Continuing this month's theme (see previous post for an introduction), today I look at budget Commander staples in black, focusing on four categories: ramp, card draw, targeted removal, and board wipe.
Ramp (black)
Ramp is about accelerating land deployment and/or mana access. Black does not do this well on its own, especially when you throw in the 'budget' constraint. Still, there are a few cards. Overeager Apprentice, Skirge Familiar, and Botg Witch can get extra mana at the price of discarding a card. Songs of the Damned can ramp if you have creatures in your graveyard (self-mill strategies come to mind). Priest of the Forgotten Gods is a combination removal, ramp, and card draw option.
Card draw is a black specialty—but it will cost you more than mana (generally, by losing life or sacrificing one of your own creatures), as the below options show.
Black excels at destroying creatures (or making an opponent sacrifice them), making opponents discard. It can even do the occasional land removal. It was hard to narrow down choices here . . . there are plenty. But below are ten I find handy.
Finally, board wipes. Not a lot of options here, but Deadly Tempest and Final Act can do a number.
I show 23 cards above; 18 are generic (and useful) enough that they would be good inclusions to any black Commander deck. The remaining 5, the ramp cards, have value but only in the right decks.
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