MTG Top 10: CRAZIEST Set Gimmicks | Magic: the Gathering | Episode 275

[@jacobbrown9894]

The weirdest set gimmick at the time was Alpha for introducing this weird “trading card game” thing

[@JeskaiEye]

7:53 "Colorless cards with colored mana, and colorless cards with colored mana." Nizzahon must really like them

[@Fak3Cake]

7:47 *

[@EliMitchellLarson]

Came here to post this hahaha

[@shaggyunbound6475]

I hoped someone pointed it out cause it was hilarious

[@elliotlesser4373]

I had to rewind it just to make sure that I had heard correctly

[@barryswigart1432]

The gimmick for Kaladesh was bannings

[@captainsoup868]

How does this comment have more wilkes than the video

[@DerpyLaron]

I thought that was eldrains gimmick

[@DerpyLaron]

@@captainsoup868 video likes take some time to update and early ones are checked by KZbin. Same with the view count. It can even happen that a video has more likes then views because of that. Well at least till the algorithm lets you see the proper number

[@FrowningTable]

Laron Dormeuse basically it’s the gimmick of new sets

[@Zach-jg8uw]

and misprints

[@nikos731]

I just now realized that the "tainted lands" cycle from Torment actually uses the art of basic lands in Odyssey, just slighly "corrupted" (and this Mountain art form Odyssey in particularly is considered one of the best Mountain arts ever). Mindblown!

[@thomassynths]

Thanks!

[@thanalincoln]

Thanks!

[@groovemedium]

I'd put Planar Chaos at #11. Bending and shifting the color pie was a really interesting theme.

[@gunnertlc7728]

Better than the voting shit

[@seilaoquemvc2]

and that would put the entire Time Spiral Block in the list of crazy gimmicks... ahah and it would be deserved. Time Spiral was a great block.

[@0Whitelottus0]

Man the red Akroma and the black Ixidor had my mind blown away across all the multiverse

[@groovemedium]

I remember having a draft deck with both Akromas. I'm pretty sure I had them both in play at some point.

[@snipechan6573]

@@seilaoquemvc2 Maybe that's the real reason they're pushing Teferi. You can't have another time spiral-like set without Time Magicks.

[@2frikinbeast]

Worth noting that you were guaranteed a Planeswalker in each War of the Spark booster

[@mattd3978]

I'd say of recent releases it was my favorite. I originally started the game just as Mirrodin came out and probably stopped around the end of the original Ravnica block. So to come back to the game in the same block essentially but there's this new powerful permanent that is really expensive was difficult. So having so many at lower rarity made it so I could see how fun they were and I thought passives were cool

[@skirk248]

War is an evil set. 3 feri and 3 narset as well as Karn

[@mattd3978]

@@skirk248 eh, I'm a control player so I generally like evil. I see why people don't like it, as I try to play everything. But I think teferi has been real tough in these two most recent incarnations. The only thing I really get annoyed by with walkers is the moment I deal with one of them the opponent having a fresh one in hand

[@skirk248]

@@mattd3978I'm irritated that they end up warping the eternal formats. I understand that they want them to be played but they're incredibly powerful. Turning off your opponents stack and card draw is pretty busted

[@Knuddelbar90]

there hasn't been a set i drafted as much as WAR, it's just great to draft with all those walkers, also worth nothing? teferi? liliana? narset? nissa? gideon? ugin? nicol? ral? saheeli? i play various decks with all those and they let me win a lot. nissa ruled standard, teferi & narset are played a lot in vintage&modern, narset is also restricted in vintage, which says enough about powerlevel.

[@MP-kw5ud]

Honorable mention regarding #3: Judgement, which was kinda the "Anti-Torment-Set" with more green and white cards than other colors and a lot of Protection from Black.

[@TubbyBubbleLove42]

I'd put Innistrad's dedication to all the artwork being POV on a list of gimmicks. That shit was awesome.

[@Fishcrab]

That's so cool.

[@SephonDK]

I never even thought of that! That's amazing!!!

[@thomassynths]

Can you elaborate? I took a quick look at some cards and nothing special about point of view stood out to me.

