The 37 Best Black Enters the Battlefield Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on December 8, 2025

Orcish Bowmasters | Illustration by Maxim Kostin

Like many Magic players, I am a huge fan of enter-the-battlefield effects, especially coming from creatures, as midrange decks are among the most common types of deck I tend to use. Therefore, I am always looking for any new addition that can fit into my MTG decks.

While this is mostly true for creatures, it does apply to other types of cards, and today I'll go over the best enter the battlefield effects on black cards. You can view our lists on ETBs from other colors as well:

• White ETBs
• Blue ETBs
• Red ETBs
• Green ETBs

Intrigued about the best-in-class black ETBs? Let’s take a look!

What Are Black Enters the Battlefield Cards in MTG?

Graveyard Trespasser | Illustration by Chris Rallis

Black enters the battlefield cards are permanents with a mono-black color identity that have powerful enters abilities; that is, abilities that trigger when that permanent enters the battlefield. Black enters abilities have a range of powerful effects, including but not limited to:

• Making players discard cards or sacrifice creatures.
• Destroying creatures.
• Drawing cards.
• Exiling cards from players’ graveyards.

This list only considers cards that have enters abilities that trigger when they enter as opposed to abilities that trigger when another permanent enters. This list includes any permanent type, not just creatures.

#37. Demonic Junker

Demonic Junker is extremely specific since you need to be in artifacts, but a potential 3-for-1 (in Commander) isn’t something to turn your nose up at. Two or 3 mana to remove each of your opponents’ scariest creature is an excellent deal.

#36. Lotleth Giant

Recently downshifted to common for Pauper, Lotleth Giant is a card that has been used in dredge strategies as a reanimation target along with Dread Return to deal insane amounts of direct damage and kill your opponent in one go.

#35. Phyrexian Rager

Dusk Legion Zealot is often a better card than Phyrexian Rager as it's 1 mana cheaper. Still, in formats such as Pauper, the slight increase in power and toughness is justifiable enough to make up for the higher cost.

#34. Fell Gravship

Gravedigger is a fine card that gets even better when it mills you before you choose the card to bring back. Fell Gravship packs lots of value into a relatively cheap spacecraft; black cares heavily about the graveyard, so it’s a strong pick for casual decks and Cubes.

#33. Nazgûl

Since the purpose is to try and cover as many different ETB types as possible, I decided to include Nazgûl as part of the list simply because of the ring tempts you ability. Of course, Call of the Ring is a close second, but I will go with Nazgûl because I’ve seen some cool decks that feature up to nine copies of it along with shapeshifters to get the most out of it.

#32. Momentum Breaker

Edicts are always a little risky since your opponent chooses what they sacrifice, but Momentum Breaker has the tools to work, mostly because it’s a permanent. It provides black devotion, or you can bounce it to your hand to recast and make your opponents sacrifice even more permanents. Even players who control no creatures aren’t safe from its ability.

#31. Ravenloft Adventurer

The representative of the initiative mechanic is Ravenloft Adventurer, as it is overall a better card than its other black counterparts, which funnily enough are banned from Pauper.

#30. Tourach, Dread Cantor

Hymn to Tourach is an insane card to run in black decks, and having access to a creature with the same effect is absolutely amazing, despite the extra mana investment you have to pay to kick Tourach, Dread Cantor.

#29. Chthonian Nightmare

Chthonian Nightmare is 1 mana cheaper than its counterpart Recurring Nightmare, but its effect is about the same in decks with a low mana curve. Aside from being one of the few black cards that gives you energy counters when it enters the battlefield, you can pair it with others that also give you counters to return bigger creatures, making the difference negligible.

#28. Custodi Lich

Creatures that grant either monarch or the initiative are great additions for Magic formats that have access to them outside of Commander.

Custodi Lich is fairly good as you get rewarded each time you get the monarch, and on top of that, you become the monarch when it ETBs. Thorn of the Black Rose is its black Pauper counterpart.

#27. Dusk Legion Zealot

Elvish Visionary variants are always solid. Even in the late game, Dusk Legion Zealot gives you another chance to find that removal spell you need to turn the game in your favor. When you play it early, it smooths your draws. Cheap creatures like this are especially powerful in black because you can sacrifice the creature after you get the ETB ability. 

#26. Disciple of Bolas

Disciple of Bolas is one of the best sacrifice enablers. You get lifegain and card advantage based on the sacrificed creature's power, making it a versatile creature that can fit into many archetypes. My favorite is to slam it into a “steal and sac” theme to threaten your opponent's bigger creatures and get additional value from them.

#25. Accursed Marauder

Black has many edict creatures, but Accursed Marauder is among the most significant. The greatest weakness of edicts are that your opponents can sacrifice insignificant tokens, but the nontoken clause gets around that. It’s also quite cheap: This effect typically costs 3 mana; at a mere 2, this card does a lot of work for very little investment.

#24. Doomsday Excruciator

Many of you may be familiar with Doomsday, and Doomsday Excruciator is about the same card, which can be critical in Commander decks where finding your key piece is essential to winning games. More often than not you're trying to combo this along with Thassa's Oracle.

