Top 10 Worst Draft Sets in Magic the Gathering

[@Kei-ye8if]

Logs: Mentions year released after name of set *thunderous applause*

[@EinDose]

I'm one of the defenders of All Will be One as a draft set. You have to know from the outset that it's a hyper-aggressive format (or just go for one of the hyper-aggressive styles right away), but the all-out brawl that results is really fun if that's your thing.

[@gianandreamuratori1406]

Yeah, to me it's INSANE that it's considered one of the worst sets of all time, for some reason a lot of people are convinced that fast sets= bad sets but that's not necessarily the case AND ONE had a lot of supported archetypes that worked out just fine

[@YoBGS]

Oh my god I drafted so much Lorwyn and Coldsnap back in the MTGO days where your avatar had to physically sit at the table and would get xrayed when you took damage. I was never very good so I didn’t know how bad they were

[@jinxsiemcdeath6250]

They're not bad. You were. Once upon a time, MtG was very much a meritocratic, variance-minimized skill-focused game that didn't care for feelings. Then the 2010s and well, almost everything went to shit.

[@Alikaoz]

​@@jinxsiemcdeath6250Lol. Lmao.

[@hunterh4064]

​@@jinxsiemcdeath6250LIBTARD destroyed bro

[@hunterh4064]

​@@jinxsiemcdeath6250LIBTARD destroyed bro

[@daren5393]

I want you to know that you from 3 months In the past made me cringe so hard it took years off my life. Truly life altering, thanks​@@jinxsiemcdeath6250

[@Redpoppy80]

New Capenna was DOMINATED by Blue and White. It really sucked that the tri lands were RARE instead of Uncommon like Khans of Tarkir and Capenna didn't have enemy color lands. Shield Counters were busted as well since you couldn't answer them without a huge loss in tempo and card advantage. Blue and White also had so many fliers so blocking them was just impossible most of the time. Blue also had Witness Protection which answered almost any threat at ONE mana. Red had Strangle but between shield counters and their creatures were garbage because Blitzing often just left you without a board Red did have Call Professional but it was far too expensive to be the answer other colors needed.

[@theangrycolossal]

I will go out on a limb and say Dominaria United (which came out as the next set) was a better 3-color set than New Capenna was

[@Spooky_Bard]

I’d be interested to hear the inverse, the best/most beloved draft formats.

[@williamdrum9899]

Kaladesh/Aether Revolt was my favorite

[@SketchyTinkerer]

Historically, the original Innistrad is considered one of, if not, the best draft format of MtG's history.

[@lachlank.8270]

Alpha/Beta

[@Morte_n]

I think it is easy to determin what makes a format/set not fun to draft, I'd say it boils down to three key aspects: 1. How balanced are the colors? Is there one color or a color combination that feels like it is a must play? 2. Are they themes proberly supported and if they are, how much of them are fighting over the same keycards? 3. How strong are the bombs? Are there cards that just instantly win the game if drawn and played? (Incinerator of the Guilty from Murders comes to mind and I'm a bit affraid Thunder Junction will have a lot of cards just not fun to play against... Mostly any of the Mythics spoilered so far are just totally able to win games solo)

[@EmperorPylades]

Innistrad, OG Zendikar and Khans all come to mind. Innistrad is absolutely in the top 3, if not the number 1.

[@arthurfleck4320]

BFZ is so weak that a Sorcery Speed Hero's Downfall was printed at Rare.

[@sunstrid3r44]

And they even made it the buy a box promo

[@MichaelBrandon-cp8jq]

To be fair, Hero's Downfall used to be a rare back then as well, and Ruinous Path does technically have an upside over it (as slow as that Awaken cost is). But yes, it didn't really see much play over black removal cards in Tarkir block like Murderous Cut or Utter End.

[@sunstrid3r44]

@@MichaelBrandon-cp8jq i cant remember if ruinous path played with utter end and murderous cut. Werent KTK and Fate Reforged out of standard when BFZ dropped bc rotation between DTK and HOU was super fast? Ruinous path had too many downsides, it was too slow, and i never saw anyone pay the awaken cost for it... But it could kill PWs what was a rare thing at the time and Gideon Ally of Zendikar and Jace Telepath Unbound were insane. It was a bad card, but it was the best among the bad removals, i guess...

