I really like the art of Harmless offering. It was part of a set called Eldritch Moon, where creatures were being corrupted and mutated by otherworldly forces. If you look at the kitten's tail, you can see teeth coming out of it, presumably what caused the man to bandage his hand.
While not a competitive combo, you can use Forbidden Orchard to give your opponent a colorless spirit, use Ardenn to attach a Spy Kit to that spirit, and use Eradicate to exile that spirit and any number of nonlegendary creatures in that players library since the token had the names of all nonlegendary creatures.
Lol. And here I was just giving chump blockers to whoever wasn't the biggest threat at the table. Big brain combo right there. One of my edh decks (4 color omnath) plays mostly legendaries so it wouldn't matter too much
When Forbidden orchard was first in standard, it was a lot of fun in a warp world deck. THis was because originally the spirit tokkens counted as your permanents, even though they were on the opponents side of the board. so every time you tapped it you got a permanent towards your side of warp world. They did change the rules after a bit that made the permanents count as opps permanent, not yours, so I had to take them out of my warp world deck then.
My three biggest cliff notes on the list: While Erhnam Djinn was fantastic all over the place, it's grandest home was a deck called Erhnamgeddon, where the goal was to stick a super agressive curve with many of the cards having major downsides, and then playing Armaggedon to wipe out all lands and win in the window you were afforded. Due to the mirror match, Djinn's downside DID matter to these decks, and any of their threats getting through each turn was a big problem. Howling Mine has seen play outside the two decks mentioned, but largely alongside ways to tap it. You untap before your upkeep, so mine would always draw you a card, while you could routinely deny your opponent there's. Oath of Druids was a deck LONG before forbidden orchard, but it didn't have universal access to the card, so a lot of early versions were a bit more humble so they could side into more traditional ramp strategies vs control opponents.
Yeah Oath was a deck since Exodous, to be sure. And Howling Mine is a familiar face in Karn EDH decks as well as some Stax decks in general, since you're often already manipulating cards like Winter Orb the same way, tapping it to turn it off in that classic Continuous Artifact manner
as a commander player with a Group Hug deck, i know and love all these cards... for their "downside". also want to mention the Hunted Wumpus. (4 mana 6/6, when you play him, each opponent may put a creature from hand in play)
My favorite strat with my group hug deck is to make everyone draw 90% of their deck and then play Tempting Wurm, letting all my opponents put down all the creatures, artifacts, and enchantments from their hand into play. I usually take a break and check my phone or something because then they all have to deal with stacking triggers for the next 10-15 minutes.
Howling Mine has started seeing some play again in Modern thanks to Urza and his ability to tap artifacts for mana, because you'd always be able to tap howling mine for mana when Urza is in play, you'd be able to always draw a card with Howling Mine but then tap it to turn it off with your opponent. There were a few decks in standard over the years the times Howling mine was legal in standard that played it, often decks that had ways tapping artifacts for various effects to shut it off for your opponent similar to Urza.
Some ideas for the Failed Mechanics series: • Arcane/Splice onto Arcane, the poster child for parasitic mechanics • Epic, the mechanic that makes the game more or less completely uninteractive for its user • Sweep, a mechanic that puts its user at a massive disadvantage • Banding, the mechanic so complicated most top players in tournament couldn’t explain how it worked • Storm, the mechanic so broken it defined the scale by which the likelihood of mechanics returning (the “Storm Scale”, explained by mark Rosewater, is the likelihood of a mechanic reappearing in a new set. Storm is a 10, meaning it’s EXCEEDINGLY unlikely to return outside of supplemental sets, because it’s just too broken.) • Color-based evasion (Fear, Intimidate) • Flip Cards (not to be confused with double-faced cards; these cards still had one face, but you spun them around to change their stats and abilities. The biggest issue was that it was hard to keep track of which “side” was active, especially when tapped) • other mechanics likely too small for a full video, but perhaps worth mention in a compilation video: Fateseal, Rampage, Fading, Islandhome/landhome
I wouldn't say thay fear/intimidate failed, they were just bad design. While sideboarding against specific colors and narrow strategies is definitely a thing, fear/intimidate seemed to force players into sideboarding against "fair magic" (i.e. decks based around creatures). Whether it actually was a problem, I'm not sure. But it seems to me Wizards didn't like the idea of it.
Swords to plowshares really gives me nightmares, let me explain why In the quest mode of forge, there are no restrictions on cards at all, so with 4 tinkers and the power 9 spells, I had a deck where I could very consistently bring blightsteel colossus on turn 1 Since it is indestructible, swords to plowshares was basically the only cheap card able to get rid of it and preventing me from winning on the next turn. So every time I saw I was playing against a white deck, I knew I could not commit to my plays before having an apostle blessing, a spellskite or a neurok stealthsuit, all because of this one card
One interesting thing about cards like "Swords to Ploughshares" that remove a card but give their controller something in return, is that they tend to also be able to target your own stuff, making them more versatile as you can use them to gain the benefit for the price of sacrificing a weenie, or other unneeded card. For instance, "Path to Exile" is an Instant that, for W says "Exile target creature. Its controller may search their library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle." While giving your opponent a free land is almost always worse than just giving them a bit of life, PtE can also be used as a cheap Ramp spell.
La Ehrnam Djinn Type: Spellcaster/Effect Attribute: Earth Atk: 2050 Def: 2250 At the beginning of your turn, target an opponent's monster in defense mode; you can't attack it but can't attack directly if it is the only monster on-field (unless a card allows you to)
Wishclaw has really changed the way The Epic Storm has been built and some builds of ANT. It is true that not all combo decks want it but it is slowly becoming more popular. The other aspect of the card that should be noted is that it doesnt even always get used by your opponent because they dont always have a silver bullet to tutor for and giving it back to the storm player is not worth getting even the best card in your deck. Fun list though.
Yeah or memory jar when talking about wheel effects since memory jar was legal for just a week then first card to get emergency banned in the history of the game.
Speaking of Wheel of Fortune, Wheel of Misfortune is such an underrated card in commander. It's essentially the same as Wheel, but everyone has to bid a number that is 0 or greater. Highest bidder takes damage equal to the number they bid, and lowest number doesn't wheel. Then everyone wheels. It's so underrated because no knows how it works due to how wordy it is. But essentially it's a wheel that players can just choose to opt out of. Worst case scenario is that someone loses a ton of life be side they tried to stop you from wheeling.
