The Creatures With the WORST Drawbacks in Magic: the Gathering

[@andrewnash5813]

These are getting so much more obscure and honestly it’s what I love about the series. You always see “top ten *keyword*” but you do much more

[@remigusker]

I look forward to every one of these vids for this reason. All kinds of neat cards get brought up

[@darthparallax5207]

I wouldn't call most of these obscure. They are actually pretty memorable for people who were playing the game when they came out because most of them were "not enough on their own" but "actually would get better by combining with another card". It used to be the expectation that all the cards with no downsides effectively functioned like Birds of Paradise: they'd never win the game they'd only help you play other cards. Not every card with a downside was good and not every combo was deemed good enough. The challenge was to figure out the best combo to try to get rid of downsides with and then figure out the best goal to combo into. Some of these cards were still bad but they were all conversation topics as signposts to help discover the enabler spells you had to have to make them stop being unplayable. This is how Reanimator gets discovered. This is how cheating spells to be cast without mana cost gets discovered. You make sure there's a drawback on the card that people do Not want to pay but they Do think they Can get rid of. Hellcarver Demon saw play iirc. He could cast stuff for free. That used to be a lot rarer even in Blue. They didn't used to let Green do it really at all. But Green started doing it in Phyrexia basically the year after Hellcarver came out. The Leviathans are all neato. You're never supposed to be worried about the mana cost there was always Animate Dead for that and that often made them tempting as more P/T than Mahamotti Djinn and you had a plan for getting them out earlier than a Goblin, Merfolk, or Elf deck would easily react to. Wizards and Slivers were usually able to do something along with almost any WU Control. WUB Animate Dead finisher strapped to a Control shell? It was always a popular way to play. Eater of Days makes most of the other cards on this list irrelevant because it is great to cost fewer mana and not need Animate Dead and it is great to be colorless. That makes it less complicated to try things. Cosmic Larva is still good for costing 1 mana less and costing fewer colors than Lord of Tresserhorn and costing less downside than Eater of Days. Larva and Eater can both go in the same Torpor Orb deck and be very dangerous threats.

[@SomeGuy712x]

(5:57) In the old Shandalar computer game, I think the enemies in the blue castle always begin with a Leviathan in play on the hardest difficulty level. However, it of course starts off tapped, and they'll spend their first four turns playing Islands to just sacrifice to the thing in order to untap it and let it attack. But, by then, it's usually not difficult to have drawn something like Swords to Plowshares, Terror, or Unsummon to get rid of the thing in response to it attacking, setting the foe way behind on the board state, and making it very easy for you to win. (7:25) I still remember one time long ago when an opponent played an Eater of Days against me. I think I immediately destroyed it with something like Naturalize, and then I proceeded to use my next three consecutive turns to beat down all of his life points.

[@mumpizgaming5039]

Eater of Days needs to give the enemy 2 Turns, flavorwise. Otherwise it would be only an Eater of Day.

[@johngleeman8347]

I would have made Eater's controller immune to damage during the bonus turns.

[@darthparallax5207]

It's a very powerful card as is. Torpor Orb casts for half the mana Eon Hub does. His criticism of Eon Hub is fair. He's too hard on Torpor Orb. Torpor Orb is like Animate Dead: it makes a lot of these cards into real deck ideas that are fair without being overpowered. You won't win every time but it will be way more winning than he is making it sound. Your opponent can still stop things with removal but usually creatures ought to die to removal since that is what removal is for.

[@MainTopmastStaysail]

I think a turn takes more than a day, but we won't know until they print a "Building of Rome" saga.

[@AlphaSquadZero]

@@darthparallax5207 Doesn't it lock your opponent out of their enter the battlefield abilities too? I had forgotten the exact wording of Zedruu and thought for a moment it could just play cards from your hand to your opponent's field. Ah, but beamtown bullies can.

[@bannanafosho]

Nah, it eats many types of days. Mondays, Tuesdays, birthdays, holidays, etc.

[@VieneLea]

I'm sorry, but let me just tell you how much I appreciate your videos. You always include all the information that is necessary at the right times (stats, cards) and explain things that aren't obvious. I never need to search for additional off-site info, I can just watch your video and it's complete in it's entirety.

[@NizzahonMagic]

I appreciate that!

