Ok gotta admit, the story of the kid using Platinum Angel's effect to refuse a judge's call because if you cant loose the game, then you should be inmune to getting game losses for illegal actions is HILARIOUS
@@thedude5able I figured. I thought I typed “I’m guessing that doesn’t work” but thats pretty reasonable. You may not be able to lose the game but you can still get DQd
@@B-Ran_the_Man A few people have asked about it, it will probably depends on how popular this video is. I enjoy Magic history, so if you all enjoy it too I'd love to make more of them and cover the other card types.
In 2010, I opened Foil Baneslayer Angel out of my first box I ever bought. Walked to the counter, handed it to the shop owner and got handed another box. 2 weeks later it reprinted and was worth 10 bucks.
97 mogg fanatic should have beat out those three mana critters … mono red was more omnipresent than survival. Us Nats was won by an anti motored deck in mono white
Fun fact. Ragavan is a red Savannah Lions with 30 additional words not counting rules text. That's almost 1 word pertaining to abilities per year since 1993.
@@moonknight2865 doesn't make it better than DRS. Both very powerful, and very different so difficult to compare. Also I suppose the reason Grisel is banned in Commander has more to do with the starting life total of the format.
I'm surprised that for 1993 Serra Angel didn't get at least an honorable mention. A big enough body to survive a Lightning Bolt, and flying and vigilance to make it an evasive attacker while still being able to defend against everything made it THE creature of choice for control decks of the day.
in fact, if you drop blightsteel colossus's power by a couple points by whatever means you like, it'll stop being an ohko; phage kills no matter how much damage it deals, making it actually better at the instakill job than the colossus. (and this is ignoring those tokens vraska makes that do the same thing!)
Keep in mind, the reason Spectral Bears was playable maindeck in 1995 is because NECROPOTENCE decks were everywhere. A 3/3 for 2 mana was good stats, but without 70% of the meta being mono-black the can't untap drawback still would have made it a pretty bad card during normal circumstances.
As was primeval titan at its time, especially over emrakul. Disciple of the vault. Same with wild mongrel over the tog. There isn’t really any logic to this.
I agree, except for Wild Mongrel over Psychatog. I love Wild Mongrel and it was highly impactful in standard and limited and saw play in extended. But, Psychatog won Worlds, an Extended PT, and saw play in vintage for a while.
@@jahs3897 Good points. It's also worth considering that in Invasion/Odyssey Standard Wild Mongrel saw play in basically every deck that wasn't Psychatog. People would splash Green to fit it in, and it would be a good choice in nearly every case. Once Invasion rotated out, Psychatog decks were severely weakened, but Wild Mongrel retained its position in Standard for another 12 months.
@@seanclanton9086 yeah watching this...there is no logic to this at all. I cant figure out if he is picking the creatures that were the best THE YEAR they came out or the impact they had in magic.
before they threw the color wheel away; red & black had all the removal cards and had poorer creatures because of it green could sometimes get out a fattie cheaper than 4 mana OG Black creatures had the high costs/upkeep/ mmmm Mold Demon Red fatties play the sad trombone seeing QB with Haste; which is their portfolio
I feel like Lurrus was made by some designer at wizards to win a bet over whether a modern card could get banned in vintage. In a format with Black Lotus, it casts off of lotus, recasts lotus every turn, it provides a life buffer early that kneecaps fast combo that needs to count to 20, it comes down fast in a format where creature removal is less prevalent, and it was restricted in the format from day 1
Huh. What a funny coincidence. The year the power creep "really began to take hold" was the year after Arena released and Hasbro took a more invested interest in MtG... 🤔
As much as I love the conspiracy, the truth is that it's when they started following new FIRE design principles, which were started before Arena's release and at a time when Wizards had more autonomy. WotC proved they were plenty capable of screwing their own game long before Hasbro started squeezing money out of them.
I still remember Morphling and Masticor being jaw-dropping good. That was my youth, quit soon after, and just came back. You can imagine how astonished I'm about the creatures nowadays. Like you went in jail pre-intenet age...
That's how I felt about Pokémon 😂 I played when I was a kid, and now looking at the vmaxes and other cards it's pretty crazy that you can have Pokémon woth over 300hp 😆
1994 got to go to Serra Angel over Ornithopter. The blue/white control at the time with a lot of Fellwar stones, Jayemdae tomes, Swords, Wrath of god, a lot of counter magic and control magic was incredible hard to beat at the time and when Serra came down that could both attack and block… it was hard. And if they had to wipe the board with a balance or wrath they always had a few Mishra's Factories that would survive the wipe out.
Seems a bit inconsistent how some cards are judged by their current impact (ornithopter for ex.) while some are judged by their impact then (masticore)
"We're trying to rank cards based on how good they were when they were printed." I'm confused as to why Ornithopter is being mentioned because nobody really did anything with it in 1994 and it wasn't until it was reprinted in MIrrodin that it started making an impact.
0:51 I started playing Magic in 1994, and it wasn't until 3 or 4 years ago when I realized Juzam Djinn did NOT only cost BB. Because of how dark the colorless 2 was printed, I didn't know until someone pointed it out via an argument (that resulted with me having egg on my face).
you clearly put in a lot of effort and care into this content, and its absolutely stunning. im sitting here just smiling and tearing up at everything youre talking about and explaining. thanks for being so consistently awesome as a content creator, seth; youve kept me caring about magic for years.
Ornithopter was considered a lousy card in '94. It was neat, but not worth the cost of one card. It became good later due to artifact synergies. Drawing attention to Platinum Angel's text was a troll move. You actually made me LTG.
@@schroecat1 Birds of Paradise is obviously better. Serra Angel isn't played in updated iterations of the "best deck" within that time period's format.
Birds is timelessly useful, because ramp is timelessly useful. Serra angel was the single best control finisher of its time, and in that role it has been superceded. But in the context of alpha, control was much better than ramp, because of the lack of viable big threats to ramp to. The only competitive deck to control was burn.
