The Ultimate Masters set has arrived on shelves today! Are you ready for a fun drafting weekend? Holiday drafting fun times... commence.

I've played Magic for a very long time. And I have played every single card that is getting reprinted in today's release. Many of them are quite valuable in multiplayer.

Which are the best? What the strongest reprints? What's been missing for a too long?

For today's list I am going to look either at powerhouses that were overdue for a reprinting, or a strong utility card that has never seen another day in the sun. These are charting over a simple staple that gets reprinted all the time. Sure, Ultimate Masters may be reprinting Kodama's Reach, and that's a great card, but I doubt you are saying to yourself, "Man I wanted Kodama's Reach for a while, and now I can finally get some!" This is its 6th printing after all. Shriekmaw? This is it's 8th printing. I love Anger and consider it one of the best multiplayer haste enablers ever printed as it works from your graveyard, but this is it's 5th printing. Artisan of Kozilek? 8th. Buried Alive? 6th.

You get the idea.

Instead I want to emphasize cards that are really powerful and strong and yet are ripe for a printing here. So let's take a gander!

Honorable Mention #1 - Temporal Manipulation

The reason this is hitting at essentially #13 instead of higher is that, although it's great to see it get reprinted in a modern set and drop in price while increasing its availability for a lot of players, it's also redundant. We already have Time Warp sitting at $10. Temporal Manipulation is preordering at $35 as of the writing of this article, so it's still a lot more. Despite that price difference, there are a number of fans of Commander who will like getting a now-cheaper 2nd Time Warp for their brews, so it's a great reprint for casual folks.

Honorable Mention #2 -Songs of the Damned

I have long extolled the virtues of this unfairly-forgotten card from Ice Age. In October, I named this the 2ndBest Forgotten Common of All Time. Because I just gave it a shout out a few weeks ago, I'm not going to give it a spot on my list here (but it would otherwise make it!) but I did want point out that this is an awesome card. Enjoy!

Honorable Mention #3 -Angelic Renewal

Also, let's give a shout out to Angelic Renewal coming back for the first time since Weatherlight. It's pretty good in a pro-enchantment and recursion color with things like Sun Titan to recur it after you've sacrificed it to bring something back. It works in a number of combo and recursive shells, and you can now get foil ones for your deck as well as a new generation of players getting access to this card outside of the singles market.

10. Chainer's Edict

Torment. Foil Promo for Friday Night Magic. Foil in From the Vault: 20. That's it. Those are the only appearances for this awesome Edict version. It's great because it joins most Edict versions at just costing you two mana up front, but then there's a whole other Edict waiting for later. It's very strong in decks that can reliably have the extra mana on the back side, such as Mono-Black Control with its Cabal Coffers. Commander and multiplayer love it, and it's always been one of the best Edict effects running around. I am happy to see it get another printing. Enjoy the Edicts!

9. Phyrexian Tower

I suspect that we have a few cards in Ultimate Masters that some folks mistakenly thought were on the Reserve List. They were never reprinted since showing up in sets like Urza's Saga. Cards like Back to Basics or #2 below could be some cards that'll surprise some folks, but I suspect this was the biggest shock as three of the cards in this Rare cycle are famous, powerful, and heavily Reserved. Gaea's Cradle? Tolarian Academy? Serra's Sanctum? All on the Reserve List, and never coming up for air again. And while Phyrexian Tower is not on their power level, it's certainly a strong card with a powerful slate of friends at the kitchen table. I run it in multiple Commander builds, and I will be happy to secure some foils of that new card and art.

8.Mikaeus, the Unhallowed

We haven't seen Dark Mike since he debuted in the original Innistrad Block a long time ago. Despite his obvious value for decks and sets like Iconic Masters or any Commander deck with Black in its colors, we haven't seen him hit the Reprint Street yet, and that forced his price to rise way too high. Welcome back! He's a passel of power at any casual table as he is a 5/5 on curve who gives anyone who ain't a Human a nice benefit in size and undying-ness. He also is a No Mercy for Humans that dare to hurt you and packs some evasion of his own. He is a power-house from every angle-house.

He also combos with Triskelion in the classic "Mike and Trike" combo. Which is just fun to say!

7. Sigil of the New Dawn

I really like Sigil of the New Dawn, and it's getting downgraded from Rare to Uncommon for y'all. Enjoy it! I used it as recently in my real life Bear Beats Commander deck in October. It's never been reprinted since it arrived on the casual and multiplayer scene in Onslaught. Isn't that sad? I think so! Well now we can change all of that for folks! Here is the enchantment. Enjoy it. It's going to help you in many ways. Want to sacrifice a dork and then recur it? Want to bring back something that your foe killed? Want to drop Day of Judgment and have enough mana for a dork or two to head back to your hand? It's going to help you from multiple angles. Sigil of the New Dawn works.

