The Best Creature During Every Year of Magic: the Gathering (MTG) 

Seth out here representing 30 years of mtg better than WotC.

Ok gotta admit, the story of the kid using Platinum Angel's effect to refuse a judge's call because if you cant loose the game, then you should be inmune to getting game losses for illegal actions is HILARIOUS

Fun fact. Ragavan is a red Savannah Lions with 30 additional words not counting rules text. That's almost 1 word pertaining to abilities per year since 1993.

In 2010, I opened Foil Baneslayer Angel out of my first box I ever bought. Walked to the counter, handed it to the shop owner and got handed another box. 2 weeks later it reprinted and was worth 10 bucks.

"The only creature in Magic that can kill your opponent in one attack, even if they have infinite life" This is Phage slander

Every time I see Questing Beast, it seems to gain a new ability that I didn't realize it had before. Such an absurd card.

2012 has to go to Deathrite Shaman. There's no way Griselbrand is the best creature that year.

Siege Rhino was by far more impactful in its time.

Just saying, Balduvian Horde trades with Questing Beast, so they are pretty much equally strong

Please tell me you're gonna do other card types this way as well, absolutely awesome to see

Never heard it pronounced "Protein Hulk" before. Maybe in the next Un-set it'll be a card

I'm surprised that for 1993 Serra Angel didn't get at least an honorable mention. A big enough body to survive a Lightning Bolt, and flying and vigilance to make it an evasive attacker while still being able to defend against everything made it THE creature of choice for control decks of the day.

Huh. What a funny coincidence. The year the power creep "really began to take hold" was the year after Arena released and Hasbro took a more invested interest in MtG... 🤔

I feel like ledger shredder at least deserved a mention for the best creature from this year

So much nostalgia. Also a lot of fun to learn about the formats before I started playing. Love the content

Not even an honorable mention for Serra Angel, the sole 2-of win condition of The Deck? That’s honestly just wrong.

Oh boy I can't wait to see Storm Crow on this list surely!

Awesome video! Was surprised to see no mention of the Titans. Everyone talked about those cards back then.

I still remember Morphling and Masticor being jaw-dropping good. That was my youth, quit soon after, and just came back. You can imagine how astonished I'm about the creatures nowadays. Like you went in jail pre-intenet age...

1994 got to go to Serra Angel over Ornithopter. The blue/white control at the time with a lot of Fellwar stones, Jayemdae tomes, Swords, Wrath of god, a lot of counter magic and control magic was incredible hard to beat at the time and when Serra came down that could both attack and block… it was hard. And if they had to wipe the board with a balance or wrath they always had a few Mishra's Factories that would survive the wipe out.

The best creature in 93’ was the hypnotic specter

Awesome video looking back into magics history, I always enjoy your videos Seth! I've seen other comments mention doing the other card types, and I agree, but I'd also like to see a video talking about which cards are seen the most in today's meta from each year.

Keep in mind, the reason Spectral Bears was playable maindeck in 1995 is because NECROPOTENCE decks were everywhere. A 3/3 for 2 mana was good stats, but without 70% of the meta being mono-black the can't untap drawback still would have made it a pretty bad card during normal circumstances.

I really enjoy this style of video from you, you're a very good narrator and always do a great job of making whatever subject you're talking about entertaining

This is a good list, but I don’t see how death rite shaman isn’t the choice for 2012, seeing as it’s either the first or second best creature ever made

Seth, you blessing us with your historical knowledge of magic is just one of my favorite things on RU-vid.

Set my brother, this was a fantastic presentation. Keep it up. 💯

So much must have went into the making of this video. Thank you for the content seth. Thank you

Fantastic video! Thank you so much! The memories 😊

newer player a few years here. awesome history to learn! really historically informative! Thank you!

I feel like Lurrus was made by some designer at wizards to win a bet over whether a modern card could get banned in vintage. In a format with Black Lotus, it casts off of lotus, recasts lotus every turn, it provides a life buffer early that kneecaps fast combo that needs to count to 20, it comes down fast in a format where creature removal is less prevalent, and it was restricted in the format from day 1

Seth - I loved how you clearly did your research for the early days (I remember hearing somewhere, Humans of Magic if I'm not mistaken, that you got into the game relatively late). I do think that BoP should be replaced by Serra Angel since this was the wincon in The Deck - but awesome list!

