The Most Complicated Magic: The Gathering Cards!

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[@Greg501-]

We really are just ignoring the Arena-only cards huh.

[@fremenGaming]

Im sorry but Space Sculptor is clear to me and I didnt see an issue in its description. It does not state that anyone assigns sectors. Sectors are made by the card. The card makes the battlefield spit to sectors. Owners assign creatures TO the sectors. Maybe I'm the weirdo here and I dont understand the issue :D

[@cardshark38]

I’m surprised that Time Sifter didn’t make the list. Not only does it completely annihilate turn order and trigger in a bad spot, but also who’s got the next turn after it gets destroyed? Well the player that won the next turn would still get an extra turn, but then we all have to remember whose turn it was going to be after the Time Sifter’s first activation. Also don’t get me started on how difficult it is to resolve multiple Time Sifters being on the field. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[@Greg501-]

@@fremenGaming Nah, I feel Space Jace is easy enough too, thanks to the reminder text. It's just a bit more complex than Mystery Booster card "Problematic Volcano" which divides the field in 2 instead of 3, and is continuously applying what would be Jace's first loyalty ability.

[@darthkoo5000]

I am now going to play Space Jace in my EDH decks just to annoy the table!

[@Phaythan_Gob_Boss]

Was there only a gray blank screen from 16:57 to 17:26 for anyone else?

[@alexvanderoef7654]

Yeah. I thought it was my internet

[@KnightWhoSaysNopeAvi]

Oops, error in post

[@demiurge2501]

Yep seems like the video didn’t get uploaded in the final edit

[@uwtartarus]

Ok, glad it wasn't just me

[@xChikyx]

yes, proabbly for clarification time

[@Kleion_RFB]

I'm a bit surprised Panglacial Wurm didn't get at least an honourable mention. It pretty regularly comes up in discussions about complex cards since it sort of just forces you to say "eh, we're just not gonna worry about how the stack works for now," as you can cast a creature spell in the middle of resolving an action on the stack, which then gets its own "sub-stack" in case a player wants to respond to the wurm's casting. Definitely an oddball.

[@NihlusKryik]

The stack isn’t ignored, it works exactly the same as any other spell or ability that lets you cast a spell mid resolution. Like I’m not even sure what this “sub stack” thing you’ve invented is. The Panglacial Wurm will just go on top of the stack (above the currently resolving object in fact)

[@Terminatornero]

It essentially works like an instant. So it goes on the stack normally like any other card would.

[@LegoMyachi]

@@Terminatornerobut it happens MID search, which is something literally no other card does. It goes on the stack while the effect of another spell is currently BEING resolved

[@Oznej]

It gets even weirder if you try to pay for it with Selvala, Explorer Returned :3 Like, you're currently searching your library, so how do you reveal the top card? What if you don't hit enough nonlands to pay for the wurm? You may then undo the mana abilities, but what does that do to the cards your opponents revealed? It's such a mess.

[@patsen29]

@@LegoMyachi If you play Twincast, you're making a copy of another spell as part of resolution, and putting it on the stack. That's not so different, it's just you're putting an actual card on the stack instead of a copy.

[@CHoustonify]

Big shout out to the channel Judging FTW, who does daily rulings on absurd or complex rules interactions in a very very easy to understand way. His episode on Urza's Saga and Blood Moon finally made me think I understand it.

[@rlbarney2]

I second! His explanation video regarding Humility makes the card easier to understand and far less complicated as put forth.

[@athos604]

I actully third here! GREAT channel if you're interested in this!

[@NN-cr6gx]

The interaction seems very straight forward to be tbh, but maybe because I don't play magic and thus are not used to these rules working differently.

[@Hoologramek]

I've seen a comment on Reddit once: "The difference between yugioh and magic the gathering (as someone who plays neither) is that a yugioh card says like "if you own a Blorbionicus the King of Red Eyes in your pendulum summon zone (but NOT your left pendulum summon zone) you can special summon (NOT ritual or zexal or pendulum summon) sixteen cards named Blorbimini (excluding Maid Blorbimini) to any zone EXCEPT the super double defense zone" and no one can explain this to me but meanwhile a magic the gathering card says "flying. after the end of your turn draw a card" and people are like oh those fools bc the action only goes on the stack after the end of your turn and because of the use of 'your' instead of 'the owner's' and because mercury is in gatorade, technically it only resolves during the opponents third upkeep when explicitly you cant draw cards or else a sniper will shoot you" And I couldn't agree with it more

[@juter1122]

In yugioh it's the cards, in magic it's the novel of rules

[@daviddickey9871]

As a magic commander player who constantly yells back and forth with his friends about reading the card explaining the card, this comment is both spot on and absolutely golden.

[@texier13]

I always hated the template "At the beggining of the endstep", its very confusing when you play EOT and some effects resolve only in the next turn.

[@RibusPQR]

There are some cards that say "After this main phase, there is an additional combat phase." They don't work if cast during the combat phase.

[@daviddickey9871]

Moraug, Fury of Akoum is one of those with misleading text. Turns out if you play a land in your first main phase, you get the additional combat before your main combat, so your creatures won't untap for your main combat after you swing with them in the additional combat. He also forces you to go straight from your additional combat to your end phase if the additional combat is after your second main phase.@@RibusPQR

[@ljlk8583]

old fogey's always one of my favourites it's a 7/7 for 2 mana. You can't use it the turn you play it because of summoning sickness. Then, the next turn, it'll phase out. This will make it so you don't have to pay the cumulative upkeep or the echo cost, and a fading counter won't be removed (I think). Then, the third turn you have it, you have to pay {1}{G}{G} to keep it around, and it goes down to 2 fading counters. Then, you can attack with it. Remember, though, it can attack in a band of other dinosaurs. Then, once your opponent (assuming they don't control any snow-covered plains) blocks with some non-flanking, non-homarid creatures, Old Fogey will get +2/+2 for each creature blocking it, and each defending creature will get -1/-1 until end of turn. Then, turn 4 that you have Old Fogey out, it'll be phased out again. Turn 5, you'll be able to attack with it again, but you have to pay {2} to keep it around. Remember, though, this is the last time you can attack with it before it loses its last fading counter and gets sacrificed. edit: upon further review, I believe you never actually have to pay the echo cost. Echo reads "at the beginning of your upkeep, if this came under your control since the beginning of your last upkeep, sacrifice it unless you pay its echo cost". The second turn you have old fogey, it will be phased out and the echo will not trigger. Then, on turn 3, since it didn't come under your control since your last upkeep (it was 2 upkeeps ago), echo won't trigger.

[@Fealuinix]

Your second look at the card is correct, you never have to pay the echo cost. I believe at the time it was first printed echo had a slightly different wording.

[@xboxgamer474246]

-ahem- Judge!

[@rasen7721]

It doesn't get +2/+2 for each creature blocking it but each creature blocking it beyond the first! Rampage!

[@kieranharwood7186]

@@rasen7721 That's why you need to put a training counter on it and give it Bushido 1 twice with Sensei Golden Tail (the training counters do nothing and the instances of Bushido 1 trigger separately and each grant +1/+1, it also gets two instances of the Samurai creature type).

[@MasterHigure]

I believe you're mixing fading and vanishing. Fading says if you can't remove a counter, you sacrifice the creature. Not when the last counter is removed. Fading is by far the better designed ability.

[@corsosrarebooksandcollecti562]

I applaud you Brian, for choosing humility as the top pick. Humility plus opalescence, basically the judge tests from a late '90s, lol. I am surprised that word of command didn't make the cut, and possibly iced cauldron or jeweled amulet.

[@FearOgre]

Iced cauldron isn't to bad, its text vomit just overwhelms many

[@vctrsigma]

ice cauldron is one of those simple things that takes a lot of words to explain. 1) Tap: put a spell on layaway along with some mana and 2) Tap: finish playing the spell from 1 you may use the mana from 1.

