Deck Tech: Heartless MBC

 
Personally, I’ve always liked mono coloured decks, as they seem to be no fuss, and straight to the task at hand.
Usually I like to play mono green, as it can drop big stompy creatures earlier than most and just run the battlefield from huge creature presence. My other mono colour is usually white, with a tempo based white weenie deck that keeps the pressure on at all times.
Where these two decks tend fail, black succeeds. Black gives us access to things like card draw, hand control, and of course, some seriously good removal.

There are actually a few reasons I really like this deck. Firstly it’s a powerhouse of often mediocre cards that work together incredibly well. Secondly it uses lots of resources, hopefully to the best of its ability. And thirdly, you don’t actually have to attack with this deck to win with it, as I will explain later.

With this deck I have attempted to take the solid mono black control idea from Coffee Vampire’s pre-rotation MBC deck, and make it a little more aggressive. It has eventually mutated into this beast.
I was also pleased to see a deck tech on a slightly similar build in a recent pro tour, although he was running some red in his.
Lastly before we get into the deck itself, I feel that as the meta changes, this deck has the ability to evolve, as all the best decks should, hence why I see it as such a solid build, and I can attest to the fact that it has played quite well against many various line-ups, not only top end net-decks, but some awesome homebrews. In this way, I continually customise the sideboard before each week, depending on what I’ve seen from the previous week.

Now, on to the deck!

Mono Black Heartless 75 cards, 15 sideboard 23 Swamp 23 lands 2 Griselbrand 1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed 2 Reaper from the Abyss 3 Harvester of Souls 2 Bloodgift Demon 3 Desecration Demon 4 Crypt Ghast 2 Vampire Nighthawk 4 Black Cat 23 creatures 4 Essence Harvest 2 Gravepurge 4 Sign in Blood 4 Heartless Summoning 14 other spells Sideboard 2 Xathrid Gorgon 1 Vampire Nighthawk 1 Gravepurge 1 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed 2 Ring of Xathrid 4 Mutilate 4 Tragic Slip 15 sideboard cards

The Breakdown


Lands
Swamp
I’ve found 23 to be the sweet spot here. Having run all variations between 20 and 24 through plenty of testing. 20 and 21 can work, but really hurt you when you don’t get heartless summoning and you get stuck on 2 or 3 land, effectively stalling your game. Momentum being the key here, and mana being the resource that allows that to happen, I’ve found 23 to be more consistent than 22, and 24 has had me mana flooded too many times.
It’s really odd how 1 or 2 cards can really make such a difference, but I’ve seen the results. Ideally I want to play a land each turn, 23 seems to work well for that.


Creatures
Being a heartless summoning deck, I will put the Natural and the Adjusted CMC costs for the creatures next to each name; hopefully showing how easy with just 1 of the enchantments out it is to cast most of these guys.

Griselbrand  N: 8     A: 6
Griselbrand (The ‘g-bomb’) is a serious powerhouse in this deck. He is a great finisher, fantastic at stabilizing the field if you are behind, and with lifelink, makes a huge blocker or attacker. In conjunction with the other cards in this deck, he is great when you see him. However being such a massive target, the deck does not rely on him to win, but is yet another wincon in here.
2x: I run him as a 2 of, mainly because of the legendary and with the ability of the deck to draw cards; it’s not too hard to dig up one if he is needed.
 
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed  N: 6     A: 4
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. The undying powerhouse of the deck, giving each creature a +1 buff to counteract the loss of strength with Heartless Summoning, killing off any pesky humans that decide to attack and with intimidate, often an unblockable attacker.
1x: Again being legendary I don’t want to be left holding him in my hand, he’s really nice to have, but 1 seems to be enough. I have a second one in the sideboard to help against decks with lots of removal, or for when I side in mutilate to control fast agro decks.

Reaper from the Abyss  N: 6     A: 4
Reaper from the Abyss is fantastic. As if a flying 5/5 for 4 wasn’t good enough, his Morbid trigger just works so well with this deck. I will explore this later with some of the other cards. He also works really well with the whole control aspect of this deck, the mind games you can play with him is fantastic. Even more so if you have more than one out.
2x: I have found that 2 of this guy is more than consistent enough for what I need without over extending and walking right into a slaughter games, detention sphere or sever the bloodline

Harvester of Souls  N: 6     A: 4
Harvester of Souls. Often one of the MVP’s in this deck. Deathtouch makes him a ruthless blocker as a 4/4. This is one of the avenues where a ridiculous amount of card draw can come from, in turn feeding every other thing you can do. I will touch on this later.
3x: I have 3, so I run 3. If I had another one, I would probably find room for him, he is that good.

