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

[Smmenen]

My Favorite Magic card of all time is..... Not Gush.

It's Moat, followed by Gush and Lion's Eye Diamond.  

Moat it just a house.   It's so fundamental to the game.  Creatures attack, and Moat stops non-flying creatures from attacking.   What an awesome and sweet card.  So simple, and yet a tremendous source of card advantage.   By stopping two creatures from attacking, it is a 2-for-1.  But, as Weissman said, by stopping the other 10 creatures that haven't yet played from attacking, it is a source of Virtual card advantage.  

Gush fundamentally changes the game and the way we understand it, accelerating the rise of the Comer School over the Weissman school.  I've written a book on Gush.  So obviously I love Gush.  

Lion's Eye Diamond is awesome because it illustrates the disjuncture between design intent and application.  

What is your favorite Magic card?

Saying Black Lotus or Ancestral is a legitimate answer, but I'm hoping for more interesting answers

#MyFavoriteMagicCard

[Samoht]

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir is by far and away my favorite card. He singlehandedly put me on the Pro Tour by allowing me to dominate standard for two years to the point that I stacked up an absurd ELO rating. Card is so unfair once down. Akin to Moat, it shuts down so much of the opposing gameplay it just ends games.

[KIP_NZ]

Nether Void.

When I returned to the game in 2011 my first purchuses were, Lotus, Ancestral, 3 Nether Voids. In that order. I still have a netherpox deck I bust out once in a while to make people hate life.

[Thecheese]

Balduvian Horde...it's the first real card I chased. A time of my youth. Holds a lot of nostalgia for me. It's my grail art piece

[GrandpaBelcher]

Stifle. So many entertaining, frustrating uses. Definitely got more groans playing that than any other card.

My favorite restricted card is Time Walk.

And my favorite card that people would maybe expect me to name as a favorite card is Goblin J. Charbelcher.

[Chubby Rain]

Gifts Ungiven, Battle of Wits, and Sensei's Divining Top. I like to durdle, play with a bunch of cards, or durdle while playing a bunch of cards.

[A.-1.]

1.) Erhnam Djinn - The first 'real' deck I put together was Erhnamgeddon. Nostalgia.
2.) Cadaverous Bloom - The first combo deck I put together was ProsBloom. Nostalgia.
There's probably a dozen or so cards I could put in a tie for third, so I won't even bother.

#ThisIsntTwitter

[Hrishi]

Tinker, Yawgmoth's Will and Necropotence.

2 out of 3 in the unholy trinity doesn't look so good for me...

[JPoJohnson]

Favourite three would probably be:

Force of Will, Tendrils of Agony and.... Snapcaster Mage.

Why?

FoW - Brought balance in an interesting way
ToA - Brought imbalance in an interesting way
Snapcaster Mage - Such a versatile card in a plethora of decks. Love it.

[TVand]

My top spot goes to Mystic Snake.  As a youngster, this was the first card of which I actively acquired a playset, by trading at FNM.  Countering someone's stuff then beating them to death with your counterspell is just so satisfying.  Also, I really love the flavor of a snake that sneaks up on you and breaks your concentration while you're trying to cast a spell, as the art beautifully illustrates.

Honorable mention to JTMS because I don't think I've ever not enjoyed activating that card.

[Zenvir]

#1 - Moat.  For all of the reasons listed above; it just answers so many problems!  I try to include it in my decks still to this day.
#2 - Fact or Fiction.  I keep going back and forth between running more of these instead of Jace.  Most people tend to let them resolve (whereas Jace is almost always a counter war), and it's great card advantage, especially in the right deck where you need to find that right answer.
#3 - Balance.  A tricky card to use, as it can hurt you.  In the right situations, it's simply amazing.

[RitNecroWin]

#1 Goblin Game.... it sums up everything I love about the game of MTG... (http://www.starcitygames.com/article/19493_Feature-Article---Goblin-Game-Guy.html)

#2 Goblin Welder... Probably my single favorite card to actually play with! Perfect art, perfect flavor text and more fun than a barrel of Monkies...and speaking of Monkies...

#3 Gorilla Shaman.. I love eating moxen and cracking skulls.

