MTG Top 10: The WORST Green Cards EVER Printed | Magic: the Gathering | Episode 456

[@MortonGoldthwait]

Wood Elemental has the greatest gatherer comment of all time. "An untapped forest was sacrificed to print this card."

[@StarkMaximum]

"Murder, target your Bog Gnarr." "Uh, in response it gets +2/+2!" "Okay." (pause) "It still dies tho." "I know..."

[@RajaniIsa]

*casts fling*

[@wolfwing1]

hehe what it can be good against is lightning bolts and such :> I think my favorite story of that was in arena, I had something like a 2/2 but gets +2/+2 if opponent has 7 or more cards in his graveyard, he fires lightning bolt like spell at my 2/2 but since he JUST played a spell he now has the number needed and it survives the attack :> Oponent quit right there.

[@arson55]

To be fair to the people playing Wood Elemental, the thought of someone dropping that card during a game is really funny.

[@BrotherAlpha]

They have to be doing it for the laughs.

[@Talking_Ed]

And it's 50 bucks too lol

[@Surg-265]

"So I cast Wood Elemental for 3G and 4 forests..."

[@ItsDangerousGoAlone]

3:16 i actually think this card is an amazing side board against Storm Crow decks.

[@jenniferwilliams9612]

I am always getting my ass kicked by Storm Crow decks! Do you think Viridian Scout is enough to beat them?!

[@Clonekiller66]

Galaxy Brain moment

[@ShaqPlaque]

What is getting lost here is that in original Mirrodin Limited: Damage went on the stack & Equipment > Creatures. The block is filled with inefficient creatures when you look at power/toughness that were nonetheless playable because you needed something to pick up the equipment. Viridian Scout is *not* efficient, but it has two-for-one potential in this limited environment

[@09Dragonite]

I remember building Titania, Protector of Argoth, and people were trying to convince me that Wood Elemental was a great card for that deck. None of them read the text that said the forests must be *untapped* to be sacrificed.

[@newworldsound]

I wanted to buy wood elemental until I saw the price.

[@The_Wampy]

Sharpie and a land is free. Fuck Wotc amirite? My deck is only basics with sharpie of other cards on it. If you refuse to play against it that's just another win.

[@jacksamson5968]

@@The_Wampy yes but the point is that it would be fun to personally own such a bad card. Writing it with sharpie defeats the purpose of buying a wood elemental in the first place

[@MartianKyo]

@@The_Wampy yeah fuck wotc. my deck doesnt even use basic lands. It's just random cardbord cut into regular shapes. And I don't even use sharpie, cause fuck sharpie. I use the tears of all wotc fanboys to write the card names.

[@herbbranan78]

Most Legends cards that were not reprinted in Chronicles or 4th are extremely expensive, regardless of what they do. Even many of the rare cards that got reprints that are worth pennies in Chronicals or 4th tend to be worth around $20 in their original printing. These are cards that are over 2 decades old and are highly unlikely to ever be reprinted. Plus, Legends tends to hold a special place in the hearts of players of that time. It was before people had access to nearly any card, the game wasn't overanalyzed, and (for many of us) was actually more fun. Wood Elementals and all.

[@Maximxj750]

same

[@GoldoaDragon]

If something like Spring of Eternal Piece changed the text slightly to say "You gain 1 life. Repeat this process 8 times." (or however magic formats an ability like that these days) I feel like it'd suddenly be either much lower on this list or off of it completely. There's so many individual lifegain payoffs that it feels like that card would be playable in some decks. Trelasarra, Moon Dancer or Ajani's Pridemate get 8 counters instead of 1 (+ 8 Scry 1 triggers on Trelessara); Heliod, Sun-Crowned would get 8 lifegain triggers for counter placement; Dina, Soul Steeper would trigger 8 drain effects instead of 1. I just think it's interesting how a card even without changing its net effect can go from utterly unplayable to an interesting piece of tech with just a little change to the way the textbox is worded.

[@imperium3556]

Similarly, just taking the word "untapped" out of Wood Elemental's textbox would turn it from the worst creature ever into a very slow-moving green Fireball.

[@TransformersBoss]

Imagine doing all that work for Groffskithur, then an opponent just Scavenging Oozes your Groffskithur in the yard

[@mikotagayuna8494]

The disjointed flavor in some of these cards astounds me. How does Root Cage distinguish between a mercenary and literally everything else? Do mercenaries wear IDs or do their guilds submit a list of their members to their enemies in the Vintara Forest for approval?

