Wood Elemental also qualifies. Not only because the casting cost is absurd and punishing, but also because you have to declare you're summoning Wood Elemental and it's hard to do that when your opponent won't stop laughing hysterically at you.
They won't be laughing when I turn all lands into creatures, steal all their lands-turned-into-creatures, turn all land into forest, then sacrifice them for this.
4:18 - I'm pretty sure Phage the Untouchable's "you literally lose the game if you cheat her into play" is still the harshest restriction they've put on a card.
The trick is to have your opponent be the one to cheat her into play. I don't remember what jank deck does that, but it is unfortunely nowhere near viable.
........harshest as in HARDEST to, not as in consequences. Phage can be cheated out with omniscience type free casts. Like.....literally references them in the video 🤡🤡👻
Phage is one of my favorite commanders. I show it to people and they look at me like I have four heads, then I cast Phage and slap a swiftfoot boots on it and swing with my measly 4/4 with Deathtouch... oops, Deathtouch to players too, ha ha you're dead.
Phage just needs Torpor Orb or Hushwing Gryff. That's really not so hard at all. The hell of it is when she's in your opponent's graveyard and you have Tariel, Reckoner of Souls.
The few myr decks I played against during that standard really never used superion, even though getting infinite creature mana was shockingly easy in tribe. They tended to blow up around turn 5-7
When it was on standard, i played a mono blue artifact agroo and i casted quite easily with Grand Architect or Semblance Anvil. Myr decks added reservoir to the equation too. But most of the time you saw him next to Heartless Summoning.
Yeah Myr Superion isn't actually THAT hard, especially compared to the other creatures on this list. It's just usually not worth it. It's an interesting design, though, so I can see why they included it.
For #3, there are ways of cheating equipment onto the battlefield from the hand, deck or graveyard or reducing the costs of artifacts/equipment (Stoneforge Mystic probably being the most common example of a creature that can cheat out equipment) For Myr Superion, there are several mana dorks that can tap for more than one mana (Ilysian Caratid, Incubation Druid if you're playing a +1/+1 counter deck, and Gyre Engineer just to name a few)
@@ASoulphoenix yeah, but it costs 3. Imagine a turn 1 land, turn 2 land and a "1/1 myr dork", turn 3 no land but palladium myr, turn 4 _finally_ the Superion. A better version would be turn 1 land + Ornitopther + Springleaf drum, turn 2 land + Palladium, turn 3 superion When you'll get to turn 3 (or 4, for the first execution sample), you should have something better than a vanilla 5/6 beatstick. It wastes you every resource possible
@@nadiacarrel3932 I'd rather use Armor Exe and Kozaky's Giant Kozaky than that spirit and the former 2 die before use with the giant _painfully_ self-destructing without its controller.
7:12 Probably the worst thing about Mechtitan is that the opponent doesn't even have to remove it in order to set you back. The same set that introduced Mechtitan also added Tamiyo's Compleation, a 3U Aura Enchantment with Flash, and the effect where it taps the target as TC enters the battlefield, and the target doesn't tap during its controller's untap step. Since TC has Flash, it can be cast at the beginning of an opponent's combat phase, which means you can put it on MT before it has a chance to even be declared as an attacker. As a result, MT's controller has now invested 5 mana and 5 permanents into a beatstick that they can no longer do anything with. And to add insult to injury, MT doesn't even come with a way to remove itself from the battlefield, so its controller has to either run removal cards of their own, or be willing to invest another 5 artifacts into getting another MT out. I should also note that there are also other cards than Tamiyo's Compleation that can achieve similar effects. Charmed Sleep and Waterknot have the same effect as TC, just for 1 less mana and not having Flash. Meanwhile, White has options like Pacifism and Heliod's Punishment that can prevent a creature from attacking or blocking. I just chose TC for the example because 1) Same set as Mechtitan, 2) Cheaper cost than MT itself, and 3) it having Flash makes it a better immediate response than most similar options.
That problem isn't unique to Mechtitan. An opponent can cast TC on almost any of these creatures. (Except Emrakul) or they could just cast a removal spell on most of these. That's not what this video is about. It's just the hardest creatures to CAST.
I feel like this is a bit of the ol' "dies to doomblade" arguments. All of those equally deal with almost all of the eldrazi, most dragons, almost all demons, most gods, dark and blightsteel colossi, etc. Mechtitan (voltron) is the current memey Beegboi target, though.
I mean....Tru but neither here nor there tho. NOBODY runs TC, only seen it ONCE as a SUPER budget deck. Seen candle trap A LOT more and is also a decent way to deal with it, and still super niche But the way to build mechtican is to do it with a bunch of artifacts that have Etbs and Ltbs abilities. That way you get value 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999% people aren't running a weird deck tech. Or with the new sets, some cheap artifact tokens. You usually need one good hit with mechtitan to stabilize you, if it's removed B4 it can even hit that's fine if you built your deck with e/ltb triggers
I had a lot of fun with Mech Titan in limited where I actually pulled it off a few times in two different decks. One trick was using Oni-cult anvil which produces artifact creatures … combine with some actual artifact creatures worked well. Only downside was anvil tokens don’t come back if mechtitan is killed. However in limited just getting one attack with Mechtitan was enough for a win (or scoop) every time I pulled it off.
I've gotten a turn 2 Emrakul.... with Channel. It was in a very spicy cube. The rest of the deck was pretty underwhelming though, but I will never forget that round.
Myr superion is incredibly easy to cast in the right decks. There are a whole plethora of myr mana dorks as well as a ton of support for myr. It’s a very easy and common to be able to cast it on turn 2, and almost always guaranteed on turn 3. There are other cards that are far more worthy for the list here. Hard casting Progenitus comes to mind. In addition there are other cards like Leveler that aren’t the most difficult to cast but are some of the hardest cards to make use of.
I played BW Angels in Eldritch Moon standard and Brisela was the deck's big finisher. The deck ran several copies of Thalia's Lancers to tutor up whichever angel you needed (usually Bruna since the deck had fewer copies of her compared to Gisela). It wasn't a top tier deck but it was a really fun control-midrange deck. I don't think I ever even got to attack with Brisela since opponents usually conceded right away if they couldn't answer her.
I played that deck too but I found out during a sealed event a G/W deck doing the same thing except Humans is better. When I say doing the same thing I mean turbo Brisela.
Was playing Naya plainswalker control then with nahiri. Most games ended by with brisela being tutored by nahiri, Or needle spires somehow getting huge. (Activate, then target with Nissa to get bigger...and have a Sylvan advocate in play....swing for 10)
Withengar Unbound should become a lot easier with Forge Anew from Tales of Middle-Earth. you can dump it with Goblin Engineer and then reanimate it with Forge Anew and immediately attach it to something like an Ornithopter. turn 3 Withengar Unbound is legitimately viable now
I agree with the comments - Myr Superion is one of the easiest cards imagineable especially for an artifact to get out - and fast. Always had him with my Myr. Definitely a miss from you but thats ok because you rock
It becomes easy if you play Commander or solely focus your Deckbuild on the Cards. Vecna for example, is fairly hard to Deal with, if you got earlier "Threats". The Artifacts are very good on their own and if someone tries to destroy them you can just use the Books Tap-Ability. Vecna is the Secret Commander of my Acererak Deck, along with Ebondeath and our most favorite Dragon with Infect : Skittles.
