Ranking Every Magic Block for a Remastered Set

Time Spiral Remastered is a really awesome set. Time Spiral was clearly among the best options to start with when Remastering old blocks, but it isn't the only one that would be a slam dunk.

As someone who experienced basically all of them the first time, how do those other blocks rank as Remaster options from worst to best?

Criteria

Rankings are loosely based on how exciting the set is to draft, and how exciting the set is to buy and just crack packs of. You aren't changing Constructed with any of these sets, so those are the two metrics that remain.

Nothing from the Reserved List era is on here. Wizards is never going to do those with the Reserved List intact, it would break Mark Rosewater's inbox with emails like "WHY NO GAYAS CRADEL" and "I consider the lack of Thunder Spirit in this set a crime against humanity and have notified The Hague".

Only true multiset blocks are included. If you are shuffling Coldsnap and Kaldheim snow stuff together, that's Snow Masters and not a Remaster of either. Rise of the Eldrazi isn't really part of Zendikar. You get the picture. 

I did consider including every Magic 2010 and later Core Set as a "block", but then determined that would be like an ice cream company hyping up a new flavor of double vanilla. Maybe it's really good, but everyone is just going to ignore it. 

I'm giving each set a letter grade. F is don't even think about it, D is someone needs to have a clear vision and to prove it in advance, C is there is a mixed bag of good stuff and hurdles to clear, B is stuff that by default sounds like a good idea, and A is the obvious home runs to Remaster.

And with that, let's fire off the sets.

23. Mercadian Masques / Nemesis / Prophecy (Grade: F)

 

There is exactly one human still playing Magic and clamoring for more Masques block experiences. Sorry Siggy, but these sets fucking sucked.

 

Seriously, the project would start with “let’s throw out the entire fucking set Prophecy” and it wouldn’t get better from there.

22. Shadowmoor / Eventide (Grade: F)

 

You know what is even better than one set of pseudo-colorless hybrid soup? Two sets of that in the same set! I’m sure three packs of the Eventide Mimics will be totally fine for everyone.

 

Drafting Intimidator Initiate decks and Resplendent Mentor decks was great though. Put those in a Mono-Color Masters set or something.

21. Battle for Zendikar / Oath of the Gatewatch (Grade: D-)

Oath of the Gatewatch didn't even play well with Battle for Zendikar the first time around. Why would you want to incorporate them more closely, or force people to draft either of them again? 

 

Not to say there aren't some redeeming qualities of this block. Processor stuff was weirdly cool, as was colorless mana matters. Landfall and Allies remain cool. But so much of the block was trash that you are better off making the good parts into sub-themes in Eldrazi Masters. Put a cool colorless land into each pack, make them their own pack slot with rarities like double-faced cards. Don't make people play Unknown Shores or Wastes. 

You can make something good from this base, but it requires backfill from sources outside this block or even other Zendikar sets. Calling it Remastered is just tying your new set to some bad Battle for Zendikar brand baggage.

20. Khans of Tarkir / Fate Reforged / Dragons of Tarkir (Grade: D)

I think most people who have fond memories of Khans of Tarkir have those memories of actual Khans of Tarkir. Fate Reforged and Dragons of Tarkir weren't bad, but they would only serve to dilute Khans of Tarkir. Maybe you can spruce up Khans with 10 cards that aren't Firehoof Cavalry or Erase, but at that point just send the old file to the printer and save the effort.

I may be doing Dragons of Tarkir an injustice by not counting it plus Fate Reforged as a separate block, but again, people want Tarkir and not Peter B. Tarkir.

19. Return to Ravnica / Gatecrash / Dragon’s Maze (Grade: D)
18. Guilds of Ravnica / Ravnica Allegiance (Grade: D)
17. Ravnica/ Guildpact / Dissension (Grade: D)

We tried putting all ten guilds into the same set once and got Dragon's Maze. That set is underrated by players, but correctly analyzed by designers as being too much stuff in too little space. With twice as many cards it probably turns out better, but I think it is hard to maintain clear Guild identity and you get multicolor mush.