Thanks for doing this list : ) so many cool cards, so many fun memories. Personally, 2011 was the coolest year. It was my first year of college too! Going to the game store for Innistrad pre-release with all the dorm guys was truly an adventure of a lifetime.

Sad to see you name the Horde for 1996 as Frenetic Efreet and Blinking Spirit were high end tournament staples for the control style decks that dominated. Also I do see the Birds nomination, but I actually saw far more Juggernauts back then during tournament play although BoP were extremely popular, but they all paled in comparison to Serra Angels and Hypnotic Specters. The avian manadorks did see their popularity grow in the following years since it stayed in print for a very long time and 3+ color decks became much more prevalent. Also I probably would have maybe cheated a bit and given Mishra's Factory a nod even though it's a land.

The way the time of the video fits riiight over Ragavan's strength/toughness to make it a 31:19 in the thumbnail? Perfect. 👌

Spectral bears not being a 2/2 with unblockable makes me really really sad

I started right before Dominaria came out in 2018. About a week before and I was hyped for the release. Started playing arena maybe a month or so later. The power shift from Dom to eld was nuts

Man, I can't keep watching this video repeatedly, but it's just so great! One of my favorite videos on this website (also a big fan of that Pretty Deece video, but theres way more of these vids and theyre all awesome). Okay, I wills top spamming the comments, I'm just so happy someone else remembers the 90's and all that good stuff. Beautiful.

Great video, Seth! Good topic, great writing. Well done.

Thanks for all your hard work Seth

My only debatable one is snapcaster. Snappy was huge but so was delver. I respect either choice but I think I’d pick delver

you clearly put in a lot of effort and care into this content, and its absolutely stunning. im sitting here just smiling and tearing up at everything youre talking about and explaining. thanks for being so consistently awesome as a content creator, seth; youve kept me caring about magic for years.

I love this variety content, I hugely miss Tomers lore videos. Liked also seeing Phil and Crims videos this and last week. Keep up the variety stuff it's a nice change on occasion.

Love seeing Bob and Snappy on here! Excellent and delightful cards to play with. I agree with Sheoldred for 2022. There aren’t any creatures from this year that have broken formats right in half like the three years before it, and Sheoldred is a powerhouse. I put a copy straight into Yawgmoth in Modern when it dropped and it has proved to be an excellent choice, it’s a refreshing card, seeing that it doesn’t require an ETB to be powerful. I want to see more designs like Sheoldred, and Yawgmoth, for that matter.

I remember trying to get into Magic standard awhile back (2018-2019). I grew to resent it very fast, and I attribute it to a combination of the decks being played at the time and the egregious cards that were printed to make them possible. It was mtg arena at a very crappy time in standard, so the ONLY decks were Net decks and the power discrepancy at that time was so high it was 1 of 3 decks or you lost on load in. 1. You were an Oko/Nissa food deck with Questing Beast 2. You were Teferi U/W control 3. You were monored Aggro with goblin Chain whirler and phoenix's. The Oko banning finally came through but tbh that deck was still carried just fine by Nissa and Questing Beast (QB on 4 was auto concede) unfortunately that meant that every single match was some variation of the monored aggro and U/W control matchups. (God forbid the U/W control mirror) One day it hit me, every game played out in exactly the same 0-fun way, and I left it all behind happily. I see a lot more variety these days which is nice but I just don't trust that they aren't gonna print more Oko's, more Questing Beasts, more cards where the text should just say "Play on curve and win"

Ornithopter was considered a lousy card in '94. It was neat, but not worth the cost of one card. It became good later due to artifact synergies. Drawing attention to Platinum Angel's text was a troll move. You actually made me LTG.

Please do more like this

I remember Rainbow Efreet being a control staple during visions. And then there was wildfire emissary being super meta for a while because it was the only good 4-drop at the time that could be neither bolted or plowed, which meant it blanked the removal spells of the other best decks at the time and also gave you a mana sink with the pump ability.

This video was great! If it does well enough, you should do a follow-up for artifacts, instants, etc. :)

Wow u have brought up so many memories. It hurt so much to sell my collection, had so many of these cards. Miss playing with my friends and at local tournaments for fun. Mtg still best card game ever

Being a newish player, it's so weird that neither Goldspan Dragon nor Hullbreaker Horror were even mentioned.

