The Worst 139 Cards in Magic History

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0:00 Intro
0:12 Bad PT For CMC
3:14 High Cost, Low Payoff
9:37 So Bad You Pay It Twice
12:04 Self-Negating Cards
14:19 "Combat Tricks"
15:17 Narrow Cards
17:57 Random Cards
20:23 Useless Cards
22:38 Detrimental Cards
24:14 Worst of the Worst
30:00 Bottom 10
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[@saulspanco854]

It always hurts seeing epic art on unplayable cards

[@MrMeltJr]

And then on the other end, you have Celestial Prism lol

[@motorologist]

One notable example is Scorch the Fields.

[@Prince_Eva_Huepow]

What is that and Scorch Fields?​@@MrMeltJr

[@EbonAvatar]

Good video but I hate to say that your pronounciation of mana really bugs me

[@aaronm.885]

Sorrow’s Path goes crazy in Dinosaur Enrage decks.

[@calemr]

As someone with an enrage commander deck: Ehhhh... not really. But at least it's an Attempt at a use.

[@Topaz542]

I have it in my Gisanth edh deck lol. Not the greatest card but I'm such a sucker for jank I had to throw it in anyway lol 😂

[@letsmakeit110]

I can't find cheaper repeatable ping than Taskmage Assembly on scryfall. Either its 3 mana for the ping and attached to a creature or its 5-6 mana upfront (or it needs to tap i.e. nonrepeatable). I can see it sneaking into a multiplayer enrage deck where the drawback wouldn't hurt you. Definitely isn't the 4th worst card of all time

[@calemr]

@@letsmakeit110 Pyrohemia is 4 mana, 1 red to activate, can't be used by your opponents, and Can be used outside of your own turn. You're getting a lot of upside for an extra 1 red to cast. Does mean you need red mana instead of 2 generic, though?

[@letsmakeit110]

@@calemr 1.) okay it's not as good as a card that appears in 17,000 decks. what's your 2nd example? 2.) much more likely to fulfill its sacrifice condition when you're wrathing the board instead of targetting a specific problem.

[@ladsworld]

Brutal Suppression actually saw a tiny bit of play in sideboards back in USG-MMQ standard iirc, the Lin Sivvi Rebels deck was pretty dominant and super consistent, but had the weakness of being somewhat mana hungry.

[@ohno5559]

The version I heard was that Rebels was tier-zero unbeatable, and even that wasn't enough for the dedicated hate piece to see more than fringe play.

[@M0th3ater]

@@ohno5559afaik Rebels just ran disenchant in the main for other matchups, which probably contributed to it

[@AkodoNoEyes]

It did.

[@Igor369]

The answer to "why is it bad?" question is - Limited and "spend more money for rares"

[@DeadlyGrim]

26:25 re: Divine Intervention My understanding is that the purpose of this card was anti-ante tech. With Magic (theoretically) being played for ante back in the day and a few cards playing around with adding or removing cards from ante, Divine Intervention was a way to prevent yourself from losing your cards -- literally losing them, as ante was for real life ownership of cards. (Imagine losing a Black Lotus 'cause it got ante'd) Nowadays, of course, it's just a really bad card. And it's not like ante stuck around for that long, either.

[@AmmiO2]

Even at the time, a better way of beating ante would've been playing cards that help you win.

[@bluedestiny2710]

Instead of that, i would use Jeweled Bird : 1 mana, Artifact, sacrifice Jeweled Bird: choose 1 card you have on ante: send that card to your graveyard, then put Jeweled Bird on the ante stack. Draw a card At least if i know i will be losing, i will just give up a cheap card. Sure, Intervention prevents you from losing the card... but 8 mana and 2 turns? You cant use it as a last minute reaction to losing

[@dizzyblizzy2806]

The bird actually removes all cards you own from ante and puts the bird in. If your opponent has enough time and mana to use divine intervention then you should have enough time and mana to use bronze tablet

[@bluedestiny2710]

@@dizzyblizzy2806 oh was it all cards? I remembered it was one... but that makes it slightly better (its minimal upside bec only specific cards causes someone to add cards to their ante... but upside nontheless)

[@tychoMX]

Confirming for the laces - I bought at the time Revised boxes. On a good day, you'd get a Bayou or a Plateau. On a bad day you'd get a Deathlace. I had at least a couple of those colours. I used to own a Sorrows Path. Yes, it's somewhat useable in a dinosaur deck. Too bad we were more than a decade away from dinosaurs in 1994 :)

[@aegiswings]

I bought a beta pack a couple years ago. My rare was a chaoslace.

