The problem with black isn't that it's received the shaft, it's that the dynamics of the game have changed. Instead of making witty challenging cards that lead to game breaking, (memory jar, recurring nightmare), they have over tested every single card. I remember a few years ago when invasion was coming out, and I read an article by Mark Rosewater. He said they were beginning to figure out exactly what each color did, and break off magic towards that.
Anyways, some may think they changed that when they did the shifted cards, (damnation, green ball, etc), however in reality they were fitting for the colors and did very little to change anything, (except damnation). However, I am saying it all changed when they drew direct lines as to which color did what, and the hyper-testing they have done with cards. Also, the increase in mana curves to slow down the game. Yes, ever since invasion cards have become better and better with less and less fodder cards, (anyone remember when they thought healing salve was the answer to dark ritual or lightning bolt?).
So where does this leave black? Well, the black most of us love is simply dead. Black drew in a fanbase, because it was the "do everything" color. It had combos, aggro, control, and more. You could do anything with the color. However, I could essentially say that with any color in magic. With the standardization of colors this lead to color bleeding to get a desired affect. Another MAJOR problem, is the lack of artifacts that can bridge this divide. Remember, before any sort of infest or anything, all black had was Nevinyarral's Disk. The only problem with this and splashing, is MBC is notorious for relying off of a complete black manabase, and wizards considers artifacts like the disk to be too powerful anymore. Lastly, and the biggest killer is the increase of the mana curve. MBC became an icon in magic, because it controlled, and it did it on turn 1 with that first turn duress. Turn 3 you set down your necroho, and on turn 4 you set down your disk; basically saying "do what you want". This means by turn 4 the opponent is on the defensive. Think of it like a boxing match; when the bell rings, you come out with hard hitting and connecting punches. You exert little energy, but do a lot of damage. By round four, your opponent is tired and on the defensive, while you are setting up for that last punch to put him on the mat. Now lets take contemporary MBC, (torment MBC onwards). For the first four rounds you do everything you can to dodge punches and block. You begin a counter-war against your opponent; innocent blooding their llanowar elf, or duressing their best spell. Your opponent has little-to no damage on him, and on turn four you try to put yourself in a position where you are less exhausted than your opponent. Now, imagine MBC in the current metagame, and removing all of those counters you had :).
So I'm basically saying old black MBC is dead. Contemporary MBC is also probably dead for a while until they release 11th with a crapload of "life support" cards. That means in the meantime a color you can't do squat with, but comes with some powerhouse cards that you splash for. MBC died with Torment, (last time MBC was a staple for tier 1), while oldschool "do anything" MBC died with Bauble. The simple physics of the game negate the idea of a single color doing "everything". For the phoenix to rise from the ashes, the following would need to occour:
FOR BORING MBC (limited builds, very little diversity)
- sweepers (mutilate, damnation, disk, etc)
- card advantage (arena, necroho, whatever)
- acceleration, (cabal coffers)
-1-3cc curve mbc cards, (innocent blood, edict, early game defenses. This is the main reason why mbc can't exist, because beater decks just roll over it the first 4-5 rounds and mbc is forced to play catchup the rest of the game)
This will give the ability for MBC players to have a snowball's chance against all of the fast decks out there who can play silver-bullet cards under their radar. The thought of ploppin down a bitterblossum against MBC is pretty gruesome in my mind... Even with these, I highly doubt a tier 1 MBC deck will arise, because it will be so focused on set cards only a handful will be switched between decks, and any fast RDW-esque deck will destroy it.
For REAL MBC
-REDUXION IN CURVE TO 2-3 with higher quality cheap control spells (this is the main component new MBC is simply wayyyyy too slow)
- board sweepers, (disk, something that can deal with artifacts and enchantments) that cost no more than 5
- c advantage
- mana acceleration
- GRAVEYARD SPELL RECURSION, (this is a long-standing tradition from feldon's cane to nether spirit, and yawgmoth's will.)
REAL MBC is not nessisaraly control, it's utility. MBC is about versitility. Low curves mean the deck can assert control before anything can happen, and midrange sweepers can clean up the scraps. mana acceleration helps this, and EARLY acceleration actually helps the deck. Late game acceleration, (cabal coffers), while great is really just an added gravy, because black already has enough late game bomb cards to seal the deal. It helps with lowering the curve, but cheap good control cards, (sinkhole, hymm, etc), would be enough.
With these, you can get a nice tier 1 deck that can probably fight off anything that would come along. It would have enough lee-way to go between ultra control, (hymms and sink), or ultra aggro, (carnophage, doofie slayer)
Graveyard spell recursion..... ahh, a concept that I miss, and has been overlooked due to it's "brokeness". Also it's been more relicated to green. Spell recursion would really push it over the edge. It adds to the toolbox that black needs to really dominate. I don't mean something like Yawgmoth's Will, but something like this would do:
BBB
Yawgmoth's Poo
Enchantment
Remove " Poo from the game, return target card from your graveyard to your hand.
It would add a whole new element to the deck that would make me start playin again.... Anyways, sorry for my long post, I just am passionate about it
I suggest the following direction for looking for abilities for a colour: Multicolor. I have been considering all the color-pairs for a while, thinking about what Ravnica did right and wrong. One thing that keeps happening is I get impressions of how the individual colours are closer and further from what each pair is like... But really, all of these pairs should have worked equally well - Red is to Blue as Black is to White, &c. So the guilds which failed, more or less, suggest that things were missing from the concept of that colour at the time: Blue should be more like Green in some way, and so on.
That is very interesting way of looking at things and you brought up some good points. To me, the guild pairs that failed flavour-wise was just R/U, U/G, which goes to show that blue has trouble making sense with its enemy colours. The concepts between blue's heavy "thinking" flavour and those colours "instinct" (green) and "lack of forethought" (red) really is hard to pair up. In the future, if they are going to mix those two colours, they really need to do something better with them.
I don't usually like to participate in threads such as this one, but will do so in this situation.
I have always played black and always in a competitive way. The only two decks I ever played that had no black in them were Fires and Tinker. When Lorwyn came along, I stopped going to tournaments, and soon after that, stopped playing Magic altogether. The reason for that was not that black got bad cards, just that the reason I liked playing black was gone. It does not feel the way it did in the past. I'm not sure is it the story, the artwork or the effects themselves, but black just doesn't feel "bad" anymore.
Sure, nobody would be happier than me if they brought back Dark ritual and all the shiny black gems of yore we're all so fond of, but that's not the solution. Black needs to get in touch with itself again.
