in RTR limited, if you ever opened two pack rats it was considered optimal to make a deck of those two + 38 swamps and just mulliganing until you got one in your starting hand
Back then there wasn't the London Mulligan, so packrat would be even stronger now. You could mulligan down to 1, and as long as you saw 1 packrat in your 7 starting cards, put the six other cards (lands, ideally) to the bottom of your deck and topdeck your mana to victory. My friends also told me of another similar card in draft, Ensnaring Bridge. Some people would build a deck of Ensnaring Bridge and 39 lands and hard mulligan for it. If your opponent didn't have 20 points of noncombat damage, artifact removal, or an alternate win con, they would deck out before you. Less consistent than the Packrat strategy since you had to mulligan down to 4/3, depending on if you were the play/draw to guarantee you play all the cards in your hand.
Pack Rat actually first saw play in Standard as a 1-of in a Mono Black Devotion deck simply because it worked so well in Limited. It was meant to just be flood insurance until someone figured out that if you saw that the coast was clear with Thoughtseize on turn 1, you could just make them have it on turn 2 or simply win most match-ups on turn 3.
Another that felt nearly unbeatable during Theros Beyond Death was Kiora Bests the Sea God. I remember playing a cool draft game, with a lot of back and forth, until my opponent cast KBTSG and my chances of winning immediately dropped to 0.
@@danielwappner1035 Yeah! It was a very grindy format due to the Escape mechanics. But I'd say that in general it's common for limited games to go past turn 7
Personally, I remember drafting Phyrexian Obliterator. When i built a mono black deck around it and dropped it, I wouldn't even get a chance to attack - my opponent just conceded out of annoyance.
Every time I see the jitte in play in vintage cube I think to myself "people got to draft this card in standard boosters". Haven't watched yet, just assuming it's on here
I would also put "Kiora Bests the Sea God" on this list too. It is a saga with a lot of value, starting with a 8/8 kraken token with hexproof which by itself would already be kind of a bomb, then tapping your whole opponents board to hit them with said kraken and your other creatures for lethal, then on top of that steal your opponents best permanent. Besides that as other people mentioned any mythic God cards.
It doesn’t really do that much very fast, costs 7 in the first place, and is fairly easy to remove in Beyond Death limited. It has to stick around for a few turns and is seriously a win more card, because you have to be able to do nothing for a turn and have a full board to abuse the second mode, then the third mode is almost redundant because if your opponent isn’t dead, or almost dead after you swing all in with an 8/8 and hopefully the rest of your board, then you aren’t winning that game anyway. It’s an ok card if used correctly, sure, just not a bomb.
@@DrewskiTheLegend "It's an ok card if used correctly, sure, just not a bomb." It has the highest win rate on resolution of any draft card since Arena launched. "Not the top 5 best ever", sure. It's expensive and not all decks can play expensive cards. But "not a bomb"? You're nuts. It makes a hexproof 8/8 on ETB. You're not wasting time and you don't need a single other permanent.
I play Historical Brawl on Arena and I will refuse to play against The Scarab God, because of how horrible that card was to play against when it was dominating Arena Standard back in Beta.
One of the toughest cards I ever remember facing in limited was Silumgar, the Drifting Death. Flying and Hexproof on a 3/7 meant it was ultra hard to kill because even if it attacked and you could block, your blockers were at least -1/-1 smaller when it happened (if not worse because they had more dragons attacking).
I also think Oko would deserve at least spot 3 in this list. Considering the facts that Turn 3 Oko in limited usually got an early concession, that there was virtually no way to compete against Gooseko with other Decks in Standard and how fast he had to get banned over almost all formats makes him better than any 4+ drop you can find.
Ethereal Absolution from Ravnica Allegiance was absolutely insane. Same with Oko, Thief of Crowns. I had an opponent play it on turn 3 against me at a prerelease and it was miserable. Little did I know. Going back a bit further, Primeval Bounty from M14 was pretty obnoxious, as was Soul of Theros from M15.
Here are the 10 cards (all rares and mythics) that have the highest win rates in the 17Lands era (so all sets from ZNR onwards). They are: 10. Toxrill, the Corrosive from VOW (66.9% win rate) 9. Lolth, Spider Queen from AFR (66.9% win rate) 8. Nadaar, Selfless Paladin from AFR (66.9% win rate) 7. Halana and Alena, Partners from VOW (67.0% win rate) 6. Luminarch Aspirant from ZNR (67.2% win rate) 5. The Meathook Massacre from MID (67.5% win rate) 4. Mascot Exhibition from STX (67.7% win rate) 3. Esika's Chariot from KHM (69.0% win rate) 2. Koma, Cosmos Serpent from KHM (70.2% win rate) 1. Starnheim Unleashed from KHM (70.5% win rate) Now, there's a fair bit of room for variance here, and the tiny differences in win rate between these rares aren't statistically significant--this is not some kind of definitive ranking. But it is a fun exercise, and interesting to see how some cheaper cards (like Nadaar and Luminarch Aspirant) have put up results as good as the expensive mega-bombs.
The other thing that makes Umezawa's Jitte the biggest bomb ever is how underpowered the rest of the block was. You're not just trying to race this excellent card, but everything you're doing against it is mostly very inefficient.
I played a return to ravnica draft at my lgs that have a special rules. If you open a pack rat, you keep the pack and they give you another one (because they consider you already won the draft).
Part of it was to bring the prices down. Even still, they were only in Standard for a little over two years, not much longer than cards printed in fall sets.
@@GoronRob Ik, been here for a long time. I mean one list of the best one card in each set. While it's been done before, Nizza could do it with a statistical value.
Gotta make a shout out to The Scarab God, kind of surprised to not see it on this list. Nigh-unkillable including by pacifism effects, makes 4/4s while hating graveyards (relevant in a set with a graveyard theme), and even drains your opponent.
@@techoutsider5631 HOU was significantly slower. Scarab God was very castable and once you untapped with it, you stopped playing magic and won the game off its activated ability.
Jitte is even a bomb in Vintage Cube. Deserving the number one spot. It is the only card on this list that can say that. A few other cards on this list show up in Vintage Cube, and this is the only one that can truly dominate most matchups. Pack Rat comes close.
Some cards not on this list that were also beyond the pale in their limited formats are Evincar's Justice [similar to Toxrill in Tempest, but it had more flexibility and was much harder to interact with], Oko obviously, Spider Spawning, Sprout Swarm, Wolfir Silverheart, Mastery of the Unseen [the other busted Fate Reforged white rare], God-Eternal Oketra, Enter the God-Eternals, and Lingering Souls.
Here's a limited bomb. I sat down with 30 other people for sealed release day for a wonky set called Darksteel. Three people pulled a junk uncommon; only one actually played it. To this day, I couldn't tell you the win condition of his deck. I only remember him drawing 12 cards off his Skullclamp. It was a preview of the hell to come for Type II.
Skullclamp was a great card (I opened it at that prerelease and had already concluded from the spoilers that it was completely busted), but it wasn't even the best limited card in Darksteel. That honor would have to go to Sword of Fire and Ice, which was virtually unbeatable card and damage advantage if you could connect with it even a single time-- and, as an added bonus, made the creature it was equipped to semi-unkillable and semi-unblockable to boot. Obviously they were still figuring things out with equipment-- Vulshok Morningstar was common, for example-- but SoFaI was just a single mana in the casting cost more than Morningstar, already a great card, and added four good-to-insane abilities on top of it. The only reason the Sword isn't high up on this top 10 list is because Mirrodin was an artifact set and so there were a handful of playable ways to kill it at instant speed.
I got Dream Trawler in my first huge sealed TBD tournament (more than 150 people), along with a very deep UW pool anyway (two Banishing Light, Thryx, etc). Lots of removals, lots of bulky defenders and flying threats. I didn't read the spoilers beforehand yet I finished fifth from the top. It was my first time ever reaching the top something in a competition and still I remember it as one of my most treasured MTG limited moments.
