My local game store had an unopened Fallen Empires box until last summer. I asked the owner what happened to it and apparently it was bought by an US navy sailor who wanted to draft it with some of his MtG-playing crewmates during their voyage back home because drafting one of the worst sets in MtG history would be a novelty. So apparently that box finally got opened and drafted 28 years after it came out aboard a USN landing craft somewhere in the north Atlantic.
That's one of those ideas that sounds like it will be so ridiculously awful that it will be a hilarious good time. i bet those sailors got so bored, annoyed, frustrated and disappointed that they quit long before any winner was determined.
@@marcoottina654In onslaught there's a card called artificial evolution. It has the effect where it can change the creature type on a spell or permanent to one that you want other than wall. So you can use it on didgeridoo to swap it's type to eldrazi.
I genuinely despise the idea that some cards will never be reprinted and the fact that some hoity toity collectors having a crying fit caused WOTC to make the reserve list and (from what I've seen) not offer reprints often, just further prices out players from actually playing the game.
@christopherb501 turning anything into a commodity/investment always results in long term side effects, but hey, "line go up". I sort of understand the reason people collect stuff, I just don't understand why some people are like "no this exact thing has to be exactly one of a kind/scarce/rare because otherwise it's not valuable". Like, monetary value and scarcity isn't everything.
The reserved list has already been put to the grave. Do you not remember the Magic 30th Anniversary cash grab? The only cards they won't ever reprint are "socially insensitive" cards.
Recently I heard a Richard Garfield interview on The Odd Lots, a Bloomberg Podcast, and he mentioned the decisions behind overprinting the Fallen Empires. According to him, it ended up being a positive decision for the game as it made mtg considerably cheaper and therefore helped expand the player base. The set may have been underwhelming and abundant but may have impacted the game in ways we can’t properly gauge
It contributed to ensuring that 30 Years later, Revised, a good strong set with many staples, was really really affordable. 4th Chronicles FE and Revised obliterated the market for Revised cards. Only the Duals survived the massacre. It's complex to decide if this is bad or good. It's more complex to evaluate because after 5th, and after Mirage having all of 1 good card in the set, we then get into Tempest Urza era which warps the numbers with strong cards and high rarities engineered by the RL and pure chaos from bannings. Taken as a package, the 4H pattern of sets getting super collectible just for the year they released DIED at Revised and that was when playability began trumping rarity harder in light of what happened with Urza. Today, I think things would be better if The Dark and Ice Age began to double on 5 year periods but wait 10 year periods before adding the next set to the list of Scarcities. This would allow lots of people lots of prep time to stock up as needed, cash out to the collectors, and the hobby could "pay for itself" as it used to. Right now we have problems where you can't do the old way and if you can't do the old way then the house wins and the rest of all lose, except some of us have savings in Beta. So the thing they're doing to try to make it affordable is now the very thing that doesn't make it affordable. It's wierd. But it was good back Then that it was made possible for everyone to get Mana Vault Land Tax Copy Artifact and Fork and even for a long time Wheel of Fortune with no serious difficulty.
It is probably only because Revised tanked that there is an expectation that lasts today that Birds of Paradise should basically never cost more than $15 for the fanciest hottest Birds of Paradise you can reasonably find short of 7th foil or Beta.
I remembered one of my local game stores that had a big barrel filled with Fallen Empires packs. They were like half the price of a regular pack I believe. I actually bought a fair number of them before I realized how useless most of the cards were. Though to be fair, I was 12 so didn't know any better.😊
At this point the Reserved List is punishment for being born too late. Most people get into Magic in high school to university age, so they literally never got a chance to pull certain cards from boosters for the simple fact that they got pushed out of the womb at least a decade too late. How is that a sustainable way to keep a game healthy and people interested.
It's literally just people being selfish and materialistic. They feel like if their hobby doesn't have monetary value, it's a waste of time. I don't understand why people can't just do hobbies cause they think they are fun.
I don't think Kamigawa was that bad in a vacuum, it was also the when I started to get into Magic, but it really suffered because Wizards back-pedals on the sets following ones that have massive powercreep. It happened in the Mercadian set following Urza's and with Kamigawa following Mirrodin. I do think that Arcane and the mechanics tied to it could work if there was actual support for it. Wizards has a habit of coming out with an interesting mechanic that with some support could work but immediately throw it away because it wasn't instantly beloved. It should be revisited because there is a lot of potential there.
Arcane And Bushido just didn't get the chance they needed. Bushido was Heavily over costed on many of the cards it appeared on. And Arcane was a parasitic mechanic because Wizards chose not to print more of them.
A lot of people I know got into magic around that time, but and this isn't to sound disparaging, they got into it at a fairly casual/not very enfranchised level. This meant they likely didn't notice 1. the power disparity of previous sets, since they were playing at a casual level and 2. The backlash over Kamigawa's japanese theme. This may just be my personal experience, but from what I recall, the japanese them was actually more of a factor of it being hated. During that early to mid 2000's time frame there was an explosion in anime as a hobby here in the US and that lead to other hobbies adopting Japanese stuff in general. For example, Warhammer 40k would create a new and controversial faction: The Tau. Which were a very japanese mecha inspired faction. And from what I remember, people across basically every nerdy hobby was sick of "everything becoming japanese."
@@calemrAgreed, though in a way Bushido is also somewhat doomed by its name since its flavor basically means it's stuck on Japanese-flavored creatures and cards and can be on nothing else. Arcane at least could have easily been featured on other planes, but Bushido is just somewhat screwed there, which is supposedly the biggest reason it hasn't been brought back. At least Bushido stands more of a chance of being salvaged than Sweep or especially Epic though. While I can in theory vaguely see decently powered Sweep _maybe_ working in a Landfall deck or something, for Epic to actually work in anything other than an "Against the Odds" video or a griefer Hive Mind deck they would probably need effects so powerful that even the Modern Horizons sets would be like "uh, that's a bit much, isn't it?"
@@MusicoftheDamned Yeah, Epic is pretty unsalvageable, it's a mechanic built around not playing the game any more. And this coming from a guy who built an epic modern deck. Which was deeply unreliable. But hey, it was fun in casual games to sometimes go "I remove 30 cards of my choice from your deck."
I really liked the first two sets in the Kamigawa block. Making Spirits the main monster type let you work in some really nice older cards, like the Muses from Legions. And Sensei's Divining Top is just a great card all around.
It's interesting how Wizards jumped straight to a mercenary group after a single call from an unlisted number for what they believed was theft instead of police.
He purposefully puts errors in videos to get people to comment about it and drive up the algorithym. His yugioh and pokemon videos are notoriously bad with having horribly pronounced names, card text errors in the video and minor mistakes like wrong sets.
I got trolled too.. clever tactic, This channel had a rundown of Arabian Nights where Bazaar was the only good land pull. Opening hand Library...----->game
Why does Prophecy gets a pass for being intentionally weaker but Kamigawa block doesn't? The power level of the Kamigawa block was intentionally reduced because the previous Mirrodin block was overpowered and players threatened to quit Magic entirely (a lot actually did quit at the time).
Mirrodin was really fun. I loved affinity. I quit when kamigawa was comin out. The cards were meh and i didnt like all the changes magic was making. I still check cards from time to time, but mtg has so many mechanics n cards now its hard to wanna get back into it.
Ironic I thought Mirrodin was a blast and quit when Kamigawa started. Mirrodin was fun both lore-wise and with its mechanics (laughably broken as they were) and Kamigawa was just kind of slow and boring in comparison.
