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You could play One With Nothing with Animate Dead. Turn 1. One with Nothing. Turn 2 Animate Dead a 10 cost monster. You just have to get lucky and draw one after you discard.
I have to say even though those cards are pretty bad and make no sense within the game,at least the art on those cards are not AI, I appreciate bad cards more now than I ever did for the art at least.
I’m surprised we haven’t seen more Elder Land Wurms. The lore is that they’re Elder Dragons who lost in the original dragon war, and were stripped of their limbs and wings.
That’s incredibly interesting, makes you wonder if there are some to try to find a ritual to rip all the limbs and wings off of the elder dragons so they can rise above it and take their “rightful place” as rulers of the skies. Would be cool to see something like that happen.
The mechanic of having defender until it blocks once would be a cool "counterattack" mechanic. Like, it's a 1/5 until it blocks... and then next turn, it's a 5/5 double strike.
@@AlexofZippo example: Swordbreaker Paladin: 2WW, Creature- Human Knight Parry 3WW (You may play this creature as if it had flash. if you do, it comes in Tapped, and blocking target creature attacking you.) Vigilance If Swordbreaker Paladin Parries or blocks a creature, It gains +2/+2 and Double strike until the beginning of your next end step. 3/5
i have gotten my gf into magic with the expensive af raining cats and dogs deck. it only took almost 400 dead presidents to get her into my hobby but its fun losing to her cute horde
The only combo I ever remember for Magic. It's turn 1, you're on the play: - Swamp - Dark Ritual - Use 2 mana for smallpox, making each player discard a card, sac a creature, and sac a land. - Use your remaining 1 mana for One With Nothing, discarding your hand. - Pass turn one with no land on the board, no creatures on the board, and no cards in hand :)
I'll do you one better! Swamp into double Dark Ritual, cast Tormod's Crypt, Sinkhole your Swamp, then Demonic Consultation something that isn't in your deck. Cast One with Nothing in case you had to draw, and activate the Crypt! The only thing you have left in the game is a single floating mana!
Even better is that Legends was designed by the friends of the CEO and Founder of Wizards of the Coast Peter Akison. WotC was selling out of Magic so fast that they needed new sets to keep up with demand. So in addition to all the OG play testers from Richard and the East Coast play testers Peter had his roleplaying friends make the set with many of the Legends being characters from their D&D game. This is why while not a terrible set many of the cards feel overcosted or werid as they weren’t familiar with how the game was played at all. This all comes from Mark Rosewater’s Drive to Work Podcast and honestly explains why some of the cards feel like they came directly from the CustomMTG Reddit.
“Visions” is a card that’s always been in my mind. You’re right prof it *doesn’t* do anything. It’s the closest we’ve ever gotten to a card that’s just says “shuffle your deck” and nothing else.
"Visions" at the very least could mess up a "top-deck matters" or "Return of the Second Sun" deck. I feel like it should have been lower on the list at least.
_"Hello, hello, baby, you called? I can't hear a thing_ _I have got no service in the club, you say, say?"_ -A good song "Urza was the first to understand that the war would not be lost for lack of power, but for lack of troops." -flavor text for a card in the video. Telephones rally the troops, and I personally like the color of that phone. Just like this video has made my appreciation for every single one of these cards increase. Because they can be used as computer components. remember, raka=worthless in hebrew
I had dark depths in my had, but one of my opponents had a thespian stage in play. I draw mystical teachings. waited to have 6 mana. then played the dark depths, opponent goes to copy it, I tutor the teferi's response and counter it, breakin the tespian stage and getting 2 cards. I love those janky interactions commander can provide.
@@Jachidos That’s how they used to indicate that an artifact didn’t have to be tapped to use its ability. Notice that the _Alpha_ printing of Conservator shown earlier didn’t have a tap symbol, but said it was a “Mono Artifact”. (An artifact with a passive ability was a “Continuous Artifact”, and the ability only worked while it was untapped.)
I started Magic in ‘95 and Quinton Hoover was, by far, my favorite artist. I went to all the Milwaukee GenCons and got lots of artist autographs but he never attended. I even sent him a card and a stamped return envelope but he didn’t return it. (It was an Alpha Vesuvian Dopplelganger)
It's easy to make that mistake, Brian Kibler is a recognized science youtuber, while Kyle Hill is recognized as one of the best Magic players of all time 🤣
There need to be MORE of these cards in the game. Quirky little odd-ball abilities and bizarre interactions lend an element of exploration and campy fun to the game. What's cooler than discovering a synergy or combo in what was previously thought to be a worthless card?
Let’s be fair though, some of the more recent versions of that are way more interesting than those. I somehow doubt anyone is going to find a hidden synergy with Rakalite of all cards lol.
It was meant to be an animate artifact target. I think they felt players didn't like sending useful artifacts into combat, so they made a crappy one with a high cost. Turns out players are more than happy to send a good artifact into combat if it means not slotting garbage for a ten mana, two card 6/6. Game was a lot slower back then.
@@jamesmcternen4608 as someone who joined in kaladesh, seeing old cards is always kinda fun. Like, yeah, i see what they “wanted” to happen, and then players get one taste of dredge and it’s off to the races
@@ccggenius oh of course. My personal favorite commander is Chisei, Heart of Oceans. But that’s a bit more recent than at least most of the cards that Prof was talking about in this video.
Honestly Tefari's Response sounds like a nice addition to any decks that focus on converting lands into creatures, especially in Simic. Even more so when said cards state they are still considered lands
Check out Noyan Dar! I lived the dream and used Teferi's Response to blow up an opponent's planeswalker that tried to kill one of my land creatures lol
I too have played since 1994- under orders from my boss since we were making the first MTG eGame (Microprose). Anyhow, the Elder Wurm was terrible even by those ancient standards. For "just" 5 mana, you could have a flying, vigilence 4/4 Serra Angel. Going up 1 tick to 5/5 while trading "down" 2 keywords for 1, raising the mana cost by TWO and adding a massive downside the opponent can play around is just bananas.
@@ThePastPenguin That game had a very troubled development. I remember the Producer practically in tears during a big meeting because it could have been so much better. It looked dated even by the standards of the day. We were developing 2 complete versions of the same game (DOS and Windows). The entire DOS team was laid off when they decided to ditch it. Not a great time.
One with Nothing + Sudden Substitution is still one of the coolest ways to yoink a creature while discarding someone's hand at instant speed. I've had Selfless Exorcist in my collection since I started playing. I think only recently with Agatha's Soul Cauldron printed have I actually looked at him and thought, "Maybe I can make this work." Stuffy Doll Exorcist coming to a game near you. I've been really trying to brainstorm a Teferi's Response / Equinox kind of deck that uses manlands to enable the cards. Just sounds like a lot of fun to do.
