Worst of the Worst: Magic Card Mechanics So Bad They Were Never Ever Used Again!

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

"Blast From The Past" Full Deck Reveal - A new Doctor Who Commander Precon for Magic Gathering: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lWbKoot9lLWDoM0

[@brandonguth7033]

Yeah, well I love you Prof

[@dino6080]

lol banding is like a myth across magic players lol i would love to see you talking about banding and the set ;)

[@battosaijenkins946]

Let's keep it simple. The most dumbest was Suspend. The best ever mechanic was Echo and Fading from Urza's Block. Why they never brought this back still boggles my mind today~ Thank you

[@Greg501-]

Specialize is bad because most of it was transform, having a different upside based on the discard wasn't worth the extra baggage of digital "this is now a new card forever" and "5 back-faces"

[@crashman4759]

I hope its Merfolk, I love Merfolk, all that tapping and untapping

[@ianlawrence8343]

This is not The worst mechanic in magic This is just a tribute

[@Project_1134]

😂😂😂😂

[@freytkf5984]

We couldn't remember the worst mechanic in Magic This is a tribuuuuuuuuuuuuuute woah-oh-oh TO THE WORST MECHANIC IN MAGIC- ALRIGHT TO THE WORST MECHANIC IN MAGIC-

[@obadijahparks]

You did not mean... to blow my mind... but that stuff happens... all the time!...

[@eajinx737]

(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ ☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)

[@Akario3]

DECAPITATIOOOOOOOON!!!

[@OninRuns]

Ironically, if there was a Sweep card that read "Draw a card for each Island returned to your hand" I'm sure it'd be a Commander staple.

[@aidyz3921]

Gush was a bit like that

[@ThePiiX]

My guess is, sweep mechanics with play any number of lands cards like fastbound would have broken the game. So they limited the power and particularly the colors (blue for combos and green for additional lands )

[@DankAudioStash24]

Like Paradoxical Outcome?

[@selkokieli843]

returning lands to hand seems like an exceptionally poor choice in casual commander all about casting many big spells over a few turns

[@wormki]

I could see sweep in a green or simic landfall casual commander deck. Play sweep, buff a creature, play 3 lands for the landfall trigger. But these, are shait

[@Smashman4ever]

To be fair, a green Sweep card that returned lands to your hand, then put that many lands into the battlefield tapped would be hilarious in Landfall decks.

[@Blackdare]

kinda like scapeshift

[@PrositSylle]

I think the reason there is no Green sweep card is that Sasaya Orochi ascendant was printed in saviors too, and that would just be an auto include in any and all green decks. All tough I'd love a green sweep for my Sasaya commander deck so maybe I'm part of the problem.

[@4vendetta1]

Yeah a green sweep card could be playable if your running an azusa casual commander landfall deck.

[@Bluecho4]

Yeah, I immediately thought that Sweep would have some synergy with Landful at least.

[@jaredmanwell442]

I use barrel down sokenzan as a back up finisher for Borborygmos Enraged as that gives me more lands to throw at face

[@theorcishlibrary4126]

I remember playing kamigawa limited. The sweep cards werent good, but they interacted with the other kamigawa mechanic that checked if you had 7 cards in hand. It was a reliable way to get back to 7 in the late game if you flooded out.

[@MrGulible]

I enjoy the attention the designers have to theming and how it interacts in with the mechanics. It's a shame that they really didn't execute on the mechanics front in OG Kamigawa. I still remember really fondly though as it was the first set I bought a deck to play with friends at school instead of bumming friend's side decks.

[@maxvincent6903]

The best mechanics are the worst ones that you can make work together in a unique commander deck.

[@Garl_Vinland]

Banding

[@leoleo1035]

Tribute and panharmonicon!

[@ott6206]

Modular is a great example ! It's objectively a pretty narrow and frankly bad ability, (Go see all the original modular creatures, you'll notice that basically only arcbound ravager can be considere a good card) But my zabaz deck is a ton of fun to play ! You make a great point.

[@Hashbrown1682]

Morphin time

[@redwormik]

@@leoleo1035 As templated, the counters are not multiplied, only the trigger if you don't get the counters 😶‍🌫

[@andrewdrexler6593]

I still contend that banding was never 'bad'... just incredibly confusing. The ability to control how combat damage is dealt to your creatures is underrated, tbh.

[@ulture]

I'm learning the game for the first time and I've often wished I could do exactly that.... then I stumbled across a video on it and it was exactly what I was looking for. not sure why people hate it so much

[@DustinRodriguez1_0]

I loved banding. Opponents certainly hated it because it made it far harder for them to eliminate creatures, but it was great.

[@ledeasoakenbough]

Banding was a great defensive power. It was confusing during an attack. As a white planeswalker from 1994 I loved it. Also... Camel. All creatures that band with Camel ignore desert damage.

