You know what would be a really cool card design? A saga that flips into a Planeswalker upon completion of the saga. Use the saga as a representation of how that walker acauired their spark.
Honestly kind of surprised this hasn't been done with like Tamiyo or somebody like that. Kellan even. Or that it wasn't done in the opposite direction sort of for a walker that got compleated, telling the story of their downfall and then flipping into their Compleated form.
I love the way giant growth showcases a ton of what makes magic fun, while also being an incredibly versatile, fun, and simple card. Sometimes you get to use it like lightning bolt to deal the last 3 damage to win the game, sometimes it acts like counterspell, stopping your opponent's bolt from killing your creature, sometimes it lets you blow your opponent out mid-combat. Further, it becomes even more beneficial with certain creature abilities like first & double strike, adding yet another layer to the card. But at its surface, it's a wonderfully easy card to understand. "Creature get big." Absolute home run of a design, not to mention the fact that it has been the lens through which we view all other combat tricks 30+ years later.
The best thing about Fact or Fiction is that as great a design as it is in 1v1, it gets even better in multiplayer! If you’re the archenemy no opponent will pick in your best interests, but if you’re behind you may end up with a 0 and 5 split if you choose your opponent right. It’s almost like rubber-banding.
Knights of Autumn might be the best example of modern etb triggers. 3 modes, each one of them having their place and time, without it ever being broken.
I'm gonna advocate in favor of "run away together" here. The card is simple, yet effective. It is no hard removal, which would be devastating to have in blue, but rather effectively buys you some time or temporarily gets rid of a horrible threat your opponent cheated out. And it does it in the most darling way imaginable - by having a kitten snuggle up to a death knight and both realizing they just want some peace and quiet for once. Away from their powermongering planeswalker overlords. I think it's one of the loveliest designs in the game.
That’s an excellent pick. It’s a unique, but simple to understand effect which is reasonably costed and “on brand” for the color. As a bonus, the artwork even gives a hint of how it can be used within the Bloomburrow set as the two creatures pictured are both blue creature types which frequently have come-into-play effects, reducing the downside of them being returned to your hand. Just an all around clean and well thought out card.
Swords to Plowshares is pretty simple and brilliant in design in my opinion. Player loses a creature, but since white is all about justice and fairness, it rewards the owner with life gain. Considering it's one mana, that seems very fair
Yeah 9:24-9:40 was interesting. I di like lightning bolt for 3 damage for 1 mana being evergreen for the inherent power creep. A shame standard nerfs it to 2 when they would break planeswalker like Oko
@@DehtreThis just tells me you don't understand the name Swords to Plowshares is a Bible verse and a metaphor for Peace You pacify a creature permanently, making it forge its swords to plowshares so now it works the fields as a peaceful profession instead, creating food, thus the life gain
Midnight Clock is not only a great card, but also one of the most flavorful cards with no flavor text. Not only is it a great mana rock that refills your hand after enough TIME has passed, but reading the last ability which begins with, "When the twelfth hour...", out loud gives me chills every time.
One of my favorite designs is Browbeat. I run them in a Rakdos multiplayer burn deck and love the difficult choice it presents to opponents, particularly when you have more than one.
Throes of Chaos is one of my favourite cards of all time. Two simple words: “Cascade, Retrace”. A wonderfully designed card that mixes two old keywords in a beautifully simplistic package.
That's one of my favorites as well! I love a lot of the Modern Horizons designs that combined two mechanics from different sets that synergize with each other, such as Arcbound Slasher (Riot + Modular) or Bannerhide Krushok (Reinforce + Scavenge). I'm surprised they didn't print a card with cycling and scavenge in MH, but maybe MH4?
Many Magic the Gathering players want to know; "What is the most brillant video i can watch on TH-cam today." In this comment I will tell you that you've found it.
My favourite card design also hails from way back in Alpha: Dragon Whelp. A cute baby dragon, decently powerful right out of the shell (as far as 90's creature design, anyway), and it can even breathe a little fire. Not too much, though, or it will burn itself up along with its prey. Just delightful to me, even thirty years later.
My personal take is that Lightning Bolt is probably one of the most brilliant designs due to its simplicity. I think Sam from Rhystic Studies put it best when he argued that, if asked, even non-Magic players would be able to make an educated guess at what the card does. Lightning Bolt is simple, but offers flexibility exactly for that. "Deals 3 damage to any target" is a very short sentence, but offers hidden complexities. When Planeswalkers became a card type in Lorwyn block, Lightning Bolt gained additional hidden rules text, allowing it to target these new cards. Same goes for Battles in March of The Machine. Lightning Bolt is probably one of the most evocative spells, because its simplicity makes it easy to imagine being cast by a powerful wizard smiting their foes. It is, if you'll excuse the pun, grounded. There exists very few cards with as many siblings and derived designs as Lightning Bolt. And i think that makes it brilliant. (Also reprint Lightning Bolt in standard, WoTC, you cowards)
I'm not a magic player and I think my favorite design is also Lightning Bolt. It reminds me of book of moon from yugioh which is also a brilliant design imo.
I came here to mentioned lightning bolt too. Standard formats are often described as Bolt or Shock formats depending on which is legal. Prof gets a half a point for mentioning Alpha in general, but I think Lightning Bolt is more impactful to community than any of the other cards in It's do 3 of something cycle. While Ancestral recall is certainly the most powerful, it's only usable in a format so few people can pay to play.
Glad to see Ambush Viper getting recognition. Might be odd, but great transition to the ad. It was very organic. Listening to the intro it reminds me of how I always hated writing the conclusion paragraph for essays because I didn’t want to sound too repetitive. That is to say this video was very well written and today I noticed it. I guess I am looking at stuff more objectively today. See you next video.
Risk factor is a very well designed card. Normally giving an opponent a choice is bad but when both of the available choices are very good in the deck that wants to run it and adding jump start onto it turns what would normally be an ok card into a very good one.
Millstone! While today powercrept out of mill-decks it was the grandaddy that spawned both that archerype, but also fuel graveyard centric controll decks. Its unasumeing and unintuative activated ability made people reconsider all their discard and draw spells and totally flipped them on the it heads, not using carddraw as a tool for me, but as a curse for the opponent. Brilliant and inspiering design!
One of my favourite card designs is Feaster of Fools, for just how perfectly the flavour meshes with the mechanics. It uses two similar, but completely different mechanics; Convoke, the ability of Ravnica's Selesnya Conclave to tap friendly creatures in order to help cast a spell, and Devour, the ability of Alara's Jund shard to sacrifice friendly creatures to gain more power. Completely disparate flavour. Convoke is about working together for a common cause, and Devour is about selfishly killing those beneath you for benefit. And yet, they are similar in they both benefit most from having many small creatures, which you won't mind tapping or sacrificing. Given its high cost, you're strongly encouraged to tap creatures in order to spend less mana casting it. And given its below average stats paired with a substantial Devour 2, you are strongly encouraged to sacrifice creatures in order to boost its statline. Given your boardstate, the most likely scenario for accomplishing this is sacrificing the very same small, now tapped creatures you used to summon it! You're not required to use either of its abilities, or to use them in that particular way, but efficient use of the mechanics points directly towards the flavour. A giant, evil demon who devours the same foolish cultists who summoned it in the first place.
the moment you mentioned best designed planeswalker i knew it was Liliana of the Veil. 100% agree. they've never balanced a planeswalker quite as well. i also want to say i think that theres been an upward trend of brilliantly designed cards of late. many will fly under the radar for not being pushed, but they're still well designed
My favorite well-designed card from Magic's history is Mana Tithe. It's basically the card that showed people that mono-white was supposed to be the color to cast counter spells
Great video! So nostalgic in some ways. Totally agree on Fact or Fiction! Brought me back memories playing my oath of druids deck back in the day, getting a Gaea’s Blessing revealed was fun!
