The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Standard Competitive Devotion Discard Mono-Black

SkyCake

Creature (15)

• 2x Black Cat
• 4x Fate Unraveler
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 4x Master of the Feast
• 2x Pharika's Chosen
• 2x Typhoid Rats

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana Vess

Land (23)

• 2x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 3x Radiant Fountain
• 17x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Waste Not

Artifact (2)

• 2x Whip of Erebos

Instant (4)

• 4x Hero's Downfall

Sorcery (11)

• 4x Mind Rot
• 3x Sign in Blood
• 4x Thoughtseize

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Sideboard

Creature (6)

• 2x Agent of Erebos
• 2x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 2x Phyrexian Revoker

Artifact (1)

• 1x Whip of Erebos

Instant (4)

• 2x Bile Blight
• 2x Cruel Feeding

Sorcery (4)

• 2x Drown in Sorrow
• 2x Stain the Mind

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This deck is all about punishing our opponents for having a hand by either making them get rid of it or taking damage through draws. Key to this deck is the underrated and neglected Waste Not.

This enchantment is a powerhouse with any discard engine backing it. Opponent discards a creature and I get a free Zombie? Done. Lose a land and I get free mana? Sure. Dump anything else and I get to draw a card? Hell. To. The. Yes. To get all these goodies we're relying on four sources of discard: Thoughtseize, Mind Rot, Black Cat and Liliana Vess.

Now, we can't simply rely on discards to win us the game (no The Rack or Shrieking Affliction in this format). So while we're picking apart our opponents hand we must punish them for trying to refill it. Enter Fate Unraveler. Guaranteed 1 point of damage per turn, this old hag can really do damage against any draw spells our opponent uses to refill their hand after they've lost it to play or discard spells. For big damage, Master of the Feast is our "late game" bomb ( for a 5/5 flyer!?), whose supposed disadvantage of drawing our opponents cards complements nicely with Unraveler to get in that extra bit of damage. Finally, Typhoid Rats and Pharika's Chosen buy us the time we need to build up our engine.

~ Remaining Spell-base ~

Sign in Blood: Supplements the need to refill an opponents hand (or ours!) with the added benefit of dinging them for at least 2 life, 4 if we have an Unraveler out.

Whip of Erebos: Being a Black Mage hurts. A lot. Between sign in blood, thoughtseize, Polluted Delta, and our opponents we're taking a lot of damage in the early game. By whipping it good we can recoup a lot of that life and even make use of our creatures who departed us before their time.

Hero's Downfall: It's downfall, you know why it's here.

~ Sideboard ~

Here's the TL;DR version

Perilous Vault: For decks that deal in lots of noncreature permanents.

Cruel Feeding: Specifically for burn decks, though could be useful against aggro too. For when we need to gain life FAST.

Bile Blight + Drown in Sorrow : Definitely for aggro/tokens, 'nuff said.

Erebos, God of the Dead: For any pesky lifegain shenanigans. Drawing more cards is always nice too.

Stain the Mind: Really for Jeskai ascendancy but also useful against control decks with only one or two win conditions.

Phyrexian Revoker: Superfriends beware.

Tormod's Crypt: Lots of delve in the meta right now, Most people don't see this one coming.

Thanks for the read, comments, suggestions, and +1s. I'm always looking to improve decks and never consider mine "finished," so all feedback is most welcome. If you enjoyed this ride on the Hate Train and want me to take a look at your deck I'd be more than happy too, just let me know!

Cheers.

Top Ranked	Achieved #58 position overall 10 years ago
Date added	10 years
Last updated	9 years
Key combos	Bile Blight + Drown in Sorrow
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 2 Mythic Rares 25 - 5 Rares 0 - 6 Uncommons 17 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.59
Tokens	Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Decks I like, Cool Decks, Discard, Neat decks by others, Liked, new standard stuff, Cool Decks, Pretty cool decks, Cool (midrange $), Decks