The way I’ve used tutors for a long time is by having no combos in the deck. They help find synergy pieces, removal, engines, but don’t lead to same result games. They’re essentially a wild card for your deck “get whatever is relevant to the situation”. Because often times when I hear about people complaining that tutors make games same-y is when they just autocomplete combos really fast. So. If you have no combos, tutors are still powerful cards, but situation dependent (not just “get combo piece or countermagic”).

Years ago I had the displeasure of sitting at a table with a Nekusar Turbowheel/mill pubstomper with a deck loaded with expensive power like Timetwister. Apparently the deck was valued at like 30+ grand. He had two thirds of his deck in his graveyard with all of his wincons and we had just been drawing and chucking the whole game. He had 11 counterspell and wasn't letting anything land, just being a real shithead. I topdecked Bojuka Bog and windmill slammed it on the table. He turned white as a sheet and silently scooped, packed up and left the table. Apparently he was fairly infamous at the LGS and no one had ever beaten that deck. He later tried to still claim a perfect record cuz he scooped and wasn't "beaten" but everyone else had already heard the story and didn't let him slide. It's still one of my favorite MtG stories. At the time Bog was like maybe a dollar, and it ruined some shitheads day with a 30 grand deck.

No mention of Deadly Rollick, Soul Shatter, Lethal Scheme, or Snuff Out? Those are like the 4 best instant-speed removal spells in Black imo

Black Market is one of my favorite auto includes when I build mono black.

Keep in mind, each nonbasic land you put in a mono-black list makes all your "swamp tribal" card a little bit weaker. - Crypt Ghast - Nirkana Revenant - Defile - Mutilate - Cabal Coffers - Cabal Stronghold - Dread Presence - Lashwrithe - Caged Sun

Phyrexian Reclamation is an auto include for any deck I have that runs black. It used to only be in mono black or dual color decks but I've been putting it in 3 and some 4 color decks now.

I really appreciate these template videos.

Liked what you put and very helpful. I'm trying to finetune my Chainer, Dementia Master Mono Black EDH deck, and this helped me pull some cards from my stash to include and write more down for future includes. Thanks!!!!

Gate to Phyrexia is still one of my auto includes in mono black. It’s old and pricey but you can pick it up for reasonable prices if you don’t need mint copies.

I just started the video and gotta say that the intro music was a banger.

I like that you put in increasing ambition for the tutor section. I'm a big fan of tutors that can get more than one card, like the new one Illicit Shipment

Nice I was waiting to here malakir rebirth love that card and some of the other variations of it

Welcome back, we missed you.

Beseech the Queen is another fair tutor people should play in mono black. Restricted with the amount of lands you control really makes it fair by slowing it down in the early turns and it only gets better as the game goes on!

Razakeths rite is a tutor i really like using in mono black, having the option to cycle it in an opening hand is pretty nice

Thanks for the video

I'm really started to appreciate Kaya's Ghostform. I have a Tevesh / Sengir partner deck and it's saved me so much commander tax over my games. If you steal a creature you can basically reanimate it to your board and anything can be double sac'd. Great common!

Baleful Beholder is another one that is vastly overshadowed, imo. AoE enchantment removal on a creature, in black (OR give all controlled creatures Menace, until EoT). I know it is expensive, 4{B}{B} , but it can fill some gaps for mono-black. It should at least be in every mono-black sideboard, imo. I also like effects like Entomb and Buried Alive; which can be powerful tutors for black, depending on what the deck is doing. Add Living Death classic mono-black shenanigans.

Mutilate and defile are my go to wipe and removal in mono black since i'm normally running tons of swamps for coffers, i also run rampish package of lili of the dark realms, sword of the animist, etc with mana doublers.

Sudden Spoiling and Noxious Gearhulk. And Darkness for the lols. I actually have an Ayara mono-black goodstuff deck where I run a bunch of fun black cards and built more around black-matters rather than fine-tuning the deck; it's fun to play and still packs a pretty good punch. It's probably my favorite mono-color deck. then again, black is my favorite color (though usually paired with white or green).

