Every recent block is sculpted by its mechanics. Often times, they form the heart of the limited environment. So what are the best and worst?
Personally, my least favorite mechanic of all time is a recent one: Cohort. It was such a trap, especially to new players. Even when the ability was good, it was seldom worth the tempo you had to sacrifice.
Formidable also comes to mind as being lame.
I love abilities like Cipher, Suspend, Poplulate, and Proliferate.
And the number one thing I want to see come back: World Permanents. For those that aren't old-school, when a World permanent comes in, it removes any other World permanents. It's design space they barely scratched on.
So, drawing from across MTG history, what mechanics do you guys love, and which ones do you hate?
And the number one thing I want to see come back: World Permanents. For those that aren't old-school, when a World permanent comes in, it removes any other World permanents. It's design space they barely scratched on.
The flavour behind World Enchantments is that they represent teleporting the duel to a new location, which is why most of the World Enchantments are place names (cards like Revelation are a head-scratcher). The spiritual successor to these have been the Planechase cards.
Everybody loves Banding right? I know I've got a 4th Edition rule insert just so I know how to play with it.
Not that it ever comes up.
In all seriousness I love graveyard and discard mechanics. Flashback, Madness, Unearth... Dredge. Getting card advantage out of my yard feels fantastic.
As for terrible mechanics, Banding aside, I hated Hellbent, Radiance, Converge, Cipher (sorry), and Unleash. Those are the ones that pop to mind.
My favorite recent one was Delve. It's a powerful mechanic, even when you don't make the developmental mistake of putting it on high-payoff draw spells.
Least favorites happen to be every new mechanic in Born of the Gods. They were both plain terrible.
My personal favorite mechanic is Provoke, for some reason. I'm amazed it hasn't come back, considering how creature focused the game has become in the last 5 or 6 years.
As for the best ones, anything that has nothing to do with +1/+1 counters, although that could be because how many of those we've seen in recent years, but if I had to pick one specifically I would go with Flashback or Suspend.
Worst I would have to say Support. That was so bottom of the barrel in terms of mechanics, especially +1/+1 counter mechanics.
My personal favorite mechanic is Provoke, for some reason. I'm amazed it hasn't come back, considering how creature focused the game has become in the last 5 or 6 years.
As for the best ones, anything that has nothing to do with +1/+1 counters, although that could be because how many of those we've seen in recent years, but if I had to pick one specifically I would go with Flashback or Suspend.
Worst I would have to say Support. That was so bottom of the barrel in terms of mechanics, especially +1/+1 counter mechanics.
Provoke is really powerfull mechanic, especially in Limited.
If you have a creature that kills the opponents blocker, and especially with tricks in your hand, you can dominate a game and theres a terrible difficult way to comeback for your opponent as you can continue to kill all the blockers they play.
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Usually the mechanics that provide some advantage for the "winning" player and are more or less worthless for a losing player are just terrible annoying and produce brutally one-sided games.
Support is a mechanic that either works if you curve-out and really punish the opponent, or it does nothing if you have to jump block earlier and not have the creatures anymore.
However, thats pretty much the case for all the +1/+1 mechanics, as they provide you an advantage if things work out as they should (evolve and such), and if it doesnt, well, it just sucks.
Ally Rally effects are in the same boat, its either incredible powerfull or it doesnt do anything later on.
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I like mechanics like land-cycling, which help to get to the mana you need and provide a big creature later on, helps you in either situation, winning or losing.
Flashback is a great mechanic as it allows to get extra value of spells, and it feels great to build-around it with self-mill and the like. It also gives me a reason to remember spells in my graveyard.
Dredge was a nice mechanic in Limited aswell, at least the high Delve cards, as you totally could use it again and again, but that had a cost (mechanic clearly doesnt work that well in constructed) ; Golgari had a really nice feeling to it if you had cards that self-resurrected and put more dredge cards in the graveyard, wonderful theme.
My personal favorite mechanic is Provoke, for some reason. I'm amazed it hasn't come back, considering how creature focused the game has become in the last 5 or 6 years.
