Your favorite block?

[RisingWater]

I've been really nostalgic lately, and thinking about when I first started playing.

I started playing magic around urzas block\mercadian block. Ever since I started playing, I have yet to find a block I've liked as much as urzas.

The flavor of the set and the story behind it just drew me in. Cards like bargain, sneak attack, exploration, Academy rector, mother of runes, the legendary lands, the manlands, sunder, barrin, show and tell, tinker, crop rotation, time spiral, temporal adept, junk diver, masticore, metalworker, powder keg, false prophet, opalescence,  replenish, donate, opposition, treachery, negator, bloodshot cyclops, elvish piper,  patern of rebirth, roffelos, crawlspace, defense grid, grim monolith, memory jar, frantic search, delusions of mediocrity, miscalculation,  palinchron, goblin welder, rack and ruin, deranged hermit, might of Oaks, multani, rancor, karn, lifeline, smokestack, voltaic key, pariah, remembrance, serra avatar, worship, arcane laboratory, energy field, morphling, stroke of genius, windfall, duress, persecute, yawgmoths will, gamble, goblin lackey,  argothian enchantress, priest of titania.

sure I'm missing some, but the cards from this block are just so fantastic. I can't think of any other set that had this many good/iconic cards.

What's your favorite block and why?

[A.-1.]

Are you talking about favorite block to play or the artwork?

[RisingWater]

Just in general I guess. More towards playing than art though

[TheWhiteDragon]

For fun...fallen empires/homelands.  Cards were so bad and thrull or thallid decks were hot.  From a broken perspective, Urza block for sure.  Those were three sets of ridonculousness the likes of which we have not seen since.

[Ten-Ten]

Man, the first M:tg purchase was the Classic starter. from there my attention was captured by Urza/Mercadian decks. The Rath cycle was so much fun but my all time favorite block has to be Timespiral has it all baby! buyback? yup. storm? yup,yup.  Rebels? darn right! Akkkrrromaah too!     you wanna talk nostalgia? Timespiral block has it. I still buy boosters and Tourney packs (remember those?) from that block to draft with my bros. first chance i get.

[Pokey]

Invasion block.  The story really drew me in, and I liked the multi-color theme.  Also, it was the first set I ever drafted, so nostalgia bonus there.

[Prospero]

Urza's Block, and it's not even close.  Weatherlight, Tempest, Stronghold and Exodus were all excellent, incredible sets with great feel, characters and stories.  To me, however, they culminated in Urza's Block, which, I believe, was the best of the sets of the Weatherlight saga.  

In reading all of the cards that you loved, Rising Water, I found myself agreeing with every single one, all while I thought of others - Covetous Dragon, Thran Dynamo, Temporal Aperture, Symbiosis, and on, and on, and on.  

The feel of Innistrad was great (it felt like an old set), but there were little things that made Urza's Block inimitable (nowadays, at least).  The old card frame matters more than I can possibly put into words.  The artists that they had working (Zug, Avon, Spencer, Sutfin, Giancola, Guay, et al) were some of the most talented artists that the game has ever seen (while I love the work of many, many, many Magic artists, I believe that Mark Zug is the best technical artist that the game has ever seen).  On top of that, there was a story - a story that was built over the course of years, not two or three sets.  

I know that they're never going to change back to the old borders, and that's a damn shame, but I still think that there are things that can be done to help re-create some of the feeling that has been lost.  Using more of those excellent artists from 1996-2000, giving them a little more freedom, trying to build a story (the hero's tale would be great) over the course of several sets, in lieu of one set - these are all things that could be done to help recover what was lost.  

[RisingWater]

You can't have been more right in everything you said.

The story line of the Weatherlight crew is by far my favorite, and sorely missed.

The old card frame as well is something I would do anything to get back, I think changing it was a huge mistake.

I've been talking with some friends about buying a box of each urzas set and doing some drafts.

[quicksilvervii]

Urza's + Masques, without question.

[orgcandman]

Tempest. Without question or fail.

The set themes flowed well; the storyline was insanely kick-ass and integrated; the cards 'felt' right. I have never been happier to play a block than I was when I played Tempest. Every game I played during that block was incredible - from the art and the way the cards looked to the actual interactions.

That said, my second favorite block was Mirage block. Viashino Sandstalker + Nekrataal were my homeboys, and I turned them sideways to great effect.

Third would be onslaught block, for non-magic related reasons.

[BaronSengir]

My favorite block also has to be the Urza block. I just wish I was playing when it came out. The cards and story were so cool and it led to further sets I love like Weatherlight and Tempest