Why does Wizards hate black so much?
Spoilers, Rumors, and Speculation forum
Posted on Nov. 27, 2014, 3:47 p.m. by Psychonautical
(DISCLAIMER: This is a long rant that I have to get out. Frankly, I am not looking for any of you to be condescending or anything as none of this is to any of you, and I also don't care for you to read the heading and one or two lines and comment. If you want to be a part of this discussion, I ask you at least take the minute or two it takes to read all of this so you know what I am saying here.)
So ever since learning of MTG about a decade or so ago, I have had a strange infatuation with Black as a color. I always liked many of the effects the cards had, and the art is arguably the best on black cards.
However, as I have grown, gotten iser and better and playing and deck building, I noticed something very peculiar about the game...
Guys... Wizards RnD HATES Black.
Seriously. I mean, in all tournament play and even in casual, there is the old addage of blue being damn-near impossible to play against with its plethora of counters and numerous spells that, flavor-wise, REALLY need to be Sorceries instead of Instants.
But it goes way beyond that. I understand that each color sort of a has a theme and general play style. I understand that white, representing order, is going to exemplify humans the most, and humans being generally weak but organized, will offer the best 1-2 drops in general as far as creatures go.
But black doesn't seem to get a really consistent "best" of anything. Best answers/control go to blue, best weenies go to white, best fatties go to green, the fastest creatures go to red, and black... well hell, what exactly does black get?
And before you all scream, "NECROPOTENCE/PHYREXIAN OBLITERATOR!" yeah, I get that. But those are TWO extreme examples. How many "WTF that is a lot of power for one card at its mana cost" do the other colors have? I am thinking of Bonfire of the Damned and EVERY other miracle card (of which black has NONE), Baneslayer and a bunch of other Angels, Snapcaster mage and the Inquisitor Exarch's use with Splinter Twin (neither of those Black) and green with its near unfair mana-ramp and ridiculous creatures.
And I know many of you are thinking, "U mad bro LOL?" But no, I'm not mad. And I win plenty of games with my black design, but never as many as I SHOULD if the supposed brokenness of some of the cards are to be believed (you bet your arse I run foud Obliterators. What else am I to do?)
And it goes way beyond just Black sometimes having the no consistent advantages in its color (other than perhaps discard, a strategy that runs out of steam faster than burn since NO discard cards except for Surgical Extraction are instants and hands empty quick if you aren't playing blue.)
Like the Miracle mechanic. Okay, I get it, the theme of Innistrad evil taking over, and the last set was about the light restoring order, so I can see why they'd avoid any black "miracles."
But look at another keyword from the block: Undying. Undying is so obviously a black keyword that the very card that instantly grants it to any creature is the word followed by the word "EVIL." Undying. Evil.
And what does Wizard's do? They IMMEDIATELY make the BEST Undying creature green. Strangleroot Geist is a million times better than every other Undying Creature for its cost.
Hell, they even went as far as to make the best one-drop (ahem, ONLY one-drop) with it green. Young Wolf, while not quite as tribal as Butcher Ghoul, is still a whole mana cheaper. And for what? You couldn't give black, say, a 1/1 Undying Horror, Spirit, or Elemental even?
And take the block before Innistrad. What was the biggest keyword from it? Infect. Again, so OBNOXIOUSLY a black keyword, and what happens?
That's right. The best Infect creatures are f-ing Green and Blue. The Infect lord is black, as is the strongest and rarest Infect card, but Wizard's, full-knowing that Infect essentially says, "Hey, build your deck around this word and its like the opponent starts with ten life instead of twenty," went and made the black Infect creatures WAY too slow to bother with.
But my BIGGEST gripe isn't necessarily the presence of superior cards in other colors so much as the lack in one department: Planeswalkers.
What the hell guys? Why don't we get Planeswalkers?!
Blue has SO many Jace's for card advantage out the wazoo, but then, hey, let's give them a ridiculous blue Planeswalker to help artifacts. And you know what? Tamio, too, for MORE card advantage.
Green, while mainly Garruk, gets... well, Garruk, but then they have Nissa, and green is splashed with several other colors.
Don't even get me STARTED on how many White planeswalkers there are! Ajanai, Gideon, Elspeth, Nahiri, with about sixty different versions of each.
And red only has a few, but damn are they t least useful if costed well. Sarkahn, Chandra, even that dude from Romeo and Juliet makes up for his underhwelming power with an affordable mana cost.
