[[Symbol:B]] is the New Black

Pioneer Devotion Lifegain Midrange Mono-Black Ramp Shade Theme/Gimmick

Gattison

Sorcery (14)

• 2x Corrupt
• 2x Damnable Pact
• 2x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Duress
• 1x Duress
• 2x Duress
• 4x Sign in Blood

Creature (14)

• 2x Dread Shade
• 1x Dread Shade
• 4x Gifted Aetherborn
• 3x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 4x Nightmare

Artifact (4)

• 4x Sword of the Animist

Land (24)

• 1x Cabal Stronghold
• 22x Swamp
• 1x Witch's Cottage

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Quag Sickness

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Sideboard

Sorcery (5)

• 2x Corrupt
• 3x Languish

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Maybeboard

Creature (4)

• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Dread Presence
• 1x Nighthawk Scavenger
• 1x Vampire Cutthroat

Instant (1)

• 1x Drag to the Underworld

Artifact (1)

• 1x Dragon Throne of Tarkir

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Mono-B Pioneer Swamps Matter + Devotion
Mono- (Sword of the Animist + Nightmare) x (Dread Shade + Gray Merchant of Asphodel) = Swamp.

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This deck started off as a fun-but-casual Modern deck, buuuuut we never play Modern. So after Pioneer was announced, my playgroup eventually decided to give it a shot by converting our "Modern" decks into Pioneer decks. They were all mostly Pioneer-legal already, so why not?

• This deck originally ran Tormented Soul as the opening -drop. It's replacement in Pioneer has so far turned out to be Shadow Alley Denizen.
• Now we get into the main focus of this deck: Devotion. Gifted Aetherborn and his big brother Vampire Nighthawk not only help increase my Devotion to , they also are great cards because they have evasion and a deterrent (deathtouch) _and_ they gain me life. If you make them bigger, they become even better.
• Of course, there's Gary (that sounds like the name of a sitcom). Gary makes use of this being a mono-black deck with a whole lot of Devotion, and can win the game for you.
• Dread Shade serves a similar purpose to the Devotion creatures, boosting my Devotion-count by a lot. It also leads us into the decks secondary, or backup, strategy: Swamps Matter. Dread Shade has what I affectionately refer to as Blackbreathing. It's just like Firebreathing (which also appears on creatures), but costs instead. With a lot of Swamps, you can pump this guy up, well, a lot.
• Next up, the CLASSIC Nightmare returns. This card first appeared all the way back in Alpha, and was favorite of mine when I started playing around Revised. Well its back, and it scales with the amount of Swamps I have _and_ it flies! Welcome back, buddy, it's been a long time. =)
• Sword of the Animist and Blackblade Reforged both help make all of the above creatures more threatening, in their own way. The Devotion creatures can be equipped, making them more powerful, or the Nightmare can be stacked to the ceiling and swing in the air.
• In addition to the Sword of the Animist, mentioned above, Cabal Stronghold also helps this deck ramp into bigger spells faster.
• Quag Sickness is included for removal, which also scales with your land count. Go ahead and cast it early. Eventually it'll probably kill anything.
• Finally, I added Read the Bones for some draw, just to help power through to the "good" spells faster. The life loss is literally negligible, the draw two is cool, but the Scry two is extra helpful, allowing you to see up to four cards, if necessary.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	2 years
Exclude colors	WURG
Legality	This deck is Pioneer legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 3 Rares 9 - 2 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.11
Folders	nightmare, Interesting decks, Gattison's Pioneer Decks, Mono-Black Pioneer