MTG Top 10: WORST X Spells | Magic: the Gathering | Episode 541

#MTG #Magicthegathering #MTGArena
This video is sponsored by Card Kingdom! Check out their awesome store here: www.cardkingdom.com/nizzahon
Balduvian Hydra - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/ice-a...
Vitalizing Cascade - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/mirag...
Flaming Gambit - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/torme...
Soul Strings - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/proph...
Excise - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/proph...
Sealed Fate - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/mirag...
Malicious Advice - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/plane...
Part Water - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/legen...
Venarian Glimmer - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/plana...
Avalanche - www.cardkingdom.com/mtg/ice-a...
Direct Card Kingdom links for each card in this video (SPOILERS)
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I Can Feel it Coming Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com )
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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[@kokioen]

For some reason, an alternative universe version of you (or a secondary channel or April fool's or whatever) where you present yourself as Pizzahon and rate pizza topping or do pizza topping history has been living in my head rent free for months, if not years, and I don't know what to do with it.

[@TRex-fu7bt]

Coming in at number 3 with 89 points is pineapple. This divisive fruit is a staple in the eternal format where it combos with Canadian bacon and onion as part of the Hawaiian set. More recent builds replace Canadian bacon for pepperoni, while some swear off the fruit entirely. Regardless of the meta, this sweet topping will continue to gain points for a long time. But it has no hope of catching up to the top toppings on this list.

[@nicoo5474]

Nizzahon when Pizzahon walks in :0

[@petegriswold]

@@TRex-fu7bt I appreciate this

[@stefanoriva1738]

@@TRex-fu7bt This was in the list of "Worst pizza toppings". (I'm Italian)

[@basicpigeonbee]

@@TRex-fu7bt I love you so much

[@TrumanTheGrayMerchant]

Vitalizing Cascade might have the worst flavortext in the history of the game. Great insight, Asmira.

[@randomusername1735]

The comparison doesn't make a lot of sense when you think about it either, one is an action and one is something tangible lol It's even dumber than if it said "air is like water" is my point

[@happyslapsgiving5421]

@@randomusername1735 She knows how to breathe, but does she know how to water? 🤔

[@m.fraguelaxd2546]

"friends are like snowflakes: when you piss on them they disappear" vibes

[@ArixOdragc]

I don't know, there's been some pretty big stinkers lately. Have you seen Join Forces?

[@leox.jaramillo3231]

10 worst flavor texts would be a video I'd watch.

[@jimkazalpert8493]

Sealed Fate is a waste of such absolutely brilliant art. It belongs in a museum.

[@stevesmith5883]

Yeah that art is amazing! Such a shame it ended up on a card that isn't worth playing by anyone. I'd never even heard of the card before now.

[@jamesgasik3424]

Sealed Fate is an oddity. Back before everyone had efficient card draw, you could really mess up someone's day with it, by making them realize that they were likely to get dud draws for several turns. I cast Sealed Fate for 7 once, and the instant my opponent realized what I'd done, they scooped. So even if it's not a great card, I remember it fondly.

[@439801RS]

Nostalgia is infamously not the most objective judge lol

[@MihaelGeng]

Honestly...it still seems like a trash card with your story 😂

[@TheMCGamer2012]

Hard disagree on the Venarian Glimmer, I was actually running it in my Modern Control list for a period. It's INSTANT SPEED discard and can flashback with Snapcaster Mage. It can hit Asmo, Mox Amber, Ornithopter, Memnite, Chalice, Ballista, EE, and many more for a single mana. If your opponent's list includes even one of these cards as playset, it's worth a sideboard slot or 2 for your local meta to rip their hand T1 and play the next few turns with near-perfect information. Worst-case scenario you cast for X=1 making it more like Pilfer in Modern, but still undeserved as top 10 worst X cards...

