Magic is a fun game, and like all games, some releases are better than others. I wanted to create a solid numerical scale to add some level of objectivity to the list. I scored every expansion set on five metrics, and then looked at every card from that set to remind me what it had, in order to verify my initial impressions. Our memory does weird things, and after the review, some sets rose that I didn’t expect, and some plummeted that I didn’t see coming. I let my numerical evaluations sit and then came back later, with fresh eyes, and then fixed and massaged them multiple times until they were set.

Here are the five categories we have:

The categories:

• Innovation — Innovation considers a few aspects of the set. Is it trying to do something new? Explore unexplored space? How different is it? This considers both the central conceit of the set as well as the various mechanics and more.
• Flavor — How flavorful is the set? Does it have a good story line? Are there great names and art that resonate? And most importantly, do the mechanics matchup with the central concept of the set?
• Power — Here you go Spikes! How powerful are the cards in the set? How impactful are they at a kitchen table or tournament? Do they have a useful pedigree?
• Design — How well designed is the set? Are there interesting layers? How good is playing it in Limited? Are there good mechanics that work well or are they overly insular?
• Tilt — This is my catchall category for a variety of factors. How fun was the set? Did the set do anything extra? Did it set any trends? Did all of the pieces come together in flavor, design, innovation and power?

Now, I scored each of these categories somewhere between 1-10, and then tabulated the results, and the worst set was Saviors of Kamigawa at 19 points and the #1 set will have 43 points. I am only ranking sets that were all new cards, and not reprints like Modern Masters 2015 or mostly reprints like Conspiracy. That includes most expansion sets, as well as the first and the various three Portal sets.

Today we are going to look at the sets that clocked in from #40 to #21 on our list of 78 sets. These are the sets that are on the higher end of average. Half of our sets came in the 29-33 point range, and today, we’re looking at sets with 31 – 33 points on that scale. My normal tiebreaker for ties is the highest tilt score, but for these logjams, I did single elimination contests with all of the sets of that score, and then listed them in that order, so you could see the difference in value between various sets that have the same score.

We’ll look at the average higher end, and then next week turn to the final 20, and the sets that are good to rocktastic with a point range of 34-43, not dissimilar from the 19-28 point range of the first article of the bad sets. We’ll also give you the full point spread for all of the sets and their rankings.

Remember, I played with all of these sets as they were released, (Save for two, but I was playing shortly after and saw the impact those cards had). I know how they were felt and received at the time, and that context matters for judging a set. It’s easy to look back and rank Mirrodin Besieged as better than Antiquities since the first does artifacts much better. But in their context? Not at all!

Are you ready? Alons-y!

40. Dragons of Tarkir, 31 points

Dragons are cool, and Dragons of Tarkir certainly does them better than Scourge. Right? Its focus on megamorph and Dragons makes it seem like a good Scourge, in the block that introduced morph and was a tribal theme, and Dragon theme for that set. You get the great Elder Dragon cycle, as well as cards like the Commands, such as Atarka's Command, and big name cards like Collected Company, Den Protector, and fun cards join like Hidden Dragonslayer or Ainok Survivalist or Sidisi, Undead Vizier. But it loses points in innovation for not being the most “new” set and just gets 6 points there. Get that Dragon on!

39. Fate Reforged, 31 Points

Fate Reforged ended up with the exact same Innovation score as Dragons of Tarkir. Why do I have it rated the same score? They have the exact same score, but FR gets one worse in power. There are some cool ideas here. The draft going both ways and working with both sets is one example of that, but there is a little more here to bite off. It goes into a fun space and shows the battle in the past that determined the fate of an entire plane, and you see the Dragons and the Clans fighting. Now I personally found manifest to be a bit on the weaker side for mechanics, but the rest of the set is great. And the cards are wonderful too, for kitchen tables or tournaments. From Ugin, the Spirit Dragon to the Siege cycle of enchantments is great, like Frontier Siege or Palace Siege. Delve continues to have a solid presence and even stuff like Gurmag Angler is seeing tournament play. Rally the Ancestors? Soulfire Grand Master? Tasigur, the Golden Fang?

