Does Shadowmoor live up to the hype from the Rumor Mill? Is this what Magic has been missing for oh so long? Black is the color of endless night and Shadowmoor is its plane of existence. This set has been looked forward to by the Guild for quite a while now and expect no stone unturned from my views.

So what’s new in Black now that Shadowmoor has hit the public tables? Well quite a good bit and I’m happy to see it; although I am back to my cycle hating ways because it’s a cheap way to make cards and I’m not one for them, personally. Black’s combat abilities gain a whole new power thanks to Shadowmoor’s wither which dishes out damage as -1/-1 counters, wreaking the opponent’s mightiest forces. Black’s natural recursion is further improved thanks to persist, with which a killed creature comes back with a -1/-1 counter on it when killed. Anyways that’s enough with the general statements; let’s get to the meat of this article.

A note to those who don't normally read text based cards, all of them will follow this format:

CARDNAME COST
CARDTYPE (RARITY)
RULESTEXT
P/T

Symbols:
W, U, B, R, G: White, Blue, Black, Red, and Green.
T and Q: Tap and untap.
(C), (U), (R), and (B): Rarity (common, uncommon, rare, and bonus).
(S/S): Symbol/symbol indicating hybrid (i.e. (2/B)).
(X): X value cost.

Aphotic Wisps B
Instant (C)
Target creature becomes black and gains fear until end of turn.
Draw a card.

This is new for Wizards; this is a powerful cycle of commons that give a color change, a color ability, and a cantrip, all for the low low low price of one colored mana. The usefulness of this card is instantly apparent to those who played during Invasion. The ability to change your color on a creature can save it or give it some powerful abilities. Also, the addition of a combat ability like fear can really get that extra damage in that is needed for the game, AND you get a free card.

Grade: A — What’s not to like?

Ashenmoor Cohort 5B
Creature - Elemental Warrior (C)
Ashenmoor Cohort gets +1/+1 as long as you control another black creature.
4/3

Another common cycle, the Cohorts are common creatures that get a +1/+1 boost when another creature of that color is with you. This one specifically costs six mana for a possible 5/4 size. I know Wizards can’t always put out the biggest and best, but personally I feel a little let down by this one in comparison to the others.

Grade: C — They could have lowered the cost by one or two mana to make me feel better.

Beseech the Queen (2/B)(2/B)(2/B)
Sorcery (U)
((2/B) can be paid with any two mana or with B. This card's converted mana cost is 6.)
Search your library for a card with converted mana cost less than or equal to the number of lands you control, reveal it, and put it into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

Another cycle for Shadowmoor is monocolor hybrid cycle which Beseech the Queen is a part of. Mark Rosewater created the idea of hybrids and thus moved it one more step with monocolor hybrids; the good side being that they're easier to play amongst the colors if you’re willing to pay the costs. In its home color it’s a powerhouse which allows land fetching and almost anything in between if you have the lands. Outside its home color it’s a late game tutor at a cost of six.

Grade: A in Black — It’s a good card in its own color, outside its own it’s a bit of a harder to use. (Well, Green might be able to make use of it with acceleration.)

Blowfly Infestation 2B
Enchantment (U)
Whenever a creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had a -1/-1 counter on it, put a -1/-1 counter on target creature.

This makes me look at it and go, “Build around this card with persist,” because then you can really start making your opponent hurt for killing your creatures. I like this card for two reasons: Build around it and it’s powerful, or add it into a deck that utilizes -1/-1 counters in a minor way and watch it work.

Grade B — It’s a card. Outside that point it’s a nice idea, but might be a bit harder to utilize at its best.

Cinderbones 2B
Creature – Elemental Skeleton (C)
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
1B: Regenerate
1/1

Skeleton, huh? Regenerate, yeah that makes sense. Wither, that’s nice. 1/1 body, well considering the regenerate and wither at that cost in common it’s nicely balanced, just not anything to really write home about.

Grade: D — It does its job, and nothing more.

