2023 was quite the eventful year, both for Magic and for me personally. Today, I'll be sharing my top 10 cards of the year, but before I get to that, I want to talk about my own experience with the game.

Magic has been a part of my life for approaching a decade. I started playing around the time Journey Into Nyx was released, and it wasn't long before I moved on from the kitchen table and found a home in the Commander format. My interest in the game would wax and wane over the following years, but my first big hiatus didn't begin until 2020. I stopped going to my local game store when the pandemic started, and because of that, I fell out of the game completely for the first time. I would still check spoilers for new sets occasionally, but that was the extent of my involvement in Magic.

It wasn't until I came back that I realized how much I had missed. Returning to the game, I had to familiarize myself with the new cards and mechanics of every set since Theros: Beyond Death, which wasn't made any easier by the rapidly increasing pace at which new cards are released. While I eventually did catch up, it was a daunting task which took quite a while.

I like to think my experiences give me something of a unique perspective on the trajectory Magic has taken in these past few years. The last time I had played had been in early 2020, before the rise of Universes Beyond, before Companions warped countless formats, and before the mess of power creep that was Modern Horizons 2. I can view the state of the game with an eye unsullied by eternal spoiler seasons and external IPs, or maybe just an eye that's missing necessary context. It doesn't change my ultimate conclusion.

I think Magic is doing alright.

It's certainly not an exciting opinion, but truth be told, I'm more or less content with the game's current trajectory. I like a lot of the cards they've printed within the past few years. The Commander format is in an all right place, at least from my own casual perspective. I'm not an enormous fan of Universes Beyond. I don't like when giant corporations flex how many IPs they can rub their hands all over. I find it crass. However, I am not immune to propaganda. No matter how much I complain about it, I know for a fact that the second they announce a UB set involving something I care about, I'm going to be excited, whether I like it or not. While I might not care about the crossover aspects, I enjoy a lot of the card designs that have come out of the UB sets we've seen so far, which has left my perception of them quite positive.

That's not to say I don't have plenty to criticize. March of the Machines: The Aftermath was an unmitigated disaster on all fronts. They tried to sell overpriced packs for a tiny set that communicated next to nothing about the aftermath of the Phyrexian invasion. The Commander Legends preconstructed decks were overpriced and underwhelming, especially the Sliver deck, with its pitiful excuse for a mana base. Ultimately, however, those criticisms are tempered by the fact that I genuinely like most of the new cards in those products. That excuse can't help Hasbro or Wizards of the Coast, though. Between the incident involving the Pinkertons, the mass firings at the end of last year, and most of my aforementioned criticisms of the business side of Magic, I have very little nice to say about either company.

Let's get things back on track. This is about the cards that were released in 2023. Not the best cards, necessarily. That's not really what I'm concerned with. I don't play Commander competitively, and I'm the furthest thing from an expert on cEDH or its meta. I'm a casual player at heart, about as concerned with the game's social elements as I am with the game mechanics themselves. If you want a more objective list, you should look elsewhere, because my personal preferences are unquestionably playing a major role here, alongside each card's impact on the format.

Honorable Mentions

I want to give an honorable mention to a couple of lands I think a lot of people are overlooking. It seemed strange to put utility lands on the list proper, so I'll just go over them here.

Both these caves are new spins on staple utility lands. Volatile Fault can be sacrificed to destroy a nonbasic land and create a treasure token. This can both help compensate for the tempo loss of sacrificing a land and act as a source of color fixing. While land destruction is often frowned upon, targeted land destruction fills a crucial role as a check to powerful nonbasic lands like Cabal Coffers or Field of the Dead, which can otherwise take over a game while avoiding most of the format's removal.

Meanwhile, Pit of Offerings is the closest thing we've gotten to a second copy of Bojuka Bog, which has been a staple in Black decks for as long as I can remember. While graveyard hate isn't going to be useful every game you draw it, these lands have a lower opportunity cost than a card like Rest in Peace. While that card is undeniably powerful, in the games where graveyard hate doesn't matter, it will be a completely dead draw. A land like Pit of Offerings will still function as a land. Interestingly, Pit of Offerings can also function as a multicolored land, albeit an inconsistent one, as it can only produce mana matching the color of a card it exiled. I think Bojuka Bog is definitely the more powerful card in most cases, since it can exile an entire graveyard, rather than just three cards, but Pit of Offerings has an undeniable niche, especially in the nonblack decks that can't use Bojuka Bog.

10. Collector's Vault

A shockingly powerful tool for smoothing out a game, Collector's Vault is a two-mana artifact. You can tap it and pay 2 mana to draw a card, discard a card, and create a treasure. It's as simple as that.

Being able to filter your selection of cards is a powerful effect, and because the ability creates a treasure, it effectively refunds one of the mana you spend on it, and allows you to bank that mana for future turns, and filter that mana into any color in the process. Collector's Vault can use excess mana to draw cards, fill your graveyard, store mana, and fix mana, all at once.