People keep mentioning Torment as the edition where black owned everything, but they forget the fact that MBC got wasted by Psychatog and usually by threshold decks (and often by Compost backed u/g madness as well) and that black aggro/braids got owned as soon as Phantom centaur, Glory and Brushhopper reared their ugly heads. Still, it was a fun ride because black was black and its effects were nasty.
I'm still following the latest editions to see if new cards can spur my interest again and so far, they didn't. Bitterblossom and Thoughtsieze are great cards, no doubt, but just feel wrong to me. I'm not debating here if white is better at removal, that's besides the point, white needed some boost and I'm glad it got it, I'm just saying that what people liked about black (and still do in older formats) is missing in standard.
Pardon the rant.
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The problem with black isn't that it's received the shaft, it's that the dynamics of the game have changed. Instead of making witty challenging cards that lead to game breaking, (memory jar, recurring nightmare), they have over tested every single card. I remember a few years ago when invasion was coming out, and I read an article by Mark Rosewater. He said they were beginning to figure out exactly what each color did, and break off magic towards that.
....Snip....
....Mono Black Control is dead....
....Snip....
I will agree with you that Mono Black Control is probably not the best deck to choose in most formats. However there are in point of fact other types of mono black decks that exist in the history of Magic the gathering.
Storm
Non-Suicide Aggro
Suicide Aggro
Stax
These just name a few examples of decks that do see play in the various constructed meta's around the world in the color of Black.
@ Zombiemachine: Black was never supposed to feal "Bad" or "Evil" sure there were cards that could be described as being evil. However that is due to the nature of black mana being the easiest to corrupt the people who manipulate it. However that does not mean that all people who practice Black magic are evil. Mark Rosewaters practical examples from modern contemporary media of people he considered to be "Black" included of all people, Daffy Duck, and Bart Simpson... would you consider either of those people to be "Evil"?
@ Zombiemachine: Black was never supposed to feal "Bad" or "Evil" sure there were cards that could be described as being evil. However that is due to the nature of black mana being the easiest to corrupt the people who manipulate it. However that does not mean that all people who practice Black magic are evil. Mark Rosewaters practical examples from modern contemporary media of people he considered to be "Black" included of all people, Daffy Duck, and Bart Simpson... would you consider either of those people to be "Evil"?
I don't care one bit for Rosewater's explanations for 5 year-olds, of course he's supposed to say that. I'm talking about the feel of the cards. A demon is evil and so is a necromancer. Not to mention effects such as mutilate or execute. Never saw Daffy mutilate a corpse of Bart execute a paladin.
I'm exaggerating, of course, but lately black feels just too weird to me, that's all.
P.S.
If someone told me to put a cc on an enchantment that produces flying tokens on your upkeep for the exchange of one life, I'd put it at UBG. How they came up with a cc of 1B for Bitterblossom is beyond me.
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I'm not sure where this whole argument that black is dying is coming from. A lot of the most powerful cards in standard are black, and some of the only cards seeing play in extended that are standard legal are black (BB, Thoughtseize, Profane Command, etc.)
Instead of making witty challenging cards that lead to game breaking, (memory jar, recurring nightmare), they have over tested every single card. it
This is insanity. Urza's Saga nearly destroyed the game entirely - the CEO called the entire R&D team into his office and yelled at them to get their act together before everyone quit over Combo Winter.
And giving one color the ability to do everything, whether through colored cards or artifacts, is also the path to certain destruction. It's both the opposite and counterpart of modern Reflecting Pool Standard.
That is very interesting way of looking at things and you brought up some good points. To me, the guild pairs that failed flavour-wise was just R/U, U/G, which goes to show that blue has trouble making sense with its enemy colours. The concepts between blue's heavy "thinking" flavour and those colours "instinct" (green) and "lack of forethought" (red) really is hard to pair up. In the future, if they are going to mix those two colours, they really need to do something better with them.
Funny, because Izzet was awesome. Simic never got to me. However, I think Eventide fixed the U/G funness.
Related to the overall issue of the thread, I think it's sort of natural for colors to go through power cycles. (If I'm not mistaken, green was a house in Odyssey. And again with the 'Goyf.) So do the cycles of aggro, control, and combo.
However, I don't think black is dead. Some cards shown in Alara (Nyxathid) might possibly find a home in Legacy/Vintage if not Standard or Extended. Bitterblossom is rampant.
Why can't black get a new card like Juzam Djinn?
Was it really that overpowered?
If you think about it... wasn't Korlash, Heir to Blackblade just as strong if not stronger?
I would love to see a new, beefy, mono-black creature that isn't overcosted and was actually something you'd be stupid not to play or build a deck around.
I also would like to see it too...
I thought Ashling, the Extinguisher would be a good card, a 4/4 for 4 Mana is quite interesting, but it is Legendary and her ability won't trigger almost any Time... So it is a simple 4/4 for 4 Mana and you can only have one in play at a Time...
Instead, Chameleon Colossus, is a 4/4 for 4 Mana with two extra abilities, one which prevents most of destroying effects not being able to destroy it and an activated ability which makes it even mightier...
I believe this is VERY unbalanced...
We need more efficient black creatures now
Even Sengir Vampire is not as strong as other good creatures in other colors. It has no drawback, but it is just a 4/4 Flying creature for 5 Mana which has an ability that does not trigger, or even less than Ashling
Quote:
Originally Posted by cheethorne Your proposal to give black back its fast mana with an additional cost of life highlights one of the worst aspects of this game (in my view): using life as a resource.
Your opinion that that is one of the worst aspects of the game, demonstrates your fundamental misunderstanding of how black works. When they say "anything at a cost" the primary cost they are talking about, is of course life points. Or creatures.
I also wanted to see that...
Imagine an Enchantment:
Sengir Ritual :symb::symb::symb:
Enchantment (Rare)
:symb:, Pay 1 Life: Add :symb::symb::symb:. You can only spend this mana to play black creature spells.
Cheethorne your point about life points as a resource falling only into black's slice of the pie is very true; but I don't believe you noticed one small thing. Every other color can do the same thing without special cards letting them. Every time some one attacks you and you could block but don't you are using your life total as a resource instead of your creature. When a burn spell comes your way and you decide not to counter it or turn on you CoP, you are using your life total as a resource. So really, one of black's only mechanics, is something everyone has acess to anytime they want.
Now, while we are talking about black's pie lets see what black does have:
Targeted removal? White does it better now.
Mass removal? White does it better.
Quick card drawing? Blue and Green are better.
Cheap creatures with drawbacks? White and Green do it better and without drawbacks.
Fast Mana? Only Red now.
Destroying permanets? White or Green
Tutoring? I think yes.
Flying Creatures? Third behind Blue then White
Discard? Yes.
