I have been playing Magic The Gathering since Weatherlight, which was way back in 1997. So this already the 6th year for me in this mind challenging game. I grew with time, I grew with defeat, I grew with victory, I grew with discussion. And yet, I am more a collector and strategist than a front-line player. I don't enjoy challenging others but mostly I like to stand behind and build some nice decks to play and to collect. And now, I think it is time for me to share my favourite top ten cards of all time.

10) Black Lotus: Yeah, the 0 for 3 mana artifact is in tenth place. It is simply broken, but why in tenth? Coz I don't have one.

09) Lightning Bolt, Dark Ritual, Paladin En Vec: Sharing the 9th place are three cards that I played most in Magic. Lightning bolt is the best burn card ever created so far and if you never play it, try and tell me what you think. Well for black deck, none will work fine without the ultimate mana source, Dark Ritual. It provides speed for black and now it is so broken they banned it in Extended. W\It is really a big blow to any black mage. My honorable mention is Paladin En-Vec from Exodus expansion. Standing at 2/2 for 1WW, equipped with first strike and the best, protection from both black and white, the paladin is the best white creature ever, alongside Thunder Spirit.

08) Timewalk, Serra Angel: The ultimate cantrip card is Timewalk, 1U to gain an extra turn is the best. Why at 8th place? Coz I DON'T HAVE ONE! By the way, Serra Angel shares this place with Timewalk as I like the card and I like the drawing too. 5 mana for 4/4 flying, attacking without tap, what can you ask for more?

07) Hymm To Tourach, Black Vise: These two are my choice of best card eer created. Hymm makes you discard while B lack Vise wishes you never ever lose any card. They are conflicting each other but of coz, they serve differently in different deck. I personally like Black Vise more as a first turn Black Vise nearly always ensure victory in hand and it is playable in many arch type.

06) Sword To Plowshare, Empyrial Armor: 2 white cards set to sit in the 6th place, and they are not strangers to any white mage. Both serve the purpose of defending a whie based deck, but in different arch type. Sword To Plowshares has a wider range of usage, having to power decks like Counterpost, ErhnaGeddon, Marogeddon and white weenie deck while Empyrial Armor is mainly used in mon owhite deck.Many new players do not know the power of Empyrial Armor, a simple common card from Weatherlight expansion. It is a card that helps a mono white deck to win the USA National Championship in 1998. Empyrial Armor shot up in price as it is comboed with Paladin En-Vec followed by a major Catastrophe. And it is the best combo for mono white deck after Balance-Zuran Orb.

05) Ancestral Recall: There are a card of one casting cost for each colour during the early year of Magic, and each functions as what it supposes to do. Green has Giant Growth, red has Lightning Bolt. black has Dark Ritual, white has Sword To Plowshares and blue has the best draw engine, Ancestral Recall. One blue mana to draw three cards are simply broken and it is a must to any blue mage playing type 1, but it is restricted now. But undeniably it is the strongest card ever created.

04) Force of Will: In Alliances, there is one pitch card for every colour like Bounty of The Hunt for green but the most popular belongs to Force of Will, the ultimate counterspell. As it powered all counterspell-based decks especially the likes like Counterpost, no wonder it is higher priced by Urza's Rage. Now it is under the watch list for the next restricted or banned list. I believed it will continue to shoot up in price due to the dawn of madness ability in Torment.

03) Hypnotic Specter, Balance, Zuran Orb: One built in combo and one ultimate multi-combo, no wonder these three cards sit on top of the list. Many will agree with me that Hypnotic Specter is the best creature in Magic thus far, giving it 6 stars. With Dark Ritual, who can stay calm to face a first turn specter as what that happen in Dark Summer of 1996, the year of the emergence of Necro deck? Balance and Zuran Orb are restricted in type 1 after the abuse of these two power cards. They are built to combo each other. As Balance is a multi-combo built in card, Zuran Orb served to make any mage gain life by sacrificing the lands, as to leave the board empty of lands using Balance. Not only that Zuran Orb also combos with Necropotence, the now banned card in Extended and Type 1.

02) Llanowar Elves, Bird of Paradise: How about this two super mana producers that any green mage cannot missed in their decks? I don't know what to say anymore. Their abilities said it all. One to produce green mana and another to produce AVY mana and both speeds up any green-based deck.

01) Timetwister: This is my favourite card of all time: Timetwister. It is arguably the strongest card in my opinion. One blue and two generic mana to play, it enables any player to shuffle their hands, library and graveyard together and draw seven new cards. It is a draw engine, it is a graveyard manipulator and no one can ever deny its power. If it is not restricted with Time Walk, every blue mage would like to have 4 of Timetwister and 4 ime Walk for the ultimate cantrip.

There are other cards as well like Juzam Djinn, Gaea Blessing, Cursed Scroll, Wrath of God, Masticore, Gaea's Cradle and etc but they are rather limited to certain deck only. But hey this is my favourite list not everyone's favourite list.

( article by Rymond 2002 )