@@Coolpiss123 At the risk of being "that guy," it was a 10 point life swing cause the card drew for turn raised its power and the card you drew off its effect raised its power.
I'm so glad for all my limited bomb i got at prerelease events. Pack rat, god eternal oketra, kiora bests the see god........Mana crypt from kaladens, that was a fun one!
The best part was when others walked by and saw me flipping the coin and were confused, cos the set had no coin flip in it :D it was quite the attraction
I’d love to see a history of VERY early limited… I think mirage was the first set designed with limited in mind? Was anyone trying to play that way prior? What was early limited like? I once drafted Rath block good memories
Limited was absolutely played prior to Mirage, but the cards were not designed for it, so the formats were... poor. Also, the rules were all over the place; some of the events I played in, for instance, allowed players to trade cards from their starting cardpools. Invasion was the first actually good limited format.
Ice Age was the first set designed with sealed deck tournaments in mind, and Mirage block was designed with draft in mind. The designs improved a little with each set. Invasion feels like the first set where they got the details right. I remember Stormbind and (if you can believe it) dwarven armory as the biggest bombs in Ice Age. In the 90s if it was big and flew it was a bomb (most angles, dragons etc). I didn’t like Rath block much because the shadow mechanic took away from blocking in combat.
People were playing limited as early as Ice Age and 4th/5th edition. The deckbuilding rules were different though for sealed deck. You built a deck out of a starter and a couple boosters, but you could ONLY add in five basic land. So you could theoretically have a really strong color, but only have two(or maybe even one) basic land to support it. In the early days of limited, Wizards didn't realize how good x spells were in the common slot. Karavek's Torch was very good in Mirage, and Rolling Thunder in Tempest was insane. It was basically a one sided Wrath a large portion of the time.
I played a lot of limited competitively from Ice Age to Tempest with a lot of success. Competitive limited was almost exclusively sealed deck, drafts happened but mostly as side events, although I think there was a draft pro tour at some point back then. Mana fixing back then was significantly rarer to begin with, and again you weren't getting to see many more cards than you played so it was even rarer to get it. With fewer cards to pick you had to stuff your deck with every playable possible, too, so it wasn't as much about bombs as it was about picking the colors with the best shit. Also card design was just different, too. Creatures were worse and even most of the busted spells just weren't as playable in limited, but at the same time you had to run lots of creatures or risk being overwhelmed even by garbo creatures played en masse. Big creatures were also rarer and thus more valuable. Today they're barely playable unless they come with etbs or significant abilities, back then something like a big Wurm was a game ender. Deck construction was also different. Ideally you ran 2 colors, but a good amount of time you just ended up with too few playables to really swing it and instead went 2+splash. Splashing was 3-4 cards with 3-4 mana, again because of the fixing, and that again limited bombs because lots of powerful cards cost double colored mana+. That Krovikan Vampire sure would kick ass, but if it's one of 3 black creatures you have and the others are garbage then you're never going to get 2 black mana to play it without making your deck shitty enough to lose every game you don't draw it. As for bombs, removal of any type was a nuclear bomb, it was more rare. Even a single point of damage from something like a Fire Whip or Granger Guildmage was game changing. Combat tricks as a result were more valuable and probably filled the removal role in a way that they can't today. Flyers were also golden, with limited removal, even a 2/2 flyer had a decent chance to be a game winner. Creature enchantments were also playable to good depending, where today they are much less useful. Somebody mentioned shadow creatures and they were also extremely powerful, I remember an enchantment that gave a creature shadow that was a game winner for sure. Buyback was a thing at the same time and was incredible, in sealed you almost always ended up with enough mana to play them over and over again in the later game and that kind of value was insurmountable most of the time.
I came into this video knowing Jitte and Pack Rat would be the top two. That said, I was expecting the order to be reversed with Pack Rat at number one.
From the old-school category I would add Spiritmonger (near-impossible to kill and absolutely enormous for not a ton of mana) and, weirdly to those who never had the misfortune of playing Masques limited, Power Matrix (I know it does not look that bad; trust me, it is absolutely that bad, especially since it was Masques limited and so all of your cards were uncastable garbage). Also rather surprising there are no planeswalkers on this list. I can think of so many planeswalkers that are incredibly snowbally and just run away with the game if you can't instantly kill them-- Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, for example, or Oko, or Chandra, Torch of Defiance, or God help us, Jace, Memory Adept, which would just mill you out in three turns if you didn't have an immediate answer.
Not really, only common answers to it in the format are revoke existence and then shatter that only destroys it and arrest which is just a pacifism variant
A card I expected to see here was Lochmere Serpent. For 6 mana you’re getting a 7/7, which is a pretty damn good stat line. It also has Flash making it more versatile. Once it’s out you can pay U and sac an Island to make it unblockable, making it incredible for ending games quickly. Or you could pay B and sac a Swamp to gain a life and draw a card. Neither of these abilities tap the serpent, so you can keep using them. Finally, if it does end up dying, you can just pay UB and exile 5 cards from the opponent’s graveyard to bring the serpent back to your hand. I’d honestly put this in my top 3 bombs.
Serpent is good, surely got bomb status, but eldraine had much stronger stuff in there. Iirc the biggest bombs in the format were garruk and oko. And embercleave got to be above serpent too.
Call me old, but I think Masticore deserves a place on this list. Yes, its abilities are a bit mana intensive, but you could take your time clearing your opponents board since his second ability made him nigh unkillable in the format. The discard was irrelevant since you didn't need to play another card to win, unlike Citadel Siege, and a 4/4 for 4 was a damn good rate back then.
I was listining to you talk about Ikoria draft and I suddenly thought; "I don't remember ever drafting Ikoria", which is weird. Then I realized, that was right in the worst part of Covid lockdown. I think I was too busy looking for toilet paper and hand sanitizer. I didn't even start drafting again until Commander Legends came out, and that was at home with my roomate.Two person drafts kinda suck, but we had fun. Good times.
Two points. Ikoria was my least favorite draft format of the past several years. Really didn't enjoy it. I don't think you missed out. Second point, did you see the Profs recent video on Winston Draft? It's a two player draft that seems very fun! Haven't tried it yet, but it is on my list.
@@MasterDoctorBenji Thanks for the tip. We were doing the Commander Legends draft so I guess rather than 90 cards we would do 120. Still would be really fun. Unfortunately that roommate moved out so I am stuck with just playing Arena these days. Someday this pandemic will be over.
I remember when I got introduced to magic workstation and I was amazed by being able to play any deck I wanted for free, all formats, test everything I normally can't buy, and I picked legacy as my regular format since they were popular in the program at the time (vintage was as unfun as irl and you wouldn't find many people playing it). I fought a few of really good players who taught me so much about the game competitively, and seeing Jitte in the list just brought a cold to my spine! that card was so ridiculously advantageous, it was a pain to deal with whenever I encountered it, it used to be in many control decks, alongside dark confident, tamorgoyf, hymn to tourach and other kind op cards... and it's funny because at first you may think it doesn't do much - until you see it in play for the first time. mws was really nice experience, i loved building commander decks from scratch, and was even nicer the fact that people would play the phases correctly even if we had to do that manually, it was really fun!