The Abyssal Persecutor: 4 mana 6/6 flample is already pretty strong... I'm sure that can't win/lose text can also be beneficial. The closest thing I can think to that is more expensive in cost: Doom Whisper, BB3 (5 CMC), added cost to sac a creature, 6/6 flample, pay 2 life to surveil 2
I don't disagree, but you do realize that it kinda gets ridiculous when all people do is bringing it up? Just make your own video or post. Whining is not productive because its not like we are the stockholders nor is TDL.
Some ideas for top tens: • Strategies/cards/mechanics that dominated draft but weren’t especially strong in constructed: (see: Spider Spawning in Innistrad, Cycling in Ikoria, Brokers Ascendancy in New Capenna… I’m sure there are other examples but those are the big ones that come to mind) • Top ten cards that enter the battlefield tapped- this is a massive downside that usually results in unplayability, so it would be interesting to see what cards can manage to be decent despite that downside
The most OP card that gives your opponent something is Contract from Below. One B to draw 7 new cards at the low low cost of giving your opponent an additional ante.
Howling Mine is always a funny choice to play in decks that run any amount of "Improvise" cards (Basically cards with Improvise could be played by tapping artifacts in place of 1 colourless mana per artifact tapped). The distinction of having it be untapped was no doubt designed with cards like Twiddle and the like in mind to circumvent it's downside, but generating mana off of mine while getting to enjoy in it's benefits without the opponent getting anything from it is really fun.
Many of these cards see play in Zedruu the Great Hearted EDH decks. Because that's all about giving gifts to your opponents. And then gaining lots of advantage.
I have a Zedruu deck, and oh god it is so fun. With Almharrets Archive, Teferi's Ageless Insight and Paradox Haze you can give a single permanent to an enemy, and then draw 8 cards. With Psychosis Horror, Body of Knowledge or Laboratory Maniac it can really be turned into your favour.
Teferis puzzle box Font of mythos Descent into avernus Humble defector Treacherous pit dweller Bazaar trader Sleeper agent Akron horse Plague reaver Kharn the betrayer Custody battle Curse of disturbance Endless whispers Confusion in the ranks Rite of the raging storm
Swords can also target your own creature to heal you, it's a very edge case but worth pointing out because you have to use all cards to their full capacity. Apparent omissions from this list included Path to Exile which replaced Swords because it was too powerful, where it gave your opponent land, and Goblin Guide, a 2/2 for R which may let your opponent play a land if it attacks and reveal a land from the top of their deck.
Abyssal Persecutor is probably one of the most flavorful cards ever. In a game with more than two opponents, if one of them should be out of the game, they can keep playing, but they better not try to betray you. Basically it lets you control other players without actually doing so and that's really hilarious
I think you missed out on an aspect of the wheels (particularly the cheap ones): Playing it on the first turn basically gives your opponents a (7-card) mulligan when they didn't want or need one. In formats like Vintage, where people can, for instance, mulligan down to 2-3 cards just to get the one combo they need to have in their opening hand, it can be devastating.
Of note about Persecutor is that black isn't just a color with a lot of removal, is full of spells and abilities that sacrifice as a cost, like Altars or Viscera Seer (which was legal in standard together with it for a time, I think), which is the real danger with it because not only you can't deny a cost but you can't even respond since losing the game is a state based action that ignores the stack.
It was also in Standard with Birthing Pod for a few months until Innistrad released. A friend at my local played pod at the time and I definitely died to Blade Splicer -> Persecutor -> Acidic Slime more than once XD
Swords to Plowshares is pretty legendary and is a great card that can turn a game around. In a well known game between Bob Maher Jr, and Brian Davis, saw bob use it to turn the game around in a tourney Vs a necropotence deck brian was using.
Exhume, Show and Tell, Hypergenesis, Goblin Guide, Field of Ruin, Grove of Burnwillows, Necromentia all see play / are BANNED in certain formats but were not mentioned, all much better than Howling Mine, which barely saw any competitive play. EDIT: Boseiju
All these "opponent draw cards" cards are staples of Nekusar and now Sheoldred decks. Add cards like Ob Nixilis the Hate-Twisted and Fate Unraveler, and you've got yourself a deck.
Another thing you can do with howling mine is to tap it through artifact Shenanigans because it has to be untapped at the upkeep to get the draw bonus.
Kill Switch is good to use with something like Howling Mine and a Blinkmoth Urn. Kill Switch is just a good card in general, though, especially if you turn everything into an artifact. It can really slow down decks that use a lot of rocks. Casting it on turn 1 isn't impossible and turn 2 is reasonable.
