The Best Commander Cards From... The Dark

Fellwar Stone by Quinton Hoover

Welcome back to The Best Commander Cards From..., a series focusing on the most powerful EDH cards from across Magic: the Gathering's thirty-year history. Today's focus is The Dark, the fourth expansion set ever created. Released less than two months after Legends, in August of 1994, The Dark is certainly one of the sets of all time.

Dark Times

The Dark is a relatively small set, featuring 119 cards, and this set was sold in eight-card booster packs. Although we might today think of that as strange, eight-card boosters were more common in that era. A wild companion story was released alongside The Dark, describing the events following the climax of the Brothers' War.

Darker Still

Let's address the elephant in the room: the overall power level of The Dark is decidedly lower than that of many other sets. Even Legends manages to surpass this set in that regard, and Legends features a lot of meme-tier cards compared to the real power. Instead of really reaching to justify the inclusion of certain cards, we're going to cover the big hit, the smaller hits, and then a handful of cards I think are fun to talk about. Let's start with the highlight and move on from there. Presenting...

The Best Commander Card From... The Dark

Fellwar Stone

While you can argue that there are a few conditionally stronger cards in the set, few have had as great an impact as Fellwar Stone. It's been reprinted more than a dozen times, and it's about as close to universally strong as a card can get. They hit the bullseye on power level with this, however unintentionally, and I don't think it's going anywhere in EDH for a long time.

Now that we have that out of the way, may I present...

Some Other Sweet Commander Cards From... The Dark

Elves of Deep Shadow

This is pretty cleanly a staple of most multicolor decks in the format that can play it. Repeatable mana production on one-mana cards is pretty nice, and with similar creatures mostly creating green mana, Elves of Deep Shadow occupies a pretty unique space in the format.

Blood Moon

If you want to punish greedy mana-bases, this is a profoundly powerful way to do it. To be fair, Blood Moon is at its worst in a format like EDH, where you don't generally use sideboards and you're not guaranteed it'll actually make a big impact. Also to be fair, I've been completely helpless after one of these hit the battlefield more times than I'd like to admit, and as five-color decks get even more popular, I can't imagine the card is going to get worse.

Tormod's Crypt

Generally speaking, people don't play enough graveyard interaction. Even I'm guilty of this, and it doesn't get much more low-cost than Tormod's Crypt. This blanks a lot of powerful cards in many different decks, and although it isn't as popular as it may have once been, it's hard to do better than free to cast and free to activate.

Maze of Ith

I did just talk about how Tormod's Crypt is underplayed, and now I'm about to tell you the opposite for Maze of Ith. Hear me out: I know the power level of this card is undeniably high, but not producing mana is a massive cost at a four-player table. Even so, it is without question deserving of a spot on this list, and I've had a Zurgo Helmsmasher deck feel almost helpless against it.

Goblin Wizard (Meme Tier)

This card, which appropriately has the same creature type as its name, is actually not all that strong. It's fun, but considering how cheap most of the best Goblins are, it's hardly saving you a ton of mana in most games of EDH.

Ashes to Ashes (Truly Honorable Mention)

If this card looks at all familiar, it seems to be the inspiration for Reckless Spite, which traded in the ability to hit black creatures for artifact creatures and ended up in a better card type. It's always interesting to look back at cards that were improved or iterated upon in the years that followed.

Uncle Istvan (Meme Tier)

Everyone's favorite uncle, initially printed as creature type Uncle Istvan, is a timeless Magic meme. Somehow, Richard Garfield be praised, Uncle Istvan is affordable enough to where any black deck can run him. This means you have no excuse, by the way. You wouldn't leave your old Uncle Istvan hanging, would you?

Dust to Dust (Truly Honorable Mention)

Although I'd expect this to have a free alternate casting cost in the modern era of Magic, I've definitely played less mana-efficient versions of this effect, such as Sylvan Reclamation. Of course, it's hardly the kind of card I'd expect to see at EDH tables these days, but it ain't bad for a card printed in 1994.

City of Shadows (Meme Tier)

I really like the design of this card, but it falls flat every time I try to make it work. I've no doubt that it would be much more fun and playable if it could tap for colorless mana without first sacrificing a creature, but that's hardly at the top of the list of wishes when it comes to rebalancing old cards. Additionally, producing only colorless mana keeps it out of decks that would otherwise Proliferate more often than most.

Stone Calendar (Truly Honorable Mention)

Ooh, it's just so close to being very worthwhile, but five mana is just a bit too much for me. This sees fringe play in decks like Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, but it doesn't fit in too many other places. Don't let me stop you from building a Dragon's Approach deck with this in it, though.

Tivadar's Crusade (Meme Tier)

If I told you that this card used to occasionally see play out of the sideboard of Legacy decks, would you believe me? I don't know too many people that old, but that's what I hear from a handful of internet strangers. People wouldn't just lie about stuff like that on the internet, would they?

Preacher (Truly Honorable Mention)

I'd seen this card before, but I forgot that it was from The Dark until now. Honestly, there's definitely worse things you can spend three mana on, especially if you have sacrifice outlets. At a table of four, you'll probably get some sweet value. Just beware the price tag, as it's quite a bit pricier than most staples these days.

Festival (Meme Tier)

If you want a conditional Fog that nobody at your table has ever heard of, this is basically the perfect card. As a bonus you get that sweet Mark Poole art. I've heard stories of this card being combined with Siren's Call to create a build-your-own Wrath of God, but I guess that's a bit less plausible and powerful in EDH than it was in 60-card formats.

That's All, Folks

While I really enjoy looking back at past sets, The Dark certainly isn't the deepest. When it comes to card quality for the EDH format, it leaves something to be desired.

If there's any cards you think I missed, feel free to let me know in the comments. I know there's at least one Ball Lightning fan that already clicked away. I hope you've enjoyed this and that you've learned something. I've been Luka "Robot" Sharaska, and I'll catch you next time.