Great video, tons of fun, and imma let you finish, but hogaak had the best video of all time in 2019. Questing beast has gotta be Kap

Great series, do one for each card-type!

Damn, this brought up a lot of memories... It also changed my perspective of my personal magic history. I didn't engage with the game pre '95, from 01 to 04 and 07 to 2010 (just estimated that from the video) and used to think of myself as an "on and off" kind of player. Each return to the game felt like i missed an eternity because nothing i knew was relevant anymore - all format staples changed. In type2/standard thats obvious, but also in extended/legacy/canadian highlander. This made me realize that those gaps were much much smaller than they felt and also how long my current "on-streak" allready is.

Great video! More references to vintage would have been nice. Seeing how workshop aggro, growatog etc won eternal weekend

Power creep is like compound interest: it doesn't seem that powerful at first, but give it 30 years...

Started during Onslaught block. I have distinct memories of Goyf and Baneslayer being cards outside my wallets reach as a college student…wild to see them plummeted in price and to think I wouldn’t even have a deck for baneslayer today in any format…it was a truly stunning creature in 2009 that was just everywhere in Standard tournaments

My only challenge would be for 1994 with Ernham Djinn. That card saw so much play.

Love the creative content!

I love how many of these cards are cube staples. For good reason, of course.

Thank you for taking the time to make vidoes like this! It's so cool to learn about magics history!

I got into the game in 2018 so creatures being busted is all I’ve ever known lol but I appreciate the perspective. And questing beast is my fav creature ever so I appreciate the shoutout!

I do appreciate you pointing out that for a very long time, creatures were on the weaker end when it comes to card types overall, so imo their power creep is also in some ways just equity to keep things interesting

This was so fun. Up there with my other fav magic history Pretty Deece!

I loved your point about the design of the new Sheoldred and I agree totally. Those are the exact kind of cards we want at the top of a meta. Very strong but not game breaking.

Excellent video. Glad to see all these gems. Wished you called out saporling beast. The 5/5 for 4 with fading. That was ubiquitous.

I feel like balance was in the best place in the 10 years between 2005-2015, where you start to see cards with both viable statlines and one or teo positive abilities, which allow for versatile utility and combo potential, but still doesnt turn a single card into a complicated interaction engine by itself. I think the game is in the best place when the goal isnt just cheating a singly bodey out, but constructing a synergy from multiple parts over multiple turns with enough internal redundancy ro survive some interference from the opponent. Conversely, most creatures up till about mirrodin had either weak spell effects and a borderline useless body, a just about acceptable statline with no useful effect for small drops, or a useless statline way over cost for big ones, or an actually respectable statline, but some crippling downside effect you rarely had a way of negating, making creatures basically not worth playing.

I mean... questing beast, yes it has infinite text and it was strong but it really didn't pass the test of real play, I'd argue bonecrusher and brazen borrower have been as impactful on standard at the time and are clearly more impactful on modern though not really seeing much play anymore. The 2019 spot should have gone to Hogaak, how many creatures can claim they broke modern completely on their own? to the point that banning cards in his deck didn't help stopping it. I honestly don't think any creature in magic history has been so format defining as hogaak, power creep so far above the head of the questing beast that it just makes every other creature look bad. Also... while I agree on 2020, I feel our friend Uro should have gotten at least a tiny mention

I'd like a video for each card type from each year of magic it'd be fun to have Seth pick an enchantment from each year, sorcery, instant etc

There's an argument Delver of Secrets is more important in 2011 than Snapcaster.

Perfect theme for the 30th years and great content.

Seems a bit inconsistent how some cards are judged by their current impact (ornithopter for ex.) while some are judged by their impact then (masticore)

Being around when the game started the front of this list looks so accurate and really can take one back to those "great" creature decks of the day where they actually battled things out. Broke the addiction for a time before Planeswalkers came out only to start looking at cards again a year after the WotC started coming out with the Challenger decks which were nothing like the previous precon decks I'd seen. Then quickly saw how EVERY SINGLE CREATURE in my old decks was completely power creeped while the spells in them were often fine IF they were still legal.

Love the vid, very entertaining. Power creep is why I gave up on the game with the Time Spiral block. Seeing what's come since then...wow.

