Posted - April 7, 2014



A Mono Black Deck





I first bought Magic cards because of the art, and for a long time that was all Magic was to me - I would buy eye-catching cards and collect them in a binder. When I started building my first decks, these 'art binders' became the natural source for my cards. My first decks where all mono-colored because I wanted to get a feel of the behavior of each color - and, satisfyingly, each color does behave differently.

This Black deck, which has no name, no theme, no story. Is the only one of my original decks to survive. All the others were modified or combined into multi-colored decks, because, being arbitrarily mixed together, they did not play very well. This black deck is a hodge podge but it is one very potent mix. Did I accidentally and randomly create a strong deck? I think not. I think Black is just inherently strong. In the hobby shop where I buy my Magic stuff, Swamp cards are more than twice the cost of other Lands because the shop people say that there is a relatively higher demand for Swamps.

Lands


x24

Creatures

Only sixteen creatures on this deck.

Daggerdrome Imp and Child of Night are noteworthy because they can get out on the battlefield very early and they have Lifelink. If left unchecked, a creature with Lifelink, specially a hard-to-block flying creature like the Daggerdrome, can transfer lifepoints to eventually make an unassailable advantage.

Black Oak of Odunos has also been very effective. Specially when the rival deck only has one big creature - Odunos can pretty much negate an opponents biggest damage creature turn after turn.


I want my MTG!

Last of note is the absolutely crazy Tavern Swindler. This card actually made me lose a game because I kept playing its gamble condition: win a coin flip and get six life, lose the coin flip and lose 3 life. Like some lunatic casino addict, I kept taking the Swindler's offer until I had whittled myself down to single digit life without my opponent ever dishing out a single point of damage. I kept a very close watch on my attitude towards Tavern Swindler after that game.

Sorceries

Enchantments

Instants

Artifacts

Sorceries, Instants, Enchantments and Artifacts are amazingly synergistic and well-balance. We've got buff and signature Black de-buff spells. Intimidate spells when used with Lifelink is specially deadly; and this combination is all by accident.

Plans for the Deck

Going forward I want to get rid of the non-Modern cards - for the simple reason of aesthetics. I'm hoping to replace them with cards that have equivalent or near-equivalent abilities.

Lifelink is a major advantage of this deck. From the creature standpoint, Lifelink is shared by both vampires and bats. Vampires and bats, that seems like a really good theme to go for. I also notice that there is an abundance of vampires among Red cards. I'm mulling a BR deck with a vampire and bat theme emphasizing Lifelink. I can source Red vampires from my Nissa the Red Witch Deck which I plan to transform into a pure Elemental deck anyway.


I want my MTG!