[@xaldrortenderofthevats8948]

Yeah, considering how fast and cheap the Meta swings, 2 mana combo breaker is pretty reliable

[@TheDougWay]

Yeah, that's true. I think Nizzahon is thinking very limited-based where you barely have any cards that cost 1 or less and doesn't really play modern/legacy/vintage where cards that cost 0-1 are very common. Honestly was expecting something more like Stream of Life to be number 2 at that point.

[@NizzahonMagic]

I can see it being interesting in formats with lots of 0 mana cards, but it still isn't remotely good enough. You may have played it I guess, but it hasn't Top 8'd anything even remotely significant (including in Modern, Legacy, Vintage, and so forth) , isn't played at all in EDH, and was awful in Limited.

[@ROMANTIKILLER2]

I was thinking the same, especially given how high Nizza rated on his list. Especially now that with power creep everything is becoming cheaper in terms of mana cost, and with Commander itself being less and less a casual big-spells format and more and more optimized and value-focused, a spell that can easily hit 0-2 CMC cards in the opponents' hand on their end step doesn't sound terrible at all, especially considering that for blue keeping some mana open to interact at instant speed is pretty much the norm.

[@lanychabot-laroche135]

I knew someone that played it in Vintage when it came out. With a Mox, you could pretty much always hit a 1 drop. It wasn't ever good, but it did something most of the time.

[@stevenrhodes8338]

Prevideo: I think there are atleast 4 life gain spells. Post video: I appreciate the fact you made the list diverse and not just 4 of the same thing

[@happyslapsgiving5421]

Venarian Glimmer doesn't look nearly that bad. Sure, if you use it at random, which the video suggests to be the only possible way, it's a waste of a card. *However,* if you use it as a sideboard against combo decks, which... appears to be the intended use, anyway... then it's not nearly as bad as "second worst X card ever". Not only it would be very useful against that type of decks, but you won't need to pump a crazy amount of mana into it, which is the big flaw of *all* X cards, because you will already know the mana cost of the card or cards you want to target, so you won't have to waste any mana more than necessary. And all of that isn't even counting the fact that a lot of combo decks search cards and show them to the opponent, so you'll know exactly *when* to use Venarian Glimmer, for a sure profit.

[@newworldsound]

The art on a lot of these is incredible 🤩

[@andyspendlove1019]

Excise has always been one of my favorites

[@joelmonteiro1419]

Seriously. Sealed Fate must have the largest best art/worst effect ratio in all of Magic.

[@Igor369]

Yeah old art is so much better than new art.

[@joelmonteiro1419]

@@Igor369 the art reserved for collector boosters is very good, but the one they put on regular cards is so generic and forgetful.

[@LolaliciousSmiley]

That's all I could think about! This list has many exceptionally pretty cards.

[@jettblade]

Balduvian Hydra is really good in one specific commander deck: Zilortha, Strength Incarnate. Zilortha lets you assign lethal damage to your creatures by power rather than toughness, negating the downside of of 1 toughness. Additionally you can grow the hydra making it harder to stop in that particular deck.

[@stefanoderosa9506]

really good is a stretch

[@SirZapdos]

Honestly, I could see myself running Soul Strings in certain limited decks. Getting two creatures back for a single card is very strong, even today, and it's not out of the realm of possibility that an opponent would tap out or even tap some mana during the mid-to-late game for an opportune window to cast it. Obviously it's much worse than Blood Fountain, Soul Salvage, Wander in Death and the like, but I still think it's playable in certain formats. Excise though is doubly bad since most players don't cast spells precombat and thus likely have all their mana untapped when they attack.

[@lanychabot-laroche135]

Flaming Gambit could be a sideboard card against grindy decks with absolutely no creatures. In late game, it's 2 instant speed X to the dome. Those decks are pretty rare nowadays, but if someone builds one, would be funny to get that card sleeved for that niche situation.

[@slackwellman5499]

Started watching this channel back in 2017 I'm super happy to unwind with some top ten goodness.

