MTG Top 10: Mirage | The BEST Cards in one of Magic's Most UNDERRATED Sets | Episode 623

[@DeDunking]

I haven't watched your most important sets video, but I can say Mirage was huge because it finally established baseline costs for things. Before Mirage, a 2/2 would cost 3 mana probably, maybe have an ability, maybe a really good ability even, maybe 1 colored and 2 generic or 2 colored and 1 generic... Mirage changed that. 2/2s that cost 3 were usually 1 colored and had a decent ability. Drawing a card cost 2 generic, a 1/1 for 1 will have an ability... There are a few outliers but before Mirage it felt like designers just made stuff up, this set felt like they actually designed it. For the first time.

[@shuboy05]

Mirage is also a major milestone for introducing Teferi.

[@mikotagayuna8494]

And a way to foster inclusivity by diving into a people's heritage with respect, not by tokenism.

[@j_g_t6091]

​@mikotagayuna8494 which is a far cry from Magic today

[@sammysammyson]

@@j_g_t6091Nah, what do you mean? I love queer people being tokenized. It really makes me feel represented when the only depth a character gets is their sexuality or gender!

[@j_g_t6091]

@sammysammyson oh true! I forgot how good it feels to be defined by one characteristic. Thank you my friend, for reminding me. My apologies WOTC.

[@BryceLeft]

@@mikotagayuna8494 what do you have against token decks

[@jamessnedeker4799]

My friends and I got into MTG around Ice Age/Alliances so Mirage was the first set to release that we were hyped for. Those good ol days of mtg.

[@DeDunking]

I haven't done research on this to see why you say it, but I played competitive MtG in these days, and you couldn't sacrifice Lion's Eye Diamond for mana without discarding your hand, not even for one spell. The colon meant all conditions before it had to be met before anything afterwards happened. It was a junk, worthless card until Broken Jar, from my memory. And I played a ton of MirVLight, Type 1 and Type II back in these days, in Washington state, frequently at the WotC headquarters in Renton. I do not believe you have this correct.

[@kurtilein3]

I believe you are right, the colon is key. The discard is left of the colon. The way he describes it, that would have to be to the right of the colon.

[@DeDunking]

@@kurtilein3 If it would've worked the way Nizzohon describes, it would've certainly been a sideboard card against Stompee. Winter Orb locks with a handful of small creatures won Stompee those games, a Diamond to power out a Wrath would absolutely be worth it. And the combo decks, sack the Diamond and cast Prosperity, easy quick way to make it happen. I wonder where this rumor started?

[@mchild80]

I remember the day of Will/LED. Nizzahon is correct. It was a very scary time when Urza Block got added in. Nobody was safe from the multitude of combos

[@DeDunking]

@@mchild80 I'm talking years before Yawgmoth''s Will. And I seriously do not think he's right here. I looked briefly, and I believe he has mistaken the errata over the years and gotten it backwards. As I mentioned before, if it works as he claims, it would've been in the original Prosperous Bloom decks, 100%. Like Squandered Resources, it would've offered a quicker way to power out a Prosperity, then the discard would be negligible, as that deck went BOOM. Yeah, after looking a little, I'm certain he has this wrong.

[@DeDunking]

Back in those days, you couldn't cast a spell without mana in your pool. This changed, and when it did, the Diamond got errata. The errata is what I believe is throwing N off, the OG rules aren't something he is familiar with. I'm assuming of course.

[@gilbes1139]

I will always remember opening my first booster pack of Mirage. The rare of the pack was Lion's Eye Diamond. And I was pissed. The card was absolutely useless. It felt like opening a Black Lotus and then finding out it was unplayable. It seemed like a joke card, and the joke was on me. Today, I really wish I still had that Lion's Eye Diamond.

[@hermodnitter3902]

Lol, I had the same type of experience with City of Traitors in Exodus. I was pissed to get such a bad land that you had to sacrifice. But I was lucky to NOT sell my old collection, so I found it in my bulk when I resumed MTG 20 years later :)

[@gcleeman]

Never opened an led but I do remember my first playset of them, had led crossed out and black lotus written under it i played those for years

[@KrayZieTyler]

I use to throw LEDs at my friends for fun if I pulled one.

[@R3N3GADEMUFFIN]

I had that same experience. And now I'm kicking myself for losing it. Ugh. Oh well

[@nobodyhere22500]

It's hard to overstate how busted Hammer of Bogardan felt at the time.

[@LCCDirewolf]

I love the art style for Mirage, I feel like it was such a great shift from other sets at the time.

[@MichaelSmith-fm5ln]

Wildfire emmisary also was used for the 4 toughness which got around incinerate, which saw a good amount of play then.

