MTG Top 10: Arabian Nights | The BEST Cards in Magic's FIRST Expansion | Episode 432

#MTG #Magicthegathering #MTGArena
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Direct Card Kingdom Links for Each Card in this Video (SPOILERS)
Note: Prices may have changed
Juzam Djinn - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/arabi...
Serendib Efreet - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/arabi...
Drop of Honey - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/arabi...
Oubliette - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/arabi...
Cuombajj Witches - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/arabi...
Ernham Djinn - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/arabi...
Kird Ape - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/arabi...
Bazaar of Baghdad - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/arabi...
City of Brass - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/arabi...
Library of Alexandria - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/arabi...
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Animations by Mike from Mythic Tales. Find his channel filled with awesome MTG animation here: / radiocommand
I Can Feel it Coming Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com )
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

[@NizzahonMagic]

A couple of corrections: (SPOILERS) 1. Cuombojj Witches total points of 11 is correct, it has 11 Second Tier Top 8s, all in Pauper. 2. City of Brass can only tap for colored mana, and only painfully, not sure where I got other ideas from!

[@shuboy05]

Just to add, you mentioned Oubliette got a reprint in Modern Horizons 2 when the card was actually reprinted in Double Masters.

[@corey2232]

@@shuboy05 Well shit, just keep piling on then ya meanie!

[@streetpeter3210]

It's ok! You've been feeling under the weather. Appreciate you still making the content!

[@monkeygaming2859]

I was gonna say, I thought that mana confluence was just an equivalent city of brass reprint and so couldn’t tap for colorless

[@andrewsparkes6275]

As for 2, you were probably just thinking of the more common 2-color painlands, where this is a bonus effect. But they'd be strictly worse than City without it, which is likely why they got that bonus.

[@JD-gk7eh]

I'm really glad that you said that the set is quite powerful for its time and a number of years after that. I see a lot of people dunking on AN on Reddit because the creatures are quite bad by 2020's standards. But the best creatures in the early days were cards from AN, with the game finally taking some 5+ years to make Juzam Djinn and Erhnam Djinn no longer great cards.

[@RocKM001]

Agreed.. ppl forget that back in the day a 5/5 was considered massive. It wasnt until after the Apocalypse block such as the Onslaught block that the trend for truly massive creatures started

[@brianbatey9281]

Most vreatures were 1/1 s

[@brettschlarmann9685]

City of Brass does 1 damage to you every time it is tapped regardless of the source that taps it. You cannot tap City of Brass for a painless colorless mana.

[@JohnChronakis]

It even causes 1 damage if the card gets tapped in some other way, e.g. Rishadan Port

[@assault410]

Correct and I'm not sure where the confusion came from

[@kaszael]

@@assault410 It could be because of Mana Confluence that is, at its core, the same (add 1 mana of any color, your life goes down by 1) but that could gain painless ways of tapping for colored mana (like with Chromatic Lantern/Urborg). Maybe?

[@trinidaitobago2]

The best creatures are black and blue and green have a removal... weird days

[@SerathDarklands]

I'd love to see you cover the little-known Astral set, though it would have to be a personal preference set, since it's not a legal set.

[@littlel9906]

Also, though not relevant for ranking, Oubliette is pretty good against commanders since phasing them out doesn't actually make them change zones so they can't return to command zone from it

[@mittoman1542]

My favourite thing to do is to make it a creature in some way, then double the etb with panharmonicon or yorion. You target someone's commander with one trigger and oubliette itself with another, and boom, your opponent can literally never get their commander back

[@aarlavaan]

also good against the amonkhet gods that put themselves in the library 3 cards down when they die or get exiled.

[@Amphidsf]

Intro made me think about the Mountain. Which made me think about how the Alpha Top 5 is most likely the Basic Lands but the question is by how much and the distribution.

[@Clonekiller66]

Based on extensive research. The most played MTG card of all time is the Basic Mountain.

[@xne14gax26]

Those card prices...

[@kurtilein3]

One of my 2021 highlights: Picked up a mint Library of Alexandria. Its ungraded but appraised as mint by a professional grader and by me. It is so rare to find these in perfect condition. Apart from this one, the only meaningful cards that are almost as old that are in perfect condition are 3 german duals.

[@corey2232]

I can't believe I purchased a NM (like nearly pack-fresh) Bazaar of Baghdad for $250 back in 2014 & now see that "$3,699.99" price in the video... I sold my entire collection 2 years later (when I realized I needed to stop spending so much on the game) for like 10% its value to the first store who had enough money on hand to buy it... Seeing how dramatically prices have skyrocketed for older cards, I die a little inside thinking how I should've just had better restraint lol. *Edit:* Crazy! At the time I bought that Bazaar, Library of Alexandria was way more expensive, so I "settled" on Bazaar. I couldn't stomach spending an additional $400 on Library, but now it's less expensive than Bazaar! Now I'm really sad😭

[@Gymnopedie55]

Something I only noticed during this video is that the white Cuombajj Witch has 6 fingers on the hand she is holding up. Maybe one day we will get a "top 10 odd details in Magic art you never noticed" list. Perhaps there is some lore behind this.

