Ebony Charm (Original Sketch)

Also used as for the Mirage box cover art, Ebony Charm is a one-mana black instant from Mirage (1996). The Charm cycle from Mirage (including Ebony Charm, Ivory Charm, Sapphire Charm, Chaos Charm, and Seedling Charm) was an early experiment in modal instants – flexible one-mana spells that offered three small but situationally useful effects. Ebony Charm embodies black’s flavor perfectly – draining life (target opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life), manipulating the graveyard (exile up to three target cards from a single graveyard), and granting evasion through fear (target creature gains fear until end of turn). While its effects are minor, the card was an early example of versatility over raw power, giving players meaningful decisions for a very low cost. It’s legal in Legacy, Vintage, Commander (EDH) and Premodern. In early Legacy and Vintage, before cards like Tormod’s Crypt and Nihil Spellbomb became ubiquitous, Ebony Charm was sometimes used as a sideboard card to exile three cards from a graveyard at instant speed. This made it a surprise answer to e.g. Reanimate, Dance of the Dead, or Oath of Druids triggers. In Premodern Magic, Ebony Charm occasionally sees play as a meta-dependent sideboard card against Reanimator and Survival of the Fittest decks. The “target creature gains fear” mode sometimes enabled lethal damage in mono-black aggro decks in early Type 2 (Standard) play in the late 1990’s. It could make a Hypnotic Specter or Black Knight unblockable to finish off an opponent. Ebony Charm is not on the Reserved List.