Since this list was composed entirely of rares and mythics, I'd like to see a companion list of just the best commons and uncommons. Willing to bet it'll be mostly kill spells though.
For anyone curious who doesn't have 17 lands, here's the 10 cards from each set this year with the highest game in hand win rates in premier draft: ONE: 10. Urabrask's Forge 9. Three way tie between Bladehold War-Whip, Atraxa, Grand Unifier, and Elesh Norn, Mother Of Machines 8. Tie between Thrun, Breaker Of Silence and Lukka, Bound To Ruin 7. Annex Sentry 6. Archfiend Of The Dross 5. White Sun's Twilight 4. The Eternal Wanderer 3. Sheoldred, The Apocalypse 2. Migloz, Maze Crusher 1. Nissa, Ascended Animist MOM: 10. Invasion Of New Phyrexia 9. Vorinclex 8. Tie between Zephyr Singer and Glissa, Herald of Predation 7. Chandra, Hope's Beacon 6. Sheoldred 5. Boon Bringer Valkyrie 4. Chrome Host Seedshark 3. Breach The Multiverse 2. Sunfall 1. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite LTR: 10. Nazgul 9. Eomer of the Riddermark 8. Saruman's Trickery 7. Palantir of Orthanc 6. Rangers of Ithilien 5. Tie between Arwen, Mortal Queen and Faramir, Prince of Ithilien 4. Witch-king of Angmar 3. Horn of Gondor 2. Anduril, Flame of the West 1. Orcish Bowmasters WOE: 10. Tie between The Goose Mother and Gumdrop Poisoner 9. Spellbook Vendor 8. Imodane's Recruiter 7. Virtue Of Loyalty 6. Tie between Realm-Scorcher Hellkite and Faunsbane Troll 5. Lord Skitter, Sewer King 4. Horned Loch-Whale 3. Redcap Gutter Dweller 2. Virtue of Persistence 1. Gruff Triplets LCI: 10. Sentinel Of The Nameless City 9. Pugnacious Hammerskull 8. Huatli, Poet Of Unity 7. Breeches, Eager Pillager 6. Sanguine Evangelist 5. Tie between Magmatic Galleon and Unstable Glyphbridge 4. Kitesail Larcenist 3. Palani's Hatcher 2. Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal 1. Bonehoard Dracosaur
I think another thing orcish bowmasters has going for it is that black was Far and Away the best color in Lord of the Rings limited. The fact that it was an incredible card that you were always able to cast and was supported by many great black cards made it to go through the roof
I'm shocked that The Eternal Wanderer somehow didn't make it into the top ten! I can imagine though that a lot of people kept risky hands on the basis of casting that thing later and never got to six mana.
Next time, rather than looking at raw win rate, you might want to consider using instead or in addition the IWD, improvement when drawn. This helps clarify which bombs got a boost from being in strong colors (like Bowmasters), and which were so impressive in spite of weaker colors (like Aclazotz). Aclazotz actually edges out Bowmasters by that metric (17.8 vs. 17.1).
Orcish Bowmasters worked so well in its limited due to the Ring Bearer level 2 perk. If you flash him in on combat before the draw, you already start up up by 2, then Ring Loot pumps you to 4. Orcish Bowmasters is oppressive in LotR limited, because almost everyone runs 1 or 2 tempting cards.
Also I think Bonehoard is better than usual in its set because of the lack of great removal, and also the fact that black is not amazing in the LCI which has a great answer to it at common.
OG Elesh Norn showing up on this list is actually a great reminder of how wild the MoM limited format was. I went to a second prerelease because I had so much fun in the first one, pulled that card in my pool, and 4-0’d it. Especially in sealed, there were so many silly legends floating around.
The baseline for Orcish Bowmasters is Raise the Alarm with upside, it's good for the same reason that Lazotep Reaver was a good common. Normally if you're getting two bodies for 2 mana, you're getting two 1/1s and nothing else. Amassing 1 is probably weaker than just making a 1/1, but only if you've already amassed something. In most cases you have a card that creates a 1/1 token that's balanced as if it's doing something weaker than that. Lazotep reaver gave you a 1/1 and a 1/2, which wasn't completely insane, but the "small" upside to Orcish Bowmasters is that it's also an instant-speed removal spell that hits plenty of early game threats. (including itself.) It'd be a good card even if the trigger was just an etb.
