Siege Rhino was extremely flexible but it wasn't busted imo. Abzan decks were always top tier but those standard formats had plenty of other good decks. I remember Abzan aggro and midrange in particular really struggling against the RG ramp deck that was popular around the same time.
Every standard has tier 1 cards that define a format. The RTR block had sphinx's revelation, thragtust, resoration angel, and huntmaster of the fells which together made one of the most obnoxious non-busted decks
Channel Fireball's list of "top 10 cards we're happy to see rotate out" had Siege Rhino as number 3, behind the fetchlands and... the second Siege Rhino.
@@yaketyyakumo3315 Rhino was very powerful but not OP powerful. The only reason it saw so much play was because of how easy mana fixing had become. This was especially true with BFZ's launch.
I would say Tarmogoyf deserves a mention here. Back during its standard, it seems everyone and their mothers was trying their best to jam a playset of it in to their decks, regardless of color. It reached the point that I'd be more shocked that a turn 1 - 2 Tarmo DIDN'T happen and any deck i play HAD to have an answer against a minimum 2 mana 3/4 creature dropping on turn 2 O.O While it didnt break the format in the same way Memory Jar and Tolarian Academy, it was ALL OVER the place like Smuggler's Copter was. I still remember the day I cracked a pack of FS and pulled a Tarmo. I couldn't leave the store without at least 2 - 3 people offering to buy the card
It was a slightly better Kird Ape but in honest fairness cards like Tarmogoyf are exactly why cards like Doom Blade exist when Lightning Bolt exists already. Bolt doesn't really stop Goyf. Doom Blade is a fair answer. Path, Swords, and Fatal Push are *good* answers. Thoughtseize is a *really* good answer. Tarmogoyf will never actually be bad but it will never actually be broken either. It's just the Pro Circuit level of Wild Nacatl's budget dreams: The Best Kird Ape Ever is still kind of just a Kird Ape.
@13:35 It was the other way around. Field of the Dead was holding Oko back. We didn't realize how broken Oko was until Field got banned. You can check the ban announcements, Field was banned before Oko was.
In the Throne of Eldraine prerelease I actually pulled Oko and got second place, it was also one of the only cards I was seeking from Eldraine. Also bought a pack for my birthday as few days later and pulled another Oko but it was the full art. I get really lucky on my birthday pulls because I pulled a foil Skytherix the Blight Dragon.
Collected Company had a really odd history in standard. It started out as one of those cards where everyone knew it was good but hadn't figured out the right shell for it, then Reflector Mage got printed and the Company decks quickly went stratospheric. At the time it was legal, standard hadn't seen any bannings in quite a few years, a trend broken soon after by the banning of Smuggler's Copter. I do feel like Company probably should have been banned but WotC were far more reluctant to ban cards from standard at the time.
Jace and SFM were 2012 I think. Banned 2012, not printed. If I recall. Khans was only 4 years after that. 2011, the printing of Jace and SFM, was 8 years after 2003, which was Ravager Affinity. 2003 from 1998 was 5 years. The gap between Mirrodin and Jace the Mind Sculptor was absolutely unheard of and made this false sense of security that it was literally against policy to ban cards in Standard. It was always possible they just didn't need to until Jace, once Affinity was gone. Faeries and Jund were not that bad. They were strong but really the Core Set had answers at common to at least defend even if your deck wouldn't win. It was still "playing Magic" and you could sideboard and draw what you needed to crush them with some sack draws. Not likely and not consistent but it was arguably fair enough to not ban cards over. Lol. Jace changed that. Baneslayer died to Doom Blade. Jace and Stoneforge didn't. (Bc SFM you only care about etb really) 5 years to Mirrodin EIGHT years to Worldwake 4 years to Tarkir Like 2 years to "bans are normal now like they were before 1998" Jace was the singular card that even makes the conversation of the video's topic. Otherwise it's just "yeah card games ban cards" Jace and maybe Arcbound Ravager and Tolarian Academy are extra extra special among all other Standard bannings before or since.
"You can't get much better than a turn 1 or 2 win" Uhh, what about a god draw on the Hulk Flash deck where you can win on the first turns upkeep, before anyone had a chance to play a single land?
I am shocked that you put coco on the list but not hazoret, you know, the card that single handedly broke the record for most amount of points scored ever? The deck went 18-0
@@mattjayce2339 fetchlands were fine, they were fair and just ok. It was WOTC's numbsckull decision to print dual lands right after their inclusion that wrecked standard
Stoneforge Mystic is a conditional Demonic Tutor for 2 Mana. Fetch lands are a conditional Demonic Tutor for 0 Mana. Nobody would be playing Shocks with Fetches if they could play Seat of the Synod. It is not even about getting the land its about gaming the probability of your draw. Affinity lands do *their* separate *other* dumb thing for 0 Mana. Fetches and Artifact lands are the only land cycles that are better than Revised Duals. They're like, stupid good. Tolarian Academy cycle is *not* better than Revised Duals even counting Cabal Coffers in Black. Academy cycle is barely fair like Mirage Tutors. I mean like fair to the point of "if you're both allowed to put the card in your deck your math professor will say the game won't always end on turn 0" The Affinity lands are really close to 50 cent Moxen and the Fetch lands are basically a bunch of 0 cost Worldly Tutors. Run basics under opposing Wasteland and that right there is enough reason to run Fetches. Even if the Wasteland effect in Standard is weaker than Ghost Quarter. It is incorrect in every format to cut the Fetchlands which is why they are banned in Pioneer and frowned on in Standard. Your deck has more, faster, better, safer options with Fetches than without, assuming you are playing with a format ban list and your opponent gets to play Richard Garfield PhD as their Vanguard or Commander or Plane. Against a deliberately broken unfair opponent as a thought experiment, Fetches get you in with a chance. They are 0 cost Tutors and your deck is a deck of cards.
Field of the dead was banned before Oko. In fact, I distinctly remember people saying that after Field of the Dead was banned Oko would completely dominate standard (obviously they were right).
Man. Remembering when JTMS was considered too good to ever get out of jail (Along with StoneForge Mystic) but seeing it being almost ignored now shows the ridiculous power creep.
It's worth noting that while almost all the cards for Academy were in Standard, the deck's breakout performance and dominance was in Extended at Pro Tour Rome. Interestingly, the deck didn't dominate that Top 8. It only put two copies in the Top 8. There were two High Tide decks, which were similar to Academy (running the same engine in Mind Over Matter, Time Spiral ,etc.), but much slower and didn't include Academy at all.
