Exsanguinate
gets my vote. That card blows my mind. As per usual, here's my take on how the set affects Black:
Blistergrub
A mindly evasive beater with a semi-relevant ability. Pretty weak overall, much like
Infectious Horror
is. Not really worth using.
Carnifex Demon
This is a very intriguing card, and it falls very much in line with what Black mages want to accomplish. It's very agressively costed at 6 mana, as the card itself is essentially a 6/6 flyer. The obviously synergy is with Proliferate, turning him into a walking
Mutilate
essentially, and he combos amazingly well himself. With 2 of these out, you can wipe the board every turn.However, I think his best home will be in Wither decks featuring
Necroskitter
,
Crumbling Ashes
,
Kulrath Knight
, etc. He's
Midnight Banshee
5-8 in my mind. Not a game breaker, but he'll certainly find homes around the kitchen table.
Exsanguinate
O.O Wow. Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow. I've been championing
Bond of Agony
on these forums for the better part of a year now stating how good it is as a finisher. This card... blows my freaking mind. I really can't even compare it to
Syphon Soul
or
Blood Tithe
because it's a joke to even try to. Every Black player NEEDS 4 of these because every multiplayer Black deck or every deck even playing Black should seriously consider running these monsters. It doesn't even target so say good bye to
Ivory Mask
decks running you over. Pick these things up! When your friends buy boxes and have tons of extra uncommons, ask for these. This card in the single best money investment and wholly worth buying. I wish I had something really insightful to say about this card, but it's just sheer power. It's one of those absurd
Balance
-esque spells that is just devastating no matter what. I'm just shocked that Wizards actually printed this, because it's going to break my big mana,
Maga, Traitor to Mortals
EDH deck in half.
Geth, Lord of the Vault
This is the kind of card that will likely get hated out and unceremoniously killed on sight, and the high mana cost and no protection really doesn't dissuade that course of action. Still, it's an evasive beater with an incredible ability that can allow it to single handidly win games. EDH players in particular know how much artifact acceleration is used, and reviving that and then reviving an army will just make this guy a must have for Black EDH decks.
Cabal Coffers
,
Nirkana Revenant
and much more can all allow Black mages to generate enormous sums of mana, and so this monster has so much potential. The strongest thing that this card has going for it, in my mind, is that it's a zombie. I say that because if you don't have 100 ways of reviving him, like
Lord of the Undead
or
Unholy Grotto
+
Graveborn Muse
, backed up by say
Oversold Cemetery
and maybe
Phyrexian Reclamation
, he's never going to stay in play long enough to do anything. Zombies also have lots of relevant lords to reduce his mana cost and buff his p/t, making him that much harder to kill and also that much of a stronger beater (he is a 5/5 with evasion for 6 after all).
Ichor Rats
Very strong candidate for any poison counter, proliferate based deck. More often than not this card will come down, start the poison counter madness, and then scare off potential attacks with that 2 power + Infect.If nothing else it'll trade and/or cripple something trying to mess with you.
Painful Quandary
This is one of those cards that I'm torn on. Usually when I read a Black card, I can instantly tell if I'll love it or hate it for multiplayer. That wasn't the case for this one. I know it may seem like an obvious multiplayer bomb, but it's really not. If you like it for the discard, why not use
Oppression
instead? If you like it for the life loss, why not use say
Quest for the Nihil Stone
and such that punish people for having no cards in hand? I guess I've always hated choice, and this is a card that let's your opponent decide their own fate. I think that I would have preferred a card that cost 4 mana and only caused 3 life loss or something similar. At 5 mana, it feels too slow to really be a game breaker, especially since you can't pick the effect you'll be getting. I can't say it's a bad card, but I think it'll be an overhyped card that won't see much play in the long run.
