MTG Top 10: MOST BROKEN Mechanics | Magic: the Gathering | Episode 164

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I Can Feel it Coming Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com )
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[@jasonshannon8708]

Note: If there's a deck named after the mechanic it is probably broken.

[@God-ch8lq]

Simic flash

[@jackpabich763]

@@God-ch8lq Flash is an amazing ability

[@raynmanshorts9275]

Mark Rosewater: "We'll never print another card with Storm again." WotC: *Prints Thousand-Year Storm*

[@kit0134]

WotC: prints Aetherflux Reservoir

[@derrickmelton5844]

Storm you couldn't do anything about but make the storm count go higher on a turn...Thousand Year Storm can be removed from the board at instant speed or countered before it gets onto the board and costs 6. The two are not comparable.

[@randomcatname7792]

@@derrickmelton5844 ... thousand year *STORM* You do get that.. yes?

[@NapalmFlame]

@@randomcatname7792 Yeah but it also happened to be the only way to make storm an actually balanced mechanic.

[@derrickmelton5844]

@@randomcatname7792 that what they are saying is either non-sequitur to the actual storm mechanic or a crappy meme post...yeah I got it.

[@Interesting_Failure]

Worth pointing out that Devotion is literally just a rebranding of Chroma (or at least a subset of Chroma) which was on the worst mechanics list. Really highlights how it's not just the mechanic that's busted, but how Wizards chose to apply it.

[@RespectYourViews]

@vulkan435 I know pauper was not a format considered when making these lists, but I immediately thought of Skarrgan Pit-Skulk.

[@TheShinyFeraligatr]

Remember also that fifteen of the Devotion cards are the absurdly powerful Gods.

[@englishmuffinpizzas]

Yeah I think dominating standard because they have good synergy in their own set isn't necessarily a sign of being broken -- just that the set wasn't balanced well. On the flip side, it's really interesting that some of the most broken mechanics weren't that broken in standard

[@davidminor4213]

RespectYourViews I wish Pauper would get a half point

[@herringway434]

1. Chroma was on very few cards in its one and only set and devotion appeared on a lot of cards in the 3 sets it was in 2. Chroma relied entirely on reminder text while devotion was quantifiable in it of itself. Example: Springjack Shepherd had the ability chroma which made you create a number of 0/1 white goats equal to the white symbols in the mana costs of your permanents while Master of Waves makes a number of 1/0 red elementals equal to your devotion to blue. See what I mean 3. Not all chroma cards checked permanents while devotion only ever checked permanents Chroma was bad because it was poorly implemented and was replaced by devotion because devotion was far more streamlined

[@anthonyolimpio3545]

Lol. I love how wizards not only didn't recognize how powerful delve would be, but they did so with flying colors. I'd love to hear the pitch for treasure cruise. "Let's print a sorcery speed ancestral recall, with the proviso that you have a ton of cards in your graveyard to cast it!" "How many is a ton?" "Seven sounds good, right?" "Seems weak. Let's make it a common."

[@TheShinyFeraligatr]

To be fair, it was common level. The only big distinguisher on power level is “how bad will this be in Limited?” And in Limited it was ok, not bad, but fine at common as even in Khans’s reasonably slow environment you didn’t want more than one.

[@ashra8281]

Have you watched the r+d episode for the sultai? Where they state, the cards get better in eternal formats, and the best delve card is probably murderous cut and how they expect it to see play in modern... oh how naive you were wotc

[@SeanHrecho]

@@TheShinyFeraligatr It wasn't broken in Limited. It didn't dominate Standard either. So it made sense for it to be a common.

[@mzrigel]

Kelsier12 _ m

[@birdman22b]

For as much as we can say that Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time were aimed at Standard and limited, it's REALLY hard to look past the fact WOTC didn't think hard enough on how these cards would interact with eternal formats. I remember the moment those 2 were spoiled I knew it was a mistake. I'm even more somewhat surprised that Murderous Cut still doesn't see alot of eternal play but it's hard to beat out Gurmag Angler and Logic Knot in modern alone.

[@legochickenguy4938]

"Wizards is gonna have to be careful if they ever bring phyrexian mana back" Wizards: *prints K'rrik*

[@Beanmachine91]

with recurring phyrexian themes throughout the years id say dominaria needs more phyrexia lol it would be cool to see phyrexian slivers

[@donovanwalker7908]

You want busted? I have a phyrexian storm deck.

