Of all the colors inMagic: The Gathering, black feels the most suitable for the Oathbreaker format. The color of deception, destruction, and division, black is full of characters who will entrap you in cunning contracts before stabbing you in the back with the very quill you signed with.
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Beyond its rogue’s gallery of creatures and planeswalkers, however, black also features a huge range of powerful spells, many of which are ideal candidates for the role of your Signature Spell in the Oathbreaker format. We’ve delved deep into the black market to gather the ten best here today: ten terrible tools you can use to torture your table.
10The Elderspell
The cruel coup de grace at the end of Nicol Bolas’ master plan, the Elderspell was intended to seize the sparks of every planeswalker in the Multiverse, thus promoting the Elder Dragon to effective Godhood. Thankfully this never panned out, either in the story or in gameplay, as the card has failed to perform well since release.
Oathbreaker changes things. The Elderspell almost feels custom-made for the format, letting you wipe out every opposing oathbreaker while stacking huge amounts of loyalty on your own, allowing immediate access to many powerful ultimate abilities.With any evil plan, patiently waiting for the right time to strike is key, and the right time for The Elderspell is now.
9Deadly Rollick
Single-target removal spells don’t tend to perform particularly well in multiplayer formats since other players can easily replace the creatures lost, but there is a certain threshold of efficiency beyond which they can see play. Deadly Rollick tumbles over this threshold with ease, presenting a removal option that both exiles and is free to cast.
This is due to the rule wherein an oathbreaker counts as your commander for effects that mention it, thus allowing you to cast this as your Signature Spell for free once your oathbreaker is out. While you will need to pay commander tax on subsequent castings, the ability to exile problematic threats for so little mana will prove invaluable when protecting your oathbreaker - and the rest of the table - from harm.
8Stunning Reversal
When deciding on a signature Spell for your Oathbreaker deck, it’s a good idea to think about effects you’d like to have access to at all points in a game. Stunning Reversal offers an effect that fits these criteria perfectly: after all, who wouldn’t want access to a card that prevents you from losing the game at all times?
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There are conditions, of course. The card sets you to one life, meaning one bite from a Squirrel token can send you on your way next turn, but this is balanced out by the fact that it also draws you seven cards, giving you a full arsenal you can use to regain life and get back in the game. It’s the ultimate comeback card, made all the more potent by the consistency Oathbreaker offers it.
7Liliana’s Triumph
An instant-speed edict effect that hits every player is quite powerful by itself, particularly when you can cast it multiple times in a row. The reason this card makes the list, however, is the newfound consistency with which Oathbreaker allows you to fulfill the condition for the mass discard effect.
In other formats, you’d simply have to pray a Liliana planeswalker turned up while you had this spell in hand to get full value out of it, but in Oathbreaker, you can guarantee this happens bychoosing a Liliana planeswalkeras your oathbreaker. And if you do? Then this card can act as an eight-for-one, a huge value and tempo swing that will all but ensure the Triumph of your dark forces.
6Worst Fears
Emrakul, the Promised End showcased the power of taking another player’s turn for them when she descended on Innistrad back in 2016, and that same power can be yours in Oathbreaker with Worst Fears. Despite not coming with a 13/13 flying body, the card can still throw multiple spanners in the works, not just for the sorry soul affected but for the rest of the table as well.
You can cast your victim’s oathbreaker and Signature Spell for them, wasting their effects on other players while simultaneously making them more expensive later due to commander tax. You can send their army of creatures charging into a previous ally or an unwinnable battle, essentially acting as a full board clear for them. The possibilities for powerful plays and delicious villainy are endless.
5Arterial Flow
It says a lot about Arterial Flow’s power level that you don’t even need to meet the life drain condition for it to be a strong Signature Spell. At a base level, the card can strip up to eight cards from your opponents’ collective hands, For a low cost that ensures it can be cast when they still have full hands to hit.
This is a huge resource swing, one that could almost be read as ‘draw seven cards’ if you jiggle the value maths around a bit. And if you do meet the condition, something that’s particularly easy to do if Sorin is your oathbreaker, then you can add a ten-point life swing in as a bloody cherry on top.
4Blood On The Snow
It wouldn’t be a list of black spellswithout a board wipe, and Blood on the Snow is one of the best there is. Giving you the option of hitting either creatures or planeswalkers, a choice that’s particularly relevant in Oathbreaker, the card also lets you reanimate a sizable threat provided you include snow lands in your deck to cast it with.
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There’s no opportunity cost to doing so since snow-covered swamps are functionally identical to normal swamps, meaning this card can easily be firing on all cylinders at all times. Since the reanimation effect is based on the mana spent on Blood on the Snow, it also scales up with any commander tax paid, making it the rare card that benefits from an intended drawback of the format.
3Demonic Tutor
The original and best, Demonic Tutor is the card that wrote ‘Tutor’ into the vocabulary of Magic forever by virtue of its sheer power and efficiency. It’s a great card in every format it’s legal in, but singleton formats like Commander and Oathbreaker amplify its strength further by allowing you to bypass their innate inconsistency and grab the exact card you need.
The fact that you can now have access to this effect on tap in Oathbreaker is a terrifying prospect that allows for incredibly consistent combo and midrange brews in the format. No matter what type of black deck you’re running, Demonic Tutor can serve as a stellar Signature Spell for it.
2Lethal Scheme
Lethal Scheme has a lot going for it in Oathbreaker. It hits planeswalkers, meaning it can keep opposing oathbreakers off the table. It has convoke, which means it can come down early and avoid commander tax later on. And it also provides incidental card filtering as well, letting you dig for what you need while your opponent digs their unfortunate creature a grave.
This all comes together to create a spell that breaks the usual single-target removal curse that plagues multiplayer formats, providing a flexible and powerful tool you can use to finesse your way out of many situations.
1Ghouls’ Night Out
If the name alone wasn’t enough to sell you on the greatness of Ghouls’ Night Out, then the text box certainly will be. The card lets youreanimate one creaturefor every player in the game, which in Oathbreaker can be up to five creatures, all for the low, low price of five mana.
Those creatures do unfortunately gain decayed, making them incredibly fragile in combat, but their enter-the-battlefield effects and dies triggers remain intact. This allows Ghouls’ Night Out to serve as a wild value swing you can cast again later, thanks to its reasonable starting mana cost.
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