Congratulations on 500 episodes. You should feel very proud of what you've accomplished. I've always respected your statistics-based approach to these top 10 lists, and for taking the time to explain your methodology in relevant episodes. You're my go-to channel for MTG.
Well unless I forget something. Hybrid mana is not used outside of ravnica. So it's more a set mechanic not a new recurrent discovery like the changes he talks about (multicolour, planswalker, rules etc...) That applies in every editions
@@colinfischer6147 Hybrid mana is not a Ravnica-only mechanic, it is deciduous meaning it doesn't show up in every set but the designers can use it in any set if they think it is appropriate (this usually means any set with a multi-color focus). In the last few years hybrid mana has been used in New Capenna, Strixhaven, Ikoria, Eldraine (here it supported mono-color draft archetypes). It was also used in Lorwyn and Fate Reforged (here it was in activated and triggered abilities) not to mention commander decks and a few cards in Modern Horizons.
With Ravnica, it's also worth noting that the two color combos are now known by the Ravnican faction names. They did such a good job carving out identities for them
I haven’t played magic in probably 15 years, for multiple reasons, but I love watching your breakdowns, talking about older and newer cards, mechanics whatever. Thank you for your hard work and entertainment
Glad to be here this early for the 500th episode on this amazing series. Your top 10s were highly responsible for getting me back into the game back in 2017, keep up the great content Nizz!
Congrats on 500 episodes! You and this series have been a staple in my life for a few years now and are what brought me back into the game! Hope to see 500 more!
Being a player at the time I think you missed how important Ice Age was to the game. It was the first set made were you didn’t have to use cards from the core set to play. Before ice age the expectation was you used cards from The Dark, Legends, Arabian Nights plus the core sets to deck build. In fact they almost put a different back to the cards.
Originally Legends was going to be a mix of reprints and new cards but Wizards quickly decided it was much too soon to introduce reprints (outside of the core set) so this was pushed back to Ice Age.
So I started watching you about 4 years ago and I'll be honest, I never thought I'd see 500 of these videos from you but I'm glad I did! Here's to the next 500!
A small remark on the rulings before 6'th edition (also see around 12:40 mark): When I played from 95-99 we could always respond with a Lightning Bolt if an opponent attacked with a Grizzly Bear and then cast Giant Growth, resulting in the Bolt resolving first, thus killing the Bear. And everyone I knew also played this way, and we were quite up to date with the rules, reading magazines, tips, etc. So who is right here?
You are correct. I don't think batch works the way he thinks it does. The official magic PC games from the mid 90s also specifically uses your example to illustrate how the batch worked in the tutorial.
Hard to argue with the list, though I would add Rise of the Eldrazi as an honorable mention since it had such a big impact on limited design going forward. IIRC, it was the first time since Mirage that Wizards broke up the block limited format, being the third set in the block but being drafted as a stand alone set, which let the developers really tune the set for that format. It doesn't hurt that it was also one of the best limited formats of all time. It's really hard to imagine getting some of the better draft formats we've seen over the last 12 years without Rise. I also feel like Urza's Saga (or the Urza's block over all) could get an honorable mention given that it almost killed magic (kinda like Mirrodin after it) through its insane power level. Obviously that's not good, but the design repercussions of those sets have been resonating ever since.
Congratulations on 500 episodes! Woohoo. I was thinking of Stronghold. It was the first set that introduced, color coding for the cards. In Tempest, rare, uncommon, and common were all black. In Stronghold, it started to have silver or white for uncommon, black for common, and gold for rares. :) Trading cards became easier or at least we had a guide, we knew which were more valuable without checking inquest magazine haha.
Congrats on 500! Surprised Urza’s Saga didn’t make the list, not many sets have broken the game and required a new design viewpoint like that set/block. I’ve always viewed MTG as pre and post Urza’s.
I agree with you on feeling. But Nizz made the good point that the design language and format that we feel is Urza’s block was really introduced in Mirage. Urza’s block just dialed that to eleven!
@@rashakor yeah, definitely true, I agreed 100% with Mirage. Urza was like the weird bridge between mirage and mirrodin where they took some things too far, but still didn’t quite get how broken artifacts can be.
Awesome to see Episode 500 after all these years! This remains the only MTG channel that I consistently watch on certain days of the week, EVERY week, for its informative content, succinct delivery, and consistent high quality. Congratulations on making it this far with this series - here’s to 500 more!
I also started playing around Ice Age when I was 10. I stopped playing around Invasion. As far as I'm concerned, the only important sets were between those two.
Commander was, I think, the major reason I got into MTG. When I moved out I ended up near a card shop, so I was finally able to get stuff without buying PACKS ONLY. So, when EDH came out it was all just perfect timing.
Something funny I learnt with this top 10 : I was literally born one day before Magic. Anyway, thanks for the new content, mtg top 10 is really something I'm looking forward, and congrats for pushing it up to 500 episodes!
Congratulations! 500th and more to go. Watching your videos has become a really good pause every other day. You're not only knowledgeable and a really good communicator, you're a wholesome person and incredible hardworking. Thank you and keep up the good work!
Beastmode! Keep up the great content!!! Would love to see some premodern content in the future, I really love your videos on Threshold, Odyssey block, and Invasion block! You're the man!
Smallllllll nitpick - during the Classic 6th edition section, mention is made of rule changes in Tenth Edition. The changes actually happened in M10. Not hard to get the two mixed up though. That was the only thing that stood out to me. Congrats on 500! Here's to 500 more!
As a history major in his last year in college who loves nature from being in Scouting and being into Magic for nearly half his life, I look up to you as a content creator and as a hard-working human being. I have been watching your top tens since before college and each video makes my day in some sort of way. Keep up with what you are doing Nizzahon, you are an inspiration and amazing influence within the MTG community.
