Hey

[@SephonDK]

26 minutes in, it's really interesting how Rarran consistently clock the better card, outsmarting preview season, and thereby failing the challenge 😅

[@Kaeiand]

The problem is that he's just not playing on the same axis of the game. His job was never to find the better card, but he for some reason kept choosing the better one as "overrated". As CGB pointed out, if it's the better card, it was probably underrated and was actually better than people initially thought.

[@sylvainsanesti3499]

@@Kaeiand I think rarran's reasoning was that he's not better than mtg players at evaluating cards, so if he thinks a card is good, then he's probably being baited like everyone else. But in the end I think he's underestimating how good he's become at evaluating cards out of the blue.

[@gregsmw]

@@Kaeiand he kept choosing the "better" one because in his mind if he thought that card is good, so did everyone, so it must be the overrated one and not actually be good if he thinks the card isnt very good, so did everyone, therefore it must be the underrated one and actually be good he got played by the format

[@buttonasas]

@@Kaeiand I mean, it's not really a "problem" - it's fun to hear what Rarran thinks and what CGB ultimately reveals, regardless of what Rarran guesses.

[@moallayoussef5462]

he says the demon is better then says it's overrated lmao

[@cellomarl6037]

My favorite MTG story is about Cursed Scroll. Red player has no cards in hand; opponent at 6 life, Cursed Scroll on the board. Opponent passes the turn to him. Red draws for turn, breathes a sigh of relief, then activates Cursed Scroll, calling "Fireblast," (6 CMC 4 dmg burn spell with an alternate CC of sacrificing two mountains). Opponent shakes his head, scoops his cards, and extends his hand saying "Good game, man." Red takes the handshake, then reveals he had drawn a Mountain.

[@jaredwonnacott9732]

That's amazing!

[@pmangano]

That's why you should always see games to their end.

[@Viazi69]

same story, did this saying "berserk" :D

[@Flamewarden_Honoushugoshin]

Poker players playing MTG xD

[@Dreznin]

The mind games you can get up to with in-person play is amazing. There's a reason that by midgame I always keep at least one card in-hand, the uncertainty makes many players play more conservatively.

[@watchm4ker]

Regarding the artwork for Assassin's Trophy: It's a story card from Guilds of Ravnica, showing how Vraska, then the Golgari Guildmaster, assassinated the leader of the Azorius using a fungal bioweapon, and her petrifying gaze - the 'statue' in question is Isperia's corpse.

[@jdgarrison9913]

In this case, "Reading the Flavor Text explains the artwork."

[@AlleonoriCat]

Came here to say that the art on Assassin's Trophy is literally Azor petrified by Vraska

[@tahlialysse]

​@@AlleonoriCatit's not Azor, it's Isperia. At that point Azor was still stuck on Ixalan without a spark. Isperia was the non walker Sphinx who had been leading the Azorius in Azor's a sense.

[@AlleonoriCat]

@@tahlialysse damn, shows what I know. I thought she got his ass

[@tahlialysse]

@@AlleonoriCat I mean having two UW sphinxes that are associated with the Azorius guild and who Vraska has direct beef with IS a bit redundant, so I get where the confusion would come from haha

[@Cheerwine091]

Here while the title still has “Render” in it

[@SephonDK]

Early bird here too!

[@begovere6419]

Not sure if it was an accident, I was here too!

[@GumshoeClassic]

We must preserve this knowledge for future generations.

[@Josh_Kidding]

Maybe CGB will render the trash cards down to their original materials.

[@DartictheuniC]

"Rarran Underrated x Overrated CGB Render" in case archeologist search this

[@laurens4102]

Not sure Rarran realises you can only attack once per turn even with a recasted Savage Knuckeblade. You only have one attack step per turn, unlike heartstone where you can attack again if you recast a minion.

[@dark_rit]

Yeah I was thinking that's hearthstone logic where combat step is whenever you want it. Magic you get just the one combat step unless you play an extra turn card or one of those red cards that gives another attack step like Godo, bandit warlord.

[@OuterCraft]

My favorite render so far

[@su0tin731]

I remember playing the Sheoldred presentation, while we were opening our packs, one guy pulled the phyrexian language Sheoldred, and asked "what the hell is this" and I said "pay 4 mana, win the game unless they kill her" and I got a lot of bullshit, most people were convinced it wasn't that good. They quickly changed their minds once they had to fight that dude, who had the magical ability to play her every game.

[@predragmarkovic2682]

Tbh, Sheoldred has not been the greatest card in Standard, despite black midrange decks being a huge part of the format. She was at 1-2 copies in Grixis before Fable ban, Esper eventually cut it despite the synergy with Raffine, and atm she is overshadowed by Beza in Orzhov and just more 3 drops in Golgari. Still a good card, but much better in format with The One Ring and a ton of cantrips

[@scipioafricanus2071]

@@predragmarkovic2682 Now she might not be the best anymore, but for a year straight people couldn't stop whining bc of Sheoldred. She was a meta defining card. Meanwhile during preview season Sheoldred was mostly overlooked. Edit: Sheoldred was part of two Pro Tour winning decks and the World Championship winning deck in 2023.

[@finnpeterson4335]

@@predragmarkovic2682 I think a lot of it is because standard is just running sooo much removal right now. Sheoldred was such an efficient way to win the game, that it forced people to put in more removal specifically for her.

