Janky and Awesome Black Sorceries | EDH | Underrated | Magic the Gathering | Commander

[@dakotamcintire7419]

One of my favorites is a black arcane sorcery from the kamigawa arc called Choice of Damnations. The way it works is your opponent can choose a number and you decide which they do with that number: either they lose life equal to the number chosen, or they sacrifice permanents until they only control X permenants where X is the chosen number (this includes lands). It forces them to think carefully about what number to pick. Too small and you can cripple their board. Too high, you cripple their life total. it's a ton of fun

[@rasmusandersen2835]

mitch on gameknights please

[@helix6836]

It's coming we all know it hahahahah

[@solace2354]

Cant wait to see this!

[@royal-wolf]

He had done the podcast with them and they said that he had played some games, it takes about a month or 2 to edit the videos. He could very well be in the next Game Knights for all we know

[@Aldersandfirs]

@@royal-wolf he probably wont be, unfortunatley. the last game knights that they filmed was the ikoria one, and they had to scrap another episode that would have been the next one due to covid. they also stated that theyre not sure when the next game knights will come out, because they cant get anyone out to film right now. also, they are going to be doing coverage for core set 21 soon. my guess for the next one would probably be around zendikar ;(. but i could be wrong! i hope i am...

[@BrunoNunes83]

and 4 budget decks!

[@PhazonOmega]

Opponent: You can mill me! I have eldrazi! You: I have Sadistic Sacrement.

[@ikewagner]

You've just built a Syr Konrad deck, here.

[@acatzr800]

Good representation of Seb McKinnon cards.. Love his art

[@Bigjake8776]

Every time he says ‘viewers like you’ I keep think of my states PBS tv station

[@Hi-wm6nb]

Same! Who else watched Wild Kratts until like 2nd grade lol

[@beastini2289]

@@Hi-wm6nb lol I turned on Wild Kratts in the work breakroom today because I was sick of watching the news on break

[@Bigjake8776]

Hi!!!! I’m old enough to remember when their was ‘where in time is Carmen Sandiego’ the game show and Bill Nye the science guy

[@Hi-wm6nb]

@@Bigjake8776 I know Bill Nye but what is ‘where in time is Carmen Sandiego?’ Should I check out your channel? I'm looking for more content to watch. Any mtg suggestions (already watch Mitch, obviously, and some Command Zone).

[@MusicMcMania]

Fetch with ruff ruff men

[@Rain..._]

Black has the jankiest and most awesome cards

[@Ballpython77]

amen brother!

[@lolimmune]

Black does some goofy shit sometimes, but so does red. Makes rakdos chaos decks so fun lmfao

[@Cyberium]

For a price. Black cards these days are not daring enough though. :(

[@ODIRGO]

I don't like playing red, but I think red wins when we talk about weard cards

[@Cyberium]

@@ODIRGO Red is suppose to break all rules, for breaking's sake, so yep. ^_^

[@ODIRGO]

I don't know... Mitch told me before to try to avoid high mana cost or fringe spells

[@zevirex14]

Literally been binging these videos all day while stuck inside. Thanks for the quality content- it makes getting back into MTG fun

[@jacobschiller4486]

It's probably an unpopular opinion, but I think Ghastly Conscription is pretty jank...

[@The_Blog]

Its perfect in a Kadena Morph Deck though. The amount of Instant Card Draw and Graveyard ressurection is awesome!

[@PapaBradford]

Nothing unjanky about it

[@conlanrichichi2328]

@@PapaBradford really?

[@suitguy969]

I love Awaken the Erstwhile. Pulled one a year ago and it's bounced between decks, but I think it'll be staying in my Scarab God deck. Feels so good ripping it and forcing the control player to dump his counters and wincon while replacing Gruul Stompy's big dudes with vanilla 2/2s.

[@MrSocrates_]

I love it too. People tanking with a full grip of cards and, suddenly, you drop it. All the combo pieces going away or it eats a counterspell. At a certain game, I recurred it two times in my Meren... the Ydris and Aminatou players got reeeally pissed off haha

[@suitguy969]

Can I get your decklist? I've been looking to build a Meren deck for a while now.

[@elementalhero21]

And I think it's good in yawgmoth deck too. Because you can actually draw new cards with yawgmoth ability.

[@acatzr800]

Am I the only one who would just be a jerk and dump their lands?