I’ve been watching your channel for a bit. Been playing magic for a while on again off again since after 4th edition. I do see the reasoning behind you list. It looked like your criteria was impact on the game to date. I remember people sleeping on many cards when they first hit. Looking at you necropotence. Guy played a necro deck running mostly dark rituals, drain life’s, and pestilence. Our playgroup played brawl style with 4-5 players at a time and that deck was hated. Lake of the Dead didn’t help either. We figured it out though. Enchantment hate or gang up. Loved alliances. Loved tempest. Yay slivers. Strangely enough I loved fallen empires. I am in the process of going through and cataloging the set me and my brother have amassed. Brings back memories. We prefer to play limited now. It’s more balanced and the playgroup has whittled down to me and my brother. Limited makes more sense. Good job on the list and the 500 th episode
Good list. I would have put Invasion on the list ahead of Mirrordin. Invasion really breathed new life into Magic after the brokenness of Urza’s block and the boringness of Masques. And for anyone who hasn’t seen it, watch Limited Resource’s set review of Alpha. It’s a great deep dive into why Alpha is so good and stands the test of time so well.
Congratulations on 500 videos. I've been watching the channel since 2018. Thank you for being a regular part of my lunchbreaks for over four years now.
Congratulations on a fantastic achievement!! The quality and consistency of your work here on RUclips is awesome and appreciated!! Keep on keeping on!!
Nice list! I made a list in my head before I started watching and the first set I wrote down was Legends. So I am not surprised to see you put it that high because I also agree that the introduction of multicolor cards and Legends was the biggest innovation in the game until perhaps the introduction of Planeswalkers. I'd also put 6th Edition a bit higher. I think you have mentioned that you didn't play before it and it...kinda sucked. The rules were so convoluted and opaque that most players didn't really understand them and you'd get different rulings from store to store (no internet to look this stuff up). I don't think Magic would have been able to compete with simpler games that came after. (I'd also have not put Alpha on the list because without it, there is no game, so it's a de facto #1.)
I meant to bring this up in a previous video but the "race-class" model of creature design was first introduced in Mirrodin when Human was debuted as a type. What Lorwyn did was finally go back and errata every old card to fit this new model whereas before that they had only been updating the occasional old card as it received reprints.
Amazing goal Nizzahon! I am a suuuper long time subscriber (back during top commander cards videos) and I’m so glad this journey has come so far! Keep up your great content!
Congrats on hitting #500! They're all awesome and a lot of fun to watch! I've even learned a lot about Magic thanks to you! Here's to another 500 and beyond!
Happy 500th video Nizzahon! Happy to be here for it. Can’t wait to see the 1000th! Keep it up. Excited to see what cards from Dominaria United are no jokes!
I stopped playing after Theros. But occasionally buy commander decks and collecting Slivers. But I keep in touch with mtg though this channel. Congratulations on the 500th👍
Wow, this is an impressive milestone! Also, it's amazing how consistent your content is when it comes to quality. Your ability to make quality content for so long is truly exceptional. Keep up the good work.
Congrats on 500 episodes. Really interesting topic as always. Small correction: the rules changes to damage on the stack and mana burn you mentioned didn't happen in Tenth Edition, but rather in Magic 2010. Now onto 500 more episodes :)
For a important set missing from this list (especially for modern magic design) is the original Innistrad (2011). That set and the whole block introduced many powerful cards to all formats of the game, but in particular it did the following that has potentially changed magic forever: -successful Top down world design, showing if you got a strong theme (gothic horror) for a magic world, card designs come from that world and related popular culture. This success would lead to other popular Top-down worlds like Theros and Amonket. I will also say here that because of this popularity that it has been revisited twice, making it a world well known and played in by almost all players in the last 11 years. -Double Sided cards and Transformation. This was radical change to the game that opened up a ton of design space for future mechanics, with the most recent use of this card technology being transforming Sagas. -Build-around draft uncommons got a real place to shine here, allowing decks to appear outside of the typical 5-10 draft archetypes we see in a given set. Spider Spawning? That was a whole limited strategy that existed because of that one card and low-drafted commons that supported it. Burning Vengeance? Have a blast with free shocks. Other cards like this appear in later limited sets just trying to catch the fraction of the fun. There is a reason that Innistrad cubes exist: it was a great format that people have great memories of.
Ravnica's guilds were such a cool concept in so many fronts, that many friends of mine (at the time) checked MTG because of it, specially the "guild leader" and "guild champion" legendary creatures. Lorwyn is the reason the Party archetype exists, respect.
Congrats on 500 and thanks for all the great videos. :) Gotta say, I feel like Alpha as the most important set is a bit of a cop out. Technically the game doesn't even exist without it, so it's kind of a given. It also doesn't feel as relevant to the subject of important developments in magic history (because how could you develop anything from the first set if that's the baseline being developed on top of?). The fact that there weren't TCGs before magic also feels like a bit of a non-sequitur since that doesn't have a bearing on magic itself as much as on the idea of games as a whole. Credit where credit is due, but that feels more like fun trivia than a reason for the set to be number 1. Un sets, antiquities, whichever set marked the end of ante as a core game mechanic, portal sets, Arabian Knights and three kingdoms (for how they pushed set design wen they were released), and arguably even innistrad (which marked a huge shift in magic's art design philosophy that informed all of the more modern sets to this day that focus on a single plane) would have all been nice to see as honorable mentions. It would also be nice to see a more data driven list at some point in the future. I'd love to see which sets in total accumulated the most points using your system, to gauge which ones had the biggest impact on competitive magic.
I agree on Alpha. Without it, there is no game, so it's not really interesting to have it at #1. I'd put 6th Edition there. The rules change was so big for hte game because the original rules were a nightmare. I don't think the game could have grown under those rules because every new mechanic would require so much thought and people would have opted for simpler games that came after. I also have Antiquities in my list because it was the first set themed around a card type. They didn't really do that again until Legions (all creatures) but they've done it a lot since.
