Mono Black Aggro

[ADarkConfidant]

[deck]Creature (30)
4x Gnarled Scarhide
4x Herald of Torment
4x Mogis's Marauder
4x Pain Seer
4x Rakdos Cackler
3x Spiteful Returned
3x Thrill-Kill Assassin
4x Tormented Hero

Instant (8)
2x Bile Blight
3x Hero's Downfall
3x Ultimate Price

Land (22)
4x Mutavault
18x Swamp

Sideboard (15)
4x Duress
2x Erebos, God of the Dead
2x Lifebane Zombie
3x Master of the Feast
4x Thoughtseize[/deck]

So in the wake of the SCG Invitation and Open successes of similar builds, I've returned to this deck. The Thrill Kill+Marauder build seems to be the winner most often, and I think that's very indicative of the metagame. It does well enough in the normally poor matchups of opposing creature decks.

Going to pilot this next Friday and take a break from my B/g Control winning streak.

I'll post a report here, as is my custom. ( Though it has been a while.)

[tkoman]

Greg Hatch's 14th place deck from SCG Vegas - wow that sideboard....

[deck]Creatures (28)

4 Lifebane Zombie
3 Mogis's Marauder
4 Rakdos Cackler
3 Thrill-Kill Assassin
3 Tormented Hero
4 Gnarled Scarhide
3 Herald of Torment
4 Spiteful Returned
Lands (22)

18 Swamp
4 Mutavault
Spells (10)

4 Hero's Downfall
2 Ultimate Price
4 Thoughtseize
Sideboard

2 Bubbling Cauldron
3 Festering Newt
2 Devour Flesh
2 Doom Blade
2 Erebos, God of the Dead
4 Duress[/deck]

[Elnaru]

Hey everyone, first time poster, long time lurker on this thread! I was wondering if anyone could offer me some advice on sideboarding. My maindeck consists of
18x swamp
4x mutavault
4x scarhide
4x tormented hero
4x cackler
4x spiteful returned
4x thrill kill assasin
4x mogis marauder
3x herald of torment
2x master of the feast
3x bile blight
3x heros downfall
3x boon of erebos
sideboard:
4x thoughtseize
3x lifebane zombie
2x erebos god
2x nighthowler
2x dark betrayal
2x ultimate price

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I went 4-1 at my local fnm tonight loosing only to monoblack devotion. This is probably the matchup I need the most help with in particular. Currently I'm sitting at 10 possible cards to bring in for the mono black matchup but that seems sort of like overkill and I honestly don't know what to take out for it. I know marauder comes out but
past that I'm kind of at a loss. If anyone has the time to type up a quick sideboarding guide that would be amazing. Monoblack like I said has definitely been kinda rough for me but im open to any advice anyone can give me on any other major matchup as well.

Thanks in advance
-Patrick

[magicdownunder]

No experience with the deck, but I think Bx Devo was meant too be one of the stronger MUs.

I think I'll cut some number off (you only need to cut eight):

4x Mogis Marauder
2x Master of the Feast
3x Heros Downfall
3x Boon of Erebos

I'll def. cut Master of the Feast since supporting an attrition deck isn't a good idea, cutting HDF seems like the next best cut since your boarding in removal, though picking between the other two will be hard - haste shouldn't be underestimated and protection vs a 1-for-1 deck seem decent.

For

2x Erebos God
2x Nighthowler
2x Dark Betrayal
2x Ultimate Price

[Elnaru]

No experience with the deck, but I think Bx Devo was meant too be one of the stronger MUs.

I think I'll cut some number off (you only need to cut eight):

4x Mogis Marauder
2x Master of the Feast
3x Heros Downfall
3x Boon of Erebos

I'll def. cut Master of the Feast since supporting an attrition deck isn't a good idea, cutting HDF seems like the next best cut since your boarding in removal, though picking between the other two will be hard - haste shouldn't be underestimated and protection vs a 1-for-1 deck seem decent.

For

2x Erebos God
2x [card:
1td5b82z]Nighthowler[/card]
2x Dark Betrayal
2x Ultimate Price

Thanks I really appreciate the input so you think that boon of erebos is a possible cut? I hadn't really considered that. And you don't think Thoughtseize is relevant in this matchup?

[ADarkConfidant]

Yeah, Master of the Feast is pretty bad against Black Devotion.
Good sideboard cards are Thoughtseize, Duress, Dark Betrayal, Nighthowler, or Erebos.

The matchup is good, as long as they don't splash green or expect you. If they run Pharika's Cure, Drown in Sorrow, or Golgari Charm, they can make your life hell.

[ADarkConfidant]

I didn't play Black aggro this week, like I said I would. I'm sorry, but as a metagame call, it was not a good idea.
My store metagame, along with major tournaments, is mostly super aggro decks and control decks tuned against aggro.

It's too easy for Black aggro to get hated out in these conditions, as it's weak against Burn, white weenie, and Red Deck Wins.
It works better when more Midrange and Control decks( who are therefore tuned against midrange) are around, like in February, March, and April.

If people sideboard against Red aggro, they accidentally board against you. If a Black Devotion deck is expecting the mirror match, they'll probably sideboard cards that'll hurt you too. If more decks start playing Golgari Charm, they'll accidentally have an amazing card against you. Red-based aggro can beat you with haste and the fact that their removal spells can always hit your life total when they no longer
are needed on your creatures. Them and white also both can get first strike, which makes blocking for us impossible. We can barely block as it is( especially Cackler and Scarhide)!