@@N12015 Don't think there's anything controversial about shitting on the 30th Anniversary packs. Though technically every set here could have seen play in some format or other. Even the un-sets are intended to be drafted in their own special formats. The 30th anniversary cards are just proxies that can't legally be used in any official format, sold at a ludicrous price.
Bad as it is -- and it is bad -- Homelands will always have a place in my heart. I love the flavor of the cards and it was when I was introduced to the game. As a kid who didn't consider mechanics whatsoever, I loved the fantasy world represented in the set. I remember buying packs of it and Fallen Empires and just being enchanted by the art and flavor text of each and every card.
Battle for Zendikar introduced Expeditions/Masterpieces which likely saved the set from being on this list in my opinion. That one decision made people crack boxes and boxes to try pull one, which had positive effects on the price of Standard, and had ripples through to the modern day
BFZ is an incredibly good set with value outside of the expeditions (Ulamog and Void Winnower) plus 3 $1 to $2 uncommons, however Oath is valued in paper by only $3 more than Born of the Gods and one of its top 10 cards is a basic land 😂 That's how bad that set really is. BFZ isn't that bad.
Yes because somehow the alpha, signed black lotus graded at 9 will just tank in value if they reprint a modern version at mythic rare. Because those two are equivalent. Down with the reserve list
9.0 is just pack fresh NM I think. 9.5 and 10 would be safe. 9 probably wouldn't be bc you're talking about multiplying the raws by thousands of supply. Grading matters. It just so happens 9.0......kinda doesn't really impress people. I learned this by buying some silver label slabs and probably wrecked myself. 9.5 Revised Tundra though I made bank. The difference between 9.0 and 9.5 is real. This has been a PSA about BGS. O:)
M30 is actually rare physically. That's why it's allowed to exist. "Down with the RL" is like crying "Down with the Geneva Conventions". It is not as simple as writing on a picket sign "War is a Crime", even though that is true. Wizards and the Vintage stores have promised claws out lawsuits if the RL falls. Essentially they have promised war. The RL keeps them from destroying each other like Europe. The RL is on reading a little bit of a silly farce, a little bit of a religion. But if it keeps them from suing each other---- it is good to keep them from suing each other. We are functionally in a dilemma like early 20th century Europe. Covid was Napoleon. You don't want to see it get worse than Napoleon. What you want to see is "whatever is required for them to not sue each other, sweeping the rest of us up in the blaze of their dumb war." If they announce peace, that could be good. The current news from the front lines of Great Powers is they still promise to sue each other if the RL breaks and they say they checked the RL and it's not broken yet. If at some later date they decide to "find a way to do it" OK. That could be *good* news if nobody had their arm twisted. We don't want to pressure or spook them. We don't want to provoke them. It's fine to not like them or their face but we should be cautiously aware that they can do things that have big consequences on us. We want the big scary jerks at Wizards to be relaxed and encourage them to fall asleep happy and we don't want them to wake up mad. We are negotiating with dragons. Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus.
Killer Bees was reprinted in 4th Edition, not Chronicles. I remember because my opponent cast it the first time i played a game at an LGS, which was also the first time a played against someone that wasnt from my school. And the first time i realised that Llanowar Elves into Killer Bees was a waaaaay better play than hitting a land drop every 2nd turn and trying to cast Colossus Of Sardia...
@@Gammarayx3 doesn´t renaissance count as a set for this List ?? because i would say it was the least favorable for me ! only re-prints of former cards ( wasn´t even rare cards in the boosters ?? ) !!
I will say many of the “Introduced for no significant reason” ones in MoM were for sets in the three year follow up like the one you showed being for the upcoming Tarkir or the first shown being Kenrith’s Funeral because the next set was back to Eldraine. Apparently the Oni is because Oni on Kamigawa were sealed away and that one showed they returned but seeing as that’s kinda minor lore and Kamigawa just happened instead of being in the follow ups does feel weird tho
4:05 funny little story about Nissa. When I first saw her spoiled the picture had part of the text covered, showing only El of the word Elemantel. Somehow this convinced me that the word was Eldrazi, referencing Nissas Origin Story. I admit Elemantel makes way mor sense.
Real talk, 1. That's not really related to how well the set sold or the cards in it and 2. I still am very suspicious of that event actually happening. The only proof he posted iirc is a picture of two dudes in overcoats at his front door.
You just made me realize why I rarely bought packs from Battle For Zendikar. The ally cards were rarely of use and I had noticed this because in every set I try to make 5-6 decks, but with ally creatures, it felt as if you needed to build around 2-3 colors and even then it still felt off. Makes me glad I only spent money on the pre-release for it, as I’ve been playing since 2012 and that set felt off to me. I also played around Dragon’s Maze and Born of the Gods, and March of the Machine:Aftermath. Thanks for the video, this showed me a lot of errors within MTG sets.
In defense of Homelands, it has some decent cards, even has a card restricted in Vintage. Homelands overall has had more cards with competitive success than Prophecy.
Two or three okay cards in a set doesnt excuse it. And that competitive success was because wizards literally forced players to use some amount of homeland cards in their tournaments. Being technically better than prophecy isn't any kind of bar for success lol
@@NeutralGuyDoubleZeroMerchant Scroll has seen more competitive success than anything in Prophecy and is restricted. Most of the set is weak but it has a few decent cards, outside of great favor and setting.
@cax1175 Again, AS I JUST SAID, a few decent cards doesn't redeem or excuse a set. Having greater success than prophecies isn't any kind of bar for success.
I’ll be honest, this is a miss video that doesn’t have a lot of cohesion. While ‘worst’ is already a subjective term and open for debate, half of the sets mentioned seem to be placed in no particular order, with sets with several criticisms made placed lower to other sets with their main criticism being “yeah, this set was weak, but it was designed to be less powerful”. And Aftermath should definitely be higher.
The reserved list is the result of boomer mtg finance bros throwing a bitch fit because people could actually play with the game pieces. Magic would have survived fine without letting those babies have their way. I'd rather have all my cards be worth nothing tomorrow if it meant that I could have access to older cards that I didn't get the chance to buy because I was 2 at the time.
I have a lot of Fallen Empires cards because that was the oldest set available at the store. I started buying around 4th edition, and I remember seeing Beta at the Target I bought from in the beginning. But 5th Edition had better art and I didn't know. I didn't know! They hid the boxes of magic cards behind the, like, customer service area; you had to ask for them. They were in a hidden trove. So later on, I got into the habit of buying the oldest set available. I am error. I am double error.
wait alpha and beta were available at stores like target in your day? I don't think I EVER saw magic cards in stores till like.... hmmm.... before 10th edition for sure.... but still modern card frame
@@caesarsushi3238 True. I unironically think that MH1 was a good set. (granted I'm primarily a commander player) but you actually got a lot of value for a reasonable price in terms of sealed packs, and it tried to support a lot of fan favorite but under powered mechanics in modern like snow. I mean, just looking at the set and its clear that they tried to introduce a Sultai Snow control deck that used snow lands instead of fetches, which should have made the deck cheap. But that deck flopped (how is dead of winter still seriously unplayed?) but with astrolabe being too good of a card and it getting banned that deck is just not going to happen unfortunately.
Worth noting that Xenagod did see standard play as basically the second coming of kessig wolf run. Problem is that while xenagod did help with aggro, sphinxes rev blue devotion was just way too oppressive
I loved playing Gruul, and (later) Temur Xenagod in Theros/Khans standard. There was something special about facing a control player, sticking a Xenagod, then slamming down Terra Stomper next turn. Uncounterable 16/16 haste never got old.
