As of January 2024, there are over 27,076 Magic: The Gathering cards, including all those revealed up to and including the MTG Fallout decks. There are around 49,998 total unique English-language Magic cards, when separately counting cards with unique printings like alternate art or cards reprinted in several editions.
There are approximately 22,500 unique MTG cards currently in existence, with the number of individual cards printed reaches well into the hundreds of millions. Card rarities in MTG include common, uncommon, rare, and mythic rare. Online platforms have revolutionized the MTG trading, with 32 different cards and another 75 in Magic: The Gathering Online. There are 50 Archenemy-legal oversize scheme cards, two checklist cards from Innistrad, and more.
The total number of MTG cards depends on what Magic: The Gathering card count you want to use, with around 27,000 unique cards, to which hundreds are added each year. A common complaint among MTG players the past few years is product fatigue.
There are thousands of Magic: The Gathering cards out there, with the vast majority of these finding a home in people’s decks. According to the official Magic database Gatherer, there are 26,812 unique cards in the game, not counting alternate arts or additional cards. Over twenty billion Magic cards were produced between 2008 and 2016, during which time it grew in popularity. As of the 2022 fiscal year, there are approximately 19,455 unique MTG cards.
📹 Magic: The Gathering’s Most Unique Cards
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How many unique deck of cards are there?
The 52 factorial of 52 cards is the number of ways to order a pack of 52 cards, which is 8×10^67. This means that a randomly shuffled deck has never been seen before and will never be seen again. If you make friends with every person on earth and each person shuffles one deck of cards each second, there will be a one in a trillion chance of two decks matching for the age of the Universe. Quantum Base has patented and developed the world’s first Quantum Secure Q-ID® QR Codes.
How many unique Pokémon cards are there?
As of April 2024, there are over 34, 000 visually distinct English-language Pokémon cards, including all variations of each card printed in English for the Pokémon TCG. This figure encompasses reprints with different foiling, stamps, or artwork.
How many individual cards are there in Magic?
Magic cards, a collectible card game game, have a total of 22, 630 printed cards with unique names and in-game rules text. There are also around 49, 998 unique English-language Magic cards, including cards with unique printings like alternate art or reprinted in multiple editions. The collectible card game game has been around for almost 30 years and has 88 expansions, each adding several hundred cards. This question is trickier than it might seem, as it only considers paper cards and does not consider digital products like Magic: Arena.
How many different kinds of Magic cards are there?
The Magic: The Gathering card set comprises a variety of card types, including artifact, battle, conspiracy, creature, dungeon, enchantment, instant, kindred, land, phenomenon, plane, planeswalker, scheme, sorcery, and vanguard. The designation of a card’s type is a characteristic that is inherent to every card. It establishes the general parameters governing the circumstances under which a card may be played, including tokens and certain non-traditional Magic cards.
How many Black Lotus exist?
Black Lotus is a highly valuable non-promotional Magic card, with 22, 800 copies printed in total. Its limited distribution and print led to its high value. In 2013, one version sold for $27, 302, while in 2021, it sold for $511, 100. In 2022, Post Malone paid $800, 000 for an artist’s proof signed by Christopher Rush. The card’s status in the Magic: The Gathering community is reflected in the Magic: The Gathering Players Tour, which was originally established as the Black Lotus Pro Tour and first contested in 1996 in New York City. The card’s artwork was created by Christopher Rush.
How many unique MTG cards exist?
Magic is a trading card game that is played with two players or more, each using their own deck constructed from cards they previously owned or from a limited pool of cards at an event. The game has over 27, 000 unique cards, with hundreds added each year. Each player knows secrets that the other players do not, making finding perfect strategies impractical or impossible. The game’s inherent randomness and constant addition of new cards force a regular reevaluation of deckbuilding and gameplay strategies, leading to an ever-shifting metagame as players adapt.
Magic is the first product to combine randomized, collectible cards with deck-construction and interactive gameplay, making it a unique and challenging game to play. The game is sold in various languages and products, including booster packs and preconstructed theme decks.
What is the most expensive magic card?
