The 45 Best Black Lands in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 26, 2026

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth | Illustration by John Avon

Every black deck needs to produce black mana to cast its spells – these are the facts. The easiest way to generate black mana is tapping the basic Swamp to add to your mana pool. But that doesn’t have to be your only black land! There are over 50 lands that produce black mana, and not all were created equal.

Let’s take a closer look at the best black lands in Magic.

What Are Black Lands in MTG?

Cabal Coffers | Illustration by Don Hazeltine

A black land is any land with a mono-black color identity. Color identity is of course of great relevance to the Commander format, where you’re limited only to cards with a color identity that matches your commander’s. This means we’ll be excluding any 2-color lands (no Dragonskull Summit or fetches today, sorry!)

I’ll also only focus on lands that have a black color identity, so some strong colorless lands like Reliquary Tower, City of Brass, and Exotic Orchard aren’t featured here.  

The best of these lands tend to have invaluable utility while functioning as a pseudo-Swamp at worst.

#45. Cabal Pit

Cabal Pit asks an interesting question: How much damage are you willing to take down the line for a Disfigure later on? I think for most decks the answer is “none, I’m not playing this card,” but there are a couple of corner cases where Cabal Pit might just be worth it. I particularly like this in Rowan, Scion of War, as it rewards you in a big way for hurting yourself. It’s also a reasonable inclusion in something like The Gitrog Monster as recurrable removal. 

#44. Tomb of Urami

An… ogre typal land? I didn’t even know this one existed! This is a good way to hurt yourself for Rowan, Scion of War and would also be a cute inclusion in a deck with an ogre commander like Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder. Ultimately, the reward here is pretty terrible, as it requires you to go completely “all-in” for a simple 5/5 flier.

#43. Ebon Stronghold

Fallen Empires experimented with lands that tapped and sac’d to add 2 mana of their respective color to your mana pool, with Ebon Stronghold as the black version in this land cycle. While fast mana is definitely powerful, this enters tapped and sets you back long term when you use it for . It works best in commanders like The Gitrog Monster (since it bins itself) and K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth, which loves this kind of acceleration.

#42. Peat Bog

Peat Bog is a more all-in version of Ebon Stronghold. While you can’t use this one for normal mana, you’ll be getting two doses of rather than one. One way to use this card is to pair it with proliferate effects like Atraxa, Praetors' Voice and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, which can keep putting counters on it each turn. If you don’t have those, it’s probably not worth it as EDH games are known for their length.

#41. Urborg

Urborg is one of the first legendary lands ever printed, which makes sense when you see its niche second ability. Upside is upside, even when it’s minor like this, so I can’t besmirch Urborg too much. I wouldn’t run this in anything that gets value out of basic Swamps though, as you’ll probably remove first strike and swampwalk from something one in 50 games or so.

#40. Desert of the Glorified

Desert of the Glorified is one of only a few mono-black deserts that have been printed so far. Black is unfortunately not the best color for deserts, as both of the commanders that care about them are Naya (). Either way, if you want more than one Barren Moor and/or have a commander that cares about lands, then Desert of the Glorified is a solid inclusion.

#39. Ifnir Deadlands

I appreciate that Ifnir Deadlands doesn’t enter tapped, which makes it something of a freeroll for many decks, and it offers sluggish removal rather than anti-flood protection. I’d also be remiss not to mention that Rowan, Scion of War loves this, though this is probably my last time mentioning Rowan specifically. 

#38. Polluted Mire

Polluted Mire and the rest of its cycle are almost identical to Desert of the Glorified, and they act as slightly worse versions of the Barren Moor cycle. It’s only a 1-mana difference on cycling though, so I’ve seen plenty of lists that run both (particularly for commanders with synergies). They’re also great budget inclusions as copies of each run for less than a quarter. 

#37. Piranha Marsh

Piranha Marsh is pretty anemic on its own, and certainly not worth including a tap land for. Where it gets more interesting is when you have a commander that directly synergizes with it, like Rakdos, Lord of Riots, Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin, or Gisa, the Hellraiser. Suddenly “1 damage” can matter quite a bit, so always be on the lookout for cool synergies! 

