6:41 Gustha's Scepter actually saw play during the infamous Combo Winter of Magic's history. Tolarian Academy, Yawgmoth's Will, Time Spiral, Mana Vault -- some of the most broken cards in Magic's history, especially when you could have a full playset of 4 of 'em in your deck. And Gustha's Scepter was there. The story goes that during PT Rome 1998, Brian Hacker won a match after only playing Gusatha's Scepter on turn 1. Since this was the days of tournament reports and no recordings, there are conflicting stories about how exactly this happened. The first goes like this: Hacker plays Gusatha's Scepter and says go. At the end of the opponent's turn, Hacker "hides" a Windfall underneath the Scepter. On his turn, he draws Tolarian Academy, plays it and a bunch of the free mana rocks including a Lion's Eye Diamond (which, back in '98, people were still often sleeping on). He cracks the LED, discards his hand, uses the Scepter to get back Windfall, draws a new hand of cards, and then it's off to the races. Use Twiddle or Mind Over Matter to get a ton of mana with Tolarian Academy, use Windfall and Prosperity to fuel card draw, and then cast a game-ending Stroke of Genius targeting the opponent. The second goes like this: Again, Scepter, nothing else, go, but this time what he "hid" was Yawgmoth's Will. On Hacker's turn, he plays 3 Lion's Eye Diamonds, cracks them all to discard his hand (including a Windfall). He gets Yawgmoth's Will back from his scepter, casts it with the mana from the 3 LEDs, re-casts the LEDs from the graveyard, casts the Windfall, and then won from there. Gustha's Scepter certainly wasn't the most powerful card in that deck but it enabled some of those really powerful cards to be even more effective. And then all those broken cards got super banned because they were broken and Scepter basically became a footnote. But it was still good for a (very short) time!
@@seantracy6452 Well, that's what distinguishes "weird" from "weak." A weak card isn't just underpowered, it also has no ability to do anything other than what it says. "Pay three mana, target creature gets +2/+0" for instance. But cards like the Scepter, while mechanically weak, can also alter board states or enable more powerful cards; like the example of giving you something to hide for use with Lion's Eye Diamond.
I agree with everything on your list, except for the Kobolds. There was a time in Legacy when they were actually quite powerful. I personally won several DCI sanctioned Legacy tournaments in a storm deck using Glimpse of nature. It was called Cheerios. It could regularly win on turn 1. It had zero land, but at the time it didn't need them. Drop a lotus petal to get the glimpse out and start the chain, then a couple simian spirit guides to pop the grapeshot after you burn through your deck. So sure, they might be powered down know, but there was a time when they did see competitive legacy play and did pretty well.
I feel like saying Evermind is terrible bc someone _might_ put it in a deck without Arcane spells is the same logic as saying Jewelled Lotus is terrible bc someone _might_ put it in a deck that's not for commander.
Yeah, it seems like a quintessential "fine in its limited format" card. If it's going to be on this list, and cards that are decent in limited are excluded, Nizzahon should be making a case for why it's not want you want to do in limited.
Honestly, even as someone who did try to run an Arcane deck (Commander with Kalamax at the helm) Evermind doesn’t really feel great even when it’s in a deck meant to work with it. Arcane spells are already pretty overcosted for what they’re meant to do, and having to up the cost to what feels like an average of 5-cmc just to get an extra card uses up your mana pretty quickly. Plus, this is best case scenario where you’ve always got an arcane spell to splice it into. If you’re going multiple turns drawing lands or non-arcane spells, it’s literally just sitting in your hand doing nothing.
Yeah, same with Gustha's Scepter - it's a Johnny card, it's not *bad*. If you need to stash a card for some kind of combo, or want more 0-cost artifacts for affinity type shenanigans, it has a place.
@@ShaqPlaqueI played Kamigawa limited. Evermind was a 15th pick. Playing Evermind meant that you were going to peak at 1-2 if your third round opponent left without withdrawing.
@@SaintAbsol A Commander Arcane deck and a Limited Arcane deck are going to look really different. The limited format it's from is known for being *very* slow, 3/3's for 5 with marginal upside were playable cards. Once every card is depowered, a repeatable two mana effect starts to look more attractive. The downside of course remains that the cards you'll draw aren't great. I'll name a card that was great in limited but stinks in Commander to make my point - Burning Vengeance. In triple Innistrad draft, it's a real deck. In commander, playing (2) to deal 2 with every Flashback spell is peanuts.
Delif's Cone is cute in a ninjutsu deck because you can gain the life then ninjutsu in another creature that will still do combat damage. Still not worth running, but it's a cute little interaction.
@@Why-Fi048 You have to use it before blockers are declared, otherwise it doesn't trigger, making it even less useful for a ninjutsu deck, unless you are running creatures you can make unblockable.
@@drunkcapybara7004 You have a good point. Looking at the last 3 tied for number 10, each one would have needed it's own slot. And even still there would have been more needed
a friend in one of my old commander pods had a deck based on Sorrow's Path, where the entire gimmick was giving people Sorrow's Path through stuff like Harmless Offering and then repeatedly tapping it with stuff like Rishadan Port. it was a very silly gimmick.
with aragnor the uniter, they're a free 3 damage to opponent! seems like a fun interaction though niche. now if we can just bounce them back to our hand....
Cue "There goes my hero" from Foo Fighters, because Nizzahon did it. I suggested this months ago. It was an obvious continuation of his series, but I always love the obscure Worst Top 10s!
3:31 I'm just taking a moment to admire the flavor of that card. The integration of flavor and function was so well back in the day, when Magic cards were still designed to represent actual spells, objects and creatures in a duel between wizards. The flavor text and rules text together describe perfectly how this artifact was used by a notorious wizard long ago. Cards like these are what drew me into the game 25 years ago. We've lost this kind of flavorful card design completely over the years and I really dislike that. It's perhaps one of the main reasons I despise Universes Beyond so much, which are cards without any flavor, that make no sense in the duel between wizards this is supposed to represent. They're just advertisements for people who like a Brand and want to buy everything there is of that Brand.
