When Magic 2012 came out, it felt oddly like the black sheep of core sets. It felt really solid in the moment, but as time passed, the packs rotted on store shelves and many cards were left forgotten. It stands out sitting between two really awesome core sets in the form of Magic 2011 and Magic 2013. So, when you're in the middle of two great sets with a bit more of a medium-level set, how do the cards end up comparing? Today I'm going to be taking a look back at the set's highest rarity and rank the mythics of Magic 2012. Ready to dive in and rank them? Let's do it!

Number Fifteen

When this card first came out Furyborn Hellkite got a ton of chatter over just how massive this card could come down as. At the end of the day, though, it was just a seven-mana French vanilla creature that did nothing and got killed by every removal spell under the sun. It never even had a chance.

Number Fourteen

In Magic 2011, a reworked Timetwister seemed novel, if largely unexciting. Most players could tell how useful it would actually be in practice right from the get-go, but there was still hope for it to be decent. By the time Magic 2012 came around, Time Reversal was well known as a largely unplayable bulk mythic, and as such, it lands with a thud at the bottom of this list.

Number Thirteen

It's admittedly weird that of all the creature types we're getting lords for in these core sets from the early 2010s, vampires would get two different cards. Vampire Nocturnus was underappreciated at the time due to how few vampires there ultimately were, but has since gained a bit more love as time has gone on. Bloodlord of Vaasgoth, on the other hand, never had such a second wind and ended up being left in the dust as just another rough bulk mythic, albeit one with at least a bit of usefulness.

Number Twelve

This time period really wasn't kind to Chandra at all. With this card, we end up being 0 for 3 in decent Chandra planeswalker cards, even as they tried to push her as a main story character in this era. Eventually this would pay off with later iterations in sets like Magic 2014, Oath of the Gatewatch, and Kaladesh, but here she was still the butt of jokes. There just wasn't a whole ton you could really do here, and it showed. Some players tried to at least make use of the copy ability in some spaces, but ultimately, it never panned out.

Number Eleven

By the second time around, it was pretty clear to just about everyone that Frost Titan was the black sheep of the titan cycle. The card still saw decent Standard play, but it just couldn't hold a candle to the others with its dull one-shot effect while the others often had abilities that often left a rather massive impact on the game. That only got worse after it left Standard, where it never really made a substantial impact anywhere outside of Cube.

Number Ten

I've largely been pretty down on hydras in this mythic ranking series so far (and will continue to be later on), but here with this one at least I think they got it pretty right. Not only does it keep getting bigger at a rather rapid rate, but it also gets some solid evasion with trample as well. That takes away the main downside of a lot of hydras where they can often get really big but not have a way to actually push the damage through. Playing with this card feels great, but at the end of the day it still largely just amounts to what's effectively a big French vanilla beatstick, so it ends up on the lower side of this list. Still, for just a big beatstick, this is a pretty awesome one.

Number Nine

Gideon's second time in Standard was at once prolific and not really very impactful all at once. There's no denying one of the original chase rares of Rise of the Eldrazi was still hot at this time and saw tons of Standard play. However, when you actually scan through the lists of this particular Standard season, he mostly only showed up as a one-of and mainly in sideboards. Not exactly the greatest showing in the world, and as such, I dropped him quite a bit lower this time around. I think it was around here - and certainly more so with the future reprints that continued to show up - that really showed his reputation go down quite a bit from being one of the big heavy hitter planeswalkers.

Number Eight

You know who dropped $40 on this planeswalker in college during presale? That'd be me! That's just how awesome the card looked at the time. An outright 0 cost to just mill a sixth of your opponent's deck just seemed unreal back then, as on just about any planeswalker you'd expect the ability to be a minus activation or something. Nope! You could just keep doing it over and over again.

Players expected a ton out of this one, especially when it was a new Jace card - each of which up to this point had been a little pushed in at least some way. Ultimately, it didn't go anywhere outside an occasional piece in control lists that could often win without it. Despite this, it still had that "wow" factor when it came out in this set, and was nigh unbeatable in Limited.

Number Seven

Sorin getting a reprint here felt out of left field at the time, though in hindsight is clearly a nod to the upcoming Innistrad sets. If you were a Commander player like I was at the time, though, it was awesome to get more copies of the card into circulation as at the time it felt a bit pricey due to its ability to one-shot an opponent down to 10 life in any Black deck. He had a minor showing in Standard as well, but really the showing was - and always has been - all about that Commander appeal.

Number Six

Angelic Destiny is the little card that could. It saw a little play in White Weenies lists in Standard, but wasn't really a big player on the whole. Where it really shined, though, was in Commander and in Cubes. There it kept making all of your stuff big and hard to deal with while being difficult to deal with itself given how it just kept coming back. The additional angelic appeal also helped push it to the forefront of players' minds, keeping it at a decent value, desirability, and playability for a long time even though it was far from the most Constructed viable card at the time.

Number Five

By this point Inferno Titan had proven to be a powerful mainstay in the competitive sphere. In Standard, it was one of the best things you could be putting into play. It's only lower here compared to the other titans because even at the time it wasn't as lauded in spaces besides Standard where the others have had way more longevity. Still, it was one of the most powerful creatures of its era and deserves the continued recognition with a higher placing spot on this list.

Number Four

Sun Titan continues to succeed because not only did its play relevancy grow in this era thanks to the release of Unburial Rites around the corner, but also because of the continued rise in Commander. While Primeval Titan certainly took the cake for most overall impactful card - which led to its eventual banning - Sun Titan proved a rock solid value engine that always gave just the right amount of value. You had to get something small back, so you couldn't, say, bring another titan back with it, and that limited what the card could do. Thanks to that, it always felt powerful and impactful in almost any game it showed up in, but never felt overbearing in the process. Truly an all-time great in terms of creature design and utility that continues to give to this day.

Number Three

Much like how Jace, Memory Adept's 0 cost mill ten effect felt unprecedented for the time, so too did Garruk, Primal Hunter's +1 to make a 3/3. Just the sheer fact that you could do that over and over again felt unbelievable at the time when any planeswalker-making tokens either just made a 1/1 or required a minus cost to make them if they were anything bigger. That's not even mentioning the other two abilities, with one capable of drawing you tons of cards the turn it hits the board and the other swarming your board with game ending threats. This Garruk may look a little unexciting now following multiple reprints, but at the time, this genuinely felt like a watershed moment for planeswalkers and was extremely exciting for what the card type could do going forward.

Number Two

Last time I put Sun Titan higher because of just how much of an all-purpose standout it was, but by the second time around, it was feeling a little more mediocre. Yes it was still seeing a solid amount of Standard play and was a Commander all-star, but it just had the vibe about it that it wasn't as exciting despite still being good. By now, though, Grave Titan had really been showing up as an absolute house that would wipe out opponents in no time flat. Some players were even getting it down early thanks to Heartless Summoning and still getting good value when the tokens would just come in as 1/1s. It was a great card aging like a fine wine in no time flat.

Number One

Prime Time does it again! I gushed about the card a ton in my Magic 2011 mythics review and honestly, what more is there to say about the card? It's one of the most defining tournament cards in the game, got itself banned in Commander for how omni-present it was, and continues to be beloved by many. Nothing even comes close - even on the second time around. One of the best, hands down, no contest, and well deserving of that top spot yet again.

Paige Smith

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