Top 5 Black Cards in Duskmourne!

 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 one. What happens if you build a deck around it? Most of the graveyard decks don't really have much to do on turn one. Sure, you can hold up a Cut Down or play a Gnawing Vermin, but if you can play this, then do some nice self-mill on the next few turns, you can set up for a juicy reanimate on turn 4, which might be how you stay ahead of the game. In addition, there are some nasty resource loops you can do with this card simply because it is, in fact, a creature (more on that later). This one gets our honorable mention slot because it simply has so much possibility wrapped up in it, but I'm not sure how much of it will pan out. Only time will tell.

5. Nowhere to Run

While I personally think it's boring to put a removal spell in these top 5 lists, Nowhere to Run gets a special place for what it enables. Bargain cards in black are stellar--Rowan's Grim Search is superb draw, Braids (honorary Bargain) is a fantastic engine, and Beseech the Mirror is criminally underplayed for the effect it gives. Tithing Blade is a pretty good, but we really needed some instant speed removal to keep ahead. Nowhere to Run delivers. Giving -X/-X instead of outright killing is useful against things like Heartfire Hero and Cacophany scamp, the and anti-ward and hexproof line is actually super important against stuff like Snakeskin Veil. Nowhere to Run is both an excellent sideboard removal spell against Prowess while also having the potential to be highly synergistic in Pixie/Braids strategies. Strong on your own, with optional synergies? That gets you on our list.

4. Leyline of the Void

Yeah, yeah, I know, it's a reprint. And it's boring. But come on, how could this NOT make the list? With Unlicensed Hearse gone, really excellent graveyard hate has been lacking in black. Sure, we have stuff like Lord Skitter, but he's vulnerable and sorcery speed. Sure, we have stuff like Agatha's Soul Cauldron or Soul Guide lantern, but those either only exile one card at a time or can only be used once. Most importantly, all these cards cost mana. Leyline of the Void doesn't, and it shuts off the graveyard until they remove it. No Squirming Emergence for you! No Reenact the Crime for you! This is an absolute slam dunk of a sideboard staple, as I expect it to be in black based decks for as long as graveyard decks remain in the metagame.

3. Withering Torment

Once again, kind of a boring choice--but can you blame me?

We have enchantment removal in black again. Not just conditional enchantment removal like Extract the Truth from Kamigawa, actual, targeted, unconditional enchantment removal. Need I remind you what the primary engines in this format are? Or the key removal spells in Domain? Withering Torment answers the Talents, it answers the Bindings, it answers the Lockdowns, and it can also just kill any creature too. It's the phenomenal, flexible enchantment removal black was sorely needing to be able to compete against these class cards from Bloomburrow. It ain't flashy, but it gets the job done, and it does it well.

2. Overlord of the Balemurk

Now we're talkin'!

I mean, come on. Look at this thing. 5 mana is a cost you can reasonably assume you'll get to over the course of the game, but you can also just play it for two. Balemurk is the cheapest Impending cost in the set, and while it's also the longest Impending time (playing this on turn two means you won't actually get the creature form until the end of turn 6), this is also one of the only Overlords where the ETB is worth the mana you spend on Impending. Two mana for a mill four and a raise dead (that doesn't even have to hit only the milled cards) for either a creature OR a planeswalker is not just acceptable, it's encouraged. Grapple from the Past only milled 3, and all the other mainstream options (Somnophage, Cache Grab, Picklock Prankster) also mill 4 with either more restrictive grabs or no grabs at all. Balemurk immediately slots into any deck where the graveyard matters, and also could be arguable as a simple midrange grind card, as functioning like a slow Impulse means you set up your turn 3 quite nicely.

All that's great. But did you know there are some wicked resource loops with this? Remember Valgavoth's Faithful?

If this gets into the graveyard somehow, you can revive it with Faithful, then immediately turn around and get the Faithful back. If they kill the Overlord, you play the Faithful, revive it, and buyback the Faithful. That is potent. If it ever gets to attack, you're up on cards and still have the option to buyback the Faithful whenever you need it. That's some grind. The only downside is if you use this a lot, you have a higher chance of milling yourself out, but if you can craft your deck in such a way as to take advantage of all its strengths, Overlord of the Balemurk will win you games.

1. Unstoppable Slasher

It was a tough choice between the Slasher and Balemurk as the best black card in the set, but I ended up on Slasher for a few reasons. 

First and foremost, it is the fastest single card clock in the format for three mana. Full stop. On its own, if unchecked, it will kill the opponent in three attacks from 20 (20 -> 9 -> 3 -> 0). Without any other cards or inputs. That is insane. Now, how often is that going to happen? Depends. In many ways, this card says "your opponent must block, if able", because NO ONE is going to want to let this hit them. But what if they block?

Second reason: this card is monstrously hard to kill. That seems obvious, but it becomes even more so once you analyze the play patterns. If you attack with this, and they trade, it comes right back--you've lost nothing. Now, you do have to wait three turns to attack again, but you spent no mana to get that effect. And if it's tapped down... it's not going to die by combat. They have to purposefully go out of their way to kill something that isn't threatening them. If you keep playing threats, keeping them on the backfoot, they won't have time to kill it without a sweeper (and besides, if they're playing a sweeper, it's probably Sunfall, which deals with this anyway). What removal actually deals with this? Out of commonly played options, we have 1) Sunfall, 2) Torch the Tower, 3) Elspeth's Smite, 4) Leyline Binding. Torch is only really played in the Boros Token lists (which are seeing far lower metagame share these days), Smite is usually a sideboard option. The only ones you really have to worry about are Leyline and Sunfall, but luckily (as you saw before) we have some options to deal with both. Disruption + A Clock is a time honored Magic recipe for winning, and this is a clock above all others. Get the right amount of Duress and such to keep them off their removal for a turn or two, and you might clinch it.

But that's not all? Did you know this curves in Bloodletter of Aclazotz? Did you know that changes Slasher's clock from three attacks to a SINGLE attack? That's right, you can play a deck that casually plays both of these (both standalone good cards), and just have an optional combo kill. If you ever catch them off guard, without a blocker or removal spell, they're just dead. In a grind game, if you get both, they die (and would you believe Overlord of the Balemurk and Valgavoth's Faithful can buy either of your combo pieces back?)

Standalone powerhouse? Check. Sticky and threatening against a lot of the other options in the format? Check. Synergistic to the point of having a combo kill on curve? Check check check. That's why Unstoppable Slasher is my pick for the best black card in the set.

I'm super excited to start brewing with this set, and I hope you are too. See you out there!