I understand how a new player could *like* MtG now with all the franchise crossovers. "I like Fallout, let me try this game!" I understand how an old player who still has a lot of affection for the game and its mechanics and lore could still *love* the game and be disappointed in where the game is going. I don't understand how a new player could ever *love* the game now that it's become a consumerist mess of IPs and cash grab churn products. It's embarrassing and it makes me sad.
Magic slowly lost it's spirit when Hasbro bought WotC... and thing won't get better now they debauched World of Warcraft's general manager to sit as the new WotC's director...
At #6: Lands can be on this list Me: "Well, I know number one then! 0 mana to let your opponent's Rishadan port pyroclasm your own board... What could be worse?"
i run a kobolds storm deck with bolas citadel its full of 0 drops and ramp. it takes people by surprise pay 0 to keep the storm count going. its not as bad as you say but i havent done any gp or anything like that
These bad cards list always make me miss the old days of magic... magic was so much more fun even just 9 years ago. But it was so wonderfully weird back in the 90s/early 00s. Strange cards with strange effects and everything was so clunky.
A long while back I bought a copy of Gustha's Scepter because it seemed so bizarre and I wanted to try and figure out a way to make it playable. It's still in my random cards box.
I’d put #5 above your #6 pick at the very least. 1: In 1v1, it can pair with land destruction/disruption and/or ramp. Not as easy to pay that one mana if your lands are in the GY. 2: Using it on an opponent’s turn has some mind game potential (do you really have a counterspell in hand?) 3: It unlocks lands that produce mana of any type of mana your lands could make. 4: An opponent being tapped out is a thing that isn’t super rare. All of these are legitimately useful applications, even if they’re either fairly niche, not especially powerful, or there’s better ways to do the ones that aren’t, but certainly more useful than preventing one damage each turn at the very least.
The only way you'd get me to play Kobolds is if WotC did Secret Lair: Furrybait Thiccbolds or something. Also, I'd argue lands cost your one land drop per turn and thus actually cost you mana production if you're playing a utility land without a mana ability.
An interesting way they could bring back Kobolds would be still make them 0/1 zero drops, but with abilities. So, then you build around anthem and other pump to make them work together. Of course that doesn't make them much different than any other tribe, but the zero drop would be the selling point. The great thing about Sorrow's Path is the artwork, lol.
Dark Sphere has a very niche use in Commander: Ad Nauseam-Sickening Dreams. The deck has, like, 90 lands. The other cards are Dark Sphere and a few tutors to find Ad Nauseam. If you have 80 cards in your hand and one of them is a Dark Sphere, you can prevent half of the damage you deal to yourself. 😂
@@andrewmoy548 it prevents the damage from Sickening Dreams. Your entire deck has a total of, like, 10 mana value. Then you play Sphere to prevent half the damage from Dreams.
There once was a legacy storm deck that utilised the kobolds with glimpse of nature to draw your entire deck on turn one. then won with SSG and grapeshot. Sadly it was too jank to ever accumulate a point in an event. Otherwise those Kobolds wouldn't be on the list
This seems to be a hot take kind of video. The kobolds see legacy play in the cheerios deck where they build up a good storm count and them kill your opponent after being buffed by haze of rage. Dark sphere was originally intended to blunt things like earthquake or hurricane and sees play in cEDH when people are trying to kill the table with something like sickening dreams (it's a really funny fringe deck). Like many other people I agree that lands should probably have been a separate list (we all knew sarrows path was terrible even when it first came out). I would like to formally recommend 'Phyrexian Marauder' as a terrible investment at any mana value. If it has to specifically be zero the 'Darksteel Relic' does actual nothing.
In an Enrage Deck, you need to tech in a card like Icy Manipulator in order to consistently use Sorrow's Path's ping ability against you. Sure, you can do it that way... but the question is more WHY you wanna do it that way XD Speaking of which, that's another problem with the Path. If your opponent has some sort of tapping effect, they can tap the Path at the worst possible time for you, maximizing the damage against you. During Playground Magic, I cant tell you how many games I won when I drop a Ring of Gix (3 mana Icy Manipulator with Echo) after I cast Donate on my Sorrow's Path and give it to my opponent. Its super fun when you get to do it against any player that uses primarily small creatures like Mono Red... and its something Control Decks WONT watch out for... XD Since you are counting Lands as 0 mana cards, there's one land that I can immediately think of that I feel deserve to be here: Halls of Mist. Its a land that DOESN'T add mana, has the dreaded Cumulative Upkeep: 1 effect, and all it does is to prevent creatures (including yours) from attacking if they attacked in the last turn. While it is usable by slower decks to protect themselves against aggro decks, it allows a creature to land in 1 hit first BEFORE being stopped by the card. It slows YOU down too, but at least you can choose to blow it up any time if you're ready to attack. Before that, its a land that eats up your mana production... which technically slows you down even further. Also, remember that affected creatures are still capable of using their effects. Pretty sure there are better ways to slow your opponent down that this
I took up the challenge to build a Commander deck around Sorrow's Path, and it turned out surprisingly good. Jacques le Vert is my commander to let all my green creatures survive the Path. Key creatures are Tamanoa, Fungusaur, Wall of Resistance, En-Cors (combined great with Mogg Maniac), Basilisks, Cockatrice, and Wiitigo. And just for fun, I threw in Aether Shock, since my creatures are all designed to survive a 2 damage hit. An interesting twist with the Path is in multiplayer. I can use the Path when two of my opponents attack each other. Causing problems for both of them. It is STILL not a good card, but surprisingly effective with a deck built specifically FOR it.
