Magic: The Gathering – The 14 Best Black Sorceries

7. Invoke Despair

So Powerful In Standard That It Was Banned In 2023

Monoblack Midrange was a dominant archetype over the past few years in Magic’s Standard format. Some of the best cards printed in recent memory have all been black, such as Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Liliana of the Veil, Go For the Throat and this hugely overpowered black sorcery spell from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty.

While it does require a whopping four black mana to cast, this card’s extreme utility in the Midrange archetype was second-to-none as it could wipe the board, drain your opponent’s life total and give you card advantage all at once. Due to this card’s stifling omnipresence in Standard, it had to be banned during the summer of 2023.

6. Torment of Hailfire

Oppressive And Massively Powerful X Spell

One of the most truly oppressive black sorceries of all time serves as one of the best late-game plays a black Commander deck can slap on the table. If this spell resolves and your opponent doesn’t have that many nonland permanents or cards in hand, you’ll likely be dealing a massive amount of damage to each of them.

The fact that this card hits all opponents at once is simply incredible, as it can likely swing the game in your favor upon casting it for, say, X = 7 or 8. Even before that, playing this in the mid-game for X = 3 is still an incredibly back-breaking tempo play – and one that your foes will have a hard time recovering from.