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
This is, in my opinion, the gem of set for Black. It's given it an entirely new tool in the form of a fearsome dragon that oozes flavor. Before I even discuss the card's abilities, just look at the basics. It's a 5 mana 4/4 flying with Infect. That is fearsome. This creature kills in 3 attacks, even though it's only going to be 2 for all intents and purposes. Proliferate and such will always take care of the last 2 counters. At 5 mana, in a color with
Dark Ritual
, that is INSANE. Imagine powering him out on turn 3 and killing someone by turn 5 or so. You've committed nothing and already taken someone out. That's just where it starts though, because the card only gets better from here. For a single black mana, we can give this guy haste! Some people will look at this and think "so what, it just means that on turn 6 and on he has haste?" No! We are playing Black, and Black has by far the best revival in the game. Be it
Oversold Cemetery
or
Phyrexian Reclamation
, we can revive this badboy every time he's killed and swing with our hasted, 2-3 hit killing machine! You want to block him? So be it, you get -4/-4 forever, so if you're not dead, you're crippled. In Proliferate decks this may as well be an instant kill. Now, conceivably a creature like
Baneslayer Angel
could have blocked and killed this guy with First Strike, but that's where his last ability comes into play. For 2 mana we can regenrate him too? Are you insane? There's almost nothing out there that do anything to stop this monster. Sure,
Commander Eesha
, but let's get real. This is the kind of card that break playgroups, because suddenly the people who gain infinite life and play
Wrath of God
look at this card and cry when they realize that it gets past everything. You will see this creature as an EDH general and you will see him at your kitchen table games, because this is something altogether special from what Black has seen before.
Argentum Armor
,
Steel Hellkite
,
Ratchet Bomb
,
Lux Cannon
Anytime there's an artifact that can destroy artifacts and/or enchantments, I consider it to be a good card for Black. It's so hard to do that without blowing up the world, as we see in
All is Dust
,
Oblivion Stone
, etc. This card gives you the option to destroy say
Ivory Mask
, but not your own
Necropotence
, which I like a lot. It's something to keep in your pocket.
Chimeric Mass
Beautiful, beautiful card for black mages. It's so easy to lay this card down at 5 counters or so and simply
Pox
and
Smallpox
everyone's lands away while you beat away with your 5/5 fueled by a
Charcoal Diamond
/ The problem with old cards like
Chimeric Idol
was that they needed tons of mana at all times, and so black mages couldn't
Death Cloud
everyone's lands away and then use them to win. This one only needs 1 mana, and so you can make it huge with
Cabal Coffers
, and even if you lose all your lands, by your own hand or not (
Balance
getting you down?), you can still swing with a gargantuan creature.
Clone Shell
Wanna cheat
Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
into play?
Clone Shell
+
Vampiric Tutor
/
Cruel Tutor
/
Liliana Vess
/
Insidious Dreams
/
Sensei's Divining Top
/
Crystal Ball
... you get the idea. It's so easy to stack your deck playing Black and use this Clone to cheat your your most powerful creature into play.
Contagion Clasp
+
Contagion Engine
+
Throne of Geth
These are the perfect cards for your Black wither decks featuring
Crumbling Ashes
,
Midnight Banshee
,
Necroskitter
, etc. They're both proliferate engines and both help with the -1/-1 counter theme. They're obvious great for poison counter decks too, and can make lowly creatures like
Ichor Rats
game enders after a few turns. It's always nice to help your
Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
kill in 2 hits instead of 3, if you can't find a good way to constantly boost his power to at least 5.
Platinum Emperion
Well, it lets
Ad Nauseam
draw your entire deck if you want, but makes cards like
Yawgmoth's Bargain
useless. Overall not a very good card. I just want to say how much I dislike cards like this and
Platinum Angel
, especially in black decks, and that I don't suggest using them.
Venser's Journal
Necropotence
and
Yawgmoth's Bargain
both say hello. A must have for every Black mage.
Wurmcoil Engine
Other than being an auto include in every EDH deck, just remember how powerful this card is with revival in general.
Phyrexian Reclamation
will cost you 2 life to revive what? 9 life worth of lifelink power? This is just an insane card for every color, but it's even more insane if you can revive it every turn.