[@ItsDangerousGoAlone]

We all know our green treefolk friend is waiting at number 1 spot

[@johngleeman8347]

At least the art is amusing. XD

[@zackkelley2940]

The absolute BEST CASE scenario for this is playing it in Titania Protector of Argoth where you'll at least get some 5/3 elementals out of of it. And even in this VERY niche case... it's STILL a meme.^^

[@quint3ssent1a]

Yeah, I've seen our green friend so much i never doubted in him being in #1 spot again.

[@calemr]

I'd like to see a top 10 biggest drawbacks that are still usable.

[@julianlaywine7453]

Yeah, top ten worst downsides on cards that have top-eighted? That would be a great part two. Phyrexian Negator needs some love.

[@RibusPQR]

Archfiend of the Dross?

[@ScourgeofPeaches]

good idea

[@darthparallax5207]

There are no drawbacks in Magic any more. The cards that turn the drawbacks into upside have all gotten super easy to use without anything complicated. But there's still something similar to mana cost : to P/T ratio on every kind of card. So Reanimator is a great strategy but there's always going to be a Best card to Reanimate. I personally think Torpor Orb is a valid good strategy But it's not necessarily as *fast* as a more traditional Reanimator route. Hellcarver Demon was playable the day it came out because people could and did use it to put Eldrazi into play. There are now better ways to get Eldrazi into play but when you end on Emrakul the Aeons Torn most costs are worth it. The Wheel effects in Magic never stopped getting made. Discarding cards is always possible to turn into a benefit, but it does matter that you don't want to pay a lot of mana to do it. Sacrificing Lands is probably of all the downsides the one they try hardest to make not easy to turn into upside no matter what else is changing. Cosmic Larva looks like a good card to me but the lands you sacrifice really are like paying more mana. They'll make cards that give you something for paying mana but your "tax return" never gives you all your taxes back when it comes to destroying your own lands. Deaths Shadow makes paying life even better than ever let alone showing it side by side next to Necropotence. Paying life is practically all upside for all the cards that reward you alot for doing it.

[@Black_Revue]

I'm surprised to see Yu-Gi-Oh isn't the only game with Big Monsters with Downsides

[@hungrybois5954]

Congrats on 700 videos, nizza. I'm fairly new to Magic (began in 2018), and your vids have been fundamental for me. Thank you!

[@dedrick43]

6 years is a good amount of time. I started in 2013

[@hungrybois5954]

@@dedrick43 I guess in my mind, 2018 is still like 3 years ago, haha.

[@terakhanthis]

For jank combo: Hellcarver Demon + Insidious Dreams + Balancing Act. When the demon gets its trigger, pitch your hand to ID to search up Balancing Act and put it on top. When you cast that, it will make your opponent sacrifice and discard down to match your one permanent and empty hand.

[@bluedestiny2710]

If there are other creatures that came with the top 6 from Hellcarver's effect, can you cast them AFTER resolving balancing act first? If yes, then yea, you go ahead in permanents ... so that;s a fun combo to pull off.

[@terakhanthis]

@@bluedestiny2710 You cast them first, so they resolve last, but yes, you can get more stuff onto the field after the Balancing Act resolves. You cast all the spells you want from the flip, but you choose the order, with the stack always clearing itself top to bottom, newest to oldest.

[@2rare2die26]

I made a Hellcarver Demon deck back when it came out in Rise of the Eldrazi. Was a janky legacy deck that tried to swing with hellcarver on turn 2, or turn 1 with lightning greaves on a cracked hand (with sol ring, mana crypt, dark rituals - etc). It was always hilarious when Hellcarver hit Emrakul, because that just won the game on my free turn on the spot. It was also hilarious to hit Time Warp (and Liliana Vess) and take another 6 cards lol.

[@mikotagayuna8494]

On the other hand, Teeka's Dragon's text has all upside. A true poster boy for power creep.

[@Beaudunk]

Vomiting the same joke over and over. Stop.

[@poiri]

Orating the same joke over and over. Continue.

[@mofomiko]

​@@Beaudunk bro you ever M E M E D?

[@charlesb.andrulis6550]

I would have thought that Leveler would make the list, but I guess it has a lot of synergy with Lab Man and other empty library win conditions.

[@robmitchell3039]

None of those existed when it was printed originally, so it makes me wonder if this might have actually topped Wood Elemental back then. Or if there was some way to actually use Leveller.

[@matthiasgoldschmidt8134]

I think I played Eater of Days in Vintage Stax decks. Giving your opponent two extra turns with Smokestack and Tanglewire in play was pretty powerfull.

[@calemr]

One Ring or Teferi's protection can also keep you safe. But it still lets people build up.

