Which keywords do you hate seeing on opponent's creatures? I think Hexproof can be really bothersome and Infect can end games in a way that some find unfun, but in my opinion Annihilator takes the cake. It can be dealt with, sure, but the high count Annihilator Eldrazi Titans, especially Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre are extremely annoying. If played early enough, there is often no coming back from their attack. Also, in my experience Ulamog often just sits around, because the player who cast him does not want to attack anybody to avoid grudges / creating unfun game experiences for others. It would be a much more balanced and cool ability if the defending player only needed to sacrifice nonland permanents.
Riku of Two Reflections - Copy, then copy again | Shattergang Brothers - Token Sac&Recur | Gahiji, Honored One - Multiple attack steps | Karametra, God of Harvests - Landfall, Creaturefall, Shroud | Ruhan of the Fomori - Stop hitting yourself | Zurgo Helmsmasher - Equipment&Wraths | Crosis, the Purger - Dragon Tribal Reanimator | Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - No stax, just tap and untap fun | Anafenza, the Foremost - Enduring Ideal Enchantress | Sharuum, the Hegemon - Sphinx Tribal Control | Noyan Dar - Spellslinger | The Mimeoplasm - Counterpalooza
Lists can be found here.
Still convinced the guy on Beseech the Queen is wearing a Mitra-type hat. Wake up sheeple!
Riku of Two Reflections - Copy, then copy again | Shattergang Brothers - Token Sac&Recur | Gahiji, Honored One - Multiple attack steps | Karametra, God of Harvests - Landfall, Creaturefall, Shroud | Ruhan of the Fomori - Stop hitting yourself | Zurgo Helmsmasher - Equipment&Wraths | Crosis, the Purger - Dragon Tribal Reanimator | Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - No stax, just tap and untap fun | Anafenza, the Foremost - Enduring Ideal Enchantress | Sharuum, the Hegemon - Sphinx Tribal Control | Noyan Dar - Spellslinger | The Mimeoplasm - Counterpalooza
Lists can be found here.
Still convinced the guy on Beseech the Queen is wearing a Mitra-type hat. Wake up sheeple!
For me, it's Hexproof. I'm fine with Shroud, it has a drawback to balance out the fact that it's much harder to intaract with the card, but Hexproof is just boring and embodies the worst aspects of modern magic - all upside and limited interactivity.
Annihilator is nasty yes, but the creatures that have enough of it to really hurt cost a lot of mana and should have a devastating impact.
Protection from [color or colors] on your commander is a big one for me due to the format's color identity rules. Almost all colorless removal either costs toomuchmana or costs toomuchmoney for my tastes exactly because it's good colorless removal. Brittle Effigy is the best that I know of on both counts.
Animar, Soul of Elements is particularly annoying since he's also a very dangerous engine/combo piece and can also-also easily win off of commander damage. Combine that with the low mana cost and he ends up feeling very unfair if you're only playing black and/or white, unless you're just playing boardwipe tribal.
Oversoul of Dusk is probably the most annoying non-legendary with this effect, but it's not as egregious there since it's not commander damage.
Hexproof is objectively the most annoying keyword.
Why?
Cards with all upside or too much upside, is the source of this game's decline. Shroud and older mechanics like protections were at least a double edge sword that one must measure "when" to use such creature, hexproof is drop-and-forget, know it's safe from targeting and could be voltron up later. Indestructible shares the same problem, though most indestructible creatures are either higher cc, with a downside, or with additional cost.
Given that I playtest against Nahiri, the Lithomancer most of the time, I find protection to be very annoying due to the deck able to fetch whichever equipment that fights against respective colors.
Protection from [color or colors] on your commander is a big one for me due to the format's color identity rules. Almost all colorless removal either costs toomuchmana or costs toomuchmoney for my tastes exactly because it's good colorless removal. Brittle Effigy is the best that I know of on both counts.
Animar, Soul of Elements is particularly annoying since he's also a very dangerous engine/combo piece and can also-also easily win off of commander damage. Combine that with the low mana cost and he ends up feeling very unfair if you're only playing black and/or white, unless you're just playing boardwipe tribal.
Oversoul of Dusk is probably the most annoying non-legendary with this effect, but it's not as egregious there since it's not commander damage.
I'm confused how you could find that to be a bigger problem than hexproof given your reasoning. As long as you're looking at wipes like ugin or all is dust, you could just run a coloredwipe to kill it. Basically the only things that work on hexproof but don't work on protection, removal-wise, are damage-based wipes like starstorm, removal auras coming into play without being cast, and forcing it into combat somehow.
I've never even seen anyone play oversoul. Doesn't look like much of a commander card to me. It's hard to imagine what sort of deck would want to play it (although I do have on in my collection just in case I figure that out).
I've never even seen anyone play oversoul. Doesn't look like much of a commander card to me. It's hard to imagine what sort of deck would want to play it (although I do have on in my collection just in case I figure that out).
