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4 years ago ::
Aug 05, 2009 - 6:55PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Oct 23, 2004
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Mono
Black
Control   Introduction What is Mono-Black Control (MBC)?
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It is basically an attrition-style control deck that is based on using removal, disruption, and CA to run opponents out of steam, at which time you drop threats that are "too hot to handle". Black is generally a color that works off the mage in exchange for faster advantages. Cards like Sign in Blood  and Bitterblossom  are two shining examples. For 2 mana you gain 2 cards, but you have to give 2 life in exhange and for 1 life every turn during your upkeep you gain a 1/1 flying token. Very great advantages at a small price.
An example of this is I play against Kithkin alot so I do alot more riskier things early game, multiple usage of Sign in Blood, Thoughtseize, and Doom Blades have held off the game to where I could comfortably lay down a Vess and keep controlling the field while pumping her once a turn and grabbing all his creatures 3 turns later. Game Win.
Why play MBC?
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Mono-Black is IMO, the proverbial rogue deck. It hasn't been a significant archetype for a while now and has lost some good spells. MBC is also a deck very few players prepare to see coming so they'll fill their decks full of easy to use spells without thinking about the possibility of encountering MBC. Play MBC if you're looking for something fresh and not another net deck.
Also a popular theme in the new MBC metagame is to splash a tinge of red or another color to deal with threats like Great Sable Stag, Chameleon Colossus, mirror matches, etc. I prefer [ ] for its easy to abuse versatility. Earthquake  is one red and X so you could very well easily cast it without losing swamps to Corrupts and Tendrils. Also enables the powerful usage of Thought Hemorrhage  to remove the win conditions from decks and leave them with nothing. A dangerous card indeed.
Cards to use in MBC
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Creatures
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Stillmoon Cavalier  -- Stillmoon is a great card, rotating soon though in about a month and a 1/2. Useful for white and dealing with the myriads of kithkin, immune to Path of Exile  and great pumping death.
Black Knight  -- The BK is back! 2 mana, Pro white, First strike, easy answer to turn three Ball Lightning amongst other small 2/2's out there in the format. Easy to use and great MD card. Also immune to Path of Exile.
Murderous Redcap  --Great mechanic for a card that just keeps coming back for seconds. 4 mana for a 2/2 that deals 3 damage overall by the time it dies once. If using a more aggressive MBC deck, Profane Command  is a winner to mix and match with this card.
Demigod of Revenge  -- I previously had excluded this from my previous deck list as it generally never won me the game as it usually got Pathed or chumped by something with Pro black and killed. Also with the Lark hate in the format people sideboarding in relics can hurt this card's potential if it ends up in your GY. Niche is right though. It CAN win games from nowhere.
Hypnotic Specter  --Reason to use him? Cheap, 2/2, flyer, random discard. Absolutely wrecks control. Great card to use if you're low on cash and can't afford Thoughtseize. Not only will this little gem make your life easier, it makes a nightmare for a control player as they will have to deal with it immediately.
Fleshbag Marauder  -- Great card. Absolutely necessary for dealing with Chameleon Colossus  . Probably one of the biggest problems MBC has to deal with.
Gargoyle Castle  -- Great for dealing with cards like Great Sable Stag  or just an overall nice 3/4 flying finisher.
Liliana Vess  -- Absolute must have for ANY MBC deck. Discard, Tutor, and Mass reanimation in one card.
There are probably other optional creature choices, I just haven't listed them as these are some of the best and most example worthy of cards in the format that take precedence over many others.
Non-Creatures
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Thoughtseize  -- Most decks have some annoying stuff. O-Ring, Glorious Anthem, Ultimatum, STORY CIRCLE. Run this. Auto 4-of.
Raven's Crime  -- Discard that, if run, should be secondary to Thoughtseize. Great to use to just keep Control on lockdown.
Doom Blade  -- Powerful two mana removal that destroys artifacts too. The new Terror minus the negation of regeneration.
Deathmark  -- Solid one mana removal for cards like Figure of Destiny  . Also great for elves.
Profane Command -- Great card if you're planning on an aggressive deck that plans on using creature mechanics to control the board. Not exactly a particular favorite of mine in a light creature deck.
