MTG Top 10: Worst Instants | Magic: the Gathering | Episode 240

[@BCWasbrough]

I'm sad that this is the only type of list you make where I own all the cards.

[@RonSwanson101]

Psh! I'm sad I don't own all these cards!

[@malcolmsusairaj7192]

There's a market for shitty cards

[@ppellacani]

😔

[@mtgskunkworx1671]

Thousand year storm, a big Mana package, and an arcane/splice package makes this novel, in commander, at least.

[@late_in_french1140]

@@malcolmsusairaj7192 Pauper players?

[@dyciefisk2535]

I think Mangara's Blessing was included in those decks because: A) They are in decks intentionally full of bad cards or B) Someone got fed up of someone elses discard deck

[@anthonyjennings9506]

Even if it's B, there are 15 other cards that hate on discard in this way, and they're all better than Mangara's Blessing

[@HoferEric]

Maybe themed decks like "art decks" or "chair decks".

[@Benkenobi8118]

I can confirm that I have actually played Mangara's Blessing in a tournament environment. And won games with it. It should not be on this list. The reason Mangara's blessing was played is as a sideboard against random discard (Hymn to Tourach), was quite popular then. I played one game where we had 3 successful triggers of Mangara's Blessing. So yeah, you have to understand what the tournament environment was like back then.

[@celebrim1]

@@Benkenobi8118 Exactly. It's playable in Standard today was well, as there are plenty of decks out there running Kroxa, Mind Drain, and Acquisitions Expert, and also plenty of decks running Light of Hope primarily for the 'Gain 4 life'. I can totally see Mono-White life gain running this sideboard or even maindeck depending on the meta.

[@Ouja]

@@Benkenobi8118 It was useful against Hymn to Tourach, and later, could shut down Megrim. You're not wrong, discard decks were a big part of the meta back then (more and more players were finally starting to understand card advantage), and we didn't have modern spells back then. If anyone else doesn't believe me, use any MTG app, filter it to show only cards from Mirage and earlier, and try to build a deck. I promise you won't like what you end up with. There were very few legal cards that gave card advantage. The only consistent way to get it was with a discard deck.

[@iamrepairmanman]

Death of a thousand stings would be much better if there were good splice cards

[@theliving1037]

Or if it was a 1 drop or a 2 drop. Even a 3 drop wouldn't too bad.

[@SisypheanSeas13]

@@theliving1037 agreed. Given its restriction (your hand size), I think 3 Mana is a viable card at common.

[@theliving1037]

@@SisypheanSeas13 True it is common, 2 if it was uncommon, and 10 if rare.

[@maxscherzer9521]

It needed to cost one mana.

[@GrendelNin]

Back in the day when Hippy, Hymn and Megrim were "standard" legal at the same time, Mangara's Blessing was... well... a blessing.

[@Doomxeen]

Yeah, this is one of his few lists that isn't very great.

[@SpitefulAZ]

@@Doomxeen woah, shots fired. What say you content creator.

[@esands36]

I remember the Hypnotic Spector, Hymn to Tourach and Megrim combo was brutal af

[@wugsessed]

11:34 - Well I would assume (hopefully) that the Zedruu player is playing morphs in their own deck, and plans to donate them to an opponent, then use Break Open. I mean, it's totally a meme inclusion in those decks, or the answer to a deckbuilding challenge or something, but I kinda get it -- pay 1R to flip Thousand Winds, or maybe even Voidmage Apprentice if the stack allows (your opponent would control the ability but the triggered ability isn't a may).

[@irou95]

one with nothing is actually doing something Saffron olive has proved you can build around it in modern. Break open is actually the worst card in magic. It's like saying your opponent activates his trap card for free

[@ich3730]

like, atleast one with nothing is a nice meme and gets you thinking about how to use it. Break open is most likely a design mistake since its obviously supposed to counter morph decks. Even the flavor sucks, why does the morph still activate and is not harmed by breaking it open xDDD

[@kingfuzzy2]

One with nothing is the best at what it does imho it's most viable in wheels and flashback decks in edh.

[@christiansassmannshausen5495]

And at instant speed.

[@Ninjamanhammer]

@aragonjohn Breakthrough isn't an instant, but drawing 4 is very relevant in pretty much anything that would want to use One with Nothing.

[@kingfuzzy2]

True thank you.

[@hiimemily]

I was hoping that Death of a Hundred Mana would be on here, and sure enough, it made the cut.

[@Petronio39]

I'm one of the 10 decks running barreling attack. It's a part of Shu Yun monk tribal, with tons of combat tricks that sound like kung fu moves.

[@Melvinvanharn]

What are the other cards that sound like Kung Fu moves?

