Oversoul
The Tentacled One
I was introduced to an hour-long video created by Messrs “The Nitpicking Nerds” covering the best cards for EDH from every Magic set to release new cards into the game. If these guys had merely selected their #1 pick from each set, I wouldn’t be commenting on it now. But they also threw in some honorable mentions and commentary that betrayed their unfamiliarity with some sets, especially older sets. I opined that this kind of presentation could be misleading, with inexperienced players (or ones unacquainted with older sets) walking away thinking that they’d just learned of the only two good cards in a set that had plenty more to offer.
I write this not to disparage the presentation in the video, which was quite nice. The Nitpicking Nerds are probably good players and it would probably be fun to play EDH with them. But I thought this could be a fun exercise and give people an alternative take on the topic. Before I get started, I’ll establish some ground rules for myself.
We start off right away with a bit of an oddity: the Nitpicking Nerds split Limited Edition into its “Alpha” and “Beta” printings. For the purposes of a presentation like this, that’s bizarre. The distinction is important for evaluating physical cards and such, but they're different print runs of the same set, not different sets. Most differences between the print runs are typographical errors that were made in the “Alpha” printing and corrected in the “Beta” printing. As the Nitpicking Nerds correctly identify, two cards did get left out, which technically means that they’re “new” to the “set.” Anyway, they mention that this set has a lot of banned cards, and correctly identify most of the important EDH cards out of what’s left.
Their Pick: Sol Ring
My Pick: Sol Ring
Their Honorable Mentions: Counterspell, Wrath of God, Basalt Monolith, Birds of Paradise, Wheel of Fortune, Swords to Plowshares, Mana Vault, Timetwister, Demonic Tutor, the ten original “Dual Lands”
Missed Cards: Dark Ritual, Regrowth, Animate Dead, Armageddon, Wild Growth, Copy Artifact, Stasis, Winter Orb, Lightning Bolt
They did a decent enough job for the first set, and I can understand not wanting the list of Honorable Mentions to run on too long. After all, the full video does end up running over an hour despite editing. But missing Dark Ritual and Regrowth is pretty egregious, as they're two of the most effective and reliable staples to be running in almost any decks that use their colors.
Arabian Nights
Their Pick: City of Brass
My Pick: Bazaar of Baghdad
Their Honorable Mentions: Bazaar of Baghdad
Missed Cards: Sorceress Queen, Diamond Valley, Guardian Beast, Metamorphosis
This is a very small expansion and most of what were historically considered its best cards happened to be efficient combat-oriented creatures, now outclassed by power creep. Almost none of those are relevant in EDH.
Antiquities
Their Pick: Ashnod’s Altar
My Pick: Strip Mine
Their Honorable Mentions: Strip Mine, Mishra’s Workshop, Triskelion
Missed Cards: Power Artifact, Transmute Artifact, Candelabra of Tawnos
It was around this point in the video that I started to suspect that the Nitpicking Nerds didn’t have a good grasp on older sets. Cards like Regrowth get underestimated and wrongly left out of decks in EDH all the time, and at least they covered most of the heavy-hitters from Limited Edition. But failing to mention Candelabra of Tawnos is a mistake born of ignorance, not hasty editorialization.
Legends
Their Pick: Mana Drain
My Pick: Sylvan Library
Their Honorable Mentions: Land Tax, Concordant Crossroads, Sylvan Library
Missed Cards: The Abyss, Nether Void, Chains of Mephistopheles, Winds of Change, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Spirit Link, Arboria, Living Plane, Willow Satyr, Land Equilibrium, Moat
This being my favorite set, I had to resist the urge to rattle off every dubious EDH playable I could think of. The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is a favorite of mine, but Moat is probably the most egregious miss here.
The Dark
Their Pick: Blood Moon
My Pick: Maze of Ith
Their Honorable Mentions: Fellwar Stone
Missed Cards: Maze of Ith, City of Shadows, Tormod’s Crypt
I could argue for other cards as potential honorable mentions, but it seems reasonable to consign most of those to the “niche” box. However, missing Maze of Ith is ridiculous.
Fallen Empires
Their Pick: High Tide
My Pick: Night Soil
Their Honorable Mentions: None.
Missed Cards: Night Soil, Hymn to Tourach, Soul Exchange
While Fallen Empires has always been a somewhat low-powered set, it does have decent cards and part of its deficiency in EDH is specific to the nuances of the format: Order of Leitbur doesn’t scale well when making the jump from 1 opponent with 20 life to 3 opponents with 40 life each. Still, I don’t get why they hate on this set so hard. It’s a small, old set, and has a few decent niche cards. High Tide is certainly not the only “remotely playable” card in the set, and joking about how it’s only playable because they forgot to add stuff to make it bad is just mean-spirited. Also, Night Soil is a good card and is probably underplayed in EDH, especially judging from the amount of Necrogenesis cards I’ve been seeing.
I write this not to disparage the presentation in the video, which was quite nice. The Nitpicking Nerds are probably good players and it would probably be fun to play EDH with them. But I thought this could be a fun exercise and give people an alternative take on the topic. Before I get started, I’ll establish some ground rules for myself.
