Dark Confidant

original card

And here comes one of the stars of the game. Dark Confidant has recently been considered, in a draw with Tarmogoyf, the best creature ever printed in the game. Both do honor to such title. Dark Confidant will be one of the most seen cards in the new Modern format as soon as it becomes oficial. Quite looking for that format as well. I just hope Wizards does the same with Commander and it becomes a sanctioned format.

Original card artist: Ron Spears
Altered card artist: Andrew How

Nath of the Gilt-Leaf

original card

I'm getting completely addicted to EDH lately. I'm constantly looking for new Commanders to build a cool deck around them, and being elves one of the most prominent tribes out there (only beaten by Humans and Goblins) I had to build an elves deck! Having Rofellos banned, I think Nath will be a good choice, as it lets you add B to the mix and both of his two abilities are quite good.
In terms of the illustration, I picked that fantastic one because it portraits a darker elf than the original, and I always felt that elf assassins are one of the coolest creatures out there :D.

Original Card Artist: Kev Walker
Altered Card Artist: Dave Rapoza

Shivan Dragon

original picture (previous to 7th Edition)
original picture (7th Edition and onwards)
original picture (From the Vault: Dragons Special Edition)

When I started playing Magic TG (back then in 4th edition), the Shivan Dragon was one of the most charicmatic mean creatures. It wasn't really playable in standard, but I used to splash two of them every time I played with a GR aggro deck. I just loved his presence in the table. These days, there are better utility dragons than him: Bogardan Hellkite, Ancient Hellkite, Flameblast Dragon or the recent Mana-Charged Dragon (infinite fun in EDH). They will get more places in decks than the Shivan, but he'll still be #1 in my personal Hall of Fame of Dragons.

Original Shivan Dragon artist <7th Ed.: Melissa Benson
Original Shivan Dragon artist =>7th Ed.: target="_blank"Donato Giancola
Original Shivan Dragon artist FtV:Dragons: Justin Sweet
Alternative Shivan Dragon artist: Sansyu