9. Trumpeting Carnosaur

Magic's return to the plane of Ixalan brought a large influx of new dinosaurs with it, and Trumpeting Carnosaur is one of the best of them. Not only is it a hefty six mana 7/6 trampler, it'll also discover 5 when it enters the battlefield. You can even discard it and pay three mana to deal three damage to a creature or planeswalker.

Anyone who's ever played against a Maelstrom Wanderer deck knows how powerful casting cards from the top of your deck can be, and because the discover trigger happens on ETB, you can repeat it with flicker effects. Additionally, Trumpeting Carnosaur isn't just a creature. It can also function as a removal spell, and not a bad one, either. While three mana for three damage isn't an incredible rate, this ability avoids the majority of countermagic, and leaves you with a big dinosaur in your graveyard, perfect for any deck with reanimation.

8. Bitter Triumph

You might have noticed a pattern among these cards. Many of them are from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. I wouldn't really say I'm biased, I just think it's a very strong set. Bitter Triumph is a simple but powerful removal spell, an instant that destroys a creature or planeswalker for two mana, with an additional cost of either three life or discarding a card.

The most obvious comparison to this spell is Infernal Grasp. Bitter Triumph has a higher life cost, but you can discard a card instead, and the spell hits planeswalkers as well. I'd say Bitter Triumph is on average a little bit better than Infernal Grasp, and Infernal Grasp is one of Black's best removal spells in Commander. Completely unconditional kill spells for two mana are hard to come by in Black. In a 40-life format, you have an abundance of life to spend, so while losing 3 of it isn't entirely trivial, it's remarkably close. If losing that life is too dangerous, you can discard a card to bypass it. Discarding a card isn't a terribly difficult cost, either. You can pitch an unneeded land to it, discard a niche card you don't expect to use, or even make it an upside by dumping a creature you plan to reanimate into your graveyard.

7. Sliver Gravemother

It's unfortunate that this card was overshadowed by the many flaws of Commander Masters, because it's also the commander that turned me to the dark side. That's right, I love slivers. I always have. I just never cared to build a deck around them, because none of the old legendary slivers inspired me. Sliver Gravemother lets your slivers ignore the legend rule, and gives slivers in your graveyard encore, in addition to having encore herself.

Sliver Gravemother is one of my favorite commanders of the year, putting a unique new spin on these beloved danger noodles, adding resiliency and graveyard synergy to a typically aggressive creature type.

If you're unfamiliar with encore, you might not realize why giving it to your slivers is such a powerful effect. Encore allows you to pay a cost and exile a creature from your graveyard to temporarily create a token copy of it for each opponent, and each attacks a different one of those opponents if able. The fact that you're creating multiple copies of a sliver is incredibly important. Slivers are known for sharing their abilities with your other slivers. However, if you get multiple copies of a sliver with an ability that can stack with itself, you can do some beautiful things. Assuming a table with three opponents, encoring a Lavabelly Sliver allows each sliver that enters the battlefield that turn to Lightning Helix an opponent. An encored Virulent Sliver gives each of your slivers poisonous 3, and remember, each one of these come with three sliver tokens to abuse the abilities with. I'd love to elaborate further, but this isn't the place.

6. Virtue of Knowledge

I remember playing when Kaladesh released. Everyone lost their minds over Panharmonicon doubling ETB triggers. Blink decks and other strategies that abuse creatures with ETB triggers have always been a staple of the Commander format. I say all this because Virtue of Knowledge is a better Panharmonicon.

Well, that's oversimplifying it a bit. Virtue of Knowledge requires Blue mana, and costs one more mana. That's the only drawback, though. Unlike Panharmonicon, it can trigger from any permanent entering, giving it a unique niche in landfall decks. That's impressive enough, and I haven't even mentioned Vantress Visions. An instant adventure, this spell can copy one of your activated or triggered abilities for just two mana. In addition to the inherent strength of adventures, letting you squeeze out more value from the card by casting it in the early game and playing the other half later. Copying an ability like this is a remarkably unique effect, and a very powerful one, especially in a format where many decks revolve around creatures with powerful activated or triggered abilities.

5. Zimone and Dina

Another commander I adore, Zimone and Dina is a powerful value engine in both the early and late game. By tapping them and sacrificing a creature, you can draw a card and put a land from your hand into play tapped, then repeat that process if you have eight or more lands. They also have a triggered drain ability, stealing two life from an opponent whenever you draw your second card of the turn.

Despite seeming unassuming at first, this commander stays afloat through an avalanche of powerful synergies. Using landfall cards that create creatures, ways to untap your commander, and effects that return lands from the battlefield to your hand, this 3-drop can quickly create insurmountable mana and card advantage, as well as creating armies of tokens if you have multiple landfall enablers.

The cards that Zimone and Dina enable are often incredibly powerful, like Field of the Dead, which my deck can tutor for in multiple ways, or Scute Swarm, which can generate absurdly large armies single handedly. Quirion Ranger and Scryb Ranger can both untap your commander on every single turn by returning a forest to your hand, which you can then put back into play when you tap your commander again. Because these cards fulfill several of the roles my big dumb value engine requires, they're integral parts of my deck, and can fully utilize their strengths.