[@nicolaspassemard265]

Word of command is easy too. "Let me play one of your cards from your hand using your mana".

[@greywolf7577]

Why don't they get rid of layers and just say "If two cards conflict and it can't be solved with the preference for "can't do something" over "Do something", then whichever card came into play most recently is the one you follow"? Why make people memorize layers to figure out which effects apply?

[@joshuaboniface]

@@greywolf7577 Layers exist basically *because* of these cards and their weird interactions. Without the rules clearly defining what happens, you leave results down to arbitrary judge calls or timing, which could have other knock-on effects. It was better in the long run to just define the order these things happen. As a normal player, you really never need to know about layers. It only comes up in the occasional game with these few specific cards, and outside of the worst offenders (Humility) what happens is usually pretty intutive.

[@megadog9305]

"1/12/2024 If you have fewer than six cards in your library or if Triumph of Saint Katherine isn't in your graveyard as the triggered ability resolves, no cards will be exiled and the ability will do nothing." Official gatherer rulings disagree with your additional notes on Triumph of Saint Katherine.

[@jojobetzler3732]

I think Prof´s team did research on Scryfall, where the new ruling is missing.

[@mattm7798]

Haha, so that kind of makes his point that the card keeps getting "changed".

[@golasticus]

Wow, so reading the card doesn't actually explain the card now. While that new ruling is friendlier to the player, it does an entirely different thing than what the rules text says. Good stuff WotC

[@kieranharwood7186]

That ruling makes no sense to me... The general ethos is "if you can't do everything, do as much as you can", so the Prof's explanation matched what I thought would happen... That ruling should be written with rules text closer to "When X dies, if you are/were its owner and have at least 6 cards in your library, then exile it and the top 6 cards blah blah, if you do blah blah..." What a weird card.

[@kgoodfarms]

It's possible this video was filmed before the newest ruling as it was only a month ago

[@LucasBuilds]

When one of my friends was proxying a balrog deck for commander to test out her brew for it, most of the proxies had the actual card text on-- except wheel of misfortune, which just said 'look up the oracle text'.

[@Lightn0x]

I'm not big into magic, but I play many other TCGs. It really doesn't seem to me like Wheel is that complicated. Definitely the least confusing card on the list.

[@LucasBuilds]

@@Lightn0xit's simple enough once you know what it does, but its oracle text is pretty lengthy.

[@soleo2783]

​@@LucasBuilds Doesnt that mean it should be excluded from the list like animate dead and necromancy ?

[@LucasBuilds]

@@soleo2783 not exactly-- it requires the original wheel as a point of reference to be like Simple simple and it's still a lot of steps.

[@soleo2783]

@@LucasBuilds And how does that make it differ from necromancy?

[@Lynxiro]

Takklemaggot was actually pretty intuitive. It's basically a bestow creature that has to bestow another creature when the one it enchants dies.

[@RedWurm]

Yeah, I think that is, like some other examples not included in the video, a good example of a relatively simple concept meeting legalistic card text, and then running face first into some very clunky writing.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

Shit, that's probably a better answer than my "make it transform" idea.

[@MakeVarahHappen]

I do love when magic players go "it's like X, just change these very important parts about X"

[@Hemlocker]

It's the "that player" that makes things confusing

[@williamjohnson5022]

I would say it's like animate dead in that the card itself is pretty simple & intuitive, but the wording makes it look more complicated than it is.

[@hassurunous6167]

+1 for others who mentioned Panglacial Wurm. It breaks the core mechanic of "nothing happens in the middle of an effect", and causes a ton of problems. My favorite is the interaction that comes when you try to pay for Panglacial Wurm with Selvala, Explorer Returned. It's just about as unintuitive as it can get, involving all our favorite problems.

[@ab14967]

He may not have used it because it's such an easy gimme that has been talked to death before. I haven't really seen these get talked about.

[@thomasfleming8131]

3:23 On top of not wanting to beat a dead horse; I'd argue Sharazad is more like Animate Dead. You can easily short hand it to "take your deck as it exists right now, play a game of magic, whoever loses that game loses life in this one, then play resumes."

[@AdrianWoodUK]

That's true, but... I think this highlights a 3rd factor to consider. Most of the cards here are *difficult to play properly.* Animate Dead is quite simple to play properly, but *hard to read.* Shahrazad is fairly easy to read, and the effect is clear... But *the **_physical act_** of using it's effect is complex.* Having to go through a whole other round of Magic, potentially with almost your entire deck, at very least needs ~2x the space and time you may have been expecting, and by nature includes all the complexities that a standard MTG has... And when you finish it, best hope you weren't in the middle of a complicated turn in the main game. That magnifies, drastically, if the players have multiple copies between their decks and the desire to use them, the result is games within games within games, potentially hundreds of times (more, if shenanigans let you use the same card multiple times in a given game). None of the individual plays of the card is complicated, nor are any of the individual games any worse than a normal MTG match, but... let's just say, I'd be interested in meeting the players with the mental fortitude to make it through a gauntlet like that without eventually losing track of something.

[@thomasfleming8131]

@@AdrianWoodUK Absolutely. And having made that original comment before watching the rest, I suppose it fits with the list well enough. I disagree with Prof about Wheel of Misfortune, but if we're willing to expand the definition of complexity in the case of cards like Sharazad and Space Beleren to include "difficult to keep a legal board state" then we can also include Wheel of Misfortune under "complex to make the right decision based on all the potential factors."

[@thesacredm]

I fully thought he said Charizard at first and was so confused😅

[@throwawwy53]

Similarly, Chains is pretty simple. Every time you draw a card (other than your first in your draw phase), you first gotta discard another card, per each Chains in play, and if you dont have enough cards to discard then you just mill instead of drawing

[@JD-gk7eh]

@@throwawwy53Agree. Chains isn't complicated by today's rules. It existed in a world without replacement effects being defined by rules for years and that's where it was a mess--mostly when there were multiples. If you understand replacement effects even moderately well, multiple Chains is not hard. But this is a function of today's rules being really well developed and robust; it took a long time to get there and Chains was terrible until it did. I think there's lot of effects that have been way harder to grok over the years. Madness used to be insanely complicated under the rules for a while, and things triggering off zone changes with face down cards get to be a mental gymnastics exercise fairly quickly. And then fairly simple things like Kess become an utter intuitive nightmare with Adventure. That is my vote for worst rules interaction in Magic as it involves taking what seems to be an illegal game action that then becomes legal because you did it. They really need to change that one.

[@goatsfluff]

As a computer programmer and coder, I want to say that Magic is definitely very programming-esque. In Magic, you have concepts like the stack, looping and clauses. There's also the concept of zones (which could be looked at as context or scope in a program). So if you like Magic, you might be able to pick up on some programming concepts, or vice-versa! Though if you're watching this, you're likely into Magic already :p

[@kieranharwood7186]

Kyle Hill has a video on how MtG is Turing complete. If you can understand what's going on in that video then you're already at 2nd year uni level programming :)

[@goatsfluff]

@@kieranharwood7186 True! Might be a bit hard to follow although Kyle isn't bad at explaining things; it's just a pattern I've seen with new programmers even at uni level. It takes a while to "get it". Doesn't help that people use ChatGPT nowadays, not to get a simpler explanationb of concepts, but instead to solve their programming exercises XD But absolutely, then you'll have a fair understanding for sure. And the video is worth watching.

[@sirearlgrey2036]

There is a card from Unstable that turns your hands into a program. The Grand Calcutron

[@RealityMasterRogue]

space beleren's rules text is easy to understand, though. He makes the sectors without assigning anything, so all creatures are unassigned, at which point you start assigning them until no unassigned creatures remain.

[@masterowl123]

huh?

