A Bargain Forged -- Top 350 Mythic on Day 4 of WOE Standard with Mono-Black Bargain

 Ladies and gentlemen, we've done it again.

Welcome to day 4 of Wilds of Eldraine Standard, and boy howdy is it a cool place to be. Contrary to what some of the doomsayers may have said, this format is incredibly diverse so far. While the first few days were dominated by Faeries and Dimir midrange, the final steps of my climb were against a vast array of colors and deck choices, and we had some crazy games. The final boss to Mythic, for example, was an absolute nailbiter against Mono-Blue Delver where we both had lethal attacks if opponent could topdeck the right card (not only did he fail to do that, he drew the worst possible: Flow of Knowledge with my Sheoldred on board).

But we'll get to that in a bit. Here's the final version of the deck!

Deck Overview:

   

Main Deck:

4 Hopeless Nightmare

3 Cut Down

3 Go For The Throat

3 Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia,

3 Virus Beetle

2 The Witch's Vanity

4 Gumdrop Poisoner

3 Braids, Arisen Nightmare

2 Lord Skitter, Sewer King

4 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

2 Beseech the Mirror

1 Sorin the Mirthless

1 The End

20 Swamp

4 Mirrex

1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

Side Deck:

4 Duress

2 Virtue of Persistence

2 Liliana of the Veil

2 Phyrexian Arena

2 Path of Peril

1 Go For The Throat

1 Sheoldred's Edict

1 The End

Untapped Link: Here

NOTE: I was sick in bed today and so finished the climb from Diamond to Mythic on my iPad. We went a clean 10-1 to #300 Mythic, putting our final record to 46-24, a fantastic 65% win rate. It should also be noted that the win rate for this specific version of the deck (which I separated from the normal midrange list in my deck collection) is now 14-3, an absolutely massive 82% win rate, though across a much smaller sample size.

Gameplay on my Twitch! twitch.tv/vixinxiviir

Overview

The first question we need to answer is: why this version of the deck instead of the traditional builds? The answer comes in three parts. First (and least important), playing with new cards is more fun than playing with old ones. Second, traditional mono-black builds were flagging before WoE came out, so the onus is on us to innovate, not stick to old builds. Third, the deck needed an added aspect of both resource generation and flexibility in the face of both a wide open field and the expectation that Dimir midrange would still be top dog. With that in mind, the Bargain build (pun unintended) solves those issues fantastically. The grind capability of all your token generation and sacrificing is a force to be reckoned with, and Beseech the Mirror ensures you have the best answers to the board in front of you, including sideboarded games where having functionally an extra two copies of every answer in your deck can mean the difference between a match win and loss.

With that in mind, let's talk about the cards themselves. 

Hopeless Nightmare and Virus Beetle

Still a solid package for hand hate, which comes in handy (heh) against both slower control and occasionally aggro alike, making it a lovely inclusion in the main deck. Playing one of these, getting the discard, then cashing them in for a draw and drain with Braids is exactly what we're looking for--and Hopeless Nightmare even turns into Serum Visions with Braids! I love it. While Nightmare is fantastic in every way, Virus Beetle can be a bit clunky at two mana, so we've shaved it a single copy. 

Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia

I should have just trusted in my boy. I tried him in the very first iterations of this deck and wasn't very happy with him--he was nice with Braids but there wasn't much else for Braids to eat so if we didn't see them both then it was pretty underwhelming. But if you include Jadar with the powerhouses of Hopeless Nightmare and Virus Beetle and suddenly you've got a lot of fodder AND chip damage. It's easy to keep going in with Jadar and the token, especially if the opponent is trying to race you--but you have a ton of lifegain in the later turns that you end up winning. Absolutely fantastic two drop, and I'm so happy I get to play this guy again.

The Witch's Vanity

Just an unbelievable amount of value for two mana. Kills the opponent, and Braids and Beseech can turn those silly food and roles into solid card advantage. In the right situation, this represents a +2 in terms of card advantage, and we would be remiss to pass that up. A note: this actually kills a lot more than you think, and sometimes can kill things that Cut Down had no chance of hitting.

Braids, Arisen Nightmare

An absolute grind fest, this card is responsible for several percentage point gains in our matchup against mono-white. You have so many sources of fodder (including a couple of infinite sources) that it's super easy to trigger on curve--and while a single trigger makes this card worth it, triggering it more than once is absolutely bonkers. This card can control a wedding announcement, it can chip away your opponents health so you win the race, Braids just needed a good combination of enablers and similar payoffs to justify building a deck with her, and we got just what we needed in WoE.