[@Petronio39]

@@Melvinvanharn Thousand Tallon Strike is one of my favorites. Then there's (in no particular order) Fists of Flame Deflecting Palm Leap of flame Inferno Fist Flying Crane Technique Singing Bell Strike Mirror Strike Gravatic Punch That's all the ones I can name off the top of my head, but there's a few more too.

[@nedcurfman3486]

I think I see what the Zedruu decks are going for, and I actually love it. It sounds to me like they’re running a bunch of morph creatures and pawning them off with Zedruu to people who can’t flip them, then using Break Open to flip them as part of a deal. It’s ridiculous and inefficient, yes, and would be indefinitely better if Break Open was reusable, but it’s so wonderfully jank.

[@collinbeal]

It's like giving someone a safe with a jewel inside, and then holding them "hostage" with the passcode because of FOMO.

[@n00bfishie]

I feel like the combat tricks, even as bad as they were, are nowhere near as awful as some of the White instants like Healing Salve and Angel’s Mercy. A combat trick, even a terrible one, still has a chance (albeit slim) to allow you to hit for lethal or make a more favorable trade. But White has a ton of healing-themed and damage-prevention-themed instants that don’t affect the board, are overcosted, or just stall. Or all of the above.

[@celebrim1]

Agreed. And, Healing Salve is also definitely worse than Mangara's Blessing.

[@DUxMORTEM]

This depends. For example having Vito, Thorn of the Ruck Rose on the board when you heal, turns i to damage, and potentially infinite damage if Exquisite Blood is on the table. So that part i have to disagree with

[@Polyphemus89]

Some of those white spells probably top-eighted early in MTG history so weren’t technically legal for the list

[@pelegshilo6358]

Out of the rites cycle, rites of initiation is actually also playable. It is a good card for some go-wide aggro decks and sees occasional play in pauper

[@Ninjamanhammer]

Glyph of Life is missing from this list. It's life gain, and it's super situational life gain, gaining life equal to the damage dealt to a wall. It even specifies damage done by attacking creatures, just so you can't do any shenanigans.

[@robdoe8694]

Yowzers, that is terrible! On the plus side it's only one to cast.

[@Benkenobi8118]

I have used glyph of life successfully in a deck. I had a Wall of Glare that blocked all of the opponent's creatures, and I have a way to recycle glyph of life every turn. Essentially it is a 20+ swing in life whenever someone would attack into my wall of Glare. I also have a way to save the Wall every turn.

[@Ninjamanhammer]

@@Benkenobi8118 How did your wall survive? At that point you're looking at Wall of Glare Glyph of Life A way to recur Glyph of Life A way to save Wall of Glare That's at least a 4 card combo that only manages to effectively fog every turn, and gets stopped by removal, counterspells, graveyard hate, flying creatures and so on. If you can recur a card every turn you can do WAAAAAYYY more powerful stuff.

[@Benkenobi8118]

@@Ninjamanhammer Erratic Portal + Wall of Glare was the combo. Witness fetched any creature I wanted so long as there was at least one Erratic Portal out.

[@Benkenobi8118]

that was the showstopper for creature heavy decks. Usually a 20+ life swing in my favour.

[@noamemerson-fleming285]

Break Open thinks it's in Yu-Gi-Oh

[@tefnutofhoney2832]

Maybe 2001 yugioh where battle position mattered lmao

[@personsomeone2760]

But wurms. There's to strong. Why do you think Ally's of justice was made

[@MsMiDC]

@@tefnutofhoney2832 the first core set anywhere outside of Japan came out in 2002. (legends of blue eyes in this case) But battle position quickly didnt matter anymore, except for flip effect monsters, which were few and far between, coming down to magician of faith, and pretty much nothing else. These days flip effects are way too slow, at the fastest normal way you can get a flip effect off on turn 2 (your opponents turn of you go first) or use something like book of taiyou which cost too much advantage.

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

I love subjective lists like these! Since you're doing another video on instants next week, I think we all know that the best instant is "Shill Topic", 1WURBG: "Request Nizzahon do Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)".

[@presenceofthemastermtg5962]

you got here fast today.

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

@@presenceofthemastermtg5962 Like I said, Shill Topic is an instant. I can do it at any time. And Nizzahon's uploads always happen during daytime here in Australia, so I'm usually ready to receive them.

[@nedcurfman3486]

Gotta respect the hustle.

[@kingfuzzy2]

Much respect for your consistency.

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

Man, I actually really wanna try and make Wicked Reward work. A white-black token deck full of combat tricks. That sounds soooo fun.

[@TimmytheSorcerer]

Drew Armstrong, The Glorious Lobster Emperor , the art of that card 👍👍😂

[@quint3ssent1a]

Yeah, Wicked Reward seems worth it.

