A format of favorites

Another one I have been thinking about for a long time. A post about my favorite cards. Why – and how is it relevant to you, you ask? Well, because I have mentioned so many times throughout the blog that this and that card is on my top five or top ten or whatever, but I have never really truly thought about what cards are actually my favorite cards in this format. And why they are. What is actually my top five?

How is this relevant for anyone but me? I am not entirely certain, but I do expect to air some thoughts about the cards’ playability and place – or potential place – in the format etc. So please, hang on. 

Before we get into it, I just want to mention that I am actually quite certain what my overall favorite card is. And it is not one I can play in Old School. I have even removed it from the Vintage Cube recently because it is just not strong enough there. But still when I think about what card is my actual favorite between the insane amount of different cards. There is always one that comes to mind. This:

But I am not really sure exactly why. It is a card I have loved for ages – ever since its printing actually – but I have almost never played it. I have played it as a one-of in several Vintage combo decks back in the day. It was a cool semi-mvp in my old Vintage cube. But I have not actually played the card that many times in reality. 

So why is this my favorite card? 

It is really hard to say. It speaks to me in some way. It is a combo card so clearly – I mean it has the word “Storm” written on it – but you could also cheat some really big fatties into play. Has it ever been used for that? Probably not. But it could be. It is a card you can design and brew decks around. 

I just like the design of the card, because even though it is obviously restrict- and ban-worthy (or was) – I mean: it has the word “Storm” written on it – it really tries to be fair. It cost six mana. But then, there is the thing about it finding a new one to cast. This also makes it really fun to play. Often – in dedicated decks – a resolved Mind’s Desire will spell victory, but you can never be entirely sure how. And sometimes you just whiff – it is simply a unique card with a unique, chaotic, but strong effect. That really is what makes the card cool and interesting.

So maybe we have a bit of a framework for talking about favorite cards here? For me at least, cards get my attention and love either when they are designed in a cool way or when they have a unique or interesting effect on the game. 

Of course in the later years, a lot of very unique and very interesting cards have been printed and the game has extended dramatically rules-vise in the last decade. But even in the very limited Old School card pool, there are some very unique cards.

So in this blog I will make two top 5 lists of favorite cards. One of my favorite cards to brew and build decks around. And one of my favorite cards to play with. Some cards will probably reside on both lists. Let’s see…

Favorite brewers

Of course a lot of these cards could be in both lists, but I would like to start out with one that should probably only be on the brew-list, because it is not always a joy to actually play with. When it works, it works wonders. It gets you so much advantage and messes so much with your opponents head, that it is almost by itself worth the four mana.

It is Hell’s Caretaker. 

This card is just so cool, and so unique. And it is a lot of fun to try to figure out how to take the most advantage of it. Tetravus, of course, is the favorite, but the caretaker can also just throw out an unusable elf or or switch some smaller dude for the big baddie (Colossus…) in the yard. 

It is great to brew around, because you also have to think about getting creatures in the bin. One way to do so is to play the next card on the list of favorite brew-able cards. 

This card is a draw engine in and of itself. It can fill your graveyard, and it can even attack!

It is Sindbad.

Another really cool, and – in my opinion – quite underplayed card. This is a card that is mostly played together with Sylvan Library, which is also a very strong Synergy, and one of the few really efficient draw engines in the format. 

But the thing I really like about this card is that it has two modes. The fun thing around brewing with Sindbad is figuring out how to take advantage of it when you don’t have Sylvan in play. What happens when you discard cards? How can they become active resources for you? As mentioned, one possibility is Hell’s Caretaker. Another one is the third card on the list.

It is a card that I recently bought a really sweet set of. It is a card I have played in a host of different decks, and with very different targets. But one thing that is always a certainty with this card is that it is a real pleasure to figure out how, exactly, to get the most of it. It is none other than Animate Dead.

I just find Animate Dead really, really great. And it is certainly one of the cards that should also be on the next list, the list of cards I enjoy playing with most. I have put it on the brewing list, because it is another one of those cards, where it is a fun challenge to figure out how to get the most out of it or even how to make sure that all cards in your deck synergise with Animate Dead in some way. A lot of cards do: Counterspells (one of the better things in the world of Magic is to counter your opponent’s creature and then Animate it right back!), Removal (though not Swords) and cards that put cards into your or your opponents graveyard. 

