Electrodominance

https://scryfall.com/card/rna/99/electrodominance

Very cool art and name, enjoyably goofy flavor text, and an interesting effect that nobody has any interest in using fairly. I’m not sure how popular this deck is now, but for a while it was used in Restore Balance decks as a backup way to cast that card alongside As Foretold. (Even if X=0, you can still cast a nonexistent-mana-cost spell off it!)

And hey, in a pinch you can even use it as removal.

Clackbridge Troll

https://scryfall.com/card/eld/353/clackbridge-troll

A flavorful riff on Desecration Demon, perfectly suited to Eldraine. It loses flying and gives your opponents sacrifice fodder, but it’s bigger, hasty, and draws cards. It’s not quite enough for constructed, but I’d love to make a casual deck with this, D-Demon, and a bunch of untapping combat tricks. (And maybe Illness in the Ranks?)

Nightmare

https://scryfall.com/card/m15/276/nightmare

A premiere creature from Alpha, now in free welcome decks. It’s still cool as hell, but has been superseded by other monoblack payoffs like Gray Merchant of Asphodel. It was the only Nightmare-type in Alpha, and while there have been some individually powerful Nightmares since (like, say, Lurrus) the tribe has never gotten much of a coherent style or a dedicated lord.

Darksteel Ingot

https://scryfall.com/card/c15/251/darksteel-ingot

One of the original cards with the indestructible mechanic, and now both of its abilities have been shortened with modern templating. It’s also gained some absolutely haunting flavor text - I really hope we get to check back in on New Phyrexia at some point.

Also, I love how the only Ingot in the game is immune to Ingot Chewer. https://scryfall.com/card/uma/135/ingot-chewer

Undertow

https://scryfall.com/card/leg/82/undertow

Of all the (land)walk hosers, this might come the closest to being Theoretically Not Completely Awful, since there are a bunch of very good and frequently-played creatures that have/give islandwalk - Inkwell Leviathan, Lord of Atlantis, Master of the Pearl Trident, River Boa, etc.

Still, I wish the name “undertow” was available for an interesting blue griptide-style effect

Soratami Rainshaper

https://scryfall.com/card/chk/89/soratami-rainshaper

I love the flavor of the moonfolk, but their land-bouncing mechanical identity is pretty hard to use well, since it’s either a brutal tempo loss or just begging to do awful things with Exploration and friends. Still, I’m glad we have Tamiyo to keep them in the game in some way or another.

Gideon’s Phalanx

https://scryfall.com/card/ori/14/gideons-phalanx

It’s expensive, and pretty obviously telegraphed if you pass the turn with 5WW open, but this is a very fun way to build up an army at once and/or wreck someone’s alpha strike.

I also quite like the flavor and gameplay of Spell Mastery, and I hope it comes back someday.

Compulsive Research

https://scryfall.com/card/rav/40/compulsive-research

An interesting middle ground between Thirst for Knowledge and Divination, good when you use it fairly and great if you’re doing some Graveyard Nonsense.

Funnily enough, although we’ve seen some Strictly Better Divinations in Standard lately, and cards like Thirst for Meaning, Compulsive Research has yet to be reprinted back into Standard ever

Soldevi Golem

https://scryfall.com/card/me4/228/soldevi-golem

Here’s a relatively-reasonably-powerful creature from Ice Age, with some absolutely amazing art from Anson Maddocks. This kind of flavor/design has shown up more recently on cards like Chronomaton and Traxos, but I love the ominous, cyborg-y feel of this art in particular.

Approach of the Second Sun

https://scryfall.com/card/akr/4/approach-of-the-second-sun

A control wincon with some excellently ominous flavor, playing on Bolas’s “Sevens” motif from several of his cards.

The Remastered version has new art in light of the original artist being revealed as awful, and I think it’s genuinely better, with the smoky texturing and the flock of birds that looks eerily like locusts.

Disenchant

https://scryfall.com/card/wc98/bh16sb/disenchant

This printing shows off a few interesting trends of its time - like nearly every card in Tempest, it’s part of a storyboard-style sequence detailing the entire plot, and it’s a gold-bordered card from a precon based on a recent tournament-winning decklist.

I get why both of these things are untenable now, but I’m glad they were both in the game at one point.

Forest

https://scryfall.com/card/pz2/70807/forest

This is a really cool-looking bamboo forest from the Jiang Yanggu / Mu Yanling duel decks, which were Standard-legal in China and nowhere else. (However, WotC did not make any public statement on what they think counts as “China.”)

The artist, Xin-Yu Liu, illustrated three other cards for the decks, and I hope they stay on as a regular artist: https://scryfall.com/search?q=a%3A“Xin-Yu+Liu”&unique=art

Gilded Lotus

https://scryfall.com/card/pdom/215s/gilded-lotus

Originally printed in Mirrodin, providing an answer to “how much would a fair, repeatable Black Lotus cost?” It’s a quality mana rock, and this time it has flavor text that might be referencing the recent fate of Mirrodin.

Nissa, Worldwaker

https://scryfall.com/card/m15/187/nissa-worldwaker

This planeswalker is powerful, but didn’t see as much play as the latest five-mana Nissa. Also, it’s aesthetically frustrating that her abilities refer to “lands,” “forests,” and “basic lands,” rather than having more mechanical cohesion.

Also, Nissa’s face here is heavily based on Yolandi Visser, a member of South African rap group Die Antwoord: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/2a18xb/someone_on_tg_posted_this_picture_showing_how/

@orb_warded_kor_warlord I'm sure we'll see them again whenever hey get around to Return to Kamigawa?

@orb_warded_kor_warlord I've got that as an alt wincon in my Kwain "everybody draws cards!" edh deck. If I get Smothering Tithe online early enough, I can cast, redraw, and recast this in a single turn.

@orb_warded_kor_warlord Oooh, didn't realize they'd done new art for it. I really like the change.