idk how anyone can be positive about a card type that is so badly broken in terms of power, theres basically no removal that leaves the player trying to deal with the pw any kind of advantage its like if you hate mtg as a game and you hate people in general you might enjoy planeswalkers
@@xolotltolox7626 wat? a 3 mana instant that destroys creature or planeswalker? so opponent casts pw then gets to activate loyalty before you can cast instant, your spell kills pw , opponent has net gain of loyalty ability resolve. you have net gain of nothing
@@xolotltolox7626 planeswalkers usually remain on the board ready to activate again next turn and at worst end up taking a card from the opponent or preventing damage to the player if it does die from creatures having to attack the pw instead. they lock down the board leaving the player free to use mana however they want as well as essentially free loyalty effects each turn. the fact that most can remove creatures and draw cards is nearly always unfair advantage vs removal cards that can target pws. the pws also cost a lot less mana than similar effects from creatures with enters ability even though most pws have 3 abilities to choose from not one like most creatures have. the solution to planeswalkers is to force the player to spend mana equal to the amount of loyalty counters added or removed to activate a chosen ability. This way you could still activate them on the turn you played them but you would need more mana which makes the powerful card fairer. For example Liliana turn 3, opponent plays creature, untap , tap 2 use creature kill loyalty, next turn around tap 1 for the +1 and still have 3 mana to play with.
I absolutely adore Murmuring Mystic. He's a perfect design in terms of flavour. The name and art beautifully reflects what it does mechanically: he's a wizard muttering to himself as he strolls through the city, absentmindedly summoning illusions. He's not terribly strong by himself (a 1/5 for 4, that 1 power again being a perfect fit for the card), but he rewards you for casting spells (a very blue thing) by making flyers (another very blue thing).
I think Zedruu the Greathearted is brilliant design. Similar to your point with Garruk, I think its doubly impressive as well that they hit such a home run within the first batch of commander precons. Zedruu's design perfectly enables a multiplayer exclusive deck archetype in group hug (thats a great way to sell people on the format with your new product btw) while also enabling a strategy thats basically just Trix for clever bastards. She's got a powerful payoff if you do her thing, but never is she a "kill on sight" commander. Her ability is one that, by design, *forces* you to scratch your head and think about your card selection during deckbuilding in a way most other commanders can't. Niche. Rewarding. Fair. Unique. Fun. She's everything a commander in a socially driven format *should* be imo.
Zedruu being or not being a kill in sight commander, I would counter, is 100% dependant on the person who created the deck and other players' experiences with her. For example for me, I have almost no horrible nasty effects I use her to give away. Usually I prefer to give away useless things like a Darksteel Relic or empty Transmogrifying Wand. Things that don't in any way benefit you but also don't hurt you to own. But I've also seen people who actively give away things like Agressive Mining, Steel Golem, or Rust Elemental and if that's what you've run into with her, you definitely don't ever want to see her stick to the field. But I do think that's to the benefit of the card too since it opens up multiple methods of building the commander which end up playing very differently
@anthonydelfino6171 I would argue that's threat assessment of the deck itself rather than Zedruu, but yes, the correct answer against that sort of Zedruu deck is to kill her with her Donate target still on the stack. I think most people that built Zedruu a long time ago/play her a lot realize that "Bad Santa" stuff like Steel Golem and Aggressive Mining are kind of a trap for this reason. It gets you hated out of the game and Zedruu herself is nowhere near strong enough to combat that kind of attention, not to mention the obvious counterplay causes you to kneecap yourself by getting stuck with something like Steel Golem. The only "Bad Gifts" I run at this point are Illusions of Grandeur (because it's a classic) and Delaying Shield (because its a pet card and I love it).
@@Dr_Ki11enger Illusions of Grandeur is a favorite of mine since I also run Venser the Sojourner in the deck to flicker things I've given away (to either regift or recharge if they had counters) and one game had a LOT of fun with playing that enchantment, gifting it, then flickering it, making me go up 40 life and my opponent down 20 Beyond that I think the only other nasty gifts I run are Nine Lives (which is only really bad if you keep attacking me and make it bad) and Statecraft (which is really nasty against agressive or voltron builds) Also I have had the chance once or twice to gift Absolute Grace to a mono black player just to be a real troll... though I'm not so sure thats as outright nasty as a lot of other classic Zedruu cards
In the latest main-set entry, Haunted Screen is absolutely wonderful. It's a black and white tv, add magic, and it's color. Add even more magic and some kind of tormented soul comes out? Incredible design.
I have a random idea for a video, or series, that I know would help a lot of people. MANY Magic The Gathering players, myself included, ask the question; How do you properly support deck synergies. And more importantly, taking certain playstyles, cards, decks what have you, and explaining in detail, the TYPES of cards that help cover those strategies weak points. Much love ❤️
Around 14:35, it's inaccurate when the Prof shows several cards with players' likenesses and implies that they were all designed by the players shown on the card. In fact, Wizards stopped doing that before Fervent Champion and I think also Faerie Mastermind were printed, maybe others in that bunch too. There is an old article about it, Wotc's reasons were basically that the players liked it just as much when they didn't design the card / they didn't necessarily want to design a card, and player-created designs didn't always work as well in the set etc.
I love Tortured Existence, I think it’s a great card that does so much for so little. Pay 1 black mana to cast it, pay another black mana to trade a creature card in your hand for a creature card in your graveyard. Very flavorful, it’s simple in effect and powerful with its results.
I'm a huge fan of Garruk, Currsed Huntsman as a card. It doesn't just tick up towards an ultimate like any other planeswalker rather allows you to build a boardstate of blockers to protect himself or get some aggro going, or be sac outlets with the golgari colour scheme. I know it is just a tick up with extra steps but I just love how this works in practice, giving opponents choices on giving you the loyalty or taking the damage as well as potentially supercharging your strategy with a couple expendable tokens.
Journey of Discovery. It was printed in the original Mirrodin block and features my favorite kicker alternative; Entwine. For two and a green, you can play two additional lands that turn; or you can search for up to two basic lands into your hand. If you pay the Entwine cost, you can do both. It's the grandfather to Kodama's Reach and Cultivate, which get you another land to hand and one into play tapped but can help early or late game. Since it's modal, it can help you ramp early or color fix as necessary. Even if you get it late game, you can use it to play two more lands if you just have too many in your hand.
Shoutouts to my favorite double casting card, Reiterate, which already has a pretty cool function of repeating a spell cast, and has Buyback (albeit for a total of 6 mana), to let you do it again, living up to its name
I like a lot of the Modern Horizons cards that combine mechanics from different sets/eras or look at them in a different way. Arcbound Slasher uses Modular and Riot, which play very well together. Twisted Reflections uses a black entwine cost to potentially allow two blue effects (P/T swapping and power reduction) to become a removal spell. While it's not the most brilliant or useful card, one of my favorite designs is Kaervek's Torch. It is one of the few cards to explicitly reference the stack, and it gives the spell Ward-like protection. As a designer, I love it. Ward or Hexproof don't work on non-permanents, but the idea that there could be a tax involved if you want to redirect, counter, or copy an opponent's spell is really neat.
Was hoping to see this after the negative episode. I’m glad that you’re always willing to see both sides of the spectrum, and I can’t wait to watch this!
@ oh, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the heck out of it. I guess ‘negative’ isn’t the right word, just used to the ‘worst’ lists getting more views than the ‘best’ lists for some reason
I feel his metrics would be better if he combined the best and worst vids into one. He keeps complaining about how negativity drives views yet refuses to at least present the bad with the good.
@@LadyLunarSatine That's not how it works unfortunately. The more a user uploads, the more visible their videos and channel are. Combining this or the best/worst of the year videos with the companion video reduces Prof's upload count, total views, advertisements served, sponsorship requirements, and just general visibility.