I have a casual deck that makes use of Forbidden Orchard. It uses your opponent's creatures to make burn combinations. This is the list: (Land) 16x Mountain 4x Forbidden Orchard (Combo) 4x Satyr Firedancer 4x Repercussion 4x Furnace of Rath (Fuel) 4x Seething Song 3x Browbeat 3x Magma Jet (Burn) 4x Lightning Bolt 4x Chain Lightning 4x Searing Blood (Destruction) 2x Blasphemous Act 2x Chain Reaction 2x Mizzium Mortars
I only say this because you have excellent game knowledge and probably thought of it yourself, but the comparison in mana values between Siege Rhino and Erhnam Djinn is unfair because it is tri-colored and therefor much harder to cast. Lots of cards in magic have excellent stats or upsides compared to same-value counterparts because they use a lot more colored mana as a tradeoff. Wizards famously overestimated the difficulty of casting multicolored spells with their legends cycle, but even after adaptation they view multiple colors as a major downside to allow for cards to have better stats than monocolored counterparts. Love your series and everything you do, you're doing a great job! Just wanted to point that out. Cheers, Psy
I've been able to do insane amounts of damage with Aria of Flame very consistently. It gives each of your opponents 10 life, but takes it away super easily if you play instants and sorceries
There are a few that I would consider to to be good enough to be mentioned (edit but not necessarily be in the top 10) for this list. Many of them have done work in older formats: Varchild's War Riders is a 3/4 creature for R1 that has trample and rampage 1. It also has a cumulative upkeep of your opponent creating a 1/1 survivor human token under their control. While the token generation for your opponent will quickly get out of hand, the rate of this creature is really good. I've seen some matches where that drawback ended up not mattering in the end bec of how fast the red deck was... with access to cards like Earthquake (RX, sorcery, deals X damage to all creatures without flying and all players), Ball Lightning (RRR, 6/1 Trample, Haste, at the beginning of your end step, sacrifice Ball Lightning) In Visions, there is a creature called Aku Djinn, which was a BB3 5/6 creature with Trample that gives all your opponent's creature a +1/+1 counter during your turn. The thing is, 5 power with trample is a really fast clock and since black has access to good removal spells, decks that use it don't usually mind their opponent's board getting a little bigger if the game would end a turn or 2 after it comes out In Mercadian Masques, there was a cycle of what I call "Briber" creature cards: they're fairly costed creatures FOR THEIR TIME but gives your opponent an advantage when they enter the battlefield. The standout in that cycle was Hunted Wumpus: G3 6/6 that allows your opponent to cheat out a creature from their hand. I have played enough games where this lead to my opponent dropping either an insignificant 1/1, a creature I can deal with (Black Green here) or nothing at all! The rest are either ok (White), below standard (Black) or Horrid (Blue basically gives you a 4/4 flier at the cost of giving your opponent a free Ancestral Recall, while Red gives your opponent a free land search... not basic land mind you) In Urza's Saga and then later in Odyssey, we get Gilded Drake and Chromeshell Crab. I dont know if this will count in this list, but basically, both creatures swap themselves for any creature your opponent control your choice. The drake is better since it costs U1, but it IS pretty beefy as a 3/3 flier.. while the crab requires you to Morph it for U4 (I think?). I dont know if they fit this list, but your opponent DOES get something from you... but you get something from it in return. NOTE: If there are enough of cards which just exchange stuff from your opponent, maybe that can be a Top 10 Idea? Then also in Ravnica (edit), there is also a cycle of Hunted cards that are actually pretty good: they're mostly aggressively costed but creates all sorts of tokens for your opponent that can be a problem if not handled properly. My favorite of this cycle is Hunted Dragon: RR3 6/6 flying haste that creates 3 2/2 white knight tokens with first strike under your opponent's control. I have rarely been in a situation where those knights become a problem bec summoning this thing usually means my opponent is going down in the next 2 turns. I also was able to use Hunted Llamasu since it only creates a 4/4 black vanila creature under your opponent's control, which is easy to deal with, and I get a WW2 5/5 flier. The rest are too difficult to effectively use Those are the ones I played with... but i may have missed a few good ones before
Commander has a few cards that work best in that format and have a downside that takes the form of an upside for your opponent. Intellectual offering lets one of your opponents draw three cards. Then, it lets one of your opponents - which may or may not be the same one - untap all nonland permanents they control. You get to do both. It's an instant for 4 and a blue. The power comes from the fact that if you are in commander with 3+ players and get attacked, you can play it to untap all your nonland permanents. True, there are usually better options for this, but the card draw is unmatched among them, and if you choose a different player for the effects than the attacker, it's likely to leave them wide open. Assault Suit is an equipment for 4 mana of any kind, has equip 3, and gives the equipped creature +2/+2 and haste. It also lets you give the creature - but not the equipment - to an opponent at the beginning of their Upkeep. If you do, untap it. Why is this card so powerful? Firstly, the giving ability is optional. Secondly, it's the ONLY way I know of to stop Sacrifice effects, as it also says that the equipped creature can't be sacrificed. Thirdly, it also says that the equipped creature can't attack you or a Planeswalker you control. This basically means that if there's at least three of players, you can force one of your opponents to attack the other one with one of your creatures. In commander, this makes it easier for your opponents to take lethal Commander Damage, as it doesn't care about who controls the commander. In a duel, it lets you give your opponent a creature with a downside - like number ten - and stops them from using it against you. Most powerful of the three I am choosing for my additions is Crown of Doom, an artifact for 3 mana with "Whenever a creature attacks you or a Planeswalker you control, it gets +2/+0" and "Pay 2 mana: Target player gains control of Crown of Doom. You may not give Crown of Doom to its owner this way. Activate only as a sorcery." The downside is a killer, all right. The fact that you can give it to an opponent makes it powerful. The fact that they have to use one of the Number Six options on things list to give it back to you, and can't give it away at instant speed? Makes it even stronger.
This video has the issue of considering the power level of cards in 1-on-1 matches only, but in Magic there are enough different formats where this doesn't apply and everything changes. Two-Headed Giant counts your partner as an opponent, which can make cards that give advantage to a single opponent, like Wishclaw or Scheming Simmetry just broken, becoming an upside for your team. Multiplayer formats like commander have cards that give advantage to your opponent become instantly better due to the natural politics that occur. This is the basis of "group hug" decks: if you play cards that give your opponents something they will just opt not to attack you if they can, since it will lose them resources, and when you have cards that select only one opponent you can mitigate the downside by having them bargain for it. Cards like Scheming Simmetry can become deceptively strong with that, since you can use to force another player to get an answer to a threat on the battlefield and use it while you look for whatever you need, which basically becomes you tutoring for two cards and cheating one out for a single black mana.
Would you consider whispering madness as a strong card that benefits opponents? All players discard their hands and draw equal to the highest number discarded. Cipher. 1u 1b 2 to cast.
I might still be too much of a filthy MtG casual, but I’m kind of amazed you mentioned swords to plowshares and that it had similar cards, without ever mentioning path to exile. I always seem to get the two mixed up (c’mon, why is the one with “plowshares” in the name NOT the one that gets lands 😂), and in the commander games I play Path sees a good bit of use, probably because one mana advantage doesn’t really mean matter in more drawn out commander games (especially in a death and taxes deck)
Wheel of Fortune makes me think of Professor Oak and Imposter Professor Oak from the Pkmn TCG, lol. Dont know why I brought it up but there you have it.
Yeah persecutor/djinn are just beatsticks, not too impressive. Terastodon is super nuts though because quite often blowing up 2 of the opponent's permanents was enough, then the elephants given couldn't trade with terastodon. Often got to blow up an irrelevant land or yours too for a bonus 3/3 in stats.
