p3' special (Highlander)

POINTS
Demonic Tutor - 4
Imperial Seal - 1
Mind Twist -1
Stripmine -3
(Library of Alexandria) - 1
Deck breakdown

Points List

the deck uses a midrange prison style, most often if we cast a tutor we are trying to search for Ensnaring Bridge but sometimes we will get a win condition like Tombstalker or Cursed Scroll. Additionally our tutors can go get a control spell like Toxic Deluge or Duress, or we can tutor for a card advantage spell like Dark Confidant or Crucible of Worlds. Most of our tech operates at sorcery speed and we don't have many indeck synergies to take advantage of the bonus Vampiric Tutor gets from being an instant, and since it takes up 2 points we aren't running it. Instead we use Imperial seal because it is more cost efficient. Strip Mine takes up 3 points but is important to include as it compliments our powerful spells, Pox, Smallpox and Sinkhole. Mind Twist only takes up 1 point and works well with Dark Ritual and other rituals. Demonic Tutor takes up 4 points and it could potentially get cut and replaced with Mox Jet so we can add Vampiric Tutor back to the list. Yawgmoth's Will and Mana Vault are honorable mentions as they work well with our strategy and are points efficient. Library of Alexandria is meant to be included in the deck but i currently do not own a copy. Library is exactly the kind of powerful card the deck wants, homogeneous and synergistic with the rest of the deck and efficient on points meaning we can spread the power of the deck out evenly.

Deck Breakdown

39 Lands

Making consistent land drops while slowing down the pace of the game is how this deck intends to win games, many of our lands have abilities like Bojuka Bog and Maze of Ith which make them worth tutoring for. Some of our lands need Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play to become truly effective, in addition to running powerful lands like Tabernacle of Pendrell Vale and Dark Depths, for all of these reasons we are running Expedition Map. Crucible of Worlds provides good value with our lands: fetchlands are replayable from the graveyard so we never miss a land drop, Cabal Pit and Ifnir Deadlands can kill opponents creatures, Inkmoth and Blinkmoth are annoying blockers with flying you can replay to buy time. Wasteland and Stripmine can kill the opponents landbase and maybe lock the opponent.

5 instants / 27 Sorceries

Our deck is looking to cast the most powerful spells possible to control the opponents position while advancing our own, we are interested in maximum efficiency and effect, therefore we find that sorcery speed magic aka 'tapout control' is the correct method. Whatever spells we run that happen to be instants is incidental, except for Funeral Charm, you want to time that so you cast it During the opponents drawstep if they had no cards in hand at the beginning of their turn. That way if they were to draw a relevant spell they couldn't cast at instant speed they wont get to keep it.

7 Enchantments / 9 Artifacts / 3 Planeswalkers

These cards have all kinds of effects and are better mentioned in Single Card Discussion, I will say that the deck relys on the synergy between The Rack / Shrieking Affliction and discard effects and there is plenty of discard magic among the instants and sorceries.

10 Creatures

Here we have the majority of the decks midrange, These creatures allow us to press for damage and contest for superiority over the board. these creatures are all very efficient and usually dont get in the way of our Pox 's since they are few in number and most often come later in our curve.

Strategy / Where does every card fit in?

Attacking the opponents mana - Nether Void taxes each player, by making more land drops in a more timely fashion we can 'play under' a Nether Void. Winter Orb has a similiar effect. Winter Orb has special synergies with lands that tap for more than one mana, such as Cabal Coffers, Lake of the Dead, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Ancient Tomb... Especially with the former three lands we can see how making every land drop is very important. In addition to Nether Void and Winter Orb we are using Pox and Smallpox, two spells which cause players to trade lands, in addition to Wasteland and Stripmine, a pair of lands which cause players to trade lands. So again, making every land drop is very important. Sinkhole is one of the reasons this deck exists, we can cast it on turn one which makes mono black very desirable inconsideration with the other land destruction. Rancid Earth is this decks Stone Rain however if threshold is active it becomes doubly effective at go wide creature decks. Infernal Darkness is included here as black's Blood Moon, Contamination isn't in the deck, as needing to sacrifice a creature every turn isn't practical and/or too clunky to set up, and even if we do set up the Bitterblossom then we are losing life and may run out of time to kill the opponent. Infernal Darkness is still good enough to run however, it buys us a few turns just like every other spell in the deck