[@jasonwade8774]

CommanderX3001 I don’t think they will ever bring it back

[@electrohouselover07]

@@donovanwalker7908 Holy sweet jesus! Can I have the deck list ?!

[@Cyb3rSix]

Phyrexian mana brought the whole idea of life being a resource. But I do like that my million playsets of dismember are worth a nice bit now lol.

[@jasonbarry3301]

Still waiting for that “top 10 decks named after cereal” list

[@TsundeReaper989]

Captain crunch- Captain of the watch token aggro

[@davidrosenberg9615]

I mean, on food themes, I'm a big fan of Eggs.

[@sidneydykes7190]

Cheerios 10 times

[@smashflame2136]

Lucky charms- enchantment heavy control deck

[@floor_tank_shanks4194]

Yeah. Ther-O-s' are a definite top recommendation

[@johncameron1935]

Top busted mechanic in Magic is (tap to add one blue mana).

[@felixsonofscouty]

you gotta remember the five colors in mtg: red, green, white, black, and cheating.

[@spidohman6723]

Blue mana isnt op, blue mana is the worst mana, nobody uses it, at least not in commander.

[@wizardsmix7961]

@@spidohman6723 Blue is by far the strongest color in commander. Every best cedh deck used blue.

[@kingfuzzy2]

@@spidohman6723 agree only commander decks I've seen with blue in them are dragon, and spellslinger decks.

[@spidohman6723]

@@wizardsmix7961 i win 80% of the games i play with my mono white evra commander deck And all my opponents have blue mana in their decks

[@WillArtie]

I thought infect may have been in there. Thanks again doc!

[@Daemonioros]

There is quite a lot of pretty shit infect cards. Which pulls the averages down by a lot.

[@chaosbuster1275]

Yeah, Infect is one of those things that seem intimidating to newer players. The issue with Infect is that a lot of creatures with that ability are very weak, so creature removal spells really destroy these strategies. Also, if a deck plays Merlia, the whole strategy just folds.

[@ArchevalsArchives]

The supporting mechanic to infect, proliferate makes it busted but by itself it's pretty benign

[@ryokukurogane7185]

Infect is STRONG, but it isn't BROKEN. Infect isn't hard to deal with, because it's only really good when you have the element of surprise, and you can kill your opponent in THAT moment. But even after that, once you get to round 2, the x factor's basically gone. The most infect does now is force people to sacrifice creatures they didn't want to lose early by swinging into them, but most infect creatures are scrawny enough that you're losing that creature in the process. Again, strong card, just not BROKEN.

[@ArchevalsArchives]

any token, creature, or removal based decks can all deal with infect pretty easily with only 1 exception, Blightsteel Colossus and maaaaaybe Inkmoth Nexus

[@MakeVarahHappen]

The Storm Scale isn't just about power, Stork is the namesake because it also requires a lot of memory to keep track of how many spells have been cast.

[@theoucreator]

"We'll never see storm again." Mark Rosewater: "hold my squirrels"

[@rakghoul6393]

I gotta say, I absolutely remember Dredge being huge in standard. We had Narcomoeba, Bridge From Below, Dread Return and Flame-Kin Zealot all in standard at the same time as the Dredge mechanic. Nearly every standard deck at the time side boarded Leyline of the Void or Tormad's Crypt, often times both actually.

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

12:56, actually Nizzahon, Phyrexian Mana and Delve are 8. Granted, that's pretty much a 10. Yes, I looked up the list.

[@TheShinyFeraligatr]

I have no idea why they feel Delve has a future. Sure, you could make Delve cards that aren’t broken! By making Delve nearly pointless or making them total shit! But you could do the same damn thing with Storm.

[@twewyttst8642]

@@TheShinyFeraligatr It's easier to "Fix" Phyrexian Mana and Delve than Storm because they don't have any inherent oversights. All of the 10s on the storm scale are there because they're unfixable. Things like Artifact Lands, Ante, or Storm all have some reason that they're pretty much unusable. In the case of Storm, it's probably the fact that it's so easy to turn it into this huge spell that can't be countered. Delve and Phyrexian mana can both ideally be fairly costed, although it'd take a miracle for them to return, which is what an 8 on the storm scale means anyways.

