{From Right Field is a column for Magic players on a budget or players who don’t want to play netdecks. The decks are designed to let the budget-conscious player be competitive in local, Saturday tournaments. They are not decks that will qualify a player for The Pro Tour. As such, the decks written about in this column are, almost by necessity, rogue decks. They contain, at most, eight to twelve rares. When they do contain rares, those cards will either be cheap rares or staples of which new players should be trying to collect a set of four, such as Wildfire, Llanowar Wastes, or Birds of Paradise. The decks are also tested by the author, who isn’t very good at playing Magic. His playtest partners, however, are excellent. He will never claim that a deck has an 85% winning percentage against the entire field. He will also let you know when the decks are just plain lousy. Readers should never consider these decks "set in stone" or "done." If you think you can change some cards to make them better, well, you probably can, and the author encourages you to do so.}
I am so excited. I just have to let you know what happened. Heck, it even kinda has something to do with the None More Black deck. Well, the sideboard, anyway. I was at {large, cheap, conglomerate store} picking up a gift for our non-denominational, inoffensive, just-happens-to-be-around-Christmas-but-it’s-not-a-Christmas gift exchange. As I was leaving, I noticed a lone Ravnica tournament pack on the bottom shelf of the Q-Tips / Bic Lighters / Scotch tape rack that divides the checkout lanes. It wasn’t hanging from a peg or anything. It was just randomly thrown on the bottom shelf, most likely by a mother who scolded her child. “I said you could have a fitty-cent pack of gum, not an eleven-dollar pack of cards!” I bought it because it looked so lonely.
I was going to wait until Harmon could open it for me, but I couldn’t resist. When I got in the car, I popped the thing open like a greedy kid unwrapping his biggest Christmas present. I went straight to the rares. First up: Eye of the Storm. Okay, not awesome, but very good, and I needed a fourth. (Plus, I think someone is going to break that card. Me, maybe?) Next up was Plague Boiler. Hot dammitty dig. My third one. Woo and hoo. Thanks to Harmon opening those other two for me, I had enough for the sideboard of None More Black if I were to build it in the real world.
I slide back the Plague Boiler to see the third and final rare. Holy Saint Nick! A real, honest-to-goodness black-bordered Birds of Paradise. The first BoP I ever pulled from a real pack. I couldn’t even touch it, my palms were so sweaty. I just slid the whole thing back into the box, not even looking to see why my Pro Tour Playa card was. (It ended up being Raphael Levy.) When I got home, I sent my pal Joe an e-mail asking if he wanted to trade for it. He offered two Grave-Shell Scarabs. I took the deal. Hey, I already owned four white-bordered BoPs. I only had one Scarab. I could not care less what color the border is on the card. All I care about is having a play set.
I took this as an omen. The question was: what kind of omen was it? Was God saying, “It’s gonna be a good day”? Or was he telling me, “Sorry, bub. It’s all downhill from here. I just wanted to give you something to brighten your day first.” I decided to fire up Magic Online and take None More Black into the Tournament Practice room to see which one it was. As a reminder, the (pretty much) final version of the deck was:
None More Black, v.3.0
36 Other Spells
4 Phyrexian Arena
3 Genju of the Fens
4 Hideous Laughter
4 Night of Souls’ Betrayal
4 Consume Spirit
4 Cruel Edict
4 Darkblast
1 Dimir Machinations
2 Disembowel
2 Nightmare Void
4 Kiku’s Shadow
15 Sideboard
2 Befoul
4 Blackmail
1 Genju of the Fens
4 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Nightmare Void
3 Plague Boiler
I pulled up a chair, hung out my freak flag, and waited.
Match 51: Of course, the first deck I face is another control deck. This particular one was a W/R Peace of Mind–Searing Meditation deck. Game one took twenty-six turns, and I had only nine cards left in my deck when it was over thanks to the Arena and Nightmare Void, which I Dredged often. It was huge, stripping him of (or making him discard to Peace of Mind) Lightning Helixes, Raiza’s Purifications, and Shining Shoals. I was two turns from killing him with a huge Genju-Swamp when he drew a second Searing Meditation, and that was the end of game one.