Some other mentions ! Personal favourites for my “template” Dark ritual / Cabal Ritual / Songs of the Damned Phyrexian Arena Black Market Sudden Spoiling Force of Despair Painful Quandary

I love back I makes me feel safe, I got card draw, dangerous creatures, board wipes, sacrifice, tutors, and has the most diverse commanders.

Along with Curtain's Call, I've been really loving Reckless Spite. When I found out there was a second one, Wicked Pact I was quite happy. But searching those up, I actually found a third one, Ashes to Ashes. Which is probably even better, even if it's technically a little more limited, exiling is just so good.

bolas citadel, necropotence, toxic deluge and k'rrik are auto includes for me too. also as a budget tutor i like playing final parting lately. ( reanimate+ vilis, broker of bloods best choice)

Underworld Dreams, Bontu's Monument and Invoke Despair. Those with a Braids commander has won me 2 out of 3 games with seasoned players and it's my very first deck.

I think some of these "auto includes" depends on the play group, cause for my play group the graveyard hate cards are just dead draws or a tapped land that doesn't hurt anyone

I still like dark ritual in mine. I'm a little old school.

Non-budget favorite black card is Necropotence. Snuff Out and Deadly Rollick are great also.

Just in time for my Seizan good stuff deck Demo hell yeah

I Totally missed Crypt ghast, that's an auto include for me for mana ramp. For removal (among many others) i put in Ashes to ashes, Black sun zenith and tragic slip. They get around indestructable really well. Edit: There are so many others.

I’ve been trying to mentally brew a hostile hostle edh deck since the card dropped. Such a fun card!

One of my favorite pet cards is Lucille. Gives menace and they have to sacrifice a creature before blocks so makes it hard to block. While making walkers. Plus it's just funny to imagine something like the Scorpion God swinging a baseball bat around xD

The staples I use that weren't listed are Phyrexian Arena as the life loss is negligible for that extra draw every draw phase you get, Invoke Despair since like you said, enchantment removal is rare in black and it also removes a creature and a planeswalker or they lose life if they don't have one. Finally The Meathook Massacre cuz it's a great way to board wipe that can either take out an entire army of 1/1s for 3 mana as well as heal you for a ton or it can kinda act like a second toxic deluge in the deck

I’m surprised no mention of dark ritual. Some of my personal favourite staples for mono black are: Lake of the Dead Liliana of the Dark Realms Malicious Affliction Bitterblossom (continuous sacrifice fodder) Contamination (make your friends hate you. Works great with bitterblossom) Bloodchief Ascension (put a target on your back for 1 black mana)

The main thing not here is sacrifice options. It is far and away where black out values other colors. Get your ETB, then sac for value/LTBs. If you really want you can do it slowly and attack but that is far from necessary. Then you go on to recursion. You mentioned a couple of the OGs so I won't, except to point out there are numerous cards in black that let you repeatedly bring things from the graveyard to the battlefield. Even though these are more mana intensive than some options, they are better because they let you build value engines. Finally, I think one big one you overlooked is Meteor Golem. It is the best removal spell in mono black (I'm including it because you included other artifact creatures here). Mill and discard are easy in black so getting it into the graveyard is never difficult. As noted before, graveyard recursion in black is simple and cheap, which makes Meteor Golem a removal spell you can use over and over - taking out EVERY threat as it hits the battlefield before sacrificing it for value. It is just so good. OP really.

Hex never gets mentioned.

I find myself running Feed the Serpent as removal quite a bit. Sure it’s 4 mana, but it exiles both creatures and planeswalkers at instant speed. Plus it’s a cheap common.

I don't usually run tutors. If I really want to see a certain effect on a consistent basis, I try to find multiple cards with a similar effect. I don't mind sacrificing efficiency for variance.

Everybody knows about the urborg+cabal coffers combo but people don't think about adding blanket of night for redundancy on urborg. I find having both makes it far smoother, plus it helps turn on swampwalk if you run filth.

Skeletal scrying is GOATED

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is an auto-include for me. I also run Necropotence and Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Devotion is very strong. I don’t have too many, but I like to add Erebos, God of the Dead, too. And to recur stuff there are few options better than Phyrexian Reclamation. Those guys really had it figured out, so much so that on the lore side of MtG I’d like to think Jace somehow retained his Phyrexian identity and fled to an undiscovered plan to begin its compleation. They probably aren’t going to do that, but it would be a crazy twist.

