Rating The Dark, A Set Filled with Iconic Cards (MTG Set Review)

[@alch3nemy394]

Nameless Race (1994) would have been the inspiration for Avatar (2010) not the otherway around. That being said, the Dark was such a memorable period of Magic for me. The First pack of The Dark pulled my Ball lightning.

[@Dyllon2012]

Where did you get 2010 from? It was originally released in 2005.

[@nailahprincessofhokuto2024]

​@@Dyllon2012 he probably thought the Movie, but its the TV Show Avatar the Last Airbender

[@tylermceachern3085]

@@Dyllon2012 Still valid.

[@deeterful]

Sorrow’s Path, really good when paired with the Enrage mechanic. Pumps them dinosaurs.

[@NikachuMTGLive]

That's a great use of the card!

[@indigobuffalo]

Season of the Witch also specifies destroy not sacrifice so regenerate effects work as well as indestructible.

[@deeterful]

Just like Royal Assassin paired up with Icy Manipulator, Merfolk Assassin paired up War Barge to be a killing machine.

[@zachelkins1229]

I had a leviathan tribal deck I put together some time ago. It had leviathans, giant oysters, mistform ultimus, grozoths, Jokulmorders, eaters of days, primians auras and some other stuff ended up being a 70 card deck with 30ish lands iirc. It was fun, but never great.

[@mightyfp]

48:46 Goblins was one af the best supported tribes in 93/94. Mons goblin raiders, goblin balloon brigade, and goblin king, 6 different goblins in the dark, and goblin grenade in fallen empires

[@bradensorensen966]

Apprentice Wizard is just a blue worn power stone that requires one blue mana every turn. Summoning sickness replaces the coming into play tapped.

[@noelcorriveau5654]

There was a very early errata to Festival that fixed the wording (they originally mean CAN NOT and not MAY NOT) back when I was playing this card, it was originally changed to "target opponent skips their attack phase. " With the new errata of just "creatures can not attack this turn" means originally no attack PHASE triggers would trigger, making it more powerful

[@hammerspace8866]

I recall playing the merfolk assasin + war barge. And the preacher + safe haven or city of shadows. Probably not the most effective combo's even back in those days, but my friendgroup started playing in revised and this was the first set that we got.

[@darthparallax5207]

Other than kind of absurd stuff with the Beta set, Dark isn't too much worse than Antiquities set if you consider using only one or the other. A deck mixed with both though would skew more Antiquities because Tron would definitely replace Apprentice Wizard *and* City of Shadows. But you might not use all 12 Tron cards bc you'd really want Ball Lightning too probably.

[@AndreJHoward]

I started playing when the dark was released. Oh man this brought back so many feels!

[@demonkingt]

season of the witch is confusing to people because "what qualifies as could not attack" such as "only 1 creature can attack per turn".

[@alexbruce9499]

Yes, the card itself is fine but the confusion is when it interacts with other cards. It interacts weirdly and perhaps unintuitively with things like Propaganda or Ensnaring Bridge.

[@duskreqm]

With Dance of Many, if you can find a way to sacrifice it with it's ETB trigger on the stack, you get to keep the clone token without dealing with the UU upkeep.

[@darthparallax5207]

Uncle Istvan @ 3/4 with pro White would be very solid today. 4 toughness survives Bolt, being black protects against some black spells, and pro White stops anything Boros, Orzhov, Azorius, Abzan, Mardu, or Esper. In custom nostalgia formats he's worth putting Unholy Strength on to stop Lightning Bolt and I think only 2 saves him from Fireblast. He inherently saves himself from Ball Lightning. He's pretty interesting.

[@danhendricks5896]

If someone blocks your ball lightning with a first strike creature you can use your sorrows path to exchange it with a different creature.

[@danhendricks5896]

Honestly that is probably a combo the card was designed for, then it got nerfed.