To be honest I'll take 2013 for "Fight-Hydra" as it was my favorite card and was a fun threat. IF the hydra is left for the following turn in a standard with thoughtsieze, hero's downfall and Elspeth sun's champion, I felt it was only fair you get your board pushed in. Though I will recognize TNN was quite the problematic card as well... Like I said, just happy that Fight-Hyrda was even mentioned.

Great video, thanks!

Thank you for mentioning Akroma, she's my fav

Nice list! The comment about Fable makes me wonder about an Artifact/Enchantment list (since noncreature permanant would just be lands and PWs mostly) would look like. Also, Ragavan was targeted at Modern. I'm afraid to think what it would look like if it were intended to only be legal in Legacy/Vintage...

Psychatog was my first constructed deck ever all the way back in extended. I still have my Togs all of these years later.

I started in 94 and this is a great list.

Love content like this! 🔥✨

I feel like Primeval Titan should get a mention in 2011 at least alongside of snapcaster mage, card was insanely relevant from the day it was printed and part of tier 1 standard decks alongside both valakut and kessig wolf run/inkmoth

I would love to see the same thing for the other card types, like an instant one, land, artifact, sorcery, (you get the gist)

This year has felt far more reigned in then 19/20/21, design wise at least, been nice to see cards made to take things a lil slower.

AMAZING CONTENT. arguably the best video you ever made, thank you. it's time to start a collab with rhystic study channel, i would pay for those faster than a goblin guide

This was such a good idea for a vid

Great video!

As someone who started playing magic with Ice Age, I was definitely one of the people who lost my mind when Watchwolves was released. My friend group had all kind of agreed that the formula was that X mana would get you a 2X creature (3 mana could get you a 3/3 or a 5/1 for example). If a creature had more than 2X, then it had some kind of drawback like requiring a sacrifice or discard. If it had less than 2X, it would have some kind of ability. So to see a 3/3 for two that had no drawbacks, wasn't even legendary even, that was just massive.

Baneslayer in 2009 is the reason all my decks at the time were Black. Deathmark was omnipresent in my decks to get that angel off the field.

love these timeline videos.

Lol Savannah Lions. Those were a mainstay in my friend's white weenie deck back in the day when he got me into the game.

Loved this!

I'm honestly pretty surprised that Goldspan Dragon or Luminarch Aspirant didn't make the honorable mention list at minimum. Those cards were EVERYWHERE and basically an auto-include in those colors. Aspirant allowed white weenie to not get out-scaled and the mana produced by targeting goldspan dragon made it extremely easy to protect and even if you didnt protect it, it still gave you benefits.

I remember seeing flip Jace before the first major tournament, and saying that is going to spike. So at 10 bucks each i bought ten more, then it spike and sold ten for a 900 dollar profit plus keeping the one i pulled. Great profit.

Seth, you missed the emergency ban of Flash with Protean Hulk when it was discovered it could turn zero kill your opponent as long as they were going first. It was the Gemstone Caverns win with zero drops and Disciple of the Vaults combo pitching Simian Spirit Guide for the the second mana.

i started in 1993 and remember my 1st pack of mtg where i got the birds of paradise and threw it away since i was a naive 2nd grader who was looking for creatures with the highest power and toughness. realized my mistake a few years later. Also visions box set was my first serious investment into mtg as a kid where i sucked up eating packed noodles and did weekend child work to save up for a whole box of boosters. nekrataal and hammer of bogardan were my prized cards back then. watching this video made me walk back my memory lane as each card had a memory with me growing up. thank you for that. i miss the hours going thru cards without internet to help you in order to make a deck that syncs or becomes an archetype, testing it out at your shop then repeating it all over again. that is something og mtg players will never forget and will always cherish. nowadays everything is served to you very easy on what combos well. worse, everything has to be politically correct even for a FANTASY game. rip white/black knight imo,my favorite will always be the ball lightning + bloodlust combo

Damn 2019 was kind of a crazy year in magic huh? I remember so many busted cards from Eldraine. Questing Beast, Oko, Once Upon a TIme, Emry, Fires of Invention. That set was absolutely bonkers.

>protein hulk >kay booty Those are my two favs from this video. Please make more of these by the way!

Neobrand is one of my favorite decks and also the only one I'd never want to fight or would build

I personally think grislbrand should have text closer to necropotence where as you would have to exile the cards when you discard to hand size