The Five WORST Formats of the Arena Era | Magic: the Gathering | Nizzanotes #69

[@OrbGoblin]

I am so happy you mentioned the Eldraine Bot draft. That was a bloody nightmare man.

[@PornTrouT]

I actually ended up going red or boros aggro and hoping for the best a lot. Especially if you wouldn't get few early millfolks. Sad too because I loved the flavor.

[@sallomon2357]

The thing that made the Specialize cards even worse, at least from the feel standpoint, was the fact that out of like 12 cards with it *only 2* had unique art for its forms, with another one (Laezel) having a unique art for one of the forms. That's... so lazy. Especially because they didn't even try to remake the unchanged art, they simply recolored it, which is even worse when you look at the cards that had the unique art, like Lukamina - making use of Specialize as her transforming into animals was so creative! It especially baffles me that as a showcase of the mechanic they chose that black exiler from the grave instead of her, to warm up people to the mechanic ("Oh, look how each color has a unique art for its form! That's cool, right!"). I think I might've gone off on a bit of a tangent, but the mechanic really, really disappointed me, for these reasons plus the ones you mentioned.

[@andrewallstar2719]

Maybe not the worst, but Crimsom Vow was by far the most boring limited in recent memory

[@nymphrodellsalavin]

Disagree, I'm an Innistrad fanboy

[@kingangst233]

I mean I have fun testing out the disturb in limited. I argue that Brothers War is the most boring. Several drafts in and It never seems interesting

[@bobcatter]

Crimson vow was a bomb fiesta. Not only were there unbeatable bombs in avabruck caretaker and toxrill, there's also a whole bunch of near-unbeatable bombs like wedding announcement and dreadfeast demon.

[@nickbalmes6640]

@@bobcatter pretty much a bomb-or-bust format indeed

[@collinqs2541]

@@nymphrodellsalavin enjoying Innistrad doesn’t make VOW a good format. Easily one the most boring in Arenas lifetime.

[@riccardocalosso5688]

Number 1 is ironic, because the paper version of baldurs gate was absolutely fantastic! It's probably the set we drafted the most at my LGS. Once, just for fun, i decided to draft a mono white deck, and became the arch enemy at the table!

[@therbi]

It was one of my favorite in person too. Did 2HG with friends and had the best time.

[@AKPhilly]

Just another alchemy ruined. No surprise.

[@kelvintay1803]

i still remb in Forgetten realm you could splash a double blue pip mythic without any island if you were in red/black sacrifice cause you had tons of treasure support

[@The__Leo]

One of the most fun drafts I've ever done was Forgotten Realms. I drafted UG Control and just stalled while drawing multiple cards per turn. One opponent scooped just because I had ten cards in hand.

[@TheOmninovoi]

One game ain't a pattern! ;) haha

[@zKrustenkaese]

One thing I think hurt Core Set 2019 a lot is that many rares and mythics in the set just were terrible for limited. You had Valiant Knight and Supreme Phantom, but no real knight or spirit support. Alpine Moon, Amulet of Safekeeping, Detection Tower, Infernal Reckoning, Isolate, Mistcaller, Suncleanser and Remorseful Cleric all are rares that don't really have use in limited. So the games often played out the same, because there were no rares that really changed the game when they're played. And with a lot of creatures having low stats and a decent amount having high toughness you had quite a few games that just went on forever because no one got into a position were they could trade well, or threaten the life total of the other player

[@sallomon2357]

Probably that's why mill was so good.

[@Dgnarus]

Arena Baldur's Gate also has some of the most egregious bombs in any set ever. Good luck beating Tasha or Minsc and Boo in limited.

[@hungrybois5954]

Very thankful for your recent video you did on "The Best of MtG 2022" for pointing out to me that Explorer is basically Historic minus the alchemy cards. I wasn't aware of what Explorer was before that. I have been having a lot more fun on Arena without having to deal with those digital only cards.

[@Gab8riel]

That's not really accurate. Explorer is pioneer lite, there are non alchemy cards in historic that aren't legal in explorer.