#23. Gelatinous Cube

This kind of effect was first introduced on Faceless Butcher, and since Gelatinous Cube is a much better version of it, it’s the one that will be part of this list. You can fully get rid of your opponent’s creature with some additional investment without the fear of having it return the battlefield when yours leaves.

#22. Nowhere to Run

Cheap, instant-speed interaction is always in vogue, and Nowhere to Run is a great example of it. Like Momentum Breaker, you can bounce this to “draw” additional removal, but it also has an exceptional static ability. It feels like Wizards puts a ward cost on every creature without an enters ability these days, so bypassing it (and the significantly more annoying hexproof) gives this enchantment excellent utility.

#21. Refurbished Familiar

I am very happy to have a Burglar Rat that rewards you even if your opponent doesn't have a card to discard, making Refurbished Familiar even better in affinity decks.

#20. Graveyard Trespasser

For a long time, Graveyard Trespasser was one of the best creatures that reigned over Standard and Pioneer in black midrange decks. Not only is it a hard-to-kill creature with ward, but it can shut down reanimation targets on ETB.

If that wasn’t enough, it becomes an even more threatening creature once it's transformed, doubling on its effect whenever it enters or attacks.

#19. Hoarding Broodlord

Hoarding Broodlord is among my favorite creatures to run in Slimefoot and Squee, where you can cast it for cheap, sacrifice it, and replay it along with your commander. My favorite thing to do with it is to put it into play and immediately search for a Thoughtseize from my deck to get rid of whatever answer my opponent has on hand for it. The next best creature with a similar ability is Rune-Scarred Demon, but it's significantly harder to resolve.

#18. Invasion of Fiora

Invasion of Fiora is one of the few black cards that has a board wipe ETB effect. Comparable cards like Dread Cacodemon are somewhat restrictive in terms of mana value. Another close approximation is Massacre Girl, but it's strictly tied to the number of creatures on the battlefield upon resolution. This battle also features Marchesa, Resolute Monarch as its alternate side if you’re able to defeat it.

#17. Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER / Sephiroth, One-Winged Angel

Most of Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER’s power rests in transforming it, but the enters ability is plenty remarkable. A Blood Artist that fuels itself on ETB or attack would be powerful enough without the card draw tacked on. Since it has such an impactful enters ability, your opponents can rarely remove this profitably; you always get something out of it.

#16. Deep-Cavern Bat

Cards with similar effects have been printed through the years, such as Brain Maggot, Kitesail Freebooter, and Mesmeric Fiend, but judging only by its stats, Deep-Cavern Bat does a way better job than the others, as a flying creature is harder to block and has lifelink to help against aggro decks.

#15. Meathook Massacre II

Meathook Massacre II isn't quite as good as the original, but it's occupying different space anyway, and it's pretty popular in Commander for its ability to clean the board and its potential to refill it in your favor with the right amount of investment.

#14. Sheoldred

March of the Machine provided us with a very good sacrifice effect that can be later transformed into a saga that further punishes unprepared opponents. While other similar edict creatures exist, such as Plaguecrafter, Gatekeeper of Malakir, and Accursed Marauder, I consider Sheoldred a better card overall. Still, you may be tempted to use the other options depending on the MTG format you’re playing. The True Scriptures is nothing to ignore if you’re able to transform this Phyrexian Praetor.

#13. Cavalier of Night

You have no idea how many “kill effects” black creatures have when entering the battlefield. Some of them, like Chupacabra Echo, give -X/-X to other creatures, while others, like Ravenous Chupacabra and Shriekmaw, straight kill them. Cavalier of Night does this, but it requires a sacrifice to accomplish its job, with the upside that you get to return a creature with a mana value of 3 or less to the field when it dies. It’s the perfect addition to some decks such as Slimefoot and Squee in Brawl and Duel Commander.

#12. Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Gray Merchant of Asphodel, commonly known as Gary, has been one of the best drain effects ever printed. Its cost makes it almost unplayable in other formats outside of Pauper, but it was a very solid creature in mono-black decks when it was Standard-legal. Malakir Bloodwitch is a similar creature that works with vampires instead of devotion and had a lot of success in Zendikar vampire decks.

#11. Grave Titan

Back in the day, Grave Titan was one of the best creatures you could play in Standard. For just 6 mana, you’d get 10 power spread across multiple bodies. To make matters worse for your opponent, its deathtouch ensured it traded efficiently no matter how it was blocked. On top of that, it created more zombies whenever it attacked, and if you managed to resolve another one, the board would quickly get out of control.

#10. Overlord of the Balemurk

Easily the best of Duskmourn’s Overlords, Overlord of the Balemurk might be a perfect black creature. It mills and draws cards, both of which are quite potent, and it’s a nasty threat. Even if your opponents kill it, it’s drawn at least one spell, potentially more if you attack. Its impending ability is practically unfair, too; to mill some cards and draw a creature is a perfectly playable effect in its own right, and later it comes with a 5/5 attached!

