Welcome to a new colour focus! This time we will focus on card draw in black. I will go over a few categories of card draw spells and explain why you want to include these cards. Did I miss a hidden gem or your personal favourite? Feel free to let me know in the comments.

Unconditional Card Draw

Besides lands, card draw is the backbone of any functioning deck. The more you draw, the more you can make up for mistakes in other deckbuilding categories, simply because there is a higher chance to see the cards you need. However, when building a deck, keep in mind that sometimes you need card draw without conditions: plain “draw a card” effects. Especially after a board wipe or early in the game, you need a reliable way to draw more cards and shape your hand into the one you want. Black has two classic sorceries in this category: Night’s Whisper and Sign in Blood. Both let you draw two cards and lose two life for 2 mana. Keep in mind that Sign in Blood costs two black pips, so it may not suit decks with four or more colours.

I don’t just jam these two cards into almost every black deck I build. I am also still riding the high of killing an opponent with Sign in Blood, after realising it was the way to deal the last 2 damage I needed.

Besides these famous sorceries, you can play the enchantment Phyrexian Arena and its power-crept brother Unholy Annex. People often don’t see them as a threat, so they won’t spend removal on them. That lets these enchantments passively draw you cards and slowly build up value. The daemon that comes with Unholy Annex can also function as a blocker when you absolutely need it!

Other unconditional card draw options are more situational: Damnable Pact, which can draw you a ton in the late game, and Painful Truths, which is worth its mana cost if you can spend two other colours besides black to cast it.

Sacrifice

Black often shows up in aristocrats decks, where you sacrifice your own creatures for value. As you would expect, black has a ton of spells that let you draw cards when you sacrifice something. The most straightforward ones are Village Rites and Corrupted Conviction. They are lower in mana cost than Sign in Blood or Night’s Whisper, but you need a creature to sacrifice.

Then there are card draw cards (often creatures) that draw you cards when things die. These are incredibly powerful, and some don’t even care whether the creatures are yours or your opponents’. Do check whether they also trigger on tokens. My own sacrifice deck mostly sacrifices tokens, so Midnight Reaper is not a good fit there.
Next is Plumb the Forbidden. I loved this card when I first saw it. Its potential is enormous: with the right board state it can let you draw a lot. However, keep in mind that it also eats almost all your fodder, which you can then no longer use for other cards. And if you sacrifice just one creature, it is simply a Night’s Whisper.

Finally, there are card draw cards that double as a sac outlet. Ayara, First of Locthwain is a sac outlet, a card draw engine and a drain effect in one card, which makes her extremely powerful. Her three black pips are brutal, though, if you play a deck with many colours.

Typal Decks

As in every colour of Magic, black has decks that focus on one creature type. Card draw that cares about your creature type is a good fit when your deck consists (almost) only of creatures of that type. With even a moderately decent board, these cards will draw you an enormous number of cards. Just keep an eye on your life total: Graveborn Muse in particular can cost you a ton of life if you have enough Zombies. The fact that you can grab Pact of the Serpent for about 1 euro is also wild to me.

Combat

Who doesn’t attack? Especially in brackets 2 and 3, most decks will eventually attack their opponents. Getting to max speed is not the biggest hurdle (especially if you have other Start your engines! cards), and The Speed Demon will draw you a lot of cards if it stays alive. Rabid Attack is a weird card. I want it to be good, but in my experience it is situational. However, I am sure it can be a good fit if you combine it with an aristocrats strategy. Requiem Monolith is a gem I only just learned exists. At its floor it is a “tap: draw a card” artifact, but if you can deal damage to your own creatures (or your opponents do it for you), it can draw you a ton.

Others

Some card draw cards don’t fit in the previous categories. They are situational but good to keep in mind. Stinging Study is a card where you instantly know whether to play it: when your commander costs 5 mana or more. And if you don’t mind your opponents drawing cards too, Seizan, Perverter of Truth can be your card draw of choice.

I hope you learned something new, and I will see you in the next colour focus. If you want to see something specific, let me know!