Lurrus in Vintage was truly insane before the companion errata. Black Lotus is already an insane card, but with Lurrus you could sac the Lotus to play Lurrus and immediately replay Lotus out of your Graveyard. Effectively every Lotus came with a free cat attached that threatened to take over the game if not immediately dealt with. Too powerful for vintage is not something mtg sees often, but this definitely was.
About a 2 cards a year, these days, are making a big play in vintage. Some of these are from modern horizons, but some are just powerful in that format, and pretty much only that format. Paradoxical outcome spawned a new storm deck. Lavania made hatebears more than playable Underworld breach put a 2 card combo into your control deck (with brainfreeze) Once upon a time is great in dredge decks, where everything you want is a land or creature Loran of the third path, archon of emeria, anointed peacekeeper, eiganjo are all in initiative decks Patchwork automaton, Golos, Karn the Great Creator, mystic forge, and "The Mightstone and the Meekstone" are both played in artifact decks Karn is often played in a lot of decks, tbh. Third Path Iconoclast, dreadhord arcanist, and expressive iteration are played in jeskai midrange decks Omnath jellybean is good in sultai midrange, along with oko. The list goes on, but vintage is full of pioneer legal cards. Looking at the 50 cards restricted in vintage, 6 are in pioneer sets. This is compared to the power 9. Most are old school cards, with a handful between 2003 and 2014.
It's funny starting my Magic journey with Ikoria as a set because at the time I knew Lurrus was *good* but I had no idea just how meta defining it was, only playing a format like Standard.
If you are new to Magic and notice a card is good, it will probably be banned. Cards with ugly drawbacks that new players don't like are often really good. Cards with no drawback and all upside for easy mana costs are BUSTED.
what made lurrus super duper busted was that companion was like bringing commander into 60 card formats a free 8th card in hand before the companion errata and when you can just do the companion thing for little cost (lurrus being a free roll in a lot of formats) of course not all the companions are busted but companion was a poorly thought out mechanic
Cauldron Familiar was more banned because on mtg arena games took too long, not because it was too good. In paper Magic you could declare loops as short hand and it saved a lot of time but in mtg arena that wasn’t an option.
I love watching your videos as they are great databases and videos to have on in the background while sorting through cards. But holy crap, all the typos man!!!!!!
Cauldron familiar wasnt an overly powerful card. It was just hard to interact with. Also, wotc said one of the reasons they banned it was because of clicking through the triggers on arena. And this all from a player who ran the deck until cat was banned and just left it together to play in pioneer
@@anannoyedpanda this time I did it because other people who see it now won't feel the need to comment similarly, and this way the one comment won't have any negativity in it. That was until you chimed in anyway.
Trick with Leonin Arbiter: If you flicker it, it forgets if anyone paid the 2. So if someone pays 2, then cracks a fetchland, you can flicker in response, and your opponent now has to either pay Another 2, or just lose their fetchland for nothing.
I loved using ajani's pridemate in a defensive orzhov extort deck. It synced up pretty well. And Brimaz was hilarious with soul wardens+angel of thune/Cathar's Crusade combos. Made him a strong threat just for attacking or blocking
Another important aspect of Relic-Warden is that, during its standard run, it could go infinite with Phyrexian Metamorph and a soul sister. Since that was Birthing Pod season it was a surprisingly good option to just run maindeck.
Video idea: Worst additional cost for playing a card. Probable winner: Eater of Days' ETB of "Skip 2 turns". At least you can sac Abyssal Persecutor to get rid of his "You can't win" effect. If Eater resolves and then dies, you still miss 2 turns.
The Companion mechanic never should have been in Standard. It should have been in a supplemental set like Commander Legends or Battlebond where it couldn't be legal in most tournaments. Some of them still would have caused issues but that is because they were way too strong to begin with, Kaheera is strong but not too unfair Lurrus is broken and never should have be printed.
You could expand this theme in a different way. "Most powerful cats in a cat themed deck". You could also extend that idea to the other themes: "Most powerful human, elf, dragon, zombie..." you get the idea.
