Over the course of 2023, there were a ton of extremely powerful cards added to MTG Arena. For Standard, the addition of elite haymakers like
Atraxa, Grand Unifier
Atraxa, Grand Unifier
Flying, vigilance, deathtouch, lifelink
When Atraxa enters, reveal the top ten cards of your library. For each card type, you may put a card of that type from among the revealed cards into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. (Artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, and sorcery are card types.)
helped solidify an elite multi-color ramp shell for much of the year. For Explorer, cards like
Knight-Errant of Eos
Knight-Errant of Eos
Convoke
When this creature enters, look at the top six cards of your library. You may reveal up to two creature cards with mana value X or less from among them, where X is the number of creatures that convoked this creature. Put the revealed cards into your hand, then shuffle.
helped establish new archetypes within the metagame. Perhaps no format changed more drastically, though, than Historic, thanks to the inclusion of Lord of the Rings cards on MTG Arena.
Unsurprisingly, the likes of
Orcish Bowmasters
Orcish Bowmasters
Flash
When this creature enters and whenever an opponent draws a card except the first one they draw in each of their draw steps, this creature deals 1 damage to any target. Then amass Orcs 1.
and
The One Ring
The One Ring
Indestructible
When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
{T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring.
were immensely powerful, before ultimately being nerfed, of course. Collectively, the range of extremely strong cards added to MTG Arena throughout 2023 was quite large.
As a way to celebrate the culmination of 2023 and showcase what the year meant to MTG Arena, Wizards of the Coast sent players via Email a recap of the year, including a section with “2023 Community Stats.” Within this section, the “top cards of 2023” for Explorer, Standard, and Historic were discussed. Intriguingly, not everyone received information regarding all three formats, but thanks to social media, gathering this information as a community was relatively easy.
While some of these top cards make a lot of sense, a lot of players seem generally confused by specific inclusions and how Wizards of the Coast came to the conclusions that they did. This is especially true for a handful of top Standard and Historic cards. Let’s start by looking at one of the weirdest cards mentioned that barely sees any competitive play whatsoever.
Archangel Elspeth and Sheoldred in Historic?
Soon after players began getting their MTG Arena recap Emails, comments quickly emerged with regards to a couple strange card choices within the top cards lists for each format. Reddit posts showcasing the top card lists for Historic, Standard, and Explorer featured a great deal of discussion regarding exactly what “top cards” meant. While the Historic and Explorer posts were ultimately taken down by moderators, this wasn’t before
Archangel Elspeth
Archangel Elspeth
+1: Create a 1/1 white Soldier creature token with lifelink.
−2: Put two +1/+1 counters on target creature. It becomes an Angel in addition to its other types and gains flying.
−6: Return all nonland permanent cards with mana value 3 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
became the talk of the town.
See, each of these top cards lists features a select group of sets released on MTG Arena in 2023, then highlights two cards from each set. In the case of Historic, these sets were Phyrexia: All Will Be One, March of the Machine, Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, Wilds of Eldraine, and The Lost Caverns of Ixalan.
For Lord of the Rings, it’s no surprise that Orcish Bowmasters and The One Ring were the cards that were highlighted. The same goes for
Trumpeting Carnosaur
Trumpeting Carnosaur
Trample
When this creature enters, discover 5.
{2}{R}, Discard this card: It deals 3 damage to target creature or planeswalker.
and
Geological Appraiser
Geological Appraiser
When this creature enters, if you cast it, discover 3. (Exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card with mana value 3 or less. Cast it without paying its mana cost or put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom in a random order.)
from Ixalan, given the nearly immediate impact that Discover combo had on the format.
The biggest anomaly absolutely lied with March of the Machine. The featured cards were Archangel Elspeth and
Sheoldred
Sheoldred
Menace
When Sheoldred enters, each opponent sacrifices a nontoken creature or planeswalker of their choice.
{4}{B}: Exile Sheoldred, then return it to the battlefield transformed under its owner's control. Activate only as a sorcery and only if an opponent has eight or more cards in their graveyard.
, both of which have seen little to no Historic play throughout the year. In fact, according to MTGTop8’s top cards for Historic in 2023, neither Elspeth nor Sheoldred appear in even 1% of the decks from the year featured on the site.
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Potential Alternatives
In fairness, March of the Machine was not the most impressive set with regards to shaping the Historic metagame. Still, there were plenty of more deserving cards to take the slot. The most heavily played card in March of the Machine from MTGTop8’s culmination of Historic events in 2023 was none other than
Change the Equation
Change the Equation
Choose one —
• Counter target spell with mana value 2 or less.
• Counter target red or green spell with mana value 6 or less.
. Appearing in 5.2% of decks, Change the Equation saw play in a variety of different control decks, including a Dimir Control deck from top 8 of Arena Championship 4.
Another solid inclusion from March of the Machine would have been
Polukranos Reborn
Polukranos Reborn
Reach
{6}{W/P}: Transform Polukranos Reborn. Activate only as a sorcery. ({W/P} can be paid with either {W} or 2 life.)
. Polukranos, much like in Pioneer before the banning of
Karn, the Great Creator
Karn, the Great Creator
Activated abilities of artifacts your opponents control can't be activated.