So yeah, I ran Black Devotion instead and got first place for the first time.

When the metagame cycle gets more on the "anti-control midrange decks" (stage 2) or "anti-midrange&control control decks" stage( or stage 3 as I call it). We defintely hit stage 0 ("hyper aggro decks) again randomly 3 weeks ago, and are now in Stage 2 ("anti-aggro control&midrange decks").

[tkoman]

Back to Nature looks very, very bad for this deck....

[TBuzzsaw]

Anyone see the new Crippling Blight tech? I really like that as a cheap alternative to removal.

[zemanjaski]

If by new you mean extremely old, sure.

[TBuzzsaw]

I haven't seen it around in any lists lately. Then again, I'm not exactly looking at Mono Black Aggro all the time. ¯\(ツ)/¯


I put together this really quickly. It seems okay, but straight up dies to burn pretty fast. Maybe replace the Pain Seers with Thrill-Kill?

[deck]
Creatures
4 Gnarled Scarhide
3 Rakdos Cackler
3 Tormented Hero
2 Pain Seer
3 Spiteful Returned
4 Herald of Torment
4 Mogis's Marauder
3 Lifebane Zombie

4 Thoughtseize
3 Crippling Blight
2 Ultimate Price
2 Sign in Blood
1 Hero's Downfall

Lands
3 Mutavault
19 Swamp

Sideboard
4 Duress
4 Pharika's Cure
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Doom Blade
2 Stain the Mind
[/deck]

[zemanjaski]

Are you wanting to change out Pain Seer to help with Burn? Or for other reasons?

[TBuzzsaw]

Pain Seer potentially makes a bad match-up worse (burn), while Thrill-Kill makes an average-to good match-up better (aggro and green decks) and harder to burn. I really like Pain Seer but I can't help but feel TKA is the better choice. I want to run both, so maybe take out the Lifebanes for three TKA and put them in the sideboard in place of Stains and one Dark Betrayal.

[amcfvieira]

I thinking in playing Monoblack agroo with a splash to green. The deck can add Golgari Charm and maybe Abrupt Decay, and maybe some sideboard option.

Thinking in something like this to begin:

[deck]Creatures 25
4 Gnarled Scarhide
2 Rakdos Cackler
4 Tormented Hero
2 Thrill-Kill Assassin
3 Spiteful Returned
4 Herald of Torment
3 Mogis's Marauder
3 Lifebane Zombie

Spells 12
4 Thoughtseize
2 Golgari Charm
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Ultimate Price
2 Hero's Downfall

Lands 22
4 Mutavault
9 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Overgrown Tomb
4 Llanowar Wastes

Sideboard
4 Duress
3 Pharika's Cure
3 Dark Betrayal
2 Doom Blade
1 Lifebane Zombie
2 Abrupt Decay[/deck]

What do you think about this? All criticism will be appreciated.

[amcfvieira]

It's now time for the new season. The rotation next Friday will leave (in my opinion) this deck well positioned in the beginning of the season, when the agroo decks always shine.

Thinking in creatures:

1 drop:
- Gnarled Scarhide
- Tormented Hero
- Bloodsoaked Champion

2 drop:
- Pain Seer
- Spiteful Returned
- Mardu Skullhunter
- Brain Maggot

3 drop:
- Herald of Torment
- Mogis's Marauder
- Master of the Feast
- Agent of the Fates
- Nighthowler

4 drop:
- Erebos, God of the Dead
- Agent of Erebos
- Fate Unraveler

5 drop:
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Removal:
- Hero's Downfall
- Bile Blight
- Ulcerate
- Murderous Cut
- Dark Betrayal
- Pharika's Cure
- Gild
- Silence the Believers

Disruption:
- Thoughtseize
- Despise

Draw:
- Sign in Blood
- Read the Bones

Others:
- Whip of Erebos
- Boon of Erebos
- Hall of Triumph

I think I was missing some cards, but I think that
will be a good core to begin. The deck have to beat green based strategies, like mono green and multicolour with the base Elvish Mystic+sylvan caryatid+Courser of Kruphix, have to beat UB control, and graveyard strategies (possible BG or BUG). Other new strategies and Monored/agroo decks.

We can splash a second colour, like white or red, but it will really give us benefits?

My first thoughts go to something like (10~12) x (1 drop) + 8 x (2 drop) + (6~8) x (3 drop) + (21~23 lands) + (9~15 Other Spells)

What do you think about this? All criticism will be appreciated.

[PresidentsMustache]

I would add Grim Haruspex to 3 drops. Before KTK spoilers started i wanted to play this deck after rotation, but now i'm not so sure. It could have problems dealing with anafenza and siege rhino, which i expect to see a lot of in the beginning, as many people will try to play BGW (I know they are in my area). So the most important part seems to choose right removal and i considered 4xdownfall 4x murderous cut 4x thoughtseize MD.

Also - shouldn't we start a new thread for post rotation builds?

[TheCleaner]

i would discuss it in "The Future Leaque"

[PresidentsMustache]

Ha! I didn't notice that forum;P I only visit this one and aggro in modern;P;P

[amcfvieira]

i would discuss it in "The Future Leaque"

Sorry I have the competitice/agressive Variants in my rapid links and didn't see "The Future League" topic. I will post there now.