Top 10 Most Broken Green Cards of All Time

Green has been a powerful color since the early days of Magic the Gathering. Its ability to get ahead on mana as well as being the color with the most direct support for creatures has led to various overpowered cards coming out at various points in the game’s history. With multiple cards appearing on multiple format banlists, there is no shortage of options when it comes to listing cards that could be considered broken.
Script by Uncrowned Jules
Editing by Pumkinswift
├ The List
Intro: (0:00)
10. Birthing Pod: (0:16)
9. Earthcraft: (1:58)
8. Protean Hulk: (3:50)
7. Oath of Druids: (5:43)
6. Once upon a time: (7:07)
5. Hermit Druid: (8:45)
4. Survival of the fittest: (10:17)
3. Golgari Grave troll: (11:52)
2. Channel : (13:47)
1. Fastbond: (15:58)
#mtg #tcg #magicthegathering
(Just a note, we have people who actually know the game very well making the scripts for this channel. As the owner of the channel (Theduellogs/hirumaredx) is a total newbie to the game.)

[@jonart8433]

You missed the real best green card Colossal Dreadmaw.

[@joshbailey7775]

You mean colossal GOATmaw

[@jameswinslow8540]

You mean tree elemental

[@sparkyanimations213]

Colossal Jin Gitaxias

[@michaelcollins4534]

Ruined standard 🙄

[@seelentau]

You spelt Krosan Cloudscraper wrong

[@randommaster06]

Honorable mention to Deathrite Shaman for being a one-mana planeswalker.

[@zilkay6558]

He's technically not green because of the hybrid mama cost, although I wholeheartedly agree with your comment

[@randommaster06]

@@zilkay6558 I'll do you one better. DRS was almost always cast with black mana. It's barely even a green card.

[@ripvanwinkle9648]

Many years back, I had a pal who bought a Black Lotus just so he could try to pull off the infamous Channel Fireball turn one kill. After many failed attempts, during a match with me, he finally got the combo and a massive grin spread across his face. He sacked the Lotus for three green Mana, cast Channel and spent 19 life, tapped his Mountain, stood up and threw the Fireball onto the table saying something like "There it is! Boom baby, BOOM!". The problem was that I had gone first and had one Plains in play. I calmly tapped my Plains . . . and cast Heal. Heal prevents one measly point of damage. This is a card that no one plays, but I liked it since it replaced itself at the beginning of the next upkeep. We were both at one life. I ended up winning that game. Poor guy was livid. He sold the Black Lotus a few days later.

[@tomcleaver6686]

It's fastBOND, not fastBOUND

[@darthsatan4841]

Where the hell ypu even get that?

[@NobleAbsinthe]

@@darthsatan4841 read the card

[@Darkorinth1]

I remember a multiplayer game (this was years before commander) that included a guy that refused to accept Fastbond had any errata or rulings and only the printed text on the card. He claimed that by itself it let him play Stripmine from his graveyard every turn, including his opponent's turns. We responded by refusing to accept he was still in the game.

[@theemathas]

There are also infinite combos you could do with Fastbond. For example, with "Oboro, Palace in the Clouds", and a Ruin Crab, you can mill the opponent equal to three times your life, which is often enough to win the game.

[@maxastro]

I was going to say "don't you mean Hedron Crab?" but wow, I didn't realize that card got a different-name reprint. XD I have a deck that relies on Hedron Crab, I should totally fit in some Ruin Crabs also to up the consistency...

[@Nemissis4265]

Thats calld a bounce land 😂😂😂😂 about 50cents there are 6 of them

[@golrakklestuff6861]

Really surprised to not see tarmogoyf, considered for a long time to be the best creature in the game...

[@corey2232]

I get mispronouncing crazy fantasy names, but when a card's name is made up of just 2 basic words like "Fast" and "Bond," how can you mess that up? 😂

[@craigstuckey319]

On purpose for engagement. Duh.

[@SgtImrak93]

Pretty sure its done intentionally since theres no way you can make that egregious of a mistake.

[@Graatand]

Ah, yes. Famous fictional MI6 agent James Bound.

[@thatguyintherain3168]

Wait until you hear him say Necropotence...by the rules of English, he isnt wrong but it sounds so unnatural.

[@craigstuckey319]

@@thatguyintherain3168 oh I've heard....unfortunately......

[@TheSpiritombsableye]

What's a fastbound?

