Summary
The Power Nine cards inMagic: The Gatheringare often considered some of the most powerful cards ever printed. While Sol Ring and Mana Crypt would like a word with whomever made that claim, there’s no denying that the Power Nine is an enigmatic collection ofinherently broken Magic cards.
Realistically, the Power Nine should be called The Power Four plus Moxes, since the original cycle of Moxes make up five of the slots in this collective. They might not seem like anything special to an untrained eye, but veteran players sing the praises of extra manaat no additional cost. Their power and notoriety has also led to several riffs on the original formula.
8Jack-In-The-Mox
A Mockery Of A Mox
Jack-in-the-Mox is obviouslyan ‘Un-set’ card, which makes it illegal to play in any sanctioned format. It would be quite strong even if you never lined up the color of mana you made with the colors you actually need. After all, a Mox that simply tapped for colorless mana would still be broken.
Funnily enough, it’s not doing anything that actually violates black-borded rules. Die-rolling used to be reserved forsilver-bordered joke cards, but Adventures in the Forgotten Realms opened the door fortournament-legal die-rolling, which makes this perfectly reasonable as far as the rules are concerned.
7Mox Lotus
Infinitely Better Than The Competition
Unlike Jack-in-the-Mox, Mox Lotus puts its Un-set status to good use, and while the card technically works within the context of Magic rules, it’s clearly, utterly broken. Magic rules don’t actually define the concept of infinity, which means an effect like this will stay silver-bordered… well, infinitely.
This little relic of the past is also the only card that’s ever explicitly referenced ‘mana burn’ in rules text. Mana burn hasn’t been part of the game in quite some time, but it’s funny, and perhaps appropriate that a silver-bordered card is the only one to mention this archaic rule.
6Mox Tantalite
A Tantalizing Alternative To A Commander Staple
Mox Tantalite is what many players consider to be a ‘fair Sol Ring.’ Sol Ring has been the subject of countless Commander-centric conversations, but players almost unanimously agree that Tantalite’s a perfectly balanced alternative.
Suspending a turn-one Tantalite’s all well and good, but this mana rock’s at its best in the same homes as any other suspend cards without a mana cost. That makes it an easy flip from mechanics like cascade and discover, which can easily skip the wait time on suspend and put the rock directly into play.
5Mox Amber
The Most Legendary Mox Of All
Mox Amber’s utility is directly proportional to the quantity and quality of the legendary creatures and planeswalkers in your deck. That restriction is becoming easier and easier to satisfy given the sheer number of legendary cards being printed in modern Magic.
Mox Amber has a perfectly mutual relationship withmulti-colored legends decks. The legends reliably ‘turn on’ Mox Amber, and the Mox helps fix the stringent color requirements necessary for most of these decks. It’s a mainstay infive-color decks, and even sees occasional Constructed play in degenerate combo decks.
Remember thatcolorless is not a color. Mox Amber is very unlikely to do anything in a fully colorless Commander deck.
4Chrome Mox
Third Time’s The Charm
Chrome Mox is evidence of Magic’s design team continuing to tamper with the concept of a Mox, and trying to find a middle-ground between powerful, but not too powerful. Chrome Mox has just enough restrictions to fall within the almost-fair camp.
Tinkering with the way you get a Mox on the battlefield doesn’t change the fact that playing it essentially puts you ahead on an entire turn’s worth of mana, which is tantamount for decks entirely dedicated to trying toend the game on turn one. Resources hardly matter if your opponent’s already dead.
3Mox Diamond
Less Broken Is Still Broken
Early Magic design produced its fair share of broken cards, and sometimes the designers set out to make ‘fixed’ and fair versions of those cards in later sets. Awkwardly, this often resulted in them making slightly less broken versions that were still problematic. Enter Mox Diamond, the ‘fixed’ Mox.
Even with losing a card just to get this Mox on the battlefield, it’s stillan incredible piece of fast mana. You’ll probably need some card advantage or a reliable combo to recoup your losses, but you’ll have the mana to make that part of the plan work.
2Mox Opal
The Artifact-Lover’s Mox
Mox Opal might as well be a strictly better original Moxin artifact decks. The metalcraft caveat is a meaningful restriction, but only insofar as you can only play it in artifact decks. Those decks, shockingly, are full of artifacts, which means Mox Opal is usually online when you need it to be.
The consistency of the card earned it a spot on the Modern banlist, but not before years of enabling powerful affinity and combo decks. It still sees extensive play elsewhere, though it’s probably up to no good regardless of which format it shows up in.
1The Original Moxes
Power For A Reason
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but rarely do imitators elevate beyond that which they’ve flattered. The original Moxes earn their place in the Power Nine, remaining to this day and forevermore the undisputed best Moxes in Magic.
You might argue that there’s a hierarchy within this cycle, with certain Moxes being better or worse than others depending on the format, but the truth is that the collective is still, as a whole, better than anything that’s come after. Now if only they were affordable,accessible, or playable in any real capacity.
