I've enjoyed decks of this ilk in other formats, so I'd probably run it back here.
Mono-Black
4 Dark Ritual
3 Chrome Mox
3 Greed
3 Consume Spirit
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Wrench Mind
4 Hypnoptic Specter
4 The Rack
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Order of the Ebon Hand
3 Chainer's Edict
20 Swamp
Monoblack must be tier 0, even with the bans, because there are so many payoffs for Swamp.dec
Cabal Coffers
Mutilate
Mind Sludge
Nightmare Lash
Nightmare
Nantuko Shade
Order of the Ebon Hand
Pestilence
Hymn to Tourach
Consume Spirit
Drain Life
It would be interesting to just ban Swamp and then unban other cards.
There's enough for there to be a Rock-Paper-Scissors just in black.
Monoblack Aggro
//Creatures: 18
4 Black Knight
4 Order of the Ebon Hand
4 Nantuko Shade
4 Hypnotic Specter
2 Faceless Butcher
//Spells: 17
4 Dark Ritual
2 Ghastly Demise
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Chainer's Edict
3 Consume Spirit
//Lands: 25
2 Cabal Coffers
23 Swamp
//Sideboard: 15
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dross Harvester
3 Filth
2 Zombie Cannibal
2 Coffin Purge
Beatdown with efficient beaters. In the lategame, Coffers pushes your mana into overdrive for the pump knights and Consume Spirit.
Monoblack Discard
//Creatures: 14
4 Mesmeric Fiend
4 Hypnotic Specter
3 Royal Assassin
3 Mindslicer
//Spells: 17
4 Dark Ritual
4 Paralyze
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Wrench Mind
1 Ashes to Ashes
//Artifacts: 5
4 The Rack
1 Disrupting Scepter
//Enchantments: 2
2 Necrogen Mists
//Lands: 22
4 Mishra's Factory
3 Ebon Stronghold
15 Swamp
//Sideboard: 15
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Terror
2 Oblivion Stone
2 Gloom
3 Coffin Purge
2 Haunting Echoes
Discard + Rack deck including multiple repeatable sources of discard to keep their hand empty.
Monoblack Control
//Spells: 29
4 Innocent Blood
4 Chainer's Edict
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Mutilate
3 Diabolic Tutor
3 Mind Sludge
2 Promise of Power
4 Consume Spirit
1 Skeletal Scrying
//Artifacts: 3
3 Nevinyrral's Disk
//Lands: 28
3 Cabal Coffers
25 Swamp
//Sideboard: 15
4 Rancid Earth
3 Coffin Purge
2 Haunting Echoes
2 Gloom
1 Deathgrip
1 Greed
1 Grim Reminder
1 Mind Sludge
Destroy all the early creatures. Win the lategame by converting life to cards and draining life.
Monoblack Combo (Dragon Reanimator)
//Acceleration: 8
4 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual
//Spells: 12
4 Spoils of the Vault
4 Burning Wish
4 Buried Alive
//Enchantments: 4
4 Animate Dead
//Creatures: 16
4 Putrid Imp
4 Mesmeric Fiend
4 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Iridescent Angel
1 Platinum Angel
1 Vampiric Dragon
//Lands: 20
4 Dwarven Ruins
4 Tainted Peak
12 Swamp
//Sideboard: 15
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Duplicant
1 Stitch Together
1 Zombify
1 Fireball
1 Consume Spirit
1 Last Rites
1 Barter in Blood
1 Sickening Dreams
1 Mutilate
1 Earthquake
1 Diabolic Tutor
Animate Dead + Worldgorger Dragon makes infinite mana. Then there are a couple routes to victory:
1) Burning Wish into an X damage spell
2) Animate Platinum Angel, then Spoils of the Vault into Burning Wish into an X damage spell (can't lose the game from life loss)
3) Animate Vampiric Dragon and eat opponent's board
Buried Alive gets Worldgorger + Vampiric + Platinum for the combo, or you can just go for Iridescent Angel (dodges removal) or Phantom Nishoba (lifegain) with Burning Wish finding more reanimation spells.
There's also a backup mode of hardcasting Worldgorger Dragon using Dark Ritual + Dwarven Ruins + red source.
Last edited by FTW; 07-19-2021 at 12:48 PM.
White is the natural enemy to black, so there is probably some meta white weenie deck.
Edit: Since Balance is in fact banned, I will remove the degenerate 4x Balance prison list and replace with white weenie.
//Creatures: 23
4 Icatian Javelineers
4 Savannah Lions
4 White Knight
4 Order of Leitbur
4 Leonin Skyhunter
3 Mystic Crusader
//Spells: 10
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Disenchant
3 Battle Screech
//Enchantments: 6
2 Land Tax
4 Crusade
//Artifacts: 3
3 Winter Orb
//Lands: 18
18 Plains
Last edited by FTW; 07-03-2021 at 04:41 PM.