Cinderhaze Wretch 4B
Creature - Elemental Shaman (C)
T: Target player discards a card. Play this ability only during your turn.
Put a -1/-1 counter on Cinderhaze Wretch: Untap Cinderhaze Wretch.
3/2

I wish it costed less, but it’s really a good balanced card. Its ability is still at instant speed, but not abuse-able on someone else’s turn. The nice part is the untap ability by weakening itself. Now in a quick move to really mess up your opponent’s tempo you can have this guy trigger twice and have him at 2/1. The real key to making him great is finding a way to move those off of him.

Grade: B — Already established discard decks might not use him, but newer discard decks might find a way to make him work.

Corrosive Mentor 2B
Creature - Elemental Rogue (U)
Black creatures you control have wither. (They deal damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
1/3

Yes. This is what a really really good cycle looks like. The uncommon Mentor cycle brings a powerful ability to all creatures you control of a color; in Black’s case it’s wither. Anyone still running a Mono-Black Aggro deck will enjoy adding this man in. Making the battle one of Attrition is more than enough to have Black find a way to 20 damage. If you don’t get the picture, go and look at this card, then look at say Spirit of the Night, Lord of the Pit, or Scion of Darkness.

Grade: B+ — Yeah, not an A card, but it’s very useful nonetheless.

Corrupt 5B
Sorcery (U)
Corrupt deals damage equal to the number of Swamps you control to target creature or player. You gain life equal to the damage dealt this way.

Reprint, but this time in uncommon. For a long time Corrupt was my personal choice in Black Burn in which Consume Spirit (or Drain Life) replaced for a long time. Still for six mana you get a massive drain life on the opponent, and with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Corrupt basically becomes a nice card for all colors and all decks.

Corrupt is also a part of a mono-color cycle of “Land Matters” in this set.

Grade: B+ — This card already has a history, but if you haven’t played this card yet, I recommend giving it a try.

Crowd of Cinders 3B
Creature – Elemental (U)
Fear
Crowd of Cinders's power and toughness are each equal to the number of black permanents you control.
*/*

“Groups” uncommon cycle; these creatures usually have a variable power/toughness based on their color alignment on your side of the board. Like Nightmare, though these “Groups” are at a lower cost, so they are able to really fight the tide of battle if you push it.

Grade C — Variable P/T in a set of -1/-1 counters; think about that for a moment.

Disturbing Plot 1B
Sorcery (C)
Return target creature card in a graveyard to its owner's hand.
Conspire (As you play this spell, you may tap two untapped creatures you control that share a color with it. When you do, copy it and you may choose a new target for the copy.)

Might as well be a reprint of Raise Dead. Personally conspire is a nice idea, but only if you have the time and defense to tap down two of your own. Not a lot of mono-Black cards I’ve seen have the new Q symbol.

Grade: C — Not for it being a bad card on its own, but for needing others to help it out.

Dusk Urchins 2B
Creature – Ouphe (R)
Whenever Dusk Urchins attacks or blocks, put a -1/-1 counter on it.
When Dusk Urchins is put into a graveyard from play, draw a card for each -1/-1 counter on it.
4/3

First thing, notice that it’s three mana for a 4/3 which is nice, but its drawback is that any combat hurts it. Although the bonus for that type of drawback is some draw power out of it. So it’s a nice chump block against things with wither.

Second, it’s an Ouphe!

Grade: B — It’s an Ouphe!

Faerie Macabre 1BB
Creature - Faerie Rogue (C)
Flying
Discard Faerie Macabre: Remove up to two target cards in graveyards from the game.
2/2

I like the fact it’s a three-cost flying creature with a good body in Black. Its ability is not what I would consider normal (discard instead of sacrifice) so on the battlefield it's just a 2/2 body with flying, while in your hand it’s a double Cremate, which you can at an instant speed get rid of two persist creatures hitting the grave.

Grade: B+ — Situational at best, but it hoses all the graveyard mechanics seen.

Gloomlance 3BB
Sorcery (C)
Destroy target creature. If that creature was green or white, its controller discards a card.

Huh… five mana regenerate-able creature destruction and possible tempo loss if the creature was of an enemy color. (Black’s enemies are Green and White.) Personally five mana is just a bit steep for my taste, but with the possible discard it becomes worth it.

