Five Powerful Magic: The Gathering Cards that Rocked Tournament Play
Magic: The Gathering is (usually) anything but predictable. Whenever a new set is released, it’s rare for things to shake out exactly like players (or even MTG R&D) may have expected right out of the gate. Sure, the most powerful cards may stand out, but it’s at times difficult to assess where they fall in terms of effectiveness, and some turn out to just be duds in practice. But, we’re here today to spotlight some of the cards powerful enough to impact (and sometimes, temporarily crater) the game. Here are five (non-power 9) cards that reshaped their play environments.
5) Cursed Scroll
Cursed Scroll may not look like much these days but it was a staple in tournament and casual play in its heydey. Dealing two colorless damage (when its requirements were met) to any target for its low mana cost was truly a differencemaker.
4) Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
Not the last card on this list because of its search functionality, Lin Sivvi allowed players to be able to find the right creature at the right time in the “rebels” archtype. With a wide range of defensive and offensive options, Lin Sivvi made rebels a force to be reckoned with in a creature-intensive metagame.
3) Yawgmoth’s Will
For a nigh-hilariously-efficient three mana, Yawgmoth’s Will lets a player play spells from their graveyard a second time. This card was used perhaps most effectively in the 2000 U.S. Nationals pro championship tournament where MTG all-time great and hall-of-famer Jon Finkel used a deck aided by Vampiric Tutor to pick out silver bullets to humiliate his opponents and snatch the title that year.
2) Tinker
Like the Yawgmoth’s Will/Vampiric Tutor deck, Jon Finkel used Tinker to great advantage to win the 2000 Magic World Championships. A search card with terrifying possibilities, Tinker went on to find itself on many tournament format banned and restricted lists to combat its dominance.
1) Tolarian Academy
What looked innocent enough from jump quickly got out of hand when Tolarian Academy was combined with other cards that would allow for a tremendous amount of mana early, which, if you’re not too familiar with Magic, basically means you win the game since your resources are almost limitless and/or way ahead of those of your opponent’s, especially when combined with other overpowered pieces of cardboard. Since autowins are frowned upon, Wizards banned the card not long after its release in practically all formats.