I haven’t had time to appreciate all these great lists, but I’ll just chime in and say that Balance is in fact totally banned :D
When I was growing up, the game store near me sometimes ran a $10 tournament called Type Fun, which had no bannings except ante and dexterity cards. No one had access to more than one piece of Power, so it wasn't as degenerate as it could have been, but I ran a 4-Balance deck at least twice.
I had one of those too in an "anything goes" LGS casual format (no one had power, but some wanted to run multiple Sol Ring to power out their Shivan Dragons). Since you've also played a 4-Balance deck, I'm sure you know that running 4 Balance in any kind of low cmc artifact+enchantment-based control shell is just ludicrous, especially with Zuran Orb. You should not be able to splice Armageddon and Mind Twist onto a 2-mana Wrath of God. It's one of the old bans that most deserves its spot on the B/R list.
I’d probably start here.
4 Black Vise
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Ankh of Mishra
4 Atog
4 Slith Firewalker
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Lava Dart
4 Shrapnel Blast
3 Winter Orb
4 Molten Rain
4 Mishra’s Factory
4 Chrome Mox
14 Mountain
Looks like a great burn deck! Glad to see Black Vise have a home with Ankh of Mishra + Winter Orb with sac outlets for redundant artifacts.
Terrageddon is another deck that could abuse Winter Orb and LD
//Creatures: 24
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Wild Mongrel
3 Werebear
3 Terravore
3 Erhnam Djinn
3 Mystic Enforcer
//Spells: 12
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Disenchant
4 Armageddon
//Artifacts: 8
4 Chrome Mox
4 Winter Orb
//Lands: 16
2 Riftstone Portal
2 Sungrass Prairie
4 Timberland Ruins
8 Forest
//Sideboard: 15
3 Lifeforce
1 Tsunami
2 Viridian Shaman
2 Sylvan Library
2 Sylvan Safekeeper
4 Black Vise
UG Thresh is also a deck, and does a better job at hitting Threshold, but the mana isn't great and it has a lack of removal.
Last edited by FTW; 07-19-2021 at 01:02 PM.
Nice Terrageddon deck!
Here’s what I’ve got next.
Fragile Pile of Unplayable Cards
4 Glimmervoid
2 Tarnished Citadel
10 Plains
1 Island
1 Mountain
4 Land Tax
4 Thoughtcast
3 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Howling Mine
4 Winds of Change
1 Psychogenic Probe
4 Ivory Tower
4 Library of Leng
3 Steel Wall
4 Chromatic Sphere
1 Welding Jar
1 Meekstone
3 Moment’s Peace
Establish defenses (Ivory Tower, Steel Wall), or don’t if you’re unlucky. Build up hand size. You can play Land Tax and play “let’s both sit on one land” forever because eventually you’ll draw Ivory Tower or Library of Leng to break the symmetry. Dig with draw spells (you have Thoughtcast, Chromatic Sphere, Thirst for Knowledge, Howling Mine, and Winds of Change to keep the cards flowing). With Library of Leng, build up hand size to an unreasonable extent (using Howling Mine, Land Tax, and the blue card draw). Once you’re gaining one zillion life per turn and most of your deck is in your hand, you’re ready to go off: Cast Psychogenic Probe. Cast Winds of Change. You’ll probably draw into more Winds of Change. Keep casting Winds of Change for as long as you have R mana (there are seven R lands). When you’re gaining 30 life per turn with Ivory Tower and Psychogenic Probe is hitting both players for 14 damage per turn, you win.
If you're playing Land Tax and Library of Leng, I recommend adding Solitary Confinement.
Land Tax puts Plains in your hand. Discard Plains for Solitary Confinement, putting it on top of library with Library of Leng. Next turn get the same Plains again. Repeat. It protects you forever, though it doesn't help the Winds of Change combo.
Edit: Stasis.dec is in the format again. The mana is worse, but Black Vise is a thing.
//Lands: 22
13 Island
4 Glimmervoid
2 Tarnished Citadel
2 Rainbow Vale
1 Sand Silos
//Artifacts: 17
4 Black Vise
4 Ivory Tower
4 Howling Mine
4 Winter Orb
1 Meekstone
//Enchantment: 7
4 Stasis
3 Kismet
//Spells: 14
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Counterspell
3 Drain Power
3 Power Sink
//Sideboard: 15
3 Disenchant
2 Annul
2 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Library of Leng
1 Circle of Protection: Black
1 Sphere of Law
2 Island Sanctuary
1 Serra Angel
1 Wrath of God
Last edited by FTW; 07-07-2021 at 10:12 AM.