Oko wasn't amazing in my experience? In limited, turning your opponents stuff into 3/3s doesn't usually leave him alive, and beyond that upticking him to make a 3/3 every other turn wasn't great either, questing beast was the mythic I wanted to see
@@the8cell His ability to go up to 5 or 6 loyalty on his first turn and become incredibly tanky, churn you out an army of 3/3s, help you with food synergy, answer your opponent's big threats, steal your opponent's smaller creatures, and gain you a ton of life, all while being a planeswalker that isn't answered by conventional removal pushes him over for me
What you said was not exactly how damage on the stack worked. Assuming you had no tokens already on the Jitte, after blockers are declared you would declare damage going onto the stack and at that point, combat damage would be locked in; so for example if you had a 3/3 carrying the Jitte being blocked by a 4/4 and you put damage on the the stack, the 4/4 would be taking 3, 3/3 would be taking 4. But damage going on the stack would trigger the Jitte Tokens and then you could use them before damage resolved. So if you used 1 token to boost your own guy, he would survive combat, but not kill the 4/4 because the damage your guy was dealing was already locked in at 3. If you used 2 tokens to shrink the other creature, then you would trade, because their creature was already locked in at dealing 4. If you used 1 token to shrink and 1 to boost, then you would kill the opposing 4/4 and not lose your own creature, but have no Jitte tokens left. Not saying this wasn't stupidly strong , but you made it sound even more crazy OP than it was.
I've been in and out of Magic and spectated a lot for almost the last decade, and I always knew it was powerful, but it wasn't until the explanation in this video that Jitte actually clicked for me and I finally understood _why_ it is such a powerful card.
I opened a Dream Trawler in my first Theros: Beyond Death sealed tournament in a 150 players event, along with other sweet Azorius cards (multiple huge flyers, 2 banishing lights, etc. Ended up 8th place, only because I'm not that good of a player, but probably more so because one of my games ended up in a draw because of a time limit. It was my first time getting such a high place in a tournament and I still treasure the memory to this day. Good times.
Agreed on Mascot Exhibition! The greatest thing is that it is in your hand *if you want it*. If you're stuck on lands, Environmental Sciences can be in your hand instead.
I've always wanted you to do a list on this topic! I hope you consider doing more videos like this looking at limited formats over the years. I don't know if it qualifies, but what do you think about sprout swarm? I've heard that it was miserable to deal with in Future Sight drafts.
Speaking of Avabruck Caretaker there was one draft where I was playing red blue and I drew a counter spell the turn after my opponent cast it. I lost that game.
One thing about pack rat in rtr is that there wasn’t a shock or dead weight in the set. Especially on the play you could fairly confidently slam it on turn 2 without worrying that you wouldn’t be able to untap with it.
I remember when I was first beginning Magic, I drafted Dream Trawler on Arena. I watched Nizzahon and knew the was a bomb. I played three games and never drew it. I think two of the games I had 10 or less cards left in my deck. Never been so bummed, lol.
Mascot Exhibition - Probably the most context-specific, since it was just be a 'very good' card in any set without learn cards. Jitte is just proof that last minute R&D changes are dangerous to our health :p
I was firesure from the moment I saw the title that Avabruck Caretaker was the inspiration for it! XD I agree with most of the list, exactly because viability to cast the thing and it coming at the right moment in the game are very relevant things. Certainly "You Win the Game" cards like Coalition Victory can have higher "winrates when casted", but getting there is actually much of the skill part of the game.
I’m willing to bet we will see an artifact equipment that’s a reference (ie. powered down version) for the Jitte in Kamigawa: Neon Genesis Evangelion. It probably won’t be anywhere as powerful but we all know how hard it can be for wizards to balance power.
It's hard to remember when they tried to really balance power lol. Like i guess Strixhaven on is a reduction in power but they'd still be considered high power sets pre FIRE design.
I remember Undergrowth Champion in BFZ prelease. Had that with double retreat to Kazandu, and grew Undergrowth Champion to a 19/19 in one game, since opponent had no hard removal.
Uh, combat-on-the-stack didn't really affect how Jitte was played. It doesn't get counters until the damage is actually dealt. Altering how much damage is dealt doesn't really change things, since it's basically the same as doing that stuff during the declare blockers step. It more affected cards like Otherworldly Journey, Sakura-Tribe Elder and Scuttling Death where you could remove the creature from actual combat, but still have the creature deal combat damage.
Jitte was one of those equipments in addition to Skull clamp that taught Wizards to be more haphazard when making equip cost and special abilities. Shadow Spear is solid but legendary, Embercleave is almost exclusively a combat trick. At least WotC learns. I hope this doesn't age like milk and they introduce some obnoxious techno equipment for the equipped warrior deck in the new Kamigawa block.
The blue mythic saga from Theros beyond death that creates an 8/8 token, steals something from your opponent and taps everyone in their side was absolutely broken on limited. I swept HARD on prerelease using it, won me every single game i drew it as soon as it hit the board.
Not only does crimson vow have a crapload of bombs, it also seemed particularly weak in removal (at least it seemed so to me) which makes it even more frustrating.
There are two cards I definitely think should have been on this list. First is The Scarab God, who has what a lot of the other bombs on this list lack, a way to come back even after your opponent kills it, and was basically unbeatable if it stuck. Second are the rare planeswalkers from War of the Spark, Specifically Nissa Who Shakes the World and Sarkhan the Masterless, which were both immune to creature removal, made creatures to protect themselves, and had good static abilities.
A few cards I think you missed that deserve to be on this list (or as honorable mentions): God-Eternal Oketra - Almost impossible to remove and it creates a ton of bodies. Basilisk Collar - Cheap to cast and equip in an aggressive format that had very little artifact removal. If you haven't played with it in ZZW drafts, it may not seem that impressive, but lifelink and deathtouch meant you won every race. Power Matrix - In the context of Masques block, this card was unbeatable. The power levels were down and having this card meant that your creatures would just dominate combat every time.
I'd add Elspeth, Sun's Champion to the list. It could protect itself by building your board, take out an opponent's biggest threat and then use the ultimate to create an unstoppable army (especially if you'd still got your army from the +1.)
I wish Masticore had made this list. It was an absolute bomb and went in every deck, very difficult to kill, decent body, and obviously worked to clear the board.
Earlier today I effectively lost to a parasitic grasp. I was running RG and had the werewolf that converted damage into doming opponents, the werewolf that gave everything +1/+0, and 4 other creatures. The opponent sacrificed 3 blood tokens to gain 6 life off of two gluttonous guedts, then topdecked parasitic grasp with their last 2 mana and used it on the only human on the board to survive at 1 life, then kill me on the crackback
Oh man, I remember Dream Trawler. I ended up winning against it once or twice because I ended up with a few mill heavy decks, and milling your opponent out was a real win condition in that format, but it was insanely good.
I once beat Avabruck Caretaker with Toxrill since it effectively cancel the night side effect and once you flip it to day, it just dies with their whole board. Maybe Toxrill and By invitation Only are the only 2 cards that can beat the wolf once it resolves.
Toxrill pales in comparison to The Scarab God which are costs considerably less mana, has even more game breaking abilities (admittedly one of which requires mana, but is probably better than using that mana to cast spells in the spirit of Pack Rat), and is much harder to deal with since The Scarab God doesn't stay dead even on its own. And it's pretty debatable whether Toxrill is better than Kiora Dunks On The Table, which is harder to remove despite Theros Beyond Death having plenty of enchantment removal that often had one or two of those make main decks - even when Kiora Bests the Sea God hits the table and immediately gets blown up, you still end up with an 8/8 Hexproof Kraken despite not getting the second and third parts of Saga; both of which are effects that would be worth an entire card individually. And the funny part of that is, Dream Trawler often beats Kiora Bests The Sea God. Toxrill is also the only creature on this list which doesn't get immediate value since it has to wait until your end step - which is a significant concern in a format with a considerable amount of bounce, counterspells, and other removal (I know I've taken to running 1-2 counterspells in my Crimson Vow blue decks to keep bombs away). Everything else on the list either gets immediate value with enters the battlefield triggers, requires specialized answers to deal with because they have protection abilities, are resilient, or is simply not a creature (especially Pack Rat and Caretaker, which pretty much just demand board wipes) and often some combination of all of those. I honestly do not know where The Scarab God would go on this list, but it definitely deserves to be here instead of Toxrill - there's many good reasons The Scarab God is in the Limited Hall of Fame alongside Pack Rat and Umezawa's Jitte (which should be the top 3 IMO). The other sole exception on the list is Mascot Exhibition, and that's still 3 sizable bodies for 7 mana on a spell that's always learnable, and even re-learnable should Mascot Exhibition end up getting exiled. And Mascot Exhibition definitely deserves a spot on this list, alongside possibly Palace Siege and Debtors Knell. That all said, maybe make a fun list video of honorable mentions? It's pretty nutty that the God-Eternals (especially Oketra) didn't make this list, and there's valid arguments for why that is.