[@Morte_n]

Hero's Downfall was a rare for a long time and we are comparing Magic at totally different points in design history. Early on Planeswalker removal was rare, like, really rare! It would take nearly 5 years after Ruinous Path until we got the first non-rare card to destroy Planeswalkers without any special condition (like name or color). So I'd agree Battle wasn't the best set but it still got some Bangers! Drana Liberator of Malakir, Gideon Ally of Zendikar, Ulamog the Ceaseless Hunger and Bring to Light (which spawned an own combo deck). Also not every set can be a banger because highs need lows to be highs, else it would all be a flat line. :P

[@MichaelBrandon-cp8jq]

@@sunstrid3r44 Second trip to Zendikar was the block right after Tarkir, so yes they would have been in Standard at the same time. Tarkir was the last three-set block, BFZendikar the first two-set block.

[@sandwichfromyoutube]

Griselbrand is the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Avacyn Restored. 😭💔

[@TNTColonel]

Battle for Zendikar was a messed up set on multiple angles, and yet for years it was the best selling set of all time, off of the back of the Expeditions lottery tickets. Make of this what you will.

[@chazzitz-wh4ly]

“How do we get people to buy more cards?” “Milk the consumer base with promos, special art reprints, and powerful chase cards?”

[@daren5393]

Battle and oath are some of my favorite sets of all time. It probably has something to do with how much I played the game back then, but I loved all the mechanics, the aesthetics, ect. I even have a black blue exile mill deck based around the processors from BFZ

[@radnubnub101]

Could you please do top 10 best vanillas? Ever since you uploaded the 10 worst vanillas video I've really been wanting to see what the best ones are.

[@Growvilye500]

Scars of Mirrodin being here at all hurts me. I drafted that for months at my store cause it was the best drafting experience I've ever had.

[@robertomacetti7069]

I had a lot of fun with new capenna personally The mana fixing was everywhere and so everyone in my lgs ended up drafting "5 color random bullshit go" A very fun weekend deep into midrange hell I gotta say

[@sunsfssb7699]

What a nice video! I always say that I don't like the draft format. In drafted like 10 times in my whole magic career. 7 of those with Sets mentioned in this video.

[@user-hdhdhhdhdhsnjdjdjdioowj]

Damn I remember loving the bfz draft bc it was the only format that ally was remotely viable in, landfall made topdecking a land become a net positive, and orzhov vampires was really fun

[@Necroskull388]

I will defend triple Ixalan draft to my dying breath. Yes, it was very aggro and tempo oriented, but I don't think that's inherently a bad thing. The set was designed around it -- the set was centralized around every deck being different flavors of "proactive". Every deck you draft is meant to be MOVING -- I don't think that's a bad environment if the set is actually designed around that, which it is. It's a set where every game exists in the context of "tempo vs tempo", and I like tempo mirror matches a lot.

[@Great_White_Shork]

I miss the block set system.

[@chazzitz-wh4ly]

I really liked drafting one pack for each set in a block. It felt like growth or advancement in the block.

[@jamesrochester2459]

Eh. Pack 1 being the same set for so many months on end was really monotonous for anyone who drafted frequently (most people who want it back did not). If blocks ever came back in any form, pack 1 would need to vary at least.

[@jameshonaker585]

Battle for Zendikar's primary problem was that it was trying to split the difference between Zendikar/Worldwake and Rise of the Eldrazi, which were radically unlike each other.

[@palaguin]

I was the only one who enjoyed triple-Legions when we did it a few times at my game store at the time. My trick was go for white.

[@rawhide303]

Cold snap is one of the only sets I have drafted. No wonder I've never been interested in draft.

