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scottynada · 4 years

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Core Set 2021 Set Review - Black

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D The only way to create a demon out of Archfiend's Vessel in M21 is Rise Again at common. The 1/1 lifelink creature is just not good enough on its own, but if you have three or more Rise Again I can see playing this as a speed bump to save you some life early by blocking.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D The only synergy of merit here is that Liliana's Steward can sacrifice itself for no mana to trigger your other cards that care about dying creatures. If this could always trade for an opponent's card, it wouldn't be the worst since you come out even on cards and only down one mana in that exchange. However, there will be times where you draw this later in the game and it doesn't do much.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D Thieves' Guild Enforcer is pretty bad on turn one. It doesn't really interact well in combat. You can do a bunch of work trading off creatures and spells with your opponent until they finally get eight cards in their library and then you get… an okay creature. Jumping through the hoops of waiting until the late game to turn this on just does not seem appealing.

Pick: 6+ Shortcut: C Fetid Imp will do enough just by attacking in for a number of turns in the early game, then being able to switch quickly to defense if the race goes poorly for you. Deathtouch is always a powerful ability on cheap creatures since it means that you will be often trading for a creature that your opponent had to spend more mana on than you spent on this. Your opponents can't even fly over this.

Pick: 2-3 Shortcut: B Kitesail Freebooter won't provide a huge clock on its own, but it does an extremely good job of disrupting your opponent's draw and giving you information about potential tricks that your opponent has in hand. If your opponent wants their card back, they will have to spend a real removal spell to kill this, which is way more than you can ask for for a typical two mana creature.

Pick: 7+ Shortcut: C- Two mana creatures that scale well into the late game are important to pick up in Draft. That being said, Masked Blackguard doesn't scale incredibly well, but it's still better than nothing. Having one toughness normally also hurts when it comes down to early game blocks or some effects that punish one toughness creatures. I don't see Flash as a huge bonus since this will basically never just win in combat, but sometimes you'll be able to surprise your opponent and make a better than average trade.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D Is Tavern Swindler the lifegain enabler that we have been waiting for?! Sadly not. It is a repeatable source of life gain for zero mana, but being unreliable is a pretty big blow when you are trying to plan your game around being able to trigger certain abilities. All the life gain payoffs in M21 also trigger on your end step, so to use this as a life gain source would mean tapping it on your main phase, which is just plain awkward since the best part about this card is that it's a two mana 2/2.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D Brrrrrrrrrrrr …

Pick: 7+ Shortcut: C- I think Caged Zombie will play out a lot better than it looks. A ⅔ body for three mana isn't exciting, but in the late game this will be a serious threat to your opponent's life total. If you ever chump block, you get to deal damage with this. If you have expendable creatures, you can attack and pretty much guarantee damage even if they block.

Pick: 3-5 Shortcut: C+ Deathbloom Thallid is a great three drop. It plays its role in basically every color combination and archetype well. The 1/1 Saproling that it leaves behind doesn't seem like much, but it always finds some place to be useful. It can provide a second death trigger for Green/Black effects. It can be sacrificed in Red/Black decks. It can find a way to save you a good chunk of life if you are on the defensive. I'd want a good number of these in all my Black decks.

Pick: 2-3 Shortcut: B Hooded Blightfang as a ¼ Deathtouch creature is already pretty solid. It's relatively cheap and there is basically no creature lower on the curve that wins against it in combat. Attacking for two damage isn't too shabby either, considering you will also gain a little extra life before trading this with a larger threat from your opponent. Remember when playing with Fetid Imp, you need to activate the Deathtouch ability before declaring attackers to get that life drain effect.

Pick: 1-3 Shortcut: B Creatures dying is just a normal occurrence in Magic. Liliana's Devotee will trigger and make a 3/2 Zombie every time something dies on your turn. You really don't need to go out of your way with sacrifice effects to make this good. The ability even triggers when that Zombie token dies so you can make another Zombie token.

Pick: 1-3 Shortcut: B You don't need to go out of your way with sacrifice synergies to make Liliana's Standard Bearer good. Just cast this after you've traded off a creature or two in combat and draw some cards. Even drawing one card off this is a great deal for three mana.

Pick: 1-3 Shortcut: B Silversmote Ghoul looks like the most impressive lifegain payoff and a reason to draft differently after you pick it up. Note that this only triggers on your end step, so you have to get more aggressive with your Lifelink creatures or maybe use abilities that gain you life on your turn even if they are Instant speed. If you have extra mana and are gaining life on a turn, don't forget to sacrifice this to draw a card since you'll be getting the Ghoul back for free at the end of turn anyway.

Pick: 1 Shortcut: A Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose seems like a lifegain card, but it's really not. You don't need to go out of your way to play mediocre lifegain spells when you can just play creatures. The lifelink ability is a huge threat and your opponent must answer this or they will die very quickly. They can't even try to race you back since you will just be gaining so much life per attack.