38. Urza’s Legacy, 31 Points

There are two factors that make Urza’s Legacy the best set in Urza’s Block. The first is that this sees the introduction of foils. That gave it a higher tilt score for impact on the game, as that was a major change and addition. The other thing is that after the two obviously nasty cards from the set (Memory Jar, Grim Monolith), the set includes a lot of fun cards, and has a lot to depth to it, and it’s the best of the Block in terms of Limited as a result. Here, take a look at Deranged Hermit, Avalanche Riders, Ghitu Slinger or Raven Familiar for fun casual times.

37. Torment, 31 Points

In many ways, Torment was the first set with a major wonky draft theme. Torment’s theme was heavy on Black, and I think that was a cool concept, with a good amount of innovation. This was the beginning of the sort of Mono-Black Control concept, and we saw a lot of winners that sort of profiled cards like Nightmare from the first set. In here were things like Cabal Coffers, Mutilate, and Mind Sludge, as well as Nantuko Shade. And while White and Green weren’t supposed to have too much on tap, we still had the addition of madness and cards like Basking Rootwalla, Circular Logic, and Arrogant Wurm dominated the era. Deep Analysis and Grim Lavamancer are all here, and Torment walks away as a deep set.

36. Visions, 31 Points

I am very sad to see Visions here, but them’s the brakes. Again, this is one of my personal Top Five sets, but this ranking cannot be about me. It has to be about the cards. This offered a lot. It introduced the enters-the-battlefield concept for creatures with stuff like Uktabi Orangutan, Knight of the Mists, and Nekrataal. Meanwhile, we had a strong set for drafting, and it was the first good set of commons, with cards like Man-o'-War and River Boa actually being good. Crazy, I know! But yet the set’s rankings of 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, show that the set is certainly on the high end of average, but it is an average set when compared to the 77 other sets on this list. Check out cards like Vampiric Tutor and Undiscovered Paradise.

35. Apocalypse, 31 Points

How do you make a set different as a follow up to two gold allied color pairs? Have a set that features the enemy color pairs instead! We get it. Apocalypse covered some pretty cool and new ground, and went to some fun spaces. We had many of the first enemy-only cards and saw things like Vindicate and Mystic Snake that would be huge hits. The set had a lot of interesting places to look, and brought the enemy pain lands, but it still had weaknesses, as this was the first-time early cards such as Dark Heart of the Wood and Pygmy Hippo were done for a set. But the kickers created a strong slate of cards like Jilt and Orim's Thunder. And don’t forget cards like Coalition Victory, Fire // Ice, Dragon Arch, Grave Defiler, Phyrexian Arena, Legacy Weapon, Spiritmonger and, of course, saving the best for last . . . 

Pernicious Deed. You are welcome, Magic.

34. Portal: Three Kingdoms, 32 Points

How do you rate this set? It’s arguably the biggest challenge of them all. I gave it a 7 for innovation, but you could argue more I suppose. A 9 for flavor, as it drips from every pore of his set. 6 for power, 4 for design, and 6 tilt. The result is that it hits here at #34 on our countdown today. And there are so many interesting things it does, like makes people play with horsemanship rather than flying, moves it to Green, and then has a ton of legendary cards too. It’s a fun set! Imperial Seal? Capture of Jingzhou? Sun Quan, Lord of Wu? Here it comes!