[@villesaari]

Wicked Rewards was played back in the day in black aggro decks. You would play efficient small creatures and sacrifice those who got blocked. The deck would also try to utilize abilities that trigger when creatures die. Ashen-Skin Zubera, Rotlung Reanimator or Dauthi Ghoul come to mind and saccing a Carnophage wasn't the worst thing.

[@spencerhansen2927]

It could probably be used with Kresh, similar to demonmail hauberk, though missing the synergy

[@miaelliott6848]

Could go well in my Dunebrood Nephilim deck, runs on sac and sneaking in commander damage.

[@metalblizzard6024]

I remember break open. It was fun one time in an onslaught block multiplayer, playing politics with people.

[@carumsarene]

Wicked Reward is actually pretty solid in a Korvold deck. Because giving it to Korvold is essentially making the effect +5/+3 and draw a card, for two mana. Plus you're getting death and sacrifice triggers for things like Mayhem Devil, Zulaport Cutthroat, etc; The current build I have can make the opponent lose 10 life each time I sacrifice a creature.

[@dr_volberg]

4:45 - I'm pretty sure that Rites of Initiation (the red +1/+0 per card discarded) got played in Odyssey limited.

[@Hanzelimpaired]

And it sees some play in pauper, as well

[@calemr]

I could see the red and black ones in a hell-bent deck.

[@nickbalmes6640]

Im an Arcades player but Sacred Rites is just too bad to even consider in my deck.

[@joshuaking7470]

I mean sure you can dump your hand to essentially give you a Overrun type effect but white can already do that at instant speed with much better cards.

[@nickbalmes6640]

@@joshuaking7470 well cards like Tower Defense exist and those dont ask for extreme card disadvantage for the same effect :)

[@joshuaking7470]

@@nickbalmes6640 My point exactly

[@Foyoon]

I sometimes actually use the red rites in some decks which is the same as the white one but with +1/+0 (and random discard because you know red and all ) and it serves its function but then again i only use it in decks that can also somewhat benefit from discard.

[@nickbalmes6640]

@@Foyoon i can see some use for it in Anje decks at least

[@atomicsquirrel6457]

I know I’m always talking about cards that are not only so old they can vote, but cards so old they can drink, but where did the ‘laces come in? (Purelace, Thoughtlace, Deathlace, Chaoslace, and Lifelace.)

[@patrickmchugh4616]

A quick search on EDHREC shows 2 decks are running lifelace, 4 running purelace, 6 thoughtlace, 5 deathlace, 7 chaoslace.

[@anthonyjennings9506]

I would say those aren't bad so much as they are extremely narrow. If they were in a standard with Doom Blade, maybe they would see some play.

[@andrewtaylor3167]

I don't think people ought try actually casting Death of a Thousand Stings, but it has stuff going for it: It's a relatively high CMC noncreature card without much investment needed for the recursion (no mana to recur or trading resources). So it could be useful if you've got a decent number of Wolf of Devil's Breach or Bone Miser type cards. Though, generally, Exile into Darkness fills this role better, since it has more times with "Oh, I might actually want to cast this instead of just constantly discard it."

[@j.christ8786]

6:19 Can't get better flavor than Barbarian Beavis

[@SmugLookingBarrel]

Man, number 1 is so bad that you could staple an ancestral recall onto its effect and it *still* wouldn't be good.

[@Nobody-zl3kk]

i just realized, death of a thousand cuts is easily fixed, give it splice onto arcane for one black and there you go

[@EidoEndy]

I actually think fog effects are underrated. Depending on the situation, it can allow you to be more aggressive and sometimes that 1 extra turn is all you need.

[@RyanDanielG]

I've won plenty games using them. This guy dogs on'm a lot. I guess maybe in competitive magic it's different but I've got tons of use out of'm. btw came to comments just to see if anyone was defending fog lol

[@joelbailey8007]

Malicious advice was actually amazing in invasion limited. It would sometimes shut your opponent down for a turn or allow you to easily swing in for lethal. It was a 1 or 2 of Max but back in invasion block draft it was surprisingly good.

[@Wintersmith12]

Break Open would make a lot more sense as a Yugioh card

[@howareyoumoreofaclownthanme]

Unfortunately it'd be bad even by Yugioh standards. Want to get rid of a facedown card? Nobleman of Crossout does that and gets rid of all copies if it had a flip effect. Want to flip your opponent's cards? Swords of Revealing Light flips all opponent monsters and prevents them from attacking for 3 turns. Even the extremely bad Dark Piercing Light flips all opponent's monsters. Break Open is so bad that it's terrible in other games.

