For a relatively inexpensive (not-including sideboard) casual/budget mono-black deck this thing is a beast and really fun to play. It's got a lot of that chewy necrotic black flavor you want when you are playing mono-black, and even without dropping extra cash on Liliana of the Dark Realms this deck has the capacity to crank out vast quantities of black mana.
There's a lot of room to customize this deck to suit your individual taste or the needs of any particular match-up.
The entire goal here is to get a single Crypt Ghast to survive his first turn on the battlefield. Then when you tap 4 swamps you generate 8 mana and can cast any of the other cards in this deck (as early as turn 5). Cards like
Army of the Damned
, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, and even Necropolis Regent can quickly give you a winning position. I've avoided duplicating legendary creatures so virtually every time you draw you're going to get something useful (unless you're getting skunked on mana).
If your Ghast's aren't materializing you can use Vampire Nighthawk and
Desecration Demon
to hold back your opponent's creatures until you can get your mana motor running. You can wipe out token armies with Sever the Bloodline or use it to kill specific creatures together with Murder or Victim of Night.
Use Duress and Mind Rot early and often, get your Crypt Ghast out there and start dropping huge cards on turn 5. Even when your creatures cannot attack you can do impressive damage with the 5x extort you get from a Pontiff of Blight and two Crypt Ghasts.
... and if all else fails pump mana into a
Liliana's Shade
and it quickly becomes a powerhouse on its own.
Some people will prefer a "tighter" library with all 4x of the biggest cards, but I prefer flavor and flexibility. One-two punches like Duress (to see what they have and take their big non-creature card) + Mind Rot (to take another 2 cards if what you saw scared you) give you flexibility, and why pay 3 mana (murder) when 2 will do (victim of night); sometimes a slightly different card does a better job.
Of course, since this is a mono-black deck its going to be relatively weak against enchantment decks-- but aggressive/lucky use of Mind Rot, Duress, and
Shimian Specter
can give you ways to manage the threat posed by enchantments. You can also throw in some Mutilate, Killing Wave, or
Glaring Spotlight
if you want more anti-creature-enchantment/hexproof abilities.
Unless I'm fooling myself (and I might be, actually) I spent under $30 putting this together (main deck not sideboard) and its been worth every penny.