Seth - I loved how you clearly did your research for the early days (I remember hearing somewhere, Humans of Magic if I'm not mistaken, that you got into the game relatively late). I do think that BoP should be replaced by Serra Angel since this was the wincon in The Deck - but awesome list!
Serra Angel... so powerful that it was pulled from the base set for 5th and 6th Editions before its return in 7th as a Rare creature. Then when base sets ended and returned it came back as an uncommon for limited but nothing you're likely to see in constructed.
This is a good list, but I don’t see how death rite shaman isn’t the choice for 2012, seeing as it’s either the first or second best creature ever made
Bonecrusher is 2019 also it was the best creature and it curved into itself on the second and third turns. It dominated standard and made 3 toughness the mark to aim for in standard.
I really enjoy this style of video from you, you're a very good narrator and always do a great job of making whatever subject you're talking about entertaining
I love this variety content, I hugely miss Tomers lore videos. Liked also seeing Phil and Crims videos this and last week. Keep up the variety stuff it's a nice change on occasion.
I started right before Dominaria came out in 2018. About a week before and I was hyped for the release. Started playing arena maybe a month or so later. The power shift from Dom to eld was nuts
I feel like balance was in the best place in the 10 years between 2005-2015, where you start to see cards with both viable statlines and one or teo positive abilities, which allow for versatile utility and combo potential, but still doesnt turn a single card into a complicated interaction engine by itself. I think the game is in the best place when the goal isnt just cheating a singly bodey out, but constructing a synergy from multiple parts over multiple turns with enough internal redundancy ro survive some interference from the opponent. Conversely, most creatures up till about mirrodin had either weak spell effects and a borderline useless body, a just about acceptable statline with no useful effect for small drops, or a useless statline way over cost for big ones, or an actually respectable statline, but some crippling downside effect you rarely had a way of negating, making creatures basically not worth playing.
There were a lot of cards at that time that could make the cut for best, don't forget we're talking about the same standard that had Thragtusk and Resto Angel. While I think Delver made the most impact maybe in standard format I would argue that Snapcaster made approximately equal or maybe just a little less impact on standard, while also enabling LOADS of decks in Modern and Legacy. Sure Delver also saw a lot of play in other formats, but it was a build around card, where Snapcaster was literally that card where if your running blue at all you were always asking "should this be in here"
Man, I can't keep watching this video repeatedly, but it's just so great! One of my favorite videos on this website (also a big fan of that Pretty Deece video, but theres way more of these vids and theyre all awesome). Okay, I wills top spamming the comments, I'm just so happy someone else remembers the 90's and all that good stuff. Beautiful.
Sad to see you name the Horde for 1996 as Frenetic Efreet and Blinking Spirit were high end tournament staples for the control style decks that dominated. Also I do see the Birds nomination, but I actually saw far more Juggernauts back then during tournament play although BoP were extremely popular, but they all paled in comparison to Serra Angels and Hypnotic Specters. The avian manadorks did see their popularity grow in the following years since it stayed in print for a very long time and 3+ color decks became much more prevalent. Also I probably would have maybe cheated a bit and given Mishra's Factory a nod even though it's a land.
Dark Ritual+Hippie was one of the meanest first turn plays back in the day. Such a headache if you didn't have a bolt or plawshare handy. I thought he was easily the best creature back than and I'm surprised he doesn't get mentioned more often.
@@funnymcfunfuns1455 The worst was 2 rituals a Hippie and a Hymn. Shocking how often that did occur. Just hoping for something that made a white mana and a Swords. Those were the days. But now you can have Negan from the walking Dead as your commander, play a dungeons and dragons art card, then equip Negan's bat to Starscream. None of that I want in a game, sadly, but Hasbro decided Magic has to be Fortnite as well as have Fortnite cards because money is better than continuity, storytelling, or anything else.
Blinking Spirit was 1995, and listing Spectral Bears over it is a fair move. The Bears were *everywhere*. 1993 was definitely Serra Angel, it basically defined early Magic.
Thanks for doing this list : ) so many cool cards, so many fun memories. Personally, 2011 was the coolest year. It was my first year of college too! Going to the game store for Innistrad pre-release with all the dorm guys was truly an adventure of a lifetime.
Love seeing Bob and Snappy on here! Excellent and delightful cards to play with. I agree with Sheoldred for 2022. There aren’t any creatures from this year that have broken formats right in half like the three years before it, and Sheoldred is a powerhouse. I put a copy straight into Yawgmoth in Modern when it dropped and it has proved to be an excellent choice, it’s a refreshing card, seeing that it doesn’t require an ETB to be powerful. I want to see more designs like Sheoldred, and Yawgmoth, for that matter.
I mean... questing beast, yes it has infinite text and it was strong but it really didn't pass the test of real play, I'd argue bonecrusher and brazen borrower have been as impactful on standard at the time and are clearly more impactful on modern though not really seeing much play anymore. The 2019 spot should have gone to Hogaak, how many creatures can claim they broke modern completely on their own? to the point that banning cards in his deck didn't help stopping it. I honestly don't think any creature in magic history has been so format defining as hogaak, power creep so far above the head of the questing beast that it just makes every other creature look bad. Also... while I agree on 2020, I feel our friend Uro should have gotten at least a tiny mention
Yeah, I focused on Questing Beast since it is such a clean comparison to some of the older cards from the 90's, but there were so many busted creatures in 2019 if you want to go with one of the adventure cards or whatever I wouldn't argue.
I remember Rainbow Efreet being a control staple during visions. And then there was wildfire emissary being super meta for a while because it was the only good 4-drop at the time that could be neither bolted or plowed, which meant it blanked the removal spells of the other best decks at the time and also gave you a mana sink with the pump ability.
Not sure what the list is. Played back then, or still played now i.e. cards which stood the test of time? Ornithopter may be played now, but saw absolutely no play back in 1995. It was almost unplayable. If played now, than not clear why say Balduvian Horde is on. Confusing!
I'm honestly pretty surprised that Goldspan Dragon or Luminarch Aspirant didn't make the honorable mention list at minimum. Those cards were EVERYWHERE and basically an auto-include in those colors. Aspirant allowed white weenie to not get out-scaled and the mana produced by targeting goldspan dragon made it extremely easy to protect and even if you didnt protect it, it still gave you benefits.