Before I continue, here's the Planeswalker count per color:
Red (mono) - 7Red (splash) - 8Red (all) - 15
Green (mono) - 6Green (splash) - 7Green (all) - 13
Blue (mono) - 7Blue (splash) - 6Blue (all) - 13
White (mono) - 9!!!White (splash) - 5White (all) - 14
Black (mono) - 4!!! As in one, two, three FOUR!Black (splash) - 8Black (all) - 12
And Karn, who, while accessible to all colors, is also tied for the most expensive Planeswalker next to some incarnation of Garruk, and is thus not very viable in one of the slowest colors.
So what do we have in the way of Planeswalkers for black? Four near-useless cards, and one that is so overrated that other Planeswalkers laugh about it when it leaves the room.
Sorin Markov himself is so trash. At 6 CMC, his first ability is meh as 2 life each way is barely an advantage at that point in the game, and his second ability is ONLY useful if you yourself are at less than 7 life, as any opponent should be past or too close to ten to bother, and you'd gain 2 life with his first ability anyways. You wouldn't even get to use his ultimate because either A) by the time you got there, your opponent should be long gone, or at least have so little to do as far as their own cards go that "controlling your opponent for the next turn" may as well read, "Take an extra turn after this one. Your opponent draws a card." or B) before he go to 7, YOU would be long gone because if you haven't at at least stopped your opponents strategy in their tracks by turn 7, your deck is garbage and they are gonna win.
The next CMC down is the 5 CMC, Liliana Vess, is a shame because she seems useful but again, its too little too late. For 5 CMC, you get the advantage of causing opponent's-choice discard likely while they are already topdecking anyways, or you can suspend a Diabolic Tutor, except you also blow a draw step.
Next up, another Liliana, this one from the Dark Realms. At 4 CMC, she is at least somewhat easier to cast, yet more useless than her 5 CMC version. She has arguably the best removal of any Planeswalker, but comes with the huge drawback of only getting to use it a single time if you need it the same turn you cast her. Her first ability can at least be useful to thin out decks, but at the same time, I don't know about you guys, but I always ever only needed 4 lands to make a black deck work, so getting an extra one when I should draw one anyways is so so on the way to using her for what I really want. And her ultimate? quadruple mana? For WHAT?! On turn NINE, I get to attack with any creature I have killed or let die on my own IF my opponents hasn't exiled it first, such as with Treasure Cruise. SNORE.
And then there is the best Planeswalker that Wizard's could drum up for us, and honestly, I am not that impressed.
I don't know why every freaks out about her. For her cost and longevity, I'd rather just sideboard some Geth's Verdicts or other removal OR some hand destruction cards that LET ME PICK. I can't believe that so many cards get trashed for having an effect that let's your opponent pick, yet this gal has THREE and somehow sees tournament play.
Plus, in a Modern (and standard back when it was in) meta where there is (what seems like) a 30% chance that your opponent with have a Loxodon Smiter or Obstinate Baloth, you are often doing them a HUGE favor by racking up her Loyalty.
And then her other effect? A Geth's Verdict without the life loss? That's ONLY useful if they have a REALLY dangerous creature out and NOTHING ELSE. WHY IS SHE SO POPULAR?!
So do you folks get my point? There is a CLEAR favoritism going on with Blue, white, and to a lesser extent Green with Red sort of being left out but not nearly as much as black. At least Red gets you somewhere and counterspells in Blue can be useful the whole game as sometimes players cast from other places if they have no cards.
But blacks specialty of hand disruption fades REALLY quick, and is really only useful if you dedicate a huge chunk of your slots to it if not build your whole deck around it, at which point you dead-draw into discard spells when your opponent's hand is empty and the only option is to mainboard a few Pack Rats just in case.
If anyone reading this works at Wizards, or knows someone who does, tell them that its time for a REAL Black block. Not one that teases us with black abilities only to see those abilities work better in other colors. Not one that offers ONE Planeswalker here and there that still pales in comparison to every other color.
No. Its OUR turn. Its time for Black Mages to have our day (or night). We have Necropotence, Phyrexian Obliterator, Surgical Extraction and Bob. That's not good enough when blue and white dominate with their Snapcaster Mages and Angels, respectively.
Rant over.
lemmingllama says... #3
Black has very little in the way of eternal value (other than EDH and being splashed in), but it also has a very powerful limited ability and during standard. Look at pre-Khans, where everyone was running mono-Black devotion. The cards in there totally wrecked other decks, even those blue players that you seem to dislike.