[@Nerobyrne]

Yeah, it's true. It's even more confusing than "protection". But, that's mostly just confusing because it contains a lot of different protection effects, some of which are a bit counter-intuitive. Like, you're not protected from global effects, unless those do damage. But a destruction effect will still do its job, as long as it doesn't target. And you're also "protected" from your own cards. Banding, on the other hand, involves creating separate "battle groups" every time you fight, and just overall is far more complicated than it should be, given what it does. But yeah, it's not BAD, I agree.

[@bluegum6438]

Banding was casually strong, partly because a lot of people who didn't use it themselves didn't get it. If you use banding and your opponent doesn't fully remember how it works you'll probably be able to screw them over and win with it, which is a real feel bad moment for a new player

[@crypticacid4825]

It's so wild that blue didn't get a sweep card, considering the whole thing with the moonfolk was that they bounce your lands

[@chrisschweitzer5558]

I wonder if it is because of Gush, and I suppose Psychatog.

[@85inexact]

I thought exactly that, Meloku the Clouded Mirror was basically blue's Sweep card.

[@dutt6222]

Yeah when he says nobody wants to return Islands for a mediocre effect I thought he was setting up a joke to show some of the weird Moonfolk cards

[@gafee2001]

@@85inexact And a total bomb at the time. That card was singlehandedly closing games in Mono Blue Control.

[@ryanderenbecker8837]

Honestly, that's exactly why they didn't do a blue sweep. Saviors had a lot of mechanics built around having a bigger hand size, and Sweep was a way to give a chance to other colors that were bad at building hand size.

[@Rosedragon15]

It's crazy cause Sweep would have a huge and powerful impact on Landfall Decks if it actually did good effects

[@megadog9305]

The thing I find most funny about Sweep is that there was a return-lands-to-hand theme in blue in Kamigawa, but none of the Sweep cards are in blue.

[@leviponce7730]

That was a moonfolk tribe thing as opposed to a sweep thing😊

[@whitemageserenia]

Sounds to me like Radiance could've used a "...That player controls" clause to prevent what you mentioned. so if you cast it on your opponent, ONLY your opponent's cards that fit the criteria are affected and vice versa if you cast it on your creatures. I think Radiance could actually work out pretty well if that were the case so that it prevented accidental blowback and/or overlap

[@thulindar22]

I could see using radiance to hit creatures with hexproof or shroud though, since the spread to other creatures that share a color isn't targeting. If they have something giving that to all of their creatures you could target one of your own creatures, and there are creatures that can change color so with one of those you could change to your opponents color(s) and hope to avoid hitting your own other creatures. Very niche use though, and kinda janky, probably not worth it in the end.

[@davidstreicher1103]

Epic might be an iffy mechanic, but in order to mitigate it Wizards also introduced Channel in the same set, giving creatures with Channel a spell-like ability that ignored the Epic restrictions. So, in a roundabout way, the Epic cycle gave us Boseiju, Who Endures and all the other useful channel effects from Neon Dynasty.

[@jamesshaver1429]

When he said no one wants to return their islands for a mediocre effect, I thought gush, daze, or foil was going to pop up on the screen

[@kingpoolosdos]

Meloku in that same block/standard

[@matthewsawczyn6592]

@@kingpoolosdos He's who I immediately thought of! At the time a clear game winner

[@CHoustonify]

celebration was so bad, they haven't used it since wilds of eldraine

[@DragonAttack515]

Technically true

[@thesamuraiman]

🤣

[@Blu_Moon_Owl]

Hey wait a minute

[@drew-id]

​@@blaze556922well, it id only 3 sets old / 1week old

[@bizcota7741]

Celebration is a mechanic that mono red should never have gotten.

[@Shageemusic]

Enduring Ideal was the first card I brewed around and the first deck that was truly my own creation. It was also pretty powerful since there are a ton of gamewinning enchantments out there that lock your opponent (Dovescape, Mindcage) or win the game (Day of the Dragon). So Epic has a special spot in my heart. I understand why it was never used again though.

[@ClexYoshi]

I think there's room for a colorless boardsweeper in the form of a 7 mana card that gives all creatures Wastehome until end of turn.

[@DragonAttack515]

Yes pleas

[@Thessik73]

I like this idea.

[@flameofmage1099]

Eldrazi have entered the chat

[@ZakanaHachihaCBC]

Waste isn’t a land type so Wastehome doesnt work.

[@GeoQuag]

@@ZakanaHachihaCBC they can just define the keyword to work. Nonbasic landwalk works just fine.

[@aleaparicio3284]

18:50 I have a great idea for a blue sweep card: Daze above Minamo. {0}. Instant - Arcane. Sweep - Return any number of Islands you control to their owner's hand. Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1 for every Island returned this way. :)

[@GigaHands]

Sweep exists because original Kamigawa had a "hand size matters" theme going on, and the most common way they allowed you to accomplish that was bouncing your own lands to your hand. The sweep cards were far from the only cards to do this. How well did the "hand size matters" cards perform, you ask? I have no idea and I only know of the contents of the sets because I've spent too much time looking at card lists.