#36. Leechridden Swamp

Leechridden Swamp is a nonbasic land with the swamp type, meaning it’s fetchable! As such, it often acts like a souped-up Piranha Marsh, as it’s effective with many of the same commanders. If nothing else, this is an absolute must-have for Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls, as you can pick and choose when to draw on an opponent's turn!

#35. Subterranean Hangar

Subterranean Hangar was a nice improvement on their first attempt at a black storage land, Bottomless Vault, since you can hold it untapped and instead add the storage counter at instant speed to bluff like you have a spell to cast. I don’t think this would be worth it in most decks, but it could be a cool inclusion in something like Nymris, Oona's Trickster, which frequently passes with mana open.

#34. Memorial to Folly

Memorial to Folly is a mono-colored tap land with an expensive Disentomb as an activated ability. You certainly won’t be using this early, but it provides some nice redundancy for getting back important creatures late game. It’s particularly valuable in protracted games where commander taxes have stacked up, as you can just choose to let your commander die then get it back with this.

#33. Spawning Pool

Drudge Skeletons is a neat card, so it’s cool to see it on a land like this. This is mostly just a bizarre chump block/stall card, at the cost of entering tapped/not being a basic Swamp. It probably doesn’t do enough to merit its inclusion, but there are certainly worse lands which we’ve covered already. 

#32. Havengul Laboratory / Havengul Mystery

The Universes Within version of the legendary land from the Secret Lair x Stranger Things drop was Havengul Laboratory, a land that flips back and forth, making Clue tokens and reanimating creatures from your graveyard. It’s a pretty excellent value land, even if it’s expensive enough that you won’t be investigating early on. My only real knock for this card is that being black keeps it out of Clue-themed commanders like Sophia, Dogged Detective, which would have loved this.

#31. The Dross Pits

This is similar to Memorial to Folly, but cheaper and less powerful. For the cost of playing a tap land early, you’ll have the option to sacrifice this later once you’ve run out of gas. You could also compare it to Barren Moor, as it has a similar purpose but let’s you commit it early as a land. Overall, I quite like The Dross Pits, but I’d be careful not to play too many tap lands (4-6 or so total out of 35-37 lands is a good metric). 

#30. Thriving Moor

Jumpstart introduced a series of mono-color Thriving lands that can tap for an additional color chosen when they enter the battlefield. These are excellent tap lands for decks that are 3+ colors, as they can pretty much be any 2-color tap land you require. Thriving Moor is no exception to this, though you’ll have better options if you’re merely two colors. Note that Black Dragon Gate is almost identical if you want more of this effect (it’s also a gate for Nine-Fingers Keene).

#29. Mortuary Mire

Mortuary Mire is a pretty solid tap land. Rather than sacrificing itself to Raise Dead like Memorial to Folly, Mortuary Mire instead puts the card on top and gets to sit around as a pseudo-Swamp. You have many options for value lands in black, but Mortuary Mire is one of the better ones.

#28. Great Arashin City

It is handy for a land to turn one of your graveyard cards into a 1/1. So you can argue how good Great Arashin City is, I'm just glad there's minimal drawback to using this over a swamp.

#27. Eumidian Hatchery

Eumidian Hatchery is tough since you have no choice but to spend the life to get mana, andcracking it with a sacrifice for a bunch of flying insects is often very impactful. So it takes some work, but the Hatchery can almost be a one-time Bitterblossom.

#26. Realm of Koh

I give bonus points to Realm of Koh for easily coming in untapped and producing token creatures that are hard to block. This is a great stall breaker and a great consideration if you have any controlling or long game elements to your deck.

#25. Howltooth Hollow

Howltooth Hollow is part of a very powerful cycle for EDH, though it’s arguably the weakest of the bunch. The central issue of course is the “each player” requirement, which is rather difficult to pull off in EDH! Sire of Insanity is likely your best bet, as even discard-heavy commanders like Tinybones, Trinket Thief struggle to get the entire table empty-handed.

