Top 16

The Magic Bracket has wound its way to the top 16 cards! (Starts with batch 11).

Here we go.

Batch 1:
My vote is going to Lightning Bolt. It's elegant, it's iconic, it's pushed without being bonkers. It truly set a positive standard for red removal spells.

I love me some Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, I really do and it's a well designed card to boot. Fifteen mana should get you something absolutely insane and Emrakul is that. It's also quite possibly the most recognized monster in the game. Unfortunately, Emrakul is so pushed that when it's put into play for anything less than fifteen mana, which is 99% of the time, there is zero interaction to be had on the part of opponents. It encourages broken gameplans and while that's not bad by itself, I find the elegance of Lighting Bolt to be superior.

Batch 2:
Birds of Paradise and it isn't even close. Liliana of the Veil is an oppressive card from an already problematic and oppressive card type. In terms of sheer power? Sure, Liliana wins but I don't merely look at power. I look at interactions, history, the design, and the doors that are opened up through good design.

Birds offers as many doors as you could ask for.

Batch 3:
Here are two distinctly abusive cards and my relationship with them could definitely be described as love/hate.

Necropotence has had no less than nine reprints which is bonkers for a card that is only legal to play in Vintage, where it's restricted, and Commander. I can see where the designers thought this would be a safe card: Cutting off your draw step and making it entirely life total dependent, triple black, exiling cards you do not use and locking any non-Instant cards out of your ability to interact until your next turn all seem highly restrictive.

But it didn't matter. Necropotence is broken and it always will be. I think it shines the most in Commander, honestly, where the risk/reward choices become more interesting.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor is a garbage card. I hate the overpowered design in a color that frankly does not need the boost, and to lock people out of their libraries is...ugh. That's just oppressive.

However, turn four is late enough that players can interact with it. In addition the world of Magic design has grown since the days of Jace. Players have more tools to handle the card when opposing it (though not enough in my opinion), leading to more interaction and more interesting choices on the part of the Jace player. So I'm going to give Jace the nod.

Batch 4:
Back in the day, I hated Swords to Plowshares. It is quite possibly the perfect single removal spell printed in the game. And when one has invested 4 or 5 mana into a creature, having it exiled (not just destroyed but gone for good!) with the 'drawback' of StP...well, that was just no fun.

It would be over a decade before creatures caught up to the threat level that StP warranted. Now that creatures are really good, Swords doesn't seem like a jackhammer hitting a tack.

But Wrath of God is probably a more important spell for Magic. Not just because of it's iconic status and power, but because it pushed the doors open for non-creature based strategies to flourish and that's incredibly important to the health of the game. Wrath it is.