[@Morte_n]

I think one should always talk about drafting these sets in a vacuum. For example Ravnica was akward always too, since you ended up having two colors combined or even three and when you were at least 8 players most of the time someone else was in your two/three color pairs and you had a big scramble to grab early strong cards. Especially akward was when you had to draft not a single set but you drafted multiple sets combined. The OG Ravnica was split massivly and you had 4 - 3 -3 guilds in the sets and had then to navigate that and mostly two to three people in your guild colors scambling for the good cards too. PS: Thunder Junction feelings bomb heavy in the early parts of its spoilers. 😕

[@robertomacetti7069]

bomb heavy is not necessarily a bad thing, but we need good removals if it's actually bomb heavy

[@Morte_n]

@@robertomacetti7069 True! But if you got nothing really to handle these cards and they're demanding an answer immediately, I think they're badly designed cards too. The most current offender is Incinerator of the Guilty. If you can't handle it the turn after it hits the board it will be a one-sided boardwhipe and win the game. Thunder Junction has also a lot of cards where I'm quivering in my boots (joke needed to be done) when it comes to these mythics hitting the board and just running away with the game. Goldvein Hydra, Calamity, Railway Brawler, Geralf and his sister Gisa and Terror of the Peaks. All cards that NEED an answer the following turn or your done. Worst of all, most of them still generated some value if you played them right anyways.

[@JamesSamson487]

As someone who won my first pre-release at ONE, it was certainly an interesting experience that I still don’t know how I got through. Checked my pre-release deck (which I kept intact as a reminder) and it has 14 lands and 5 5+ mana costed cards (6 if you count White Suns).

[@kcStranger]

Avacyn Restored limited was very much hated, but I weirdly quite enjoyed it. I honestly quite liked just building consistent curve-out decks. It doesn't hurt that I won literally half my in-person drafts in that format, or that one time I was the only black drafter in a pod of 10. (Black was bad in that format, but that deck was stupid.)

[@ArborDaze]

I’ve not played physical magic or Arena since Mirage and Visions days, but Drafting has always appealed to me as it made the game feel like a roguelike card game, in a sense.

[@davidcampbell6286]

The only things I disagree with are the omissions of Ikoria Lair Of Behemoths and Battle For Baldurs Gate Alchemy(arguably worse than SNC). Also the biggest bomb in ONE isn’t White Suns Twilight it is easily the Eternal Wander which is now probably the third biggest bomb in the history of limited. And also I 100% agree with SNC being worse than AFR. AFR is kind of over hated but still a bad draft format.

[@Couldnt_Be_Bothered]

I didn't read alchemy at first lol. It really is a shame what they did to baldurs gate in alchemy.

[@daben7145]

I bought mtg arena gems like 2 1/2 years ago for 100€, plan was to spent it on heavy drafting in a set I really enjoy, well, I'm still waiting, drafted most of the past sets in the past years a bit, the most fun I personally had was MoM, but most sets werent really fun to me, wilds of eldraine, ONE, DMU, BRO, lord of the rings, now karlov manor, idk, there were some other but neither of those impressed me, sometimes I had nice drafts but most of the time, it was pretty frustrating, no matter which colour combinations I picked and how many guides I read about the set. Maybe the new one they release soon will be fun, some cards I saw on mtg arena reddit looked promising.

[@stepniak18]

Commander focus ridiculous bombs destroyed draft for me. I wasn't drafting since MoM when I finally said enough.

[@daben7145]

@@stepniak18 yea I wouldnt say MoM was a great set, Im not experienced enough to actually determine if a set is good or not, but out of the sets I tried the past 2 years, I had the most fun with it, but it certainly had problems as well.

[@sunstrid3r44]

What about Khans? Idk if it is still up, but the draft is really nice and i think you can find a lot of guides and theorycraft about the format since it is almost 10 years old

[@Gibbons3457]

Base Ixalan wasn't as bad as the recent Caverns of Ixalan IMO.

[@7Alberto7]

Amazing🎉🎉

[@awildsylveon9896]

Drafting Lord of the Rings on Arena is what got me into MTG! Glad to see you covering it

[@HispanicatthediscoMTG]

I’m so sorry

[@APSejuani]

Not sure if it's bad enough to be on this list, but I despised playing Theros: Beyond Death limited. Most of the set was pretty fun to draft. 90% of that hatred is just a result of Dream Trawler, which was just a nearly unanswerable bomb. The only way to get rid of it was either board wipe or block and kill it, and no flyer in the set was big enough to do that on its own. That's not even mentioning Kiora Bests The Sea God...

[@davidcampbell6286]

It is my personal favorite draft format with those two cards being the sets only issues.