[@kithkindeck]

''Oh ill just lava axe myself to brainstorm for a fatal push. Wait...''

[@KhanShotFirst]

And before Witchstalker's Frenzy released mono-red in particular simply could not kill her 1-for-1, letting her soak 5+ damage even if you're forced to trade her for a creature plus burn spell.

[@sammie16508]

I can't believe Rarran struggled so much with finding an analogy for Assassin's Trophy. Answer: Blastcrystal Potion. It effectively gives the opponent a mana crystal for destroying anything, with the benefit being it is cheaper than similar cards like (ironically) Assassinate at the time when it was like 6 mana. It also had the same upside in that it didn't matter in the late late game cause 10->9->10.

[@neophyte_DQT]

Yeah, he also doesn't understand that naturalize is a big tempo gain, whereas giving land/mana is the opposite - cards and mana aren't the same at all

[@ryanmoore8346]

Tbh I forgot about Blastcrystal, I was gonna say Demonfuse; give a demon +3/+3, give your opponent a mana crystal.

[@murdockcain1894]

You gotta remember that Ram ranch is 5 years old, so he wasn't even born when blastcrystal potion was a thing.

[@Coreagrus]

Yeah, I agree. I haven't played HS since Old Gods, and I still thought of that. Also, what was the card that gives your opponent a mana crystal as a downside? Was it a warlock card? Yes, the upside wasn't the same, but the downside is almost exactly that of Assassin's Trophy.

[@Coreagrus]

@@ryanmoore8346 Demonfuse! Yes, of course! Ah, I wish I read your comment first.

[@Skates90]

What I learned from this video: Rarran has no fucking clue what it means to be overrated or underrated.

[@Falko-wer]

Yea, i thought he got it at some point, but the last two were so easy... i guess He was Stuck in the "which card is better" mode

[@isaz2425]

He just assumed people thought like him.

[@chimadang1573]

there's a video on rarran's channel where him and another hearthstone player tries to guess what hearthstone cards were rated during preview season and he struggles to get into the general playerbase's mindset with his main card game too

[@DecayedPony]

Its his 2nd set that hes explored he aint gon be perfect

[@BOOMDIGGER]

Hes an MTG newbie, so if he thinks a card is good, its clever to assume he might be wrong. He just overrates the general MTG Players Brainpower by a lot

[@d.j.8059]

For Cursed Scroll, Rarran was also missing the context that there were "Protection from Red" creatures and enchantments like Circle of Protection Red/Chill that affected Red spells. Cursed Scroll cut right through both of those. It's a strange card to evaluate by reading, but it only takes seeing it in action once or twice to make its power become clear. Edit: Turbo-Stasis was part of the format when Alliances was released. Trust me, I was there too. Also, the first iteration of mono-blue decks in early 1997 (Browse-Digger, Disk/Waterspout/Air Elemental) did include multiple copies of Force of Will. One of my friends won a spot in 1997 U.S. Nationals with such a deck.\

[@pmangano]

To be fair it is a pretty bad card for any meta past like... 2000

[@epthopper]

@@pmanganoI’m pretty sure it saw play in Legacy until at least the mid 2000s.

[@d.j.8059]

@@pmangano "Red Deck Wins" was playing Cursed Scroll all the way through the 2004 Extended PTQ season. (I quit competitive Magic in 2005, so I can't speak for any seasons beyond that, or Legacy/other formats). Even with Grim Lavamancer available, the Scroll was still a killer.

[@pejman3]

Assassin's trophy art is a sphinx turned to stone (A high ranking azorius official turned to stone by Vraska to be precise). It's literally explained in the flavor text. READING THE TEXT EXPLAINS THE ART

[@N3gativeR3FLUX]

Well played Good Sir. (Doffs cap)

[@theoneandonlyflexo]

I'm absolutely flabbergasted in this one. Every time Rarran says he understands what he's supposed to do he says something that is exactly opposite of what he did... The multiple levels of misdirection with evaluating both the card and the players feelings about the card caused some sort of BSOD perhaps.

[@parrot-be2mb]

Rarran's problem is that he's genuinely too good at evaluating cards compared to the average player. He's correctly identifying which card is better, but failing to understand most of the playerbase doesn't think the same way he does.

[@BOOMDIGGER]

​@@parrot-be2mbAnd considering he is new tp MTG hes kinda right to assume veteran MTG Players would evaluate better than him. Turns out MTG Players are kinda dumb lol

[@theoneandonlyflexo]

@@parrot-be2mb Yeah the one that got me was Sheo. He has personal knowledge that the card is very very good. So it is way more likely that the card is underrated of its very good

[@Joker22593]

​@@theoneandonlyflexo There's no possible way anybody could say shelodred is underrated. The card is $50 in real life. It is rated exactly correctly.