[@AntonioHachi]

Okay is it bad that I actually think Sealed Fate might be playable in the right deck? I just built a Xanathar commander deck and the whole point of the deck is to cast spells from my opponents' libraries. So a card that let's me manipulate what I'm going to get from them while also possibly removing something I don't want to deal with seems good? It probably still sucks, but it's very on theme and could lead to some potentially great turns.

[@m.fraguelaxd2546]

It's not bad but I think there's probably better ways to get the same payoff

[@fernandob2275]

The prophecy cards worked great within the set in limited because of the lands untapped/tapped matters theme. They didn’t care about other formats being effected outside of Type2 back then. Venerian glimmer is best in formats or meta games with low mana curve decks I.e: vintage and legacy.

[@lanychabot-laroche135]

I was expecting Alabaster Potion in there, but I'm guessing the damage prevention makes it a bit too "good" for the list.

[@corey2232]

Wow... "Part Water" and "Avalanche" might be two of the absolute worst cards of the "Top 10 Worst" lists I've seen so far! XX/U to give Island Walk?! C'mon, that couldn't have seemed useful even back when it was printed 🤣🤣🤣

[@ulrichs.3228]

Well, those were the early kitchen table days. Given how bad of a game experience "creature is unblockable" is, I can see why they made it reasonably rare and expensive.

[@millenialmonster]

Animist's Awakening should be in there too. Green ramp has no business being so prone to whiffing.

[@majorissues6604]

Just wanted to say you look good Nizz. Been looking better and better with each new video since your incident. Keep doing whatever it is youve been doing bro. Its coming up roses for you my friend.

[@TheLuminousCleric]

What incident?

[@NizzahonMagic]

Incident?

[@kjmergen]

Top10 most cryptic comments on a Nizzahon post.

[@lackryx4166]

@@TheLuminousCleric He got attacked by Teeka's dragon 😔

[@irou95]

Most bad X spells can still be "infinite mana payoffs" like that hydra does win you the game if you get infinite mana. But that is kinda bad anyway as it dies to -x tougness effects and exile. A card like comet storm has a place in cEDH, mostly because it's an instant you can cast during worldgorger loop. That card has a terrible rate to deal damage but with infinite mana it does kill all players and creatures and planeswalkers. (in case someone gives themselves hexproof)

[@NymPSeudo]

Venarian Glimmer could find niche application in budget cEDH. Seeing an opponent's hand and pitching their mana crypt for 1 blue mana feels decent.

[@kingfuzzy2]

oh part water gave me my first win in zhou yu such a fun card. all of the dimir fatesael cards also seem quite fun

[@carlegeiger]

Surprised Meteor Shower wasn't on the list. I guess it has more potential uses than the islandwalk spell, but still costs XX

[@brandonvoice8941]

I don't interact much on your videos. But I do enjoy them, and I watch a lot of them, and appreciate your efforts.

[@SpitefulAZ]

I was hoping to see a dishonorable mention to howl from beyond; feels like a card that is never good but looks good to newer players.

[@emperornapoleon6204]

I have no experience with Venarian Glimmer, but it does seem like it could have some interesting applications in the eternal formats where information is important and cheap cards are king. Otherwise, those are all great picks. Avalanche is laughably bad!

[@jormgundtheballast7397]

Venarian glimmer, that flavor text *chefs kiss"

[@Glornie]

I would have put malicious advice on 10th. at least it can be used as a game ender once in a blue moon. it is instant and can be used at the end of the opponents turn if you have enough to do lethal on your following turn.

[@paulbbryan]

I think Venarian Glimmer's only niche is in Vintage turn 1 hitting someone in their upkeep before they can drop a zero mana artifact. Probably still no.

[@hectormorales4090]

Nice list. Thanks man.

[@conradfoord6387]

Nice list, however I'm a little surprised aether tide didn't make it here.

[@nickalasmontano1496]

Loving the wordplay in this episode, lol

[@superbaas8822]

For those wondering why Empty the Pits isn't on this list, it will wildly blow most people's mind to know Empty the Pits actually has topped before!