I used to play Oversoul in my Krond deck, as a good beater who just became ridiculous when pumped with auras. I swapped it out eventually for something else, I think one of the Theros gods, though I can't remember for sure right now. It was okay in that deck, but since I swapped it out, I don't think I've even considered playing it anything else. I also used to run Shield of the Oversoul in Krond, but eventually swapped that out, too.
Hexproof is definitely the least interactive, and that definitely scores it bad-feels points for being the most annoying. Indestructible obviously is up there too, although there's been a lot of tech recently to deal with indestructible permanents. And there's not too many commanders that have it either, whereas most hexproof commanders people are wary of - Narset, Enlightened Master, Uril, the Miststalker, Sigarda, Host of Herons are all pretty tough to interact with and that sucks. The beauty of Magic has always been that there is no 'ultimate win-con'; there's a way to interact with everything, and hexproof does deduct from that.
As strange as it seems, I've actually had complaints about flying commanders before - specifically Bruna, the Fading Light. I guess I can see how if you're running mono green it's a problem you don't have a lot of answers for. I guess it's just a case that evasion on a commander is strong, and I took it as constructively as possible when the complaint was made. Any sort of evasion on a commander is a strong pro.
Honestly, of the ones that I encounter regularly, I think I've had the most trouble with deathtouch. It makes power and toughness almost completely irrelevant, tends to clog up the board by discouraging attacking (especially in conjunction with first strike), and often comes on things that end up being disproportionately powerful for their mana cost. I feel like hexproof gets too much hate; personally, I have far more often run into problems with opponents killing my things than not being able to kill theirs (except maybe for cases where I couldn't have done so anyway, like if I'm playing UB and they have an oppressive enchantment). Annihilator could get very nasty for sure, though at least I don't see it show up very often. And of things that aren't keyworded but still have shorthand terms, lure effects almost invariably drive me nuts whenever they pop up.
Honestly, of the ones that I encounter regularly, I think I've had the most trouble with deathtouch. It makes power and toughness almost completely irrelevant, tends to clog up the board by discouraging attacking (especially in conjunction with first strike), and often comes on things that end up being disproportionately powerful for their mana cost. I feel like hexproof gets too much hate; personally, I have far more often run into problems with opponents killing my things than not being able to kill theirs (except maybe for cases where I couldn't have done so anyway, like if I'm playing UB and they have an oppressive enchantment). Annihilator could get very nasty for sure, though at least I don't see it show up very often. And of things that aren't keyworded but still have shorthand terms, lure effects almost invariably drive me nuts whenever they pop up.
Valid point - Glissa, the Traitor has probably the most favourable keyword soup out there combat wise. Especially given her CMC. And hexproof means nothing against sweepers, which are prevalent in the format.
Karametra because it can turn her on by itself after a wipe when your ready to start cleaning up, and is a decent hard to deal with threat on its own. Otherwise it simply doesn't do enough, and there are better voltron cards.
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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!
Hear me out: first off, EVERYONE will ask "What does that do?" So, you'll be explaining it a lot. Secondly, chances are you're gonna explain it wrong(because you forget something). So you gotta go back and double-check yourself, and 90% of the time, explain it AGAIN, correctly.
My pod has a bunch of old farts that like using old cards to show it off...but God help us, when cards with banding come out...
Beyond that, I would say Annihilator as well. I try to run Sigarda or Tajuru Preserver in every deck I can just in case...nothing like watching your board get wiped clean every opponent's attack phase. :\
i personally find it a pain having to explain to people what rampage 2, banding (deserts have been a real pain in my meta, so camel for the win) and cumulative upkeep: draw a card means. they aren't really irritating to play against, per se, but definitely annoying to have to explain.
protection is probably the single most annoying ability, not necessarily because of in-game mechanics, but rules baggage. protection is basically 4 abilities mashed into one (i think); 1. can't be dealt damage by; 2. can't be targeted by; 3. can't be blocked by; 4. can't be enchanted by auras (of that colour/subtype, etc). who the hell has time to remember all that? it's probably better now than it was back then, when my black knight isn't killed by a semi-targeted spell like wrath of god, but is still causing tonnes of mis-plays by people in my meta.
hexproof is annoying in that it can't be targeted, but it's a simple rule that can't be misunderstood.
i personally find it a pain having to explain to people what rampage 2, banding (deserts have been a real pain in my meta, so camel for the win) and cumulative upkeep: draw a card means. they aren't really irritating to play against, per se, but definitely annoying to have to explain.
protection is probably the single most annoying ability, not necessarily because of in-game mechanics, but rules baggage. protection is basically 4 abilities mashed into one (i think); 1. can't be dealt damage by; 2. can't be targeted by; 3. can't be blocked by; 4. can't be enchanted by auras (of that colour/subtype, etc). who the hell has time to remember all that? it's probably better now than it was back then, when my black knight isn't killed by a semi-targeted spell like wrath of god, but is still causing tonnes of mis-plays by people in my meta.
hexproof is annoying in that it can't be targeted, but it's a simple rule that can't be misunderstood.
I think it was somewhere in this forum where I was informed of using the acronym DEBT to understand protection: Damage, Enchanted, Blocked and Targeted. I've used that to explain it to a number of people in my playgroup, and they instantly get it(of course, then the search turns to the card to see if it actually targets, lol).
