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Core Synergies
The best leader in the color for over 6 months now, FB04-103 shines through a unique leader ability, allowing to both attack with battle cards, and use them as combo. At the moment, one can build two different decks : Midrange value or Aggro.
In the midrange concept, we aim to dominate through our incredible amount of combo power available, achieved by constantly having more cards than our opponent, on top of efficient removal. FB03-140 and FB04-113 are the core of that synergy, backed up by FB04-104, FB04-110, FB06-097 and FB03-137 on board control duty.
In that strategy, our goal is to protect FB03-140 for an extra draw per turn, while we slowly mount pressure. As soon as our opponent starts running low either on cards or health, we can buff our attacks up to 40,000 to close the deal.
For most decks, defending a 40,000 hit will require a Super-Combo plus a card, or three cards. Considering we only need FB06-103 on the board, or cards we will recuperate with FB04-113 or FB03-132, this is often a great trade for us.
When it comes to the more aggressive strategy, the goal isn't to buff our attacks as much as unleashing a flurry of hits every turn with FB04-125, FB04-116 and FB04-123.
At the moment, the midrange synergy is doing better, largely thanks to FB06-097 helping against SB01-029.
Decklist
Must Own and Replacements
To be fair, FB03-140 is the card holding Black together as a whole. Considering it is a secret rare card, it makes the rarest card in the deck the hardest one to replace.
In case you didn't own the card, I probably would switch to the aggressive build, able to function without it. However, if I had it available, I would likely run FB03-140 instead of FB03-111 in that deck as well.
If you had the precious FB03-140 but missed other cards in the midrange build, you will notice a lot of cards aren't maxed out in the deck. Then, I would play with the ratio of each card in the deck in order to find a good balance for your play style or collection.
For example, FB03-132 is a decent replacement for a missing FB06-103. I wouldn't mind running four copies of FB04-105 either, or a third FB06-097 for consistency.
To be fair, Black is regarded as a struggling color at the moment, and surprised most people when it managed to go 7-0 in a regional tournament in North America. Then, FB04-103 likely needs to be played with a vision, be it the midrange or the aggressive variant. That vision will impact how you build your deck more than anything else.
Competitive Chances
Black is almost ignored by the top performing decks right now, meaning their lists are not optimal to take on FB04-103. This is a small edge to exploit, even if a lot of match-ups will go down to whether you manage to stick FB03-140 for a few turns or not.
At least, you know your opponent did not plan specific cards for that scenario.
