Swamp Gas

Howdy, swamp creatures! Feels like just yesterday we were reviewing Aetherdrift cards. These sets are coming out at lightning speed these days (heh), so it's already time to wrap around to Tarkir and its dragons! The only issue with this one is, unfortunately, that Tarkir is a tri-color theme set--while there are of course some mono-black cards, the selection is a little thin. As such, I'll be using my justification of "cards FOR black", not necessarily "cards IN black" to be making this list. Without further ado, let's jump into it! Honorable Mention: Strategic Betrayal I had to include this one here because it's such a wonky card. I do love the design of "take two interesting effects and slap them together", and this one delivers in spades. It never quite does nothing--even if the opponent doesn't have a creature, in the right matchup you'll be fine with Tormod's Crypt. If they don't have a graveyard, it functions fine as ...

 Howdy, Swamp-lovers! It's that time again. Feels like it's been a while since we did a real set review--likely because I skipped Foundations. I didn't think that set, with a lot of reprints and simplified cards, was really going to make a splash in the meta, so I forewent the usual review. I think time has proved that decision the correct one--most of the crazy things happening in the format are coming from the forgotten annals in the other sets like OTJ, Bloomburrow, and Duskmourne. But now we've got some new toys to play with, so lets dig into em! Erm... See, I'm actually pretty underwhelmed by the black cards in this set. I feel like they went way too safe with them--they all either cost a little too much mana, or don't give enough oomph for the mana or resources they cost, or the play patterns within the card conflict. Case in point: Why does this both tap to surveil AND costs a mana? Why does it only surveil 1 for that amount of resources? Why in the world...

 What a great game. Hello, swamp creatures! Welcome back to the world of black. Today, we're going to be doing a quick retrospective on my top 5 list for best black cards in Duskmourne. While the World Championship is only starting, we have the meta share for those decks, and I think I can safely take the time now to figure out where I was right, where I was wrong, and what I completely didn't even talk about. Without further ado, let's get right into it! Honorable Mention: Valgavoth's Faithful                                                                           I'm pretty comfortable saying that this one deserved the honorable mention slot, as this little guy has been the subject of TONS of brews. There are two very good 4 mana reanimation spells in the format...

 Seems like just yesterday we were looking at the cute and cuddly world of Bloomburrow. A lot has changed. Welcome to Duskmourne! I may be biased, but I think that black cards are the most evocative and flavorful in this set, as black is typically considered the "horror" color. I mean, look at some of these. Makes my skin crawl, which is just what I want out of my black cards! But of course, we're not just here for the flavor. This set has some incredible cards in it, and black is of course no exception. We're here to talk about them, so without further ado, let's get into it! Honorable Mention: Valgavoth's Faithful Starting right off the bat with an interesting one for our honorable mention. This is a deceptive card. On the surface, it doesn't seem that strong--it's little, it dies easily, and the ability is only sorcery speed. And yet, if you start to think about it, Valgavoth's Faithful presents an interesting play pattern. You play this on turn...

 Hello my fellow swamp enjoyers! Bloomburrow is upon us, and so far it really does seem like the new set and rotation have blown the format wide open. Brews are flowing all up and down the ladder, and I couldn't be happier. The matches are interesting, the cards seem strong but not ubiquitous or bonkers like some of the cards that rotated, and it's been a wonderful return to form after our stagnant meta previously. While Midrange is always going to be my baby, and I'm going to continue tuning it, I wanted to get down my thoughts today on an absolute abomination of a deck that I brewed up on a whim the other day that... honestly works. It works really, really well, especially in a meta in flux where people aren't ready for you but you can basically be ready for anything. Presenting... Mono Black (Token?) Control! Since this is a control deck, talking about cards on the curve doesn't necessarily make a ton of sense. Instead, I'm going to talk about groupings of ca...