Broken Jar | The MOST Broken Deck EVER? | Magic: the Gathering Deck History #36

[@TheGregoryodd]

Buehler did a series of videos here on KZbin a few years back called “Gauntlet of Greatness” and iirc, the Jar deck basically ran the tables in Season 1 and was promptly retired for the rest of the seasons. Pretty fun to watch

[@mr.joesterr5359]

Yes this was pretty much the proof that showed jar is the most broken deck to ever be legal (after the 4 of rule was created)

[@EbonAvatar]

Not only that, but the version used in those videos was the Standard version, not Extended, so it wasn't even the most powerful version (no Vampiric Tutor or Lions Eye Diamond, for example), and it still dominated. AND it smacked around the dreaded Tolarian Academy deck too

[@michaelmorris4515]

@@EbonAvatar Heh heh, yeah, it doesn't hurt that megrim is a good sideboard card against Academy anyway. I watched that video - Academy only won when it won off the draw.

[@EbonAvatar]

@@michaelmorris4515 The Jar deck also gets to bring in Wasteland from the sideboard, which is a pretty strong play against Tolarian Academy

[@michaelmorris4515]

@@EbonAvatar Sides in 3 extra megrims and 4 wastes if I remember correctly. Point is, you're already a leg up in the fight if you start with sideboard cards in the main deck. Sort of like the only time I won a tournament back in the same time frame just before combo winter - everybody in the field was running some variant of red deck wins except me with a white weenie deck filled with every pro red critter I could find.

[@zakpodo]

Makes me nostalgic for days before the eminence of internet, that I never really experienced. I just love the idea of these sets being figured out on the small scale with imperfect information. I get that things are much more of a science now, with lots of accumulated information (heh), but something is lost along the way. It kind of has that same feeling as when I first got into mtg, and was figuring things out based on what I pulled from packs and bulk bins or the decks I played against.

[@emperornapoleon6204]

If you talk about flash hulk, will you talk about the Kiki version and the disciple of the vault turn 0 win draw? That would be an awesome video! Excellent, as always, Nizza!

[@NizzahonMagic]

Yep, I would talk about both, but spend more time on the Kiki version, since that's the one that led to the ban.

[@emperornapoleon6204]

@@NizzahonMagic that would be a neat video! I think a history of Amulet Titan would be awesome as well, and Death’s Shadow. Though did you already do Shadow as one of the earlier videos?

[@NizzahonMagic]

@@emperornapoleon6204 Yep, Shadow has been done.

[@emperornapoleon6204]

@@NizzahonMagic I thought I remembered that!

[@mountainwalk]

Worth noting that Mind's Desire wasn't emergency banned in Type 1 or 1.5 at the time, it was so patently broken in that format they just banned it on release. Not hard to see how a format full of absurd cards (even restricted) would make even a "weak" Desire get you into an uncounterable win.

[@JD-gk7eh]

While LED did not have the errata at the time of the PT/Jar deck, it didn't need it. That PT happened in March 1999 and 6th Edition didn't come out until April 21, 1999. Prior to 6th Edition rules, you needed to generate all the mana to cast a spell BEFORE you cast it (IIRC someone got a GP or PT DQ for not doing this repeatedly), meaning you had to use the LED before and then your hand would be gone. The idea of announcing a spell and then generating the mana came with 6th Edition; this is why LED got that errata because it changed functionality when 6th Edition changed how spells were cast and the errata kept the original functionality in tact.

[@bradleygiven5193]

I was playing Sligh during this period and it really was the winter of my discontent.

[@shuikkanen]

Made glorious summer by that ban of Jar?

[@nickbalmes6640]

This is the first I've ever heard of this archetype so I'm all for it!

[@fadianwickstrom5970]

Would be very cool to see what a few turns would look like with the broken jar deck maybe some gameplay for a future video 👀

[@miaouew]

I loved being able to play Necropotence in Type 2 again with the Yawgmoth's Bargain deck.

[@monogreen]

This deck is very very silly. basically, every single non-land card has been banned or restricted in Legacy or Vintage at some point, and those that haven't are staples in those formats. All except 5 non-land cards (megrim, 4 defense grid).

[@Tommino-ez8ww]

defense grid is quite played in both formats

[@monogreen]

@@Tommino-ez8ww This is true, I wasn't thinking about that.

