Magic's Power Nine

With the initial Alpha edition of Magic:The Gathering wizards of the cost introduced nine cards that have forever defined the game and been the holy grail of collectors since. For a short period of time, from 1993-1994, they were available in the first three printing of Magic:The Gatheeing Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited. Due to their complete brokedness they will never be printed again and legal only in one format, vintage. Even there they are restricted to one copy of each per decklist. Despite this fact, their complete brokedness and extreme scarcity make them amongst the most coveted and expensive cards in all of Magic.

The holy grail of Magic cards. The most valuable piece of cardboard crack ever printed as a part of a set. With a casting cost of 0, Black Lotus is an artifact that allows you to add 3 mana of any color to your mana pool. Making turn 4 plays on turn one is extremely devastating, especially when color is not even a limitation.

The five Mox cards - Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, Mox Sapphire, Mox Jet and Mox Emerald, collectively take up five spaces in the list. These are also artifacts with a casting cost of 0 that allow you to tap them for a color of mana respective to their name. Mox Pearl produces white, Mox Ruby produces red, Mox Saphire produces blue, and Mox Jet produces black, and Mox emerals produces black.

Stricltly better than basic lands because you can play as many as you want in a single turn. Before they were restricted it was possible to run 20 of these and not even need any land. Even now many vintage decks will run all five.

Ancestral Recall is an instant that allows you to draw three cards for one blue mana. Card advantage has always been an important tenant of Magic theory and no card has ever given you card draw so cheaply.

Time Walk, for one colorless and one blue mana, allows you to take an extra turn. If you were unable to win the game in turn one with all of the mana Black Lotus and the Moxes gave you, Time Walk gives you another turn to try again before your opponent even has a turn of his own.

The final, and also least valuable, of the power nine is Time Twister. This card, with a casting cost of two colorless and one blue mana, states that each player shuffles his or her hand or graveyard into his or her library and then draws seven cards. This card can be an even better card draw spell but also has the huge disadvantae of drawing cards for your opponent. However, it can also remove strong cards from their hands and replace them with weaker ones.This one takes some extra thought to play correctly but when used right can be absolutely devastating.