If you’re a mono black MTG player looking for artifact removal I have some bad news for you. Red has traditionally been the number one color for dealing with artifacts, with removal staples like Vandalblast. White and green have some great options for dealing with artifacts with cards like Force of Vigor or Heliod’s Intervention. When it comes to black however, Wizards of the Coast has intentionally left us deprived of any means of defense.
Of course black has many other strengths, but if we want artifact removal in black we cannot be picky since options are very limited. As expected most advice in this article is centered around colorless options for dealing with artifacts.
1. Colorless Spot Removal
Introduction to Annihilation exiles any non-land permanent which is no joke. Also not a joke however is its 5CMC cost and the downside of letting your opponent draw a card. As stated before, we have to accept some serious downsides if we want to have this kind of versatile spot removal in mono-black or any black artifact removal for that matter.
Optionally, we can pair this up with Poet’s Quill to fetch it whenever we need to get a really big thread of the board. This is not the worst equipment in its own right, granting a creature lifelink can be beneficial in many decks and formats.
Spine of Ish Sah and Scour From Existence are other viable artifact removal options for a mono black deck, but strictly worse than Introduction to Annihilation when looking at the CMC.
2. Colorless Mass Removal
Black is king when it comes to clearing the board of creatures with spells like Toxic Deluge. But Mass removal for artifacts has never been and probably never will be in black’s card pool unfortunately.
To get around this, these colorless sweepers will take care of the whole board, including artifacts. If you’re playing mono black and you’re getting overwhelmed by your opponents’ board states including some nasty artifacts, having access to one of these mass removal spells can really save the day.
3. Gate to Phyrexia / Phyrexian Tribute
These cards can be used as a sacrifice outlet if that is synergistic with the game plan of your deck. It can actually be a brutal way of swiping the board of all your opponent’s artifacts, although it does require a heavy setup of tokens or creatures to use as sacrifice fodder. And there is also the steep price tag of acquiring a copy of Gate to Phyrexia. Financially, Phyrexian Tribute is a better pick for black artifact removal.
Conclusion
Even though these were probably not the options that most players are looking for, they will hopefully give you some inspiration on getting around black’s omissions in MTG.
