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Ok, ok... I have been really slack and havent reviewed any decks lately, and Scott is here threatening my life. So, I better pull one out of the closet if I want to stay around. I promise I will try to be more consistent. Anywho, today's deck was a hopeful for the Junior Super Series. He wanted to play a mono-black deck, so let us see what he has to say.

> Hello...My name is Chris from Loudonville,OH. I play at locally and I was hoping that you would help me with this deck. I need to make a deck that will work well against others at this JSS that is coming up.
> I have tweaked the deck a bit but i still need some help.. I came here because I want to go rogue at the J.S.S.  The last J.S.S I went to everyone was playing rebels, nether-go, and fires. I wanted to make a deck that will beat those decks, also sideboarding against that metagame.  My deck is called BLACKSMACK.  It is mono black (could be a problem) and the J.S.S flier said that you could only use sixth ed, masques, nemesis, prophecy, and invasion. Here is the decklist.
>
>*Creatures*
>4 Thrashing Wumpus
>4 Chilling Apparition
>4 Abyssal Specter
>1 Acedent Evincar
>1 Avatar of Woe
>*Spells*
>4 Vicious Hunger
>4 Dark Ritual
>4 Soul Burn
>3 Rhystic Tutor
>1 Strands of Night
>*Artifacts*
>4 Charcoal Diamond
>*Lands*
>4 Peat Bog
>4 Rishadan Port
>14 Swamp
>
>&SIDEBOARD&
>3 Tsabo's Decree
>4 Perish
>4 Massacre
>4 Addle
>
> Please help me with the deck... It still isnt up to its potential.  Please help the sideboard against the metagame.  Thanx for your time.

I would be glad to help... I see lots of changes coming. To do well against the metagame, you will find discard to be your best friend and you will have to abuse it. Also, removal is also against these decks in perticular. Finally, the deck is 4 cards short of the miniumum tournament legal deck size of 60 cards, so we need to find something else to add. Keep these things in mind. Let us start with creatures.

This is a very solid creature base, however some things will have to change. Thrashing Wumpus is great, but I believe that going down to three will help the deck's mana curve and tempo. The Chilling Apparition is ideal against blastoderm and gang, so keep those. Abyssal Specters are amazing fliers that love to make your opponent discard, I personally have seen too many of those against me. Give your opponent the same headache I get and keep those in there. Now to the main man, Acendent Evincar. I would like to see him out of this deck. You already got three Thrashing Wumpus, so he seems like extra filler to me. The Avatar of Woe is great late game, which I forsee you entering often. I would like to see an extra one of her if possable. A creature I would recommend adding would be the Ravenous Rats for more discard, an extra blocker, and a possable creature 2nd turn without the help of a Dark Ritual. Put 4 of those in, most decks cant stop that. Putting those in make the amount of creatures in the deck add up to 17 creatures. Moving on to spells.

This part needs some help, mainly because of what you are expecting to see. The Vicious Hungers are ok on sideboard, but I rather replace them with 4 of the the dreaded turn 1 Vendetta. This could slow a fires deck by robbing it of their first turn Llanowar Elf or Birds of Paradise, forcing them to recover. Also, some Rebel decks like to get the Ramosian Sergeant first turn, this is a great response. Of course Dark Ritual stays, every mono-black deck should use and abuse this card that is banned in formats that should remain nameless... Please, do me a favor and take out soul burn. This card is not of any use in this enviroment and certianly does not need to be in this mono-black deck list. The card will not help you win against any of your major concerns. So, take them out. Meanwhile, bravo on adding three rhystic tutors, they will aid you well against any deck. Keep them. Now, take out the Strands of Night, you shouldn't be that concerned if your creatures die. You got an excellent enough creature base. Do yourself a favor and put in a Yawgamoth's Agenda instead. This card screams play me in your mono-black deck. Add two here. The other cards I would add woud be 3 Snuff Out and those 4 Addle off your sideboard and put them in. This is discard at its best. These changes make the deck have 20 spells, making the deck total become 37 cards.

As for the artifacts, take the diamonds out. They have almost no place against the decks you are worried about. Just add an extra swamp. With these changes we made, the mana curve could survive with some less land in the deck. The Peat Bog is good with the Yawgamoth's Agenda, allowing you to play it again late game. The Ports are always good when you are ahead in the land race. These 23 land puts you to the 60 card deck that we want. Lets move on to sideboard.

Your sideboard is well rounded against what you expect. We added the Vicious Hungers and took the Addle to mainboard. Now that we have taken care of creatures every other deck with the mainboard, I want to add the 4 Cremate to the sideboard instead of Vicious Hunger to help take care of Nether-Go. So here is the final list.

Improved BLACKSMACK.dec

Creatures (17)
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Chilling Apparition
4 Abyssal Specter
3 Thrashing Wumpus
2 Avatar of Woe

Spells (20)
4 Addle
4 Vendetta
4 Dark Ritual
3 Rhystic Tutors
3 Snuff Out
2 Yawgamoth's Agenda

Land (23)
4 Peat Bog
4 Rishadan Port
15 Swamp

Sideboard
3 Tsabo's Decree
4 Perish
4 Massacre
4 Cremate

Thanks, and remember that False Prophet is a bad card and Blurred Mongoose is ok, but I love them! Write me with more decks.... please!!! Ignore all spelling errors, they are to make sure you are paying attention!
Samuel "RogueRift" Leavitt
RogueRift@pojo.com