At a glance
- Format: Standard
- Colors: Black (B)
- Archetype: Mono-Black midrange / sacrifice / removal
- Power tier: mid-high
- Standard: ✅ Legal
Strategy
Grind the opponent out behind a dense wall of premium black removal, then bleed them dry with evasive deathtouch bodies and sacrifice value. Hero’s Downfall, Bitter Triumph, Bake into a Pie, Moment of Craving, Heartless Act, Long Goodbye, and Tribute to Hunger answer essentially anything at any point on the curve, while Qarsi Revenant and High-Society Hunter pressure the air. The build now has the cheap fodder it was missing: Bile-Vial Boggart (drops a -1/-1 counter when it dies) and Infestation Sage (dies into a 1/1 flyer) are turn-one plays that double as ammunition for the sacrifice engine. Buzzard-Wasp Colony, Beetle-Headed Merchants, High-Society Hunter, Vampiric Rites, and Arbiter of Woe convert that fodder into cards, counters, and life, while Preacher of the Schism, Midnight Reaper, and Phyrexian Arena keep the gas flowing so you always out-resource the midgame. Gurmag Rakshasa and Arbiter of Woe close the door once the board is clear.
Upgrade path
Refined in place. Cut Cat-Gator (clunky 7-mana one-of; the top end is already covered by Arbiter of Woe x2 and Gurmag Rakshasa x2). Added cheap sacrifice fodder that carries its own value — Bile-Vial Boggart x2 (removal on death) and Infestation Sage x2 (dies into an evasive 1/1 flyer) — which fixes the previously under-fed sac package (Buzzard-Wasp Colony, Beetle-Headed Merchants, High-Society Hunter, Vampiric Rites all want bodies to eat). Added Moment of Craving x1 for a cheap removal-plus-lifegain answer to aggro. Trimmed scattered one-ofs and smoothed the curve; lands 24→23 since the top end is lighter and three draw engines (Preacher x3, Midnight Reaper x2, Phyrexian Arena x2) keep hands full. Rare discipline intact: ZERO rare/mythic spell crafts. Every owned rare in the 60 (Preacher of the Schism own3, Midnight Reaper own2, Qarsi Revenant own2, High-Society Hunter own1, Phyrexian Arena own2) is already in Mik’s collection per mtga.db, so the deck is 0-wildcard and fully buildable. No shockland needed — single color wants untapped black, manabase is straight Swamps. Held-back owned upgrades if Mik wants to spend wildcards: Darkstar Augur (owned rare draw/flyer, cut here only for redundancy with the existing life-loss draw engines), Grave Researcher, or Vein Ripper for a more explosive curve-topper. | Land audit 2026-08-23: +3 lands (cut Bile-Vial Boggart, Stab).
Cards
Decklist
Paste straight into MTG Arena (or Moxfield/Archidekt):
Deck
2 Infestation Sage
4 Preacher of the Schism
2 Midnight Reaper
2 Qarsi Revenant
3 Buzzard-Wasp Colony
1 Beetle-Headed Merchants
1 High-Society Hunter
2 Gurmag Rakshasa
2 Arbiter of Woe
4 Bitter Triumph
4 Hero's Downfall
1 Vampiric Rites
2 Phyrexian Arena
26 Swamp
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Long Goodbye
1 Vein Ripper
1 Overlord of the Balemurk
Sideboard
A 15-card sideboard for best-of-three (Traditional) play — swap these in game 2/3 against the matchups below.
Mono-Black already runs a mountain of spot removal (Hero’s Downfall x4, Bitter Triumph x4, Long Goodbye, Stab, etc.), so the board patches the holes: enchantment engines, go-wide swarms, graveyard recursion, and the aggro life race. Flexible answers over silver bullets.
vs Mono-Red / Gruul / Boros Aggro: +2 Moment of Craving, +2 Vampire Nighthawk, +1 Tribute to Hunger / -2 Duress (dead vs aggro), -1 Phyrexian Arena (life loss hurts), -1 Overlord of the Balemurk, -1 Vein Ripper. Nighthawk (flying deathtouch lifelink) walls the ground and air and swings the race; Moment of Craving is removal + 2 life. For Screaming Nemesis lean on your exile (Zuko’s Exile from the board, plus maindeck exile) rather than damage.
vs Dimir Midrange: +2 Duress (strip Enduring Curiosity / Kaito / removal before it lands), +2 Feed the Swarm (kill the Curiosity enchantment), +2 Zuko’s Exile (flexible exile for Kaito/fliers/enchantments) / -2 Stab-tier weak removal, -2 clunky bodies (Beetle-Headed Merchants, one Gurmag Rakshasa). Resilient card-advantage bodies (Preacher, Arena) dodge their 1-for-1s.
vs Golgari Midrange: +2 Feed the Swarm (Unholy Annex), +2 Duress, +1 Zuko’s Exile / -2 Moment-of-Craving-tier small removal, -1 filler. Grind on card advantage; Feed the Swarm doubles as enchantment + creature removal.
vs Zur Domain / Mono-White Enchantments: +2 Feed the Swarm, +2 Zuko’s Exile, +2 Duress, +1 Tribute to Hunger (edict past hexproof Overlords) / -2 slow value pieces, -2 excess narrow removal, -1 filler. Attack the enchantment ramp and disrupt the payoff before it resolves.
vs Azorius Oculus (graveyard): +2 Raven Eagle (repeatable graveyard exile + evasive body + Clues), +2 Zuko’s Exile / -2 sorcery-speed clunk, -2 dead cards. Snipe Abhorrent Oculus fuel on ETB and every attack.
vs Jeskai Convoke / Mono-White Tokens (go-wide): +2 Poison the Waters (all creatures -1/-1 sweeps their 1/1s; modal discard vs control), +2 Moment of Craving, +1 Tribute to Hunger / -2 single-target-only removal that’s weak vs a swarm, -2 slow value. Poison the Waters is your one-card blowout vs the token starts.
Full deck with sideboard (paste into Arena for Bo3):
Deck
2 Infestation Sage
4 Preacher of the Schism
2 Midnight Reaper
2 Qarsi Revenant
3 Buzzard-Wasp Colony
1 Beetle-Headed Merchants
1 High-Society Hunter
2 Gurmag Rakshasa
2 Arbiter of Woe
4 Bitter Triumph
4 Hero's Downfall
1 Vampiric Rites
2 Phyrexian Arena
26 Swamp
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Long Goodbye
1 Vein Ripper
1 Overlord of the Balemurk
Sideboard
2 Duress
2 Feed the Swarm
2 Zuko's Exile
2 Moment of Craving
2 Vampire Nighthawk
2 Raven Eagle
2 Poison the Waters
1 Tribute to Hunger
Card images & data via Scryfall.