper is a favorite here, I assure you that. The match hinges on the Esper player knowing what tools are for what job. Nuking Detention Sphere is a rather big play that Mono Black cannot make should it need to, and keeping a Packrat alive from a Wrath on the back of a Golgari Charm can be devastating. Mono Black does not have enough gas to otherwise push through well times wraths and ingeniously placed spheres, which can make Esper a problematic match.
I would question the skill level of your opponents at this point.
Those situations where Abrupt Decay and Golgari Charm shine against esper, still feel pretty few and far between to me.
Also, mtgtop8 also uses MODO information, which skews those numbers for paper representation. Just glancing at it, you are not going to get accurate readouts for paper mtg when you are looking to prepare for an event. At least not without putting effort into breaking the data down.
Esper is a favorite here, I assure you that. The match hinges on the Esper player knowing what tools are for what job. Nuking Detention Sphere is a rather big play that Mono Black cannot make should it need to, and keeping a Packrat alive from a Wrath on the back of a Golgari Charm can be devastating. Mono Black does not have enough gas to otherwise push through well times wraths and ingeniously placed spheres, which can make Esper a problematic match.
I would question the skill level of your opponents at this point.
Those situations where Abrupt Decay and Golgari Charm shine against esper, still feel pretty few and far between to me.
Also, mtgtop8 also uses MODO information, which skews those numbers for paper representation. Just glancing at it, you are not going to get accurate readouts for paper mtg when you are looking to prepare for an event. At least not without putting effort into breaking the data down.
Ok, here is the answer to both your points:
1- you seem to be thinking that mono black is an aggressive deck, and that it needs to push through damage to kill an esper player. If your mobo black opponents are doing that, I would question their skill level. Mono black vs esper relies on card advantage and on neutralizing espers win conditions. Hero's downfall for their planeswalkers, and stripping cards out of their hands with duress and thoughtseize, while drawing more cards with underworld connections. I don't even care about board wipes because I have a whip coming which will bring back a pack rat to stay, or will bring back desecration demons for one hit at a time. I don't care about detention spheres because they shouldn't even be there. If I play underworld connections before I look at your esper hand to strip its detention spheres i am just a bad player, or i have 2 connections in hand. I have watched plenty of matches at the pro tour and at some GPs to realize that my wins are not statistical aberrations or my opponents being bad.
2- i am only looking at results from the latest IRL tournaments for the past 2 weeks, not MODO results.
I don't care about detention spheres because they shouldn't even be there.
Why would sphere not be in vs Mono black? They have no way of interacting with it and they 4 copies of everything they play. Sphere is the only way to answer Underworld connections or a Whip. Those are the tools that absolutely destroy esper. So again......why would sphere not be in the deck?
Why would sphere not be in vs Mono black? They have no way of interacting with it and they 4 copies of everything they play. Sphere is the only way to answer Underworld connections or a Whip. Those are the tools that absolutely destroy esper. So again......why would sphere not be in the deck?
He means that he takes them with his discard spells
Already calling mono black dead? Been what a week since it top 8'd a major event?
not wondering whether it is dead forever; I am sure it has a place in the metagame. Just wondering whether it is dead right now in the meta or if it is worth playing considering the meta was so against it for the past couple of weeks. I guess I should have titled the post better.
Thanks for the comment that adds nothing to the discussion btw.
It's definitely not dead. Probably one of the most popular decks right now. But it's evolving. Splashing other colors, most notably green, for more flexibility.
not wondering whether it is dead forever; I am sure it has a place in the metagame. Just wondering whether it is dead right now in the meta or if it is worth playing considering the meta was so against it for the past couple of weeks. I guess I should have titled the post better.
Thanks for the comment that adds nothing to the discussion btw.
I hate to sound like an old timer, but there was an era before the interwebs where these types of questions were a non-issue.
I think you'll see mono-black much the same as mono-blue, esper, and the various aggro decks: a few will continue to top 8 here and there, you'll consistently see it in the top 16 almost every week at scg, and maybe even in multiples, but it's not going to be 4-5 decks of the top 8.
I can't think of a more balanced standard meta than what we've seen over the last year or so. Nothing has really had a chokehold on the format for more than a few weeks at a time. If that equates to decks "dying" quickly, then I say it's a testament to how well standard has been managed lately. There are 4-5 top tier decks that are all viable right now, and several others that aren't far behind. Find the one you like and master it. You'll be better off doing that than jumping to the next big thing. Trust me on that one. I've learned it the hard way.
