Lesser Known 1 Mana Commander Cards in Blue: th-cam.com/video/xCBKDxN8iso/w-d-xo.html Lesser Known 1 Mana Commander Cards in White: th-cam.com/video/7Ky5Q-XsAp0/w-d-xo.html Lesser Known 1 Mana Commander Cards in Red: th-cam.com/video/CY5ng_39Ax8/w-d-xo.html
The battle was deemed lost. The battle had been going on for several days, but it seemed that nothing could stop the monster; at best, the troops only merely managed to prevent its spawn from causing further destruction. Though hard to kill, these at least could be defeated; the same was apparently not true for the apocalypse giant. Now, the battle was coming to a close. Unlike the beasts, which kept coming in an endless, nearly unstoppable stream, the troops fighting for their world were running out. Most of them were either dead, agonizing on the ground, or worse. As it turns out, the beasts were dangerous in and out of themselves, but were the giant even to look at you, and you would be gone. Not just dead, but truly, and permanently, gone. No one would remember you, and the last thing you would see are your comrades wondering why they are filled with a sense of dread, sadness and regret, all while looking at an empty spot. But now, there was one last hope. One of the sorcerers had found a spell with the potential power to end the giant itself. In one sweep motion, the battle would end, and the soldiers from everywhere could rejoice in their victory. But it wasn't that simple. See, while the spell had the *potential* to kill the giant, it was really just a simple spell, designed to slightly twist fate to get rid of a nuisance; yes, it was a dark spell in nature, with the sole intent of causing death, and its accessibility and simplicity made it quite valuable; but by itself, the spell was nowhere near enough to get rid of anything bigger than a caravan, let alone apocalypse personified. But the sorcerer knew that there was more to it, and decided to look deep into the spell. But that work takes time, and in this war, this was a luxury that very few could afford. Yet, this sorcerer, with all their determination, instilled hope in the hearts of everyone. And thus, while the battle was raging, a group of people from various races and places were gathered around a simple tent, trying their best to slay any monstrous beast that came close, knowing that they were defending what could be the turning point of this battle. However, slowly, their numbers began to thin out. Even with their heart filled to the brim with hope, the sheer number of monsters was too much for them to handle; and by the time the sorcerer finished their research, there was no one left around the tent. But it wasn't for nothing. The sorcerer, after passing all this time studying this spell, realized something quite simple: death begets death. While this turns out to be quite true in mundane situations, they realized that this was a law that was much more fundamental than that. Death is never alone. It's a force that has been going on since the beginning of Life, and the best way to make it even more powerful is to call it into action. The spell he was studying worked exactly the same way. By itself, it required its user to use their power on twisting fate itself to achieve their dark goals; however no wizard could ever hope to have the magic power necessary to change fate on a scale larger than themselves. But by catalyzing another death, the wielder could potentially make full use of the power of Death itself, and could make changes to destiny large enough to kill anything their heart desired. And right now, the sorcerer's heart desired only one thing: to make sure that all these people that died around this tent had not died in vain. They fully knew that they could not ask help from anyone anymore, and that the catalyst of the spell had to be the death of someone close enough that the event could be used to power the spell. They knew what they had to do. But no fear was present; if they had to die, it would be in this battle, and no other death would prove more honorable. And so, brandishing both a staff and a knife, the mage cast the spell, ending their own life. Amidst the the battlefield, this was nothing more than another soldier falling to the enemy. The only one who was close enough to see it only saw a flash of dark light, then the wizard lying bloody on the ground. And that was it. The beasts were still flowing endlessly, and there was nothing more than a few dozen soldiers left. These people never trained for the war; they were merely defending their right to live, for them and everyone they knew. They had few regrets; everyone knew that fighting the horror meant dying to it, but they still charged in with the hope of making a difference. Now, they were all gathered together, surrounded from all sides. Before leaving this world, one of them decided to defiantly look at the giant, something said to cause insanity in a fraction of a second. But what they saw wasn't their demise; it was something that caused them to urge everyone to look at the monster. The giant was not moving anymore. While just a few seconds ago it was sweeping its deadly glare all over the battlefield, its horrendous tendrils chaotically moving, killing or transforming everything in their path, now it was absolutely still. It no longer looked like a general leading their army, but now resembled a living statue that was trying it's best to pretend that it was alive. Now, everyone on the battlefield had turned their head towards it. Even the beasts stopped dead in their tracks, seemingly waiting, as if something horrible was about to happen. For a moment, there was no movement anywhere, no sound but the nervous beating of the human's heart and the pulsation of the beasts' flesh. The entire scene stood frozen, as in a painting of a gruesome battle. Then it happened. The sky itself seemed to tear around the giant, overflowing with such energy that it was impossible to see what was beyond the opening. The crack in the sky continued to grow, eventually completely surrounding the immobile horror. Then it fell. With a deafening roar that could be heard by everyone, no matter the distance, the giant descended into the crack in the sky, its tendrils frantically trying to grab hold of anything to stop itself from sinking into the unknown. The innumerable beasts all left the battlefield, rushing toward their master to try and help them; only to helplessly fall along, one by one. After a few minutes that felt like hours, the last tendril of the giant slipped in the opening, which then closed itself off, leaving nothing but the eerie emptiness taking the place of the monster. The remaining soldiers, slowly realizing what had just happened, started raising their arms in the air, shouting the powerful cry of victory. They all rejoiced, the news spreading everywhere that the giant had finally fallen, and that peace had taken its place. Slowly, the world began rebuilding, healing itself of the wound the monsters had left. A monument was built in honor of all those who had died, ultimately saving the world. It was missing many names, for several of the deceased had been wiped from existence, killed even in the memory of others. But there was one name at the top, written in gold, that nobody could miss. The name of a wizard who grew as a dark mage, even as far as to be rejected by their own, but who decided to use their magic to rid the world of danger, at the cost of their own life. The mage's name stood as proof that no matter who you are, no matter the choices you made in life, you can always be of help to the others. Life resumed its course, the battle being engraved in stories and legends, and the people all celebrated the day where the battle ended, the day where Life banded together to get rid of its enemy. And with that, Ulamog was no more.
When you're a new player and you think nothing can kill your foil Blightsteel Colossus... Ugh... I'd probably play Tragic Slip if it weren't for bad memories.
I was playing a game at my LGS with Yargle, three opponents. One was fairly salty that I won last game, so he kept blowing up my equipment and targeting me. Someone put Skullclamp on their platinum emperion and swung 9 at him. He didn't block, and never in my life have I so thoroughly enjoyed casting Tainted Strike before. The look of shock on his face when he realized what had happened was brilliant.