My guess why it's hard to judge these highest bombs: Both of them are *not* the best in a vacuum, they're the best because of how well the colours worked in their respective sets. Bow Masters made surviving black aggro impossible. Boneshaker Dracowitch caps aggressive decks that already presented key removal targets, in a set that lacks unconditional hard removal - preferring to target tapped or mid-combat creatures. It's a set with plenty of value outside ETBs as a result. So the hardest thing to evaluate is what a whole deck is going to look like that wins off cards like this.
The only success I've had against Gruff Triplets is when I could kill the original card with the token creation effect on the stack, which means you "only" have to deal with two 3/3s and later a 6/6.
Another aspect of Bowmasters is it functions kind of like a stax piece. It discourages your opponents from wanting to do the best thing in the game. That effect is hard to see and easy to underrate because you aren’t seeing what they could be doing.
Man I only drafted LotR like 10 times at most and I swear I had Horn of Gondor in my deck at least 7 times. Such an insane limited card, I doubt I will get that lucky again.
Orcish Bowmaster is busted because it never trades 1 for 1 as a 2 mana card. Opponent attacks with 2 creatures. One creature dies to the ping, one dies to the orc token. Bowmaster stays on the board and eventually eats a removal or blocks a 2/1 attacker. Opponent lost 3 cards, you lost 1 card. Or, the more common case: you kill one with the ping and double block the 2nd attacker with bowmaster+orc token. Still a 2 for 1 at instant speed. And that's not even going into cases where the opponent loots and you get to kill two 1/1s with the ping and get a 2/2 token, then it's like a 4 for 1.
If we wanted to look at the best individual cards, could we look at the comparison of their win rate to the average win rate of all the other cards in that set in that color? For instance, if black in general is overpowered in a format, even bad black cards might have good win rates. A card might be busted if the win rate is, say, 8% higher than the average black card in that set. This metric would probably over value great cards in bad colors, so a weighted scale of how far above average compared to its color a card must be depending on the overall win percentage of a color should be used. It's probably too much math though.
Sunfall is great. It's my new auto include for so many white decks even over wrath of god. 1 extra mana to get past indestructible and get ahead on board presence is gas.
Even though the Dracosaur doesn't generate instant value, it does have a special nonsense going for it: first strike. The combination with flying means it basically wins every combat it engages in. It boggles me that they've gone to great lengths for years now regarding when and how first strike is placed on creatures, espousing entire articles how it warps combat, and then they drop this clunker on us.
I have fond memories of splashing Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite as the only white card in a green rampy MOM deck with multiple Blighted Burgeoning and Invasion of Zendikar. Some of those games were pretty close until I hit 9 mana and tutored her out with Invasion of Ikoria, lol.
I dont think Bowmasters remotely needs to be banned in formats like Legacy. Orcish is so ubiquitous in legacy because it punishes overplayed cards. Its made brainstorm more balanced. Once you see that context its actually a great add.
With bowmasters its important to understand why they probably printed this card; to punish draw effects and punish 1 toughness chumps in masse in eternal formats like Legacy. I don't play arena but I'd assume because they wanted to reduce the power of the draw effect punish on the board. You would do that by removing either the 1 damage pings or the amass 1. The damage pings being removed would take away too much power, perhaps and the aspect of the card that balances 1 toughness cards in these formats. So amass was the logical one because you don't need a free beater blocker to really benefit from the format effects the design team wanted for the card.
@bathsaltcircus9630 Casting bowmasters into your opponents' brainstorm or ancestral recall is up there with the feeling of stifling someone's land fetch or Force of Willing someone's game ending combo. 😂
2:40 ... "It's not really symmetrical" No board sweepers are symmetrical, because you don't then unless you are behind. Or if you are playing constructed, odds are you are casting them when you have ZERO creatures on the board, because you've built your deck that way. I hate board sweepers.