It feels weird to see 'Standard' and 'Extended' used in this context since I remember the numbered types ('Type 2' for example) being the term du jour of the era.
@@chiblast100x WotC named the formats somewhere around when Extended came to exist as a format (mid 1997). It was colloquially called "Type 1.x" but that was never a WotC name and never official. Type 1 was called "Classic" and Type 1.5 was "Classic-Restricted." I can't quite remember when "Standard" came in there. As you say, it took the playerbase a while to start using these names over Type 1 and Type 2, but I think Extended becoming more popular helped push that.
Yes, and only a few months before he was set to rotate anyway. I also disagree about the Stoneforge thing. JTMS was a $100 standard card for a reason, as he was powerful since he released. Stoneforge was good, but didn't warp Standard. Hell, Batterskull was only released shortly before JTMS & Stoneforge were banned. People were using Sword of Feast & Famine, but JTMS made the deck dominant. Also, Splinter Twin wasn't really a big thing in that Standard format, Valakut was. It was a bulk rare until Deceiver Exarch was printed, again the most recent set before JTMS & Stoneforge were banned.
Skullclamp, during mirrodin every deck with small creatures played 4 of them, until it got banned. Unlike ravager it wasn't just played by affinity decks but also goblin decks, elf decks and any other deck that had at least a few cheap creatures.
OI wait a minute. My memory might be fuzzy, but im almsot sure it was the way around with Oko. Field of the Dead is what kept Oko in check, to the point Oko was a non factor until Field was banned first. golos with Field was one of the dominant decks in standard and coutenred Oko hard if im not mistaken.
I genuinely thought oko was banned first but after looking it up, it was field that was banned first. That said, they were banned within weeks of eachother. The announcements were about one month apart
@@Incbuba Oko decks were still good with Field around, no doubt and should be in this list. Just mentioning whats potentially false information concerning Field of the Dead deck related to Oko.
You could have put the entirety of Mirrodin and Urza's block on this list and no one would even bat an eye. When you have an event nicknamed "Pro Tour Tinker" in Tinker Orleans and the card doesn't even make a top 10, you know things are bad.
Skullclamp deserves to be on this list, but I think there are a few creatures that warped Standard more than cards like Collected Company. Flametongue Kavu, Wild Mongrel, and Tarmogoyf all had huge warping effects on their respective metagames that are probably lost on the current generation of Magic players.
The omission of Skullclamp is glaring. That card was in every single deck and was totally out of control. As for your other cards, that's pretty normal for Standard, though, that one or two cards really define and warp the format.
One problem with standard format is that cards from standard would feed out to the rest of the formats such as pauper, commander, and archenemy. this was a healthy way to do things, and you would rarily get a format specific set. now there are so many nonstandard products that come out with cards that are too strong to ignore which cuases a leaching effect on players. this leaching effect means players who want to play at a higher power level have to move from standard to these other formats. in strixhaven one of the best magecraft cards for example wasn't in standard that should have been included in the standard set.
Same. The writing on the wall was that it was only gonna get worse. Power creep had set in by the time I had started (Mirrodin) and, looking back, I wasted so much time and money on a game that wasn't interested in making investments evergreen.
Super annoying times. Stoneforge wasn't warping Standard at the time though, so this video is a bit off. Many people were genuinely surprised it got banned at all, as the only card people had been complaining about for nearly a year was JTMS only. But recently releasing Batterskull kind of changed that. You can tell Wizards was also thrown off guard, as seen by including 2 of them in their new Event Deck product line they had just released.
That was the Standard that made me quit playing lol The lands and swords were too expensive, getting a Jace was a pipedream, and everyone was playing it with little to no diversity. Then Kuldotha Red and Infect came out afterwards and I was like, "I'm good thanks."
Having Oko on the list but not Golos is crazy bro. Like I cannot fathom it. Golos field of the dead had to get banned out for Oko to get banned in the next BnR. Really big miss on this list. Collected company has no business on this list too
Yeah but I feel like Field of the Dead is a bigger problem than Golos. Field is really what made that deck insane which is why it got banned in the first place. God that Standard was insufferable until they banned Field and Oko
You also didn't mention that historically, combat damage used the stack. This meant you could have the Arcbound Ravager put its damage on the stack and trade with a creature, then sac it to move the counters to another creature to make sure it lives.
I’ve had a couple Archbound Ravagers sitting in my misc. artifacts box from the first cards I ever bought from a goodwill back in like 2017 that had a ton of old artifacts. I guess I didn’t see the value in it but given I run Myr tribal as my favorite deck to play I now am tempted to add it. Thanks!
I have been an on and off MTG player since Mirrodin block in 2003. I can say without a doubt that Skullclamp from Darksteel deserves to be on the list. If you had any creatures in your deck, you ran 4 copies of Skullclamp because it's value as a draw engine was so mana efficient. While Arcboind Ravager was definitely a problem, the same deck existed with Atog and Broodstar. Skullclamp made that deck be able to drop their hand, equip, draw two and not lose any board presence but the card advantage was too much. It was even banned before Ravager by at least 6 months and came from the same set. I'd even say it should replace Ravager on your list as Ravager was banned along with the artifact lands and Disciple of the Vault as the whole package was too powerful and not just one card.
Oh man what a flashback! Boy did I hate that miridin set for the longest time. Robbed me of first place at a casual tournament, some d-bag showed up with the meta Infinity for artifacts deck. Back then it was a really lame thing to be playing The Meta people usually made their own stuff more often than now, but if you're going to play them at a go take it to a serious tournament not a five-dollar casual. Some people are just super lame and wussies and are afraid to test themselves so they go to things that are really easy. Remember one time I went to a free standard showdown tournament with my 12 year old in amongst all the other preteens there was an adult whale for not only had such overpowered decks for a free standard, but the guy was also a cheater. It was even another young guy who looked like he was in his low twenties but was so disgustingly dirty his fingernails were so gross and his BO was unbearable yet he had such an overpowered standard deck for a free tournament. I had to go against this loser and hold my breath the whole time and I asked him what do you do for work construction or something cuz his hands were so dirty and he goes no I'm unemployed I got fired from Wendy's a while back. I'm like why are you here go get a job. That's the kind of people unfortunately in the magic immunity that exist that are just disgusting loser degenerate bums that would waste all their money on magic cards to beat kids while living in mommy's house still.