Scheming Symmetry? It has it's uses, but I think it's much worse than Wishclaw. For starters, they get their card first unless you have another draw spell. Then there's just a ton of ways to break the symmetry on Wishclaw Talisman. Tutor for Karn Great Creator and they can't even use the claw, or have out any number of things that let you sacrifice artifacts to not let them even get the claw in the first place. Goblin Welder is particularly fun, because you can activate the talisman to get a card, sacrifice it in response to reanimate some big artifact, then next turn trade another artifact to get your wishclaw back. If you have two untap effects, you can also just use all the tutors on the Talisman and then give them a now useless Talisman. All of that is just stuff artifact decks naturally tend to have, with no additional build around needed. While symmetry on Symmetry can be similarly broken, it requires a lot more to be going right to pull off. It's actually kind of hard to hold onto cantrips long enough to get Symmetry, a cantrip, and the mana to use both and the spell you're getting, as you want to be using those cantrips to dig for the setup. Repeatable draw effects like JVP or some planeswalkers are also vulnerable to interaction. Going in the other direction, milling or exiling the opponent's top card is another option. The problem there is that not many decks run the cards that can do that naturally, meaning you're building around it somewhat. It also gives the opponent the option to play around it if they see it coming. Cards like Ragavan definitely make it a much easier package to slot in these days though.
Grove of the Burnwillows is really notable as a card that saw play simply for being great manafixing but also the combo with Punishing Fire. Hypergenesis is strong enough effect to be banned in modern. Show and Tell has been a popular legacy deck for ages. Exhume stands out as one of the better reanimator cards in the game.
This list is honestly just a mess. Even when combining all "wheels" into one slot, and all "compensation removal" as another, there's still no way random overstated creatures that were okay in Standard should be making the cut. There are tons of powerful symmetrical effects, as you've noted (and others like Veteran Explorer, Living End, Aluren, Standstill), but even lumping all of those into a single slot as well, you'd still have much better choices remaining. Emrakul, the Promised End gives your opponent an extra turn. Gilded Drake exchanges itself for any creature you want. Coveted Jewel lets your opponent steal it, and is a key combo piece in Vintage. Oko, Thief of Crowns exists (though is probably on the retired list). Goblin Guide is an actually playable creature with this sort of downside. Aria of Flame gains your opponent 10 life before burning them out.
wishclaw + opposition agent is a pretty brutal combo because you get to tutor and they get to do nothing, if they tutor then you just tutor from their deck.(their are better uses for this, like scheming symmetry, or collective voyage) or using wheel with tergrid is also pretty busted, i have both of those in my cube for that reason, everybody discards their hands, and i get all the permanents they discarded? ok!
What happens if you have abyssal persecuter in play and deck out your opponent, but then you yourself are decked out with a card in play that says you dont lose the game if you would draw a card when there are no other cards in your library Then both players have no cards in hand anymore
If the game cannot meaningfully continue, it is a tie. Possibly, if it's considered by a judge to have been intentionally caused by one of the players, then they may be issued a loss for time wasting or something similar.
Better yet, play Phage the Untouchable and then Fractured Identity it, giving each opponent a token copy, and each opponent loses because they didn't cast it!
I know in yugioh there are always super hyped cards that just completely flopped. Are there similar cards in magic that were really hyped up but then just flopped?
I run it in my Jon Irenicus deck. Donate it to someone else so they can't win and I can't lose, and everyone else at the table wants it to stay there too. But then when it has to swing at them, they might have to take the damage, if they want to keep the "Cannot lose" effect. It's a very political deck in general, really. Handing around cheap big creatures with drawbacks.
I like to use Wishclaw Talisman as a trap. Use it to search for Ob Nixilis Unshackled, then the next player who searches using the Wishclaw has to sacrifice a creature and loses 10 life. 😈
I really like the art of Harmless offering. It was part of a set called Eldritch Moon, where creatures were being corrupted and mutated by otherworldly forces. If you look at the kitten's tail, you can see teeth coming out of it, presumably what caused the man to bandage his hand.
It's also the worst card in the set for draft.
While not a competitive combo, you can use Forbidden Orchard to give your opponent a colorless spirit, use Ardenn to attach a Spy Kit to that spirit, and use Eradicate to exile that spirit and any number of nonlegendary creatures in that players library since the token had the names of all nonlegendary creatures.
Lol. And here I was just giving chump blockers to whoever wasn't the biggest threat at the table. Big brain combo right there. One of my edh decks (4 color omnath) plays mostly legendaries so it wouldn't matter too much
When Forbidden orchard was first in standard, it was a lot of fun in a warp world deck. THis was because originally the spirit tokkens counted as your permanents, even though they were on the opponents side of the board. so every time you tapped it you got a permanent towards your side of warp world. They did change the rules after a bit that made the permanents count as opps permanent, not yours, so I had to take them out of my warp world deck then.
My three biggest cliff notes on the list:
While Erhnam Djinn was fantastic all over the place, it's grandest home was a deck called Erhnamgeddon, where the goal was to stick a super agressive curve with many of the cards having major downsides, and then playing Armaggedon to wipe out all lands and win in the window you were afforded. Due to the mirror match, Djinn's downside DID matter to these decks, and any of their threats getting through each turn was a big problem.
Howling Mine has seen play outside the two decks mentioned, but largely alongside ways to tap it. You untap before your upkeep, so mine would always draw you a card, while you could routinely deny your opponent there's.
Oath of Druids was a deck LONG before forbidden orchard, but it didn't have universal access to the card, so a lot of early versions were a bit more humble so they could side into more traditional ramp strategies vs control opponents.
Yeah Oath was a deck since Exodous, to be sure. And Howling Mine is a familiar face in Karn EDH decks as well as some Stax decks in general, since you're often already manipulating cards like Winter Orb the same way, tapping it to turn it off in that classic Continuous Artifact manner
Suggestion: do a list of the top ten cards to use with entry number six on this list.
as a commander player with a Group Hug deck, i know and love all these cards... for their "downside".
also want to mention the Hunted Wumpus. (4 mana 6/6, when you play him, each opponent may put a creature from hand in play)
My favorite strat with my group hug deck is to make everyone draw 90% of their deck and then play Tempting Wurm, letting all my opponents put down all the creatures, artifacts, and enchantments from their hand into play. I usually take a break and check my phone or something because then they all have to deal with stacking triggers for the next 10-15 minutes.
