The Best Spell from Every Year of Magic: the Gathering

[@nickjoseph77]

I'll always love the story of the guy who went all the way to top 8 of some event years ago with dragon storm and then his opponent asked him to show the dragons he was getting. He failed to find. He wasn't running any dragons. Every opponent the first day scooped before seeing any dragons. He was only playing the combo and storm pieces that get you a large storm count and bluffed his way to day 2. So glorious. Lol

[@paulallen579]

What event was this? I can’t find it when I google.

[@markvanderwerf8592]

Seems like a bullshit story based upon the one time LSV ran storm with burning wish while forgetting to put tendrils in his sideboard. That one actually happened and he wasn't called on his bluff all tournament

[@SnoopPogg]

Real OGs remember you used to have to ‘lightning bolt targeting you, redirecting to your planeswalker.’ You couldnt just target planeswalkers directly with damage spells.

[@AMageOldAsDirt]

So leyline of sanctity would protect your walkers from burn spells?

[@victorperron8092]

​@@AMageOldAsDirt yup

[@Duall8]

@@AMageOldAsDirt Notably it was any noncombat damage to the opponent, so something like Chandra ToD's damage from the +1 ability could redirect to a walker.

[@larrea000]

This always sticks out to me as a very weird decision from Wizards. They just didnt want to bite the "errata all burn spells to use "any target" bullet". In the end they just delayed the inevitable while causing a 5-year long headache.

[@TheGreatMilksteak]

I remember casting a bonfire of the damned ripped off the top deck and targeted my opponent at FNM. He shrugged and said ok and I then redirected to his Liliana of the veil. He judge called and said I was correct, it really kinda was a crap rule it's better how it is now

[@deadneck13]

28:59 countering Approach of the Second Sun is also a bit more complex than you might think, as I learned last year. Even though the opponent has to cast the spell twice, it's irrelevant to counter the first time because the way the card is worded, the win condition doesn't care if the first spell resolved or not.

[@sutfolsemaj]

I once saw somebody remand an approach of the second sun. F

[@Flippyfloppy007]

At least countering the first time means it doesn’t go 7th from the top

[@ich3730]

Yeah it means it goes to the graveyard, which is much better for the Player who casted it xD

[@Zander2212]

Notably, Flash Hulk doesn't actually threaten CEDH tables since Flash is banned.

[@yaza862]

yeah thought the same but protean hulk is still a legit threat without Flash, just lost a game 2 days ago to a hulk line

[@Zander2212]

@yaza862 Yeah, but Protean Hulk being good in CEDH, has nothing to do with Flash, on account of the ban, so Seth really shouldn't have brought it up.

[@petersteiman2443]

It was at one point. For whatever reason, they unbanned Protean Hulk and apparently it just became the way to win in competitive commander. The only reason they banned Flash was because of community outcry. I think when the ban announcement was made they said that they wouldn’t keep doing bannings based on community outrage.

[@VictorianoOchoa]

Protean hulk is much worse in cEDH and much more difficult to pull off without flash.

[@totallyrealname6376]

When did cEDH start using the normal EDH ban list?

[@Buchaus]

Flash has been banned in EDH for over 3 years

[@alexanderficken9354]

correct, that is why its included as the best card in that year

[@Buchaus]

4:31 "Today, Flash Hulk terrorizes CEDH tables with its instant, game ending power. I'm not arguing that Flash shouldn't be on the list, I'm saying that it most certainly hasn't terrorized CEDH tables for over 3 years.

[@khub5660]

​@@BuchausSaffron has trouble reading apparently. He makes a lot of mistakes when reading from scripts

[@Buchaus]

Most of it is engagement bait, and this very well could be too. But the fact that he mentioned Upheaval being banned in edh while saying something that suggests that Flash isn't banned is a little confusing.

[@Jlizard27]

@@Buchausit’s because it isn’t actually “engagement bait.” And I don’t really understand why one small thing like this would break the camel’s back if you think Seth’s entire personality is built around deceiving the viewer. I say it isn’t definitely but obviously I don’t know what’s in other people’s minds. But I think in general “engagement bait” has gone from an observation to a paranoia.

