Hello readers, I must post a quick tournament recap for yesterday’s Saturday Type II Standard at 20 Sided Store in Williamsburg. I entered with the following Mono Black Control build. Please refer to the glorious www.magiccards.info for card information. MBC 2011: 25 Swamp 4 Inquisition of Kozilec 4 Sign in Blood 4 Spellskite 4 Gatekeeper of Malakir 4 Vampire Knighthawk 4 Phyrexian Obliterator 4 Lashwrithe 2 Skinrender 2 Mind Sludge 2 Corrupt 1 Grave Titan Sideboard: 3 Surgical Extraction 2 Memoricide 2 Doom Blade 2 Go for the Throat 2 Dismember 2 Black Sun’s Zenith 1 Mind Sludge 1 Corrupt 1 Massacre Wurm The deck aspires to abuse heavily black casting costs and powerful cards that rely on having a maximum number of swamps on the board. It is cheap to build aside from the Obliterators and Spellskites (thanks to Rob for letting me borrow two of his!) and can play strong against aggro and control on a good draw. I had considerable success in the previous Type II I entered with an inferior build, but I must admit yesterday was a total blowout- I went 0-4 and dropped. Why did the deck perform so poorly this time around? Planeswalkers. I anticipated a heavy control environment and lots of Squadron Hawks, so I recently dropped 4 Duress for 4 Inquisition of Kozilec. That turned out to be a poor decision as I got my face smashed by planeswalkers every match, namely Sarkan, Karn, Koth and Lilianna Vess. The deck’s only resort to a resolved planeswalker is a timely Corrupt or attacking the planeswalker directly, by which time it’s often too late. I faced skilled opponents piloting RGB Sarkan, Big Red, a mirror match with Karn and Batterskull and G/W Beastmaster’s Steel. I managed to eke out a win in each match except the mirror (Karn just handled me, and Memoricide: Obliterator hurts), usually by attaching one or more Lashwrithe to a Nighthawk, but lost to poor mana draws (with 25 Swamps? Come on..) and some glaring holes in the deck. There’s a reason no one is playing this in Standard. But I love the deck and I still think the deck could steal a healthy win percentage in the right metagame, so I’d like to give it one more shot before abandoning it for G/B Birthing Pod when my cards arrive from Troll and Toad! Thanks for reading!

Hello readers, I must post a quick tournament recap for yesterday’s Saturday Type II Standard at 20 Sided Store in Williamsburg. I entered with the following Mono Black Control build. Please refer to the glorious www.magiccards.info for card information.

MBC 2011:
25 Swamp
4 Inquisition of Kozilec
4 Sign in Blood
4 Spellskite
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Vampire Knighthawk
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
4 Lashwrithe
2 Skinrender
2 Mind Sludge
2 Corrupt
1 Grave Titan

Sideboard:
3 Surgical Extraction
2 Memoricide
2 Doom Blade
2 Go for the Throat
2 Dismember
2 Black Sun’s Zenith
1 Mind Sludge
1 Corrupt
1 Massacre Wurm

The deck aspires to abuse heavily black casting costs and powerful cards that rely on having a maximum number of swamps on the board. It is cheap to build aside from the Obliterators and Spellskites (thanks to Rob for letting me borrow two of his!) and can play strong against aggro and control on a good draw. I had considerable success in the previous Type II I entered with an inferior build, but I must admit yesterday was a total blowout- I went 0-4 and dropped. Why did the deck perform so poorly this time around?

Planeswalkers. I anticipated a heavy control environment and lots of Squadron Hawks, so I recently dropped 4 Duress for 4 Inquisition of Kozilec. That turned out to be a poor decision as I got my face smashed by planeswalkers every match, namely Sarkan, Karn, Koth and Lilianna Vess. The deck’s only resort to a resolved planeswalker is a timely Corrupt or attacking the planeswalker directly, by which time it’s often too late.

I faced skilled opponents piloting RGB Sarkan, Big Red, a mirror match with Karn and Batterskull and G/W Beastmaster’s Steel. I managed to eke out a win in each match except the mirror (Karn just handled me, and Memoricide: Obliterator hurts), usually by attaching one or more Lashwrithe to a Nighthawk, but lost to poor mana draws (with 25 Swamps? Come on..) and some glaring holes in the deck. There’s a reason no one is playing this in Standard. But I love the deck and I still think the deck could steal a healthy win percentage in the right metagame, so I’d like to give it one more shot before abandoning it for G/B Birthing Pod when my cards arrive from Troll and Toad!

Thanks for reading!