Following the release of Eternal Masters in 2016, players were eager to see what other kinds of Masters releases were to come aside from the Modern Masters line. In late 2017 we got our answer with the year's second Masters release: Iconic Masters. Players expected big things from this release given the high bar that Eternal Masters set, but were ultimately left somewhat disappointed.

The card quality often felt lackluster, and there was little that felt iconic about the set. This turned out to be due to the fact that "iconic" refers to a couple major creature types in Magic like dragons, angels, demons, and so on. Couple this with the fact that we were now getting multiple high-end product releases a year and players were feeling a little worn out as a result.

Despite the set's failings, there's still some fairly cool cards in the set - especially at the mythic rarity. I'm here once again to rank them all, and boy does this set have one truly notable inclusion in it that you'll likely see towards the very end. Let's get to ranking them!

Number Fifteen

In my original Zendikar rankings piece, I noted that Ob Nixilis had some decent play in Commander and Cube. That may still be true now, but it doesn't make for a particularly exciting card all the same. When you compare it to just about every card on this list, it hardly even comes close. It's not a bad card, but it's far and away the least exciting mythic in this set.

Number Fourteen

When I rated Thundermaw Hellkite in my Magic 2013 rankings article, I put it at number two for the set. So why so low here? The simple fact of the matter is that the prior ranking was heavily contextual. Remember that in that era, Lingering Souls was a particularly dominant card. Thundermaw Hellkite helped tear through those small blockers while providing a massive, hasty threat along the way. These days it's basically relegated to only Cubes, and even there it's often a card you're simply taking begrudgingly.

Number Thirteen

In terms of raw power level, there's a strong chance Channel is the best card on this list by quite a bit. The card enabled the famous Channel Fireball combo you could play on turn one in the game's early days and even now you can use it to play an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn on turn two. The problem? It's not legal anywhere but Vintage and Cube (not even Commander can utilize it) and the card already had a reasonable availability to start. That meant that while this is a top tier card, it was a massive disappointment to see here in this set.

Number Twelve

All five of the praetors are here and as is usual with most cycles, there has to be a worst of the bunch. All four other praetors do some really wild effects that cause tremendous swings throughout the games they're played in. Unfortunately, Urabrask feels quite tame by comparison, offering only a meager haste to your side and slowing down your opponents' creatures by making them enter tapped. Make no mistake: this is still a good card, but nowhere near the others.

Number Eleven

In terms of actual playability, there's an argument that Jin-Gitaxias is actually worse than Urabrask. Jin-Gitaxias has an extremely outlandish effect, allowing you to fully replenish your hand each turn while ripping away your opponents'. That matters for very little if you can't cast it, however. As such, Jin-Gitaxias has been relegated mostly to only being played in Reanimator strategies, but there he absolutely shines and completely takes over games.

Number Ten

By now, this is the third Masters release I've covered featuring the all-time legend that is Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Sadly, this might be his lowest point of the three. As mentioned in my Modern Masters 2015 article, Splinter Twin and Birthing Pod both exited Modern around the release of the set, and things were only worse by this point. That said, the card was still quite relevant for Commander and, though it wasn't the most exciting at this point, it beats out several other mythics for the sake of this list.

Number Nine

Few cards will get you hated out of a game of Commander quite like Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger. This was true as far back as when the card came out in New Phyrexia, but even now it holds a top five spot on EDHREC.com's Commander salt rankings. In spite of this - or perhaps because of it - Vorinclex still proved extremely popular within casual circles. As such, getting more copies into players' hands was quite welcome here, though their local playgroups might say otherwise.

Number Eight

I mentioned it during my Eternal Masters rankings, but Necropotence weirdly wasn't this super hot ticket item back in this era of the game. Despite it being an absolute Commander powerhouse, it sat quite comfortably between about $5-10 for some time before eventually jumping heavily in more recent years (prior to the Wilds of Eldraine reprint, of course). As such, I'm giving it a bit of a more middling rating this time around as well, but make no mistake: this is absolutely one of the best cards in this set.

Number Seven

Archangel of Thune was a huge driving force in Modern for some time after release thanks to its infinite combo with Spike Feeder. Sadly, the card was on a significant downswing in popularity by the time Iconic Masters released, so its demand there wasn't quite as high. On the flip side, however, it still allowed you to get up to some real nonsense in lifegain-heavy decks in Commander. As such, it was still an excellent card to get into players' hands for multiple uses.

Number Six

Necropotence may have been puzzlingly low in demand for a while in this era for Commander, but Consecrated Sphinx sure wasn't. The powerful draw engine was seen as a stone cold Blue staple, where if you were playing the color, you needed this card. With only one real printing before this and an extremely rare Amonkhet Invocation reprint, getting more of this monster into players' hands was a huge deal.

Number Five

This was the peak era for Prime Time. Decks like Titan Shift and Amulet Titan were all the rage and it was even seeing play to some degree in Legacy as well. While it wasn't the most expensive card out there at the time, regular reprints like this helped keep it that way. As such, competitive players everywhere could continue to get one of the most legendary Constructed staples of all time at an affordable rate - which is always a great thing.

Number Four

By this point in the game's life, Sheoldred, Whispering One was an absolute staple of casual play. If you owned a Cube or a Commander deck with Black in it, odds are good you were looking to run a copy. Every turn it forced your opponent to sacrifice a creature while on your turn it allowed you to bring something back from your graveyard. The opponent sacrifice might not be the biggest deal when they can just lose a meager token, but getting back a huge threat like Grave Titan or the newly unbanned Kokusko, the Evening Star was a major deal.

Number Three

Few cards are quite as big or bombastic as Avacyn, Angel of Hope is. It's huge, it dishes out obscene amounts of damage, and makes it a very real threat for your opponents to deal with. The only downside to it is the fact that it costs a whopping eight mana to cast. I personally feel this makes it a bit win-more and difficult to make real use of, but try telling that to the Commander players continuing to gleefully run the card everywhere. She's one of the game's most iconic creatures and holds a well-deserved place in this set as a result.

Number Two

I've covered a number of Constructed staples and Commander staples in this article, but few bridge the gap and cover both spaces quite like Elesh Norn. Long a finishing staple of pre-Modern Horizons Modern, a Reanimator all-star in Legacy, and a Commander powerhouse in numerous ways, this classic was always a welcome reprint. The one negative people held was that it was one of the best cards in the set and was barely worth the price of the pack at the time, as it was around $15-20 back then. When that's the worst argument you can make about this card, you know it's still a winner.

Number One

For years, there were a small handful of cards that seemed almost off-limits to reprint. Mana Drain was one of those cards, as it seemed too powerful, too legendary, and too pricey of a card to put into modern day boosters. Once it showed up here, all bets were off. Anything was possible to come back, provided it wasn't on the reserved list - a fact that's bore out as the years have gone on. Nothing in this set even comes close to how big this was for it to appear in this set.

Paige Smith

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