Black tends to get higher costed cards, and many would be playable if black got some ramp one of these days. We used to be able to Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual to get out those value fatties earlier, but now they aren't really playable. With the other end of black being Stax (Pox, Death Cloud) and Discard, which Wizards doesn't really want to be a large part of the metagame, they are kind of screwed.
I would say that if you really want to fall in love with Black all over again, play EDH. Black is probably one of the best colours for it, other than maybe Green, and you can get soooo much value out of a good Exsanguinate and ramp really hard using Cabal Coffers and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. It might be a good and fun time. Evil is never efficient, but when it gets the resources then it can do a lot of cool stuff. I'm waiting for the next artifact set to make Black really good.
November 27, 2014 4:20 p.m.
Admittedly Miracle is a mechanic that probably never should have been made. However, you're wrong about pretty much everything else.
Black is my favorite color and I play it in pretty much every format. In fact, I can't often build a deck that DOESN'T play 
.
I'll start with some of your examples.
Baneslayer Angel isn't that great of a card. It looks good because of all its keywords, but doesn't actually do anything the turn it comes out. Stormbreath Dragon is a better card. Black has much better five drops. Much better creatures all around. But our creatures are used for utility first and foremost. For example, Rune-Scarred Demon, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Shadowborn Demon.
Liliana of the Veil is among the best planeswalkers ever printed. The only one that is definitely better is JtMS. Karn is debatable, but I personally prefer Liliana as you can play her in many more decks. You said she's over-hyped, but she's really not. She hits the field and immediately starts controlling. I used to think the same thing about her, then I played her. She is just that good.
You said that black doesn't have the best of anything. Black has the best of everything.
Strongest removal. This can be debated because of Path/Swords, but black definitely has the most removal and the most versatile removal - including Liliana.
Strongest card advantage. This is honestly not definite, but it's at least really close. Ancestral Recall aside, blue has very few really good CD spells. The only repeatable one requires a big mana investment (Blue Sun's Zenith) and the others can only be used once. Black has consistent card advantage all throughout the game.
You can do more things with black than any other color. There is Mono Black Aggro, Mono Black Control, Mono Black Devotion, and Mono Black Reanimator - just off the top of my head. Can any other color do that?
Black is the only color that gets value out of everything. No other color can tutor as well, spend life, or get so much value out of the GY. Black can do anything it wants, whenever it wants.
Wizards doesn't hate Black. Black is the strongest color.
November 27, 2014 4:23 p.m.
- ahem....* Grey Merchant of Asphodel, Bloodghast, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Vampire Nighthawk, Bitterblossom, Damnation, Smallpox, Dismember, Gatekeeper of Malakir, Geralf's Messenger, Phyrexian Arena, Liliana of the Veil (Despite you not liking her) all extremely relevant in modern and can easily be overpowered.
And IMO black has the some of best removal in the game, nothing to complain about really, I think if your jealous of all those colors getting that attention then run them along side black (Obvious answer)
APPLE01DOJ can probably make a great case for black, but I really think you are undervaluing it. Obviously a mono-color deck isn't going to get to a top tier competitive (obvious exclusions:Affinity, Merfolk) but even RDW splashes for access to other cards. If you want to consider that then black has the ultimate removal in Abrupt Decay
November 27, 2014 4:28 p.m.
miracleHat says... #6
First off, I am fine with you ranting about whatnot, but when you say, "Rant over", i lose faith in what you are trying to express. Here, let me end it for you, "/rant".
/rant about your Rant over
I don't think that black has been left behind while all of the other colors are favored, though it doesn't help that blue is the best color because of Mana Drain etc. Black has had it's time to shine. Have you heard of the black summer of 19 90 something. The color black has some of the best resource generation. Sacrifice ~ and get better ~. Cards that you mentioned such as Necropotence, and along those lines, Yawgmoth's Bargain are great black cards that encompass the themes of, "Sacrifice ~ (this case being life) and get ~ (overwhelming card advantage that is hard to beat). You mentioned the innistrad block to back some of the claims, sure, black didn't get any miracles. But it got Griselbrand. That is one of the best creatures out there in the form of power. It's initial stats are great, "7/7 for 8 b". Add flying and lifelink to make it better, but pay 7 life draw 7 cards is so ridiculous.
