I spent a couple weeks earlier this month and at the end of August talking about what exactly makes a set bad as well as the worst sets of all time. Now I want to turn the discussion on its head and talk about some sets that I love. Funny enough, this was something I'd already planned out and largely pre-written long before I wrote those previous pieces, but hey, the timing worked out fantastic for me to put out a cool little piece singing the praises of some of the sets that have meant the most to me!

As a note, though, since I went into a lot of detail breaking down why the bad sets failed in areas like mechanics and design, I'm not doing that so much here. These are my ten favorite sets of all-time. They're definitely not my picks for the 10 greatest sets Wizards has ever printed, though there is undoubtedly some amount of overlap just because it's hard to not love sets largely deemed the best sets ever made.

With that, let's jump right in with a likely controversial inclusion!

10. Chronicles

If you read my "worst sets of all time" article, this may seem like a questionable choice. After all, I listed it as one of the worst sets ever. Its release led to the creation of the Reserved List, something that prevents broad accessibility to formats like Legacy to this very day. It was such a disaster that it would be the last non-Core Set reprints-only release for almost two decades.

So why, then, do I love this set so much if it's so bad?

Simply put, many of its cards absolutely enamored me as a kid. I'll never forget the first time my friend Zack introduced me to the five elder dragons in this set and how I had to have them. It made me want to explore the other legends the set had to offer, thinking what they could do. In my earliest decks gifted by my cousins, I was given cards like Living Armor, Fountain of Youth, Cuombajj Witches, Mountain Yeti, Transmutation, and Bog Rats.

Each of these cards are honestly pretty bad, with only the Witches having a tournament resume thanks to Pauper. However, at the time they filled me with a sense of wonder. They looked cool as hell and made me want to explore what the game had to offer. I'd see cards like The Fallen, Tormod's Crypt, and Dakkon Blackblade and had to see what other awesome cards were out there. This made me seek out the original expansions the cards came from and made me an instant fan of the classic Magic experience, despite the flaws of the set overall.

In reality, though, this segement probably just be a catch-all for Magic's first four expansions: Arabian Nights, Antiquities, Legends, and The Dark. Just a ton of cool stuff going on in those sets, even when it wasn't really all that great. If nothing else, it was exciting enough to get fresh faces like me eager to dive deeper into what the game had to offer.

9. Apocalypse

Frankly, I'm a bit surprised at myself for putting this set here, but the more I think about it, it just feels right. Apocalypse was cool, and I mean really cool.

First off, the set name itself is just so imposing. It's the apocalypse. The end of the world. That just gave it a sense of weight as it capped off the Weatherlight Saga in glorious fashion. But perhaps more important was the set's intense focus on enemy colors as a theme.

Compare this to Invasion. It was a fantastic and revolutionary set for Magic as a whole, pushing the game with its use of multicolored as a theme. However, Invasion leaned heavily into allied colors and shards in sets like Legends, color hosers/color maters, and dual land cycles. Apocalypse turned all of that on its head and did so in spectacular fashion.

Many of the set's designs have gone on to be tremendously iconic. Vindicate, Spiritmonger, Pernicious Deed, Fire // Ice, Mystic Snake, Phyrexian Arena, Lightning Angel, the enemy pain lands (like Shivan Reef), and the list just goes on and on. Even subtle things like the multicolored creatures with two creature types, the Penumbra creatures, the Volvers, and more make the set feel incredibly rich. That's to say nothing of the outstanding artwork from top to bottom.

As the final set for one of the game's most iconic stories, they stuck the landing hard and opened the floodgates for many more enemy designs in the future. For example, this next set...

8. Khans of Tarkir

Shards of Alara walked so that Khans of Tarkir could run. This set acted as a wedge set alternative to the shard-focused Alara and introduced us to the five clans of Tarkir, weird time travel nonsense, and the build-up to fan favorite character Ugin. Additionally, you simply can't talk about this set without mentioning the fantastic Limited environment, which still holds up to this day as one of the all-time greats.

Despite the excellent worldbuilding on display here, though, the focus was all-in on the wedge focus. This did for Magic what Apocalypse did in terms of representing lesser-used color pairs, and it was all the better for all the other great things it also did in the process. Prior to this set, the only times wedge cards were released were for a one-off cycle or two in Apocalypse, a cycle of dragon legends in Planar Chaos, and 10 new legends for Commander 2011. This might sound like a decent amount, yet it was downright paltry compared to the selections offered to the shards throughout the years.

