Up until this point, we'd only seen two Masters sets and they set the expectation that we'd only ever get Modern Masters releases. Eternal Masters coming out would prove to buck this trend and show that a Masters release could be anything Wizards wanted it to be. This set would provide players with needed reprints of Eternal staples that were hard to print elsewhere but needed for formats like Legacy, Commander, Cube, and Vintage. The card quality and power was high in this release, and that means we're going to have some pretty heavy duty mythics to rank this time around! Let's dive right on in and get to ranking them!

Numbe Fifteen

Sphinx of the Steel Wind is an awesome card, primarily used in certain builds of Reanimator strategies and certain Tinker decks. Make no mistake: this is a fairly playable card. However, by this point it had already seen a handful of reprints in Premium Deck Series: Graveborn and Commander 2013, making it fairly undesirable and the mythic you absolutely wanted to see the least out of your expensive Masters booster.

Number Fourteen

I originally had Balance way higher on my list because, well, the card is downright busted. It's banned in Commander, banned in Legacy, and Restricted in Vintage all because of the truly gross things it does. But therein lies the problem here: there was simply no demand for this card outside of the odd Cube, and even then it was readily available thanks to how available the Fourth Edition copy was and the recent From the Vault print. The card rules, but at this point in time, other cards were much more needed and despite its power, this is an instance where the context of this particular printing is especially important.

Number Thirteen

When Eternal Masters was about to be printed, Worldgorger Dragon had been spiking quite a bit thanks to its interaction with Animate Dead showing up in all kinds of decks. Unfortunately, though, it turned out to be more of a novelty than anything. The price of Worldgorger dropped like a stone and it fell by the wayside while many more of the other mythics of the set continued to be in demand due to their regular utility and play.

Number Twelve

This era of Magic was full of reprints of cards that made people go, "wait, that isn't on the reserved list?" Argothian Enchantress was in dire need of a reprint due to the popularity of Enchantress decks in both Commander and Legacy, and it showing up here definitely brought the card's price down to a more manageable level. While an excellent pull, Enchantress decks that could use this in a competitive space were fairly niche despite the fact that people love the archetype as a whole, so it finds a home on the lower end of the list. Make no mistake: this is a great one. The others are just better.

Number Eleven

This might seem weird to say these days, but at the time when Eternal Masters was coming out, Necropotence wasn't that expensive of a card. You could find Ice Age copies for under $10 even when it was still just as prevalent in Commander - the one real home for it outside of Cube - as it is now. Given this, at the time it was seen as a bit of an underwhelming inclusion and one of the mythics you wanted to see the least in the set, even if it remains one of the most powerful cards ever printed.

Number Ten

This one gets a decent nod from me because of Commander. One of the more recent cards of the time, Maelstrom Wanderer had only been printed once in Planechase 2012 up until now. In that short amount of time, the card had become incredibly in-demand and had been steadily creeping up in price. Getting it to show up here was extremely welcome as a result, even if its appeal wasn't as wide as some of the other cards in this list.

Number Nine

When Eternal Masters released, Dack Fayden had only been printed originally just two years prior in Conspiracy. Due to the low appeal of that set to your average player, Dack was highly sought after and commanded a respectable price of around $35 in the era. He was massive in Vintage and in Cube, and also had a solid home in Commander as well. A pretty solid inclusion even if less so than others much more desperately in need of a reprint.

Number Eight

Few cards arguably needed a reprint in this set as badly as Karakas did. Prior to the inclusion here, it had only shown up in Legends and as a judge foil, making it hard to get and quite pricey. That's saying something too given that the card is typically only a one-of in most decks and is also banned in Commander. Despite this, the card was - and still is - a massive card for both Legacy and Cube, so even just getting a few more out there and into players' hands was massive.

Number Seven

These days, copies of Natural Order are a bit easier to come by thanks to numerous reprints, but in this era it was pretty much just Visions and a judge foil. Unlike Karakas, though, this was a card with some seriously wide appeal. Various decks in Legacy played it, but in particular Elves required several copies to find Craterhoof Behemoth. The card shares this popularity in Commander and Cube largely for the same purpose, and getting it reprinted here was major for just about any Green mage in all formats that could use it.

Number Six

Sneak Attack now is pretty worthless, as it can be had for only a few dollars thanks to numerous reprintings. At the time, however, it had only seen one printing in Urza's Saga and as a judge foil (are we seeing a pattern here?). This had even stronger appeal than Natural Order did at the time, particularly owing to the fact that Sneak and Show was one of the best things you could be doing in the Legacy format. Getting the reprint here brought down the price of the deck by a substantial amount and was massive for the format's accessibility, reserved list cards be damned.

Number Five

Moxen have tremendous pedigrees when it comes to Magic and that's just as true for Chrome Mox. Interestingly, the powerful card was ineligible for a printing in a Modern Masters release because it's been banned in the Modern format since day one. However, it was still a major player in Legacy, Cube, and more competitive Commander spaces, so it was very much due to a reprint. At the time, it was the only mox that could be reprinted, making it a truly important card for all of the above formats for players who couldn't access a Mox Diamond.

Number Four

Nowadays, you're probably used to seeing Vampiric Tutor showing up everywhere thanks to Commander, right? Well that all got started here with its first proper reprinting in the Commander era. The card was a massive staple for any player of the 100 card format, as well as Cube, making it an essential addition and a great reprint for a card that was hovering around the $30 range at the time and proving difficult to reprint anywhere else.

Number Three

These days - and even arguably back then - Mana Crypt has been one of the most expensive non-reserved list cards in the game. It's a staple for all kinds of Commander decks, Cubes, and even Vintage is worth mentioning here simply due to the general scarcity of the card. Despite the undisputed power and high price tag, it feels boring to give it the top spot, and as such, acknowledging its high power while putting it in about this spot feels like the sweet spot for it. For any format that can play it, it's one of the best mana rocks you can possibly have access to.

Number Two

What's this? Jace, the Mind Sculptor is no longer better than all? Well, not quite. He was - and still is - one of the best planeswalkers of all time. At this time, Jace was still massively popular in Legacy and Cube, and even with him still being banned in Modern, Jace was continuing to command a price tag of close to $100. Getting him to show up here once again was huge for all kinds of players, and the added supply helped when he was eventually unbanned in Modern. Even with the extra printing here, he was still going for $150 soon after the unban, which no doubt would've been even worse without this.

Number One

Jace getting a proper non-foil reprint here was pretty big, but he was only really super useful in Legacy and only in relatively small doses. Most decks running him weren't rocking a full playset and they weren't used in all decks that were playing Blue. Force of Will, by comparison, is an automatic four-of in any deck playing Blue cards and had seen no reprints barring one impossible to get judge promo. In terms of eternal format appeal, the need for an additional printing, and raw power, it's not even close to say Force of Will is number one. It's one of the greatest cards of all time and well deserves its placement here.

Paige Smith

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