[@fernandobanda5734]

It's not "all" in the slightest.

[@fernandobanda5734]

@@thomassynths The art was supposed to make you feel included in the world, which made it scarier. The best example I can think of is Village Cannibals. You can see the hands of the victim coming out of the bottom as if it was in first person.

[@Nobody-zl3kk]

What about eldraine? Most creatures and artifacts could become elks after the set entered standard

[@sammysammyson]

HAKSNJSNSNS

[@kaisergunter983]

But in all seriousness eldraine looked sort of like a dnd set

[@blackknightjack3850]

It's so weird, too. It wasn't just Eldraine creatures and artifacts this was related to. It's like it had some sort of temporal ability that made it so the previous 4 sets all had a massive abundance of cards that were just 3/3 elks.

[@raynmanshorts9275]

I am once again asking for your top 10 sideboard staples.

[@dantecasalla3174]

Format?

[@vasilkalov2622]

That would be awesome

[@Semmelein]

Oh hello there, Magic Bernie. 😄

[@ringoderbar1522]

Nizzahon, I came to bargain!

[@Yao-fz6ie]

@@dantecasalla3174 ALL OF THE FORMATS

[@magetathelion75]

The whole time spiral block deserved to be on here, It was one giant connected gimmick, Look to the past, then the future, then twist everything up in an alternate dimension style. It was a great block

[@marvthereddevil5418]

It was the set that really got me into card collecting. It was a magnificent piece of design.

[@kylekafka6636]

Futuresight was the last set in the block, it was basically past, (alternate/what if) present, future

[@MrZer093]

Slight correction: Lorwyn was actually the first set with Planeswalkers at rare. It was because the mythic rarity didn’t exist yet and they were also testing out how well the new card type would be received as they were mostly underpowered and just did generic “color goodstuff” rather than having any sort of cohesion with the block as a whole, which also didn’t have any more planeswalkers added to it. It’s also easy to forget as they weren’t even in the lore. The story was its own standalone thing that didn’t have anyone from another plane or anyone that went to another one later on.

[@jormgundtheballast7397]

God I wish they'd revisit lorwyn. That was probably my favorite block, if not urzas saga, and I've been playing since 5th edition.

[@MrZer093]

Lorwyn was actually my first one. Coming in from YGO, the large focus on tribes helped get me into it since YGO is big on types. It was also a very unique block due to the 4 sets divided into 2 mini blocks. It’s also the only plane without humans. I find it weird how even Kamigawa is talked about more than Lorwyn despite the fact that loads of iconic cards are from it like Thoughtseize, Bitterblossom, and Kitchen Finks. There’s plenty more too, especially with all the goblin support. So...yeah, I’d like a return too lol. Would be nice to have a planeswalker from one of the races too so there would be relevance in later stories. Even Kamigawa has one in Tamyo.

[@bladerz1191]

No Planar Chaos? Edit: For those who don't know, it was a set in Time Spiral block that had a ton of cards that intentionally break the color pie.

[@nickbalmes6640]

I heard it had blue kill spells, white card draw spells, and even green burn spells! I exaggerate but that's basically the gist of what I was told 😅

[@imperium3556]

Yes, and it frequently comes up in arguments about the colour pie because people have a bad habit of using Planar Chaos cards as an example of something they think a colour can do.

[@mjjjuly]

To be more specific, the theme of the set was alternate reality. Lots of existing cards were color-shifted, ex: Wrath of God was reprinted as black, Damnation.

[@HaydenX]

@@imperium3556 That's because a lot of the "breaks" in the color pie still match the color by having the out-of-color effects balanced with in-color ones. Sunlance, Mana Tithe, Damnation, and Dash Hopes...these are all good examples of being called a "break" while actually being more like a minor bend.

[@fernandobanda5734]

The gimmick was not the breaks, though. A lot of the three alternate cards are arguable breaks if not complete in-pie (Prodigal Pyromancer).

[@marcellosalis5063]

Homelands was retroactively added to Ice Age block when 3-sets block system was introduced with Mirage, but otherwise had nothing to do with Ice Age (both flavorfully and mechanically speaking). Coldsnap was ment to “fix” this.