[@thebealers2102]

I won 1 game waay back in the day with leviathan. I just loved the art cause it was so confusing/interesting. It was a twiddle, unsummon pile vs junkyard decks. It's what we had back then yalls, ante and all

[@marcoottina654]

32:26 look it up: Goblin Wizards costs more than 30$ each: you could cheat it with Warren Instigator, even in turn 1 with Mass Hysteria and some (banned) mana accelerators, alongside Goblin Warchief to spit someone's out, like Krenko the Mob Boss (and tapping it for spawning 4 tokens 1/1 goblin)

[@tychoMX]

My last tournament game before I rejoined MTG in 2021 was a loss: Opponent was at 3 life with a green/red deck (no gruul back then), me with 4 life in green/white/black. Power sank a Ball Lighting, but still got killed with a Bolt and some little beaters. I did managed to get about 3 points of pinging damage from a Witch Hunter before losing. Fun times; this vintage of cards has huge memories for me. And from that era, I really miss the flavour text.

[@alfascorpi]

Dance of Many is pretty sweet in some commander decks these days, great to make a copy of a second big etb effect on a creature for two mana.

[@nicholasmcmahan-watson9405]

For that preacher it reminds me of the priests from the computer game Age of Empires that would change an enemy fighter into an ally.

[@tylerstegman6846]

Ive used sorrows path in my darien edh. Was fun it that deck

[@HighTechRedneck9]

Still love Elves of Deep Shadow. The art on The Dark's version of the card is some of my favorite art in Magic.

[@deusexlacuna]

For mana clash, assuming a fair coin then each player can be expected to take 2 damage on average. This is because there's 2 ways that each player can take 1 damage with 1/4 chance, so each player takes "1/2" damage each round. With a 3/4 chance of making it to the next round, it goes on forever and becoming less likely. The infinite sum converges to 4 (you can think of it like 4 being the average number of rounds) and so 1/2*4 = 2

[@derekturner5993]

Back in the day safe haven combo nicely w the ball lightning

[@Dom_Maretti]

Apprentice Wizard is one of those cards that we think about as "breaking the color pie", but really...it doesn't. Curious Homonculus, and Vedalken Engineer are other examples of this. Blue can ramp, within color pie, but generally only colorless mana and/or mana with a stipulation on where said mana can be spent. Blue mana dorks for colorless is something I'd like to see more of. Hell...it'd be interesting to put Apprentice Wizard as an uncommon in MH3.

[@michaellee4276]

Even when it was new, Leviathan was only used to sacrifice. Get stuff based on its power or CMC like 10 tokens.

[@rotboy101]

The Dark was cool, fun stream today! 🖤🖤

[@JLH111176]

I remember buying packs of these at LGS when they first came out

[@demonkingt]

for worms of the earth to combo into worldfire you would need to have it entire from exile some how. or make worldfire an instant cast react to worms of the earth. don't forget worldfire exiles hands, graveyard, and fields

[@maninblk]

My first foray into magic was a 1/2 a box of Dark. Good times.

[@burnsida]

Did you notice the last line on Preacher? "You also lose control of the creature if Preacher leaves play or AT END OF GAME." So there was a time that people thought if you controlled an opponents card at the end of a game you got to keep it?

[@JD-gk7eh]

In the days of ante, it seems reasonable that people thought "permanently" mean literally permanent since there were cards that did that exact thing.

[@judeloire1522]

There should be a black Instant spell that is like Season of the Witch. Instant speed Wrath effect that wipes their field if they didn't attack. Play it on their second Main Phase lol Would be fun.

[@CaptainWwowW]

Dance of Many might be cool if it made a copy at each of your upkeeps, and the tokens had "pay UU or sacrifice".

[@aytakk_mtg]

Festival plus Siren's Call wipes their board as Festival says they can't attack and Siren's Call destroys all creatures that did not attack.

[@derHexenhammer]

About 23 years ago in high school, we played d&d almost every weekend. My father was a machinist, so I made weighted dice. No one ever caught on. 😈

[@TehSeksyManz]

That is filthy, lol

[@MetallicCopperToad]

12:30 😂😂

[@JD-gk7eh]

Unless I missed it, I'm surprised Ashes to Ashes didn't make it on stream. That card is still very good. Reckless Spite is an instant speed version of it but Ashes to Ashes exiles AND hits black creatures. Unless you're playing against Affinity, Ashes to Ashes is pretty strong, especially in commander where that 5 life is not so steep.

