The other articles in this series are as follows: Artifacts, White, Green, Red and Blue.
There is always ONE colour in each set that gets the short end of the stick, the wooden spoon or the rubber duck; and this time around it's black's turn. Last time black got the shaft was in Odyssey and you all know what happened next, so can we expect Dark Steel to be black's set? Somehow I doubt it, although things can't get much worse. The biggest problem with black is its creatures - most of them have a toughness of 1 and are expensive for what they do. Combine this with the distinct lack of artifact removal and shazam! you have some real shite.
But hey! things can't be that bad I hear you say? Well they are, in fact the only redeemable feature is you can splash Terror, but in case you haven't noticed already there are a lot of artifact creatures in Mirrodin. So someone has to draft black on a table, but how do you draft it? Is it worth trying to go mono, or work out which colours are better suited to pair it up with?
It's pretty easy to work out when to start drafting black - usually when you find the Consume Spirits and Terrors left alongside cards like Loxodon Mender, Battlegrowth and Lumengrid Warden. I don't like mono black simply because of the lack of artifact destruction - I once drafted a pretty solid mono deck with 4 Consume Spirits, 3 Shriekers, multiple Terrors etc but lost when my opponent played back to back Sun Droplets. So, with that in mind, it's almost vital for any black based deck to play artifact removal, making B/G and B/R good pairings. B/U can be good but you really need to draft a tempo deck with a lot of bounce and/or counters to make it work, taking cards like Regress, Annul and Override a little higher than normal.
With all of that waffle out of the way here is how the commons shape up:
1. Terror
2. Consume Spirit
3. Nim Shrieker
4. Pewter Golem
5. Irradiate
6. Moriok Scavenger
7. Wail of the Nim
1. Terror
Even though Mirrodin has a lot of artifact creatures this old staple is still very useful. Fangren Hunter, Spikeshot Goblin, Tel-Jilad Archers and equipped Skyhunter Cubs will ruin your day and Terror stops all of those creatures in their tracks. However it is black's only first pick common and even then I would consider taking artifact removal over it (this obviously does not include rares/uncommons) as you will often get passed these in multiples in future packs. Dark Banishing it isn't, but for 2 mana this is still very good.
2. Consume Spirit
I don't like the fact that this is black's second best commmon and I am even inclined to rank the Shrieker and Golem over this but it is removal and can often swing the tide of the game. It goes without saying that you need a fair few swamps to make this really effective - 10 should be the bare minimum. These come around the table fairly late so it is hard to assign a pick order but if you are playing black you should be able to pick up at least two of these.
3. Nim Shrieker
One of black's most useful creatures even though it is a 0/1 flyer for 4 mana! With artifact lands, spellbombs and myrs this should hit the table as a 3/1 most of the time. Slagwurm Armor is very important in any black based deck and this guy is the no. 1 reason to draft it a little higher than normal. I have even seen the Slag picked first over some very decent cards - another good reason to think about your deck rather than let your brain click into "autodraft" mode. An early pick and sometimes quite a good splash card in artifact heavy decks.
4. Pewter Golem
This is second only to the Hematite (because you often need to leave a lot more mana open) but is a great ground staller especially in the late game. It is harder to kill than any other of its metal counterparts but it's high casting cost prevents you from running too many of these.
5. Irradiate
Love it or hate it, Irradiate is removal and this will often make the cut of most draft decks. Personally I don't like it as a lot of things can go wrong when you cast it - like Shatter your Bonesplitter in response (especially if this is played in combat) but it seems suited to U/B decks that rely on affinity so you will always have plenty of artifacts around. Still a late pick IMO.
6. Moriok Scavenger
The Scavenger has the potential to be really good but otherwise it is a crap 2/3 vanilla creature that costs 4 mana. Skeleton Shard is much better than this but due to the general mediocrity of black you will find yourself running this guy 99% of the time.
7. Wail of the Nim
Finally a good trick. It's not as potent as Blinding Beam but it is a hell of a lot more playable than Incite War and ironically it is pretty good against other black decks due to the low toughness of the Nim. It also nails mana myrs on the third turn and can throw the spanner in combat. But hold on there kiddies, don't go picking it too highly as it doesn't win games all by itself, and you should be able to grab one of these late into the pack, and on some occasions this may have to make the cut for a decent creature.
Nim Replica, Nim Lasher, Disciple of the Vault and Dross ProwlerChimney Imp
These are in no particular oder, but the Replica is obviously a lot better than the rest (in the respect that you would actually play with it) and I do have a fondness for the Disciple but he is by no means a "must have" for black. Nim Lasher and Dross Prowler are both horrible but I still see them being played in draft decks and the only rational reason would be a poor creature pool, but hey sometimes drafts don't pan out....