[@AidanWR]

I was thinking, "Man, it'd be cool if they had an enchantment gimmick set," then I realized that we've had two from Theros. It came with such interesting typings, like Legendary Enchantment Artifact

[@explodingchimp8989]

Not equipment, ‘cuz they didn’t have the space!

[@thomassynths]

Urza's block was an enchantment gimmick set, believe it or not. So there's another few sets for you.

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

Since this is a gimmick list, I'm gonna do a gimmick request. Top 10 Elephants. *GIVE ME THE ELEPHANTS!*

[@nickbalmes6640]

🐘🐘🐘

[@pauljimerson8218]

Call of the Herd

[@presenceofthemastermtg5962]

that's not normal.

[@c.jhamblin5759]

Drew are you ok did someone kidnap you?

[@slimyfister]

You know if you really do play vintage maybe sub this man's patreon. (Just extrapolating disposable income) Nizzahon might be uncomfortable setting a precedent that he does this for free?

[@andrewvitale7295]

Alara Reborn’s multicolor gimmick was so cool and crazy that you basically had nothing to say about it and quickly moved on the number 1

[@vinnythewebsurfer]

You wanna know Coldsnap’s gimmick? TRIPLE DRAFT FOR THRUMMING STONE

[@AggressiveLemur]

I drafted 10 desciple of tevesh szat and 2 thrumming stones. I won that draft.

[@joelmonteiro1419]

It was such a busted format. I remember a white buff speel, probably in the same cycle as rune snag, that ended games very quickly.

[@pittspawn]

The screen says voting

[@TheShinyFeraligatr]

Coldsnap was entirely designed to be solo drafted, it had a ton of "draft a lot of X" things. That's also why it wasn't very fun to repeatedly draft though. Fucking Surging Dimentia.

[@Rukalin]

I don't have any links at hand but I'm pretty sure Maro's gone on record that colour-heavy sets are very unlikely to ever return. Judgment was already supposed to take the role of balancing out the black-focus of Torment.

[@tomaszurbanowicz1559]

As anyone could guess, they are pretty much unable to draft with

[@Rukalin]

@@tomaszurbanowicz1559 Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was the main point he brought up

[@TheShinyFeraligatr]

Oh, those sets are very draftable, but it's a lot like Original Ravnica - the best deck at the table is going to be the guy who drafts entirely around Pack 2 or 3 and wins hard, and the worst is going to be the one who does that and loses hard.

[@ashra8281]

I forgot about torment. Torment is pretty amazing. And would like to see a spin off for the other colours

[@TubbyBubbleLove42]

Judgement, set following Torment, was more heavily skewed toward Green and White.

[@chrayez]

I think a mostly-blue set would be frustrating as hell 😂😂

[@alaraplatt8104]

shoutout to alara lol. im not named after it but i still love those sets to death

[@presenceofthemastermtg5962]

whenever I see a color shifted card from planar chaos like serra sphinx I get the chills.

[@demilembias2527]

I love Alara Reborn's commitment to multicolored, and really want to see a return to Alara. Conflux was the first set I ever bought cards for, so I have some nostalgia for it, but I'd also really like to see what Alara has become like after years of all the shards being merged again.

[@JalebJay]

What about Judgement being the complement to Torment having very few black cards, and extra green/white?

[@MasterQuestMaster]

6:38 Mystery Booster be like: "Let me introduce myself."

[@timdornaus]

i honestly really liked most of these gimmick sets. i definitely dug coldsnap, torment (and judgement) and legions

[@tylerowens]

The first deck I ever bought was a Coldsnap precon, so Coldsnap has always had a special place in my heart.

[@vinnythewebsurfer]

Kamigawa should be given a lot of credit for helping commander become the powerhouse it would become it wasn’t just legends.

[@fernandobanda5734]

What do you mean? The big majority of Kamigawa legends suck. It hasn't contributed much more than a normal block.

