Big Black Deck Week #2: Evaluating Monoblack in Standard Post-Lorwyn

Hello, and welcome back to Big Black Deck Week! Alternately, if you are viewing this blog for the first time, welcome to Big Black Deck Week! After all of that rambling about EDH yesterday, I am going to flip the script today and talk a little bit about the upcoming Standard rotation and what it means for the potential resurgence of monocolored decks, specifically the ever-elusive, standard-viable, monoblack control deck!

For years, players have longed for monoblack control to make a comeback, and every year the most faithful of its followers say that "THIS IS THE YEAR" when they see the latest spoiler lists for the latest upcoming big October set. And every year since the release of Mirrodin this has positively NOT been the case. The cabal have had to hang out at the fringes of Standard, only occasionally peeking their heads into the metagame (Hello, Kokusho and Cranial Extraction!). But for monoblack control to really make a comeback, and once again become a tier one deck, there would need to be a return to the color wheel, an environment where monocolored decks can BE ALL THAT THEY CAN BE.

This is one of those sets!

The color wheel is coming back into balance!

Monoblack Control has a chance!

OR DOES IT?

So far, after looking at the cards spoiled from Zendikar, the answer is... maybe. Lately, besides EDH and extended, Joe Pasco and myself have been testing decks using M10 and Alara Block, in preparation for post-Lorwyn standard. My favorite deck I have been playing thus far is a monoblack control deck. Before I go any further, take a look at the decklist:

Lands:
23 Swamp

Creatures:
4 Vampire Nocturnus
4 Child of Night
3 Nyxathid

Instants:
4 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Doom Blade

Sorceries:
4 Sign in Blood
4 Consume Spirit
4 Mind Rot
2 Mind Shatter
4 Duress

Sideboard:
3 Infest
4 Deathmark
4 Corrupted Roots
4 Black Knight

This deck has produced some decent results for me during our sometimes all-night playtesting sessions, although it has performed well against decks that are similarly limited in their cardpool. Another thing to note is that this decklist is simply a speculative list as to what might be in Standard after Zendikar's release and is made with the intention of replacing some of the cards with cards from Zendikar. This made the deckbuilding process easy and very fun since I could "dream a little dream" and play around with cards that I feel have not quite reached their full potential. Admittedly, the deck was not built with too much scrutiny, and the sideboard is garbage, but how do you side for a format that doesn't exist yet? Let me run down my card choices, one by one, with a little explanation for each choice.

23 Swamp - I chose a fairly low number of swamps for monoblack control because the deck runs 4x sign in blood to draw into more land and 4x Vampire Nocturnus, which rewards me for not having a land on top of my deck.

Vampire Nocturnus - I feel as though this card has so much potential, but does not currently have decent support pre-Zendikar. IF ONLY THERE WAS SUPPORT. Oh, yeah... more on that later. 

Child of Night - Another card that I absolutely LOVE and had been dying to play with since I first laid eyes on it.Goes great with Vampire Nocturnus.

Nyxathid - Originally, this slot was for x3 Megrim and x1 Mind Shatter (the deck was also running 22 lands), but I seem to never draw a Megrim unless I absolutely do not need it. Mind Shatter is always great, but x3 was way too many. I have not had a chance to play around with the deck since I changed out the Megrims, but this is an obvious choice since before the change I kept drawing Megrims when my opponent had exactly no cards in hand.

Tendrils of Corruption - Kills Baneslayer Angel dead. And Gargoyle Castle. And just about every other creature that doesn't have Protection from Black. A great card for this deck. Hasn't been a liability with the low Swamp count yet.

Doom Blade - Also kills Baneslayer Angel, and quicker than Tendrils. must have 4x.

Sign in Blood - It has always been a good thing to have this card in my hand. Goes great with Vampire Nocturnus. Got a Swamp on the top of your deck? Sign in Blood and try again!

Consume Spirit - Now THIS card, sadly, is underperforming in the deck. The deck needs a Cabal Coffers to make this card better. Still, doesn't hurt to have one late game.

