I would have got to this video earlier, but a little storm cut my power for a bit and my internet is being shockingly awful. I was absolutely certain that Birds of Paradise would be #1. I think we all knew Birds of Paradise would be #1. What's funny is that Birds of Paradise from Alpha still sits at around $2000 despite being reprinted to hell and back. It also has Vintage points, which automatically makes it #1 in my heart. Speaking of, you should do "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)!" But maybe once this storm has cleared up, since I don't wanna be late again!
He was practically mocking you when introducing the topic of this video "This is one that was ACTUALLY proposed in the comment section of another video" No shit Nizzahon, is that something that can happen? Geez.
I mean old cards aren't expensive because they see play they are expensive cause they old. Arabjan nights flying carpet is 12 euros and 7th edition is 5 cents
While Shivan was a great mid to late game creature, there was too much easy removal at that point for it to be useful. The only color that couldn’t deal with it for one or two mana was red. White - Swords to Plowshares Green - Earthbind Black - Terror Blue - Conterspell or Blue Elemental Blast
@@akakscase Are you sure you meant Earthbind ? I googled it and there's a red card name Earthbind but I see no green card. I would be curious to know if green had target removal spells at the time Alpha was printed.
I started using the Specter in my Arena discard deck, thanks to the historic anthology reprint. Also brought in Waste Not, a long with cards like Thoughtseize, Unburden, Tiny Bones, ect
Still remember that 2007 world finals where a single Hypnotic Specter (on a Doran the Siege Tower deck) was used to block a letal Bogardam Hellkite (of a Dragon storm combo deck) attack for the win in the next turn. And then, HP never saw the limelight again.
I always hated Rit/mind rot more... I could deal with a Hippie turn 2 or three and l maybe lose one card (Anyone remember Earthbind or Lightning Bolt?), but Mind Rot just kills a starting hand.
@@davidverhelpen667 Hymn to Tourach was where the real pain was. I was one of the first in my little school group of Magic players to figure out how broken Hymn was. I was able to trade nothing cards to easily get 4 to put into my deck. Terrifying.
I'm surprised to see Serra Angel so low. I guess the data for Vintage ("Type 1") from the early days doesn't exist because she was finisher in the best (only) deck in the format until Morphling was printed.
I realized that as soon as I click on a Nizzahon video I hit the "like" button before I even actually watch it. Keep it up my man, I always look forward to Wednesdays and Fridays 😊
thanks for taking me back to my childhood! Knights are great and were expanded upon (Silver, Blood, Galina's are Pro Red). Hippie + Dark Rit is still one of my favorite first turns! I am still a Tribal Player today, give me a Lord, a Coat, and I am good to go!
Lotta memories of Alpha creatures from buying packs back at the local comic book shop as a kid. I'm guessing most of the ones I loved as a kid aren't going to be on here though; As a kid, I cared about the strangest things, and something all flavor like Mon's Goblin Raiders held more fascination for me than something mechanically interesting or good like a Verduran Enchantress.
I was expecting Mahamoti Djinn, Shivan Dragon or Force of Nature to be somewhere in this list... But I guess even during the middle ages of magic tournament, big unga boonga beaters arent too popular compared to efficiency. This was a concept i got when i started playing around Rath cycle... Or rather... It was handed to me with my ass TAT Still remember that first game i played: by the time i summoned big Unga Boonga Greven il-Vec, my opponent's Soltari Monk, Priest, Emissary and Order of the White Shield (i think? The 2/1 white knight from Ice Age) ripped my LP a new asshole O.O
The main reason clone saw play back in 2011-2012 is because it said the secret text "destroy target opponents geist of st. traft" with the legends rule at that point, not because it suddenly became a super useful creature. Just an FYI.
Alpha players: "Oh, wow! A 4/4 with flying and vigilance! This is the best creature in the game!" Me, making several 4/4 flying angels with vigilance per turn with my token deck: "Hmm?"
I should know better by now. Just because I’m not really interested in a topic doesn’t mean anything. This is Nizzahon! He’s gonna MAKE IT INTERESTING!😅
Thanks. When I saw Savannah lions being 3rd I was like, wait Lord of Atlantis did not make a list, no way it did worse than Ironclaw orcs, then it made sense when you put both mana dorks as one. I was surprised last time Serra angel made results was in 1996, I remember friends I played with were praising the angel even in early 2000s, but also true we did not have the competitivest of the decks. Glad to see at least Clone did make in 2010s, I guess this is valid also for White knight. I hope they will reprint them in future standards, so they hopefully may get some more points. But with Iron claw being the 10th, we can imagine the power level of other creatures that are not on the list.
Before I watch my guess for top 3 are llanowar elves, bird of paradise, and lord of Atlantis, in some order. Let’s see how wrong I am. Big fan of Serra angel, will o’ the wisp, royal assassin, and hypnotic specter, too.
