MTG Salvation

Basically, what cards used to be format all-stars or staples that were basically ubiquitous with either the format or a specific color that see little play or discussion or just don't hold up these days? An example, I suppose something like Consecrated Sphinx has become more of a pet card than a "expect this to be in just about any deck running blue" like it used to be.

Conversely, what are some cards that have seen a rush in usage or popularity over the last few years that were either niche/borderline cards or just never saw play at all? Something like Rhystic Study was generally seen as a good card, but comparing its price increase over time it's definitely become more of an ever present thing, or Wayfarer's Bauble seems to have had at least some surge in popularity, Oubliette is another good example of a card that may have been kicked around as an underrated EDH card that suddenly went into high demand and sees way more play now, etc.

I used to see Duplicant all the time, now I hardly ever see him.

I hadn't seen Vigor much, but I feel like I see him a lot more recently.

terastodon use to see this guy everywhere, use to see it powered out early and often, blinked repeatedly, reanimated, whatever. i haven't seen it in over a year now.

krosan grip card is strong, but i'm seeing it phased out more and more for cheaper options like nature's claim

venser shaper savant use to see this guy at least once a week, and in just about any deck sporting blue. i've seen him phase out a little more slowly, but also in favor of cheaper options like chain of vapor

i think a lot of examples like this also have to do with experience and longevity of a group. over time groups generally become more competitive, especially if new players rotating in declines.

Though it still gets quite a bit of praise, Mystic Remora is a card I've seen a lot less lately. And when I do see it now, it never does anything because people have gotten better at building decks that can play cheap utility creatures instead of just Mana rocks, etc. early in the game to easily wait it out and get way ahead of the remora player

When I first started getting in to edh Jenara, Asura of War was a common commander amongst friends and the two local shops near me, but now I can hardly think of the last time I've seen her.

I think for her time she was terrifying - an amazing control commander that would come out fast, and if the player didn't need to counter or answer something they just grew their commander at eot. But now-a-days I suppose control players and bant players just have better options.

Quote from Wizmin »

Though it still gets quite a bit of praise, Mystic Remora is a card I've seen a lot less lately. And when I do see it now, it never does anything because people have gotten better at building decks that can play cheap utility creatures instead of just Mana rocks, etc. early in the game to easily wait it out and get way ahead of the remora player

i've heard people claim that, but they're just not playing it right. the card still does MAJOR work. you just have to know your group, and don't play it t1. i've seen a lot of people drop it t1 and everyone just waits it out, i've seen even more people play it t4 and it draws a crapton of cards

its all going to be relative to the group though, the cards brought up in this thread that is, so your group may definitely have gone a different direction

Quote from Xcric »

Quote from Wizmin »

Though it still gets quite a bit of praise, Mystic Remora is a card I've seen a lot less lately. And when I do see it now, it never does anything because people have gotten better at building decks that can play cheap utility creatures instead of just Mana rocks, etc. early in the game to easily wait it out and get way ahead of the remora player

i've heard people claim that, but they're just not playing it right. the card still does MAJOR work. you just have to know your group, and don't play it t1. i've seen a lot of people drop it t1 and everyone just waits it out, i've seen even more people play it t4 and it draws a crapton of cards

its all going to be relative to the group though, the cards brought up in this thread that is, so your group may definitely have gone a different direction

I've seen what I described happen early, mid, and later in the game pretty much always in my play group now. We've just all gotten to the point where we recognize that a well built deck can usually win off of the value Remora can very easily generate so it's a particular card we take into account against when deck building. I could definitely see people with less experience against it, or too stubborn to learn to play around it having trouble against it though. That's just what I see from it these days. It is certainly still efficient though. And like I said, I could see some people still having trouble against it. I suppose it's also worth noting that any deck that can reliably recur it should pretty much auto run it

I think there has been a pretty big shift away from clones and reanimates as general good stuff cards. For a while the meta would revolve heavily around 1 or 2 real creatures in play, and fighting over them with reanimates and clones, especially when clones could double as removal and threats. I think thats also probably why you see a lot less consecrated sphynx. Grave Titan is another one that I think used to be much more common to fight over and define a game. Primeval Titan and sundering titan were also big parts of that meta and they obviously got banned for it.

I think the other thing that has streamlined a lot more is the ramp and removal that people use. I think it has become much more streamlined like the person above noted Krosan Grip losing popularity for Nature's Claim.

A lot of expensive blue card draw spells like Recurring Insight used to be popular as well, that seems to have been streamlined more into things like Rhystic Study and Treasure Cruise

I do notice cards not appearing often anymore the problem is sets including ikoria are introducing weaker budget alternatives to all of the cards mentioned and it's getting easier to deal with those cards as well

It's due to price and scarcity is why people are switching to budget alternatives which are caused by wizards being cowards of reprinting the heavy money cards Hopefully Commander legends will fix that for quite a few of these

For my example, I barely ever see massacre wurm anymore

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, Palinchron and deadeye navigator These creature-based combos used to drive me nuts but I haven't seen them in a long time.

Eternal Dragon used to be seen in a lot of lists, but it is terrible nowadays... Same with Simic Sky Swallower. There's the obvious tuck removal, like Spin into Myth and Condemn. The thing that gets me most is how streamlined the commanders have become, so that many fun or silly ones can't be used in mid-power or higher games; I used to get a lot of mileage out of my Commander Eesha voltron deck, for example, but there's very few effective low-speed voltron strategies at tables in my area, and they tend to be card advantage engines instead.

On the other hand I've played against multiple Maze's End decks recently, and rarely a game goes by where I don't see Mind Stone, which I think is rather subpar for a 2cmc ramp artifact, compared to some new alternatives.