Ravnica: Clue Edition may just be, even more than the Un-sets, the most offbeatMagic: The Gatheringproduct ever released. Not only is it a standalone board game in its own right, unusual by Magic standards, but it also comes with a full set of over 250 cards, a mix of new Clue-based designs and classic Ravnican reprints.
For the most part these reprints are angled towards a casual player base, with each color getting a suite of solid Limited playables, but there are some hidden gems nestled in among them as well. If you’re trying out the newest Magic experience for yourself, these are the ten reprints to keep an eye out for.
10Lightning Bolt
The Original And Best
First printed all the way back in Alpha, there are few cards in the Magic canon as well-known as Lightning Bolt. For one red mana, it gives you three damage. Simple as that. Despite many imitators and sidegrades over the years, nothing has quite topped it in terms of power level, and nothing has come close in terms of recognizability.
Indeed, Lightning Bolt is essentially the mascot forBurn decks in older formats, seeing constant play in the likes of Pauper, Modern, and Legacy. It’s a card that still holds solid value despite countless reprints, making it a more than welcome inclusion here.
9The Shocklands
Predictable, But Welcome
Ask any seasoned Magic player what they want from Wizards of the Coast for Christmas, and most will answer “More Shock/Fetch land reprints.” No matter how many times these cards are reprinted, they still creep up in value over time, serving as the biggest financial barriers to entry for formats like Modern.
The high prices are warranted, of course. The ten Shocklands are arguably the closest thing to the original Dual Land cycle we have access to, and they’re an indispensable part of speedy mana bases in the majority of formats. Reprints like this give players windows to get their playsets, and are essential for the health of the game going forward.
8Beast Whisperer
A One-Card Draw Engine
It’s easy to fall back on ‘it’s good in Commander’ as justification for including a particular card on lists like these, but Beast Whisperer is really,reallygood in Commander. Four mana isn’t much of an issue in a format built on abed of Mana Rocks, and the ability to cycle a card for every creature you cast is so easy to break it’s laughable.
Naturally Whisperer is an auto-include in decks built around the Elf creature type, who can play out cheap creatures as quickly as he can draw them, but pretty much any green deck can benefit from his inclusion in some way. Green may not lack card draw options in Commander these days, but Beast Whisperer is still a top-tier choice.
7Supreme Verdict
Clears The Board, Guaranteed
A serious player in Pioneer, Modern, and, of course, Commander, Supreme Verdict is one of thebest board wipesMagic has ever seen. Adding an extra blue to Wrath of God’s mana cost makes it tougher to cast, but in return you get uncounterability: a trait which elevates it above the not-insubstantial competition in the board wipe sphere.
Holding up cheap Counterspells is a good way for Control and Tempo decks to protect their respective win conditions, but such strategies crumble in the face of a Supreme Verdict. It’s so ubiquitous now that it’s easy to forget the card’s Return to Ravnica roots, so a reprint in Ravnica: Clue Edition is both timely and fitting.
6Council’s Judgment
Removal Worthy Of Legacy
If they taught Magic: The Gathering degrees at universities, Council’s Judgment would be on every syllabus, owing to the way in which its popularity in older formats reveals layers to the game’s mechanics that new players wouldn’t consider. Three mana seems like a lot for a removal spell, until you realize this is a removal spell that can ‘target’ untargetable creatures.
This gets around hexproof, shroud, ward, and even protection, meaning no nonland permanent, not even the notoriously slippery True-Name Nemesis, is safe from the Council’s clutches. In addition, it’s also a fun political tool in Commander, letting you shake up the status quo with no risk to your own board.
5Deadly Dispute
A Common With A Mythic Price Tag
Despite its rarity, and the fact that it was only originally printed three years ago, Deadly Dispute is still outrageously expensive for a Common. That should tell you all you need to know about the power level it brings to the table, which has earned it regular spots in Pauper, Pioneer, and even Commander.
Sacrificing a creature or artifact is comically easy, and once you do Dispute essentially acts as a one-mana draw two: a great rate, even in eternal formats. It’s always great to see cards with multi-format utility reprinted in sets like these, and Deadly Dispute has that in spades.
4Giant Adephage
Honey, I Shrunk The Decks
When it comes to big green bombs that can get out of hand in Commander, there’s not exactly a shortage of options. That said, Giant Adephage is one of the better ones, capable of steamrolling entire playgroups when paired with haste granters and cheap token synergies.
The fact that Adephage creates a token that’s a copy of itself, and not just a generic 7/7, creates an exponential growth effect similar to that of Pack Rat, albeit on a much bigger scale. It may not have the reputation of a Craterhoof Behemoth or Primeval Titan, but Giant Adephage can still cap off your ramp curve like nobody’s business.
3Light Up The Stage
We Have Ancestral Recall At Home
No matter how long Magic runs, or how far the core design strays from its original vision, one thing will always remain true: the fact that drawing cards is a great thing to do. Doubly so in red, the color of aggression, cheap spells, and low-curve creatures. Given all of that, it’s not surprising that Light Up the Stage is an excellent card.
If you can trigger spectacle, an easy feat in any kind of Aggro or Burn deck, Light Up the Stage lets you effectively draw two cards for a single red mana. This raw efficiency has secured the card a slot in various red decks in Pioneer, as well as a respectable degree of Commander play.
2Hydroid Krasis
A Monstrous Multi-Format Menace
The scourge of Standard in its day, Hydroid Krasis hasn’t slowed down much since retirement, going on to terrorize both Modern and Commander in equal measure. It’s easy to see why: combining card draw, life gain, and a big flying creature in one neat package is just too good a deal to pass up, especially in colors withsuch easy access to Ramp.
Hydroid Krasis is most at home in Control decks, where it fills a similar role to cards like Sphinx’s Revelation, but it’s flexible enough to see play in Midrange lists too. As a proven playable with multiple homes, Krasis is the ideal reprint candidate for a set like this.
1Repeal
Not Quite My Tempo
If ever a card embodied the ideals of Magic’s Tempo archetype, it would probably be Repeal. Bouncing an opposing creature while maintaining card parity is exactly what such decks want to be doing, and the flexible mana cost ensures that, despite many imitators, none have ever replaced the original.
Repeal’s virtues don’t end there, however. The fact that it can bounce a permanent and draw a card for just one mana has secured it a place inmany Combo decks, going as far back as Doomsday in Vintage. As one of the most iconic and enduring cards from the original Ravnica block, Repeal has more than earned its reprint spot here.
