So there are a great number of cards that I know are terrible, but somehow still keep making it into the first cut of my EDH decks. There are way too many of these cards to list all here, but I'm going to start off with the most gratuitous ones.
Even in a deck that is fully 50% creatures, this cards will only hit every other card, meaning on average each creature you hit will cost you 8 mana, the only way this card could possibly be playable is in conjunction with something like Mana Severance or Trench Gorger or top of deck free peek cards like Sphinx of Jwar Isle, but alas, even then it's still probably not worth it.
[Mist Dragon]
6 Mana for a 4/4, with a 5 mana phase out ability, in my mind I'm going to be tron-ing it up with Equipment and +1/+1 counters dodging Wrath of God, Earthquake after Hurricane after Mutilate like champ and triggering my Ojutai's and Silumgar's. All even remember to give it flying every upkeep to dodge my red opponents possible kicked Molten Disaster, and after it delivers the death blow to him, he will show me his hand, MOLTEN DISASTER and will say, if only you had forgotten to give it flying once on my upkeep, I could have dealt with the cosmic force that is MIST DRAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!11
And truly the list could go on and on, I love terrible cards, and nothing is better when a new card is printed that makes old cards that were terrible actually good. So what terrible cards do you guys love?
Call of the Wild is a great card for lower-tier decks. I have a Giants tribal which runs it. The deck has a tendency to run out of its hand, in which case the chance to hit a creature is appreciated - especially as the deck does run topdeck manipulators. Its better than you give it credit for.
For me, it's probably Grozoth. The effect seems so powerful, a full hand of 9-mana spells...until you realize there really aren't many worthy 9-mana-spells. And you paid 9 mana to cast him. And will have to pay an additional 9 to cast whichever cards you tutored. And it can't attack unless you pour 4 mana in it. However, this IS a card that (slowly) gets better with time, so who knows.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
...I love terrible cards, and nothing is better when a new card is printed that makes old cards that were terrible actually good.
+10^24. You sir, are my soul-mate.
I've been known to play Gate to Phyrexia in decks featuring red and/or green just because it's old and awesome. Many consider the card to be a "hidden gem" but mechanically it's almost always going to be worse than other artifact hate, even in mono black, thanks to things like Unstable Obelisk. Another example is using Pyramids to protect my lands instead of Crucible of Worlds. Elephant Graveyard goes from super narrow to super awesome in my Reaper King omni-tribal changeling deck.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
Call of the Wild is a perfectly good card in decks that play topdeck manipulation and which feature a high number of creatures. If neither of those is present in your deck, yeah, it's a bad card, but in a deck built to take advantage of it, Call can be solid card advantage. In that regard, I don't consider it a bad card at all. It's just a niche card that is only good in the right deck.
In contrast, Radjan Spirit is a terrible card. It doesn't do enough to be worth a card slot in any deck with which you intend to win a game. Feedback is another terribad card; even in a deck in which you intend to chip away slowly at life totals, it doesn't do enough damage to warrant giving it a card slot over practically anything else.
For me, a lot of the legendary creatures from Legends qualify. Obviously I'm not talking about strong ones like Rasputin Dreamweaver. I'm talking overcosted guys like Tor Wauki or Sol'kanar the Swamp King that one wants to be good.... but which just plain aren't. When I'm building decks with Rakdos colors, I used to toss Tor into my initial "under consideration" pile, in hopes some day he'd make the cut, but he just never did, and I've finally given up on trying.
These aren't necessarily terrible but they are still very subpar -
Mana Tithe, just because I always wanted to counter a huge game winning spell with an extremely situational one-mana white counter. Still has yet to happen, even in decks running Sunforger.
Scrabbling Claws and Phyrexian Furnace. They "cycle", they're cheap and they don't hurt my own graveyard. They usually don't do anything of importance though.
Mana Tithe, just because I always wanted to counter a huge game winning spell with an extremely situational one-mana white counter. Still has yet to happen, even in decks running Sunforger.
