Mono Black “Moneyball” Premodern Deck Guide

Introduction

Monoblack strategies have always been a pillar of the format, but until Parallax Tide’s ban they were considered “lower tier” decks, mostly because their spot in the metagame was hugely taken by Dead Guy’s Ale strategies. 
It’s not a secret that Swamp, Dark Ritual into Hypnotic Spectre is a sick start, but the metagame started to feel more aggressive, in terms of not only decks but also strategies, only after Parallax Ban. 
Enchantress or replenish for example is what I consider an “aggressive gameplay”. You can develop your plan turn by turn, without caring too much about what the opponent is doing, because (at least game one) there aren't as many backbreaking cards as Parallax, for instance.

In this “new” metagame, Monoblack imposed itself. First, people overlooked the deck, considering it just an aggro deck, but after Moneyball started to consistently top and win challenges or paper tournaments, everyone started to consider it… and it’s likely that for certain weeks/tournaments, it might have been the best choice possible.

Why is the deck so strong?

Moneyball has a very cohesive, limited style, gameplay. You play creatures and attack. 
I play 6 creatures that buff themselves: 3 Nantuko Shade and 3 Knight of the Stromgald. Those are strong enough to play a “delver style” game sometimes, where you just deploy one of these and attack a bunch of times while disrupting your opponent’s resources. 

Another card that’s mandatory to add in 4 copies is Withered Wretch: graveyard hate is really precious in Premodern for multiple reasons, and even against decks that aren’t necessarily graveyard focused, it might still be awesome; take Stiflenought for example. Constantly exiling their blue spells will eventually shrink Flash of Insight, removing one of their best grindy card advantage cards for the midgame. 
On top of this, there is a really strong disrupting plan featuring 4 Duress and 4 Cabal Therapy… that combine perfectly with Hypnotic Spectre.

The rest of the decks are “flex slots”: removals and card advantage. I personally like to run 2 Graveborn Muse and 1 Phyrexian Arena, to have different nuances and fill the curve better. 
In the removal slots, I am playing 2 Diabolic Edict - awesome vs Enchantress and big monsters - 3 Smother and 1 Plaguebearer. The deck also plays 2 Cursed Scrolls, a really strong tool to win endgames against highly disruptive decks. 

The grind is real!

A frequently asked question is why I am not playing Ravenous Rats

While I think the card is powerful combined with Cabal Therapy, I think the floor of the card is really low, and most strategies can often just discard a card and ignore it if you don’t double down its effect with a Spectre or any discard spell. 
I am also not a fan of turn one Cabal, especially because most decks can have different starts and if you’re OTP you need to guess (or be a psychic).

In a known metagame such as a LGS, where everyone is a familiar face, Cabal+Rat might be a stronger strategy tho, and I encourage you to try this build (it’s just -3 Knight +3 Rat) especially if you’re not expecting to face a ton of Enchantress, Replenish and UW Control.

The Sideboard

This is my current sideboard, shaped to beat most decks in the format, without being too focused on anything. I think the mixture of disrupting elements + black enchantments or supporting removals is often good enough to beat any deck, but you can switch a couple of cards (mostly Diabolic Edict and 2nd Plague) to add two cards for what you want to beat.

Tormod is mostly for HFEB and Replenish, but it’s also nice against Iggy, Enchantress and rogue strategies like Reanimator.

Dystopia is the best card in the sideboard, and takes care of Terrageddon / survival decks as well as white-based decks. 
Gloom is great against Enchantress and Replenish, and it’s not bad against UW Standstill.

Powder Keg is mostly for Monored, to have an answer against Cursed Scroll, but it can come in handy against Stiflenought and in the mirror.

Plague is obviously for tribal decks: Goblins, Elves, and Clerics, but I don’t mind siding in some against Monored (naming Goblin early, and Elemental later).

Spinning Darkness is here mostly for Monored, but it’s okay vs Goblins and creature decks in general.

I am currently not running Drain Life, but it’s a cool tech to play against Monored. Other cards that can be included are Masticore(s), 3rd Muse, 1st Dustbowl or 3rd Cursed Scroll. I also saw some lists with 2nd Plaguebearer, but I prefer Powder Keg there. 
Depending on your local meta / expected meta, you can tune your sideboard - mine is built mostly for MTGO meta.