Lord Skitter, Sewer King

Personally I think this may be one of the most criminally underrated cards in the set. While it has to compete with Graveyard Trespasser, and Graveyard Trespasser might win in a vacuum, when it comes to choosing our flex three-drop for this deck there's truly no contest. Infinite tokens, graveyard hate, spam for a decent clock, this guy does it all. The downside is, as a three mana card, he's a little clunkier in duplicates than Jadar, so we're happy with him at two copies.

Gumdrop Poisoner

I will sing this card's praises until the cows come home. Uses your mana early, huge tempo gains, life gains, race potential, this card does it ALL. I cannot begin to express how incredible it is. This card almost singlehandedly lets you race opponents when you need to, and the tempo is incredible in that scenario. Yes it's technically five mana to use this as it's own removal package (assuming you used one earlier to get the food), but with the incidental lifegain from Sheoldred and Sorin, not to mention other copies of Poisoner, that you can often just play this for three mana and still kill something. Absolutely phenomenal card.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

What else am I supposed to say about this card? It's incredible. It singlehandedly won me some midrange grind fests that I really had no business winning (as an aside to my previous blog post, Archfiend of the Dross would have won those faster, but I digress). Even as a legendary, this card is so good that we run four copies, and Beseech the Mirror (spoiler) is solid as copies 5-6. There's really not much to say.

Beseech the Mirror

The bad news is that I don't think this card is as good for Standard specifically as I had hoped. The good news is that it is still VERY good, and completely worth building around, even when we only run it at two copies. You can play it at three and shave the fourth Sheoldred, but it has come up where I ran through three Sheoldreds and it was the fourth that won me the game, so do so at your own risk. Now, it's great for fetching Sheoldred, but it is also fantastic for fetching Sorin or The End in the right board state--but neither of those actually compare to how powerful this card is in sideboarded matchups. Being able to tutor out Path of Peril or Liliana in the correct matchup is backbreaking. You have on demand access to silver bullets out of the side and this cannot be overstated. This card deserves to have a deck built around it, no question.

Sorin the Mirthless

Solid card in the right situation, he's our top Beseech target. If Sheoldred becomes less import we would probably add another copy of this fella, but as of now he's happy at the single copy.

The End

A mandatory inclusion in the current meta, this card rocks. The exile and the Stone Brain effect are really good, don't get me wrong, but the most underrated aspect of this card is certainly the hand knowledge. I've used this on tokens--tokens!--just to be able to check if the coast was clear for Sheoldred, and this has won me multiple games against multiple decks. At four mana it's a little too clunky for multiple copies without being sure that you need them, but boy is that one copy doing some heavy lifting.

Path of Peril

On the edge of main deck worthiness, Path was just not quite relevant enough to warrant it, but it is a huge force in the sideboard. Fun note, you can very, very occasionally cast the cleave side of it if you've got a Mirrex handy. Don't write it off!

The Sideboard

Some silver bullets, some value cards in the right matchup, the most notable strategy when sideboarding is the transformation into a normal midrange deck when going second. Side out the Nightmares and Beetles for a little more targeted removal depending on the matchup, throw in some Arenas and Lilianas, and surprise everybody who thought Obstinate Baloth was going to be their saving grace. You've got plenty of options against aggro with Virtue of Persistence and Path of Peril, which you can usually substitute for the Virus Beetles and some number of Hopeless Nightmare going both first and second. You still end up with plenty of fodder for Braids and Beseech, though siding out a single Braids can be correct depending on how much you take out.

Once again, I wish I could give matchup specific information, but the decks are so wildly varied that it's almost impossible to break down any specific one because I just don't have enough information. Some overall themes are: you can out grind a midrange deck or you can race them but you cannot do both (unless you've drawn the absolute nuts). Commit to strategy and hope it plays out. You are going to lose games with this approach, but not as many as you're going to win. Against aggro, you can be even less worried about your life total early. Take a turn or two to establish some resource game (either discard or draw or both), then take a huge tempo turn with Poisoner and close the game with a Sheoldred that they can no longer answer since you made them waste their removal on discarding or taking out a Braids or Skitter. You are flexible almost to a fault--which means you have to know your limits in any gameplan, and commit to that gameplan instead of holding back.

Good luck out there!