Yeah, non-blue counters in general (Mana Tithe, Avoid Fate, Mages' Contest, Withering Boon, Not of this World) I am always really excited about jamming in decks without blue. They are unexpected and fun for the table, but ultimately they always get cut for something those colours are good at doing.
Sol'kanar the Swamp King is way better than Tor Wauki. I think he's a fine, if unexciting, Grixis commander. With Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and ways to find it, he might as well be unblockable. He's not competitive - though you could make a fairly competitive deck with him at the helm - but what's wrong with a 5/5 for 5 who's virtually unblockable and gains you some life?
Scrabbling Claws and Phyrexian Furnace. They "cycle", they're cheap and they don't hurt my own graveyard. They usually don't do anything of importance though.
I like these two myself. Sometimes you only need to exile a single specific card from the yard, such as with Academy Rector or Eternal Witness. And they slowly eat people's yards when you don't have to pop them.
On topic, I agree with Mist Dragon. I really want to run it but I can't justify it. I love lots of terrible cards - mainly for art/flavor reasons - and wish I could play them.
For me, it's probably Grozoth. The effect seems so powerful, a full hand of 9-mana spells...until you realize there really aren't many worthy 9-mana-spells. And you paid 9 mana to cast him. And will have to pay an additional 9 to cast whichever cards you tutored. And it can't attack unless you pour 4 mana in it. However, this IS a card that (slowly) gets better with time, so who knows.
I run Grozoth in my sea monsters deck, because he's a leviathan and terrible and hilarious. My "Grozoth package" is:
It does help that I'm able to play him off of Quest for Ula's Temple, and the deck has 17 mana rocks, Gemstone Array, and Ashnod's Altar, plus Nykthos, Coffers and Magus of the Coffers to pay for my high-cost spells.
It does a couple of useful things, but it does nothing very well. In mill decks, it gets an extra card into the opponent graveyard. In graveyard decks, it gets an extra card into your own graveyard. In zombie or token decks, it can potentially produce another zombie token. It can also get back a tucked general.
The activation cost is too high and it whiffs too often.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
This signature holds priority until end of comment.
Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII is my pet card that I refuse to take out of my Ghost Council deck. I suppose the fact that I'm still using Ghost Council instead of Teysa (who's in the 99) is another example of I know it's bad, but I'm doing it anyway.
If you can play him from the library, odds are you've got better things to do with your mana. If you play him from your hand, odds are any other cmc 5+ creature would end up being better in that situation. But darn it if Crop Rotation -> Sejiri Steppe + Panglacial Wurm isn't some kind of performance art.
Grozoth strikes me as playable in more causal groups, maybe even scary. If nothing else, you can tutor up an Artisan of Kozilek and get a 10/9 and 9/9 for 1UU plus 9, in addition to whatever 9-casting cost spells you want. Being able to tutor for any number of cards is a potent effect. In the past I've considered trying to combo it with Myojin of Life's Web. Thanks for reminding be about this card! Now I kind of want to make a 5-color deck that features Grozoth. It gets all the Bringers and Blasphemous Act!
I wish Ancient Hellkite and Forgestoker Dragon were better. I love their art. Like, you can never go wrong with people running and screaming as they're immolated by a dragon. Sadly, they're really low tier as far as dragons go so I'd never have room for them.
Then there's Spellshift. Such a fun looking counter but even if I manipulate my deck and counter my own low cost spell I'm not getting much of a discount worthy of the card disadvantage. Unless I'm like, going for storm or something. Countering someone else's spell is unreliable and usually card disadvantage.
There's a variety of funny situations Kiku's Shadow can cause. It's not a good enough removal card for me to include in hopes to make them happen though.
For me it's Stromgald Cabal I keep putting it in my decks, and removing her. I love the fact I can get a policing counter effect in black, but it never does what I want it to (Damn StP...)
I've been known to play Gate to Phyrexia in decks featuring red and/or green just because it's old and awesome.
