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You could play One With Nothing with Animate Dead. Turn 1. One with Nothing. Turn 2 Animate Dead a 10 cost monster. You just have to get lucky and draw one after you discard.
I have to say even though those cards are pretty bad and make no sense within the game,at least the art on those cards are not AI, I appreciate bad cards more now than I ever did for the art at least.
I’m surprised we haven’t seen more Elder Land Wurms. The lore is that they’re Elder Dragons who lost in the original dragon war, and were stripped of their limbs and wings.
That’s incredibly interesting, makes you wonder if there are some to try to find a ritual to rip all the limbs and wings off of the elder dragons so they can rise above it and take their “rightful place” as rulers of the skies. Would be cool to see something like that happen.
The mechanic of having defender until it blocks once would be a cool "counterattack" mechanic. Like, it's a 1/5 until it blocks... and then next turn, it's a 5/5 double strike.
@@AlexofZippo example: Swordbreaker Paladin: 2WW, Creature- Human Knight Parry 3WW (You may play this creature as if it had flash. if you do, it comes in Tapped, and blocking target creature attacking you.) Vigilance If Swordbreaker Paladin Parries or blocks a creature, It gains +2/+2 and Double strike until the beginning of your next end step. 3/5
Even better is that Legends was designed by the friends of the CEO and Founder of Wizards of the Coast Peter Akison. WotC was selling out of Magic so fast that they needed new sets to keep up with demand. So in addition to all the OG play testers from Richard and the East Coast play testers Peter had his roleplaying friends make the set with many of the Legends being characters from their D&D game. This is why while not a terrible set many of the cards feel overcosted or werid as they weren’t familiar with how the game was played at all. This all comes from Mark Rosewater’s Drive to Work Podcast and honestly explains why some of the cards feel like they came directly from the CustomMTG Reddit.
i have gotten my gf into magic with the expensive af raining cats and dogs deck. it only took almost 400 dead presidents to get her into my hobby but its fun losing to her cute horde
_"Hello, hello, baby, you called? I can't hear a thing_ _I have got no service in the club, you say, say?"_ -A good song "Urza was the first to understand that the war would not be lost for lack of power, but for lack of troops." -flavor text for a card in the video. Telephones rally the troops, and I personally like the color of that phone. Just like this video has made my appreciation for every single one of these cards increase. Because they can be used as computer components. remember, raka=worthless in hebrew
“Visions” is a card that’s always been in my mind. You’re right prof it *doesn’t* do anything. It’s the closest we’ve ever gotten to a card that’s just says “shuffle your deck” and nothing else.
"Visions" at the very least could mess up a "top-deck matters" or "Return of the Second Sun" deck. I feel like it should have been lower on the list at least.
If you cast One with Nothing in response to your own Yawgmoth's Will, you can play cards that were in your hand as if they'd still be in your hand. Best combo in the game imo.
I had dark depths in my had, but one of my opponents had a thespian stage in play. I draw mystical teachings. waited to have 6 mana. then played the dark depths, opponent goes to copy it, I tutor the teferi's response and counter it, breakin the tespian stage and getting 2 cards. I love those janky interactions commander can provide.
There need to be MORE of these cards in the game. Quirky little odd-ball abilities and bizarre interactions lend an element of exploration and campy fun to the game. What's cooler than discovering a synergy or combo in what was previously thought to be a worthless card?
Let’s be fair though, some of the more recent versions of that are way more interesting than those. I somehow doubt anyone is going to find a hidden synergy with Rakalite of all cards lol.
It was meant to be an animate artifact target. I think they felt players didn't like sending useful artifacts into combat, so they made a crappy one with a high cost. Turns out players are more than happy to send a good artifact into combat if it means not slotting garbage for a ten mana, two card 6/6. Game was a lot slower back then.
@@jamesmcternen4608 as someone who joined in kaladesh, seeing old cards is always kinda fun. Like, yeah, i see what they “wanted” to happen, and then players get one taste of dredge and it’s off to the races
It's easy to make that mistake, Brian Kibler is a recognized science youtuber, while Kyle Hill is recognized as one of the best Magic players of all time 🤣
The only combo I ever remember for Magic. It's turn 1, you're on the play: - Swamp - Dark Ritual - Use 2 mana for smallpox, making each player discard a card, sac a creature, and sac a land. - Use your remaining 1 mana for One With Nothing, discarding your hand. - Pass turn one with no land on the board, no creatures on the board, and no cards in hand :)
I'll do you one better! Swamp into double Dark Ritual, cast Tormod's Crypt, Sinkhole your Swamp, then Demonic Consultation something that isn't in your deck. Then cast One with Nothing and activate the Crypt. The only thing you have left in the game is a single floating mana!
Honestly Tefari's Response sounds like a nice addition to any decks that focus on converting lands into creatures, especially in Simic. Even more so when said cards state they are still considered lands
I started Magic in ‘95 and Quinton Hoover was, by far, my favorite artist. I went to all the Milwaukee GenCons and got lots of artist autographs but he never attended. I even sent him a card and a stamped return envelope but he didn’t return it. (It was an Alpha Vesuvian Dopplelganger)
Conservator is stupider than I thought, forgot mono meant you could only use it once…I saw the colon and thought you could pay the 3 multiple times. So much worse now 😂
@@jamesmcternen4608There's also Forcefield, which is certainly much stronger, but to be fair it can't ever prevent all the damage (so it can't stop a Hyppie's discard-though for pretty much everything that's not stopping a damage trigger its effect is way better) and it was rare rather than uncommon.
One with Nothing + Sudden Substitution is still one of the coolest ways to yoink a creature while discarding someone's hand at instant speed. I've had Selfless Exorcist in my collection since I started playing. I think only recently with Agatha's Soul Cauldron printed have I actually looked at him and thought, "Maybe I can make this work." Stuffy Doll Exorcist coming to a game near you. I've been really trying to brainstorm a Teferi's Response / Equinox kind of deck that uses manlands to enable the cards. Just sounds like a lot of fun to do.