Howling Mine has started seeing some play again in Modern thanks to Urza and his ability to tap artifacts for mana, because you'd always be able to tap howling mine for mana when Urza is in play, you'd be able to always draw a card with Howling Mine but then tap it to turn it off with your opponent. There were a few decks in standard over the years the times Howling mine was legal in standard that played it, often decks that had ways tapping artifacts for various effects to shut it off for your opponent similar to Urza.
Some ideas for the Failed Mechanics series:
• Arcane/Splice onto Arcane, the poster child for parasitic mechanics
• Epic, the mechanic that makes the game more or less completely uninteractive for its user
• Sweep, a mechanic that puts its user at a massive disadvantage
• Banding, the mechanic so complicated most top players in tournament couldn’t explain how it worked
• Storm, the mechanic so broken it defined the scale by which the likelihood of mechanics returning (the “Storm Scale”, explained by mark Rosewater, is the likelihood of a mechanic reappearing in a new set. Storm is a 10, meaning it’s EXCEEDINGLY unlikely to return outside of supplemental sets, because it’s just too broken.)
• Color-based evasion (Fear, Intimidate)
• Flip Cards (not to be confused with double-faced cards; these cards still had one face, but you spun them around to change their stats and abilities. The biggest issue was that it was hard to keep track of which “side” was active, especially when tapped)
• other mechanics likely too small for a full video, but perhaps worth mention in a compilation video: Fateseal, Rampage, Fading, Islandhome/landhome
Come on. Banding isn't that complicated
I wouldn't say thay fear/intimidate failed, they were just bad design. While sideboarding against specific colors and narrow strategies is definitely a thing, fear/intimidate seemed to force players into sideboarding against "fair magic" (i.e. decks based around creatures). Whether it actually was a problem, I'm not sure. But it seems to me Wizards didn't like the idea of it.
Surprised Show and Tell wasn't on here.
Swords to plowshares really gives me nightmares, let me explain why
In the quest mode of forge, there are no restrictions on cards at all, so with 4 tinkers and the power 9 spells, I had a deck where I could very consistently bring blightsteel colossus on turn 1
Since it is indestructible, swords to plowshares was basically the only cheap card able to get rid of it and preventing me from winning on the next turn. So every time I saw I was playing against a white deck, I knew I could not commit to my plays before having an apostle blessing, a spellskite or a neurok stealthsuit, all because of this one card
One interesting thing about cards like "Swords to Ploughshares" that remove a card but give their controller something in return, is that they tend to also be able to target your own stuff, making them more versatile as you can use them to gain the benefit for the price of sacrificing a weenie, or other unneeded card.
For instance, "Path to Exile" is an Instant that, for W says "Exile target creature. Its controller may search their library for a basic land card, put that card onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle." While giving your opponent a free land is almost always worse than just giving them a bit of life, PtE can also be used as a cheap Ramp spell.
La Ehrnam Djinn
Type: Spellcaster/Effect
Attribute: Earth
Atk: 2050
Def: 2250
At the beginning of your turn, target an opponent's monster in defense mode; you can't attack it but can't attack directly if it is the only monster on-field (unless a card allows you to)
Wishclaw has really changed the way The Epic Storm has been built and some builds of ANT. It is true that not all combo decks want it but it is slowly becoming more popular. The other aspect of the card that should be noted is that it doesnt even always get used by your opponent because they dont always have a silver bullet to tutor for and giving it back to the storm player is not worth getting even the best card in your deck. Fun list though.
I'm surprised you didn't reference Path when talking about Swords when showing off cards with similar effects.
Yeah or memory jar when talking about wheel effects since memory jar was legal for just a week then first card to get emergency banned in the history of the game.
Speaking of Wheel of Fortune, Wheel of Misfortune is such an underrated card in commander. It's essentially the same as Wheel, but everyone has to bid a number that is 0 or greater. Highest bidder takes damage equal to the number they bid, and lowest number doesn't wheel. Then everyone wheels. It's so underrated because no knows how it works due to how wordy it is. But essentially it's a wheel that players can just choose to opt out of. Worst case scenario is that someone loses a ton of life be side they tried to stop you from wheeling.
The Abyssal Persecutor: 4 mana 6/6 flample is already pretty strong... I'm sure that can't win/lose text can also be beneficial.
The closest thing I can think to that is more expensive in cost: Doom Whisper, BB3 (5 CMC), added cost to sac a creature, 6/6 flample, pay 2 life to surveil 2
Top 10 times WOTC didn’t care about its consumers seems like a very good top ten right now
Top 30* times.
Happy anniversary, peasants.
Don’t be a baby
I don't disagree, but you do realize that it kinda gets ridiculous when all people do is bringing it up? Just make your own video or post. Whining is not productive because its not like we are the stockholders nor is TDL.
Wizard cared at some time?
@@PRODAt3 SOME people there still do. MaRo still seems to care about the game more than the money, at least.
Some ideas for top tens:
• Strategies/cards/mechanics that dominated draft but weren’t especially strong in constructed: (see: Spider Spawning in Innistrad, Cycling in Ikoria, Brokers Ascendancy in New Capenna… I’m sure there are other examples but those are the big ones that come to mind)
• Top ten cards that enter the battlefield tapped- this is a massive downside that usually results in unplayability, so it would be interesting to see what cards can manage to be decent despite that downside
The most OP card that gives your opponent something is Contract from Below. One B to draw 7 new cards at the low low cost of giving your opponent an additional ante.
Howling Mine is always a funny choice to play in decks that run any amount of "Improvise" cards (Basically cards with Improvise could be played by tapping artifacts in place of 1 colourless mana per artifact tapped). The distinction of having it be untapped was no doubt designed with cards like Twiddle and the like in mind to circumvent it's downside, but generating mana off of mine while getting to enjoy in it's benefits without the opponent getting anything from it is really fun.
Many of these cards see play in Zedruu the Great Hearted EDH decks. Because that's all about giving gifts to your opponents.
And then gaining lots of advantage.