[@wldnrkls]

it took me until eldraine to realize you meant instant or sorcery, because oko is definitely the best spell of that year lmao

[@professortusk]

Ohhhhhhhh my god it took me until reading this comment😂 I thought Seth was just losing his mind

[@johnf9710]

Invoke Despair would be my vote for 2022. Farewell is groan inducing, but you can at least sandbag cards to somewhat play around it. If you play out your cards, ID can be close to a board wipe in some cases. On an empty board, it's a 6 point fireball with Ancestral Recall stapled to it for five mana. It's almost never a dead card and typically game warping. I was so happy when it was banned.

[@wldnrkls]

obsessed with the way seth confused rorschach test with litmus test

[@raynmanshorts9275]

9 out of the first 10 are blue. And blue still shows up quite a bit after that.

[@Shimatzu95]

To be fair blue is THE color you probably think about for nonpermanent spells with red as the second and everything else a fair bit later.

[@megapussi]

Blue would show up a lot less often if we included other card types, its kinda its identity

[@vohbovohborian28]

That is only because of the confused way the list is made up. If he had listed the best spell for the metagame of the moment all the time, it would be different, and if he had listed the best spell RIGHT NOW, it would also be different.

[@PinkReaper1]

Very surprised at Farewell over Invoke Despair. Farewell is absolutely the most powerful sweeper we've had in a long time but Invoke Despair was meta defining until it got justifiably banned.

[@domri4203]

Just the fax

[@jbw6351]

Yeah this was a total miss. Invoke Despair is the obvious choice.

[@zacparkinson900]

I think farewell got chosen because of its relevance in both standard, pioneer and EDH as opposed to invoke which was mostly just relevant in standard

[@pailofawesome]

@@zacparkinson900 Invoke Despair was the finisher of choice in Pioneer's Rakdos Midrange during that time. It has since been crept out of the format, but when the format was very Rakdos-Mirror-Heavy, it was a very easy way to just crush your Rakdos Opponent.

[@dankrocka64]

It was a color break, otherwise mono black just scoops to an enchantment worth its salt. Let's not jump the gun here: Farewell deals with ALL creatures, ALL enchantments, ALL artifacts, and ALL graveyards. ID deals with A creature, AN enchantment, and A planeswalker. ID is great, and it has a great floor with the draw and offers great flexibility, but, people actually scoop to farewell.

[@ullrich]

I love these series, Seth! It's crazy how much time and research must go into finding all the history and footage. Well done as always!

[@pailofawesome]

Man, so much of this is nostalgic. Just remembering back to when some of these sets came out & where I was in my life at those points - - Really nostalgic~!

[@TheyCallMeDio]

Ofc the good ol' Turn 0 Tibalt clip is here😂 Twas the greatest Saff moment of all time

[@kyledouglas1018]

Half way through the video i had to check if it was " best BLUE cards of each year" :p

[@fo-ef8qo]

wizards should be doing everything in their power to recreate those magical slam-the-flip-on-the-table moments because they're awesome but also they're great marketing

[@user-ki6cf7yg2m]

I honestly think that Expressive Iteration is overall a better card than Tibalts Trickery, because Tibalt Trickery was banned for the high amount of variance/posibility of extreme brokenness, while Expressive Iteration is good in every formet where it isn't banned.

[@yuzewu8491]

2013 is a tough one, Heroes Downfall was in the popular Siege Rhino Abzan deck, but Boros Charm played in all formats like Standard, Modern, and still being played in Modern aswell, used in so many decks.

[@isaach5563]

I think I would have picked Fatal Push over Approach of the Second Sun

[@davidjohnson9186]

Loved those cards from the Invasion block like Fact or Fiction, Fight or Flight, Death or Glory, and even sillier ones like Tahngarth's Glare. That was a really fun time to play.

