MTG Salvation

Vivian Reid flavortext suggesting that this card should not be black at all, but green; Merely costing black mana because it lives in a swamp. Color identity lately is more about where you're from and what you look like than who you truly are, is it not?

How cool would Vivian Reid have been if she had "Gain control of target Beast" as one of her abilities?

You're absolutely right. This one makes no sense at all as black. Make it vicious, sure. Then, you can justify it's habitat as the reason for a black color choice. But, I suppose there's a pretty consistent randomness with beasts. If there's sand in the picture, it'll be red. Trees make it green. Mud makes it black. They don't maintain this theory with most other creature types. If they did, every card with "loam" in the name should probably be black and none of them are.