Darkness – Legends –> Special Guests
Date Reviewed: October 30, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.70
Casual: 4.42
Limited: 4.00
Multiplayer: 3.83
Commander [EDH]: 4.08
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
I was initially rather surprised that they brought Darkness back as a special guest for Edge of Eternities. They spent quite a few years talking about how the color pie was everything, even occasionally going so far as to suggest that there was no point in having colors at all if they didn’t do entirely different things. Although, they also seem to have decided that the demands of Commander mean that the tools of green-blue-(whatever) ramp need to exist to a certain extent in every color, so perhaps they changed their position and forgot to tell me.
Darkness is as straight a color transfer as it’s possible to get – exactly the same cost and text as Fog, but in black. Does that mean it is good in all the same decks Fog is good in? Not necessarily; and this is in fact a question people have been wrestling with ever since Legends. Black can also kill creatures outright, which sometimes seems more appealing, and later on it got mass removal spells equal in power to white’s. It has sometimes been conventional wisdom that such measures are better than Fog effects, but you know I’m not always one for conventional wisdom, and I suspect that there was an element of deck design moving in well-worn tracks and not seeing other possibilities. Comparatively few people seem to have really leaned into the surprise factor of a single black mana bringing a Fog effect, or imagined a Turbo-Fog deck with access to Duress. The forums might ask at this point why you wouldn’t just play a conventional black control deck, ignoring the fact that you might just like Turbo-Fog. It has never been the deck to bring if you were seriously trying to win the Pro Tour anyway – it is a casual and Pauper mainstay, and Darkness can be too.
Constructed: 3
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Back in the days of the color pie being a suggestion more than a more-rigid tranche of abilities and thematics, sets like Legends played around with some interesting effects fore rooted in flavor. Darkness is the perfect encapsulation of this and of the early “flavor-heavy” design philosophy, a black version of Fog and Holy Day. Ironically, Holy Day debuted in Legends as well, which is a neat bit of serendipity.
So, Darkness is a black Fog. On its own, that doesn’t sound too special…but Darkness is the only black version of the effect, and that alone makes it a surprisingly effective card. While the effect is always one with a pretty large variance to it, coming in a color not known for it is a point in its favour at times, taking advantage of a lack of expectation around it. This also is legal in Modern (alongside the other two), and while neither of those see play, Darkness is occasionally a neat bit of tech to protect a deck that might not normally have that avenue.
The value of Darkness is entirely in it being a color pie break that isn’t underpowered. One mana, blank all combat damage…this has always been acceptable as a rate of return, and there’s something to be said about blindsiding someone with a card like this. You get them once, there’s a chance they’ll play in fear of it from then on, and that trepidation can be leveraged quite well. All that said, this is still a niche effect at the end of the day, albeit a niche unique in and of itself.
Constructed: 3.75 (it’s not for every black deck, but it is a good one in specific cases)
Casual: 4.75
Limited: 4 (it’s not phenomenal, but being able to blunt an alpha strike in a pinch is lovely)
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4.25 (Commander loves these sorts of off-color effects)
Thijs
Black is not often a color that cares about preventing damage. Correction: black is never the color that cares about preventing damage. It sees life as a resource, to be gained and to be lost. And it does so perfectly well. Right, Shelly?
Darkness then is a card that doesn’t seem to fit in this color scheme. It’s an old card (very old, Legends old) and somehow still surprisingly effective. Because figure this: your opponents won’t see it coming! You’re playing away with your Dark Confidants and your Bitterblossom and your opponent thinks ‘now is the time’. He goes all in, taps out, and you cast Darkness. Clearing the path, making way for all that is unholy – you’re still playing black – and next turn the game is yours.
I love these little surprises that Magic has in store and I love cards like these.
Constructed: 4,2
Casual: 4,5
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
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