I think it's a tossup against midrange between those two spells. Peeling off an early BSZ at 1 or 2 against their baseline mana dorks and utility creatures is backbreaking. Having to wait until after they have a bunch of available mana can be more of a hindrance than a boon a lot of the time, especially if they play planeswalkers and other noncreature threats with their ramp mana. So I'd say that BSZ is better against aggro, it's a tossup against midrange, and Crux is better against control. However, you are going to be one of the control decks at the table if you're playing Crux, so a greater percentage of the rest of the table will be playing decks that BSZ is better against. Which is why I'd give it the edge. I also think Living Death is a better 5cc black wrath. Crux is pretty far down on my list of sweeper effects I'd want in my black section.
I have a hard time considering Living Death a wrath. Yes there are times where you wipe the board and nothing comes back, and there are better times where they bring nothing back and you bring back your own guys. But you do have to often work to set up those scenarios or do it before anything happens, and when you're bringing some of their guys back it can get awkward. If I was looking for a dedicated wrath for my cube, I don't think I'd add Living Death to that since there are enough spots where you're not doing what you want in a wrath, i.e. clear the board.
This is not me taking away from Living Death as I think its an incredible card and love making the deck, but there's too much out of my control for Living Death to consistently play the wrath-role.
Agreed with Salmo on putting Living Death in the wrath category. It's more of a build around reanimation card. It definitely wipes the board, but there's some risk of them getting something back. It was a dead card too many times for us and eventually started sitting permanently in sideboards before finally getting the axe. I'd probably get more mileage out of something like Crux of Fate just because my group didn't build the Living Death deck and it was typically pretty terrible as a sweeper for control.
I consider Living Death a wrath, a lot of times that's exactly how it plays.
It's got a lot of other utility and pros and cons, so it's a weird card to evaluate in any box, but I wouldn't be upset if someone classified LD as their black wrath #3 or #4 or whatever.
I like Sudden Spoiling and Black Sun's Zenith much better then Crux. Sudden spoiling is very often a 1 sided wrath in midrange vs aggro, aggro v midrange, aggro v aggro (sided in) or mid v mid. Control can also use it as a wrath, or a fog in a pinch. Black Sun's Zenith is definitely the most underrated wrath on these forums though. Curving Grave titan into BSZ for 5, destroying... I'll pretend Massacre wurm... and still being able to use your mini token engine is great. Against aggro god hands it can wipe early, or dimish their size until you can deal with them. Against ramp it can wipe ramp creatures early. Reshuffling is very much a bonus, I once won a game of magical christmas land because I drew it three times in a row.
Even though Living Death often works as a Wrath, I would never consider it a Wrath during draft and deck construction, since its exact effect depends so heavily on the current game state. If you are drafting/building a deck that wants Wraths, you don't want to run a card that could leave your opponent with more power on the board in some situations, thus making it a dead draw.
I ran Black Sun's Zenith for almost three years and didn't like it much. I am running Rout since the creation of my cube in 2006 and it's still holding its ground, despite being an instant Wrath way less than half the time. A five mana Day of Judgment without the instant speed option wouldn't make it in white, but since good mass removal is much more scarce in black, Crux of Fate is actually a decent option for larger cubes that want a third black Wrath. A five mana Wrath is not great, but cubable, and from my experience, it will be better than Zenith.
Pass. Damnation, Toxic Delguge, BSZ, and Life's Finale are my Black wraths. I know this is cheaper than Finale, but I like the extra effect that Finale provides.
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This is not me taking away from Living Death as I think its an incredible card and love making the deck, but there's too much out of my control for Living Death to consistently play the wrath-role.
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It's got a lot of other utility and pros and cons, so it's a weird card to evaluate in any box, but I wouldn't be upset if someone classified LD as their black wrath #3 or #4 or whatever.
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I ran Black Sun's Zenith for almost three years and didn't like it much. I am running Rout since the creation of my cube in 2006 and it's still holding its ground, despite being an instant Wrath way less than half the time. A five mana Day of Judgment without the instant speed option wouldn't make it in white, but since good mass removal is much more scarce in black, Crux of Fate is actually a decent option for larger cubes that want a third black Wrath. A five mana Wrath is not great, but cubable, and from my experience, it will be better than Zenith.
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