Modern: Mono Black Necrodominance - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

The Modern Metagame continues to evolve following the release of Modern Horizons 3, and while Magic Online results have been delayed, Leagues and Challenges on the platform don't stop - and with the Pro Tour approaching, players are ostentatiously testing each new strategy searching for the ideal pick.

Among them, one of the most powerful cards in the set, Necrodominance, has found more homes and established new archetypes, with notable results in Challenges in Preliminary events, where it joins The One Ring and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse to be one of the most powerful value archetypes in Modern.

In this article, we cover Mono Black Necrodominance and present a Sideboard guide for the main new decks in the Metagame!

This is the decklist I've been using in Magic Online Leagues and the variant with the most Necrodominance results so far.

This variant aims to make the most of the new enchantment and becomes, to a certain extent, extremely dependent on it to extract value, but its results prove the archetype's potential to greatly influence the Modern Metagame and be one of Pro Tour's potential competitors next weekend.

The main difference in most lists is the inclusion of Sorin of House Markov or Profane Tutor in the maindeck. The MH2 tutor works as extra copies with delays of the deck's main cards, adds consistency to find our payoffs and even works as a pitch for Soul Spike, while Sorin can easily transform on this list and guarantees three life or a significant clock.

I'm naturally inclined to play more “fair” with Necrodominance, which would justify running Sorin. However, he didn't surprise me positively in my matches, and the list's dependence on finding sources of card advantage made me lean towards Profane Tutor.

Maindeck

The four cards that make up the deck's mechanics.

Necrodominance is a broken card. I don't like making this statement in a vacuum, but its ceiling is absurdly high, and it only takes a step or two to take it from “barely acceptable” to “Metagame-warping” - and there's still a lot to explore in this enchantment.

In our list, we use it as a recurring draw engine, where we mitigate its life loss with most cards on the list while generating significant value each turn.

The One Ring complements Necrodominance as a source of card advantage, protects us for a turn, allows us to draw cards despite the enchantment's restriction and interacts with our game plan and one of our main winconditions.

Sheoldred, the Apocalypse mitigates any damage or life loss caused to us by our card advantage sources, being essential to maintain the longevity of our game plan, severely punishing the mirror match.

Profane Tutor is the best and worst card on the list. It works like extra copies of any part we need, including removals and discards. However, it takes two turns to work - and in Modern, two turns can mean defeat.

Soul Spike and March of Wretched Sorrow allow us to use our extra cards to gain life and continue reusing Necrodominance. Four copies of each would be ideal, but both are very inefficient without one of our sources of card advantage in play.

Our disruption.

The “scam” package is also available in this list, with Malakir Rebirth complementing Grief instead Not Dead After All while also functioning as a land drop when needed.

Some lists have opted for Inquisition of Kozilek over Thoughtseize to conserve life total for Necrodominance, but we have too many Eldrazi in the current Metagame to afford to “whiff” with a discard spell, in addition to guaranteeing a way to deal with a Grief if we are on the play.

Fell the Profane and Fatal Push are our removal package and work very well in that role, with the new card being another useful land drop while also dealing with Planeswalkers.

We don't have as many ways to trigger Revolt from Fatal Push, but it remains essential for dealing with decks like Boros Energy, and we can always sacrifice a creature with Phyrexian Tower if necessary.

Orcish Bowmasters remain as important in the current Modern as they were pre-MH3. In addition to punishing cantrips, it deals with smaller mana dorks from Bant Nadu, destroys Amped Raptor, holds The One Ring and opponent's Necrodominance activations.

Boggart Trawler is another land drop, pitch for our black cards, answer against graveyards and another threat on an empty board or creature to sacrifice with Phyrexian Tower on other turns.

Phyrexian Tower has good interactions in this list with Orcish Bowmasters and Grief, which allow us to cast Necrodominance as early as the second turn or play Profane Tutor's Suspend on the first turn by responding to Grief's Evoke by sacrificing it.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Takenuma, Abandoned Mire complement our strategy by adding consistency and recursion, especially for returning a Sheoldred, the Apocalypse that has been destroyed or countered.

Sideboard

Break the Ice as a four-of is a necessity with the amount of hype surrounding Eldrazi variants in Leagues today. Whether with Tron, Through the Breach or other variants, the format is full of colorless lands and the need to delay these archetypes has grown.

Damping Sphere also responds to Tron, but its main function in this list is to delay Ruby Storm long enough, since our clock isn't that fast.

Dauthi Voidwalker is our default answer against graveyards and a complementary threat in attrition games against other Midranges. It's not as fast as Leyline of the Void, but its flexibility has made up for it.

Force of Despair deals with the tokens created by Springheart Nantuko and Nadu, Winged Wisdom, destroys Emrakul, the Aeons' Torn and Emrakul, the World Anew, in addition to dealing with explosive plays from Boros Energy involving Amped Raptor with Ajani, Nacatl Pariah, and dealing with other unfavorable situations.

Damnation is an answer against Aggro that also works in other creature-based matchups, even in the mirror as a way to extract card advantage when doing a two-for-one.

March of Wretched Sorrow on the Sideboard is useful both for dealing with creatures and for games where we will need more Necrodominance activations, and Disruptor Flute has become a staple and responds to a dozen of troubleome permanents in the current Metagame.

Emrakul Tron

*IN

OUT

Bant Nadu

IN

OUT

Ruby Storm

IN

OUT

Gruul Through the Breach

IN

OUT

Boros Energy

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

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

Thanks for reading!