Welcome to one man's 2003 States Odyssey. This report will take you into the workings of Jesse Adrian Sigler (that's me) and his quest to win it all at the most competitive tournament scene outside of the Pro Tour. Through endless trials and tribulations, I have built my understanding of the metagame and of what will and won't be effective. The following will reveal a step-by-step, day-by-day dictation of a player - not unlike yourself - and how he has prepared, reasoned, and worked to attain a honorable finish at the Wisconsin State Championship. It may be the most important article you ever read.

Well, not really. But I can pretend.

I am generally unafraid that people will know my deck and that anyone I am matched up with - mainly because there is nothing out of the ordinary about my MBC build. If anything, it will clarify some inclusions and exclusions players should look at for their own States MBC decks.

For anyone who has ever happened upon any of my previous articles over the Internet, you'll see that I have been an advocate of Zombies, or a monoblack aggro build, for quite some time. This mindset has evolved and changed throughout the last seven months, but I have remained high on it for quite some time. So naturally, my first impression of Mirrodin was...

Wow. Terror is back. And some other black cards are there, too. But Terror is back! Sweet.

Seeing this relic of time long past surface in the new set, I quickly started to modify my Old Standard-legal Zombies to include the new cards Mirrodin offered me. I kept in mind that R/W Slide and Goblins would still exist, as would Monowhite and other random decklists one found lingering around Onslaught Block this last season. With Graveborn Muse as my trump card and waves of undead delights, I stormed into my FNM community, declaring that I had found the best deck and was sure it would dominate Standard for the entire time it was playable. Deciphering the new Standard wasn't so hard without Masters. I had done it in less than three hours. Here is an exert from an online conversation I had depicting my confidence.

jessesigler61: so im playing the best deck ever created tonight, n00b
tpepl626: uh hunh
jessesigler61: no im serious, zombies is amazing
tpepl626: sure is
jessesigler61: prepare to face my wrath lamer scum, make your peace because you're already dead
tpepl626: k

So anyway, when I was eating Doritos and watching other people's matches after I went 0-3, I decided that there was a possibility I wasn't quite correct.

I found that Zombies lacked pop against Goblins, lacked staying power against control and not enough endurance to survive a new threat that had made aggro a liability in this new Standard world: Oblivion Stone. I have seem many-a-player recently champion Aggro-Zombie, and perhaps my decklist was off all those months ago... But I soon decided that it was not the deck for me. Looking over the multitude of black I had purchased and traded for the test, I cursed my impulsive direction and wondered if I could dump it all off and start trading for U/W or Goblins merchandise.

Not long after that dreadful Friday, I was drumming along the internet and happened upon a series of decklists from a November T2 online tournament. Dominating this tournament were builds of Monoblack... Control. I ho-hummed through these lists, looked at the other decks who had achieved Top 8 and slowly began some sort of constructive thought process.

What's a Myr?

And such internal gems as...

This decklist sucks. How did it beat anything?

As I continued to read through different accounts and browse the Monoblack card pool for the new Standard, I was suddenly caught off-guard by a miniature of myself appearing on my shoulder. Surprised that I had somehow managed to develop a second me, I nevertheless was receptive to what I had to say.

"What are you doing? Monoblack Control? You played R/G last season, you idiot. Do you remember Monoblack Control?"

A flashback sequence ensued.

I am sitting at Regionals, 2-0 against Psychatog and U/G, deep in the second game of a match against a Monoblack Control player. I am eating an over-priced piece of pizza and watching the match next to me, absent-mindedly staring at my neighbor's awful playskills and questioning why I was sitting anywhere near someone playing with Elvish Succession.

My opponent is shuffling his cards in his hands as his line of sight darts between several very interesting permanents on my side of the board: Compost, Compost, Elephant Token, Elephant Token, Wild Mongrel, Grim Lavamancer. In his graveyard lay numerous copies of Smother and Innocent Blood, but in my graveyard lie all the things he killed... And on the board stand all results of the cards I drew. With a heavy heart and a life total somewhere around six or seven, my opponent honorably picks up his cards and signs his slip. I, however, don't even notice...

The next time I look up, he is gone, and I notice he has dropped from the tournament. I could have sworn I saw tear stains on the match slip, and to myself, I thought...

Wow. I hope I never end up like that guy.

The flashback ends. I nod knowingly, scratching my chin in and nodding in agreement with my miniature friend. However, as suddenly as the former appeared, another small version of me pops into existence over my opposite shoulder.

"Wow, so did you hear? There's this thing called 'Rotation,' and all those cards - along with that deck - are gone."

I thought about it. No Compost. Nothing significantly fast or deadly, outside of Goblins... And certainly, a specific build of MBC could be tooled to deal with them, couldn't it? At this time, the opposing miniature chose to speak up again.

"Besides, Jesse. The deck's name includes the word 'Control.' You, my friend, are an aggro player for a reason. Remember the Counterpost experiment?"