[@seanm4682]

Aven Trooper has such amazing art for such a terrible card

[@zachariahpoltergeist4516]

Exactly! It's freaking poster-worthy. Such a shame.

[@Controlqueen31]

I mean, 99% of this cards are bad, but I need to make a point for City in a Bottle. From the 3 set nulifying cards, is the most useful because in the early days or Magic, Arabian Nights was a good set with quite some playable cards. And the effect is static, with no activation cost

[@mightyfp]

City in a bottle sees tons of play in 93/94. City of brass, library of alexandria, djinns, efreets, guardian beast, and flying men are old school staples and city represents a major hurdle

[@bluedestiny2710]

Agreed... now there are still a ton of broken cards in Arabian Nights that the bottle cripples like Dredge (no bazaar) Oh... believe it or not, Apocalypse Chime has had its place in many sideboards during the standard of its time. While homelands suck ass as a set, it had Autumn Willow, Ishan's Shade, Eron the Relentless, Serrated Arrows and Spectral Bears were part of that set... all of which did well in Standard, with the Willow arguably being the best creature of its time The Chime was the most generic way to take care of these cards. It your opponent's WinCon one of those cards, a well timed chime will help you win

[@laytonjr6601]

@@mightyfpAli from Cairo is too strong, you need City in a Bottle

[@mightyfp]

@@laytonjr6601 agree that city is needed but Ali isn't a good card

[@cocoquake]

I did not expect these to be so laughably bad. You made my day 😂

[@chemicals8582]

Kind of surprised to not see One With Nothing on this list, but then again I actually saw One With Nothing see play at a FNM as sideboard hate against owl decks back in the Kamigawa-Ravnica standard era.

[@AmmiO2]

One With Nothing is exactly the kind of card that looks useless and then somehow becomes a combo centerpiece eventually.

[@zaneghiskhan]

I recently played One with Nothing for value. I built Grist as a Commander (Ammi I know you hate what I just said and sorry if that sentence made you vomit) I played Bone Harvest to put all insects back on top of library (to then activate Grist to mill) held priority, then cast One With Nothing to discard all my insects I was bricking on in my draw steps One with Nothing is sweet

[@BatCaveOz]

I won a bunch of of games with the Giant Slug back in the 90's. Obviously a lot of the cards listed have been nuked by power creep, but back in the day... win cons were almost always a result of creature damage. (except Red)... which changes everything. In some areas (in my own experience), such as Australia, & Canada (but not UK) "Pentagram" was very popular, as well as being the the only non-standard variant other than "multi-player free for all" that I had witnessed see any play... so a lot of the colour-specific and land-walking cards received a lot of play. I have seen a Wood Elemental played. once... it did not end well.

[@52flyingbicycles]

For a lot of these, I tried to think how the card could be modified to make it ok. For many, even costing 1 mana would be too expensive.

[@jmv333]

Loved this video! Exactly the kind of fun mtg history content that is my favourite!

[@JoeKell365]

i once drew a game with Divine Intervention in a Phelddagrif EDH deck

[@AmmiO2]

What's this on the ground? It seems you dropped your crown my liege.

[@harlequin2280]

Some of these cards obviously belong on this list... other ones made me wonder if this guy had ever played a combo deck or magic at all.

[@casteanpreswyn7528]

I actually use Armegeddon Clock as a win condition in my Jolrael, Empress of Beasts deck. My opponents almost never pay the 4, and thats usually because I've animated their lands and killed them.

[@Trip_Fontaine]

Martyr's Tomb was decent in Limited. The thing with cards like that is just the threat of being able to use them has power. Like if I have it in play, my opponent knows that if he blocks my 3/3 with his 3/3, then I can pay just 2 life to effective kill his creature. Great video! Lots of nostalgia there.

[@efletcher139]

This was a great trip down memory lane. I remember a lot of these cards from when I first started.