Kaheera like kazakustan, from hearthstone.... At base, it had a powerful ability "if your deck had no duplicates"...so you would cast it when you had no deck at all
4:55 What exactly do you do with Tortured Existence? It reads as if you payed one mana (!) to do something you immediately undo again. Are there many cards that gain something if a monster is sent to your graveyard?
There's probably something that combos with it. You can't return the same creature card you discard in a single activation, but if you have a creature in hand and one in GY, you can repeat as many times as you have the mana. Given when it was first printed, I'm sure it was originally designed as a way to get a creature back while also discarding a creature that has Madness.
Brimaz wouldn't be able to deal with seasoned dungeoneer in combat since when it's attacking the dungeoneer is propably going to have protection from creatures and it can't block both brimaz and the token
I will never get over the fact that lurrus had to be *banned* in vintage not just for power-level reasons, but because restricting it wouldn't've done anything. Absolutely ridiculous, screw-up of a lifetime for r&d
> this effect, made popular by Oblivion Ring you made Faceless Butcher sad! that said, it's interesting how an mechanic that started on a specific type of creature in black ended up migrating to white and finding a niche there as its most popular removal template
Pre-nerf Lurrus wasn’t just the most powerful cat. It was one of the most powerful cards ever printed, in the same caliber as power 9. Adding 3 mana is an absurdly harsh nerf, and yet lurrus was still busted anyway.
I want to pet all of them. Sure, doing so would likely result in me getting my head ripped off, but I don't care. I'm pretty sure Displacer Kitten is the only one that wouldn't kill me on sight.
The only cat that matters anymore is brimaz king of the kitties. Best cat. Leader of my original cat tribal EDH(before it was called commander) khajiit did nothing wrong, khajiit did not steal this vehicle. Waaaaay more fun than you’re expect. I’d also accept arahbo roar of the wild. Pretty kitty.
Can you please remove the red line under your ranking numbers? It always makes me think that the TH-cam play bar is popping up. It also draws too much attention away from the text on the ride side of the screen and the card itself.
I think if Lurrus said "during you turns, you may have a permanent Card with CMC 2 0 less with no escape ability have unearth. The escape is equal to it's mana cost" it would have been more balanced
Maybe in lower power level formats. In vintage you would still get Black Lotus or a moxen back for free. Not to mention that 1 or 2 mana isn't hard to pay past turn 3.
considering Hardleg voicing a recent TheDuelLogs episode, I wonder if other MtG TH-camrs would join in and voice in TheDuelLogs place in this channel. Just imagine Nizzahon reading, and even revising, the scripts of the videos. Maybe MONO BLACK or LegenVD can join in too.
If I remember though, he has been friends with hardleg for a while. I don't know if he yet has an in for the magic community. Also, I think he kinda did his original yugioh channel, and subsequently this magic channel, as a bit of an inversion of how nizzahon does it. While nizza is great, his commentary is not the best if you don't have some knowledge of the game, as opposed to mana logs, who is a bit more new player friendly. That said, I agree having nizza would be cool. I would suggest one of the spike feeders, such as Jim. While he goes over combos of varying difficulty in his better onow a combo series, he is usually good at keeping explanations simplified for all viewing audiences
10. I think the funniest combo with Ajani's Pridemate would be with Weather the Storm. Imagine someone going for a huge Storm stack, only for you to cast Weather to make Ajani's Pridemate huge, provided no Flusterstorm or Stifle happened. 8. Did I hear Qasali pronounced as QUAsali? 7. It's Ee-kor-reeya. Not Ikoria. He even pronounced it correctly later, I think. Also, Kaheera's a girl? 1. Ah yes. Lurrus, part of the 2021 trinity of nonsense alongside Oko and Uro, and arguably the worst. You know a card is busted when a mechanical errata doesn't stop it at all. Also, what about Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist, Alms Collector, Hungry Lynx, Qasali Slingers, Leonin Shikari, Pride of the Clouds, Leonin Warleader, Pride Sovereign, Felidar Sovereign, Lion Sash, Prowling Serpopard, Temur Sabertooth, Qasali Ambusher, and Leonin Abunas?