6. Fauna Shaman

Fauna Shaman had precisely one appearance prior to now as a rare in a single Core Set, Magic 2011, which of course debuted in 2010, 8 years ago. Most Core Sets undersell the other sets, and weren't opened as much, so the market was unsatisfied with the number of these available. It's a Survival of the Fittest on legs, that taps to use its ability. For that reason, it's not as abusive as the card it evokes, but it's also not targeted like it either. I rarely have my early Fauna Shaman targeted in Commander. It gets multiple uses as I discard dorks I don't need for ones I do from my library and then I can cast them, as a single Green mana is hardly noticeable when I go to cast my fetched creature. She's great, and she's coming back! Fauna Shamans for you! Fauna Shamans for me! Fauna Shamans for everyone!

5. Dark Depths

Outside of a promo copy, this is the first reprint of casual all-star Dark Depths. This card was heavily played in casual before it became a tournament staple after being twinned with Vampire Hexmage. Unfortunately, said twinning resulted in a major cost spike to this card, even though we all know it was (likely) designed for the casual table. This is where the long-game of Dark Depths shines. This is where you can commit 30 mana over a few turns to pull the giant Marit Lage from the lake. It's a great mana sink, it's a great long-game card, and it's fun for Jonnies to combo with as they blow the counters off with Giant Fan and similar effects. Did you just get Aether Snapped?

Maybe!

4. Glen Elendra Archmage

Ah yes. Glen Elendra Archmage. Also called "Two Hard Counters" from my friends as they tend to run too many non-creatures in their decks and don't always have answers for it. Enter Ravenous Chupacabra or Shriekmaw. Or normal dorks they can't counter. Once it's resolved, the counters from it are, technically, counter-able with something that can counter an activated ability. But, the resolved Archmage is virtually uncounter-able as most people aren't going to have that ability in a pinch, making this a reliable two-for-one every time. Because it's a creature it can swing, grab a piece of equipment and punch you in the face with it, so you can't just ignore it and hope that it'll get used up by other players. You must play into it at times. That's awesome! What isn't awesome though is how long this thing has languishing on the sidelines as other Faeries were getting printed and used, but it wasn't getting called up to the big Reprint Games. (Other than a quick showing in the first Modern Masters which was under-printed and long ago). Well, welcome to the Big League Mon Faerie.

3. Eldrazi Conscription

This is Eldrazi Conscription. If you are setting aside the casting cost, it's arguably the nastiest punch in the face from any Aura ever printed. It's +10/+10 can turn a one-power Commander into a two-hit Commander KO. The addition of trample and annihilation to that size is spiteful. I mean it's not even giving you a chance to block it or something. It's so mean! You have to answer it as a traditional Aura and try to take out the dork it's enchanting (or the Aura itself). Note that this card's card types work well with a number of tutors, and cards that'll fetch it out, so you don't have to always pay that eight-mana tax. It's also never been reprinted, despite numerous decks it should and could have been, like the Aura and Enchantment loving decks for Commander. Well here you go folks! Conscription Away.

2.Pattern of Rebirth

Hello Terese Nielsen! You remain such a talented artist. I like you lots! Thanks for doing this art for us, it's awesome. This is my favorite new art in the set.

Anyways, I named Pattern of Rebirth the best Aura of all time for multiplayer a few years ago. Check it out here if you want to read it. It's remains an amazing card and it hadn't been printed since it debuted back in Urza's Block. It's an incredibly awesome card that can win the game by grabbing a timely creature card from your deck and tossing it right out onto the battlefield.

Given my admitted Abe-Love for this card, only the best reprint of all time could keep it from getting the top spot.

So what did?

1. Demonic Tutor

This card did! Demonic Tutor is the best Tutor effect ever printed. Every Tutor printed before has been compared to it and typically found wanting. It remains heavily played in Commander, multiplayer, casual 60 card fun brews, as well as others. It's been restricted in Vintage since the dawn of the format and remains strong there. It's the Tutor of the Demonic. Now it's seen a little sprinkling here and there. It was in a 2009 Duel Deck as a one-of and it was reprinted in that Duel Anthology a few years later. But that's it. It did not show up in Eternal Masters, Iconic Masters,or Masters 25 all of which would have been perfect fits. You also didn't see it in Commander Masters... Battlebond or either Conspiracy set. Nary a Commander deck nor a Masterpiece featured it. We could have seen an Amonkhet Masterpiece with Razaketh in the art. We could have seen a From the Vault set or something. Nope. Now it's long long long long long long long past time this was printed. Grab them now! Enjoy them! Get a chance to crack a fresh Demonic Tutor from an in-print set! With that minty fresh smell.

You know what I'm talking about!

And there we have it!

There are the Top Multiplayer Reprints from the last Masters set (for now, we did the same thing with Core Sets and ten they returned too). What did you think of my list? What are you most excited to see return? Thanks for reading!