How many of you out there were playing when Wizards released Torment? Probably not too many. For those that don’t know, the set contained: [card]Chainer’s Edict[/card], [card]Mind Sludge[/card], Mutilate, and [card]Nantuko Shade[/card]. These cards were added to a Standard environment that already included Corrupt and Duress. If you’re looking at those parts and thinking “Yeah. That looks like a sweet deck,” let me introduce you to the rug that really brought the room together:

[card]Cabal Coffers[/card].

The deck practically built itself.

Some of you may have heard of the legendary “Mono Black Control” deck. Well, this was it at the height of its power. The list that performed at Tier 1 levels during the time of Odyssey block is the deck that is still talked about today. Whenever one of its key parts gets reprinted, its fans starting brewing decks in the margins of their class notes and presentation plans. People are waiting with baited breath for the time when it will rise again.

Why? Because it was a really cool deck. It gave those who wanted to play Control without playing permission a really easy way to do it. It breathed some variety into Control match-ups for those that were sick of playing against the “draw-go” Blue approach. Its positive reception endeared it to a very large cult following within the game, myself included.

Enter: Commander

The dominance of Mono Black is long gone – Odyssey block was last legal in Standard over ten years ago. Thankfully, like many old archetypes that will probably never have their favourite toys reprinted, Mono Black lives on in the eternal formats. Pox and Demon Stompy survive in Legacy while Suicide and Control thrive in Pauper. Meanwhile, in Commander, anything continues to be possible.

I myself have taken a run at Mono Black a few times over the years. My first attempt was zombie tribal, led by [card]Geth, Lord of the Vault[/card]. My second build was [card]Toshiro Umezawa[/card] combo. The release of the Sworn to Darkness preconstructed deck this year saw me smash Toshi into that list and create:

Blackest Heart – Jackson Miller

[deck]
[Commander]
1 Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
[/Commander]
[Lands]
1 Arcane Lighthouse
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Crypt of Agadeem
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Lake of the Dead
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
30 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
[/Lands]
[Spells]
1 Black Market
1 Black Sun’s Zenith
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Death Cloud
1 Decree of Pain
1 Entomb
1 Exhume
1 Exsanguinate
1 Grim Return
1 Hero’s Downfall
1 Imp’s Mischief
1 Innocent Blood
1 Insidious Dreams
1 Lashwrithe
1 Living Death
1 Malicious Affliction
1 Mutilate
1 Necropotence
1 Pestilence
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Promise of Power
1 Repay in Kind
1 Silence the Believers
1 Slaughter
1 Smallpox
1 Sol Ring
1 Spoils of Blood
1 Sudden Spoiling
1 Suffer the Past
1 Syphon Mind
1 Tragic Slip
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
1 Archfiend of Depravity
1 Bane of the Living
1 Big Game Hunter
1 Bloodgift Demon
1 Burnished Hart
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Dread
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Grave Titan
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Grim Haruspex
1 Harvester of Souls
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Magus of the Coffers
1 Mardu Strike Leader
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Merciless Executioner
1 Nirkana Revenant
1 Ophiomancer
1 Phyrexian Delver
1 Puppeteer Clique
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Seizan, Perverter of Truth
1 Sepulchral Primordial
1 Shriekmaw
[/Creatures]
[/deck]

This is my take on a Mono Black Control list. Commander is in many ways the perfect format for this kind of deck. Back when Torment was in Standard, the acceleration provided by [card]Cabal Coffers[/card] was what made the deck largely competitive. In the longer games of Commander, the unreliable access to that acceleration is largely mitigated by the pace of the game.

Not to say that decks like this are completely devoid of early plays. Entomb/Exhume is always a brutal one-two punch (usually targeting Kokusho or [card]Rune-Scarred Demon[/card]). [card]Phyrexian Arena[/card] and [card]Necropotence[/card] can get the extra resources flowing early, while [card]Burnished Hart[/card] and [card]Crypt Ghast[/card] can fix up mana troubles. However, if you examine the curve of the deck, you’ll notice most of the low points are inhabited by removal. The usual approach for Mono Black Control (when you can’t always rely on the Coffers) is: suppress first, dominate later.

