Top 10 Black Cards

It is time to bust out some of the big lists, a top 10 for each of the 8 groups of cards (each colour, colourless, lands and gold cards). These lists are a little harder than many as the cards have little in common in terms of use. As such I have reverted as much as possible to the way in which I rate cards in review with the final result being a composite of how much each card is played, how often it does well when played and also in terms of general power level when viewed in a vacuum. I have included cards that I no longer play in the cube so as to give some perspective but unsurprisingly the banned cards mostly came in at the top of the lists. For each banned card in the list I increased the size of the list to ensure there were 10 "legal" cards on each.

11. Inquisition of Kozilek
10. Vampire Nighthawk
9.   Dark Ritual
8.   Demonic Tutor
7.   Liliana of the Veil
6.   Yawgmoth's Will
5.   Necropotence
4.   Recurring Nightmare
3.   Death Cloud
2.   Dark Confidant
1.   (Contract from Below)

Both Sinkhole and Hymn to Tourach were very unlucky not to make the list but they simply see less play than the targetted discard due to double black costs. Grave Titan and Tragic Slip were also very close on the heels of this lot with black having a great number of really top quality cards unlike white or red where the brokenness quickly falls off. Necropotence and Dark Ritual are among the more powerful cards in this list but like Sinkhole and Hymn they are rarely found outside mono black decks and so on my rating criteria they fall lower on the list. Yawgmoth's Will is also stupidly powerful but has seen far less play with Lotus, Time Walk and the other power cards no longer being available. By comparison Nighthawk, Liliana and Inquisition might all seem a little underwhelming compared to the likes of Confidant and the other top powerful spells however they are so reliable, rounded and what black tends to be looking for that they get played in almost every mono black deck and many of the multi-coloured decks too. Death Cloud may also seem like an imposter but anyone who has encountered me talking about it before will know quite how much I rate the card. It never made that many waves at its time of release due to affinity dominating everything but if you think it shouldn't be on this list you should play with it a bit more before passing judgement.