[@suitguy969]

Well, you have to discard your entire hand, so you don't exactly get a choice.

[@rafaelribeiro1871]

I love Awaken the Erstwhile in my Muldrotha deck. Everyone loses their hand while I still have access to almost ali cards dumped on the graveyard. Also great with The Scarab God!

[@ferdithetank7535]

Geth's Grimoire turns it into WIndfall.

[@Dataloss484]

Yes! I play it in scarabgod zombie tribal and it's awesome.

[@owenmclaughlin40]

Look at all those cool Seb McKinnon arts

[@lieutenantdelta8799]

I love Head Games. Truly underrated way to mess with an opponent.

[@butterham7]

Awaken the erstwhile is just the card to make my deck weird I run a black artifact deck with no max hand size And I play with someone who runs a multiple color no max hand deck so this will be the biggest surprise ever

[@seasnek7024]

Song of the damned is great too. For one black mana it adds black equal to the number of creatures in your graveyard Also like cruel entertainment. Usually doesnt fail to entertain

[@caladbolg777]

Songs of the Damned is an instant. Choice of Damnations is something I was hoping to see but was disappointed it wasn’t.

[@seasnek7024]

@@caladbolg777 didn't know that card existed till now and I love it

[@raphaelsamaroo6788]

Wizards: "M21 Capital Reprints" Me: *I Sleep* Mitch: "Janky Black Cards" Me: *REAL SHIT*

[@stevenoneil8563]

Sadistic Sacrament is an all-star against combo decks. A lot of decks run more than one combo, obviously, but you can pretty reliably at least remove one entire angle they can win on. Imagine, hypothetically, SadSac that Tymna-Thrasios player and rip out their Thassa's Oracle, Jace WoM, and Laboratory Maniac. (Yes, I'm aware that this hypothetical takes place in the magical Christmas land where they haven't already tutored for one or more of them.)

[@TheMXer42]

Thats why you run thoughtseize to get them out of their hand ;)

[@Clawlend]

One time my play group spent 20 minutes deciding what I got with Boneyard Parley. It was pretty great.

[@Quroe_]

Sins of the Past to Repay in Kind is a fun, flavorful win in any life swing deck.

[@MeriadocMyr]

My favourite black janky sorceries are Choice of Damnations, Headgames and cruel entertainment. Choice of damnations is a 6 mana sorcery that targets a player and makes them chose a number. You then chose whether they lose life equal to the number they chose or sacrifice permanents till they only have that many permanents in play. Cruel entertainment is an 8 mana sorcery that switches the control of two player's turns, as if they both cast worst fear on eachother. It is a great way to watch people destroy eachothers boards. Headgames, is a 5 mana sorcery that targets one opponent, shuffles their hand into their library and then you pick the same amount of cards from their library to make them a new hand. It is a great political tool. set someone back by replacing their hand on turn 5 with only their decks most expensive cards and no lands or late in the game make their entire hand lands. or cast it on someone to help them find land drops or a boardwipe to deal with a threat.

[@heavydistorted7427]

Null profusion is greeeeaaat too. Riscy but I love it

[@mikedrew604]

Boneyard Parley is one of many cards I am agonising over for my Syr Konrad deck. Cast it, choose all your own creatures, five Syr K triggers. Then you get sliding scale from 5 more damage to 5 creatures returned. Bonus points if Ayara is also in play, meaning you get hits in whether the creatures hit the table or the bin again. Certainly not a card for every deck, but paying 7 to do 7-8 damage to the table and get 2-3 creatures back to keep the train rolling is definitely worth it.

[@JasonPaul576]

Ritual of the Machine is an amazing (and affordable!) card that really needs to see more play. Just yoink an opponents commander and mess up their whole plan.

[@joranmoore5663]

I sacrifice my Ornithopter to steal someone's Ceaseless Hunger.

[@genericfakename4372]

Interesting note on Sins of the Past: combining with Buyback would let you keep the card to use it again. Never hits the grave to trigger.

[@54m0h7]

I'm surprised I've never heard of Sadistic Sacrament before. It says Target Player, not Opponent, so it can enable your Food Chain combo.