My Winds of Change deck doesn’t work as written. I was thinking that Winds of Change would somehow shuffle itself back into your library, but of course it just resolves and goes into your graveyard like any sorcery. So I need to fit 3 or 4 copies of Krosan Reclamation into the deck. When you start running low on Winds of Change, you get them back into the deck with Krosan Reclamation, and then you loop the Reclamations, too.
Edit: OK, here's an Eggs deck. It took me a few iterations to arrive a list that's capable of goldfishing on turn 4, let alone beating an opponent.
// Eggs
// 24 Artifact
4 Mossfire Egg
4 Sungrass Egg
4 Shadowblood Egg
4 Darkwater Egg
4 Skycloud Egg
4 Chromatic Sphere
// 16 Instant
4 Second Sunrise
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Seething Song
// 14 Land
6 Swamp
4 Glimmervoid
4 Tarnished Citadel
// 6 Sorcery
1 Ghitu Fire
3 Thoughtcast
2 Nostalgic Dreams
Last edited by BirdsOfParadise; 07-08-2021 at 10:09 PM.
Yeah, the Eggs + Second Sunrise were definitely calling out for some love.
Here's my attempt at a deck using Isochron Scepter. No chant effects in the card pool, so it's more of a value card/finisher, and Chrome Mox has the potential to dump it out on Turn 1. White also has a pile of strong sideboard cards for what would probably be a black-dominated metagame.
4 Isochron Scepter
4 Fabricate
4 Land Tax
4 Careful Study
3 Wrath of God
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Raise the Alarm
4 Counterspell
2 Disenchant
1 Unsummon
3 Chrome Mox
4 Talisman of Progress
10 Plains
9 Island
Interesting. UW control does look strong with those spells. White has Swords to Plowshares, Disenchant for some of the most flexible control spells in the format and amazing cards to put on Isochron.
I have Scepter in a UB Psychatog deck.
//Artifacts: 4
4 Isochron Scepter
//Creatures: 6
4 Psychatog
2 Shadowmage Infiltrator
//Spells: 26
4 Mental Note
2 Ghastly Demise
4 Counterspell
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Chainer's Edict
2 Terror
3 Cunning Wish
1 Deep Analysis
2 Upheaval
2 Syncopate
//Lands: 24
4 Tainted Isle
4 Darkwater Catacombs
8 Island
8 Swamp
//Sideboard: 15
2 Nevinyrral's Disk
2 Coffin Purge
2 Annul
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Boomerang
1 Divert
1 Envelop
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Alter Reality
1 Magical Hack
1 Grim Reminder
1 Skeletal Scrying
The Wishboard adds a lot of tools to put on Isochron for different matchups.
Grim Reminder is weird tech I think could be very relevant in this controlling format due to the small set of overpowered cards that would get reused in most builds.
Hymn will be hard to cast on turn 2 with this manabase but is still so good that I can't see playing less than 4.
Edit: The Arcbound creatures are from Darksteel, not Mirrodin, so they're not legal. Decklist removed.
Last edited by BirdsOfParadise; 07-23-2021 at 12:48 PM.
Interesting. You probably hit something on the nail that a good disruptive aggro deck can pressure these durdly graveyard combo, prison, and very slow control decks. RackFinity sounds effective.
I wonder if UG Madness is actually good then, even if the mana is bad. Madness also has a favorable matchup vs Hymns while dodging grave hate better than all the graveyard engine decks.
//Creatures: 22
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Aquamoeba
4 Arrogant Wurm
3 Roar of the Wurm
3 Wonder
//Spells: 14
4 Careful Study
4 Circular Logic
4 Unsummon
2 Deep Analysis
//Enchantment: 2
2 Sylvan Library
//Mana: 22
4 Chrome Mox
3 Tarnished Citadel
9 Island
6 Forest
//Sideboard: 15
2 Tranquility
2 Energy Flux
2 Viridian Shaman
2 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Envelop
2 Whirling Dervish
2 Krosan Reclamation
1 Sun Droplet
These colors are lacking removal, but Unsummon may be good enough tempo in a meta with pump threats (Atog, Psychatog, Nantuko Shade, pump knights, Ravager, Sliths) and cheated threats (Reanimator, Tooth & Nail).
Given how good grave hate is in this meta, I'm updating the monoblack control list I had before to have Haunting Echoes maindeck and to cut Greed (which is terrible). Coffers Control was a DTB back in Odyssey Block standard and Hymn only makes it better, so it should have potential. But I had to change the number of Swamps and Coffers in the above lists because I forgot how slow Coffers is to do anything.