@@robmitchell3039 I would say it's surprising, but it's actually not. For the most part, they are now used in red themed free intro product given to stores to help teach people how to play magic.
One "worst" list I think would be interesting to see would be top 10 worst limited bombs. What are the cards that saw absolutely zero play in constructed despite being incredible in their draft format?
If he had just used points for the first few years of tournaments, it would have been much higher. Serra saw play in a ton of high level decks and was considered the best creature in the game.
It's really interesting how so many TCGs have the same thing happen in the first set, the monsters suck but the spells are insane. Yugioh has normal monsters with low attack and pot of greed, the equivalent of a 0 mana draw 2, magic has no effect monsters with bad stats, and the power 9. I wonder if pokemon and other TCGs have the same thing?
It's definitely true in pokemon where Bill is Pot of Greed. Designers tend to overlook the power of the most simple and common abilities such as card draw or resource acceleration.
'Spells' in pokemon at first were all free to cast and thus way to powerfull. They seperate spells in 2 categories after, one of which you can only cast one of per turn. We now have cards with similar effect as the spells from the first set but you can only cast 1 of them per turn. The first pokemon generation was basically all free to cast "land destruction " and the only viable pokemons were the one requiring only 1 ressource to work, because anything else was useless.
I think hypnotic spectre could still do something in today's standard. For the simple fact that a 3 mana 2/2 that has a card advantage attack trigger saw play only two years ago, that is Thief of sanity.
Thief of Sanity was so insanely broken, and under appreciated. It was such a horrifying card that I literally bought every copy my game stores in the area had just so no one would be able to play them against me. Effectively mill 3, and exile one of those killed cards face down, and play that card using any color mana? On a creature with built in evasion!?! I cannot tell you how many times I used that to steal Plainswalkers, or combo pieces just to play them against my opponent. If they hadn’t power ramped the plainswalkers and elementals in that set Thief would have held the spotlight. Of course if they hadn’t power ramped the way they did, Thief probably wouldn’t have been made in the first place, or would have been a mythic instead.
@@akakscase I adored playing against Thief of Sanity decks! I was playing a Selesnya creatures deck at the time featuring Trostani Discordant. The number of times I had opponents hit my with their Theif and then turn around and play my Trostani (obviously without understanding what the card did) still gives me warm-fuzzies to this day.
It was, but not in the same was as the Specter was. It was more of a win condition for control decks who could protect it. I would argue it is also more powerful in the sense that it does something powerful all game long, while Hypnotic Specter has diminishing returns in the late game.
@@NizzahonMagic True, but it was more a comment about the "Creatures now need to have a come into play ability to be playable" comment, which I feel is just not true.
Mono black turn 1 ritual in the hippy was always strong and so was swamp ritual ritual sengir!! Or the insane start of ritual ritual ritual spirit of the night ;)!!!swing for 6!!! Pass turn plains.... Plow😙😂😂🤣🤣😭
Even back on the early 2000's the other kids from the street are jealous about my Serra Angels 😇, White Knights and Savannah Lions. Such naive and more simple times.
I played Magic back in about 95 and the problem was all Green had was mana dorks. Llanowarelfen and BoP were great but there was nothing good to cast with them. Force of Nature? We tried. Cockatrice? Desert Twister? (Which was one of Green’s best casual cards for years). Meanwhile knights, Plows, Spectres and Bolts were eating us alive. Green was so bad for so long that they joked about Magic being a four color game and Jamie Wakefield became a bit of a folk hero for daring to try to play mono-green competitively. Green’s best cards were co-opted by other colors (BoP, Regrowth) and green was relegated to "support color" for way too long,
Nice list, but would a list without considering future reprints be possible? Most of those reprints should've kicked creatures that were good in Alpha only. Thanks
White Knight and Black Knight are easily compared to Knight of Grace and Knight of Malice respectively. The Dominaria knights proved that the Alpha knights would still stand up in today's Standard when they saw play in Standard.
