[Official]
The Top 50 List (Indefinite Hiatus)
Poll: Which WHITE CREATURE should be removed from the list?
Ended Feb 16, 2019
Poll: Which BLACK CREATURES should be removed from the list? (Pick 4)
Ended Feb 16, 2019
Poll: Which GREEN NONCREATURE should be removed from the list?
Ended Feb 16, 2019
Poll: Which COLORLESS NONCREATURE should be removed from the list?
Ended Feb 16, 2019
White:
Restoration Angel - This card is so horribly outclassed in this format. The flicker is ok but really that effect is only worth 1-2 mana and its not likely that you will get to abuse this. The body its on is not worth the several additional mana in this case and its limitations even stops it from being relivant in a deck focused on angels. This card is good in 1v1 20 life formats but its terrible here.
Black: (I cheated and picked more than 4)
Dark Confidant - I think this card is cool when it works but even when it does work its still in my mind mediocre. Its a card you need to curve into play with a very low curve deck. It is and always will be bad Phyrexian Arena for this format. Its only real positive is if you get it in your opening hand and this is assuming you have a very low curve.
Disciple of Bolas - honestly, its not a bad effect but I just find a hard time justifying it in lists much anymore. Its fine it just feels a little clunky at times being sorcery speed. Green has a few effects like this but the advantage there tends to be that they cost less and or can be used at instant speed. The loss of tempo of some large creature and costing 4 mana often puts this as kind of a winmore effect as you go to mass rez for me. Obviously there are uses outside of that but I find it to be expensive and slow as well as cutting your own board position by some decent amount for black.
Graveborn Muse - its fine, I just rarely see anyone play it. Its another phyrexian arena effect on legs which in my mind just makes it ok.
Grave Titan - I just never really see anyone run it. I honestly can't recall the last time I saw one played.
Massacre Wurm - It has always felt very niche to me. Yes the potential for it is huge but assuming someone has enough tokens for you to murder them, what the heck have they been doing and why are you still alive?
Nirkana Revenant - cool effect, but it continues to fall off given its high cost and mostly feeling vanilla other than the increased mana production.
Green:
Garruk Wildspeaker - he feels fragile to me. If he is drawn off of curve he feels like he dies too easily.
Colorless:
Chromatic Lantern - its only good if you don't have a good landbase. I will give you that its wonderful if you don't have money and a good landbase but I hardly see a reason to ever consider it if you are running full ABU duals / fetchland capabilities. The card continues to get worse as they make more dual lands to boot.
Green noncreatures was by far the hardest one for me to decide on. That probably says more about the quality of the cards there.
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[Modern] Allies
As an aside, I just realized that Eldritch Evolution isn't on the list. That seems like an oversight to me. Oh well, there's always next time.
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Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
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Yeah, should definitely have been in there.
My choices were:
Mentor of the Meek - white is weak on draw, but the options have got better over the years. This guy just never seems to do enough when I have him in my lists.
Dark Confidant - In the colour that has some of the best draw available this really doesn't stand up to the competition. Great in Modern, varied results in Commander.
Puppeteer Clique - Really does vary based on meta - could be amazing, could really whiff, mostly the latter in my experience. Great with Mikaeus (what isn't?), on its own it's a bit too inconsistent to be an immediate add.
Burgeoning - Great in early hands, mid to late game results really do vary. I run it in a few of my decks and it does good work, but in most of those decks Exploration would be the superior option.
Umezawa's Jitte - easily the hardest category to decide on, I almost chose nothing. I only decided on this because I literally never see it. It seems great in the right place, but still a corner case to be considered a shoe in. I get the whole Chromatic/Dynamo thing, but as a more budget player these are bread and butter when you can't afford Crypt/Vault, ABUR's and fetches. Different contexts, different votes.
Aside - I'm interested as to why Karn/Ugin got votes here; someone harboring a grudge, or based on CMC? They're tedious to play against, but I think it's pretty hard to debate their value in the format; if you own them you should run them, IMO.
Splash damage from the planeswalkers as commanders thread?
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
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Oy vey, that thread
Restoration Angel: There are almost always better choices for the same effect. The fact that it's all but unusable with its own tribe is also a vote against.
Disciple of Bolas: Good card in the right deck, but kind of clunky cost.
Fleshbag Marauder/Merciless Executioner: Plaguecrafter is simply better most of the time. I will be switching this in for one of the others next time I do a large-scale upgrade of my decks.
Graveborn Muse: Very powerful in the right deck, but much too narrow and unreliable compared to any number of better draw effects in B.
Nirkana Revenant: Casting cost is just too high. Doesn't even make the cut in vampire tribal decks.
Burgeoning: So good when you get it in your opening hand, but almost always lame when you draw it turn 5 or later.
Umezawa's Jitte: This was the hardest choice. The Jitte is a very good card, but probably more narrow than most of the others. I still go back and forth on this one, though.
Some comments on some others' votes: Grave Titan, I see fairly frequently. Still a very solid card. Massacre Wurm just plain wins games a lot of the time, at least in the metas I typically play in. Probably worse as the metagames get more competitive.Garruk Wildspeaker is one of the most generally "good value" planeswalkers without having to be built around, in my opinion. Thran Dynamo is costly for a rock, but coming in untapped and immediately providing 3 mana is still very strong, especially in decks that need to ramp past 6 or so. Dark Confidant, I think others are right on this one, but I don't own one and so can't directly comment from experience. Still, B has so much strong card draw I haven't really felt I was missing much. Chromatic Lantern, I generally have strong mana bases, but even with ABUR duals and fetches it is still very strong in 3+ color decks, making my manabase even more flexible and also serving as a rock itself.
Misc. EDH Stuff: Commander Cube | Zombies (Horde)
Resources:Commander Rulings FAQ | Commander Deckbuilding Guide
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I don't get you guys sometimes. It's like saying Jitte isn't a strong enough card. What more can you ask for, it races, it removes, it's devoid of colour identity. Only thing it doesn't do is serve you breakfast in bed but okay.
edit: Oh. Didn't see the last comment was in February. Really need to start looking at the dates more often..........or maybe the mods should just unsticky old threads that have gone inactive.
Steel Sabotage'ng Orbs of Mellowness since 2011.
while i agree i also don't.
in a competitive build, yeah bob is just fine, he's beyond fine. he's fantastic. the life loss tends to be nothing especially if you're digging for a combo piece and can off him at any time... the part that's trickier is that a lot of people aren't playing competitive builds, so getting hit for 8 when terastodon is on top kinda sucks. i have seen bob in builds with a high density of higher cmc spells resulting in losses because they beat themselves to death. i think that's where most people are coming from when they say he's bad here.
if my curve is low or i'm going fast and hard into combo? **** it he's in all day every day.