[@alaraplatt8104]

​@@Gab8rielthis is true... there are almost 1,000 paper cards that are legal in historic and not explorer

[@retro.7673]

Cauldron Cat still gives me nightmares to this day. That combo was the worst!!

[@collinbeal]

Baldur's Gate was pretty fun in limited at the casual level I play at. I had a lot of fun with cards like Wizened Githzerzai that made my opponent's creatures into glorified walls. Blue tempo in general was just really rewarding, on a level that sets rarely are for that strategy.

[@andrewbinder6338]

I wonder if SNC had not released directly after NEO it would be viewed more neutrally or "just okay" rather than directly negative. I never hated the format even though Brokers was clearly overpowered.

[@cax1175]

Can you do a top 10 Worst limited formats in paper?

[@michaelcollins4534]

I really loved AFR, it might not be the most balanced format but UR Dice rolling was one of the most fun limited archetypes I ever got to play. Really wish there was a better commander option for dice rolling so I could make a deck like it

[@2ndclassking949]

How is Crimson Vow not on this list? I'd rate it as the single worst draft format I've ever played. It was who drafted the better rare, the set. Genuinely interested what others thought about Vow?

[@zaxbunny3081]

Yeah, I'm with you. I've been playing Arena since Zendikar Rising and Crimson Vow is my pick for worst Limited set. I still enjoyed it for a little while but stopped playing more quickly than usual.

[@davidcampbell6286]

Amazing list and I agree with you. Though I have never heard about core set 2019 but the reasons you mentioned do make a lot of sense. I also can’t understand how some people can like ikoria as a draft format such as ChordoCalls.

[@CoL_Drake]

Major upside for specialized cards was that if ur able to count to 5 and read two sentences you could go 7 wins as other players was to lazy to do so

[@AlluMan96]

Hearing Ikoria at #5 made my heart sink a bit, but as you brought up companions, it all fit into place. Not that I'd know what the limited format was like anyway, because I wasn't playing Magic around then. It's just that I've recently been developing an Illuna commander deck and in the process of looking up how to make it, have fallen in love with the set through the mutate mechanic. I have actually played two of these formats, both Capenna and Forgotten Realms. New Capenna I did online with some friends and while our collective lack of experience in drafting made it not quite so bad, speaking as the person that picked Jund in a pod of players both picking blue and one picking white as well, I could smell some of that unbalance. Forgotten Realms I did twice actually, once with that same friend group and another as a Winston draft as a bit of an introduction to MTG with a friend from my roleplaying group, thinking it'd be a fun gateway from D&D to a card game with D&D. He was none the wiser to it, but I could feel how bad that set felt to play, even with my limited experience. Happened to draft the mythic blue dragon boy, so I felt first hand how ineffectual blue could feel. In hindsight, I regretted not going for Baldur's Gate instead, a draft environment I've heard very much good about.

[@cax1175]

Hey Nizzahon, I'm a big fan of colorless strategies. Has mostly colorless been a viable deck in limited? My guess is probably just in Oath of the Gatewatch

[@mikeyb1466]

The other thing about Baldurs Gate was that they did an Alchemy "rebalancing" before the end of the format, which according to one of the 17 Lands creators, did actually work to make the colors more balanced. But, I bet barely anyone noticed because Alchemy has lower interest to start off, and those that were interested, were already done with the set because of the issues you mentioned. It also sucks that Baldurs Gate came after another bad set (SNC), adding even more disappointment.

[@LurksQED]

tbh, the best thing I've heard about Baldurs Gate as a draft set is that it was just something new after New Capenna.

[@tomscud]

post-rebalance Baldur's Gate was fantastic, honestly, and the earlier format was also fine. Even pre-rebalance, I liked it a lot more than, say, Guilds of Ravnica or Ixalan/Rivals of Ixalan, or a lot of other medium draft formats that have come out.

[@tibalt966]

The bot draft says we’re crazy. I still remember you got passed a second pick Lilliana Dreadhorde General in War of the Spark draft

[@13eetle13omber]

There was a black equipment in Adventures in the FR that gave a creature death touch and caused a 4 point life swing when it swung alone. That equipment single-handedly ruined that format for me. It was so oppressive in almost every situation.