Pick: 3-4 Shortcut: C+ Carrion Grub is actually a lot of stats for just four mana. It works best in a deck with a nice top end of creatures so you can sometimes luck out on turn four with the mill, but even milling a two or three power creature will probably leave you with the biggest creature on the battlefield. This also is a pretty nice curve into Rise Again, but I guess it's kind of awkward that reanimating a creature probably also shrinks the Grub.

Pick: 7+ Shortcut: C- Crypt Lurker seems like a card that bridges archetypes, but is sort of mediocre at its job. If you have outclassed creatures on the field, you can draw off them. If you have an expensive creature in hand that you want to bring back later, you can just discard it. Overall, this is unexciting, but if you are looking for a little extra synergy you can pick this up later in the draft.

Pick: 2-4 Shortcut: B The symmetrical ability on Kaervek, the Spiteful seems unappealing, but you have two major advantages over your opponent when drafting this card. You get to build your deck with this card in mind. After you pick up Kaervek, one toughness creatures seem a little less appealing. Don't go so far as to just avoid all one toughness creatures, but it does tip the scales a little against them. The second advantage is that you get to choose when to even cast this card. If you have some creatures that this would kill on the field, just make it a priority to trade them off before casting this. Certain White aggressive decks won't even be able to handle this.

Pick: 4-6 Shortcut: C+ Skeleton Archer is an important card to keep in mind in M21 because of the way it impacts combat and how the board can swing on turn four. Each Skeleton Archer that your opponent has drastically changes the value of your one toughness creatures. If your opponent makes an odd attack on turn four, just remember they can cast Skeleton Archer after combat to potentially finish off a creature. Also don't forget that Skeleton Archer can hit a player.

Pick: 7+ Shortcut: C- Blood Glutton is kind of a nightmare for opponents trying to race you. The stats on it aren't very impressive, but Lifelink is a super strong ability. If you get this a little help with Equipment or Auras it can run away with the game pretty easily. On its own, expect it to trade inefficiently with cheaper creatures, but maybe buy you an extra turn of life versus an aggressive draw. This is also a pretty good way to trigger your lifegain payoffs when it attacks, but this is still a pretty replaceable five drop.

Pick: 1-3 Shortcut: B At first I was concerned about the castability of Goremand. I still think it's going to be a bigger cost than people are expecting on certain boards, but you should also be able to play your game with this in mind - perhaps not taking a decent trade to keep some sacrifice fodder on the field. This creature is just massive and will kill your opponent very quickly once resolved. It's also not trivial to kill, dodging a lot of the common removal spells. Also note that this is a prime target to reanimate with Rise Again since you only have to pay the additional sacrifice cost when casting it normally.

Pick: 1 Shortcut: A I don't think Massacre Wurm is very fun. At least the game usually ends right after you cast this.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D Gloom Sower is expensive and mediocre. That being said, it still is seven mana worth of creature. If you draw this off the top of your deck with seven lands, it will feel pretty good. If your opponent multi blocks this, it will drain for two for each blocker. I would never prioritize this since there are so many better options for expensive finishers, but if you are scrounging for this type of effect, this will be fine.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D If you are battling large Green creatures, the Deathtouch mode on Alchemist's Gift can be used. If you are battling a smaller aggressive deck, Lifelink is pretty good. Overall, I don't think Alchemist's Gift is quite good enough at either to be a strong card. Giving something +1/+1 is usually not enough to win combat consistently, meaning you'll probably be trading this and your creature for your opponent's stuff.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D Duress is usually pretty poor. Even if your opponent has powerful spells, draft decks are usually way too creature heavy to reliably hit something. You may miss if you cast this early in the game and you will almost for sure miss if you draw this later. The only thing keeping this from actual unplayability is that the Blue/Red decks in this format are extremely spell dense. Maybe it can find a home there, but I still think a vanilla creature would be mostly better.

Pick: 7+ Shortcut: C- I think Village Rites is an interesting case of an extremely powerful card being in a format that isn't exactly the best for it. The sacrifice decks don't really come together consistently on synergy in M21 so Village Rites is left a little out in the cold. That being said, this is still a perfectly fine card. In a normal game, you'll find your early creatures being outclassed later and you'll be happy to cash them in for extra cards. This is cheap enough to leave up on your opponent's turn and be able to draw cards in response to removal spells easily.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D Witch's Cauldron is a pretty big question mark for me in the format right now. I don't really see a great place for this considering Village Rites is a common and also a card not a lot of other decks want. You need to be activating this a fair number of times on low value creatures to really feel like this is worth a card in your hand. I'm pretty sure most decks won't end up like that, so I wouldn't pick this early in the draft and would take a hard look at my deck before drafting it later on.

Pick: 3-5 Shortcut: C+ Don't get Eliminated confused with "hard" removal spells. The purpose of "hard" removal is to be able to trade with your opponent's best threats when your creatures cannot. Eliminate plays out more like a really effective way to trade off in the early game with an added bonus of potentially getting a 2-for-1 at Instant speed. It's still quite a good card, but make sure you understand what it is and isn't when checking the balance of your deck.

