As of this time, I can conclude that Theros is definitely a worth to cash out set. I think it’s almost half of the rares in the set are good buy, aside from the powerful Mythics that were previewed. I browse through the spoilers to check on the powerful and potential cards to use in one of my future deck projects, the return of Mono Black Control. Here are the cards that I would add:
Thoughtseize – the number one card in my list and of course, an auto inclusion in the deck. I just hope though that the price will somewhat drop once the Theros products will hit the stores. The card is at the preorder price of 1,000php each at the moment.
Erebos – this God of the underworld looks cool to be added to the control deck, but considering the abilities of its Enchantment side, he is more of a sideboard card.
Hero’s Downfall – one of my dream cards for Black that finally came true. Planeswalkers are hard to deal by this color, and using Dreadbore complicates the deck setup. Having this as an instant is also a good replacement for Murder that will be rotating out.
Nighthowler – this Black Lhurgoyf may be a good component in a deck full of spot and mass removals. One major problem though is the existence of Scavenging Ooze which might render this horror ineffective.
Read the Bones – replacing Sign in Blood with Scry2 and an additional mana cost is not a bad deal. This will be at least three copies in the deck.
Rescue from the Underworld – card might be good to a midrange-ish black or splashed with other color deck, wherein you have creatures that you can chain the etb abilities. Thragtusk will still be its best combo though, and it will not happen in Standard. *sad*
With these cards in mind, my initial build or draft of MBC or Mono Black Control would be the following:
Creatures
4 Desecration Demon
4 Lifebane Zombie
2 Nighthowler
Spells
4 Corrupt
2 Doom Blade
2 Devour Flesh
2 Hero’s Downfall
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
3 Ratchet Bomb
3 Read the Bones
4 Thoughtseize
1 Ultimate Price
1 Undercity Plague
2 Underworld Connections
Lands
4 Mutavault
21 Swamp
The Demon and Lifebane Zombie are still the deck’s main beaters. Nighthowlers are for late game board setup and you can even Bestow it for added damage. Game enders are in the form of Corrupt and backed up by Liliana of the Dark Realms. There is also a mini combo in the deck with Undercity Plague and Mutavault, once you’ve controlled the opponent’s board.
I will be testing this list or something similar once the full set is out so just stay tuned on my blog Deathmarked for updates.
Thanks for the read and until next post.