Barigord Gaming Weekly – 12/06/23 – Mythic Uncommons Part 1 – The 1990s

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Barigord Gaming Weekly – 11/30/23 – November Commander Challenge

Hey Magic players! Why doesn’t Magic have an uncommons-only format? Most formats focus on rares and mythics, and Pauper is all about the commons. So…?

That leaves uncommons in a sort of strange middle-child position. Incidentally, Middle-Child would be a great name for an Uncommons-Only format. Just sayin. Any uncommon that was ever printed at any other rarity (Monastery Swiftspear, Shivan Dragon) would be disqualified. Someone has to try this.

It’s unclear where exactly uncommons are supposed to matter in the Magic designverse. In a world of Secret Lairs, Commander Precons, and even March of the Machine: Aftermath, rarity slotting has been mostly nonsense. Rarity does not mean scarcity any longer. A common only printed in one Commander precon is the same scarcity as a mythic in only that one precon. The ‘common’ is actually ‘better’ as a card that’s legal in more formats.

I think it’s this lack of clear purpose that has led to the wild power variance in uncommons over the years. Some are big, big misses in terms of strength, and we’re talking too good, not too bad.

Want an example? Well on Monday of this week, two days ago, Wizards banned Geological Appraiser an uncommon from Caverns of Ixalan, in TWO formats, 17 days after it was released. Here’s their post about all the bans.

They begin one paragraph with this: “Being able to win the game on the spot on turn three [in Pioneer] with Geological Appraiser after creating a single Treasure token puts a bit too much pressure on folks to be a good thing for the long-term health of the format.”

Oops, we made an uncommon that wins Magic games on turn 3. On the spot no less.

Of course it takes deck-building considerations, but so does almost any card. That’s the whole point of building decks in the first-place.

This post is the first in a series that will look at the uncommons that missed big on power level. Really big. In hindsight, they might have been mythics. Not all got emergency-banned less than 3 weeks after release in multiple formats, though. That would be an epic design fail if it didn’t have so much competition from WotC/Hasbro recently.

Let’s start with a simpler time, the 1990s. When design was arguably even worse than it is now!

The 1990s

It’s 1993. ‘Two Princes’ by Spin Doctors is on the radio all the time. The Toronto Blue Jays are the best team in baseball. ‘Addams Family Values’ and ‘Grumpy Old Men’ are big at the box office. Yes those are all real things.

Some of the early sets had weird rarity. The packs had commons and uncommons, with some uncommons being more uncommon. Or something. It’s too much to break down, and I’m just going by how Gatherer, Magic’s official database, defines the rarity.

It’s also important to note that Mythic rarity wasn’t a thing in the 90s. That was 2008, when Magic turned 15.

Alpha/Beta/Unlimited – 1993

There are two categories of powerful uncommons in Magic’s earliest sets: incredibly efficient, and broken.

The incredibly efficient category includes stuff like Black Knight, Counterspell, Hypnotic Specter, Sengir Vampire and of course, Serra Angel. These were all big-time cards either in early Magic, and some are still played now.

The broken category includes Berserk, Channel, Demonic Tutor, and the now synonymous-with-Commander Sol Ring. These cards hardly need explaining or even introduction. They’ve all seen bans and restrictions.

Special mentions go to Animate Dead and Basalt Monolith, which are sometimes game-ending combo pieces in Legacy and Commander, and Swords to Plowshares, which is a format staple in Commander.

Extra special mention goes to one of Magic’s early ‘combos,’ Juggernaut and Invisibility, earning poor Juggernaut a banning that seems laughable now.

Arabian Nights – 1993

This set had weird rarity, with different colour gradation on some cards, making those more rare and valuable. It also had a rare Mountain due to a printing error.

Unlike all the following sets, it had ‘Real World’ locations, including in the uncommons. Arabian Nights actually has 4 great uncommon lands: Bazaar of Baghdad, City of Brass, Diamond Valley and Library of Alexandria.