Welp, there's always Reconstruct HIstory and Biblioplex Assistant. Could have sworn re-learning worked on MTGArena, but it wouldn't be the first time Arena didn't work as intended.
The Scarab God and Koma Cosmos Serpent should be on this list. My friends and I debated the best limited creature bombs of all time and we decided it was between Koma Cosmos Serpent, Dream Trawler, and The Scarab God. The criteria for being the best limited bomb are, 1. The creature must win the game by itself, and snowball to be completely unstoppable. 2. The creature must have a way to protect or recur itself from removal, dying, etc.. 3. The creature must be able to swing back a game when you are behind on cards, on board, and on life. All three of these creatures hit every note and each have their arguments. The Scarab God only costs 5 mana, and scales up to make armies of 4/4 the more mana you have, but it might not save you from flyers if you are very behind. Dream Trawler has lifelink and flying making it a comeback monster, and stall breaker, but it does not produce more creatures and can be overwhelmed by very large creatures. Koma has by far the most inherent raw power, stopping both itself from being destroyed or the opponent from attacking around it while amassing an army of serpents, but it costs 7. Even saying all of that, all three of these are better than all the Titans, so I'm surprised they didn't all showed up on this list.
Only because it was in mystery boosters I would of put sol ring at number one. You just gain such a huge mana advantage. True you have to have other things to play but it puts you so far ahead so quickly it is very hard to race.
Having played Magic Online for years, drafting multiple blocks, I will say that Umezawa's Jitte is the only card that earned a concession the moment it was played, on multiple occasions. So that's my clear #1 as well. On the Titans, I attended a M12 Limited Grand Prix, and by Round 6 or so, walking around the top tables, it seemed like every player had either a Titan or a planeswalker. The fact that it was a core set made the power discrepancy even worse.
I remember my M11 prerelease deck well; it had Fauna Shaman, Fireball, Serra Angel, Sun Titan, and some other bomb that I am now forgetting (maybe Triskelion), and yeah, Sun Titan was just disgustingly overpowered.
Millstone should be #1. In Revised draft, not only is there little targeted artifact removal, almost no one drafted it. Basically once Millstone hit the table, the owner wouldn’t have to attack anymore or take any risks. And even if the other player had any bombs in the deck of their own or any artifact removal they sided in, 2/3rds chance you would mill it into the graveyard. Against 40 card limited decks and the overall low power level of creatures and spells, it was way OP.
Draft being my favorite format and having drafted every set since Shards of Alara i would go out to say God Eternal Oketra and Hornet Queen were impossible to beat.
Never played primeval Titan in limited, but surely being able to pull out all of your lands from your Library and it will be all as they will all be basic, and to have a 6/6 Trample creature is definitely a massive bomb.
He meant, and clarified in another comment, that Prime Time is still a bomb in limited but not as huge of a bomb as the other titans and I agree. I'd take a ward 2 giant that freezes a creature, a deathtouch giant that poops out 2 2/2 zombies, a firebreathing giant that splits 3 damage, and a vigilance giant that revives a
Did a draft of crimson vow and had the blue black skaab and toxoril pack 3 pick 1 in blue black. Hoped for the skaab to wheel taking toxoril. It didnt. Didnt even see any other copies at all that draft
I wish you added an "where they are now" box to show how good or not those draft bombs were in constructed. And speaking of constructed I did expect Uro to be on this list. Also this seems to be the place to brag about the game where my opponent played a caretaker and next turn a toxril. And I won because I already had several copies or burning-rune demon.
in RTR limited, if you ever opened two pack rats it was considered optimal to make a deck of those two + 38 swamps and just mulliganing until you got one in your starting hand
And then what? Play nothing until turn 5 and hope opp doesn't have two pieces of removal or a wipe?
@@IvarTheBonerless play one on turn two, if they can't kill that one right away you're almost guaranteed to win unless they have a wipe
Back then there wasn't the London Mulligan, so packrat would be even stronger now. You could mulligan down to 1, and as long as you saw 1 packrat in your 7 starting cards, put the six other cards (lands, ideally) to the bottom of your deck and topdeck your mana to victory.
My friends also told me of another similar card in draft, Ensnaring Bridge. Some people would build a deck of Ensnaring Bridge and 39 lands and hard mulligan for it. If your opponent didn't have 20 points of noncombat damage, artifact removal, or an alternate win con, they would deck out before you. Less consistent than the Packrat strategy since you had to mulligan down to 4/3, depending on if you were the play/draw to guarantee you play all the cards in your hand.
I once P1P1 a Trostani, and then P3 got a 🐀 it was worth the splash.
Pack Rat actually first saw play in Standard as a 1-of in a Mono Black Devotion deck simply because it worked so well in Limited. It was meant to just be flood insurance until someone figured out that if you saw that the coast was clear with Thoughtseize on turn 1, you could just make them have it on turn 2 or simply win most match-ups on turn 3.
Another that felt nearly unbeatable during Theros Beyond Death was Kiora Bests the Sea God. I remember playing a cool draft game, with a lot of back and forth, until my opponent cast KBTSG and my chances of winning immediately dropped to 0.
Did games get to that ammount of mana usually?
@@danielwappner1035 Yeah! It was a very grindy format due to the Escape mechanics. But I'd say that in general it's common for limited games to go past turn 7
@@golgariguy Sure but turn 7 is very not the same as 7 mana lol. But yeah I see the format being grindy
In my store we call It Kiora Wins The Game
Personally, I remember drafting Phyrexian Obliterator. When i built a mono black deck around it and dropped it, I wouldn't even get a chance to attack - my opponent just conceded out of annoyance.
Obliterator... infuriate...assault strobe...swing?
yeah but was so hard to cast
That format was full of hard removal though
Really surprised you didn't include God Eternal Oketra, that thing was insane.
Yeah, I went 7-1 in arena with just that card without even trying.
Two god eternal kefnets at pre, won one game attacking with one and casting second one to untap.
My war of the spark pre-release had one of those and 2 Gideons. Genuinely the best limited deck I've ever played!
God-Eternal Oketra was so bad there were rumors that one store in Japan even had players pick a new pack, if they got it :D
Oh yeah, okeke
Every time I see the jitte in play in vintage cube I think to myself "people got to draft this card in standard boosters". Haven't watched yet, just assuming it's on here
I say the same about skull clamp
I don't remember drafting it but I do remember that it came in one of the Preconstructed decks out at the time.
Sensei's diving top
I Pack opened a Jitte in a major tournament, took 2nd.
@@danielquigley2695 opponent must had two jittes.
I would also put "Kiora Bests the Sea God" on this list too. It is a saga with a lot of value, starting with a 8/8 kraken token with hexproof which by itself would already be kind of a bomb, then tapping your whole opponents board to hit them with said kraken and your other creatures for lethal, then on top of that steal your opponents best permanent. Besides that as other people mentioned any mythic God cards.
It's def. among the strongest
Only thing holding it back is that it costs 7. You can argue between it and Toxrill but it's a cut below the cheaper ones.