If you cast One with Nothing in response to your own Yawgmoth's Will, you can play cards that were in your hand as if they'd still be in your hand. Best combo in the game imo.
Conservator is stupider than I thought, forgot mono meant you could only use it once…I saw the colon and thought you could pay the 3 multiple times. So much worse now 😂
@@jamesmcternen4608There's also Forcefield, which is certainly much stronger, but to be fair it can't ever prevent all the damage (so it can't stop a Hyppie's discard-though for pretty much everything that's not stopping a damage trigger its effect is way better) and it was rare rather than uncommon.
Yeah once per turn though so if you’re down to a 1v1 just use it to stay alive every turn when they swing you at lethal you save two life points if they don’t have something to cast in 2nd main phase you can untap on your turn and repeat to keep yourself in the fight
1994 squad here too Prof! Started playing after revised came out but before fallen empires. I also loved really bizarre cards based on the artwork and story they told
Also it’s a nice card to use just before a storm card to give an extra trigger. As well as any sort of mill/top deck shenanigans. It has relatively decent utility in commander for decks that are wanting to do this stuff it also is a nasty way to disrupt a few strats to buy yourself more time for better responses with a relatively low investment.
I was obsessed with Hidden Path. Four green and two generic mana. All green creatures gain forestwalk. There were mechanics in a set at that time (around the time of Ice Age, I think) that allowed you to turn opponents' lands to forests. There was another to turn your forests to creatures. My big idea was to turn one opponent land to a forest, transform my forests, and unleash a ton of unblockable damage. Never worked. Didn't stop young me from trying.
I won a game against my buddy's counterspell/bounce heavy stormtide leviathan deck by the skin of my teeth with river boa. The only creature in my deck that could still function with stormtide out. I top decked boa too lol and my bud had no more control cards. One more hit would have ended me.
@@JasonOshinko I feel like Rakalite is pretty easy to make decent if you play some cost reducers. If you can get the activation cost to 0 it basically says "prevent all damage"
So true. Just yesterday I proof'd a situation where total game loss and Shahrazad resulted in more life and an extra player in that game The main deck breaks Shahrazad. Basically proofs We Are The Fallen's Without You song as a happy not just sad song too.
Teferis Reponse is exactly the card that got printed to counter a constructed relevant interaction. It was actually really good at that, so if anything, thats a bad card to have on such a list, as the card is really really good if you know what you are using it for. Even a card like "One with Nothing" was used exactly in that way, it seems insane, but it was a legitimate sideboard card against a deck of the time that wanted to win with "Ebony Owl Netsuke" and lots of bounce and forced draw ; resole one with nothing and you basically win against that deck. Cards like that are a beauty, as they look so insanely bad, but they have a very specific purpose if they are used for great effect. ---- Other cards are just bad, no matter how hard you try, they are bad, as there are other cards that do the same just better, cheaper and thats the worst spot you can be as a card.
I gotta defend Teferi's Response, that card is played pretty often in Premodern, where a lot of people play Rishadan Port, Wasteland, Dust Bowl and other cards that fits the criteria. A counterspell that protects your land, destroys the opp land and draws you 2 cards? insane
Yeah, it's useless a lot of the time, but it has insane upside as a sideboard option. Anyone main decking it either has a very well known meta going in or is a madman though.
@@Heavy_Play yep, I play a lot with Pit Rack and I got Teferi's Response'ed quite a few times lol. One time I was going to Rishadan Port tap a Mishra's Factory, opp played teferi's response and it just made them win that round since I was down a land, they drew 2, which stopped my The Rack damage and they were able to just keep hitting me with Mishra's Factory. Great blue sb card
That opening bit brought back memories. When i first got into magic in 2014 I thought deathtouch was super powerful and built a deck with a bunch of death touch rats. It sucked but was very fun.
Playing fun but less than optimal is peak MTG I always stick to what's more thematic for a deck, forgoing more powerful cards if they don't fit the theme.
I have the feeling that Selfless Exorcist was made for something like a damage reflection mechanic that maybe was on the writers' mind but never really happened.
I think North Star is my favourite silly card. "Can I interest you in playing your cards?", "But, I can already play them...", Yeah, but I'm offering a different way!", "Oh, like a free alternate cost?", "Nope, you still play the cards, you just pay an extra 4! After paying the other 4, that is!"
North Star was a novel effect at the time. It's spendy, but the same set had the first multicolored cards. North Star was meant to allow you to run whichever cool legendarys you wanted in whatever deck you wanted. Which no one ever really did.
North Star's worst crime is taking the absolutely beautiful art it has, and claiming rights to the name it has, and attaching the to such a bad card. The only possible way the card could work is if you've been playing such a long game that 8 total mana is a cost you're willing to pay, in ADDITION to the spell you're trying to cast with it, while somehow still NOT having all the colours of lands you need. It's like something for a challenge deck in an MTG video game, where the deck actually doesn't even have the coloured mana sources it needs, and you have to use expensive colour fixers to actually make it work.
@@KeroTheInvincible Tron lands were pretty easy to come by. Mishra's Workshop not as much, but Sol Ring, Mana Vault also easy to get. People ran Basalt Monolith even.
Ponza was prevalent back in the mercadian masques era, and I got stone rained, pillaged, and ported enough by my buddy's ponza deck that when Invasion rolled around I thought Teferi's Response was actually a pretty good sideboard card.
Fun fact: Lifelink, deathtouch, and similar damage-modifying abilities work when Selfless Exorcist fights corpses, one of the few times when they can apply outside of the battlefield.
14:30, I have ONE imagined use for this as a diplomacy piece in Commander. If someone's mana flooded or screwed, I can offer them succor by checking their next 5 draws for something they need, and then shuffling their deck if it contains nothing.
I can see an arguement for visions in the first game of a lower power format, turn 1 plains, visions, check your opponent's deck to identify their strategy, select shuffle if they have a key card in the top 1 or 2. but then you have to side it out because after that it's basically pointless lol
Fun fact about One With Nothing - it actually saw sideboard play during its time in standard. There was a deck called "Owling Mine" that was built around keeping the opponent's hand full with Howling Mine and Kami of the Crescent Moon and using bounce spells like Boomerang and Eye of Nowhere so they'd take damage from cards like Ebony Owl Netsuke. One With Nothing was an easy way to combat the deck - just emptying you hand means you're buying enough time to finish your opponent before your hand fills up again.
