Abyssal Specter, uncommon (first printed in Ice Age, 1995)

This is the accepted baseline for the Specter creature archetype and commonly not good enough to suit a seasoned competitive player - Hypnotic, Blazing and Sedraxis Specters await. Still, if you can look past its near-obsoletion by those three cards you'll find that the Abyssal one is still serviceable and more reliably resilient thanks to its extra point of toughness, resisting Pyroclasm, Sudden Shock and other popular zaps. That's probably not enough to make it your first pick in any scenario other than, well, Ice Age draft, but there's no reason to retire this card - he's still solid in any highlander or large-deck format you care to name. Can be acquired for about twenty pence in your choice of black or white borders, with various pictures to choose from over the years.

Abyssal Persecutor, mythic (first printed in Worldwake, 2010)

This is unacceptable. Here's the latest card in the WotC Mythic Series which make you feel wretched for being unable to afford and, noticeable by their absence, instantly brand your deck sub-optimal. It's a really powerful and undercosted card with no practical disadvantage to speak of, nor any nuance or elegance either in design or practise. Total trash; avoid infuriating your casual friends with this noticeably pushed card while sparing your competitive friends no opportunity to crash yours into theirs. Can be acquired for anywhere between fifteen and twenty pounds, I imagine, and good luck to you.

Abyssal Nocturnus, rare (first printed in Guildpact, 2006)

Well, it's better than Megrim! This Nocturnus exists to blackjack your distressed opponents, stealing an early victory before they recover from the disruption this card demands to be ran alongside. Immediately it slots in to your typical no-thrills black attack deck, too slow and conservative to be considered suicide. The real fun to be found in the Horror is in its improvement of already fair cards - Nocturnus turns Skullscorch into a mostly guaranteed four damage, Urza's Guilt into nine and Wheel of Fortune into anything up to fourteen! Disrupting Scepter is a good partner for him, and a fine card on its own, but greater humour can be found in him acquiring a partner, specifically any Specter-type creature, and providing that partner with some means to strike first - try a Blazing Specter wearing the Helm of Kaldra or else ensorcelled with Fists of the Demigod. Perhaps that's going a little over-the-top to satisfy an already fair card when greater results can be derived from a simpler pairing - Ill-Gotten Gains, a popular and questionably-balanced card, which both superpowers your Nocturnus and retrieves your Blightnings and Ravenous Rats and whatnot, combating the good your opponent found in the card while bludgeoning him or her half to death. Not bad at all. Can be acquired for about fifty pence a copy.

Abyssal Nightstalker, uncommon (first printed in Portal Second Age, 1998)

Assuredly a surplus card in all but the most queer of circumstances. There are enough better versions of this card (Specters in the Hypnotic, Abyssal, Blazing and countless other varieties) that this Nightstalker wouldn't even have a home in the most monomaniacal of hand-attacking decks. I'll admit that, should you be looking for a Specter-like creature that doesn't fly, you might want to include... no, no, there are Odylic Wraiths and its countless brothers and sisters to consider. Not even particularly exciting in the "resurrect all Night Stalkers" deck. Avoid. Can be acquired, if you must, for about forty pence a copy.

Abyssal Hunter, rare (first printed in Mirage, 1996)

The stall-breaker to Royal Assassin's stall-creator, Abyssal Hunter gets passed over even in casual deck construction time and time again, and that's a terrible shame because he is a powerful card. It has obvious applications like settling creature impasses, slowly clearing the battlefield of clutter like Llanowar Elves with his oversized bowie knife and keeping one large creature locked down for as many turns as you wish, and even before you start combining other cards with him, you'll notice that those are a wide range of useful abilities, particularly in a black card - a colour that seems to have recently lost the power to force a creature to tap. Now then... combine the man with Sadistic Glee or, even more viciously, the off-colour Exoskeletal Armor and he becomes the fish that eats its kin so that he may acquire the volume to eat bigger fish still. Pair him, as many have done, with Royal Assassin himself and you have a deadly duo who decide whether any other man lives or dies. Even placing something as simple as Instill Energy on the Abyssal Hunter creates an outrageously powerful problem for your opponent. Yes, he can be removed from play by many of the choice zaps people play and yes, he probably costs one point of mana too many, but when you are paying for a chance to control a permanent that ruins your opponent's plans to such an extent, one dares to say it might be worthwhile. Can be acquired for about forty pence a copy, in either black or white-bordered form.