For game two, I brought in the fourth Genju, the four Blackmails, the three Plague Boilers, and the other Nightmare Void. When he dropped COP: Black, Honden of Cleansing Fire, and Ghostly Prison on consecutive turns, I was quite happy. I stripped his hand of a Terashi’s Grasp and then dropped a Plague Boiler. Sadly, he pulled a second Grasp just when the Boiler had two counters on it. After that, it was all him. (0-1)
Match 52: Well, crud. I was hoping that I’d continue my streak against Flores Blue, but it was not to be. In game one, I couldn’t get any creature kill. I finally wasted a turn casting Darkblast and bringing it back to kill a single Jushi Apprentice. No, Consume Spirits, though. In addition, I never got a single Cruel Edict, the best way to deal with Meloku after the Night of Souls’ Betrayal hits, which it did. Plague Boiler in game two was less than useful. Just as it was about to pop, along came Boomerang. After that, it was just a matter of him attacking with Meloku & Co. (0-2)
Match 53: I’m kinda getting tired of this. Another deck with Meloku. *yawn* This time, Meloku was unconventionally backed up with Green creatures. Oh, and mana hosing in both games. I got to four lands in game one and three in game two. When I’m stuck on three or four lands and my Meloku-and-countermagic-playing opponent isn’t, I lose. (0-3)
At this point, I was pretty p!ssed at how things were going. This deck is not that bad. The removal wasn’t showing up when it was supposed to even though the deck is pretty much all removal. Either that happened, or it was just hosing me. If I didn’t win the next couple, I was just completely overhauling the thing.
Match 54: This was more like it. A R/B beatdown deck. His guys tried to carry Umezawa’s Jitte, but they met untimely ends in both games. His Cranial Extraction in game two grabbed all of my remaining Genju, but I had one on the board already. It only takes one Genju to win. Through judicious use of Nightmare Void, I made sure that he could never kill that one. Finally, a win. (1-3)
I still wasn’t extremely pleased with the sideboard. I liked the discard, but I wanted a bigger effect than the Blackmails typically brought, even though Blackmail is some good on turn one. Searching through my collection, I spied three Persecutes. Hmmmmm… would that be good against the field? Only one way to find out. Out went the other Nightmare Void and two of the Blackmails, and in came three Persecutes. I already had the Persecutes from a previous experiment, meaning they cost me nothing extra. As far I could tell by searching the boards, though, those three would cost roughly another six to nine tickets. We’re still below forty tix, right?
At this point, the deck was:
None More Black, v.3.1
Spells (44)
Match 55: Golgari decks are great. If they have any glaring flaws against this mono-Black thing, they are a plethora of X/1 creatures and the fact that everything except for Birds of Paradise (and Elves, if they pack them) is Black. Shambling Shell is Black. The Scarab is Black. Putrefy is Black. In other words, Persecute can pretty much empty a hand. Game one was a long, tight affair. I killed a couple of his initial creatures with Darkblast and Cruel Edict. I was sure I was done for, though, when Golgari Germination hit. Then, I topdecked Night of Soul’s Betrayal. He kept casting creatures because they’d die and pump up his Restless Tomb, but he never swung with it because I kept a Genju back and waiting. Nightmare Void made sure things were safe. When I was about eight life, I finally got an Arena. Risky, I know, but I had to do it to offset his Dredging. After that, a couple of Consume Spirits was game.
For game two, I dropped the Cruel Edicts and one Arena for the three Persecutes and the two Befouls. I needed to be able to kill the Restless Tomb at a time other than when it was animated. Why drop the Edicts, though? Cruel Edict is less than good against a deck that can produce tokens. I presumed he’d be bringing in enchantment kill for the NSBs. If I didn’t get an NSB or he killed it, that would leave 1/1 Germination tokens to take the heat from the Edicts. Better to empty his hand.
