“Mono-Black Midrange aims to disrupt the opponent's hand early through Duress, Cabal Therapy, and Ravenous Rats while deploying efficient, threatening creatures that demand an immediate answer. Dark Ritual enables explosive early plays — landing a turn-one Hypnotic Specter or Nantuko Shade puts the opponent on the back foot before they can establish their gameplan. Nantuko Shade and Mishra's Factory serve as resilient, scalable win conditions that are difficult to answer cleanly, closing out games that the disruptive engine opens up.”
Missing sideboard cards? The full 15-card sideboard runs about $164.
Buy sideboard on ManapoolDystopia forces the Replenish player to sacrifice a green or white permanent every upkeep, which is brutal against their white Opalescence, Parallax Wave, and Seal of Cleansing (Decree of Silence is blue, so it is unaffected). Gloom taxes their white spells and the activated abilities of their white enchantments, so Swords to Plowshares, Replenish, Opalescence, and Parallax Wave all cost 3 more, and Parallax Wave and Seal of Cleansing cost 3 more to activate. It does not touch Decree of Silence or its cycling. Nantuko Shade and one Ravenous Rats come out since they do little to stop the combo against a creature-light, enchantment-heavy plan, and Snuff Out has almost no targets in this matchup. Keep Duress and Cabal Therapy in to strip Replenish or Opalescence before they can resolve, and prioritize racing or disrupting before turn 4-5 when they assemble the lock.
Diabolic Edict is the one card worth bringing in. It answers a resolved Phyrexian Dreadnought without needing to target it, and it is an instant, so you can use it before the Dreadnought attacks. Their deck runs almost no other creatures, so the Dreadnought is usually the one they have to sacrifice. Vendetta stays in the sideboard. Destroying a 12/12 Dreadnought would cost you 12 life, which is far too much. Graveborn Muse is too slow and fragile against a tempo deck racing to kill by turn three, so it comes out. Plaguebearer stays in. The Dreadnought has mana value 1, so X=1 destroys it for three mana. Duress and Cabal Therapy remain excellent, stripping Stifle or Vision Charm before the Dreadnought can be protected. Wasteland has no targets here, since their lands are basic Islands and it can't touch them or stop Gush and Daze from returning them. It is only a colorless land in this matchup, so it stays in only because the sideboard has no better replacement.
Engineered Plague naming Goblin shrinks their entire army of Goblin Lackey, Goblin Matron, Goblin Piledriver, Goblin Ringleader, Goblin Warchief, Mogg Fanatic, and Siege-Gang Commander tokens by -1/-1, which is backbreaking against a deck built almost entirely of 1- and 2-toughness Goblins. Vendetta cleanly answers Siege-Gang Commander or a Goblin Warchief before it enables a flood of hasty attackers. Ravenous Rats and Graveborn Muse are too slow and card-disadvantageous against this aggressive matchup, and Plaguebearer's activation cost is too clunky to matter before they overwhelm you. Keep Smother and Cabal Therapy for their key three-drops, and use Duress to strip removal or disruption before deploying your own threats.