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Hey, all!
It's really good to be back and penning some articles for Cool Stuff again!
For those who don't know me, my name is Frank Lepore, and I've been a Magic player for nearly three decades, a content creator for about 15 years, and a game designer for about four years now. I have a Pro Tour Top 8 and a Grand Prix Top 8, I was at the Magic Online Community Cup in 2014, and Cube drafting is my absolute favorite way to play Magic.
I also love making lists.
Today we're going to discuss elementals! Specifically, my take on the Top 5 Elementals in the game! According to Scryfall, there are 601 elementals in the game, and for the sake of having a reasonable list, I'm going to exclude all five of the Modern Horizons 2 elementals (Endurance, Fury, Grief, Solitude, and Subtlety). For the sake of them just being boring, I'm also going to exclude some past bangers like Hellspark Elemental. This was hugely played back in the day, but it's pretty unexciting.
Speaking of Hellspark Elemental being boring, I was mulling over what kind of list this would be. What kind of elementals are we including? The elementals that had the biggest impact on competitive Magic? The strongest elementals? The best Commander elementals? I came to the conclusion that I'm just going to go with a combination of all of that. I'll include some elementals I like on the list, but I'll also include elementals whose presence could not be avoided.
Number Five
Maelstrom Wanderer is about 12 years old now, and it was one of my favorite cards from a supplemental set like Commander or Planechase (which were fairly new at the time of The Wanderer's release). Before those, it was rare we got cards that were this splashy from your basic, standard set. This was a huge 7/5 with haste, that also gave your other creatures haste, that also cascaded not once, but twice! If my research is correct, this was the first time a card had multiple instances of cascade on it, and there have only been three other cards since.
While it's never seen any real competitive tournament play, as far as I can recall, it's just such a cool creature, and I love adding it to Cubes.
Number Four
Avenger of Zendikar, on the other hand, is a pretty heavy hitter in both Commander and competitive formats. He's also found a home in a lot of Cubes. The card was basically a staple of the top end in both 
Control and Valakut Ramp decks back in 2011. While it doesn't still see any competitive play, it's pretty much a Commander all-star. The Avenger is also a card I had in my Cube basically from my Cube's inception, and I've only just swapped it out in the past year or so.
Number Three
Reveillark was a tournament staple for a good, long time, which is why it definitely deserves a spot on the list. Not only was it the main part of a combo with Body Double, Mirror Entity, and Riftwing Cloudskate, but it was just a great value card, getting things like Mulldrifter, Sower of Temptation, and Karmic Guides back.
Speaking of Mulldrifter, I think a ton of the evoke elementals deserve an honorable mention here (except those MH2 monsters), specifically cards like Cloudthresher, Mulldrifter, and Shriekmaw. Even cards like Wispmare and Spite Bellows saw play here and there. There's a ton of flexibility in the evoke mechanic, and it's basically Reverse Kicker. Instead of paying a little more and getting a little more, you just pay a little less and get a little less.
Number Two
Wow, Vengevine. What a card. This guy was not only in a bevy of Standard decks when it was legal - from Naya decks, to Fauna Quest, to Next Level Bant - but it was still seeing play in Modern up until a year or so ago. While it may have been outclassed with how quickly Modern evolves now, Vengevine is still a Vintage(!) staple, and sees a ton of play in Bazaar of Baghdad decks. I don't think any other card on the list can say that it sees regular play in the most powerful format in the game.
But yeah, pretty much any deck with numerous 1-drops, and ways to get the 'Vine in the graveyard was going to be in good shape to exploit this thing.
Number One
Omnath is one of, if not the grossest elemental that has ever been printed. Banned in Standard, and still sees heavy play in formats like Pioneer, Modern, Commander, and Cubes. While gaining four life every turn is great, his second trigger is often the best, and it's quite easy to trigger with any fetch land or ramp spell.
Netting you an additional four mana and eight life is a pretty ridiculous deal, for the low cost of
- checks notes-
...playing lands.
If I had to list some honorable mentions, they would be as follows:
- Cavalier of Flame for its role with Fires of Invention
- Brine Elemental for its role in
Pickles - Guile for its role in Sonic Boom
- Fulminator Mage for blowing up all the lands
- All of the cool Shadowmoor elementals, like Ashenmoor Gouger and Plumeveil (and, hey, I guess Fulminator Mage!)
So that's that! As always, I hope you guys enjoyed the thoughts. I would love to hear what you think and have you shoot me your own Top 5 Elementals in the comments, or over on social media! Thanks a ton for reading!
Frank Lepore