@@Metal_Maoist Yes. I could do that. But please be patient. I can't do it right know. It's waaaaay past my Bedtime. I live in Germany and it's already 4 AM. XD
@@Metal_Maoist Here you go: Commander (1): Acererak, the Archlich Lands (33): 1x Urborg,Tomb of Yawgmoth 1x Rogue's Passage 1x Temple of the False God 1x Witch's Cottage 1x Bojuka Bog 1x Emergence Zone 1x Castle Locthwain 1x Cabal Stronghold 25x Swamp Artifacts (15): 1x The Book of Vile Darkness 1x Hand of Vecna 1x Eye of Vecna 1x Soul Ring 1x Arcane Signet 1x Command Tower 1x Sword of Light and Shadow 1x Sword of Feast and Famine 1x Phyrexian Altar 1x Bontu's Monument 1x Bolas's Citadel 1x Wand of Orcus 1x Lightning Greaves 1x Swiftfoot Boots 1x Vorpal Sword Enchantments (6): 1x Grave Pact 1x Black Market 1x Warlock Class 1x The Meathook Massacre 1x Precipitous Drop 1x Leyline of the Void Sorceries (13): 1x Necromantic Selection 1x Rise of the Dark Realms 1x Damnation 1x Profane Tutor 1x Fate's Reversal 1x Danse Macabre 1x Diabolic Intent 1x Diabolic Revelation 1x Eldritch Pact 1x Dark Ritual 1x Demogorgon's Clutches 1x Grim Bounty 1x Feed the Swarm Instants (6): 1x Feign Death 1x Grave Endeavor 1x Eyes of the Beholder 1x Ray of Enfeeblement 1x Power Word Kill 1x Deadly Dispute Creatures (25): 1x Ebondeath, Dracolich 1x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon 1x Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder 1x Phyrexian Obliterator 1x Lorcan, Warlock Collector 1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded 1x Ravenloft Adventurer 1x Safana, Calimport Cutthroat 1x Zombie Ogre 1x Passageway Seer 1x Death-Priest of Myrkul 1x Yuan-Ti Fang-Blade 1x Clattering Skeletons 1x Vindictive Lich 1x Ancient Brass Dragon 1x Plague Crafter 1x Bonecaller Cleric 1x Viconia, Drow Apostate 1x Butcher of Malakir 1x Underdark Explorer 1x Vicious Battlerager 1x Custodi Lich 1x Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar 1x Deathtyrant 1x Wight Planeswalker (1): Lolth, Spiderqueen Feel free to make any adjustments. I am also experimenting with many other Cards that are not on this list. But it works incredibly well. At least for me. If you have any Questions regarding my Choices and how the Deck is supposed to work, feel free to ask. Hope you will have as much fun as I have with this Deck. Have a nice day.^^
Primeval Spawn is a fixed Protean Hulk, which is why the slapped that insane casting restriction on it. And, to be fair, it only says no mana on casting. Jodah, Archmage Eternal lets you cheat him out at half cost, for example. It is also a way to cast Emrakul at 1/3 of it's cmc
I think the thing your forgetting about myr superior is that there are alot of ways to reduce the cost of colorless cards and plenty of artifacts to give your mana dorks indestructible or hexproof
Didn't think Kaldra would make an appearance. I loved that cycle when it came out. The fluff of summoning a mighty avatar from three legendary relics was great. Even though I haven't played in years now, I was unusually delighted to see they brought Kaldra back when they revisited the plane.
I thought Hogaak would be on the list. The fact that despite his huge cost YOU CAN'T SPEND MANA ON HIM makes him weird to cast. Maybe not the #1, but somewhere around 8-9 place.
i would put Progenitus (WWUUBBRRGG) at place 10 instead of Emrakul (15), for "hard to cast" sure 15 is a lot, but since all cost reductions are (almost) always neutral, Emrakul is absolutely easier to cast.
I'm new to the deeper knowledge of MtG, but what about those cards that give you one of each mana color all at once? There was some mechanic like that in one of the Mirrodins, I think.
@@RedSpade37 mittodin... i remember cards giving one mana of one color of your choice, or gilded lotus giving 3 mana of one color. and of course the "sunburst" mechanic, which was about "different colors mana spend on the card"... if you mean the "colored" myrs, than again it is unreliable go thet them. (i mean in this example its about hard-casting a big mana creature, not best scenario)
Jerren happens to be a human, so you can also flip him with Moonmist. I tried making a deck on arena using this combo, but there isn't enough support I think. Might work better in paper.
With pain lands and tokens...is it really that hard 🤔. Gonna go see if I have enough copies of him and see if I can make it work Reinforcements, wedding announcement, extraction specialist, serra paragon, archangel of wrath. Pretty decent standard deck already.
Not only without fast mana, but with cards that were all printed after the cutoff for Modern. There's a reason why Dark Depths has been on the Modern banlist since the format's inception (though comboing with Stage would still probably be the bigger issue if it somehow ever came off the list).
i think you have to at least give and honorable mention to the "Cheese Stands Alone" When you control no permanents other than The Cheese Stands Alone and have no cards in hand, you win the game.
Wow, this video is _better_ than what I had in my head! Compliments to whoever pitched this idea. TheManaLogs, would it be ridiculous for you to make this video: "Top 10 Worst Mana Rocks"?
10? By including everything before Darksteel / Mirrodin, You will end up with lots of "10s" of very forgettable mana rocks. Unless you clump them into clusters, obviously
Oh Skaab Ruinator, how I miss thee. I used to run it in my Sidisi commander deck for an aerial threat, and he was so good for a while, but these days he's been power crept out. I still love him though.
I was thinking this as well especially as the other ormendahl was featured. Sacrificing 5 creatures is a hefty cost especially if yoh use the priest you can summon with the abbey. 5 mana for a 1/1 is a terrible trade
I expected Vecna to be on the top of the list, but honestly I had an easier time getting Vecna out than I ever did Ormendahl. And I was able to do it consistently in Standard when it was a thing. Im surprised the new Mishra didnt make the list though given it came out during sets that were removal heavy. At least Urza catered to being in control decks.
I feel like the reason primeval spawns casting restriction is the way it is, is to prevent its own ability from cheating another copy of it into play. Giving you less risk to dying to removal or using it to block a stronger creature
I'm wondering if the tenth spot shouldn't have gone to Progenitus instead. Emrakul costs 1.5 times the total amount of mana, but it's entirely generic, and there are a lot of ways to ramp huge amount of colorless mana (the Urza lands, Sol Ring and Mana Cript being just three examples), but Progenitus requires specific mana fixing, and the most specific mana of any creature having to get exactly those ten specific pips. The main issue is that in 60-card decks you don't want to hard cast either, and Emrakul is a better target to cheat, while in commander (where you do work to hard-cast impressive threats, besides cheating them) Emrakul is banned so you can't compare the two. But considering that other titans like the old Kozilek still get cast more often and more easily, I think that Progenitus is more difficult to cast.
Neat! I asked another commenter this, but I seem to remember there were ways of "cheating 'Skittles' Mana out" back in the day. Some about the 5 Suns of Mirrodin and the Sunburst thing? I'm absolutely misremembering, but I could have sworn there were cards like "Sacrifice this artifact, gain one mana of each color" cards from that set, or something. Anyway, your explanation still holds, and I agree Emrakul has all kinds of cheaty ways, and even I know that, and I'm just a casual haha.
@@RedSpade37 there are cards that let you add colored mana or help you toward making all five colors (in commander you have Morophon that halves Progenitus' cost, for example, and lands that can tap for two or three types of mana help a lot), it's just overall more difficult and less consistent than just getting a lot of generic mana, even with that difference in mana value.