I did not enjoy the inclusion of lands on this list. Losing ur land drop for a land that doesn't produce mana is almost always gonna be worse than an actual 0 mana spell. Plus u alrdy showed a bunch of those lands onnur worst lands list so this list could've have a lot more unique entries on it had the lands been excluded
Dark sphere was used in a cEDH Deck, using ad nauseum, 90 Lands, sickening dreams to kill everyone, and dark sphere to reduce half the damage to oneself to not also die
I think its interesting that even though these cards are horrible they're still great in niche decks - kobolds in Koll, darksphere in sickening dreams, Gusta's sceptre in Teshar(costs 0 and helps get things into graveyards) - Im not counting lands cos yeah they're just bad it's hard to find niche things to do with bad land design since they're typically a mana source.
Kobolds used to have a legit deck in Vintage, but it kinda died out when people started playing online more, because the deck was suddenly way less consistent. I think it was probably just Vintage players stacking their Kobold decks at paper tournaments, but I still think their history should be acknowledged in some way, even if the success is a bit dubious
The free kobolds are actually some of my favorite cards, i had an animar commander deck where my perfect starting hand had 1-2 of them, i ended up casting my deck of jank colorless creatures and sweeping the table by turn 5ish, the deck had about a 75% winrate at my LGS and im still quite proud of it
Delif's Cone is normally awful, but there is an infinite combo with it. Emry + Mirran Spy + Cone allows you to sacrifice and recast the cone infinitely. Even if you don't have anything else that triggers on artifacts entering or leaving the battlefield you can do this a bunch of times before a combat and any of your attacks can net you infinite life if unblocked.
I use Herbal Poultice in my Sai, Master Thopterist deck. It creates me a Thopter for Zero mana, works with my other artifact triggers, and can be useful in protecting my Coat of Arms.
How about the a top ten of the most useless broken cards for the game? I was thinking of a 0-mana artifact that just had 0: return to hand on it. Completely worthless except in decks where it's completely broken. Along that line, what cards were least useful yet most broken cards in the game?
Funny enough, I've actually seen Dark Sphere be played in commander, it was in a deck of almost all swamps that drew its whole deck (of mostly swamps) with Ad Nauseum, cast Dark Sphere, and then used Sickening Dreams, sacrificing the Dark Sphere to reduce the damage it dealt to you. Was it good? Probably not, but it was funny.
Sorrow's Path would have a very fun combo - donate Sorrow's Path (preferablly to a weenie deck opponent), then use an artifact to tap it again and again while removing any creature below 2... Bonus if you have a way to tap and untap it
Or if you have creature dying payoffs and you give them a choice to take hits from creatures or watch your plan accelerate. Only works if they run creatures of course. But that is why sideboards exist.
Evermind is a genuinely useful card for my old school mono-blue sands combo deck. It'll give me something to use my mana on for turns 3-5, and draw me extra cards to help with land drops!
Sorrows Path... with something like *Chromatic Lantern* + _Damage payoffs?_ Maybe making it a Creature with Lifelink, whilst Anthem effects and Fungisaur type Damage enrage effects give survival & p/t growth? Would definitely like to see that type of effect though
Heh I run almost every single one of the non-lands in Dargo/Jeska commander where all that matters is getting out Dargo ASAP, hopefully turn 1 with any 3 0 drops and then getting out Jeska on turn 2 to triple Dargo and swing for game. Dark Sphere is really stupid, but one gimmicky niche commander deck it's good in is Maralen Of The Mournsong. You Ad Nauseam until you get Sickening Dreams and Dark Sphere. Most of the deck is just swamps so you can always Ad Nauseam until you get both and enough lands to Sickening Dreams for lethal but save yourself since Sphere prevents half the damage.
The 0 mana artefacts that can sacrifice themselves are ok combo enablers “eg when you cast a historic spell” and “artefact in you graveyard”; but the cone and sphere are not the best in that category, but they aren’t in the same league of bad as the useless utility lands😮. So if you are playing a casual format they are good to know about, good for customising a little (we don’t all have to play the same stuff) and sometimes situationally adequate/good.
Rhystic Cave is even worse because its ability specifies that it can only be activated at instant speed. You can't even legally tap it for mana while resolving a spell! I guess that's not that big of a deal since it usually doesn't matter, but it could lead to misplays if you don't watch what you're doing with it.
Kobolds are fine for edh combos. I found a combo with delif's cone and teshar. Gustha's scepter is spiking hard right now. Don't underestimate zero cost cards.
Szepter can be used in a reanimatordeck..u can destroy it by ureself ,big creatures goes into ure graveyard and u can put a big creature onto the battlefield in round one ore two..
Oasis is really good in Horobi, Death's Wail, since it targets that creature. However, you're generally correct. It's pretty bad when it's not a free Murder.
Interestingly they tried to print a "fixed" version of Evermind as Everdream. It's still not quite good enough for spell copy commander decks though where Splice cards are popular.
Where is darksteel relic? The hockey puck that costs nothing and does even less? It's literally a 0 mana artifact with indestructible and no other effect. That's worse than all the 0 mana artifacts on the list. Also, the kobolds actually see some fringe legacy play. There's a deck called cheerios that runs all the 0 mana creatures plus glimpse of nature to draw through your deck and then win with either goblin bushwhacker or grapeshot. It's nowhere close to a format staple, but I think it should still keep the kobolds off the list.
I ran it with ensoul artifact and other cards that make artifacts a creature. Sure, they can disenchant it, but having a 5/5 indestructable on turn 2 is nothing to sneeze at. Not to mention it being hard to remove makes your affinity for artifacts or metalcraft proc faster
You can also just tap down sorrows path to ping for 2 damage. It's so bad in every EXCEPT for the art. The art is amazing, and it's a shame it was wasted on this card. That dragon fighting the knights in the background is so cool!
