Scotty, miracle worker | Illustration by Sam Kennedy
Magic: The Gathering hit stores between the latest film featuring the cast of the original series of Star Trek and the first film with The next generation. It was a good time to be a Hiking fan, and if you also loved the new card game, like me, you probably bought a few of the games it inspired back in the day, including the Star Trek Customizable Card Gamesome cards that I still have.
It quickly faded away, as did most of Magic’s early competitors/clones, but for those of us playing back then, there was always a sense of possibility, as Kirk would say. And now we live this future, like Hiking celebrates its 60th anniversary and Magic is well beyond its 30th birthday.
Mythic rares weren’t a part of the game back then, and as I write about the best mythics in this expansion, which I’ve been looking forward to for over half my life, I remember Star TrekThe ongoing obsession with time, aging and creating things that endure across generations. The loss of two Star TrekThis week’s leads, Walter Koenig and Patrick Stewart, make this moment particularly poignant. They were legendary parts of a legendary franchise, and one of them has a nice card on this list that serves as a fitting tribute.
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How many mythical rares are there? Star Trek?
Captain James T. Kirk | Illustration by Jason Pastrana
There are four lights. And there is 25 Mythic rares in the main set. Let’s rank them all, looking at which ones are going to be released in all formats.
#25. Excalbian Game Master
Yes, this classic mythical character from the series! Um, who actually remembers this episode? This is a classic case of a card elevated to Mythic to avoid ruining the Limited environment, as it would be a boring high end if multicolor worked in the format. Excalbian Gamemaster could make a lot of red shirts in Amulet Titan decks, perhaps, or in most multicolor EDH decks, but that’s not enough of a gain in those spaces.
#24. USS Enterprise-A, free spirit
In a series of delightful victories, they take on the beautifully redesigned ship for the films, which Star Trek: The Movie spends about 89 minutes lovingly ogling the camera and making it a version of (check notes) Cloudgoat Ranger. I’m too busy trying to get my inner child out of the corner to properly evaluate the USS Enterprise-A, Free Spirit, maybe, but this looks pretty bad. Yeah, it’s pretty easy to park in a big lifelink, but ugh.
The good news is that if I take it out of a package, I can just put it in a hard sleeve on my desk to look at Evan Shipard’s beautiful artwork without worrying about not exploiting its incredible power in a Limited deck.
#23. Rok-Tahk, budding scientist
I’m not a believer. You release Rok-Tahk, budding scientist with at least four creatures to bring in 2 mana. If you can avoid a board wipe for a turn, you can go wild with big green mana. I assume your opponents are sleeping while this happens.
#22. Crystal entity
The old selective board wipe at 8 mana! I got them.
Crystalline Entity is a clunky card for a clunky concept in the clunky years of The next generation. So to the point. I can see this working in big colorless mana decks, but I’d still rather have an Eldrazi or Ugin for this cost.
#21. Death doesn’t matter
So you drop this with a lot of mana or cheat it into play. Cool. Lots of bad guys reanimated because death is irrelevant. But very, very slowly. This is Griselbrand’s mana, and there are currently half a dozen better black 8-drops in Standard alone. Still, you’ll never hate that it’s on the ground in front of you.
#20. Quark, humble owner
Perfect flavor for the first Rule of Acquisition, Quark, Humble Owner is doctrinaire. It continues to increase until you kill it. But then you can use the ramp. A nice little dilemma for your opponent, but in the meantime you’re making artifact tokens, so go get that latinum!
#19. Starfleet Academy
So you’re a Pet Avengers deck, you say? Maybe throw in another type of salad creature like Curious Farm Animals. Now, as long as you can untap Starfleet Academy and as long as you have at least seven creature types, it’s like Nykthos, the Sanctuary of Nyx! I mean, that’s what you want to think. There will be a card that breaks this, but I don’t think it will be printed. Again.
#18. Captain Kathryn Janeway
Two lands per turn gets pretty plentiful, but having everyone explore is pretty nice. It’s not nice enough at 4 mana in anything other than Commander, I think. Captain Kathryn Janeway is above all a victory of flavor.
#17. Q, Stacking the deck
So really Q, Stacking the Deck lets you search through a shuffled library, except you search in exile. So, the mythical Khan is so funny with this card. Why wouldn’t you want a ton of cards that cascade or uncover for 4 mana instead, because those get the card for free?