[@invertedghostgames9899]

Idk if it counts, but Living Death can be fun. Everyone exiles all creatures from their graves, then sacs all creatures, the puts all the exiled cards onto the battlefield. Can be super weird, but super fun~

[@AmazinguySuperSlayer]

11:03 "On no not my senseis forge combo!" Me with a 50 different infinite combo deck: XD

[@Dubi264]

I run sadistic sacrament in my Mirko Vosk deck. Pick 15 lands and then mill half their deck the next time I swing with Mirko. Really satisfying to pull off.

[@TheArcSet]

Colfenor's Plans, with the aim to donate it to another player :). I do like sadistic sacrament, but rarely managed to kick it.

[@Shnigda]

Honestly, the juxtaposition of yesterday's video about Blue colour pie breaks and the first card in this list is absolutely galling. Mitch seemed to be hating on blue cards yesterday (and quite a lot of the time generally in other videos), yet he seems to love the first card in this list - instead of being a bad card that breaks the colour pie it's just "janky". It would be great if we could have a video from Mitch outlining his thoughts on each of the different colours, guilds, tribes, etc... and which are his favourite and which he hates, just so it's all out in the open.

[@robertfranklin8522]

So glad to see Ritual of the Machine here. One of my favorite pet jank cards. Black loves to sacrifice and I love to take your things.

[@Sir_Francis]

I've loved Ritual of the machine ever since I opened it in my first booster pack back in the day, it & Shield Sphere!

[@kaloqnvelinov5619]

Awaken the Erstwhile is an amazing card. I use it as a finisher in my yawgmoth deck. Pair it with ayara for etb bleed or blood artist for ltb bleed. Bear in mind that that card puts like 40 tokens in this deck as it can abuse undying for card draw. Or if the infinite draw is not available pair it with bone miser, the result would be insane upside. Also my yagmoth deck runs a lot of reanimation effects so yea that card is only upside in a mono black deck as all the listed strategies are vary much what black decks do.

[@dudestroyer1276]

sadistic sacrament can also essentially let you know whats in your opponents hands through process of elimination, if you know every card in there deck

[@Barjack521]

Ritual of the machine is my Pet black card. Nobody sees it coming.

[@AfroAtze]

I recommend Nightmare Incursion as a mono black variant of Sadistic Sacrament that can also hose an opponent's deck.

[@isaacsanders8444]

Ahhhh, Penny4yourthoughts, this is great.

[@apock2474]

tip for Boneyard Parley: Have 2 creatures that can get it back (Ewit or Archeomancer) and cast it again next turn!

[@Ballpython77]

thank you! :)

[@dreddbolt]

MTG and jank is like peanut butter and chocolate. Inspiration to make things work together in outrageous ways.

[@meatrace]

There's a couple of these that are going DIRECTLY into my Marchesa deck!

[@CaptainMomoReviews]

Haven't seen Sadisitic Sacrament in years, that was a friends card on the kitchen table.

[@Putrefax]

As a monoblack player, i can highly rate AEther Snap. Wipe out token armies, all those annoying ability and +1 counters on threats, and the superfriends player. Not a lot of ways to interact with counters en masse.

[@User-jo7jp]

as a bonus, run a copy of dark depths and you get a 20/20 indestructible flyer in your color on top of that!

[@DerpyLaron]

So what I am getting out of this is basically Seb McKinnon tribale is janky but really fun and awesome?

[@diegoindaalamos5642]

Awaken the Erstwhile + Archfiend of Ifnir is one of my favorite 2 card synergy in my Varina deck.

[@willsharp7596]

Bitter Ordeal is one for me. It is rare that I come across a player that hasn't played against my Phenax deck that has heard of it. It has gravestorm on it and is a neat way to start removing things from everyone's decks

[@luisrincon4672]

Boneyard parleys biggest weakness is the sleeves that those cards are in. Opponents can tell which is theirs.

[@TheMXer42]

Sadistic sacrament is a personal favorite of mine, i use it to exile enchantments/artifacts from opponents' decks

[@aleffsantos1893]

I have an Awaken the Earstwhile commander combo deck with Vilis, Broker of Blood as the commander and literally yesterday I created 45 2/2 zombie tokens.... Pretty fun.