[@lenardEkko]

also I love how approach of the second sun is "annoying" to you but Tibalt's trickery is fun lol

[@ich3730]

I mean, atleast tibalts trickery is a somewhat gimmicky, random card if played fair. Approach is one of the most boring Designs ever, "cast this twice to instantly win"

[@Minzerr]

Ancestral is actually a little better than even you gave it credit for, since you can force your opponent to draw as well

[@alexherrington9142]

For people who don't know, this is a legitimate thing you can do against Doomsday in Vintage with the Oracle trigger on the stack.

[@alaraplatt8104]

this but not seriously

[@andrewtaylor3167]

While it is true the search trick for Gifts Ungiven trick was found months after it was printed, Gifts was always played as a combo card that just happened to be good when played fairly. Before that, it was always played with cards that return cards from your graveyard, like Eternal Witness. A normal selection would be along the lines of Hana Kami, Death Denied, Soulless Revival + whatever effect you want to recur, whether an Arcane spell, like Ethereal Haze or Cranial Extraction, or a creature with a sacrifice effect, like Kagemaro or Kami of False Hope.

[@ThexSlothxKing]

Love these videos seth, keep it up my man!

[@furbyfubar]

I feel like Demonic Consultation might give Brainstorm a run for its money for best card in Ice Age. Yes, it's not as frequently played, but that has a lot to do with being *banned* in Legacy and restricted in Vintage!

[@MaximumImpactGames]

Or Necropotence

[@furbyfubar]

@@MaximumImpactGames Given that the video is about instants and sorceries (as stated at 0:00) I feel Necro doesn't quite qualify. ("Spell" being both Magic slang for "instant or sorcery" but a rule term for "cards you cast" *is* confusing though.)

[@MaximumImpactGames]

@@furbyfubarsomehow missed that he just meant instants and sorceries, I tend to lump enchantments in the "spells" category, even though it's a permanent type

[@Lamentdoesstuff]

How on earth you pick Approach of the Second Sun over Fatal Push is beyond me.

[@frostfirexd5857]

Approach always wins the game when used correctly, Fatal Push doesn't always win the game even when used correctly.

[@Lamentdoesstuff]

@@frostfirexd5857 same could be said of time walk, are you saying Approach is better than Time Walk then? Fatal push to this day is one of the most played cards in modern, pioneer, historic etc. Where as Approach never sees any play.

[@lawtonfriedland1228]

⁠@@frostfirexd5857door to nothingness wins the game every time, when played correctly, swords to plowshares doesn’t win the game, even when played correctly

[@lawtonfriedland1228]

I was searching for this comment lmao

[@franslair2199]

​@@Lamentdoesstuffapproach of the second sun is the wincon of the lotus field deck in pioneer what are you talking about

[@keithbarlow9701]

Man, what a reminder of how dominant blue was back in the day! From 1993 to 2004, all the best spells were blue except Natural Order. Anyway... thanks for the video, Seth ❤ I really enjoy this sort of content. VIdeos detailing Magic's history are always bangers!

[@jaimesegura7318]

26:25 treasure was so good that each pauper format not playing blue would simply add 4 blue-something lands an throw in 3 copies of it (some times 4). It was banned in Pauper too of course.

[@LlywellynOBrien]

Rules lawyers are going to be triggered that this title uses 'spells' instead of instants and sorceries.

[@Alderoth]

I really appreciate this video. Ive played yugioh for over 20 years, and recently wanted to have a look at mtg. The biggest issue I'm having is the card pool, so this video is awesome.

[@jareddoucette7193]

Probability should have just called this “the best blue spell of every year”

[@ed8054]

creature power creep is so huge that the best noncreature spells in most formats are spells that remove creatures...

[@AsmoAstro]

after 30 min i finally understand that "Spells" only refer to instant's and sorcery. But isn't every card thats not a land a spell?