Teferis Reponse is exactly the card that got printed to counter a constructed relevant interaction. It was actually really good at that, so if anything, thats a bad card to have on such a list, as the card is really really good if you know what you are using it for. Even a card like "One with Nothing" was used exactly in that way, it seems insane, but it was a legitimate sideboard card against a deck of the time that wanted to win with "Ebony Owl Netsuke" and lots of bounce and forced draw ; resole one with nothing and you basically win against that deck. Cards like that are a beauty, as they look so insanely bad, but they have a very specific purpose if they are used for great effect. ---- Other cards are just bad, no matter how hard you try, they are bad, as there are other cards that do the same just better, cheaper and thats the worst spot you can be as a card.
That opening bit brought back memories. When i first got into magic in 2014 I thought deathtouch was super powerful and built a deck with a bunch of death touch rats. It sucked but was very fun.
I think North Star is my favourite silly card. "Can I interest you in playing your cards?", "But, I can already play them...", Yeah, but I'm offering a different way!", "Oh, like a free alternate cost?", "Nope, you still play the cards, you just pay an extra 4! After paying the other 4, that is!"
North Star was a novel effect at the time. It's spendy, but the same set had the first multicolored cards. North Star was meant to allow you to run whichever cool legendarys you wanted in whatever deck you wanted. Which no one ever really did.
North Star's worst crime is taking the absolutely beautiful art it has, and claiming rights to the name it has, and attaching the to such a bad card. The only possible way the card could work is if you've been playing such a long game that 8 total mana is a cost you're willing to pay, in ADDITION to the spell you're trying to cast with it, while somehow still NOT having all the colours of lands you need. It's like something for a challenge deck in an MTG video game, where the deck actually doesn't even have the coloured mana sources it needs, and you have to use expensive colour fixers to actually make it work.
@@KeroTheInvincible Tron lands were pretty easy to come by. Mishra's Workshop not as much, but Sol Ring, Mana Vault also easy to get. People ran Basalt Monolith even.
@@JasonOshinko I feel like Rakalite is pretty easy to make decent if you play some cost reducers. If you can get the activation cost to 0 it basically says "prevent all damage"
So true. Just yesterday I proof'd a situation where total game loss and Shahrazad resulted in more life and an extra player in that game The main deck breaks Shahrazad. Basically proofs We Are The Fallen's Without You song as a happy not just sad song too.
Apocalypse from Tempest is one of the funniest old school boardwipes. Exile every permanent in play? Seems rough but a hard reset is necessary sometimes. But then you discard your entire hand. I guess the thought was if you get to play a full reset you get put at a disadvantage? But being the only player without a hand can’t be worth it unless it’s a weird dredge build… that splashes red…
I can see an arguement for visions in the first game of a lower power format, turn 1 plains, visions, check your opponent's deck to identify their strategy, select shuffle if they have a key card in the top 1 or 2. but then you have to side it out because after that it's basically pointless lol
Fun fact: Lifelink, deathtouch, and similar damage-modifying abilities work when Selfless Exorcist fights corpses, one of the few times when they can apply outside of the battlefield.
I could see Conservator being a last gasp to prevent death by poison counters, and Visions _could_ be used against someone's Mystical Tutor, but there are much better ways of doing both
I run One with Nothing in my Neheb, The Worthy Brawl deck on Arena. It's not useful all the time, but I've cast it more than a couple times and had it actually do things. Neheb gets buffed (and buffs all other minos on your team) when your hand has 1 or less cards in it. In addition, the deck runs a bunch of enchantments and creatures that have effects that trigger when you discard a card. (Madness, Dying to Serve, some other stuff.) So there have been a couple times where I have cast One with Nothing, triggered a bunch of effects and buffed my whole team as a result of discarding like 3 or 4 cards, and then won the game as a result. The fact that its an instant is a bonus too, since Neheb gives all minotaurs +2/+0 if your hand has one or less cards, so you can cast it mid-combat to give all your minos that buff.
1994 squad here too Prof! Started playing after revised came out but before fallen empires. I also loved really bizarre cards based on the artwork and story they told
Visions seems fine, and it's silly for it to make it this high. It requires a bit of chance and forward thinking, sure. 1. It only costs one mana. 2. Use it on yourself. Are your next five cards a bad order/things that don't currently help you? Shuffle. Or are your next five cards fine? This let's you start to think ahead and strategize, keeping in mind what will be coming on your draws. 3. The opposite for your opponent. Are their next five good? Make them shuffle. Are they bad? Make them keep them, while also keeping them in mind and strategizing off the card draws they're about to get. Especially useful if used when they have a small hand so there won't be any likely surprises. Just because the card introduces an element of chance and having to think ahead doesn't make it bad.
Professor, Teferi's response is so important in Premodern that it is included in a lot of sideboard and there's even some madmans that play 1 in main. That's what happens when you play a format with wasteland and rishadan port.
Ponza was prevalent back in the mercadian masques era, and I got stone rained, pillaged, and ported enough by my buddy's ponza deck that when Invasion rolled around I thought Teferi's Response was actually a pretty good sideboard card.
If we're counting absurdly narrow cards like Go Blank or Teferi's Response, may I suggest Barren Glory? It's a six mana card, 4{W}{W}, an enchantment which checks at the beginning of your upkeep. If Barren Glory is the only permanent you control, and if your hand is empty, you win the game.
Zephyr Spirit was my Elder land wurm. I loved the art, loved the return to hand in order to to trigger spirit craft, also think it has flying every time I look at it even through it doesn't... and every time i see the card I forget just how laughably high the cost to cast was.