The only good way to use Sorrow’s Path is to Donate it to your opponent, then utilize some force tap effects to grind them down, since Path hurts you AND your creatures.
I'd make a case that Sorrow's Path is better than Rhystic Cave only because it affects any opponent, even if you didn't attack. If you arent running a creature deck, there's not as much of a downside.
Kind of surprised Darksteel Relic didn't show up on here since it actually does nothing except be indestructible. Must be some sort of interaction Im missing
Finished my next script, and I ain't about to let you slip behind that skibidi toilet of a MtG channel, so I came here with my real channel to rewatch this.
No Darksteel Relic? I feel like some of these at least do something on their own but Darksteel Relic is only good if you hit it with something like Ensoul Artifact, and at that point you'd be better off with an ornithopter or any artifact that actually does something, like Welding Jar or Darksteel Citadel
Darksteel Relic has some uses (ensoul artifact effects, for example) it's not outright bad as a combo piece per se, just not as good as other options for the niches it does have.
Fun fact, land doesn't cost zero. Cost, including zero, involves casting. You cannot cast land, you play them. There is also no stack when you play it, only cards that have a cost have a window of a stack when being played
"it has to be bad everywhere" immediately shows the Kobolds that go absolutely crazy in Legacy Glimpse Storm edit: also the cards see real play in Dargo EDH decks
6) "lands are on the list, but if they make mana, they're too good, even if they come in tapped and only produce colorless." 5) "i found a land worse than oasis that produces mana" *it enters untapped and produces any color* i laughed my butt off. i haven't seen that horrendous card in ages. i remember trying to play it once. shudders
Gushtha's scepter is nowhere near as bad as shite like Rhystic Cave or the Bands with lands. I know it isn't an official format, but the card sees a lot of play in Premodern Pit Rack decisiones as a way to protect your cards from your own discard spells like Bottomless Pit or Chain of Smog
Hey Nizzahon, hope there are no hard feelings bout our disagreement on that other video of yours. I wasn't intending on being disrespectful, and you're always gonna be my favorite MTG content creator. Love this video, as always, wishing you the best and sorry for any rudeness on my part.
Ghutas szepter just doubled his price after mh3 (what i believe was out when this video came up) because its seen as a key card for the new commander that draws a card for everything you do if your hand is empty XD this aged horrible since being a key card in a popular new commander even tryed in cedh should take it out of the list by the rules stated at the beginning ^^
Reanimating creatures is my favorite thing to do in Magic, and I'd love to one day see a list of the top 10 worst reanimation spells.
This ^
Leveler, Eater of Days. Basically anything that gets played in Beamtown Bullies EDH deck, while you arent playing Beamtown Bullies as you commander.
@@BuddyIsGarbage I don't think they said targets, they said spells, as in the thing bringing something else back
@@BuddyIsGarbagenone of those are reanimation spells
Animate Dead because the text is too goddamn complicated for what it does.
6:41 Gustha's Scepter actually saw play during the infamous Combo Winter of Magic's history. Tolarian Academy, Yawgmoth's Will, Time Spiral, Mana Vault -- some of the most broken cards in Magic's history, especially when you could have a full playset of 4 of 'em in your deck. And Gustha's Scepter was there.
The story goes that during PT Rome 1998, Brian Hacker won a match after only playing Gusatha's Scepter on turn 1. Since this was the days of tournament reports and no recordings, there are conflicting stories about how exactly this happened.
The first goes like this: Hacker plays Gusatha's Scepter and says go. At the end of the opponent's turn, Hacker "hides" a Windfall underneath the Scepter. On his turn, he draws Tolarian Academy, plays it and a bunch of the free mana rocks including a Lion's Eye Diamond (which, back in '98, people were still often sleeping on). He cracks the LED, discards his hand, uses the Scepter to get back Windfall, draws a new hand of cards, and then it's off to the races. Use Twiddle or Mind Over Matter to get a ton of mana with Tolarian Academy, use Windfall and Prosperity to fuel card draw, and then cast a game-ending Stroke of Genius targeting the opponent.
The second goes like this: Again, Scepter, nothing else, go, but this time what he "hid" was Yawgmoth's Will. On Hacker's turn, he plays 3 Lion's Eye Diamonds, cracks them all to discard his hand (including a Windfall). He gets Yawgmoth's Will back from his scepter, casts it with the mana from the 3 LEDs, re-casts the LEDs from the graveyard, casts the Windfall, and then won from there.
Gustha's Scepter certainly wasn't the most powerful card in that deck but it enabled some of those really powerful cards to be even more effective. And then all those broken cards got super banned because they were broken and Scepter basically became a footnote. But it was still good for a (very short) time!
This story rules
I would have never thought about a use for such a weird card but this is great
I was looking at that card and wondering how it made it to 3 that card has legitimate uses.
@@seantracy6452 Well, that's what distinguishes "weird" from "weak." A weak card isn't just underpowered, it also has no ability to do anything other than what it says. "Pay three mana, target creature gets +2/+0" for instance. But cards like the Scepter, while mechanically weak, can also alter board states or enable more powerful cards; like the example of giving you something to hide for use with Lion's Eye Diamond.
I agree with everything on your list, except for the Kobolds. There was a time in Legacy when they were actually quite powerful. I personally won several DCI sanctioned Legacy tournaments in a storm deck using Glimpse of nature. It was called Cheerios. It could regularly win on turn 1. It had zero land, but at the time it didn't need them. Drop a lotus petal to get the glimpse out and start the chain, then a couple simian spirit guides to pop the grapeshot after you burn through your deck. So sure, they might be powered down know, but there was a time when they did see competitive legacy play and did pretty well.
Another deck that went infinite with kobolds was cocoa and or fruity pebbles.
