US:CD 7

Urza's Saga: Carpe Diem Part 7 Black

You'll notice that Urza's Saga black generally isn't very exciting. Often a card is strictly inferior to previous ones, and I'll just note why.

115 Abyssal Horror (Rare)

116 Befoul (Common) 2BB Sorcery Destroy target land or nonblack creature. A creature destroyed this way cannot be regenerated this turn. B+ This card is always useable, since everyone has land, and doubles as creature removal. It's an extra mana for the choice but it seems worthwhile. Especially for Necro decks: You want land destruction and creature removal for a minimum number of non-engine card, and you can cast this the turn after Necropotence.

117 Bereavement (Uncommon) 1B Enchantment Whenever a green creature is out into a graveyard from play, its controller chooses and discards a card. C- I can't think of a green deck where you wouldn't rather have Perish. Most green decks can empty their hands, and they get to keep their key cards. Bereavement also interferes with Nevinyrral's Disk, which would seem to be the logical companion. If you can kill the green creatures, you don't need this.

118 Blood Vassal (Common) 2B Summon Thrull 2/2 Sacrifice Blood Vassal: Add BB to your mana pool. Play this ability as a mana source. C You can sac it for a Dark Ritual, but you still have to pay the casting cost (sort of), and this doesn't really work with Recurring Nightmare or Yawgmoth's Will. By the time you have three mana this isn't a worthwhile effect, aside from weird effects to set up huge Drain Lifes under Necro.

119 Bog Raiders (Common) 2B Summon Zombies 2/2 Swampwalk F That's not good enough.

120 Breach (Common) 2B Instant Target creature gets +2/+0 until end of turn. That creature cannot be blocked except by artifact creatures and black creatures this turn. F And the line 'Draw a card' is where? This is a very, very weak 'To the air'.

121 Cackling Fiend (Common) 2BB Summon Zombie 2/1 When Cackling Fiend comes into play, each of your opponents chooses and discards a card. D If you're animating, go with Abyssal Horror. If you're casting, this is probably too slow for the new environment.

122 Carrion Beetles (Common) B Summon Insects 1/1 2B,Tap: Remove from the game up to three target cards in one graveyard. A- This card has the potential to shut down Recurring Nightmare and for use with Recurring Nightmare. There's a danger, though, that suicide black decks will give up 2/2s for a 1/1, seriously slowing them down. If this card was red it would see a lot of play. But the mana cost isn't cheap.

123 Contamination (Rare)

124 Corrupt (Common) 5B Sorcery Corrupt deals 1 damage to target creature or player for each swamp you control. When Corrupt successfully deals damage to a creature or player gain life equal to that damage. B When Drain Life is cast for more than four, it generally involves Dark Ritual. For Corrupt to work better, it will require that you have 5 or more swamps, restricting this to monoblack. Six mana is a lot. But this a chance for a 5th or 6th Drain Life. In particular, you can kill small creatures and get five or six life on a regular basis.

125 Crazed Skirge (Uncommon) 3B Summon Imp 2/2 Flying. Crazed Skirge is unaffected by summoning sickness. F Compare this to Ashen Ghoul or Suq'Ata Lancer. Pretty bad.

126 Dark Hatchling (Rare)

127 Dark Ritual (Common) A+ It's even better than it used to be.

128 Darkest Hour (Rare)

129 Despondency (Common) 1B Enchant Creature Enchanted creature gets -2/0. When Despondency is put into a graveyard from play, return Despondency to owner's hand. F You still have to kill the creature, or this is just a bad Weakness. A lot of creatures can ignore this. This card needs to be white or blue to fit into any normal deck. Strictly Argothian Enchantress.

130 Diabolic Servitude (Uncommon) 3B Enchantment When Diabolic Servitude comes into play, choose target creature card in your graveyard and put that creature into play. When the chosen creature is put into a graveyard, remove the creature from the game and return Diabolic Servitude to owner's hand. When Diabolic Servitude leaves play, remove the chosen creature from the game. B+ Either way, the creature's going to leave the game, so this is going to have a limited lifespan. And if the creature is unsummoned Diabolic Servitude is stranded. This card allows you to use every creature twice. It looks good on paper, but where does it fit in? In a Recurring deck it wastes graveyard resources, in another this won't do that much. And this is going to be a lot of mana to use well.

131 Discordant Dirge (Rare) 3BB Enchantment

132 Duress (Common) B Sorcery Look at target opponent's hand and choose a noncreature, nonland card there. That player discards that card. A+ In particular, this can be used to set up second turn Ritual/Persecute, or set up an infinite combination. The only problem is that sometimes this just lets you look at their hand, but not that often on first turn.

133 Eastern Paladin (Rare)

134 Exhume (Common) 1B Sorcery Each player chooses a creature card in his or her graveyard and puts that creature into play. F Animate Dead and Necromancy are almost as efficient and much less risky.

