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By: Joe Fiorini, Joseph G Fiorini
Jul 09 2014 12:00pm
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Hello, my name is Joe Fiorini, the following is my first attempt creating content for my favorite game. Writing an article is something that I've thought about for a long time, but never actually done. I am personally interested in pieces on magic that range from theory, to practical deck design, and even the history of such topics.

In an effort to not get bogged-down with too many ideas or topics for my first submission, I've decided to take a standard deck I've played recently, and discuss it.

Pain Seer    Thoughtseize

Mono-black Aggro

Ever since Clyde Martin made top 8 at GP Cincinnati with Mono-black aggro, I've been playing this deck regularly. Here's his list:

Mono-Black Aggro by Clyde Martin - Top 8, Grand Prix Cincinatti

Lands:
4 Mutavault
19 Swamp

Creatures:
4 Tormented Hero
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Pain Seer
4 Lifebane Zombie
4 Herald of Torment
2 Mogis's Marauder
3 Desecration Demon


Desecration Demon
 
Other Spells:
4 Thoughtseize
4 Hero's Downfall
2 Bile Blight
2 Devour Flesh
 
Sideboard:
4 Duress
4 Doom Blade
4 Dark Betrayal
2 Devour Flesh
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
 

 

At the time I started playing this list, I was bored with my mono-black devotion deck. I'm not the kind of person who can just always buy a new deck from scratch, so seeing as this list had major overlap with my black devotion deck, I knew I could afford to finish this thing. My first few games in the tournament practice room were an unmitigated disaster. I immediately felt like I had made a mistake building it. Luckily, I stuck with the deck, and I started winning. Soon, I was eating midrange decks for breakfast, and control decks weren't so scary to deal with either. The best games started by curving out with one drops, and two drops, followed by either more creatures, or timely removal spells. It was a really nice feeling to be able to kill whatever Courser of Kruphix or Nightveil Specter my opponent was brick-walling me with. The bad games happened when Thoughtseize was my only one-drop or "removal spell". As good of a card as Thoughtseize is, it is extremely awkward and not ideal in an aggro shell in my opinion. Using a Doom Blade, or other such cheap removal spell, usually creates a loss of tempo for your opponent. On turn three, they drop a Courser of Kruphix, on your next turn you can kill it, attack, and drop another guy potentially. Contrast that to a turn one or two Thoughtseize to preemptively "remove" the same Courser of Kruphix. In this example, you've wasted mana on your turn, and your opponent hasn't invested any mana. What if they had two good blockers? If you'd let your opponent drop their dude, waste all their available mana, and pass the turn, you would be erasing all that work with the one Ultimate Price.

Enter Journey into Nyx:

Master of the Feast Gnarled Scarhide

Journey into Nyx brought us the third two-power one-drop, Mr. Gnarled Scarhide, or as I call him, Gnarls Barkley. Now we can play twelve Savannah Lions! Running up to three different bestow creatures to hedge against sweepers was now an option as well. We were given Master of the Feast to excite/disappoint us as well.

My list after Journey into Nyx was released looked approximately like this:

Mono-Black Aggro, by Islandswamp

Creatures:

4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Gnarled Scarhide
4 Tormented Hero
4 Pain Seer
3 Thrill-Kill Assassin
3 Spiteful Returned
3 Mogis's Marauder
4 Herald of Torment
3 Lifebane Zombie

Spells:
3 Hero's Downfall
3 Ultimate Price
3 Bile Blight

 

 

 

 

 

Mogis's Marauder

 

Lands:
19 Swamp
4 Mutavault

Sideboard:
4 Thoughtseize
3 Dark Betrayal
4 Doom Blade
1 Hero's Downfall
3 Devour Flesh

 

 

The first thing you may notice, is that I relegated Thoughtseize to the sideboard. I understand how powerful a card it is, but unless I was playing against a Sphinx's Revelation/Supreme Verdict deck, I always preferred to just have removal. I won somewhere around ten 2-mans in a row with this list, and was very confident in it. I took notice of the versions of mono black aggro that were winning daily events, and I knew mine was different. Those lists all ran their Thoughtseize main deck. I did try to play their version of the deck, I won a 2-man with that version, but I lost game one, and sideboarded it games 2-3 to look like my normal pre-boarded configuration. There were times or games where my main deck or sideboard configuration were slightly different from what I listed. I tried many different options to try and work out what worked best.

