Two years ago we entered a new and magical plane where our perception of the game was taken on a wild and rocky rollercoaster ride. We were introduced to the biggest and strongest block in the history of Magic, creating extremely intricate and interactive draft, block, and Standard formats, while providing many power players for Vintage and Extended.
Two years prior, Future Sight was fresh on our tongues, and Tarmogoyf promised an additional two permanent types in the next block: Tribal and Planeswalker. Tribal didn’t go over so well, and was probably a waste of a card type in hindsight… but man, was bringing Planeswalkers to life a great idea! They operated similar to Artifacts and Enchantments that could actually be attacked, and had a wide range of abilities to choose from, including the elusive “ultimate” ability that would leave the opponent in shambles.
Craig Jones came back to the writing biz last week on the freebie side, with his new casual-centric article, and in the beginning he talked about all the various changes and facelifts Magic has undergone these past couple of years. The reconstruction of the Pro Tour and point threshold out of nowhere, the Invitational being axed, States being destroyed (and then thankfully revived), MSS/JSS kids left crying in the corner, MTGO 3.0’s rocky start, the funky web page re-design, and most recently damage “off” the stack… all of these felt like Wizards was just poking us to see our reaction. But one thing that has stayed consistently strong was the R&D department, and the direction they’ve chosen to take Magic year in and year out.
Lorwyn was a huge success on many fronts. Flavor, playability, complexity, new player appeal… everything seemed to line up, and this was the perfect set to follow the epic Time Spiral Block. Today I’d like to pay tribute to all the awesome cards we won’t be able to play with again in Standard, and look at just how these sets shaped up.
I went through all four sets, made a list of all the cards worth a damn, and put them in this neat list that you can scroll down to relive the glorious past. There’s nothing new to see here, but hopefully I’ll be able to take you on a journey of self discovery and enlightenment while rehashing this wonderful and exciting block.
Lorwyn
Arbiter of Knollridge
Broken Ambitions
Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
Cloudgoat Ranger
Cloudthresher
Colfenor’s Plans
Crib Swap
Cryptic Command / Primal Command / Profane Command / Austere Command / Incendiary Command
Doran, the Siege Tower
Flamekin Harbinger
Gaddock Teeg
Goldmeadow Stalwart / Wizened Cenn
Spinerock Knoll / Mosswort Bridge / Windbrisk Heights
Horde of Notions
Incandescent Soulstoke
Lash Out
Makeshift Mannequin
Marsh Flitter
Merrow Reejerey
Mirror Entity
Mistbind Clique / Scion of Oona / Spellstutter Sprite
Mulldrifter
Oblivion Ring
Planeswalkers!
Ponder
Shriekmaw
Smokebraider
Sower of Temptation
Thoughtseize
Vivid Lands
Wren’s Run Vanquisher / Imperious Perfect
This was an excellent first set that set the pace for an aggressive and violent format. It was deep, it had multiple layers of power to be added on to, and it contained some uniquely designed cards that hinted at how the block was going to go. The tribes were hardly balanced, but the top tribes of Merfolk and Kithkin came out to blazingly fast starts. It wasn’t until Morningtide that people actually acknowledged Faeries.
Bitterblossom
Bramblewood Paragon
Chameleon Colossus
Countryside Crusher
Heritage Druid
Mind Shatter / Mind Spring
Mutavault
Murmuring Bosk
Primal Beyond
Reveillark
Rustic Clachan
Scapeshift
Vendilion Clique
This was a pretty weak overall set, but still provided several huge cards that deeply impacted how we played Magic at the time. Reveillark, Bitterblossom, and Mutavault were the headliners, but Vendilion Clique, Chameleon Colossus, and Heritage Druid would prove their place as the format evolved.
Shadowmoor
Ashenmoor Gouger
Beseech the Queen
Boggart Ram-Gang
Demigod Of Revenge
Deus of Calamity
Devoted Druid
Everlasting Torment
Filter Lands
Firespout
Flame Javelin
Fulminator Mage
Giantbaiting
Guttural Response
Kitchen Finks
Mirrorweave
Mistmeadow Witch
Murderous Redcap
Oona, Queen of the Fae
Oversoul of Dusk
Plumeveil
Puppeteer Clique
Reflecting Pool
Runed Halo
Spectral Procession
Swans of Bryn Argoll
Sygg, River Cutthroat
Various Lieges
Torrent of Souls
Vexing Shusher
Wilt-Leaf Cavaliers
Wilt-Leaf Liege / Thistledown Liege / Boartusk Liege
Woodfall Primus!
