Taking a quick look all around me, I have quickly come to notice that the block format is in a certain state of flux; that is, every week we see a new dominant deck, and the next, we will find something to hate it out. A few weeks back, I started looking seriously at a deck that hasn't seen a whole lot of play in the last couple of years - Mono-Black Control - and what can be done to help it achieve viability once more.

First of all, I'm going to let you exactly why I chose MBC to be my pet deck for this particular metagame, and help you realize that this might not necessarily be the deck for all of you fine readers. First of all, Mono-Black Control in general has everything I love about control magic; it is chock full of creature control, hand disruption, and suicidal effects (three of my favorite things in general, I might add), and Mirrodin Block Constructed is no different, except for one fairly important department - the department of Duress.

Well, we can overlook that slight difficulty, and just get right down to building with what we have. Every Control deck needs one thing above all else.

What I'm referring to is mana consistency. If you are going to be spending your game foiling your opponent's plans, you really can't afford to be backed up, mana-wise.

So our first quest is one for consistency in the mana department.

*Goes in search of land fetchers, land diggers, or Nifty Doodads™ that make mana

Aha! It would seem that an artifact block has provided us with a plethora of mana creation tools. I'll lay them out for us to take note of.

[aside] At this point, I warn you that I am excluding from my list anything really bad from any of the areas I scour. Therefore you will not see Chimney Imp in the discard section, nor will you see Heartseeker in the 187 Section. [/aside]

From Mirrodin, we have the following mana accelerators:

*.Myr
A handy little 1/1 for two that will accelerate you to four mana on turn 3, yet is doubly susceptible to removal. Unlikely, the vulnerability overrides this guy's ability to put forth a couple points of beats.

*.Talisman
A nifty little ode to the Ice Age pain lands, these two-mana artifacts will also accelerate you to four on turn 3, yet at the expense of a valuable commodity for the Black mage, life. Possible, but the extra pain probably isn't needed in a deck renowned for its ability to kill itself.

Solemn Simulacrum
A powerful ally, this beater may not be the most efficient creature, but his ability to help your mana curve reach its potential is most helpful. His lack of a business end is forgivable, considering his utility. A definite consideration, there is a good chance this guy will see the Light of Day.

Chrome Mox
The most efficient mana producer in the block. This Nifty Doodad ™ will accelerate you straight to two on the first turn, but at what cost? The fact that it costs you a business card (meaning not a random artifact, nor a land) could very well push this card from being"uber efficient" to being unplayable. Pop this one in the maybe pile.

Wow, that is a fair number of mana accelerators in a single set! After Mirrodin we have these likely playables:

Solemn Simulacrum
Chrome Mox

Not bad. Let's see if Darksteel is as sympathetic to our plight as Mirrodin was.

From Darksteel we have the following Mana Accelerators:

...

What? Darksteel had nothing at all? It's a harsh reality, but I'm sure that Fifth Dawn will make up for it.

From Fifth Dawn we have the following mana accelerators:

Guardian Idol
The little beater that could. At two mana, this guy is more than capable of helping you push through your curve into your business cards. A definite playable.

Wayfarer's Bauble
Card number 165 of 165, and the best of the bunch for mana purposes. This is exactly what I was looking for from the start, and it only took me the entire block to find. This particular reprint of Rampant Growth is guaranteed to find a spot in the deck.

From the whole block, I'll break the mana situation down for you:

Solemn Simulacrum - Colored acceleration, card drawing, beats.
Chrome Mox - Colored acceleration, card disadvantage, free.
Guardian Idol - Barter-Proof Beats, cheap.
Wayfarer's Bauble - Mainly hate-proof acceleration, cheap, colorful acceleration.

Now, the time has come to determine just how much acceleration we really need. I have come to the knowledge that many players focus too much on getting mana, and not enough on doing stuff with it. I'm going to argue that eight slots are adequate for a deck of this nature. I'm sure that you could get away with ten, but I honestly feel that unless your deck revolves entirely around an X spell, you shouldn't need that much acceleration.

