Delve is a rather deceptive ability. Much like
Lhurgoyfs from sets gone by, it tempts you into
thinking that you need to devote your entire
deck to making it powerful. In reality, it
simply gives you a bonus just for playing Magic,
in the course of which cards go to the graveyard
constantly. You don't need to get the full
four-mana discount to make Murderous Cut a
strong card; even two mana gives you a Murder
with a less intensive color requirement (if it
needed one). The only question is how much of a
role it plays in a world with multicolored
charms that double as removal - it may be played
as redundancy only. It's still worth
considering, though.
Today's card of the day is Murderous Cut which
is a five mana Black instant with Delve that
destroys target creature. It takes two
cards exiled from the graveyard to equal a less
versatile Hero's Downfall and three to hit the
two mana cost of the typical Black removal with
an exception cards. In a deck that fills
the graveyard with cards it doesn't need for
other purposes this may see play, but otherwise
there is no shortage of other choices that only
require mana.
In Limited even if cast for five mana this is a
great removal option that only needs one Black
mana which allows it to be used in many
different builds. A very strong second
choice in Booster and one that shouldn't be
easily passed. For Sealed it belongs in
any deck using Black mana, though with the
higher mana cost this one card alone isn't
enough to splash the color.
Sometimes there's no need to get fancy. "Destroy
target creature" is pretty straightforward.
This, of course, won't be for every black deck,
because you need to have at least 2 cards in
your graveyard to make the cost of this remotely
cost efficient. The good thing is that many
times in the right deck, you can delve this cost
all the way down to 1 black mana, and that is
about as efficient as you can get.
The downside to delve cards is that you have to
be careful how many you put in a deck. Too many,
and you're going to run out of graveyard fuel
too quickly. You also have to have ways to get
things in the graveyard.
The hefty 4B cost can be mitigated by delving.
However, with such a graveyard taxing cost, I
cannot see a deck using more than just 1-2 if
they have a graveyard they want to give up to
begin with. With lots of other Black
removal options like "Go For The Throat" and
"Doom Blade", at the very best you're saving
only 1 mana. At worst, early game, this
card is unplayable or is far too expensive to
activate. The other two cards I mentioned
aren't quite as versatile but are more
consistent.
Definitely a good card overall, but it's
idiosyncratic and depends on your deck. I
see better options in both mono-black and mixed
decks but it's still good removal for decks that
don't depend much on the graveyard. It's
up to your preferences but its not essential.
