Back in May, I wrote up a list ranking the classic legendary crew of the Weatherlight. These cards and characters represented what made Magic so uniquely awesome as a kid getting into the game during the Urza block and I wanted to celebrate that in some way. As the years have gone on, we've gotten a lot of modern design versions of many of those classic characters. This is because many of the original cards just weren't that great or otherwise haven't aged particularly well and by creating new versions, it gives players a reason to utilize such a classic cast of heroes.

When writing that first list, I intended to go even further with the premise, talking about these newer legends, as well as perhaps other aspects of the story such as the villains. However, there were numerous other topics I wanted to cover during that time and, being in the middle of a lengthy and strenuous move, coming back to this got somewhat lost in the shuffle. Today, I want to finally get back to that and rank the newer versions of the original crew and see how they stack up against one another.

For this list, I'm revisiting the same rules that were used in the list of original cards. 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. You won't see Ertai Resurrected here.
• Alternate Planar Chaos versions - so no Mirri the Cursed or Crovax, Ascendant 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.
• Planeswalkers. This is mostly because of Karn. He's had quite a large number of cards since Karn, Silver Golem, but since I don't want the list to basically just be half Karn cards, I'm keeping this one solely to legendary creatures instead.
• Team-Ups. In March of the Machine, there were a couple team-ups with old Weatherlight characters and either new ones or ones simply from the new Dominaria stories. For simplicity and less headaches, I'm leaving them off, but would like to note that if Yargle and Multani were allowed, they'd be dead last anyways.

Let's dive in and see how these new cards rank!

8. Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero

Before I talk about this card, I want to preface something. I love this card. I love everything about the design, the flavor it represents, and the gorgeous artwork. Hell, I love said artwork so much, I have a playmat of it that has permanent residence on my desk. It's miles better than the original Gerrard Capashen card and is more than a worthy upgrade for a modern era. So then, that begs the question: why is he at the bottom of this list?

The biggest problem is how he's extremely one note. He does just one thing really well - only once - and that's it. What he does is bring everyone back from the brink to live and fight another day. It's extremely flavorful and is awesome in contextualizing his character's role in the story. In Commander, however, he's not the greatest front-facing card and he's limited in his capabilities in the 99 due to being two colors. What he does is quite similar to cards like Second Sunrise and Faith's Reward as well, making him even less desirable. It's an outstanding design that ultimately makes him feel without a home, which is unfortunate because I love this to death.

7. Squee, the Immortal

Squee, the Immortal is a bit of an odd duck to start with. In my last Weatherlight ranked list, I ranked Squee's original card (Squee, Goblin Nabob) quite highly. I even noted that there was a great reason to debate that he should have an even higher spot on the list given the utility he provides. This card's design was clearly meant to harken back to that classic card while noting Squee's immortal nature as a character and it succeeds in doing so quite well.

The problem is that, unlike the original card, Squee, the Immortal has very little utility beyond that. His stat lines are poor and the mana cost is decently high for how little he actually does. There's some utility in dedicated sacrifice decks and Goblins decks for both the sacrificial and ETB utility he provides. There's also the potential for Food Chain decks to utilize him as well. He's more of a role player than the card you want to see leading the pack in Commander and outside Commander, other cards often tend to do the same thing better. For these reasons, he's firmly toward the bottom.

6. Squee, Dubious Monarch

Compared to both of Squee's other cards, this one is way more of an aggressive force. Both of the other Squee cards are far more valued for their utility, however when it comes to good old fashioned Goblin decks, this version of Squee works quite well. I've seen him show up a decent amount in a variety of aggressive Red decks in Standard and Pioneer alike, not to mention ones that focus on the Goblin creature type. Not only is he great in traditional Constructed, but Limited too!

In Commander, he's especially great, providing a useful way to fill up your board. In the 99, this can be used to synergize smoothly with whatever Goblin nonsense you're putting together. As the Commander, you can use him to guarantee a full board early every game and then synergize it with a variety of other cards in the deck itself.

In any format, though, what you get is an excellent role player in a variety of spots. He's a little too simple, bland, and - to an extent - weak to warrant a higher role, but credit where credit's due: Squee is great.

5. Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar

Like most of the bottom half of this list, Multani is fairly one note as far as cards go. Unlike the others, however, he does what he does really well, and what he does is get really, really big! He's an absolute house in Limited and I think even saw some fringe Standard play once upon a time. In Commander, he gets absolutely gigantic as well! He's the perfect way to spearhead a ramp and/or land focused deck as well as utilizing him alongside various untap effects. Whether he's in the 99 or the front-facing Commander, Multani does his one simple thing incredibly well and that's all he needs to be.

4. Tahngarth, First Mate

I absolutely love Tahngarth. He always felt like the enraged serious man to Squee's bumbling buffoon and I adored it. It made for a fun dynamic in the original Weatherlight storyline and his card - while weak by today's standards - was something I loved in both the PreDH days as well as in older cubes I used to build. That, however, was him in his post Phyrexian mutated state. Thankfully, Wizards finally graced us with one based on his original self in Commander 2019 with Tahngarth, First Mate.

I absolutely adore this design. For as much text as there is here, it's quite simple. Basically, the flavor here is that he jumps into an opponent's ship to aid in the battle there and once he finishes the job, he jumps back to yours. It's great flavor and makes for a uniquely interesting card for all kinds of multiplayer games. There isn't a ton of depth on this one, but what is here is the kind of card that makes stories and that alone is worth a decent placement on this list.

3. Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist

Mirri's original card - Mirri, Cat Warrior - is tremendously iconic in spite of it basically being a French vanilla card. For its time, the stats were incredible, and the abilities were off the charts - especially given how color breaking it is to have both vigilance and first strike on a Mono-Green card. The stellar Daren Bader art only helped elevate it and it was a well-loved card for years as a result. Age hasn't been kind to the card, as it's very weak by today's standards and isn't even worth running in most 99s.

Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist takes the general vibe the original card was going for and makes it an incredibly powerful way to play. She retains her first strike capabilities and has had White added to her color identity to work alongside this. Additionally, Mirri makes it so opponents can only block with one thing, causing dangerous blocking situations that feels almost forestwalk-like in how it can disincentivize blocking. Finally, she makes it harder for your opponents to attack you, holding off opposing threats the way you would with her original vigilance ability. It's taking the basis of what the original card was going for and fleshes it out spectacularly, giving you an asymmetrical Silent Arbiter that impacts your opponents, but allows you to still attack and block however you want on your end. A stellar update top to bottom.

2. Karn, Legacy Reforged

It's absolutely wild seeing Karn back as a legendary creature once more after years as a planeswalker. As it happens, this new card rules. It's both a neat callback to the way the original Karn, Silver Golem cared about artifacts and produces mana on a scale provided by the infamous Tolarian Academy from the same set. He's very narrow in his use - only working effectively in artifact-based decks - but where he works he excels. He generates so much mana that it enables you to do really stupid things. I personally love playing Sharuum and playing large artifacts like Darksteel Forge and Akroma's Memorial in that list. Karn, Legacy Reforged lets you play all of those in no time flat - provided you have enough artifacts when he's on the board. To add insult to injury, he also gets more powerful the more artifacts you have on the board as well, making him a highly efficient beater. His uses may be a bit on the narrow side, but if you're able to play him, he's absolutely one of the strongest options you can be running.

1. Sisay, Weatherlight Captain

Do you like legendary creatures? How about making them a full-on theme usable with all five colors? That's the updated Captain Sisay in a nutshell! As opposed to just being limited to Selesnya like her original rendition, this new version sports the full suite of colors, making it a perfect way to build a legends-matter theme however you like. I personally love the idea of making a Weatherlight Saga-themed deck around her, but you could do the same with Planeswalkers, non-creatures, or hell just whatever legendary creatures you want! With literally hundreds of new legends coming out every year now, there are endless amounts of ways to build Sisay in Commander, making her easily the most widely playable of all the new versions of the classic Weatherlight crew. Constructed play may not be her strong suit, but when it comes to casual play, there's simply no competition!

Going through this has been a blast. I was honestly surprised at how few of the original characters have been revisited, though perhaps that's in part due to how many of the villainous side got updates as well! I'll be covering those over the next few weeks, alongside the newer crew as well. With the removal of traditional annual Commander products in favor of ones relating to specific sets, I think it's unlikely we'll see many more presented in the way we did for a while there. However, with Modern Horizons 3 around the corner, I'd say there's still decent odds we'll see more in the future. I can't wait to see what that future holds.

Paige Smith

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