[@joshuachudziak45]

Torment did it right. If your going to give a certain colour dominance, throw a ton of protection from black cards into the set as well.. I miss the nightmare vibe it had as well

[@s4ad0wpi]

Hearing you talk about Legions makes me want the Opposite, that is, a set that has NO creatures! (Or Planeswalers, for that matter)

[@danielwappner1035]

That sounds like a rough drafting experience

[@sammysammyson]

I've tried putting that together, or at least an outline of it, with a friend for a custom set. It's very difficult to figure out how it would work and make for a workable limited environment. Of course, there would be plenty of token generation, but at that point...why wouldn't you just print creatures or do a tokens matter set? I'm sure they'll do it eventually, but it would be quite the design challenge.

[@s4ad0wpi]

@@sammysammyson Well, obviously, any "Oops all Spells" set would have to reprint Bolt... Aaand that's about as far as I've gotten

[@chaotica-game985]

I thought Planar Chaos was gonna be number 1. Surprised to not see it on the list.

[@neil5652]

Mirrodin Besieged had the fun gimmick of playing out the war with the players. You got to pick which side in the release seal pool event and get a faction pack. I think that might have been the first instance of special packs unless the OG ravnica did guild packs. Anyways there was also a cool afterwards at FNM where you got to pick a side and you had to put like 10 cards in your deck with either the watermark of Phyrexia or Mirrodin, and for particapating you got a card from from New Phyrexia which means you could win a card with a set symbols that was NEVER printed. Edit: If only Mirrodin won...maybe we would have avoided Phyrexian mana... Faction Packs: magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/faction-packs-2010-10-12 Two sets: magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/arcana/action-packaging-2011-03-15 Two sets: magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/announcing-action-2010-12-09

[@stevenglowacki8576]

It's extremely unlikely that this was anything but a marketing gimmick. They wanted to make people invested into the game, but there was no way they were going to devote resources on designing two complete sets unless they had the exact same cards and the only difference was the packaging.

[@coultonelliott4312]

Cold snap was because they intended to release it in the ice age block but in the process of wizards of the cost moving to a new headquarters they lost all the data and material files for cold snap but years later they were found so they decided to go ahead an run the set

[@groovemedium]

That was a myth they made up when they announced thes set. It's fiction.

[@skotmatthews8940]

7:47 lol he said the same thing twice- no big deal it happens, its funny because the cadence of the list fit perfect so it didn't sound like a second take

[@danpaul4779]

Surprised New Phyrexia wasn't on the list; their gimmick was breaking mana costs. Every standard deck ran Gut Shot, Dismember, Gitaxian Probe, or Porcelain Legionnaire no matter what their basic lands were.

[@DerpyLaron]

Great list and incredibly interesting. Being that I only play since Dom i wasn't aware of some of the crazy sets they did.

[@goncaloformiga3338]

Time Spiral isn't the biggest set in MTG history, that title still belongs to Fifth Edition with 449 cards. Great video BTW. New subscriber 👍

[@maximgorbachev2980]

Planar chaos pile-break cards can be in honorble mentions

[@marvthereddevil5418]

The middle of that list made me very nostalgic for the beginning of my paper card collection :)

[@varice2248]

Actually, the first rare planeswalkers wher the also the fisrt ones.The Lorwyn five where all at rare because mythic was not a thing yet. And the static abilities where technically first done in commander 2014 with those commanders.

[@fd7003]

The first PW with a static ability would be Garruk Relentless in Innistrad (transform when Loyalty 2>)

[@Ryztiq]

At 7:50 you left an outtake of "colorless spells that cost colored Mana" in ;)

[@frhorizons]

A block specific alara deck sounds amazing to play

[@groovemedium]

A lot of early EDH generals came from that block.

[@ohno8569]

Depends on your color preferences. Some of the dual colored decks are lame, considering the major strategies for the game overall.

[@ohno8569]

Oops. Black was decent, and fun. If you had the right cards. I'm a kitchen table player though.

[@shuboy05]

The future-shifted cards are still finding places in future sets. Grinning Ingus got a reprint in Strixhaven.

[@lupe12345]

I would love to see this becoming a regular series. I love the history of magic and I would like to know much more about each set, what wizards were thinking or going through when they decided to make each of the sets the way they became. Things like how new phyrexia had such a bust mechanic with phyrexian mana and how that lead to one, if not the most loved set, Innistrad coming right after. Since the banning and restricted list history is coming to an end, It would be nice to see this being a replacement for that series.