Maro has said that the design space for Provoke has been replaced with fight, so that's probably why it hsn't come back.
I like what Prowess is doing for the game. I thought Support worked nicely in limited. Surge was fun in 2HG.
Personally, my least favorite mechanic of all time is a recent one: Cohort. It was such a trap, especially to new players. Even when the ability was good, it was seldom worth the tempo you had to sacrifice.
This seems pretty far off-base, at least in terms of limited play, where cohort was very effective and helped make BW the "best deck".
Cascade was immensely fun, despite being completely broken.
Affinity was my least favorite mechanic, because literally everyone I knew changed to playing only affinity once Mirrodin came out, and stayed that way until over half of them just up and quit. I stopped playing for a while after that too, because everything was so stale.
I actually like Unleash because it fits BR and gives you the tactical choice to pump your creature at the expense of blocking or not. Which is more important for the situation? Better decide well! I also like populate (makes good cards better), morbid, and flashback. Outlast is pretty lousy IMO because it's so slow, even for Abzan! You have to wait 'till the creature's not summoning sick, and then tap it at sorcery speed! I feel like one of those obstacles should have been cleared off the effect. I also really dislike how cumulative upkeep is 100% literal downside. Some cards and effects give you compensation for their detrimental effects or involve tactical decisions like unleash, but CU is only downside! It's more than just a low-quality effect, it's nothing but bad. At least it's only on old cards that weren't very good anyway, so it doesn't ruin much.
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I also really dislike how cumulative upkeep is 100% literal downside. Some cards and effects give you compensation for their detrimental effects or involve tactical decisions like unleash, but CU is only downside! It's more than just a low-quality effect, it's nothing but bad. At least it's only on old cards that weren't very good anyway, so it doesn't ruin much.
Cumulative Upkeep was ment to be a drawback, so its ment to be bad on the old cards.
However, Coldsnap did shake it up and made the mechanic work (drawback or advantage alike).
All have a VERY unique feeling to them, as they do something that increases over time, but its something that either is an advantage to you to pay it, or it is a hidden mechanic itself, that just uses cumulative upkeep triggers to grow.
I thought that use of the mechanic was superb.
Time Spiral did shake up some "lame" mechanics aswell and made them interesting, especially working together in tandem, was pretty great.
Currently they badly try to keep the game simpel, which is ok, but it also means we really dont see any Time Spiral level of complexity anymore, even Modern Masters is downright simplistic for that (the fun of Time Spiral was that even cards by themself had hidden potential you had to find, Ichor Slick is the prime example of a card that has many hidden modes, that you only see, if you actually play the card out ; hint, its instant speed, cantrip, removal or anything in between, a wonderful card).
I personally like the idea of being able to use Mana Chains as a way of "removal" of a larger-sized creature (preferably with Indestructible). Either they keep the creature out and pay through the nose to do so, or sac 'em. It's also worth noting that Proliferate can add Age Tokens to Cumulative Upkeep cards.
And speaking of the Time Spiral block , I'd love to see the return of Fortifications. The only existing Fortification in Magic is Darksteel Garrison, which was released in the Future Sight block. Fortifications act basically as "Equipment for Lands". I feel like this could be an incredible mechanic to bring back, and was totally hoping the block after OTG featured them to complement the Creature Lands (alas, it was not so). Darksteel Garrison, itself, makes a land indestructible and gives a creature +1/+1 whenever the fortified land is tapped. Give it to a land creature, tap to attack, and give itself +1/+1 for combat! I feel like this sort of card can make for some really interesting decks.
And speaking of the Time Spiral block , I'd love to see the return of Fortifications. The only existing Fortification in Magic is Darksteel Garrison, which was released in the Future Sight block. Fortifications act basically as "Equipment for Lands". I feel like this could be an incredible mechanic to bring back, and was totally hoping the block after OTG featured them to complement the Creature Lands (alas, it was not so). Darksteel Garrison, itself, makes a land indestructible and gives a creature +1/+1 whenever the fortified land is tapped. Give it to a land creature, tap to attack, and give itself +1/+1 for combat! I feel like this sort of card can make for some really interesting decks.
