Mono Black Control - Dredge The Angler

Pauper Control Devotion Midrange Mono-Black

MrMortifex145

Creature (17)

• 2x Crypt Rats
• 4x Dusk Legion Zealot
• 3x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 3x Gurmag Angler
• 3x Stinkweed Imp
• 2x Thorn of the Black Rose

Instant (8)

• 4x Defile
• 2x Disfigure
• 2x Victim of Night

Sorcery (13)

• 3x Chainer's Edict
• 1x Distress
• 4x Duress
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 4x Sign in Blood

Land (22)

• 2x Barren Moor
• 2x Bojuka Bog
• 16x Swamp
• 2x Witch's Cottage

---

Sideboard

Sorcery (8)

• 2x Choking Sands
• 2x Shrivel
• 4x Wrench Mind

Creature (4)

• 2x Dauthi Slayer
• 2x Okiba-Gang Shinobi

Instant (3)

• 3x Shred Memory

---

My current brew for mono black control, tuned to my lgs meta where Boros Monarch, UB delver, Affinity and Tron are very popular. The main difference from classic mbc is that I substituted Cuombajj Witches for Stinkweed Imp as it resolves some issues I had with the deck, which was the absence of flyers/ good blockers and the fact that if you have Crypt Rats in play the witches become basically a vanilla 1/3. Dregde 5 is the icing of the cake as it enables you to cast Gurmag Angler very efficiently and get the imp back in hand. Players with Journey to Nowhere will target the imp while leaving your future bigger threats untargeted. Thanks to Stinkweed Imp it's also easier to maintain Monarch from Thorn of the Black Rose and keep at bay Delver of Secrets  . Duress is one of the most important cards as the absence of counterspells in black makes it so it is the only reliable protection for Gurmag Angler and Gray Merchant of Asphodel which are huge threats. The mainboard is pretty good against control and midrange decks, so with the sideboard you really get to specialize against faster decks and Tron. Moving towards a discard strategy with Okiba-Gang Shinobi, which by the way goes really well with Stinkweed Imp, and Wrench Mind is really good against aggro like Slivers and Burn, while Choking Sands is useful against tron but Shred Memory is really were it shines, as you can exile key Ghostly Flicker combo components as soon as they hit the graveyard, and having both Shrivel and Crypt Rats covers you against token decks. All in all I really enjoy playing this deck, and the fact that it is mono-colored means you have essentially a perfect mana base. In my experience after sideboarding there aren't too many negative matchups, the most dangerous are UB delver, which becomes kind of a game of wits as you have to know how that deck works and carefully count their mana and bait out conterspells while considering risk-reward scenarios when casting spell while they have untapped mana, and Affinity, because a well placed Atog + Fling can mean game over. In that case you have to try to kill every creature they play and keep a Chainer's Edict or Victim of Night to kill their Atog and hope they don't have a Fling in their hand, hopefully you removed it with Duress, or just keep your life total high with Gray Merchant of Asphodel and try not to use Sign in Blood unless necessary and always count how many artifacts are on the field. Having Chittering Rats is really up to the player, in my experience I find better having more Dusk Legion Zealot and Duress and a Night's Whisper as the rats have sometimes a meaningful impact, particularly late game as your opponent's hand starts to decrease, while drawing cards and choosing what cards your opponent should discard is always impactful. Suggestions for personalization are Distress, Divest, Tragic Slip, Oubliette (if the price is too high I don't think it's fundamental for the deck) and Phyrexian Rager if your meta is more aggressive and you need a bigger body with card draw. Naturally Cuombajj Witches are really good against faeries, so you might want to keep it if a lot of people use that deck in your meta, otherwise Shrivel and Crypt Rats should be sufficient for that matchup.

Top Ranked	Achieved #62 position overall 3 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Pauper legal.
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.61
Tokens	The Monarch
Folders	Pauper
Based on	Mono Black Control MrMortifex145 PAU