Ensnaring Bridge - Isn't the hero mono black deserves, its the hero mono black needs... if the situation calls for shutting down the opponents plan of attack. once the opponent is stuck behind Ensnaring Bridge there are a few cards we can use to put a ton of pressure on the opponent. Cursed Scroll is the classic, kill the opponents creatures or just go for the kill, if you have no cards in hand (because you have Ensnaring Bridge out) then whatevercard you draw you can name with cursed scroll. Additionally Bitterblossom is great pressure, as we can attack with the tokens when we draw a card, and they have flying so evasion is good to, they also can take down our opponents planeswalkers so our opponent cant do anything sneaky. If the opponent is immune to damage or creating card advantage is better than pressure, there are several spells we can get: Liliana of the Veil comes to mind, she will erase our opponents hand which sets us up for playing The Rack, Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage or Shrieking Affliction. The combination of recurring damage as a result of controlling the opponents hand. What else? Necropotence, if you have a healthy lifetotal still and enough mana to dump your hand then its best to go for Necropotence and draw fresh 7s until you hit a tutor / have disabled the opponent or answered their position and are ready to attack. Getting access to your resources ahead of time makes Necropotence a really dangerous card advantage engine in any scenario. Similarly Crucible of Worlds can create card advantage, by enabling our fetch-lands: Marsh Flats, Polluted Delta, Bloodstained Mire and Verdant Catacombs, so that we can make land drops from our graveyard essentially,, Cabal Pit and Ifnir Deadlands can also be replayed with Crucible to kill the opponents creatures. Barren Moor is great to replay after we have cycled it. Inkmoth Nexus is a very annoying blocker that shrinks the opponents creatures and has flying however Blinkmoth Nexus is also great, in addition Crucible allows us to replay any manlands that get blocked which are usually the Mishra's Factory and Mutavault.

Our deck does have a heavy curve, and has plenty of game changing cards @ 2 / 3 / 4 mana so we are taking advantage of mono blacks acceleration in cards like Cabal Ritual, Dark Ritual and Bubbling Muck. Mox Diamond fits in here aswell, since we have plenty of lands to discards and if we get Crucible the land can be replayed. Mox Diamond is our decks best t1 enabler for Bitterblossom, Sinkhole, Smallpox, And just about every other 2 mana spell in the deck. Phyrexian Totem can come out on turn 1 or 2 with a ritual and will continue to help powerout spells in addition to being unaffected by Winterorb, and if the opponent lets down their guard animating for 5 damage is significant. The Phyrexian Totem and much of the rest of this deck was inspired by the legendary monoblack player Adachi Ryosuke.

Tutors - They do what tutors do, solve problems, fill gaps and create victories. Beseech the Queen and Demonic Tutor can get any card into hand however, Beseech the Queen is obviously limited by mana and the mana cost of the card it can get. Grim Tutor is more mana effecient than Beseech the Queen but costs 3 life. Imperial Seal costs 2 life but is the most mana efficient, however it is the least card efficient, since it only takes up one point we like to include it. Expedition map will usually get Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, however there are definitely exceptions: You have already drawn Urborg, or you need mana right away with something like Lake of the Dead, or you have drawn 4 swamps + already and want to get some utility land like Maze of Ith. Infernal Tutor is great once we are hellbent, which our deck can quickly enable with rituals and other spells like Smallpox and Delirium Skeins. Often the process of pitching cards into the graveyard to enable hellbent will also turn on delve which is why a common target for our tutors is Tombstalker, a 5/5 with flying for 2 mana, which is about as scary as creatures can get really... since many of the cards which create a graveyard for us to delve also result in the opponent having no hand, if we smell blood the Tombstalker is the fastest way to end the game, especially if we have other threats online.