I have already stated that I feel Wayfarer's Bauble is guaranteed a spot in the main list, and so I'll put that in stone now.

4 Wayfarer's Bauble

Now, as to the other four spots, there are a few different points of view to consider. My personal favourite for the deck is Solemn Simulacrum, as it fits the curve perfectly, provides permanent acceleration, and inevitably will either win you the game, or will draw you a card.

Considering the basis of the deck, some may argue that Chrome Mox should have a home here, but I have argued to great lengths that the card disadvantage outweighs the potential acceleration. Our two-mana spot isn't that important, it is accelerating to four, then five that is important.

Guardian Idol is a card that I feel is best suited to a deck that revolves around an X spell of incredible potency (hint, it's in this deck too). Unless you are going to be entrenched in suicidal strategies of that nature, you shouldn't need the part-time beats of the Idol. The fact that it only provides colorless mana is another strike against it in this, the final cut.

I feel that the points outlined above make Jens Thoren's creation the next best accelerator for the deck.

4 Solemn Simulacrum

Now that we have acceleration, let me point out that this is a mana-hungry deck. I feel that any less than 25 land would be asking for trouble, especially considering some of the fun tricks I have planned for later on. Twenty-two Swamps is a necessity, as we will have a large need for Black mana , and we just want to be consistent overall.

22 Swamp

That leaves us with three land spots open; I'll work on filling those in as we go along.

Now, I'm sure you all know what to expect now, the next most important thing to a control player's repertoire.

A stiff drink, amirite?

Again, I'm just playing, I am referring, of course, to card drawing. The ability to draw more cards than your opponent is a very powerful ability indeed; and one that is epitomized by the control deck (well, except for that brief spurt just before the 20^th of June, 2004). A control player lives and dies by the cards in his/her hand, therefore, you can imagine that the more cards you can pull from your deck into active duty, the better.

Those card drawers are going to cost us life, however, so we must be prepared to saddle up and ride the life loss pony over to your table. Mirrodin Block provided us with a really potent black card drawer, but let's see if there are any others within the silver and dark grey areas of the block.

From Mirrodin, we have the following Card Drawers (cutting the Chaff):

Chromatic Sphere
This reprint from Invasion hasn't really seen enough play (in my humble opinion). It is both color fixing, and card drawing, but again, strictly at one card for two mana, it just happens to give you one of the expended mana back.

Promise of Power
The foreshadowed card, I feel that this card, too, is strictly underused. Five mana and five life for five cards is pretty good, considering the lack of efficient card drawing we've seen so far. The ability to also produce a supplementary beater is at times superfluous, but often it will give you just the kick you need to take absolute control of the game.

In all honesty, there is a lot of chaff drawing in the set, at least for our purposes. Promise of Power is a great card, and should be considered automatically for the main, but beyond that, there is little in the way of efficient drawing.

4 Promise of Power

Hold on a tic... four cards that cost you a quarter of your life total each time you cast it? I find this doubtful, my friend. Let's have a look at Darksteel and Fifth Dawn before we dedicate ourselves to that.

From Darksteel, we have the following card drawers:

Skullclamp
Banned! No kidding eh? This would probably be good even in this deck, and we're going to be barely running creatures.

...

That's it? That's the entirety of the card drawing implements in Darksteel? For shame Mr. Rosewater, for shame indeed.

Well, look like we may well be stuck with a full compliment of Promise of Power in the end. Wait a minute. What is that I see shining out on the horizon? There may be an efficient black card drawer in a distinctly not-black set. Say it isn't so!

From Fifth Dawn, we have the following card drawers:

Night's Whisper
Hark, I do see an angel, clad in the darkness of night. This may well be the saving grace of the entire archetype. Yes, I did just say that, saving grace of the entire archetype.

Staff of Domination
Yeah, it made me laugh too.

