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E Tu, Bontu? (Budget Mono-Black Aggro)

Standard Budget Mono-Black

Phenn


Sideboard


Maybeboard


Here's my personal favorite deck at the moment. Originally, it was a mono-black midrange creature-swarm that did well into decks running a lot of removal or small creatures. It can block with impunity and end up often trading one-for-two. Running a few unusual combos, too, which helps keep opponents surprised.

The original version struggled into midrange creature decks, or reanimator monster decks, so I've made some tweaks. I've also built out a BW version of the deck that brings a lot more control to the board, if that's your cup of tea: Bontu's Angels (BW Aggro).

As this is primarily a creature deck, we'll be running between 23-26 creatures. I'll provide the base build first, then offer options for customization based on price point. The general idea is to build a deck that's perfectly okay with our creatures dying. Everything's built to make our opponent's removal worth less, either being wasted or costing them something.

MAINBOARD

3x Bontu the Glorified - Bontu is the deck's namesake. She's a massive threat that most people won't see coming given her relatively low play rate. She's also tricky. Bontu can't attack or block unless one of our own creatures died during the turn. Fortunately, that's what we're building the deck around. She has her own sac outlet, letting us drain for 1 and Scry 1. In addition, Menace and Indestructible make her hard to deal with. We'll run 3 copies (4 if you're feeling frisky). It doesn't matter if we get multiples in hand, because the Legendary Rule counts as a "death." We can play and sac the new copy of Bontu, activating the one already on the battlefield.

3x Yahenni, Undying Partisan - This Aetherborn is our second big threat. She's also packing on-demand Indestructible, which also functions as a manaless sac outlet. As opposing creatures die, she'll get bigger, particularly if we're running Fatal Push in the maindeck. We'll run 3 (or 4 depending) of her as well.

3x Bone Picker - This vulture is a fun card to play that makes for some crazy combos. We're already saccing our own creatures, and with Deathtouch or Fatal Push also in our deck, the chances of playing the vulture for is very, very high. A 3/2 body with Flying and Deathtouch that can come out long before turn 4 is a big deal.

3x Plague Belcher - This gas-filled puppy is a massive powerhouse on turn 3. We're already geared to sac creatures, so we have targets to drop his two -1/-1 counter onto. A 5/4 body with Menace is a big threat at all stages of the game. His second ability also synergizes with Doomed Dissenter and adds to our ping/drain.

4x Scrapheap Scrounger - The junkyard dog is pretty common in black decks that play with the graveyard. It's no different in ours. A big body for cheap that we can get back onto the battlefield make it ideal. We can sac it and return it pretty easily.

4x Dread Wanderer - Solid 1-drop that gives us early power and late-game recur for saccing to Bontu or Yahenni. His creature type makes him relevant for Gas Puppy's trigger.

4x Wretched Camel - The dude is another sac target and early force. Opponents will be reluctant to block it early on risk of having to discard. Later, we can sac it and force the opponent to discard on our tempo.

SIDEBOARD

Just one creature in the sideboard:

Ruin Rat - A 2-drop 1/1 with Deathtouch doesn't seem that great, unless we're facing Aggro Red and want to keep Earthshaker Khenra forever dead, or into any reanimator deck. It's decent into Zombie tribal as well.

MAYBEBOARD

Just a few thoughts here. Feel free to make suggestions.

Noxious Gearhulk - With the prevalence of Abrade, running artifact creatures is a little more risky, but this big guy gives us a late-game answer to beatdown or ramp decks. They can come in instead of a couple of Bontu or Plague Belcher.

Doomed Dissenter - On the surface, this poor guy seems pretty underwhelming. And he kinda is. But in our deck he becomes a valuable tool. His ability discourages opponents from block his attack early (why give us a bigger body?), but it also makes him an excellent target for Bontu's ability, Yahenni's sac, or as a place to dump the -1/-1 counters from The Gassiest Puppy. Finally, we can recur Doomed Dissenter with Supernatural Stamina, looping for 3 power across two bodies.

Gifted Aetherborn - This card plays well with our deck, but is less than ideal to sac for Bontu or Yahenni. A 2/3 Deathtouch/Lifelink is very nice into aggressive decks, however, where we need to keep life totals high and discourage aggressive attacks. They can come in for That One Really Screwed Dude if we need to simply stand and fight.

Dreamstealer - Being a 3-drop is what makes me second-guess the card. I want to be able to dump out a lot of 1-2 drops (helped by the Monument, and this is going to compete with our big guys already. That being said, it's a fantastic card for what this deck is trying to do otherwise. Menace, opposing player discard, and comes back from the graveyard as a massive BEAST. Even before it dies, pumping Dreamstealer with Supernatural Stamina makes for huge momentum swing. Will be testing this in place of Scrapheap Scrounger.

