Magic the Gathering: Innistrad Mythic Rares

It gives you 13 2/2 Black Zombies for just 8 mana! So how can you not love this card? But is it good? Well, for constructed purposes, not so much. It's a very flavorful that is playable in EDH blue/black Zombie decks with Grimgrin as the Commander. It has a great effect, but it's really expensive. Really, what makes it a mythic rare is the fact that it has flashback, an ungodly expensive flashback cost at that! But it's still fun to have 13 2/2 Zombies come out of nowhere. With Snapcaster Mage, you can have it flashback for its original 5BBB cost instead. Understandably, triple Black is a death-knell for constructed purposes, but in casual and EDH/Commander play it's a fun little card to have a copy of, so hanging onto a copy isn't a bad idea.

One of the great headscratchers in the history of mythic rares, Angelic Overseer, while not a bad card in and of itself, should not be a mythic rare, at all. Maybe being Hexproof and indestructible as long as you control a Human is worthy of mythic rare status in the eyes of the designers, but a 5/3 flyer with no real upside besides that for 3WW just isn't all that fantastic. As a rare, she'd be OK, but if you don't control a Human, she's a Dismember away from being an afterthought. Granted, the Hexproof and indestructibility is nice, but while Gideon Jura and Hero of Bladehold are in the format, there are just better ways to invest your mana right now. After Scars block rotates out, maybe she'll be worth another look, especially with how strong Human decks are becoming. But right now, this is probably the second-worst mythic rare in the set, even though she'd be a very good rare.

Balefire Dragon is a card that just screams Commander. He's not a bad card, but he costs 5RR, which just is a bit too expensive for Standard. However, when he does hit the board, if your opponent doesn't have any flyers to block him, he's going to wipe their entire board. When Balefire Dragon deals combat damage to a player, it deals the damage about to each of that player's creatures. As a 6/6 flyer, Balefire Dragon can wipe out even Titans under your opponent's control. He's a really fun card for Dragon EDH/Commander decks, but he's pretty much just too awkwardly expensive and not quite meta-game relevant for Standard, although a crazy brew of a Birthing Pod deck might find some way to utilize him.

This is a very fun mythic rare. Never mind that it sells for very, very little on the open market; it's a card with plenty of potential. Considering that this card automatically makes every creature that hits the board under your control a 6/6 avatar, there are plenty of ways you can abuse it. One option is to use it as a 6-drop in a Birthing Pod deck. This way, your Solemn Simulacrum, even though it won't search a land, will be a 6/6, and when it dies, it still nets you a card draw as it becomes a Solemn Simulacrum again when it hits the graveyard.

The better option is to use it in token based decks, like with Hero of Bladehold and any other cards that create lots of tokens. It's especially fun with Garruk Primal Hunter and Garruk Relentless, whose tokens now are 6/6. Needless to say, having 6/6 beaters is pretty fun. The main issue is this card's 6-drop cost, with a triple Green requirement, which in Standard is a little awkward. It's especially fun in EDH/Commander with all of the token creation available in that format. Essence of the Wild may not be the mythic you want to pull out of your pack, but it's still a good card to try and build a fun deck around.

Perhaps one of the top five cards from the entirety of Innistrad, Geist of Saint Traft is a card that's seeing a lot of play, and for good reason! For only 1UW, you get a 2/2 Hexproof Spirit creature that whenever it attacks, it puts a 4/4 white Angel creature token with flying onto the battlefield tapped and attacking. You do have to exile that token at end of combat, but that's still pretty good! It's even better with paired Parallel Lives, allowing you to get two tokens at once (although that's not a combo we've seen put to work in Standard.)

Geist himself isn't a flyer or unblockable or anything like that, but since he is hexproof, no cheap removal spells can take him out. In a format that is full of removal, especially Dismember, this is a huge advantage. He must then be pretty much automatically blocked by someone if your opponent doesn't want 4/4 flying tokens besieging them every turn. The Geist is a very good card that's very much worthy of mythic rare status, and just one of the best designed cards in the set.

Not much has to be said about why this card is really, really good. For 0, you can put a 2/2 green Wolf creature token onto the battlefield. His other 0 ability, which has him deal 3 damage to a creature, then has that creature deal damage equal to its power to Garruk Relentless, making it very easy to transform him into his flip-side alter-ego: Garruk the Veil Cursed

The flip side has got a very, very good +1. Who doesn't want a little 1/1 Wolf with deathtouch? His -1 isn't bad, either. You can sacrifice a creature and then search your deck for any creature card, reveal it, and put it into your hand. What you truly have to watch for is his -3, which is a sort of turbocharged Overrun, which can easily win you the game.

If the designers definitely got one thing right about Innistrad, it was its planeswalkers, Garruk Relentless and Liliana the Veil. They complement each other so very well, which is obviously on purpose. For all of Innistrad's short-comings, and it has plenty, Garruk and Liliana will forever be among the best cards from this set (Snapcaster Mage is obviously in that discussion, but he's not a mythic rare).