[@daniduc]

And was imune to Swords tô Plowshares too.

[@JD-gk7eh]

It was one of the best creatures ever printed at the time because of that very fact, getting around the two best removal spells in the game. It died to Terror but that wasn't as bad a trade as Terror costs 2.

[@mrpandabites]

I started playing in Ice Age, so Mirage was the first set where I was truly invested in the game. I loved the African flavour (I live in Africa), and I loved the art. Adam Rex, D. Alexander Gregory, Scott M. Fischer all made such incredibly evocative work and I was instantly hooked.

[@nickfifteen]

I believe that Mirage was also the first MTG set to be designed conpletely on a computer, as opposed to hand designed using scissor and glue. I suspect this is the case because there doesn't seem to be any The List cards from before Mirage, as those earlier cards weren’t digitized. I could be wrong, of course.

[@shuboy05]

Kind of. Wizards no longer has the art files for sets older than Mirage. Also artist contracts were different in the early sets where the artist kept ownership of their art.

[@TheJacklikesvideos]

#1: you're very knowledgeable, so i forget you haven't been playing forever. LED at release was considered absolute trash because you could NOT declare a spell cast before you started paying for it, and discarding your hand as part of the effect cost was devastating because there wasn't so many things to do without spells in hand. it was once we had cards that involved non-hands like Jar that the card took off.

[@paolonicolacerea]

Many don't know this, but the expression "to ramp", which is used in games even beyond Magic, comes from Rampant Growth.

[@gaebril131]

So when a factory says it wants to "ramp up production", that's because of Rampant Growth?

[@paolonicolacerea]

@@gaebril131 no, I mean ramp resources in games, like mana. I am referring to general gaming slang, not other contexts.

[@forloveofthepage2361]

I still remember these booster sitting on the shelf. I thought they looked so cool. This block is what really pulled me into magic.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

I'd love to see a Top 10 Richard Kane Ferguson art cards, just so I could stare at his gorgeous watercolors.

[@gerrimeister]

Can we also appreciate all the great Art in this list alone? Look at that Dissipate man...

[@85mcarnold]

5:23 It should be noted that Swords to Plowshares was legal in the same Standard format as Mirage. Being able to dodge the best targeted removal ever is quite the upside.

[@gakk8658]

What I remember most about Mirage was the limited environment with the charms and guildmages introducing modality for the first time. That was when I was just starting to get serious about competitive mtg and was travelling around the northeast playing in sealed events. So many people slept on the modal cards but they were absolutely monstrously powerful in limited and I had tons of success just basically playing whatever colors I got the most modality in. Even all these years later in Commander modality is still always better than it might look at first, thanks Mirage!

[@astrostl]

Hammer and Frenetic Efreet were the core of UR (wasn't called Izzet back then) control. Wildfire was really hard to kill because removal was mostly Swords to Plowshares, 3 red damage, or board wipes. I definitely remember LED being considered a trash rare to the extent that they would be thrown away, used as coasters, etc.

[@daniduc]

I opened a LED and traded it away for nothing, like, commons. 😂

[@kurtilein3]

No. People would just keep trash rares. What you describe would be done with trash commons. Back in the day set collecting was popular, so even a trash rare could sometimes trade for something.

[@astrostl]

@@kurtilein3 It's not a no. I was there, and watched it with my own eyes.

[@kurtilein3]

@@astrostl The little brother of a friend of mine pulled a Mox Diamond and later somehow accidently dropped it into a glass of soda. I have two DCI Argothian Enchantress with creases in the foil layer because some idiot attempted the bend test. I have seen bend test damage on Power 9 cards. Stupidity is a thing especially when young people are involved.

[@daniduc]

I love Mirage, its the only set I bought a booster box when it came out. I played Hammer of bogardan and Wildfire Emissary in standard tournaments. The big advantage of emissary is that it was immune to swords to plowshares. StP was everywhere on those days (even on my deck, I was playing red/.white - “Boros” wasn’t a word yet hahah).

[@hermodnitter3902]

Yeah, it was immune to StP, but almostnjust as important it also had 4 toughness to survive Bolt / Incinerate ;)

[@daniduc]

@@hermodnitter3902 True. A hard to remove creature at the time. Had some good matches with it.

[@jonnymmac]

For about its first year, Lion's Eye was like only $5 or so, then I remember it going up to $15 for a while before I stopped caring to watch.

[@mrhaftbar]

I kinda remember that LED was just not understood when Mirage came out. The downside seemed terrible, of course we knew that in the right deck it could work but it just seemed not being worthwhile building around this card.