Pick: 1-3 Shortcut: B Grasp of Darkness is efficient and removes almost any threat while probably netting you some mana. Holding this up to outmaneuver a combat trick is pretty easy, and even if you can't kill a creature directly, you can use this as a trick to shrink your opponent's stuff in combat. The double black cost means that less decks will attempt to splash this, meaning more Grasps for the Black players!

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D Not getting the card immediately is a big downside to Infernal Scarring. Your opponent has the most control over when you get the card, and may even be able to prevent it entirely with Enchantment removal or bounce spells. I don't really see a place where you would be happy running this card, so try to do so only when desperate for extra spells.

Pick: 1-2 Shortcut: B Malefic Scythe is tricky to read, but once it hits the battlefield, you will feel how threatening it is. The initial impact isn't huge, but after a single additional soul gets added, this becomes a huge and cheap threat. The difference between +1/+1 and +2/+2 on an equipment is very large. This card even has the potential to keep growing from there. Even without sacrifice synergies, this card would be great just off of normal trades and creature combat. If this isn't answered, it will turn all of your late game draws into massive threats.

Pick: 4-6 Shortcut: C+ I'm going to say it. I love Shrines. I really do, but they really don't deliver in M21. This is a 1/1 unblockable, lifelink creature that can't block itself. If you pick up another Shrine in your color, fine, but I think going around splashing Shrines is a recipe for disaster unless your deck is very well equiped for it.

Pick: 1 Shortcut: B A big part of draft is knowing that your early game creatures will do their job, but then become mostly irrelevant in the late game. This card singlehanded turns that in its head and means even your no ability 2/2 is going to be a massive, evasive threat. This also just never goes away. I don't expect the three life loss to be too punishing since you are serving that damage right back at the opponent.

Pick: Grim & Evil Shortcut: F It's easy to see Grim Tutor as having two copies of your best card, but would that card still be as great if it cost an additional three mana and three life? Most of the time not, even for the strongest Mythics in the set. You can't overestimate how strong your bombs are and think that you want to play this over a card that can help you in other parts of the game.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D It's not hard to see Mind Rot as a straightforward 2-for-1, but there are going to be times where you draw this later when your opponent has no cards in hand where a traditional draw two spell would be very welcome. This is playable, but don't lump this in the same card advantage category when building your deck.

Pick: RIP Shortcut: F If my opponent had Ugin in their deck, I would not bring in Necromentia. Don't fall into the trap of playing a card that is so bad for you because of fear of a card your opponent might not even draw. Even if you expect your opponent to see a good chunk of their deck in the matchup, it's always going to be a better plan to just stick with executing what your deck is already trying to do. This card is three mana wasted that sometimes will even add to your opponent's board.

Pick: 6+ Shortcut: C Cards like Pestilent Haze are very polarized in how good they are from match to match. I always want access to one of these in my controlling Black decks and would even sideboard this in as an aggressive deck on the draw versus aggro.

Pick: 1 Shortcut: B Power level aside, I kind of like this card since it breaks the mold of Planeswalkers just being busted when you play them on curve. Liliana, Waker of the Dead needs cards in your graveyard to fuel its -2 ability and sometimes discarding cards when you cast this on curve is just awkward. That being said, it's still a Planeswalker that demands an answer and will just be back breaking if you have a decent curve to protect it or is just cast later with a full graveyard and kills the opponent's best creature.

Pick: 7+ Shortcut: C- If your deck needs a form of late game advantage, you can do worse than Sanguine Indulgence. Buying back two of your best creatures in the graveyard is a pretty powerful effect, but it won't help you at all in the early stages of the game. This effect is legitimately very strong if you can trigger its mana discount consistently. The best way to get the discount is probably through trading Lifelink creatures. Even if your deck is well suited for this, I still wouldn't want too many of this type of effect since they really only work after the game has developed a bit.

Pick: 2-4 Shortcut: B Finishing Blow isn't flashy, but it gets the job done. This is a nice emergency button to have when facing opposing bomb creatures. Its weakness is that you can't rely on this to save you if you fall too far behind versus a cheap, aggressive draw. Trading five mana for cheap creatures isn't a great way to come back in the game.

Pick: 6+ Shortcut: C Rise Again is the centerpiece common for the Blue/Black "reanimator" style deck in M21. There are a surplus of large creatures in the format and some decent ways to get them in the graveyard. If you are looking to be in a deck that can fill your graveyard through mill or discard, make sure to prioritize these at some point in the draft. Bringing back a seven drop on turn five is legitimately powerful and demands a pretty quick answer from the opponent.

Pick: 9+ Shortcut: D This is legitimately a big swing in card advantage. If you are battling a deck that has no great way of pressuring your life total, I would bring this out of the sideboard for sure.

Pick: NSFW Shortcut: F There are enough ways to gain card advantage without needing to rely on hitting seven mana and bringing yourself half to death for this. The idea of using this on your opponent to kill or mill them also seems way too fanciful to play.

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