Oko: The Story of the Most Broken Magic Card

This has been a passion project of mine for several months. The flame that burns twice as bright, lasts half as long. In oko's case, a nuclear flame.
I want to thank @Hefesbro for creating my Minotuar Character.
You can find them here: he...
Here's My twitter: / minotaurreview
Music used:
Mandy - Tim Shiel
Tiami's Theme - Guild Wars 2
Hero's Canton - Guild Wars 2
The Great Wall Has Fallen - Guild Wars 2
The Kings Wit - The Black Piper
The Orders Unite - Guild Wars 2
Tiami's Game - Guild Wars 2
Tarir - Guild Wars 2

[@Ruckal]

I think it’s also important to mention that Oko’s +1 when being used as removal is a giant middle finger to self-mill/graveyard decks. Normally when something gets removed by green, the graveyard deck can re-cast it in some way, so it’s not a significant blow. And if something gets removed by blue it’s usually by a counter or bounce, which has the same effect of being able to at least potentially replay it. But Oko keeps the original Card on the battlefield and modifies it. No recasting, no graveyard recursion, no indestructible. Your Etali is a vanilla 3/4, tough shit, deal with it.

[@toddpacker1015]

It’s a much better Beast Within, especially in Commander

[@Omnimalevolent1]

A minotaur? That's a funny thing to call a 3/3 Elk.

[@NULLxFORxNONE]

It still boggles my mind how on paper I actually think Oko should be weak. Compared to something like Linliana which forces you to discard cards, Oko just makes a token that gains you some life. Liliana can kill a creature, Oko just turns them weaker (or stronger depending on the creature). But in practice Oko somehow ends up being more of a powerful card!

[@Fluffkitscripts]

Versatility- oko can elk artifacts, which means getting rid of plenty of board-state meddlers that Liliana can’t target. Oftentimes, it’s not about power or toughness, but the flashy thing going on in the card’s text box. Oko hoses just about everything that can be written on a card, including troublesome keywords like flying. Efficiency- elking is a plus ability, which means he doesn’t run out of steam.

[@lostalone9320]

In modern magic, most creatures are being played for their text not their power and toughness. So justing switching them off is largely the same as killing them.

[@troublemack9876]

Loyalty is more generous on oko

[@Izelor]

Oko was busted because there wasn't a strong mono-red deck during that time. Imagine going against a decent mono-red deck and suddenly the only thing Oko can do is give you 3 more life before he dies. That's why I always say that every environment needs a very strong aggro deck. It's a way to keep cards like Oko in check because you definitely don't want to spend 3 mana to play a card that doesn't affect the opponent's plan at all.

[@orlastheman]

Great video, although I think a lot of these cards are cause by bad balancing due to power creep , WotS released a lot of broken cards so they tried to create even more powerful cards so they could sell more packs, and the cycle would continue, but I think they noticed that on theros and decreased the power level (except Uro). Even M21 was a good set, not really broken! Too early for saying something about ZNR but omnath is a problem. IMO

[@naktamunarchives]

Ya Omnath and maybe lotus cobra are a problem. Otherwise I think zendikar hit the sweet spot in terms of power.

[@FriteVerte]

That Survivor Bias explanatiom was eye opening. We often focus on the cards that get passed R&D but forget how overworked wotc staff are and how diligent every individual employee is. Great stuff

[@macreadymusings4043]

This is a great video with some insightful analysis. The meme montage starting at 9:55 was fantastic. I've subscribed and I look forward to seeing what you put out next. :)

[@naktamunarchives]

glad you enjoyed, this was quite and undertaking to make (especially for a first tome seriously editing). I have an idea in the works for a next video. but we'll see if I can get enough meat from the topic.

[@neminem233]

An incredible analysis on one of my all time favorite cards, from a purely analytical perspective

[@vichuang1480]

I hope this becomes a series. As a new player, I didn't get to appreciate a lot of historical moments in MTG. I wanna understand the memes on reddit! Would love videos on affinity, companions, Omnath, etc :)

[@EricChoiniere]

I can't believe it's only been a year... Also, from some of the audio clips at the beginning and the TapTapConcede intro, it looks like you are a LoadingReadyRun fan ^^

[@naktamunarchives]

Sure am. One year plus 2 days to be exact.

