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BLACK
Common:
Cyclopean Mummy**
Dark Ritual*
Foul Spirit***
Gravebind**
Hasran Ogress**
Howl from Beyond**
Lim Duls Cohort**
Prowling Nightstalker***
Soul Shred****
Terror****
Warp Artifact*
Weakness***
Blacks commons seem to be horrible. Without Terror, I would try to stay out of color. The problem is, even while Terror is still as amazing as it gets, it is particular weaker in this set, thanks to the artifact theme. The best, best removal is Soul Shred, and sadly, 3 damage doesn’t cut it in ME4 Limited. (It’s still a relatively high pick since removal is removal.) The same is true for Weakness. Actually, Weakness is a really boring card, through and through, but it can take out some important creatures in this set (especially the blue ones) and at worst shrinks a bomb to passable size. Don’t forget that there is no enchantment removal and no bounce except for Symbol of Unsummoning (and it’s clunky to bounce your own guy then).
The creatures are as terrible as it can get. Prowling Nightstalker has some kind of super-fear, but with only a power of 2, he is slow and clumsy. Foul Spirit is even worse as it will always make disadvantage. Black’s creatures suck even more than the blue ones. The worst thing is that it doesn’t stop with the preceding piles! Cyclopean Mummy, Hasran Ogress and Lim Duls Cohort are cards that are so bad that no one wants to play with them even in Limited.
The other black cards are just there to fill the set. Dark Ritual, while amazing in Constructed, is usually just a blank in Limited. Mostly, I can’t wait for the first time when I message a buddy and tell him how my opponent just summoned Lim Duls Cohort off a Dark Ritual on Turn 1!
At least Dark Ritual is cool (and features the classic art); Gravebind and Warp Artifact are not. Oh well, Gravebind cycles at least… Howl from the Beyond is a tad interesting. While not good on it’s own, it is a pseudo black Fireball on an unblocked creature. Until the opponent cast Just Fate, I mean…
Uncommons:
Black Knight**
Dakmor Plague****
Dread Wight***
Gate to Phyrexia**
Junun Efreet**
Scavenging Ghoul**
Sengir Vampire****
Wicked Pact****
Xenic Poltergeist**
Zombie Master**
The uncommons are a bit better than the commons, but still disappointing in general. Sengir Vampire is at least a reason to go in black. Dakmor Plague is a decent mass removal, but again three is the critical number of the format, so it doesn’t answer all of the amazing uncommons. Wicked Pact is insanely good as long as you can afford to pay the 5 life. If not, uhm, go figure. Haven’t you played with Reckless Spite before?!
From the other uncommons, the only card I actually like is Dread Wright. The picture is just so amazing! And even the card itself is playable. You just can’t beat the 4 toughness dudes, especially when they help to deal with the pesky walls. Other than that, the black creatures are either too small or have annoying upkeep costs like Junun Efreetand they still can’t beat Giant Tortoise…
Finally, Gate to Phyrexian and Xenic Poltergeist are both interesting cases. The Gate gives black a way to deal with artifacts while giving Lim Duls Cohort a sense in its meaningless undead life, while the Poltergeist can sing Titanias Song and make a use of Rakalites.
Rares:
Deathgrip*
Demonic Hordes***
Demonic Tutor*****
Dread Reaper***
Ebon Dragon***
Gloom*
Guardian Beast***
Lich*
Minion of Tevesh Szat***
Overwhelming Forces***
Rain of Daggers***
Sinkhole*
Word of Command**
As mediocre as it started, it ends. Two of blacks rares are color-hosers and as that, minor sideboard cards at best. Sinkhole and Lich are rather unexciting as well. I even hate boarding in Sinkhole against Library of Alexandria! Either he just doesn’t draw it, and the Sinkhole becomes minus one useful card in my deck, or he has the Library in his opener and draws at least 1-2 cards while I have to use a card to get rid of it- lose-lose!
The other cards are all fine. Demonic Tutor is something unique; the ability to pull out any bomb makes it a bomb in my eyes.
Rain of Daggers and Overhelming Forces are both cards I have problems judging. The former is a one sided Wrath, but a very suicidal one. Depending on your life, it’s somewhere between bomb and crap. Overhelming Forces is always a bomb, for the low, low cost of 8 mana… it’s the perfect card that will comfort you in your hand as you die, because you never found the eighth land. In the end, it’s playability depends on how fast the format will end up.
