I was really hoping the end would be "and the number 1 is Ancestral Recall. and that's the list..." Like Ancestral Recall is such an infamous card and its text is so simple + its mana cost is so low that I think you genuinely could've ended it there :P
"And number 1 is Ancestral Recall. For one blue mana, this instant lets you draw three cards. ...Look, you saw the rest of this list. I don't need to explain how broken this is. And that's the list!"
you basically have to build your deck around getting griselbrand out so it's options are very limited while the draw on this list can be splashed it basically any deck in those colors for crazy power spikes. while yard strats can be strong the reanimator versions suffer from consistency issues.
In my life, and given that I won countless tournaments with Necropotence back in the day, I have never until this day heard it pronounced the way you did.
I hate to say, I got my first copy of that card on a Christmas morning directly out of a pack of Ice Age and I have always said it that way. Yes I realize it is wrong but it's too late to change now lol.
It is but all of the other cards ahead of it are also super busted. Necropotence is arguable but brainstorm, tc, Recall are all stupid. Really hard to Order imo
Manalogs tends to prioritize cards that are usable in more formats, (legacy, vintage modern, etc), so I can see why it's not higher on the list even though it's so strong on the field
It's used in a bunch of infinite draw combos. Especially ones with recursion where you just cycle one card back and forth from the field to the graveyard. If I remember right, one 3 card combo with it is infinite draw and infinite mana.
@@kolbybryant1 Yeah. Skullclamp is banned in Legacy and would be busted if unbanned. I would argue Timetwister wouldn't even see as much play as Echo because the decks that want it for non-LED-mana are just control who sometimes play a 1-of Day's Undoing.
The funny thing about Ancestral Recall is that the effect is "target player draws 3 cards", which is better than "draw 3 cards". A mostly useless advantage, but that's the cherry on top, a tiny thing added to an already ridiculously overpowered card.
Commander is such an annoying format. I much prefer Gladiator (100 cards Highlander on Magic Arena). Although I still have done memories of playing a Merieke Ri Berit list in Commander back in 2013 or so.
Necropotence: Necro-Potence. Necro coming from Necromancy and Potence coming from Potency. But then again, we also have: Omnipotence, Metropolis, Necropolis, Incompetence but then again, we also have: Equipotent/Equipotence and Autopotent/Autopotence
I won't comment on position, but I played my first ever game of magic, and yes, Skull Clamp is looney tunes (both myself and my opponent had it). It took me a bit getting used to how equipment works being such a Yu-Gi-Oh head lmao.
If we look at the value of something as “how much of X would you give up for Y”, it seems the only thing card draw is even with is mana. I would give up one mana for one card. Everything else you’d give up 2 or more in exchange for a card.
My favorite skullclamp interaction is definitely one that I put in a deck I built for my friend. He pulled the foil masterwork locust god a few years ago and never really had anything to do with it, so I made him a deck with skullclamp in it. The locust god's most significant effect is making a 1/1 flyer with haste every time you draw. With locust god on the field skullclamp effectively reads "pay 1, draw 2 cards, make a 1/1" It's arguably better than ancestral recall once it's set up
It's actually 2 1/1s. In Magic drawing multiple cards is actually drawing 1 card multiple times. So an effect that draws you 2 cards triggers The Locust God twice
Hiruma's mispronunciations are his secret hidden technique. If you comment about them, it just boosts his power algorithmically. Give up, you can't beat him
You could easily do a list of the most powerful keyword abilities in Magic (Companion, Dredge, Cascade, Storm come to mind, the hard part would be ordering them) but "worst design mistakes" feels a bit too subjective
There are just too many broken draw spells to do a top 10. You mentioned contract (easily the best draw spell, though it's as an ante card, it's effectively unplayable). There's also griselbrand, library of alexandria, bazaar of baghdad, faithless looting, street wraith, etc. Ordering them is possible, but not practical, IMO.
Contract From Below, Wheel Of Fortune, Jace The Mind Sculpter, Time Spiral, Library Of Alexandria, Bazaar Of Baghdad, Griselbrand, Land Tax for the category of "broken". Most of the cards on this list are good but not broken.
Just remember, Necropotence is not actually drawing so you can't use it with Sheoldred the apocalypse and opponents can't use it against you as drawing like fate unraveler.
I was a casual player when ice age debuted. We thought Necropotence was a safer variant of Lich. Just a way to play a weird game by mixing up life and cards, but not a way to win. We thought it made your deck slightly worse, but unlike Lich, it wasn't suicide. We figured specific decks could make it work, but never thought it would be a powerhouse.
1: Fetches 2: Classic dual lands (no downside) 3: Shocklands (enters tapped unless you pay 2 life) 4: Fastlands (enters tapped unless you control two or fewer other lands) 5: Checklands (enters tapped unless you control a ___ or a ___ 6: Horizon Canopy (Pay 1 life, tap, add _ or _. 1, tap, sac to draw a card) 7: Grove of the Burnwillows (tap: add R or G, each opponent gains 1 life) 8: Triomes (enters tapped, cycling 3, has three basic land types) 9: The "bad" fetches (Evolving Wilds etc) 10: Snow Basics
@@williamdrum9899 Snow has more than basics, too. It has Scrying Sheets and Mouth of Ronom and Faceless Haven and Dark Depths and comes-in-tapped duals of all flavors. Scrying Sheets is particularly good even though it's niche.
