For One Mana - Black
Time for part two of the ‘For One Mana’ article series - read the first one here - where I take a closer look at one mana cards you could be playing instead of automatically going for the often played Viscera Seer, Village Rites, or Kaya’s Ghostform.
My goal is by no means to ‘shame’ you for playing those cards - I just feel the broader EDH format as a whole is becoming quite uniform and samey, in part by people turning to net-decking or using automatic online suggestion tools too often. Last time I covered blue, so it’s time to continue in this weird UBRGCW order and move on to black.
Creatures
Gnat Miser
While it’s true ‘no maximum hand size’ cards are abundant in the format, this little Rat Shaman makes for a fun turn 1 play. It may feel insignificant, but you’re now essentially keeping everyone down one card until this creature is dealt with. If you’re first in turn order, you’re also punishing every player that comes after you and was able to keep a 7 card opening hand.
‘When x happens, draw a card’ seems to make up a large portion of many recent staples, and more and more legendary creatures with a built in card draw engine get printed and played, so having your opponents discard down to 6 instead of 7 can be a great way to slow down their game plan.
It’s asymmetrical and doesn’t affect your own hand either. Say no to those turn one Mystic Rhemora or Esper Sentinels. If you’ve built ‘shenanigans or ‘yep, that’s a card that exists ’ decks before, be sure to find a slot for this little vermin friend.
Thoughtpicker Witch
While most people with sac outlets will want those outlets to be free, for one mana you get to actively hinder your opponent’s game plan with this wonderful one drop wizard. Mess up your opponents Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Scheming Symmetry, Grim Tutor, Vampiric Tutor or Goblin Recruiter.
Permanently get rid of their top-of-library Sensei’s Divining Top, tucked-in God-Eternal or Approach of the Second Sun. Play this card in your own Sen Triplets or Xanathar, Guild Kingpin deck as a way to ensure you can keep playing with your opponents decks in case you’re stuck on lands.
Will-o’-the-Wisp
This creature looks innocent, but against players that aren’t going all that wide it can become incredibly annoying. A 0/1 flier you get to keep regenerating for a single black means you’re pretty safe against a wide variety of decks that may want to chip in damage or have to connect damage in order to get their benefits from damage triggers.
This will stick around for several turns and gives you a reliable blocker that’s incredibly annoying to remove. Nobody wants to spend their mana to remove your 0/1 flier that’s just ‘sitting there’, right?
This card will be especially useful in decks where your commander is an engine piece that has to tap down, or your commander is a planeswalker and you need to guarantee yourself an expendable body to not take big chunks of damage to your life total.
Enchantments
There is a pretty sizeable pool of ‘one black mana, when this creature dies, it doesn’t die/returns to the field’, both on enchantments and on instants, so I’m not going to talk about those right now. I say ‘go with your favorite one’.
Artificer’s Hex
Black struggles with dealing with your opponent’s equipment, that’s no secret, so instead let’s focus on dealing with what the equipment is attached to. Even without a voltron player at the table, when’s the last time you had a game without Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Shadowspear, or any of the ‘Sword of’ cards getting played? Sure, their commander can have hexproof or shroud, but chances are high the equipment will not!
The equip ability on its own, without outside help from cards like Leonin Shikari, cannot be activated at instant speed, so if you play an Artificer’s Hex on an equipment that’s already attached to a creature, they will not be able to remove that equipment before they are in their main phase, guaranteeing you a dead creature.
Paralyze
In Dominaria United we saw stun counters becoming their own mechanic, and while it’s true your opponent can pay 4 to bypass this tap down, that’s a steep cost to pay in the early to mid game. If your opponents opened with an Ignoble Hierarch, Deathrite Shaman or early game Faeburrow Elder or Bloom Tender, prevent them from getting ahead more by tapping down those mana sources.
Stop that Magus of the Wheel or Jace’s Archivist from discarding your great hand, shut down your opponent’s protection plan by paralyzing their Mother of Runes and prevent that Weathered Wayfarer from finding more potentially crucial non-basics.
Editor’s note: Mother of Runes can eventually remove Paralyze from herself, but the cost is pretty steep and likely prevents her from protecting other creatures any time soon.
Planar Void
While it’s true we have Dauthi Voidwalker and cards like Bojuka Bog, Leyline of the Void or Soul-Guide Lantern, I feel this one mana ‘no graveyards, for anyone’ card just doesn't get played. Say goodbye to those Hermit Druid and Underworld Breach plays - there will be no Reanimate or Animate Dead at this table. Of note, this card does not exile itself when it gets destroyed, so you can always attempt to reuse it again later.