I love that card so much
It doesn’t really do that much very fast, costs 7 in the first place, and is fairly easy to remove in Beyond Death limited. It has to stick around for a few turns and is seriously a win more card, because you have to be able to do nothing for a turn and have a full board to abuse the second mode, then the third mode is almost redundant because if your opponent isn’t dead, or almost dead after you swing all in with an 8/8 and hopefully the rest of your board, then you aren’t winning that game anyway. It’s an ok card if used correctly, sure, just not a bomb.
@@DrewskiTheLegend "It's an ok card if used correctly, sure, just not a bomb."
It has the highest win rate on resolution of any draft card since Arena launched. "Not the top 5 best ever", sure. It's expensive and not all decks can play expensive cards. But "not a bomb"? You're nuts.
It makes a hexproof 8/8 on ETB. You're not wasting time and you don't need a single other permanent.
I had 2 Avabruck Caretakers in my prerelease pool. It was absolutely stupid lol
Also I'd say The Scarab God might be a contender too
Yeah i was missing scarab god aswell
I play Historical Brawl on Arena and I will refuse to play against The Scarab God, because of how horrible that card was to play against when it was dominating Arena Standard back in Beta.
@@BrotherAlpha i have a historic brawldeck where he is my zombie commander
Good lord 2 of the Caretakers? GG to your opponents 😂
Was this at the Vegas GP? My buddy who was there got beat by someone with 2 caretakers and that can’t have happened too many times
One of the toughest cards I ever remember facing in limited was Silumgar, the Drifting Death. Flying and Hexproof on a 3/7 meant it was ultra hard to kill because even if it attacked and you could block, your blockers were at least -1/-1 smaller when it happened (if not worse because they had more dragons attacking).
I pulled an oko in prerelease. I got him to 18 counters one game, and just won by making so many elks that my opponent couldnt block them all
I also think Oko would deserve at least spot 3 in this list.
Considering the facts that Turn 3 Oko in limited usually got an early concession, that there was virtually no way to compete against Gooseko with other Decks in Standard and how fast he had to get banned over almost all formats makes him better than any 4+ drop you can find.
Ethereal Absolution from Ravnica Allegiance was absolutely insane. Same with Oko, Thief of Crowns. I had an opponent play it on turn 3 against me at a prerelease and it was miserable. Little did I know.
Going back a bit further, Primeval Bounty from M14 was pretty obnoxious, as was Soul of Theros from M15.
Primeval Bounty was reprinted Jumpstart and ruined my day once or twice
Here are the 10 cards (all rares and mythics) that have the highest win rates in the 17Lands era (so all sets from ZNR onwards). They are:
10. Toxrill, the Corrosive from VOW (66.9% win rate)
9. Lolth, Spider Queen from AFR (66.9% win rate)
8. Nadaar, Selfless Paladin from AFR (66.9% win rate)
7. Halana and Alena, Partners from VOW (67.0% win rate)
6. Luminarch Aspirant from ZNR (67.2% win rate)
5. The Meathook Massacre from MID (67.5% win rate)
4. Mascot Exhibition from STX (67.7% win rate)
3. Esika's Chariot from KHM (69.0% win rate)
2. Koma, Cosmos Serpent from KHM (70.2% win rate)
1. Starnheim Unleashed from KHM (70.5% win rate)
Now, there's a fair bit of room for variance here, and the tiny differences in win rate between these rares aren't statistically significant--this is not some kind of definitive ranking. But it is a fun exercise, and interesting to see how some cheaper cards (like Nadaar and Luminarch Aspirant) have put up results as good as the expensive mega-bombs.
The other thing that makes Umezawa's Jitte the biggest bomb ever is how underpowered the rest of the block was. You're not just trying to race this excellent card, but everything you're doing against it is mostly very inefficient.
Add to it the lack of artifact removal due to Mirrodin block proceeding Kamigawa and you just had a nightmare.
@@dashkataey1740 mirrodin was released before kamigawa, actually. unless you are talking about the comeback set, but that came way later
@@daniloferreirac7939 Didn't notice the autocorrect changed preceding to proceeding. :P
I played a return to ravnica draft at my lgs that have a special rules. If you open a pack rat, you keep the pack and they give you another one (because they consider you already won the draft).
The fact that wotc was like “yea, let’s reprint the titans back into standard for next rotation” is pretty hilarious.
They weren’t even played though. Scars and Innistrad didn’t need or want them
Now they wouldn't even be playable!
Part of it was to bring the prices down. Even still, they were only in Standard for a little over two years, not much longer than cards printed in fall sets.
I got a dream trawler on the battlefield in limited once. Won me the game hands down. Great list!
Would be neat to see a video of the best card in each set, point wise.
He’s been doing top 10s on each set, working his way through every set slowly
@@GoronRob Ik, been here for a long time. I mean one list of the best one card in each set. While it's been done before, Nizza could do it with a statistical value.
God, I was hoping for a video like this for AGES. Thank you for branching out to talk about limited as a whole, I’m a huge fan of this new direction
Gotta make a shout out to The Scarab God, kind of surprised to not see it on this list. Nigh-unkillable including by pacifism effects, makes 4/4s while hating graveyards (relevant in a set with a graveyard theme), and even drains your opponent.
Amonkhet block was insanely fast and aggro as a Limited format.
@@techoutsider5631 HOU was significantly slower. Scarab God was very castable and once you untapped with it, you stopped playing magic and won the game off its activated ability.
Jitte is even a bomb in Vintage Cube. Deserving the number one spot. It is the only card on this list that can say that. A few other cards on this list show up in Vintage Cube, and this is the only one that can truly dominate most matchups. Pack Rat comes close.
“Hey, a really big nizzahon video! I wonder what the numbe- freaking comments”
Some cards not on this list that were also beyond the pale in their limited formats are Evincar's Justice [similar to Toxrill in Tempest, but it had more flexibility and was much harder to interact with], Oko obviously, Spider Spawning, Sprout Swarm, Wolfir Silverheart, Mastery of the Unseen [the other busted Fate Reforged white rare], God-Eternal Oketra, Enter the God-Eternals, and Lingering Souls.
Here's a limited bomb. I sat down with 30 other people for sealed release day for a wonky set called Darksteel. Three people pulled a junk uncommon; only one actually played it. To this day, I couldn't tell you the win condition of his deck. I only remember him drawing 12 cards off his Skullclamp.
It was a preview of the hell to come for Type II.
Skullclamp was a great card (I opened it at that prerelease and had already concluded from the spoilers that it was completely busted), but it wasn't even the best limited card in Darksteel. That honor would have to go to Sword of Fire and Ice, which was virtually unbeatable card and damage advantage if you could connect with it even a single time-- and, as an added bonus, made the creature it was equipped to semi-unkillable and semi-unblockable to boot.
Obviously they were still figuring things out with equipment-- Vulshok Morningstar was common, for example-- but SoFaI was just a single mana in the casting cost more than Morningstar, already a great card, and added four good-to-insane abilities on top of it. The only reason the Sword isn't high up on this top 10 list is because Mirrodin was an artifact set and so there were a handful of playable ways to kill it at instant speed.
I got Dream Trawler in my first huge sealed TBD tournament (more than 150 people), along with a very deep UW pool anyway (two Banishing Light, Thryx, etc). Lots of removals, lots of bulky defenders and flying threats. I didn't read the spoilers beforehand yet I finished fifth from the top. It was my first time ever reaching the top something in a competition and still I remember it as one of my most treasured MTG limited moments.
my number one is Dream Trawler, boy I got ragdolled around by this card lol
no joke, 8 life swing every single time is just impossible to overcome in limited
@@Coolpiss123 At the risk of being "that guy," it was a 10 point life swing cause the card drew for turn raised its power and the card you drew off its effect raised its power.
Scarab God is the big one that I think you missed, but great video as always!