Ashiok, Dream Render stops the opponent from tutoring and having a graveyard, Leyline of the Void will stop the opponents graveyard, can be slammed on turn 0 and is hard to get rid of. These two are the bane of the opponents graveyard strategies like Dredge, Delve Storm or anything with Myr Retriever and the like. Chains of Mephistopheles fits in here as one of our static effects that doesn't necessarily synergize with any card in particular, however it has a good habit of catching Brainstorms, Ponders, Sylvan Library's and such cards. We do include Sign in Blood and Night's Whisper for being efficient and sometimes these cards will get in each others way but its worth running Chains still because the vast majority of our card advantage comes through our lands and the spread of homogeneous synergy.

Discard - Our deck contains The Rack, Shrieking Affliction and Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage, in addition to a heavy amount discard, trading away our hand with the opponent, getting 2 for 1s where we can, and setting up for a scenario where each player is hellbent and top decking is what our deck is alllllll about. Funeral Charm was mentioned above as a way to kill the card the opponent draws that turn, in addition it can kill an opponents creature, or provides reach with the +2/-1 or giving swampwalk to a large creature with urborg in play,, fantastic card. Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek and Duress are the most powerful turn 1 spells, they take our opponents critical spells away and draw the game out. Unmask is here to help enable hellbent as well as being fast enough to take an opponents critical spell, although Unmask is less efficient against enemy control and midrange decks, it does shine against tempo, aggro and control decks. Wrench Mind is often a solid 2 for 1 however Hymn to Torach is better. Raven's Crime is amazing, it turns all of our lands into single use discard spells, Ravens Crime can erase the opponents resources over time all by itself can create the lock with the Rack, also being able to pitch lands with Raven's Crime is important for enabling Ensnaring Bridge, or Tomb Stalker, or Crucible of Worlds, or Infernal Tutor... you get the point.. having the power to discard our own cards to gain advantage in some way is rarely bad. Delirium Skeins is great against aggro decks, just punishes decks which want a full hand or are reliant on their starting hand or reduced their starting hand size by mulliganing. Collective Brutality, Smallpox and Pox all work in a similar way, however have the added benefit of catching creatures and pressuring the opponents manabase and/or life totals. The sheer amount of effect created by Pox and children is relevant to the manacost of the spell (which is low, these cards can happen early on in the game) and the symmetrical nature of the effect, however drastic, is something which we are trying take advantage of. Rankle Master of Pranks is a creature that makes players discard each turn, similarily to Liliana of the Veil. Death Cloud and Mind Twist are our BIG spells with an X in the mana cost, Mind Twist becomes effecient at 4 mana and can just kill the opponents hand, where as Death Clout turns on at 5 mana, and can catch the opponent with too many creatures and too few lands..

Removal - Collective Brutality has 3 modes, the discard is very synergistic with the rest of our discard spells which I will mention next. Killing an opponents creature is always the best mode if it is available, also creating the life total gap can often be relevant, as our deck has a habit of paying life and trading life with the opponent. In addition Innocent Blood is the best removal spell in the deck, it is one mana, it does not care what the creature says and it always gets their best creature if they only have one creature ;) Toxic Deluge Bontu's Last Reckoning and Damnation are the board wipes. Damnation is 4 mana but has no drawbacks. Bontu's is fast but doesn't allow your lands to untap which is often much worst than Toxic Deluge requiring a life payment. These are blacks 3 most efficient board wipes, Rankle, Liliana, Pox, Smallpox, all have edicts attached to them, in addition to Cabal Pit and Ifnir Deadlands being able to kill creatures. Fatal Push and Victim of Night are each efficient and unconditional relevantly and they help clean up the board, or set up for edicting a sticky creature..