33. Aether Revolt, 32 Points

It’s always harder to properly assess a new set against older ones. It’s easier to compare a set like Journey to Nyx to one such as Exodus because I’ve played them both, and had a hindsight perspective on both. It’s a little harder for a set released in the last few months. This is a set with some great things going on, but it lingers in the shadow of Kaladesh and the current state of affairs in Standard. But the set offers a lot of value. Most people reading this article are playing Magic while AR is in Standard, so you likely don’t need me to talk about it much, but there are some interesting things it does, and there are some cool concepts, like improvise, that just work nicely. We have the Expertise cycle (my favorite is Yahenni's Expertise) and great cards. Fun vehicles like Aethersphere Harvester and Heart of Kiran are obvious. Fun cards like Lifecrafter's Bestiary have shown their mettle. It’s a solid set by any metric. Now, I feel it’s a little light, and overly designed for Limited at times. But the set works nicely too. So let’s hear it for Aether Revolt!

32. Planar Chaos, 32 Points

Another in the “Odd to Evaluate” concept is Planar Chaos. How do you evaluate a set intentionally designed to mess with the color wheel? Its cards have certainly made some long-term impact, such as the simple Harmonize that everyone runs, or Damnation, Simian Spirit Guide, and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, as well as cards like casual hits Essence Warden, Big Game Hunter, Akroma, Angel of Fury and Mesa Enchantress. From great Slivers (Necrotic Sliver, per example) to gating stuff like Whitemane Lion, there is a lot here to love, but the set feels off to a lot of players, and cannot get too much score for simply breaking the color wheel intentionally.

31. Worldwake, 32 Points

Jace, the Mind Sculptor. It’s hard to think of Worldwake as anything other than the set that made Jace, TMS. But it is! We had cards like Death's Shadow, Lodestone Golem, Stoneforge Mystic, Amulet of Vigor, Avenger of Zendikar, Basilisk Collar, Bojuka Bog, Everflowing Chalice, Eye of Ugin, Searing Blaze and more as well as fun casual hits like Butcher of Malakir, Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs, Martial's Anthem, and Dragonmaster Outcast. It is a powerful set. So yes, WW is about more than just Jace! It has a very high power rating – 8, as a result.

30. Battle for Zendikar, 32 Points

Luckily for Zendikar enthusiasts, the return to the plane of Zendikar was considerably better than that for the plane of Ravnica. There was an interesting spin on cards, with the Eldrazi all over, but having evolved a bit from the previous incarnations. The colorless cards with devoid were pretty interesting. Landfall is going in a fun direction. You have another set of lands that have land types, such as Canopy Vista. Even Allies have a new theme (although I felt that was one of the weaker of the new elements). And then you add in Zendikar Expeditions. Powerful cards like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Drana, Liberator of Malakir, Radiant Flames, and Painful Truths. Tons of fun casual cards are here too, including Ob Nixilis Reignited, Sire of Stagnation and such. Even great tools from this set are useful, like the flash version of Journey to Nowhere in Stasis Snare or instant land fetching rather than sorcery speed stuff to get better landfall triggers with Natural Connection and more, like the pure smashery of Omnath, Locus of Rage. It’s a well-designed set.

29. Stronghold, 32 Points

Stronghold is one of the best casual sets of all time. It has a ton of hits there. But when you look at the sets near it and the ton of tournament strength they have, you begin to wonder about this. Now sure, there are a few big names here. Mox Diamond. Ensnaring Bridge. Mana Leak. Dream Halls. Hermit Druid. But this is the set that put casual on the map. Great additions to the Sliver group, such as Sliver Queen and Crystalline Sliver. Made Walls strong with cards like Wall of Blossoms and Wall of Tears. I have rated Volrath's Stronghold as the best multiplayer card of all time. Anthony Alongi once rated Grave Pact as one of the best of all time. Both are in this set. Reins of Power? Spike Feeder? Megrim? Evacuation? Shard Phoenix? Tortured Existence? Constant Mists is one of the best Fog variants ever printed. You are Strong with the Hold in this one.