A friend of e used to call Serra Angel (I loved the 8th edition art) my dumbest card. ‘It’s just a 4/4 flyer that doesn’t tap to attack!’ I told him that if it’s so dumb why has it killed you on several occasions? He also used older Dark Rituals that said mana source as a permanent. Not really a reliable source of dumb card opinion
I was looking through the Pioneer cards that still aren’t in Explorer yesterday and found Alms Beast from Gatecrash… 2WB for a 6/6 beast sounds good… until you read that the ability gives any creature blocking or blocked by Alms Beast _lifelink._
I've done awesome stuff using One with Nothing in my Ashcoat deck. It's really funny when I pull it off. I've cast Living Death and then One with Nothing to return all my rats to my graveyard and then BAM BATTLEFIELD! Please don't tell me how statistically another Swamp would increase my winrate more. I'm playing Commander I don't care about that.
I gotta defend Teferi's Response, that card is played pretty often in Premodern, where a lot of people play Rishadan Port, Wasteland, Dust Bowl and other cards that fits the criteria. A counterspell that protects your land, destroys the opp land and draws you 2 cards? insane
Prof, I feel you on this one. Elder Land Wurm is a beautiful card, and I think it's also very funny. I want to make it work, but literally cannot find a way to play it that can't just be replaced with something else.
I use selfless exorcist in my myrkul lord of bones deck. It's just a free tap mess up opponents reanimator plan. It also freely becomes an enchantment of its own accord by tapping it the first time.
It's commonly thought of as the worst card in Magic, or at least the worst creature... but I did make it work in my Yedora deck. All you need is Yedora, Grave Gardener and some sort of way to animate all your lands, and Wood Elemental is a playable vanilla creature!
Rakalite was basically a hard counter to that other Antiquities great - Rocket Launcher. I was surprised to not see Healing Salve on the list. It wasn't terrible in a vacuum, but when compared to the rest of the boon cycle? Woof.
I’m only a few minutes in and I can see a delirium deck working with One with Nothing. Imagine you’re only one card away from Delirium and you need to toss your late game land heavy hand in order to get it.
No lie the art for the sandworm looks amazing. I literally have a commander deck of just my favorite cards. So there you go build a jank commander deck with your favorite cards. It will be terrible but it will be fun for you, and it tells a story.
I mean, Visions sounds like a way to spite someone playing with a Scry deck to mess with them rearranging top cards, or to mess with "reveal top card of your library. you may play this card as if it was in your hand" kinds of deck builds...
Zephyr Spirit? Sneak Attack effect when defending. One red mana for a 0/6 to block with, that immediately returns to your hand so it doesn't die to either the attacker or the attack effect. Stay safe while confounding your friends about why you play the cards you do.
Listen, I've played Teferi's Response in my Noyan Dar EDH deck before for the funsies. It's not consistently useful, but it feels so good when you get someone with it! I've killed a Zacama with it before!
I played a deck that used Elder Lands Wurm and enchanted it with Divine Transformation(if i recall the name correctly) to make it an 8/8 flyer. Was it good? Not really. Was it hilariously fun? One hundred percent! Ember Shot is on my list of stupidest cards. 6 generic plus 1 red to deal 3 and draw a card. Also from Judgement where the Exorcist came from.
Yeah, I'm actually surprised Prof never got a win with Elder Land Wurm. It wasn't that terrible back in the day. It basically stopped your opponent from attacking until they got rid of it. Sure, Veteran Bodyguard was a better defensive option, but who had $20 for one of those?
So funnily, Divine Transformation, despite depicting an angelic character in the card art doesn't grant flying, just +3/+3. It was something I, and I assume a lot of other MTG players back then, erroneously thought.
I got a EDH deck built around Oath of Scholars. With duscard outlets and cards that draw equal to a opponent hand size. Cool cards like Keeper of the Mind, The deck of Many Things, Heigtened Awareness, and Masticore. Og Masticore.
Elder Land Wurm instantly makes me think of Arixmethes, the Slumbering Isle. The design and miniature story of "awakening the beast" is an awesome concept! Definitely think Arixmethes did it better though
I started this playing MtG in 1994 as well, and my first pack I ever bought was one pack of the Dark; my first Rare was Niall Silvain. This was a way to kind of see what the game was like, and when I purchased my first started and more boosters after, I always wanted to make this creature work and I have always loved the style of the card. But 3G to cast, and then 4G to regenerate target creature seemed way to expensive and there were those that half ridiculed me for thinking this odd creature could be used.
I read somewhere that Zephyr Spirit was actually designed to be absolutely horrible, to give new players obvious contrast between it and cards you actually might want to put in your deck. That upgrading your deck is a core component of magic.
Back in 2012, I started looking for MTG UA-cam channels. There weren't nearly as many back then, but TCC and The Mana Source were the two of the biggest. Wedge, who ran Mana Source and frequently appeared on TCC, used to do a "worst card" series. This video took me back 13 years ago, laughing at Chimney Imps and Wood Elementals, helped me learn about what makes a good card and a bad card!
one with nothing would work in a couple other card games where you gain effects either from the graveyard or by things already on the field when holding no cards. i guess magic never went down that route 😲
That wurm is cute top down design. It's sleeping under the dirt and it doesn't wake up until your opponent bumbles into it. The exorcist is probably as weak as it is because design philosophy at the time was to NOT make hosers stronger than the mechanics they were pushing, and Odyssey was the "graveyard matters" block. Conservator is a neat little sort-of mirror to Rod of Ruin, and it'd at least be interesting if it's rules text wasn't errata'd. Preventing 2 life loss would at least be unique, nerfing draining spells while still pulling damage duty (remember, damage causes loss of life). Zephyr Sprit was in Ravnica, which was right after Kamigawa. A spirit that you can recast EVERY TURN must surely have SOME application, right? Visions gives you a pretty good idea of what your opponent is playing for 1 mana, and honestly if anyone played Lantern Control casually I could definitely see it as a way to power down the deck so people aren't rending their garments in anguish. Teferi's Response... I dunno, is there a format where Landstill and Ponza are both viable decks? It's really specific hate, but it's BACKBREAKING specific hate. Similar to Conservator, Rakalite looks like an inverted Rocket Launcher. It also looks like the kind of thing that should immediately get slotted into a Horobi, Death's Wail commander deck because you're in Coffers colors and you get style points for using THAT to pop off with your commander.