Tips & Tricks

- Remember Graveborn Muse isn’t exactly like Phyrexian Arena: you play 5 Zombies in the deck, so make sure to draw the right amount of cards (and not leave yourself dead to a bolt!)
- Consider naming creature spells with Cabal Therapy, since you have duress and you want the maximum amount of disruption possible. 
- It’s okay to slowroll a Cabal Therapy if you’re not sure about what your opponent has, eventually casting it before developing a strong play (T2 Therapy on Swords + Ritual Specter). 
- Make sure to understand if it’s better to attack first, and then cast Duress, or the opposite. If you’re against Stiflenought, for example, and they have three cards in hand, it might be better to duress first so you might get a 50/50 chance of hitting Dreadnought… while against spell-based decks (like Sapphire Storm), it might be better to attack first, and then duress trying to disrupt their leftover plan. 
- Dark Ritual is not always a turn one play. I view it as a Black Lotus… sometimes it is great to accelerate a play, other times it is smart to sandbag to make a better play later (even giving Nantuko +2 attack). 
- Remember you can edict yourself, or use Cabal Therapy, if you’re low on life with a Muse on the battlefield. Similarly, use Edict before Smother, so you don’t give your opponents a choice. This of course is contextual, and depends if your opponent has problematic permanents that can’t be hit by Smother (like Baloth or Exalted Angel).

Sideboard Guide

NOTE: I realized I side out Cursed Scroll a lot - this is because I plan to play a midrange/control game, often having removals and cards in hand. It’s okay to side differently if you expect to play in a different way. Flex slots are often Edicts, Plaguebearer and Knight of the Stromgald, as well as 1-2 copies of Cabal Therapy.

Stiflenought (favorable):
+2 Powder Keg
+1 Diabolic Edict
-2 Cursed Scroll
-1 Withered Wretch

This matchup is usually good, because Monoblack plays a mixture of strong discard spells and removals that can often overcome Phyrexian Dreadnought. 
Game one blind naming Dreadnought is often correct, since one of the few ways you lose the matchup is T2 Dreadnought. Moneyball should play the “aggro game”, putting as much pressure on board as possible. At some point, DN can’t win the game without losing on the crackback, meaning that being at 4 or 6 life is enough to win at times.

Postboard, the games are similar, you can mulligan slow hands trying to find pressure + disruption. Always try to have at least one creature, because Stiflenought plays a really strong tempo game and it’s really resilient at finding backup and counters.

Enchantress (favorable / even):
+3 Dystopia
+2 Gloom
+1 Diabolic Edict

-2 Cursed Scroll
-3 Smother
-1 Plague Bearer

OTD: 
-1 Cabal Therapy 
+1 Tormod’s Crypt

Monoblack tends to be advantaged with the right mixture of spells, or a very aggro start featuring Dark Ritual. Wasteland plays an important game of keeping Serra’s Sanctum in check, so try to sandbag it until it’s relevant as they might play Serra during development. 
Knight of the Stromgald is the king of the matchup, Wretch is also really good.

Postboard is kinda the same, but we have better removals for their plan. 
I usually like to T1 blind name Mirri’s Guile with Cabal OTP, while OTD might be correct to name Argothian.

Replenish (favorable):
+1 Tormod’s Crypt
+2 Gloom 
+2 Dystopia
+1 Diabolic Edict
-2 Cursed Scroll
-1 Plague Bearer
-3 Smother

This is similar to Enchantress, but Moneyball should have better odds of winning game one since Replenish really needs to deal with a lot of annoying permanents, and Withered Wretch is really good at slowing them down while the rest of the team attack; Replenish manabase is also often painful, reducing the amount of damage we need to deal.  
Notably, Diabolic Edict can solve a Opalescence + Parallax board.

Postboard I am not entirely convinced by Dystopia, hence I am siding two, mostly because it doesn’t beat a solved Replenish (but it’s cool against Opalescence + Parallax). Since there are various ideas on Replenish sideboard, I leave in some removals to disrupt an eventual creature plan. If you notice they don’t have Angels nor Meddling Mages, you can do -1 Edict +1 Dystopia, since they’re similar but Dystopia is better.

