Hilariously Underpowered Cards [Part 2]

The next installment in a series about cards that are comically underwhelming for EDH.

[@pepperypeppers2755]

Horizon Seekers flavor text should read "A five-day climb? Ha! I'll do it in five!"

[@crimson90]

Scornful Egotist is for cheating a high mana value permanent for cards that care about that.

[@StragetyMTG]

Interesting. I didn't realize Rush of Knowledge came from Scourge. Was Scornful Egotist played often at that time?

[@VonMoley]

@@StragetyMTG I won a pre-release using it to maximise Erratic Explosion, Rush of Knowledge, and Torrent of Fire. Scourge was meant to be the "high CMCs matter" set but it fell a little flat, however it did give us storm....so win some lose some I guess?

[@thatzombifiedpotato4925]

@@VonMoley I fully agree, Scornful Egotist is really good with cards like Erratic Explosion, Rush Of Knowledge, etc. Keek in mind that it's not the "best" option for cars like that, but it's not that bad. It can also be used to draw off of skullclamp, if you want the extra draw.

[@laytonjr6601]

I'm thinking of Yuriko

[@aegisofhonor]

@@StragetyMTG no it wasn't, there was a handful of block constructed decks that ran it but it was a tier 3 deck inclusion at best and a bad one. The problem was, it came out right at the end of a fairly weak standard environment which it could be played and then Mirrodin came out and any hope of it being remotely playable vanished with the broken affinity archetype.

[@keithmpire]

A wee little editing tip -- On Scryfall, rather than right clicking and saving the image, use the "download PNG" option near the bottom of the page. You'll get an image with transparent corners, rather than the little white or black corners on the cards. Sweet vids!

[@clintonclay3158]

Ancient Kavu was dodging Hydroblasts from the sideboard ☠

[@Vilegorico]

Scornful Egotist is the cover of the Scourge theme precon deck 'pulverize'. Just look at the list and you will understand it's function. Not amazing, but it made sense.

[@CriticoMaldispostoGames]

Scourge set! Egotist + Rush of knowledge, etc.

[@soggytoast111]

Talara's Bane saw some play in block constructed sideboards because Kitchen Finks was almost impossible to deal with in that format.

[@aegisofhonor]

FTK was in the VERY NEXT SET from Ancient Kavu, it wasn't even limited playable back then, it was bulk from day one.

[@seandun7083]

Lifebane Zombie was a much more playable version of Talara's Bane since it was stapled to a decent body.

[@StragetyMTG]

Lifebane also exiles, which is relevant. Green and white are both the color of "if you would discard this card due to an opponent's effect put it onto the battlefield instead of the graveyard."

[@seandun7083]

@@StragetyMTG true.

[@saberscorpion6142]

Scornful Egotist haters when i draw 8 cards with Rush of Knowledge turn 5:

[@StragetyMTG]

Razor Boomerang + Horizon Seeker counters your combo, sorry.

[@saberscorpion6142]

@@StragetyMTG Damn 😔

[@majorissues6604]

The reason for scornful egotistical is purely to cheat it out for the morph cost then play like rush of knowledge or torrent of fire.

[@antoniobush4560]

What’d horizon seeker in particular do to you 💀💀. It was honestly a really solid card in limited, like yea it’s not good in commander just like soooooo many other cards. It’s not hilariously underpowered like any other card you’ve covered. It was genuinely strong in limited where its ability got you your precious snowlands

[@radd7105]

"The ony difference is he got employed?" lmao

[@tabiasgrafton9590]

I actually have horizon seeker in a mirri cat warrior that is a warrior tribal deck that also wants combat damage to trigger stuff. It works alright I can usually get two lands with it before the board gets way too clogged up

[@StragetyMTG]

That might be the specific deck where Horizon Seeker is the best choice. Very interesting.

[@alextodd886]

Horizon seeker was dope in limited tho

[@saberscorpion6142]

I wouldn't call Horizon Seeker underpowered. It's got an average 3/2 body for a simple 2G cost, and a little ability that gains card advantage for 2 mana if you attack. You could be hating on Gibbering Hyenas instead.

[@StragetyMTG]

Wow, Gibbering Hyenas would have been great for this list! Nice pick. Honestly, I haven't quite decided how I want to take the age of a card into consideration when making these videos. If I disregard the age, I could make a series of videos just blasting alpha for some of their extremely weak cards. If I do that, however, I'm not taking into account that these older cards existed in their own bubble for a long time (not as a limited format, but as literally the only cards there were). I haven't quite decided how I want to address a cards age moving forward, but between choosing an old card that's bad and a recent card that's almost as bad, I'll take the recent card. It's almost like a "they should know better by now" sort of thing. I do realize that limited is a thing, which is why I reference it at the beginning of the video. I just really don't like Horizon Seeker in particular because of how slow and mana intensive it can be.

[@johanandersson8252]

Ancient Kavu. Everything else died

[@davidlundquist1979]

I was honestly impressed that you spent so much time talking about Scornful Egotist without bothering to explain what its actual purpose was. But then, after looking through the comments, it seems like you genuinely just didn't know. Which is fine, but maybe just don't feature a card if you don't feel like looking at the rest of the set it was in? There are a TON of creatures printed before Ravnica block that are weaker than the Egotist.

[@milccmann1611]

I enjoyed this video

[@Zasqdddas]

I think that with Horizon Seeker, you're viewing it in a constructed context, and comparing it to uncommons, or non-standard commons. It's baseline fine as a sealed filler - 3 cmc 3/2 stats aren't terrible. Playing it on turn three, trading with a 3/3 on your attack and finding your splash colour the next turn isn't great, but it's not terribly underpowered. Definitely no Yamivaya Elder, and it's not going in any commander or constructed decks, but it's sealed filler, and that's okay.

[@StragetyMTG]

That is okay. I tried to pay a little respect to the limited scene at the beginning of the video by calling it the heyday for most of these cards. No disrespect to limited. I just think Horizon Seeker could have been a LITTLE better and turned out to be a neat card, even in constructed formats, but as it is now I'm pretty disappointed.

[@N4chtigall]

Criticizing cards like Horizon Seeker is kinda pointless since it's pretty obvious that it's card designed with draft or pauper in mind. So yeah, at least it was semi useful in those formats. Meanwhile other cards are just straight up terrible regardless of the circumstances.

[@StragetyMTG]

Can you give me an example of a card that you feel is terrible no matter the circumstance? I imagine every card has some niche scenario where it synergies well.

[@botlown1099]

Horizon seeker is just really mid, its not thaaaat bad tbh

[@StragetyMTG]

Horizon Seeker genuinely makes me wonder if it would be better off with no ability at all. It would be a 3/2 for 3 mana, which it essentially is already, but the compulsion to always swing with it and waste your two mana would be gone. Plus, it would be a little less likely to get a removal spell wasted on it. That's just my opinion though, I've personally never played it before.

[@Nomadussc]

@@StragetyMTG kaldheim limited had a 5c green deck, and horizon seeker was a roleplayer in it. It's just a random limited card, in essence, nothing outrageous about it.