I spent about 45 minutes contemplating these choices and this has been a fun and interesting excercise. I've always been a control player at heart and I was shocked that my list is comprised of all red cards and nothing blue! Granted, my little red buddies feel more blue than red

[DubDub]

#1 Mind's Desire: We all know free-spells mechanics are the most likely to break magic.  Storm, Cascade, Mental Misstep, Force of Will; many of the best cards of all time elude the requirement that you have to pay mana for your spells.  Mind's Desire is the King of these spells.  In my version of Modern UR Storm I run Epic Experiment to try to approximate the UR Desire decks of old Extended.  With Epic Experiment there's no possibility of profitably chaining Experiments, but every once in a while you flip Manamorphose, Past in Flames and Desperate Ritual with an active Pyromancer's Ascension on the battlefield, and the game is OVER in a way similar to revealing a Mind's Desire to a Mind's Desire.

#2 Damia, Sage of Stone: In my opinion, this is the ultimate choice for a commander.  She has the three best colors in EDH Magic, and she can be built as the ultimate control deck, always ready to supply you with more cards.  Plus, she can switch gears to combo as soon as you untap and draw up to seven.  When I first built her as my commander I focused on overlapping her drawback with the drawback of Necropotence, Recycle, and Null Profusion.  Throw Cadaverous Bloom into the mix and you have a sort of puzzle deck, that's trying to balance mana, spells, and cards in hand until you find Tendrils (for 40!) or get a Laboratory Maniac and draw through your whole deck.  When I'm not sure which of my several EDH decks to play, I know I'll enjoy playing puzzle-control.  Will it be Notion Thief+Time Spiral, Rune-Scarred Demon+Progenitor Mimic, or Jace Memory Adept+Living Death? I can't wait to find out this time.

#3 Duress: When I got back into the game I played every week in a no-proxy Vintage/Legacy tourney in a nearby town.  Nobody had power, but you could use Demonic Tutor and Sol Ring etc.  I tried all sorts of decks out for fun, I dipped my toe in the ocean of options Magic presents and I haven't given up swimming yet.  For a while though I would always fall to second place behind a guy who had Force of Will and Standstill.  He played the same deck every time, and no matter how I tried to win I would give him greater card advantage and draw him into the free counterspell he needed to stop me.  The creature I worked so hard to land would go farming, and then a replacement Standstill would come down.
Then one day I heard about Duress.  Duress doesn't give a crap about your plans.  You have Standstill in play?  Go ahead and draw three, I'll wait, it'll only give me a better option when Duress resolves.  You want to Force my Duress?  Go right ahead, I guess the shields are down now for my creature with Shroud, enjoy those Swords to Plowshares you have in your hand!  What had seemed an insurmountable disadvantage to me was so drastically changed by playing a slightly different game.

Honorable Mention - Tidespout Tyrant, the way big creatures should be.  Griselbrand, Blightsteel, Emrakul don't even feel like Magic, they are abominations.

[AmbivalentDuck]

Stasis/Doomsday/Jester's Cap effects: They radically change the game's resource space after resolving. Ie. Card advantage isn't a thing when you have no mana to spend. Board advantage isn't a thing when you can stack your library to provide exactly the resources you need. Nothing else is a thing when the cards you need to win are no longer in your deck.

[gkraigher]

1) Candelabra of Tawanos

I abused this card as a child with mana flare, shivan dragon, and ifh-biff efreet.  Later I played high tide in Legacy with them, but eventually took apart the deck because it wasn't fun to play.  Currently, I still have 1 copy in my Vaevictis Asmadi commander deck that uses it to combo off with cards like pandemonium, mana flare, infect granters, berserk, and sword of the ages.

2) Moat

I am surprised this card is on other people's lists as well, but this has always been a card I've built decks around.  Serra Angels and Serendib Efreets, yes please.  Put some spirit links on those creatures.  Now, I play it in my Zedruu commander deck, and gift it to others so they can say they have had a moat in play.

3) Mishra's Workshop

I play MUD.  

[wiley]

#1 Bridge from Below - one of the oddest cards in magic that gives a huge bonus to those who build around it.  Nothing else makes a free army for the accomplished necromancer than this.

#2 Uba Mask - A complete game changer.  Your opponent plays by your rules now, no questions allowed.

#3 Worldgorger Dragon - Can you imagine watching the world blink back into existence after seeing it devoured by a necrotic dragon?  That's something even the robot from Blade Runner hasn't seen!

