26 minutes in, it's really interesting how Rarran consistently clock the better card, outsmarting preview season, and thereby failing the challenge 😅
@Kaeiand3 ай бұрын
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.
@sylvainsanesti34993 ай бұрын
@@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.
@gregsmw3 ай бұрын
@@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
@buttonasas3 ай бұрын
@@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.
@moallayoussef54623 ай бұрын
he says the demon is better then says it's overrated lmao
@cellomarl60373 ай бұрын
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.
@jaredwonnacott97323 ай бұрын
That's amazing!
@pmangano3 ай бұрын
That's why you should always see games to their end.
@Viazi693 ай бұрын
same story, did this saying "berserk" :D
@Flamewarden_Honoushugoshin3 ай бұрын
Poker players playing MTG xD
@Dreznin3 ай бұрын
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.
@watchm4ker3 ай бұрын
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.
@jdgarrison99133 ай бұрын
In this case, "Reading the Flavor Text explains the artwork."
@AlleonoriCat3 ай бұрын
Came here to say that the art on Assassin's Trophy is literally Azor petrified by Vraska
@tahlialysse3 ай бұрын
@@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.
@AlleonoriCat3 ай бұрын
@@tahlialysse damn, shows what I know. I thought she got his ass
@tahlialysse3 ай бұрын
@@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
@Cheerwine0913 ай бұрын
Here while the title still has “Render” in it
@SephonDK3 ай бұрын
Early bird here too!
@begovere64193 ай бұрын
Not sure if it was an accident, I was here too!
@GumshoeClassic3 ай бұрын
We must preserve this knowledge for future generations.
@Josh_Kidding3 ай бұрын
Maybe CGB will render the trash cards down to their original materials.
@DartictheuniC3 ай бұрын
"Rarran Underrated x Overrated CGB Render" in case archeologist search this
@laurens41023 ай бұрын
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_rit3 ай бұрын
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.
@sammie165083 ай бұрын
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_DQT3 ай бұрын
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
@ryanmoore83463 ай бұрын
Tbh I forgot about Blastcrystal, I was gonna say Demonfuse; give a demon +3/+3, give your opponent a mana crystal.
@murdockcain18943 ай бұрын
You gotta remember that Ram ranch is 5 years old, so he wasn't even born when blastcrystal potion was a thing.
@Coreagrus3 ай бұрын
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.
@Coreagrus3 ай бұрын
@@ryanmoore8346 Demonfuse! Yes, of course! Ah, I wish I read your comment first.
@su0tin7313 ай бұрын
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.
@predragmarkovic26823 ай бұрын
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
@scipioafricanus20713 ай бұрын
@@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.
@finnpeterson43353 ай бұрын
@@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.
@kithkindeck3 ай бұрын
''Oh ill just lava axe myself to brainstorm for a fatal push. Wait...''
@KhanShotFirst3 ай бұрын
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.
@Skates903 ай бұрын
What I learned from this video: Rarran has no fucking clue what it means to be overrated or underrated.
@Falko-wer3 ай бұрын
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
@isaz24253 ай бұрын
He just assumed people thought like him.
@chimadang15733 ай бұрын
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
@DecayedPony3 ай бұрын
Its his 2nd set that hes explored he aint gon be perfect
@BOOMDIGGER3 ай бұрын
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
@OuterCraft3 ай бұрын
My favorite render so far
@pejman33 ай бұрын
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
@N3gativeR3FLUX3 ай бұрын
Well played Good Sir. (Doffs cap)
@d.j.80593 ай бұрын
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.\
@pmangano3 ай бұрын
To be fair it is a pretty bad card for any meta past like... 2000
@epthopper3 ай бұрын
@@pmanganoI’m pretty sure it saw play in Legacy until at least the mid 2000s.
@d.j.80593 ай бұрын
@@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.
@theoneandonlyflexo3 ай бұрын
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-be2mb3 ай бұрын
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.
@BOOMDIGGER3 ай бұрын
@@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
@theoneandonlyflexo3 ай бұрын
@@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
@Joker225933 ай бұрын
@@theoneandonlyflexo There's no possible way anybody could say shelodred is underrated. The card is $50 in real life. It is rated exactly correctly.
@-ZH3 ай бұрын
@@Joker22593 *underrated in prerelease season*
@jackeea_3 ай бұрын
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.
@pipboy173 ай бұрын
Elesh norn came after sheoldred but you're correct that she has the least flashy effect sans maybe urabrask
@dark_rit3 ай бұрын
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.
@egoalter12763 ай бұрын
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.
@spomsmaghetti5063 ай бұрын
No clickbait title?! What has happened?!
