A Spicy Mono-Black Modern Deck Built By... Kim Jong Un!?
Gameplay Video By HarryMTG
Many celebrities play Magic: The Gathering - Post Malone, Jesse Sendejas, Will Wheaton, Seth Rogan, and... Kim Jong Un!? According to a decklist posted on MTGGoldfish, he does. And it seems like Modern is his format of choice. Within Modern, the deck is a mono-black deck that's pretty nasty. It appears that Kim is quite the brewer and means business regarding MTG.
Given that I also love mono-black, I had no choice but to cover this fabulous deck - It's got it all. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
+ Cabal Coffers
, Karn, the Great Creator
, land destruction, and all the removal I player could want, including the recently Standard-banned Invoke Despair
. We'll start by looking at the deck list posted by user "Kim Jong Un" and then discuss the cards.
Kim Jong Un's Mono-Black Coffers Deck
Mono-Black Coffers
Main 60 cards (18 distinct)
Lands - 27
Side 15 cards (12 distinct)
Main 60 cards (18 distinct)
Lands - 27
Side 15 cards (12 distinct)
Main 60 cards (18 distinct)
| Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (29) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.25€0.190.03 | |||
| $20.09€17.00 | |||
|
1
Defile
|
$0.93€0.650.04 | ||
| $3.19€4.162.11 | |||
| $22.49€18.76 | |||
| $0.75 | |||
| $1.55€1.160.44 | |||
| $4.89€4.620.96 | |||
| Planeswalker (4) | |||
| $4.68€4.992.22 | |||
| Land (27) | |||
| $0.49€0.360.10 | |||
| $24.57€15.470.36 | |||
| $3.30€3.582.03 | |||
| $0.92€0.940.03 | |||
| $0.25€0.180.03 | |||
|
9
Swamp
|
$0.180.03 | ||
| $44.93€30.25 | |||
Side 15 cards (12 distinct)
| $14.27 | |||
| $50.10€32.840.82 | |||
| $0.56€0.710.11 | |||
| $9.23€10.231.24 | |||
| $11.83€9.760.20 | |||
| $3.19€4.162.11 | |||
| $12.69€12.354.51 | |||
| $0.70€0.610.41 | |||
| $2.11 | |||
| $3.19€1.200.02 | |||
| $3.76 | |||
| $0.43€0.390.03 |
Strategy Breakdown
With the deck list out of the way, let's dive deeper into the deck. I'll cover the overall strategy, the card choices, why they're there, and some of the spicy sideboard tech that Kim utilized to get to his 5-0 record. Let's get started with the namesake card, Cabal Coffers.
Urborg & Coffers Combo
These cards are a classic combination that has long been used to quickly generate tons of black mana. For the longest, you'd mainly see this in Commander, but when Coffers was made legal thanks to Modern Horizons 2, it also made its way into Modern. The way this works is - Urborg turns every land into a swamp. Coffers allow you to tap three lands total (two to pay the activation cost and Coffers itself) and generate one black mana for each swamp you control, which will be equal to however many lands you have in play.
So, let's pretend you have five lands in play, one of which is a Cabal Coffers and another is Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. All five lands will count as swamps, and you tap two, plus the coffers for five mana. You can make another two mana with the remaining two lands for seven by turn five.
Considering all lands will produce black mana, the deck can run many non-naturally black-producing utility lands. In this particular deck, that means land that can destroy opposing lands. The deck plays a full playset of Field of Ruin and Demolition Field, which wreak havoc on opposing mana bases. All the while still being able to contribute to the casting cost of things like Invoke Despair.
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So, what are you going to do with all that mana? Well, aside from casting Invoke Despair early and often, the deck also runs Karn, the Great Creator to grab powerful one-of-cards from the sideboard. I'll go over the entire sideboard in-depth later on, but here's a glance where you can see some of the threats the deck has access to:
- Cityscape Leveler
- A massive threat that functions as removal - Sundering Titan - More land hate that works well with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Great against 4+ color decks
- Walking Ballista - The decks main win-con once it has the land combo going
- Wurmcoil Engine - A resilient threat that can gain a ton of life
- Engineered Explosives - An extra copy that can be grabbed as needed against token and other low-to-the-ground decks
- Ensnaring Bridge - A hard obstacle for creature-based aggro to win through
- The Stone Brain - Great against any deck that relies on a few key cards (Like tron or combo decks)
The Removal
You can't play mono-black without a hefty removal arsenal at your disposal. I mean, Kim Jong Un couldn't build a deck without a massive removal suite, could he? The answer is no. And here's a look at the cards he included to control opposing board states. For spot removal, we have the staples such as Fatal Push
and Bloodchief's Thirst, as well as a single copy of Defile since it works so well with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth.
We have several copies of Damnation in the mainboard to deal with things if they get out of hand. In a similar role, you'll also find a copy of Blast Zone
in the mana base, which can wipe the board. Moving along, an entire playset of Invoke Despair can remove several permanents from play, possibly drain an opponent of life, and draw you cards.
Engineered Explosives is another wrath effect that can wipe the board of low mana value permanents. Relic of Progenitus is mainboard graveyard hate that does a ton of work against top decks in the format, like Izzet Murktide Regent
. A full playset of cards to deal with the graveyard in game one is a great ace in the hole. And it can always replace itself with a new card should you not need it in game one.
The Sideboard
As mentioned above, the sideboard has a toolbox-style strategy that goes along with the ability of Karn, the Great Creator. Aside from the one-of spells mentioned above, there are a few hate pieces. Here's what they are and their general purpose.
- Inquisition of Kozilek - Hand disruption that comes in against control and combo
- Shadow of Doubt - Great vs Primeval Titan and Stoneforge Mystic decks. Works great alongside Field of Ruin
- Kozilek, Butcher of Truth - Good against Mill because it shuffles into the deck when milled over
- Warping Wail - Versatile piece of interaction
- Necromentia - Comes in against combo decks to name a kep piece
Conclusion
There you have it, folks - Mono-Black Coffers by MTGgoldfish user Kim Jong Un. Black is probably my favorite color in Magic, so when I saw this list, who made it, and how well it did, I knew I had to cover it. I hope you've enjoyed my covering the build today and have taken away some insight into how it works. Now, get out there and sleeve up them swamps!
