Five Cards That Survived Power Creep

Surviving power creep is rare in today's MTG! Thoralf & Carl look at 5 cards that are as relevant now as they were back then.
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[@CardmarketMagic]

Want to buy or sell one of these cards? Find a list of all 5 with links here: bit.ly/3Z1xW1d

[@wulfgar3503]

In Premodern all of the mentioned cards see play.

[@Goodfacts-hj2zf]

Pauper is basically just a list of like every instant and sorcery that survived power creep

[@mordai9994]

and it's fun

[@d.g4466]

Best format it either it or pre modern for me

[@lawtonfriedland1228]

@@d.g4466😂😂😂😂😂😂that’s so ass

[@CardmarketMagic]

Pauper is wonderful 🙂

[@timpeters9616]

and every modern common creature with "draw a card" stapled onto it : )

[@ChichimonLeagues]

Thoralf and Carl just bring such joy to this show. The clip of Thoralf throwing the tron deck at the wall from the "decks that used to be good but suck now" video lives in my head rent free.

[@brokensprites]

I'm almost 40 and have been playing since Ice Age.... I like this kind of content, not just for the nostalgia, but hearing both of their views on these cards.

[@LyleH-13]

me too brother. we survived some horrrrrible sets.

[@BIFIMASTER1]

back in the day i played islands, mountains, forests, plains and swanps. they are pretty good today as well

[@bortle]

Thoralfs knowledge on all things magic continues to amaze me… i absolutely loved the clip of that old game. Cheers.

[@poiri]

Always happy to see Shandalar mentioned, absolutely love that game

[@scottmillor]

Dark ritual into hypnotic specter was such a great a Shandalar turn 1 play. That game was incredible

[@goreobsessed2308]

Theirs updated versions fans worked on that have cards up to eldraine last I checked

[@Yammenkow]

​@@goreobsessed2308 WHAT?? i gotta find that! I loved Shandalar, and have been looking for another great TCG RPG videogame ever since. But an update works too!

[@Stopinvadingmyhardware]

never could get my copy to work Seened fun though.

[@egoalter1276]

You have both updated versions of manalink, and a remake of shamdalar in the Forge rules engine. Both are availible on the slightly magic forums.

[@ConManAU]

Shandalar was the first game I bought with my own pocket money. It was a lot of fun, even if I had to abuse a bug to beat the final boss.

[@keithbarlow9701]

I always loved it when the computer would Lightning Bolt one of its own creatures. Classic Shandalar.

[@aldeayeah]

I kept hunting down those blue guys who copied your cards to improve my deck. My endgame deck was an unholy pile of moxes lotus rituals and contracts from below

[@betabrett0223]

Y'all come up with the best spread of videos for every angle of magic out of all the MTG channels I've been to

[@CardmarketMagic]

That's really kind of you to say 😃

[@christopherlundgren1700]

He mentions Oath of Druids being played in Legacy, but it's actually banned in Legacy. If you could play it in Legacy, it would be insane. Where it does still see play is in Vintage where it's been an enduring strategy for a very long time as the premier way of cheating giant dudes into play. Its power fluctuates depending on what other decks are popular, and its popularity has fallen off over the last several years, but it never completely goes away.

[@CelticMTG]

Atraxa gave it a second wind lately :)

[@CanadianBaconPwnage]

@@CelticMTG I legitimately wonder if they end up Restricting Atraxa in Vintage in the near future. That card is a HOUSE in that format right now.

[@robnolleemteegee9536]

always those mistakes in these videos unreal

[@christopherlundgren1700]

@@CanadianBaconPwnage It's kind of the flavor of the week right now, so everyone is trying it out. And even if it does prove to be a new staple, it would buffing up some archetypes that haven't really been flourishing in Vintage for some time. We'll see what happens when things start shaking out.

[@ManaDrain315]

​​@@CanadianBaconPwnage Oath decks wouldn't care if they restricted Atraxa in vintage since they only run one each of 2 or 3 different creatures.