[@-ZH]

@@Joker22593 *underrated in prerelease season*

[@jackeea_]

Another bit of context about Sheoldred: She's the last in a cycle of Praetors, and the others in this cycle were huge, flashy things (we don't talk about Urabrask). Vorinclex was a 6 mana 6/6 hasty trampler that doubles your counters and halves your opponents' counters. Incredibly expensive, super flashy, saw a bunch of play in Standard and is still a very commonly used beatstick in EDH. Jin-Gitaxias was a 7 mana 5/5 that copies your first spell each turn and counters your opponent's first spell. Being able to drop this and say "okay, you need to give up at least one card to deal with this" is a super flashy effect. Elesh Norn was a 5 mana creatures that doubles your ETB abilities and shuts off your opponent's. It's another Panharmonicon-type effect that also stifles your opponent's abilities, so it's also still a pricey card as a solid white creature for lategame decks. And then... Shayo (to give her Rarran's nickname) is a cheap 4 mana thing that drains your opponent a little? Seems boring! And it is boring, but it's cheap and constantly active and *will* end the game if not dealt with.

[@pipboy17]

Elesh norn came after sheoldred but you're correct that she has the least flashy effect sans maybe urabrask

[@dark_rit]

Yeah and then you have draw 7's and such where Sheoldred is far more powerful effects wise than any of the others since it's gain 14, they lose 14. Decks abuse that in legacy to win the game and legacy is powerful af where if someone is cutesy and not good it will quickly get shelved.

[@egoalter1276]

A general rule of mtg, is if something is big and flashy, its probably too expensive to play normally, and probably not flashy emough to be worth cheating out.

[@MTG_Viking]

God I love those Videos/Podcast episodes. Please keep them coming.

[@sylvainsanesti3499]

I'm waiting all week for these

[@Juggernautohyeah]

Gotta love Rarran emphasizing both Asses in assassin. Always been fond of just calling it Ass Trophy myself, as I imagine a lot of people do.

[@spomsmaghetti506]

No clickbait title?! What has happened?!

[@SovietWaffles]

I think this is still a placeholder title lmao

[@catta11]

Mesa Falcon Guy really fell off smh

[@kolr2873]

I just realized Rarran has never experienced mono red burn. He's just accustomed to dying to pump spells on turn 3 lol

[@predragmarkovic2682]

It's true, the current red deck is completely different than the usual ones

[@ubbychubbs4238]

Please show rarran some unset cards and tell him it’s the next standard set and watch him slowly lose his mind

[@TheMrGazoline]

Wait what. I'm out of the loop, but uncards in standard?

[@QuibbleTrouble]

@@TheMrGazoline The idea was to lie to him.

[@anthonycannet1305]

I played demilich as the 8th arclight Phoenix in pioneer back in the day. In a deck built around spamming cheap cantrips to trigger arclight Phoenix, it makes demilich cost 1 or even 0 mana most times I go to do it, to have 8 constantly recurring aggressive creatures in a deck that plays a lot of fast and cheap instants, it became a 2 pronged attack. You had to deal with the creatures that kept coming back AND deal with the barrage of burn and control spells that would then return the creatures after you removed them. And then things like ledger shredder came out and demilich fell off because the shredder provided more value return alongside the Phoenix

[@antoinecloutier4450]

These collabs got me interested in MTG and Hearthstone card analysis even tho I only played YGO. It's cool to see the similitudes and differences between games and how confused one can be learning how a card is either broken or useless. Thanks for the content!

[@Blackadder75]

There was another reason Cursed Scroll was SO GOOD. in 90s magic Protection from COLOR was king. Cursed scroll was one of the very FEW reliable COLORLESS damage sources to kill those pesky 2/2 protection from red or black knights in shiny armor that all those nasty control decks would be playing to block your Horde of goblins or demons... Or get damage past a Circle of Protection Cursed Scroll was like Tarmogoyf, it started at $5, then it was $10, two weeks later $15, then everybody started to panic and wanted to buy four copies so it jumped to $25 or $30... (it stopped there because this was still old magic, but for the time it was the most expensive card in standard)

[@sergiopaulo1891]

Love this collaborative videos of yours… the way you combine is amazing…love your positive energy Rarran, and I will always watch your magic arena videos, even if only playing to reach mythic…

[@nedcurfman3486]

WOOO! IT’S TIME FOR Rarran Underrated x Overrated CGB Render!!!

[@jdgarrison9913]

It's nice to see that Rarran learned the hard way, as we all do, the difference between 'controller' and 'owner'. Edit: Someone needs to tell Rarran that Sheoldred's shorthand is Shelly.

[@ericaschner3283]

This seems like more of a legacy of paper versus electronic gaming. In old paper Magic, especially before people played with sleeves, you couldn't really co-mingle your opponents' cards with your own just for clarity. In digital it's way easier to figure out how to "permanently" steal something just for the one game.

[@Muhahahahaz]

My headcannon is that she goes by “Sheo” among the Phyrexians, and that “Shelly” is just a gross humanism… 💀

[@DemonBlanka]

Sheo just makes me think Sheogorath.

[@GooberDragon]

I always called her “Shoulder” or even “The Pork Shoulder” lmao

[@lynxpad6171]

I remember Assassin's trophy actually getting played quite a bit back in 2018, just because of the meta. It interacted well at the time, because the best deck in the format played either 0, or only 1 basic land in the entire deck. So this could pop their dual lands to put them off color requirements, and then they would get nothing from it. Also it ended up that Golgari was pretty solid in the format and could abuse it pretty well. This was all basically only for 1 format though.