Many players were looking for a great blue/black Zombie commander the way that Olivia Voldaren gave Vampires a great red/black commander. Grimgrin isn't bad and he can get really big in a hurry, but as we're all well aware, one big creature rarely wins a game, it's usually a bunch of little guys that just can't be blocked that do. When he attacks, yes, he destroys a target creature that the defending player controls, and gains a +1/+1 counter, which is decent removal.

But the only other real upside here is that you can put a lot of +1/+1 counters on him by sacrificing a whole bunch of creatures. This is more than doable in Zombie decks, but again, why invest in just one guy? He's in the wrong colors for much in the way of counter shenanigans (you'd need green for that), but he's okay if you're just using him as Commander for the sole purpose of building a fun blue/black zombie EDH deck. On the surface, there doesn't appear to be a lot of potential here.

However, with Necrotic Ooze still around, Grimgrin does have a place in some of the more creative decks in the format. Also, Dark Ascension is giving him some serious support, especially Gravecrawler, who gives Grimgrin an easy target to sacrifice that can immediately come back for a single mana. So get your hands on a play set while they're still inexpensive, because he might just find a home in Standard.

There is one way to make this card very good: proliferation. That said, having to pay one mana and discard a card to put a study counter on this very fascinating artifact is not a hefty cost at all when you consider what happens once it reaches three counters. With proliferation effects, this card could likely resolve on the turn right after it's first played. This is actually a pretty underrated card. With Zombies getting a lot better with the release of Dark Ascension, suddenly this card is looking more and more playable.

The one question is how many creature cards will actually remain in the graveyard after Cemetery Reaper and other Zombie cards that exile cards from the graveyard do their work. The answer should be, enough to make this card more than enough to scare people into taking it out before it can resolve. There's real potential here, and if you brew up a deck that can utilize it properly, you have quite a consistent and powerful Zombie FNM winner.

Liliana of the Veil is perhaps the second best card in all of Innistrad (behind Snapcaster Mage, of course) and she's all over the Standard format right now. With cards like Unburial Rites, Think Twice, and other fine cards with the Flashback mechanic in the format, discarding a card is actually welcomed for a +1 effect. Also, with the aforementioned Unburial Rites, you can bring back a massive creature from the graveyard that you previously discarded with her ability.

Her -2 ability is actually very useful, as well. Considering how inexpensive Liliana is, she's very likely out on turn three, and if your opponent is having some trouble setting up board presence, it's possible you'll force your opponent to sacrifice their only creature, or one of only two or three. Also, since it reads "target player sacrifices a creature" this ability makes her fun in multi-player formats in the early game.

Of course, what makes Liliana the game changing card that she is revolves around her -6 ability. Forcing your opponent to put all the cards that he or she controls into two separate piles and decide which permanents will live or die is one of the most difficult strategic decisions to make. If you make the piles correctly, you can pretty much say, minus 6, Win Target Game. Since it's all permanents, including lands, you can murder an opponent's mana base, too, regardless of which pile they choose, if done correctly.

Beyond her ultimate ability, the most amazing part about this Liliana is that she's only a 1BB planeswalker, with the same converted mana cost (three) and starting loyalty (three) as good old friend Jace Beleren. She will be a large part of the Standard format for a long time.

Mikaeus the Lunarch, who was actually released well before Innistrad in the From the Vault: Legends collection, is a very fun card to build around. He may not be the most solid Standard play, especially with all of the creature destruction abound in this format. He's also a bit of a slow card, as well, considering that he has to tap to use his ability, which more often than not is greatly hampered by summoning sickness. It is very fair to say though that even having to wait a turn to pump up your army in the manner that the Lunarch can is still certainly deserving of mythic rare status.

Some might see him as a lord of pseudo-lord for Tempered Steel. It's not a terrible plan, especially considering that X and one white means he's certainly going to fit in the extremely low mana curve of such a deck. In fact, running one copy has proven to actually work, as Conley Woods proved with a Top 8 Tempered Steel deck at Worlds 2011. He's a fun supporting cast member of any aggro deck that involves white at its base. He gives white weenie decks that little extra boost to push through that crucial few points of extra damage for the win.

Mirror Mad Phantasm is a very gimmicky card. Despite its outstanding artwork and a flavor that certainly befits the set, its potential is extremely limited. There is an excellent combo with Laboratory Maniac, which allows you to win the game if there are no cards left in your deck. However, the combo is tricky enough to pull off that it can't work consistently as a win condition. That's about the only way this card is playable. It's more of a jank mythic rare than a hidden gem. Don't toss it aside, though, as there are some tricks that make it an interesting combo piece in EDH. Any card with an effect as "epic" of that of the Phantasm must have a use somewhere.

