I'd say YES!, with Core 20 it works...about time



(Click in the image to see the full resolution, I dunno why but I have problems posting images here)

Pretty similar to what Duke Reid posted today in ChannelFireball, I got from him the idea of Bolas Citadel, which I had totally forgotten

I just need a couple more Cavalier of Night instead of Whisperers...the main innovation of the build, which I haven't seen anywhere else, is the inclusion of Salvager of Ruins which synergizes wonderfully with the Cavaliers, both in the field or already in the GY, it loops them again and again FTW

Considering changing a couple Zealots with Orzhov Enforcers, now that I have maindecked the Rituals to contain the Elemental menace...

Only 3 Dread Presences for the moment, taking in account they are really a 5CC drop...but they are so good that can change

The number of Swamps is 24, btw, for a total of 26 lands...this build is hungry

And the sideboard, which is still a work in progress:



Any ideas for the SB? Anything I forgot there?

It seems it really works, I'm just smashing Gruul, Mono-Red, Elementals etc in the ladder right now with it

How do we even use the extra mana from cabal? just blast zone, 1 of mastermind and salvager of ruins?

Yeah, it's quite nice for the Zone or Mastermind and then Vilis or Command etc...or to pump up big Fenlurkers, which btw, I upgraded to 4, because of the surge I'm seeing right now in Sismic Flash builds, which can become annoying indeed. Also, the brew has overal a lot of draw, so mana almost never gets too much, more the contrary, see below

One funny thing is I find easier to win in Ranked that in Play, lol

Btw, I forgot to put an Inmortal Sun in the sideboard, ahemm... and also a Davriel..as mentioned, I'm charging up the discard aspect. Oh, and somebody just mentioned the black Finale, that too

I'm here right now, copied from Reid the idea of the couple maps, I was having problems mainly with the mana, even at 26 lands...plus they go pretty well with Arguel and Citadel

I’m surprised... is murder standard playable?

I don’t think so... second cast down should be better in this deck IMO.

If I swap out Cast Down for The Elderspell and 1 Contempt for Yawgmoth's Vile Offering how do you think that'll do? What's your current sideboard?

Yarok and Omnath above all, and then the Cavaliers are so hot right now...even Feather. And Vraska's Comtemp is a tad slow sometimes. Walk the Plank is another option, but the sorcery speed hurts


Reid, one of the best players ever, thinks so

https://www.channelfireball.com/article ... -set-2020/

I think 2 Elderspells maindeck are too much right now, everybody is trying creature based builds...the hottest decks right now, imho, are Yarokmonicon, anything Risen Reef and Sismic Flash

https://www.channelfireball.com/article ... mic-flash/

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/ag ... agic-arena

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y87b60FFkC0&t=1517s

I can see those two as good sideboard options...which I'm changing almost every game, lol. Give me a couple days to settle on a sideboard, right now I'm just shooting at the semi dark haha

Edit: anyways, take, I'm here right now...it's tuned to beat Sismic Flash, the hardest match up, imo, and totally on the rise in Arena...in Bo1, we are pretty screwed against it

So Duke is the culprit eh?
Was wondering why I met two or three mono black last night with lists that had to be either exact or close to what you posted.

Now we can call him the Duke of haza...no! stop, damit maggit!

Now seriously...with the printing of Dread Presence (and Cavalier, but less) it was inevitable, the card is bananas.

I want to try this, but I'm very low on uncommon wild cards, fenlurker is just too good to not use it, right?

I started at 2 cause I thought "meh"...and now I'm at 4...but you can always use Burglar Rats as a proxy for the testing...both the exile clause and the pumping are nice but not key

Oh, and I added the 4th Presence in the moment I got another rare WC, it's the best card of the build (...now I have to do the Golgari/Abzan/Jund/Sultai Scapesift version...pseudo Valakut, here we go...)

There are two Field of the Dead too there, btw...and the couple Breeding Pools should be one Forest and a 3th Cemetery, too lazy to edit the image

If any of you have the Scapesifts (and the Mendings, if possible...) would you be so kind as to test this...thing? Pretty curious, being purely theorycrafted...

Some little disynergies, as Freebooter-Cry...but the Booters are there to be flashed with Vivian before the combo, same as she can flash the Presences and Yaroks to make them less vulnerable in the key turn of scapesifting/mending...

Are you abandoning the MBC and going with Golgari?

Lol, no, I don't have the WCs nor the will to spend them in Scapesifts/Mendings...it's just my ADHC

Edit: tho I must say, I don't think the MBC is particularly good right now, too many decks making too many busted things...I mean, Flood Combo, Dead Gates, Elementals, Yarok...and another tendency on the rise: agro control with plenty of counters...MBC is positioned in an uncomfortable middle ground, not being good against combo nor counterspells

This is pretty much the deck I want to make. But I feel like everyone is gonna be doing scapeshift combo decks before too long. Trying to find a different angle on it...

Well, Vargas just got a thropy out of Bant Scapeshift...nobody is trying the Presence angle, I dunno why...just Fields errywhere...tho I must say, lil Teferi makes that way more appealing

Back to Monoblack...I can't make the control shell really work, too slow against fast agro like Feather or RDW, too vulnerable against counters like Sismic flash, and too weak against decks that snowball like Elementals or Nexus or Flood Combo or...well, Scapeshift

Funnily enough, I get way more victories if I slant the build towards agro, now I'm here:



Ebon Legion is so good you can win games just out of him, and both him and ole Gutterbones are good at going under Sismic Flash/Monoblue, two hopeless match for the control version...playing Gutters made me change Crys for Demises, but I still have to confirm that the downgrade in power against Phoenix and Commands deserve the swap, not really sure. Also, I have played against a bit of Orzhov afterlife in the last couple of days, strangely enough...probably Crys are still the correct option, but I dunno

Turns out too that flying, sturdy Pridemates are pretty good, I'm pleasantly surprised with Bloodthirsty Aerialist...and the build has so much gainlife between Dires, Cravings, Presences, Contempts and Cavalier that they grow quite consistently.
The name of the game here is early ground damage, and then stall the board and finish with big fliers and direct damage from Dreads. Ebons, Dires and Gutters are all good for that plan

The gainlife goes really well with Doomis too, who become repeatable quasi-tutors...and of course Citadel is nuts if you can pay for several cards. Also, the sinergy between those two is amazing...

Still there my fav combo of Cavalier+Salvager. Salvager is nice too to bring back Dreads or Chupas or Doomies

As cheap removal goes, Cast Down is still good but right now there are so many must-answer legendary creatures, that I just play one, and then a couple of Moments for the gainlife and a Walk the Plank...btw, I'm not the only one, I have seen several Planks played against me in the last week, lol (it was really awkward when I played this morning against damn Merfolks, of all things, but ey, you can't have all haha)

For more expensive removal, Chupas, Contempts and Cavalier (+ Gutter or Salvager, hopefully) do the trick...

I cut all the PWs to lower the curve, which makes me more vulnerable to enchantments...of all the 6 drops (Liliana, Ugin, Sun) I have found that Citadel is the more synergistic here...I toyed with the idea of adding the 7 orzhov duals I have and then 3 Evolvings Wild (nice for late Presences and Citadel) to get to 10 white sources to play Mortify...but almost surely too much fuss and potential slowing just for that minor improvement. And there's always Blast Zones to take care of the more and more played Prison Realm, or even Pacifism. I count them as spells, so still 24 Swamps plus 2 Zones