Grand Prix: Oakland — In Short, I Told You All *20th Place*
“If you see a Fangren Hunter in your pack, take it! Put it in your deck, add lands, and shuffle up — It Is Awesome.” — Random Magic Online Quote
Translation: Avoid Green and win!
Search Content
18,000 Words: The 100 Worst Magic Cards of All Time (20-1)
This is it, the final installment of Ben’s masterful look at the lowest of the lowlights in the game of Magic. You know you’ve been waiting for it all week, and now it’s here. Ben finally gives you an answer to the question:
What is the worst Magic card of all time?
Two Bits
This is me pretending to be Star City’s sometimes resident curmudgeon, Jonathan Becker (hint, hint). There have been some features, both interesting and just controversial, that have been thought-provoking for me; this article includes my reactions to a bunch of the stuff that has been posted either on the front page or the forums of this site over the past couple of weeks. If it wanders around or seems a little different from the work that you’ve come to know and love (or ignore) from yours truly, blame Jon Becker.
Restless: Darksteel in Constructed – Playing in the Cemetery Part 1
So I got to thinking, maybe Chittering Rats would be really good in an Oversold Cemetery deck. I saw a copy of one that made top eight in an E-league tournament (Yeah, I know the site is down, but often times after a Master tournament, there will be a link on IRC to the top eight decks in the event. You can download them, and see what the people played.) So, like any good scammer for other people’s work, I took it, played it some, and started to make some changes.
You CAN Play Type I #125: Deconstructing Darksteel, Part II – Artifacts
Geth’s Grimoire
Lots of beginners who want to build Rack decks oooh and aaaah when they see Megrim. Thing is, unloading your discard on the opponent is top priority, so your opponent has no hand by the time you have a moment to remember to play Megrim. At that point, a creature cleans up far better.
Geth suffers from the Megrim problem as well.
18,000 Words: The 100 Worst Magic Cards of All Time (40-21)
First of all, why does this list even exist? Part of me wanted to have a definitive list of bad cards, one that didn’t include mistakes such as Phyrexian Dreadnought or Lion’s Eye Diamond. It took me a long time to do research for this article, and a long time to write all the pieces. While there are a couple of cards which have slipped through the cracks (Divining Witch/Deathlace), for the most part I feel like I’ve done a good job of covering all the bases.
And yet, there are arguments that certain cards are/are not the worst cards of all time…
18,000 Words: The 100 Worst Magic Cards of All Time (60-41)
You’ll notice that virtually every creature on this list would be considered a weenie. That’s because even overcosted fatties can swing a game if they hit play. Kasimir the Lone Wolf originally was the 100th card on my countdown, until I realized that I myself had used him in casual Legend decks, just because I could. Even though he’s a 5/3 for a whopping six mana, that doesn’t make him horrible – just very expensive and bad for the mana cost. To truly be bad, a creature had to fit two major criteria…
Inside the Metagame – Regionals 2004: W/R Slide
Well folks, Regionals is right around the corner. The Regionals metagame will look similar to the metagame for States with a few changes from Darksteel. The decks that Darksteel will yield will undoubtedly pop up soon after Pro Tour: Kobe shows us what the pros will do with the new cards, but until that time I will go over a few of the staple decks in the environment that wont be much affected by Darksteel. Each week I will bring you a standard deck that will be a factor in the metagame. The first of these decks is W/R Slide – a deck that has been strong since Onslaught was printed, and was cemented as a top deck at Pro Tour: Venice.
Darksteel and Five
In case this is your first time reading one of my set reviews, allow me to get the ground rules out of the way. One of the most boring things about set reviews is that so many cards which are marginally useful are reviewed. There’s only so many times I can read comments like,”Okay in sealed, bad in Constructed,” or,”Not the worst choice in a theme deck, but poor quality for tournament decks.” I have better things to do with my time than to review a bunch of chaff and filler. That will give me more time to discus the Darksteel goodies.
French Food for Thought : A Standard Gauntlet with Darksteel
With Regionals on the way, it’s time for all of us — except the few happy qualified for Kobe – to focus on Standard again. This format before Darksteel was a bit boring because of the domination of Affinity and the White control decks. Now, with the introduction of Darksteel, it’s certainly a better time for innovation. I’m going to take a look at updated versions of the three tier 1 decks that you should be testing all of your latest creations against.
If you’ve ever wondered what one of the Top Ten players in the world thinks about when he dabbles with new decks in his favorite format, check inside!
18,000 Words: The 100 Worst Magic Cards of All Time (80-61)
Welcome back to the second part of my Top 100 Worst Magic Cards of All Time countdown! I’m glad you’ve decided to rejoin me for the next in our hit parade of the inept, as we examine the whats, whys, and hows of bad Magic cards. Today’s breakdown features platinum hits like Saproling Infestation and Goblin Game. Where will they rank in terms of Magic booby prizes? The answer is only a click away.
From Right Field: Oh, Geez. Not Another Elf Deck.
Elves needed a better way to get reusable growth effects.
Enter Isochron Scepter. We all know the tricks that this cheap, uncommon artifact can do. We all dream of the draw where we get a Chrome Mox and an Island on the first turn so that we can drop the Scepter, imprinting Boomerang. Of course, some of us just dream of having four Chrome Mox. But that’s a different story.
The Scepter hasn’t been looked at through the minty fresh glasses of the Green mage, though…
Unbreakable: The Darksteel Cards in Constructed
I’m standing around, waiting for my flight to start, when rising voices at one of the other flights attract my attention. From what I could glean of the argument, somebody was not running a card in his deck, and all of his friends were mocking him for it. I moved forward to catch the details, and I saw the card in question: Darksteel Gargoyle. The guy was of the opinion that he could be dead by the time he could get the seven mana to play it.
That story is basically my way of saying this: yeah, I know that the indestructible cards are good in Limited. Really good. Crazy good. But that’s not what this article is about. It’s about Constructed formats, and what we can do with these titanic trinkets on February 20 and thereafter.
18,000 Words: The 100 Worst Magic Cards of All Time (100-81)
There are over 6000 unique cards in Magic. Only one hundred cards made this list (0.6%). Considering that virtually no two cards are created equal, that’s quite a testament to both R&D’s ability to design useful cards, and the flexibility players have shown in finding strange uses for seemingly underpowered spells. Previous”worst of” lists on the net have named cards such as Phyrexian Dreadnought or Lion’s Eye Diamond as”worst cards of all time,” which is a farce, given that both of these cards appear in tier one Type One decks. You won’t be seeing any rubbish like that in my list.
So how would I define a card which would belong to the Magic Hall of Shame?
You CAN Play Type I #124: Deconstructing Darksteel, Part I – Creatures
Incidentally, my goal here is not just to point out the top picks. I see the traditional set review as a beginners’ intellectual exercise, and I’m more interested in the thought process, especially articulating why some hyped”Timmy” cards glitter but aren’t quite gold.
As my habit goes, we start with the simplest category, creatures. Talking shadow price, we’re mainly talking power-to-mana ratio (see”Counting Tempo, Part II”). Even if you’re interested in the ability, you’ll still prefer it come with a decent-sized warm body.