Magic: the Gathering‘s Standard format is rotating. This is going to totally shake up the metagame, leaving us with only the cards from Zendikar Rising, Kaldheim, Strixhaven: School of Mages, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, and the soon-to-be-released Innistrad: Midnight Hunt.
This makes it one of the best times to begin playing Standard. The format recently consisted of eight legal sets which players would have to buy cards from in order to compete, but come rotation there will only be five sets.
While it is exciting to start crafting decks with cards from the newest set, Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, it is also important to consider which top-performing cards from Standard 2021 will carry through to the new year. In this article, we will take a look at some of the best mono-black cards you can buy for Standard 2022.
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Lolth, Spider Queen
Lolth, Spider Queen has all the abilities we want to see on a Planeswalker. She can draw cards, protect herself by making creature tokens, and has a devastating ultimate ability. She also has the added benefit of a static ability that adds additional loyalty counters to Lolth whenever she sees a creature you control die.
Lolth has had a brief existence in Standard, as she was only recently released in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, but since then she has popped up in a few Standard decks like green-black midrange and lots of sacrifice-themed decks (generally referred to as “Aristocrats”, as named after cards like Falkenrath Aristocrat and Cartel Aristocrat)like red-black.
Moving into Standard 2022, any deck that wants to take advantage of sacrificing their own creatures is going to want some number of copies of Lolth, Spider Queen as a top-of-the-curve threat.
Sedgemore Witch
Sedgemoor Witch is reminiscent of a lot of good cards from Magic’s past like Monastary Mentor (a legacy playable card), and Young Pyromancer who has been a mainstay in the Modern format for a long time. So Sedgemore Witch has definitely got a lot of potential.
Where will her home be in Standard 2022? She’s going to join Lolth, Spider Queen in Aristocrat strategies. It’s also possible that she’ll be included as a snowballing-type threat in control decks that want to accrue advantage by casting spells over many turns.
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Blood on the Snow
Blood on the Snow is one of Standard 2022’s premier board wipe effects. Six mana is a little expensive to destroy all creatures, but Blood on the Snow more than makes up for it. First of all, it is versatile, allowing you to either destroy all creatures or all Planeswalkers. But more importantly, after you destroy the battlefield, you can reanimate one creature or planeswalker equal to the amount of snow mana spend to cast the spell.
In Standard 2022, expect to see Blood on the Snow included any black-based control strategies like Dimir (blue-black).
Professor Onyx
Liliana, *ahem*, I mean Professor Onyx, has was not the most prominent card in Standard 2021. Actually, she saw very little play. But rotation means that the Standard Format will get a big power down and players are going to need to find new, or old threats for their decks.
Professor Onyx is already being included in several blue-black control decklists for Standard 2022, so perhaps rotation is what she needed in order to see play.
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