Awesome video looking back into magics history, I always enjoy your videos Seth! I've seen other comments mention doing the other card types, and I agree, but I'd also like to see a video talking about which cards are seen the most in today's meta from each year.
The other big miss is 2010, emrakul is not that powerful for standard and other formats when it was printed in comparison to the titans, which are multiformat staples esp. primetime and immediately vaulted past baneslayer when it came to big curve toppers. Should at least have been mentioned
I know that Watchwolf caused quite an uproar when it was printed, but did it actually have impact in constructed formats? I can't imagine Watchwolf being more prominent than Dark Confidant
Ah yes, Morphling and Masticore. The best creatures during that time. I miss being able to put damage on the stack. I'm pretty sure Umezawa's Jitte was what finally triggered Wizards to remove it. It's still a good equipment but being able to stack the damage made it insanely good.
I would argue that BBE was the best creature in 2009. It created the Jund archetype when it released, and it was the best deck in Standard at the time.
I pause to read every card. Been playing since ice age but haven't played in years since I have no friends. Love this and hearing about all the creatures I missed is awesome,
Zombie Master is still one of my favs to date. All of the old school Lords were iconic as a kid. I started Magic during Ice Age and remember when Alliances rolled out. We used to call Balduvian Horde the Balduvian Boner since everyone wanted that card soooooo bad. Rathi Dragon too when he dropped.
I do appreciate you pointing out that for a very long time, creatures were on the weaker end when it comes to card types overall, so imo their power creep is also in some ways just equity to keep things interesting
i started in 1993 and remember my 1st pack of mtg where i got the birds of paradise and threw it away since i was a naive 2nd grader who was looking for creatures with the highest power and toughness. realized my mistake a few years later. Also visions box set was my first serious investment into mtg as a kid where i sucked up eating packed noodles and did weekend child work to save up for a whole box of boosters. nekrataal and hammer of bogardan were my prized cards back then. watching this video made me walk back my memory lane as each card had a memory with me growing up. thank you for that. i miss the hours going thru cards without internet to help you in order to make a deck that syncs or becomes an archetype, testing it out at your shop then repeating it all over again. that is something og mtg players will never forget and will always cherish. nowadays everything is served to you very easy on what combos well. worse, everything has to be politically correct even for a FANTASY game. rip white/black knight imo,my favorite will always be the ball lightning + bloodlust combo
the best part about flash hulk is that even if hulk straight up said you cannot combo kill with the cards you summon it probably would still be to broken for it's time.
As someone who started playing magic with Ice Age, I was definitely one of the people who lost my mind when Watchwolves was released. My friend group had all kind of agreed that the formula was that X mana would get you a 2X creature (3 mana could get you a 3/3 or a 5/1 for example). If a creature had more than 2X, then it had some kind of drawback like requiring a sacrifice or discard. If it had less than 2X, it would have some kind of ability. So to see a 3/3 for two that had no drawbacks, wasn't even legendary even, that was just massive.
Wow u have brought up so many memories. It hurt so much to sell my collection, had so many of these cards. Miss playing with my friends and at local tournaments for fun. Mtg still best card game ever
Damn, this brought up a lot of memories... It also changed my perspective of my personal magic history. I didn't engage with the game pre '95, from 01 to 04 and 07 to 2010 (just estimated that from the video) and used to think of myself as an "on and off" kind of player. Each return to the game felt like i missed an eternity because nothing i knew was relevant anymore - all format staples changed. In type2/standard thats obvious, but also in extended/legacy/canadian highlander. This made me realize that those gaps were much much smaller than they felt and also how long my current "on-streak" allready is.
Started during Onslaught block. I have distinct memories of Goyf and Baneslayer being cards outside my wallets reach as a college student…wild to see them plummeted in price and to think I wouldn’t even have a deck for baneslayer today in any format…it was a truly stunning creature in 2009 that was just everywhere in Standard tournaments
Questing beast is 2019 (which I btw would replace with Hogaak) Uro did deserve an honorable mention on 2020 though but companions always had that year in their pocket
@@blueplayer6197 Yeah, Hogaak is stronger than questing beast. Its just was so much more disruptive. Though he did say that there were like 10 cards you could argue as the strongest that year.
@@blueplayer6197 Ohh you're right, i fudged the dates , QB and Uro aren't even from the same year. Yeah then it checks out, for how absurdly pushed Uro was, it can't hold a candle to the sheer absurdity of Lurrus with the original companion mechanic
To be honest I'll take 2013 for "Fight-Hydra" as it was my favorite card and was a fun threat. IF the hydra is left for the following turn in a standard with thoughtsieze, hero's downfall and Elspeth sun's champion, I felt it was only fair you get your board pushed in. Though I will recognize TNN was quite the problematic card as well... Like I said, just happy that Fight-Hyrda was even mentioned.
Being around when the game started the front of this list looks so accurate and really can take one back to those "great" creature decks of the day where they actually battled things out. Broke the addiction for a time before Planeswalkers came out only to start looking at cards again a year after the WotC started coming out with the Challenger decks which were nothing like the previous precon decks I'd seen. Then quickly saw how EVERY SINGLE CREATURE in my old decks was completely power creeped while the spells in them were often fine IF they were still legal.
Questing beast didn't really deserve the 2019 spot. Bonecrusher giant was better than it in standard, historic, and pioneer, and hogaak was by far the best card in modern and legacy.
Really been loving these longer-form historical and educational videos you've been doing lately Seth. They are always so fun and it's awesome evergreen content to help more people find the channel!
its actually depressing to see how ridiculously quickly the modern format was ruined post-2019. i feel like modern used to be the ideal format that was fast and exciting but also possible to build some unique decks that could do some fun things. now it's just all nuts-to-butts all the time. MH2 is such a stupid, stupid set and I would really like there to be a sister format created where only the sets released for standard are allowed.