My mind started to fade back in time, but I quickly snapped out of it. Nobody, including myself, needs to recall that. Here I was, caught between morals, ideals and decisions: Was MBC worth taking a look at for States? I brushed aside my two visitors and decided I needed to do some serious thinking. Obviously, the most sacred and productive place for such involved thoughts is Three Jokers Bar in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin. Off I went to drown my thoughts and concerns in alcohol, hoping to awaken the next morning with the solution to my MBC dilemma.

I woke up around 1:30 in the afternoon and called in sick. I had decided that if there was a way to play MBC in the new Standard, I would find the best way and decide if it was dominant enough to put serious testing into. I decided that I was going to take a look at all the possible cards one could include into the deck, then through process of elimination, make a very basic deck that would test MBC's trump cards on the general environment we expected to see.

These were what I generally deemed possible, at first... And these are the ratings that I eventually decided for each card. One or two may have started out higher, but were eventually lowered because of lack of use in my final product. Trust me, just about every one of these was once"THE CARD THAT WILL SOLVE (insert bad matchup here)!" Each card will be rated on a 1-10 basis - with 10 being the highest. Remember, these are for MBC's purposes; I'm sure Leaden Myr is off the hook in your All-Myrs-and-Kobold deck, but it's just not the nuts here.

Barter in Blood - (3)
Terror - (9)
Mind Sludge - (10)
Persecute - (6)
Leaden Myr - (1)
Smother - (6)
Vicious Hunger - (5)
Wrench Mind - (3)
Infest - (8)
Decree Of Pain - (5)
Blackmail - (2)
Promise Of Power - (9)
Grid Monitor - (10)
Twisted Abomination - (9)
Withered Wretch - (3)
Oblivion Stone - (10)
Phyrexian Arena - (10)
Silent Specter - (2)
Dark Banishing - (2)
Consume Spirit - (10)
Diabolic Tutor - (8)
Visara The Dreadful - (7)
Undead Gladiator - (5)
Cabal Interrogator - (5)
Extraplanar Lens - (5)

There were other cards I considered, too, but they were all bad ideas.

But yes, these are the possibilities and the ratings I eventually came up with for each individual card. I decided that 10s were a Must, and Must would decrease to Should, Perhaps, and Lord No as priority declined with the number.

As I threw together a very overcosted original maindeck that I won't even post here, I noticed some very telling weaknesses in MBC: The land base is very hard to work out. I can completely understand how some players resorted to using Leaden Myr or Talismans, because this deck requires ridiculous amounts of mana to run. My own belief is that if you miss a land drop within the first five turns, you have already lost the game. So with such a mana-heavy deck, I eventually tested out to having to run twenty-six lands. Twisted Abomination was included in several numbers throughout testing, but I eventually settled on two. Superior to Leaden Myr in every possible way, I cannot see why anyone would ever want to run it instead. The acceleration is not going to change the fact that this is a slow, slow deck. You want consistency, and Twisted Abomination can help out your curve and is a very dangerous win condition.

My original mana base goes like so. It will change, however. How mysterious will it get? Oh, you have to keep reading. (Ominous, evil laughter.)

25 Swamps
1 Stalking Stones

Stalking Stones is an extremely wondrous card and something I considered a very good call from the start. Many will run more than one, but I have been content with one for this particular build.

Speaking of which, here is what was tested into as the final maindeck build. In my matchups section, I will go into some earlier attempts and various reasons why the number and what was there originally... But you don't want to see the badness, anyway.

You want the money shot.

Money Shot

// Land
1 Mountain
4 Bloodstained Mire
20 Swamp
1 Stalking Stones

// Spells
2 Smother
3 Mind Sludge
4 Oblivion Stone
4 Terror
2 Promise of Power
4 Consume Spirit
2 Infest
1 Decree of Pain
2 Diabolic Tutor
4 Phyrexian Arena

// Creatures
1 Visara The Dreadful
2 Grid Monitor
1 Undead Gladiator
2 Twisted Abomination

Oh, snap. Bloodstained Mire? A Mountain? Hmm. Barter in Blood was cut, as was Extraplanar Lens. These cards are effective in some builds and against some decks, but I believe both are over-hyped and a wasted slot in MBC. Lens is too risky for an effect that's only good if you're already winning and Barter in Blood is too expensive for too little of an effect in this environment. The rest of the cards were just bad, or sideboard fodder. Sorry.

Anyway, here's the maindeck that I did finally decide to keep, and here's play-by-play for each individual card and why it's in the deck.