Sometimes I wonder what the hell RnD is thinking. Like Orcish Bowmasters... really? Then they nerf the card in MTGA. It's so stupid. I try very hard to get the cards, then they just get nerfed. I stopped playing. Why bother getting powerful cards if you just make them worse?
Limited in 2023 sucked. Every format was incredibly fast, in every format going first was way to important. I don't mind fast Limited formats but WotC could provide at least a mix of faster and slower formats.
Sometimes the best cards of the year aren't the ones with the highest win-rate per se, Looking at you Inspiring Overseer from last year (hey that rhymes)
Since this list was composed entirely of rares and mythics, I'd like to see a companion list of just the best commons and uncommons. Willing to bet it'll be mostly kill spells though.
How about EXCLUDING kill spells? :D
Imodane's Recruiter would certainly be up there, at least.
@@bunni2583 Yeah that card is insane
How would the emergency banned geological appraiser get ranked? Honorary mention?
Oh, wait, never mind this is for limited
zoetic glyph probably too
For anyone curious who doesn't have 17 lands, here's the 10 cards from each set this year with the highest game in hand win rates in premier draft:
ONE:
10. Urabrask's Forge
9. Three way tie between Bladehold War-Whip, Atraxa, Grand Unifier, and Elesh Norn, Mother Of Machines
8. Tie between Thrun, Breaker Of Silence and Lukka, Bound To Ruin
7. Annex Sentry
6. Archfiend Of The Dross
5. White Sun's Twilight
4. The Eternal Wanderer
3. Sheoldred, The Apocalypse
2. Migloz, Maze Crusher
1. Nissa, Ascended Animist
MOM:
10. Invasion Of New Phyrexia
9. Vorinclex
8. Tie between Zephyr Singer and Glissa, Herald of Predation
7. Chandra, Hope's Beacon
6. Sheoldred
5. Boon Bringer Valkyrie
4. Chrome Host Seedshark
3. Breach The Multiverse
2. Sunfall
1. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
LTR:
10. Nazgul
9. Eomer of the Riddermark
8. Saruman's Trickery
7. Palantir of Orthanc
6. Rangers of Ithilien
5. Tie between Arwen, Mortal Queen and Faramir, Prince of Ithilien
4. Witch-king of Angmar
3. Horn of Gondor
2. Anduril, Flame of the West
1. Orcish Bowmasters
WOE:
10. Tie between The Goose Mother and Gumdrop Poisoner
9. Spellbook Vendor
8. Imodane's Recruiter
7. Virtue Of Loyalty
6. Tie between Realm-Scorcher Hellkite and Faunsbane Troll
5. Lord Skitter, Sewer King
4. Horned Loch-Whale
3. Redcap Gutter Dweller
2. Virtue of Persistence
1. Gruff Triplets
LCI:
10. Sentinel Of The Nameless City
9. Pugnacious Hammerskull
8. Huatli, Poet Of Unity
7. Breeches, Eager Pillager
6. Sanguine Evangelist
5. Tie between Magmatic Galleon and Unstable Glyphbridge
4. Kitesail Larcenist
3. Palani's Hatcher
2. Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal
1. Bonehoard Dracosaur
I think another thing orcish bowmasters has going for it is that black was Far and Away the best color in Lord of the Rings limited. The fact that it was an incredible card that you were always able to cast and was supported by many great black cards made it to go through the roof
I'm shocked that The Eternal Wanderer somehow didn't make it into the top ten! I can imagine though that a lot of people kept risky hands on the basis of casting that thing later and never got to six mana.
Next time, rather than looking at raw win rate, you might want to consider using instead or in addition the IWD, improvement when drawn. This helps clarify which bombs got a boost from being in strong colors (like Bowmasters), and which were so impressive in spite of weaker colors (like Aclazotz). Aclazotz actually edges out Bowmasters by that metric (17.8 vs. 17.1).
Yeah but being a bad color means you lose more. Being in a strong color matters
Would love more retrospective inter-set content like this. Fascinating list.
Orcish Bowmasters worked so well in its limited due to the Ring Bearer level 2 perk. If you flash him in on combat before the draw, you already start up up by 2, then Ring Loot pumps you to 4.