This set was freaking sweat. The Filter lands accompanied by Reflecting Pool enabled the five-color manabases we’d dreamed about, and the hybrid mana cost gave a lot of depth to deckbuilding and gave those creative minds an outlet to out-build their opponents. The two-set draft format was also pretty creative, and a blast to revisit from time to time.
Eveningtide
Balefire Liege / Deathbringer Liege
Bloom Tender
Other Filter Lands
Figure of Destiny
Glen Elendra Archmage
Hallowed Burial
Nettle Sentinel
Nucklavee
Primalcrux
Puncture Blast
Quillspike
Regal Force
Snakeform
Soul Snuffers
Stigma Lasher
Stillmoon Cavalier
Wake Thrasher
This felt like a filler set when printed, but turned out to contain far more power than originally perceived. Wake Thrasher was over-hyped, became a dud, and when the mana rules changed became a huge undervalued house. Nettle Sentinel was cute, and after we streamlined the Elves lists it became the most powerful common in the set. Figure of Destiny was insane, and the enemy-colored Filters strengthened our mana like never before.
That’s my humble list. Next are the cards that couldn’t break the Top 20, but still earn an honorable mention…
This card slept on the sidelines for so long, it’s ludicrous. If you’ve ever cast this card, you know exactly what I mean. If you haven’t, you’ve got a couple of weeks to abuse the most powerful card in Standard. If Chapin heralded Cruel Ultimatum as an eleven-for-one at seven mana, and this is a freaking seven-for-one at four mana, why aren’t more people playing with this bomb? I made Top 8 of the only two big tournaments I played with it, and I wish I had another two years to experiment with it to truly understand its unique complexities when it comes to the way it alters deck design.
This was a beast, until sets went gold and people started sportin’ Swamps and mass token strategies. Too bad… if it would have stayed strong throughout its tenure, it would have definitely hit Top 20. The most recent application came from the Conley Woods Special, which really wasn’t so special after all? I mean, it’s just a clunky Mulldrifter / Mannequin deck with a bunch of enters-the-battlefield triggers, right? It’s the same as every other Mannequin deck… What makes it special?!
This one deserves Top 20 status, but it never really carried an archetype like the others on the list. However, it was one of the best supporters of Tribal synergies. Mana became more important than getting spells out of your mana during the second half of Lorwyn Block Standard, and this card just can’t cast the good spells we wanted to be playing.
One of my favorites, and really started to peak in playability when all this sick removal came about and forced the critters back to their cribs.
That’s a huge beast. That’s about it, sadly… it’s about as special as that Conley Woods deck…
There were a variety of decks that abused this Instant speed reanimation spell. All of them were pretty marginal for Standard purposes. However, in Block Constructed this card was one of the more defining things to play around when they had four mana up.
The Top 20 Standard Departures
Merfolk were a splashy tribe – good, then bad, then moderately playable, then completely unplayable. Now it’s come full circle and is the best deck in Standard, and Reejerey was the center point of each of those lists, providing a Lord that acted more like a combo piece than generic Glorious Anthem. The hands where you drew two of these bad boys with a Banneret were completely unfair. You could drop all the fish from your grip and still have Cryptic Command mana up. That shouldn’t be able to happen, but Merfolk did it in a consistent fashion.
Another aspect that propelled Merfolk to stardom was the fact that their pilots never got mana flooded. It’s crazy, but hear me out. Every game that Merfolk won, they rarely had more than 4-6 lands in play and a grip full of spells and creatures. The deck always seemed to draw gas once the lands were set up, and for no particular reason. At least that’s how I felt every game I lost to those fishy folk.
This is a removal spell that defined the types of creatures that saw play. Kitchen Finks saw a brief decline almost single-handily because of this card, Faeries had fits with it, Red decks disliked it, and pretty much any deck that attacked fell victim to a Flashed Plumeveil at some point. When tokens trampled over the format it wasn’t as big a deal, but after they slowed their roll, Plumeveil came in to take over. And best of all, it gave control decks a card that the opponent would have to walk into every time. If you managed to kill a Kitchen Finks or some other critter and untap into Cryptic Command, you’ve practically stabilized the board situation on turn 4!
This is another guy who went in and out of popularity, but he remained a decent metagame call every step of the way. He’s been paired with Mannequin, Reveillark, Horde of Notions, and Ajani Vengeant. He took a huge dip when the combat step was taken away. The real reason for Fulminator’s constant usability was the funky manabases we’ve had to endure these past couple years.
He never really dominated any format, but when this bad bark came out he revolutionized how we think of three-drops. Three mana for five power became the new standard, and it was all started by Doran’s legendary ass.