Apocalypse from Tempest is one of the funniest old school boardwipes. Exile every permanent in play? Seems rough but a hard reset is necessary sometimes. But then you discard your entire hand. I guess the thought was if you get to play a full reset you get put at a disadvantage? But being the only player without a hand can’t be worth it unless it’s a weird dredge build… that splashes red…
You can play that with Parrallax Wave/Tide or any other stash mechanism like Banishing Ring. The black parrallax thing even stores hand cards for you! The other way of playing that is in a phasing deck. Taniwha loves boardwipes like that.
Professor, Teferi's response is so important in Premodern that it is included in a lot of sideboard and there's even some madmans that play 1 in main. That's what happens when you play a format with wasteland and rishadan port.
I've done awesome stuff using One with Nothing in my Ashcoat deck. It's really funny when I pull it off. I've cast Living Death and then One with Nothing to return all my rats to my graveyard and then BAM BATTLEFIELD! Please don't tell me how statistically another Swamp would increase my winrate more. I'm playing Commander I don't care about that.
Awesome vid dude! This channel has actually brought my interested back to the game, cause after all the years i knew about MtG IDK about commander game style of play! Gonna get cards has soon has i can!
It's commonly thought of as the worst card in Magic, or at least the worst creature... but I did make it work in my Yedora deck. All you need is Yedora, Grave Gardener and some sort of way to animate all your lands, and Wood Elemental is a playable vanilla creature!
A friend of e used to call Serra Angel (I loved the 8th edition art) my dumbest card. ‘It’s just a 4/4 flyer that doesn’t tap to attack!’ I told him that if it’s so dumb why has it killed you on several occasions? He also used older Dark Rituals that said mana source as a permanent. Not really a reliable source of dumb card opinion
Zephyr Spirit goes decently in my Cloudhoof Kirin deck as a back up for Lantern Spirit. Returns my Kiri-Onna to hand repeatedly, letting me bounce enemy critters AND mill them, triggers my Sire of the Storm for draws, etc etc.
@@jamesmcternen4608 Yeah, it works with madness. But the real trick is thinking madness or hellbent or any other discard strategy is enough to make it playable. It begs to be looked at from the angle of "how can I make this work?" and it never works. That's why it's genius
Visions seems fine, and it's silly for it to make it this high. It requires a bit of chance and forward thinking, sure. 1. It only costs one mana. 2. Use it on yourself. Are your next five cards a bad order/things that don't currently help you? Shuffle. Or are your next five cards fine? This let's you start to think ahead and strategize, keeping in mind what will be coming on your draws. 3. The opposite for your opponent. Are their next five good? Make them shuffle. Are they bad? Make them keep them, while also keeping them in mind and strategizing off the card draws they're about to get. Especially useful if used when they have a small hand so there won't be any likely surprises. Just because the card introduces an element of chance and having to think ahead doesn't make it bad.
I'm not taking Teferi's Response slander. For a card so narrow it saw quite a lot of sideboard play because of how absurdly ubiquitous Rishadan Port was in standard back in 2000-01. That and Tsabo's web were both clutch. Also hope to see more videos on stupid cards, I love seeing old jank from the 90s, it is fascinating
I played a deck that used Elder Lands Wurm and enchanted it with Divine Transformation(if i recall the name correctly) to make it an 8/8 flyer. Was it good? Not really. Was it hilariously fun? One hundred percent! Ember Shot is on my list of stupidest cards. 6 generic plus 1 red to deal 3 and draw a card. Also from Judgement where the Exorcist came from.
Yeah, I'm actually surprised Prof never got a win with Elder Land Wurm. It wasn't that terrible back in the day. It basically stopped your opponent from attacking until they got rid of it. Sure, Veteran Bodyguard was a better defensive option, but who had $20 for one of those?
So funnily, Divine Transformation, despite depicting an angelic character in the card art doesn't grant flying, just +3/+3. It was something I, and I assume a lot of other MTG players back then, erroneously thought.
Elder land wurm is the card that made me want to learn magic. My friend had it and I saw it and knew I had to learn the game. Awesome that the prof also had a love of elder land wurm. Quinton Hoover is my favorite artist as well. Rest in Peace, Quinton.
Isn't Elder Land Wurm a piece of the design era when the team thought that creatures were too good and that big creatures needed to have large downsides to "balance" their stats at the time, as a 5/5 was huge
It was also a time when flavor considerations would also sometimes be the guiding light for card design. IIRC the Legends set was the most notorious for this due to a lack of overall playtesting.
I could see Conservator being a last gasp to prevent death by poison counters, and Visions _could_ be used against someone's Mystical Tutor, but there are much better ways of doing both
My best experience with Teferi's Response was in my Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper commander deck. Noyan Dar turns your lands into 3/3 creatures when you cast instant/sorceries, so I was able to use Teferi's Response to save my land creature from being destroyed by my opponent's planeswalker, killing their walker and me drawing two cards! Best commander moment of the year!
"The fish trap exists because of the fish; once you've gotten the fish, you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit; once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning; once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?" - Zhuang Zhou
The flavor of these cards are so good, the idea of the 'spirit of the creature' fighting back against the exorcist is really cool. Same with waking the dragon!
I remember One With Nothing being used in sideboards against Owling Mine, so not completely useless! Ebony Owl Netsuke was that deck's only win condition, and it took a while to fill your hand after discarding it.
No lie the art for the sandworm looks amazing. I literally have a commander deck of just my favorite cards. So there you go build a jank commander deck with your favorite cards. It will be terrible but it will be fun for you, and it tells a story.
Prof, I feel you on this one. Elder Land Wurm is a beautiful card, and I think it's also very funny. I want to make it work, but literally cannot find a way to play it that can't just be replaced with something else.
Elder Land Wurm instantly makes me think of Arixmethes, the Slumbering Isle. The design and miniature story of "awakening the beast" is an awesome concept! Definitely think Arixmethes did it better though
Funniest part about your Rakalite example: Using a Tron to play it leaves one mana left over during a time when mana burn still existed. Hurting yourself to play a card designed only to prevent damage? Amazing. I'm surprised my "favorite" stupid card didn't make the list: Delif's Cube. For a small mana investment and _preventing your own creature from dealing combat damage_ , you get the incredible opportunity to invest even more mana for the massive payoff of. . .regenerating one creature. Once. Wanna do it again? Gotta give up another critter's swing!
I run One with Nothing in my Neheb, The Worthy Brawl deck on Arena. It's not useful all the time, but I've cast it more than a couple times and had it actually do things. Neheb gets buffed (and buffs all other minos on your team) when your hand has 1 or less cards in it. In addition, the deck runs a bunch of enchantments and creatures that have effects that trigger when you discard a card. (Madness, Dying to Serve, some other stuff.) So there have been a couple times where I have cast One with Nothing, triggered a bunch of effects and buffed my whole team as a result of discarding like 3 or 4 cards, and then won the game as a result. The fact that its an instant is a bonus too, since Neheb gives all minotaurs +2/+0 if your hand has one or less cards, so you can cast it mid-combat to give all your minos that buff.