@@williamdrum9899 Maybe that's justifiable as a list of fair mana-producing land cycles and fetches, but I don't see how you could possibly arrive at a top 10 without a single one of: Strip Mine, Mishra's Workshop, Wasteland, Bazaar, Dark Depths, Academy, Cradle, Tabernacle, Mystic Sanctuary, Valakut, Boseiju Who Endures, Cavern of Souls, Ancient Tomb, cloudposts, Urza's Saga, or Field of the Dead. I think once you factor in those, only fetches and original duals can make any serious claim to remaining in the top 10.
gush can lead to many infinite loops one example: gush + fastbond + mystic sanctuary this creates an infinite loop as long as u have life to pay for fastbond, but ur enemy will scoop before you ping yourself to death, as you drew like 20 cards, and there are many, many ways to win the game with infinite landfall triggers, which you could definitely assemble with so much card advantage
Like in YuGiOh, how pot of greed is one of the most broken cards in the game despite its only effect being to draw 2 cards. The only drawback is that pot of greed is itself a card. Even the substantially weaker jar of greed (draw 1 card) is still quite powerful despite theoretically just being “replace me with the next card in your deck”. In strategy games, more options = more power
Well of Knowledge? 2014 Commander Blue Enchantment that allows the player to draw 2 additional cards each turn and allows your opponent(s) to draw 1 additional card each turn
i prefer the grave hate function on twist but yes it belongs on this list for raw power. love to hear groans from the players with sculpted hands as a wheel hits the stack
In a vacuum maybe, but timetwister being in blue and being an alpha/power 9 card makes it the more impactful card. Being in the same color as counter spells, time walk, and ancestral recall allowed timetwister to help players dig through their deck to find more time walks and moxes and answers.
2:20 - "There are some niche interactions, but they usually don't matter" - That is disrespectful to the all-time classic Abundance synergy. It is also nice with Alhammarret's Archive.
Yeah because it existed in a format with where you could run 4x Tinker alongside other absolutely ridiculous cards like Mana Vault, Vamp Tutor and Yawgwill - all of these cards are banned in legacy and restricted in vintage. I don't think Memory Jar would be see play in today's Legacy if it was legal, and it hasn't seen Vintage play for years. It's too expensive to play for real and as a Tinker target it's outclassed by Bolas' Citadel and even Coveted Jewel. If it was reprinted in a standard-legal set, it would see zero play in Modern, Standard or Pioneer because those formats don't have the fast mana or ways to cheat it into play. Commander is the only place where this card actually has a niche. So, while it was certainly a strong part of a ridiculous deck in its time, it wasn't even close to the strongest card in the deck that made it infamous. And it has absolutely not held up to the present day. It's useless in the newer formats which can't support it, and there are better things to be doing in the older formats that can.
I was surprised at the lack of wheel of fortune. I recall the time I got one from a booster. I was very disappointed , being a kid that didn't understand the power of symmetrical effects. Some random guy in the store told me "put it in your burn deck and you'll see". Boy was he right.
Your content is great, I've been a sub for many months but my goodness did this episode have a lot of typos in the onscreen text. I bring it up because I felt in this case there were enough to distract several times from the otherwise engaging content you were speaking about.
Time Spiral is arguably better than Timetwister despite costing double the mana, because it also untaps six lands, allowing you to immediately start unloading the freshly drawn hand. Of course it's from the same set of Tolarian Academy and that would usually net you dozens of mana a pop
I figured you'd call out the wheel effects as well - being they are similar to twisters but specifically discard can be better for some reanimate strategies...also memory jar broke an entire format needing an emergency ban.
Frantic search is probably more powerful for its untap effect than its draw effect, since you go -1 to use it, even if it's not always a strict -1 for graveyard focused decks. Rather, if you have any lands that tap for more than 1 mana, especially lands like Cabal Coffers (though that makes Frantic search slightly harder to play, since CC works best for mono-black decks, though most decks that use CC also run Urborg which makes all your lands swamps anyway, just for the extra mana off the Coffers itself), Nykthos, or Gaea's Cradle, all of which can make you way more than 3 mana on their own, which makes 'free spells' like Frantic Search into a ritual-like effect that also gets you card selection.
Is frantic search really more powerful than faithless looting? I know some strategies can utilize the untap more, but overall faithless looting is a better enabler due to being 1 mana
@@darkhelmet1582 I'd say Faithless Looting is probably stronger most of the time, but Frantic Search is strong enough in certain situations to be banned in legacy, due to the untap, which was probably the tipping point to put it on this list over Faithless Looting.