[@petrkovacs3191]

Wait a second.. Swamps in booster packs of Torment? What? Did I missed something when I opened about two displays for my collection?

[@nickbalmes6640]

Looking back, War of the Spark really had a crazy power level 😬

[@sqwirl31trkpny94]

Wdym by looking back? It caused cards to be restricted in VINTAGE

[@nickbalmes6640]

@@sqwirl31trkpny94 it feels like a long time for me now that Teferi, Time Raveller and Narset, Parter of Veils have been omnipresent in Standard. I have never been this excited for a Standard rotation to come.

[@caseywellington4761]

@@nickbalmes6640 it's not rotating write yet though. One more set before that happens.

[@dirtyblonde1011]

Last time I was this early, Ugin was still alive

[@ButzPuff]

To go along with #3 Torment is Black-focused, Wizard admitted that Judgement, the following set, was White-Green focused to balance things out. While they put didn't only Forest and Plains in packs, it was easy to tell White and Green got the best cards in the set and even a few "cycles" of cards to themselves like the Phantom Creatures.

[@TehPhuzzy]

Would so love to see a four set block that does the rest of the colours like what was done for black in Torment. Maybe multi-timeline stories about the Mirari story playing out differently.

[@waynebairstow3906]

I'd love to see Top 10 Sets! As in, which 10 Sets have had the biggest impact on competitive Magic as a whole.

[@zachariahpoltergeist4516]

Fallen Empires and Homelands had the very rare "unplayable" mechanic. J/k I love those sets!

[@marcoottina654]

Aura swap, absorb, fateseal, poisonous, fortify (equipping lands), grandeur, "enchant instant card in a graveyard" (Spellweaver Volute), assemble and Contraption (Steamflogger Boss) are grat! I would love to see them again, especially absorb! (Fateseal is implemented in the +1 Jace, The Mind Sculptor and Contraptions are thing now).

[@TheMightyBattleSquid]

TIL shards of alara had a bunch of cards I like in it. I wasn't round when it came out so I've only seen the cards online or in bulk bins.

[@TravisPilgrim]

I really love the concept of Torment and Judgment. A lot of people dislike Judgment (I found it to be enjoyable) because the focus on green and white felt a lot less cohesive than a focus on just black. I would love for wizards to revisit this concept because since the printing of torment and Judgment, the two color combinations have become a lot more defined and doing a similar theme at this point is a lot easier.

[@Redox8404]

Niz I love the new graphics! Absolutely beautiful!

[@Kavou]

Nicol Bolas,Dragon God + New Teferi from M21, is gonna be insane. Being able to use planeswalkers' abilities on instant speed.

[@double2254]

Nicol Bolas won’t copy the static ability, only the activated (locality) abilities That would be broken beyond compare

[@stevenglowacki8576]

Homelands was not originally meant to be part of the Ice Age block, and uses no mechanics from Ice Age that I'm aware of, while Alliances specifically *was* part of the Ice Age block. Once they started with the idea of making 3 sets a year, with fall, winter, and spring releases being tied together into a block, they made Homelands part of Ice Age block. I don't recall if "Ice Age block" tournaments at the time allowed Homelands cards or not when they originally ran, but I think they didn't.

[@tomaszurbanowicz1559]

When you mentioned Alara i half expected Ravnica to pop up as well. I may be wrong because I'm a bit too young to play back at the day, but wasn't Ravnica the first multicolored focused set, or at least the first time color identities for two color combinations were defined? Other thing I expected to see were Eldrazi/colorless spells/colorless matters, I'm not sure which was the first set to introduce them

[@SephonDK]

First multicolor theme was Legends, Ice Age had a slight theme, but multicolor in the sense of modern design principles, as an actual core theme, was Invasion block. Ravnica was the second block to have a multicolor theme. The reason they did the guild model was because Invasion was "play as many colors as possible", while Ravnica's gimmick was "play as FEW colors as possible, while still being multicolor". This twist on multicolor being defined so well in color pairs is why people have an easier time to remember Ravnica. Invasion's story and setting had very little to do with the fact the gameplay was centered around multicolor. Both blocks rocked ofc.

