Quite a few games in with mono-black and I can say it's one of the more enjoyable decks specifically because I like it enough that the sting of a loss feels lessened. Still, unless I'm lucky with the discards from Mind Rot and Liliana's Specter, eventually Angelic Accord, Sanguine Bond and to a lesser extent Seance reduce my options to zero.

It's frustrating because once one of those first two enchantments hit the table, while my fate is sealed, the actual final turn is quite some time ahead.

The best I can do is sit there removing Rhox Faithmenders and Vizkopa Guildmages...

Here my mono-b-Decklist,

just won the first 4 online games in a row, performs quitly nice and wins with card-advantage:

Elm Street (premium)

Lands (total 23):
19
4 Radiant Fountain

Creatures (total 26):
4 Pharika's Chosen
4 Child of night
2 Bloodghast
4 Liliana's Spectre
4 Phyrexian Rager
3 Paragon of Open Graves
2 Graveborn Muse
2 Indulgent Tormentor
1 Shadowborn Demon

Spells (total 10):
2 Ulcerate
4 Undying evil
1 Vicious Hunger
2 Mind Rot
1 Rescue from the Underworld

others:
1 Hall of Triumph

- Child of night: lp-fuel for ulcerate, muses and ragers, with the buffs a must in this deck
- Bloodghast: also strong with the buffs, nice synergy with Shadowborn (sacrifice him, play a land and attac, if <10 lp)
- Phyrexian Rager: this deck needs all carddraw it can get...
- Undying evil: just love it in this deck
- Vicous hunger: didnt wanted to play another ulcerate, without child of night the deck risks to self-burn
- Rescue: 1of to get a Paragon back (or wathever else is needed)

thoughts?

Yeah, it sucks when an enchantment like that hits the field. The good news is they need other cards to work for them, and if they're topdecking chances are they won't get something that activates Accord, and even if they do, it's only 1 angel token, then they need to hope they topdeck another. Meanwhile, your own Indulgent Tormentors and other demons should be gaining you advantages to overcome that (hopefully).

Against Seance, you could tech a Suffer the Past.

Maybe add Quest for the Gravelord and Bloodflow Connoiseur. This way you can sacrifice Bloodghast, gain +1 on Connoiseur and a token on Quest and then get the Bloodghast back with landfall. With all the removal you should get 3 counters quickly for a 5/5 zombie, which will give you +1 card with Graveborn Muse

That's a nice build, mate. I'm running smth close to that pretty successfully - I'm at 12/2 WL right now.



That's an excellent idea for my upcoming mono-black sacrifice build, thank you, mate! I had thought about Connoiseur + Bloodghast, but not about comboing it with the Quest! It also combos well with Undying Evil, since you 1) don't lose a creature, 2) gain a chance to activate EtB abilities (Ravager's or Specter's) for the second time, 2) gain a counter on the Quest, 3) gain a counter on Connoiseur/Corpse Blockade/Devouring Swarm.

I'm also considering to give Demonic Appetite a chance in this build: since the creature will die any way it could as well deal 3 more damage for 1 Black. Scavenger Drake will also be a coold addition with the first DLC.

Quest for the Gravelord / Bloodflow Connoiseur / Bloodghast

That are a lot of cards to change for a 3-card combo, and it would be nice but not win the game neither, i'm not a fan of bloodflow so far. I was thinking about running Quest for the Gravelord, but generally, my win-con are bumbed flyer, and a fatty without evasion... don't know. At the moment I think parika's chosen are more important in that slot. I could try replace it for the rescue, would make the deck cheaper. But also it's a card that doesn't help you if your top-decking...

I think Goblin Rabblemaster would be great in these "sacrifice for value" decks by generating free fodder each turn.

That's a nice idea, Hakeem. I'm still not sure, whether I want to keep my suicide build mono-black or add red to it.

This is basically the answer to making any mono-colored deck better, lol. "Add in this color and you will have a much better deck!" I'm not poking fun, it really is the truth, lol. Maybe the mono-red goblin aggro being the lone exception. Mono-black isn't terrible though.

I hope you wouldn't mind if I answer you here

Giant scorps are here to stall the game because 3 toughness means A LOT in current meta full of weenies. And stall is good if you're slowly getting to 7 mana to cast your Rune-Scarred.

I've tried Paragons and Childs before but they didn't have any decent impact on my wins, as far as I remember. If buffed 1/1 and 2/1 are a wincon for you, that's great, but that didn't work for me that well.