Glimpse of Nature in Animar *will* end you. Sylvan Library is interesting. Alhammaret's Archive breaks it in two, but you can get some good mileage out of just playing ramp spells to shuffle the top cards away. Frantic Search is free, and that's all it needs. Skullclamp is also insane in token decks, or in elves. Skullclamp was essentially broken in every deck except storm. Brainstorm: Here's another one for Teferi's Ageless Insight/Alhammarret's Archive/Thought Reflection. Necropotence is almost for any black deck. Almost. (Reanimator can't use it.) I should note that Yawgmoth's Bargain was actually a riff on Greed, a meh card at best. Timetwister is legal in Commander. Do what you will with that. Gush was part of the Mercadian Masques block "Everything is based around one card." (And that card is Rising Waters.) How did I know the #1 would be Ancestral Recall?
I would make the argument that Time Spiral is more powerful than Timetwister, even though latter can be used for loops and such. It's absolutely bonkers, especially since it can easily become mana positive with Fork and such.
What makes Brainstorm even better, is that you can stack the top of your library to accurately reflect your mana ramp at the start of the game. For instance, stack the cards so you get a land, then a 3 mana spell in your third turn, then a 4 mana spell in your fourth turn. These can even come from your hand, since you don't need them till that turn and you would be able to keep the cards drawn with Brainstorm.
I'm surprised they haven't reworded Sylvan Library even more. The player should be told to keep all 3 cards drawn separate from the rest of their hand until they make all decisions relevant to what cards will be kept.
You effectively do have to do that if you're playing in a non-casual environment. It gets weirder though if you draw cards for some other reason *before* Sylvan's trigger resolves. Because according to the wording on the card, you can put back any 2 cards you drew this turn. You basically have to call a judge over to get them to watch you play the turn so that they can confirm you didn't cheat.
@@dm9910 - yeah, but usually the game is a stickler for keeping cards separate if you have to make a decision like that. I'm blanking on the card, but I know there's one, lol. And yeah, catrips that tell you to draw a card at the beginning of the next turn can really screw things up as well, I didn't think about that.
I have tried Sylvan Library in commander and without scry effects I was disappointed. Elemental Bond, Beast Whisperer, Guardian Project, Garruk Primal Hunter, Soul's Majesty, Return of the Wildspeaker and all the enchantress (these only in enchantment deck) gave me great results
I bought a Mono-U Delver deck back when Gush was still legal, having never played Pauper before. Immediately 5-0'd a league on MTGO with it despite my lack of format knowledge and despite me not being a pro player or anything. Gush was just that busted.
"sylvan library" and and even more "brainstorm" make me think about "scroll rack". the putting cards from your hand back onto your library and drawing that many (with an extra step of exiling the hand cards before drawing, and than putting them on it, to not draw them themself of course). especially with shuffling. each turn since its an 2 mana artifact, with 1⤵. typical commander card.
but it does "ignore" typical anti draw cards that are common in commander. but since you don't "draw" more than putting back, you "don't" draw into a card advantage anyway. its more about synergy with shuffling, or top of library synergy.
this is gonna sound insane but in cEDH ancestral recall wouldn't be NEARLY as strong as it is in every other format. We need huge draw spells like ad naus and peer into the abyss or tutors to set up our wins because their are way more cards in our decks and we are in a singleton format. It would still be an auto include in every blue deck without exception I don't actually think it would break the meta of cEDH.
If your just talking the most powerful draw spell period i woulda given first place to contract from below. If your gonna go most iconic sure give it to recall but if your serious about most broken card draw spell no restrictions id give it hands down to contract. Simple math shows 1 mana for 7 cards >> 1 mana for 3 even if it is a sorcery. Even if you have to ante a card your generally not losing after drawing 7 for 1z
I love how people still keep forgetting about Narset's passive to this day in Arena. Just yesterday I had two different opponents cracking clue tokens on their own turns when I had her in play. The shame scoop usually follows.
If you ever want a fun rules interaction, cast brainstorm in response to your sylvan library trigger. You get one of the few times you need to split your hand to avoid cheating.
This list is so wrong from a commander players point of view lol. Mystic remora rhystic study, windfall and consecrated sphinx would have easily made this list including the top three.
the reasoning on time twister is more of a noob perspective.. that card can be abused in such better ways tbh tbh. in vintage u can empty ur hand turn 1 end with a twister. your opponent b4 they even play essentially have to mulligan not going down a card but their new hand might be unplayable while you start with a boad full of cards and yeah. can also combo/re occur. power 9 cards are crazy
I can't decide if you intentionally mispronounce a lot of these, or if you have legitimately never heard a lot of these words spoken and simply read them. I choose to believe you're intentionally trolling everyone.
8:21 - Necro-Potence not Nercrop-Otence. It's the combination of two words and those two words are not "Necrop" and "Otence", lol. Necropotence essentially means "power of the dead" or "death power".