[@ArchangelJaceAscended]

There was an old combo using Mangara's Blessing and Zur's Weirding. I don't know if this is still the case, but back then, when your opponent activated Zur's Weirding, it was still considered an ability that your opponent controlled even if you control Weirding. Then I think you would use Scroll Rack to swap the top cars of your deck with Mangara's Blessing to make sure that you always drew your next card and your opponent could only ever make you discard the Blessing, giving you 2 life and putting it back in your hand. Then you always had the 2 extra life to force your opponent to discard the card they just drew with Weirding. Wicked Reward could be useful if your use cares like Act of Treason to steal your opponent's creatures and sac them but there are much better cards that let you do that at instant speed or just use something like Witch's Oven. Also, you generally want to attack with the creature you stole, so it defeats the purpose of saccing it during combat. Fling is a far better option for 2 mana.

[@blaze556922]

Great list! Wicked renewal can be activated instantly and more than once since it has a :. You could sack your entire board during combat and put all those +4 +2's on which ever one wasn't blocked. It isn't that bad actually for a timmy sacrifice deck.

[@bobertbojo2]

gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=3632 not according to wotc

[@villesaari]

It is not a terrible card, but it doesn't work like you think. You sacrifice one creature and get one boost, and that is it. If it was an enchantment, then you could sac multiple creatures.

[@blaze556922]

@@villesaari I see what you're saying. Similarly to Sonic Burst they do say you can only do it once. Should I edit or remove my comment?

[@blaze556922]

@@villesaari If it were an enchantment, artifact, or creature requiring that type of activation cost. Just not instants and sorceries...

[@villesaari]

@@blaze556922 There is no need to edit or remove this. The replies already show that you now know how the card works and every comment here will help Nizzahon, as his video gets more audience engagement and thus more visibility from the KZbin algorithm

[@SeasOfCheese929]

Was Sacred Rites playable in Odyssey limited or block constructed to help trigger Threshold?

[@philipweidig270]

Yes, it also enabled madness cards on your opponent's turn. Any instant-speed discard outlet was playable.

[@09Dragonite]

I loved thinking of all of the situations in which I would play many of these cards regardless of their "downsides" and as it turns out, most of the lists in which they are really good make them useable because the commander is built around turning their downsides into upsides. Wicked Reward for example is a completely playable Korvold pump spell. Because it is a sacrifice outlet, it will trigger Korvold's ability to add a +1/+1 counter to him AND it will cantrip in addition to giving Korvold +4/+2 and that is a ton of upside in that list- especially if you're planning on killing at least one person with commander damage.

[@shadowofseattle1338]

Could you do a top ten infinite combos? It would be a personal opinion top ten Ibwant to know what you think

[@NizzahonMagic]

Actually doesn't have to be personal, can base it on the successful ones at the highest level

[@MandelbrotFrax]

Just sitting here with my foil copy of Sacred Rites in my Arcades deck. Okay my list revolves around generating infinite mana and then generating a ton of card draw off of casting defenders. I have a huge board of defenders, give them haste with crashing drawbridge and then I have all these extra cards in hand, extra lands, redundant spells, discard them all to sacred rites to pump team to make them that more dangerous. Sacred rites also helps dump your hand to make ensnaring bridge that much more effective. I think more people should run it.

[@hiddenleaf414]

Wicked Reward is actually a pretty funny combat trick in Yuriko in Commander. If Yuriko gets blocked, sac her, pump lethal to kill an important creature that blocked a 1/1 and then Ninjutsu Yuriko back in from another unblocked creature.

[@Interesting_Failure]

I believe the point of Death of a Thousand Stings was to splice stuff onto it, thus getting the effect of the splice cards without ever having to permanently lose any cards. Of course, the spell being 5 mana puts something of a damper on this.... EDIT: Also, I refuse to believe Mangara's Blessing is worse than Sacred Nectar or Angel's Mercy. I don't buy the logic that getting it back does nothing; it gives you a card to discard when the NEXT discard effect hits! Just drawing the card essentially blanks repeatable discard effects for you, and it will save you a lot of cards in the long run against anyone running consistent discard. That's not to say it's GOOD, it's still incredibly niche. But compared to 2 mana for +4 life at sorcery speed with NOTHING else going for it? It's got to be better than that, surely.

[@NizzahonMagic]

2 mana for 4 life at sorcery speed isn't an Instant haha.

[@crovax1375]

I think that Thunderheads is pretty lousy instant and could be an dishonorable mention for this list too

[@Eric_The_Cleric]

When I first saw the card I really wanted to build a deck with it because of that cool ass art and the fun flavor text. Then I realized that you had to get rid of the tokens at the next end step, and for the cost it's just... so bad. So, so bad.

[@kingfuzzy2]

@@Eric_The_Cleric don't worry you can keep the tokens forever with phasing or put it in an aristocrats / cleric deck : D

[@Eric_The_Cleric]

@@kingfuzzy2 I mean not a bad idea, but at that point just put in better, probably similarly costed (money and mana wise) token generators lol. Also, it didn't go over my head that these were niche ways to use the card. I'm just pointing out how inefficient and dumb it is.

