All In On Black

For a while at least, I'm solving my conundrum by going all in on black.

Black is like Blue's evil twin brother. Sure, black doesn't have the fancy bounce and counters of blue, but the black wizard can still draw cards. Plus, where blue lacks creature removal, black makes up for it in spades.



Black also sports great tribes like zombies, vampires, and demons. It has the big, flying creatures of blue, but with blood and fear. It has the small, swarming creatures of blue, but without the fishy smell. And if I wanted to put the dead to work, black has options that blue just can't touch.




Getting mileage out of my cards is an important consideration. I like signed-foreign-foils as much as the next guy, so instead of splitting my resources into five different decks, concentrating on one color and the ubiquitous supporting artifacts makes putting decks together all the sweeter. My foil, foreign Sign In Blood is at home in many different black decks. APAC Swamps are not cheap, after all.

Black deck ideas:
1) Black w/ Artifacts for Eldrazi beatings.
2) Skithiryx Voltron
3) The aforementioned Zombies, Vampires, and Demons tribal decks
4) Decision-based Cards (A "witch" deck) w/ Curses



Most of these decks can be made by swapping out 30-40 cards and reusing the rest to support the strategy. Artifact ramp, swamps, specialty lands (Coffers, etc), card drawing, mass removal, and tutoring, all drop right in from one deck to another. And with a high basic land count, you can put your dollars into business cards instead of dual lands.