I feel like saying Evermind is terrible bc someone _might_ put it in a deck without Arcane spells is the same logic as saying Jewelled Lotus is terrible bc someone _might_ put it in a deck that's not for commander.
Yeah, it seems like a quintessential "fine in its limited format" card. If it's going to be on this list, and cards that are decent in limited are excluded, Nizzahon should be making a case for why it's not want you want to do in limited.
Honestly, even as someone who did try to run an Arcane deck (Commander with Kalamax at the helm) Evermind doesn’t really feel great even when it’s in a deck meant to work with it.
Arcane spells are already pretty overcosted for what they’re meant to do, and having to up the cost to what feels like an average of 5-cmc just to get an extra card uses up your mana pretty quickly. Plus, this is best case scenario where you’ve always got an arcane spell to splice it into. If you’re going multiple turns drawing lands or non-arcane spells, it’s literally just sitting in your hand doing nothing.
Yeah, same with Gustha's Scepter - it's a Johnny card, it's not *bad*. If you need to stash a card for some kind of combo, or want more 0-cost artifacts for affinity type shenanigans, it has a place.
@@ShaqPlaqueI played Kamigawa limited. Evermind was a 15th pick. Playing Evermind meant that you were going to peak at 1-2 if your third round opponent left without withdrawing.
@@SaintAbsol A Commander Arcane deck and a Limited Arcane deck are going to look really different. The limited format it's from is known for being *very* slow, 3/3's for 5 with marginal upside were playable cards. Once every card is depowered, a repeatable two mana effect starts to look more attractive.
The downside of course remains that the cards you'll draw aren't great.
I'll name a card that was great in limited but stinks in Commander to make my point - Burning Vengeance. In triple Innistrad draft, it's a real deck. In commander, playing (2) to deal 2 with every Flashback spell is peanuts.
Delif's Cone is cute in a ninjutsu deck because you can gain the life then ninjutsu in another creature that will still do combat damage.
Still not worth running, but it's a cute little interaction.
Came into the comments to mention this.
If you didn't have to sacrifice Delif's cone, do you think it would be legit worth to run it in a ninjutsu deck?
@@MrZanvine Possibly, if you can get one or two life gain payoffs as well, otherwise I don't think it's worth playing over other ninjutsu payoffs.
would it work on end of combat step to basically give lifeline?
@@Why-Fi048 You have to use it before blockers are declared, otherwise it doesn't trigger, making it even less useful for a ninjutsu deck, unless you are running creatures you can make unblockable.
I enjoyed this video, but this probably would have been better if the lands had their own video..
Yeah, I would've rather had a 0 cost video than a 0 cmc video.
Agreed
My guess is that with only nonlands, there weren't enough that meet his 3 criteria.
@@drunkcapybara7004 You have a good point. Looking at the last 3 tied for number 10, each one would have needed it's own slot. And even still there would have been more needed
a friend in one of my old commander pods had a deck based on Sorrow's Path, where the entire gimmick was giving people Sorrow's Path through stuff like Harmless Offering and then repeatedly tapping it with stuff like Rishadan Port. it was a very silly gimmick.
Kobolds did have a slight time in the sun during the early days of skullclamp, but it was short lived
with aragnor the uniter, they're a free 3 damage to opponent! seems like a fun interaction though niche. now if we can just bounce them back to our hand....
@@StefenGrey Cloudstone Curio: This is where I come in 😂
haven't they also been used in a fringe cheerios legacy deck with glimpse of nature ?
Kobolds don't belong here period
3:25 the only use I’ve seen for Dark Sphere is in mono black Ad Nauseam in EDH with Sickening Dreams as the finisher
Cue "There goes my hero" from Foo Fighters, because Nizzahon did it. I suggested this months ago. It was an obvious continuation of his series, but I always love the obscure Worst Top 10s!
Getting a free spell like this is like when you go above and beyond and your job gives you a company water bottle or sweatshirt.
#9 - If regeneration were still around, even money we'd get a "Poultice token" by this point.
honestly not the worst idea
@@3kojimbles895 that would be getting rid of regeneration
3:31 I'm just taking a moment to admire the flavor of that card. The integration of flavor and function was so well back in the day, when Magic cards were still designed to represent actual spells, objects and creatures in a duel between wizards. The flavor text and rules text together describe perfectly how this artifact was used by a notorious wizard long ago. Cards like these are what drew me into the game 25 years ago.
We've lost this kind of flavorful card design completely over the years and I really dislike that. It's perhaps one of the main reasons I despise Universes Beyond so much, which are cards without any flavor, that make no sense in the duel between wizards this is supposed to represent. They're just advertisements for people who like a Brand and want to buy everything there is of that Brand.
I understand how a new player could *like* MtG now with all the franchise crossovers. "I like Fallout, let me try this game!"
I understand how an old player who still has a lot of affection for the game and its mechanics and lore could still *love* the game and be disappointed in where the game is going.
I don't understand how a new player could ever *love* the game now that it's become a consumerist mess of IPs and cash grab churn products. It's embarrassing and it makes me sad.
Hear hear. This is why I don't play anymore.
Magic slowly lost it's spirit when Hasbro bought WotC... and thing won't get better now they debauched World of Warcraft's general manager to sit as the new WotC's director...
Honestly, if Evermind’s splice was just U instead of 1U, it would probably see play in a few decks.
At #6: Lands can be on this list
Me: "Well, I know number one then! 0 mana to let your opponent's Rishadan port pyroclasm your own board... What could be worse?"
Kobolds were actually used in a Vintage Glimpse of Nature deck back in 2007/2008.
i run a kobolds storm deck with bolas citadel its full of 0 drops and ramp. it takes people by surprise pay 0 to keep the storm count going. its not as bad as you say but i havent done any gp or anything like that
Dark Sphere's art almost looks like it was meant to get people to mistake it for Winter Orb for half a second.