@@akakscase Actually it came from Antiquities and Master's Edition IV. Here is a link to the card: gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202419
As a player that has been playing since the mid-90's, I don't think it is really true that the rest of the game has gotten weaker compared to Alpha. While you can point to a few areas like direct damage and counterspells that are a little bit weaker than they were in the early days of the game, almost everything else has gotten significantly stronger. Just as creatures have gotten more powerful, so too has removal gotten more powerful to help keep up. General purpose removal like "Heartless Act", "Banishing Light" and "Bloodchief's Thirst" would have been considered amazing and OP back in the early days of magic, as most removal then considered premium like "Terror" and "Swords to Plowshears" had significant downsides and restrictions that you generally don't see anymore. And let's face it, "Drown in the Loch" is probably in context the best counterspell ever printed that you have to pay mana for, in that it doubles as removal and therefore negates one of the major disadvantages of running counter-magic, which is dealing with things that get through your permission. It's telling that "Disenchant" is no longer considered efficient or versatile enough to consider playing, and we have strictly better versions now. Beyond that, so much else is either as good as Alpha or more usually just better and stronger than it was in Alpha. Aside from mana rocks, mana fixing and ramp is just better now than it was in Alpha. Things like Dual Lands, once considered an area that we'd never see anything as good, are now more or less matched by the efficiency of Pathways, and the ability to tutor up and find the lands you need is far better than it was back in the day. Win conditions are also far stronger now than ever before. You can mill away decks far faster than pretty much anyone ever dreamed of today, without even really needing an elaborate combo. Bomb cards that say essential, "Deal with me or lose the game." are far more common, far more impactful, and far more pushed than anyone would have ever even suggested 20 years ago. Remember, Underworld Dreams was once considered such a strong win condition as to be banned. Now, it's only played for the primary value of being 3 black in a devotion deck with its draw effect being only a secondary bonus. Draw engines are much more powerful and cheaper now than they were in early days. Remember, back in the early days, Jayemdae Tome was considered a format defining card because it was one of the best ways to draw cards reliably. These days, something like Ivory Tower isn't even that out of line. And it's not like card draw has gotten really weak either. It might not be "Ancestral Recall", but "Into the Story" is still amazing. And Planeswalkers are out and out more powerful in many ways than anything that existed in the early days of Magic, including arguably some of the famous power cards. Those famous power cards may have sped up the game, but they weren't powering out advantage quite like a Planeswalker does. Modern Vintage decks make the old Type 1 decks from the 90's look like jokes. Even with copies of the Power 9 in them, they probably wouldn't be particularly effective in modern standard. Point is, the power creep is real and pervasive. Most cards are now two iterations greater in power than what came before. And frankly, I find it really annoying. Remember, cards like Savannah Lions were succeeding in an environment where Lightning Bolt, Dark Ritual, and Counterspell were considered just normal. So what does it mean that we know consider a card like Savannah Lions to be pretty much unplayable unless it has at least 2 more upsides that immediately impact the board state? Do you really think Lightning Bolt would be too strong in the current environment? Counterspell? It's not that at all. The real reason that they've back off on Lightning Bolt or Counterspell isn't power level. The real reason is they needed the design space.
The more I think about this, the more obviously it isn't true that only creatures have been subject to power creep. Consider life gain. It's not unusual now for a control deck to gain 10 or 15 life while they are stalling for time just in the first 5 turns of the game. Life gain is cheap, pervasive, and highly pushed. Many decks if not disrupted will easily gain 20 life by turn 6 or 7. Or consider auras, what were once called "local enchantments". We are long past the days where Holy/Unholy Strength or Unstable Mutation could be considered bomb enchantments. Now enchantments come with few downsides, as they typically cover for their potential problems with card disadvantage quickly or immediately. And they tend to have a much bigger impact on play than before as payoff. Think about keywords like "Indestructible". This doesn't just show up on creatures. Most spells now are veritable tool boxes in and of themselves. Hardly anyone plays true combo decks, because most decks have more internal synergy than combo decks had 20 years ago. Every spell now goes off with virtually every other spell in the deck. You have cards like Heliod or most Planeswalkers or many Epics that are combos with themselves.
Wow no one took Serra angel to tops in standard even as 1 of after 1996? I figured it would of had to at least get 1 or 2 points throughout the years even in a meme deck
how r the orcs on this list but not the bear? people claimed it was the best creature in Magic at the time (serra was usually refered to as the Strongest)
Yup. I already knew Lanowar was going to be too. It has already topped 3 other lists. A supremely overpowered, yet highly under-appreciated card. BoP was a rare so it made them harder to come by, though being able to produce one of any color, and the fact it was flying was superior. But Lanowar got a green meanie deck rolling very fast and often negated it’s lack of flying with things like Earthbind and Hurricane. There were a couple I thought would have been on this list that weren’t though, like Prodigal Sorcerer and Vesuvian Doppelgänger.
Well, the thing about thief is that it straight up steals from your opponent and dumps two in the yard, so an attack from it takes 3 cards away. Causing discard is good but there's a big difference between that and stealing your opponent's Teferi, which happened a million times for me. Comparing specter to Rankle is kind of a stretch though.
@@nicholasmays4257 It doesn't deny your opponent any tangible resources, though. They don't lose anything from their hand, and you effectively just draw a card (yes, caveats abound regarding the quality of that card, but my core point holds). If that's the strict metric, then Hypnotic Specter is better.
@@KarasuGamma There are a thousand ways Thief is better than the hyppie. And a thousand ways hyppie is better than thief. First of all Thief is multi-colored, and costs 4. Hyppie is mono, and costs 3. Thief can not only break a combo, but can let you steal it and use it against you opponent. Hyppie can force your opponent into a top deck situation in a hurry. Each has their place in any given build. In straight up metrics, they would roughly tie. One denies you opponent 3 cards, while netting you one; the other denies you opponent their hand preventing surprises. Both grant card advantage in their own way.