The only downside is that Tracker needs at least two cards to be in that graveyard, which is not always an option. But I do agree it is generally a lot better since floating the mana when nothing fishy iss going on will usually still allow you to explore, which is often close to drawing a card.
there is a card from onslaught block(legions) for BB called withered wretch that does not tap to exile cards for 1 each. would prefer that as it's much faster.
@@Miasmark the stipulation was fot the card to be 1 cmc. but rag dealer when used to remove one card is abysmally low value compared to withered wretch. i would always run it over any of those cards if there was no other reason than gy hate.
A quite recent one is Deadeye Tracker: it can remove some potentially dangerours staff from an opponent's graveyard to get the additional benefit of exploring. Tragic Slip can also get rid of huge creature out of the blue.
Kaya's Ghostform is an almost auto-include for me when I'm in black AND am really relying on my commander for my game plan. If I am in white as well, then Hall of Heliod's Generosity is an auto-include too!
@@MrFereshteyeh What about what i said mentions that the card is underplayed? I'm just making a statement about a card i play. You seem like a very angry person.
My friend is known to troll with this card in every black deck he plays, to the extent that he often intentionally leaves one black up to bluff the card. It's hilarious.
Yeah Defile is definitely a really good card. I don't know if it's underrated, though if it is, it could just be due to how young of a card it is compared to others. People keep telling me to cut it from my K'rrick deck, but what's better than a free heavy hitting, scaling removal spell that gets around everything except protection from black, hexproof, and shroud?
If you're in black and playing a deck that puts creatures in your graveyard, Necrotic Wound is pretty much an instant "exile target creature" for {B}. Big plus with this over Defile is that it gets around death triggers.
I've made entire tables rage when playing Font of Agonies in my K'rrick deck, and black has so many ways to pay life, even without him on the table. It just gets so gross in decks that are built to use it, and there are tons of commanders that would love it in their decks.
I think Supernatural Stamina is the best of the bunch. You still get the death and ETB trigger like Undying Evil, but you can use it on creatures with +1/+1 counters already on it.
Perhaps because the Professor is such a proud pauper player, he does not consider TortEx to be underappreciated, as he knows it is the backbone of a classic, cool, and powerful pauper deck.
John Dorian Smith that’s a novel theory & while I’d like it to be true, the fact that TorEx is practically nonexistent it the EDH meta right now should supersede such pride, lest he be too bias from the other side of things. In fact the only reason I even know about TorEx is bc of a random pauper player at one of my old LGS looking for one & it piqued my curiosity. Among the plethora of different LGS EDH metas I’ve been part of all along the Eastern US these past 6yrs, I’m always the one to bring it up in a commander environment, and I am one the few commander players I am aware of that I’ve met in person to actually OWN one.
Sinister Concoction, I feel like, easily beats out most of the cards on this list. It’s an enchantment that reads “{B}, Pay 1 life, Put the top card of your library into your graveyard, Discard a card, Sacrifice Sinister Concoction: Destroy target creature.” It seems like a lot of hoops to jump through until you realize that these are all things black wants to be doing anyways. In any graveyard-based deck, most of those “costs” are actually upsides that fuel your strategy. The discard is particularly good; sometimes you don’t want a certain card in your hand. This is a great way to get something like Sheoldred out of your hand and into your graveyard so you can cheat it out. Also it does a fantastic job at keeping big creatures at bay. No one’s gonna swing Skittles at you while you have this out. And all this ends in destroying _any creature_. So worth it. Disappointed it didn’t make this list.
11:24 - using infect to prevent persist can be pretty difficult. If you kill a Kitchen Finks by blocking it w/ a 2-power creature with infect, the Finks comes back with persist. To determine if a persist (or undying) creature will return to the battlefield, the game checks the last known state of the creature, prior to its death. In this case, right before it died from your infect creature, it had no -1 counters on it, so it returns with persist. Black Sun's Zenith works the same way. Ex: cast it for 1 while an unmarred Finks is out, then kill that Finks? It stays dead. Cast it for 2 while and unmarred Finks is out? Comes back with persist.
one with nothing doesn't count..... everyone uses it it's practically a staple like what deck wouldn't want to dump all the card advantage it worked hard for in the trash i don't get it
I'm surprised you didn't have Kaya's Ghostform on this list rather than Demonic Vigor. Not saying Demonic Vigor is bad, but Kaya's Ghostform brings the creature right back to the battlefield!
as a dedicated black player, I loved this list prof! bubbling muck is so often overlooked, and it brings me endless joy that you included tainted strike so high up your list as it's probably been my favorite card in all of magic since it was printed!
I've been playing mono black religiously for years and one of my favorite pocket cards I never seem to see anyone else using is Sadistic Sacrament. Helps deal with things Mono Black could normally never deal with before it ever becomes a problem. I mainly got it originally to counter multiple Superfriends decks. Strip their Doubling Season and their best walkers out of the deck and move on with my day.
It's a cool card but I think Praetor's Grasp is better most of the time in EDH. It's always fun to play your opponent's Ancient Tomb or Sol Ring if you don't have to exile combo pieces. :)
I tend to forget how much of a running gag that the Professor remind us he was an English major but not to give him a hard time over cards that have words that aren't really English words. No bully the prof
I'd like to nominate Bog Initiate as an additional honorable mention. It's not 1 mana but in 8 years of playing, I've never run into anyone in person that knew what it was. It's an innocuous little 2-drop 1/1 that turns colorless mana into black mana...without tapping! It's been crazy useful for budget combo builds and I love it to death!
Defile is my pick if no one has said it already. Instant, -1/-1 for each swamp ya got. That's a nice indestructible creature you had there. Another I'd like to mention is Call to the Netherworld. Useful for getting a dead creature back and using a discard trigger for extra value.
I feel that "Merrow Bonegnawer" Deserves a mention. one drop black creature that can tap and exile a card from someones graveyard. Then whenever you cast a black spell you untap it. Can be pretty useful.
Well Dark Ritual is in every black deck ever on the face of the Earth. So why was it not in this video? I mean, it’s about cards that don’t see play...
1) Culling the weak, 2) rain of filth, 3) aphotic whisps, 4) cremate, 5) extirpate, 6) fade from memory, 7) sacrifice, 8) scarab feast, 9) blood celebrant, 10) blood pet, 11) burnt offering... just to name a few off the top of my head. You should try them Professor!