Glint-Sleeve Siphoner - Another 2-drop with Menace that gives us a form of card draw through energy. The life loss on card draw isn't an issue with all our other sources of drain, but generating energy to use it regularly can be tricky in a deck that otherwise runs no energy generation. Should we chose to run this gal, we'll need to side in 4x Aether Hubs.

Festering Mummy - Some synergy with Plague Belcher, and it would act as a kind of removal for early creatures when sac'd. Doesn't bring a whole lot to the table, however, if it lives.

Filigree Familiar - I like the card's art. Apart from that, the lifegain and card draw are nice, but the 3 CMC is a bit steep for what we're doing in this deck. Particularly since it doesn't benefit from Bontu's Monument.

LANDS

4x Desert of the Glorified - Since we're running slightly more lands than needed for our curve, these cycling lands help keep us from getting flooded.

2x Ifnir Deadlands - We have to make sure we have at least one desert out for Wretched Camel , and these help. Also nice as a removal spell later in the game.

17x Swamp - 'Cause this is a mono black deck.

(Possible addition) 4x Aether Hub - Only if you're running Glint-Sleeve Siphoner.

MAINBOARD

3x Bontu's Monument - In our deck, this is good. Super good. We're running a lot of cheap creatures, so the drain ability will actually do quite a bit for us. Being able to cast our sac targets for means we'll often be able to dump a bunch back onto the battlefield in second main phase.

4x Supernatural Stamina - Not only does this give us a nice little combat trick, but it also means we can keep our sac targets on the field longer. We can often get two Zombies out of a Doomed Dissenter with this. It can often make for surprising blockers, turning a chump blocker into a guaranteed kill without losing the creature.

4x Fatal Push - King of black removal. It's excellent, insta-buffs Yahenni, Undying Partisan, and is super easy to Revolt in this deck, even at instant-speed. You can cast Fatal Push, target a 3-4 CMC creature, then activate Yahenni or Bontu's abilities before it resolves.

2x Never / Return - Deals with anything too big for Fatal Push, as well as plainswalkers. Its second cast gives us graveyard hate and another sacrificeable body.

SIDEBOARD

3x Doomfall - Exile and hand hate that can answer problematic gods, or anything out of reach of Fatal Push.

3x Dispossess - A way to deal with artifacts. Too hard to use mainboard without knowing what's in your opponent's deck.

3x Crook of Condemnation - Another way to deal with decks that play with the graveyard.

2x Bontu's Last Reckoning - This is a card we can play very easily in our deck. If our stuff dies, we benefit from all the triggers. We're playing a low-curve manabase and cheap creatures, so the exert doesn't hurt us as badly as it would another deck. Finally, it answers go-wide decks as well as energy decks running the otherwise untargetable Bristling Hydra.

MAYBEBOARD

Subtle Strike - A removal/buff alternative to Fatal Push. Weaker in general as removal, but can buff our most important creatures like Yahenni and Bontu.

Lay Bare the Heart - A little more flexible than Harsh Scrutiny, but also more expensive.

Morbid Curiosity - Card draw and sac outlet.

Torment of Hailfire - A big card in any black attrition deck. Not sure how feasible it is compared to the other hand hate. I may sub this in for Unburden.

PLAYSTYLE

The deck runs like a typical midrange creature deck. Get your 2-drops out, stay conservative in your early attack phases, and wait for your 3-4 drops to come onto the field.

Turn 1 - Get out a Dread Wanderer or leave up mana for an early Fatal Push. Don't blow Fatal Push, however, on something that'll be inconsequential in later turns. Consider holding it to play a 1-mana Bone Picker.

Turn 2 - Play your 2-drop. If you have one of your sac creatures in-hand (Bontu, Yahenni, or Belcher), get a Wretched Camel out. Otherwise go with Scrapheap Scrounger. If you have both Fatal Push and Bone Picker in hand and the opponent played a creature, you can play Fatal Push to get Bone Picker out for .

Turn 3 - Depending on the speed at which your opponent's playing you can either get out your Bontu the Glorified or Yahenni, Undying Partisan or Plague Belcher, or you can play Bontu's Monument. The monument will ramp later turns, so I typically try to get it out as early as possible.

Turn 4 - Get out your 3-drop, and, if you played Bontu's Monument last turn, as many 2-drops as you can. I usually try to start getting aggressive at this point.

Turn 5+ - Keep the beatdown going. Sac your cheap creatures smartly. Always remember you can get Scrapheap Scrounger and Dread Wanderer back from the graveyard, especially with all the other creatures we'll be killing.

