[Budget] Falcon Black (PT Funk)

Warning: This a budget deck built for a completely unpowered metagame. If you are looking for something to beat Workshop-based decks or Trendrils combo, stop reading. This is not the thread for you.

Okay, now that we've got that out of the way, I'd like to present a deck I've been working with and tweaking for about a year. It's built to contend in an unpowered metagame where about 60% of the field is aggro, however the good players play control with Mana Drain. It originally started as a variation on "The Rock", and did quite well. As I worked with it, I kept whittling down the stupid and increasing the potency. Right now, it looks like this:

Falcon Black
// Win
4 [RV] - Hypnotic Specter
2 - Masticore
3 - Spiritmonger
// Disruption
4 - Duress
4 - Hymn to Tourach
4 [UN] - Sinkhole
4 - Pernicious Deed
// Draw & Tutor
2 - Skeletal Scrying
1 - Necropotence
1 - Yawgmoth's Will
1 [RV] - Demonic Tutor
1 - Demonic Consultation
// Mana
4 [RV] - Dark Ritual
1 - Strip Mine
4 [TP] - Wasteland
4 [RV] - Bayou
4 - Polluted Delta
3 - Llanowar Wastes
9 - Swamp
//
SB: 4 - Phyrexian Negator
SB: 3 [TP] - Diabolic Edict
SB: 3 - Infest
SB: 3 - Naturalize
SB: 2 - Tormod's Crypt

At first glance this looks a lot like "Suicide Black" except that it's not suicidal at all. Instead, it's actually aggro-control. The deck comes out swinging hard and fast with Ritual-fueled disruption and knocks your opponent on his backside. Then it drops Monger or Masticore to step on their neck while they're down.

Pernicious Deed is the star of this show. It selectively wipes the board of all non-land permanents. Weenie rushes, artifact mana, Crucible, troublesome enchantments, man-lands... they all get ground to dust under the heavy boot of Deed. It's the perfect compliment to the full suite of Sinkholes and Strips. Most often it's a one-sided Wrath of God, but other times it's a Shatterstorm or Tranquility or all three. It's whatever you need whenever you need it. Why Deed isn't used more in the format is baffling. Other than it's odd G/B color combination, it does everything but tie your shoes for you. Perhaps it's just overlooked. Perhaps people mistakenly think it's "too slow".

Hypnotic Specter is an old friend of mine. He always puts an uncomforatble grimace on the face of my opponent. Although he's easy to deal with via any number of spells including Fire/Ice, he presents a threat that must be dealt with by control decks as early as turn one. Unfortunately, his ability can become a drawback against decks like Madness or Survival. I've been toying with the idea of trying Nantuko Shade in this spot, but I'm very concerned with the anti-synergy of Shade and Deed. The most popular Deed number, by far, is two. Perhaps the power of the Shade is worth it, but I remain unconvinced.

Now that Skeletal Scrying has been "discovered" by the rest of the world, I'm sure it's inclusion in this list is expected. It's basically Necros numbers two and three and keeps the gas tank full after you've decimated your opponent's hand and board. If I could add one card to the deck it would be a third Scrying.

The mana is where I'm most open for suggestions. Sol Ring was in this deck through every tweak, but it recently got cut. The fact is that it only really helps a few cards in the deck and it always gets blown away by Deed. Now the cards that it helps power are all key cards, so I'm definitely missing it a lot, but whenever I drew it I almost always wished it was just another Swamp. Should I cut a land to bring back the Sol Ring or am I correct in cutting it? Besides Sol Ring, I've also shyed away from Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox for similar reasons. Having more ways to get double-black on turn one sounds good to me, but are either of these cards worth inclusion with four Deed on my side?

The sideboard is built specifially for my local meta and all the cards have obvious uses so I'm not going over them here. You should always tweak the board for your expected field anyway.

I've tested mostly against Fish and unpowered 4C Control, but I've also won a local tourney with the deck (undefeated with only 1 game loss), so I've gotten to throw it against a variety of decks.

Against Fish it should be obvious that if you resolve Masticore or Spiritmonger, you win. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done. Deed and Duress are your pocket aces for this matchup. Duress makes sure that you don't get caught under a chain of Standstills and Deed turns off the Curiosity-fueled beat-down real quick. It's certainly not an easy matchup, but it's very win-able. Right now I'm boarding in the Infests for this matchup, but I'm not married to that idea. I'd love to hear a better option out of the sideboard to tackle Fish.

Unpowered 4C Control is a bit easier than Fish. All you really have to worry about is Mana Drain, and all you really have to do to stop Mana Drain is kill their hand or keep them off double-blue with your LD. Face-down Angels and Decree tokens are easy targets for Deed, but face-up Angels can be a problem. Oh, and watch out for Balance. I board in the Negators here and I think they're the best option. I wouldn't mind squeezing a Mind Twist in there, but that's not a spell you want to see get Mana Drained.

Random aggro decks mostly take it in the nuts when facing this deck. Either the land kill keeps them from casting anything of significance or the Deed swoops in and annihilates whatever they had going. The one exception to that is a deck packing it's own regenerators like R/G with Boa, Troll, and Rancor. Rancor on a Troll is a scary sight indeed, but thankfully Infest is waiting in the board to clean that mess up for you.

I realize this deck will probably be dismissed or even locked because it's out of the ordinary and hasn't won any major tourneys, but I tried to present it in an intelligent way and hope to generate some discussion and critique. Thanks for reading.

- Falc