[@Dalenthas]

Poorly. Turns out when you've got a bunch of mechanics that encourage you to not play Magic it leads to boring games.

[@seb612schuth]

​@@Dalenthaskamigawa sets were very unbalanced sets and had either really fast games or long ones, but never poor. Cards with sweep were maddening to the opponent.

[@Peregrine1989]

Hand Size matter is view as a failure. There are a bunch of reasons for this, but basically encouraging people not to play cards isn't fun so the mechanic decreases how fun the game is. As someone who has played hand size matters in EDH, this can be gotten around and made fun... but the ways of doing it draw a LOT of hatred from other players from the table, and even then its not very good.

[@Naedlus]

"And no, it's not banding!" Well, of the few mechanics I can think of from the top of my head, that still leaves: Phasing, cumulative upkeep, and snow-covered land-walk Time to keep watching to see if any of them pop up

[@ljlk8583]

I absolutely love terrible mechanics in magic. They're unironically something that I love about the game that brings all new levels of jank and cool interactions!

[@NeutralGuyDoubleZero]

Except for the terrible mechanics that are objectively convoluted, hard to resolve, for a lame payoff. People don't like having minutes of their time wasted for an ineffective combo unless it's funny in some way.

[@SpydrXIII]

i can see sweep being used with landfall.

[@japplek]

Yeah, sweep and landfall for instance. Zendikar Rising didn't use the keyword but wayward guide beast had a role to play in aggro landfall decks. It could be made to work. (disclaimer - I would like to see more interaction with lands generally)

[@andrewharvey2642]

I must admit as much as I can acknowledge that tribute is a really difficult mechanic to balance and most of the cards with it were really poor I also really like it despite it's 'badness'. Would love to see a tribute card made for a multiplayer format like commander.

[@atk9989]

​@@NeutralGuyDoubleZeroI have an oloro deck focused on the white epic spell and hive mind then winning with enchantments.

[@Tubluer]

What is it that makes the Prof so engaging? Is the faux-sincere campy opening lines? A wardrobe that burns your eyes out of your sockets? The skid row hairstyle? Maybe it's his dubious taste in friends? The gripping videos that consist entirely of hands open packs of cards and showing them to the camera one by one? Innovative camera work and set design? Amazing CGI? The body that makes women cry? There is something that keeps me checking the site daily to see if there is a new video yet. But what is it?

[@mbogs5814]

You know it might be fun having an Unset where they put all of these bad mechanics, but make the effects Funny/gamebreaking.

[@wavesofbabies]

Those are just Modern Horizons sets

[@ShadowWalker-ng1it]

B - instant You lose 2 life Storm

[@marcoottina654]

@@ShadowWalker-ng1it then Soul Conduit

[@welcometomylives]

The big issue with a lot of Kamigawa cards, including the two mechanics you mentioned, is that for some reason they wanted to encourage you to have lots of cards in hand. They apparently forgot that having cards in hand means you are not casting cards, which is what you are generally meant to do to play Magic.

[@Saviorsrdenver]

A bit late, but I vaguely remember interviews, or at least speculation, at the time that that was the idea - they were trying to make cards-in-hand a resource in its' own right so that you'd want to consider whether you REALLY want to be casting everything the second it hits your hand if possible. Diiiiiiidn't work in practice.

[@JimFaindel]

+1/+1 on your whole board for picking up your lands sounds like a decent finisher, and I know a lot of landfall decks that can easily cheat them back onto play for extra value (thank you mama Wrenn). No wonder they didn't let green have any cards with sweep!

[@kei4904]

Yes, Charge Across Araba was a decent card.

[@Tigglessr]

Enduring Ideal was a competitive Standard Deck, used to get Form of the Dragon and other control enchantments.

[@seisner6655]

I want to see a Sweep card that lets you cheat a land from hand for each land you returned. Like a weird Scapeshift.

[@servillo8723]

Landfall go BRRRRRRRRRRR

[@proffapoluga2573]

Or a flood of tears that only says lands instead of excluding it

[@seisner6655]

@@servillo8723 Seems like a pretty prohibitive mana cost. 11 red and 1 black is way too much for that effect.

[@jacobdyogi1589]

That sounds a little like Nahiri's Lithoforming

[@midnightbard3935]

I actually tried to design a card like that as a proof of concept, it's probably the only way to make Sweep work at least a little bit

[@Haigotron]

Can't wait for banding video. I started playing in 94 and I remember thinking I was dumb not understanding how banding works... I am relieved to know that all these later, that it was perhaps banding itself that was the problem.

