Well, this is a first.

I have actually managed to stick to a deck for another week in a row.

For some people, this is not hard. They stay with a deck because it is what they are comfortable with; they know how to win with said sixty, even in the face of insurmountable odds. Others vacillate from deck to deck not because they do not wish such thorough experience, but rather because the best deck switches from week to week, day to day, tournament to tournament, match to match, and game to game. These players want to put themselves in the absolute best position to win, and that means being able to adapt.

Then, there are people like me, who want to discover the best strategy. For me, it is not enough to just play the best deck- I have to be the one to put the best deck on the map. So, I find it incredibly difficult, personally, to stick to a deck.

Why? Because I watch the meta shift with such fluidity that I always want to have a deck ready, just in case. When the Mono-Green Land Destruction deck is the right call, I want to be the one to have it, ready to go. But, like so many other times, I digress.

I have stuck with Mono-Black Control for two reasons. First, I think it is one of the best choices right now, considering the field and predicted field. Second, it is a highly adaptable deck, being able to morph to fit a wide array of metagames.

First off, my changes from last week. Here is my current deck:

Mono-Black Control

 

Creatures 2 Crypt Rats 2 Okiba-Gang Shinobi 4 Ravenous Rats 1 Gravedigger 2 Warren Pilferers 4 Chittering Rats 3 Augur of Skulls 18 cards Other Spells 4 Disfigure 4 Sign in Blood 4 Tendrils of Corruption 1 Grim Harvest 4 Corrupt 17 cards

Lands 23 Swamp 2 Barren Moor 25 cards Sideboard 3 Diabolic Edict 1 Crypt Rats 1 Gravedigger 4 Dross Golem 1 Death Denied 1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi 4 Duress 15 cards

There are only a few changes, and they are basically straight up trades. I swapped out the Twisted Abominations for two Barren Moor. The lands serve a similar function to the A-Bom, acting as a land when needed or alternatively, another card. The times when I wanted another card in my deck over a 5/3 beatstick were fairly high, so I made the swap. However, 26 lands felt like overkill, so I switched out a Swamp.

The next change was to take out the Unburdens. Again, I like the effect, but rarely found myself casting the card for any value. Instead, I saw myself needing more blockers early for the times I needed to play defense, and more creatures out early against control and combo to make sure my Shinobis hit hard. This led me to Augur of Skulls. The combination of superb blocker and potential Mind Rot means that I found room for this in the final three slots of the deck.

All of this being said, however, I feel that this deck is a few days from being perfectly situated. The meta has shifted again, more towards control. The results from the last PE show that Teachings, both the UB Ninja and UBw Draw-Go variety to be the top decks. At times like these, disruptive aggro decks, a la GW Cloak, and hyper aggressive numbers like Goblins and White Weenie show up to hurl themselves at the top dogs. This does not mean MBC is a poor choice, but it means that each slot must be reexamined and reevaluated for maximum value.

This begs the question, what do you put into your Mono-Black Control?

Before answering this, it is important to understand that MBC is a midrange control deck. It does a bad job of beating down and seeks to control the board through creature removal and through preventative discard (although in certain builds, this can become proactive discard). MBC uses creatures with enters-the-battle field effects to get the most out of each card, while buying time and ending the game with life gain spells or with the “best Wrath” of the format in Crypt Rats. It tends to have good matchups against aggressive decks and combo decks, with mixed results against other control decks. Those that feature persistent card draw do well against MBC, whereas those with less are more evenly matched. These results skew, of course, with the inclusion of different cards.

So then, what are the cards that bar none, should be included in every Mono-Black list?

My answer might shock you.

The only cards I feel have to appear in every Mono-Black list are...

20 Swamps.

These are the only cards you should hold sacred for the deck. Everything else is just an extension of your mana engine (way to generalize Spike), and no other card should be an automatic inclusion. Even the cards that are hallmarks of the archetype, Tendrils of Corruption and Corrupt are subject to the deckbuilder's axe. Are you really going to want to run Tendrils in a field full of Goblins? In the past, it was correct to run three Corrupt to fit in other spells, and what happens if you need the flexibility of a Consume Spirit?

How good is Crypt Rats if no one is running creatures?

Now, I am not saying that these cards should not be included, but only that they should not be on a list of must haves. Rather, MBC has a series of slots where different cards fit into and overlap. Other Magic writers, notable one Innovator Pat Chapin, have made reference to George Baxter's deck-building grid from his early Magic strategy books. Well, I owned those books, but have since lost them. I like to think about MBC as a grouping of different boxes, that as I said before, can intercede like a wonky Venn Diagram, rather than discrete packages.

The most obvious of these groupings is the Game Ending Package. Cards that normally appear here include Corrupt and Crypt Rats, with Consume Spirit sometimes pitching in for good measure. Corrupt is the standard, it seems, regularly appearing as quads, taking out chunks of life and bolstering defenses. If all goes according to plan, MBC wins with a pair of perfectly placed Corrupts pointed at the dome, although it can act like an expensive removal spell in a pinch. Crypt Rats is a secondary X spell that requires more finesse to use properly- you cannot just run it out there. Rather, you need to be in a position to win when it is cast when looking at it through the game ender lens. Consume Spirit is far more mana intensive than Corrupt, but has two distinct advantages. First, it can come down earlier than turn six and pick off threats (albeit at a pricey cost) for an earlier life boost. Second, it operates off of black mana and not off of Swamps. It follows that if you are running a deck with a high number of non-Swamp black mana producing lands, and still are looking for a game ender, this might be the one to pair with Crypt Rats. This section occupies between four and eight slots in a deck, most of the time.