Shout-out to Prisoner's Dilemma. Translates a game theory thought experiment into a MTG card perfect for Commander's social focus. Bonus points for giving the card flashback which makes it an iterative version of the thought experiment.
I have to second this one. When I first read it, it kind of blew my mind how well it executes on the concept. I honestly think it makes the thought experiment itself a little easier to understand. For a long time, I've been using Split or Steal (the old game show mechanic where a pair of partners must choose to split or steal their shared winnings) as my go-to example of the coordination problem because I found it easier to remember than the prisoner's dilemma, but the card conveys the idea so well, now I can just bring the card up on Scryfall to get the same point across.
I think Stoneforge Mystic is one of the most brilliant designed cards as well. It's a 2 mana 1/2 that lets you tutor for an equipment card to hand, and for 2 mana as an activated ability, allows you to place an equipment card from hand to the battlefield. This not only allows you to play equipment cards for cheaper than normal, but evades counter magic and other interaction by getting equipment cards onto the battlefield without casting spells. I think its so perfectly balanced, powerful yet not unfun for others. You get so much value from the card on ETB, but continue to milk value by using the activated ability to evade interaction and save on mana costs
I think Profane Tutor is the perfect card. A powerful effect with a small delay giving people time to react to it, ways to interact with time counters since the doctor who set, and its inexpensive both mana and money wise
Gift of the Viper has made its way into all of my green decks simply because I use it as creature removal when green doesn't have enough of that on its own, same reason I'd typically play Ambush Viper but that costs 1 mana more which is tough to always leave open for interaction on someone else's turn. Then there's Claim Jumper which answers the question "Does white have ramp?"
I love love love Feldon of the Third Path. Between the art, ability, and flavor text is masterfully conveys everything the character is about in an instant, and mechanically it's pretty cool too.
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and Urza, Lord High Artificer! I like how MH1 introduced these iconic characters as legendary creatures for the first time, making them powerful but requiring a specific build around!
I've adored Rishadan Port since the day I found it. As an opponent-whose-turn-I-just-ruined once put it: it has an "elegant simplicity." A clever color unfix. Mana un-booned. Maze of Ith will not get me today! It's effect can seem so innocuous, and yet there are SO many specific situations where it's the best way out. It wins games, for just two mana on turn two. Also: pirates. What a card!
When I think about card designs I love the first one that always comes to mind is Hornet's Nest. It's so delightfully flavorful - unassuming, but the harder you hit it the more angry bees are going to come out in its disruption. Maybe not the BEST Magic card ever printed, but certainly one that tickles a very specific part of my brain!
I freaking fracking love fact or fiction, especially in commander. It has made for some absolutely crazy moments in my pod and has even taken the target off me and onto the one who split the pile.
I love Fertile Thicket. Common green tapland which may as well say "if you care about basic land, scry 5". With 12 basics its a 89% hitrate. Great for thinning landbase. I've never broken it but love trying
Brainstorm is the best card I've come across. It's a must in every blue deck. Easy to understand, cheap in mana and money, it sets you up for the next two turns and, with Sheoldred, you get a little life back.
Brainstorm is such a brilliant card, and learning about brainstorm plus shuffling is such a level up move on gameplay skill, especially in formats without easy access to fetchlands.
Brainstorm is so cool because if you can take advantage of its downside of putting two cards back, it makes you feel like a genius. I had a game recently where I had 3 Twilight Prophets out (reveal top card and each opponent loses X life and you gain X life where X is the card's mana value). I held priority on the trigger and cast brainstorm, putting 2 high mana value cards on top.
My personal favorite magic card is Path to Exile. It's first of all a fantastic removal spell, exiling any creature for 1 white, but what I really love is the dynamic of giving your opponent an extra land (tapped). If it's still early in the game there's a real thought process of whether it's worth it to get rid of a threat on the board but put your opponent one land ahead of the curve, and it's that interaction that I just love about it. Plus, if you're in a format that uses a lot of non-basics like modern, there's always a chance that your opponent doesn't have any basics to search for, which is an added bonus.
Queen of Ice is wonderful. Fair cost for the p/t. Freezes creatures in combat for a turn. Freezes a creature as an adventure. Flavorful design and useful. Art’s great, too!
Gargos, Vicious Watcher was my first Timmy Fantasy and made fall in love with MTG! Perfect encapsulation and theming of a tribal leader Legendary Creature.
Rancor. Everything about it just works together, from the name, to the effect, to the flavor text. Everything green likes to do (except maybe ramp) on a card.
I think a very subtle pick for brilliant card design is Feldon of The Third Path. A card that can be understood by people who don’t even play magic, and has so much lore and flavor baked into the card that is reflected in its activated ability. I feel there are so few cards that perfectly mix the feeling of good card design and lore quite as well as Feldon does. And that is some truly powerful art and flavor text. What a gorgeous card.
I really like The Jolly Balloon man, getting to copy any of your creatures for a turn and get a second trigger from creatures with an ETB ability is great fun
I've always loved the design of Merciless Eviction. As a card it's a relatively simple iteration on Austere Command, exiling its targets instead of destroying them at the price of offering one less choice than Command does, as well as having Planeswalkers as an option. In addition, it always felt like the perfect storm of card name, art and flavour text to set the stage for what the card means in-universe.
I love peer into the abyss. i think it makes a perfect reference to the setting of a game of magic, being that the players are "planeswalkers" fighting each other. The cards that refer to that through mental damage or insanity just do it for me.
Ornithopter for sure most billiant design. Besides being good in affinity decks, you can have alot of fun with other synergies. Just naming a few: Springleaf Drum / Moonsnare Prototype Assault Formation Cranial Plating Ent-Draught Basin Symmetry Sage [anything Ninjutsu] ...
My personal favorite in terms of card design is merfolk trickster. In its basic function, it is already very versitle. You can use it in aggressive or defensive strategies, to enable your attacks or stop the opponent to attack. But it can also line up to very brillant gameplay. You can target your own death shadow, to make it massive, or the opponents tarmogoyf, to block the now small creature, after they declared attacker. There are as many different kinds of use, as there are creature cards with effects in magic and it is really skill testing, to know in which situation to use your trickster as its best.
OG Garruk is the best! Got the Duels of the Planeswalkers Promo from Gamestop back in the day. And Liliana's hidden ability has won me so much games I would have lost if it hadn't been for my opponent attacking my do nothing bait Lilly instead of going for the dome.
Liliana of the Veil was the first planeswalker that I opened in my first draft, and it continues to be both my favorite card and walker to date. I now have a dedicated Lili deck that I plan to keep for years to come. Fact or Fiction will also be an iconic and memorable card in every game it shows up in. Thanks for this video, Prof! 💜
Probably my favorite card designs from the last several years is Breach the Multiverse. The art is SO GOOD and the card just feels powerful as you cast it. It's everything a 7-mana sorcery should be. It mills one sixth to one tenth of each player's deck, i.e. drilling through the Blind Eternities, then corrupts one of their creatures with Phyrexian Oil. And yet, it doesn't ever feel broken when you resolve it. Even if you're wiped or fully answered, you still feel like a super villain. It's just a question of whether or not you were a successful one.
I think the best part of Liliana is that as an on curve play it collapses the game into a small scrapfest where each player has to make choices to maximize the few resources they have left. And it manages to do that without being the dominant subgame that a lot of other walkers become. You don't have to break symmetry for the card to do what you want it to. The little tricks playing against the plus were also interesting. For example, playing it vs a blue deck with Cryptic Command you had to make decisions about whether you played the card you drew before uptick because otherwise the opponent could bounce in response to destroy Liliana.
So many good ones to choose from, but eat back as a kid there was one card that taught me exactly what the color black was all about: Royal Assassin. It's such a clean and simple design, and it does exactly what you think an assassin should do in a card game.