You could just cut up two unique five Guild sets, or split the Remastered set into multiple packs to get the unique Guild flow of the old formats, but at that point you are basically just making a new Ravnica block. Certainly a cool project, unsure the logistics and effort are worth it.

16. Amonkhet / Hour of Devastation (Grade: D+)

 

Amonkhet was a bit of a doomed Remaster from the start. Hour of Devastation and Amonkhet exist by contrasting with each other despite sharing the same base mechanics, so any Remaster attempt is going to have to skew towards one and disappoint the other. I would have chosen to bias towards Hour of Devastation and back fill with Amonkhet cards, but at that point you are just remaking Hour of Devastation draft with the third pack of Amonkhet cards appropriately spotted in. And the Amonkhet skewed Remaster was miserable because adding more quality playables to an aggressive format makes thigns too consistent and snowbally (Note: this won't be the only time I say this). Not a great new product any way you slice it.

15. Onslaught / Legions / Scourge (Grade: C-)

I think there’s a lot of stuff you can’t print in a Standard draft set in Onslaught block, but a lot of those things are kinda cool in smaller doses. Scourge in particular was just really fun to play with, and a recast of the block that highlights some of those components while mitigating some of the worse parts (lack of removal for the bombs, including the common Sparksmith, lots of grossly punishing Morph dilemmas) sounds like a good time.

My main issue is a lot of the initial Morph designs were built to be used with damage on the stack. I think as a physical product where people could play the cards that way it would be kinda cool, but the digital experience where you need a uniform rules engine would suffer. This is a big part of why this is a C- grade prospect, and you might be better off as a fan-made, fan-rules Cube.

14. Ixalan / Rivals of Ixalan (Grade: C-)

 

Ixalan and Rivals of Ixalan were just bad formats, but you can make a much better set from the overlap of the two. There’s some solid upgrades you can give the Dinosaurs deck, like Knight of the Stampede and Sun-Crested Pteradon, you can do some rarity shifting to de-aggro the format a bit or just pump up the removal to the Rivals of Ixalan equivalents.

But like… do people actually want this product? Is anyone out there hype to draft “well it’s Ixalan but we tried to make it better”? 

13. Champions / Betrayers / Saviors of Kamigawa (Grade: C)

I'm not one of the people clamoring for a return to Kamigawa. I get why the set had huge issues.

But wow, a Remaster of this block would be an absolute delight to draft. There is a lot of stuff in Kamigawa draft that is just good Limited with layers of synergy and flavor. Betrayers and Saviors don't really deviate from the good stuff and just add cool things or interesting to play mechanics. I swear hand size matters is fun in small doses, when it makes the play-draw decision unique. 

 

The big problem is filling out the rares and mythics. The set was underpowered for 15 years ago and it has not scaled well since then. All the cards you want to open for EDH or Constructed are A+ or F- in Limited. You can't just tell people to buy a set full of Adamaro and Jushi Apprentice, or tell them to draft a set of all Jittes and Kokushos. There are high demand cards in the sets, but how many Oboros can you fill a set with, and how many Oboros do people want to open?

My grade for how much I want to draft Kamigawa Remastered is a B+, but the product grade feels like a C- and I hope I'm wrong about it. 

12. Shards of Alara / Conflux / Alara Reborn (Grade: C)

 

Alara Block feels like a fitting medium block to remaster. The Shard themes are really well done to make them all feel unique, and you can shore up the original weakness of Shards of Alara with more mana fixing, but a lot of the stuff from Conflux and Alara Reborn fights against the clear cut three color stuff that was the best of the format and plays into five color soup that was among the worst parts.

The real issue with this, just like Ravnica, is you should probably just make a new Alara set with the effort of a Remaster. Print some cool gold cards, get the fixing right, reprint the real fun stuff or references to it. Boom, set sells a ton, great job, collect your paycheck. It's just too easy to make cool strictly themed multicolor stuff and cash in.

11. Theros / Born of the Gods / Journey to Nyx (Grade: C+)

The biggest strike against Theros Remastered is probably the public opinion of the Limited format. Theros draft had a lot of stuff that was cool to do but miserable to play against, like Hopeful Eidolon on Wingsteed Rider. Born of the Gods was a shit pile of a set. Journey to Nyx had cool things going on, but by that time as a third set it turned too much away from the other packs and the format ended up fine but unfocused.

