The Best Black Common
General forum
Posted on May 18, 2020, 11:29 p.m. by RiotRunner789
I personally believe it is Pestilence. Semi-repeatable board wipe and an enchantment to boot.
What black common would be or could be better?
RiotRunner789 says... #3
Duh Being probably the best single targeted removal, but I'd still rather keep a repeatable removal.
May 18, 2020 11:36 p.m.
RiotRunner789 says... #6
Look, Dark Ritual is great. Temporary effect that puts you ahead 2 turns. Yet, it doesn't actually do anything by itself. It a means to an end. Pestilence could be the end that it feeds but that would rank Pestilence higher for me.
May 19, 2020 midnight
Dredge4life says... #7
Pestilence also doesn’t do anything by itself. It requires black mana, and the best common that produces black mana is Dark Ritual.
May 19, 2020 12:11 a.m.
SynergyBuild says... #8
Dark Ritual, Sinkhole, Snuff Out, Bojuka Bog, and Songs of the Damned immediately strike me as more powerful or game-warping.
Pestilence is a strong engine, which hates on creature-based strategies, while that is okay, it is so slow and useless against non-creature-based decks that only Pauper lets it see play, with obviously some players running any card in commander.
Modern and Legacy have used singleton, tutorable copies of Bojuka Bog in many lists, Snuff Out is better in Legacy and Commander, Sinkhole is better and more Iconic, while Dark Ritual is much, much better, sees consistent Pauper, Legacy, and Vintage play in Ad Nauseam, Doomsday, and a plurality of other storm/combo decks, and is one of the most famous cards to date.
While yes, it doesn't last long, nor does Black Lotus, or Ancestral Recall, but that doesn't make Gilded Lotus or Arcanis the Omnipotent any better as cards. They are much, much worse in the vast majority of circumstances.
If you want a powerful janky pauper black engine, Songs of the Damned is another card that you may like, being a card used in the mono-black cycling storm decks going around.
May 19, 2020 1:38 a.m.
Disciple of the Vault is pretty dope. Not only was it a staple in Mirrodin block, but it also sees play in some vintage and commander lists, even at higher levels of play.
May 19, 2020 1:41 a.m. Edited.
Disciple of the Vault is amazing, Tragic Slip deserves a little recognition.
May 19, 2020 8:26 a.m.
Yeah, Dark Ritual is the first card that comes to my mind as well. Also want to mention that Bojuka Bog, while awesome, is technically colourless, so it probably shouldn’t count.
May 19, 2020 9:23 a.m.
GoblinElectromancer says... #12
Hymn to Tourach is pretty good but Dark Ritual is better.
May 19, 2020 9:24 a.m.
In a vacuum, I say Hymn to Tourach wins. Pestilence is a good card but these days it's just a turn 4 do-nothing enchantment. I don't think reprinting it would have a big effect on any newer formats the way Hymn would.
May 19, 2020 9:54 a.m.
it's dark ritual.. i started with 4th ed and have seen everything... it's dark f'ing ritual... that card has gotten so may other cards banned and eventually it had to be banned itself
May 19, 2020 4:43 p.m.
anyone here play when extended trix was pissing us all off?
May 19, 2020 5:44 p.m.
RiotRunner789 says... #18
Definitely feels like Dark Ritual is the favorite. But why not Bog Witch? It turns every card in your hand into a Dark Ritual.
Then again, I play primarily EDH and I feel like most of the Ritual love is from other formats. With 4 rituals in a 60 card deck, I'd agree it would be better than Pestilence but not in a singleton format.
May 19, 2020 7:09 p.m.
GhostChieftain says... #19
I play dark rit in my EDH deck. It is suuuuper good in edh still, people just don't realize that until they play against competitive decks. The reason it is better than bog witch is that it only costs 1 mana and is instant speed whereas bog witch is a total of 4 mana has summoning sickness
May 19, 2020 7:31 p.m.
because bog witch sucks... as did most spellshapers. bog with doies noty have haste on its own... so it's bad
May 19, 2020 7:41 p.m.
SynergyBuild says... #21
RiotRunner789 Nope, in cEDH Dark Ritual is great! Pestilence is bad in every format but Pauper, and maybe Penny Dreadful from time to time. Bog Witch was never playable in any format competitively to my knowledge, from block to pauper to standard or extended of it's time.
May 19, 2020 7:42 p.m.
If Pauper is any consideration, the best common is Gurmag Angler, closely followed by Chainer's Edict. 1 mana 5/5s are the best! Pestilence and Dark Ritual are not good in the format are played in fringe decks.
My personal favorite black common is Tortured Existence.
May 20, 2020 5:24 a.m.
black decks in pauper don't run dark ritual? are they crazy?
May 20, 2020 6:49 p.m.
whatqwerty says... #24
in terms of flavor, Demonic Appetite, in terms of artwork either Doom Blade or Swamp, and in terms of power I would say Carrion Feeder is underrated
May 20, 2020 9:57 p.m.
Dredge4life magwaaf it is in fact legal, but commons do not have the payoffs to pair with Dark Ritual or good enough commons to mitigate the card disadvantage. Since pretty much all storm cards are banned, and the classic Hypnotic Specter or Necropotence are not commons, Dark Ritual does not need to be banned. The most powerful thing you can do is probably turn 1 swamp + Dark Ritual + Dark Ritual, delving both to bring out Gurmag Angler.
In a similar vein, artifact lands Seat of the Synod are legal in Pauper, with the only Affinity-related banning in Pauper, while they were banned in their Standard and were on the initial banlist for Modern and will never come off it, you would think they are too powerful for pauper.
May 21, 2020 2:25 a.m. Edited.
Dredge4life says... #27
Boza Holy crow, you’re right! Interesting. I’m sure there’s some way in the format to break it. I don’t know what it is yet, though.
May 21, 2020 3:08 p.m.
so i was at my buddy's house over the weekend with 8 other magic players and i asked what the best black common and in unison they all said "dark ritual" lol
spacecoyote1313 says... #2
Duh
May 18, 2020 11:33 p.m.