Truth being told Vecna is relatively easy to assemble. Yeah equipments are easier to find... In general, but black has access to many tutor effects and the pieces of vecna are overall cheaper and probably less likely to be interacted with since unlike Kaldra they don't seem to offer "immediate" value. Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying Vecna turbo is gonna take out the Modern meta any day now, but it's not the hardest creature to summon in my opinion.
It would definitely be an interesting commander deck. Like maybe a zombie deck that has vecna as a centerpiece. Or a black draw deck to really amplify that hand ability
My sister had two strategies on her deck and one of them was just Dark Dephts + Aether Snap. Drop the Dark Depths and pop all its counters with Aether Snap for just five mana. I always told her she should run more consistency cards to drop her other creatures faster because this other combo had no tutorage compared to her main strategy, but she still beat my Darksteel Colossus cheese deck 9 times out of 10, and the times she'd lose were always bricks after mulligans.
Primeval spawn is set up in a deck with Atla Palani- who can cheat it into play on purpose, so that you can cascade cheat other stuff into play. This was intentional, and makes primeval spawn so incredibly hard to use anywhere else, it's color identity doesn't help either.
I have a couple copies of Draco in my Dralnu’s Pet vintage deck purely as fodder for Dralnu’s kicker ability. Like 6 mana in total and a quick 16/16 flyer.
It still amazes me to this day that I only made day 2 of a GP thanks for Brisela, was somewhat more common thanks to White Blue tempo in the standard format.
I made a fun janky commander deck a while back based upon kaldra and vecna. Lots of tudors (some proxies) and a lot of mono black good stuff. It's fun, not powerful at all.
Oh man, Spirit of the Night ritual is forever forgoten... seriously just having Feral Shadow, Breathstealer and Urborg Panther in your deck just to play it its madness.
Spirit of the night is not on the list because you can just hard cast it like any other card. It has an alternate way to summon it, but that way is not required.
I think there is a way to cheat out transformed cards. i'm not a mtg judge so I could be wrong, but i know it works with the praetors in one of the new sets on arena. so i assume it works in all cases. if you're able to turn a transform creature into a copy of another transform creature (or saga, land etc.) that has an easier transform ability, transform it then if you can revert it from being a copy, it should turn into the original card, but transformed. though this could probably only work on the praetors i'm not too sure, still hard to pull off though.
Your opinion about Phyrexian Dreadnought? It's pretty hard to pull of fairly since you have to sac creatures worth 12 power, though it may be cheated out with Stifle, or as of lately, Slip out the Back
I really like Myr Superion in my Gwenna EDH deck cause it really facilitates dumping your hand with Cloudstone Curio and cost reducers! Also think the dagger one flipping into a 13/13 is now much easier to do in Stoneforge decks due to Forge Anew being printed (much easier to get it into play if you cheat it into graveyard with something like Entomb). Probably not even worth it over Kaldra Compleat or Hammer but hey, you can do it
Jerren I believe was an answer to the card "Tree of Perdition" the first half of Jerren is already good on it's own if your opponent stupidly used Tree of Perdition on you to get you to 13 life it triggers Jerren transforming him. In which the counter to that would be Triskadekaphobia to try and win the game even with Jerren on the field.
How about a "hardest alternativ summoning", don't know if there are enough for such a list, but as an example the unspeakable from kamigawa (3 specific cards and hope to still have the unspeakable in your deck at the end off the combo)
Strictly speaking, you don't need to CAST Emrakul to get it into play, you just lose the extra turn if you don't cast it. The rest of the card is potent enough that getting it out for cheap is often worth losing the extra turn.
For #8, I'm pretty sure there is more to it than "wizards was deathly afraid of letting you cheat it into play." Instead, it seems to be an interaction with it's leave the battlefield ability. True, you can't cheat a 10/10 vigilance, trample, lifelink onto the field. You can, however, use these creature cheats to effectively cast an instant/sorcery (depending on the speed of the cheat) that lets you exile the top ten cards of your deck and cast creatures with mana values totaling 10 or less from among them. Admittedly, probably a pretty niche use case, but, at least to me, this seems to be part of the design intent.
It doesn't even make sense to make THIS the card that's so hard to cheat compared to griselbrand and such because it isn't an enter the battlefield ability to look at top however many cards and cast spells for free, it's a leave the battlefield. Meaning even if you show and telled it in you need something else to sack it to gain benefit beyond a dumb beater that is outclassed by other beaters.
i remember in standard and historic historic (old historic) i saw plenty of double playset of 1mana dorks in a deck when i was still playing arena when it was possible. tho 8 is still not really enough to consistenly produce 2 mana with them.
Vecna is interesting because it checks the cards in exile so if you turn some other card into one of the pieces you can get multiple abilities which normally are impossible to get on the same card on one vecna... :P
For at least two of them, a full mechtitan set can easily be grabbed with protean hulk and directly put onto field, core + 4 0 or 1 drop artifact creatures. Then it's just a matter of the 5 colorless mana which can easily be done with any number of old rocks. For Withengar, a bit of blue and a mix of urza lands or busted colorless mana rocks can probably have him out by roughly turn 4, though I'm sure someone could come up with a tighter line besides invisible stalker on 2, fabricate or such on 3, complete uzratron on 4, play and equip, swing with unblockable and hexproof. Heck you can get that to turn 3 with a mox. Now that said, it's less a matter of those cards actually being truly difficult to make vs. not being worth making. Even Brisela I can imagine a theoretical turn 2 reanimation set up using buried alive and victimize, but if you're going that far, why not just win anyway?
@@ElykEcralc When it leaves the field, both pieces come back to the board. Furthermore, in a deck for Brisella to work you need to play other threats to absorb removal. Playing them in a G/W humans deck is perfect for that reason.
Someone please help me make a passable Mechtitan Core deck in Explorer. I've tried so hard, but it always just ends up feeling like a house of cards that loses to a stiff breeze.
Fun janky fact, you can transform #2 or accidentally transform your opponent’s if you cast a moonmist. I don’t know if there are any other cards that just straight up transform cards ignoring their triggers
Primeval Spawn could get very cheap in a 5 color Morophon avatars deck. It wouldn't be inconceivable to cast it for 1, but still, that's a lot of hoops
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge's "can be cast from the graveyard but nowhere else" seems more restrictive than some on this list. You can't even use him as a commander because of that.
The only time I ever made Brisela, my opponent untapped and killed me, because she only melds during your end step, so you can't even use her the turn you meld her. I had Lightning Greaves to give her haste and shroud, but it didn't matter, no opportunity to attack with her even with haste.
Maybe I’m underestimating Withengar (number 3) but this doesn’t seem that hard to pull off. It may not be worth it but there are plenty of ways to get equipment on the field early. With its equip cost being 1 an early turn with an 1 creature drop against no defense doesn’t seem out of the ordinary.
I would have loved for Jerren to transform by just paying the mana whenever (or even at sorcery speed), but only if you had exactly 13 life. As it stands, your opponent can just dome you with a Bolt and prevent the trigger from going off. And it's weird, because Ormendahl is good, but he's not SO good as to warrant this kind of limitation
I wonder why Brisela was the only meld on this list? Urza requires a creature and an artifact and a lot of colorless, but the strategy supports mana rocks Mishra requires two specific creatures attacking simultaneously, one of whom has unearth titania needs a creature, a nonbasic land, and a lot of lands in grave, but the cmc is relatively cheap Brisela takes two creatures, both of whom are very expensive in cmc I guess it makes sense after all...
