Plague Belcher is ridiculous. Best creature in mono-black Amonkhet limited and probably my favorite new creature in Standard. The synergy with this guy and several new cards is just awesome and that 5/4 Menace for 3 does a lot of work.
First and foremost, Belcher and
Doomed Dissenter
are best buddies on turns two and three. Kill the Dissenter with the Belcher's -1/-1 counters and you get a 5/4 Menace and a 2/2 zombie token. Tons of value. The Belcher also likes to snack on
Festering Mummy
which takes a -1/-1 counter and puts it wherever you want. Probably onto one of your opponent's creatures. Bone Picker approves of this. A 3/2 Flying with Deathtouch for 1 mana? Is mono-black going out of business and liquidating all of their assets?
Baleful Ammit
is yet another low cost body that loves to snack on Mummies and Dissenters, except he's a 4/3 with Lifelink. Discounts all around? But wait! There's more! Bontu's Monument takes another mana away from the cost of your black creatures while also draining life at the same time! Want to return your merchandise? Wander in Death lets you do that at a bargain, and if you weren't surrounded by enough value and savings why not throw in Nest of Scarabs so that every time you drop a -1/-1 counter you get that many 1/1 Insect tokens. Why not? You don't even have to pay extra shipping and handling! Folks, we're just getting started because
Splendid Agony
is going to throw in even more -1/-1 counters to meet all of your wants and needs in an instant, and Supernatural Stamina is going to bring back those Dissenters and Mummies in a flash! Have lot's of things coming and going from your side of the board and want even more ways to keep your opponents creatures useless? Just Fatal Push your way to victory!
I also can't believe how good
Sunscorched Desert
is, why doesn't that come in tapped like every other land that does good things (especially for a common)? Nothing has double black requirements so you can pretty much play these whenever and edge in a little more damage.
Grasping Dunes
adds even more -1/-1 action as needed, and Trespasser's Curse adds insult to injury if your opponent wants to get wide enough to block your Menacing Belchers and Bontu.
Dueling with this deck after the prerelease today proved that these synergies are very strong. Going full deck mode with 4 copies of things instead of 1, 2, or 3 makes it even better. I still can't get over how good that Plague Belcher is, that's just almost too much to handle.
Control/Competitive mode engaged from the sideboard if you remove all copies of Nest of Scarabs,
Stir the Sands
, Trespasser's Curse, and Wander in Death for all copies of Never / Return,
Daring Demolition
, and Cruel Reality.
Dispossess
and Lost Legacy as needed to remove everything a Combo deck would want to be doing.