[@craigjohnston5137]

Years ago, I traded away a pile of rares to get a Wood Elemental, just cuz it was so hard to get a hold of due to it's regard as the worst card in Magic. No one wanted to sell or trade it away, even stores. I had to up the ante to get one

[@Ekair42]

That sounds like a worthy deal

[@CounterFleche]

I still have mine. No one ever wanted to trade for it.

[@SuperSilverSerpent]

Yes! I’ve been waiting for this one for so long! The cycle is finally complete. I’ve been trying to make a cube with the worst cards in all of magic and these videos have been a great help, but green was where I was stumbling the most.

[@joelmonteiro1419]

Just watch Root Cage shoot up when they release a set with Mercenaries in it.

[@jenniferwilliams9612]

I love the Worst Videos! It says SOOO MUCH about Wood Elemental that it is worse than blank. If it weren’t $50.00, it would have a place of dishonor in my “Shitiest cards ever printed” collection binder. I have several vanilla legends from chronicles and several banding lands, a couple of Sorrow’s Paths, some mudholes, and other “powerful” cards to laugh at!

[@benjamingruber6461]

I would personally be annoyed if people started running Root Cage. I use Maskwood Nexus to give my tribal decks a boost. I already have had some random tribal hate cards like Siege Dragon that hit my board way harder than they should have.

[@SemperNox]

Playing Wood Elemental just as a mind game.

[@JuanWonOne]

For number 4, root cage. This set was designed at a time when block constructed was a thing. Even if there is only 41 mercs, it is a card that needed to be printed.... even if the mercs ended up being dominant in the block format

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

I believe that you may have been confused. Wood Elemental is the actual best card ever created. We are all know that it is actually number 1 on "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)"! Bad cards are actually the best cards!

[@joseph1150]

Lion's Eye Diamond and Bazaar of Bagdad would agree with that sentiment, as would One With Nothing. Intentionally bad cards that ended up being played professionally. In all seriousness, if your opponent just throws out Wood Elemental in a real match, he's just mocking you and can win at any time.

[@ryanpeters3812]

Groffskithur could be fixed quickly by putting any number of it into play from the graveyard attacking if it becomes blocked. Basically, you trade 1 out for a horde. Still not great, but unique and playable.

[@josephmay852]

While it's infamous for how bad it is, and I'm sure you're correct all the people running wood elemental are doing it "for the meme." I like to think that 1 of them is playing it an elemental tribal, gitrog or whatever deck, totally straight faced.

[@errolsabajo3429]

It's good in a Titania deck.. Well, kind of.. No, not really.. But it is funny in a Titania deck😂😂

[@babeyy-nq9gs]

I literally love watching these videos high its so medative

[@heath1948]

The thing about the horsemanship mechanic is that it works in unblock-able decks

[@flare6255]

Mammoth Harness may not be good but I imagine it's going to go up in play now that Kaima, The Fractured Calm is a Commander that wants you to enchant other player's creatures.

[@TheMajesticYak0]

I actually kind of like Mammoth Harness in a Kaima, the Fractured Calm deck (the Gruul commander who goads creatures you put Auras on). There are certainly much better auras in that deck, but I like this for the added complexity on my opponent on figuring out attacks with the loss of flying and the opposing creatures now having first strike. And to see how many times they have to read the card to understand it.

[@liviocamerini9585]

Root Cage can be used against changelings. Maybe 4th place it's too high, i'm sure there are worst green cards

[@javierpatag3609]

You could say that the Wood Elemental *being a creature* is exactly why it’s more horrible than the others- it’s a creature and yet it’s THAT BAD.

[@faerie7dragon]

Root Cage is decent vs Changelings... Interesting Tech you bring up, Nizzahon!

[@letsmakeit110]

the best use for these cards are as digital proxies for something with the same mana cost. If you draw a card this bad you instantly remember it was meant to be something else that perhaps hasn't come out yet or whatever.

[@cerebralisk]

there is a super jank combo with yedora, grave gardener and living lands/plane that would let your sacrificed forests return but it's very 'but why'

[@elogee_yt]

Wood Elemental is legendarily bad lmao. Hilariously enough, the existence of Ashaya now makes some certain creature-sacrifice synergies with Wood Elemental possible, and I'd argue Wood Elemental is better now than ever. If I played legacy or something I might try brewing.

[@SeasOfCheese929]

Isn't Deadfall now maginally better with the printing of Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth?

[@frankvandorp2059]

Spring of Eternal Life probably should share its place with Natural Spring, and maybe also An-Havva Inn and Bountiful Harvest. Also, maybe Bramble Creeper? I've always been baffled by the existence of that card.

[@MindGameArcade]

Isn't Bog Gnarr instant kill with chain of vapors targeting yourself though!

