Let’s get right back at it, everyone. Next in line for this week’s top 5 is black. Please try to contain your excitement because I can’t say that I’m containing mine. As someone who is partial to removal, reanimation, and playing the 2nd best color in Magic, I am very excited to be talking about black. In a format where midrange and combo are the titans, black is never a bad call. Now buckle up as I guide you through making the best call.
What’s the worst best card in black? Given that last week, (SPOILER ALERT) I gave the number 1 slot to a Planeswalker, you might be shocked to find one here. However, she definitely has a place in this list. Liliana, the Last Hope is my number 5 pick for Frontier. She may have seemed underwhelming when she was initially spoiled, but we all learned how wrong we were when we counted her dead on arrival. Each of her abilities does something of value regardless of what type of deck you’re playing. Are you playing control and need to pick off early threats without dropping your better removal spells? Plus Liliana. In a top deck war with another midrange deck? If you rip Liliana, you can minus her and get a threat (pronounced Siege Rhino) out of the graveyard and turn the corner. She’s easily one of the best mono black Planeswalkers we’ve been graced with in a right good while. Why is she number 5 then? Because black is great and gets great cards. Duh.
Do you hate small creatures? Do you like a clear board? Do you like not getting bolted to the grill to remove a Thunderbreak Regent or 4? I have got the sweeper for you. Languish. This is one of the strongest and cheapest boardwipes since Supreme Verdict. I would make the argument that this card is in the same bracket as Supreme Verdict given that it can pick off indestructible creatures. Oh yeah, that’s really why we play Languish. Opponent got an instant to make their creature indestructible and soft counter your Murder? Ha, not here. -4/-4 is a pretty sizeable negative, especially in the early game when your opponent thinks it’s cute to curve Warden of the First Tree, into Grim Flayer, into Anafenza the Foremost. There’s not much to say about the power of this card that it doesn’t say for itself. Telling Bant CoCo to not since Origins.
What’s next? MORE REMOVAL. We’re talking black today. What does black do best? Flat out removal. When you look at Magic cards historically, black has always had the most removal for its color. Yeah white has some exile, red has some burn, blue has some bounce, and green has…..fisticuffs? But, black. Black has absolute kill. Which is the most compelling argument to be in black, especially in creature dominated formats. So what removal is it? Murderous Cut. But Seon, I’m not playing 700 fetch lands so I can cast this on the cheap when I can play something like Ultimate Price. Well, let me share some knowledge with you. Your creatures are going to die. I am so sorry you had to find out this way. Unless you’re playing with some ways to get them back, they’re dead and useless. Or, you could let them serve you again from the grave. You can delve them away and potentially get a Murder for one black mana. Now that’s value. The best part of Murderous Cut is that it’s not an all or nothing type of card. Delving what you can makes the spell cheaper proportionately. And you have control over how much you delve and what exactly you delve. Leave the gas in the yard for later and sweep out the junk. This card gets even better when you run fetch lands.
So what is better than one black mana removal? More of it. That’s right. You knew it was coming. Fatal Push gets the number two slot for black cards in Frontier. Before you throw rotten tomatoes, remember, I didn’t give it the number one slot. This is another one that doesn’t need much explanation. In a format with fetch lands, this card is a one mana, kill target game winning threat. That’s hard to argue with in any case. Triggering revolt in Frontier is like triggering Landfall on turn one in any format. It’s arbitrary. It will happen. This card is legacy powerful. And if you’ve been paying attention, you have noticed that those cards tend to make a splash in our newest eternal format. Fatal Push is on par with Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile. As Seth, proooooobably better known as Saffron Olive said, this is our Black Bolt. I can’t think of any deck in Frontier in black that doesn’t need to be running at least two copies in the 75.
Please, for the love of Yawgmoth, don’t let the number 1 slot be another removal spell. Don’t worry, everyone. It’s not a removal spell. It is, however, the reason all this cheap removal is so insane in this format. Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet. This is one of those creatures that have that effect on the game where if you untap with it, your chances of winning go up significantly. What do you do after you untap with Kalitas? You use all those nice removal spells I recommened, and take back control over the board. And get some zombies while you’re doing it. This is why one black mana removal spells are so cash in formats with Kalitas. Untap the following turn, make a land drop, Fatal Push something. Get a zombie. Murderous Cut something. Get another zombie. Use that 3 remaining mana to pump of your Kalitas and get to closing this game out. Alternatively, Kalitas is the goalie all decks need when they can’t afford to get aggressive. Being a 3/4 gets you out of Lightning Strike range and that’s something that goes a long way. Hanging back with Kalitas is also pretty scary. Leave him back and bluff some removal and see how often your opponent runs the risk of swinging into a trap (Spoiler: not often). This utility and ability to turn the game around when you’re behind has earned Kalitas the title of the best black card in Frontier.
That’s all this time, folks. As usual, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, want to tell me to how wrong my list is, contact me at captainseon@live.com. Stay tuned, because the most important article of the series is next. Until next week, everyone. Remember, buy local, play global.