[@majordude83]

Richard Garfield really wanted Banding to work, especially for flavor reasons, and it's actually a very powerful ability if you learn how to use it (LSV quote: "if you understand banding, and your opponent doesn't, you can easily win every combat"). Unfortunately, it is confusing to learn, and it's far more powerful on defense than on offense, which means it can lead to unfun board stalls (kinda like first strike, which they frequently nerf to "first strike on your turn" these days to discourage board stalls). Apparently even tournament-level MTG players back in the day didn't understand banding, which I find hard to believe. It is certainly not straightforward for beginners, but it really isn't too complicated for tournament-level players (I mean, I was 11 when I started playing, and I figured out how to use it to good effect). I feel like most banding creatures were inefficiently costed (even for the time), so most people never played with or against them, and therefore never learned how to do so. I have no defense for "Bands with other" which is almost entirely useless, even after a rules errata to make it far less narrow. WotC never brought it back after introducing it in Legends, so it actually could have made this list.

[@starnik]

@@majordude83 Thanks for the write-up. I love Banding as a mechanic, it's very flavorful and powerful. It's a shame that WotC and players feel it's too complicated to have nowadays, despite giving the go-ahead for mechanics like Mutate, Day/Night, and Cleave.

[@Artaimus]

I've used "Charge Across the Araba" before as a finisher. Wouldn't touch the other ones though. Additional: Saviors was a block that wanted you to have a large number of cards in hand, so something that let you refill your hand size for an effect does make sense design-wise.

[@Burt_McGurt]

It's literally the only one that could be worth using

[@showingthelinks8441]

I've won with it in Soraya Bird Tribal but it's kind of in there as a I don't want to play anymore so I cast this and no matter what I either win or I die soon

[@victorbourquin5651]

My first deck used charge across the Araba as a finisher, it worked really well in low extremly low power kitchen table magic 15+ years ago

[@KuerbisKanal]

I would love some sweep for Forest or Islands for a funny tech card in my Gretchen Deck, I'm already playing a bunch of Soratamis. A forest sweep card would be especially cool for Sasaya. And to be honest I was disappointed that Neo didn't had Bushido, or a Samurai Mechanic that was synergistic with it, in it.

[@michaelgrey1503]

I kind of like Barrel Down Sokenzan in mono-red Landfall (something I've seen players calling Doomfall). It can be hard to find ways to keep making your land drops in mono red so being able to deal a bunch of damage while setting up to keep playing lands on your following turns is kind of nice.

[@sevenstewart8912]

Barrel-down Sokenzan is great in Borborygmos Enraged! Pick up my lands to chuck them at my opponents’ faces!

[@kevinwestermann1001]

Undiscovered Paradise, Ghost Town and Thawing Glaciers say Hi!

[@Ultimus31]

Plus when you cast it, you sound like you're doing a full on anime special attack.

[@JackGamesTooMuch]

That Dandân shout out was classy as hell Prof. Sam deserves all the love. His channel is so culturally significant to the MtG community. His work deserves ALL the exposure it can get. Keep being a champion of the MtG community!

[@acidix983]

I love that the reprint scale for mechanics is called the storm scale, yet they've definitely printed storm on things since it was invented. RABIAH HAS A CHANCE EVERYONE!

[@vladplasmius2854]

Storm scale is only for Standard-legal sets.

[@mariaszegedy6044]

@@vladplasmius2854 show of confidence was standard-legal, although admittedly it didn't use the actual storm keyword, just the effect.

[@valerielusa8000]

we got Najal, the Storm Runner as recently as Dominaria United

[@rjknapp7459]

Copying wasn't the broken part of storm, many cards have copied instants/sorceries and will continue to, and it was a major part of Strixhaven, even. The broken part was how Storm copied itself for every spell you cast this turn, not just instants and sorceries. Show of Confidence limits itself to copying per instants and sorceries, and Najal only copies an instant or sorcery card once per trigger.

[@valerielusa8000]

@@rjknapp7459 I wasn't talking about storm, i was talking about Rabiah. look up Najal's lore

[@lloydnoid6506]

I think tribute sounds really fun, they just didn't design the cards that had it carefully enough. Id love for them to come back to the concept with some tweaks, like how they came back to the chroma idea and made it into devotion

[@Feuerhamster]

I actually use radiance cards in my Enrage EDH deck. If i ping my commander, i get to enrage everyone AND i might blast some of my opponents' creatures.

[@geneticon]

Yeah I get the fact that Radiance often works different than the caster might want, but I could see some really cool applications in some decks and situations where the overlap with opponents was either intentional or irrelevant.

[@kylesumner7478]

I'm ready for the banding video. The power to divide combat damage without killing creatures is a power I believe you underestimate. With the caveat that I think there's only viability in commander. Helm of Chatzuk and Baton of Morale are powerful combat tools in the hands of a mage willing to wield them.

[@DemonikDave]

Y'all remember in Future Sight when they made Slivers with buncha weird abilities such as *fateseal* and *absorb* ?