Agreed! This block had several one hit wonders, like Bitter Ordeal's Gravestorm ability. It seems like Gravestorm fits quite well with black's playstyle and would be quite enjoyable to use in a limited format or otherwise.
As far as bad mechanics go, I've never been a fan of bolster. Don't get me wrong, +1/+1 counters are great, but always putting them on your smallest creatures is kind of limiting to me.
Hmmmmmmm. I didn't play the Time Spiral block at all, so I didn't know about those "fixed" cumulative upkeep cards. It's a mechanic that I'll never look forward to using, but those cards do seem kind of neat.
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UBR Sedris RG Omnath, Locus of Rage UB The Scarab God RUG Maelstrom Wanderer WU Dragonlord Ojutai
Best Designed Mechanics- These cards have vast design potential and play out well.
Flashback- Self-milling, discarding for costs, or just double-casting, these cards provide worlds of deck designs and card interactions while being incredibly simple and intuitive. I'll go so far as to say that it's the best designed non-evergreen mechanic of all of Magic's history.
Evoke- Spell-like ability now or card advantage later. These cards offer worthwhile plays early and lategame, giving more assurance that you'll never have a dead draw with them. It's unfortunate that this mechanic is unlikely to return since new players had a habit of seeing it as a downside mechanic, but a variation of it could come out later with the alternate cost and the card cost swapped. Awaken comes very close, but it's a bit too clunky with the whole land animating issue.
Best Use of Mechanics- These mechanics may not play that well in isolation or may not have great design space, but they were executed well within their block
Morbid- In limited, it allowed players to bluff combat tricks with less worry. In Standard, it gave the Aristocrats more payoffs for sacrificing creatures. The usefulness of this mechanic differed depending on the card or the format, but in the end it always found a way to be useful.
Outlast- Just a run-of-the-mill +1/+1 counter mechanic. What really sold this was all the Counters matter cards in KTK. The payoffs were varied from First Strike to Flying, making a single Outlast trigger or a counter-placing combat trick into something to fear. Limited-only, but still a great save for an otherwise uninteresting mechanic.
Dash- The mechanic on its own is surprisingly deep, but not something you'd want to run in great numbers. Dragons of Tarkir, however, actually gave some great incentives for repeatedly bouncing your own creatures, whether to avoid the slew of efficient sorcery speed removal like Pacifism or using all the ridiculous Dash payoffs like Boltwing Marauder.
Worst Designed Mechanics- These cards have very little design space while also being uninteresting or frustrating
Tribute- Punisher cards are hard enough to make playable, so it's no surprise that an entire keyword devoted to Punisher effects turned up to be so mediocre.
Cipher- The spells themselves were incredibly weak, but worst of all they led to repetitive and boring boardstates. How this card got so far in the design process is beyond me.
Cohort- A parasitic mechanic that promotes durdly long games where both players are just looking at each other tapping themselves.
Worst Use of Mechanics- These mechanics have potential, but they were executed poorly.
Converge- Why don't we stick a 5-color mechanic in a set with a heavy Colorless component and very few color fixers? What could possibly go wrong? The mechanic itself is fine, and there are actually some good playables that came out of it, but there is far more design room for it in a set where going 3+ colors is the norm, like say Khans of Tarkir, just one block before Battle for Zendikar.
Fateful Hour- Nothing inherently bad with Comeback mechanics, but why focus this on the one color that has the most tools to prevent damage? B and R have a penchant of inflicting pain on themselves while also hurting everyone else, so if any color combo were to be the frontmen for the "Be at 5 life" mechanic, it would be them.
Soulbond- It actually had some cool Constructed applications, but it came at the cost of molding a poor limited experience around it due to the significant nerfing of removal.
Soulbond- It actually had some cool Constructed applications, but it came at the cost of molding a poor limited experience around it due to the significant nerfing of removal.
I dont understand this.
Soulbond doesnt mean you have to nerf removal at all. Soulbond creatures are ALL really good in Limited, as a creature that gives another the bonus aswell is never bad (and its especially good for cheap creatures and narrow abilities) , in some way Soulbond plays like a form of equipment in creature form and that wasnt bad at all.
