Mono Black Control or Devotion is still one of the top decks in the current Standard metagame. A few slight changes on the versions though have been rising in major tournaments in the past weeks. One of which is Channel Fireball’s version that has a little spice of Red which had seen play in Grand Prix Cincinnati. Here is the list played by Eric Froehlich.

Maindeck
4 Desecration Demon
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4 Lifebane Zombie

2 Bile Blight
3 Devour Flesh
1 Dreadbore
4 Hero’s Downfall
2 Rakdos’s Return
4 Thoughtseize
4 Underworld Connections
1 Whip of Erebos

4 Blood Crypt
4 Mutavault
2 Rakdos Guildgate
12 Swamp
4 Temple of Malice

Sideboard
3 Doom Blade
2 Drown in Sorrow
3 Duress
1 Erebos, God of the Dead
3 Pharika’s Cure
1 Rakdos’s Return
1 Sire of Insanity
1 Slaughter Games

As I have remembered, Eric went 8-1 on Day One but was one win short to get into the top 8 on Day 2, losing to Esper Control. His only loss in the first day was against Mono Black Aggro, which he could still handle with the gray merchants in the deck. More detail on his tournament report here.

Our version of the deck had Stormbreath Dragons instead of the merchant which we think is strong on the matchup versus Esper. I will be posting a short discussion of that list soon.

The deck is expected to see more play in the coming Grand Prix weekend, though in last weekend’s GP Beijing, the Japanese pros went back to the straight Mono Black list. We shall see what changes will happen on this weekend.