Magic: The Gathering Head Designer Explains Why They Made A Black Enchantment Removal in Commander 2019

Wizards of the Coast has already revealed some interesting Magic: The Gathering cards from Commander 2019 including a card that can reverse the game's order, a legendary creature that makes eggs, and a basic land cycle that forms a panorama. Today, another card was revealed and it does something that black doesn't usually do: get rid of enchantments, and it's called "Mire in Misery". Check it out:

Magic Head Designer Mark Rosewater has been hinting this black enchantment removal card and now, he's taken it to his Blogatog to explain why they made a black card that could force the opponent to sacrifice an enchantment after a fan asked him to what extent of enchantment removal in black. Rosewater explained:

"Here's what we're up to. We realized that three different colors could get rid of artifacts (white, red, and green), but only two could get rid of enchantments (white and green). Black seemed like the right choice as it had two permanent types it couldn't remove. Now, red has trouble with enchantments and black has trouble with artifacts.

Our constraints for black were as follows. We definitely want black to be third in efficiency behind white and green. We also didn't want black to be able to destroy its own enchantments as we like the Deal with the Devil enchantments in black (this was the major reason black hasn't had enchantment removal).

With those constraints, we've started designing cards. Our plan is to roll them out slowly, so I don't believe Throne of Eldraine has one. You will see more though, just slowly."

While we've seen black cards before that make your opponent sacrifice a permanent or remove all the copies of a particular card from an opponent's deck, it's still unusual to see a black card that can remove an Enchantment. Usually, white or green cards do that job, so "Mire of Misery" can be a useful card to get rid of your opponents' Enchantments if you're not running green or white.

The Magic: The Gathering Commander (2019Edition) will be released on August 23.

Related: Senior Designer Gavin Verhey Says There's A 'Good Reason' Why 5th Magus is Absent in Commander 2019