Like you had said, Wrath of God effects happen often. I've used a card called Spoils of Blood. A Wrath effect happens and before the end of the turn you get black horror token creature with power and toughness equal to the the number of creatures that died this turn. All for a one Black cc instant.
Will o the Wisp is such a cool card! The neat thing about its new flavor text is how it's folklore that we the players know isn't true, but the characters in Magic think is, and resulted from events we're familiar with. I love that!
If infect isn't on the table, tainted strike can be used as an emergency heal when you are attacked for 8 or less. It could dramatically backfire, but that moment of confusion is worth it!
I usually run Unearth for low cost commanders: 1 black, sorcery, return target creature card with CMC 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield. Or you can cycle it for 2. Just bring back what you need, like your commander if you're running Glissa or Ayara or cycle it for something else if you don't need it right now.
I very rarely see people use Bloodchief Ascension nowadays, but ya boy is a potent workhorse that can slowly-but-surely turn the tide of a game in your favor once it's active. Not to mention the delightfully heinous Mindcrank combo that can instantly take out any opponent who loses even one life or lets so much as one card touch their graveyard.
Burnt Offering and Sacrifice. They are kinda win-more but they can lead into some crazy plays, especially in a reanimator shell, allowing you to cantrip big creatures with spells from your hand. Instant speed means you can respond to removal in your main phase and get a bunch of mana to just present a new threat.
Some cards I like: Kaya's Ghostform, Quest for the Gravelord, Unearth, Price of Betrayal, Songs of the Damned, Scarab Feast, Diregraf Ghoul, Circling Vultures, Gravecrawler. I'm new so sorry if these are well known, but I really love black cards, especially old ones, I made a long list of cards I like. It was really hard to actually make a deck because I've never played with them, so they're all so tempting.
Oh boy, my time to shine! I'm an avid mono-black commander player and here's a couple others that I think are overlooked : Culling the Weak for fast mana and a sac, Darkness because why not have a black Fog?, Evil Presence to get rid of those tricky lands, Vampiric link because gaining life in a black pay life deck is pro, and who can forget One with Nothing!! It'll be good one day, I promise.
Oh yes, some love for Bubbling Muck. Not as broken as High Tide because there are no untap effects like Frantic Search or Time Spiral in black, but awesome nonetheless. And I absolutelly agree when it comes to Undying Evil. As for underused gems, Tragic Slip, Kaya's Ghostform, Darkness and the instant that helixes an opponent for the number of attacking creatures you control come to mind, but they are kind of commander specific. Unearth also comes to mind if you can run it.
I would love for this series to continue so badly. 1 cmc vid for all colors, hidden gems, favorite creatures, etc. I would love you to do a video for artifacts and gold cards to round out your current series.
I recommend Indulgent Aristocrat. Its a 1/1 lifelink vampire that has "two generic, sacrifice a creature: put a 1/1 counter on each vampire you control". Pretty good if you block with a creature and sacrifice it to pump your team before damage is dealt.
I have gotten great milage out of Phyrexian Reclamation. I have never seen anyone else play it, even if it was reprinted twice in precon commander decks.
First off, did you look at my mono-black Vilis ("Demon Storm") deck professor? Secondly two more underrated mana generating instants that I have found quite useful are 'Culling the Weak' and 'Songs of the Damned'! As an honorable mention, 'Killing Wave' as it technically has a CMC of 1! :D
Vampiric links shows up in Pauper sometimes, but is great in commander - get life from your own, or put it on a big neater of your opponent to nullify it’s attack. Can really be hilarious to make your opponent to attack someone else and give you life in the process.
I think Hex Parasite is a bit underused. According to EDHREC, it was in 1106 decks out of 173521, just about 1%. It is a 1 mana 1/1 artifact creature, has an ability of “X & Phyrexia black mana: remove up to X counters from target permanent, it gets +1/+0 until end of the turn.” It can stop a lot of +1/+1 decks, kill planeswalkers, make persist/undying creatures die again and again. Not to mention those can make a push on attacking. And it is a creature, that can be easily brought back from the grave in black.
Hex Parasite is a card I would consider really underplayed in black. Being able to, at instant speed mind you, remove counters from any permanent and buff its power is very powerful. It's the bane of any Atraxa player and there have been a few times I've been able to just power it up out of nowhere for lethal damage. I've been able to keep sagas going for a ton of turns (Phyrexian Scriptures is nuts), instantly kill 0/0 creatures that rely on counters to live, pay one mana for undying or persist creatures to reset. Believe me, there are so many things this card can do in a deck.
Funeral Charm! For one black mana you can pump through for some extra damage, mess up combat math between any two attackers/blockers, or slip through an unblockable bit of damage with Swampwalk. But ignoring all that, it's one of the only cheap sources of instant speed hand attack available.
Maybe undermines the idea of 1-mana cards, but I love Ruthless Ripper. A "free" Morph cost that turns into a combat trick and adds insult to injury. When you're doing blue, might I suggest Triton Tactics? It does three things at once, for a single mana: untap, pump defense, and freeze. I remember getting several people with it during my Theros draft.
LOVE using Shrouded Lore. Found it when I was building my Queen Marchesa politics deck. It's always great to be able to use it as you said to just strike up a deal with an opponent to get that targeted removal or wrath effect back from the graveyard, or if you have an opponent who owes you a favor from earlier in the game, you can always use that card to call in that favor. More often than not, this is how I use it. I already did this for you, so you do this for me. Also gotta add that it's just good in that it gives black the ability to get back card types it normally can't recur, like enchantments, instants, sorceries, planeswalkers, and lands.
Nightscape Apprentice can bounce back Grave Defilers or any zombie that can proc Diregraf Colossus to top of library. It cost one blue to use it's activated ability, however. With a Rooftop Storm Grave Defiler combo, Nightscape Apprentice can be one *hell* of an enabler, especially with Cryptbreaker to allow you to automatically draw the Grave Defiler you put on top
A few favorites of mine: Kaya's Ghostform is basically a better version of Demonic Vigor. Unearth isn't the most obscure, but is still a pretty great budget card; black has has a lot of important creatures at 3 CMC or less - Blood Artist, Grim Haruspex, Viscera Seer (also a great 1-mana card), just to name a few. Nihil Spellbomb technically isn't a black card, but it fits in black's color identity and is solid graveyard hate.
Foul-tongue shriek is one of my favorite little known black cards. I love casting it in my decks that make lots of tokens. The potential damage and life gain for just a single Mana is incredible.