The Bazaar of Baghdad, in addition to being one of very few ‘Real Earth’ cards, is heavily played in Vintage and banned in Legacy. It’s often the only land played in mana-less Dredge decks, which want to put cards in the graveyard. A single Bazaar activation with 2 dredge cards in the graveyard can put more than ten cards into the bin for you.

Neither of City of Brass or Diamond Valley are really that powerful, but they’re highly playable. The City is a great mana fixer for a handful of non-Commander decks, and heavily played in Commander because the mana-bases are so huge and demand for multi-coloured lands that enter untapped is relentless. The Valley is scarce, on the Reserved List, and really tough to gauge on power level as a result. Not making mana is tough, but if it was widely available, it might be in a lot of Commander decks.

Another ‘Real World’ location, Library of Alexandria, maybe has a better reputation than what the card actually does. However, it’s Reserved List, severely expensive, and could be played in almost any concept, so it’ll quickly turn into a rich-kid-only sort of thing for Commander. Thankfully, it’s banned there. It was once considered a noteworthy combo (Inquest and Scrye magazines often cited it) with Ivory Tower.

Antiquities – 1994

Another set with weird rarity followed Arabian Nights, this time using Magic’s own IP! This was our first meeting with influential Magic characters Urza, Mishra, and Yawgmoth. To a lesser extent, we also got Ashnod, Feldon, Tawnos, and Tocasia. None of these characters got their own cards right away.

At the time of printing, Feldon’s Cane and Ivory Tower were considered the best of the set’s uncommons. The Cane was even restricted for a while, while the Tower was a ‘combo piece.’

Currently, Ashnod’s Altar is an actual combo piece in Commander, and Power Artifact would be if it weren’t so scarce and expensive. Transmute Artifact should also get a mention as a tutor card that’s very strong but underplayed because of scarcity.

I also have to mention the Millstone which created an entire archetype of Magic decks.

Revised Edition – 1994

Revised Edition was the first ‘core-set’ to incorporate reprints from expansions, including cards from Arabian Nights and Antiquities in glorious white borders. New players encountered Atog and Desert Twister for the first time.

Surprisingly, Channel, Demonic Tutor, and Sol Ring were all reprinted in Revised at uncommon.

Legends – 1994

Legends marked a return to a more standard rarity, and a new large size, for expansions. The designs were top-down, drawing heavily from someone’s role-playing campaign, sort of like non-canon Dungeons and Dragons. Many of the cards are now considered to be among Magic’s worst.

Something to think about, in terms of early Magic, is that power and toughness mattered a lot. A classic example is Legends’ Sir Shandlar of Eberyn, which as a 6 mana 4/7 with no other abilities, seems pretty silly nowadays.

At the time, he was the perfect foil to the heavily played 6/4 Craw Wurm. This common green beater was the easiest big creature for a kid to get, including in multiples, and being green, it was reasonable to cast.

In that sense, Sir Shandlar is a pretty great design for an uncommon card. The art is even reminiscent of depictions of Wurm-slayers in medieval fiction. It was a different time. They were putting Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allen Poe quotes on cards back then.

One of those cards, Karakas, as well as to a lesser extent Pendelhaven, Hammerheim, and Urborg, are uncommons that have seen a fair amount of competitive play. Based on what it does, Karakas requires banning in Commander. We’re not going to go into detail on Tolaria.

The most powerful uncommons in Legends are easily the trio of Land Tax, Mana Drain and Sylvan Library, all of which have been reprinted at Mythic rarity recently.

After that, it’s a pretty steep dropoff to cards like Underworld Dreams (still good), Winds of Change (also good), and maybe Kismet (good in Commander), and then another, very steep dropoff, to cards we’ll just move on from.

The Dark – 1994

The Dark was designed in large part by Magic Art Director Jesper Myrfors. It was top-down, inconsistent, experimental, and naturally, had weird rarity. It’s one of my favourite expansions all-time. Plenty of the set’s cards are the combination of unplayable and on the Reserved List.

Two of the set’s uncommons have stood the test of time, and in the right circumstances, can be game-breaking. Those are Maze of Ith and Tormod’s Crypt.