//Spells: 30
4 Innocent Blood
4 Chainer's Edict
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Consume Spirit
4 Mutilate
3 Diabolic Tutor
3 Mind Sludge
2 Promise of Power
1 Haunting Echoes
1 Skeletal Scrying
//Artifacts: 3
3 Nevinyrral's Disk
//Lands: 28
3 Cabal Coffers
25 Swamp
//Sideboard: 15
4 Rancid Earth
2 Scrabbling Claws
1 Haunting Echoes
1 Mind Sludge
1 Gravestorm
1 Gloom
1 Deathgrip
1 Grim Reminder
1 Drain Life
1 Ivory Tower
1 Platinum Angel
The maindeck is a bit heavy on creature removal, so depending on the meta it may be better with some removal moved to the SB and other pieces moved to the main. I build assuming sideboards are used.
@ESG: I agree, the mana is a challenge in this rotation. It's hard to build even a two-color deck.
@FTW: Yeah, I can't see why both MBC and UG Madness wouldn't be contenders. As for Unsummon, it's also a line of defense against turn-one Hypnotic Specters! And I agree that Energy Flux belongs in blue sideboards.
On the basis of my solitaire games, I would say that the mono-black disruptive aggro deck concept (Dark Ritual / The Rack / Order of the Ebon Hand / Nantuko Shade / Hymn to Tourach / Hypnotic Specter) is rock solid. It is very proactive and can put on lots of pressure even when it draws too many spells (since they're all cheap and you have Dark Ritual) and when it draws too many lands (since Nantuko Shade and the pump knights are mana sinks). Occasionally you'll mulligan down to five and still cruise to a win by casting back-to-back Hymns.
The TerraGeddon deck is also powerful and can do really unfair things with mana. I gradually modified the FTW list for my gauntlet --- in the four-drop slot I put in four Phantom Centaur, displacing Erhnam Djinns and Mystic Enforcers. Terravore didn't really pull much weight because the format has no fetch lands. It's only good after Armageddon, and the ideal play of curving T3 Terravore into T4 Armageddon is often impossible because Terravore would be a 0/0. I'm going to put in Troll Ascetic. Timberland Ruins also didn't impress. The deck didn't rely on it for white mana as often as it needed an untapped land, and the trick of going to the graveyard to feed Terravore barely came up. Some combination of Forest / Tarnished Citadel / Chromatic Sphere is what I'd use over 4 Timberland Ruins --- at least 1 Tarnished Citadel for sure.
I really wanted to make something out of Skeleton Shard, and here's where that list is now:
Edit: The Arcbound creatures are from Darksteel, not Mirrodin, so they're not legal. Decklist removed.
Last edited by BirdsOfParadise; 07-23-2021 at 12:45 PM.
Phantom Centaur is probably a better 4 drop for a black-heavy meta. Erhnam was just a flavor nod to the original Erhnamgeddon decks, and I just wanted 1 fat threat that wasn't dependent on the graveyard. Giving Forestwalk is bad vs Atog and Ravager though...
Good point, I overestimated Terravore without fetchlands or Wastelands. I added Wild Mongrel above so you can discard extra lands, especially Riftstone Portal, but Terravore is still too small. The +1/+1 from Ruins isn't enough to play a tapped land. Meanwhile Tarnished Citadel is probably fine to run in aggro, with most of the format not able to capitalize on the lifeloss. Birds and Mox are also good fixing.
Rainbow Vale is pretty funny with Winter Orb. Opponent will get your land tapped and would have to waste an untap to use it, which would leave another one of their lands tapped and just give you back the land anyway. With Geddon you also don't care.
I wonder if Call of the Herd would be better than Troll Ascetic, just for making 2 3/3s from 1 card. Troll Ascetic dodges targeted removal but not Edicts or Mutilate (big in this format), and it may be hard to leave up the 1G Regeneration cost at all times. Troll Ascetic seems good for a Verduran Enchantress deck though.
//Creatures: 24
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Llanowar Elves
3 Werebear
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Call of the Herd
4 Phantom Centaur
2 Mystic Enforcer
//Spells: 11
4 Swords to Plowshares
3 Disenchant
4 Armageddon
//Enchantment: 1
1 Sylvan Library
//Artifacts: 8
4 Chrome Mox
4 Winter Orb
//Lands: 16
1 Riftstone Portal
3 Tarnished Citadel
2 Sungrass Prairie
10 Forest
//Sideboard: 15
4 Black Vise
2 Sylvan Safekeeper
2 Viridian Shaman
2 Whirling Dervish
2 Loaming Shaman
1 Tsunami
1 Sylvan Library
1 Genesis
I still like the SB plan of Black Vises vs control decks, where you can punish them with mana denial even if they have answers for the creatures.
Last edited by FTW; 07-23-2021 at 09:57 AM.
Rainbow Vale with Winter Orb is pretty amusing. That's a nice find.
Phantom Centaur would be great in a black-heavy metagame.
Call of the Herd is resilient to Hymn, so that's another point in its favor.
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