Maybe now you can see why some people are a little worried that Black is getting weaker. How long until it is decided that maybe Blue should tutor instead and that red should make people discard better?
I don't think that will happen but I also didn't think Black would lose Dark Ritual and look where it is today.
I completely agree with you
Black is losing its skills and losing every set abilities which had before
Even now, people say that there are lots of good black creatures, but they are multi-colored, not monocolored, and they are used in other color decks, not in black ones
Im sick of hearing that its whites turn, there should be no turns for colors, ideally the colors would be equal, but seeing as that is unlikely because they are so different, im ok with black being a little weak. The biggest problem i have is black is losing some of its most defining characteristics, Bitterblossem does a nice job of showing black using a peice of itself to get an advantage, but it is not desiged to fit in any black deck, its designed for 2 decks, those that take advantage of lots of tokens, and those that profit from being able to put threats on the board without tapping lands. so while the flavor seems to be black, and the cost is black, it doesnt really enhance the power of black. Black had always been defined by 2 things, efficiency at a cost of itself, (see carnophage,phyrexian arena, and removal(i shouldnt have to go into examples). The problem is that black is being shafted on both of these. The old cards allowed black to get significant card advantage or speed and efficiency, things it normally wasnt able to get but needed for a price. Now Bitterblossem is giving it something black really shouldnt need for a price.
Black is also getting shown up in removal. Black has always been the universal color for killing, it at least had shriekmaw, and profane command in lorwyn, but morningtide really upstaged blacks ability to kill anything and made its main role obselete, then came persist and black was even more obselete, because even when it killed something, it came back. Now there are so many cards that are immune to blacks removal instead of the select few, such as paladin en-vec and white knight, that white, which has next to no cards protected from it, is able to be a much more efficient removal color. while condemn only affected attacking creatures showing whites protection of itself, path to exile allows white the ability to get rid of basically any creature at instant speed, the only reason terror was run in the current meta was to do that. O-ring has already upstaged any sorcery speed removal black has besides shriekmaw. the real problem black has is that the old way to not be hurt by black was to be black (dark banishing), now that so many cards are given protection from black and hybrids giving all colors access to the immunity of being black, black has been weakened, so i dont think black has been getting weaker cards, i just think the format has become one where there is more hate towards black than any other color.
I completely agree that there should not be "any color" turn
Everything should be balanced and equal
But black is geting less and less power...
I insist, I believe that the solution to this problem is having black creatures, with decent casting cost and without drawbacks, or maybe a little one but without making the card stink
Imagine Ashling, the Extinguisher with another ability "Pay 1 Life: Ashling, the Extinguisher gets Fear until end of turn", or even 2 Life points
Or a Sengir Vampire with Provoke or Protection from White
Yep, Nyxathid is one of those solid black cards we have been looking for. BlackDiscard.dec is definitely going to be an archetype once standard rotates.
Finally a good creature, but it has to be in a Discard deck, because its drawback could be a trouble...
You cannot cast it on the first turn with a Dark Ritual
Awesome, its nice to see other players doing things like that. I have seen way to many people turned away from the game by veterans who act all high and mighty. if the games gonna survive at all, we need to keep the new players.
I also do the same
My girlfriend now really likes Magic and I have made 3 or 4 more people play Magic in our group
We play a casual format, but I also complain that even in that format, Black has not got anything to be treated as a tier 1...
Most of it is green... Baron Sengir, come back, we need you ! (But with more power, the ability of Banshee's Blade and less casting Mana cost...)
I completely agree that there should not be "any color" turn
Everything should be balanced and equal
But black is geting less and less power...
I insist, I believe that the solution to this problem is having black creatures, with decent casting cost and without drawbacks, or maybe a little one but without making the card stink
Imagine Ashling, the Extinguisher with another ability "Pay 1 Life: Ashling, the Extinguisher gets Fear until end of turn", or even 2 Life points
Or a Sengir Vampire with Provoke or Protection from White
Normally you and I agree... not in this case my friend.
The colors CAN NOT be balanced and equal from set to set. It will NOT work unless everything is a cycle, and even than there are cards within a cycle that are better than others.
I actually don't think the problem with black lies in its creatures. Black has always had sub par creatures when compared to Green, White, and Red... but the difference is that Black has had the control cards to back them up. Right now Blacks biggest problem is that it can't get around protection, ala Chameleon Collossus, and it can't get around Persist. Maybe something more like this would bring back Black:
Desecration Bolt 1B
Instant
Desecration Bolt may target creatures with "Protection from Black"
Destroy Target creature, it can't be regenerated. You loos life equal to its toughness.
or something like:
Forsaken glade 2B
Enchantment
Whenever a creature comes into play, you may put a -1/-1 counter on that creature.
Those cards would get around blacks two big issues right now.
BTW I am still holding out for a return to Ulgrotha with ya!
I also would like to see it too...
I thought Ashling, the Extinguisher would be a good card, a 4/4 for 4 Mana is quite interesting, but it is Legendary and her ability won't trigger almost any Time... So it is a simple 4/4 for 4 Mana and you can only have one in play at a Time...
Instead, Chameleon Colossus, is a 4/4 for 4 Mana with two extra abilities, one which prevents most of destroying effects not being able to destroy it and an activated ability which makes it even mightier...
I believe this is VERY unbalanced...
We need more efficient black creatures now
Even Sengir Vampire is not as strong as other good creatures in other colors. It has no drawback, but it is just a 4/4 Flying creature for 5 Mana which has an ability that does not trigger, or even less than Ashling
I insist, I believe that the solution to this problem is having black creatures, with decent casting cost and without drawbacks, or maybe a little one but without making the card stink
Imagine Ashling, the Extinguisher with another ability "Pay 1 Life: Ashling, the Extinguisher gets Fear until end of turn", or even 2 Life points
Or a Sengir Vampire with Provoke or Protection from White
You do know that green is the best creature color right? While Chameleon Colossus is unfair to black in a format without edicts or damnation, powerwise it's not unusual for a green creature.
As to black creatures, they shouldn't be super efficient since in theory typically get the lower end when it comes to creature power, but I think tombstalker is a step in the right direction: a decent creature with a drawback. However, I certainly don't except black aggro decks to dominate the format based on creatures alone since other colors (green and white) typically have creatures which just plain outclass black. Black's strengths, in aggro decks anyway, lies in disruption rather than overall power.
We play a casual format, but I also complain that even in that format, Black has not got anything to be treated as a tier 1...
Most of it is green...
Are you serious? Don't know about your playgroup, but its not weird for black to dominate casual tables with stuff like cabal coffers, kokusho, the evening star, damnation, mindslicer, last laugh, grave pact, etc. Perhaps you should evaluate your own group compared to others before making any judgment calls.