[Zeksagmak]

Lightning Bolt - It was good when I was a kid first starting out, and it's still pretty good now!
Balance - It's not very balanced if used correctly
Tendrils of Agony - The first wincon I could really get behind

[Zherbus]

#3 Skeletal Scrying - Whenever I can make it work, I do. I also think it's a really well designed card. An instant-speed necro effect in a game where, unless it's Necro itself, the alternatives are way worse.

#2 Decree of Justice - This card can be the huge finisher you want or be an uncounterable, self-replenishing board presence card. I've been having a blast playing with this in cube. It's Martial Coup and Entreat the Angels all in one to me.

#1 Mana Drain -*points at the URL bar* I've always loved this card.

[dangerlinto]

#1) Mana Drain.  It was the first card that drove me to understanding all the most fundamental concepts of deck-building - including that there are some cards that are just better than others and you are a fool not to use them.  It was also so outrageously good that a couple of years later when the concept of multiple formats was introduced it was the catalyst for me never, ever playing in a format where WoTC tried to obsolete cards I'd bought.  If I can't play Drain, I don't want to play.

#2) Tawnos's Coffin.  Back in the days of creatures, having Tawnos's Coffin along with a way to animate artifacts and untap it (Relic Barrier) taught a WHOLE LOT of people in my area about the nuances of the game.  
Attacking creature? nope - it goes in the coffin.  
Now you control magic my creature?  Nope - I untap the Coffin and put my creature in it. beginning of my turn I untap the coffin.
You've got Lich out and you just played Mirror Universe?  Ok, I animate it with Xenic Poltergeist and put it in the coffin.
You want to Disenchant my Coffin?  Nope, I animate it, target itself, and it blinks out and back into play (that one took a lot of explaining)

It was the kind of terrible card that you could only use back in those days, but man o' man removing things from the game only to come back to play later at less opportune times was so much fun in those days

#3) Timetwister.  This was the first rare I ever opened in a pack.  So even though it's the red-headed stepchild of the P9, it has a special place for me - and I mean, it's still P9 level -awesome

[gkraigher]

Tawnos's Coffin taught me what the word "Hence" was when I was 12.  I love that card.  I use it today in my Dakkon Blackblade Esper Commander deck as removal for creatures and also to protect my creatures from my own Wrath effects. 

[Bibendum]

#1- Goblin Welder. Not even close, some of the most entertaining interactions you can have. Great flavor in a card. The art is amazing, hell even the flavor text is perfect. Everything about this guy is amazing.

#2 Mindslaver - ULTIMATE POWEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR RRRRRRRRRRRR. Taking other peoples turns appeals to the selfish first grader inside me. Again really cool flavor for the game.

#3  Balance- The game changer. The hero spent the last hour of the movie getting his ass kicked and training, and now out of nowhere everything is back at parity for no real reason. I think every time someone successfully casts Balance a sweet 80's montage should start rolling. Cards insane. Probably should keep it restricted despite some differing opinions.

[GrandpaBelcher]

Man, I forgot about Welder.

[Varal]

First is Burning Wish. This card is so powerful, the ability to get the most powerful card for any situation makes it a Demonic Tutor on steroids. It's definitely stronger in casual play with the ability to get the most crazy cards you might need from Acid Rain to Leeches. I also love the look on your opponent face when he can kill you in response to anything you can do and you go fetch Molten Disaster. It's also a strong competitive card in combination with Yawgmoth's Will and Tendrils of Agony.

Second is Shahrazad. It might not be best card but it has the best flavour and a really unusual effect. I'm also a fan of The Tales of Arabian Nights so I particularly enjoy its representation of tales within a tale within a tale.

Third is Misdirection. It's not the most powerful card but it has the potential to create some total blowout like redirecting an Ancestral Recall, an uncounterable Abrupt Decay a huge Fireball to your opponent or redirect a Spell Snare from your Snapcaster Mage to his Standstill.

[RitNecroWin]

Varal- I 100% agree with your take on Shaharazad! It is one of the most flavorful MTG cards ever. It would have been my fourth pick- but since we had to limit to 3.... 