It took over twenty years for it to become good, but it's amazing to use when you play an Ixalan dinosaur deck. Nothing like getting enrage triggers on every one of your dinos at the same time!
Zephyr Spirit was my Elder land wurm. I loved the art, loved the return to hand in order to to trigger spirit craft, also think it has flying every time I look at it even through it doesn't... and every time i see the card I forget just how laughably high the cost to cast was.
If we're counting absurdly narrow cards like Go Blank or Teferi's Response, may I suggest Barren Glory? It's a six mana card, 4{W}{W}, an enchantment which checks at the beginning of your upkeep. If Barren Glory is the only permanent you control, and if your hand is empty, you win the game.
I'n the guy, i played Zephyr Spirit. I was 10 years old and pulled it and a couple other blue cards from a Ravnica booster and since i couldn't fill my deck with anything else i ran it for what probably was at least half a year. And no it didn't get any better during that time.
Hey, Teferi's Response was in the sideboard for two of the top 4 in the 2001 World Championships. It's not the best card, but I'd hardly say stupid. Especially alongside the other cards you listed.
When I was young, around scourge release I remember the lgs owner talking about The exorcist and saying that it was originally supposed to also state, "when damage is dealt to this creature you gain that much life." I don't know if that's true but this video made me remember a childhood memory... cause I recall all the people he was talking to saying that'd be nuts and it'd be like a $10 card and some shit.
Elder Land Wurm! I wasn't playing magic back then, but I'm working on a collection of each magic card illustrated by Quinton Hoover. His artwork is legendary!
I could use a few of these cards in my deck, I built it specifically to lose while achieving 4 goals before losing. Really fun makes you have to be careful on *how* your cards will interact with each other
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One with Nothing works with Madness
You could play One With Nothing with Animate Dead. Turn 1. One with Nothing. Turn 2 Animate Dead a 10 cost monster. You just have to get lucky and draw one after you discard.
One with nothing saw play!!!!!!!!
I have to say even though those cards are pretty bad and make no sense within the game,at least the art on those cards are not AI, I appreciate bad cards more now than I ever did for the art at least.
Would Zephyr Spirit really not be that good when it cost only one (blue) mana? It think it would be very good, but i'm not that into Magic...
I’m surprised we haven’t seen more Elder Land Wurms. The lore is that they’re Elder Dragons who lost in the original dragon war, and were stripped of their limbs and wings.
That’s incredibly interesting, makes you wonder if there are some to try to find a ritual to rip all the limbs and wings off of the elder dragons so they can rise above it and take their “rightful place” as rulers of the skies. Would be cool to see something like that happen.
The mechanic of having defender until it blocks once would be a cool "counterattack" mechanic.
Like, it's a 1/5 until it blocks... and then next turn, it's a 5/5 double strike.
@@pigfish99oo, that would be fun! Not broken, likely, but i can think of a few decks where mechanics like that would make things really cool
@@AlexofZippo example: Swordbreaker Paladin:
2WW, Creature- Human Knight
Parry 3WW (You may play this creature as if it had flash. if you do, it comes in Tapped, and blocking target creature attacking you.)
Vigilance
If Swordbreaker Paladin Parries or blocks a creature, It gains +2/+2 and Double strike until the beginning of your next end step.
3/5
With some tweaks, the card could be more flavorful and fun
My girlfriend says this about all of my magic cards
Try to say the same for her shoes/dresses and see what happens
@@amarauk9687they get REALLY mad...
Need a new girlfriend.
i have gotten my gf into magic with the expensive af raining cats and dogs deck. it only took almost 400 dead presidents to get her into my hobby but its fun losing to her cute horde
Get a new commander ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The only combo I ever remember for Magic. It's turn 1, you're on the play:
- Swamp
- Dark Ritual
- Use 2 mana for smallpox, making each player discard a card, sac a creature, and sac a land.
- Use your remaining 1 mana for One With Nothing, discarding your hand.
- Pass turn one with no land on the board, no creatures on the board, and no cards in hand :)
I'll do you one better! Swamp into double Dark Ritual, cast Tormod's Crypt, Sinkhole your Swamp, then Demonic Consultation something that isn't in your deck. Cast One with Nothing in case you had to draw, and activate the Crypt! The only thing you have left in the game is a single floating mana!
@@bluekeeper12 Haha yes!
Or turn 1: Swamp. Double Dark Ritual. Ornithopter. Hatred. Pay 20 life. Die ridiculed, but never forgotten.
My rush black deck was turn 1 dark ritual into black knight+unholy strength, then let's go for 5 damage at turn 2. Good times.
@@J.J.Jameson_of_Daily_Bugle or Dark Ritual into 3 Carnophage / Sacromancy, then turn 2 bad moon to swing for 9 :D
Elder Land Wurm was great design for its time when a 5/5 with trample was unheard of. Legends was a crazy time.
Yeah, I started buying cards in 9th edition and remember thinking Vizzerdrix was an awful 6/6 for 7 with no ability.
Even better is that Legends was designed by the friends of the CEO and Founder of Wizards of the Coast Peter Akison.
WotC was selling out of Magic so fast that they needed new sets to keep up with demand. So in addition to all the OG play testers from Richard and the East Coast play testers Peter had his roleplaying friends make the set with many of the Legends being characters from their D&D game.
This is why while not a terrible set many of the cards feel overcosted or werid as they weren’t familiar with how the game was played at all.
This all comes from Mark Rosewater’s Drive to Work Podcast and honestly explains why some of the cards feel like they came directly from the CustomMTG Reddit.
People treat classic magic through the modern era lens😮💨
iirc you could combine it with Season of the Witch to force opponents into a no win-scenario.
Basically, spells cost less and creatures cost more. You have to view pre-2005 cards differently.
“Visions” is a card that’s always been in my mind. You’re right prof it *doesn’t* do anything. It’s the closest we’ve ever gotten to a card that’s just says “shuffle your deck” and nothing else.
Well, maybe I wanna look at your next five draws. You missed three lands, right? Well I didn't see any in there, shuffle your deck friend 😀
@@victhefoxygamer This is why Magic is the best game. Every card has utility somehow, even if it's in one format.
it will spike in the inevitable Shuffle-Winter
If it was an instant it would at least be essentially a white counter spell for all the tutors who put the card on top of your deck.
"Visions" at the very least could mess up a "top-deck matters" or "Return of the Second Sun" deck. I feel like it should have been lower on the list at least.
Crazy how Prof just sits and stares at his puke green phone all day until it's time to record a video :D
Such is life.
