Devoted to Obliteration..

Modern Aggro Competitive Control Devotion Midrange Mono-Black

Metroid_Hybrid

Creature (17)

• 2x Bloodghast
• 4x Dread Shade *f-pre*
• 3x Gifted Aetherborn
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 4x Phyrexian Obliterator
• 1x Tombstalker
• 2x Vampire Nighthawk

Land (24)

• 24x Swamp

Instant (8)

• 1x Bile Blight
• 1x Darkness
• 1x Dismember
• 3x Fatal Push
• 2x Geth's Verdict

Artifact (2)

• 2x Lashwrithe

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Mutilate
• 4x Thoughtseize
• 1x Wrench Mind

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Phyrexian Arena

Planeswalker (2)

• 2x Liliana of the Veil

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Sideboard

Artifact (6)

• 2x Grafdigger's Cage
• 2x Pithing Needle
• 1x Tormod's Crypt
• 1x Torpor Orb

Creature (7)

• 3x Faerie Macabre
• 2x Fulminator Mage
• 1x Phyrexian Revoker
• 1x Spellskite

Instant (1)

• 1x Surgical Extraction

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Damnation

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Maybeboard

Instant (10)

• 3x Dash Hopes
• 3x Doom Blade
• 3x Go for the Throat
• 1x Kor Dirge

Creature (4)

• 4x Gifted Aetherborn

Sorcery (4)

• 2x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Blackmail
• 1x Killing Wave

Land (2)

• 2x Arena

Artifact (1)

• 1x Whip of Erebos

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana, the Last Hope

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Under re-Construction..

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The quest for making Mono-Black relevant again.. Starts here!!

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Wow, 210+ votes?! Thanks guys!!

~~Currently in need of help to craft my sideboard for maximum effectiveness in match-ups against variations of Control & rush Aggro; specifically Grixis Cruel Control and Goblin RDWs..~~

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..The Premise..

The primary motivation behind building this deck was to get some competitive mileage out of (what was previously) a criminally overlooked card; Phyrexian Obliterator, and imagining the look on someone's face when an Obliterator or two comes charging through equipped with a Lashwrithe!.. Mwah-Ha-ha-ha-hahh!!!!

But of course no creature can stand totally on it's own; especially a (4)drop in a format like Modern, therefore what I eventually built around it was a hybrid Midrange deck; a tempo-busting Mono-Black Midrange/Control deck with 'Gary' as potential late-game artillery.. I can imagine this being listed elsewhere as a Mono-Black ObliterRock..

Attriction is (generally)the name of the game here.. Ideally the gameplan is to disrupt & control the opponent's hand & board presence during the early game, begin applying aggro pressure while gaining card advantage into the midgame, then totally overwhelming them with one (or more) of our meatier late game bombs..

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Breakdown of Mainboard... Show

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Early-game Control Elements.. Show

The deck comes equipped with a Mono-Black Control suite of targeted hand disruption & overlapping forms of creature destruction to generally violate the opponent, with the goal of decimating their chance of mounting any kind of respectable offense in the first place..

Inquisition of Kozilek/Thoughtseize: THE ideal card(s) to have in an opening hand.. The perfect Early-to-Mid game tool for identifying what I'm up against, and proactively targeting early creature threats, burn, counterspells, or virtually anything resembling a combo.. (Works beautifully in combination w/ Surgical Extraction)..

Bile Blight/Dismember/Hero's Downfall/Victim of Night: Because running anything resembling Mono-Black without a variety of instant-speed creature removal is like a RedDeckWins without Lightning Bolt..

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Mid-game threats.. Show

After the initial barrage of disruption comes the pressure from efficient (3)-drops that either further disturbs the opponent's board presence, and otherwise force them to respond with whatever kind(s) of field control they may have of their own..

Gatekeeper of Malakir: Creature-based control.. Essentially a (3)-drop Cruel Edict that spits out a Bear of (2)-devotion .. He is this deck's 'budget Lily' and is an important piece of many Black Vampire decks & MBC..

Vampire Nighthawk: This card can be just ridiculous.. Whether attacking or defending; he's easily one of the more annoying black creatures in the format..

Liliana of the Veil: Like this oppressive whore really needs an intro.. (My budget forces me to keep this at a singleton for the time being)..

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Card Draw.. Show

Because what is a good midrange deck without something(s) to generate a little card advantage?.

Shadow of Doubt: Instant-speed cantrip that also doubles as mainboard hate against fetch-lands, Birthing Pod, Scapeshift, or anything else that relys on a tutor function..