28. Darksteel, 33 Points

The introduction of indestructible cannot be overestimated. And the power level of cards like Aether Vial, Skullclamp, or Arcbound Ravager cannot either. But this set falls as the next in line of the artifact-friendly Mirrodin Block, and brings with it a lot of its own power to the table. And while casual cards like Darksteel Colossus, Pristine Angel or Darksteel Ingot, are the sort that I like, Memnarch and Darksteel Forge are the sort that a lot of others prefer. Do you prefer Reshape or Savage Beating? Sword of Fire and Ice or Sword of Light and Shadow? Do you prefer the shutdown of Sundering Titan or Trinisphere? Now this set is top-heavy. Most of the set is pretty standard by-the-numbers Limited or weaker versions of cards. But the top is so heavy, that you struggle to keep it balanced. This set dominates the formats it is legal in, such as Modern or Legacy.

27. Fifth Dawn, 33 Points

Quick, which is better, Fifth Dawn or Darksteel? One is better in Limited, and has more depth of cards, but lacks a lot of power. The other is arguably the most top-heavy set of all time, but not with a lot of depth. So which do you think is better? Here, let’s unpack Fifth Dawn:

Many of the utilities I included above are the first or best in their lot. Take the Bauble. Unlike many of the artifact, “Crack this for a land” effects that put the land in your hand, it puts it straight onto the battlefield. You have Night's Whisper, the first of the two-mana sorceries in Black that trade two life for two cards. And Scry made stuff like Magma Jet and Serum Visions very powerful. Now that list does not include my personal favorites, like Silent Arbiter or Blasting Station. But this is a much deeper set than the predecessor, so I gave it one more tilt, which breaks ties, and then one fewer power. But I’m sure you can see the value of this set.

26. Odyssey, 33 Points

Odyssey has earned a reputation as a Spike-heavy set. I think there is a good reason for that. From Upheaval to Psychatog to Wild Mongrel to Entomb and Call of the Herd and Roar of the Wurm and Shadowmage Infiltrator and more, it’s a powerful set. But was it really that way in retrospect? The first (real) graveyard set was potent. (Weatherlight was sold as a graveyard set, but that was hard to see when you were actually playing it). But the set also has some fun cards like Mirari and Atogatog too, don’t forget. But the introduction of flashback was key to making the set work as well as broke some elements of it. Threshold was poorly realized at the time as well, and many cards with threshold were poor or just super powerful (such as Nimble Mongoose).

25. Shards of Alara, 33 Points

More than anything else, don’t forget that Shards was the beginning of mythic rares, a big part of the game now. It was the next in a long line of gold and multicolored sets, and tried to find a different way to do that, thus the Shard concept. I do think that the flavor of this set followed the mechanics rather than the other way around. We have a plane, and it’ll be split into precisely five planes, one for each type of mana, and just have that mana’s friends there exclusively! That is such a weak backstory for a plane, and the story was clearly tethered to the mechanics, as opposed to later sets. But the five colors do have interesting stories and details to share here and there. From Esper to Jund we see some fun options for your decks moving forward that defined those colors. I mean it’s hard to make a Blue, Black, White Commander deck today that isn’t Esper artifacts. And we have a lot of solid cards that impacted the game, from the little commons of Blightning to the big smashing Elspeth, Knight-Errant at mythic. Master of Etherium and Rafiq of the Many and Ranger of Eos are here. Now the set is not top heavy. There are a lot of quality depth in mechanics here, as cards like Wild Nacatl, Woolly Thoctar, Corpse Connoisseur, Sprouting Thrinax, and Relic of Progenitus are all solid stuff you can find. You have more useful Planeswalkers like Sarkhan Vol and Tezzeret the Seeker. It’s a deep set too, which helps to push it to #25 on our list.