I would've included Kiora Bests the Draft Pod
I'm so glad for all my limited bomb i got at prerelease events. Pack rat, god eternal oketra, kiora bests the see god........Mana crypt from kaladens, that was a fun one!
I would have loved to have seen your opponents faces when you played it
The best part was when others walked by and saw me flipping the coin and were confused, cos the set had no coin flip in it :D it was quite the attraction
I've seen someone get a ticket refund on mtgo for losing a draft to pack rat.
I’d love to see a history of VERY early limited… I think mirage was the first set designed with limited in mind? Was anyone trying to play that way prior? What was early limited like? I once drafted Rath block good memories
agreed!
Limited was absolutely played prior to Mirage, but the cards were not designed for it, so the formats were... poor. Also, the rules were all over the place; some of the events I played in, for instance, allowed players to trade cards from their starting cardpools.
Invasion was the first actually good limited format.
Ice Age was the first set designed with sealed deck tournaments in mind, and Mirage block was designed with draft in mind. The designs improved a little with each set. Invasion feels like the first set where they got the details right.
I remember Stormbind and (if you can believe it) dwarven armory as the biggest bombs in Ice Age. In the 90s if it was big and flew it was a bomb (most angles, dragons etc).
I didn’t like Rath block much because the shadow mechanic took away from blocking in combat.
People were playing limited as early as Ice Age and 4th/5th edition. The deckbuilding rules were different though for sealed deck. You built a deck out of a starter and a couple boosters, but you could ONLY add in five basic land. So you could theoretically have a really strong color, but only have two(or maybe even one) basic land to support it. In the early days of limited, Wizards didn't realize how good x spells were in the common slot. Karavek's Torch was very good in Mirage, and Rolling Thunder in Tempest was insane. It was basically a one sided Wrath a large portion of the time.
I played a lot of limited competitively from Ice Age to Tempest with a lot of success. Competitive limited was almost exclusively sealed deck, drafts happened but mostly as side events, although I think there was a draft pro tour at some point back then. Mana fixing back then was significantly rarer to begin with, and again you weren't getting to see many more cards than you played so it was even rarer to get it. With fewer cards to pick you had to stuff your deck with every playable possible, too, so it wasn't as much about bombs as it was about picking the colors with the best shit. Also card design was just different, too. Creatures were worse and even most of the busted spells just weren't as playable in limited, but at the same time you had to run lots of creatures or risk being overwhelmed even by garbo creatures played en masse. Big creatures were also rarer and thus more valuable. Today they're barely playable unless they come with etbs or significant abilities, back then something like a big Wurm was a game ender. Deck construction was also different. Ideally you ran 2 colors, but a good amount of time you just ended up with too few playables to really swing it and instead went 2+splash. Splashing was 3-4 cards with 3-4 mana, again because of the fixing, and that again limited bombs because lots of powerful cards cost double colored mana+. That Krovikan Vampire sure would kick ass, but if it's one of 3 black creatures you have and the others are garbage then you're never going to get 2 black mana to play it without making your deck shitty enough to lose every game you don't draw it.
As for bombs, removal of any type was a nuclear bomb, it was more rare. Even a single point of damage from something like a Fire Whip or Granger Guildmage was game changing. Combat tricks as a result were more valuable and probably filled the removal role in a way that they can't today. Flyers were also golden, with limited removal, even a 2/2 flyer had a decent chance to be a game winner. Creature enchantments were also playable to good depending, where today they are much less useful. Somebody mentioned shadow creatures and they were also extremely powerful, I remember an enchantment that gave a creature shadow that was a game winner for sure. Buyback was a thing at the same time and was incredible, in sealed you almost always ended up with enough mana to play them over and over again in the later game and that kind of value was insurmountable most of the time.
I came into this video knowing Jitte and Pack Rat would be the top two. That said, I was expecting the order to be reversed with Pack Rat at number one.
Absolutely love this list. Could you do a „Top 10 Limited Formats“? If you haven‘t done one yet?
From the old-school category I would add Spiritmonger (near-impossible to kill and absolutely enormous for not a ton of mana) and, weirdly to those who never had the misfortune of playing Masques limited, Power Matrix (I know it does not look that bad; trust me, it is absolutely that bad, especially since it was Masques limited and so all of your cards were uncastable garbage).
Also rather surprising there are no planeswalkers on this list. I can think of so many planeswalkers that are incredibly snowbally and just run away with the game if you can't instantly kill them-- Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver, for example, or Oko, or Chandra, Torch of Defiance, or God help us, Jace, Memory Adept, which would just mill you out in three turns if you didn't have an immediate answer.
Staring down a turn 3 Isamaru with a jitte while going second sumarizes the moment when my childhood ended.
I beat an opponent who resolved Kiora Bests the Sea God at Theros Beyond Death prerelease, and I will take that pride to my grave.
Guessing Wurmcoil Engine wasn't on this list mostly because the format it was in contained a lot of answers?
Not really, only common answers to it in the format are revoke existence and then shatter that only destroys it and arrest which is just a pacifism variant
A card I expected to see here was Lochmere Serpent. For 6 mana you’re getting a 7/7, which is a pretty damn good stat line. It also has Flash making it more versatile. Once it’s out you can pay U and sac an Island to make it unblockable, making it incredible for ending games quickly. Or you could pay B and sac a Swamp to gain a life and draw a card. Neither of these abilities tap the serpent, so you can keep using them. Finally, if it does end up dying, you can just pay UB and exile 5 cards from the opponent’s graveyard to bring the serpent back to your hand. I’d honestly put this in my top 3 bombs.
Serpent is good, surely got bomb status, but eldraine had much stronger stuff in there. Iirc the biggest bombs in the format were garruk and oko. And embercleave got to be above serpent too.
Bro, I forgot about that thing. That card dominated at draft, a guy pulled it and it was game over if it resolved. Good call
Call me old, but I think Masticore deserves a place on this list. Yes, its abilities are a bit mana intensive, but you could take your time clearing your opponents board since his second ability made him nigh unkillable in the format. The discard was irrelevant since you didn't need to play another card to win, unlike Citadel Siege, and a 4/4 for 4 was a damn good rate back then.
I was listining to you talk about Ikoria draft and I suddenly thought; "I don't remember ever drafting Ikoria", which is weird. Then I realized, that was right in the worst part of Covid lockdown. I think I was too busy looking for toilet paper and hand sanitizer. I didn't even start drafting again until Commander Legends came out, and that was at home with my roomate.Two person drafts kinda suck, but we had fun. Good times.
Two points. Ikoria was my least favorite draft format of the past several years. Really didn't enjoy it. I don't think you missed out.
Second point, did you see the Profs recent video on Winston Draft? It's a two player draft that seems very fun! Haven't tried it yet, but it is on my list.
@@MasterDoctorBenji Thanks for the tip. We were doing the Commander Legends draft so I guess rather than 90 cards we would do 120. Still would be really fun. Unfortunately that roommate moved out so I am stuck with just playing Arena these days. Someday this pandemic will be over.
I remember when I got introduced to magic workstation and I was amazed by being able to play any deck I wanted for free, all formats, test everything I normally can't buy, and I picked legacy as my regular format since they were popular in the program at the time (vintage was as unfun as irl and you wouldn't find many people playing it). I fought a few of really good players who taught me so much about the game competitively, and seeing Jitte in the list just brought a cold to my spine! that card was so ridiculously advantageous, it was a pain to deal with whenever I encountered it, it used to be in many control decks, alongside dark confident, tamorgoyf, hymn to tourach and other kind op cards... and it's funny because at first you may think it doesn't do much - until you see it in play for the first time.
mws was really nice experience, i loved building commander decks from scratch, and was even nicer the fact that people would play the phases correctly even if we had to do that manually, it was really fun!