There basically is, although it's actually closer to legacy or vintage I guess. It's called Heritage it's a format that only cards that have been printed in standard legal sets are legal. So it's basically legacy, but without the commander and modern horizons sets.
You forget that Spiritmonger also had the ability to make itself black, which along side Kavu Chameleon, helped it avoid destroy spells such as Terror.
I got into the game in 2018 so creatures being busted is all I’ve ever known lol but I appreciate the perspective. And questing beast is my fav creature ever so I appreciate the shoutout!
This was a fun watch, I think if you were factoring the time it was released, Goblin Chainwhirler was 100% strongest creature of 2018. Even you have an article "Chainwhirler Was Still a Mistake".
Serra Angel is the best creature from 1993 when looking at it rather from a "today" standard to a "then" standard. It was bigger than most creatures, had evasion, and vigilance to always be back on blocks. Birds of Paradise saw no play in tournaments the first year so if youre going off tournament creatures specifcally then Juggernaut or Kird Ape would have been the best creature. At the time, there just wasnt a whole lot you could do with birds of paradise.
Honorable mentions from my heyday: 2013: Pack Rat. The only 2-drop that completely takes over a game, almost worse than Ragavan 🙄 2014: Courser of Kruphix. Eidolon of the great revel has held up longer as a perfect fit in Burn but at the time the solid body, incidental life gain and steady card advantage of Courser absolutely defined Standard during it's existence.
Hard to pick from 2001 forward as wizards officially changed their stance on creature design. So there was a massive rush of multiple playable creatures in every set, constantly beating the last best one out of its slot as each new set came out. I do appreciate that this list is from the perspective of the year itself. Lots of creatures are better or worse now than during the year itself.
![KSI - Thick Of It (feat. Trippie Redd) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/At8v_Yc044Y/mqdefault.jpg)
Ok gotta admit, the story of the kid using Platinum Angel's effect to refuse a judge's call because if you cant loose the game, then you should be inmune to getting game losses for illegal actions is HILARIOUS
I’m guessing that does work, if it does imma do that in draft lol
It does not work, since disobeying a judge’s orders can essentially get you DQ’d from a tournament.
@@thedude5able I figured. I thought I typed “I’m guessing that doesn’t work” but thats pretty reasonable. You may not be able to lose the game but you can still get DQd
@@thedude5able DQ trumps can't lose the game like exile trumps indestructible.
The story is actually fictional
Seth out here representing 30 years of mtg better than WotC.
Someone has to do it ;)
And we appreciate it!
Is this going to be a series? Would love to see the same video treatment for all card types
@@MTGGoldfish Thank you!
@@B-Ran_the_Man A few people have asked about it, it will probably depends on how popular this video is. I enjoy Magic history, so if you all enjoy it too I'd love to make more of them and cover the other card types.
In 2010, I opened Foil Baneslayer Angel out of my first box I ever bought. Walked to the counter, handed it to the shop owner and got handed another box. 2 weeks later it reprinted and was worth 10 bucks.
97 mogg fanatic should have beat out those three mana critters … mono red was more omnipresent than survival. Us Nats was won by an anti motored deck in mono white
Fun fact. Ragavan is a red Savannah Lions with 30 additional words not counting rules text. That's almost 1 word pertaining to abilities per year since 1993.
2012 has to go to Deathrite Shaman.
There's no way Griselbrand is the best creature that year.
Was gonna say that. It's one of the best creatures of all time(if not the best).
Bruh, Griselbrand is completely broken. That card is banned commander COMMANDER for fuck sakes, a casual format.
@@moonknight2865 And Deathrite Shaman is banned in the 60 card formats.
@@moonknight2865 doesn't make it better than DRS. Both very powerful, and very different so difficult to compare. Also I suppose the reason Grisel is banned in Commander has more to do with the starting life total of the format.
Every time I see Questing Beast, it seems to gain a new ability that I didn't realize it had before. Such an absurd card.
Never heard it pronounced "Protein Hulk" before. Maybe in the next Un-set it'll be a card
Must be new here 😂 shout out to "bonded" courier
Same for "Uncle Estevan".
Sounds like Bruce Banner became a nutritionist.
Meat AND eggs. We feast!
I'm surprised that for 1993 Serra Angel didn't get at least an honorable mention. A big enough body to survive a Lightning Bolt, and flying and vigilance to make it an evasive attacker while still being able to defend against everything made it THE creature of choice for control decks of the day.
Yeah I was thinking the same thing.
Yep. The 90s part of this list was really bad.
Birds of Paradise I think is the better creature now, but back then it was definitely Serra Angel.
Yep. I STILL often put Serra Angel in my decks with white.
"The only creature in Magic that can kill your opponent in one attack, even if they have infinite life"
This is Phage slander
Add a "while being blocked by a 1/1" and not only it stays true, but it gets more impressive as well.
Lol, I might have forgotten about Phage, good call!
I have a Phage Commander deck. I love the mini game of trying to cast her without losing.
And atemsis and etrata
in fact, if you drop blightsteel colossus's power by a couple points by whatever means you like, it'll stop being an ohko; phage kills no matter how much damage it deals, making it actually better at the instakill job than the colossus. (and this is ignoring those tokens vraska makes that do the same thing!)
Keep in mind, the reason Spectral Bears was playable maindeck in 1995 is because NECROPOTENCE decks were everywhere. A 3/3 for 2 mana was good stats, but without 70% of the meta being mono-black the can't untap drawback still would have made it a pretty bad card during normal circumstances.
Also if I am not mistaken, WotC was forcing players to use cards from FE/Homelands
So much nostalgia. Also a lot of fun to learn about the formats before I started playing. Love the content
Siege Rhino was by far more impactful in its time.
The menace
As was primeval titan at its time, especially over emrakul. Disciple of the vault. Same with wild mongrel over the tog. There isn’t really any logic to this.
I agree, except for Wild Mongrel over Psychatog. I love Wild Mongrel and it was highly impactful in standard and limited and saw play in extended. But, Psychatog won Worlds, an Extended PT, and saw play in vintage for a while.
