Note: Please mark decks as "Premium" if you use Premium cards in your deck builds. Thank you.

If I left anything out or you see any errors please let me know.

Source: Atharva's Decklists & Strategies Thread

Unlocked and ready for discussion!

Time for me to start infusing DotP 2015 with control decks. Here's a first draft of mono-black control.

Touch of Death

Creatures - 19
3 Pharika's Chosen
4 Giant Scorpion
4 Liliana's Specter
2 Graveborn Muse
2 Indulgent Tormenter
2 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Shadowborn Demon
1 Griselbrand

Other Spells - 17
4 Ulcerate
4 Vicious Hunger
4 Mind Rot
2 Flesh to Dust
3 Tribute to Hunger

Land - 24
20 Swamp
4 Radiant Fountain


Your deathtouch weenies should keep things at bay. The scorpion acts as a wall. Vicious Hunger to take out small threat and regain life. Specter, Muse, and Mind Rot create card advantage. Round out the finishers with bomby demons. Should be a blast to play.

You don't have the speed to rely on griselbrand here.

Speed? This is a control deck. I don't need speed to play one 8 mana game winning bomb. The only thing the deck lacks is mass removal, but that's not needed to play Griselbrand.

You have no defense against big fliers other than 5 drops and your first few turns are really slow. The discard feels tacked on and it feels like you would be better off swapping in some more draw instead. And you don't have that much to keep you going long enough to get griselbrand out once your opponent starts casting big creatures. Especially big fliers. While things like last gasp are good cards, we know from experience they don't stop everything.

My first turns are slow? Duh. Why do they need to be fast? Big fliers? What big flyers are going to stop this deck? You want me to drop the discard for more card draw? Please list the card draw in black that I'm not already running. Btw, if I make you discard those big flyers, you won't ever get the chance to play them. How many big creatures is my opponent going to get to play after Specters and Mind Rots? I get the impression you have no idea how this deck runs.

Baneslayer angel is a flier you would have trouble with.

And I believe you are not running phyrexian rager.

Baneslayer is limited to 1. Provided you can play it through the discard, I still have 2 Flesh to Dust and 3 Tribute to Hunger. I could also take it out with a bit of trickery with Giant Scorpion and Ulcerate (dependant on my opponent blocking, but it is an option). If I'm really desperate, I can bump up the number of Flesh to Dust or throw in some Assassinate.

You got me on the Phyrexian Rager. I excluded him because it's just a cantrip attached to a 2/2 body for 3 mana. My real life experience is that he's generally not worth it. The Muses act as a Phyrexian Arena with legs. I have them and Grislebrand. Obedient Dead only had Grislebrand and 2 Sign in Blood and it did just fine for itself (unless you want to count the Liliana's Shades, but those aren't really card draw).

Anyways, I don't care to add a 2/2 for 3 mana that cantrips at this time. I ran 4 Specters and 4 Mind Rot in 2012's Grave Whispers, and I know it works well.

Why not 4 Pharika's Chosen?

I agree with Mega, looking at this build I don't think big flyers will be a problem seeing as how they won't be coming out until this deck's big flyers come out (if they are not discarded as he mentioned). A single baneslayer isn't enough to change an entire deck to try and counter it. I can't wait to get this on Steam...only 4 more days...

The 4th one was the 61st card. I had to cut something, so I decided to keep the 4th scorpion because they can survive so much more. If I find I have too many Ulcerates or Vicious Hungers, I can cut one to put the 4th Chosen back in.

Last Rites
x24 Swamp

x3 Quest for the Gravelord
x4 Drudge Skeletons
x4 Dead Weight
x3 Liliana's Specter
x3 Darksteel Ingot
x3 Tribute to Hunger
x2 Graveborn Muse
x3 Rotted Hulks
x2 Indulgent Tormentor
x4 Flesh to Dust
x2 Rescue from the Underworld
x2 Rune-Scarred Demon
x1 Griselbrand

My take on the whole ' stall for demon bombs' thing à la Obediant Dead. Drudge Skeletons and Rotted Hulks can hold of just about anything in 1-on-1 combat while Liliana's Specter attempts to hold off air assaults. Removal takes care on anything they can't handle (considering the relative low-toughness of creatures in this game Dead Weight is far more effective then it has any right to be). Threw in a couple of Rescue from the Underworlds as well to pick up any of the big demons that get countered or killed.

Honestly it's not unbeatable or anything - really needs an Infest or Mutilate to deal with things like Selesnya Token BS but it's good enough for what it is.

I have been having a bit of trouble building a premium-less mono black deck since it just feels a bit sparse in some areas and feels like the colour must eager to pair up with another colour, though I also ended up trying out some kind of stall and kill everything until big demons type of deck.

Honestly I think that's the case with a lot of mono-colour decks this time round. A lot of what you can do with them can be done better - or at least more efficiently - in a dual-colour deck.

Black's main problem in this pool is its creature base; there isn't much exciting going on below 4CMC.

Well, that lead designer Nik guy did say that the premium cards did help mono-color decks a lot more than dual color decks. Seems we're starting to see some truth to that.



I see lots of exciting things at the 1-3cmc for blacks creatures: Pharika's Chosen, Agent of the Fates, Child of Night, Giant Scorpion, Lilliana's Specter, Phyrexian Rager, Tormented Hero, Bloodghast. All of those creatures have their place.

Btw, update to my mono-black control. It's been running awesome.

Touch of Death (v2.0)

Creatures - 20
4 Pharika's Chosen
3 Giant Scorpion
4 Liliana's Specter
2 Phyrexian Rager
2 Graveborn Muse
2 Indulgent Tormenter
2 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Griselbrand

Other Spells - 16
3 Ulcerate
4 Vicious Hunger
4 Mind Rot
2 Flesh to Dust
3 Tribute to Hunger

Land - 24
20 Swamp
4 Radiant Fountain

If only I could add Gray Merchant of Asphodel to your deck >< damn you WotC giving it to the AI and not us. Poor Gary.

Except a whole bunch of those are premium cards so are discounted for a lot of people and then Agent of Fates is mostly just a deathtouch creature in pure black since there's not really much to activate his trigger without maybe wasting a few spots, the only really good one is the card that grants undying but then it's a bit of a waste after 1 turn unless you recurred the guy form graveyard or had him bounced or something like that.

My thoughts exactly, He is in my mono black build, just because a 3/2 death toucher is still better than other early game plays the non premium mono black have to offer, same for tormented hero - they have 3 spells that activate them, unless I put dead weight on him or something.

non premium mono black is terrible, as does mono blue.
mono red EDH is strong,
same as mono white weenies rush.
mono green is also ok, I don't know if I want to call it hunting strength or hunter's season - it is ok, ramp to big dudes and use prey upon+green one turn boosters, like any Garruk's deck.