[@entothechesnautknight1762]

Damn, can't say i was expecting this outta you, but this is super high quality, mate, can;t wait for more~

[@entothechesnautknight1762]

Also, though I fully understand why you had that segment about accidents, I think Oko is generally considered the one card from this era that a majority of people understand the accident angle on. Even the people who rightfully called out oko as overpowered had no inkling that Oko would become the star card of Mono-red modern burn. The first guy to do it did it as a joke for an MTGO tournament, and then realized "Oh shit. This is actually good." We certainly need to lay of RnD a bit, as they've been too small for a while now, especially since WotC has been pushing out more unique products and sets then ever before, while the team's size has stayed the same. They just don't have the manpower they need to catch them consistently, is it really a wonder that an overworked, understaffed team would miss Oko or Tef3ri or Omnath the 4th?

[@entothechesnautknight1762]

@@God-ch8lq @God hard, HARD disagree, T3feri isn't fair in any reguard, Oko is just so insanely overpowered that literally anything looks fair in comparison. He doesn't just "buy you time" to do degenerate shit, he literally shuts down the opponent's main counterplay to degenerate shit. It doesn't matter how fast he dies, he can only die on the opponent's turn, so he inherently doesn't die fast. And it doesn't matter if you have a removal spell for him because he already replaced himself, while your spell isn't replaced. T3feri is busted, unfair, and unfun, the only reason you think otherwise is because it's been so long since any competitive format you've played with him.

[@vecvecvec]

@@entothechesnautknight1762 someone was really trying to argue t3feri is fair? damn. gotta say as a pioneer player we do NOT miss him

[@jeremyphillips3087]

Teferi isn't anywhere near oko, and pioneer is designed to be a weak format.

[@robertsunderman9534]

I've never been inclined to let r&d off the hook for this one. It really did not take me long to realize Oko was a problem after playing against him. Sure I didn't appreciate how good he was before that, but within three games against Oko and I quickly realized I just couldn't kill him in any advantageous way, and he was providing a constant stream of value. Either the current version of Oko received basically no testing or the people who played him during testing used him poorly.

[@jameshudson6414]

Oko being persecuted by the Fae in lore and later persectued in MTG irl is frankly.. Great story writing! XD Just glad he's legal in commander cuz i had a build planned for the guy.

[@icarus-wings]

Oko was proof that WOTC’s testing team was woefully underskilled for their job.

[@davieduckett]

Great card, definitely not the most broken MTG card by far. And nowhere near the most hated card.

[@davieduckett]

@jeffreyscott801 To be fair I wasn't playing in the competitive circuit during oko's time, but I was playing during combo winter, and I have seen levels of hate that include players losing their mind screaming, cursing, picking up and throwing their own decks across the room and knocking their opponents cards onto the floor. During sanctioned tournaments.

[@fernandoorozco3751]

The sad thing is, if his +1 ability was just a -1 ability, that card would have been fine. But that kind of disruptive removal of a power piece from your opponents board and replacing it with an easily destroyable creature in return, or the ability to take your own small creatures or artifacts and turn them into something bigger AND getting to plus your super powerful planeswalker is just way too much power for one card to bear. And then on top of that having a +2 ability above it just kind of compounds the problem. Funny thing is that a week after they banned that card I pulled a foil one from a single pack that I bought on a whim while on vacation. Easy come easy go.

[@NeutralGuyDoubleZero]

Still don't get how not a single person in RD looked at it and went "Hey 3 mana for a high loyalty planeswalker that can instantly ramp for 2 mana, or remove creatures, AND play its ultimate on the turn after either effect is pretty stupid"

[@alexandersnider734]

That Guild Wars 2 background music +1

[@Hitchclif]

Mono-red burn playing a simic planeswalker... Jesus fucking Christ, that was one STRONG card

[@markuskoivisto]

Absolutely incredible card

[@helio6839]

Uh huh. Ok. Hmmm. Makes sense. WW2 history? Interesting. Ah… Ok. Cool.

[@aorusaki]

Very informative video. I subscribed!

[@Bloody12111993]

Sick video mate ! really enjoyed it !!right at the end, i think you should speak about lurrus a bit because imo he was the card that actually broke the game...and i understand your points about RnD although the issue seems to be that if they cant balance a card against the game's most famous card (black lotus) the must be doing it for hasbro money....! subscribed and waiting for moar! cheers !

[@naktamunarchives]

thanks! I didn't include lurrus becasue that felt like a whole other topic. the video is on the mistakes of oko so it didn't feel right to talk about companions. maybe as a follow up one day we can dive into everything that went wrong with lurrus and companions.