[@juter1122]

​@@masterowl123 space man ETBs ETB creates groupings Creatures are placed into one of three groupings Is that clear enough, baby man?

[@RBGolbat]

Everyone just reacts like he’s complicated cause everyone decided to hate Un Cards

[@epsleon]

I don't understand how it's complicated either. There is no "assigning of the sectors". The card already did that. The battlefield now has 3 sectors called alpha, beta, gamma. It doesn't matter where you put them on the battlefield, as long as everyone knows what they are when they assign the creatures to them. It's like being confused about where to put your deck, or your graveyard, to resolve a spell that mills your cards. It doesn't matter as long as it's clear what pile is your graveyard and library.

[@natanmaia3575]

I got that from reading before he explained, but I'll admit having two space sculptors effects at once wasn't obvious to me.

[@CircusQueen8]

Shout out to "Name Sticker" Goblin, the MTGO version of _____ Goblin, which reads like an old card with confusing templating in order to make it function without stickers.

[@wavesofbabies]

It also, frustratingly, does not functionally end up being even close to as powerful as _______ Goblin with how it is implemented

[@mattm7798]

Still wondering who in WotC thought it a good idea to have Un-cards legal in constructed formats.

[@Strawberrycock309]

​@@wavesofbabiesthat's so messed up considering name sticker on mtgo is pretty great in legacy rn

[@edoardosalvai2759]

​@@wavesofbabieswhy shouldn t it be close if i remember correctly the math is pretty close

[@MakeVarahHappen]

I will never get why they couldn't just give you three randomized words as a pre-game action. They are already ignoring all sub-optimal stickers and everything they do, and MTGO already does pre-game actions.

[@deejayf69]

Humility really teaches me humility in understanding just how little I know. You could say it has layers to it!

[@joe_kelley]

Selvala, Explorer Returned would be my addition. I can't think of any other situation where you frequently start casting a spell, discover you can't, and so you just don't cast it. When that happens, you can undo other mana abilities but not Selvala. Also if you're casting a spell from the top of your library (like via The Reality Chip), then you end up drawing the card beneath the one you're trying to cast, but then if you fail to cast it, it goes back on your library (so somehow you drew the second-from-the-top card of your library???). Plus the famous Panglacial Wurm interaction is another nightmare, and if you have an active Archmage Ascension at the same time, it requires a whole PhD thesis to figure out.

[@FearOgre]

I hate Pain Wurm for rules

[@ScorpioneOrzion]

its a wurmy situation

[@CaptainVryce]

Thanks for introducing me to takklemaggot. I have a Yurlok deck where everything rotates around the table; Kudzu, Necrotic plague, humble defector, everfull purse, infectious rage. This is going to fit right in!

[@ZakanaHachihaCBC]

Also at 26:55 the doppelgänger cannot enter as a copy of Painter Servant. It’s ability is a replacement effect that’s modifying how it enters play and affects what it looks like in Layer 1. The replacement effect looks ahead and sees the Humility removing all abilities, so the clone no longer has its ability to enter as a copy so it enters as a 1/1 with no abilities and not as a copy of anything.

[@marcup1584]

It's not that I doubt you, because I don't, but I just refuse to understand how these interactions work at this point LOL

[@ZakanaHachihaCBC]

@@marcup1584 the quick guide is the replacement effect of the clone “looks ahead” to see what it looks like in play to see if it applies. That look ahead uses the continuous effect of Humility to help determine this, and we see it has no ability to modify its entry. It’s less of a Humility thing and more of a Replacement Effect thing.

[@marc-antoinegirard2103]

Nope. Since it enters the battlefield as a copy of the painter's servant. It's not yet on the battlefield so it's not affected by humility. Then it sees the painter's servant with its copyable values. Which are everything printed on the card. Then colors are changed. Then both creatures lose their abilities and they become 1/1s

[@ZakanaHachihaCBC]

@@marc-antoinegirard2103 The replacement effect “looks ahead” to see how the card would look on the battlefield. It sees it’s a 1/1 no abilities so it doesn’t copy the Servent, and a Servent would not name a colour. This is also why all lands enter untapped under Blood Moon, because they don’t have the ETB tapped ability when we do this Look Ahead.

[@ZakanaHachihaCBC]

@@marc-antoinegirard2103 Here’s my source. 614.12. Some replacement effects modify how a permanent enters the battlefield. (See rules 614.1c-d.) Such effects may come from the permanent itself if they affect only that permanent (as opposed to a general subset of permanents that includes it). They may also come from other sources. To determine which replacement effects apply and how they apply, check the characteristics of the permanent as it would exist on the battlefield, taking into account replacement effects that have already modified how it enters the battlefield (see rule 616.1), continuous effects from the permanent’s own static abilities that would apply to it once it’s on the battlefield, and continuous effects that already exist and would apply to the permanent.

[@charlessmith208]

Trinisphere is a weirdly complicated card, especially in the original printing. Excluding the templating though the card has problems. Basically it looks at the total cost out the door, and then adds colorless mana to get to the minimum tax. How and when this interacts with cost reduction / alternative cost mechanics though is complex, and people always seem to get it wrong.

[@exultedone650]

I like to remember that, when paying for a spell, when calculating the amount of mana you need to pay, the last step you take is the "trinisphere step"

[@SuperBigChops]

I think effects that actually say they 'pay' for the cost can get past Trinisphere. Effects that 'reduce the cost' of cards dont get past it.

[@kevinwestermann1001]

It also only adds /generic/ mana to the cost, not colourless. P:

[@glan9]

This is a great example. This card is a completely unique effect and has such weird interactions

[@sombersloth7010]

This is the only channel on KZbin where I genuinely get a little bit bummed out as the video ends. The videos are really comforting, entertaining and it makes me feel as if I'm sitting at a table down at my LGS, in-between games, talking to another player about magic the gathering. The good and the bad. I just wanted you to know, Prof! I appreciate you! Peace and love from Sweden!

[@e.x.watson9997]

I could've sworn the professor was murdered the other day

[@Siegorius]

He got better.

[@Dikarika]

He was only Markov'ed.

[@wavesofbabies]

He's a ghost like Teysa

[@reijiriffic]

Animate dead naturally

[@patrickgrimes9707]

Some how…. The professor returned

[@U1TR4F0RCE]

Ertai’s meddling and volrath’s shapeshifter are pretty out there with what happens when you exile any spell that can be targeted at instant speed only for a copy of the spell to be placed on the stack during a future upkeep. Volrath’s Shapeshifter gains the text of cards in the graveyard.

[@罪のアリス]

"Humility is complex but these examples can be reasoned out pretty easily." *humility plus opalescence* "Now THERE'S a head scratcher."

[@brennantmi5063]

Humility + opalescence is a classic two card combo to get yourself DQ'd so the judge's head does not explode

[@Zivillyn]

You forgot two important steps in the "stars aligning for Urza's Saga" to exist. Those steps are: 1) Future Sight in 2007 had to introduce the concept of the Enchantment card type being combined with other card types; and 2) The original Theros set from 2012 had to normalize and popularize the concept of the Enchantment card type being combined with other card types.

[@mattm7798]

And also, Mirrodin introducing lands with other permanent card types in the first place lol

[@tomjackal5708]

not to mention 2020 for normalizing busted cards that are 0 or 1 mana

[@leotrollstoy2351]

I feel so confident about my knowledge and understanding of magic rules until layers conflict.

