If you’d like to see this deck in action, be sure to check out my stream twitch.tv/TuesdayTastic at 11:59 AM MST today!
The great holiday of Halloween approaches, and with it comes the urge to talk about spookier decks. Normally, now would be a great time to talk about spirits, but I’ve kind of beaten that archetype to death. (No pun intended). Today I will be talking about a different deck that uses the undead, one that is aggressive, sticky, and full of spooky creatures that will strike fear into your opponent’s hearts. This deck was inspired by Alex Stacy’s Canadian Highlander deck of the same name and aims to achieve the same goal. That of making your opponents life total go from 20-0 as fast as possible.
Black Mold is a Green Black aggro deck that aims to use efficient, aggressive creatures that provide value even from the dead. Traditional removal does not work well against Black Mold, and nothing short of exiling will stop the onslaught. One of the greatest draws to playing Black Mold is in the many different ways it can be built. Due to the singleton nature of the Canlander format, the Black Mold deck can offer a lot of inspiration, and different avenues of play when ported over to Modern. Some decks opt to use the graveyard to it’s fullest abusing cards such as Bloodghast, Gravecrawler, and delve creatures, while other decks may simply try to jam the most efficient and powerful threats such as Tarmogofy, Dark Confidant, and Grim Flayer.
Today I am going to be covering the cheaper side of the Black Mold strategy. When talking about Black Mold, one of the first cards I would like to cover would be Dreg Mangler. Dreg Mangler, otherwise lovingly referred to as “The Juice” is one of the main reasons to be playing Golgari aggro. This creature perfectly sums up everything this deck wants to be doing. It’s aggressive, and after it dies it can still provide value for the rest of the team. “The Juice” may not be the most powerful card in the deck, but it combined with its little brother Mournwillow, provide a fast, consistent clock that pressures your opponent into acting.
Cheap and aggressive creatures are the name of the game, and that is where our Tarmogoyf-lite comes in. Putrid Leech used to be one of the best cards of its time and is still an impressive card by today’s standards. A 4/4 for 2 mana is big enough to fight with most creatures in the format and can push in for damage incredibly well. Another great stat monster for the deck is Gurmag Angler. A potential one mana 5/5 is too good to not pass up, and can easily outclass most other creatures in the format. Gurmag Angler is an excellent card and provides a lot of much-needed beef for this deck.
One card that I have been trying to build around for ages, and have never found a good shell for is Lotleth Troll. A free discard outlet that pumps him up at instant speed is a ridiculous ability to have, and tacking regeneration onto him is just icing on the cake. Lotleth Troll is a powerful engine, that also happens to double as a really powerful creature. Discarding cards is hardly a downside in this deck, as almost every creature has synergy from beyond the grave. One of the best cards to discard to Lotleth Troll is Asylum Visitor. Emptying your hand, and casting this via Madness makes me think these cards were designed to be played with each other. Lines such as discarding Gravecrawler to empty your hand to allow you to draw more cards feel disgustingly powerful, and provide you with a ton of value.
Black Mold is a really fun deck to play because it rarely ever feels like you run out of things to do. Aggro decks are known for spitting everything out of their hand as fast as possible, and hoping that is enough to kill their opponents. If your opponent is at 3 life, and your next few draws are lands, that is often enough time for your opponent to turn the corner. With Black Mold, you always have something to do, thanks to most of the cards in the deck doing something from the graveyard. With Black Mold, running out of cards does not mean you have to run out gas. And while this deck may not be as fast as a traditional aggro deck, being able to grind out a victory against a control deck is extremely satisfying. If you’re looking for a fun, fast, and cheap entry point into Modern this might just be the deck for you. Thank you all for reading, I hope you have a great week and an amazing Tuesday!
Decklist: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1422266#paper
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