Nov 19, 20243 min read

Magic: The Gathering – The Colour Series - Black Cards

Based around a colour wheel or colour pie, Magic: The Gathering is guided by five different mana colours. Choosing which one to play is one of the first decisions that players must tackle. Here, we take a look at the colour black. While you may initially be daunted by this dark mana, it can make a real difference to your game.

What does black represent?

In Magic: The Gathering Black is seen to represent:

· Ambition

· Sacrifice

· Forbidden knowledge

· Necromancy

· Suffering

· Fear

· Vampirism

· Death

Dark Confidant is one of the most famous black cards to have been printed, a creature that allows for the drawing of an additional card every turn (provided life is equal to the cost of the card). The words “Greatness, at any cost” that appear on the card sum up black perfectly. With this ethos, black is able to achieve almost any effect of any other colour with almost the same strength – all as a result of sacrificing creatures, life points, cards or other resources.

Many new players avoid black. However, they are consistently amongst the most powerful cards in the game. Many of the cards teach new players a great lesson; the last life point is the only one that matters. Black decks can destroy creatures, draw cards and harness enemies without worry. Many of the black effects may therefore feel “unfair,” in contrast to white, the enemy colour.

Black is all about getting rich quick or dying in the process rather than building resources.

What type of player opts for black cards?

Black holds a great appeal for those players who want to feel like they are “getting away with something.” It allows a more flexible resource management approach where it is possible to sacrifice or reanimate creatures at great rates and whilst generating bursts of life, card draw and mana. The focus of black is on replaying and recurring cards that appeal to those players who don’t want resources taken away from them. The heavy-duty resource denial elements of black forces others to play on your terms. If you relish the idea of being cast as the villain this is the colour for you!

Aggressive decks

These make heavy use of any discarded spells in order to decimate the opening hand of an opponent. This can overwhelm them and lead to victory before they can recover. Defending creatures are pushed aside using destructive spells. Many black creatures cause extra damage as they die or can return to life to create additional damage.

Midrange decks

These turn the game into a war of attrition using resource denial and hand disruption to “freeze” opponents whilst also destroying any cards that are in play. This is a longer game where the graveyard recursion ability of black stops it from running out of cards whilst disease or poison eat away at other players' lives. Graveyard recursion refers to getting cards back from the graveyard i.e. the discarded pile of used cards. Many of the most potent combinations in the black game involve some element of graveyard recursion or reanimation i.e. returning a creature to the battlefield from your graveyard.

Control strategy

Black is great at supporting a traditional control strategy with counterspells to answer any card. Its ability to bring out unfair threats at any point makes for a flexible and explosive approach.

What’s your favourite colour? Do you prefer the ambition and fear of black or the speed and chaos of red?

Let us know in the comments below.