And bloodghasts are never seemed attractive to me for some reason... Yeah, he's impossible to get rid of but his main disadvantage is inability to block and successfully stall the game. Opponent usually has something to stop him each turn and he's not such a big nuisance because of that. Now buffed with the Paragon - maybe he has a chance.

I suggest you to try more defensive approach with Scorps instead of Childs and Bloodghasts and Rune-Scarreds instead of Paragons to strengthen the late game and always give you what you want. Rune-Scarred has been in every one of my deck he's available for. IMO, he's the best 7-drop black could ever wished. 90% of time you'll be fetching the second one

To make this thread a less lonely place, we'll continue our discussion Lexxx



child of night is no win-con. but it feeds the deck with the needed lp to survive early dammage while playing ulcerate/muses/Ragers. It also stalls, imo better then the scorpion, because it's lifegain serves also against flying attacks or trample, as long as you have a possibility to attack or block with it.



My main wincon are the buffed flyers. Buffed bloodghast's are really strong in this deck. with the card draw, you can almost cast them every round (and your opponent can not know if you have a land on your hand or not), he can get deathtouch from the paragons... and with haste he's even better. I like him a lot in this deck.



I like the Rune-scarred a lot, but don't really like him in a deck without any ramp (even Lelianas deck 2013 had amuletts and the 1/1 bumper tog get enough mana out). And if I don't have at least one muse out, i think he's just to slow to run him...

Overall, we run quite similar decks. Your list more on removal, mine more on creatures. I think the black removal isn't that strong that year (until now least) - to much sorcery speed and situational removal - that I wanna run a removal-based mono-b-list. But would be boring if all play the same list

Agreed on the last one, mate! I'm all for variance

It's strange but for some reason I have not yet experienced any problems with mana running this deck - I always happen to have all the mana needed for him. Perhaps thanks to snakes and scorps - they can hold the enemy for a looong, long time till I gather mana and remove opponent's creatures.

Child of Night has always been blocked or blocked some fatty himself dying for no reason except for 2 life. Scorp can kill anything and survive a good 70% of creatures in current meta, he actually appeared to be one tough mfuсker! I despised him in last year's sealed but love him this year.

I really should try more aggro-based variant just for fun, with all the bloodghasts, childs and paragons.

My dream is to build a new iteration of Lords of Darkness - my favorite DotP deck of all time! But we need too many new tools for it to be complete - more reliable removal like Murder or Doom Blade, a few sweepers, some form of ramp and more powerful demons like Reiver, Lord of the Void or Reaper from the Abyss. I hope that I could build something similar with the new expansions later.

The card pool just isn't large enough to make really quality mono decks right now.

As a new player of Magic, I find this topic very instructional and resourceful. While I'm sticking with a noobish B/R (need moar research to improve it), mono-b gets my interest. I'll run some suggestions of yours when I can.

P.S.: well, there's a damn high quantity of terms that I still lack of learning in this game, lol. Whenever I open this forum, a tab on Google is a must rofl. But please keep on!

Welcome Zhon!

I don't see a lot of love for Nightmare. The horse is a beast in my mono black deck. As soon as it drops it can already handle Baneslayer, and just about any other air threat except for a jacked up Seraph. It just keeps growing and growing, slamming away for big time damage each turn, dominating the air. I value it more than the Tormentor in mono black.. purely bc the 3 toughness of Tormentor makes it so soft that I don't want to block with it bc of Coordinated Assaults and other combat tricks.. not to mention Bolt of Keranos, blocking a token then dying to shock, etc. Nightmare is the body mono black needs IMO.

Nightmare has a bad reputation from previous games, but in D15 mono-black it's a 6/6 flier for six mana (unless you're a Radiant Fountain weirdo). In this metagame that's a pretty big bomb, but I don't think going mono-black just for this card is worth it.

I run Nightmare in my mono-black. No reason not to!

I agree. I go mono black bc it's my favorite color/playstyle, and I'm determined to find ways to make it work, even though it certainly is the weakest mono color at the moment largely due to lack of sweepers and tough early game creatures. I have a pretty competitive list. If I can ever stop doing family duties I'll post it. Got a strong Dimir build too I want to post.

Nightmare... I just have no place for a vanilla 6-drop flier. I mean, if I finally manage to cast it, I want my bombs to have an instant effect on the battlefield in case it gets removed same or opponent's turn. I ran it prior to unlocking Rune-Scarreds and it was okay, but after I finally got them... I see no point in pony.