This card is far from bad. It's good artifact hate in a color that struggles mightily against artifacts.
I always try to add Hibernation's End to green decks and it never makes it. It's not a bad card, but even in a deck seemingly made for it (Yisan, the Wandering Bard), it's not worth running. Someday...
I don't think Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII is all that bad. I run it in either decks with colors that don't get token swarms easily (blue) or in heavy control decks where I'm board-wiping a lot (to recover and get board presence back). It's also handy for white weenie aggro with tons of anthems, and for Skullclamp fodder.
If anybody else out there has a better colorless token engine starting from turn 4, I'm all ears.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
This signature holds priority until end of comment.
No colorless ones off the top of my head, but I can think of at least two in 4 of the 5 colors. The card isn't Wood Elemental bad, but it's outclassed by enough $1-2 cards that the only reason to run it is as a pet card.
I'm fond of Bottle Gnomes, which doesn't do much other than gain you 3 life whenever you want (and dump a creature in the yard whenever you want it). Partly because I think the art for both the Tempest and Mirrodin versions is totally adorable. (And I get to make jokes about popping their heads off.)
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Call of the Wild
Even in a deck that is fully 50% creatures, this cards will only hit every other card, meaning on average each creature you hit will cost you 8 mana, the only way this card could possibly be playable is in conjunction with something like Mana Severance or Trench Gorger or top of deck free peek cards like Sphinx of Jwar Isle, but alas, even then it's still probably not worth it.
[Mist Dragon]
6 Mana for a 4/4, with a 5 mana phase out ability, in my mind I'm going to be tron-ing it up with Equipment and +1/+1 counters dodging Wrath of God, Earthquake after Hurricane after Mutilate like champ and triggering my Ojutai's and Silumgar's. All even remember to give it flying every upkeep to dodge my red opponents possible kicked Molten Disaster, and after it delivers the death blow to him, he will show me his hand, MOLTEN DISASTER and will say, if only you had forgotten to give it flying once on my upkeep, I could have dealt with the cosmic force that is MIST DRAGOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!!!11
And truly the list could go on and on, I love terrible cards, and nothing is better when a new card is printed that makes old cards that were terrible actually good. So what terrible cards do you guys love?
For me, it's probably Grozoth. The effect seems so powerful, a full hand of 9-mana spells...until you realize there really aren't many worthy 9-mana-spells. And you paid 9 mana to cast him. And will have to pay an additional 9 to cast whichever cards you tutored. And it can't attack unless you pour 4 mana in it. However, this IS a card that (slowly) gets better with time, so who knows.
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.
+10^24. You sir, are my soul-mate.
I've been known to play Gate to Phyrexia in decks featuring red and/or green just because it's old and awesome. Many consider the card to be a "hidden gem" but mechanically it's almost always going to be worse than other artifact hate, even in mono black, thanks to things like Unstable Obelisk. Another example is using Pyramids to protect my lands instead of Crucible of Worlds. Elephant Graveyard goes from super narrow to super awesome in my Reaper King omni-tribal changeling deck.
Seriously, though, try it in a deck that also runs Sylvan Library and a few effects like Oracle of Mul Daya and Sensei's Divining Top and see if you still think it's bad.
In contrast, Radjan Spirit is a terrible card. It doesn't do enough to be worth a card slot in any deck with which you intend to win a game. Feedback is another terribad card; even in a deck in which you intend to chip away slowly at life totals, it doesn't do enough damage to warrant giving it a card slot over practically anything else.
For me, a lot of the legendary creatures from Legends qualify. Obviously I'm not talking about strong ones like Rasputin Dreamweaver. I'm talking overcosted guys like Tor Wauki or Sol'kanar the Swamp King that one wants to be good.... but which just plain aren't. When I'm building decks with Rakdos colors, I used to toss Tor into my initial "under consideration" pile, in hopes some day he'd make the cut, but he just never did, and I've finally given up on trying.