I would have to mention my favorite magic card: Villanous Wealth. I love the concept of using your opponent's resources, but it softens the blow because it doesn't take anything from the hand or board, and feels not as bas as mill since instead of being cheap and repeatable it's one big swing. The cost is right and makes you consider how much you want to invest it for the reward, and the fact that the power depends on your opponent's cards makes it better than cheating your big stuff out. It also makes it an intrinsically interactive gamble, since you can't stack your opponent's library (there are few cards for that interaction, and don't allow you to be sure of more than a couple of cards), meaning you have to risk it or find a way to punish your opponent setting up with the right timing, and hope the cards work with your deck. It's a card that always feels nice to resolve.
Bomat courier is pretty neat a one drop that turns into your top end once you've run out of cards in red decks. Honorable mentionn goes to its companion when it was in standard, Hazoret the Fervant, a huge hastey beater that cant attack unless your hand is empty, but gives you a discard outlet that allows you to burn cards in hand while burning the opponent
So much great info, love this. Allthough you probably know a lot of magic, i am pretty suren you also read from cards or text. Still a bit too far away for my possibilities. Need to play way more i guess to get to know the game thorugh and through. Urza's Saga is one of my favorite cards for sure.
Its been a few good years as an overall Domain enioyer. From the classic Kird Ape to Tribal flames, Wild Nacatl, Territorial Kavu, Scion of Draco, Nishoba Brawler, and Leyline Binding... Cheap mana, yet required to play many colors, when aggro is often confined to 1 or 2 colors, you're not Donaining until 4 or 5 land types. Each card hits well above its weight for the ease of casting them.
My favourite ever card is a custom card, based off of the apocalypse card Vindicate. Vindicate is a 3 mana (1 white 1 black) sorcery that says "Destroy target permanent." with the flavour text "Don't mourn for me. This is my destiny." -Gerrard. The actual card is called [V]indicate: 3 mana (1 white 1 black) that can be played for the cleave cost of 1 white. It says: [Destroy] target permanent. with the flavour text ["Don't mourn for me.] This [is my destiny." -Gerrard]. Not only is it strong, hilarious, and perfectly representative of what Cleave can do, it also opens up interesting and fun gameplay methods to make it work well in its cleave mode. It's so good I'm shocked it hasn't become an actual card.
Well, for most recent cards that have really shown, how magic has grown over the years have to go "sheltered by ghost". An O Ring that enhanced Creature gets lifelink and it exiles another creature your opponent at controls. Chef kiss.
I'm glad you chose Liliana. A prime example of a card that can both be incredibly strong or incredibly weak depending on when and how she's played, and never feels insurmountable.
Tragic slip will always be one of my favorite cards. -1/-1 isn't a great effect, but if a creature died the -13/-13 hits like truck. I was playing two headed giant and our opponents had an indestructible god card (I don't remember which one) with enough enchantments that pumped it up to a 12/12. Defeat seemed certain until I drew that tragic slip. One attack phrase later and another creature in the graveyard I took down their god. I distinctly remember how upset one of our opponents got because in his mind indestructible meant unkillable.
I think another brilliant card is Smiting Helix, for the same reason as damn. It's a riff off lightning helix, already an brilliant card: "what if we took the best and the worst card out of an iconic cycle and slapped them together?". But that card had r&d doubts: "aren't drain effects black? This could be a pie break." but they printed it and it was incredibly popular. The they combined that card with flashback (as you mentioned, a brilliant mechanic) to showcase they cool colourshifting effect that happens when you combine colours!
Scavenging Ooze is a brilliant card because mechanically it's a solid bear that offers the potential for graveyard disruption and life gain vs aggro; and flavorfully that there's scavengers in the forest that will dispose of any impurities that may be harmful to other woodland inhabitants, thus maintaining a thriving ecosystem. It's such a good card to have in Standard and I'm so glad it's in Foundations so it'll be around for 5 years :) It's hard to think that it was originally a commander card
I love Glasspool Mimic. There's almost always a time when I can get use out of copying a creature and I love any card that helps me not get land-screwed (shoutout to the landcycling cards, especially the group from Duskmourn when drafting!). It's just fun for me! PS I am available for any fan commander games you get going on the channel. I forgot to apply in time.
Not sure how I should feel about this since I have a vlog channel called the zephyr spirit, and I actually did NOT name it after the magic card but just myself and how spiritual I felt after vlogging each time. lol. Insane! Guess I might have been channeling the universe at that point.
Flood of Recollection is a sorcery that costs 💧💧 and lets the caster put an instant or sorcery from the Graveyard into your hand before exiling itself. I think this is really neat mechanically because it illustrates that normally you should be paying more if you're in blue and trying to get a spell back from the 'yard, but with a wink, WOTC leans closer and says "We'll cut you a deal, just this one time, if you promise not to abuse it." I love cards like that. Not to imply that the card should be in the video, at best I'd classify it as "Honorable Honorable Mention"
Dragonlord silumgar and kitnap are 2 of my favorite cards to play with in commander. Nothing is more fun than waiting for your opponent’s best cards to come out and them be tapped out to get them just to swipe them away lol
Three Bowls of Porridge from WoE is my favorite design. Taking a beloved tale like Goldilocks and using Magic terminology like direct damage (Burn) Tapping a creature (usually associated with Cold or Sleep) and eating food to gain health and heal the soul is just right. ❤
My all time favourite card qualifies I think. Trading Post! Man this thing was fun to play with back when it first came out, sacrificing ichor wellsprings to draw 2 or a goat to return a wurmcoil engine, making goats to go for a surprise kill with a kessig wolf run. The card was never really OP but it was such an interesting thematic design that offered so many unique interactions with other cool cards that its always stood the test of time as my favourite. Goat maker is the goat of brilliant cards
Just go to sponsr.is/bootdev_tolarian and use my code TOLARIAN to get 25% off your first payment for boot.dev.
You know what would be a really cool card design?
A saga that flips into a Planeswalker upon completion of the saga. Use the saga as a representation of how that walker acauired their spark.
I might have to use that idea to design a card for my silly OC lol
Holy crap that's a clever design.
Honestly kind of surprised this hasn't been done with like Tamiyo or somebody like that. Kellan even. Or that it wasn't done in the opposite direction sort of for a walker that got compleated, telling the story of their downfall and then flipping into their Compleated form.
If the starting loyalty was equal to the chapter count, you wouldn't even have to adjust your counters after flipping!
That would, in fact, be really cool
I love the way giant growth showcases a ton of what makes magic fun, while also being an incredibly versatile, fun, and simple card. Sometimes you get to use it like lightning bolt to deal the last 3 damage to win the game, sometimes it acts like counterspell, stopping your opponent's bolt from killing your creature, sometimes it lets you blow your opponent out mid-combat. Further, it becomes even more beneficial with certain creature abilities like first & double strike, adding yet another layer to the card. But at its surface, it's a wonderfully easy card to understand. "Creature get big." Absolute home run of a design, not to mention the fact that it has been the lens through which we view all other combat tricks 30+ years later.
The best thing about Fact or Fiction is that as great a design as it is in 1v1, it gets even better in multiplayer! If you’re the archenemy no opponent will pick in your best interests, but if you’re behind you may end up with a 0 and 5 split if you choose your opponent right. It’s almost like rubber-banding.
Cards with rubberbanding potential like "Tempt With Discovery" or "Tempt with Bunnies" in multiplayer formats are great.
Plot Twist. It's just the same list as the "stupidest" but talking about their use in extremely niche and cool situations.
And ends with "ya we still got nothing for Visions" lol
@hewttehdewb i legitimately laughed. Good one.
@@BananaBanditos always happy to cause a laugh 😊
Knights of Autumn might be the best example of modern etb triggers. 3 modes, each one of them having their place and time, without it ever being broken.