[@zarator7429]

But if you're dominating your opponent so hard that even two full extra turns don't let them come back... wouldn't a lot other "smaller" creatures do the deal as well because your opponent is prolly shut down hard? Creatures, I might add, that can also be useful when you do NOT have full control just yet?

[@darthparallax5207]

Really good Control decks work differently from Really good Aggro decks. There's no room in a Stax deck for a bunch of small creatures when the whole plan is to play the cards that punish the opponent for playing normal cards lol. Stax's main goal in life is to make the opponent realize that Goblin Lackey and Birds of Paradise and Lotus Petal are better off stuck in their hand than risking playing them.

[@zarator7429]

@@darthparallax5207 Yes but there are plenty of finishers that are more practical than Eater of Days to play. And if your opponent is completely defenseless even an Archon of Emeria or Thalia can finish them off

[@matthiasgoldschmidt8134]

This was like 20 years ago, so the card pool was way different. I also think the deck had Mediate. But yeah, the strategy was to lock the opponent down pretty quick and then swing with some beefy beaters. Today there are much better options for that though.

[@Raptor0256]

dont forget the lord was also 3 different colours in a non colour-fixing colours

[@zackkelley2940]

Honestly, the biggest problem with Lord of Tresserhorn nowadays is that you're giving an opponent 2 free cards on ETB. Losing 2 life is fairly negligible and grixis gives you tons of option for reusable fodder and disposable tokens

[@nickbalmes6640]

Ahh Lord of Tresserhorn. I still remember Rachel Weeks using that in one of their Game Knights episodes. Good ol' Voltron :)

[@cax1175]

Congrats on 700!

[@TheTundraTerror]

Surprised not to see anything from Mercadian Masques in this list. You know, the set that gave a bunch of Hill Giants that granted your opponent free spells?

[@yuyano2009]

lol i used to run Cosmic Larva back when it was in standard. i equip it with Lightning Greaves so it can at least swing for an attack

[@BCWasbrough]

Yeah. Since it's in the color that can give Haste so easily, I figured it was just a bigger Ball Lightning that would stick around for a horrendous cost. Plus, Fling is in red too. :)

[@lodusrex]

I’m surprised leveler wasn’t on this list. It sits right alongside cards like hellcarver demon and eater of days in Beamtown bullies lists, and it should have had a home here as well.

[@blacklancejeo6625]

People found ways to mitigate an empty library downside, or actually win off an empty library. Laboratory Maniac is that combo piece

[@bluedestiny2710]

If they gave Cosmic Horror Trample, I can see it being used... kinda like a First Strike version of Lord of the Pit For Lord of Treserhorn: another thing that makes it worse is that Incinerate and Disintegrate is part of the standard it was in... so Red had no problems dealing with that tiny 4 toughness. There's also a chance one of those 2 cards you get IS that card... White has protection from black creatures and can block it for days... Blue can bounce it and make you give the player 2 more cards if you wanna recast it. Black, like White, can just take it down with efficient small creatures... and green has their own set of regenerating creatures as well as their own army of fat creatures. Really, it was pretty miserable to use this card as I found out T_T the lack of trample or any sort of evasion made this card pretty worthless Actually, there are 3 more "worst drawbacks" I would argue should have made the list, if nothing else, for honorable mention Abyssal Persecutor: yes, this creature is pretty efficient at BB2 for a 6/6 Flying Trampler. However, it's drawback is that as long as it is in play, you cannot win the game and your opponent cannot lose the game. Now, granted the decks that use this card would have a TON of ways to sacrifice it once it has pounded the enemy for 24damage (I know, I played that deck too. Cabal Therapy anyone?), but the ability itself is TERRIBLE since... well.. you cant win. On the same vein, Archfiend of the Dross' drawback is "remove oil counters or you lose the game". Same as the Persecutor: it's efficient and it can kill your opponent before this drawback ever matters, but the drawback is STILL bad since it right out loses you the game if you fail its condition Leveler also has a terrible drawback. It's a 10/10 for 5 that blows that exiles your deck. Yes, there are ways to take advantage of it like Laboratory Maniac or use it the same way as Doomsday (i.e use cards to return your cards so you draw your choice cards) .... but exiling your deck is a bad drawback Now for an ACTUAL terrible card, how about Vodalian Warmachine? UU1 for a 0/4 with defender. Then, you can tap a merfolk to either give this creature +2/+1 or "loses defender" until end of turn. If this creature is destroyed, all merfolk you tapped this way gets sacrificed. Yea up front, its useless... requires a LOT of work to get it anywhere near usable (at least 3, maybe 4 cards?) and then once your opponent gets rid of it, its pretty much a 4 for 1 O.O