[@JB-mm5ff]

On Arena one of the new Innistrad set "loading" images was a werewolf with six fingers. It was discovered and taken down after 1 day!

[@stevenglowacki8576]

Back before Bazaar was banned in Legacy, I played it in a Replenish deck with Saproling Burst + Pandemonium for the win. No one really played Legacy way back then though, and I only played it online on Apprentice where you didn't have to acquire the really old and expensive cards.

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

I called it, I knew Library of Alexandria would be #1! Arabian Nights is one of those sets that's actually older than me, which is such a weird thing to think about. But any set with those weird expansion hosers is always fun. Almost as fun as "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)"! Of which Library of Alexandria has a serious case at making.

[@corey2232]

I dunno... with only 139 points, I don't think it would make a case for your much desired Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9) list 😁

[@jonothanthrace1530]

I was excited seeing that Serendib was reprinted in EM, and then sad again because it didn't use the original art. Oh well, having the misprint green one in my Izzet Commander deck still makes me smile.

[@punchsnonsense2336]

You missed two really competitive Vintage decks during the late 2000s that had success with Bazaar: Dragon, which used it as a free discard outlet to get Worldgorger Dragon into the graveyard and then a free way to mill through the deck while looping. Stax also used it as a way to filter cards (and dump things for Goblin Welder), with Uba Stax running a play set and using Uba Mask as a lock piece and to make Bazaar basically free card draw. Otherwise, great job!

[@JD-gk7eh]

Vroman's Uba Stax (c. 2005) was a really radical deck. Vroman would tell you that his biggest innovation for Workshop decks was to play Null Rod, something he was able to do by playing a monored deck with basic lands, a far more robust manabase than 5c Stax's Gemstone Mines and City of Brasses. Unfortunately, almost all the mid/late 2000s Vintage content was lost when The Mana Drain crashed or changed owners or something. And few of those of us who played then are still alive now. ;) I am/was JDizzle, if that name means anything to you.

[@AprilsMoon92]

I loved the cards in this set, I just wish they weren’t so ungodly expensive 😭

[@shuboy05]

So do I. I'm so happy to own three commons from the set. Hurr Jackal, Bird Maiden, and Wyluli Wolf. I just love the art in them.

[@joesantos2455]

Oubliette is a place of forgetting. The opposite of an obelisk.

[@hermodnitter3902]

It's a jail in a hole. Probably you'd like to forget if you'd been there...

[@joesantos2455]

@@hermodnitter3902 the distinction is explained in "First Knight". A place of remembering (like the Washington monument etc..) VS a place of forgetting (like medieval jail cells that are particularly isolated).

[@madjoe8622]

Having a LoA in your starting hand the one of the best feeling while playing magic

[@monkeygaming2859]

I love cuombajj witches mostly because it kinda looks like the right one is giving the middle finger

[@volkfidde4269]

I just noticed she has polydactyly.

[@shadowmetroid18]

Ah yes. Wotc takes you to such exotic places. Theros Ravnica Strixhaven and... the middle east.

[@mickmars8319]

"My comrade, your personal feelings are irrelevant." --Soviet Zelda

[@sagacious03]

Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

[@jonnymmac]

Miss those days. Games were so fun.

[@TimmytheSorcerer]

Great to see you looking into these older sets! Are we going to see an Antiquities top 10 next? :D

[@NizzahonMagic]

Not next, but some day for sure.

[@shuboy05]

My guess is all three Tron lands are going to be combined in one slot.

[@gakk8658]

Erhnam Djinn was also very popular in Gruul in a deck called Erhnam and Burn'Em. Maybe it never made it into any top 8s but it was played all over the place. Fun deck, too, especially as more sets came out and gave you more red burn and other efficient (for the time) creatures in the colors. I sure had lots of local tournament success with it.

[@jml6263]

One of the Cuombajj witches has six fingers and now I'll never be able to unsee it.

[@norwegianblue2017]

I still remember seeing Arabian Nights packs for sale in a game store in the 90s. I thought that was a weird concept. Was more into role playing and board games at the time And so I moved on. At least I learned to appreciate the set later and bought a complete set off Ebay around 2008. I think I paid $1200, including some graded cards.