[@jdogx211]

3:35, there are SEVERAL card's, especially in Green, that destroy Auras; but i know, there are very few Boardwipes out there.

[@kurtilein3]

What if the auras cannot be targeted?

[@woodysmith2681]

Mystical Tutor had an upside when you Tutor'd up Counterspell or similar. Control decks can intimidate players in all sorts of ways like this.

[@TheJacklikesvideos]

#8: "i feel like Rampant Growth is the card most people think of when they think of mana ramp." - of course. it's called that because of RAMPant Growth.

[@PKFat]

I was under the impression the term "ramp" was short for Rampant Growth, kinda like "mill" being short for Millstone, or "stax" being short for Smokestacks

[@NizzahonMagic]

I'm fairly sure that's not the case. "Ramp" refers more to actual, physical ramps.

[@TheJacklikesvideos]

@@NizzahonMagic and why would people think of literal ramps when talking about accelerating mana? i guarantee you, nobody used the term "mana ramp" until after someone declared they were "ramping" when playing it.

[@oldmagemtg7008]

@@TheJacklikesvideos I guarantee you, I used that term before Mirage was even printed. The term "Ramping-up" was in use well before the game of Magic existed.

[@jackcarlson5227]

Thank you! Been looking forward to this one for years. And I was wildly surprised by some of the inclusions. Can't wait for the rest of the block.

[@fei-hungwong9034]

5 in the early days of Edh. I ran these with crucible of worlds. I’ve been out of the game awhile now, so I assume it’s no longer run. But back in the day not missing a drop was awesome.

[@bradleygiven5193]

Wildfire Emissary was also useful in the burn mirror match at the time as it survived Hammer, Bolt and Incinerate; and you wanted to aim any Fireblast you had at your opponent.

[@fei-hungwong9034]

My thoughts on 10. I suspected punishing fire used hammers as the form of the fire as a reference to this hammer

[@davidlundquist1979]

Mirage was also notable for having the first cycle of dragons since Legends. As a super Timmy back then, I was more excited about that than anything else. Even today, Catacomb Dragon and Mist Dragon have some fairly unique abilities. Even without paying the five mana to phase it out, Mist Dragon can't be hit by Hurricane OR Earthquake. I don't think that's true of any other creature in the game.

[@gakk8658]

Even Volcanic Dragon was great, it might have even been the first flaste (flying haste) creature.

[@TheEvolver311]

Mirage is still my favorite set and block

[@daniduc]

Mine too!

[@Ilarik76]

My friend has started with: plains, LED, unburial rites on Atraxa. Nice turn 1

[@Ahdbfbfbeh]

I love the art in mirage

[@Quiron1985]

for me, the start of my journey. Ice-age/4th edition and then the first sets liek Mirage Visions Weatherlight Stronghold Tempest and forgot a couple in between.

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

Ahhh Mirage, I have no idea what the set is about. It's just out of my time frame. Can someone tell me what happens in Mirage? Alternatively, I'd also accept "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)"!

[@shuboy05]

Mirage is notable for introducing a character named Teferi.

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

@@shuboy05 Oh damn. That's big.

[@brentatbluenovaproductions2136]

Rampant Growth is where the term "Ramp Deck" comes from. Easily one of the iconic green cards of the pre-modern era. Which in 2024, it is odd but accurate to say that Modern is now twice as old as Vintage/Legacy was during the change from type 1 (now vintage), type 1.5 (now legacy) and type 2 (now standard) with the "modern" card frame when 8th edition came out in 2003 during the games 10th anniversary.

[@schwarzerritter5724]

Watching this list, I had to look through my collection, because I thought I had Lion's Eye Diamond, but it was only Mana Prism. Damn you, Margaret Organ-Kean! I do have Mystical Tutor and Enlightened Tutor though.

[@theimmortalleanwalker1307]

How close was phyrexian dreadnought? Out of curiosity as I love that card

[@MrDebauch]

yeah i thought there might have been a chance to see it on this list... but i get why it isn't...... however this list isn't the top 10 coolest cards from mirage, or the top 10 coolest creatures in MTG.

[@hyperchord]

I thought it saw a ton of tournament play

[@jdogx211]

One thing Hammer of B. has going is longevity. Once you use it, you can just keep using it unless so.eone manages to exile your Graveyard, hardly something most people think of when facing a Red Deck.

[@gaebril131]

Card Advantage was the name of the game back in the day

[@mightyone3737]

Mirage has quite a few surprisingly good cards, including cards that are extremely pushed (and probably wouldn't be printed now anywhere but Legacy/Commander), still can't believe that Hammer of Bogardan kinda ruled Standard of it's day, but there were a ton of x/

[@jaredt2590]

Blue can easily untap flood plane, tapping and untapping is one of the color’s mechanics. If you’re playing u/w which is the only reason you’ll have it in your deck you can easily untap it and grab the land on the turn it’s played.

