Budget Magic: $40 (17 tix) Standard Mono B Humans
Welcome back to another edition of Budget Magic. Today we have an aggressive Mono Black Humans build: Swarm the board with aggressive Human Warriors and finish off your opponents with an intimidating alpha strike with Mogis's Marauder, or go big with Obelisk of Urd.
The best card in the deck, and possibly the best one-drop in the format is Bloodsoaked Champion. A 2/1 for B is a good deal, but his Raid ability lets him come back again and again for more damage. We pair him up with Ruthless Ripper, Tormented Hero and Mardu Shadowspear to always ensure an aggressive opening. The ideal curve is one-drop into double one-drop.
Pain Seer was heralded as the next Dark Confidant when spoiled, but silently waited in the shadows until now. While he's still no Dark Confidant, he does provide card advantange more often than not. Mardu Strike Leader generates 2/1 Warriors when he attacks and can get out of control if left unchecked. Mogis's Marauder allows our Pain Seer and Mardu Strike Leader to survive combat and gain value, and is often used for an all-out alpha strike. Finally we have Obelisk of Urd. You can convoke your Humans/Warriors to cast this (typically on Humans as all of our cards are Humans, but sometimes Warrior for our tokens). This lets us fight through ground forces like Sylvan Caryatid and Siege Rhino. It also importantly lets us avoid Drown in Sorrow. Obelisk of Urd also lets us trigger Inspired on our Pain Seer without risking him in combat.
Last but not least, we have our removal suite.
The Sideboard
The sideboard is pretty straight forward. Herald of Torment is used against control matchups as an extra body, or used as a flyer if the opponent has large ground forces (e.g. Siege Rhino). Despise can get rid of pesky Planeswalkers or large monsters like Siege Rhino or Polukranos, World Eater. Brain Maggot can provide some cheap disruption against spells you cannot beat like End Hostilities or even Drown in Sorrow on the play. Finally, Ulcerate is cheap removal against decks playing creatures with 3 toughness or less.
Upgrades
This deck is a budget version of Tomoharu Saito's Mono B Humans list. This list barely missed Top 8 at GP Memphis, so it can definitely tangle with the big boys. If you have any of these cards, you'll definitely want to include them:
We include Polluted Delta and Bloodstained Mire to fuel our graveyards for Murderous Cut. Hero's Downfall comes in as general purpose removal, and we replace the Brain Maggot/Despise with Thoughtseize.
Tips and Tricks
- Most of the time you'll play Ruthless Ripper face up, but you can also play her face down and unmorph her to deal two points of damage to your opponent
- In a pinch, you can target your own Tormented Hero with a removal spell to trigger Heroic to deal 1 damage to your opponent and gain 1 life
- If you Convoke Obelisk of Urd with Pain Seer, you'll get to trigger Inspired and draw a card without risking your Pain Seer
- Bloodsoaked Champion triggers his own Raid ability. So if you attack with him and he gets blocked and killed, you can just pay 1B to bring him back post combat.
Video
If you prefer the above in video form, you're in luck! Here's the deck tech from our YouTube channel along with some gameplay videos! Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel if you want to see more video content!