[@Crunchatize_Me_Senpai]

Mattman324 There _is_ a such thing as middle ground. “Totally broken” and “absolutely useless” aren’t the only two possible outcomes.

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

@@blazingelse9104 Bands with others was just too fucking OP.

[@SgtCookie111]

​@@TheShinyFeraligatr Honestly, the easiest way to fix Delve would be to make a variant of it, sort of how "Hexproof from Black/White" was on those two cards from Dominaria. You could do something like this: "Delve 4 (Up to four cards can be exiled from your graveyard as you cast this spell. Each card you exile pays for 1)". Boom. Easy, simple, still lets you get the payoff but isn't nearly as busted.

[@blitzkriegdiscord3366]

Gitaxian probe being printed as a common was the most hilarious thing ever printed by Wizards

[@chrisschweitzer5558]

The question they have never been able to answer is how much life is a card worth. And I think that is in part because it's variable. If it doesn't kill you any amount of life is worth a card.

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

I'm loving these double uploads. It gives me twice the chance to flex the most powerful mechanic of all, the Request Video Topic Mechanic. It allows me to request top 10 vintage cards.

[@julianlastname5730]

Literally just the power ten

[@SeanHrecho]

@@julianlastname5730 The name is Power 9, not Power Ten, and no, Timetwister is not better than Bazaar of Baghdad, Mishra's Workshop or Library of Alexandria. You have no idea what you're talking about.

[@julianlastname5730]

Sean Hrecho many people consider library of Alexandria to be just as strong as the power nine, and therefore call it the power ten instead. You don’t need to assume I don’t know what I’m talking about

[@keiyakins]

@@julianlastname5730 Black Lotus, Mox Pearl, Mox Sapphire, Mox Jet, Mox Ruby, Mox Emerald, Sol Ring, Time Walk, Ancestral Recall, and Timetwister. Done. Well okay maybe Library of Alexandria instead of Timetwister, but still

[@julianlastname5730]

Library is much stronger than twister, but twister is still on the list. I don’t see why they can’t both be

[@XxkunaraxX]

Surprised Infect and Annihilator didn’t make it :O

[@ArchevalsArchives]

Annihilator was only in one set on less than 15 cards if i recall

[@Dreznin]

@@ArchevalsArchives Same with Miracle, but it made the list.

[@ArchevalsArchives]

@@Dreznin more than likely because you can stop annihilator easily with any tap or bounce effect, or any effect that remove the ability to attack

[@robertmendez8383]

Same

[@zoopdoop_games]

I have always viewed annihilator as simply the most unhealthy mechanic. I'd rather get combo'd off by storm or have to deal with early threats with dredge or delve effects then deal with that stupidity of annihilator.

[@egaliseur8430]

Loved this one. Can't wait for Top 10 Soldiers and/or Warriors. :)

[@thomasdunkel8680]

+1 soldiers would be nice ( Brimaz was the sh*t👌👌)

[@Mr.Plant1994]

Storm is so good it is outright banned in pauper.

[@Weebfox]

Phyrexian mana: is busted Krrik, son of Yawgmoth: "Nice"

[@boopmcdoop7841]

Love the video as always, but uhhh quick math question. For Phyrexian Mana, how does 13/34 equate to 55.8% of the pool?

[@brandonshoemaker5701]

I came to the comments just to see if anyone else caught this. Math fail ftl

[@tobias97erdt]

I guess how that math fail comes together is that he took reference to 2 different sets of phyrexian mana cards the one who has phyrexian mana in the card cost (where are proably 23 around) and cards that have normal mana cost but phyrexian mana active abilities + cards with phyrexian mana cost (34)

[@hyoroemonmeto6874]

It's Phyrexian mana. Pay 2 life increase % in video.

[@TheSpiritombsableye]

It's a weighted average

[@phillycosidae756]

While it’s not a named mechanic, the “free” mechanic from Urza block that untaps lands is one of the primary contributors to combo winter.

[@RespectYourViews]

By my count only 9 cards use that mechanic . Nizza mentioned in the bottom 10 video that he was only including mechanics with at least 10 cards.

[@dawidwidera1819]

Lack of Annihilator surprised me. It's main reason people play emrakul in sneak attack, show and tell decks, through the breach.