The creatures are all some kind of cool. When I was a child, I always wanted the Demonic Hordes that slept in our shops binder. But they were sooo expensive… how times can change! Nowadays, I look at them and thinkSerra Angel is the nuts, I want to draft white.Well, okay, that’s not fair as Demonic Hordes is still cool, but compared to other rares, they can’t keep up. Even his land destruction ability is so useless why destroy lands when I can just attack? A 5/5 is still big enough to get played in Limited.
Dread Reaper and Ebon Dragon are the choice flyers for black. They both come with a drawback and yes, I count the 7 mana as the Dragon’s drawback. Making the opponent discarding a card for 7 mana is so… pointless. Seven mana is a metric ton more than six, though, and dying to Serra Angel doesn’t make it better. Dread Reaper is fine, but 5 life is hard. Often you need the fatty to stop the bleeding, but 5 life just makes their Fireball lethal five turns earlier. It’s really sad to see the cards that black ended up with in this set.
Guardian Beast is another nostalgic card. At least it shrouds your artifacts (the ones you don’t care about) and thus can be really helpful. It also keeps of the ground very well- only if it was still worth something.
Minion of Tevesh Szat is another big, bad dude. He is flexible as a on board trick, as well as removal, but seven mana is still seven mana. And as a 4/4, he is not much of a threat in combat. Ice Age Block- a few slopes down the power curve!
And then there is Word of Command, definitely not the best as last. Another pretty narrow cards from the good old days. The best use I can imagine for it is turning a removal against your opponent, but at the end it’s just another card that doensn’t help you to develop a board.
Conclusion: Black makes me sad. The color just got the shaft. It’s creatures either suck or are expensive as hell, and not even the removal is as good as it is used to. Also, too many cards with a suicide drawbacks.
Possible Archetypes:
BU Control
BR Removal.dec
BG Goodstuff (if you get really lucky)
Wood Elemental dominates every game. Even when he isn’t legal or played. Such an awesome card.
It’s kind of unfortunate that we don’t have autocard working for ME4 yet, since it’s too difficult to read a draft review without knowing the cards on-demand.
Also, the colourless link isn’t working.
Fixed colorless link, I think. Autocard works for me, except on a few occasions, it seems to mess up with Portal-only releases. Is this the same issue you are having, Arthur?
Yeah it is, didn’t realise it was just Portal since I started with white commons and I guess there were a lot of Portal-only releases there. Will reread it now. Colourless link now works.
So now that you are a published author on a site, are you going to quit being a total douchebag and berate people in chat when you lose?
thanks dunkle. this is the only guide about me4 i could find, very valuable
That hasn’t reformed every author here whitemeat.
Nice review but I think some of the ratings are a bit spotty. The elephants are much better than you suggest, for example.
Of course I will work on me not to look like a total douchebag… I have no idea when it started, but it somehow is exclusive to legacy events only.
Some of the ratings might a bit spotty or off, but don’t forget that I wrote about the set without ever playing it. Some things are obviously wrong, like that I overrated serra bestiary a lot and probably underrated ze elephants ( but I still think green is the worst color to go ).
Just so everyone knows, Overwhelming Forces the black rare is the biggest beating you’ll ever receive in limited. Turns out the format, at least so far, is slow enough that its just about the nastiest bomb I’ve ever run into.
You surely are Mr. Dark. You gave Black rares high marks. Terror is definitely not so great in this format but you underestimate Word of Command in constructed. Word can be put on a stick for some lolz.
Ze Elephants would be great in draft if you can pick yourself an Elephant Graveyard. Green should have gotten Norwood Riders instead of Ironhoof Ox IMO.
Overall a very commendable set review. Its very difficult to assess 150+ cards unplayed.
Serra Bestiary, Ali From Cairo, and Bee Sting are overrated.
WW is a lot to pay every turn.
Ali has the same problem as the Archivist. Plus it doesn’t win you the game, it just stops you from losing temporarily.
Bee Sting is a sorcery not an instant and it still costs 4x more than Shock.
fyi, just fate cannot stop howl from beyond. Just fate works only in the declare attackers phase (I lost a game because 2 turns in a row I was too happy fingers and clicked ok into declare blockers phase). You wont even know which creature will be unblocked to use howl on until the declare blockers phase, and its to late to use just fate by then (so only sword to plowsheres or on the board power can save defender by then).