The comparison is a good one, and I probably should have made it. That said, Thief of Sanity is far more powerful than Hypnotic Specter, and is played quite differently, so this is apples and oranges. Hypnotic Specter was mostly an aggressive card, Thief of Sanity is mostly a control card. Most decks that run it don't run it out on turn 3. They play it later and protect it. Additionally, the Thief's saboteur trigger is relevant all game long, and the Specter's isn't.
Yes, and no. Since BoP was a rare 3, it was much harder to come by. Lanowar was a common. BoP was better, by far, for multicolor deck, whereas Lanowar was more than good enough for mono green. Overall, BoP was a superior card, yes. But it was also much more expensive, and far less common.
the thing is that with Llanowar elves you could still chip for damage, which may be relevant in attrition based games. while birbs just sat there being just another land.
How are they Alpha? do they bag multiple girls, all over 6 feet tall, have less then 8% body fat, and is assertive and makes over 6 figures or something?
Love that "Format: All of them"
as expected from bolt the bird, you see it you bolt it no question ask
Remember when Mitch from The Commanders' Quarters made Captain and it lasted for a whole day?
*Birds of Paradise saw play in that too.*
It would be pretty cool to go through each set like this.
And once you're done with that you can rank the sets by their powerlevel.
He has done a few sets and blocks like this already
@@mercylessplayer keep it going
"Clone wasn't a highly played card in the 90's"
I have to keep reminding myself he's talking about competitive...
Vesuvan as well
Yep. Meanwhile on the kitchen table scene.
I would have got to this video earlier, but a little storm cut my power for a bit and my internet is being shockingly awful. I was absolutely certain that Birds of Paradise would be #1. I think we all knew Birds of Paradise would be #1. What's funny is that Birds of Paradise from Alpha still sits at around $2000 despite being reprinted to hell and back. It also has Vintage points, which automatically makes it #1 in my heart.
Speaking of, you should do "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)!" But maybe once this storm has cleared up, since I don't wanna be late again!
He was practically mocking you when introducing the topic of this video
"This is one that was ACTUALLY proposed in the comment section of another video"
No shit Nizzahon, is that something that can happen? Geez.
@@JBergmansson The Lobster Emperor support group will never give up!
I mean old cards aren't expensive because they see play they are expensive cause they old. Arabjan nights flying carpet is 12 euros and 7th edition is 5 cents
'Formats: all of them
Formats: all but vintage'
Laughed out loud
Really sweet to see you make lists of mtg cards from 93/94. Would love to see you make a top 10 list of the others 93/94 sets as well 🙌
The saddest thing about Black Knight and White Knight is they can never fight each other.
It's pretty brutal that Shivan Dragon didn't make the list.
While Shivan was a great mid to late game creature, there was too much easy removal at that point for it to be useful. The only color that couldn’t deal with it for one or two mana was red.
White - Swords to Plowshares
Green - Earthbind
Black - Terror
Blue - Conterspell or Blue Elemental Blast
@@akakscase Are you sure you meant Earthbind ? I googled it and there's a red card name Earthbind but I see no green card. I would be curious to know if green had target removal spells at the time Alpha was printed.
Not in Alpha, but Arabian Nights had Desert Twister.
@@akakscase I hate to ruin your day but earthbind is Red ;)
Green's 'removal' is berzerk... which doesn't work well against shivans.
man alpha Serra Angel has amazing art
Really one of the early ICONIC examples
I won an Alpha Serra in quite good condition on eBay for $89 in 2015. One of my favourite cards. No way I could afford one at today’s prices!
Just did a video on serra on my channel you might enjoy :-). Did you know were the name "serra" comes from ?
tiddies 🏀🏀 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰
@@CasualMTGDecks BEGONE, SHILL!
I started using the Specter in my Arena discard deck, thanks to the historic anthology reprint. Also brought in Waste Not, a long with cards like Thoughtseize, Unburden, Tiny Bones, ect
7:18 That's the typical art difference between the original cards and the more recent ones. Hypnotic specter looks amazing.
Still remember that 2007 world finals where a single Hypnotic Specter (on a Doran the Siege Tower deck) was used to block a letal Bogardam Hellkite (of a Dragon storm combo deck) attack for the win in the next turn. And then, HP never saw the limelight again.
My favorite alpha card is grizzly bears
Grizzly Bears is the card that got me into Magic, since it was the awesome video The History of Grizzly Bears that first got me hooked in.
Mine is Gray Ogre
Hippie/dark ritual is and always will be the most evil magic combo of all time
I always hated Rit/mind rot more... I could deal with a Hippie turn 2 or three and l maybe lose one card (Anyone remember Earthbind or Lightning Bolt?), but Mind Rot just kills a starting hand.
T1: swamp, dark ritual, specter
T2: hymn to Tourach...
