Often considered one of the most barren slot in the cube, good black 5-drops are few and far between. Inspired by recent printings of 5-drops worth looking at, I decided to write an in-depth analysis of every cubeable black 5-drop I can think of. Take the ratings with a grain of salt, it's the analysis that matters
The new kid on the block has modal applications that costs almost the exact same as Shriekmaw's. Cycling is always a nice option to have, especially in black where graveyard recursion to hand / play is not uncommon. 5/4 flyer is servicable at 5 mana and his ability can Plague Wind your opponent with the right set-up like Survival of the Fittest. While being modal is nice, none of the modes are particularly exciting, especially the body itself. That being said, the fact that it is modal makes me like it slightly more than a lot of other black 5-drop creatures. A 5th toughness would have gone a long way (I’m going to be saying this a lot) as would an extra keyword like lifelink.
Probably the most vanilla creature on this list, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 5/4 flying body is always welcome, as is a Phyrexian Arena that you can point at your opponent for extra damage when necessary. While boring, Bloodgift Demon is far from an embarassing option and I'm never disappointed to see him while drafting another cube. Like Archfiend of Ifnir, a 5th toughness would have gone a long way. Bloodgift Demon is a fairly safe, yet boring cube option.
My filler card of choice for a while, Contagion is a wonky card. As far as I’m concerned, Contagion is the only effect that gives a non-symmetrical plus or minus counter. Depending on the matchup, you can score a 2 for 2 (many times for free!) or just shrink down a Wurmcoil Engine without setting of its death trigger. As much as I love my old man cards, Contagion definitely has its faults, specifically needing to be heavy black to take advantage of its alternate casting cost.
The first list I consulted to make this article was the Cubetutor 720 average. My first thought while looking at the black 5-cmc section was “Liliana Vess, why...” My second thought was “wait, where’s Custodi Lich?”
I definitely underestimated Custodi Lich until I realized that Custodi Lich is essentially a 3 for 1 on ETB (as long as it isn’t removed in response to the Monarch trigger). Monarch creates a fun mini-game and is absolutely BRUTAL in 1v1 when it goes uncontested. Even if you do lose Monarch, getting it back re-triggers Custodi Lich for more sacrifice shenanigans, plus it’s not hard blink / bounce / recur Custodi Lich to reset Monarch on your side.
While I don’t believe Custodi Lich is the black 5-drop we’ve been waiting for, it’s probably the best black 5-drop that we’ve got in a while and it’s also the best black 5-drop most people aren’t playing. Custodi Lich is powerful, but I can understand people’s reservations for not playing it due to their dislike of the Monarch mechanic, which is probably one of the big reasons why it’s not on the Cubetutor 720 average.
Overall Rating: 7.75/10
Monarch Mini-Game Fun Rating: 10/10
Arguably one of the top black sweepers a few years ago when the only true staples were Damnation and Toxic Deluge. Within the past 3 years we’ve gotten Languish and Yahenni's Expertise, so Crux of Fate isn’t as needed as it once was. It might be the #5 or #6 sweeper black sweeper for me, it’s a bit of a tossup between this and Black Sun's Zenith. Being able to selectively sweep your opponent’s Thundermaw Hellkite / Dragonlord Atarka is pretty cool I guess, but how many times has that actually happened.
Overall Rating: 3/10
Ugin vs Bolas PPV Rating: 10/10
Unstoppable in its native retail limited format, Drana is a bit slow for cube. Being able to fireball an opponent is cool, but lack of immediate impact and pricey activated ability means Drana isn't very suited for the most cutthroat Max Power (TM) cubes. Just taking out two X/1s costs 2BBBB.
Good o’l Gary. I know a lot of people love Gary for good reason. While most black 5-drops suffer from lack of decent synergies, Gary has synergies in spades: zombie, 2-power or less synergies with Reveilark / Alesha / Imperial Recruiter, abusable ETB trigger, helps offset black’s life loss, fun with clones, etc. I know a lot of people like to support (mono) black devotion, but Gary works perfectly fine without those BBB spells. I also really like that Gary’s ETB trigger is fairly unique in cube since every other creature with an ETB effect usually just kills things or generates tokens.
Probably my least favorite of the original planeswalker cycle known as the Lorwyn 5. While Vampiric Tutor is a power effect, it’s pretty meh at 5 mana, as is the discard outlet. Starting at 5 loyalty is nice, but the discard / Vampiric tutor abilities could have at had secondary effects like draw a card / make a zombie or something.
Overall Rating: 2/10
Gatewatch Story Character Rating: 10/10 (the others are 0/10)
A lot of people in the cube community has a Wishlist, and one of the more common items was “a good black 5-drop” and “a 4-cmc planeswalker that poops out zombies.” Enter Liliana, Death’s Majesty. Liliana’s latest form does a lot of what black wants to do: make zombies, reanimate things, and sweep the board.
A planeswalker that’s able to increase its loyalty while being able to defend itself at the same time is a hallmark for a solid cubeable card. Liliana’s base stats of 5 starting loyalty combined with being able to immediately +1 to 6 while putting up a 2/2 zombie blocker is a good place to start with any planeswalker. Milling you two is a nice side-effect since the graveyard is such a huge resource. The mill not only fuels her -3 Zombify ability, but also provides target for any other reanimator spells, Regrowth effects, Flashback, Embalm, Aftermath, Snapcaster Mage / Jace VP, and fuels Delve. Liliana being a token generator also gives black more legs to stand on in token archetypes since it has access to Bitterblossom / Ophiomancer / Grave Titan in addition to valuable tutors and cheap removal spells.