- For each set, I’ll note my own #1 pick, which may or may not match that of the Nitpicking Nerds.
- I’ll try to be as generous as possible when listing the honorable mentions that the Nitpicking Nerds provide. Sometimes they’ll post images on-screen as examples of mechanics used in sets, and sometimes those cards happen to be extremely good cards even though they don’t explicitly cite them as honorable mentions. Basically, if they showed or mentioned the card in any way, I cannot use it as a “missed pick” by them.
- I’ll try to keep “missed picks” confined to cards that are broadly powerful or of especially high utility value. Some of my picks might seem a bit niche to count as honorable mentions, but I’ll try to minimize that. We’re showcasing the best that sets have to offer, not exhaustively listing all EDH playables.
- This is going to run stupidly long, so in a desperate attempt to instill brevity, I’ll try to pass over cards that are useful primarily as commanders. There are all sorts of resources out there for getting information on specific commanders, and many sets (especially newer ones) have tons of legendary creatures to choose from. So I’ll stick to maindeck usage.
We start off right away with a bit of an oddity: the Nitpicking Nerds split Limited Edition into its “Alpha” and “Beta” printings. For the purposes of a presentation like this, that’s bizarre. The distinction is important for evaluating physical cards and such, but they're different print runs of the same set, not different sets. Most differences between the print runs are typographical errors that were made in the “Alpha” printing and corrected in the “Beta” printing. As the Nitpicking Nerds correctly identify, two cards did get left out, which technically means that they’re “new” to the “set.” Anyway, they mention that this set has a lot of banned cards, and correctly identify most of the important EDH cards out of what’s left.
Their Pick: Sol Ring
My Pick: Sol Ring
Their Honorable Mentions: Counterspell, Wrath of God, Basalt Monolith, Birds of Paradise, Wheel of Fortune, Swords to Plowshares, Mana Vault, Timetwister, Demonic Tutor, the ten original “Dual Lands”
Missed Cards: Dark Ritual, Regrowth, Animate Dead, Armageddon, Wild Growth, Copy Artifact, Stasis, Winter Orb, Lightning Bolt
They did a decent enough job for the first set, and I can understand not wanting the list of Honorable Mentions to run on too long. After all, the full video does end up running over an hour despite editing. But missing Dark Ritual and Regrowth is pretty egregious, as they're two of the most effective and reliable staples to be running in almost any decks that use their colors.
Arabian Nights
Their Pick: City of Brass
My Pick: Bazaar of Baghdad
Their Honorable Mentions: Bazaar of Baghdad
Missed Cards: Sorceress Queen, Diamond Valley, Guardian Beast, Metamorphosis
This is a very small expansion and most of what were historically considered its best cards happened to be efficient combat-oriented creatures, now outclassed by power creep. Almost none of those are relevant in EDH.
Antiquities
Their Pick: Ashnod’s Altar
My Pick: Strip Mine
Their Honorable Mentions: Strip Mine, Mishra’s Workshop, Triskelion
Missed Cards: Power Artifact, Transmute Artifact, Candelabra of Tawnos
It was around this point in the video that I started to suspect that the Nitpicking Nerds didn’t have a good grasp on older sets. Cards like Regrowth get underestimated and wrongly left out of decks in EDH all the time, and at least they covered most of the heavy-hitters from Limited Edition. But failing to mention Candelabra of Tawnos is a mistake born of ignorance, not hasty editorialization.
Legends
Their Pick: Mana Drain
My Pick: Sylvan Library
Their Honorable Mentions: Land Tax, Concordant Crossroads, Sylvan Library
Missed Cards: The Abyss, Nether Void, Chains of Mephistopheles, Winds of Change, The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale, Spirit Link, Arboria, Living Plane, Willow Satyr, Land Equilibrium, Moat
This being my favorite set, I had to resist the urge to rattle off every dubious EDH playable I could think of. The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is a favorite of mine, but Moat is probably the most egregious miss here.
The Dark
Their Pick: Blood Moon
My Pick: Maze of Ith
Their Honorable Mentions: Fellwar Stone
Missed Cards: Maze of Ith, City of Shadows, Tormod’s Crypt
I could argue for other cards as potential honorable mentions, but it seems reasonable to consign most of those to the “niche” box. However, missing Maze of Ith is ridiculous.
Fallen Empires
Their Pick: High Tide
My Pick: Night Soil
Their Honorable Mentions: None.
Missed Cards: Night Soil, Hymn to Tourach, Soul Exchange
While Fallen Empires has always been a somewhat low-powered set, it does have decent cards and part of its deficiency in EDH is specific to the nuances of the format: Order of Leitbur doesn’t scale well when making the jump from 1 opponent with 20 life to 3 opponents with 40 life each. Still, I don’t get why they hate on this set so hard. It’s a small, old set, and has a few decent niche cards. High Tide is certainly not the only “remotely playable” card in the set, and joking about how it’s only playable because they forgot to add stuff to make it bad is just mean-spirited. Also, Night Soil is a good card and is probably underplayed in EDH, especially judging from the amount of Necrogenesis cards I’ve been seeing.
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