[@gabrielesquaratti5709]

you missed a quite powerful library

[@jenniferwilliams9612]

Damn! This is the second time that you guys have pulled the Summer Magic version of a card for a video. That Fastbond was from Summer Magic, as was a Contract From Below on a prior video! Those are the most rare version (by a mile) of those cards! It is interesting to see them!

[@sheldonamosiii9443]

Gotta say one of my all time favorite green cards of all time is Craterhoof Behemoth, I remember years ago when I saw it in action I was determined to have it. Still use it when I can

[@ElliotButch23]

Birthing Pod was banned years before the Devoted Druid combo was a thing. It was banned because it restricted future creature design and was the most played deck. It would be fair It stayed ban because of combos like Devoted Druid

[@codymcdonald1234]

The two popular pod combos were melira and some were still playing kiki. By the time pod was banned in modern though the deck was no longer bothering with the combo and just rhinoed people to death.

[@marcuscarty2753]

The name's bound...fast bound...I thought "Jaumes" was too weird so I had my first name legally changed.

[@christopherfu2169]

Before watching, some cards I expect to be on the list: The Great Henge and Questing Beast.

[@NateBullock-ow6on]

I know right awesome cards!

[@IceboxOG]

Expected channel over fastbond, interesting choice

[@theemathas]

You misunderstood the reason Survival Of The Fittest is powerful. If you have Survival in play with 3 green mana, and have Vengevine in hand, you can discard the Vengevine to grab a second Vengevine. Discard that to grab a Rootwalla. Discard that (and casting it) to grab a Hollow One. Then cast Hollow One for free, getting back two Vengevines. This gives you a total of 13 power. And for each extra green mana you have to spare, you can get an extra Vengevine.

[@alecazam6755]

It was good for the reasons he listed even before that niche was made. It's similar to Earthcraft and Fastbond in the "really broken card on its own or in combos" category

[@dstreetz91]

The reason survival was broken eventually was vengevine and other graveyard based combo's coming about. On top of it all it's a 1 card combo, most combo's need multiple specific cards while survival does not it just needs mana and a starting creature to discard though that isn't really a requirement as survival decks are creature dense.

[@akaqueequeg]

Back in the day there was a deck called black pudding, based off a previous version called full English breakfast. You would pay 1 green to SOTF to search for phage the untouchable, then dump that into the graveyard to get Volrath's shapeshifter then cast that, attack next turn for the win. It's not the combo that ever made SOTF powerful it's the fact it can toolbox an answer for any situation for 1 green mana and THEN combo then you opponent has been depleted.

[@JD-gk7eh]

The easiest way to explain it: it's an Entomb you can use as many times as you want.

[@jormungardwe]

That is one form of seeing as it was banned not long after vengevine was released, but the reason for the ban was not the 1 shot potential of the combo but the Ability to combo while searching for anything that you need, many times it was just discard a dork find a rec sage, wins next turn.

[@andreaswehrmann365]

The artwork of 'Once Upon A Time' is so beautiful!

[@claysmolding7792]

Ok but my favorite part about your videos is listening to how you mispronounce everything so eloquently like lol fastbound was too funny

[@marshallwilver8831]

Brother the way you pronounce fastbond was making my eye twitch. Jokes aside. Love the content. Keep it up my dude!

[@crimson90]

FastBOND! BOND! Not BOUND! Just read it!

[@alecazam6755]

An alarming number of these are two drops from Tempest block....

[@Hmongboi228]

Another "balanced" card out of the Urza's block.. 💡😉🤝👍 🤣🤣🤣

[@calemr]

Predictions: Pod. Zenith. Once Upon a Time. And a bunch of stuff from before my time like Channel.

[@who_what]

"fastbound"

[@The1AndOnlyGoldenboy]

Fastbond and Channel are so busted, a friend of mine has a deck that's just Rat Turbo. Turn one he'll use cards to get out Thrumming Stone and then Relentless Rats to just flood his board with 20+ rats, and those two are key parts of the combo. I've even seen him win ON turn 1 by doing that, then dropping a Biorhythm before anyone else even got a turn. Most people didn't want to play against him after that.

[@theemathas]

FYI, biorhythm is banned in commander

[@The1AndOnlyGoldenboy]

@@theemathas It's not a Commander deck, it's Vintage.