[@lazydave6423]

Hidden Path and Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth is a nice synergy...unless your opponent has green creatures too. I think because of that synergy itself having that in the "Worse of the Worst" category with these other guys is undeserved.

[@bluedestiny2710]

I would argue it still deserves it for the sheer fact that it costs SO MUCH but still requires a favorable game state for you to win. Normally, at that cost, it should be able to turn the tide for you if youre behind ... unless you add a card like Opalessence ... so a 6/6 creature wouldnt be bad!

[@williamkeiser7562]

In legendary tribal, those banding lands are actually really strong. Banding is actually a very strong ability. I use both of the ones for my colors in my legendary tribal deck

[@laytonjr6601]

A land that doesn't tap for mana is extremely bad (unless it says "draw 2 then discard 3", then it's the only land in your deck)

[@ericschmitz6789]

You're missing the point of the lands without mana generation and the self-nullifiers with the life-loss clause. The first are essentially uncounterable spells that are relatively hard to remove and don't cost mana. The second force your opponents to make decisions, and if they don't make the right one, you get a double effect. They also hurt decks that use their life as a resource.

[@Joseph-cx4eg]

I’m gonna fall asleep with this playing so many times before I ever get all the way through. Need infinite videos like this so I can sleep lol

[@Steeks]

Martyrs tomb has a place in life swap decks, its not many cards that let you pay life ad lib, so not that bad compared to 6 mana 1/1's

[@janlinhart7914]

I used to play it in my EDH life swap deck built around Axis of Mortality (such an underrated card, adding so much spice to a MtG game), but ultimately I cut it, because there are better options to hurt yourself, such as Wall of Blood or Souldrinker. Or Necropotence, lol.

[@chaoticjexak]

cyclopean snare and/or razor boomerang can be 'somewhat' useful in a mass production mirrorworks deck. keep bouncing it, keep casting, and keep copying it. there are better ways to do this but if you were drafting/cubing into it and this is your only option, itll suffice. angel of jubilation helps aether storm a LOT. and since stax is usually azorius colours, i could actually see aether storm seeing play in the right stax variant. proliferate makes armageddon clock potentially very funny. power leak is indeed bad but it falls into that catagory of 'off colour cards'. so if you wanted to play mono-blue burn, this is like to be one of your very few options. tidal flats again fits into the off colour catagory. both for being a first strike giver but also a card that benefits go wide strategies. but could actually be somewhat useful in the right jank deck. barreling attack basically gives a creature the rampage keyword. and rampage IS a deck you can build around if you splash green to add effects that force everything to block your rampage creature. suddenly your rampager becomes an almost board wipe. bonus points if it has deathtouch. again, rampage is potentially a good mechanic. however rapid fire being a white spell might hurt this as in my experience rampage is a gruul deck. cephalid snitch is...bad. no debate on that. however it is one of very few cephalids. hint of insanity could be an ok sideboard if shadowborn apostle, persistant petitioner, or relentless rats decks ever see play in a relevent way. oops, 50% of your hand is now gone. parralax inhibitor is 'fine' if you for some reason wanted to build fading matters in something like commander. note artifacts can easily be copied by mirrorworks, prototype portal, and stuff like that. but you'd be better off proliferating most of the time i guess. aether rift: oh look another card that becomes good under the angel i mentioned earlier. wirefly hive is potentially the only card ive ever seen that makes 'wirefly' creatures (aside from changeling-makers and that one 'choose your own creature' card. which matters for those wanting to make wirefly typal decks....not that anyone would want to do that divine intervention makes a great protest card for the formats its legal in. is a particular deck running rampant at touraments? get as many folks as possible to make divine intervention turbo decks to force a 'everyone tops/everyone loses' tournament statistic. then maybe wizards will see a problem and ban the problem card. blue lace in particular may be useful for grand architect shenanigans. task mage assembly is actually not bad at all in group hug/group slug style commander decks. sorrows path triggers effects like phyrexian vindicator and brash taunter. so it slots into decks with that strategy potentially as a 'dont block me or youll suffer' kind of deal

[@AmmiO2]

We get it, you're a contrarian ; )

[@chaoticjexak]

@@AmmiO2 i was more trying to think outside the box, honest :))))

[@ronaldwayne7092]

Thing to know about Sandstone Deadfall: its reason for existing is that it was the only targeted way of getting rid of Iridescent Angel in all-Odyssey limited.

