Black history blog

So Mono Black Control. That's some kind of ancient relic, right? Well i wasn't playing when MBC was 'a deck' but the theme struck a chord with me when i was looking for a new deck around the launch of M11, with a view to post-Scars rotation. Maybe not all the cards were perfect and my budget is usually pretty limited, but when i opened a Grave Titan in my birthday booster box and another one at my first draft i took it as a sign. Oh yeah, and i couldn't play blue anyway, 'cause... well, Jace.

It started off as a pretty discard/disruption-heavy deck as i expected a lot of UW control at my local store. This tended not to happen, however, and i often felt like Mind Sludge was a dead card (i still do); making someone discard 1-2 cards for 5 mana. I'm considering swapping it for a Mind Rot or two when i get round to testing again.

So here's a brief history of how i've done with this deck so far. I don't get to many FNM's these days but i won't bother posting kitchen table results because why bother?

M11 Game Day

M11 Game Day was the first Sanctioned tournament i played in and, shockingly, i won! Yay alternate art Mitotic Slime! It was a 3-round tournament with a little bit of luck, but the deck performed pretty well. In round one i faced my friend's Esper Control deck in the toughest game of the day. He's one of the better regulars at the store and i don't think i ever beat him in standard before. In game three i made him discard a JtMS and Gideon after Doomblade-ing a Baneslayer. I followed that up with Haunting Echoes (probably my favourite card in the deck) and essentially the game was done.

Games two and three i faced two variations of a White Weenie deck. The first was a landfall kinda thing with Steppe Lynxes and Sejiri Steppes and big-ish top end. In game one he got pretty mana-screwed, however, and it wasn't a contest. In game two i sided in my Bloodwitches and Swords of Vengeance. He managed to Day of Judgment one of them but when i cast the 2nd one from my hand, he pretty much scooped on the spot.

Round three was very much more weenie than the previous. I saw multiple Students of Warfare and Knights of the White Orchid but this was pretty much a joke matchup for me. It was so straightforward that i can barely remember what happened, just that i won 2-0.

September Steel City

More recently, after a few tweaks to the deck, i took the deck to Steel City Magic - a monthly tournament in Sheffield. Sadly, my confidence in the deck was hugely dented. I don't know if i ran bad or played bad, but i ended up 1-3. Against Mono Green Eldrazi i just had no answer. It was an easy 2-0 for my opponent and i was left feeling like my deck could do nothing. Mono green has only a handful of removal targets so my Doom Blades were useless, as were Duress and Inquisition of Kozilek - they also had no real targets. In all honesty it seems that i wiped that tournament from my memory because i don't remember much else. On the plus side, i did finish 2nd in the draft.

FNM (Oct 2)

Even more recently (2 days ago, in fact) i went to my first standard FNM in quite a long time. I really wasn't sure what to expect since i haven't played any post-Scars standard whatsoever due to a holiday in early October. It was quite a sobering experience, but i think i learned a lot about what this deck needs.

Round one paired me against the nerd-raging Frenchman, Eric. It started so well for me after he scooped with a sigh when i killed his Birds of Paradise (i assume he was land screwed). Games two and three were pretty one-sided in the opposite direction. I didn't have any idea about his deck but his plan seemed to be massing on planeswalkers with lots of spawn tokens and proliferate. In game three he got an emblem on Venser but he couldn't seem to get any threats on the board except for a beast token from Garukk. I was playing for a draw by this stage as the game had gone on for a looooooooooong time but eventually he got enough tokens that Garruk's overrun killed me (i still think this game went on way longer than the time limit, but meh).

Round two went much better. I was against what i think was the 'big red' deck, but frankly i didn't get to see much of it. He did resolve a Koth but i was able to beat it down pretty quickly in game one. In game two i was more like an aggro deck, with a couple of Nantuko Shades hitting for 18. I sealed the deal in style with a Sign in Blood: well, two actually, since he Ricochet Trapped the first.

The third round was fascinating and confusing. My opponent played a Mimic Vat deck with a ton of cards i never expected to see in constructed. Also, four Wyrmcoil Engines. In game two he drew all four of them and even my combination of Grave Titan zombies and three Doom Blades couldn't protect me from that. In game one i was just confused. Do you kill creatures against a Mimic Vat or let them beat your face? It depends on the creature, to be sure but i don't really think my deck could win against his unless i got incredibly lucky. If this deck becomes popular, Mind Rot and Memoricide seem like obvious additions for my deck.

Round four put me against Valakut. Urgh. This was the deck i'd been most worried about since it was the post-Scars deck i knew most about (I had a non-Titan version of the deck built for months but it's so much worse than the post-M11 version that i gutted it). Sure enough, i felt like a rabbit in the headlights. I got unlucky when he top-decked a Cultivate after my Duress, and drawing more of my Tectonic Edges would've helped, but in game one i was so mana screwed that the one i didn't dare to sacrifice the one i did draw. Game two was more of a contest but still wasn't really that close. This matchup definitely makes me want to go more of a hand disruption route, sacrificing some Sign in Bloods, perhaps, for at least two Memoricides.

Anyways, that's the tournament results up to now. I hope to improve it rather than lose faith and dismember it. Although the results have been sporadic to say the least, i feel like it can be made into 'A Deck.' I need to get to more FNM's and generally play some more non-EDH Magic but i do feel inspired to do just that, so fingers crossed for Mono Black. Luckily there don't seem to be many super-expensive black cards at the minute, and the one rare i definitely want to test (Memoricide) is currently around the £2-3 mark, which is good.