A steady stream of cards like [card]Fleshbag Marauder[/card], [card]Big Game Hunter[/card], [card]Shriekmaw[/card], Smallpox, and [card]Slaughter[/card] will maul opponents attempting to set up their own plans and clear the way for things like [card]Sepulchral Primordial[/card] and [card]Grave Titan[/card].

Sometimes they’ll have answers for your threats, but that’s when you cast [card]Death Cloud[/card] for 10 followed by [card]Spoils of Blood[/card]. Other times you’ll dump 39 life into [card]Necropotence[/card], cast [card]Repay in Kind[/card], and then scroll Ob Nixilis up. I missed out on the joy of playing the Coffers deck the first go around, but now I have the chance to make up for lost time.

Throwing Shade

Only showing off a single decklist would be doing a disservice to Mono Black as an archetype. Control is only one route you can take when you’re sculpting a list around swamps. This next list shows what you can do when you take all that black mana and channel it directly towards your opponent’s face:

Fifty Shades – Daniel Hewak

[deck]
[Commander]
1 Ihsan’s Shade
[/Commander]
[Lands]
1 Barren Moor
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Crypt of Agadeem
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Polluted Mire
33 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
[/Lands]
[Spells]
1 Akroma’s Memorial
1 Bad Moon
1 Caged Sun
1 Diabolic Revelation
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Empty the Pits
1 Exsanguinate
1 Extraplanar Lens
1 Hot Soup
1 Imp’s Mischief
1 Increasing Ambition
1 Jet Medallion
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Midnight Covenant
1 Midnight Recovery
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Shade’s Form
1 Sol Ring
1 Tainted Strike
1 Vedalken Orrery
1 Whip of Erebos
1 Whispersilk Cloak
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
1 Adaptive Automaton
1 Butcher of Malakir
1 Cadaver Imp
1 Chilling Shade
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Crypt Ripper
1 Cursed Ronin
1 Dark Impostor
1 Darkling Stalker
1 Deepwood Legate
1 Disciple of Griselbrand
1 Drifting Shade
1 Dungeon Shade
1 Evernight Shade
1 Fetid Horror
1 Frozen Shade
1 Gateway Shade
1 Ghostly Changeling
1 Gravedigger
1 Harvester of Souls
1 Hex Parasite
1 Hoar Shade
1 Liliana’s Shade
1 Looming Shade
1 Magus of the Coffers
1 Nakaya Shade
1 Nantuko Shade
1 Necropolis Regent
1 Nightwing Shade
1 Nirkana Revenant
1 Perilous Shadow
1 Seizan, Perverter of Truth
1 Slithering Shade
1 Undercity Shade
1 Vampire Hexmage
1 Whispering Shade
1 Zof Shade
[/Creatures]
[/deck]

This masterpiece comes from the brilliant mind of Daniel, my playgroup’s mad deck designer (he’s at 16 Commander decks and counting). While it doesn’t actually contain fifty shades (yet), it is the only example of shade tribal that I have ever seen. This beautiful brew does a great job of illustrating a Mono Black deck that uses the absurd amounts of mana that [card]Cabal Coffers[/card], [card]Crypt Ghast[/card], and [card]Nirkana Revenant[/card] can generate to get aggressive. [card]Caged Sun[/card], [card]Extraplanar Lens[/card], and [card]Liliana of the Dark Realms[/card] help prop up the more conventional Mono Black staples and guarantee even greater returns when the combat step comes around.

Equipment like [card]Hot Soup[/card] and [card]Whispersilk Cloak[/card] ensure that your shades can connect for truly ludicrous amounts of damage. If your spooky minions aren’t able to get the job done, [card]Exsanguinate[/card], [card]Diabolic Revelation[/card], and [card]Empty the Pits[/card] also provide constructive outlets for all of that excess mana.

