MTG Top 10: Alpha Creatures | The BEST Creatures in Magic's First Set | Episode 323 

Love that "Format: All of them"

"Clone wasn't a highly played card in the 90's" I have to keep reminding myself he's talking about competitive...

It would be pretty cool to go through each set like this.

'Formats: all of them Formats: all but vintage' Laughed out loud

The saddest thing about Black Knight and White Knight is they can never fight each other.

I would have got to this video earlier, but a little storm cut my power for a bit and my internet is being shockingly awful. I was absolutely certain that Birds of Paradise would be #1. I think we all knew Birds of Paradise would be #1. What's funny is that Birds of Paradise from Alpha still sits at around $2000 despite being reprinted to hell and back. It also has Vintage points, which automatically makes it #1 in my heart. Speaking of, you should do "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)!" But maybe once this storm has cleared up, since I don't wanna be late again!

Really sweet to see you make lists of mtg cards from 93/94. Would love to see you make a top 10 list of the others 93/94 sets as well 🙌

It's pretty brutal that Shivan Dragon didn't make the list.

My favorite Alpha card, Will-o'-the-Wisp, so annoying…

My favorite alpha card is grizzly bears

man alpha Serra Angel has amazing art

Hippie/dark ritual is and always will be the most evil magic combo of all time

I started using the Specter in my Arena discard deck, thanks to the historic anthology reprint. Also brought in Waste Not, a long with cards like Thoughtseize, Unburden, Tiny Bones, ect

Still remember that 2007 world finals where a single Hypnotic Specter (on a Doran the Siege Tower deck) was used to block a letal Bogardam Hellkite (of a Dragon storm combo deck) attack for the win in the next turn. And then, HP never saw the limelight again.

7:18 That's the typical art difference between the original cards and the more recent ones. Hypnotic specter looks amazing.

I'm surprised to see Serra Angel so low. I guess the data for Vintage ("Type 1") from the early days doesn't exist because she was finisher in the best (only) deck in the format until Morphling was printed.

I realized that as soon as I click on a Nizzahon video I hit the "like" button before I even actually watch it. Keep it up my man, I always look forward to Wednesdays and Fridays 😊

I was expecting Mahamoti Djinn, Shivan Dragon or Force of Nature to be somewhere in this list... But I guess even during the middle ages of magic tournament, big unga boonga beaters arent too popular compared to efficiency. This was a concept i got when i started playing around Rath cycle... Or rather... It was handed to me with my ass TAT Still remember that first game i played: by the time i summoned big Unga Boonga Greven il-Vec, my opponent's Soltari Monk, Priest, Emissary and Order of the White Shield (i think? The 2/1 white knight from Ice Age) ripped my LP a new asshole O.O

thanks for taking me back to my childhood! Knights are great and were expanded upon (Silver, Blood, Galina's are Pro Red). Hippie + Dark Rit is still one of my favorite first turns! I am still a Tribal Player today, give me a Lord, a Coat, and I am good to go!

Hypnotic specter needs to be reprinted in the next standard set

I should know better by now. Just because I’m not really interested in a topic doesn’t mean anything. This is Nizzahon! He’s gonna MAKE IT INTERESTING!😅

Now, this is a fantastic variation of the series. I am most curious about the creatures of other sets!

I'm 3 seconds in, I hope my favorite is here. Lord of the pit!

Lotta memories of Alpha creatures from buying packs back at the local comic book shop as a kid. I'm guessing most of the ones I loved as a kid aren't going to be on here though; As a kid, I cared about the strangest things, and something all flavor like Mon's Goblin Raiders held more fascination for me than something mechanically interesting or good like a Verduran Enchantress.

Been waiting for this list!!! 😄😄

Alpha players: "Oh, wow! A 4/4 with flying and vigilance! This is the best creature in the game!" Me, making several 4/4 flying angels with vigilance per turn with my token deck: "Hmm?"

Shivan Dragon is not getting comment mentions! That card was insane. You'd trade a dual or 2 for 1 of them.

Before I watch my guess for top 3 are llanowar elves, bird of paradise, and lord of Atlantis, in some order. Let’s see how wrong I am. Big fan of Serra angel, will o’ the wisp, royal assassin, and hypnotic specter, too.

One "worst" list I think would be interesting to see would be top 10 worst limited bombs. What are the cards that saw absolutely zero play in constructed despite being incredible in their draft format?

The main reason clone saw play back in 2011-2012 is because it said the secret text "destroy target opponents geist of st. traft" with the legends rule at that point, not because it suddenly became a super useful creature. Just an FYI.