@@TolarianCommunityCollegeif i shove some quarter up your nose will you tell my fortune? /s
_"Hello, hello, baby, you called? I can't hear a thing_
_I have got no service in the club, you say, say?"_ -A good song
"Urza was the first to understand that the war would not be lost for lack of power, but for lack of troops." -flavor text for a card in the video.
Telephones rally the troops, and I personally like the color of that phone. Just like this video has made my appreciation for every single one of these cards increase. Because they can be used as computer components.
remember, raka=worthless in hebrew
For your information, it's called "Electric Mucus."
Plot twist: that thing is actually his desktop pc case. What a wicked case that would be!
I had dark depths in my had, but one of my opponents had a thespian stage in play. I draw mystical teachings. waited to have 6 mana. then played the dark depths, opponent goes to copy it, I tutor the teferi's response and counter it, breakin the tespian stage and getting 2 cards. I love those janky interactions commander can provide.
That Polymerization animation was lovely and whoever added it to the video deserves a raise
Notice the new card type: Poly Artefact 😂
@@Jachidos That’s how they used to indicate that an artifact didn’t have to be tapped to use its ability. Notice that the _Alpha_ printing of Conservator shown earlier didn’t have a tap symbol, but said it was a “Mono Artifact”. (An artifact with a passive ability was a “Continuous Artifact”, and the ability only worked while it was untapped.)
@@Ashebrethafe Oooh, didn't know that! Thanks!
Don't forget, that hypothetical turn 3 Rakalite player takes 1 damage from mana burn.
The effect may be weird but man the art for Visions is *chef's kiss
I started Magic in ‘95 and Quinton Hoover was, by far, my favorite artist. I went to all the Milwaukee GenCons and got lots of artist autographs but he never attended. I even sent him a card and a stamped return envelope but he didn’t return it. (It was an Alpha Vesuvian Dopplelganger)
Did the Prof say ‘Brian Kibler’? Isn’t that Kyle Hill?
World renowned science communicator with Brian Kibler hair Kyle Hill?
It's easy to make that mistake, Brian Kibler is a recognized science youtuber, while Kyle Hill is recognized as one of the best Magic players of all time 🤣
@DreamDaddie its an old joke, ppl mistake the two. Even olivia once.
@ oh, I guess I missed that one. I mean how can the Prof confuse Brian with Discount Thor?
I think it was intentional lol
Using “stupid” cards is what makes deckbuilding fun to me, trying my best to break them 😂
Nothing more satisfying than making stupid cards work!
@@TolarianCommunityCollegevisions in a crimes deck as a 1 mana enabler!
There need to be MORE of these cards in the game. Quirky little odd-ball abilities and bizarre interactions lend an element of exploration and campy fun to the game. What's cooler than discovering a synergy or combo in what was previously thought to be a worthless card?
Let’s be fair though, some of the more recent versions of that are way more interesting than those. I somehow doubt anyone is going to find a hidden synergy with Rakalite of all cards lol.
It was meant to be an animate artifact target. I think they felt players didn't like sending useful artifacts into combat, so they made a crappy one with a high cost. Turns out players are more than happy to send a good artifact into combat if it means not slotting garbage for a ten mana, two card 6/6. Game was a lot slower back then.
@@jamesmcternen4608 as someone who joined in kaladesh, seeing old cards is always kinda fun. Like, yeah, i see what they “wanted” to happen, and then players get one taste of dredge and it’s off to the races
@@Quarrenn17 Horobi, Death's Wail. You get all the commander clout for doing shenanigans with jank.
@@ccggenius oh of course. My personal favorite commander is Chisei, Heart of Oceans. But that’s a bit more recent than at least most of the cards that Prof was talking about in this video.
Honestly Tefari's Response sounds like a nice addition to any decks that focus on converting lands into creatures, especially in Simic. Even more so when said cards state they are still considered lands
I was just thinking it would be great with Ashaya in play.
Check out Noyan Dar! I lived the dream and used Teferi's Response to blow up an opponent's planeswalker that tried to kill one of my land creatures lol
Omg you just found the tech card i needed, i didn't even think about that interaction🤣💀
I too have played since 1994- under orders from my boss since we were making the first MTG eGame (Microprose). Anyhow, the Elder Wurm was terrible even by those ancient standards. For "just" 5 mana, you could have a flying, vigilence 4/4 Serra Angel. Going up 1 tick to 5/5 while trading "down" 2 keywords for 1, raising the mana cost by TWO and adding a massive downside the opponent can play around is just bananas.
Love the Microprose Magic game, I wish we would get a remake or remaster, or even just a GoG release with some updates for modern systems built in.
@@ThePastPenguin That game had a very troubled development. I remember the Producer practically in tears during a big meeting because it could have been so much better. It looked dated even by the standards of the day. We were developing 2 complete versions of the same game (DOS and Windows). The entire DOS team was laid off when they decided to ditch it. Not a great time.
One with Nothing + Sudden Substitution is still one of the coolest ways to yoink a creature while discarding someone's hand at instant speed.
I've had Selfless Exorcist in my collection since I started playing. I think only recently with Agatha's Soul Cauldron printed have I actually looked at him and thought, "Maybe I can make this work." Stuffy Doll Exorcist coming to a game near you.
I've been really trying to brainstorm a Teferi's Response / Equinox kind of deck that uses manlands to enable the cards. Just sounds like a lot of fun to do.
FINALLY, someone ELSE who plays that One with Nothing combo! Good on you random citizen! :)
If you cast One with Nothing in response to your own Yawgmoth's Will, you can play cards that were in your hand as if they'd still be in your hand.
Best combo in the game imo.
But instead of casting two spells to cast the cards, you could just play the cards while they are in your hand
@briankenney9528 then you wouldn't have the option of committing suicide by casting Phage from the graveyard. Gotta think ahead.
Doesn't one with nothing also work with Madness cards?
@@briankenney9528 how would you then concede by casting Phage from your graveyard? Gotta think ahead.
@@briankenney9528 how would you then concede by casting Phage from your graveyard? Gotta think ahead.
This video is a great reminder that even if One With Nothing will never be good, it's still fun trying to make it work
Conservator is stupider than I thought, forgot mono meant you could only use it once…I saw the colon and thought you could pay the 3 multiple times. So much worse now 😂
It was the only way to prevent damage in any color but white.
@@jamesmcternen4608There's also Forcefield, which is certainly much stronger, but to be fair it can't ever prevent all the damage (so it can't stop a Hyppie's discard-though for pretty much everything that's not stopping a damage trigger its effect is way better) and it was rare rather than uncommon.
@@GrizonII I forgot about Force Field! Such a great card.