Necrogen Spellbomb, Contaminated Bond, Wrench Mind and
Again in no particular order but I can't see myself (or anyone else) playing with any of these.
UNCOMMONS
1. Betrayal of FleshBetrayal of Flesh
To put it simply this is black's best card. Unlike Promise of Power and Reiver Demon, Betrayal only costs a single black mana, making it easily splashable and it nails any creature, whether it be black or artifact. It is the entwine which is the real kick in the nuts though as the swing in tempo will often be enough to win the game. However it does cost 6 mana and there are a lot of other cards out there (in other colours) which are a lot better (Terror is the only black common I would consider taking over this but even then it is a close call!) A close to a first pick as black is going to get.
2. Skeleton Shard
Much like the Crystal Shard this can be played in any deck but it is definitely not as good as its blue counterpart. Due to the sheer number of artifact creatures in Mirrodin this card is good by default (and would suck in any other set) and can be a real beating with sacrificial creatures like Bottle Gnomes, Goblin Replica and wizard golem. Is this first pick material though? I would have to say no, but it is still up there - a third pick seems about right but it is a hell of a lot better than some of those other shards...
3. Flayed Nim
I may have ranked this Nim too highly but I am a big fan. This guy is great both offensively and defensively and absolutely insane with any equipment. The fact he regnerates makes stopping him even harder. A solid black creature in a sea of mediocrity.
4. Barter in Blood
I was actually going to put Relic Bane over this but Barter had to fit in somewhere and 4th seems about right. I've seen Barter backfire a few times but it is a massive game swinger for just 4 mana. Sure you lose the creatures too but there will be situations when you are on the back foot and you need to topdeck this to get back in game. These sorts of cards are always hard to rank, especially Barter because this only gives you card advantage when you have no creatures in play. However I have learnt from my years of playing limited that any card that nails more than 1 creature should be drafted reasonably early - but you won't see me first picking this.
5. Relic Bane
This card is very, very good and I don't care what you think. Sure it may be up high on my list but that's because I really, really like it. Get the point - this thing wins games and it's loss of life too so no damage prevention tricks. I have seen this go around quite late in many a draft and I'm starting to think it should be drafted higher, but I won't be complaining when I take this over a Tanglebloom and a Disarm.
6. Nim Shambler
Great ability, shame about the toughness though. If this thing had flying it might actually be close to an early pick, but it doesn't so will be eternally relegated to the "I'm just playing this to make up the numbers" division (unless you draft a Nuisance Engine of course amd then it becomes pretty good).
7. Slith Bloodletter
It's ironic that the black slith is playable and all the rest are crap (with the exception of the Slith Ascendant) in a set where black gets the shaft. Regneration has always been good since the good old days of Drudge Skeletons and the Bloodletter is a tad bit better and has decent artwork! - what more do you want? He also works well with equipment.
8. Wall of Blood
OK quick question Magic readers? When do you NOT want to play Wall of Blood? Usually when your opponent drops a Mindslaver, activates it, takes your turn and then makes the wall 20/22. gg. Seriously though this is not a bad sideboard card and is a lot better than Psychic Membrane.
9. Woebearer
I can't believe someone won a GP with 1 of these in his deck but then again he was French so I'm not totally surprised. 5 mana for a 2/3 with fear is not a good deal.
RARES
Now we have reached the business end of things. Whilst I did say earlier Betrayal of Flesh is black's best card but there are a couple of other contenders here, it is just they require 3 or more black mana to play them and I have always preferred to splash cards with only 1 mana symbol of a different colour to the ones I'm playing with.
Black's rares aren't too bad but unfortunately the horse bolted a long a time ago. The two crowd favourites are Reiver Demon and Promise of Power and out of the two I think I prefer Reiver Demon but even then it's a close call. Nightmare Lash works well in a heavy black base but is average everywhere else and Nim Devourer and Vermiculos are very average as the Devourer suffers from the 1 toughness problem but the Vermiculous may have a place in a U/B draft deck that plays a lot of card drawing, spellbombs etc.
The rest is pure junk - Grim Reminder, Spoils of the Vault, Dross Harvester (wa-hay!) and Necrogen Mists so please don't let me catch you playing them in draft.
I hope you enjoyed this drwan out series and I would like to thank Paul for his contributions (even though he threw the towel in after the green review) and I was thinking of doing a non equipment artifact ranking but I may just analyse draft archetypes instead or *shudder* write an article on constructed.
Until next time, have fun
Dan
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Editor: Rebecca Mitchell. Thursday 27 November 2003.
