MTG: Top Five EDH – Black Commanders
Black mana has a lot to offer if you’re willing to pay the price. Ready to make a deal? Let’s talk EDH Black Commanders.
Welcome Planeswalkers and Praetors to our ongoing series about the best casual experience in Magic: Commander. For the uninitiated, Commander is a semi-casual format for Magic: the Gathering, where you use a deck of 100 cards led by a legendary creature, your commander. Aside from basic lands, you are only allowed one copy of each card in the deck. Moreover, you can only include cards in your commander’s “color identity” or artifacts. Each color and color combo has a unique playstyle, and a wealth of mighty generals to lead your deck to victory. EDHRec.com is a great source for Commander info and can give you ideas to build your next Commander deck, tune an existing one, or build up your first library from scratch.
Black is the color of death, selfishness, and entropy on the MTG color wheel. It fills an interesting niche in that it does a little bit of everything the other colors do. It has some big guys like Green, some damage like Red (though that’s mostly loss, not damage), life gain like White and control like Blue. However, what makes Black unique is there’s usually an element of sacrifice to all their stuff. Sure you get a big creature, but you have to sacrifice another one or maybe even pay some of your own life to play it. Black doesn’t care, though; life is a resource, just like anything else, and as much as you sacrifice, you’ll cut from your enemies twofold. In this constant power struggle, these five vile villains have floated to the top of the swamp.
K’rrik, Son of Yawgmoth
Starting off strong, we have the spikey boy with the scary power. K’rrik is a 2/2 with lifelink for seven, which honestly isn’t great. However, the three black pips in K’rrik’s cost can be paid with two life instead, making him basically cost four. Once he hits the battlefield, all your black spells have that ability, allowing you to turn your life into the resource it truly is. Plus, every time you cast a black spell, K’rrik gets a little bigger, which in turn means he gains you more life when he connects. Also, Post Malone made a card of him – immediate extra zing.
Marrow-Gnawer
Filling in the silver medal slot is one of my favorite cards of all time, Marrow-Gnawer. This unassuming 2/3 for five gives all your rats menace, making them harder to get in front of. That’s already pretty cool, but his second ability is even better. For the low price of a single rat, you can double your rat presence on the battlefield. Should you have a way to untap him, like a Thornbite Staff, you can grow your humble army from four to four million in a single turn. The rats brought down Europe, and Marrow-Gnawer is here to make sure they do it again.
Tergrid, God of Fright
If there’s one thing Black loves, it’s killing off enemy creatures. If there are two things, the other one is petty larceny. Tergrid combines both in one handy card. She’s a 4/5 with menace for five, which is pretty great, but she also likes to steal cards your opponent loses. With all the ways to force sacrifice and discard in Black, seeing Tergrid across the table is comparable to a death threat. If you bring this lantern-wielding lass, be ready for an uphill battle.
Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
One of the MTG community’s favorite Praetors, Sheoldred in her Dominarian invasion form is also one of the nastiest cards in the set. A 4/5 with deathtouch for four is already pretty beefy, but she also punishes the main thing players want to do: draw. Whenever you draw a card, you gain two life, but if your opponent dares to draw a card, she drains them for two. This happens EVERY time they draw, so if you can force your opponent to draw with something like Howling Mine, you can end the game without having to lift a finger.
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Closing it out we have the greatest enemy in the history of Dominaria, Yawgmoth. The original Father of Machines and the source of the Phyrexian invasion of Dominaria, Yawgmoth is a nasty commander. He can throw out -1/-1 counters for the low price of your life and a creature, and you also get to draw a card. His real power, however, is his ability to proliferate. That lets him double counters on anything he wants: creatures, enchantments, even players. With just a little innocuous cut, he can remove all your opponent’s creatures from the game, or just make them too weak to pose a threat.
And if you just so happen to get a poison counter on your opponent…