[@Bearhuggerus]

I found it to be okay in historic golgari in jund even before the strixhaven. Having an option to snipe the field of the dead made it often okay, but it's really a card that works only in slower matchups. Maybe it's even a little bit underrated currently despite seeing right amount of play.

[@InsolentCrow]

Ahh Savage Knuckleblade. How everyone was that hyped for it is beyond me. It's especially funny that they drooled over it when Siege Rhino was in the same set and absolutely dominated for years in multiple formats.

[@opolino2912]

Knuckleblade and Savage rhino would have been a good card combo, since rhino was mostly ignored during preview season

[@PlatonicLiquid]

I think people were looking at it like Ætherling for an aggro Zoo deck, but in reality all the high cost abilities coupled with the 3 color requirement clash with an aggro playstyle.

[@schroecat1]

Yeah, I remember. It blew my mind that so many people were actually talking about knucks like it was anything. I traded away several copies of it early in exchange for what would be format staples like Siege Rhino and Mantis Rider

[@40Kfrog]

These videos are so fun- I love watching Rarran squirm 😆 Keep 'em coming and I'll watch as many as you put up

[@thewonderdoc2999]

CGB: chuckles at Rarran not pronouncing Umezawa‘s Jitte correctly Also CGB: Immediately mispronounces Jitte

[@DarkTenka]

Ikr what was that jitte?!

[@StanNotSoSaint]

I think he was memeing. He later was calling it properly.

[@kenji02481]

For Assassins' Trophy vs Naturalize, I think the most important context is that in Hearthstone getting ahead on board can be crushing because minions are effectively removal, while in MTG creatures are not. So if you naturalize to undo an opponent's turn and develop your board, all future minions your opponent plays are constantly going to get traded by your fresh minions as your board gets larger and larger, so giving your opponent 2 cards doesn't matter because they can never develop those 2 cards vs a board full of druid minions. In MTG deleting a creature isn't nothing but is more about countering specific threats.

[@lequinow]

Also Naturalize was a joke card for a long time in HS. I played from release to Frozen Thrones and not once was Naturalize good during that period (except in some fringe mill decks). I would assume it became good with Valuestone, when card draw no longer came at a premium.

[@kenji02481]

Naturalize was really good in core hearthstone as well, as druid essentially could win the game off of having the board clear for exactly one turn with force of nature savage roar. It was bad the second Naxx came into play both because that empowered agro a lot and because sludge belcher made it less of a silver bullet in control matchups, but got better the more draw and armor Druid got because its only real weakness as a card was agro. The first set rotation helped it out a lot for that reason (as agro was really hurt by rotation) and it became REALLY strong in Frozen throne because agro functionally could never beat druid due to spreading plague, meaning naturalize was never a dead card: it blew out control matchups, was strong vs midrange, and you were not losing an agro game as deathknight druid ever.

[@gorghor]

In magic your cards can never go into an opponent's hand/graveyard/library, and vice versa. This is to preserve the integrity of paper magic, you wouldn't want your $80000 Black Lotus going into your opponent's deck, or them constantly shuffling it around in their own hand etc. Another fun fact, you can look at your sideboard at any time.

[@KyuuStarr]

The fun thing with Force of Will is there are people who don’t know it was overrated initially, but do know that the card Storm Crow is an old mtg meme. Storm Crow was a meme because people initially thought that all blue cards were busted solely for the fact they could be pitched to FoW. The meme was people responding “OMG, Storm Crow is the best card in the game!”

[@nekrataali]

FoW is such a wild card to evaluate. In a vacuum, it's not a good card. It's a 2-for-1, costs life to pitch it, and necessitates a high blue count in deck building. It's also busted when you make a four mana play on turn four and your opponent does the same, only to get FoW'd. You're now so far ahead on tempo the game is probably over. Then newer players tend to overrate it with "OMG you can do something for free? Ban it!" But FoW will never be banned because it's the glue that holds Legacy and Vintage together. Playing against FoW sucks because you never know if your opponent can respond to anything. Playing with FoW you realize how brutal casting Mind Rot on yourself for free isn't free.

[@kstrohmayer88]

I think its important to note that the main reason desacration demon was under rated at the time it was released was because lingering souls was in the format. It wasnt until lingering souls rotated that the demon really took off.

[@superbaas8822]

Deso was still solid in the face of demon. Souls mirrors did happen and often it would be a standstill till someone ran out of tokens. When souls did rotate Master of Waves came in right as it left, and was an equally powerful card.

[@SpiralInstallGGSF]

14:42 the second pronunciation is more correct. じって

[@petermoglia]

Fun video. Something that would've helped contextualize why Savage Knuckleblade underperformed is a history lesson on Siege Rhino.

[@FlawlessRhythmGG]

I think mentioning Path to Exile is important in reference to the hype for Trophy. Path was the premier removal spell in Modern for quite some time (until Fatal Push, of course) and since we haven't had Path to Exile in standard for quite a long time, it was deemed as such a great card for the format. I remember being terrified of it but got lucky that I never crafted more than 1 (for brawl) cause I was playing Simic all season. 😂

[@pleasethedragon]

I think this was not explained yet, but the Image in "Assassasin's trophy" is Isperia's head after she got petrified by Vraska during the Story at that point. Isperia being the Supreme Judge Sphinx and leader of the Azorious at the time.

