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Black Market

Enchantment

Whenever a creature dies, put a charge counter on this enchantment.
At the beginning of your first main phase, add {B} for each charge counter on this enchantment.

CMC
5
Mana cost
{3}{B}{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
rare
Set
Secret Lair Drop
Price
$6.74
EDHREC rank
#641
Buy on TCGplayer
Black Market card art
Black Market snowballs mana counters off every creature that dies — in a format where board wipes and sacrifice effects are constant, it routinely produces five or more black mana per turn cycle. The five-mana enchantment is slow to land, and the mana evaporates at end of turn, so it rewards decks that can dump that mana immediately rather than sit on it; commanders like Toxrill, the Corrosive that pair it with continuous death triggers, or value engines like Lithoform Engine that let you spend the excess, get the most out of it.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Toxrill, the Corrosive

Toxrill, the Corrosive

56.4% of decks · synergy 0.51

Toxrill, the Corrosive generates a slime token on every end step for each opponent's creature bearing a slug counter, meaning Black Market accrues counters at a staggering rate as those tokens die — and the colorless mana from slimes pairs cleanly with the black flood Black Market produces to power out threat after threat.

02
Massacre Girl

Massacre Girl

61.5% of decks · synergy 0.41

Massacre Girl's triggered wipes can kill every creature on the board in a single activation, and Black Market converts each of those deaths into a mana counter — a single well-timed Massacre Girl activation can leave Black Market loaded with eight or more counters heading into your main phase.

03
Maha, Its Feathers Night

Maha, Its Feathers Night

57.3% of decks · synergy 0.36

Maha, Its Feathers Night cares about your opponents losing life, and the mana Black Market generates lets Maha dump its entire hand's worth of black spells in one explosive turn, turning a moderate board state into a lethal swing.

04
Caesar, Legion's Emperor

Caesar, Legion's Emperor

37.8% of decks · synergy 0.33

Caesar, Legion's Emperor creates sacrifice fodder at combat scale, and Black Market turns every token that trades in combat or gets sacrificed for value into fuel — the combination makes Black Market an engine rather than just an enchantment in Caesar decks.

05
The Scorpion God

The Scorpion God

36.1% of decks · synergy 0.31

The Scorpion God kills creatures by stacking -1/-1 counters, and Black Market converts each of those deaths into a mana counter, creating a self-reinforcing loop where removal generates resources that power more removal.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Black Market is a Commander card in every meaningful sense — the format's multiplayer boards, constant creature deaths, and long game arcs are exactly what it needs to generate absurd value. In Legacy and Vintage, where games end before a five-mana enchantment ever activates a second time and the mana disappears at end of turn anyway, Black Market is unplayable in practice despite its legality. Oathbreaker is the one non-Commander format where Black Market occasionally sees use, specifically in black Planeswalker shells with enough sacrifice or removal synergy to charge it fast. Outside of those go-wide, creature-heavy metas, there is no competitive case for Black Market.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

1 decks
Black MarketLithoform EngineAphetto AlchemistUmbral Mantle

Black MarketLithoform EngineAphetto AlchemistUmbral Mantle

Infinite black mana; Infinitely large creature until end of turn; Infinite mana artifacts you control can produce; Infinite mana creatures you control can produce; Infinite untap of artifacts you control; Infinite untap of creatures you control

View on Commander Spellbook ↗
0 decks
Black MarketStrionic ResonatorAphetto AlchemistUmbral Mantle

Black MarketStrionic ResonatorAphetto AlchemistUmbral Mantle

Infinite black mana; Infinitely large creature until end of turn; Infinite mana artifacts you control can produce; Infinite mana creatures you control can produce; Infinite untap of artifacts you control; Infinite untap of creatures you control

View on Commander Spellbook ↗

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

Pitiless Plunderer and Revel in Riches both convert creature deaths into mana or treasure in ways that approximate what Black Market does, with Plunderer in particular being cheaper and available as a creature rather than a fragile enchantment. Neither matches the raw ceiling of Black Market in a high-death-count game — Plunderer caps at one treasure per death and Revel in Riches doubles as a win condition rather than pure mana acceleration — but both are viable in decks that can't justify or source Black Market.

Price Context

Current price

$6.74 mid tier

At $6.74, Black Market sits squarely in the mid-tier range — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate include but not a budget breaker. It's a casual staple with consistent demand in creature-heavy Commander decks, which keeps the price stable rather than volatile.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.