[@DerekScottBland]

People arguing Protean Hulk being the problem over Flash don't understand the concept of banning cards. Flash is the enabler. As long as it's around, all cards have to be designed with it in mind and designed around it. Thus it's better to ban that card. It's the same logic behind another banned card that was probably close to making this list, Green Sun's Zenith.

[@danlorett2184]

There's also an absolutely massive, Atraxa-shaped problem with unbanning Flash lmao.

[@xana3961]

@@danlorett2184 Aint that a mood, lol

[@roercula8425]

Waiiiiit arent you the duellogs guy? I remembered you making a video where you reviewed magic cards and you didnt knew anything about the game. I am happy that you seem to like the game.

[@spliterator1981]

Pretty sure someone else writes the script. Duel logs just reads and maybe edits.

[@haryadisuryonoto1118]

I remember the different art for Channel and Fireball cards 😂the old man raising his hands and a giant yellow ball.

[@WUZLE]

"Green has been a powerful color since the start of Magic." As someone who played almost from the the start, there was a long, LONG period where Green was so bad that it was joked that Magic had only four colors. Go back and play Shandalar and see how many Green cards you're playing by the end of the game.

[@Goten40373]

nice list. i would try 1 also without banned cards to. cause could then c cards like Tarmogoyf and whats considered fair play atleast now

[@nathannjh]

It depends on your definition of banned. These cards are playable in vintage.

[@Goten40373]

@@nathannjh well yeah vintage allows them mostly as restricted. banned as in like modern/legacy/standard since those are the most played formats

[@zirilan3398]

as sad as it sounds but I don`t think Goyf would make the cut nowadays@@Goten40373

[@jormungardwe]

One day I will get that Survival of the Fittest foil.

[@aristizle8797]

I played the old Channel-Fireball deck back around 4th addition. I was today years old when I fully grokked the Channel Fireball store name. I played that cheat deck within 10 miles of the store.

[@AwakenedAvocado]

I still play 99 lightning bolt and 1 mountain

[@7Alberto7]

Amazing!!!!

[@T4N7]

Y do u keep saying "Fastbound" when the card is called "Fastbond" like "James Bond"?

[@DerekScottBland]

Because his mother did hardcore drugs while he was in the womb

[@blackoozaru1916]

i would love to see a top10 fun cards to play that flooped in competitive

[@NicoloRisso]

The top10 overhyped cards for competitive would be fun

[@fernandobanda5734]

​@@NicoloRisso There is one already. Search "Top 10 Cards that Ended Up Being Huge Flops in Mtg"

[@TheDustyPeaches]

I think it is a waste not to mention Protean Hulk had a turn zero win deck so your opponent would not even start their first turn before they died and that was when they were to play first.

[@renewagain6956]

I once pulled off that combo on MTGO when it was new. ... My opponent sincerely asked me if I hacked the game somehow. I didn't blame him, lol. 😅

[@OHYisWatching]

new drinking game, take a shot everytime he spells fastbond as fastBOUND

[@thatguymatt5816]

Dude. Fast BOND. not bound. What the hell is happening?

[@mchild80]

Love the list, but it's really weird to see a strongest Green card list that doesn't have Primeval Titan or Sylvan Library

[@NotSoSerious69420]

Because they aren’t broken. Not really anyway. They’re incredibly good value no doubt but wouldn’t say broken.

[@MekanikKommandoh88]

Most of these cards have been banned from competitive formats, whereas these two have not.

[@Atmapalazzo]

​@HossPower There's a pretty strong argument for banning titan.

[@mchild80]

@@MekanikKommandoh88 I can agree with that statement. Let me ask this, how do you feel about Green Sun Zenith and Glimpse of Nature

[@danlorett2184]

Sylvan Library over Earthcraft tbh

[@Hammers_Peace]

How much mana does it take to pass customs

[@jasonandkathleenbarker6306]

Floral Spuzzem is self aware. Now THAT’S power.

[@proxidize5738]

It has a functioning AI to help it

[@Goten40373]

i would also suggest title to be mono green. cause u could put an argument for a multicolored green card like deathrite shaman to be on this list

[@names_are.uselessyt7908]

earthcraft & grave troll should switch positions & food chain blows birthing pod away. i'm glad you recognized Channel & fastbond. when i saw the title i was totally ready to say anyone who doesn't know about Channels power doesn't know anything about m:tg

[@kyleharrison713]

'Vigor' is a real piece of work also

[@miguelprimo491]

Apex devastator is an honorable mention!

