And Now, the moment you've all been waiting for. Or maybe you haven't been waiting for it, but you're exited it's here anyways. Either way, without further ado, here is our Mono-Black new Standard build. We have playtested this build quite a bit and made a few changes along the way, and we will dictate how we arrived at this final build and why we did what we did.
The List:
Creature: (19)
4x Desecration Demon
2x Erebos, God of the Dead
3x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
4x Lifebane Zombie
4x Nightveil Specter
2x Returned Phalanx
Enchantment: (2)
2x Whip of Erebos
Instant: (8)
3x Doom Blade
2x Hero's Downfall
3x Pharika's Cure
Sorcery: (7)
2x Corrupt
2x Read the Bones
3x Thoughtseize
Planeswalker: (1)
1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
Land: (23)
23x Swamp
So there you have it. And I know the first thing you are asking. And we've answered it 90 times. Why are there only 3 Thoughtseize
? It's the best 1 drop in Standard right now. Well, the answer is simple. We saw it more than we needed it. There are only so many times you want to see that card in a game without it being not worth it. One time, opening hand. And time 2, when your opponent re-fills his hand. Which again is also why we decided to throw a couple of Read the Bones
in there. Hopefully at that point in the game we have held onto a Read the Bones
for just such a time as this. And we also hope that it nets us that Thoughtseize
we so want to see at that point. Even so, not overly critical with the removal we run as well.
So we decided to go with the Devotion aspect of this rather than the Heroic effect of Agent of the Fates
, which is an awesome card, we agree. And you are more than welcome to use it if you so desire in your own build. But we found that it didn't really do much in our build, and just ended up taking up space that could have been so much better utilized by something else. In our first version of this, we tried to run 4 of an Insatiable Harpy
, and found that Nightveil Specter
does the same thing, except with less casting cost, and more Devotion to help us out.
Along the way someone suggested we utilize Liliana of the Dark Realms
, and we looked at her. She fits, if for nothing else just icing on the cake. But we don't need her taking up any more space than she needs to, as you never want too much icing and not enough cake. Speaking of having your cake and eating it too, we thought that the Whip of Erebos
fit just that description. For games that go longer than we like, it nets us the life to stick around and keep producing threats, plus it turns all those guys in the graveyard into very useful tools when we have lots of mana or dead draws late game.
The Desecration Demon
, well, we think it's just about the best 4-drop out there right now. Every combat phase we are part of they are going to want to beat this guy down. And eventually they are going to run out of guys to sack . . . and then. Oh yeah, he's been stabbing and eating lots of guys. We want two of him out very quickly.
Erebos, God of the Dead
, we love him. He is excellent. No LG for our opponent, and we get a chance to draw some cards. Never bad, and the indestructible just makes him SO good.
And while we agree that Lifebane Zombie
may be only SUPER good against the G/W decks, he's still good any time, and that Intimidate helps out too.
And the last guy that needs introduction, the Gray Merchant
, who can do lots of damage, and is friendly to our LG strategy as well. He can be a game changer with things like Nightveil Specter on the field. So many uses both early game and late, and with the whip, just fantastic.
So let us know what you think, whether you'll use it, or what you'd change. As always, thanks for reading, and we look forward to seeing you soon. Don't forget to check out our friends at MTG Madness and take advantage of their October deals. 20% off can never be a bad thing.