Orcish Bowmasters is oppressive in LotR limited, because almost everyone runs 1 or 2 tempting cards.
It's oppressive in literally every format ever existed
Do 10 worst cards of 2023 too, please!!
Also I think Bonehoard is better than usual in its set because of the lack of great removal, and also the fact that black is not amazing in the LCI which has a great answer to it at common.
OG Elesh Norn showing up on this list is actually a great reminder of how wild the MoM limited format was. I went to a second prerelease because I had so much fun in the first one, pulled that card in my pool, and 4-0’d it. Especially in sealed, there were so many silly legends floating around.
The baseline for Orcish Bowmasters is Raise the Alarm with upside, it's good for the same reason that Lazotep Reaver was a good common. Normally if you're getting two bodies for 2 mana, you're getting two 1/1s and nothing else. Amassing 1 is probably weaker than just making a 1/1, but only if you've already amassed something. In most cases you have a card that creates a 1/1 token that's balanced as if it's doing something weaker than that. Lazotep reaver gave you a 1/1 and a 1/2, which wasn't completely insane, but the "small" upside to Orcish Bowmasters is that it's also an instant-speed removal spell that hits plenty of early game threats. (including itself.) It'd be a good card even if the trigger was just an etb.
I hate bowmasters. So easy to cast so much impact. Just stupid imo.
My guess why it's hard to judge these highest bombs:
Both of them are *not* the best in a vacuum, they're the best because of how well the colours worked in their respective sets. Bow Masters made surviving black aggro impossible. Boneshaker Dracowitch caps aggressive decks that already presented key removal targets, in a set that lacks unconditional hard removal - preferring to target tapped or mid-combat creatures. It's a set with plenty of value outside ETBs as a result.
So the hardest thing to evaluate is what a whole deck is going to look like that wins off cards like this.
I cant believe i opened bonehard dracosaur in my prerelease kit and played ojer taq instead.
why not both
You know what even better question you have there. I made silly choices.
This video was great!
I would love a: "great limited cards that are great in constructed" and "great limited cards that suck in constructed" video!
The only success I've had against Gruff Triplets is when I could kill the original card with the token creation effect on the stack, which means you "only" have to deal with two 3/3s and later a 6/6.
Another aspect of Bowmasters is it functions kind of like a stax piece. It discourages your opponents from wanting to do the best thing in the game. That effect is hard to see and easy to underrate because you aren’t seeing what they could be doing.
Bowmasters in response to ancestral recall is so nutty. XD
can't believe the Eternal Wanderer didn't make the list
I feel the same
In any other format it would have been the bombiest bomb that ever bombed, but ONE was just sooo fast
yeah that was the one i was surprised by too.
I wasn't surprised until #1. What a deceptively powerful card.
Let's not forget Nissa's destroy target artifact or enchantment ability. Sometimes it's very relevant!
Man I only drafted LotR like 10 times at most and I swear I had Horn of Gondor in my deck at least 7 times. Such an insane limited card, I doubt I will get that lucky again.
I enjoy all your lists, but this one was particularly interesting!
Yeah, I got Anduril in LotR sealed and it just easily ran away with every game.
Orcish Bowmaster is busted because it never trades 1 for 1 as a 2 mana card.
Opponent attacks with 2 creatures. One creature dies to the ping, one dies to the orc token. Bowmaster stays on the board and eventually eats a removal or blocks a 2/1 attacker. Opponent lost 3 cards, you lost 1 card.
Or, the more common case: you kill one with the ping and double block the 2nd attacker with bowmaster+orc token. Still a 2 for 1 at instant speed.
And that's not even going into cases where the opponent loots and you get to kill two 1/1s with the ping and get a 2/2 token, then it's like a 4 for 1.
im surprised the eternal wandering emperor wasn't here. the 6 mana one.
If we wanted to look at the best individual cards, could we look at the comparison of their win rate to the average win rate of all the other cards in that set in that color? For instance, if black in general is overpowered in a format, even bad black cards might have good win rates. A card might be busted if the win rate is, say, 8% higher than the average black card in that set.