Not much to say about her minus abilities. Her -3 is a bit steep, but probably appropriately costed since the ceiling for Zombify is pretty high. Being able to Zombify a Grave Titan that died or was discarded is always big game, as is having an insurance policy for a Grave Titan currently in play. Going back to the tokens archetype, Liliana being able to recur an army-in-a-can like Siege-Gang Commander with Purphoros in play is a nice option.
Liliana’s -3 ability being able to would be cool if she can target any graveyard, but that’s my only legitimate complaint. Unlike most other planeswalkers, Liliana has a very achievable ultimate. It’s a bit boring, but it synergizes with her other abilities since they both generate zombies.
So is Liliana the black 5-drop we’ve been waiting for?
My opinion: Kind of….?
I have two legitimate complaints about Liliana as a whole.
Liliana saturation. While the black 5-drop slot is pretty barren, cubeable Liliana planeswalkers are not. Liliana of the Veil and Liliana, the Last Hope are both premium black 3-drops and Liliana, Heretical Healer is still very popular among my playgroup. I’m okay with playing 4 Lilianas at 540 at the moment because Veil / Heretical Healer can pitch excess Lilianas if needed, and Heretical Healer can always be cashed in for a zombie before she dies to planeswalker uniqueness rule. While Death’s Majesty doesn’t compete in the same slot as the other 3 cubeable iterations, I currently rank Death’s Majesty at #3, with #1 being Veil and Last Hope at #2.
Archetype application. Being a 5-drop means she’s not ideal for aggro or cheaty face / reanimation combo decks, which leaves her only really viable in midrange and control. Her -3 Zombify effect is best suited for midrange since it’s more likely to have a higher creature density that your typical control deck, which may only have a handful of targets. On the other hand, control decks can keep the board clear so that she can have an ultimate more readily available. This is where her -3 being able to hit other graveyards would’ve been useful, since sweeping the board is backpedaling on both her +1 zombie generation ability and making her ultimate less needed. That being said, she’s still useful post-sweeper, and I like her more overall than either Ob Nixilis planeswalker form in both midrange and control since she’s able to protect herself more and has a higher ceiling with her Zombify ability.
Overall Rating: Somewhere between 7.75-8.0/10, I feel like Liliana isn't exactly an 8, but higher than 7.75. She'd be higher if she could steal from other graveyards or wasn't a Liliana planeswalker card).
Silk Dress Rating: 10/10
My favorite card of all time. That being said, I think a lot of people both under and overestimate this card. People overestimate by treating it as a pure reanimation spell for reanimation / cheaty face combo decks (conflicts with a lot of cheap sweapers like Earthquakes / Toxic Deluge that commonly sees play in this archetype in my cube). People underestimate it as an expensive, inconsistent effect. That being said, my cube has all the discard outlets and maxes out on all the Wild Mongrel / Psychatog vairants it can, so I can see why people would underestimate it. Living Death tends to see play mostly in Rakdos / Golgari midrange shells.
Any deck that runs Recurring Nightmare can probably run Living Death, especially if there’s a Survival of the Fittest lying around. Living Death isn’t suited for control decks since those decks tend to play a lot of single-targeted removal spells and sweepers. It works well with midrange decks since they play a lot of ETB removal spells. It’s usually okay if you kill their creatures before Living Death because there’s a pretty good chance their creatures are just going to die again to your ETB effects.
Living Death isn’t a staple, but I’m comfortable with it at 540. Living Death is responsible for the best cube stories, especially the “I was so far ahead and my opponent had zero chance of winning, but then Living Death happened.”
Overall Rating: 6/10
Pet Card Rating: “Vegeta, what does the scouter say about his power level?”
Having Delve hardly makes Murderous Cut a 5-drop, but I figured I should talk about it anyways because why not?
I think Murderous Cut is a middle of the road black spot-removal card. Being a splashable, scaleable instant is nice: 2B is a decent rate for Murder, 1B is above average, and B is just gravy. That being said, there are a few things that Murderous Cut has against it
My preferred form Ob Nixilis form (hopefully this will change in the future with a new printing). The +2 drain life ability is a bit underwhelming, but life gain is always nice in black and +2 is a decent rate for it. The real spice of Ob Nixilis is the -2 ability to generate a 5/5 black flying demon. Since both his abilities are +/- 2 loyalty counters, Black Oath is able to generate a 5/5 flying demon every other turn. Losing 2 life sucks, but being a one shot effect is fine and his +2 ability and the defense of a 5/5 flyer helps offset it. I don’t think I’ve ever used his ultimate. Ob’s demons being able to live Languish / Wildfire effects is what puts him over a lot of other 5-drops for me. I don’t believe I ever used his ultimate before, but that’s okay because being able to generate a 5/5 demon right off the bat is a large impact and is well worth 5 mana even if Ob immediatley dies.
Did I mention that Ob makes 5/5 flying demons?
