Read Gravecrawler again lol

@Epidilius Gravecrawler can't block...

Woops lol. I can't believe I missed that. Still, in a BG deck, you can use Lure effects on it, attracting every blocker, letting your army through. In a BU deck it will attract their removal spells, allowing you to save your counters for more important things. With artifacts you keep can equip it with enough to make it a threat, drawing more spells. It's also a decent target for bestows.

It can be a constant threat (or nuisance), allows you to repeatedly trigger ETB effects, and does all this for one mana (unless you have Rooftop Storm , then it's free). I still consider it a staple.

Boros Charm . It should be in every R/W deck, and if Rakdos Charm is included here then there's place for Boros Charm

Price of Progress belongs in every mono red deck.

Reiterate commonly used in many U/R spellbased deck as a mana sink

Fork , roasting marshmallows! Its art alone is worth playing it.

Epidilius Gravecrawler is comparatively worse than Bloodghast as it requires you to play a decent amount of zombies to make it worth it meaning it only really fit in a zombie deck it can't be used ouside of that specific criteria and even then it's underwhelming a 2/1 that can't block isn't worth adding zombie's for unless it's a zombie deck and your idea of adding auras to it makes no sense if you're expecting it to die anyway, equips maybe though not convinced, so either you're not making use of it's return mechanic or you're playing an underwhelming creature. Also if you're playing B/G than why not just go for a card that is a lure and a creature at the same time one that comes to mind would be Golgari Decoy which admitedly isn't even that great. Both cards you're making a case for seem underwhelming outside of very specific criteria in which they can be good Lure isn't neccessarily a bad card and like most it has it's uses, but to me it seems like a card that often underpreforms. So to me that card seem far too limited outside of a very specific decklist that is almost only playing zombie creatures. The bottom line is it's too specific to be considered a staple IMO but i guess thats not for me to judge.

Tynasi, you may want to invest in more punctuation. Your clauses run into each other, your compounds aren't joined by commas or semi-colons, and your comment is overall just plain hard to read. This isn't a grammar snob comment either -- the flow of your comment is simply hard to grok.

And specificity is not a marker to determine something as non-staple. Archangel of Thune, for example, asks for at least a little more life gain built into your deck than normal. By herself she doesn't pose much of a threat, but with three life gain triggers each turn, she really gets going.

That being said, I'll agree that gravecrawler is not a staple of every deck running black. It does a lot of a deck built around saccing, but is mana-intensive if you don't have a rather complex board state to make it go infinite.

Maybe it's the bad punctuation... i never was good at using it, but while i might have overused the word specific a little more than i should have the point still remains for me to consider playing a card like Gravecrawler in a B/G deck I'd have to be zombies and revolved around sacrificing I'd probably even have to make it a B/U/G since a lot of decent zombies are in blue and other stuff I'd want to play, but thats irrelevant.

I'm not arguing that it isn't a resonable card to play, i would just not consider it a staple and I'm pretty sure we can all agree that it's not a power card. It's mana "intense" and the replay is limited by having creatures on the board and considering how often people board clear/exile graveyards in EDH it's just taking up a spot for something else that could impact the game. This is me considering it outside of a zombie sacrifice deck, but i just dont see it fueling any deck I'd build especially as i can think of countless other cards I'd rather play.

Reset the discussion!

Feel free to suggest cards to add or remove.

As always, check to make sure the card you're suggesting is not already in the list.

More of a staple than a power card, but Nether Traitor is the second-best piece of reusable sac fodder (after Bloodghast , which is already on the list). It's definitely something I'd put in any sacrifice-heavy list (also probably Reassembling Skeleton , but that's more of a budget option).

Also, is Emerald Medallion the only decent enough Medallion to be considered a staple, or is it just supposed to be representative of the full cycle?

I'm being one of those people who is awful and doesn't think of every possible suggestion before posting. :/ Sorry, Epoch.

Boom/Bust ? It's flexible land destruction that's spot-on for any aggro or stax deck not in White (for Armageddon).

