Black in Magic: The Gathering symbolizes ruthlessness, selfishness, greed and death. Black creatures usually feature keywords like threat and deathtouch, while spells of color often focus on removal, sacrifice, and life loss.
As a result, black is one of the colors most associated with the story of the March of the Machine, as it involves an all-out universal war at the hands of the fearsome Phyrexians. Magic settings really couldn’t be more deadly than that. Now let’s take a look at some of the most interesting black cards March of the Machine has to offer.
8 Invasion of Eldraine
We’ve seen all sorts of variations on discarding two cards in the history of Magic. Invasion of Eldraine is the latest installment on the block. This spell costs one more mana than some of its predecessors, but considering the value you get from flipping Siege, it’s not a bad deal.
Besides, it’s often good to hold a discard spell like Invasion of Eldraine until your opponent only has 2-3 cards in hand anyway. This increases the chance of forcibly disposing of key spells such as Bomb and Eliminate. Prickle Faeries offers evasion damage and a relatively fast clock, so there may be a place for this card in an aggressive black deck.
7 Invasion of Innistrad
4 mana for a removal spell is definitely on the expensive side, but this card will at least deal with any creature threat you face (even the indestructible one). As far as Siege is concerned, the front of Siege needs to be playable on its own in order for the card to see any kind of constructed survivability.
Invasion of Eldraine isn’t a normally glamor-playable removal spell, but it’s passable. The real power here comes from the back of the card, which gives you two zombie tokens as soon as you turn it over. Sieges can also spit out significantly more zombies as long as someone has a creature card in their graveyard. This card will be a bomb in Limited and only available in select Standard decks.
6 Hoarding Breadlord
A great addition for Commander players who love dragon-themed decks. Broodlord is a powerful evasive threat that replaces itself with the card you want to coach in your deck. That’s already a great baseline. Add the ability to cast Broodlord with muster on top of this, and you have a real contender for a top threat.
That said, 8 mana is a lot to ask for in any deck. Additionally, the three black pips in the Broodlord’s casting cost can make it difficult to reliably cast even in a two-color deck. Still, the tutor effect is strong no matter what you play, and Broodlord will at least find a place in many Commander decks if it doesn’t make the standard cut.
5 High Priestess of Shadows
Here are some offensive threats against the black deck that make single combat phases a nightmare for opponents. Although the backup mechanic looks lackluster compared to the overall composition, Archpriest is able to infiltrate some builds of cards featuring this mechanic.
The backup ability to return creature cards from the graveyard to the battlefield means that the creature you target as the High Priest becomes the block your opponent needs. Along with death touch, this means your opponent will be forced to swap creatures when the Archpriest enters the battlefield. That said, casting Archpriest without any other creatures in play feels pretty bad.
4 Multiverse Breach
This is another card March of the Machine Commander players will enjoy casting. At the very least, Breach will almost certainly add three of your opponent’s best creatures to your side of the battlefield. In the best case, you’ll even get 1-3 planeswalkers.
That’s a lot of value for 7 mana. It’s hard to see a world where this card succeeds in any form other than Commander, but Atraxa, Grand Unifier’s presence creates a world where you’ll see Breach play on some Standard sideboards. It’s still unlikely, but it’s possible.
three shield red
This version of Sheoldred has a higher ceiling than the all-powerful Sheoldred, Apocalypse, but also a much lower floor. That said, Sheoldred can beat the game on its own, but not as consistently as the Apocalypse version.
Sheoldred’s ETB (entry to battlefield) trigger is good, but all sacrifice effects have the same problem. Most opponents will have more than one creature on the battlefield at any given time, so this trigger is unlikely to get you the value you want.
Also, due to the high mana cost required to transform Sheoldred into magic speed, it can instantly remove speed, blowing him away completely. In other words, the player who succeeds in flipping Sheoldred is more likely to win the game.
2 file on
Now that’s the kind of value you’d expect from a 4 mana removal spell. Pile On not only removes creatures and planeswalkers, but also modifies the draw phase for future turns thanks to Surveillance.
It’s important to note that since we have convoke here, it’s an ideal removal spell for an aggressive deck. It’s sure to be a staple of future standard decks, and we’ll see it used in Esper Legends, Mono Black Aggro, and Rakdos decks.
One glistening deluge
There are three other Mana Board Erasers available in Standard and Pioneer, but none are as complete proof as Glitter Deluge. The fact that this card provides a temporary negative counter allows it to bypass common white and green effects like invincibility, which I often use to survive early board wipes.
That said, Deluge will undoubtedly be the best answer when an aggressive green and white deck moves forward. This card bypasses the newly printed Surge of Salvation and Brave the Elements, so there’s no recourse for an aggressive green/white deck to go against it. At least you only have to worry about it after sideboarding.