[Top 25] MTG Arena Most OP Black Cards!

Updated:

05 Mar 2021

When you see black in MTG, you immediately envision death, sacrifice, and corruption of the mind. It is the color commonly associated with selfish intentions so it is no surprise that black cards seek to win the game in whatever way possible. You will often see cards that let you sacrifice your own creatures, discard your own cards, and exile your own graveyard in order to gain more advantage in the game.

25. Gray Merchant of Asphodel

What is great about this card?

Great at dealing surprise damage to the opponent
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel can be a win condition on its own when played in a devotion deck
- Aside from dealing damage to the opponent, it can also help get you out of dangerous situations as it also gains you life

24. Legion’s End

What is great about this card?

This card can function as a one-sided board wipe against some decks
- Aggro decks are great targets for Legion’s End especially those that run creature tokens
- Cast this to get rid of an army of tokens and you are good to go

23. Eradicator Valkyrie

What is great about this card?

A decent creature that can remove threats from the board
- Its flying, lifelink, and hexproof from planeswalkers ability can definitely come in handy as you want to attack with this creature as often as you can to activate its Boast
- Sacrifice your cheaper creatures or tokens to get some threats off the board with Eradicator Valkyrie

22. Clackbridge Troll

What is great about this card?

Very cheap considering the value that it can generate
- At only 5-mana to cast, you get an 8/8 creature with trample and haste that the opponent can tap to gain you 3 life and draw you a card
- The only downside of this is that it gives the opponent 3 tokens that can become threats if they have the right tools

21. Doom Whisperer

What is great about this card?

A great card to have for deck thinning and card advantage
- Aside from it being a huge attacker in the air, you can also utilize its activated ability by paying 2 life to Surveil 2
- This is great to have if you want to look for a certain card to win you the game or to simply fill your graveyard for more dynamic plays

20. Dreadhorde Invasion

What is great about this card?

Creates a constant threat that needs to be dealt with by the opponent
- Every upkeep, you Amass 1 and if the token is not properly dealt with by the opponent, you can gain back the life you lost while building this huge zombie token
- One downside of this, however, is that it can cause you a world of problems if you do not have any other life gain cards

19. Drana, the Last Bloodchief

What is great about this card?

This card generates a lot of value from your graveyard by reanimating your creatures
- Since Drana has flying and it has relatively high power, you can attack with it often, giving you more creatures on the battlefield
- This card is great when paired with cards like Stitcher’s Supplier as it gets cards to your graveyard

18. Drana, Liberator of Malakir

What is great about this card?

Great card for creature-heavy decks
- As long as you deal combat damage with Drana, you will get your creatures +1/+1 counters
- This works well when you run creature-heavy decks or decks that generate a bunch of tokens. You can assemble a huge army in no time

17. Leyline of the Void

What is great about this card?

You can cheat-in this card at the start of the game
- Casting it for only 4 mana is already great considering that it can shut down decks that use their graveyard but being lucky enough to have this on your opening hand is great as well

16. Erebos’s Intervention

What is great about this card?

Great removal and also functions as a great way to take off threats from your opponent’s graveyard
- Since it puts -X/-X on your opponent’s creature, you can still get rid of cards that are indestructible. It also gains you X amount of life so casting X=8 on a 1/1 creature in emergency situations is viable

15. Liliana, Waker of the Dead

What is great about this card?

Great card that encapsulates almost all of the abilities of black cards
- You can disrupt the opponent’s gameplan by either making them discard cards or removing their huge creatures on the board with Liliana’s first two abilities
- When you get to her -7 emblem, you can gain control of any creature in any graveyard, allowing you to deal heavy blows to your opponent

14. Massacre Girl

What is great about this card?

Can wipeout creatures of various toughness from the board
- With Massacre Girl’s triggers, you can take out even the largest indestructible creatures as her ability deals -1/-1 to creatures
- This is a great board wipe especially when you are up against a huge army of creatures

13.Rankle, Master of Pranks

What is great about this card?

A Swiss Army Knife of a card lets you do a lot of stuff
- Whatever you need, you can get it done with Rankle as you can pick from the three abilities every time it deals combat damage to the opponent
- A downside of this, however, is both you and the opponent will suffer (or benefit) from whatever ability you pick

12. Knight of the Ebon Legion

What is great about this card?

Great card that can snowball if not properly dealt with by the opponent
- It may seem like a harmless card when you drop it at turn 1 but when the damage starts piling up, it becomes larger and larger, making it difficult to deal with

11. Demonic Pact

What is great about this card?

Use this card as an emergency button when you want to secure a win within two turns
- This is also really powerful when you combine it with cards that can bounce this such as Yorion, the Sky Nomad, so you can bounce it before the third trigger then re-cast it again for a fresh set of triggers

10. Cauldron Familiar

What is great about this card?

This card terrorized both Historic and Standard meta for an extended period of time
- Cauldron Familiar is not very powerful on its own but it can be really devastating when you play it in Sacrifice decks as you can get a lot of triggers going

9. Woe Strider

What is great about this card?

Another crucial piece of Sacrifice decks, but this card can stand on its own
- You can utilize its ability to Scry for whatever you may need in the given situation
- Moreover, you can re-cast this as long as you have cards to exile on your graveyard

8. Priest of Forgotten Gods

What is great about this card?

Whether you place this in Sacrifice decks or simply black-themed decks, it can make a huge difference
- With just one activation of its ability, Priest of Forgotten Gods can remove an opponent’s creature from the board, deal 2 damage to the opponent, draw you a card, and give you free mana

7. Extinction Event

What is great about this card?

Game-changing board wipe
- This can counter decks like Gyruda and Obosh as you can simply choose between odd or even and it will surely hit creatures from these decks
- This is also a really good addition to any deck as it also deals with tokens. Moreover, it exiles creatures instead of destroys them so indestructible creatures will also be hit

6. Mastermind’s Acquisition

What is great about this card?

Great at finding your missing combo piece or finding an answer to a dangerous threat
- Whether the card you are looking for is in your deck or on your sideboard, Mastermind’s Acquisition can get that for you
- This is a great card to have even just one copy off in cases of emergency

5. Liliana, Dreadhorde General

What is great about this card?

A huge threat to generate tons of value when left untouched
- The passive ability alone is a great touch as it incentivizes you to attack or block with lots of creatures
- If your creatures get destroyed, you get to draw a card and you can make a 2/2 token with the +1 ability
- The minus abilities are great at controlling the game. The -4 ability can be a value generator for you as you get to draw 2 cards while the -9 ability can win the game entirely

4. Rotting Regisaur

What is great about this card?

Mono-black aggressive decks should always run this card in their decks
- At only three mana to cast, you get a 7-power dino on the board
- The downside is that you will be forced to discard a card on your upkeep but, who needs cards when you can already win with just this creature

3. Phyrexian Arena

What is great about this card?

Great at providing answering the issue of card draw in black decks
- Black decks aren’t always known for their card draw abilities so having this card can solve those issues easily
- Drawing an extra card with just the cost of one damage is already a great deal with the amount of value that you will have

2. Thoughtseize

What is great about this card?

One-mana hand disruption that can hit anything
- Aside from lands, Thoughtseize can remove a threat before it even hits the battlefield
- Because of its cheap mana cost, you can cast this at any point of the game and it will still be relevant

1. Bolas’s Citadel

What is great about this card?

The master of generating value from your decks
- This card can flat out win the game entirely in a single turn with its dynamic interactions
- You won’t have to worry about mana as well as an empty hand as you can simply cast spells off the top of your library and win the game completely

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