PREMODERN MTG: MONO BLACK CLERICS: Deck Tech

[@MTGUshuaia]

The best premodern deck techs in youtube. Thanks for keep doing this.

[@IPlayMagic]

Thank you for the kind words and comment it means a lot. I’m surprised there are still so many decks left to cover. This format is huge!

[@ulicknormanowen1801]

there's surprisingly many tribal decks in this format

[@IPlayMagic]

Yeah lots theres still a bunch that I want to try out and brew around as well.

[@Khell79]

I missed this era of Magic but it's great seeing the many deck ideas in the format. Great video, really enjoy watching your deck techs.

[@IPlayMagic]

Thanks for the support! It really was a great era for the game, the more I see the new stuff with other franchises like warhammer, and dr who actually impacting competitive play the more it makes me appreciate the flavour and gameplay of premodern

[@tcgmetaslayer4202]

fun! I made a b/w clerics deck in commander but this is neat! gix was so good back in the day

[@ENAPO_35]

This looks super cool, and I am saying that as a player, who normally does not gravitate towards black decks.

[@IPlayMagic]

It's very fun and has lots of play to it. I love black decks and it's still one of my favourites. I would definitely recommend giving it a try.

[@magiccardmaker3588]

Working on a legacy Cleric tribal, so this video helped a lot!

[@OneFrameReaction]

Nice, do you have a deck list?

[@magiccardmaker3588]

@@OneFrameReaction Not a stable one yet still looking at how it will win games.

[@lutz4820]

Cannot wait to try it out. Again nice video, thank you!

[@IPlayMagic]

It’s a great deck and super fun! Thanks for the support

[@ryanday633]

I'm definitely going to build this deck for premodern. The mono white and B/W versions are cool too,infact pretty much all the tribal decks in premodern are great. I absolutely love this format. I recently moved on from modern and legacy and put most of my focus on premodern because it's totally nostalgic for me and it's loads of fun. Plenty of decks to play in this format as well.

[@IPlayMagic]

Yeah plus it will never change so no need to learn new stuff or buy new cards. I think this format is incredibly well balanced

[@Stanslick]

I went on recent monthly 4:2 with my list (similiar to the one you showed at the end, not yours). Very entertaining deck, you really enjoy playing it, cause it offers many great decision times. So fun, not a straightforward aggro. I think bad moon is great in SB, I'd even try it in MB. Speeds it up. Unearth is also a great card. I also run 2 Skeletal scryings MD for longer matchups. Patriarch bidding usually gets countered, so I'd avoid it. I play 4 fetches (RB) just to fill in the grave for scryings and to clear my deck (better draws) and it works just fine. Really recommend it!

[@IPlayMagic]

Interesting, I found that most of the time I was just cycling unearth. Maybe it’s better vs goblins or sligh but I still prefer extra copies of duress and cabal therapy or more removal. With the extra copies of the discard spells I found that control decks weren’t really a problem. Bidding is also great vs the rock, sligh, or other grindy decks etc because you can often win on the spot when it resolves with the ritual cleric and archon. If I was going to play it again the only change I would make is to add the 3rd dystopia to the sb and maybe add bad moons and some null rods.

[@Stanslick]

@@IPlayMagic Great! What about a little sideboard guide: Do you take out the combo (supplicants+scion) against white decks, or decks running swords? I do, usually. I don't want to sac my board so they topdeck the sword..

[@IPlayMagic]

@@Stanslick I don’t, I usually just leave it sitting there and then respond to a swords on a smaller guy by saccing it with 2 other things. Or waiting for them to tap out then getting it eot. If you can get an exalted angel out of their graveyard that way then it’s extremely difficult for them.

[@Stanslick]

@@IPlayMagic Thx for the response. Would you be able to make a short sideboard guide, just what goes in, what out for meta decks: Burn, Goblins, Oath (terravore), UW ctrl, Nought, Elves, Rock? I wish, there is more content on this deck, but so far, I'm learning it "trial error method"... :/

[@IPlayMagic]

@@Stanslick no worries, thanks for watching the videos and subscribing. I have been asked for sideboard guides a few times and it would take forever to do all of the decks especially as there’s are more decks every year. I think I will do a general video about how to sideboard in premodern though. For this deck you are the best down deck most of the time but more slow and grindy vs faster decks or in the late game vs midrange. So you need to think about how your opponents deck works and wins and that will let you know your role or path to win and then the cards that are good or bad in those situations. For example combo decks win quickly and often don’t care about creature removal so cursed scroll can come out and slower creatures like cabal archon or shepherd of rot can come out and disruption cards can go in. Vs aggro I often take out duress as it’s bad in top deck wars vs creature decks and put in more grindy cards like bidding or the extra removal. I think I will make a video about this but I hope this helps for now

[@rogerbishop3042]

Just saw this list the other day! Looks super cool

[@IPlayMagic]