Oof, that Evermind art is another example of great art on a bad card.
Looks at card:
(N)Evermind... I'll skip on it.
had that thought too
These bad cards list always make me miss the old days of magic... magic was so much more fun even just 9 years ago. But it was so wonderfully weird back in the 90s/early 00s. Strange cards with strange effects and everything was so clunky.
A long while back I bought a copy of Gustha's Scepter because it seemed so bizarre and I wanted to try and figure out a way to make it playable. It's still in my random cards box.
I’d put #5 above your #6 pick at the very least.
1: In 1v1, it can pair with land destruction/disruption and/or ramp. Not as easy to pay that one mana if your lands are in the GY.
2: Using it on an opponent’s turn has some mind game potential (do you really have a counterspell in hand?)
3: It unlocks lands that produce mana of any type of mana your lands could make.
4: An opponent being tapped out is a thing that isn’t super rare.
All of these are legitimately useful applications, even if they’re either fairly niche, not especially powerful, or there’s better ways to do the ones that aren’t, but certainly more useful than preventing one damage each turn at the very least.
i don't really know if evermind should count
The only way you'd get me to play Kobolds is if WotC did Secret Lair: Furrybait Thiccbolds or something.
Also, I'd argue lands cost your one land drop per turn and thus actually cost you mana production if you're playing a utility land without a mana ability.
An interesting way they could bring back Kobolds would be still make them 0/1 zero drops, but with abilities. So, then you build around anthem and other pump to make them work together. Of course that doesn't make them much different than any other tribe, but the zero drop would be the selling point.
The great thing about Sorrow's Path is the artwork, lol.
Rograkh exists.
Lands does have a 2nd cost though, the 1 land per turn cost.
Haven't kobolds seen competative play? I would have though a glimpse of nature cherios deck would have top 8 at least one event in its lifetime?
Nope.
The kobolds work nicely in my Koll the Forgemaster sac deck... but apart from some sort of sac recursion or similar.... not great
Dark Sphere has a very niche use in Commander: Ad Nauseam-Sickening Dreams. The deck has, like, 90 lands. The other cards are Dark Sphere and a few tutors to find Ad Nauseam. If you have 80 cards in your hand and one of them is a Dark Sphere, you can prevent half of the damage you deal to yourself. 😂
I don't think it works like that. Ad Nauseam does life loss not damage and won't be reduced by Dark Sphere.
@@andrewmoy548 it prevents the damage from Sickening Dreams. Your entire deck has a total of, like, 10 mana value. Then you play Sphere to prevent half the damage from Dreams.
There once was a legacy storm deck that utilised the kobolds with glimpse of nature to draw your entire deck on turn one. then won with SSG and grapeshot. Sadly it was too jank to ever accumulate a point in an event. Otherwise those Kobolds wouldn't be on the list
This seems to be a hot take kind of video.
The kobolds see legacy play in the cheerios deck where they build up a good storm count and them kill your opponent after being buffed by haze of rage.
Dark sphere was originally intended to blunt things like earthquake or hurricane and sees play in cEDH when people are trying to kill the table with something like sickening dreams (it's a really funny fringe deck).
Like many other people I agree that lands should probably have been a separate list (we all knew sarrows path was terrible even when it first came out). I would like to formally recommend 'Phyrexian Marauder' as a terrible investment at any mana value. If it has to specifically be zero the 'Darksteel Relic' does actual nothing.
Have you considered doing a "Worst Cards in Vintage Minus the Power Nine" video?
In an Enrage Deck, you need to tech in a card like Icy Manipulator in order to consistently use Sorrow's Path's ping ability against you. Sure, you can do it that way... but the question is more WHY you wanna do it that way XD
Speaking of which, that's another problem with the Path. If your opponent has some sort of tapping effect, they can tap the Path at the worst possible time for you, maximizing the damage against you. During Playground Magic, I cant tell you how many games I won when I drop a Ring of Gix (3 mana Icy Manipulator with Echo) after I cast Donate on my Sorrow's Path and give it to my opponent. Its super fun when you get to do it against any player that uses primarily small creatures like Mono Red... and its something Control Decks WONT watch out for... XD
Since you are counting Lands as 0 mana cards, there's one land that I can immediately think of that I feel deserve to be here: Halls of Mist. Its a land that DOESN'T add mana, has the dreaded Cumulative Upkeep: 1 effect, and all it does is to prevent creatures (including yours) from attacking if they attacked in the last turn. While it is usable by slower decks to protect themselves against aggro decks, it allows a creature to land in 1 hit first BEFORE being stopped by the card. It slows YOU down too, but at least you can choose to blow it up any time if you're ready to attack. Before that, its a land that eats up your mana production... which technically slows you down even further. Also, remember that affected creatures are still capable of using their effects. Pretty sure there are better ways to slow your opponent down that this
They count print a version of Rhystic Cave where if the opponent pays, you only get colourless.
I took up the challenge to build a Commander deck around Sorrow's Path, and it turned out surprisingly good. Jacques le Vert is my commander to let all my green creatures survive the Path.
Key creatures are Tamanoa, Fungusaur, Wall of Resistance, En-Cors (combined great with Mogg Maniac), Basilisks, Cockatrice, and Wiitigo.
And just for fun, I threw in Aether Shock, since my creatures are all designed to survive a 2 damage hit.
An interesting twist with the Path is in multiplayer. I can use the Path when two of my opponents attack each other. Causing problems for both of them. It is STILL not a good card, but surprisingly effective with a deck built specifically FOR it.