With how similar this looksr Im sure others have mentioned this already, but I cant unsee that one old Valve splashscreen animation when looking at the Skullclamp card o-o
Opt is my favourite draw spell, since it's instant speed and you get to scry before drawing. It's a perfect turn 1 move to play at the end of opponent turns
You could also include Wheel of Fortune, Windfall, and Prosperity, but these are all kina worse than Timetwister. Stroke of Genius would also be a good addition - back in the early days of Magic, before internet deck lists - one player at a pre-release actually immediately resigned after reading the card. Memory Jar also, for being the first card to ever get banned before it was legal to play. I think the biggest omission though would be Bazaar of Baghdad.
My favorite draw card remains Deep Anal(ysis) 4 mana for 2 cards, but the flashback for 2 mana + 3 life makes it pretty useful overall without making it overly powerful
im such an old school player. I remember playing with gush after release and thinking "this is prettty good". While combining it with high tide combos.
A little mistake in regards to glimpse of nature's legality. It has never been for any point in time legal in modern, it was on the ban list when the format was created and will likely stay there until the format is dead.
I was really hoping the end would be "and the number 1 is Ancestral Recall. and that's the list..."
Like Ancestral Recall is such an infamous card and its text is so simple + its mana cost is so low that I think you genuinely could've ended it there :P
"And number 1 is Ancestral Recall. For one blue mana, this instant lets you draw three cards.
...Look, you saw the rest of this list. I don't need to explain how broken this is.
And that's the list!"
They should remake the entire Boon cycle except they all cost 1 Phyrexian mana and have Storm.
Now that's REAL magic!
Yea, Healing Salve would be so much better!
@ Could you imagine Lightning Bolt? A Storm deck would only have to be like 30 cards and the rest could be mountians.
@I mean 60 copies of healing salve in a deck least goooooooooo, exponential life gain!!!
@@OtisJCW And a copy or two of Test of Endurance...
I am kinda curious about why Griselbrand was not mentioned, I think it could have been mentioned with necropotence .
Grisel has been internally banned, I think. Having shown up on too many lists in top spots.
It also could be argued that, in a vacuum, his mana cost is too much
That's why he's always cheated out
But it's probably the internal banlist lol
you basically have to build your deck around getting griselbrand out so it's options are very limited while the draw on this list can be splashed it basically any deck in those colors for crazy power spikes. while yard strats can be strong the reanimator versions suffer from consistency issues.
@@notabene9804 Any idea where that "internal ban list" can be found?
Or that the "fixed and balanced" version of Necro, Yawgmoth's Bargain, is still too strong for Legacy because 1 card for 1 life is an insane rate.
Necro.... Potence.
Its not drawing. Its putting the catd into your hand from exile 🤓
Neh-crahh-puh-tense.
He definitely does it for the comments.
@@TheSpiritombsableye 🤣
I just wanted him to see the 2 obvious root words. There seems to be a weird mispronounced word each video.
@@corey2232 And in this video, it isn't necropotence. He pronounced it right this time
In my life, and given that I won countless tournaments with Necropotence back in the day, I have never until this day heard it pronounced the way you did.
which is the correct way btw
Exactly! I've pronounced it Necro-potence since I started playing, which was just after Homelands released.
I hate to say, I got my first copy of that card on a Christmas morning directly out of a pack of Ice Age and I have always said it that way. Yes I realize it is wrong but it's too late to change now lol.
@@damonlouis6536 nope
Brainstorm+shuffle effects (such as often played fetch lands) is often called 'worse recall'
The fact that skullclamp doesn't even make top 5 really says how strong some of these cards are.
Skullclamp at #7 seems weird. It's very very very powerful.
It is but all of the other cards ahead of it are also super busted. Necropotence is arguable but brainstorm, tc, Recall are all stupid. Really hard to Order imo
Manalogs tends to prioritize cards that are usable in more formats, (legacy, vintage modern, etc), so I can see why it's not higher on the list even though it's so strong on the field
@@kolbybryant1 Tbf clamp is restricted in Vintage as Well isnt it?
It's used in a bunch of infinite draw combos. Especially ones with recursion where you just cycle one card back and forth from the field to the graveyard. If I remember right, one 3 card combo with it is infinite draw and infinite mana.
@@kolbybryant1 Yeah. Skullclamp is banned in Legacy and would be busted if unbanned. I would argue Timetwister wouldn't even see as much play as Echo because the decks that want it for non-LED-mana are just control who sometimes play a 1-of Day's Undoing.
The funny thing about Ancestral Recall is that the effect is "target player draws 3 cards", which is better than "draw 3 cards". A mostly useless advantage, but that's the cherry on top, a tiny thing added to an already ridiculously overpowered card.
can be misdirected though just like walk
A idea for future videos, the ban list of commander, a hotpot of messy decisions and power monsters
Commander is such an annoying format. I much prefer Gladiator (100 cards Highlander on Magic Arena). Although I still have done memories of playing a Merieke Ri Berit list in Commander back in 2013 or so.
Dude, Understanding Gush is a 350-page manifesto on Vintage format. And in its third edition. Love ❤️
I started the video, and at n*10, Glimpse of nature .... Yup, feels like every card will be more broken than ever.