Lately, I haven't been running Master of the Feast at all, because of how terrible he can be against mono-black devotion. When a card is bad against the number one deck in a format, well, maybe you should look elsewhere for card choices. I have had games where Master of the Feast was excellent, but I've had so many games where the card was so bad, it doesn't seem worth it. Consistency is a huge reason to play an aggro deck, so throwing that all away every other game by giving your opponent extra cards feels foolish. If you are dead-set on playing Master of the Feast, you should at least know that he is really good against mono-green decks and G/R Monsters, as they don't have a ton of good removal for it.

I don't get to do as many daily events as I'd like to, due to work and family commitments. The two I did play in with this deck, I didn't cash. I went 2-2 in the first one, beating a brew that had done well in a daily in the previous day, and beating Orzhov control. I lost to mono-black devotion (that guy 4-0'd that day) and lost to a mono-green aggro deck. The game vs black devotion was a very close 2-1 win for my opponent, and things could have easily gone better had my deck had a better draw. I definitely feel like mono-black aggro is a better deck than people give it credit for.

Lately, black aggro lists have had some success on the SCG Open Series Circuit. One of these lists used Thoughtseize in the main deck in a way I feel like I can agree with. This list I'm referring to used only 26 creatures so that Thoughtseize could be included without having to skimp on spot removal. Whenever I tested with the lists that ran 4 Thoughtseize and only 2 Hero's Downfall and 2 Bile Blight for removal, I would hardly ever get the one timely removal spell I needed to keep the damage coming. When I needed two removal spells, that just plain never happened to work out with only 4 real "Doom Blades".

Match-ups:

Midrange decks tend to be the match-ups where mono-black aggro really shines. I remember playing against Reid Duke's junk midrange in the tournament practice room (before I had even read about the deck, even), and I slaughtered the deck mercilessly. I went and watched the replay of that match, as that game was a text-book example of running perfect. Monsters decks, be they G/R or Jund, are usually good for us as well. Lifebane Zombie, Mogis's Marauder, and your plethora of one-drops keep them on the back foot all game. My games against black devotion usually went well, although the B/W version is easier to deal with as Lifebane Zombie is the nut against Blood Baron of Vizkopa. Usually game two against straight black gets much better after bringing in four Dark Betrayals and removing the clunky Hero's Downfall.

Control decks are also a pretty good match-up. If they can't hit a Supreme Verdict or get two of your creatures with a Detention Sphere, you're in pretty good shape. Just don't over-commit to the board, and bring in your Thoughtseizes and extra Hero's Downfall after game one, and you should be in good shape. You should obviously try to commit to the board via bestow whenever possible if you expect to get a Supreme Verdict wiping your board.

Other aggro decks and burn feel like they give me the most trouble. Other colors have 3/3 two-drops, or 2/2 first strike two-drops that make your plan much more difficult. One hedge you can make against this issue is to run Thrill-Kill Assassin as one of your two-drops. He fights through 2/2 first strikers and trades with Kalonian Tusker (although most likely he will just not be blocked). Other than that, you're just going to have to bestow and fly your way to victory. Remember, the mono-green aggro lists and mono-white hyper-aggro Loyal Pegasus builds run way more creatures than you, making you need to take the control role in those games. Mono-red can finish you off with their removal spells, making combat racing math harder to calculate.

I feel like mono-black aggro is a decent deck choice depending on your expected metagame. Whether you plan on playing a version more like mine, or with maindeck Thoughtseize, this deck is consistent and powerful. You just need to stick with it for a while and learn all your match-ups.

Thank you very much for reading, and I hope some of this information was helpful for you.

