The greatest Magic: The Gathering card of the past 10 years has been decided by fans, in a 'tournament' that involved the Magic TCG subreddit community. User 'Grindy_UW_Nonsense' created a website that pit pairs of cards against each other and encouraged users to pick their favorites. The top 10% of cards were then run through another round of voting, narrowing down to the top 64, top 32, and so on, until - with 1.5 million votes placed in total across the tournament - the best card of the decade was chosen.
That card is: Urza's Saga! Released in the MTG set Modern Horizons 2 in June 2021, this land/saga card has been a staple across multiple formats ever since - from Modern all the way to Vintage, appearing in numerous archetypes.
It's easy to see why it's such a good card - it makes token creatures which can be chump blockers or major threats depending on your deck; it can grab any low-cost artifact in your deck, finding the solution to any problem you're having; and - perhaps best of all - because it's a land you can play it for free and it cannot be countered.
Admittedly, this tournament was more of a fun community project than a scientific endeavour to find the 'best MTG card'. For starters, greatest is obviously a pretty subjective term. Does it mean the strongest card, the most fun, the best-designed, the most flavorful? It also seems like this term was only introduced by the creator later in the tournament and that initially, fans were simply asked to pick their favorite.
At any rate, the top four cards ended up all being power outliers. We had Oko, Thief of Crowns, Lurrus of the Dream Den, Urza's Saga, and - amusingly - Fatal Push. Gotta say, I'm very glad those first two didn't win. It wouldn't sit right with me having a card so powerful they can fairly be dubbed 'design mistakes' crowned as winner.
In the end, Urza's Saga beat fellow finalist Lurrus in a close-run race: 4,239 votes to 4,165.
You can check out the 'Magic Bracket' website yourself to see how your favorite cards performed in the tournament. What would you have voted for? Share your thoughts on the Wargamer Discord.