I'm gonna advocate in favor of "run away together" here. The card is simple, yet effective. It is no hard removal, which would be devastating to have in blue, but rather effectively buys you some time or temporarily gets rid of a horrible threat your opponent cheated out. And it does it in the most darling way imaginable - by having a kitten snuggle up to a death knight and both realizing they just want some peace and quiet for once. Away from their powermongering planeswalker overlords. I think it's one of the loveliest designs in the game.
That’s an excellent pick. It’s a unique, but simple to understand effect which is reasonably costed and “on brand” for the color. As a bonus, the artwork even gives a hint of how it can be used within the Bloomburrow set as the two creatures pictured are both blue creature types which frequently have come-into-play effects, reducing the downside of them being returned to your hand. Just an all around clean and well thought out card.
Swords to Plowshares is pretty simple and brilliant in design in my opinion. Player loses a creature, but since white is all about justice and fairness, it rewards the owner with life gain. Considering it's one mana, that seems very fair
Path to Exile is functionally quite similar and you can even politic with it in multiplayer a bit better than Swords
Swords to Plowshares should totally be the card giving basic land instead, based on its name.
I always imagined the creature isn't killed but transformer into a farmers, he would get you food based on his strength, therefore life points.
Yeah 9:24-9:40 was interesting. I di like lightning bolt for 3 damage for 1 mana being evergreen for the inherent power creep. A shame standard nerfs it to 2 when they would break planeswalker like Oko
@@DehtreThis just tells me you don't understand the name
Swords to Plowshares is a Bible verse and a metaphor for Peace
You pacify a creature permanently, making it forge its swords to plowshares so now it works the fields as a peaceful profession instead, creating food, thus the life gain
Midnight Clock is not only a great card, but also one of the most flavorful cards with no flavor text. Not only is it a great mana rock that refills your hand after enough TIME has passed, but reading the last ability which begins with, "When the twelfth hour...", out loud gives me chills every time.
One of my favorite designs is Browbeat. I run them in a Rakdos multiplayer burn deck and love the difficult choice it presents to opponents, particularly when you have more than one.
Most of those red "opponent chooses" Odyssey-era cards were pretty bad but I unironically absolutely love Browbeat.
Browbeat is awful
I love Browbeat. One of the best punisher cards ever designed
So happy to see Damn on the list. The card rules and is a whole story on one piece of card board. One of my favorites of all time!
Throes of Chaos is one of my favourite cards of all time. Two simple words: “Cascade, Retrace”. A wonderfully designed card that mixes two old keywords in a beautifully simplistic package.
That's one of my favorites as well! I love a lot of the Modern Horizons designs that combined two mechanics from different sets that synergize with each other, such as Arcbound Slasher (Riot + Modular) or Bannerhide Krushok (Reinforce + Scavenge). I'm surprised they didn't print a card with cycling and scavenge in MH, but maybe MH4?
I wonder if there are any other cards that genuinely do jack shit when they resolve
I just played 4 of those in a 60 card deck tonight out of a bulk box and I mustve cast it 8 times. Too much fun
@@JustABrokenToy Not exactly the same, but Viscera Dragger has Cycling 2 and Unearth 1B.
This is a brilliant Magic: The Gathering video.
daaaaaw
Many Magic the Gathering players want to know; "What is the most brillant video i can watch on TH-cam today." In this comment I will tell you that you've found it.
Yes it is, best one they’ve ever made.
My favourite card design also hails from way back in Alpha: Dragon Whelp. A cute baby dragon, decently powerful right out of the shell (as far as 90's creature design, anyway), and it can even breathe a little fire. Not too much, though, or it will burn itself up along with its prey. Just delightful to me, even thirty years later.
just won a game Tuesday by sending my flying, exploding Dragon Whelp to my unsuspecting opponent.
My personal take is that Lightning Bolt is probably one of the most brilliant designs due to its simplicity.
I think Sam from Rhystic Studies put it best when he argued that, if asked, even non-Magic players would be able to make an educated guess at what the card does.
Lightning Bolt is simple, but offers flexibility exactly for that. "Deals 3 damage to any target" is a very short sentence, but offers hidden complexities. When Planeswalkers became a card type in Lorwyn block, Lightning Bolt gained additional hidden rules text, allowing it to target these new cards. Same goes for Battles in March of The Machine.
Lightning Bolt is probably one of the most evocative spells, because its simplicity makes it easy to imagine being cast by a powerful wizard smiting their foes. It is, if you'll excuse the pun, grounded.
There exists very few cards with as many siblings and derived designs as Lightning Bolt. And i think that makes it brilliant.
(Also reprint Lightning Bolt in standard, WoTC, you cowards)
I'm not a magic player and I think my favorite design is also Lightning Bolt. It reminds me of book of moon from yugioh which is also a brilliant design imo.
Bolt was so good that it created a rule, since 20 mountains and 40 bolts was basically unbeatable
I came here to mentioned lightning bolt too. Standard formats are often described as Bolt or Shock formats depending on which is legal.
Prof gets a half a point for mentioning Alpha in general, but I think Lightning Bolt is more impactful to community than any of the other cards in It's do 3 of something cycle. While Ancestral recall is certainly the most powerful, it's only usable in a format so few people can pay to play.
Lightning Bolt can only come to standard if they nerf the mono red aggro mice
@@emzetkin1100I think you mean 20 lotus since you can only play 1 land per turn
Glad to see Ambush Viper getting recognition.
Might be odd, but great transition to the ad. It was very organic. Listening to the intro it reminds me of how I always hated writing the conclusion paragraph for essays because I didn’t want to sound too repetitive. That is to say this video was very well written and today I noticed it.
I guess I am looking at stuff more objectively today.
See you next video.
Risk factor is a very well designed card. Normally giving an opponent a choice is bad but when both of the available choices are very good in the deck that wants to run it and adding jump start onto it turns what would normally be an ok card into a very good one.
I just love Spore Frog. Name is close to Fog, and I love the story of you out adventuring and when danger approaches you just stomp it and run
This hypothetical "Fact or Fiction where you make the piles and your opponent picks which you keep" is Steam Augury from original Theros
Okay I'm not the only one thinking Prof tried to mimic his inner Ron Simmons with that DAMN! right?
Millstone! While today powercrept out of mill-decks it was the grandaddy that spawned both that archerype, but also fuel graveyard centric controll decks. Its unasumeing and unintuative activated ability made people reconsider all their discard and draw spells and totally flipped them on the it heads, not using carddraw as a tool for me, but as a curse for the opponent. Brilliant and inspiering design!
One of my favourite card designs is Feaster of Fools, for just how perfectly the flavour meshes with the mechanics. It uses two similar, but completely different mechanics; Convoke, the ability of Ravnica's Selesnya Conclave to tap friendly creatures in order to help cast a spell, and Devour, the ability of Alara's Jund shard to sacrifice friendly creatures to gain more power.
Completely disparate flavour. Convoke is about working together for a common cause, and Devour is about selfishly killing those beneath you for benefit. And yet, they are similar in they both benefit most from having many small creatures, which you won't mind tapping or sacrificing. Given its high cost, you're strongly encouraged to tap creatures in order to spend less mana casting it. And given its below average stats paired with a substantial Devour 2, you are strongly encouraged to sacrifice creatures in order to boost its statline. Given your boardstate, the most likely scenario for accomplishing this is sacrificing the very same small, now tapped creatures you used to summon it!
You're not required to use either of its abilities, or to use them in that particular way, but efficient use of the mechanics points directly towards the flavour. A giant, evil demon who devours the same foolish cultists who summoned it in the first place.
the moment you mentioned best designed planeswalker i knew it was Liliana of the Veil. 100% agree. they've never balanced a planeswalker quite as well.
i also want to say i think that theres been an upward trend of brilliantly designed cards of late. many will fly under the radar for not being pushed, but they're still well designed
My favorite well-designed card from Magic's history is Mana Tithe. It's basically the card that showed people that mono-white was supposed to be the color to cast counter spells
Great video! So nostalgic in some ways. Totally agree on Fact or Fiction! Brought me back memories playing my oath of druids deck back in the day, getting a Gaea’s Blessing revealed was fun!
