Old powerhouse cards that were pushed out by NKOTB?

[Watcher487]

Here, let me put some fear from the old school days on this list.

Phyrexian Ghoul
Academy Rector
Peace of Mind
Enduring Renewal
Tradewind Rider
Lava Dart

[Amon Amarth]

Spiritmonger is *still* over the curve and yet just cannot see play because it costs 5 and isn't a good target for S&T.

What I think I miss more than a particular creature though is the old UR Fish lists being "a real thing". That kind of Fish was never super good in Legacy just because there are so many more aggro-control decks - it's easy to outclass the deck in an aggro/aggro-controlly field, but Fish/r was better in Vintage when the only creatures in the format tended towards Morphling/Welder/whatever Oath pooped onto the table.

Death and Taxes is sort of that kind of "Fish deck" nowadays; it's a series of mostly non-broken creatures that make life difficult for the opponent via resource management. For example, one of my favorite iterations of the deck was when it maindecked Spiketail Hatchling, Voidmage Prodigy and Grim Lavamancer. Separately, those cards are not typically very good (okay Lavamancer is good, the other two not-so-much) but in a group you had multiple weird ways of controlling tempo. Spiketail Hatchling was enough to force a fork in the opponent's plays, Lavamancer could burn down any dumb x/2 that you decided was okay to resolve (if you didn't just Force it or Daze it or whatever) and Voidmage Prodigy was great because it was a Counterspell that could beat for 2 -- but it could also sacrifice a Grim Lavamancer if need be to hard-counter something, and it was really easy for people to just forget that you could do that, so either because people are stupid or (in)correctly evaluated the threats to be underwhelming as individual units, in concert they gave you so much reach.

Nowadays you just can't really get away with running middling creatures in spite of their awesome synergy unless it's already tribal or, again, it's D&T and you have the Karakas/Ports/Wastes to drive the whole thing home. Even mana dorks have to be mini-planeswalkers to be worth the include (DRS you jerk).

I think there are a couple reason's why Spiritmonger isn't played whilst still being good.

1. Being able to change colors to avoid Dark Banishing or color hosers just isn't important anymore
2. Removal is so much better now that regeneration isn't as relevant.
3. Creatures are much better now even though Spiritmonger is pretty close to being the best value you can get out of a 5 mana creature. Titans at 6 or Delver at 1, TNN at 3... power creep hurts here.
4. There isn't a format for the guy to really get played in. If he was Modern legal with Pernicious Deed, well, I'd have to go get me some Overgrown Tombs.

I also miss U/r Fish. That deck was super fun and, to me, it's the perennial aggro/control deck.

[ubernostrum]

Here, let me put some fear from the old school days on this list.

Phyrexian Ghoul
Academy Rector
Peace of Mind
Enduring Renewal
Tradewind Rider
Lava Dart

Continuing with the theme of my prior post, I top 8'd States '98 with Suicide Black in a sea of Academy combo decks.

I'm not naturally an aggro player. But I do miss Carnophage into Ritual-Ritual-Hatred.

[phonics]

I think there are a couple reason's why Spiritmonger isn't played whilst still being good.

1. Being able to change colors to avoid Dark Banishing or color hosers just isn't important anymore
2. Removal is so much better now that regeneration isn't as relevant.
3. Creatures are much better now even though Spiritmonger is pretty close to being the best value you can get out of a 5 mana creature. Titans at 6 or Delver at 1, TNN at 3... power creep hurts here.
4. There isn't a format for the guy to really get played in. If he was Modern legal with Pernicious Deed, well, I'd have to go get me some Overgrown Tombs.

I also miss U/r Fish. That deck was super fun and, to me, it's the perennial aggro/control deck.

Powercreep has made it so that outside of standard, casting a 5+ mana card must put you in a game winning position, otherwise there will be a cheaper alternative that does a good enough job.

[Bed Decks Palyer]

Continuing with the theme of my prior post, I top 8'd States '98 with Suicide Black in a sea of Academy combo decks.

I'm not naturally an aggro player. But I do miss Carnophage into Ritual-Ritual-Hatred.

Man, I so much hope that you've top8 the '99 States too. And no, I'm not even kidding neither trolling!

[ubernostrum]

Man, I so much hope that you've top8 the '99 States too. And no, I'm not even kidding neither trolling!

Urza into Masques kind of turned me off competitive Magic for a while. My PWP history shows I went 3-2 drop at a PTQ in the summer of '99, then split in the finals of a side draft, then no points earned for 11 years.

I did finally notch my first PTQ match win of this millennium back in June. Went 6-2 for 18th place at a Legacy Open a couple years ago. But it appears my career as a competitive player peaked in the late 90s, so I'll have to settle for the +EV of mostly judging and occasionally breaking out the Legacy deck :)

[warfordium]

I remember when two premiere creatures (at least in WBR board control which i used to play) were Wildfire Emissary and Order of the Ebon Hand (Ron Spencer version OBVIOUSLY. #bolt #thunderbolt #stp

People used to sideboard Suleiman's Legacy for pete's sakes!

OH, and ITS RFG DAMNIT!!!