#9. Massacre Wurm

Firstly introduced in Mirrodin Besieged, Massacre Wurm is among the best pseudo board wipes printed, and its popularity is such that it has been reprinted in many more sets ever since. It is worth noting that its second ability is triggered not only when its first one resolves but also whenever any creature an opponent controls dies, which is a big deal.

#8. The Meathook Massacre

Once banned in Standard and nerfed on MTG Arena, The Meathook Massacre has got to be one of the best board wipes ever printed and fits perfectly in sacrifice strategies, as this legendary enchantment shows up in decks like Jund Sacrifice in Pioneer. This is all thanks to this black board wipe‘s abilities that trigger whenever a creature dies, giving you the upper hand in most scenarios, especially if there’s a Witch's Oven and a Cauldron Familiar involved.

#7. Gonti, Lord of Luxury

Gonti, Lord of Luxury has a unique effect that other black creatures don't usually have, which is the ability to steal a card from your opponent's deck and then cast it using your own mana, regardless of color. While it's a total gamble on what you get, your goal is to go up in value with the card you choose; plus, this theft commander itself is difficult to bypass in combat.

#6. Animate Dead

Animate Dead is among the cheapest cards you can use to return a creature to the battlefield, with the minor drawback of giving the enchanted creature -1/-0. Still, it's far better than other options that don't do quite the same, such as Omen of the Dead only returning the target to hand.

#5. Cauldron Familiar

Aside from being my favorite black card ever printed, Cauldron Familiar is an insane creature that has wrecked many formats, including Eternal ones such as Modern, thanks to its nasty tendency of being oppressive enough to shut down aggro decks, or even to go infinite with cards such as Samwise Gamgee and any sacrifice outlet.

#4. Metamorphosis Fanatic

While many other creatures return others to the battlefield on ETB, such as Phyrexian Delver or Puppeteer Clique, Metamorphosis Fanatic has quickly become my favorite one as it almost feels like an Alchemy card due to its ability. It not only returns a creature for as cheap as 2 mana backed up with a 4/4 lifelinking creature, but it also gives lifelink to the returned creature, making it a game-ending threat against aggressive decks.

Pair it with decks that run Worldly Tutor to set up the miracle effect.

#3. Archon of Cruelty

Reanimation targets have evolved over the years. Since its printing, Archon of Cruelty has been a critical piece of “cheat” strategies, offering a disruptive and consistent ability that provides immediate impact even without an attack step.

#2. Grief

Banned across popular formats such as Modern, Legacy, and the digital-only Historic, this creature is among the best ever printed, not only thanks to its ability to “scam” opponents but also because you get to deal with the best card they have sitting in their hand.

It may not seem like a big deal, but imagine this scenario: Turn 1 evoke Grief, use Reanimate on it. Not only do you discard the two best spells from your opponent’s hand, but they also need to find a way to kill this creature, potentially drawing removal out of them, if they find it at all.

#1. Orcish Bowmasters

Orcish Bowmasters is hands down the best creature ever printed with an ETB ability.

Well, not exactly, but also, yes. The ping to any target at instant speed is relevant, but what makes this card a monster is its ability to subsequently trigger whenever your opponents draw a card outside of the first one each turn, and in formats where this is an everyday matter such as Modern or Legacy, this ability is among the best. Ah, and you also amass a big creature out of the deal.

Best Black ETB Payoffs

There are many cards that excel with ETB cards, especially if you commit only to black. These include reanimation spells such as Living Death and cards that let you return others to play once they die, as with Malakir Rebirth.

Ayara, First of Locthwain is another good black ETB payoff as this black noble‘s ability will trigger whenever a black creature enters the battlefield, doubling the value these kinds of cards provide.

Of course, colorless cards that double these triggers such as Panharmonicon are a must to run alongside these ETB effects.

It's important to note that black is not particularly great at having payoffs for creatures entering but does excel on death triggers, such as the one on Blood Artist.

Sacrifice outlets play well with enters creatures. You don’t want to feed a high-value card to your Ashnod's Altar or Deadly Dispute, but a cheap creature that already gave you value via an enters effect like Fell Gravship or Dusk Legion Zealot? Those are perfect to throw to any sacrifice outlet, from Altars to Carrion Feeder.

It’s also great to make more ETB creatures, though tricky in black. Artifact decks can use Wire Surgeons to give their defunct artifact creatures encore, but most black players need to reach for colorless cards like Blade of Selves and Helm of the Host to get multiple triggers from their best creatures.

Wrap Up

Grief | Illustration by Nicholas Gregory

As you may have noticed, black cards have a wide variety of abilities in their ETB arsenal, and most of them aim to disrupt your opponent's plans by taking their resources away. These enters abilities sway the game in your favor because they offer powerful two-for-ones to outvalue your opponents. You can combine them with additional black effects like sacrifice outlets to gain tools to win with a simple, fair game plan.

What was your favorite one? Were there any that I excluded? Let us know in the comments or our Discord community.

As always, take care, and we will meet again in my next article!