Also, is it me or has every color been proclaimed dead this past year?
I don't think anyone has said that blue or red were dead.
However, there are two issues that are being discussed and confused. The first issue is whether a colour sees competitive play and the second issue is whether a colour's "theme's need to be improved or redefined.
Looking at the top 8 results, I think it is pretty clear that all colours are showing up in competitive decks (some more than others), so that leaves the second issue. People's complaints in this thread boil down to the fact that Black's traditional strengths of creature destruction don't work really well in this environment and that Black's occasional theme of aggressive creatures with drawbacks hasn't been focused on in quite a while.
Personally, I see nothing wrong with black getting played less right now since it has traditionally been one of the dominating colours and every colour should go through a down cycle just like every colour should see an up cycle. However, I do agree that black hasn't had a competitive aggro deck in a while and it would probably be a good time for WotC to start printing cards for such a thing.
Sorry, but gotta show the world that black doesn't quite have a monopoly on the discard market.
Yes, but none of the cards you mention are available in Standard, about half of them aren't even available for Extended. Three of those cards are from Planar Chaos, which purposely moved discard to blue to show a different interpretation of blue's card advantage (while straight card draw went to green's growth mechanic).
I really don't think you have much ground to stand on for the purposes of this discussion.
@Mr President:
That was just my idea, and is not a fail at game design, since there are cards that can only be used to cast elementals (Primal Beyond, Smokebraider) or creatures (The new land which gives you any color of mana, Ancient Ziggurat, and it is a land, better than an Enchantment)
Even planeswalkers can be considered a fail at game design, and now almost everybody has accepted them
But, as I have said, it is my idea, a twist in the game; as the R&D do to create new mechanics and cards. Maybe you like it, maybe you don't, but it is just an idea.
You might have not liked my post, but I only wanted to show my point of view as everybody does in these forums. Maybe it was quite long, but it was because I wanted to say a lot of things. Some posts are more boring than others, and some are more interesting than others; but it is only opinions of people and I think you do not have to tease about the opinions of others because they are as truthful as yours.
I have not posted my ideas to make you angry... But if you are, it is up to you to calm down
@White Magus:
The colors CAN NOT be balanced and equal from set to set. It will NOT work unless everything is a cycle, and even than there are cards within a cycle that are better than others.
You are right in this, colors cannot be balanced always and they have to rotate so everybody plays every color
Magic should be a rock-paper-scissor game, so nothing can beat all the others
If that would happen, everybody would play that strategy or deck and that would not be fun
I agree that also needs a good way to deal with protections or shroud...
It could be as Diabolic Edict, but better:
Super-Diabolic Edict :symb::symb: or :symb::symb::symb:
Instant
Choose a creature target player controls. That player sacrifices that creature.
That could be a solution to test
(Thank you for your support about Ulgrotha! I REALLY am looking forward to it... Maybe the end of Feroz's Ban is near...)
@Darth Bunny:
I know that green has the best creatures, but that does not mean that green will have ALWAYS the best creatures. I like Kokusho, the Evening Star, as you pointed; and also, Tombstalker (Has an interesting drawback, really, and I like it)
That is what I wanted to say, that black need its oportunity to have good creatures, useful, interesting, without drawback or with a drawback that (used wisely) could become an advantage (Hidden Horror + Zombify)
I believe black need this
You are right about my playgroup. I only know mine and that is my experience, so I wanted to share it with you. Surely there will be another groups in which black will be very good, but in mine, we are quite equalized (I am the one who uses black most of the Time) and black does not shine as you are telling me
Thanks a lot for the constructive answers, really
This way we can know more about the game and share our opinion about what does black need
Black has been getting the screws since damnation (it really didnt need that). But I think they will give us Mutilate and Carnophage in 11th alongside with Bad Moon;or else they will have to lose a people.
The thing is; with white so dominating right now, black will not be the thing it wants; which is everything except artifact/enchantment removal.
Black should get "remove target noncreature perm. from the gamne" at least for BBB ins.
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Wow, Desecration Bolt better than Terror AND Devor in Shadow? Um, no thanks.:o
I only hope White getting all the love is a sign that Damnation replaces *** in 11th, as Forsythe said it could. Then White would be fine to get all teh spot removal.
I think Mass Discard in the form of either Mind Sludge/Mind Shatter would be good to go in 11th. We can't reasonably expect to get mass card draw, removal and discard and not be broken. However 2/3 isn't unreasonable, with a preference for for dsicard/removal. 3rd for card draw and all...
Sorry, but gotta show the world that black doesn't quite have a monopoly on the discard market.
Cheethorne hit the main issues already with your examples (not standard legal, hence not in the modern pie, planar chaos shenanigans) but I'd like to throw in the fact that if lobotomy was printed today it'd be mono-black. R&D recently moved 'milling' to black, but more in a 'seek and destroy' way, the way lobotomy selects a card for total removal. Here's a chain of evolution:
Therefore, the modern day lobotomy should probably be:
Dissection :symb::symb::symb:
Sorcery
Target player reveals his or her hand, then you choose a card other than a basic land card from it. Search that player's graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with the same name as the chosen card and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
Actually, this 'milling' that black now has could be expanded on. What would you make of this:
Echoes of the Abyss :1mana::symb::symb:
Enchantment
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player chooses a card in his or her graveyard. That player removes the chosen card from the game and searches his or her graveyard, hand and library for all cards with the same name as the chosen card. Remove those cards from the game and that player shuffles his or her library.
black and whites main difference is that whites mass removal had always been a sign of ballence, which is why scourglass doesnt really capture white. blacks mass removal had been a sign of ruining, sickness, plague, ect. it was because of this that it was able to engineer a destructive plague that only destroyed your opponants creatures. black doesnt value its own creatures, or even its own soul. so destroying your own creatures at a cost to kill all the opponants seems reasonable if it saves you mana. what would be a very black wrath of god would be BBB destroy all creatures, lose X life, where x is 10 minus 2 for each creature you control that is destroyed by ~. efficient manawise at a great cost.
