I think it's no secret that as someone who's been playing Magic for nearly a quarter of a century, I hold those old-school roots close to my chest. I've never forgotten the ways my early years with the game shaped me or the characters who I came to love in that time. One group of characters I routinely return to is the crew of the Skyship Weatherlight. Helmed by the stellar Captain Sisay and wielder of the Legacy, Gerrard Capashen, they formed the main protagonists for Magic's first major story arc. With its wild cast, I couldn't help falling in love with each of them and wanted to know as much about them as I could. It paid off big time and formed an incredible story I still think about decades later.

As time has gone on, many of these characters have been revisited or remade with new cards in a multitude of different sets. This is meant to be a way to give them a fresh coat of paint for modern sensibilities or else improve on what were fairly bad or mediocre cards in their original forms. Today, however, I want to go back and talk about the original cards that represented the various members of the original Weatherlight crew. This means that, no, we're not talking about Jhoira, Slimefoot, Raff, or any of the others today. Instead, I want to revisit the original band of misfits and rank their original cards from worst to best.

We're going to set up a few guidelines for this article. When I say "Weatherlight crew members," I am excluding the following:

• Antagonists of the Weatherlight story. This should be a given (so no Volrath, Greven, or Tsabo Tavoc) but is worth noting given that characters like Crovax and Ertai had Phyrexian versions.
• Alternate Planar Chaos versions - so no Mirri, the Cursed or Crovax, Ascendent Hero here.
• Allies of the Weatherlight. This includes the Skyshroud elves, the Vec kor and humans, and the Ramosian rebels. Each aided the Weatherlight in their efforts and played major roles in the stories, but weren't actual members of the ship's crew.
• Urza and the Nine Titans. Urza was kind of like the conductor of the play surrounding the Weatherlight more than an actual member of the Weatherlight himself. Plus his only "original" card was Blind Seer and that card's just bad.

Lastly, before we go into the actual meat and potatoes of this look, I want to talk about two honorable mentions. Neither is explicitly a Weatherlight crew member, but, well, it'd be hard to have a list like this without them all the same.

Honorable Mention #1: Skyship Weatherlight

It's impossible to talk about the original Weatherlight crew cards without talking about the eponymous ship itself. The concept here is great: get all your legends in one place and bring the Weatherlight crew together with ease! The problem is that this being an artifact makes it incredibly easy to get rid of. As a result, spending a ton of mana and searching up a ton of creatures only for this to get blown up and permanently losing access to those creatures is just the pits. This played things a little too safe and just isn't that fun. The newer version of Weatherlight in Dominaria was a truly welcome improvement over this.

Honorable Mention #2: Legacy Weapon

Like the prior card, Legacy Weapon isn't technically a member of the Weatherlight crew (although a few members were a part of it, namely Karn and Gerrard). However, this card firmly symbolizes the climax of the Weatherlight story, its characters, and what they set out to do all in one package. Every version of art for this card shows the action from a different angle: the channeling of the Null Moon's White mana in the Apocalypse art, the entire Legacy in one card on the Tenth Edition version, and the two versions in Dominaria Remastered showing the Null Moon mana blowing Yawgmoth away. Couple this with a card that has the power to permanently get rid of anything and you've got one hell of a card. It's not particularly rare or excessively in demand, but there's no denying how awesome this card is.

Now with those two related cards out of the way, let's dive into the actual crew themselves:

#13: Orim, Samite Healer

Have you ever been excited to cast a Samite Healer? If you only got into the game in the last couple years, you might not even know what that card is because it's really quite bad and forgettable. Despite being a bad card, it was memorable for being a part of the original Alpha set, which automatically gives it some degree of iconic status. For the first few years after that set's release, many of the game's designs and characters reflected the most remembered classics. This is apparent in the various Sengir and Serra cards, the characterizations of Urza and Mishra, Shiv and Llanowar becoming major places in the game, and more. And so, we got Orim, Samite Healer - an evolution of the design of Samite Healer. At the end of the day, she's not much more than a Samite Healer that costs a little more, has a little extra toughness, and prevents a little more damage. Hooray. This card is exactly as bad as it seems and then some, and is an easy pick for the worst of the original Weatherlight crew.