[@TheGibber]

Low-key Questing Beast is a complicated card. Every single thing is simple enough, but for you to keep all five of abilities in mind for as long as its on the battlefield always seems to trip someone up at the table. It doesn't help that many of the abilities only matter sometimes I've literally seen people forget every single ability it has apart from haste and vigilance. I've seen people try to block with creatures power two or less, I've seen people who thought it was unblockable. I've seen people block it with pro-green creatures, only to forget they die anyway. I've seen people blocking other creatures with damage prevention effects only to forget that doesn't work either. I've seen people trying to play fog with questing beast on the opposite side of the battlefield I've seen people forget it has deathtouch, as few creatures with five toughness ever make it into combat with it. I've seen people forget its planeswalker damaging ability and attacking planeswalkers directly, even though no blockers are on the other side of the field. Lastly I've even seen people forget that its legendary, not bouncing it with Karakas or even once trying to kill it with cast down. All in all, there's a lot to forget and that alone makes the card plenty complicated. To hammer in my point, I wrote five at the beginning in this comment, only to now realize after summing them all up that it actually has six.

[@mattm7798]

The oddest part for me with QB was the damage prevention part. All the other lines made sense for really powering up the creature, but that one seemed very corner case as to why they put that in there. Not like pro-x was a major theme of any set in standard with it(they largely replaced it with hexproof from x)

[@TheGibber]

@@mattm7798 Me and my pals mostly play various highlander formats, so I've seen it tangle with most of magic history xD

[@almond5284]

I don't know how I didn't notice until now that it's LEGENDARY

[@ryanratcliff2726]

The joke is every time you re-read Questing Beast, it gains a "new" ability.

[@bestnumberever73]

Blood Moon is up there with Humility in my opinion. "All nonbasic lands are Mountains." Sure seems simple enough. The first thing new players will notice is that they're not Mountains in addition to their other types, they're just Mountains now. They lose all other abilities and gain "T: Add a red mana." This is super counter intuitive for newer players. Why does Blood Moon remove abilities when Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth does not? Speaking of Urborg, what happens if I play Urborg into an active Blood Moon? You have to consult the layers! Cursed, wrecthed, wicked layers!!

[@xeriesdark6456]

Blood Moon says "all", and doesn't specify what state the nonbasic land is in. It makes all lands in play, in hand, on battlefield, in exile, phased out, in graveyards, and in decks Mountains. So you don't even technically "play" Urborg, you just play a Mountain that looks like Urborg, thus Urborg doesn't apply anything

[@MichaelSuperbacker]

Happy Valentines Day ❤

[@toadallyawful]

woah, michael superbacker!!!

[@rodrigoribeiro4122]

Any creature with "mutate"

[@glan9]

It's been 4 years and I'm still clueless about mutate. What a bad mechanic

[@lucian1311_]

Skill issue

[@number4497]

It’s literally “combine text on all cards. Base power and toughness is top card” Literally two sentences.

[@kelp-ist3469]

@@number4497 I think the main issue is it isn’t explained in such a clear way, but yeah after I figured put wtf it was doing i just realized it’s the same as any aura or equipment that adds text

[@MrIhavenolife94]

Mutate is baby tier easy to understand, it can just get a little complex once you copy a mutated creature as it keeps the extra text.

[@PassGoGames]

A couple more that I've used in the same deck. Delusions of Mediocrity seems pretty straightforward, but it gets ridiculous in a Donation deck. It comes into play, you gain 10 life. You give it to your opponent, then bounce it back to your hand, they lose 10 life. Not too too complex. But, a Donation deck with Colfenor's Plans is pretty complicated. I had another Deck with Possessed Portal and Tomorrow, Azumi's Familiar. They both have a draw replacement effect, so it comes down to priority. My opponents had a hard time believing that they weren't allowed to draw cards, but I could 'place' cards into my hand every turn.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

Even before transforming cards existed, I thought Takklemaggot should be one. It's simple enough: Front side would be the "-0/-1 counter, move it to another creature" part, and when there are no more creatures, you transform it to the other side, which would have the "deals 1 damage to you during your upkeep" part.

[@ZakanaHachihaCBC]

25:17 Layer 1 has sublayers. Layer 1a is where we find Mutate, with 1b being where we find the facedowness of Morph.

[@KromeDrone]

Surprised Ice Cauldron isn't an honorable mention. Its not the most rules heavy cards, but the OG text is cryptic as hell and the oracle text asks you to "note" the amount and type of mana you made, which is super uncommon.

[@mystikx2205]

Pro tip: Just use 0 mana for the first ability. That way, you don't have to note anything.

[@trolleymouse]

@@mystikx2205But then you can't put your cards on laybuy ...

[@ChrisMattern-oh6wx]

@@mystikx2205 That completely negates the point of the card, which is that it allows you to spread the cost of an expensive card over two turns.

[@PassGoGames]

Oh, I had this actually come up in a game years ago. I was playing a deck with Humility in it (it capitalized on a lot of weenie creatures and Bubble Matrix). My buddy was playing a deck that had Living Plane in it. When they both came out, we worked out that lands were now 1/1 creatures that could not tap for mana. Neither of us had much non-land mana capability, so both of us could no longer cast anything! The game really slowed down to a crawl at that point until one of us finally drew enough land to overwhelm the other.

[@lorenzoippoliti1920]

Not 100% sure, but since living plane says that the lands are still lands, I guess that lands with basic land types should have been able to tap for mana (basically becoming Dryad Arbor).

[@XenithShadow]

@@lorenzoippoliti1920 Pretty sure humility also stops dryad abor from making mana

[@RibusPQR]

Dryad Arbor can tap for mana because of its Forest subtype. It has no abilities to take away.

[@quelfth4413]

At 11:17 , Guff Rewrites History cannot cause two Space Belerens to enter the battlefield simultaneously. The two players both cast their Space Belerens at the same time, but then they go onto the stack in APNAP order, so the player who comes later in APNAP order's Space Beleren will resolve first, and then state based actions will be checked. At which point the sector designations will have to be decided by all players while the second Space Beleren is still on the stack. So only that first one will control a Space Beleren while the designations are being chosen and gain the advantage of choosing designations last. In order to have two Space Belerens enter the battlefield at the same time, a spell would have to put both of them directly onto the battlefield, not just onto the stack.

[@MakeVarahHappen]

A better example would be the attack trigger on vaevictis asmadi the dire.

[@Magnusrufus93]

How about if I turn him into a creature with luxior and then use fractured identity?

[@philipmorse-fortier5499]

Yeah, I noticed this too. An important clarification.

[@stephencarroll4681]

Warp World would do it

[@mattm7798]

Love the video. please make this a series!!!! There are tons of cards that initially seem easy to understand but for one reason or another aren't. Cards like Urborg and Blood Moon. What happens when both are on the battlefield lol( IIRC it has something to do with layers or which one was there first) A great one also to mention is Tarmogoyf and Lightning Bolt with only 2 non instant card types in all graveyards. This one has gotten so many players, including myself.

[@alfchaval]

Both Urborg and Blood Moon apply in layer 4, we usually use timestamp to determine the order within a layer, but in this case there is a dependency so we don't use timestamp, Blood Moon makes Urborg lose its abilities so Urborg's ability will not be applied. The famous example of Tarmogoyf and Lightning Bolt has fallen in favor of Dauthi Voidwalker and the differences between Fatal Push and Lightning Bolt.

[@mattm7798]

LOL you lost me(not really but in spirit) at dependency ;)@@alfchaval

[@AirmanRobertson]

I'd also like to see one of complicated interactions. I use Eye of the Storm, Thousand-Year Storm, and Bonus Round in a deck, and it gets out-of-hand quick.

