Dominaria feels like the sort of set we'll be talking about long after the lights are turned off. It got some strong stuff to offer deck-builders at every level, including things we haven't seen in a while.

For example, take Unwind:

This "no mana" mechanic that debuted in Urza's Block came to dominate every tournament from Vintage and Legacy to Pauper, and has been used abusively to make mana with cards like High Tide or the Urzatron, as well as to rack up lethal storm counts. Now most of the worst spells were proactive like creatures; not the reactive Rewind style, so this is probably fine, but you can be sure that unwind was heavily vetted to ensure it wasn't broken.

In many ways, Dominaria feels like a gentler Time Spiral. It still looks back, but also forward. Every card isn't an on-the-spot obvious callout to a previous card, like Evil Eye of Urborg calling out Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore or Cyclopean Giant calling out Cyclopean Tomb.

They are using modern ways of evoking the past. Take Black's Skeletons. You used to have regeneration as Black's way to keep a nasty fiend out there. And heading all the way back to Drudge Skeletons, you had creatures that could survive death and continue to haunt your dreams. That mechanic is gone, and indestructible is used in its place, like Drudge Sentinel.

It feels like a Time Spiral that doesn't require you to know the past stuff to get the card. It's not one big inside joke.

There are a lot of fun cards here!

What are the top multiplayer and casual-friendly cards from Dominaria?

Let's find out!

Honorable Mention -- Karn's Temporal Sundering

Karn's Temporal Sundering is not "Just another Time Warp" variant. The ability to bounce an opposing creature to clear a path for beating is great. Bouncing something like Ghostly Prison that can stop your swinging in full is an added bonus. That extra level of style is nice and can help to turn your Time Warp into a Game Ending Warp. Don't ignore Karn's Temporal Sundering.

10. The Mending of Dominaria

I adore this card! It's great for kitchen table play in lots of places. Let's take a look why:

Assuming no Mana Acceleration:

Turn five -- Mill two cards. Recur one creature to your hand

Turn six -- Mill two cards. Recur one creature to your hand

Turn seven -- Bring back all dead lands to the battlefield, and shuffle that 'yard back.

Now that's pretty strong. Over three turns of value, you will get 2 creatures and an unknown set of lands. So, you'll get anywhere from 3-5 cards of value from this one Enchantment. That's card advantage value that can turn a game in your favor. And if you have mana acceleration by something like a Sakura-Tribe Elder, then you can return the STE to your hand on turn four and recur something else the next turn and then cast the STE and use it again. Pure value! What's not to love?

9. Cabal Stronghold

Play-testing (and math) has shown that this is not Cabal Coffers, one of the most broken lands of all time that's legal in most formats. The three to tap as well as requiring a basic Swamp are both hits. Yet, despite that, it's still a strong card. It's still Cabal Stronghold, and it works. It's powerful. There's a threat level here that's unquestionable, especially in the longer grindier games of multiplayer and casual games where getting to 7 or 9 mana is easier to do. It's power rises. It may not be an All Star like its predecessor, but it doesn't need to in order to make my list.

8. Lyra Dawnbringer

Clearly, Lyra Bringer of Dawns is evoking Baneslayer Angel here, hard. Is she better? I don't think so. Baneslayer's protection was quite pertinent and it's lack of legendary status meant you could drop more than one. You regularly run into both creature types in the sky where these Angels fight, and blocking an attacking big Dragon or swinging through a powerful Demon happens regularly. But the +1/+1 and lifelink to other Angels is quite good too, and Lyra brings some useful heat as a result. She's well sized and ready to make an impression anew at your kitchen table!

7. Phyrexian Scriptures

This is a strong card. I love the ability to make one of your dorks an artifact creature the turn before you wipe the board of non-artifacts, thus saving at least one of your own creatures. I actually think will play both better and worse than a typical mass removal effect.

Consider Nevinyrral's Disk.

If you don't want it to go off, you have a full turn to destroy it. That gives every color an answer, not just Blue's countermagic. (White, Green, Red can easily destroy an artifact, Blue -- counters, bounces or steals, Black can either discard it first or use rare stuff like Gate to Phyrexia). But despite giving people a turn warning, the Disk is very powerful. It's like someone cast Standstill. They don't want to cast stuff that will be destroyed in a turn or two, so they hold back. Despite the one-turn warning, the Disk is one of the most powerful mass removal spells rocking the block.

The same is true of Phyrexian Scriptures. It has fewer answers as an enchantment (Red, Black have nothing major to look at) and has stronger synergy (you can build around it or save one of your creatures). But it sweeps fewer things and must be used the next turn and can't be held back. That's okay. It's strong. It has an impact on the board that pretty saucy. Phyrexian Scriptures on!

6. Shalai, Voice of Plenty

(Shay-lay or Shay-lie? My institution is Shay-lay). Four mana for a 3/4 flyer with pertinent abilities is good. It brings some zest to the table quickly. By giving everything you care about hexproof, (Yourself? Your 'walkers? Your dorks? Check) it's faster than many other previous effects. That makes it pretty fast on the uptake. Shalai is Okay with me!