[@abderianagelast7868]

Okay, wait, what decks are actually running Groffskithur?? I checked EDHREC just now and it said there's 2 decks using the card now, but I cannot fathom what commander would want that card.

[@NizzahonMagic]

People just being silly.

[@Lovuschka]

There must have been someone in card development who thought 8 life for 5 mana at instant speed is too strong as it allows you to possibly use some tricks during your opponent's turn, so it has to be at sorcery speed. Just think about that for a moment.

[@MrJoakyfran]

It comes from portal 3 kingdoms and since it was supposed to be magic but simpler, there are no instants in that set.

[@movezig5]

Thank you for not including Aisling Leprechaun in this one. 🙂

[@davidlundquist1979]

Aisling Leprechaun is actually fun when enchanted with a Green Ward. It's still not good, but it is fun.

[@DaveyDAKFAE]

:0 the #1 got the thumbnail! That's unprecedented!

[@BrotherAlpha]

I have an Italian Wood Elemental. I wonder if it is worth anything.

[@guardianeifie]

Root Cage also locks down changelings, which makes it way better than it looks.

[@NizzahonMagic]

You have a strange definition of "way better". Yes, it does a thing to changelings, but it isn't like there are a million of them. And, the way it hates on mercenaries/changelings isn't even that effective!

[@ShaqPlaque]

Your #3 pick wasn't fair to limited. Taoist Mystic is just Three Kingdoms Orchard Spirit - a completely serviceable creature; and Trip Wire is Wing Snare - a serviceable sideboard pick. I would take either - no question - above the following cards in a Three Kingdoms draft: Marshaling the Troops, Spring of Eternal Peace, Trained Jackal, False Mourning, and Riding the Dilu Horse. There really should have been more bad lifegain cards on this list.

[@bstachutheuneatable1727]

I was shook when shelkin brownie was in the bottom half

[@ZSAITOSEI]

I think actually there is an argument to be made for Wood Elemental in an Ashaya, Soul of the Wild deck, running lots of elves and dorks, with a sacrifice payoff, it could actually be a pretty big drop post combat step! Might be mostly a meme but there are homes for some of the worst cards still!

[@GilroyIronheart]

Shoutout to the one gigachad playing Groffskithur in EDH.

[@nathaeladalyah9681]

Holy fuck! I threw away at least a dozen Wood Elementals 15 years ago when they were worth less than a penny each, and now they are $48!!!

[@stevenglowacki8576]

Why did you pick that particular version of "3GG gain 8 life"? Natural Spring was the first version, and is actually in more than one set. I also memorably lost to the card in limited once, because I was playing a very aggressive deck and the 8 life gain was too much for me to get past. Ok, maybe the reason is that Natural Spring is targeted, so it's actually very slightly better in Commander where you can be political with it, whereas the card you chose is not. But in duels Natural Spring is basically just worse, because it can be Misdirected.

[@bennosmovingcastle4261]

oh Groffskithur, you have a special place in my heart :)

[@Melvinvanharn]

I don't get the hate for the number 2 spot. We know lifegain doesn't impact the board state, and its not card advantage, and blah blah blah. However, what it can do, it put the game out of reach for aggressive decks. I would also like to point that that the mana/effect gotten for this card blows something like Stream of Life out of the water. Also, Adrian Sullivan played THREE copies of Natural Spring-the equivalent spell from Tempest in his U/G Baron Harkonnen deck in old extended in 97. Which to be fair, was 25 years old. Still, the card's not that bad. Beats out Stream of Life and Paradise Spring anyways.

[@Mrbananasgfan]

At 5 mana, a good aggro deck will have you dead before you reach 5 mana unless you did something better to stop the aggro. Aggressive decks are trying to out race a 4 mana wraith of God, they don't care about a 5 mana life gain

[@Melvinvanharn]

@@Mrbananasgfan I'm not saying the card is "good", just saying that A)It has seen constructed play by a well known deck builder and player and B)It is significantly better than most other green cards that do similar things and C)Putting it as the 2nd worst green card of all time is extremely harsh.

[@stevenglowacki8576]

@@Melvinvanharn I definitely agree. He's calling other life gain spells better because they're scalable, but that's not really good when what you really need most of the time is just a little pick-me-up to survive the assault because you're very soon going to have control of the game, and Natural Spring was decent at doing that. Additionally, Natural Spring is even worse than the card he chose in duels, because it's targeted. Back then there was no Misdirection, but there was Deflection!