Well said, can’t stand try hards who neglect everything in their lives except this one thing whether it be magic or yugioh, it’s really a turn off and no wonder games like these get bad raps through the stereotypes THESE BUMS CREATE
Oh, wow, i just started with the magic the gathering universe and was looking to better understand it, how wonderful to find the legendary hirumaredx ♥️ i love listening to your voice its so calming ♥️
I remember the combo einter very well i just started playing in tournaments in Italy whete i live,i have good memories despite everythings...it was fun and cool to play those decks,i loved it
Lotus Cobra being good in Standard twice isn't proof that it belongs here, it's proof that it doesn't belong here. WotC looked at what it did the first time, and concluded it wasn't a problem. When it got reprinted, it happened to show up in a deck with a bunch of other broken green cards, and was hardly the problem child compared to the likes of Uro or Omnath (which are good even in eternal formats, while Lotus Cobra is a meme). The fact the script included the line about making a top 10 from just Mirrodin block makes it pretty clear accuracy wasn't the point of this list though, taking mediocre Standard cards from a wider range of blocks, rather than collecting the things that really broke Standard like companions, Felidar Guardian, Jitte, etc. for the hundredth time.
I don't understand Lotus Cobra on the list. I remember people being extremely hyped about it. But in practice it often was underwhelming, since it is a mana dork that doesnt 't make mana, when you don't have lands. Sure it saw some play, but it was never the problem card.
So funny thing about Oko. First my personal theory is that the second plus ability was originally supposed to be a negative, that would of been a really good card then already instead of absolutely broken. Second when the pre-release of that set came out my brother and I went to the event. And we were known at the Oko Bros. Only two Okos were pulled that night, one was a promo copy from my brother and I got a full art copy. I made it to top 7 and my brother got top three that night. Kinda sad I didn't sell my copy that night for $100 but oh well. It's still in my deck and does wonder
Actually affinity doesn't play ravager anymore. The only deck that plays that card is hardened scales. The reason is probably because of cards like force of vigor and solitude that could kill the creature you grow for free
Force of Will itself should never have been printed. But given that it was, it sets an inexorable path towards combo-control that the only remaining fair thing is for other colors to be allowed to play without requiring Blue. Either nobody gets 0 cost answers, or everyone does.
I thought Collected Company rotated before Reflector Mage got banned. If I remember correctly... U/w flash with Smuggler’s Copter got it banned. I could be wrong.
You could just burn Jace though. Target Player also meant target Planeswalker. The little rules sheet from Lorwyn said so. So it's not like the planeswalker was beyond interaction. Has that ever changed? Alot of cards says target planeswalker now in addition to target creature or player/ opponent. "306.7. Previously, planeswalkers were subject to a redirection effect that allowed a player to have noncombat damage that would be dealt to an opponent be dealt to a planeswalker under that opponent’s control instead. This rule has been removed and certain cards have received errata in the Oracle card reference to deal damage directly to planeswalkers." I I guess it has been changed.
Ah combo winter. I was a senior in high school back then. Crazy times. Was fun though. If we pit that standard against the power crept MTG of today... I am confident it would absolutely crush today's game and make it seem like the power creep wasn't enough. That standard was the Joe Montana of its time.
I'm amazed that The Meathook Massacre wasn't on this list or even an honorable mention. I started playing MTG around the time the new Inistrad block started and that card quickly became the bane of my existence until it was eventually banned
Meathook is a good card, but not exactly busted. What brought it over the top was the deluge of absolutely, insanely, shamelessly pushed black cards printed after that brought the entire rotation to a halt. Truth is, out of innistrad, graveyard trespasser deserved a ban way more than meathook.
As much as Ravager represents affinity, I think Skullclamp deserved a spot, since it's in such a different magnitude of brokenness. Speaking of which, top 10 cards that broke affinity, or even a Failed Mechanics about affinity would be awesome.
No. They aren't really broken in.....um....like Vintage. A lot of the Standard Decks he is describing could actually hold their heads up respectably in Vintage. Uro isn't a Vintage card lol. These decks happened to exist in Standard but were also Vintage tier. They earned their bans.
Pro Tour San Diego ended with Jund vs. Jund in the finals. Once Alara block rotated out, it was Stone Forge, Jace and the legendary Swords. (Bloodbraid’s 3/2 haste attack kept Jace in check.) Squadron Hawk was arguably a bigger card than Lotus Cobra at the same time.
During the ToE set, Oko was the least of my worries as every second deck was the fucking cauldron sacrifice combo with Witch's Oven. God that was cancer.
Carnage Tyrant deserved to be in the list at least as honorable mention. He spoiled whole control archetype of decks which could be pretty strong due to Dominaria, Amonkhet and Kaladesh being in standard (with numerous UR control and disruption cards available)
I feel kind of lucky that I didn’t have to face many of these cards. I came into the game much later than most so cards I found traumatising were from Kaldheim - Valki God of Lies, Emergent Ultimatum, Saw It Coming, Kiora Bests the Sea God.
Lol none of those cards are good. Do you have Mana Leak? 4x Mana Leak 4x Doom Blade 4x Lightning Bolt 4x Path to Exile 4x Abrupt Decay This isn't actually even a good plan, but it's a good test of whether a card is really obnoxious if it is racing under this or if the deck makes enough value that basic Core Set type of hate sort of bounces off. 4x Thoughtseize will probably deal with a lot. Really frigging insanely annoying cards......are not actually very frightened of Thoughtseize O.O
My worst trade ever was when i was getting out of pokemon and into mtg, traded 4 first edition charizards.for 4 memory jars. Couple weeks later ban hammer 😅
That Oko wasn't #1 is kinda insane. He literally sets the entire pace of the game and can come down on t2. he's without a doubt the most broken thing ever to happen to MTG
you wright that copter cycle a card, cycling is a rummage ability ( discard then draw) wich are named differently from looting abilities ( draw then discard) looting is way better than rummage abilities as you can see what you drew before discarding, perhaps you will discard what you drew
I played standard during the first printing of lotus cobra and i really don't it "broke standard". Yes it was played but was by no means overpowered. That was a very strong standard format.
It's probably fair in Constructed. It's still easily one of the very best mono green cards ever printed. The fact it makes Fetch lands better is as silly as if a blue card made tutors or cards that cost 0 mana better.
The fact that Jace's Fateseal ability is a +2 (!) is absolutely batsh** crazy. I can't tell you how many times I got stuck at 3 lands and my opponent drops Jace and proceeds to starve me out for the rest of the game, or the opposite happened where they flooded me. Like who tested this crap!?! It's why I stopped playing standard. Standard is a rich man's format where any 12 year old kid with loaded parents will stomp you into the ground. Edits for typos because I'm still salty about Jace the Mind F***er after all these years. Also want to mention that he was a $100 card at the time and unless you had the cash for a playset you were SOL.