[@CleazyMane-ef2cg]

They did it to print more Slivers lol

[@throwawwy53]

hey buddy i think you got the wrong door, in this comment section we like Fateseal

[@JohnFromAccounting]

I liked symmetrical slivers.

[@CleazyMane-ef2cg]

@@throwawwy53 fateseal is good. Mesmeric Sliver is a beast.

[@SpydrXIII]

@@JohnFromAccounting only if the one arm is in the middle. i don't wanna see 2 arms at all!

[@LadyTsunade777]

I actually far prefer Chroma over Devotion, since Chroma can count mana symbols from anywhere instead of only ever your permanents. The flexibility of counting in other zones or narrowing the count was far better IMO. Also, Chroma is a much more plane-neutral name for the mechanic than Devotion. Radiance is a neat idea, but the facts that it debuted in a block full of multicolor and hybrid cards, and that it always applied to _all_ applicable permanents, really hurt. I feel like if the mechanic debuted in a monocolor focused set or block, like original Eldraine, it might've been better. It also could've been better if each instance specified "you control" or "your opponents control" or such.

[@AZombieWizard]

Radiance might be interesting if there were some colorless cards with it. Would be a lot easier to design around and include in decks if you don't have to balance around them hitting yourself and your opponent(s)

[@thorbalt1]

Radiance is more of a stupid check. Can you figure out how to use the color change cards to make it disgusting when no one sees it coming or do you just pout about it in a video because you never figured out how to abuse it

[@Proclaimfame]

"No one wants to return lands to their hand for lame effects" -Meloku has entered the chat

[@someguy1ification]

I heard about this crazy card called Gush...

[@ljlk8583]

I personally run rally the righteous and brightflame in my general ferrous rokiric boros deck, and it ends up being super fun. Rally the righteous is generally a war flare for cheaper, and brightflame can be a late game board wipe that also gives tons of health! Love it

[@Mordra]

lets band together and pick Banding as the worst one.

[@Dracomandriuthus]

The Takenuma sweep card has seen actual competitive play! In pauper, its part of Rites of Initiation combo.

[@TheOrzhovSyndicate]

I used takenuma as a fallback in my modern 8rack deck just to re dump the opponents hand

[@luvftywaplvr7853]

You sit down across from a toubled looking man at a library. "Oh hello." He says, before telling you about all the worst mechanics in "Magic the Gathering." Whatever that is.

[@ambynavy]

holy balls im early! I love these videos, as an amateur game designer i always enjoy watching what worked and what didn’t - and why! Thanks for the video Prof! ❤❤

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

Cheers my friend!

[@tonnie901]

I honestly like radiance. Sure it means you got to think about what you are doing when you cast them. But especially Brightflame is one of my favorite cards ever!

[@amagicion5130]

Radiance seems surprisingly easy to fix. Simply forcing each effect to target either a creature you control or a creature an opponent controls, then adding a "that player controls" clause at the end. The only "cost" of this change is that you can't choose to strategically buff your opponent's board, which will pretty much only ever matter in commander.

[@yurisei6732]

You could easily have these spells choose their target and then target other things controlled by the controller of that card.

[@JoeyDCote]

Radiance could be fun in commander used at instant speed to completely hose both sides of an attack.

[@legochickenguy4938]

Or just let the player choose any number of creatures that share a creature instead of forcing the effect on all of them. Still, it's not a particularly evocative or well-themed mechanic.

[@coltgunnarson9802]

Great video! I am running Barrel Down Sokenzan as finisher in my new Imodane deck 😂 if you have a damage doubler it can win the game. Return 7 mountains to hand to deal 14, that damage is doubled to 28 then Imodane sees 28 dealt then is doubled dealing 56 to each opponent 👍

[@justinkietzman]

I was hoping Daze and Gush made an appearance at the end as you were talking about returning islands to hand.

[@lucarr1041]

"No one wants to return all their Islands to their hand" Legacy players on turn 1: ...

[@khristian625]

@@lucarr1041was looking for this comment

[@jianhaogao7608]

return any number of island to your hand, you draw a card for each island returned this way or return any number of island to your hand, counter target spell unless your opponents pay 1 for each island returned this way

[@SynWhoFlungPoo]

Surprisingly, I used Barrel-down sokenzan in my Borbyrgmos enraged deck. worked great as a finisher in the late game.

[@glenhaase6817]

Prof: "No one wants to return their Islands to their hand for a lame effect!" Gush: Stands in the corner looking around awkwardly.

[@hithropyro9051]

If they had made a green sweep card it might have actually seen Commander play as a way for the landfall decks to bounce their lands back to hand to get more triggers.

[@adrenalineunlimited]

How about a blue green sweep card that allows you to, for each land you return to your hand, to place a number of lands with different names onto the battlefield? Almost a flicker effect, but triggers landfall, allows you to reuse mana, and stops you from going overboard with just 20 basics or whatever. Vaguely viable, or probably not?

