If you have no idea what Black Magic plays like let me tell you. You are a combination of a burn and effect damage deck. The goal is to eradicate enough of your opponent’s deck until they can no longer access their key resources or they have enough cards in eradication that you can deal massive chunks of damage in a single turn. Many of the strongest Black Magic cards and abilities have a heavy price but are worth the risk. You will deal a lot of damage to yourself, but you will deal more to your opponent. Another feature of Black Magic to be aware of is that you will be eradicating mostly your opponent’s cards but also some of your own. This will lead to certain cards activating for free or activating secondary effects that could even be more useful than if you simply played them. This article is your introduction to Black Magic playlines, strategies and key points to be aware of.
While many people claim that Adramelech and the Black Magic crew are best utilized as an aggro deck I lean more towards control. I feel that control is a more versatile and adaptable way to play LRAW and primarily putting the opposing player’s cards into eradication is harder for most decks to come back from as opposed to sending them to the discard pile. Although I personally lean control and have more testing experience with it, aggro is also a completely valid way to build and play Adramelech and I will be suggesting some key pieces for that style of build as well.
Where to begin, I love this guy. Look at that awesome creepy goat head! Anyway onto strategies. His physical attack is 4, nothing huge but nothing to scoff at either. His magic attack eradicates one of your demon warriors as a cost to eradicate an opponent’s unified or fortified. Great for controlling a board state. His special may require some planning before using it to optimize its effects but hey that’s part of the fun. Bloodborne 6 to have both players eradicate their hands and then both draw the total number is great. Highly recommend setting anything you want to keep and holding mainly cards that have eradication effects before using. A spicy combination I like to use whenever possible is to cast Black Magic Insanity right before activating it in order to get the most out of the ability.
On the veil pierce turn make three tokens and eradicate the top three cards of a player’s deck. Fairly straightforward and easy to see how it goes with everything else in the deck. The only thing I suggest thinking about is who to target with it. If you are low on resources you may want to target yourself to try to get some more card activations. Otherwise if you are stocked up go nuts taking away your opponent’s resources.
I would argue this is one of the best synergies in the game. It eradicates the top 4 cards of a player’s deck (again opponent OR you) then you get to declare a card type to completely wipe out from your opponent’s hand or discard. This is a huge elimination of resources. Generally the safest choice is unified as many decks are unified heavy however with experience you may learn that certain decks are heavier in other areas. The safest thing to do is look through your opponent’s discard pile before deciding what to call. Oh and did I mention that after all of this you get to make 4 Soul Tokens? Yeah nasty. Best used when the opponent has many cards in their hand such as immediately after using your warlord’s special ability.
Look at that smile, he’s just a happy little guy! His after mulligan effect is great for disruption or utility. He allows you to set a Black Magic fortified from your deck before the game starts, with that usually being Cathedral of Black Magic, which is your negate. If you are going second this should almost always be your choice. If you are going first and have a cathedral in your hand already you could opt for a Vault of Black Magic or even a Black Magic Curse or Barrier of Black Magic if you wanted to play some mind games with your opponent.
His consume ability is to eradicate the top two cards of a player’s deck then revive a Black Magic Warrior from your eradication zone. 9 times out of 10 this is going to be Erma’Dexa in an attempt to finish off your opponent. I have done some funky things with this however such as reviving a Sif’Sara to crash it into an opposing warrior or reviving a Malpha’Vex in order to shockwave a Sif’Sara. To make it simple: you want to use this to set up a big damage card.
A cornerstone of the Black Magic deck as they are created from unifieds, your realm and your synergy. 1 power warriors with the special Black Magic keyword ability Purge. Bloodborne 2, both players eradicate the top card of their decks. Being able to make these in large amounts is a staple of the Black Magic playstyle as they can function as shields from battle damage but can also add some fuel to your deck’s abilities. Purge can trigger additional effects of many of your Black Magic unified cards so when you think you have done everything you can in a turn but still have many Soul Tokens, you may be able to squeeze out another play or two.
This guy is a fantastic multi-tool for this deck. Shockwave can take out a smaller warrior upon entry, always nice. Incinerate ensures that if it battles another warrior they both get destroyed, very helpful against decks that buff their warriors a lot. Last but probably most important is the Rift ability. This can be your way around Catacombs if you are lucky to hit Malpha’Vex off your own deck with your Veil Pierce effect. It can also be nice if someone hits you with a Void Hollow or Anti-Magic and you are still able to eradicate this guy somehow
Big damage at a small cost. Sif’Sara has a Perish effect which, at the cost of Bloodborne 6, deals 6 damage to your opposing warlord for every 6 cards in their eradication. Basically their highest multiple of 6. Great effect and deals plenty of damage in later turns as long as you leave yourself a way to get her destroyed. Gone but Never Forgotten can be great for this as it gives a revived warrior Wisdom and Shockwave allowing you to just have Sif’Sara shockwave herself.
The big scary man himself. This guy is going to probably be your most important piece. While you can win games without him, having him around makes it a lot easier. First off he has the unique keyword Scour which eradicates the top 3 cards of your opponent’s deck and then deals damage to the opposing Warlord equal to the number of cards in their eradication plus 3. That would be great if that was his own ability but there is much more to work with here. He also gets the Purge keyword to be able to eradicate a little bit more of the opponent’s deck but he’s not finished yet. Finally he has the Exhume keyword which deals 10 damage to your opponent if they have no cards left in their deck. If you can get him onto the field multiple times in a turn he can be really mean.