[@christopherlundgren1700]

As is often the case with how these scores are calculated, the rankings don’t really give an accurate depiction of performance in eternal formats because there just aren’t any events happening that would be included in the data. As others have noted, Library has become a rarely played card in Vintage, despite its theoretical power. Bazaar, on the other hand, is one of the most important cards in the format, fueling multiple styles of graveyard based decks for many years now, as the video notes. If there were any events happening that counted towards the rankings, it would easily be #1 by now.

[@Polyphemus89]

Bazaar would need 36 vintage top 8’s without Library gaining a point just to tie it. Not saying that it’s not a more important card at the moment, but it definitely wouldn’t EASILY be #1 if there were more tournaments.

[@christopherlundgren1700]

@@Polyphemus89 You know, fair enough; that's a big gap and there would need to be a lot of events happening, but if there were--and had been all this time--I don't think that's so unrealistic. Library is just not played anymore, while Bazaar is in a huge percentage of decks now, and they're competitive. Not huge like Ancestral Recall or Mox Sapphire or something, but I don't think it would be so farfetched to expect a Bazaar deck or two pop up in any given Top 8. And this development isn't that recent.

[@MortlachNL]

One of my more memorable Magic moments involved the Juzam Djinn and happened in the cafeteria of my high school at the time. Oppo plays a snowcovered land and a 0 mana 0/1 kobold. I play my entire hand and end up with a Berserk-Fork-Juzam Djinn that attacks for 20 trample damage. Oppo blocks and goes down to 1. Next turn I Icequake his land for 1 damage and win. Good times!

[@aheathholcomb4214]

Ah memories.... this little video made me think of my Juzam void deck..... 1st turn Juzam and 2nd turn Nether Void.... (yes sometimes u could do both) but it was such a pain and would lock people down and they still would fuss... “but I can still play a mox and swords him....”. Yes but 3 extra for mox 2 hit the board will make me wonder how u will come up with 3 more for that swords....

[@TheGreaterGrog]

This video does a great job of showcasing how much creature inflation has occurred over the years.

[@metrafem4734]

Love Coumbajj Witches. One of my favourite cards.

[@AqueleGamer]

Bazaar is completely absurd, Vintage doesn't have as many premiere events, but given enough time it will completely overtake Library, which is all around a pretty slow draw engine for Vintage.

[@Bob-nc5hz]

Library is a pretty slow draw engine, but if you have a library it's an essentially free one so there's little reason *not* to run the library if you own it.

[@Goten40373]

love theese videos

[@shuboy05]

Where is the pronunciation guide on Rabiah? I've heard two MTG fans (Nizzahon being the second) say Rabiah this way. Meanwhile I've been saying Rabiah as Arabia without the A for years.

[@tomscud]

Witches are great in pauper basically because of one card: spellstutter sprite. They are nearly a one-card win against blue faeries decks, especially the mono-blue ones that have a hard time getting rid of them.

[@dexterhatchet3529]

thx nice topic

[@shuboy05]

I honestly feel City of Brass can overtake Library for Number 1 in the future. City is legal in more formats including Modern and its received a new printing in Double Masters 2022 meaning more people can get a copy.

[@Ostenkaer]

I play old school 93/94, would be a good base for some better statistics. I know they are not woc sanktioned. But there is a lot if rise and popularity going on. Try check out old school winter derby which just started.

[@ZackeroniAndCheese]

In the older days of magic there were less tournaments. Additionally, reprints have given some cards much more potential for points than others. Have you put any thought into a point system that would put old cards, new cards, cards with many prints, and cards with 1 print all on an equal playing field

[@gunnertlc7728]

How would that work tho?

[@plaguedr8831]

Best set ever

[@Arethusa01]

Unpopular suggestion: Top 10 Worst card in Urza's Block.

[@Clonekiller66]

There'd be so much trash creatures on that list lol.

[@autobotjazz1972]

this list was pretty much what i expected.

[@jenniferwilliams9612]

Aside from mountain (my favorite mountain), I was not aware of any cards from ABU that were reprinted in Arabian Nights…. Which cards were you referring to in the 92 to 79 original reprint exclusion? (FYI, you cannot get painless colorless mana from City of Brass)

[@shuboy05]

There are 78 cards in Arabian Nights. The other 14 are variations with lighter mana symbols.

[@MarylandBF]

Do more pre-modern set top 10s please

[@captainkarnage9874]

The most shocking thing about this top 10 is that I've been mispronouncing half these cards my whole life

[@stevenglowacki8576]

How do you know it's you and not him? He's, uh, not always right.

[@EyalDegabli]

Is Arabian Nights actually MTG's first Universe Beyond?

[@scottclark3761]

Aranom djinn? You mean erhnam? Er-nam? I have never heard anyone, pros, table, or anywhere else pronounce it that way. Took me a moment to catch on. And I played erhnam and burn em in the day.

