Mono Black Lich Deck Discussion

http://puremtgo.com/articles/back-drawing-board-ideas-new-standard

There you go adam that's the article I thought you got your deck from.

I dunno, the top list with the Lich seems really bad... Like multiple Everflowing Chalices in a deck with so many BB or BBB cost spells seems kinda silly. Plus you're not really ramping into anything amazing. Sure a T4 Sludge is always nice but that's pretty much it (plus an early sludge could suffer from having less swamps in play anyway.)

The lich isn't as great as it looks either imo, I mean a conditional 5/5 indestructible for BBB is nice but the fact that its just begging to be 2-for-1'd whenever you play a white or green deck that can O-ring or blow up artifacts doesn't sound very good.

Hopefully I'm proven wrong but the Lich seems like a deceptively bad card. Looks cool but probably isn't. Maybe he'll be better in SoM.

Yeah, this guy's list is terrible. For example FOUR basilisk collars? the abilities don't stack! that's retarded.

The cool thing about the lich is: if you're playing another monoblack or mono red they can't deal with it. And yeah he can be removed, but he's just one threat, I got plenty of others. Here are the 2 lists I've created that I am looking at running.

Mono Black Badasses: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/mono-black-badasses/

So far this mono black deck has done allright. It even beat down that really mean DF deck and the Japanese Valakut once or twice. The eqipment however, seems bad in that it's a 'waste' of a slot.

B/R Badasses: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/br-badasses/

I need The following for the B/R: 4x terminate, 3x dragonskull summit, 1x veinfire borderpost.
Swapping out the equipment and splashing red allows me to use great red removal and the BR borderpost (and blightning). I will be testing this deck currently.

Comments? suggestions?

and btw, I think the Lich will be great in the Sound of Music.

This reminds me of mono-B vs B/R vampire discussions people were having back when vamps was considered more competitve. B/R gives you terminate, blightning, lightning bolt, and lavaclaw reaches. Mono-B gives you tendrils and mindsludge.

I think B/R is better for your deck because the borderposts are nice targets for lich counters. Terminate is also an out for your persecutor. I see many lists moving blightning to the sideboard now though, because of vengevine and baloths.

I suggest testing out black knight and hexmage as your 2 drop creatures instead of the shades and the bloodghasts. Those guys wreck control decks which are more popular now because of mana leak.

Main Deck
-4 Bloodghast
-2 Natuko Shade
-4 Blightning

+3 Black Knight
+3 Vampire Hexmage
+2 Abyssal Persecutor

Sideboard
-1 Black Knight
-3 Vampire Hexmage
-1 Consuming Vapors
+1 Malakir Bloodwitch
+4 Blightning

Against decks with o-ring, you can side out the liches and the sword for the four blightnings. And, switching out the 3 persecutors for 3 bloodwitches vs any deck with a plains looks strong. You could probaly take the 4th knight and hexmage out from the board to make room for something better, you have more than enough control hate as it is. Disfigure and inquisition of kozilek look promising vs naya and bant decks.

I've reworked the list.

I'm going to include another basilisk collar and a 4th lich, because spreading out the phylactery counters and first striking deathtouchers is good. 3 collars seems like too much tho. Should I run 1 prophetic prism instead? or a machete? or 1 sigil of distinction?

I dropped the shades and ghasts as recommended. They seemed to be the weak links anyway. I went with 4x hexmage mainboard as they are essentially black knights that are more universally relevant.

I now need to complete the deck: 2x abyssal persecutor and 2x dragonskull summit.

I'm not sure if you can count on that deck to beat titan ramp as alot of the more recent versions are running artifact/enchantment removal in the board with acidic slime to blow off spreadings, deal with manlands/tectonics etc etc.

The lich just doesn't seem worth building a deck around atm. There simply aren't the right kind of synergistic artifices to justify it.

But if you take out the lich you're just playing vampires without the synergy of nocturnus. A compilation of mono blacks greatest hits just doesn't wow me. Seems like you'd lose to all the same decks as vampires.

Warren "The Proxy" Hallam wrote:

But if you take out the lich you're just playing vampires without the synergy of nocturnus.

Yah this is pretty much it.

sorry for trying something new...

I think you guys would be terrible pros lol.

Pro magic is an inbred circle jerk of the same 3-4 decks receiving minor adjustments to maintain dominance of a constantly shifting metagame, with major revisions only occurring when cards central to a decks function rotate or are rendered obsolete by newer additions.

Since no existing cards have left rotation with the inclusion of m11 which at this time has few relevant additions to the standard meta I don't believe there has been the kind of paradigm shift necessary to facilitate the creation of a highly successful mono black deck.



I know you put a lot of time into this deck and it's your baby but sometimes babies grow up retarded.


It's not my fault he ate all that playdough.

lol. lmao. that was hilarious.

Wasn't trying to knock your deck on a personal level bro.

I mean I'm sure it has game against control, anything with Hexmage, Mind Sludge, and the option to board in Malakir Bloodwitch can give any control deck trouble.

If you get a Lich engine running that also makes it tough for decks like Jund to deal with as he beats all their creatures and can't be destroyed so the only real answer they have is Maelstrom Pulse on the artifact.

I mean I'm sure you know better than I do how it runs at this point, but I just imagined plenty of draws where you'd end up with like double Lich + no artifacts, or multiple artifacts + no lich, and since the artifacts aren't particularly amazing on their own, I figured the deck would run into consistency issues. If Scars of Mirrodin has some kind of universally powerful artifact equipment then I definitely think a deck like this would be worth pursuing.