Chromatic Black was a deck I designed last season that focused on Cabal Stronghold and Chromatic Lantern. The power of these two cards together allowed you to do some very absurd and powerful things. Backed up by Mastermind's Acquisition and the world became your oyster. All the sudden Josu Vess, Lich Knight was not the only card your opponent had to worry about. They now had to worry about Banefire, Zacama, Primal Calamity, Niv-Mizzet, Parun, Nexus of Fate, and whatever else you wanted to play. The deck became popular because of how fun the deck was to play but also because it was competitive. Well, it's updated, and the deck is back! At first, I was worried that the deck would not be good enough since it did not gain much from Ravnica Allegiance. Thankfully, I was wrong.

Here's the deck!

Time Stamps:

Match 1 - 00:02:49

Match 2 - 00:24:42

Match 3 - 00:55:28

Match 4 - 01:25:02

Match 5 - 01:44:32

Chromatic Black | Allegiance Standard | Ali Aintrazi

• Creatures (5)
• 1 Josu Vess, Lich Knight
• 4 Hydroid Krasis

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Karn, Scion of Urza

• Instants (7)
• 1 Cast Down
• 2 Vraska's Contempt
• 4 Moment of Craving

• Sorceries (9)
• 2 Ritual of Soot
• 3 Cry of the Carnarium
• 4 Mastermind's Acquisition

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 The Eldest Reborn

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Thaumatic Compass
• 4 Chromatic Lantern
• 4 Treasure Map

• Lands (25)
• 21 Swamp
• 4 Cabal Stronghold

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Banefire
• 4 Duress
• 1 Sanguine Sacrament
• 1 Star of Extinction
• 1 The Mirari Conjecture
• 1 Mass Manipulation
• 2 Unmoored Ego
• 1 Zacama, Primal Calamity
• 1 The Immortal Sun
• 1 Nexus of Fate
• 1 Josu Vess, Lich Knight

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The biggest gain for the main deck was Hydroid Krasis. At first, I just played a couple but quickly went to the complete playlist. I've made the largest Hydroid Krasi with this deck. Hydroid Krasis gives you the life you need to cast all the cards it draws for you as well as putting a real threat onto the battlefield. The best thing about Hydroid Krasis is that it only costs Blue and Green. This allows you to cast it off Chromatic Lantern or a flipped Treasure Map. You could not do that with Niv-Mizzet or Zacama, they both wanted you to have Chromatic Lantern over Treasure Map. This overall makes the deck even smoother!

The other card the deck gained was Cry of the Carnarium, which is just a better Golden Demise. I've maxed out on Moment of Craving because this deck just needs time to setup because its late game is unparalleled.

I'm excited that the deck is back, make sure to check out the deck in action!

As always, thanks for reading,

Ali Aintrazi

Follow me @AliEldrazi

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