Gary Black Control

Pauper* Competitive Control Devotion Midrange Mono-Black

A55Destroyer69

Creatures (13)

• 2x Chittering Rats
• 2x Cuombajj Witches
• 4x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Liliana's Specter
• 3x Phyrexian Rager
• 1x Thorn of the Black Rose

Other Spells (7)

• 1x Death Denied
• 4x Sign in Blood
• 2x Wrench Mind

Removal Spells (14)

• 4x Defile
• 3x Geth's Verdict
• 3x Tendrils of Corruption
• 3x Chainer's Edict
• 1x Evincar's Justice

Enchantments (2)

• 2x Oubliette

Lands (24)

• 17x Swamp
• 3x Barren Moor
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 3x Witch's Cottage

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Sideboard

Other (15)

• 2x Relic of Progenitus
• 1x Cuombajj Witches
• 1x Death Denied
• 1x Echoing Decay
• 3x Choking Sands
• 3x Duress
• 2x Evincar's Justice
• 2x Feed the Swarm

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Maybeboard

Other (11)

• 3x Audacious Thief
• 2x Pestilence
• 3x Cast Down
• 2x Pharika's Libation
• 1x Raven's Crime

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Strongest deck I've ever played with (out of vintage). So much removal, and so much hate that it just locks down the opponent. Post-sideboarding there's just so much more that can happen. 2 bonus Witches can totally shut out aggro, even if it's at the cost of a bit of life. Also Evincar's Justice to shut out weenies even more. Anti-tokens, anti-graveyard. Even anti-lands, considering that Tron is a reasonably popular archetype in the format also. All this deck needs is some way to exile specific cards from an opponent's library and it would literally skyrocket in power (exile an etb effect creature, tron land, counterspell, etc. and you'll basically guarantee the win. Though, that would be an incredibly overpowered common that would more than likely end up banned for taking over the format).

Background

The only thing that particularly heckled this deck pre-banning was Delver   decks, having Daze and a few other Counterspells, while also having a considerable number of creatures, and then a considerable amount of draw. This deck works off attrition, and with the enemy playing cantrips here and there, cycling through their deck, it's hard to keep up on this ethereal battle.

Now, after the banning, snow decks are incredibly abundant, having Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher to pick up Arcum's Astrolabe to generate loads of card advantage and just grind the enemy out. This combo is really obnoxious, and difficult to take out as mono-black. Plus Kor Skyfisher can't be taken out from just one Evincar's Justice, plus flying, meaning that it's even worse than Delver   to deal with, considering no creatures have flying or even reach in this deck.

Winning

The main win condition is Gary, but since this deck is littered with removal, can viably win with just the 2/2s. This deck doesn't have any Gurmag Anglers, since they don't add anything to the deck except for a 5/5 without any form of evasion (but still one of the biggest creatures played in the format) that can be cast for anything down to . This sounds very strong, and is, but again, doesn't add anything to the deck. No 'target opponent skips their next draw step' (Chittering Rats) or even a draw spell (like Phyrexian Rager). Not a removal spell and no lifegain. So it doesn't really have a place in the deck. I could put it in the sideboard for other control matchups, but then I'd have to take out something else. Plus creatures that just chunk opponents aren't very good as sideboard cards. This would be like going to a hardware store for groceries.

The Deck

Power Spikes

At 3 lands, most of your single-target removal is up, and you can Oubliette something away.

This deck's first power spike is hitting a fourth land, because all but 4 cards can be cast. You can play your wraths and all your other spot removal spells (except flashing back Chainer's Edict), and can play a draw spell and removal spell in the same turn.

6-8 lands is when you can really start to take over the game. Chainer's Edict can be flashed back, extending your hand past what is in your actual hand, and you can refill your hand with a Death Denied cast (quite unfortunate, but not the end of the world, if it gets countered).

Strengths and Weaknesses

This deck is so strong because it shuts down most decks if it can get on top early enough. Great at trading 1-for-1 with spells, but a little less good at trading many-for-1. Can run over some decks if left unchecked for a few turns and the right combination of cards, allthewhile taking the opponent's threats off the table. Also fun to play. Really fun to play, nothing tedious that requires shuffling or milling, constantly proccing things. None of that; just straightforward, simple decision-making.

Breakdown

Mainboard

Control Aspects

Removal

So this deck is jam-packed with removal. Not to the teeth, since then there'd almost always be either lands or removal spells just sitting in my hand, or I'd just have to go topdecking, which is far less than ideal as a control deck. The best removal spell in this build is probably Tendrils of Corruption which is amazing, since there's so many ways to lose life in the deck and it can take down anything, so after about turn 5 or 6, it's basically just an OP Murder. Victim of Night is usually a catch-all removal spell, too with some exceptions, such as or even against one of the most unorthodox ways of winning - Insolent Neonate - which did happen to me once because I was just topdecking dud draws (just swamps|lands).

There's a few Edict effects for bogles, even at instant speed. Just great to have, and Chainer's is just generally good to run in black control decks even if I rarely have to use the flashback effect of it...

