After three years of build-up, we finally come to the conclusion of the so-called Bolas Arc. Nicol Bolas is finally putting into action his grand master plan to regain his pre-Mending omnipotence once again by sacrificing several planeswalkers in the process. This kick starts a war on Ravnica, leading to one of the most epic - and arguably most powerful - sets ever made. With sixteen mighty mythics, we're going to rank every one and see if this set truly lived up to the hype it brought with it.

16. Finale of Eternity

Of all the Finale cycle cards in this set, this one is easily the most boring. A scalable removal spell is always decent, but frankly just isn't Constructed playable. What's more, you're almost assuredly never casting this for twelve mana to get the Rise of the Dark Realms effect either - even in Commander. A great Limited card, but little else.

15. Roalesk, Apex Hybrid

When you go through the whole lineup of mythics, most of them make sense from a greater story perspective. Each one represents something big in the overarching narrative that makes sense for why they'd be highlighted in the mythic slot...except Roalesk, Apex Hybrid. The card sticks out like a sore thumb and while it's clearly at mythic for being an absolute Limited bomb, it's fairly mediocre in most other spaces compared to the others in this set.

14. Finale of Revelation

Now this is a fun one. Compared to the way Finale of Eternity scales, drawing lots of cards rules. What's more, casting it at 12 is actually not the hardest thing to do in combo decks - particularly of the High Tide variety - and so it can be great in Commander and even has seen some play in older formats as well. The problem with this one is that it's quite niche, but when it works it's excellent.

13. God-Eternal Bontu

Don't let this low placement on this list fool you: Bontu is a house. Sacrificing permanents is often quite trivial in decks that want to do so, and getting tons of card draws out of the deal can make for a real mighty value swing. This caused it to see some minor play in Standard and become a respectable favorite in Commander as well, albeit in very select decks.

12. Finale of Promise

Finale of Promise is a very weird card. It doesn't necessarily read the greatest, particularly the "if X is 10" clause, but it's a surprisingly robust value engine. Even just casting it for 3 mana means you can get a double dose of powerful effects with the right deck, such as casting a Sleight of Hand and a Lightning Bolt with one spell. This gave it a little bit of play in Standard and even more in Modern by using it with cascade targets like Restore Balance and Crashing Footfalls, though it was outclassed quickly and hasn't seen any play in years. For its time, it was pretty neat, though it lacked the punch several of the other cards on this list provide.

11. Gideon Blackblade

By this point, Gideon designs were getting somewhat stale, and so Chad's final outing felt a little underwhelming. It was a real beating in Limited, which also made it solid for Cube as well. Past that, though, it only saw minor Standard play and simply never made much of a splash anywhere else. Sometimes a cheap big creature that's hard to deal with and dishes out a keyword each turn is just enough to get the job done, basic as it may be.

10. Finale of Glory

From a Constructed standpoint, I think Finale of Promise is quite a bit better than Finale of Glory. But where that card saw more Modern play, this one easily saw way more Commander play. The idea of ramping deep and then making a truckload of tokens is a classic casual strategy, and this one lets you get either a bunch of 2/2 soldiers or the soldiers plus a bunch of 4/4 fliers. Given how much splashier this one is, I'm going to give it the edge on this list when both saw comparable Standard play.

9. God-Eternal Rhonas

Mass power doublers are always extremely welcome, particularly when Rhonas comes back whenever he's taken down. The big problem with this one, however, is that it lacks any kind of evasion to go with it. Cards like Overrun, Craterhoof Behemoth, and the then-freshly printed End-Raze Forerunners all provided trample to make sure that not only are creatures taken out, but so are the opponents themselves. That makes this like Overwhelm where compared to Overrun, it's still very strong, but not quite as back-breakingly powerful as the trample granters that preceded it.

8. Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge

Three words players never thought they'd see in Standard again: affinity for artifacts. In truth, this was actually fine given the context of Tezzeret's release given how War of the Spark wasn't exactly in the mix with another major artifact set or two. As such, it didn't really leave a big impact in Constructed, but you'd better believe it did in Commander! Just about any artifact-heavy deck wants this since you're likely running plenty of creatures you want to make significantly cheaper. That's not even counting his actual abilities, all of which can both decimate opponents as well as generate you tons of value by getting you artifacts galore.

7. God-Eternal Kefnet

God-Eternal Kefnet gets up to some real shenanigans in the right deck. Not every deck can take advantage of him effectively since he requires instants and sorceries which can only go so far depending on the list. If you build your deck right, though, and pack it full of big spells that you want to cheat on mana with, getting to cast them for a cheap miracle cost is always a very welcome addition. This made Kefnet see modest Standard play, plenty of Commander and Cube play, and even just a dash of play in older formats, making it a fairly respectable card overall.

6. God-Eternal Oketra

Cast a creature, get a really big zombie token. Who doesn't love that? This made Oketra one of the best Limited bombs of the set, an outstanding Commander card, and even a solid option in Standard with Fires of Invention decks. There's really not much more to say than that, it's just one incredibly cool value generator for just taking typical Magic gameplay actions, and it deserves a high placement for that alone.

5. Nicol Bolas, Dragon-God

This card read so epic when it first dropped. It gained the abilities of all other planeswalkers, each of his own abilities rocked, and ultimating him could just make you win the game on the spot? Talk about a banger! In practice, it's a little harder to use than it looked, costing five colored mana symbols and requiring other planeswalkers to be on the board to get the most out of it. It saw respectable Standard play, showed up here and there in Commander, and found its way into Pioneer Mono-Green Devotion lists with the aid of Oath of Nissa. A great card all around.

4. Ilharg, the Raze-Boar

It's funny that the best card of the God-Eternal cycle isn't even a God-Eternal. Ilharg, the Raze-Boar represents one of the gods of the Gruul Clans and it also represents one heck of a powerful effect fans of older formats will immediately recognize: Sneak Attack. While it was mostly used in Commander and Cube with a miniscule showing in Constructed formats, the places it did show up it was a serious powerhouse. Not only did it let you cheat in big things, but unlike Sneak Attack it bounced the creatures back to your hand at the end of turn rather than sending them to the graveyard. Suddenly you can get repeated use out of cards like Craterhoof Behemoth, Terastodon, Bogardan Hellkite, and so much more, making it a tremendous addition to any deck that could reliably use it.

3. Niv-Mizzet Reborn

There's not many cards on these mythic ranking lists that have entire decks named after them, but Niv-Mizzet Reborn sure does. It's one of the two namesake cards in the popular Pioneer deck Niv to Light, which utilizes the other namesake Bring to Light to cast a Niv-Mizzet Reborn out of your deck and generate absurd amounts of value. It even saw this kind of play in Modern, albeit to a much lesser degree. Finally, it's also a modestly popular commander, giving it an outstanding repertoire compared to the majority of cards on this list.

2. Liliana, Dreadhorde General

This iteration of Liliana may not have been the best for Constructed compared to the likes of Liliana of the Veil and Liliana, the Last Hope. Despite this, she's left a massive mark on the game as one of the premier planeswalker options in Commander and Limited (including Cube). Even after she exited Standard previously - where she saw a pretty strong amount of play - she was still quite a pricey card because of the high appeal in these casual settings. Now she's getting a second wind thanks to her reprinting in Foundations and players are thrilled to experience once again just how potent she can be.

1. Finale of Devastation

I don't think any card comes anywhere near as close as Finale of Devastation in terms of raw playability. It's best known for Commander, where it not only acts as an additional copy of Craterhoof Behemoth, but can tutor up whatever you need to close out the game, including an actual Craterhoof. Not only is it extremely powerful there, but it even became the namesake of the Devoted Devastation combo deck that tore up Modern for some time. Couple this with the fact that it's also seen minor play in formats like Pioneer, Standard, and even Legacy thanks to Nadu, Winged Wisdom and you've got a clear winner of a card that remains easily one of the strongest Green cards ever.

Paige Smith

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