Touch of Darkness MTG Card


Touch of Darkness - Legends
Mana cost
Converted mana cost1
RarityUncommon
TypeInstant
Released1994-06-01
Set symbol
Set nameLegends
Set codeLEG
Number122
Frame1993
Layoutnormal
Borderblack
Illustred byPete Venters

Key Takeaways

  1. Touch of Darkness’ instant speed allows real-time board state adaptation, enhancing combat and strategic interactions.
  2. While providing a tactical advantage, the required discard to cast it may limit hand options.
  3. It’s a niche card with unique combat applications, suitable for decks utilizing creature color manipulation.

Text of card

Changes the color of one or more target creatures to black until end of turn. You choose which and how many creatures are affected. Cost to tap, maintain, or to use a special ability of target creatures remains entirely unchanged.

"Black spirits and white, red spirits and gray,/ Mingle, mingle, mingle, you that mingle may." —Thomas Middleton, The Witch


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Touch of Darkness provides a nuanced layer of strategy by affecting multiple creatures. This can flip the board state in your favor, potentially giving you the upper hand by skewing combat trades or enabling advantageous interactions based on the new color assignments.

Resource Acceleration: While not directly providing mana or tokens, the strategic application of Touch of Darkness can indirectly accelerate your resources. By turning enemy creatures to a color that matches your spells that have bonuses against them, you effectively reduce the cost of managing your opponent’s board.

Instant Speed: The ability to cast Touch of Darkness at instant speed grants flexibility in gameplay. You can adapt to dynamic board states, surprise your opponent during combat, or just before they attempt to leverage synergies based on their creatures’ colors. This timing control is essential in crafting the precise moment to shift the flow of the game in your favor.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Touch of Darkness necessitates discarding another card to utilize its effect. This trade-off can be particularly taxing when your hand is sparse, inadvertently reducing your strategic options.

Specific Mana Cost: This card demands a precise combination of black mana, which could constrain its integration exclusively into mono-black or certain multicolor decks, potentially restricting its versatility across various deck archetypes.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Charging three black mana for its ability might be deemed inefficient when compared with other spells in the game. Alternative cards could offer comparable or superior effects with a lower or more flexible mana investment, leading players to opt for those to maximize their deck’s efficacy.


Reasons to Include Touch of Darkness in Your Collection

Versatility: Touch of Darkness offers a unique ability to alter combat dynamics by granting all non-wall creatures Banding until end of turn. This can be slotted into both aggressive decks seeking to organize better attacks and defensive decks aiming to dictate blocking arrangements more effectively.

Combo Potential: This card can be a key piece in complex interactions with other cards that benefit from Banding or require certain board states that Banding can facilitate, enhancing both offensive and defensive strategies.

Meta-Relevance: In game scenarios where combat plays a pivotal role and creature-heavy decks dominate, Touch of Darkness can tilt the balance by enabling well-planned blocks or attacks, making it a subtle yet powerful tool against popular deck archetypes.


How to Beat Touch of Darkness

Touch of Darkness is an intriguing spell that can create significant strategic advantages by converting all white creatures to black until end of turn. To overcome this spell, players need to understand the nuances of color-changing mechanics within the gameplay. One effective strategy is to utilize permanents and spells that are indifferent to creature colors, such as those that count on power or toughness only. Another approach would be to employ cards with protection from black before Touch of Darkness resolves, ensuring that your creatures remain unaffected by the color shift and protected from most black spells and abilities.

Beyond preventive measures, strategically timing your spells can also play a crucial role in mitigating the effect of Touch of Darkness. Playing creatures after the spell’s effect has concluded for the turn or using instant-speed removal in response can effectively neutralize the advantage your opponent is seeking. Moreover, incorporating cards that benefit from color changes, such as those that buff black creatures or punish white ones, can turn the tables and use your opponent’s strategy against them. Typically, a flexible deck with a variety of responses will hold up well against the temporary impact of Touch of Darkness.


Cards like Touch of Darkness

Touch of Darkness is a unique card in the realm of Magic: The Gathering, offering a multi-target effect uncommon to most cards in the game. In a similar fashion to cards like Holy Light, which change the combat math by giving creatures a temporary debuff, Touch of Darkness instead focuses on converting all white creatures in play to black until end of turn. While this isn’t a direct removal or weakening, it strategically interacts with color-specific spells and abilities.

Comparing it further, we see cards like Darkest Hour, as it permanently turns all creatures black, which heavily modifies gameplay dynamics, unlike the short-lived impact of Touch of Darkness. Additionally, Peppersmoke not only changes a creature’s color but also includes a modest effect of dealing damage and potentially drawing a card if you control another black creature. The temporary effect of Touch of Darkness is therefore less impactful in direct creature control but more focused on strategic plays surrounding color dependent scenarios.

When evaluating similar options, Touch of Darkness may not provide the immediate creature board impact of other spells, but it shines as a tactical tool for players needing precise color manipulation for combos or to avoid protection colors temporarily in MTG.

Holy Light - MTG Card versions
Darkest Hour - MTG Card versions
Peppersmoke - MTG Card versions
Holy Light - The Dark (DRK)
Darkest Hour - Urza's Saga (USG)
Peppersmoke - Lorwyn (LRW)

Cards similar to Touch of Darkness by color, type and mana cost

Howl from Beyond - MTG Card versions
Dark Ritual - MTG Card versions
Sacrifice - MTG Card versions
Darkness - MTG Card versions
Marsh Gas - MTG Card versions
Gravebind - MTG Card versions
Misinformation - MTG Card versions
Vampiric Tutor - MTG Card versions
Dredge - MTG Card versions
Vendetta - MTG Card versions
Coffin Purge - MTG Card versions
Defile - MTG Card versions
March of Wretched Sorrow - MTG Card versions
Fatal Push - MTG Card versions
Foulmire Knight // Profane Insight - MTG Card versions
Fade from Memory - MTG Card versions
Duh - MTG Card versions
Aesthetic Consultation - MTG Card versions
Stop That - MTG Card versions
Disembowel - MTG Card versions
Howl from Beyond - Seventh Edition (7ED)
Dark Ritual - Warhammer 40,000 Commander (40K)
Sacrifice - 30th Anniversary Edition (30A)
Darkness - Warhammer 40,000 Commander (40K)
Marsh Gas - The Dark (DRK)
Gravebind - Ice Age (ICE)
Misinformation - Alliances (ALL)
Vampiric Tutor - Dominaria Remastered (DMR)
Dredge - Invasion (INV)
Vendetta - World Championship Decks 2001 (WC01)
Coffin Purge - Odyssey (ODY)
Defile - Modern Horizons 1 Timeshifts (H1R)
March of Wretched Sorrow - Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty (NEO)
Fatal Push - Kaladesh Remastered (KLR)
Foulmire Knight // Profane Insight - The List (PLST)
Fade from Memory - Onslaught (ONS)
Duh - Unhinged (UNH)
Aesthetic Consultation - Unhinged (UNH)
Stop That - Unhinged (UNH)
Disembowel - Ravnica: City of Guilds (RAV)

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Touch of Darkness MTG card by a specific set like Legends, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Touch of Darkness and other MTG cards:

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Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Touch of Darkness has restrictions

FormatLegality
OldschoolLegal
CommanderLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
PredhLegal

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