The second game didn’t quite go as I’d hoped. I had to mulligan to a two-Kiku’s-Shadows-and-three-lands hand. He was all over me like an ugly stripper on the last guy in the joint before closing time. Game three went smooth as silk, though. I killed an Elf on turn 2. My third turn play was a Phyrexian Arena. I figured if he had enchantment destruction in hand, so be it. If not, I’d be drawing cards. He didn’t, and my fourth turn pulled up a Persecute. I named Black, taking three or four cards in his hand, leaving Kodama of the North Tree. On my next turn, Nightmare Void ended the Kodama threat. There was some jousting back and forth after that. Mostly, though, I was hitting him with the Genju-Swamp and Consume Spirits while he tried to block his way out of it. He couldn’t, and I won. (2-3)
Match 56: I think this was the first Gifts Ungiven deck that I faced. Game one can be recapped thusly: I didn’t stand a chance. Games two and three were much better. I dropped the Hideous Laughters for the three Persecutes and a Nezumi Graverobber. The three Genju came out for the other three Graverobbers. Finally, I dropped two Darkblasts for the Blackmails. Yes, all of the discard came in. It worked perfectly. With my first Persecute, I called Green. I wanted to grab Greater Good and any Recollects or Reclaims. I got one of each. On my next turn, I dropped an Arena and a Graverobber. He cast Gifts in response, grabbing Greater Good, Recollect, Kokusho, and Yosei. However, he didn’t have the double White to cast Yosei, so, I had him drop the two Green cards into the ‘yard. On his turn, he cast Kokusho. My turn consisted of me dropping a land, taking his Yosei with Nightmare Void, and casting Kiku’s Shadow on his Kokusho. At that point, he conceded.
I worried about Cranial Extraction and thought about bringing back in the Genjus for game three, but for what? I nearly dropped some Shadows since the Edicts almost always did what I needed. Then, I noticed that I still had two Darkblasts and the Dimir Machinations in. Those came out for three Genjus. My first turn was a Blackmail that got a Yosei. (He showed two and a land.) Clearly, he thought he’d be able to bring it back. Which meant that he had something to kill the Graverobber. Not a problem. I’d just wait to drop the Graverobber. Whatever he’d do to kill it, I could respond. Meanwhile, I took more cards and killed the few creatures he dropped. The game went on way too long. He’d try to bring something back; I’d take it from the ‘yard. He’d kill a Graverobber; I’d take something from his hand. Then, I saw something I hadn’t seen all match: Consume Spirit. A huge one made it safe to drop a second Arena. Drawing three cards per turn is fantastic. (3-3)
Match 57: Mono-Red can be scary for this deck. If None More Black doesn’t deal with early threats, Arena is never going to hit for fear of suicide. My deck performed quite well, though. His Frostling was met by Darkblast. His second-turn creature (sorry; forgot what it was) died to Cruel Edict. I dropped an Arena on turn 3 and NSB on turn 4. After that, his Genju and X/1’s were useless. He kept throwing burn at me which would have been fine had I not had Consume Spirits. For game two, the Blackmails and Persecutes came in for the Machinations and single copies of Darkblast, Kiku’s Shadow, Cruel Edict, and Genju of the Fens. With all of that discard hitting him (I got a first-turn land that he clearly ended up needing since he stalled on three) and the mass removal about which he could do nothing, he was quickly in topdeck mode. His burn was no match for my Genju and Consumes. (4-3)
Match 58: This guy’s handle was "Theron Martin." Was he the real deal? I have no idea because he wouldn’t even answer my question, but it doesn’t matter. It would be cool if it was, but it simply doesn’t matter. [For those who were not playing Magic five years ago, Theron was a columnist on Mindripper that did excellent weekly PTQ metagame breakdowns, but who was later banned from the game for an extended period of time for matchfixing. – Knut] He was playing the G/W deck. It’s creature-based. My deck crushes creature-based decks. Game one was all me. For game two, I dropped the Cruel Edicts because he had the City Tree. If I don’t have Night of Soul’s Betrayal out – and G/W decks might, shockingly, kill the NSB – Cruel Edict will only get a token. In came the two Befouls and two Persecutes. He won game two, but just barely, thanks to two well-timed Yosei. Had he not gotten the second one, Consume Spirit would have taken the last of his life. In game three, Persecute came up huge. I had an Arena out and quickly had him in topdeck mode. Anything he did, I dealt with it. Except, um, for winning the game. My Arena killed me. I never saw a Consume Spirit even though I was almost halfway through my deck when the game ended. (4-4)
Match 59: You know it’s not your night when you keep a two-land hand, your opponent keeps a one-land hand, and you’re the one who ends up getting hosed. He had a Sensei’s Divining Top and pulled out of his mess. I didn’t get a third land until turn 5. Sure, it gave me an Arena, but that didn’t matter. I didn’t have a fourth land until turn 9. By that time, he had Greater Good and some Legendary phat.