Skullclamp says hi. Ravager was definitely not the issue. WIthout the artifact lands that deck just would not have functioned the same way at all. However, if only ravager had been banned, the deck, while having to reconfigure most definitely, would stll have existed and been strong. HOWEVER, I would go so far as to say the real problem card in that format was *definitely* skullclamp. Had they just banned ravager and the lands and not skull clamp, goblins would have been everywhere. Goblins were soooooo good with skullclamp back then, but they just couldn't outrace affinity and its extremely consistent t3/4 kills.
Should have put Skullclamp in rather then Ravager. Ravager was not even THAT insane. The biggest issue with Affinity was the artifact lands.... post clamp ban. Skullclamp was absolutely fucking bonkers. I was playing then, I watched the meta shift overnight. Every single deck played clamp. Some like Affinity, or Goblins, it came natural it was just a case of "oh, this card is fucking nuts and we have a bunch of x/1s anyway. But you have decks like tooth and nail. It went from running very few creatures to running full sets of birds/elves etc because oh, they can all be clamps and that way we can get clamp in the deck. It was only standard legal for like 2 months iirc because it so obviously insane. It was however, an exceptionally fun 2 months for a teenager at colleague with lots of freetime to go absolutely nuts brewing insanity with the thing.
ok, i only played "kitchen table magic" back then, but the card i have in my mind whenever Mirrodin is mentioned is Skullclamp, and when i hear about Ravager, i also think about Cranial Plating, since its +1 for each artifact and being equipable on instant speed had sort of the same effect as Ravanger (putting all power on a creature at instant speed, but without the sacrificing) also: Umezawa's Jitte... anyone?
While it doesn't straight up break formats, Skullclamp is a good mention. To this day you can use it as your main draw engine in Commander with damn near any deck that has or can generate 1/1s. What I'm kinda surprised is that Smuggler's Copter was mentioned but Sensei's Divining Top wasn't. Talk about Deck multi-filtering. So long as you could support it that thing could draw out half your deck, and for the low low price of 2 mana gave you a permanent choice of which of 3 cards you wanted to draw next. Sometimes which 2 out of 3.
Mirrodin and Urza were basically blocks that were almost all cards fair game for this list depending on if he had chosen to represent each color equally. Looking at only blue and artifacts (only good cards), you would still have most of the rares eligible. Lol. "So. Here's how to play Magic the Gathering. Here's the neat part, I'm blue so you don't."
In my opinion, you talk just a liiiitle bit to quickly. Its also a little weird that what you say and the words on screen differ. I love these videos, i just have a hard time following along once in a while when you you speak a lot more quickly than other times. Thanks for the content!
oko should be no. 1 cause you can put it in any standard environment w/o any support cards and it would thrive not like other cards on the list that needs proper support to be broken
Tolarian Academy is the support it doesn't need other support mostly. If they make artifacts that cost less than 5 mana Academy is probably worth it. Artifacts that cost less than 4 mana and it can be tier 1. Artifacts that cost less 3 mana and Academy would always have to be banned.
Genuinely shocked Siege Rhino wasn't on the list. People *celebrated* when it finally rotated out since Abzan was just that good during Khans block.
But it wasn't tier 0. Jeskai Black, Esper Dragons, Mono Red Rabblemaster decks were also strong decks at the time
Siege Rhino was extremely flexible but it wasn't busted imo. Abzan decks were always top tier but those standard formats had plenty of other good decks. I remember Abzan aggro and midrange in particular really struggling against the RG ramp deck that was popular around the same time.
Every standard has tier 1 cards that define a format. The RTR block had sphinx's revelation, thragtust, resoration angel, and huntmaster of the fells which together made one of the most obnoxious non-busted decks
Channel Fireball's list of "top 10 cards we're happy to see rotate out" had Siege Rhino as number 3, behind the fetchlands and... the second Siege Rhino.
@@yaketyyakumo3315 Rhino was very powerful but not OP powerful. The only reason it saw so much play was because of how easy mana fixing had become. This was especially true with BFZ's launch.
You can tell a card breaks standard when it hangs around way too long in modern and finally gets banned
modern and standard are different formats
@@angelgaming287 ...and?
@@angelgaming287 lol and almost every single one of these cards was/is very powerful if not busted in modern...
Oko: "here, have a pie"
**pie becomes bear and eats you**
Oko: "I guess that pie had too much _bite"_
I remember during one eternal weekend final and the guy with the Oko TURNED HIS BLACK LOTUS INTO AN ELK AND THEN KILLED HIS OPPONENT WITH IT
Thinking about how 4-color Omnath was legal for like two weeks before getting banned
4:01 "And at number 8, we have Lotus Cobra"
(Horror music starts playing)
**Cleric Beast begins**
I would say Tarmogoyf deserves a mention here. Back during its standard, it seems everyone and their mothers was trying their best to jam a playset of it in to their decks, regardless of color. It reached the point that I'd be more shocked that a turn 1 - 2 Tarmo DIDN'T happen and any deck i play HAD to have an answer against a minimum 2 mana 3/4 creature dropping on turn 2 O.O
While it didnt break the format in the same way Memory Jar and Tolarian Academy, it was ALL OVER the place like Smuggler's Copter was. I still remember the day I cracked a pack of FS and pulled a Tarmo. I couldn't leave the store without at least 2 - 3 people offering to buy the card
It was a slightly better Kird Ape but in honest fairness cards like Tarmogoyf are exactly why cards like Doom Blade exist when Lightning Bolt exists already.
Bolt doesn't really stop Goyf.
Doom Blade is a fair answer.
Path, Swords, and Fatal Push are *good* answers.
Thoughtseize is a *really* good answer.
Tarmogoyf will never actually be bad but it will never actually be broken either. It's just the Pro Circuit level of Wild Nacatl's budget dreams:
The Best Kird Ape Ever is still kind of just a Kird Ape.
@13:35 It was the other way around. Field of the Dead was holding Oko back. We didn't realize how broken Oko was until Field got banned. You can check the ban announcements, Field was banned before Oko was.
In the Throne of Eldraine prerelease I actually pulled Oko and got second place, it was also one of the only cards I was seeking from Eldraine. Also bought a pack for my birthday as few days later and pulled another Oko but it was the full art. I get really lucky on my birthday pulls because I pulled a foil Skytherix the Blight Dragon.