Smother
Though Smother isn't as effective as it once was, when it was laying waste to Wurm and Elephant tokens and sending Wild Mongrel to the 'yard, it still has applications in today's Standard. Vicious Hunger and Smother are generally interchangeable here, depending on how you want to tool your deck. I chose to run Smother because of its versatility; being able to drop Angel tokens from Decree Of Justice and Demon tokens from Promise Of Power is a pretty good reason to include it. It also can bypass Empyrial Plate and other such blasphemy to yank the legs out from under the creature carrying all that tasty equipment. Its instant speed is also a good reason to include it over Vicious Hunger, but it doesn't gain you much-needed life in the Goblins matchup. Pick your poison, I guess. I went with two because of its lack of general application against MBC, U/W, and R/W Slide.

Mind Sludge
When your opponent sees Swamp, Swamp, Swamp and no creatures, this is what they fear. As soon as the realization hits that they are playing against MBC, they will glance at their hand and see if they have a way to survive or deflect Mind Sludge. If they don't run counters or some way of making themselves untargetable, they are placed on a five-turn clock in which they have to empty their hand or kill you, because going four to six cards down in the advantage war is going to be lights out more often than not.

Absolutely insane against R/W Slide and non-Blue control, Sludge also reaches into the minds of Goblins and other aggro players to knock out their big guns like Siege-Gang Commander, Rorix, Blistering Firecat, Exalted Angel, and so on. Even if it only gets one or two cards, odds are they are being held for a reason and could end the game by being tossed to the side.

The only matchup Sludge is a liability in is Goblins, where you end up dead and wishing you had something other than three of them in your hand. Because of its lack of usefulness against Goblins and it's tendency to do its damage with just one resolution in a game, I went down from four to three and one in your sideboard.

Oblivion Stone
More than anything, this card makes Monoblack playable again. For those who remember Nevinyrral's Disk, this is a very similar effect with a more versatile effect added. With R/W hanging on to what many will agree is an excellent card pool and artifact-based decks being looked at as playable, one has to have a way to reset with the slow and easily-overwhelmed MBC. Being able to nuke the world on Turn 5, or unexpectedly obliterate everything on turn 8 by casting it and then tapping it, is a very effective ability.

Being able to save other cards from global destruction is a bonus. Keeping your win condition alive while shucking everything else in play? There is absolutely no matchup where this card is a bad thing. Every deck has nonland permanents, and every deck needs nonland permanents to win. Oblivion Stone provides an early reset button and late-game security blanket as you work under its powerful defense to deal the final blow to your unsuspecting opponent. There is a reason this card is selling for what it is right now, and I doubt any other single card has defined the metagame as much as this. I'd much rather be playing with it than against it, that's for sure.

Terror
One of the best spot removal cards ever gets brought back to give Black a weapon against Goblins and other aggro decks. Though it can't stop Affinity's artifact creatures and is as dead against Zombie Aggro, you need to have these in your maindeck for Goblins and for non-black Aggro. Terroring a Siege-Gang Commander in response to its tokens or stopping a Blistering Firecat or Rorix for 1B is pretty beneficial. It's also useful against U/W as well; Eternal Dragon can be stalled off for a number of turns. It is also a way to stop Exalted Angel and the rarely-seen Angel token. Against R/W, it stops Angel and Silver Knight. Against White Weenie, it stops... Well, almost all of White Weenie except for White Knight. The applications of this card are definitely worth it quaternary inclusion in the maindeck.

Promise Of Power
Wow. I promise you that if Goblins didn't have so much power, this would be a four-of in every deck that had more than two or three Swamps in it. Drawing five cards for five life and five mana is absolutely insane. Resolving this against non-aggro is going to doom most of your opponents, because they may not have that sort of card advantage throughout the entire game combined. The ability to make what usually is a 4/4 flying black creature for five is not as spectacular - but combined the two into one card, then writing on the bottom,"Oh yeah, if you pay four extra, you can have them both," gives you a card with some incredible power.

I cried my eyes out when I realized how dead it was against Goblins, however, and could not afford to go four. I cut it down to a two-shot and have been recovering ever since. It's completely against everything that doesn't deal multitudes of fast damage, Promise Of Power is yet another card that I've included in my defense of MBC being the most powerful deck in New Standard.

Promise of Power is a bizzomb in every sense of the word - just don't get too greedy. You want to be over ten life after its resolution, or holding a Consume Spirit.

Consume Spirit
Drain Life? Sweet. Even if you're just throwing these out at U/W and hoping they draw counters, Consume Spirit is a very useful card. It can be removal, a win condition, a stall effect, and a rebound from the amounts of life you pay to Promise Of Power and Phyrexian Arena. There's not much else to say about Spirit, other than it has neat art (Look At Me, I'm Mike LaRue) and is most often seen as a Diabolic Tutor target. Having two of them in your hand late-game is a wonderful basis for opening new conversations with statements like,"Yeah, that's nice. Done?" or"Hurry up, I have to win next turn."

Infest
Goblins.

I could write that word and skip onto the next card, but that wouldn't be right.

Infest is most-often a two-for-one and a way to clear the board if Goblins floods you with... Well, Goblins. I usually don't cast mine unless I'm killing a Goblin Warchief and company, but it's a good answer to Siege-Gang Commander and a variety of other red menaces.

