MH3 Fully Released: Discover the Best Mono Black Deck!

MH3 Is Fully Released - So Let's Check Out the Best Mono Black Deck!

Explore the top Mono Black deck in the new Modern Horizons 3 (MH3) set. Uncover strategies, card choices, and gameplay tips to dominate your matches.

MH3 is fresh and new, and really seems to be shaking up the meta in the Modern Format. We are seeing different decks win challenges each day, and we haven't come to a consensus on the "best" deck yet. I was personally very excited to see that a mono black deck had already won one of the challenges. It is already well-known that scamming Grief is one of the most powerful things to do in modern, and this deck is able to do that, plus a lot more. It went 9-1 in the Modern Challenge on June 16th, taking 1st place. Today we will take a look at the deck itself, and see if we think it will hold up after the meta is settled. Also, you might be wondering, "when will the meta actually settle?" Well, we have a Pro Tour that both drafts MH3, and plays modern in the constructed portion of the event coming up next weekend. This should allow us to get a pretty good idea of what the best decks are, and what cards we need to use to deal with the meta.

Total Cards:

This deck is riding the wave of opting to use a ton of the MDFC lands so that it has extra cards to evoke with Grief. It is really useful, and makes sure that we can get value at all times, even if we are flooding. It also helps that a lot of the spells that have a land on the other side fit pretty well into the deck. This deck also has ways of generating extra mana, in addition to drawing tons of cards with the new Necrodominance Enchantment. This is supposed to be the fixed version of necropotence, so let's wait and see if this card gets banned too. I know that I'm waiting patiently for a ban before I spend any money on them. Anyhow, let's take a look at some of the key cards.

New MH3 Cards

Magic the Gathering Card - Sorin of House Markov - MTG Circle

The new Sorin is surprisngly good in a few different ways. He rewards us for gaining life, and turns into a pretty efficient planeswalker that can either help us gain more life, remove creatures, or he can even steal a creature. It helps the deck to ensure that it almost always gets off to a pretty quick start, even if we aren't able to scam Grief on turn one. It also helps that he triggers fatal push, and that he is a pretty good blocker since he has 4 toughness. At two mana, it's hard to think of a ton of creatures we would rather play in his spot.

All of the new Flare cards are pretty sweet, and they allow for some unique interaction since they can be cast at instant speed for no mana. It is especially useful in paper, considering that people always have to worry about a response, even if the opponent is tapped out. It makes it that much easier to bluff something. We have a decent amount of cheap creatures in this deck, so it is easy for us to sacrifice something small in order to force our opponent to sacrifice their biggest threat.

Ok, I can't make you wait any more. Let's talk about the new most broken enchantment in this set. The best way to take advantage of this card and not actually feel anything from the draw back is to play so many spells in the first two turns that we aren't ever worried about having more than five cards in hand, and in turn we arent affected by the drawback. We can draw tons of cards with it while Sheoldred is on the board, and consstantly turn it into a net positive. The deck doesn't interact much with our graveyard, so we aren't worried about stuff being put there as we go. This sets it up where our ideal start is to scam Grief on turn one, play Sorin on turn 2, play Necrodominance on turn 3, and then turn 4 we get out Sheoldred and basically win the game after that if they don't have answers.

Other Staples in the Format that Make the Deck Work

I think it is still up in the air how many of Dauthi each deck wants to run. I have seen some lists run four, and of course this list only uses one. I think we are still waiting for the meta to sort itself out a bit to determine exactly how many we need. It could also be the case that we want extra in our sideboard. It's also important to note that until everything settles down with the Eldrazi Creatures, this card can generate us some incredible value, as it allows us to cast them for free.

We have learned that pretty much all of the elementals will deliver great value to the game just from hitting the board. Grief is no exception to that, and might be the best example. It allows us to get a pretty powerful creature onto the board on turn one, and not even lose life for effectively using a creature ETB effect as a Thoughtseize. We then use cards like Not Dead After All and Malakir Rebirth to blink it, and then we get the ETB effect twice. We may go down a few cards to do this, but we are taking away up to two key combo pieces in our opponent's hand on turn one, and disrupting anything that they could have going on. Like I said earlier, we aren't too worried about going down on cards, because we are simply going to draw a ton more with Necrodominance.

Our queen is a staple in yet another format, and we will use her to make sure that we never lose life with Necrodominance. She is the final piece to our value engine that can effectively lock out our opponent. The main things we have to watch out for is the opponent having a Sheoldred, or if they have Orcish Bowmasters. Thankfully, we also run four of those, so we do have efficient removal for theirs if it happens.

It will be interesting to see if a deck like this can hold up after the pro tour, because it seems like a ton of fun to play.

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I am a Magic The Gathering competitive player, and streamer. I specialize in homebrew decks. My favorite formats are: Standard, Pioneer (Explorer on Arena), and EDH. I first started playing MTG in 2001, and have played on and off since then.

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Explore the power of Rakdos Dragons in this midrange Magic: The Gathering deck. Unleash combos, removal, and ramp for competitive edge in Standard.

This Deck is Sneaky Good! Get Ready for RAKDOS Dragons!