The oko field of the dead relationship was the other way around. Field was keeping oko in check then it got banned and oko went nuts
Collected Company had a really odd history in standard. It started out as one of those cards where everyone knew it was good but hadn't figured out the right shell for it, then Reflector Mage got printed and the Company decks quickly went stratospheric. At the time it was legal, standard hadn't seen any bannings in quite a few years, a trend broken soon after by the banning of Smuggler's Copter. I do feel like Company probably should have been banned but WotC were far more reluctant to ban cards from standard at the time.
Jace and SFM were 2012 I think. Banned 2012, not printed. If I recall.
Khans was only 4 years after that.
2011, the printing of Jace and SFM, was 8 years after 2003, which was Ravager Affinity.
2003 from 1998 was 5 years.
The gap between Mirrodin and Jace the Mind Sculptor was absolutely unheard of and made this false sense of security that it was literally against policy to ban cards in Standard.
It was always possible they just didn't need to until Jace, once Affinity was gone.
Faeries and Jund were not that bad. They were strong but really the Core Set had answers at common to at least defend even if your deck wouldn't win. It was still "playing Magic" and you could sideboard and draw what you needed to crush them with some sack draws. Not likely and not consistent but it was arguably fair enough to not ban cards over.
Lol. Jace changed that. Baneslayer died to Doom Blade. Jace and Stoneforge didn't. (Bc SFM you only care about etb really)
5 years to Mirrodin
EIGHT years to Worldwake
4 years to Tarkir
Like 2 years to "bans are normal now like they were before 1998"
Jace was the singular card that even makes the conversation of the video's topic.
Otherwise it's just "yeah card games ban cards"
Jace and maybe Arcbound Ravager and Tolarian Academy are extra extra special among all other Standard bannings before or since.
Skullclamp was emergency banned in Standard too If I remember correctly.
Wasnt felidar soveriegn emergency banned 3 days after the ban announcement.
Not by emergency. It was part of the regular schedule of announcements.
"You can't get much better than a turn 1 or 2 win"
Uhh, what about a god draw on the Hulk Flash deck where you can win on the first turns upkeep, before anyone had a chance to play a single land?
15:58 do not forget the synergy with Disciple of the Vault
I am shocked that you put coco on the list but not hazoret, you know, the card that single handedly broke the record for most amount of points scored ever? The deck went 18-0
I'm surprised Siege Rhino isn't on the list, definitely expected it to get mentioned.
Siege Rhino wasn't the problem, Fetchlands were.
@@mattjayce2339 fetchlands were fine, they were fair and just ok. It was WOTC's numbsckull decision to print dual lands right after their inclusion that wrecked standard
Stoneforge Mystic is a conditional Demonic Tutor for 2 Mana.
Fetch lands are a conditional Demonic Tutor for 0 Mana.
Nobody would be playing Shocks with Fetches if they could play Seat of the Synod.
It is not even about getting the land its about gaming the probability of your draw.
Affinity lands do *their* separate *other* dumb thing for 0 Mana.
Fetches and Artifact lands are the only land cycles that are better than Revised Duals. They're like, stupid good.
Tolarian Academy cycle is *not* better than Revised Duals even counting Cabal Coffers in Black.
Academy cycle is barely fair like Mirage Tutors.
I mean like fair to the point of "if you're both allowed to put the card in your deck your math professor will say the game won't always end on turn 0"
The Affinity lands are really close to 50 cent Moxen and the Fetch lands are basically a bunch of 0 cost Worldly Tutors.
Run basics under opposing Wasteland and that right there is enough reason to run Fetches.
Even if the Wasteland effect in Standard is weaker than Ghost Quarter.
It is incorrect in every format to cut the Fetchlands which is why they are banned in Pioneer and frowned on in Standard.
Your deck has more, faster, better, safer options with Fetches than without, assuming you are playing with a format ban list and your opponent gets to play Richard Garfield PhD as their Vanguard or Commander or Plane.
Against a deliberately broken unfair opponent as a thought experiment, Fetches get you in with a chance.
They are 0 cost Tutors and your deck is a deck of cards.
Fetch lands are card draw in White.
Field of the dead was banned before Oko. In fact, I distinctly remember people saying that after Field of the Dead was banned Oko would completely dominate standard (obviously they were right).
Field kept Oko in check.
Field of deez nutz
"thanks to set rotation, no singular card will stay in standard forever"
Basic lands: Am I a joke to you?
Man.
Remembering when JTMS was considered too good to ever get out of jail (Along with StoneForge Mystic) but seeing it being almost ignored now shows the ridiculous power creep.
Memory Jar isn't the only emergency standard ban. Remember Felidar Guardian?
Took 7 months for Felidar Guardian to get banned. Memory Jar was banned in a month
It's worth noting that while almost all the cards for Academy were in Standard, the deck's breakout performance and dominance was in Extended at Pro Tour Rome. Interestingly, the deck didn't dominate that Top 8. It only put two copies in the Top 8. There were two High Tide decks, which were similar to Academy (running the same engine in Mind Over Matter, Time Spiral ,etc.), but much slower and didn't include Academy at all.
It feels weird to see 'Standard' and 'Extended' used in this context since I remember the numbered types ('Type 2' for example) being the term du jour of the era.
@@chiblast100x WotC named the formats somewhere around when Extended came to exist as a format (mid 1997). It was colloquially called "Type 1.x" but that was never a WotC name and never official. Type 1 was called "Classic" and Type 1.5 was "Classic-Restricted." I can't quite remember when "Standard" came in there. As you say, it took the playerbase a while to start using these names over Type 1 and Type 2, but I think Extended becoming more popular helped push that.
9:53 whilst true, they didn’t ban Jace until AFTER worlds, so to maximise the profits made on Jace chasing.
Yes, and only a few months before he was set to rotate anyway.
I also disagree about the Stoneforge thing. JTMS was a $100 standard card for a reason, as he was powerful since he released.
Stoneforge was good, but didn't warp Standard. Hell, Batterskull was only released shortly before JTMS & Stoneforge were banned. People were using Sword of Feast & Famine, but JTMS made the deck dominant.
Also, Splinter Twin wasn't really a big thing in that Standard format, Valakut was. It was a bulk rare until Deceiver Exarch was printed, again the most recent set before JTMS & Stoneforge were banned.
Skullclamp, during mirrodin every deck with small creatures played 4 of them, until it got banned. Unlike ravager it wasn't just played by affinity decks but also goblin decks, elf decks and any other deck that had at least a few cheap creatures.
