Launching a limited print set during a pandemic where very few people got to buy it, let alone draft it, feels like unfortunate timing on Wizards' part. The problem with Time Spiral Remastered was that you couldn't get your hands on it. Time-shifted cards, which were recent cards printed in the original old frame, were a hit with players as well. It made lots of Time Spiral heavy hitters freshly available and made for a fantastic drafting experience. Time Spiral Remastered was an excellent set… if you could get your hands on it. If there's any set that's considered a highlight of Magic's history, Time Spiral, Planar Chaos and Future Sight are it.
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Bending time and space allowed Wizards to make a truly unique block full of new, game-defining mechanics like Lifelink, Deathtouch, Delve, Reach, and Shroud.
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The Time Spiral block was one of the game's most-beloved series of sets ever printed. What was meant to be a mechanic that represented humans coming together to stop the encroaching night was actually a finicky mechanic that was difficult to capitalise on, and will almost certainly not see that much play outside of the Midnight Hunt/Crimson Vow draft environment. This was supposed to be the big Werewolf set, but the daybound/nightbound mechanic feels overly complex and difficult to track, the vampires that are in it are underwhelming, and the lack one Werewolf Commander we got, Tovolar, is a pretty bog-standard tribal lord.Ĭoven was also a big miss. On the other hand, Midnight Hunt let itself down in terms of mechanics. It also by far had the best story of the year, setting up a two-parter with Crimson Vow that fed into folk horror amazingly and bringing back fan favourite characters like Wrenn, Gisa, Liesa, and Ludevic. Midnight Hunt's flavour was impeccable, and the set is full of brilliantly-themed cards like Mourning Patrol//Morning Apparition, Grafted Identity, Fleshtaker, and Raze the Effigy. Our first trip to Innistrad this year was definitely the less impressive of the two. Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Key Art by Anna Podedworna This list is also excluding any digital exclusives, like Historic Horizons and the Historic Anthologies released over the year. Flavour, story, mechanics, and some external factors will be taken into consideration as well, to try and give a more holistic look at how the year's gone. These rankings aren't strictly on how powerful the cards are, either. Even the lower-ranking ones were bursting with flavour and character, had cool ideas and at least a few great cards. Here are 2021's Magic sets, ranked.A few notes: first, every set this year has been fantastic. RELATED: Magic The Gathering's Innistrad: Crimson Vow Draft Archetypes ExplainedDefined by one of the busiest release schedules ever for Magic, a course-correction following the infamously overpowered Throne of Eldraine, a crossover that's been decades in the making, and a two-part return to the game's most popular setting, 2021 has been jam-packed. With Innistrad: Crimson Vow now fully revealed, this year's calendar of Magic the Gathering sets is finally complete, and we can start to look back on what the year gave us.