What are your most egregious examples of a fantastic magic concept or piece of artwork shackled to a disappointing, uninteresting, or even downright bad card? I guess I should preface by saying that I realize some of these cards were limited role players, and even may have shined in their respective environments, but I'm still hoping to suss out cards that people wanted to work so bad, but were sadly not up to snuff in their format de jour.
Off the top of my head, the return to ravnica had a lot of these for me: deathpact angel - IIRC, Jason Chan's fantastic artwork was previewed a few weeks before the final rules were released. As a spiritual successor to the awesome and iconic angel of despair a lot of hope was riding on deathpact being great. Unfortunately, while she has a very unique ability, she just falls short of being a great constructed, cube or even casual deck card, easily outclassed by other orzhov creatures, even within the sameblock!
Just to wrap up quickly, the great arts for RtR's tower drake and Isperia's Skywatch were also previewed a while before the actual cards. Both were viscerally disappointing being on such bland creatures but, I guess on the brightside, both being common probably gave them a lot more visability, and the foils were cheap!
What are your most egregious examples of a fantastic magic concept or piece of artwork shackled to a disappointing, uninteresting, or even downright bad card? I guess I should preface by saying that I realize some of these cards were limited role players, and even may have shined in their respective environments, but I'm still hoping to suss out cards that people wanted to work so bad, but were sadly not up to snuff in their format de jour.
A recent disappointing card for me has got to be The Chain Veil. Its concept is interesting because of its unique effect, and flavorful because of its connection to Liliana's story.
Ultimately this card did not have an impact in its respective environment, and does not see constructed play. I imagine this card is probably regarded as another junk rare/waste of a mythic slot, and it could of had a better shot if it wasn't so overcosted. Its mythic rarity also makes it a poor card in limited because of the unlikelihood of opening both The Chain Veil + a planeswalker. I think many players were disappointed to open this in their sealed pools, and were not excited to play with it at all.
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Lone Revenant broke my heart. Basically an early precursor to Dragonlord Ojutai, but the "must be your only creature" clause kills it, even though a control deck wants exactly one resilient threat. Dragonlord Ojutai fixes it, giving it evasion and not requiring it to be alone.
Sunbond seemed like a shoe-in for mono white Soul Sisters. Something that white likes to do anyway, but now it can pump a creature to make a build-your-own Ajani's Pridemate! Oh, imagine it on a lifelink flier... No, it doesn't work. Too high CMC, too many hoops, 2-for-1, does nothing by itself, etc.
And let's hear it again for Reaper of the Wilds, the greatest creature nobody has ever run! I actually run her in my Sidisi, Brood Tyrant EDH deck, out of pure obstinacy. She at least makes a nice target for +1 counters from Varolz.
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Reaper of the wilds has seen constructed play not sure what is wrong with the card. Used at the pro tour level granted it was the last block pro tour but it was still quite fine. It is a powerful card that leads to interesting gamestates. Not everything can be courser of kruphix, goyf, etc. etc.
Hurr Jackal was good back when it was printed just because a 1 mana 1/1 in red with the tiniest upside could be used in sligh (hello goblins of the flarg being run in what was basically the original red deck wins.) I guess flarg had mountainwalk but that's pretty irrelevant usually not to mention the deck had dwarves/it could actually die to you playing a dwarf. Today though it is just so bad indeed though outside regen corner cases...if they printed a card like it today it would likely just have a static ability that says creatures can't regenerate, would be a 2/1 to push it more, and cost R or 1R.
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"Yawgmoth," Freyalise whispered as she set the bomb, "now you will pay for your treachery."
Villainous Wealth has really cool art and flavor, and the concept behind the effect is awesome, but it's just too expensive and color restrictive, and too much hinges on randomness, for it to be a card worth playing.
Villainous wealth is fantastic in EDH and was likely designed for it. Casting it for 10 against most EDH decks is going to net you an insane advantage. In the same vein as genesis wave sure it's 3 colors but genesis wave is also awesome in EDH.
Too bad brand no longer works with varchild's war riders. Some decks did that back in the day certainly casual but pretty cool interaction.
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"Yawgmoth," Freyalise whispered as she set the bomb, "now you will pay for your treachery."
Reaper of the wilds has seen constructed play not sure what is wrong with the card.
I have no idea either, but every time there's a list of underplayed, underdog cards she's right at the top. Everybody is knocked out at how little play she sees compared to her utility.
In Standard, anyway, the theories I see batted around are that in her colors and CMC there's too much competition for bombs. Siege Rhino and Polukranos, World Eater, namely. And of course in Modern, even Siege Rhino barely gets a pass.
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Dynacharge. One of the coolest looking cards in recent memory to me, and while not bad strictly, saw no play for obvious reasons. The foil is amazing.
Time of Heroes. One of, in my honest opinion, the best cards flavorwise and lorewise of the whole Zendikar block. The flavor text is some of the most memorable I've ever read, and the art perfectly details the truly dire situation the citizens of Zendikar faced. Just on a card that supported other cards that didn't see play that standard.