[@will493]

A++ for opening by drawing a clear distinction between complexity and just having a lot of words

[@MithosFall]

Just a quick correction for the rules example at timestamp 26:23. Because of rule 614.12 (posting the full rule below), Humility will modify how Vesuvan Doppelganger enters the battlefield, causing it to actually not ETB as a copy of the Painter's Servant. The reason for this is because the Doppelganger's ETB ability is a replacement effect, replacing how it enters the battlefield, but because of rule 614.12, you first check to see if the creature would even have that ability in the first place once its on the battlefield. Because Humility deletes its ability, Vesuvan Doppelganger never becomes a copy of something, and simply is a 1/1. Painter's Servant making everything red applies as you suggested, but only because it was already on the battlefield before Humility. If it had entered after, you would never have gotten to choose a color with it, because that's also an ETB replacement effect. 614.12 Some replacement effects modify how a permanent enters the battlefield. (See rules 614.1c-d.) Such effects may come from the permanent itself if they affect only that permanent (as opposed to a general subset of permanents that includes it). They may also come from other sources. To determine which replacement effects apply and how they apply, check the characteristics of the permanent as it would exist on the battlefield, taking into account replacement effects that have already modified how it enters the battlefield (see rule 616.1), continuous effects from the permanent’s own static abilities that would apply to it once it’s on the battlefield, and continuous effects that already exist and would apply to the permanent.

[@DragoSmash]

the moment i heard Humilty as the #1 i groaned out loud the card reads so simplistic, yet, by how the game works it affects the gameplay into the deep and complicated layer system as for the solutions if someone wants the answers for the ruling puzzles 1: Ragavan can attack with either of the Dash ability or Maximize Velocity Dash ability says it gains Haste which would happen in a later timestamp than when Humility started applying its effect Same goes for Maximize Velocity Ragavan would return to the hand because that's a delayed trigger that activated from casting it for the Dash cost 2: Magus of the Moon does turns non-basic lands into Mountains even under Humility because the type changing effects happen on a higher layer than ability removing effects then if you drop Dryad of the Illysian Grove later, it's effect will have a later timestamp than the Magus', giving all your lands all basic land types 4: when Opalescence drops, Humilty turns into a 4/4 with no abilities, because there's another catch on layers, if an effect affects multiple layers, once one of the effects it's applied, all the others must be applied even if the origin object lost the ability somewhere down the road so in this case while Humility sets the P/T to 1/1 (even if it has already lost its ability it still applies since we applied the other part of the effect), Opalescence has a most recent timestamp and sets the P/T of Humility to 4/4 THEN if you drop Mirage Mirror and copy Opalescence, we have a new Opalescence timestamp and both will turn each other into a 4/4 with no abilities until end of turn when the copy effect of the mirror wears off its a lot more messy if Humility is thrown in the middle, because now you will have 2 creature Opalescence, one being a 1/1, and the other a 4/4 just because of how the timestamps work phew!

[@VeilofDeathMTG]

I love that Animate Dead Example cause I just recently was in a convo about Necromancy and its long reprint text and basically said it as you said, it needs to say all those things for it to work as intended. Also thanks for the Urza's saga bit especially the ETB trigger...am sure am going to use that to my benefit sooner or later ;)

[@mattm7798]

I get the effect they were going with animate dead that unlike alot of reanimation spells, this is a permanent. They wanted to make it so there was an additional way to kill the reanimated creature, and, disenchant was a very heavily played card in early MTG. Funny thing is I started typing out a less complicated version of animate dead and it wound up being just as complicated. Maybe a good way was to have AD be a normal enchantment that reanimated something then said if AD was destroyed, the opponent got to bury a creature of their choice(which would often be the reanimated creature).

[@MakeVarahHappen]

More people should play Tale's End in commander.

[@ZSAITOSEI]

I personally feel attacked for the Space Beleren jabs 😅😅 it's like, a very simple explanation just like Animate Dead. 1. Player to your left assigns first, you assign last. (which gives you the advantage of choosing how to make things unblockable.) 2. Any creature entering immediately gets a sector by its controller. 3. ALL of Space's abilities only matter on your turn. (This means you, opponent, can stop sending your 1/1s at it for no good reason!) Now, the groans of dismay you'll get from your play groups? That's just icing, baby!

[@superflygonman]

Hello prof! Will you ever cover Sorcery Contested Realm? I've recently thought about getting into it and your videos on how to play are always the most in-depth and easy to understand.

[@benjaminloyd6056]

I hope he does. Also Covenant CCG put out a pretty good series on how it works.

[@Aedi]

WoM isnt the simplest, but its not difficult. Most peoples issue woth it is the same as animate dead. They insist on reading the card instead of listening to what it does. Everyone secretly pick a number, If someone has a lower number than you, wheel your hand. If noone picked a higher number, take that much damage.

[@raymondweiss7393]

I'm sorry, I believe Wheel of Misfortune is actually very easy to understand: There are three options: (1) Do you not want to wheel? Choose 0. (2) Do you want to wheel? Choose 1 or 2. (3) Do you NEED to wheel? Choose 3 or higher. It's really that easy.

[@ColossaldreadmawOP]

Do you want to die? Choose 3000

[@ScornfulEg0tist]

Imo it's a little ironic that prof specifically called out goblin game at the beginning and then included a card on the list that's essentially goblin game with more steps

[@raymondweiss7393]

@@ScornfulEg0tist I love Goblin Game, it's in my meme deck. Also, pretty easy to understand, just not easy to execute.

[@raymondweiss7393]

@@ColossaldreadmawOP shh, that's the secret fourth option.

[@ScornfulEg0tist]

@@ColossaldreadmawOP just watch out, if someone wants it more they might choose Graham's number

[@KnakuanaRka]

For Triumph of Saint Katherine, yeah, someone didn’t think of control-switching effects. Would a wording like “When this is put into a graveyard, its controller puts it on top of their library, then shuffles the top 7 cards of their library” possibly work more simply? I don’t see what’s so complicated about Space Beleren; there are a lot of details, but most of them seem pretty intuitive. Wheel of Misfortune seems more like Animate Dead; the wording is clunky, and there is some strategy in the betting, but the actual minigame is pretty straightforward. Tacklemaggot seems similar; it sticks to a creature and drains it per turn until it dies, then whoever has it can stick it to another creature, or they get stuck with it draining life if there are no other targets. Although I may have misunderstood how the control-swapping works. And for Humility, the layers ruling just seems ridiculous; it sounds like most effects completely ignore it on cast. I’m familiar with the Opalescence paradox, but the rest is just silly.

[@ThisIsACommanderChannel]

I have an entire series of videos dedicated to explaining how cards interact with each other and how they work within the rules of Magic. I've been tempted to start a new series that just explains how individually confusing cards work.

[@lindacarpenter2830]

Been watching your videos for a while. Prof covered Space Beleran here and I remember your video covering him as well. I would like that new series.

[@craig1287]

When the Prof got to his last card I laughed cause I've learned a lot about layers from watching your videos. It felt a bit like cheating on this list cause the card Humility isn't individually confusing or complex, but how it interacts with other cards.

[@ScorpioneOrzion]

Ok for the humiliate other situations Ragavan Dash Ragavan has no haste (even when cast for the dash cost) and still has to return to the hand Casting Maximize Velocity, gives the ragavan haste Magus of the moon All your non-basic lands are mountains After casting Ilysian grove they gain all the other basic land types, your not allowed to play your second land. Opalescence situation Humility is a 4/4 with no abilities, other creatures that aren't enchantments are 1/1 with no abilities When you activate the mirage mirror targeting the opalescence, both it and the opalescence are 4/4 (with no abilities) rest of the cards won't change Yea have fun hehe

[@ScornfulEg0tist]

Pretty sure the haste ragavan gets from dash happens on the same layer as humility stealing abilities, and it's more recent in timestamp order, so it would not get taken away by humility

[@ScorpioneOrzion]

@@ScornfulEg0tist actually it will get its haste removed, because it also doesn't have dash, so this is depency order so...