[@kingfuzzy2]

Thank you ye it's pretty inefficient Even if you had all the Mana.

[@cosmicfails2053]

I would say that the other Rites cards arent too bad, Red I can see the issue of, you can't get the full pay off since, if youre going wide, you aren't gonna have any cards, but it's still good in a deck focussed on alpha striking the opponent dead with board wide attack buffs Blue is a 2 mana counter, and blue always has cards in hand to help pay for it. Green is fantastic for Golgari since you gain mana for your non-delve cards and also to assist in putting Dredge cards into the graveyard

[@misterbojangles]

Funnily enough I did make my buddy lava axe himself to death by break opening his willbender

[@Melvinvanharn]

That's cool. The only one I can think off of the top of my head is Tiger Claws from Mercadian Masques. I always thought theme decks were neat. Sure, they're typically not "good" but they're fun, and best when played against other theme decks.

[@marvthereddevil5418]

One of the 1st decks I ever built was a BW spirit/arcane deck. It was quite fun to play no. 9 with multiple Theif of Hope & an Oyobi in play, but once I got a few Rend Flesh, DoaTS got dropped. From a casual kitchen table deck. That's how bad it is!

[@hiygamer]

It's more likely the Zedruu decks running break open are trying to use it in conjunction with Unstable Hulk, a morph creature that makes you skip your next turn when it turns face up.

[@chocolatetheeevee]

Wicked reward would go really well in a commander deck with hapatra, because she makes so many snakes so quickly, easily getting something to do a lot of damage to something really quickly, plus if you have a card with infect, you doing way more damage!

[@jamiecruz4421]

There is an argument to be made for wicked reward since sacrificing a creature can be an upside especially when it is part of a cost at instant speed.

[@ulrichs.3228]

It kind of shows how much the meta changed from kitchen table back then to semipro and up now. "I attack with two weenies, you can block only one, I'll sac the blocked one that dies anyway to hit you for extra +4" sounds reasonable enough for kitchen table turn three. (it's entirely possible that a rules change now prevents this? I'm not keeping up.)

[@AkaAkoVT]

Sacred Rites could be part of a combo with The Cheese Stands Alone or Barren Glory... though there's lots of other ways to empty your hand too I suppose.

[@spyderman312]

You messed up kicker 😆 on 10. Falling Timber. I think you were thinking of flashback maybe?

[@Finngrinder]

Death of a thousand stings is at least a repeatable 6 damage with Vial Smasher the Fierce

[@calemr]

I can see barreling attack being usable with, say, Lure. Or anything else that forces multiblock. It can sweep away tokens, for example. Stick both on a 1/1 deathtouch and it's "Destroy all untapped creatures target player controls". Sure, a niche combo, but not Useless. Mangara's blessing Does do something when it returns to your hand: Gives you discard fodder. It's not meant to be played, it's meant to be side decked until someone with a discard deck shows up, and you just discard it every time and keep it for next discard. Read it as a 0 drop untargettable permenant with "Once per turn, negate one enemy discard and gain 2 life" and it sounds far better.

[@Svenburchard]

nice video, where do you find all the art in those big versions?

[@kingfuzzy2]

Hd magic card pics have a few websites it's rumored.

[@morriganpandora3787]

I'd really like to see a similar top 10 where you analyze edh rec and other sources for cards that are underplayed for their power. The top 10 hidden gems or top 10 jank you never knew about. I feel there is a plethora of cards no one ever really uses because they were a rare in some 7 year old set that had too high a cmc for standard play at the time but now might make for a good combo deck or edh value card.

[@joseph1150]

Death of a Thousand stings was occasionally used in limited as an arcane enabler and a way to finish off the opponent. Full block draft was slow and clunky and it could actually do work. Many terrible magic cards were designed for sealed and draft formats and were perfectly fine in that regard. Even falling timber. The rites were a cheap way to turn on madness and flashback discounts. Rain of Rust was fine in it's draft format. It was instant speed removal which killed almost everything relevant. Land, artifacts, and half of the creatures. You paid the entwine cost to 2 for 1. Fanatical Fever was fine in Ice Age sealed. Barreling attack made sense in Mirage limited. Combat was more difficult for blockers due to flanking already setting up unfavorable situations for the defenders. 2/2 attackers could kill a pair of 2/2 defenders in a 2 for 1, with this card it you would still keep your guy.

[@NizzahonMagic]

I played those formats. I wasn't impressed. Also Wizards designing with an eye towards Limited is mostly a more recent thing.

[@celebrim1]

If Mangara's Blessing was in Standard today, it would probably be played in some Monowhite life gain decks. If you have board state that improves whenever you gain life, then 5 life isn't bad. But if that card also protects against discard effects that you see in Kroxa and mono-black control decks, well that's even better. It might not be tier 1 tech, but it would certainly be playable and worth experimenting with.