Cabal Therapist synergizes with Telepathy(1 Blue) or Urza's glasses (1 Generic) to make an opponent discard exactly what you want Gnat Miser to cut down your opponents to a max of 6 cards Phyrexian Reclamation for GY recursion/sac outlet Defile to destroy indestructible creatures better the more swamps you control I have more but a card I think I should mention even though it's a 2 black cost. Is Hunted Horror, a 7/7 but target opponent gains 2 3/3s . Great bargaining tool . Just agree to not attack each other with the creatures
Imma use this opportunity to give a shoutout to Darkness, for just 1 black mana you prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn. Use it to stop an opponent gaining life with lifelink, gain favor from another player or blow out an opponent who thought it wise to attack you. Fog effects in general are criminally underplayed considering how many games end in huge swing attacks.
I have been playing Pilfering Imp recently and it is a lot better in graveyard decks than I thought. With Meren you can use it as a continuous discard effect and with Karador you can use it to help cast karador himself to recast it and loop discard again.
I was always a fan of Unearth. 1 black mana to take any creature with CMC 3 or less from your grave directly to play, and it has cycling. There's a TON of cheap utility creatures in black clocking in at those costs, so it's a really flexible card.
I see a lot of awesome cards. One I have come to like is Spoils of Blood. Really nice to play after a boardwipe. And since it also counts tokens this can sometimes be a 15/15 or more for one black :) I play this in Toshiro Umezawa.
I'm a fan of Innocent Blood, which when paired with common black staples like Grave Pact/Dictate of Erebos/Butcher of Malakir can sometimes be a one-mana boardwipe for everyone but you.
Sacrifice, Culling the Weak, and Burnt Offering are all great sort of ritual effects. Other 1 cost black cards like Reanimate and Unearth work well with them as well.
Sacrifice, Culling the Weak and Rain of Filth are really efficient fast mana spells, instant speed for just one black mana; and Supernatural Stamina is a good protection/combat trick spell, at instant speed, very versatile.
One card that is pretty underrated is Paralyze I think, it's a one mana "tap your creature down" effect in black, it's pretty fun and good removal in the early game that possibly taxes them for a lot of mana while you only paid one to cast it.
Tainted strike also has the incremental value of being able to target an opponent’s creature attacking you, stopping its combat damage and Turing it into poison counters. If you’re not playing against infect or proliferate, it is a a way to stay alive for another turn if you need it.
Corrupted roots is fun, especially if you’re playing against someone using plains and/or Forrests. Get that out early and enchant their land that forces them to tap the land for mana and does 2 damage every time
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no green? :c
Tragic Slip: Nothing beats describing to your opponent how their 10/10 eldrazi accidentally slipped on a banana peel trying to attack you.
That's literally my favorite card in all of magic
The battle was deemed lost.
The battle had been going on for several days, but it seemed that nothing could stop the monster; at best, the troops only merely managed to prevent its spawn from causing further destruction. Though hard to kill, these at least could be defeated; the same was apparently not true for the apocalypse giant.
Now, the battle was coming to a close.
Unlike the beasts, which kept coming in an endless, nearly unstoppable stream, the troops fighting for their world were running out. Most of them were either dead, agonizing on the ground, or worse. As it turns out, the beasts were dangerous in and out of themselves, but were the giant even to look at you, and you would be gone. Not just dead, but truly, and permanently, gone. No one would remember you, and the last thing you would see are your comrades wondering why they are filled with a sense of dread, sadness and regret, all while looking at an empty spot.
But now, there was one last hope. One of the sorcerers had found a spell with the potential power to end the giant itself. In one sweep motion, the battle would end, and the soldiers from everywhere could rejoice in their victory.
But it wasn't that simple.
See, while the spell had the *potential* to kill the giant, it was really just a simple spell, designed to slightly twist fate to get rid of a nuisance; yes, it was a dark spell in nature, with the sole intent of causing death, and its accessibility and simplicity made it quite valuable; but by itself, the spell was nowhere near enough to get rid of anything bigger than a caravan, let alone apocalypse personified.
But the sorcerer knew that there was more to it, and decided to look deep into the spell. But that work takes time, and in this war, this was a luxury that very few could afford. Yet, this sorcerer, with all their determination, instilled hope in the hearts of everyone. And thus, while the battle was raging, a group of people from various races and places were gathered around a simple tent, trying their best to slay any monstrous beast that came close, knowing that they were defending what could be the turning point of this battle.
However, slowly, their numbers began to thin out. Even with their heart filled to the brim with hope, the sheer number of monsters was too much for them to handle; and by the time the sorcerer finished their research, there was no one left around the tent.
But it wasn't for nothing.
The sorcerer, after passing all this time studying this spell, realized something quite simple: death begets death. While this turns out to be quite true in mundane situations, they realized that this was a law that was much more fundamental than that. Death is never alone. It's a force that has been going on since the beginning of Life, and the best way to make it even more powerful is to call it into action.
The spell he was studying worked exactly the same way.
By itself, it required its user to use their power on twisting fate itself to achieve their dark goals; however no wizard could ever hope to have the magic power necessary to change fate on a scale larger than themselves. But by catalyzing another death, the wielder could potentially make full use of the power of Death itself, and could make changes to destiny large enough to kill anything their heart desired.
And right now, the sorcerer's heart desired only one thing: to make sure that all these people that died around this tent had not died in vain.
They fully knew that they could not ask help from anyone anymore, and that the catalyst of the spell had to be the death of someone close enough that the event could be used to power the spell. They knew what they had to do. But no fear was present; if they had to die, it would be in this battle, and no other death would prove more honorable.
And so, brandishing both a staff and a knife, the mage cast the spell, ending their own life.
Amidst the the battlefield, this was nothing more than another soldier falling to the enemy. The only one who was close enough to see it only saw a flash of dark light, then the wizard lying bloody on the ground. And that was it.
The beasts were still flowing endlessly, and there was nothing more than a few dozen soldiers left. These people never trained for the war; they were merely defending their right to live, for them and everyone they knew. They had few regrets; everyone knew that fighting the horror meant dying to it, but they still charged in with the hope of making a difference.
Now, they were all gathered together, surrounded from all sides. Before leaving this world, one of them decided to defiantly look at the giant, something said to cause insanity in a fraction of a second. But what they saw wasn't their demise; it was something that caused them to urge everyone to look at the monster.
The giant was not moving anymore. While just a few seconds ago it was sweeping its deadly glare all over the battlefield, its horrendous tendrils chaotically moving, killing or transforming everything in their path, now it was absolutely still. It no longer looked like a general leading their army, but now resembled a living statue that was trying it's best to pretend that it was alive.
