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By: Mikey K159, Michael
Nov 11 2013 2:45am
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Decktech

Like I mentioned in the video, the biggest card that MBC got from Theros was Gray Merchant, but another good card it got was Read the Bones. Gray Merchant does everything this deck wants, which it provides more of something that in my opinion, it's what MBC has been missing all along, which is reach. It provides a way around having to kill everything and needing to attack which makes things a whole ton easier. But enough of me badgering, let's get into the matches!

Round 1 vs. Alkalima with Mono Black Aggro

This match can be a little trouble, but it depends on the version. I can't go into too much detail on my opponents deck because I've never seen a Aggro Black version like his before, but I can tell you that most will play cards like Dark Ritual and be able to cast 2 or even sometimes be able to cast 3 creatures on turn 1 and that puts a lot of pressure on you. Against them, Disfigure and Dead Weight are pretty much your best friends and despite how good Crypt Rats may look, the fact that they drain your life is actually a huge problem. Corrupt would also obviously be too slow, but I still keep 2 of them in because they are your way of winning them game. Since you're the control version, you want the game going as long as possible, so by the time you cast corrupt, it should be for the win.

Round 2 vs. Cosik with UW Blink Shenanigans

This deck has been gaining popularity as of late from what I've seen in the dailies and the gatherling pauper tournaments. The first time I saw the deck was when Shaffa Waffa, who was the creator of the UG StormPost deck I wrote about long ago, streamed with this deck to a 3-1 finish in a daily and since then, as I have said, its been running well. This deck can be a problem because of the all the card advantage that they run and because they gain so much life, by doing these 2 things they can overwhelm you and buy so much time to do so. Basically they are doing a ton of things while you could be hitting a land pocket or doing unimpressive things. The match up can be especially bad when you run into the opponents running Circle of Protection: Black out of the sideboard, but luckily you have Grey Merchant to get around that, though like I said, they can gain so much life that it won't matter. The best way to handle this deck is pretty much the discard route, but it won't always work, but you can lock them down with Circle of Protection: Black if they are tight on mana,

Round 3 vs. PasiY with MBC

What I am about to say, I promise its me telling the truth of how I personally view this match. This mirror match is basically a coin flip as it really depends on who draws what first. The match basically plays out the same almost every time, which is your opponent plays something and you kill it and then you play something and it dies. You then make each other discard cards with Duress effects and Wrench Mind or Okiba-Gang Shinobi effects while trying to have a good amount of devotion in play for your Grey Merchants or you stall late enough for a gigantic pair of Corrupts to resolve. After the match, I talked to my opponent for a little while and he was a very nice persona and we both agreed that the Chittering rats only hurt due to the fact that I had Corrupt in my hand and that 4 of them hit the table and had I been empty handed while the rats were hitting, the game could have gone differently. We also agreed that Wrench Mind, which in my case are Distress's, are the only cards we considered taking out completely from the deck, but I will talk about that later when you see the updated version of my deck list. We also spoke about how the mirror sometimes can be as unexciting as game 2 ended up being.

 

2 man vs. RUG Tron

This match reminds me of Cloudpost control a lot more than you may think, but it can also be a bit harder because discard doesn't actually do as much as I thought. The problem with the discard plan is that they draw so many cards between Mulldrifter, Ancient Stirrings and Chromatic Star like effects that it is so easily for them to refill their hand. I won't sit here and act like I didn't get lucky to win this match, as I have no problem admitting that I did, but keep in mind that this deck sometimes does just fizzle, especially because they have to run 4 more colorless lands than Cloudpost does, so sometimes they can just get color screwed. If you want to have a good chance against this deck, then you will need land destruction to take it on and personally I like Choking Sands due to the 2 damage it deals to the player. I would also like to point out that you are the aggro deck here, so try to be aggressive if at all possible with you draw.

