Sacrifice a creature just for an additional swamp for every swamp? No thanks...
Silverware
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(7 votes)
You aren't reading it right. It dosen't make Swamps tap for double mana. It makes all lands tap for one black mana. Could be pretty efective against some non-black, non-artifact decks. Combos great with Breeding Pit
Xarule
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
this could be the answer to my land destructions deck's problem dealing with white....
makochman
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is obviously very powerful. If you get it on the battlefield with Bitterblossom, Bloodghast or Ichorid, non-black decks can't do anything unless they have non-land mana sources, while you can play more or less as normal.
KarmasPayment
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@ N84M09: A black card that costs 3 and has "sacrifice a creature during your upkeep. all swamps produce an additional B." seems strong for many black decks, i would definitely run that card.
But as for this card, its just as good, if not better, especially in multilayer. Forcing non-black/artifact players to effectively treat all mana they can produce as colorless is a huge nerf. I run one in my edh.
Hovercraft
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Maindeck this in a Pox deck with Nether Spirit. Sideboard it out if you are playing against black or whatever for something else like Contagion or something. Extremely good card don't knock this. No less than 5 stars you just have to play around it a teeny tiny bit. Also, please note your Mishra's Factories and Wastelands would tap for black mana as well.
Guest643499915
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I run this in my reanimator thrull deck with breeding pit and nether traitor. Very fun to keep a steady cycle of creature death and undeath, and if your opponent can't find a way to kill off your creatures, it's essentially a black stasis.
reapersaurus
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Any card that is this expensive to use that can be hosed by the multitude of artifacts and creatures that generate mana shouldn't be rated near this high.
Gaussgoat
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(7 votes)
WOW. Play this thing in multi-player and watch everyone attempt to kill you as swiftly as possible, hahah.
Excellent enchantment, completely hoses your opponent if they don't have a way of converting mana and/or getting rid of this piece of evil as quickly as possible. At 3CC, it is a STEAL. I want one!
5/5
metalevolence
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(12 votes)
Easiest goddamn lock ever. Stupid Urza block.
pixieCrack
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
if I have this card and joiner adept out at the same time will i still be limited to only black mana?
LarsBM
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(3 votes)
Your friends will hate you if you combine this with Bitterblossom :P
Andon_A
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(19 votes)
No colors anymore, I want them to turn black
blindthrall
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
pixie Crack: Timestamp. Whichever hit the board last will take precedence. There's one guy I play against who never scoops. Ever.
If Jace and baneslayer were printed in the urza's block they would have seen no play at all.
Ohms89
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(4 votes)
The ignorance displayed in one or two of the comments I've read on here is astounding.
This makes ALL lands produce only a single black mana. It's not meant as a mana-doubler, it's meant to lock out your opponents (especially in multiplayer/edh) and make very quick enemies. This card plus any kind of recursion such as Endless Co.ckroaches or Reassembling Skeleton, or token generators such as Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, Tombstone Stairwell or Bitterblosom will essentially lock out your opponents from their colors for as long as it's in play, and if they have no means of getting rid of it (which with their colors locked out, makes it INCREDIBLY difficult) then it's a pretty annoying board-lock for your opponents to deal with, trust me.
As for this being hosed by alternate mana-producing sources; seriously, think about how situational that would be in any given scenario. Most EDH decks run colorless mana-rocks and rely heavily on their lands to produce the colors they need. Even if you only manage to have this out for a single turn, it's *almost* like you've given yourself an extra turn for 3 CMC, and that's the worst case scenario.
A must-have in any mono-black multiplayer deck (unless it's meant to be a casual environment and you want your friendships to last). Period.
5/5
Drewsel
★★★★☆ (4.3/5.0)(7 votes)
My skeleton deck rejoices. There's even a skeleton in the art! WHOOPEEEEEE!!!