[@TheDom822]

First booster pack I ever bought was Mirage. Pulled Final Fortune as the rare.

[@metalblizzard6024]

Back in like 2007 i bought a box of cards at an atique shop for 20 bucks. It was a few hundred mirage cards. Mostly junk but among the were 5 lions eye diamonds and 6 flash. I wish i kept them... sols to my lgs for like 200 bucks. Good for 14 yr old me but damn

[@Kuehnpiano]

I started playing right around Urzas saga 😅. I was you're 999 like 😊

[@SerathDarklands]

I have Lion's Eye Diamond. Never realized it was worth so much. I'll have to find a case to put it in.

[@MortonGoldthwait]

Being a fan of bad cards and EDH, Mirage is a goldmine for me. It gave my cube Phyrexian Dreadnaught and it gave my Selvala deck Teeka's Dragon.

[@CB-ke7eq]

The fact that Dreadnought is absent from this list is only further proof that Mark Rosewater is a giant pussy.

[@JudTheDud2032]

Where did you get the badass Kaldheim box from?

[@pirate4460]

I traded a lions eye diamond for a polar kraken in 2004. I recall checking on ebay to see if this was a decent trade and all the listings called it "evil black lotus" for a few dollars. I felt that it wasn't that big of a price difference and I really wanted a cumulative upkeep deck, so I made the trade.

[@TheJacklikesvideos]

i made a CU deck once. it used power conduits and spikes to abuse it. the deck took two hours to build and three hours to play. i won but i took the deck apart and never played it again. in fact, i don't think my cousin ever played with me again after that.

[@TheJacklikesvideos]

my favorite card in it was Illusionary Wall. 7/4 flying first strike that grows is massively intimidating, especially if you Animate Wall or Rolling Stones.

[@alaraplatt8104]

hell yes. i'd be excited to see more top 10s about sets

[@locustkllr]

Mirage was the first set i decided to collect all of. Great art, great lore! The mechanics weren't the best but it played well in limited and that was amazing.

[@benwilson6256]

I love mirage I think there's tons of fun cards that have always been part of my magic experience.

[@Moshladaan]

I remember when both Lion's Eye Diamond and Wasteland were next to nothing and found in the $0.50 rares.

[@fei-hungwong9034]

8 yes. That’s why it’s called ramp :)

[@JD-gk7eh]

Hammer of Bogardan is significant because there's very few mana sinks in Magic at the time. Mirage has a few artifacts with expensive activated abilities (Amber Prison, e.g.) but aside from Shivan Dragon firebreathing effects, there's nothing to do with your excess mana once you've cast your stuff. Hammer is expensive to buyback but as a red deck flooding out, tis was really a first in Magic, something we take for granted now.

[@gakk8658]

Not only was it great for your aggro deck if you flooded, it was an absolute beater against control. Countering it was nearly pointless (unless it was a Dissipate, and it's def no coincidence they were printed in the same Block) because you could just get it back, so if somebody wanted to play draw go you could just spend your turns recurring the hammer until it killed them or they ran out of counters, at which point you can just not bring it back and have a bunch of cards and available mana. As a card, even then, it was butt ugly in terms of both mana costs. But the recursion was such a rare effect that it shown through.

[@JD-gk7eh]

@@gakk8658 And if you remember correctly, there was a control deck called Counterhammer (successor to Counterpost once Ice Age rotated out and took the namesake Kjeldoran Outpost with it) that was like 20 counterspells and Hammer. Hammer removed creatures and did all the damage to win the game buying it back. What a time that was to be alive!

[@marcoottina654]

What about doing a top ten of every set where you point out, based on your personal taste, what are the most "curious" and peculiar cards ? :)

[@cax1175]

Imagine pulling such a garbage rare from this set like Lion's Eye Diamond and missing out on the best creature that has Rampage 4 in the game. It has no points for this list simply because it was banned in every format, past, present, and future, before it was even printed. At least Teeka's Dragon doesn't make you discard your entire hand.

[@j-rey-]

I was pretty disappointed to see this oversight. Nizzahon has been so thorough for years, but I think this was just one mistake too far. Unsubbed

[@cax1175]

​@@j-rey-He was on such a good streak too since the One With Nothing is a sorcery debacle.

