Needless to say many of us Type II Magic the Gathering players were pleasantly surprised when both Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Stoneforge Mystic were banned in Type II by WOTC in late June. Aaron Forsythe wrote an elegant article admitting the company’s oversight when printing these cards and explaining the difficulty in ironing out the plethora of card interactions during R&D that can lead to dominant decks like Caw Blade.
As of July 1st the Standard Constructed format has received a breath of fresh air, and classic archetypes like Vampires, White Weenie and even Mill are seeing play in addition to the surviving Tier I decks like Eldrazi Green, Valakut Ramp and Splinter Twin. My local game store, Twenty Sided Store in Williamsburg, had reverted to Pauper and Peasant Type II formats instead of full-fledged Type II for weeks, but as of the bannings we’re enjoying Standard Type II tournaments on Saturday afternoons.
Last week’s tournament boasted an incredible turnout and included, in addition to the aforementioned deck archetypes, Infect Aggro, Infect Control, Eldrazi Green, Red Deck Wins, and several Mono Black Control decks.
I entered with a build of the lattermost and posted 3-2, a fair record, and ended up losing in somewhat of a mirror match (an excellent B/R Vampires build played by Keith Blackwell). My personal successes of the day were dismantling both Valakut Ramp and Eldrazi Green played by two talented players. As I just recently got back into the game, it was my first time playing against both decks, but heavy discard, well-timed targeted removal and buff creatures like Phyrexian Obliterator helped me take the matches.
Since last Saturday the decklist has changed a bit, much thanks to Keith’s generous and enthusiastic input, especially his suggestion of adding Lashwrithe. Needless to say the card’s been a beast in playtesting, and I’m excited to take this current build into the next Type II tournament:

3 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Child of Night
2 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Phyrexian Obliterator
2 Skinrender
1 Massacre Wurm

4 Lashwrithe
4 Duress
3 Sign in Blood
3 Go For the Throat
3 Mind Sludge
3 Corrupt
2 DIabolic Tutor
1 Black Sun’s Zenith

24 Swamp

First off let me say that this deck is a work in progress, specifically in card numbers (I simply don’t have as many copies as I’d like of everything). The diabolic tutors help but also slow down the deck on the whole, not that it’s a fast deck to start with. The mana curve also isn’t ideal, but when you’re playing Turn 1 Duress and Turn 5 Mind Sludge with maindeck targeted and mass removal, you’re usually not “on a clock.” A few intended modifications are to, first of all, go to four copies of Phyrexian Obliterator, although unfortunately he’s a $15 card, and four Gatekeepers. One tutor and one main deck Corrupt will make room for the Obliterators, while a Go for the Throat could come out for the Gatekeeper. The maindeck Massacre Wurm is questionable, but he’s been so much fun in my house’s playtesting metagame (I’ve got a mean Peasant White Weenie build), and he’s a fine turn six drop. Better options depending on your local metagame might include Wurmcoil Engine or Grave Titan as finishers.
I would like to play four Sign in Blood, in which case I’ll maybe take out one more maindeck Go for the Throat (there’s enough built in removal in the Gatekeepers, Skinrenders, etc.). The high number of basic lands plays well into Lashwrithe, Mind Sludge and Corrupt. Needless to say the deck is doing huge things on turns four through six. Dismember may be better than Go for the Throat, but they’re currently in the sideboard, which also includes more Zeniths, Doom Blades, graveyard hate and a bit more removal. Obviously the sideboard depends on your local metagame.
I’ve been pleased with the way the deck plays, although it’s not perfect. Keith suggested Spellskites, which I think would be a fine addition and would fit the mana curve well. The Child of Nights could probably go out for them, although as much lifelink as possible works in tandem with the Lashwrithes. I will test the ‘kites as soon as I get my hands on some.

I’ve always enjoyed playing MBC, and the deck was a force when I first started playing Magic competitively during Saga and Masques block. Jakub Slemr’s 1999 World’s deck was an inspiration to my brother, Sean McHenry, and me during that time, and he placed second with a Masques-inclusive modernized MBC build in the first Type II tournament he ever attended. That deck was rocking Thrashing Wumpuss (Wumpi?), Phyrexian Negators, Stupors, Powder Kegs, and of course Duress and Dark Rituals (oh how I long for the days when Dark Ritual was Type II legal, or more accurately when a format without Dark Ritual was unthinkable).
That deck was roguey in that current environment, and was laughed at by the snobbier of our competitors until we ravaged them with heavy discard and nasty creatures.

Which brings me to my main point: MBC, as far as my limited knowledge extends, has never been a format-defining deck since the days of Pestilence, and has never even really been a Tier I deck. What MBC has always been able to do, however, is pound out wins against pretty much any deck in any format, even if it won’t take you to the final round of a PTQ or take World’s. Heavy discard on the back of utilitarian creatures and effective removal will always make for a dynamic, powerful deck, and I feel this will be one of the strongest formats for the next three months until M11 rotates out and the abomination that is M12 (which has proven entirely underwhelming for black IMHO) becomes the sole core set. Hopefully Innistrad will revive black as a powerful Type II color, and maybe even mono black, but everything’s pointing toward graveyard recursion instead of straight control. Let’s hope for some exciting discard and beefy creatures to replace what we’re losing on September 30th, and maybe the deck can keep transmogrifying.

So let us raise our goblets brimming over with blood and make a cheers to Type II MBC.