There's also the best sweeper in the format in the deck. Generally wipes the board of silly little goblins and whatnot. Unfortunately gets plenty of our things, too. This is potentially a game-changing card, as it will wipe lethal off the board for them, or at least take them a couple of extra turns to win, which we'll potentially draw something to deal with the threats in the meantime. There's only 1 in the mainboard because I regularly play against or even which don't really get hurt much from a Evincar's Justice.

Finally, there's Cuombajj Witches. These chicks can really slow down a lot of decks - or any kind of aggro (except bogles), which together take up a significant amount of the format meta. She's also very nice with Gary because of her mana cost.

panel:Creatures Chittering Rats is nice. He's not too broken, just a little annoying. He basically gives you card advantage and slows the opponent with their ability. Putting a card on top is quite powerful against another control deck or even an aggro deck. It does mean that they'll probably be drawing gas, but only because it was already in their hands. I've actually been locked against a control deck with Chittering Rats because I was playing a similar deck to this (but he was splashing Blue) before I actually understood how to build mono-Black Control, so I was playing UB with a Doom Blade in hand and a sea-gate in play and he handlocked me. So it's a very powerful card then, but also a generally powerful but still fair card normally.

Phyrexian Rager is a pretty decent addition to the deck. He's basically the black version of Sea Gate Oracle, as he essentially is a double effect - a creature and a cantrip. Basically he just digs a little deeper into the deck to find what we need, like a removal spell or a Gary or even a land for the next turn. Adds for Gary, too.

This is the big payoff of the deck. Gary is kind of like a Corrupt that's more playable. He can turn the game easily, especially when you play one after the other against . He has the highest power potential of all the cards in the deck, for sure.

Sideboard

There's also an extra Death Denied in the sideboard, just for against a black or even red control deck. Generally red control decks want to kill creatures and use blue to complement with card draw and counterspells and such, and black does the same thing. Given that there's only a handful of creatures in the deck, having some sort of extra creature return policy would be wise. Getting even a 4 or 5 mana cast off seems pretty nice - returning, say, a Chittering Rats, a Cuombajj Witches and a gray merchant|Gary to cast again. Sure, mainboard there's a copy of Death Denied and then a few Witch's Cottage but having the extra almost-resurrect card can be really nice to have.

Hate

Post-sideboarding there's a bunch of specialist hate that can come in. Mainboard there's a single copy of Bojuka Bog, which is there just in case, and then there's a couple of Relic of Progenitus. There's so many archetypes that are graveyard-centric, even delver decks make good use of the graveyard sometimes. Exhume decks, tormented existence decks, even most control decks use the graveyard with things like Gurmag Angler, Chainer's Edict, Forbidden Alchemy, Deep Analysis, etc.

Pharika's Libation / Feed the Swarm give the deck an out to anything from enchantment control decks to Pestilence and Oubliette from mirror matches, or can always double as an emergency removal spell if need be. It's always been green and white having the ability to destroy enchantments and never anything else, and it's a nice change to the colour pie.

One of the hardest decks - once online - to deal with is tron. Choking Sands helps slow it down, or even turn it back offline for a short while. Enough time to stabilise hopefully. Not getting blown out by a massive Rolling Thunder, or maybe a Fangren Marauder would be nice. I suppose even against some other things, like some sort of zoo landfall deck with a heap of bounce lands and dual lands would be okay, but the point of the land destruction is to destabilise mana bases, not just to slow down or annoy the opponent.

Duress is just genuinely a good card to have. There's so many aggro / creature-based decks that it's not very good mainboard, but against other control decks, combo decks (which are generally in a control shell), or any sort of blue deck generally it's basically a Thoughtseize. The ability to take a noncreature card, which could be anything from a Pestilence to a countersepll, a random draw spell to a combo piece. There are just so many good targets in so many matchups, but also so many bad matchups for it too. Sure, elves often runs Spidersilk Armor, even if just in the sideboard, it's an okay target but it really doesn't achieve that much, considering you can run an evindar's justice, for example, instead and catch out 3-4 creatures rather than just a single one that doesn't even do that much.

Removal

More honed removal in the sideboard. More Cuombajj Witches because, again, paying a few points of life to get rid of a few creatures just seems so good against so much of the format. Some more Evincar's Justices for the same reason. 4 mana for 2 Pestilence triggers seems okay, given that it would cost Pestilence 6 mana to do so (casting plus activating), but I'm not a big one on the card. I definitely do see its power, but I just have never clicked with it.

Echoing Decay can be seen as a somewhat crappy Disfigure, but reading everything it says just makes it sound so good against something like Presence of Gond or Battle Screech, even something crazy like Shadowborn Apostle. Sure, there's other things already there for multiplier decks like the ones stated, but not as cheap as 2 mana for potentially unlimited bodies.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	WURG
Legality	This deck is Pauper legal.
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.86
Tokens	The Monarch
Folders	Pauper
Based on	Gary Black euananddalesaccount PAU