Necropotence: Necro-Potence. Necro coming from Necromancy and Potence coming from Potency.
But then again, we also have: Omnipotence, Metropolis, Necropolis, Incompetence
but then again, we also have: Equipotent/Equipotence and Autopotent/Autopotence
It's the lure of an engagement trap.
@@mightyfp - Yes. I just wanted to share the different perspectives and how there is no definitive answer.
@@PaulGaither I appreciate you and your attention to detail
@@mightyfp - I appreciate you keeping it real.
I won't comment on position, but I played my first ever game of magic, and yes, Skull Clamp is looney tunes (both myself and my opponent had it). It took me a bit getting used to how equipment works being such a Yu-Gi-Oh head lmao.
If we look at the value of something as “how much of X would you give up for Y”, it seems the only thing card draw is even with is mana. I would give up one mana for one card. Everything else you’d give up 2 or more in exchange for a card.
My favorite skullclamp interaction is definitely one that I put in a deck I built for my friend.
He pulled the foil masterwork locust god a few years ago and never really had anything to do with it, so I made him a deck with skullclamp in it. The locust god's most significant effect is making a 1/1 flyer with haste every time you draw.
With locust god on the field skullclamp effectively reads "pay 1, draw 2 cards, make a 1/1"
It's arguably better than ancestral recall once it's set up
It's actually 2 1/1s. In Magic drawing multiple cards is actually drawing 1 card multiple times. So an effect that draws you 2 cards triggers The Locust God twice
@@jacksonreynolds7433 yeah but you need to sacrifice 1 and I didn't feel the need to specify sac 1 make 2 cus it just nets 1
Hiruma's mispronunciations are his secret hidden technique. If you comment about them, it just boosts his power algorithmically. Give up, you can't beat him
A video on the worst design mistakes in magic would be great!
You could easily do a list of the most powerful keyword abilities in Magic (Companion, Dredge, Cascade, Storm come to mind, the hard part would be ordering them) but "worst design mistakes" feels a bit too subjective
TBH that's already this list
There are just too many broken draw spells to do a top 10. You mentioned contract (easily the best draw spell, though it's as an ante card, it's effectively unplayable). There's also griselbrand, library of alexandria, bazaar of baghdad, faithless looting, street wraith, etc. Ordering them is possible, but not practical, IMO.
Bazaar and Library could never appear in a top 10 Draw Spells lists though.
Contract From Below, Wheel Of Fortune, Jace The Mind Sculpter, Time Spiral, Library Of Alexandria, Bazaar Of Baghdad, Griselbrand, Land Tax for the category of "broken". Most of the cards on this list are good but not broken.
Necropotence is amazing and one of my absolute favorites.
Mystic Remora comes to mind, while it isn't an instant or sorcery, is pretty bonkers.
The best draw effect in mtg is pot of greed
I was looking for this comment 😂
What does that card do 😮
Can you remind me what that card does? It's such an unknown and niche card that I have yet to hear the explanation for a millionth time
Just remember, Necropotence is not actually drawing so you can't use it with Sheoldred the apocalypse and opponents can't use it against you as drawing like fate unraveler.
I was a casual player when ice age debuted. We thought Necropotence was a safer variant of Lich. Just a way to play a weird game by mixing up life and cards, but not a way to win. We thought it made your deck slightly worse, but unlike Lich, it wasn't suicide. We figured specific decks could make it work, but never thought it would be a powerhouse.
I would like to see a list of the top 10 lands in general.
1: Fetches
2: Classic dual lands (no downside)
3: Shocklands (enters tapped unless you pay 2 life)
4: Fastlands (enters tapped unless you control two or fewer other lands)
5: Checklands (enters tapped unless you control a ___ or a ___
6: Horizon Canopy (Pay 1 life, tap, add _ or _. 1, tap, sac to draw a card)
7: Grove of the Burnwillows (tap: add R or G, each opponent gains 1 life)
8: Triomes (enters tapped, cycling 3, has three basic land types)
9: The "bad" fetches (Evolving Wilds etc)
10: Snow Basics
@@williamdrum9899 Snow has more than basics, too. It has Scrying Sheets and Mouth of Ronom and Faceless Haven and Dark Depths and comes-in-tapped duals of all flavors. Scrying Sheets is particularly good even though it's niche.
@@williamdrum9899 Maybe that's justifiable as a list of fair mana-producing land cycles and fetches, but I don't see how you could possibly arrive at a top 10 without a single one of: Strip Mine, Mishra's Workshop, Wasteland, Bazaar, Dark Depths, Academy, Cradle, Tabernacle, Mystic Sanctuary, Valakut, Boseiju Who Endures, Cavern of Souls, Ancient Tomb, cloudposts, Urza's Saga, or Field of the Dead. I think once you factor in those, only fetches and original duals can make any serious claim to remaining in the top 10.