I think some people are looking at Shalai and seeing the last ability and then miss-assessing its power in a classic example of the Fox Offering Syndrome. I named the Fox Offering Syndrome after the forgotten power of this card:

Patron of the Kitsune is a brilliant card for multiplayer, as you are gaining life for every creature that attacks anybody, from your stuff to folks attacking each other to attacking you. It's also got a strong size. But the Fox Offering ability kept people from realizing its power because they mentally assigned into a Fox deck in their mind. Ironically, Patron of the Kitsune would have gotten more play without the Fox Offering ability. If the card was worse, it was played more. Other examples of Fox Offering Syndrome cards are Tenza, Godo's Maul and Reforge the Soul.

Don't think Shalai has to be in a deck to work, or needs a place to use +1/+1 counters. It's fine without a major use for the final activated ability. Shalai is strong.

5. Karn, Scion of Urza

Karn, Scion of Urza is an awesome card, full of planeswalkery goodness. Karn has a few things going for him (it?) that makes him work particularly well at the kitchen table. Colorless. 4 mana. Card drawing.

I mean that's it. He's a four-mana card drawing engine for any deck that Is gagging for card drawing, like White or Red. You can also draw a great card that was exiled with is -1 and -2 to make an artifact leading Construct. You start with 5 loyalty, and all three abilities are available immediately. What's not to love here?

4. Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar

I want to look at one of the best bodies in Dominaria, as well as a strong recursive long-game threat, and that's Multani, Take Two. The original Multani was a dominant force in its era of multiplayer madness, as a huge creature with a major board presence and hexproof. It's still good today, and although on the Reserve List, it's just $2.49 over at coolstuffinc.com right now (Hint, hint). It's way underpriced.

But Multani, Take Two is very strong too. Trample gives it the ability to smash through any defense and not fear chump blocking, and the size of our good Avatar means we can reliably have a Force of Nature sized body when it hits. It also grows for lands in your graveyard as well as on the battlefield, and that's pretty cool. But the best part is what happens next. Just like all other creatures, your Multani will inevitably bite the Green bullet in the sky. But while it lingers in your yard, you can return a pair of lands and then Multani to your hands for more Multani'ing. Multani rules all.

3. Jodah, Archmage Eternal

In a 60 card world, Jodah is the sort of dork who can come down on turn four, and then ignite a fiery turn five with his alternate casting cost. Given the ability to play multiple copies of lands like Crystal Quarry and/or Cascading Cataract, it's easy to rack up the mana requirement for Jodah's alternate cost.

Given the ease at which Jodah can cast Time Stretch and take two turns on turn five or hard-cast, and get cast-triggers, for the Eldrazi Titans, Jodah will win very soon thereafter. It's silly how good Jodah will be. At least in Commander he'll be restricted by only playing one of each of those lands, but you can also rely on getting Jodah out on turn four and keeping him out, so I suspect it's a wash, basically.

Welcome to the age of Jodah.

2. Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

I like drawing cards. Do you? I hope so! Teferi is awesome for the first ability. Gain loyalty? Check. Draw card? Check. Untap two lands? Check. He's like a better Garruk Wildspeaker.

Garruk is great, and just untaps two lands for his +1. The only sacrifice you make is that Teferi is untapping those lands at the end of your turn, so you can't immediately reuse them, but that's okay. If you are playing Azorius colors, you are likely playing control anyway, and drawing a card and adding 2 mana to your responsive ability. Teferi's +1 is awesome and game-shifting already. And then you can -3 to tuck a nonland into a library three turns from now, which is a lot better than bounce. A Time Ebb effect is essentially a removal spell that allows the card to eventually come back. Unlike normal bounce effects, it's not essentially card disadvantage, and you can tuck it back after three more rounds of +1's Teferi if you need.

You also have a sweet ultimate rocking the block as well!

There's a lot of good here under Teferi's Cowl. Seriously, what happened to Teferi's hat? That was awesome. Check out Teferi's Care or Teferi's Moat for an example of the man rocking a classic hat.

I can imagine a third card where Teferi tells Urza, "It is today." Teferi may have screwed up Urza's plans but he saved his own people from an apocalypse that ruined everything else by tucking them away temporally, so I'm on Teferi's side on this one.

Although, why did we pull the hat in the older Magic art from a newer card?

I get why Teferi might have lost the hat from then until now. But Teferi's Protection is his back then protecting his people (notice the phasing mechanic for example). Why wouldn't the art of Teferi's Protection use the old style of Teferi's dress?

1. Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle

Don't sleep on Teshar. Teshar is an amazing card here for any deck-builder to craft around. There are tons of cards that have amazing synergy with Teshar. In Standard alone ,we have cards that work well with Teshar. Ornithopter and Mox Amber aren't costing you anything to cast. You can bounce a historic spell with Aviary Mechanic. You could cast Walking Ballista for zero mana to get a free trigger. Teshar is also pretty cheap at 4 mana, and I can see this Aven leader doing some real damage to folks. You have cheap creatures to recur or trigger, like Scrapheap Scrounger or Shanna, Sisay's Legacy. I also love Hope of Ghirapur here too.

And that's just Standard! We have a ton of powerful options elsewhere. For example, imagine Teshar with Sakura-Tribe Elder (STE) or even worse, Cloudstone Curio!

For example, you could cast 1-3-drop legendary creatures over and over again, bouncing them with the Curio and racking up triggers. In between, use STE to pull out every land from your library or kill people. In a very real way, Teshar is like an Enduring Renewal on legs. It's awesome. It's the most powerful card in Dominaria. And it's not even close!

And there we have it! What are your top cards from Dominaria? What are you most looking forward to crack open?