[@jacobdoster4054]

Like your videos I get alot of inspiration from your channel!

[@SpitefulAZ]

for worst cards lists, are these cards you already knew existed or do you do additional research to find the bad cards because you didn't know about them before hand?

[@memyself3510]

Balduvian hydra is a perfect example of a top down design

[@JindraAG]

Its more of an example of how rules changes can wreck a card. When it was released damage could be prevented after being dealt, so you could generally get one or two good attacks out of it.

[@memyself3510]

@@JindraAG right, but it’s definitely a top down design. It obviously started with the idea of “what is a hydra”, and built off of that, and in that aspect, despite it being a terrible card, they did a good job

[@MatthewSmith-qd6du]

for me the worst x spell is spell dwarven catapult, which "deals X damage divided evenly, rounded down, among all creatures target opponent controls" meaning you have to spend at least more mana than the number of creatures otherwise it deals 0 damage, cannot think of a worse x damage spell, jeez fallen empires sucked

[@drakemcculloch4082]

Flaming gambit would be fun with brash taunter. Since it says target player you can choose yourself and redirect it to brash taunter to hit your opponent. There are still better cards for brash taunter though so I probably won't use it.

[@alaraplatt8104]

heyyy youve used that malicious advice joke before 😁

[@jumpsteady1777]

Missed an opportunity for soon releasing a valentines day top 10 as top 10 worst Xs (spells lol)

[@TheLuminousCleric]

Yes! Top 10 lists!

[@mikotagayuna8494]

Those who assign good art and good card names to bad cards should be punished by forcing them to write flavor text for Secret Lair: Hasbro Marketing Team.

[@manjoume5178]

always watch your videos but best and worst ones are always the best

[@connorpalmer6454]

What if the best and worst ones had a best and worse ones list of the best and worst ones of the best and worst ones

[@schwarzerritter5724]

" I got you now, thanks to my Sealed Fate, you will not draw any lands for the next 8 turns!" "I cycle Ash Barrens." "Fuuuuuuuuu....."

[@wolfdwarf]

also you'd think a card called 'Avalanche' wouldn't *destroy* snow-covered lands and should rather... *make* snow-covered lands.

[@dracomasters9039]

I get this list is for EDH, but Venarian Glimmer would be fine in a “do everything on your opponent’s turn” Blue Tempo deck in Modern😉

[@NizzahonMagic]

It isn't just for EDH. These cards are all bad in 60-card constructed formats too, including Modern.

[@tmille171]

Should have mentioned Stream of Life, Potion of Alabaster, Guardian Angel with Vitalizing Cascade. The "rhystic" cards from Prophecy are much stronger than these spells, so I question their appearance here. Especially in their limited format (which gave bonuses for tapping out), they still at least do something (remove a creature from the game, return 2 cards from the yard), even if you have to spend all of your mana to do it.

[@rareroe305]

It's pedantic, but I think Stream of Life is slightly worse than Vitalizing Cascade. I think that gaining X+2 for WG is just a little better than X-1 for G.

[@whiteboysushi]

I must be a pedant, because I had the exact same thought. Vitalizing Cascade also has the advantage of being an instant, so you could conceivably steal a win by casting it during your opponent's alpha strike.

[@JustMonikaOk]

How did stream of life not make this list?!

[@AggressiveLemur]

Excise was an object lesson in casting stuff in your post combat main phase. 1W exile target attacking creature was stupid good at punishing poor gameplay.

[@NDHFilms]

Vitalizing Cascade definitely gained me 3 life, if ya know what I mean ;-)

[@FransLebin]

always love Terese Nielson art

[@cax1175]

I hope you don't burn yourself out by uploading so much!

[@davidyerman4502]

Reap Intellect should be on here, unless it somehow was in a top 8 somewhere.

[@trbry.]

I'm glad I have zero nostalgia for the old frames, even if I'm old enough.

[@aaroncollins6411]

I'm actually shocked Dregs of Sorrow didn't make it.

