This week I have a real treat. I have the spicy tech Sam Black played at the Magic Online Championship. It’s a Green and Black Midrange/Control deck with sweet one-ofs and synergies. In any kind of midrange or control mirror, this deck can get ahead on mana, generate card advantage, answer the opponent's biggest threats, and use Dark Petition to tutor for exceptional one-ofs like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger! If you are in a matchup where one Ulamog isn't enough, you can have extra copies with Pulse of Murasa, Den Protector, Mirrorpool and Seasons Past! This deck isn't super fast, but it is kind of doing everything better than everyone else.

B/G Midrange ? Shadows over Innistrad Standard | Sam Black

• Creatures (13)
• 1 Den Protector
• 1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
• 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1 Ulvenwald Hydra
• 1 World Breaker
• 4 Sylvan Advocate
• 4 Tireless Tracker

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Ob Nixilis Reignited

• Spells (20)
• 1 Grasp of Darkness
• 1 Pulse of Murasa
• 1 To the Slaughter
• 1 Ultimate Price
• 1 Duress
• 1 Languish
• 1 Nissa's Renewal
• 1 Ruinous Path
• 1 Seasons Past
• 1 The Great Aurora
• 1 Transgress the Mind
• 3 Dark Petition
• 3 Explosive Vegetation
• 3 Nissa's Pilgrimage

• Lands (26)
• 5 Swamp
• 8 Forest
• 1 Mirrorpool
• 4 Evolving Wilds
• 4 Llanowar Wastes
• 4 Hissing Quagmire

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Duress
• 1 Ultimate Price
• 1 Grasp of Darkness
• 3 Languish
• 1 Dark Petition
• 1 To the Slaughter
• 1 Transgress the Mind
• 1 Dead Weight
• 1 Pick the Brain
• 1 Virulent Plague
• 1 Infinite Obliteration
• 1 Gaea's Revenge

Buy This Deck

Match 1: Bant Humans

Match 2: Red/Green Goggles

Match 3: Red/Green Ramp

Match 4: Mono-White Aggro

Match 5: Grixis Control

Conclusion

This deck takes a little getting used to, I made a lot of mistakes my first time around, but it is quite good and very, very fun. In ten games, I went 6-4, and three of my losses were to White Aggro — which is a problem. Compared to the Pantheon list of G/B Seasons Past, Sam has chosen to play Nissa's Pilgrimage over Read the Bones. Nissa's Pilgrimage fits perfectly into Sam's build because he can capitalize on the extra mana, but, compared to Read the Bones, Nissa's Pilgrimage does not help with the double Black in Languish's casting cost or finding a Languish to cast. Sam's deck-building has boosted his win percentage in many matchups, but the White Aggressive decks are not one of them. If there was a good way to fix the White Aggro matchup, I could see myself playing this at a GP. I have GP Minneapolis coming up, and while I think that I will still be on G/W Tokens, some version of this Green and Black deck is in the conversation.

Until next week, GLHF friends. May you smite your foes with a Golden Axe!

- Andrew Boswell