#12: Gerrard Capashen

If it weren't for Orim being a terrible Samite Healer, the choice for worst original Weatherlight card would've easily been Gerrard Capashen. Most people tend to forget Orim exists, I think. I know I did at first until I started working on this list. The design was to staple a reverse Gerrard's Wisdom onto a creature that could tap down an opposing board (being a great war hero, and all). In practice, this card is expensive, does very little on its own, and is downright laughable in the Commander age. What it does is bland and uninteresting and just isn't good. It was a bit of a laughing stock for years given that this was the card the story's main protagonist got. Thankfully, newer cards like Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero and Gerrard's Hourglass Pendant have restored his name a bit, but this one will forever be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

#11: Starke of Rath

Where Gerrard is bad in no small part because his card is uninteresting, Starke is somehow bad despite being a very interesting design. He plays sides and two-times his way around the board, making for interesting and complex gameplay. That's even more true in Commander, where there's multiple players and politics are king. In practice, though, you'll often find yourself blowing something up only to have Starke blow up one of your critical pieces in response and likely never coming back to you. Additional support cards like Erratic Portaling it in response or utilizing Homeward Path is a big help, but they're often narrow in their applications, making Starke of Rath an extremely cool design that's bad in the sense that it'll rarely end up working out in your favor.

#10: Mirri, Cat Warrior

Mirri's first card is a very weird case. At face value, she looks not that great and terribly uninteresting. Who cares about a simple French vanilla legendary creature? As it turns out, a lot of people do! Back in the day, creatures in Magic were really bad, and for the time, Mirri was actually quite pushed on rate. I don't believe it saw much, if any, Constructed play at the time (I may be wrong on this, but can't seem to find anything from researching online), but the card was considered quite powerful stat-wise and featured some keywords not commonly found on Green cards. For all these reasons, despite being a very simple card, it has carved its own sort of fame amongst the Magic world and is beloved in its own way.

#9: Crovax the Cursed

Crovax is weird. Technically, this is when he was still a part of the Weatherlight crew and it was before he was turned into a Phyrexian. However, this also definitely represented him turning evil and on the crew, so you could argue that he shouldn't be here. However, given that he was still with the crew here and this is his only non-Phyrexian card barring the alternate Planar Chaos version, I'm rolling with this one.

As it turns out, Crovax the Cursed baffled me when I was younger. I couldn't for the life of me see the utility in giving up your own creatures, and there was some serious downside to not sacrificing as well. If you didn't offer up some blood, Crovax would get weaker. What I missed at the time, though, was how much synergy there is to be had by sacrificing creatures. Even back then you could do something like sacrifice Abyssal Gatekeeper for removal or cycle through Gravediggers over and over. It wouldn't be good in a competitive sense, but it's a cool way to play with a creature all the same. Now with the advent of Commander, the power of this one has only gone up, and can be built into an absolute house in the right hands.

#8: Tahngarth, Talruum Hero

Oh Tahngarth, you majestic minotaur badass. It took me almost two decades with the game to discover that the Phyrexians did a number on him and mutated him into the badass he became throughout the invasion. Driven to rage in the most primal sense by the changes wrought on him, he was a true force to be reckoned with, and his card handily reflected that. Red vigilance is terribly out of color pie, but it's just so fitting for Tahngarth getting to fight through hordes of opposing creatures one after another. I've used him and seen him used in many forms of casual Magic throughout the years and it's not hard to see why. Tahngarth rules, and he's here to knock some teeth in!

#7: Squee, Goblin Nabob

Squee was a really hard one to pin down. In my original list, I had him as my second-place choice, and for good reason. Of all the cards on this list, I'd argue that none have quite the degree of tournament pedigree that he does. Many decks over the years have used him as a repeatable way to discard over and over again to various effects without losing any real card advantage along the way. To this day he continues to see tons of play in Vintage Hollow Vine decks and makes occasional appearances in brews in formats like Modern and Legacy.

But let's be real here: no one is really ever casting Squee and he's only getting used for this niche discard utility. If you're not using him in this way, he's actually pretty mediocre to bad. For this reason, I brought him down a number of pegs. I think this is the one you could most easily debate one way or the other, though, and he definitely deserves a place amongst the Weatherlight powerhouses.