I can see from a paper player's perspective how Aftermath would be disappointing, but as a casual digital player, I loved it. There's a ton of interesting cards in the set I've seen used as build-arounds like Urborg Scavengers, Pia Nalar, or Nahiri. Not to mention there's cards that made certain decks possible that weren't before in standard, like Training Grounds for ability tribal, or Kiora for a Runo Stomkirk sea creature tribal thing
I got into magic around the time of Ice Age and Fallen Empires. You could still get Legends and Arabian Nights if you searched some. Imagine this; you've got your deck all built and sit down to play with a friend. However, your friend got into MTG just 1 year before you and as a result, they are dropping things like dual lands, Sol Ring, Mana Vault and so on while you are trying to get Saporlings to spawn every 3 turns. Quite a feeling. :| That said, Homelands made Fallen Empires look like Unlimited.
As far as the health of the game is concerned, I think that the Urza's Saga block did more to damage the game through power creep than any set before or since.
A shame, Unhinged is my fave Un- set, save for the overuse of "Ass". The full arts are beautiful. And the non themed cards are some of the best in Un- sets.
I don't mean to hate on TheManaLogs, but he's got his info flat wrong on Unhinged. Yes, what he brought up were valid criticisms of the set, it was the most popular unset. All the unsets sold bad, with only passion overriding corporate momentum being the thing that allowed us to get more of them.
I gotta agree. I think the only people who don’t like Unhinged are people who don’t like fun. And a few counterpoints: -the gotcha cards only comeback from the graveyard, so your opponent KNOWS what not to do. -the cards that require physical actions have outs, you could just take the punishment. That was the point of them. -anyone who plays a card where someone needs to stand up against someone who can’t stand up is an asshole. That’s a problem with the player, not the card. -playing 2 Farewell to Arms against one of my friends was hilarious.
The biggest haters of Unhinged are probably the people who designed Unhinged, who based on player feedback consider all the things mentioned in this video mistakes.
I started playing when Born of the Gods released and heavily played Ravnica Rakdos cards while they were in standard. Seeing Born of the Gods and Dragon's Maze back to back hurts.
Chronicles was absolutely the worst. At the time, it was not well-advertised as pairing with 4th edition so expectations were thrown off, the power level was dogshit while the complexity was high, the most desirable cards were not reprinted in what was supposed to be a "Best of the Year" set so it didn't achieve its purpose of catching up new players, and at the end of the day it still gave us the List. The shortcomings of all the other sets, which I would argue this one has more of even not considering the RL, are fleeting and minor in comparison to Chronicles' influence. Absolutely the worst set of all time by a mile.
The reserve list is a rough one. On the one hand imagine being able to afford legacy and vintage but on the other hand having the value of cards go to zero would result in resellers disappearing and then we collectively would probably completely stop playing all together My own opinions obviously
I think you missed another big factor as to why BFZ flopped. People were fully expecting a reprint of Zendi fetches and instead we got one of the most underwhelming land cycles ever printed.
I was around then. In the UK Magic was gaining momentum around ice age so I bought a tonne of Fallen Empires and I know I had loads of homelands later, but what bothers me is i took a break during Urzas block.....O woe is me. Oh, and please tell me why I cannot get "Feast of the Unicorn" out of my head? Some card names, no matter how bad the card is just stick with me.
Markov Baron is lorewise the single most important Chair Tribal card for Aftermath. It's perfect for that. I wonder what players would consider the best limited format with the most minimal impact on the Eternal card pool. Would that still be considered a good release?
Homelands was especially notable for being the 3rd set of the Ice Age block. However, rather than being a continuation or conclusion of the Ice Age story, they shifted to a completely unrelated story on a completely different plane of reality. Eleven years later, Wizards jokingly "found" the long-lost 3rd set of Ice Age block named Coldsnap, with new cards based off characters and mechanics from Ice Age and Alliance. Nowadays, Coldsnap is retroactively an official part of Ice Age block, while Homelands is considered its own separate set.
The only Homelands card I own (and no idea how I got it...) is Apocalypse Chime, the card that destroys all other Homelands cards. I found it a bit funny since I doubted it would be much use to anyone. Didn't know that this was apparently a thing in Arabian Nights and Chronicles, too (City in a Bottle, Golgothian Sylex) until much later, but I still have the chime for its unique charm.
When I came into the game I was never under the impression that the Un sets were supposed to be actually playable. I thought that was part of the joke. The recent one only being playable with standardized gimmicks and stickers is much less funny.
I remember cracking Homelands packs as a kid and comparing them to cards I'd pulled earlier from Revised, The Dark, Arabian Nights- and just wondering if my understanding of the game was lacking or the cards were actually that bad.
Sadly I bought a lot of Homelands and Fallen Empires back in the day because I was a dumb kid who thought more cards for less money equals more good. Took me quite a lot of disappointment to understand WHY those sets were so much cheaper than the others.
That stupid little gotcha mechanic on touch-and-go... I think the correct response to that play is sneezing then using that particular card as an impromptu tissue.
It was Eldrazi Scions(1/1) and Eldrazi Spawns(0/1). They were the lineage of Ulamog and Kozilek(I can't remember which 2 was what went with 1 another........or the other) and they came from specific colors(I believe blue made the Spawns while black made the Scions). And the Drones were the lineage of Emrakul.
tbh i think ice age and the dark should be on here too. That wasteland after Legends drove out all of my friends from mtg. None of us continue to play to this day. And I had all moxes, 30+ dual lands, time walk, timetwister, ancestral recall and a bunch of other wild cards that I sold at crazy low prices because those expansions made me think the game was dead.
I have consuming vortex and a couple other arcane spells and the splicing is so not worth it. It's in a control blue deck that ramps like hell and yet I have never been in a situation where I wanted to have splice that effect for double the cost, especially since my other arcane spells do nearly the exact same thing. Maybe if I had an arcane card that drew and I added the creature removal I'd use it? I haven't seen much else of the set but I can definitely feel why we didn't get more arcane and splicing cards. It would be a balancing nightmare of making things way too powerful for cheap, or way too expensive to be useful.
This is going to sound like a very, very, very strange thing to say ... but Homelands is actually my favorite Magic : The Gathering expansion set. Only because it was the first M:TG expansion set I ever played. I first started playing M:TG in early 1996, when the available sets were Fourth Edition, Chronicles, Fallen Empires, Ice Age, and Homelands. Alliances was released a few months after I began playing. Homelands was the first expansion set I played, and as a result, a lot of the cards in that set bring back a lot of memories from my first days playing Magic : The Gathering, learning the game, and becoming increasingly addicted to the game. I can totally understand why people regard Homelands as the worst M:TG set ever. Believe me, I understand. But for me, personally, that set will always be a treasured memory.
i think you can argue that a lot of super OP sets (urza’s block, throne of eldraine, mirrodin block, modern horizons 2) have been more detrimental to the health of the game than underpowered sets like bfz and saviors
You can argue this, but I think you'd be wrong. There's a retroactive fix for OP cards. You ban them. There's no retroactive fix for a set that was afraid to take any chances and came out weak and boring (the two tend to go hand-in-hand in MTG).
I'm glad to see Fallen Empires not at #1. There's a few bright spots in that set while the sets above it generally don't have it. For it's time, FE isn't as bad. It adds a few really solid creatures--white weenie decks of the era really need the pump knights and Icatian Javelineers. But it lacks a marquee, chase rare with the best cards being common and flops hard in whole colors (green).
I thought the Javelineers were great. The tap to do one damage one time was enough for WotC to Implement it on other cards into the future. Names escape me right now, but I know they exist because many times I've uttered the words "Oh, just like the Javelineers" during a draft or pack crack.
@@jamesheyworth4370 It's really good with all of white's first strike creatures. Being able to take down a X/3 with no loss is excellent in white. And then when you have the pump knights, you're beating X/4s in combat. It's really quite good.
The print run of Chronicles didn't kill the price of the cards. What killed the price of the cards is that these previously impossible to find (and thus not played with too often) cards fell into player's hands and the players realized... they really sucked, and the price was based on scarcity and not usefulness. Oh, Killer Bees wasn't in Chronicles. Fallen Empires - they didn't over-print, they printed to demand. Yeah, packs of the Dark are more expensive. It was one print run and done. It's obvious you weren't around at this time in the game's history and you have no interest in doing real research.
I would just point out that Niv Mizzet did not create the Implicit Maze, as it was put in place by the planeswalker sphinx Azor, way back when the Guildpact was established, as a way to end the Guildpact itself, if the Guilds were not united anymore. (Sorry for bad English)
@@lauralharris Rings of Power set. They butchered the lore and some of the art was just downright awful. When they said it was a Lord of the Rings set, you'd expect to see Lord of the Rings, not some overly generic fantasy setting defined by a list of checkboxes.
I feel like unfinity deserves a spot here as it introduced many mechanics that were annoying and difficult to track into eternal formats thanks to the removal of the silver border. It also led to a split between legacy in paper and on MTGO because some cards that see legacy play aren’t on the client yet and one of the few that is on the client is mechanically different and strictly better online.
Back in the day, I was extremely excited to get my hands on Fallen Empires. I had so much enthusiasm for it, it took me quite a while to be honest with myself about how bad the set was.
I like Unhinged. It's the only locals I ever won, and not even from the Gotcha! Cards. I drafted a green spell that gave you a 1/1 token for every symbol you had so I made sure my basic lands had as many symbols as possible.
Murder at Karlov Manner is pretty bad. I don’t know how it’ll slot in with the rest of history but it’s been a while where it’s felt like there are too many mechanics, too unintuitive, too many cards have too much text - it really just feels super clunky
I liked opening Aftermath. The useless cards in set boosters are annoying as your collection grows - just give me what I want. I rarely crack packs, but Aftermath had good value as it was easier to get the choice cards (Nissa) that you actually needed
@@Sillimant_ how so? Correct me if I'm misunderstanding, but aren't play boosters basically just set boosters? Or is that wrong? Or is it correct, but the issue is that draft boosters provided a better experience for limited than what play boosters will? It doesn't seem to be a huge change, but I'm not a limited grinder.
Well, Prophecy had Avatar of Fury, 2 mana 6/6 Shivan Dragon! :) Also: Avatar of Woe, Chimeric Idol, Citadel of Pain, Foil, Mageta the Lion, Spiketail Hatchling, Spore Frog and maybe the worst ever card that was played in Constructed: Troublesome Spirit! :) On the other hand, the art of the set is great.
At the time , Fallen Empires was decent because it allowed you to make more complete monster theme decks. Probably did terrible sales but you could just grab tons of goblin or elf commons.
Early sets were really crappy. Fallen Empires, the Dark, Homelands, Alliances, the Mirage block, Ice Age. It started becoming good with the Rath cycle block.
I can already tell you what #1 is. Fallen Empires. I spent approximately $200 on that damn set. Got absolutely NOTHING. Screw Fallen Empires, and screw WotC.
At least lore wise. March of the Machine was the absolute worst, underwhelming, and most disappointing set in Magic's history for me. I still get angry and cringe over how hard they dropped the ball with the phyrexian invasion after how much they had hyped it up. They couldn't have handled it more poorly if they tried.
My local game store had an unopened Fallen Empires box until last summer. I asked the owner what happened to it and apparently it was bought by an US navy sailor who wanted to draft it with some of his MtG-playing crewmates during their voyage back home because drafting one of the worst sets in MtG history would be a novelty. So apparently that box finally got opened and drafted 28 years after it came out aboard a USN landing craft somewhere in the north Atlantic.
That’s kinda awesome
You don't even need to open the fallen empire pack to see what rare in the pack.
Fallen Empires was not made to be drafted. Sets did not take draft into consideration until Mirage.
@@releasethedogs Yeah and that makes it even more of a novelty.
That's one of those ideas that sounds like it will be so ridiculously awful that it will be a hilarious good time. i bet those sailors got so bored, annoyed, frustrated and disappointed that they quit long before any winner was determined.
Didgeridoo does have the distinction of being the funniest way to get Emrakul onto the board.
how?
@@marcoottina654 make its type minotaur, activate didgeridoo.
@@marcoottina654In onslaught there's a card called artificial evolution. It has the effect where it can change the creature type on a spell or permanent to one that you want other than wall. So you can use it on didgeridoo to swap it's type to eldrazi.
@@marcoottina654 Maskwood Nexus from Kaldheim is a good example, paired with Realmbeaker or The World Tree
@@ich3730 why don't just use Quicksilver Amulet?
I genuinely despise the idea that some cards will never be reprinted and the fact that some hoity toity collectors having a crying fit caused WOTC to make the reserve list and (from what I've seen) not offer reprints often, just further prices out players from actually playing the game.
Speculators will forever be a blight, be they in cards, comics, stocks, whatever.
@christopherb501 turning anything into a commodity/investment always results in long term side effects, but hey, "line go up".
I sort of understand the reason people collect stuff, I just don't understand why some people are like "no this exact thing has to be exactly one of a kind/scarce/rare because otherwise it's not valuable". Like, monetary value and scarcity isn't everything.
Proxy machine goes BRRRR
The reserved list has already been put to the grave. Do you not remember the Magic 30th Anniversary cash grab? The only cards they won't ever reprint are "socially insensitive" cards.
@thomassynths they were all overpriced proxy cards, such a waste of cardboard
Recently I heard a Richard Garfield interview on The Odd Lots, a Bloomberg Podcast, and he mentioned the decisions behind overprinting the Fallen Empires. According to him, it ended up being a positive decision for the game as it made mtg considerably cheaper and therefore helped expand the player base. The set may have been underwhelming and abundant but may have impacted the game in ways we can’t properly gauge
It contributed to ensuring that 30 Years later, Revised, a good strong set with many staples, was really really affordable.
4th Chronicles FE and Revised obliterated the market for Revised cards. Only the Duals survived the massacre.
It's complex to decide if this is bad or good. It's more complex to evaluate because after 5th, and after Mirage having all of 1 good card in the set, we then get into Tempest Urza era which warps the numbers with strong cards and high rarities engineered by the RL and pure chaos from bannings.
Taken as a package, the 4H pattern of sets getting super collectible just for the year they released DIED at Revised and that was when playability began trumping rarity harder in light of what happened with Urza.
Today, I think things would be better if The Dark and Ice Age began to double on 5 year periods but wait 10 year periods before adding the next set to the list of Scarcities.
This would allow lots of people lots of prep time to stock up as needed, cash out to the collectors, and the hobby could "pay for itself" as it used to.
Right now we have problems where you can't do the old way and if you can't do the old way then the house wins and the rest of all lose, except some of us have savings in Beta.
So the thing they're doing to try to make it affordable is now the very thing that doesn't make it affordable.
It's wierd.
But it was good back Then that it was made possible for everyone to get Mana Vault Land Tax Copy Artifact and Fork and even for a long time Wheel of Fortune with no serious difficulty.
It is probably only because Revised tanked that there is an expectation that lasts today that Birds of Paradise should basically never cost more than $15 for the fanciest hottest Birds of Paradise you can reasonably find short of 7th foil or Beta.
I remembered one of my local game stores that had a big barrel filled with Fallen Empires packs. They were like half the price of a regular pack I believe. I actually bought a fair number of them before I realized how useless most of the cards were. Though to be fair, I was 12 so didn't know any better.😊
Sol Ring ALWAYS produced Colorless mana. The Colorless mana symbol FINALLY clearly separated the concepts of Colorless mana and Generic Costs.
At this point the Reserved List is punishment for being born too late. Most people get into Magic in high school to university age, so they literally never got a chance to pull certain cards from boosters for the simple fact that they got pushed out of the womb at least a decade too late.
How is that a sustainable way to keep a game healthy and people interested.
It's literally just people being selfish and materialistic. They feel like if their hobby doesn't have monetary value, it's a waste of time. I don't understand why people can't just do hobbies cause they think they are fun.
I don't think Kamigawa was that bad in a vacuum, it was also the when I started to get into Magic, but it really suffered because Wizards back-pedals on the sets following ones that have massive powercreep. It happened in the Mercadian set following Urza's and with Kamigawa following Mirrodin.
I do think that Arcane and the mechanics tied to it could work if there was actual support for it. Wizards has a habit of coming out with an interesting mechanic that with some support could work but immediately throw it away because it wasn't instantly beloved. It should be revisited because there is a lot of potential there.
Arcane And Bushido just didn't get the chance they needed. Bushido was Heavily over costed on many of the cards it appeared on. And Arcane was a parasitic mechanic because Wizards chose not to print more of them.
A lot of people I know got into magic around that time, but and this isn't to sound disparaging, they got into it at a fairly casual/not very enfranchised level. This meant they likely didn't notice 1. the power disparity of previous sets, since they were playing at a casual level and 2. The backlash over Kamigawa's japanese theme. This may just be my personal experience, but from what I recall, the japanese them was actually more of a factor of it being hated. During that early to mid 2000's time frame there was an explosion in anime as a hobby here in the US and that lead to other hobbies adopting Japanese stuff in general. For example, Warhammer 40k would create a new and controversial faction: The Tau. Which were a very japanese mecha inspired faction. And from what I remember, people across basically every nerdy hobby was sick of "everything becoming japanese."
@@calemrAgreed, though in a way Bushido is also somewhat doomed by its name since its flavor basically means it's stuck on Japanese-flavored creatures and cards and can be on nothing else. Arcane at least could have easily been featured on other planes, but Bushido is just somewhat screwed there, which is supposedly the biggest reason it hasn't been brought back.
At least Bushido stands more of a chance of being salvaged than Sweep or especially Epic though. While I can in theory vaguely see decently powered Sweep _maybe_ working in a Landfall deck or something, for Epic to actually work in anything other than an "Against the Odds" video or a griefer Hive Mind deck they would probably need effects so powerful that even the Modern Horizons sets would be like "uh, that's a bit much, isn't it?"
@@MusicoftheDamned Yeah, Epic is pretty unsalvageable, it's a mechanic built around not playing the game any more.
And this coming from a guy who built an epic modern deck. Which was deeply unreliable. But hey, it was fun in casual games to sometimes go "I remove 30 cards of my choice from your deck."
I really liked the first two sets in the Kamigawa block. Making Spirits the main monster type let you work in some really nice older cards, like the Muses from Legions. And Sensei's Divining Top is just a great card all around.
Dont forget Aftermath had the Drama around WOTC sending hired goons to get a Box of it back after it leaked.
The group from Red Dead Redemption?
@@lildemon666.2Yep, THOSE Pinkerton. Turns out they both exist and continue to exist despite their notoriety of being mercs by another name.
It's interesting how Wizards jumped straight to a mercenary group after a single call from an unlisted number for what they believed was theft instead of police.
Pecking Finkertons.
I still can't believe that guy handed his property over to some fucking Pinkertons 😭
10:32 Ihsan's Shade is from Homelands, not Fallen Empires.
He purposefully puts errors in videos to get people to comment about it and drive up the algorithym. His yugioh and pokemon videos are notoriously bad with having horribly pronounced names, card text errors in the video and minor mistakes like wrong sets.
@@LowTier4Life Is that also why he lies about Killer Bees being printed at common in Chronicles?
Oh, now it makes sense. I won’t be clicking these any more. Thank you.
I got trolled too.. clever tactic, This channel had a rundown of Arabian Nights where Bazaar was the only good land pull. Opening hand Library...----->game
@@LowTier4Life Wait wtf? How do you know it wasn't just a mistake?
Why does Prophecy gets a pass for being intentionally weaker but Kamigawa block doesn't? The power level of the Kamigawa block was intentionally reduced because the previous Mirrodin block was overpowered and players threatened to quit Magic entirely (a lot actually did quit at the time).
Maybe it isnt as clear but i thought it was explained enough
Please provide your own list with accompanying explainations.
Very true, Mirrodin made me quit for about 17 years 😂
Mirrodin was really fun. I loved affinity. I quit when kamigawa was comin out. The cards were meh and i didnt like all the changes magic was making. I still check cards from time to time, but mtg has so many mechanics n cards now its hard to wanna get back into it.
Ironic I thought Mirrodin was a blast and quit when Kamigawa started. Mirrodin was fun both lore-wise and with its mechanics (laughably broken as they were) and Kamigawa was just kind of slow and boring in comparison.
Surprised the 30 year anniversary didn't make it, but since you only included sets that could've seen play in limited it does make sense.
Guess someone doesn't want controversy.
@@N12015 Don't think there's anything controversial about shitting on the 30th Anniversary packs.
Though technically every set here could have seen play in some format or other. Even the un-sets are intended to be drafted in their own special formats. The 30th anniversary cards are just proxies that can't legally be used in any official format, sold at a ludicrous price.
magic 30 is actually draftable, but 1. ABU drafts are horrid and super unbalanced 2. its way too expensive to actually draft
It's number 1 for me
Bad as it is -- and it is bad -- Homelands will always have a place in my heart. I love the flavor of the cards and it was when I was introduced to the game. As a kid who didn't consider mechanics whatsoever, I loved the fantasy world represented in the set. I remember buying packs of it and Fallen Empires and just being enchanted by the art and flavor text of each and every card.
Battle for Zendikar introduced Expeditions/Masterpieces which likely saved the set from being on this list in my opinion. That one decision made people crack boxes and boxes to try pull one, which had positive effects on the price of Standard, and had ripples through to the modern day
BFZ is an incredibly good set with value outside of the expeditions (Ulamog and Void Winnower) plus 3 $1 to $2 uncommons, however Oath is valued in paper by only $3 more than Born of the Gods and one of its top 10 cards is a basic land 😂 That's how bad that set really is. BFZ isn't that bad.
March Aftermath should be much higher. They sent the Pinkertons after someone for this shit.
Yes because somehow the alpha, signed black lotus graded at 9 will just tank in value if they reprint a modern version at mythic rare. Because those two are equivalent.
Down with the reserve list
Printing Black Lotus again will not create new 30-years-old Black Lotuses, just a truly ton of _some-month-old Black Lotus_, which is WAY different
9.0 is just pack fresh NM I think.
9.5 and 10 would be safe.
9 probably wouldn't be bc you're talking about multiplying the raws by thousands of supply.
Grading matters. It just so happens 9.0......kinda doesn't really impress people. I learned this by buying some silver label slabs and probably wrecked myself.
9.5 Revised Tundra though I made bank.
The difference between 9.0 and 9.5 is real.
This has been a PSA about BGS. O:)
M30 is actually rare physically. That's why it's allowed to exist.