[@ekszentrik]

32:11 the card is actually useful -- its image provides the lore how exactly those weird spider creatures relate to the actual unmorphed Morph creature (turns out the spiders are some kind of shell).

[@brainpower45]

I'm really surprised One with Nothing didn't get a call out here.

[@misirtere9836]

It's not even that bad. At least it only wastes ONE mana.

[@marcoottina654]

at least it's nice with madness or graveyard decks

[@illakunsaa]

Sorrows path is so good that it got my Golos deck banned.

[@BanditZRaver]

Edh players will play these cards, not all of them, but its gonna be that one amazing tech card. And the while youre not impressed, the other 2 will be more interesting in talking Jank.

[@swain1153]

Break open has got to be the worst card. It can’t even be cast 99% of the time and then when it can it just helps the opponent

[@Hmongboi228]

Turn up an opponent's "BLISTERING FIRECAT" during your turn to kill it at the end of YOUR turn.. 💡🤔

[@henrybartholomew5383]

Is it just me, or could Keldon Battlewagon be kinda nice in a Power Matters green deck? Imagine tapping your whole board to massively buff it's power, then sac it to greater good, or use it for a fling spell without losing your big creatures

[@motorologist]

It is kind of a unique effect in that way, yeah

[@somejerk5662]

Sorrow's path seems like it might be useful in a Zeddru deck...

[@motorologist]

Would be even better there with the Rishadan Port style effects.

[@soffa93]

sorrows path is definitely the worst card in the game, except it is so bad it loops around to being sort of good ish when donated

[@ameliaward7429]

Nice list Spike.

[@Zalzabar]

Wasn't Mindless Null like a misprint or they changed it last minute and forgot to change the P/T or something?

[@Topaz542]

I think its *supposed* to be that bad. It seemed to be more flavor over function, since Zombies, or Nulls, on Zendikar are more often then not brainless husks created and controlled by the Vampires of the plane

[@pandaman2234]

​@@Topaz542it was actually a misprint, it was intended to be 2 mana not 3.

[@NecromancyForKids]

​@pandaman2234 Still wouldn't have been good, but at least would be better.

[@alexandremuniz9486]

Worse. It was a typo in their playtest database, and then they just thought, ha ha, bad card so funny! And they kept it that way, because they're not the ones who have to pay for cards and then feel bad when they're useless.

[@xyz1Official]

surprised One with Nothing wasn’t on this list

[@catoticneutral]

Aether Storm seems like it'd be a solid burn spell if you're against a creature focused deck. I'd be surprised if nobody ran it alongside four Psionic Blasts in blue burn decks.

[@N4chtigall]

I find it interesting how inconsistent old MTG was when it comes to the power of the cards. How it is possible that in the same sets have both worst cards in the history and staples that are still played to this day? I wonder how many of those terrible designs were intentional?

[@benjaminolson7206]

Nothing extraordinary about it. Cards were designed with vastly less knowledge of what made a card good, bad, or middling, and design theories of how the game would be played still exceeded actual knowledge of how the game was played. There were a lot of poorly designed cards both in the overpowered and underpowerd catagories. The overpowered ones have become cards of awe and legend, the underpowered ones have gone down in infamy and ridicule, but from a design standpoint thy are equally off-base.

[@marq_8976]

Now I want to see people drafting a Cube consisting of some of these cards.

[@leeborden2183]

Did I miss it or was one with nothing not on the list?

[@marcoottina654]

at least it's nice with madness or graveyard decks

[@leeborden2183]

@@marcoottina654 so the worst part about one with nothing is that for whatever reason people feel the need to defend the card as if it's not absolutely useless

[@wanderingsystem9674]

(Vi) I will say, for as bad as goblin test pilot is, it (alongside many other terrible goblins) is an absolute flavor win in my book

[@bluedestiny2710]

There are a lot of this actually... One of the oldest ones i can remember is the Giant Shark from The Dark: a 6 mana 4/4 creature with: - island home (can only survive if you control an island. Can only attack players who control an island) - if this creature attacks or blocks a creature that has already received damage this turn, this creature gets +2 / +0 and trample until end of turn Yea its pretty accurate way to depict a real world shark but.... translated to magic... you really wanna run this? O.o

[@julianlastname5730]

Goblin test pilot may be bad, but I love him anyway

[@tortaahogada9685]

Damn, old Mtg art is beautiful 😍

[@laytonjr6601]

"Your opponent discards all trap cards" I thought I was playing Magic, noy Yu-Gi-Oh

[@anoobindisguise4337]

Sad at no mention of Spinal Parasite, the card with the funniest stat line ever.

