Grasp of Darkness

Instant

Target creature gets -4/-4 until end of turn.

Discussion (48)

The_Potato_Judge on Mono Black (Semi) Mid-Range/Control

3 weeks ago

I realize I'm coming to the party late, but I have one thing I would point out.

Indestructible creatures are a thing.

Whenever I run mono-black, I try very hard to have stuff in there to deal with them. I also think that 8 creature removal cards is about right, but I would have 3 or 4 of them be -X/-X cards, to kill indestructible stuff, since Grasp of Darkness will kill moderate-toughness standard creatures to still be useful.

I do see that you have some Disfigures in the sideboard right now, but you have 22 removal cards in your 75. Only 6 of them can kill an indestructible creature, and the Tragic Slip pair only will go off some of the time. I LOVE Grasp of Darkness and cards like it, because "destroy" cards usually have some limitation, like color (dark banishing is weak against another Black deck) or artifact status.

-X/-X cards rarely do.

I'm not an expert, but I think it's something to keep in mind, especially if your friends love to play Black.

BioProfDude on Mono-black zombies in Pioneer

4 weeks ago

magwaaf, I could possibly cut the 2x Liliana's Mastery for more Fatal Push, but I haven't yet found the need. Dark Salvation works significantly better in most cases. On that note, Dark Salvation is superior to Fatal Push in a deck like this. There are exceptions, but few of them. Dark Salvation doesn't have the CMC limitations of Fatal Push and it can hit indestructible creatures-- and it can often be cast for a single mana. It's just better in a zombie deck.

Cutting Cryptbreaker would not be a good move! That's the card draw engine that makes this deck work! Were it not for Cryptbreaker, this deck wouldn't be any good, to be honest. It needs that card draw engine to keep looking for cards, and it greatly benefits from the ability to generate zombies if we're flooding out with lands. When we can be aggressive we're usually winning anyway and we don't use Cryptbreaker's abilities. When there's board stall or it is unwise to attack, Cryptbreaker is the card that generates advantage.

Dark Salvation vs Grasp of Darkness-- you do realize that Dark Salvation may be cast for only a single if I have zombies on board, right? Grasp of Darkness is a great card, but it is generally inferior (in this zombie tribal deck) to Dark Salvation.

I don't own any Thoughtseize and I am too cheap to buy them. Hence not having any in the deck, and having Agonizing Remorse instead.

Mutavault would be nice, but I don't own any of those. Westvale Abbey  ^Flip is great when it works, and only mediocre otherwise. You are correct that Mutavault would be better, but, alas, I don't own any and I'm too cheap to buy them.

Thank you for the suggestions!

musicman3310 on Ink-Eyes, Ninja Tribal

1 month ago

I would ditch Dash Hopes if I were you. I love the deck, but maybe throw in something like Inquisition of Kozilek or Grasp of Darkness over Dash Hopes. If you would like some sideboard cards, I can help you brainstorm a sideboard too. :)

GeminiSpartanX on What a nice deck you have, well had

3 months ago

I'd try and work on getting 4-ofs of the better mill cards to improve your consistency. Use 4 Breaking / Entering , 4 Mind Funeral , 4 Thought Scour , 4 Archive Trap . Go down the 2 Pilfered Plans, the Altar of the Broods, the Tormod's Crypt (the crypts are more a SB card), and a few creatures (spectors or lobotomist). Work towards trading or saving for a set of Glimpse the Unthinkable s since they're one of the best mill spells ever printed. Then I'd cut the non-crab creatures for some black removal spells like Dismember , Fatal Push , or the more budget ones like Doom Blade , Ultimate Price , or Grasp of Darkness . In this deck, Drown in the Loch might be one of the better removal spells you could run that can also counter important things after turn 3 or so. Merfolk Secretkeeper is a great budget mill card that gives you blockers against creature decks that also mills. I'd run 4 of those before any other non- Hedron Crab creature, and maybe before Tome Scour s to be honest. Visions of Beyond should be the only card-draw spell you need in a modern mill deck, so I'd add that to your maybe list at least. I don't know if you're trying to get the entire deck under a certain budget, or if you're just slowly trying to accumulate the best mill cards that you can, so hopefully some of my suggestions help. It's been a while since I sleeved up a mill deck, but the last time I did it looked something like this. I would definitely change some things about it, but it might be a good starting point for you depending on how competitive you want to be.

GamingInTheDark on B/G Fun with deathtouch (3-1 at FNM)

4 months ago

I like the concept that you're going for here. I got a few ideas to help improve the deck. I do love me a good list so sorry if this post seems a bit long.

To get the obvious thing out of the way I think you should improve the mana base ever so slightly. Just throw in some Overgrown Tomb and maybe a set of Woodland Cemetery and call it a day.

I would take out Gnarlwood Dryad and put in a Foulmire Knight . You don't have a consistent way of turning on delirium so Gnarlwood Dryad is just gonna be a 1/1 deathtoucher (and nothing else) for most of the game if not all of it. Foulmire Knight at least gives the versatility of giving you card draw and/or providing a deathtoucher.

I like Ambuscade and Clear Shot as cards but since Clear Shot is an inherently better card (because it gives +1/+1 rather than +1/+0) you should be running 4 of it before you start adding copies of Ambuscade .

Moving on to the sideboard, I think you should drop Dissenter's Deliverance in favor of Return to Nature . You lose the cycling ability but gain the power to answer not only artifacts but also enchantments and graveyard strategies.

Would also take out the Majestic Myriarch and throw in a copy of Blossoming Defense to round out your playset and make fighting removal based decks easier.

Between the deck currently consisting of 19 deathtouchers (23 if you count Hissing Quagmire ) and 7 one-sided fight spells the deck has no shortage of creature removal. Because you're in black you should have at least some level of hand disruption for when you end up fighting either control or combo decks. To this end, I would go down some number of the Grasp of Darkness / Dead Weight / Fatal Push in your side and replace them with Thoughtseize (Or Duress if you don't feel like paying $120+ on those).

Color_pie14 on Pioneering the Underworld

4 months ago

x12721 Thank you for the advice! I’m making this on a budget, so unfortunately Thoughtseize is out, but thanks for the suggestion of Gray Merchant of Asphodel ! Murderous Cut is a budget alternative for fatal push; being able to exile cards I know I can’t get back and that won’t feed my wincons to kill a creature is a good effect. In my play testing, I never lacked for cards in my grave.

ShutUpMokuba I will swap out Grasp of Darkness for Walk the Plank , but I’m definitely keeping it in the board in case I face Hazoret the Fervent or another indestructible wincon.

DriftingEpyon on Abzan Midrange

4 months ago

Nabroleon My thought process behind Grasp of Darkness over Fatal Push was that Grasp has a little bit better coverage than Push overall. One potential upside to running Push instead though is that it would be the only one mana removal for Seasons Past . I think you might be right in splitting Push 3/3 with Abrupt Decay , because of how prevalent planeswalkers are.

I'll give that change a try. Thanks! Also, I would love to hear how how you build on this if you!

emarg0ed on Pioneer - Mono Black Devotion

4 months ago

@sanguinaut thanks for the suggestions, I hadn't thought of Dark Prophecy before! And yes I need to go with 4 castles, I only have one on hand at the moment though :P

Fatal Push has been better for me so far than I originally expected; thinking of going with 2 more of those. Grasp of Darkness and Ob Nixilis's Cruelty have been on my shortlist as well. I'm finding Murderous Rider to be maybe slightly clunky, but not too horrible yet.