[@ozzwich]

Some Serious Beard growth @3:32

[@Phlip45]

I think that Knowledge Pool is one of the most complicated cards, especially if you are playing it in a spell slinger deck with lots of instants. Your opponent casts a llanowar elves in order to get that Panglacial Wurm out of the pool? Respond with your Remove Soul on their Llanowar Elves! What happens next? Well of course you end up with a Panglacial Wurm and your opponent ends up exiling their Llanowar Elves. (Assuming the Wurm was the only nonland in the pool).

[@MikhailHudon_ZerithFarron]

Space Beleran is the closest we've been to playing and understanding YuGiOh

[@israeldavila27]

Look, I don’t know about you, but I’m not reading size 4 Times new Roman font in my life ever for a card game.

[@tomjackal5708]

lmao no

[@mystikx2205]

@@israeldavila27 *adjusts nerd glasses* Um, ack-shually, the font is Matrix Book, not Times New Roman.

[@thesamuraiman]

Nah

[@thunderhawk2567]

The most mechanically complex and confusing card of all time has to be Season of the Witch, because no one, not even WotC, can tell you how it actually works. It's a black enchantment whose Oracle text reads: "At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice Season of the Witch unless you pay 2 life. At the beginning of the end step, destroy all untapped creatures that didn’t attack this turn, except for creatures that couldn’t attack." The important word here is "couldn’t," because no one, not even WotC, has decided what exactly it means in this context. Take Dueling Grounds, for instance: it's an enchantment that essentially says that no more than one creature can attack each turn, and no more than one creature can block each turn. The question then becomes: if a player attacks with one of their creatures, could their other creatures have attacked, according to Season of the Witch's definition of "could?" Must those other creatures be destroyed? There are several possible similar situations to this, and as far as I know, WotC has not issued any rulings clarifying these, making this is the only card in the game whose effects are still ambiguous according to the official rules and rulings. Anyway, great video!

[@e4jasperi]

17:20 gray layer

[@jakeg3347]

Scion of the Ur-Dragon is a card that seems complex at first, but then seems relatively easy to grasp, and then is incredibly complex again. To expand on that: The wall of text for the ability just means you search your deck for a dragon, pitch it to the grave, and Scion becomes a copy of that card until end of turn. Pretty easy to understand right? Well, you can put multiple copies of that ability onto the stack at the same time before Scion becomes a copy and loses the ability and it becomes way more complex. Here's an example. Attack your opponent with Scion, and if no blockers are declared then put 2 copies of his ability onto the stack. With the first target, target Skythirix the Blight Dragon, and with the second ability target Moltensteel Dragon. The stack resolves effects in a first in last out methodology, so the first ability to resolve will be Moltensteel dragon, and when that resolves Scion will be a copy of Moltensteel for all intents and purposes. Now the next instance of the ability triggers and you respond to it by activating Moltensteel dragon's ability to increase it's power by paying 2 life or one R. Activate it 6 times to give it +6/+0. Once that is resolved, you can move to the ability transforming Scion into Skythirix and your opponent takes 10 points of infect damage. I made a really popular deck on TappedOut that showcased this exact strategy a decade ago. It's the only EDH deck I held onto

[@Charlie-gg3ci]

I'm a little surprised that "the keyword Mutate" didn't even get a shout out

[@juter1122]

It's not thaaaat bad You just have to remember all the text boxes underneath the top card so you don't forget the six+ triggers all happening at once in addition to the new one, and that's assuming you're not spreading out the piles haha

[@mattm7798]

Ah good one. Basically Bestow...but more complicated.

[@ColorwaveCraftsCo]

I found mutate to be pretty simple after playing with it a few times in Standard. Now if you start getting into shenanigans with copying mutate stacks and whatnot, that’s where it tends to get complicated

[@mattm7798]

I just wanted to be in the room when Mutate was discussed and someone had to have mentioned "Isn't this just bestow?"@@ColorwaveCraftsCo

[@malxire]

U (smooth brain): isnt it just bestow Me (an intelectual): uses scroll of fate, leadership vacum and an infinite mana combo to put my entire deck in the command zone

[@viviblue7277]

I think Magar of the Magic Strings is one of the most complex. I’m gonna disagree with most of these, I find them very simple and intuitive…. Except Urza’s Saga and Humility. Layers are fun.

[@darksora763]

Hello, thank you for making this video. I do however really miss your product review videos, especially concerning card sleeves and card storage. They were great ways to find out about new products and which ones were actually worth spending money on. I do hope that you will make more of those videos in the future in addition to making videos that you love to create.

[@bingus2464]

I agree, I like the new content, and I understand that there is a limited amount of time for video production. But the product review videos were unique and really set this channel apart. Not to mention helpful

[@Jasper180]

Wheel of misfortune really didn't deserve to be on the list. It really isnt that complicated compared to some other cards. It might be difficult to execute wheel of misfortune most effectively as a playrr but thats the inherent point (and fun) of the card. Doesnt really have complicated rules behind it such as other cards on this list.

[@Jules-vf1zq]

Called humility so easily hahaha i was worried as he got further in without mentioning it

[@mattm7798]

The layers thing is really interesting since in sprit, humility should simply make all creatures in play and ETB as vanilla 1/1s

[@epsleon]

@@mattm7798 Isn't that what it does? It's just that you're casting creature spells, so any effects that take place before it comes in to play must also resolve, since they're not yet creatures. Then humility's effect is resolved and the creature becomes a 1/1 with no abilities. What confuses me about this example is Painter's Servant. Why does his ability persist when it's removed? If you killed him and he is removed from the battlefield, the extra colour ability no longer applies. So why does it still apply when his ability is removed? Surely it should only apply in the brief window between the ability resolving and the humility negating it? edit: I understand why it makes no sense now. It's because cards don't remember their previous states. So every time you check the state of the card, the layers resolve from a blank state, following what it says on the card. Since changing colour happens before removal of abilities, this means it's always going to apply its ability before it loses its ability.

[@canolathra6865]

The humility scenario I was hoping the professor would explain is "what happens when humility becomes a creature", because that one raises the issue of what happens to everything else on the battlefield as well.

[@BladewingX]

Well you kinda got your Humility example wrong (who would've expected that, with it being your #1 and all): Sure, if your painters servant and Vesuvan Doppelganger are on the battlefield already when humility hits, everything works as you explained. But if you play a painter's servant after humility, you do not get to choose a color, since it doesn't have that ability. Same for the doppelganger, you do not get to choose a creature to copy.

[@liviomolina4465]

But both of these effects happen AS they enter the battlefield and not as an etb, so their effects still should work, not?

[@adrianharborman1371]

@@liviomolina4465 The rules were changed seven years ago, now Humility and Blood Moon shut off "As ~ enters the battlefield" effects too. I wonder if the professor sourced his vesuvan doppelganger/painter's servant/humility segment from old information

[@karenwest6350]

@@liviomolina4465 Permanents entering the battlefield sort of check into the future to see what they would become. So, if you have a blood moon out, a shockland entering sees that it'll become a mountain with no other abilities, and you wont have the chance pay the 2 life, nor will it enter tapped if you dont. Likewise, a painter's servant sees that it'll enter the battlefield as a vanilla 1/1, and it wont prompt you to choose a color.

[@pharmacistjudge]

I think Library of Leng is worthy inclusion on this list. It forces players to understand what are "effects" which gets very complicated quickly. The gatherer rulings are quite old and aren't specific enough because sometimes a part of an effect is discarding a card, which is a cost; but since it's part of an effect it's both, so library says its taking it. Also the layers chart is a bit off because Layer 7C and 7D were smushed together a few updates ago. It pratically pure pedantry. There are very, very narrow cases where that it matters, so don't worry about it.

[@KunouNoHana]

Meanwhile Panglacial Wurm has an effect that LOOKS sensible enough to someone who doesn't know the rules, but if you DO know the rules you immediately recoil in horror from how much nonsense that card actually is.

