The plane of Taramir has reached the end of its time. The struggles of the Waning Age have been forgotten, for the sun has set for the final time, leaving the world in darkness. The Evernight, that realm the sun has forsaken, beyond civilization and hope, has a core of the blackest magic. The entire world is falling into darkness, but within there is not simply oblivion...
☼Taramir Block☼
Taramir Block consists of three sets: Taramir, Waning Light, and finally Age of Darkness. All three sets feature the new mechanics Salvage and Decay as well as the returning mechanic Cumulative Upkeep. In addition, Waning Light brought Fateseal into the picture. To this, Age of Darkness adds the return of Vanishing.
Salvage: Salvage is an activated ability that can be activated only when the card with salvage is in its owner's graveyard, when he or she could cast a sorcery. Salvaging a card exiles it and has the listed effects. Taramir introduced Salvage while Waning Light added off-color salvage costs and Salvage spells with effects dissimilar to their initial effect from being cast. Age of Darkness introduces Colorless and Nonmana salvage costs.
Decay: Decay is an ability word that causes one or more depletion counters to be added to the permanent with Decay, and causes it to be sacrificed when too many depletion counters have been accumulated.
~Black Rares~
Part of why this update has taken so long (after I got back into the swing of things with red) is me grappling with this set of cards, since so many of them say "exile" First, exiling isn't really black's normal hat, though it's been done, and second I was worried that they might turn out a little same-y. But in the end, they met with only small edits: Exile was really the only way to put the reins on Despair, and the exile spells felt a lot better with the clean wording than with a complicated kludge of text to insist the proper people sacrifice the things in question ("Exile each creature with the least power" versus "Each player sacrifices each creature he or she controls with the least power or that is tied for the least power.") And... those three were the creature-exilers. Evernight Demon exiled itself like all the Vanishing Iconics, and neither the king nor the reprint messed with it.
Despair
Creature – Incarnation [R]
You may cast Despair from your graveyard
When Despair enters the battlefield, each player exiles a creature he or she control
4/4
Evernight Demon
Creature – Demon [R]
Flying, Vanishing 4
When Evernight Demon dies, if it had a time counter on it, exile it and each opponent loses 3 life.
5/3
Khavus, King of the Evernight
Legendary Creature – Nightstalker Shaman [R]
Nightstalker creatures have Intimidate
Tap five untapped Nightstalker creatures you control: Gain control of target creature. It’s a Black Nightstalker in addition to its other colors and types.
3/2
Extinction (Reprint)
The Last Light Fails
Sorcery [R]
Discard your hand, then exile each nonblack, non-nightstalker creature with power less than the number of cards discarded this way.
Only the strong and the foul can stand firm in the face of utter darkness.
Surrender to Darkness
Enchantment [R]
At the beginning of your end step, exile each creature with the least power (if there is a tie, exile all tied creatures)
~Black Mythic~
Smokestack is an awesome card. It's a card so awesome it has long had its own deck archetype (Stax) without getting itself banned anywhere. At the sweet spot of destructive power and unfortunate backlash, Smokestack is the gold standard for turning the battlefield into a hellhole of misery and despair. Naturally, Taramir's Age of Darkness had to have something like it. Something to represent in such brutal terms the state of affairs when the sun has burned out and the skies are dark for the rest of time. I present, the Eternal Night...
Spoiler
So, that's it right? Wrong. There's one more update for Age of Darkness (and therefore Taramir Block), which will consist of three cards -- all Mythic Rares, a second Black mythic and two multicolored. I'll probably arrange the spoiler a little different, and show off something of what started Taramir going. If you're familiar with the M:EM you probably know where this going but if you don't... it's going to be a trip.