#6: Karn, Silver Golem

Karn is a card that gets a lot of points going for him. He's a highly flavorful card, both in that his first ability reflects his pacifism in the story at the time and in his ability to manipulate artifacts. He also gets points for being the first legendary artifact creature and one of the game's few truly colorless legends for Commander for many years. What's more, his second ability is highly useful time after time, and he even made a small showing in Kai Budde's winning decklist from the 1999 World Championship tournament. I had that deck growing up, and you'd better believe I made use of Karn where I could regularly at the kitchen table. Karn, Silver Golem is a far cry from the greatest card in the world, but does enough things right that it deserves a high spot on this list.

#5: Ertai, Wizard Adept

Do you like saying no? Do you like saying it over and over again? Then do I have a legend for you! Ertai was always known for being an annoying self-centered ass in the story, even long before he was turned into the Phyrexian we all know today. The ability to outright counter any spell over and over again is still as cool today as it was in 1998, and the iconic artwork only helps strengthen its status in history. The repetitive gameplay it encourages isn't the greatest, but thankfully its weak stats and main use in a multiplayer format makes it less of a pain to deal with. It's a beloved card that still sees play today, easily earning it the number 5 slot.

#4: Multani, Maro-Sorcerer

At first, it seems really weird to have Multani up so high. After all, he's basically just a giant vanilla creature that you can't target. I also feel like he's not entirely a true Weatherlight crew member necessarily, but resources like the MTG Salvation Wiki list him as one, so we're rolling with it. You have to understand: this card was the biggest and most badass thing you saw when it first came out! It was among Urza's Legacy's primary chase cards and was the awe of Timmys and Tammys as far as the eye could see. In a world of Commander, that status has only grown, as he now can come down naturally as a 20/20 without even trying. While there isn't a lot to him, there's no doubt he's as flashy as they come, and to this day still has that magical "WOW!" factor whenever he hits the board.

#3: Hanna, Ship's Navigator

A common trend among the majority of the cards on this list is that they don't necessarily do enough. There's not a lot to them and they're often quite uninteresting. Hanna is among those that offer the most utility and value of the bunch. As a result, she's the character of the original Weatherlight crew cards to have been reprinted the most, showing up in a variety of Commander decks and Masters sets. The ability to constantly get back artifacts and enchantments is excellent, as it offers you a way to get back cards that are blown up or to repeatedly benefit from sacrifice effects like Executioner's Capsule or Seal of Cleansing. This is a value engine that'll keep on giving and is a must for any artifact or enchantment-based deck that has both White and Blue in its colors.

#2: Captain Sisay

Captain Sisay is the kind of card that will absolutely never make an impact in competitive Magic. She's too fragile, doesn't do anything when she lands on the board, and oftentimes the legendary aspect is a real hindrance. That all changes under the lens of Commander. There, she's always in your opening hand, ensuring you'll be able to stick the landing. The singleton nature also usually makes it harder to remove her. Most importantly, there is no shortage of interesting legendary cards to pull from with her aid. She's tremendously iconic and has been a truly powerful mainstay of the Commander format for years and for good reason. She kind of just about does it all and is a perfect depiction as captain of the Weatherlight.

So, with all that said, what the heck could be number one? Well, it's a doozy of a Magic card all right...

#1: Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary

When people talk about members of the Weatherlight crew, they likely don't think of Rofellos. The reason for this is he was killed during the story of the set Weatherlight, showed up on no cards in that set, and only appeared in flashbacks during Urza's Destiny and a lone Vanguard card showing his older self. Despite this, we were treated to one of the most powerful mana ramping abilities ever to grace the game. It's banned in Commander for a reason and remains an easy first pick in many Vintage Cube drafts. It's not entirely suitable for Constructed play a lot of the time because of both its fragility and specific reliance on Forests, but make no mistake: Rofellos is far and away the best and most powerful of the original Weatherlight crew cards. There may be a little bias as someone who prefers ramp strategies, but I think the power of something like a turn three Primeval Titan or a turn four Ugin, the Spirit Dragon speaks for itself.

That wraps up this list of the original Weatherlight crew members. I really had a blast taking this little look through a brief part of Magic's history. While I checked out the main cast here, there's plenty of other things I can talk about as well. This could include the antagonists to the Weatherlight story, the crew's various allies, the new crew, or even the remade versions of the original crew - though thus far, this set of cards remains unfinished. I'd love to hear your thoughts on which cards you think are the best and what you'd like to see me cover next, so please be sure to reach out on Twitter and let me know what you think!

Paige Smith

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