24. Arabian Nights, 33 Points

This is the highest charting set of the small sets that had fewer than 100 cards to consider. It created a lot of best practices for the game moving forward. Now my evaluation for the set comes out at 6, 9, 7, 5, 6. Remember that this was the first expansion set, and it established a lot of things, such as having the same color backs and such. We also have a heavy story theme with the 1001 Arabian Nights concept as core to the set. Every single card is informed by that work. There are no generic cards like Healing Salve or something similar. Fishliver Oil! Rukh Egg! City of Brass! You get the idea. However, due to this set arriving pre-Legends, the legendary concept had not yet been created, so things like Bazaar of Baghdad, Ali from Cairo, El-Hajjaj, and Sindbad are all clearly legendary concepts. I also think that the real-world names and concepts makes this feel off. Cairo? Alexandria? Real world people like King Suleiman? It feels off. But the set does a lot with fewer than 100 cards, and many of these cards were major players during the time, and later. The set is mythic among players, with cards like Drop of Honey, Library of Alexandria, Old Man of the Sea, Island of Wak-Wak, Oubliette, Serendib Efreet, and Juzam Djinn all major concepts and characters.

23. Oath of the Gatewatch, 33 Points

Now I have to admit that I am not the world’s biggest fan of Oath of the Gatewatch as a set. But I can’t allow my own biases to keep me from honoring the set as to deserves. I gave it a 9 for innovation, and 8 for flavor. I’m sure you can see how those interact well for the set that really goes outside of the box with the colorless concept. Call the Gatewatch, and the Oath cycle are pretty interesting takes. A pro-Planeswalker set is cool. The Eldrazi are all over this set, and there are the cool Wastes as a new basic land. And we certainly have some strong additions to Magic canon like Nissa, Voice of Zendikar, Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, Kozilek, the Great Distortion, Kozilek's Return, Matter Reshaper, Sylvan Advocate, Thought-Knot Seer, World Breaker and a lot more. Time for a Planeswalker party!

22. Shadowmoor, 33 Points

The dark side of Lorwyn sees Shadowmoor arrive and kick some booty. It’s a great set, better than I think a lot of people expect. But let’s look under the hood! What did Shadowmoor give us? A few things. First, it was a multicolored-matters set build around hybrid, not gold cards, and those cards looked pretty good. Because of that, the cards cared about certain colors and that made them cool, like Ashenmoor Cohort or Bloodmark Mentor that worked very well under the hybrid concept. We also added stuff like persist, wither and mono-colored hybrid like Beseech the Queen. Scarecrows! Creepiness abounds with cool concepts. Persist in particular was done incredibly well. From Cauldron of Souls to give it to your team to great creatures with it including Kitchen Finks, Murderous Redcap, Kitchen Finks, River Kelpie, Kitchen Finks, Puppeteer Clique and of course, Kitchen Finks! This is the set of the Reflection cycle like Mana Reflection, or the powerful Lieges such as Wilt-Leaf Liege, and great auras too, such as Shield of the Oversoul and Steel of the Godhead. Painter's Servant! Reaper King! Prismatic Omen! This is a good set too!

21. Time Spiral, 33 Points

Time Spiral was a set completely designed around nostalgia. It recalled a lot of mechanics from old days, and then mixed and matched them with others, and in came cards like storm and morph, Slivers and Saprolings. The mechanics often intentionally evoked older cards and mechanics in some way, often leading to odd cards for Limited or casual play. Consider a card like Cyclopean Giant as a good example. It’s not an ability Black normally gets, but it intentionally evokes Cyclopean Tomb and Cyclopean Mummy with the “self-exile when it dies” trigger. By the way, Cyclopean means giant, or really big. So Cyclopean Giant literally means, “Giant Giant.” But the addition of the Time Shifted sheet and tons of powerful mechanics and effects made this a powerful set. Everything from Psionic Blast coming back to Standard to Academy Ruins getting printed were major additions to the fabric of the game. Ancestral Vision! Bogardan Hellkite! Dread Return! You get the idea! There were so many good cards in here that I can list them all. But the combination of the theme and the Time Shifted sheet was out-of-the-park awesome.

And there we are! These are the sets that hit on the higher side of the average curve, and now all we have left is the good, the great, and the awesomely awesome. The “Giant Giant” sets.

What did you think of these ratings? Anything surprise you? Any sets you expected to see higher or lower but didn’t? Ready for next week . . . ?

I know I am!