@@akakscase that's just 2 for 2, no big deal
@@davidverhelpen667 Hymn to Tourach was where the real pain was. I was one of the first in my little school group of Magic players to figure out how broken Hymn was. I was able to trade nothing cards to easily get 4 to put into my deck. Terrifying.
I'm surprised to see Serra Angel so low. I guess the data for Vintage ("Type 1") from the early days doesn't exist because she was finisher in the best (only) deck in the format until Morphling was printed.
I realized that as soon as I click on a Nizzahon video I hit the "like" button before I even actually watch it. Keep it up my man, I always look forward to Wednesdays and Fridays 😊
thanks for taking me back to my childhood! Knights are great and were expanded upon (Silver, Blood, Galina's are Pro Red). Hippie + Dark Rit is still one of my favorite first turns! I am still a Tribal Player today, give me a Lord, a Coat, and I am good to go!
Hypnotic specter needs to be reprinted in the next standard set
I'm 3 seconds in, I hope my favorite is here. Lord of the pit!
Funny u mention that. I have a foil lord of the pit.
You're in for a bad time.
@@Thiseffinguyhere it's ok. Still my favorite.
@@unclerobbieslug such a classic, badass card, and that flavor text from the iconic masters printing is simply perfect.
Woops you
Lotta memories of Alpha creatures from buying packs back at the local comic book shop as a kid. I'm guessing most of the ones I loved as a kid aren't going to be on here though; As a kid, I cared about the strangest things, and something all flavor like Mon's Goblin Raiders held more fascination for me than something mechanically interesting or good like a Verduran Enchantress.
I was expecting Mahamoti Djinn, Shivan Dragon or Force of Nature to be somewhere in this list... But I guess even during the middle ages of magic tournament, big unga boonga beaters arent too popular compared to efficiency. This was a concept i got when i started playing around Rath cycle... Or rather... It was handed to me with my ass TAT
Still remember that first game i played: by the time i summoned big Unga Boonga Greven il-Vec, my opponent's Soltari Monk, Priest, Emissary and Order of the White Shield (i think? The 2/1 white knight from Ice Age) ripped my LP a new asshole O.O
Now, this is a fantastic variation of the series. I am most curious about the creatures of other sets!
The main reason clone saw play back in 2011-2012 is because it said the secret text "destroy target opponents geist of st. traft" with the legends rule at that point, not because it suddenly became a super useful creature. Just an FYI.
That's what I thought. But I'm still confused. I only remember seeing Phantasmal Image in that period. Why did some people opt for Clone?
Alpha players: "Oh, wow! A 4/4 with flying and vigilance! This is the best creature in the game!"
Me, making several 4/4 flying angels with vigilance per turn with my token deck: "Hmm?"
I should know better by now. Just because I’m not really interested in a topic doesn’t mean anything. This is Nizzahon! He’s gonna MAKE IT INTERESTING!😅
Thanks.
When I saw Savannah lions being 3rd I was like, wait Lord of Atlantis did not make a list, no way it did worse than Ironclaw orcs, then it made sense when you put both mana dorks as one. I was surprised last time Serra angel made results was in 1996, I remember friends I played with were praising the angel even in early 2000s, but also true we did not have the competitivest of the decks. Glad to see at least Clone did make in 2010s, I guess this is valid also for White knight. I hope they will reprint them in future standards, so they hopefully may get some more points. But with Iron claw being the 10th, we can imagine the power level of other creatures that are not on the list.
Before I watch my guess for top 3 are llanowar elves, bird of paradise, and lord of Atlantis, in some order. Let’s see how wrong I am. Big fan of Serra angel, will o’ the wisp, royal assassin, and hypnotic specter, too.
Shivan Dragon is not getting comment mentions! That card was insane. You'd trade a dual or 2 for 1 of them.
Now I trade 501,759 of them for 1 dual. Jk
I've been playing since revised and have never owned a Shivan Dragon.
@@robmitchell3039 I would say it's surprising, but it's actually not.
For the most part, they are now used in red themed free intro product given to stores to help teach people how to play magic.
Yeah... like maybe really early on. But by mid-Revised the price on dual lands was creeping above that of Shivan Dragon.
Been waiting for this list!!! 😄😄
One "worst" list I think would be interesting to see would be top 10 worst limited bombs. What are the cards that saw absolutely zero play in constructed despite being incredible in their draft format?
Ironclaw Orcs being in a Nizzahon top 10 is like Kevin James winning an Oscar.
I was kind of surprised to see Serra Angel so low tbh, but then I remembered I'm a filthy casual :P
If he had just used points for the first few years of tournaments, it would have been much higher. Serra saw play in a ton of high level decks and was considered the best creature in the game.
in fairness, there's not great data prior to 1996 to work from, so understandable
It's really interesting how so many TCGs have the same thing happen in the first set, the monsters suck but the spells are insane. Yugioh has normal monsters with low attack and pot of greed, the equivalent of a 0 mana draw 2, magic has no effect monsters with bad stats, and the power 9. I wonder if pokemon and other TCGs have the same thing?