Thanks for all your mtg content Prof! Appreciate what you do for the game.
Prof being so positive about Planeswalkers feels like I'm in a different timeline lol
idk how anyone can be positive about a card type that is so badly broken in terms of power, theres basically no removal that leaves the player trying to deal with the pw any kind of advantage
its like if you hate mtg as a game and you hate people in general you might enjoy planeswalkers
@@cattycats4Hero's Downfall literally exists???
@@xolotltolox7626 wat? a 3 mana instant that destroys creature or planeswalker? so opponent casts pw then gets to activate loyalty before you can cast instant, your spell kills pw , opponent has net gain of loyalty ability resolve. you have net gain of nothing
@@cattycats4 and how is this different from a creature with an ETB?
@@xolotltolox7626 planeswalkers usually remain on the board ready to activate again next turn and at worst end up taking a card from the opponent or preventing damage to the player if it does die from creatures having to attack the pw instead. they lock down the board leaving the player free to use mana however they want as well as essentially free loyalty effects each turn. the fact that most can remove creatures and draw cards is nearly always unfair advantage vs removal cards that can target pws. the pws also cost a lot less mana than similar effects from creatures with enters ability even though most pws have 3 abilities to choose from not one like most creatures have. the solution to planeswalkers is to force the player to spend mana equal to the amount of loyalty counters added or removed to activate a chosen ability. This way you could still activate them on the turn you played them but you would need more mana which makes the powerful card fairer. For example Liliana turn 3, opponent plays creature, untap , tap 2 use creature kill loyalty, next turn around tap 1 for the +1 and still have 3 mana to play with.
20:43 lol I love it, it's never where he's pointing
I absolutely adore Murmuring Mystic.
He's a perfect design in terms of flavour. The name and art beautifully reflects what it does mechanically: he's a wizard muttering to himself as he strolls through the city, absentmindedly summoning illusions. He's not terribly strong by himself (a 1/5 for 4, that 1 power again being a perfect fit for the card), but he rewards you for casting spells (a very blue thing) by making flyers (another very blue thing).
I think Zedruu the Greathearted is brilliant design. Similar to your point with Garruk, I think its doubly impressive as well that they hit such a home run within the first batch of commander precons.
Zedruu's design perfectly enables a multiplayer exclusive deck archetype in group hug (thats a great way to sell people on the format with your new product btw) while also enabling a strategy thats basically just Trix for clever bastards.
She's got a powerful payoff if you do her thing, but never is she a "kill on sight" commander. Her ability is one that, by design, *forces* you to scratch your head and think about your card selection during deckbuilding in a way most other commanders can't.
Niche. Rewarding. Fair. Unique. Fun. She's everything a commander in a socially driven format *should* be imo.
Zedruu being or not being a kill in sight commander, I would counter, is 100% dependant on the person who created the deck and other players' experiences with her.
For example for me, I have almost no horrible nasty effects I use her to give away. Usually I prefer to give away useless things like a Darksteel Relic or empty Transmogrifying Wand. Things that don't in any way benefit you but also don't hurt you to own. But I've also seen people who actively give away things like Agressive Mining, Steel Golem, or Rust Elemental and if that's what you've run into with her, you definitely don't ever want to see her stick to the field.
But I do think that's to the benefit of the card too since it opens up multiple methods of building the commander which end up playing very differently
@anthonydelfino6171 I would argue that's threat assessment of the deck itself rather than Zedruu, but yes, the correct answer against that sort of Zedruu deck is to kill her with her Donate target still on the stack.
I think most people that built Zedruu a long time ago/play her a lot realize that "Bad Santa" stuff like Steel Golem and Aggressive Mining are kind of a trap for this reason. It gets you hated out of the game and Zedruu herself is nowhere near strong enough to combat that kind of attention, not to mention the obvious counterplay causes you to kneecap yourself by getting stuck with something like Steel Golem.
The only "Bad Gifts" I run at this point are Illusions of Grandeur (because it's a classic) and Delaying Shield (because its a pet card and I love it).
@@Dr_Ki11enger Illusions of Grandeur is a favorite of mine since I also run Venser the Sojourner in the deck to flicker things I've given away (to either regift or recharge if they had counters) and one game had a LOT of fun with playing that enchantment, gifting it, then flickering it, making me go up 40 life and my opponent down 20
Beyond that I think the only other nasty gifts I run are Nine Lives (which is only really bad if you keep attacking me and make it bad) and Statecraft (which is really nasty against agressive or voltron builds) Also I have had the chance once or twice to gift Absolute Grace to a mono black player just to be a real troll... though I'm not so sure thats as outright nasty as a lot of other classic Zedruu cards
In the latest main-set entry, Haunted Screen is absolutely wonderful. It's a black and white tv, add magic, and it's color. Add even more magic and some kind of tormented soul comes out? Incredible design.
I have a random idea for a video, or series, that I know would help a lot of people.
MANY Magic The Gathering players, myself included, ask the question;
How do you properly support deck synergies.
And more importantly, taking certain playstyles, cards, decks what have you, and explaining in detail, the TYPES of cards that help cover those strategies weak points.
Much love ❤️
Around 14:35, it's inaccurate when the Prof shows several cards with players' likenesses and implies that they were all designed by the players shown on the card. In fact, Wizards stopped doing that before Fervent Champion and I think also Faerie Mastermind were printed, maybe others in that bunch too. There is an old article about it, Wotc's reasons were basically that the players liked it just as much when they didn't design the card / they didn't necessarily want to design a card, and player-created designs didn't always work as well in the set etc.
I love Tortured Existence, I think it’s a great card that does so much for so little. Pay 1 black mana to cast it, pay another black mana to trade a creature card in your hand for a creature card in your graveyard. Very flavorful, it’s simple in effect and powerful with its results.
I'm a huge fan of Garruk, Currsed Huntsman as a card. It doesn't just tick up towards an ultimate like any other planeswalker rather allows you to build a boardstate of blockers to protect himself or get some aggro going, or be sac outlets with the golgari colour scheme. I know it is just a tick up with extra steps but I just love how this works in practice, giving opponents choices on giving you the loyalty or taking the damage as well as potentially supercharging your strategy with a couple expendable tokens.
Journey of Discovery. It was printed in the original Mirrodin block and features my favorite kicker alternative; Entwine. For two and a green, you can play two additional lands that turn; or you can search for up to two basic lands into your hand. If you pay the Entwine cost, you can do both. It's the grandfather to Kodama's Reach and Cultivate, which get you another land to hand and one into play tapped but can help early or late game. Since it's modal, it can help you ramp early or color fix as necessary. Even if you get it late game, you can use it to play two more lands if you just have too many in your hand.
Shoutouts to my favorite double casting card, Reiterate, which already has a pretty cool function of repeating a spell cast, and has Buyback (albeit for a total of 6 mana), to let you do it again, living up to its name
I like a lot of the Modern Horizons cards that combine mechanics from different sets/eras or look at them in a different way. Arcbound Slasher uses Modular and Riot, which play very well together. Twisted Reflections uses a black entwine cost to potentially allow two blue effects (P/T swapping and power reduction) to become a removal spell.
While it's not the most brilliant or useful card, one of my favorite designs is Kaervek's Torch. It is one of the few cards to explicitly reference the stack, and it gives the spell Ward-like protection. As a designer, I love it. Ward or Hexproof don't work on non-permanents, but the idea that there could be a tax involved if you want to redirect, counter, or copy an opponent's spell is really neat.
Was hoping to see this after the negative episode. I’m glad that you’re always willing to see both sides of the spectrum, and I can’t wait to watch this!
Was it negative though? Just pointing out bad card design and laughing about it isn't negative.
Having dumb cards is half of the fun of Magic.