What about Brawl style decks with mostly lands and a few wincons, using Q as a tutor in the command zone? Of course. I think you could win with this as long as the rest of the table is definitely sleeping or no one is playing blue.
Yes, there is an incredibly stupid combo that can win. Some of you were in full “challenge accepted” mode when you saw this card. And that seems very Q.
#16. Infinite diversity
Infinite Diversity bothered me at first until I understood the art joke. Wait for it. Mastering an overloaded Mizzix literally casts the entire diversity of instants or sorceries in your graveyard. OUR Star Trek The card, on the other hand, for 1 extra mana, copies a spell multiple times depending on how many creature types you have, which doesn’t really seem like diversity to me.
The art shows us the diversity of cadets who are all graduating from Starfleet, making it seem like they are each casting the same spell since their diversity will be added to the Starfleet collective, a military enterprise that has a sort of homogenizing effect. It’s a knock on Starfleet that various villainous characters have asserted over the last 60 years of the franchise, and I appreciate that he has a voice here, even if the flavor text doesn’t seem to be in on the joke. Note that due to the federation, the Borg (and therefore changelings) are not included, which almost gives the thing extra bite.
All that aside, how good is this card? Your combo may be heavier than the Mizzix deck, especially once you engage broken items like extra turns, waterfall, and storm, but checking creature types gives it a limit. Mass graveyard hatred is less scary for Infinite Diversity because you only need one, which you can land in the yard right before, but the vulnerability of your creatures is an issue.
However, the best great sorceries do not need five copies. Just think of Expropriate, Time Stretch, Peer into the Abyss, Breach the Multiverse, Emergent Ultimatum, and all kinds of other fun stuff that’s looking for two or three copies, up top.
#15. Jadzia Dax, Living Legacy
I can see this in Standard Ouroboroid decks. Maybe this becomes difficult with a deck playing Warden of the Grove, which has been sort of overshadowed by a bunch of better and cheaper green cards. And the pitch option for two pawns is no joke in these decks. Jadzia Dax, Living Legacy seems like a good commander who does a good job combining ramp and counters. It’s good, not great.
#14. Borg Cube
Nifty exile removal, mostly at 2 mana, for affinity decks. Cool. If you get there with artifact creature tokens, you’ll get the cost of the station, which will often be a good way to win. Or you warp into the Borg Cube, exile something, then trash it for cards. Quite good if these colors work by affinity in the chosen format.
#13. Seven out of nine, not assimilated
Even though it just plunders every turn with toughness 4, it’s a pretty good deal for a human artifact creature in decks that doesn’t want to lose on turn 3 to aggro. But it’s not that difficult in most formats to build a deck that will likely make Seven of Nine, Unassimilated draw you a card.
How often will you want to inflate it? Not often, but a high-end threat hidden in a 2-drop that’s hard to kill for red and fits well into decks that matter, is going to find plenty of homes.
#12. Georgiou, Earth Emperor
Phyrexian Unlife on something easy to remove is a danger, that’s for sure. But 10 chips is crazy. Georgiou, the Earth Emperor, could therefore be a useful high-end in Dimir () control decks, even if it’s only in the sideboard? The superfriends and lifegain decks that emerged after Fracture of reality I don’t have a ton of cards that can actually kill Michelle Yeoh’s Tyrant. And I don’t think most green decks in the format offer anything that can actually beat this card, almost as if it’s some sort of high-end planeswalker style that benefits from not being a planeswalker! So, can you control the board long enough to score a victory with counterspell coverage? The threat of this card in control shells will have a big impact, at least in my preferred version of the future.
In other formats it looks pretty silly.
#11. Khan, vengeful heart
Coming out of exile is a great flavor for this character, and Khan, Vengeful Heart is awesome. Like a Village Rites that comes with a 5/3 that you can always find somewhere, this feels like a card you always want at least one of in many decks and formats.
#10. Captain James T. Kirk
I must triumph over Khan! Three mana is a lot for an aggressive card, especially without haste. Now if you have something like Samut, Champion of Hazoret, Captain James T. Kirk triggers twice, acting as Trumpet Blast if you want, creating two creatures or making an actual land cast. If you’re determined, which is pretty good here, you get a pretty big upgrade to the…
Gn entert
