The Best Commander Cards From... Prophecy

Welcome back to The Best Commander Cards From..., a series focusing on the most powerful EDH cards from across Magic: The Gathering's rich thirty-year-long history. Today's focus is Prophecy, the twentieth expansion set, which was released in June of 2000, and is the final set in Masques block.

Not Quite As Prophesied

Even though Prophecy has some real bangers, Mark Rosewater himself has ranked it as the second-worst designed set of all time. Believe me, that definitely tracks if you compare it to Nemesis or Mercadian Masques. It would be hard for any set to follow up on Urza's block, and the entirety of Masques failed in this regard, which makes Prophecy a rather unfortunate finish.

Mechanically, almost everything from the previous two sets is nearly absent, and almost nothing new fits with those established themes. There's a handful of free spells, and a cycle of legendary Spellshapers that are reminiscent of the first two sets, but the Rhystic tax mechanic, and cards that wanted you to sacrifice lands, were a big deal in Prophecy. There are no new creature types, and little else to discuss, so let's just get into the cards.

Rhystic Study

It shouldn't be a surprise that this is the most powerful card in the set. Unfortunately, there isn't much I can say about it that hasn't been said before. What I can mention is how the rhystic tax mechanic peaked with Rhystic Study and then fell right off a cliff.

Many of the rhystic cards are templated like Rhystic Tutor, allowing any player to prevent your spell from working properly if they paid a bit of mana. Others targeted a single opponent, but were still embarrassingly weak. Even in two-player formats, this sucked. The mechanic was never used again, and Mark Rosewater is on record as saying it's a 9 on the Storm Scale.

Avatar of Woe

There's an entire cycle of rare Avatars in this set, but this is the only one that's both reasonably castable and worth the trouble. The worst of these is Avatar of Hope, but let's get back on track. Two mana for a repeatable Flesh to Dust is nothing to sneeze at. Even if you're not a graveyard-themed deck, you'll still be able to cast this for cheap some amount of the time.

Keldon Firebombers

Nonland ramp and bounce-lands are the order of the day if you want to use Keldon Firebombers. Unlike Armageddon and Ravages of War, you can blink and Reanimate the Firebombers for even more fun. Mass land destruction might not make you a lot of friends, but I love this in most Gruul decks.

Foil

Folks, if you've kept up with my other pieces from Masques block, you know what's coming: it's hard to beat free. Foil is perfect if you're drawing extra cards or aiming to put lands or reanimation targets directly into your graveyard. If you're a fan of Pauper Commander, it's also a great piece of interaction for Lore Weaver and Ley Weaver, and you can check out a sweet deck with all three right here!

Overburden

In addition to being a tedious obstacle for any deck looking to play creatures, Overburden has a little bit of combo potential. With Chulane, Teller of Tales and Shrieking Drake, one can create a near-infinite of... most game actions.

Greel, Mind Raker

Five-mana legends that generate massive value are par for the course in Commander, with standouts like Tatyova, Benthic Druid and Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder coming to mind. Greel, Mind Raker might be weaker than those, but a repeatable Mind Twist that you can use on an opponent's draw step is pretty cool.

Citadel of Pain

This enchantment lives up to its name, punishing control decks especially hard. You'll get extra mileage out of Citadel of Pain with damage multipliers, like Obosh, the Preypiercer. Players will often start using their interaction on their own turns to avoid taking extra damage, which clears the way for your own spells.

Spore Frog

You'll find Spore Frog most prominently featured alongside Meren of Clan Nel Toth, where it both wards off aggression and gives you experience counters. Grolnok, the Omnivore will also take any Frog you can find. As a side note, can you believe that both Spore Frog and Rhystic Study were printed as commons?

Plague Wind

Although Plague Wind might be a bit outclassed by certain newer cards, the effect is undeniable. In Garruk's Wake and Cyclonic Rift come to mind as newer, shinier options, but redundancy never hurt anybody looking for one-sided board sweepers. Fun fact: there's actually an entire Wind cycle in Prophecy, and this is the most popular of them.

Alexi's Cloak

I like Alexi's Cloak as an alternative to cards like Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots. Instead of proactively using Equipment, you have to hold up some mana, but the reward is that you get to fizzle a removal spell. If you aren't playing Voltron, but you need your commander alive, this niche playable is definitely worth considering.

Vitalizing Wind

This part of the Wind cycle is an Overrun that's turned up to 11. While it can't be tutored out as easily as Craterhoof Behemoth, it can still get the job done. This rare was never reprinted, and even now it's barely over a dollar in price. Not bad for almost 1/30th the price of the Hoof!

Abolish

Usually, spending two cards to get rid of one is not very efficient, which is a bit part of why Abolish isn't more popular. That said, free spells are really strong, so consider giving this one a try. Bonus points if having lands in your graveyard is beneficial.

That's all I've got for you today. Prophecy struggles to even live up to the reputation of the first two sets in Masques block, which were themselves widely regarded as a watered-down follow-up to Urza's block. Sadly, it doesn't offer too much for the Commander format beyond the admittedly impressive highlight reel of Rhystic Study and Spore Frog.

If I somehow missed your favorite card, I hope you'll let me know in the comments. As always, I've been Luka "Robot" Sharaska, and I hope you'll come back next time for Invasion.