I did not enjoy the inclusion of lands on this list. Losing ur land drop for a land that doesn't produce mana is almost always gonna be worse than an actual 0 mana spell. Plus u alrdy showed a bunch of those lands onnur worst lands list so this list could've have a lot more unique entries on it had the lands been excluded
Literally an hour ago, I was going through the worst cards playlist wondering if there were enough bad zero MV cards for a list. Crazy coincidence
Echoing truth - should have been a 0 cmc spells list, to excluse lands.
Dark sphere was used in a cEDH Deck, using ad nauseum, 90 Lands, sickening dreams to kill everyone, and dark sphere to reduce half the damage to oneself to not also die
I think its interesting that even though these cards are horrible they're still great in niche decks - kobolds in Koll, darksphere in sickening dreams, Gusta's sceptre in Teshar(costs 0 and helps get things into graveyards) - Im not counting lands cos yeah they're just bad it's hard to find niche things to do with bad land design since they're typically a mana source.
Kobolds used to have a legit deck in Vintage, but it kinda died out when people started playing online more, because the deck was suddenly way less consistent. I think it was probably just Vintage players stacking their Kobold decks at paper tournaments, but I still think their history should be acknowledged in some way, even if the success is a bit dubious
The free kobolds are actually some of my favorite cards, i had an animar commander deck where my perfect starting hand had 1-2 of them, i ended up casting my deck of jank colorless creatures and sweeping the table by turn 5ish, the deck had about a 75% winrate at my LGS and im still quite proud of it
Delif's Cone is normally awful, but there is an infinite combo with it. Emry + Mirran Spy + Cone allows you to sacrifice and recast the cone infinitely. Even if you don't have anything else that triggers on artifacts entering or leaving the battlefield you can do this a bunch of times before a combat and any of your attacks can net you infinite life if unblocked.
I'm amused that Oasis doesn't actually depict an oasis. A tree in the corner doesn't count.
I use Herbal Poultice in my Sai, Master Thopterist deck. It creates me a Thopter for Zero mana, works with my other artifact triggers, and can be useful in protecting my Coat of Arms.
If they put a normal mana cost on Evermind nobody would remember it. It's iconic.
A funny thing to do as a way to stall in a (bad) Legacy Donate deck:
T1: Mox Diamond, Rishadan Port, Bazaar Trader
T2: Sorrow's Path
7:18
I mean... I would always prefer having the cards under it being sent to my graveyard instead of perma-stuck in exile...
How about the a top ten of the most useless broken cards for the game? I was thinking of a 0-mana artifact that just had 0: return to hand on it. Completely worthless except in decks where it's completely broken. Along that line, what cards were least useful yet most broken cards in the game?
Funny enough, I've actually seen Dark Sphere be played in commander, it was in a deck of almost all swamps that drew its whole deck (of mostly swamps) with Ad Nauseum, cast Dark Sphere, and then used Sickening Dreams, sacrificing the Dark Sphere to reduce the damage it dealt to you. Was it good? Probably not, but it was funny.
Sorrow's Path would have a very fun combo - donate Sorrow's Path (preferablly to a weenie deck opponent), then use an artifact to tap it again and again while removing any creature below 2... Bonus if you have a way to tap and untap it
Or if you have creature dying payoffs and you give them a choice to take hits from creatures or watch your plan accelerate. Only works if they run creatures of course. But that is why sideboards exist.
Evermind is a genuinely useful card for my old school mono-blue sands combo deck. It'll give me something to use my mana on for turns 3-5, and draw me extra cards to help with land drops!
Sorrows Path... with something like *Chromatic Lantern* + _Damage payoffs?_
Maybe making it a Creature with Lifelink, whilst Anthem effects and Fungisaur type Damage enrage effects give survival & p/t growth?
Would definitely like to see that type of effect though
Heh I run almost every single one of the non-lands in Dargo/Jeska commander where all that matters is getting out Dargo ASAP, hopefully turn 1 with any 3 0 drops and then getting out Jeska on turn 2 to triple Dargo and swing for game. Dark Sphere is really stupid, but one gimmicky niche commander deck it's good in is Maralen Of The Mournsong. You Ad Nauseam until you get Sickening Dreams and Dark Sphere. Most of the deck is just swamps so you can always Ad Nauseam until you get both and enough lands to Sickening Dreams for lethal but save yourself since Sphere prevents half the damage.
The 0 mana artefacts that can sacrifice themselves are ok combo enablers “eg when you cast a historic spell” and “artefact in you graveyard”; but the cone and sphere are not the best in that category, but they aren’t in the same league of bad as the useless utility lands😮. So if you are playing a casual format they are good to know about, good for customising a little (we don’t all have to play the same stuff) and sometimes situationally adequate/good.
Rhystic Cave is even worse because its ability specifies that it can only be activated at instant speed. You can't even legally tap it for mana while resolving a spell! I guess that's not that big of a deal since it usually doesn't matter, but it could lead to misplays if you don't watch what you're doing with it.
Most of these are still really good.
I’d make a cheerios deck with a bunch of zero mana spells, not activate them, and do combo off
Kobolds are fine for edh combos. I found a combo with delif's cone and teshar. Gustha's scepter is spiking hard right now. Don't underestimate zero cost cards.
Szepter can be used in a reanimatordeck..u can destroy it by ureself ,big creatures goes into ure graveyard and u can put a big creature onto the battlefield in round one ore two..
Problem is that is just Entomb with extra steps
Oasis is really good in Horobi, Death's Wail, since it targets that creature. However, you're generally correct. It's pretty bad when it's not a free Murder.
Interestingly they tried to print a "fixed" version of Evermind as Everdream. It's still not quite good enough for spell copy commander decks though where Splice cards are popular.