Request a top ten best/worst cards per old block/sets (like Legends, Urza's Block, Invasion, Antiquities, etc.)
OI wait a minute. My memory might be fuzzy, but im almsot sure it was the way around with Oko. Field of the Dead is what kept Oko in check, to the point Oko was a non factor until Field was banned first. golos with Field was one of the dominant decks in standard and coutenred Oko hard if im not mistaken.
I remember that too ! But tbh, Oko wasn’t ban’ed not because fotd was here, but because it was too recent
I genuinely thought oko was banned first but after looking it up, it was field that was banned first. That said, they were banned within weeks of eachother. The announcements were about one month apart
@@Incbuba Oko decks were still good with Field around, no doubt and should be in this list. Just mentioning whats potentially false information concerning Field of the Dead deck related to Oko.
You could have put the entirety of Mirrodin and Urza's block on this list and no one would even bat an eye. When you have an event nicknamed "Pro Tour Tinker" in Tinker Orleans and the card doesn't even make a top 10, you know things are bad.
I had almost forgotten about Wallet Sculptor.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR VIDEOS!!!! I LOVE THIS MTG CONTENT!
Skullclamp deserves to be on this list, but I think there are a few creatures that warped Standard more than cards like Collected Company. Flametongue Kavu, Wild Mongrel, and Tarmogoyf all had huge warping effects on their respective metagames that are probably lost on the current generation of Magic players.
The omission of Skullclamp is glaring. That card was in every single deck and was totally out of control. As for your other cards, that's pretty normal for Standard, though, that one or two cards really define and warp the format.
@@JD-gk7eh Ikr when banning Jace I remember them quoting skullclamp since both times were basically X deck and anti-X deck. Seems weird to leave off
One problem with standard format is that cards from standard would feed out to the rest of the formats such as pauper, commander, and archenemy. this was a healthy way to do things, and you would rarily get a format specific set. now there are so many nonstandard products that come out with cards that are too strong to ignore which cuases a leaching effect on players. this leaching effect means players who want to play at a higher power level have to move from standard to these other formats. in strixhaven one of the best magecraft cards for example wasn't in standard that should have been included in the standard set.
Absolutely love these videos. I’ve been playing magic casually for a long time so it’s fun to learn about the other sides of the game.
The jace/stoneforge standard meta ended my 10+ year history with magic. Once jace hit $100+, game over.
Same. The writing on the wall was that it was only gonna get worse. Power creep had set in by the time I had started (Mirrodin) and, looking back, I wasted so much time and money on a game that wasn't interested in making investments evergreen.
I played through the era of Jace the mindsculptor and stoneforge mystic same with Kaw blade boy those were fun times in MTG 😅
Super annoying times. Stoneforge wasn't warping Standard at the time though, so this video is a bit off. Many people were genuinely surprised it got banned at all, as the only card people had been complaining about for nearly a year was JTMS only.
But recently releasing Batterskull kind of changed that. You can tell Wizards was also thrown off guard, as seen by including 2 of them in their new Event Deck product line they had just released.
That was the Standard that made me quit playing lol
The lands and swords were too expensive, getting a Jace was a pipedream, and everyone was playing it with little to no diversity.
Then Kuldotha Red and Infect came out afterwards and I was like, "I'm good thanks."
Having Oko on the list but not Golos is crazy bro.
Like I cannot fathom it. Golos field of the dead had to get banned out for Oko to get banned in the next BnR.
Really big miss on this list. Collected company has no business on this list too
Yeah but I feel like Field of the Dead is a bigger problem than Golos. Field is really what made that deck insane which is why it got banned in the first place. God that Standard was insufferable until they banned Field and Oko
You also didn't mention that historically, combat damage used the stack. This meant you could have the Arcbound Ravager put its damage on the stack and trade with a creature, then sac it to move the counters to another creature to make sure it lives.
I’ve had a couple Archbound Ravagers sitting in my misc. artifacts box from the first cards I ever bought from a goodwill back in like 2017 that had a ton of old artifacts. I guess I didn’t see the value in it but given I run Myr tribal as my favorite deck to play I now am tempted to add it. Thanks!
I have been an on and off MTG player since Mirrodin block in 2003. I can say without a doubt that Skullclamp from Darksteel deserves to be on the list. If you had any creatures in your deck, you ran 4 copies of Skullclamp because it's value as a draw engine was so mana efficient. While Arcboind Ravager was definitely a problem, the same deck existed with Atog and Broodstar. Skullclamp made that deck be able to drop their hand, equip, draw two and not lose any board presence but the card advantage was too much. It was even banned before Ravager by at least 6 months and came from the same set. I'd even say it should replace Ravager on your list as Ravager was banned along with the artifact lands and Disciple of the Vault as the whole package was too powerful and not just one card.
Oh man what a flashback! Boy did I hate that miridin set for the longest time. Robbed me of first place at a casual tournament, some d-bag showed up with the meta Infinity for artifacts deck. Back then it was a really lame thing to be playing The Meta people usually made their own stuff more often than now, but if you're going to play them at a go take it to a serious tournament not a five-dollar casual. Some people are just super lame and wussies and are afraid to test themselves so they go to things that are really easy. Remember one time I went to a free standard showdown tournament with my 12 year old in amongst all the other preteens there was an adult whale for not only had such overpowered decks for a free standard, but the guy was also a cheater. It was even another young guy who looked like he was in his low twenties but was so disgustingly dirty his fingernails were so gross and his BO was unbearable yet he had such an overpowered standard deck for a free tournament. I had to go against this loser and hold my breath the whole time and I asked him what do you do for work construction or something cuz his hands were so dirty and he goes no I'm unemployed I got fired from Wendy's a while back. I'm like why are you here go get a job. That's the kind of people unfortunately in the magic immunity that exist that are just disgusting loser degenerate bums that would waste all their money on magic cards to beat kids while living in mommy's house still.
Well said, can’t stand try hards who neglect everything in their lives except this one thing whether it be magic or yugioh, it’s really a turn off and no wonder games like these get bad raps through the stereotypes THESE BUMS CREATE
Oh, wow, i just started with the magic the gathering universe and was looking to better understand it, how wonderful to find the legendary hirumaredx ♥️ i love listening to your voice its so calming ♥️
I remember the combo einter very well i just started playing in tournaments in Italy whete i live,i have good memories despite everythings...it was fun and cool to play those decks,i loved it
Lotus Cobra being good in Standard twice isn't proof that it belongs here, it's proof that it doesn't belong here. WotC looked at what it did the first time, and concluded it wasn't a problem. When it got reprinted, it happened to show up in a deck with a bunch of other broken green cards, and was hardly the problem child compared to the likes of Uro or Omnath (which are good even in eternal formats, while Lotus Cobra is a meme).