Creatures - Big Boys... Phyrexian Obliterator is in his natural element staring down an opponents board of noevasive creatures, just waiting for the turn we've cleaned up enough of our opponents creatures that we can race. In this way Opliterator is a powerful stalling effect and finisher. Thought-Knot Seer is the 4/4 that Unmasks the opponent. We have plenty of waste mana producing lands to cast this on time. Vampire Hexmage does alot, most obviously it combos with Dark Depths which, if either are drawin naturally with a tutor, in the right situation/ matchup, you can use said tutor to get the companion card and summon Marit Lage, which will end the game right away. a fun gimmer of a wincon. Most of the time however Vampire Hexmage will kill the opponents planeswalker, its one of only 3 spells which can deal with the opponents planeswalker, the other two being Murderous Rider and Pithing Needle. Vampire Hexmage can also push in damage and start the life trading since she has first strike, she also makes a great blocker. Murderous Rider can kill a creature or a planeswalker and its almost always preferable to do this, unless the opponent is an aggro deck, runs bun spells, or just has nothing going on and you want to pressure. the lifelink is relevant in a long game where the opponent is trying to win with damage. For that reason alone we are running the very effecient Gifted Aetherborn, the added Deathtouch makes it tough to block and can create a wall of defense, Aetherborn is a problem creature, it always trades with a spell or a creature and it often swings lifetotals in your favor. Dark Confidant, draws you cards and can attack and block, its always been an allstar of black decks, it can win the game all by itself and deserves its spot in our list, our ability to increase our lifetotal through life gain and the many symmetrical edicts make controlling Dark Confidant 's effect easier. Spawn of Mayhem is amazing is you can cast for the spectacle cost, still amazing if you pay 4 converted.. a 4/4 flying, trample that trades life even without attacking and has the potential to grow larger.. this is a very efficient finisher, helps you control the board by having high toughness and flying and stay ahead in threat potential. Spawns older bro is the more mana effecient and basic Tombstalker, it can often be played the same turn as a Demonic Tutor or Infernal Tutor after using Fetchlands and Smallpox/ Big Pox.. the idea is to hurt your opponents resources while producing one of these fat evasive threats. Knight of Ebon Legion is our Early Game - Late Game guy, he can set up a Spawn by attacking with 3 mana up, if the opponent blocks you can pump Knight and eat a creature (hello dark ritual) or they will probably let the attack for 1 through enabling spectacle. the deathtouch makes it almost guarenteed to trade with an opponents card. Even without a followup, if it has a clearpath it can kill the opponent all byitself by pumping and growing. At 6 mana Knight becomes very scary as we can give it +6/+6. I used to run Grave Titan and Wurmcoil in this list, as getting a large manabase is possible but i find the best mana sink for it is a Knight of Ebon Legion. Since these creatures are effecient, have good stats or can grow larger, often have deathtouch or evasion they will shine out our symmetrical resource denial effects.

Lands - Many of these effects are so valuable not just because they remain out on the battlefield but they are hard to interact with and cost no mana to cast... Maze of Ith will shut down our opponents best creature attack, once a turn, it saves us a ton of damage. Tabernacle of Pendrell Vale has a unique effect Taxing creatures, it is unlike the rest of our magaic spells however it is incredibly punishing for our opponents go wide strategy, additionally supporting Tabernacle with mana denial can help us actually kill our opponents creatures. Bojuka Bog will oneshot our opponents whole graveyard, which serves the same purpose as Ashiok and Leyline. Castle Locthwain is a fantastic card advantage engine, and wont cost us too much life if we are hellbent. Reliquary Tower looks weird until you consider Necropotence, which enables you to immediately spend all but 1 of your remaining life and crush the opponent quickly. in addition a Nether Void or Winterorb can cause players to start to need to discard since they draw cards faster than they can play them, Reliquary tower will save us from having to discard these cards. Library Of Alexandria is the last point card I don't own. Although its not as common as the hellbent and wait method, our deck can hit the opponent with too many 2 for 1s and draw power and end up with chilling with a full hand, Library is valuable in this situation but it can also be deployed turn 1 to devastating effect, cant interact with it and it will draw you an extra card every turn. Crucible can allow you to keep extra lands if you have a fetch in the graveyard to build up to 7 or just use Necropotence and draw a fresh 7, using Library to draw a free card without spending a life every turn. Library of Alexandria is definitely worth the point requirement.