DrJack
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(6 votes)
A grevious example of lack of playtesting. You know, it took me a total of two seconds after reading the card that this was stupidly powerful for its very simple combos. Cards that lock out your opponent from every playing spells again are no fun, especially if it comes from an easy to pull off combo. When it's at least a three card combo that runs some risk to yourself, at least then the opponent can feel like you trumped him in a sporting manner, and respect you for the victory.
However...
Contamination + Breeding Pit = Opponent can never cast a spell again, if he's not playing black.
Contamination + Squirrel Nest = Opponent can never cast a spell again, if he's not playing black.
Contamination + Awakening Zone = Opponent can never cast a spell again, if he's not playing black.
Since Contamination states "during your upkeep, sacrifice a creature" and Sheoldred states "at the beginning of your upkeep, return a creature from your graveyard", I could return Solemn Simulacrum, get the tapped land, then have to sacrifice him, making me draw.
I've only tested this playing myself (without an opponent doing anything to counter), but it could prove to be highly dangerous against non-black EDH decks.
Now that I think of it, they won't be able to get any mana other than black, so unless there is some kind of mono-black (or artifact) enchantment-destruction, they can't destroy it. They have to use what they have on the field to destroy me.
So far, I've only found that Pernicious Deed could destroy it, as long as it was on the field before playing Contamination.
The problem here, is that I pretty much just listed all of the things that could destroy it, and that's kind of scary. I also included a way to keep it alive for as long as you can. You could use Zombie Infestation, Breeding Pit, Coffin Queen, Geth, Lord of the Vault... a lot of things can keep Contamination alive.
Just watch out: with some cards like this and Oppression, people will not like playing with you, and a game of Magic could quickly turn from fun to unpleasant.
Just another reason to make sure you have colourless mass removal in your EDH deck, things like Oblivion Stone can take care of this, even if your deck wouldn't normally produce {B} mana.
BuffJittePLZ
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(1 vote)
@DrJack Of the cards you mentioned, only Breeding Pit was around when this card was printed. Back in Urza Block, this card had much fewer options, and there were MUCH more broken decks that won on turn two or three regularly.
kyothine
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(1 vote)
I run this card in Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker EDH and it is beyond broken. Outside of decks like those, if you can keep a Contamination going for even two turns (by feeding it tokens) it's ALREADY a Time Walk.
Raexs
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Very unbalanced. There are very few ways to deal with this using only or .
The advantage this card gives against most decks vastly outweighs the meager and easily-overcome drawback.
Arachnos
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
The very best part: enchantment destruction doesn't take it down, because you can't even pay for said enchantment destruction. Essentially, if you have the creatures to keep it going, unless your opponent is playing as black deck, it's all over.
igniteice
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(2 votes)
@Arachnos enchantment destruction doesn't take it down, because you can't even pay for said enchantment destruction That's certainly not true at all. A host of artifacts mana-fixers or mana-producers could easily pay for a removal spell for this. Prismatic Lens, Prophetic Prism, any of the Borderposts.
That said, this and Infernal Darkness are cards that remind me that some players just want to play goldfish games, even when they have an opponent. Some people just like to play their own cards with no actual competition. It makes them feel as if they are better players than they really are. First because they think setting their opponent into a lockdown is a skill on their part and not a byproduct of one or two cards, and second because, given the lockdown, they are free to exercise their own winning combos without any interruption. They see this as an accomplishment, because they feel as if their opponent could have stopped them at any time had they used the right cards. It's the same mindset that people defending cards like Force of Will use. Without FoW, they say, combos would run rampant. And when someone doesn't have an answer to a combo, they're just bad players, so the theory goes.
ToidiDiPuts
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm gonna nickname this card Spreading Disease. It's like an entire "Spread 'Em!" deck in a single card.
Although a significantly nerfed version of this card was released in Eldrazi (and reprinted in Gatecrash) as Contaminated Ground.
Earthdawn
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card really is powerful. I tossed a one-of into my "casual" B/R discard deck and my opponents couldn't play the game. One of them had that naturalize golem and a llanowar elf that he was sitting on, but by the time he blew it up I had lethal spells in hand.