[@mrjey3434]

Technically yes, sometimes spell means nonland, sometimes it means instant/sorcery

[@Mustapha-Chi-Tmasef]

Spell refers to card which is cast and not yet a permanent- spells remain within the “stack” of cards waiting to resolve. Hence, instants and sorceries always being spells- permanents are spells when they are on the stack: Drafna refers to copying artifact “spells” for example to refer to an artifact within the stack.

[@marcoottina654]

yeah but it's an informal way to talk about "non-permanent spells". In a heavy-magic fantasy environment, you cast spells like fireball and you summon creatures. Here the meanings are a bit blended

[@Reverend_Worm]

My man Magic Aids is in the footage of Tibalts Trickery

[@KoLkAMiSt]

@20:59 I don't understand because the cascade should be putting in Valki, God of Lies and not Tibalt : 712.14. A double-faced card put onto the battlefield from a zone other than the stack enters the battlefield with its front face up by default. Edit: found it. There was a rule change in feb 2021 because of that.

[@mikemanard3847]

I'm definitely on Boros Charm for 2013.

[@RLKC8]

Don't forget, flash got banned in edh BECAUSE it was too strong in cedh

[@maximuscesar]

I had so much fun with Gifts Ungiven, the beginning of my competitive days (I was so bad 😅). Back then we used it the intended way: with Eternal Witness and Recollect/Reclaim.

[@manhattanblockade8544]

When you cast Ancestral Recall you want to draw Time Walk

[@gorsching]

Contract from below is always overloooked for it is not a card used today. Ill argue though it is BETTER than Ancestral Recall for its time. For one black mana you get 7 cards. Not 3 but 7. If you had a dark ritual and 2 CFB for opening hand thats 21 cards your first turn. The only drawback was you had to ante one card. I remember using ante as an effect because i am old lol. After ante wasnt accepted as a way to casually play magic CFB was forgotten, but for beginning yr it was an amazing card to play with the speed black had back then.

[@Wunschtrieb]

21:05 why can you choose to flip Valki into Tibalt when you cascade into Valki?

[@lucaswyver3714]

Bruh 1998 was the year of Yawgmoth's Will.

[@Crossark1]

The one card I knew was gonna be on this list was Farewell. I think Meathook Massacre is a contender, considering how much it warped Standard, but Farewell is just so good in everything it’s played in.

[@godfreyofbouillon966]

You know that Black Lotus is also a spell right?

[@thetruth4654]

As someone who has played alittle bit of vintage, Time Walk in many cases functions similarily to a card like Explore, because a lot of the time unless you have a clear combo or win in hand, you many times play Time Walk, simply to get to draw another card and play an additional land.

[@ich3730]

When the absolute Rock bottom potential of a card is that its another quite good spell, you know you got a banger on hand

[@hellcopterts8895]

13:30 I don't understand why gifts ungiven resolves in the first place if the caster can't find exactly 4 cards???

[@awildsylveon9896]

Natural Order finally found a home on Arena! It sees play in Timeless Titan Field to cheat out prime time, and other decks like yawgmoth for random atraxa jumpscare

[@simic0racle157]

Whats the name of the upheval video the clip at 8:45 is from?

[@alttiseppanen]

If this is judging by today's standards, entomb is just a lot stronger than upheaval.

[@NeiZaMo]

cultivate, a functional reprint of kodamas reach, a spell released 6 years earlier, was the best spell of 2010. That says a lot.

[@faceoctopus4571]

Weird that Seth choose an upheaval clip where no surplus mana got floated.

[@sidneymayer4054]

2017 should have been creativity, modern and pioneer staple :)

[@hedidthething5084]

Surprised Faithless looting didn't make the cut over bonfire of the damned. Also Mental misstep over gitaxian probe ? probe is banned/restricted in more formats technically.

[@Shimatzu95]

Id say mental misstep is here because of its interaction with itself causing counterwars rather than "just" drawing cards for free streetwraith style.