[@jrightly]

I'm not a huge drafter, but I loved the BG alchemy rebalanced set. I think they rolled it out wrong. Just take extra time to do proper art on the cards and dump the packs in the store, don't waste time attempting to (and failing at) balancing the set for draft just so there could be a new summer draft set. Interesting video

[@danielmulter4951]

I don't agree at all with Alchemy: Balder's Gate being a bad draft format -- I think that's one of the best formats we've had on Arena. It felt like a cube where there were plenty of powerful cards and fun things to be doing, while also having good answers for the most part. There were only a handful of bombs that felt felt too powerful -- La'zel and Hourglass Coven being the big ones -- that were both difficult to answer and would very quickly win the game if they went unanswered.

[@Vearru]

M19 will always have a special place in my heart as the first draft format I went 7-0 in (post beta). Interestingly I drafted a W/G enchantments/lifegain/knights strategy. I did get very lucky with my rares with Ajani, Leonin Warleader, Thorn Lieutenant, and Valiant Knight. But I made a heavy enchantment deck work without a single loss. So it’s definitely a favourite format of mine.

[@pabloangelzarateperez7400]

While I agree with your criticisms about AH:BG regarding lazy design and the difficulty of first reading specialize cards… I feel when judging the set as a limited format those points are a bit too meta as it still plays a lot better than adventures in the forgotten realms and I personally had a lot of fun drafting it

[@Aggrobuns]

I was doubtful of the Honorable Mention. Usually honorable mentions are there just because content creators can. But ELD being bad because of bot drafts makes sense for it to be a "bad" limited format

[@double2254]

Think it would be an interesting idea to talk about aggro in limited design, 4 of sets you mentioned are extremely aggressive formats (core 19 being the one mixed)

[@conovan5081]

Playing Brawl/Historic I met some of these Alchemy atrocities, funny to know they all came from the same place 😆

[@texier13]

The only time i won the 7 matches in AFR with blue i drafted a UG rares deck (Hall of storm giant, mindflayer, dragon turtle and a splash of Skeletal Swarming). Blue was so open cause it sucked and the mechanics -diceroll, dungeons- turn out to be pretty weak.

[@GlichCentral]

The big takeaway seems to be about expectations. The top 3 had their problems, but each of them were trying to do something cool that just failed: SNC with 3 color, AFR with dungeons/being a secret core set, and baldur’s gate for using the name of the well-designed paper draft set and translating it in a bad digital one.

[@AkukAkuku]

I think Double Team was a fun and good digital mechanic that just was stuck in a bad set.

[@dcdougherty8725]

I agree with most of the analysis, but I'm surprised that your AFR review didn't mention 5c treasure piles. I wasn't playing professionally at the time, but I drafted the set a bunch, and I'd say that nearly half of my decks were Rx or Bx with heavy splashes supported by the set's plentiful treasure-producers. Heck, I lost track of the number of games won by ramping out an early (often off-color) bomb, with the favorite being Tiamat (often drawing at least 1-2 dragons around turn 5-6, with a record of 4 drawn). I tend to favor ambitious mana-bases in formats that support them (see Invasion block, triple Khans, DomU), but AFR was patently absurd in this regard (in my subjective experience, at least).

[@faerie7dragon]

I got to do the Brokers thing with my sealed pool (also had Elspeth) and got 1st place in my LGS without contest, few games went past turn 5-6, hilariously busted.

[@joedominguez8064]

Blue in the D and D set had like one good common, the windseer 4 drop 3/3 flyer that scrys

[@vinnythewebsurfer]

Has wotc ever done a good 3 color set? I wasn’t around for Alara and Tarkir so idk if these were gold standard or despised by limited players.