Monored sligh (really unfavorable): 
+2 Powder Keg
+1 Diabolic Edict
+2 Spinning Darkness
+2 Engineered Plague
-2 Graveborn Muse
-1 Phyrexian Arena
-4 Cabal Therapy

This matchup is hard because your opponent can often play the control role, killing all your creatures, and eventually starting to go after you. I feel Cabal Therapy is not great here, mostly because Sligh can play a great topdeck game, and it’s hard to predict what they have considering all the cards are similar.

Postboard Powder Keg is awesome to deal with opp’s Cursed Scroll, as well as their creatures. I don’t mind a couple of Engineered Plague, to name Elemental, to prevent Ball Lightning. Ideally you win by racing them, Nantuko Shade is your best card. Once you’re ahead, Cursed Scroll plays a role to keep up the damage plan. 
Withered Wretch is also really important at dealing with Lava Dart, Barbarian Ring and Grim Lavamancer.

Mirror Match (even… but random):
+2 Powder Keg
+1 Diabolic Edict
-1 Plaguebearer
-2 Cabal Therapy

I felt this matchup is about being faster and seeing Graveborn Muse before your opponent. It’s easy to get on board, but hard to keep advantage, and Nantuko Shade is the king of the midgame, since it often forces bad trades. Knight is awesome at winning combat, while Specter is often a “rolling vortex”, meaning the card deals two damage but it isn’t doing much else. 
Postboard the game plays similarly, Phyrexian Arena is your best card early game, while Cabal Therapy isn’t awesome because you want to keep your creatures and it’s hard to blind name.  

Naya Terrageddon (even-ish): 
+2 Powder Keg
+3 Dystopia
+2 Spinning Darkness
-2 Cursed Scroll
-4 Mishra’s Factory
-1 Cabal Therapy

I am not 100% how to side in this matchup. I like to add more removals, because Weathered Wayfirer is often how they get the upper hand in the matchup. Wretch is awesome at removing lands from the graveyard; I am siding out 4 Factory to decrease the odds of losing to wasteland + Rishadan port.

It’s usually better to start the game with Duress, or blind name Library, than T1 Spectre, as they might punish you with Swords.

Hermit Full English Breakfast HFEB (favorable): 
+1 Tormod’s Crypt
+2 Powder Keg
+3 Dystopia
+2 Spinning Darkness
-3 Knight of Stromgald
-1 Nantuko Shade
-2 Cursed Scroll
-2 Graveborn Muse

Mono black should be the aggro here, and the matchup tends to be favorable for the amount of disruptive elements the deck has. Duress and Cabal are awesome to snipe T2 Survival, and the huge amount of removals should clear the board making early Volrath’s turns hard to set up. Withered Wretch is often your best card; leaving open mana with Wretch is often a winning line. 
Postboard I am cutting Card Advantage to play more removals and graveyard hate, to make the plan even more cohesive.

Goblins (even): 
+2 Spinning Darkness
+4 Engineered Plague
+2 Powder Keg
-4 Duress
-4 Cabal Therapy

The matchup plays out like a limited beatdown mirror; the one that has the upper hand tends to win. Preboard is harder, since Monoblack has 4x Duress that’s useless 99% of the time (hopefully the opponent plays Bolt), but postboard Engineered Plague makes things even. 
Don’t rely too much on that, and make sure to not be dead to Tranquil Domain when you deploy the second copy. 
I am not a huge Powder Keg believer, but it’s likely the best card you can board in considering you really want to move away from discard spells, considering how strong and resilient Goblin’s top of the deck is.

UW Standstill (slightly unfavorable): 
+2 Gloom
+1 Powder Keg
+1 Dystopia
-3 Smother
-1 Withered Wretch

UW control usually has a lot of tools to punish our development, either by playing Swords to Plowshares on our early threats or curving into Wrath of God. Discard spells are really strong, and so is Cursed Scroll and Mishra’s Factory. Scroll is especially clever, because at some point UW overwhelms Moneyball with threats and 1/1 soldiers, so if they’re low on life, Scroll can take down a compromised game.

Postboard the game is similar, I am siding in Dystopia mostly for Humility, but it might be a strong plan if they have Exalted Angel as well. Wretch is your worst card as it’s basically a grizzly bear; make sure to trim some if you want to side differently. 
As I said tho, it’s still important to have some attackers since your plan is to deal the maximum amount of damage ASAP.