[@cdogwat3605]

7:47 I wonder if they had colorless spells that cost colored mana 🤔

[@art_san_nav]

Top 10 Humans is still pending.

[@MuteSpectre]

Sorry I didn't catch that, colorless spells that cost what kind of mana?

[@tonythepokemonguy751]

I’m old I voted on 8th edition

[@tonythepokemonguy751]

agnat86 *angrily shakes fist in air* birds of paradise damm you

[@pitadude9836]

I'm glad you prefaced 3-1 as being interchangeable. My list would have Alara Reborn at number 1, in part because of the unique challenge it presented with designing for limited and also what it allows in terms of mana (hybrid gold, anyone?). I believe that without hybrid gold being introduced there we never would have seen the split cards like status//statue where half the card requires both colors but the other only needs one or the other.

[@christiansassmannshausen5495]

I think Alara Reborn was pretty cool, too. If I remember correctly though, the set did´nt have any basic lands at all.

[@pitadude9836]

I feel like it had basics but "no one drops"

[@dominiciancabatit6012]

That Mutilate art is unforgettable.

[@gaddammitkyle]

Shoutout to Throne of Eldraine for their gimmick of having everything be a 3/3 Elk

[@streetpeter3210]

I know Modern Horizons and stuff wasn't counted but, Box Toppers are like the ultimate gimmick

[@Thesaurus_Rex]

Part of me wants to see them try to make a "sorceries" gimmick set, like Theros is for enchantments and...several sets have been for artifacts. Trying to imagine how a sorcery creature would work is an interesting thought process.

[@zyibesixdouze4863]

probably etb, flash, then sac at end of turn

[@Thesaurus_Rex]

@@zyibesixdouze4863 Well, given that it'd be a sorcery creature, flash wouldn't make sense, but you're probably right beyond that.

[@Fak3Cake]

Ikoria was number 1 for many people when they first saw it 🤣

[@jeangallo6956]

Hey nizza hon I have a question. Im playing magic with a friend and we disagree on something. If he uses the old version of lightning bolt (the one that only targets creatures and players) can he still target my planeswalkers? I say that he has to use the current version of the card but he disagrees. I hope you read this. Thank you.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Yes, he can target planeswalkers. Go to gatherer.wizards.com and look up any card's "Oracle text," which is the official wording of cards, updated to today's usage.

[@jeangallo6956]

Nizzahon Magic omg thank you so much. Love your content :)

[@graemetang4173]

10:15 Remember Simic and green in general after Eldraine?

[@transcendentalism9306]

This was a great episode

[@a.strain2786]

Top 10 banned cards where you cover the best of the best that have been banned in any format.

[@archangelnew]

Homelands has common legendary creature. Joven and i cannot remember.

[@froggywoggy473]

Chandler!

[@archangelnew]

@@froggywoggy473 Thanks! These two were originally printed in Homelands as common,and not reprints that lowered their rating.

[@rpriske]

Wasn't the Mystery Booster thing a bigger set than Timespiral?

[@tatesmith4527]

7:48 2* "Colorless spells that costs colored mana"??

[@ohno8569]

The devoid mechanic...

[@Fak3Cake]

@@ohno8569 he means the fact that nizzahon said the same phrase twice

[@tatesmith4527]

@@Fak3Cake yes thanks x)

[@mybadvideos]

Wasn't judgment biased towards green and white?

[@hobez64]

Interestingly we kind of have seen Absorb, I forget the name but one of the Kaldheim god's artifacts gives the whole board Absorb 1 and taxes you for playing spells against your permanents

[@Spiqaro]

What about Arabian Nights? The gimmick being that they're all from the same set of stories? Or is that more theme based?

[@cutecommie]

If future sight isn't #1, I'll riot

[@cutecommie]

Literally none of the sets above Future Sight deserved their place. For most of them, you won't even notice the gimmick when opening your first pack. Alara Reborn maybe, since gold sticks out.