For the planeswalker aspect, depending on the player, some of the cards are great. Liliana of the Dark Realms and Liliana Vess are okay to good respectively in EDH. Sorin Markov is great in EDH (depending on the deck). That being said, for 60 card constructed, they don't live up to expectations. This is where Liliana of the Veil comes in. All of her abilities protect her in one way or another, which is one of the key aspects of her. The second part is that you can control which mode you want. If your opponent has just played a Geist of Saint Traft you can force sacrifice. If your opponent is playing bogles or has a Spellskite out, you can force sac. If your opponent is playing a fair amount of creatures, then forcing them to sacrifice one of them could mean the difference between winning and losing the game. The other ability that i will look at (no need for the ultimate) is the discard. Black has always been, "pay ~ and gain ~". Each player discards a card means that you can discard a card that is bad for the matchup that you are in for a card of your opponents. This ability hurts combo players a lot, and punishes those who mulligan a lot.
Also, comparing black to other colors is interesting (as you indirectly pointed out). Blue is the best color, so there is no point. Comparing it to white:
White Removal: has two, Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares
Black Removal: has a lot
White draw: Mentor of the Meek???
Black draw: Dark Confidant, Yawgmoth's Bargain, Necropotence...
White tutor: Enlightened Tutor, Idyllic Tutor
Black tutor: i won't even list them
If you need me to, I could compare 
and 
, but I don't see the need to. Based off of these reasons, I do not feel that black is not unfavored by Wizards.
Reading what you are saying about higher costs:
Same with any other color.
But just for fun, lets look at the cheaper ones that are played:
Lets start with Dark Confidant
into Liliana of the Veil
tutor with Demonic Tutor
for Vampiric Tutor
getting Grim Tutor
putting Imperial Seal on top
then Thoughtseize
their Inquisition of Kozilek
which gets a whole host of choices
such as Hymn to Tourach
or if you are talking about modern
Wrench Mind
their Phyrexian Obliterator
which you can Reanimate
all under 5 mana!
As a final note, if you look at modern, the stax deck (hate bears) is mostly white... In legacy, it is also white...
/rant
P.S. I have the time because I am not giving thanks today.
November 27, 2014 4:32 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #7
"I don't play competitive Magic, and all of my friends beat my casual mono black decks"
-Psychonautical, 2014
November 27, 2014 4:34 p.m.
Everyone above is 100% correct. However, even in the Modern format there are cards in Black that are not build around mes that are pretty op. Remember Deathrite Shaman? Also cards like Raven's Crime, Smallpox, Dark Confidant, Phyrexian Arena, etc. Even the build around mes are not half bad, Living End and as someone above stated ad nauseum. Also, Bitterblossom!! You have shown you ignorance; perhaps spend some more time with black, and you will realize how wrong you are.
November 27, 2014 4:35 p.m.
lemmingllama says... #9
@Fulcrum Black has a large variety of strategies, but that is also why it is normally splashed instead of being mono-black. It can do anything fairly well, but it can't stand by itself without some support to make a tier 1 deck in an eternal format.
In Modern, Black isn't really viable as a mono coloured deck. There is Living End, Death Cloud, and Griselbrand reanimator, but all of them splash in other colours to add in the pieces that Black just doesn't have. Also none of them are tier 1 decks, and other than Living End they rarely top 8.
In Legacy, Black has a lot more options. Dredge is very strong, and Reanimator as well as Ad Nauseam Tendrils makes a great showing. However, I think that Psychonautical is saying that nothing really valuable for Black has come out recently, since other than Balustrade Spy and Griselbrand there are very few mono-Black cards that see play.
November 27, 2014 4:39 p.m.
I feel like you're mostly a Modern player based on the cards you've mentioned, and while I somewhat follow Modern, I mostly focus on Standard. Therefore, take what I say with a grain of salt.
When Wotc designs a set, they design a set for standard and limited. As far as I am aware, it is rare that they say "we need to put X card in here to help modern." Now, of course, they do do this occasionally with things like reprinting the fetchlands in Khans and printing things like Scavenging Ooze which was originally unplayable in the format. But primarily, it's about both Standard and Limited.
Let's take a look at RTR-THS standard. One of the single most played/most hated decks of that format was Mono-black Devotion. And the deck was incredible. Black had access to amazing discard spells in the form of Thoughtseize and Duress. These helped to set the board up for their T2 and T3 plays, which included the incredible Pack Rat, or efficient removal spells like Ultimate Price and Doom Blade. This was followed up by "the best kill spell in the format", Hero's Downfall, and a number of other highly powerful creatures like Desecration Demon and Gray Merchant of Asphodel. The color had and still has access to some of the best draw spells in the format, namely Read the Bones and Sign in Blood -- not to mention Underworld Connections, a throwback to Phyrexian Arena, which is another great black card.
I bring this up because it shows just how domineering the color was in standard. Black had the best removal, the only good discard (or maybe even the only discard), some of the most intrinsically powerful creatures, and healing/card draw to push them through the midgame.