[@TheMajesticYak0]

Wicked Reward actually was a decent combat trick back when it was printed in 1996. There were a lot of weenie aggro decks that would go wide and could afford to us this to sack a creature to either deal an extra +4 damage to the opponent or take down a large blocker. If you were going wide, you could use this after the declare blockers step and sacrifice a creature that was going to die during the block anyway, so the sacrifice part could be mitigated. This card is pretty terrible in EDH because most combat tricks are anyway, but I think if you look at this card when it came out, it wasn't half bad.

[@EHShinobi]

I have never had a Fog spell fail me unless I was WAY too far behind to catch up to the power creep. I ran 2 Fog effects in my Infinite Acorn Catapult trickshot deck before Paradox Engine was banned from the format and left them in there when I converted it to Coat of Arms - Squirrels Edition. That being said, Falling Timber was a niche card for Hallar as it then became a 3 mana burn spell. Other than that it was just bad.

[@melindagreer4177]

In defense of Break Open. A good amount of morph flip creatures have instant speed reliant effects. Some counterspell, some do combat tricks, and some are only beneficial in certain scenarios. So if you know your opponent probably has one of these "time sensitive" morph creatures, you can take that option from them.

[@yoursweatersux]

But the fact that it's face down means you have no way of knowing what's going to happen. And nine out of ten times you'll be helping the opponent.

[@ognotapussyslayer5917]

one of my favorite instants is Disrupt, a counter spell that only counters instants and sorceries unless the opponent pays 1 colorless mana, and draws you a card regardless

[@molamola5260]

Isn’t mangara blessing pretty good against discard decks?

[@NoLessThanAGod]

This list had a distinct lack of mudhole.

[@android19willpwn]

why am I binging these videos at 1:30 in the morning? I don't even play Magic.

[@wolfwing1]

main thing I love using fogs with is traps. I attack with everything but can't kill the opoenent so they all out attack, I fog and get them next turn.

[@jediprotector216]

10 fixes for the instants 10) Give the card multikicker 9) Change the card to X life equal to arcane cards in graveyard 8) Change the card to +X/+X where X equals cards you discarded 7) Make the CMC to 2R and entwine for 2R 6) Change it to +4/+4 5) Give the card first strike 4) Add deathtouch 3) Replace the latter effect with cycling for 2, and you gain 2 life when you cycle 2) Add permanents tapped this way don't untap during their controller's untap step 1) Replace opponent with "you control" (helps with manifest cards)

[@KitSmithHannaKorkin]

Hey Nizzahon! Something I've been wondering about for a while - how do you get the data for each of these videos? The edhrec ranks are obvious, but I can't figure out any way to get the PT/MC data. Thanks in advance!

[@theradiance256]

Death of a Thousand Stings doesn't belong here compared to some other hunks of garbage, as it can be a free card to loot away and get back to loot away again (especially if one is on the draw in Pauper) that can also serve as a terrible, albeit existent, wincon in the late game. For my pick, it'd be Metal Fatigue. 3 Mana to do almost nothing.

[@GrandElemental]

Sacred Rites is only #8? Oh wow, can't wait to see the rest.

[@Pit_Wizard]

The fact that Sacred Rites isn't even being played in many Doran the Siege Tower decks tells you exactly how terrible it is.

[@TheKalaxis]

The red rite in Goblins is potentially insane. 1 red discard a card any number of cards: Buff your entire board by +1 power for each.

[@Austin555661]

That last card.... how does it work with manifested cards?

[@carloserausquinhoyos3298]

I was expecting to see One With Nothing at #1, although Break Open is so bad I never would have guessed that such a card had ever been printed.

[@cinderheart2720]

It saw tournament play as a counter to owling mine decks.

[@carloserausquinhoyos3298]

@@cinderheart2720 hahaha, when I was trying to think of how it might have been used my first thought was maybe hellbent was competitive once upon a time

[@cinderheart2720]

@@carloserausquinhoyos3298 Hellbent can be good, but you're better off using Wild Mongrel for at least some gain. And of course, Madness is where its really at, not hellbent.

[@Outshinedsg]

Wicked Reward and Sacred Rites feel like they have some marginal utility in the sense that, after you cast them, you can discard or sac your cards with no cost. With Sacred Rites, you could conceivably use it as an enabler and pitch your entire hand of madness effects, reanimation targets, or other things you actively want in the yard. There aren't that many effects that allow you to get rid of your entire hand for 1 mana. Similarly, Wicked Reward does look like a possible combo piece where if you have a creature that recurs a bunch of times, you could generate a large or infinite combat power by saccing a creature repeatedly. I'm sure there are better ways of doing it but it's still interesting to theorycraft.