I have a Zedruu deck, and oh god it is so fun. With Almharrets Archive, Teferi's Ageless Insight and Paradox Haze you can give a single permanent to an enemy, and then draw 8 cards. With Psychosis Horror, Body of Knowledge or Laboratory Maniac it can really be turned into your favour.
I think Grove of the Burnwillows should have made the list for the combo with Punishing Fire!
Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!
I've been building a Blim edh deck, the last month has had my head full of cards like this, cool video, you could easily do a part 2.
Teferis puzzle box
Font of mythos
Descent into avernus
Humble defector
Treacherous pit dweller
Bazaar trader
Sleeper agent
Akron horse
Plague reaver
Kharn the betrayer
Custody battle
Curse of disturbance
Endless whispers
Confusion in the ranks
Rite of the raging storm
Swords can also target your own creature to heal you, it's a very edge case but worth pointing out because you have to use all cards to their full capacity. Apparent omissions from this list included Path to Exile which replaced Swords because it was too powerful, where it gave your opponent land, and Goblin Guide, a 2/2 for R which may let your opponent play a land if it attacks and reveal a land from the top of their deck.
Donate says "target player", not "target opponent", which means that, unlike Offering, you can give something to a teammate in Two-Headed Giant.
Suggestion (a couple, actually): top 10 Defender creatures, or maybe a review of the Cascade mechanic.
Abyssal Persecutor is probably one of the most flavorful cards ever. In a game with more than two opponents, if one of them should be out of the game, they can keep playing, but they better not try to betray you. Basically it lets you control other players without actually doing so and that's really hilarious
I think you missed out on an aspect of the wheels (particularly the cheap ones): Playing it on the first turn basically gives your opponents a (7-card) mulligan when they didn't want or need one. In formats like Vintage, where people can, for instance, mulligan down to 2-3 cards just to get the one combo they need to have in their opening hand, it can be devastating.
Of note about Persecutor is that black isn't just a color with a lot of removal, is full of spells and abilities that sacrifice as a cost, like Altars or Viscera Seer (which was legal in standard together with it for a time, I think), which is the real danger with it because not only you can't deny a cost but you can't even respond since losing the game is a state based action that ignores the stack.
It was also in Standard with Birthing Pod for a few months until Innistrad released. A friend at my local played pod at the time and I definitely died to Blade Splicer -> Persecutor -> Acidic Slime more than once XD
@@2LettersSho oh, right. Sometimes I forgot that Birthing Pod existed in standard and wasn't printed directly into modern.
Swords to Plowshares is pretty legendary and is a great card that can turn a game around. In a well known game between Bob Maher Jr, and Brian Davis, saw bob use it to turn the game around in a tourney Vs a necropotence deck brian was using.
One of my favorites of these kinds of cards is Hungry Lynx.
Exhume, Show and Tell, Hypergenesis, Goblin Guide, Field of Ruin, Grove of Burnwillows, Necromentia all see play / are BANNED in certain formats but were not mentioned, all much better than Howling Mine, which barely saw any competitive play.
EDIT: Boseiju
All these "opponent draw cards" cards are staples of Nekusar and now Sheoldred decks. Add cards like Ob Nixilis the Hate-Twisted and Fate Unraveler, and you've got yourself a deck.
I used prosperity in a deck with high tide, mind over matter and sol ring. It worked great. Also Braingeyser and tons of counter magic.
Another thing you can do with howling mine is to tap it through artifact Shenanigans because it has to be untapped at the upkeep to get the draw bonus.
Kill Switch is good to use with something like Howling Mine and a Blinkmoth Urn. Kill Switch is just a good card in general, though, especially if you turn everything into an artifact. It can really slow down decks that use a lot of rocks. Casting it on turn 1 isn't impossible and turn 2 is reasonable.
I have a casual deck that makes use of Forbidden Orchard. It uses your opponent's creatures to make burn combinations. This is the list:
(Land)
16x Mountain
4x Forbidden Orchard
(Combo)
4x Satyr Firedancer
4x Repercussion
4x Furnace of Rath
(Fuel)
4x Seething Song
3x Browbeat
3x Magma Jet
(Burn)
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Chain Lightning
4x Searing Blood
(Destruction)
2x Blasphemous Act
2x Chain Reaction
2x Mizzium Mortars
I only say this because you have excellent game knowledge and probably thought of it yourself, but the comparison in mana values between Siege Rhino and Erhnam Djinn is unfair because it is tri-colored and therefor much harder to cast.
Lots of cards in magic have excellent stats or upsides compared to same-value counterparts because they use a lot more colored mana as a tradeoff.
Wizards famously overestimated the difficulty of casting multicolored spells with their legends cycle, but even after adaptation they view multiple colors as a major downside to allow for cards to have better stats than monocolored counterparts.
Love your series and everything you do, you're doing a great job! Just wanted to point that out.
Cheers,
Psy
I've been able to do insane amounts of damage with Aria of Flame very consistently. It gives each of your opponents 10 life, but takes it away super easily if you play instants and sorceries
There are a few that I would consider to to be good enough to be mentioned (edit but not necessarily be in the top 10) for this list. Many of them have done work in older formats:
Varchild's War Riders is a 3/4 creature for R1 that has trample and rampage 1. It also has a cumulative upkeep of your opponent creating a 1/1 survivor human token under their control. While the token generation for your opponent will quickly get out of hand, the rate of this creature is really good. I've seen some matches where that drawback ended up not mattering in the end bec of how fast the red deck was... with access to cards like Earthquake (RX, sorcery, deals X damage to all creatures without flying and all players), Ball Lightning (RRR, 6/1 Trample, Haste, at the beginning of your end step, sacrifice Ball Lightning)
In Visions, there is a creature called Aku Djinn, which was a BB3 5/6 creature with Trample that gives all your opponent's creature a +1/+1 counter during your turn. The thing is, 5 power with trample is a really fast clock and since black has access to good removal spells, decks that use it don't usually mind their opponent's board getting a little bigger if the game would end a turn or 2 after it comes out
In Mercadian Masques, there was a cycle of what I call "Briber" creature cards: they're fairly costed creatures FOR THEIR TIME but gives your opponent an advantage when they enter the battlefield. The standout in that cycle was Hunted Wumpus: G3 6/6 that allows your opponent to cheat out a creature from their hand. I have played enough games where this lead to my opponent dropping either an insignificant 1/1, a creature I can deal with (Black Green here) or nothing at all! The rest are either ok (White), below standard (Black) or Horrid (Blue basically gives you a 4/4 flier at the cost of giving your opponent a free Ancestral Recall, while Red gives your opponent a free land search... not basic land mind you)
In Urza's Saga and then later in Odyssey, we get Gilded Drake and Chromeshell Crab. I dont know if this will count in this list, but basically, both creatures swap themselves for any creature your opponent control your choice. The drake is better since it costs U1, but it IS pretty beefy as a 3/3 flier.. while the crab requires you to Morph it for U4 (I think?). I dont know if they fit this list, but your opponent DOES get something from you... but you get something from it in return. NOTE: If there are enough of cards which just exchange stuff from your opponent, maybe that can be a Top 10 Idea?