[@2110-i9t]

At the prerelease I lost to Oko in the finals. Small prize pool, but the winner opened 2 more Oko's in his 3 prize packs

[@Xmasreturns]

Excellent choice using guild wars 2 music

[@guskalo1981]

Guild wars 2 music. Nice.

[@joebaumgart1146]

Oko still sees a shit ton of play in Vintage. I treat it like Bolt,Lotus, or og Counterspell. Why wouldn't you put it in your deck?

[@allanturmaine5496]

Is it too much to ask for us as a community to voluntarily destroy the speculative bubble around the cost of cards, and just go back to good ol' collecting?

[@hermimonk2748]

Great video! Great editting and examples. Well done!

[@themecapwnershow221]

Just pulled the old oko last night during prerelease, he’s so busted lol

[@jeremyphillips3087]

Oko is such an overrated card. It makes some food tokens, so what?

[@Verlisify]

Clever intro

[@quantum_beeb]

Oko is banned in legacy fyi

[@twitchster77]

21:01 Okay, so after this video ended I took a lighter to one of my cards...and I just want to confirm that fire is indeed very bad for mtg!

[@Sarnoron091]

i can play it on timeless new arena format lmao

[@joebaumgart1146]

If Standard is a regular 3 count/ submission wrestling match Vintage is an ECW deathmatch. If Standard is playing Basketball with your friends at the park Vintage is playing against the 1993 Chicago Bulls. That's the difference.

[@Big_Dai]

Even at 2x speed, this feels slow..

[@TopMostFlavor]

Oko is literally me

[@St33ldancer]

Hey I recognize that wit flute music from the Kaladin Kickstarter... Nice

[@SonictheBedHog]

Poor Yoko-ono.

[@darknight1022]

No excuses. If you had playtested the OKO then it would be obvious the card was broken beyond.

[@someepicnerd7821]

i ended up paired against someone who ended up drafting oko. safe to say i lost that game

[@hyoroemongaming569]

That survivor bias analogy can be improved

[@juanmilenati1228]

in a week new capenna will launch, along side with a new 3cost plainswalker that seems boosted, alot of ppl are saying that its the new oko, so i come to this video to know what its oko and why ppl hate them, i hope you make a video about ob nixilis if it turn to be as broken as oko

[@bobobo7730]

1 month into Capenna: Ob Nixilis is not as busted as people feared. He's good, but Esper Control rules the roost with 4+ different planeswalker threats like Kaito, The Wandering Emperor, Elspeth, and Sorin.

[@peterrevilla1828]

Lurrus was more broken than Oko. Only card Ever to be banned in Vintage for power level. But I'm splitting hairs, Oko was way broken. Thanks FIRE Design!

[@naktamunarchives]

I'll say this, lurrus was a problem enough to need a rewrite of a mechanic, I can't think of a single other instance like that in the games history

[@peterrevilla1828]

@@naktamunarchives Thanks Rosewater! And it's still a problem it's still ruining older formats and they refuse to make a 2nd power errata. It's warping Modern.

[@lostalone9320]

Lurrus was should be erased from MtG history - The fact that no-one looked at the mechanic and said "Oh yeah, they'll break this" is shocking.

[@daveg1116]

You know, I don’t think Oko is going to be considered OP forever. In the scheme of the meta of the day it may have been.

[@lostalone9320]

Oko isn't op, he just lives in the sludge that is modern magic. He is the king of boring, grindy matches where everything is about incremental value. His abilities just don't matter much when there is a healthy meta with aggro, control and combo decks. But that isn't modern magic. Every deck has to play dorks to the board for their abilities, and no-one is really allowed to be fast or explosive. So Oko goes to the board, and he either removes your opponents useful ability, or makes a food so you can steal something later. Not that stealing something is even that good, but it grinds you out just a little more value. Oko is a kinda non-factor in Vintage. When there are serious control elements, and powerful non-creature spells being fired off, Oko is underpowered. But when everyone has to play to the board and Oko can just slowly rearrange everything? Yeah, he's a house. And honestly its depressing. Because WoTC keep having to ban stuff that clearly is not very powerful simply because they have gone down this cul-de-sac of longer games with more permanents. The Meathook Massacre is clearly not a broken card. It just lives in a horrible metagame where a solid sweeper feels oppressive.

[@ty_sylicus]

Veil of Summer is certainly under costed for all that it can do. It either should cost two mana or other protect one permanent.