Bloodgift Demon  N: 5     A: 3
Bloodgift Demon is great. He is my early beat stick if I cannot drop something better, at the same time giving me some card draw at the start of each turn. The life loss from the extra card is usually negligible. He also works well as a sacrificial or attacker to trigger morbid, card draw, etc.
He is also able to ping for life if that is necessary towards the end, plays well with combo detailed later.
2x: I don’t like to see him every game, but his card draw is a rescue if I don’t hit a heartless for turn 2 or an extra swamp for a turn.

Desecration Demon  N: 4     A: 2!
Desecration Demon. This guy. What can I say? He just works so well in here. He forces an answer every turn he is in play. Literally. Sure I may not be able to attack with him if they sac him down, but he gets bigger, and as I mentioned at the start, this deck does not always need to be attacking to win games. With things like Morbid, and cards like Essence Harvest I really don’t mind.
The benefit of being able to play him so early will often draw out a removal that would normally be reserved for something a little more crazy. Also being able to cast him for 2 is just too easy.
3x: I often run him as a 4 of, just depending on what the meta is doing at the time. I play him when I see him, and at the adjusted cost, why on earth not.

Crypt Ghast  N: 4     A: 2!
Crypt Ghast is the other MVP in this deck. Double my mana when I tap a land? Sure! Extort with the extra mana if I have some left over? Sure! Incredible in multiples? OMG YES!
4x: Always 4. He never gets sided out. This guy is what allows this deck to really hit its stride and accelerate insane amounts. Often people will have to choose to remove him or save it for something else. If they don’t remove him he gets out of control, if they do remove him and I can still hit my land drops, it’s a removal they could have used elsewhere. If a game goes long enough, I can often see between 2 and 4 of them in play at once, and things just go nuts.

Vampire Nighthawk  N: 3     A: 2
What mono black deck would be complete without Vampire Nighthawk? Lifelink, deathtouch, flying, what else could you possibly for an early game creature? He’s a fantastic blocker and a nasty attacker.
2x: I find that he’s not always necessary, but when I need a sacrificial blocker, he’s my go-to guy. 2 or 3 seem to work well.

Black Cat  N: 2     A: 1
Black Cat is the most under-stated creature in this deck, yet he is like the key that turns the lock. Early game, he is a fantastic blocker or random attack for 1 if I have no Heartless Summoning in play, helping slow down the game a little bit. People HATE discarding at random.
He is a key piece of the combo for this deck, and his synergy with the other creatures works really well.
4x: Key components of combos are included as a 4 of. This is no exception.


Other Spells
Creatures are obviously the key part of this deck, but with these ‘other spells’ each part of the deck really combines to power the next part.

Essence Harvest
Essence Harvest is a non-attack wincon for this deck. Most of the creatures are quite large, so you can more often than not drop it with at least a 5 power creature and make a life swing of 10. The other benefit is when it’s played in the post combat main phase after a creature has attacked and survived or they have sacrificed to tap down your growing Desecration Demon. Other than stinging harder than some of the creatures on your side of the battlefield, or winning the game for you, it can also give you that life recovery after you have been chewing away at it with things like Bloodgift Demon or Sign in Blood
4x: Key card for this deck. When played, 4 are totally necessary.

Gravepurge
I seriously love this card. In this deck it plays fantastic. The only way to make it better would be if it had flashback (or buyback). It’s a great part of the combo but not always necessary.
2x: I usually float between running 2 and 3 of these. They are really only good mid to late game, and I really don’t need to see one early on.

Sign in Blood
Sign in Blood is totally necessary in here, and really what MBC deck would not run card draw? Life is a resource; use it if you need it.
4x: I usually run 4 in here, as it really helps when you need a land drop or just an extra creature to play with all that mana you have. It synergises well with Crypt Ghast

Heartless Summoning
And finally, to the gem in the crown of this deck, the part that makes it all work really well Heartless Summoning. The only creature that I feel reluctant to hurt with its -1/-1 is the Vampire Nighthawk. He only benefits from a reduction of and yet loses half his power (thus reducing his lifelink); however, the pro’s far outweigh the cons of playing this card. If possible I want to drop this turn 2. Every time.
4x: Every Time.