@@dm9910 most of those were covered on top 10 utility lands, so that would be a very redundant video.
gush can lead to many infinite loops
one example:
gush + fastbond + mystic sanctuary
this creates an infinite loop as long as u have life to pay for fastbond, but ur enemy will scoop before you ping yourself to death, as you drew like 20 cards, and there are many, many ways to win the game with infinite landfall triggers, which you could definitely assemble with so much card advantage
Add a Druid Class to mitigate the Fastbond damage, ha.
If you're baller, you add Glacial Chasm to negate Fastbond's damage since it's easier to tutor for it.
@@fakeplaystore7991 based
Memory Jar broke Type 2 so hard, it only lasted 1 tournament and is still restricted in vintage to this day.
Good old Grimjar.
Necropotence shouldn’t be on this list. It doesn’t actually draw cards.
Ancestral Recall will always be an example of why card draw needs to have a cost unless it's a detriment like in Uno.
Like in YuGiOh, how pot of greed is one of the most broken cards in the game despite its only effect being to draw 2 cards. The only drawback is that pot of greed is itself a card. Even the substantially weaker jar of greed (draw 1 card) is still quite powerful despite theoretically just being “replace me with the next card in your deck”.
In strategy games, more options = more power
@@52flyingbicycles yup
@@52flyingbicycles also, replacement cards are "less noise = more power to the other cards"
Griselbrand: Am I a joke to you?
Well of Knowledge? 2014 Commander Blue Enchantment that allows the player to draw 2 additional cards each turn and allows your opponent(s) to draw 1 additional card each turn
Wheel of fortune is usually a better time twister, kinda weird to not at least mention it with time twister
I'd even put it above it
Exactly what I thought.
fortune discards cards, timetwister restores graveyards and hands to deck, and it's in a better colour
i prefer the grave hate function on twist but yes it belongs on this list for raw power. love to hear groans from the players with sculpted hands as a wheel hits the stack
In a vacuum maybe, but timetwister being in blue and being an alpha/power 9 card makes it the more impactful card. Being in the same color as counter spells, time walk, and ancestral recall allowed timetwister to help players dig through their deck to find more time walks and moxes and answers.
2:20 - "There are some niche interactions, but they usually don't matter" - That is disrespectful to the all-time classic Abundance synergy. It is also nice with Alhammarret's Archive.
I have not watched all your videos but have you done any on the most broken ETBs on creatures?
Nooooooooooooo, necropotence does not draw cards! It adds to the hand :D
memory jar is missing without any question
that draw spell was so powerful it was the worlds first ever emergency ban
Yeah because it existed in a format with where you could run 4x Tinker alongside other absolutely ridiculous cards like Mana Vault, Vamp Tutor and Yawgwill - all of these cards are banned in legacy and restricted in vintage.
I don't think Memory Jar would be see play in today's Legacy if it was legal, and it hasn't seen Vintage play for years. It's too expensive to play for real and as a Tinker target it's outclassed by Bolas' Citadel and even Coveted Jewel. If it was reprinted in a standard-legal set, it would see zero play in Modern, Standard or Pioneer because those formats don't have the fast mana or ways to cheat it into play. Commander is the only place where this card actually has a niche.
So, while it was certainly a strong part of a ridiculous deck in its time, it wasn't even close to the strongest card in the deck that made it infamous. And it has absolutely not held up to the present day. It's useless in the newer formats which can't support it, and there are better things to be doing in the older formats that can.
There is noway you're not pronouncing that, that way, on purpose
Let me say this the best thing I heard to describe how broken Treasure Cruse was "Mono Red splashed Blue to play Treasure Cruse."
1. Contract from Below
2. Ancestral Recall
3. Bazaar of Baghdad
4. Timetwister
5. Library of Alexandria
6. Necropotence
7. Wheel of Fortune
8. Griselbrand
9. Skullclamp
10. Teferi, Time Raveler
Can’t forget Gitaxian Probe.
I was surprised at the lack of wheel of fortune. I recall the time I got one from a booster. I was very disappointed , being a kid that didn't understand the power of symmetrical effects. Some random guy in the store told me "put it in your burn deck and you'll see". Boy was he right.
Your content is great, I've been a sub for many months but my goodness did this episode have a lot of typos in the onscreen text. I bring it up because I felt in this case there were enough to distract several times from the otherwise engaging content you were speaking about.
Time Spiral is arguably better than Timetwister despite costing double the mana, because it also untaps six lands, allowing you to immediately start unloading the freshly drawn hand. Of course it's from the same set of Tolarian Academy and that would usually net you dozens of mana a pop
God I love Time Spiral. I'm surprised it didn't get a mention when Echo of Eons did.
I figured you'd call out the wheel effects as well - being they are similar to twisters but specifically discard can be better for some reanimate strategies...also memory jar broke an entire format needing an emergency ban.
