Hello all and happiest of days to each of you! Today, I wanted to talk about what I consider to be my Top Flavor Sets of All Time. Here's what we're gonna do: these need to be sets that are flavor first, with great card names, concepts, and art, plus flavor text and more. Ready? Let's get to it!

Honorable Mention #1 - Khans of Tarkir

This set hits so many strong home runs. The core of Pan-Asian inspiration knocked it out of the park and it was the first set with a wedge theme that introduced five more timeless factions. It's also a great Limited set, and I am sad we only got one set there before the Time Travel stuff happened in the next two sets of the block. Also, this gave us the now evergreen mechanic Prowess!

Honorable Mention #2 - Amonkhet

This Egypt-inspired set really pushed flavor to the forefront. It took the God concepts from Theros and then shifted them into a new pantheon of inspiration. It's got a nice and dark twist hinted in its flavor texts too. I enjoy it's shift of Zombies into White to show that change in the world. Now I do know that some felt that this was a pop cultural view of Egypt rather than something more grounded in reality - but isn't that true for other sets and worlds, like Krakens in Theros ? I hear you. But the mechanics like embalm and -1/-1 counters and the art all work for me!

Honorable Mention #3 - Ravnica Block and War of the Spark

I wasn't sure if story sets like Invasion counted or not. The initial Ravnica Block where each faction is introduced over time is a classic, and it's here instead as the representative for good gold sets. This gave the ten two-color pairs identities, like Izzet's Spellslinging, and Shock Lands! Then we had the great Planeswalker War in War of the Spark which gave us a take on Ravnica as an event set. There was great flavor and story too!

#5. Lorwyn

I adore the flavor here as a lighter hearted Celtic and British Isles, and it's one of the best Kindred Sets ever too. I just adore this set so much. The art is great, especially the Swamps with color, which is how real-life Swamps look but not how most art in the game does it. I enjoy the Kindred card type, and planeswalkers were added to the game in this set as well. Changelings are a big flavor hit too.

#4. Innistrad

This classic Gothic Horror and beloved plane is next. It's got Zombies and Spirits and Vampires and Werewolves all attacking Humans. In order to make Werewolves work they added in double-faced cards which was a big flavor hit. It adds Liliana of the Veil to dominate and Snapcaster Mage and is a great graveyard matters set in a way that's flavorful. A great draft set too.

#3. Zendikar

Ah yes, this Adventure-Themed World! It's got traps and nasty stuff that only gets better over time. The Hedron art is great too! Zendikar added tons of awesome stuff like landfall that's still beloved today! It also set up strong stuff later like Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Stoneforge Mystic and the Eldrazi too. I hope you embrace it!

#2. Ixalan

I adore this pulp-y feeling Meso-American Plane! It's got brilliant Kindred Flavor as Vampire Conquistadors are the baddies in White, Pirates are modernized and in three colors, we get Dinosaurs as well, and both still resonate today. It also gave us Treasures which everyone loves and then great stuff like Treasure Maps and double-faced cards with land on the back side. Its so smartly done!

#1. Champions of Kamigawa

This was the first flavor-forward set and it delivered. It's heavily inspired by Japan and had the big Kami War and a big focus on legendary stuff. I adore the legendary stuff here like Shrines or the Arcane spells like Kodama's Reach which is the first introduction of a Cultivate effect and Spirit matters too. It also had iconic cards like the Spirit Dragon Cycle with Keiga and Kokusho, and then it had Meloku that dominated play. I even adore it's draft too! Now sure, it can feel a little weak and insular, but it delivers in art and card names and concept, undeniably.

All right, there we go! What are your favorite flavor sets?