In some ways, it would be easy to say there are too many formats in Magic: The Gathering right now.

Paper has always had a plethora of different formats, but in the digital age the differences in cardpools have justified the creation of a number of different formats. MTG Arena created Historic to be the home for cards after they had rotated out of Standard, and it has blossomed into a well curated and wonderful format that is a brewers paradise. Part of what has made it so unique and excellent compared to the other formats is the careful curation; many of the ubiquitous cards and power level outliers don't exist in the format like they do in other formats like Modern.

The issue is that, while banning these cards is by far the correct choice for Historic to keep it as a brewers format that has a unique voice compared to Modern or Pioneer, it does leave many of these powerful cards on the platform without a place to really play them.

Well not any more!

Enter Timeless, the brand new format that stands to be the Vintage/Legacy-style "everything is legal" format. Like Vintage, Timeless will not have any banned cards. Rather, only the most problematic cards will be restricted to one copy.

There are only three cards on the restricted list to start: Demonic Tutor, Channel, and Tibalt's Trickery. Every other single card on MTG Arena is otherwise legal. This means Oko, Thief of Crowns, Once Upon a Time, Swords to Plowshares, Natural Order, Deathrite Shaman, and more. Many of these cards are banned in most other formats, which leaves Timeless as the only format where you can play Deathrite Shaman or Oko, Thief of Crowns.

This format will also be the home of the recently reprinted in Khans of Tarkir fetchlands, which are thankfully staying out of Historic (a phenomenal choice to help the format keep its unique identity).

With gameplay that contains some of the most powerful cards ever printed, having much more in common with Legacy or Modern than any format ever on MTG Arena, there's a lot to take in if you aren't familiar with those formats.

So today, I'm going to break down the five most important cards in the Timeless format, the ones that will form the backbone for the entire format. So let's go!

5 - Swords to Plowshares

Wait Jim, isn't this just a good removal spell?

Well, yes, but "good" is severely underselling it. Swords to Plowshares is probably the best removal spell ever printed. It has no restraints, no holes to exploit. Your creature is gone for one mana, period. No recursion, no death triggers, just gone. Efficient enough to kill one-drops, powerful enough to handle six-drops, Swords to Plowshares is the exact kind of ubiquitous card that serves to invalidate all but the most powerful of creatures, as well as most removal spells too. There isn't really a great way to build around Swords to Plowshares either, mostly just hexproof or protection from White.

There's a lot of other great removal in Timeless like Lightning Bolt and Fatal Push, but nothing compares to good ole Swords to Plowshares.

4 - Oko, Thief of Crowns

The only card on this list that costs more than two mana, Oko, Thief of Crowns is the most powerful planeswalker of all time.

It truly just looks like a typo, but both of Oko's plus abilities are exceptional and ballon Oko's loyalty far beyond what heights a three-mana planeswalker should be able to hit. Oko is not only a self-contained threat as well as a source of lifegain, but can single-handedly invalidate most powerful creatures to nothing more than vanilla 3/3s.

Oko, like all the cards on today's list, is also just a pure rate card. You don't need to really do anything in deck-building, Oko is just really good most of the time.

Because Oko has such ridiculously large loyalty, it is going to be very important to have direct ways to kill him. Sheoldred's Edict, Eliminate, or other planeswalker removal spells are going to be paramount in Timeless, as there are a number of other powerful planeswalkers like Teferi, Time Raveler and Minsc and Boo.

3 - Orcish Bowmasters

Orcish Bowmasters may be a new kid on the block, but it's also one of the best Black creatures ever printed.

Orcish Bowmasters is currently tearing up Modern, standing tall after surviving the most recent ban hammer. Just on rate without even using the extra draw trigger, Orcish Bowmasters does a ton, but once you factor in that this is a Brainstorm format and most good cards draw cards anyway, you're putting your opponent into the awful spot of needing to use an actual removal spell on the better half of your Orcish Bowmasters that already got value.

It's not rocket science that Orcish Bowmasters is an excellent rate card, but folks who understand what this means for the metagame also understand the effect this has on both 1 toughness creatures as well as traditional card draw. Things with two or more toughness are almost required, and finding other ways to accrue card advantage without actually "drawing" a card are huge.

2 - Deathrite Shaman

Speaking of 2 toughness creatures, how about one of the best creatures of all time. Imagine if Birds of Paradise had 2 toughness, was a graveyard hate card, and also a planeswalker, and you've pretty much approximated what Deathrite Shaman can do. Oh yeah, and it's also Green or Black, meaning it can go in most decks easily. It even helps counter itself by allowing you to remove cards in response to your opponent's activations.

Deathrite Shaman is currently banned in almost every format, and with good reason. The acceleration and utility it provides is unparalleled, allowing you to ramp starting on turn one but without the deck-building downside of drawing a worthless Birds of Paradise in the mid and late game. Deathrite Shaman has serious utility at all points in the game, and only gets better as graveyards fill.

As a result, unless you're doing something very broken, Deathrite Shaman and the other superb early threats in the format basically necessitate cheap removal.

1 - The Fetchlands

Of course, this all pales in comparison to the effect that the original fetchlands have on the format.

Deathrite Shaman is banned in Legacy and Modern but legal in Pioneer, one of the many testaments to the powering up the fetchlands so of so many cards.

If you haven't played with them before they may seem innocent at first, but fetchlands literally run the show. In concert with shocklands and triomes, you can essentially play or splash any colors you want. If that was the floor, they would still be among the most important cards in the format, but it's just so much more than that.

Putting cards in your graveyard for Deathrite Shaman, delve, delirium, and more, triggering revolt, providing a shuffle effect for Brainstorm and other library manipulation... the list just goes on seemingly forever, and that's for the lands that are also just the best mana fixers in the format as well.

I'm very glad these have been kept out of Historic for these reasons, but form the backbone of Timeless

Honorable Mentions

There are honesty just too many powerful cards in Timeless to cover them all in one article.

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Brainstorm are among two of the best, but do suffer in a Orcish Bowmasters format, which just goes to show why it is important to always evaluate context for all cards in a format. If Orcish Bowmasters didn't exist, it would be likely that one or both of these cards could have made this list, but context is everything.

Timeless is going to be a wild ride. If you love old school, powerful Magic: The Gathering, it's great to finally see it come to MTG Arena!