Oooh Ive been looking for a deck that I would like to play and this may be it!

Have you play tested this? If so how did it go?

LOLIMADUCK, I have been testing this build for roughly two weeks on xmage but only recently added it here once I had most of the kinks worked out. As for how it plays, it can be phenomenal most games, but can run into trouble against Abzan Blue (which is probably more because I'm not familiar with the archetype) and the new Bant CoCo deck (reflector mage is pretty gnarly). I sleeve it up and play it tonight at FNM assuming the cards arrive today.

I have to say I love the deck, it is really resilient and synergistic so even when you are down you can still make a comeback. The sideboard is where you need to pay attention, and may still need improvements. I like to bring in Warping Wail, Visions of Brutality, and Transgress the Mind against Eldrazi Ramp decks. Being able to stop/slow their ramp spells is nice. But I had especially good luck playing Visions and Transgress immediately after a turn 5 or 6 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to gimp their entire deck.

Self-Inflicted Wound sides in well vs a lot of decks, especially Abzan decks. Ruinous Path and Transgress the Mind play well against stompy and walker decks. And while I don't particularly like to use Flaying Tendrils because it hurts my Kalitas strategy, it really is a beast against decks that like to Rally grind for the win.

I recently added MirrorPool, and have had little chance to play it, but in concept it is awesome. I can only imagine swapping it out if I grabbed Sea Gate Wreckage and subbed Ob Nixilis Reignited for a Murderous Cut. Other than that, the Maybe board is mainly for budgetary concerned folk as Kalitas is now half the decks cost. I'm hoping that when SOI is released they have a decent replacement for Bloodsoaked Champion because I'm toying with using Thornbow Archer or Despoiler of Souls as a replacement....which will slow down the game a little bit if I do.

Also, from what I can tell this decks weakness seems to be decks that are filled with mostly planeswalkers. While it can pull out some wins on those decks it is a lot harder to do than other decks.

Thanks for you reply! I really like the deck, Im fairly new to magic so I might of missed something but why do you have Caves of Koilos and Llanowar Wastes if your not running green or white, is it just to create generic mana? but why not just play swamps?Thanks!

The painlands are for colorless generation. You need to be able to generate colorless mana for Mirrorpool and Bearer of Silence without having unplayable colorless mana for the other 90-95% of the deck. You don't want to Mulligan because you have a grip of black cards and a bunch of colorless mana that you can't spend.

but why Caves of Kozilos and Llawnwor wastes?

Because in addition to generating colorless (different than generic), the painlands generate black mana. The green and white mana is not important to the deck, but there are no lands in standard that produce black and colorless only, so we use what is available and fit our needs.

The thing to remember is that the painlands are older than this set, so their <1> really represents non colored. Generic mana is a cost, but colorless mana is a mana type - previous to now, you could only ever use colorless mana to pay generic costs, hence the conflation. You can now use colorless mana (C) to pay colorless costs too. This does not meant that generic mana costs have changed - Artifacts still cost generic mana, and there are no cards before OGW that will require colorless mana in their costs. But cards from the set do have specific needs for the cost to be paid in colorless mana.

As stated above, Mirrorpool and Bearer of Silence both have mana costs that require colorless mana specifically (so does the sideboard card Warping Wail and maybeboard card Sea Gate Wreckage). You have to take into account that this set (Oath) introduced a new mechanic and land "color-type" with wastes, and to use those abilities I can't tap simple "black" mana to pay those costs because black is a color and the cost specifically requires colorless, not generic.

Ahhhhh, I get it, Thanks for the explanation. Did you end up playing at FNM?

Unfortunately my cards arrived this morning, so I wasn't able to sleeve up the deck for last night's FNM. More pilot testing online this week I guess.

Have you ever considered running 1 or 2 Empty the Pits? Personally I love this card just because its so easy to spawn a horde of zombies AND its an instant. They also give you a fairly easy way to pump up Kalitas for a languish board wipe or just extra healing from lifelink. Also I'd at least think about adding Infinite Obliteration to . Depending on your local meta Infinite Obliteration is so ridiculous. All in all I really like this deck. When I first made my Mono-Black Hand Control deck I really wanted to use Remorseless Punishment so it makes me happy to see it in such a solid deck!

Shockwave115, I don't know why but for some reason I thought that Empty the Pits was sorcery speed. Seeing that is instant changes a lot for how useful it is to the deck. The question is what to cut for it? As it stands, I think the only cut at its mana cost that I can afford is Ob Nixilis Reignited, but I'm not sure if that's an even trade. I think it is worth more testing, so it's going to see some online play for sure.

As for Infinite Obliteration, I don't think it fits the deck strategy of value trading. The deck is slow enough, and losing 3cmc on sorcery speed with no immediate board state advantage makes the card pretty risky. Topping that off, my 3 drop slot is pretty stacked as it is. What would you recommend I try subbing out for this card? Or should it be part of the sideboard?

Yeah I can see your point considering I have Dark Petition in my deck and that makes it more valuable for me since I can search it out it situations that need it. i'd really try to find a place for it, because it's so ridiculous, especially if you don't have any other delve cards. maybe even fit it into your sideboard if you can't find anywhere else for it

and yeah for Infinite Obliteration i'd recommend it being a sideboard card. it just seems too good for a monoblack deck to not at least sideboard to get rid of any real creature threat.

This deck looks like a lot of fun +1! If you are still looking into using Empty the Pits have you though about Corpseweft at all?

So after playing multiple games with a spike buddy of mine I think we have shored up a couple of the weaknesses in the deck. Our worst matchup (other than a mill deck) are the CoCo Reflectormage decks.

