Clinging Darkness MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 2 |
| Rarity | Common |
| Type | Enchantment — Aura |
| Abilities | Enchant |
| Released | 2005-10-07 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Ravnica: City of Guilds |
| Set code | RAV |
| Number | 80 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Glen Angus |
Key Takeaways
- Neutralizes threats effectively, sometimes saving resources that would handle potent adversaries.
- Restricts to black mana decks but proves useful in creature control and board dynamics.
- Vulnerable to enchantment removal, but a strategic boon in creature-heavy meta environments.
Text of card
Enchant creature Enchanted creature gets -4/-1.
There's an experience worse than blindness—it's the certainty that your vision is perfect and the horror that there's no world around you to see.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: While Clinging Darkness doesn’t offer a card draw directly, its primary role is to neutralize threats. By enchanting and weakening an opposing creature, it can indirectly contribute to maintaining card superiority by negating the need to use multiple resources to deal with a single threat.
Resource Acceleration: Clinging Darkness may not provide traditional mana acceleration, it can be considered a form of resource acceleration in terms of tempo. By reducing a creature’s power, it can stabilize your board presence and delay your opponent, thus giving you more time to access necessary resources or play more impactful cards.
Instant Speed: The aura operates at sorcery speed, which requires strategic planning when it’s best to deploy. The key is that the enchantment sticks around, continuing to suppress an opponent’s creature and potentially creating openings for your game plan to accelerate uninterrupted.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Clinging Darkness doesn’t directly force a discard, but playing it could mean one less card in hand to counter incoming threats or develop your own board. It’s crucial to consider when sacrificing card advantage for this effect.
Specific Mana Cost: With a mana cost that requires black mana, Clinging Darkness is confined to decks that can produce that color. This can be restrictive and might not fit into multicolor decks that are tight on mana base.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: At three mana, this enchantment’s cost is a bit steep for the effect it provides. There are alternatives that could potentially offer more impact on the game or more efficient removal for less mana commitment.
Reasons to Include Clinging Darkness in Your Collection
Versatility: Clinging Darkness, being an enchantment aura, has the ability to flexibly attach to any creature. This adaptability makes it a useful tool in decks that focus on controlling or altering the battlefield dynamics.
Combo Potential: Its effect to decrease a creature’s power can synergize well with cards that thrive off weakened or debilitated creatures, opening up opportunities for interesting combo plays in your deckbuilding.
Meta-Relevance: In a meta where creatures dominate the board, Clinging Darkness has relevance by neutering high-threat targets, potentially diminishing the effectiveness of opponent’s strategies that rely heavily on creature-based synergies.
How to beat
Clinging Darkness in Magic: The Gathering acts as a powerful utility spell that can bog down an opponent’s creature by giving it -4/-1. Not only does this impact the equipped creature’s ability to deal damage, but in many cases, it can also eliminate smaller threats entirely. However, this enchantment’s limitation lies with its permanence on the battlefield and focus on a single target.
Players have several strategies to overcome Clinging Darkness. One method is enchantment removal, which can be found in cards like Naturalize at just two mana. By directly removing the enchantment, the creature’s original stats are restored. Another approach is to use hexproof or shroud abilities, rendering the target immune to such spells. Cards like Invisible Stalker or Swiftfoot Boots can provide such capabilities, denying Clinging Darkness a viable target.
In summary, while Clinging Darkness can be a temporary setback, players can utilize a variety of MTG cards and strategies to mitigate or neutralize its effects, ensuring minimal impact on their gameplay and maintaining momentum towards victory.
Cards like Clinging Darkness
Clinging Darkness fits neatly into the family of enchantment auras that debuff creatures in Magic: The Gathering. Similar to cards like Dead Weight, Clinging Darkness reduces a target creature’s power and toughness. While Dead Weight offers an immediate -2/-2 to the enchanted creature, Clinging Darkness differs by adding a regenerative component, potentially salvaging creatures on your side of the battlefield.
Another comparable card is Weight of Consciousness. Though it serves a similar purpose by weakening an opponent’s creature, it stands apart due to its potential to incapacitate a creature entirely with its tap-down ability. This can be critical during combat, redirecting the game’s momentum in your favor. Unlike Clinging Darkness, however, it lacks the recurring benefit of creature regeneration.
Cross-pollinating these effects for strategic advantage is key in MTG deck building. While Clinging Darkness doesn’t produce an immediate drop in power as extensive as Dead Weight or offer a complete neutralization like Weight of Consciousness, its unique trait of bringing creatures back from the brink gives it a distinctive place in control decks.
Cards similar to Clinging Darkness by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Clinging Darkness MTG card by a specific set like Ravnica: City of Guilds, 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 Clinging Darkness and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Clinging Darkness has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Paupercommander | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pauper | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |