Welcome to Mono Black Control (MBC). This has been one of the format's big decks since its early conception. Mono black control behaves similar to modern Jund by being full of 2 for 1s and applying pressure on the opponent. In this way, many have considered MBC more of a midrange deck. Either way, you will have a lot of fun piloting this deck. Please note! Yes, if you put 1 or 2 copies of Oubliette in the deck, it would be slightly better. However, paying over 20 dollars for 1 card goes against the spirit of pauper when you can put the rest of this deck together for about the same. With that being said, lets break down the deck.
THE CREATURES:
4x Chittering Rats - Devotion matters in this deck, so the more mana symbols on cards the better. Especially since our mana base is completely black. Chittering rats is a 3 mana 2/2, which on its own is not great. However the ETB trigger for chittering rats has your opponent put a card from their hand onto the top of their library. On paper this does not sound great. Your opponent did not discard the card so they still have access to it, just a turn later. Make no mistake, this is a very powerful effect tacked on to a creature. This essentially puts your opponent back one turn, denying him a draw step for his turn. That is a 2 for 1 full stop. Imagine if your opponent missed a land drop and then passed the turn. Now you have literally Time Walked your opponent, in pauper! In addition, this card's existence discourages your opponent from bluffing a useless card in their hand. If your opponent is in top deck mode and draws a land, they HAVE to play it. Otherwise you can play chittering rats and actually Time Walk your opponent. This is the best card in the deck and it is not particularly close. This is the reason to play mono black. So you can consistently play this card on turn 3.
4x Phyrexian Rager - This is just a good value card. A strict 2 for 1. Usually Chittering Rats is the much better play on turn three but this is a fine option, especially if you are fishing for more land drops.
2x Crypt Rats - Another rat. Pauper struggles with board wipes. There are not many in the format, let alone good ones. Crypt Rats offers a decent board wipe that can also threaten lethal. The one-time pestilence effect lets you clear the board by doing damage to all creatures and players, including yourself. Normally this is not a problem due to the life-gain in the deck but be mindful of your own life total. If your opponent has undying creatures (like young wolf) you can activate crypt rats for 1, hold priority and activate crypt rats for 1, hold priority, activate for 1 etc. This should kill any pesky undying creatures.
2x Cuombajj Witches - An interesting card. The 2 black devotion is a nice bonus. This lets you ping any 1 toughness creature and your deck contains no creatures with toughness less than 2 (besides Crypt Rats which should not stay on the battlefield for that long anyways) so they cannot retaliate by killing one of your creatures. This card should read: "Deal 1 damage to any target, lose 1 life" because 99% of the time that is what will happen.
2x Thorn of the Black Rose - Adding the monarch mechanic to the game is usually very favorable for the mono black control player. It is hard for your opponent to stick any threats to gain back the monarch and you can just sit back and keep drawing cards. You will have to take this card out against decks such as Goblins, Boros Metalcraft, and U/R Faeries. But against the slower decks, this is fantastic.
THE FINISHERS:
4x Gray Merchant of Asphodel (Gary) - This is where our devotion to black really pays off. If you have ever heard of the card Siege Rhino you will understand why Gary is so good. The first one is bad, the second one is almost unbeatable. As long as you have 5 mana, you will be happy with drawing as many of these as possible.
2x Gurmag Angler - We are not abusing the Angler like most decks do. We do not care about casting this for one mana. We would be thrilled with a 5/5 for 3 mana or less but we would begrudgingly cast it for 4 or even 5 mana depending on the situation. We only run 2 because each extra copy has diminishing returns. You will find that one copy will close out the game pretty quickly.
THE REMOVAL:
2x Chainer's Edict - I have been considering going up to a 3rd copy but there are drawbacks to putting more in the deck. If you would like to put a 3rd in there instead of a Geth's Verdict, you would not be incorrect. With the right circumstances, making an opponent sacrifice a creature is very powerful. Especially if your opponent has a hexproof or protection from mono colored creature (Bogles and Black White Pestilence respectively). The sorcery speed is a drawback, but the ability to recast it from the graveyard makes it a 2 for 1.
3x Geth's Verdict - This is instant speed which means that it can open up the door to other 2 for 1s. If your opponent tries pumping their creature or if you block with this spell in mind. The loss of 1 life is also nothing to scoff at.
4x Defile - With the addition of this modern horizon card, Mono Black Control has been pushed back into the meta. Most of the time, you will unconditionally kill any target for 1 mana. It scales with the game and there are 19 swamps in the deck.
2x Tendrils of Corruption - Speaking of scaling with the game, Tendrils will almost always kill a creature and gain a lot of life. This is one of the worst removal spells in the deck costing 4 mana so we are only running 2.
1x Pestilence - This is another Cypt Rat effect. It comes in at 4 mana but it is an enchantment, making it hard to remove. It can clear the board and threaten lethal.
CARD ADVANTAGE:
3x Sign in Blood - Is a simple 2 for 1 that is efficiently costed at 2 mana. It also has a super secret hidden mode. You can kill your opponent if they are at 1 or 2 life. If you kept a 7 card hand and are on the draw you should NOT cast this on turn 2 as you will have to discard to hand size.
2x Unearth - This 1 mana reanimate effect can get back some very important cards. The best cards to recur are chittering Rats, Crypt Rats, and Phyrexian Rager. Make your decision based on the current board state. If you have no other good moves just cycle it away for 2 mana.
SIDEBOARD:
As usual, adjust your sideboard to fit the current meta. Offered here is a well rounded sideboard for most situations.
3x Choking Sands - This is for the Tron matchup as well as for decks that run the Karoo Lands.
1x Death Denied - Against a control deck with no counterspells, death denied can bury your opponent in card advantage (against mono black control, Rakdos control)
3x Duress - Great against control decks WITH counterspells (U/R Control, U/R Faeries, Tron, Pieces of the Puzzle)
2x Nihil Spellbomb - Gives you a card back and exiles a graveyard. We already run 2x Bojuka Bog in the main so that is a total of 4 graveyard hate cards. Good against (Dinrova Tron, Blue Black Delver, Mono Black Control)
2x Shrivel - Good against go wide decks (Goblins, Stompy, Elves, Soul Sisters)
1x Unmake - Good against any creature you can't afford to hit the graveyard. Can also target Guardian of the Guildpact (B/W pestilence, tortured existence, turbo frog fog, any unearth or dredge card)
3x Wrench Mind - Against slower decks that do not run artifacts and combo decks (inside out, U/R control, Mono Black Control)