+1: Until your next turn, up to one target noncreature artifact becomes an artifact creature with power and toughness each equal to its mana value.
−2: You may reveal an artifact card you own from outside the game or choose a face-up artifact card you own in exile. Put that card into your hand.
, was an excellent three-drop for mono-green Devotion. Thanks to
Delighted Halfling
Delighted Halfling
{T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a legendary spell, and that spell can't be countered.
and
Utopia Sprawl
Utopia Sprawl
Enchant Forest
As this Aura enters, choose a color.
Whenever enchanted Forest is tapped for mana, its controller adds an additional one mana of the chosen color.
, casting Polukranos on turn 2 was as easy as ever.
The reality is, from
Knight-Errant of Eos
Knight-Errant of Eos
Convoke
When this creature enters, look at the top six cards of your library. You may reveal up to two creature cards with mana value X or less from among them, where X is the number of creatures that convoked this creature. Put the revealed cards into your hand, then shuffle.
to
Pile On
Pile On
Convoke (Your creatures can help cast this spell. Each creature you tap while casting this spell pays for {1} or one mana of that creature's color.)
Destroy target creature or planeswalker. Surveil 2. (Look at the top two cards of your library, then put any number of them into your graveyard and the rest on top of your library in any order.)
and beyond, there were a ton of other worthy candidates. In fact, Polukranos and Knight-Errant of Eos were the two cards included among the top Explorer cards, which only makes the decision to put Elspeth and Sheoldred above them rather confusing.
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Phyrexia Further Heightens Befuddlement
Despite Elspeth being a rather baffling choice for a top Historic card of 2023, the decisions with regards to Phyrexia: All Will Be One were even more puzzling. At least in the case of March of the Machine, no card had an immense presence within the metagame. For Phyrexia, however, one card stands head and shoulders above the rest: Atraxa, Grand Unifier.
In Standard, Atraxa is an amazing finisher for the multi-color ramp decks that have been tier one for quite some time. This archetype only got more popular in recent weeks, thanks to the printing of
Cavern of Souls
Cavern of Souls
As this land enters, choose a creature type.
{T}: Add {C}.
{T}: Add one mana of any color. Spend this mana only to cast a creature spell of the chosen type, and that spell can't be countered.
in The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. In Historic, Atraxa was utilized as a Reanimator target in conjunction with
Unburial Rites
Unburial Rites
Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Flashback {3}{W} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
, showing up in the second place decklist from Arena Championship 2.
In a shocking move, Atraxa was not among the top cards for Historic or Standard. Instead,
Venerated Rotpriest
Venerated Rotpriest
Toxic 1 (Players dealt combat damage by this creature also get a poison counter.)
Whenever a creature you control becomes the target of a spell, target opponent gets a poison counter.
and
Sheoldred’s Edict
Sheoldred’s Edict
Choose one —
• Each opponent sacrifices a nontoken creature of their choice.
• Each opponent sacrifices a creature token of their choice.
• Each opponent sacrifices a planeswalker of their choice.
were crowned the top cards in both formats. According to MTGTop8’s top cards for Standard in 2023,
Ossification
Ossification
Enchant basic land you control
When this Aura enters, exile target creature or planeswalker an opponent controls until this Aura leaves the battlefield.
,
Skrelv, Defector Mite
Skrelv, Defector Mite
Toxic 1 (Players dealt combat damage by this creature also get a poison counter.)
Skrelv can't block.
{W/P}, {T}: Choose a color. Another target creature you control gains toxic 1 and hexproof from that color until end of turn. It can't be blocked by creatures of that color this turn. ({W/P} can be paid with either {W} or 2 life.)
, and Atraxa are the only cards to appear in at least 10% of tournament decks during the year. Even with poison-style decks picking up in Standard, Atraxa has been hands down a more important card from the set the Venerated Rotpriest as far as shaping the general metagame.
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How Were These Cards Calculated?
These decisions beg the question: how was the data utilized to decide what the top cards were? It would make sense that, for a section of an Email dedicated to showcasing information about the MTG Arena community as a whole, things may be a bit more skewed towards the casual side. Even if Atraxa was utilized more in Ranked queues on Arena, especially among players with higher rankings, perhaps Venerated Rotpriest appeared in a ton of more casual best-of-one settings.
Strangely, though, the Email also comes with a section that reveals the cards that were most heavily redeemed with Wildcards. Believe it or not, Atraxa is the first card shown in the graphic, which makes its omission as a top card even weirder.
One reasonable explanation could be that the data collected form Wizards of the Coast was much more heavily skewed towards the set’s initial release date. For instance, Venerated Rotpriest was one of the most hyped cards from Phyrexia during spoiler season, so it wouldn’t be surprising if it was crafted at an incredibly high rate soon after the set became available.
Alternatively, this data could simply be showing off the two most played cards for each of the highlighted MTG sets overall, including in unranked que. If Archangel Elspeth were gifted to players in a preconstructed deck, this would explain a lot.
In fact, Venerated Rotpriest was among the 10 cards shown displaying the most heavily redeemed Wildcards. Still, this doesn’t fully explain Atraxa’s absence. It’s unclear exactly how these top cards were determined by Wizards of the Coast, but seeing cards like Elspeth make the cut while Atraxa misses is confusing, nonetheless.
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