Against other decks, I guess it's okay; against White Weenie, it'll destroy stuff, but what you really fear is the stuff getting too big for Infest to destroy. That's when you have to whip out the big stick and swing for the fences. Infest is just a little stick, acting as a way to stare off your opponent while you wait for turn 5 and Oblivion Stone to clean out.

Decree Of Pain
It's either an uncounterable, overpriced, and instantaneous Infest, or a late-game way to clear the board and draw some cards. Mostly included for its ability to cancel out Siege-Gang Commander and Decree Of Justice, I like its versatility and enjoy watching players overextend into an attack phase, only to have everything killed. It replaces itself for five, so it's not like it's a completely dead card. Usually too slow to be effective against Goblins and too selective to be included in more numbers, Decree Of Pain is a nice surprise later on and a good Tutor target, but not powerful enough to warrant any more copies.

Diabolic Tutor
Props for using the word"diabolic." I wish people referred to me as"diabolic" or"diabolical." Props for also allowing you to go get anything you want and not letting your opponent see it.

Slops, however, for oftentimes giving an opponent a free turn and reminding them to hold on to that countermagic and not tap out for a while. Tutor is a great card in some matchups and a wasted slot in others, so I include two because of its raw power. Many players go up to four, but I like cards that do more than just get me other cards, so I think I'll just stick to having the 5,000 other Game One dead cards against Goblins.

Against U/W, they won't counter this, so go get a Stalking Stones or Undead Gladiator - your two best weapons against them. Against R/W, go get a Mind Sludge or Oblivion Stone.

Against MBC, get... Stuff. I don't know. Whatever you want. They'll probably just Sludge you the next turn, anyway.

Phyrexian Arena
This card makes the deck go. Plain and simple. Other cards get the glory, but no card really decides the game the way Arena does. Resolve an Arena in the mirror or against U/W, and you're well on your way to winning that match.

Looking low on mana? Don't cycle that Abomination - drop an Arena and up your chances of making those land drops! Though generally a dead card against Goblins, Goblins is not the only deck in Standard, and because of Arena's amazingness against everything else, you run four of it. Oblivion Stone is a good way to ensure you don't die to it, as well.

Visara The Dreadful
She's a brick house, though by the art (once again, I'm Mike LaRue!), I'd say she definitely has some nicer features than her eyes. The Queen Latifah of MBC will put a big hurt on just about any deck in standard, being at the very worst a 5/5 flyer for six mana. At her best, she rises up the from earth and lets your opponent know that there is absolutely no way they will get back into the game through their attack phase. If there was a six-cost Legendary artifact that tapped to destroy a creature, I'd run it. It just so happen this one is a 5/5 flier to boot.

Grid Monitor
The missing link. In my earlier testing, I often sought something to help the game against aggro and provide some damage before my alpha strike late in the game. The four-slot is ever-mysterious, as you have a big gap between Oblivion Stone and Mind Sludge. Dropping a creature that MBC can't target, Goblins can't take off the board, U/W has to deal with quickly, WW can't outsize and that has a body of six to prevent double-blocking and desperation moves, you drop a pretty big threat.

No card improved my early testing like Grid Monitor did. It makes up for lost tempo, and the drawback is moot. They have to deal with Grid Monitor or lose, in most cases, so it's not like you need to overdo it. He also serves as a way to get around Story Circle, especially when the mucks tap out for it. They do that"Victorious Pause And Make Sure You Realized What It Was" thing, sometimes asking if you want to concede. Grid Monitor wipes that dopey look off their face and forces them to tap out for Wrath of God or Akroma's Vengeance or take four to eight damage before they can kill him and have a counter ready for Sludge. I don't care if they can prevent all the damage in the world if they have no cards in their hand. I'll draw an Oblivion Stone before they find a way to kill me by topdecking Plains and other blue or white randomness. Grid Monitor is the beats and an excellent card.

Undead Gladiator
Are you not entertained?! Maximus Decimus Araelius, husband to a murdered w - Well, whatever he was when we was alive, he's dead... Or Undead, as the card suggests.

His value as a 3/1 isn't that spectacular. What is spectacular is that he can allow you to cycle through your deck and find the cards you need by taking some of the longest upkeeps in Magic history. A player needs a little experience to know when to stop and what to go looking for against what matchups, but Gladiator is a very efficient card against just about everything in the field. If I wouldn't get pelted with rotten fruit for running sixty-three cards in a deck, I would run four of this Undead creature.

Unfortunately, he shines against U/W and R/W and the mirror, but not Goblins. He trades for a Warchief when he's good and is a Goblin Sharpshooter or Gempalm Incinerator target when he's bad. All in all, I like his inclusion.

