Exploiting the Metagame - Top 150 Mythic with Mono-Black Exploit
Note: This deck was for the pre-May 29th Standard format.
Mono Black has always been my favorite deck to play. Mono Black devotion in Theros standard way back when, Mono Black aggro in the early days of Pioneer, I've seen it all. So despite the fact that Fable may be the best card on Arena right now, I rolled up my sleeves and started brewing and tinkering--and lo and behold, not only did some unorthodox card choices take me to my first time hitting Mythic in Constructed, it catapulted me to top 150, a result I never would have expected. I've included the list below (as well as a screenshot), and I'll discuss overall deck aims as well as specific card choices. Hope you like it!
Main Deck:
Creatures: (20)
4 Concealing Curtains
3 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia,
2 Tenacious Underdog
4 Fell Stinger
3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
2 Sheoldred
2 Phyrexian Fleshgorger
Non-Creature Spells: (14)
2 Cut Down
3 Go for the Throat
3 Reckoner Bankbuster
2 Invasion of Innistrad
4 Invoke Despair
Lands: (26)
24 Swamp
1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
1 Blast Zone
Sideboard:
1 Go for the Throat
1 Cut Down
3 Pilfer
2 Sheoldred's Edict
2 Glistening Deluge
2 Graveyard Trespasser
2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Breach the Multiverse
Mono Black midrange, as opposed to Rakdos or Grixis, leans slightly more toward being the beatdown than other decks. You have a lot of resource generation, of course, but your top end is a little more lacking in raw power. There aren't as many powerful bombs in black (like Chandra, Hope's Beacon), and since your early threats are super efficient (Jadar is just an infinite conga line of dudes), curving out often gives you more edge than your opponents. Thus, your optimal opener would probably be something like 3 Swamp, Jadar, Fell Stinger, Curtains, and Sheoldred. A curve like that is incredibly difficult for any opponent to deal with, and so your mulligan strategy should look to play a solid curve in the early game and let your value/disruptive threats in the late game stymie your opponent while you take the win. As an added bonus, you have a suprising amount of burn for a Mono Black deck, something I'll discuss a little more in the individual card section.
Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia
Jadar is probably my favorite card in Standard right now that has unfortunately been overshadowed by other cards and stymied by the lack of a good home for him. This deck aims to make full use of Jadar as simply an endless source of value. Whether you're using the endless pile of zombies to attack for 2 each turn while still holding enough power to crew a Bankbuster, or sacrificing the fodder off to fuel your Fell Stingers (an subtly backbreaking play), Jadar is exactly the kind of efficient two drop an aggro/midrange deck is looking for. Bonus tip: When playing Jadar on 2 into open mana, go to main phase 2 before casting him and click auto-pass as soon as you've played him. 99% of the time your opponent won't have set a stop for the end step and you'll get the trigger, even if they were planning on using a Cut Down or something similar. That's value!
Fell Stinger
Another Innistrad card I loved that is criminally underplayed, a draw 2/lose 2 on a 3/2 deathtouch body, if you can find fodder for it, is just so unbelievably absurd that I couldn't ignore it. What did surprise me was the sheer flexibility of Fell Stinger. It's a draw spell that isn't vulnerable to Duress, it's a brick wall for larger threats, it's an aggressive attacker, and above all, it can be lethal burn damage. Remember, you can target your opponent with this thing! If you've got a Sheoldred out and opponent is tapped out, you can burn your opponent for 6. If they don't have instant speed removal and they get to their draw step, that's 8 points of burn. Couple that with some menace threats and Invoke Despair and you can close out games incredibly quickly. Absolutely fabulous card that needs a little more respect.
For Players facing this card: Use your removal BEFORE I sacrifice a creature. I see this way too often, the opponent lets me sacrifice a zombie token and trigger the draw 2 and THEN uses Cut Down on the Stinger. This is incorrect! If you Cut Down the Stinger with the exploit sacrifice on the stack, I DO NOT get the draw trigger because the Stinger isn't around to see that it exploited something. Don't make this mistake!
Concealing Curtains
It was either this or Evolved Sleeper. I tested both extensively, and I decided on Curtains for two reasons: first, it's actually a defensive card with no mana investment (Sleeper needs mana in it before it can effectively be offense OR defense), and two it can easily pivot to being a disruptive threat when you've got mana to spend (Sleeper obviously can as well, but that fourth point of toughness and menace on Curtains is a huge deal). The first is useful against fast Rakdos starts or the occasional aggro matchup (mono-red primarily), but the second is a massive deal against arguably your worst matchup: 5c Domain Ramp. You're not a pure aggressive deck, so they usually have enough time to throw up some defenses and go way over the top of you, but Pilfer isn't a good enough card to main deck. Sleeper is horrendous in the ramp matchup, as it's just too smallball to compete with their hefty late game. Curtains actually gives us a fighting chance against Ramp game 1, since going Curtains -> Jadar -> Flip Curtains is both a lot of damage and you rip their best card out of their hand. Due that game changing effect as well as moderate usefulness in the Rakdos matchup, Curtains won out over Sleeper and I haven't regretted it.
Note: the biggest criticism I've heard from people about Curtains is that the opponent can just kill it in response to the flip trigger. My response to that is simple: YOU choose when to flip it. If you think your opponent likely has removal, don't flip it! You have lots of ways to spend your mana, so only flip it if you either have no other choice or it seems like the best move even given the risks. I've found that, a lot of the time, people will kill it with Cut Down before turn 3 just to use mana efficiently. or they've used their removal on your Jadars and such so that Curtains can cleanly flip. But a key skill in this deck is knowing the right time and matchups to flip Curtains. Sometimes you don't! Sometimes you get to turn 3 and just sacrifice the Curtains to a Fell Stinger, never even trying to flip it. There's flexibility to when you should or shouldn't flip it--learn how to identify it.