@@jahs3897 Good points. It's also worth considering that in Invasion/Odyssey Standard Wild Mongrel saw play in basically every deck that wasn't Psychatog. People would splash Green to fit it in, and it would be a good choice in nearly every case. Once Invasion rotated out, Psychatog decks were severely weakened, but Wild Mongrel retained its position in Standard for another 12 months.
@@seanclanton9086 yeah watching this...there is no logic to this at all. I cant figure out if he is picking the creatures that were the best THE YEAR they came out or the impact they had in magic.
Just saying, Balduvian Horde trades with Questing Beast, so they are pretty much equally strong
Except you have to discard a card to keep balduvian, so that player is down an extra card if they trade.
Gotta run Basking Rootwalla so you get a free creature 😏
Ey, same as the fabled Vampire Champion!! Yay!!
🤣 - well played Mickey
before they threw the color wheel away; red & black had all the removal cards and had poorer creatures because of it
green could sometimes get out a fattie cheaper than 4 mana
OG Black creatures had the high costs/upkeep/ mmmm Mold Demon
Red fatties play the sad trombone seeing QB with Haste; which is their portfolio
Please tell me you're gonna do other card types this way as well, absolutely awesome to see
If people like this one I'll probably do other card types.
@@MTGGoldfish can't wait to see the mana source list 😂
@@MTGGoldfish yes do more card types!
Yes more vids like this
Best Tribal cards!
I feel like Lurrus was made by some designer at wizards to win a bet over whether a modern card could get banned in vintage. In a format with Black Lotus, it casts off of lotus, recasts lotus every turn, it provides a life buffer early that kneecaps fast combo that needs to count to 20, it comes down fast in a format where creature removal is less prevalent, and it was restricted in the format from day 1
Awesome video! Was surprised to see no mention of the Titans. Everyone talked about those cards back then.
Huh. What a funny coincidence. The year the power creep "really began to take hold" was the year after Arena released and Hasbro took a more invested interest in MtG... 🤔
Seems like there might be a connection there...
Really gets the noggin joggin
As much as I love the conspiracy, the truth is that it's when they started following new FIRE design principles, which were started before Arena's release and at a time when Wizards had more autonomy. WotC proved they were plenty capable of screwing their own game long before Hasbro started squeezing money out of them.
power creep certainly didn't start at Ancestral Recall, Library of Alexandria, Necropotence, etc.....
to bei fair the biggest powercreep was throne of eldraine, its not a continous thing
Power creep is like compound interest: it doesn't seem that powerful at first, but give it 30 years...
The best creature in 93’ was the hypnotic specter
I feel like ledger shredder at least deserved a mention for the best creature from this year
@Lind Morn Put some fcking respect on the Shredder, seriously
I still remember Morphling and Masticor being jaw-dropping good. That was my youth, quit soon after, and just came back. You can imagine how astonished I'm about the creatures nowadays. Like you went in jail pre-intenet age...
I still remember being shocked by savannah lions lol
That's how I felt about Pokémon 😂 I played when I was a kid, and now looking at the vmaxes and other cards it's pretty crazy that you can have Pokémon woth over 300hp 😆
In my first Magic run, Serra Angel was the top boss.
1994 got to go to Serra Angel over Ornithopter. The blue/white control at the time with a lot of Fellwar stones, Jayemdae tomes, Swords, Wrath of god, a lot of counter magic and control magic was incredible hard to beat at the time and when Serra came down that could both attack and block… it was hard. And if they had to wipe the board with a balance or wrath they always had a few Mishra's Factories that would survive the wipe out.
Seems a bit inconsistent how some cards are judged by their current impact (ornithopter for ex.) while some are judged by their impact then (masticore)
1994: Ornithopter is long-lasting but at the time I seem to recall Ball Lightning being an unstoppable force.
"We're trying to rank cards based on how good they were when they were printed." I'm confused as to why Ornithopter is being mentioned because nobody really did anything with it in 1994 and it wasn't until it was reprinted in MIrrodin that it started making an impact.
0:51 I started playing Magic in 1994, and it wasn't until 3 or 4 years ago when I realized Juzam Djinn did NOT only cost BB. Because of how dark the colorless 2 was printed, I didn't know until someone pointed it out via an argument (that resulted with me having egg on my face).
you clearly put in a lot of effort and care into this content, and its absolutely stunning. im sitting here just smiling and tearing up at everything youre talking about and explaining. thanks for being so consistently awesome as a content creator, seth; youve kept me caring about magic for years.
Thanks :)
Spectral bears not being a 2/2 with unblockable makes me really really sad
Ornithopter was considered a lousy card in '94. It was neat, but not worth the cost of one card. It became good later due to artifact synergies.
Drawing attention to Platinum Angel's text was a troll move. You actually made me LTG.
Yup. And Birds of Paradise in 1993 wasn't even in the "best deck" of the era. 1993 should be Serra Angel, and 1994 should be Ball Lightning.
@@schroecat1 Birds of Paradise is obviously better. Serra Angel isn't played in updated iterations of the "best deck" within that time period's format.
@@Zuranthium "Updated" doesn't matter. In 1993, Serra Angel was the queen.
@@schroecat1 Birds was played in more decks than Serra.
Birds is timelessly useful, because ramp is timelessly useful. Serra angel was the single best control finisher of its time, and in that role it has been superceded. But in the context of alpha, control was much better than ramp, because of the lack of viable big threats to ramp to. The only competitive deck to control was burn.
Seth - I loved how you clearly did your research for the early days (I remember hearing somewhere, Humans of Magic if I'm not mistaken, that you got into the game relatively late). I do think that BoP should be replaced by Serra Angel since this was the wincon in The Deck - but awesome list!
Serra Angel... so powerful that it was pulled from the base set for 5th and 6th Editions before its return in 7th as a Rare creature. Then when base sets ended and returned it came back as an uncommon for limited but nothing you're likely to see in constructed.
Serra was the original control finisher.
This is a good list, but I don’t see how death rite shaman isn’t the choice for 2012, seeing as it’s either the first or second best creature ever made
And banned in nearly every competitive format. Indeed.