@SovietWaffles3 ай бұрын
I think this is still a placeholder title lmao
@catta113 ай бұрын
Mesa Falcon Guy really fell off smh
@kolr28733 ай бұрын
I just realized Rarran has never experienced mono red burn. He's just accustomed to dying to pump spells on turn 3 lol
@predragmarkovic26823 ай бұрын
It's true, the current red deck is completely different than the usual ones
@Juggernautohyeah3 ай бұрын
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.
@ubbychubbs42383 ай бұрын
Please show rarran some unset cards and tell him it’s the next standard set and watch him slowly lose his mind
@TheMrGazoline3 ай бұрын
Wait what. I'm out of the loop, but uncards in standard?
@QuibbleTrouble3 ай бұрын
@@TheMrGazoline The idea was to lie to him.
@lynxpad61713 ай бұрын
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.
@Bearhuggerus3 ай бұрын
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.
@anthonycannet13053 ай бұрын
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
@nedcurfman34863 ай бұрын
WOOO! IT’S TIME FOR Rarran Underrated x Overrated CGB Render!!!
@Blackadder753 ай бұрын
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)
@FlawlessRhythmGG3 ай бұрын
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. 😂
@antoinecloutier44503 ай бұрын
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!
@kenji024813 ай бұрын
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.
@lequinow3 ай бұрын
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.
@kenji024813 ай бұрын
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.
@MTG_Viking3 ай бұрын
God I love those Videos/Podcast episodes. Please keep them coming.
@sylvainsanesti34993 ай бұрын
I'm waiting all week for these
@jdgarrison99133 ай бұрын
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.
@ericaschner32833 ай бұрын
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.
@Muhahahahaz3 ай бұрын
My headcannon is that she goes by “Sheo” among the Phyrexians, and that “Shelly” is just a gross humanism… 💀
@DemonBlanka3 ай бұрын
Sheo just makes me think Sheogorath.
@GooberDragon3 ай бұрын
I always called her “Shoulder” or even “The Pork Shoulder” lmao
@kstrohmayer883 ай бұрын
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.
@superbaas88222 ай бұрын
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.
@gorghor3 ай бұрын
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.
@InsolentCrow3 ай бұрын
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.
@opolino29123 ай бұрын
Knuckleblade and Savage rhino would have been a good card combo, since rhino was mostly ignored during preview season
@PlatonicLiquid3 ай бұрын
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.
@schroecat13 ай бұрын
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
@KyuuStarr3 ай бұрын
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!”
@nekrataali3 ай бұрын
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.
@thewonderdoc29993 ай бұрын
CGB: chuckles at Rarran not pronouncing Umezawa‘s Jitte correctly Also CGB: Immediately mispronounces Jitte
@DarkTenka3 ай бұрын
Ikr what was that jitte?!
@StanNotSoSaint3 ай бұрын
I think he was memeing. He later was calling it properly.
@sergiopaulo18913 ай бұрын
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…
@idiocracy90203 ай бұрын
The assassin's trophy is the petrified corpse of Isperia, the former azorius guild master, after she was killed by vraska, a gorgon.
@viziroth3 ай бұрын
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
@SpiralInstallGGSF3 ай бұрын
14:42 the second pronunciation is more correct. じって
@Raghetiel3 ай бұрын
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...
@pleasethedragon3 ай бұрын
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.
@CantFaketheFunk3 ай бұрын
A homestuck troll profile picture posting a comment about Vr-ska shortcircuited my brain back to 2011 or thereabouts, just saying
@-ZH3 ай бұрын
So the head of the assassinated is the trophy?
@FluffySpikeM3 ай бұрын
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.
@Barraind.Faylestar3 ай бұрын
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.
@petermoglia3 ай бұрын
Fun video. Something that would've helped contextualize why Savage Knuckleblade underperformed is a history lesson on Siege Rhino.
@SmashPortal3 ай бұрын
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.
@nekrataali3 ай бұрын
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.
@thunderstruck5603 ай бұрын
proof of concept we need a rarran & CGB podcast. But I don't feel like Rarran ever fully comprehended the concept of the video.
@davidb49353 ай бұрын
The crafties must be appeased
@BOOMDIGGER3 ай бұрын
I think he thought himself dumber than he is. And thought MTG veterans are much smartee
@40Kfrog3 ай бұрын
These videos are so fun- I love watching Rarran squirm 😆 Keep 'em coming and I'll watch as many as you put up
@clayxros5762 ай бұрын
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.
@MrElliotholman3 ай бұрын
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_rit3 ай бұрын
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.
@mjp1213 ай бұрын
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.