Ok let me take a stab at this before watching the video! Having been an on and off player since Odyssey and in no particular order my take is - *Odyssey* (first set based around graveyard interaction), *Mirrodin* (power creep, new card frames, set based around artifacts, first plane not on Dominaria), *Alpha* (for obvious reasons), *Unlimited* (first white border set?, more accessible then Alpha or Beta), *Invasion* (first multicoloured set), *Shards of Alara* (introduction of mythic rares), *Lorwyn* (planeswalkers), *Modern Horizons 1* (first set printed with cards straight to Modern), *OG Zendikar* (fetches, lands matter, power creep) and in my opinion the most important set is *Ravnica City of Guilds* (Mirrodin block was a dark time and many players quit, Ravnica brought us back with the lore and design and multicoloured cards mattered, also shocklands which continue to dominate multiple formats!)
First of all, big congratulations on making it to 500 episodes! I honestly agree with everything said, even if my set order may have been a little different the choices are very good. Personally, as an honorable mention, I'd pick the Alara block. I absolutely fell in love with it's all foil boosters back in the day. Such a fun and colorful set and major source of cards for my first attempt at Commander decks. Loved the focus on three-color factions! But I'd have to agree that with Ravnica having come out first, it totally deserves to be on the top 10 list instead. Thank you for your hard work and dedication, I'll stay tuned for another 500!
Great episode and congrats on number 500! I think I might have found a place in the list for Ice Age for its introduction, in its earliest form, of the cantrip, an essential card mechanic that now permeates the game. Also Ice Age Block was (as you noted in passing) the real start of blocks rather than Mirage, albeit in a much less coherent form. I feel like Ice Age is where they realized what they should be doing on that score, and Mirage is where they actually started doing it. Great list though, all your choices are certainly essential sets in the game's history.
I never comment, but i have to say congratulations for all your hard work during all these years. I discovred you one year ago when i started magic again (after a 8 year pause) with the innistrad blocks. but i think since then i must have seen all your 500 top tens haha. So thanks for your hard work, dedication, and making a top 10 format that is so addictive! Congrats
I am regularly surprised that you only have ~75K subs. you deserve at least 10 times that. your channel is my favorite, and I even watch your limited games. here's to 500 more!
Ravnica was also the set that pushed them to break the mould of basic land art. They went from sticking to the natural landscapes represented in the names to a broader interpretation of what kind of place might be aligned with a colour. Thanks to Ravnica, a Plains can be a train station
Other stuff I think it is important to talk about in alpha is the idea of keywords. Some games still don't use them (or if they do rarely) and some games over use them. Many of them made sense too, i.e. flying. Also I just learned from you my friend who taught me (and all the people I taught before 6th) played the batch wrong. So wrong in fact I didn't know what there was before the stack. We just played things like it was the modern stack. Not because we were some sort of gamer gods who saw the flaws of the batch and knew how to fix it. No. We were lazy kids who never read shit (including actual cards sometimes) and got about as far as "first on, last off." Good thing I never went to a tournament before 6th or I'd look real dumb.
Congratulations on this milestone Nizzahon! Your content has become an indispensable part of my Magic media diet, and I am glad to know there are both plenty of top 10s I've missed over the years to catch up on, and many more to come in the future!
Today is a glorious day for us, 500 episodes of the best MTG content on RUclips! Here's to 500 more glorious episodes, including one day, "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)"!
Congrats! I'm disappointed not to see Invasion on the list-- that set singlehandedly saved Magic, and it's also easily the best-designed set ever up to that point. The wild swings in power level between Urza Block (totally insane and full of bans) and Masques Block (woefully bad) had driven players away in droves and there were serious questions about whether the game had run out of ideas. Invasion turned all of that around with a set that was wildly popular in both Limited and Constructed. The multicolor focus in Limited-- while not as overwrought as some later sets-- really pushed players into more innovative drafting strategies and rewarded skillful deck construction in both draft and sealed. Kicker is now a de facto evergreen mechanic for Limited (at least if you count all of the various abilities that are basically kicker, of which there are a crazy number). Invasion also revolutionized Constructed, albeit with less unambiguously good results since Flametongue Kavu became a format-defining card. But there were lots of other powerhouse cards from that set and the others in the block. The massive influx of new players not only resulted in a huge expansion of pro play (Grand Prix became a staple of the tournament scene around that time, for instance) but put the game on a stable financial footing and allowed Wizards to abandon gimmicks like the Reserved List. We would not have modern Magic without Invasion; in fact, I would go so far as to say we wouldn't have Magic at all. I'd actually rate it #2 all time, after only Alpha-- I could see a case for dropping it a couple slots further down, but it has to be top 10.
I think your analysis was spot on buddy. Only other set that comes to mind for me is Tempest or Urza block for introducing the first cohesive storyline. I know the Weatherlight Saga technically started in Mirage but the lore wasn't truly established until Tempest. That's also when the mainline books started publishing with Rath and Storm and The Brother's War.