Commenting for the algorithm, as encouraged to do by the intentional mispronunciation of necropotence, good one this time 😂
Frantic search is probably more powerful for its untap effect than its draw effect, since you go -1 to use it, even if it's not always a strict -1 for graveyard focused decks. Rather, if you have any lands that tap for more than 1 mana, especially lands like Cabal Coffers (though that makes Frantic search slightly harder to play, since CC works best for mono-black decks, though most decks that use CC also run Urborg which makes all your lands swamps anyway, just for the extra mana off the Coffers itself), Nykthos, or Gaea's Cradle, all of which can make you way more than 3 mana on their own, which makes 'free spells' like Frantic Search into a ritual-like effect that also gets you card selection.
Both Frantic Search and Time Spiral came out in Urza's Saga, alongside Tolarian Academy and its ability to tap for unethical amounts of blue mana.
@@fakeplaystore7991 dont forget snap
Is frantic search really more powerful than faithless looting? I know some strategies can utilize the untap more, but overall faithless looting is a better enabler due to being 1 mana
@@darkhelmet1582 I'd say Faithless Looting is probably stronger most of the time, but Frantic Search is strong enough in certain situations to be banned in legacy, due to the untap, which was probably the tipping point to put it on this list over Faithless Looting.
Skullclamp and goblins.. And patriarch bidding
💥💥
Glimpse of Nature in Animar *will* end you.
Sylvan Library is interesting. Alhammaret's Archive breaks it in two, but you can get some good mileage out of just playing ramp spells to shuffle the top cards away.
Frantic Search is free, and that's all it needs.
Skullclamp is also insane in token decks, or in elves. Skullclamp was essentially broken in every deck except storm.
Brainstorm: Here's another one for Teferi's Ageless Insight/Alhammarret's Archive/Thought Reflection.
Necropotence is almost for any black deck. Almost. (Reanimator can't use it.) I should note that Yawgmoth's Bargain was actually a riff on Greed, a meh card at best.
Timetwister is legal in Commander. Do what you will with that.
Gush was part of the Mercadian Masques block "Everything is based around one card." (And that card is Rising Waters.)
How did I know the #1 would be Ancestral Recall?
I would make the argument that Time Spiral is more powerful than Timetwister, even though latter can be used for loops and such. It's absolutely bonkers, especially since it can easily become mana positive with Fork and such.
Do a video on the most powerful non-legal magic cards, and the most expensive non-legal magic cards (nira hellkite, gama recall, etc)
What makes Brainstorm even better, is that you can stack the top of your library to accurately reflect your mana ramp at the start of the game. For instance, stack the cards so you get a land, then a 3 mana spell in your third turn, then a 4 mana spell in your fourth turn. These can even come from your hand, since you don't need them till that turn and you would be able to keep the cards drawn with Brainstorm.
great in response to discard affects
you forgot the ability to hide cards from discard
I'm surprised they haven't reworded Sylvan Library even more. The player should be told to keep all 3 cards drawn separate from the rest of their hand until they make all decisions relevant to what cards will be kept.
You effectively do have to do that if you're playing in a non-casual environment.
It gets weirder though if you draw cards for some other reason *before* Sylvan's trigger resolves. Because according to the wording on the card, you can put back any 2 cards you drew this turn. You basically have to call a judge over to get them to watch you play the turn so that they can confirm you didn't cheat.
@@dm9910 - yeah, but usually the game is a stickler for keeping cards separate if you have to make a decision like that. I'm blanking on the card, but I know there's one, lol. And yeah, catrips that tell you to draw a card at the beginning of the next turn can really screw things up as well, I didn't think about that.
I have tried Sylvan Library in commander and without scry effects I was disappointed. Elemental Bond, Beast Whisperer, Guardian Project, Garruk Primal Hunter, Soul's Majesty, Return of the Wildspeaker and all the enchantress (these only in enchantment deck) gave me great results
I bought a Mono-U Delver deck back when Gush was still legal, having never played Pauper before. Immediately 5-0'd a league on MTGO with it despite my lack of format knowledge and despite me not being a pro player or anything. Gush was just that busted.
Whatsup with those modern versions man. Mentioning Alpha cards showing those digital versions is waste.
"sylvan library" and and even more "brainstorm" make me think about "scroll rack". the putting cards from your hand back onto your library and drawing that many (with an extra step of exiling the hand cards before drawing, and than putting them on it, to not draw them themself of course). especially with shuffling. each turn since its an 2 mana artifact, with 1⤵. typical commander card.
Funnily enough it technically doesn't count as "drawing" for effects that care about that, even though that's what you're physically doing.
but it does "ignore" typical anti draw cards that are common in commander.
but since you don't "draw" more than putting back, you "don't" draw into a card advantage anyway.
its more about synergy with shuffling, or top of library synergy.
this is gonna sound insane but in cEDH ancestral recall wouldn't be NEARLY as strong as it is in every other format. We need huge draw spells like ad naus and peer into the abyss or tutors to set up our wins because their are way more cards in our decks and we are in a singleton format. It would still be an auto include in every blue deck without exception I don't actually think it would break the meta of cEDH.
If your just talking the most powerful draw spell period i woulda given first place to contract from below.
If your gonna go most iconic sure give it to recall but if your serious about most broken card draw spell no restrictions id give it hands down to contract.