[@naktamunarchives]

Its a call back to Veil of Autumn. the main difference is that Autumn gives protection instead of hexproof and doesn't draw a card. that card draw is what broke Summer I think.

[@Nik_M11]

Love those homm sfx, great video

[@xxcyxx3593]

I can't wait for the next Oko card...

[@endless7060]

Super well made video man

[@thepowerofthegodhand7003]

The most? I dont think so

[@vecvecvec]

oko is easily one of the most broken cards of all time, at least in context. no, the power nine don't count. dude slots in basically anywhere is the problem. of course he doesnt give the card advantage of say, skullclamp, but even skullclamp makes you run a deck with a bunch of 1-toughness creatures. in formats with fetches and such, you can just run oko if you want and it just works

[@thepowerofthegodhand7003]

@@vecvecvec in legacy ? No. maybe in short time in standard but you most not knox planeswalkers are spells . So they die counter spells. Imagine your it turn 3 and just got counter spelled. So it depends on the format and that why oko is not broken.

[@HououinKyouma42]

@@thepowerofthegodhand7003 I mean, by that logic, Necropotence is also not broken. The fact that a card can be countered is a terrible argument for whether or not it's overpowered. I'm not saying Oko is as recognizable a toxic card for the game as more overt examples like, say, Necropotence or Yawg's, but it doesn't have to be. A nice definition of a bannable card is a card that directly reduces meta diversity. Oko did that because in almost any case, if you had the colors to run Oko, it would be a mistake not to. You speaking condescendingly down to E one is all the more foolish because he's right: the problem with Oko is that the dude slotted in anywhere, which is cancerous to a card game. Same reason Arcum's Astrolabe was (quite rightly) banned.

[@louelastic954]

@@thepowerofthegodhand7003 Oko gets played on t2 with llanowar elves, any 1-mana rock

[@Jonqen]

More broken than jace black lotus time walk ancestral recall force of will mana drain and so on...

[@wyattg6071]

Definitely more broken than Jace. There's a reason oki is banned in modern and legacy but Jace is legal in both formats.

[@Jonqen]

@@wyattg6071 I rather bounce than elk

[@wyattg6071]

With the bounce the threat just comes back. But the elk removes the threat and gives and be used to make a threat on stalled boards. Also the high loyalty and low mana cost means oko sticks better than most planeswalkers

[@doomhowar]

Is your avatar a Billy and Mandy reference (arracnitar)?

[@naktamunarchives]

ah no it isn't look at pictures on google though i can see a resemblance (just no spider parts). No i just made an art commission for a pensive minotaur.

[@NightfallTH]

Wrong conclusion at the end.

[@naktamunarchives]

I'm curious where you think I erred?

[@NightfallTH]

@@naktamunarchives Selection bias, or as you call it, survival bias cannot be applied here. The consumer does not care about the failed attempts before, so your collective is the collective what you get. Also you fail to mention, that WotC new approach of F.I.R.E. is a fig leaf of a greedy money cash grab they want to realize by overpushing standard cards to sell and sell and sell.

[@brandonbrooks779]

Oko isn't the most broken card. It's certainly a design mistake but grow up lmfao

[@thesmilyguyguy9799]

:)

[@mathewomay6264]

The first one who sound the alarm is magicaids he's the first player who post the first video and brew a deck where it shows how op oko will be

[@numnut154]

He for sure was not the first, but he does like to say he's the first when it comes to MTG trends.

[@captainmoonunitsexparty2903]

Would say there's OG cards faster and more degenerate than Oko, but still a super interesting video! Sounds like I missed an annoying standard format

[@naktamunarchives]

sure if the power 9 got printed today it would probably make bigger waves. but considering that oko was format warping nearly across all formats shows how bonkers he was. I mean, you know you messed up design wise when modern burn wants to run a blue green that doesn't deal direct damage.

[@zenmaster8826]

@@naktamunarchives Funny how you can use this as a measure if a card is hyper broken..🤣 if red is willing to splash mana for it… lurrus case in point during the pre nerf companion era, burn ran the bauble lurrus package..🤣

[@a_fuckin_spacemarine7514]

It's not broken, it just made fair decks good. Also, the elk memes were hilarious

[@bobbysnobby]

just made fair decks good enough to get banned out of every format.

[@a_fuckin_spacemarine7514]

@@bobbysnobby it got banned because people on reddit cried. Only formats it needed to go were standard and pioneer