Then also in Ravnica (edit), there is also a cycle of Hunted cards that are actually pretty good: they're mostly aggressively costed but creates all sorts of tokens for your opponent that can be a problem if not handled properly. My favorite of this cycle is Hunted Dragon: RR3 6/6 flying haste that creates 3 2/2 white knight tokens with first strike under your opponent's control. I have rarely been in a situation where those knights become a problem bec summoning this thing usually means my opponent is going down in the next 2 turns. I also was able to use Hunted Llamasu since it only creates a 4/4 black vanila creature under your opponent's control, which is easy to deal with, and I get a WW2 5/5 flier. The rest are too difficult to effectively use
Those are the ones I played with... but i may have missed a few good ones before
The Hunted creatures are from original Ravnica, not Odyssey, fyi.
Gilded Drake could have made the list.
@@fernandobanda5734 Was it Ravnica? Oops... right! Thanks!
Wasn't there a "Hunted" card that made Goblins, the joke being the goblins stood no chance whatsoever?
Goblin Guide was a staple Red Deck wins card for ages
I'm surprised you didn't mention dowsing dagger. For 4 mana and a flyer, you get a gilded lotus early game and all they get is a couple plants
I expected number ten to be off the list, but I get why it's on the list.
Commander has a few cards that work best in that format and have a downside that takes the form of an upside for your opponent.
Intellectual offering lets one of your opponents draw three cards. Then, it lets one of your opponents - which may or may not be the same one - untap all nonland permanents they control.
You get to do both.
It's an instant for 4 and a blue.
The power comes from the fact that if you are in commander with 3+ players and get attacked, you can play it to untap all your nonland permanents. True, there are usually better options for this, but the card draw is unmatched among them, and if you choose a different player for the effects than the attacker, it's likely to leave them wide open.
Assault Suit is an equipment for 4 mana of any kind, has equip 3, and gives the equipped creature +2/+2 and haste. It also lets you give the creature - but not the equipment - to an opponent at the beginning of their Upkeep. If you do, untap it.
Why is this card so powerful?
Firstly, the giving ability is optional.
Secondly, it's the ONLY way I know of to stop Sacrifice effects, as it also says that the equipped creature can't be sacrificed.
Thirdly, it also says that the equipped creature can't attack you or a Planeswalker you control.
This basically means that if there's at least three of players, you can force one of your opponents to attack the other one with one of your creatures. In commander, this makes it easier for your opponents to take lethal Commander Damage, as it doesn't care about who controls the commander.
In a duel, it lets you give your opponent a creature with a downside - like number ten - and stops them from using it against you.
Most powerful of the three I am choosing for my additions is Crown of Doom, an artifact for 3 mana with "Whenever a creature attacks you or a Planeswalker you control, it gets +2/+0" and "Pay 2 mana: Target player gains control of Crown of Doom. You may not give Crown of Doom to its owner this way. Activate only as a sorcery."
The downside is a killer, all right. The fact that you can give it to an opponent makes it powerful. The fact that they have to use one of the Number Six options on things list to give it back to you, and can't give it away at instant speed? Makes it even stronger.
This video has the issue of considering the power level of cards in 1-on-1 matches only, but in Magic there are enough different formats where this doesn't apply and everything changes.
Two-Headed Giant counts your partner as an opponent, which can make cards that give advantage to a single opponent, like Wishclaw or Scheming Simmetry just broken, becoming an upside for your team.
Multiplayer formats like commander have cards that give advantage to your opponent become instantly better due to the natural politics that occur. This is the basis of "group hug" decks: if you play cards that give your opponents something they will just opt not to attack you if they can, since it will lose them resources, and when you have cards that select only one opponent you can mitigate the downside by having them bargain for it. Cards like Scheming Simmetry can become deceptively strong with that, since you can use to force another player to get an answer to a threat on the battlefield and use it while you look for whatever you need, which basically becomes you tutoring for two cards and cheating one out for a single black mana.
You missed Storm Crow, it gives you opponent some epic fights too look forward to.
Would you consider whispering madness as a strong card that benefits opponents?
All players discard their hands and draw equal to the highest number discarded. Cipher. 1u 1b 2 to cast.
I might still be too much of a filthy MtG casual, but I’m kind of amazed you mentioned swords to plowshares and that it had similar cards, without ever mentioning path to exile. I always seem to get the two mixed up (c’mon, why is the one with “plowshares” in the name NOT the one that gets lands 😂), and in the commander games I play Path sees a good bit of use, probably because one mana advantage doesn’t really mean matter in more drawn out commander games (especially in a death and taxes deck)
How about top 10 symetrical effects? (Like Show and Tell).
Wheel of Fortune makes me think of Professor Oak and Imposter Professor Oak from the Pkmn TCG, lol. Dont know why I brought it up but there you have it.
Sheodred combined with that draw spell would be great.
Sheoldred was added to the MTGO Vintage Cube the last time it was available and yes, it's a great payoff for draw 7s :D
I think swan song should really be on this list
Personally I would have replaced Abyssal Persecutor with Terastodon, I thinks its seen wider use and the ability to flicker it is very strong.
Yeah persecutor/djinn are just beatsticks, not too impressive. Terastodon is super nuts though because quite often blowing up 2 of the opponent's permanents was enough, then the elephants given couldn't trade with terastodon. Often got to blow up an irrelevant land or yours too for a bonus 3/3 in stats.
What metric do you guys use to rank cards? Is it competitive wins? Or something else?
what about Gilded Drake? for two mana you give the opponent a 3/3!! for a small price...