The fact the script included the line about making a top 10 from just Mirrodin block makes it pretty clear accuracy wasn't the point of this list though, taking mediocre Standard cards from a wider range of blocks, rather than collecting the things that really broke Standard like companions, Felidar Guardian, Jitte, etc. for the hundredth time.
Also Jar wasn't the fastest to be banned card, it was Mind's Desire. It got banned in less than a week, though not in standard.
Didn't ragavan get banned in historic before it was even released to arena?
I don't understand Lotus Cobra on the list. I remember people being extremely hyped about it. But in practice it often was underwhelming, since it is a mana dork that doesnt 't make mana, when you don't have lands.
Sure it saw some play, but it was never the problem card.
So funny thing about Oko. First my personal theory is that the second plus ability was originally supposed to be a negative, that would of been a really good card then already instead of absolutely broken. Second when the pre-release of that set came out my brother and I went to the event. And we were known at the Oko Bros. Only two Okos were pulled that night, one was a promo copy from my brother and I got a full art copy. I made it to top 7 and my brother got top three that night. Kinda sad I didn't sell my copy that night for $100 but oh well. It's still in my deck and does wonder
I would like to see a video of what decks would still be dominating today if they were never banned or rotated out
Isn't that just legacy ?
Oop
Actually affinity doesn't play ravager anymore. The only deck that plays that card is hardened scales. The reason is probably because of cards like force of vigor and solitude that could kill the creature you grow for free
Force of Will itself should never have been printed.
But given that it was, it sets an inexorable path towards combo-control that the only remaining fair thing is for other colors to be allowed to play without requiring Blue.
Either nobody gets 0 cost answers, or everyone does.
I thought Collected Company rotated before Reflector Mage got banned. If I remember correctly... U/w flash with Smuggler’s Copter got it banned. I could be wrong.
You could just burn Jace though. Target Player also meant target Planeswalker. The little rules sheet from Lorwyn said so. So it's not like the planeswalker was beyond interaction. Has that ever changed? Alot of cards says target planeswalker now in addition to target creature or player/ opponent.
"306.7. Previously, planeswalkers were subject to a redirection effect that allowed a player to have noncombat damage that would be dealt to an opponent be dealt to a planeswalker under that opponent’s control instead. This rule has been removed and certain cards have received errata in the Oracle card reference to deal damage directly to planeswalkers." I
I guess it has been changed.
Landfall decks feel like Yu-Gi-Oh where you just watch your opponent go off for ten minutes until you lose
"Had smugglers copter been a blue card"
In one of the most powerful control formats ever to exist.
14:21
There she is!!! My all time favorite Magic Card! Arcbound Ravager is the best!
Oh god this brings me back to the horrors of combo winter
If I was running mono red I definitely had 4 lava axes in my deck, lava axe is a very powerful spell when there's no responses to it
Ah combo winter. I was a senior in high school back then. Crazy times. Was fun though. If we pit that standard against the power crept MTG of today... I am confident it would absolutely crush today's game and make it seem like the power creep wasn't enough.
That standard was the Joe Montana of its time.
I'm amazed that The Meathook Massacre wasn't on this list or even an honorable mention. I started playing MTG around the time the new Inistrad block started and that card quickly became the bane of my existence until it was eventually banned
Meathook is a good card, but not exactly busted. What brought it over the top was the deluge of absolutely, insanely, shamelessly pushed black cards printed after that brought the entire rotation to a halt. Truth is, out of innistrad, graveyard trespasser deserved a ban way more than meathook.
@@MetalHev Graveyard Trespasser can't leave your board empty for 3 mana
@@Darkusflame neither can meathook, unless your entire deck is made up of 1 toughness creatures that die to any 1 mana red sweeper.
@@MetalHev My grudge against that card is personal because my deck of choice at the time was a Gruul Aggro deck
O hey, I know about combo winter, my manga about playing magic in the late 90s early 2000s mentioned it.
Haven't seen anything yet but I would bet my ass that Stoneforge Mystic is gonna be on here. I also would guess Golgari Grave-Troll.
As much as Ravager represents affinity, I think Skullclamp deserved a spot, since it's in such a different magnitude of brokenness.
Speaking of which, top 10 cards that broke affinity, or even a Failed Mechanics about affinity would be awesome.
It's so weird that bans were uncommon until Kalidesh
Uro and Saheeli Cat combo deserve to be on the list I think.
No. They aren't really broken in.....um....like Vintage.
A lot of the Standard Decks he is describing could actually hold their heads up respectably in Vintage.
Uro isn't a Vintage card lol.
These decks happened to exist in Standard but were also Vintage tier. They earned their bans.
@@darthparallax5207 Uro is a legacy card, which is worth more than Smugglers Copter, which isn't even a modern card.
@@darthparallax5207 Oh also, CoCo. Not strong enough to be banned in modern either. Uro is
Lotus Cobra, Knight of the Reliquary, etc. never happened. It was all Jund then.
Pro Tour San Diego ended with Jund vs. Jund in the finals. Once Alara block rotated out, it was Stone Forge, Jace and the legendary Swords. (Bloodbraid’s 3/2 haste attack kept Jace in check.) Squadron Hawk was arguably a bigger card than Lotus Cobra at the same time.
oh yeah, Mirrodin, New Phyrexia, Kaladesh, Zendikar and Eldraine the unholy blocks
During the ToE set, Oko was the least of my worries as every second deck was the fucking cauldron sacrifice combo with Witch's Oven. God that was cancer.
Oko time was the best time!
Amazing!!
You forgot eldrazi winter my man
Gotta love "Jesus's Cradle" @17:10
Carnage Tyrant deserved to be in the list at least as honorable mention. He spoiled whole control archetype of decks which could be pretty strong due to Dominaria, Amonkhet and Kaladesh being in standard (with numerous UR control and disruption cards available)
It says alot that Tolarian academy is even banned in Commander.
I feel kind of lucky that I didn’t have to face many of these cards. I came into the game much later than most so cards I found traumatising were from Kaldheim - Valki God of Lies, Emergent Ultimatum, Saw It Coming, Kiora Bests the Sea God.
Lol none of those cards are good.