Sideboard
I won’t really go into the sideboard so much, other than to say that it changes heaps, depending on what my meta is doing.
The cards that do stay in there throughout all the changes are generally the extra removal.
 

Plays
Ok, so I have pulled off the “God hand” twice at FNM’s and a couple more times in testing. Just to show what the deck can do, I will describe it here.

T1: Swamp
T2: Swamp, Heartless Summoning
T3: Swamp, Crypt Ghast, Desecration Demon (or Black Cat +1 Extort)
T4: Swamp, Sign in Blood, Griselbrand


Interesting Tricks
Ok so the synergy of this deck is what makes it play so well. It can actually pull of some really crazy midgame combos.

Replenish
Knowing that Heartless Summoning inta-kills the Black Cat, and that with Harvester of Souls every time a creature dies you draw a card, the only other thing you need here is something to guarantee you hit cheap creatures to play once you draw them, you need Gravepurge

Ok so let’s say you have Heartless Summoning, and Harvester of Souls on the field and a hand full of creatures in the graveyard, (usually a black cat or three, a crypt ghast and a desecration demon – for example)
Cast gravepurge putting all wanted creatures on top with the top three being the black cats.
Cast the first cat (from the draw), it dies, you draw the next. (They discard a card at random)
Cast the second and third cats in the same way drawing 2 more creatures. (They discard two more at random)
Cast whatever creatures you still can, extorting if possible, etc.

It’s a crazy play, which is actually quite hard to stop, especially when you do it and they are tapped out from playing some removal etc. Once they know about it, I ask how many cards in hand they have each turn as it helps to keep track of these things.

Of course it is even better when you have other cards out, like some of the following.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed – Give the cats undying, so you can attack with them next turn, why not.
Reaper from the Abyss – Morbid removal, yes please
Harvester of Souls – Multiples are madness
Bloodgift Demon – Make them lose a life and give them cards to discard? Sure why not.
Crypt Ghast – Extort those cats when casting for some extra hurts

So much fun to be had


Matchups

Each competitive deck usually fits in 1 of 3 categories. Agro, Midrange or Control
I feel that this deck is almost an Agro/Midrange deck, with basic elements of control (and more via the sideboard)

Because this deck obviously has limitations due to its mono colour, some matchups are quite a lot harder than others.
I have had good success and absolute terrible games against all different types of matchups, where it really comes down to what cards I start with in my hand. So, shuffle well, and take mulligans if necessary.

Agro has been my hardest matchup usually because they can swing and kill me by turn 4 or 5. (especially when I am forced to block with my crypt ghast or something good)

Some mill/control deck has also played a bit of a thorn in my side, as it shuts down my deck quite effectively and then removes my library before I can draw replacements.

Side-boarding is absolute key when trying to overcome these issues, and picking the right cards to change has been my hardest decision.

Against most midrange decks, mine is usually stronger or deals with their things better than they can with mine. Flying really helps, and because my guys are usually big flyers, it makes it hard for the opposition to do anything against me.

Often they will still be on 20 and I'm somewhere around 8-10, but I will have such a bigger board presence. Playing an Essence Harvest (or two) is the key for most of these situations often putting me back up around 18-20 and reducing them to close to 10 and then swinging for the win over one or two turns. Whichever way it turns out, it usually hits hard.


Summary
Anyway, in summary, it’s great fun to play, it’s actually quite competitive because you can lay down some hurts in a short amount of turns and don’t even need to swing to win the game.
I also, do not consider this deck finished. It tends to change a little bit from time to time, but I would say it’s pretty close. I often find it hard figuring out what to sideboard to make changes.
Suggestions are always welcome but please leave them on the actual deck list in the Standard forum. Thanks, I hope you enjoyed the read.
The Deck itself: imtgapp.com/.....opic=17849.0

I really enjoyed reading this Wally... +1 karma from Norway...

Thanks mate!

Nice! Very well written and thought out. I enjoyed it. I, too, love mono-colored decks.

Good read! I liked the altered mana cost next to the original. That really put things into perspective for me. Thinking about making a Heartless Summoning deck myself now!

Thanks guys. Kind words are always appreciated.

