Hello everyone. With Avatar: The Last Airbender previews happening now, I find myself smack dab in the middle of my series of articles where I look at current Standard decks you can use that all feature a specific color. I've already looked at decks featuring White and Blue decks, so it's time to take a look at decks featuring Black cards. Let's get started.

Mono-Black Lucky Combo

We'll get things started by taking a look at a combo deck that proves that receiving great benefits can also bring great pain. Let's take a look at the deck.

Mono-Black Lucky Combo | SPM Standard | LegenVD, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Bloodletter of Aclazotz
• 4 Demon Wall
• 4 Unstoppable Slasher

• Instants (6)
• 2 Stab
• 4 Cease // Desist

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Villainous Wrath
• 4 Push // Pull

• Enchantments (12)
• 4 Parker Luck
• 4 Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber
• 4 Virtue of Persistence

• Lands (24)
• 12 Swamp
• 2 Cavern of Souls
• 2 Soulstone Sanctuary
• 4 Underground Mortuary
• 4 Wastewood Verge

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

The main card for this combo deck is Parker Luck. While this enchantment is in play, each player will draw a card during your end step, revealing it in the process. Then each player will lose life equal to the mana value of the card that the other player revealed. By including a fair number of cards that have a high mana value into your deck, you can often win the game with this card, even though it's usually not a good idea to give your opponent extra cards.

You can take extra advantage of your opponent losing life if you're able to get a Bloodletter of Aclazotz into play. While this Vampire Demon is on the battlefield, you'll not only have a great flying blocker, but your opponent will lose double the amount of life they would lose whenever they would lose life during your turn.

Orzhov Superfriends

Next, we'll take a look at an Orzhov deck that features a bunch of powerful planeswalkers. However, those planeswalkers aren't the only cool things in the deck. Let's check it out.

Orzhov Superfriends | SPM Standard | SuperBeastGN, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (2)
• 2 Ketramose, the New Dawn

• Planeswalkers (10)
• 2 Kaya, Spirits' Justice
• 2 Liliana, Dreadhorde General
• 3 Ashiok, Wicked Manipulator
• 3 Elspeth, Storm Slayer

• Instants (7)
• 3 Not on My Watch
• 4 The End

• Sorceries (14)
• 2 Exorcise
• 2 Ultima
• 3 Deadly Cover-Up
• 3 Villainous Wrath
• 4 Day of Judgment

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 With Great Power...
• 2 Rest in Peace

• Lands (24)
• 6 Plains
• 6 Swamp
• 2 Bleachbone Verge
• 2 Concealed Courtyard
• 4 Demolition Field
• 4 Godless Shrine

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

As powerful as the planeswalkers in this deck are, the main star of this deck is Ketramose, the New Dawn. You'll want to play Ketramose as quickly as possible, because you'll quickly be able to set up a situation where your opponent might be unable to win the game through normal means. Use all your removal spells to keep the battlefield clear of threats, because he won't be able to do much until there are 7 or more cards in exile...

Unless, you happen to have Ketramose enchanted with With Great Power... Not only does this aura provide Ketramose with a +2/+2 bonus, but it will target any damage you might take to Ketramose. Since Ketramose has indestructible, he'll be able to take any amount of damage your opponent can throw at you and survive. The exception is trample damage, but you should be able to destroy any creatures with trample with the numerous removal spells in this deck.

Dimir Rats

The next deck I have for you features a type of creature I'm not fond of in real life, but one that I enjoy playing in Magic - Rats. Let's take a look at the deck.

Dimir Rats | SPM Standard | PhantasmsPlayground, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Tidecaller Mentor
• 4 Burglar Rat
• 4 Engine Rat
• 4 Lord Skitter's Butcher
• 4 Persistent Marshstalker
• 4 Shoreline Looter

• Instants (10)
• 2 Confounding Riddle
• 4 Secret Identity
• 4 Shoot the Sheriff

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Feed the Swarm
• 4 Strategic Betrayal

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Nowhere to Run

• Lands (22)
• 9 Island
• 10 Swamp
• 1 Hidden Grotto
• 1 Lilypad Village
• 1 Mudflat Village

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

When I'm looking at a typal deck to write about, I look for synergy. The main point of synergy for this deck is on Persistent Marshstalker. Due to its ability, you'll want to get as many Rats into play as you can, in order to boost its power as much as possible. Persistent Marshstalker also has the potential to return to the battlefield from your graveyard as an attacking creature if you have 7 or more cards in your graveyard (plus an attacking Rat and some extra mana to pay).