Bonecrusher is 2019 also it was the best creature and it curved into itself on the second and third turns. It dominated standard and made 3 toughness the mark to aim for in standard.
I really enjoy this style of video from you, you're a very good narrator and always do a great job of making whatever subject you're talking about entertaining
Thanks!
Except that he pronounces some things wrong, and mistakes what some cards do.
I love this variety content, I hugely miss Tomers lore videos. Liked also seeing Phil and Crims videos this and last week. Keep up the variety stuff it's a nice change on occasion.
I started right before Dominaria came out in 2018. About a week before and I was hyped for the release. Started playing arena maybe a month or so later. The power shift from Dom to eld was nuts
you clearly didnt play standard because hazored was absolutely nuts and is probably one of if not the best standard deck of all time
I feel like balance was in the best place in the 10 years between 2005-2015, where you start to see cards with both viable statlines and one or teo positive abilities, which allow for versatile utility and combo potential, but still doesnt turn a single card into a complicated interaction engine by itself. I think the game is in the best place when the goal isnt just cheating a singly bodey out, but constructing a synergy from multiple parts over multiple turns with enough internal redundancy ro survive some interference from the opponent.
Conversely, most creatures up till about mirrodin had either weak spell effects and a borderline useless body, a just about acceptable statline with no useful effect for small drops, or a useless statline way over cost for big ones, or an actually respectable statline, but some crippling downside effect you rarely had a way of negating, making creatures basically not worth playing.
My only debatable one is snapcaster. Snappy was huge but so was delver. I respect either choice but I think I’d pick delver
There were a lot of cards at that time that could make the cut for best, don't forget we're talking about the same standard that had Thragtusk and Resto Angel. While I think Delver made the most impact maybe in standard format I would argue that Snapcaster made approximately equal or maybe just a little less impact on standard, while also enabling LOADS of decks in Modern and Legacy. Sure Delver also saw a lot of play in other formats, but it was a build around card, where Snapcaster was literally that card where if your running blue at all you were always asking "should this be in here"
The way the time of the video fits riiight over Ragavan's strength/toughness to make it a 31:19 in the thumbnail?
Perfect. 👌
Man, I can't keep watching this video repeatedly, but it's just so great! One of my favorite videos on this website (also a big fan of that Pretty Deece video, but theres way more of these vids and theyre all awesome). Okay, I wills top spamming the comments, I'm just so happy someone else remembers the 90's and all that good stuff. Beautiful.
Sad to see you name the Horde for 1996 as Frenetic Efreet and Blinking Spirit were high end tournament staples for the control style decks that dominated. Also I do see the Birds nomination, but I actually saw far more Juggernauts back then during tournament play although BoP were extremely popular, but they all paled in comparison to Serra Angels and Hypnotic Specters. The avian manadorks did see their popularity grow in the following years since it stayed in print for a very long time and 3+ color decks became much more prevalent. Also I probably would have maybe cheated a bit and given Mishra's Factory a nod even though it's a land.
Dark Ritual+Hippie was one of the meanest first turn plays back in the day. Such a headache if you didn't have a bolt or plawshare handy. I thought he was easily the best creature back than and I'm surprised he doesn't get mentioned more often.
@@funnymcfunfuns1455 The worst was 2 rituals a Hippie and a Hymn. Shocking how often that did occur. Just hoping for something that made a white mana and a Swords. Those were the days. But now you can have Negan from the walking Dead as your commander, play a dungeons and dragons art card, then equip Negan's bat to Starscream. None of that I want in a game, sadly, but Hasbro decided Magic has to be Fortnite as well as have Fortnite cards because money is better than continuity, storytelling, or anything else.
Blinking Spirit was 1995, and listing Spectral Bears over it is a fair move. The Bears were *everywhere*. 1993 was definitely Serra Angel, it basically defined early Magic.
Thanks for doing this list : ) so many cool cards, so many fun memories. Personally, 2011 was the coolest year. It was my first year of college too! Going to the game store for Innistrad pre-release with all the dorm guys was truly an adventure of a lifetime.
Seth, you blessing us with your historical knowledge of magic is just one of my favorite things on RUclips.
Love seeing Bob and Snappy on here! Excellent and delightful cards to play with. I agree with Sheoldred for 2022. There aren’t any creatures from this year that have broken formats right in half like the three years before it, and Sheoldred is a powerhouse. I put a copy straight into Yawgmoth in Modern when it dropped and it has proved to be an excellent choice, it’s a refreshing card, seeing that it doesn’t require an ETB to be powerful. I want to see more designs like Sheoldred, and Yawgmoth, for that matter.
I mean... questing beast, yes it has infinite text and it was strong but it really didn't pass the test of real play, I'd argue bonecrusher and brazen borrower have been as impactful on standard at the time and are clearly more impactful on modern though not really seeing much play anymore.
The 2019 spot should have gone to Hogaak, how many creatures can claim they broke modern completely on their own? to the point that banning cards in his deck didn't help stopping it.
I honestly don't think any creature in magic history has been so format defining as hogaak, power creep so far above the head of the questing beast that it just makes every other creature look bad.
Also... while I agree on 2020, I feel our friend Uro should have gotten at least a tiny mention
Uro did get mentioned, alongside 4 Color Omnath and Winota.
Yeah, I focused on Questing Beast since it is such a clean comparison to some of the older cards from the 90's, but there were so many busted creatures in 2019 if you want to go with one of the adventure cards or whatever I wouldn't argue.
I remember Rainbow Efreet being a control staple during visions.
And then there was wildfire emissary being super meta for a while because it was the only good 4-drop at the time that could be neither bolted or plowed, which meant it blanked the removal spells of the other best decks at the time and also gave you a mana sink with the pump ability.
My only challenge would be for 1994 with Ernham Djinn. That card saw so much play.
Erhnam and Juzam made it as honorable mentioned at least!
Not sure what the list is. Played back then, or still played now i.e. cards which stood the test of time? Ornithopter may be played now, but saw absolutely no play back in 1995. It was almost unplayable. If played now, than not clear why say Balduvian Horde is on. Confusing!