Invasion of Innistrad
This one is probably the most suspect "weird card" in this list, but I've stayed on it over the course of my climb and I think it's worth the slot. Firstly, it's functionally unconditional removal--occasionally you hit a threat that you can't kill with Go for the Throat and you need to kill it. But not only is it big removal, it's big removal with upside, which is really the key here. Having removal spells that also do other things is a huge deal in a Midrange world--when your cards are both removal and threat (especially in a deck that puts up a bunch of dudes to attack the battle), you have an edge over the decks that are just playing Throat, Abrade, etc. It's obviously a bit clunky at four mana, but the ability to flip it pretty easily means I'm comfortable having two of them. The fact that flipping it gives you more fodder for your Fell Stingers is really just gravy.
Tenacious Underdog
I only have this at two and I side it out often because it just doesn't do enough. There's a ton of Graveyard Trespassers flying around in the format right now, as well as exile based removal from the White decks, so more often than not you'll never Blitz this. It comes up just enough (maybe once in half a dozen matches) that two is fine, especially since there's not really a better alternative, but man do I hate this card, even to the point that I'm wondering if Tribute to Horobi would even be better (with Curtains, you can block the rats without killing them), but I digress.
Phyrexian Fleshgorger
This is really just a flex 3-drop slot, but I've found Fleshgorger is an optimal choice because a) it dodges Go for the Throat, b) it transitions to a massive problem later in the game, c) getting it off Breach in post-sideboard games is hilarious, and d) some extra lifegain to offset the times you shoot yourself with Fell Stinger is welcome. You could probably run something else like Liliana or Gix in this slot, but I've liked Fleshgorger the most out of those options.
Blast Zone
Useful card, almost forgot it was in Standard. Since you're mono Black you don't have a ton of ways of removing all permanents, so Blast Zone can shore up some weakness against specifically artifacts and enchantments. A useful flex land at 1 (plus I didn't have the wildcard for Mirrex for a long time, and this land lineup just sort of stuck).
Rakdos Midrange - Even/ Very Slightly Favored
As expected, this is by far the bulk of my matchups. The trick with Rakdos is to recognize that in game 1 you're generally the beatdown. A lot of these decks are playing Etali and Chandra mainboard, and you don't have a ton of ways to go over the top of them in the first game. Look to curve out and hopefully close the game with some well timed burn.
Games 2 and 3 are a completely different story. Most Rakdos opponents will correctly assume you're an aggro deck in game 1 and side in removal, sweepers, etc. But thats when you hit them with the Sideboard--shave off a few Jadars, Underdogs, and Curtains for Breach, Liliana, and the last Go for the Throat and surprise them with the fact that now YOU go over the top of them, and since you're more prepared for it, you've got just that much edge over them in post-sideboard games.
Don't get me wrong, this is still a very close matchup. You've got to manage your resources well, mulligan intelligently, and identify when it's necessary to wait and when it's necessary to try and push for lethal. With all that, midrange battles are the most fun Magic can be, and I can't deny that here.
Mono-White Midrange - Even/ Slightly Unfavored
Mono-White is to you what you are to Rakdos. They have a lot of token generation and a lot of aggressive starts (more than you), so you're quickly put on the backfoot. Sheoldred and Fleshgorger become very important in this matchup, stonewalling aggression and giving you the life you need to nickel and dime them back into oblivion. Knowing when to hold Invoke Despair to hit a Wanderer (either Eternal or Emperor) so as to not get drowned in planeswalker advantage is a big deal in this matchup. Curtains can shine here, staving off early damage and sniping a planeswalker at the right moment.
Post-sideboard things can get a little easier with Glistening Deluge to sweep as well as edicts to hit walkers and Breach to steal them, but this matchup can be tough sometimes. Good luck.
Note: There's been a few Orzhov variants ranging from a light splash for Breach to full color combination with the Markovs joining the fray. The former is alright, the latter is devastating. You simply don't have the resources to kill Edgar Markov, so pray you can snipe him with Curtains or Pilfer.
5c Domain Ramp - Unfavored
This matchup is your boogeyman. There's no way you can go over the top of them game 1 and you're not fast enough to just aggro them down. Game 1 is a tight dance of disrupting them with Curtains, holding Invokes to hit their Ossifications and Leyline Bindings to get your threats back, not overextending into Sunfall, and burning them out with Fell Stinger and Sheoldred. It's a super tough ask and requires a fair amount of luck on your part. Cut Down is essentially dead here, so all you've got is Go for the Throat to try and stop their Topiary Stomper/Invasion of Zendikar play, which is terrible if they pull off.
Sideboarded games get a little better. Cutting removal, bringing in Pilfers, Liliana, and Breach helps even the playing field a little with disruption of top-end, but it's still a difficult matchup at the worst of times. Luckily it's not too prevalent on ladder, it was likely my third most common matchup (after Rakdos and Mono W).
Mono Red Aggro - Favored
Game 1 is dicey for sure, probably more so an even matchup, but games 2 and 3 are just so favored it almost doesn't matter. Most of the red decks I faced were the hyper linear kind, and your removal and blockers are just so good (especially in post-sideboarded games) that they need a lot of luck with burn you drawing poorly to come out on top. Curtains and Fleshgorger shine here, and Sheoldred is just lights out. Side in removal and Trespasser (to deal with Phoenixes and a little lifegain) and you're good to go.
If you need a change from "Bloodtithe / Fable piles", this one's for you. With Jadar and Fell Stinger you've got a unique play style and resource loop that can feel fresh in a world of Bankbuster and Fable. Who knows what will happen with the banlist on Monday, but I suspect Jadar and Fell Stinger will be just as strong as they were before. Have fun with it!
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