Flesh Reaver

Black Creature Design

New • 24 Jan 2024 • Asked by enigmaticchromatic • 34 Comments

What happened to black's tendency for above rate creatures with a downside? I'm thinking of classic cards like Flesh Reaver and Phyrexian Negator, but also even something as simple as Vampire Lacerator. The most recent one I can think of is the 2 mana 3/3 in midnight hunt that exploits to kills a Planeswalker and makes you lose one life each turn. Is this a space that is becoming increasingly hard to design for with the continually increasing power of creatures?

Downsides just aren’t super popular. We still do them, just at a lower volume.
Black Creatures Flesh Reaver Mana Phyrexian Phyrexian Negator Planeswalkers Vampire Vampire Lacerator

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