Wilds of Eldraine Day 1 -- Climbing through Plat with Mono-Black Bargain

 Welcome to the wilds, everyone!

It feels pretty cool to be returning to Eldraine. I remember when the first one came out and essentially every format exploded with the sheer power of some of these cards. The return to Eldraine seems tempered slightly--the cards are powerful, but within their own strategies instead of in a vacuum. And one of those strategies was the subject of my Day 1 play: Mono-Black Bargain. 

Really, the point of the exercise was to build the best shell for Beseech the Mirror that I could find. There are so many powerful things this flexible card can do, but it needs the right shell to really get off to the races. After some tinkering, here's the list I ended up on:

Main Deck:

Sideboard:

Creatures (17)

4 Virus Beetle

3 Lord Skitter, Sewer King

3 Braids, Arisen Nightmare

4 Gumdrop Poisoner

3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse

Non-Creatures (18)

4 Hopeless Nightmare

3 Cut Down

3 Go For The Throat

1 Witch's Vanity

1 Sorin the Mirthless

1 The End

3 Beseech the Mirror

2 Virtue of Persistence

Lands (25)

4 Mirrex

1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

20 Swamp

Sideboard:

3 Duress

3 Pilfer

2 Sheoldred's Edict

2 Path of Peril

2 Phyrexian Arena

2 Sorin the Mirthless

1 The End

Untapped Link (for matchup data): Click Here

The Discard - Hopeless Nightmare and Virus Beetle

Virus Beetle and Hopeless Nightmare serve as the most efficient, on-curve enablers for Beseech the Mirror. The name of the game, as it turns out, is get some immediate value and then sit around waiting to be sacrificed. I originally had Spiteful Hexmage and Jadar, Ghoulcaller of Nephalia in these slots, but they're unfortunately too durdly. Hexmage has the added downside of keeping the role attached to it--if they kill the Hexmage, not only do you lose the creature (the "value" part of the play) but you also lose your Bargain enabler. Jadar is nice, especially when he sticks around with Braids, but being legendary and bad at blocking kicks him out of competition. Beetle and Nightmare both give immediate value early on by hitting your opponent's hand and forcing the game into low resource mode--which, with your tutoring from Beseech and grind from Lord Skitter and Braids, you excel in. 

Hopeless Nightmare especially just does so much. The scry is quite relevant and gives you things to do with your mana when you're playing the control role. Funnily enough, the only time the scry is not relevant is when you sacrifice it to Beseech (due to the way the triggers go on the stack). 

Virus Beetle does some nice work as a chump blocker and, hilariously, doesn't die to Go for the Throat if they're trying to kill your enablers. Great inclusions.

The Grind - Braids, Lord Skitter, and Gumdrop Poisoner

Consistent, repeatable value is what we're looking for in the three drop slot, and these are some incredible options. 

Lord Skitter, left unchecked, can quickly take over a game. An endless supply of tokens means you beat down quickly and also have plenty of fodder for Braids and Beseech. The graveyard hate is definitely relevant with all the Halo Foragers running around.

Braids eats up any excess resources and spits it back out as damage and cards. There have been games where I have done 10+ damage to my opponent without attacking once--and that was entirely due to Braids and Hopeless Nightmare. The only time when Braids doesn't feel quite up to potential is when your opponent has the same kind of fodder you do, but with the varied sacrifice targets in this deck (artifacts, enchantments, creatures, even lands sometimes) you will usually be able to find a way to guarantee a card. The chip damage is real, the cards are real, the grind is real.

If I had to name the number one surprise overperformer from the new set, it would be Gumdrop Poisoner. This card just does everything. Fills in your curve early, turns into removal late, attacks and blocks and wins the race like a champ all throughout the game. As a single, compact package, this card is fantastic. But in multiples... this card gets out of control. You can attack with Poisoner, trade with their 3 drop, then throw out another Poisoner to kill another creature and wrench back control of the board. And against aggro? You can sit back and trade for life and a creature, or you can attack back and begin winning the race with lifelink. This card is fantastic, and I wouldn't cut a single copy. 

The Home Runs - Beseech the Mirror and Sheoldred

I have few words to say about Sheoldred. Fantastic everywhere, in some ways this deck is all about finding the perfect time to slam a Sheoldred--and with Beseech, you almost always have access to multiple copies. Even a mediocre Beseech represents extra copies of Sheoldred, and that's still good enough a lot of the time! Couple in the fact that you can search out silver bullets like The End or Path of Peril in the sideboard and you have a powerful top-end that can cement the victory your early game set up. With all the different ways to make material for Beseech, you will rarely find yourself with no way to Bargain it. Absolutely fantastic inclusion, this was the reason we built the deck.

The Removal

You've got the usual suspects here: Go for the Throat and Cut Down. It's the new inclusions that are fun. Virtue of Persistence can be useful in a deck with only a few proactive things to do on turn 2, and will slam the door shut should you find yourself so late in the game that you can cast it. The End is a mandatory inclusion at this point--winning the Sheoldred war almost requires it, but it will win you the war. The miser's copy of Witch's Vanity is just useful as a combination removal and Bargain fodder. These numbers could switched up as the meta changes, but the core is there.

The Lands

Mirrex gets the nod here over Mishra's Foundry due to the tokens sticking around for grinding purposes. Other than that, not much to say.

The only deck I faced enough on ladder was Faeries, which we currently have a 7-2 record against. They're not quite as flash intensive and need to tap out for a lot of their big plays (Talion, Kaito, Talion's Messenger), so if you can force them to choose between removal and threats with your early discard, they'll often give you a window to resolve something big like Sheoldred, Skitter, Sorin. The scariest of their creatures is definitely Sleep Cursed Faerie, but you can ignore it for long enough that your lifegain and grind can finish the job. Fun matchups--definitely very thinky.

I'll continue iterating on this deck and experimenting with other Mono-Black options as the meta develops. I'm definitely expecting some big shakeups--there are a lot of viable cards and strategies out there for a successful ladder climb. Hope you like this one!