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Currently playing:
Standard: I, for one, welcome our new rhinoceros overlords
Modern: Pod's dead, Bob's back.
Legacy: Lands, Deathblade, Death and Taxes, Elves, MUD
Retired Legacy: Merfolk, Goblins, Jund, Delver, Reanimator
not wondering whether it is dead forever; I am sure it has a place in the metagame. Just wondering whether it is dead right now in the meta or if it is worth playing considering the meta was so against it for the past couple of weeks. I guess I should have titled the post better.
Thanks for the comment that adds nothing to the discussion btw.
I see you gave a nice polite response /sarcasm. Well here is my contribution then. No it's not dead. Thanks for starting a dumb thread.
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Standard: Gave it up
Modern: Eldrazi Tron, UW Tron, GR Tron, BW Tokens, WU Death and Taxes
I was at an IQ playing mono black this past weekend and many people were expecting the deck and were playing esper, which combats the deck very well.
I actually don't know how esper wins unless they land a protected aetherling early and the black deck draws like ****. The black disruption and card draw really shine in this matchup and you HAVE to use sphere on connections or erebos or get buried under the CA.
On a serious note it has more to do with R+ based aggro seeing a rise in numbers due to Mono Black and Esper's strong showings, which in turn should bring Mono U back into the spotlight which in turn etc. etc.
I've played nothing but mono-black (basically just dropping RW from dega which I played a little before) since it came out. For the life of me I do not know how to make the rdw matchup even close to decent. Besides that I honestly don't think the deck has a bad matchup. So mono-black devotion loses to RDWs, Boros, and the new rakdos deck which is partly to blame for its lack of recent success as those decks have made quite the comeback.
I suspect, that while the format is cyclical like this, that may not entirely be the case here.
Mono Black has begun inbreeding to beat the mirror because Mono Black is such a represented deck.
I see Mono Blue coming back, but I do not see Mono Black making the rebound Mono Blue has, it is not as stable of a deck as Mono Blue is when you start to consider flexibility. Mono Black is an incredibly linear strategy and however powerful it may be in some situations, it does not have the ability to keep pace with a meta that is not stagnant. Mono Blue, while not having a whole plethora of available options, at least utilizes highly flexible cards in comparison to Mono Black.
I expect Mono Black to start going in the way of BWR and WB Midrange and really only staying afloat by the sheer number of people actually playing it, not necessarily how good it is.
I honestly think its the best deck in any meta low on RDW varients by a mile. A well played black devotion should have favorable matchup against any midranged and control deck which is why it did so well at the gp it won; the control decks went out in storm to hit to curb the wrath vulnerable mono-u devotion decks. RDWs resurgence is to counter those decks.
Thats what I think too.
The deck basically exploded and A LOT of people play it. This doesnt take skill into account. A lot the players began to play this deck because of the hype without having a clue how to actually play it which could lead to the low win percentage.
Esper on the other hand is expensive and complicated which leads to only experienced players playing it.
Therefore I think these numbers are skewed and should be taken with a grain of salt.
Mono-b devotion and esper are about the same differculty to play, but the mono-black deck looks way more friendly and is a newer archtype so people are trying it.
I don't think any of us are qualified to make such a statement. It is fair to assume, but the reality is that you are making a fairly baseless claim. a rough 7%-8% drop is pretty significant, and considering that theoretically, the skill disparity between players of a given archetype should scale...
I do not necessarily agree with that. The color splashes do very little to actually fix issues that Mono Black has.
Mono-B can't kill enchantments and has trouble with fast aggro, a light splash to shore this up is okay, though currently I'm splashing white and only for sb options.
Esper is a favorite here, I assure you that. The match hinges on the Esper player knowing what tools are for what job. Nuking Detention Sphere is a rather big play that Mono Black cannot make should it need to, and keeping a Packrat alive from a Wrath on the back of a Golgari Charm can be devastating. Mono Black does not have enough gas to otherwise push through well times wraths and ingeniously placed spheres, which can make Esper a problematic match.
I would question the skill level of your opponents at this point.
Those situations where Abrupt Decay and Golgari Charm shine against esper, still feel pretty few and far between to me.
Also, mtgtop8 also uses MODO information, which skews those numbers for paper representation. Just glancing at it, you are not going to get accurate readouts for paper mtg when you are looking to prepare for an event. At least not without putting effort into breaking the data down.