Played from revised and quit right before mirrodin then restarted at theros seems like i missed a lot of really cool stuff but sometimes life takes you away from something for awhile and then you find your way back to it at least I get to play some of these cool cards now in my commander decks great video as always congrats on the milestone
Congrats! Love the series, just recently discovered it and it’s wonderful to have such a nice backlog to watch. I do have one criticism: you don’t read out what cards do. You do generally summarize their effects, but I haven’t played magic in almost decades at this point. Even the cards I remember, I don’t typically fully recall their effects. I also know that many people that watch these videos have never even played magic before, because I also watch channels discussing cards for games I have never played. So if I don’t watch the video and pause to read the cards in a Top 10, or cards related to the cards in the Top 10(that you rarely even summarize), then I have very little idea beyond a vague gist of what a card does, let alone why it might be important compared to others. Added to that, I am generally quite busy. I don’t have the time I wish I did to devote to literally just watching(and often pausing to read) videos. Most of the videos I “watch” are when I’m taking a shower, or driving to/from work, or exercising, or cooking. Obviously watching your videos while I’m doing those things is impractical for a variety of reasons, and so I’m forced to basically just “sneak in” a video whenever I have a spare bit of time, which is fine and I am enjoying them…just, very slowly. Obviously that would be a fairly big change and would add time to your videos, for good or ill, but the format of your videos lends itself easily to being almost 100% functional at pure audio, and there are a lot of people like myself who primarily enjoy content in that manner. I don’t know. You’ve been doing things like this just fine for 500 episodes, so it feels unfair to just pop in this late in time to ask for a change, but this is always my main gripe with channels of similar vein to you that basically take eyeballs for granted, but I like your channel enough to take the time to try and bring up a way you might improve it, at least for people like myself. Obviously just a suggestion, I still really enjoy your videos and will slowly get through them sooner or late, I just hope that you’ll try to keep in mind that there are “listeners” like me out there who could be enjoying your content more(and more often) should you choose to make that addition to your videos. Either way, here’s looking forward to episode 1000!
Some honorable mentions would probably be *future sight; for probing into new mechanics so deep and letting players use the experiments *unglued, for being the first set intended to both be for experienced players and not be for organized play at the same time. *war of the spark, for completely revitalizing how they did planeswalker design *shards of alara, for the mythic rarity *time spiral, for both being the first set explicitly built off nostalgia, and for introducing the idea of non-standard card frames. Id argue timeshifted cards, and to a lesser extent futureshifted and planar chaos frame cards, laid the groundwork for masterpieces, invocations, extended arts, showcases, all those "chase" variants *Innistrad, for introducing transforming cards And for new ones since the videos release *30th anniversary, for being an absolute joke of a set, full of overpriced proxies *March of the Machine, for adding battles, a card type we dont know the real wider influence of yet. *MoM aftermath, also for being a joke of a set
This was a cool concept for episode 500. Congratulations on making it so far. Also, I knew what number 1 was going to be, but I legitimately had a moment of “What if it isn’t, and he pulls a fast one.” Looking forward to more Top 10’s.
Congratulations on such a huge accomplishment Nizzahon!! Can't wait to see what your next milestone accomplishment is. And thanks for giving me something to look forward to watching each and every week!!
I stopped playing Magic after Urza's Saga but I still enjoy your lists. Yours is the only channel I watch on MTG. Congratulations on your 500th episode!
Ohhhhh I love the ‘stack’ vs ‘batch’ rule change-current way is more dynamic and exciting imo. I do kind of wish that the 0 life not instantly causing loss thing was still around though, that seems like that would have some goofy combo potential, but oh well.
I mean, it would have combo potential when you make yourself have 0 life...but it also creates feel-bads when an opponent gets you to 0, only for some random thing to get you back into the game. It intuitively feels like when you're at 0, you are dead, yet that wasn't the case so it was unintuitive compared to other games (like say Street Fighter or other fighting game, or RPGs or anything else with a health bar - when you hit 0 in those games, you're just dead, so it makes sense for the same to be true in Magic).
@@andrewsparkes6275 Oh for sure, and I looked into it and I misunderstood when 0 life actually was kicking in to cause loss, and it wasn't actually as interesting as I was thinking. It seems like something that could be put on a black enchantment though.
I had no idea the reserved list existed. All because some greedy bastards bought cards not to play with but as "an investment" (god....), and were scared they were gonna lose money.
First, congrats on 500 episodes! Second, what about Alara? It gave us multi color planeswalkers, colored artifacts, first set to have only multicolor cards, gave us mythic rares, gave us a storyline villian that lasted until War of the Spark, and most importantly, gave us the names for the allied 3 colors combos that are still used today.
Congratulations on 500 episodes. You should feel very proud of what you've accomplished. I've always respected your statistics-based approach to these top 10 lists, and for taking the time to explain your methodology in relevant episodes. You're my go-to channel for MTG.
Thanks so much for watching!
Congrats!
A missed important feature of Ravnica was introducing Hybrid mana!
good catch
Well unless I forget something. Hybrid mana is not used outside of ravnica. So it's more a set mechanic not a new recurrent discovery like the changes he talks about (multicolour, planswalker, rules etc...) That applies in every editions
@@colinfischer6147 It's used outside of Ravnica, just think about Lurrus.
@@colinfischer6147 shadowmoor was up to its eyes in hybrid mana cards
@@colinfischer6147 Hybrid mana is not a Ravnica-only mechanic, it is deciduous meaning it doesn't show up in every set but the designers can use it in any set if they think it is appropriate (this usually means any set with a multi-color focus). In the last few years hybrid mana has been used in New Capenna, Strixhaven, Ikoria, Eldraine (here it supported mono-color draft archetypes). It was also used in Lorwyn and Fate Reforged (here it was in activated and triggered abilities) not to mention commander decks and a few cards in Modern Horizons.
Congrats on 500 episodes Nizzahon!
Thank you!
With Ravnica, it's also worth noting that the two color combos are now known by the Ravnican faction names. They did such a good job carving out identities for them
I started watching this channel when there was like 40-60 top 10’s it’s awesome seeing you progress this far
I haven’t played magic in probably 15 years, for multiple reasons, but I love watching your breakdowns, talking about older and newer cards, mechanics whatever. Thank you for your hard work and entertainment
Glad to be here this early for the 500th episode on this amazing series. Your top 10s were highly responsible for getting me back into the game back in 2017, keep up the great content Nizz!
Glad you like them!
A good honorable mention would be Shards of Alara. It was the first set that introduced the Mythic rarity, for better or worse.
Congrats on 500 episodes! You and this series have been a staple in my life for a few years now and are what brought me back into the game! Hope to see 500 more!