Khans of Tarkir opened the doors with legendary designs like the clan leaders, the ascendancies, and powerful mechanics like Prowess and Delve. It was like a golden age of the game, coming in just a few years after the brilliant Innistrad and it remains just as awesome today. It holds a strong place in my heart due to just how much Magic I was playing in this era, all because of how I simply couldn't get enough of Khans of Tarkir. And you know what? I still can't.

7. Modern Masters (2013)

If Chronicles doomed reprint sets from seeing the light of day ever again, Modern Masters proved that rumors of this type of ancillary release were greatly exaggerated. The set sought to put reprints into the hands of players the world over with a special premium release intended to highlight the then-new(ish) Modern format. Despite the growing interest in this non-rotating format, card accessibility was proving daunting in an era that was seeing intense growth in the game's playerbase.

Players didn't know what to make of it when the set was announced, especially given the history of Chronicles (which led to Wizards short printing the set). As more and more cards were revealed, though, the hype built up and became very real, very fast. Modern Masters was an overnight sensation in just about every sense of the word. Stores sold out overnight and couldn't get more product in. Drafts happened constantly for one glorious week of gaming and it ruled. I personally couldn't get enough of the set and drafted it at every opportunity I could, price point be damned.

That's to say nothing about the fact that it also kickstarted the ongoing release of Masters sets, special innovation draft sets, and a continual push to get essential reprints into players' hands. Modern Masters showed that it was possible to accomplish what Chronicles set out to do right. In fact, it was so good that pretty much every Masters release since feels like it's simply been trying to chase after the perfection the very first set brought to the table.

6. Dominaria

Dominaria is easily a top contender for the best set of all time. All it takes is one playthrough with the set in Limited and you'll know exactly why. Top to bottom, it allows you to do just about whatever you want in a rich yet simple release. It feels truly like classic Magic in all the best ways with easy to understand designs that harken back to sets of yesteryear while still feeling fresh and innovative.

Best of all were the amount of callbacks we got from this set without going quite as all-in as we did in Time Spiral. Fan favorite characters like Karn, Jaya Ballard, Jhoira, Teferi, and even Jodah all make appearances here. We get our first real look at Dominaria as well since the temporal apocalypse of the aforementioned block and see it flourishing with many familiar settings like Tolaria, Llanowar, and Urborg showing up in grand fashion.

Dominaria represented just about everything that made Magic, well... Magic! It's a top notch set that was not only an outstanding set to play but made for a fantastic homecoming to help celebrate the game's 25th anniversary. For many, it's one of the greatest ever made and, frankly, I'm inclined to agree. This set represented me arguably at my competitive peak and it will always be that much more special as a result.

5. Rise of the Eldrazi

In the late 2000s for many reasons, I took a small two year hiatus from Magic. I don't think I owned a single physical card at that time. Yet I still followed it, and came back to Magic Online when my first set Urza's Legacy was introduced to the client. That Limited experience wasn't fun, but you know what set was? Rise of the Eldrazi.

Coming back to see this big-time third set was mindblowing. Level-up cards were the things that I immediately gravitated to as a major RPG fan and enjoyer of incremental rewards on cards. Cards like Enclave Cryptologist, Joraga Treespeaker, Hedron-Field Purists, and Lighthouse Chronologist all became favorites of mine to play with. You just had to be there to know how awesome Venerated Teacher was.

This isn't even touching on the big hallmark of the set though: the eldrazi themselves. The first time I opened an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn I nearly leapt out of my seat. The first time I cast it in Commander (back when you could play it in Commander) was awe-inspiring. That's to say nothing of the many other eldrazi down to the lesser common ones like Ulamog's Crusher.

A powerful yet balanced set with a lot of very high highs, Rise of the Eldrazi became a fantastic way to rediscover the greatest game of all time. It's still one of my favorite Limited formats of all time, still a set I look back to well for Cube and Commander favorites, and just an all-timer. What else is there to say?

4. Magic the Gathering - Final Fantasy

This one absolutely has some recency bias, but what can I say? I love this set and it holds a truly special place in my heart despite only being a few months old.

