Since the current Standard decks looks to be relying on the fetchlands and the three color cards in Khans for their main components, I have thought that there might be some existing decks that players can enjoy playing while still on a budget.

One deck that reminded me on writing this topic was the Mono Black Devotion deck tech from Theros Block constructed. Here is a sample list (source: MTG Top 8):

3 Abhorrent Overlord
4 Brain Maggot
4 Disciple of Phenax
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

4 Bile Blight
4 Hero’s Downfall
4 Thoughtseize
3 Read the Bones
2 Silence the Believers
2 Whip of Erebos

16 Swamp
4 Temple of Deceit
3 Temple of Silence
2 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

The Thoughtseizes looks to be the only expensive cards here but we can switch to the cheaper Despise, since most of the relevant cards that we discard from opponents are still creatures and planeswalkers. Hero’s Downfall is another costly card, but cutting it down to only two copies won’t hurt the deck much. Murderous Cut is another spot removal to be added.

The creature lineup looks complete already, though we can have Herald of Torment as our third casting cost drop. Our other for the four-drop is Squelching Leeches. At the moment we have:

2 Abhorrent Overlord
4 Brain Maggot
3 Disciple of Phenax
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
3 Herald of Torment
2 Squelching Leeches

That is a total of 19 creatures, somewhat resembling the creature count build of Mono Black Devo in Standard before Khans.

As for the spells, the removals will still be a division on Bile Blight, Hero’s Downfall, Silence the Believers, and Murderous Cut. The cards we’ll have Sign in Blood instead of Read the Bones for a one mana less casting cost. Here is what the list would look like:

3 Bile Blight
4 Despise
2 Hero’s Downfall
2 Murderous Cut
3 Sign in Blood
2 Silence the Believers
1 Whip of Erebos

We can have two to three Temples in our land base to help us in filter the draws and avoid mana screw. We would also still be having one copy of Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx for late game mana boost. Here is the list of the lands:

20 Swamp
3 Temple of Deceit
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

The complete decklist of the budget version of Mono Black Midrange:

Creatures
2 Abhorrent Overlord
4 Brain Maggot
3 Disciple of Phenax
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
3 Herald of Torment
2 Squelching Leeches

Spells
3 Bile Blight
4 Despise
2 Hero’s Downfall
2 Murderous Cut
3 Sign in Blood
2 Silence the Believers
1 Whip of Erebos

Lands
20 Swamp
3 Temple of Deceit
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

In the sideboard, we can have the usual removals for specific matchups: Drown in Sorrow, Dark Betrayal, Pharika’s Cure and even Feast of Dreams. Just look for the cards that you think will keep your bad matchups in check.
Overall, this is one of the current deck archetypes that are not that affected if the expensive cards were cut. Most of the cards in the deck can be found on the crap pile of your local game store, mostly after a draft session or you can even get them for free from your friends. The rares on the average would cost you around two to three dollars, aside from the downfall which is around ten dollars at the lowest.

Mono Black Devotion took a big hit after losing Pack Rat and friends on the rotation as well as the good spot removals in Doom Blade and Ultimate Price, but I think it is still a good contender in the metagame because of its hand disruption that is relevant against its midrange matchups. We’ll see if this archetype can have a feature on the coming Pro Tour this weekend. As for now, I’d suggest you try this list on your next FNM or even on a casual Standard session.

That is about it for this post. Until next time.