Almost every year, Black provides us with some of the most diabolical cards around. Removal spells, board wipes, and truly dangerous threats all have a tendency to emerge from this color. 2024 proved no different with plenty of powerful Black cards being printed throughout the year for all kinds of different formats. I'm going to go through and rank my top five personal picks for the best of what the year has had to offer. Let's dive on in and rank them all!

Number Five

Board wipes are typically quite boring. You know what you're getting into with them and it's usually something simple like destroying all creatures. For the most part, that's very much what Deadly Cover-Up is doing. For 5 mana, you get a pretty straightforward wrath effect in Black - something rare for the color which usually provides its own twist to a typical wrath. With this card, however, you can also collect evidence to get an extra effect. That effect is Cranial Extractioning any card out of the opponent's graveyard, shutting down critical components of any deck it runs into. This has made it a powerful sleeper choice for formats like Standard and Pioneer alike, making it a solid fifth place option as a result.

Number Four

Players knew from the outset that this card was good. Taking out half of an opponent's life total with one swing on a card that just couldn't stay dead? That sounds like one hell of a good deal! Then players did the math and realized that it only requires a very small number of hits to land to make it a lethal shot. Three attacks and they're dead. Then after that, players also realized you could turn that into a single hit kill with Bloodletter of Aclazotz, raising the utility of that card tremendously in the process. This has made the Slasher a big player in both Standard and Pioneer alike, and even makes it a fun inclusion in all sorts of Commander decks as well.

Number Three

Few cards have such a long and storied history of play as Necropotence. For Modern Horizons 3, Wizards made a new version of the card in Necrodominance. This became the centerpiece for a Mono-Black Modern deck shortly after the set's release, putting up strong results against the likes of Bant Nadu, Ruby Storm, and the various Energy decks. The banning of Grief alongside Nadu, Winged Wisdom meant the deck lost quite a bit of its potency, yet it still remains a solid option to play for those looking to play Modern events at their local game store.

Number Two

If you were paying attention to Standard as Duskmourn: House of Horror, you may have noticed this card showing up in people's lists. It was clear, however, that players didn't realize just how good it could be until the World Championship held at MagicCon Las Vegas in October. The card was all over top tables, being played in builds of Dimir Demons and Golgari Midrange alike. Over the course of the weekend, players were seen drawing card after card while draining away opponents, all the while beating face with a giant demon. Javier Dominguez took down the event partially on the back of this one card, shooting its price through the roof overnight as a result.

Number One

No card on this list turned an entire format on its head quite like Vein Ripper. At Pro Tour Murders at Karlov Manor, the wider Magic competitive world was introduced to what became known as the Rakdos Vampires list. Vampires had seen play previously thanks to the powerful Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord cheating into play copies of Champion of Dusk, but Vein Ripper took it to a whole new level.

Previous lists were also Mono-Black, and using the Red with this package enabled the typical shenanigans afforded to the deck by Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki. The card was so powerful it would eventually get Sorin banned from Pioneer in August. Even now that it's no longer good in Pioneer, Vein Ripper also remains an incredible card for Commander, making it an easy pick for the top Black card of the year.

Paige Smith

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