The thing about most of the cards you mentioned is a lot of them only really see play in commander, especially cat based decks. Most of these don’t have the historic impact the ones Mr. Logs mentioned. I wish he’d said Savannah lions for the og magic player meme but the list is pretty solid
@@xXSamir44Xx This guy gets it. I'm not saying life gain on it's own is useful, but there are ways to weaponize it and those ways have made an impact on more than just one format.
@@TheyCallHimPogo They DID mention when and how life gain has mattered competitively, from incidental life gain being good especially against aggro to full-blown life gain combo decks. Whether that disqualifies it from being a "failed mechanic" or if the title was just clickbait is another matter, but unless we saw two different videos, it was all there.
There's a card called Shark Typhoon? Please tell me that card existed before those dumbass Sharknado "movies"... I don't know if this channel has an internal banlist like TheDuelLogs does, but I suspect it's being considered for Lurrus. I could feel in The____Logs voice that he's getting tired of talking about that card.
Shark Typhoon is indeed a card, from Ikoria (early 2020). So I assume it was printed after those movies. It's a 5U enchantment with Cycling X1U, and effects "Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, create an X/X blue shark creature token with flying, where X is the that spell's mana value" and "When you cycle Shark Typhoon, create an X/X blue shark creature token with flying."
These top 10's are really slipping, how did Leoric make it all the way to number 6 when he's not even a cat? Let alone, not even a character owned by WotC?
Pre-nerf Lurrus wasn’t just the most powerful cat. It was one of the most powerful cards ever printed, in the same caliber as power 9. Adding 3 mana is an absurdly harsh nerf, and yet lurrus was still busted anyway.
Lurrus in Vintage was truly insane before the companion errata. Black Lotus is already an insane card, but with Lurrus you could sac the Lotus to play Lurrus and immediately replay Lotus out of your Graveyard. Effectively every Lotus came with a free cat attached that threatened to take over the game if not immediately dealt with. Too powerful for vintage is not something mtg sees often, but this definitely was.
Lurrus really is an insane MTG card. Making an impact in Vintage of all places is quite something.
Especially with a cmc of 3
About a 2 cards a year, these days, are making a big play in vintage. Some of these are from modern horizons, but some are just powerful in that format, and pretty much only that format.
Paradoxical outcome spawned a new storm deck.
Lavania made hatebears more than playable
Underworld breach put a 2 card combo into your control deck (with brainfreeze)
Once upon a time is great in dredge decks, where everything you want is a land or creature
Loran of the third path, archon of emeria, anointed peacekeeper, eiganjo are all in initiative decks
Patchwork automaton, Golos, Karn the Great Creator, mystic forge, and "The Mightstone and the Meekstone" are both played in artifact decks
Karn is often played in a lot of decks, tbh.
Third Path Iconoclast, dreadhord arcanist, and expressive iteration are played in jeskai midrange decks
Omnath jellybean is good in sultai midrange, along with oko.
The list goes on, but vintage is full of pioneer legal cards. Looking at the 50 cards restricted in vintage, 6 are in pioneer sets. This is compared to the power 9. Most are old school cards, with a handful between 2003 and 2014.
Ajani just can't catch a break. First Dominaria and now his Pridemate has a spot over him :S
Yeah
Who's Ajani?
@@Prince.Eva.Huepow buff lion man
Ajani doesn’t have a creature card
@@chaosbuster1275 Ajanji Goldmane is
My cat is the best cat. Her name is Muffin, and she's a little black fluffball! Her favorite food is salmon, and her favorite activity is sleeping!
Does Muffin have any graveyard synergies or ETB effects?
@@salvatoredantonio2413 when entering the battle field she gets a +1/+1 for every food token in your graveyard.
@@joebaumgart1146 I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news...but Muffin has been banned in the Standard, Vintage and Pioneer formats.
It's funny starting my Magic journey with Ikoria as a set because at the time I knew Lurrus was *good* but I had no idea just how meta defining it was, only playing a format like Standard.
If you are new to Magic and notice a card is good, it will probably be banned.
Cards with ugly drawbacks that new players don't like are often really good.