Mind Shatter  -- I run one MD as it will wreck the most potential decks and leave them hurting for top decking cards. I bring in a second one versus Control decks.
Corrupt  -- Game swinger, or game winner. Either way, you're not losing. Run it. Auto 4 of.
Syphon Life  -- Great card to use as an additional win. Corrupt for 6, few lands in hand, Retrace 3x for 6 more damage. Broken.
Makeshift Mannequin  -- With alot of GY hate in the format in addition to Path of Exile, this card isn't as usable as previously used.
Bitterblossom -- Good for stallage, and GREAT for a continuous source of Noobstick targets. This can win games singlehandedly, but finding space for it is hard. Also, it's only good against our better match-ups (except Fae :P). So it's not really necessary.
Infest  -- More of a MD card with all the rampant weenie decks in the format that are hard to get around. Elves, kithkin come to mind.
Tendrils of Corruption  -- Solid removal for big creatures and life gain in one card. Can help off set the life loss from Bitterblossom.
Sideboard
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Infest -- See above in spells.
Fleshbag Marauder -- See above in creatures.
Pithing Needle  -- Planeswalkers, Manlands, Glen Elendra Archmage, and STORY CIRCLE are bummer cards that are good to off with this.
Relic of Progenitus  -- Lark is really annoying to deal with with this deck. Just put an end to it already.
Shadowfeed  -- better GY hate against red, Demigods, and 1-shot reanimation. Between this and relic, that's a meta call.
Festercreep  -- extremely underrated. With reanimation effects, tokens and Fae have no chance of getting through with weenies frequently enough to actually win the game. If you are running a reanimation-heavy list, run this over Infest.
Memory Plunder  -- Turn one Thoughtseize Ultimatum in 5cc, turn 4 end of turn Cruel Ultimatum. Get owned.
Duress  --Sideboard card if you have the Thoughtseize, otherwise run it MD.
Mind Shatter --See above.
Splash cards
Earthquake -- Great board sweeper and player damage at the same time. Just doesn't hit flying and dead card against Fae with their fairy flyers.
Thought Hemorrhage -- Win condition removal. Shut down those annoying larks if they can't ever use them!
And of course, more copies of other cards in your MD that help your bad match-ups are a good idea. Decklists
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Match-ups
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This is always a work in progress. But anyways, here's a brief take.
Will update soon!
~ Niche for his extensive dedication to MBC pre-Shards and continuing dedication! ~ Hudoku for the dividers! ~ WoTC for making this game huge and easy to rejoin the fun! ~ Glux for being the resident forum troll we all love and hate! ~ TheBanshee for allowing me to continue the archetype thread! ~ Click here for old archetype archive.Recent Edits~ Changed my Deck a bit ~ Fixed some typos ~ Added banner ~ Added Niche's deck to decklists ~ Added Demigod of Revenge of cards to play in Creatures
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4 years ago ::
Aug 05, 2009 - 7:32PM
#2
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- Volunteer Community Lead
- Gleemax RP Justicar
- Banned from naming
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Thank you, Ill have the old thread closed now.
Good job.
VCL (Volunteer Community Lead - Deck Critique (MTG)) Volunteer Community Nutritionist - (I am watching you diet, even when you think I am not.)  What my sig is based off of.
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4 years ago ::
Aug 05, 2009 - 7:50PM
#3
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heh... okay, here's some things that need to happen:
-Fix the card choices
-Some decklists (I'll post mine)
-new Match-Ups
-Explaining new tech (Splash red for Earthquake, 8-Knights)
Anyways, here's my list:
4 Black Knight
4 Stillmoon
4 Thoughtseize
4 Sign in Blood
4 Doom Blade
4 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Corrupt
3 Earthquake
3 Profane Command
2 Liliana Vess
19 Swamp
1 Mountain
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Memory Plunder
4 Duress
4 Fleshbag Marauder
3 Thought Hemorrhage
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4 years ago ::
Aug 05, 2009 - 7:58PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Jun 17, 2009
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Here is a budget friendly version (No Thoughtseize or Bitterblossom) that won me my last FNM tournament:
Creatures - 7
3 Stillmoon Cavalier
4 Black Knight
Spells - 29
4 Infest
4 Doom Blade
4 Unmake
4 Sign in Blood
4 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Corrupt
3 Profane Command
2 Liliana Vess
Lands - 24
22 Swamps
2 Gargoyle Castle
Sideboard -
4 Deathmark
4 Fleshbag Marauder
4 Duress
3 Pithing Needle
Also might I suggest in the opening Post there, that you make a link to the older thread, so that people can reference the discussion that is archived there?