[@MindstabThrull]

When I saw this I thought you were going to go into the game's history and talk about the most powerful cards during the era they were played as well as today, and not just the latter. Maybe you can revisit it sometime that way? Flash is probably the first card on the list that made me realize how you were going to proceed with this list. The Wishes were more powerful than we'd think nowadays because Exile is an in-game zone - but "removed from the game" means you took it outside the game, thus the Wishes could get cards that were RFG'ed, including another copy of itself. This is especially true when combining Cunning Wish with Mirari, as you could use the copy to get back Cunning Wish and the original to get what you actually wanted. There are many cards over the years that people call one-card win conditions - Yawgmoth's Will being a great example. Approach of the Second Sun is the first card that I would consider actually legitimately so, because apart from the mana to cast it, you don't need anything other than the card itself to win the game. Compare YawgWill - historically also nicknamed YawgWin - which counted basically as a giant draw/tutor card for cheap for cards you'd already spent, but didn't actually win the game itself.

[@penguindrummer252]

Trickery over expressive iteration is debatable.

[@TheCubicalGuy]

There is an argument to be had that channel is actually better than time walk, and I think it should've replaced timetwister in the power nine, but since it's not on the reserved list, it didn't. It's probably not a stronger card, but I think it might be.

[@sleepingbeluga4000]

Time walk is by far a better card. How many copies of channel do you see in a vintage top 8 vs how many copies of time walk do you see?

[@TheCubicalGuy]

Channel doesn't work unless you build around it, you can't throw it into a deck like time walk and expect it to slot seamlessly into any gameplan. It's brokenness comes more so from its potential than it's raw power. Definitely better than timetwister tho.

[@tarmo9010]

Channel is 100 times better than any card from power9.

[@Pikimon100]

Is this his real voice?

[@aklepatzky]

No its his dogs

[@gregorylaffrenzen1205]

I love these retrospectives.

[@Goofzillers]

I'm surprised Dig Through Time wasn't mentioned alongside Treasure Cruise. 1 more colored mana, but instant speed and you can choose 2 among the top 7.

[@Meshuggahnans]

MMMAAAAnaa MMAAAAnna MAAAAAna

[@TheMegaMagikarp]

(Dis)honorable mention to 2021 for Expressive Iteration. I play that card and I hate it

[@thedoctorbob7]

Personally I think burning wish > cunning wish, at least today. Storm still plays burning wish in legacy

[@mountainwalk]

Two weeks from now I'll think of a card that is better for some random year but I'll be too lazy to post it. Sweet video anyway.

[@jonathaneklund6003]

Why is gifts ungiven banned in commander? I don't really understand

[@TheAlmightyGoiter]

It's absurdly powerful to grab 4 specific cards in a singleton format. Worst case scenario you double entomb, or you can grab a two card combo and two pieces of recursion. It's aggressively costed and itself able to be found by a ton of other blue cards that search for instants and sorceries. Also a fact or fiction type card in a four player game can take a long time as the peanut gallery chimes in, slowing the game down.

[@jonathaneklund6003]

@@TheAlmightyGoiter It sure is strong but is it banworthy? Throracle is probably worse

[@henryzelman4541]

@@TheAlmightyGoiterthe problem is that intuition isn’t banned and enables enough combos for it essentially be the same card when played unfairly.

[@brothertobias]

GOOD OLD Cruel Ultimatum, the absolute goat.

[@HughLeFitness]

I wouldn't say Best but rather most impactful or iconic

[@maileesaeya3614]

I have to disagree with Bonfire for 2012. It might create a flashier, more "epic topdeck" than other cards, but Bonfire was just that--a pop and a flash. Sphinx's Revelation was a pillar of Standard and a source of dread for it's entire life in the format, and a single resolved Rev was backbreaking in Modern for years (and while it's no longer viable in the Horizons format, it would actually STILL be backbreaking if you ever resolved it for just X=3, something Bonfire can't claim in ANY format). Even in Legacy Miracles, Bonfire was your finisher and second fiddle to other Miracle spells for any other purpose.

[@henryzelman4541]

Bonfire was everywhere in standard for awhile. It was around $50 for a reason.