[@SmugLookingBarrel]

I wasn't around for Tarkir either but Khans is widely hailed as a great limited format

[@daveclarke1990]

Popular consensus is that Takir was great but I don't agree. All my memories of the format are draft 4 color good-stuff decks. Morph is a fun mechanic tho

[@theangrycolossal]

I don't think it was intended as a 3-color set but Dominaria United played really well as one

[@daveclarke1990]

AFR was way worse than HBG. In AFR every interesting new mechanic was a trap, every non-red deck was a trap and every bomb could be splashed in red thanks to treasure tokens. At least RW in HBG was the best on the back of a new mechanic. Not gonna defend the specialize cards, but one upside was that they were all good so you didn't really have to read them all during the draft. I was only on mtgo when Ikoria was out and I loved that draft format :/. Maybe something about playing "7 wins or 3 loses, whichever comes first" vs three matches altered what decks you went up against

[@LordJudgement1818]

I played so much ikoria. But I preferred mutate mechanic. That was enjoyable for me but yeah it wasn't that great. And I soooo wanted dungeons to work but it just does not in limited.

[@doormatt72]

tbh i don't think your number 1 even belonged on the top 5. i actually thought HBG was a very fun set. specialize was a lot to wrap your head around, sure. and the design was lazy in some areas, yes (though clearly not in all areas given how much they put into specialize). but most importantly, the format was actually pretty fun to play. it also started out already much better balanced than SNC and AFR and then they rebalanced it about a month in to make it even better. after the rebalance, i'd actually say it's one of the top limited formats they've made. also, this list ignores the fact that they rebalanced a limited set to make it better, which was an awesome thing for them to do. i'd love if they had done that with SNC and AFR. i do agree with some of the points you made in the video, but just don't see those as equivalently bad problems as "the format wasn't fun to play". HBG was fun to play, but had a few problems (mostly just PR problems to be honest). the rest on this list were just terrible to play. SNC and AFR especially. i don't think HBG belonged on this list at all.

[@maxberry7908]

I remember really hating M21. It felt way too aggressive, and that 3/3 with defender was really obnoxious with any +1/+1 counter support

[@johirata5638]

m20 heart piercer bow bot draft was so stupid!!

[@lachlank.8270]

Happy new year Nizz happy new content 6:40 😏😏😏🤣

[@LadyBernkastel92]

You can see the logic train that led to the 6 sided cards. 'We don't have commander, so the legends who can choose a background will be weaker, so let's try to put build background into the creature' But holy crap does it not work in a way that feels even comparable, it just makes the games a confusing mess.

[@raynmanshorts9275]

Guilds of Ravnica bot drafts were also pretty bad. Want to win? Easy as ABC: Always BForce CDimir

[@Luke_Powers]

Interesting. 2019 core set is Alex from chord o calls’ favorite limited format ever. I don’t think you wouldn’t call him a seasoned drafter. Also, blue mill was a real deck in normal Eldraine. It was one of the best decks along with mono red.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Opinions are opinions! Of course other people will feel differently about formats. Blue mill was real, but not something that came together that often.

[@Luke_Powers]

@@NizzahonMagic I was responding to your point that no seasoned drafter found 2019 core to be enjoyable. In fact is was quite popular and I just cited Alex as an example of its popularity. If you don’t like 2019 that’s fine but I would phrase it that way as opposed to saying no seasoned drafter enjoyed 2019 core set. The second point of blue mill’s quality in Eldraine is more of just a disagreement rather than something about the video I take issue with. I believe that it was common sentiment among the limited community that the mono colored decks were often the best and of these decks, blue and red were the most consistent. Blue was the deepest color in the set, ignoring the secret keepers it was a solid archetype with the highest density of quality commons from efficient fliers to didn’t say please, so tiny and the 5 mana card draw spell. It also had access to the best hybrid uncommons like the red blue dragon, covetous urge, and arcanist’s owl.

[@3kojimbles895]

not talking about aggro like I didn't go boros in ravnica killing people on turn 4 with mentor

[@darksteel913]

If you look back at Ikoria I think you will find that the sin of companions in limited is overblown. Yes sometimes they were obnoxious but they only really worked because of cycling 1. Don't get me wrong I hate companions but some of them could at least make the draft portion kinda interesting, but looking back in my old draft folder every companion draft I did had filler cards I didn't want to or couldn't cast with cycling 1. Cycling is a great mechanic but making it too cheap made things very repetitive and your deckbuilding restrictions weren't as restricted.