@@lozkko This list is basically stupid and not representative of reality
newer player a few years here. awesome history to learn! really historically informative! Thank you!
Thank you for taking the time to make vidoes like this! It's so cool to learn about magics history!
Thanks!
Being a newish player, it's so weird that neither Goldspan Dragon nor Hullbreaker Horror were even mentioned.
Yeah, Goldspan Dragon might be better than Sheoldred IMO. It had an immediate impact with generating tons of mana.
But Goldspan came out in 2021 where it competes with Ragavan not Sheoldred
I'm honestly pretty surprised that Goldspan Dragon or Luminarch Aspirant didn't make the honorable mention list at minimum. Those cards were EVERYWHERE and basically an auto-include in those colors. Aspirant allowed white weenie to not get out-scaled and the mana produced by targeting goldspan dragon made it extremely easy to protect and even if you didnt protect it, it still gave you benefits.
Awesome video looking back into magics history, I always enjoy your videos Seth! I've seen other comments mention doing the other card types, and I agree, but I'd also like to see a video talking about which cards are seen the most in today's meta from each year.
Not even an honorable mention for Serra Angel, the sole 2-of win condition of The Deck?
That’s honestly just wrong.
I can't disagree but the 1996 creature is a bigger miss.
@@domri4203 Of course, Storm Crow should go without saying
The other big miss is 2010, emrakul is not that powerful for standard and other formats when it was printed in comparison to the titans, which are multiformat staples esp. primetime and immediately vaulted past baneslayer when it came to big curve toppers. Should at least have been mentioned
I know that Watchwolf caused quite an uproar when it was printed, but did it actually have impact in constructed formats? I can't imagine Watchwolf being more prominent than Dark Confidant
Yes. It was played in both Standard and Legacy at the time.
So much must have went into the making of this video. Thank you for the content seth. Thank you
Set my brother, this was a fantastic presentation. Keep it up. 💯
Ah yes, Morphling and Masticore. The best creatures during that time. I miss being able to put damage on the stack. I'm pretty sure Umezawa's Jitte was what finally triggered Wizards to remove it. It's still a good equipment but being able to stack the damage made it insanely good.
Only disagreement is that Questing Beast was better than Hogaak. I saw modern back then.
I would argue that BBE was the best creature in 2009. It created the Jund archetype when it released, and it was the best deck in Standard at the time.
I pause to read every card. Been playing since ice age but haven't played in years since I have no friends. Love this and hearing about all the creatures I missed is awesome,
Questing beast is basically the embodiment of power creep
Great video, tons of fun, and imma let you finish, but hogaak had the best video of all time in 2019. Questing beast has gotta be Kap
This video was great! If it does well enough, you should do a follow-up for artifacts, instants, etc. :)
Yeah, if people like this one doing more is a possibility for sure!
Questing Beast is funny to look at compared to old cards, but I don’t think it has much of anything on hogaak.
It was being edged out of Standard before rotating. Food decks played Wicked Wolf, Everyone else Esika's Chariot. Lovestruck Beast saw more play.
There's an argument Delver of Secrets is more important in 2011 than Snapcaster.
Baneslayer in 2009 is the reason all my decks at the time were Black. Deathmark was omnipresent in my decks to get that angel off the field.
Zombie Master is still one of my favs to date. All of the old school Lords were iconic as a kid. I started Magic during Ice Age and remember when Alliances rolled out. We used to call Balduvian Horde the Balduvian Boner since everyone wanted that card soooooo bad. Rathi Dragon too when he dropped.
I love how many of these cards are cube staples. For good reason, of course.
I do appreciate you pointing out that for a very long time, creatures were on the weaker end when it comes to card types overall, so imo their power creep is also in some ways just equity to keep things interesting
This year has felt far more reigned in then 19/20/21, design wise at least, been nice to see cards made to take things a lil slower.
Yeah, I think that maybe Wizards has pulled back a little bit on the power creep, which is great.
@@MTGGoldfish 26:55 isn't there a little mistake about your description here ? ;)
Really nice restrospective othertwise ^^ really loved it !
i started in 1993 and remember my 1st pack of mtg where i got the birds of paradise and threw it away since i was a naive 2nd grader who was looking for creatures with the highest power and toughness. realized my mistake a few years later. Also visions box set was my first serious investment into mtg as a kid where i sucked up eating packed noodles and did weekend child work to save up for a whole box of boosters. nekrataal and hammer of bogardan were my prized cards back then.
watching this video made me walk back my memory lane as each card had a memory with me growing up. thank you for that.
i miss the hours going thru cards without internet to help you in order to make a deck that syncs or becomes an archetype, testing it out at your shop then repeating it all over again. that is something og mtg players will never forget and will always cherish.
nowadays everything is served to you very easy on what combos well.
worse, everything has to be politically correct even for a FANTASY game. rip white/black knight
imo,my favorite will always be the ball lightning + bloodlust combo
the best part about flash hulk is that even if hulk straight up said you cannot combo kill with the cards you summon it probably would still be to broken for it's time.
The fact that Progenitus wasn't even MENTIONED in this vid... shows how far the power creep has truly come xD
As someone who started playing magic with Ice Age, I was definitely one of the people who lost my mind when Watchwolves was released.
My friend group had all kind of agreed that the formula was that X mana would get you a 2X creature (3 mana could get you a 3/3 or a 5/1 for example). If a creature had more than 2X, then it had some kind of drawback like requiring a sacrifice or discard. If it had less than 2X, it would have some kind of ability. So to see a 3/3 for two that had no drawbacks, wasn't even legendary even, that was just massive.
imo wizards should've stuck with that formula -- maybe with a couple exceptions, like i have no problem with watchwolf for example
Fantastic video! Thank you so much! The memories 😊
Wow u have brought up so many memories. It hurt so much to sell my collection, had so many of these cards. Miss playing with my friends and at local tournaments for fun. Mtg still best card game ever
Balduvian Horde was stomping faces back in the day.
