I'm new to Modern and have always loved playing mono-black in other formats, so this is my attempted to build an affordable yet playable deck for a more challenging and competitive format. It's not fancy, but so far I have found it fast and effective.
GAMEPLAN
This was meant to be an aggro deck so the basic strategy is simple: we want to keep the board clear and deal damage early and often.
A lot of damage can be dealt in the early game with 1-drops like
Bloodsoaked Champion
and
Night Market Lookout
. The latter is one of my all time favourite cards and does serious work, including lifegain, which comes in handy when it's time to attach one of the lashes. Follow this up with getting out
Gifted Aetherborn
and
Dauthi Slayer
, which is basically unblockable.
By turn 3 we want to have either
Vampire Nighthawk
or
Phyrexian Crusader
out. The crusader is very resilient against burn and white removal and is the deck's alternate win condition.
By turn 4 we've hopefully drawn either
Lashwrithe
, which as a "living weapon" becomes a creature in its own right, or
Nightmare Lash
. Attach either of these to
Vampire Nighthawk
,
Phyrexian Crusader
, or even a
Dauthi Slayer
to deal 6 regular or infect damage. Then as we play more lands, the power of the lash increases.
Geralf's Messenger
comes in handy late game dealing direct damage to our opponent twice with the "undying" trigger. We can also attach a lash to him if our main attacker(s) have been removed.
Removal is key for this deck as well, since we want to keep our opponent from playing creatures with
Grasp of Darkness
,
Fatal Push
,
Hero's Downfall
for planeswalkers, and
Geth's Verdict
for the occasional boggle.
The land-base is simple...swamps, swamps, and more swamps.
SIDEBOARD
Again, I'm new to Modern and still learning the meta, so the sideboard is a work in progress.
Obviously
Damping Sphere
and
Infernal Reckoning
are meant to slow down Tron, whereas hand-disruption cards like
Distress
,
Thoughtseize
, and
Inquisition of Kozilek
can help with a variety of archetypes, including control and burn.
*Constructive criticism and commentary is welcome.
**I originally tried
Phyrexian Obliterator
in the deck but felt it under-performed and was usually killed on sight.