Note: Part of a cycle of color hate, the mono-color Haters are sorceries which like Gloomlance have an added effect if their target was one of those colors, while the multicolor Haters can't be blocked by their enemy color.

Grade: A- — I like the card, and it could be worthy of decklists, but personally if it was at four mana, I would love this card.

Hollowborn Barghest 5BB
Creature – Demon Hound (R)
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have no cards in hand, each opponent loses 2 life.
At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, if that player has no cards in hand, he or she loses 2 life.
7/6

Win more? Seriously in a really good discard deck this guy just clinches the win condition. Sure seven mana does seem like a lot, but when you can stall them out for four turns at least then this will really work him out. Big enough to take anything Green can dish out quickly enough.

Grade: B+ — *shrugs* It wins games….

Hollowsage 3B
Creature – Merfolk Wizard (U)
Whenever Hollowsage becomes untapped, you may have target player discard a card.
2/2

Four mana for a 2/2 body and discard when untaps, so attack with it and its buddy Abyssal Nocturnus. Not much to say about this card, it’s well balanced considering the rest of Magic.

Grade: B — Already established discard decks might not use him, but newer discard decks might find a way to make him work.

Incremental Blight 3BB
Sorcery (U)
Put a -1/-1 counter on target creature, two -1/-1 counters on another target creature, and three -1/-1 counters on a third target creature.

The beauty of this card is the fact that it’ll stop persist in its tracks, boost wither’s attrition on a creature, and most likely send at least one, maybe two creatures to the graveyard to never return. A five mana spell at sorcery speed that could kill three creatures is a beautiful happenstance. Also on the flip side those -1/-1 counters can be used to help you so you can target maybe that Grim Poppet of yours and other creatures that get effects from removing -1/-1 counters from themselves.

Grade: A — So many good choices for this card's use on either side of the field.

Loch Korrigan 3B
Creature – Spirit (C)
(U/B): Loch Korrigan gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
1/1

Four mana for a small body, but built-in pump; at common this still feels like a ripoff card.

Grade: D — Would have been cooler as a Shade.

Midnight Banshee 3BBB
Creature – Spirit (R)
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a -1/-1 counter on each nonblack creature.
5/5

Yes. Once again one of the few really really powerful cards out of the set. For six mana you get a 5/5 wither-powered body that just pains everything that isn’t its color.

Grade A+ — Yes, there will be many a swarm deck that will love to hate this thing.

Plague of Vermin 6B
Sorcery (R)
Starting with you, each player may pay any amount of life. Repeat this process until no one pays life. Each player puts a 1/1 black Rat creature token into play for each 1 life he or she paid this way.

The nice part about this is those rats are fantastic sacrifice fodder; everyone spends some life to get them, and multiplayer battles in particular will see lots of Rats and lots of life loss. Combine this with Choice of Damnations to really make them feel that they're in a lose-lose situation.

Grade: B+ — Rat Tribal is still out there, this just makes it so much more fun.

Polluted Bonds 3BB
Enchantment (R)
Whenever a land comes into play under an opponent's control, that player loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.

HA! Take that Vinelasher Kudzu! (What? It’s my first thought.) Five mana is steep considering Vinelasher is only two mana. Polluted Bonds is a control card without a doubt, but add this into any Red/Black Land Destruction deck for increased power. Besides that it’s good in sacrifical Black where you need that extra bit of life to keep things going and keep your opponent under your finger.

Grade B+ — Great in some decks, not in all decks.

Puppeteer Clique 3BB
Creature – Faerie Wizard (R)
Flying
When Puppeteer Clique comes into play, put target creature card in an opponent's graveyard into play under your control. It has haste. At the end of your turn, remove it from the game.
Persist (When this creature is put into a graveyard from play, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to play under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)
3/2

Cliques tend to be groups of Fae, normally Faeries. It’s possible to have a Clique of Dryads, but they prefer the term Chorus. Anyways, for five mana you get a 3/2 flying persistent body that when it comes into play it just steals your opponent’s dead, which is nice since they might not be able to defend against something like themselves.

Grade: A- — 'Tis a good card, but it needs to have a good set up for it to be really killer.