[@SomeGuy712x]

I've made a deck that contains 4 Archfiends of the Dross and an Abyssal Persecutor, and it's fun to give them to the opponent at the appropriate times with things like Fateful Handoff. Or even better, use Metamorphic Alteration to turn one of the opponent's creatures into a copy of Archfiend of the Dross, sans oil counters, so they lose on their next upkeep if they don't have an immediate way to off their own creature. I've won that way multiple times. (Of course, my deck has ways to sacrifice my creatures too if need be, like with Village Rites.)

[@bluedestiny2710]

@@SomeGuy712x That sounds fun to be honest XD Like: Here, have this card! See how nice I am? XD Wait... it does something bad for you? Oops >:) But yea... as I said earlier: they really good, efficient beatsticks that was used to varying degrees during their standard (as I said: I ran a deck with 4 Persecutors and use them for their stats... after doing "lethal", I sac it to win the game. They're THAT good to warrant that effort)... but the drawback themselves are some of the worst in the game!

[@selectivepontification8766]

Here's the thing with Abyssal Persecutor: its drawback is barely a drawback, for the same reason that cards which only gain life are generally not good. Sure, you can't win the game but that doesn't matter if you're not in a position to immediately win anyway, and until then it's a big powerful beater that doesn't penalize you in any way and can bludgeon your opponent's creatures into submission unlike the cards on this list that actively bring you closer to losing just because you played them

[@TheGloriousLobsterEmperor]

I don't know how I missed this one, I must have forgotten about it while at trivia. But I'm still on my quest, still searching for "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)"!

[@treethegreat52890]

Eater of days was one of my favorite cards when I was a teenager. It was one of the first rares I ever pulled.

[@mjjjuly]

Leveler - etb exile your library Worldgorger Dragon - etb exile all other permanents you control; ltb return all exiled cards

[@jeandouyeth6682]

yes, Leveler deserved its place here !

[@NizzahonMagic]

Both of them are used as combo win conditions all the time.

[@jeandouyeth6682]

@@NizzahonMagic yes I didn't think about that for leveler (and thassa's oracle for example)

[@robmitchell3039]

Leveler Came out in Mirrodin. There were no ways to win with an empty library, so was there any way to play it at the time? I suppose you could give it haste and at least attack one time, but that doesn't seem particularly good, considering you'll lose in your next draw step.

[@cax1175]

I need an article on Lord of Tresserhorn as a Commander running all of the Grixis color and colorless creatures on this list. The people demand it Nizzahon!

[@NekoValtz]

MAN I wanted to see this because I want to run a jon irenicus EDH deck.

[@NDHFilms]

On cards like Leviathan and Wood Elemental, where the heck were players getting all these lands to just throw away?

[@superbaas8822]

They weren't

[@RW77777777]

People DID use Leviathan. Good cards didn't always carry the day; back in the day... I remember killing someone who had a good deck because they Mana Drain'd my 3 consecutive Sea Serpents (6CMC) and mana burned to death only needed 18 because of City of Brass and Adakar Wastes

[@darthparallax5207]

Wood Elemental would have needed Rampant Growth which didn't exist for a couple years. Animate Dead always had takers in Blue and Black every set from day 1. The goal isn't to end the game with the most lands under your control it's to drop your opponents lifepoints to 0. Animate Dead a Kraken or Leviathan usually was a good idea and could make on turn 2 or 3 something bigger than any demon dragon or angel. That wasn't the whole picture on its own but if Birds of Paradise saves you a lot of mana, Animate Dead saves you more mana.

[@odoacredacalcutta5085]

you were not playing in the 90s. I can assure you that Leviathan was widely played, and I even remember someone playing wood elemental. You have to understand that the average casual player back in the day was so bad that his typical deck would consist of 120 cards, half of them crazily expensive creatures and the other half lands. Most of the time they were drawing uncastable spells or flooding with lands..... so they always had tons of them to sac. This is essentially the meta you have to picture to understand why cards like Leviathan and even wood elemental were played.

[@riukenavatar8625]

Would wood elemental be playable if you could sac any lands, tapped or not?