For game two, I knew that I’d have to hit his hand hard. That meant that the three Persecutes and the two Blackmails would come in. In addition, I knew that the mass removal in my deck was almost useless. Night of Souls’ Betrayal would stay because of Meloku-generated Annoyance tokens, but the Laughters could go. I also needed to keep stuff out of his ‘yard. That meant bringing in the Nezumi Graverobbers. That’s nine cards to bring in. I knew four that would be coming out in Hideous Laughter. The four Darkblasts could come out, too. That left one card to come out. I took out a single Cruel Edict. I wiped him out in game two thanks to a combination of hand destruction and him getting bit by the mana hoser. It was also when I noticed the anti-synergy between the Graverobber and the NSB. Oh, well. Nothing I could do now.
In game three, neither of us got hosed. It was a close and long game. I hit his hand with discard and had the Graverobber in play. I didn’t cast the NSB until I saw Meloku to take full advantage of my Graverobber. After about turn twelve, we were both in topdeck mode. That’s when he pulled better cards (Kokusho, Yosei, Goryo’s Vengeance) than I did (Swamp, Cruel Edict, a third Arena). I can’t say I was too disappointed. I was thisclose to having beaten two decks boasting Greater Good and Legendary Spirits. Still, it was a loss. (4-5)
This is it. The match that tells me whether my deck is simply mediocre (5-5) or not tournament worthy (4-6).
Match 60: Excellent. Another of those U/G Control decks. The only problem was that I didn’t get any of my -1/-1 spells in the game. No Darkblasts and no Night of Souls’ Betrayal. I did get a Cruel Edict to take care of Kodama of the North Tree, but Meloku tokens and Llanowar Elves ran over me. With no Arena to help me draw more answers, I was quickly toasted. For game two, I brought in the two Blackmails and the three Persecutes. Out went three Kiku’s Shadows and two Hideous Laughters. Thankfully, he tapped out to cast Meloku. That allowed me to slip Night of Souls’ Betrayal in. However, I couldn’t get anything to deal with the next turn’s Keiga. To be more precise, I couldn’t draw two things at a time to deal with it. Everything I cast was countered. I never knew that anyone could have so many counters in their hand. It was severely deflating to my ego. The 4/4 Keiga and the 1/3 Meloku went the distance. (4-6)
Sadly, None More Black ended up a lowly 4-6. That’s not something I’d suggest bringing to a tournament if you wanted to have a chance to win some packs. Clearly, though, it has huge potential. I’ve laid the groundwork. Can someone smarter than me make this better, please?
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There have been a ton of suggestions on this one. It really sparked some folks’ imagination. Heck, even Rizzo chimed in. The idea that grabbed me the hardest had to do with adding Transmute spells. I wasn’t too sure about that, since it sucked up so much mana and all, but I’m a convert now. This is the deck I started playing.
Transmute This
36 Other Spells
3 Phyrexian Arena
3 Genju of the Fens
3 Hideous Laughter
3 Night of Souls’ Betrayal
2 Dimir House Guard
4 Consume Spirit
2 Shred Memory
3 Cruel Edict
4 Darkblast
2 Dimir Machinations
2 Disembowel
1 Nightmare Void
1 Honden of Night’s Reach Around
3 Kiku’s Shadow
15 Sideboard
2 Befoul
2 Blackmail
1 Genju of the Fens
4 Nezumi Graverobber
3 Persecute
3 Plague Boiler
Rizzo mentioned on the boards that he often wanted twenty-four-and-a-half lands in his mono-Black decks. You can’t do that. You can, however, go to sixty-one cards, making the sixty-onest card another Swamp. In that way, the deck behaves like it has twenty-four-and-a-half lands.
A lot of the suggestions on the boards and in e-mails pointed out how strong Transmute is in a deck like this. For example, while I’m down to three actual Night of Souls’ Betrayals, the Dimir House Guards make it more like five in there. Ditto with Cruel Edict and Shred Memory. Oh, yeah, and, by the way, Shred Memory can grab Consume Spirit since the “X” in its casting cost is zero (unless it’s on the stack). That makes Consume Spirit’s converted mana cost two.
I’m not going to go into detail on how this is playing – I need to leave some mystery. However, the only game I’ve lost so far was against a G/B/u deck with Glimpse the Unthinkable and Vulturous Zombie. I was able to sweep his board, leaving only the Zombie, two different times. Yet, I could not get a Cruel Edict, Kiku’s Shadow, or a Shred Memory to kill the thing.
As usual, you’ve been a great audience. Next week, I’ll be out of town, but Billy will be filling in for me. You remember young Billy don’t you?
Chris Romeo
CBRomeo-at-Travelers-dot-com