@ oh, don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the heck out of it. I guess ‘negative’ isn’t the right word, just used to the ‘worst’ lists getting more views than the ‘best’ lists for some reason
I feel his metrics would be better if he combined the best and worst vids into one. He keeps complaining about how negativity drives views yet refuses to at least present the bad with the good.
@@LadyLunarSatine That's not how it works unfortunately. The more a user uploads, the more visible their videos and channel are.
Combining this or the best/worst of the year videos with the companion video reduces Prof's upload count, total views, advertisements served, sponsorship requirements, and just general visibility.
@@LadyLunarSatine not how it works unfortunately
Every time Prof brings up a number and holds the wrong amount of fingers, gets me every time. Gotta love it!❤❤❤❤❤
Shout-out to Prisoner's Dilemma. Translates a game theory thought experiment into a MTG card perfect for Commander's social focus. Bonus points for giving the card flashback which makes it an iterative version of the thought experiment.
I have to second this one. When I first read it, it kind of blew my mind how well it executes on the concept. I honestly think it makes the thought experiment itself a little easier to understand. For a long time, I've been using Split or Steal (the old game show mechanic where a pair of partners must choose to split or steal their shared winnings) as my go-to example of the coordination problem because I found it easier to remember than the prisoner's dilemma, but the card conveys the idea so well, now I can just bring the card up on Scryfall to get the same point across.
Ichor slick! I love that it’s for basically 4 modes! Lots of options for one card
I think Stoneforge Mystic is one of the most brilliant designed cards as well. It's a 2 mana 1/2 that lets you tutor for an equipment card to hand, and for 2 mana as an activated ability, allows you to place an equipment card from hand to the battlefield. This not only allows you to play equipment cards for cheaper than normal, but evades counter magic and other interaction by getting equipment cards onto the battlefield without casting spells. I think its so perfectly balanced, powerful yet not unfun for others. You get so much value from the card on ETB, but continue to milk value by using the activated ability to evade interaction and save on mana costs
I think Profane Tutor is the perfect card. A powerful effect with a small delay giving people time to react to it, ways to interact with time counters since the doctor who set, and its inexpensive both mana and money wise
Gifts Ungiven would probably be one of my first picks for a list like this, incredibly iconic card
Gift of the Viper has made its way into all of my green decks simply because I use it as creature removal when green doesn't have enough of that on its own, same reason I'd typically play Ambush Viper but that costs 1 mana more which is tough to always leave open for interaction on someone else's turn. Then there's Claim Jumper which answers the question "Does white have ramp?"
I love love love Feldon of the Third Path. Between the art, ability, and flavor text is masterfully conveys everything the character is about in an instant, and mechanically it's pretty cool too.
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician and Urza, Lord High Artificer! I like how MH1 introduced these iconic characters as legendary creatures for the first time, making them powerful but requiring a specific build around!
I've adored Rishadan Port since the day I found it. As an opponent-whose-turn-I-just-ruined once put it: it has an "elegant simplicity." A clever color unfix. Mana un-booned. Maze of Ith will not get me today! It's effect can seem so innocuous, and yet there are SO many specific situations where it's the best way out. It wins games, for just two mana on turn two. Also: pirates. What a card!
When I think about card designs I love the first one that always comes to mind is Hornet's Nest. It's so delightfully flavorful - unassuming, but the harder you hit it the more angry bees are going to come out in its disruption. Maybe not the BEST Magic card ever printed, but certainly one that tickles a very specific part of my brain!
I freaking fracking love fact or fiction, especially in commander. It has made for some absolutely crazy moments in my pod and has even taken the target off me and onto the one who split the pile.
I love Fertile Thicket. Common green tapland which may as well say "if you care about basic land, scry 5". With 12 basics its a 89% hitrate. Great for thinning landbase. I've never broken it but love trying
Brainstorm is the best card I've come across. It's a must in every blue deck. Easy to understand, cheap in mana and money, it sets you up for the next two turns and, with Sheoldred, you get a little life back.
Brainstorm is such a brilliant card, and learning about brainstorm plus shuffling is such a level up move on gameplay skill, especially in formats without easy access to fetchlands.
dont you mean the 2U version Brainsurge that draws 4 cards? thats the only one you can use with sheoldred. btw great card
Brainstorm is so cool because if you can take advantage of its downside of putting two cards back, it makes you feel like a genius. I had a game recently where I had 3 Twilight Prophets out (reveal top card and each opponent loses X life and you gain X life where X is the card's mana value). I held priority on the trigger and cast brainstorm, putting 2 high mana value cards on top.
My personal favorite magic card is Path to Exile. It's first of all a fantastic removal spell, exiling any creature for 1 white, but what I really love is the dynamic of giving your opponent an extra land (tapped). If it's still early in the game there's a real thought process of whether it's worth it to get rid of a threat on the board but put your opponent one land ahead of the curve, and it's that interaction that I just love about it. Plus, if you're in a format that uses a lot of non-basics like modern, there's always a chance that your opponent doesn't have any basics to search for, which is an added bonus.
Queen of Ice is wonderful. Fair cost for the p/t. Freezes creatures in combat for a turn. Freezes a creature as an adventure. Flavorful design and useful. Art’s great, too!
Gargos, Vicious Watcher was my first Timmy Fantasy and made fall in love with MTG! Perfect encapsulation and theming of a tribal leader Legendary Creature.
Rancor. Everything about it just works together, from the name, to the effect, to the flavor text. Everything green likes to do (except maybe ramp) on a card.
I think a very subtle pick for brilliant card design is Feldon of The Third Path. A card that can be understood by people who don’t even play magic, and has so much lore and flavor baked into the card that is reflected in its activated ability. I feel there are so few cards that perfectly mix the feeling of good card design and lore quite as well as Feldon does. And that is some truly powerful art and flavor text. What a gorgeous card.
That segue into the ad read was actually VERY smooth
I really like The Jolly Balloon man, getting to copy any of your creatures for a turn and get a second trigger from creatures with an ETB ability is great fun
I've always loved the design of Merciless Eviction. As a card it's a relatively simple iteration on Austere Command, exiling its targets instead of destroying them at the price of offering one less choice than Command does, as well as having Planeswalkers as an option. In addition, it always felt like the perfect storm of card name, art and flavour text to set the stage for what the card means in-universe.
Nascent Metamorph because it adds chaos to a game without being largely disruptive or overtly a waste of time
I love peer into the abyss. i think it makes a perfect reference to the setting of a game of magic, being that the players are "planeswalkers" fighting each other. The cards that refer to that through mental damage or insanity just do it for me.
Ornithopter for sure most billiant design. Besides being good in affinity decks, you can have alot of fun with other synergies. Just naming a few:
Springleaf Drum / Moonsnare Prototype
Assault Formation
Cranial Plating
Ent-Draught Basin
Symmetry Sage
[anything Ninjutsu]
...
My personal favorite in terms of card design is merfolk trickster.
In its basic function, it is already very versitle. You can use it in aggressive or defensive strategies, to enable your attacks or stop the opponent to attack.
But it can also line up to very brillant gameplay. You can target your own death shadow, to make it massive, or the opponents tarmogoyf, to block the now small creature, after they declared attacker. There are as many different kinds of use, as there are creature cards with effects in magic and it is really skill testing, to know in which situation to use your trickster as its best.
OG Garruk is the best! Got the Duels of the Planeswalkers Promo from Gamestop back in the day.
And Liliana's hidden ability has won me so much games I would have lost if it hadn't been for my opponent attacking my do nothing bait Lilly instead of going for the dome.
Liliana of the Veil was the first planeswalker that I opened in my first draft, and it continues to be both my favorite card and walker to date. I now have a dedicated Lili deck that I plan to keep for years to come. Fact or Fiction will also be an iconic and memorable card in every game it shows up in.
Thanks for this video, Prof! 💜
My favorite card design and favorite card is Stitcher's Supplier. What an absolute gem.