Magic: The Gathering (MTG) is a lifelong passion for many players, with each deck reflecting strategy and card serving as a portal into another dimension. The pursuit of rare Magic cards is of utmost importance, as they transcend the battlefield to become a pursuit of prestige. The recent purchase of the rarest Magic the Gathering card by Post Malone set a precedent for the rocketing value of MTG card prices. As MTG prices continue to rise, cards become relics, coveted by collectors and commanding prices few would have predicted at the game’s inception in 1993.
This blog will explore the storied history of the most valuable Magic cards, exploring the 21 most expensive cards ever sold and uncovering their mystique in the world of rare Magic The Gathering cards.
What is the rarest Magic card type?
Magic: The Gathering cards, including the Black Lotus, have become highly valuable over the years. The Black Lotus gives players three mana of a single color when tapped, costs nothing to play, and can be used as an interrupt. The Alpha Set of Magic: The Gathering cards has become extremely valuable, with even common cards worth several thousands of dollars. Some of the rarest and most valuable cards, such as the Shichifukujin Dragon and the 1996 World Champion, are considered priceless and not for sale.
Dual lands like Taiga and Tundra are highly sought-after and can sell for thousands of dollars, providing versatility and power to decks using multiple card colors. The Alpha set, which debuted on Aug. 5, 1993, has become extremely sought-after, with many cards worth thousands of dollars in today’s market. The Beta set, released in September 1993, also has cards worth thousands of dollars.
Why is Black Lotus banned?
The Power Nine card, known for its power and limited print, is banned from most competitive Magic formats due to its power and scarcity. The only competitive setting where it is not banned is the “Vintage” format, where only one copy is allowed. The card was omitted from Revised Edition and none have been published in any subsequent set. Its power and limited print have made it the most expensive Magic card, with mint condition Alpha cards being among the most valued.
Publisher Wizards of the Coast stated that the card would not be reprinted, which would hurt its value among collectors. The 30th Anniversary set published by Wizards of the Coast in 2023 reprinted 15 cards from the original set, including Black Lotus, which are proxy cards with unique backs and use a modern card frame instead of the classic frame from the original version.
How many different cards are there?
A standard deck of playing cards consists of 52 cards in each of the four suits of Spades, Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs, each containing 13 cards. Modern decks usually include two Jokers. A variety of games can be played with a standard deck or a modified deck, with some listed on BGG. A larger list can be found under the Traditional Playing Cards family, while Traditional Card Games is a placeholder for games not in the BGG database. John McLeod’s Pagat. com offers a comprehensive list of traditional card games and articles about playing cards.
How many Black Lotus cards are there?
Alpha Black Lotus, a Magic card, was printed in various sizes and formats, including Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited. It is not allowed in tournament play due to its power and scarcity. However, it is not banned in most competitive formats, except in the “Vintage” format, where only one copy is allowed. The card was omitted from Revised Edition, the core set that followed Unlimited, and none have been published in any subsequent set.
The card’s power and limited print have made it the most expensive Magic card, with mint condition Alpha cards being among the most valued. Wizards of the Coast stated that the card would not be reprinted, which would hurt its value among collectors. It was included in the Reserve List, along with other Power Nine cards and early sets of Magic: the Gathering, to avoid being reprinted.
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Skill Borrower is one of my favorite unique cards, I try to include it in any deck I can to show it off. It’s something special to have an innocuous creature out for a turn, then get a surprise Sol Ring, Chromatic Orrery, Contagion Engine, or Mindslaver activation from it. Lots of good activated abilities of artifacts and creatures out there folks.
It’s not necessarily “unique” in that its effect is very straightforward, but Yurlok of Scorch Thrash is one of my favorite modern designs, and is especially punishing with War’s Toll. Past that, another “category” of cards that I love (again, not necessarily “unique” in the full sense of this article) is 2-mana mono-white Hate Bears. Things like Hushbringer, Archivist of Oghma, Containment Priest, Grand Abolisher and Leonin Arbiter are a testament to how creative the game designers are in making a suite of diverse and narrow effects that are still extremely powerful in their ideal circumstances
I’ve always had a soft spot for Guardian of the Gateless since I discovered it. It combines two relatively rare abilities of being able to block any number of creatures and also getting a pump of +1/+1 for each creature it blocks. It basically will blank any alpha strike your opponents could attempt if the bulk of those forces are the many versions of 1/1 tokens that are often in token strategies. You might even be able to foil bigger attacks with some of the more effective combat tricks like Unleash Fury and Temur Battle Rage.