[@spitfire4209]

What about Mountain?

[@jenniferwilliams9612]

Regardless, that is still the best mountain….

[@RibusPQR]

The Mountain in Arabians was a reprint, so it's not eligible for this list.

[@shinjodun]

Library of Alexandria was never Standard legal. When Standard originally began as Type II, it was Revised, Dark, and Fallen Empires. How did it get 4 points from Standard?

[@NizzahonMagic]

Two Top 8s at Worlds in 1994. Technically Worlds 1994 isn't "Standard." It was just "Magic," but the closest analogue for that format is Standard.

[@JalebJay]

I think Library and City will fall to Bazaar at some point. Neither of them are seeing much play in formats they're legal in. Library not seeing play anywhere but a few Xerox lists because the format is too fast for it to become active. People need to counter spells or put something on the board quickly. While City of Brass seems to be pushed aside for lands like Mana Confluence or Spire of Industry as they're pay 1 life rather than take 1 damage for becoming tapped.

[@davispo7550]

Ali from Cairo's got to be the best card. It was even banned!

[@NizzahonMagic]

It was definitely one of the silliest bans ever, though a lot of them were in 1994!

[@PokeBattlerJaze]

City of Brass? Edit: Ahhh, I was close

[@DaveyDAKFAE]

FYI, the thumbnail art is never the #1

[@PokeBattlerJaze]

@@DaveyDAKFAE you right

[@thesamuraiman]

💜⚡

[@FlyFoxAir]

Love this new series!

[@NizzahonMagic]

Is that a joke? Haha. MTG Top 10s have been around since 2016!

[@FlyFoxAir]

@@NizzahonMagic no, what I mean is the new series focusing on top 10 from old sets such as AN 👍🏻👍🏻 keep them coming!

[@SpitefulAZ]

are there any real cities or mythical cities that are known as city of brass?

[@Valerie-nm1gr]

The City of Brass is a mythical place which is mentioned in the Nights. It appears to be an abandoned, ruined city, which at one point ran using high "technology," featuring things like brass automatons that fire arrows at the explorers attempting to visit it. The other interesting quality of the city is that at one point, when gazing upon it, one member of the party begins laughing hysterically, and goes stark raving mad from the sight of it. One of the more eerie and evocative tales in the book for sure! As for how that translates to the card's effect, I'm a bit unsure...I guess taking damage might symbolize the psychological damage it can cause, before that was more clearly linked to milling and/or discarding cards. It's definitely a place of riches and wonder, in its own way, which could explain the rainbow mana.

[@evanvandeneinde7095]

Would you ever consider doing an "MTG top 10: all time"? Your comment about "top tier" got me curious.

[@Alex-gl8li]

I can help for the top 5 : Montain, Island, Plaine, Swamp, Forest.

[@Schlaym]

Those card prices though

[@manhattanblockade8544]

Top 10 sets you haven't covered yet

[@matth9788]

City of Brass cannot tap for painless colorless mana

[@orangeyellow9695]

Let's play 4 shaharazat and tutors for them

[@obadala]

nizza i want the pic u used in thumbnail pls salam

[@ClubbingSealCub]

City of brass cannot tap for colourless

[@hadi7474]

Painless colorless mana in city of brass???

[@corey2232]

I didn't realize that was a thing either. Guess errata versions make that clear? Never paid attention.

[@KPX01]

nope it was a mistake, only had tap for 1mana&dmg

[@joshdavis6830]

Good ol' shitty city. I've been seeing Shitty more in Modern recently, I think because of Prismatic Ending (but also maybe because people don't want to think about mana so hard lawl)

[@user-jd5zt4of8q]

"Kird Ape" - do you mean "Black and Blue Harambe"?

[@heidibenner1577]

Lol

[@damien4197]

So, weird thing. People shit on Fallen Empire and Homelands and even The Dark for being weak sets. I was just watching their videos, and thought... you know, dafuq other than (very poorly balanced, or broken from later mechanics) lands from the much more fondly remembered early expansions made an impact? And Ihsans Shade > Juzam sort of confirms this. also, Ignore Pauper and aforementioned lands, and AN gets washed... and the obvious Mana Drain aside (and the not obvious Solemn offering, and holy crap how did I forget Boomerang was original Legends), pretty much the same, the "weak" sets compare except for the lands. Hell, Blood Moon and Tormod's Crypt body even those. They were just not as varied (The Dark being more fondly remembered for being so, I'm guessing) and overprinted to hell... nothing splashy like Eureka or Mirror Universe... even if those things never actually won anything.

[@misterwile]

nice vid, but your pronunciation drives me nuts.

[@snozeberry99]

Love these old cards, please do a top 10 Legends or Antiquities.