135 Expunge (Common) 2B Instant Destroy target nonartifact, nonblack creature. That creature cannot be regenerated this turn. Cycling 2. A This is a very good creature kill spell. The main problem with Dark Banishing is that often it's useless, and while this is useless slightly more often, Cycling solves that problem. Of course, in sealed deck cycling it is crazy.

136 Flesh Reaver (Uncommon) Watch List. No Comment.

137 Hollow Dogs (Common) 4B Summon Hounds 3/3 Whenever Hollow Dogs attacks, it gets +2/+0 until end of turn. F Five mana for a straight 5/3 would still be too much, especially considering the alternatives.

138 Ill-Gotten Gains (Rare)

139 Looming Shade (Common) 2B Summon Shade B: Looming shade gets +1/+1 until end of turn. D Sure, it's a strictly better frozen shade. But it's hard to protect regardless. More importantly, it's going to be much weaker than a creature with equivalent mana requirements. And Winter Orb, Armageddon and Propaganda all wreck it.

140 Lurking Evil (Rare)

141 Mana Leech (Uncommon) 2B Summon Worm 1/1 You may choose not to untap mana Leech during your untap phase. Tap: Tap target land. As long as Mana Leech remains tapped, that land does not untap during its controller's untap phase. D Mole Worms. When they matter, they're killed. When they don't, they're a waste.

142 No Rest for the Wicked (Uncommon) 1B Enchantment Watch list. No comment.

143 Oppression (Rare) 1BB Enchantment

144 Order of Yawgmoth (Uncommon) 2BB Summon Knight 2/2 Order of Yawgmoth cannot be blocked except by artifact creatures and black creatures. Whenever Order of Yawgmoth successfully deals damage to a player, that player chooses and discards a card. B+ Four mana is the realm of game winning creatures, and this one qualifies. It's no Hypnotic, or Ophidian, but many decks won't be able to block it, turning it into a sceptre that also does two damage a turn. This seems like a Necro card more than anything else. Ritualing it out turn two after a turn one Duress could be a staple black play.

145 Parasitic Bond (Uncommon) 3B Enchant Creature During the upkeep of enchanted creature's controller, Parasitic Bond deals 2 damage to that player. F- Get over it. These NEVER worked.

146 Persecute (Rare)

147 Pestilence (Common) 2BB Enchantment At the end of each turn, if no creatures are in play, sacrifice Pestilence. B: Pestilence deals 1 damage to each creature and player. C- One of the decks all developing players tend to build is the W/B Pestilence deck. I dominated the Ice Age/Alliances environment with a Withering Wisps deck. That one mana is a huge difference. At four mana, you'll normally need to keep it in play for one turn for it to have an effect. You never see it around, and there's a reason. But that doesn't mean you won't see it in Block Constructed.

148 Phyrexian Ghoul (Common) 2B Summon Zombie 2/2 Sacrifice a creature: Phyrexian Ghoul gets +2/+2 until end of turn. C+ Inferior to Vampire Hounds, but not horrible. Good Living Death defense, too.

149 Planar Void (Uncommon) B Enchantment Whenever a card is put into a graveyard, remove that card from the game. B See my discussion of Recurring Nightmare decks. This card is good because it's cheap and effective, but don't celebrate anyone's demise yet: It's too easy to remove without losing anything. You won't even lose the Disenchant, I think. Monk Realist has a lot to do with that, too.

150 Priest of Gix (Uncommon) 2B Summon Minion 2/1 When Priest of Gix comes into play, add BBB to your mana pool. B+ A solid Necro card, it brings up scary first turn possibilities - Mox, Mox, Land, Priest, Necro, for example. Or Land, Ritual, Priest, Priest, Priest, Priest, Necro on a god draw. Ouch! Also acts as a filter for mana with Recurring Nightmare. In decks where you need to generate a lot of mana to dump your hand quickly, and don't mind mana burn, this is very good. Essentially, you pop it out on turn 1 or 3 for free along with the rest of the creature rush.

151 Rain of Filth (Uncommon) B Instant Each land you control gains "Sacrifice this land: Add B to your mana pool" until end of turn. B- Natural Balance is gone, and Squandered was good without it only in decks that used it for things like Stasis. Still, one of these might be good for Necro.

152 Ravenous Skirge (Common) 2B Summon Imp 1/1 Flying. Whenever Ravenous Skirge attacks, it gets +2/+0 until end of turn. F A 3/1 for three mana? Black can do better. Plus, it can't block very well. Good in draft, though.

153 Reclusive Wight (Uncommon) 3B Summon Minion 4/4 During your upkeep, if you control any other nonland permanents sacrifice Reclusive Wight. C- A good idea for a card, but too expensive. You can't have out Necropotence, Mox diamond, Nevinyrral's disk, or anything. Compare this to Derelor, for example.