Ob Nixilis Reignited has been sideboarded. I don't want to completely get rid of him yet, but I find I'm playing other cards around him because i have lots of removal and card draw already.

Thought-Knot Seer has replaced one Bearer of Silence as it's body is so much bigger and can block. I use the Bearer of Silence about 50% of the time as a 4 drop, so the switch doesn't really effect the curve or strategy too much, but the benefits it has as a body are much better.

I subbed out one Duress for a third Languish, we really need more board wipes against Collected Company and go wide decks as one for one swaps aren't enough to stabilize with in that matchup.

In the sedeboard, which I feel needs the most work, we made two swaps. I pulled out one Self-Inflicted Wound and one Reality Smasher. I put in two Sidisi, Undead Vizier. This card is bonkers in my opinion as the tutor effect is great late game... And a 4/6 Deathtouch makes is just good on its own. I rarely side in ALL THREE Ruinous Path so I made room for an Infinite Obliteration.

I'm not sure we can fit Empty the Pits or Corpseweft, the cmc on those on board presence ruin the curve in the decks current state, but I'm still running some online tests to see their viability.

saturn999, I really appreciate the compliment. While I don't think the deck will ever be Tier 1, it comes out of no-where-land and takes the win from those decks often enough. The deck can definitely an FNM by storm, and I hope to keep it going over the next few rotations.

I hope SOI brings some great cards to play with, because when Bloodsoaked Champion rotates I'm going to have to make some serious adjustments. I didn't think the card would be so integral to the deck, but it's value has been beyond measure to me. I'm rambling now, but I feel there needs a great 1 drop to keep the deck going in the same direction.

Whatever way SOI cards go, I've wanted a solid monoblack deck in standard for a while, and I think if the pro's aren't putting one out it's on us the community to do so. I really enjoyed your deck, and I'm going to keep an eye on it for future ideas as standard progresses.

I agree with removing Drana, she was giving me issues as well in my mono black deck. Always a huge bulls eye on her back. :(

I love it. Was tinkering with my own version of mono black zombie sac control. Instead of the Thought-Knot Seer, have you considered subbing him for a Risen Executioner? Beefs your zombies, is a recurring threat, etc. Only downside is there aren't any delve spells I'd want to play to keep him cheap.

Question to your description. The Fleshbag Marauder/Bloodsoaked Champion thing can only work if you have 5 mana available and the Champion didn't die. Am I right?

Leudast, in my first attempt at running this deck I tried the Risen Executioner but ended up cutting it because of its cost out of the graveyard. I really am enjoying Thought-Knot Seer though, as it plays into the hand hate strategy later in the game to help Remorseless Punishment. I might consider trying him again in on face of one of the Erebos's Titan, the deck has changed considerably since it's first iterations and every idea is welcome.

Tunichtgut, that specific combo does take 5 mana, though the survival after combat of the Champion is not necessarily a factor completely. If the Champion dies in combat it is still possible to raid him back then sac him so the marauder can start on the field... You just don't get quite the board presence advantage that you would of he survived. Treat Fleshbag Marauder as removal, Bloodsoaked Champion just provides a sac outlet that can be easily brought back at some point... To include the turn he leaves.

So when SOI brings in Relentless Dead, it is looking like a good candidate to replace Bloodsoaked Champion for this deck. It also makes Risen Executioner look like a mod viable option in the deck. I'm keeping my eyes peeled, but the new set looks like it could pack all sorts of value into mono black and black/colorless.

Right now the sideboard is all jacked up. I'm testing different creatures out in preparation for when Relentless Dead drops. I'm debating between Thought-Knot Seer, Risen Executioner, and Erebos's Titan and combinations of each. They are all so powerful in there own right, that the choice is tough and I'm torn between which one to use or to attempt all 4 and shifting the mana curve even further right. Sidisi, Undead Vizier seems an intuitive sideboard with the Relentless Dead as well, and a good board option for Remorseless Punishment against decks running instant and sorcery hate like Negate, Dispel, and SOIs Invasive Surgery.

I also run a mono black deck but in a modern variant. I've been interested in a standard variant and I have to say this inspires me to try it out. A shame that Drana, Liberator of Malakir can't last more then a turn such a fun card. Good luck on your updates on this deck

gdm1989, thank you for the kind words. A thought on Drana, Liberator of Malakir, the card is bomb but this deck is designed around a strong removal package to facilitate Remorseless Punishment and a grindier meta. That being said I couldn't fit more than two of her in, and as such she was just easily removed and not pulled enough. I think in a more aggressive shell you could easily cut some Fleshbag Marauder's and Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip's to fill her as a better three drop. Couple that with some aggressive one and two drops and a top curve of Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet and you could have an extremely good and aggressive Mono Black shell. I just don't think she has a home in this particular deck strategy. Good luck on whatever deck you do build, and feel free to post it and your modern decks here. I love ideas and have had the itch to get into modern with the right deck.

Nice list. Sounds like you've had some growing pains with the transition to SOI, but it looks like things have started to come together. My mono-black plays more as a tempo deck, being more liberal with creatures (literally half my deck is creatures), so it's nice seeing what you've done on the control side of things. I LOVE the idea of running Remorseless Punishment, but I'm just not sure it would work in my brew.

I have found with Lili and Relentless Dead, it's not a bad thing to let my hand go dry, especially with Blighted Fen, Westvale Abbey  ^Flip, and Rogue's Passage. That fact has let me get rid of a lot of the card draw that slows the deck down. Just a thought.

Our decks are actually quite a bit different, but maybe you can find some inspiration in mine: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/relentless-zombicrats/