I love ashes to ashes for removal and castle lochtwain for land

I always use Overwhleming Forces. Often times only 1 player is a real creature problem. A one sided wipe that refills your hand always feels so good.

I really like using things like scheming symmetry or even like wishclaw talisman for my tutors, benefits more than just me so everyone else is usually okay with them ^_^

I'd put dismember on par with internal grasp except it can be cheaper and gets around indestructible and regeneration.

I put Bloodtracker into my Burakos party deck and it has been fantastic

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx for mono black is another essential choice.

How about Szat’s Will? It’s somewhat costly at 5 mana, but you can either make all opponents sacrifice their strongest creature, or exile all opponents’ graveyards and get a bunch of tokens based on the creature with the strongest power, or if you have your commander, you can choose both. Although I didn’t win the game, I had managed to use this to make an opponent sacrifice his Kozilek, Butcher of Truth, and then his entire graveyard was exiled before his Kozilek could shuffle itself back into his library.

I dont play bojuka bog, just because it enters tapped. If a land enters tapped it has to have a huge upside, like field of the dead eg.

Priest of forgotten gods and massacre girl are my pet cards in mono-black

I made a tron deck built around skytherix and named it skittles taste the painbow, all tutors all swords of and all mana ramps it was a very expensive but I never lost cause I alway had so much mana I could just cast and recast and equip all if they managed to wipe me and I never lost with it, but my daughter was born and I had to sell

Ill be the first to nominate Oriq Loremage, exhume,woe strider, gisa glorious resurrector and incarnation technique 😁 i love playing all of these cards Honorable mention: Soldevi adnate

Everyone's got their favorites mine are: Living Death, Sudden Spoiling, Doom Whisperer, Massacre Wurm, Noxious Gearhulk, Demonic Tutor, Dauthi Voidwalker, Bitterblossom, Bolas Citadel, Gary (LOL) ;p

What about necropotence in the draw section? It's the best card draw in the format imo. Or do you avoud because it paints a target on your back?

my go tos (minus your usual tutors) currently unless there's an incredibly specific reason not to run them: reanimate, feed the Swarm, Snuff Out

Dark ritual and demonic tutor is the staple of staple black cards.

No Oubliette?

Cabal stronghold works with urborg if your mountain becomes a swamp in addition it's still a basic land

All of them, obviously

necropotence is in basically every black deck i build. it’s too good not to include. it also helps prevent losing to mill

Caged Sun, Bontu's Monument, and Gary are great in every mono black deck

Mono black basically always gets these: mutilate infernal grasp pharika's libation feed the swarm hero's downfall

i got a Hostile Hostel when it first came out, and i always wanted to put it in my decks. but it just seems so damn slow and inconvenient. i have to spend essentially 6 mana and sacrifice 3 creatures and then i have to cripple myself by exiling creatures from my own grave. it just don't seem worth it for how slow that is. but i'll try and put it in my next black deck, and see how it goes

I find myself playing not so much staples at all. It might be cause i sit mostly on 3 color commanders. As soon it goes up to 5 colors i need alot of colorfix via green staple ramp and if i go down i mostly dont have better options.

-Crypt Ghast -Dread Presence -Tragic Slip - Malicious Affliction -Phyrexian Arena

Massacre Wurm is my pet card and whenever I feel like it doesn't really fit the deck it's currently in, I get convinced to leave it in the next time I play it because so far whenever I cast it I was that closer to winning the game. Like there's cards in my decks that are just "filler", I don't plan on spending too much money on Magic so I sometimes simply use what I have. Or like cards that are in the decks simply because they're cool. Massacre Wurm though, 9 put of 10 times I played it, I've pined everyone for lots of damage or even straight up killed someone, just sith its ETB.