Yeah I wanted to make a solid heartless summoning deck before it rotates. I think it's an awesome card. If you go other colours it gets a little tricky, but there are some awesome benefits for making it work.

+1 from me bro. Great read. I'm making this deck soon!!! For a mono coloured deck in today's standard, I love it!

Awesome! Please let me know how you go with testing as I have tried many different creatures in here with varying results.

Also, FYI this deck costs L:52.03 A:84.07 H:144.00

Griselbrand driving the cost up the most at $13 a pop. (x2)
Mikaeus at around $4 (x2)
Cryptghast at $3 (x4)
and mutilate in the sideboard at a little over $3 (x4)

There are plenty of sub $1 cards in here, and many 'bulk rares' that people will happily trade to you.
and of course possibly the cheapest mana base in standard at the moment

Looks solid. I would have preferred a more in depth look at the matchups, but overall it is pretty well written. Keep up the good work.

Thanks DG.
Yeah I wish I had a more comprehensive rundown on match-ups, but to be honest I haven't really had a consistent testing environment. It pretty much hoses all my other decks which are either combo midrange or agro decks. I don't really have a good control deck to test it with, and all the decks at my Fnm are mainly rogue homebrews, some of which are pretty awesome.
If someone else had a better test environment and wanted to give it a bash that would be awesome.

It pretty much plays its own game and if left unchecked it has no problem in a throw down late game.
Control decks seem to be my biggest issue, hence why the sideboard changes a bit.
The super fast agro desk are also a problem early on, especially if I'm forced to keep a bad hand.

The rest it seems to handle ok.

Thanks DG.
Yeah I wish I had a more comprehensive rundown on match-ups, but to be honest I haven't really had a consistent testing environment. It pretty much hoses all my other decks which are either combo midrange or agro decks. I don't really have a good control deck to test it with, and all the decks at my Fnm are mainly rogue homebrews, some of which are pretty awesome.
If someone else had a better test environment and wanted to give it a bash that would be awesome.

It pretty much plays its own game and if left unchecked it has no problem in a throw down late game.
Control decks seem to be my biggest issue, hence why the sideboard changes a bit.
The super fast agro desk are also a problem early on, especially if I'm forced to keep a bad hand.

The rest it seems to handle ok.

Not having a control deck can easily be fixed. Do you want to know what my former teammates did before a big event when this occurred? Normally we all had 2 or 3 decks so we could test whatever was in the field when prepping for a GP or PTQ. On occasion, there were times we did not have the cards needed to test the matchup. Just write the names of the cards on some basic lands and give the deck to somebody who knows how to pilot it well. This way you can test your matchups without having to force a player to build a deck or buy cards that he/she does not want.

I will come back and do a proper write up on my testing matchups and my Fnm matchups.
I've now got a fair amount of data I can use and all in all, the deck is very strong. Usually pulling of to a solid game 1 win, leaving them to figure out what to side in to stop me.

Of course with the heavy creature base, board wipes can really slow me down, and some well timed removal can often hurt, but recovery for this deck is usually 1 or 2 cards away.

Be back with a full update soon.

👏Bravo!

Alright, so here's my list from possibly the last time i play this deck, as I'm now on to try and build something new i like so much.
I thought as a tip of my hat to this deck that has done so well for me, I would write down how it went for the Dragon's Maze gameday, including the rundown on the deck that was able to beat me for first place and my sideboard having a fair idea of what I was going to be up against.


Firstly here's the Decklist i ran for the match

Mono Black Heartless 76 cards, 15 sideboard 23 Swamp 23 lands 2 Griselbrand 2 Mikaeus, the Unhallowed 2 Reaper from the Abyss 3 Harvester of Souls 1 Bloodgift Demon 4 Desecration Demon 4 Crypt Ghast 2 Vampire Nighthawk 4 Black Cat 24 creatures 4 Essence Harvest 2 Gravepurge 4 Sign in Blood 4 Heartless Summoning 14 other spells Sideboard 1 Liliana of the Dark Realms 1 Gravepurge 3 Mutilate 4 Tragic Slip 3 Pithing Needle 2 Witchbane Orb 1 Akroma's Memorial 15 sideboard cards

First of all you may notice straight away that I'm running 61 cards. This was originally due to my play testing swapping out a land for another Mikaeus. Being down to 22 land I was a little concerned before we started so I added the 23rd and did a little more testing before heading off to the venue. Of course I could have just found another spot in the sideboard for Mikey and dropped him back there, but after plenty of tweaking I couldn't budge on my needed cards in the sideboard.
Anyway, it played very consistently and i was able to win almost all the match ups I had expected, losing only 2-1 in some very tough matches against the guy who took 1st.