#24. Arguel’s Blood Fast / Temple of Aclazotz

Arguel's Blood Fast is the first black land that doesn’t start as a land, though it makes this list by virtue of flipping into one. It works as a sort of pseudo-Greed and transforms into Temple of Aclazotz once you’re near death. Its temple side can help recoup you on that life lost, à la Starlit Sanctum, so you can often get pretty aggressive with it if you know what you’re doing. It’s a total must have in Verrak, Warped Sengir, which doubles up on the greed and lifegain later as well.

#23. Susur Secundi, Void Altar

Susur Secundi, Void Altar has a great rate of card draw with any creature 3 power or greater. The rider of only at sorcery speed hurts, but recognizes the potential of this planet once fully stationed.

#22. Midgar, City of Mako

Midgar, City of Mako counts as a slightly more expensive Skulltap on the adventure side. This lets you get a death trigger, put goods in the graveyard and still offer black mana after that.

#21. Vault of Whispers

Vault of Whispers is the black land in the cycle of mono-colored artifact lands from Mirrodin. These lands are incredible for any deck that cares about artifacts, as they’re pretty much a total freeroll since they act just like an untapped basic would. Their only drawback is their vulnerability to cards like Vandalblast, so I wouldn’t play Vault of Whispers without synergies.

#20. Crypt of Agadeem

Crypt of Agadeem is a strong land for grindy creature decks, particularly those that stock their graveyards like Varina, Lich Queen and Sidisi, Brood Tyrant. This can make an outsized amount of mana later in the game, which should be well worth including a tap land for. Keep in mind though that it requires black creatures to make extra mana, so if you aren’t playing mostly black creatures, I wouldn’t recommend it.

#19. Hive of the Eye Tyrant

Adventures in the Forgotten Realms included a cycle of mono-colored “manlands” representing D&D monsters with unique lairs. Hive of the Eye Tyrant turns into a 3/3 beholder with some evasion and graveyard hate for 4 mana. Its relatively tough body and menace means you won’t have to worry about losing your land in combat, and it can easily hit the field untapped. Honestly, Hive of the Eye Tyrant is my favorite from this cycle, and the second-most playable behind Den of the Bugbear.

#18. Tomb Fortress

Tomb Fortress represents a Necron world in the 41st millennium from the Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks. It enters tapped, taps for black, and can tap and exile itself to mill four and return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield. You usually won’t be pulling the trigger on this one as soon as possible, but having access to a Rise from the Grave on a mere land is pretty sweet.

#17. Barren Moor

Everyone knows Onslaught’s cycle of mono-color cycling lands – they’ve been reprinted many, many times and are staple commons in most decks. The utility of Barren Moor in black decks is ubiquitous. In the early game, it makes a steady turn-1 land drop, assuming you’ve got no 1-mana spells you need to cast, and late game you can pitch it for cheap to draw a card. Nothing hurts like topdecking a land when you need a spell, so having the option to cycle the land for another card is one of the best solutions to this problem. Barren Moor can slot into any black deck easily.

#16. Fell the Profane / Fell Mire

This also could’ve been Hagra Mauling, which is quite similar and won’t get its own entry. Either way, it’s great to have more removal while padding your land count, as both spells offer you tremendous flexibility. The nature of spot removal in EDH is that while you can’t really kill everything, it’s tremendously beneficial to have the option to snipe combo pieces when necessary. With that in mind, I highly recommend playing Fell the Profane in all your black decks.

#15. Witch’s Cottage

Witch's Cottage is one of the best black fetchable lands. It beats out Mortuary Mire strictly because of its swamp typing. Plus, in a mono-black deck, chances are it’ll hit the field untapped, especially if you’re playing it late enough that your graveyard is full of choices. What’s better, it’s a common, and legal in Pauper! This is a staple in many black decks for good reason, with lots of utility and a low opportunity cost.

#14. Shizo, Death’s Storehouse

Shizo, Death's Storehouse is one of the few ways to consistently grant fear to a creature. It stipulates the creature must be legendary, but that’s hardly a problem in Commander, where it sees the most play. Fear’s position as a color-based evasion ability means it really depends on what the rest of your pod looks like, but in the right situations it’s a brutally cost-effective Rogue's Passage. It also helps that it enters untapped and for all intents and purposes functions just like a normal Swamp would.