A card which is basically useless in any other deck, but one of my favourite unique cards is the “Tel-Jilad Stylus” in my “Grenzo, Dungeon Warden” Commander Deck. Using it to prevent my commander from being exiled or destroyed by activating his ability and then putting himself under my deck with the stylus is one of my favourite things to do!
Panglacial Wurm is forever my favorite magic card. When I was just getting into the game, maybe like 11 years old, my friend mysteriously got one when someone at summer camp stole a Spined Wurm out of his deck and replaced it with Panglacial Worm. We were young and lacked reading comprehension though, so we both thought you could play the card for free if you searched your library, no cost required. Of my first twenty games of MTG, I lost like nineteen of them to my friend doing turn 2 rampant growth –> 9/5 with trample, and somehow still ended up loving the game. I have my own copy now which I love and put in way more decks than I should, it’s such a nostalgic card to me.
I love Bridge from Below so much! It’s an amazing enabler for Manaless Dredge in Legacy, which is at least my second favourite deck ever. All odd cards are a joy for me. Manaless Dredge actually sverved me to play the Tortured Existence archetype in Pauper, and I’d say TortEx is one of the most unique commons out there. Honestly, graveyard shennanigans are just a joy.
An honestly excellent list, and a lot of cards I had forgotten about. You did remind me of another from Futuresight that had a mechanic I would LOVE to see come up again… Fortify, the ability similar to equipment, but for lands, and only ever was on one card, Darksteel Garrison. It is such a niche thing, but I would love if we got more of that kind of effect… build a deck of Fortifications and Equipment, a true kind of army/war deck would be so flavorful and fun!
You should make a snakes trible EDH deck for a future Tolarian Community College Edh deck! I would be honored to show my Emerald Tree Boa’s off in the article! I am pretty sure the art of snakes from Neon Dynasty is based off of the species of Emerald Tree Boa. I think i live in the same area as you are so let me know if you would be interested!
Nivmagus Elemental combos spectacularly with Ink-Treader Nephilim, since technically the copies it creates are yours regardless of who casts the original spell. You can use it to prune which creatures get targeted by the copies Ink-Treader makes, disincentivize your opponents from abusing Ink-Treader’s ability, and get Nivmagus Elemental absolutely massive in the process. Also, I too think that Panglacial Wurm is neat. I put it in my Godzilla commander deck.
You didn’t mention that Bridge from Below was a staple in Dredge back when Dredge was arguably the best deck in Extended thanks to Ravnica block. And powerful enough it saw play in every constructed format. People would often use the zombie tokens to flash back Dread Returns for no mana, enabling various game-ending combos. It was a fantastic deck, and since much of what it did was triggered abilities rather than casting spells, it gave counterspell decks fits!
I’m a big fan of Grolnok, the Omnivore: – Self mill on attack. – Any permanent put into your graveyard from your library is exiled. – Lets you play those exiled permanents as long as Grolnok stays in play. Grolnok can let you quickly build up a massive exile that effectively acts as a nearly untouchable hand.
I honestly really like Chains of Mephisopheles. I know that its long text box is a meme, especially considering its rather simple effect when explained in plain English, but building around it almost requires you to find more and more strange cards, as you notice that effects for putting cards in your hand don’t get you tangled in the chains.
Void Attendant. Two and a green for a 2/3 Eldrazi Processor with Devoid. It allows you to pay one and a green and put an exiled card an opponent owns into their graveyard to make an Eldrazi Scion token. While there are a small handful of other ways to un-exile a card, most notably with Pull From Eternity, Void Attendant does so as part of the cost of its activated ability, meaning it can’t be responded to. With exile increasingly being used as the place cards go while waiting for something to happen (Foretell, Adventures, good old Impulsive draw, and several other mechanics), this can effectively give you a way to deny your opponents their resources while still being worth playing just on its own so long as you aren’t up against a deck that cares about its graveyard. It also combos with Spellweaver Volute if you want to go that direction, but remember that it can only bin cards your opponents own.