A red/black Vampire Commander is obviously the best thing ever to happen to Vampires. Mephidross Vampire was probably the best card for the best previously, and is still a fantastic card, but as a commander, Olivia opens up the otherwise almost mono-black EDH Vampire decks to a wide array of Red cards that complement the deck perfectly. Red Black Vampires was a force in the Zendikar block dominated Standard format, and now a lot of those pieces can finally find their way into the singleton game. This is even without mentioning the red vampires in Innistrad already, from the commons like Crossway Vampire and Bloodcrazed Neonate to the versatile Stromkirk Noble. If Captivating Vampire and the Zendikar vampires were still in Standard, Vampires could become an even greater force. If anyone still played Extended, Vampires would be very, very powerful. You also have Bloodlord of Vaasgoth from Magic 2012, who's perfectly runnable as a lone copy in addition to your one or two Olivias.

Her ping ability for 1R is fantastic, especially considering that she also gains a +1/+1 counter. Her ability to gain control of target Vampire is probably only going to be viable late-game, but that it can be an enormous momentum shift in any case is obviously notable.

As a Commander, she has so much support behind her that her deck, while not the cream of the crop of the EDH/Commander world, is a very potent, very playable competitive deck in an otherwise very casual format. Olivia also has great artwork, and gave Vampire players the boost they were hoping for from Innistrad. The only problem is, in the current Standard meta, she doesn't really have a home, something that may very well be remedied with Dark Ascension

This card seemed to have such an amazing amount of potential, especially with Storm combos. It was seeing play for a while in Legacy, and in the right deck, it can set up win conditions. The Flashback element makes it even more dangerous, and pushes it to that mythic rare level. As far as other constructed formats are concerned, a 4-cost sorcery without the combo pieces available in your graveyard is a bit awkward. Since the best pieces are available in the eternal formats, it doesn't see much play outside of Legacy & Vintage. It can potentially make things interesting in EDH/Commander, as well, especially in a deck built around potentially abuse-able burn spells.

All in all, this is a very good card, but because of its limitations in the current meta-game of more popular formats like Modern and Standard, it is a relatively inexpensive mythic rare. It's a lot of fun if you love playing combo decks that can leave your opponent feeling rather irrelevant. While those sort of decks don't appeal to everyone, I admit that this is a card that will age quite well.

When Innistrad was first being spoiled, and even upon its release, the hype surrounding this card was frankly, pretty ridiculous. Everyone was pretty stoked about blue/black zombies, and this guy being able to be cast from your graveyard was a pretty sick concept in theory. The reason that the concept was only theoretically ill? Its additional casting cost, of course.

A 5/6 flyer for 3 mana is obviously quite good. The trouble is that you have to exile three creature cards from your graveyard whether he's summoned from your graveyard or from your hand. Now if you can find some way to dump him off and reanimate him, great, you have yourself a nice cheap bulky flyer. The trouble is, Reanimator decks have such far superior targets to conjure that Skaab Ruinator is, well, ruined by its very expensive casting cost. Yes, Zombies toss a lot of guys in the graveyard, but the most solid of Zombie decks rely on Zombie tokens. So when the hype around the set's release died down, as did his price.

He's certainly useable, but is he a waste of a mythic rare slot? He's just not worth the ultimate cost in a competitive sense. Ruinator can fit into a Zombie EDH deck with no trouble at all. The only way I could justify this as being a mythic is if you could remove creatures from other graveyards, as well. Certainly, that would probably become too broken, which is why it's limited to just your own. It's yet another Innistrad card that has a nice flavor to it, but in terms of deck construction it falls short of being a useful addition.

While our friend Tree of Redemption is far from being one of the best cards in the set, there is no doubt that this is one of the craziest cards to acquire in Limited. The good Tree's an easy first pick if you get him, not because of money value, but because of its utility. Being a 0/13 defender for only 4 mana (only one of which has to be green) would make it an underwhelming, but passable rare.

What makes it a mythic rare, is the tap ability. Being able to potentially take yourself from near death back to 13 life is obviously quite fun. The downside is that it's really only a one-use ability (not that you would really have to use it more than once) because your former life total becomes the Tree's toughness). But the usefulness is quite clear. Depending on how much removal your opponent has, this could stay on the board for a long, long while.

For Constructed purposes, the Tree could find its way into a few interesting home brews. It has potential in EDH/Commander in the right deck, too. There are potentially some interesting combos you could pull off. If you have a way to have it lose Defender, it's quite a bit better when used with the ever popular general, Doran, the Siege Tower. It's not a great mythic rare, but it's a welcome sight in Limited, and cheap walls with a potentially extremely useful tap ability are obviously very hard to come by.

While there are a number of very underwhelming mythic rares, and a couple that are just awkward and extremely gimmicky, the Innistrad line-up of mythic rares isn't terrible by any stretch. Compared to past sets such as New Phyrexia, Scars of Mirrodin, and Mirrodin Besieged, it doesn't stack up quite, as well, but some of these cards may be a little more valuable when those aforementioned sets are no longer in Standard. There's enough in this set to make it worth investing in this set, but you're best off picking up play-sets of the better mythic rares than investing in too many booster boxes or packs.