#13. Westvale Abbey / Ormendahl, Profane Prince

Westvale Abbey was a classic card in Standard, and it’s one of the game’s most prominent win condition lands. This carries over decently to EDH as well, as Westvale Abbey is a staple in decks that make a lot of disposable tokens like Teysa Karlov, Edgar Markov, and The Necrobloom. It’s best to go for Ormendahl, Profane Prince later on, as indestructible is good but not entirely reliable (Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Deadly Rollick, etc.).

#12. Agadeem’s Awakening / Agadeem, the Undercrypt

Another MDFC of sorts, Agadeem's Awakening is particularly strong in decks with lots of small creatures. You can let a cheap commander like Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow die, then get back Yuriko and two other creatures for just 6 mana. And since Agadeem, the Undercrypt may as well be a Swamp, you can freely slot this into just about any deck.

#11. Boggart Trawler / Boggart Bog

The last MDFC is probably the best of them all, as graveyard hate is a super useful thing to have in EDH. What’s even better is getting graveyard hate on a land of all things, which makes Boggart Trawler almost all upside. You’ll often be able to size up the table early on and decide what role a card like this is going to play. Either way, it’s a must-have for just about any black deck!

#10. Castle Locthwain

The black Castle from the Throne of Eldraine cycle, Castle Locthwain enters untapped in most cases (note that it doesn’t specify basic Swamps), adds black, and draws you cards. Sure, you’ll lose life to the draw ability, but you usually won’t activate it until you’re hellbent anyways. Locthwain saw extensive Standard play, and for good reason. Any land that draws you cards is valuable, even more so if it’s a repeatable effect.

#9. Phyrexian Tower

To no one’s surprise, Phyrexian Tower is one of the best mono-black lands. I can only think of two downsides for this card: It doesn’t tap for black without sacrificing a creature, and I can only have one at a time without a Mirror Box. Those are my only criticisms, though – Phyrexian Tower is just plain good in any deck that wants to sacrifice creatures, which tends to be most black decks. Mana acceleration rarely comes at this low of an opportunity cost!

#8. Bojuka Bog

Chances are you already know about Bojuka Bog. It’s the go-to for graveyard removal in many formats, most notably in Modern, EDH and Pauper. It’s a free Tormod's Crypt that’ll stick around and tap for mana during later turns. It's a simple card, but indisputably one of the best mono-black lands in Magic. If it entered untapped, it’d have been a clear shoe-in for the #1 spot, but I’d still highly recommend spending one of your tap land slots on it.

#7. Dakmor Salvage

Dredge was a mistake. But that’s okay: Many of the best Magic cards were mistakes (see: Skullclamp). Dakmor Salvage has dredge 2, meaning you can mill two cards and return it to your hand instead of drawing a card. It’s an essential piece in a ton of combos. For example, want to draw your entire deck? Easy! Find a discard outlet like Noose Constrictor or Putrid Imp, and discard Dakmor Salvage over and over while The Gitrog Monster is on the field. You’ll replace its draw effect with the dredge ability, and as long as you mill at least one land, you can repeat this process indefinitely. Once you have more draw effects on the stack than cards in your library, resolve a shuffler effect like Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and put your whole library and graveyard into your hand, without drawing yourself out.

This is just scratching the surface of all the broken combos you can pull off with Dakmor Salvage. Try this combo with Surly Badgersaur and Soul of Windgrace, too!

#6. Lake of the Dead

Lake of the Dead is one of those early Magic cards where it felt like the designers were just slapping rules text onto cards, resulting in some very powerful cards and some very weak ones. Lake of the Dead is in the former category. Its odd enters-the-battlefield wording basically makes you sacrifice a swamp when it comes into play, but it does enter untapped and doesn’t specify that the swamp must be untapped (unlike something like Everglades). Thus, the payoff you can get here is huge, as 4 mana is just such a ridiculous amount of mana to add off one land, even at the cost of a swamp. 