[@JEstey10000]

Question about methodology: would it have made more sense, instead of using your usual point-counting methods for this list, to instead count banned and restricted cards with that mechanic? I suppose it depends on personal definitions of "broken," but when I hear that word, I'm not thinking of strong-but-"fair" cards like Sakura Tribe Elder or Kird Ape; I'm thinking of degenerate combo pieces/enablers/hard locks/format-warpers like Black Lotus and Necropotence. You could try a scale such as: 2 points for each banning in Standard, Block, Pauper, or Commander 3 points for each banning in Modern or Extended 4 points for each banning in Legacy or restriction in Vintage I get that there is a downside of less reliability, because sometimes bannings or restriction decisions have been controversial - for instance, is Frenzied Raptors really more broken than Hazoret? - but perhaps that method would get to more of the truly broken mechanics while leaving out a fundamentally powerful-but-fair mechanic like Flashback. Flashback is really powerful, don't get me wrong, as a built-in 2-for-1, and there have been some overpowered flashback cards (Faithless Looting?) - but it's inherently oriented towards long-term value and limited to just two shots at an effect, rather than fitting hand-in-glove with instant combo wins (like Storm) or infinitely repeatable soft locks (like Buyback).

[@DEMIxGODxSHADOW]

I made same point about grave storm. It's only on one card and that's because it's just as broken or in the hands of token decks more broken, than normal storm, but it was printed on one card, and only works in token decks or second sunrises, but it's super mill so you don't have to worry about go to graveyard effects.

[@WylliamJudd]

It's pretty amazing that you were able to come up with a metric for measuring how strong these mechanics are!

[@thomasallen3570]

I loved storm for what is WAS (concept and play), not how badly it was broken. That said, the mechanic that came out a few sets later called Split Second would stop a storm deck in an heartbeat, if only there were more than 5-6 cards in all of magic. Interrupts and split second should make a slight come back so we can see more diversity and break up combo decks a little.

[@Mrtfarrugia]

For this list you should have added 1 more parameter "How likely is your opponent to flip the table when playing against it?"

[@Thesaurus_Rex]

Fun fact: Bands With Other (a worse version of worst mechanic according to Nizzahon's scale, saved only by the fact that it only had 8 cards printed) is an 11 on the Storm scale. It's so confusing and bad that they had to pull a Spinal Tap.

[@NinjasticFlare]

I’ve recently discovered your channel after getting back into Magic. I am loving it.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Welcome back to Magic!

[@faceoctopus4571]

Affinity decks in pauper actually have cards with the affinity mechanic. Artifact lands being legal might have something to do with that.

[@Semmelein]

Your best video yet. I had so much fun watching this one.

[@zichithefox4781]

A little surprised Madness wasn't in there. With cards like Scepter of Fugue and Unwinding Clock, they're essentially free decks.

[@natebates1493]

My very first mtg product I ever owned or played with was the izzet vs golgari duel deck I got when I was 13. Because of that dredge has a special place in my heart for giving me a copy of grace troll, life from the loam, Jared, and other fun cards like stinkweed imp

[@theosw6961]

"...the next time we go to Theros, trust me, it's coming."

[@ColorwaveCraftsCo]

Thassa's Oracle. Nuff said.

[@skoolier]

I remember delve and I remember hating it but I did not expect it to be the top of the list. Looking back, every deck in standard was either Abzan Rhinos or B/U Delve, so I guess it makes sense.

[@PJownsyoursoul]

Split Second was one of my favorite of all time, but didn't have many cards that featured it.

[@eac-ox2ly]

This

[@AlexA-wb9pr]

I think vigilance is incredibly underrated Not busted but underrated

[@ulipeterson6112]

deathtouch as well.

[@mrpanda750]

@@ulipeterson6112 you got to respect the 1/1 deathtouch weenie.

[@peterkirk8510]

Mmm I don’t think it’s worth very much tbh - it’s one of the less useful mechanics out of all of them. I’d rather have lifelink, and that one isn’t that insane either.