Being a player at the time I think you missed how important Ice Age was to the game. It was the first set made were you didn’t have to use cards from the core set to play. Before ice age the expectation was you used cards from The Dark, Legends, Arabian Nights plus the core sets to deck build. In fact they almost put a different back to the cards.
Originally Legends was going to be a mix of reprints and new cards but Wizards quickly decided it was much too soon to introduce reprints (outside of the core set) so this was pushed back to Ice Age.
So I started watching you about 4 years ago and I'll be honest, I never thought I'd see 500 of these videos from you but I'm glad I did! Here's to the next 500!
A small remark on the rulings before 6'th edition (also see around 12:40 mark): When I played from 95-99 we could always respond with a Lightning Bolt if an opponent attacked with a Grizzly Bear and then cast Giant Growth, resulting in the Bolt resolving first, thus killing the Bear. And everyone I knew also played this way, and we were quite up to date with the rules, reading magazines, tips, etc. So who is right here?
You are correct. I don't think batch works the way he thinks it does. The official magic PC games from the mid 90s also specifically uses your example to illustrate how the batch worked in the tutorial.
Happy 500! Here's to 500 more episodes of the most informative series in MTG RUclips.
*500 MORE GLORIOUS EPISODES!*
Thanks!
Hard to argue with the list, though I would add Rise of the Eldrazi as an honorable mention since it had such a big impact on limited design going forward. IIRC, it was the first time since Mirage that Wizards broke up the block limited format, being the third set in the block but being drafted as a stand alone set, which let the developers really tune the set for that format. It doesn't hurt that it was also one of the best limited formats of all time. It's really hard to imagine getting some of the better draft formats we've seen over the last 12 years without Rise.
I also feel like Urza's Saga (or the Urza's block over all) could get an honorable mention given that it almost killed magic (kinda like Mirrodin after it) through its insane power level. Obviously that's not good, but the design repercussions of those sets have been resonating ever since.
Having worked at a hobby store during all these set releases this brought back some good memories. Thanks for the video and trip down memory lane
Glad you enjoyed it
Congratulations on 500 episodes! Woohoo. I was thinking of Stronghold. It was the first set that introduced, color coding for the cards. In Tempest, rare, uncommon, and common were all black. In Stronghold, it started to have silver or white for uncommon, black for common, and gold for rares. :) Trading cards became easier or at least we had a guide, we knew which were more valuable without checking inquest magazine haha.
It was Exodus not Stronghold.
@@shuboy05 Haha agreed. It was a bridge icon, and the Stronghold set had a portcullis icon.
500 of some of the best MTG historical content on the platform! congratz!
Thanks!
Congrats on 500! Surprised Urza’s Saga didn’t make the list, not many sets have broken the game and required a new design viewpoint like that set/block. I’ve always viewed MTG as pre and post Urza’s.
I agree with you on feeling. But Nizz made the good point that the design language and format that we feel is Urza’s block was really introduced in Mirage. Urza’s block just dialed that to eleven!
I don't really think of Urza's Saga as that important. Other than having busted cards, it didn't do anything that changed the game.
@@rashakor yeah, definitely true, I agreed 100% with Mirage. Urza was like the weird bridge between mirage and mirrodin where they took some things too far, but still didn’t quite get how broken artifacts can be.
Awesome to see Episode 500 after all these years! This remains the only MTG channel that I consistently watch on certain days of the week, EVERY week, for its informative content, succinct delivery, and consistent high quality. Congratulations on making it this far with this series - here’s to 500 more!
Wow, thanks!
I believe that Ice Age is the most important set because I started playing around that time and I feel that history peaked upon my birth tbh.
Legit lol
I also started playing around Ice Age when I was 10.
I stopped playing around Invasion. As far as I'm concerned, the only important sets were between those two.
CONGRATS FOR THE 500!!
Commander was, I think, the major reason I got into MTG. When I moved out I ended up near a card shop, so I was finally able to get stuff without buying PACKS ONLY.
So, when EDH came out it was all just perfect timing.
Something funny I learnt with this top 10 : I was literally born one day before Magic.
Anyway, thanks for the new content, mtg top 10 is really something I'm looking forward, and congrats for pushing it up to 500 episodes!
Congratulations! 500th and more to go. Watching your videos has become a really good pause every other day. You're not only knowledgeable and a really good communicator, you're a wholesome person and incredible hardworking. Thank you and keep up the good work!
Beastmode! Keep up the great content!!! Would love to see some premodern content in the future, I really love your videos on Threshold, Odyssey block, and Invasion block! You're the man!
Congratulations!! 🎊 500 episodes are incredible!
Thanks!
Smallllllll nitpick - during the Classic 6th edition section, mention is made of rule changes in Tenth Edition. The changes actually happened in M10. Not hard to get the two mixed up though. That was the only thing that stood out to me.
Congrats on 500!
Here's to 500 more!
Happy 500th episode! Been here since like 350 so its been quite the journey.
Thank you! Glad you stuck around.
As a history major in his last year in college who loves nature from being in Scouting and being into Magic for nearly half his life, I look up to you as a content creator and as a hard-working human being. I have been watching your top tens since before college and each video makes my day in some sort of way. Keep up with what you are doing Nizzahon, you are an inspiration and amazing influence within the MTG community.
I'd love to see more set-focused top 10s in the future, like maybe most over/underpowered sets, or your favorite/least favorite sets
I’ve been watching your channel for a bit. Been playing magic for a while on again off again since after 4th edition. I do see the reasoning behind you list. It looked like your criteria was impact on the game to date. I remember people sleeping on many cards when they first hit. Looking at you necropotence. Guy played a necro deck running mostly dark rituals, drain life’s, and pestilence. Our playgroup played brawl style with 4-5 players at a time and that deck was hated. Lake of the Dead didn’t help either. We figured it out though. Enchantment hate or gang up. Loved alliances. Loved tempest. Yay slivers. Strangely enough I loved fallen empires. I am in the process of going through and cataloging the set me and my brother have amassed. Brings back memories. We prefer to play limited now. It’s more balanced and the playgroup has whittled down to me and my brother. Limited makes more sense. Good job on the list and the 500 th episode
Good list. I would have put Invasion on the list ahead of Mirrordin. Invasion really breathed new life into Magic after the brokenness of Urza’s block and the boringness of Masques.
