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Hey, all! Welcome back!
Today we're going to go over the Top 5 Humans. Humans are easily one of most prevalent creature types in the game, with Scryfall telling us there are 3,576 of them. That's a ridiculous amount, and quite honestly, a lot of this list is going to be chosen by my own memory and personal feelings. These are such subjective topics that it's fairly hard to do it any other way, but I figured I would clarify this anyway.
As always the list is going to include a combination of cards I like, cards that are popular and powerful, and cards that are or have been historically important to the game. If I happen to forget your favorite human, or a particularly impactful human in the game, I apologize; there are a lot of them!
#5 - Dark Confidant
Way back in the day, Magic: The Gathering had an event called the Invitational. This was an event where the best 16 players of the past year would be invited to compete, and the winner would be able to design their own card, with the art even depicting their likeness. Unfortunately the Invitational was discontinued in 2007, but not before Bob Maher won it several years earlier in the 2003-04 event, leading to the creation of Dark Confidant.
Dark Confidant would then go on to find a home in countless decks in numerous Constructed formats. In fact, I would be surprised if there was a Constructed format that Dark Confidant didn't see play in...outside of Pauper, of course.
#4 - Noble Hierarch
Llanowar Elves might be the best green one-drop in Magic history. Or it might be Birds of Paradise. I imagine this is a discussion that has gone on since the beginning of the game. Well, Noble Hierarch fits right in between these two. Llanowar Elves has the toughness to attack, but Birds has evasion and can tap for any color. The Hierarch can also attack, or buff other attackers, while tapping for three different colors. It's kind of the best of both worlds.
#3 - Mother of Runes
Printed in Urza's Saga, Mother of Runes defined white decks for a very long time, and still sees an incredible amount of play in Legacy. Basically, any white aggressive deck where Mother of Runes is legal will be running Mother of Runes.
In fact, Mother of Runes is so good, there was a modified reprint created for Modern in the form of Giver of Runes, where they added an additional toughness, but they took away one of the strongest parts of the card: the Mother being able to protect herself by targeting herself with her own ability. Giver of Runes is basically a "fixed" Mother of Runes, and it's still a fantastic card.
#2 - Snapcaster Mage
Snapcaster Mage was in fact another Invitational card, this time created by Tiago Chan for winning the very last Magic Invitational in 2007. While Snapcaster seems to have waned a bit in popularity recently, the card was a force of nature for over a decade, also seeing play in every format it was legal in.
Snapcaster basically took the best spells in your deck and said you can recast these for two more mana, and you'll even get a creature out of the deal. That is a shockingly good value. I can't begin to imagine the amount of Mana Leaks and Cryptic Commands I have flashed back (flashbacked?) thanks to Snapcaster, but I'm sure I enjoyed every single one.
#1 - Delver of Secrets
I gotta be honest here. I kind of dislike Delver of Secrets and I think it was a mistake. I think it was a fine card for formats like Standard and Modern, because it didn't absolutely dominate either of those formats. In my opinion, the problem with Delver of Secrets was its impact on Legacy. Once it was discovered, it basically took over the format, and Delver of Secrets became the premier win condition for the format, which felt unfortunate.
The thing I love about Legacy is how many old, powerful cards you have access to; how many cool things you can do. So when the format simply began to revolve around a one-mana 1/1 that turned into a 3/2 flier...it just felt a whole lot more boring to me.
I totally understand that I may be in the minority here, but I think Legacy is a worse format when it revolves almost completely around one- and two-mana cards, and in my head, it sure feels like Delver of Secrets was when that started.
Delver was in Canadian Threshold decks, Team America decks, UR Delver decks, BUG Aggro decks, and on, and on. Basically any deck that had a low curve - and Delver of Secrets naturally lowered that curve - and ran Brainstorm would be silly not to also run Delver. The value was just too good.
While I think Delver has gotten a bit outclassed recently, as one- and two-drops have become even more powerful, there have been many a time I wished Delver would have been banned in Legacy. And not really even because of power, but because of ubiquity.
Lists are hard to make, and missing iconic humans like Disciple of the Vault or Urza, Lord High Artificer just feels bad. While Urza is powerful, all of the cards on the list have simply been around longer than he has.
Honorable Mentions:
- Magus of the Moon. Still ruining manabases to this day.
- Disciple of the Vault. Absolutely dominant in early Affinity decks.
- Urza, Lord High Artificer. This guy is a multi-format all-star and Cube staple.
As always, I would love to hear what you think and have you shoot me your own Top 5 Warriors over on social media! Thanks a ton for reading and I'll catch ya next time!
Frank Lepore
