CPA Voting Issues: Best Set

[TomB]

Okay. I was going to wait a little while to post this, but I think I need to now to try and avoid some of the confusion in another thread.

I'll be posting this as a Voting Topic in a couple weeks, so I thought I should start a thread here to discuss it. The subject is Best Set, and what we're looking for here is your thoughts on the best individual set of Magic cards ever produced. I'll be taking the top number of sets mentioned (up to, say, 10 of 'em) and posting them for a final tally.

Let's talk about it!

 

[Y The Alien]

Tag Guard

I'm going with Urza's Legacy as best set (as I mistakenly did in that other post: Doh!). Lots of good cards. Only one broken card, and they caught it quick. Fatties for the Timmies out there (Multani and Weatherseed Treefolk), and deck staples (Bone Shredder). Varients on old cards (Planar Collapse, etc), and some good sideboard cards (Defense Grid). As for my favorite set, well, I hate to be a hypocrite, but I love green, and where would green be without Urza's Saga? Plus, there's always the thrill of opening a Time Spiral or Child of Gaea. Who cares if they're broken? Nice to display.

Whoohoo!! 100th post!

 

[Multani]

Tag Guard

I'd have to agree with Y.
Without Urza's Legacy, my stompy would be nowhere near as powerful as it is now.
Also Defense of the Heart is a great card.
And finally...

MULTANI, MARO-SORCERER. I think everyone knew this was comming.

 

[Y The Alien]

Tag Guard

Where's my Veteran staus?

 

[FoundationOfRancor]

U have to ask for it Y! Anyway, Im gonna go with the latest set, Phropecy. Its so balanced, nad has alot o BIG stuff. I like BIG STUFF!

 

[Fire Slinger]

My favorite set would be Urza's Saga. It had alot of great cards in it. Some of my favorites are: Morphling (I play him before he was popular, so dont flame me), Arcane Labratory, Child of Gaea, Thran Quarry, Worship, Rewind, Grafted Skullcap, and many more. It was also the expansion that I started playing with, so it has a personal meaning to me. By the way, Rewind is the best counterspell, in my opinion.

 

[Duel]

call me old-fashioned, chronicles is god.

 

[Killer Joe]

...or so says C.T. (j/k)
Guess it:
-Tradewind Rider
-Capsize
-Bottle Gnomes
-Shadow Creatures
-Mogg Fanatic
-S-s-s-s-s-slivers

IMO, Tempest was thee best set since Beta. You see, with this set, you either liked it or hated it.

 

[Spiderman]

I'll vote for Revised, since it still contained some supposedly broken cards like Wheel of Fortune, Demonic Tutor, etc )) and still some nostalgic creatures like Serra and Sengir. So I guess this is pretty much on the nostalgic factor.

 

[garfobosonfire]

Im gonna go with casey in saying Prophecys the best. I like having the rebirth of playing big creatures. And finally rebels get a kik in the ass.

 

[Cateran Overlord]

You know I've gotta go with Mercadian Masques. It had Rebels (these were okay at first, before Nemesis and Lin-Broken), MERCENARIES, APCs, interesting types of fat for Green, good but not overpowered counters for Blue, and Red got some actually pretty good burn for the current setting (why oh why can't Thunderclap target players???) Plus, did I mention mercenaries? The list of good cards is so very long, I can't even begin.

Plus of course, CATERAN OVERLORD!!!!!!! I still think they got me all wrong, and I'm working on the version that I would've vastly preferred (definately a legend. After all, there is only one overlord if you read the cards right). I'll post that somewhere else though.

 

[Seeker of Truth]

...but I would have to cast my vote for Weatherlight. Not only was that probably the most interested I was with the storyline, it was a fun set that wasn't overpowered but not totally weak, either. Plus, it was probably the first time I fully embraced the concept of Stompy, which is still my favorite way to play the game (thread in the Decks section of this forum notwithstanding).

 

[galtwish]

A little set from way back called Visions is my favorite. Although Alliances and Tempest are close seconds. Just about every card in Visions made it's way into atournament caliber deck, and they were a lot of fun to play with too. Mmmmmm, Black Hammer (Necrosavant)

Erik

 

[Dune Echo]

Do you think you could have asked a harder question, Tom?

Okay, I started with Revised and Fallen Empires, was wowed by The Dark and Legends, and bought my first box with Homelands... I can't choose...

I like the following sets best:

The Dark--> Love the opposition mix-ups (Electric Eel, Elves of Deep Shadow), but overall, The Dark was kind of weak.

