To be considered for this list, a keyword ability has to be just that - both a keyword and an ability. Keyword actions and ability words don't count. I chose three criteria to judge all keywords abilities:
- Innovation. When this keyword ability was first released, did it add something fundamentally new to the game of Magic? Since then, has the ability been used in new and different ways?
- Endurance. Has the keyword ability aged well? If a number of cards were printed today showcasing this ability, would players welcome those cards? Do players remember the keyword fondly?
- Playability. Perhaps the most important criterion, does the keyword ability play well? Is it fun? Does it lead to interesting and exciting games? Can it make for powerful, memorable cards?
#7 - Flashback
The story of flashback begins with what is perhaps the most notorious card in Magic's history: Yawgmoth's Will. Old relics such as Black Lotus, Moxen and their kind had an excuse for being as powerful as they were - Wizards of the Coast created them before they really knew what they were doing, at a time when certain incorrect assumptions about the game held true in the minds of the game's early developers (namely that no one player would accumulate so many rare cards in a single deck). By the time Urza's block entered the scene, enough analysis had been done about card advantage and combo potential that Wizards really, really should have known better. But mistakes - intentional or unintentional - were made, and Yawgmoth's Will (aka "Yawgwin") led the second wave of stupidly busted cards, creating a nuclear fallout that nearly destroyed the entire game of Magic. Players thought of Yawgmoth's Will much like Íñigo Montoya thought of the six-fingered man - as a mortal enemy.
But, Yawgmoth's Will had another distinction, beneath the obvious face of its overpowered brokenness: it did something really cool. And what it did - allow you to cast spells straight from your graveyard - no other card at the time could imitate. Flashback arrived three years later and rectified that situation. Other keyword abilities had saturated their respective blocks before flashback, but none so defined their block as flashback defined Odyssey block. Drawing on the power of Yawgmoth's Will but balancing it, diversifying it and sharing it among many different cards, flashback made Odyssey block a completely different experience than any other block that had come before it. It was the first "concept" block ever, tightly focused around the idea that players' graveyards mattered. The concept worked (even if a few rogue cards stole a bit of flashback's thunder), and flashback rocketed players' graveyards into a position of prominence that has never really diminished. Rather, "graveyard matters" has just taken on different forms in the years since. Thus, it is accurate to say that Flashback was Magic's first truly revolutionary keyword ability.
My high regard for flashback is more than just academic. The mechanic plays really, really well. It has a smooth, balanced style that is just as useful splashed into a casual creature deck as it is fine-tuned for a tournament level combo deck. It leads to very interesting play decisions - just how am I going to cast this Volley of Boulders today? Many well-loved cards sport this ability: Cabal Therapy, Call of the Herd and Deep Analysis owe everything to flashback. If the keyword ability has one glaring weakness, it's that age has been less than kind to it. Perhaps it is because Odyssey block got the mechanic so right the first time that its return in Time Spiral block was not a very grand one. Cards like Gaze of Justice and Conflagrate tried to be different than the flashback cards of Odyssey block, but just didn't have much new to offer. Since Odyssey block, new mechanics such as dredge, recover and unearth - which all owe a huge debt of gratitude to flashback - have chiseled away at a lot of what made the mechanic unique in the first place. Nevertheless, for the changes it brought to Magic and its timeless playability, flashback earns its place amongst the greats.
- Innovation: A
- Endurance: B-
- Playability: A
I'm wonding why you didn't compare Flashback to Buyback? Flashback is such a better balanced version of that spell. I know it is more similar to Splice and you addressed it there, but isn't there a conversation to be had about how Flashback made Buyback fun?