Your Favorite Magic Card & Why (list no more than 3)

[Norm4eva]

THIS IS SO HARD TO CHOOSE

3) Arrogant Wurm

Nostalgia. The first pre-con I ever bought was the GB Madness one from Torment. I had no idea that the majority of the cards were ass, but the foundation of the deck was solid enough for me to quickly convert it to UG Madness (and then, ill-advisedly, to splash W for Glory and play Riftstone Portal and jank. Ugh. I was a noob.)
But srsly, sometimes I look back at this game and I'm like... why did it ever get better than 4/4 tramplers for 2G? I can't believe some of the shit they print these days. They make my old friend Arrogant Wurm look real bad.

2) Lightning Helix

Lightning Helix is probably the most boiled-down version of every deck/strategy that I love to play the most in Magic. It's aggro; 3 to the FASE. It's control; kill target dumb x/3 creature. It's tempo; I gain life back from that stupid x/3 you hit me with. It's Instant; you're at 2 and I kill you with it EOT like a dick. I love this card and it pains me to no end that I do not have any of the good ABRU RW lands that cast this fantastic spell.

3) Exalted Angel

Because fuck you, that's why. Probably my favorite opening plays in Magic have always involved some permutation of: Plains/White mana, Ancient Tomb/other accel, Mother of Runes, face-down creature. Whether it's flipping it on turn 3 with MoR on the backend or dropping the face-down turn 1 (who cares how; Ancient Tomb + Chrome Mox, w/e) and flipping it turn 2 for 4 to the domefase... Exalted Angel ruins lives. About a decade ago it was played in Vintage/1.5 when people realized that it was funny both with AND against Mana Drain (it has no casting cost when it's face-down, and can easily be cast in defense mode or face-up after your own MD). It was, as it was explained to me at the time, the first creature that really made the "lifelink-esque" ability not a total throwaway ability - an 8-point life swing meant that your one Angel could race a cadre of losers across the table from you, in damn near any format. She sleeps in my binder now, and it's a goddamned shame.

[Ten-Ten]

My favorite cards for years before discovering Type1, were:

Zephid's embrace
Armaggedon/Wrath of God/Upheaval
Mirari's wake

Once Metathran Elite and Zephid's Embrace hit the table, my opponents would just quit, lol

Same with Ernham Djin and armaggedon. Main reasons I ever played green at all.

Which led me to green/white mirari's wake phantoms in Odyssey block.

Many upheaval and psychatogs later, I found out about Type 1, I found new favorites...although played similar roles to the previous picks.

Psychatog/Morphling
Tendrils of Agony/Tinker
Mana Drain

Psychatog was more fun before exile existed and the rules changed for wish cards.
Morphling was just so much more than Zephid's embrace ever could be.

Tendrils of agony and Mind's Desire changed how I thought about the game and my opponents. Why play it out several turns when I can end it now. Lol
Tinker is similar to this.

Mana Drain, the pillar of my decks now.
Major tempo boost. Allows me to build blue Vintage decks even though I own no power. Favorite mana sinks are Gifts and Fact or Fiction.

[forests failed you]

Goblin Welder - Probably my favorite card to play with in all of Magic.  Once this creature becomes active the lines available to a player basically increase exponentially.  Basically, it's a llanowar elf that can also cast Reanimate--for free... every turn... targeting Time Walk...

Killer Bees - My favorite card from way back in the day when I was first learning how to play.  The Phil Foglio artwork is absolutely brilliant and hilarious.  The flavor text is completely out of control.  My Commander deck is basically built around an Insect theme simply to give me an excuse to play with Killer Bees.

Library of Alexandria - also one of my favorite cards from way back in the day.  I quit playing Magic for a couple of years when I was in High School and my Freshman year in college I had a world history course where the professor did a segment of his lecture on the Library of Alexandria.  On my way home after class I stopped at my local comic shop and bought two Starter decks and a couple of booster packs and made my brother play Magic with me (after not having played a game for three or four years).  So, without that card existing I probably wouldn't have ever gotten back into the game!

[PETER FLUGZEUG]

Commandeer: The card is such a blowout. Always. Stealing a jace or tinkering in the opponent's turn just feels awesome. Getting 3for 1ed less so. Just not good enough anymore, but huge.

Gush: The centerpiece of decks I like to play. It is just such a beautiful card.

The third one is harder. It was clear for me that it has to be a card from my madness deck: Basking Rootwalla ("Sonnenbadende Wurzeleidechse" in German) or wonder? Or upheaval? In the end though, i will have to settle on another card with a very unique effect:

painter's servant (combos so well with the two above cards, too!)

[diopter]

From a non-Vintage perspective, lots of Urza's Block cards just ooze flavor, coolness and power. This is when I started playing Magic. Still love it when "summon" spells existed.

Off the top of my head:
- Morphling
- Masticore
- Phyrexian Processor
- Deranged Hermit
- Yawgmoth's Bargain