[@stasmiklic6714]

Using Awaken the Erstwile in a Varina deck alongside Shadow of the Grave and Bone Miser is so much fun though

[@nickmerlino6801]

My favorite time ever using sadistic sacrament colon was going up against my friends Simic deck and he only had two blue mana sources at the time. I kicked sadistic sacrament exiled the rest of his blue mana sources then used ghost quarter to get rid of one of his other blue mana sources.... fun times

[@johnnolan6889]

I ordered ritual of the machine for my teysa karlov deck before the video even finished lol thanks mitch

[@NezMog]

I think the best way to use Deliver Unto Evil with a Bolas Planeswalker is to only choose 2 cards, since the card is choose up to 4. You get exactly what you want instead of the worst 2 cards in the group.

[@Tazzer88]

Wow, I didn't even know about Deliver Unto Evil. That's a great card even without a Nicol Bolas out, especially for decks light on recursion. Need a couple of them for my decks that run black.

[@sandwichboy1268]

Awaken the Erstwhile is especially good if you have Griselbrand out so you can just draw a fresh hand for yourself afterwards. That and/or draw a bunch extra and cast out what you want before converting a huge hand into zombies

[@HECTOR8HELL8]

Boneyard Parley I use in Kaliaa. The deck has high cost cards tgat I cheat in so having this helps fill the field again. My favorite jankey card has to be Library of Leng. It throws people off and helps when playing cards that discard like Gamble.

[@dantebeleren]

Best use (imo) of Sadistic Sacrament is in a mill deck paired with Mind Funeral/Grind effects. Exile 15 lands or lands and reshuffle cards.

[@Xrocker-ti1xi]

Hey commander quarters. I’m new to mtg and the edh format and I’m loving it, but I’ve been having trouble making decks around the different archetypes. maybe in the future u could make a series on to make decks for each archetypes I know u have many videos on many different commanders within these types but I would love to see a more detailed cometary of what to look for. Sry for the long text always just a suggestion

[@mateuszjezierski7460]

Hey Micht! Really like when you dig up those crazy cards and share with us:)

[@Ballpython77]

thank you Mitch for showing me Ritual of the machine!!! my Gonti deck is going to love this one!

[@samdalfthegray4495]

Just wanted to say I love the studio, man! It looks really great

[@nikos731]

I already play 3 of those in my Yawgmoth deck and I am very proud of it. :)

[@flareinc7413]

These videos are awesome. :O Dredge the Mire will be ad D to a couple of my decks immediately

[@slyness4688]

Nightmare Incursion: Search target player's library for up to X cards, where X is the number of Swamps you control, and exile them. Then that player shuffles their library.

[@LordRazzia]

Ritual of the machine LOL WHAT!? Also I’m glad I’m not the only one that sees how good deliver unto evil can be, even w/ out bolas.

[@firestalker11]

Awaken the erstwhile is a really fun card in my xantcha deck. Forces people to use her ability and I can direct the flow of combat way better then stuff in hand.

[@EliteDarkOne]

one of my favorite plays noone expects is casting Awaken the Erstwhile then flashing in Crafty Cutpurse 10/10. on average i gain at least 5 zombies from each player

[@enchiladaofdeath]

Deliver Unto Evil also happens to be one of the sickest looking cards of all time. It also happens to be my playmat so maybe I’m biased

[@ComfyDents]

When you visit awesome janky green creatures Permeating Mass is your boy. :D At least if there are swinging creatures in ones meta... Or did it became popular already?

[@ComfyDents]

@@mr.mammuthusafricanavus8299 i think of Permeating Mass as a green Propaganda. And I would only recommend it if you don't play creatures that your opponents cooy might block. So I have one each in my Dragon and Vial Smasher deck.

[@fredthered98]

I run Sadistic Sacrament in my Seizan deck and it's great removing their wincon or ways to handle my deck.

[@MrVovoda]

Awaken the Erstwhile will slot just nicely in my Oros deck.

[@Demigod214]

Somebody hit me with the Sadistic Sacrament, kicked, on the 4th turn of a commander game. He exiled half my land base.

[@golgariguy]

Love Dirge of Dread! So underrated... No mono black infect deck is using it according to EDHREC

[@sonofchlar6144]

I run dredge the mire in my aristocrat decks, 3 bodies for 4 mana is amazing.

[@peasant_mindset4505]

It's not a great card, but Promise of Power from Mirrodin bring nostalgia back for me! It's a flexible card draw/token in black

[@constance6198]

If u Mention Ritual of the machine, you should mention Enslave. BB4 aura, you control enchantment creature, and during your upkeep, that creature deals 1 dmg to its owner

[@Cyberium]

Black breaks color pie by sacrificing more than other colors, that’s their trope.

