From the Vault: Exiled

FTV Exiled

The promotional boxes set in motion by the 15th year anniversary called From The Vault are a yearly appointment and after the first about dragons, the second time seems more serious. The second box is called Exiled and is about cards that were banned from tournaments at a certain point, regardless of the format. With this kind of premise, and knowing that banned cards are usually broken ones, we finally have a 15 selection of really good cards that can actually still be used in Vintage formats or EDH.

For some kind of balance, not every card is realistically broken, but it is playable or borderline. The first noticeable one is Channel. The green sorcery nowadays makes most people smile, as no one trades life points for colorless mana without any useful meaning, but back in time, Channel + Fireball + Black Lotus is the first recognized Turn 1 kill. Speaking of old cards, Berserk is included, as the one mana instant is really strong in aggressive decks, especially when playing two would be giving target creature a 4x boost of power. Then power creatures like Serendib Efreet and Kird Ape, considered at their time too big for their mana cost, and last one, the real true powerful one, Goblin Lackey, that when it deals damage can put a goblin directly in play from hand.

Other goodies come in forms of artifacts, like Skullclamp, a power drawing engine in build-around creature decks, and Sensei Diving Top, the core of counter-top strategies, but actually banned for slowing down too much of the tournaments. Last one is Trinisphere, banned for hosing certain kinds of decks directly from a format like vintage. Most of the others are powerful tournament cards like Tinker, Gifts Ungiven, Mystical Tutor, also used nowadays as good engines. Balance at cost two is too powerful for what it does, and last one Necropotence, the black enchantment star that caused nightmares to many players back then.