Magic: the Gathering

Deck Guide

Pauper Deck Tech - Mono Black Aristocrats

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Today we'll talk about Mono Black Aristocrats, a deck that sacrifices its own creatures to take advantage over your opponent.

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revised by Tabata Marques

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Mono Black Aristocrats is a deck with a theme that already existed in a Golgari version, but the new sets of 2020 brought with it possible improvements, enabling a mono colored version.

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We'll talk about the main deck and then of the sideboard, so we start with the divisions, we have swamps, creatures / spells that make the sacrifice (sac outlet) feasible, creatures that either do ETB (enter the battlefield effect) or when they die they have an effect, creatures that take advantage of the synergy of the sac, removals and catalyst cards.

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Sac Outlets

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Cards with ETB or death triggers

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Sinergy Cards

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Removals

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Catalysts

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Sideboard

Taking a brief look, we see that the main deck is interactive, so our sideboard has to cover as many failures as possible or improve certain games even further. That's why we have more removals (Crypt Rats and Cast Down), additional copies of some cards, ways to gain some life (Unexpected Fangs) and the famous disruption that in our case are the discard spells like Duress and Mesmeric Fiend.

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It is worth mentioning that the Mesmeric Fiend in this deck has an additional function because if he dies while the trigger is on the stack, the card does not return to its owner, so he has a great sinergy with sacrifice.

As you can see, some cards have multiple functions, and some could say that they could fit into another division too, but for the purposes of separation and didactics I preferred it that way.

The most important thing is to focus on a balanced distribution of functions on a full synergic deck, and this can take many tests. My list was a mix of an Aristocrats deck that I saw Pauperganda playing and Mono Black food in which case was built by Oliverjuqs.

Why play this deck over the traditional Mono Black

Well, this deck, different from the conventional one, is faster and at the current metagame, we regularly encounter Ux, Walls, Stompy has a very equal chance to victory.

To be more efficient in the plays, to be able to make multiple spells per turn, to have a game plan both aggressive and control is certainly the differential and that is exactly what caught my attention. The deck is certainly not a tier 1, but decks that can shape your playing style with an efficient plan as Ux decks do, it is always good to take a look and try it yourself.

Pros and Cons

Pros: Fast deck that plays pretty well against creature decks and you can shape it to your own playstile.

Cons: Has some sequences of suboptimal plays, as a part of the engine may come without the another. Difficulty against fog effect / Weather the storm effects.

When playing with this deck it is of crucial importance to know how to sequence, this is the main difficulty in decks that can do multiple spells in the same turn. To know if you go out with a Carrion Feeder, Mortician Beetle or Footlight Fiend in the first turn? Which sacrifice to use when you have more than one chance? Increase Carrion Feeder as soon as possible to end the game soon?

The answer to that is simple, but at the beginning when you are getting used to the deck, it is difficult to analyze, mentalize possible sequences of the match you are facing, so you will have a range of plays and the correct one.

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The last thing to keep in mind is: the sideboard is not so complementary, in certain matches it will disconfigure the main idea of the deck, as it is worth doing an analysis of the divisions and balancing on the post side.

Conclusion

I've played many leagues, and even a challenge with Mono-Black Aristocrats. The deck is a lot of fun, I see potential, there are possible exchanges both on the main deck and on the sideboard and that's what I've been studying, and for those who haven't seen it, on my channellink outside website has some gameplay with this incredible deck !