Someone needs to look into the card plague winds

Since you mention massacre wurm I have a funny story for it. I’m playing my araumi deck in a pod of 6, I go to my turn, I mill two (either bc of thought scour before the turn or perpetual timepiece, can’t remember which), and I mill massacre wurm with the mana and the cards in grave to encore it, and my one buddy asked to see my graveyard and just laughed when he saw it bc he had 4 creatures out. Off of that single encore, I killed two people with the triggers alone, used the other wurms to kill two other players, and I had teferi’s veil to phase them out after attacking so that they missed the sacrifice trigger, ready to swing again the next turn. I love that deck so much man 😂

If your a meenie like me Contamination and or Infernal Darkness are must haves

How about free exile if you control a commander and pay 4 life if you control a swamp removals?

I put in Vampire Nighthawk, read the bone ,stripmine, go for the throat.

This video made me say "holy shit" 5+ times out loud

Huh, I could slingshot Izoni for tokens. What a thought.

You should do monocolorless, artifact, wastes, etc.

Damnation Phyrexian Arena Bloodghast Crucible

Rain of filth and culling the weak obv!

nice. #automaticFAN

On the tutors side, I really dislike the samey feel it gives each games. I now limit myself to 1 tutor per deck, and it has to be on theme (mechanic or flavor)

Blackforge blade, Massacre Girl

Phyrexian Arena, Bitterblossom, and Syphon Mind are all up there on my auto includes. Black loves to draw cards at the cost of life and not having to dedicated resources to it later is a real strength of the arena. Bitterblossom is a great source of blockers and sacrifice fodder for many black strategies. Syphon Mind is a pretty great value in my opinion to (usually) force three players to discard and you draw 3 cards for 4 mana.

I keep Dark Ritual and Culling the Weak in mine. Was considering removing one or both until the other night. My turn one: Swamp, Dark Rit, Viscera Seer, Culling the Weak sac'ing the Seer, Syr Konrad! I think I'll keep them in.

Bolas's Citadel, Necropotence. Each very good on their own, but combined they're pretty insane.

Card Draw there is only One Ring, Necropotence

Ey demoe, why not heroe's downfall? I mean it can remove both a Planeswalker and a creature, it's good to have flexibility

Why no Heartless Summoning? Gives a 2 mana discount to all your creatures, makes all those colorless and midrange creatures actually playable.

Phyrexian reclamation, victimize, sign in blood, night's whisper

Necropotence

First! Best mtg collor btw

You could potentially get the game to end in a draw with toxic deluge.

Murder match is fun.

No love for Mutilate?

No mention of mutilate?

some Classics ... pox and smallpox

Cabal stronghold+ urborg, tomb of yawgmoth does work actually since the lands still basic and just gain additional type nothing more. This is pretty common knowledge.

Actually Cabal Stronghold does sort of work with Urborg. In a two-color (or more) deck, if you turn basic lands of the other types into Swamps, they have the Basic super-type and are Swamps. 😂

I realy like the Intention of your videos but for me as a Mono Black Edh player, I am very disapointet. First GhostQuarter, Blast Zone!? Everytime I them on the table, I want to hit that player with my chair because they are so degenerated. Never use that shit. Than, where is the diabolic intent? quiet as good or een better than grim. Carddraw: Necropotence, Yaswgmoth, Bolas Citadel, Midnight Reaper usw. There are many Unique Cards in Black that are Call for the Table. For Example Opposition Agent and Contamination. For dont be misunderstandet, these the objectively better example. subjectively I try to play as often I can Obliterator, Word of Command, Necromancy and Koun.

Where the heck is damnation

I disagree on the auto inclusion of Feed the Swarm in mono-black decks. I think the card is just too weak and slow to justify. I'd rather just accept that black doesn't have good enchantment removal and put a better card in that slot instead. In mono-colored decks it's important to play to your color's strengths, otherwise you should just play golgari colors. You don't see mono-white decks playing Kor Cartographer.

I removed all instant speed creature-only removals in mono-black. Tutors give you access to the best creature board wipe in the format, toxic deluge. It’s more than enough. Mono-black doesn’t care if your own board is wiped and there are very few creatures that will kill you on the spot - so no need instant speed. Especially now all good creatures have hexproof, ward, indestructible, can phase out or cost less than 3 mana. Feed the swarm in horrendous. I run both Ugin, sometimes Karn 7 and All is Dust since they cost nothing in mono-black because of the huge ramp.

K’rrik