[@CantFaketheFunk]

A homestuck troll profile picture posting a comment about Vr-ska shortcircuited my brain back to 2011 or thereabouts, just saying

[@-ZH]

So the head of the assassinated is the trophy?

[@FluffySpikeM]

I AssAssins's trophy your Luminarch Aspira(n)t(e). It's silly, but I think many people do say cards' names like this. I think CGB did call the aspirants AssPirates too.

[@viziroth]

rannan completely focused on the get a land, while the thing people were hyped about is the target permanent instead of target non land permanent

[@idiocracy9020]

The assassin's trophy is the petrified corpse of Isperia, the former azorius guild master, after she was killed by vraska, a gorgon.

[@MrElliotholman]

The big difference between assassins trophy and naturalise is how much other removal is in the format. You have access to so much other premium removal at two mana it’s not worth giving the land. But naturalise if I remember correctly was druids only removal with swipe makes it much better.

[@dark_rit]

Yeah naturalize was basically it for hard removal in druid AND it had the added benefit of burning cards potentially, which could be an enormous deal. If a game went to fatigue naturalize didn't have a downside either, in fact it was just a bonus then.

[@thunderstruck560]

proof of concept we need a rarran & CGB podcast. But I don't feel like Rarran ever fully comprehended the concept of the video.

[@davidb4935]

The crafties must be appeased

[@BOOMDIGGER]

I think he thought himself dumber than he is. And thought MTG veterans are much smartee

[@SmashPortal]

When Tarmogoyf released, planeswalker and battle weren't card types yet. Kindred only appeared on exactly one card, which was in the same set (Future Sight). Realistically, there were 6 types you could expect to see in the graveyard. I think lands were also less likely to end up in the graveyard at the time, but Dryad Arbor also came out in the same set.

[@nekrataali]

Yeah fetch lands were printed in Onslaught, which was almost five years before Tarmogoyf got printed, so they weren't in Standard together. The enemy fetchlands would be printed in Zendikar which was 3 years after 'goyf, so 'goyf had cycled out of Standard over a year before Zendikar was released.

[@Raghetiel]

Another thing about tarmogoyf, he was printed in Future Sight. Plotwise, main character shattered time space continuum, and there were time rifts everywhere. And Future Sight set was about cards from the future! They had strange looking frames, reference nonexistent cards, etc. Tarmogoyf listed card types: artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, plainswalker, sorcery, and tribal(now renamed into kindred). There were no plainswalkers at that time. So everyone though "oh, look, thin green dumb meatball references future card type! How cool is that!" and moved on from the card. Oh, how wrong they were...

[@Xamothth]

This was amazing, love the conversation and history around previous metas / community thoughts

[@stoike3958]

18:47 @Rarran, What would it take for you to play "Destroy target thing, PERMANENTLY give your opponent +1 Mana Crystal" in hearthstone. How cheap would it have to be?

[@SchwhatNow]

I'm not Rarran but I'd probably guess that a spell that would destroy an enemy minion but give that player a mana crystal would probably have to be 1 mana to see any play. Assassinate is a 4 mana destroy with no conditions for the Rogue and is decent, while many 2 mana removals exist with specific condition requirements such as the monster needing to be damaged for example. Though it heavily depends on the set options at the time and what class the card would be meant for. If a class is starved for removal in a current set of cards then they'd be more willing to pay a premium for it.

[@Barraind.Faylestar]

RE: Force of Will. Can confirm, for Type 2 (standard) and Block. It was immediately a staple in Type 1.5 (Legacy). It was immediately a staple in Type 1 (Vintage). It was immediately a staple in Extended (Premodern). Blue in IA/AL block didnt exist outside the early attempts at outpost. White was besties with red and shit all over most everyone. Blue in the Type 2 format of: Fallen Empires, 4th, Chronicles, homelands, IA/AL had 4 playable counterspells and 2 playable creatures. It had to tag along with black in both formats, and black needed double and triple black on turn 2 and 3, so it didnt want to play with blue. Blue/White tried so very hard, but it struggled mightily until Fallen rotated out. Mirage replacing FE, though, welcome back blue/white and blue/red, no more endless pump knights and hymn to shit all over you.

[@StRanGerManY]

CGB did an AMAZING job with selecting those cards. These videos feel like a museum tour more then anything else, with a short lecture attached, with an insight into the history of MTG.

[@jamesmiller5277]

Important notes on Cursed Scroll that helped in the old days. Because its a 1 drop into a 3 mana activation unlike other big dumb finishers, this worked with only 3 lands the entire game, if you're in a rough matchup it could force a clock on any deck without artifact removal, and only committing 1 mana initially means it is hard to come out ahead when countering/removing it. Its definitely to slow/mana intense for todays standards, but at the time this was highly flexible as a top end that functioned like a big dumb 7 drop while only needing 3 lands to come online.

[@moralnexus]

43:40 something CBG neglects in his analysis of Ob Nixilis is that standard did not have any solid staple demons or devils in the format to make it broken. Imagine if there was a shambling ghast type 1/1 devil as an enabler? There were a few relevant creature types but they were typically bad or cost more than 3 mana. So kudos to R&D for fixing the meta before printing this planeswalker.