It's definitely true in pokemon where Bill is Pot of Greed. Designers tend to overlook the power of the most simple and common abilities such as card draw or resource acceleration.
@@yujiro424 Oh damn, cool!
'Spells' in pokemon at first were all free to cast and thus way to powerfull. They seperate spells in 2 categories after, one of which you can only cast one of per turn. We now have cards with similar effect as the spells from the first set but you can only cast 1 of them per turn. The first pokemon generation was basically all free to cast "land destruction " and the only viable pokemons were the one requiring only 1 ressource to work, because anything else was useless.
in pokemon there are cards that drews you 7 cards without any downside 😂
I think hypnotic spectre could still do something in today's standard. For the simple fact that a 3 mana 2/2 that has a card advantage attack trigger saw play only two years ago, that is Thief of sanity.
Thief of Sanity was so insanely broken, and under appreciated. It was such a horrifying card that I literally bought every copy my game stores in the area had just so no one would be able to play them against me. Effectively mill 3, and exile one of those killed cards face down, and play that card using any color mana? On a creature with built in evasion!?! I cannot tell you how many times I used that to steal Plainswalkers, or combo pieces just to play them against my opponent. If they hadn’t power ramped the plainswalkers and elementals in that set Thief would have held the spotlight. Of course if they hadn’t power ramped the way they did, Thief probably wouldn’t have been made in the first place, or would have been a mythic instead.
@@akakscase I adored playing against Thief of Sanity decks! I was playing a Selesnya creatures deck at the time featuring Trostani Discordant. The number of times I had opponents hit my with their Theif and then turn around and play my Trostani (obviously without understanding what the card did) still gives me warm-fuzzies to this day.
Back in the day I played White Weenie with White Knights in my deck. I won regularly in tournaments I played until Necropotence hit the scene.
Thief of Sanity is the closest we get to Hypnotic Specter, and it was played decently when it was in Standard.
It was, but not in the same was as the Specter was. It was more of a win condition for control decks who could protect it. I would argue it is also more powerful in the sense that it does something powerful all game long, while Hypnotic Specter has diminishing returns in the late game.
@@NizzahonMagic True, but it was more a comment about the "Creatures now need to have a come into play ability to be playable" comment, which I feel is just not true.
... WOW. Ironclaw Orcs is on this list. Im surprised Serra Angel is so low.
I loled at Bop and Llanowar elves: of course they we're up there!
Is love to see a top ten of updated cards to see examples of power creep an example being white knight to mirran crusader
Mono black turn 1 ritual in the hippy was always strong and so was swamp ritual ritual sengir!! Or the insane start of ritual ritual ritual spirit of the night ;)!!!swing for 6!!! Pass turn plains.... Plow😙😂😂🤣🤣😭
So many of my games from that time started: Swamp, Ritual, Hippy, go.... Mountain, Bolt, go. Or Plains, Plow, go. It got to be pretty predictable.
Swamp ritual ritual hymn hippie was the nightmare scenario.
Swamp, ritual, ritual, ritual, mind twist... discard 6 cards.
Llanowar Elves is my favourite card. Though it's tied with Elvish Mystic and Fyndhorn Elves...
Even back on the early 2000's the other kids from the street are jealous about my Serra Angels 😇, White Knights and Savannah Lions. Such naive and more simple times.
I got to number two spot and thought "huh that's weird, maybe he forgot _____ or _____? ". Nope. Got me with the ol' two in one
I guess that Llanowar Elves or Birds of Paradise will be number 1, they are just great to this day
"hey dork, why don't you, uhh, tap for one green mana" --me @ Llanowar Elves
I don’t know how you can say hypnotic specter wouldn’t be good enough when thief of sanity saw a fair bit of play
Until little Teferi was printed and just bronce it.
I played Magic back in about 95 and the problem was all Green had was mana dorks. Llanowarelfen and BoP were great but there was nothing good to cast with them. Force of Nature? We tried. Cockatrice? Desert Twister? (Which was one of Green’s best casual cards for years). Meanwhile knights, Plows, Spectres and Bolts were eating us alive. Green was so bad for so long that they joked about Magic being a four color game and Jamie Wakefield became a bit of a folk hero for daring to try to play mono-green competitively. Green’s best cards were co-opted by other colors (BoP, Regrowth) and green was relegated to "support color" for way too long,
Nice list, but would a list without considering future reprints be possible? Most of those reprints should've kicked creatures that were good in Alpha only. Thanks
I know you did Top 10 creepiest flavour text last year, so how about Top 10 most inspiring flavour text?
Honestly surprised that Prodigal Sorcerer and Vesuvian Doppelganager didn’t make this list.
They both only have a handful of points.
I'm shocked rock hydra wasn't on here. Growing new heads is way too strong! XD
It never saw competitive play. You were better off fireballing your opponent.