Oh, well, with the exception in Night's Whisper, this looks like a fairly poor time to be a Black mage. The required card drawing is there, but it's only just barely. Let's get to business, what of these are playable?

Promise of Power - Top of the mana curve, 5/5/5 ratio, powerful secondary effect.
Night's Whisper - Cheap, 2/2/2 ratio, extremely efficient in current metagame.

Yes, in all honesty, that is it, that's all of the playable Black/artifact card drawers in Mirrodin block, at least for the purposes of a Mono-Black Control deck. I could not honestly advocate running a full set of Promises, but half a set is just fine.

2 Promise of Power

That leaves us realistically with 6 additional slots for card drawing, unfortunately the playables are strictly lacking, and we will only be able to fill four of them. Hopefully we will be able to make up for it with Discard and Board Control.

4 Night's Whisper

Alright, so currently we have a fair half of the deck down pat, and we'll take a look at it, and see how we can best fill the remaining slots.

22 Swamp
4 Wayfarer's Bauble
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Night's Whisper
2 Promise of Power

36 cards down, 24 to go; and we haven't a creature kill nor a true beater in sight. Let's get on that, shall we?

Creature control has historically been one of Black's fortes; not quite as powerful overall as White board clearance, but generally speaking, Black is a fairly good choice when it comes to making things die.

From Mirrodin, we have the following 187s:

Barter in Blood
Wrath of God got a makeover? In this fairly creature light format, Barter in Blood is about as efficient as you could ask for (short of Mutilate or Innocent Blood, but alas this isn't Odyssey block with its actually playable Black cards, is it?).

Consume Spirit
Drain Life, meet your genetically enhanced little brother.

Duplicant
Ah, an interesting possibility. In all reality, Dupe is the only tool in MBC's repertoire to permanently stop a Darksteel Colossus from pounding down your door.

Oblivion Stone
Big and loud, it has a huge, sweeping effect which will clear the board of just about anything. Unfortunately, this sort of big boom comes at a very steep price. Eight mana for a simple Vengeance is pretty steep (especially when it doesn't kill artifact lands), but we make do with what we have. Thankfully, I hear tell that we might not have to have this.

Terror
Ah, finally an old standby. Terror has always been useable, so this should fit right... what? Artifacts? People use artifacts now? Umm, I guess even Joey Tribbiani needs to audition.

Alright, so that is a fairly large number of potentially playable 187s, is there anything there that we might actually consider using?

Barter in Blood - Placed well on the curve, potentially a one-sided Wrath of God, will almost never result in card disadvantage.
Terror - Still about as efficient as creature kill comes.
Consume Spirit - In all honesty, this is the little finisher that could.

So we have three cards that might well see play; two of which is nearly assured a spot, while the other... Let's just see how nice Darksteel and Fifth Dawn are to us.

From Darksteel, we have the following 187s:

Death Cloud
A big, dumb, efficient X spell. This card may be the cure for the big, dumb, Green problem. Its ability to strip all of your opponent's resources is amazing, especially alongside any sort of acceleration whatsoever. This one is definitely considerable.

Echoing Decay
Five letters in, and we already have a solid core of Creature kill. Not bad so far, but we have to keep our eyes peeled. Oh yeah, and this is a good card.

Okay, so there are a lot more 187s than I thought. Two of them are even playable, which is a definite plus. So, counting Mirrodin and Darksteel, we have a good number of playable creature controllers.

Barter in Blood
Consume Spirit
Terror
Death Cloud - Big, Dumb, and Efficient. Its flexibility makes it doubly powerful.
Echoing Decay - With the large number of 1 and 2 toughness creatures floating around, this is without a doubt as good as it gets, right?

Hey, that's more playables than I've seen all day! Let's take a look at Fifth Dawn before we start giving out maindeck slots.

In Fifth Dawn, we have the following 187s:

Devour in Shadow
Wow, I must say, I am incredibly impressed at the variety of playable two-mana creature control. This might well take the cake, but I feel that overall it is riskier than the Echo, we'll have to see.