Usually the professor is cooking, but i use bridge from below in my zombie commander deck and combo it off puppet stitcher using instants or sorcery spells to un alive my board and re animate it later while puppet buffs the zombies and then mono blue gisa to make them fly after the transformation. I was surprised to see a card i own and use on this article
Actually future sight is full of weird cards. There is the aura that taps. Second wind. And then there is the grandeur mechanic which was way too weak but I loved that it gave you something to do with excess legends that would otherwise be dead in your hand. Another card for this list would be raging river. If it weren’t for the fact that the space marine planeswalker from the sticker set copied its mechanic.
I think Volute is similar enough to Arcane Bombardment, though the unique nature of “enchant a card in a graveyard” is what keeps its status, especially as graveyard hate gets rid of it just as much as enchantment hate does, because exiling the instant makes the enchantment leave play just as well as exiling a creature removes the creature’s enchantments.
Karn Liberated had to make a new rule into the Comprehensive Rules (Restarting the game). Dryad Arbor is the only Creature Land card in the game. The Wandering Emperor is the only Planeswalker card that can be cast with Flash and activate her first loyalty ability in response to something. Questing Beast is the only card in the game that changes its rule text everytime you read it.
Can we get a sequel to this? I’ve been making a weird card WUBRG commander deck with Garth One-Eye, and this was just one of many sources where I got some really weird stuff from. Was searching around elsewhere and happened to come across Timesifter as well, so I’m curious what other neat cards you’d have in mind for showcasing
I’ve always felt that not reprinting the same cards with new names was a design problem with Wizards. Like I’m okay with 2 cards with different names doing the exact same thing if they aesthetically fit into their sets. What i think they should do is make a new keyword: Nameshare. Nameshare cards share names with other cards named on their Nameshare. For example imagine you have Bolt and another card exactly the same except it’s called Flare so the art uses fire instead of lightning. Bolt doesnt need a nameshare keyword as it is the first printing of these rules on a card, but Flare would need “Nameshare (Bolt)”. So you can’t have 4 more than 4 “Bolts” in your deck.
One of my Favorite cards of all time is ovinomancer – its just… not very good. 2U for a 0/1 that reads: When Ovinomancer enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you return three basic lands you control to their owner’s hand. Tap, Return Ovinomancer to its owner’s hand: Destroy target creature. It can’t be regenerated. That creature’s controller creates a 0/1 green Sheep creature token.
Circling vultures lets you discard it as a special action. Riding the dilu horse gives a permanent buff to a creature on a sorcery without using counters or anything to track it. On another note, it’s weird to me that red and white both have better versions of one with nothing that were printed 4 years before it and at common in rites of initiation and sacred rites. Blue also has breakthrough which is almost always going to be a better effect, though it is a sorcery.
Actually, Spellweaver Volute is in some ways just a strictly worse Arcane Bombardment. The only upsides to Volute is that you can pick ANY instant in any grave to enchant rather than something random from just yours, and in theory if you have multiple instants to target and exile and multiple sorceries to cast, then you have multiple volute triggers a turn. The Volute is only really better in one very specific situation and that would be using this card as a sideboard card to counter an opponent’s Flusterstorm by casting your own from their graveyard to ensure that your combo goes through, and outside of that is very reliant on you or your opponent playing a very specific kind of deck, such as a control deck, to actually get any long term value out of the Volute. Arcane Bombardment, while not being precisely the same in that it exiles from a graveyard rather than enchanting a card in a graveyard, has a unique kind of copy effect, I’d argue, that’s a much stronger version of the Volute. Sure, it only triggers on the first instant or sorcery you cast each turn, but it can be triggered by an instant rather than a sorcery which the volute cannot, and it can exile a sorcery rather than an instant as well. Also, notably, it gains a stacking bonus and infinite use of cards that get exiled under it the longer it manages to stick around, which can in theory allow you to do broken things such as take infinite turns just by copying an extra turn card it exiled previously, casting multiple boardwipes at instant speed around ordinary counterspell protection, and turns every instant or sorcery you cast for the rest of the game, if you do it correctly, into a Storm card.