Esper is the beatdown here, not mono-black. The potential CA provided by connections and erebos need to be addressed more than revelations needs to likewise be addressed by mono-b. Sphere is the best card esper has against mono-black devotion and if that card didn't exist I would say the matchup would be unwinnable for esper. Even with it its a uphill battle as you have to draw removal for Blacks CA and threats AND not have that taken by discard. Post board black gets even more disruption against you can can often strip the best cards in your hand games 2 and 3.
I actually don't know how esper wins unless they land a protected aetherling early and the black deck draws like ****. The black disruption and card draw really shine in this matchup and you HAVE to use sphere on connections or erebos or get buried under the CA.
I've played nothing but mono-black (basically just dropping RW from dega which I played a little before) since it came out. For the life of me I do not know how to make the rdw matchup even close to decent. Besides that I honestly don't think the deck has a bad matchup. So mono-black devotion loses to RDWs, Boros, and the new rakdos deck which is partly to blame for its lack of recent success as those decks have made quite the comeback.
I honestly think its the best deck in any meta low on RDW varients by a mile. A well played black devotion should have favorable matchup against any midranged and control deck which is why it did so well at the gp it won; the control decks went out in storm to hit to curb the wrath vulnerable mono-u devotion decks. RDWs resurgence is to counter those decks.
Mono-b devotion and esper are about the same differculty to play, but the mono-black deck looks way more friendly and is a newer archtype so people are trying it.
Mono-B can't kill enchantments and has trouble with fast aggro, a light splash to shore this up is okay, though currently I'm splashing white and only for sb options.
Esper is the beatdown here, not mono-black. The potential CA provided by connections and erebos need to be addressed more than revelations needs to likewise be addressed by mono-b. Sphere is the best card esper has against mono-black devotion and if that card didn't exist I would say the matchup would be unwinnable for esper. Even with it its a uphill battle as you have to draw removal for Blacks CA and threats AND not have that taken by discard. Post board black gets even more disruption against you can can often strip the best cards in your hand games 2 and 3.
I agree with everything you said; thanks for the great response. What do you think about splashing red for anger of the gods? That would give black access to a board wipe which could fix its problems vs RDW. Do you know if that's been tried?
I've played nothing but mono-black (basically just dropping RW from dega which I played a little before) since it came out. For the life of me I do not know how to make the rdw matchup even close to decent. Besides that I honestly don't think the deck has a bad matchup. So mono-black devotion loses to RDWs, Boros, and the new rakdos deck which is partly to blame for its lack of recent success as those decks have made quite the comeback.
Ratchet Bomb and Pharika's Cure. If you're really desperate you could try Shrivel and/or Profit/Loss.
I agree with everything you said; thanks for the great response. What do you think about splashing red for anger of the gods? That would give black access to a board wipe which could fix its problems vs RDW. Do you know if that's been tried?
Double red sucks alot, I would be warmer to the idea come RB scryland. Its not bad per se, I just haven't had any desire to try it.
The card in red that most interests me is slaughter games for mirror and esper.
Ratchet Bomb and Pharika's Cure. If you're really desperate you could try Shrivel and/or Profit/Loss.
Already just bumped the cure count to 4 (sb or course, not quite THAT desperate), I like ratchet bomb but I don't think it does enough against red as its slow and takes up turn 2 (or is even slower) which HAS to be a spot removal spell if you want to stand a chance of winning that matchup.
Ratchet bomb is an awesome idea. I will try that today.
Its cool, I've had it in my sb before but I mostly found I was boarding it in against esper instead of some spot removal to hit d-spheres and jaces. I don't think it is fast enough to be worth wasting a turn playing against rdws as you HAVE to land your early game removal against them.
I think G offers the best anti-red options, almost purely because of sylvan caryatid but still.
Black devotion with blue splash is the first deck I have actually had success with at my local FNM. I went from last place to third place on it's first night. Pretty good for me. Gray Merchant Of Asphodel is a smashing common. And I even run the ol' Abhorrent Overlord and usually drop him with seven devotion. Then there's Rescue From The Underworld...
I dig it.
I want to implement Triad Of Fates somehow but I can't quite sort it out.
Double red sucks alot, I would be warmer to the idea come RB scryland. Its not bad per se, I just haven't had any desire to try it.
The card in red that most interests me is slaughter games for mirror and esper.
Already just bumped the cure count to 4 (sb or course, not quite THAT desperate), I like ratchet bomb but I don't think it does enough against red as its slow and takes up turn 2 (or is even slower) which HAS to be a spot removal spell if you want to stand a chance of winning that matchup.