And for anyone who hasn’t seen it, watch Limited Resource’s set review of Alpha. It’s a great deep dive into why Alpha is so good and stands the test of time so well.
Congratulations on 500 videos. I've been watching the channel since 2018. Thank you for being a regular part of my lunchbreaks for over four years now.
Congratulations on a fantastic achievement!! The quality and consistency of your work here on RUclips is awesome and appreciated!! Keep on keeping on!!
I got into magic in like 2016 and without you I’m not sure I would have gotten so hooked. Thanks for all the amazing content and years of hard work.
Thanks for watching!
Congrats my man! 🥳
Thank you! 😃
Nice list! I made a list in my head before I started watching and the first set I wrote down was Legends. So I am not surprised to see you put it that high because I also agree that the introduction of multicolor cards and Legends was the biggest innovation in the game until perhaps the introduction of Planeswalkers. I'd also put 6th Edition a bit higher. I think you have mentioned that you didn't play before it and it...kinda sucked. The rules were so convoluted and opaque that most players didn't really understand them and you'd get different rulings from store to store (no internet to look this stuff up). I don't think Magic would have been able to compete with simpler games that came after. (I'd also have not put Alpha on the list because without it, there is no game, so it's a de facto #1.)
Congratz on 500!
Congratulations on 500. You’re the best!
Thanks!
I meant to bring this up in a previous video but the "race-class" model of creature design was first introduced in Mirrodin when Human was debuted as a type. What Lorwyn did was finally go back and errata every old card to fit this new model whereas before that they had only been updating the occasional old card as it received reprints.
Congrats on 500!!!
Happy 500! My late night isn't the same without a Nizzahon episode before bed:)
Thank you!
Amazing goal Nizzahon!
I am a suuuper long time subscriber (back during top commander cards videos) and I’m so glad this journey has come so far! Keep up your great content!
The big 500, woop! Congrats man, and thanks for continuing to make so much great Top 10s and limited content. Here’s to another 500!
Thanks!
Congrats nizzahon. Your commitment on leasing two top tens per week for so long is insane
Congrats on hitting #500! They're all awesome and a lot of fun to watch! I've even learned a lot about Magic thanks to you! Here's to another 500 and beyond!
Happy 500th video Nizzahon! Happy to be here for it. Can’t wait to see the 1000th! Keep it up. Excited to see what cards from Dominaria United are no jokes!
Congrats on 500
I stopped playing after Theros. But occasionally buy commander decks and collecting Slivers. But I keep in touch with mtg though this channel. Congratulations on the 500th👍
Congratulations on 500! My interest in mtg waxes and wanes, but I have been watching this series consistently for years. Thanks for the great content.
Wow, this is an impressive milestone! Also, it's amazing how consistent your content is when it comes to quality. Your ability to make quality content for so long is truly exceptional. Keep up the good work.
Congrats on 500 episodes. Really interesting topic as always. Small correction: the rules changes to damage on the stack and mana burn you mentioned didn't happen in Tenth Edition, but rather in Magic 2010. Now onto 500 more episodes :)
Congratulations!!!
Thank you!!
For a important set missing from this list (especially for modern magic design) is the original Innistrad (2011). That set and the whole block introduced many powerful cards to all formats of the game, but in particular it did the following that has potentially changed magic forever:
-successful Top down world design, showing if you got a strong theme (gothic horror) for a magic world, card designs come from that world and related popular culture. This success would lead to other popular Top-down worlds like Theros and Amonket. I will also say here that because of this popularity that it has been revisited twice, making it a world well known and played in by almost all players in the last 11 years.
-Double Sided cards and Transformation. This was radical change to the game that opened up a ton of design space for future mechanics, with the most recent use of this card technology being transforming Sagas.
-Build-around draft uncommons got a real place to shine here, allowing decks to appear outside of the typical 5-10 draft archetypes we see in a given set. Spider Spawning? That was a whole limited strategy that existed because of that one card and low-drafted commons that supported it. Burning Vengeance? Have a blast with free shocks. Other cards like this appear in later limited sets just trying to catch the fraction of the fun. There is a reason that Innistrad cubes exist: it was a great format that people have great memories of.
congrats on your first 500 top tens! Here's to 500 more
Ravnica's guilds were such a cool concept in so many fronts, that many friends of mine (at the time) checked MTG because of it, specially the "guild leader" and "guild champion" legendary creatures.
Lorwyn is the reason the Party archetype exists, respect.
Congrats on 500 and thanks for all the great videos. :)
Gotta say, I feel like Alpha as the most important set is a bit of a cop out. Technically the game doesn't even exist without it, so it's kind of a given. It also doesn't feel as relevant to the subject of important developments in magic history (because how could you develop anything from the first set if that's the baseline being developed on top of?). The fact that there weren't TCGs before magic also feels like a bit of a non-sequitur since that doesn't have a bearing on magic itself as much as on the idea of games as a whole. Credit where credit is due, but that feels more like fun trivia than a reason for the set to be number 1.
Un sets, antiquities, whichever set marked the end of ante as a core game mechanic, portal sets, Arabian Knights and three kingdoms (for how they pushed set design wen they were released), and arguably even innistrad (which marked a huge shift in magic's art design philosophy that informed all of the more modern sets to this day that focus on a single plane) would have all been nice to see as honorable mentions.
It would also be nice to see a more data driven list at some point in the future. I'd love to see which sets in total accumulated the most points using your system, to gauge which ones had the biggest impact on competitive magic.