I think mechtitan should be much lower on the list personally, as vehicle decks were made possible due to the Neon Dynasty set it dropped in, which gives a lot more potential targets. I do find it amusing that vecna is not only impossible for standard 60 card play, but also commander. Some of this list would be definitely have to be shifted around if commander was considered. Otherwise, great video!
Mechtitan isn't hard to get out if you have something that produces artifact creature tokens. Sure, you won't get those tokens back if Mechtitan dies BUT if Mechtitan dies, you were probably already going to lose regardless. I've had it out on turn 4 in Arena.
Watching more, the video should have been called creatures that are not worth the difficulty of casting. Some of these are not that hard to cast, but just suck for the trouble.
I remember a game I was playing I had a land that turns into an artifact creature, three other artifact creatures, mechtitan core and karn the great creator. so I would create mechtitan then swing for ten my friend would remove it on his turn then I use karn to get the core back and do that 4 times
yea primeval spawn doesn't have the harshest restriction that winner is phage the untouchable you just straight up lose if you cheat her out but theres a net that if you have a "platinum angel" in play you gete around that
Look up Phage commander decks for a lot more things to cheat her out lol. She even kills you as a commander because she literally has to be cast from your hand. She kills you casting her from the command zone.
@@VCV95 I always felt that was so dumb a rule because it's not like Phage would be OP as a commander even if you could just cast her once you had 7 and didn't have to use stuff like plat angel. Reminds me of the old rules that had Memnarch useless as a commander because you couldn't put islands in your deck and such before the color identity rule change. I guess Skittles can one shot people as commander though it will usually cost more than 7 mana.
It’s so interesting how in MTG the mana costs make everything so much harder to cast and whatnot. And how ez it is in MTG to make a card damn near impossible to play/use in a real game. Excluding the mana costs, these cards seem to be the typical hard to play/use cards in yugioh. If we ignore the mana costs, in yugioh we have cards that require u to go thru many times as many hoops just to play/use. The 200IQ big brain combos needed to make some yugioh cards work successfully r complete insanity.
What are you talking about? Everyone wanted to cast Emrakul because you can't take the extra turn (basically for a free attack) unless you -cast- it. If its cheated into play at all, it doesn't trigger. Everyone ramped like crazy and made as many eldrazi tokens as possible to sac (and usually proc the vampure for life loss) for the colorless mana. I personally watched 4 Emrakuls hard cast in the same tourney.
That's not how it is nowadays. It's used as a big, threatening, nearly untouchable body to smack people with, and is usually brought out with sneak to give haste
People want to cast emrakul, however, there's this annoying fact that it costs 15 and show and tell costs 2U. Sneak attack + activation costs 3RR and just destroys the board of your opponent too. Ramping to it is quite a bit harder.
How to get the Hand of Vecna: Say your Prayer to Tiamat, then bring the axe down, chop your own hand off, attach the hand to your stump, cast heal to attach it and teleport out “I’m sorry it was just business”
I feel like some of these entries are confusing "hardest to make" with how worthy it is to be made. There is plenty of artifact searching and cheating, some at instant speed, more than enough to slide Vecna down a couple of places in my eyes. Also from experience, cards that make the creature during your upkeep or end step specifically vs. instant speed adds some wrinkles in terms of interaction. Finally, I'm not sure how heavily the list should be affected by removal considering with the exception of Emrakul, all of the entries on this list struggle with removal or interaction. More pieces gives more time for removal to happen but having an artifact destroyed to stop Mechtitan Core or Vecna is fairly equal in my eyes.
Wood Elemental also qualifies. Not only because the casting cost is absurd and punishing, but also because you have to declare you're summoning Wood Elemental and it's hard to do that when your opponent won't stop laughing hysterically at you.
Sounds like the perfect creature. If he's too busy laughing he can't counter your spell!
Talk about an instant win card.
@@michaelstapley4878 You may be onto something there.
Hey, he might just give you the win out of pure respect XD
They won't be laughing when I turn all lands into creatures, steal all their lands-turned-into-creatures, turn all land into forest, then sacrifice them for this.
@@takaohasiguchi433 they laugh because they dont know its a combo peice and sac outlet in my yedora combo deck
4:18 - I'm pretty sure Phage the Untouchable's "you literally lose the game if you cheat her into play" is still the harshest restriction they've put on a card.
The trick is to have your opponent be the one to cheat her into play.
I don't remember what jank deck does that, but it is unfortunely nowhere near viable.
Dermotaxi would like to know your location.
I mean, she works with Omniscience whereas Primeval doesn't.
That trigger can be stifled or torpor-orb'd. Primeval Spawn's replacement effect cannot.
Jodah would like a word with you. He makes it even cheaper cmc that protean hulk, plus he is absolutely a card Jodah wants to play.
4:16 Harshest restriction against cheating a card into play.
Phage the Untouchable: Allow me to introduce myself
I immediately thought the same thing. Glad others caught it aswell.
It's always cool when someone casts Phage from the command zone.
........harshest as in HARDEST to, not as in consequences.
Phage can be cheated out with omniscience type free casts. Like.....literally references them in the video 🤡🤡👻
Phage is one of my favorite commanders. I show it to people and they look at me like I have four heads, then I cast Phage and slap a swiftfoot boots on it and swing with my measly 4/4 with Deathtouch... oops, Deathtouch to players too, ha ha you're dead.
Phage just needs Torpor Orb or Hushwing Gryff. That's really not so hard at all. The hell of it is when she's in your opponent's graveyard and you have Tariel, Reckoner of Souls.
Myr Superion was actually pretty easy considering all the mana reduction effects within it's standard, namely heartless summoning and semblence anvil.
Not that anyone ever actually used the latter.
The few myr decks I played against during that standard really never used superion, even though getting infinite creature mana was shockingly easy in tribe. They tended to blow up around turn 5-7
When it was on standard, i played a mono blue artifact agroo and i casted quite easily with Grand Architect or Semblance Anvil. Myr decks added reservoir to the equation too. But most of the time you saw him next to Heartless Summoning.
Yeah Myr Superion isn't actually THAT hard, especially compared to the other creatures on this list. It's just usually not worth it.
It's an interesting design, though, so I can see why they included it.
@@gregconen it's fun in myr affinity or as a toss in in some elfball variants, but a cheap (basically) vanilla beater is... Not good. Lol
I have a commander deck with Vecna, Brisela, Elbrus, and Kaldra. I'm considering adding Marit Lage to that deck 😂
Have you ever actually gotten to play a card with that deck? 😂
Myr Superion can easily be cast off of a Burning Tree Emissary which is pretty spicy for an 8wack deck.
My words brother
Honorable mention goes to Gleemax for having a mana cost so huge that they drew a special symbol. It costs a million mana.
ManaLogs: "Here is a list of the hardest to make Creatures in Magic"
Me: "Ah, fine additions to my list of cards i want to build decks around"
For #3, there are ways of cheating equipment onto the battlefield from the hand, deck or graveyard or reducing the costs of artifacts/equipment (Stoneforge Mystic probably being the most common example of a creature that can cheat out equipment)
For Myr Superion, there are several mana dorks that can tap for more than one mana (Ilysian Caratid, Incubation Druid if you're playing a +1/+1 counter deck, and Gyre Engineer just to name a few)
there's even Palladium myr (i think) that can produce the 2 colorless mana needed for Superion
@@ASoulphoenix yeah, but it costs 3. Imagine a turn 1 land, turn 2 land and a "1/1 myr dork", turn 3 no land but palladium myr, turn 4 _finally_ the Superion. A better version would be turn 1 land + Ornitopther + Springleaf drum, turn 2 land + Palladium, turn 3 superion
When you'll get to turn 3 (or 4, for the first execution sample), you should have something better than a vanilla 5/6 beatstick.