In other formats, it becomes hard to design cards in black's theme that aren't inadvertently broken as a result. Tell me, how do you design a better Thoughtseize without breaking it? How do you design a better Liliana of the Veil without breaking it? What about kill spells like Tragic Slip, Doom Blade, Go for the Throat, or Dismember? You can't really just make a 2-mana kill anything spell without ruining every other one in existence that the color has access to. Now, I understand that you could argue Lightning Bolt beats these all and I will be understanding of that, but frankly I think that a question of whether or not the bolt is "fair" for the metagame vs whether or not black needs to be better to compete with it. Again, I am not a modern expert, so I will not be arguing either way here.
When it comes to creatures, black has plenty of fantastic ones -- but creatures are not black's strong-suit. What black has are strong creatures that come with a drawback. Off the top of my head I can name a bunch of demons, such as Herald of Torment, Master of the Feast, Desecration Demon, Abyssal Persecutor, and Shadowborn Demon. Many of these cards are deemed too slow for modern and that is acceptible as Modern is a fairly quick format. But black does have access to good black creatures like Pack Rat and the aforementioned Phyrexian Obliterator. Yes, it's a cheap shot, but so are Snapcaster Mage, Goblin Guide, Tarmogoyf and Baneslayer Angel. Every color has great creatures, but it's important to focus on your strengths and build around those creatures and spells to the best of your abilities.
Now, most of the best black spells are multicolored, yes. But I think that is something you should see as a compliment, really. Multicolored cards in general are stronger due to the fact that their costs are much more prohibitive. One of the single best removal spells printed, Abrupt Decay, is multicolored but is still a black card. Terminate is another great one, as was Dreadbore. In standard, Nightveil Specter wrecked the situational format, and Deathrite Shaman was so busted they had to ban him. Obzedat, Ghost Council had some ridiculous abilities and also paired well with what many can easily consider the best god weapon, Whip of Erebos. And that brings me to my last point.
Black has something that very few colors ever get: reanimation. Why are black creatures typically "less good"? Because in many cases black decks have to option to just keep bringing them back. A card like Unburial Rites is ridiculous simply because it allows one to play a strategy that is almost "unfair", and that is reanimation. Green has the best ramp, yes, but reanimating a Griselbrand after discarding it is also pretty quick (yes, I know this isn't super doable in many formats, but it is possible). Wotc has to be careful at the power level they make all creatures simply because black decks can cheap them onto the field. This can also be said of Show and Tell and Sneak Attack, but again, those are some cheap shots. At some point, one has to recognize the fact that a lot of old cards are unbalanced, unfair, and busted. Look to the future and when more modern-day magic looks like if you want the real truth on the colors' equality.
But for real though, Necropotence and Dark Confidant are pretty redonk.
November 27, 2014 4:42 p.m.
Psychonautical says... #11
I suppose I should have prefaced my rant with this, but all of my comments apply to Modern and Standard, and I know that mentioning Necropotence was misleading.
But hence my point. I had to mention a card from a format I don't even play to pump the numbers of broken Black cards.
And many of all of your examples were great, but they are so EXPENSIVE TO PLAY. Yeah, Rune-Scarred Demon is a powerhouse. But at 7 CMC, he'd better be. My point is that, when blue/white has a three-costing creature that can't be targeted by blacks lovely removal who creates a damn 4/4 flying Angel upon each attack to swing with him, I never get to play a 7 CMC card anyways.
And I know, answers to everything and blah, blah. But sorry, "counter target spell" is WAY more versatile of an effect than, "Discard this, but only if it s a creature/ planeswalker. Discard this, but only is its not a creature. Discard any non-land you want, but its gonna cost you." Meanwhile, Blue counters everything. Period. Play it, it can stop it.
Again, I know its all strategy and a decent sideboard is the key to placing in a tournament, but seriously, at least in Modern, black isn't nearly as showered in adoration per set like white and blue are.
And stop mentioning Diabolic Tutor. Have you SEEN what White has at CMC 4? I don't have TIME to grab a card to play on turn 5 when White is already Hexproofing its player and playing weenies that build up or a ridiculous Angel that offers more protection.
Oh yeah! the Leylines!
There are TWO Leylines on every color, EXCEPT black.
Every Leyline is RIDICULOUS. No ocuntering creatures, gain life, do damage, HEXPROOF PLAYER (completely ruining blacks strength of discard.)