They simply put the ability on some pretty nasty creatures:
Trusted Forcemage, Druid's Familiar, Wolfir Silverheart
The forcemage did a good job in Limited, as a 3 mana 3/3 that also provides +1/+1 for another is a strong play but not backbreacking.
The Druid and the Silverheart are completly stupid strong cards, and you will run away with countless games if your opponent doesnt have removal they are in a world of pain (that was even true for constructed in case of Wolfir Silverheart).
So these are totally fine, and reflect what made the mechanic work fairly well.
Examples like this: Diregraf Escort are sadly so narrow (even in a set that has a bunch of zombies) , that it was quite bad and especially on a 1 drop 1/1 it was extra bad.
Well these are cool aswell, but they provide something that isnt too difficult to make into an infinited combo. So they arent really a good example of a mechanic.
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A strange part of soulbond is that nothing really expresses the mechanic in card form. Theres nothing that really tells you if a card is "paired" or not, you would place them together on the battlefield, but its still pretty crappy visually represented (monstrocity at least has the +1/+1 counter, even if it doesnt necessarily mean its monstrous) ; so if a mechanic cannot represent itself clearly and somehow visually, thats a major downside.
Also the fact that you "cannot" pair an allready paired creature also made some bad interactions, as topdecking a soulbond creature if your others are allready soulbond was terrible. So that again is fairly crappy (and unncessary).
But soulbond itself, by its mechanic idea to "share" abilities between creatures, well that wasnt bad (just like slivers sharing abilities, a fan favourite for a long time).
I'm seriously surprised how few mentions Megamorph got for worst mechanic. It's the laziest WOTC had ever gotten. "Hey, so we got Morph, and Manifest made for an interesting riff off of it. What shall we do next?" "How about Morph...WITH A +1+1 COUNTER!" "Brilliant jim!"
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My Commander decks:
Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Megamorph was good for gameplay, and most of the cards that had it were better designed than most other morphs. It was just a really bad name and a close enough redux of an old mechanic that it didn't warrant its own name.
Haunt will always rank for me as one of the lowest rated mechanics. Worked differently on creatures vs spells and always always took a second read to understand.
I feel like haunt is an example of a great mechanic done poorly. The flavor is all there: my thing dies, then haunts your thing, but instead of embracing the flavor, and having the cards essentially turn into auras "haunting" a creature, they had it all be about death triggers. That made the mechanic pretty flimsy and narrow, and forced the strategy attached to the mechanic in a bad direction.
Megamorph is the opposite: it never should have been a mechanic at all. It's got a stupid name, and it feels forced, but megamorph played out really well in-game.
To be fair, when I think of bad mechanics, I don't think of "limited only" mechanics like Bolster, Support, Renown, etc. Mechanics like those sort of always have to begrudgingly exist, and I don't think R&D ever sits down and goes "Man, we knocked this one out of the park!".
For a bad mechanic that tried to be memorable, Phyrexian mana. Not because it was too weak. The only dial on it seems to be "Make cards more powerful or ignore the color pie", which makes it not very interesting in a vacuum.
Granted, if they revisited it, maybe they could do more with it.
Soulbond- It actually had some cool Constructed applications, but it came at the cost of molding a poor limited experience around it due to the significant nerfing of removal.
I dont understand this.
Soulbond doesnt mean you have to nerf removal at all. Soulbond creatures are ALL really good in Limited, as a creature that gives another the bonus aswell is never bad (and its especially good for cheap creatures and narrow abilities) , in some way Soulbond plays like a form of equipment in creature form and that wasnt bad at all.
It came straight from R&D, although the article isn't easy to find since it came out five years ago. Removal was toned down so that tempo decks didn't push Soulbond out of AVR limited.
Worst is bands with other. It takes a complicated mechanic, makes it more complicated, and really adds nothing to the game.
Best is probably scry. And now it's evergreen!
