Weatherlight did a great job of setting up the stage for Tempest, A flavorful block of cards that defined the game as it is today. Unheard of abilities, strength and powers emerge in these sets!

Tempest – Released mid 1997

The set “Tempest” kicks off an amazing cycle of cards. Many famous cards from this set are still in use today among casual and semi-pro players alike. Chronically the flavorful story of the beginning of the journey of the Mythical Weatherlight, cards have never before been so intertwined, aggressive, and ominous. Several new concepts were introduced to the game, as well as several being removed. Tempest did away with Banding, Phasing and Flanking and debuted Shadow, Buyback and Slivers, a strong creature type that are practically unstoppable if used all together. Shadow was also a unique ability in the fact that creatures with shadow could only be blocked by other creatures with shadow. Also, creature with shadow could only block other shadow creatures, so there was a slight drawback to the ability. Buyback allows an aditional cost to be played when casting a spell to return the card to your hand after it resolves rather than putting it in your graveyard! Bigger, trampling creatures were being thrown around more than ever and the combat portion of the strategy in this set was chaotic (in a new awesome sort of way).

As stated earlier there were many great cards that emerged from this set. Cards like Verdant Force provided a new creature for you during every turn of the game! Furnace of Wrath doubled all damage, to everything! The game emerged as even more exciting from this set and many of the sets from here forward continued to follow in its footsteps. As for the top card, one that is capable of milling an entire deck in a rather short amount of time comes to mind. This artifact costs 1 to cast and $30 to buy and is one of the most powerful cards ever printed!

Grindstone – Rare

Runners up : Intuition & Reflection Pool

Stronghold – Released 1998

Stronghold continued the legacy of Tempest so smoothly that it is very hard to differentiate between the two except for their expansion symbol. Stronghold is a small set that added several multicolored cards and many new slivers into the mix. Gerrard makes an appearance on what seems like every card and the storyline through the set gives it a special feel. Too bad Gerrard won;t be printed as a card himself for 3 more years!

Choosing one best card from this set is nearly impossible. There are so many different ways to asses the usability of some cards we could take all day discussing it. One does come to mind though. It is a huge 7/7 creature for only 5 mana. It is capable of generating creature tokens that fit right into its strategy, and if used correctly can be almost as useful as the creature itself!

Sliver Queen – Rare

runners up :  Mox Diamond, Dream Halls, Wall of Blossoms

Exodus – Released Mid 1998

Exodus provided a strong finish for the Rath Cycle and was a decent set overall. It lacked the umph of the previous two but was still full of great cards that are still in constant use today. The rares in this set stood out especially. They are, by far, the strongest cards in this expansion. Several cycles of cards existed within the set, the most popular being an “oath” enchantment for each color. Exodus was also the first set to display the black, silver, and gold rarity symbols that we are so used to today. It was also a test set for the first foil holographic card. A holographic Survival of the Fittest enchantment sells for over $1000!!

Exodus also had some of the first cards used in infinite combos and fetch cards. There are several classic cards that all appear in this set like Coat of Arms and Hatred. Coat of arms is still regarded as one of the most powerful offensive cards in the game. The best card is one of the ones from the Oath cycle of enchantments though. A free card a turn?!

Oath of Druids – Rare

Runners up : City of Traitors, Survival of the Fittest, Coat of Arms

Exodus concluded the Tempest Block and is followed by the “Urza Block” which is regarded as one of the most broken blocks in the game. Follow the link to continue reading about one of the strongest blocks in the game!

(pictures from www.magiccards.info)