[@snowhusk]

52:11 I recently (about two months ago) ditched commander to play pauper, I heard that Dust to Dust is a chase white sideboard card! couple of seconds after writing this comment I saw people actually said this in the chat too, lol. Btw, Nikachu, did you get into pauper with that mono blue tempo deck you played on stream?

[@PhoxyPoxy]

Got you BARAKAT Apprentice Wizard + Freed from the Real + Chromatic Orrery

[@Tylerbremner]

I saw this and was thought it was ice age for a sec ❄️ come on Nikachu. ⛄️still loved this one though

[@danmorris1117]

Safe haven is great for getting a flood of ETB triggers as well

[@nailahprincessofhokuto2024]

21:13 think with Wotc saying they're printing alot of Standard legal Rare lands with abilities to push 1-2 color decks, they may reprint Blood Moon to Counter them?

[@darthparallax5207]

1 Preacher = CMC @ 3 instead of 4, in non-blue. It's an alternative to Control Magic there are pros and cons to both. 2 Goblin Wizard = isn't great but also isn't bad. It's a lot better if you combine it with Onslaught block but that is unlikely to happen with current formats. It barely makes red playable in OS. OS would be unfun if Red were too weak. It curves after Goblin King and Sedge Troll is a better card I think. 3. Season of the Witch: nothing will ever ever be as good as Tabernacle of Pendrell Vale. But all the alternatives to Tabernacle that are under a car $$$$$, they are relatively fair hard to choose between. Glacial Chasm or Season of the Witch which is better? Idkn. Season of the Witch might be better than Moat if you're on Necropotence @ 4. Moat is very very good but there's probably eventually a way to contrive a format where people voluntarily prefer Season of the Witch. The Dark is very interesting. It's not a good set but it has good singles that make Revised and 4th Edition way more interesting.

[@GleepGlop2]

Maze of Ith is a guy stuck inside a brain - I always thought that was one of the better artworks for this set. Love the flavour overall for The Dark.

[@tychoMX]

I still remember the promotional material quote “in the dark depths of the subconscious, all of us fear the dark”.

[@Undeadhalfelf]

you kinda missed out on not checking Rune Sword, it's one of the not so cheap ways to handle Indestructible critters

[@dr.tre90]

Bridges made Dust to Dust a Pauper staple for those who are willing to pay it's price. I myself am a Revoke Existence guy.

[@JoeCamarillo]

I used to kill with Leviathan in casual play. Blue control deck, they hated it!

[@sgjuxta]

Season of the Witch is great. I love playing cards whose interactions aren't defined by the rules. Like, nowhere in the entirety of the Comprehensive Rules is there any kind of definition of what it means for a creature have been "able to attack" and how other cards abilities can effect that definition (e.g. Silent Arbiter). Silent Arbiter plus Season of the Witch either forces all your opponents down to just one creature (the one they attack with) because they *could* have chosen their one attacking creature to be any other creature they control...OR it doesn't do anything, because the moment you declare one creature as an attacker, none of your other creatures are able to attack. You can even take this a step further with the first interpretation of the interaction with Season and Arbiter...say you control Season, Arbiter, and a creature that must attack each turn if able (and nothing has summoning sickness). The only legal game action you can take in the declare attackers step is to attack with the creature that must attack if able, by itself. So does the Silent Arbiter die to the Season of the Witch in that case? Who knows? Certainly not WotC or judges 🤷‍♂️

[@tychoMX]

Lol. Has Floral Spuzzem finally chosen to destroy an artifact?

[@filiptrajkovski2198]

Speaking of dance of many clone exists adn opnly costs 2 more mana and is not upkeep fodder also costs 1 blue and 3 generic

[@JD-gk7eh]

I'm pretty sure Inquest had a "Worst Cards Ever" story back in the late 90s/early 2000s with Sorrow's Path at #1. People knew then it was legendarily bad.