I'd like to add, as a postscript, that the process of creating this article has given me a new appreciation of the work that the writers on this website do. I've been reading puremtgo for a while, and until now, I had no idea how these pieces were created. So, thank you for all that you do!

Joe Fiorini "Islandswamp" on MTGO.
Underground Sea

13 Comments

Nice Deck by The Milk Man at Wed, 07/09/2014 - 19:04
The Milk Man's picture
5

Nice Deck! I play mono black aggro in standard as my regular deck. I would very much recommend including the Thoughtseizes mainboard, but for me they're a turn 3 or 4 play. Ideally it goes something like this

T1 - 2 power creature
T2 - 2 x 2 power creatures
T3 - 1 Thoughtseize. See what is in their hand, normally take removal/big blocker/tempo choice*, use another Thoughtseize if possible and needed. Then play a creature if possible.

Assembling 6 power on board in the first two turns and then thoughtseizing away their removal/blockers feels great (for the mono black aggro player) It almost feels like slow rolling, as it just isn't expected to be used 'late' like that and it means that you have power on board to apply pressure before they're able to assemble blockers or have the opportunity to remove our guys.

*tempo choice - what was going to be their next play, often leaving them with no play for the turn aka the best way to use thoughtseize IMO

Did your ever try master of by Joe Fiorini at Wed, 07/09/2014 - 20:38
Joe Fiorini's picture

Did your ever try master of the feast? I did. It usually was bad, and I couldn't make it good often enough.
Also, how did you feel about the match up against burn? I seemed to lose a lot because they'd hit 3 or 4 searing blood. Otherwise I did OK.

I think as long as you're by Joe Fiorini at Wed, 07/09/2014 - 20:31
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I think as long as you're running a decent amount of removal, main deck would be OK. I just feel like people think of thoughtseize as a one mana doom blade, and it isn't.
One good thing is main decking thoughtseize opens up sideboard slots for duress so you can run 8 discard spells post board against control decks.

I did poorly with the couple 4-0 lists I downloaded, because they ran like 4 removal spells. Funny thing is, I ran into a guy who's list I had downloaded, but I was running my list . I beat him game one badly, then got bad draws and that guy got at least 3 of his removal spells game 2 and 3. I was praying for mine.. . But that's variance
Thanks for reading. And I agree with your comments.

whip by The Milk Man at Wed, 07/09/2014 - 20:49
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5

Whip of erebos is very important against burn and aggro decks. I have 2 bile blight, 2 ultimate price and 2 hero's downfall as well as the 4 thoughtseize in the main board. Don't be afraid to kill your own creatures if it is going to save you a lot of life. I have had to kill my own herald of torment before, which I ended up winning. I will post my list if you'd like.

sure, I'll always take a by Joe Fiorini at Wed, 07/09/2014 - 20:58
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sure, I'll always take a look. I had a couple whips in the board at one point. I never faced burn in the dailies or two-mans. I only seemed to play it in the T.P. room.

I would play a daily event every day if I could, they don't take that long. My wife doesn't appreciate this game as much it as I do, to put it mildly. Two man's I can bang out quickly, so I end up doing them more.

Lately, I've been on a modern kick with blue tron, and generally enjoying that thoroughly.

OK by The Milk Man at Wed, 07/09/2014 - 21:07
The Milk Man's picture

You sound like you're in a very similar position to me. Here is the list

4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Gnarled Scarhide
1 Pack Rat
3 Thrill-kill Assassin
4 Spiteful Returned
4 Pain Seer
4 Herald of Torment
4 Mogis's Marauder

2 Bile Blight
2 Ultimate Price
2 Hero's Downfall
4 Thoughtseize

18 Swamp
4 Mutavault

Sideboard;
4 Dark Betrayal
3 Doom Blade
4 Duress
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
2 Whip of Erebos.

I had considered Master of the Feast but I haven't been that impressed the times that my opponents have played them. I would like to have some number of Boon of Erebos in the deck for the combat trick/regenerate, but other than that I am pretty happy with the list. I have also thought about putting the Tormented Heros back in the list, but the synergies with Mogis's Marauder is lacking.

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