Overall Rating: 6.75/10
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath as a Commander Rating: 0/10
Probably the most boring black planeswalker, but that’s okay because I still like this Ob more than Liliana Vess. Being a Phyrexian Arena that works immediately is pretty cool, and removing any creature is decent. What I don’t like about this Ob is that both effects are fairly expensive for 3BB. -3 loyalty counters is a hefty price for Murder, honestly this should be able to hit planeswalkers at 3BB and -3. His ultimate is pretty cool since it creates an Underworld Dreams emblem on steroids. Ob is a decent value engine, but providing zero archetype support kills it for me, especially since Black Oath’s demons synergize nice with Languish / Wildfire effects. Ob's similarities to Jace, Unraveler of Secrets doesn’t do him much favors either.
Overall Rating: 5.5/10
Villain Rating: 8/10, Ob is basically a mini Nicol Bolas, and Ob drowning Gideon in a puddle was pretty funny. I really hope we see more of Ob Nixilis in future storylines.
An old cube relic. Some people still cube with him since he’s not the most embarrassing thing to cube with since his landfall trigger is actually pretty powerful. Just triggering landfall once justifies the 3BB cost, and any other landfall triggers after that makes quick work of your opponent. It’d be nice if Ob had menace or some other keyword. I think if Ob were printed today, it’d have some one keyword and / or his landfall ability would also gain you 3 life.
When Origins was first spoiled, I honestly thought Priest of the Blood Rite was the black 5-drop we’ve all been waiting for. Generating a 5/5 demon is one hell of an ETB trigger, and the Priest being two power itself means it has all the Reveilark / Alesha / Recruiter synergies. 7 power (5 of it flying) over 2 bodies for 3BB is a great deal, but the Priest costing you 2 life a turn was a bit too much since there aren’t a lot of cubeable sacrifice outlets. Priest of the Blood Rite’s ceiling is absurd, but the floor is literally “World’s Most Miserable Gray Ogre.” Priest would be much more playable if the drawback was reduced to 1 life. With enough sac outlets, Priest of the Blood Rite can see a comeback in the future, but it also has to compete with Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath, which is my demon generator of choice.
Overall Rating: 4.5/10
Failure to Meet My Expectations Rating: 10/10
Not exactly suited for aggressive powered cubes since Puppeteer Clique heavily relies on your opponent, but it can wreak havoc in a slower midrangey cube. Beating up your opponent with his own cards is always fun, and being a 3/2 flyer with Persist ain’t too shabby either.
A 5/6 flyer is above average stats for a 5-drop, and destroy target non-demon creature is a very powerful ETB trigger, especially since there aren’t a ton of demons flying around the cube. Unfortunately, Shadowborn Demon just had to have more text beyond the the ETB trigger: “at the beginning of your upkeep, if there are fewer than six creature cards in your graveyard, sacrifice a creature.” Not only is that a steep drawback, it’s a drawback that’s not easily mitigated at all. Shadowborn Demon’s drawback is easily the worst drawback of any other card on this list, even over Priest of the Blood Rite. This card would’ve been pretty staple / near-staple territory without the drawback, but is probably one of my least favorite cards on this list as is. If this were printed today, it could’ve read “lose 1 life every upkeep unless you have Delirium” or something. Angel of Sanctions having a stronger effect and embalm at 3WW makes Shadowborn Demon look very silly in comparison.
3/2 with Fear and ETB Terror effect is decent on its own, it’s essentially a Nekrataal for an extra mana for the evasion. However, Shriekmaw has an extra line of text that makes it perhaps the most versatile 5-drop in all of cube: Evoke. Shriekmaw being black means his Evoke is ripe for abuse since you can just pitch Shriekmaw early and recur it (hopefully multiple times) late game. Shriekmaw having Fear makes him a legitimate win condition, especially since he can hold a Sword of X and Y like a champ. While being flexible for being modal and splashable, my only complaint of Shriekmaw is that he can be lackluster against heavy black decks, but there shouldn’t be more than one player per pod with that kind of deck.
Overall Rating: 10/10
Weird Art Rating: 10/10 (took me a while to notice the duality of Shriekmaw’s head)
I think Sidisi is a good card on paper, but below average when it comes to cube playability. Being a 4/6 (survives Wildfire / Languish!) zombie with Deathtouch with and an exploit trigger that Demonic Tutors seems GREAT and ABUSABLE, but Sidisi suffers from two large flaws:
Sidisi’s Exploit trigger can be cancelled out by removing the Sidisi in response
Being 5-cmc means Sidisi isn’t suited for aggro or combo decks, limiting her to midrange / control. Exploiting creatures other than herself means she doesn’t fit well in control shells since they tend to have a low creature density and heave a tendency to board wipe before they reach 5 mana. A solo Sidisi is essentially an expensive Demonic Tutor that your opponent can interrupt with instant speed removal.
Like Bloodgift Demon, Sidisi isn’t extremely powerful on her own and doesn’t exactly support any particular archetype archetype.
Custodi Lich
Shriekmaw
Liliana, Death’s Majesty
Living Death
If I were to play other existing 5-drops, it’d probably be Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath and Gray Merchant of Asphodel. I always keep Precursor Golem around since it plays well in a lot of black shells, especially if you can find a way to repeatedly sacrifice / recur the original golem.
So what exactly would the black 5-drop we’ve all been waiting for look like? Well, using precedence in other colors, this would be nice:
Deranged Zombie Gang Commander of Invention
Creature - Zombie Wizard
When ~ enters the battlefield, create two 2/2 black zombie tokens.
