Back in my day, creatures had downsides. Nowadays Vivi doesn't even have to tap.

What i like about a lot of these cards, is that they weren't even that good back in the day, but they where correct answer againt an specific meta-game , or just the thing that deck needed at the moment.

A card like Iron-claw Orcs was below rate even during Alpha, yet it was the genious of the players of that era that made it a tempo staple. Same with the beloved Jackal Pup, terrible cards that did amazing works in the early Sligh decks

A big component of all the Homelands cards on the list (esp Serrated Arrows) is that type II (standard) at the time had a rule that you needed 5 cards from each expansion. So every deck needed to figure out which Homelands card was the least-bad for their list. Often that was Serrated Arrows.

Reminder Rhystic study was a 5 cent bulk common.

The nostalgia for a time when an 8/8 was the biggest creature in the game

Blinking Spirit does not fly. Funny you made the same mistake we did way back when… for years!

Damn, I miss the time when Urza's Rage was extreme anti-control weapon.

I run 4 hypnotic specters in my arena mono black historic deck and it wrecks.  Expecially when opponents ignore it over bigger "threats".

Pour one out for Mogg Fanatic Fantastic. Debatably the strongest red one-drop of all time(relative to the time). Made nearly unplayable due to fundamental changes to the rules of Magic. It didn't just get power crept, it literally doesn't do what it used to.

Still have my play set of Spirit of the Night. Unbelievably powerful when Mirage came out. There were only a few cards in rotation that could answer it. People would just scoop when I got it in play. I always argue that Westvale Abbey / Ormendhal is the descendant of the Spirit of the Night. Huge unkillable monster summoned by sacrificing it's minions.

Also played a lot of Ishan's Shade when it came out. Dude was basically unkillable outside of combat with a couple huge creatures. A surprisingly great card from a surprisingly awful set.

Those guys are friends for life.

One of my favorites is Scoria Cat, which has a sideboard appearance in a World Championship-winning deck in 2001. I'm pretty sure the reason was that it was bigger than Blastoderm!

Nice work my dude, game history is such a niche topic it's awesome to see content about it

RIP Goblin Guide, gone but never forgotten

i can feel my bones turning to dust watching this

You forgot Autumn Willow. I remember when she was considered one of the best cards in Homelands, just for being a 4/4 untargetable (an ability that, at the time, was I'm pretty sure LITERALLY unique to her until Deadly Insect came out in Alliances), with the ability to let you target her for a small fee. 6 mana wasn't seen as a high price to pay back in those days, especially for green.

This video reminds me of Grafted Skullcap, which would be bad if Ensnaring Bridge wasn't a thing...

This my quasi build from the day, I am that old, haha. Library of Leng. Ivory Tower. Crystal Rod. Old White/Blue I used, with Fog, Demonic Tutor, and Wrath of God. I am spelling this wrong, but it called Nev`s Disc, I had that also. Then we used Howling Mine, and Pestilence. Sengir Vampire, Serra Angel, Time Warps, and DONT FORGET, ole` Timmy . . .

Blinking Spirit does not fly.

I played mtg from around 2002 to 2018, and it honestly feels like wotc is dead set on riding game all the way into the ground and turning it into the card game equivalent of Fortnite with 3rd party collabs completely superseding the original setting until the game loses all meaning. And that's not even beginning to mention the insane power creep we've seen over the past decade.

Also it should be mentioned that combat functioned differently back in the day. 11:25 Blinking Spirit and others were notable for being able to use their abilities in response to combat damage being put on the stack, so if blinking spirit blocked, it would still deal 2 damage to the creature it was blocking. Fleeting Image was another creature capable of the same stunt.

Didn't see him on the list but Wildfire Emissary deserves a spot as it was used for the exact same reason as Ihsan's Shade.  It was 4 toughness and pro white so it dodged Incinerate and Plow which were the two most common removal spells at the time.