Mind Rot - As I said to Joe while we were playing, "this is like a really crappy Blightning." Which is sort of true, and I never actually used it with Megrim on the board. 4x might be too many, but its nice to force your opponent to make a tough choice. I have forced Joe to play spells when he didn't want to just so he doesn't have to discard them, and that's part of the plan.

Mind Shatter - An absolute bomb. turn 5 this card is so mean, and if the opponent has only 3 cards in their hand and not a lot of card draw, they REALLY have to put their "faith in the heart of the cards." Since that's a Yu-Gi-Oh saying, it doesn't always go so well... Sadly never got to live the dream of playing this card with Megrim, but Megrim is cut so who bloody cares?

Duress - In such an aggro environment, Duress has really underperformed, so it might go to a 3 of, but its nice to snatch Planeswalkers from your opponent's hand. But drawing these after you have Mind Shattered leaves you wishing it was a kill condition instead.

Sideboard - Sadly, the sideboard includes the best black board sweeper in the format, and lots of things to punish White and Green Decks. Deathmark is so awesome. I just want to put that out there. We'll see what happens with the board.

So that's the list I have built so far. Looking at the Zendikar spoiler list so far, here are the biggest threats you are going to have to face:

Iona, Shield of Emeria
This card is going to reign supreme if monocolor decks become fashionable, and Wizards may have shot themselves in the foot by printing this card if they meant for a return to a monocolor-heavy standard environment. Goes great with Emeria, the Sky Ruin.

Also, this card might really hinder the deck:

 

Oh, is that the same card I was just talking about? 

Yeah, it's THAT good. 

How in the hell does ANY monocolor deck answer this card? Most multicolor decks, like 5CB, run a majority of cards of the same color: green. So don't overlook this card as a serious threat to both monocolor and multicolor deckbuilders alike, and remember that you can't answer its ability since it occurs as the creature enters the battlefield, and doesn't trigger once it hits the board.

Nothing else comes to mind right now as far as the biggest threats to monoblack. But Iona is so nasty and unforgiving to a deck of this nature that it deserves a special mention.

Here's some advice: if this card get heavy play, make sure you sideboard Executioner's Capsule x4. That's about the only way I can see stopping Iona after she's on the board.

Let's quickly go over a few notes on what you WON'T have to deal with:

First thing you need to remember, dearest black mage, is that there are no more ubiquitous 5CC or Faeries decks to worry about! (Well, DEFINITELY no faeries. This has been confirmed by the Orb of Insight. 5CC will still be ran by the stubborn, and may actually succeed, but without vivid lands or Reflecting Pool it just doesn't seem likely to dominate like it once did.)

No Chameleon Colossus. This fact alone practically enables monoblack to return. Valeron Outlander and White Knight are still around, though, although they are far less of a threat than the Colossus.

If Zendikar was completely spoiled, and it just happened to be 71 cards and that's it, here is the list I would build:

Lands:
24 Swamp


Creatures:
3 Bloodghast
4 Vampire Nocturnus
4 Vampire Lacerator
4 Vampire Nighthawk

Instants
2 Tendrils of Corruption
4 Doom Blade
3 Hideous End

Sorceries:
2 Blood Tribute
4 Sign in Blood

Enchantments:
4 Quest for the Gravelord 


Planeswalkers:
2 Sorin Markov


Sideboard:
3 Duress
2 Mind Shatter
4 Black Knight
4 Executioner's Capsule
2 Deathmark


If you are unfamiliar with the Zendikar cards in my decklist, please refer to the Magic the Gathering official visual spoiler page for Zendikar. That's about all I have the energy to write for today. This article, while shorter, has actually taken way longer to write than yesterday's article. That's because I am talking about breaking through in Standard with a rogue deck, which I guess requires a little more thought than talking about fun formats like EDH. Please let me know your honest opinions on this article. Was it helpful? Do you think the deck could work? Should I stop talking about Standard and focus more on EDH and other casual formats?

And please, if you think you can come up with a better monoblack decklist for the upcoming Standard season, feel free to post your list in the comments where we can talk about it!

Tomorrow... since my knowledge of Monoblack Control's history is admittedly vague, we are going to go through monoblack control throughout the years. This should be an excellent primer for anyone who wants to learn more about this historic deck, myself included.

Thanks for reading!
Bigheadjoe