Additional mentions need to go out to Fellwar Stone, one of Commander’s best mana rocks, Elves of Deep Shadow, one of many great mana dorks, and Eater of the Dead which can mill out an entire Commander table with help from Phenax, God of Deception and a little luck.

Fallen Empires – 1994

Considered by many to be Magic’s worst set, this was weird rarity and top-down design, based around several key creature types, like goblins and thrulls… and homarids. The cards are almost all bad. Some have broken through in various formats, though. Some of the cards are on the Reserved List.

There’s almost nothing to talk about here, in terms of good uncommons. Deep Spawn was a control finisher in the 90s for a brief period. Nice.

The sacrifice-for-2-mana lands like Dwarven Ruins are seeing some recent play in Legacy decks based around the card Creative Technique, which race to cast their namesake spell and win the game on a ridiculous series of Cascade triggers. Also nice, but that’s as far as things go.

Maybe something else will emerge in future, but it’s doubtful.

Fourth Edition – 1995

Fourth Edition enraged a lot of people who spent lots of money on Legends Carrion Ants, which were a $20+ rare, as well as other cards with a big reputation but poor play value, like Killer Bees, and  Junún Efreet. Now all uncommons.

Somehow, Channel was still in 4th Edition, at uncommon, and even more shocking in hindsight was the reprint of Strip Mine at uncommon as well.

Reprints of uncommon stalwarts Mishra’s Factory, Fellwar Stone and Whirling Dervish were all welcome additions to the card pool.

Ice Age – 1995

Ice Age was a new direction for the Magic franchise, where things were mostly the same, except now covered in snow. In the ‘Ice Age’ expansion, representation of cold was done with snow, not ice. Which was a choice. We just live with it now.

Somehow, Snow-Covered Forest beat out Ice Forest, Frozen Forest, Icy Forest, Glacial Forest, Winter Forest etc.

Ice Age still contained cards and concepts that have since been phased out, like aggressive colour hate, graveyard order and banding. Cards like Anarchy, Ashen Ghoul and Baton of Morale, for uncommon examples. We also got experiments that have mostly failed, like cumulative upkeep.

There are some solid uncommons, like Dance of the Dead, Diabolic Vision, and Knight of Stromgald. Essence Filter is one for the Commander players to start considering more often.

It’s tough to place Glacial Chasm on a broken/not broken list. Having played it a lot myself, it can totally feel broken. It has since been reprinted at mythic.

A few uncommons, like Hydroblast, Pyroblast, and Pyroclasm have emerged as all-timers across multiple formats. Zuran Orb, now mostly trivia, was even banned for a while because of how it interacted with cards like Fastbond and Balance, and just as a general free artifact that hurt aggressive decks too easily.

And one uncommon was completely broken. Demonic Consultation is still going strong as an effect that would wreck you unless you specifically build for it, and then you can use it to win with something like Thassa’s Oracle and your own exiled library.

Chronicles – 1995

We owe the Reserved List to Chronicles. Even though it was predated by Fourth Edition, the impact of a widespread, white-bordered reprinting of valuable cards was enough. How yucky.

Suddenly, the ultra-pricey, exclusive Elder Dragons were cheap, easy to get, and exposed as crummy Magic cards. Same went for many cards from the early expansions. The mystique was gone, and the values plummeted.

Did the set reprint any amazing cards at uncommon, however? It sure did. The biggest one would have to be Erhnam Djinn, which quickly fueled demand for the popular Erhnam-geddon decks of the era, using the Djinn with Birds of Paradise, other fast mana and Armageddon to destroy all the lands.

We also got Recall from Legends as an uncommon, which was restricted for a while, as recurring multiple cards at once was considered too powerful. And Urza’s Tower, Urza’s Mine and Urza’s Power Plant from Antiquities.

Chronicles also reprinted uncommon standouts Ashnod’s Altar, Feldon’s Cane and Tormod’s Crypt, but at common, which is pretty weird in hindsight. The Cane was considered very strong at the time.

Homelands – 1995

If there was ever a set to make Fallen Empires look good, it’s Homelands. Another weird rarity set, it’s hard to find good cards period, let alone uncommons. This should be no surprise to anyone familiar with Homelands.

