General Musings on New Decks: Post Rotation Mono Black Control

Hello all and welcome back to the 3rd edition of general musings with me vergil, today we will be taking a look at a deck that should potentially surface after the arrivial of Innistrad which is in october of this year, but for now let's see how Mono Black Control looks after the arrival of the latest core set M12, starting with a speculated list from our boys over at MTGsalvation.com

Lands
23 Swamp
4 Tectonic Edge

Creatures
3 Lillana's Specter
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
4 Skinrender
3 Grave Titan

Spells
4 Sign in Blood
2 Doom Blade
3 Grasp of Darkness
3 Mind Sludge
2 Consuming Vapors
2 Corrupt

Artifacts
3 Mimic Vat

Sideboard
4 Duress
3 Black Knight
4 Vampire Hexmage
4 Malakir Bloodwitch

So this deck as it is is not going to survive the rotation since half of it is zendikar block, perhaps it's time to take a look at potentials for the deck itself, starting with the creature base since the Specter and Gatekeeper are gonna rotate with Zendikar block, let's see what Scars block offers in terms of dudes.

Phyrexian Obliterator - If you were going to tell me this dude wasn't going to be on the list, i would have told you to shut the hell up, this guy is bonkers, 4 black for a 5/5 trampler and makes opponents sacrifice permanents when it gets damaged talk about a bountiful harvest of a dude.

Wurmcoil Engine - Ok so a artifact dude that can be basically a huge busted 6/6 with deathtouch/lifelink and make a dude with lifelink and a dude with deathtouch is just bad ass, this is considerating the fact that control in this deck is crucial, probably gonna be a 2 of in the deck itself.

So as of this point i'd say the creature base looks a little something like this

Creatures
4 Phyrexian Obliterator
2 Wurmcoil Engine
4 Skinrender
3 Grave Titan


Spells wise is where the control elements of the deck take off like a rocket with so much returning stuff, though the lack of card draw is a dissapointment, let's see what we can scrounge up for control aspects

Smallpox - Forcing a player to sac a creature, discard a card and lose 1 life for 2 black is perhaps the best thing you could do for a deck of this nature, 4 copies of these are a must for the deck itself.

Dismember - Lists should always have 4 of these somewhere in em, phyrexian mana is awesome, it breaks the fact you can throw it in a off color deck, go nuts and still smash face -5/-5 is nothing to scoff at either, plus we have things to follow up this card should one fail.

Memoricide - Perhaps a 2 of in the sideboard to deal with those nasty infect builds and tempered steel for post rotation, 4 mana to basically remove the best card in their deck for the rest of the game and other copies of the card in their deck, this is a no scoff at card.

Go for the Throat - Instantly gonna be the next big Doom Blade for the deck, 3 Doom Blade with 4 of these in a build, time to go nuts folks, removal at it's finest hour has arrived

Despise - Pretty much the strongest answer to walkers in this format, walker deck giving you a hard time, sideboard a few of these puppies in, draw one of these, make your opponent discard a walker or a creature and boom instant awesomeness, defintely a 3 or 4 of in the deck.

Praetor's Grasp - Deck robbing has never been so fun with this thing, sorcery speed it may be but 3 mana is still a good thing in this deck, remove a walker from your opponent's deck, put it into play yourself, boom instant happiness, good way to deal with infect/tempered steel decks.

So with that in mind let's take a look at what we gotta take out of the deck for rotation purposes, not a whole lot needs to be removed from this deck, but we do lose our card draw

Sign in Blood/Consuming Vapors/Corrupt and Mind Sludge all need to go from this list but what to replace all this good stuff with let's see if this works

Spells


2 Praetor's Grasp
4 Go for the Throat
3 Grasp of Darkness
4 Dismember
4 Smallpox
3 Doom Blade


Our sideboard is developing nicely as well at this point in time, let's take a look at it.

Sideboard

2 Memoricide
4 Despise
1 Doom Blade


Our landbase is gonna change a bit to suit the format, let's look at potential candidates for the deck for our land base.

Dragonskull Summit/Blackcleave Cliffs - If it isn't broken don't fix it, this particular fixing isn't necessary but does give us a bit of a advantage since we no longer really require swamps for the deck and Tectonic Edge is done for since Worldwake rotates as of October.

Buried Ruin - Surprisingly enough, this allows us to return out Wurmcoil's or Mimic Vat's at will, something to be considered for the deck.

So the landbase is gonna look a little something like this

Lands
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
3 Buried Ruin
17 Swamp


Our final product turns out to be something cool like this

Lands

4 Blackcleave Cliffs

3 Buried Ruin

17 Swamp

Creatures

4 Phyrexian Obliterator

2 Wurmcoil Engine

4 Skinrender

3 Grave Titan

Spells

2 Praetor's Grasp

4 Go for the Throat

3 Grasp of Darkness

4 Dismember

4 Smallpox

3 Doom Blade

Sideboard

2 Memoricide

4 Despise

1 Doom Blade

The sideboard for the deck has yet to be decided on, i was thinking something along the lines of 

+2 Lashwrithe 

+1 Mindslaver

+3 Bonehoard

+2 Hex Parasite

That should do it though, i've got a lot done for this one, this maybe a potential list for MBC as of Innistrad or perhaps not, but i'd like to think it works as of this point, so this is vergil signing off