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Personally, my least favorite mechanic of all time is a recent one: Cohort. It was such a trap, especially to new players. Even when the ability was good, it was seldom worth the tempo you had to sacrifice.
Formidable also comes to mind as being lame.
I love abilities like Cipher, Suspend, Poplulate, and Proliferate.
And the number one thing I want to see come back: World Permanents. For those that aren't old-school, when a World permanent comes in, it removes any other World permanents. It's design space they barely scratched on.
So, drawing from across MTG history, what mechanics do you guys love, and which ones do you hate?
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The flavour behind World Enchantments is that they represent teleporting the duel to a new location, which is why most of the World Enchantments are place names (cards like Revelation are a head-scratcher). The spiritual successor to these have been the Planechase cards.
Not that it ever comes up.
In all seriousness I love graveyard and discard mechanics. Flashback, Madness, Unearth... Dredge. Getting card advantage out of my yard feels fantastic.
As for terrible mechanics, Banding aside, I hated Hellbent, Radiance, Converge, Cipher (sorry), and Unleash. Those are the ones that pop to mind.
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My favorite recent one was Delve. It's a powerful mechanic, even when you don't make the developmental mistake of putting it on high-payoff draw spells.
Least favorites happen to be every new mechanic in Born of the Gods. They were both plain terrible.
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As for the best ones, anything that has nothing to do with +1/+1 counters, although that could be because how many of those we've seen in recent years, but if I had to pick one specifically I would go with Flashback or Suspend.
Worst I would have to say Support. That was so bottom of the barrel in terms of mechanics, especially +1/+1 counter mechanics.
Provoke is really powerfull mechanic, especially in Limited.
If you have a creature that kills the opponents blocker, and especially with tricks in your hand, you can dominate a game and theres a terrible difficult way to comeback for your opponent as you can continue to kill all the blockers they play.
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Usually the mechanics that provide some advantage for the "winning" player and are more or less worthless for a losing player are just terrible annoying and produce brutally one-sided games.
Support is a mechanic that either works if you curve-out and really punish the opponent, or it does nothing if you have to jump block earlier and not have the creatures anymore.
However, thats pretty much the case for all the +1/+1 mechanics, as they provide you an advantage if things work out as they should (evolve and such), and if it doesnt, well, it just sucks.
Ally Rally effects are in the same boat, its either incredible powerfull or it doesnt do anything later on.
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I like mechanics like land-cycling, which help to get to the mana you need and provide a big creature later on, helps you in either situation, winning or losing.
Flashback is a great mechanic as it allows to get extra value of spells, and it feels great to build-around it with self-mill and the like. It also gives me a reason to remember spells in my graveyard.
Dredge was a nice mechanic in Limited aswell, at least the high Delve cards, as you totally could use it again and again, but that had a cost (mechanic clearly doesnt work that well in constructed) ; Golgari had a really nice feeling to it if you had cards that self-resurrected and put more dredge cards in the graveyard, wonderful theme.
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Maro has said that the design space for Provoke has been replaced with fight, so that's probably why it hsn't come back.
I like what Prowess is doing for the game. I thought Support worked nicely in limited. Surge was fun in 2HG.
This seems pretty far off-base, at least in terms of limited play, where cohort was very effective and helped make BW the "best deck".
Affinity was my least favorite mechanic, because literally everyone I knew changed to playing only affinity once Mirrodin came out, and stayed that way until over half of them just up and quit. I stopped playing for a while after that too, because everything was so stale.
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WU Dragonlord Ojutai
Cumulative Upkeep was ment to be a drawback, so its ment to be bad on the old cards.
However, Coldsnap did shake it up and made the mechanic work (drawback or advantage alike).
Braid of Fire
Earthen Goo
Herald of Leshrac
Hibernation's End
Jötun Grunt
Karplusan Minotaur
Sheltering Ancient
Vexing Sphinx
Wall of Shards
All have a VERY unique feeling to them, as they do something that increases over time, but its something that either is an advantage to you to pay it, or it is a hidden mechanic itself, that just uses cumulative upkeep triggers to grow.
I thought that use of the mechanic was superb.