It wastes you every resource possible
There's also Heartless Summoning + Myr Superion for cheating out zero-cost 4/5's. Not exactly modern worthy but fun for kitchen table magic.
So, Brisela and Vecna have the same issues of needing specific cards to get them.
We all know how THAT worked in old Yu-Gi-Oh!
Still better than Spirit of the Pharaoh.
@@nadiacarrel3932 True. True.
@@nadiacarrel3932 I'd rather use Armor Exe and Kozaky's Giant Kozaky than that spirit and the former 2 die before use with the giant _painfully_ self-destructing without its controller.
7:12 Probably the worst thing about Mechtitan is that the opponent doesn't even have to remove it in order to set you back. The same set that introduced Mechtitan also added Tamiyo's Compleation, a 3U Aura Enchantment with Flash, and the effect where it taps the target as TC enters the battlefield, and the target doesn't tap during its controller's untap step. Since TC has Flash, it can be cast at the beginning of an opponent's combat phase, which means you can put it on MT before it has a chance to even be declared as an attacker. As a result, MT's controller has now invested 5 mana and 5 permanents into a beatstick that they can no longer do anything with. And to add insult to injury, MT doesn't even come with a way to remove itself from the battlefield, so its controller has to either run removal cards of their own, or be willing to invest another 5 artifacts into getting another MT out.
I should also note that there are also other cards than Tamiyo's Compleation that can achieve similar effects. Charmed Sleep and Waterknot have the same effect as TC, just for 1 less mana and not having Flash. Meanwhile, White has options like Pacifism and Heliod's Punishment that can prevent a creature from attacking or blocking. I just chose TC for the example because 1) Same set as Mechtitan, 2) Cheaper cost than MT itself, and 3) it having Flash makes it a better immediate response than most similar options.
That problem isn't unique to Mechtitan. An opponent can cast TC on almost any of these creatures. (Except Emrakul) or they could just cast a removal spell on most of these. That's not what this video is about. It's just the hardest creatures to CAST.
I feel like this is a bit of the ol' "dies to doomblade" arguments. All of those equally deal with almost all of the eldrazi, most dragons, almost all demons, most gods, dark and blightsteel colossi, etc. Mechtitan (voltron) is the current memey Beegboi target, though.
I mean....Tru but neither here nor there tho. NOBODY runs TC, only seen it ONCE as a SUPER budget deck. Seen candle trap A LOT more and is also a decent way to deal with it, and still super niche
But the way to build mechtican is to do it with a bunch of artifacts that have Etbs and Ltbs abilities. That way you get value 99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999% people aren't running a weird deck tech. Or with the new sets, some cheap artifact tokens.
You usually need one good hit with mechtitan to stabilize you, if it's removed B4 it can even hit that's fine if you built your deck with e/ltb triggers
@@luisgutierrez8047 funny thing, mechtitan can exile Prototype creatures and return them as the big side. There's even an etb draw a card white mech.
I had a lot of fun with Mech Titan in limited where I actually pulled it off a few times in two different decks. One trick was using Oni-cult anvil which produces artifact creatures … combine with some actual artifact creatures worked well. Only downside was anvil tokens don’t come back if mechtitan is killed. However in limited just getting one attack with Mechtitan was enough for a win (or scoop) every time I pulled it off.
I've gotten a turn 2 Emrakul.... with Channel. It was in a very spicy cube. The rest of the deck was pretty underwhelming though, but I will never forget that round.
Expected to see the BFM here, even if it is silver bordered.
BFM is silver-bordered, which is what I'm sure you meant.
@@SomeGuy712x thanks for the correction.
Merit Lage's Slumber isn't so difficult with all the other snow permanents you can play before it. Dedicated ❄️ deck can get it out often.
I honestly don't know how he thought it belonged on this list at all
Myr superion is incredibly easy to cast in the right decks. There are a whole plethora of myr mana dorks as well as a ton of support for myr. It’s a very easy and common to be able to cast it on turn 2, and almost always guaranteed on turn 3. There are other cards that are far more worthy for the list here. Hard casting Progenitus comes to mind. In addition there are other cards like Leveler that aren’t the most difficult to cast but are some of the hardest cards to make use of.
Anyone remember "Spirit of the Night" alt summon condition on Urborg Panther (needing Urborg Panther, Breathstealer, and Feral Shadow) from Mirage?
MT core is my favorite card in my mishra, eminent one deck. Being able to convert the token copy of the core into MT is so clutch.
I played BW Angels in Eldritch Moon standard and Brisela was the deck's big finisher. The deck ran several copies of Thalia's Lancers to tutor up whichever angel you needed (usually Bruna since the deck had fewer copies of her compared to Gisela). It wasn't a top tier deck but it was a really fun control-midrange deck. I don't think I ever even got to attack with Brisela since opponents usually conceded right away if they couldn't answer her.
I played that deck too but I found out during a sealed event a G/W deck doing the same thing except Humans is better.
When I say doing the same thing I mean turbo Brisela.
Was playing Naya plainswalker control then with nahiri.
Most games ended by with brisela being tutored by nahiri,
Or needle spires somehow getting huge. (Activate, then target with Nissa to get bigger...and have a Sylvan advocate in play....swing for 10)
Withengar Unbound should become a lot easier with Forge Anew from Tales of Middle-Earth. you can dump it with Goblin Engineer and then reanimate it with Forge Anew and immediately attach it to something like an Ornithopter. turn 3 Withengar Unbound is legitimately viable now
I agree with the comments - Myr Superion is one of the easiest cards imagineable especially for an artifact to get out - and fast. Always had him with my Myr. Definitely a miss from you but thats ok because you rock
It becomes easy if you play Commander or solely focus your Deckbuild on the Cards. Vecna for example, is fairly hard to Deal with, if you got earlier "Threats". The Artifacts are very good on their own and if someone tries to destroy them you can just use the Books Tap-Ability. Vecna is the Secret Commander of my Acererak Deck, along with Ebondeath and our most favorite Dragon with Infect : Skittles.
That sounds really fun! Could you maybe give me the whole deck list? Don't know if I'll ever get around to trying it out but it seems cool
Commander players STFU challenge.
