Legendary Creature — Human Rogue Villain

Black Cat, Cunning Thief

Mana value5EDHREC#7,736

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The Commander

When Black Cat enters, look at the top nine cards of target opponent's library, exile two of them face down, then put the rest on the bottom of their library in a random order. You may play the exiled cards for as long as they remain exiled. Mana of any type can be spent to cast spells this way.

Guide

Gameplan

Cast Black Cat, steal two cards from an opponent's library each time she enters, and turn other players' resources into your own gameplan. Blink and recast her repeatedly to keep stealing, while using mono-black's reanimation and tutoring to grind value until you out-resource the table and close with stolen bombs or a finisher.

Strengths

ETB value that repeats with blink/bounce/recursion
Any-color mana clause lets you cast stolen multicolor spells off pure black mana
Mono-black access to strong tutors, recursion, and removal
Punishes opponents with powerful libraries by taking their best cards

Weaknesses

Five mana for a fragile body that does nothing if killed before connecting
Theft is random-ish; you only see nine cards and may whiff on impact
No inherent evasion, ramp, or protection in the text
Stolen cards are lost if you can't cast them before they leave exile / a wipe resets your engine

Key Cards

Conjurer's Closet — Blinks Black Cat each end step to steal two more cards every turn.
Phyrexian Reclamation — Repeatedly returns Black Cat from the graveyard to recast and keep stealing.
Cloudstone Curio — Bounce Black Cat with another creature to retrigger her theft loop.
Whip of Erebos — Reanimates Black Cat for another ETB and gives lifelink to stabilize.
Sword of Hearth and Home — Grants protection and blinks Black Cat on combat damage for extra triggers.
Cabal Coffers — Big black mana fuels recasting Black Cat and casting expensive stolen spells.

Upgrade Path

Add consistent blink and recursion enablers (Conjurer's Closet, Cloudstone Curio, Phyrexian Reclamation) plus protection like Swiftfoot Boots so Black Cat survives to trigger. Lean into mono-black ramp (Cabal Coffers, Nykthos, Dark Ritual) and tutors (Demonic/Vampiric Tutor) to find your engine and a clean win like Torment of Hailfire or a reanimator combo. Round out with strong removal and recursive board control so each heist matters.

Core Cards

The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.

Win Conditions

▸Out-value the table and finish with stolen bombs or a big black finisher
▸Drain the table with Gray Merchant of Asphodel or similar mono-black payoffs
▸Repeated card advantage feeding a tutored combo (e.g., reanimation/sacrifice loops)
▸Beat down with reanimated or stolen threats

Archetypes

Theft / Value — Her core ETB exiles and lets you cast opponents' cards, building an engine around stealing resources.
Blink — Repeatedly flickering Black Cat multiplies her two-card heist every turn.
Reanimator — Mono-black recursion brings her back cheaply to retrigger and recurs other big threats.
Control — Heavy removal and disruption keep you alive while you grind incremental advantage.