No doubt this deck will be tried in different forms to see if it is viable. If it is cool! Cause who doesn’t like black weenie beat down? The only card that really scares me is Morningtide, but even if that card is played in abundance, that only stops the synergy of deck + Ichorid.  On to the deck list!

4x Nantuko Shade
4x Ichorid
4x Faceless Butcher
4x Carrion Rats
3x Mindslicer
3x Mesmeric Fiend
2x Shambling Swarm

4x Gravestorm
4x Buried Alive
4x Chainer’s Edict
3x Zombie Infestation

21x Swamp


Block Constructed is my favorite format. Why you ask? Lots more cards become “good” in this format allowing for new possibilities. Well this deck really has a simple goal; overwhelm the opponent with unrelenting beats until your opponent can’t see straight. This is where the card-by-card analysis begins and how they interact with this deck.

Nantuko Shade – The hype for this card is well deserved. It is a bear and then some and one of the best 2 cc creatures ever! This deck being mono black, there should be no problem making this guy massive by mid game, and at hard times in the game, becomes a wall which will most likely kill whatever its blocking. Ichorid food card #1

Ichorid – A lot of people consider this card pretty mediocre, and for the most part I would agree with them. However, this deck completely and utterly takes advantage of them. If my counting is up to snuff then nearly half (24 to be exact) of the deck can be fed to Ichorid to see him back into play (this includes the Ichorids themselves.) This guy makes things really hard on control decks as he just keeps coming back for more. Of course you could say if someone vengeful dreams them they don’t come back, but again time will tell if a powerful white deck can be created for OBC. The Ichorids work delightfully well with buried alive, as you will read about later. Ichorid food card #2 (yes it’s true Ichorids are cannibals)

Faceless Butcher – This guy is just plain cool. Temporarily take out the biggest creature and make more room for your guys to attack. Not much you could ask for a common creature for this deck. It was an obvious choice and if you are near death I suppose you could always try for the infinite loop to cause a draw. :-p There really isn’t much else to say about him other than it works great in the deck. Ichorid food card #3

Carrion Rats – Ah, the new 2/1 for 1 mana creature. In some decks, this thing can be pretty crappy, but in this deck it serves several nice purposes. If played early enough with a Gravestorm in play, it can net you cards and start to cause your opponent some panic. Threshold deck players will be more hesitant to remove cards, allowing more hits with it than against non-threshold players. Once this little guy is no longer worth keeping in play, just fish out the remaining copies with a timely Buried Alive, to create a new supermarket for Ichorid. Ichorid food card #4

Mindslicer – Wow this card makes control players quite sad. Its flavor text would be better if it said “I dare you to kill me!” If Mindslicer hits play then the only thing you have to worry about is bounce, because otherwise they will just try and chump block as long as possible. The loss of hand will only cause, for the most part, good things for you. Since the deck is half creatures, then it’s a good chance you will always have a few in hand. Once the hand goes accompanies Mindslicer to the grave, it will most likely be possible that on your next upkeep you can bring every Ichorid in your grave into play, and that they will be coming back for probably another. The 4 points of damage in conjunction with the 3 from the Ichorids begin to add up quite quickly, spelling doom for your opponent more often than not. Ichorid food card #5

Mesmeric Fiend – This creature is really nifty as are all the nightmares in my opinion, but this one is only as good as your playing skill and your opponents hand. Not only do you get to look at your opponent’s hand and remove a non-land, non-creature from the game, but you also get a 1/1 creature! And you get all this for the low price of 2 mana. The only troubling thing is that it is easily killed by burn, but have no fear because if your opponent burns this dude, then they have allowed Ichorid a new chance at life and another 3 points of damage to them. Ichorid food card #6

Shambling Swarm – This is an interesting card. I expect a fair amount of weenies in OBC as there has been in every block constructed for as long as I can remember. This card creates card advantage on its way to the grave against any weenie running deck. Swarm can take on anything as big as a 6/6 and it kills regenerators (if there are any in OBC.) Only 2 copies of this in the deck however because it is fairly situational and you may not always want to play it. Ichorid food card #7

Whew. The creatures are done. On to the utility spells!!!


Gravestorm – I’m sure many people will disagree with this card being played so heavily in a weenie deck but it works too darn well to pass over. Besides as I see it there really is nothing better to play in its stead. Well threshold decks do not like this card! Threshold players will be numerous as it is a major mechanic of both Odyssey and Torment and this just causes them frustration. Frustration throws players off their game, sounds good to me. The 3 black mana cost is a non-issue in this deck for obvious reasons, and at worst the opponent loses cards from his graveyard every turn, at best you draw more cards every turn. Once multiples of these come into play against decks that can keep up steam (mainly Sligh ala Grim Lavamancer) along with Carrion Rats, the opponent’s graveyard will disappear quickly unless he or she wants you to get major advantage every turn.

Buried Alive – This card works really well with Ichorid as it can find them and other creatures that may not be useful in your current match up. The nice thing about it is if you have a creature in your graveyard turn 3, you can cast Buried Alive, search for 2 Ichorids and a 3rd creature. Fourth turn comes by, 2 3/1s hit play and attack for 6, and 5th turn one can cannibalize the other if no other creature hits graveyard by then. In a way 3 mana provides you with 9 damage which is very nice considering its about half your opponent’s life.

Chainer’s Edict – Well why wouldn’t you use this card? Clears the way for extra damage to the opponent and can be crucial for the kill in many games, when the last few points of damage can now be pushed through. You essentially get 8 edicts because the threshold cost is easily cast if a mana a turn is played.

Zombie Infestation – If your opponent tries something tricky to your hand or the creatures in it aren’t worth casting over the ability to reuse Ichorid, you can just ditch the cards and get even more creatures in the form of 2/2 zombies. The zombies created are good to hold back if your opponent has shadowmages on the table or generally as 2 more points of damage. By now you can see there are lots of ways to deal creature damage with this deck and fast.

Well that’s it other than the lands, which come in handy for casting things ;-) although theoretically you could win with this deck without ever casting a land ( I don’t suggest it, and it would be an extremely slow kill but I’m just saying. ) There really aren’t any OBC decks out there yet for me to test against, but it dominated all the T2 decks that I played against, particularly control deck. So that’s about it for me, I hope you enjoy the deck and perhaps even try it out.

I’d love some feedback so if you have any questions or comments, email me at greenehawk@hotmail.com Until next time…