Whenever ~ or another zombie you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. 2/2
Black army-in-a-can may be a cliche, but I’d still cube the hell out of it. From Under the Floorboards and Liliana’s Mastery type effects would be so much better on a creature, and this creature isn’t unreasonable at all.
Phew, 19 cards analyzed! While black has plenty of cubeable 5-drops, a lot of them feel flawed and incomplete. Still, we have to play with what we have and hopefully this analysis helps shed some light on how each option relates to other cube archetypes. As usual, feel free to disagree with everything I said below in the comments.
This was a fantastic read, steve_man. I agreed with pretty much all of your ratings and really dug secondary ratings on them all. Good stuff. I hope you get enough positive responses to convince you to do this type of article with other cube slots. It'd be fun to see something like this for the guilds.
^ Seconding this, it'd be great to have these articles for other slots. I had actually completely forgotten about some of these cards.
(I'm considering adding Archfiend as an "I-know-it's-kinda-wonky" pet card. Fell in love with it during my first Amonkhet draft. There's a lot of looting and discard effects in cube, and Archfiend might slot into UB value reanimator or BG Survival / aggro reanimator with all the Wild Mongrel variants nowadays. The card feels crazy powerful when it comes together. Also, including it would probably be the only thing that could ever lead to a situation where I Mind Twist myself for the win. You've got to have some cards just for the crazy once in a blue moon stories, right?)
Interesting write-up. There are more black five drops than I realized that people play. So very few of them are exciting, however. I play and like Wretched Confluence for now, that might be worth reviewing as well.
As a general comment I dislike when people sum up card evaluations as "boring". That just kills any real discussion about the card and tells me nothing besides the fact that you do not like it. Tell me why you think it is boring. Tell me it is a redundant effect and why, tell me it is too swingy, tell me it is underwhelming compared to other options. Most cards in cube are boring in some sense. One is just another burn spell, the other is just another removal or ramp card. We still need them to craft interesting decks.
A small specific disagreement I have is in the ranking of the Obs. I am aware that I am of the few poeple who have played both since they came out, and I agree they are not medium cube material, but for those of you that are still interested Ob Nixilis Reignited sees more play and is picked more highly here. I think Black Oath is the more intrinsically powerful, but is ill-suited for the format.
Black Oath is bad on the defense. You immediately lose two life, and while you can block in the air, you can only block one creature and then the planeswalker will die to everything, even a mana elf. It gets blown own by bounce spells and Flickerwisp (but still not as badly as Priest of the Blood Rite). Since the first demon is so easy to answer, it is also a bad finisher. That leaves the card to midrange lists, and then it has to compete with five drops of different colors. It can be great in midrange mirrors, or sometimes against control.
Ob Nixilis Reignited is still playable in midrange, but is a card much better suited for control decks. It generates card advantage with every ability, can start with 6 loyalty and acts as a seal of removal. It is still not great on the defense, which is why the card is middling, but is much better than Black Oath. The card draw is also an effect in demand in black control decks in my cube (that are not blue). While you can rarely afford to pack a card that cannot affect the board, Reignited is in a good place of being able to do both.
I think Reignited is better at functioning like a traditional planeswalker. But the reason why I prefer(ed) Black Oath was because it could function like a 5cc creature. Since black's options were so very limited at that spot, I liked how it could just be a 5/5 flying demon for 5 that left a 'walker behind, rather than just resolving a 'walker. There were a lot of curves in many decks that were looking for just that.
I play and like Wretched Confluence for now, that might be worth reviewing as well.
Of the few cards that I realized I missed, this is the one I regret not reviewing the most.
As a general comment I dislike when people sum up card evaluations as "boring". That just kills any real discussion about the card and tells me nothing besides the fact that you do not like it. Tell me why you think it is boring. Tell me it is a redundant effect and why, tell me it is too swingy, tell me it is underwhelming compared to other options. Most cards in cube are boring in some sense. One is just another burn spell, the other is just another removal or ramp card. We still need them to craft interesting decks.
Will keep that in mind for the future. I do agree, just saying boring is pretty boring
Good article, though I think the "boring" Bloodgift Demon and Ob Nixilis Reignited are both just fine, because card advantage is king and these two provide it.
The only black 5 in my cube that you didn't discuss is Unburial Rites, which I'm quite happy with. Perhaps this is a "Dryad Militant" classification issue, but I don't slot this card as Orzhov. In my book it's a black card that gives you some extra value if you can produce white mana, which plenty of decks find a way to do even if they're not playing any white cards.
The only black 5 in my cube that you didn't discuss is Unburial Rites, which I'm quite happy with. Perhaps this is a "Dryad Militant" classification issue, but I don't slot this card as Orzhov. In my book it's a black card that gives you some extra value if you can produce white mana, which plenty of decks find a way to do even if they're not playing any white cards.
I try to keep it as Orzhov since there is so much value in the flashback aspect. So often we'll see Unburial Rites + Gifts Ungiven due to the fact that you can grab only Rites + creature i.e. 2 cards and force your opponent to put both in the GY since you can 'fail to search' for the second two cards. Due to this, it's hard to classify it as solely black since a major bit of value and utility comes from the white flashback cost.
I play Sidisi, Undead Vizier in my powered 540. It's better than a 4/10, at least in midrange. It's not a high pick due to its unplayability in aggro and reanimator (black control is supported but highly unpopular in my cube), but Demonic Tutor on a solid body is not to be underestimated. It also finds and curves into Wildfire, though generally Wildfire decks are RG or (occasionally) RW. Best story with the card: finding Sun Titan after sacrificing Flickerwisp.