You didn't think I could only give you one dragon deck, did you? I honestly saw too many fun options to do just Boros, so today I'm bringing you another. This one steers toward the more midrange, good ol' honest Magic side of things. I wanted to center a deck around something that is more consistent with the status quo of dragons: carnage and destruction. We have plenty of removal in this deck, and a creature that doubles as a board wipe when needed. Since we aren't doing a super fancy combo in this deck, I wanted to add element of ramp to get to the higher mana spells that we have in the deck. We will be able to use early creatures to help out with that, and also a new fancy artifact. We will torch the board and force our opponents to be more resilient than we are, while flying over the top of what they might manage to keep on the board. Let's take a look at the deck and then I'll tell you some of my favorite things about it. You can see some of the fun that we will have right off the bat with this deck. We are looking to smash aggro decks, and still punish other decks that don't play to the board. Although this one has fewer dragons on paper, we have a few permanents that can actually turn into them, and this leads to some cheeky interactions. Let's check out some of the new cards from Tarkir Dragonstorm that are in this deck, and then we will go over some fun combos! Key New Cards

It's Time to Mobilize the Aristocrats with Mardu Combo!

There is an ongoing argument in both Standard and Pioneer currently. What color combination is the best for aggressive decks? We have seen people try out Jeskai Aggro to try and incorporate the best of both worlds between Azorius Aggro, and Boros Aggro. Some like to stick with Gruul Aggro because of the high rolls that it allows for, and there is also an argument that sometimes all you need is mono red - and the results have proven as much in major events. There has been a bit of a surge of some Mardu Aristocrat/Sacrifice decks, and today's list will follow that to some degree. We went a little bit more aggro-based, but there is a combo element to it, along with a healthy sideboard that should provide for balanced gameplay. We will look to get a bunch of creatures onto the board, and then create a bunch more based on the amount that we have, while punishing the opponent when they die. If that isn't enough, the go-wide strategy should also allow us to swing for ample damage at an ample pace. A new ability called Mobilize that is being brought to us in Tarkir Dragonstorm is going to allow us to pull off some pretty powerful swings in combat. Mobilize allows us to create a bunch of tapped and attacking 1/1 tokens based on either the number behind it, or circumstances that pertain to "X." Something that is particularly fun is that we can benefit from our creatures dying, because the mobilize ability requires us to sacrifice the creatures that we get from mobilizing at the beginning of our end step. This is yet another deck that can allow us to win on the end step which is always fun. Another fundamental reason why I think the deck is good is because we are rewarded for something that would normally be considered a setback. If you find enough ways to turn negatives into positives, it usually can translate into the small margins that win you a match. Enough of me blabbing. Let's take a look at the cool new cards! Key New Cards

Demons Are Getting New Toys, and This Deck is ROTTEN

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Free Dragons = Turn 4 Wins!

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I See a Monument and I want it Painted Black

It's been a few weeks since Aetherdrift came out, and we are starting to see the cards that are standing out in the meta. We didn't expect the set to change things too much with regard to what we have been seeing. What we did get from it is a nice supplement to many other decks. Although we did not get a ton of format-shaping cards, we have seen a couple that have lit up fringe archetypes. What I've brewed for today plays off of a familiar archetype, and it was one that we kind of already had, but it allows us to pivot in a certain way and get additional value from it that we may not have gotten in the past. One of the biggest things that our deck can do is have plenty of action on the end step/cleanup step. It's an interesting scenario because usually when we think of the cleanup step at the end of each turn, we remove damage, and we discard to hand size. Usually discarding to hand size is pretty much the final step, and there aren't any triggers... until now. We will be using Monument to Endurance to have triggers when we discard to hand size, and get additional value from it. Now we don't care if we end the turn with nine or ten cards in hand, because we are going to benefit from it. This will help us possibly get in some finishing damage against our opponent, or get extra value. It is worth noting that this will cause triggered abilities on the cleanup step, and this is something that our opponents can respond to. This has historically been a point in the turn where no player can respond to actions. We'll take a look at the relevant cards in the deck, and then I'll detail a few fun combos that we may see during gameplay. Relevant Cards

We've had a Couple of Weeks to Try Achievements on MTG Arena, and I have Opinions

The economy on MTG Arena has always been a pain point, and a grand debate over how far a digital version of a card game should go to ensure players feel as if they are getting proper value for their time. Wizards has two different versions of its beloved game on the internet, and they both seem to have their benefits and drawbacks. On February 11, Arena launched the Achievement System to reward players for hitting milestones in-game, and completing specific tasks. While it is always fun to do these kinds of things in each game, something that gamers always do is assess whether the reward for doing so in-game is worth putting forth the extra effort for the task. While there are some things in the achievement tab that I believe to be kind of fun, and certain things that I know people will want, I view the entire thing as largely a waste of time. Today we will look at why the new feature on Arena simply isn't enough for what the game should have, and what it could be. The Good and The Bad There are plenty of things that we love about Arena, with how it is the easiest way to play our favorite decks from Standard, and not spend thousands of dollars in doing so. It is probably the most efficient way to try out decks. We also love the wildcard system. Although it is not the easiest to obtain them, it is great that a rare/mythic wildcard could buy a rare/mythic card that is of any value and it still just costs one wildcard. This was especially helpful in getting a play set of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse. I still don't have a play set in paper simply because I don't want to spend that much money on it, but on Arena it was easy. I had the wildcards to do what I needed. The only part where this may be lacking is the economy itself. What if we could earn wildcards for hitting certain achievements (I.E. the achievement tab giving us wildcards instead of sleeves, etc.)? I believe that the rewards from this new feature being solely cosmetic underscores the ongoing issue of the economy on Arena simply not being enough for us.

This Deck is Sneaky Good! Get Ready for RAKDOS Dragons!