But I think a refined, Remastered product across the three sets would be solid. The redundant versions of effects across sets gives a lot of room to tune to make the cool but painful stuff less painful, and you can maximize the really good Journey to Nyx stuff like Constellation. 

This sounds a lot like what I said about Ixalan, but the outcome is probably a lot better. Not just because the source material has better stuff to work with, but also because it's a more enticing pile of cards. There just aren't Ixalan cards that match Devotion or Gods in fan excitement or coolness.

10. Lorwyn / Morningtide (Grade: C+)

Lorwyn did a lot of stuff I think people still love years later. Supported tribal stuff sells well, and weird unique tribal stuff like Kinsbale Cavalier also sells well.

 

My issue is mostly that the cards of Lorwyn are a lot more fun to look at than they are to play with. It would be a lot of picking 45 cards, building a deck, nodding and saying "real cool Goblin Rogues deck I've got here" then playing three rounds versus Dreamspoiler Witches killing all your stuff, all the Merfolk stall nonsense, Thundercloud Shaman, and so on. 

In my opinion, it is best to remember Lorwyn with the seeding of cards we have seen in Modern Masters sets and not as a standalone piece. My fear is the set would probably get people excited and disappoint when you get to opening and playing with it, turning them off the Remastered product line as a whole.

9. Odyssey / Torment / Judgment (Grade: B-)

 

A much more worthy rework along the same lines as Onslaught. There’s a lot of tricky stuff that wouldn’t fly in a set people are going to draft 40 times, but if you are drafting it 4 or 14 times you are probably good. I don't think you can divorce yourself from "here it is right to just discard my hand to Patrol Hound" without erasing the format's old texture, which is both good that it has a clear identity and bad that identity is a weirdo one.

Also Torment and Judgment are still super cool sets you can emphasize. I can’t quite state why they are cool, they just really have that cool shit aura. Graveyard stuff is cool. Weird heavy black themes with the Cabal style Nightmares are cool. The Selesnya stuff is still cool. Even the stuff that kinda sucks, like Browbeat and the other punisher cards, is still stuff people think is really cool.

The biggest issue might be the grainy early 2000’s digital art. Is there a budget to Remaster that part of the set?

8. Zendikar / Worldwake (Grade: B-)

I originally had Zendikar lower on the list, but writing my what through the issues I think you could make it work fairly easily.

One of the weird challenges of Zendikar Remastered is original Zendikar oddly benefitted from the high volume of mediocre to bad cards. The format pushed an extreme game pattern and leaned on self-regulating Draft patterns to resolve it. The Rakdos cards were fine if they were contested enough to make the last nine cards in those decks dicey at best. If you start adding Worldwake playables to every pack, the format becomes unbreakably high velocity. And you can’t completely remove the aggro elements, because then it isn’t Zendikar.

I think the key is strategically shifting cards like Plated Geopede and Disfigure up to uncommon to change how reliable the hyper aggro starts are, while maintaining stuff like “Hagra Crocodile can’t block” to keep the original Zendikar race flavor. The games that are tight damage crunches that end on Turn 8 with tactical chump blocks are great, you just don't want too many of the ones where you are basically dead Turn 4 with no hope of winning.

You could also maybe try to splice Zendikar Rising and Battle for Zendikar stuff into the set, but those sets are either lots of hot trash or a lot of mismatched themes, making it a little difficult to get enough of them to matter into the set. Both of those sets' attempts to harness original Zendikar flair definitely fell flat, so you would really be cherry picking the best handful of cards and leaving the rest behind.

7. Scars of Mirrodin / Mirrodin Beseiged / New Phyrexia (Grade: B)

The worst part of full block Scars of Mirrodin draft was opening your Scars of Mirrodin pack. So much of that set was inbred to work by itself and not with the turn to New Phyrexia. A Remaster can easily fix all that and balance the two sides better. 

Scars of Mirrodin also has a ton of exciting mechanics and cards to return to that are absolutely not fit for Standard, so reprint equity is pretty solid. The only issue might be the overlap with Double Masters, but artifacts and Phyrexia are cool enough to carry multiple appearances with some spacing.