This guy set the bar for three-drops in a way that Doran couldn’t. Easier to cast, it had various color synergies, it was perfect weapon for the Red decks to combat Kitchen Finks, and it was the best possible card to Cascade into with Bloodbraid Elf. Ram-Gang will be missed, but in the end it’s just another dumb critter that taps and has pseudo evasion.
Forge[/author]-Tender”]Burrenton [author name="Forge"]Forge[/author]-Tender
We are gonna need a new Forge-Tender in Zendikar to compete with all these pink-sleeved red-headed yahoos running around. I hate losing to Dan Paskins and Patrick Sullivan decks more than anything in the world. Losing to a deck that just tapped its Mountains and put cards in the graveyard is the most emasculating experience in Magic. Runed Halo, Kitchen Finks, and Forge-Tender had to do a lot of work these past couple of seasons to keep them in check, and I’m honestly a little worried about the Red menace come Zendikar Standard. They always peak in new formats, and I don’t see a solid answer to them yet.
This is one of my favorite creatures of all time. I’ve gotten A LOT of play out of my foil playset, and I don’t think I’ve ever been unhappy casting Clique. This is another revolutionary creature. For three mana, we get a three-powered Instant speed flyer with built-in disruption. One of the most versatile, powerful, and balanced creatures ever designed.
Funnily enough, its name also sounds like a sexually transmitted disease.
Goldmeadow Stalwart / Wizened Cenn / Cloudgoat Ranger
Kithkin has always been a solid choice in Standard from my perspective. It has the leanest curve of all the aggro decks, backed up by late game power with Cloudgoat Ranger; card advantage with Windbrisk Heights and Spectral Procession; and the best one-drop of its era in Figure of Destiny. This was the trio that really supported the Kithkin deck. An alternative one-drop that lead to explosive starts, the typical low cost Crusade creature, and the late game humph.
When Time Spiral rotated out, so went with it all of the best card drawing spells. Mystical Teachings, Ancestral Vision, and Careful Consideration were far too strong to be printed alongside each other, and there was quite a fall off when they spiraled away.
Then Mulldrifter paired with Mannequin in the hands of the esteemed Jonathan Louckes, and greedy decks were born again. Then Reveillark came out and Mulldrifter shot up in value, FNM foils were created to meet popular demand, Mulls provided the creature to return when a Cruel Ultimatum resolved, people returned it to play via Horde of Notions, and it became the most used card drawing engine of its day.
Heritage Druid / Nettle Sentinel
This is the most potent combo in Lorwyn block. It dominated tournaments far and wide in unfair formats. However, it lay dormant in Standard until finally perfected in the format-warping brew with Ranger of Eos and Regal Force five months back. Then people adapted, and the Elvish menace and it fell down to the ground never to be heard from again.
The best one-drop in Standard, this guy changed the way we think of aggressively costed creatures, and was one of the most popular Block cards given its versatility in Mono-Red and Kithkin decks. This guy is why Kithkin had to shy away from the powerful Mutavault, and he even made appearances in Reveillark decks. He was the starting point in the curve of Brian Kowal’s innovative Boat Brew deck that dominated the Green and Black token variants, and altered the removal we decided to play. It became important to have more Instant speed removal to ensure you could kill him when he grew to a 4/4 or took a steroid shot and jumped to that Flying, First Striking Avatar.
Windbrisk Heights plus Spectral Procession
To some extent, this combo defined Standard more than Faeries did. It was played in a wide variety of White-based decks. Boat Brew, White/Black Tokens, White/Green Tokens, Kithkin, Red/White Kithkin, Black/White Kithkin, Green/White Kithkin… you seeing a trend here? Every deck looked to abuse Spectral Procession plus Windbrisk Heights and stretched their manabases to include a large range of supportive colors. Who’s to say which was the best? They all did the exact same thing, just a wee bit differently.
Mistbind Clique / Scion of Oona / Spellstutter Sprite
I hate this crew. I remember the first time I read Mistbind Clique, I was shocked that they would print such a powerful card. A 4/4 Flash flyer that Mana Shorts you when it comes into play?! But Faeries didn’t have much of a supporting crew beyond some tiny mediocre dudes with little impact on the game. Then Morningtide came, and Mistbind propelled itself to the best creature in Standard thanks to Bitterblossom and Mutavault. If it was missing just one of those two, we wouldn’t have the Faerie situation we’re stuck with today, but it had both, and hundreds of matches were lost to stringing multiple Cliques to keep the opponent out of the game entirely.