It’s really fun, I definitely recommend giving it a try

[@PandasGoMarchingIn]

Gonna build this. Probably a little weaker with Initiates of the Ebon Hand in it, but the eye-in-the-chest artwork of that card was one of the first Magic cards I saw as a kid, so this gives me a chance to finally include it in a 75 :)

[@IPlayMagic]

That art is classic

[@polirimeov8837]

i had a b&w cleric deck. one of my favorites ❤

[@IPlayMagic]

@@polirimeov8837 it’s such a cool deck. For a long time people preferred the mono white or white with a black splash but I really think that the mono black build is the strongest because of dark ritual into the dark ritual creature and / or dark supplicant + a creature

[@radekmartinek2673]

Hello, thank you for brilliant guide, do you consider making of RW Rift / Astral slide deck ?

[@IPlayMagic]

Hi, thanks and I’m glad you like the videos, I will do that one eventually but I have a lot of videos in the queue if videos I need to finish. I have already made a blue red rift control video (I think it’s better than rw) if that interests you

[@IrenicuSYT]

Excellent video as always. Can you make a FEB video? I'm planning building some budget version, without Intuitions or Hermit Druid! Fortunately I have gold border survivals.

[@IPlayMagic]

Thanks for the support! and there are so many decks that it's hard to keep up with all of the lists. I have a huge backlog of videos to make (loads that are half made too) so it wont be super soon but I will try to get around to it eventually.

[@SedgeHermit]

Yugioh designers looked at Dark Supplicant and said "We should design literally every card that way"

[@tchess70]

Thanks for the video. I’m going to try the sac 3 clerics along with wail of the Nim and death rattle Oni to wipe the board. Along with quest for the gravelord, archfiend’s vessel and master of dark rights. Total brutality

[@IPlayMagic]

Glad you like the video, is that for a casual deck or commander or some other format ?

[@tchess70]

@@IPlayMagicit’s for casual. I’m going to let friends challenge the deck but I don’t plan on using it for game nights.

[@tchess70]

@@IPlayMagic Quick question. I could not find specific info on the subject and thought you might know. With the card Quest for the Gravelord, can I have six counters and make two zombies, or can it only make one zombie regardless of the counters? The card says "Remove three quest counters from Quest for the Gravelord and sacrifice it: Create a 5/5 black Zombie Giant creature token."

[@vsaico]

Keep up the good work!!

[@IPlayMagic]

Thank you! I really appreciate the support!

[@joshuaedelstein8017]

Hey! I have been tooling around with this list. Have you thought of Ancient Tomb? 2-3 seem like an interesting choice as the mana is even more stable than the GR Goblins decks that run 2-3 Tombs. We seem to be running enough colorless pips to let it be reliably used.

[@IPlayMagic]

Hi, I have thought about before and do think it’s playable/ could be good but I went with ports in my list because I think the disruption is more important ( I won quite a lot of games because I could port a colour and stop a combo card or sweeper) and we have dark ritual for acceleration. We generally have a lot to do with our mana and the deck does need quite a bit of black mana as well. I definitely think that it’s worth testing tomb but this deck has a much lower curve than goblins that uses it for ringleaders and siege gang as well as matron on turn 2 (a lot of goblin decks have stopped playing tomb). Goblins are also much more aggressive and rarely care about their life total whereas clerics are often in a more defensive grindy position. I can definitely see why you’d want to try it though and it might be good

[@milesgreb3537]

They are running MLM ads on your videos - might wanna check on that. But otherwise - they are great videos and really help people get into the format.

[@IPlayMagic]

Thanks for letting me know. I have ads on because that’s how KZbin pays creators, it’s not much money at all but these videos take a long time to make so that’s why I have ads turn on ( I think even if it’s off you still get shown adds) I don’t think I get much of a choice about the kinds of adds that KZbin shows you. I thought adds were based on what you would like (although they usually aren’t) I’m not sure but I’ll try to look into it though.

[@DracosDiabolis]

Very cool build.

[@IPlayMagic]

It’s my favourite new deck of 2023. I think it’s much stronger than it gets credit for. I’d definitely recommend giving it a try 👍

[@timellins]

would You please share Your deck list? We're curios!!

[@IPlayMagic]

It’s in the video at the end ( the one with just pictures before the other list) that’s the one I went 6-0 with in the monthly recently

[@zirilan3398]

Algorythm

[@IPlayMagic]

Thankyou!

[@rgw0n344]

1st!

[@IPlayMagic]

2nd!

[@cliffv3]

Weaknesses: The competitive meta of Premodern

[@IPlayMagic]

😂 nah it’s a good deck, when I top 16’d with it last month I went 6-0 in Swiss vs stasis, aluren, ww, oath, mono black aggro and lands combo. Admittedly not all tier 1 but definitely some solid decks in there