[@Senseovernet]

I don’t think any other card has caused people (incorrectly, but not entirely with our reason) to argue that it’s incompatible with the fundamental rules of magic. The ability to cast another unrelated card *during* the carrying out of an effect is rules poison

[@chaospudding]

Errata the ability to "When searching your library due to a spell or ability, you may reveal this card and exile it. If you do, then upon resolution of the spell or ability you may cast this card from exile." Pretty sure I had to invent some card language but I think this makes it work?

[@KunouNoHana]

@@chaospudding Makes it a significantly more powerful card actually with your wording. Any time you crack a fetch you can just remove 4 wurms from your deck with no intention of casting them and leave them in exile to run a 56 card main.

[@chaospudding]

@@KunouNoHana ok, add an additonal line of rules text. "If you do not, shuffle this card back into your library."

[@doylerudolph7965]

In response to the trigger, you could still take advantage by casting draw spells, and even potentially flash in Thoracle with 4 fewer cards to get out of the way.

[@raleldor]

Lagrella the Magpie confuses the hell out of players. They'll read the card, get confused, then i have to tell them what the card does, and they exclaim,"why doesn't it just say that!?"

[@Lionbug]

Gotta be Panglacial worm?

[@cronchable]

The Painter's Servant + Humility + Vesuvan Doppelgänger example at the end is unfortunately outdated. In nowadays rules, both Painter's Servant's first ability "As Painter’s Servant enters the battlefield, choose a color" and Doppelgänger's "You may have Vesuvan Doppelganger enter the battlefield as a copy [...]" are abilities [CR 113.2c]. Specifically static abilities [CR 113.3d] that create continuous effects, which in these cases are replacement effects [CR 604.2], [CR 614.1c]. The fact that both of these are abilities means that Humility removes them. This matters for how the permanents enter the battlefield: "Some replacement effects modify how a permanent enters the battlefield. [...] To determine which replacement effects apply and how they apply, check the characteristics of the permanent *as it would exist on the battlefield*, taking into account [...] continuous effects that already exist and would apply to the permanent." [CR 614.12]. So in this example, since Humility is on the field, the Vesuvan Doppelgänger on the field would not have the ability that allows you to have it enter as a copy of another creature. Meaning it enters as a Vesuvan Doppelgänger without abilities, and base power and toughness 1/1. And even if there was the possibility to have it enter as a copy of Painter's Servant, you would not get to choose a colour for it. (This is the same as a Painter's Servant entering the bf while Humility is already on the field - you would not get to choose a colour.)

[@alfchaval]

I guess no one has revised the info about layers, it's not hard to see that the updates in layer 1 and 7 are missing. Sadly this video is full of mistakes, not only when he speak about layers.

[@cronchable]

@@alfchaval The layers aren't missing anything. It's true that a Humility entering after Servant doesn't stop its colour change effect. The relevant thing is just that Servant doesn't get the ETB replacement effect if it enters after Humility. There's nothing missing for that, it's just a different rule that's relevant here (namely 614.12). (Unless ofc I'm misunderstanding you and you're talking about revising the info about layers _in the video_ rather than in the CR)

[@alfchaval]

@@cronchable What I mean is that the video incorrectly show no sublayers in layer 1 and five sublayers in layer 7 when two of them were fused together. That should be easy to spot to anyone that is up to date with the rules, so my guess is that all the info about layers was got from an outdated source and was not reviewed.

[@cronchable]

@@alfchaval ahh, gotcha. Misunderstood that for a sec ^^

[@NyxTheScary]

Guessing Chain of mephistopheles is the top card?? Edit: Nevermind

[@seb_social25]

I used to play magic at the store Eli Shiffrin frequented. We knew he worked for WOTC but he wasn't allowed to tell us until later on when he became the rules manager for MTG in 2016 well after the store closed. He was a great guy but with all of his being he hated Panglacial Wurm from Coldsnap because it creates a 2nd stack. If you cast him from your library while your searching your library you are putting a spell on the stack but it is separate from the original stack. It's not normally a problem until it was: Exact Scenario happened in the store during an edh Game Relevant Boardstate: Player 1 is at 6 health, Player 2 is at 15 and has a Pandemonium out, Player 3, 4, and 5 have been eliminated Player 1 attempts to cast Blightsteel Colossus Player 2 in response to Blightsteel Colossus attempts to cast Brainstorm Player 2 in response to Brainstorm attempts to cast Mystical Tutor. Resolves. Player 2 searches library and attempts to cast Panglacial Wurm creating a second stack Player 1 calls judge (Not Eli) Player 1 attempts to cast Mana Drain in response to Panflacial Wurm targeting Panglacial Worm Player 2 attempts to cast Pact of Negation. Resolves Player 2 resolves Panglacial Wurm triggering Pandemonium targeting player 1 dealing 9 damage reducing their life to -3 Player 2 was able to defeat Player 1 by resolving an entire stack while the previous stack was in the middle of the resolution. This type of stuff happened on multiple occasions.

[@ErreErregon]

Is this the banding video at last?

[@FearOgre]

Nah because banding is easy

[@DeWillpower]

thank you for making this video professor and jesse, as someone who tries to make custom cards i appreciate it from the bottom of my pedantic heart

[@andimayer1119]

Just to make sure my missinfo gets corrected: Space sculptor now reads: 702.158b A sector designation is a designation a permanent can have. The sector designations are alpha sector, beta sector, and gamma sector. Only permanents can have a sector designation. Once a permanent gets a sector designation, it keeps it until no player controls a permanent with space sculptor *or an ability whose source has space sculptor.* A sector designation is not part of the permanent’s copiable values.

[@brennanclement8582]

Great video! Tacklemaggot is an absolute nightmare lol. Gonna push back against Wheel of Misfortune though: nothing happens to lowest number, everyone else wheels, highest number takes damage. Easy!

[@godzilla660]

For how complicated it is(it made it a lot more simple for me when I played the Digimon TCG) Mutate really doesn't have enough support for how much legwork is required to think, apply or use it. Lots of really weird interactions(E.G. duplicating Keimis with mutate effects from Tatsunari)

[@zeo4481]

I'm a bit confused on what ,,Black Lotus" does.. Some say it draws 2 , some say it skips your turn. To this day I don't know 😢

[@Strumthund]

Recently picked up a Season of the Witch for a pillow fort EDH build, and hoo boy, the hypotheticals that card creates are intense.

[@seizan88]

I hate it when I explain something with a simple "because layers" and someone asks "what are layers?". Nobody wants to go down that rabbit hole. When I say "layers" you are supposed to scream in fear and hide under the table. That's the natural reaction!

[@hnicholson999]

Fun fact if you play an Urza's saga and in response to its saga 1 ability an opponent plays blood moon you can save your saga without a counter spell. Tap your mana for your removal card, let blood moon resolve and then remove the blood moon. Due to the saga ability still on the stack the saga cannot sacrifice itself due to exceeding it's lore counter max.

[@jeromefournier9667]

Ok i'm sorry but I don't agree at all that Space beleren is complex... you create 3 lanes then creatures get assigned to lane by their cotroler (opponents first), how the hell is that complex? Yeah sure once you get into weird edge case it starts gong wonky. I personaly would have made his +1 a static and made it so you can't attack the turn he comes into play but that's just me. And befor anyone says "You just played with it enough, or learned it!" I have never seen Space Jace since the reveal anddid not remember he was a thing. Takklemaggot is more complex but it essentialy kills creatures untill there are none left then "parasites" the controler of the last creature doing the same thing to that player (draining 1 toughness per turn) but yeah the text is ridiculous lol. I do think Humility is one of the most complex, frankly I don't find most cards very complex if they don't interact weirdly with the layers, the "keep track of stuff, even if the card is gone" cards would come second but that's not complexity as such, more anoyance.