Scheming something that is imperial seal from M20 is good too, it's place with wishclaw
Scheming Symmetry? It has it's uses, but I think it's much worse than Wishclaw. For starters, they get their card first unless you have another draw spell. Then there's just a ton of ways to break the symmetry on Wishclaw Talisman. Tutor for Karn Great Creator and they can't even use the claw, or have out any number of things that let you sacrifice artifacts to not let them even get the claw in the first place. Goblin Welder is particularly fun, because you can activate the talisman to get a card, sacrifice it in response to reanimate some big artifact, then next turn trade another artifact to get your wishclaw back. If you have two untap effects, you can also just use all the tutors on the Talisman and then give them a now useless Talisman. All of that is just stuff artifact decks naturally tend to have, with no additional build around needed.
While symmetry on Symmetry can be similarly broken, it requires a lot more to be going right to pull off. It's actually kind of hard to hold onto cantrips long enough to get Symmetry, a cantrip, and the mana to use both and the spell you're getting, as you want to be using those cantrips to dig for the setup. Repeatable draw effects like JVP or some planeswalkers are also vulnerable to interaction. Going in the other direction, milling or exiling the opponent's top card is another option. The problem there is that not many decks run the cards that can do that naturally, meaning you're building around it somewhat. It also gives the opponent the option to play around it if they see it coming. Cards like Ragavan definitely make it a much easier package to slot in these days though.
7:00 adorable!
Grove of the Burnwillows is really notable as a card that saw play simply for being great manafixing but also the combo with Punishing Fire.
Hypergenesis is strong enough effect to be banned in modern.
Show and Tell has been a popular legacy deck for ages.
Exhume stands out as one of the better reanimator cards in the game.
This list is honestly just a mess. Even when combining all "wheels" into one slot, and all "compensation removal" as another, there's still no way random overstated creatures that were okay in Standard should be making the cut. There are tons of powerful symmetrical effects, as you've noted (and others like Veteran Explorer, Living End, Aluren, Standstill), but even lumping all of those into a single slot as well, you'd still have much better choices remaining.
Emrakul, the Promised End gives your opponent an extra turn.
Gilded Drake exchanges itself for any creature you want.
Coveted Jewel lets your opponent steal it, and is a key combo piece in Vintage.
Oko, Thief of Crowns exists (though is probably on the retired list).
Goblin Guide is an actually playable creature with this sort of downside.
Aria of Flame gains your opponent 10 life before burning them out.
What if you use Swords on your own creature?
These are my favorite type of card in the game
Can we get a top 10 most used Keywords like Life Link or Mult-kicker.
I am surprised show and tell didn't feature in this list
I think a video about the joke cards would be awesome
I missed Aria of Flames a bit. In the right deck, this card can be such a pain in commander.
Gilded Drake maybe? It gives your opponent a 3/3 flyer for 2 mana but you get to yoink one of their creatures
Hat about Arcane Denial? Interrupting your opponents combo or big hitter was a mild trade-off for card draw.
Hey love the vids BUT could you show the first printing of cards that you show on screen?
Best way to use wishclaw is with an untap ability like voltaic key! No need to let the opponent draw cards with it.
Amazing!
wishclaw + opposition agent is a pretty brutal combo because you get to tutor and they get to do nothing, if they tutor then you just tutor from their deck.(their are better uses for this, like scheming symmetry, or collective voyage)
or using wheel with tergrid is also pretty busted, i have both of those in my cube for that reason, everybody discards their hands, and i get all the permanents they discarded? ok!
Why is the art on Harmless Offering so damn cute?
Gilted drake always frightens
Now I kinda want to build a janky mill deck around Prosperity (using it as the finisher).
Howling mine in an urza commander deck, lets it be extra cards and a mana rock?
What happens if you have abyssal persecuter in play and deck out your opponent, but then you yourself are decked out with a card in play that says you dont lose the game if you would draw a card when there are no other cards in your library
Then both players have no cards in hand anymore
If the game cannot meaningfully continue, it is a tie.
Possibly, if it's considered by a judge to have been intentionally caused by one of the players, then they may be issued a loss for time wasting or something similar.
Gilded Drake (etb exchange for an opponent's creature. Flicker it and continue to steal your opponent's board)
I'm planning on putting Donate in my Oloro deck to then donate my opponents cards that say "lose the game" on them when a certain condition is met
Better yet, play Phage the Untouchable and then Fractured Identity it, giving each opponent a token copy, and each opponent loses because they didn't cast it!
8:28 archfiend of the dross
Reminder for Dagger Burn
The idea to give opponent creatures and punish them
I know in yugioh there are always super hyped cards that just completely flopped. Are there similar cards in magic that were really hyped up but then just flopped?
My favorite reasoning for negating a cards downside is “Just win before this becomes a problem”
Have people tried to play politics with Abyssal Persecutor in Commander? Seems like a fun idea, I dunno.
I run it in my Jon Irenicus deck.
Donate it to someone else so they can't win and I can't lose, and everyone else at the table wants it to stay there too.
But then when it has to swing at them, they might have to take the damage, if they want to keep the "Cannot lose" effect.
It's a very political deck in general, really.
Handing around cheap big creatures with drawbacks.
I use Prosperity in my Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
so i get to do damage every time i draw a card
Top ten legendary creatures
What if you give your opponent damage to his life points, does that mean every creature gives your opponent something?
I like to use Wishclaw Talisman as a trap. Use it to search for Ob Nixilis Unshackled, then the next player who searches using the Wishclaw has to sacrifice a creature and loses 10 life. 😈
What about a video with the top 10 cards that you want to give to your opponent?
Comment for the algorithm. Top 10 Robots / Automata (aka Artifact Creatures) ?
Surprised Time Vault didnt make it here
no invigorate :(
You completely missed on the stasisorb decks that abused Howling Mine for *years*.......
Emrakul: haha extra turn
Gilded drake?
top 10 best keywords in magic?
Show and Tell
howling mine was used in turbo fog, was a rude deck
10 Best infinite loops?
Hearing "Mine isn't great, it has the same issues as Prosperity" and assuming Yugioh as the context is pretty funny
Trample isn't considered evasion... it's just trample
Pongdify