Deathpact again. I would have preferred a call back to Deathless Angle, or an aggressively costed regeneration effect. But as it stands its a 6 mana 5/5 flyer with a weird regeneration ability. It allows it to get around -1/-1s, but it still is terrible.
Emmara Tandris. Legend important to the story that boosts tokens with nice art, but so, so weak. Archangel's Light Mythic life gain spell with a cool name and art should have been THE life gain spell of all time. Deserter's Quarters This should have been another in the long line of great torture artifacts like the rack or black vise.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Those birds, the etherium arms, her hair and cloak blowing in the wind, the strange cloud in the background ... everything about it looks awesome. I remember seeing the artwork somewhere (probably on the mothership) before the release of Alara. I immediately decided to buy the Esper precon once the set was out (yeah, I used to buy precons back then). Seeing what the card actually did was so disappointing. A 2/2 lifelinker that maybe flies? OK, it's a common, I said to myself. But then I saw the cards of my friends who had chosen different shards. Why are Sprouting Thrinax, Woolly Thoctar and Rhox War Monk, which are essentially part of the same cycle, uncommon and so much better? I really felt betrayed back then. Even Kederekt Creeper looked halfway decent...
Agreed on deadly allure; I've got at least 3 foil copies of that card around that I use as bookmarks. When I saw that art for that one I was hoping for some rad creature card. It was printed years later, but DA's art would also have fit nicely on ophiomancer, which at least gets some use in edh and cube.
Those birds, the etherium arms, her hair and cloak blowing in the wind, the strange cloud in the background ... everything about it looks awesome. I remember seeing the artwork somewhere (probably on the mothership) before the release of Alara. I immediately decided to buy the Esper precon once the set was out (yeah, I used to buy precons back then). Seeing what the card actually did was so disappointing. A 2/2 lifelinker that maybe flies? OK, it's a common, I said to myself. But then I saw the cards of my friends who had chosen different shards. Why are Sprouting Thrinax, Woolly Thoctar and Rhox War Monk, which are essentially part of the same cycle, uncommon and so much better? I really felt betrayed back then. Even Kederekt Creeper looked halfway decent...
Part of it is that the monk, thoctar, and thrinax are not part of the same cycle (commons and uncommons don't share non-vertical cycles). The cycle is actually completed by Fire-Field Ogre and Tower Gargoyle. Kederekt Creeper and Windwright mage were in a cycle with Rakeclaw Gargantuan, Waveskimmer Aven, and Carrion Thrash. The other part is that the mage being an artifact was sort of considered an extra "ability", due to all the artifacts matters cards in Esper. For instance, it got boosted (and boosted) Master of Etherium, survived Scourglass, got regened by Metallurgen, brought back by Sanctum Gargoyle, etc. Esper was all about synergy over individual power.
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The Meaning of Life: "M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations"
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Whether its blue players countering your spells, red players burning you out, or combo, if you have a problem with an aspect of Magic's gameplay, you can fix it!
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
What are your most egregious examples of a fantastic magic concept or piece of artwork shackled to a disappointing, uninteresting, or even downright bad card? I guess I should preface by saying that I realize some of these cards were limited role players, and even may have shined in their respective environments, but I'm still hoping to suss out cards that people wanted to work so bad, but were sadly not up to snuff in their format de jour.
Off the top of my head, the return to ravnica had a lot of these for me: deathpact angel - IIRC, Jason Chan's fantastic artwork was previewed a few weeks before the final rules were released. As a spiritual successor to the awesome and iconic angel of despair a lot of hope was riding on deathpact being great. Unfortunately, while she has a very unique ability, she just falls short of being a great constructed, cube or even casual deck card, easily outclassed by other orzhov creatures, even within the sameblock!
Just to wrap up quickly, the great arts for RtR's tower drake and Isperia's Skywatch were also previewed a while before the actual cards. Both were viscerally disappointing being on such bland creatures but, I guess on the brightside, both being common probably gave them a lot more visability, and the foils were cheap!
Too many to list.
However, tower drake is a great limited creature. And the artwork is just as good regardless of its play value.
Off the top of my head, the return to ravnica had a lot of these for me:
deathpact angel - IIRC, Jason Chan's fantastic artwork was previewed a few weeks before the final rules were released. As a spiritual successor to the awesome and iconic angel of despair a lot of hope was riding on deathpact being great. Unfortunately, while she has a very unique ability, she just falls short of being a great constructed, cube or even casual deck card, easily outclassed by other orzhov creatures, even within the same block!
Just to wrap up quickly, the great arts for RtR's tower drake and Isperia's Skywatch were also previewed a while before the actual cards. Both were viscerally disappointing being on such bland creatures but, I guess on the brightside, both being common probably gave them a lot more visability, and the foils were cheap!
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Ultimately this card did not have an impact in its respective environment, and does not see constructed play. I imagine this card is probably regarded as another junk rare/waste of a mythic slot, and it could of had a better shot if it wasn't so overcosted. Its mythic rarity also makes it a poor card in limited because of the unlikelihood of opening both The Chain Veil + a planeswalker. I think many players were disappointed to open this in their sealed pools, and were not excited to play with it at all.