"Down with the RL" is like crying "Down with the Geneva Conventions".
It is not as simple as writing on a picket sign "War is a Crime", even though that is true.
Wizards and the Vintage stores have promised claws out lawsuits if the RL falls. Essentially they have promised war.
The RL keeps them from destroying each other like Europe.
The RL is on reading a little bit of a silly farce, a little bit of a religion.
But if it keeps them from suing each other---- it is good to keep them from suing each other.
We are functionally in a dilemma like early 20th century Europe.
Covid was Napoleon.
You don't want to see it get worse than Napoleon.
What you want to see is "whatever is required for them to not sue each other, sweeping the rest of us up in the blaze of their dumb war."
If they announce peace, that could be good. The current news from the front lines of Great Powers is they still promise to sue each other if the RL breaks and they say they checked the RL and it's not broken yet.
If at some later date they decide to "find a way to do it" OK. That could be *good* news if nobody had their arm twisted. We don't want to pressure or spook them. We don't want to provoke them. It's fine to not like them or their face but we should be cautiously aware that they can do things that have big consequences on us.
We want the big scary jerks at Wizards to be relaxed and encourage them to fall asleep happy and we don't want them to wake up mad.
We are negotiating with dragons.
Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus.
Yeah if Yugioh has anything to say about it, the originals probably would retain their value pretty well, if not actually become MORE valuable.
Killer Bees was reprinted in 4th Edition, not Chronicles. I remember because my opponent cast it the first time i played a game at an LGS, which was also the first time a played against someone that wasnt from my school. And the first time i realised that Llanowar Elves into Killer Bees was a waaaaay better play than hitting a land drop every 2nd turn and trying to cast Colossus Of Sardia...
killer ber was reprinted in 4th and renaissance. also shade was not from empires but from homelands and jitte was not from saviors but from betrayers.
@@Gammarayx3 doesn´t renaissance count as a set for this List ?? because i would say it was the least favorable for me ! only re-prints of former cards ( wasn´t even rare cards in the boosters ?? ) !!
I will say many of the “Introduced for no significant reason” ones in MoM were for sets in the three year follow up like the one you showed being for the upcoming Tarkir or the first shown being Kenrith’s Funeral because the next set was back to Eldraine. Apparently the Oni is because Oni on Kamigawa were sealed away and that one showed they returned but seeing as that’s kinda minor lore and Kamigawa just happened instead of being in the follow ups does feel weird tho
4:05 funny little story about Nissa. When I first saw her spoiled the picture had part of the text covered, showing only El of the word Elemantel. Somehow this convinced me that the word was Eldrazi, referencing Nissas Origin Story. I admit Elemantel makes way mor sense.
What about Innistrad Double Feature?
Honestly, that should have been on the listed instead of unhinged.
Feels strange not to include the whole WotC sent the Pinkerton's after a youtuber for leaking Aftermath
Real talk, 1. That's not really related to how well the set sold or the cards in it and 2. I still am very suspicious of that event actually happening. The only proof he posted iirc is a picture of two dudes in overcoats at his front door.
The reserve list is cancer.
As are the speculators
And 30th anniversary was AIDS
You just made me realize why I rarely bought packs from Battle For Zendikar.
The ally cards were rarely of use and I had noticed this because in every set I try to make 5-6 decks, but with ally creatures, it felt as if you needed to build around 2-3 colors and even then it still felt off.
Makes me glad I only spent money on the pre-release for it, as I’ve been playing since 2012 and that set felt off to me.
I also played around Dragon’s Maze and Born of the Gods, and March of the Machine:Aftermath.
Thanks for the video, this showed me a lot of errors within MTG sets.
In defense of Homelands, it has some decent cards, even has a card restricted in Vintage. Homelands overall has had more cards with competitive success than Prophecy.
Two or three okay cards in a set doesnt excuse it. And that competitive success was because wizards literally forced players to use some amount of homeland cards in their tournaments.
Being technically better than prophecy isn't any kind of bar for success lol
@@NeutralGuyDoubleZeroMerchant Scroll has seen more competitive success than anything in Prophecy and is restricted. Most of the set is weak but it has a few decent cards, outside of great favor and setting.
@cax1175 Again, AS I JUST SAID, a few decent cards doesn't redeem or excuse a set. Having greater success than prophecies isn't any kind of bar for success.
Leaches... a surprise play against the guy playing infect. Because so many cards like it existed before 2022.
@@NeutralGuyDoubleZeroNo, I just don't believe it's the worst set. From a competitive standpoint, it literally isn't.
I’ll be honest, this is a miss video that doesn’t have a lot of cohesion. While ‘worst’ is already a subjective term and open for debate, half of the sets mentioned seem to be placed in no particular order, with sets with several criticisms made placed lower to other sets with their main criticism being “yeah, this set was weak, but it was designed to be less powerful”.
And Aftermath should definitely be higher.
All cards should be reprinted as long as they are legal in at least one format. Accessibility should always triumph over collectors.
Imagine how healthy the game would be if we saw dual land reprints. Legacy would automatically become playable to 90% of the people who play.
The reserved list is the result of boomer mtg finance bros throwing a bitch fit because people could actually play with the game pieces. Magic would have survived fine without letting those babies have their way. I'd rather have all my cards be worth nothing tomorrow if it meant that I could have access to older cards that I didn't get the chance to buy because I was 2 at the time.
Printer go brrrr
I have a lot of Fallen Empires cards because that was the oldest set available at the store. I started buying around 4th edition, and I remember seeing Beta at the Target I bought from in the beginning. But 5th Edition had better art and I didn't know. I didn't know! They hid the boxes of magic cards behind the, like, customer service area; you had to ask for them. They were in a hidden trove.
So later on, I got into the habit of buying the oldest set available. I am error. I am double error.
wait alpha and beta were available at stores like target in your day? I don't think I EVER saw magic cards in stores till like.... hmmm.... before 10th edition for sure.... but still modern card frame
I feel like you could make the argument either of the Modern Horizons would fit here, but “worst” in a very different way
At least with the first Modern Horizons set you can argue that WotC just overestimated how strong they could make non-rotation cards
@@caesarsushi3238True. Can't be said for MH2 tough
@@caesarsushi3238 True. I unironically think that MH1 was a good set. (granted I'm primarily a commander player) but you actually got a lot of value for a reasonable price in terms of sealed packs, and it tried to support a lot of fan favorite but under powered mechanics in modern like snow. I mean, just looking at the set and its clear that they tried to introduce a Sultai Snow control deck that used snow lands instead of fetches, which should have made the deck cheap. But that deck flopped (how is dead of winter still seriously unplayed?) but with astrolabe being too good of a card and it getting banned that deck is just not going to happen unfortunately.
MH2 would make the list if anyone still played Modern.
Cool vid. Love how you touched upon the different ripple effects both leading to and coming from these sets.
Worth noting that Xenagod did see standard play as basically the second coming of kessig wolf run. Problem is that while xenagod did help with aggro, sphinxes rev blue devotion was just way too oppressive
I loved playing Gruul, and (later) Temur Xenagod in Theros/Khans standard. There was something special about facing a control player, sticking a Xenagod, then slamming down Terra Stomper next turn. Uncounterable 16/16 haste never got old.