[@francescocarelli6090]

I, like other commenters, don't agree much with your take in Ikoria, companions were a problem in costructed, but were never an issue in limited, i still play without nerfs with my group because it feels better. The companions are rare, and creating a limited deck suited to their rules was often a challenge, especially in p2 and p3. The main issue was the strength of the cycling deck, with zenith flare that was overpowered, but I still enjoyed the format.

[@kingfuzzy2]

here to see if truly experience limited different than most people i run into

[@itsanapesworld]

CORE19 was a 1 deck format for me since ive drafted it alot in paper! B/W lifegain was sooo much stronger than the others!

[@stefanoderosa9506]

Streets of New Capenna was by far the worst for me, awfully unbalanced in colours, only aggro was viable and it was also boring in general without any fun buildarounds

[@EndTheEnding]

The Baldur’s Gate set really feels like designed by an intern, very flashy and cool looking mechanics, but horrible during actual gameplay. I was so into the specialization, but now whenever I see it shows up during Jump In just makes me wanna smash my head in. I am a very stern defender of Ikoria tho, even before the companion nerf. It is broken, but the brokenness is so on flavor (unlike SNC or AFR). There are 10 different companions all rare so you get to play them very often and each one offers a different play style, they also made draft choices more interesting and incentives to play with lower power level cards you normally wouldn’t play. I do wish zenith flare is a rare but otherwise there is incredible replayablity, such as checking off a list of all 10 companions, 5 ultimatums, and all the bizarre mutation piles. In my opinion this is how you should be making a high power limited format, not overpowered commons, but powerful and interesting rares that get you excited every time you rip open your pack.

[@doomhowar]

Hot take, alchemy cards shouldn't be allowed in ranked historic. Standard does not allow historic so why does historic allow alchemy?

[@TubbyBubbleLove42]

Ikoria is when I started watching your draft videos. Watch the lists a while before that.

[@Grimlock1979]

I don't think I ever activated a Specialize ability.

[@blacklancejeo6625]

Dungeons and Dragons was a rather forgettable draft experience

[@SpitefulAZ]

I thought companions were nerfed very soon after Ikoria release. 🤔

[@shadowmanx7558]

Ikoria was on Arena and MTGO for about six weeks before they nerfed companions

[@SpitefulAZ]

@@shadowmanx7558 yeah i thought it was faster than that!

[@usmansabir3897]

49 seconds ago upload... noice Edit: Agree with your top 2 choices, i think alchemy baldur's gate was a horrible mess. However, it wasnt talked about as much as SNC since it was arena only alchemy draft set which in general do not get too much interest as well. WOTC has been messing up by designing sets which are too skewed towards aggro strategies. It is unfortunate but it really feels like wotc does not design sets to cater to limited players

[@simoncole2825]

I think i am in the minority here, but i really liked adventures in the forgotten realms. Yes, blue was terrible and i only considered playing it when i opened a busted blue rare or mythic, but i just had alot of fun and success with alot of archetypes. My go to colour pairs were red white, green white and red green decks, since red black was often too contested. But because RB was so contested the RB opponents i faced often times didnt have good versions of that archetype and i beat them very consistently, especially with green white (white had a 1 one mana combat trick that was super good against the steal and sac strategy and was very useful in gw with all the etb effects and frequency of combats in that archetype). From time to time black white dungeons was open enough, so that i could take full advantage of the good cards. And man, that was alot of fun to play. I really didnt mind that blue was so bad, because there were alot of viable decks to play that i enjoyed and the few times i played with my awesome blue rares, i had alot of fun. I know the set is very flawed, but it was my most successful draft format(i had like a 63% winrate in bo1) that didnt get repetitive for me at all.

[@EpicGamerz01]

I don’t know if “defend” is the right word for it, but I haven’t enjoyed a single limited format since Ikoria (with the exception of paper Baldur’s Gate), and I’m one of those weirdos that really liked Ikoria. Though to be fair, I feel like Ikoria was the last time I did multiple drafts of one set and ended up not in the same color pair or two as every other draft I did for that set.