The next section is removal. Black, being the color of killing creatures, has so much that I could spend an entire article talking about the positive and negative attributes. However, that would be boring. Instead, I would advise you to take stock of the current meta and see which removal spells are going to have the biggest impact. Most of the time it is going to be correct to run Crypt Rats and Tendrils of Corruption, seeing as how the latter is almost a Time Walk. Are there decks that want to use Raise Dead effects for a long term advantage? Unmake. Creatures you cannot target? Innocent Blood and Diabolic Edict. Early aggro got you down? Disfigure. Too many tokens? Echoing Decay. Just need a good removal spell? Meet Last Gasp, Doom Blade, or Terror. There is a removal spell for just about every meta, so be willing to switch these from tournament to tournament to get the most out this area. Including Crypt Rats, this area takes up anywhere from ten to sixteen slots in a deck.

Discard and disruption is the next hallmark of MBC. Chittering Rats is another card that approaches staple status thanks to its ability to play pseudo-Time Walk. Following this are a rotating cast of Okiba-Gang Shinobi, Ravenous Rats, Augur of Skulls, and a mess of two drops competing for creature slots. The most popular option, however, has been Distress, for times when blocking is not as important and you really want to surgically attack your opponent's resources. I would suggest a switch to Distress for this weekend, except I think that in the wake of control, we are likely to see a surge of aggressive decks in the swiss. Having access to Distress or its less catch-all uncle, Duress, in the sideboard is usually a good call, as it allows a deck to overload on removal against creatures while having a plan against control and combo games two and three. This group can occupy anywhere from seven to twelve slots in a sixty.

Usually with removal and disruption, whichever group is emphasized in the maindeck is balanced in the sideboard. Rarely in Pauper will there ever be a metagame that is so absolutely dominated by one end of the control-aggro spectrum that one of these ends of the see-saw will be ignored. In this situation, you are the fulcrum and must set equilibrium between games.

The next to last section is actually a combination of two smaller sections: recursion and card drawing. These groups both serve the same function: acquiring more resources, either those spent or new ones. Card draw used to be the purview of Phyrexian Rager, but the flexibility and plus one drawing power means that Sign in Blood gets more press nowadays. The sorcery also does a better job of dodging Soul Manipulation- a key card to avoid getting blown out by when facing Teachings. Chittering Rats makes a token appearance here as well, since its enter the battlefield effect usually puts you up one card. The other aspect of this group is recursion, typified in Warren Pilferers and Grim Harvest. After these, Gravedigger makes an occasional appearance, as does Death Denied, which can play the role of instant Mind Spring in late game situations. The card economy package occupies anywhere from eight to fourteen slots main, with another one or two slots given to extra recursion in the sideboard.

The last section is of course, the mana. I already said that I want no fewer than 20 Swamps, and most of the time at least 23, and almost all of the time 24 actual land cards. Sometimes, a Twisted Abomination or two can find its way into the deck if one needs extra threats. The land that gets the next most consideration after basics, however, is Barren Moor. I usually have this as a twenty-fourth or fifth land, as drawing too many early can hurt Tendrils or Corrupt (if you are running them). However, the ability to have a card that is either a land or something that replaces itself can prove invaluable in a deck such as this one which can find itself playing off the top for one card that can rip the game open.

All these pieces must work together. If you overload on three drop cards in every area, you will be stuck with a deck that does absolutely nothing. Rather, everything must work in harmony towards your goal- winning in the late game against aggro and in the mid-game against control. As I said, MBC is a midrange deck, so every card must be selected with the maximum possible impact against both ends. This means that sometimes a card like Ravenous Rats is key to the deck, as it provides a way to fight control (by taking a card and enabling Shinobi- a key creature against slower decks) and absorb damage against creatures. Innocent Blood, on the other hand, shines brightest against control decks that put out a few key threats while also preserving a certain amount against the beatdown. Balance.

Would I run Mono-Black this week? I would not say “do not run MBC.” The deck always has a fighting chance, but I am not convinced that the deck would do as well this week as it would have seven days ago. Goblins is on the wane, but I do not believe aggro is going to be absent. Storm made two appearances in the top 8, but so did three Teachings decks, which have the tools to fight Storm. The metagame readers will therefore run aggressive decks that are resilient to removal and can slip under counters- potentially allowing for a resurgence of White Weenie and perhaps Goblins to a lesser extent. The MBC I presented earlier can win against Teachings and the other decks mentioned, but fighting through them all day could prove taxing. Overloading on discard and getting out an early Shinobi are key. If you run MBC, be prepared to side into a more aggressive deck whose main going is to connect with Okiba as early as possible. My final advice is this: if you feel you can beat the control decks, run MBC. However, if you feel you can dodge Storm all day, I recommend running a White Weenie list. The 1996 World Champions do a fine job of standing up to the Mystical Teachings strategies, overloading their defenses on one turn thanks to the well timed Suspending of Shade of Trokair. Sprinkle in Order of Leitbur to fight some of their removal and Benevolent Bodyguard to keep the kings safe, and you have a contender.

Keep slingin' commons-

-Alex