[@reaperseeker]

CGB @50:26 "DO NOT CITE THE SCRIPTURES TO ME, I WAS THERE WHEN THEY WERE WRITTEN"

[@clayxros576]

Rarran's confusion with Cursed Scroll is completely fair, since its litwrally a Hero Power in Hearthstone but costing 2 more. What he forgot was the power of repetition. Its less that the card only does 2 each turn, and more that you ALWAYS have that damage available without relying on a card in hand. Infinite damage spells, which have amusingly proven strong even in Legacy in MTG by merit of Storm decks. The fact he pinned it so well but was fighting his instincts was so funny.

[@charlieawerbuch5352]

The trophy in assassin's trophy is the figure in the background. Thats the sphinx whose actions led to Vraska and her family being arrested solely for the crime of belonging to the Golgari Syndicate and living in an area that the Azorius had decided the Golgari should be removed from. Many years later, Vraska, now a skilled assassin, killed said sphinx, Isperia, by turning her to stone, and kept the statue that the sphinx was turned into as a trophy. So, there you go @Rarran, thats the trophy in said card.

[@mjp121]

The WILD thing about Jitte was it was a $30 card which came in one of the $10 starter decks. Unopened Rat’s Nest theme decks (the one containing the Jitte) are being sold for up to $500 because of how rare it is to have one which wasn’t bought and opened just for the guaranteed Jitte.

[@nekrataali]

Back in 2005, one of the big box stores in my city where no one shopped (eventually it went out of business) had a TCG section like Target and Walmart. It was completely untouched. I bought enough of the precon to get my playset of Jittes and then a few more to sell at my LGS for store credit.

[@christopherb501]

1:06:00 The answer's in the flavor text: Vraska, a gorgon, petrified a sphinx.

[@Dragon_Fyre]

It’s sort of Family Feud for MTG where it’s not about whether you would under/over rate these cards but what would your average moron have thought about the cards… I feel like with several of these the trap is in thinking “No one could possibly have thought this card was good, so there must be some niche way that they broke it that I must be missing, therefore it must be underrated contrary to logic” and then CGB explains the ridiculous reasoning for why people thought it would actually be good.

[@mathieuaurousseau100]

In case anyone was wondering, current Nadu is a worse problem in EDH than OG Nadu would have been

[@dark_rit]

How it isn't banned IDK, but EDH banlist rarely makes sense anyways.

[@mathieuaurousseau100]

@@dark_rit "No guys I swear, Coalition's Victory and Golos are the problem, not Yawgmoth's Will and Underworld Breach. Also we unbanned Worldfire because who doesn't like making all things that happened before irrelevant without someone even winning the game?" The last banlist change was September 2021, I won't hold my breath on an update anytime soon

[@drunkcapybara7004]

What fucks me up the most about Nadu is comparing it to Paradox Engine. "Yeah we banned this card for its obnoxious, time-monopolizing play pattern. Here's a card printed for commander with the exact same play pattern."

[@laytonjr6601]

Actually, because current Nadu has bad play patterns overtime it will see no play outside of cEDH

[@wessmit3223]

This discussion is very funny now that it’s banned

[@mitsuhide1vampire]

1:06:00 it is Isperia, an sphinx that was guild lider for the Asorius and that was turned to stone by Vraska

[@Awsomeman328]

1:05:44 For @Rarran the context for the original art for the first printing of Assassin's Trophy is such: What you're seeing is a Sphynx, a creature w/ a cat's body (usually a lion) a human face and wings on its back, that has been petrified by a Gorgon, a creature from Greek mythology that can turn someone to stone just by them making eye contact with it (they also have snakes for hair). To clue you in with the flavor text, I believe this sphynx was THE highest leader for the Azorius guild on Ravnica, and Vraska is the leader of the Golgari guild that killed him via petrifying him and effectively turning him into her own personal trophy.

[@ArdorBlossomFindle]

Oh, that segue from the Nadu discussion back to the point was smooooooth

[@gabozo4924]

You cooked hard with this new video idea keep up the work

[@eliasbcsg7002]

can't get enough rarran and cgb content, keep it coming I never watched these 2 before but I watch all these magic reaction videos on release like clockwork

[@TuffLP]

Having gotten into MTG as a Rarran fan at about the time that these collabs started is funny, cause I watched the first ones and had less of an idea than Rarran, but now I know every answer

[@the_blahhh]

My feeling on force of will in current standard is that it would be played, but the card disadvantage and commitment to blue would hurt a lot more than people expect.

[@nekrataali]

It's funny because FoW wasn't good when it was first printed and legal in Type 2 for that reason. The 2-for-1, costing life, and needing lots of blue in your deck isn't great when all you're doing is countering stuff like Black Knight or Ball Lightning. Completely different animal in Legacy and Vintage when you're countering cards like Time Walk and Reanimate.

[@sharlockshacolmes9381]

@CoverGoBlue the art in assassin's trophy is the petrified corpse of the Sphinx that in life was the leader of the Azorius guild. They were killed by Vraska while she was working for Nicole Bolas and she kept the petrified corpse as a statue in the golgari's garden.

[@ShotofCyanide1]

CGB! Im so glad these videos exist. They are my favorite thing to watch in the week and its not even close.

