Last week you had the choice of what subject you would like to see, the winning subject by a large margin was Mono-Black Control. For a bit of nostalgia here's a selection of card pics you may remember :-
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Bonus points if you can identify the cards from the artwork!
If you have only started playing since Odyssey Block left the type 2 environment you are probably wondering what on earth am I talking about! Mono-Black Control was a popular deck, which made use of the powerful black cards from the Torment Expansion.
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The Odyssey block decks used Cabal Coffers and a vast array of swamps to power critical turns with Mirari. The deck could fetch any card it needed with Diabolic Tutor, copy it with Mirari to get the card you need and another tutor. It would win by powering Corrupt. The deck had creature removal in the form of Chainer's Edict and Mass removal in the form of Mutilate , and plenty of hand disruption, Mind Sludge for mass discard and Duress for stripping problem cards from the opponent's grasp.
Fast forward to 2006 and the release of the Timespiral expansion, enter the Mirari. all the other cards of the archetype have been and gone, but here's a run through of what can be replaced with today's modern cards.
1) Cabal Coffers (as above) CLICK ON CARDS FOR A LARGER PICTURE
Produces a huge amount of Mana to power the deck's expensive spells.
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Modern Equivalent : Gauntlet of Power With a large number of Swamps this produces tons of Mana, enough to abuse Mirari. |
2) Corrupt (as above)
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Modern Equivalent : Consume Spirit A devastating Consume spirit powered by Mirari should be good for the win! |
3) Mindsludge (See Link)
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Modern Equivalent : Persecute In a multi-coloured environment Persecute is pretty much discard all non-lands from your hand! |
4) Duress (See Link)
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Modern Equivalent : Brain Pry Petrified of your opponent's next turn, use Brain Pry to strip them of that vital card. If they don't have the card you fear you even get to draw a card! |
5) Chainer's Edict (see Link)
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Modern Equivalent : Cruel Edict. The same spell for the same cost, but without the Flashback - Still good and deals with troublesome Creatures with Protection from Black |
6) Mutilate (see Link)
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Modern Equivalent : Plague Wind (grrr!) This is where we have a problem, with Hideous Laughter, Kagemaro and Night of Souls Betrayal rotating out Black has no Mass Removal |
7) Diabolic Tutor (see Link) - we can still play this, excellent!
8) Mirari (see above) - We can also play this as well!
Alternative Win Conditions
So our Consume Spirit has been countered! We need some backup, Visara the Dreadful used to fill this role and the simplest answer would be to use Avatar of Woe
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If you have a solid board position creature decks will struggle to get through this! Not being a Legend you could play as many as you like! |
Other solid choices would be Helldozer (for mana advantage, with Gauntlets on the board, could act as a one sided Armageddon!) Stronghold Overseer, for evasive damage (a lot of evasive damage!) and Nightmare, which just gets huge! Skeletal Vampire, Triskelavus and Debtor's Knell round off our options.
Card Advantage
We are playing Control, and Control decks win through Card Advantage! We have no Wrath of God style board sweeper like Mutilate so we have to make the best of what we have got. This deck will handle aggressive decks by staying ahead on cards and grinding them down, whilst having enough life gaining removal spells to stay in the game for the long term.
Phyrexian Arena and Scrying Sheets will give us the cards we need!
MONO-Black Control
By Anthony Skinner 26th November 2006
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Sideboard 4 Deathmark 2 Seize the Soul 3 Stromgald Crusader 3 Phyrexian Ironfoot 2 Persecute 1 Nightmare Void |
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So there you have it, the theory is solid, but will it work in practice. Let's get testing!
NEXT WEEKEND'S ARTICLE
What would you like to see next week, here are the options!
1) Artificing Mishra - A look at the ways to break the Legend and win big!
2) Pact, A Grave Pact - Exploiting Enchantments
3) I Can't Believe it's Thallid - The Meanest Plants in Town!
4) Blaze into Disintegrate gives you Demonfire - Unleash the X Factor!
Strategy
The strategy is one of attrition, you aim to wear down your opponent. You have the tools to beat decks with lots of counters and the removal spells to hold off creature rushes.
In the long game, Phyrexian Arena, Nightmare Void and Helldozer will bring you resource advantages. Consume Spirit and Strongold Overseer can deliver a winning punch quickly. Grim Harvest as a tutor target makes sure your threats come back again and again and again!
The sideboard has an anti-aggro package, Deathmark and the Ironfoot help against White and Green Weenie decks. Seize the Soul is a house against Red Green beats.
Against control you have extra copies of Persecute and Nightmare Void. White control is in trouble when they take on a Stromgald Crusader powered by Gauntlet of Might!
Other cards worth mentioning are Brain Pry and Urza's Factory. The Factory supplies a steady stream of workers to further your chances in the attrition war. Brain Pry is the deck's Remand, i.e a 2 cc spell that cycles if needed but also provides a very useful function. Decks like this need land to operate and you have 28 mana sources.
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