The big news yesterday was the reprinting of Mutilate in Magic 2013. This revealed the high chance of Mono Black Control to become a powerhouse deck again in Standard. With the combination of the two core sets until October, its somewhat viable to come up with a decent list.

Here is my initial decklist for Mono Black Control post M13:

Maindeck
2 Evernight Shade
1 Griselbrand
2 Wurmcoil Engine

1 Batterskull
1 Black Sun Zenith
2 Curse of Death’s Hold
1 Despise
4 Distress
3 Doom Blade
1 Duress
1 Murder
4 Mutilate
2 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Pristine Talisman
3 Sign in Blood
1 Staff of Nin

2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Liliana of the Dark Realms

25 Swamp

The M13 cards that I included are Duress, Murder, Mutilate, Sign in Blood, Staff of Nin and the latest Liliana of the Dark Realms. I’ve balanced the number of discard to the spot and mass removals.

I am thinking of other options like Grave Titan but I think lifegain sources are very much needed in the deck. Also, I am hoping Nantuko Shade be reprinted to replace Evernight Shade but the Undying ability gets me to consider it. Staff of Nin is a late game card draw/pseudo removal/finisher in one.

Tutor cards can also be included in the deck but that will depend later on as the spoiler list completes. Hopefully I can preorder a set of Mutilate for cheap price and avoid the hype. Anyhow, let’s see if their prices will stabilize.

Comments and suggestions are very much welcome. Until the next post!