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Back when I played (15 yrs back?) Black Lotus was the consensus "top" card... I don't even see it on that list, so I'm guessing the game has changed a lot...

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There are now many formats where only certain cards are legal. This post is about Legacy, where Black Lotus is banned due to its insane power level. Lotus is really only legal in Vintage, and even then a deck can only have 1

I read a comment from Richard Garfield in the days of "Revised edition" and he said that one of the flaws of Black Lotus was that there was no deck that could not be made better with the addition of Black Lotus.

It's an auto-include. A no-brainer. Everybody wants one. Every deck benefits from having it, and that's why it defeats the spirit of the game and should be left out of future editions.

So, you could say that it's because it's so powerful that it's an auto-include, but then that leads to a discussion about cards that are powerful on their own and what cards are enablers.

That's very true, especially considering the members of the Power Nine. None of these cards win you the game by themselves by dealing damage or milling, but they are just huge enablers for almost any strategy.

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