Garruk from Eldraine was kind of nuts. It single-handedly built an enormous board presence, was removal and drew a card.
Another high-quality video packed with information, great job.
I was thinking Scarab God, Gideon Ally of zendikar, Oko, and God eternal oketra would be contenders too
Oko wasn't amazing in my experience? In limited, turning your opponents stuff into 3/3s doesn't usually leave him alive, and beyond that upticking him to make a 3/3 every other turn wasn't great either, questing beast was the mythic I wanted to see
@@the8cell His ability to go up to 5 or 6 loyalty on his first turn and become incredibly tanky, churn you out an army of 3/3s, help you with food synergy, answer your opponent's big threats, steal your opponent's smaller creatures, and gain you a ton of life, all while being a planeswalker that isn't answered by conventional removal pushes him over for me
What you said was not exactly how damage on the stack worked. Assuming you had no tokens already on the Jitte, after blockers are declared you would declare damage going onto the stack and at that point, combat damage would be locked in; so for example if you had a 3/3 carrying the Jitte being blocked by a 4/4 and you put damage on the the stack, the 4/4 would be taking 3, 3/3 would be taking 4. But damage going on the stack would trigger the Jitte Tokens and then you could use them before damage resolved. So if you used 1 token to boost your own guy, he would survive combat, but not kill the 4/4 because the damage your guy was dealing was already locked in at 3. If you used 2 tokens to shrink the other creature, then you would trade, because their creature was already locked in at dealing 4. If you used 1 token to shrink and 1 to boost, then you would kill the opposing 4/4 and not lose your own creature, but have no Jitte tokens left. Not saying this wasn't stupidly strong , but you made it sound even more crazy OP than it was.
I've been in and out of Magic and spectated a lot for almost the last decade, and I always knew it was powerful, but it wasn't until the explanation in this video that Jitte actually clicked for me and I finally understood _why_ it is such a powerful card.
I opened a Dream Trawler in my first Theros: Beyond Death sealed tournament in a 150 players event, along with other sweet Azorius cards (multiple huge flyers, 2 banishing lights, etc. Ended up 8th place, only because I'm not that good of a player, but probably more so because one of my games ended up in a draw because of a time limit.
It was my first time getting such a high place in a tournament and I still treasure the memory to this day. Good times.
Agreed on Mascot Exhibition! The greatest thing is that it is in your hand *if you want it*. If you're stuck on lands, Environmental Sciences can be in your hand instead.
I was hoping to see Thunder Maw Hellkite, but all these make sense.
I've always wanted you to do a list on this topic! I hope you consider doing more videos like this looking at limited formats over the years. I don't know if it qualifies, but what do you think about sprout swarm? I've heard that it was miserable to deal with in Future Sight drafts.
It was great, but not on the same level here. Probably one of the best Limited Commons ever though. Maybe THE best.
@@NizzahonMagic commons only list?
Speaking of Avabruck Caretaker there was one draft where I was playing red blue and I drew a counter spell the turn after my opponent cast it. I lost that game.
One thing about pack rat in rtr is that there wasn’t a shock or dead weight in the set. Especially on the play you could fairly confidently slam it on turn 2 without worrying that you wouldn’t be able to untap with it.
I remember when I was first beginning Magic, I drafted Dream Trawler on Arena. I watched Nizzahon and knew the was a bomb. I played three games and never drew it. I think two of the games I had 10 or less cards left in my deck. Never been so bummed, lol.
Mascot Exhibition - Probably the most context-specific, since it was just be a 'very good' card in any set without learn cards.
Jitte is just proof that last minute R&D changes are dangerous to our health :p
I was firesure from the moment I saw the title that Avabruck Caretaker was the inspiration for it! XD
I agree with most of the list, exactly because viability to cast the thing and it coming at the right moment in the game are very relevant things. Certainly "You Win the Game" cards like Coalition Victory can have higher "winrates when casted", but getting there is actually much of the skill part of the game.
I’m willing to bet we will see an artifact equipment that’s a reference (ie. powered down version) for the Jitte in Kamigawa: Neon Genesis Evangelion. It probably won’t be anywhere as powerful but we all know how hard it can be for wizards to balance power.
It's hard to remember when they tried to really balance power lol. Like i guess Strixhaven on is a reduction in power but they'd still be considered high power sets pre FIRE design.
I remember Undergrowth Champion in BFZ prelease. Had that with double retreat to Kazandu, and grew Undergrowth Champion to a 19/19 in one game, since opponent had no hard removal.
Uh, combat-on-the-stack didn't really affect how Jitte was played. It doesn't get counters until the damage is actually dealt. Altering how much damage is dealt doesn't really change things, since it's basically the same as doing that stuff during the declare blockers step. It more affected cards like Otherworldly Journey, Sakura-Tribe Elder and Scuttling Death where you could remove the creature from actual combat, but still have the creature deal combat damage.
This is why damage on the stack was removed.
Jitte was one of those equipments in addition to Skull clamp that taught Wizards to be more haphazard when making equip cost and special abilities. Shadow Spear is solid but legendary, Embercleave is almost exclusively a combat trick. At least WotC learns. I hope this doesn't age like milk and they introduce some obnoxious techno equipment for the equipped warrior deck in the new Kamigawa block.
its stange, post rotation has had almost no equipment other than bulk commons
Once upon a time I drafted Oko. Best draft ever, undefeated
Played the oko mirror in throne prerelease. Sadly he was on the play with a goose
Glory in background
Calling it now, Pithing Needle is #1
So close lol
Something that supports this list, is how many of these cards are in or have been in vintage cube.
The blue mythic saga from Theros beyond death that creates an 8/8 token, steals something from your opponent and taps everyone in their side was absolutely broken on limited. I swept HARD on prerelease using it, won me every single game i drew it as soon as it hit the board.
Not only does crimson vow have a crapload of bombs, it also seemed particularly weak in removal (at least it seemed so to me) which makes it even more frustrating.
There are two cards I definitely think should have been on this list. First is The Scarab God, who has what a lot of the other bombs on this list lack, a way to come back even after your opponent kills it, and was basically unbeatable if it stuck. Second are the rare planeswalkers from War of the Spark, Specifically Nissa Who Shakes the World and Sarkhan the Masterless, which were both immune to creature removal, made creatures to protect themselves, and had good static abilities.
Pemmins aura = I am super man! Just needed the morphling to enchant it.
I miss those days where damage was on the stack.
A few cards I think you missed that deserve to be on this list (or as honorable mentions):
God-Eternal Oketra - Almost impossible to remove and it creates a ton of bodies.
Basilisk Collar - Cheap to cast and equip in an aggressive format that had very little artifact removal. If you haven't played with it in ZZW drafts, it may not seem that impressive, but lifelink and deathtouch meant you won every race.
Power Matrix - In the context of Masques block, this card was unbeatable. The power levels were down and having this card meant that your creatures would just dominate combat every time.
I'd add Elspeth, Sun's Champion to the list. It could protect itself by building your board, take out an opponent's biggest threat and then use the ultimate to create an unstoppable army (especially if you'd still got your army from the +1.)
I wish Masticore had made this list. It was an absolute bomb and went in every deck, very difficult to kill, decent body, and obviously worked to clear the board.
Equilibrium is absolutely the best limited bomb of all time, that cards is actually insurmountable
I was a little surprised not to see The Scarab God on the list, but other than that, this was excellent
I'm surprised Jace, Memory Adept didn't make the list. Its mill effect is a 2 or 3-turn clock in limited games with their 40-card decks.
So glad Jitte ranked as #1, that card is amazing! Was a little surprised to not see other equipments on the list, like the swords and batterskull??