what really annoys me is that black is also the color of spot removal. it is shooting darkness through a creature, scaring them to death, banishing them in darkness, draining them of their life force. but white has been getting the removal that black deserves. swords to plowshares was never really white. if it was it would only affect their own creatures. taking a creature out with a drawback is not white at all. cards that affect combat, like condemn are different in that they either protect the caster or the casters creatures which white values. the biggest problem black is seeing is that black spot removal used to kill anything that wasnt black or artifact. then it killed everything that wasnt black artifact or white knight. then there was paladin en vec. and the biggest problem now, chameleon collosus. blacks removal spells (other than terror) seem to lack luster. Infest is a step in the right direction, but mutilate would have been more appropriate for black, (maybe not for this block but still). but even the best reanimation spell in standard (debatable) is revielark. white is getting better reanimation than black. (ok makeshift mannequin is really good but that doesnt seem black from a flavor standpoint. its more of a blue where they are playing a trick by using the dead creatures clothing.) black reanimation is zombify, dread return, torrent of souls.
what black really needs is wizards to look at mana costs as a color related idea. Black likes to keep to itself. we need more cards that reflect that and cost BBB or even make a BBBB card. power spells that reflect that to be used need a true heart of darkness. i mean look at green and white, colors of unity, they have many efficient cards with only 1 colored mana symbol because they get along with all the other colors so well. a creature can be green as long as it has a forest to come from. blue and red have some more restrictive costs like ball lightning and cryptic command, because blue isolates what it cant understand as something to study, but still accesses it. and red needs to be connected to chaotic mana to use its power. black though, is a color of isolation. and not in the white, i am safe here way, but in a i dont need this anymore. wizards needs to focus on making black evil and represent it as the source of power. conquerers, dictators, and modern politicians are black. what i think best embodies black is the article of nicol bolas. who cares if black shouldnt be able to get rid of enchantments, nicol bolas can because hes nicol freakin bolas. with enough power anything is possible, and i think that power is what wizards needs to tap into. let black have an ultimate power just force that power to come at a price. one of the biggest drawbacks black has faced, is wizards is learing that lifeloss isnt an adequate drawback for the power black is entitled to. necropotence let life loss correspond with enormous card advantage. without life to draw its power from black has been weakend. let black spells have alternate drawbacks, like arc sloggers ability. tapping into limited resources is very black, we just assume our goal will be done by the time we run out. the library is a resource that hasnt been used much before and it seems black to me to be sacrificing its own thoughts and memories for power.
what really annoys me is that black is also the color of spot removal. it is shooting darkness through a creature, scaring them to death, banishing them in darkness, draining them of their life force. but white has been getting the removal that black deserves.
swords to plowshares was never really white. if it was it would only affect their own creatures. taking a creature out with a drawback is not white at all.
Just wrong. White doesn't get "destroy" target creature, but "remove from game" target creature is perfectly within White's color pie and always has been. It's just getting a lot more use recently that it used to.
The context you're explaining under...does it fall under Standard or under Legacy/Vintage? In Legacy and Vintage, Black is one of the strongest colours around. Then again the card pool is so large and diverse, so there's no arguing that. But If you're talking Extended, the card choice gets more limited. The further down the scale you go, the more one scrutinizes - or is forced to scrutinize - the resources available.
Black itself is sort of a conflicting example given that it has had a big boost recently due to cards like Profane Command and Bitterblossom, among other things. But in comparison to other Standards in history, those cards are relatively weak.
Cards like Braids, Cabal Minion, Mutilate, Yawgmoth's Will, Phyrexian Negator et al all contribute largely to formats even outside of their Standard ones. They were the reason why MBC was so powerful. Duress contributed a lot to this too, as did Hymn to Tourach and its lesser cousin, Stupor. But once these "staples" left T2, black's descent was inevitable. Just like when white lost Armageddon...Look how long it took for white to have its place in the sun again?
Bitterblossom may have a chance of making it into Legacy or Vintage but for the most part it won't have the impact that cards like Will or Negator, even Arena, made once they were in T2 and beyond.
Every colour has a cycle. Tarmogoyf was the one and probably sole reason for green's resurgence in recent years. It even replaced Werebear in traditional Threshold and T1 decks. Shucks I think it's even replaced Morphling in some occasions too. Yet there was a time when green was the little guy on the pole and everyone kepy flogging it with their black- or blue-studded boots as it was an easy target. Now it's completely reversed.
Black is just going through one of those cycles. White is finally getting its due and it has every right to feel this way. Black will be that little guy on the pole who people kick with their white-, green- and red-studded boots for the time being.
The problem with black isn't that it's received the shaft, it's that the dynamics of the game have changed. Instead of making witty challenging cards that lead to game breaking, (memory jar, recurring nightmare), they have over tested every single card. I remember a few years ago when invasion was coming out, and I read an article by Mark Rosewater. He said they were beginning to figure out exactly what each color did, and break off magic towards that.
Anyways, some may think they changed that when they did the shifted cards, (damnation, green ball, etc), however in reality they were fitting for the colors and did very little to change anything, (except damnation). However, I am saying it all changed when they drew direct lines as to which color did what, and the hyper-testing they have done with cards. Also, the increase in mana curves to slow down the game. Yes, ever since invasion cards have become better and better with less and less fodder cards, (anyone remember when they thought healing salve was the answer to dark ritual or lightning bolt?).
So where does this leave black? Well, the black most of us love is simply dead. Black drew in a fanbase, because it was the "do everything" color. It had combos, aggro, control, and more. You could do anything with the color. However, I could essentially say that with any color in magic. With the standardization of colors this lead to color bleeding to get a desired affect. Another MAJOR problem, is the lack of artifacts that can bridge this divide. Remember, before any sort of infest or anything, all black had was Nevinyarral's Disk. The only problem with this and splashing, is MBC is notorious for relying off of a complete black manabase, and wizards considers artifacts like the disk to be too powerful anymore. Lastly, and the biggest killer is the increase of the mana curve. MBC became an icon in magic, because it controlled, and it did it on turn 1 with that first turn duress. Turn 3 you set down your necroho, and on turn 4 you set down your disk; basically saying "do what you want". This means by turn 4 the opponent is on the defensive. Think of it like a boxing match; when the bell rings, you come out with hard hitting and connecting punches. You exert little energy, but do a lot of damage. By round four, your opponent is tired and on the defensive, while you are setting up for that last punch to put him on the mat. Now lets take contemporary MBC, (torment MBC onwards). For the first four rounds you do everything you can to dodge punches and block. You begin a counter-war against your opponent; innocent blooding their llanowar elf, or duressing their best spell. Your opponent has little-to no damage on him, and on turn four you try to put yourself in a position where you are less exhausted than your opponent. Now, imagine MBC in the current metagame, and removing all of those counters you had :).