We can pull 3 uncommon cards off the pile, all by context, and none of them are good otherwise. Ihsan’s Shade was a solid finisher with an ok rate for mid 90s black decks. Spectral Bears was a decent aggressive green creature in the age of mid 90s black decks. Eron the Relentless was one of very, very few creatures from the era with haste, and could take an opponent by surprise off the topdeck.

That’s it.

Alliances – 1996

By direct contrast to Homelands, Alliances was a strong set. It has also aged really well, with many cards being even better now than they were at the time. There’s still plenty of duds, weird land destruction, colour hate, landwalk, rampage, and banding, but what can you do? Hooray for early Magic.

The set’s great uncommons include Gorilla Shaman, Lim-Dûl’s Vault, Phyrexian Devourer (for combos with Necrotic Ooze), Pillage, and Pyrokinesis.

A definitely broken uncommon is Elvish Spirit Guide. Fast, free mana is good, and this is really hard to interact with. It’s played a fair amount in Legacy and Vintage combo decks.

And of course, there’s Force of Will, which keeps Legacy and Vintage from being turn 0 or 1 formats all by itself. Is that broken? It can’t really win the game for you, but it keeps you from losing. It’s unquestionably the most important card mentioned in this post, unless you’re Channelfireball.com

Mirage – 1996

Mirage is still my favourite set. It has the best flavour by miles and miles and miles. While the new abilities in flanking and phasing both missed the mark, the set was exciting and had some notable uncommons.

Some of Mirage’s uncommons are weird and unique, like black counterspell Withering Boon and white counterspell creature Vigilant Martyr.

Some are solid, playable Commander options like the diamond cycle, including Sky Diamond, and the pseudo-fetchland cycle, including Rocky Tar Pit. Even Crystal Vein can sometimes be seen accelerating mana for Creative Technique decks in Legacy, or Eldrazi decks in Commander.

Mirage’s uncommons have a huge footprint in Magic, however, thanks to 3 cards: Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor and Worldly Tutor, all of which see tons of Commander play, as well as some Legacy/Vintage play.

It’s odd to note that these cards have almost never been reprinted as mythics! All 3 were reprinted at uncommon in 6th edition, as we’ll see later, and then went on to be reprinted at rare a couple times each. Mystical Tutor is the only one with a mythic treatment, in From the Vault: Exiled.

Visions – 1997

The follow-up to Mirage is considered to be one of the most influential sets in Magic’s design history, due to creatures with ‘enters the battlefield’ abilities. These creatures, like the powerful uncommons Uktabi Orangutan and Nekrataal, changed the way creatures interacted with the game.

There are some very good non-creature uncommons in Visions too, like Creeping Mold, Helm of Awakening and Necromancy. All have seen play at some point, and are very flexible in what they can do for you.

There are two uncommons in Visions that really broke things. The first is Summer Bloom which proved too much for Modern alongside Amulet of Vigor and Primordial Titan. It has since been mostly outclassed, and it doesn’t play in Vintage or Legacy, but the effect is undeniably strong, and utterly broken in the right setup.

The second card is Goblin Recruiter, which is just a mistake. There’s no way it should have been printed with the wording it has. It is banned in Legacy, which is a pretty good indication of power level. Like Enlightened Tutor and friends from Mirage, it also got a 6th Edition reprint at uncommon.

Fifth Edition – 1997

Just as a word of caution, Fifth Edition included plenty of Fallen Empires and Homelands cards.

The reprints here are pretty low-impact, with Ashnod’s Altar being the most broken uncommon. Some others we’ve already seen, like Feldon’s Cane and Hydroblast.

This is also a set that had both Sylvan Library and Stampede as rare green cards. Moving along….

Weatherlight – 1997

Weatherlight introduced the crew of the Weatherlight, a magical airship that traversed some of Magic’s notable planes. A few of the crew hung around as prominent Magic characters. Squee, Goblin Nabob and Karn, Silver Golem were both Weatherlight shippers. The rest, like Gerrard and Hannah and Tahngarth, kinda slipped away.