[@danielkings2443]

I wish there was 360 of these so we could make a trashlocke cube

[@ich3730]

Martyrs tomb does have the unique upside of allowing you to pay your whole life total, which is relevant for some funny EDH meme decks

[@Hankathan]

Martyrs Tomb might actually be a good card for some commanders with incidental lifegain. Something like Varina, Lich Queen maybe?

[@TheTrollsCorner]

112 in those colours is very useful theres more then a few cards that trigger on life lose or stop you from losing the game for having 0 life

[@technodragon990]

Fun fact: you can't even spend the mana that you get from Snowfall on anything but the cumulative upkeep, so it's actually even worse than it was given credit for in the video

[@laytonjr6601]

That's what he said? It can pay any cumulative upkeep but only one card with cumulative upkeep is actually good

[@tredekka13]

I'm surprised Mercenaries didn't make the list. Also, the white remove landwalk enchantment card Great Wall only targets, like, two cards (Look out! It's Zodiac Rooster!) making it far worse than the one blocking Swampwalk or Forestwalk.

[@CptManboobs]

Tombfire is next level sideboard hate vs Storm when used alongside Quicken or 3feri

[@bluedestiny2710]

It certainly isnt useless.. but there are way better choices even before its time. Tormods crypt, to example, just eats the graveyard, no questions asked

[@stevecampbell9670]

I am so getting Rhystic Cave. I love lands that tap for any mana, even if they kinda suck. I also have a soft spot for the Rhystic cards. Tutor and Deluge being tops.

[@benjaminolson7206]

Go for it. Your opponent needing to reserve a mana to stop your land isn't really as trivial as presented in this video, especially early on when having an any color land is most likely to be impactful. The real problem is that it is mana that you won't reliably have access to.

[@stevecampbell9670]

@@benjaminolson7206 I play strictly casual. Fun is more important than powerful. I love playing things that the other players have never even heard of.

[@Finngrinder]

I don't think anymore that Sorrow's Path is worse than Break Open since Dinos with Enrage exist and maybe a weird Path/Death's Shadow deck can be imagined no matter how bad the land is. Break Open has no such might be positive use

[@Altorin]

"bands with other" is also actually completely different to banding.

[@cv4126]

You should try doing The Best 139 Cards in Magic History and see how that goes...

[@801Hellfire]

You’re missing some key context with some of these cards. Juju Bubble was around when you could respond to going to zero life (there was no negative life total) by using this card to go to one life. That’s why it has a cumulative upkeep because otherwise you’d never die if they didn’t have a Shatter. Claws of Gix was another card that did this and was constructed playable. The rules changed though somewhere around 6th edition and now these cards are useless.

[@FlakManiak]

Oh and if Task Mage Assembly makes it on, then Samite Sanctuary, its mirror image, should too!

[@Zman82]

I have to disagree with snowfall there's a few combos that work out okay in a ice age block. Illusionary forces is a pretty good creature. One blue three-colorless for a 4/4 flying with cumulative upkeep of one Island.

[@ASCP_Certified]

Found some staples for my “Only bad cards” edh deck

[@GheyForGames]

This was a good watch

[@TheSillySils]

Id like to see these cards remade. What if Rakalite cost 0 and it had 1 activation

[@telph3223]

No love for coin flip cards? Flip a coin cards will always be playable because of chance encounter, kark's thumb, and zndrsplt and okaun.

[@Apanblod]

I think Aladdin's Lamp is one of the worst. I wouldn't even hesitate to put it in the top five.