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4 years ago ::
Aug 05, 2009 - 9:42PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Oct 23, 2004
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Main post has been heavily edited. Will finish match-ups tomorrow as I'm heavily exhausted after a long day of work and WoW and deck analyzing. I placed my current MBC decklist for your viewing pleasure in the decklists. If you see anything that I might have missed or maybe think it would be helpful then by all means suggest it and I will add it in.
After all, this is a community effort, not just one person.
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4 years ago ::
Aug 05, 2009 - 10:05PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Oct 16, 2007
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~ Glux for being the resident forum troll we all love and hate!
I lol'd
 Team GFG - Glux's Fine Gents
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4 years ago ::
Aug 05, 2009 - 10:09PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Oct 11, 2002
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~ Glux for being the resident forum troll we all hate!
Fixed.
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4 years ago ::
Aug 05, 2009 - 10:12PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Apr 25, 2008
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This is my currently endorsed best MBC list, for reference: MBCCreatures: 1 x 1  4 x *Black Knight  4 x *Demigod of Revenge  3 x *Stillmoon Cavalier  Spells: 2 x 5  4 x *Thoughtseize  4 x *Bitterblossom  4 x *Doom Blade  4 x *Sign in Blood  4 x *Corrupt  3 x *Tendrils of Corruption  2 x *Scepter of Fugue  Land: 2 x 4  23 x *Swamp  1 x *Gargoyle Castle  Sideboard4 x *Duress  3 x *Infest  2 x *Memory Plunder  2 x *Trip Noose  4 x *Fleshbag Marauder  Also, you need to add Demigod to the list of creatures, its still an amazingly powerful play that just wins games from nowhere. And Scepter of Fugue deserves mention as very mainboardable 5cc hate. Thanks for the nod in the OP.
 Boasts?
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2011 States Top 4
Designer of Top 8 States finishing MBC decks in 2011, 2010, and 2009
Standard Forum - Iron Deck Builder Season One Champ
"Against logic there is no armor like ignorance." - Laurence J. Peter "It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes
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4 years ago ::
Aug 05, 2009 - 10:14PM
#9
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- Volunteer Community Lead
- Gleemax RP Justicar
- Banned from naming
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VCL (Volunteer Community Lead - Deck Critique (MTG)) Volunteer Community Nutritionist - (I am watching you diet, even when you think I am not.) What my sig is based off of.
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4 years ago ::
Aug 05, 2009 - 10:19PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Jul 21, 2009
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Current Version of MBC that I'm running. Still running Vampire Nocturnus  . I know he has his pitfalls, but he's a solid card all in all in my opinion. Especially with Vess out and tutoring away. Other non-rotating finisher suggestions are welcome however. Nyxathid  may get a shot in this spot if I can get a playset at a reasonable price. I still need to find a playset of Corrupt s!! If I don't find someone with a Shadowmoor playset this week at FNM, I'm going to have to break down and buy the Urza's Saga ones...(not a fan of the artwork on it compared to the Shadowmoor one). I'm a bit worried about the crowding at the 2, 4 and 5cmc spots in the deck. Still working on what to do about it though. Nyxathid would help this out somewhat though. Gargoyle Castle probably will get a 2 week stint in the deck, as next weeks FNM is finally back to constructed (finally a break from drafts) so I want to see how it does. Mono-Black Control v4.0: Creatures (7) 4x Black Knight 3x Vampire Nocturnus Planeswalkers (2) 2x Liliana Vess Spells (25) 4x Corrupt 4x Doom Blade 4x Duress 4x Sign in Blood 4x Tendrils of Corruption 3x Infest 2x Sanguine Bond  Land (26) 24x Swamp  2x Gargoyle Castle Sideboard (15) 4x Deathmark 4x Fleshbag Marauder 3x Mind Shatter 2x Haunting Echoes  2x Scepter of Fugue  EDIT: Took out the extra Duress.
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