@@GrizonII Forcefield's also only preventing damage from creatures. Conservator can prevent 2 damage _from anything!_ ;)
Yeah once per turn though so if you’re down to a 1v1 just use it to stay alive every turn when they swing you at lethal you save two life points if they don’t have something to cast in 2nd main phase you can untap on your turn and repeat to keep yourself in the fight
Teferi's Response also has a place as an option in Pre-Modern, where it gets solid value on Rishadan Port, Wasteland, or removal on a man land.
1994 squad here too Prof! Started playing after revised came out but before fallen empires.
I also loved really bizarre cards based on the artwork and story they told
i kinda like visions tbh. you can plan your next 5 turns based on knowing what your next 5 draws are or you can hit the gamba.
Also it’s a nice card to use just before a storm card to give an extra trigger. As well as any sort of mill/top deck shenanigans. It has relatively decent utility in commander for decks that are wanting to do this stuff it also is a nasty way to disrupt a few strats to buy yourself more time for better responses with a relatively low investment.
Ddnt he say it's the top 5 of your opponents library so no you don't know your draws or have the option to gamble them away
I was obsessed with Hidden Path. Four green and two generic mana. All green creatures gain forestwalk. There were mechanics in a set at that time (around the time of Ice Age, I think) that allowed you to turn opponents' lands to forests. There was another to turn your forests to creatures. My big idea was to turn one opponent land to a forest, transform my forests, and unleash a ton of unblockable damage. Never worked. Didn't stop young me from trying.
13:02 Don’t forget the GOAT; River Boa. 2/1 islandwalk with regeneration is a *LORDLY* beat stick.
The bane of blue decks and nightmare of my control deck.
I won a game against my buddy's counterspell/bounce heavy stormtide leviathan deck by the skin of my teeth with river boa.
The only creature in my deck that could still function with stormtide out.
I top decked boa too lol and my bud had no more control cards.
One more hit would have ended me.
I see these as puzzles yet to be unlocked
Good luck with that.
@@JasonOshinko I feel like Rakalite is pretty easy to make decent if you play some cost reducers. If you can get the activation cost to 0 it basically says "prevent all damage"
So true.
Just yesterday I proof'd a situation where total game loss and Shahrazad resulted in more life and an extra player in that game
The main deck breaks Shahrazad.
Basically proofs We Are The Fallen's Without You song as a happy not just sad song too.
Teferi's Response sees plenty of play in premodern, and is in many ways a symbol of how sideboard cards played in old magic tournaments.
Teferis Reponse is exactly the card that got printed to counter a constructed relevant interaction.
It was actually really good at that, so if anything, thats a bad card to have on such a list, as the card is really really good if you know what you are using it for.
Even a card like "One with Nothing" was used exactly in that way, it seems insane, but it was a legitimate sideboard card against a deck of the time that wanted to win with "Ebony Owl Netsuke" and lots of bounce and forced draw ; resole one with nothing and you basically win against that deck.
Cards like that are a beauty, as they look so insanely bad, but they have a very specific purpose if they are used for great effect.
----
Other cards are just bad, no matter how hard you try, they are bad, as there are other cards that do the same just better, cheaper and thats the worst spot you can be as a card.
I gotta defend Teferi's Response, that card is played pretty often in Premodern, where a lot of people play Rishadan Port, Wasteland, Dust Bowl and other cards that fits the criteria. A counterspell that protects your land, destroys the opp land and draws you 2 cards? insane
Yeah, it's useless a lot of the time, but it has insane upside as a sideboard option. Anyone main decking it either has a very well known meta going in or is a madman though.
Also seems like recently it's gotten even better as you can use it to counter creature land removal.
Came to the comments to say this. Teferi's Response is a fantastic Premodern SB card against decks running lots of land destruction/ports.
@@Heavy_Play yep, I play a lot with Pit Rack and I got Teferi's Response'ed quite a few times lol. One time I was going to Rishadan Port tap a Mishra's Factory, opp played teferi's response and it just made them win that round since I was down a land, they drew 2, which stopped my The Rack damage and they were able to just keep hitting me with Mishra's Factory. Great blue sb card
Noyan Dar loves Teferi's Response. There's a special kind of glee when opponents declare "WHAT" and lean over the table
Teferi's Response was used as a sideboard card in Legacy for midrange/tempo decks like Team America years ago as a counter to Death and Taxes.
I lived the dream and pull this off in my Noyan Dar deck, killing an opponent's planeswalker and drawing two cards! So good!
That opening bit brought back memories. When i first got into magic in 2014 I thought deathtouch was super powerful and built a deck with a bunch of death touch rats. It sucked but was very fun.
Playing fun but less than optimal is peak MTG
I always stick to what's more thematic for a deck, forgoing more powerful cards if they don't fit the theme.
I have the feeling that Selfless Exorcist was made for something like a damage reflection mechanic that maybe was on the writers' mind but never really happened.
I think North Star is my favourite silly card. "Can I interest you in playing your cards?", "But, I can already play them...", Yeah, but I'm offering a different way!", "Oh, like a free alternate cost?", "Nope, you still play the cards, you just pay an extra 4! After paying the other 4, that is!"
North Star was a novel effect at the time. It's spendy, but the same set had the first multicolored cards. North Star was meant to allow you to run whichever cool legendarys you wanted in whatever deck you wanted. Which no one ever really did.
Beautiful art too!
North Star's worst crime is taking the absolutely beautiful art it has, and claiming rights to the name it has, and attaching the to such a bad card. The only possible way the card could work is if you've been playing such a long game that 8 total mana is a cost you're willing to pay, in ADDITION to the spell you're trying to cast with it, while somehow still NOT having all the colours of lands you need.
It's like something for a challenge deck in an MTG video game, where the deck actually doesn't even have the coloured mana sources it needs, and you have to use expensive colour fixers to actually make it work.
@@KeroTheInvincible Tron lands were pretty easy to come by. Mishra's Workshop not as much, but Sol Ring, Mana Vault also easy to get. People ran Basalt Monolith even.
@@jordanrutledge7943 Good ol' Foglios!
Thanks Prof. You've given me the motivation to revisit my One With Nothing deck.
You've never experienced true joy until you windmill slam a One with Nothing T1, cross your now empty hands and pass turn.
Cast in response to opponents Duress. Valuetown population: you
Ponza was prevalent back in the mercadian masques era, and I got stone rained, pillaged, and ported enough by my buddy's ponza deck that when Invasion rolled around I thought Teferi's Response was actually a pretty good sideboard card.
Hair is looking Professorly!
Thanks!
Fun fact: Lifelink, deathtouch, and similar damage-modifying abilities work when Selfless Exorcist fights corpses, one of the few times when they can apply outside of the battlefield.