I agree on Alpha. Without it, there is no game, so it's not really interesting to have it at #1. I'd put 6th Edition there. The rules change was so big for hte game because the original rules were a nightmare. I don't think the game could have grown under those rules because every new mechanic would require so much thought and people would have opted for simpler games that came after. I also have Antiquities in my list because it was the first set themed around a card type. They didn't really do that again until Legions (all creatures) but they've done it a lot since.
Ok let me take a stab at this before watching the video! Having been an on and off player since Odyssey and in no particular order my take is - *Odyssey* (first set based around graveyard interaction), *Mirrodin* (power creep, new card frames, set based around artifacts, first plane not on Dominaria), *Alpha* (for obvious reasons), *Unlimited* (first white border set?, more accessible then Alpha or Beta), *Invasion* (first multicoloured set), *Shards of Alara* (introduction of mythic rares), *Lorwyn* (planeswalkers), *Modern Horizons 1* (first set printed with cards straight to Modern), *OG Zendikar* (fetches, lands matter, power creep) and in my opinion the most important set is *Ravnica City of Guilds* (Mirrodin block was a dark time and many players quit, Ravnica brought us back with the lore and design and multicoloured cards mattered, also shocklands which continue to dominate multiple formats!)
500! Way to go!
First of all, big congratulations on making it to 500 episodes!
I honestly agree with everything said, even if my set order may have been a little different the choices are very good. Personally, as an honorable mention, I'd pick the Alara block. I absolutely fell in love with it's all foil boosters back in the day. Such a fun and colorful set and major source of cards for my first attempt at Commander decks. Loved the focus on three-color factions! But I'd have to agree that with Ravnica having come out first, it totally deserves to be on the top 10 list instead.
Thank you for your hard work and dedication, I'll stay tuned for another 500!
Great episode and congrats on number 500!
I think I might have found a place in the list for Ice Age for its introduction, in its earliest form, of the cantrip, an essential card mechanic that now permeates the game. Also Ice Age Block was (as you noted in passing) the real start of blocks rather than Mirage, albeit in a much less coherent form. I feel like Ice Age is where they realized what they should be doing on that score, and Mirage is where they actually started doing it. Great list though, all your choices are certainly essential sets in the game's history.
I never comment, but i have to say congratulations for all your hard work during all these years. I discovred you one year ago when i started magic again (after a 8 year pause) with the innistrad blocks. but i think since then i must have seen all your 500 top tens haha.
So thanks for your hard work, dedication, and making a top 10 format that is so addictive! Congrats
Thanks for watching!
Excellent list and summary, Nizza. Only a historian could create such a comprehensive and cohesive list.
Thanks!
I am regularly surprised that you only have ~75K subs. you deserve at least 10 times that. your channel is my favorite, and I even watch your limited games. here's to 500 more!
Ravnica was also the set that pushed them to break the mould of basic land art. They went from sticking to the natural landscapes represented in the names to a broader interpretation of what kind of place might be aligned with a colour. Thanks to Ravnica, a Plains can be a train station
Other stuff I think it is important to talk about in alpha is the idea of keywords. Some games still don't use them (or if they do rarely) and some games over use them. Many of them made sense too, i.e. flying.
Also I just learned from you my friend who taught me (and all the people I taught before 6th) played the batch wrong. So wrong in fact I didn't know what there was before the stack. We just played things like it was the modern stack. Not because we were some sort of gamer gods who saw the flaws of the batch and knew how to fix it. No. We were lazy kids who never read shit (including actual cards sometimes) and got about as far as "first on, last off." Good thing I never went to a tournament before 6th or I'd look real dumb.
Congratulations on this milestone Nizzahon! Your content has become an indispensable part of my Magic media diet, and I am glad to know there are both plenty of top 10s I've missed over the years to catch up on, and many more to come in the future!
Glad you enjoy the content!
Today is a glorious day for us, 500 episodes of the best MTG content on RUclips! Here's to 500 more glorious episodes, including one day, "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)"!
What're you gonna do with yourself if he ever actually does it?
@@crazygermn I'll record myself doing the entirety of Superman vs Goku ERB.
Great episode! Congrats to 500!
19:06 Yay, Man-o'-War! That's one of my favourite cards!
500 awesome! Love your top 10's!!
Can't believe it's been 500 already. What an insane milestone. Congrats dude. This is my favorite Magic content.
Congrats!
I'm disappointed not to see Invasion on the list-- that set singlehandedly saved Magic, and it's also easily the best-designed set ever up to that point.
The wild swings in power level between Urza Block (totally insane and full of bans) and Masques Block (woefully bad) had driven players away in droves and there were serious questions about whether the game had run out of ideas. Invasion turned all of that around with a set that was wildly popular in both Limited and Constructed. The multicolor focus in Limited-- while not as overwrought as some later sets-- really pushed players into more innovative drafting strategies and rewarded skillful deck construction in both draft and sealed. Kicker is now a de facto evergreen mechanic for Limited (at least if you count all of the various abilities that are basically kicker, of which there are a crazy number). Invasion also revolutionized Constructed, albeit with less unambiguously good results since Flametongue Kavu became a format-defining card. But there were lots of other powerhouse cards from that set and the others in the block.
The massive influx of new players not only resulted in a huge expansion of pro play (Grand Prix became a staple of the tournament scene around that time, for instance) but put the game on a stable financial footing and allowed Wizards to abandon gimmicks like the Reserved List. We would not have modern Magic without Invasion; in fact, I would go so far as to say we wouldn't have Magic at all. I'd actually rate it #2 all time, after only Alpha-- I could see a case for dropping it a couple slots further down, but it has to be top 10.
Happy 500! Congrats! Feels like I’ve been watching you for such a long time.
Thanks for watching!
Congratulations on 500! I’ve been watching since 50-60 and I’ve loved your content. Can’t wait to watch the next 500.