[@Metal_Maoist]

Staying for Rarran's gaijin ass pronounciation of Jitte He said Umezawa two different ways and neither was close to correct. That's impressive

[@schroecat1]

As someone with a (very basic) understanding of Japanese, playing Kamigawa era Standard was constant torture. Everyone mispronounced *EVERY SINGLE CARD NAME* and they did it every game. I'm pretty sure half of the players did it on purpose to annoy the rest of us.

[@Slaanash]

@@schroecat1 To be fair, Rarran pronounces even pretty simple words incorrectly a lot of the time. It alternates between endearing and baffling.

[@genzo454]

​@@SlaanashSaffron Olive type beat

[@keagancollins3243]

Love this series, even been watching the videos on Rarran and Cimo's channels despite only playing mtg

[@JonaxII]

A note on the "owner" interaction: its like this on all cards that put anything into any other zone than the battlefield or the exile (these two being shared instead of each player having their own). This is due to magic originally (and mainly?) being a paper game. It would make huge confusion and quite possibly ownership conflicts if cards kept ending up in other people's hands.

[@erikasimmons4667]

I like these videos, because as someone who only plays commander and watches mostly commander content, it’s always interesting to see things from other format’s perspectives. Like, I’m much more knowledgeable about Magic than Rarran overall, but when it comes to how cards preform in modern or standard, I’m almost as clueless sometimes.

[@FlorelaFTW]

1:03:44 Using "exile target spell" effects on "can't be countered" is my favorite kind of feeling in magic 😈 EDIT: Also the artwork of Assassin's Trophy is the petrified body of a sphynx Isperia after Vraska had killed her

[@ImChyal]

Rarran is literally my father

[@TrophyGuide101]

Hello brother

[@cookies23z]

For rarran you are supposed to say: "Yo! Thats my dad!" (Like he does for shudderwock and stuff)

[@graemetang4173]

Tibalt: "You fool, I CAN'T be underestimated!"

[@KuroroSama42]

19:00 Seems to me "play a land of choice from your deck" is really good because of a combination of many factors: It's a tutored draw 1; it's extra mana; it whittles your deck down so you draw what you want more; many lands aren't JUST mana. Looking at it, it's easy to see that combination of factors and think it's OP. I think you saw it as weak because you're thinking of it as a 2 mana counterspell that gives the opponent 1 mana. Which would be terrible. But Magic players see it more as a hecklebot type effect. edit: Oh wait, no. I'm dumb. It's a basic land. So no special effect lands. It's still getting a card out of your deck that you wouldn't want to draw, at least.

[@bensonprice4027]

1:06:00 Assassin's Trophy has a picture of one of the sphynx's in the Azorius Guild. Vraska turn it into stone and took the head as a trophy.

[@m.r.r.2636]

Yup. Isperia, the Sphinx guildmaster of the Azorius (blue/white Ravnica guild), was petrified by the Gorgon planeswalker Vraska. That's why the flavor text reference a power vacuum for Azorius.

[@cameton_youtube]

Pretty sure the nadu change was because it gave green/simic flash at three mana, not blue. Simic value is already obnoxious enough at sorcery speed

[@pumkinswift8263]

Sure but that version of Nadu is far worse than most similar commanders

[@cameton_youtube]

@pumkinswift8263 true! I don't think the og version was changed for power level tho. Of course, what they changed it to was both strong *and* obnoxious...

[@laytonjr6601]

​@@pumkinswift8263If the new version had been tested by commander or modern players, it absolutely would have had another change but they didn't have time to test it… The most played equipment in commander has equip 0 (lightning greaves)

[@YayapLives]

I had just started really getting into magic when Time Spiral came out and Venser very quickly became my favorite magic card. So, thoroughly driven by nostalgia, divide by zero was, in fact, my most anticipated card of the set. Granted, while I thought people were sleeping on it I did not expect it to be quite as powerful as it was.

[@senken12]

For context on Assassin's Trophy - Standard had been very weak for a few years when it got printed. This was 2 sets before War of the Spark came along It's a perfectly fine card Desecration Demon came out when I was still playing kitchen table casual, and I was high on it the whole time. Then I started attending events, and I hear how "punisher mechanics are bad, cause you don't want to give your opponent the choice, so desecration demon is bad" Then Theros happened, and mono black devotion became a thing, and Desecration Demon was selected to fill a curve, and everyone realised that "The Abyss" is still good magic card

[@SmashPortal]

Something to note about Assassin's Trophy is that at the time, 2-mana, instant-speed, targeted removal was both rare and premium. You only had Cast Down, which only hit nonlegendary creatures. That made Trophy very enticing, on top of the fact that it can hit other types as well (planeswalker is huge).

[@daemoncarroll8347]

The sheoldred the apocalypse being underrated shocks me. Mostly because I remember going to the pre release opening two and being hyped because they were $70 cards.

[@pumaluna4065]

Ass Ass in Trophy > I laughed so hard!!

[@jonathanarcher5356]

Half way through, Rarran's card evaluation is too strong so his estimation of what's best so "must be overrated" doesn't work.

[@smylle123]

Another note on assassin's trophy is at the time path to exile which does a similar effect in white for one mana cheaper was considered one of THE premium removal spells in modern at the time of release. On top of that in modern at the time it was a very real thing for some decks to just not play more than 2-4 basic lands as tri color decks used a lot of fetches and non-basics and blowing a nonbasic and having them wiff on the find was something people were very concerned about.