Simple math shows 1 mana for 7 cards >> 1 mana for 3 even if it is a sorcery. Even if you have to ante a card your generally not losing after drawing 7 for 1z
14:39 "One other card that blows out of the water"
Don't think I don't see what you did there 😏
Necro doesn't draw cards. It gets around effects like Narset Parter of Veils as a result.
I love how people still keep forgetting about Narset's passive to this day in Arena. Just yesterday I had two different opponents cracking clue tokens on their own turns when I had her in play. The shame scoop usually follows.
@@fakeplaystore7991 yeah. Nothing beats watching their midnight clock tick over while she's out though
If you ever want a fun rules interaction, cast brainstorm in response to your sylvan library trigger. You get one of the few times you need to split your hand to avoid cheating.
quite surprise griselbrand isnt on the list since there are alot of ways to cheat it into play cheaply.
This list is so wrong from a commander players point of view lol. Mystic remora rhystic study, windfall and consecrated sphinx would have easily made this list including the top three.
the reasoning on time twister is more of a noob perspective.. that card can be abused in such better ways tbh tbh. in vintage u can empty ur hand turn 1 end with a twister. your opponent b4 they even play essentially have to mulligan not going down a card but their new hand might be unplayable while you start with a boad full of cards and yeah. can also combo/re occur. power 9 cards are crazy
I can't decide if you intentionally mispronounce a lot of these, or if you have legitimately never heard a lot of these words spoken and simply read them.
I choose to believe you're intentionally trolling everyone.
Id argue Yawg Will should be on this list. Draw your graveyard for 3 mana is incredibly broken in the right deck.
I couldn't pay attention to this video because in my mind, i kept repeating "Brainstorm-Green Needle" over and over.
I'm surprised Gitaxian Probe isn't on this list.
That's not a draw spell. It's a cantrip. It only ever replaces itself.
Granted the "draw a card" IS the reason it's banned, but still it probably doesn't qualify since it's card advantage neutral
Why are you talking about Squadron Hawk? It was first printed in M11.
How does Sylvan Library work with an Alhammarret's Archive?
That Necropotence pronunciation was so damn triggering.
Potence. As in potency. Necro-potence.
I'm surprised Contract from Below isn't on the list.
14:25 "Gushing About Gush: a Love Story" by Dr R. Fblthp, PhD
Gitaxian Probe should be number 2, it’s banned in every format, and limited to 1 in vintage
A video on the power 9 would be pretty cool
There is one already
yawgmoth's bargain seems pretty cracked too though. and contract from below but that one is goofy and illegal
I love skullclamp in my lathril deck, easy to refill hand
8:21 - Necro-Potence not Nercrop-Otence. It's the combination of two words and those two words are not "Necrop" and "Otence", lol. Necropotence essentially means "power of the dead" or "death power".
NO mention of Rhystic Study? BLASPHEMY!
Timetwister being power 9 and being rated behind gush is mildly amusing.
Boons then were-Ancestral, bolt, salve, G growth, D ritual?
Why don't you use the original cards instead of these reprint abominations?
Contract From Below should have been number 1. Full stop
Can’t say I’ve ever heard Necropotence pronounced that way lol.
Why does this guy pronouce every word wrong? Necro-potence ne-cropo-tence?
can you please not use backgrounds w flashing lights
Brainstorm isn't really card draw. More of a 1 mana cantrip.
With how similar this looksr Im sure others have mentioned this already, but I cant unsee that one old Valve splashscreen animation when looking at the Skullclamp card o-o
how come you dont use the original iconic arts for any of these cards?
Opt is my favourite draw spell, since it's instant speed and you get to scry before drawing. It's a perfect turn 1 move to play at the end of opponent turns
Necroppatince..
Metrocity? Metro City? MegaMind?
You could also include Wheel of Fortune, Windfall, and Prosperity, but these are all kina worse than Timetwister. Stroke of Genius would also be a good addition - back in the early days of Magic, before internet deck lists - one player at a pre-release actually immediately resigned after reading the card. Memory Jar also, for being the first card to ever get banned before it was legal to play. I think the biggest omission though would be Bazaar of Baghdad.
My favorite draw card remains Deep Anal(ysis)
4 mana for 2 cards, but the flashback for 2 mana + 3 life makes it pretty useful overall without making it overly powerful
i love using brainstorm with chasm stalker
I think it's interesting how many of these are commons
Kinda surprised demonic tutor wasn't listed
Stlvian library is funny with dredge
Honestly i stopped playing after Legends but I drooled over Antiquities when it came out. I loved my Millstone deck. Noone else did, heh.
im such an old school player. I remember playing with gush after release and thinking "this is prettty good". While combining it with high tide combos.
A little mistake in regards to glimpse of nature's legality. It has never been for any point in time legal in modern, it was on the ban list when the format was created and will likely stay there until the format is dead.
That's probably for the best, as nobody likes playing against Cheerios Storm.
I wonder how sylan library would interact with abundance