[@PeterButchens]

What a blast from the past... I remember being hella scared whenver a friend of mine played his morphling back in the day 😂

[@TNCombatMedic]

Morphing was considered the biggest threat, not having four copies of tolarian academy in standard. 🥶

[@KnicKnac]

Superman

[@OathOfDruid]

Sweet seeing Oath of Druids on this list, I actually played Oath 'back in the day' ('07-'09 i believe), and we oathed into Akroma Angel of Wrath and Razia, Boros Archangel. Sweet times!

[@crawdaddy2004]

Nimble Mongoose was printed in the first Modern Horizons set as a common.

[@MichaelSmith-lo9hl]

Just found this channel recently. Wanted to say you guys are doing such a good job! The enthusiasm you guys have for the game really shows keep it up.

[@todd_densen]

Love that Thoralf is wearing a Buff! Get pumped for S44 premiere!

[@billrobinsonmazda]

Cool video idea. I have all kinds of old cards I haven't looked at in ages. This makes me want to dig into them.

[@andrewsegers7942]

Yall are quickly becoming some of my favorite content creators to chill out with and play old video games. Or build magic decks, but I already did that this year and I'm broke lol

[@CardmarketMagic]

You should try pauper :) it's super fun and kind to your wallet!

[@RobiousIllyrian]

I love these vids! I always enjoy a look into Magic's past

[@Varler_]

Interesting to hear about stories of the old days of Magic.

[@goffenrir1807]

Land Tax was allways one of my favorite cards. But it was more of a support card. The really big play was combining it with Zuran Orb and Balance. Balance would be my top one choise for the list.

[@keithbarlow9701]

I'm surprised the interaction between Land Tax and Scroll Rack wasn't mentioned. Probably already mentioned in the comments but I just didn't see it. It's such a beautiful card advantage engine. Land Tax provides the fodder to swap for cards off the top of your deck using Scroll Rack. Then Land Tax provides a repeatable way or shuffling all the fodder back into your deck. Ancestral Recall every turn? Seems kinda deece 😂 So sweet.

[@RW77777777]

it was an engine with Land's Edge (discard a land to deal 2dmg to opp) that was just stapled onto a Boros shell. there were ways to activate the Tax by losing your Phrexian Warbeast, or Fireblast not to mention you could really put the beats to people with Empyrial Armor on some 1 drop when your hand size is 10 Lotus Petal, Tax, go

[@smallerfrog5637]

I used to have that Shandalar game and have been wanting to play it again, love it

[@ChicchiGuFo]

this is a majestic piece of content. very good! i appreciate the references on mkm are few, it's not pushy on purchases. i will stick to mkm, very well played

[@sarahbuck2506]

Love seeing the Oath/Scrounger combo. That was my favorite deck back in the day. Infinite Time Warps is delightful. Then they came out with Extirpate and I got to laugh and introduce opponents to the joys of infinite Temporal Manipulations after they thought they had shut me down.

[@MichaelKolesarKoleslaw]

Shoutout to "turboland" which was my favorite combo deck ever with oath, scroll rack, exploration, morphling, that was nuts back in the day

[@philippsemlinger2220]

I remember Patrick Sullivan and Cedric Philipps on the SCG coverage stating: "And the goose is loose!"

[@marcusbailey9484]

favorite Oath deck was replinish and archivist. It was a super fun "combo deck" that I came up with on my own before the internet was the only place to find decklist. opal essence was the basic kill method, even played fervor. It was standard legal, could go off on turn 3 with vineyard. even got to add duress in against counter spells. good times.

[@gabegerszewski3755]

Oath was my jam; I loved all the oldschool versions of the list. Morphling control build, then Akroma/Spirit of the Night (eventually Razia). So fun.

[@diegovelazquez6172]

Great video idea, there are so many oñd cards that are still very powerfull today. One thing, Oath is banned in Legacy, I think you ment Vintage

[@Seydaschu]

The funny thing about Shandalar is: it's probably the only format where Ante makes sense! A digital-only single-player adventure. Also, outside of this campaign mode, you could sandbox build any deck without the deck-building rules. Meaning, you could run that deck mentioned in the flavor text of Old Fogey; 20 Black Lotus and 20 Plague Rats!