Elder land wurm sounds like it could be a really fun deck to build around if given proper support! I’m imagining a bunch of undercosted creatures with that “loses defender after blocking” and using a forced attack type effect… I mean, that card needs a complete overhaul but I could see a fun/stupid deck built around that… maybe an esper commander?
I actually made a deck that can run One with Nothing. It's a Toluz commander deck where I have so many discard payoffs that discarding my hand isn't that bad, especially since I can those back when she dies.
I miss Quinton Hoover's art, way back in the day I was set to go get an Ivory Gargoyle signed by him but it never happened. Fast forward a couple years and I realized it never would sadly.
Making cards like Norin the Wary and One with Nothing work is honestly why I played the game having to jump through hoops to make cards. Do things that they were clearly not designed to do is how I love to build decks.
Visions could be good in u/w mill. Hear me out. You cast Visions, looking at the top 5 of your opponents library. You choose not to shuffle. Then, holding priority, you cast a card that mills them for five or more and exile the best creature card amongst those five with Selfless Exercist. Run 4 copies of each card in this combo to insure that you can perform the combo multiple times. Then, since you're in white, you can use a flicker effect to continously bring back your Visions and your Exorcist.
I'm not taking Teferi's Response slander. For a card so narrow it saw quite a lot of sideboard play because of how absurdly ubiquitous Rishadan Port was in standard back in 2000-01. That and Tsabo's web were both clutch. Also hope to see more videos on stupid cards, I love seeing old jank from the 90s, it is fascinating
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One with Nothing works with Madness
You could play One With Nothing with Animate Dead. Turn 1. One with Nothing. Turn 2 Animate Dead a 10 cost monster. You just have to get lucky and draw one after you discard.
One with nothing saw play!!!!!!!!
I have to say even though those cards are pretty bad and make no sense within the game,at least the art on those cards are not AI, I appreciate bad cards more now than I ever did for the art at least.
I’m surprised we haven’t seen more Elder Land Wurms. The lore is that they’re Elder Dragons who lost in the original dragon war, and were stripped of their limbs and wings.
That’s incredibly interesting, makes you wonder if there are some to try to find a ritual to rip all the limbs and wings off of the elder dragons so they can rise above it and take their “rightful place” as rulers of the skies. Would be cool to see something like that happen.
The mechanic of having defender until it blocks once would be a cool "counterattack" mechanic.
Like, it's a 1/5 until it blocks... and then next turn, it's a 5/5 double strike.
@@pigfish99oo, that would be fun! Not broken, likely, but i can think of a few decks where mechanics like that would make things really cool
@@AlexofZippo example: Swordbreaker Paladin:
2WW, Creature- Human Knight
Parry 3WW (You may play this creature as if it had flash. if you do, it comes in Tapped, and blocking target creature attacking you.)
Vigilance
If Swordbreaker Paladin Parries or blocks a creature, It gains +2/+2 and Double strike until the beginning of your next end step.
3/5
With some tweaks, the card could be more flavorful and fun
Elder Land Wurm was great design for its time when a 5/5 with trample was unheard of. Legends was a crazy time.
Yeah, I started buying cards in 9th edition and remember thinking Vizzerdrix was an awful 6/6 for 7 with no ability.
Even better is that Legends was designed by the friends of the CEO and Founder of Wizards of the Coast Peter Akison.
WotC was selling out of Magic so fast that they needed new sets to keep up with demand. So in addition to all the OG play testers from Richard and the East Coast play testers Peter had his roleplaying friends make the set with many of the Legends being characters from their D&D game.
This is why while not a terrible set many of the cards feel overcosted or werid as they weren’t familiar with how the game was played at all.
This all comes from Mark Rosewater’s Drive to Work Podcast and honestly explains why some of the cards feel like they came directly from the CustomMTG Reddit.
People treat classic magic through the modern era lens😮💨
iirc you could combine it with Season of the Witch to force opponents into a no win-scenario.
Basically, spells cost less and creatures cost more. You have to view pre-2005 cards differently.
My girlfriend says this about all of my magic cards
Try to say the same for her shoes/dresses and see what happens
@@amarauk9687they get REALLY mad...
Need a new girlfriend.
i have gotten my gf into magic with the expensive af raining cats and dogs deck. it only took almost 400 dead presidents to get her into my hobby but its fun losing to her cute horde
Get a new commander ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Crazy how Prof just sits and stares at his puke green phone all day until it's time to record a video :D
Such is life.
@@TolarianCommunityCollegeif i shove some quarter up your nose will you tell my fortune? /s
_"Hello, hello, baby, you called? I can't hear a thing_
_I have got no service in the club, you say, say?"_ -A good song
"Urza was the first to understand that the war would not be lost for lack of power, but for lack of troops." -flavor text for a card in the video.
Telephones rally the troops, and I personally like the color of that phone. Just like this video has made my appreciation for every single one of these cards increase. Because they can be used as computer components.
remember, raka=worthless in hebrew
“Visions” is a card that’s always been in my mind. You’re right prof it *doesn’t* do anything. It’s the closest we’ve ever gotten to a card that’s just says “shuffle your deck” and nothing else.