A great way to get 7 cards into your graveyard is by attacking with Shoreline Looter. This Rat Rogue cannot be blocked, so unless your opponent has some sort of removal spell, it's likely to deal combat damage. This will allow you to draw a card and then discard a card, unless you have 7 or more cards in your graveyard. If that's the case, you simply draw a card.

Rakdos Sliver Spiders

What do you get when a Sliver teams up with a Spider? You get the next deck I have for you. Let's take a look at it.

Rakdos Sliver Spiders | SPM Standard | JayVillain, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (15)
• 3 Cosmic Spider-Man
• 4 Barkform Harvester
• 4 Taurean Mauler
• 4 Three Tree Mascot

• Instants (8)
• 1 Shoot the Sheriff
• 2 Abrade
• 2 Bitter Triumph
• 3 Torch the Tower

• Sorceries (4)
• 2 Duress
• 2 Ruthless Negotiation

• Enchantments (6)
• 2 Virtue of Persistence
• 4 Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber

• Artifacts (3)
• 3 Thrumming Hivepool

• Lands (24)
• 2 Mountain
• 5 Swamp
• 1 Soulstone Sanctuary
• 2 Nomad Outpost
• 2 Restless Vents
• 4 Blazemire Verge
• 4 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Secluded Courtyard

• Sideboard (6)
• 1 Demand Answers
• 1 Long Goodbye
• 1 The End
• 1 Strategic Betrayal
• 1 Tragic Trajectory
• 1 Nowhere to Run

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

The only card currently in Standard that is capable of creating Sliver creature tokens is Thrumming Hivepool. This artifact costs 6 mana to cast, but that amount can be reduced by 1 for each Sliver you have in play. Since there are no other Slivers to be found, we'll turn to the next best thing, Changelings. This deck includes a few Changelings, and Taurean Mauler is likely to be a great finisher for this deck.

You might notice that there's one card in this deck that requires more than just Red and Black mana to cast. Yes, Cosmic Spider-Man is in this primarily Rakdos deck as another means of finishing off your opponent. Since Changelings are all creature types, they will benefit from the keywords that Cosmic Spider-Man provides during combat on your turn to other Spiders you control. These abilities should be enough to push you over the top and allow you to take out nearly any opponent.

Golgari Spiders

The final deck I have for you features Spiders in their more traditional form. Let's take a look at the deck.

Golgari Spiders | SPM Standard | JayVillain, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (28)
• 3 Mary Jane Watson
• 3 Molt Tender
• 3 Radioactive Spider
• 3 Seedship Broodtender
• 4 Broodspinner
• 4 Spinner of Souls
• 4 The Swarmweaver
• 4 Twitching Doll

• Instants (5)
• 2 Bitter Triumph
• 3 Assassin's Trophy

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Strategic Betrayal

• Lands (24)
• 4 Forest
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Restless Cottage
• 1 Underground Mortuary
• 2 Cavern of Souls
• 2 Multiversal Passage
• 2 Starting Town
• 4 Blooming Marsh
• 4 Wastewood Verge

• Sideboard (7)
• 1 Gwen Stacy
• 1 Spider-Ham, Peter Porker
• 1 Symbiote Spider-Man
• 1 Cease // Desist
• 1 Grow Extra Arms
• 1 Nowhere to Run
• 1 Wall Crawl

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Radioactive Spider is a terrific early card to play. It has both reach and deathtouch, allowing it to be the perfect blocker. It also has an ability that can be used to search your library for a Spider Hero card, but you won't want to use this ability unless you've sideboarded in Spider-Ham, Peter Porker or Symbiote Spider-Man, because there are no Spider Hero creatures in the main deck. The exception to this is if you have Spinner of Souls in play and Radioactive Spider is going to be destroyed by an opponent's spell. You can sacrifice it to trigger Spinner of Souls, resulting in you finding another creature from your library to put into your hand.

This deck also features a bit of a delirium theme, which makes The Swarmweaver a great creature to play to help finish your opponent off. When The Swarmweaver comes into play, you'll create a pair of 1/1 flying Insect creature tokens. The Swarmweaver also provides a +1/+1 bonus and deathtouch to all Insects and Spiders you control, as long as delirium is reached. That will make defending very tough for your opponent.

Wrapping Up

Combo and typal decks are a lot of fun. I, personally, can't wait to try out all of these decks, which says a lot since Black is one of my least favorite mana colors. Hopefully you'll have as much fun with these decks as I expect to.

What do you think of these decks? Feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!

- Mike Likes