Hi all. What I’ve noticed since I’ve started playing Mtg is that thinking of deck ideas come at unusual and inappropriate times. I remembered back in college days when we were studying for the Thermodynamics exam when my friend came up with a CoP control deck with Alter Reality and Mind Bend. That one time breakthrough then got him on the top 8 of that weekend’s tournament. Its pretty odd but we were happy about it.

Based on that, reading updates today of the upcoming ROE got me thinking of the possibility of the return of Mono Black Control. The return of Mind Sludge in Zendikar and Smother in Worldwake proved that Wizards is pushing for it. I decided then to discuss this topic with fellow mtg player and officemate JP during lunch break and sorted out features of MBC from its Onslaught Standard days. It is discussed below.

Spot Removal

Old Onslaught Standard Build: Chainer’s Edict, Innocent Blood, Smother.

New Build: The possible cards considering the previews from ROE are Doom Blade, Tendrils of Corruption, Vendetta, Smother, Deathmark and Gatekeeper of Malakir.

Mass Removal

Old Onslaught Standard Build: Mutilate, Decree of Pain

New Build: ROE provided us with Consume the Meek, which players dubbed as “Day of Smother” in accordance with White’s Day of Judgment. Other cards to consider are Infest and Marsh Casualties.

Hand Disruption

Old Onslaught Standard Build: Cabal Therapy, Duress, Mind Sludge

New Build: Glad that Duress is back in M10 and also Mind Sludge. in ZEN. Other potential cards are Mire’s Toll and Mind Rot.

Card Draws

Old Onslaught Standard Build: Skeletal Scrying, Phyrexian Arena.

New Build: Today’s Standard offers us with Sign in Blood as the only good card drawer in Black.

Tutors

Old Onslaught Standard Build: Diabolic Tutor

New Build: D. Tutor is still Standard legal and Liliana Vess can also fill that spot.

Mana Acceleration

Old Onslaught Standard Build: Cabal Coffers

New Build: ROE’s Nirkana Revenant has both potential as an accelator and win condition. Armillary Sphere is also another card to consider.

Win Condition

Old Onslaught Standard Build: Deck wins by Corrupt copied by the Mirari.

New Build: Nirkana Revenant as previously mentioned, and also Consume Spirit and the man-land Dread Statuary.

Based on these, here’s the list we’ve come up with.

Mono Black Control
by Mark Ian Alloso and John Paul Imperial
Maindeck
Creatures
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Nirkana Revenant

Spells
3 Armillary Sphere
2 Consume Spirit
3 Consume the Meek
3 Mind sludge
4 Mind Rot
4 Tendrils of Corruption
3 Vendetta
4 Sign in Blood
2 Liliana Vess

Lands
23 Swamp
2 Dread Statuary

Possible Sideboard
4 Bloodghast
4 Duress
3 Pithing Needle
4 Sadistic Sacrament

As explained by JP, he prefers having the Mind Rots rather than Duress or Toll to give the deck more card advantage. This is effective against decks like Jund wherein discard is their major weakness, although this does not guarantee a high win percentage against that deck.

The deck’s win condition is mainly Nirkana Revenant which can end games in two swings with enough mana boost, which most likely it will. It can also boost a lethal Consume Spirit. The alternate is Liliana’s ultimate ability which is beneficial with all the deck’s spot and mass removal.

AS for the sideboard, the list is mostly based on our predictions of the post-ROE Standard metagame. The four-ofs of Bloodghast and Duress are basically against UW and other related control decks, Pithing Needles are for levelers and random Planeswalkers, and the sacraments are for combo decks like Polymorph, Runeflare Trap and Open the Vaults which relies mostly on specific cards. I would not really like seeing Iona resolve on the opponent’s fourth turn.

The deck is still subject for testing so expect a follow-up article as we continue to explore and develop Mono Black Control in Standard.

Your suggestions are very much welcome. Thanks for reading!