Pack Rats is the card that Slivers always wanted to be,
Earlier today I effectively lost to a parasitic grasp. I was running RG and had the werewolf that converted damage into doming opponents, the werewolf that gave everything +1/+0, and 4 other creatures. The opponent sacrificed 3 blood tokens to gain 6 life off of two gluttonous guedts, then topdecked parasitic grasp with their last 2 mana and used it on the only human on the board to survive at 1 life, then kill me on the crackback
GOD-ETERNAL OKETRA!!!!!
Oh man, I remember Dream Trawler. I ended up winning against it once or twice because I ended up with a few mill heavy decks, and milling your opponent out was a real win condition in that format, but it was insanely good.
Played 2 prerelease for TBD..lost 1 match, to mill...felt super weird lol
Wouldn't it be neat if a deck could cast Mascot Exhibition like super early... Like turn 3 lol
I want to see someone throw this card into modern Tron
I once beat Avabruck Caretaker with Toxrill since it effectively cancel the night side effect and once you flip it to day, it just dies with their whole board. Maybe Toxrill and By invitation Only are the only 2 cards that can beat the wolf once it resolves.
These are great! I would love to see more about limited like more top/worst cards.
I don't have much experience in Limited but I always imagined the green Gearhulk should be a blasting bomb.
Predicting Tetzimoc on here somewhere
EDIT: number four baybeee
Toxrill pales in comparison to The Scarab God which are costs considerably less mana, has even more game breaking abilities (admittedly one of which requires mana, but is probably better than using that mana to cast spells in the spirit of Pack Rat), and is much harder to deal with since The Scarab God doesn't stay dead even on its own. And it's pretty debatable whether Toxrill is better than Kiora Dunks On The Table, which is harder to remove despite Theros Beyond Death having plenty of enchantment removal that often had one or two of those make main decks - even when Kiora Bests the Sea God hits the table and immediately gets blown up, you still end up with an 8/8 Hexproof Kraken despite not getting the second and third parts of Saga; both of which are effects that would be worth an entire card individually. And the funny part of that is, Dream Trawler often beats Kiora Bests The Sea God.
Toxrill is also the only creature on this list which doesn't get immediate value since it has to wait until your end step - which is a significant concern in a format with a considerable amount of bounce, counterspells, and other removal (I know I've taken to running 1-2 counterspells in my Crimson Vow blue decks to keep bombs away). Everything else on the list either gets immediate value with enters the battlefield triggers, requires specialized answers to deal with because they have protection abilities, are resilient, or is simply not a creature (especially Pack Rat and Caretaker, which pretty much just demand board wipes) and often some combination of all of those. I honestly do not know where The Scarab God would go on this list, but it definitely deserves to be here instead of Toxrill - there's many good reasons The Scarab God is in the Limited Hall of Fame alongside Pack Rat and Umezawa's Jitte (which should be the top 3 IMO).
The other sole exception on the list is Mascot Exhibition, and that's still 3 sizable bodies for 7 mana on a spell that's always learnable, and even re-learnable should Mascot Exhibition end up getting exiled. And Mascot Exhibition definitely deserves a spot on this list, alongside possibly Palace Siege and Debtors Knell.
That all said, maybe make a fun list video of honorable mentions? It's pretty nutty that the God-Eternals (especially Oketra) didn't make this list, and there's valid arguments for why that is.
You cant learn a card in exile. Wishes being able to grab stuff from exile isnt a thing anymore for well over a decade.
Welp, there's always Reconstruct HIstory and Biblioplex Assistant. Could have sworn re-learning worked on MTGArena, but it wouldn't be the first time Arena didn't work as intended.
Citadel + conclave. Yep that sounds fun
Have you done a top 10 thrill cards? I'm not sure what the term would be for it but basically discard one to draw 2
7:48 Assuming the green titan was the one not mentioned by name here?
yeah Primevil Titan
The Scarab God and Koma Cosmos Serpent should be on this list.
My friends and I debated the best limited creature bombs of all time and we decided it was between
Koma Cosmos Serpent, Dream Trawler, and The Scarab God.
The criteria for being the best limited bomb are,
1. The creature must win the game by itself, and snowball to be completely unstoppable.
2. The creature must have a way to protect or recur itself from removal, dying, etc..
3. The creature must be able to swing back a game when you are behind on cards, on board, and on life.
All three of these creatures hit every note and each have their arguments.
The Scarab God only costs 5 mana, and scales up to make armies of 4/4 the more mana you have, but it might not save you from flyers if you are very behind.
Dream Trawler has lifelink and flying making it a comeback monster, and stall breaker, but it does not produce more creatures and can be overwhelmed by very large creatures.
Koma has by far the most inherent raw power, stopping both itself from being destroyed or the opponent from attacking around it while amassing an army of serpents, but it costs 7.
Even saying all of that, all three of these are better than all the Titans, so I'm surprised they didn't all showed up on this list.
Taking the land is a value pick for constructed.
I am expecting Pack Rat here
Only because it was in mystery boosters I would of put sol ring at number one. You just gain such a huge mana advantage. True you have to have other things to play but it puts you so far ahead so quickly it is very hard to race.
I was definitely expecting The Scarab God on this list
Wizards "we're not gonna print hexproof anymore" crimson vow comes out "LOL JK"
Well, they print it at higher rarities, and probably will continue to.
Great video! I'm surprised Elesh Norn didn't make the list. Why not?
Having played Magic Online for years, drafting multiple blocks, I will say that Umezawa's Jitte is the only card that earned a concession the moment it was played, on multiple occasions. So that's my clear #1 as well.
On the Titans, I attended a M12 Limited Grand Prix, and by Round 6 or so, walking around the top tables, it seemed like every player had either a Titan or a planeswalker. The fact that it was a core set made the power discrepancy even worse.
I remember my M11 prerelease deck well; it had Fauna Shaman, Fireball, Serra Angel, Sun Titan, and some other bomb that I am now forgetting (maybe Triskelion), and yeah, Sun Titan was just disgustingly overpowered.
Millstone should be #1. In Revised draft, not only is there little targeted artifact removal, almost no one drafted it. Basically once Millstone hit the table, the owner wouldn’t have to attack anymore or take any risks. And even if the other player had any bombs in the deck of their own or any artifact removal they sided in, 2/3rds chance you would mill it into the graveyard. Against 40 card limited decks and the overall low power level of creatures and spells, it was way OP.
Ran into a toxril during my last draft at the lgs... the hype is real.
Colossal Dreadmaw will forever be my favorite limited bomb
Draft being my favorite format and having drafted every set since Shards of Alara i would go out to say God Eternal Oketra and Hornet Queen were impossible to beat.
Only way to beat oketra was flying over, having multiple planeswalker bombs or countering/discarding her
Never played primeval Titan in limited, but surely being able to pull out all of your lands from your Library and it will be all as they will all be basic, and to have a 6/6 Trample creature is definitely a massive bomb.
It's basically a Colossal Dreadmaw on steroids!! What's not to love??
He meant, and clarified in another comment, that Prime Time is still a bomb in limited but not as huge of a bomb as the other titans and I agree. I'd take a ward 2 giant that freezes a creature, a deathtouch giant that poops out 2 2/2 zombies, a firebreathing giant that splits 3 damage, and a vigilance giant that revives a
Did a draft of crimson vow and had the blue black skaab and toxoril pack 3 pick 1 in blue black. Hoped for the skaab to wheel taking toxoril. It didnt. Didnt even see any other copies at all that draft
I am surprised that the phyrexian preators were not included. These are real bombs!
I wish you added an "where they are now" box to show how good or not those draft bombs were in constructed.
And speaking of constructed I did expect Uro to be on this list.
Also this seems to be the place to brag about the game where my opponent played a caretaker and next turn a toxril. And I won because I already had several copies or burning-rune demon.
Uro wasn't nearly as good in Limited, mostly because of the flashback cost, which was harder to get going. Definitely a bomb though.