Time Spiral did shake up some "lame" mechanics aswell and made them interesting, especially working together in tandem, was pretty great.
Currently they badly try to keep the game simpel, which is ok, but it also means we really dont see any Time Spiral level of complexity anymore, even Modern Masters is downright simplistic for that (the fun of Time Spiral was that even cards by themself had hidden potential you had to find, Ichor Slick is the prime example of a card that has many hidden modes, that you only see, if you actually play the card out ; hint, its instant speed, cantrip, removal or anything in between, a wonderful card).
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And speaking of the Time Spiral block , I'd love to see the return of Fortifications. The only existing Fortification in Magic is Darksteel Garrison, which was released in the Future Sight block. Fortifications act basically as "Equipment for Lands". I feel like this could be an incredible mechanic to bring back, and was totally hoping the block after OTG featured them to complement the Creature Lands (alas, it was not so). Darksteel Garrison, itself, makes a land indestructible and gives a creature +1/+1 whenever the fortified land is tapped. Give it to a land creature, tap to attack, and give itself +1/+1 for combat! I feel like this sort of card can make for some really interesting decks.
The Rats are Relentless.
Agreed! This block had several one hit wonders, like Bitter Ordeal's Gravestorm ability. It seems like Gravestorm fits quite well with black's playstyle and would be quite enjoyable to use in a limited format or otherwise.
As far as bad mechanics go, I've never been a fan of bolster. Don't get me wrong, +1/+1 counters are great, but always putting them on your smallest creatures is kind of limiting to me.
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UBR Sedris
RG Omnath, Locus of Rage
UB The Scarab God
RUG Maelstrom Wanderer
WU Dragonlord Ojutai
Flashback- Self-milling, discarding for costs, or just double-casting, these cards provide worlds of deck designs and card interactions while being incredibly simple and intuitive. I'll go so far as to say that it's the best designed non-evergreen mechanic of all of Magic's history.
Evoke- Spell-like ability now or card advantage later. These cards offer worthwhile plays early and lategame, giving more assurance that you'll never have a dead draw with them. It's unfortunate that this mechanic is unlikely to return since new players had a habit of seeing it as a downside mechanic, but a variation of it could come out later with the alternate cost and the card cost swapped. Awaken comes very close, but it's a bit too clunky with the whole land animating issue.
Best Use of Mechanics- These mechanics may not play that well in isolation or may not have great design space, but they were executed well within their block
Morbid- In limited, it allowed players to bluff combat tricks with less worry. In Standard, it gave the Aristocrats more payoffs for sacrificing creatures. The usefulness of this mechanic differed depending on the card or the format, but in the end it always found a way to be useful.
Outlast- Just a run-of-the-mill +1/+1 counter mechanic. What really sold this was all the Counters matter cards in KTK. The payoffs were varied from First Strike to Flying, making a single Outlast trigger or a counter-placing combat trick into something to fear. Limited-only, but still a great save for an otherwise uninteresting mechanic.
Dash- The mechanic on its own is surprisingly deep, but not something you'd want to run in great numbers. Dragons of Tarkir, however, actually gave some great incentives for repeatedly bouncing your own creatures, whether to avoid the slew of efficient sorcery speed removal like Pacifism or using all the ridiculous Dash payoffs like Boltwing Marauder.
Worst Designed Mechanics- These cards have very little design space while also being uninteresting or frustrating
Tribute- Punisher cards are hard enough to make playable, so it's no surprise that an entire keyword devoted to Punisher effects turned up to be so mediocre.
Cipher- The spells themselves were incredibly weak, but worst of all they led to repetitive and boring boardstates. How this card got so far in the design process is beyond me.
Cohort- A parasitic mechanic that promotes durdly long games where both players are just looking at each other tapping themselves.
Worst Use of Mechanics- These mechanics have potential, but they were executed poorly.
Converge- Why don't we stick a 5-color mechanic in a set with a heavy Colorless component and very few color fixers? What could possibly go wrong? The mechanic itself is fine, and there are actually some good playables that came out of it, but there is far more design room for it in a set where going 3+ colors is the norm, like say Khans of Tarkir, just one block before Battle for Zendikar.