#5. Spymaster’s Vault

Spymaster's Vault has similar deck building requirements to Castle Locthwain (read: almost none), so suffice to say it’ll enter untapped 90% of the time. What edges it above Castle Locthwain is its cheaper activated ability, which plays well with many commanders. You don’t really need any particular synergy for this to be worth slotting, but it’s a great way to fill your graveyard or pump sizing-sensitive cards like Alesha, Who Laughs at Fate.

#4. Cabal Stronghold

Cabal Stronghold is a mostly worse Cabal Coffers. In addition to costing an extra mana to tap, it also only checks the field for basic Swamps you control, meaning it won’t count Blood Crypt, Watery Grave, or any other nonbasic with the swamp subtype. It does, however, enter the battlefield untapped and can tap for 1 colorless mana, so it can at least tap for something early on (unlike Coffers, which demands setup). It works as either a budget choice over Cabal Coffers, or a “second” copy of sorts for redundancy.

#3. Takenuma, Abandoned Mire

The channel lands from Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty are all fairly valuable rares considering their utility. They all enter untapped, and when evaluating them we should assume we have one to two legends on the field, reducing their activation costs. Given that you’re playing Commander, it shouldn’t be too difficult to get the cost down here, making this an incredible Swamp plus Raise Dead hybrid that should go in every black deck.

#2. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

You probably knew it was coming! Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is an awesome land that’ll probably inspire more copycats in the future (so far we just have Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth). Making each other land (including your opponents') swamps instantly fixes your mana and makes your Caged Suns and Crypt Ghasts sing. Urborg can make your swampwalk creatures unblockable, and it can make your colorless utility lands tap for mana. Let’s make that Ghost Quarter tap for black to hit those extra black pips on something like Phyrexian Obliterator. Maybe you’re looking to run Korlash, Heir to Blackblade but can’t commit to all swamps? Or do you need extra triggers on your Dread Presence? Swamps are just so much better supported than other basic land types, so Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is an absolute staple in EDH.

And yes, this technically doesn't have a black color identity, but you're only playing it in black decks anyway.

#1. Cabal Coffers

Our #1 ranked card is Torment’s Cabal Coffers, which is probably the most famous nonbasic black land. The sinister Cabal has trapped the Mirari inside their vault, and it uses its magic to overproduce black mana. Cabal Coffers‘ biggest downside is that it doesn't tap for mana itself.

You’ll need four swamps on the field before the Coffers really start to pay off: With three Swamps on the field, paying to tap Cabal Coffers nets you no mana, since you’ve tapped three lands for 3 mana. However, once you hit that fourth swamp, you’re off to the races, tapping three lands for 4 mana, and then 5 mana, and then 6 mana, etc. This might not be worth it in the early game, but by the late game you’ll have more mana than you know what to do with (unless you’ve got an Exsanguinate).

Best Black Land Payoffs and Synergies

So, you’ve played your Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers, now what? There’s always room for more swampy mana, so top off your mana base with Crypt Ghast, Nirkana Revenant, and Magus of the Coffers.

Now that you’ve generated all that black mana, what’re you supposed to do with it all? Easy: Exsanguinate! This popular Commander finisher is a great dump for all that extra mana, and you can use Corrupt, Crypt Rats, and Consume Spirit in mono-black decks just as well. Phyrexian Obliterator and Doomsday Excruciator are absolute payoffs to put in play, and you need lots of black mana to cast them.

Wrap Up

Bojuka Bog | Illustration by Howard Lyon

Black isn’t known for its land synergies, typically. It has the least number of landfall abilities, and swamps are notoriously difficult to fetch to the field. That said, black has access to some of the most interesting utility lands in Magic, and for a long time, was the only color with access to an Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth-like effect. Don’t underestimate the land base in a mono-black deck.

What do you think? Is it so contentious to rank Cabal Coffers over Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth? Should Spymaster's Vault be in the top five? Let me know in the comments, or over on Draftsim’s Discord.

Thanks for reading, and stay swampy!