[@JosephKiley-o2g]

Ball Lightning, Howl From Beyond, Black Locust first turn kill

[@ikaros6453]

For mana clash I can make a coin come up what ever I want so that could be fun haha

[@horizonblack]

Quinton Hoover was my friend. The Preacher was the sh*t.

[@tmon3y777]

Mana Clash is busted as hell! One card combo kill on the first turn!

[@dancing_odie]

Dust to Dust is great in pauper against artifact decks

[@KetsubanZero]

You may means that you can do something, you may not just means that you can't, is just the negative form, so it means that you don't have the option to attack, like cannot doesn't means that you have the option to not doing something, but just that you don't have the option

[@raymondluca7779]

46:19 fasting combo it with One with the Multiverse? where fasting you don't have to draw but with "One with the Multiverse" you cast spells from your library? aka not drawing?

[@Randy-lg1qo]

Leviathan works with Stasis at your finishing stage

[@Pasakoye]

Apprentice Wizard and break the color pie because he is still learning the ropes. Goofy yell or Tom's would be good sounds.

[@jamesgasik3424]

Sweet, Witch Hunter!

[@clbaker8356]

Leviathan was the biggest creature there was at the time The Dark was released. It's a bad card now, but back then it was a game ender.

[@Randomwayz]

Technically you only need one rigged coin for mana clash, one where your opponent always flips tails

[@vinni522]

Mana Clash: one red mana - probability of T1 kill? 50% Either you do or you don’t.

[@MonkyTube18]

i still play elves of deep shadow in my doran commander deck

[@zachary7573]

Play sorrows path in your enrage deck

[@bradensorensen966]

Maze of Ith is MTG’s Lanyrinth Wall from Yugioh-the show not the TCG.

[@JosephKiley-o2g]

Use War Barge with Merfolk Assassin

[@shawnjackson4458]

~ 4:00 Krark the thumbless + Sakashima/1000Faces in EDH WOULD love this if it said EACH opponent ... Way too much work for what it's worth in other eternal formats

[@shawnjackson4458]

Edit: Krark + Sakashima + HIVE MIND With this spell for MAXIMUM CHAOS 🥵🥵

[@capsaicinJT]

"may not" does not mean you have the option or not, "may not" is the same as "cannot", there is no option, you can't attack. "may i have another piece of cake?" "no, you may not."

[@tychoMX]

To this day, I think WoTC was trolling us with Sorrow's Path.

[@MGmirkin]

I "Icy Manipulator" your "Sorrow's Path" tapped. Wait, you can't ... Yes, I can. "...whenever it is tapped..." Ohh look, you board of weenie creatures goes away... :P But ... Nope, no buts. Also, I "Twiddle" it untapped again. And "Icy Manipulator" it tapped again. Bye "Serra Angel"(s)!

[@MGmirkin]

You do know that The Dark came out before Avatar: The Last Airbender, right? Yeah, Zuko seems to have been copied/inspired from Nameless Race.

[@MGmirkin]

Leviathan: Requires 9 mana to cast, of which 4 must be blue. Requires sacrificing 4 islands per turn to attack (2 to untap, then 2 more to attack). Dies at instant-speed to a 1-white-mana Swords to Plowshares. Sure, you get a metric ton of life when it's exiled, but you're likely down 4 lands in the process ('cause who plows it before you untap/attack and sac 4 lands)... **Scoop**

[@MGmirkin]

Goblin Wizard: T: Put Muxus, Goblin Grandee into play, win game [probably]. IE, potentially get it down a couple turns early. With Maskwood Nexus: T: Put **any creature** into play. Totally doesn't break Eldrazi, etc. :P Kidding, mostly... But a little not.

[@MGmirkin]

Did they have any Goblins back then?? Goblins of the Flarg... 🤣 Skerry... woooo...

[@MGmirkin]

Can you break apprentice wizard? Probably in some way with paradox engine and something cheap.

[@ChazTheYouthful]

Me with a maze of ith in the late 90s : figure this one out noobs

[@joshhoke5637]

Yes my mother definitely made me throw away my collection, one I earned with my own money at the time :(

[@NikachuMTGLive]

Oh no!