Mana Tithe, just because I always wanted to counter a huge game winning spell with an extremely situational one-mana white counter. Still has yet to happen, even in decks running Sunforger.
Scrabbling Claws and Phyrexian Furnace. They "cycle", they're cheap and they don't hurt my own graveyard. They usually don't do anything of importance though.
Commander/EDH:
WU Hanna, Ship's Navigator WU
GW Saffi Eriksdotter GW
BW Selenia, Dark Angel BW
W Heliod, God of Sun W
Retired:
Jenara, Asura of War Thada Adel, Acquisitor Jaya Ballard, Task Mage Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero Lyzolda, the Blood Witch Akroma, Angel of Wrath Nath of the Gilt-Leaf Tajic, Blade of the Legion Selvala, Explorer Returned Maga, Traitor to Mortals
Tiny Leaders:
W Mangara of Corondor W
Cheers!
Krichaiushii on PucaTrade.
Yeah, non-blue counters in general (Mana Tithe, Avoid Fate, Mages' Contest, Withering Boon, Not of this World) I am always really excited about jamming in decks without blue. They are unexpected and fun for the table, but ultimately they always get cut for something those colours are good at doing.
UGUPrime Speaker Seamonster RampUGU
WUGDerevi Does NothingWUG
RRRFeldon's Lovely LadiesRRR
Rakdos The Defiler: A Zero-Sum Game
Varolz, The Scar-Striped
Thanks,
MattHonkylips
Agreed. Call of the Wild strikes me as fairly solid. If nothing, it's a sink for the huge piles of mana green decks often generate.
Sol'kanar the Swamp King is way better than Tor Wauki. I think he's a fine, if unexciting, Grixis commander. With Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and ways to find it, he might as well be unblockable. He's not competitive - though you could make a fairly competitive deck with him at the helm - but what's wrong with a 5/5 for 5 who's virtually unblockable and gains you some life?
I like these two myself. Sometimes you only need to exile a single specific card from the yard, such as with Academy Rector or Eternal Witness. And they slowly eat people's yards when you don't have to pop them.
On topic, I agree with Mist Dragon. I really want to run it but I can't justify it. I love lots of terrible cards - mainly for art/flavor reasons - and wish I could play them.
Throw in Lurking Predators and even Guild Feud.
8.RG Green Devotion Ramp/Combo 9.UR Draw Triggers 10.WUR Group stalling 11.WUR Voltron Spellslinger 12.WB Sacrificial Shenanigans
13.BR Creatureless Panharmonicon 14.BR Pingers and Eldrazi 15.URG Untapped Cascading
16.Reyhan, last of the Abzan's WUBG +1/+1 Counter Craziness 17.WUBRG Dragons aka Why did I make this?
Building: The Gitrog Monster lands, Glissa the Traitor stax, Muldrotha, the Gravetide Planeswalker Combo, Kydele, Chosen of Kruphix + Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa Clues, and Tribal Scarecrow Planeswalkers
- Inkwell Leviathan
- Breaching Leviathan
- Plague Wind
- Rise of the Dark Realms
- In Garruk's Wake
- Nullstone Gargoyle
- Artisan of Kozilek
It does help that I'm able to play him off of Quest for Ula's Temple, and the deck has 17 mana rocks, Gemstone Array, and Ashnod's Altar, plus Nykthos, Coffers and Magus of the Coffers to pay for my high-cost spells.Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
My Helpdesk
[Pr] Marath | [Pr] Lovisa | Jodah | Saskia | Najeela | Yisan | Lord Windgrace | Atraxa | Meren | Gisa and Geralf
It does a couple of useful things, but it does nothing very well. In mill decks, it gets an extra card into the opponent graveyard. In graveyard decks, it gets an extra card into your own graveyard. In zombie or token decks, it can potentially produce another zombie token. It can also get back a tucked general.
The activation cost is too high and it whiffs too often.
