by Elton Gahr

Created on: November 06, 2009

If you like to run mono color decks then there is little doubt that black is the color most suited to it. There are simply a great many cards in black that are far more powerful in a mono color deck. Cards that cause an opponent to discard based on the number of swamps you control, drain life, which lets you pay only with black mana and creatures that have power based on the number of swamps you control are only a handful of the ways in which black tries to draw you in to the dark path excluding anything with even a hint of light.

Korlash, Heir to Blackblade is a legendary rare zombie warrior from the Future Sight expansion set of magic the gathering that is one of those creatures that encourages mono black. It costs two black and two colorless to put into play and has power and toughness equal to the number of swamps you have in control. This leads to a creature that has the potential of being very powerful but its abilities are also very useful in aiding this.

The first of these abilities is regeneration for one black and one colorless mana. There are not all that many large creatures in any color that regenerate and it is a far more useful ability on a 5/5 creature than on a 1/1 drudge skeleton not only because you care more if you lose the large creature but because it makes it easier to kill your opponent's creatures in the battle.

The third of these abilities is the one that allows you to play for copies of this legendary creature in your deck. This is the grandeur ability which reads "Grandeur - Discard another card named Korlash, Heir to Blackblade: Search your library for up to two Swamp cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle your library."

One important thing to note here is that there is no cost beyond discarding to using this ability. That means that you could potentially use this on the forth turn when you play Korlash making him a 6/6 regenerating creature immediately, or likely more valuable you could wait until you attack with him and your opponent blocks and then discard his brother and give him the extra +2/+2 that lets him kill the creature.

There is some value to this outside of pure black, but the truth is it is mostly useful in decks that rely on all swamps, but that is hardly a disadvantage for the black mage.

Learn more about this author, Elton Gahr.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.