Phyrexian Arena: Say hello to 'budget Bob'! This is the card to give me that source of consistent card-advantage in the long haul; and a stubborn two points of Devotion for later.. (Personally I would run this instead of Dark Confidant even if budget wasn't an issue..)

Mimic Vat: Although this technically isn't card draw; if it sticks, the Mid-to-Late-game recursion that this provides spells pure uncounterable card advantage.. Also provides main board hate against Persist/Undying shenanigans..

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Late-game Finishers.. Show

After thinning their hand & board presence, and applying pressure to force out any potential field control, out come the heavy firepower to totally overwhelm the opponent..

Nyxathid: Imagine if Tarmogoyf cost an extra colored mana, and somehow wasn't graveyard dependent; It would probably look a lot like this.. Much like the 'Goyf, this makes for an effective presence against aggro that generally gets bigger & scarier as the match progresses.. However, unlike 'Goyf, I like to wait to play this one for as long as possible for maximum effect..

Phyrexian Obliterator: The featured star of this deck.. A 5/5 Trample for 4 Chroma would be an impressive creature on it's own, but it's 'mythical' second ability makes it by far one of the scariest (Mono-Black) creatures ever printed..

Lashwrithe: The go-to Living Weapon for Mono-Black.. Comes out as a decent creature on it's own, but more importantly, also turns other creatures into game-ending juggernauts.. (Plus it looks great as a foil..)

Gray Merchant of Asphodel: I think it goes without saying that there's plenty of Black Chroma in here to make it worth the relatively high CMC of this popular new card.. To drop this out with a Phyrexian Obliterator& friends out on the field is nothing short of devastating.. (I believe that it was this card alone that caused Phyrexian Obliterator to at least triple in price since it's release..)

Spawning Pool: Because Man-Lands have an interesting habit of winning games, and this little regenerating weenie seems to be the only one available in Mono-Black.. (Has a Love/Hate relationship w/Lashwrithe..)

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Sideboard.. Show

Mostly stuff to hate on Birthing Pod, Splinter Twin, and to help combat Snapcaster Mage-based Control, but also contains some stuff to help fine tune against other match-ups as well..

Memoricide: For breaking any deck requiring a specific card to combo off, also good for getting rid of problem Planewalkers..

Mutilate: Sweepers to hate out Robots/Affinity, Goblins, Slivers, Aura Hexproof, or really any of your other garden variety fast aggro decks that like to play out their entire hand by turn-4/5..

Pithing Needle: A general 'catch-all' against various Artifacts, Man-lands, Planeswalkers, etc.. Literally anything with an activated ability (including Birthing Pod, Splinter Twin, & Vedalken Shackles)..

Rain of Tears: (Budget placeholder for Fulminator Mage).. Mainly for use against UrzaTron, but can also useful for disrupting often fragile 3+ color manabases..

Surgical Extraction: Breaks virtually anything Graveyard-based, and even works wonders in response to a Snapcaster Mage's ETB ability on the stack, but also synergises real nicely with any of the death & disruption(kill spells & targeted discard) that Black is known for ;)

Syphon Life: Here for those annoying knockdown, drag out matches against Counterspell-heavy Control decks..

Tormod's Crypt: Breaks Graveyard-based combos, and is also useful against Tarmogoyf, Snapcaster Mage, etc..

Torpor Orb: Totally turns off Snapcaster Mage, Birthing Pod, Splinter Twin, and kinds of other troublesome creature-based ETB effects..

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Conclusion..

Certainly more fine tuning is required before this would be able to truely hold it's own while knee-deep against tier-1 tournament meta, but I think as-is__ it stands as a solid tier-2 (if not a rouge tier-1.5) competitor.. But aside of it's competitive viaiblity, I have found this deck to be rather fun to play, flavorful, and at least a little tricky to sideboard against.. Of course, I'm always very much open to suggestions for improvement, especially in the sideboard department..

(+1)'s and/or anything that would give this deck a better competitive viability are always greatly appreciated.. (bows..)

Top Ranked	Achieved #23 position overall 10 years ago
Date added	10 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 1 Mythic Rares 15 - 11 Rares 10 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 3 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.69
Tokens	Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B
Folders	Mono black, favorites, Aggro Favorites, Mono Black, Folder 1, cool decks, try out, prototypes, neat, Deck Ideas
Based on	Mana PoIsoning.. Metroid_Hybrid LEG