[@chadjehebej2258]

1) Force of Will

[@CardmarketMagic]

Yes

[@daem0nfaust]

my favorite reanimation spells are still played in legacy and commander. my fave among them is Living Death in Tempest, which makes me happy in the number of reprints it had.

[@Razomka]

Nice video! Enjoyed looking at cool cards. It's funny seeing old busted cards vs today's busted cards, while power creep is real, the newer cards are always vaguely handicapped.

[@Jack-uh2db]

never gonna see something as honestly broken as ancestral recall lol

[@mtgworbelg5913]

Oh man Magic: The Gathering by MicroProse (AKA Shandalar). That game was great. WotC should totally make a new one in the same style. I for one would play the hell out of it. They've got tons more fleshed out planes now so the possibilities for potential campaigns are immense. Also fun fact, I believe Shandalar had the original group of digital only magic cards.

[@heineken23ful]

oh my good shandalaar , magic batlemage on ps1 and table kitchen magic that was my childwoood. oh Thoralf now i need to play shandalaar again thanks buddy :D

[@CarstinTwitch]

Shandalar Shoutout!!! I really wish there was a modern magic pc game like this.

[@Wolfstanable]

I remember the submitted deck lists for that Block constructed pro tour. There was 1 less Rishadan Port than all Swamp, Mountain, and Forests combined.

[@jessesutton7985]

It's kind of amazing that I can read Richard Point and immediately know it's an auto correct for Rishadan Port. I don't own the card and never played a single game against it yet it's still a name that's lodged firmly in my memory.

[@timw9745]

Nimble was actually downshifted to common, loved the Legacy days where this was a staple in RUG Delver.

[@SpiderWaffle]

14:55 Would have been great to mention how it got banned from "extended", I believe during Tempest block, and yet it was still legal in "T2". I'm not sure what was so prevalent in extended back then, but maybe hymn to tourach, and pox reanimator was a thing. A game a turn 1 win in the finals of one big tournament was Swamp, dark ritual, dark ritual, dark ritual, Pox, discard Nico Bolas, shallow grave, the rack.

[@nathanielreichley4640]

Oh man I love Oath of Druids! Flipping a Griselbrand or Emrakul is such fun.

[@giuseppesorrenti9203]

I am 41, I started at Revised-4th edition. Even if my pet cards are Bolt and FoW, I want to highlight the card that was huge at that time: Erhnam Djinn. He was "the guy" you needed against Serra Angel, Sengir Vampire and Serendib Efreet (the only creatures that really mattered)

[@fgzgeimv8u]

the oath deck also played two other creatures, spike weaver and spike feeder. the first can prevent all combat damage and the second gain life. both by removing +1/+1 counters. you also could move the counters to the morphling.

[@siri7005]

Having voice recognition label the chapters is the best thing.

[@lefeal9707]

I played against an oath of druids deck back in the late 90s. He had some way to turn your land into a creature until end of turn, enabling oath. His creature of choice was serra avatar, whose P/T is equal to your life. So he could pretty consistently be attacking you turn 4 with a 20/20.

[@unseeliedream42]

ahahahah Shandalar was the game that made me into Magic. loviiiing seeing it mentioned here

[@skyguytomas9615]

Nimble mongoose represent! The amount of joy this card brings me is hard to describe.

[@KnicKnac]

Mongoose and Wild Mongrel were buddies in legacy if I remember correctly.

[@dannyboy1200]

It would have been hilarious (and a short video) if Thoralf just went "Fetch lands" and walked a way haha.

[@CardmarketMagic]

Lol or plains, mountain, swamp, island, forest 😅

[@prevenger]

Oath wasn't just Morphling, it was also really dumb value creatures like Shard phoenix, Spike feeder, and Spike weaver which could completely shut down some decks especially when they could be recycled. The best versions of the deck like Ped Bun Oath initially played as a toolbox control list that was able to run very few of its key cards together with cards like enlightened tutor, Impulse and Brainstorm and the infinite recycling of Gaea's blessing which made drawing the right card at the right time much easier. It also allowed for many situational silver bullets that would normally be sideboard cards to be main decked and tutorable to make for game one wins that only got stronger after sideboarding.

