Pioneer: Mono Black Cecil - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Mono Black Cecil is a new version of Mono Black Midrange centered around Cecil, Dark Knight and the ability to transform it early. The archetype also centers around Dark Confidant to generate card advantage, harking back to the old Modern Jund decks that used Confidant with other low-cost, high-power creatures like Tarmogoyf, coupled with targeted discards like Thoughtseize and other two-for-one effects like Liliana of the Veil and Huntmaster of the Fells.

Cecil also turns Mox Amber into a consistent way to accelerate mana, allowing us to cast higher mana value cards early enough to play under traditional versions, ensuring more efficient use of mana each turn.

This is the standard decklist we've been seeing in Challenges over the past few weeks since Final Fantasy came out. Unlike the traditional version with Invoke Despair and Unholy Annex, we play with a considerably lower mana curve and, as a result, we are way more aggressive than our predecessors.

This more proactive plan allows us to play a bit more in line with the speed of the current Metagame, but at a price: we are significantly more vulnerable against other Midranges.

Despite the reference to Modern's Jund Midrange, this change in Pioneer harks back to the old Jund Death's Shadow: at the time, we were trading traditional Jund for it because the matchup against Amulet Titan, Tron, and Storm was considerably better due to the aggressive clock that Death's Shadow brought to the board — the price, however, was a much worse matchup against other Midranges since it didn't have the same tools to play on par with a deck that expanded its curve and generated more two-for-one trades.

This is essentially the same dynamic between Mono Black Cecil and traditional Mono Black Midrange. The question is whether, for the Pioneer Metagame as we know it today, having more speed instead of attrition is the most appropriate option.

Maindeck

Cecil, Dark Knight is a powerful one-drop that harks back to Death’s Shadow. A 2/3 with Deathtouch for one mana is good enough to pressure the opponent from the first turn, and with its own beatdown helping to reduce your life to 10, we eventually gain a 4/4 Lifelink that protects the other creatures in combat.

Dark Confidant or Bob, as he was known, guarantees the cheapest source of card advantage in the format at the moment, added to an aggressive body that we can attack on empty boards — a quality that made him a staple for over a decade. In this list, he also interacts with Cecil, Dark Knight.

Tinybones, the Pickpocket also becomes a source of cheap card advantage on an empty board, Deathouch creates situations where blocking it can result in a worse loss for the opponent than the card we can play from the graveyard, or where it just becomes a decent blocker in the early game.

Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor turns any creature that deals damage to the opponent into a source of card advantage. Its second ability is unlikely to be used in most games today, but if it does, discarding the least useful cards from your hand to cast something for free usually wins games.

Deep-Cavern Bat temporarily deals with any card, but it is common to use it to take out a removal, or force that same removal on it, so the opponent can recover the exiled card. It also has good interaction with Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor.

Gifted Aetherborn keeps Aggro's clock down while pressuring the opponent on empty boards. It doesn't generate any additional value, but it's the best two-drop we have for Mono Black in the format today in both versions (although I'm considering testing Demon Wall on Mono Black Demons).

Fatal Push deals with several creatures in the current Metagame, and we can always make some trade to trigger Revolt. Another option for Revolt is to play another Mox Amber with one in play, sacrificing it to the Legends rule.

Go for the Throat complements Fatal Push and is, today, an almost unconditional removal against most creatures in the format. You can diversify this slot with other two-mana answers, such as Sheoldred’s Edict and Shoot the Sheriff, but we’re going with four copies for consistency.

Thoughtseize is perhaps the best spell in Pioneer since the format was born. Dealing with anything for one mana serves both to protect your plan and to police potential absurd plays from your opponent, and the two-life cost is great for Cecil, Dark Knight.

With twelve legends, it's not hard to turn Mox Amber to generate extra mana and speed up your game plan by one turn, or even sequence both Cecil and Tinybones on the first turn.

Hive of the Eye-Tyrant and Mutavault are complementary threats for longer games. With Unholy Annex in the sideboard, Mutavault also offers a one-mana demon to drain your opponent's life each turn.

Takenuma, Abandoned Mire and Castle Locthwain provide more sources of attrition for longer games. Takenuma has its activation cost reduced with our legends, while Castle Locthwain also feeds Cecil's life loss requirements if needed.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth increases the consistency of playing Castle Locthwain untapped and allows you to generate with Mutavault.

Sideboard

There are games where we can't play under our opponents and need to go for value. In these cases, Dark Confidant is easily answered and, consequently, can deprive us of relevant sources of card advantage.

For this reason, there are some games where we swap Bob for Unholy Annex. These are games where draining your opponent's life every turn is a wincondition, or where dealing with the enchantment is much more difficult than responding to a creature, such as Midrange mirrors or against Azorius Control, which tends to run Temporary Lockdown in this matchup.

Duress is an excellent way to protect our creatures from spot removals and deal with Planeswalkers or other troublesome spells from the opponent. It works against Azorius Control, Izzet Phoenix, Lotus Combo, and can also work against Prowess.

Damping Sphere works mostly against Lotus Combo, but this is one of the few decks where I believe there is a benefit to using it in matchups against Prowess, since we can actually try to rush them early to “counter” the damage they deal when Cecil transforms.

Grafdigger’s Cage and Unlicensed Hearse are our standard answers against graveyards, with Hearse working most comprehensively against Greasefang, Okiba Boss and Treasure Cruise while Cage provides a permanent “lock” against Cauldron Familiar and Arclight Phoenix.

Mono Red Aggro

IN

OUT

Izzet Phoenix

IN

OUT

Gruul Prowess

IN

OUT

Lotus Combo

IN

OUT

Mono Black Midrange

IN

OUT

Azorius Control

IN

OUT

Mono White Caretaker

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!