I think Goblin Game is pretty high on my personal list of “WTF is this shit?” Mechanics. It’s tame enough when the objects you choose are mundane things like dice or counters, but that’s boring. Embrace the spirit of goblin game. Go get a frying pan, a cat toy, two saprolling tokens, and your left shoe and hide that shit behind your back like a true goblin.
Not 100% unique, but there are only two cards with this effect that I’m aware of: Naked Singularity and Reality Twist. They both change the color of mana that all lands with a basic land type produce. E.g. Mountains produce blue. Note that it doesn’t change their land type like Conversion does. Mountains are still Mountains, they just produce blue. Reality Twist doesn’t change what Islands produce though (which is good because its costs are blue-heavy). The weirdest thing about it to me though is that despite being near-identical, they were both printed in the same set: Ice Age.
gotta disagree with how you’re presenting Trinisphere with Force of Will and Electrodominance, really anything that says “… rather than pay this spell’s mana cost” or “… without paying its mana cost” or anything like that that makes the mana cost irrelevant, Trinisphere only affects the mana cost of a spell, not whether or not a spell’s mana cost is required to be paid in order to cast it, Trinisphere can in principle make such cards mana cost 3, or any other arbitrary value, but it can’t force the caster to then have to pay the 3 mana in order to cast it edit: the last example with “cost X less to cast” still costing at least 3 with Trinisphere was of course correct, anything with wording like that that doesn’t affect whether or not the mana cost needs to be paid in order to cast Trinisphere has an effect on
Leveler and shared fate though the latter is significantly more unique and useful than the other in some ways. The combo involving the two cards is possible as early as turn one or two depending upon what your hand is. All you really need to do is be able to produce one blue and four of any other color. The total cost to use the combo is nine mana and it’s entirely possible to use it as early as turn one like I said.
Gemstone Cavern. Comes down turn zero City in a Bottle, Apocalypse Chime, and Golgothian Sylex. Only affects cards from one set. Shared Fate. Play with your opponent’s deck! Piracy. Play with your opponent’s lands! (this was printed when mana burn was still a thing) Riding the Dilu Horse. Permanent buff. Quarum Trench Gnomes. Permanent debuff Raging River. Playing mind games has never been so confusing. Goblin Game. Another fun mind game to play on your opponents. Hiding 40 objects is the power move!
I was expecting to see Naked Singularity, I remember falling in love with this chaotic evil card the first time I saw it in a map at the local cardshop. I remember we were all new to magic and still figuring things out and I plopped this monstrosity down and confused everyone(including myself) even more it was hilarious
Yooooooooooooooo Im so happy to see some of my favorite cards in this. Spellweaver Volute was a card I ran back when I first started the game, and even then i loved it purely because it felt gooby and just fun to use. Nivmagus Elemental was the focus of a standard deck I had back during RTR (I never played in tournaments or at FNM, just casually with friends). I fell in love with Izzet flavorfully and honestly this guy just seemed to embody it so well. And Flumph is just a silly lil guy. I run it currently in a wedding themed EDH deck I have that’s all about marrying someone with Wedding Ring and then building eachother up and taking eachother down.
A couple cards I really like, not sure how unique they are, are Glissa the traitor (first strike death touch, return artifact from your gy to your hand when opponent creatures die), guard gomazoa (defender flying, prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to it) and echo circlet (equipped creature can block an additional creature)
Quick question about Serum Powder: Let’s say i take a first mulligan and draw seven new cards. I don’t like these but have a Serum Powder in Hand: Do I have to exile all seven cards and draw seven new, then decide which one hoes to the bottom of my library? OR Do I have to exile all seven cards and draw seven new and keep them because it is not mentioned in the effect of Serum Powder, that i have to discard? OR Do I have to put a card on the bottom of my library first and then exile six cards and draw six new cards? (This is the way i understand from your article, but i think this would only be right with the old mulligan rule.)