Abyssal Horror, rare (first printed in Urza's Saga, 1998)

A creature who needs to be cheated into play, its cost being higher than its apparent power would suggest is necessary. Ideally you'll be able to find a way of placing this Horror directly onto the battlefield for less than 2B, the cost of Stupor - (Hymn to Tourach forced two random discards for the low cost of BB but I think we can all agree on how much of an aberration that was...) Flash, Oath of Druids, Animate Dead and Soul Exchange all come to mind, but in a game of multiplayer, you'll find far weirder ways. Am I being harsh about its uncastability? Of course, you can wait until the middle of a multiplayer game or until near the end of a duel to cast this creature honestly, but its effect on the opponent will be much less disruptive. Indeed, it is unusual among rare black threats that it becomes weaker as time marches on - you could have cast Nightmare or Visara for similar costs! Can be acquired for about thirty pence a copy in black border or twenty in white.

Abyssal Gatekeeper, common (first printed in Weatherlight, 1997)

As with all forbidding walls and stalwarts, Abyssal Gatekeeper is most useful when you have more than one opponent with which to contend, proving an effective deterrent which promises mutually-assured destruction, if you will. (For the nuclear option, see False Prophet.) Coupled with some useful means of sacrifice (Phyrexian Tower?) the Gatekeeper may act as a pseudo-unblockable creature and remain a dire warning to your enemies even when tapped. The Gate doesn't stay locked for every threat you will face, since many cards in the multiplayer environment come with quirks like supertrample, protection from black or sufficient size to require more than one blocker, but thankfully those creatures tend to appear at a much later stage than this small wonder. A player may pair this card with a supply of Unearths to frustrate his or her opponents with a corruptive stream of attrition, (and the cherry on top of this one is that the card Attrition itself fits perfectly into the theme) and when the graveyards are suitably full of the sacrificed, Mortivore may come out to play, perhaps Spoils of Evil or Songs of the Damned may enable some of the more shamelessly evil planeswalkers to cast a giant Drain Life or Death Cloud... it is more true of black than any other colour in magic, that when a black mage appears to be stalling, it is often to reach some threshold at which they can cast their most powerful and inevitably crushing spells - think Nightmare, Corrupt, Mind Sludge, et al. Playing an early Abyssal Gatekeeper is just one of the affordable ways to survive those grueling early turns. If you want this effect to be more of a surprise, consider Innocent Blood. Can be acquired for less than ten pence a copy.

Abundance, rare (first printed in Urza's Saga, 1998)

It's difficult to estimate how powerful Abundance is as a permanent in a vacuum but it seems a slight improvement of one's topdecking luck should not be worth four mana unless it shares a card with a creature or disruptive spell - any normal deck with a heavy green element will be more interested in casting, say, Ravenous Baloth, or else Creeping Mold, or in any case something that grabs the opponent's attention. Abundance does none of that, making its inclusion in a traditional green creature deck unlikely. In a slower environment, the fourth turn can be very important indeed, not to be wasted on an opulant card like this. Still, it has homes in other types of decks... imagine Abundance allowing a player friendly with the Enchantresses - Argothian Enchantress, Enchantress's Presence, and so forth - dig for an enchantment each time one is cast, unleashing a daisy chain of blessings, each cementing the player's defenses that little more inevitably, in preparation for the moment when Opalescense finally climbs its way to the top of the deck. Add the card Sylvan Library and you'll note that the two cards are written in such a way as to provide an absurd effect in conjuction, that of drawing three cards a turn for no cost at all! With Stasis in play, allow yourself to draw a land every turn; with Orcish Mechanics in play, skew the odds in the favour of drawing an artifact. Besides Abundance's talent for dowsing for just what you need, it does one other, more subtle thing: with no cards left in one's library, an activation of Abundance to replace one's draw allows one to survive the draw step where loss otherwise looms. This is a very specialist card, plain in most circumstances but a cornucopia in those small, subtle moments. Can be acquired for about fifty pence a copy.

Abuna's Chant, common (first printed in Fifth Dawn, 2004)

This card costs a fortune and has precious little effect to show. Why bring Abuna's Chant, when at four mana, white has access to more powerful abilities like full prevention - Story Circle - or even redirection of damage - Harsh Judgement, Kor Chant, Mirror Strike? Is five life worth the card's inconvenience? At full power, no card fully obsoletes Abuna's Chant's combination of abilities but I don't imagine that makes it an attractive card to anyone in particular. Mostly unplayable. Can be acquired for less than ten pence a copy.