It's not really great in Bx control decks either. If you're only serviceable in one archetype--and still probably a 20th-23rd card there IMO--that's a pretty solid 4/10.
Archfiend of Ifnir
The new kid on the block has modal applications that costs almost the exact same as Shriekmaw's. Cycling is always a nice option to have, especially in black where graveyard recursion to hand / play is not uncommon. 5/4 flyer is servicable at 5 mana and his ability can Plague Wind your opponent with the right set-up like Survival of the Fittest. While being modal is nice, none of the modes are particularly exciting, especially the body itself. That being said, the fact that it is modal makes me like it slightly more than a lot of other black 5-drop creatures. A 5th toughness would have gone a long way (I’m going to be saying this a lot) as would an extra keyword like lifelink.
Overall Rating: 5.25/10
Jank Survival Combo Rating: 9/10
Bloodgift Demon
Probably the most vanilla creature on this list, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 5/4 flying body is always welcome, as is a Phyrexian Arena that you can point at your opponent for extra damage when necessary. While boring, Bloodgift Demon is far from an embarassing option and I'm never disappointed to see him while drafting another cube. Like Archfiend of Ifnir, a 5th toughness would have gone a long way. Bloodgift Demon is a fairly safe, yet boring cube option.
Overall Rating: 5.5/10
Pimp Cup Rating: 7/10
Contagion
My filler card of choice for a while, Contagion is a wonky card. As far as I’m concerned, Contagion is the only effect that gives a non-symmetrical plus or minus counter. Depending on the matchup, you can score a 2 for 2 (many times for free!) or just shrink down a Wurmcoil Engine without setting of its death trigger. As much as I love my old man cards, Contagion definitely has its faults, specifically needing to be heavy black to take advantage of its alternate casting cost.
Overall Rating: 4/10
Creepy Cat Art Rating: 10/10
Custodi Lich
The first list I consulted to make this article was the Cubetutor 720 average. My first thought while looking at the black 5-cmc section was “Liliana Vess, why...” My second thought was “wait, where’s Custodi Lich?”
I definitely underestimated Custodi Lich until I realized that Custodi Lich is essentially a 3 for 1 on ETB (as long as it isn’t removed in response to the Monarch trigger). Monarch creates a fun mini-game and is absolutely BRUTAL in 1v1 when it goes uncontested. Even if you do lose Monarch, getting it back re-triggers Custodi Lich for more sacrifice shenanigans, plus it’s not hard blink / bounce / recur Custodi Lich to reset Monarch on your side.
While I don’t believe Custodi Lich is the black 5-drop we’ve been waiting for, it’s probably the best black 5-drop that we’ve got in a while and it’s also the best black 5-drop most people aren’t playing. Custodi Lich is powerful, but I can understand people’s reservations for not playing it due to their dislike of the Monarch mechanic, which is probably one of the big reasons why it’s not on the Cubetutor 720 average.
Overall Rating: 7.75/10
Monarch Mini-Game Fun Rating: 10/10
Crux of Fate
Arguably one of the top black sweepers a few years ago when the only true staples were Damnation and Toxic Deluge. Within the past 3 years we’ve gotten Languish and Yahenni's Expertise, so Crux of Fate isn’t as needed as it once was. It might be the #5 or #6 sweeper black sweeper for me, it’s a bit of a tossup between this and Black Sun's Zenith. Being able to selectively sweep your opponent’s Thundermaw Hellkite / Dragonlord Atarka is pretty cool I guess, but how many times has that actually happened.
Overall Rating: 3/10
Ugin vs Bolas PPV Rating: 10/10
Drana, Kalastria Bloodchief
Unstoppable in its native retail limited format, Drana is a bit slow for cube. Being able to fireball an opponent is cool, but lack of immediate impact and pricey activated ability means Drana isn't very suited for the most cutthroat Max Power (TM) cubes. Just taking out two X/1s costs 2BBBB.
Cube Rating: 1.5/10
ROE Limited Rating: 10/10
Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Good o’l Gary. I know a lot of people love Gary for good reason. While most black 5-drops suffer from lack of decent synergies, Gary has synergies in spades: zombie, 2-power or less synergies with Reveilark / Alesha / Imperial Recruiter, abusable ETB trigger, helps offset black’s life loss, fun with clones, etc. I know a lot of people like to support (mono) black devotion, but Gary works perfectly fine without those BBB spells. I also really like that Gary’s ETB trigger is fairly unique in cube since every other creature with an ETB effect usually just kills things or generates tokens.
Overall Rating: 7/10
EDH Abuse Rating: 10/10
Liliana Vess
Probably my least favorite of the original planeswalker cycle known as the Lorwyn 5. While Vampiric Tutor is a power effect, it’s pretty meh at 5 mana, as is the discard outlet. Starting at 5 loyalty is nice, but the discard / Vampiric tutor abilities could have at had secondary effects like draw a card / make a zombie or something.
Overall Rating: 2/10
Gatewatch Story Character Rating: 10/10 (the others are 0/10)
Liliana, Death's Majesty
A lot of people in the cube community has a Wishlist, and one of the more common items was “a good black 5-drop” and “a 4-cmc planeswalker that poops out zombies.” Enter Liliana, Death’s Majesty. Liliana’s latest form does a lot of what black wants to do: make zombies, reanimate things, and sweep the board.
