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Dark Ritual

Instant

Add {B}{B}{B}.

CMC
1
Mana cost
{B}
Color identity
B
Rarity
common
Set
Tempest
Price
$4.97
EDHREC rank
#34
Buy on TCGplayer
Dark Ritual card art
Dark Ritual is a one-mana ritual that nets two black mana — the single most efficient burst of acceleration black has access to in Commander. The trade-off worth naming: it's a one-shot spell, not a permanent, so it advances your turn but doesn't compound; decks like Dargo, the Shipwrecker // Tymna the Weaver that want it most are often also the ones that can't afford to run too many sorcery-speed do-nothings, and Displacer Kitten combo lines aside, you need a real payoff on the same turn to justify the slot.

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 legal
oathbreaker banned

Dark Ritual is legal in Legacy, Vintage, Pauper, and Commander — and banned in Oathbreaker, where the compressed game state makes a free two-mana advantage on the first activation simply too swingy. Modern and Pioneer have never seen it; the card predates both formats' card pools and would be an immediate problem if it did. In Commander, the singleton rule and 40-life totals are what give it a pass: drawing it once in the midgame is often fine, and the format's slower clock means you're converting that extra mana into a commander or a tutor rather than ending the game outright the way a Legacy storm deck can.

Where It Shines

Where the extra mana on turn one matters most

01

Combos featuring Displacer Kitten + Eternal Witness

6,013 decks running this combo

Dark Ritual fuels the early setup that gets Displacer Kitten onto the battlefield ahead of schedule, which is the entire axis the combo cares about — the faster you land the Kitten, the fewer interaction windows you give opponents before the loop assembles.

02

Combos featuring Cormela, Glamour Thief + Saw in Half

1,662 decks running this combo

Cormela, Glamour Thief costs four mana, and Dark Ritual closing part of that gap on turn one or two means you're threatening the combo a full turn earlier than a fair development line would allow.

03

Big-mana shells like Edgar Markov

Edgar Markov's eminence trigger means you want vampires hitting the table as fast as possible, and Dark Ritual on turn one into a two-drop vampire is the kind of tempo jump that snowballs immediately in a token-wide strategy.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

1,662 decks
Cormela, Glamour ThiefSaw in HalfDark Ritual

Cormela, Glamour ThiefSaw in HalfDark Ritual

Infinite black mana; Infinite blue mana that can only be spent to cast instant and sorcery spells; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite magecraft triggers; Infinite red mana that can only be spent to cast instant and sorcery spells; Infinite storm count

View combo details →
1,006 decks
Displacer KittenFrantic SearchDark RitualArchaeomancer

Displacer KittenFrantic SearchDark RitualArchaeomancer

Infinite self-discard triggers; Near-infinite ETB; Infinite draw triggers; Infinite looting; Near-infinite storm count; Near-infinite LTB; Near-infinite mana lands you control can produce; Near-infinite magecraft triggers; Near-infinite black mana; Near-infinite untap of lands you control

View combo details →

Price Context

Current price

$4.97 cheap tier

At $4.97, Dark Ritual sits at the low end of meaningful Commander staples — you're paying for decades of reprint history keeping the price honest, not scarcity. It's a straightforward pickup: no version of this card is going to price you out, and the gameplay return on under five dollars is essentially unmatched for black combo and acceleration shells.

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Sources

Mentioned

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