Black

**Black** is one of the five colors of mana in **Magic: The Gathering**.

## Details

Black mana comes from s, where things fester and rot. Death, disease, selfishness, power at any cost - these are the twisted values of the darkness. Black magic is powerful and easy to wield, but it comes with a high price. Its spells and abilities can warp the mind, poison the land, and turn creatures into nothing. Dark minions, undead creatures, and unspeakable horrors are native to the swamp, and they're as self-serving and treacherous as the mages who commanded them. It is not completely evil, though it is often portrayed to be.

Black's allies are Red and Blue, while its enemies are White and Green.

## Flavor

Black is a fairly simple color to understand. It focuses on winning at all costs. It can be simple, or very abstract. Though it can be an aggressive color, it focuses on manipulating the opponent at any cost. When black gets aggressive, it does so by clearing the path for its creatures. Its creatures usually don't fight other creatures because black's "fear" ability allows it to bypass all non-black, non-artifact creatures.

Black is a zero-sum color. White loves to create and encourages cooperation. It believes in continuously lifting things up to enhance the overall glory and bring unity and peace for all. Black also cares about glory but instead of creating or enhancing, it selfishly takes. And it seeks unity only within itself,Outsiders are to be killed or exploited. Any life that black gains has to come from somewhere, such as damaging creatures or players. If it draws any more cards than it naturally would, it has to pay for that in some permanent form (often its own life).

Finally, black will do absolutely whatever it has to in order to gain the upper-hand. That doesn't mean it is without limits, but it is willing to sacrifice part of itself in order to do what it does more efficiently. It can call up fearsome demons with devastating effects, but it'll have to offer up something unusual in compensation. It could kill things for cheaper, but that means it will also have to offer something of its own in sacrifice. For a color so "evil" in nature, it places a very high regard for the rule of equivalent exchange.

## Gameplay

Black usually doesn't do well in the late game, rather, it finds innovative ways to get superior positions early on so that it can rule in the midgame. Often, this means you will sacrifice life for cards for an early advantage. Card advantage plays a very big role, though at the loss of life. Reanimation decks have always been a favorite, finding ways to dump big, expensive creatures into the graveyard early and then play them from there for cheap. Right now  is the only card able to directly reanimate. Black is also known for it's discard effects and giving creatures -X/-X.

## Abilities

**Unique to black**

* Killing creatures -
* Draw cards at a cost other than mana -
* Intimidate -
* -X/-X -
* Discard -
* Life Loss -
* Life drain -

**Shared, Major**

* Regeneration
* Deathtouch -
* Reanimation -

## Creature Tribes

* Assassin
* Cleric
* Demon
* Horror
* Vampire
* Zombie

White  Blue  **Black**  Red  Green
Colorless ● Multicolored