[@garethbain9125]

Meteor shower was unlucky not to get in...

[@remhach2548]

I like a lot your videos.

[@apjapki]

Ooh these were some stinkers.

[@born2getbizy]

Vitalizing cascade may be terrible but man do I miss Rebecca. Such a stark reminder how much the art has become less stylish and interesting over the years

[@6ringsofsteel]

i cant stand that on newer cards the most prominent color on the art is the same as the color identity. like the art on each of the 5 colors represents the vision of someone with a different kind of color blindness

[@eighthelement]

Rebecca had a distinctive style and her art was always a pleasure to see.

[@SomersBugtopia]

Modern Magic art is a travesty. It’s nauseatingly safe and uninteresting. At least older art gave me some kind of reaction and emotion even if it wasn’t the most well done, nothing new ever does that for me.

[@jadedheartsz]

@@SomersBugtopia no troll

[@YourAdHere4]

i feel like we’ve been getting more style in recent years, stuff like dominik meyer especially stands out

[@constancebashford2324]

Flaming gambit can actually combo with stuffy doll. Sure, at that point just use fireball, but it could see some more play in edh at some point.

[@fuzznutt5118]

Sealed gate plus booby trap is a fun combo

[@fuzznutt5118]

Fate

[@jrightly]

X GONNA GIVE IT TO YA

[@Kasigi03]

Tough to put X in a top 10, there are so many bad X spells particularly in red. One's where after you dumped all that mana into X to start killing creatures, but after the first one you have to pay additional mana for each creature. Sealed Fate can be devastating in extreme control but yeah, stinky other than the art. The Prophecy cycle, especially Soul Strings, might be some of the worst cards in history.

[@TransformersBoss]

They just don’t make art like Vitalizing Cascade anymore. Though, the Forest Dryad token from Brothers’ War is close

[@nycstreetpoet]

I expected to see Kangee, Keeper of the Aerie on this list. On my list of bests I list Recall and Wildest Dream, as well as several Draw spells😊

[@teideim5669]

So Malicious Advice, bad. It can be used as a time walk like effect as well. Start of an opponents turn sinking mana and life into tapping down all your opponents stuff so they can't do anything could technically be game winning as using it during end step. The pay life clause is still pretty dire though.

[@MrABK108]

No stream of life?

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

Honestly, even the #1 on this list isn't as bad as Amart's customer support. My chair broke after only 8 months and I drove all the way to the shops to get it replaced (as per Australian consumer law) and they told me I had to go through their bullshit customer service line. I wasted my time for nothing, unlike my time spent watching Nizzahon videos and asking for "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)"!

[@ellitbo9863]

So true

[@CmdrUD87]

I've said it before, but #4 is #badadvice

[@a.j.simmonds6324]

Stream of Life

[@rpriske]

Isn't Stream of Life a worse Vitalizing Cascade?

[@wadewilson5795]

I hate when they use a cool word like Avalanche for a spell that no one uses.

[@vinnythewebsurfer]

Hinata ain’t gonna be saving Avalanche’s playability anytime soon.

[@blabik]

I disagree with Sealed Fate being on this list. Thanks to that card we have a great keyword in the game: Fateseal That has to count for something

[@NizzahonMagic]

Fateseal is barely a keyword, the two cards it does appear on doesn't actually have the same effect as Sealed Fate! They are effectively Scry effects you get to use on your opponent. We do use it as slang for things like JTMS, but still barely a keyword.

[@blabik]

@@NizzahonMagic Oh man, do i have to start using /s for youtube too? Yes, you're right, it would be foolish. Thank you.

[@alexcapps9290]

Man old magic art was just better.

[@crovax1375]

I guessing that Illuminate is the worst X spell

[@happyslapsgiving5421]

Bunch of rhystic cards, in here. Honestly, rhystic cards are so bad, they should have their own list, lest they contaminate every other "worst" list.

[@foolishsqueefly]

Twelfth.