One way to put creatures into your graveyard is the next card, number four on my list of favorite cards to brew with. It may not exactly be the best card to pair with Animate Dead, but it can be very cool in a deck that also contains Animate Dead. This card is cool with all sorts of things. It is even a land!

It is the mighty Diamond Valley.

Okay, this is a card that really requires some brewing to actually pop off. But it is a true joy when it does. It basically works with all of the above (maybe not Sindbad) and it is cool with cards like Rukh Egg, Su-Chi, Walls and a lot of other stuff. I enjoy brewing with this card because it forces you to do some math in a single, central question: At what point is my creature worth more as a bunch of life? 

In a format like Old School where resources are all but plentiful it is not necessarily an easy question. It is not a problem when your creature is dying anyway or if you need some life to survive a Fireball to the dome. But how can we brew around Diamond Valley so it is not a last ditch effort but actually a core plan? How do we make it truly better than a Healing Salve? That is what makes this card interesting (and the answer is to play some of the above cards…).

The fifth and last card on my favorite brewers list is a card that I have actually played together with all of the above. And with all of the cards on the next list. So it is definitely also one of my favorite cards to play. It is slow. It is cumbersome. It even has some quite specific requirements. But if you meet them all, if you find your mana; You are in for a life of plenty.

I am talking about the beautiful Skull of Orm.

This is probably the card I have seen most of my opponents reach out for and read. And then when I start using it, they reach out and read it again. Skull of Orm is, as mentioned, slow. I have never played more than two in a deck at the same time. But I really love brewing with it. The obvious choices to pair it with are cards like Copy Artifact, Animate Dead and Control Magic (with Diamond Valley). But there are other very cool choices like Blight, Dance of Many, Drop of Honey or the really spicy goodies like Worms of the Earth or Immolation.

Right, so these were my five most favorite cards to brew with. 

Honorable mentions are Rukh Egg (together with several of the above…), Island Sanctuary, Su-Chi (because of its dying ability) and Tetravus. These are all great fun cards to build decks around.

Favorite players

And on we march to the list of my five favorite cards to play with in old school.

Several of these work wonders with the former list. I guess it makes sense. Why would I make and brew decks with cards not on my list of favorites?

The first one on the list is a very diverse and strong one. It can do so many things: It can be aggressive, it can help you develop your mana, it can even be an enchantment, creature, artifact land. Quite unique. It is of course the one and only Copy Artifact.

I always find it a joy to play this card. Even though it has to have a target when you play it, it is very rarely dead. I often play it in three- or four-offs, but I would argue that everyone should really always play at least a single copy in their deck, if they are able to produce blue mana. It really is a strong card. Basically the worst thing you can do with it is to copy one of your off-color moxens. I admit that is often not a strong play. But it is definitely not a bad play either. On the best of days it is a two-mana Triskelion, a second Chaos Orb, an extra Sol Ring or simply your fifth Mishra’s Factory. Not too shabby. I often play it alongside several of the other cards on this list, for example the next one.

This is a card I have written a complete five-part article series about. It is a legendary card with its own archetype. It can be played in both midrange, control and combo decks (I don’t recommend it in aggro-decks…). It is a beautiful lady, if I ever saw one.

Of course Verduran Enchantress had to take a spot on this list.

I just enjoy playing her. I know that the best Enchantress decks play 0 Enchantresses, but even though it may not exactly be tier one, playing Enchantress in a deck filled with Copy Artifact and Animate Dead does not seem bad. The card quality in such a deck is just high. And when the engine gets going it is very satisfactory to be the mechanic behind it. I have played Enchantress decks with Animate Dead and Copy Artifact and Skull of Orm several times, often the next card on this list of cards I enjoy playing with the most, is the dedicated kill slot. It is another very versatile card that, even though its mana cost is quite high, is almost always worth it.

It has card advantage written all over it, and it is almost an engine in and off itself. It is the premier robot, the Triskelion.