[@randybuehler]

Lion's Eye Diamond wasn't broken in the way you described. (The errata came out in conjunction with the 6th Edition rules overhaul in order to preserve its functionality across the rules changes which otherwise would have made the pre-6E wording broken.) There was no point in Magic's history where it could cast cards from hand, but sac'ing it in response to activating a Jar or to cast stuff from your graveyard via Yawgmoth's Will was plenty good enough to get the job done. :-) Also, fwiw, I thought the Jar ban made sense at the time as Wizards was trying to fight off combo winter by taking out all the broken card drawing, but in retrospect Tinker was even more broken and would have been a better choice.

[@zompreacher]

I remember combo winter quite well. That was almost exactly when I quit MtG originally. As a broke ass hs kid, playing against anyone semi-seriously meant getting basically rag dolled every game.

[@Falchieyan]

Combo Winter was the first time I ever tried going to an actual large-scale tournament. After that experience I swore off ever playing in a tournament again. Bad times.

[@villadsk8]

i wasnt even alive when this deck was legal in extended, yet this video is utterly entertaining. awesome video!!

[@NizzahonMagic]

Glad you enjoyed!

[@mantissaPuc]

We need more of this series 👍👊

[@FakeLifeGames]

Back when I played Magic, I only ever attended one big tournament (I think it was a PTQ in Atlanta), and it was during the very short window that this was legal. Getting beaten on turn 2 or 3 by Memory Jar and High Tide decks all day until I started matching up with all the stunned casual players was not my favorite MTG experience.

[@elminster8470]

I used to use megrem in discard decks but I never even knew about memory jar existed

[@flaviocbrangel]

The funny thing is that, despite the deck’s name, Memory Jar isn’t really the biggest offender here in my opinion. With the exception of Megrim, all of these cards are absurdly powerful. No wonder so many of them got banned from extended even after the Jar’s original emergency ban.

[@85mcarnold]

Pretty much all these cards are either still staples in Legacy or banned.

[@ich3730]

yeah the combo is actually pretty shit. Needs a 3 mana do-nothing enchantmen and a 5 mana artifact. But if you cram the rest full of tutors and ramp, every combo gets broken really fast xD

[@dashkatae]

Honestly, you’re right. The offenders were the mana producers and tinker to push the combo out quickly. Jar is bonkers powerful though as getting a full 7 cards for 5 mana is pretty insane, especially considering your opponent really doesn’t get anything out of it.

[@bigb0sss]

I might be wrong, but I think it's not the Jar that was broken, but an insane amount of mana-producing cards and cards that allow you to play Jar on turn 1. But no doubt, "draw 7" for 5 mana is insane.

[@taishoukinjiro]

I think a video just on Combo Winter and Eldrazi Winter would be a good enough topic

[@85mcarnold]

How about Skullclamp summer too?

[@thebfunk5228]

That looks like a storm deck with no win con from vintage cube with 4 ofs. Sweet.

[@nicolasalejandro3879]

Is curious how yugioh have and old deck called Empty Jar, that also involves the use of a jar card that makes your opponent draw cards.

[@666Metalbassist]

I've wonder what set is most powerful, alpha, Urza or Modern Horizons 2. Alpha has highest on pure power, put not great threats comparatively. Urza has some crazy nonsense and combo enablers, and modern horizons 2 has the most pushed threats to deploy. Don't know how you'd gage them in a vacuum properly tho

[@iNCoMpeTeNtplAyS]

Channel fireball was all you needed to win and with a few lotus, demonic tutor, moxen, time walk, the best card draw in either time twister or wheel of fortune to churn though your deck, this was easily achievable. Urzas was fantastic overpowered but alpha at least a notch higher. This is of course assuming you can play 4 of each non restricted card.

[@85mcarnold]

Urza’s block shook up Magic more than anything else. It didn’t just break Standard and Extended but Vintage as well. Magic was much smaller back then so big ripples were more noticeable than they are today. But if you could play the Urza’s era Extended decks against modern day Legacy or Modern you could still end up winning matches due to the speed and consistency.

[@mr.joesterr5359]

Technically it is ikoria pre companion nerf. Black lotus isnt even as powerful as lurrus was before the rules change.

[@letsmakeit110]

I propose using the set's card pool to do something like a team sealed. 3 decks, no overlap other than basic lands.

[@Randomwayz]

Alpha with alpha rules can win turn 1 99.9999999999% of the time

[@latsblaster]

The decklist is just crazy. I Wonder if memory jar would see play in today's standard.

[@FranciscoFerreira-gc6xu]

Still would. Its insane powel level.

[@latsblaster]

@@FranciscoFerreira-gc6xu I would say yes, but If there isn't any way to cheat it into the Battlefield, it is just another strong card at mana value 5.