Harmonic Sliver is an Aura Shards that is weaker. That being said, it can be recurred easily.

some new cards that i think are up for consideration:
Chief Engineer
Garruk, Apex Predator . I will admit, he is 7 mana. That being said, 3 of his abilities affect (or is it effect?) the game a lot. Destroying a planeswalker ready to pop. Destroying a creature straight out. His emblem is scary, especially in something like elfball. The beasts are not that impressive, but you can always sacrifice them, or chump block bigger creatures.
Hushwing Gryff
In Garruk's Wake
Perilous Vault

That is all that I believe should be added. there could be the argument made for Soul of Theros , but i just think that it is just a beater. It's other cost is quite steep.

I was wondering. What about a Lightning Bolt ? Is it bad in EDH because creatures are so big? :D

Soul of New Phyrexia should be in the list.

Soul of New Phyrexia is kinda meh. It's not really a bad card but i don't think it belongs on this list. Realistically you need 11 to protect it for the turn it's cast, and it's still vulnerable on opponents turns if you do that. It can save you from some boardwipes, sure, but it is incredibly fragile without a huge mana investment.

Lightning Bolt is bad in edh because the creatures are huge, and spot removal is generally bad in a mostly multiplayer format. Now add in the fact that it's barely functional spot removal in this format, and the fact that players start with 40 life. It just ends up not worth using over more flexible cards.

I feel as though Naya Charm should be cut. It's abilities aren't good enough to warrant it's title as a power/staple. I don't think that Telepathy is that great either. That being said, i have never seen it in an edh game so i don't know.

Talrand, Sky Summoner is a great guy. Just building a mono-blue edh right now and using this list as a quick guide. Noticed you didn't have him. Great list though, thanks!

Talrand, Sky Summoner is underwhelming. It's an alright general, but it's not good as a standalone card.

I think Gemstone Mine is a staple land. It is a great mana fixer and it can be bounced with other land and proliferated on as well, so you don't have to remove it.

Also I would add Derevi, Empyrial Tactician . It's one of the 2 cards most recently banned in French as a Commander b/c of its ability to lock down one opponent so well, and when it combo's w/ things like Hokori, Dust Drinker or Stasis and Prophet of Kruphix he's pretty well unstoppable. Also why Time Spiral and not Timetwister ? Just some thoughts.

Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed and Chainer, Dementia Master should be on this list. Both are great in both Mono Black and B/x decks.

I've looked through all of the cards except lands and here are my suggestions for cards to consider removing from the list:

Karn, Silver Golem : It's definitely not a staple, and I'm not convinced it's a power card. Outside of a dedicated artifact animation deck (itself a rare thing), I can't see much use for Karn. It can animate your own artifacts to attack with, but Gilded Lotus is probably the largest one that sees frequent play and that's only 5cmc (i.e., 5 P/T with Karn). It can also be used by black decks looking for a way to kill artifacts, but I'm not sure that qualifies it as a power card in its own right.

Jund Charm : The instant speed graveyard removal is good and the 2 damage to every creature is okay, but the two +1/+1 counters isn't really worth discussing. My issue with Jund Charm is that Rakdos Charm is probably better almost every time. I see Jund Charm's second ability being useful versus low P/T token swarm decks (many of which can go infinite), which are punished as much or more by Rakdos Charm. Rakdos Charm also removes graveyards at instant speed, destroys artifacts (a way more relevant ability than two +1/+1 counters), and slots into more decks.

I'm not saying these cards are terrible and should absolutely be cut, but I think they're some of the weakest on the list and need further justification.

@FiveMagicsMaster: I don't include generals in this list, and Derevi, Empyrial Tactician isn't played as part of the 99.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. Your list helps a lot when putting together a new EDH deck and remembering all the staples. I hope you keep adding!

Is there a reason why Elspeth, Sun's Champion is not on the list? Considering EDH her boardwipe is nice and theres a chance to reuse it. If not as a staple then possibly as a Budget card.