A mono black deck that plays like a mono blue deck.  Mid-range drain with a god tribal theme.

The key is to drain opponent's resources, not just their life.  The trick is to drain your own at the proper time: pro-actively sacrifice creatures for card draw, empty your own graveyard even if you think you'll need it later, drop strong plays into known counters, etc.

There are several ways to lock them down--Ayara/Nightmare Shephard recursion, Tergrid lockdown, Gray Merchant finishers, Tymaret/Rankle hand hate.  Stay flexible, draw cards whenever possible, and prepare to switch win conditions on the fly.  You can out-drain everyone from mono red to white weenies, if you just draw enough cards.

Carefully timed sacrifices and drains for card advantage can disrupt the opponent's attack plans.  Your creatures are expendable, except when they aren't, because your life points become expendable.

Play notes:

• Math is for blockers, but with Ayara and Woe Strider, timing is more important than math.  Maximize card draw and sacrifices to frustrate attackers, especially ones with life gain.
• Nightmare Shephard with Ayara is the game-winning combo.  Bait out every bit of removal with your other resources if necessary, to get these two to stick.
• Do not play a Blightstep Pathway as red until you have at least 3-4 black mana.  Being unable to drop a Tymaret or Ayara when you need to can be fatal, and you won't need the red mana for Tibalt until you hit 7 mana.
• Throne of Death on turn 1 is a huge boost to your available resources.  But don't do it if you think you're facing rogues or mono red aggro.
• If you have Serrated Scorpion and Village Rites in your opening hand, it's usually worthwhile to sacrifice your Scorpion right before turn 3, even if there's no removal threat to "save" it from.  Card advantage is that important, especially if you're missing land going into turn 3-4.
• Tymaret is hugely useful graveyard interactions in this meta, though expensive.  Add another copy if you feel you need it more on the ladder.  Be careful exiling creatures from your own graveyard, since Throne of Death can use them for card draw.  Figuring out when to save mana for Tymaret and when to use them is one of the hardest calculations to learn.