Now, everyone on the battlefield had turned their head towards it. Even the beasts stopped dead in their tracks, seemingly waiting, as if something horrible was about to happen. For a moment, there was no movement anywhere, no sound but the nervous beating of the human's heart and the pulsation of the beasts' flesh. The entire scene stood frozen, as in a painting of a gruesome battle.
Then it happened. The sky itself seemed to tear around the giant, overflowing with such energy that it was impossible to see what was beyond the opening. The crack in the sky continued to grow, eventually completely surrounding the immobile horror.
Then it fell. With a deafening roar that could be heard by everyone, no matter the distance, the giant descended into the crack in the sky, its tendrils frantically trying to grab hold of anything to stop itself from sinking into the unknown. The innumerable beasts all left the battlefield, rushing toward their master to try and help them; only to helplessly fall along, one by one.
After a few minutes that felt like hours, the last tendril of the giant slipped in the opening, which then closed itself off, leaving nothing but the eerie emptiness taking the place of the monster. The remaining soldiers, slowly realizing what had just happened, started raising their arms in the air, shouting the powerful cry of victory. They all rejoiced, the news spreading everywhere that the giant had finally fallen, and that peace had taken its place. Slowly, the world began rebuilding, healing itself of the wound the monsters had left.
A monument was built in honor of all those who had died, ultimately saving the world. It was missing many names, for several of the deceased had been wiped from existence, killed even in the memory of others. But there was one name at the top, written in gold, that nobody could miss. The name of a wizard who grew as a dark mage, even as far as to be rejected by their own, but who decided to use their magic to rid the world of danger, at the cost of their own life. The mage's name stood as proof that no matter who you are, no matter the choices you made in life, you can always be of help to the others.
Life resumed its course, the battle being engraved in stories and legends, and the people all celebrated the day where the battle ended, the day where Life banded together to get rid of its enemy.
And with that, Ulamog was no more.
Agree. 100% agree.
When you're a new player and you think nothing can kill your foil Blightsteel Colossus... Ugh... I'd probably play Tragic Slip if it weren't for bad memories.
@@thesandersdeath man! Who are you?!? That was a great story !!! Awesome!!!
Kaya's Ghostform is better than Demonic Vigor
I was thinking the same.
came down to the comments to say Kaya's Ghostform, card is bonkers good!!!
Gerudo especially with muldrotha.
Nobody in my playgroup play's Kaya's Ghostform and I never hear anybody talking about it, but its an auto-include in almost all my black decks.
It's a fantastic protection card.
I was playing a game at my LGS with Yargle, three opponents. One was fairly salty that I won last game, so he kept blowing up my equipment and targeting me. Someone put Skullclamp on their platinum emperion and swung 9 at him. He didn't block, and never in my life have I so thoroughly enjoyed casting Tainted Strike before. The look of shock on his face when he realized what had happened was brilliant.
Instead of Rag Dealer, I go with Deadeye Tracker. It exiles 2 cards for 1 and a black, but you also get to explore
i agree. one less card removed from gy is much less important than 1 mana less in activation. explore trigger is cherry on top.
Fully agree! Then again, i play pirate tribal lol
The only downside is that Tracker needs at least two cards to be in that graveyard, which is not always an option. But I do agree it is generally a lot better since floating the mana when nothing fishy iss going on will usually still allow you to explore, which is often close to drawing a card.
there is a card from onslaught block(legions) for BB called withered wretch that does not tap to exile cards for 1 each. would prefer that as it's much faster.
@@Miasmark the stipulation was fot the card to be 1 cmc. but rag dealer when used to remove one card is abysmally low value compared to withered wretch. i would always run it over any of those cards if there was no other reason than gy hate.
Tortured Existence is definitely one underrated card. And it's also 1 cmc!
Came to say the same thing, I include it in almost all my black decks.
Well, the title says "...you Aren't Playing...". and everybody knows and plays with tortured. Reading the title is important b4 commenting.
Ran it in my Syr Konrad deck, gotta say I was kinda surprised how much damage Syr K. dished out with that thing each turn cycle.
4 years later it gets a comfy home in Disa the Restless, which is pretty neat
No Scheming Symmetry? That card is hilarious fun, and I rarely see it used
I use it in Gonti. Really makes the opponent think.
Symmetry isn’t that uncommon to see
The last time I tried to politic with scheming symmetry, my opponent used it to get omnipotence
It's a favourite at my lgs :)
I love it in my Jeleva deck. It always raises the question "Are you gonna exile what I tutor for?"
A quite recent one is Deadeye Tracker: it can remove some potentially dangerours staff from an opponent's graveyard to get the additional benefit of exploring.
Tragic Slip can also get rid of huge creature out of the blue.
Kaya's Ghostform is an almost auto-include for me when I'm in black AND am really relying on my commander for my game plan. If I am in white as well, then Hall of Heliod's Generosity is an auto-include too!
The title says ''...you Aren't Playing...'' and as tortured, everybody knows and plays ghostform. that's why. Read the title b4 commenting next time.
@@MrFereshteyeh What about what i said mentions that the card is underplayed? I'm just making a statement about a card i play. You seem like a very angry person.
Darkness! Nobody expects it in non-GW decks.
Black fog! Love it!
indeed, love darkness
Opponent: Zerg for Lethal
You: "Fog"
Everyone else: OMG that a-hole just tried to kill someone; *LET'S GET 'EM!*
My friend is known to troll with this card in every black deck he plays, to the extent that he often intentionally leaves one black up to bluff the card. It's hilarious.
"Wait what?! Black fog?!"
Defile is the the best 1 cmc removal for monoblack commanders (IMO). Love the video!
Totally it is, especially if your deck is in budget, because you're going to have so many basic lands, including swamps.
Yeah Defile is definitely a really good card. I don't know if it's underrated, though if it is, it could just be due to how young of a card it is compared to others. People keep telling me to cut it from my K'rrick deck, but what's better than a free heavy hitting, scaling removal spell that gets around everything except protection from black, hexproof, and shroud?
Any commanders with Urborg, Tomb of Yawg and black in identity!
If you're in black and playing a deck that puts creatures in your graveyard, Necrotic Wound is pretty much an instant "exile target creature" for {B}. Big plus with this over Defile is that it gets around death triggers.
I've made entire tables rage when playing Font of Agonies in my K'rrick deck, and black has so many ways to pay life, even without him on the table. It just gets so gross in decks that are built to use it, and there are tons of commanders that would love it in their decks.