Well, maybe I wanna look at your next five draws. You missed three lands, right? Well I didn't see any in there, shuffle your deck friend 😀
@@victhefoxygamer This is why Magic is the best game. Every card has utility somehow, even if it's in one format.
it will spike in the inevitable Shuffle-Winter
If it was an instant it would at least be essentially a white counter spell for all the tutors who put the card on top of your deck.
"Visions" at the very least could mess up a "top-deck matters" or "Return of the Second Sun" deck. I feel like it should have been lower on the list at least.
If you cast One with Nothing in response to your own Yawgmoth's Will, you can play cards that were in your hand as if they'd still be in your hand.
Best combo in the game imo.
But instead of casting two spells to cast the cards, you could just play the cards while they are in your hand
@briankenney9528 then you wouldn't have the option of committing suicide by casting Phage from the graveyard. Gotta think ahead.
Doesn't one with nothing also work with Madness cards?
I had dark depths in my had, but one of my opponents had a thespian stage in play. I draw mystical teachings. waited to have 6 mana. then played the dark depths, opponent goes to copy it, I tutor the teferi's response and counter it, breakin the tespian stage and getting 2 cards. I love those janky interactions commander can provide.
There need to be MORE of these cards in the game. Quirky little odd-ball abilities and bizarre interactions lend an element of exploration and campy fun to the game. What's cooler than discovering a synergy or combo in what was previously thought to be a worthless card?
Let’s be fair though, some of the more recent versions of that are way more interesting than those. I somehow doubt anyone is going to find a hidden synergy with Rakalite of all cards lol.
It was meant to be an animate artifact target. I think they felt players didn't like sending useful artifacts into combat, so they made a crappy one with a high cost. Turns out players are more than happy to send a good artifact into combat if it means not slotting garbage for a ten mana, two card 6/6. Game was a lot slower back then.
@@jamesmcternen4608 as someone who joined in kaladesh, seeing old cards is always kinda fun. Like, yeah, i see what they “wanted” to happen, and then players get one taste of dredge and it’s off to the races
@@Quarrenn17 Horobi, Death's Wail. You get all the commander clout for doing shenanigans with jank.
Did the Prof say ‘Brian Kibler’? Isn’t that Kyle Hill?
World renowned science communicator with Brian Kibler hair Kyle Hill?
It's easy to make that mistake, Brian Kibler is a recognized science youtuber, while Kyle Hill is recognized as one of the best Magic players of all time 🤣
@DreamDaddie its an old joke, ppl mistake the two. Even olivia once.
@ oh, I guess I missed that one. I mean how can the Prof confuse Brian with Discount Thor?
I think it was intentional lol
That Polymerization animation was lovely and whoever added it to the video deserves a raise
Notice the new card type: Poly Artefact 😂
The only combo I ever remember for Magic. It's turn 1, you're on the play:
- Swamp
- Dark Ritual
- Use 2 mana for smallpox, making each player discard a card, sac a creature, and sac a land.
- Use your remaining 1 mana for One With Nothing, discarding your hand.
- Pass turn one with no land on the board, no creatures on the board, and no cards in hand :)
I'll do you one better! Swamp into double Dark Ritual, cast Tormod's Crypt, Sinkhole your Swamp, then Demonic Consultation something that isn't in your deck. Then cast One with Nothing and activate the Crypt. The only thing you have left in the game is a single floating mana!
@@bluekeeper12 Haha yes!
Honestly Tefari's Response sounds like a nice addition to any decks that focus on converting lands into creatures, especially in Simic. Even more so when said cards state they are still considered lands
I was just thinking it would be great with Ashaya in play.
I started Magic in ‘95 and Quinton Hoover was, by far, my favorite artist. I went to all the Milwaukee GenCons and got lots of artist autographs but he never attended. I even sent him a card and a stamped return envelope but he didn’t return it. (It was an Alpha Vesuvian Dopplelganger)
Conservator is stupider than I thought, forgot mono meant you could only use it once…I saw the colon and thought you could pay the 3 multiple times. So much worse now 😂
It was the only way to prevent damage in any color but white.
@@jamesmcternen4608There's also Forcefield, which is certainly much stronger, but to be fair it can't ever prevent all the damage (so it can't stop a Hyppie's discard-though for pretty much everything that's not stopping a damage trigger its effect is way better) and it was rare rather than uncommon.
@@GrizonII I forgot about Force Field! Such a great card.
Using “stupid” cards is what makes deckbuilding fun to me, trying my best to break them 😂
Nothing more satisfying than making stupid cards work!
13:02 Don’t forget the GOAT; River Boa. 2/1 islandwalk with regeneration is a *LORDLY* beat stick.
The bane of blue decks and nightmare of my control deck.
15:57 Im 90% sure thats Kyle Hill Prof, not Brian. I know they both have long hair now but...
Was coming to comment the same thing 😂z
@@TheUniversalEclipse You both need to go watch that episode. It will all make sense when you do....
One with Nothing + Sudden Substitution is still one of the coolest ways to yoink a creature while discarding someone's hand at instant speed.
I've had Selfless Exorcist in my collection since I started playing. I think only recently with Agatha's Soul Cauldron printed have I actually looked at him and thought, "Maybe I can make this work." Stuffy Doll Exorcist coming to a game near you.
I've been really trying to brainstorm a Teferi's Response / Equinox kind of deck that uses manlands to enable the cards. Just sounds like a lot of fun to do.
FINALLY, someone ELSE who plays that One with Nothing combo! Good on you random citizen! :)
This video is a great reminder that even if One With Nothing will never be good, it's still fun trying to make it work
i kinda like visions tbh. you can plan your next 5 turns based on knowing what your next 5 draws are or you can hit the gamba.
Teferis Reponse is exactly the card that got printed to counter a constructed relevant interaction.
It was actually really good at that, so if anything, thats a bad card to have on such a list, as the card is really really good if you know what you are using it for.
