I've been playing the jeskai black mentor deck lately and I felt like the deck could support the double black of demonic pact. I'm going to do a full breakdown of where I feel is in this deck and my logic for each card.
Demonic Pact- the downside to this card is real but it's seen 2/2 pro tour appearances since it's came out. The raw card advantages can turn a desperate situation into a commanding lead.
Dragonmaster Outcast- from what I gather the Pact can swing games in your favor but it doesn't actually win them for you. After your stripped their hand this guy provides a great win con.
The commands- k command works well with the discard two mode on pact and provides recursion for Jace and outcast. O command provides counter magic for creatures that the the 4 damage mode on Pact can't deal with while providing additional recursion.
Crackling Doom- Pretty straight forward here. Efficient removal that can kill things the 4 damage from the Pact can't.
Bouncing the Pact- the new addition I've put in here is Brutal Expulsion. Thus card can do some fantastic work exiling jace, soulfire, mentor etc. Silumgar's Command has many relevant modes and I find myself using the suto time walk mode (bounce your threat) paired with Planeswalker removal to great effect. And then good Ole Disperse to get the job done effciently. Also you can return a threat to have them discard it to the pact.
Jace- if your playing standard and you have blue in your deck Jace is a must 4x.
Card draw- my choice of card draw my be incorrect with cruise over dig but stretching double black and double blue consistently worries me. Ob Nixilis also provides a great card draw outlet and a real win con.
Counter magic- for the same logic of cruise over dig I have chosen to pass on Scatter to the Winds. The counter magic gets very relevant when trying to bounce your pact. And Clash of Wills has proven to be a great way to keep the board clean while you try to push into the late game.
Sideboard- this deck needs some time to get up and running. 6 sweepers in the Sideboard let's me feel comfortable about stabilizing at some point against aggro. Transgress for the eldrazi ramp. Painful Truths, dispel and Ob Nixilis against something like esper control. The 3 commands are for jeskai black.
This deck is a blast to play and I am very pleased with the way it turned out. If you have any insight or comments to offer please comment.