[@keithbarlow9701]

I totally forgot about the variants that ran Spike Weaver. The version of Oath that I remember most fondly is the version that ran Cognivore as its win condition. It seems so silly now, but the idea is pretty cool. And it could end the game with one swing from Cognivore, which sorta made the deck feel more like a combo/control hybrid.

[@henndahm72]

Back in Weatherlight days, I was playing Land Tax in my White Weenie to have my Empyrial Armor give my shadow creatures a constant +10/+10. Always having 7 cards from last turn + the 3 Lands. Also having Land Tax meant always having a Land to play for the turn when Winter Orb was dominant.

[@DKforever24]

Opponent: "uses Oath of Druids to put Progenitus onto the battlefield." Me: Laughs in Geth's Verdict.

[@GraemeGunn]

YEAH SHANDALAR IS SO GOOD I'm glad Toffel mentioned it, I was just thinking about it the other day

[@TheKalaxis]

Oath of druids decks used to get Akroma, Angel of wrath when I first saw it.

[@chibertarian]

The change away from combat damage going on the stack sure did a number on Morphling. Just not the same when it can't kill a 5/5 in combat and come out fine.

[@TheOnlyBootlegger]

US/NA branch of Cardmarket would make a lot of us happy

[@CardmarketMagic]

Hopefully one day! That would make us happy too :)

[@lunalane]

For such a fountain of knowledge he surely doesnt remember the oath of druids at its finest. The good old days of spirit of the night 😀 Also should mention the gaeas blessing shennanigans and I believe there was a period of time where people played Akroma after he came out.

[@TimmytheSorcerer]

I love that you guys are talking about Shandalar, still the best rpg/mtg/electronic game ever!!! Almost as good as playing irl 🍻

[@narius4241]

you know I randomly learned i have random value in my ancient magic collection thanks to you showing prices here and there. I have a whole playset of original printing dark ritual, i had no idea those things were worth over $200 a pop

[@jokeassasin7733]

I had 4 Oath of Druids in my sideboard for my elf deck up to Onslaught. I used it specifically against someone that played Blue/ Red Burn deck with 0 creatures.

[@frankjrgensen1608]

OMG, first time I've seen anyone mention Shandalar, played it so much back, even some times today, when Arena doesn't cut it. Can't play physical magic anymore, you guys thankfully bought my cards :) But there will be a day on the other side of this mess of 2020's.

[@SomeGuy712x]

I really enjoyed that old Shandalar game on the computer back in the day. It would be neat if that was remade with more modern cards available to use.

[@nateknoblauch1119]

i ran a 5 color oath deck back in the day with forbidden orchards and petal and mox's and the scourge dragon enchantments first turn oath and a 2nd turn serra avatar with fire breathing haste trample fear and flying .

[@solidman8360]

Have you done a vid on the best cards that got power crept? Are there any cards that were extremely meta directly before more a more powerful version got released?

[@ChaswellQuint]

more of these. All of these cards I remember. I'm old.

[@KnicKnac]

I haven't touched physical Magic since 2010. I remember all these cards. Didn't play legacy, but I knew of them from those who did play that format.

[@Purumal1337]

By the way you can find shandalar for free and some people have modded it so it contains newer cards etc. Pretty dope imo..

[@DnBforewer]

In commander land tax + scroll rack ....... feels sooo goood

[@somepl3b]

Nimble Mongoose got a reprint in one of the Modern Horizons sets and is modern legal, I think the most important thing is Dragon Rage Channeler and Ragavan make it hard to justify the inclusion of my wee Nimble Mongoose. In legacy it used to be Mongoose and Delver, but now its just a tad awkward.

[@KnicKnac]

Wild Mongrel was also played with mongoose too

[@kobisjeruk]

Lightning Bolt, Llanowar Elves, Dark Ritual, Brainstorm. There are multiple variants to these but all of these are still perfectly playable whenever and wherever they're available. Edit: I feel bad for White so yeah, Sword to Plowshare...I guess?