So I'm basically saying old black MBC is dead. Contemporary MBC is also probably dead for a while until they release 11th with a crapload of "life support" cards. That means in the meantime a color you can't do squat with, but comes with some powerhouse cards that you splash for. MBC died with Torment, (last time MBC was a staple for tier 1), while oldschool "do anything" MBC died with Bauble. The simple physics of the game negate the idea of a single color doing "everything". For the phoenix to rise from the ashes, the following would need to occour:
FOR BORING MBC (limited builds, very little diversity)
- sweepers (mutilate, damnation, disk, etc)
- card advantage (arena, necroho, whatever)
- acceleration, (cabal coffers)
-1-3cc curve mbc cards, (innocent blood, edict, early game defenses. This is the main reason why mbc can't exist, because beater decks just roll over it the first 4-5 rounds and mbc is forced to play catchup the rest of the game)
This will give the ability for MBC players to have a snowball's chance against all of the fast decks out there who can play silver-bullet cards under their radar. The thought of ploppin down a bitterblossum against MBC is pretty gruesome in my mind... Even with these, I highly doubt a tier 1 MBC deck will arise, because it will be so focused on set cards only a handful will be switched between decks, and any fast RDW-esque deck will destroy it.
For REAL MBC
-REDUXION IN CURVE TO 2-3 with higher quality cheap control spells (this is the main component new MBC is simply wayyyyy too slow)
- board sweepers, (disk, something that can deal with artifacts and enchantments) that cost no more than 5
- c advantage
- mana acceleration
- GRAVEYARD SPELL RECURSION, (this is a long-standing tradition from feldon's cane to nether spirit, and yawgmoth's will.)
REAL MBC is not nessisaraly control, it's utility. MBC is about versitility. Low curves mean the deck can assert control before anything can happen, and midrange sweepers can clean up the scraps. mana acceleration helps this, and EARLY acceleration actually helps the deck. Late game acceleration, (cabal coffers), while great is really just an added gravy, because black already has enough late game bomb cards to seal the deal. It helps with lowering the curve, but cheap good control cards, (sinkhole, hymm, etc), would be enough.
With these, you can get a nice tier 1 deck that can probably fight off anything that would come along. It would have enough lee-way to go between ultra control, (hymms and sink), or ultra aggro, (carnophage, doofie slayer)
Graveyard spell recursion..... ahh, a concept that I miss, and has been overlooked due to it's "brokeness". Also it's been more relicated to green. Spell recursion would really push it over the edge. It adds to the toolbox that black needs to really dominate. I don't mean something like Yawgmoth's Will, but something like this would do:
BBB
Yawgmoth's Poo
Enchantment
Remove " Poo from the game, return target card from your graveyard to your hand.
It would add a whole new element to the deck that would make me start playin again.... Anyways, sorry for my long post, I just am passionate about it
That is very interesting way of looking at things and you brought up some good points. To me, the guild pairs that failed flavour-wise was just R/U, U/G, which goes to show that blue has trouble making sense with its enemy colours. The concepts between blue's heavy "thinking" flavour and those colours "instinct" (green) and "lack of forethought" (red) really is hard to pair up. In the future, if they are going to mix those two colours, they really need to do something better with them.
I have always played black and always in a competitive way. The only two decks I ever played that had no black in them were Fires and Tinker. When Lorwyn came along, I stopped going to tournaments, and soon after that, stopped playing Magic altogether. The reason for that was not that black got bad cards, just that the reason I liked playing black was gone. It does not feel the way it did in the past. I'm not sure is it the story, the artwork or the effects themselves, but black just doesn't feel "bad" anymore.
Sure, nobody would be happier than me if they brought back Dark ritual and all the shiny black gems of yore we're all so fond of, but that's not the solution. Black needs to get in touch with itself again.
People keep mentioning Torment as the edition where black owned everything, but they forget the fact that MBC got wasted by Psychatog and usually by threshold decks (and often by Compost backed u/g madness as well) and that black aggro/braids got owned as soon as Phantom centaur, Glory and Brushhopper reared their ugly heads. Still, it was a fun ride because black was black and its effects were nasty.
I'm still following the latest editions to see if new cards can spur my interest again and so far, they didn't. Bitterblossom and Thoughtsieze are great cards, no doubt, but just feel wrong to me. I'm not debating here if white is better at removal, that's besides the point, white needed some boost and I'm glad it got it, I'm just saying that what people liked about black (and still do in older formats) is missing in standard.
Pardon the rant.
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I will agree with you that Mono Black Control is probably not the best deck to choose in most formats. However there are in point of fact other types of mono black decks that exist in the history of Magic the gathering.
Storm
Non-Suicide Aggro
Suicide Aggro
Stax
These just name a few examples of decks that do see play in the various constructed meta's around the world in the color of Black.
@ Zombiemachine: Black was never supposed to feal "Bad" or "Evil" sure there were cards that could be described as being evil. However that is due to the nature of black mana being the easiest to corrupt the people who manipulate it. However that does not mean that all people who practice Black magic are evil. Mark Rosewaters practical examples from modern contemporary media of people he considered to be "Black" included of all people, Daffy Duck, and Bart Simpson... would you consider either of those people to be "Evil"?
I don't care one bit for Rosewater's explanations for 5 year-olds, of course he's supposed to say that. I'm talking about the feel of the cards. A demon is evil and so is a necromancer. Not to mention effects such as mutilate or execute. Never saw Daffy mutilate a corpse of Bart execute a paladin.
I'm exaggerating, of course, but lately black feels just too weird to me, that's all.
P.S.
If someone told me to put a cc on an enchantment that produces flying tokens on your upkeep for the exchange of one life, I'd put it at UBG. How they came up with a cc of 1B for Bitterblossom is beyond me.
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techoverrated.This is insanity. Urza's Saga nearly destroyed the game entirely - the CEO called the entire R&D team into his office and yelled at them to get their act together before everyone quit over Combo Winter.
And giving one color the ability to do everything, whether through colored cards or artifacts, is also the path to certain destruction. It's both the opposite and counterpart of modern Reflecting Pool Standard.
Funny, because Izzet was awesome. Simic never got to me. However, I think Eventide fixed the U/G funness.
Related to the overall issue of the thread, I think it's sort of natural for colors to go through power cycles. (If I'm not mistaken, green was a house in Odyssey. And again with the 'Goyf.) So do the cycles of aggro, control, and combo.
However, I don't think black is dead. Some cards shown in Alara (Nyxathid) might possibly find a home in Legacy/Vintage if not Standard or Extended. Bitterblossom is rampant.
I also would like to see it too...
I thought Ashling, the Extinguisher would be a good card, a 4/4 for 4 Mana is quite interesting, but it is Legendary and her ability won't trigger almost any Time... So it is a simple 4/4 for 4 Mana and you can only have one in play at a Time...
Instead, Chameleon Colossus, is a 4/4 for 4 Mana with two extra abilities, one which prevents most of destroying effects not being able to destroy it and an activated ability which makes it even mightier...