[@AegisAuras]

Combo Eater Of Days with: Strict Proctor, Stifle, or Consign To Memory and you can counter the ETB effect.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Not worth the effort

[@Awaken2Ascend]

Came thinking Lord of the Pit would be the top. It didn't even make the list! I had no idea some of these cards even existed theyre so bad.

[@BCWasbrough]

On the upside, Lord of Tresserhorn had a fun nickname: Good Buddy.

[@shino-X]

The Hellcarver Demon Thumbnail Trilogy is completed.

[@frenche2480]

Now I want to know the cards with the worst draw back that made it into the top 8 !!

[@theclovercross]

Woo! Happy 700!🎉🎉🎉

[@legendofsonic3979]

In certain black decks tresser can actually be quite good, sacrificing creatrues that hace beneficial effects when sacrificed + that one black legendary that deals damage when the opponent draws

[@YehudaBerlinger]

First thing that came to mind when I saw the subject was Jangling Automaton.

[@RW77777777]

he hangs out with a Lure'd Basilisk

[@BrotherAlpha]

I could see the Jokulmorder being okay in a deck that a.) has landfall, and b.) ways to play lands from your graveyard. "I will be able to hit my landfall trigger every turn and attack with this."

[@timothy3450]

There is a creature that when it enters the battlefield it exiles your entire library

[@magicsinglez]

Hehe, I’ve seen Lord of Tresserhorn in play a couple of times. I’m not sure what I drew when they cast it. A couple of these seem almost too big and too cheap to ignore. I suspect Commander, with so many enemies, is a little less forgiving.

[@monogreen]

I have fond memories of losing to a number of these cards. Maelstrom Wanderer cascade into Eater of Days and Jokulmorder, play island attack for 29 was pretty scary back in the day. The same person had a Garza Zol commander deck, which contained Hellcarver Demon as a secret commander. It was all extra combat steps and extra turn cards. And while I often sigh at so many extra turns, when it's just being used to give Hellcarver Demon extra attack steps I thought it was too cool to be any sort of issue

[@autumnjennings7104]

What if you have 4 4/4 forests including one that’s Mirror of the Forebears copying a 4/4 forest creature, how big would Wood Elemental be when you cast it for 4 and sacrifice 4 untapped 4/4 forests?

[@NizzahonMagic]

A 4/4.

[@chrismarlow9585]

This is actually a top 10 creatures in beamtown bullies + leviathans Nizzahon liked as a kid

[@JD-gk7eh]

"WotC likes making big blue creatures with ridiculous downsides." Yes! That was a big theme all through early Magic. The largest creature in every set was always some 7+ mana blue monster that was ridiculously hard to play. Island Fish Jasconius in ARN, (none in Antiquities), Elder Spawn in Legends, Leviathan in The Dark, Deep Spawn in Fallen Empires, Polar Kraken in Ice Age, Marjhan in Homelands, none in Alliances, Taniwha in Mirage, Tolarian Serpent in Weatherlight. That last one was real bad at the time but now that there's graveyard synergies, the drawback isn't nearly as bad. Benthic Behemoth in Tempest is the first big blue creature that didn't have a drawback. And that's where it really quits being a one per set thing. Anytime they printed one after that, it was a throwback to that trope from early Magic.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

When I hear "mind control effect," I think "control another player," but I guess that's a Word of Command effect.

[@Squee-g8f]

That's a mindslaver effect. Mind control was an aura that took control of a creature. Names like that usually come from the first or most famous card that has that effect.

[@dtechnolife15]

Hushbringer would be a good card to turn off a lot of these downsides since they’re mostly ETBs

[@bobbyshen7826]

MTG Goldfish played with some of these, especially Eater of Days, and one time Seth accidentally took 3 Extra Turns!

[@kevinjooss9348]

I have a Lord of Tresserhorn Commander deck and it is pretty cool with creatures that have good death triggers. Not the most competetive deck of course, but pretty fun to play at a low power table.

[@hugmonger]

Lord of Tresserhorn is one of those that you play purely for style purposes. He doesnt trample so that 10/4 doesnt mean much sadly. But if you line him up with creatures that have good "dies" effects he can be a decent blow out. He is a build around commander and always funny to watch work.

[@zackkelley2940]

I imagine Cosmic Larva could work fairly well in a fling deck. Red has plenty of haste enablers that will let you attack with it immediately. Then you just chuck it at something before you have to sac it. Or you can play it something that WANTS to sacrifice lands, such as Hazezon, Shaper of Sand.

