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Black Moon [BR Control]

Modern* BR (Rakdos) Competitive Control Discard Midrange Rock

Han4x

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Land (23)

Enchantment (3)

Instant (13)

Planeswalker (5)

Sorcery (9)

Creature (7)

Sideboard

Sorcery (3)

Artifact (4)

Creature (3)

Instant (3)

Planeswalker (2)

"His laugh, a bellowing, deathly din, slices through the heavens, making them bleed"

~Impactful sentence~

Welcome to Black Moon, the non conventional control deck that you'll love and your opponents will hate.

The deck is based around getting an early Blood Moon to stuck our opponent's lands so we can start pressuring them with cheap removal, hand disruption, powerful creatures or planeswalkers.

Any threats that may be put on the field can be removed. The deck has lots of removal: 3x Terminate , 3x Lightning Bolt , a single Dreadbore to deal with walkers (mainly Jace since its now unbbaned) and 3x Sweltering Suns maindeck so we can take down any zoo-ish, small creature-oriented/token strategies. The preference for Sweltering Suns over Anger of the Gods is due to two reasons: first one, it can be cycled to find better answers through out the game, and second one: Kalitas.

The engine that keeps the deck rolling is all the 4x Faithless Looting , which would normally be seen as card disadvantage, but in this deck, there are lots of things that can be discarded to get some real value. First of all it can throw Demigod of Revenge in the graveyard so we can cast one and bring his friends back on the late game for at least a 10 life swing; once you have already got a Moon in play and has seen that the opponent will not be able to interact with it, it can easily be thrown with the looting as well, as well as any other spell that is not usefull at the moment.

Needless to say, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet is there because it sinergyzes too well with all of our removal spells to not be played, getting us zombies and life back. The deck has a single copy of Chandra, Torch of Defiance , wich can generate us mana, draw cards, take down a possible treat once we've runned out removal and win us the game with her ultimate, 2x Liliana, the Last Hope , a real bomb that can take down small creatures such as Bobs, Thalias, Tokens and any kind of ramping creatures like Hierarchs and Elves as well as bring some of our creatures back for the late game and 2x Liliana of the Veil , which is a true machine in this deck once we can get a Moon and a couple threats on the field. Be aware that activating boths Lili's ultimates could be really tough, cause once we do, we literally won the game, so our opponents won't let them tick that high.

The deck counts with some cards that speak for itselfs, 3x Inquisition of Kozilek and 2x Thoughtseize for hand disrupting and information, 2x Kolaghan's Command since it is by far one of the best commands/toolbox cards in modern and a single copy of card:Hazoreth the fervent for using that late game land draw as damage to our opponents as well as hitting as much a Demigod on the ground, since it is indestructible.

Mana base in this deck is pretty similiar to some Blue Moon lists, it has lots of fetches to get us, in this case, basic Swamps, some check lands, that are pretty useful since we run so much basics and Swamp/Mountain lands, a couple shocks and fasts for early mana versatily, a filter land, which can be used with or without a moon in play since it enters in the field untapped and one single copy of Ghost Quarter to let us balance our curve or annoy our opponents mana base.

When playing this deck, you should always aim for information, cause it will win you the game. So using your main deck hand disruption spells is enough to plan yourself around your opponent's next move, which in combination with all of your aoe and spot removal will certainly put you ahead of the game in those midrange matchups.

That been said, the deck grinds really well, all of its cards have a lot of value in almost any situation, so in most of the midrange and non-white control decks (Jund, Abzan, Bg Rock, Grixis Control, etc), small-creature-aggro/combo (Gw Company, Dnt, Reliquary Combo, 5 Color Humans, etc) scenarios you won't struggle to sit and build your mana-base while responding to any of the opponent's moves.