Even a card like "One with Nothing" was used exactly in that way, it seems insane, but it was a legitimate sideboard card against a deck of the time that wanted to win with "Ebony Owl Netsuke" and lots of bounce and forced draw ; resole one with nothing and you basically win against that deck.
Cards like that are a beauty, as they look so insanely bad, but they have a very specific purpose if they are used for great effect.
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Other cards are just bad, no matter how hard you try, they are bad, as there are other cards that do the same just better, cheaper and thats the worst spot you can be as a card.
That opening bit brought back memories. When i first got into magic in 2014 I thought deathtouch was super powerful and built a deck with a bunch of death touch rats. It sucked but was very fun.
The effect may be weird but man the art for Visions is *chef's kiss
I think North Star is my favourite silly card. "Can I interest you in playing your cards?", "But, I can already play them...", Yeah, but I'm offering a different way!", "Oh, like a free alternate cost?", "Nope, you still play the cards, you just pay an extra 4! After paying the other 4, that is!"
North Star was a novel effect at the time. It's spendy, but the same set had the first multicolored cards. North Star was meant to allow you to run whichever cool legendarys you wanted in whatever deck you wanted. Which no one ever really did.
Beautiful art too!
North Star's worst crime is taking the absolutely beautiful art it has, and claiming rights to the name it has, and attaching the to such a bad card. The only possible way the card could work is if you've been playing such a long game that 8 total mana is a cost you're willing to pay, in ADDITION to the spell you're trying to cast with it, while somehow still NOT having all the colours of lands you need.
It's like something for a challenge deck in an MTG video game, where the deck actually doesn't even have the coloured mana sources it needs, and you have to use expensive colour fixers to actually make it work.
@@KeroTheInvincible Tron lands were pretty easy to come by. Mishra's Workshop not as much, but Sol Ring, Mana Vault also easy to get. People ran Basalt Monolith even.
@@jordanrutledge7943 Good ol' Foglios!
Noyan Dar loves Teferi's Response. There's a special kind of glee when opponents declare "WHAT" and lean over the table
Teferi's Response was used as a sideboard card in Legacy for midrange/tempo decks like Team America years ago as a counter to Death and Taxes.
The Professor chewing on a Magic card while sleeping on a Helix caught me by surprise in the best way.😂
Hair is looking Professorly!
Thanks!
that counterspell is actually amazing in a Noyan Darr deck! Super fun commander and you get to run super rare cards like that!
Came here to say this! It has led to some absolute blowouts in that deck.
Love videos like this where you chat about old sets of cards.
I see these as puzzles yet to be unlocked
Good luck with that.
@@JasonOshinko I feel like Rakalite is pretty easy to make decent if you play some cost reducers. If you can get the activation cost to 0 it basically says "prevent all damage"
So true.
Just yesterday I proof'd a situation where total game loss and Shahrazad resulted in more life and an extra player in that game
The main deck breaks Shahrazad.
Basically proofs We Are The Fallen's Without You song as a happy not just sad song too.
I mean, technically, the Tardis is traveling through space in those old episodes. No air quotes required.
He was talking about the cheesy by modern standards effects.
Sometimes you just have to stop and ask yourself, "Am I being TOO autistic right now?"
Teferi’s response actually sees some play as a sideboard card in the premodern format :-)
Apocalypse from Tempest is one of the funniest old school boardwipes. Exile every permanent in play? Seems rough but a hard reset is necessary sometimes. But then you discard your entire hand. I guess the thought was if you get to play a full reset you get put at a disadvantage? But being the only player without a hand can’t be worth it unless it’s a weird dredge build… that splashes red…
I had a deck that aimed to Oblivion Ring my own Barren Glory and cast Apocalypse to win the game
I like how Christopher Rush is the artist on the stupidest card, and then on the most iconic card in magic.
Yes, the most iconic... Craw Giant! 😎
I can see an arguement for visions in the first game of a lower power format, turn 1 plains, visions, check your opponent's deck to identify their strategy, select shuffle if they have a key card in the top 1 or 2. but then you have to side it out because after that it's basically pointless lol
Fun fact: Lifelink, deathtouch, and similar damage-modifying abilities work when Selfless Exorcist fights corpses, one of the few times when they can apply outside of the battlefield.
06:11 video starts
I could see Conservator being a last gasp to prevent death by poison counters, and Visions _could_ be used against someone's Mystical Tutor, but there are much better ways of doing both
Prof trying to be nice whilst shitting on card design lol love it
I run One with Nothing in my Neheb, The Worthy Brawl deck on Arena. It's not useful all the time, but I've cast it more than a couple times and had it actually do things. Neheb gets buffed (and buffs all other minos on your team) when your hand has 1 or less cards in it. In addition, the deck runs a bunch of enchantments and creatures that have effects that trigger when you discard a card. (Madness, Dying to Serve, some other stuff.)
So there have been a couple times where I have cast One with Nothing, triggered a bunch of effects and buffed my whole team as a result of discarding like 3 or 4 cards, and then won the game as a result. The fact that its an instant is a bonus too, since Neheb gives all minotaurs +2/+0 if your hand has one or less cards, so you can cast it mid-combat to give all your minos that buff.
1994 squad here too Prof! Started playing after revised came out but before fallen empires.
I also loved really bizarre cards based on the artwork and story they told
Visions seems fine, and it's silly for it to make it this high. It requires a bit of chance and forward thinking, sure. 1. It only costs one mana. 2. Use it on yourself. Are your next five cards a bad order/things that don't currently help you? Shuffle. Or are your next five cards fine? This let's you start to think ahead and strategize, keeping in mind what will be coming on your draws. 3. The opposite for your opponent. Are their next five good? Make them shuffle. Are they bad? Make them keep them, while also keeping them in mind and strategizing off the card draws they're about to get. Especially useful if used when they have a small hand so there won't be any likely surprises.
