Going Back to My Roots

Posted on November 7, 2013

Despite how often I talk about Standard, I rarely am able to actually play it—or Constructed in general, for that matter. I don’t have the time or the inclination to maintain a collection, and I would much rather draft at Friday Night Magic. I generally will only go to the effort of bugging my friends to borrow cards when it’s an important tournament, such as a Pro Tour Qualifier or a Grand Prix. It’s not that I don’t enjoy Constructed—far from it. I just have other priorities in life that suck away much of my time. All I need to hop into a Draft are three packs and a couple of free hours, so it’s much more convenient.

That said, I did have a chance to play some Standard this past weekend. My local gaming store was running a Grand Prix Trial for Grand Prix Toronto. I was originally planning on playing in a Pro Tour Qualifier in Wayne, Michigan, but I couldn’t find anyone to go with, and it wasn’t worth it to go by myself. I was still itching to play some Magic, though, as I had a few days off from a grueling couple of weeks at school. From my previous analysis, I knew that I wanted to play mono-black. Besides, I was still in a “Halloweeny” mood, and it seemed appropriate.

I looked to Magic Online to see if the deck had evolved since I last examined it, and I settled on the following list played to a second-place finish in a Premier Event by Diem4x.

"Mono-Black Devotion"

I settled on this list for a couple of reasons. From reading Brad Nelson’s article on the deck, I had a pretty good idea of how to play most matchups and how to sideboard for them. I wasn’t going to have the chance to do any playtesting at all, so I didn’t want to mess with the numbers too much. This version was only different by a few cards, and the changes made perfect sense. The Doom Blades were moved to the sideboard in exchange for the third copy of both Devour Flesh and Ultimate Price. It makes it so you don’t have dead cards in the mirror without sacrificing your matchup against decks against which you want Doom Blade. From there, it was very straightforward to adjust Nelson’s sideboarding suggestions.

I ended up winning the tournament and earning myself a second bye. I don’t think winning a Grand Prix Trial is some kind of a big accomplishment, but going through the different matchups I played against can be instructive to some of you who decide to play the deck.

In the first round, I played a Gruul beatdown deck similar to Jon Stern’s second-place list from Grand Prix Louisville. I played a turn-two Pack Rat that my opponent couldn’t remove right away, so it quickly took over the game with the help of a pair of Mutavaults. I had removal spells for stuff like Polukranos, World Eater and was never in any danger of losing. My strategy for the second game was to one-for-one all of his threats and pull ahead with Underworld Connections. That’s pretty much exactly what happened. Desecration Demon puts enormous pressure on the opponent’s life total, you can attack the opponent’s hand with Thoughtseize and Lifebane Zombie, and you have a whole suite of removal spells to deal with the board.

Sideboarding against R/G beatdown:

−1 Erebos, God of the Dead

−2 Whip of Erebos

−1 Pack Rat

−2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

+1 Devour Flesh

+2 Doom Blade

+3 Lifebane Zombie

Despite how good Pack Rat was Game 1, I think being on the play was a huge factor there. On the draw, it wouldn’t have been nearly as good. Leaving one in is fine, as it’s a good miser card to draw in the late game. I definitely wanted to maximize my spot removal, and the Lifebane Zombies hit every creature in the opposing deck except for Stormbreath Dragon. This matchup is about surviving the early game, so you want to take out your slower cards. Life-gain isn’t all that relevant here, as it’s not as though the opponent has burn spells. You can lose as much life as you want to Underworld Connections as long as you remember to play around the haste creatures. Hence, you don’t really need Whip of Erebos. I boarded out a two of the Gray Merchants for the same reason, as I didn’t want to be stuck with a bunch of expensive spells in my hand.

In the second round, I played against Craig Hodgson, an old friend of mine whom I used to travel to tournaments with. He was on a Brad Nelson deck of a different sort—namely the Naya control deck he’s been championing lately. I hadn’t actually seen the list before and wasn’t sure what was in it. I lost the first game to Assemble the Legion, which made my Desecration Demons look pretty silly. I made the mistake of bringing in Lifebane Zombie for the second game after seeing a Loxodon Smiter. I thought the deck played a lot more creatures than it actually did, so the Zombies didn’t do a whole lot, not that I think I would have won otherwise since I was severely flooded. I played the same deck in the following round, learned from my mistakes, and I adjusted my strategy accordingly.

Sideboarding against Naya control:

−1 Erebos, God of the Dead

−2 Whip of Erebos

−2 Devour Flesh

−1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

−1 Nightveil Specter

+2 Doom Blade

+3 Duress

+2 Pithing Needle

I realized after playing a few games against this deck that all of the cards I care about are noncreatures, hence my decision to bring in Duress. The Pithing Needles help against the deck’s planeswalkers, although, on the play, I would consider swapping them out for two more Pack Rats. You don’t really want to play Pithing Needle and Underworld Connections at the same time in case the opponent has Wear // Tear. I’m still not sure if this is right, but it was definitely better than what I was doing before. I can see taking out Desecration Demon since Naya control has a bunch of cheap removal spells that deal with it, and it’s comically terrible against Assemble the Legion. I don’t buy the second argument since you’re losing the game anyway if the opponent has the enchantment out. The other cards I’m taking out seem worse to me, but then again, I could be wrong.

In my win-and-in round, I played against W/U control. Blue control decks in general seem as though they’d be good matchups for mono-black because of all the discard spells and Underworld Connections. The fact that this wasn’t Esper control meant I didn’t even have to worry about Blood Baron of Vizkopa. I screwed up in the first game because, for some reason, I thought Aetherling could only attack for 7. Oops. I was very lucky after that, as my opponent mulliganned three times in two games and had abysmal draws.