I think your analysis was spot on buddy. Only other set that comes to mind for me is Tempest or Urza block for introducing the first cohesive storyline. I know the Weatherlight Saga technically started in Mirage but the lore wasn't truly established until Tempest. That's also when the mainline books started publishing with Rath and Storm and The Brother's War.
Congrats and thanks for the content
Thanks for watching the content!
Played from revised and quit right before mirrodin then restarted at theros seems like i missed a lot of really cool stuff but sometimes life takes you away from something for awhile and then you find your way back to it at least I get to play some of these cool cards now in my commander decks great video as always congrats on the milestone
Congrats! Love the series, just recently discovered it and it’s wonderful to have such a nice backlog to watch.
I do have one criticism: you don’t read out what cards do. You do generally summarize their effects, but I haven’t played magic in almost decades at this point. Even the cards I remember, I don’t typically fully recall their effects. I also know that many people that watch these videos have never even played magic before, because I also watch channels discussing cards for games I have never played.
So if I don’t watch the video and pause to read the cards in a Top 10, or cards related to the cards in the Top 10(that you rarely even summarize), then I have very little idea beyond a vague gist of what a card does, let alone why it might be important compared to others.
Added to that, I am generally quite busy. I don’t have the time I wish I did to devote to literally just watching(and often pausing to read) videos. Most of the videos I “watch” are when I’m taking a shower, or driving to/from work, or exercising, or cooking. Obviously watching your videos while I’m doing those things is impractical for a variety of reasons, and so I’m forced to basically just “sneak in” a video whenever I have a spare bit of time, which is fine and I am enjoying them…just, very slowly.
Obviously that would be a fairly big change and would add time to your videos, for good or ill, but the format of your videos lends itself easily to being almost 100% functional at pure audio, and there are a lot of people like myself who primarily enjoy content in that manner.
I don’t know. You’ve been doing things like this just fine for 500 episodes, so it feels unfair to just pop in this late in time to ask for a change, but this is always my main gripe with channels of similar vein to you that basically take eyeballs for granted, but I like your channel enough to take the time to try and bring up a way you might improve it, at least for people like myself.
Obviously just a suggestion, I still really enjoy your videos and will slowly get through them sooner or late, I just hope that you’ll try to keep in mind that there are “listeners” like me out there who could be enjoying your content more(and more often) should you choose to make that addition to your videos.
Either way, here’s looking forward to episode 1000!
Congrats!
Some honorable mentions would probably be
*future sight; for probing into new mechanics so deep and letting players use the experiments
*unglued, for being the first set intended to both be for experienced players and not be for organized play at the same time.
*war of the spark, for completely revitalizing how they did planeswalker design
*shards of alara, for the mythic rarity
*time spiral, for both being the first set explicitly built off nostalgia, and for introducing the idea of non-standard card frames. Id argue timeshifted cards, and to a lesser extent futureshifted and planar chaos frame cards, laid the groundwork for masterpieces, invocations, extended arts, showcases, all those "chase" variants
*Innistrad, for introducing transforming cards
And for new ones since the videos release
*30th anniversary, for being an absolute joke of a set, full of overpriced proxies
*March of the Machine, for adding battles, a card type we dont know the real wider influence of yet.
*MoM aftermath, also for being a joke of a set
Another great video. Congrats on 500 episodes and 75k subscribers!
This was a cool concept for episode 500. Congratulations on making it so far. Also, I knew what number 1 was going to be, but I legitimately had a moment of “What if it isn’t, and he pulls a fast one.”
Looking forward to more Top 10’s.
Congratulations on such a huge accomplishment Nizzahon!! Can't wait to see what your next milestone accomplishment is. And thanks for giving me something to look forward to watching each and every week!!
I like that Ravnica gave the two-color combinations their names
Super! Well done - all 500 and this one especially!
congrats on the 500 episodes
the reserve list is a mistake tho
Important does not equal good.
Been viewing this series since the beginning. So happy for my favorite Magic RUclipsr to have reached such a milestone. Congratulations! 🎉
Congratulations on 500 episodes! I love this series! Looking forward to another 500!
More to come!
Congratulations on your 500th!! I can’t get enough of your videos and I’ve been here for 3 years now
Congrats! Thanks for all the fun content to listen to while doing dishes the past few years
Glad to help you with the dishes!
I stopped playing Magic after Urza's Saga but I still enjoy your lists. Yours is the only channel I watch on MTG. Congratulations on your 500th episode!
Cool, thanks!
Congrats on this monumental milestone Dr. Nizzahon! Here's to more in the future!
glad to be part of the journey
Congratulations
Ohhhhh I love the ‘stack’ vs ‘batch’ rule change-current way is more dynamic and exciting imo. I do kind of wish that the 0 life not instantly causing loss thing was still around though, that seems like that would have some goofy combo potential, but oh well.
I mean, it would have combo potential when you make yourself have 0 life...but it also creates feel-bads when an opponent gets you to 0, only for some random thing to get you back into the game. It intuitively feels like when you're at 0, you are dead, yet that wasn't the case so it was unintuitive compared to other games (like say Street Fighter or other fighting game, or RPGs or anything else with a health bar - when you hit 0 in those games, you're just dead, so it makes sense for the same to be true in Magic).
@@andrewsparkes6275 Oh for sure, and I looked into it and I misunderstood when 0 life actually was kicking in to cause loss, and it wasn't actually as interesting as I was thinking. It seems like something that could be put on a black enchantment though.
500 hype! I could watch 500 more.
I had no idea the reserved list existed. All because some greedy bastards bought cards not to play with but as "an investment" (god....), and were scared they were gonna lose money.
Congrats on 500! I really admire your dedication to consistent quality!
First, congrats on 500 episodes! Second, what about Alara? It gave us multi color planeswalkers, colored artifacts, first set to have only multicolor cards, gave us mythic rares, gave us a storyline villian that lasted until War of the Spark, and most importantly, gave us the names for the allied 3 colors combos that are still used today.