[@cream3148]

As a legacy player, definitely don’t unban flash. Protean hulk is pretty balanced and flash is just the broken enabler.

[@banjokatooie]

Eureka not making the list, sad :(

[@dissipation]

Flash is busted in many other ways - since etbs can be so strong - one simple use would be using it with something like woodfall primus destroys two permanents for 2 mana or a primeval titan. Meanwhile protean hulk is pretty useless if flash is banned. It's easier to ban flash rather than rebalance every ETB if flash is in the game

[@jordonbrown9762]

What about Seedborn Muse?

[@Spaztastiq]

Natural Order and Tooth and Nail, at least in EDH, are the two most broken green cards.

[@jormungardwe]

Just that life from the loam is the only dredge card that is played for it's intended purpose

[@jasonliang2932]

No Veil of Summer? :D Cards I would have considered are Natural Order, Scapeshift, Crop Rotation, Life from the Loam, Green Sun's Zenith, Collector Ouphe and Argothian Enchantress.

[@izme1000]

When a 2 card infinite combo is only #9 on the list.

[@coltonbaker-yq3qy]

Omnath Locus of mana is my personal favorite

[@therealsilverking4802]

08:47 I always thought Jason Momoa would be a Blue Card

[@Master00Ra]

Special mention: Fog (xV)

[@itsfort2098]

I really wanna see a failed mechanic with the Mutate stuff

[@bertilandersson6606]

no crop rotation?

[@moleahjobe]

Rofellos has seen a LOT of play

[@bariltrailette]

Fastbond with landfall ability that give you life when a land enter the battle like grazing gladeheart give you infinite life and infite mana.

[@fulanodominicano]

I think the strongest green card is the one that allows you to make a new life in another country. >.>

[@andygoody2599]

You never showed the card Fast-Bound though!

[@freddiesimmons1394]

Suggestion: you should give points for when cards got banned.

[@lucio.brandi]

Honorable mention to Tarmogoyf.

[@platinumknight1]

Its obviously the chibaku tensei...just Turn your opponent city into a giant rock and then throw it at him like if it was a tengai shinsei

[@PJB-bh8bn]

Great henge and sylvan library should have been #1and#2

[@andrewfuhrman7806]

I’ve never heard of fastBOUND

[@warpuppy4528]

I thought for sure Biorhythm would make it on this list.

[@roccosoldi8678]

liked!!!

[@Prince_Eva_Huepow]

What about best vanilla ice cream cards?

[@gmradio2436]

Top 10 rule changes. 4 copy limit Mana burn Legends ruling That sort of thing.

[@bariltrailette]

Channel is good with emrakul to you need 4 mana plus 19 life 2 green for channel 1 colorless mana for 1 damage and one red for fireball you need to spend minimum 2 for 1 damage and pay 19 life point for the reste of damage.

[@NateBullock-ow6on]

The great henge should have definitely been on here

[@dstreetz91]

Earthcraft isn't legal in legacy, but it should be. People have wanted that card unbanned for over a decade and somehow it's still banned.

[@jameshonaker585]

This list is...interesting, but I would not say it's all that good. There are several omissions that stand out to me, such as Green Sun's Zenith, Glimpse of Nature, Sylvan Library, Worldly Tutor, Eureka, Hypergenesis, and Natural Order. Even Crop Rotation, or Beast Within which are deceptively powerful for how simple they are, would make for reasonable inclusions.

[@DJFracus]

over half the cards you listed are not even banned in modern+ power level formats lol they can't be on a list like this

[@jameshonaker585]

@@DJFracus Protean Hulk is not banned n any such format, so that hardly seems like a qualifier.

[@shea455]

Once upon a time can be played on the first turn of the entire game, even when that turn is not yours.

[@fernandobanda5734]

That's barely ever relevant

[@silentwatcher5134]

I prefer to sacrifice protean hulk to search for 4 disciple of the vault and 12 X costed artifact creatures

[@gourmetwater2442]

You forgot forest. That card is so busted, zero mana for a land that can tap for green? That’s busted!

[@PendelSteven]

Birthing Pod is an interesting card, since it is legal in Legacy & Vintage.... It isn't played. Too powerful for Modern, too weak for Legacy? Or can we unban it so it will be played? You're incorrect why it was banned. It was used for getting Melira and Kitchen Finks. The Devoted Druid combo didn't even exist after Pod was banned. At 2:04 the text says that Legacy banned card Earthcraft is legal in said format. Another mistake.

