Few things in life feel as good as playing black in Magic: The Gathering. It has the grossest, scariest creatures, the most efficient removal, and the highest likelihood to tilt an entire table. As a certified Black mana enjoyer, I am always on the lookout for powerful and obnoxious cards to add to my pile of pain. Today I want to share some of the more recent offerings to jam in your favorite Black deck.

Honorable Mention

Much like one of our previous lists, our honorable mention is not "technically" a Black card if you are going by the "comprehensive rules" and being "accurate" but we are all going to ignore that. Spymaster's Vault is a land from Modern Horizons 3 that enters untapped if you control a Swamp and taps for . The interesting part is that for you can tap it and have target creature you control Connive X where X is the number of creatures that died that turn. I love having incidental value on lands as a way to use extra mana more efficiently and this card delivers just that. Connive is perfect for helping filter your hand, getting key reanimation targets in the graveyard, and making a creature massive. It's especially nice to use this in strategies that sacrifice creatures like Teysa Karlov of Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, or even decks that use their graveyards like Sauron, Lord of the Rings, or The Mycotyrant. Give Spymaster's Vault a try in your next aristocrats deck!

Number Five

Case of the Stashed Skeleton is a fascinating card out of Muders at Karlov Manor. When it enters you get a 2/1 suspected Skeleton. It's solved when you have no suspected skeleton on your end step and once solved you can pay , sacrifice it, and search for any card in your deck. In the world of tutors, this is admittedly a pretty slow and clunky one, however, this is still a powerful tutor effect with a power level more people will find appropriate when compared to its analogs like Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor. It also produces a creature token when it enters which is (once again) great for decks that want fodder to sacrifice. If you are in the market for a slightly weaker tutor for a more casual deck this is a great one to grab.

Number Four

Easily the best Snake Horse Mount in the game, Caustic Bronco is an absolute powerhouse. When it attacks, you reveal the top card of your library, put it in your hand, and lose life equal to its mana value ala Dark Confidant and Keen Duelist. The kicker (not the mechanic) is that if you Saddle Caustic Bronco your opponent is the one who loses the life instead. As a two mana 2/2 Caustic Bronco is already perfectly fine on rate but the additional card advantage and option to hurt opponents really elevates this card. It also has some pretty solid synergies with attack triggers like Isshin, Two Heavens as One and Saddle works well with the new Survival mechanic out of Duskmourn: House of Horrors.

Number Three

I'm willing to wager that most readers have never seen this card before. Straight out of the ever so elusive Ravnica: Clue Edition, Mastermind Plum is a very powerful card draw engine stapled to a creature. For you get a 2/2 Human Wizard. Every time it attacks you can exile a card from a graveyard and if it was an artifact you make a treasure token. The next line of text is where the sauce is. Whenever you cast a spell with mana from a treasure, you lose 1 life and draw a card. This is an immensely powerful engine that supports many treasure-based strategies like Prosper, Tome Bound, Vihaan, Goldwaker, Korvold, Fae-Cursed King and so much more. In addition to some serious card draw the graveyard hate that is stapled onto it is useful in its own right. If you can get over the fact that its name is in a different font, Mastermind Plum proves to be a really consistent advantage engine.

Number Two

Do you want a Sylvan Library in Black? Well, this is not that, but it is sort of like it if you squint hard enough! For , Ripples Of Undeath is an enchantment that mills 3 cards at the start of your pre-combat main phase. You can then pay one mana and 3 Life to put one of those milled cards in your hand. There is so much hidden versatility in this card. Having to pay life and mana for the extra card is a little rough but you don't have to add anything after the mill, making it a recurrable mill engine for reanimator decks, descent decks, self mill etc. The choice is still there, however, to see three cards deeper into your deck and add any powerful card you just so happen to mill from it. Again, the mana makes it feel a little more suspect than something like Phyrexian Arena, however, you do get to look at the cards you mill and make your choice from a wider range, making this card far more helpful in late game scenarios where you are looking for something specific. This card is especially great in reanimator decks since it lets you fill your grave with powerful reanimation targets without the downside of losing your Animate Dead and Reanimate.

Number One

It pains me to put cards like this into the broader Magic player zeitgeist but Accursed Marauder is just built different. Standing up to a long list of similar cards from Fleshbag Marauder to Merciless Executioner, Accursed Marauder stands out because of two things. Firstly, it's only two mana, making it cheaper than almost every other ETB sacrifice creature that sees play. Second, each player must sacrifice a NON-token creature, meaning opponents cannot slide by by throwing a random 1/1 squirrel into a wood chipper. This card has a low mana value, forces each player to make a tough choice, and simply outclasses most of its brethren save for maybe Plaguecrafter. Throw it in your sacrifice matters deck and watch as the table grumbles every time it comes out.

And those are the Best Black cards you need to shove into your decks as quickly as possible! Thanks for reading and hopefully one of these cards make an appearance at your next game night!

"Be you, Be Free, Live Happily!"

@MulldrifterStan