One downside you might not have noticed about Serum Powder, given your wording of it, is that you don’t exile Serum Powder, but your entire hand in order to dodge a mulligan penalty, meaning that while it does let you get another chance at having your combo or key cards, you also run the risk of losing access to other copies of your combo pieces or other stuff you might want. If it was just Serum Powder being exiled I imagine it’d see play in the majority of decks, even with the downside of a dead card, or at least in way more than it currently does. If you’re playing a Storm deck for example and you have a hand with Serum Powder and your one copy of Tendrils of Agony, you can’t really use the Powder’s ability or you’ll lose your win condition for the game (not that you couldn’t mulligan normally in that situation, but still)
First some comments, then my picks 0:38 finally, Markov’s Baron get some recognition 16:05 like Arcanum Wings, those are weird cards i would like to see used again My picks: -) Paradox Haze: more upkeeps? I’ve used it and tried to clone it on my Fungus deck ever since!camd then I’ve huilt an Azorious deck arount it anyway -) Viridian Joiner: ok now more cards like this exists, but doing stuff equal to its power? Nice. I need a black card adding black mana equal to the sacrificed power, similar to Ghoulcaller Gisa or Shadowheart Dark Justiciar -) Leeches: removing poison counters? I wish for a claroc with a TAP ability doing that. And a green druid. They are so thematic! -) Humble Defector: draw cards and betray? It inspired a Naya deck with Gilraen, Trostani Discordant and Orthion. -) Ertai, Wizard Adept: (priced) counterspell on a stick? Nice! -) Hateflayer: it’s just a pet card, but a huge buddy splashing big withering fists while untapping is nice! I just combo it eith Experimental Kraj and Wirewood websiteer or, better, Kami of Whispered Hopes to create a finisher machine gun! (Which is, you know, a deck by itself .. and refocus, aracnoid adaptation and untapping stuff like that) -) Odric, Lunar Marshal: he combos with Akroma, Vision kf Ixidor and a legion of keyword-full creatures and equipments. The deck build itself! And he seems like a Sliver Overlord! -) Sephara, Sky’s Blade: convoke-like for flyers, making them indestructible? Give her a Helm of the Host, please! -) Shikari Leonin: equipping at flash speed!
Yo prof! Long time fan, love you SO much! As such, I feel it is my duty to point out 1:19 where “ShaharaZAD” is pronounced more like a CharizARD. Sha-ha-ra-zad has all ‘ah’ sounds, true, but only one R, unlike the popular fire pokemon. This will in no way deter me from perusal and liking every article you post; just thought the good students at TCC should pronounce it correctly while NEVER playing that card.
“Discard your hand” … this was the only solution for my opponents versus my VS SYSTEM deck of the Injustice Gang ! Every time they draw a card Ira Quimby makes them lose 1 HP, my Lex Luthor makes everyone draw 1more card during our draw phase, also preventing any OP from playing more than 1 plot twist per turn! Then the Joker prevents opponents from playing plot twists (spells) from their hand, so now they can only play 1 plot twist, from the ressource row ! (lands row). Then turn 5 the Scarecrow has : tap this = target OP loses 1 HP per card in hand. Circe has the same power. So yeah : my opponent dreams of a card saying : “Discard your hand”. So as to not lose quickly.Often my opponents have 25-35 cars in hand, half the deck, and are getting burned to hell for it.
My pick for unique card is: Bitter Ordeal – 2B Sorcery – Rare (Future Sight) “Search target player’s library for a card and exile it. Then that player shuffles. Gravestorm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each permanent put into a graveyard this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies.)” Have played in my Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and Ghoulcaller Gisa EDH decks as an alt wincon along with Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + another zombie in play. Doesn’t care about life totals or shuffle Titans.
Flumph is AMAZING in combo decks, where you don’t care if your opponent gets cards or not, because once you draw to your combo/win con, then the cards you gave them become irrelevant. It’s the perfect stall + draw for only 2 mana, it’s extremely underrated. (It’s in my mono-white “Approach of the Second Sun” deck. Just stall the game with board wipes, O-Rings, flumph, “secret rendevous”, etc etc, just stall, draw, and wipe the board until you cast Approach twice.)