Cards with no drawback and all upside for easy mana costs are BUSTED.
what made lurrus super duper busted was that companion was like bringing commander into 60 card formats a free 8th card in hand before the companion errata and when you can just do the companion thing for little cost (lurrus being a free roll in a lot of formats) of course not all the companions are busted but companion was a poorly thought out mechanic
Cauldron Familiar was more banned because on mtg arena games took too long, not because it was too good. In paper Magic you could declare loops as short hand and it saved a lot of time but in mtg arena that wasn’t an option.
I love the creativity with the themes in your top 10 lists and it just gets better with time. Keep it up!
Top 10 Dogs of all time in Magic
I'm so glad you post magic stuff ☺️.
Found you on wow, then found out about Yu-Gi-Oh, and then here we are.
Quality content as always.
I never knew about WoW, I only knew about Yugioh, he even started making Pokémon TCG content too lmao
Bro I knew he sounded familiar…
I love watching your videos as they are great databases and videos to have on in the background while sorting through cards.
But holy crap, all the typos man!!!!!!
Cauldron familiar wasnt an overly powerful card. It was just hard to interact with. Also, wotc said one of the reasons they banned it was because of clicking through the triggers on arena. And this all from a player who ran the deck until cat was banned and just left it together to play in pioneer
Sad that Savannah Lions didn't make the list. I know it's been very power-crept over time, but it was very iconic for many years
You showed a shock land when you meant to show a fetch land in the #2 entry around 14:05.
People who point out these little things for no reason just annoy me.
Be. Quiet.
@@anannoyedpanda this time I did it because other people who see it now won't feel the need to comment similarly, and this way the one comment won't have any negativity in it.
That was until you chimed in anyway.
@@anannoyedpanda "little things for no reason" Ever heard of feedback?
@@anannoyedpanda "For no reason" Please think about what you write before making a comment next time.
Qasali pridemage sees absolutely no play in pauper and tortured existence is often regarded as a meme in that format
ahhh lurrus, aka why magic shouldn't have an extra deck
i played lurrus sacrifice in historic pre-errata, got into mythic in like 3 hours
Trick with Leonin Arbiter: If you flicker it, it forgets if anyone paid the 2.
So if someone pays 2, then cracks a fetchland, you can flicker in response, and your opponent now has to either pay Another 2, or just lose their fetchland for nothing.
Esikas chariot should get an honorable mention even though it isn’t technically a cat
I loved using ajani's pridemate in a defensive orzhov extort deck. It synced up pretty well.
And Brimaz was hilarious with soul wardens+angel of thune/Cathar's Crusade combos. Made him a strong threat just for attacking or blocking
10:44 Don't you mean "Purrmanent"?
Another important aspect of Relic-Warden is that, during its standard run, it could go infinite with Phyrexian Metamorph and a soul sister. Since that was Birthing Pod season it was a surprisingly good option to just run maindeck.
Pouncing Jaguar "One pounce you die quickly, Two pounces she's teaching her cubs, you are in for a long day."
Kaheera is a strong contender on the Top Ten Cutest MTG Cards list. Just looks at her kids making a ruckus.
The small kitten next to Lurrus is also just precious
@@1ryb360 You're damn right
Video idea: Worst additional cost for playing a card. Probable winner: Eater of Days' ETB of "Skip 2 turns".
At least you can sac Abyssal Persecutor to get rid of his "You can't win" effect. If Eater resolves and then dies, you still miss 2 turns.
The Companion mechanic never should have been in Standard. It should have been in a supplemental set like Commander Legends or Battlebond where it couldn't be legal in most tournaments. Some of them still would have caused issues but that is because they were way too strong to begin with, Kaheera is strong but not too unfair Lurrus is broken and never should have be printed.
You could expand this theme in a different way. "Most powerful cats in a cat themed deck". You could also extend that idea to the other themes: "Most powerful human, elf, dragon, zombie..." you get the idea.
Kaheera like kazakustan, from hearthstone.... At base, it had a powerful ability "if your deck had no duplicates"...so you would cast it when you had no deck at all
4:55 What exactly do you do with Tortured Existence? It reads as if you payed one mana (!) to do something you immediately undo again.