Twisted Abomination
Typing that horribly long and taxing card name is going to give me an aneurysm. Can we please shorten up card names? I bet by the time I die, I'll have wasted seven entire years of my life typing the phrase"Twisted Abomination." Well, that and"Shadowmage Infiltrator."

When I make myInvitational card, it's going to be 2U, an instant, and it will allow you to return target creature to its owner's hand. You will then be able to draw a card. The name of the card is still up in the air, as I am considering"Card That Will Fix Magic" or"Repulse." Probably the latter, as it's not intolerably long.

Coming off of my tangent, I would have to say that Twisted is a pet card. I like its power in the mirror, I like its ability to survive Oblivion Stone, and I like the fact that only a couple of cards in Standard can actually kill it. The cycling for a Swamp helps hammer out a thirsty curve and will aid you when manascrew is imminent.

That is my maindeck. And stuff, as I'm sure you read. Onto the sideboard.

SB: 4 Cabal Interrogator
SB: 4 Flashfires
SB: 1 Blood Moon or x1 Boil
SB: 1 Mind Sludge
SB: 3 Persecute
SB: 2 Infest

Upon my four Flashfires I included in my States deck, I wrote things in black permanent marker like,"Yeah That Sucks" and"Oh Snap" and"Sniffle Sniffle." Boil and Blood Moon have yet to be decided, but I plan to write something equally as unsportsmanly and wretched on them. That's what the Mires and the one Mountain in the maindeck are for. More on that later.

Cabal Interrogator
A game-winner against U/W, R/W, and in the mirror if it's allowed to go for a few turns. You can pluck cards all day with this little miser, reducing an opponent's hand to nothing but fluff. Effective against Affinity as well, Interrogator is your way of letting opposing control know that while you appreciate their efforts, you are running the best control variant in new Standard.

Flashfires
Some may say this is exceedingly random; that's all right. I like being able to have a weapon against a color that has the weapon against me; I am, of course, talking about Karma. Flashfires allows you to close the door on Karma against Monowhite Control and WW, making it so unless they have gone first and played it on their fourth turn or managed to rebuild their base and cast it later, it isn't happening. Effective against U/W as well, where it can come completely unexpectedly and waylay an opponent before they can establish board control. Also, R/W has to play those Secluded Steppes instead of cycling them. Being able to unexpectedly clear all of one basic land type off the board with one card is good.

Boil works in the same sense, but as I haven't seen a Monoblue variant or a whole lot of Islands in my overlook of the new Standard decks... So I won't include it just yet. All in all, Flashfires doesn't hurt your curve and is a very good trick against the unprepared. Do not underestimate the element of surprise.

Blood Moon/Boil
Blood Moon is for those who have decided to reply completely on Artifact lands, and Boil is for generally obvious purposes. Blood Moon takes every non-basic land - and while it does changing its supertype, it does change its subtype to Mountain, thus making it tap for red, and only red mana. Resolving this against Affinity can be tough, since they have Moxes and other stuff to create Blue mana with. At the very least, it slows down heavy-nonbasic land decks for a few turns, and with the artifact lands being as new and hyped as they are.. I hope to see some randomness that will roll over to not being able to generate anything but red mana.

Mind Sludge
An extra against opposing control decks and the like. 'Nuff said.

Persecute
With Monochromatic Magic alive and kicking, Persecute becomes dangerous stuff. A wrecker against Goblins, MBC, Monowhite Control and all other one-color decks, Persecute hits a turn earlier than Mind Sludge, and that one-turn difference can be huge. Especially against Goblins.

Infest
Goblins.

(See? I told you.)

Now, we'll cut to the matchups. I assure you, my testing results are not fake; I do not think I'll be able to fool you good people into thinking that I beat everything in the environment 90% of the time. I am not Brian Kibler or Zvi Mowshowitz and do not have the ability to make such radical claims. I am, however, someone who has put many hours of actual testing into this deck and will deliver some honest information on the matchups and tendencies of new Standard.

Monoblack Control Vs. Goblins
Winning Percentage: 50-50, 40-60, 30-70 depending
Sideboarding: -Promise of Power, -Phyrexian Arena, +Persecute, +Infest

Ugh. Our early builds could not beat Goblins at all, and we were forced to sacrifice a lot of power to deal with such raw speed and Goblinness. Endless hours of frustrating tests have gone into making this matchup even close to 50%.

If you don't want to be random like me, cut the Flashfires and Blood Moon stuff and run more two-cost removal Spells, such as Vicious Hunger and additional Smothers. The amount I have in the maindeck seem to be the very best combinations there are. You can drop a Decree Of Pain for an Infest maindeck, but I don't think it makes that big a difference.

Since there are many builds of Goblins, I'll tell you what cards doom you: Blistering Firecat and Shrapnel Blast are maindeck cards that Goblins will destroy you with. Builds without these will be much easier to deal with.