Lose Hope
I'm pretty sure this is as good as one-mana creature kill gets (without being green, of course). Unfortunately it may be just narrow enough that it isn't playable in the deck. Worth a look, though.

Razormane Masticore
I would normally embrace this in a heartbeat. It is able to clear the board, and it can beat very efficiently. Unfortunately, it is an artifact, and the most powerful deck in the format is Green (or silver, if you take that side of the bridge, but the silver deck is balanced quite well by the Green deck, and with that logic, do I declare that the"most powerful", not necessarily best deck is green), I rest my case.

Wow, a pretty good list, I must say. Let's look at what Fifth Dawn adds to the list of cards that might actually see playtime.

Barter in Blood
Consume Spirit
Terror
Death Cloud
Echoing Decay
Devour in Shadow - Without a doubt this is the card that could replace Terror in the list. Cheap, efficient, and as wide as a black 187 gets.
Lose Hope - Tiny cc, tiny effect. The ability to scry may push it over the top, however.

So, let's start seeing what we can do to get the right cards in the list.

Barter in Blood requires a full set, the symmetry of the card is a point against it, but then again, Wrath of God is symmetrical too.

4 Barter in Blood

Consume Spirit is a strong finisher, as well as being a powerful creature killer. I'm not convinced a full playset is needed; it might not be beneficial to see them in your opening seven.

3 Consume Spirit

Echoing Decay/Devour in Shadow are both extremely useful cards that allow you to either focus your hate on a single target that must die now, or on a group of smaller targets that are bothersome. I feel that the echo is the stronger card in the current metagame, as it can single-handedly win you games against G-Unit.

3 Echoing Decay

So, let's add this to the decklist, and see how it looks.

22 Swamp
4 Wayfarer's Bauble
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Night's Whisper
2 Promise of Power
4 Barter in Blood
3 Consume Spirit
3 Echoing Decay

46 cards down, leaving only 14 more slots to finish off the deck.

I have already stated that three of those slots will go to land, so I'm going to try and justify my choices for the last three spots now.

Normally, I would be spending some time advocating the use of one of those spots for an Island, but in my testing, I have found that Krark-Clan Ironworks is not a viable deck, and as such, splashing Blue for additional combo deck hate (in the form of March of the Machines) is not required. As such, I will be arguing for additional bodies in those last three spots.

Given the deck in its current form, we have a grand total of four cards that can enter the red zone for damage. With eleven spots left in the deck, we can be fairly certain that not much more than half of those will go towards creatures, especially not towards large, cumbersome creatures. There is still too much that the deck must be able to do before we can dedicate hard spots to nothing but death. That said, the spots we will be dedicating to creatures will also serve other, more utilitarian needs as well. I truly feel that large, vanilla creatures are a waste of spots, and as such, the ones that will ultimately find themselves in the deck will not take away from the needs of the deck.

Regardless, we will still be at a shortage for simple bodies. And so, having lands in the deck that can serve both purposes will allow us to alleviate both pressures.

Therefore, I wish to put forth a suggestion for three man-lands in the final three mana spots.

3 Blinkmoth Nexus

Yes, I argued Stalking Stones into the ground, but the fact is that Blinkmoth Nexus flies; and that's all the arguing that needs to be done.

Now, eleven spots to go, and we still need to disrupt your opponent's hand, and win the game.

Let's see what sort of discard effects we have going on.

In Mirrodin, we have the following discard effects:

Necrogen Mists
In a slower metagame, this could actually prove to be distinctly useful. Unfortunately, your opponent is unlikely to be giving you the opportunity to set this up on your board before laying down on your pathetic disruption offerings. Still, it is worth consideration, as there is a fair amount of control (aggro-control, but control nonetheless).

Wrench Mind
A two-for-two that quickly turns into a one-for-two against the wrong deck. All around a seemingly solid card, but honestly, it is lacking in the oomph department.