4. Clever Concealment

An often overlooked card from one of the year's preconstructed decks, Clever Concealment is an instant with convoke that allows you to phase out any number of nonland permanents you control.

This card shares an impressive amount with the infamously powerful Teferi's Protection. Phasing out your permanents is the single most consistent way to protect your board state, since it doesn't disrupt equipment, counters, or tokens, and while Clever Concealment can't protect you from attacks, you can cast it for free if you have four untapped creatures. While this spell is for the most part weaker than Teferi's Protection, convoke allows it to compete in the cost department.

3. Alela, Cunning Conqueror

My favorite commander of the year, Alela does everything a faerie typal deck could ask for. By generating tokens for casting spells on opponents turns, Alela encourages the highly interactive and reactive gameplay faeries are most associated with. She also goads creatures when your faeries hit opponents, forcing your enemies to fight amongst one another while ensuring threatening creatures aren't pointed at you.

I love playing when it's not my turn. I've always loved flash, instants, and stopping on someone else's end step to cast something. Alela rewards that gameplay with token generation. While she's excellent for faerie typal strategies, she doesn't require them. You could just as easily play her as the commander of a Dimir () flyers deck, or a more general token strategy. That's not what most people are here for, though. Faerie typal always lacked great commanders before the preconstructed deck Alela originates from, and she's proven herself far more popular than that deck's face commander Tegwyll, Duke of Splendor.

2. Roaming Throne

Another new card from Ixalan, Roaming Throne is a card I consider a nascent Commander staple. It's a four-mana artifact creature that can double triggered abilities of creatures of a chosen creature type. It also has ward 2, for good measure.

The most obvious application of Roaming Throne is as a way to support typal decks, but that's far from the only thing it can do. Even in decks without any sort of typal strategy, Roaming Throne can do incredible work, so long as your commander has a triggered ability you want to double. Many of the format's most popular commanders work fantastically with Roaming Throne, including but not limited to Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow, Miirym, Sentinel Wurm, and Wilhelt, the Rot Cleaver, all of which are typal commanders with powerful triggered abilities.

On top of acting as a powerful force multiplier for whatever strategy you're going for, Roaming Throne surpasses many comparable cards in several other ways. By being colorless, it can be used in a much wider variety of decks than anything bound by a color, and as a four-mana 4/4, it has a respectable statline to block with. Very few cards that copy the other things you do come with any sort of protection, which can leave them vulnerable to removal. While Roaming Throne's ward 2 is a far cry from hexproof, it can still helps to deter kill spells.

1. Delighted Halfling

Ramp is a key element of nearly every commander deck, and for any deck in Green, mana dorks (creatures that tap for mana) are an important piece of the puzzle. While, creatures, are highly vulnerable to board wipes, mana dorks are some of the only ramp spells you can play for just one mana. Delighted Halfling is a one-mana 1/2 that can tap for mana. It can produce either colorless mana, or mana of any color that you can only spend on a legendary creature. A spell cast with that mana can't be countered.

I cannot emphasize enough how impactful this card is. Commander is a format centralized around legendary creatures, and having the creature your deck is designed around get countered can be backbreaking. Delighted Halfling can eliminate that danger completely. The closest comparison to this card would be Birds of Paradise, a much simpler mana dork that functions as one of Green's best ramp spells. Compared to Birds of Paradise, Delighted Halfling doesn't produce unconditional colored mana, but it provides counterspell immunity, as well as having a shockingly good 1/2 statline. One mana ramp spells are very valuable, especially with a three mana commander, since that can allow you to play them on turn two.

Final Thoughts

All in all, 2023 was a fascinating year for Magic, and for the Commander format particularly. We're getting more varied and interesting legendary creatures than ever, and 2024 seems poised to continue that trend, from what little we've seen so far. As a fan of both mystery and horror, I'm supremely excited for both Murders at Karlov Manor and Duskmourn: House of Horror. I'm also optimistic about Modern Horizons 3. While the previous two Modern Horizons sets definitely pushed the bill in terms of power creep, they also contained a lot of exciting and unique card designs.

While I'm not exactly excited for the Fallout or Assassin's Creed UB sets, I respect the people who are, and I'm sure I'll be able to find solace in the new cards I find mechanically interesting. From what little we've seen of Fallout, I'm fairly optimistic in that department. Only a handful of cards have been revealed at time of writing, and I find several of them quite interesting. Including V.A.T.S. or a Nuka-Cola Vending Machine in a Commander deck might be a bit odd, flavor-wise, but I'm not a person who particularly cares about consistent theming in my decks. Strange flavor interactions are part of the fun for me. I like it when Feldon of the Third Path confuses his dead wife with a Wurmcoil Engine. I think it's funny.

I'm optimistic about Magic in 2024, and I can't wait to see how the game continues to evolve. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week!