[@hermodnitter3902]

Teeka's Dragon has amazing art as well. I just bough one yesterday because of that :)

[@nndo6953]

@@j-rey-calm your tits nancy

[@jaredt2590]

activated abilities man, Lion’s eye diamond is great. You just don’t want to sacrifice it unless you’re cool losing what’s in your hand if there’s anything there. Being able to use up your mana pool and still have three for activation is awesome. Activated abilities are very hard to counter.

[@Reluxthelegend]

6:20 also since most artifact in legacy cost 1 or 0 mana your opponent won't be gaining much life anyway

[@jdogx211]

Will they ever reprint Lions Eye Diamond, or is it Reserved? Does it have a Spiritual Succeser?

[@shuboy05]

It is on the Reserve List so it cannot be reprinted. We have gotten newer Lotus cards since then.

[@cax1175]

The Reserve List will fall eventually

[@mikotagayuna8494]

VERY suprised that Flash didn't even make the list. I guess it didn't become legal long enough to get in.

[@mchild80]

Flash was considered a terrible card prior to Protean Hulk and Gemstone Mine. You didn't have many cards that you wanted dead once it hit play and a lot of times you didn't want to pay 2 extra mana for instant speed. It would probably be #1 if not for the emergency ban of the combo. That's probably why it didn't make the list.

[@Metal_Maoist]

Idk if it would be at all viable in Legacy, but with two Lion's Eye Diamonds you can cast the MH3 Emrakul on turn one

[@Metal_Maoist]

Wait nvm you need specifically colorless mana for that

[@jonothanthrace1530]

"Mirage Block" always felt intensely weird to me, since it seemed more like a block of 2 plus part 1 of Tempest Block.

[@vinnythewebsurfer]

I’ve always seen and heard of mirage in a positive light in how much structure and better balanced power level compared to the sets before it being either pure dogwater or just extreme with the bad and good cards.

[@Leo90009]

Rampant growth literally says 'ramp' in the card name 😂

[@hermodnitter3902]

Mirage gave me Shauku Endbringer!!! Yeah baby ;)

[@hitmangfx7162]

All the phasing cards from this set demand a recount!

[@glitchyikes]

Talruum Minotaur didn't make the list, damn... Best creature in... 1996!

[@jaredt2590]

I mean the.booster boxes go for 2500 dollars, bad sets like fallen empires are still cheap and ones with nothing in them like ice age are too but mirage has settled at a quarter 10k meaning it can’t be a bad set the next cycle is in the same ballpark for a box.

[@timothylee8494]

No honorable mention of the Wall of Boom deck?

[@jaredt2590]

With Yawgmoth’s Will it IS the black lotus.

[@TheWaffleDuke]

Am i the only one who still laughs everytime i see the original art for "flash" as it looks like the drake is "flashing" the people in the distance?

[@redzeb5084]

where is phyrexian dreadnought?

[@Magic_M_Hayashi]

I ❤ Hammer of Bogardan

[@tomfisher6422]

I still have a soft spot for Phyrexian Dreadnaught...

[@HughLeFitness]

infernal tutor broke LED.

[@RibusPQR]

Memory Lapse? Oops, I forgot that Memory Lapse was moved from Mirage to Homelands.

[@TheJacklikesvideos]

ironic

[@andreamagri3687]

lol serene heart and not spirit of the night that was iconic in the survival deck and old reanimator version, ok...

[@magicsinglez]

Wow Mystical Tutor and Enlightenment Tutor on the bottom of this list.

[@chasingsunset9801]

Love at first sight = Mirage card art

[@ROMANTIKILLER2]

Well, I cannot say that the #1 spot came as a shocker...

[@hermodnitter3902]

It would if you didn't play since Mirage block though....

[@magicsinglez]

$499 . . . I had 4 of those bought for 25 cents or $1.00 each. . .

[@hermodnitter3902]

"Had" is the keyword here...

[@fei-hungwong9034]

2 another early Edh card. More alternatives now though.

[@magicsinglez]

Wow, for 1 more mana than ‘Serene Heart’ you can destroy All enchantments

[@RibusPQR]

Try Back to Nature

[@ApexZer0]

Top 10 cards that can make 3 mana

[@Swiftkitten88]

isn't "RAMPant growth" the entire reason they are called "ramp" decks?

[@mrhaftbar]

This is where I left magic. Not because of the Mirage, but just because Ice Age and Homelands burned me out. It seemed like MtG went into the wrong direction. The new cards and their effects felt watered down. In hindsight I should have stayed.

[@ericmrx]

What I hate most about harbor Guardian is the lowercase "h" in the name. Unplayable.

[@chadchristian5796]

Hi

[@Bulhakas]

If Mirage is underrated, the territory known as Ukraine is a paragon of freedom and democracy.