I can see from a paper player's perspective how Aftermath would be disappointing, but as a casual digital player, I loved it. There's a ton of interesting cards in the set I've seen used as build-arounds like Urborg Scavengers, Pia Nalar, or Nahiri. Not to mention there's cards that made certain decks possible that weren't before in standard, like Training Grounds for ability tribal, or Kiora for a Runo Stomkirk sea creature tribal thing
I got into magic around the time of Ice Age and Fallen Empires. You could still get Legends and Arabian Nights if you searched some. Imagine this; you've got your deck all built and sit down to play with a friend. However, your friend got into MTG just 1 year before you and as a result, they are dropping things like dual lands, Sol Ring, Mana Vault and so on while you are trying to get Saporlings to spawn every 3 turns. Quite a feeling. :| That said, Homelands made Fallen Empires look like Unlimited.
An-zerrin ruins is an underrated homelands card, it has saved me from soo many annoying goblins and elves.
As far as the health of the game is concerned, I think that the Urza's Saga block did more to damage the game through power creep than any set before or since.
The powercreep in the Zendikar block was what got me to quit the game. That was the jumping-off point, it was all downhill from there.
A shame, Unhinged is my fave Un- set, save for the overuse of "Ass". The full arts are beautiful. And the non themed cards are some of the best in Un- sets.
I don't mean to hate on TheManaLogs, but he's got his info flat wrong on Unhinged. Yes, what he brought up were valid criticisms of the set, it was the most popular unset. All the unsets sold bad, with only passion overriding corporate momentum being the thing that allowed us to get more of them.
I gotta agree. I think the only people who don’t like Unhinged are people who don’t like fun. And a few counterpoints:
-the gotcha cards only comeback from the graveyard, so your opponent KNOWS what not to do.
-the cards that require physical actions have outs, you could just take the punishment. That was the point of them.
-anyone who plays a card where someone needs to stand up against someone who can’t stand up is an asshole. That’s a problem with the player, not the card.
-playing 2 Farewell to Arms against one of my friends was hilarious.
The biggest haters of Unhinged are probably the people who designed Unhinged, who based on player feedback consider all the things mentioned in this video mistakes.
“Aftermath is certainly one of the most lacklustre releases in recent history” Give Hasbro time, 2024 is gonna suck for fans.
Four releases for the month of February alone. I'm already checked out. I just don't care
I started playing when Born of the Gods released and heavily played Ravnica Rakdos cards while they were in standard. Seeing Born of the Gods and Dragon's Maze back to back hurts.
Chronicles was absolutely the worst. At the time, it was not well-advertised as pairing with 4th edition so expectations were thrown off, the power level was dogshit while the complexity was high, the most desirable cards were not reprinted in what was supposed to be a "Best of the Year" set so it didn't achieve its purpose of catching up new players, and at the end of the day it still gave us the List. The shortcomings of all the other sets, which I would argue this one has more of even not considering the RL, are fleeting and minor in comparison to Chronicles' influence. Absolutely the worst set of all time by a mile.
here in Italy Chronicles was printed (in Italian) with a black border. So we had cards like city of brass with black border which was cool.
Fun fact: Rhystic Study is INSANE in non-commander since you can have multiple ones in play to draw a TON of cards.
The reserve list is a rough one. On the one hand imagine being able to afford legacy and vintage but on the other hand having the value of cards go to zero would result in resellers disappearing and then we collectively would probably completely stop playing all together
My own opinions obviously
Resellers still make money off none reserve cards.
How can Homelands be the worst set when it gave us the masterpiece that is Joven?
I am still disappointed we never got Snarg's House of sin as a playable land
I think you missed another big factor as to why BFZ flopped. People were fully expecting a reprint of Zendi fetches and instead we got one of the most underwhelming land cycles ever printed.
Fallen Empires and Homelands gave me some of my favorite cards back in the day! The art, story, and price were exactly where I needed them to be.
I was around then. In the UK Magic was gaining momentum around ice age so I bought a tonne of Fallen Empires and I know I had loads of homelands later, but what bothers me is i took a break during Urzas block.....O woe is me.
Oh, and please tell me why I cannot get "Feast of the Unicorn" out of my head? Some card names, no matter how bad the card is just stick with me.
I started in Ice Age too! And the imagery on that one sticks with you as well. It's just so desecrating. I kind of love it! 😂
Markov Baron is lorewise the single most important Chair Tribal card for Aftermath. It's perfect for that.
I wonder what players would consider the best limited format with the most minimal impact on the Eternal card pool. Would that still be considered a good release?
I'm old enough to remember kamigawa block drafts and even with saviors out, running 2-1 champions packs
A suggestion for another video : what were the most balanced sets?
When Fallen Empires and Homelands came out it almost seemed like Wizards had run out of ideas and we wondered if Magic was dead. Obviously, it wasn't.
Wizards owe us a Return to the Homelands expansion and correct every mistake they have.
Homelands was especially notable for being the 3rd set of the Ice Age block. However, rather than being a continuation or conclusion of the Ice Age story, they shifted to a completely unrelated story on a completely different plane of reality.
Eleven years later, Wizards jokingly "found" the long-lost 3rd set of Ice Age block named Coldsnap, with new cards based off characters and mechanics from Ice Age and Alliance. Nowadays, Coldsnap is retroactively an official part of Ice Age block, while Homelands is considered its own separate set.
The only Homelands card I own (and no idea how I got it...) is Apocalypse Chime, the card that destroys all other Homelands cards. I found it a bit funny since I doubted it would be much use to anyone.
Didn't know that this was apparently a thing in Arabian Nights and Chronicles, too (City in a Bottle, Golgothian Sylex) until much later, but I still have the chime for its unique charm.
When I came into the game I was never under the impression that the Un sets were supposed to be actually playable. I thought that was part of the joke. The recent one only being playable with standardized gimmicks and stickers is much less funny.
I remember cracking Homelands packs as a kid and comparing them to cards I'd pulled earlier from Revised, The Dark, Arabian Nights- and just wondering if my understanding of the game was lacking or the cards were actually that bad.
Seeing homelands over a background of power lines is some irony considering how low power the set was
This video has taught me that minotaurs need to become really popular so that Didgeridoo gets used a lot.
I'm so glad Lorwyn isn't on the list!
Watch Spice8Rack's video about how much he loves Lorwyn if you haven't
Sadly I bought a lot of Homelands and Fallen Empires back in the day because I was a dumb kid who thought more cards for less money equals more good. Took me quite a lot of disappointment to understand WHY those sets were so much cheaper than the others.
That stupid little gotcha mechanic on touch-and-go... I think the correct response to that play is sneezing then using that particular card as an impromptu tissue.
(10:27) Ihsan's Shade is actually from Homelands, not Fallen Empires.
Ice Age should be an honorable mention. Cumulative Upkeep has to be one of the worst mechanics introduced in Magic.
It was Eldrazi Scions(1/1) and Eldrazi Spawns(0/1). They were the lineage of Ulamog and Kozilek(I can't remember which 2 was what went with 1 another........or the other) and they came from specific colors(I believe blue made the Spawns while black made the Scions).
And the Drones were the lineage of Emrakul.
tbh i think ice age and the dark should be on here too. That wasteland after Legends drove out all of my friends from mtg. None of us continue to play to this day. And I had all moxes, 30+ dual lands, time walk, timetwister, ancestral recall and a bunch of other wild cards that I sold at crazy low prices because those expansions made me think the game was dead.
Explaining why silver border cards are weird/silly and not tournament-legal misses the point entirely.
I have consuming vortex and a couple other arcane spells and the splicing is so not worth it. It's in a control blue deck that ramps like hell and yet I have never been in a situation where I wanted to have splice that effect for double the cost, especially since my other arcane spells do nearly the exact same thing. Maybe if I had an arcane card that drew and I added the creature removal I'd use it? I haven't seen much else of the set but I can definitely feel why we didn't get more arcane and splicing cards. It would be a balancing nightmare of making things way too powerful for cheap, or way too expensive to be useful.