A planeswalker that’s able to increase its loyalty while being able to defend itself at the same time is a hallmark for a solid cubeable card. Liliana’s base stats of 5 starting loyalty combined with being able to immediately +1 to 6 while putting up a 2/2 zombie blocker is a good place to start with any planeswalker. Milling you two is a nice side-effect since the graveyard is such a huge resource. The mill not only fuels her -3 Zombify ability, but also provides target for any other reanimator spells, Regrowth effects, Flashback, Embalm, Aftermath, Snapcaster Mage / Jace VP, and fuels Delve. Liliana being a token generator also gives black more legs to stand on in token archetypes since it has access to Bitterblossom / Ophiomancer / Grave Titan in addition to valuable tutors and cheap removal spells.
Not much to say about her minus abilities. Her -3 is a bit steep, but probably appropriately costed since the ceiling for Zombify is pretty high. Being able to Zombify a Grave Titan that died or was discarded is always big game, as is having an insurance policy for a Grave Titan currently in play. Going back to the tokens archetype, Liliana being able to recur an army-in-a-can like Siege-Gang Commander with Purphoros in play is a nice option.
Liliana’s -3 ability being able to would be cool if she can target any graveyard, but that’s my only legitimate complaint. Unlike most other planeswalkers, Liliana has a very achievable ultimate. It’s a bit boring, but it synergizes with her other abilities since they both generate zombies.
So is Liliana the black 5-drop we’ve been waiting for?
My opinion: Kind of….?
I have two legitimate complaints about Liliana as a whole.
Liliana saturation. While the black 5-drop slot is pretty barren, cubeable Liliana planeswalkers are not. Liliana of the Veil and Liliana, the Last Hope are both premium black 3-drops and Liliana, Heretical Healer is still very popular among my playgroup. I’m okay with playing 4 Lilianas at 540 at the moment because Veil / Heretical Healer can pitch excess Lilianas if needed, and Heretical Healer can always be cashed in for a zombie before she dies to planeswalker uniqueness rule. While Death’s Majesty doesn’t compete in the same slot as the other 3 cubeable iterations, I currently rank Death’s Majesty at #3, with #1 being Veil and Last Hope at #2.
Archetype application. Being a 5-drop means she’s not ideal for aggro or cheaty face / reanimation combo decks, which leaves her only really viable in midrange and control. Her -3 Zombify effect is best suited for midrange since it’s more likely to have a higher creature density that your typical control deck, which may only have a handful of targets. On the other hand, control decks can keep the board clear so that she can have an ultimate more readily available. This is where her -3 being able to hit other graveyards would’ve been useful, since sweeping the board is backpedaling on both her +1 zombie generation ability and making her ultimate less needed. That being said, she’s still useful post-sweeper, and I like her more overall than either Ob Nixilis planeswalker form in both midrange and control since she’s able to protect herself more and has a higher ceiling with her Zombify ability.
Overall Rating: Somewhere between 7.75-8.0/10, I feel like Liliana isn't exactly an 8, but higher than 7.75. She'd be higher if she could steal from other graveyards or wasn't a Liliana planeswalker card).
Silk Dress Rating: 10/10
Living Death
My favorite card of all time. That being said, I think a lot of people both under and overestimate this card. People overestimate by treating it as a pure reanimation spell for reanimation / cheaty face combo decks (conflicts with a lot of cheap sweapers like Earthquakes / Toxic Deluge that commonly sees play in this archetype in my cube). People underestimate it as an expensive, inconsistent effect. That being said, my cube has all the discard outlets and maxes out on all the Wild Mongrel / Psychatog vairants it can, so I can see why people would underestimate it. Living Death tends to see play mostly in Rakdos / Golgari midrange shells.
Any deck that runs Recurring Nightmare can probably run Living Death, especially if there’s a Survival of the Fittest lying around. Living Death isn’t suited for control decks since those decks tend to play a lot of single-targeted removal spells and sweepers. It works well with midrange decks since they play a lot of ETB removal spells. It’s usually okay if you kill their creatures before Living Death because there’s a pretty good chance their creatures are just going to die again to your ETB effects.
Living Death isn’t a staple, but I’m comfortable with it at 540. Living Death is responsible for the best cube stories, especially the “I was so far ahead and my opponent had zero chance of winning, but then Living Death happened.”
Overall Rating: 6/10
Pet Card Rating: “Vegeta, what does the scouter say about his power level?”
Murderous Cut
Having Delve hardly makes Murderous Cut a 5-drop, but I figured I should talk about it anyways because why not?
I think Murderous Cut is a middle of the road black spot-removal card. Being a splashable, scaleable instant is nice: 2B is a decent rate for Murder, 1B is above average, and B is just gravy. That being said, there are a few things that Murderous Cut has against it
Sheer competition. There’s a lot of black removal spells that I’m not even playing that I like over Murderous Cut like Ruinous Path (which was recently cut for me at 540 for Never // Return), Malicious Affliction, and Ultimate Price.
Murderous Cut being slow against giant creatures being cheated into play early game via Show and Tell / Oath of Druids / Reanimate / etc.