Out of the sideboard, you will see your new #1 nemesis: Sulfuric Vortex. Vortex will end you very quickly unless you deal with it. At all costs, you must have a Stone in your first few cards after sideboarding. You cannot race Vortex, so you have to break it and then recover. Never waste spot removal on the random 1/1s. Save it for Warchief and Firecats, picking off the enemies around Goblin Piledriver to ensure it's only a 1/2 - or at the worst, a 3/2. Treat every card they have in their hand as if it's a Blistering Firecat and you should be fine.

This is not a great matchup. You can pull it out, but it will take luck and skill. Goblins has the upper hand, but your chances are good if you can stabilize. Be mindful that the cards they are usually holding are Siege-Gang Commanders, Rorix Bladewings, Sulfuric Vortexes, and Blistering Firecats. As a result, Mind Sludge is not a completely dead card in this matchup.

Monoblack Control Vs. U/W Control
Winning Percentages: 60-40, 50-50, 40-60 depending
Sideboard: -Infest, -Smother, +Cabal Interrogator, +Flashfires, +Boil, + Mind Sludge

Once again, we have a deck that is very dependent on certain builds to waylay MBC. My testing has revealed that a decklist that U/W uses to beat Goblins soundly will not be able to beat MBC consistently at all. Decks tooled more to be effective against MBC and other control variants will not be able to fend off Goblins. As Goblins is the norm, I hope to see a lot of the lighter U/W Control builds that are more aggro-tooled, as the rest will drop to the bottom rounds having been weeded out by Goblins. This U/W is closer to a 70% win, as you can overpower them. A U/W that is well-played and runs enough countermagic is going to sit around 50-50 - and with Karma, they may even have the edge against you.

You have to play this matchup very smart. Split your deck up into Chuck Cards and Impact Cards. Throw Chuck Cards at them endlessly and hope to absorb some countermagic; hey, Consume Spirit for five or Undead Gladiator resolving isn't great news for them. Bad players will drop counters on unimportant cards and you'll be able to Sludge them out. Good players will hold it for the Sludge, but you should be able to out-threat their countermagic.

Be mindful that at two mana open, they have access to a max of four counterspells. At three, they have access to a maximum of eight, if they run Complicate. At four, they have access to 40,000 counters, and you really shouldn't risk throwing anything crucial at them if they have a good amount of cards in their hand. Be realistic and patient. They have two win conditions in their deck: Decree Of Justice and Eternal Dragon. Decree Of Pain can cancel out a Decree, and if you really fear Dragon, side in or maindeck some sort of graveyard removal like Withered Wretch.

Eternal Dragon will come at you over and over and also allows them to generate mana so that when they do find a Decree Of Justice, it will be a big one. Hold Terror and Terror only in response to their attack phase so they have to waste five during their next upkeep to bring Dragon back.

If you playtest this matchup enough, you will do well. Undead Gladiator and Stalking Stones are critical against U/W; make sure your uncountered Diabolic Tutors go looking for these.

Karma will come at you after sideboarding, but it's not as game over as you may think it is. If they tap out for it on Turn 4, you will hit them with a Mind Sludge the next turn, and they won't have anything. Then it's on you to resolve a Oblivion Stone, or activate the one you have in play to delete Karma and start making them pay. Cabal Interrogator on turn 2 is most excellent. When he is in play, use all available resources to use him. Tap out for his ability every turn you can and pick as many cards out of their hand as possible. When he's dealt with, move on. Don't cast other things while he's useable; ride him until they answer him and then move on. Play smart, and you can win this matchup. One mistake, however, can doom you. This is a thinking man's match, a chess game of back and forth that you have to be very patient with.

Monoblack Control vs. R/W Slide
Winning Percentage: 80-20
Sideboard: Pretty Obvious

Of all the really solid new Standard decks, R/W Slide is the one you dominate the most. Coming down hard with a barrage of mass discard and Oblivion Stone to kill what they don't throw away, R/W has almost zero chances to kill you in game one. Many will argue that a cycled Decree Of Annihilation will end MBC, but I don't really see how they'll be able to go seven turns without me Mind Sludging their hand away - and even if they do manage to pop all the lands, never missing a land drop for Decree and actually having the Decree in hand, you'll both be in the same boat, as there is no way they'll have a creature in play against you.

Drop Stone and Mind Sludge like they're hot and cruise to victory game one, then beware of Karma in game 2. That's really all there is to this matchup. You'll see Gilded Light, but it's not as if they'll always have one and it's not as if they don't tap out all the time. If you bring in Persecute, you can have even more things that they have to have Gilded Light for. You should not lose.

Double-Lightning Rift can be tough, but even that is beatable. Your deck is made to eat Slide for breakfast - so eat, and eat well. Slop them for choosing a bad deck for States and cite all of its bad matchups, if you feel cocky. I despise R/W Slide with a passion and hold a similar regard for those who choose to play it. Der, look at me, I have 10,000 cards that are pretty lame unless I have a Lightning Rift on the table. Oh, fear my Exalted Angel, and fear my lack of countermagic to back him up. No, go right ahead and play Oblivion Stone. I have no objections to you wiping away my win conditions and reasons to live.