[@bluedestiny2710]

- From what I know, Mindless Null was supposed to only cost B1 for a 2/2 creature with downside. While it would still be bad, it wouldn't be useless if it cost 2 mana: I can still see it being run standard of that time in a mono-black aggro deck - Aven Trooper is still SOMEWHAT usable in limited: it IS still a discard outlet in an environment that has both Madness and Flashback and Threshold. If you can get your hands on a better discard outlet (i.e Patrol Hound), then there's no reason to use the Trooper. If not, then it's not a total disaster to use it - the anti-set cards are NOT completely useless. While they hit very limited targets, some of them are game breaking... so it may be worth considering. Bottle is the best bec it just completely shuts down cards from the set. Also, believe it or not, Chime had a place in the sideboard during its standard years because it was the most generic way to get rid of Autumn Willow, one of the best creature of its time. - While not a good card, Goblin Bomb is insanely fun to pull off >:) I was kinda playing then... and in playground magic, where everything is generally slower than snails, the lingering threat of a 4 fused bomb is always a fun game state to reach - Sorrows Path is one of the best targets for Donate and Harmless Offering... or a coaster for your drink... I thought the following cards would have made it in this list: Indentured Djinn: a UU1 4/4 flier... it would have been a great card... if it didn't cast Ancestral Recall for all your opponents O.O I would tolerate this if the opponent draw ONE card... but 3?? Hired Giant: a R3 4/4 creature that allows all opponents to search their library for a land card... read it's ANY land... and put it in to play. Back then, when lands weren't as utility as it is now, it's an ok card to drop for red aggros... but with the plethora of creature lands and utility lands, this card is probably giving your opponent a bigger plus than you playing a 4/4 pretty much vanilla creature'' Fog elemental: a U2 4/4 flier that, at the end of combat, if this creature attacked or blocked, sacrifice this creature. Why? Just... why? Marjhan: a UU5 8/8 creature with the dreaded Islandhome mechanic. It comes in to play tapped, and doesnt untap as normal during your untap phase. You pay UU and sacrifice a creature to untap this creature... and it has an ability where you can pay UU, give the creature -1/-0 ... and then deal 1 damage to any attacking creature without flying Honestly, ANY creature with the "Home" mechanic is HORRID... but this creature is EXCEPTIONALLY bad because of its high cost and difficult to use. Oh, for those who are not aware what the "home" mechanic is: it's a retired keyword ability where a creature can live and attack if certain land types are in play. The most common is "Island Home"... where a creature can only stay alive on your side of the board if you control an island... and can only attack enemies who control islands. Goblin Rock Sled and Bog Serpent are the only 2 creatures I am aware of that has the home mechanic that is NOT island (mountain home and swamp home respectively). Wild Wurm: R3, 5/4 ... when this card comes into play: flip a coin. If you lose the flip: return this card to your hand... so yea... for 4 mana, you get a 5/4 creature... or you get jack s*** ... wanna risk it? Segmented Wurm: GR3, 5/5, if this card is the target of an effect or spell, but a -1/-1 counter on it. It's NOT efficent already... and you STILL tack a drawback on it ... why???

[@TheShinyFeraligatr]

Mindless Null was a misprint, and would have been great in Limited because of how Zendikar's limited was "play 2 drops or fucking die the format". Those last two creatures you named are absolutely not belonging on this list though, both of them were solid creatures back in the day if nothing broken.

[@SomeGuy712x]

Gorilla Pack from Ice Age has "Foresthome", so there's another "home" card that's not "Islandhome". And, it's just a 3/3 for 3 mana with no upside. It is indeed bad.

[@bluedestiny2710]

@@TheShinyFeraligatr Actually neither Segmented Wurm nor Wild Wurm saw any play during Tempest. However.... while terrible cards, i will agree that they can be good if things go way. I mean... its definitely better to drop a 5/4 vanilla (ish) creature than a 4 mana 1/1 that can ping a specific creature type AND become 2/2 in combat ... so yea... Oh also... yea thanks for confirming the Null. I remember it was something like that... and with how fast the format was then, it would still be a 6th or so pick in draft IF it costed 2 mana with drawbacks

[@bluedestiny2710]

@@SomeGuy712x oooh right i remember that! Thanks! I did find that card strange when i first saw it

[@TheShinyFeraligatr]

@@bluedestiny2710 They didn't see competitive play, but "5 mana 5/5 with a small downside" isn't that out of the world at that time (most spells that would target a 5 mana 5/5 would be, you know, kill spells anyway), and "4 mana 5/4 with a large downside" was actually not that unreasonable at all - consider Jade Leech, a 4 mana 5/5 with a massive downside that nevertheless saw play several years later.