You want 3 copies and you ideally want one in your opening hand. Soul Army has a heavy price being Bloodborne 15 and Consume 15 but is very much worth the cost. Soul Army allows you to fill your board with Soul Tokens as well as searching for 3 cards to eradicate from your deck. Some notable cards that I personally choose with Soul Army are: Pillar of Black Magic Fire, Black Magic Vengeance, Black Magic Mind Tremors, Tome of Black Magic - Greed, Malpha’Vex Black Magic Berserker. As an added benefit if you eradicate Black Magic Soul Army it heals you for 5.
This thing was restricted for a reason. It eradicates the top 6 cards of your opponent’s deck if it gets eradicated from one of your Black Magic cards while also dealing 6 damage to the opponent if they are out of cards in their deck. That would be a powerful enough effect on its own however when you hard cast it has an additional benefit. You can eradicate up to 6 cards from your own discard pile, which can help you get double use out of some of your other unified cards or Malpha’Vex. In niche situations it can be helpful to have some of your Black Magic cards in the eradication zone for the purpose of retrieving them but sometimes you may want them in your discard pile to use as a cost for Black Magic Hellfire. It will all depend on the situation and the player’s judgment.
This handy piece destroys a face up card on the field and then gives you an extra conscript each turn with the added benefit that it will eradicate the top card of your opponent’s deck. Since it destroys instead of eradicating it is your answer to Concrete Catacombs. If it gets eradicated by any effect it will eradicate the top 3 cards of both player’s decks and then heal you for 3. As one of the few cards that has an eradication effect that is not locked to being eradicated by a Black Magic card effect this is a very important and useful piece. Unfortunately it has been limited to 2 copies but is still very worth it.
This is your gas pedal. At the cost of 10 AP it eradicates the top two cards of your deck and then allows you to draw two. Given that most of your deck should be Black Magic cards that can be triggered by this effect it would be probable for you to hit at least one free activation of some kind on the eradication effect and then you ALSO get card draw? Did I mention that when Greed is eradicated by a Black Magic card effect it activates for free? This thing is a must have for any Black Magic deck build.
This one is an interesting utility piece. On hard cast for both Bloodborne 10 and Consume 10 it will eradicate any two adjacent cards on the opponent’s side of the field. This is a very useful effect against most combo decks allowing you to disrupt them in one big push. Now the eradication effect on this one is interesting. It starts by eradicating the top two cards of your opponent’s deck and then you have the option to try to push for a big damage hit. You can pay 20 Bloodborne to deal damage to the opponent equal to half the remaining cards in their deck rounded down. This effect should probably only be used on the first turn when the opponent hasn’t been able to dig through their deck yet. It can still be worth it to eradicate this card and choose not to pay the extra 20 Bloodborne in most situations if you are trying to get rid of some of your opponent’s resources and make their eradication pile larger for the purpose of pushing for a big damage hit later.
Similarly to Vault of Black Magic allows you to control what you draw. Reclamation changes the state of the game so that before you draw each turn you can put a card from your eradication on top of your deck. This allows you to get multiple uses out of cards and recycle resources easily. What you decide to take back is very situational but a negate, a card to eradicate more of your opponent’s resources or a big damage push card.
A handy little negate to have, once per turn at the cost of Bloodborne 8 negate a fortified and eradicate it. Additionally if Darkest Hour gets eradicated it allows you to shuffle a Black Magic fortified in your eradication zone back into your deck. Nice to have if you have accidentally eradicated your own Vaults or Cathedrals.
This one is a fun piece to make combo plays with. For Bloodborne 9 you can choose a player to eradicate 1-3 cards from their hand then draw that many cards. You can use it on your opponent if you know they have things they want in their hand or you are about to push for damage. You can use it on yourself to get a bunch of free activations on your cards. It's great either way. Then when it gets eradicated you can choose a player, they will then have to eradicate one from their hand with no draw after. Again this can be helpful on your opponent or even yourself.
Allows your opponent to draw up to two cards while you heal 5 for each. At first glance this might not seem worth it but when you consider you could use this card right before Adramelech’s special ability the dots begin to connect. Additionally when this card is eradicated it manifests a Black Magic Soul Token for more Purge action or just as a shield.
This one can be tricky to be able to hard cast but could be very worth it if you are able to get it. Bloodborne 10, Consume 10 and having 5 Black Magic demon cards in your discard pile is a lot to coordinate but then it allows you to eradicate up to 5 non-demon cards from the field. Very worth it considering some of the Black Magic cards you eradicate from your discard will have additional effects. If this card gets eradicated it will deal 2 damage to all warriors on the opponent’s side of the field, a nice effect to run into if you’re just eradicating for cost with Greed or something similar.
When first activated it forces you to eradicate a card from your hand, which is usually helpful. Then once per turn you can shuffle two demon cards from your eradication back into your deck then search your deck for a Black Magic card and add it to your hand. This is a fantastic tool to keep in your kit as you can use it to search for big damage cards, things to control the field, negating cards, whatever the situation calls for.
A handy card to add some momentum to yourself and slow your opponent. You get to draw 2 then eradicate 2 and deal 2 damage to all your opponent’s non demon warriors. Obviously less useful against Onoskelis or in a mirror match but still worth running if only for getting to eradicate cards from your hand for free activations.
Basically your Black Magic fog. Allows you to draw 1, eradicate 1 then all your Black Magic warriors cannot be attacked for the remainder of the turn. Something to keep in mind is that you do not have to have any Black Magic warriors on the field upon activation so flipping it with an empty board then eradicating a Black Magic Insanity to manifest you a token can be a funny combination.