[@montefrenkel8205]

I wonder if doorkeeper stapling no etb to a 1/2 flier with flash makes any of these more plausible

[@2rare2die26]

So, back when Rise of the Eldrazi came out: I made a legacy deck based around Hellcarver demon - it was quite powerful when it found Emrakul (it says cast), and it was ALWAYS fun to Time Warp and swing again next turn. Turn 1 - swamp, mana rock (sol ring), lightning greaves. Turn 2 - Dark ritual, dark ritual, sol ring for Hellcarver Demon - equip greaves. Hellcarver is grossly underrated.

[@2rare2die26]

Also: I used the Normal Liliana Vess planes walker in the deck because the -2 can win the game with an unblocked demon. Was also fantastic to hit off Hellcarver.

[@codyjarvis4557]

I had a Sky Swallower and Phage kitchen table deck that was hilarious in multiplayer.

[@devononair]

But... you're forgetting that Leviathan would be great if they printed a card that generated four island tokens per turn! Then it would be awesome!

[@dtelad11]

Another view with Alabaster Leech :) I wonder what's a reasonable statline for that one. 2/3? 3/3?

[@JD-gk7eh]

I remember a friend of mine once suggesting Cosmic Larva as anti-Blood Moon in Vintage tech years ago. They brick all your lands so you play that and attack for 7 a bunch of times (and since it was Vintage, there would be no blockers to mess this up).

[@Lovuschka]

Wood Elemental already would be bad if you had to sacrifice forests for the effect. But making that untapped forests was completely insane. For 15 mana you can get either Emrakul, the Aeon's Torn, a 15/15 that could as well read "You win the game." Or you get an 11/11 Wood Elemental and sacrifice 11 lands. Oh, and then your opponent accidentally sacrifices a card and does a Fatal Push.

[@VeiRetning]

The drawback of the Wood Elemental is definitely made worse by also having to pay $24.99(Also highest on this top 10) to play one

[@ElFritzador]

Thanks!

[@NizzahonMagic]

No problem!

[@banditkeithkingofduelmonsters]

I predicted wood elemental being #1 which isn't impressive honestly. How did they think that was a passable card? Why not make you draw cards for each forest sacrificed or make it sac tapped forests too or just make it 2 mana.

[@sufifi]

I was expecting Tempting Wurm in the top 10, hey, I play a 5/5 for 2 but you can put all permanents from your hand on The battlefield ? Yes please, do it

[@superbaas8822]

There are a couple ways to make the Wurm reasonable. It is low enough cost to actually justify with Torpor Orb (and most other effects also cost 2.) Another good buddy for Wurm is Containment Priest. With the priest out, any creature they flash in off the Wurm gets exiled, so you heavily limit the value they get back. Finally, you can combo it with treason/mind control effects to just take whatever they put out.

[@catoticneutral]

I kinda want to play Sky Swallower in some sort of Downside Tribal deck and use it to donate a really horrible board to my opponent after sacrificing all of my lands. You could hypothetically reduce its cost even further with Heartless Summoning, which won't ever kill your Sky Swallower but would cripple most aggressive decks. There's also Treacherous Blessing for efficient card draw that turns into a pinger later, and of course Demonic Pact and/or Archfiend of the Dross as an obvious win condition. If they clean up all the gunk I put on their board they still have to deal with a big flyer. Could be kind of fun.

[@BaronVonCount]

The amount of cards on this list that people can say they used to love as kids just goes to say we all had a huge inner timmy as kids

[@aldotrioksidi]

I used to have a deck way back that had playset of Levelers and Eaters of Days, and the main idea was to offset them by having a set of Torpor Orbs. I also remember running Porcelain Legionnaires and Tempered Steel in the mix, at that point Vexing Devil was too expensive for my taste. It was a fun deck to play but not good. I do have a Lord of Tresserhorn currently as a commander in a deck and it has the obvious stuff, like Torpor Orb, Stifle and Trickbind, but in the end, you're just playing a big french vanilla.

[@soul21375]

I think there is 1 more drawback even worse than wood elemental. Phage the Untouchable

[@heath1948]

The second one can be good in a neckrusar deck

[@nickhughes8179]

I tried Lord of Tresserhorn. Often the issue was having 2 creatures to want to sacrifice to it, and you don’t want to waste deck spots on token making when you’re trying to quickly kill your opponents via multiple Wheel effects. You need those spots for quick spot removal

[@spencerschmidt-rundell1612]

I'd like to shout-out Ovinomancer, a three mana 0/1 that makes you bounce three of your basic lands. Sure, it destroys a creature and give its controller a bad one, but it returns to your hand to do so. (More exact text: When Ovinomancer enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless you return three basic lands you control to their owner's hand. Tap, return Ovinomancer to its owner's hand: Destroy target creature. It can't be regenerated. Its controller creates a 0/1 green(?) Sheep creature token.)