Thanks. When I saw Savannah lions being 3rd I was like, wait Lord of Atlantis did not make a list, no way it did worse than Ironclaw orcs, then it made sense when you put both mana dorks as one. I was surprised last time Serra angel made results was in 1996, I remember friends I played with were praising the angel even in early 2000s, but also true we did not have the competitivest of the decks. Glad to see at least Clone did make in 2010s, I guess this is valid also for White knight. I hope they will reprint them in future standards, so they hopefully may get some more points. But with Iron claw being the 10th, we can imagine the power level of other creatures that are not on the list.

I loled at Bop and Llanowar elves: of course they we're up there!

Even back on the early 2000's the other kids from the street are jealous about my Serra Angels 😇, White Knights and Savannah Lions. Such naive and more simple times.

... WOW. Ironclaw Orcs is on this list. Im surprised Serra Angel is so low.

I was kind of surprised to see Serra Angel so low tbh, but then I remembered I'm a filthy casual :P

Back in the day I played White Weenie with White Knights in my deck. I won regularly in tournaments I played until Necropotence hit the scene.

I got to number two spot and thought "huh that's weird, maybe he forgot _____ or _____? ". Nope. Got me with the ol' two in one

Is love to see a top ten of updated cards to see examples of power creep an example being white knight to mirran crusader

Mono black turn 1 ritual in the hippy was always strong and so was swamp ritual ritual sengir!! Or the insane start of ritual ritual ritual spirit of the night ;)!!!swing for 6!!! Pass turn plains.... Plow😙😂😂🤣🤣😭

I guess that Llanowar Elves or Birds of Paradise will be number 1, they are just great to this day

Llanowar Elves is my favourite card. Though it's tied with Elvish Mystic and Fyndhorn Elves...

When I saw nr 2 I expected 2 cards at nr 1! :)

It's really interesting how so many TCGs have the same thing happen in the first set, the monsters suck but the spells are insane. Yugioh has normal monsters with low attack and pot of greed, the equivalent of a 0 mana draw 2, magic has no effect monsters with bad stats, and the power 9. I wonder if pokemon and other TCGs have the same thing?

I think hypnotic spectre could still do something in today's standard. For the simple fact that a 3 mana 2/2 that has a card advantage attack trigger saw play only two years ago, that is Thief of sanity.

Honestly surprised that Prodigal Sorcerer and Vesuvian Doppelganager didn’t make this list.

Thief of Sanity is the closest we get to Hypnotic Specter, and it was played decently when it was in Standard.

I played Magic back in about 95 and the problem was all Green had was mana dorks. Llanowarelfen and BoP were great but there was nothing good to cast with them. Force of Nature? We tried. Cockatrice? Desert Twister? (Which was one of Green’s best casual cards for years). Meanwhile knights, Plows, Spectres and Bolts were eating us alive. Green was so bad for so long that they joked about Magic being a four color game and Jamie Wakefield became a bit of a folk hero for daring to try to play mono-green competitively. Green’s best cards were co-opted by other colors (BoP, Regrowth) and green was relegated to "support color" for way too long,

Serra Angel for me baybeeee!

I don’t know how you can say hypnotic specter wouldn’t be good enough when thief of sanity saw a fair bit of play

Hypnotic Specter first hands down

I'm shocked rock hydra wasn't on here. Growing new heads is way too strong! XD

White Knight and Black Knight are easily compared to Knight of Grace and Knight of Malice respectively. The Dominaria knights proved that the Alpha knights would still stand up in today's Standard when they saw play in Standard.

Bolt the bird!!!!

Redo all your top 10s but for Pauper ;)

I know you did Top 10 creepiest flavour text last year, so how about Top 10 most inspiring flavour text?

Birds of Paradise? Edit: Booyah.

Hope my favorite Weakstone made it in here.

Hypnotic Spectre is legal in historic and not seeing real play, not quite the same as standard though

What about top 10 with drawbacks?

Lawnmower Elves and 9 other cards.

Nice list, but would a list without considering future reprints be possible? Most of those reprints should've kicked creatures that were good in Alpha only. Thanks

Formats: All of them. Lol "Send EVERYONE"

Top ten sideboard. Come on. you know it would be good

I was juts thinking, "how in the world is a 2 mana 1/2 with first strike that great," when you said that there was a misprint

i'll assume best creature in alpha was birds of paradise, since it wasn't in the thumbnail

Ever do top 10 artwork designs?

Creatures need powered the F down nowadays.