.5/5 Unbalanced cards as a result of poor testing should always be rated a .5/5
blurrymadness
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Might be funny to run this in R/B with Blood Moon or it's Magus. They don't actually combo, it's just that the only decks that can get through both cards are mono-black.
Anyway, use this next to recurring creatures, Gathan Raiders, and probably some way to eat the opponent's hand so if you don't get perma-lock on them, you can at be sure they aren't going anywhere for awhile. It's also good to have bojuka bogs or some kind of gravehate. Mindslicer is a good option for all of the above as he'll beat down for 4 or eat your hands, but your deck doesn't need a hand if running gravecrawler and nether traitor
This + ophiomancer in a mono black sacrifice deck. Ooooooooh yes.
UNATCO
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(3 votes)
Yeah seriously, the new ophiomancer combod with this thing in your mono black deck is an absolute instant win. All opponents immediately give up, it's so much fun.
Xeste
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(3 votes)
I think of Ophiomancer the moment I look at this card. Then I smile, because this card is simply too easy to use and far too effective for its cost.
Drawback? This single card lock's "drawback" can be helpful under the right circumstances.
mdakw576
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
By far one of the most annoying cards to run in a game of EDH. If you don't have colored mana rocks (and most decks honestly can't run more than 3-4, so you are effectively hoping to get 3-4 cards out of your 99 before this hits play, AND monocolor decks often don't run colored mana rocks) you are basically not casting anything for the entire game unless you are also monoblack. The only colorless ways to kill this that I can think of are karn and spine of ish sah, and the latter is crap unless you build around it, and they are also both 7 mana. The sacrifice doesn't even matter if you even build around it slightly and occasionally will actually help since people do like sac outlets.
Blood moon is annoying, but at least your basics are untouched, so 3-color decks that plan properly can play around it. Red also sucks so you are already handicapping yourself by playing a blood moon deck (or like shattergang brothers with massive amounts of colored mana rocks). Same with back to basics. Black is the best color for tutors so black stax decks will always just pull this out and make the game go nowhere.
The difference between contamination and blood moon/back to basics is basically the difference between strip mine and wasteland, where the latter leaves your basics untouched, and is why strip mine is banned in legacy and restricted in vintage.
Comments (46)
But as for this card, its just as good, if not better, especially in multilayer. Forcing non-black/artifact players to effectively treat all mana they can produce as colorless is a huge nerf. I run one in my edh.
Excellent enchantment, completely hoses your opponent if they don't have a way of converting mana and/or getting rid of this piece of evil as quickly as possible. At 3CC, it is a STEAL. I want one!
5/5
I love using this card against him.
This makes ALL lands produce only a single black mana. It's not meant as a mana-doubler, it's meant to lock out your opponents (especially in multiplayer/edh) and make very quick enemies. This card plus any kind of recursion such as Endless Co.ckroaches or Reassembling Skeleton, or token generators such as Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder, Tombstone Stairwell or Bitterblosom will essentially lock out your opponents from their colors for as long as it's in play, and if they have no means of getting rid of it (which with their colors locked out, makes it INCREDIBLY difficult) then it's a pretty annoying board-lock for your opponents to deal with, trust me.
As for this being hosed by alternate mana-producing sources; seriously, think about how situational that would be in any given scenario. Most EDH decks run colorless mana-rocks and rely heavily on their lands to produce the colors they need. Even if you only manage to have this out for a single turn, it's *almost* like you've given yourself an extra turn for 3 CMC, and that's the worst case scenario.
A must-have in any mono-black multiplayer deck (unless it's meant to be a casual environment and you want your friendships to last). Period.
5/5
However...
Contamination + Breeding Pit = Opponent can never cast a spell again, if he's not playing black.
Contamination + Squirrel Nest = Opponent can never cast a spell again, if he's not playing black.
Contamination + Awakening Zone = Opponent can never cast a spell again, if he's not playing black.
