Hi,

I have fun picking up janky deck concepts and tweaking them to get more or less competitive results. Since everyone plays TNN.dec, RUG or Combo right now, Mono Black doesn't seem too bad after all due to the huge number of removal and sac effects it can run. Additionally, being immune to Wasteland is always an advantage because it voids an important part of some strategies. Historically, MBC's problem has always been that it sucks against noncreature Permanents, but since the printing of Hero's Downfall, that should be somewhat mitigated.

MBC 2013/14

17 Swamp
4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Wasteland

4 Innocent Blood
3 Diabolic Edict
3 Hero's Downfall
1 Infest
2 Damnation

4 Thoughtseize
4 Hymn to Tourach

4 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Phyrexian Arena
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Crucible of Worlds

2 Sorin Markov
2 Batterskull
2 Grave Titan

SB:
3 Tombstalker
4 Duress
4 Surgical Extraction
4 Pithing Needle


Given that you draw decently, it ought to be an easy one to succeed against RUG and other decks that rely on little threats in conjunction with disruption. The removal suite is supposed to be able to handle all creatures that are commonly played right now ( Mongoose, TNN, MoR, Geist ), hence most them are sacrifice effects. As stated before, I consider Hero's Downfall, while it's relatively expensive, as a asset because you can finally deal with planeswalkers aside discarding them. Previously, a resolved Jace basically meant game over because you can't apply pressure with so little threats.

I prefer Thoughtseize because at the end of the day, Inquistion and Duress just can not compete with the merits of flexibility Thoughtseize has. Inquistion is fine against aggro-control and sucks vs control while the opposite is true for Duress. Thoughtseize on the other hand is decent in every matchup. The lifeloss can be awkward, but so far it hasn't proved to be a decisive disadvantage.

The cardadvantage and -manipulation package should be self-explanatory because I can hardly think of better ways in black to generate CA & CQ other than Top, Arena and skeletal Scrying. Crucible is in there to open the possibility to wastelock the opponent (which is my answer to Punishing Fire engine btw ) and provides a constant stream of shuffle effects for top. Maybe Mishra's Factory could be an reasonable addition as well because it kills Planeswalkers and can fulfill the finisher role as well.

I consider Sorin and Batterskull to be the best choices in the finisher spot because one the one hand they're resilient to common removal, while on the other they regain you the life you lose from Thoughtseize, Arena and Scrying. Grave Titan is immune to Bolt and Decay while only vulnerable to Stop, but you should be able to discard that before you drop him and if it doesn't work you'll still get 2 2/2s which is still a acceptable deal.

I appreciate any suggestions or opinions on this deck.