Intro:

After months of running a more creature focused MonoBlack Discard deck, I thought I'd take another look at a classic and see if I could encorporate some of my learnings.

Historic MKM MonoBlack BatGix

Historic WOE Waste Not

The Main Deck:

4x

Duh. Why else are you playing this deck?

The "Heavy Lifting":

• 4x Liliana of the Veil: Aaron Forsythe said they made her to be a weapon. She is all of that and more.
• 4x Sheoldred, the Apocalypse: I still don't understand what they were thinking when they printed this obscene mistake of a pushed monstrosity. 
  • I don't fully know if the Black 4-drop slot will ever be freed up for other choices in the same way the Red 3-drop slot is utterly dominated by Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki.

Spell Suite:

• 4x Fatal Push, 4x Thoughtseize: If you play Black then you've just gotta accept that 8 slots are auto filled.
• 2x Inquisition of Kozilek: Ups your percentages of having a Turn 1 disruption spell. Not amazing to draw later in the game, but thankfully Liliana gives us a nice outlet for any dead cards in our hand.
• 2x Sheoldred's Edict: With Vein Ripper running around, you want the extra sacrifice effects. Plus gives you the spell interaction with Planeswalkers we need since we're not going to threaten them too much with creatures.
• 2x 2-mana Instant spot removal: Go for the Throat/Heartless Act/Power Word Kill.
  • They might serve as the same card 99% of the time, but you'll run into some weird brews where the "draw back"s come up.
• 1x Murderous Rider: Hero's Downfall with a body attached.
  • No exactly the most efficient card, but it's flexibility has saved my bacon a LOT.

Pressure Creators:

• 4x Deep-Cavern Bat: This derpy little guy doesn't synergize with Waste Not terribly well, but it does. not. matter. Being able to pick what you snag out of their hand is what we're looking for.
  
  • Kitesail Freebooter is the direct replacement, but I find the Lifelink is far more useful than +1 toughness.
• 2x Graveyard Trespasser // Graveyard Glutton: Picks away at their graveyard while being yet another difficult to handle threat. They usually have to put their hand under more pressure in order to deal with this pain in the rear.
• 2x Reckoner Bankbuster: Provides the card advantage we need to pull ahead (or keep up in the Control matchups).
  
  • With a Waste Not out, them discarding "useless" lands generates us 2-mana... Wanna guess what we can do with 2 free mana?
• 1x Liliana, Waker of the Dead: I'm addicted to this card. She's slow, yes. But also such an annoyance for opposing slower decks while not being a total blank in Aggro matchups. 
  
  • Having two different Liliana planeswalkers ticking up with nobody having any cards is something I recommend everyone experience. The Despair you can feel through the screen coming from the opponent is canned bliss.

Sideboard:

• 2x 5-mana Midrange/Control Bomb: Take your pick here, but here's the stack ranking I've come to prefer.
  • #1 Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal // Temple of the Dead: I'm not a fan of the Pioneer versions of this deck that put 1x copy in the main. With our running a full 5x Lilianas we want our curve to be as low as possible.
    • See it mentioned with the Bats, but the Flying and Lifelink combination ain't nothing to scoff at.
    • Provides a persistent threat vs Invoke's one-shot nature.
      • It doesn't take many swings with this to force a concession vs Invoke typically not being able to end games on it's own.
    • Can keep at bay a lot of those wide boards or man-lands the opponent might be clinging onto the game with.
  • #2 Invoke Despair: Close second, but there have been a lot of times where there's plenty of clutter on the opponent's side that this one-shot spell is not the backbreaker you might hope it to be.
  • #3 Sheoldred // The True Scriptures: Does what Invoke does, but less good and neither the body or Saga are worth the tradeoff.
• Graveyard Hate:
  • 2x Go Blank: Vs Control or anything that utilizes the Graveyard.
  • 2x Relic of Progenitus: Vs decks that severally leverage the Graveyard.
  • 2x Ashiok, Dream Render: Vs Graveyard and certain kinds of Control.
• 3x Sweepers:
  • 1x Path of Peril: Vs the RW Convoke style, super-low-to-the-ground decks.
  • 2x Ritual of Soot: Vs the more traditional RB Midrange builds of the world but pulls double-duty against fast Aggro.
• 1x Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage: Vs Control or Combo. Anything where you want to attack the hand but not have a lot of creatures running around.
• 2x Cackling Observer: Mini-Thought-Knot Seer? Yes, please!

Ports to Pioneer/Explorer:

If you wanted to play this deck in formats that forbid the digital cards, then here's the quick and easy way to do it.

• Main:
  • 2x Inquisition of Kozilek -> 2x Duress
  • 1x Swamp -> 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• Side:
  • 2x Cackling Observer -> 2x Duress