[@LucasElFonseca]

I feel like VOW deserved a dishonourable mention

[@mageius]

I will actually argue that if you draft dragons maze as the third set it actually ends up being a bit more fun. Because basically doing it in Block release order end up allowing you to decide what type of color you want to go into and then craft the deck based on what Guild you chose

[@elijahmonroe1367]

New Capenna is my favorite set and draft set of all time. So much so that we've done three.

[@gustavosousa5246]

I know adventure on the forgotten realms is bad, but i draft a 3 pw on that and i never could forget the high

[@imjusthere750]

My record in cold snap draft was amazing!

[@thevaultwalrus]

every list i see Coldsnap takes number 1 and i agree but also drafting with Ice Age, Alliances and Coldsnap is extremely fun Force Of Wills by the dozens

[@simoncole2825]

I'd like to defend ONE, AFR and Ixalan. Just because a set is fast, doesnt mean it is bad. Yes, Ixalan and ONE were fast, but as long as you can acknowledge that and abide by the rules of the format, it shouldnt be overwhelming to you. As long as you had enough early plays (didnt matter if you had an agressive or a slower deck), you were fine and games would last alot longer. Also Ixalan definetely had a difference in power level between the tribes. Vampires were very strong for example. But every tribe paid you off for drafting one particular creature type. So cards like one with the wind werent required to win. I actually played blue green the most and i didnt rely on that particular card to have success. Also it makes sense that the removal wasnt that good since it wasnt about a slow, value gameplay, but rather playing to the board and curving out. You were definetely allowed to block in ONE btw. You just needed to know when. Combat tricks were very good in that format which suits its faster nature and the gameplay revolving around creature combat. I had a blast playing red white and red green. I really liked how the meta in AFR shifted. I started out playing red black, but at some point people understood that it was a strong archetype, so it ended up being more contested. My RB decks got alot worse and i was forced to find different strategies. I found alot of fun and success playing red white, green red and white green. I did especially well against red black with these decks. Blue was very bad and you can argue that this fact made the set worse. I only drafted blue, when i opened a blue bomb in p1p1, but that also meant i had to get more creative in the draft portion to make my blue decks work, since it was harder with them to win. Trying to solve that puzzle was very engaging to me.

[@joshelderkin9592]

Ixalan was my first and only paper draft it was such a bad time 😂

[@orangerightgold7512]

5 of those are my favorite sets lmao.

[@kanrakucheese]

Top 10 Cards that Break the Color Pie. Top 10 Worst Cards (That got Played Anyways for Out of Color Identity Effects)

[@timothygager9277]

Ikoria was 100% the worst limited format ever made. cycling was suppper oppressive with the only thing that could compete being something with a companion. Ikoria is the only limited set I know that had a card "banned" with zenith flare being temporarily removed from ikoria drafts on arena due to cycling being too powerful

[@finalflameKorisky]

'EYY-vacyn restored' 😂

[@Bee23447]

Drafting is usually the best way to play magic, usually

[@Morte_n]

I'd say Sealed is fun but yeah, Drafting is more fair. Especially since they added multiple possible hits in a single booster, that ruined Sealed by a lot. I remember March of the Machine it beeing possible to get up to 3 mythics in a single booster. One for the regular mythic slot, the Battle could be mythic and then the Multiverse Legends too. So if you were really lucky you had people playing with much more mythics and broken stuff than others.

[@TheGahta]

Purest to its strength and history? Sure perhaps "best" is a laughable claim betraying your lack if consideration to the vast array of formats and the individuals choice of enjoyment

[@solbradguy7628]

Insane take

[@lachlank.8270]

OK RICHIE RICH 😂

[@Nijht]

I've come to realize that I honestly don't like competitive Magic unless it's like a best of 7 or best of 9. There's just way too much variance in how the match plays out, because it's a card game. You can have a perfect deck and be perfect at playing it, but just lose because, for example, you were unlucky and got nearly no lands. That doesn't mean the other person was better, you just lost to bad luck. Ya gotta play nearly a dozen matches to see who's _actually_ better. Drafting adds yet another layer of randomness to the whole thing. It pushes the weight of "the skill being tested" even further away from "how good you are at identifying combos and countering strategies", to "how good you are at mitigating bad luck".

[@Atmapalazzo]

I really wish that wotc would do the smart thing and actually separate draft and constructed. When a very bad card is printed or reprinted into rare that looks like it should probably just be uncommon, I die a little inside. Meanwhile I have completely dominated against limited pods because I open an insane bomb and just ride it to victory against players who are better. Spoiler Alert: the card was printed for commander players.