Not only does black get, objectively, and no, no "Oh but no Snapcaster like you hate" line, Black has, without argument, the lamest Leyline. And when ALL the other colors got a new version in M11, they just reprinted the same crappy one.
WHY?! I wanna know why they would ruin their OCD-pleasing cycles like that.
And then with White players playing Hexproof now left and right... its just... ugh.
There is suppose to be a balance. But there isn't. Play w/u and you're a God among insects. Hexproof yourself and all your important creatures, counter ANY spell you want, and then exile ANY that you missed. Black removal and discard does NOTHING against Hexproof players/creatures or counterspells when it tries.
Geist of Saint Traft is a doo-doo head.
November 27, 2014 4:54 p.m.
You're fucking mental. Black is one of the most prevalent and powerful colours in every magic format.
My opinion was formed when you claimed that black is underpowered and then said that you didn't think Liliana of the Veil was a powerful card, and that hand disruption isn't that great.
I guess scrubs gotta scrub. You must be shite at this game though.
November 27, 2014 4:54 p.m.
Oh, and blue doesn't indiscriminately counter everything in modern. Mana Leak - has a downside. Remand - has a downside. Essence Scatter - has a downside. Spell Pierce - has a downside. Even Force of Will has a downside.
Also removal is arguably way more powerful than holding counterspells. A counterspell has to be cast in the moment the threat is played - granting you little time to think and reflect. A removal spell is valid every single turn after the threat is on the board. This means you have ample time to think, react, and choose what to do. For example - if an opponent plays two creatures in a turn, as a blue player you probably counter the first but are forced to let the second go due to mana issues. As a black player you wait until the end step and choose which to remove. Flexibility - it's good.
November 27, 2014 5:04 p.m.
Oh also - leylines aren't common in modern. They're not even common sideboard cards. Also neither is Obstinate Baloth. Maybe you have a really weird lgs?
November 27, 2014 5:05 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #15
Liliana of the Veil is the second best planeswalker ever printed. Black is the only color with access to real discard spells (Piracy Charm doesn't count). Dark Confidant is ridiculous. Yawgmoth's Will is literally the best card in Magic. Reanimation is exclusively a black concept, and very powerful. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth has no counterparts in other colors. Standard has been dominated by decks that were at least black in part for the last 3 years.
I have no idea what Standard and Modern formats you've been looking at.
About Leyline of the Void: It's the most relevant Leyline in Legacy and Vintage. Also, Demonic Tutor costs 2 mana, not four.
November 27, 2014 5:16 p.m.
I believe Green has been the worst color. How can a 6/6 function effectively if all of the creatures of the other 4 colors can get flying? I mean seriously. Dragons? Demons? Angels? Sphinxes and other flying Blue crap? What does Green get as a flyer? Just a stupid 0/1 in Birds of Paradise. Sure they just reprinted Hornet Queen in Standard, but 7 CMC? For a 2/2 and a bunch of 1/1s? Seriously. RnD needs to balance their cards correctly.
/rant
November 27, 2014 5:17 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #18
I think it's somewhat widely known that in terms of the entirety of Magic's history, the power level goes UBGRW. Blue is obviously the most powerful, black follows it with the best disruption and game-ending cards, green provides big creatures (Tarmogoyf and Deathrite Shaman specifically) as well as random awesome stuff like Oath of Druids, while red and white have strong, linear game plans and some very powerful cards but really lack the power level of the other colors.
November 27, 2014 5:20 p.m.
EmblemMan - sorry, sometimes there's no logical reasoning with people. When that happens I lose my temper a little.
November 27, 2014 5:21 p.m.
Psychonautical says... #20
I meant Diabolic Tutor. Obviously, black is the strongest color in Legacy/Vintage.
November 27, 2014 5:22 p.m.
ChiefBell nah its chill i just thought it was funny how angry you were lol
November 27, 2014 5:23 p.m.
slovakattack says... #22
I'm surprised nobody here has mentioned "Black Summer."
I don't claim to be an expert in Magic, but doesn't black get the best removal? Slaughter Pact, Dismember, Dreadbore, Abrupt Decay, Unmake, Go for the Throat, the list goes on.
November 27, 2014 5:23 p.m.
slovakattack says... #23
Oh, and Thoughtseize. Thoughtseize. Thoughtseize.
November 27, 2014 5:24 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #24
Nobody plays Diabolic Tutor. I'm going on the assumption that we are discussing competitive decks only.
In Innistrad-RTR Standard, Jund (black deck) and Junk Reanimator (black deck) were the two most played archetypes. Last season, Mono-Black Devotion was the best deck. This season, Abzan and Mardu Midrange/Aggro decks always do well. In Modern, BGx is on a downswing because of blue cards, but is still very powerful.
