by Dan Kramer
Today, Dan Kramer takes a look at the Black cards of the set. Cracking open packs to draft tonight? You might want to read this!
Drafting with D.K. #6: Scars Review – White
Drafting with D.K. #6: Scars Review – Blue
Black (27)
Name: Blackcleave Goblin
Cost: 3B
Type: Creature – Goblin
Pow/Tgh: 2/1
Rules Text: Haste
Infect
Rarity: Common
At 4 mana, the gobbo is not the most cost-efficient Infect beater. I compare him to Vulshok Berserker, a card I was not a big fan of. If you’re Infect deck needs guys, however, I suppose you could do worse. 8th – 11th pick.
Name: Bleak Coven Vampires
Cost: 3BB
Type: Creature – Vampire Warrior
Pow/Tgh: 4/3
Rules Text: Metalcraft – When Bleak Coven Vampires enters the battlefield, if you control three or more artifacts, target player loses 4 life and you gain 4 life.
Rarity: Common
Now we’re talkin’. Huge effect for a deck with lots of artis (no, not the wheelchair-bound character from Glee); the only thing holding him back is that the best black-based deck is probably the Infect one. But even there, this guy plays defense well with a nice body and a little lifegain. 4th – 6th pick.
Name: Blistergrub
Cost: 2B
Type: Creature – Horror
Pow/Tgh: 2/2
Rules Text: Swampwalk
When Blistergrub is put into a graveyard from battlefield, each opponent loses 2 life.
Rarity: Common
We just left Bog Raiders in M11, and here is a guy who does virtually the same thing. He is slightly more maindeckable due to his leave play trigger, but still you’d rather have him in the board. 8th – 11th pick.
Name: Carnifex Demon
Cost: 4BB
Type: Creature – Demon
Pow/Tgh: 6/6
Rules Text: Flying
Carnifex Demon enters the battlefield with two -1/-1 counters on it.
{B}, Remove a -1/-1 counter from Carnifex Demon: Put a -1/-1 counter on each other creature.
Rarity: Rare
Unfair is about as close as I can come to describing this guy. He says “I’m big, I fly, and… oh yeah, I kill youuuu.” 1st Pick.
Name: Contagious Nim
Cost: 2B
Type: Creature-Zombie
Pow/Tgh: 2/2
Rules Text: Infect
Rarity: Common
Now this disease-spreader I can dig… up. Get it? He’s a zombie! Dig him up… ok, moving on. Good card for an Infect deck. 6th – 9th pick.
Name: Corrupted Harvester
Cost: 4BB
Type: Creature – Horror
Pow/Tgh: 6/3
Rules Text: {B}, Sacrifice a creature: Regenerate Corrupted Harvester.
Rarity: Uncommon
Reasonable finisher if your deck lacks some. Hits hard, difficult to remove. But nothing too special. 5th – 8th pick.
Name: Dross Hopper
Cost: 1B
Type: Creature – Insect Horror
Pow/Tgh: 2/1
Rules Text: Sacrifice a creature: Dross Hopper gains flying until end of turn.
Rarity: Common
Just a curve filler, but you could do much worse. Should make it if you have some cool Perilous Myr type tricks. 7th – 10th pick.
Name: Exsanguinate
Cost: XBB
Type: Sorcery
Rules Text: Each opponent loses X life. You gain life equal to the life lost this way.
Rarity: Uncommon
Still a little unconvinced on this card. Half of my brain says it’s a Fireball, the other half says it’s a Blood Tithe. In truth, it’s probably somewhere in between. 6th – 9th pick.
Name: Flesh Allergy
Cost: 2BB
Type: Sorcery
Rules Text: As an additional cost to cast Flesh Allergy, sacrifice a creature.
Destroy target creature. Its controller loses life equal to the number of creatures put into all graveyards from the battlefield this turn.
Rarity: Uncommon
Death Bomb, Death Bomb… you’re my Death Bomb… You can give it to me when I need to come along… except you can’t, because you’re a sorcery, so you can only give it to me when I have priority. Thus merely a reasonable removal spell. Which, with so many bombs, you need. 3rd – 5th pick.
Name: Fume Spitter
Cost: B
Type: Creature – Horror
Pow/Tgh: 1/1
Rules Text: Sacrifice Fume Spitter: Put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
Rarity: Common
Again, if only damage stacked… but seriously, this guy’s pretty decent. With all the 1-toughness things and Proliferate, don’t underestimate him. 7th – 10th pick.
Name: Geth, Lord of the Vault
Cost: 4BB
Type: Legendary Creature – Zombie
Pow/Tgh: 5/5
Rules Text: Intimidate
{X}{B}: Put target artifact or creature card with converted mana cost X from an opponent's graveyard onto the battlefield under your control tapped. Then that player puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
Rarity: Mythic Rare
I was lucky enough to have this bomb at the prerelease. Someone thought they were making his ability “fair” by making the creature come into play tapped. They forgot to add the clauses “Play this ability only any time you could play a sorcery and only once each turn.” Bah-roken. 1st pick.
Name: Grip of Darkness
Cost: BB
Type: Instant
Rules Text: Target creature gets -4/-4 until end of turn.
Rarity: Common
Now that’s a spicy removal spell! 1st – 3rd pick.
Name: Hand of the Praetors
Cost: 3B
Type: Creature – Zombie
Pow/Tgh: 3/2
Rules Text: Infect
Other creatures you control with infect get +1+1.