This is going to sound like a very, very, very strange thing to say ... but Homelands is actually my favorite Magic : The Gathering expansion set.
Only because it was the first M:TG expansion set I ever played.
I first started playing M:TG in early 1996, when the available sets were Fourth Edition, Chronicles, Fallen Empires, Ice Age, and Homelands. Alliances was released a few months after I began playing.
Homelands was the first expansion set I played, and as a result, a lot of the cards in that set bring back a lot of memories from my first days playing Magic : The Gathering, learning the game, and becoming increasingly addicted to the game.
I can totally understand why people regard Homelands as the worst M:TG set ever. Believe me, I understand. But for me, personally, that set will always be a treasured memory.
Ikoria probably should have made the list for how dead-on-arrival mutate was and his Companion broke multiple formats
Mutate cards have seen constructed play, and was a huge part of limited.
Mutate was more of a limited mechanic than a constructed one
I just think Saviors of Kamigawa was ranked way too high, the other sets were worse. Otherwise, great list!
i think you can argue that a lot of super OP sets (urza’s block, throne of eldraine, mirrodin block, modern horizons 2) have been more detrimental to the health of the game than underpowered sets like bfz and saviors
Mh 2 and Lord of the rings for sure! The broken cards in the set are both polarizing and expensive
@@parisulki729 eldraine mirrodin urza’s block had worse design tho, the power lvl of mh2 makes sense in context and lotr is at least interesting
You can argue this, but I think you'd be wrong.
There's a retroactive fix for OP cards. You ban them. There's no retroactive fix for a set that was afraid to take any chances and came out weak and boring (the two tend to go hand-in-hand in MTG).
The card that makes you stand, i would of been able to stay standing cause u have strong legs
I'm glad to see Fallen Empires not at #1. There's a few bright spots in that set while the sets above it generally don't have it. For it's time, FE isn't as bad. It adds a few really solid creatures--white weenie decks of the era really need the pump knights and Icatian Javelineers. But it lacks a marquee, chase rare with the best cards being common and flops hard in whole colors (green).
I thought the Javelineers were great. The tap to do one damage one time was enough for WotC to Implement it on other cards into the future. Names escape me right now, but I know they exist because many times I've uttered the words "Oh, just like the Javelineers" during a draft or pack crack.
@@jamesheyworth4370 It's really good with all of white's first strike creatures. Being able to take down a X/3 with no loss is excellent in white. And then when you have the pump knights, you're beating X/4s in combat. It's really quite good.
The print run of Chronicles didn't kill the price of the cards. What killed the price of the cards is that these previously impossible to find (and thus not played with too often) cards fell into player's hands and the players realized... they really sucked, and the price was based on scarcity and not usefulness. Oh, Killer Bees wasn't in Chronicles.
Fallen Empires - they didn't over-print, they printed to demand. Yeah, packs of the Dark are more expensive. It was one print run and done.
It's obvious you weren't around at this time in the game's history and you have no interest in doing real research.
I would just point out that Niv Mizzet did not create the Implicit Maze, as it was put in place by the planeswalker sphinx Azor, way back when the Guildpact was established, as a way to end the Guildpact itself, if the Guilds were not united anymore. (Sorry for bad English)
Homelands is like letting your sales team do accounting. Only in the 90s
Designer: No, this shit is bad please stop
Boss: Too bad it's Timmy's turn on the iPad
+1 to the Aftermath's "sins" is the infamous pinkerton situation
For those who are new, i used to buy Fallen Empire packs for 80cents each. But even then, it’s still BETTER than Aftermath.
Poor rosewater 0:38
Homelands did boast the only poison counter removing card (Leaches) to be printed before what? 2022! That's it though.
I personally hate no sets, only individual cards. There’s definitely sets with more frustrating stuff but it’s mostly the individual cards.
Same, except LOTR. I hate the LOTR set.
same, except ikoria
@@lauralharris
Rings of Power set.
They butchered the lore and some of the art was just downright awful.
When they said it was a Lord of the Rings set, you'd expect to see Lord of the Rings, not some overly generic fantasy setting defined by a list of checkboxes.
I feel like unfinity deserves a spot here as it introduced many mechanics that were annoying and difficult to track into eternal formats thanks to the removal of the silver border. It also led to a split between legacy in paper and on MTGO because some cards that see legacy play aren’t on the client yet and one of the few that is on the client is mechanically different and strictly better online.
Back in the day, I was extremely excited to get my hands on Fallen Empires. I had so much enthusiasm for it, it took me quite a while to be honest with myself about how bad the set was.
I like Unhinged. It's the only locals I ever won, and not even from the Gotcha! Cards. I drafted a green spell that gave you a 1/1 token for every symbol you had so I made sure my basic lands had as many symbols as possible.
Murder at Karlov Manner is pretty bad. I don’t know how it’ll slot in with the rest of history but it’s been a while where it’s felt like there are too many mechanics, too unintuitive, too many cards have too much text - it really just feels super clunky
I liked opening Aftermath. The useless cards in set boosters are annoying as your collection grows - just give me what I want. I rarely crack packs, but Aftermath had good value as it was easier to get the choice cards (Nissa) that you actually needed
Aftermath was a cool set
The epilogue wasn't. Now with play boosters they're really doubling down the paying more for less
@@Sillimant_ how so? Correct me if I'm misunderstanding, but aren't play boosters basically just set boosters? Or is that wrong?
Or is it correct, but the issue is that draft boosters provided a better experience for limited than what play boosters will?
It doesn't seem to be a huge change, but I'm not a limited grinder.
Ishan’s shade was not in fallen empires, it was a homelands card
I will stand up for Didgeridoo. You can play legacy minotaurs and do reasonably well against unprepared opponents.
Pack/box prices are a huge problem with many of these sets, as was only pointed out with the Homelands one.
Well, Prophecy had Avatar of Fury, 2 mana 6/6 Shivan Dragon! :) Also: Avatar of Woe, Chimeric Idol, Citadel of Pain, Foil, Mageta the Lion, Spiketail Hatchling, Spore Frog and maybe the worst ever card that was played in Constructed: Troublesome Spirit! :) On the other hand, the art of the set is great.
At the time , Fallen Empires was decent because it allowed you to make more complete monster theme decks. Probably did terrible sales but you could just grab tons of goblin or elf commons.
Early sets were really crappy. Fallen Empires, the Dark, Homelands, Alliances, the Mirage block, Ice Age. It started becoming good with the Rath cycle block.
I can already tell you what #1 is. Fallen Empires. I spent approximately $200 on that damn set. Got absolutely NOTHING. Screw Fallen Empires, and screw WotC.
I love the 3 set block format and rotation made the hame easy to understand
Prophecy, Homeland, and Fallen Empires better be on this list.
At least lore wise. March of the Machine was the absolute worst, underwhelming, and most disappointing set in Magic's history for me. I still get angry and cringe over how hard they dropped the ball with the phyrexian invasion after how much they had hyped it up. They couldn't have handled it more poorly if they tried.
Even though the Kamigawa block is considered one the worst I still love it. Was also the first set that I ever played draft for.
was expecting more recent sets on here, still a great video
So it turns out the players are the ones to blame for some cards never being reprinted? Who gives af about the “resale value”?!
“Reserve list is extremely restrictive policy” GAME PIECES!!!!!!!!! Rudy’s got cold sweats and tacos
Prophecy was released in 2000 if I'm not mistaken.
Theros was such a good block overall. That whole era was so cool