Commander Masters is an all-reprint set aimed to reprint cards from Magic: The Gathering's immensely popular Commander format. The set features cards from all throughout Magic's history, with powerful cards and much-needed reprints all available in the set. Commander Masters comes with plenty of cards that support multiple archetypes to give them access to some of their strongest cards.
The black cards in Commander Masters are particularly powerful. Many of them were expensive cards, all of which are welcomed reprints. The strength of these cards makes them staples in the format. In some cases, they're staples in multiple formats - not just Commander.
10 Bastion Of Remembrance
Even though it is an uncommon, Bastion Of Remembrance is so strong that it was still a fairly valuable card for the rarity. It is a staple in any deck that wants to sacrifice its creatures for value, such as aristocrat decks.
Bastion Of Remembrance can quickly get out of hand and burn for a ton of damage while gaining your own life back. It makes any opponent wary of attacking you, as your creatures dying in combat turn into burn damage on them. Bastion Of Remembrance is easy to cast as well, making an impact early in the game.
9 Rankle, Master Of Pranks
Rankle, Master Of Pranks can get a lot of effects rather quickly. If it connects to any player, you can have everyone discard, draw a card, or sacrifice a creature. Black decks in particular have plenty of ways to counteract these downsides.
Since Rankle has both flying and haste, the odds of hitting a player are rather high. It doesn't matter what player Rankle connects to, so ensuring that you can use all of its effects is easy. If none of them are beneficial to you, Rankle's effect is optional to trigger since you can choose zero.
8 Bloodchief Ascension
Bloodchief Ascension punishes any opponent for having any card go into a graveyard. It does require three quest counters to get this effect, but that only needs someone to just lose two or more life three times - something that is bound to happen in Commander with four different players.
The burn damage that Bloodchief Ascension does includes spells that are cast from the hand and go to the graveyard, like instants and sorceries, meaning any spell essentially costs two extra life to pay, all while you gain two life as a trade-off.
7 Archfiend Of Despair
Archfiend Of Despair is a very welcomed reprint, as prior to Commander Masters, it had only appeared in Battlebond back in 2018. It essentially doubles all damage that all your opponents take each turn. Notably, Archfiend Of Despair triggers at the start of every end step, not just yours. So if your opponents are losing a lot of life, Archfiend Of Despair can take them out with burn damage.
If you have ways to half your opponent's life with a card like Heartless Hidetsugu (which is also in the Commander Masters), you can win the game since Archfiend Of Despair will deal the other half.
6 Mikaeus, The Unhallowed
Mikaeus, The Unhallowed is perfect in non-Human decks as well as against Human decks. If a Human ever gets in, they better hope it's taking you out of the game, or it will simply get destroyed. Though this effect is nice, Mikaeus' other effect is the main attraction.
Undying is a very powerful effect, especially for creatures with powerful death and enter the battlefield triggers. If you can make them enter with a +1/+1 counter, you can keep sacrificing them and getting the trigger, as it'll counteract the -1/-1 counter from undying.
5 Razaketh, The Foulblooded
Demonic Tutor is an incredible card, so a creature that is a Demonic Tutor on legs is fantastic. Razaketh, The Foulblooded can continuously search out multiple cards from your deck so long as you have a creature to sacrifice and two life to pay.
Although Razaketh costs a hefty eight mana to play, more often than not, you're cheating it onto the battlefield with other cards - something black can do quite easily. Once there, you have a creature that needs an immediate answer, or you can just get any card of your deck at any given time.
4 Deadly Rollick
Deadly Rollick is a fantastic removal spell. Exiling a creature will almost always be better than destroying it - and when you can do it for free, the removal spell is great. It does require you to control your commander to cast it for free, but that is something that is very easy to accomplish.
A well-timed removal spell can stop an opponent in their tracks. Most opponents won't expect a removal if you're tapped out, so Deadly Rollick can make for a big surprise when cast. Even if your commander is about to be removed, you can cast Deadly Rollick for free before it leaves the battlefield.
3 Toxic Deluge
Toxic Deluge is one of the best board wipes ever printed. It requires you to pay life to get rid of all characters, but with such high starting life, you can almost always pay enough life to clear out the entire board.
Unlike other board wipes, Toxic Deluge makes the creature lose power and toughness. This gets around protection such as indestructible as it doesn't actually deal any damage at all. Due to this, Toxic Deluge is so powerful because the only way to protect creatures is by phasing them out.
2 Grave Pact
Grave Pact makes it so no one will ever want to attack into you, as you losing a creature means they have to lose a creature as well. Even without this aspect, you can force the effect by sacrificing your own creatures. Sacrifice strategies make Grave Pact amazing, as they essentially turn your creatures into free removal spells.
Grave Pact is fairly easy to cast, as four mana isn't too hard to reach, even if three of those need specifically black mana. Grave Pact synergizes incredibly well with multiple strategies and is a must-remove enchantment less your opponents don't want creatures on their battlefield.
1 Demonic Tutor
Demonic Tutor is iconic - and the reason why searching your deck for a card is referred to as "tutoring." For just two mana, you can put any card from your deck into your hand. This is great in practically every format but is especially strong in Commander. Since you have 99 card decks, Demonic Tutor gives you an incredible amount of consistency to get whatever card you need out of your deck instead of relying on drawing it.
Since Demonic Tutor is so easy to cast, you can often play the card after adding it to your hand. Commander games can greatly fluctuate, so having a card that helps to soothe any uncertainty of a game state is fantastic.