This metric would probably over value great cards in bad colors, so a weighted scale of how far above average compared to its color a card must be depending on the overall win percentage of a color should be used.
It's probably too much math though.
I hate that trying to explain my thought process precisely enough is so wordy.
Sunfall is great. It's my new auto include for so many white decks even over wrath of god. 1 extra mana to get past indestructible and get ahead on board presence is gas.
Even though the Dracosaur doesn't generate instant value, it does have a special nonsense going for it: first strike. The combination with flying means it basically wins every combat it engages in. It boggles me that they've gone to great lengths for years now regarding when and how first strike is placed on creatures, espousing entire articles how it warps combat, and then they drop this clunker on us.
I have fond memories of splashing Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite as the only white card in a green rampy MOM deck with multiple Blighted Burgeoning and Invasion of Zendikar. Some of those games were pretty close until I hit 9 mana and tutored her out with Invasion of Ikoria, lol.
I dont think Bowmasters remotely needs to be banned in formats like Legacy. Orcish is so ubiquitous in legacy because it punishes overplayed cards. Its made brainstorm more balanced. Once you see that context its actually a great add.
Why did they change Orchish bow master on Arena to no amassing?
With bowmasters its important to understand why they probably printed this card; to punish draw effects and punish 1 toughness chumps in masse in eternal formats like Legacy.
I don't play arena but I'd assume because they wanted to reduce the power of the draw effect punish on the board. You would do that by removing either the 1 damage pings or the amass 1. The damage pings being removed would take away too much power, perhaps and the aspect of the card that balances 1 toughness cards in these formats. So amass was the logical one because you don't need a free beater blocker to really benefit from the format effects the design team wanted for the card.
@@AArdW01f damn man it was sooo good before they changed it but yeah that makes some sense
You can play un-nerfed Bowmasters in Timeless, which is great because Brainstorm and Treasure Cruise are both legal with Fetchlands in that format.
@bathsaltcircus9630
Casting bowmasters into your opponents' brainstorm or ancestral recall is up there with the feeling of stifling someone's land fetch or Force of Willing someone's game ending combo. 😂
Happy Hanukkah
Orcish Bowmasters is this years Sheoldred.
I lost so many games against batman. F*** that bat.
AHHH "Races" ... i always understand you saying "limited this day often is racist" XD
2:40 ... "It's not really symmetrical" No board sweepers are symmetrical, because you don't then unless you are behind. Or if you are playing constructed, odds are you are casting them when you have ZERO creatures on the board, because you've built your deck that way.
I hate board sweepers.
🥚🥚🥚🥚🥚
Literally saw sunfall win a guy a game at my prerelease
Sometimes I wonder what the hell RnD is thinking. Like Orcish Bowmasters... really? Then they nerf the card in MTGA. It's so stupid. I try very hard to get the cards, then they just get nerfed. I stopped playing. Why bother getting powerful cards if you just make them worse?
You should play the new Timeless format, where nothing is banned and nothing is nerfed.
Yes! Love this!!
Horn of Gondor is kinda crap dinos can handle it with just speartail
Limited in 2023 sucked. Every format was incredibly fast, in every format going first was way to important. I don't mind fast Limited formats but WotC could provide at least a mix of faster and slower formats.
Where’s Sheoldred?
Last year lol
Hate sunfall! Geez i hate that card
Stop playing aggro monored and other disgusting decks of that like, you will see how sunfall comes less relevant in your hate list.
Magic is just stupid, cards are so overpowered, it’s 100% pay to win
Not when it comes to Limited.
Sometimes the best cards of the year aren't the ones with the highest win-rate per se, Looking at you Inspiring Overseer from last year (hey that rhymes)
What was The One Ring at in Limited by chance?
ToR was just a solid playable card at 56.3%, it had a slightly lower winrate than a 3 mana 2/3 reach that gives +1/+0 on combat on your turn
You really say the same things alot. Like you're very circular in your talking. You were probably great at writing papers in fifth grade.
First
First! (That other guy is wrong and I am valuable and important, Nizzahon like this comment to prove my point!)