Delve spells not playing well with other Delve spells. Four spells with Delve seems to be my limit at 540, and I like Treasure Cruise / Dig Through Time / Tombstalker / Tasigur, the Golden Fang much more than Murderous Cut. Even after those four, I think I like Gurmag Angler more than Murderous Cut, but probably not more than Hooting Mandrills?
Overall Rating: 3.5/10
“I’ll Cut You” Rating: 10/10
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath
My preferred form Ob Nixilis form (hopefully this will change in the future with a new printing). The +2 drain life ability is a bit underwhelming, but life gain is always nice in black and +2 is a decent rate for it. The real spice of Ob Nixilis is the -2 ability to generate a 5/5 black flying demon. Since both his abilities are +/- 2 loyalty counters, Black Oath is able to generate a 5/5 flying demon every other turn. Losing 2 life sucks, but being a one shot effect is fine and his +2 ability and the defense of a 5/5 flyer helps offset it. I don’t think I’ve ever used his ultimate. Ob’s demons being able to live Languish / Wildfire effects is what puts him over a lot of other 5-drops for me. I don’t believe I ever used his ultimate before, but that’s okay because being able to generate a 5/5 demon right off the bat is a large impact and is well worth 5 mana even if Ob immediatley dies.
Did I mention that Ob makes 5/5 flying demons?
Overall Rating: 6.75/10
Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath as a Commander Rating: 0/10
Ob Nixilis Reignited
Probably the most boring black planeswalker, but that’s okay because I still like this Ob more than Liliana Vess. Being a Phyrexian Arena that works immediately is pretty cool, and removing any creature is decent. What I don’t like about this Ob is that both effects are fairly expensive for 3BB. -3 loyalty counters is a hefty price for Murder, honestly this should be able to hit planeswalkers at 3BB and -3. His ultimate is pretty cool since it creates an Underworld Dreams emblem on steroids. Ob is a decent value engine, but providing zero archetype support kills it for me, especially since Black Oath’s demons synergize nice with Languish / Wildfire effects. Ob's similarities to Jace, Unraveler of Secrets doesn’t do him much favors either.
Overall Rating: 5.5/10
Villain Rating: 8/10, Ob is basically a mini Nicol Bolas, and Ob drowning Gideon in a puddle was pretty funny. I really hope we see more of Ob Nixilis in future storylines.
Ob Nixilis, the Fallen
An old cube relic. Some people still cube with him since he’s not the most embarrassing thing to cube with since his landfall trigger is actually pretty powerful. Just triggering landfall once justifies the 3BB cost, and any other landfall triggers after that makes quick work of your opponent. It’d be nice if Ob had menace or some other keyword. I think if Ob were printed today, it’d have some one keyword and / or his landfall ability would also gain you 3 life.
Overall Rating: 3/10
Ob Nixilis / Primeval Titan Wombo-Combo Rating: 10/10
Priest of the Blood Rite
When Origins was first spoiled, I honestly thought Priest of the Blood Rite was the black 5-drop we’ve all been waiting for. Generating a 5/5 demon is one hell of an ETB trigger, and the Priest being two power itself means it has all the Reveilark / Alesha / Recruiter synergies. 7 power (5 of it flying) over 2 bodies for 3BB is a great deal, but the Priest costing you 2 life a turn was a bit too much since there aren’t a lot of cubeable sacrifice outlets. Priest of the Blood Rite’s ceiling is absurd, but the floor is literally “World’s Most Miserable Gray Ogre.” Priest would be much more playable if the drawback was reduced to 1 life. With enough sac outlets, Priest of the Blood Rite can see a comeback in the future, but it also has to compete with Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath, which is my demon generator of choice.
Overall Rating: 4.5/10
Failure to Meet My Expectations Rating: 10/10
Puppeteer Clique
Not exactly suited for aggressive powered cubes since Puppeteer Clique heavily relies on your opponent, but it can wreak havoc in a slower midrangey cube. Beating up your opponent with his own cards is always fun, and being a 3/2 flyer with Persist ain’t too shabby either.
Overall Rating: 2/10
Fun Rating: 10/10
Shadowborn Demon
A 5/6 flyer is above average stats for a 5-drop, and destroy target non-demon creature is a very powerful ETB trigger, especially since there aren’t a ton of demons flying around the cube. Unfortunately, Shadowborn Demon just had to have more text beyond the the ETB trigger: “at the beginning of your upkeep, if there are fewer than six creature cards in your graveyard, sacrifice a creature.” Not only is that a steep drawback, it’s a drawback that’s not easily mitigated at all. Shadowborn Demon’s drawback is easily the worst drawback of any other card on this list, even over Priest of the Blood Rite. This card would’ve been pretty staple / near-staple territory without the drawback, but is probably one of my least favorite cards on this list as is. If this were printed today, it could’ve read “lose 1 life every upkeep unless you have Delirium” or something. Angel of Sanctions having a stronger effect and embalm at 3WW makes Shadowborn Demon look very silly in comparison.
Overall Rating: 2/10
Shriekmaw
3/2 with Fear and ETB Terror effect is decent on its own, it’s essentially a Nekrataal for an extra mana for the evasion. However, Shriekmaw has an extra line of text that makes it perhaps the most versatile 5-drop in all of cube: Evoke. Shriekmaw being black means his Evoke is ripe for abuse since you can just pitch Shriekmaw early and recur it (hopefully multiple times) late game. Shriekmaw having Fear makes him a legitimate win condition, especially since he can hold a Sword of X and Y like a champ. While being flexible for being modal and splashable, my only complaint of Shriekmaw is that he can be lackluster against heavy black decks, but there shouldn’t be more than one player per pod with that kind of deck.