What about top 10 with drawbacks?
Hypnotic Spectre is legal in historic and not seeing real play, not quite the same as standard though
Without Dark Ritual. HP its just too slow.
White Knight and Black Knight are easily compared to Knight of Grace and Knight of Malice respectively. The Dominaria knights proved that the Alpha knights would still stand up in today's Standard when they saw play in Standard.
When I saw nr 2 I expected 2 cards at nr 1! :)
I was juts thinking, "how in the world is a 2 mana 1/2 with first strike that great," when you said that there was a misprint
Formats: All of them. Lol "Send EVERYONE"
Hope my favorite Weakstone made it in here.
I would be surprised if Meakstone got in top 10 alpha CREATURES
@@TheVladeha I would too. That was the joke. 😀 Also, Weakstone, not Meakstone. It's a trash card.
@@inujosha Oh. Wasn’t that an Un- card?
@@akakscase Actually it came from Antiquities and Master's Edition IV. Here is a link to the card:
gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=202419
Hypnotic Specter first hands down
Nah
Top ten sideboard. Come on. you know it would be good
#1 Mycosynt Lattice
As a player that has been playing since the mid-90's, I don't think it is really true that the rest of the game has gotten weaker compared to Alpha. While you can point to a few areas like direct damage and counterspells that are a little bit weaker than they were in the early days of the game, almost everything else has gotten significantly stronger. Just as creatures have gotten more powerful, so too has removal gotten more powerful to help keep up. General purpose removal like "Heartless Act", "Banishing Light" and "Bloodchief's Thirst" would have been considered amazing and OP back in the early days of magic, as most removal then considered premium like "Terror" and "Swords to Plowshears" had significant downsides and restrictions that you generally don't see anymore. And let's face it, "Drown in the Loch" is probably in context the best counterspell ever printed that you have to pay mana for, in that it doubles as removal and therefore negates one of the major disadvantages of running counter-magic, which is dealing with things that get through your permission. It's telling that "Disenchant" is no longer considered efficient or versatile enough to consider playing, and we have strictly better versions now.
Beyond that, so much else is either as good as Alpha or more usually just better and stronger than it was in Alpha. Aside from mana rocks, mana fixing and ramp is just better now than it was in Alpha. Things like Dual Lands, once considered an area that we'd never see anything as good, are now more or less matched by the efficiency of Pathways, and the ability to tutor up and find the lands you need is far better than it was back in the day.
Win conditions are also far stronger now than ever before. You can mill away decks far faster than pretty much anyone ever dreamed of today, without even really needing an elaborate combo. Bomb cards that say essential, "Deal with me or lose the game." are far more common, far more impactful, and far more pushed than anyone would have ever even suggested 20 years ago. Remember, Underworld Dreams was once considered such a strong win condition as to be banned. Now, it's only played for the primary value of being 3 black in a devotion deck with its draw effect being only a secondary bonus.
Draw engines are much more powerful and cheaper now than they were in early days. Remember, back in the early days, Jayemdae Tome was considered a format defining card because it was one of the best ways to draw cards reliably. These days, something like Ivory Tower isn't even that out of line. And it's not like card draw has gotten really weak either. It might not be "Ancestral Recall", but "Into the Story" is still amazing.
And Planeswalkers are out and out more powerful in many ways than anything that existed in the early days of Magic, including arguably some of the famous power cards. Those famous power cards may have sped up the game, but they weren't powering out advantage quite like a Planeswalker does. Modern Vintage decks make the old Type 1 decks from the 90's look like jokes. Even with copies of the Power 9 in them, they probably wouldn't be particularly effective in modern standard.
Point is, the power creep is real and pervasive. Most cards are now two iterations greater in power than what came before. And frankly, I find it really annoying. Remember, cards like Savannah Lions were succeeding in an environment where Lightning Bolt, Dark Ritual, and Counterspell were considered just normal. So what does it mean that we know consider a card like Savannah Lions to be pretty much unplayable unless it has at least 2 more upsides that immediately impact the board state? Do you really think Lightning Bolt would be too strong in the current environment? Counterspell?
It's not that at all. The real reason that they've back off on Lightning Bolt or Counterspell isn't power level. The real reason is they needed the design space.
The more I think about this, the more obviously it isn't true that only creatures have been subject to power creep.
Consider life gain. It's not unusual now for a control deck to gain 10 or 15 life while they are stalling for time just in the first 5 turns of the game. Life gain is cheap, pervasive, and highly pushed. Many decks if not disrupted will easily gain 20 life by turn 6 or 7.
Or consider auras, what were once called "local enchantments". We are long past the days where Holy/Unholy Strength or Unstable Mutation could be considered bomb enchantments. Now enchantments come with few downsides, as they typically cover for their potential problems with card disadvantage quickly or immediately. And they tend to have a much bigger impact on play than before as payoff.
Think about keywords like "Indestructible". This doesn't just show up on creatures.
