New Duskmourn Removal SHATTERS The MTG Color Pie

Last updated on September 11, 2024

Withering Torment – Illustration by Inkognit

Duskmourn‘s Withering Torment will give black its first instant-speed, unconditional enchantment removal, firmly putting “enchantment destruction” in the list of things black can do in Magic.

Scores of players are calling this a color pie break, even though WotC has clearly shown and communicated that they want black to take this direction.

Feed the Swarm had already pushed the color pie's boundaries in 2020 by giving black its first spot removal for enchantments in Magic's history – with an 18% inclusion rate, the black sorcery would become one of the most popular black cards in Commander, and sees frequent Pioneer play.

Feed the Swarm would be followed by the nearly-unplayable Ghastly Death Tyrant in 2022 as black's second spell that could destroy a target enchantment, but with the same caveat as Feed the Swarm: you can only target your opponent's enchantments.

The third time was not the charm: Wilds of Eldraine's Shatter the Oath does let you target any enchantment, but as a 5-mana sorcery, it was terrible even in Limited.

WotC has now decided to print a real card. Although 1 mana more expensive than Feed the Swarm, Duskmourn's Withering Torment can target any enchantment – and can do so at instant speed.

Break the Pie to Balance the Pie

Back in October 2021, Magic's Head Designer, Mark Rosewater, published the most detailed color pie breakdowns we have, divided into two articles: his Magic's Mechanical Color Pie 2021 article and the annotated version, Magic's Mechanical Color Pie 2021 Changes.

In those articles, Rosewater makes it clear that Feed the Swarm was the first step in a direction that they intended black to follow. “This was one of the bigger changes since 2017,” he wrote in the annotated version. “We've started allowing black to destroy enchantments. It's clearly third in the ability, after white and green, and it usually comes with an additional cost. Often it only works on opponents' enchantments.”

Withering Torment now clearly pushes as far as this new boundaries go, since it can target your own enchantments and the additional cost of two life will often be less than what Feed the Swarm will cost you for handling a big threat. 

“We're starting to let black remove its own enchantments,” Rosewater wrote recently in his blog, when asked specifically about Withering Torment.

The original reason for not letting black to target or sacrifice their own enchantment is that black is the color with the “deal with the devil” enchantments – black enchantments like Phyrexian Arena, Necropotence, or Bitterblossom that follow black's motto of “power at any cost” by harming you every turn.

“We then realized we just don’t make them much any more,” Rosewater says in his recent blog post, “and removed the restriction.”

As most of Magic's cards that push the game's mechanics, Withering Torment does not lack its detractors among players and community figures:

Yet, overall, the black instant‘s reception seems on the positive side overall.

What's more: many players have noted that this direction actually balances some aspects of the color pie, and I think this is an angle that most of those against the change are overlooking.

Three colours can destroy artifacts (green, white and red), but only two could destroy enchantments.. Blue doesn't destroy anything (it bounces and counters and taps/transforms), and red not being able to destroy enchantments is pretty ‘fixed' (and giving it to red would mean artifacts and enchantments were both dealt with by the same colours anyway), so it had to be black.

Wrote u/charcharmunro on reddit

Black moving into the enchantment-blowing business should also allow WotC to print more powerful enchantments.

How Good Will This Card Actually Be?

Personal preferences aside (none of us will always love every single change that WotC makes to how they envision the color pie), will Withering Torment itself be broken?

As a rabid Red Deck Wins enjoyer in Standard, I can't see this black instant going into most main decks right now. The post-Bloomburrow meta is quite aggressive, and any time I see a foe Shocking themselves to get rid of one of my 1-drops I can't help but cackle and snicker. I can see Withering Torment making the cut in some sideboards, though, mostly to counter Boros Convoke's enchantments while also being live against midrange staples like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, or in case Duskmourn gives Boros Control enough new toys to become the next King of the Standard Meta.

Pioneer plays Feed the Swarm quite a bit; Withering Torment‘s text is obviously much better (it's an instant, will very often cost you less life), but an extra mana is not nothing.

All in all, it's probably mono-black and Dimir decks in Commander that will be happiest with this new toy: two life is a small price when you start at 40, and EDH decks do love some insufferable early-game enchantments.

At any rate, Withering Torment confirms what Feed the Swarm heralded and what Mark Rosewater said in his Mechanical Color Pie back in 2021: Yes, black can target and destroy any enchantment.