So, after Mirrodin, we are looking at the potential downfall of the deck. Not a single explicitly playable card in the bunch; and while Necrogen Mists may be useful in a couple of matchups, it is unlikely to have the presence you need.

From Darksteel, we have the following discard effects:

Chittering Rats
Look at that, we crack open Darksteel, and we come across an explicitly playable card. This creature serves dual purpose, both giving you a potential beater, as well as costing your opponent a card in hand and a draw. That's some pretty nice advantage for a three mana package. It may end up being suboptimal, but in a draw dependant metagame like this, it is definitely worth playing.

Death Cloud
Okay, so it didn't make the cut based on pure creature control, mainly because for the same price, Barter in Blood gets another guy. That said, for hand disruption, there is little as good as an X spell (take mind twist for example). Definitely worth a second look on those grounds.

Pulse of the Dross
And we are three for three so far in Darksteel. Pulse of the Dross is probably overall better than Chittering Rats for pure discard purposes, but the fact that it may be a rare time when you buy it back means that the secondary purpose of the rats (beating) may be better than the secondary purpose of pulse (reusability).

Well, my Pa always told me to go for quality over quantity, and that's what Darksteel gives us, with three distinctly playable hard disruption cards.

From Fifth Dawn, we have the following discard effects:

Shattered Dreams
Wasn't I just exclaiming how the block had no Duress equivalent? Well, look here, a Duress-alike. I am unconvinced how good this is in the current metagame, but it is worth a look for the sideboard at least.

There it is, the entirety of the discard effects in the block. Now that is a sorry sight, eh? Unfortunately, Darksteel is the set to beat for discarding right now. That said, let's go over the playables.

Chittering Rats - Fairly cheap, tempo loss, beater
Death Cloud - X spell, overall resource denial, big and dumb.
Pulse of the Dross - Discard selection, reusability.
Shattered Dreams - Very cheap, discard selection, restricted usefulness.

Alright, so as far as the best discard effects in the block, I feel it is guaranteed that Death Cloud is the card to beat. Shattered Dreams is worthy of a spot in the Sideboard, and I'm sure that either Chittering Rats or the Pulse would make a fine addition. In regards to the sheer number of beaters I do not have in the deck to date, I'm going to opt for the rats, even if they may be moderately suboptimal as far as discard goes.

3 Death Cloud
3 Chittering Rats

Now, we want to win the game, what are we going to do with our last five spots to ensure our victory? I'd suggest a beat nasty must-block beatstick, and a bit more utility, just to make our current creature selections more worthwhile.

As far as big, nasty, must block creatures, there isn't a whole lot in Mirrodin.

From Mirrodin, we have the following kill conditions:

Grid Monitor
At the very beginning of the block, this was seen as the perfect kill condition for MBC, seeing as it is a deck of very few creatures. A five-turn clock isn't anything to sneeze at, and it is more than able to take care of itself. Unfortunately, my build is running more creatures than the Standard deck might otherwise. Blocks evolve over time, and this guy is fairly obsolete.

Yeah, that's it. Not that impressive, is it?

From Darksteel, we have the following kill conditions:

Arcbound Overseer
This guy costs 'a billion'™ mana, but he gets bigger every turn. Fair trade? Maybe, we'll see if we can find better.

Darksteel Colossus
He costs 'two billion'™ mana, but he keeps coming back for more, he's also got trample, which I hear is pretty good. Unfortunately, we aren't planning on having that much mana around the whole game.

Greater Harvester
Ah, here we go, just as I was getting worried, we find a cheap (comparatively) must block creature with a sizeable body to go with the price. His drawback is minimal as you consider the sheer amount of throwaway land and creatures you should have by the time the game is ending.

Sundering Titan
Heh, this guy would be pretty mean to throw out there against an unsuspecting opponent. They kill him, and they lose even more lands. Shame he costs eight mana, otherwise he'd fit the bill just perfectly.

