3 MTG Staples That Flew UNDER the Radar!

Sometimes, the best MTG cards to release each set aren't the ones that basked in all the prerelease hype. Today, I want to talk about 3 staple cards across Standard and Modern that flew under the radar upon release, but took their formats by storm in later months! Specifically, we'll be diving into the stories of Siege Rhino, Ledger Shredder and Death's Shadow!

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[JayoticMTG]

I’ve got a few comments arguing with my picks for this video, so I’d like to add some additional evidence I’ve compiled. YouTube doesn’t allow you to add links to comments on Shorts anymore, but each of these sources are still publicly available at the time of writing.

First, here are 4 points in regards to Ledger Shredder:

1) Channel Fireball’s SNC Set Review written by Reid Duke called Ledger Shredder “an even stronger version of Faerie Vandal.” It received a 3.0 on their grading scale, which is considered as an archetype staple, and they cited cards like Greasefang and Hinata as cards in this category (which, objectively, does not describe the wide amount of play that Ledger Shredder saw in the last 2 years).

2) YouTuber and pro player Jim Davis called Ledger Shredder “a possible sleeper” in his New Capenna set review, bringing up its utility in “decks that care about the graveyard”, and it was Make Disappear and A Little Chat that received his “Best in Show” award.

3) As I cited in the Short itself, CoolStuffInc’s Capenna set review written by Ali Aintrazi called Ledger Shredder an “alternate take on Merfolk Looter.” It received a 2.5 on their grading scale, right in between “fringe playable” and “commonly played, staple in a single deck or frequent in several decks”.

4) At the time of Streets of New Capenna’s release in late April 2022, Ledger Shredder was preordering for $1. On May 5th, 2024, the card suddenly spiked up to $10 after results came back about its playability in eternal formats. Its price history is widely available through sites like MTG Goldfish, MTG Price and MTG Stocks.

Next, here are 3 points about Siege Rhino:

1) Evan Erwin and Brad Nelson from The Magic Show underrated it, saying “‘… I’m here, do you want to play with me?’ And I’m just like nah, I got this other guy, Polukranos, he’s way better.”

2) While it isn’t a scathing review by any means, Wedge from The Mana Source said it “might have to fight Reaper of the Wilds in midrange decks” in his daily spoiler video.

3) Once again, let’s compare the Rhino’s price leading up to and after KTK’s release. On September 26, 2014, it was going for about $6. Its first major spike in price topped out at $10 on October 13.

[billable]

Before Grixis death shadow there was what was initially known as suicide zoo and that was the main reason Gitaxian Probe got banned in modern.

[magnusprime]

The granddaddy of them all was probably Necropotence. Back when it was first announced people thought it was the worst card of its set. Now it’s seen for the ridiculously powerful card that it is

[MrJimberJam]

My favorite example from recent years is Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. It was preordering for $0.50 and now even the token in makes goes for 20x that.

[johnny_crash]

Smothering Tithe also was an overlooked card. Remember them going for 2€ in Europe.

[specb]

When Future Sight was released, Tarmogoyf was looked over in Scrye's top 10 in favor of cards like Seht's Tiger and Nimbus Maze.

[pewainscott]

The best play I had against Death's Shadow in Modern at my local LGS back in the day: My opponent drops to 12 life and plays two Death's Shadow before ending the turn. I was playing a weird build of infect with red instead of blue, and I dropped a Grove of the Burnwillows on my turn 😂. Immediately tapped for a green, and killed 2 Death's Shadow while netting me a mana!!!

[thatguyinyellow]

I still can't believe that people thought necropotence was bad when it was released.

[Devynwithawhy]

Fable of the Mirror Breaker was also underlooked during spoiler season as it was "just too slow" or something. It was 25 cents on release.

[SeanteBrown]

Is that sonic 2 music in the background? Level 2? The chemical stage?

[clon]

I guess Oko wouldnt be considered a "staple" but he was definitely undervalued during spoiler season.

[Dracomandriuthus]

Rhino also dodged Languish, the best black boardclear of the time.

[daftwulli]

Fun fact 5 of the power 9 where overlooked quite a bit in the beginning : the 5 color moxem. Early players just saw it as a land that is easier to destroy, took a few months from them tio realize wait a minute being able to play a land and 2 moxen on turn 1 is actually pretty good.

They finally realized whren someone built a deck that had infinite mulligans. You see the deck played zero lands only 20 moxen, and the mulligan rules at the time where if you have a zero lander you get a free mulligan. So it just drew hands till it had a busted starthand.

[zacharycoatney]

Ocelot pride super overlooked then has damn near taken over the modern format. Also don’t sleep on mockingbird

[frogfinance]

Siege rhino was about as overlooked as the fucking sun

[noahmurtha]

As a cEDH player, ledger shredder is and was considered a blue staple. It’s effectively the equivalent to one of the mainstay commanders of the format (kraum ludevics opus) but for 2 mana. CEDH players never once doubted the potency of the card 😂

[frikifit]

GDS modern was probably the last great era of modern. Everything after has been slightly (or abundantly) more decadent with each new set…

[Mel]

I wasn’t prepared for these cards at all 😩🤯

[Potatoman]

Innkeeper's Talent is super op, I have four of those and they farry the deck especially combined with its brother card hunters talent

[lifeiaskedfor]

I remember alot of people over looked the jace from return to ravnica when it first came out. That card wasn't super broken but overlooked absolutely. Cars became a blue staple back in the day.