[@jaredt2590]

The one thing that saves sky swallower from being the worst creature card is having a cost of only 5 and having flying. If you’re playing against green, that early especially if you go first you may be able to own your opponent with one.

[@destructimus]

What about Abyssal Persecutor? Not too bad a card, but making it so your opponent can't lose while it's in play is pretty serious.

[@NizzahonMagic]

It saw competitive play. Makes it hard to end up on this list.

[@destructimus]

@@NizzahonMagic makes sense when you put it that way lol. I was considering only the drawback, nothing else...i use it in my vaevictis asmadi, the dire commander deck cuz I have that sac outlet.

[@randallross420]

I used to run Cosmic Larva in my Pandemonium deck back in the day

[@jordank8814]

I actually saw Leviathan played in a weird blue artifacts deck as a blocker, you tap it to use its power as mana then untap it using an artifact, goes infinite lol

[@worldoffood123]

idk if you start with a Sol Ring or Dark Ritual, Eater of Days could be pretty worthwhile. Not much usually happens before turn 4. Destroy artifacts are pretty common tho. Maybe if they made it indestructible?

[@T4N7]

One of my brothers also tried so hard to make Lord of Tresserhorn work. It wasnt bad in the end, eventually they printed enough Warstorm Surge type effects n he made a deck with this n Phyrexian Dreadnought n Force of Savagery among others n it was actually a decent deck for kitchen table magic, tbe best of formats where somehow a deck with both 3 copies of Sol Ring n Demonic Tutor can be in a deck whike the other has Raging Goblin, n a other has a playset of Squadron Hawk n yet this is a fair 3 way game. 😹

[@dragonhuman6484]

Is the Leveler from Mirrodin not a bad card? sures its a 5 mana 10/10 but you lose your whole library meaning you deck out next turn (unless comboed)

[@NizzahonMagic]

People exploit it all the time with Thassa's Oracle and the like.

[@hitmangfx7162]

Primevil Titan is Wood Elemental's BFF. He brings lands for him to eat.

[@biomadnesstrip]

Great, this list is going straight into my Jon Irenicus commander deck

[@jaredt2590]

Hell carver Demon is awesome, I’ve got to get that and build a deck around it now.

[@mateuszbok4466]

Well, at least the artworks are good, some even marvelous :)

[@constancebashford2324]

Just here to remind people that Jon Irenicus, Shattered One exists.

[@JimNoBoDie]

Ahh I love my Lord of Tresserhorn EDH deck tho. Zombies like to be sacrificed lol

[@Durgenheim]

Way back in the day I was playing my buddy and dropped a cosmic horror, because the bigger the creature, the better. He then immediately cast stone rain on his turn, which prevented me from paying the upkeep cost and killed me. Never played that card ever again. It’s still sitting in my collection, collecting dust.

[@bradleygiven5193]

I’m actually glad Phyrexian Negator didn’t make the list. Today his drawback is outlandish, but back in the day he was so efficient he was a staple in black control and tempo decks (that you always sides out against red).

[@soxandbears]

i guess hellcarver demon seems usable as a utility blocker and you can attack if you have a creature board wipe? that's about the only utility i see

[@WiiTara]

Its a great list, but my first thought how youd rank the cards would be a different one focusing more on the severity of the drawbacks and less on the overall creature. Like yes Wood Elemental is a horrible card, sacrifing 0 to X lands is nothing compared to eater of days drawback. Not sure if this would have changed a lot on the list.

[@Melissanoma]

yeah I expected Abyssal Persecutor to be number 1. "you can't win and your opponents can't lose" is possibly the biggest downside ever printed (other than ante etc), but the card it is attached to is actually decent otherwise. 4mv 6/6 flying trample

[@dark_rit]

Wood elemental is pretty bad though like you don't even get an efficient beater like you do with eater of days. You could run plain grizzly bears over wood elemental and it would probably be better unless your deck is built around sacking a lot of lands, but even for that purpose wood elemental is poor since it can sack just untapped forests. Abyssal persecutor if you're playing it you have a lot of ways to get around the drawback otherwise you wouldn't run it since opponents won't kill it unless it's multiplayer and they want someone at negative or zero life to lose.