Are there many cards that gain something if a monster is sent to your graveyard?
There's probably something that combos with it. You can't return the same creature card you discard in a single activation, but if you have a creature in hand and one in GY, you can repeat as many times as you have the mana.
Given when it was first printed, I'm sure it was originally designed as a way to get a creature back while also discarding a creature that has Madness.
Brimaz wouldn't be able to deal with seasoned dungeoneer in combat since when it's attacking the dungeoneer is propably going to have protection from creatures and it can't block both brimaz and the token
Amazing!
I was hoping to see Skycat Sovereign here, but I think I'm the only person that likes making Bird Kittens for way too much mana.
Imagine if they did an Elder Scrolls crossover and we got a whole slew of new cats to play with :D
I will never get over the fact that lurrus had to be *banned* in vintage not just for power-level reasons, but because restricting it wouldn't've done anything. Absolutely ridiculous, screw-up of a lifetime for r&d
> this effect, made popular by Oblivion Ring
you made Faceless Butcher sad!
that said, it's interesting how an mechanic that started on a specific type of creature in black ended up migrating to white and finding a niche there as its most popular removal template
Pre-nerf Lurrus wasn’t just the most powerful cat. It was one of the most powerful cards ever printed, in the same caliber as power 9. Adding 3 mana is an absurdly harsh nerf, and yet lurrus was still busted anyway.
The fact it made Black Lotus gain +3 mana AND get a free cat in Vintage is terrifying.
Displacer Kitten is just the natural state of all kittens.
I thought this just said best cards, not cats, so I was confused when the list began with Ajani's Pridemate
I want to pet all of them. Sure, doing so would likely result in me getting my head ripped off, but I don't care. I'm pretty sure Displacer Kitten is the only one that wouldn't kill me on sight.
The only cat that matters anymore is brimaz king of the kitties. Best cat.
Leader of my original cat tribal EDH(before it was called commander)
khajiit did nothing wrong, khajiit did not steal this vehicle. Waaaaay more fun than you’re expect. I’d also accept arahbo roar of the wild. Pretty kitty.
Ajani's Pridemate entered Standard with Core Set 2019 as well
14:00 that is a shock land, not a fetch land.
Top 10 cards most affected by oracle text
Can you please remove the red line under your ranking numbers? It always makes me think that the TH-cam play bar is popping up. It also draws too much attention away from the text on the ride side of the screen and the card itself.
I think if Lurrus said "during you turns, you may have a permanent Card with CMC 2 0 less with no escape ability have unearth. The escape is equal to it's mana cost" it would have been more balanced
What's the difference?
Maybe in lower power level formats. In vintage you would still get Black Lotus or a moxen back for free. Not to mention that 1 or 2 mana isn't hard to pay past turn 3.
@@fernandobanda5734 escape makes you exile the card when it leaves the field
@@lollojojjo6612 No, it doesn't... You're thinking of flashback/unearth.
@@fernandobanda5734 oh, my bad
Cats Rule while dogs Drool. Yeah! 🤘🦁🤘
considering Hardleg voicing a recent TheDuelLogs episode, I wonder if other MtG TH-camrs would join in and voice in TheDuelLogs place in this channel.
Just imagine Nizzahon reading, and even revising, the scripts of the videos. Maybe MONO BLACK or LegenVD can join in too.
If I remember though, he has been friends with hardleg for a while. I don't know if he yet has an in for the magic community.
Also, I think he kinda did his original yugioh channel, and subsequently this magic channel, as a bit of an inversion of how nizzahon does it. While nizza is great, his commentary is not the best if you don't have some knowledge of the game, as opposed to mana logs, who is a bit more new player friendly.
That said, I agree having nizza would be cool. I would suggest one of the spike feeders, such as Jim. While he goes over combos of varying difficulty in his better onow a combo series, he is usually good at keeping explanations simplified for all viewing audiences
Top 10 cards that cost 7 or more mana
So apparently, I could have a powerful cat army.
