The Best Cards Of 2024

Summary

• Three Tree City is the best land of 2024 for Commander, providing mana advantage for creature-focused decks.
• Surveil Lands enter tapped and offer card selection for each color pair.
• Nadu, Winged Wisdom dominated Modern and Legacy formats with powerful abilities.

Many sets were released over the course of 2024 in Magic: The Gathering. From the first set of Ravnica Remastered in January to Foundations in November, there has been a giant influx of cards into the game. There were remastered sets, Standard sets, Commander deck drops, and much more.

2024 saw many powerful cards released over the year, and many of these cards found a home across multiple formats, such as new Pioneer staples and even meta shifters in the high-power Legacy format. Whatever format you play, there was a new card that entered the meta of it that was released in 2024.

10

Three Tree City

Typal Payoff

While Three Tree City doesn’t see any play in constructed formats, it is the best land of 2024 for Commander. If you are playing any deck that focuses on one creature type, you will want to have room for Three Tree City.

Three Tree City has the potential to generate a ton of mana, only requiring three of the same creature type to go mana positive with it. Most of the best utility lands enter tapped, but not Three Tree City, and even if you don’t have the right creature types, you can still tap it for a colorless mana so it’s not ever sitting around doing nothing.

9

Surveil Lands

Staple One-Ofs

While not the most exciting cards, it’s undeniable that the Surveil lands are the best land cycle of 2024. There is one for every color pair, all entering tapped and letting you surveil for one when they enter the battlefield.

The most notable part of the cards is that they have basic land types. This means you can search for them from your library with fetchlands. As such, they’re often played as a one or two-of (more often one-of) as a card to fetch for at an end step to have some control over what you’re drawing the next turn.

8

Slickshot Show-Off

For The Spellslingers

Slickshot Show-Off immediately became a staple of any red-based aggro deck, seeing play in Standard, Pioneer, and Modern as soon as it released. The amount of damage that Slickshot Show-Off can do with the right combination of cards can lead to game wins as early as turn three.

The ability to plot Slickshot Show-Off helps to keep it safe from removal as well as cast it for free to cast a ton of spells the turn it enters. A Monstrous Rage used on Slickshot Show-Off is one of the scariest things you can see if you don’t have removal, and often leads to a game win.

7

Vein Ripper

Bane Of Pioneer

Vein Ripper was responsible for what was widely considered to be a poor Pioneer format, being cheated in turn three by Sorin, Imperious Bloodlord. This combo wound up winning Pro Tour Murders At Karlov Manor and ran rampant in the RCQ season that followed.

The ward ability, great stats, and fantastic trigger ability all contributed to just how powerful Vein Ripper became. The card was responsible for the banning of Sorin, and still has a home in dedicated Vampire midrange decks as a game-ender since the deck can easily cast it.

6

Heartfire Hero

Small Mouse, Big Power

Heartfire Hero is the heart and soul of Mice-based decks in Standard, and a key player in Rakdos Prowess in Pioneer. The card can do a surprising amount of damage, and makes blocking it ineffective if it has high power as it will just deal damage equal to its power whenever it dies to an opponent. It’s often paired with a fling spell which will cause its power to be dealt to an opponent twice, often winning the game as early as turn two.

Heartfire Hero grows in stats whenever it’s targeted with a spell or ability you control. There is no shortage of ways to do so in decks that play Heartfire Hero, and if not removed early, can often win you the game.

5

Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber

Card Draw And Burn

One of the best Room cards for constructed formats, Unholy Annex // Ritual Chamber redefined black-based midrange decks in both Standard and Pioneer. While the 6/6 Demon is useful on the Ritual Chamber side, the main attraction is Unholy Annex. If you have multiple copies of Unholy Annex on the battlefield, each one will trigger potentially burning your opponent for a ton of life.

There are many Demons with powerful effects you can easily curve into so you won’t be burning yourself out of the game. It’s often paired with the Demons Bloodletter of Aclazotz and Archfiend of the Dross, two cards that will make the burn damage your opponent feels from Unholy Annex even greater.

4

Ocelot Pride

Tokens For Lifegain

Ocelot Pride is a major player of the Boros Energy deck in Modern, and was so strong it had to be nerfed in the Historic format (by making it cost two mana instead of one). It’s often paired with Guide of Souls which will gain life when a creature enters the battlefield which in turn will ensure Ocelot Pride triggers and give you a ton of energy counters.

In just a few turns, Ocelot Pride can convert into a ton of Cat tokens on the battlefield, especially once you establish the city’s blessing. The first strike makes it a solid attacker as well in the early stages of a game, making it great in combat and ensuring you’ll get a lifegain trigger thanks to lifelink.

3

Abhorrent Oculus

New Tempo Player In Town

Abhorrent Oculus is one of the best new tempo cards of 2024, seeing play in Standard, Pioneer, Modern, and even some Legacy decks. It’s most often played in decks that are casting a ton of spells so you can always cast it by exiling six cards from your graveyard, or ones that are reanimating it directly from the graveyard.

Unless your opponent is ready for it, you’ll always be able to manifest dread at least once since it happens at the start of your upkeep. Even if it does get removed, since it’s played in decks that are often reanimating, this hardly matters since you can just bring it back from the graveyard again.

2

Psychic Frog

Little Bit Of Everything

Psychic Frog is a fantastic two-drop that draws you cards, sets up your graveyard, and acts as a great attacker and blocker. Since all of its abilities can be used at instant speed, Psychic Frog can suddenly become much stronger or gain flying for defensive purposes, or bait out blockers to suddenly make it stronger.

Psychic Frog is a staple of Dimir and Esper-based decks, and saw play in Modern, Legacy, and even the highest power format of Vintage. It’s often used in graveyard-based decks, especially reanimator ones with how easily Psychic Frog can put a creature directly into the graveyard.

1

Nadu, Winged Wisdom

Best Of 2024

It’s impossible to give the best Magic card of 2024 title to anything but Nadu, Winged Wisdom. Responsible for Modern’s “Nadu Summer,” Nadu, Winged Wisdom decks were far and away the best you could be playing. While it was banned in Modern after only two months (and Commander just one month later), it is still a top deck in Legacy.

Targeting a creature with an ability was trivial, and with Springheart Nantuko backing Nadu up, you had a constant source of new creatures to target with abilities that cost zero mana to essentially draw your entire library. The amount of advantage Nadu gives you is massive, and why it’s the best card of 2024.