The other changes I had made to the lineup since writing the article was bumping back up to 4 Desecration Demons dropping Bloodgift Demon to 1, to slightly increase my early turn options, and as a slightly better target for Essence Harvest.
Spells and enchantments stayed the same.

Now to the Sideboard.

Possibly better explained by discussing what decks have been prevalent lately in my meta. There has been a large uptake on Dimir & Grixis Control/Agro mill decks as the effective cards are actually quite inexpensive, some Mono Red (super fast) agro beatdown, Junk rites still sees play, and 1 or 2 Esper Control and one crazy Control Deck.. Finally the deck that causes this deck some headaches is a Jund Midrange/Lockdown combo deck.

The Dimir/Grixis Mill decks weren't too hard to deal with. Some were a little more control based, some were totally mill focused, both seemed to be aiming to pump up large Consuming Aberrations and Wight of Precinct Six (both just happen to be nasty Essence Harvest targets, especially against my creature heavy deck) I was able to put them away early with some early hits and blocks, forcing sacrifices (to Desecration Demon), etc. Second game I sided in the two Witchbane Orbs and the extra Gravepurge.

I was fortunate not to have to face the super quick agro Red deck but I did get the match up against the Blue/Green/Black control deck. That was a great match, him using Aetherling as a solid beatstick. By really controlling my early game he had a really good position against me, but when I started to get my land drops he was unable to stop me effectively, pushing the games long but I killed him in two turns once I had a good board position. Also for game two here, I sided in the Orbs, and then the Liliana to help with ramp after my enchantments were removed and my early Crypt Ghasts had been countered.

Next up was the Junk Rites, running the usual Restoration Angels, Angel of Serenity and Thragtusks, etc. His also featured Fiend Hunter, Acidic Slimes and some other nasty etb creatures. First game he had mana issues and I steamrolled him quite easily. Second game I sided in the removal package (Tragic Slips and Mutilates) which was exactly what I needed when things started going haywire with all his insane things hitting the battlefield. Losing a land or two didnt seem to matter after I had an awesome start with the Heartless Summoning enchantment out turn two and Crypt Ghast turn three allowing me to start casting nasty stuff as quickly as he could remove things. Mutilate came in insanely handy here right after an AoS had exiled all my decent things and had me on the back foot. After I played the second, again wiping his side and then dumping all my guys back out, dropping a Griselbrand at the end of turn was a quick concede as he was left with no hand and no more rites to use.

Now the last match, the Jund Midrange. This deck has caused me plenty of headaches in the past, and I was determined to at least get one game off him, which I was fortunately able to do.
His real main play is Liliana of the Veil and a Rakdos Return to destroy any card advantage I have, and then use Lily to make me sacrifice creatures as often as I play them. He then uses Olivia Voldaren to burn away anything that may be an issue or steal them to beat on me with. and then swing unblocked with her for damage. Once this happens, it is impossible for me to come back.
My only hope was to build a sideboard to hopefully help me with this match-up. So, for game two I made major changes, bringing in the artifact packages to hopefully shut him down a bit and allow me to gain some ground. Dropping Pithing Rites turn 1 naming Liliana was my opening move. Making him figure out how to deal with that and allowing me to gain a few early turns to get some board presence. Although this didn't last too long as he soon removed that with a handy Putrify and the shenanigans started again. I then played one of the orbs, saving me from discarding some much needed cards in hand. I also brought in my Liliana as possible uniqueness rule removal, and card advantage/mana ramp if possible. Finally I was able to play two Essence Harvest's on a Desecration Demon that was allowed to hang around for a whole turn, and I stole a game. Game 3 was a whitewash against me when he brought in a little more aggression and I didn't hit any of my shutdown cards.

Anyway, This deck has been such a great amount of fun to play. I guess I will try and tweak it when some of these Innistrad block beasts rotate out. Also with the loss of Heartless Summoning it will be a hard task to master.
Thanks for reading.

Great article Wally! It was a good read and the follow up was sweet too!  I love mono colored decks myself just because I'm cheap and buying 170$ in land for a jund or w/e agitates me

Looking forward to the next déck tech!