[@CardmarketMagic]

Hahaha the generall trend in magic is to feel bad for white 😅 but yes, there are more than 5 cards that survived power creep. We talked about a lot of then but chose 5 we thought would be fun for the video:)

[@quantum_beeb]

The first Oath decks used Thorn Elemental, then it was Morphling and Triskelion

[@matthewsawczyn6592]

Thorn Elemental! What an OG 💪

[@DeathEatsCurry]

Shout-outs to Morphling, a card that isn't just hard to deal with in Magic, but also inspired a character in another game that's also hard to deal with.

[@ThymeTwister]

Boillllling rage

[@abefaerber7994]

what's the story here?

[@Quiron1985]

Morphling suffered hard when the rules changed where they removed damage from the stack.

[@jeffe2267]

Wait, is Dota Morphling named after the Magic card?

[@ThymeTwister]

@@abefaerber7994 Morphling is a hero in DOTA 2, he can turn into other heroes and change his own stats which is pretty strong

[@wolfwoodgamer5814]

Carl's sweater game always on point

[@JD-gk7eh]

There are no Oath of Druids decks in Legacy because it’s banned. 😅 There are decks in Vintage though! After Orchard, the early Vintage decks used Akroma and Spirit of the Night for the creatures. The earliest decks used Darksteel Colossus but Akroma and SoN, the only 6+ power haste creatures in the game at the time, killed one turn faster if the opponent took 2 damage on his own. That was a big innovation then. (Boy does it look bad now though)

[@DeadlyGrim]

13:55 Ah, Shandalar. Dark Ritual was used in probably the strongest decks I saw in that game. See, the copy limit for a deck in Shandalar was based on deck size. If you had a 40 card deck, then you could get 3 copies of a card but if you had a 60+ card deck you could have 4 copies. So far, pretty reasonable. Except there was a "World Magic" (basically a player upgrade you could earn) called "Tome of Enlightenment" which would increase that amount by 1, unless you had a 60+ card deck. In that case you could have _unlimited copies_ of a card in your deck. The deck was just a bunch of Hypnotic Specters, Black Ritual, and Contract from Below (with some Swamps, Moxes, and Black Lotus to get it started). Absolutely bonkers deck and shows what happens when you mess with some basic rules of MtG. I would love to have another Shandalar-type game!

[@TherealLaserdog]

if you look up forge adventure mode u can find another shandlar type game; its open source and not made by many ppl so it not as good as it could be but its pretty cool

[@DeadlyGrim]

@@TherealLaserdog Thanks! I'm always fine with checking out some indie games.

[@B1gLupu]

Scroll Rack + Land Tax is the funnest you'll get to have in commander 😂

[@jheu781]

I still run Land Tax+ Scroll rack in my edh decks.

[@d.j.8059]

As someone who played all of these cards in Standard, this is so nostalgic. The openers that Thoralf describes in this video were so incredibly powerful. * "Plains, Land Tax, go." Opponent squirms. * "Swamp, Ritual, Hypnotic Specter, go." Better have a Lightning Bolt or Swords to Plowshares right now. (And as Thoralf said; as long as your hand wasn't "no land" or "all land", you had to keep what you had, so chances were good you didn't.) * (Second turn) "Land, Oath of Druids, go." Me: looks down at the Llanowar Elf or Jackal Pup I played turn one. Also, Rishadan Port mind games happened in pretty much every Standard match in 2000 and much of 2001.

[@tonythepokemonguy751]

*sees port being talked about, has flashbacks of my killing my opponents with their own city of brass*

[@Quiron1985]

aaah, nice. the 90s. That's why I love the Legacy format. It's a good mixture of old and new cards.

[@zirilan3398]

IF you can afford it

[@Quiron1985]

@@zirilan3398of the Claw. Sure... Or play the game since back then.

[@zirilan3398]

@@Quiron1985 or that

[@chillywings]

Hot take.. block constructed is actually dope. At some point after doing a few drafts from a block, a friend and I built a couple 60 card decks from our draft pulls and it was super fun. Stepping up to a fully built constructed deck it tends to be a really nice balance of powerful without being too broken because of the limited card pool (exceptions of course, the format does have banned cards). I imagine it faded out because it was too much rotation.. and perhaps the card pool was only large enough to be interesting after the 3rd set was printed. Which btw, I imagine wizards was interested in pushing it to increase 3rd set sales as that was always a trouble spot for them. Though I honestly don't remember ever hearing about it in the early days. But I do love diving into a particular world/set of themes... and I actually like that they're doing commander decks with every set now as it provides a natural analog to this. One can simply play the precons together in a pod and you get an off the shelf, ready to play deep dive into a world/mechanic set.