[@Dracinard]

Sounds like worse Scapeshift. Which isn't necessarily bad!

[@IntuitionJo]

It's very clever that Professor put in that "was never used again after its initial appearance" clause. It's Planeswalkers. It's always been Planeswalkers. It always will be Planeswalkers. It's the worst mechanic in the game and everyone knows it.

[@connorpinzon]

Great video, I’d love to see more in this style. Keep up the good work

[@Keromenson]

People really hated on the original Kamigawa, but my best deck was actually a white/red samurai deck that focused on equipment. Bushido was a weird mechanic, but it caught so many people off guard in combat. Im still in the process of rebuilding it with samurai from the neon dynasty set so that i can go wide, or go big stacking equipment on a single samurai with their newer abilities.

[@pops91]

I actually love epic spells, I run them in my chaos deck and would recommend anyone that runs chaos decks to do so as well. They combo with the all star hive mind pretty well and the best part is that even if they manage to kill you off the game the effect is permanent for the rest of the game because hive mind made everyone else cast it as well, so the effect is technically theirs. It is hilarious to watch everyone cast the blue epic spell and pass their deck around while they draft your deck for cards and vice versa.

[@איתןשי]

How about running one of the crappy Epics in a Zedruu deck?

[@simeonellinger2064]

Ah a fellow chaos/troll deck enjoyer

[@Dreznin]

As you were getting ready to mention Sweep, I was sitting here thinking, "don't you dare say Splice..." Talk about a mechanic that has a lot of design space available. In Kamigawa it was limited to Splice Onto Arcane, but imagine if they printed instants that spliced onto artifacts, creatures, or planeswalkers as a sort of, "choose your own ETB effect."

[@kokonots7311]

Splice has been reused in Modern Masters so isn't eligible for this list.

[@cdominguez95]

Chroma, Radiance and Sweep are ability words, not mechanics nor keywords. I think that makes a huge difference because these examples ended up being in this list because of card design rather than the idea behind the ability itself. As Prof pointed out himself, Chroma had such good potential, WOTC shaped it into Devotion. A Sweep card would probably shine with a game ending effect, like overrunning by pumping your team based on the number of forests you control.

[@xpeterx]

4:00 Specifically for the Dandan format "Landhome" is an awesome mechanic. The flavour behind it, especially for water based creatures is absolutely on point. yes, it is kind of stupid in most formats, but for a specifically curiated format like Dandan it's the perfect mechanic.

[@cthulhupanda36]

I thought Cascade would be on this list not realizing that it had been brought back a couple of times. I thought I had heard somewhere that Cascade was never to see the light of day again. And of course banding isn't the worst keyword, that title belongs to Bands with other.

[@UrfDaManatee]

Nope, Cascade might be annoying to play against in 60 card constructed, but it has too much timmy appeal to not be something they bring back for commander.

[@KnakuanaRka]

Yeah, I heard that the Landhome mechanic was inspired by jokes about how Blue’s sea creatures could fight without any oceans; guess there’s a reason why.

[@AlexanderGutenbergVT]

I quite like Banding actually. I think a Banding/Bushido deck would be interesting if the mechanic still existed by Kamigawa's time.

[@SvviftDeath]

Chroma was a mechanic I know very well. I had built a friend a deck around the Chroma effect of Primal Crux. He could have it out as a 25/25 as early as turn 3. Back when we didn't run a lot of interaction it stomped the table.

[@Timbobs]

What about Fortify? That mechanic was only used on 1 card and then never seen again 😄 (Ok, I know it was because Future Sight had an ‘alternate reality’ kind of theme, hence the weird offshoots, but still, 1 card!)

[@RobertBass]

I still think there's room in the design space for fortifications, especially if you included them in a set that heavily featured man-lands as a theme.

[@therealax6]

I keep hoping they'll print another Fortification!

[@Timbobs]

@@RobertBass it would be really cool in a landfall / land animation deck 🎉

[@BatmanSeRiedeTi]

I never had any problem with Radiance, i remember to have a really neat time playing it with great effect, Boros guy here of course. Charge across araba can be a deadly finishing move and that lonely red spell is a win condition using Seismic Assault.

[@Thessik73]

I liked banding.

[@DragonAttack515]

We love banding

[@jj-sc1kq]

I liked banding too

[@Telefiend]

banding was a good idea, but they just didn't make enough cards that supported it.

[@zacharybarbanell1064]

18:49 "no-one wants to return all their islands to their hand for some lame effect" you mean, like, the multiple iconic legacy cards that let you return islands to your hand for a pretty small effect?

[@ClockworkEngineer]

"As a rule, a Magic the Gathering mechanic that makes it so you don't get to keep playing Magic the Gathering is going to be a Magic the Gathering mechanic that is not worth playing." - yet, Blue exists entirely for this reason.