Do you have Mana Leak?
4x Mana Leak
4x Doom Blade
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Path to Exile
4x Abrupt Decay
This isn't actually even a good plan, but it's a good test of whether a card is really obnoxious if it is racing under this or if the deck makes enough value that basic Core Set type of hate sort of bounces off.
4x Thoughtseize will probably deal with a lot.
Really frigging insanely annoying cards......are not actually very frightened of Thoughtseize O.O
Kiora Bests the Sea God is playable.
The rest of that list is trash.
My worst trade ever was when i was getting out of pokemon and into mtg, traded 4 first edition charizards.for 4 memory jars. Couple weeks later ban hammer 😅
That Oko wasn't #1 is kinda insane. He literally sets the entire pace of the game and can come down on t2. he's without a doubt the most broken thing ever to happen to MTG
I'm surprised Linn Sivvi wasn't on the list
Where is Skullclamp? Should be very high on the list, the card absolutely broke standard.
Poor Oko
Im a Legendary Planes walker, i can walk through planes.
However im "banned" 😂
you wright that copter cycle a card, cycling is a rummage ability ( discard then draw) wich are named differently from looting abilities ( draw then discard) looting is way better than rummage abilities as you can see what you drew before discarding, perhaps you will discard what you drew
No card will stay in standard forever
Basic lands: giga chad
Skullclamp during its glory in the format.
I played standard during the first printing of lotus cobra and i really don't it "broke standard". Yes it was played but was by no means overpowered. That was a very strong standard format.
It's probably fair in Constructed.
It's still easily one of the very best mono green cards ever printed.
The fact it makes Fetch lands better is as silly as if a blue card made tutors or cards that cost 0 mana better.
The fact that Jace's Fateseal ability is a +2 (!) is absolutely batsh** crazy. I can't tell you how many times I got stuck at 3 lands and my opponent drops Jace and proceeds to starve me out for the rest of the game, or the opposite happened where they flooded me. Like who tested this crap!?! It's why I stopped playing standard. Standard is a rich man's format where any 12 year old kid with loaded parents will stomp you into the ground.
Edits for typos because I'm still salty about Jace the Mind F***er after all these years. Also want to mention that he was a $100 card at the time and unless you had the cash for a playset you were SOL.
Good old necropotence, so bad but so good.
Psychotog and Land Tax-Land's Edge
Skullclamp says hi.
Ravager was definitely not the issue. WIthout the artifact lands that deck just would not have functioned the same way at all. However, if only ravager had been banned, the deck, while having to reconfigure most definitely, would stll have existed and been strong. HOWEVER, I would go so far as to say the real problem card in that format was *definitely* skullclamp. Had they just banned ravager and the lands and not skull clamp, goblins would have been everywhere. Goblins were soooooo good with skullclamp back then, but they just couldn't outrace affinity and its extremely consistent t3/4 kills.
Oko pretty much ruined my love of the game. That entire block was just so not fun to play that I dropped the game and never really came back.
I miss Smuggler’s Copter
You missed Felidar Guardian. Copycat decks absolutely broke standard to the point where Felidar Guardian was emergency banned
Haven't watched yet but imma guess Alrund's Epiphany
Should have put Skullclamp in rather then Ravager.
Ravager was not even THAT insane. The biggest issue with Affinity was the artifact lands.... post clamp ban.
Skullclamp was absolutely fucking bonkers. I was playing then, I watched the meta shift overnight. Every single deck played clamp. Some like Affinity, or Goblins, it came natural it was just a case of "oh, this card is fucking nuts and we have a bunch of x/1s anyway.
But you have decks like tooth and nail. It went from running very few creatures to running full sets of birds/elves etc because oh, they can all be clamps and that way we can get clamp in the deck.
It was only standard legal for like 2 months iirc because it so obviously insane. It was however, an exceptionally fun 2 months for a teenager at colleague with lots of freetime to go absolutely nuts brewing insanity with the thing.
wait teferi 3 didn't make this list nor did risen reef, but lotus cobra did?
At #9, don't you mean the Looter Scooter?
A part 2 would be cool going over the Amonket era bans, skullclamp, uro, and anything else not mentioned
Why mention arcbound ravager rather than disciple of the vault?
ok, i only played "kitchen table magic" back then, but
the card i have in my mind whenever Mirrodin is mentioned is Skullclamp,
and when i hear about Ravager, i also think about Cranial Plating, since its +1 for each artifact and being equipable on instant speed had sort of the same effect as Ravanger (putting all power on a creature at instant speed, but without the sacrificing)
also: Umezawa's Jitte... anyone?
While it doesn't straight up break formats, Skullclamp is a good mention. To this day you can use it as your main draw engine in Commander with damn near any deck that has or can generate 1/1s. What I'm kinda surprised is that Smuggler's Copter was mentioned but Sensei's Divining Top wasn't. Talk about Deck multi-filtering. So long as you could support it that thing could draw out half your deck, and for the low low price of 2 mana gave you a permanent choice of which of 3 cards you wanted to draw next. Sometimes which 2 out of 3.
Mirrodin and Urza were basically blocks that were almost all cards fair game for this list depending on if he had chosen to represent each color equally.
Looking at only blue and artifacts (only good cards), you would still have most of the rares eligible.
Lol.
"So. Here's how to play Magic the Gathering. Here's the neat part, I'm blue so you don't."
No Umezawa's Jitte?!
Italicized words before an em-dash a ability words, not keywaords.
In my opinion, you talk just a liiiitle bit to quickly. Its also a little weird that what you say and the words on screen differ.
I love these videos, i just have a hard time following along once in a while when you you speak a lot more quickly than other times. Thanks for the content!
oko should be no. 1 cause you can put it in any standard environment w/o any support cards and it would thrive not like other cards on the list that needs proper support to be broken
Tolarian Academy is the support it doesn't need other support mostly. If they make artifacts that cost less than 5 mana Academy is probably worth it.
Artifacts that cost less than 4 mana and it can be tier 1.
Artifacts that cost less 3 mana and Academy would always have to be banned.
Necropotence is like that.
Copter is maybe like that but maybe not.
Stoneforge Mystic is very close to like that but not exactly.
This video just reminds me how stupid the smugglers copter ban is in pioneer. If we have bankbuster we can have smugglers copter
mana vault was not legal in standard with academy
Wasn't felidar guardian also emergency banned? Also Aetherworks marvel I thought.
What is it with jars breaking card games?
Lotus Cobra over Bloodbraid Elf?