Its cool, I've had it in my sb before but I mostly found I was boarding it in against esper instead of some spot removal to hit d-spheres and jaces. I don't think it is fast enough to be worth wasting a turn playing against rdws as you HAVE to land your early game removal against them.
I think G offers the best anti-red options, almost purely because of sylvan caryatid but still.
You're right; while testing yesterday it was mediocre at best against red and even more worse against the weenie white variant that popped up.
Black devotion with blue splash is the first deck I have actually had success with at my local FNM. I went from last place to third place on it's first night. Pretty good for me. Gray Merchant Of Asphodel is a smashing common. And I even run the ol' Abhorrent Overlord and usually drop him with seven devotion. Then there's Rescue From The Underworld...
I dig it.
I want to implement Triad Of Fates somehow but I can't quite sort it out.
.
They're way too slow, the card takes 3 turns before you get a return on it. Creatures with tap abilities have it hard enough as is.
If you want to beat RDW as Black Devotion, you could always run an aggro variant. ;[ When you're putting down Tormented Heroes and Thrill-Kill Assassins in kind with their own 1-2 drops, they have no way to push enough damage through before you start dropping Merchants on their head. Much better than... Wring Flesh? That's really the issue I find with control lists against RDW's blazing speed. No good 1cc removal and even all the two-drops are conditional besides Pharika's Cure, which is too situational (1-2 toughness) to maindeck. Can't Doom Blade -or- Ultimate Price a Cackler. So, well, might as well drop dudes in their way.
As a bonus, you aren't packing a ton of dead removal against control decks and have more devotion in general due to playing more permanents. Pack Rat does alleviate that somewhat, though.
If you want to beat RDW as Black Devotion, you could always run an aggro variant. ;[ When you're putting down Tormented Heroes and Thrill-Kill Assassins in kind with their own 1-2 drops, they have no way to push enough damage through before you start dropping Merchants on their head. Much better than... Wring Flesh? That's really the issue I find with control lists against RDW's blazing speed. No good 1cc removal and even all the two-drops are conditional besides Pharika's Cure, which is too situational (1-2 toughness) to maindeck. Can't Doom Blade -or- Ultimate Price a Cackler. So, well, might as well drop dudes in their way.
As a bonus, you aren't packing a ton of dead removal against control decks and have more devotion in general due to playing more permanents. Pack Rat does alleviate that somewhat, though.
That is exactly the idea Patrick Chapin had with B/W Midrange and it works well. Although Soldier of the Pantheon is much better than Tormented Hero for example.
People just discover more stuff to do with card pool other than "jam everything one color has offer in one deck to exploit devotion".
Not to mention that monoblack is second popular deck everyone tries in each format, first being monored.
As long as RtR and THS are with us, heavy black decks are here to stay. Cards are good enough for black to be viable no matter what next 2 sets contain.
I have been dabbling with Returned Phalanx as a SB card against Barley Boros and RDW. Haven't had a chance to try it out in a tournament setting yet, but in some casual games it seems to stem the tide long enough to stabilize. Clogging up the ground for a couple turns while you find that Pharika's Cure or Whip of Erebos that you need to stabilize.
Sure both decks have answers but it is counter to their path to victory. RDW needs to burn a lightning strike (which protects your Nightveils) or get 2-1'ed with a creature and other burn spell. BB needs to go over it with Skyjek, use an early brave the elements, or waste an arrester.
What am I missing? This seems to be too simple of an answer to have been overlooked for so long.
I've been running a MBD variant (pure black, no splashes) and i'm 17-1 at Cockatrice against at least 15 competitive decks. Lost to a Boros Weenies decks pretty much for my mistake on trying to outrace him with my own Pack Rats
MBD is far from dead, he's still a decent deck with actually NO bad matchup when well built. The main problem on MBD is how to sideboard, you either have to prepare it for aggro or prepare it to have a better MU vs. control and mirror.
The only cards that really breaks the deck by half ATM are Assemble the Legion and Blood Baron of Vizkopa (the latter being kinda easy to answer on my list and i'm considering putting Illness of the Ranks on SB for assemble). Other than that, this deck has a pretty fair MU against most decks and only does badly against pretty fast weenie decks (RB Aggro is the best example of it, even though i've won 2 of them by 2-0 and 2-1), if you can prepare your deck to deal with these decks without losing an overall good MU against other decks, you're in a good shape running MBD in the format.