[@Gibbons3457]

They used to try and create limited formats so that wasn't the case. It's only recently with their push for making all cards Commander strength that this has become the norm. I remember when commons and uncommons weren't must kill value engines on turn 2, whilst Rares and Mythics weren't bombier every set.

[@WokeCrusade]

Man I loved Scars draft.... I don't know why...

[@TheWackyWorkbench]

I actually like scars/besieged draft for that complexity and mind games

[@corriedebeer799]

Lorwyn was incredibly deep.

[@PrismRed]

Replace Lorwyn with Fate Reforged and I could agree with this

[@dankoerner887]

For my about 7-8 years of really playing MTG most of this list is when i played 🤣

[@BCWasbrough]

I personally hated Odyssey block sealed or draft. Red felt completely under powered and hobbled compared to the other colors, especially at common and uncommon.

[@LizaPlz]

god i really really hated all of new capenna from the design to the theme to especially the draft edit: and how they ruined the triome naming convention

[@soarel325]

100% agreed. The flavor was hilariously awful - they made a set about organized crime where there are no laws or authorities for the "crime" to be illegal under!

[@JaimeAGB-pt4xl]

There is bound to be missed from all the decades MTG has been around.... At least you can buy an MTG box and play w/friends since Draft is usually targeted by devs.... unlike other games like YGO which only care about constructed and pushing product

[@WokeCrusade]

Have had such a weird reaction to this, I disagree with a few of these... But also I was just good at those formats

[@Maleficorn]

I went to a ONE draft and had a completely miserable time. Every card was a giant wall of text, I got blown out every game by the rares, corrupted is a wonky mechanic...Ugh...I have nothing good to say about it.

[@homsar1942]

Great channel, but my man you gotta look up how to pronounce “Matron”. Please.

[@billyum608]

where does this channel get its information? it sort of feels like it’s just the opinions and recollections of one or more long-time players. that’s fine if that’s the case, but a disclaimer might be appropriate. the fact that ONE is on the list and being criticized for being fast, but HOU isn’t on the list at all seems egregious to me. obviously it’s an opinion-heavy topic, so i get it, but the script is phrased pretty certainly when discussing those opinions. like, ONE wasn’t actually that bad. it got soured for folks playing Bo1 on arena and reading 17lands data. there were plenty of long games to be had in the format if you knew what you were doing. definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, but i just feel like stuff like that could use mentioning at least.

[@harrisonvaporciyan4779]

These scripts are probably written exactly as you described because 1. it's easier to write scripts like that, 2. you can't really get called out for "bad research" on subjective topics the same way as objective stuff, and 3. (most importantly) it drives engagement by getting people to make comments like this.

[@Gibbons3457]

I mean I get the opposite effect. AKH and HOU were wildly called out for being too fast and bomby then but nowadays every set is more bomby and as fast or faster than these two and they're gushed over as some of the best of all time.

[@lachlank.8270]

User submitted scripts

[@LyleH-13]

I love that you ask where they get their information as though Wizards publicized a spreadsheet of worst sets and conclusive data set.

[@marcocamaiti212]

All will be one was absolutely miserable to play. Spoken by a fan of the new Phyrexian threat, I hated playing the set in limited

[@kennydarmawan13]

Speaking of draft sets, let's pay tribute to its discontinuation in favor of play boosters. Which mixes both draft and set boosters. But iirc, is basically more costly for less cards. Is that true?

[@breadpower]

more costly for the same amount of cards but more rares per pack

[@kennydarmawan13]

@@breadpower I see. Well, that's a trade. But still, they could've kept the price draft and affordable.

[@ronaldwayne7092]

No hate for original Zendikar? Tier 1: Black-White, Black-Green, Black-Red Tier 2: White-Green, White-Red, Red-Green Tier 3: (blank) Tier 4: (blank) . . . Tier 17: Everything else.

