Darkness
Instant
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Warhammer 40,000 Commander
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #1983
Darkness stops an entire combat for one black mana — every creature your opponents control is prevented from dealing damage that turn. It's the black Fog, and in any deck that wants to survive long enough to execute a game plan, that's exactly what it is.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Imotekh the Stormlord
Imotekh the Stormlord generates Necron Warrior tokens whenever opponents draw cards, so surviving long enough to flood the board is the entire game plan — Darkness buys exactly that turn when an opponent would otherwise end the game.
Toshiro Umezawa
Toshiro Umezawa flashes back instants from the graveyard whenever a creature an opponent controls dies, and Darkness in the graveyard becomes a renewable fog effect the moment combat starts producing casualties.
Trazyn the Infinite
Trazyn the Infinite can imprint Darkness as a static ability on himself, effectively giving him the option to cast it from exile — a resilient, repeatable fog that scales with how many copies of Trazyn are on the battlefield.
Phage the Untouchable
Phage the Untouchable dies to any blocker that deals combat damage to her, so Darkness is a way to swing freely without risking the commander to chump blocks or trades.
Zenos yae Galvus
Zenos yae Galvus rewards aggressive combat, and Darkness lets the deck attack without fear of a lethal counterswing on the crackback — it's a fog that converts a defensive spell slot into offensive tempo.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Darkness earns its slot as the black Fog in any deck that needs to survive a single dangerous combat — the one-mana cost is low enough that it doesn't cost a real turn, and instant speed means opponents can't play around it cleanly. Legacy and Vintage have access to it but rarely want it; those formats end games before fog effects matter, and the cards competing for that slot are more proactive. Pauper is where Darkness shows up most outside Commander, in dedicated Fog or turbo-draw shells that can chain multiple prevention effects. Darkness is not legal in Pioneer or Standard, so its modern competitive relevance is essentially zero outside of fringe Pauper lists.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Darkness isn't currently available in our system, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for the most accurate current number. It has seen multiple printings, which historically keeps the floor low, but original Legends copies carry a meaningful collector premium over reprints.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Imotekh the Stormlord
- Toshiro Umezawa
- Trazyn the Infinite
- Phage the Untouchable
- Zenos yae Galvus
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.