[@HeavyMetalMouse]

I feel like Pale Moon needs to be in there somewhere. Probably in the "Does Nothing" category. Bad cards, in my opinion, come in three flavors: Active, Reactive, and Blank. Blank cards are those that just don't actually do anything you want to do to begin with. Reactive cards are those that only exist to react to a situation that your opponent might (or might not) be causing (and usually fail to do anything relevant in those situations, or cost too much to do so, or both). Meanwhile, Active bad cards, while still definitely bad, are at least trying to Do A Thing, and, at least in theory, that is something you can try to make useful in that weird janky commander deck you like to run in your kitchen table group. Cards like Sorrow's Path get a *little* bit of leeway in my book, because they are able to do active things: in SP's case, that thing is "Damage your own creatures and yourself repeatedly" by causing the Path to tap, and it's actually solidly 'okay' at doing that... if only that were actually something you wanted to do, ever. But you could, at least in theory, actively seek out other cards that would benefit from you doing that, and nothing about that relies on your opponent to make it work, which is nice. Compare to something like the well-justified-placed Break Open, a card which is Reactive to a situation that you cannot reasonably engineer, and which you wouldn't want to play even in the situation where your opponent happens to be playing the things it can affect. Or to my suggestion for Worst Rare above: Pale Moon, a Reactive card that you cannot force your opponent to care about in any way - the only way Pale Moon could be more useless is if it mentioned Snow lands somewhere on it :P

[@thepeetachip1847]

I don’t think city in a bottle should be on the list because it currently sees play in vintage! It’s a great sideboard tool against bazaar aggro decks which are dominating the format at the moment.

[@kunopumpernikkel215]

So here is me....playing several ones of these unironically. A lot of them can be made decent with proliferate.

[@somejerk5662]

Fasting would have been so much funnier without that destruction clause. Milled out? Fasting lol I'm not drawing

[@MrTzorph]

Try looking at the old cards when they printed. The Laces were useful when the knights were staple in white and black. Try building a deck with Revised era cards and you would see how some of the cards were more useful.

[@AmmiO2]

Even taking that into account, the laces have always been bad.

[@Tenchi593]

Apocalypse Charm can be useful because anyone that plays cards from Homelands deserves to be punished

[@reccaman]

I just hope wood elemental isnt on the list, its so good

[@spinnertown]

129 is a shame. Hiw dare you *giggiti* to blame quagmire.

[@jjs8426]

I choose you Monachu!

[@lainhikaru5657]

Hmmm collapsing borders seems ok though, for the time it was released when it was stabdard I guess

[@banshee2125]

Ive made a commander deck with the soul purpose of being miserable to play with. A lot of the cards here are in the deck. I'm torn on whether I should actually buy it though

[@TheAustin09]

think you answered your own question lol

[@joshtyree7755]

I was hoping to see snowfall on this list as it has always been on my list of terrible cards

[@Hmongboi228]

Every card has a story behind it during the development/growth of Magic as to why it was created. As with any youtube vide, I'm sure that you/we/I will get an explanation of some cards as to why it was created from reading through the comments below. Of course the older cards are going to be worse due to power creep but each card had their story and time in Magic history...

[@nadiacarrel3932]

Most bad cards were intentionally designed as bad to make pack filler. It's how card games work.

[@tobiaspause1775]

eh, the red glyph is kinda interesting. You might try to fling it in red or something. 10 strength for 1 mana is worth some experimenting.

[@casteanpreswyn7528]

Also, quick correction on Security Detail. If you have no creatures, due to a board wipe or something, and its already on the field(assuming turn 5 with a mono-white deck with no ramp or mana rocks) you can activated it for 2 of your 5 mana then in response to the trigger going onto the stack you can do it again. Sure, 4 mana for two 1/1's aint great, but it is technically better than your evaluation suggested.

[@AmmiO2]

You can only activate it once per turn.

