EDH: Top 10 Best Black Card Draw Spells

Are you looking for the best card draw to add to your black deck?

In this article, you'll find 10 cards to use in your Commander deck to make sure you won't run out of cards in your matches!

This is the second article of a series of articles covering the 10 best card draw spells in each color for Commander in particular. The first article was about white cards, so check it out!

If you enjoy this type of article and would like to suggest a theme for our next ones, leave a comment down below! Our goal is to help players who haven't played a lot of MTG, or players that are exploring other colors, find the cards they need for their Commander decks!

Before we start, here's how we picked the cards in this article.

There's a wide variety of instants, sorceries, and even cards that interact with a few specific mechanics that will help you get ahead in card advantage, the iconic concept Magic: The Gathering players constantly look for.

We understand this text will serve as a base for any experienced player who wants to check it out, but, particularly, our target audience is new players. That is, players that haven't played MTG for long, and want some help to build their decks efficiently.

As a result, for all of these "Top 10s", we'll prioritize cards that are more generic and/or don't depend on specific decks to work.

Example: Undead Augur is a great card craw creature, but, before you use it, one of your Zombies needs to die. If your deck doesn't focus on Zombies at all, this effect is inherently tied to Undead Augur's death.

Additionally, we prioritized permanents, as they usually stay on the board for longer and will give you card advantage again and again until your opponent can (or wants) to remove them.

With this in mind, let's see our top 10 best black card draw spells!

10. Dark Prophecy

In our tenth place, we got Dark Prophecy, an enchantment that costs and draws you a card any time one of your creatures dies.

It is easy to see this card in a Mono Black deck, but Dark Prophecy has a lot of potential even in decks with other colors as well, as long as they interact with creature death.

9. Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar

Have you played Baldur's Gate 3 and fallen in love with Shadowheart? If so, it's time to find a space for her in your Commander decks as well.

Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar is a sacrifice card that draws you cards according to the power of the creature you sacrificed.

The downside is that you need to pay mana and tap it to use its ability. However, when you use it at the right time - usually when your opponent is passing the turn to you - you'll start your turn with at least one extra resource in your hand.

8. Vilis, Broker of Blood

Vilis, Broker of Blood is definitely what we call a big creature, and that makes sense, considering how much mana it costs.

His ability, which gives a -1/-1 counter to the target creature until the end of the turn, is always welcome to possibly get rid of Indestructible threats, but what earned Vilis his spot on our list is his passive ability.

Even if you took some damage to your opponent's Burn cards, or after they attacked you with a creature, with Vilis on the board, all this damage will become card draw, which is a great advantage. Vilis' activated ability also draws you at least two cards any time you use it, as you'll pay 2 life to use it.

On top of it all, an 8/8 Flying creature on your board is definitely interesting to either defend you or attack your opponents.

He only occupies our 8th place because he is a bit expensive, and not every deck can afford to play a creature that costs so much.

7. Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Known by many as one of the main Magic: The Gathering villains, or just as the "Father of Machines", Yawgmoth, Thran Physician certainly marked his name down in MTG history, and you should consider him for your deck.

If you pay one life and sacrifice another creature, you can put a -1/-1 counter on a target creature and draw a card. This ability even makes a few combos possible; you can deal infinite damage and draw as many cards as you want or can. Check out more details about these combos here!

Just like Vilis, Yawgmoth deals with possible Indestructible threats, and controls the enemy board through creature removal. He has many interesting abilities that are just good in general, and fit any deck.

6. Asmodeus the Archfiend

Asmodeus the Archfiend is another creature that only occupies our 6th spot because of its mana cost.

With this Archfiend on the board, you'll exile, face-down, the card you'd draw that turn, and can pay to draw seven cards. If anyone removes him or if you just want to take advantage of the fact he was exiled, you can pay to put in your hand the cards you exiled through his effect.

Who wouldn't like to draw seven cards for just four mana?

5. Null Profusion

This enchantment has something that all Commander players love: potential.

With Null Profusion on the board, any time you play a land or cast a spell, you'll draw a card. This effect happens even when someone uses a Counterspell on your card.

It is also quite easy to play around our hand limit with cards like Spellbook or Reliquary Tower; you just need to play these permanents in the right order. And even if you can't play around your hand limit, you'll only need to discard your extra cards on your "cleanup step" (or discard step, as many players call it).

This card has so much potential, it earned a stop in our top 5!

4. Species Specialist

Species Specialist fits decks that focus on only one creature type or that use many creatures of a specific type really well. As Specialists lets you choose a creature type, it is just efficient in general and fits decks that focus on Zombies, Demons, Humans, Angels, Clerics, and many others. It also works really well against decks that focus on creatures of the same type because its ability triggers even for creatures you don't control.

Unlike other creatures with similar effects, Species Specialist doesn't hurt your life points when you draw cards through its effect.

3. Black Market Connections

Another enchantment made it to our list! This card is a staple for many decks as well.

Black Market Connections offers you one or more effects to use in your pre-combat phase. One of them draws you a card and makes you lose 2 life.

This card earned a spot in our top 3 because of its versatility; if you need more mana, you can just lose 1 life and create a Treasure, or lose 3 life and create a Shapeshifter token.

2. Greed

Greed has a great cost-to-benefit ratio for a black card draw.

That is because you can activate its draw effect as many times as you want; you can also activate it on your own turn or on one of your opponents' turns.

The flavor on one of the versions of this card really sums up its effect: what is a sliver of one's soul compared to unimaginable wealth?

1. Necropotence

Finally, here's our first place!

Many players swear that Necropotence is the strongest black card around; it is quite easy to see why when we read its effect.

You'll always have a full hand with this enchantment in play. The cards you exile with Necropotence will go to your hand at the beginning of your next end step.

You can also use this card in a few combos, if you like that sort of thing. {https://mtg.cardsrealm.com/en-us/combo-infinite/?card_path=necropotence}{Check out a few of its combos here}.

And this is the end of our "top 10 best black card draw spells"!

We hope this article helps you and gives you new cards to upgrade your deck or fix your ratios.

If you read this far, share this article with a friend that will like these cards.

Do you agree with our picks? Tell us in the comment section below.

See you next time!