[@SpitefulAZ]

speaking of the banned and restricted list..... any ideas when that is coming back?

[@TurbinationE]

I’m surprised that the most broken deck in history didn’t even win the only event that it was a part of. I’m not sure if that means it was piloted poorly or it’s just a result of the inherent randomness in the game.

[@NizzahonMagic]

It's variance. It was more busted than the High Tide deck that won, but stuff happens. That deck took a little longer to go off on average, but not in those games!

[@jenniferwilliams9612]

Unpopular opinion: I was a newly competitive player back then (one of my first competitive decks ever was Academy, so I am very nostalgic for that deck, and it is still one of my favorite Standard, or Type II at the time, decks), and I think that “Combo Winter” was one of the most creative and interesting metagames that Magic ever had. In normal metagames, a skilled player can evaluate a set, or a set of sets, and disregard 90% or more of the cards in the environment. During Combo Winter, a huge number of those random cards that weren’t “relevant in the metagame” were sources of new decks, or tech against a combo deck. One example is Pursuit of Knowledge, a Stronghold card that was all but blank, but could beat Academy by preventing its controller from drawing a card, and thus decking to a Stroke of Genius. Most metagames have some number of aggro, midrange, and control decks in varying proportions, and that is it. However, Combo Winter had a ton of interesting cards in it, and so many cards back then, which a competitive player would normally dub “a crap rare,” and ignore, were the key to breaking combo decks or dismantling combo decks. I know that bans were needed at the time, and I am not saying that they weren’t warranted, but each banning lead to the emergence of another combo deck, or group of combo decks, and then they would sort themselves to the first and second tier of the metagame, then a key banning would shake the format up, yet again. Maybe it is nostalgia for my childhood, but I don’t use the word “dreaded” to describe Combo Winter, as I so often hear.

[@Spiqaro]

Yeah, I loved Combo Winter as well. Ah, late 90's nostalgia.

[@TheyCallHimPogo]

This is going to be interesting.

[@HeyApples]

Purportedly Mike Long had an even faster and more consistent version of this deck, but the list has been lost to the ages. The key difference is that it would use Gustha's Scepter to stash away key combo cards, saving them from the set-aside portion of the jar.

[@collinmustain1718]

I wonder if this deck is where broken being used to describe over powered things came from.

[@NizzahonMagic]

I don't think so, since the name was chosen the way it was -- it already meant overpowered.

[@terryprentice9657]

"Broken" was used since I started playing (Fall 94) for both cards and decks. If it was really OP, then it was "Ba-roken".

[@Windowlick_]

By far the most powerful deck in Standard's history.

[@Nico_enni]

trix wants to join the chat

[@dashkatae]

This wasn’t a standard deck though. I think rebels was one of those kind of decks as stupid powerful for standard.

[@JD-gk7eh]

@@Nico_enni Trix was also not a Standard deck. Illusions and Donate are 4 years apart, just enough for Extended.

[@jeandouyeth6682]

nice video. Why only 1 megrim in the deck though ? Why not 4 ??

[@NizzahonMagic]

Because it is a bad draw up until you need the combo, and you can tutor up your one copy pretty much any time you want. You'd rather have ways to accelerate your mana and the like than a card that does nothing until combo time.

[@jamespanter6768]

I miss urza’s saga

[@Risperdali]

I'm curious as to why the deck only ran one copy of Megrim!

[@D2RCR]

Because you didn’t need any more than that. The deck could tutor it up without any problem and you’d deal 28 damage with the effects of two Memory Jars.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Because it was actually a pretty bad draw until you needed it, and with tutors you could get the one copy with no problem

[@cheng2006]

I wonder why neither of them won that tournament even with this deck?

[@eamonceannt889]

Kai "King of grand Prix" Budde won with a high tide deck.

[@cheng2006]

@@eamonceannt889 why did they lose to high tide?

[@johngleeman8347]

Short but sweet. XD

[@SpitefulAZ]

I am surprised that they could decide to ban a card so quickly after only one event.

[@tdfowler79]

It speaks to how broken this particular deck was. If anything he's underselling it. This is quite literally the most powerful deck that has ever been legal in any format.

[@SpitefulAZ]

@@tdfowler79 I could take it. 😈

[@jdl9409]

I want this carddds

[@bumbaladardioshombot]

what does this have to do with Will Smith slapping Chris Rock?

[@caterinagerbasi1594]

bruh look at that deck list.

[@zachariousmccool5768]

Wow those are the kind of decks that make the game not fun lol. That's absurd. Magic can be mean at times but thats just straight up not fair.

[@art_san_nav]

First!