Abu Ja'far, uncommon (first printed in Arabian Nights, 1994)

The consumate cowardly card. What better way to shriek "please don't hit me!" on the very first turn? Sadly, it's a ploy that rarely works - unadjusted, this shrinking leper can only block one foot soldier and will never survive the experience. Examined from this perspective, Abu fails to live up to his potential and compares unconvincingly to the gamut of one-mana removal spells through Magic's history, every single one of which having more surprise value. It is only through combination with trickier cards that he shines. To start with, Blaze of Glory and Lure are two popular ways to throw a combat into chaos, and with Abu Ja'far as your avatar, means the decimation of all involved. With his power augmented by some equipping or crusading (although should you place Abu and Jihad in the same deck be aware of the potentially off-color observations your opponents could voice, on the theme of Arabian guerrilla-terror types, I dare say. One may as well drive the point home by adding Alaborn Zealot, a similar card.) effect, the leper's ability often amounts to unblockability, much to your opponent's chagrin at being harried by a card never intended to threaten his life. Back to the cowardly end of the strategic spectrum, their exists a card named Proclamation of Rebirth which can serve to resurrect Abu as many times as you wish - exactly the thing to quell attack by hordes of dumb beasts although ill-suited against those with trample or fear. Not a "good" card exactly, but an amusing one - in victory, how satisfying would it be to claim your opponent was outsmarted by your leper general? Can be acquired for around three pounds a copy in a black border, or much more readily in white for less than ten pence each.

Absorb Vis, common (first printed in Conflux, 2009)

In slower paced environments, cards such as Absorb Vis blossom. Its individual effects - a four-point Drain Life or else an uncounterable Lay of the Land - both cost at least one point of mana too much to be deemed optimal by those tourney lords who have somehow come to oversee the pronouncement of viability in cards, effortlessly painting how tournaments unfold with nary a paragraph of proof required from their devotees. Still, in conjunction, Absorb Vis gives a player a certain amount of freedom. It's important in the design of this type of card to allow one effect of the two to always be useful - this one can serve both as your killing blow and as a key to the means of casting it, and for that it has my confidence, no matter how slow it seems. Would that this type of card become popular with more players, perhaps the standard magic duel wouldn't be quite so coloured by "officially good!", one-dimensional, boring cards. Of course, judging by the way the Wizards of the Coast see fit to print cards specifically intended to ring true with the competitive set, cards that artificially cost a little extra will continue to be crowded out by card that artificially cost a little less. Well, it's one way to run a business, I suppose. This card has lots of cousins - for real overkill value, play it with Soul Spike or Spinning Darkness and watch as Absorb Vis takes on a third role in your deck! Can be acquired for less than ten pence a copy.

Absorb, rare (first printed in Invasion, 2000)

Is Absorb good? Following a brief time's deliberation I have decided that it is quite lacklustre. The combination of the spell's abilities suggests a slow controlling deck, but with an awkward mana cost, Absorb poses problems for the permission-minded planeswalkers, both early and late in the game. Firstly, its very specific mana cost is an obstacle to prompt play, that extra coloured mana symbol over Counterspell's cost hanging over the gaps in your curve you may have wished to be left free to play Brainstorm or to feign Disrupt. Multiple copies of Absorb make a hand feel overstuffed, and even during the later portion of the game, during a war of counterspells, you may find yourself running out of mana before you do responses. In a library configured with an elaborate mana base to facilitate Absorb's casting, the card merely mollifies the damage you have likely already dealt yourself simply by using your own lands. To highlight Absorb's incredible awkwardness further, consider that it is not even the best counterspell variant that costs three mana - look to Forbid as a powerhouse, or else Dissipate's ability to trump certain game plans (and for the diplomatic, many-players-at-a-table types, consider Vex as a strong compromising card - although while chronicling my thought on this card I have tried to take the dim, competitive view which renders cards such as Vex a laughing stock.) Recent tournament environments have diminished the power of the counterspell to the point where Cryptic Command - certainly a card that suffers from the same complaints as Absorb - starts to look good, but in the lifespan of magic there lie sufficient permission spells - Mana Drain, Force of Will, Disrupt, Counterspell itself - to ensure no planeswalker ever really needs to come to battle with this one memorised. Can be acquired for about two pounds a copy.