[@peterkirk8510]

XCodes yeah, sometimes it’s pretty powerful, but I tend to find the things like flying or death touch are preferable

[@m.r.r.2636]

I think one of the issues with Vigilance is how oppressive the mechanic is when it's good and how useless it often is when it's bad. When good: For instance if you control a huge fatty with Vigilance with no chance of it dying (or bounce off) to the opponent's blockers, then you can attack for free while still keeping a strong shield up that definitely can block and kill any of your opponent's attackers. That means your opponent cannot efficiently block nor attack. When bad: If you have a weak creature with Vigilance you cannot attack for free. And if you do and the creature dies, it would be no different than if it did not have Vigilance. If your opponent's creatures are all tapped, you can attack for free and still have it up as a blocker for the next turn. However since you couldn't attack for free before your opponent tapped out or attacked with the specific problematic creatures, your Vigilance creature is more likely to chump block than to bounce into one of your opponent's attackers. When Vigilance is bad but still applicable, you're basically trading life losses with your opponent at a worse rate than his attacks - otherwise he wouldn't attack. If you have ways to capitalize on these tradings, either by buffing or gaining life to tip the trading in your favor, then it makes sense. Otherwise I would rather have the stats or another keyword on my creature. The best scenario for Vigilance when bad but applicable is to combine it with evasion to make the attacks free but still keep the potential for a blocker up. However that is using two keywords instead of straight stats and it makes Vigilance on its own poor. When Vigilance is good, it is almost too good and oppressive because it is always active for combat. When Vigilance is bad, it is either useless or only applicable in fringe situations. This volatile nature of two extremes is a reason why I think not that many naturally good Vigilance creatures are printed compared to most other evergreen keywords. Same thing with Double Strike, although when Double Strike is bad, it has many more applications than Vigilance IMO. It is also easier to make Double Strike good than to make Vigilance good. Vigilance almost has the opposite synergy of Deathtouch. You want your Deathtouch creatures to be as cheap and small as possible to maximize the effect of Deathtouch. When your Deathtouch creatures are also fatties, like 5/5, the value of Deathtouch diminishes drastically. The opposite is true for Vigilance. Other evergreen keywords that are only "good" sometimes, like Reach or Trample is often not costing much in terms of stats or mana but Vigilance more often than not is.

[@theinscrutablebaldness2597]

Just a thought, but I'd really like to see you distinguish mechanics and keyword abilities here. Top 10 keywords would make a great list on its own. Great vid though.

[@daveclarke1990]

Cool vid Its interesting that storm, dredge and delve wernt really broken in standard but became troublesome in formats with larger card pools. One way to view this is that the broken aspects of those formats are best utilized by these mechanics, rather than the problem being with the mechanics themselves. Perhaps a similar analysis looking only at standard (and possibly pauper) would be an interesting comparison. I suspect phyrexian mana and affinity would still be busted using that methodology.

[@HaydenX]

I thought Storm would be #1...but that might be because I was a Legacy player for a long time.

[@jacoblangford1092]

Well considering they created the storm scale to determine the power level of mechanics and if it can be reprinted because storm was so broken they cant really reprint it cause it's too powerful to reprint in any significant amount.

[@jacoblangford1092]

I think just that it hasn't appeared in standard or modern for the most part cause wizards realized how crazy it is. There is a reason that some of the most powerful decks in the least limited formats.

[@SeanHrecho]

I thought it would be Wizardcycling

[@HaydenX]

@@SeanHrecho I assume all of the *blank*cycling effects were just classified as cycling...like how "bands with other" would just be considered banding.

[@florianw116]

I'm ready for devotion in TBD. ELD really set up devotion decks, with all its triple and quadruple pip cards.

[@hitmonchampion9287]

Hey Nizzahon, have you ever considered a video over the top 10 keywords? Maybe have a restriction like have the keyword be prominent in at least three sets (with reprints from older sets with the keyword not counting)

[@myloglaisek5718]

The storm scale is only for standard legal sets. They could print storm or dredge cards into modern horizons for example.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Seems highly unlikely, given that those decks are already strong in Modern and Dredge is only held in check by bannings.

[@badgerbadgerbadger1337]

Love both the mechanics lists this week. Major kudos for the mod to the rating system. Before that I thot the best mechanics list would just be a bunch of evergreen mechanics. I would love to see if you can do a best mechanics in commander vid. Although, I don’t know how you’d rate them. Can something like edhrec stats be used? Well, there is my challenge to you. You obv find ways to rate cards that are reflective of their deserved spot on a list. Can you do that with edh? Badger out

[@Scooter_Alice]

I have a deck that uses miracle! It's a red blue wizards deck, with the card in question being thunderous wrath. It's paired up with sage of epityr, which basically lets you arrange a top deck.

[@janickpiper6]

i think as a stand alone Keyword "Infect" is pretty busted too. It just has shitty support cards aide from the OTK buff decks

[@jackpabich763]

That's the point... It's not just the keywords but the physical cards they are printed on. Infect they did a good job to give creatures decent stats

[@taylorhatch6892]

The storm scale is the likelihood of it showing up in a standard legal set. In fact, most of his scales have this caveat. Just wanna mention that, as "This will never show up again" isn't necessarily true.

[@sethb3090]

A 10 is "I never say never, but it would take a major miracle."

[@addicted2SODA1]

Lol phyrexian mana. I still love it, we had no idea how good it was during spoilers lol

[@kailaine3974]

One of my friends plays a commander deck built around storming off with Veyran, Voice of Duality and it’s the most frustrating thing I’ve ever experienced in this game

[@ParGellen]

Hexproof is awesome. I get such a wonderful feeling in Arena when a control or mono-red scoops out in frustration when they can't mash the "I WIN" button.

[@EidoEndy]

I thought energy was really cool, and would like to see it return (maybe in a slightly less busted form, but still).

[@SeviathTheHumanDrago]

I like it! I actually have Aetherworks Marvel in my Red/Blue Niv Mizzet Izzet Deck. It's funny because I have both the storm mechanic and energy in that deck but 1 card each, the storm works well for the marvel as every copy of a spell I cast adds an energy counter. My gf hates the deck because I have a timewalk card in that deck as well that I normally use the storm mechanic for so take multiple extra turns in a row and absolutely dominate her lol

[@nickbalmes6640]

Wow, I didn't expect energy on this list

[@TheSophor]

I am a bit surprised that we didn't see annihilator. It seems there are extremely few cards with the keyword, cards that are all rather powerful

[@Kasaaz]

I agree, by metrics, it's surprising, but just on feel, it seems like it's just extra on the cards that have it, you would probably still win without it.

[@coolcow5193]

Its powerful. However the card with it are usually 8+ mana, so getting them out is very difficult. Also, annihilator is usually not the best effect on these massive Eldrazi,

[@thepugking215]

Wizards: "We'll never print delve again." Hogaak "It's free real estate."

[@Mordalon]

They never said that. Storm Scale, like all of Maro's scales, is for Standard, not supplemental sets. There's another Delve card in MH1 that isn't busted, Magmatic Sinkhole.

[@mycroftholmes2992]

Good top ten. #2 has a bad % per card listing. 13 of 34 cards is approximately 38%

[@robertogomez2932]

mind's desire, the only card i can think of that was restricted in vintage before it was even legal to play . ( maybe chrome mox)

[@mattwcook9127]

My favorite commander deck I've built uses Dredge and Delve for some fun shenanigans

[@CD-ek3iq]

Excellent excellent video. Great research!

[@jackpabich763]

I really hope they bring back Energy... I love that mechanic. Just as long as there is a way to interact with it such as Suncleanser, it won't be too bad.

[@boboplayz7999]

Keep up the high quality uploads!

[@Jonasz314]

FYI - Wizards could print a fixed Phyrexian mana: e.g either pay U, or 1+1life. That way it still costs mana, but you can include in any deck.

[@Morkim287]

This was a very ambitious week for fact checking. I greatly appreciate the work you put into these! Thanks so much!

[@GabrielDeLiberatti]

This list was actually a surprise for me, i thought it would be storm 1, dredge 2 and affinity 3. Your explanation on affinity was great btw

[@jacobsuliveres4344]

Phirexian mana mechanic works very well with Rage Extractor as long as ur mana ramped creates a good burn deck

[@kurtsloop2462]

I still enjoy unleashing my Ravenger Affinity deck on the younglings down at the public library. It has all of the old cards with little upgrades like four Mishras workshops and other wicked cards that old farts like me have tucked away in dusty binders.

[@amosbirb2616]

Theros Beyond Death is laughing at this video sooooo hard rn. Reverent Hoplite is gonna be funnnnnn

[@christianrojas7353]

We kinda did see storm again with ætherworks reservoir but that was a fun card lol

[@bigchungus4623]

Anyone here when they announced theros is coming back, he was right

[@Fiftycentis]

Broken cards like Gary, i hope they never print them again Wizards: yeah... sure....

[@gurusson]

He was wrong about the power level dropping. Gary is here and MBD will be a thing...

[@lucien134]

Nope

[@codyhanson1344]

You should do top 10 of the best common mechanics (i.e. Flying, Trample, Deathtouch, Lifelink, Vigilance, Haste, Indestructible, Hexproof, Reach, Flash) I want these keyword mechanics in rank order.

[@AgentArcadia]

Just getting into magic after playing a lot of yugioh, these videos are very helpful!

[@alexsnow1151]

Like Delve I feel Improvise is pretty damn strong. Especially when using treasure tokens, or really any artifact tokens.

[@hiddenleaf414]

Haha coming back to this video. Looks like Wizards liked Devotion.

[@twidgetron328]

Great video, but you mention Sensei's Divining Top getting banned from Legacy in 2011 to nerf Miracles, when it was actually banned in 2017.

[@Urrarg]

I honestly wonder if they made Whirlwind Denial with Storm in mind, just as a safeguard.

[@imkluu]

Anticipating Best common cards and Worst Rare cards of all time.

[@Hyenadont]

good vid, just personally found a couple problem. grey merchant of asphodel does (or did) see play in mono black control and death cloud in modern, master of waves sees play in modern and legacy formats in merfolk (albeit not as competitive in legacy per se), and shrine to nyx also sees play in modern elves as a sort of gaia's cradle lite. While yes these decks aren't as huge as things like phoenix, they're also not getting completely dumpstered either. Next issue is the claim that divining top was banned because the miracles mechanic was too strong. this is not only incorrect, but also shows an inability to research a topic properly. Top was banned because the deck was a very dominant control deck, but wasn't overly concerning to wizards until coverage was involved. this led to up to 10 minute turns for a player using the card over and over and over again and whilst the game itself progressed, nothing visible changed. its power in combination with counterbalance was so forgiving to poor play that to save time and energy of coverage audience and players wotc finally banned the card. if you want to see exactly how powerful top was on its own without miracles, give it a go, and aside from a few tweaks to the deck for the early game you'll find the deck is still extremely powerful and consistent. yes this is heavily nitpicking, and particularly so towards gathering data and basing all arguments off the specific information contained within, without regard to the cards themselves or the decks containing them. some (most) are self explanatory, and are covered pretty well here. but a couple others are not quite so much, as the reason many of the cards saw the play they did was because of what the cards themselves did compared to what the mechanic did. will say that this was certainly worth the time to watch, so kudos there as well.

[@CrimsonSlug]

I would love to see the full list of points for each mechanic.

[@coltonrobinson3459]

The banning of gitaxian probe in legacy made me cry. Oops all spell and Charbelcher have never been the same.

[@harmonicjelyfish8852]

Surprised infect wasn't on there I was sure of that!

[@christophergraney-ward2759]

#1 is delve yet I remember playing a delve deck with treasure cruise in it at Friday night magic when I was new to the game and was still coming last place 😭

[@xaer0knight]

I like Battle Screech a little bit more than Lingering Souls. Get 4 1/1 Flying Birds for 2WW and tap three creatures for it's flashback. Can't forget Prismatic Strands! Bird decks were made awesome thanks to the Odyssey and Onslaught Block, cards like Suntail Hawk, Soulcatcher, Soulcathers' Aerie, Commander Eesha, Mystic Familiar, Cloudreach Cavalry, Coat of Arms. Later on things like concerted effort, healer's hawk, courier hawk, seller of song birds, Rustwing Falcon, Squadron Hawk, Aven Squire. It's actually not to expensive to make a good Bird Deck, some people splash blue and make a commander deck with Kangee. I want to see top 10 BIRDS! I had a friend have to make a Squirrel deck with Hurricane just to beat it most of the time.

[@vario6492]

Please make top 10 evergreen mechanics!

[@Holyinfern0]

How did you deal with old cards with mechanics that would be errata'd to updated keywords and or still have that text without the keyword? Good example canopy cover and hexproof.

[@michaelvaughn-walker5783]

I haven’t played in a long time but I was hoping I’d see flashback/madness. Green/blue or green/red flashback n madness decks were so overpowered in odyssey block

[@nathanielthehunter737]

awesome as always

[@matthewriggenbach8000]

Again man fantastic video just like Wednesday's video you obviously put a lot of work into it, but I'm very very surprised when talking about flashback you didn't mention Feeling of Dread. I'm not 100% sure the impact it completely had on tours but I'm pretty sure it was immense. That card with azorius being a powerhouse during that time made it into a staple card.

[@matthewriggenbach8000]

Again not trying to down play your views on it, but it was just an observation. I always love your videos. But hey! Bring back worst card types/whatever again those videos were hilarious. How about worst mechanics...oh wait... Ok how about worst color combination of winning decks from pro/grand tour? I guess it might be hard to talk a out why but maybe you can come up with something. Always love your videos and love seeing them pop up.

[@NizzahonMagic]

I didn't mention more than a few cards for each mechanic, because that would have gotten insane! I mostly only showed/talked about top performers/iconic cards. Feeling of Dread saw play for sure - it has 7 points - but it wouldn't make the top 10 flashback list, or really come close, because the mechanic is so sracked. Basically, it isnt a top performing card for the mechanic and I don't think its iconic either, so I didn't mention it/show it - but there are dozens that I didn't!

[@matthewriggenbach8000]

@@NizzahonMagic Wow really!? That surprises me. Prolly cause most of the guys I play with are dicks and love azorius prolly haha so I saw it a lot more often. Thanks for quick reply man.

[@icarus-wings]

Wizards will likely never print energy cards again. *Wizards: Modern Horizons 3.*

[@charlesb.andrulis6550]

I’ve never been able to get delve to work well for me. Any tips?

[@CarbonSpire]

While flying was mentioned in the disclaimer, I wish there had been an honorable mention for it. I'm very curious what it's point total was overall!

[@NizzahonMagic]

It has a high point total, but in terms of points per card doesn't do well. Think of all the janky flyers out there

[@CarbonSpire]

You better not mean my Mesa Pegasus...

[@charliegarcia5892]

Well done!

[@LyselloZanega]

Wizards should legitimately hire you for analytics in R&D ^^

[@SpySappingMyKeyboard]

I would have thought dredge/storm would top this, but I guess they don't have something delve/phyrexian mana has - versatility. If you play a card with dredge, you have to be a graveyard deck. If you play a card with storm, you have to be a storm deck. But you can play a card with delve/phyrexian mana in any deck (although delve kind of needs cantrips and such).

[@HienNguyenHMN]

Some Delve cards were designed with Modern in mind (Dig Through Time).

[@NizzahonMagic]

It got banned there.

[@josephmarcum8201]

Storm never print again? What do you call fluster storm then when commander deck first came out that and reprints since then?

[@guyinthecorner0]

As someone who knows next to nothing about magic (I'm trying to get back into it), can someone explain that cranial plating card? Can you attach and equip it to separate creatures? What's the difference between attach and equip in this case?

[@louiebafford1346]

Very interesting video!

[@alexanderroberts165]

Does snapcaster mage count with flashback?

[@OrbGoblin]

Think you might do your own top 10 personal fave mechanics?

[@MrMoros1]

I'll admit I'm no master of the MTG Meta, but I'm a little surprised the Surveil Mechanic isn't somewhere on this list. It essentially allows you to both selectively topdeck your cards while also filling your Graveyard and speeding through your Deck to other cards to bring out your win condition. That's three birds with one stone.

[@MatejHajnal]

@NizzahonMagic Hey, first of all, great job bringing up numbers instead of humble opinions, I have a question though, regarding ranking cards/mechanics/any part of a deck so if you have this written down somewhere I will be happy to read, but back to my question if not. How do you tackle multiple copies in a deck? - surely a mechanic is much more busted the more cards are of that mechanic in a winning deck. I understand that all this work is "just" a nice proxy for a real value, but I hope this gets to you as a way to reevaluate if it actually makes sense. Side question: how do you tackle the sideboard?

[@christians.7599]

Was expecting to see Transform make the list due to decks running Delver of Secrets.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Transform does pretty well (I did a Top 10 on Double-Faced Cards probably a year ago), but not as well as these!

[@mradabaugh9406]

People may notice the trend, that the best mechanics were printed in one or two sets and because it would be a waste of RnD's time for a new mechanic to not be played, they have to push the mechanic MaRo made an excellent podcast on why the Kaladesh cards were too powerful.