Sideboarding against W/U control:

−3 Ultimate Price

−3 Devour Flesh

+3 Duress

+2 Pithing Needle

+1 Erebos, God of the Dead

Since you don’t have to worry about Blood Baron of Vizkopa, you can just sideboard out all of your creature removal. Hero's Downfall still kills Jace, Architect of Thought, so you leave those in. The main card you care about naming for Pithing Needle is Aetherling, although, sometimes, the control deck will have Elspeth, Sun's Champion as well. Aetherling is actually a huge problem, and you will almost always want to make the opponent discard it with Thoughtseize when you have the opportunity. It’s usually correct to wait until turn five to play your discard spell unless you have a compelling reason to play it sooner. What you don’t want to do is blindly play it on turn one just because you can. Another thing to keep in mind when playing against blue control decks is that Underworld Connections is your best card against them. Since their main answer for it is Detention Sphere, never, ever have more than one of them in play.

In the quarterfinals, I played against a pseudo-mirror. He was splashing green for Putrefy and Abrupt Decay for some reason. The mana is significantly worse, and the splash doesn’t gain him anything, at least in this matchup. I won the first game on the back of Underworld Connections providing a steady stream of cards. Post-sideboarding, the mirror tends to be about Pack Rat, although strange things sometimes happen. In Game 2, I scried away an Ultimate Price, as I already had a Hero's Downfall in hand, thinking there was no way my opponent would play a turn-two Pack Rat against a deck with an infinite number of 2-mana removal spells. Joke’s on me; he YOLO’d it on turn two anyway. I played a Nightveil Specter on turn three and knew that I would have to race this somehow. I did have two Gray Merchants in my hand, so my path to victory was clear. I would lose immediately if he played a Thoughtseize or if he killed my Nightveil Specter, so I played in such a way to encourage him to spend all of his mana doing other things. I used every removal spell I had taking out Rats, buying me crucial time. He lost the precise amount of life from Underworld Connections and Erebos so that my second Merchant was exactly lethal.

Sideboarding against mono-black devotion:

−4 Desecration Demon

−1 Ultimate Price

+2 Pack Rat

+1 Devour Flesh

+1 Erebos, God of the Dead

+1 Dark Betrayal

As Nelson said in his article, Desecration Demon just isn’t very good here. It will always die to a removal spell that costs less mana. Sideboarding out an Ultimate Price seems weird, but honestly, you’re just upgrading it to a better removal spell. The fact that it doesn’t kill Nightveil Specter is kind of a big deal.

In the semifinals, I played against Esper control. Again, as long as you have an Underworld Connections, this matchup is fairly easy. Esper has a lot of dead cards and can’t interact with you very well. The only cards you have to watch out for are Aetherling and Blood Baron of Vizkopa. Both Nightveil Specter and Desecration Demon are huge threats, and Esper only has so many Supreme Verdicts and Hero's Downfalls to get rid of them. Just take your time and grind the opponent out. Nightveil Specter is especially good in this matchup, as you’ll often be able to cast the spells it exiles. Remember that you can use Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx to generate blue mana. I used this trick to counter a Sphinx's Revelation with an exiled Dissolve.

Sideboarding against Esper control:

-3 Ultimate Price

-2 Devour Flesh

-2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

-2 Whip of Erebos

+3 Duress

+3 Lifebane Zombie

+2 Pithing Needle

+1 Erebos, God of the Dead

Blood Baron of Vizkopa is the reason sideboarding here is vastly different than it is against W/U control. You’ll want to fire off all of your discard spells the turn before the opponent hits 5 mana to maximize your chances of stripping it from his or her hand. Leaving in a single Devour Flesh is a hedge in case the opponent does manage to resolve one. Other than that, the matchup is straightforward: Draw extra cards, and never let the Esper player generate good value from his or her spells.

In the finals I faced Craig again.

“I have learned much since our last encounter.”

In Game 1, I went to town on him with Pack Rat. He didn’t have a removal spell for it immediately, and it quickly took over the game. By the time he started to get anything going, it was far too late. Even if he did draw a Mizzium Mortars, I had a Gray Merchant to finish him off. I used my updated sideboarding strategy to great effect in the second game. I used my discard spells to turn what was a fine starting hand into absolute garbage. I cleared the way for my turn-two Pack Rat, although he drew a Pithing Needle for it. He didn’t draw an answer for Desecration Demon, though, and it didn’t take very many attacks to close the game out.

Going forward, I think mono-black devotion is still among the best decks to play in Standard. If I were to make any changes to the deck, I’d consider playing more Pack Rats in the main deck, as I seemed to earn a lot of free wins that way. Whip of Erebos was very underwhelming, and I can see cutting it entirely. I’ve seen some people play Ratchet Bomb in the sideboard, which is a good answer to Pack Rat in the mirror. Against Naya control, you can use it to free your creatures from Chained to the Rocks. It’s also okay against Assemble the Legion, which might be the most difficult card for mono-black to beat. You can play Illness in the Ranks, but it’s super-awkward with Pack Rat. Your best bet is to just make the opponent discard it before he or she has the chance to wreck you with it. Oh, Curse of Death's Hold, how I miss thee.

That’s about all I have today, but feel free to ask me any questions in the comments below. I’ll be PTQ’ing in Toronto this weekend, so if you see me there, feel free to say “hi”!

Until next time,

Nassim Ketita

arcticninja on Magic Online

http://www.youtube.com/nketita