[@FortOFHobo]

Playing SNC and then going to baldurs gate was just such a let down and such a long stretch of 'bad limited' after a set like kamigawa. I still played them, but they substantially increased my MTGA burnout(after hitting mythic in Bro in month 1, i';m basically done with MTGA) These sets aren't possible to defend though i guess some of their alchemy stuff did fix them somewhat(Baldurs gate became playable i think after the alchemy fix) - though it was so obviously bad it looked like a 'setup' just to demonstrate to the limited fanbase that alchemy could be used to fix a set(that was obviously released broken with most of the same bad cards from AFR - you could tell blue was terrible in Baldurs gate just by how much blue was taken from AFR)

[@reluctantlylikingcardgames798]

I'm going to have to disagree partially about the Alchemy Horizons: Baldur's Gate set being the worst. It was a bad set, and I'd probably still have it at #3, but I found it to be superior overall to Forgotten Realms and it REALLY felt like a breath of fresh air after New Capenna, and this is coming from a guy who hates the Alchemy stuff (but loves the Baldur's Gate references). Everything you mentioned about Baldur's Gate was true: specialize was too complicated, set was unbalanced towards aggro strategies, design was lazy, Blue was still the worst colour. But I still found it to be one step above Forgotten Realms because 1) the set was still more balanced (i.e. red-black was no longer far and away the best colour pair, some blue cards were now playable), 2) some of the aggro strategies had different play-styles that I quite enjoyed. Though the dungeon stuff was some of the few things I liked about Forgotten Realms. Overall, I'd probably make my top 5 worst formats as: 5) Eldraine Bot draft 4) Ixalan (only played a couple of times but I've heard from trusted limited players like Ben Stark that it was awful) 3) Alchemy Baldur's Gate 2 and 1) New Capenna and Forgotten Realms (it's hard for me to think of which was worse - latter was more imbalanced, but former was more disappointing). I wouldn't put Ikoria in my top 5 worst just because, if your table made a gentleman's agreement to not force cycling, it became much more fun. Mutate was a really fun mechanic. But I do agree that 1) cycling costs all being generic and 2) the existence of Zenith Flare at uncommon definitely made the deck too good. Ben Stark often said cycling would be much more balanced if Zenith Flare was a mythic rare and that common 3-mana 2/3 human that tapped things when you cycled was uncommon.

[@joelmonteiro1419]

I didn't mind Ikoria, although I always wished it was far worse than Theros. That cycling deck was bonkers.

[@TehKorwinMikke]

I appreciate the humorous chapter names :)

[@llongone2]

Ikoria's main problem that lasted the whole lifetime of that set was the cycling deck. If you could draft two Zenith Flares, it was a 7-X draft. But Forgotten Realms was the worst of these sets , IMO.

[@Jay-yr9oi]

Honestly, I think Baldur's Gate could've worked better if, instead of normal draft format, they'd made it an online Brawl draft set, to play into the Commander Legends aspect of the original set. Drafting a brawl deck would've made it seem a bit more unique, and would've filed a bit less.

[@yoav.kats6328]

Most magic players are relatively casuals especially in limited, most players will do one or two drafts per set so the opinion of the average player isn't worth much.

[@NizzahonMagic]

I am not sure what this is in response to.

[@yoav.kats6328]

@@NizzahonMagic to what you said about people's claim that companions weren't worth it before the nerf, probably I should have made it clearer.

[@keagancollins3243]

I wanted to disagree at first when I saw Ikoria but I agree with your points. Despite this issues the mutate deck is still the most fun I’ve had in any arena limited format. Build your own creature for value was just too much fun

[@matthewdavis7869]

Would be on board if phyrexia all will be one was on here. Hands down the worst set I’ve ever drafter. Even when I got 7 wins I just left feeling completely unfulfilled

[@RisottoNero-z1w]

Man, I got really outvoted liking new capenna

[@SalterThe]

I Wonder if the Phyrexia, All will be one would make this list. Because, at least so far, I would say its one of the worst Limited format I have played.