@@Metal_Maoist Yes. I could do that. But please be patient. I can't do it right know. It's waaaaay past my Bedtime. I live in Germany and it's already 4 AM. XD
@@Metal_Maoist Here you go:
Commander (1):
Acererak, the Archlich
Lands (33):
1x Urborg,Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Rogue's Passage
1x Temple of the False God
1x Witch's Cottage
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Emergence Zone
1x Castle Locthwain
1x Cabal Stronghold
25x Swamp
Artifacts (15):
1x The Book of Vile Darkness
1x Hand of Vecna
1x Eye of Vecna
1x Soul Ring
1x Arcane Signet
1x Command Tower
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
1x Sword of Feast and Famine
1x Phyrexian Altar
1x Bontu's Monument
1x Bolas's Citadel
1x Wand of Orcus
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Vorpal Sword
Enchantments (6):
1x Grave Pact
1x Black Market
1x Warlock Class
1x The Meathook Massacre
1x Precipitous Drop
1x Leyline of the Void
Sorceries (13):
1x Necromantic Selection
1x Rise of the Dark Realms
1x Damnation
1x Profane Tutor
1x Fate's Reversal
1x Danse Macabre
1x Diabolic Intent
1x Diabolic Revelation
1x Eldritch Pact
1x Dark Ritual
1x Demogorgon's Clutches
1x Grim Bounty
1x Feed the Swarm
Instants (6):
1x Feign Death
1x Grave Endeavor
1x Eyes of the Beholder
1x Ray of Enfeeblement
1x Power Word Kill
1x Deadly Dispute
Creatures (25):
1x Ebondeath, Dracolich
1x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
1x Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder
1x Phyrexian Obliterator
1x Lorcan, Warlock Collector
1x Razaketh, the Foulblooded
1x Ravenloft Adventurer
1x Safana, Calimport Cutthroat
1x Zombie Ogre
1x Passageway Seer
1x Death-Priest of Myrkul
1x Yuan-Ti Fang-Blade
1x Clattering Skeletons
1x Vindictive Lich
1x Ancient Brass Dragon
1x Plague Crafter
1x Bonecaller Cleric
1x Viconia, Drow Apostate
1x Butcher of Malakir
1x Underdark Explorer
1x Vicious Battlerager
1x Custodi Lich
1x Shadowheart, Dark Justiciar
1x Deathtyrant
1x Wight
Planeswalker (1):
Lolth, Spiderqueen
Feel free to make any adjustments. I am also experimenting with many other Cards that are not on this list. But it works incredibly well. At least for me. If you have any Questions regarding my Choices and how the Deck is supposed to work, feel free to ask.
Hope you will have as much fun as I have with this Deck.
Have a nice day.^^
@@rezthemediaruler3768 Thank you! I live in Germany too btw so don't worry I wasn't expecting you to answer immediately
Primeval Spawn is a fixed Protean Hulk, which is why the slapped that insane casting restriction on it.
And, to be fair, it only says no mana on casting. Jodah, Archmage Eternal lets you cheat him out at half cost, for example. It is also a way to cast Emrakul at 1/3 of it's cmc
I am just now getting the whole squirrel thing with Emrakul. I always thought she had protection from everything, not just colored spells.
I think the thing your forgetting about myr superior is that there are alot of ways to reduce the cost of colorless cards and plenty of artifacts to give your mana dorks indestructible or hexproof
Didn't think Kaldra would make an appearance. I loved that cycle when it came out. The fluff of summoning a mighty avatar from three legendary relics was great. Even though I haven't played in years now, I was unusually delighted to see they brought Kaldra back when they revisited the plane.
I thought Hogaak would be on the list. The fact that despite his huge cost YOU CAN'T SPEND MANA ON HIM makes him weird to cast. Maybe not the #1, but somewhere around 8-9 place.
i would put Progenitus (WWUUBBRRGG) at place 10 instead of Emrakul (15), for "hard to cast"
sure 15 is a lot, but since all cost reductions are (almost) always neutral, Emrakul is absolutely easier to cast.
I'm new to the deeper knowledge of MtG, but what about those cards that give you one of each mana color all at once? There was some mechanic like that in one of the Mirrodins, I think.
True, ManaLogs said that "you don't cast it".
@@RedSpade37 mittodin...
i remember cards giving one mana of one color of your choice,
or gilded lotus giving 3 mana of one color.
and of course the "sunburst" mechanic, which was about "different colors mana spend on the card"...
if you mean the "colored" myrs, than again it is unreliable go thet them.
(i mean in this example its about hard-casting a big mana creature, not best scenario)
@@dorping_Wolf It's been years, so I misremembered and had some wires crossed, but thanks for the info! One day, I will summon Progenitus, haha
Jerren happens to be a human, so you can also flip him with Moonmist. I tried making a deck on arena using this combo, but there isn't enough support I think. Might work better in paper.
With pain lands and tokens...is it really that hard 🤔. Gonna go see if I have enough copies of him and see if I can make it work
Reinforcements, wedding announcement, extraction specialist, serra paragon, archangel of wrath. Pretty decent standard deck already.
Turn 2 Marit is possible w/o fast mana. Drop an Urborg, Dark, then cast Vapire Hexmage.
Not only without fast mana, but with cards that were all printed after the cutoff for Modern. There's a reason why Dark Depths has been on the Modern banlist since the format's inception (though comboing with Stage would still probably be the bigger issue if it somehow ever came off the list).
Jerren IS hard to flip, but I've always found the front side more useful anyway.
i think you have to at least give and honorable mention to the "Cheese Stands Alone"
When you control no permanents other than The Cheese Stands Alone and have no cards in hand, you win the game.
Barren Glory is harder
Wow, this video is _better_ than what I had in my head! Compliments to whoever pitched this idea.
TheManaLogs, would it be ridiculous for you to make this video: "Top 10 Worst Mana Rocks"?
10? By including everything before Darksteel / Mirrodin, You will end up with lots of "10s" of very forgettable mana rocks. Unless you clump them into clusters, obviously
Oh Skaab Ruinator, how I miss thee. I used to run it in my Sidisi commander deck for an aerial threat, and he was so good for a while, but these days he's been power crept out. I still love him though.
I am a bit surprised to not see Ormendahl, Profane Prince in the 10 or 9
I was thinking this as well especially as the other ormendahl was featured. Sacrificing 5 creatures is a hefty cost especially if yoh use the priest you can summon with the abbey. 5 mana for a 1/1 is a terrible trade
I always had a relatively easy time transforming westvale abbey. Love that card.
I run Elbrus in an WB commander deck with a lot of unlockable creatures. It feels so good when it pops
I expected Vecna to be on the top of the list, but honestly I had an easier time getting Vecna out than I ever did Ormendahl. And I was able to do it consistently in Standard when it was a thing. Im surprised the new Mishra didnt make the list though given it came out during sets that were removal heavy. At least Urza catered to being in control decks.
I feel like the reason primeval spawns casting restriction is the way it is, is to prevent its own ability from cheating another copy of it into play. Giving you less risk to dying to removal or using it to block a stronger creature
I'm wondering if the tenth spot shouldn't have gone to Progenitus instead.
Emrakul costs 1.5 times the total amount of mana, but it's entirely generic, and there are a lot of ways to ramp huge amount of colorless mana (the Urza lands, Sol Ring and Mana Cript being just three examples), but Progenitus requires specific mana fixing, and the most specific mana of any creature having to get exactly those ten specific pips.
The main issue is that in 60-card decks you don't want to hard cast either, and Emrakul is a better target to cheat, while in commander (where you do work to hard-cast impressive threats, besides cheating them) Emrakul is banned so you can't compare the two. But considering that other titans like the old Kozilek still get cast more often and more easily, I think that Progenitus is more difficult to cast.
Neat! I asked another commenter this, but I seem to remember there were ways of "cheating 'Skittles' Mana out" back in the day. Some about the 5 Suns of Mirrodin and the Sunburst thing?
I'm absolutely misremembering, but I could have sworn there were cards like "Sacrifice this artifact, gain one mana of each color" cards from that set, or something.
Anyway, your explanation still holds, and I agree Emrakul has all kinds of cheaty ways, and even I know that, and I'm just a casual haha.
@@RedSpade37 there are cards that let you add colored mana or help you toward making all five colors (in commander you have Morophon that halves Progenitus' cost, for example, and lands that can tap for two or three types of mana help a lot), it's just overall more difficult and less consistent than just getting a lot of generic mana, even with that difference in mana value.
@@themantyf1116 That makes sense, thanks!