[@sythrus]

Ironically green is probably the one colour that could have actually used the sweep mechanic without crippling itself forever with all of the extra lands it can place. Hell, if the card was reasonable enough it could have been good for landfall

[@Zima11]

Love the trans colored tie. Love your energy and what you provide the community, Prof.

[@kennethferland5579]

Any 'keyword' which needs to have a full explination of the mechanic printed ON EVERY INSTANCE of the card. If a keyword can't just be a word like 'Flying' then it shouldn't exist.

[@TuxKamen]

First off, one correction, Sweep wasn't in Betrayers of Kamigawa, it was from Saviors of Kamigawa (Betrayers had a shuriken for a symbol, Saviors had the lantern). Secondly, Chroma actually looks fairly interesting to me, especially the one that has power/toughness for all black symbols in your graveyard. That would go perfect in my old Kamigawa-era rat deck. Third, regarding Islandhome, there's a very simple way to get around an opponent's lack of islands, Phantasmal Terrain which turns any land it enchants into the basic land type of your choice

[@byeguyssry]

I feel like Epic has some design space if it went about restricting your plays rather than full-on removing any possible plays, by letting you choose cards to exempt from the keyword. For example, "At the beginning of each upkeep, reveal your hand. The player whose turn it is chooses a card from your hand that can be played. You may play that card without paying its cost, ignoring the Epic restriction." This essentially lets you cheat out stuff at the restriction of only playing one card per turn. Meanwhile, if you limit the amount of cards you have that can be played during opponents' turns, they may be forced to let you play some strong ones. Or "At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal up to three cards from your hand. Secretly choose one. Target opponent chooses one. You may play up to 4 copies of that card this turn. If both of you chose the same card, you may play up to 2 copies of each card this turn." Or to be more in line with the original designs, we could buff the existing ones so the green one could be "Put a 1/1 green Snake creature token into play for each card in your hand. For this turn, you may play cards from your hand that have CMC equal to the number of creature tokens put into play this way." or something Alternatively, we could give players a way to remove the Epic, either at a cost, or after meeting a difficult condition, or as a balancing tool. For example, "At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal your hand. You and target opponent each choose a card. You may play a copy of each chosen card without paying their costs. If both of you chose the same card, you may end this Epic's effects." Or, "Put a 1/1 green Snake creature token into play for each card in your hand. If the amount of Snake creature tokens you control is equal or greater to all opponent's Health, you may end this Epic's effects."

[@TheNotoriousCommenter]

ALWAYS a GREAT day when Tolorian uploads❤

[@Freshest_Fisch]

16:32 I will not stand for this One with Nothing slander

[@hearmth6618]

0:18 So that players can easily pick up new cards and learn cards set after set after set *AFTER SET AFTER SET AFTER SET AFTER SET AFTER SET!* 💀

[@latte8626]

I was so amused when Brightflame went up as the example card for Radiance because I actually do use it in a commander deck. That deck has a number of cards that prevent damage to my creatures, though, so it's not usually a problem

[@ArixOdragc]

I remember a casual deck I used to have that frequently cast Brightflame targeting my Ink-Treader Nephilim. No one could ever figure out what happened next.

[@AlexBalhatchet]

Sweep being on 4 cards is hilarious 😂 I agree with everything you said about Epic, but I still wish they’d printed 1-5 new Epic spells in Neon Dynasty or Neon Dynasty Commander. I think something like Kaya the Inexorable’s Ultimate or Eerie Ultimatum with Epic could be fun.

[@kieranharwood7186]

Immediately guessed #1 and #2. They're just such good mechanics :) The only question was whether sweep would qualify, as sometimes people expect a 5 card minimum... You know, like a cycle... They should have just made the green one Wood Elemental with sweep instead of saccing untapped lands and the blue one can be, I dunno, a bribery based on CMC (gain control of up to X target non-spirit creatures with CMC X, where X is the swept islands). Except there's still two white ones, so then make another 4 cards for a double cycle. Or just have 15, 5 rare, 5 uncommon, 5 common and no-one wants to draft this set even more than no-one wanted to before.

[@geraudbroussaud894]

In French, First Strike is called "Initiative" si when Baldur's gate came out, it brought the"Take the Initiative" mechanic, except it had nothing to do with "Initiative" (First strike) yet it sounded almost the same and it was very confusing. Like that mechanic didn't do what it was supposed to do.

[@Fakeromon]

I actually really like the radiance mechanic u.u I have a kitchentable colorless deck with which I use the removal spells to easily wipe boards. It features Eldrazi and morph spells, so I can definitely see it used in a Tarkir setting with many multicolor cards as well as morphs to make use of it correctly.

[@07derka]

I love Enduring Ideal. In my Go-Shintai commander deck, a common win con after getting a couple shrines out is to Enduring Ideal into Dovescape, then just win the game slowly over a few turns through shrine effects as the opponents cant stop/interact with me and I get 7 birds every turn

[@Letitdiebryan]

damn next time someone says im gonna sweep the board im gonna respond with "you're gonna return all your lands into your hand?"