[@JesGolbez]

Lorwyn is one of the best. The more moderns sets are most of the worst. MKM easily worse than Lorwyn

[@Nidair]

Lorwyn was the set that made me quit MtG altogether and only come back for a few fun drafts

[@soarel325]

Absolutely agreed

[@lawtonfriedland1228]

I have all will be one more than any format ever

[@Njzeo]

As someone that actually played during Ixalan block. Ixalan was great to draft

[@denisskenderovic3707]

I am now sure that I am in the complete minority that enjoyed drafting Phyrexia: All Will Be One. Brought me a lot of gems in Arena.

[@soarel325]

Lorwyn absolutely does not belong here. The complex board states are only a flaw for new players - for an experienced player it’s the entire reason it’s so fun! There’s just so many interesting scenarios and gameplay that actually requires forethought and decision-making skills. I’ll take it any day over all the samey, “perfected” formats we get now. Amonkhet belongs in this list more than anything - everything wrong with ONE is also true of it.

[@elk12429]

It's wild to see three of my all time favorites in this list - but everyone has their own favorites and least favorites - drafting aggro decks in BFZ and ONE was actually really enjoyable for me even if the speed was very different, and I also had a huge soft spot for New Capenna - but hey, to each their own!

[@barriertrio4456]

goblin matrón

[@captainkarnage9874]

I think draft is too complicated and confusing for your average EDH player

[@brendans1983]

I think EDH is too complicated and confusing for your average EDH player 😂

[@biobuilder332]

god this is such content farm shit lmao

[@RadStitch]

I remember hating the Kamigawa Neon Dynasty draft. Can't remember why sadly

[@romanmccoy5074]

hello there

[@DelValle144]

General Kenobi

[@PrinceGentleKnight]

I swear you are mispronouncing some things on purpose… how could you do that to Avacyn!

[@HazhMcMoor]

4:14 and this is why Yugioh is so terrible for drafting

[@Blight-Knight9]

I’m sorry but I could not stand MKM draft. Face down cards is incredibly frustrating to play against and bring a bit of randomness that doesn’t belong in magic in a sence of guessing what your opponent is playing. And this coming from someone who’s played Yugioh for 9 years. Where face down creatures today is basically non-existent because of how unplayable it is in that game. In magic it’s the total opposite. It’s playable because people don’t expect it and it has barely been used throughout the games history outside of khans of tarkir a few commander decks you rarely see and now MKM What made this set even worse was the fact that blue was nearly a nightmare to play, yes people hate counter spells, but how about being the blue player and not being able to counter a spell that also gets around your face down creatures ward cost. Add on top that Red White aggro was easily the best color combination to be drafting, which oddly enough card draw wasn’t the combinations issue as the entire set has a boat load of investigate. Add ontop that many of the legendary just meant the win of the game. You have a very monopolized draft environment where players are guessing what there opponent already has on board, blue being near misserable in the set, and Boros aggro never running out of gas when they are normally supposed to, and you get a very annoying draft environment. And the worst part is that MKM is a set that is best when it’s drafted, because that’s where it brings the most randomness in the disguise and cloak cards.

[@simoncole2825]

I am not sure how much you played MKM, but maybe you should give it one more try. The more you draft the more you will know what kind of disguise creature your opponents will probably have. It is definetely a puzzle to solve on how to interact the best with disguise creatures, but i personally think it is a fun puzzle to figure out. To me blue was a very good colour, especially paired with green. I think black was the worst one, but it wasnt unplayable.

[@Blight-Knight9]

@@simoncole2825 I played a shit ton of draft on arena. Because I was generally trying to understand sealed even more. I know arena has a couple cards that shouldn’t be a draft to where defenders was actually big. But from my experience there blue was misserable to play. As its counter spells were all spells you could pay mana to stop in draft environment where people are already holding mana to use on clues. Black was actually very good since its removal was uncounterable outside of murder and the -4/-4 enchantment. Also black having some of the best early game creatures really helped. As much I understand playing the draft more and more figured out the disguise puzzle one is playing and I do understand that argument. Because a good chunk of disguise creatures have a hybrid cost it also bring even more randomness in my opinion.

[@LordMorde]

khans of tarkir made me quit fnm draft for like 2 years.

[@EmperorPylades]

Khans was an absolute joy to draft when it was triple Khans. FRF and DTK on the other hand...

[@casabaixo]

Worst video ever.

[@bendreier1593]

Why?

[@casabaixo]

@@bendreier1593 yes