About a Decade ago I played a Fearie Stompy mirror in a Legacy tournament. After winning game one and realizing whe where playing almost identical decklists (He had 4 Cloud of Fearies, I had 3 More lands and 5 moxes (3 diamond 2 Chrome) to his 4 (Chrome), my opponent looked surprised when noticing I had not boarded out my Thrinispere’s and and Chalice’s. Then game 3 came around and my opponent found outl my turn one was, Mox Diamond, City of traitors, Chalice at 0, Thrinispere, Folowed up by a Sea Drake and a Wasteland on turn two, my opponent didn’t even get to cast one spell that third game. Also Jep Serum Powder & Bridge, used to love Ichorid from drafts before, so Dredge it was a decade and a half ago, I played it in about 60 tournaments across both Legacy and Vintage.
“For a long time, Bridge from Below was relegated to the fringes of the Constructed formats.” The card was released in May of 2007. Modern and Pioneer didn’t exist yet. Bridge from Below started cropping up Standard decks by June. These decks used Ravnica dredge cards, Narcomoeba, and Dread Return to make a hasty army of zombie tokens and swing in for the win, cementing the foundation for what would become known as the “Dredge” archetype. Formats with deeper card pools would bring in other cards to accelerate this core: Ichorid, Bazaar of Baghdad, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Cabal Therapy, Careful Study, etc. Over the next several months, Bridge from Below would be the centerpiece behind decidedly non-fringe decks in Vintage, Extended, Legacy, Standard, and Time Spiral Block Constructed. In individual formats, there may have been lulls during which Bridge from Below decks were indeed fringe. But the card was a powerhouse right out of the gate, and has basically been a success in every Constructed format for which it has been a legal option. It doesn’t see a lot of play in Commander, but that’s about it.
Orcish bowmaster: H’obbzz write this down! Scientific progress goes Flumph. Personal Unique favorite card not mentioned: Cadaverous Bloom, a Golgari Enchantment that allows you to exile a card for 2 green or black mana…how could this go wrong? Card is busted as soon as you can draw lots of cards and exile what you don’t need for more mana to cast etc, etc… and win. My Yargltani aristrocrat deck always wins when I get that card out; draw 18 cards from Yargltani dying: yes please 😛
Heads up. MTG arena just super nerfed bowmasters… It no longer procs when entering the field. Funny story though… A friend of mine shared with me a solid historic deck literally Tuesday, Oct. 10th 2023. Which had a bunch of old stuff I didn’t have bud most importantly, even though new, 4 orcish bowmasters… so it came down to me buying four wild cards, which I know you should never do.. but that’s what I needed to finish this deck and they were for the bow masters. Next day, sometime afternoon, my friend texts and says did they nerf the bowmasters? I open the game to a fucking update and then I get some shitty bowmastersx4 and 4 rings. Nerf is fine but the freaking day after I literally spend money to get those specic cards.. they nerf and give everyone the nerfed alchemy version like… Wtf. Where’s my refund 😂
Encroaching Mycosynth is a new favorite unique card of mine. It’s inconspicuous at first, but being able to make all of your cards artifacts regardless of where they currently are allows for some interesting jank. Make token copies of Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge with Artificer Class after you have Sakashima of a Thousand Faces in play. Did your original Tezzeret get Exiled? Use Karn, The Great Creator’s -2 ability to retrieve Tezzeret from Exile and repeat your madness >:)
Tree of Perdition is a fun oddball of a card. “Exchange an opponent’s life total with Tree’s toughness” becomes a lot more meaningful when opponents start with 40 life, and unlike Sorin or similar effects that just set an opponent to 10 life, Tree retains that 40 as toughness (and can be leveraged later to give that toughness/life total away). Also, Exchange of Words from Unfinity (weirdly non-acorn) has a lot of potential. It’s a combo kill with Archfiend of the Dross (give Archfiend’s text box to an opponent’s creature so they die on upkeep when they can’t remove an oil counter), and can be used for shenanigans in general.
For me “The Mimeoplasm” is my favorite unique card. It’s a commander that never manages to exist on battlefield, as it enters and becomes something else, including something non-legendary. Also, I don’t know of any other cards that specify “as this card enters the battlefield”, which is different from “when this card enters the battlefield”, which leaves lots of room for rules lawyering nonsense. It’s also one of the few ways you can cheat the “if this card was cast” clause on a card like “The Terrasque”, which makes for a horrifying combination of getting The Terrasque into play for 5 mana but also buffing it considerably AND having it capable of dealing commander damage, without the Terrasque being your commander, and without playing mono green. Just one fun example.