[@jasonreardon8477]

Mangaras blessing was a great card back when it came out. All those hippies and hymns...lots of life gain.

[@nimenpalac454]

I play the blue rites, which is a counter or pay 3 for each card you discard, has worked for me which shows that counters are plain good cards to run. Almost no matter the cost. Counter is counter.

[@Coeurebene1]

The art of fanatical fever brought old memories. Not good, but memorable apparently.

[@LightningStryke27]

I could see Break Open being used on a manifested non-creature card to remove it, but Shock would basically always be better.

[@NizzahonMagic]

You never know for sure if a manifest isn't a creature, though.

[@sagatario58]

I could think of one deck that an argument for Wicked Reward could be made, Korvold. Since you draw a card and he gets a +1/+1 counter in addition to the cards buff. However, there are better combat tricks and sacrifice outlets. Otherwise, there are better cards to play then the ones on this list.

[@aurora1024]

With Wicked Reward, It seems like this would be great in a tokens deck. If I attack with six 1/1 tokens and say they block five or less, I could Wicked Reward after they declare blockers sacrifice all tokens except for one of the unblocked, and give that one +20/+10. Yeah, it's a high risk/reward senerio, but a goblin deck running Empty the Warrens for example should have no problem getting those kinds of tokens out.

[@unknownkw]

Falling Timber: pretty effective combat trick against obscene abilities like lifelink and doublestrike. At worst, it buys you a turn, which can hardly be seen as completely worthless. Death of a thousand stings: has a "may" cause, therefore pretty effective if you have library of alexandria or something and use discard as a resource. Sacred rites: can be used to build white reanimation deck. It is BETTER than you may think because you control what to discard and has a mana cost suitable for defending. It is superior to one with nothing in every way. You should be very surprised to see that extremely few spells discard cost only 1 mana and at instant speed, let alone discard any number of them at your choice. Abusing this can result in turn 1 kill. Rain of Rust: bad but not unplayable. Destroying land at instant speed has potential. Fanatical Fever: overcosted, point taken. Barreling Attack: nearly unplayable but has combo potential. Wicked Reward: bad until it hoses a buybacking capsize (countering this spell can't save the capsize as sacrificing the creature is a cost, no one see that coming), then it is a fun card. Mangara's Blessing: Good sideboard against discard decks. Malicious Advice: this is actually an extremely powerful finisher on an aggro deck. The cost is very high but it can combo with death's shadow. Break open: I'm out of words and can't figure out how to use it.

[@AkukAkuku]

I appreciate skipping burn and counterspells.

[@VolvoxSocks]

There are quite a few morphs that are better to have Break Open turn up than your opponent: Bane of the Living, Willbender, Blistering Firecat (on your turn), Dawning Purist (before you cast your enchantment), etc. It's just the requirement that your opponent is playing morph/manifest cards and that they are using those specific ones and you somehow know that the face down creature IS one of those cards is so niche the corner cases are irrelevant.

[@alexanderroberts165]

About the rite cycle being terrible isn't the red one sometimes used in hyperaggro pauper decks. Like I know it isn't great or anything but it isn't terrible

[@AidanWR]

Kinda expected One with Nothing, but that does have a niche where it's played (at least when it was printed it wasn't that good, but new cards work really well with it). Also, I have a Break Open, and I almost thought that I should run it, but it's such a bad card, and it's in red

[@baconsir1159]

I feel like Wicked Reward should be considered better than the number 5 and 6 cards solely thanks to aristocrat decks. In those decks the sac is almost an upside (for similar reasons people run High Market) and the combat trick is pretty efficient as tricks go. Not _good_ if course, but not at bad as the 4 CMC tricks.

[@antoniobush4560]

Sacred rites can be kinda saucy with no max hand size arcades

[@TheIndustrialRetrospective]

I always thought it was supposed to be Bevis in the Fanatical Fever art.

[@scienceviking4490]

Death of a Thousand Stings could be both flavorful and decent if it were an enchantment that repeated the effect on your upkeep, rather than an instant that you have to keep paying for.

[@der_suschi7284]

On number 10 we have... Me: “how can there be worse instants like this?“ On number 9 we have... Me: “I see...“ 😁

[@ComixMultiplication]

Could you sacrifice multiple creatures with Wicked Reward?

[@nicklarocco4178]

I mean the only morph I ever really see played in EDH are the ones that counter when they turn face up. So Break Open could be like... a counter counter? I guess. Maybe with zedruu you could give your morph creature to an opponent, break it open, then use something else to gain control of it back lol.

[@beeftank_jr8314]

Mangara's Blessing would actually be weirdly effective against a Kroxa EDH deck. It's not a good reason to ever have it, though, even if you know your table has that deck.