[@zecaveira1]

Love that some of the most powerful are commons

[@impostoeroubo7589]

How fatal push lost against atune with aether???

[@hunamsafee2]

Heros downfall was not the first mention of destroy target planeswalker dread bore was

[@stereodark]

I remember a vintage tournament in 2003 with mind’s desire still legal in 4 copies. It was not fun 🤣🤣

[@benjy.banana]

Seth please do a timeless video on wilderness exploration

[@Weenhander]

They did, go look at their nexus of fate deck

[@benjy.banana]

@@Weenhander ya but that was no bans this is a different format

[@Weenhander]

@@benjy.bananano i mean go look at one of their more recent videos its one of the first timeless videos

[@xeroddqkrlord874]

Had to check how old the video was cause Flash Hulk has been banned in edh for 3 years. Saw 20 min ago. Damn. Had to go double check they didnt unban it. Nah they didnt. Thank god.

[@faunatique5110]

The best spell of earlier game, even outperforming even Ancestral Recall, was Contract from Below (ante)

[@MaxDunk]

Seth started speaking tongues during burning wish and death wish

[@somebodystvontwtich]

Flash *was* broken when it was *printed*. WotC errated the card to make it effectively not work. It took 10 years for them to revert the functionality back to what was actually printed on the card. The card being broken had nothing to actually do with Protean Hulk.

[@ericvernon1182]

I bet Modern players would love to Mental Misstep Monkey tho...

[@gamedaiv9168]

Ancestral recall is the best magic card ever releases. Time walk is just a blue explore xD

[@laurinscholz9894]

Weird thing is than brainstorm has a only 1+% win rate in timeless wich makes it only ok in that format

[@Ryan_Dye-r]

I miss the Mana burn rule.

[@volosguidetomonsters3440]

Approach of the Second Sun + Fork = Win instantly

[@malte3421]

Thank god farewell rotated out of standard. It was the worst seeing s control player come back from an impossible board state with just this one card.

[@claytonhanson6438]

I think you meant litmus test, not rorschach test. Lol

[@bojcio]

wait there's no more mana burn? (stuck in '97)

[@MarylandBF]

Windfall over Time Spiral😂

[@thedoctorbob7]

Its hard to believe Fury, Solitude, Bowmasters, or the One Ring arent on this list. I do think bowmasters and one ring do beat Forth, although Forth is def an amazing card too.

[@michaelsander2878]

For of will is an uncommon in name only. Rarity has never really mattered that much for determining how rare a card actually is, but as I'm sure you know alliances didn't have rares.

[@EricHernandez-ib7jq]

Farewell instead of Invoke Despair? Thats a close match

[@Seldomheardabout]

If we are going best spell of the year, Sphinx's Revelation was the best. It dominated every table for every day it was in standard. And bonfire was legit good af, but it was not half as popular as rev.

[@migsho]

I think force of will, invoke despair and alrunds epiphany should have been mentioned in their respective years

[@guilhermedasilva1795]

He mentioned force!

[@ty_sylicus]

Lightning Helix. What a card.

[@matheusbc9622]

I miss Randy Buehler

[@matthewbroyles2291]

I think this should have been best cards from each set at that time stamp of said cards printing...

[@kennethacuna9996]

no creature or artifact?

[@faunatique5110]

You skipped the entire Mercadian block....which would include Daze, Gush, Skyshroud Claim, Bribery, Snuff Out, Unmask

[@fremontthehacker3898]

Why are you missusing the spell term?

[@Navak_]

Lightning Helix is ridiculously fair compared to everything else on this list

[@DaysDX]

I don't like the ruling on gifts ungiven. I guess you name 4 cards and fail to find 2 of them. I guess you cant check but if they reveal 2 chards and there 30 cards left in their deck then there are cards left in that deck with different names than the ones found. The card does say name 4 names and find them. It says find 4 cards with different names. Go find them. They are definitely there.

[@lumenauta]

Bonfire of the Damned over Faithless Looting??

[@ianrussell4650]

No fatal push?