Instants
Darkness
It might just be me, but it seems that Fog type cards have fallen out of favor the past few years. I don’t know if it’s because people are playing less creature-heavy combat decks in general or players are on the lookout for more ‘fills several slots’ type cards, but ‘prevent all combat damage this turn’ for a singular mana is still alright in my book.
This effect is often linked back to green, to a point we just call it ‘a fog’ at this point that it’s easy to miss you can also do this in black! I’m happy this got reprinted in the Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks. I hope it’s going to make the card get played more, and I’m looking forward to the next printing of this card so we can get a non-40K artstyle card reprint in the near future.
Dredge
The card, not the mechanic. This one was actually part of my first ever deck during the Prophecy, Invasion and Planeshift era. My line of thought back then was ‘it’s better to have a card in hand I want to cast, than have a creature or land I’m not currently using’, and while we’ve seen similar effects printed since then, most of those will be two mana or more (outside of Village Rites).
It’s also one of the few ways to safely get rid of your own lands in case you are actually helping your opponents color fix without destroying all lands on the battlefield. I see you, Kormus Bell Elesh Norn players - stop piggybacking of my own Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth!
Human Frailty
If you’ve spent some time on our Discord you will have seen me talk about this card already. What started out as a nice ‘joke’ several years ago is quickly turning into a less limited card than it originally seemed to be. If we go by a certain commander recommendation website’s stats, this hits 28/100 of the most often played commanders from the past few months, among them high value targets such as Breya, Chulane, Jhoira, Jodah, Kinnan, Winota, Sisay, Zur and several others.
If we look at the most played creatures in the 99, this hits Archmage Emeritus, Champion of Lambholt, Drannith Magistrate, Esper Sentinel, Grand Abolisher, Notion Thief, Opposition Agent, Pitiless Plunderer - the list goes on. Pay attention to which creature cards you’d like to see gone in your next few EDH games and write down how often they’re a human - you’ll be surprised how high the actual count is.
I know people prefer ‘catch all’ cards in our format - which is part of the reason this article series exists - but the amount of times ‘if I had one more mana’ gets uttered at a table is significant. A limited option at one mana might turn the tides in your next stack war when you’re down on lands - please give Human Frailty a chance in your next brew.
Misinformation
I ran this card for quite a while in my Xanathar deck - in there it served a purpose to ensure you get cards on top that I want to play. You can use this after a boardwipe to mess with your opponent’s top deck and ensure all they get is their early game creatures they no longer need.
Put back cards they deliberately put into their graveyard to try and reanimate through any number of ways, or mess with their Bolas’s Citadel or top deck tutors by adding three brand new cards they definitely didn’t want to see on top again.
Vendetta
Another one mana instant speed destroy effect. While it is limited to target nonblack creatures, in a game where you’re low on mana, being able to remove ‘a lot’ for one black is not bad. In decks where you’re already trying to make you lose life and turn it into an advantage - such as Vilis, Broker of Blood or Greven, Predator Captain - this card will be even more useful.
I’m sure you won’t mind losing 1 life (let’s stay in the spirit of one mana for the sake or the article) to get rid of a Serra Ascendant; Shrieking Drake; Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer; Allosaurus Shepherd or Rhys the Redeemed. Do not Vendetta Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful - he did nothing wrong.
Sorceries
Innocent Blood
Fleshbag Marauder, Plaguecrafter and all similar cards see an abundance of play but Innocent Blood seems absent from that list quite often. No 1 drop enabler or fixer to rely on for anyone at your table - I hope you didn’t keep a questionable hand and needed that Birds of Paradise or Avacyn’s Pilgrim to colorfix you turn two.
This can be an especially useful card in decks that already have an expendable board like Anhelo, The Painter or Lagomos, Hand of Hatred, or in spellslinger ‘everything can be reused’ decks with commanders like Kess, Dissident mage.
Unearth
Again, the card, not the mechanic. While there’s no lack of reanimation to the field in black, outside of Reanimate, you’re quite limited for a singular black mana. Most of the cards available at that mana value will send a creature from your graveyard to your hand instead, while Unearth returns it to the battlefield. I’m surprised that I don’t see this card played more outside of cEDH or high power tables.
Yes, there is a limit in place for mana value 3 or less, but if you’re already caring a lot about your mana curve and the amount of mana you spend on spells, chances are you will have plenty of targets for this card. Bring back your Dark Confidant; Dauthi Voidwalker; or Braids, Arisen Nightmare after your opponents finally get rid of it.
The fact you can cycle this away if you don’t need it is just the icing on the cake.
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“This article is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.”