@nekrataali3 ай бұрын
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.
@charlieawerbuch53523 ай бұрын
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.
@reaperseeker3 ай бұрын
CGB @50:26 "DO NOT CITE THE SCRIPTURES TO ME, I WAS THERE WHEN THEY WERE WRITTEN"
@jamesmiller52773 ай бұрын
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.
@mitsuhide1vampire3 ай бұрын
1:06:00 it is Isperia, an sphinx that was guild lider for the Asorius and that was turned to stone by Vraska
@mathieuaurousseau1003 ай бұрын
In case anyone was wondering, current Nadu is a worse problem in EDH than OG Nadu would have been
@dark_rit3 ай бұрын
How it isn't banned IDK, but EDH banlist rarely makes sense anyways.
@mathieuaurousseau1003 ай бұрын
@@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
@drunkcapybara70043 ай бұрын
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."
@laytonjr66013 ай бұрын
Actually, because current Nadu has bad play patterns overtime it will see no play outside of cEDH
@wessmit32233 ай бұрын
This discussion is very funny now that it’s banned
@the_blahhh3 ай бұрын
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.
@nekrataali3 ай бұрын
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.
@moralnexus3 ай бұрын
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.
@Dragon_Fyre3 ай бұрын
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.
@stoike39583 ай бұрын
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?
@SchwhatNow2 ай бұрын
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.
@christopherb5013 ай бұрын
1:06:00 The answer's in the flavor text: Vraska, a gorgon, petrified a sphinx.
@StRanGerManY3 ай бұрын
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.
@graemetang41733 ай бұрын
Tibalt: "You fool, I CAN'T be underestimated!"
@Xamothth3 ай бұрын
This was amazing, love the conversation and history around previous metas / community thoughts
@cameton_youtube3 ай бұрын
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
@pumkinswift82633 ай бұрын
Sure but that version of Nadu is far worse than most similar commanders
@cameton_youtube3 ай бұрын
@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...
@laytonjr66013 ай бұрын
@@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)
@jonathanarcher53563 ай бұрын
Half way through, Rarran's card evaluation is too strong so his estimation of what's best so "must be overrated" doesn't work.
@Awsomeman3283 ай бұрын
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.
@sharlockshacolmes93812 ай бұрын
@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.
@TuffLP3 ай бұрын
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
@JonaxII3 ай бұрын
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.
@daemoncarroll83473 ай бұрын
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.
@eyeoffate893 ай бұрын
People in 2014: Freaking out over Savage Knuckleblade as Siege Rhino sneaks up behind it with the steel chair
@Eli_Nelson_Music3 ай бұрын
I feel like what really pushed divide by zero over the edge was the interaction with lier, disciple of the drowned.
@SmashPortal3 ай бұрын
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).
@bensonprice40273 ай бұрын
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.26363 ай бұрын
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.
@ArdorBlossomFindle3 ай бұрын
Oh, that segue from the Nadu discussion back to the point was smooooooth
@mastertonberry92242 ай бұрын
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
@sufjams28 күн бұрын
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.
@senken123 ай бұрын
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
@Metal_Maoist3 ай бұрын
Staying for Rarran's gaijin ass pronounciation of Jitte He said Umezawa two different ways and neither was close to correct. That's impressive
@schroecat13 ай бұрын
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.
@Slaanash3 ай бұрын
@@schroecat1 To be fair, Rarran pronounces even pretty simple words incorrectly a lot of the time. It alternates between endearing and baffling.
@genzo4543 ай бұрын
@@SlaanashSaffron Olive type beat
@YayapLives3 ай бұрын
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.
@KuroroSama42Ай бұрын
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.
@BlackJustice26373 ай бұрын
I'm only 2 picks in, but it seems like Rarran's gotten a bit too good at card evaluation. So, he sees the better card and assumes it's overrated. Edit: Extra context for Divide by Zero: It also paired really well with a card called Lier, which let you cast instants and sorceries from the graveyard, but made everyone's spells uncounterable as a downside. The issue was that Divide doesn't counter. So you could use it, use your lesson, then cast Lier with Divide to protect it. If you untapped with Lier, GG.
@Fyrefrye3 ай бұрын
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.
@rraune75152 ай бұрын
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.
@bastokrepublic3 ай бұрын
nevermind, I was wrong. Rarran understands. it is just very hard to answer this a lot of the time
@VVheeli3 ай бұрын
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.