Just because the card introduces an element of chance and having to think ahead doesn't make it bad.
but what if you put a "druid's call" on selfless exorcist, and then exiled "yargle and multani" from the grave. 18 squirrels! :p
Some one saying “radical” in 2025…. That’s so wizard.
Professor, Teferi's response is so important in Premodern that it is included in a lot of sideboard and there's even some madmans that play 1 in main.
That's what happens when you play a format with wasteland and rishadan port.
Ponza was prevalent back in the mercadian masques era, and I got stone rained, pillaged, and ported enough by my buddy's ponza deck that when Invasion rolled around I thought Teferi's Response was actually a pretty good sideboard card.
If we're counting absurdly narrow cards like Go Blank or Teferi's Response, may I suggest Barren Glory?
It's a six mana card, 4{W}{W}, an enchantment which checks at the beginning of your upkeep. If Barren Glory is the only permanent you control, and if your hand is empty, you win the game.
My best friend of over twenty years has had a deck that does win with it for the better part of a decade now. It's pretty funny honestly
Teferi's Response also has a place as an option in Pre-Modern, where it gets solid value on Rishadan Port, Wasteland, or removal on a man land.
Teferi's Response sees plenty of play in premodern, and is in many ways a symbol of how sideboard cards played in old magic tournaments.
This reminds me of the mana source “worst cards ever” series with wedge…I love it prof,hope we get more :)
Zephyr Spirit was my Elder land wurm. I loved the art, loved the return to hand in order to to trigger spirit craft, also think it has flying every time I look at it even through it doesn't... and every time i see the card I forget just how laughably high the cost to cast was.
the opening line is crazy. This man has been playing this game for as long as I have EXISTED. LIKE WHAT
A friend of e used to call Serra Angel (I loved the 8th edition art) my dumbest card. ‘It’s just a 4/4 flyer that doesn’t tap to attack!’ I told him that if it’s so dumb why has it killed you on several occasions? He also used older Dark Rituals that said mana source as a permanent. Not really a reliable source of dumb card opinion
I was looking through the Pioneer cards that still aren’t in Explorer yesterday and found Alms Beast from Gatecrash…
2WB for a 6/6 beast sounds good… until you read that the ability gives any creature blocking or blocked by Alms Beast _lifelink._
I've done awesome stuff using One with Nothing in my Ashcoat deck. It's really funny when I pull it off. I've cast Living Death and then One with Nothing to return all my rats to my graveyard and then BAM BATTLEFIELD!
Please don't tell me how statistically another Swamp would increase my winrate more. I'm playing Commander I don't care about that.
I gotta defend Teferi's Response, that card is played pretty often in Premodern, where a lot of people play Rishadan Port, Wasteland, Dust Bowl and other cards that fits the criteria. A counterspell that protects your land, destroys the opp land and draws you 2 cards? insane
12:15 "Have any of you even seen a chicken? Ah-coodle-doodle-do! Cha-chee-Cha-chee. Cuck-cuh-cuh!"
They never let Buster do his...
Prof, I feel you on this one. Elder Land Wurm is a beautiful card, and I think it's also very funny. I want to make it work, but literally cannot find a way to play it that can't just be replaced with something else.
I use selfless exorcist in my myrkul lord of bones deck. It's just a free tap mess up opponents reanimator plan. It also freely becomes an enchantment of its own accord by tapping it the first time.
Teferi's Response is sometimes used in affinity sideboards for pauper. It kills gorilla Shaman when it tries to to kill your artifact land.
Is Wood Elemental stupid? Or just bad?
It's commonly thought of as the worst card in Magic, or at least the worst creature... but I did make it work in my Yedora deck. All you need is Yedora, Grave Gardener and some sort of way to animate all your lands, and Wood Elemental is a playable vanilla creature!
Rakalite was basically a hard counter to that other Antiquities great - Rocket Launcher.
I was surprised to not see Healing Salve on the list. It wasn't terrible in a vacuum, but when compared to the rest of the boon cycle? Woof.
I’m only a few minutes in and I can see a delirium deck working with One with Nothing. Imagine you’re only one card away from Delirium and you need to toss your late game land heavy hand in order to get it.
No lie the art for the sandworm looks amazing. I literally have a commander deck of just my favorite cards. So there you go build a jank commander deck with your favorite cards. It will be terrible but it will be fun for you, and it tells a story.
I mean, Visions sounds like a way to spite someone playing with a Scry deck to mess with them rearranging top cards, or to mess with "reveal top card of your library. you may play this card as if it was in your hand" kinds of deck builds...
Zephyr Spirit? Sneak Attack effect when defending. One red mana for a 0/6 to block with, that immediately returns to your hand so it doesn't die to either the attacker or the attack effect. Stay safe while confounding your friends about why you play the cards you do.
Listen, I've played Teferi's Response in my Noyan Dar EDH deck before for the funsies. It's not consistently useful, but it feels so good when you get someone with it! I've killed a Zacama with it before!
I have a Sultai Lands deck, and teferis response goes crazy in that deck. The card is for sure, extremely niche, but when it's good, it's fantastic.
I played a deck that used Elder Lands Wurm and enchanted it with Divine Transformation(if i recall the name correctly) to make it an 8/8 flyer. Was it good? Not really. Was it hilariously fun? One hundred percent!
Ember Shot is on my list of stupidest cards. 6 generic plus 1 red to deal 3 and draw a card. Also from Judgement where the Exorcist came from.
Yeah, I'm actually surprised Prof never got a win with Elder Land Wurm. It wasn't that terrible back in the day. It basically stopped your opponent from attacking until they got rid of it. Sure, Veteran Bodyguard was a better defensive option, but who had $20 for one of those?
So funnily, Divine Transformation, despite depicting an angelic character in the card art doesn't grant flying, just +3/+3.
It was something I, and I assume a lot of other MTG players back then, erroneously thought.