Great video, Seth! Good topic, great writing. Well done.
Damn, this brought up a lot of memories... It also changed my perspective of my personal magic history. I didn't engage with the game pre '95, from 01 to 04 and 07 to 2010 (just estimated that from the video) and used to think of myself as an "on and off" kind of player. Each return to the game felt like i missed an eternity because nothing i knew was relevant anymore - all format staples changed. In type2/standard thats obvious, but also in extended/legacy/canadian highlander. This made me realize that those gaps were much much smaller than they felt and also how long my current "on-streak" allready is.
Started during Onslaught block. I have distinct memories of Goyf and Baneslayer being cards outside my wallets reach as a college student…wild to see them plummeted in price and to think I wouldn’t even have a deck for baneslayer today in any format…it was a truly stunning creature in 2009 that was just everywhere in Standard tournaments
I'd probably give the 2020 spot to Uro over Questing Beast , but aside from that ,great job on the list !
Questing beast is 2019 (which I btw would replace with Hogaak)
Uro did deserve an honorable mention on 2020 though but companions always had that year in their pocket
@@blueplayer6197 Yeah, Hogaak is stronger than questing beast. Its just was so much more disruptive. Though he did say that there were like 10 cards you could argue as the strongest that year.
@@blueplayer6197 Ohh you're right, i fudged the dates , QB and Uro aren't even from the same year. Yeah then it checks out, for how absurdly pushed Uro was, it can't hold a candle to the sheer absurdity of Lurrus with the original companion mechanic
To be honest I'll take 2013 for "Fight-Hydra" as it was my favorite card and was a fun threat. IF the hydra is left for the following turn in a standard with thoughtsieze, hero's downfall and Elspeth sun's champion, I felt it was only fair you get your board pushed in. Though I will recognize TNN was quite the problematic card as well... Like I said, just happy that Fight-Hyrda was even mentioned.
Psychatog was my first constructed deck ever all the way back in extended. I still have my Togs all of these years later.
Being around when the game started the front of this list looks so accurate and really can take one back to those "great" creature decks of the day where they actually battled things out. Broke the addiction for a time before Planeswalkers came out only to start looking at cards again a year after the WotC started coming out with the Challenger decks which were nothing like the previous precon decks I'd seen. Then quickly saw how EVERY SINGLE CREATURE in my old decks was completely power creeped while the spells in them were often fine IF they were still legal.
Questing beast didn't really deserve the 2019 spot. Bonecrusher giant was better than it in standard, historic, and pioneer, and hogaak was by far the best card in modern and legacy.
@NoSoyAllowed It's still part of the card. Seems weird to separate the two
No argument for yawgmoth? Or is that mostly just cEDH
Thanks for all your hard work Seth
Really been loving these longer-form historical and educational videos you've been doing lately Seth. They are always so fun and it's awesome evergreen content to help more people find the channel!
>protein hulk
>kay booty
Those are my two favs from this video. Please make more of these by the way!
Excellent video. Glad to see all these gems. Wished you called out saporling beast. The 5/5 for 4 with fading. That was ubiquitous.
Blastoderm - I forgot about that card, man it was good. It was played along with Saproling Burst in the Fires of Yavimaya deck.
@@jahs3897 that's its name!
Lurrus was when I had to bow out of the game. I still can't believe that it was released.
its actually depressing to see how ridiculously quickly the modern format was ruined post-2019. i feel like modern used to be the ideal format that was fast and exciting but also possible to build some unique decks that could do some fun things. now it's just all nuts-to-butts all the time. MH2 is such a stupid, stupid set and I would really like there to be a sister format created where only the sets released for standard are allowed.
There basically is, although it's actually closer to legacy or vintage I guess. It's called Heritage it's a format that only cards that have been printed in standard legal sets are legal. So it's basically legacy, but without the commander and modern horizons sets.
Legacy is what you wish modern could be. Except cheap.
@@darksideofthesand Modern is like legacy but missing most of the important format police. As a result, it's very unbalanced and repetitive.
Seth: "there was some debate over the power levels of the flip walkers"
Also Seth: *Shows his own article calling Baby Jace garbage*
I may have been responsible for some of that debate lol
You forget that Spiritmonger also had the ability to make itself black, which along side Kavu Chameleon, helped it avoid destroy spells such as Terror.
spiritmonger IS black (and green), with its ability it can change to a different color, but no need that to avoid a terror.
No mention of Tradewind Rider? The card which was its own trade industry in ‘97-‘98? Alright then lol
I got into the game in 2018 so creatures being busted is all I’ve ever known lol but I appreciate the perspective. And questing beast is my fav creature ever so I appreciate the shoutout!
I'd like a video for each card type from each year of magic it'd be fun to have Seth pick an enchantment from each year, sorcery, instant etc
This was a fun watch, I think if you were factoring the time it was released, Goblin Chainwhirler was 100% strongest creature of 2018. Even you have an article "Chainwhirler Was Still a Mistake".
A textless questing beast would be interesting
They did a textless Cryptic Command, so who knows!
Serra Angel is the best creature from 1993 when looking at it rather from a "today" standard to a "then" standard. It was bigger than most creatures, had evasion, and vigilance to always be back on blocks. Birds of Paradise saw no play in tournaments the first year so if youre going off tournament creatures specifcally then Juggernaut or Kird Ape would have been the best creature. At the time, there just wasnt a whole lot you could do with birds of paradise.
Phage can kill a Player with one attack no matter the lifepool
Honorable mentions from my heyday:
2013: Pack Rat. The only 2-drop that completely takes over a game, almost worse than Ragavan 🙄
2014: Courser of Kruphix. Eidolon of the great revel has held up longer as a perfect fit in Burn but at the time the solid body, incidental life gain and steady card advantage of Courser absolutely defined Standard during it's existence.
Hard to pick from 2001 forward as wizards officially changed their stance on creature design. So there was a massive rush of multiple playable creatures in every set, constantly beating the last best one out of its slot as each new set came out.
I do appreciate that this list is from the perspective of the year itself.
Lots of creatures are better or worse now than during the year itself.