Black Ward
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature has protection from black. This effect doesn't remove this Aura.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Revised Edition
- Price
- $0.25
- EDHREC rank
- #22498
Black Ward slaps protection from black onto a creature for one white mana and stays on the battlefield as an enchantment — meaningful in a format where black removal like Doom Blade and Fatal Push is everywhere. It's narrow by design, and that narrowness is exactly why it rarely makes the cut outside dedicated Auras builds.
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 Ward is a fringe inclusion — protection from black blocks a real slice of the removal suite, but one-for-one auras that don't replace themselves are a liability in a four-player game where board wipes dominate. Legacy and Vintage have the card legal but no competitive shell that wants it; Bogles-style strategies that historically ran protection auras have better options and don't need the redundancy. Black Ward is most credible in Commander Auras voltron builds where stacking protection keywords on a single threat is the explicit plan.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.25 bulk tier
At $0.25, Black Ward is deep bulk — you're paying for cardboard, not scarcity. That price is stable because demand is low and copies are plentiful, so there's no reason to expect movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.