Cards that are no longer staples.

[Morganator 2.0]

A few days back I was asking about the new staples. A side effect of there being so many good new cards is that older cards that don't perform anymore have fallen out of favour.

So let's take a trip down memory lane. What are some cards you used to see a lot of, but see considerably less these days?

To start the conversation off, here are some cards I don't see as much of anymore.

Black Market
Commander's Sphere
Darksteel Ingot
Faithless Looting
Knight of the White Orchid
Mind's Eye
Reality Shift
Skyshroud Claim
Solemn Simulacrum

[Aetherium Slinky]

Board wipes. I know this is meta-dependent but the general trend from my perspective has been towards pinpoint removal and asymmetrical effects instead of symmetrical generic board wipes.

That's:
Wrath of God
Chain Reaction
Damnation
Evacuation
Can't think of an example for green. Green be special.
Nevinyrral's Disk

[WWolfe]

Phyrexian Arena
Other +1 card advantage cards like Brainstorm (though you could argue it's still good top deck manipulation), Ponder, Night's Whisper, etc.. 
Thinking about it, I don't see signets that much anymore in my meta. I see more Talisman than signets (other than Arane Signet).
Crypt Ghast
Bane of Progress
Land Tax
Decree of Pain

If you want to go way back...

Loxodon Warhammer
Coalition Relic
Maze of Ith
Putrefy
Vivid Lands (Vivid Grove, etc.)

[jlutzxinc]

Wow, it's almost like most of those cards were ALWAYS bad and some people just took a long time to catch on.

For myself, it was Signets; adding mana directly is ALWAYS better than adding mana TO mana, but I still used them for a long time.

Brainstorm, Faithless Looting, Land Tax, Ponder, Reality Shift and Sadbot are cards I still see a LOT.

I occasionally still see Commander's Sphere too; it's just Arcane Signet that you can sac (even tapped) to draw with for the same total investment as Mind Stone.

[Morganator 2.0]

There are a lot of big mana artifacts that I don't see much of anymore, although I'm not sure if these were ever staples.

Myr Battlesphere
Spine of Ish Sah
Steel Hellkite
Wurmcoil Engine

[CleanBelwas]

Damn, you guys are just listing cards I keep slamming into decks without a second thought 

* insert Skinner meme asking if I'm out of touch but deciding no, it's the format that is wrong *

[panasomick]

I still run Skyshroud Claim in just about every G/X deck, love to get those duals with it. Looting in mono red or spellslinger decks too usually. Crypt Ghast still makes in every mono b deck I run. Ill run signets in every 2 color deck, usually after all the other rocks have been added.

I dont see stuff like these anymore though:
Blood/Bond combo, Leylines and any of the legal Titans
Consecrated Sphinx
Darksteel Mutation
Lifecrafter's Bestiary
Scavenging Ooze
Mimic Vat
Krosan Grip

[Aetherium Slinky]

Damn, you guys are just listing cards I keep slamming into decks without a second thought 

* insert Skinner meme asking if I'm out of touch but deciding no, it's the format that is wrong *

I feel the same...

[jlutzxinc]

I still run Skyshroud Claim in just about every G/X deck, love to get those duals with it. Looting in mono red or spellslinger decks too usually. Crypt Ghast still makes in every mono b deck I run. Ill run signets in every 2 color deck, usually after all the other rocks have been added.

I dont see stuff like these anymore though:
Blood/Bond combo, Leylines and any of the legal Titans
Consecrated Sphinx
Darksteel Mutation
Lifecrafter's Bestiary
Scavenging Ooze
Mimic Vat
Krosan Grip

Krosan Grip is still extremely popular in my group (as is Trickbind, to a slightly smaller extent); there are some things you just HAVE to stop, without anyone being able to stop you.

[ApothecaryGeist]

I feel like any given deck is just playing fewer "staples" these days.


I attribute this to the plethora of new cards that come out every year.  There are so many options.  Staples often get cut in order to try out something new.


I also attribute this to the increasing frequency of niche commanders.  Often ones that try to capitalize on a set's mechanic - like Ranar the Ever-Watchful.  When you're using one of these Commanders you are often trying to use alternatives to otherwise staple cards.


It's not that the traditional staples are less good now.  (Some have lost play value, but most that we've listed are still just as good.)  It's that there are more and more decks that are actively trying to use something else.  At any given table, you don't see the staples so much.


Maybe they're all still staples.  Maybe nothing is a staple anymore.  Maybe Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and Command Tower are the only staples remaining.

[AlltheTokens]

I think there are some cards that were staples just because there were so many copies floating around that they were easy to get and “good enough” to improve decks.  We just get used to playing cards like this and end up automatically putting them into decks long after we have found better alternatives.  Two cards that I can think of that I fell into this trap on are Darksteel Ingot and Temple of the False God.  Temple of the offline God was always terrible, I just didn’t know better.  Darksteel Ingot was a little different because when I first started playing EDH there were three players in my circle that loved to target rocks.  Being indestructible meant I could ramp at least a little bit, and color fix in poorly designed decks that really needed it, even though almost any 2 mana rock that enters untapped is better.

[Cosmic_Insight]

Temple of the False God is only a staple because people saw past the downside in early edh, and because it was printed in every precon imaginable. There are so many better options to run. Heck, I'd even run Guildless Commons over Temple.

[fire5167]

I am sort of glad that a lot of the old staples are being phased out. It allows some decks to become more retro and introduces a whole new "old school" feel to some games. It sort of turns those formerly omnipresent cards back into "hidden gems". To add to the list:

• insurrection
• Jace Vryn's Prodigy
• Attrition
• Craterhoof Behemoth
• Pain Land Cycle

[Cosmic_Insight]

Ehhhhh, I’d argue that the pain lands are excellent for any deck with budget constraints, especially after the reprints, and Craterhoof Behemoth still acts as the “win the game” card for many green decks, but there are so many other cards and decks that you tend to see them less.

[fire5167]

Yeah, pain lands are good in budget still. But now that there are the pathways, horizon lands, slow lands, pain lands are just not as good imo. Also filter lands have dropped from 20ish dollars to 5ish dollars within the past 5 years.
Also I agree that Craterhoof is still good, it is just more difficult to compete nowadays with other powerful green cards. I could be wrong about this, but maybe in the past many green decks were homogenized to the point that craterhoof slotted into every single one of them whereas now it’s become more niche.