A Mono Black Deck with 4 Skirsdag High Priest Did Well at the Pro Tour

February 12, 2012 | Posted by Dee

One of the most surprising decks that did well at Pro Tour Dark Ascension is Jasper Johnson-Epstein’s Mono Black Aggro deck with 4 Skirsdag High Priest. He called the black creature the centerpiece of the deck.

He went 7-2-1 in the Swiss rounds of Standard. That’s definitely a very good record for a rogue deck and for someone playing his very first Pro Tour.

The deck also relies on a couple Dark Ascension cards so if you want to see brand new powerful black cards in action, try out the deck.

Here’s the deck tech video and decklist.

Mono Black Aggro

Creatures (24)

Spells (12)

Lands (24)

24 Swamp

Sideboard (15)

Deck Overview

This overview is mostly based on the deck tech video.

Most decks can’t play a bunch of two power one-drops. This deck can with 4 Gravecrawler and 4 Diregraf Ghoul so you can win games by just playing three one-drops by turn two and then killing their blockers.

Gravecrawler is especially good because your opponent usually can’t kill it early. They have to take some hits first. If they kill it right away, you gain too much card advantage when you recast it from the graveyard. Also, Gravecrawler combos with other cards in the deck.

Fume Spitter can stop Delver on turn one. Also, it can take away a +1/+1 counter on Geralf’s Messenger to reset it. This combo gives the deck a lot of reach, which is uncommon for a Mono Black Aggro deck. An aggro deck gains a lot of value if it can finish off an opponent without attacking.

Porcelain Legionnaire is in the deck mainly to block Mirran Crusader. It’s a decent answer that keeps you from going into another color. The first strike ability works well with Mortarpod, Tragic Slip, and Fume Spitter.

Initially, Jasper wanted to play Lingering Souls with Skirsdag High Priest. However, he dropped Lingering Souls because he thought a token strategy was too vulnerable to Ratchet Bomb.

Still, he kept building decks with Skirsdag High Priest and that led him to cheap, resilient black creatures (Gravecrawler and Geralf’s Messenger) and creatures that can turn on morbid while giving you some value (Fume Spitter, Mortarpod). It’s pretty easy to turn on morbid with this deck.

Skirsdag High Priest is great against Delver decks. They don’t have many ways to kill it and a 5/5 flying Demon token just blocks all their creatures.

Skinrender can turn on morbid by killing your opponent’s creature and then it can tap to activate Skirsdag High Priest all in the same turn. Also, Skinrender is another Zombie for Gravecrawler’s ability.

Bloodline Keeper used to be a second Lashwrithe but Jasper wanted more flying blockers because they are important in Standard. You can think of Bloodline Keeper as the fifth Skirsdag High Priest. Plus, it’s a token generator that doesn’t require morbid so it works well with Skirsdag High Priest.

Tragic Slip is excellent in this deck because it can achieve morbid easily. One mana at instant speed to kill just about anything is awesome.

There is a full set of Geth’s Verdict for at least two reasons. First, many players are playing Mirran Crusader or hexproof creatures like Geist of Saint Traft, Invisible Stalker, and Dungrove Elder. Second, the life loss is relevant because the deck has reach with Geralf’s Messenger, Fume Spitter to reuse Geralf’s Messenger, and Mortarpod.

Mortarpod fits the deck well. Along with killing one toughness guys on turn two (like Delver of Secrets if you’re on the play), this equipment card gives you a sac outlet for Geralf’s Messenger. It turns on morbid for Tragic Slip and Skirsdag High Priest. It gives you a creature to tap for Skirsdag High Priest’s ability. And late it the game, when you have a lot of mana, you can activate it multiple times in one turn without losing board position by recasting Gravecrawler. This combo is useful if you need to kill a bunch of 1/1 tokens.

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