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From Magic: The Gathering’s 20,000+ cards, there are some sets that have lived on as some of the most powerful ones in their day. Not every set in the game is balanced and easy to use. Quite a few sets have had a wealth of overpowered, broken cards that are either banned or restricted in some form or another. MTG isn’t the most balanced card game in the gaming world, but this has led to some truly incredible cards being printed.
What makes a Magic: The Gathering set powerful?
As far as criteria goes, the most important factor is that the sets on the list have to be created for standard tournament gameplay. That means no 'Un' sets, and the same goes for Modern Horizons 1 and 2. These are both incredibly powerful sets, but as the cards in it cannot be used in Standard, they will not be on the list. Additionally, Commander sets are also not permitted.
Not every Magic: The Gathering set is as powerful as the others. In the past, Wizards of the Coast would print a pretty powerful set, and then one that is a little more toned down, in the name of game balance. It feels like that doesn’t happen as often anymore, but that’s a completely different discussion. With that being said, here are the most powerful MTG sets.
Most powerful MTG sets
- Throne of Eldraine
- Worldwake
- Mirrodin
- Lorwyn
- Arabian Nights
Unfortunately, while Alpha/Beta/Unlimited were there when Magic: The Gathering got started and featured a few very powerful cards, most of the set was mediocre. The 'Power 9' are still incredible cards, but the rest of the set was underwhelming. The game had to start somewhere, after all.
5) Throne of Eldraine
Throne of Eldraine dropped in 2019, and its fairy aesthetic and design was incredibly popular among the players. The addition of new card types such as Adventures was seen in the most powerful decks of the time. It was an expansion that also featured five cards being banned that year. It infuriated players everywhere with how overpowered so many of the cards were.
Oko, Thief of Crowns, was in practically every deck that had blue and green in them. The Great Henge, Brazen Borrower, Embercleave, and Fabled Passage were some of the most used and most satisfying cards in the expansion.
It also saw the following cards banned: Fires of Invention, Once Upon a Time, Lucky Clover, Oko, Thief of Crowns, and Escape to the Wilds. That is an amazing amount of cards banned. The set felt like it had little to no balance, and was easily one of the most powerful sets in all of Magic: The Gathering.
4) Worldwake
Worldwake is remembered for many reasons. In particular, it led to the creation of one of the most powerful cards in the history of Magic: The Gathering: Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Banned in many formats for years, the cards in the set wound up being used in Eternal formats after the 2010 release originally happened.
Some of these cards will be familiar to Magic: The Gathering players: Stoneforge Mystic, Death’s Shadow, Omnath, Locus of Mana, and Bojuka Bog. However, Jace, the Mind Sculptor is what the set is really known for. Players that ran blue and didn’t have this 100+ dollar card were not taken seriously in the game.
3) Lorwyn:
2007’s Lorwyn, the 43rd set of Magic: The Gathering would change the game permanently. In Lorwyn, a new style of card was revealed: Planeswalkers. These characters were in the game and in the lore for years, but now, they were receiving their own cards. They were treated essentially like second players and had a variety of powerful abilities to use in the game.
It was a popular set containing Changelings, Champion, Evoke, and Hideaway as mechanics. It was a very tribal-heavy set, so Changelings made sense. There was a wide variety of powerful tribal cards that would be used in the game.
For popular cards, the planeswalkers are well-remembered, as are cards like Vigor, Thundercloud Shaman, Profane Command, and Oblivion Ring.
2) Mirrodin
Mirrodin, the artifact-focused plane, has been the setting for several Magic: The Gathering expansions, but the first one is the most remembered one. The Affinity mechanic was incredibly powerful, and is remembered well to this day.
It made so many cards incredibly easy to play, thanks to how artifact-heavy the set was. It was also a set that led to some pretty sweeping changes to Magic: The Gathering. Mirrodin was wildly powerful and had a whopping 10 cards being banned in Standard/Constructed back in 2006.
Aether Vial, Archbound Ravager, Darksteel Citadel, Disciple of the Vault, Great Furnace, Seat of the Synod, Tree of Tales, and Vault of Whispers all received bans. There were two dominant decks during that time. You either ran Affinity, or you ran Tooth and Nail. There were no other ways about it.
Skullcamp, Chrome Mox, Chalice of the Void, and Tooth and Nail were popular, well-remembered cards in the set.
1) Arabian Nights
Arabian Nights was the very first major expansion to Magic: The Gathering. Before that, there were Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited, but those were just reprints. Arabian Nights had virtually no balance to it, and had simply wild and ridiculous power cards. Some of the strongest and most expensive cards today come from Arabian Nights.
Eternal Formats also have some of the most desired cards. Library of Alexandria, Drop of Honey, Bazaar of Baghdad, and Oubliette are talked about in Arabian Nights. There’s also Shahrazad, and Island of Wak-Wak. The developers had a lot to learn in making the game balanced, and it would take some time beyond Arabian Nights for them to do so.
The set, styled after One Thousand and One Nights, had familiar characters and items from the Arabic stories, and many of them wound up being expensive and powerful.
Magic: The Gathering would have quite a few powerful sets beyond this, such as The Dark, Urza’s Saga, and so many others. Few card games go as big as MTG, in creating wildly powerful expansion packs.