[@antonbystrom5667]

Sunken City! it's such a bad cards, that I actually thought was good back in the days ^^

[@Dreikoo]

"Blue elf"...so merfolk?

[@mightyfp]

Fasting and necropotence are a combo. Not a good combo, but still

[@filiptrajkovski2198]

Mana Clash s dumb buyt MAN is it hilarious to use against friends xD

[@deeterful]

One thing that bothers me about videos where you rate older sets is the constant comparing by “today’s standards”. You need to assess them by the standards of the time they were relevant. The other thing that bothers is viewing these older cards from a tournament perspective. The number of tournament players back then was a fraction of a percent. There was no FNM. The vast majority of people were playing in multiplayer, FFA games. It was a very different gaming landscape back then, and younger players have no real context for how it was.

[@PlacidBogle]

City of shadows + Squee equals mana

[@rajamicitrenti1374]

Surprised Tivadar's Crusade wasn't banned for insensitivity along side plain old Crusade, especially considering goblins are frequently the stand-in race used to be the Greedy Jew racist stereotype.

[@bradj9545]

Exorcist

[@vinni522]

We are being a bit careless reading the card today: Wizard’s Apprentice - it doesn’t help cast Eldrazi’s Mana Clash - with the thumb any one of the flip would be replaced by two flips, and you can choose the result. OP flips two, you flip two, then select one coin from each player as result. Fellwar Stone gives ONE mana of any care that OP can give. … I know it’s not a competitive stream but we can do a tad better :) Love you anyway Merfolk Man.

[@NikachuMTGLive]

Why can't Wizard Apprentice cast Eldrazi? Apprentice filters U for Colorless mana.

[@darthparallax5207]

Please say evangelical or 1950s instead of "religious" when you mean Protestants can't stand that Catholics are as heavy metal as the pagans they converted and sometimes are equally accused of being Vampires. I'm not Roman Catholic but as a mere nerd I've admired Catholics for actually retaining paid Exorcists and being consistently Dark Ages unapologetically. The Church of Tal has a great mythology with old Jeff Grubb novels and I wish old Planeswalkers like Dacian had introduced The Church of Tal to the Church of Avacyn on Innistrad. Do a whole MTG 30 Years War. Or 100 Years War France vs England. People in the heretical suburbs don't want to own that Swords are cross shaped and medieval Christians were knowledgeable about Tarot with varying degrees of approval but simply able to acknowledge there was history before Salt Lake City and telemarketing. MHGA. Make Halloween Great Again. Wizards of the Coast comes from TSR comes from the Deeper Magic from Before the Dawn of Time of Tabletop War gaming which is mostly an excuse to paint fancy costumes for 17th-18th century line infantry. Swedes. Great Northern War. Great stuff. There was like one good Swedish king can't remember him. He would have torn up Lim Dûl's goblins and zombies though. Any way yeah. Back in the good old days Christians had really cool wars and would recognize nerdiness and general approval of monarchy and serfdom.

[@Mr.Bones24-7]

He's too young to know. My cards are older than him. But decks only work when they work. All about the draw. Go Green if you want mana!!! I'm going lame dude, sorry

[@Mr.Bones24-7]

Been playing since 1994 roughly. I have A LOT of good cars! The new cards are sometimes decent, but too many are just regurgitated cards that suck now because of more abilities (usually garbage) and higher casting costs. Kinda like with movies, original is usually better, and cheaper back then too 🤣 I payed cheap prices compared to now for a booster of The Dark, Legends, Antiquities. I can only imagine the price per pack now, 30 yrs later🤣

[@cloviepounders6703]

Blood moon is a terrible card... Changing non basic lands into mountains doesn't do anything to the card unless of course you presume changing the cards name to "mountain" causes its activated abilities to change too. Nothing in the wording suggests this though. So i guess it has the niche ability to make spells or abilities that affect mountains to now affect noon basic lands too.

[@AaronRotenberg]

These days, blue doesn't get all-purpose mana dorks like Apprentice Wizard, but it still gets weird specialized mana dorks. Like in MOM there's Omen Hawker, which is a 1/1 for {U} with "{T}: Add {C}{U}. Spend this mana only to activate abilities."