November 27, 2014 5:25 p.m.
SimicPower says... #25
Recently black has been getter faster 1 drops than white. I'm looking at you Bloodsoaked Champion.
November 27, 2014 5:27 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #26
Oh also, I have a gripe about your comment regarding Infect, because, you know, I actually know what I'm talking about. Plague Stinger is the third best creature you have access to in Modern Infect decks.
November 27, 2014 5:28 p.m.
Also BGW appears to be doing well in modern too. Siege Rhino.
November 27, 2014 5:30 p.m.
slovakattack says... #28
Maybe... you just need help with your deck, dude? Why don't you ask for help in the "Deck Help" forum. There are a lot of people here who can assist you in maximizing it's efficiency.
November 27, 2014 5:35 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #29
Looks at profile page to see if he has any black decks
Notices that he has no decks at all
Looks at how long he's been using the site
MIND BLOWN
November 27, 2014 5:37 p.m.
miracleHat says... #30
slovakattack, I did mention it in my long comment...
November 27, 2014 5:37 p.m.
The only thing imma say because im on a phone is that i personally think infect is more of a green mechanic like poisonous plants and stuff.
November 27, 2014 5:38 p.m.
candlehawk says... #33
You say that most of your experience is in Standard and Modern. Black was a very important color in many decks across many years of these environments.
Let's start with this standard environment and work our way backwards:This set is a multicolor set, so let's look at the more powerful cards that have black in them in KTK:Crackling Doom, possibly the most powerful removal spell in the format (perhaps second only to Hero's Downfall)Siege Rhino, a pillar of one of the most powerful decks in the formatButcher of the Horde is another powerful card and a central pillar of Mardu Midrange (And 4-color midrange)Sidisi, Brood Tyrant A pillar of Sultai Midrange
M15 gave us both Sign in Blood and Liliana Vess back
Going back to Theros block we haveThoughtseize One of the, if not the most powerful discard spells of all timeHero's Downfall Premium removal, this gives black access to Planeswalker removal, which was before not something that happenedGray Merchant of Asphodel The defining card of Mono Black, one of the most powerful standard decks of last standardWhip of ErebosBile BlightRtR gave us Deathrite Shaman a card so good it's now banned in modernAbrupt Decay Multi-format All-starInnistrad, there were many powerful decks in this standard environment that all were black-heavy.
Reanimator used Unburial Rites along with Grisly Salvage.Jund used Olivia Voldaren, Abrupt Decay, Putrefy, Liliana of the Veil, Tragic Slip.
The Aristocrats, both the Junk and Mardu versions both used many key powerful black cards to win including Blood Artist Cartel Aristocrat and many other powerful black effects which changed over time.
Black is probably the most powerful color in standard right now. Hell, even though Modern is currently taken over by Treasure Cruise and friends, there are still many powerful effects in modern including Thoughtseize Inquisition of Kozilek Dark Confidant Dismember Liliana of the Veil Damnation etc. I honestly don't see how you think Black is underpowered in any way, shape, or form.
November 27, 2014 5:49 p.m.
Hahahahaha @ChiefBell that cracked me up.
Totally right though, if you can't deal with hexproof then get the hell outta moden.
November 27, 2014 6:13 p.m.
Also, GlistenerAgent has a point. 0 black decks on here for psycho.
Speaking of. I run a modern mono black and it's supremely effective (even though I don't have obliterators).
So this rant is invalid.
November 27, 2014 6:17 p.m.
SkyRaider42 says... #36
So I've read all the comments on this post and I can only conclude one thing:
Psychonautical is probably dead from how wrecked he got.
November 27, 2014 7:02 p.m.
As a predominantly black player, referred to at my lgs as the token "black" guy, I disagree with your statement. NUMEROUS black cards are very powerful, and mono-black cards in standard. We get cards like Thoughtseize, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Hero's Downfall, Mogis's Marauder, Bloodsoaked Champion, etc. Sure, splashing black is how you get to tier 1, but mono-black is powerful in its own right. The only thing better than mono-black right now is mono-green ramp...duh. Mono-blue is a thing, but a minor one there are no good ways to ramp into the only blue guy worth running mono. Looking at you Master of Waves. Mono-black, Rakdos, Abzan, Mardu, and to a lesser extent Jeskai and Sultai are powerful currently. Out of all of these, the only one that doesn't contain black, and those are the decks that dedicate to Seeker of the Way and Mantis Rider. This is the case in my local meta, and the tournaments I know of. If it is different in your area...sucks to be you. Fellow black player out.
