This Deck is SLASHING it's Way to the Top in Standard and Pioneer!
We are right in the middle of a series of Regional Championships globally, and there is a deck is standing out as a fun new combo deck, and it's even putting up results. About a month ago, I wrote about the combo that works with Unstoppable Slasher and Bloodletter of Aclazotz, and it appears that Pioneer players decided to optimize the list and sought to assemble some turn four victories. The deck is also incredibly resilient, and they found a way to get good value from drawing a ton of cards. We are starting to see consistent results with the deck in major events. When I was in DC last weekend for the RC, there were three players who played mono-black combo that qualified for the Pro Tour, although unfortunately none of those lists made the top eight of the event. This week, we are awaiting final results of Japan's RC, and we know that at least two of the decks have made the top eight, and that five of them actually made the top sixteen. We will briefly go over the version of this deck that performed the best in Japan, and then we will also take a look at how it affects Standard, as the deck features a vast majority of cards in the list that are Standard legal/playable. I'll get you a list for both formats, because there will likely be some Standard Events coming up soon!
This list differs a bit from some of the other decks that play demons. Most of the other lists also play Archfiend of the Dross, because that is a big huge demon that is pretty hard to deal with. This list focuses more on prioritizing card advantage with cards like Invoke Despair and Graveyard Trespasser in the main deck. One could make an argument that we would actually move those cards to the sideboard, and then play the four Archfiends, but at this point, we aren't going to argue with the success of the list, as it speaks for itself.
Key Combo Pieces