[@thatguyintherain3168]

Irrelevant comment but i kinda wish you would bring back the older music from your videos from a few years ago. It gave your channel a vibe that I love. Great video as always prof!

[@SimWOT]

They probably pay for a music library to use with the right permission. They might have change the library at some point and can't no longer use the old one. P.s. those are just assumption. I have no insight in how the Tolarian community college produce video ;-)

[@philipmorse-fortier5499]

Re: Triumph of Saint Katherine, I will once again tell the funny story of my one trip to the Pro Tour: Team Ravnica Block Constructed! Bottled Cloister, as printed, says "At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, remove your hand from the game face down. At the beginning of your upkeep, return all cards removed from the game with Bottled Cloister to your hand, then draw a card." I cast Dream Leash on my opponent's Bottled Cloister (I tapped it somehow), and then we called a judge. The judge reviewed the wording and ruled that I got my opponent's cards! We were both playing RW, so I killed my opponent with his own Lightning Helix! My opponent should have listened to my teammate who said "That can't be right" and appealed.

[@765craven4]

According to every source I've checked Space Beleren is legal in Commander. I'm thinking I'll build a deck with him just to see my pods reaction.

[@trident042]

Two of my favorite decks - one kitchen table, and a later version for Commander once Commander Legends was created - involve manipulating time. But not with extra turns (well, not directly); but with truncated turns. When Sundial of the Infinite got printed, I absolutely fell in love with it. I had to make a deck that fully utilizes it and its ability to end the current turn ahead of time. The most important thing that I've had to teach my playgroup using it is that permanents that want to sacrifice at the beginning of the end step do so EVERY turn, even if you skip the one that's about to happen, whereas spells and effects that create a token that only wants to sacrifice at the beginning of the NEXT end step will stay around forever if that end step gets ended - but only after those triggered one time abilities go on the stack! I had to learn things like Ball Lightning + Sundial = no, but Kiki-Jiki + Sundial = VERY YES! I get to enjoy this mechanic even more now with my Obeka commander deck. So fun!

[@DeathofSeven]

I will never understand what people find complicated about Wheel of Misfortune, but that really seems to be niche opinion :) Great video!

[@austinwilburn1772]

I’m surprised Sylvan library didn’t make it on the list. The way it’s worded if you cast Brainstorm or any other type of manipulation of the top of your library during the draw phrase, you legally have to call a judge to orchestrate it. Basically with Sylvan library and other cards, there is information you are allowed to know and some you aren’t allowed to know. The paradox in its simplest form is you being allowed to look at the cards but you also aren’t allowed to *Know* what the cards are.

[@doylerudolph7965]

Nah, it’s a similar thing to Delver of Secrets - you need to draw your cards without adding them to your hand. Once you add them to your hand, you’ve missed your Delver trigger, or you’ve committed to paying life with Library.

[@DBDpurekiller]

Selvala, Explorer Returned should be on this list. Parley is the only mana ability that can fizzle cards. It can also cause an illegal interaction with panglacial wurm. It’s the only mana ability that reveals information to you while casting the spell the amount of illegal stuff that this card causes is insane why it’s still legal

[@Pseudonity]

Power Sink is a bit more obscure, but at least deserves an honorable mention. It doesn't help that the amended text of the card and its original text are both confusing.

[@xeriesdark6456]

One of the most complicated cards in my opinion is Mycosynth Lattice. "All permanents are artifacts in addition to their other types" & "All cards that aren't on the battlefield, spells, and permanents are colorless" While on it's own, it sounds straightforward, when it comes to interactions and triggers, it vastly changes how many cards work or reference other cards. Now if only they'd make Tolarian Academy legal in Commander... ;-)

[@MeloMontoyaMX]

I play "Breathkeeper Seraph" and it always confuses everybody 😂 the soulbound+coming back ability is quite tricky to understand

[@nathans1954]

I personally haven't encountered this card but I imagine it causes a lot of complications: Rootpath Purifier making every land a basic

[@ahhhanime10]

I think my biggest complexity problems can occur just from playing with other people and the 4 of us trying to figure out stacks when we get insane combos from each others cards.. but I didn't know about the layers so this video was very educational for that part and will help a ton!! ❤

[@ClassicBoxingMatches]

I've just bought my first deck yesterday. Spent today watching Magic videos to understand the instructions... I've never played a game that gets more confusing with every instruction you read. I am the most intimidated I have ever felt my entire life, and I was held up with a knife once.

[@redpandaplush5980]

As a frequent watcher but not player of Legacy, I really appreciate the explanations on why Triumph of St Katherine isn't on mtgo and why Urza's Saga dies to Blood Moon. Super helpful video!

[@_mrcrypt]

Great list! Thanks for the infos! 🍷 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle has always been a PITA to remember how all that wonderful stack BS works out (or whatever).

[@CashewZero]

Man, I'm shocked Warp World didn't make the video! I can't tell you how many times I've had EDH games come to a screeching halt for 10 minutes while we resolve 40+ new permanents entering the battlefield at the same time I suppose it doesn't always create those situations, so it isn't a guaranteed nightmare- but it's very common in my playgroups..

[@martl8615]

Abilities go on the stack, use pen and paper. Then use layers for other cards.

[@KellyUnekis]

Try out Scrambleverse next time. You might just get a scoop or two before you have to resolve it!

[@CashewZero]

@@KellyUnekis I have conceded to Scrambleverse before 🤣

[@quantumderp9404]

I haven't played a game of Magic since well before Covid but I still love it when the Professor posts a video lol

[@HeavyMetalMouse]

Legit question on the final example: Wouldn't the Vesuvan-as-Painter's-Servant entering play not have the "As this enters play choose a color" ability? The Vesuvan entering play would have the Painter's second ability apply in Layer 5, but that ability doesn't actually *do* anything unless and until you actually choose a color with the Vesuvan-copy-Painter's replacement effect modifying its entering-play event (to 'enter play and choose a color). Since 'as this enters play' effects 'look ahead' to the state of the board that would exist once the card is in play to determine how they act, and which of the layers would be responsible for the static replacement effect executing, so that we can know if Humility removes the ability before the choice is made. Since the color chosen for Painter is not a 'copyable value' on the card, it seems ambiguous what layer choosing a color (regardless of what that choice is used for) applies in. Alternately, are these abilities somehow 'dependent'? Is the second Painter ability dependent on the first, such that the first *has* to apply before the second, regardless of layers?

[@alfchaval]

Layers aren't responsible for replacement effects, and you don't choose a color in a layer, that makes no sense. You just apply all layers to determine the characteristcis (and controller) of any object at any time, that's all. As you said, replacement effects that modify how a permanent enters the battlefield look how the permanent would exist on the battlefield, Vesuvan wouldn't have abilities because of Humility, so its replacement effect doesn't apply, it can't copy Painter's Servant. The first ability of Painter's Servant doesn't change characteristics or controller, so it has nothing to do with layers. Dependency can only exist within a layer or sublayer. Painter's Servant abilities are linked abilities, but that's irrelevant, you just apply the second ability in layer 5 because it's the only Painter's Servant's ability with a continuos effect that changes characteristics or controller.

[@EDHijinks]

Prof, I want that tie! It's awesome.

[@HonkLord]

I know that these videos don't make as many views as the box openings and similar videos, but please don't stop making them, Prof. I love this kind of thing, and I'm sure that many others feel the same.

[@CorneliusQvist]

Prof I gotta give it to you. As someone with an education in communications I've grown extremely allergic to ads, but the way you relate your sponsors to the subject matter of the video or your own personal viewpoints and values is just beautiful. You have my watchtime through those segments every time for that kind of sincerity and effort.

[@simoncss1]

Good Lord, that Urza’s Saga interaction with land-hate effects. If Prof. hadn’t discuss, I’d prob liketa mention here. Thanx fer the xplanation!