Khans Suicide Black

Now that most of the Mono-Black Devotion package (Pack Rat, Desecration Demon, Underworld Connections) has rotated, we get the opportunity to experiment with black cards that, while strong, had been previously overshadowed by superior options. Among these, a personal favorite is Pain Seer, the not-quite-Dark-Confidant from Born of the Gods. Unlocking the full potential of this creature requires a deckbuilder to meet two hard requirements: to survive Pain Seer's ability, and to actually be able to activate that ability. This means that we need a deck with a very low curve (or obscene amounts of lifegain), and enough removal or tricks to allow a bear to attack into a metagame full of Coursers of Kruphix, and survive until the next untap phase. Can we build a viable deck under these restrictions? Will it be worth all the effort?

Today's deck is a somewhat extreme take on the Pain Seer riddle: a very aggresive monoblack deck with an extremely low curve, a surprising amount of card advantage, and a healthy dose of removal and disruption. The main downside is that the deck is terrible at defense: we take a lot of damage from our own spells (with Pain Seer, Thoughtseize, Sign in Blood, Ulcerate and Boon of Erebos all eating at our life total), and most of our creatures block poorly, or not at all.

Suicide Black

Creature (24)
4x Bloodsoaked Champion
3x Gnarled Scarhide
3x Grim Haruspex
4x Mardu Skullhunter
4x Pain Seer
2x Ruthless Ripper
1x Spiteful Returned
3x Tormented Hero

Instant (9)
3x Bile Blight
3x Boon of Erebos
1x Hero's Downfall
2x Ulcerate

Land (18)
18x Swamp

Sorcery (8)
2x Despise
3x Sign in Blood
3x Thoughtseize

Artifact (1)
1x Hall of Triumph

The nice thing about this deck is that it not only draws cards like crazy but, due to its low curve, it can put all these cards to good use right away. The creatures are tiny, but most come with some built-in card advantage or resistance to sweepers, and the cheap removal and tricks allow us to attack profitably, even into the sturdiest green monsters. One of the most important cards is Boon of Erebos, which for a single black mana is extremely versatile: it can trade with an opposing removal spell, or win combat against anything short of a Polukranos. The Bile Blights are obviously good against cheaper creatures, but we shouldn't be afraid of using them as a combat trick to bring down larger monsters. At the top of the curve we have Grim Haruspex, which is amazing against sweepers, and lets us attack even more recklessly with our expendable little creatures. We even have a bit of direct damage to finish opponents off after a board stall, with Ruthless Ripper, Tormented Hero, and the odd Sign in Blood.

Earlier versions of this list went even more all-in, with more copies of Ulcerate, Boon of Erebos, and Sign in Blood. However, I found that we were hurting ourselves way too much, and toned the pain down to the current levels. I also experimented with Radiant Fountains to offset the life loss, but the deck has little use for colorless mana.

The mana base is definitely greedy, with a mere 18 swamps, but the very low curve coupled with all the card draw means we can usually afford it. The deck plays at almost full capacity with just 2 lands, and has a lot of plays even when stuck on a single swamp.

Regarding some unorthodox card choices, the Ruthless Rippers are not the most aggressive of attackers, but are among our best options when facing a board stall, and great if we ever fall behind. They also let us play a nice guessing game when morphed, in combination with Grim Haruspex. I also like to avoid using 4 copies of the non-essential creatures, to reduce the vulnerability to Bile Blight blowouts.