Where is darksteel relic? The hockey puck that costs nothing and does even less? It's literally a 0 mana artifact with indestructible and no other effect. That's worse than all the 0 mana artifacts on the list. Also, the kobolds actually see some fringe legacy play. There's a deck called cheerios that runs all the 0 mana creatures plus glimpse of nature to draw through your deck and then win with either goblin bushwhacker or grapeshot. It's nowhere close to a format staple, but I think it should still keep the kobolds off the list.
ooh good call, that def should've made the list over the kobolds
I get the hockey puck reference, but can't remember the channel it came from.
@KokNoker It's from LoadingReadyRun. Specifically, that episode of Friday Nights where Cam and James build the "strictly worse" cube.
I ran it with ensoul artifact and other cards that make artifacts a creature. Sure, they can disenchant it, but having a 5/5 indestructable on turn 2 is nothing to sneeze at. Not to mention it being hard to remove makes your affinity for artifacts or metalcraft proc faster
@@TwennytheTerribleThis and the fact it came out in the second mirrodin block where metalcraft came to be
Gustha’s Scepter could do something. You’ve dropped two cards out if your hand for 0 mana. Then ‘creatures can’t attack you’
If you're going to play Sorrow's Path in an Enrage deck, you're going to be tapping it for green mana with Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth.
You can also just tap down sorrows path to ping for 2 damage. It's so bad in every EXCEPT for the art. The art is amazing, and it's a shame it was wasted on this card. That dragon fighting the knights in the background is so cool!
The only good way to use Sorrow’s Path is to Donate it to your opponent, then utilize some force tap effects to grind them down, since Path hurts you AND your creatures.
Khobolds can combo with Cloudstone Curio very well if you need an infinite etb trigger.
I'd make a case that Sorrow's Path is better than Rhystic Cave only because it affects any opponent, even if you didn't attack.
If you arent running a creature deck, there's not as much of a downside.
I was expecting 0 mana nonlands, you might have well just done another top 10 worst lands video..
Kind of surprised Darksteel Relic didn't show up on here since it actually does nothing except be indestructible. Must be some sort of interaction Im missing
It's a solid target for Phylactery Lich and Ensoul Artifact. It has combo potential in a Cheerios or Goblin Welder deck.
I was expecting that too
That's a handsome Delif's Cone in the thumbnail. Wonder if it's coming up later in the video...
As someone who put in a bulk order of 40 rhystic caves... I cant believe you would just bad mouth my boy like that. Also... entirely true XD
I've animated Sorrow's Path with Jolrael, Voice of Zhalfir. Shocking my whole board was worth it to KO someone with a gigantic bird land
Finished my next script, and I ain't about to let you slip behind that skibidi toilet of a MtG channel, so I came here with my real channel to rewatch this.
No Darksteel Relic? I feel like some of these at least do something on their own but Darksteel Relic is only good if you hit it with something like Ensoul Artifact, and at that point you'd be better off with an ornithopter or any artifact that actually does something, like Welding Jar or Darksteel Citadel
I'm curious, how come Darksteel Relic did not make the list?
Darksteel Relic has some uses (ensoul artifact effects, for example) it's not outright bad as a combo piece per se, just not as good as other options for the niches it does have.
Regardless of how terrible they are normally, 0 mana artifacts are great to have in my Galazeth Prismari deck.
Delif's Cone and Dark Sphere both have the painful combination of cool art, evocative name, and dumpster-tier power level.
Fun fact, land doesn't cost zero. Cost, including zero, involves casting. You cannot cast land, you play them. There is also no stack when you play it, only cards that have a cost have a window of a stack when being played
Dark Sphere does have a combo with Ad Nauseum and Sickening Dreams to instant kill your opponents.
Ha! The legendary banding lands. I used the green one in my Riku deck filled with Legendary green creatures.
"it has to be bad everywhere" immediately shows the Kobolds that go absolutely crazy in Legacy Glimpse Storm
edit: also the cards see real play in Dargo EDH decks
Sorry, Kobolds put in work in Animar or Kobold Tribal
I have seen the kobolds played in legacy cheerios, surprised none of them have even gotten a single point
I run a Koll cedh/edh list with kobolds and they do work!
6) "lands are on the list, but if they make mana, they're too good, even if they come in tapped and only produce colorless."
5) "i found a land worse than oasis that produces mana"
*it enters untapped and produces any color*
i laughed my butt off. i haven't seen that horrendous card in ages.
i remember trying to play it once. shudders
Sorrow's Path kind of goes brazy in Enrage decks with Yavimaya/any enchant land
Definitely surprised not to see darksteel relic on the list.
Gushtha's scepter is nowhere near as bad as shite like Rhystic Cave or the Bands with lands. I know it isn't an official format, but the card sees a lot of play in Premodern Pit Rack decisiones as a way to protect your cards from your own discard spells like Bottomless Pit or Chain of Smog
7:15 wait... 0 mana i can discard a card every turn?
Tfw Gustha's Scepter is actually playable now, at least in Commander.
Has noone tried to use Evermind with cascade or sth like this?
Why Kobolds are here? Kobold Storm with Glimpse of nature was a nice deck.
When oasis was first introduced, one damage was significant.
Good lord, if that's 7, I'm terrified to see how much worse this gets.
I will be adding rhystic cave to my group hug deck. Thank you much
Hey Nizzahon, hope there are no hard feelings bout our disagreement on that other video of yours. I wasn't intending on being disrespectful, and you're always gonna be my favorite MTG content creator. Love this video, as always, wishing you the best and sorry for any rudeness on my part.
Nope! no hard feelings here.
Awwwwe
Ghutas szepter just doubled his price after mh3 (what i believe was out when this video came up) because its seen as a key card for the new commander that draws a card for everything you do if your hand is empty XD this aged horrible since being a key card in a popular new commander even tryed in cedh should take it out of the list by the rules stated at the beginning ^^
Dark sphere is kinda good ngl, saved me a ton of times in my jhora, the artificer deck.
I had a buddy that ran kobolds in a "Zero Mana" deck.