Truth being told Vecna is relatively easy to assemble. Yeah equipments are easier to find... In general, but black has access to many tutor effects and the pieces of vecna are overall cheaper and probably less likely to be interacted with since unlike Kaldra they don't seem to offer "immediate" value.
Now don't get me wrong I'm not saying Vecna turbo is gonna take out the Modern meta any day now, but it's not the hardest creature to summon in my opinion.
It would definitely be an interesting commander deck. Like maybe a zombie deck that has vecna as a centerpiece. Or a black draw deck to really amplify that hand ability
My sister had two strategies on her deck and one of them was just Dark Dephts + Aether Snap. Drop the Dark Depths and pop all its counters with Aether Snap for just five mana. I always told her she should run more consistency cards to drop her other creatures faster because this other combo had no tutorage compared to her main strategy, but she still beat my Darksteel Colossus cheese deck 9 times out of 10, and the times she'd lose were always bricks after mulligans.
I always loved the idea of casting myr superion off of burning tree emissary. Or just using æther vial/ coco
Primeval spawn is set up in a deck with Atla Palani- who can cheat it into play on purpose, so that you can cascade cheat other stuff into play.
This was intentional, and makes primeval spawn so incredibly hard to use anywhere else, it's color identity doesn't help either.
4:22 The harshest restriction Wizards has ever put on a card to prevent it from getting cheated out.
He forgets that Phage the Untouchable exists.
I have a couple copies of Draco in my Dralnu’s Pet vintage deck purely as fodder for Dralnu’s kicker ability. Like 6 mana in total and a quick 16/16 flyer.
It still amazes me to this day that I only made day 2 of a GP thanks for Brisela, was somewhat more common thanks to White Blue tempo in the standard format.
I made a fun janky commander deck a while back based upon kaldra and vecna. Lots of tudors (some proxies) and a lot of mono black good stuff. It's fun, not powerful at all.
Go black/white or Esper.The best equipment support un the game is white, and there is a lot of artifact cost reduction in blue.
Bruna and Gisela are a super cool idea even if they underdeliver.
Nah, whenever she hits the board the opponent auto scoops.
Dude, use spell check
8:35 Cratue =/= "Creature"
14:38 Waqll =/= Wall
Speaking of Myr Superion, there's also Imperiosaur.
But it's not as convoluted since you play basic lands anyways.
You can cheat the Myr Superion onto the field very easily. Burning-Tree Emissary works quite well. As does heartleas summoning.
Oh man, Spirit of the Night ritual is forever forgoten... seriously just having Feral Shadow, Breathstealer and Urborg Panther in your deck just to play it its madness.
Spirit of the night is not on the list because you can just hard cast it like any other card. It has an alternate way to summon it, but that way is not required.
I think there is a way to cheat out transformed cards. i'm not a mtg judge so I could be wrong, but i know it works with the praetors in one of the new sets on arena. so i assume it works in all cases. if you're able to turn a transform creature into a copy of another transform creature (or saga, land etc.) that has an easier transform ability, transform it then if you can revert it from being a copy, it should turn into the original card, but transformed. though this could probably only work on the praetors i'm not too sure, still hard to pull off though.
Your opinion about Phyrexian Dreadnought? It's pretty hard to pull of fairly since you have to sac creatures worth 12 power, though it may be cheated out with Stifle, or as of lately, Slip out the Back
I really like Myr Superion in my Gwenna EDH deck cause it really facilitates dumping your hand with Cloudstone Curio and cost reducers! Also think the dagger one flipping into a 13/13 is now much easier to do in Stoneforge decks due to Forge Anew being printed (much easier to get it into play if you cheat it into graveyard with something like Entomb). Probably not even worth it over Kaldra Compleat or Hammer but hey, you can do it
Jerren I believe was an answer to the card "Tree of Perdition" the first half of Jerren is already good on it's own if your opponent stupidly used Tree of Perdition on you to get you to 13 life it triggers Jerren transforming him. In which the counter to that would be Triskadekaphobia to try and win the game even with Jerren on the field.
No Kaldra?
I also had a deck with myr superion and heartless summoning/unearth that reliably gets him out turn one and two.
Cant you just use Aether Vial to put Myr Superion into play?
How about a "hardest alternativ summoning", don't know if there are enough for such a list, but as an example the unspeakable from kamigawa (3 specific cards and hope to still have the unspeakable in your deck at the end off the combo)
Strictly speaking, you don't need to CAST Emrakul to get it into play, you just lose the extra turn if you don't cast it.
The rest of the card is potent enough that getting it out for cheap is often worth losing the extra turn.
For #8, I'm pretty sure there is more to it than "wizards was deathly afraid of letting you cheat it into play." Instead, it seems to be an interaction with it's leave the battlefield ability. True, you can't cheat a 10/10 vigilance, trample, lifelink onto the field. You can, however, use these creature cheats to effectively cast an instant/sorcery (depending on the speed of the cheat) that lets you exile the top ten cards of your deck and cast creatures with mana values totaling 10 or less from among them. Admittedly, probably a pretty niche use case, but, at least to me, this seems to be part of the design intent.
It exiles instead of entering the battlefield. It never enters, so it can't leave
It doesn't even make sense to make THIS the card that's so hard to cheat compared to griselbrand and such because it isn't an enter the battlefield ability to look at top however many cards and cast spells for free, it's a leave the battlefield. Meaning even if you show and telled it in you need something else to sack it to gain benefit beyond a dumb beater that is outclassed by other beaters.
@@jesszendrex2151 LOL you right, I misread that.
i remember in standard and historic historic (old historic) i saw plenty of double playset of 1mana dorks in a deck when i was still playing arena when it was possible. tho 8 is still not really enough to consistenly produce 2 mana with them.
Could we get a Top Ten Squirrel-Related Cards video please?
Actually used black market in a token deck once to bring all 3 parts of vecna out in single turn and then bring out vecna….
It`s not in regulation, but, BFM, in cracked, was badass at the time.
Re: Dark Depths, you forgot about Vampire Hexmage or Aether Snap, the old-school way to do it.
Vecna is interesting because it checks the cards in exile so if you turn some other card into one of the pieces you can get multiple abilities which normally are impossible to get on the same card on one vecna... :P
Plus ya know,’ you’d be playing cards like go for the throat etc to control the field
For at least two of them, a full mechtitan set can easily be grabbed with protean hulk and directly put onto field, core + 4 0 or 1 drop artifact creatures. Then it's just a matter of the 5 colorless mana which can easily be done with any number of old rocks.
For Withengar, a bit of blue and a mix of urza lands or busted colorless mana rocks can probably have him out by roughly turn 4, though I'm sure someone could come up with a tighter line besides invisible stalker on 2, fabricate or such on 3, complete uzratron on 4, play and equip, swing with unblockable and hexproof. Heck you can get that to turn 3 with a mox.
Now that said, it's less a matter of those cards actually being truly difficult to make vs. not being worth making. Even Brisela I can imagine a theoretical turn 2 reanimation set up using buried alive and victimize, but if you're going that far, why not just win anyway?
Brisela is a floodgate, you WILL win when she hits the board.
@@iBloodxHunter leyline binding...
@@ElykEcralc When it leaves the field, both pieces come back to the board.
Furthermore, in a deck for Brisella to work you need to play other threats to absorb removal. Playing them in a G/W humans deck is perfect for that reason.
Someone please help me make a passable Mechtitan Core deck in Explorer. I've tried so hard, but it always just ends up feeling like a house of cards that loses to a stiff breeze.