[@casteanpreswyn7528]

@AmmiO2 my bad, I missed the "and only once each turn". That'll teach me to comment at work. Lol

[@bluedestiny2710]

This can be done IF you have multiple Security Details on the field. That does mean you need 4 copies and 8 white mana to create 4 1/1s ... or you can save yourself the trouble and just use any other token sources like Resolute Reinforcements and that 5 mana sorcery that gives you 3 2/2 samurai tokens ... or lingering souls, raise the alarm or...

[@survivalizer]

"Mona" lol

[@TheDougWay]

Definitely needs Malignant Growth in the top 40. One of the worst cards ever and somehow no one seems to know about it.

[@zielonyzielaknew]

Imagine playing Cube with those cards!

[@nekoseba2788]

I remembered distinctly owning a card calles "Zombie Fanboy"... i had to look it up, bure it surely exists and is in my collection. That card is my worst pick

[@thunderhawk2567]

That’s a silver-bordered card from the set “Unhinged.” Silver-bordered cards aren’t legal in any competitive format because they’re all meant as jokes. Essentially, they’re not so much “real” cards as they are parodies of Magic: the Gathering itself

[@zacharyenglish2904]

I feel like break open is worse than sorrows path. At least sorrow’s path activates landfall, and taps for mana if you have an urborg or a yavimaya. Break open can’t even be used in spellslinger decks because it needs a target

[@Hmongboi228]

It was used on "BLISTERING FIRECAT" at the time to kill it..

[@motorologist]

You could donate an unstable hulk then unmorph it, getting an extra turn basically. I agree with you though.

[@NintendoMasterNo1]

great video

[@daganisoraan]

Jeez I need a cube of these

[@ChickenMcThiccken]

many of these cards are cheap. but lets talk about the foils. they're also cheap. however, there's less than 100 listings for each card to skyorcket. when all bought out. plus they are from old sets. only a matter of time before they skorocket.

[@ralphthegnome]

Combining the cast cost with activation costs seems pretty dishonest. Not saying those cards are great, but unless it is a one-use card.. the casting cost is up front and you pick and choose to repeatedly use the activation when it suits you. It isn't "9 mana to give a creature +2" or "8 mana to rummage" or "10 mana to make a 1/1"

[@Rorschachqp]

Say monna again

[@TheyCallHimPogo]

I find ironic and humorous how many of these cards are on the Reserved List and cost more than Fetchland; yet are complete trash.

[@8BitCyberWarrior]

Still not convinced wood elemental isn't the worst card ever printed

[@Omenshaper]

There is exactly ONE use for Sorrow's Path, and that's in a combo in which you give your opponents infinite spirit tokens through an animated Forbidden Orchard enchanted with Freed from the Real, animate Sorrow's Path through some effect, then Mirrorweave all creatures into copies of Sorrow's Path and tap all of them through some effect. Yes, you could also accomplish this with City of Brass, but that's not as funny, now is it?

[@bonkysinclairo]

WHERE IS CORAL REEF? It's my personal favorite bad card :) Coral Reef BlueBlue Enchantment Coral Reef enters the battlefield with four polyp counters on it. Sacrifice an Island: Put two polyp counters on Coral Reef. Blue, Tap an untapped blue creature you control, Remove a polyp counter from Coral Reef: Put a +0/+1 counter on target creature.

[@AmmiO2]

Wow, um... nice find. #141 it is.

[@goaway5297]

A lot of these are just flavourful draft chaff or experimental early cards. I can't be too hard on them, they had their purpose. And weren't egregious examples of power creep like we're seeing increasingly nowadays.

[@nicholaskane4693]

even if a lot of these are awful, some are at least flavor wins!

[@clintonclay3158]

Wouldnt warping wurm keep phasing out and stay a 2/2 because they phase out and lose the +1/+1 counter?

[@AmmiO2]

Phasing retains counters, and anything attached to the phaser like auras/equipment also phase in/out with it.

[@clintonclay3158]

@@AmmiO2 that's still incredibly silly. For a game based on math they really went full fuck all with the math with these cards.lol

[@ryanstudham640]

If you would like the narrowest hate piece possible for Tron, Golgothian Sylex blows up all the tron lands. It also hits The Rack if you're playing against the 8rack player.

[@budderk1305]

comment for algorithm, also thanks you did this without annoying memes

[@machineheadslump]

Sick vid

[@TheTicatic10]

Trap finders trick was planeshifted from Yu-Gi-Oh