Just a few years after Wizards brought back core sets with Core Set 2019, we'd see the final traditional one released with Core Set 2021. Afterward, they were discontinued up until Foundations last year, taking a much different approach to the way these core sets would be implemented going forward. With a heavier focus on planeswalkers and their associated cards, Core Set 2021 ended the line with a bang, and brought with it a whole host of awesome mythics. Today we're going to rank them all, so let's not waste any time and dive on in!

Number Sixteen

If this iteration of Chandra cost four mana as opposed to five, maybe things could've been a bit different for it. As is, the card was too costly for what amounted to middling effects, making it not particularly playable anywhere as a result.

Number Fifteen

In another era, Basri Ket could've made for an excellent White Weenie style of deck. This era was dominated by extremely powerful play patterns where such a deck couldn't really exist. As a result, the card couldn't quite hack it in competitive play and was too weak to see any real play in Commander as well. As such, Basri Ket made for a really cool card that ultimately did a lot of nothing outside of Limited.

Number Fourteen

Oh how the mighty have fallen. Back when I wrote my mythic rankings for Magic 2010, I listed Baneslayer Angel as the best mythic of the set. That was no exaggeration either. It saw tremendous competitive play that drove its price so high, it earned the moniker "Walletslayer Angel." Fast forward 11 years later and the card's reprint here saw basically no play at all. While it was cool to see back, and there was some solid demand for the extended art frame variant, the height of Baneslayer's playability had long past and wasn't coming back here.

Number Thirteen

These days, Discontinuity sees a fairly remarkable amount of play thanks to Lotus Field decks utilizing Strict Proctor in Pioneer. This wasn't always the case, though, and when Core Set 2021 came out, it was more of a novel approach at a Time Stop effect. No one was really using it anywhere and as such it didn't really leave much of an impact. As these lists try to look at what the impact was when the set released, it's lower on here, but if we were to take current applications into account, it would be far higher on this list.

Number Twelve

I know when I look at this iteration of Liliana, I immediately think back to the infinitely superior Liliana of the Veil. Both have plus abilities that cause players to discard and there's a minus that's removal. At four mana and requiring you to fill up your graveyard with creatures to get the removal online, it proved a bit more cumbersome to play. That didn't stop it from seeing a respectable amount of Standard play and being a Limited bomb, though. You'd be hard pressed to see the card anywhere nowadays, though.

Number Eleven

Part of me really wants to put this higher. It's a fairly popular Commander card that has caused it to earn quite the price tag. Getting to make tons of mana and draw a lot of cards is huge, even for what is essentially a seven cost mana rock. I feel by comparison, it's been less impactful than several of the other Commander favorites and Constructed playables on this list. That shouldn't discount it, though, as it's still an extremely excellent card that deserves all the popularity it's gotten over the years.

Number Ten

Cats and dogs, living together, MASS HYSTERIA! That may have just rung true with Rin and Seri, Inseparable, as players could now have a dedicated cats and dogs deck with a single commander rather than needing to make it work with one or the other. This has made Rin and Seri a tremendously popular commander right from the start, resulting it receiving many alternate treatments over the years and becoming a favorite of casual players everywhere.

Number Nine

From the moment Mangara was previewed, it was clear it was destined to become a Commander staple. It provides a great way to tax opponents and benefit you without being too oppressive with it in the way something like Rhystic Study might be. That made it a perfect card for just about any deck using White. It never saw much Constructed play, but it didn't exactly need to either. It got the job done where it needed to and that was more than enough.

Number Eight

This iteration of Garruk underwhelmed a lot of people when it was previewed, as four mana for just a super Giant Growth or a 3/3 seemed a bit lackluster. Despite this, Garruk saw quite a lot of play in a variety of Green-based aggro and midrange decks of the time, providing a way to push through a ton of extra damage and fill the board with additional creatures to take opponents out.

Number Seven

Cards like Furnace of Rath, Gratuitous Violence, and Dictate of the Twin Gods have proven extremely popular among casual players for years thanks to their ability to double damage dealt. Fiery Emancipation looks at this ability and says, "what if we tripled the damage instead?" The card saw pretty much no competitive play in a world where Torbran, Thane of Red Fell was topping out Red decks everywhere, but it became an instant staple of Commander decks everywhere and has commanded a fairly high price tag since as a result.

Number Six

Teferi proved to be an interesting card for a variety of reasons. Prior to this, there weren't any planeswalkers that allowed you to use its own abilities every turn without additional help (a Teferi, Temporal Archmage ultimate was the only way previously). Additionally, this saw the return of phasing permanents out to Standard, something many players thought would never come back. Finally, there was also a variety of versions to pull from, making for a particularly interesting card for a multitude of reasons, even if it ultimately only saw modest Standard play.

Number Five

Following on the heels of other somewhat recent high profile reprints Mana Drain and Imperial Recruiter, Grim Tutor appeared to be one card that might never be reprinted. The card was only printed in Starter 1999 and due to that set's notoriously low print and popularity, the card proved extremely rare and expensive. Despite this, it was needed for Commander decks as a low-mana cost tutor, leading to high demand from players. The reprint here crashed the price, making it astronomically more accessible across the board.

Number Four

Massacre Wurm's recent printing in Foundations has shown that its interest and playability is rather low. At the time of Core Set 2021, however, Massacre Wurm was a tremendously popular and expensive card for Commander that was in real need of a reprint. This made the card's inclusion quite timely, and it also saw a respectable amount of Standard play as well in its era, making for an outstanding reprint for the set.

Number Three

Ugin getting a reprint here was extremely welcome. The card was seeing tons of Modern play in addition to being a Commander favorite and was getting quite pricey as a result. Thanks to getting a reprint in Standard, the card's price plummeted and players were able to access the powerful planeswalker far more easily. In most other sets, I'd try sticking a more relevant Standard card or something over it, but in reality few cards compare quite like Ugin when it comes to Core Set level quality.

Number Two

Pandemonium and Warstorm Surge have long been extremely popular cards across a wide variety of formats, but especially in Commander. Terror of the Peaks offered a new way to utilize this style of effect, and best of all it came on a big flying dragon. As a result, the card not only became an instant hit in casual play but also became a modest player in Standard as well, becoming a fan favorite fast.

Number One

Elder Gargoroth was an absolute powerhouse of its time. It made for a great top end in all kinds of decks, ranging from aggro decks to midrange decks and even control decks. If you were playing some kind of Green deck, odds are good you were playing it, which made the card an instant hit. What's more, the card proved popular in Commander, Cube, and even saw modest Pioneer play. Even now, long since the card rotated out of Standard, it maintains a high price tag solely because of its extensive popularity, making it a great choice for the number one slot.

Paige Smith

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