Whenever you cast a creature spell with infect, target player gets a poison counter.
Rarity: Rare
The King of Poison can be pretty devastating, but of course his value is very different if you crack him first pack versus third. I believe Infect.dec is one of the best the format has to offer though, so this guy should be taken early on. 1st – 3rd pick.
Name: Ichor Rats
Cost: 1BB
Type: Creature – Rat
Pow/Tgh: 2/1
Rules Text: Infect
When Ichor Rats enters the battlefield, each player gets a poison counter.
Rarity: Uncommon
The kind of card you need to help your Infect deck get there. And, if you read the old Mirrodin report I linked to at the start of my overview for White, you will understand my affinity (no pun intended) for 1BB 2-power rats with come into play effects. 6th – 9th pick.
Name: Instill Infection
Cost: 3B
Type: Instant
Rules Text: Put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.
Draw a card.
Rarity: Common
I loved Afflict back in Odyssey, so I must love this card as well. At 4 mana, it will be a little clunky in some matchups, but I believe it’s still a maindeck card in small quantities. 5th – 8th pick.
Name: Memoricide
Cost: 3B
Type: Sorcery
Rules Text: Name a nonland card. Search target player's graveyard, hand, and library for any number of cards with that name and exile them. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
Rarity: Rare
Cranial Extraction is not a card for limited play, even if there are wacky times you’ll board it in. 14th pick.
Name: Moriok Reaver
Cost: 2B
Type: Creature – Human Warrior
Pow/Tgh: 3/2
Rarity: Common
Wizards loved Barony Vampire sooo much they decided to make it human. 7th – 10th pick.
Name: Necrogen Scudder
Cost: 2B
Type: Creature – Horror
Pow/Tgh: 3/3
Rules Text: Flying
When Necrogen Scudder enters the battlefield, you lose 3 life.
Rarity: Uncommon
Serpent Warrior was a plenty playable guy, so adding flying without changing anything but the rarity means this is a high pick. Really good against Poison decks (no drawback), not so good in them. 3rd – 5th pick.
Name: Necrotic Ooze
Cost: 2BB
Type: Creature – Ooze
Pow/Tgh: 4/3
Rules Text: As long as Necrotic Ooze is on the battlefield, it has all activated abilities of all creature cards in all graveyards.
Rarity: Rare
Moriok Reaver’s big bro, the Ooze should be played for his body (do Oozes have bodies?), and will only once in a while do something else cool. 5th – 8th pick.
Name: Painful Quandry
Cost: 3BB
Type: Enchantment
Rules Text: Whenever an opponent casts a spell, he or she loses 5 life unless he or she discards a card.
Rarity: Rare
Another rare I have yet to see in play, I think 5 mana and no effect on the board may keep this card out of most decks. I could be wrong though. 5 life or card advantage from then on does seem pretty good. 8th – 10th pick.
Name: Painsmith
Cost: 1B
Type: Creature – Human Artificer
Pow/Tgh: 2/1
Rules Text: Whenever you cast an artifact spell, you may have target creature get +2/+0 and gain deathtouch until end of turn.
Rarity: Uncommon
The black human artificer is of the hyper aggressive variety, packing a mean punch. Quite awesome in Infect decks to hugely speed up your clock. 3rd – 5th pick.
Name: Plague Stinger
Cost: 1B
Type: Creature – Insect Horror
Pow/Tgh: 1/1
Rules Text: Flying
Infect
Rarity: Common
Your evasive Infecter, Stinger is only really good in dedicated Infect decks. 6th – 9th pick.
Name: Psychic Miasma
Cost: 1B
Type: Sorcery
Rules Text: Target player discards a card. If a land card is discarded this way, return Psychic Miasma to its owner's hand.
Rarity: Common
Cool story bro. 12th – 14th pick.
Name: Relic Putrescence
Cost: 2B
Type: Enchantment-Aura
Rules Text: Enchant artifact
Whenever enchanted artifact becomes tapped, its controller gets a poison counter.
Rarity: Common
These cards are never good. 14th pick.
Name: Skinrender
Cost: 2BB
Type: Creature-Zombie
Pow/Tgh: 3/3
Rules Text: When Skinrender enters the battlefield, put three -1/-1 counters on target creature.
Rarity: Uncommon
Because Nekrataal doesn’t fit nicely in a set full of artifacts, they’ve handed us removal on a 3/3 corpse instead. As if no one would notice. Fair trade. 1st pick.
Name: Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
Cost: 3BB
Type: Legendary Creature – Dragon Skeleton
Pow/Tgh: 4/4
Rules Text: Flying
Infect
{B}: Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon gains haste until end of turn.
{B}{B}: Regenerate Skithiryx.
Rarity: Mythic Rare
The Dragon is one of the few Infect creatures that can win you the game regardless of your 39 other cards. Well, I suppose you need some Swamps, but aside from that… 1st pick.
Name: Tainted Strike
Cost: B
Type: Instant
Rules Text: Target creature gets +1/+0 and gains infect until end of turn.
Rarity: Common
I didn’t think much of this card at first, but it actually seemed decent in poison-based builds. If you have some good non-Infect pounders, 1-2 of these can end a game in a hurry. Much like Seize the Initiative, though, it’s situational and you don’t want too many. 8th – 12th pick.
Kar Yung Tom (KYT) is the Digital Content Manager for Face to Face Games. He oversees the F2FTour.com and Magic F2F websites. He is also the lead host of the First Strike podcast.