Hip Deep In Smoking Rubble

While playing against Jason's U/G mill deck, I discovered an unexpected benefit to Mire's Toll: it can let me pick lands to discard. That fact became very useful when my turn one Duress revealed two Maze of Ith.

It took a little luck and planning, but I managed to force him to discard both cards before getting my Marit Liege out and winning the game. So that didn't suck, especially since in game two, he lead turn three with a Maze and that was it: I conceded right then.

Game three was a slog, where I was able to force Jason into topdeck mode, while being in topdeck mode myself, unfortunately. The superstar there?

Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage. It kept chipping damage away and allowing me to keep the discard pressure on. Eventually, I rode copies of it and two Vampire Hexmages to a win, because neither of us was doing anything else. On the one hand: color me surprised! On the other: Hexdrinker rule in effect?

Jason wants me to add in Sinkholes and cut all the discard from the deck save Duress. Replace them with Nevinyrral's Disk 'because at mono-black, you can't deal with Enchantments or Artifacts'. Then use Duress as the "is it all clear" card before pulling off the combo, with Sinkhole and the Disk to set opponents back on the board.

I'm just not convinced. The game is so creature-centric now, having mass creature removal is just more important in the mainboard. The sideboard; yeah, let's get those Disks! And if I use Duress and see two Swords to Plowshares, how do I remove the other Swords? I only have three copies of Duress left! Still, it might be worth testing.

What that final game did do was make me think about a transformational sideboard...into 8 Rack. This probably isn't a good idea, but some of the cards in 8 Rack could be things I double up on, in case my matchup is unfavorable: Bontu's Last Reckoning, Collective Brutality and Shrieking Affliction could all be put in, along with the Disk and a Pithing Needle.