Yessssssss. It's such a good card to take out key creatures with and it's so easy with Kirk.
I love font of agonies. Lol.
I figured it would be janky... maybe I should put it back in... and I’m stuck between and aristocrats in a life gain deck so it doesn’t run smooth...
I didn't expect Will o the Wisp. More towards Hex Parasite, Dark Ritual or Tragic Slip.
I think he didn't mention those because they are popular.
Tragic Slip: Fatal Push before Fatal Push was cool......
Why is no one talking about that Lazav edit? It's so smooth!
Unnatural Endurance, Supernatural Stamina, and Boon of Erebos are similarly good in the same vein as Undying Evil.
I think Supernatural Stamina is the best of the bunch. You still get the death and ETB trigger like Undying Evil, but you can use it on creatures with +1/+1 counters already on it.
Same idea with Kaya's Ghostform. I think it is seriously underplayed.
I played all those in krrik when I built it
The true 1 CMC hidden gem from me is Misinformation. You can wreck a player's day or play politics!
At instant speed, you can shut down big draws by forcing someone to take the crap in their graveyard. Looks like a fun card to me.
I love the idea when I look at Misinformation, but ultimately, its impact in a multiplayer format is lackluster.
Songs of the damned is a really good card at 1 cmc.
Came to say this. Play it in my Chamber, Nightmare Adept deck and it is gas.
No "Tortured Existence"?! And here I thought you were a Pauper player at heart...
Please, no TortEx lmaooo
I know! TortEx is great!
Perhaps because the Professor is such a proud pauper player, he does not consider TortEx to be underappreciated, as he knows it is the backbone of a classic, cool, and powerful pauper deck.
John Dorian Smith that’s a novel theory & while I’d like it to be true, the fact that TorEx is practically nonexistent it the EDH meta right now should supersede such pride, lest he be too bias from the other side of things. In fact the only reason I even know about TorEx is bc of a random pauper player at one of my old LGS looking for one & it piqued my curiosity. Among the plethora of different LGS EDH metas I’ve been part of all along the Eastern US these past 6yrs, I’m always the one to bring it up in a commander environment, and I am one the few commander players I am aware of that I’ve met in person to actually OWN one.
These are cards that aren't see play opposed to a black staple.
That Soft Cell pun was so sneaky, I love it.
They changed the rule so that when your commander dies and goes to the Command Zone, the death trigger still activates
I'm glad they changed that rule. It just makes sense.
Yes, finally.
Darkness, the Black Fog! That way I can shamelessly respond to an opponent's attack of my choice with "you're attacking the darkness!"
I ay that card all the time.... so funny.... everyone forgot that card exsists
Sinister Concoction, I feel like, easily beats out most of the cards on this list. It’s an enchantment that reads “{B}, Pay 1 life, Put the top card of your library into your graveyard, Discard a card, Sacrifice Sinister Concoction: Destroy target creature.”
It seems like a lot of hoops to jump through until you realize that these are all things black wants to be doing anyways. In any graveyard-based deck, most of those “costs” are actually upsides that fuel your strategy. The discard is particularly good; sometimes you don’t want a certain card in your hand. This is a great way to get something like Sheoldred out of your hand and into your graveyard so you can cheat it out.
Also it does a fantastic job at keeping big creatures at bay. No one’s gonna swing Skittles at you while you have this out. And all this ends in destroying _any creature_. So worth it. Disappointed it didn’t make this list.
Crack a fetchland to play this, the crack it and you already have to delirium.
One of the best cards in a Muldrotha control deck!
Raven's Crime is a great discard outlet when you top deck a land late in the game.
14:02. I didn't know I needed to know what Brian looked like as a teenager.
I legitimately forgot about Will o' the Wisp while I was building Otrimi. Let's go fix that.
I always thought "bubbling muck" is a staple. I use it whenever I can.
Not a soft cell tainted strike. Loved the reference. Well done.
Diplomagic is the way to play magic. Darkness is one of my favorite one drops. Oh, and vampire conquistador, the best vamp to spread the love.
Wil 'o the wisp! All time favorite card along with unholy strength and dark ritual.
I'd make the argument that "Defile", "Rain of Filth" and "Cremate" are fun options.
Tainted Strike and Will-o'-the-wisp are two personal favourite cards of mine.
11:24 - using infect to prevent persist can be pretty difficult. If you kill a Kitchen Finks by blocking it w/ a 2-power creature with infect, the Finks comes back with persist.
To determine if a persist (or undying) creature will return to the battlefield, the game checks the last known state of the creature, prior to its death. In this case, right before it died from your infect creature, it had no -1 counters on it, so it returns with persist.
Black Sun's Zenith works the same way. Ex: cast it for 1 while an unmarred Finks is out, then kill that Finks? It stays dead. Cast it for 2 while and unmarred Finks is out? Comes back with persist.
One With Nothing. The top black card literally no one is playing.
In response to you targeting me with a Discard spell, I Discard my entire hand XD
Just put it in "Sheoldred"! Love it!
one with nothing doesn't count.....
everyone uses it it's practically a staple
like what deck wouldn't want to dump all the card advantage it worked hard for in the trash i don't get it
@@frenchertoast Muldrotha, for example, where her graveyard us in fact a second hand to play from! :)
Stock your grave, free hellbent, free delirium, free threshold, and synergy with recursive enchantments? I'd play it.
I'm surprised you didn't have Kaya's Ghostform on this list rather than Demonic Vigor. Not saying Demonic Vigor is bad, but Kaya's Ghostform brings the creature right back to the battlefield!
And saves from exile aswell. Ghostform is so mutch better lol
Unless you want cast triggers.
as a dedicated black player, I loved this list prof! bubbling muck is so often overlooked, and it brings me endless joy that you included tainted strike so high up your list as it's probably been my favorite card in all of magic since it was printed!
Sadistic Glee. An aura that makes something bigger as creatures die.
I've been playing mono black religiously for years and one of my favorite pocket cards I never seem to see anyone else using is Sadistic Sacrament. Helps deal with things Mono Black could normally never deal with before it ever becomes a problem. I mainly got it originally to counter multiple Superfriends decks. Strip their Doubling Season and their best walkers out of the deck and move on with my day.
It's a cool card but I think Praetor's Grasp is better most of the time in EDH. It's always fun to play your opponent's Ancient Tomb or Sol Ring if you don't have to exile combo pieces. :)
I tend to forget how much of a running gag that the Professor remind us he was an English major but not to give him a hard time over cards that have words that aren't really English words.