/rant
November 27, 2014 7:06 p.m.
Not to just say you're wrong and not explain, but you're wrong and I'm not going to explain.
November 27, 2014 7:20 p.m.
I was thinking about this a bit today actually. While I agree that black may not be given as much range as some other colors and they have underproduced the planeswalkers, it still has its distinct home in magic for discard and recursion effects. If mono black doesn't work well for you, splash another color to increase the power of your deck. And your argument about Liliana oTV is total bull, by the way, if you play magic for long enough it will be clear to you that she is incredibly powerful.
November 27, 2014 7:24 p.m.
@Jp3ngu1nb0y - We got you. Explanations a plenty located above. :p
November 27, 2014 7:25 p.m.
PreZchoICE1 says... #42
Alright First thing I wanna say is OP is obviously trolling imo.
Now that Ive addressed that I want to address a particular poster in this thread.
'Green is known for its BIG creatures' yep you're right stuff like Craterhoof Behemoth, various wurms and hydras, vigor, terasto.... 'Stuff like Tarmogoyf and Deathrite Shaman' WHAT in the actual fuck are you talking about? 'Because, you know, I actually know what Im talking about'Fucking MINDBLOWN X INFINITY
Its ok though, dont feel the need to defend yourself. I certainly don't feel the need to perpetuate it further just wanted to ask you to politely get down off your high horse. Wow he has no decks, just signed up and wrote a pagelong rant about how underwhelming the color black is. Nothing suspicious there at all. The fact that 'blows' your mind should speak absolute leagues of fathoms./rant
November 27, 2014 7:30 p.m.
Servo_Token says... #43
Tarmogoyf is a 2 mana 8/9, and deathrite is a 1 mana green planeswalker who's powerlevel is too big for modern. I don't see how either of these don't fit the bill of "Big Green Creature".
November 27, 2014 7:36 p.m.
PreZchoICE1 says... #44
why do I have to explain this..... Tarmogoyf is a 2 mana 8/9 given the correct circumstances. Deathrite is a tiny little body that is packed with power- there's no doubt about that. Either of them belong in the argument as it is posed like 'Green is known for it's BIG creatures'. Yeah, the first creature that jumps to my mind when I hear the statement 'green is known for its BIG creatures is most definitely deathrite. I typically think of Deathrite Shaman and tarmogoyf first and foremost when I think of big green creatures.
NOT. There's no reason to dwell in the gray area when we're talking about this. If I ask 10 Magic players 'Whats the first creature that comes to your mind if I were to say BIG GREEN CREATURE' Im gunna guess that 9/10 of them would say something like Craterhoof Behemoth or Terastodon, not Deathrite Shaman. Im not arguing the power level of Deathrite Shaman or Tarmogoyf. They're great and some of the BEST green crits but they are definitely NOT the BIGGEST, thus this was a terrible fucking example for someone who postulates some comments later 'plus, I actually know what Im talking about'. Im sure that they may be knowledgeable in some aspects as most of us are, but to say something like Deathrite Shaman and Tarmogoyf are BIG green creatures and then act like they're the king shit of Magic: the Gathering knowledge struck a nerve with me.
As an aside, Deathrite Shaman is not a planeswalker. Oh I see what you mean, he has 3 abilities. I apologize, sincerely, but you cant even comprehend how ridiculous of a comment this seems to me right now.
really this time.
/rant
November 27, 2014 7:57 p.m.
slovakattack says... #45
When it comes to Modern, Goyf is the biggest creature there is; regardless of circumstance.
November 27, 2014 8 p.m.
Bro, do you even magic? You're wrong on pretty much every point.
November 27, 2014 8 p.m.
Were you even playing last Standard environment? Mono-Black was THE deck to beat. I'm sorry, but I agree with everyone else, you're just plain wrong.
Also, EVERYONE feels like R&D hates [Insert Favorite Color Here] because [Insert Bullshit Reason Here].
November 27, 2014 8:04 p.m.
What are you guys talking about? Goyf is very clearly a 0/1.
vampirelazarus says... #2
Demonic Tutor - EDH decks run black for spot removal and tutors like this
Gray Merchant of Asphodel was actually an archetype in standard.
Liliana of the Veil - One of the strongest planeswalkers ever printed.
Dark Confidant - One of the best card draw in modern
Ad Nauseam + Tendrils of Agony has an archetype built around it.
November 27, 2014 4:19 p.m.