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4 years ago ::
Nov 13, 2009 - 12:28PM
#1
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Date Joined:
Apr 25, 2008
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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  (historically speaking) 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.
At present MBC only has one top 16 placing since rotation from SCG 5ks and Zendikar Game days. Do not confuse this with Vampires, which has done a fair bit better but is more aggro-midrange than control-midrange.
Right now MBC has many excellent support cards to win games and build card advantage.... and we've got functional wincons... and a sweeper at last. Whereas this section before was dubious... I can't bag on it now. The question is... can our CA respond to Jund in a relevant manner?
Good Cards you Should Use
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Maindeck Worthy:
Spells:
Mind Sludge - The text on this card says , 'Resolve me on 5 vs. Jund, Planeswalker Control, or Cruel Control and win the game.'
Tendrils of Corruption - Removal + Tempo eraser. Just as good as a 2 for 1.
Consuming Vapors - 2 for 1 removal... plus lifegain.
Consume the Meek - Relevant Sweeper hellooo.
Sign in Blood - 2 cards, 2 life. Deal.
Grim Discovery - Run with fetches. Return dead creatures. That's a 2 for 1. If you return a gatekeeper its a 3 for 1.
Armillary Sphere - If you don't have fetches use this instead of Grim Discovery. 2 for 1.
Disfigure - This card is narrow in application and therefore I'm not a fan. However if you're not brave enough to play Bushwhacker without it main go right ahead and use it.
Creatures:
Gatekeeper of Malakir - 2 for 1s are good magic.
Vampire Hexmage - Good defense, eats up Planeswalkers.
Malakir Bloodwitch - Lifegain, Evasive finisher... hates Baneslayer.
Vampire Nighthawk - Good defense, some evasive aggression... and lifegain/removal.
Black Knight - Good defense and excellent maindeck hate for bushwhacker.
Ob Nixilis - Powerful finisher with a pseudo 187 trick, making him removal resistant.
Nightmare - Not as bad as you think. He passes the litmus test of a strong creature in that if it doesn't alter game state on play or have resistance to removal it needs to end the game quickly. It certainly does.
Abyssal Persecutor - He is big, dumb, evades... and prevents you from winning the game. He works fine, but I'd personally rather not bother with him as you'll have to tune the deck carefully to answer your own threats and your opponent's. And then you'll get those cries of lucksack when you topdeck removal to finish the game.
Gravedigger - I love this guy and his ability to re-assemble an army late game. Plus he trades with BBE.
Misc:
Liliana Vess - She can hit the board and create a 2 for 1, threatening her ultimate quickly... or tutor up answers endlessly. I've never lost a game I resolved her in, and that's an important note.
Sorin Markov - He eats aggro right up, but his application outside of that is narrow. MBC destroys aggro easily... so he just isn't necessary. Still, he's pretty powerful and its hard to lose when you resolve him.
Gargoyle Castle - Uncounterable beater and it eats up GSS. With Grim Discovery you can keep this up. Pretty strong, just be mindful you don't overdo it and hurt your tendrils/sludge power.
Fetchlands - Run them. The fetch effect + grim discovery is strong. And they make it worth using Ob Nixilis, who ends games almost immediately once you've needled some damage in.
Cards for your sideboards:
Deathmark - Jund hate. Also eats Baneslayer Angel quickly.
Sadistic Sacrament - Your best answer to bomby sorceries that end you like Cruel Ultimatum and Identity Crisis. Also your best answer to Iona.
Pithing Needle - Obelisk of Alara and Luminarch Ascension hate and Planeswalkers.
Infest - Tokens or Bushwhacker hate. Casualties is better right now.
Marsh Casualties - Your bushwhacker hate if you already maindeck Disfigure.
Disfigure - That's right, I listed it twice. I feel this is a sideboard card, and you should agree.
Haunting Echoes - Hate for decks reliant on graveyards like unearth or crypt combo. Also a good card for devouring late game CA of Bloodghast against vampires.
Suffer the Past - Hello amazing graveyard hate and lifegain/drain all in one... instant speed. Good card.
Nyxathid - Stomps Aggro to pieces. Also strong with Mind Sludge. I think this may be extra anti-nissa elf tech as they're really going to struggle to keep offensive pressure on if you're trying to smash their face in with a 6/6 or 7/7. I need to test him in that matchup some.
Seeing as I'm most qualified to present a list (because I say so) here's my last list after my experiences from the last 5k: Noteworthy Top 8s
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Thanks to: 1. Past MBC thread contributors (such as TheBanshee, myself) 2. Hodoku for his dividers and images. 3. Necropotence... without this card most of us wouldn't care about MBC. 4. Naysayers about archetype viability. Without your crabby words we wouldn't refine the list much.
 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 ::
Nov 13, 2009 - 12:31PM
#2
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Date Joined:
Aug 30, 2007
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Ta Da! Good job with the OP, especially considering how the forums are still not running properly.
Website for my radio series: http://www.cyrusbalesfilms.co.uk/id2.html
For the facebook group of my radio series, search for "Who will save us now?" Please join!