I got a EDH deck built around Oath of Scholars. With duscard outlets and cards that draw equal to a opponent hand size. Cool cards like Keeper of the Mind, The deck of Many Things, Heigtened Awareness, and Masticore. Og Masticore.
I do love revisiting sets, as a newer player it’s great to see how magic would have looked before
Elder Land Wurm instantly makes me think of Arixmethes, the Slumbering Isle. The design and miniature story of "awakening the beast" is an awesome concept! Definitely think Arixmethes did it better though
My friends once started a competition on who can come up with the most useless Magic card. For that, I would submit a counterspell at sorcery speed.
If Zephyr Spirit read "Whenever CARDNAME blocks, return blocked creature to its owner's hand" it *might* kinda sorta maybe be worth the 6 mana. Maybe.
I started this playing MtG in 1994 as well, and my first pack I ever bought was one pack of the Dark; my first Rare was Niall Silvain. This was a way to kind of see what the game was like, and when I purchased my first started and more boosters after, I always wanted to make this creature work and I have always loved the style of the card. But 3G to cast, and then 4G to regenerate target creature seemed way to expensive and there were those that half ridiculed me for thinking this odd creature could be used.
You've never experienced true joy until you windmill slam a One with Nothing T1, cross your now empty hands and pass turn.
I read somewhere that Zephyr Spirit was actually designed to be absolutely horrible, to give new players obvious contrast between it and cards you actually might want to put in your deck. That upgrading your deck is a core component of magic.
Back in 2012, I started looking for MTG UA-cam channels. There weren't nearly as many back then, but TCC and The Mana Source were the two of the biggest. Wedge, who ran Mana Source and frequently appeared on TCC, used to do a "worst card" series. This video took me back 13 years ago, laughing at Chimney Imps and Wood Elementals, helped me learn about what makes a good card and a bad card!
To be fair: Exorcist was released in the set of Incarnations, creatures that granted your creatures abilities if they were in your grave
High five to the editor for including that Polymerization animation!
Hornet cannon was my pet card back in the day. It was bad, but I loved the thought of shooting mechanized hornets at people.
the arrested development reference gave me a good chuckle! what a perfect way to use it
My lands Commander deck with a Tabernacle, Bazaar and other insane lands in it. Yes, it also has a foil Teferi's Response in it.
one with nothing would work in a couple other card games where you gain effects either from the graveyard or by things already on the field when holding no cards. i guess magic never went down that route 😲
I love when prof dose this type of video, looking at cards from magics history
New year new positive energy. Love it, keep up that amazing energy!
great video, funny enough teferi's response does sometimes see play in vintage as a tech card for wasteland!
That wurm is cute top down design. It's sleeping under the dirt and it doesn't wake up until your opponent bumbles into it.
The exorcist is probably as weak as it is because design philosophy at the time was to NOT make hosers stronger than the mechanics they were pushing, and Odyssey was the "graveyard matters" block.
Conservator is a neat little sort-of mirror to Rod of Ruin, and it'd at least be interesting if it's rules text wasn't errata'd. Preventing 2 life loss would at least be unique, nerfing draining spells while still pulling damage duty (remember, damage causes loss of life).
Zephyr Sprit was in Ravnica, which was right after Kamigawa. A spirit that you can recast EVERY TURN must surely have SOME application, right?
Visions gives you a pretty good idea of what your opponent is playing for 1 mana, and honestly if anyone played Lantern Control casually I could definitely see it as a way to power down the deck so people aren't rending their garments in anguish.
Teferi's Response... I dunno, is there a format where Landstill and Ponza are both viable decks? It's really specific hate, but it's BACKBREAKING specific hate.
Similar to Conservator, Rakalite looks like an inverted Rocket Launcher. It also looks like the kind of thing that should immediately get slotted into a Horobi, Death's Wail commander deck because you're in Coffers colors and you get style points for using THAT to pop off with your commander.
Dealing with the wildfires in LA rn may have to evacuate watching this has been a nice calming distraction thank you prof💜
Elder land wurm sounds like it could be a really fun deck to build around if given proper support!
I’m imagining a bunch of undercosted creatures with that “loses defender after blocking” and using a forced attack type effect…
I mean, that card needs a complete overhaul but I could see a fun/stupid deck built around that… maybe an esper commander?
It’d be cool to see some games where people have to include these cards in their decks and build around them
I actually made a deck that can run One with Nothing. It's a Toluz commander deck where I have so many discard payoffs that discarding my hand isn't that bad, especially since I can those back when she dies.
Don't forget that Conservator is a Mono Artifact, meaning you have to tap it for the effect.
I miss Quinton Hoover's art, way back in the day I was set to go get an Ivory Gargoyle signed by him but it never happened. Fast forward a couple years and I realized it never would sadly.
Don't forget, that hypothetical turn 3 Rakalite player takes 1 damage from mana burn.
Making cards like Norin the Wary and One with Nothing work is honestly why I played the game having to jump through hoops to make cards. Do things that they were clearly not designed to do is how I love to build decks.
Visions could be good in u/w mill. Hear me out. You cast Visions, looking at the top 5 of your opponents library. You choose not to shuffle. Then, holding priority, you cast a card that mills them for five or more and exile the best creature card amongst those five with Selfless Exercist. Run 4 copies of each card in this combo to insure that you can perform the combo multiple times. Then, since you're in white, you can use a flicker effect to continously bring back your Visions and your Exorcist.
I'm not taking Teferi's Response slander. For a card so narrow it saw quite a lot of sideboard play because of how absurdly ubiquitous Rishadan Port was in standard back in 2000-01. That and Tsabo's web were both clutch.
Also hope to see more videos on stupid cards, I love seeing old jank from the 90s, it is fascinating
Sorrow's Path is a favourite of mine.
The art is also very special.