[@WiiTara]

@@dark_rit Yes, i know. Thats why i said I thought its soly focused on the severity of the drawback and not on the overall playability of the card. Because with that reasoning Persecuter and Eater of days are far worse.

[@NizzahonMagic]

Yeah, I suppose I could have been more clear about what I intended with this video. What I meant to look at is cards that have huge downsides and are unplayable because of them. Abyssal Persecutor, Leveler, Phyrexian Dreadnought, etc., are all cards that have seen competitive play because you can get around their downsides effectively and efficiently.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

Obviously Cosmic Horror needs an effect that flickers it during your upkeep and another that gives it haste :V

[@Засотнюваэропортпоехали]

Congrats! You've done Obzedat.

[@mrpinguimninja]

3:14 so you mean young Nizza was a fan of Have a Nice Life

[@heath1948]

Yeah hell carver demon is great in bad gift decks.

[@Sulmor85]

700!!❤ Congrats

[@itzibitzi7611]

Wood Elemental in Titania is pretty good😆👍

[@odoacredacalcutta5085]

I love all of these creatures from the very bottom of my heart. they bring such good memories. I wish wotc will push the power creep down to a point where creatures like these will still see the light of day. (Now crawling behind a rock thinking about comboing eater of days with torpor orb or smoke stack)

[@dafu6848]

Sky swallower could be a giga brain move in commander when some mind games establish a 2v2 though

[@dafu6848]

but is it your opponent then?

[@stevenleonard3896]

I think cosmic larva could have some potential in the right deck. Have anger in the graveyard so it has haste and have some sort of sacrifice/recursion outlet.

[@darthanakinII]

You forgot phage the untouchable

[@mark1A100]

nah thats not really all that bad. phage just prevents you from cheating her out so her down side doesnt exist by default

[@Засотнюваэропортпоехали]

Top of this list could be a great choice with Strict Proctor!

[@AndrusPr8]

And what do you get in return? A 0/0? The top 3 or top 2 on the other hand, are better tsrgets

[@hughmortyproductions8562]

Eater of Days was one of the first rares I opened when I started playing. It honestly wasn't that bad against the extremely low powered decks my friends were playing at the time. Against any deck that doesn't suck though it's pretty awful,.

[@Oneiroclast]

A lot of these drawbacks are thematically interesting at least. The idea of powerful creatures that are dangerous to try to control has a ton of potential, it just rarely gets done justice.

[@NicoloRisso]

There will be a special episode for the 700th mtg top 10 like there was for 500th and 600th?

[@BlueGriffin20]

I imagine trading the leech to a non white deck and then changing the color text would be a way to lose friends… Also I like to see that demon run in a Marchesa the black rose deck where everything cones into play with a +1/+1 counter…

[@Garl_Vinland]

Sky swallower and Blihm sounds really funny

[@EnderPryde]

The "Torpor Orb skip ETB" plan for some of these cards actually isn't *terrible* since it's a pretty low mana investment and hoses a pretty wide swath of cards your opponents may be playing. But, yeah, a lot of these options for that style of deck just aren't good - you're a lot better off with stuff like Phyrexian Dreadnaught, Body Snatcher, or Plague Belcher - stuff that's either way more over the top in the mana efficiency, or whos ETB downsides are pretty minor, but who's LTB triggers are pretty decent. If you don't have the Orb - oh well. Small price to pay, but you still have reasonable creaturew. If you do have the Orb up, it's also actively messing with a lot of the opponents triggered abilities. Eon Hub skipping upkeep (for over twice the mana) is definitely less helpful since relatively few cards your opponents will play really *rely* on the upkeep step existing.

[@rfs8194]

Wow, sky swallower is silly. First I thought, hey you could play that as a finisher in a creatureless control deck, maybe. Then I realized what the textbox actually says.

[@cenasux]

I was expecting Leveler to be number one. When it enters you exile your library.

[@DJTwilight]

I won with Leveler in a pod, just cast Fractured Identity and enjoy the jankiness

[@cenasux]

@@DJTwilight oh I like that

[@dustins9464]

You know what is funny, my friend bought me the original Alabaster Leach art, and it is hanging up in my game room. He bought it as a gag gift for me. Oh well, at least I have some original art from magic. What a crappy creature.

[@blaze556922]

Rachel Weeks has a good lord of treaslehorn deck. It looks fun