I don't understand the point about esper. Mono black is designed to beat esper. I haven't had any problem doing so. It has better draw and the creatures have staying power. The only decks that have effectively trodden over mono black in my testing are high aggro decks on the Boros spectrum. If these decks are seeing a huge revival, and I am going to face multiples of them at the scg open, it doesn't make sense to play mono black.
See the post above. I want to stand a chance of winning, and it seems per mtgtop8, a lot of the decks are gearing themselves anti black, so I am here to ask for opinions about whether/how it should be altered to compete at an scg open, or whether I should build another deck in anticipation of a fast meta game.
Ahem...
Esper is a favorite here, I assure you that. The match hinges on the Esper player knowing what tools are for what job. Nuking Detention Sphere is a rather big play that Mono Black cannot make should it need to, and keeping a Packrat alive from a Wrath on the back of a Golgari Charm can be devastating. Mono Black does not have enough gas to otherwise push through well times wraths and ingeniously placed spheres, which can make Esper a problematic match.
I would question the skill level of your opponents at this point.
Those situations where Abrupt Decay and Golgari Charm shine against esper, still feel pretty few and far between to me.
Also, mtgtop8 also uses MODO information, which skews those numbers for paper representation. Just glancing at it, you are not going to get accurate readouts for paper mtg when you are looking to prepare for an event. At least not without putting effort into breaking the data down.
Ok, here is the answer to both your points:
1- you seem to be thinking that mono black is an aggressive deck, and that it needs to push through damage to kill an esper player. If your mobo black opponents are doing that, I would question their skill level. Mono black vs esper relies on card advantage and on neutralizing espers win conditions. Hero's downfall for their planeswalkers, and stripping cards out of their hands with duress and thoughtseize, while drawing more cards with underworld connections. I don't even care about board wipes because I have a whip coming which will bring back a pack rat to stay, or will bring back desecration demons for one hit at a time. I don't care about detention spheres because they shouldn't even be there. If I play underworld connections before I look at your esper hand to strip its detention spheres i am just a bad player, or i have 2 connections in hand. I have watched plenty of matches at the pro tour and at some GPs to realize that my wins are not statistical aberrations or my opponents being bad.
2- i am only looking at results from the latest IRL tournaments for the past 2 weeks, not MODO results.
Why would sphere not be in vs Mono black? They have no way of interacting with it and they 4 copies of everything they play. Sphere is the only way to answer Underworld connections or a Whip. Those are the tools that absolutely destroy esper. So again......why would sphere not be in the deck?
Modern: Eldrazi Tron, UW Tron, GR Tron, BW Tokens, WU Death and Taxes
He means that he takes them with his discard spells
yep and I have 8 discard spells that can hit detention spheres.
not wondering whether it is dead forever; I am sure it has a place in the metagame. Just wondering whether it is dead right now in the meta or if it is worth playing considering the meta was so against it for the past couple of weeks. I guess I should have titled the post better.
Thanks for the comment that adds nothing to the discussion btw.
I hate to sound like an old timer, but there was an era before the interwebs where these types of questions were a non-issue.
I think you'll see mono-black much the same as mono-blue, esper, and the various aggro decks: a few will continue to top 8 here and there, you'll consistently see it in the top 16 almost every week at scg, and maybe even in multiples, but it's not going to be 4-5 decks of the top 8.
I can't think of a more balanced standard meta than what we've seen over the last year or so. Nothing has really had a chokehold on the format for more than a few weeks at a time. If that equates to decks "dying" quickly, then I say it's a testament to how well standard has been managed lately. There are 4-5 top tier decks that are all viable right now, and several others that aren't far behind. Find the one you like and master it. You'll be better off doing that than jumping to the next big thing. Trust me on that one. I've learned it the hard way.
Standard: I, for one, welcome our new rhinoceros overlords
Modern: Pod's dead, Bob's back.
Legacy: Lands, Deathblade, Death and Taxes, Elves, MUD
Retired Legacy: Merfolk, Goblins, Jund, Delver, Reanimator
I see you gave a nice polite response /sarcasm. Well here is my contribution then. No it's not dead. Thanks for starting a dumb thread.
Modern: Eldrazi Tron, UW Tron, GR Tron, BW Tokens, WU Death and Taxes
I actually don't know how esper wins unless they land a protected aetherling early and the black deck draws like ****. The black disruption and card draw really shine in this matchup and you HAVE to use sphere on connections or erebos or get buried under the CA.