No bully the prof
Bubbling Muck is awesome and I’m glad to see it mentioned.
Actually ordered a few of these for my Ayli and Konrad decks, thanks Prof!
Darkblast. Can fill up the grave and deals with strong utility creatures. Maybe it wins you combat.
Also never forget the big brain play of using Darkblast in your upkeep then Dredging it to recast immediately to kill X/2s.
I've been running darkest hour + light of day for years and I love the combo. Oh, so sorry, did you want to attack? What a shame...
Funny that those cards combo
unfortunately you cant attack either. oops!
I'd like to nominate Bog Initiate as an additional honorable mention. It's not 1 mana but in 8 years of playing, I've never run into anyone in person that knew what it was. It's an innocuous little 2-drop 1/1 that turns colorless mana into black mana...without tapping! It's been crazy useful for budget combo builds and I love it to death!
Defile is my pick if no one has said it already. Instant, -1/-1 for each swamp ya got. That's a nice indestructible creature you had there.
Another I'd like to mention is Call to the Netherworld. Useful for getting a dead creature back and using a discard trigger for extra value.
Welps prep for the good 'ol TCC price spikes on this list of cards...
Maybe a few cents but nothing here is very good.
Sad to not see Darkness as one of them.
I feel that "Merrow Bonegnawer" Deserves a mention. one drop black creature that can tap and exile a card from someones graveyard. Then whenever you cast a black spell you untap it. Can be pretty useful.
10:18 oh man I love that song "Tainted Strike" by Soft Cell
One With Nothing.
If you can't figure out how to use that to win... well, I can't help you.
also, where's my dark ritual at?
Well Dark Ritual is in every black deck ever on the face of the Earth. So why was it not in this video? I mean, it’s about cards that don’t see play...
I mean, if you play a Grixis deck and throw in Rielle the Everwise, you could get a cheap wheel? Nekusar perhaps..
I hope they reprint Undying Evil with some new art, it's too ugly to use atm
10:16 "It's not a Soft Cell to say that you love next card" for Tainted Strike. Kudos, Prof, Kudos, what a perfect reference :D
1) Culling the weak, 2) rain of filth, 3) aphotic whisps, 4) cremate, 5) extirpate, 6) fade from memory, 7) sacrifice, 8) scarab feast, 9) blood celebrant, 10) blood pet, 11) burnt offering... just to name a few off the top of my head. You should try them Professor!
Anyone else think commenting first, second, third, ect, is kind of like The Professor taking attendance?
"Tainted Strike is not a Soft Sell."
Only 80s babies will get it.
That was a top pun. Nice work, Prof!
Sometimes I get on a kick and watch a bunch of your videos. They really make me wanna just sit down and play, which I imagine is the point.
Like you had said, Wrath of God effects happen often. I've used a card called Spoils of Blood. A Wrath effect happens and before the end of the turn you get black horror token creature with power and toughness equal to the the number of creatures that died this turn. All for a one Black cc instant.
Will o the Wisp is such a cool card! The neat thing about its new flavor text is how it's folklore that we the players know isn't true, but the characters in Magic think is, and resulted from events we're familiar with. I love that!
If infect isn't on the table, tainted strike can be used as an emergency heal when you are attacked for 8 or less. It could dramatically backfire, but that moment of confusion is worth it!
I usually run Unearth for low cost commanders: 1 black, sorcery, return target creature card with CMC 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield. Or you can cycle it for 2.
Just bring back what you need, like your commander if you're running Glissa or Ayara or cycle it for something else if you don't need it right now.
Shrouded Lore is one of my favorite cards for mono black decks, it is just absurdly good in commander
I very rarely see people use Bloodchief Ascension nowadays, but ya boy is a potent workhorse that can slowly-but-surely turn the tide of a game in your favor once it's active. Not to mention the delightfully heinous Mindcrank combo that can instantly take out any opponent who loses even one life or lets so much as one card touch their graveyard.
Burnt Offering and Sacrifice. They are kinda win-more but they can lead into some crazy plays, especially in a reanimator shell, allowing you to cantrip big creatures with spells from your hand. Instant speed means you can respond to removal in your main phase and get a bunch of mana to just present a new threat.
I love Shrouded Lore. I run it in my K'rrik Deck and I can dig through my entire graveyard with no problems.
Some cards I like: Kaya's Ghostform, Quest for the Gravelord, Unearth, Price of Betrayal, Songs of the Damned, Scarab Feast, Diregraf Ghoul, Circling Vultures, Gravecrawler.
I'm new so sorry if these are well known, but I really love black cards, especially old ones, I made a long list of cards I like. It was really hard to actually make a deck because I've never played with them, so they're all so tempting.
Oh boy, my time to shine! I'm an avid mono-black commander player and here's a couple others that I think are overlooked : Culling the Weak for fast mana and a sac, Darkness because why not have a black Fog?, Evil Presence to get rid of those tricky lands, Vampiric link because gaining life in a black pay life deck is pro, and who can forget One with Nothing!! It'll be good one day, I promise.
Oh yes, some love for Bubbling Muck. Not as broken as High Tide because there are no untap effects like Frantic Search or Time Spiral in black, but awesome nonetheless.
And I absolutelly agree when it comes to Undying Evil.
As for underused gems, Tragic Slip, Kaya's Ghostform, Darkness and the instant that helixes an opponent for the number of attacking creatures you control come to mind, but they are kind of commander specific. Unearth also comes to mind if you can run it.
I would love for this series to continue so badly. 1 cmc vid for all colors, hidden gems, favorite creatures, etc. I would love you to do a video for artifacts and gold cards to round out your current series.
I recommend Indulgent Aristocrat. Its a 1/1 lifelink vampire that has "two generic, sacrifice a creature: put a 1/1 counter on each vampire you control". Pretty good if you block with a creature and sacrifice it to pump your team before damage is dealt.
Superb editing on this video! Complemented Prof's voiceover very well.
I have gotten great milage out of Phyrexian Reclamation. I have never seen anyone else play it, even if it was reprinted twice in precon commander decks.
First off, did you look at my mono-black Vilis ("Demon Storm") deck professor? Secondly two more underrated mana generating instants that I have found quite useful are 'Culling the Weak' and 'Songs of the Damned'! As an honorable mention, 'Killing Wave' as it technically has a CMC of 1! :D
Vampiric links shows up in Pauper sometimes, but is great in commander - get life from your own, or put it on a big neater of your opponent to nullify it’s attack. Can really be hilarious to make your opponent to attack someone else and give you life in the process.