Follow my regular articles on: http://www.manaleak.com/mtguk/
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4 years ago ::
Nov 13, 2009 - 12:38PM
#3
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Date Joined:
Apr 25, 2008
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Ta Da! Good job with the OP, especially considering how the forums are still not running properly.
Thanks. Hopefully once sblock starts working again the OP will snap right into shape.
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 ::
Nov 13, 2009 - 12:56PM
#4
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Date Joined:
Jun 30, 2009
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Love it. I'm still trying to get some of the cards together for a monoblack control (Ob nixis and fetches are out of the price range, sadly). In the meantime, I'm tinkering with Blightning control, but I perfer this list.
Playing with proxies, I think that 2-3 Gargoyle castles is the optimum amount, 3, or 2 and a crypt to boost game ending consure spirit. Of course, crypt/consume is less effective than Fetches and Ob, if you have the money for that.
Love the thanks to list.
Mono Black Control. MB Aggro and White Weenies are currently my pet projects.
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4 years ago ::
Nov 13, 2009 - 1:00PM
#5
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Date Joined:
Apr 25, 2008
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I did give crypt + consume a try in the deck, but I am ultimately underimpressed with it in MBC.
Consider that you need 4 creatures in the graveyard to have it actually ramp you... and its just not good enough. And then whenever I tap 6 lands for a Consume Spirit and only get 4 points from it I want to punch a baby and demand my Corrupt back.
Plus, I want Grim Discovery to keep bringing creatures back. I don't let guys stay in the yard unless I'm struggling.
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 ::
Nov 13, 2009 - 1:07PM
#6
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Date Joined:
Jun 30, 2009
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Well, I've been using a sub-par MonoB list, so the game ends up stretched long enough that Crypt actually adds gas. Anyways, I wouldn't consider running it as anything but a 1 of. You could always side it against the various Mill lists as a one of, and grim it if they put it in the yard.
So, what about Nyxathid? Sideboard at best, or MD? He's great to drop the turn before you mind sludge.
Mono Black Control. MB Aggro and White Weenies are currently my pet projects.
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4 years ago ::
Nov 13, 2009 - 1:09PM
#7
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Date Joined:
Apr 25, 2008
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He's very strong vs. aggro. I'll add him to the OP. I was using him some before and forgot.
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 ::
Nov 13, 2009 - 1:25PM
#8
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Date Joined:
Nov 30, 2007
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2 Things:
nighthawk over fleshbag? what made you switch? I always prefered nighthawk but I had much less testing then you.
went down to 1 Ob from 2?
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4 years ago ::
Nov 13, 2009 - 1:26PM
#9
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Date Joined:
Feb 11, 2008
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Might as well post my list here now that the new thread is up. but i do have some concerns about red sligh (which is what ive been playing the last few weeks) and the list you have in the op looks like it would just roll over game 1. its not uncommon for the deck to win by turn 4-5 which is when you really start picking up the pace. i only bring this up because im not the only one at my fnm that plays it and theres a few other people running stuff like boros and soldiers.
boros and soldiers shouldnt be to much of a problem but sligh dosent really have any creatures that stick around for you to use your sorcery speed removal on, and you have to pray that you have 4 land and a tendrils on t4. But luckily sligh is incredibly inconsistant, ive had games where i win on turn 3-4 and others where i just topdeck land all day. but i*d rather not rely on a deck being inconsistant as my means to beat it.
so anyway heres my list.
land 24
2x gargoyle castle
22x swamp
creatures 16
4x black knight
4x vampire nighthawk
4x Gatekeeper
3x Bloodwitch
1x nightmare
spells 17
3x disfigure (meta choice)
3x duress
4x sign in blood
4x tendrils of corruption
3x mind sludge
planeswalkers
2x liliana
1x sorin
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4 years ago ::
Nov 13, 2009 - 1:34PM
#10
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Date Joined:
Apr 25, 2008
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nebo: I've never had an issue with Nighthawk... I may be incorrectly adding him back after suffering from a tidehollow strix facebeating. But he's just a really solid creature so he's in.
EDIT: Yeah, just 1 Ob but now 3 Vess. Ob is amazing when you're ready to win but you never want him early, or in duplication. So I'll let Vess draw me into him once my hand is set to abuse him.
mogg: Sligh/RDW? My last list uses 7 first strikers... which means on 2 rdw/hastem ups/sligh has to take a break to handle them instead of dropping a ball lightning or hellspark elemental. I also have 11 sources of maindeck lifegain, which clubs that right over the head. I'm also never afraid to let a gatekeeper soak up 2 pts of damage against a ball lightning as its a break even CA. If they have to hold back on their hastey drops because they're not getting removal for the first strikers then sludge crushes them. Or I'll play Vess and topdeck into topdeck lifegain/tendrils until they give up.
Out of the sideboard I'll add in Disfigures and pretty much threaten a single untapped swamp the whole game. If I have the space I'll also bring in Pithing Needles to turn off Zektar Shrine Expedition or Unearth costs.
I can safely say that outside of a god hand for them and a terrible hand for me I win that matchup.
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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Introduction