Yeah, that's what Darksteel has to offer. Thankfully there are a few goodies in the set. Greater Harvester may be the best of the above, but we still have to see what Fifth Dawn might get us, in the way of serious kill conditions.

From Fifth Dawn, we have the following kill conditions.

Desecration Elemental
Oh boy, this guy is massive! Unfortunately, you don't really have the creature base to support his draw back, especially not against the spell heavy format we have right now.

Hrm, that seems to be the last of them.

Let's stack it up, and see what we have here:

Greater Harvester - Big, efficient, must block
Sundering Titan - Big, not-so-efficient, rattlesnakes their artifact kill
Desecration Elemental - Huge, cheap, major drawback

As that stands, I feel that Greater Harvester is the correct choice, though many of you may disagree. Regardless of the kill condition you chose, it is wise to not go too crazy including them in your build; I feel that 3 is enough to ensure you'll draw one fairly early, and not get it too early on in the game (when it may be vulnerable to your opponent's 'control').

3 Greater Harvester

Alright, 58 down, two to go, this is it, the final piece of tech I wish to impart upon you all.

2 Beacon of Unrest

Now, before you start arguing with me over how much of a waste of space this card is (especially chosen over other, perhaps better cards like Oblivion Stone, and Chrome Mox), I would like to point out that with the exception of three kill conditions, all of your creatures have"comes into play" effects, as well as Solemn Simulacrum's"graveyard from play" effect. This means that recycling your creatures is a very strong way to garner additional card advantage from them.

The ability to recycle your cards is especially important in a format seemingly dominated by Eternal Witness (assuming, of course, that the metagame revolves the way it has for the last month. Affinity will hold on to its spot for another week, and then it will become Green's time to shine once more). Being capable of lessening the card advantage your opponent gets from his innumerable Nifty Doodads™ is the key to your victory. Also of note is the fact that you can use Beacon of Unrest on your opponent's graveyard, swiping their potentially needed creature for your own diabolical purposes.

It may not be the optimal choice in the current metagame, but there is little doubt that Beacon of Unrest can turn your card advantage creatures into potential engines, which is a nice touch indeed.

That said; the deck is still missing something; a sideboard is obviously lacking.

The sideboard I am currently using looks like this:

4 Damping Matrix (Raffinity)
4 Shattered Dreams (Raffinity)
4 Devour in Shadow (Big Red, Big Green, Big most anything)
3 Scrabbling Claws (Tooth and Nail, Big Green, anything with Witness?)

Let me justify those choices now. Damping Matrix is a strong card in any matchup where the opponent is very much dependant on activated abilities (Sword Green, and Raffinity for example), especially useful as it doesn't affect more than a single card in your own deck.

Devour in Shadow is the alpha and omega of creature control. You will need this against many a deck, as there are times when your decays just aren't potent enough to break through their three-toughness creatures. This is a card that is especially useful in the Big Red matchup.

Shattered Dreams' use should be self-explanatory. This is a first turn discard spell against Raffinity and the fledgling Ironworks deck. It has won me many a game against that otherwise fairly difficult matchup.

Scrabbling Claws is a card that is designed to be useful against Eternal Witness. Also useful against Mono Black Control (versions using the beacon for recycling), this card will not cost you cards, and may very well save your hide against Witness recursion.

This gives us the following final decklist:

22 Swamp
3 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Wayfarer's Bauble
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Night's Whisper
2 Promise of Power
4 Barter in Blood
3 Consume Spirit
3 Echoing Decay
3 Death Cloud
3 Chittering Rats
3 Greater Harvester
2 Beacon of Unrest

Sideboard
4 Damping Matrix
4 Shattered Dreams
4 Devour in Shadow
3 Scrabbling Claws

I am well aware that against a number of the newest versions of"The Green Deck" this build doesn't put up quite the same numbers it used to against the less refined versions of that deck. Raffinity is still a fairly dangerous matchup (hence the sideboard devotion to it), and Blue decks are renowned for giving you trouble.