[@z.s.7992]

god i hated throne of eldraine. It was always a mill deck or an insane agro deck and if your bots kicked you out of those you were screwed

[@torhammer5238]

Ikoria might be the worst for me. Went mythic for the first time playing it, but man was it bad. You basically forced cycling or got a busted companion and that was it. Might be better in retrospect, but I preferred forgotten realms to it (also a terrible set)

[@tau.r.u]

I've never seen a deck that was as easy to force as the cycling deck, that was pretty bad. And it was sad, because the mutate mechanic was fun and allowed for interesting variants that looked like great value plays, but it just didn't matter most of the time.

[@Segmented]

I really disagree on your takes on Ikoria. I think companions are fine and do not want to play the set with them nerfed. I also really disagree that you have to be a companion deck or cycling to get 5+ wins. Mutate and Mardu humans were perfectly playable archetypes, especially the humans deck. For the cycling deck, I do think zenith flare was probably too strong, but I also think that the deck isn't that much of a problem if people are taking the 1 mana cycling cards highly like they should. Undervaluing those cards was a big mistake a lot of people were making. They really should have been taking those cards highly if they were in that color. Those cards shouldn't be wheeling. I am definitely in the camp that Ikoria is one of the top formats.

[@fakeplaystore7991]

Nonense. The worst Arena limited format was Dominaria, aka "slap Arcane Flight on Cold Water Snapeer and win".

[@Rupert3434]

I think doninaria united could also get an honorable mention for having only two real decks: defenders and the good stuff pile.

[@zaxbunny3081]

I enjoyed the blue Tolarian Terror decks but Dominaria United is also near the bottom for me (although I know lots of people liked it).

[@ratohrat4443]

In a way it was fun to have 8 Secretkeepers but then……

[@marioroz3142]

In my opinion the dungeon mechanic is such a flop. Ultra slow and boring to play against. Many times you would have to wait several minutes for your opponent to choose what to do, it would burn your timeouts like crazy. That's what made both of the D&D sets so boring.

[@c.jhamblin5759]

I don't fully think it's fair to blame 2019's problems on it being a core set, both 2020 and 2021 were very fun in my opinion, I think more so 19 was the issue

[@Orcasgt22]

Ok. My guesses before watching the video: Eldraine, War Of The Spark, Kahladesh, The DnD set and Strixhaven

[@Orcasgt22]

Eldraine only honorable mention. Inpressive. DnD I got right for the right reason. Dungeons suck. I thought Strixhaven would get on this because some of the Mystical Archive cards were nuclear bombs the set had no way to account for. Like what do you do vs Dark Ritual or Channel? I never drafted alchemy sets. I refuse to support the format. Never bought an alchemy card, never gonna play historic again so I wasn't aware of how that sets draft was

[@NizzahonMagic]

Hate to break this to you, but neither Dark Ritual nor Channel are good in Limited that isn't cube. Going down a card for mana is usually not great, and they are absolutely awful top decks. The data backs these up, as they have two of the lowest win rates in the entire set! Strixhaven was a great Limited format overall, lesson/learn was good. It is in my top tier, in fact.

[@rfs8194]

Hmm, would that be a dishonorable mention?

[@mikemosz]

I agree Ikoria was one of the worst, but I completely disagree about why. I thought the companions were quite interesting and balance for Limited, with the deckbuilding restrictions. For me Ikoria was completely ruined by the cycling deck.

[@snekula5353]

Yeah I definitely agree it wasn't the companions that were the problem, but the cycling deck in Ikoria limited. Zenith Flair really stole wins outta nowhere.

[@Segmented]

The cycling deck was only overpowered because everyone was picking the 1 mana cycling cards in their colors way too low. If you were in a pod that knew how good they were, it wasn't a problem.

[@Qwertydotsaw]

Eldraine is one of the best draft ever, only bots gets it much worse. Capenna just middle, i can name at least dozen set worse then it. DandD even better. Words about awful blue just a lie, UB tempo one of strongest archetypes. I agree blueweakest color, but dont terrible.

[@heath1948]

The companion initially caused a huge stare in the commander community because of the 100 card deck rules to a lot of us. It looks like if you had a companion, your deck wasn’t legal because it had an 101st card.

[@AKPhilly]

God alchemy was such a mistake. It ruins everything it touches.

[@readyplayerd4]

ONE is the worst for me, not even close. AFR and IKO may not be the best formats but are much better than ONE. I agree with SNC placemnt tho.

[@readyplayerd4]

Was ONE on arena when this video came out? :D

[@autobotjazz1972]

Ah yes Early Ikoria if you did not get a companion you were basically screwed.

[@brentwalker9576]

Streets: I wanted to like New Capenna Sealed so badly. The PreRelease seeded pack design, the way there's a cycle of common tricolor fixing cards that become creatures after in the game, both low raroty land cycles (the sacrifice to fetch and the one with the ability to sacrifice to draw a card), the flavor, and some of the really neat interactions in the set. But those neat interactions? I mean, good luck getting them set up at all, and most of them aren't fast enough to stand a chance against the aggro decks anyway. The way it all came together you could even get away with four or five color aggro, and it was still better than actually trying to bring an archetype together most of the time but really, two color aggro splash one color worked out best. Heck, the way I see it, there were really only two decks in the format, almost completely independent of color identity: aggro deck wins, and stabilize wins. So much potential, and the experience of playing in an event where nobody knows what we know now about the set was fun, but every subsequent event...🫤 I really, really want to see what a more polished version of it would look like. --- Throne: Actually had the experience of getting a way too good mill deck against a real person pod who undervalued mill because they had never played a Draft where mill was good. They now properly evaluate mill, what with WotC making it a real archetype more often and seeing the horror of multiple lucky charms and too many Secret Keepers in the flesh. No regrets.

[@Lasagnadestroyer]

Alchemy horizons what? 😂

[@irou95]

If war of the spark isn't here...

[@pyro2708]

Hey nizzahon I love you #nohomo

[@agentofashcroft]

I liked AFR (even if the dungeon mechanic is complete garbage) but really didn't like Zendikar Rising, which was a very slow format and super light on interaction

[@5al5ap3n15]

Dude everything in limited has been dogshit. Like I just lost in alchemy to a dude that conjured Time Walk. That’s where we’re at, everyone

[@jameshanus3813]

Don’t play Alchemy limited then? Idk seems like an easy solution there

[@joseluki]

Ikoria was a fantastic set, but the cycling deck, that was ridiculous and ever present. I liked AFR.

[@specb211]

Trevor Story will be MVP for Boston in 2023

[@jii-ro7083]

Baldurs gate was the worst time in mtg arena period. Anything related to commander sucks. Commander sucks and is ruining magic

[@CoL_Drake]

Veery subjective. I liked ikoria and Baldurs gate very much and alchemy Baldurs gate was for me tue the best draft set of all time. It was the only time I ever played so much i went mythic, also it was the only set i could EASY go infinite so I could draft as much as i wanted for free. It was sich a super high skilled format, everyone was doing horrible mistakes weeks in the format... If reading two sentences is "to much" for the average magic player it's a sad world .... Best format ever not only on arena for me! Hope they do much more of them and also return specialisation which was fantastic and the best keyword ever

[@gerudo4sale861]

Niiiiizzzzaaaahhhoooon

[@weaselhatgaming1010]

Translate to English

[@stefanoriva1738]

@@weaselhatgaming1010 it means victory

[@MindGameArcade]

alchemy number 1 garbage, yay

[@clementsire4785]

I'm surprised not to see kaldheim tbh. I hated this set. Maybe it's just me though.

[@NizzahonMagic]

It is mostly just you. Most people think it is top tier.

[@clementsire4785]

@@NizzahonMagic Really ? I thought it was only multicolor snow decks that were playable. Maybe i gave up on the format too soon.

[@NizzahonMagic]

@@clementsire4785 Sounds like it, because there were plenty of other viable decks

[@Luke_Powers]

@@NizzahonMagicIt’s so funny that I hear that the snow decks were the only good decks in Kaldheim by people who didn’t even play the format that much. Dunning Kruger at its finest