Pauper: Burn
Modern: Burn
Legacy: Burn
EDH: Marath, Will of the Wild - Ramp/Combo | Anafenza the Foremost - French | Uril, the Miststalker - Voltron | Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury - Goodstuff
Ghost Council of Orzhov - Tokens | Lazav, Dimir Mastermind - Control | Isamaru, Hound of Konda - Tiny Leaders
If you can play him from the library, odds are you've got better things to do with your mana. If you play him from your hand, odds are any other cmc 5+ creature would end up being better in that situation. But darn it if Crop Rotation -> Sejiri Steppe + Panglacial Wurm isn't some kind of performance art.
RRR - Bosh's School of Hard(cover) Knocks
EDH Primers
Phelddagrif - Zirilan
EDH
Thrasios+Bruse - Pang - Sasaya - Wydwen - Feather - Rona - Toshiro - Sylvia+Khorvath - Geth - QMarchesa - Firesong - Athreos - Arixmethes - Isperia - Etali - Silas+Sidar - Saskia - Virtus+Gorm - Kynaios - Naban - Aryel - Mizzix - Kazuul - Tymna+Kraum - Sidar+Tymna - Ayli - Gwendlyn - Phelddagrif 4 - Liliana - Kaervek - Phelddagrif 3 - Mairsil - Scarab - Child - Phenax - Shirei - Thada - Depala - Circu - Kytheon - GrenzoHR - Phelddagrif - Reyhan+Kraum - Toshiro - Varolz - Nin - Ojutai - Tasigur - Zedruu - Uril - Edric - Wort - Zurgo - Nahiri - Grenzo - Kozilek - Yisan - Ink-Treader - Yisan - Brago - Sidisi - Toshiro - Alexi - Sygg - Brimaz - Sek'Kuar - Marchesa - Vish Kal - Iroas - Phelddagrif - Ephara - Derevi - Glissa - Wanderer - Saffi - Melek - Xiahou Dun - Lazav - Lin Sivvi - Zirilan - Glissa
PDH - Drake - Graverobber - Izzet GM - Tallowisp - Symbiote Brawl - Feather - Ugin - Jace - Scarab - Angrath - Vraska - Kumena Oathbreaker - Wrenn&6
Panglacial Wurm, on the other hand, ain't even close. It's downright good in some decks (Xenagos, God of Revels).
Grozoth strikes me as playable in more causal groups, maybe even scary. If nothing else, you can tutor up an Artisan of Kozilek and get a 10/9 and 9/9 for 1UU plus 9, in addition to whatever 9-casting cost spells you want. Being able to tutor for any number of cards is a potent effect. In the past I've considered trying to combo it with Myojin of Life's Web. Thanks for reminding be about this card! Now I kind of want to make a 5-color deck that features Grozoth. It gets all the Bringers and Blasphemous Act!
Then there's Spellshift. Such a fun looking counter but even if I manipulate my deck and counter my own low cost spell I'm not getting much of a discount worthy of the card disadvantage. Unless I'm like, going for storm or something. Countering someone else's spell is unreliable and usually card disadvantage.
There's a variety of funny situations Kiku's Shadow can cause. It's not a good enough removal card for me to include in hopes to make them happen though.
This card is far from bad. It's good artifact hate in a color that struggles mightily against artifacts.
I always try to add Hibernation's End to green decks and it never makes it. It's not a bad card, but even in a deck seemingly made for it (Yisan, the Wandering Bard), it's not worth running. Someday...
If anybody else out there has a better colorless token engine starting from turn 4, I'm all ears.
Pauper: Burn
Modern: Burn
Legacy: Burn
EDH: Marath, Will of the Wild - Ramp/Combo | Anafenza the Foremost - French | Uril, the Miststalker - Voltron | Freyalise, Llanowar's Fury - Goodstuff
Ghost Council of Orzhov - Tokens | Lazav, Dimir Mastermind - Control | Isamaru, Hound of Konda - Tiny Leaders