Teferi’s response actually sees some play as a sideboard card in the premodern format :-)
14:30, I have ONE imagined use for this as a diplomacy piece in Commander. If someone's mana flooded or screwed, I can offer them succor by checking their next 5 draws for something they need, and then shuffling their deck if it contains nothing.
I can see an arguement for visions in the first game of a lower power format, turn 1 plains, visions, check your opponent's deck to identify their strategy, select shuffle if they have a key card in the top 1 or 2. but then you have to side it out because after that it's basically pointless lol
Love videos like this where you chat about old sets of cards.
12:15 "Have any of you even seen a chicken? Ah-coodle-doodle-do! Cha-chee-Cha-chee. Cuck-cuh-cuh!"
They never let Buster do his...
Fun fact about One With Nothing - it actually saw sideboard play during its time in standard. There was a deck called "Owling Mine" that was built around keeping the opponent's hand full with Howling Mine and Kami of the Crescent Moon and using bounce spells like Boomerang and Eye of Nowhere so they'd take damage from cards like Ebony Owl Netsuke. One With Nothing was an easy way to combat the deck - just emptying you hand means you're buying enough time to finish your opponent before your hand fills up again.
Apocalypse from Tempest is one of the funniest old school boardwipes. Exile every permanent in play? Seems rough but a hard reset is necessary sometimes. But then you discard your entire hand. I guess the thought was if you get to play a full reset you get put at a disadvantage? But being the only player without a hand can’t be worth it unless it’s a weird dredge build… that splashes red…
I had a deck that aimed to Oblivion Ring my own Barren Glory and cast Apocalypse to win the game
You can play that with Parrallax Wave/Tide or any other stash mechanism like Banishing Ring. The black parrallax thing even stores hand cards for you!
The other way of playing that is in a phasing deck. Taniwha loves boardwipes like that.
that counterspell is actually amazing in a Noyan Darr deck! Super fun commander and you get to run super rare cards like that!
Came here to say this! It has led to some absolute blowouts in that deck.
15:57 Im 90% sure thats Kyle Hill Prof, not Brian. I know they both have long hair now but...
Was coming to comment the same thing 😂z
@@TheUniversalEclipse You both need to go watch that episode. It will all make sense when you do....
Walmart Brian Kibler
Props to showing the Alpha Conservator and Sol Ring. Haha "Mono Artifact," love that stuff it takes me back...
I mean, technically, the Tardis is traveling through space in those old episodes. No air quotes required.
He was talking about the cheesy by modern standards effects.
Sometimes you just have to stop and ask yourself, "Am I being TOO autistic right now?"
Professor, Teferi's response is so important in Premodern that it is included in a lot of sideboard and there's even some madmans that play 1 in main.
That's what happens when you play a format with wasteland and rishadan port.
I've done awesome stuff using One with Nothing in my Ashcoat deck. It's really funny when I pull it off. I've cast Living Death and then One with Nothing to return all my rats to my graveyard and then BAM BATTLEFIELD!
Please don't tell me how statistically another Swamp would increase my winrate more. I'm playing Commander I don't care about that.
was surprised "Great Wall", the "creatures with plainswalk can be blocked normally" enchantment did not make the list.
That’s just a bad card, nothing really silly about it.
but what if you put a "druid's call" on selfless exorcist, and then exiled "yargle and multani" from the grave. 18 squirrels! :p
Awesome vid dude! This channel has actually brought my interested back to the game, cause after all the years i knew about MtG IDK about commander game style of play! Gonna get cards has soon has i can!
Is Wood Elemental stupid? Or just bad?
It's commonly thought of as the worst card in Magic, or at least the worst creature... but I did make it work in my Yedora deck. All you need is Yedora, Grave Gardener and some sort of way to animate all your lands, and Wood Elemental is a playable vanilla creature!
The Professor chewing on a Magic card while sleeping on a Helix caught me by surprise in the best way.😂
Hornet cannon was my pet card back in the day. It was bad, but I loved the thought of shooting mechanized hornets at people.
A friend of e used to call Serra Angel (I loved the 8th edition art) my dumbest card. ‘It’s just a 4/4 flyer that doesn’t tap to attack!’ I told him that if it’s so dumb why has it killed you on several occasions? He also used older Dark Rituals that said mana source as a permanent. Not really a reliable source of dumb card opinion
Zephyr Spirit goes decently in my Cloudhoof Kirin deck as a back up for Lantern Spirit. Returns my Kiri-Onna to hand repeatedly, letting me bounce enemy critters AND mill them, triggers my Sire of the Storm for draws, etc etc.
One With Nothing is genius
Doesn't it work with Madness? Gotta be some trickery available there.
@@jamesmcternen4608 Yeah, it works with madness. But the real trick is thinking madness or hellbent or any other discard strategy is enough to make it playable. It begs to be looked at from the angle of "how can I make this work?" and it never works. That's why it's genius
@@jamesmcternen4608 it works with a lot of things. prof literally just didn't do his homework on that one.
The "Defender until blocked" drawback could be interesting on a card that's an actual threat once it's up and running.
Visions seems fine, and it's silly for it to make it this high. It requires a bit of chance and forward thinking, sure. 1. It only costs one mana. 2. Use it on yourself. Are your next five cards a bad order/things that don't currently help you? Shuffle. Or are your next five cards fine? This let's you start to think ahead and strategize, keeping in mind what will be coming on your draws. 3. The opposite for your opponent. Are their next five good? Make them shuffle. Are they bad? Make them keep them, while also keeping them in mind and strategizing off the card draws they're about to get. Especially useful if used when they have a small hand so there won't be any likely surprises.
Just because the card introduces an element of chance and having to think ahead doesn't make it bad.
I'm not taking Teferi's Response slander. For a card so narrow it saw quite a lot of sideboard play because of how absurdly ubiquitous Rishadan Port was in standard back in 2000-01. That and Tsabo's web were both clutch.
Also hope to see more videos on stupid cards, I love seeing old jank from the 90s, it is fascinating
I played a deck that used Elder Lands Wurm and enchanted it with Divine Transformation(if i recall the name correctly) to make it an 8/8 flyer. Was it good? Not really. Was it hilariously fun? One hundred percent!
Ember Shot is on my list of stupidest cards. 6 generic plus 1 red to deal 3 and draw a card. Also from Judgement where the Exorcist came from.
Yeah, I'm actually surprised Prof never got a win with Elder Land Wurm. It wasn't that terrible back in the day. It basically stopped your opponent from attacking until they got rid of it. Sure, Veteran Bodyguard was a better defensive option, but who had $20 for one of those?
So funnily, Divine Transformation, despite depicting an angelic character in the card art doesn't grant flying, just +3/+3.