@dkznikolaj70133 ай бұрын
CGB says that nadu was changed cause people didn't like BLUE, but blue already has a fuckton of flash creatures. I honestly think it was more all the green stuff that could get down that was the issue. Blue is already made to play at that speed, but against green you're suddenly kinda forced to never not have instant speed removal since they basically get pseduo haste while also being protected until that endstep. I should know. I have the 3 mana vivien in my merfolk deck and I have never lost if she sticks around for a round.
@ImChyal3 ай бұрын
Rarran is literally my father
@TrophyGuide1013 ай бұрын
Hello brother
@cookies23z3 ай бұрын
For rarran you are supposed to say: "Yo! Thats my dad!" (Like he does for shudderwock and stuff)
@crss293 ай бұрын
28 minutes in, and Rarran seems to understand what he's supposed to do, and then does the opposite, again, and again.
@ozfan63 ай бұрын
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.
@KaiserTheDarkWolf3 ай бұрын
Also: Assasins Trophy art is the Corpse of the Old Azorius Guild Master, that was kille by Vraska. It was a Sphinx
@michaellivingston69013 ай бұрын
At the end, regarding Assassin's Trophy: It's depicting the moment Vraska killed the leader of the Azorious, a sphinx. She's a gorgon, so she turned the sphinx to stone - making it a trophy of sorts.
@bossman9833 ай бұрын
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-qr4li3 ай бұрын
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.
@AllistorRichards3 ай бұрын
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.
@nickdeschenes73773 ай бұрын
the differences between one and two (dual colored) and tapped/untapped can't be glossed over, turns out
@Artisn3 ай бұрын
Tarmogoyf was so underrated, it was given as a door prize for FNM during future sight.
@erikasimmons46673 ай бұрын
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.
@smylle1233 ай бұрын
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.
@marcowefers69903 ай бұрын
its bananas that we are in an enchantment and artifact meta with boros tokens and assassins trophy STILL doesn't see play
@AntonioSanchez-w3x3 ай бұрын
Maybe tear asunder sounds better for this purpouse.
@keagancollins32433 ай бұрын
Love this series, even been watching the videos on Rarran and Cimo's channels despite only playing mtg
@Fledermausmann3 ай бұрын
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*
@calemr3 ай бұрын
I remember, before Sheoldred was released, there was a ton of speculation on her online. People knew we were getting a new Sheoldred, all the other Praetors were getting new stuff. And one fake that someone made got a lot of traction, and while I can't remember exactly what it was, I remember it being Disgusting. Like a 3 mana Grave Pact Plus Blood Artist or something? So I remember a lot of people in some online circles looking at Apocalypse, and going "Oh, well, that's GOOD, but it's not the monster we thought we were getting."
@VCV953 ай бұрын
Assassin's Trophy reads to me: destroy target mana source better than a basic land, then replace it with a basic, while also being able to destry other stuff. Good in certain formats, and even relatively quick at 2 mana, but not a staple or terribly strong.
@thelifedragon21563 ай бұрын
well, its just too big of a downside to ramp your opponent early game. so its really only good as a late game spell so your better off just running straight forward normal removal and just sidboarding in tools for other permanents 9 times out of 10
@VCV953 ай бұрын
@@thelifedragon2156 if you killed a mana crypt , Nykthos, sol ring, Gaea's cradle, etc they would be behind where they were on mana. 1 mana is less than 2.
@thelifedragon21563 ай бұрын
@@VCV95 oh ok, i miss read your comment
@Milktube3 ай бұрын
5 minutes in just commenting about the Nadu versions testing - the feedback with 1 card being able to perform this action was considered too annoying, so to balance it instead WotC decided to let the player give that action to an unlimited number of creatures. At a certain point that goes beyond "courage to admit you made a mistake" and into the "are you sure you can even comprehend basic cause and effect?" category.
@Zlumpy773 ай бұрын
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.
@pumkinswift82633 ай бұрын
For what it's worth, Assassin's Trophy was always considered more of a Modern card when I talked to people about it. It was ok in its first run through standard and while it isn't seeing play in standard now, it's still seeing decent play in modern and pioneer. I wouldn't call it a super overrated card personally
@dasea3 ай бұрын
It was good in standard too. It was played in golgari midrange through its run. There was even a few months where this card didn't have a downside because no one had basic lands.
@dark_rit3 ай бұрын
Yeah the card is absolutely useful to have, it just depends on the format. Destroying any permanent for 2 mana instant speed is powerful as a catchall. The price for such versatility is small when normally things deal with maybe a couple of the permanents like planeswalkers and creatures, but aren't answering artifacts, enchantments, or lands since blowing up utility lands can be nice.
@TheTamally3 ай бұрын
The whole idea that you aren't picking which card is better or worse, but just how accurate the communities early predictions were, is actually so good.