 

Final Thoughts and cards I tried out

I still love this deck and I think its definitely very powerful and well positioned in the meta right now. It's also fun to play because its possible to build it in many different ways, but it also has tools to deal with most of the decks in the format. Although due to the fact that this deck has become so popular, cards like Circle of Protection: Black have come back in most sideboards in force, so you will have to be careful and build accordingly. Here are some cards I tried but sadly did not make the final cut.

 

Okiba-Gang Shinobi – Despite what I have said about this card in the past, I actually have grown to like it in the current meta, but I wanted to try Distress out instead, especially because of how much cheap removal is in the format and how easy it is to kill the creature.

 

Wrench Mind – I explained this in the decktech in good detail, but I have grown to appreciate this card for what it is as well, but if I had to choose between this and Okiba-Gang Shinobi, I would choose the creature because well, it deals damage and it is double black for devotion and not to mention returning something like Grey Merchant or a Phyrexian Rager to your hand can sometimes be a big game for you.

 

Chittering Rats – This I explained in the decktech.

 

Disciple of Phenax – I tried this card out in the very beginning because I thought that since its the same mana as Okiba-Gang, but it looks at cards in your opponents hand due to devotion, which should be easy to have a big number of, sadly it didn't work out. I didn't always have a large amount of devotion and it doesn't hit hard enough to be a good beater, though I will say that if it was 1 mana cheaper to cast, it might actually have made the cut.

 

Order of the Ebon hand – If you expect a lot of white weenie, this card is a really good sideboard to pack for the match. If you don't expect it, then it doesn't need to be in the sideboard.

 

Serrated Arrows – I did try this out in the sideboard, but the bottom line is that it was just too in the matches where I thought it would be good.

 

Updated Decklist

 

Mono Black Control
 
Creatures
3 Crypt Rats
4 Liliana's Specter
3 Cuombajj Witches
4 Phyrexian Rager
14 cards

Other Spells
3 Victim of Night
2 Corrupt
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
2 Tendrils of Corruption
2 Geth's Verdict
3 Dead Weight
3 Oubliette
4 Read the Bones
15 cards
Lands
23 Swamp
23 cards

Gray Merchant of Asphodel

 

In the main deck I decided to cut 1 Witches because as good as she is, she isn't that good in a lot of matches and that includes the mirror in my opinion, so I added 1 more Crypt Rats to the main deck in the spot. I also added 1 more Oubliette to the main deck in spot of a Geth's Verdict which I have been pretty happy with because it helps really well with devotion and removing the creature from the game actually helps more than you may think. I also added 1 more Victim of Night over Grasp of Darkness, but this was a miner change, it was mostly due to the fact that Victim of Night kills more creatures.

 

In the sideboard I added Choking Sands for the Tron match, but I only added 3 because I am not sure is 4 are needed and I was tight on space in the sideboard. I also added back in Grim Harvest over Cadaver Imp because, as nice as the devotion was, Grim Harvest is just better at playing the long game. I also took out Distress in favor of Okiba-Gang Shinobi, because the problem with Distress is that the being able to take a creature part of the card, is really only good versus Delver and UW Blink, but Duress, removal and Okiba-Gang are fine vs. those decks and also kill your opponent in the process.

 

I hope a good number of you are happy that I am back and look forward to more content from me in the near future. Please remember to subscribe and like my videos if you like my content and I'll see you guys next time!

 

4 Comments

Welcome back, Mikey by MagicGatheringStrat at Mon, 11/11/2013 - 09:15
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5

Welcome back! We have missed you!

Welcome back, Mikey! by Samuel Kalkin at Mon, 11/11/2013 - 18:04
Samuel Kalkin's picture

Since you were gone, things haven't been the same man. Now that you're back everything can finally go back to normal. :)

What they said! by shaffawaffa5 at Sat, 11/16/2013 - 23:42
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Hey Mikey! Glad to have you back, and thanks for the shoutout. Hopefully we can get you back on P2P?

I'm not against appearing on by Mikey K159 at Fri, 11/22/2013 - 03:17
Mikey K159's picture

No problem shaffa my man. Also I am not against appearing on a podcast again.