Fallen Empires--> You know, this set really did not suck as much as everyone thinks it did. Here, I'll prove it:
Aeolipile (colorless burn, not bad)
Derelor (actually, he's pretty decent)
Goblin Grenade (one mana, one Goblin, FIVE DAMAGE?! You haven't played Sligh until you've been killed by four goblins which are immediately followed by four Goblin Grenades. Trust me, it can happen.)
High Tide (gee, didn't this spawn a rash of bannings...?)
Hymn to Tourach (best discard of all time maybe?)
Order of Leitbur (who didn't use this in white weenie decks?)
Order of the Ebon Hand (repeat as above with black instead)
Rainbow Vale (This thing is just plain fun!)
Thrull Retainer (This is not a bad card at all. A weak Unholy Strength until you need a Death Ward.)

Homelands--> Decent set for the thematic player. Balanced. No broken cards and maligned for it. And then people complain because Tolarian Academy and Time Spiral get made...

Alliances--> Balanced with very strong cards. I have yet to see a set besides Visions equal the strength, but where Alliances was strong with it's rares, Visions had all the best commons.

Visions-Good set. Let me repeat GOOD SET! A great set. Balanced, strong, one of the best of all time definitely.

Weatherlight-->Great rares (Well of Knowledge, Lava Hounds, Bosium Strip)

Tempest-->This sped up the game. Great creatures, great artifacts (Okay, okay, I admit, I really like Cursed Scroll... I know, I'm bad.) But it did speed up things too fast.

Stronghold-->Two words: Mox Diamond. Has anyone ever truly broken this? I don't think truly. Yes it borders on broken, but no. However, this set could have been stronger.

Exodus--> Yes, I know it's a broken set, but it brought out two of the best green creatures of all time in my opinion: Mirri, Cat Warrior and Skyshroud Elite. Could Mirri be anymore broken?

Urza's Legacy-->I'm partial to this set because this is where green got the strongest boost and I happened to win a complete foil set from Wizards. Rancor anyone? Fatties out the hind-end, good artifacts, very balanced. And the man-lands were just great, especially Treetop Village.

Nemesis-->Great set, nice green creatures and very balanced. Also added Lin Sivvi, who is just cool as all hell (yes, again, I KNOW she's broken.) And Complex Automaton is really not a bad card, I promise.

So my favorite sets are:

Legends (Legends are just cool, period.)
Visions
Exodus
Urza's Legacy

Any questions?

 

[TomB]

Waddya' mean, tough? It was on the list!

Just joking. Hey Dune - I didn't know you started playing around the same time I did. Strange coincidence, eh? You have a point about F.E., though I never really cared for Aeolipile very much, and the Tide was almost useless until the other parts of the combo came out. Still, it did turn out better, in the end, with more useful cards than, say, The Dark.

I think your analysis on the other sets was pretty good too. Personally, my vote for Best Set goes to Alliances, because no other set matched it for great, non-broken cards, rare or otherwise. Visions would be my 2nd choice, based on the playability of the whole set, and Legacy 3rd for the same reason.

I like sets with lots of decent, playable cards, not Broken sets like Saga, nor lame sets, like Homelands. I prefer something somewhere between the two, with strong unbroken cards AND fun themes.

That's what works for me!

 

[Riva Iron-Grip]

i'd have to go with nemesis. they got my 2 fav guys. Crovax(ascendant evincar) and volrath. plus predator. doesn't get much better than that

 

[enkor]

I'll have to go with legacy, as it has some of my favorite cards like deranged hermit and phyrexian plaguelord.

 

[Jaws10387]

Mine would have to be Urza's Saga but Tempest is a close second.

 

[Mikeymike]

Best Standalone ever?
Tempest--Introduced killer mechanics like shadow, slivers and Buyback (Buyback should become a staple mechanic IMHO). Plus it had many useful commons and uncommons, something which gets overlooked a lot. It gets a thumbs down in its lack of respect towards green.

Best Expansion ever?
Visions--This set had everything, plus as galtwish said, just about every card in the set could go into some tourney caliber deck. I still buy packs of Visions when I can find them.

Favorite set ever?
Prophecy--A casual players dream set. So many fun cards, so many powerful multiplayer cards, very balanced. Best artwork of any set ever.

 

[VoLRaTH]

I think the best set is Urza's Saga. There are really good cards in Saga like Albino Troll or Gaea's Cradle.