[@reynastrange2828]

I came up with an Epic fix. It would work better if you exiled it with a time counter, and then in each of your upkeeps put another time counter on it, then cast a copy for each time counter. This makes the trade-off of not being able to cast spells better, and would allow for some niche synergy that would actually make at least some of them worth playing (splitter of seconds, for example)

[@Kandisz_nora]

Regarding sweep: Charge Across The Araba was a pretty decent finisher in limited. Regarding radiance: Rally The Righteous was also a decent card in limited. We used to play it on flyers or double strikers thus making the effect more one sided.

[@KeroTheInvincible]

One possible niche where Sweep could actually be useful (if insanely risky) is in -E. Honda- Baldin, Century Herdmaster decks. Baldin causes all creatures to assign damage based on their toughness on your turn, and gives +0/+X to all your creatures when he attacks, equal to the number of cards in your hand. Playing Charge Across the Araba to return X number of Plains to your hand not only gives your creatures +X/+X, but also increases your hand size by the same amount, increasing the power of Baldin's pump effect. A real all-or-nothing sort of finisher.

[@TheCommandSphere]

I use snake of the golden grove in Bilbo Birthday Celebrant. I also built a combo deck around the epic mechanic. I made a video about it called: Never before seen Atraxa Combo!

[@catoticneutral]

Enduring Ideal is pretty cool at least. Also, something to keep in mind for Epic spells: you can still spend your mana on abilities, which includes the abilities of lands, and abilities that activate from the hand like cycle and channel and ninjutsu and stuff. Colossal Skyturtle would probably be pretty good in an Enduring Ideal deck, In the library it's another big enchantment to put on the field, maybe not the best option but definitely a good backup plan, but unlike the other enchantments you'd run in the deck, it doesn't become a dead card when you draw it, instead it gives you an interaction option. It also gives you a regrowth effect, which isn't irrelevant if you're playing with other cards with good discard abilities.

[@robrick9361]

Sweep will one day dominate since Wizards will eventually print a card that swaps your lands with your opponents until end of turn.

[@Nicc11221]

Gotta love this original video idea. No one has ever done that! Nice video nice thinking!

[@noneofyourbusiness4133]

7:25 are you using Age of Mythology Music?! :o

[@Tobi-ci3ns]

I'm guessing you didn't play much SOK limited? The sweep mechanic interacted really well with the hand-size matters theme of the set. It was super fun being able to clear the way with a Barrel Down Sokenzan to swing in with your now enormous Sokenzan Spellblade and trigger all of your spiritcraft effects. Kamigawa is often criticized for not interacting with mechanics from other sets, but within the Kamigawa block draft format there were a ton of really tight and interesting interactions to build around.

[@Archtyp3]

I used to have a red deck that did some burn, but then used Barrel down the Sokozan to return all my mountains to my hand, then discard using seismic assault. It was not very effective but fun when it caught people off guard.

[@noneofyourbusiness3288]

There are some keywords I would love to see more of/return: Flanking, Battle cry, Provoke, just to name a few.

[@Shimatzu95]

I unironically like the idea behind landhome, granted the best way to make it work would be creatures with high stats for their cost with some upside (think of them as walls that can sometimes attack).

[@hotpocketbagel]

1 Sweep return lands to your hand, buff spells 2 Epic you can't cast spells for the rest of the game, spell copies itself once each turn ad infinitum 3 Radiance copy themselves for each creature that shares a color with the targeted creature 4 Chroma worse but more versatile devotion 5 Tribute an opponent puts counters on your creature or you get an effect 6 Landhome can't attack unless opponent controls a land of that type, sac it if YOU don't

[@hotpocketbagel]

for people who don't want to watch the video

[@catanthill]

I love the colors of the professor’s tie and buttonup today.

[@vladspellbinder]

The first time I saw _devotion_ I thought "Wait, isn't this just _Chroma_ why not use that?" and it took me a while to remember that _Chroma_ was one of those oddball "any zone" things while _devotion_ was specifically in-play stuff. I actually remember what _sweep_ was without having to look it up. Mainly because I actually built a deck around Barrel Down Sokenzan and Seismic Assault just for fun.

[@Delerium1976]

Oddly, they just released details on more cards in the Doctor Who Universes Beyond set, and the Sycorax Commander has something called "Sanctified rules of Combat" which seems an awful lot like Tribute. "Sanctified rules of Combat - When Sycorax Commander enters the battlefield, each opponent faces a villainous choice - That opponent discards all the cards in their hand, then draws that many cards minus one, or Sycorax Commander deals damage to that player equal to the number of cards in their hand."

[@elimeece7462]

Sweep might be sorta useful in a landfall, but you can get so much better trade offs

[@Pluto137]

I was thinking it could be ok in response to 'destroy all permanents' effects but ehhh