Since all of your real threats have at least 3 cmc, this deck NEEDS lands. Once you have a moon in play and has already cast one of the deck's creatures, on that turn you probably won't be able to do anything more. For example, if you cast a Demigod or Hazoret on turn 4 or 5, you'll spend at least 4 mana to do it, which will let you vunerable to eventual removal or incoming haste creatures, that beeing said, be aware of each possible move your opponents might have. Sometimes its better to wait for one more discard to play one of your creatures instead of playing them and forcing a removal. It's worth saying that decks that can control our mana-base before we do that to them can sometimes be a challenge for this deck, for example Ponza with brute land destruction and UWx Control and Merfolk on the play with Spreading Seas .

Speaking about UWx Control, there are two really important things to point out about decks with the white color: Path to Exile and Leyline of Sanctity . The first one is your main discard target if you can get to see your opponent's hand, since it costs only one white mana and can get rid of one of our creatures literally for the rest of the game; the second one is one of the strongest cards against us, if it's played on turn 0, unfortunately our chances of winning get considerably lower, if it isn't, it should be a high priority discard target as well. Keep that in mind.

And last, but not least, for as much counter intuitive this can be, one more situation that can be really tough for this deck is Gx Tron on the play, simply by the fact the a Karn Liberated on turn 3 exiling one of our lands can only be disrupted by a Dreadbore , which is a one of in the deck, so as you can imagine, having it on our first draws is much less likely to happen than a turn 3 Karn. Feels bad.

  • Collective Brutality : This card will be a must against any kind of deck where the opponent will have lots of small creatures as well as spells that can be discarded. The toolbox utility of this card turns it into a real bomb once used in the right time. Usually shines the most against burn, control/combo decks and some grindy matchups like BGx so we have more opportunities to take out from our opponent's hand answers to our Moon, like Maelstrom Pulse and Abrupt Decay

  • Damnation : Useful against any creature based decks, either aggro-like or midrange. Cleaning up the board with a Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet in play still gets you zombies, so keep that in mind. Strong card against humans, BGx, DnT, Dredge, Tribal and CoCo decks.

  • Goblin Rabblemaster : Sided-in when we're facing a deck that we can't let get to a certain point, so we need a threat that can help us to be fast on this task. Really strong card against Tron variants, UWx control and overall combo decks.

  • Lost Legacy : Strong card when facing a deck that has key components or cards that once hit the field makes us loose the game. Good at taking of Karn Liberated , Ad Nauseam and Past in Flames apart from our opponent's deck.

  • Olivia Voldaren : Really absurd card on the certain matchup. Beeing able to ping down opponent's little creatures as well as stealing them later in the game is really strong against any kind of small creature decks, like CoCo, DnT and humans, and some of the more grindy ones, like BGx and young pyromancer.

  • Rakdos Charm : A card that speaks for himself. Good against Affinity for that extra artifact removal, any infinite-damage combo deck, like Kiki Chord or 4 colour Saheeli for making they loose once they combo off and any deck that really relies on graveyard shenanigans, like living end, storm, dredge and reanimator.

  • Ratchet Bomb : Mostly used for board-wipe purposes against swarm or token-oriented decks. Really useful for taking of the board Etched Champion with metalcraft and any kind of enchantment, like Rest in Peace and Ghostly Prison . Unfortunately it's our only answer for a turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity .

  • Slaughter Games : Simple sideboard option, used to take of win-conditions from control decks, combo pieces and any other kind of card that can turn out to be annoying to deal with, like Ensnaring Bridge and Lantern of Insight .

  • Stone Rain : aka Blood Moon support. Used against any kind of deck that has more than 3 colors and feel basics, which will be the main targets for this spell. Of course really powerful against any deck that can spam lands or has lands that have some really big value, like Tron and Scapeshift.

  • Surgical Extraction : Awesome card if used on the right time. Used against combo decks and any non-grindy matchup, like GW auras and Lantern Control to not let them get the cards they need. It's a powerful answer to Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle , Cranial Plating and sometimes Geist of Saint Traft

I hope you guys enjoyed the deck and please let me know what are your thoughts on it, any suggestions are welcome, thanks!

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