If you ever do a 2-CMC one, Withering Boon is a hell of a card.
I think Hex Parasite is a bit underused. According to EDHREC, it was in 1106 decks out of 173521, just about 1%.
It is a 1 mana 1/1 artifact creature, has an ability of “X & Phyrexia black mana: remove up to X counters from target permanent, it gets +1/+0 until end of the turn.”
It can stop a lot of +1/+1 decks, kill planeswalkers, make persist/undying creatures die again and again. Not to mention those can make a push on attacking.
And it is a creature, that can be easily brought back from the grave in black.
Hex Parasite is a card I would consider really underplayed in black.
Being able to, at instant speed mind you, remove counters from any permanent and buff its power is very powerful. It's the bane of any Atraxa player and there have been a few times I've been able to just power it up out of nowhere for lethal damage. I've been able to keep sagas going for a ton of turns (Phyrexian Scriptures is nuts), instantly kill 0/0 creatures that rely on counters to live, pay one mana for undying or persist creatures to reset. Believe me, there are so many things this card can do in a deck.
Funeral Charm! For one black mana you can pump through for some extra damage, mess up combat math between any two attackers/blockers, or slip through an unblockable bit of damage with Swampwalk. But ignoring all that, it's one of the only cheap sources of instant speed hand attack available.
Maybe undermines the idea of 1-mana cards, but I love Ruthless Ripper. A "free" Morph cost that turns into a combat trick and adds insult to injury.
When you're doing blue, might I suggest Triton Tactics? It does three things at once, for a single mana: untap, pump defense, and freeze. I remember getting several people with it during my Theros draft.
This is valuable knowledge.
13:41 Gravecrawler should be mentioned here
I discovered Quest of the Gravelord to be an amazing card, gets you a 5/5 every once in a while and you are protected against board wipes
LOVE using Shrouded Lore. Found it when I was building my Queen Marchesa politics deck. It's always great to be able to use it as you said to just strike up a deal with an opponent to get that targeted removal or wrath effect back from the graveyard, or if you have an opponent who owes you a favor from earlier in the game, you can always use that card to call in that favor. More often than not, this is how I use it. I already did this for you, so you do this for me.
Also gotta add that it's just good in that it gives black the ability to get back card types it normally can't recur, like enchantments, instants, sorceries, planeswalkers, and lands.
For the record, Black can recur planeswalkers. The Eldest Reborn, Unlikely Aid, etc.
I personally like Darkness. I love using it in a stall deck in an Abzan shell with cards like Fog, Darkness, Holy Day, etc.
Came in to suggest this, but you already have! Darkness can steal games!
Nightscape Apprentice can bounce back Grave Defilers or any zombie that can proc Diregraf Colossus to top of library. It cost one blue to use it's activated ability, however. With a Rooftop Storm Grave Defiler combo, Nightscape Apprentice can be one *hell* of an enabler, especially with Cryptbreaker to allow you to automatically draw the Grave Defiler you put on top
A few favorites of mine:
Kaya's Ghostform is basically a better version of Demonic Vigor.
Unearth isn't the most obscure, but is still a pretty great budget card; black has has a lot of important creatures at 3 CMC or less - Blood Artist, Grim Haruspex, Viscera Seer (also a great 1-mana card), just to name a few.
Nihil Spellbomb technically isn't a black card, but it fits in black's color identity and is solid graveyard hate.
WOW, I cannot believe that planar void is not on the list.
Artificer's Hex! My all time surprise card when playing Commander!
Foul-tongue shriek is one of my favorite little known black cards. I love casting it in my decks that make lots of tokens. The potential damage and life gain for just a single Mana is incredible.
Cabal Therapist synergizes with Telepathy(1 Blue) or Urza's glasses (1 Generic) to make an opponent discard exactly what you want
Gnat Miser to cut down your opponents to a max of 6 cards
Phyrexian Reclamation for GY recursion/sac outlet
Defile to destroy indestructible creatures better the more swamps you control
I have more but a card I think I should mention even though it's a 2 black cost. Is Hunted Horror, a 7/7 but target opponent gains 2 3/3s . Great bargaining tool . Just agree to not attack each other with the creatures
Imma use this opportunity to give a shoutout to Darkness, for just 1 black mana you prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn. Use it to stop an opponent gaining life with lifelink, gain favor from another player or blow out an opponent who thought it wise to attack you.
Fog effects in general are criminally underplayed considering how many games end in huge swing attacks.
I have been playing Pilfering Imp recently and it is a lot better in graveyard decks than I thought. With Meren you can use it as a continuous discard effect and with Karador you can use it to help cast karador himself to recast it and loop discard again.
I was always a fan of Unearth. 1 black mana to take any creature with CMC 3 or less from your grave directly to play, and it has cycling. There's a TON of cheap utility creatures in black clocking in at those costs, so it's a really flexible card.
I see a lot of awesome cards. One I have come to like is Spoils of Blood. Really nice to play after a boardwipe. And since it also counts tokens this can sometimes be a 15/15 or more for one black :)
I play this in Toshiro Umezawa.
I'm a fan of Innocent Blood, which when paired with common black staples like Grave Pact/Dictate of Erebos/Butcher of Malakir can sometimes be a one-mana boardwipe for everyone but you.
Infernal Reckoning. Exiles Eldrazi and pesky artifact creatures. So nice
Sacrifice, Culling the Weak, and Burnt Offering are all great sort of ritual effects. Other 1 cost black cards like Reanimate and Unearth work well with them as well.
production quality seemed especially good on this one, nice job :)
Sacrifice, Culling the Weak and Rain of Filth are really efficient fast mana spells, instant speed for just one black mana; and Supernatural Stamina is a good protection/combat trick spell, at instant speed, very versatile.
Burnt Offering, Carrion Beetles, Death Watch, Innocent Blood, Misinformation, Rain of Filth, Restless Dreams, Sleeper Agent, Songs of the Damned, Vampiric Link.
One card that is pretty underrated is Paralyze I think, it's a one mana "tap your creature down" effect in black, it's pretty fun and good removal in the early game that possibly taxes them for a lot of mana while you only paid one to cast it.
Tainted strike also has the incremental value of being able to target an opponent’s creature attacking you, stopping its combat damage and Turing it into poison counters. If you’re not playing against infect or proliferate, it is a a way to stay alive for another turn if you need it.
Corrupted roots is fun, especially if you’re playing against someone using plains and/or Forrests. Get that out early and enchant their land that forces them to tap the land for mana and does 2 damage every time