[@CardmarketMagic]

Block constructed was great! They have stated that they cut it specifically because they moved off of the 3 set block, and making a constructed format out of one set at a time is far less interesting to players. It's too bad since block was an efficient way to push the storyline of the set whilst making sure many of the mechanics that are not as relevant in other formats get to see play

[@chillywings]

@@CardmarketMagic Agreed. I suppose it can't be overlooked that draft provides that opportunity as well, but it's nice to have the design freedom of constructed.

[@aidenchism8628]

Professor Thoralf coming in with more arcane wisdom

[@Baex21]

I still have my Shandalar Box somewhere.

[@dakkenblah1450]

Defense of the heart, such a strong card.

[@themugofthenorth]

I just wish I could play Delver in pauper again, man.

[@yosh66]

man, Shandalar was such a good game, wish there was a modern version of it

[@85mcarnold]

Premodern is an entire format devoted to going back to the days before power creep.

[@TNCombatMedic]

Surivival of the fittest / recurring nightmare got me my first extended JSS win. Yes, I’m old. So old urza saga packs for $0.99 each.

[@CardmarketMagic]

Those two cards are still a solid gameplay in cube draft 👍 but 0.99$ urza's saga is wild 🤯

[@hoodiegal]

As a Muldrotha player, I can't believe I haven't heard of Oath of Druids. A cheap enchantment that lets me cheat creatures into play *and* put cards into my graveyard? Yes, please!

[@tinytimonfire]

THAT pc game is so cool i loved it back in the day.

[@hansoskar1911]

Battlefield Scrounger wasnt really "better" than Morphling it was in a dedicated combo deck called "TurboLand" that would win the game with scrounger and an empty library. The deck was insanely complicated and could deserve a deep dive. It had also a very 2020 vibe bc it was the only previous usage of Time Warp in a good constructed deck. The name TurboLand bc when it didnt Oath it got there by Exploration/Horn of Greed and Gush. it is mindboggleing how intricate this deck was. Land Tax was feared not for what it does but the play pattern it induced: "not play a land, discard eot" for n turns in a row. by both players.

[@NikitaGrygoryev]

I know it's not a top, but before watching the video I thought of a list and came up with "Sol ring, Bolt, FoW, Brainstorm and Wasteland". Feels kinda strange not to see single one of those.

[@patfenn399]

Toffel always looks like he just got an episode of Survivor when he wears his neck warmer thing.

[@patfenn399]

Cardmarket MTG Survivor would be great video!!

[@TheRubsi]

Land Tax got a better version that is even modern legal. It is called Wrenn and Six :)

[@Dexsting]

Morphling was good with damage on the stack old rule.

[@phiefer3]

5 cards that have remained relevant throughout the game's history? swamp, island, mountain, forest, and plains :P

[@bd648]

I adore this channel

[@CardmarketMagic]

😃 thank you!

[@RodrigoCML7]

When I go to my friends about cardmarket my main selling point is the music videos

[@Fausto_4841]

Dark Ritual never dies. the hardest decision is which printing you want to use.

[@theemathas]

Interestingly, one of the creatures that people use in Vintage with Oath Of Druids is actually……. Niv Mizzet Parun lol 4 mana saved, powerful

[@CardmarketMagic]

Woah, I can really understand how that card could be bonkers in vintage though 🤯

[@theemathas]

@@CardmarketMagic Yeah, in my understanding, it's a tradeoff between being hardcastable and being strong. (Being uncounterable when hard cast also helps.)

[@Rivetlicker]

I once won with Rishadan port, by pinging my opponent by tapping his City of brass each turn 😅

[@theclownofclowns]

I want a foil Rebecca Guar Dark Ritual so bad...