I was obviously quoting a R/W Slide player. Which I am not. So yeah.

Moving on.

Monoblack Control vs. White Weenie
Winning Percentage: 75-25
Sideboard: + Flashfires, +Persecute

This matchup is generally simple. White Weenie beats Goblins, so it'll be seen in numbers. Monoblack, however, will handle it in almost all cases that don't include mega-powered White Knights and no Oblivion Stones, or second- and third-game Karmas without Oblivion Stone. With any luck, after sideboarding, you'll be able to nab any Karmas they are sitting on with a Persecute, or they'll miss a land drop and you'll be able to go get them. Even a fourth Turn Karma won't end you, as Oblivion Stone ruins WW's day.

Second Sunrise? No, oh! Please! Oh, don't return all my cards to play, too!

Various things that allow them to deal multitudes of damage in an extremely fast fashion can be an issue, but once again, you run Oblivion Stone and they run.... Away from it, because they have no answers for it. If they want to waste a card on delaying me clearing the board for a turn, I guess it's alright. They'd just better hope I didn't Persecute them before I activated Stone. I feel dumb even talking about this matchup and trying to think of ways to make it seem like it's not an autowin. Avoid Karma, disrespect Story Circle with Oblivion Stone and Grid Monitor... I don't know.

Let's review some things that were extremely white that are worth talking about. I hate trying to justify monowhite in Standard. Vanilla Ice was very white, and was generally a good showman and a decent musician. Peyton Manning is an extremely pasty and white quarterback who mans the Indianapolis Colts. The Pillsbury Doughboy, a white icon, has been kicking it old-school for decades. Perhaps if he was a card and included in WW, it wouldn't be as dismal.

Monowhite Control vs. Monoblack Control
Winning Percentage: 90-10
Sideboard: +Flashfires, +Persecute, +Cabal Interrogator

Great White killed a lot of people at that concert. That was sad. I'm sure they've killed a lot more people than Monowhite Control has, so maybe I should do my matchups section against them. I'm sure they can't be much harder.

They probably don't have Karma or Story Circle, but Oblivion Stone would wreck them, too. Black and White was an excellent computer game, and is also a pretty good deck. Space Ghost Coast To Coast was a great show, and Space Ghost was, incidentally, clad in white. Well, and yellow. And black. Wonderbread is very white.

Mmm. I'm going to go make a sandwich, then move on to my next matchup.

Monoblack Control vs. Affinity
Winning Percentage: 30-70
Sideboard: +Mind Sludge, +Cabal Interrogator, +Blood Moon, +Persecute (Depending)

Good luck. Affinity attacks you with 4/4 artifact creatures and counters your big threats with a multitude of solid counters. They draw more cards than you do, for the most part, and are more aggressive and can be better in the late game. Affinity shines in all of your weaknesses, so you have to draw like a champ to come out on top. Grid Monitor can stop the bleeding from their attack - and if they are forced to tap out at all, you can swing with Mind Sludge.

As with U/W, Affinity tooled to beat Control will suffer against Goblins and Affinity tooled to beat Goblins will suffer against control. Cabal Interrogator is an excellent choice out the sideboard, and Blood Moon is just a random trick that may slow them down. Good luck with this matchup. I have not tested it as much as I should have, which means I'll obviously see it over and over at States. It is not a good one, as countermagic in abundance often wrecks MBC.

Monoblack Control vs. W/G
Winning Percentage: 70-30
Sideboard: +Infest, +Persecute

This matchup isn't all that difficult, but could be. This is another one I have not tested a whole lot, as the deck is relatively new... But in the matches I did play, Troll Ascetic and Plow Under were both very effective, while the rest of the deck was not. The Troll can only be stopped by Infest and Decree of Pain, or lethal damage whilst they are tapped out. You want to absorb the early-game beats and be prepared to duke it out late-game with superior toolings for the long haul. This matchup could be very draw-dependent and they could lock you down generally fast, but they lack a real strong disrupter or any great card advantage. You should win this one if you play smart and don't waste your Oblivion Stones. Some versions run Viridian Shaman, and he can be trouble. Wait until turn 7 to drop and then activate your Stone if you know he's lurking. I would save my removal for cards like Exalted Angel.

Monoblack Control vs. Ponza
Winning Percentage: Lunch Break
Sideboard: Don't Bother

You can't beat Ponza. So don't try. Just scoop. I'm serious. It's a very dismal matchup. Use your free time to go get something to eat, and check the different matches around you.

The only chance you have against Ponza is them only seeing a couple of Land D spells all game and you being able to Persecute them. If you Persecute Ponza, you're back in the game. If you can't? Sorry, buddy. Good luck. Ponza will eat your land up and burn you out. Playing Phyrexian Arena will just help them end you. Keep land-heavy hands against them and mulligan away ones with only two or three lands.

