Deck is all Mono Black mainboard (aside from the ability on Academy Ruins ) for consistency purposes and the highest mana cost is 3 with Ensnaring Bridge which is the decks initial creature shield. The deck mainboards 3 Surgical Extraction which is something I havent seen in any similar builds; the reason for three of them is 1. Shut down any potential combos your opponent might have. 2. Thin your own deck out (I do this very frequently to avoid further dead draws because once the lock is set up there is no need for spells like Duress, Thoughtseize, or Inquisition of Kozilek. 3. Eliminate anything that may be a problem in the graveyard or deck (preventing further interference). One of the first things you should do is either disrupt your opponent as fast as possible or play a lantern for that perfect stream of information. My turn one is typically a Thoughtseize (G1) or an Inquisition of Kozilek to sample what Im working with; turn 2 is the set up playing a Lantern of Insight and then any of the mill artifacts Codex Shredder, Ghoulcaller's Bell, or
Pyxis of Pandemonium
. (The turn 1-2 plays may change game 2-3 if needed Ex. Burn/Aggro) Game 1 you typically arent going to need to search much out with the Infernal Tutors other than the aforementioned milling artifacts, but game 2-3 this changes drastically as you will typically drop your hand as fast as possible discarding your own hand with cards like the aforementioned discard spells so you can fling out an Ensnaring Bridge, Abrupt Decay, Damnation or other needed removal goodies, I usually have no need to search out removal (part of the reason there is 0 removal mainboard)... the most frequent use of an Infernal Tutor for me has been to either grab more milling artifacts, or to grab another copy of Surgical Extraction although it has a new habit of grabbing a Grafdigger's Cage every now and then for those Persist creatures like Murderous Redcap and Kitchen Finks and then the occasional reanimator or dredge matchup which is usually pretty easy to deal with if you can get that cage, Relic of Progenitus, or Surgical Extraction early enough.
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