It was something I, and I assume a lot of other MTG players back then, erroneously thought.
Elder land wurm is the card that made me want to learn magic. My friend had it and I saw it and knew I had to learn the game. Awesome that the prof also had a love of elder land wurm. Quinton Hoover is my favorite artist as well. Rest in Peace, Quinton.
1:57 Mark Rosewater btfo'd
I get it's a joke, but mark didn't work at wizards yet when elder land wurm was made
@Arkouchie it was Richard Garfield right?
To be fair: Exorcist was released in the set of Incarnations, creatures that granted your creatures abilities if they were in your grave
Isn't Elder Land Wurm a piece of the design era when the team thought that creatures were too good and that big creatures needed to have large downsides to "balance" their stats at the time, as a 5/5 was huge
yes, a 5/5 trample at the time was an insanely powerful card
Especially in White.
It was also a time when flavor considerations would also sometimes be the guiding light for card design. IIRC the Legends set was the most notorious for this due to a lack of overall playtesting.
I could see Conservator being a last gasp to prevent death by poison counters, and Visions _could_ be used against someone's Mystical Tutor, but there are much better ways of doing both
06:11 video starts
My best experience with Teferi's Response was in my Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper commander deck. Noyan Dar turns your lands into 3/3 creatures when you cast instant/sorceries, so I was able to use Teferi's Response to save my land creature from being destroyed by my opponent's planeswalker, killing their walker and me drawing two cards! Best commander moment of the year!
Dealing with the wildfires in LA rn may have to evacuate watching this has been a nice calming distraction thank you prof💜
I like how Christopher Rush is the artist on the stupidest card, and then on the most iconic card in magic.
Yes, the most iconic... Craw Giant! 😎
3:56 Breaking news: English professor uses the “word” stupidest
"The fish trap exists because of the fish; once you've gotten the fish, you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit; once you've gotten the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning; once you've gotten the meaning, you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?" - Zhuang Zhou
It's still a real word, so...
The flavor of these cards are so good, the idea of the 'spirit of the creature' fighting back against the exorcist is really cool. Same with waking the dragon!
Selfless Exorcist taste so good when u ain't got a prof in ya ear telling you it's stupid
This reminds me of the mana source “worst cards ever” series with wedge…I love it prof,hope we get more :)
I remember One With Nothing being used in sideboards against Owling Mine, so not completely useless! Ebony Owl Netsuke was that deck's only win condition, and it took a while to fill your hand after discarding it.
No lie the art for the sandworm looks amazing. I literally have a commander deck of just my favorite cards. So there you go build a jank commander deck with your favorite cards. It will be terrible but it will be fun for you, and it tells a story.
One with nothing is an instant. Casting it in response to Living Death can be a banger :D
Zephyr Spirit had a special role on the "Don't Worry, be Happy" Remy video.
Prof, I feel you on this one. Elder Land Wurm is a beautiful card, and I think it's also very funny. I want to make it work, but literally cannot find a way to play it that can't just be replaced with something else.
Elder Land Wurm instantly makes me think of Arixmethes, the Slumbering Isle. The design and miniature story of "awakening the beast" is an awesome concept! Definitely think Arixmethes did it better though
Funniest part about your Rakalite example: Using a Tron to play it leaves one mana left over during a time when mana burn still existed. Hurting yourself to play a card designed only to prevent damage? Amazing. I'm surprised my "favorite" stupid card didn't make the list: Delif's Cube. For a small mana investment and _preventing your own creature from dealing combat damage_ , you get the incredible opportunity to invest even more mana for the massive payoff of. . .regenerating one creature. Once. Wanna do it again? Gotta give up another critter's swing!
I run One with Nothing in my Neheb, The Worthy Brawl deck on Arena. It's not useful all the time, but I've cast it more than a couple times and had it actually do things. Neheb gets buffed (and buffs all other minos on your team) when your hand has 1 or less cards in it. In addition, the deck runs a bunch of enchantments and creatures that have effects that trigger when you discard a card. (Madness, Dying to Serve, some other stuff.)
So there have been a couple times where I have cast One with Nothing, triggered a bunch of effects and buffed my whole team as a result of discarding like 3 or 4 cards, and then won the game as a result. The fact that its an instant is a bonus too, since Neheb gives all minotaurs +2/+0 if your hand has one or less cards, so you can cast it mid-combat to give all your minos that buff.
One with nothing + peer into the abyss + the guy who deals 1 damage when you discard seems pretty good.
Sorrow's Path is a favourite of mine.
The art is also very special.
It took over twenty years for it to become good, but it's amazing to use when you play an Ixalan dinosaur deck. Nothing like getting enrage triggers on every one of your dinos at the same time!
Zephyr Spirit was my Elder land wurm. I loved the art, loved the return to hand in order to to trigger spirit craft, also think it has flying every time I look at it even through it doesn't... and every time i see the card I forget just how laughably high the cost to cast was.
If we're counting absurdly narrow cards like Go Blank or Teferi's Response, may I suggest Barren Glory?
It's a six mana card, 4{W}{W}, an enchantment which checks at the beginning of your upkeep. If Barren Glory is the only permanent you control, and if your hand is empty, you win the game.
My best friend of over twenty years has had a deck that does win with it for the better part of a decade now. It's pretty funny honestly
I'n the guy, i played Zephyr Spirit. I was 10 years old and pulled it and a couple other blue cards from a Ravnica booster and since i couldn't fill my deck with anything else i ran it for what probably was at least half a year.
And no it didn't get any better during that time.
Hey, Teferi's Response was in the sideboard for two of the top 4 in the 2001 World Championships. It's not the best card, but I'd hardly say stupid. Especially alongside the other cards you listed.
whoever was in charge of the helix sleep ad needs a raise
When I was young, around scourge release I remember the lgs owner talking about The exorcist and saying that it was originally supposed to also state, "when damage is dealt to this creature you gain that much life." I don't know if that's true but this video made me remember a childhood memory... cause I recall all the people he was talking to saying that'd be nuts and it'd be like a $10 card and some shit.
High five to the editor for including that Polymerization animation!
Elder Land Wurm! I wasn't playing magic back then, but I'm working on a collection of each magic card illustrated by Quinton Hoover. His artwork is legendary!
the opening line is crazy. This man has been playing this game for as long as I have EXISTED. LIKE WHAT
Some one saying “radical” in 2025…. That’s so wizard.
I can Teferi's retort working with creature lands, basically a great reward if your opponent try to remove them with creature removal
I could use a few of these cards in my deck, I built it specifically to lose while achieving 4 goals before losing. Really fun makes you have to be careful on *how* your cards will interact with each other
New year new positive energy. Love it, keep up that amazing energy!