Black Sacrifice
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Black Sacrifice is the beatdown here and we are protecting a combo. Our cycling kill usually lands a turn before their swarm and a Rite of Consumption drain can finish us, and every piece of interaction in their game-one lists is creature removal, so the whole matchup is them attacking while holding Snuff Out, Tragic Slip or Accursed Marauder for Drannith Stinger. We have nothing to slow their one-drops, so we do not try to fight the board; the job is to get one Stinger through that removal with a second copy, a spare creature for the edict, or Reaping the Graves to buy it back. Speed is ours, resilience is theirs, and whichever side gets its angle is the side that wins.
Put the Stinger on the battlefield next to a second creature, Page, Loose Leaf or a Drannith Healer cast off a Lotus Petal, so Accursed Marauder's edict takes the other body. Keep the Stinger out of combat entirely: a Supernatural Stamina on the creature it blocks kills it, and so does a blocked Shambling Ghast, whose -1/-1 death trigger lands on top of its 1 damage. When they point Snuff Out or a morbid Tragic Slip at the Stinger, cycle everything you can pay for in response; each cycle still pings while the Stinger is on the battlefield, and those triggers resolve before the removal does. Build the kill turn to survive one removal spell: cast a second Stinger before the first cycle when you have the red, and keep a Great Furnace or Lotus Petal unspent so a Reaping the Graves copy can return a killed Stinger and you can recast it.
Budget life. Street Wraith's 2-life cycling and Rowan's Grim Search's 2 life come off the same total Carrion Feeder and Rite of Consumption are racing, so cycle Wraiths with Drannith Healer on the battlefield when you can, and keep enough life back that a post-combat drain on their biggest creature is not lethal. If the Stingers run out, the same Songs of the Damned mana hardcasts Street Wraith: swampwalk makes it unblockable against their Swamps, and because it is black, Snuff Out cannot target it. The long game also leans our way, since a stocked graveyard lets a topdecked Songs of the Damned or Reaping the Graves restart a lethal chain, while their one-drops are weak draws without a board around them.
Accursed Marauder, in a little over half of their game-one lists, is the sorcery-speed answer to a lone Drannith Stinger. We choose what to sacrifice, so the punish only lands if we pass with the Stinger as our only creature: then the edict takes it on their turn, before our kill turn, and any Mortician Beetle on their side grows off both sacrifices. A Page, Loose Leaf or Drannith Healer beside the Stinger is what goes to the edict instead.
Snuff Out, in about a third of game-one lists, kills Drannith Stinger, Drannith Healer or Page, Loose Leaf for free at instant speed, so they can fire it mid-chain after our rituals are spent. The punish is starting the chain with one Stinger and nothing behind it (no second copy, no Reaping the Graves, no red source to recast): a Snuff Out after the first cycle leaves the rest of the Songs of the Damned mana with nothing to turn into damage. It cannot target our black creatures, and the 4 life it costs them when cast for free is 4 less damage the chain has to deal.
Carrion Feeder is their main clock and a free sacrifice outlet. It cannot block and grows off every creature they feed it, so our kill turn is a race against its counters, and its sacrifices turn on Tragic Slip's morbid mode whenever they need it. It punishes a slow turn: paying life to dig with Street Wraith cycles or Rowan's Grim Search while it grows unchecked lets its counters plus a post-combat Rite of Consumption finish us before the kill turn arrives.
Rite of Consumption is the finisher, and the card that changes how much damage our chain needs. Sacrificing a grown Carrion Feeder or a pumped Bloodthrone Vampire drains us for its power and gains them the same amount, so each drain adds that much to what the Stinger chain has to deal. Going into their turn with our life low from Street Wraith cycling is how it becomes lethal, and a drain that falls short still raises the total our next kill turn has to reach.
Tragic Slip is in under a third of their game-one lists but almost all of them after sideboarding. One mana at instant speed with their free sacrifice outlets turning on morbid at will, it kills the Stinger mid-chain and, unlike Snuff Out, our black creatures too. The punish is treating a black creature as safe because Snuff Out cannot target it; a sacrifice to Carrion Feeder or Bloodthrone Vampire turns on morbid and Tragic Slip kills it anyway.
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Chitin Gravestalker comes in because their Snuff Out and sideboarded Spinning Darkness can only target nonblack creatures, so a black 5/4 that costs one black mana once five artifact or creature cards are in our graveyard is a threat their best Stinger answers cannot touch, and it blocks the ground creatures racing us. Three copies take the Monstrous Carabid slots as creature cyclers; a fourth would push out one of the one-mana cyclers the Stinger chain runs on, since its two-mana cycling is the most expensive recycle we have.
Duress comes in to take Snuff Out, Tragic Slip or Spinning Darkness, the instant-speed Stinger kills they add after game one, out of their hand before the kill turn, or a Nihil Spellbomb or Rotten Reunion they have not cast yet. Cast on the kill turn, it also adds one to Reaping the Graves' storm count.
Monstrous Carabid goes out for Chitin Gravestalker. Its body is the worst of our creature cyclers here: it must attack each combat, so it runs into a board of tokens they are happy to chump with and is tapped every turn their swarm attacks. Gravestalker does the same cycling job and stays back to block.
Rowan's Grim Search loses three copies to make room for Duress. At three mana and 2 life it is our most expensive way to dig against a deck that drains us with Rite of Consumption, and Duress is the cheaper spell for building storm count. One copy stays in to refuel on the turn after their removal takes a Stinger.
Sideboarding shifts this pairing a moderate step toward Black Sacrifice: their graveyard hate and hand attack open new angles on the chain on top of extra Stinger removal, while Duress and Chitin Gravestalker only thin out that removal and add a black threat.
Black Sacrifice comes back with more Tragic Slip and, in some lists, Snuff Out and Spinning Darkness for the Stinger, extra Accursed Marauders, graveyard hate in Rotten Reunion and (in many builds) Nihil Spellbomb, and Mesmeric Fiend for our hand. We answer with Duress to clear that removal before the kill turn and Chitin Gravestalker as a black threat that Snuff Out and Spinning Darkness cannot target. What each addition means for our lines:
Cast Duress the turn before the kill to take Snuff Out, Tragic Slip or Spinning Darkness, or on the kill turn itself, where it also adds one to Reaping the Graves' storm count. If their hand holds no removal, take Rite of Consumption. Duress can take a Nihil Spellbomb still in their hand, but not one already on the battlefield, and it never touches Mesmeric Fiend or Accursed Marauder.
Expect an untapped Nihil Spellbomb to be fired in response to our first big Songs of the Damned or Reaping the Graves. On that turn, count Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual's base three mana as the part of the mana that does not depend on the graveyard, and keep cyclers in hand to refill the graveyard for the next Songs once the Spellbomb is spent. Against Rotten Reunion, aim each Reaping copy at a different creature card so one exile stops only one copy.
Chitin Gravestalker is the threat their sideboarded removal handles worst. With Snuff Out and Spinning Darkness unable to target a black creature, their answers for it come down to Tragic Slip after a sacrifice and Accursed Marauder. Cast it for one black mana once five artifact or creature cards are in our graveyard, keep Page, Loose Leaf or Drannith Healer next to it for the edict, and use it to block their ground attackers while the Stinger plan reloads.