Cards this powerful are what wet dreams are made of, and it saw an enormous amount of play. From Kithkin and Merfolk sideboards, to Body Double combo decks, to Momentary Blink/ Makeshift Mannequin decks, to Blue/White control decks centered on the busty five-drop, Reveillark has seen a lot of play these past couple years. My first encounter with Lark was at Nationals two years ago, when Gerard and I played a deck with Doran and Zur along with Reveillark and Mulldrifter to complete the broken 3-4-5 curve. That deck didn’t do so hot that year, but surely Reveillark wasn’t to blame.
The end-all Enchantment that fueled the follies of the Faerie flock. This card warped the format on two occasions. Once when paired with Scion of Oona, Spellstutter Sprite, and Mistbind Clique to create an Affinity-power Block deck, and also when Bitterblossom paired with Plains to create the format-defining B/W Tokens deck.
Burn decks tried to race it, White decks had to Wispmare or Oblivion Ring it, Green decks were held off by a chump-blocking Forcefield, and Blue decks crumbled to it.
I’ve played Faeries on a total of three occasions in tournaments. Each time I went 0-2 because I didn’t draw Bitterblossom, and I hung my tiny wings up forever. When you drew Bitterblossom, the games weren’t close, and this card was more important to draw in your opener than Ancestral Vision… and they were even played in the same deck for a period! Turn 1 Vision, turn 2 Bitterblossom was the absolute strongest thing you could hope to do in Standard, and what exactly were you supposed to do to combat that efficiency? Race it with bad burn cards? Attack into it and hope all pans out? There was nothing you could do! It sucked! And the deck didn’t even slow down with their one-drop rotated out; it just made some adjustments and became a midrange control deck that had an explosive combo-like end game.
I hate this card with every cell in my body, and I hate PV for being so damn successful with it to fuel the horde of Faerie players with confidence to play it at every occasion.
Yes. This is better than Bitterblossom. Kitchen Finks was the best creature we had the grace to play during its tenure at the top. We had to adjust our removal so drastically to handle this little bugger, and I felt the burn had to rise significantly to offset the four-twelve life and two-six cards we’d gain off Finks each game. This is better than Ravenous Baloth and Loxodon Hierarch, and will be a prime contender when Extended is in full swing in a month. There was never a good way to handle a Finks that didn’t involve getting two-for-one’d aside from easily dealt with cards like Plumeveil and two-powered First Strikers. Finks is the card that made Standard tick.
More importantly was how I felt every time I cast a Kitchen Finks. It was like that wooden door that kept Rose alive when the Titanic sank. And lord knows I never liked playing opposite a Finks unless I had a Plumeveil/Magma Spray/First Striker. He was a cold-blooded killer that will sadly sink into oblivion when Zendikar replaces him. Never let go, Finks… never let go!
Obv.
Filter Lands
Va.
Ca.
Vivid Lands
Do.
These lands really defined the format more so than any spell could hope to do. The most obscure deck lists in our imaginations became a reality. We could cast anything we wanted, whenever we wanted. Manabases have really run amok past couple of years, and I’m happy to see things change pace and slow down a bit with the mono color tones of Zendikar.
Lorwyn Block was truly groundbreaking, and a testament to just how strong Wizards can make a block. They gave us the most powerful slew of creature spells ever included in one block. Did you guys even notice that? All of these powerful cards are creatures, which created an extremely fast paced aggressive format… until, of course, Shards came out and the spells clearly outweighed the creatures, which led to many powerful lasting builds of Five-Color Control which preyed on the tribalism of Lorwyn. One thing is for sure, The Red Zone was in true prosperous form when Lorwyn dominated the stage, creating an era of combat unlike anything we’ve previously seen.
When looking at the Zendikar spoiler, I can’t help but notice how strong a lot of the creatures are there too, which poses a unique problem. If all of these synergistic tribal decks weren’t enough to compete with the bombastic Shards spells and ways to contain critters, what hope do we have in Zendikar?
I’m eager to find out what Wizards R&D has up their sleeves, because it’s got to be something vicious. I was telling my buddy Mike from Heroes a week ago to double his order on Zendikar, and to open a couple of cases for the first time in his store’s twenty-year history. He told me I was nuts, but the way Zendikar is panning out, like Chapin mentioned, it will be the most bought Magic expansion ever printed. I have no doubt of that, and I’m going the Chapin route as well: preordering a couple of cases (if I can’t afford more) and riding the profits. It’s a very rare occurrence to have a set so well positioned to make instant profit when you open the boxes, and you really should seize the opportunity and preorder too.
Thanks for reading…
Kyle
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