I believe this is VERY unbalanced...
We need more efficient black creatures now
Even Sengir Vampire is not as strong as other good creatures in other colors. It has no drawback, but it is just a 4/4 Flying creature for 5 Mana which has an ability that does not trigger, or even less than Ashling
I also wanted to see that...
Imagine an Enchantment:
That would be a great Mana engine for black
I completely agree with you
Black is losing its skills and losing every set abilities which had before
Even now, people say that there are lots of good black creatures, but they are multi-colored, not monocolored, and they are used in other color decks, not in black ones
I completely agree that there should not be "any color" turn
Everything should be balanced and equal
But black is geting less and less power...
I insist, I believe that the solution to this problem is having black creatures, with decent casting cost and without drawbacks, or maybe a little one but without making the card stink
Imagine Ashling, the Extinguisher with another ability "Pay 1 Life: Ashling, the Extinguisher gets Fear until end of turn", or even 2 Life points
Or a Sengir Vampire with Provoke or Protection from White
Finally a good creature, but it has to be in a Discard deck, because its drawback could be a trouble...
You cannot cast it on the first turn with a Dark Ritual
I also do the same
My girlfriend now really likes Magic and I have made 3 or 4 more people play Magic in our group
We play a casual format, but I also complain that even in that format, Black has not got anything to be treated as a tier 1...
Most of it is green...
Baron Sengir, come back, we need you ! (But with more power, the ability of Banshee's Blade and less casting Mana cost...)
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You should have just written "I fail at game design" and spared us that three-page wall of text.
Normally you and I agree... not in this case my friend.
The colors CAN NOT be balanced and equal from set to set. It will NOT work unless everything is a cycle, and even than there are cards within a cycle that are better than others.
I actually don't think the problem with black lies in its creatures. Black has always had sub par creatures when compared to Green, White, and Red... but the difference is that Black has had the control cards to back them up. Right now Blacks biggest problem is that it can't get around protection, ala Chameleon Collossus, and it can't get around Persist. Maybe something more like this would bring back Black:
Desecration Bolt 1B
Instant
Desecration Bolt may target creatures with "Protection from Black"
Destroy Target creature, it can't be regenerated. You loos life equal to its toughness.
or something like:
Forsaken glade 2B
Enchantment
Whenever a creature comes into play, you may put a -1/-1 counter on that creature.
Those cards would get around blacks two big issues right now.
BTW I am still holding out for a return to Ulgrotha with ya!
RB Olivia Voldaren RB
GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons GB
BWR Queen Marchesa BWR
RW Anya, Merciless Angel RW
UW Bruna, Light of Alabaster UW
UB Wydwen, The Biting Gale UB
GU Momir Vig, simic visionary GU
WG Karametra, God of Harvests WG
WUBSydri, Galvanic GeniusWUB
You do know that green is the best creature color right? While Chameleon Colossus is unfair to black in a format without edicts or damnation, powerwise it's not unusual for a green creature.
As to black creatures, they shouldn't be super efficient since in theory typically get the lower end when it comes to creature power, but I think tombstalker is a step in the right direction: a decent creature with a drawback. However, I certainly don't except black aggro decks to dominate the format based on creatures alone since other colors (green and white) typically have creatures which just plain outclass black. Black's strengths, in aggro decks anyway, lies in disruption rather than overall power.
Are you serious? Don't know about your playgroup, but its not weird for black to dominate casual tables with stuff like cabal coffers, kokusho, the evening star, damnation, mindslicer, last laugh, grave pact, etc. Perhaps you should evaluate your own group compared to others before making any judgment calls.
Also, is it me or has every color been proclaimed dead this past year?
Thanks WotC.
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I don't think anyone has said that blue or red were dead.
However, there are two issues that are being discussed and confused. The first issue is whether a colour sees competitive play and the second issue is whether a colour's "theme's need to be improved or redefined.
Looking at the top 8 results, I think it is pretty clear that all colours are showing up in competitive decks (some more than others), so that leaves the second issue. People's complaints in this thread boil down to the fact that Black's traditional strengths of creature destruction don't work really well in this environment and that Black's occasional theme of aggressive creatures with drawbacks hasn't been focused on in quite a while.
Personally, I see nothing wrong with black getting played less right now since it has traditionally been one of the dominating colours and every colour should go through a down cycle just like every colour should see an up cycle. However, I do agree that black hasn't had a competitive aggro deck in a while and it would probably be a good time for WotC to start printing cards for such a thing.
Ehhhh, not quite... almost there, but not quite. Blue is now in the runnings for discard. One can almost make an entirely blue discard deck, with the classic amnesia, probe, wistful thinking, windfall, dismal failure, piracy charm, venarian glimmer, and wheel and deal, not to mention gold cards like lobotomy.
Sorry, but gotta show the world that black doesn't quite have a monopoly on the discard market.
Yes, but none of the cards you mention are available in Standard, about half of them aren't even available for Extended. Three of those cards are from Planar Chaos, which purposely moved discard to blue to show a different interpretation of blue's card advantage (while straight card draw went to green's growth mechanic).
I really don't think you have much ground to stand on for the purposes of this discussion.
That was just my idea, and is not a fail at game design, since there are cards that can only be used to cast elementals (Primal Beyond, Smokebraider) or creatures (The new land which gives you any color of mana, Ancient Ziggurat, and it is a land, better than an Enchantment)
Even planeswalkers can be considered a fail at game design, and now almost everybody has accepted them
But, as I have said, it is my idea, a twist in the game; as the R&D do to create new mechanics and cards. Maybe you like it, maybe you don't, but it is just an idea.
You might have not liked my post, but I only wanted to show my point of view as everybody does in these forums. Maybe it was quite long, but it was because I wanted to say a lot of things. Some posts are more boring than others, and some are more interesting than others; but it is only opinions of people and I think you do not have to tease about the opinions of others because they are as truthful as yours.
I have not posted my ideas to make you angry... But if you are, it is up to you to calm down
@White Magus:
You are right in this, colors cannot be balanced always and they have to rotate so everybody plays every color
Magic should be a rock-paper-scissor game, so nothing can beat all the others
If that would happen, everybody would play that strategy or deck and that would not be fun
I agree that also needs a good way to deal with protections or shroud...
It could be as Diabolic Edict, but better:
Super-Diabolic Edict :symb::symb: or :symb::symb::symb:
Instant
Choose a creature target player controls. That player sacrifices that creature.
That could be a solution to test
(Thank you for your support about Ulgrotha! I REALLY am looking forward to it... Maybe the end of Feroz's Ban is near...)