Weatherlight has some pretty solid uncommons. Aura of Silence, Buried Alive, Gemstone Mine, and Mind Stone are all real cards. I’m pretty sure a deck with Arclight Phoenix and Buried Alive is hot in Legacy right now.

Maybe not broken, but still seeing high-level play are Gaea’s Blessing and Veteran Explorer. The Blessing is in a few sideboards here and there, but never goes away completely. The Legacy deck ‘Nic Fit’ is based on getting Veteran Explorer out quick and sacrificing it for a big mana boost. Many opponents don’t play basics, or very few, and this breaks the symmetry of the effect to the Nic Fit player’s advantage.

In addition, Weatherlight has plenty of sneaky-good uncommons like Aether Flash and Dingus Staff, which can be surprise impact plays in Commander, and the set is full of underplayed cards, like Familiar Ground and Strands of Night.

Tempest – 1997

Tempest, like Visions, is considered a benchmark in terms of design evolution. Synergy creatures, the Slivers, were introduced to great delight. Buyback is still a popular mechanic, just on too few cards. The other features of the set, Licids and the Shadow ability, were less than successful, but overall, Tempest was a little more focused and tighter than previous sets had been. It felt a little more powerful.

There are uncommons in Tempest that still see competitive play. Dread of Night is currently hanging out in sideboards with an uptick in white Initiative decks in Legacy and Vintage. Other hater cards like Boil and Choke sometimes get kicked around too.

Both of Goblin Bombardment and Propaganda have seen constructed play, and now do work in Commander. Even Harrow, Stalking Stones and Sudden Impact have had a little impact competitively.

The most broken uncommon from the set is definitely Ancient Tomb, which took a while to catch on. Now it’s no secret, and way too good to be printed today. There are multiple decks in every colour across Legacy and Vintage trying to leverage Ancient Tomb. Colourless too, of course. It’s just insane to have a land come in untapped and make 2 mana with that minimal of a drawback.

A close second would be Reanimate, which is a big part of Legacy ‘Scam’ decks looking to get multiple ETB triggers out of Grief. The absurd power of today’s creatures helps a lot in making this card broken. Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Griselbrand turn 1 anyone?

You could easily make an argument for Wasteland as well, one of the most heavily played cards in Legacy. If winning games makes a card broken, it is. Wasteland definitely got Wrenn and Six banned in Legacy.

There are still some underplayed cards among the uncommons. Ancient Runes, Ghost Town, Puppet Strings, Reckless Spite, Steal Enchantment, and Storm Front are worth a look for many Commander concepts.

Stronghold – 1998

Stronghold brought us more Slivers, Buyback, Licids, and Shadow. Maybe not all great moves in hindsight, but I appreciate commitment to a design concept or four.

In terms of cards, there’s a lot of power in a small number of uncommons. Cards like Bottomless Pit and Megrim have seen some small amount of competitive play, and can be excellent in Commander discard decks. Among the slivers, Crystalline Sliver and Hibernation Sliver are two of the best.

Cards like Heartstone, Heat of Battle, Mogg Maniac, and Primal Rage all have a place in some Commander deck or other.

A few uncommons stand above the rest in Stronghold, all green. Wall of Blossoms has a level of simple utility that has placed it in all sorts of decks over the years. Constant Mists has seen high-level play also, and can be a big player in Commander too.

The biggest uncommon from the set is probably the most unassuming. It’s Spike Feeder, a sort of sluggy guy who gains you life. It combos with stuff like Heliod, Sun-Crowned to gain infinite life. It has a pretty strong tournament pedigree, and anything that goes infinite definitely qualifies for broken, even if sluggy.

Exodus – 1998

Our third and final set in the Tempest saga didn’t quite have the impact in the uncommon slot as the other sets in the block.

There are cards like Curiosity, Flowstone Flood and Forbid which have seen play here and there. I’ve seen Necrologia in Commander decks, and I hope to see somebody do something with Mana Breach.

All of Slaughter, Spellshock and Spike Cannibal are Commander-worthy cards, and Spellbook might fit in somewhere.