Most spells now are veritable tool boxes in and of themselves. Hardly anyone plays true combo decks, because most decks have more internal synergy than combo decks had 20 years ago. Every spell now goes off with virtually every other spell in the deck. You have cards like Heliod or most Planeswalkers or many Epics that are combos with themselves.
Birds of Paradise?
Edit:
Booyah.
Ever do top 10 artwork designs?
Or top 10 early magic artists.
Redo all your top 10s but for Pauper ;)
Been saying for years now that pauper should at least get a half point. Only fair since only commons count.
i'll assume best creature in alpha was birds of paradise, since it wasn't in the thumbnail
Serra Angel for me baybeeee!
weird that Ironclaw Orcs made it but no Juggernaut
Wow no one took Serra angel to tops in standard even as 1 of after 1996? I figured it would of had to at least get 1 or 2 points throughout the years even in a meme deck
No royal assassin?
This is the least surprising number 1/2 of all time lol.
how r the orcs on this list but not the bear? people claimed it was the best creature in Magic at the time (serra was usually refered to as the Strongest)
Nobody thought Grizzly Bears was ever "the best creature in Magic."
My guess is that green decks mana dorks and higher CMC creatures, somehow skipping on 2 mana creatures.
Bolt the bird!!!!
Aww nuts no craw worm
Haven't seen the list yet, but Birds of Paradise and Llanawar Elves are gonna be in the top 5
Bolt the bird
How about top ten sets?
Serra at 8 ? Not sure this is correct.
It is correct based on my methodology.
Ok so, BoP first place, Llanowar elves second?
Technically, yes. Although he is counting them in 1 slot because they are both 1 mana dorks that make mana, and are similer enough in design
No Shivan Dragon?????
Only has 4 points
top ten "top tens that viewers have suggested".
I still hoping for your personal take on top ten "power ten cards".
Earliest I’ve ever been
Easily guessing BoP and Llanowar Elves.
Yup. I already knew Lanowar was going to be too. It has already topped 3 other lists. A supremely overpowered, yet highly under-appreciated card. BoP was a rare so it made them harder to come by, though being able to produce one of any color, and the fact it was flying was superior. But Lanowar got a green meanie deck rolling very fast and often negated it’s lack of flying with things like Earthbind and Hurricane. There were a couple I thought would have been on this list that weren’t though, like Prodigal Sorcerer and Vesuvian Doppelgänger.
Ooooo, now do Beta!
I don't understand the argument you make about Hypnotic Specter not being good in current Magic. Have you forgotten about Thief of Sanity?
Yeah, I definitely think that Hypnotic Specter would see some play if printed today.
Well, the thing about thief is that it straight up steals from your opponent and dumps two in the yard, so an attack from it takes 3 cards away. Causing discard is good but there's a big difference between that and stealing your opponent's Teferi, which happened a million times for me. Comparing specter to Rankle is kind of a stretch though.
@@nicholasmays4257 It doesn't deny your opponent any tangible resources, though. They don't lose anything from their hand, and you effectively just draw a card (yes, caveats abound regarding the quality of that card, but my core point holds). If that's the strict metric, then Hypnotic Specter is better.
@@KarasuGamma There are a thousand ways Thief is better than the hyppie. And a thousand ways hyppie is better than thief. First of all Thief is multi-colored, and costs 4. Hyppie is mono, and costs 3. Thief can not only break a combo, but can let you steal it and use it against you opponent. Hyppie can force your opponent into a top deck situation in a hurry. Each has their place in any given build. In straight up metrics, they would roughly tie. One denies you opponent 3 cards, while netting you one; the other denies you opponent their hand preventing surprises. Both grant card advantage in their own way.
The comparison is a good one, and I probably should have made it. That said, Thief of Sanity is far more powerful than Hypnotic Specter, and is played quite differently, so this is apples and oranges. Hypnotic Specter was mostly an aggressive card, Thief of Sanity is mostly a control card. Most decks that run it don't run it out on turn 3. They play it later and protect it. Additionally, the Thief's saboteur trigger is relevant all game long, and the Specter's isn't.
@1:45 to skip the repetitive bullshit
😘
How did magic even catch on with such a fucked up first set lol
Birds of paradise is sooooooooooooooooooooooooo Much better than llanowar Elves
Yes, and no. Since BoP was a rare 3, it was much harder to come by. Lanowar was a common. BoP was better, by far, for multicolor deck, whereas Lanowar was more than good enough for mono green. Overall, BoP was a superior card, yes. But it was also much more expensive, and far less common.
the thing is that with Llanowar elves you could still chip for damage, which may be relevant in attrition based games. while birbs just sat there being just another land.
Elvish Archers was such an overrated card! :)
50th View
How are they Alpha? do they bag multiple girls, all over 6 feet tall, have less then 8% body fat, and is assertive and makes over 6 figures or something?
They were in the first set, callled alpha
first
epic