Thankfully, I don't expect to see a lot of Ponza at States. Kai champions it and it's a generally sound deck, but I don't think it'll take off as well. But who knows. Let's hope for all MBC players that it stays out of our metagame.

Monoblack Control vs. B/G Cemetery
Winning Percentage: 60-40
Sideboard: Build-dependent

Though it has faded from view, B/G Cemetery is still in the minds of many players. The ability to recur Ravenous Baloth and other useful creatures is very attractive, and many have tried to make this deck work. I don't doubt we'll see some Cemetery around at States, so I did some testing and was generally confident. Oblivion Stone is what stops Cemetery from owning you. If you don't see it, they will eventually overrun you.

Seeing Stone, however, isn't a hard thing to do, and they have no way of stopping you from Mind Sludging them. Twisted Abomination can block their threats all day long and you can stall them out with Visara as well. Baloth recursion can be annoying, but you'll eventually draw into answers for it or be able to deal more than four damage a turn. Different builds could bring different results, and as they run black, they have access to Persecute. A third-turn Arena after sideboarding would be a very good idea, as you know the Persecute is coming and want to negate it by having Arena in play.

All in all, you should win this one most of the time, but they are a very effective group of cards. Its lack of effectiveness against other decks in the field is why I doubt I'll see much of it.

Monoblack Control vs. B/W Control
Winning Percentage: 60-40, 50-50
Sideboard: +Cabal Interrogator, +Flashfires

It all comes down to the fact that control not featuring blue is going to suffer from Mind Sludge. Brian Kibler and Zvi both are extremely high on this build - but as a Mono Black Control player, I don't exactly fear it.

The deck is difficult to play. Honestly. Give it a try. You have to have tested with it quite a bit to be as proficient as you need to be in order to pull games out with it. Persecute will hurt, but with an Arena in play, you recover very quickly. Grid Monitor will be a Must-Answer for them, and it's not really as if they can bring in Karma out of their sideboard. Maybe I'm wrong and they will, but I don't know if I'd risk going zero Swamps in B/W.

Flashfires would come in and help this matchup, but I doubt they'll be running many Plains, since Goblins runs Flashfires sideboard. But because of the deck's sheer power, you will only win around 50-60% of your games against it. This deck demands tremendous playskill. I know I wouldn't be amazing with it, and don't know that enough people will be good enough with it at States for it to really skew the metagame just yet. Once people gain more experience playing it, I can see it surfacing as the best deck in Standard... But for now, I'd say it's still young and will need time to develop.

As you can see, Monoblack Control's matchups are generally good. With some question marks against Goblins, Affinity and Ponza, it still does well enough against its other matchups to be effective. Monoblack, more than any other deck in standard, feeds on weakness. If your deck is weak to mass-removal - wow. You're going to get it. If your deck can't stop big targeted spells like Mind Sludge, you're in trouble. Not enough lands and you missed a land drop? Goodbye. Some non-optimal cards in an altered maindeck? Uh oh. Welcome to Play Mistake Mountain, Population: You.

If a deck you're up against isn't well-built and the player playing it hasn't done his homework, you have a distinct edge. The psychology behind my choice of MBC is very simple. I'm all about preparation. If you prepare enough, you will do well. It's not even about playskill in Standard anymore; it's about how prepared you are. How well you know someone's deck type. Answers. Answers, answers and more answers. MBC offers more answers than any other deck in Standard.

I expect to see an awful lot of randomness at this year's Wisconsin States. Without Masters around to dictate quality to the dittoheads of the MTG world, we'll see all sorts of badness appear throughout early tournaments. It'll almost be like the good ol' days, back before netdecking. Wait. Those days weren't good at all; everyone sucked. Oh, well.

Randomness usually manifests first in Magic's simplest deck genre - Aggro. And nothing does better against Random Aggro than MBC. I have tested enough to where I believe I am as prepared as anybody is. I'm perfectly confident that I have an opportunity to make Top 8 at Wisconsin States with MBC. If I can weed through a Goblin-heavy T8, however, remains to be seen.

I will be driving down apart from my playtest team, the venerable central Wisconsin veterans of Team Booyah from Steven's Point. My fiancée and I are spending the night before States and the rest of that weekend together in Madison, so going 0-3 drop won't be the worst thing in the world. Very shortly after States, the second half of my article will be posted. It will go through my prep, extras, strategy, last-minute changes as well as every match, in-depth and completely analyzed. Feel free to contact at me siglerja@hotmail.com if you plan to attend Wisconsin States this year and would like to send me your decklist so I don't feel so bad about letting you all read mine.

Good luck to everyone across the US in their own Champs; I hope you all win. Even though I'm sure you all can't win.

Because.. Yeah. You get it.

Jesse Sigler
siglerja@hotmail.com
jessesigler61 on AIM