The top uncommons in the set are Reconnaissance, which is a very strong consideration for any white deck in Commander that wants to attack, and Price of Progress which has won enough games across multiple formats that it’s an easy choice for the best uncommon in the set. Broken? Not really, but very very good.

Urza’s Saga – 1998

Urza’s Saga was the start of a notorious period of combos and broken plays. The power level was through the roof, and lots of cards were banned or restricted. Spoiler alert, things calmed down and the game survived.

Were the uncommons broken during this period? Urza’s Saga has a pretty strong list of them.

For starters, there’s Acidic Soil, Arcane Laboratory, Blanchwood Armor, Diabolic Servitude, Fecundity, Goblin Offensive, Planar Void and Rain of Filth. Some with a bit of competitive play, most with Commander potential. And speaking of Commander potential, Worn Powerstone is a longstanding mana rock staple, even now.

Up a tier, to uncommons with more legit competitive history, are Meltdown, Victimize and Windfall, all of which are fantastic in Commander as well.

Up a tier, to very high level competitive history, are Carpet of Flowers and Goblin Lackey. The Carpet is a regularity in Legacy and Vintage sideboards, and the Lackey has been a Goblin staple in any format it’s legal in since it was released. Goblin Lackey is pretty broken, but there are two uncommons in the set that have much more of history breaking the game.

The first is Peregrine Drake, which broke the common-only Pauper format when it was downgraded to common in a set a few years ago. That’s sort of cheating, but it was a known quantity, along with all the other land-untapping cards, and was expected to break the Pauper format if it got downshifted to common. It did, and is now banned.

Finally, we have Voltaic Key, which is broken because it successfully untaps Time Vault without requiring you to skip a turn. That’s enough, even though it does plenty of other great things, like untapping Basalt Monolith and being cheap and colourless. Voltaic Key has been sort of supplanted by the better Manifold Key, but hangs around in Vintage because of cards like Pithing Needle. It’s also very fetchable by Urza’s Saga, and can be grabbed if the Needle named the Manifold, or if the Manifold was destroyed. Naturally it’s a Commander staple, though a little more niche than some.

Urza’s Legacy – 1999

Urza’s Legacy has a great cycle of uncommon creature lands, highlighted by Treetop Village and Faerie Conclave, and some cheap, strong uncommon enchantments in Multani’s Presence and Phyrexian Reclamation, a card I play a lot.

There’s Avalanche Riders which had their day, and Mother of Runes who gets a day ever year.

But forget all that, this is the set with Tinker in it.

Let’s talk about Tinker, or more accurately, let’s talk about how to win games in Magic’s most powerful format, Vintage. Because that’s the only place Tinker is legal, and it is restricted by necessity.

Why’s that? Aren’t there artifact tutors that do the same thing? No. Tinker puts the artifact on the battlefied. It plays in a format where there’s no shortage of artifacts to sacrifice, even including a tapped Mox Sapphire. It can be cast off Black Lotus. It pitches to Force of Will in dire circumstances.

How does it win? Well there’s a short list of artifacts that win the game for you in Vintage. At the top of the list is Time Vault, which combines with either Voltaic Key or Manifold Key to take infinite turns. Both keys can also be found with Tinker.

If you like creatures, Blightsteel Colossus is an option, even though it’s slow. It’s mostly in sideboards these days. More popular as a creature-based finisher is Sphinx of the Steel Wind, which answers a lot of decks completely.

An extremely popular option is Bolas’s Citadel. The Citadel allows you to dig to the win-con, which might be Time Vault or something like Tendrils of Agony, or even Aetherflux Reservoir. In Vintage, a lot of spells can be cast for no mana, making it easy to chain a win together off of Bolas’s Citadel.

Finally, there’s a number of fringe strategies, highlighted by ‘Blue Painter,’ which fits the Painter’s Servant and Grindstone package into a blue control shell. That combo of artifacts wins the game by turning all the game’s cards into a colour of their choice – probably red, and they would be running Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast) – and then activating Grindstone to mill the opponent out.

It’s tough to think of any uncommon more broken than Tinker. The decks that run it in Vintage are called Tinker Decks. What more do you need?