Would you be able to cast Myr superion with the mana generated by Simian spirit guide and other similar cards?
No, because Superion requires mana from creatures and SSG is a creature CARD. It’s a distinction with the battlefield
Fun janky fact, you can transform #2 or accidentally transform your opponent’s if you cast a moonmist. I don’t know if there are any other cards that just straight up transform cards ignoring their triggers
What about mana rocks that can be upgraded somehow or that require additional resources (like Skyclave Relic or Springleaf Drum)
Primeval Spawn could get very cheap in a 5 color Morophon avatars deck. It wouldn't be inconceivable to cast it for 1, but still, that's a lot of hoops
Amazing!!!!🎉🎉🎉
Haakon, Stromgald Scourge's "can be cast from the graveyard but nowhere else" seems more restrictive than some on this list. You can't even use him as a commander because of that.
Wouldn't it be pretty good for Dredge decks?
No honorable mention for Big Furry Monster? :)
was hoping for B.F.M. or Phyrexian Dreadnaught on this list... :(
The only time I ever made Brisela, my opponent untapped and killed me, because she only melds during your end step, so you can't even use her the turn you meld her. I had Lightning Greaves to give her haste and shroud, but it didn't matter, no opportunity to attack with her even with haste.
Maybe I’m underestimating Withengar (number 3) but this doesn’t seem that hard to pull off. It may not be worth it but there are plenty of ways to get equipment on the field early. With its equip cost being 1 an early turn with an 1 creature drop against no defense doesn’t seem out of the ordinary.
Problem is, if you can cheat out that equipment, your deck is often times better off cheating out one of the swords or the big hammer instead.
I would have loved for Jerren to transform by just paying the mana whenever (or even at sorcery speed), but only if you had exactly 13 life.
As it stands, your opponent can just dome you with a Bolt and prevent the trigger from going off. And it's weird, because Ormendahl is good, but he's not SO good as to warrant this kind of limitation
Myr Superion was an easy card to use in my Grand Architect deck. That said I can see why other decks would have issues.
primevil spawn probably has the "mana must be spent" clause so you cant chain them back to back
I wonder why Brisela was the only meld on this list?
Urza requires a creature and an artifact and a lot of colorless, but the strategy supports mana rocks
Mishra requires two specific creatures attacking simultaneously, one of whom has unearth
titania needs a creature, a nonbasic land, and a lot of lands in grave, but the cmc is relatively cheap
Brisela takes two creatures, both of whom are very expensive in cmc
I guess it makes sense after all...
I think mechtitan should be much lower on the list personally, as vehicle decks were made possible due to the Neon Dynasty set it dropped in, which gives a lot more potential targets.
I do find it amusing that vecna is not only impossible for standard 60 card play, but also commander. Some of this list would be definitely have to be shifted around if commander was considered.
Otherwise, great video!
Phage the untouchable also hard a super harsh effect if you cheat it in to play you straight up lose the game on the spot
You may not touch Phage if you cheat. You are Phaged Out without base metal calling divinity.
There's also Spirit of the Night, which requires you to control Urborg Panther, Feral Shadow, and Breathstealer (all very mediocre creatures).
ngl I really dont think myr superion deserves to be on this list, I have zero trouble getting it out in my myr tribal deck
Mechtitan isn't hard to get out if you have something that produces artifact creature tokens. Sure, you won't get those tokens back if Mechtitan dies BUT if Mechtitan dies, you were probably already going to lose regardless. I've had it out on turn 4 in Arena.
The problem with Ruinator isn’t that it’s hard to cast, it just sucks for the cost. Like you said dredge decks can do it pretty easy.
Watching more, the video should have been called creatures that are not worth the difficulty of casting. Some of these are not that hard to cast, but just suck for the trouble.
@@nathannjh Or at least clarify if this list is about cast-worthiness.
Where did the term "Mana dorks" come from?
I remember a game I was playing I had a land that turns into an artifact creature, three other artifact creatures, mechtitan core and karn the great creator. so I would create mechtitan then swing for ten my friend would remove it on his turn then I use karn to get the core back and do that 4 times
yea primeval spawn doesn't have the harshest restriction
that winner is phage the untouchable you just straight up lose if you cheat her out but theres a net that if you have a "platinum angel" in play you gete around that
Look up Phage commander decks for a lot more things to cheat her out lol. She even kills you as a commander because she literally has to be cast from your hand. She kills you casting her from the command zone.
@@VCV95 I always felt that was so dumb a rule because it's not like Phage would be OP as a commander even if you could just cast her once you had 7 and didn't have to use stuff like plat angel. Reminds me of the old rules that had Memnarch useless as a commander because you couldn't put islands in your deck and such before the color identity rule change. I guess Skittles can one shot people as commander though it will usually cost more than 7 mana.
@@VCV95 I already know
Besides well before this comment I already commented a similar thing but linking the actual cards
Wait, MTG has fusion summoning now?
Withengar is great in ninjas or decks with Brass Squire
It’s so interesting how in MTG the mana costs make everything so much harder to cast and whatnot. And how ez it is in MTG to make a card damn near impossible to play/use in a real game. Excluding the mana costs, these cards seem to be the typical hard to play/use cards in yugioh. If we ignore the mana costs, in yugioh we have cards that require u to go thru many times as many hoops just to play/use. The 200IQ big brain combos needed to make some yugioh cards work successfully r complete insanity.
What are you talking about? Everyone wanted to cast Emrakul because you can't take the extra turn (basically for a free attack) unless you -cast- it. If its cheated into play at all, it doesn't trigger. Everyone ramped like crazy and made as many eldrazi tokens as possible to sac (and usually proc the vampure for life loss) for the colorless mana. I personally watched 4 Emrakuls hard cast in the same tourney.
That's not how it is nowadays. It's used as a big, threatening, nearly untouchable body to smack people with, and is usually brought out with sneak to give haste
People want to cast emrakul, however, there's this annoying fact that it costs 15 and show and tell costs 2U. Sneak attack + activation costs 3RR and just destroys the board of your opponent too. Ramping to it is quite a bit harder.
How to get the Hand of Vecna:
Say your Prayer to Tiamat, then bring the axe down, chop your own hand off, attach the hand to your stump, cast heal to attach it and teleport out “I’m sorry it was just business”
I've gotten to cheat cast primeval spawn several times thanks to hideaway in my 5 color omnath deck.
The Big Furry Monster cost 15 Black mana and requires that you have both halves, so is harder to cast.
Joke set cards generally aren't counted.
@@nadiacarrel3932big furry monster is NOT a joke
@@AwakenedAvocado But he is unglued.
@@Prince_Eva_Huepow think i have one half of BFM so halfway there
What rule allows for thespian stage to copy dark depths with no counters on it?
Always been curious.
Dark depths Enters the battlefield with the counters. Thespian stage is already in play, and becomes a copy of dark depths.
@@joecary3586 And what effect does "this effect" mean? A "copy effect"?
I feel like some of these entries are confusing "hardest to make" with how worthy it is to be made. There is plenty of artifact searching and cheating, some at instant speed, more than enough to slide Vecna down a couple of places in my eyes. Also from experience, cards that make the creature during your upkeep or end step specifically vs. instant speed adds some wrinkles in terms of interaction. Finally, I'm not sure how heavily the list should be affected by removal considering with the exception of Emrakul, all of the entries on this list struggle with removal or interaction. More pieces gives more time for removal to happen but having an artifact destroyed to stop Mechtitan Core or Vecna is fairly equal in my eyes.