[@solace2354]

I still have nightmares of the first time my friend casted an awaken the erstwhile! I was new to commander and was using a pretty budget niv-izzet parrun deck, all my engines where poping off and I’m pretty sure I had lethal the very next turn on all 3 of them, he casted this and I had like 26 cards in my hand... the game was pretty one sided after that lol

[@Depp0vom0Dienst]

i was really hoping to see "Reprocess" on this list. I love boneyard parley in my golos-deck though :)

[@TheRedKnightOfPain]

Some janky i actually put into a deck are cards like Walking Sponge, Hideous Visage, silverinlaid dagger, and grave exchange

[@hithere3684]

just what I was looking for now that I have my Ob Nixilis

[@toml8866]

For Deliver Unto Evil, if you choose two or fewer cards, the opponent has to give you those cards. Similar to Gifts Ungiven.

[@olafthemoose9413]

No, Delivery Unto Evil is worded differently. The opponent chooses the cards you DON'T get, so if you only target 2 cards, your opponent chooses those two and you get nothing.

[@toml8866]

@@olafthemoose9413 yep, you're right. I missed that the choice is for the two to discard... Not keep

[@r0hz]

Mausoleum Secrets is a budget tutor for dredge, aristocrats, and looting

[@HungrImp]

I have been thinking if making a deck with the mono-black Tymaret and Dredge the Mire seems to fit right in. You get rid of their bad creatures in their graves and after 1 or 2 bombs are in each grave, Dredge the Mire could even serve as a bomb in itself... hmmmmm

[@Aaron-bb5gi]

Keep the content coming Mitch, could you please do a super budget deck tech

[@PassingS]

unfortunately my favourite janky black spell isn't a sorcery, but in the theme of the video, it's "Misinformation". I mainly use it as reanimation hate, but I'll figure out something to do with it properly, eventually.

[@kingginger3335]

Sadistic Sacrament is freakin amazing! Exiling of the their win cons in their deck is amazing!

[@User-jo7jp]

and if youre not playing black, jesters cap has always been sweet! of course you have to run his brother, jesters mask. i love messing with opponents in ways that dont break the game.

[@Thorinox]

I love using Sadistic Sacrament, I always kick it, and it always pisses off my friends.

[@DeisFortuna]

At first, I misread this as "Janky strategirs." On that topic, my personal favourite kinda Janky mono-black strat in EDH one called Necrojournal. Basically, you use Necropotence, some way of removing your maximum hand size and some way of gaining life off of your hand size. Since Vesner's journal does both in one card, it's Necrojournal. Just, uh... Have some other way to remove max hand size in case the journal gets blown up or else you'll probably wind up having to exile, like, half your deck. I have legit said "necro for 15" with this combo out. THE COST DIDN'T MATTER.

[@acxesta2]

If you want to downright troll a control player, you could also use Thought Distortion.

[@lelandnunez7665]

Choice of Damnations from Saviors of Kamigawa. 5B for a Socery-Arcane, Target opponent chooses a number. You may have that player lose that much life. If you don't, that player sacrifices all but that many permanents.

[@blackplague989]

Paralyze is a really old janky black card that should see more play. Inline with your first card is helm of posession which has made several of my friends grown after they read it a few times

[@HECTOR8HELL8]

Oh dredge is dope. Need that in my karlov deck.

[@SuperRyanDarcy]

Red card where creatures can't block would be seismic stomp. Allows only flying creatures to block but pretty good for 1 and a red

[@iamrepairmanman]

Ritual of the machine is a fear like effect, I think it works

[@royal-wolf]

Shrouded Lore Cost: B "Target opponent chooses a card in your graveyard. You may pay B. If you do, repeat this process except that opponent can't choose a card already chosen foe Shrouded Lore. Then put the last chosen card into your hand." It costs one and makes for a great political tool. I use it in my K'rrik deck and it has gotten me some very powerful spells back.

[@dr_mayday813]

Sadistic Sacrament is so satisfying when you can kick it and just gut someone's deck

[@buddbenner7427]

Sadistic sacrament target 15 lands then cast oblivion sower is my favorite combo

[@sunnyysss]

Ritual of the machine will fit perfectly in my fallout themed deck! Thank you!