These combos are as easy to pull off as Painter's Servant + Grindstone.
Shame on you, Wizards.
Sheoldred, Whispering One and Solemn Simulacrum.
Since Contamination states "during your upkeep, sacrifice a creature" and Sheoldred states "at the beginning of your upkeep, return a creature from your graveyard", I could return Solemn Simulacrum, get the tapped land, then have to sacrifice him, making me draw.
I've only tested this playing myself (without an opponent doing anything to counter), but it could prove to be highly dangerous against non-black EDH decks.
You could use any other card instead of Solemn, like Rune-Scarred Demon, Shriekmaw, Priest of Gix, Massacre Wurm, Skinrender, all of the Titans, Big Game Hunter... I think you get it. As long as it has a "enters the battlefield..." effect, you can highly benefit from this.
Now that I think of it, they won't be able to get any mana other than black, so unless there is some kind of mono-black (or artifact) enchantment-destruction, they can't destroy it. They have to use what they have on the field to destroy me.
So far, I've only found that Pernicious Deed could destroy it, as long as it was on the field before playing Contamination.
There are, however, a decent amount of colourless things that can destroy Contamination. The Eldrazi (Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre specifically), Ratchet Bomb, Steel Hellkite, Argentum Armor, Oblivion Stone, Lux Cannon, Worldslayer and Nevinyrral's Disk all can destroy the enchantment.
The problem here, is that I pretty much just listed all of the things that could destroy it, and that's kind of scary. I also included a way to keep it alive for as long as you can. You could use Zombie Infestation, Breeding Pit, Coffin Queen, Geth, Lord of the Vault... a lot of things can keep Contamination alive.
Just watch out: with some cards like this and Oppression, people will not like playing with you, and a game of Magic could quickly turn from fun to unpleasant.
The advantage this card gives against most decks vastly outweighs the meager and easily-overcome drawback.
enchantment destruction doesn't take it down, because you can't even pay for said enchantment destruction
That's certainly not true at all. A host of artifacts mana-fixers or mana-producers could easily pay for a removal spell for this. Prismatic Lens, Prophetic Prism, any of the Borderposts.
That said, this and Infernal Darkness are cards that remind me that some players just want to play goldfish games, even when they have an opponent. Some people just like to play their own cards with no actual competition. It makes them feel as if they are better players than they really are. First because they think setting their opponent into a lockdown is a skill on their part and not a byproduct of one or two cards, and second because, given the lockdown, they are free to exercise their own winning combos without any interruption. They see this as an accomplishment, because they feel as if their opponent could have stopped them at any time had they used the right cards. It's the same mindset that people defending cards like Force of Will use. Without FoW, they say, combos would run rampant. And when someone doesn't have an answer to a combo, they're just bad players, so the theory goes.
It's like an entire "Spread 'Em!" deck in a single card.
Although a significantly nerfed version of this card was released in Eldrazi (and reprinted in Gatecrash) as Contaminated Ground.
Unbalanced cards as a result of poor testing should always be rated a .5/5
Anyway, use this next to recurring creatures, Gathan Raiders, and probably some way to eat the opponent's hand so if you don't get perma-lock on them, you can at be sure they aren't going anywhere for awhile. It's also good to have bojuka bogs or some kind of gravehate. Mindslicer is a good option for all of the above as he'll beat down for 4 or eat your hands, but your deck doesn't need a hand if running gravecrawler and nether traitor
Blood moon is annoying, but at least your basics are untouched, so 3-color decks that plan properly can play around it. Red also sucks so you are already handicapping yourself by playing a blood moon deck (or like shattergang brothers with massive amounts of colored mana rocks). Same with back to basics. Black is the best color for tutors so black stax decks will always just pull this out and make the game go nowhere.
The difference between contamination and blood moon/back to basics is basically the difference between strip mine and wasteland, where the latter leaves your basics untouched, and is why strip mine is banned in legacy and restricted in vintage.