Overall Rating: 10/10
Weird Art Rating: 10/10 (took me a while to notice the duality of Shriekmaw’s head)
Sidisi, Undead Vizier
I think Sidisi is a good card on paper, but below average when it comes to cube playability. Being a 4/6 (survives Wildfire / Languish!) zombie with Deathtouch with and an exploit trigger that Demonic Tutors seems GREAT and ABUSABLE, but Sidisi suffers from two large flaws:
Sidisi’s Exploit trigger can be cancelled out by removing the Sidisi in response
Being 5-cmc means Sidisi isn’t suited for aggro or combo decks, limiting her to midrange / control. Exploiting creatures other than herself means she doesn’t fit well in control shells since they tend to have a low creature density and heave a tendency to board wipe before they reach 5 mana. A solo Sidisi is essentially an expensive Demonic Tutor that your opponent can interrupt with instant speed removal.
Like Bloodgift Demon, Sidisi isn’t extremely powerful on her own and doesn’t exactly support any particular archetype archetype.
Overall Rating: 4/10
WOTC’s inability to distinguish Naga / Snakes: 10/10
Here’s what I’m currently running at 540:
Custodi Lich
Shriekmaw
Liliana, Death’s Majesty
Living Death
If I were to play other existing 5-drops, it’d probably be Ob Nixilis of the Black Oath and Gray Merchant of Asphodel. I always keep Precursor Golem around since it plays well in a lot of black shells, especially if you can find a way to repeatedly sacrifice / recur the original golem.
So what exactly would the black 5-drop we’ve all been waiting for look like? Well, using precedence in other colors, this would be nice:
Deranged Zombie Gang Commander of Invention
Creature - Zombie Wizard
When ~ enters the battlefield, create two 2/2 black zombie tokens.
Whenever ~ or another zombie you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. 2/2
Black army-in-a-can may be a cliche, but I’d still cube the hell out of it. From Under the Floorboards and Liliana’s Mastery type effects would be so much better on a creature, and this creature isn’t unreasonable at all.
Phew, 19 cards analyzed! While black has plenty of cubeable 5-drops, a lot of them feel flawed and incomplete. Still, we have to play with what we have and hopefully this analysis helps shed some light on how each option relates to other cube archetypes. As usual, feel free to disagree with everything I said below in the comments.
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(I'm considering adding Archfiend as an "I-know-it's-kinda-wonky" pet card. Fell in love with it during my first Amonkhet draft. There's a lot of looting and discard effects in cube, and Archfiend might slot into UB value reanimator or BG Survival / aggro reanimator with all the Wild Mongrel variants nowadays. The card feels crazy powerful when it comes together. Also, including it would probably be the only thing that could ever lead to a situation where I Mind Twist myself for the win. You've got to have some cards just for the crazy once in a blue moon stories, right?)
As a general comment I dislike when people sum up card evaluations as "boring". That just kills any real discussion about the card and tells me nothing besides the fact that you do not like it. Tell me why you think it is boring. Tell me it is a redundant effect and why, tell me it is too swingy, tell me it is underwhelming compared to other options. Most cards in cube are boring in some sense. One is just another burn spell, the other is just another removal or ramp card. We still need them to craft interesting decks.
A small specific disagreement I have is in the ranking of the Obs. I am aware that I am of the few poeple who have played both since they came out, and I agree they are not medium cube material, but for those of you that are still interested Ob Nixilis Reignited sees more play and is picked more highly here. I think Black Oath is the more intrinsically powerful, but is ill-suited for the format.
Black Oath is bad on the defense. You immediately lose two life, and while you can block in the air, you can only block one creature and then the planeswalker will die to everything, even a mana elf. It gets blown own by bounce spells and Flickerwisp (but still not as badly as Priest of the Blood Rite). Since the first demon is so easy to answer, it is also a bad finisher. That leaves the card to midrange lists, and then it has to compete with five drops of different colors. It can be great in midrange mirrors, or sometimes against control.
Ob Nixilis Reignited is still playable in midrange, but is a card much better suited for control decks. It generates card advantage with every ability, can start with 6 loyalty and acts as a seal of removal. It is still not great on the defense, which is why the card is middling, but is much better than Black Oath. The card draw is also an effect in demand in black control decks in my cube (that are not blue). While you can rarely afford to pack a card that cannot affect the board, Reignited is in a good place of being able to do both.
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Will keep that in mind for the future. I do agree, just saying boring is pretty boring
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The only black 5 in my cube that you didn't discuss is Unburial Rites, which I'm quite happy with. Perhaps this is a "Dryad Militant" classification issue, but I don't slot this card as Orzhov. In my book it's a black card that gives you some extra value if you can produce white mana, which plenty of decks find a way to do even if they're not playing any white cards.
I try to keep it as Orzhov since there is so much value in the flashback aspect. So often we'll see Unburial Rites + Gifts Ungiven due to the fact that you can grab only Rites + creature i.e. 2 cards and force your opponent to put both in the GY since you can 'fail to search' for the second two cards. Due to this, it's hard to classify it as solely black since a major bit of value and utility comes from the white flashback cost.
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