This is just a good, solid candidate for eventual Remaster and I look forward to teaching some kids about Pith Driller and Molder Beast when that does occur.

6. Kaladesh / Aether Revolt (Grade: B)

Wizards did this on Arena and it was good for all the reasons it should have been good. Kaladesh was fun with a couple specific problems you can mitigate with a rework. Aether Revolt had a lot of stuff that didn't work great but also a lot of stuff that would have been awesome with more Kaladesh. 

The format has a good mix of low rarity, high power stuff, build around rares, and traditional Limited stuff like combat and answers. It might even deserve a higher grade, but Kaldesh is fairly recent by Magic nostalgia standards and I don't know how much better or different this set felt than just rolling up with 3 packs of Kaladesh and replacing all the Renegade Freighters with a random other Vehicle.

5. Mirrodin / Darksteel / Fifth Dawn (Grade: B+)

 

Mirrodin has a lot of the same good fundamentals for Remaster as Kaladesh, but has three sets of source material to work with and another decade of well-aged nostalgia. You can upshift some of the more egregious equipment and Spikeshot Goblin in rarity, figure out which Fifth Dawn cards make a cohesive subtheme, and the power level is flat and synergy driven enough that upgrading low tier garbage to potential playables doesn't break up the old school feel. 

For a set this high up on the list it feels weird to not have more to say, but the artifact themes that carry Mirrodin have been used multiple times across other sets in the same way, been great every time, and you just get to do that here with the comically overpowered stuff you might not want outside of this historical context.

4. Invasion / Planeshift / Apocalypse (Grade: A-)

I have criticized other multicolor sets for becoming five color soups as they expanded. The reason for that is those sets have followed strict thematic lines for the different color pairs that melt into trash as the number of themes per set expands.

Invasion has none of those concerns. It has gold cards because they are cool. It wants you to just play those cool cards in any combination you want. 

 

It also might be the effortlessly cool aesthetic pinnacle of Magic. A lot of later sets are great because of the level of detail involved making a cohesive world. Invasion just has Borg-zombies fighting giant mechs and laser airship battles because it can and it looks cool, then the cards say cool things on them and everyone loves it. In a Remaster you can just cut all the head scratchers like Dominaria's Judgment and Dead Ringers and make a block of all hits.

This set immediately becomes an F- if we can't get Pikula art Meddling Mage though. Have some god damn respect for the game.

3. Time Spiral / Planar Chaos / Future Sight (Grade: A)

What can I say about Time Spiral Remastered the people who made the product didn't?

Or that hasn't been said in a classic Magic Blog Post?

2. Shadows over Innistrad / Eldritch Moon (Grade: A+)
1. Innistrad / Dark Ascension (Grade: A+)

 

Innistrad and Shadows over Innistrad blocks are the two best product arcs Wizards has ever made. Thematically have the detail polish of modern Magic IP, the effortless coolness borrowed from their standard fiction source material, and a lot of the same depth of references that made Time Spiral feel like art as much as a product.

 

And then the Limited formats are all time greats. Original Innistrad is showing a bit of age these days, but not a lot. It unintentionally does so many things right, which is wild because current sets actively try to do those same things right and fail all the time. The only thing wrong with Dark Acension, aside from Lingering Souls at uncommon, was that it wasn't also Innistrad. Shadows over Innistrad is weird and unnerving in all the best ways, and Eldritch Moon is the single greatest example of how to build good Limited sets in Magic's history.

You can make an Innistrad Remastered. You can make a Shadows over Innistrad Remastered. You can splice the two blocks together and it still works great together. Seriously, I looked at it a few years ago.

Why wasn't this the first Remastered set? We are getting another Innistrad set this fall. Double-faced cards are always a weird technical challenge. Time Spiral is the undisputed nostalgia kind for a nostalgia focused product. Pick your reason, all I know is I will be floored if Innistrad isn't one of the next two Remastered revisits.

That said, if a single Avacyn Restored card touches the card file you fucked up. Delete the entire file, burn the computer it was on to the ground, get a new dev team, and start from scratch.