There is not really that much more to say. Trisk is such a fun card to play. And it is very very strong. If you can get to the point where you are able to cast it and start abusing it, it often looks very good for you. Six mana is a lot, but it is by no means improbable to reach if you play a deck with acceleration and early game interaction. 

And once it is there! Oh my. Again with all of the aforementioned cards, this thing just becomes monstrous. I can’t count the amount of times a Triskelion (or three – copied and animated) has turned the tides for me in battle. The ability to both shoot opposing creatures and opponents as well as itself to ensure not going into exile is really, really good!

When this card is not on the list of cards I enjoy brewing with the most, it is because there is really not that much to it. Either you simply play it as a rather big threat or you simply figure out how to get the counters reset most times. 

One way to do so is by using the next card on the list. This is a rather new addition to my favorites even though I have played it on/off for some years now. It is another card that you can squeeze a lot of advantage out of, if you build your deck to accommodate it in the best possible way. It can disrupt your opponent. And it can make for multiple-use Ball Lightnings. None other than the infamous Unsummon.

This is the hill I am willing to die on: Unsummon is a playable card in Old School! It is great against opposing Factory Workers, it is much fun in response to cards like Wheel of Fortune, Timetwister and before Mind Twist. But it can also bounce your own Copied, used Triskelion, your Ball Lightning or whatever has just been aimed a swords at. I understand that it will often just be a one-for-one, sometimes even less. But it also has the potential to really wreck your opponent. And it only costs a single blue. Boomerang is of course the better card and has many more interesting, fun and usable applications, but the double blue makes it a lot less playable and makes it almost exclusively aggressive in the sense that you will never have enough mana to bounce your own Ball Lightning with a Boomerang.

I have no really great bridge to the next and last card on my list of most favorite cards to play with. I just love this one. It is possibly very close to my all-time most favorite card overall in the Old School format. It draws you AND your opponent extra cards. It is a mine. It howls. It is Howling Mine.

This is just always a joy to play. I know, I know people will Disenchant it at sight. But I don’t care. Even if it only works 10% of the times I play it, it is so much fun, when it does it makes up for the remaining 90% of times. The fact that both players get more cards to play with, just makes the game more enjoyable and faceted. It makes for more of the intended plans of the deck to come true. It is just more fun when everyone has more resources. 

That was it for my favorite cards to play with. The honorable mentions in this category are: Remove Enchantments (but I have not actually played it enough), Black Vise (just a really strong card that punishes all those UW control decks in the format), Force Spike (much like Unsummon), Sage of Lat-Nam and of course Fork!

Out-of-scale favorites

Nah, two lists are not enough. We need a third one – a list of just some of the cards that have been my favorites for basically all time. Why? Because they are cool. Maybe it’s the artwork. Maybe I did something cool with them back in third grade. Maybe they just deserve to be mentioned here for being cool.

Mana Flare has always been around in my mind when thinking about my favorite cards. But I have to admit, that I don’t really enjoy playing the card that much, and I don’t find it too interesting to brew with. It still deserves to be mentioned here. It was my favorite card back in fifth grade!

Icy Manipulator is another one of those cards that I often consider when building a deck. I also like playing with it in dedicated decks. But what I really love about the card is the artwork. I don’t exactly know what, but it has always been among my favorite arts.

Demonic Hordes was the big baddie in my elementary school years. We didn’t know about Juzam. We found Lord of the Pit to be both mana-expensive and generally bad. And Sengir Vampire was never anywhere close to being as much of a bad boy as the Hordes. It is simply a very cool card. I still brew with it sometimes, and once, when I get to win some kind of lottery and buy a couple of Beta copies I will definitely brew up something beautiful with Instill Energy.

Storm Seeker has been in several of my decks in recent years. I just like the very non-green feel of the card. Direct damage based on the number of cards in hand? I don’t know, but it doesn’t look very green to me, and thus I have always liked the card.

Underworld Dreams is another one of those cards that just has to be mentioned in a post like this. I always enjoy cards that damage the opponent simply for playing the game. To me this is also a very legendary card.

And that is actually it! Now there is only left to build me a deck with all of the above. Quite a beauty that would be!

In a couple of days I will wrap up 2024 and look forward to 2025.