[@thomassynths]

@@cutecommie I think Torment should be the crown winner.

[@TheDarkHumour]

Top 10 wordiest cards would be fun; I wonder if the recent Death's Cradle would make the list

[@pitadude9836]

Depending on the criteria "Time Stop" either does or doesn't

[@firestormphoenix76]

I think innistrad should be number 1. The concept of doublefaced cards is just so crazy. We don't think of it now because every set this year has it.

[@snipechan6573]

Imagine how cool it would be if Lilianna decided she was going to be the next big bad and the set is a war against Lilianna (Black emphasis set).

[@nevikbc6953]

I can't believe you left out the first set with flip cards. I thought it would be top 3 for sure.

[@gregorystiver7198]

Wizards considered putting The Cheese Stands Alone in 8th but didn't like the issues of a card being both silver and black border

[@tefnutofhoney2832]

The three sets i can think of worth a mention here Planar chaos should have been number 10; the color pie shifting is just something weve never seen before, and never will again Innistrad, in a vaccum, without later sets, is also up there, for introducing dual sided cards. On the innistrad subject, id say avacyn restored is a gimmicky set in the opposite way as innistrad; the removal of the planes main gimmick

[@soarel325]

Future Sight was definitely way crazier than positions 4 through 2

[@themris]

New Phyrexia deserves an honorable mention

[@kyleward3914]

Not such an odd theme in and of itself, but Fifth Dawn had a multicolor theme as the third set in an artifact block.

[@reggietheanarchistrat8805]

How is planer chaos not on here

[@alyssinwilliams4570]

Auraswap seems like it could have made it into the recent Theros set, to give it something new over the older Theros set

[@jonathantillian6528]

Origins and Lorwyn had blatant racism as a minor gimmick with all the elves trying to ethnically cleanse the "eyeblight" goblins.

[@pitadude9836]

You want "blatant racism" look no further than "Invoke Prejudice"

[@thelunchlady8276]

Wasn't it eyeblight elves? It's been awhile since I've read those books though.

[@jonathantillian6528]

@@thelunchlady8276 The eyeblights were the goblins (though Eyeblight Massacre suggests any non-elf is an eyeblight). Remember when Nissa Revane was super racist? Old magic cards remember, until they're expunged.

[@thelunchlady8276]

@@jonathantillian6528 Right, i was thinking it was the less than perfect elves. but, meaning any less than perfect race, i.e. the boggarts.

[@EnderLord99]

Pretty sure Mystery Boosters have more than 422 possible cards. Do those not count as a set?

[@700718756]

Torment wasn't the only color imbalanced set. It was immediately followed by Judgement, which was a green&white focused set with few black cards, made to balance out the imbalance of colors from Torment. This means, no, we're never going to complete a cycle of 5 color imbalanced sets like you suggested, since torment already had its imbalance corrected.

[@charlesng553]

Gimmick of Throne of Eldraine - bannable cards

[@caseywellington4761]

Don't you mean 3/3 elks?

[@ddp77]

You forgot Fallen Empires gimmick: being woefully under powered

[@chargingbadger867]

with the exception of hymn to tourach

[@stevenglowacki8576]

You mean woefully overprinted. The cards weren't that bad compared to previous sets, but now absolutely everyone had them.

[@dankinmcspankin3123]

set having focus on one color is great

[@fatpad00]

A little disappointed Steamflogger Boss didnt get a shout out, since it's initial release was more than 10 years before its text box became relevant, and even then it was only in silver boarder

[@SoundsOfSushi]

Wow! You left out Innistrad, the first set with Day and Night cycles and also the most popular set of all time flavor wise.

[@NizzahonMagic]

I didn't really include flavor in any of my decisions.

[@rashakor]

Legends also had uncommon Legends, Kamigawa was not the first. Fallen Empires was all about tribal before tribal was even a thing. I am really surprised not to see Judgement, Planar Chaos and New Phyrexia here. At least the first two should be mentioned in the same breath than Torment and Time Spiral/Future Sights and should probably have been included as gimmicky blocks.

[@NizzahonMagic]

I said "except for Legends" when talking about kamigawa.