An interesting card I know of, and is a bit of a pet card for me, is The Most Dangerous Gamer. It’s the only card in the game that cares about claiming the prize from an Attraction that isn’t an Attraction itself. Sadly, there’s only one eternal-legal Attraction that claims any prizes, (that being “Pick-A-Beeble”,) so it won’t be destroying permanents very often.
Panglaicial Wurm can be used to do extremly weird stuff within the rules, like – searching your library and shuffling it exactly at the same time (manakin and some eldrazi that shuffle with repalcement effects, if I recall), – searching and identifying cards in your deck but leaving those there (with sylvala or any mana ability taht could add mana, rolling back the spell due to lack of mana), – and my favorite : putting forest in your hand, face down. I don’t recall how 🙁
This doesn’t really count because they’re not legal anywhere, but back in the day all the Ante cards and “throw them from above the battlefield” (chaos orb, falling star) cards were pretty bizarre. Shahrazad is pretty wacky too. My playgroup played for ante in the early days. Aside from Contract they’re all bad but they’re super funny when they resolve.
There is a card, Aeon Engine, which reverses the order of players’ turns. A perfectly useless effect in 1 v 1 play, but has massive implications in any multiplayer format. Time Sieve is unique in how it converts resources. We’re used to converting between mana, cards, permanents, life. Sometimes we use graveyard as a resource. Extra turns are a payoff, but almost exclusively a payoff of mana. Time Sieve converts permanents into turns, which is a very unique dynamic in the game.
Speaking of Panglacial Wurm allowing you to do something in the middle of doing something else, there’s Averna, the Chaos Bloom allowing you to snag a land as you cascade. There’s also Serra Avenger caring about when it can and can’t be played, which was historically circumvented with Aether Vial. Finally, there’s Divine Intervention, a card whose goal is to ensure that no one wins the game.
My favorite unique card (and the cause of 1) many headaches and 2) demands for the card never to be played again) is Timesifter from Mirrodin. If you have one Timesifter, you can make a decent deck that makes use of multiple turns in a row to win thanks to expensive cards and scry. If you have Timesifters, you have a confusing headache where everyone wonders whose turn is next. If you have two Timesifters in a multiplayer game, you have a scenario where you are likely to be thrown out of the play group 🙂
When it comes to unique cards, i personally like Dryad Arbor cause of its unique rule for it, being since its the only card that is a Land and a Creature by default, you MUST play it in the Creature zone not the Land Zone. Learning more magic as I orginally played when i was younger and thats one of my fav cards I’ve learned about recently.
Best unique card IMO is Timesifter. Completely messing up how turns are ordered is my favorite way to play, and if you’re running a cheaty deck with expensive spells, thees a high chance you just get to keep taking turns. then in multiplayer if someone gets rid of it, you have to remember who’s turn was next when you played it
10:43 Nivmagus Elemental is a great sideboard card for plenty of red/blue decks. It’s use case is niche, but if you’re playing against, specifically, a control deck that likes to counter you multiple times, you’re effectively countering every counterspell they can by converting their counterspell targets into buffs that can’t be targeted, instead. All their buying time for the finisher fizzles while simultaneously making your threats more threatening.
I have always been a fan of Izzet Staticaster and Pattern Matcher, they have some really interesting combo implications. For example combining an Izzet Staticaster with two Cacophodon generates an untap engine which can be made infinite by making Cacophodons indestructible or otherwise make them not die to the Staticaster. Pattern Matcher is really cool to me but i haven’t found anything useful to do with it, only cheap gimmicks like using the token from Yotia Declares War to tutor for an Ornithopter. Obviously you could use it for tutoring more copies of an actual creature card you have on the battlefield but at 4 mana it’s not that great for it i think.
I used to run Niv-Magus in my Ink-Treader Nephilim edh deck (yeah, I know, not a legal commander). Any time you cast a spell that targets Ink-Treader, you control all the copies too. You can choose to exile ones that target creatures you don’t want to target, ie, make targeted removal into a board wipe that just hits opponents.