Classic Sixth Edition – 1999

A huge chunk of the cards I’ve mentioned so far in this post appear in Classic Sixth Edition. It might be one of the best uncommon sets ever. Of course there are duds, and there’s still a lot of colour hate, but the Mirage tutors, the diamond cycle, Ashnod’s Altar, Goblin Recruiter, the 2 mana Fallen Empires lands, Summer Bloom, Uktabi Orangutan, and even an upshifted Pestilence are here. Plus some cool niche stuff for Commander.

Urza’s Destiny – 1999

The final set in the Urza’s block does not live up to the others. There’s nothing with any real competitive play, and the set standout is Thran Dynamo which is most represented in casual Commander.

There are some wacky cards that could go into Commander decks, but they’re a stretch. Stuff like Compost, Caltrops, or maybe Extruder. Gamekeeper and Yavimaya Enchantress are just barely playable.

Mercadian Masques – 1999

Mercadian Masques, the final set release of the 1990s, is widely regarded as a powered-down set, mostly because things got out of control in Urza’s block. A lot of cards seem to show up in Commander, however.

Mercadian Masques has a lot of cool uncommon cards with interesting effects. None of which have any real competitive history, except maybe Barbed Wire and a Rebel or two in Block Constructed and Standard.

But there’s cool underplayed stuff like Briar Patch, Caustic Wasps, Close Quarters, Coastal Piracy, Credit Voucher, Customs Depot, Energy Flux (reprinted), Hammer Mage, Haunted Crossroads, Noble Purpose, Snake Pit, Soothsaying, Uphill Battle, War Cadence and War Tax.

The best two uncommons are Kyren Negotiations, which can be a finisher for go-wide strategies like Goblins, and Larceny, which makes opponents discard when you connect with your creatures. Both are only playable in Commander, but are pretty good there.

The Top Ten Uncommons of the 1990s

10. Wasteland – Legacy staple, absurdly powerful but not exciting. Not as good as Strip Mine which also has an uncommon printing. Strip Mine was a rare first, so it’s borderline ineligible for this list, plus it’s less played because it’s banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage.

9. Reanimate – Ultra hot right now, largely thanks to Grief, but it has always been good. Very strong in Commander, with higher starting life totals.

8. Sol Ring – Cheap fast mana with no drawbacks. Commander’s favourite card.

7. Ancient Tomb – Cheaper and faster than Sol Ring. Enables literally dozens of deck archetypes across Vintage, Legacy and Commander, in all colours and colourless.

6. Demonic Tutor – The original tutor card. Way too undercosted. Functions like another copy of every great card in your deck.

5. Bazaar of Baghdad – An unrivaled and unique way to tear through your deck and put cards in the graveyard. Being a land makes it tough to stop. Banned in Legacy, and fuels the strongest Dredge decks in Vintage.

4. Goblin Recruiter – A total design mistake. Raw tutor power and deck manipulation on a level that’s never been equaled. Thankfully limited to Goblins.

3. Channel – Vintage only, and only one copy allowed since the early 90s. Synonymous with Fireball as the game’s original combo finisher. Would be beyond bonkers in Commander.

2. Force of Will – Defining card for Legacy and Vintage, stopping opponents from winning too early. Now exclusively printed at Mythic. No history of restriction or banning, but still could be #1 on this list.

1. Tinker – Only legal in Vintage. Restricted there. Many successful Vintage decks identify as Tinker decks, as resolving it is going to win you the game.

Conclusion

As it turns out, many of the game’s most iconic and powerful cards are uncommon! From the start with Serra Angel, Sol Ring, Demonic Tutor and Channel, to the big-time Vintage players of Urza’s block, Voltaic Key and Tinker, Magic’s uncommons have made their mark on the 1990s.

While some are good, and some are better, some are basically mythics. Some of those have been reprinted as such, showing that their original rarity was definitely made in error.

Check out part 2, right here:

Barigord Gaming Weekly – 12/14/23 – Mythic Uncommons Part 2 – 2000-2005

Thanks for reading!