[@ArchetypeGotoh]

Vivian on the Hunt sort of does the same thing as Birthing Pod, except she’s more expensive to cast outright. Love the idea though: makes the Consuming Blob ooze deck more fun :P

[@philtess3126]

She also has a lot less combo potential since she can only activate once per turn. During this time, pod can just find a creature who untaps artifacts on etb and keep going doing what would have taken Vivian 4-5 more turns

[@zilkay6558]

Vivian can be activate multiple times in a turn as long as you have a felidar guardian in play, but that's quite restrictive and requires you to build more around Vivian in the deck and less on value pod

[@scottargo2152]

The number of times he mispronounced FastBOND is astounding!

[@guilty_neco]

Birthing pod reads duel masters blueprint card

[@ShakerGER]

Weird no oko; but that is simic maybe cause of that

[@GeoQuag]

Pretty sure this list is supposed to be just mono green cards

[@Moshinoki]

GoN, Sylvan Library??

[@livingroomviewing2987]

Bound. James Bound.

[@HispanicatthediscoMTG]

YES

[@kennethmarkwith4678]

What?! No Eternal Witness? Lol im sure if this video was made 10 years ago Tarmogoyf would've made the cut. EWit is just my favorite creature ever printed. Being serious though, Glimpse of Nature should probably be on this list somewhere

[@zirilan3398]

You can make an argument for Glimpse instead of Once upon a Time but one could also argue to put Force of Vigor or Endurance in that spot instead

[@darthparallax5207]

Channel should be ranked 1 below Fastbond Golgari Grave-Troll is stronger than both of them. It presents threats faster (fewer resources required in starting hand) and it was such a consistent deck off of Serum Powder that you only needed Bazaar to go off. It went manaless and the creatures it attacked with were often as not Bridge tokens not proper creature cards. Dredge was mainly on Green cards like Life from the Loam Shambling Shell and Grave-Troll and allowed you to reject all Green ways of doing things possibly as much as or more than Channel. And Dredge could beat Channel-Fireball. Was there another 0 cost Green card besides Grave-Troll? I don't think so. Force of Vigor? Endurance? Summoner's Pact? Hypergenesis? These are all good or banned in Modern and last I heard they don't make it in Legacy/Vintage quite the same way. Wait. Not Invigorate. Mutagenic Growth? Anyway. Survival of the Fittest and Hermit Druid are genuinely worth 2 mana. Oath of Druids makes the list too. And Protean Hulk. Birthing Pod is a turn 2 play even in Modern and easily turn 1 in Legacy its absurd. I do not know the combos for Earthcraft and I don't think OUAT being better than Worldly Tutor is good enough for this list. 10 Birthing Pod 9 Sylvan Library 8 Protean Hulk 7 Oath of Druids 6 Natural Selection 5 Hermit Druid 4 Survival of the Fittest 3 Channel 2 Fastbond 1 Golgari Grave-Troll

[@darthparallax5207]

Earthcraft is good, it makes Top 15 probably, but Top 10 is a harsh cutoff.

[@dennisyoung6122]

I prefer the white Oath out of that cycle. Horribly underused.

[@johndegroot3041]

I think you missed Food Chain in your list

[@hotcoldman9793]

Primeval titan?

[@troysuza2065]

"Fastbond" not "Fastbound"

[@bariltrailette]

Once upon a time is a better inpulse in green yes dont put a card of your choice but free or two mana for 1 more card than impulse is relevant.

[@madelynrussell2884]

No Glimpse of Nature?

[@jessicalundholm2773]

A lot of these cards are legal in the premodern format and there they're just about balanced enough to not be banned. If you want to see some of these cards being played in decks(Hermit Druid, Oath of Druids, Survival of the Fittest) check out some premodern gameplay on KZbin. These cards are crazy

[@p.darker5306]

Where’s my boi rampaging badger

[@ErrrorWayz]

Birting Pods 😊

[@montyrobertson7362]

Am I the only one that got aggravated by him saying Fastbound and not Fastbond?

[@marcellachine5718]

Why do you say fast bound?

[@makokx7063]

He purposely mispronounces words in all his videos to get people to comment.

[@zenonking2840]

Damn i wish I had some of these I never ended up getting my green card