Ramping into Darksteel Colossus or reanimating Sphinx of the Steel Wind and bludgeoning opponents works. Do you want to be bludgeoned? How will you stop it? Mass removal is effective. I recommended rattlesnakes in my first and second articles. Spot removal is today's proposal. Spot removal eliminates the threat. Spot removal makes only one enemy. Spot removal creates uncertainty. Teach opponents fear; use spot removal.

The spot removal listed here focuses on exiling creatures. Opponents will use recursion and recursive creatures. I want to note upfront that these cards have high mana costs and are usually sorcery speed. However, exile effects are important. Here are the budget options—$2 or less—I suggest.

Exilers

Here is possible deck with Faceless Butcher tricks.

"Butcher's Dance (B/R) – Vintage Legal, 75 cards"

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Bloodfire Colossus
• 2 Demonlord of Ashmouth
• 2 Mesmeric Fiend
• 2 Puppeteer Clique
• 2 Thunderblust
• 4 Faceless Butcher
• 4 Flayer of the Hatebound
• 4 Royal Assassin
• 4 Twisted Abomination
• 2 Gutless Ghoul

• Spells (23)
• 4 Corpse Dance
• 4 Delirium Skeins
• 4 Faithless Looting
• 4 Killing Wave
• 4 Diabolic Servitude
• 1 Spawning Pit
• 2 Phyrexian Vault

• Lands (25)
• 9 Mountain
• 9 Swamp
• 3 Lantern-Lit Graveyard
• 4 Rakdos Carnarium

Buy This Deck

Deck Notes: Faceless Butcher can do a lot in this deck; it can reset undying and persist creatures, remove a creature from the game, incentivize attacks on that creature's player, and remove permanently in conjunction with one of the sacrifice outlets. Meanwhile, Corpse Dance and Diabolic Servitude make it hard to remove your creatures for good. The undying and persist creatures love dying with either the spell or the enchantment; they will come back if you send them to the grave.¹ Royal Assassin visits from last week's article to ward players away and supply another way to off your own creatures. Flayer of the Hatebound hits hard and deters mass removal. Killing Waves (and Bloodfire Colossus) clear the board when you need to, and in conjunction with the Flayer, it can create a Sophie's Choice. This deck was created with budget in mind.

As with last week, I invite you to suggest perfected and streamlined sixty-card decklists in the comments below.

On with Exilers

Next is Oubliette. Oubliette is not instant, and it’s not as good as white's Oblivion Ring. Nonetheless, its ability to remove "all Auras attached to it [the creature]" and let you "note the number and kind of counters that were on that creature" means that it can, in a pinch, be used to put one of your own creatures into cold storage for after a board wipe. Oubliette is at its best in mono-black or paired with red and green, as they do not exile.

I love Oubliette and Oubliette stories. I once put an opponent's Phage the Untouchable in the Oubliette, and my other opponent Naturalized it shortly thereafter, killing the person who played the Phage. We both had a good chuckle. I then cast Withering Wisps and eliminated the other player. Two lessons, not necessarily in order of importance: Save your removal, and Oubliette can be fun.

Yet another sorcery-speed answer, Ashes to Ashes has to have two targets and deals 5 damage to you. However, you can work around the damage, and even a simple Circle of Protection: Black will do. A two-for-one exiler solves a lot of problems. The decklist below uses two so that it has access to an exile effect. The copies of Elixir of Immortality, Tendrils of Corruption, and Corrupt offset the 5 damage.

"The Immortal Phyrexians (B) – Vintage Legal, 75 cards"

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Phylactery Lich
• 4 Phyrexian Obliterator
• 4 Dross Golem

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Sorin Markov

• Spells (35)
• 1 Sudden Spoiling
• 3 Reckless Spite
• 4 Tendrils of Corruption
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Mind Sludge
• 2 Ashes to Ashes
• 2 Corrupt
• 4 Phyrexian Arena
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 4 Darksteel Axe
• 4 Darksteel Pendant
• 4 Elixir of Immortality
• 4 Lashwrithe

• Lands (27)
• 27 Swamp

Buy This Deck

The deck costs a bit. The money is tied up in nine cards: the four Phyrexian Obliterators, the four Phyrexian Arenas, and the single Demonic Tutor. Four Darksteel Myr, four Gravestorm (I would add four Bojuka Bogs for four Swamps as well), and a single Diabolic Tutor are acceptable replacements. This actually supports the Phylactery Lich—and suit-up-with-Lashwrithe plans—and provides a way to interact with graveyards and draw without pain. Demonic Rising, as it increases your odds of having a creature, might be better than Diabolic Tutor. You will have card-draw and mostly four-ofs, so tutoring isn't a must. The biggest loss is the rattlesnake effect of Phyrexian Obliterator.

Even More Exilers

A card I haven't seen it written about, Sever the Bloodline answers two common problems. It can exile fatties and stop token hordes. Additionally, you can cast it twice! Sorcery speed is slow, and the flashback is steep, but such a versatile card is seldom so cheap.

I hesitated before adding Carrionette. The high activation cost, the unreliable effect, and the fact that he has to be in the ’yard make many unwilling to give him a try. In practice, he becomes a rattlesnake. No one wants him to die. Once he does, he is waiting to pounce. He is even better in decks that can choose to put him in the graveyard, such as sacrifice or discard decks. Finally, decks that can produce the required 8 mana can activate him twice and remove two creatures.

Moving on, my final entry is the one I recommend you use above all: Eradicate. If you are turned off by the nonblack clause, you can use a color-changing effect. It isn't usually worth it. Distorting Lens and Thran Lens effects are advantageous in a black deck, though, because of the plethora of protection from black creatures, so the possibility exists.

Back to Eradicate. It is also a fairly expensive sorcery. The limitations being noted, this is still a great spell. The last time I saw the card played, it was used to eliminate my Epochrasites from my Tezzehaups deck. The deck uses Tezzeret the Seeker to accelerate into an Obliterate or Jokulhaups, and it leaves unopposed beaters such as Epochrasites. Without them, the game dragged because I was unable to mount a significant offensive. Had the others been playing decks with cheaper threats, the Eradicate would have ruined me, as it took me a long time to draw into a creature. Luckily for me, the vast majority of my opponents’ cards had mana costs of 3 or greater, and I eventually won .

Thanks for reading Metagaming Multiplayer. My next article deals with cards that almost defy categorization. Some may surprise you. As with the last article, a running list of my suggestions from this series is below.

Black Budget Rattlesnakes

• Vampire Nighthawk
• Nirkana Cutthroat
• Onyx Mage – currently Buy 1 get 3 free
• Stinkweed Imp
• Seal of Doom
• Executioner's Capsule
• Will-o'-the-Wisp (Fog of Gnats)
• Wall of Souls
• Reassembling Skeleton – currently Buy 1 get 3 free
• Royal Assassin
• Avatar of Woe

Black Budget Exile Effects

• Faceless Butcher – currently Buy 1 get 3 free
• Nemesis Trap – currently Buy 1 get 3 free
• Oubliette
• Ashes to Ashes
• Pit Spawn
• Sever the Bloodline
• Carrionette
• Eradicate

¹ Both Diabolic Servitude and Corpse Dance can lose track of the creatures they are affecting. Diabolic Servitude won't exile them because you can choose to stack the persist or undying effect on top of Diabolic Servitude's exile effect. Similarly, if you sacrifice your creature or arrange its death during combat, the Corpse Dance won't exile it at end of turn.