[JACO]

1. Goblin Welder - my favorite creature, edging out Juzam Djinn and Dark Confidant. Juzam is the best artwork in the game though, for me, but Welder is just barely behind art-wise, and has one of the coolest mechanics for a creature.
2. Chaos Orb - sick artwork, coupled with one of the best mechanics in Magic's history. What's not to like?
3. Balance - the most interesting removal spell of all time, especially considering it was one of the first Magic cards designed.

[Bibendum]

1. Goblin Welder - my favorite creature, edging out Juzam Djinn and Dark Confidant. Juzam is the best artwork in the game though, for me, but Welder is just barely behind art-wise, and has one of the coolest mechanics for a creature.
2. Chaos Orb - sick artwork, coupled with one of the best mechanics in Magic's history. What's not to like?
3. Balance - the most interesting removal spell of all time, especially considering it was one of the first Magic cards designed.

So Jaco and I are the same person sans Mindslaver for Chaos orb, interesting.... IM COMING FOR YOU SIR

[H]

I don't know that I have a flat out favorite card, but I like to play cards with unique effects.

These aren't in a real order, more just in the order I thought of them:

Pernicious Deed: I love this effect, there are just so my oddities contained in one card, I would love to find out who designed it and ask a whole lot of whys.  It's an enchantment which is a wrath effect of controllable breadth through an activated ability that is oddly specific in what it hits (as opposed to almost every other similar wrath, which state what they do not).  The only other thing similar I can think of is Cataclysm, since it (necessarily) omits mention of a Planeswalker.  I am so thankful they did not errata Deed to say non-land, as the fact that it sweeps up Artifact Lands and the like is priceless.  I've had many a person read Deed when I played it, only to add more to the board for me to kill.

Counterspell: Counterspell is Magic to me, in one card, so elegant in it's simplicity.  I love it, probably too much even now.  When we started playing in '96 all we really knew was Revised and 4th Edition.  We didn't even know Mana Drain was a card and once we did we had no money to really find or buy one.  My first deck, well, first real deck that wasn't 5 colors and every "good" card I owned (It was probably 90 cards or so) was a mono-Blue control deck.  It started with the old Icy Manipulator + Winter Orb combo I saw in a magazine and had one Millstone as it's win con.  It had every counter I owned in it and even for it's time was horribly slow.  Tempest Counterspell is my absolute favorite, love that flavor text.

Hymn to Torach: Another card that was Magic to me when I started playing.  Even then, knowing nothing of the game, we knew this card was really powerful.  The overall flavor stood out to me too, the alternate arts, the flavor texts, everything.  While Fallen Empires undoubtedly sucked, something we figured out even then, I love the flavor of all the Order of the Ebon Hand cards and cards mentioning Tourach.

[Chill79]

Library Of Alexandria

My favorite card from the past when card advantage won games more than today...

Second comes Black Lotus


Just power of the card it gives you when you use it.

Last but not least.....

PYGMY RAZORBACK



That's Hakuna Matata people plus i own my share of them

[Greg]

Great thread. For me, a "favorite card" can refer to a card that potentially falls under a few different categories: gameplay, nostalgia, and artwork.

1. My favorite card for its gameplay is probably not a surprise to most people. Oath of Druids tickles my inner-Timmy like no other card can. I will never get tired of casting this card.

2. There are a lot of cards that scream "nostalgia" to me, (and most of them are green), but when all's said and done, I think the Ron Spencer Might of Oaks does it best.

3. While Time Vault is an awesome card for a whole bunch of reasons, I'm a fan of it primarily for its artwork. Mark Tedin went above and beyond to design two ridiculously unique and interesting characters for this card, only to have them never appear or be used again in any regard. These two should've been involved in a variety of illustrations and situations for years to come, but they instead remain two very famous "one hit wonders" from Magic's birth.

[birds of paradise]

#1 Upheaval
#2 Wildfire
#3 Balance

As you can see, i enjoy cards that wrecks the balance and keep players honest. I also play alot of multiplayer free-for-all, which all of the cards above makes me an attractive target.

Should i keep the lands and creatures in hand due to beeing afraid of balance? Float 15 mana, upheaval, trinisphere!
Wildfire is fantastic since i tend to play dragons (e.g. covetous, thundermaw) so it's basically an one-sided (n-1 in multiplayer ) Wrath of God.