Frankly if you're a regular reader of my articles, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. By now I've put out a whopping nineteen articles so far covering the set and talking about the games that inspired it. Final Fantasy is my favorite video game series of all time and a Magic set themed around it was something I dreamed of since the early 2000's. I've said it before as well, but hey, I even tried making my own Final Fantasy VII set once!

When we actually got the set, it not only hit those lofty expectations - it surpassed them! The card designs were off the charts, providing incredible representations of virtually every moment. Battle Menu is my favorite of the bunch by a substantial amount, showing the perfect harmony of flavor meeting function. Other designs like Tidus, Blitzball Ace provide a more subtle approach, as it looks like an average card unless you've played Blitzball in Final Fantasy X.

The Commander decks were also awesome and flavorful, telling the games' complete stories along the way. To cap things off, the Limited environment was phenomenal, with an absurd number of possibilities woven into the format's archetypes. All of this made for a real winning combination that's quickly risen to the upper echelons of my favorite sets where it will likely remain for years to come.

3. Urza's Legacy

Urza's Legacy was my first set with Magic and boy what a set it was.

While my introduction gameplay-wise largely involved bulk cards ranging from Fourth Edition/Ice Age to Tempest, Urza's Legacy is where the appeal really sunk in. I played in a children's bowling league and in the bowling alley was a sports card shop that happened to sell Magic packs. A teammate bought a pack of this set and I was enamored watching him open it because the art just looked so cool - especially when he opened a foil Sick and Tired.

I still can vividly recall my first ever rares I opened from this set: Lurking Skirge, Shivan Phoenix, and Quicksilver Amulet. Even the commons and uncommons stood out, though. Cards like Radiant's Judgment, Archivist, Sleeper's Guile, Ghitu Slinger, and Lone Wolf all elicit a sense of awe in me given how wonderfully the art stands out, regardless of the cards' quality. That's to say nothing of the actual good cards I found myself opening like Radiant, Archangel, Tinker, Phyrexian Reclamation, Avalanche Riders, and Crop Rotation.

I've thought a lot about this and it's not just nostalgia glasses either. Sets that surrounded it like Urza's Saga, Urza's Destiny, Mercadian Masques, and Starter 99 don't hold a candle to the appeal of this release decades removed. Urza's Legacy just rules and is full of great designs, artwork, as well as tthe introduction of foils. It just happens to be my first real set and the release that inevitably brought me back following a brief hiatus in 2010 when it came back to Magic Online. For all those reasons and more, I will always hold it in high regard.

2. Innistrad

There are exactly two times where I played with a set only one time and felt it was one of the greatest sets of all time. Those were when I played in the prereleases for both Dominaria and Innistrad. It just felt incredible to play a format where not a single card or interaction was wasted and I experienced tremendously balanced games. It was amazing.

The set proved to be a revelation of top down design, typal gameplay, and of course the fan favorite horror genre. It brought us powerful cards like Delver of Secrets, Snapcaster Mage, and Liliana of the Veil. Those are the obvious ones, but so too are powerhouses of the time like Geist of Saint Traft, Champion of the Parish, and Runechanter's Pike.

In a vacuum, I'd probably say this is the greatest set of all time, maybe aside from the obligatory mention of Alpha. Few sets have been this influential and this beloved and it shows. The closest could maybe be the original Ravnica: City of Guilds, but for my money, it's got nothing on how awesome Innistrad is and was.

1. Onslaught

I feel like a number of people will balk at this one a bit, especially having it at the top of my list. I think that sets like Innistrad, Dominaria, and Khans of Tarkir were far more broadly beloved and impactful to the game as a whole. However, for me personally, Onslaught is where things started to feel real with the game.

The set's typal themes proved to be extremely formative for me as I began discovering higher levels of play via Friday Night Magic and Magic Online. They fed into a style of play I already had a small amount of fondness for and made me want to go all-in on it. It was an exciting time, and on top of that, the set proved to be awesome for Constructed! Morph was a massive success and the fresh innovations on what cycling could do ended up being tremendously fun.

While the rest of the block that followed may have been a bit of a mixed bag, the original Onslaught itself was fantastic. It made me the player I am today, cemented play styles that would stick with me throughout the years, and was just an all around blast. It's my favorite set for a reason, and it always will be.

Paige Smith

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