Rites of Consumption 1B
Sorcery (C)
As an additional cost to play Rite of Consumption, sacrifice a creature.
Rite of Consumption deals damage equal to the sacrificed creature's power to target player. You gain life equal to the damage dealt this way.

Black Fling? Personally I like it, considering I’ll hold it off until second main phase before throwing a creature at them and gain some life off of it. That Spirit that I want to be a Shade could make something really nice happen in the late game.

Grade: B — It’s a nice card, but needs that set up of being able to toss a good creature.

Sickle Ripper 1B
Creature – Elemental Warrior (C)
Wither (This deals damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
2/1

The effective base for all wither creatures is Sickle Ripper. Although personally not much to talk about besides that, for the common slot some people might be happy to get a playset or two of these guys just to show off to their friends who don’t have internet and have been living under a rock for the past few days.

Grade: C+ — Maybe a B-, but really he’s nothing to write home about, and isn’t much of a card to begin with. Actually, it’s art that's awesome, but most of Shadowmoor’s art is.

Smolder Initiate B
Creature – Elemental Shaman (C)
Whenever a player plays a black spell, you may pay 1. If you do, target player loses 1 life.
1/1

Initate cycle of commons have the nearly reprinted effects of Ivory Cup et al, where if you play a spell of its color and pay a generic mana, you get some type of neat effect.

Grade: B- — I didn’t like Ivory Cup et al. But these are a bit better than those too.

Splitting Headache 3B
Sorcery (C)
Choose one - Target player discards two cards; or target player reveals his or her hand, you choose a card from it, then that player discards that card.

Strictly worse than the other discards in either class; first class there is Coercion which is targeted discard and non-targeted discard like Mind Rot. Both Coercion and Mind Rot are Sorceries, both common in recent base sets and both costing 2B, so where on earth does Wizards get the idea of four mana for this guy? Just the choice facter? Now if it was with entwine I could understand, but without? Really?

Grade: A — Hey, it’s still good discard at common.

Torture B
Enchantment – Aura (C)
Enchant Creature
1B: put a -1/-1 counter on enchanted creature.

Torture, like Corrupt, is an old friend of mine. I’m glad to see it return in Shadowmoor and nonetheless just as appropriate to the theme. Those who haven’t seen this card before, play it. Yes, it’s costly to make those -1/-1 counters, but believe me, run this in the “I like -1/-1 counters” deck; you won’t be disappointed.

Grade: A+ — Hell I still play this in my Black deck.

Wound Reflection 5B
Enchantment (R)
At the end of each turn, each opponent loses life equal to the life he or she lost this turn. (Damage causes loss of life.)

Yes, four please. Final Punishment as an enchantment would look like this. The Reflections cycle takes what each color does well and really gives it a push to extremes. Thought Reflection does cards, Mana Reflection does mana, Rage Reflection does double strike, and you know, I can never seem to remember what White does well except annoy me. Oh yes, quite, Boon Reflection doubles life gain.

Grade: Four Please B+ — I mean yeah it’s the cost that holds it back, but heaven help your opponent if you get two of them out there.

Cycles; ok just in Black I’ve named off ten cycles, eleven if you want to call half of the conspire "cycle" a cycle. So that’s 50 to 55 cards out of 300+ dedicated to cycles. Considering those are just the Monocolor cycles really it’s about 50 cards out of 127 that are cycles almost half. Wizards of the Coast, if you are in some type of trouble trying to find good designers, feel free to look me up, seriously I’m not hard to find, my E-mail is right at the bottom of this article, I’ll make sure of it.

Shadowmoor—or as some MDV members are reporting, Cyclemoor—I feel that although there is only 27 mono-Black cards in this set it covers a lot of new ground and opens up a lot of new design space for amateur designers worldwide. Personally I like Shadowmoor even with its cycles because it’s the cards that are out of context that make it worth while. Plus some of the cycles are really nice.

This is Michael Zeora, back off to the æther with me.

For those off of MDV who wish to contact me you can submit comments and suggestions for more articles to me at: Michael_Zeora@yahoo.com.

You can discuss this article in the MDV forums here.
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