Probably my favorite card designs from the last several years is Breach the Multiverse. The art is SO GOOD and the card just feels powerful as you cast it. It's everything a 7-mana sorcery should be. It mills one sixth to one tenth of each player's deck, i.e. drilling through the Blind Eternities, then corrupts one of their creatures with Phyrexian Oil. And yet, it doesn't ever feel broken when you resolve it. Even if you're wiped or fully answered, you still feel like a super villain. It's just a question of whether or not you were a successful one.
I think the best part of Liliana is that as an on curve play it collapses the game into a small scrapfest where each player has to make choices to maximize the few resources they have left. And it manages to do that without being the dominant subgame that a lot of other walkers become. You don't have to break symmetry for the card to do what you want it to.
The little tricks playing against the plus were also interesting. For example, playing it vs a blue deck with Cryptic Command you had to make decisions about whether you played the card you drew before uptick because otherwise the opponent could bounce in response to destroy Liliana.
So many good ones to choose from, but eat back as a kid there was one card that taught me exactly what the color black was all about: Royal Assassin. It's such a clean and simple design, and it does exactly what you think an assassin should do in a card game.
I would have to mention my favorite magic card: Villanous Wealth. I love the concept of using your opponent's resources, but it softens the blow because it doesn't take anything from the hand or board, and feels not as bas as mill since instead of being cheap and repeatable it's one big swing. The cost is right and makes you consider how much you want to invest it for the reward, and the fact that the power depends on your opponent's cards makes it better than cheating your big stuff out. It also makes it an intrinsically interactive gamble, since you can't stack your opponent's library (there are few cards for that interaction, and don't allow you to be sure of more than a couple of cards), meaning you have to risk it or find a way to punish your opponent setting up with the right timing, and hope the cards work with your deck. It's a card that always feels nice to resolve.
Bomat courier is pretty neat a one drop that turns into your top end once you've run out of cards in red decks. Honorable mentionn goes to its companion when it was in standard, Hazoret the Fervant, a huge hastey beater that cant attack unless your hand is empty, but gives you a discard outlet that allows you to burn cards in hand while burning the opponent
So much great info, love this. Allthough you probably know a lot of magic, i am pretty suren you also read from cards or text. Still a bit too far away for my possibilities. Need to play way more i guess to get to know the game thorugh and through. Urza's Saga is one of my favorite cards for sure.
Stormcrow! So powerful he had to be band in magic's secret double vintage format.
The ad pivot was masterful.
Its been a few good years as an overall Domain enioyer.
From the classic Kird Ape to Tribal flames, Wild Nacatl, Territorial Kavu, Scion of Draco, Nishoba Brawler, and Leyline Binding... Cheap mana, yet required to play many colors, when aggro is often confined to 1 or 2 colors, you're not Donaining until 4 or 5 land types. Each card hits well above its weight for the ease of casting them.
My favourite ever card is a custom card, based off of the apocalypse card Vindicate.
Vindicate is a 3 mana (1 white 1 black) sorcery that says "Destroy target permanent." with the flavour text "Don't mourn for me. This is my destiny." -Gerrard.
The actual card is called [V]indicate: 3 mana (1 white 1 black) that can be played for the cleave cost of 1 white. It says: [Destroy] target permanent. with the flavour text ["Don't mourn for me.] This [is my destiny." -Gerrard].
Not only is it strong, hilarious, and perfectly representative of what Cleave can do, it also opens up interesting and fun gameplay methods to make it work well in its cleave mode. It's so good I'm shocked it hasn't become an actual card.
Well, for most recent cards that have really shown, how magic has grown over the years have to go "sheltered by ghost". An O Ring that enhanced Creature gets lifelink and it exiles another creature your opponent at controls. Chef kiss.
Prof deserves the title of largest MTG content creator. His videos are always so excellent
I'm glad you chose Liliana. A prime example of a card that can both be incredibly strong or incredibly weak depending on when and how she's played, and never feels insurmountable.
Tragic slip will always be one of my favorite cards. -1/-1 isn't a great effect, but if a creature died the -13/-13 hits like truck. I was playing two headed giant and our opponents had an indestructible god card (I don't remember which one) with enough enchantments that pumped it up to a 12/12. Defeat seemed certain until I drew that tragic slip. One attack phrase later and another creature in the graveyard I took down their god. I distinctly remember how upset one of our opponents got because in his mind indestructible meant unkillable.
I think another brilliant card is Smiting Helix, for the same reason as damn. It's a riff off lightning helix, already an brilliant card: "what if we took the best and the worst card out of an iconic cycle and slapped them together?". But that card had r&d doubts: "aren't drain effects black? This could be a pie break." but they printed it and it was incredibly popular. The they combined that card with flashback (as you mentioned, a brilliant mechanic) to showcase they cool colourshifting effect that happens when you combine colours!
“These cards rule!
These cards suck.
These cards rule!
These cards suck.”
I am old enough to get this reference. Well done
These cards cost $600
Let's get em
@@anthonydelfino6171 too accurate lmao
Please more videos in this series, like "most elegant cards: or "most colorbreaking cards" etc
Scavenging Ooze is a brilliant card because mechanically it's a solid bear that offers the potential for graveyard disruption and life gain vs aggro; and flavorfully that there's scavengers in the forest that will dispose of any impurities that may be harmful to other woodland inhabitants, thus maintaining a thriving ecosystem.
It's such a good card to have in Standard and I'm so glad it's in Foundations so it'll be around for 5 years :) It's hard to think that it was originally a commander card
I got goose bumps when you played the War of the Spark clip. Keep positive 🙂
my all time favorite is Grizzly Bears because it's just a fuzzly dude crunching his way through the woods
I love Glasspool Mimic. There's almost always a time when I can get use out of copying a creature and I love any card that helps me not get land-screwed (shoutout to the landcycling cards, especially the group from Duskmourn when drafting!). It's just fun for me!
PS I am available for any fan commander games you get going on the channel. I forgot to apply in time.
That flavor text on Fact or Fiction is just amazing
Not sure how I should feel about this since I have a vlog channel called the zephyr spirit, and I actually did NOT name it after the magic card but just myself and how spiritual I felt after vlogging each time. lol. Insane!
Guess I might have been channeling the universe at that point.
bro that sponsor intro slapped hard, such a smooth transition
I love the Denethor that you get to set on fire. Super flavour win.
Flood of Recollection is a sorcery that costs 💧💧 and lets the caster put an instant or sorcery from the Graveyard into your hand before exiling itself.
I think this is really neat mechanically because it illustrates that normally you should be paying more if you're in blue and trying to get a spell back from the 'yard, but with a wink, WOTC leans closer and says "We'll cut you a deal, just this one time, if you promise not to abuse it."
I love cards like that. Not to imply that the card should be in the video, at best I'd classify it as "Honorable Honorable Mention"
fr i would diieee if they put snappy in standard, it would be soo dope
Reminds me of how much and why I dislike planeswalkers. But hey the rest of the list is great! :)
Dragonlord silumgar and kitnap are 2 of my favorite cards to play with in commander. Nothing is more fun than waiting for your opponent’s best cards to come out and them be tapped out to get them just to swipe them away lol
Three Bowls of Porridge from WoE is my favorite design. Taking a beloved tale like Goldilocks and using Magic terminology like direct damage (Burn) Tapping a creature (usually associated with Cold or Sleep) and eating food to gain health and heal the soul is just right. ❤
I'd love more videos like this covering card design
My all time favourite card qualifies I think. Trading Post! Man this thing was fun to play with back when it first came out, sacrificing ichor wellsprings to draw 2 or a goat to return a wurmcoil engine, making goats to go for a surprise kill with a kessig wolf run. The card was never really OP but it was such an interesting thematic design that offered so many unique interactions with other cool cards that its always stood the test of time as my favourite. Goat maker is the goat of brilliant cards