TIPS AND TRICKS

This deck's not terribly complicated, but it does have a few interactions and combos that take some prep to use.

Supernatural Stamina - This card's most powerful attribute is its ability to return creatures that die back to our battlefield. Use it to keep important creatures on the battlefield if you have no cheap ones to sac. Use it to surprise attacking opponents with a killing block without losing your creature.

Plague Belcher + Supernatural Stamina + Wretched Camel - This little combo does a lot fast. Attack first with Wretched Camel and surprise your opponent with Supernatural Stamina. Then drop the -1/-1 counters from Plague Belcher on Wretched Camel , trigger both the camel's and belcher's abilities, then recur Wretched Camel .

Scrapheap Scrounger - You can have some fun with this card. Attack with it, then sac it with Yahenni, Undying Partisan to get out a cheap Bone Picker, then resurrect it with its ability. Or just sac it to Bontu the Glorified for the drain and scry, then resurrect it.

Bontu the Glorified + Yahenni, Undying Partisan - These two together are scary. Yahenni can cover the sac needed when you're tapped and can't activate Bontu. Both have indestructible and can make for scary blockers. If left unchecked, Yahenni can get rather big. And remember! The Legendary Rule counts as a creature "dying," so you can always play multiple copies of either one and sac that new copy to activate Bontu.

Suggestions

Updates Add

0-2 v Temur Energy

My first match with the deck into strong meta builds, and it did alright all things considered. I was reminded that the only point of health that matters is the last one. Lost both games with my opponent low enough to kill next turn, but didn't have the removal necessary to deal with his creatures. Bontu's Monument did massive work both games.

Big lesson from the match was one I anticipated: this deck needs better and faster removal. Harsh Scrutiny is good, but slow, and forces you to spend mana proactively hoping to hate out a potential threat. I'll probably end up putting in the full playset of Fatal Push.

1-2 v Gearhulk Reanimator

First game was over pretty fast because my opponent got mana screwed and I managed to get out three Bone Picker on turn 4. Games two and three lasted longer, and I had the same race going that I had versus Temur energy, but couldn't do anything once they got God-Pharaoh's Gift out. The Gearhulks just kept coming.

I made the mistake of keeping Wretched Camel in my deck for games two and three, even though I knew what he was running. Between that and Harsh Scrutiny, I just helped him win faster. I should have sided in Noxious Gearhulk, but didn't think to.

This was a matchup that Ruin Rat would have been huge in. It's potentially going in for Doomed Dissenter (see below) after tonight.

2-0 v RG Pummeler

My opponent was running the budget version of the Pummeler deck, so no Rhonas the Indomitable or Glorybringer to worry about. Even still, it turned into a beat down race trading blows all the way to the end.

If I had better removal, the games would have ended far sooner. Into creature decks, the discard mechanics in this deck worked well and kept things even.

2-0 v RB Scarab Nest

The hand hate really shone in this matchup. the Camels and Harsh Scrutiny came through big in screwing with my opponent's opening plays. They were running big monsters, with few midrange creatures. So the games were over before my opponent could really get anything out on the field that was threatening.

Yahenni, Undying Partisan got huge in the second game (an 8/8) due to my Menace creatures being blocked by all the scarab tokens.

Lessons Learned

  1. Deathtouch is very powerful, as is the threat of an opponent having to discard a card. But my opponents were far more willing to take the hit than I anticipated. Once my opponents learned what I was trying to do with the deck, they weren't blocking my attacks.

  2. Doomed Dissenter just doesn't jive well in the deck. The synergy with Plague Belcher is awesome without a doubt. But Dissenter just doesn't synergize with any of the other creatures in the deck. It becomes pure sac fodder. Ruin Rat is definitely going in the deck in his place.

  3. Plague Belcher is a great card when it comes out on an already-filled board. But in most of my games tonight, it was a standalone or paired with Bontu, which made for a tricky situation. I'll most likely drop it to a 3-of or 2-of, alongside some other tweaks.

  4. Bontu herself was trickier to play than I anticipated. She's not much of an attacker by herself, and, because she needs sac fodder, is often by herself. I only won one game specifically thanks to her sac-to-drain ability, which brought my opponent within kill range. She may drop to a 2-of.

  5. Yahenni, Undying Partisan was also trickier. Once I get some more removal in the deck, she'll be in better shape. As it was, she only got counters in one game.

  6. I'll be testing this deck with some white added in next week.

Comments

Date added 7 years
Last updated 7 years
Key combos
Legality

This deck is not Standard legal.

Rarity (main - side)

6 - 0 Mythic Rares

13 - 9 Rares

22 - 3 Uncommons

4 - 3 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.13
Tokens Zombie 2/2 B
Folders Standard ideas, mono black
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