@Darth Bunny:
I know that green has the best creatures, but that does not mean that green will have ALWAYS the best creatures. I like Kokusho, the Evening Star, as you pointed; and also, Tombstalker (Has an interesting drawback, really, and I like it)
That is what I wanted to say, that black need its oportunity to have good creatures, useful, interesting, without drawback or with a drawback that (used wisely) could become an advantage (Hidden Horror + Zombify)
I believe black need this
You are right about my playgroup. I only know mine and that is my experience, so I wanted to share it with you. Surely there will be another groups in which black will be very good, but in mine, we are quite equalized (I am the one who uses black most of the Time) and black does not shine as you are telling me
Thanks a lot for the constructive answers, really
This way we can know more about the game and share our opinion about what does black need
Keep it up and have a nice day
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The thing is; with white so dominating right now, black will not be the thing it wants; which is everything except artifact/enchantment removal.
Black should get "remove target noncreature perm. from the gamne" at least for BBB ins.
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I only hope White getting all the love is a sign that Damnation replaces *** in 11th, as Forsythe said it could. Then White would be fine to get all teh spot removal.
I think Mass Discard in the form of either Mind Sludge/Mind Shatter would be good to go in 11th. We can't reasonably expect to get mass card draw, removal and discard and not be broken. However 2/3 isn't unreasonable, with a preference for for dsicard/removal. 3rd for card draw and all...
Cheethorne hit the main issues already with your examples (not standard legal, hence not in the modern pie, planar chaos shenanigans) but I'd like to throw in the fact that if lobotomy was printed today it'd be mono-black. R&D recently moved 'milling' to black, but more in a 'seek and destroy' way, the way lobotomy selects a card for total removal. Here's a chain of evolution:
Haunting Echoes, Cranial Extraction, Neverending Torment, Dimir Machinations, Thoughtpicker Witch, Bitter Ordeal, Earwig Squad, etc.
Therefore, the modern day lobotomy should probably be:
Dissection :symb::symb::symb:
Sorcery
Target player reveals his or her hand, then you choose a card other than a basic land card from it. Search that player's graveyard, hand, and library for all cards with the same name as the chosen card and remove them from the game. Then that player shuffles his or her library.
Actually, this 'milling' that black now has could be expanded on. What would you make of this:
Echoes of the Abyss :1mana::symb::symb:
Enchantment
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player chooses a card in his or her graveyard. That player removes the chosen card from the game and searches his or her graveyard, hand and library for all cards with the same name as the chosen card. Remove those cards from the game and that player shuffles his or her library.
what really annoys me is that black is also the color of spot removal. it is shooting darkness through a creature, scaring them to death, banishing them in darkness, draining them of their life force. but white has been getting the removal that black deserves. swords to plowshares was never really white. if it was it would only affect their own creatures. taking a creature out with a drawback is not white at all. cards that affect combat, like condemn are different in that they either protect the caster or the casters creatures which white values. the biggest problem black is seeing is that black spot removal used to kill anything that wasnt black or artifact. then it killed everything that wasnt black artifact or white knight. then there was paladin en vec. and the biggest problem now, chameleon collosus. blacks removal spells (other than terror) seem to lack luster. Infest is a step in the right direction, but mutilate would have been more appropriate for black, (maybe not for this block but still). but even the best reanimation spell in standard (debatable) is revielark. white is getting better reanimation than black. (ok makeshift mannequin is really good but that doesnt seem black from a flavor standpoint. its more of a blue where they are playing a trick by using the dead creatures clothing.) black reanimation is zombify, dread return, torrent of souls.
what black really needs is wizards to look at mana costs as a color related idea. Black likes to keep to itself. we need more cards that reflect that and cost BBB or even make a BBBB card. power spells that reflect that to be used need a true heart of darkness. i mean look at green and white, colors of unity, they have many efficient cards with only 1 colored mana symbol because they get along with all the other colors so well. a creature can be green as long as it has a forest to come from. blue and red have some more restrictive costs like ball lightning and cryptic command, because blue isolates what it cant understand as something to study, but still accesses it. and red needs to be connected to chaotic mana to use its power. black though, is a color of isolation. and not in the white, i am safe here way, but in a i dont need this anymore. wizards needs to focus on making black evil and represent it as the source of power. conquerers, dictators, and modern politicians are black. what i think best embodies black is the article of nicol bolas. who cares if black shouldnt be able to get rid of enchantments, nicol bolas can because hes nicol freakin bolas. with enough power anything is possible, and i think that power is what wizards needs to tap into. let black have an ultimate power just force that power to come at a price. one of the biggest drawbacks black has faced, is wizards is learing that lifeloss isnt an adequate drawback for the power black is entitled to. necropotence let life loss correspond with enormous card advantage. without life to draw its power from black has been weakend. let black spells have alternate drawbacks, like arc sloggers ability. tapping into limited resources is very black, we just assume our goal will be done by the time we run out. the library is a resource that hasnt been used much before and it seems black to me to be sacrificing its own thoughts and memories for power.
It irks me that white would get this much good spot removal....I want alara to be finished so maro can show us what he has been working on.
My H/W list
Just wrong. White doesn't get "destroy" target creature, but "remove from game" target creature is perfectly within White's color pie and always has been. It's just getting a lot more use recently that it used to.
Black itself is sort of a conflicting example given that it has had a big boost recently due to cards like Profane Command and Bitterblossom, among other things. But in comparison to other Standards in history, those cards are relatively weak.
Cards like Braids, Cabal Minion, Mutilate, Yawgmoth's Will, Phyrexian Negator et al all contribute largely to formats even outside of their Standard ones. They were the reason why MBC was so powerful. Duress contributed a lot to this too, as did Hymn to Tourach and its lesser cousin, Stupor. But once these "staples" left T2, black's descent was inevitable. Just like when white lost Armageddon...Look how long it took for white to have its place in the sun again?
Bitterblossom may have a chance of making it into Legacy or Vintage but for the most part it won't have the impact that cards like Will or Negator, even Arena, made once they were in T2 and beyond.
Every colour has a cycle. Tarmogoyf was the one and probably sole reason for green's resurgence in recent years. It even replaced Werebear in traditional Threshold and T1 decks. Shucks I think it's even replaced Morphling in some occasions too. Yet there was a time when green was the little guy on the pole and everyone kepy flogging it with their black- or blue-studded boots as it was an easy target. Now it's completely reversed.
Black is just going through one of those cycles. White is finally getting its due and it has every right to feel this way. Black will be that little guy on the pole who people kick with their white-, green- and red-studded boots for the time being.
'buster
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.