Reaching way back into the past, Cocoon is a huge flavor win and a completely unplayable piece of junk (like a lot of cards from Legends, actually...)
Grave Exchange - beautiful art that perfectly illustrates the mechanic, the card is just ridiculously overcosted for what it does.
UTeferi, Temporal ArchmageU's prison: blue is the new orange is the new black.
Mizzix Of The Izmagnus : wheels on fire... rolling down the road...
BSidisi, Undead VizierB: Bis zum Erbrechen
GTitiania, Protector Of ArgothG: Protecting Argoth, by blowing it up!
GYisan, The Wanderer BardG: Gradus Ad Elfball.
Duel EDH: Yisan & Titania.
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Hurr Jackal is among my favourite pieces of art used on any card, but the card itself is unplayable.
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Norritt's art is awesome, but everything else is lackluster.
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Sunbond seemed like a shoe-in for mono white Soul Sisters. Something that white likes to do anyway, but now it can pump a creature to make a build-your-own Ajani's Pridemate! Oh, imagine it on a lifelink flier... No, it doesn't work. Too high CMC, too many hoops, 2-for-1, does nothing by itself, etc.
And let's hear it again for Reaper of the Wilds, the greatest creature nobody has ever run! I actually run her in my Sidisi, Brood Tyrant EDH deck, out of pure obstinacy. She at least makes a nice target for +1 counters from Varolz.
Hurr Jackal was good back when it was printed just because a 1 mana 1/1 in red with the tiniest upside could be used in sligh (hello goblins of the flarg being run in what was basically the original red deck wins.) I guess flarg had mountainwalk but that's pretty irrelevant usually not to mention the deck had dwarves/it could actually die to you playing a dwarf. Today though it is just so bad indeed though outside regen corner cases...if they printed a card like it today it would likely just have a static ability that says creatures can't regenerate, would be a 2/1 to push it more, and cost R or 1R.
Currently Playing:
Retired
Too bad brand no longer works with varchild's war riders. Some decks did that back in the day certainly casual but pretty cool interaction.
Currently Playing:
Retired
I have no idea either, but every time there's a list of underplayed, underdog cards she's right at the top. Everybody is knocked out at how little play she sees compared to her utility.
In Standard, anyway, the theories I see batted around are that in her colors and CMC there's too much competition for bombs. Siege Rhino and Polukranos, World Eater, namely. And of course in Modern, even Siege Rhino barely gets a pass.
Time of Heroes. One of, in my honest opinion, the best cards flavorwise and lorewise of the whole Zendikar block. The flavor text is some of the most memorable I've ever read, and the art perfectly details the truly dire situation the citizens of Zendikar faced. Just on a card that supported other cards that didn't see play that standard.
Mythic Rare Angel with such awesome art and flavor but so lackluster in pratice
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Archangel's Light Mythic life gain spell with a cool name and art should have been THE life gain spell of all time.
Deserter's Quarters This should have been another in the long line of great torture artifacts like the rack or black vise.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Those birds, the etherium arms, her hair and cloak blowing in the wind, the strange cloud in the background ... everything about it looks awesome. I remember seeing the artwork somewhere (probably on the mothership) before the release of Alara. I immediately decided to buy the Esper precon once the set was out (yeah, I used to buy precons back then). Seeing what the card actually did was so disappointing. A 2/2 lifelinker that maybe flies? OK, it's a common, I said to myself. But then I saw the cards of my friends who had chosen different shards. Why are Sprouting Thrinax, Woolly Thoctar and Rhox War Monk, which are essentially part of the same cycle, uncommon and so much better? I really felt betrayed back then. Even Kederekt Creeper looked halfway decent...
Maritime Guard
Both got Ultra Pro products made I think before they were spoiled as cards. The art is amazing, but the cards themselves are terribad.
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"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."
Part of it is that the monk, thoctar, and thrinax are not part of the same cycle (commons and uncommons don't share non-vertical cycles). The cycle is actually completed by Fire-Field Ogre and Tower Gargoyle. Kederekt Creeper and Windwright mage were in a cycle with Rakeclaw Gargantuan, Waveskimmer Aven, and Carrion Thrash. The other part is that the mage being an artifact was sort of considered an extra "ability", due to all the artifacts matters cards in Esper. For instance, it got boosted (and boosted) Master of Etherium, survived Scourglass, got regened by Metallurgen, brought back by Sanctum Gargoyle, etc. Esper was all about synergy over individual power.
Onering's 4 simple steps that let you solve any problem with Magic's gameplay
Step 1: Identify the problem. What aspect of Magic don't you like? Step 2: Find out how others deal with the problem. How do players deal with this aspect of the game when they run into it? Step 3: Do what those players do. Step 4: No more problem. Bonus: You are now better at Magic. Enjoy those extra wins!
Too many to list.
However, tower drake is a great limited creature. And the artwork is just as good regardless of its play value.
When you played Naya battlemage in Shards limited, your opponent started cursing.