[@ozfan6]

For what it's worth, Assassin's trophy was printed in a time where the extra land mattered a bit less than it does now. Keep in mind that path to exile was the de facto best removal spell in modern at the time, so having a vindicate like that was a lot scarier looking.

[@MrChrisxny]

Hey!! It's that guy from the Enduring Curiosity Card!! Wow!

[@VVheeli]

Would like to mention Savage Knuckleblade came out in the same set as Seige Rhino. So not only was it expensive to use its abilities, it was up against Abzan’s best stomper at the same time.

[@Fyrefrye]

I've said for years that Tibalt could be fixed without making him broken just by slightly adjusting the wording of the 1st ability: "+1: TARGET PLAYER draws a card, and then discards a card at random." It feeds into the whole "deal with a devil" theme, it plays off older red cards that makes one or more players draw/discard at random, it has a high variance that fits red's inherent chaos and luck themes... all while still remaining card neutral and not protecting itself in any way.

[@mastertonberry9224]

The assassin's trophy art is Isperia, former guildmaster of the Azorius Senate. Vraska, who is a Gorgon as well as a Planeswalker, assassinated her in her trademark fashion by turning her to stone. You're looking at the decrepid stone corpse of a former Ravnica guildmaster

[@sufjams]

The other thing about Assassin's Trophy is that between Green and Black you have infinite removal options for any one/two types of permanents. So if you know the meta you just put those removals in to target what you expect to see and there's no downside.

[@rraune7515]

Another thing about why Savage Knucklehead fell flat during its time in Standard is, that it was released in the same set as Siege Rhino. Savage Knucklehead seemed to take out most counterplay to creatures with being able to bounce itself, come in with haste, be a mana outlet for pumping, so people were extremely hyped for it. Siege Rhino on the other hand was pretty straight forward, good stats for its cost and a simple effect that'd be a somewhat minor life swing, if you didn't squint too hard. The thing is though, that at 4/5 Siege Rhino will comfortably kill Savage Knucklehead at 4/4, when both are played on curve. Siege Rhino at the same time was a great tool for midrange decks, because it offered the sustain to outlast aggro decks and the burn to kill control decks. Playing multiple Siege Rhino's in a game meant that your opponent might only need to take 14 or 11 damage from combat. Savage Knucklehead could just not keep up with the raw efficiency of Siege Rhino and its strict colour requirements prevented it from being played in the same decks.

[@themastamanhd4861]

The bromance continues, something, I for one, relish. Love the dynamic you two have!

[@Eli_Nelson_Music]

I feel like what really pushed divide by zero over the edge was the interaction with lier, disciple of the drowned.

[@Zlumpy77]

Why play a 3 mana creature when it will just get trophied as a snide remark is kinda bullshit considering fatal push literally had just done the same thing and made 3/4 drops basically unplayable.

[@felixr5777]

As a Hearthstone player who has never played magic and is discovering it at approximately the same pace as Rarran, I love to watch these videos and make guesses. I'm even delaying my first mtg game so that I'm not too spoiled and can still play with you 😅

[@fernandopires135]

best planeswalker on the thumbnail?! You have my view sir!

[@Fledermausmann]

Watching this, I was getting kinda hyped to go back to MTG arena. But then divide by zero is shown and all of a sudden I'm having PTSD flashbacks to playing against some dude taking a 20 minute turn by using, if memory serves, a combination of omniscience, nexus of fate, divide by zero and another black card that escapes me... And just playing pretty much those 3 cards over and over again until he had like 20 mana, drew almost his entire deck and then shuffled it back into his library. I also recall he was using that planeswalker, the one who cannot be named... *Shudders with pain and fear*

[@eyeoffate89]

People in 2014: Freaking out over Savage Knuckleblade as Siege Rhino sneaks up behind it with the steel chair

[@marginis]

Looking back at these as someone who was also there for (most of) them, it's crazy how context dependent some of these are. It really matters what the meta was at the time, whether something was good or bad.

[@UemaGamers]

Time to watch two of my favorite yappers

[@bossman983]

Everybody was calling Assassin's Trophy "Standard-level Path to Exile" at a time when Path to Exile was a very popular card in Eternal formats. It got overhyped by association.

[@KM-qr4li]

I was itching with CGB skipping that, since that was behind a lot of the hype. Path was great and people were familiar with its drawback being worth it, but 2 mana is so much more than 1. Trophy also was a 1- or 2-of in a lot of GB Explore decks, when that was a top tier deck, so it wasn't really a dud then either.

[@AllistorRichards]

it also wasn't a bad card for what people were expecting. It just wasn't format defining as much as others was, it still sees plenty of play nowadays when BG are relevant colours together because it can actually hit things that BG usually can't.

[@nickdeschenes7377]

the differences between one and two (dual colored) and tapped/untapped can't be glossed over, turns out

[@ole86]

Love this format

[@gusspedrinha]

There are some very good paralels to Assassin's trophy in hearthstone, there are certain cards in warlock that kill a creature and destroy one of your mana crystals, which have the same interaction of getting you a mana behind your opponent in the early game, which is back breaking, and in the later stages not so much, they didnt see much play as far as I remember.