A top 10 cats in magic list ending in lurrus makes me think of a yugioh top 10 list ending in maxx c
Good, started the video with a reminder of my 316 vs 564 mono white life gain mirror macht..........
What if we get a "top 10: top 10's" next
No Wild Nacatl? 😿
Where’s wild nacatl on the list?
Still in ads. Let’s see what 10-2 are since lurris is #1
14:01 uhhh...that's not a fetchland...
I read "best cards in Magic" and i saw pridemate ans brimaz, i was Mike "what?"
Every time I heard "relic warden," I cringed inside.
No love for my main man jetmir
Sacred cat best cats
10. I think the funniest combo with Ajani's Pridemate would be with Weather the Storm. Imagine someone going for a huge Storm stack, only for you to cast Weather to make Ajani's Pridemate huge, provided no Flusterstorm or Stifle happened.
8. Did I hear Qasali pronounced as QUAsali?
7. It's Ee-kor-reeya. Not Ikoria. He even pronounced it correctly later, I think. Also, Kaheera's a girl?
1. Ah yes. Lurrus, part of the 2021 trinity of nonsense alongside Oko and Uro, and arguably the worst. You know a card is busted when a mechanical errata doesn't stop it at all.
Also, what about Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist, Alms Collector, Hungry Lynx, Qasali Slingers, Leonin Shikari, Pride of the Clouds, Leonin Warleader, Pride Sovereign, Felidar Sovereign, Lion Sash, Prowling Serpopard, Temur Sabertooth, Qasali Ambusher, and Leonin Abunas?
The thing about most of the cards you mentioned is a lot of them only really see play in commander, especially cat based decks. Most of these don’t have the historic impact the ones Mr. Logs mentioned. I wish he’d said Savannah lions for the og magic player meme but the list is pretty solid
@@fosterdawson7339 Lion Sash in particular is played competitively
I misread cat to card 😂
Mirri cat warrior counts as a cat warrior
Cat.
WHERE IS THE SACRED CAT??????!!!!!
I thought life gain was a "failed mechanic" and yet we spent the first slot of this talking about competitive life gain. Ironic isn't it Alanis??
That very same video addressed what you said
Life gain by itself is a failed mechanic. Slapping it onto an actual effect and adding a card like pridemate makes a big difference.
@@fernandobanda5734 no it didn't. It was 20 minutes of why it's a terrible mechanic and ignored every competitive deck in every format.
@@xXSamir44Xx This guy gets it. I'm not saying life gain on it's own is useful, but there are ways to weaponize it and those ways have made an impact on more than just one format.
@@TheyCallHimPogo They DID mention when and how life gain has mattered competitively, from incidental life gain being good especially against aggro to full-blown life gain combo decks. Whether that disqualifies it from being a "failed mechanic" or if the title was just clickbait is another matter, but unless we saw two different videos, it was all there.
Top 10 best rats ?
There's a card called Shark Typhoon? Please tell me that card existed before those dumbass Sharknado "movies"...
I don't know if this channel has an internal banlist like TheDuelLogs does, but I suspect it's being considered for Lurrus. I could feel in The____Logs voice that he's getting tired of talking about that card.
Shark Typhoon is indeed a card, from Ikoria (early 2020). So I assume it was printed after those movies. It's a 5U enchantment with Cycling X1U, and effects "Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, create an X/X blue shark creature token with flying, where X is the that spell's mana value" and "When you cycle Shark Typhoon, create an X/X blue shark creature token with flying."
Yes, definitly inspired on the movies XD. Funny thing is that is a legit card that see compettive play lol.
On the contrary, it was very much inspired by Sharknado. Ikoria referenced popular monster media in general.
I can't get over the fact that Lurrus is a cat and not a dog. Idk everytime I see the card I think he is a dog bases on the artwork
These top 10's are really slipping, how did Leoric make it all the way to number 6 when he's not even a cat? Let alone, not even a character owned by WotC?
flip leonin arbiter and kaheera
First
Pre-nerf Lurrus wasn’t just the most powerful cat. It was one of the most powerful cards ever printed, in the same caliber as power 9. Adding 3 mana is an absurdly harsh nerf, and yet lurrus was still busted anyway.