Black Mana Battery
Artifact
, 
: Put a charge counter on this artifact., Remove any number of charge counters from this artifact: Add 
, then add an additional for each charge counter removed this way.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Legends
- Price
- $5.77
- EDHREC rank
- #24880
Black Mana Battery converts excess mana across multiple turns into a single explosive burst, letting you effectively store unused black mana and spend it all at once on something backbreaking. The catch is the two-mana activation tax per charge counter — you're paying a premium for the flexibility, which makes it a niche include rather than a staple.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Black Mana Battery occupies a narrow role — it rewards slow, deliberate black decks that have turns where they can't spend all their mana usefully, then unleash it in one decisive moment. Legacy and Vintage both have access to it, but neither format has any reason to run it when fast mana and efficient interaction make slow charge-up artifacts unplayable. Oathbreaker is its best non-Commander home in theory, since the smaller life totals make burst-mana turns more punishing, though the format's low card-pool adoption means it rarely sees a slot there either. The honest assessment: Black Mana Battery is a Commander card almost exclusively, and even there it competes hard for artifact slots.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Magus of the Coffers and Cabal Coffers do the battery's "big black mana in one shot" job far more efficiently if your deck runs enough Swamps, though neither stores across turns the way Black Mana Battery does. If the appeal is purely late-game mana acceleration rather than the charge mechanic specifically, Nirkana Revenant or Extraplanar Lens get you to the same explosive turn without the activation tax.
Price Context
Current price
$5.77 mid tier
At $5.77, Black Mana Battery sits in the mid tier — not a throwaway pickup, but not a significant investment either. It's a Reserved List card, so supply is fixed, which keeps the floor from collapsing despite the card seeing minimal competitive play.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.