But that is the life of the rogue deck, isn't it?

This is a touch long, and while I have touched on certain cards being devoted to beating the better decks in the format, I'll try and go over them one-by-one to give you a bit of a low-down.

1) Raffinity
Ravager is without a doubt the most dominating force to see play in a Block constructed format in ages. The fact that the little bugger combines so well with the"other free mechanic" means that he is a shining beacon of hope for all those unskilled netdeckers out there. You can autopilot your way to victories with this thing, trust me, I know. Ravager.Wins.Games.

The matchup with MBC isn't any different. Ravager will sometimes outright win. Unfortunately for you, there isn't anything that can be done about that right now. We saw just in Orlando that there is very little that can be done to stem the tide of Ravager, unless you outright hate it out of the format (leaving you open to more devious tactics).

Thankfully, the matches where they do not outright win are very favourable towards you. You are able to take a sizeable portion of game 1's (I was able to approach 50% over the course of thirty games); and post board, your matchups gets even better, sometimes getting as good as 55, or even 60%. That is saying that unless they outright win, you have a decent chance against the most dominant deck in the format. You will lose; but you will lose less than you would think.

2) Big Red
A strong balancing force, set to explode at any time against the right deck; unfortunately for the Red player, this is not the right deck.

My matchups with them were spread out over a few weeks, so the builds drifted a touch in that time, but I was averaging about 60-75% both pre and post board against what was once hailed as the saving grace of the format. Big Red is far from a breeze, but should you play well, and have a touch of luck on your side, you should be able to take home the dubya.

3) Blue/Green Tooth and Titan
It's a Blue deck. If they are a decent player, they will know what to counter, and what to let slide (note: counter the things that hurt your mana production). Don't ever expect to play against scrubs, and so, don't ever expect for this matchup to get too much above 40%. I played it only ten matches, but in those 25 games, I was only able to take the 'W' four times. A tough one, that's for sure, thankfully, it seems to be abating as people are becoming aware that the mono-Green version is superior (thankfully, the mono-Green deck is a better matchup for you by far).

4) Green Beats
This is a strong deck, and while it has been stumbling a touch in recent days, the recent addition of black to its arsenal has given it a much needed boost (you can probably expect a little thing about the black and green deck from me sometime in the next while). Death Cloud has provided this deck with a delightful alternate win condition, as well as the ability to out-survive its opponents. I haven't tested this matchup but five times, and in those five times, MBC won outright twice, and took home the silver twice. The fifth match was really a tossup, but MBC took home the gold after much struggling.

5) Krark-Clan Ironworks
A horrible deck, certainly the worlds worst excuse for a combo deck to hit the tables of North America and the world since umm, since I built this nifty combo deck with Varchild's War-Riders and Subterranean Spirit (also used Brand as an alternate kill). Yeah, worst combo deck since then. Regardless of my past failures, this is not a good deck. The recent Japanese Ironworks deck has taken many aback, but I hold firm that it is nothing more than a fad deck, and will be swept beneath the carpet in short order (not like MBC, MBC will be around forever!).

That said, your matchup with Ironworks is entirely dependent upon one thing: your ability to draw Echoing Decay. In game 1, you need Echoing Decay in order to make a fight out of it (and a fight it will be!), as once you have decayed away their deck, they will either scoop, or simply fade into nothingness.

Game two, however, you are able to bring in a vast arsenal of Nifty Doodads™ that will make their life living shoot. Damping Matrix, Shattered Dreams, and Shatterstorm all make your life much more liveable. Wait. Scratch that last one. It was obviously a typo.

Expect to lose the first game about 70% of the time (making your odds 30%), and take the next two with about the same frequency (you getting the seventy this time around). It's not a terribly hard matchup, but then again, it's KCI, a terrible, terrible deck.

Thanks for giving me your time,
Matt Henderson
esternaefil on www.starcitygames.com forums, as well as on www.o-gaming.com