The Eyes Have It

While I am talking about Mono Black, I may as well go for the hat trick. I’ve checked off Control and Aggro, let’s finish things up with a Combo list. This list comes from a friend I made back when I was blogging regularly on Tumblr. While that blog has gotten less use now that I am writing here, mtgjoz was kind enough to supply me with a list of his for this article:

Xiahou “Combo King” Dun – mtgjoz

[deck]
[Commander]
1 Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed
[/Commander]
[Lands]
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Deserted Temple
1 Maze of Ith
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Petrified Field
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
24 Swamp
1 Terrain Generator
1 Thespian’s Stage
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Vesuva
1 Volrath’s Stronghold
1 Winding Canyons
[/Lands]
[Spells]
1 All Is Dust
1 Beacon of Unrest
1 Beseech the Queen
1 Black Sun’s Zenith
1 Breeding Pit
1 Brittle Effigy
1 Caged Sun
1 Contamination
1 Curse of the Cabal
1 Damnation
1 Decree of Pain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Dregs of Sorrow
1 Elixir of Immortality
1 Expedition Map
1 Exsanguinate
1 Gauntlet of Power
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Journeyer’s Kite
1 Karn Liberated
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Liliana of the Dark Realms
1 Liliana Vess
1 Mind’s Eye
1 Mutilate
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Null Profusion
1 Oblivion Stone
1 Overwhelming Forces
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Phyrexian Reclamation
1 Praetor’s Grasp
1 Promise of Power
1 Read the Bones
1 Reanimate
1 Rings of Brighthearth
1 Scrabbling Claws
1 Staff of Domination
1 Staff of Nin
1 Sword of the Paruns
1 Temporal Extortion
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
1 Burnished Hart
1 Crypt Ghast
1 Duplicant
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Liliana’s Shade
1 Magus of the Coffers
1 Myojin of Night’s Reach
1 Nezumi Graverobber
1 Nirkana Revenant
1 Phyrexian Gargantua
1 Reiver Demon
1 Rune-Scarred Demon
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Steel Hellkite
1 Walking Atlas
[/Creatures]
[/deck]

This deck combines the mana-hoarding of the Shades with the slow-roll of Ob Nixilis. The ultimate goal here is to obliterate all resistance with cards like [card]Overwhelming Forces[/card] and [card]Curse of the Cabal[/card] before ending the game by abusing the deck’s Commander and [card]Rings of Brighthearth[/card]. The Coup de Grace can come from a steady stream of [card]Praetor’s Grasp[/card]s or an unfortunate number of [card]Temporal Extortion[/card]s.

Within the combo/control shell there exists cool micro-interactions that can help subjugate the board. Things like Breeding Pit/Contamination or Magus of the Coffers/Sword of the Paruns/Staff of Domination are all within easy reach thanks to the proliferation of tutors in the list. The colourless sub-theme consisting of utility artifacts, Kozilek, Karn, and [card]All Is Dust[/card] is easily enabled by those same tutors and provides a solid back-up plan if the attempted combos come to naught.

Paint It Black

In my research, I have come across some really old Mono Black lists, things that relied on [card]Order of the Ebon Hand[/card] and [card]Hymn to Tourach[/card]. These lists seem sweet, but when they were being played, I was about 6 or 7 years old. I think the reason that Mono Black Control struck such a chord with players during Torment’s heyday was because it let an entirely new generation of Black players discover themselves. That sounds hokey as hell, but speaking for myself, it’s at least a little true.

I didn’t pick up the deck at the time of its dominance – it was too indulgent for my 14 year old budget – but it is the only deck I can remember clearly from those years of Magic. I was using White Weenie as my weapon of choice at the time, but less than a year later I was driven to build Suicide Black. My efforts were an attempt to put my own spin on the Mono Black I remembered so fondly fighting against.

As it is with movies and music, Magic is a hobby driven by the subjective “tastes” of those that play it. I am sure that most of you reading this will remember the first album that you really connected with, the one that defined what you consider your taste in music. Most of the enfranchised players reading this will probably have a deck list that had a similar effect on their time with Magic. The ability to incorporate your deck of choice into your sense of identity is an integral part of Magic’s depth. If you think I am over-analyzing, bad-mouth a beloved archetype at your next big tournament and see how defensive people can get. I, for one, will throw down on behalf of Mono Black any day of the week.