Pranking the Ladder -- The Power of Rankle's Prank in Mono-Black Bargain

I have an apology to make, specifically to Rankle.

This card is truly bananas. I should never have ignored it.

Welcome back to Swamp Gas, where we continue to refine our Mono-Black Bargain list as we fight for our right to exist on the high mythic ladder. We dropped a fair amount since our apex of #319 due to excessive tinkering on my part, but with some actual real changes we've been on a 11-1 tear from about #1200 Mythic to top 350. And, really, it's all thank to this fellow. I'll talk about it in the notable changes to the list some more, but this card needs some more respect.

The Updated List

Only 2 Sheoldred? Heresy! you say. But not so, reader. 

The Changes

Cuts: Virus Beetle, Gumdrop Poisoner, a few copies of Sheoldred and Cut Down

Adds: Rankle's Prank, Liliana of the Veil, Virtue of Persistence, Razorlash Transmogrant

The Reasoning

Let's start with the obvious: we're down to two copies of Sheoldred from our previous four, and the simple reason for that is Sheoldred is no longer as impactful as she was now that lists are being refined. In the early days of the format, when brews were flying, there wasn't enough respect for the Praetor and you could just play her on curve and call it a day. That's just not possible now. Other players have picked up on the knowledge that The End is a mandatory inclusion in black decks these days, and the rest of them are packing flexible main deck removal like Destroy Evil to take care of big creatures. Sheoldred is still strong in the right situation, but that means we'd rather be able to tutor her with Beseech than always have her on curve. And so, down to two.

I will stand by my assertion that Gumdrop Poisoner is a very powerful option, but she's no longer the right option for the format, correlated to the reason Sheoldred was cut as well. When decks were less refined a simple tempo trade of my threat for your threat was powerful--oftentimes the opponent didn't have the right refill or follow-up to compete with the lifelinking witch and you could win a race. But, again, now that decks are more focused and honed, a raw tempo trade isn't quite enough to keep you in the game when it matters. Still strong, but no longer as generally strong as it was, so we cut the Poisoner in favor of other cards, notably Liliana. She has a similar effect--a removal spell that leaves a threat behind, with the added bonus of being very, very good against Domiain (huge threat in the format right now), so she was our top replacement.

Virus Beetle was a solid inclusion in the deck's gameplan, but it had one glaring weakness--it was absolutely miserable in a top deck war. Anemic, a little overcosted, and useless if the opponent was hellbent meant this card was only really very good when you drew it on curve. We needed something with a little more oomph in the later stages, maybe a little grind game, and was still a two-drop artifact. Transmogrant was the perfect answer. Can get in damage early, can be sacced to Braids if it get's stonewalled, and comes back in a pinch when you've got the mana. A note: there are a TON of non-basic lands running around, which makes this thing ridiculous. You can often have enough mana to revive it AND Beseech it in the same turn. Very strong inclusion, very happy with its performance.

Cut Down lost a single copy in favor of Virtue of Persistence because we just need our removal to do a little more these days--either hit basically everything, or give us some added value. Witch's Vanity hits relatively little but has a lot of value on the backend, while Virtue hits a surprising amount of creatures (including 3/3s like Glissa!) with a game-ending threat on the backend. Happy with this in the maindeck.

Alright, the elephant in the room. Let's talk about Rankle's Prank. I am essentially convinced at this point that there is nothing better to be doing with four black mana in this format than casting Rankle's Prank, and that INCLUDES playing Sheoldred. This card just does SO MUCH. When you're behind it catches you up (since you probably either have fewer cards or fewer creatures or both), when you're at parity it puts you ahead (sacrifice some useless tokens and discard some useless lands to nab your opponent's best stuff), and when you're ahead this card closes out the game (that four damage can add up--you have a LOT of chip damage with your Hopeless and Arisen Nightmares). There was a game I played against Golgari where he had a fistful of cards and I was hellbent, but he was at a low life total. I scryed with Nightmare to find two Pranks on top of my deck and kept them both, then proceeded to nuke him from orbit with both and a Transmogrant. I cannot express how ridiculous this card is, and the only reason I'm not playing four in the main is these ratios are currently correct for game one, but you can bet your bottom dollar I'm siding that fourth copy in as soon as I get a WHIFF that it's better than something else. Play this card. You won't regret it.

And that's the new list! I strongly urge you to give it a try--this deck is the sleeper of the format right now. Nobody's playing it, and they should be. See you out there!