I've played nothing but mono-black (basically just dropping RW from dega which I played a little before) since it came out. For the life of me I do not know how to make the rdw matchup even close to decent. Besides that I honestly don't think the deck has a bad matchup. So mono-black devotion loses to RDWs, Boros, and the new rakdos deck which is partly to blame for its lack of recent success as those decks have made quite the comeback.
I honestly think its the best deck in any meta low on RDW varients by a mile. A well played black devotion should have favorable matchup against any midranged and control deck which is why it did so well at the gp it won; the control decks went out in storm to hit to curb the wrath vulnerable mono-u devotion decks. RDWs resurgence is to counter those decks.
Mono-b devotion and esper are about the same differculty to play, but the mono-black deck looks way more friendly and is a newer archtype so people are trying it.
Mono-B can't kill enchantments and has trouble with fast aggro, a light splash to shore this up is okay, though currently I'm splashing white and only for sb options.
Esper is the beatdown here, not mono-black. The potential CA provided by connections and erebos need to be addressed more than revelations needs to likewise be addressed by mono-b. Sphere is the best card esper has against mono-black devotion and if that card didn't exist I would say the matchup would be unwinnable for esper. Even with it its a uphill battle as you have to draw removal for Blacks CA and threats AND not have that taken by discard. Post board black gets even more disruption against you can can often strip the best cards in your hand games 2 and 3.
I agree with everything you said; thanks for the great response. What do you think about splashing red for anger of the gods? That would give black access to a board wipe which could fix its problems vs RDW. Do you know if that's been tried?
Ratchet Bomb and Pharika's Cure. If you're really desperate you could try Shrivel and/or Profit/Loss.
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Ratchet bomb is an awesome idea. I will try that today.
Double red sucks alot, I would be warmer to the idea come RB scryland. Its not bad per se, I just haven't had any desire to try it.
The card in red that most interests me is slaughter games for mirror and esper.
Already just bumped the cure count to 4 (sb or course, not quite THAT desperate), I like ratchet bomb but I don't think it does enough against red as its slow and takes up turn 2 (or is even slower) which HAS to be a spot removal spell if you want to stand a chance of winning that matchup.
Its cool, I've had it in my sb before but I mostly found I was boarding it in against esper instead of some spot removal to hit d-spheres and jaces. I don't think it is fast enough to be worth wasting a turn playing against rdws as you HAVE to land your early game removal against them.
I think G offers the best anti-red options, almost purely because of sylvan caryatid but still.
I dig it.
I want to implement Triad Of Fates somehow but I can't quite sort it out.
I second the Ratchet...it's a barrel of laughs.
You're right; while testing yesterday it was mediocre at best against red and even more worse against the weenie white variant that popped up.
They're way too slow, the card takes 3 turns before you get a return on it. Creatures with tap abilities have it hard enough as is.
yeah, it feels like a control card more than anything as it hits random walkers, needles, and d-spheres.
As a bonus, you aren't packing a ton of dead removal against control decks and have more devotion in general due to playing more permanents. Pack Rat does alleviate that somewhat, though.
That is exactly the idea Patrick Chapin had with B/W Midrange and it works well. Although Soldier of the Pantheon is much better than Tormented Hero for example.
Not to mention that monoblack is second popular deck everyone tries in each format, first being monored.
As long as RtR and THS are with us, heavy black decks are here to stay. Cards are good enough for black to be viable no matter what next 2 sets contain.
Sure both decks have answers but it is counter to their path to victory. RDW needs to burn a lightning strike (which protects your Nightveils) or get 2-1'ed with a creature and other burn spell. BB needs to go over it with Skyjek, use an early brave the elements, or waste an arrester.
What am I missing? This seems to be too simple of an answer to have been overlooked for so long.
MBD is far from dead, he's still a decent deck with actually NO bad matchup when well built. The main problem on MBD is how to sideboard, you either have to prepare it for aggro or prepare it to have a better MU vs. control and mirror.
The only cards that really breaks the deck by half ATM are Assemble the Legion and Blood Baron of Vizkopa (the latter being kinda easy to answer on my list and i'm considering putting Illness of the Ranks on SB for assemble). Other than that, this deck has a pretty fair MU against most decks and only does badly against pretty fast weenie decks (RB Aggro is the best example of it, even though i've won 2 of them by 2-0 and 2-1), if you can prepare your deck to deal with these decks without losing an overall good MU against other decks, you're in a good shape running MBD in the format.
On DeTora's extra land drop on PT:GTC