154 Reprocess (Rare)

155 Sanguine Guard (Uncommon) 1BB Summon Knight 2/2 First strike. 1B: Regenerate Sanguine Guard. B- Some decks have trouble with regenerators. But I don't know a deck where this fits.

156 Sicken (Common) B Enchant Creature Enchanted creature gets -1/-1. Cycling 2. A- A good creature removal spell, since when it works it's vital but when it doesn't you can cycle it. Cycling is good for spells that don't cost extra mana and you wouldn't always cast.

157 Skirge Familiar (Uncommon) 4B Summon Imp 3/2 Flying. Choose and discard a card: Add B to your mana pool. Play this ability as a mana source. C A five mana creature is too expensive to use to set up a Drain Life, and without Necropotence it isn't worth it anyway. Note that this is infinite mana combo with two other cards, both of them white.

158 Skittering Skirge (Common) BB Summon Imp 3/2 Flying. When you successfully cast a creature spell, sacrifice Skittering Skirge. A+ This is a very good replacement for Steel Golem for Necro decks. It won't land you in a trap, since the worst that happens is you lose it, and the creature is very undercosted at BB for 3/2 flying. Probably not bad in suicide black, either, if you make it the last creature you cast when you empty your hand.

159 Sleeper Agent (Common) B Summon Minion 3/3 When Sleeper Agent comes into play, target opponent gains control of it. During your upkeep, Sleeper Agent deals 2 damage to you. C This card is good for your opponent, not you, without some special card. It would be funny to use this as your kill card, though. For example, together with Light of Day. Then there's Oath of Druids, but you might hit another Sleeper Agent.

160 Spined Fluke (Uncommon) 2B Summon Horror 5/1 When Spined Fluke comes into play, sacrifice a creature. B: Regenerate Spined Fluke. C- It's way too easy to kill to be worth the coming into play effect. But this is a lot better than Kjeldoran Dead, because it can actually fit into a mana curve and there's no Swords. Not that that's saying all that much.

161 Tainted AEther (Rare)

162 Unnerve (Common) 3B Sorcery Each of your opponents chooses and discards two cards. D- In multiplayer you can piss a lot of people off. In one-on-one, this is one more mana than stupor for a weaker effect.

163 Unworthy Dead (Common) 1B Summon Skeletons 1/1 B: Regenerate Unworthy Dead. F Good name.

164 Vampiric Embrace (Uncommon) 2BB Enchant Creature Enchanted creature gets +2/+2 and gains flying. Whenever a creature successfully dealt damage by enchanted creature this turn is put into a graveyard, put a +1/+1 counter on enchanted creature. B- This is good, to some extent, because black has a lot of good creatures to put this on: Knights, shadow creatures, even Carnophage, that sort of thing. Second turn 4/4 flyer could be a common result. But this is weaker than the blue and white effects. And decks that can cast this will probably prefer Nevinyrral's Disk and Necropotence.

165 Vebulid (Rare)

166 Victimize (Uncommon) 2B Sorcery Choose two target creature cards in your graveyard. Sacrifice a creature. If you do, put the two chosen creatures into play tapped. Think of it as a Necromancy with a one-shot Recurring Nightmare thrown in for free that can't be played as an instant. Think Anarchist. Think Wall of Blossoms. Think Priest of Gix (x2 it's better than Dark Ritual), etc. A 5th Nightmare, if you want one.

167 Vile Requiem (Uncommon) 2BB Enchantment During your upkeep, you may put a verse counter on Vile Requiem. 1B, Sacrifice Vile Requiem: Destroy up to X target nonblack creatures, where X is the number of verse counters on Vile Requiem. Those creatures cannot be regenerated this turn. B I'm not sure what to think right now. Against nonblack creature decks, this is really good in the long run. But how often will you be able to hold out for more than 2, and take full advantage?

168 Western Paladin (Rare) 169 Witch Engine (Rare)

170 Yawgmoth's Edict (Uncommon) 1B Enchantment Whenever one of your opponents successfully casts a white spell, that player loses 1 life and you gain 1 life. D Warmth is only good because it's aimed at red, and havoc is bad. This is bad too.

171 Yawgmoth's Will (Rare)

Summary of black: A lot of black is just not as good as old black cards. But it doesn't take a lot of cards to revitalize black, especially because black didn't have much to work with from the Mirage block, aside from Nekrataal. Skittering Skirge is really good and may even be a small mistake. Victimize is a 'fixed' Recurring Nightmare. In particular, a lot of cards are Necro-friendly. But Necro seems too slow without Mox Diamond and not solid enough without Nevinyrral's Disk. Just never count pure evil out.