The last Standard set of 2022, The Brothers' War, revisits Magic The Gathering's past, returning to the event of the same name. The Antiquities set showed off some of the creatures and artifacts in The Brothers' War, but the set is our first real look at the many events and stories since the novel's release.

RELATED: Magic: The Gathering – The Best Green Cards In The Brothers' War

There are many powerful cards present in the set. There are plenty of fantastic new spells, along with some very welcomed reprints, sure to affect the formats they appear in. The Brothers' War has cards looking to impact almost all of the formats, and the black ones are no exception.

10 Dreams Of Steel And Oil

Dreams Of Steel And Oil card and art background

Dreams Of Steel And Oil is a one-mana sorcery that allows you to not hit just a card out of the hand but get one out of the graveyard as well. While the cards it targets are a bit more narrow, the extra layer of graveyard hate is appreciated.

While Dreams of Steel and Oil likely won't make an appearance in the main deck, it's a fantastic sideboard card. There are many decks that utilize artifacts or creatures in the graveyard. Certain matchups like Greasefang can cause the whole strategy to crumble, making Dreams of Steel and Oil worth a lot in sideboards in decks that can make black mana.

9 No One Left Behind

No-One-Left-Behind card art and background

Reanimation spells are always a welcome addition to a card pool, and No One Left Behind gives you to option to cast it with a discount if it targets a low mana value creature. Having easy recursion is quite appreciated in a deck that runs a lot of low-casting creatures, and it can even reanimate your bigger creatures later in the game.

It's a solid choice in midrange decks, allowing you to get an early threat back onto the battlefield after it gets removed or your win conditions when you have the mana to spend on it.

8 Hostile Negotiations

Hostile-Negotiations card and art background

Hostile Negotiations allows you to dig through your deck for six cards and guarantees you get at least three of those in your hand. Though it is a bit pricey at four mana since it's an instant spell, you can use it at your end phase to ensure you keep mana up during your opponent's turn for interaction.

RELATED: Magic: The Gathering – The Best Artifacts In The Brothers' War

It's similar to the blue card Fact or Fiction, but Hostile Negotiations gives you control of the piles and what is revealed. This allows you to trick your opponents into giving you more powerful cards based on what's shown to them.

7 Go For The Throat

Go For The Throat card and art background

Go for the Throat is not a new card but a reprint. While it's appeared in many supplemental products, it hasn't seen a Premiere set printing since Mirrodin Besieged. It's a powerful two-mana removal spell, hitting most of the commonly played creatures across many formats.

Go for the Throat's printing will impact Standard, and, more notably, Pioneer where it will officially become legal for the first time. This allows for a more broad removal spell in both formats without having to pay an extra cost like something such as Infernal Grasp, which requires you to pay two life.

6 Overwhelming Remorse

Overwhelming Remorse card and art background

Overwhelming Remorse is a fantastic removal spell that allows you to exile a creature and a planeswalker for as little as one mana. In decks that fill up the graveyard, you can easily hit the discount threshold. It's an instant spell as well, allowing for even more versatility.

There are many relevant graveyard decks across many formats. Decks like Greasefang in Pioneer or Reanimator in Pauper (where Overwhelming Remorse is playable since it's a common) could benefit from gaining more cheap interaction spells, especially one that exiles to make it near-impossible to get those creatures back.

5 Gixian Puppeteer

Gixian Puppeteer card art and text

Gixian Puppeteer is a fantastic card that punishes opponents by you simply drawing your second card each turn. Black has plenty of draw spells, and even more if you splash in other colors like blue or red. This pairs especially nicely with Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, as the effects stack on each other to burn for even more damage.

RELATED: Magic: The Gathering - Brothers' War Transformers Cards, Ranked

Gixian Puppeteer has the added bonus of acting as a reanimator for low-mana value creatures. Since there are draw spells that discard for cost, you can fill up your graveyard with a creature for Gixian Puppeteer to reanimate later while drawing cards for its other effect.

4 Painful Quandary

Magic The Gathering The Best Enchantments In The Brothers' War Painful Quandary

Painful Quandary is another reprint of a card, this time from Scars of Mirrodin. It's a welcomed reprint due to its higher price and fantastic effect. Painful Quandary is a powerful enchantment that can quickly get out of hand, making it much harder for opponents to cast spells without steep costs.

It costs five mana, making it a bit of a hefty cast, but one that is very worthwhile. Once it hits the battlefield, it has an immediate impact and will start draining either the opponent's life or hands.

3 Diabolic Intent

Diabolic Intent card and art background

Diabolic Intent is a phenomenal card and a reprint of a card that hasn't seen a Standard printing since 2001's Planeshift. It's an amazing tutor, only costing two mana and needing a sacrifice of a creature to put any card from your deck into your hand.

Previously, Diabolic Intent was only legal in Legacy, Vintage, and Commander, but with the release of Brothers' War, Diabolic Intent will be put into Standard, Pioneer, and Modern. These formats having such a good tutor is sure to shake them up, making it the best black reprint in The Brothers' War.

2 Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor

Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor card and art background

Gix, Yawgmoth Praetor is a phenomenal black creature, giving you card advantage and encouraging your opponents to attack each other to gain draw in multiplayer formats like Commander. It only costs three mana, making it easy to start taking advantage of its effect early.

When you have a full hand, you can use Gix's other ability to take away cards from your opponent's deck and use them for your own, all while being free to cast. Gix's first effect fuels its second, allowing you to ensure you have cards to discount so you can use it.

1 Misery's Shadow

Miserys Shadow card and art background

One of the most hyped-up cards of the entire set, Misery's Shadow is one of the best cards of its kind. For only two mana, you get a creature that you can continuously pump up with any colored mana (Shades usually require a specific color). In addition, it forces all creatures destroyed to be exiled.

This exile effect is general, meaning Misery's Shadow doesn't have to be the card to destroy it. With how splashable Misery's Shadow is and how cheap it costs, it's prime to be a staple in aggro decks across many formats.

Next: Magic: The Gathering – The Best Mono-Black Commanders