[@spiffinn_music_lists]

I mean, to be fair, you can discard wood elemental to survival of the fittest. So maybe it's not worse than a truly blank card. :p

[@NizzahonMagic]

Lawl

[@zackkelley2940]

Cards that punish horsemanship are laughably pointless. On the other hand giving YOUR stuff horsemanship (Sun Quan) is a particularly hilarious way to make all your creatures unblockable^^ I would argue that Lu xun is at least playable for the same reason (not great, it does cost 4 mana, but you are all but guaranteed to connect with it and get the extra card draw.).

[@astuteanansi4935]

*BLUE. VOLTRON.*

[@TheEvolver311]

A look back into the past when green was the worst color

[@superbaas8822]

What is the worst color now then, cause it's sure not blue or black.

[@TheEvolver311]

@@superbaas8822 it fluctuates between Red, Blue and White depending on the Standard set design at the time. I'd actually say Blue is since while its played in a top deck in Standard it is really being carried by the fast mana Red has been gifted in its design space. In general the things Blue is good at are bad in very proactive formats generally. The 2020-2021 Standard set design major theme was Non-creature spells which obviously plays into Red/Blue color pairings strengths. Perhaps sans the bans Black might actually have been the weakest color of the current Standard design since prior to the bannings the Mono-Black Snow control deck was solidly T2 .

[@superbaas8822]

@@TheEvolver311 Alrund's Epiphany.

[@coooolibri]

bog gnarr should be a base 3/3. that design change makes no sense making the blue one better lol. shows how they didnt stay in line when designing those cards.

[@heath1948]

Where the elemental does actually get played in budget gitrog decks

[@schrodingersowl8774]

Root cage seems OK against monophonic and other changeling decks

[@jordanshore838]

Favor of the Woods is a really bad card I would've put on this list. 2G Enchantment Aura - You gain 3 life when Enchanted Creature Blocks. Put it on your own creature? Ok they either attack over it and you get 2 for 1 or don't attack and it does nothing. Put it on their creature? Ok they don't block unless they are eating your creature. So you are either losing or it does nothing. No creatures on the board? Does literally nothing. You have no creatures? Does nothing. They have no creatures? Great, but it does nothing. Best situation ever and lots of blocking happens? You gain some life.

[@autobotjazz1972]

yeah all these cards are horrible, mammoth harness could be of use but there lots of cards that can get fliers out of the way for less mana. As for Wood Elemental i have never understood why they thought it was a good idea to print it.

[@hi-i-am-atan]

i feel like it'd be kinda neat if its _casting cost_ was saccing untapped forests. it still probably wouldn't be _good_ even if it gained more than +1/+1 per forest, but it'd at least be an outlet for mass land sacc and could be a meme card you drop for style points instead of just to laugh at it

[@RajaniIsa]

Mammoth harness shines against big fliers, but yeah. It’d be better if it had flash but that wasn’t really a thing back then.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

I laughed my ass off when I saw Mammoth Harness, partly because of nostalgia for a card I knew was bad all the way back when Homelands was out and I was buying an unhealthy amount of packs of it, and partly because the art is just the card's name and not its effect. ...Unless elephants in Ulgrotha float naturally and you need to weigh them down so they won't disappear into the sky.

[@JO11190]

Root cage can be pretty good if you have a way to make every creature a mercenary tho

[@RibusPQR]

It works on creatures with Changeling

[@FoxMcCloudV2]

Have you done a Top 10 for Adventures in the Forgotten Realms (THE worst M:tG set ever, IMHO) yet?

[@NizzahonMagic]

It definitely isn't the worst set ever, or remotely close.

[@gilligan6868]

Wood Elemental shines like a bright star in my Slogurk deck. It's still terrible though.

[@magnesium13]

Hear me out now: 4 spring of eternal peace into aetherflux reservoir. How could it be bad with a combo like that

[@strawhataddison]

Deadfall has some sweet art though.

[@Teebs1996]

Deadfall does have cute art though.

[@RetroHobo]

I want them to add all these worst cards to Alchemy and then rebalance them. And then maybe make a limited format around them because I'm not much for constructed. I guess I could make a cube of them and just have house errata for every single card.

[@lachlank.8270]

One With Nothing is definitely better than Wood Elemental since you can use One to discard the Wood Elemental

[@Oimfiel]

I actually have a Yedora, Grave Gardener EDH deck I play Wood Elemental in. The deck is all about turning all my lands into creatures, so I basically don't have to sacrifice any forests in order to make Wood elemental stronger. It still isn't good, but it's funny and it actually works

[@Ahdbfbfbeh]

So is virdian scout!

[@MoonlitRose101]

Dumb idea: throw Mammoth Harness in a Kaima, the Fractured Calm deck. Not the best, but it at least should work.

[@MrZer093]

For those wonder why Wood Elemental is so expensive, it isn’t because it’s a meme card. It’s because it’s on the Reserved List. Yes seriously. It was a rare (yes seriously) in a set that was put onto the List and so it was on said List by default

[@imperium3556]

Tbf even if it wasn't on the reserved list there's no chance Wizards would ever reprint it.

[@ibanezleftyclub]

Oh poor Wood Elemental, he really might just be the worst creature ever printed.

[@ppellacani]

I don't know the other 9 cards, but wood elemental shall be 1st pace

[@johngleeman8347]

The brownie returns!

[@WLDFLD]

two other bad ones: Coccoon & Cycle of Life

[@davidlundquist1979]

Not that I'm defending any of the cards on this list, but Metamorphosis from Arabian Nights probably should have made the top five. It lets you sacrifice a creature to get you an amount of mana of any one color equal to the creature's mana value, plus one, that can only be spent on another creature. At sorcery speed. So you're using three cards to get one creature into play at a discount, and there's not even any surprise value. Glyph of Reincarnation from Legends is another strong contender, because... Well, it's a Glyph. Do I really need to say more?

[@NizzahonMagic]

Any time an effect involves sacrificing, it gets an inherent upgrade since so many EDH decks are built around it.

[@mfsoab]

What? No Jade Leech?? After (rightfully) hating on the leech cycle for at least 2 videos I'd expected that as an auto include 😅

[@NizzahonMagic]

Jade Leech has 20+ points, and actually I think the White one is the only one to make it here!

[@SephonDK]

Jade Leech was quite good back in the day. Of course today it's completely outpowered, but it has had enough impact to not be on this list, where everything was unplayable always.

[@jamesgasik3424]

Um, how is Spring of Eternal Peace worse than Stream of Life?

[@johngleeman8347]

Stream of Life is less efficient, but it has the potential to heal an arbitrarily large amount of life if you make a deck that can achieve infinite or very large amounts of mana. I assume that is why Spring makes the list and Stream does not.

[@switchp8286]

Wood Elemental is bad, but I've also one shot people with it multiple times in EDH. Any card capable of doing that doesn't deserve to be on this list tbh.

[@shappah221]

After OTJ released, Root Cage is actually a little better

[@Rhapsodies_In_Red]

Who's the one player playing Groffskithur in edh I wonder? Haha

[@DarkJusticeMetal]

I knew I'd see that stupid tree man

[@loserofthegame2]

Will we see a Worst Colorless someday?

[@NizzahonMagic]

I have done worst artifacts. While that isn't identical, it is pretty close to what you want.

[@andreschion2334]

I like this subjective lists. Think you can do one on the funniest cards?

[@Ahdbfbfbeh]

Dude griffskithur is good!

[@TetsuRiken]

I kinda want to make a wood elemental deck to meme on people

[@Mechsrule1]

Root cage beats changeling? No, still awful.

[@FrankFrankly711]

Everything is Kicker and Horsemanship!

[@hitmangfx7162]

Please no sponsors in the middle of the lists. It KILLS the flow so bad.

[@papalung420]

IS that a Hebrew glory on your wall?]

[@superbaas8822]

You'd be correct. Look up top 10 Incarnations for a recent video where he shows it off.

[@quantum_beeb]

Sorry, Shelkin Brownie is broken. So broken I own like 100 of him. You will see one day

[@joshuaspector8182]

And I do love doing things just cuz they’re funny. If you play a game of magic but didn’t meme…. Did you even really play magic? 😂

[@art_san_nav]

While Groffskithur is clearly bad, using EDH data is not representative of its performance, since this card is based on having multiple copies of it.

[@mikki429]

Fair, but it's clearly not playable anywhere else, either. It might be okay at half the mana cost.

[@smokebreak2868]

Thanks!

[@aidanisenor]

Grothskitthur def not in the ten worst green cards

[@brizobst]

Speaking of useless, narrow cards, Fungal Bloom comes to mind.

[@RajaniIsa]

Narrow, sure. But there are enough thallids it can be useful and unlike to many of the cards on the above list - it doesn’t count on the other deck having certain cards to be useful.

[@brizobst]

@@RajaniIsa You make a good point. I admittedly haven't kept up with cards that use spore counters, I mainly just remember them doing underwhelming things like creating 1/1 tokens at best, or fog effects, regeneration, etc.

[@markush.1462]

Super early! Love the content

[@Thrashmetaltherapy]

I mean every green card is the worst because it’s green so

[@joesantos2455]

Taoist is pronounced Dow-ist.

[@newworldsound]

F yeah

[@Vitilligo]

Love your vids #firstcomment!