As a player that has been playing since the mid-90's, I don't think it is really true that the rest of the game has gotten weaker compared to Alpha. While you can point to a few areas like direct damage and counterspells that are a little bit weaker than they were in the early days of the game, almost everything else has gotten significantly stronger. Just as creatures have gotten more powerful, so too has removal gotten more powerful to help keep up. General purpose removal like "Heartless Act", "Banishing Light" and "Bloodchief's Thirst" would have been considered amazing and OP back in the early days of magic, as most removal then considered premium like "Terror" and "Swords to Plowshears" had significant downsides and restrictions that you generally don't see anymore. And let's face it, "Drown in the Loch" is probably in context the best counterspell ever printed that you have to pay mana for, in that it doubles as removal and therefore negates one of the major disadvantages of running counter-magic, which is dealing with things that get through your permission. It's telling that "Disenchant" is no longer considered efficient or versatile enough to consider playing, and we have strictly better versions now. Beyond that, so much else is either as good as Alpha or more usually just better and stronger than it was in Alpha. Aside from mana rocks, mana fixing and ramp is just better now than it was in Alpha. Things like Dual Lands, once considered an area that we'd never see anything as good, are now more or less matched by the efficiency of Pathways, and the ability to tutor up and find the lands you need is far better than it was back in the day. Win conditions are also far stronger now than ever before. You can mill away decks far faster than pretty much anyone ever dreamed of today, without even really needing an elaborate combo. Bomb cards that say essential, "Deal with me or lose the game." are far more common, far more impactful, and far more pushed than anyone would have ever even suggested 20 years ago. Remember, Underworld Dreams was once considered such a strong win condition as to be banned. Now, it's only played for the primary value of being 3 black in a devotion deck with its draw effect being only a secondary bonus. Draw engines are much more powerful and cheaper now than they were in early days. Remember, back in the early days, Jayemdae Tome was considered a format defining card because it was one of the best ways to draw cards reliably. These days, something like Ivory Tower isn't even that out of line. And it's not like card draw has gotten really weak either. It might not be "Ancestral Recall", but "Into the Story" is still amazing. And Planeswalkers are out and out more powerful in many ways than anything that existed in the early days of Magic, including arguably some of the famous power cards. Those famous power cards may have sped up the game, but they weren't powering out advantage quite like a Planeswalker does. Modern Vintage decks make the old Type 1 decks from the 90's look like jokes. Even with copies of the Power 9 in them, they probably wouldn't be particularly effective in modern standard. Point is, the power creep is real and pervasive. Most cards are now two iterations greater in power than what came before. And frankly, I find it really annoying. Remember, cards like Savannah Lions were succeeding in an environment where Lightning Bolt, Dark Ritual, and Counterspell were considered just normal. So what does it mean that we know consider a card like Savannah Lions to be pretty much unplayable unless it has at least 2 more upsides that immediately impact the board state? Do you really think Lightning Bolt would be too strong in the current environment? Counterspell? It's not that at all. The real reason that they've back off on Lightning Bolt or Counterspell isn't power level. The real reason is they needed the design space.

Bolt the bird

Wow no one took Serra angel to tops in standard even as 1 of after 1996? I figured it would of had to at least get 1 or 2 points throughout the years even in a meme deck

No royal assassin?

Aww nuts no craw worm

weird that Ironclaw Orcs made it but no Juggernaut

Haven't seen the list yet, but Birds of Paradise and Llanawar Elves are gonna be in the top 5

This is the least surprising number 1/2 of all time lol.

Earliest I’ve ever been

how r the orcs on this list but not the bear? people claimed it was the best creature in Magic at the time (serra was usually refered to as the Strongest)

How about top ten sets?

Serra at 8 ? Not sure this is correct.

top ten "top tens that viewers have suggested". I still hoping for your personal take on top ten "power ten cards".

No Shivan Dragon?????

Ooooo, now do Beta!

Ok so, BoP first place, Llanowar elves second?

Easily guessing BoP and Llanowar Elves.

I don't understand the argument you make about Hypnotic Specter not being good in current Magic. Have you forgotten about Thief of Sanity?

50th View

😘

@1:45 to skip the repetitive bullshit

first

How did magic even catch on with such a fucked up first set lol

Birds of paradise is sooooooooooooooooooooooooo Much better than llanowar Elves

Elvish Archers was such an overrated card! :)

How are they Alpha? do they bag multiple girls, all over 6 feet tall, have less then 8% body fat, and is assertive and makes over 6 figures or something?