The world of Innistrad was already not doing super great with all of the monsters roaming around, but things just got worse and worse for the plane with Dark Ascension. The monsters became bolder and the zombies fought to overrun the town of Thraben with untold amounts of destruction. Humanity as we know it on the plane seemed to be at its brink, before the final moments of grace that would save the world in the following set.

This release features a rather interesting set of mythics this time around. At the time, it was seen as a much less memorable set and the mythics didn't quite help matters in that regard. However, as time has gone on and Commander has seen a much broader appeal, some mythics from the set have gotten somewhat of a second wind to them, proving that even the sets that appear the most mediocre can have some gems hidden amongst them. We're going to go through all twelve of the set's mythics and rank them from top to bottom! Ready? Let's go!

Number Twelve

Few mythics are as overtly poor as Archangel's Light. At least with other worst cards, there can be some appeal. Just looking at the last two sets, Angelic Overseer is at least a powerhouse Limited card and Furyborn Hellkite really appeals to Timmy/Tammy sensibilities for at least a brief moment. But then you look at Archangel's Light and you just go "who is this for?" It's so abhorrently bad you can't really justify using it in any realistic manner. The card was famously a last minute super safe swap out for a different card Wizards thought would be too good and instead, we got this. Yay.

Number Eleven

Helvault is a seriously awesome card in concept until you realize just how much it costs to exile opposing creatures. It's a really cool utility card, but unfortunately the cost is just way too high to make efficient use out of it and the times where you'd want to actually exile your own stuff are so low it's almost comical. A cool card in flavor, not so much in function.

Number Ten

For a brief moment, Vorapede was actually a fairly reasonable card value-wise. Players felt the card was quite decently cost for the stats and keywords, so even though it was basically French vanilla, it still seemed pretty good. In reality, five mana wasn't really that big of a difference to the six it would cost you to just play a Primeval Titan instead or else you'd just play a certain Huntmaster a turn earlier and go to town on value. Vorapede couldn't quite hack it and as a result got left in the dust, but it definitely seemed cool at the time.

Number Nine

At the time, this dragon got some decent heat attached to it. Pumping all of your creatures wasn't unheard of, nor was a good old Firebreathing effect - particularly on a dragon. A Firebreathing pump effect that impacted your entire board and could be utilized repeatedly? That's some good stuff! As time has gone on, though, the card has proven to not be all it's cracked up to be so while it was a neat little novelty once upon a time, it's never really been as good as players once hoped it might be.

Number Eight

Elbrus is oddly unique in less about what it is and more about what it isn't. This was one of the first cards to truly spark debate about what could or couldn't constitute being a commander. This was nothing new, as we'd had stuff like Genju of the Realms previously, but it was the fact that this came out right alongside the rise in popularity of Commander that drew so much ire. You see, because the front side is not a legendary creature, but the backside is, players hoped to be able to still use it as a commander, particularly because the backside - Withengar Unbound - is so mighty. To this day, Elbrus remains a popular rule 0 commander, and is an interesting footnote in the game's history as a result.

Number Seven

Gaining control of opponents' creatures always rocks. You know what's even better, though? Getting to take control of a creature every single turn - maybe more if you can utilize untap effects! That's what makes Beguiler of Wills such a beloved and simultaneously loathed card in Commander. Despite this potential potency, the card is very fragile and can be difficult to stick the landing with, making it risky but at the same time full of tons of potential.

Number Six

There were a lot of really sweet cards that stood out to a number of players when Dark Ascension came out, but one that caught the attention of many was Drogskol Reaver. This huge spirit is awesome in its simplicity. It's elegant enough that it reads almost like a French vanilla creature, yet has some subtle depth to it that makes it highly appealing. In this case, it's the interaction between double strike and lifelink alongside the second line of text allowing you to draw cards. By hitting twice, it allows you to essentially draw multiple cards per hit. From there, it also lets you draw even more cards if you gain life by other means! Drogskol Reaver never made a massive impact in the game, but was nonetheless a really cool design that got players excited for all the right reasons.

Number Five

This iteration of Sorin Markov had a whole lot of hype going into its release. The card really did seem to have a ton of good stuff going for it. Four mana seemed like the magic number for planeswalkers at the time, and it was especially shocking that the card could grant you an emblem as soon as it entered the battlefield! In reality, the card wasn't quite as potent as players hoped he would be and while he did see some decent Standard play, it was largely showing up in smaller quantities and hasn't quite stood the test of time as the years have gone on.

Number Four

When I think of cards that were Standard darlings that never amounted to anything elsewhere, Falkenrath Aristocrat quickly comes to mind. Through the card's whole Standard life, it showed up in a whole bunch of different decks, quickly becoming one of Dark Ascension's chase mythics and was a fairly dominant force. When you look beyond Standard, though, the card has been virtually unplayable everywhere else. You might see it in a Cube or two here and there, but in general, Falkenrath Aristocrat was a powerhouse of her brief time in the sun and that was it, but the card is commendable enough for that alone.

Number Three

These days it's not uncommon for players to quickly get abuzz with all the silly things you could do with new cards, especially with the rise of "made for Commander" cards. Back in this era, you didn't see quite as many that would overtly get those reactions, at least not so much in the mythic slot. Most usually felt like unique general effects or powerful workhorse effects. Havengul Lich was one of the first ones I can remember where players went, "okay, there has to be some shenanigans we can get up to with this!" Turns out they were right! The card was an immediate hit in several different Commander decks and provided a kill condition in Heartless Summoning decks in Standard where you would use the lowered cost to repeatedly loop Perilous Myr to ping opponents to death.

Number Two

Mikaeus' first outing in Innistrad was well-liked but never felt like it was a runaway success either. It was more just a really good utility kind of card. Then Mikaeus died and got to come back as a zombie in Dark Ascension and with it came one of the most potent Commander cards to come out of this era. The reason for this is the amount of utter nonsense and combos you can get up to thanks to giving everything undying! Consider using it alongside something like Triskelion or Walking Ballista and you'll mow down whole hosts of creatures - and possibly even players - in no time flat. You can also use it alongside various persist creatures for all kinds of value combos. Even if you aren't comboing with it, he just provides so many cool things you can do in general that there's a reason he's as heavily used in Commander as he is, dead or otherwise!

Number One

If you were playing Magic throughout the 2010s, you almost certainly ran into Huntmaster of the Fells at some point or another. The card proved to be an absolutely dominating force in Standard, in Modern Jund lists, and even found minor success in Legacy! All the while it did so as one of the most arguably fair powerful creatures to make such a splash in some time. Many players who played in this era still cling to just how awesome Huntmaster was - and is - and hope it can make a return some day in the future. It's just that beloved, and easily deserves the top spot on this list.

Paige Smith

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