A different take on the Mono-Black Control theme, this time we are focusing on Pestilence as a control element, and possible win condition! The idea for the deck is simple enough: play cheap, high toughness blockers like
Shield Sphere
,
Disowned Ancestor
, and of course Gurmag Angler, play Pestilence to wipe the opponent's board of creature while keeping Pestilence in play, then gain life so that while taking damage from Pestilence, it insures that you stay alive if Pestilence delivers lethal damage.
Another theme for this deck is taking advantage of spells that trigger relative to the amount of Swamps you have in play, such as:
Tendrils of Corruption
and
Corrupt
. It is very important that this deck hits the land drop every turn: the more Swamps in play, the better! I run 23 Swamps here. Seriously, this deck can suffer from missing land drops.
Dark Ritual is welcome, it allows Pestilence to hit early to stay on top of faster, Aggro decks. Spot removal like Dead Weight, Snuff Out, Victim of Night,
Chainer's Edict
, and Murder are a myriad of ways to remove early threats before we're able to turn the corner. Finally, a set of Sign in Blood (give or take a Read the Bones) to keep the hand full.
Sideboard includes various answers to other decks in the meta, most are obvious, like Shrivel, Duress, and
Choking Sands
. The only sideboard card I'd like to mention is
Syphon Life
, which is my answer to longer, grindy matches against control decks that can remove Pestilence, or counter it.
Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think! I have already played this deck in paper a few times against Tron and Affinity, and did quite well! I do not think it's top tier material, but still very playable against more established decks.