[@justincarroll1836]

How to fix break open, add then destroy it to the card text

[@dooby5597]

Mangara's Blessing probably sees more play now just due to Tergrid decks

[@TimmytheSorcerer]

Barreling Attack and Lure 💃

[@joshuaking7470]

It's just better to slap that lure on a creature that already has rampage i.e. Gorilla Berserkers like I used to do in Gruul Stompy 20 years ago.

[@NoLessThanAGod]

Rules for trample used to be different. You could deal all the damage to one blocker and the rest would carry over to the opponent.

[@Beerploma]

Not complaining, I really enjoy your videos and thoughts. But how did Sylvan Paradise not make the list? Or any of the laces?

[@agentofashcroft]

How could you not include the laces? The worst part of early magic was getting one of the laces in your rare slot, for something that might have situational use at best.

[@kingfuzzy2]

Falling timber is yet another card that goes infinite with the gitrog monster.

[@NoLessThanAGod]

Not if I respond with Mudhole!

[@kingfuzzy2]

Of course ; )

[@HaydenX]

One of my favorite things to do is to take a bad card, and make it notably better, and see if it's still crap: If Falling Timber cost 1 mana with the same Kicker and everything about it, it would be a damn fine Limited card, and would possibly see more play in multiplayer formats such as traditional EDH...but it would only be playable...not good. If Death of a Thousand Stings was changed to costing 2 mana (1B, probably), it would be pretty good...it would be the same decent discard fodder it already is...only now it would be an okay control clock for a very slow lockdown style. Sacred Rites could add the effect to enable you to exile cards from your grave in addition to discarding for its effect...it still wouldn't be good, but it could be an okay combat trick in Limited. Rain of Rust...well, I'd change its CC to 4 (2RR) and change its entwine cost to "Sacrifice an artifact". It still would only be okay, but at least then it can be used to put artifacts into the grave with death triggers for a net positive. Fanatical Fever...cut the cost in half 1G for +3/+0 and Trample at instant speed...or, change the cost to 2G/1GG and make it a cantrip. Barreling Attack...just make it affect all of your creatures instead of one...again, it would still be a Limited-only card, but at least it would be played somewhere to potentially acceptable effect. Wicked Reward...just make it a cantrip...at least then it isn't a minus 2. Mangara's Blessing: well this is a tough one. I think its primary effect is bad but fine, simply because I have an interesting addition to its bonus effect: multiply it by 10. If your opponent makes you discard it, you gain 20 life and get it back. Really make it a decent SB option vs discard control decks, that can be cast for the shiggles if you need it late game to edge out a survival. Malicious Advice is really simple: Add 1 generic mana to the CC, but change the effect to: Tap X target artifacts creatures and or lands, then those permanents' controllers lose life equal to the number of their permanents tapped by this effect. Break Open is a really fast fix...change the text to "Destroy target Artifact or face-down creature." This is always one of my favorite hobbies related to MtG...fixing bad cards.

[@despew4716]

Could you redirect break open onto yourself

[@Les_Fleurs_duMal]

And Wicked Reward is bad? A Giant Growth with an sacrifice-outlet? Sign me up! This card is awesome, when you combine it with the right creatures, that you WANT to hit your graveyard.

[@TwoCentReview]

Seeing Sacred Rites as #8 has me scared for what is coming up.

[@zakpodo]

I've always wondered how falling timbers art was relevant

[@danielkuttel7867]

Um, many cards from the past show a lack of effectiveness compared to modern cards, but: Some of the cards mentioned here weren't that bad at the time. I have died many times against zombie decks and wicked reward because they attacked you in large numbers. If the blockers were distributed and before the damage was assigned, they sacrificed all other zombies and the unblocked one kicked your ass. In combination with red and hurry it becomes even more dangerous. Back then there were a lot of hand disc decks (Specter, etc.), so Mangaras Blessing was good against them. I know there are more powerful cards out there today, but back then you tried to influence the current game. This is roughly how you compare a lighter against a flint from back then. The flint did its job back then, but the lighter is better today..

[@JustSoggyBread]

Wicked reward only lets you sacrifice one creature

[@felixeisenmenger6254]

Im pretty sure you can only sac 1 creature with Wicked Reward

[@bluegum6438]

Wicked Reward really doesn't seem THAT terrible edit: never mind, Oracle says you're only allowed to sac exactly one creature to it. It should read "as an additional cost to play this card, sacrifice a creature" with modern phrasing. It's awful.

[@danielkuttel7867]

@@JustSoggyBread You're right, we played it wrong in the backdays. Ups ;o)

[@danielkuttel7867]

But if im honest, in the backdays was it normal, that the text with : was continous. Sacrifice, get effect, Sacrifice again. If the effect only should be used once, it was written differently.

[@winstonsassman2122]

A little surprised Kaervek's spite didn't make the list