Fateful Hour- Nothing inherently bad with Comeback mechanics, but why focus this on the one color that has the most tools to prevent damage? B and R have a penchant of inflicting pain on themselves while also hurting everyone else, so if any color combo were to be the frontmen for the "Be at 5 life" mechanic, it would be them.
Soulbond- It actually had some cool Constructed applications, but it came at the cost of molding a poor limited experience around it due to the significant nerfing of removal.
I dont understand this.
Soulbond doesnt mean you have to nerf removal at all. Soulbond creatures are ALL really good in Limited, as a creature that gives another the bonus aswell is never bad (and its especially good for cheap creatures and narrow abilities) , in some way Soulbond plays like a form of equipment in creature form and that wasnt bad at all.
They simply put the ability on some pretty nasty creatures:
Trusted Forcemage, Druid's Familiar, Wolfir Silverheart
The forcemage did a good job in Limited, as a 3 mana 3/3 that also provides +1/+1 for another is a strong play but not backbreacking.
The Druid and the Silverheart are completly stupid strong cards, and you will run away with countless games if your opponent doesnt have removal they are in a world of pain (that was even true for constructed in case of Wolfir Silverheart).
Wingcrafter, Stonewright, Spectral Gateguards, Silverblade Paladin, Pathbreaker Wurm, Nightshade Peddler, Nearheath Pilgrim, Lightning Mauler, Hanweir Lancer, Geist Trappers, ...
All of these ability granting creatures are pretty "standard" limited creatures, they could just have the ability themself and thats all, would be totally fine. However, it was solid for limited to pair creatures and combine abilities, and even the otherwise bad 1 drop creatures become really usefull with soulbond, as you can give flying/firebreath to bigger creatures and make it work much better.
So these are totally fine, and reflect what made the mechanic work fairly well.
Examples like this:
Diregraf Escort are sadly so narrow (even in a set that has a bunch of zombies) , that it was quite bad and especially on a 1 drop 1/1 it was extra bad.
Then theres the "combo" soulbond cards:
Galvanic Alchemist
Deadeye Navigator
Well these are cool aswell, but they provide something that isnt too difficult to make into an infinited combo. So they arent really a good example of a mechanic.
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A strange part of soulbond is that nothing really expresses the mechanic in card form. Theres nothing that really tells you if a card is "paired" or not, you would place them together on the battlefield, but its still pretty crappy visually represented (monstrocity at least has the +1/+1 counter, even if it doesnt necessarily mean its monstrous) ; so if a mechanic cannot represent itself clearly and somehow visually, thats a major downside.
Also the fact that you "cannot" pair an allready paired creature also made some bad interactions, as topdecking a soulbond creature if your others are allready soulbond was terrible. So that again is fairly crappy (and unncessary).
But soulbond itself, by its mechanic idea to "share" abilities between creatures, well that wasnt bad (just like slivers sharing abilities, a fan favourite for a long time).
WUBRG#BlackLotusMatterWUBRG
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Chandra, Torch of Defiance - Oops! All Chandras.
Prime Speaker Zegana - Draw for Power.
Pir & Toothy - Counterpalooza.
Arcades, the Strategist - Another Brick in the Wall.
Zacama, Primal Calamity - Calamity of Double Mana.
Edgar Markov - Vampires Don't Die.
Child of Alara - Dreamcrusher.
Megamorph is the opposite: it never should have been a mechanic at all. It's got a stupid name, and it feels forced, but megamorph played out really well in-game.
Low-power cube enthusiast!
My 1570 card cube (no longer updated)
My 415 Peasant+ Artifact and Enchantment Cube
Ever-Expanding "Just throw it in" cube.
For a bad mechanic that tried to be memorable, Phyrexian mana. Not because it was too weak. The only dial on it seems to be "Make cards more powerful or ignore the color pie", which makes it not very interesting in a vacuum.
Granted, if they revisited it, maybe they could do more with it.
Best is probably scry. And now it's evergreen!
On phasing: