I am pretty new to the Old School ’93-’94 scene. I was around back in the day (1994) but was a teenager with no money so could not afford many of the cards even at that time. We used to play amongst friends mainly, where each one of us had their “staple” decks and colours, with mono black and mono white actually dominating vs my red green creature deck a lot of the times. I quit playing a few years later, selling everything, including a couple Moxen and duals, only to start again back in 2011, playing Legacy. Still didn’t have the foresight to buy the old school P9 staples, although I managed to get myself back to 40x dual lands, and pretty much every set of cards for most decks in the format. Then I stopped playing again, due to lack of time and a dislike for the “official tournaments” environment, where you can tell people only play for the prizes, never smile, are super tense and generally quite despondent… not my idea of having fun playing Magic.
In January this year I decided to sell everything, and only concentrate on old cards collections like Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends The Dark and Beta. Only when I sold pretty much everything I found out the existence of Old School 93-94 format…. I was hooked but didn’t have ANY cards left or thereabout!! I was only left with a set of unlimited Sinkhole, a set of beta Dark Ritual, 4x Underworld Dreams, and a few other black cards. No P9 whatsoever.
I hooked up with Michele Gaimarri and a few other guys from a nearby town and I went to my first Old School tournament in Ravenna. I had not played for about 3 years. We could use 3 proxies (for me 1 Juzam Djinn, Black Lotus and Mox Jet). Rest of my deck was a suboptimal Mono Black. I had lots of fun, but the deck was missing a lot of good cards. Also from (very important in this format) the eye candy point of view, it was not great… Meanwhile Michele went to win the tournament with his beautiful Mono Black also! Turns out he is quite the Mono Black master, having played it in pretty much every format from back in the days, to vintage, to legacy etc, with quite some results too: I can learn a lot from him!
So, onto the deck that allowed me to finish first in the Swiss at the Ovino and then finish 5th overall after losing to one of the 2 finalists a very honorable 2-1 (mulling at 5 in my 3rd game ). Mono Black was known back in the day for its stability from a mana perspective and its speed. I was convinced of the strength of this deck in this format also by looking at the Old School 93-94 Swedish blog. Most importantly though, it was the only deck I could start from what cards I had left! I thought this deck could also be a good matchup against blue based control decks which I was sure lots of people would want to play.
Starting from the cards that have to be present in pretty much every mono black out there:
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1 Sol ring
Don’t think there’s much to explain here, some of the best cards in the whole game of Magic.
Moving on to the creatures, here’s where the deck shines, with also some of the best creatures of the game
4 Juzam Djinn: probably the best creature in the format alongside the Mishra’s Factories. First turn land lotus Juzam always gives you that warm feeling in the belly. If you don’t have these, Juggernaut or Su-chi are good alternatives
Hypnotic Specter: a threat that draws more Bolts and STP upon itself than anything else. Also great to cast 1st turn with a Ritual and if it survives a couple turns, you can create havoc to the opponent’s hand.
Black Knight: I went for 3 only to add the Black Vise. I was lucky never to get a Mono White deck in the tournament.
Sengir Vampire: 2x to finish off the opponent (or to be cast turn one like in my G3 of the quarter finals, after mulling to 5 cards, only to be Oublietted away never to return).
REMOVALS
The Disk is your personal insurance in case you find yourself vs a faster deck than yours, cleans the board also from pesky creatures with protection from Black (White Knights, Whirling Dervish etc) as well as artifact heavy decks, or enchantments like Mana Flare etc… never less than 3 main deck in my opinion.
Terror and Drain Life I guess can be chosen as a combination of any numbers to make 4, where terror is a quicker removal (but no black or artifact creatures…) and Drain Life can be also a finisher in mid to late game. Can be adjusted after G1.
Sinkholes are great removals for pesky Maze of Ith stalling your race or for the ever present Mishra’s Factories….Very useful to apply early pressure too on multi colour decks
Strip Mine: is limited for a reason… wouldn’t mind 4 in this deck.
Chaos Orb: is just one of those cards that you have to include, although basically requiring quite some luck, the spectacle of flipping an Orb cannot be had with any other card. Goes quite well in combo with the Guardian Beasts! (Thanks Michele)
ENCHANTMENTS
4 Underworld Dreams: Alternative win-con that always puts pressure on the opponent. One guy even told me the card stresses him out ahahah! Fantastic in a format where drawing extra cards is super hard and Dreams messes with other decks’ strategies to draw/manipulate. Great versus Sylvan Library, Ancestral Recall, Braingeyser, Timetwister, Wheel of Fortune[/Carta , [Carta]Library of Alexandria etc etc. Must have in 4x for this deck in my opinion.
OTHER CARDS
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
If you have these, great, otherwise the Lotus could be substituted by a Mana Vault and the Mox Jet by a Fellwar Stone I guess. Obviously these give you an extra bit of speed, recommended if you have them!
4 Mishra’s Factory: Mishra’s Factories are one of the best creatures in the format, so 4x here, also to go against the opponent’s Mishra’s seen as pretty much every deck has them!
1 Urborg: Good abilities for a land that gives black also
1 Maze of Ith Personal choice, I like the “defensive ability” of this land (so much so that I also put Island of Wak Wak in Side)
1 Black Vise Very Powerful card, especially if drawn within your first hand. It occupies a slot that can be used also for something else, depending on personal taste.
SIDEBOARD
3 Gloom
1 Jovial evil
1 Mirror universe
1 Sorceress queen
1 Guardian beast
1 Oubliette
1 Greed
1 Demonic Hordes
1 Icy Manipulator
1 Forcefield
1 Hellfire
1 Word of command
1 Island of Wak Wak
For the sideboard, I chose the obvious cards against white like Gloom and Jovial Evil, some more removals like Oubliette, Hellfire. I then chose cards like Guardian Beast that goes in combo with the Disks and the Chaos Orb (arguably could be put maindeck…) a card that makes you draw like Greed, 2 very good artifacts that can be used in multiple situations like Icy Manipulator and Forcefield, as well as some personal favourites like Demonic Hordes, Word of Command and Island of Wak Wak.
Practically, I found myself siding in the Island quite a few times as lots of decks had Seredib Efreets and other nasty flying creatures, it even made me win a couple games! Forcefield is another card that makes you concentrate on your race and basically forget about the opponent’s creatures so I also sided this one in often. I was lucky I never played against a Mono White at the Ovino I guess, so never had to use the hate against white.
Other options for the Sideboard could be Royal Assassin, another Terror or 2, Pestilence, Paralyze or even dare to play a couple City in a Bottle (then side out the Juzam) against Arabian Nights heavy decks. Same could be said for Golgothian Sylex for decks heavy with Antiquities cards (and side out the Mishra’s)
Overall it’s a cheap deck to build for this format, compared to others, very stable manabase, but one needs to play it very aggressively, and mulligan heavily too! I like to play this deck a lot and it seems quite competitive too.
Mono black gives a good base for other types of mono black based decks like mono black weenies or even mono black land denial as well as mono black more control based decks with The Abyss and all the techs that go with these type of cards… have already started to think about these types of decks to play!!
Also, another suggestion is to remember that this format is also very aesthetic, so first put a deck together with some cheap Revised/Unlimited etc but would then recommend to slowly upgrade them with Alpha/Beta, I’m sure your opponents will appreciate it more too, when you kill them with a real Juzam Djinn from Arabian instead of a forest with a sticker on it saying “Juzam”.
So far the atmosphere in the Italian community is really good for this format, without the negatives that you can find for “official” formats. It gives you the chance to play MTG as it was originally invented with the very first cards printed, gives you a chance to boost your collections and make a good investment for your money (these cards are really unlikely to lose value!) . Enjoy Old School ’93-’94 and thanks to the Swedish guys who “invented” it and the guys from Ravenna for having spread the word in Italy!
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Link: DTB Old School 93/94 DTB – Mono Black (Versione Italiana)
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School 93/94