Hear me out: first off, EVERYONE will ask "What does that do?" So, you'll be explaining it a lot. Secondly, chances are you're gonna explain it wrong(because you forget something). So you gotta go back and double-check yourself, and 90% of the time, explain it AGAIN, correctly.
My pod has a bunch of old farts that like using old cards to show it off...but God help us, when cards with banding come out...
Beyond that, I would say Annihilator as well. I try to run Sigarda or Tajuru Preserver in every deck I can just in case...nothing like watching your board get wiped clean every opponent's attack phase. :\
Banding really isn't that hard to understand. Im surprised to see it in commander because the creatures with it are rather weak, but II run a crap cube that has most of the banding cards in it and its never caused problems. When it gets played, it plays well, and people get what it does, even when attacking with multiple bands. Banding makes rampage better BTW, and that's funny. Maybe I could see a few in creature based pillowfort because of how much they improve group blocking.
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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!
It's cute how all of you are whining about a bit of hexproof. Haste, double-strike, and flying are all waaaaay scarier than hexproof and way more common.
At my lgs, definitely storm. Between playing mind desire regularly myself and losing to the copies in my playgroup about as often, it's actually difficult to answer [not "hexproof difficult", instead think "I hope you have flusterstorm mainboard" difficult]. Horsemanship is also pretty busted until someone copies your Sun Quan.
Meance / Fear / Intimidate - always confusing this threr for each other
Protection from (Color) - oh you are playing mono? Goodbye
And, while not a keyword in the narrower sense: New Sliver.
Now, I love the idea that a sliver grants all slivers his abilitys. But if you play a commander deck, and have some changelings / Mind control / other slivers on the board, differenciating between the older slivers (grant ALL Slivers ability X) and the newer slivers (Grant YOUR Slivers abillity X) is hellish confusing. I realy wish they stayed with the old sliver concept of "grant all sliver the ability X"
THIS. It's not only confusing, its part of the "all upside because noobs get sad when they run into drawbacks" trend that is hurting the quality of the game. Hexproof is the biggest offenders, but nu slivers are close. And **** their art. The entire endeavor reeked of soulless market testing. It's a great way to attract people unfamiliar with the game, because its generic and easy, but it sucks at getting those people to buy in deeper, because its generic and easy. People are drawn magic because its a fantasy card game. They stick with magic because its challenging and nuanced, with aesthetics, themes, and ideas that make it unique. Slivers were the best example: its a hivemind race (familiarity for genre fans draws them in) with a unique and instantly recognizable design (magic differentiates itself and provides something special, making players engage more deeply), with a mechanic that benefits you for running more slivers (easy to build around and a clear deck building path appeals to new players), but also benefits your opponents slivers (drawback intrigues players looking for a deep game and causes memorable games and plays, getting players to engage with the hobby more deeply). Being generic and easy is great for attracting a wider group of people to the game, but poor at retaining them. Being unique and challenging attracts fewer people, but is better at engaging them and creating long term fans.
Private Mod Note
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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!
While hexproof is strongly non-interactive, I definitely don't think of it as the most difficult keyword to play around - a lot of the staple hexproof cards cave to a board sweep, or require lots of building around to be strong. Sigarda and Uril require enchantress builds to really shine, and that's far from a done deal. In the context of the initial query, it is annoying though. Simply due to the fact that it's particularly non-interactive.
I doubt there's a keyword that trumps all others in terms of game superiority. Especially in EDH, which is extremely subjective and meta-dependent. I find more that it's a combination of keywords that really can be tough to deal with.
Cases in point: Narset, Enlightened Master - strong in combat, hard to interact with. Glissa, the Traitor - very strong in combat, cheap to recast even if she dies. Gishath, Sun's Avatar - comes out swinging immediately - exactly what his deck needs to do, high chance of trading well in offense and defense. Bruna, the Fading Light - Flying and vigilance is a strong combination. Guilty here myself. Akroma's Memorial or Eldrazi Monument - game winners in combat based decks.
Aside from these creature based keywords, storm is clearly so overpowered it's stupid. There's plenty of other spell copy effects that are strong like buyback, flashback, rebound, but storm is crazy on the right cards - Grapeshot, Mind's Desire, Bitter Ordeal, Tendrils of Agony, Hunting Pack could all be win cons in the right time and place. I wouldn't call it annoying per se, but it's a strong enough mechanic to end the game on the spot, which I guess it frustrating.
...What about cascade? Most of the builds that have it invariably hit something good more than half the time, and even the blue players dread seeing it(at least, as far as I've seen). It's just all levels of not fun...:\
@OneRing: Yeah, I know it's not hard to understand, but you ALWAYS have someone who remembers it wrong, which leads to the annoying factor. I remember back in the day when people SWORE up and down the rulebook that banding allowed you to pull together a 'blockerball' with only one creature with banding, allowing you to kill the beast while one sprite soaked up all the damage.
@OneRing: Yeah, I know it's not hard to understand, but you ALWAYS have someone who remembers it wrong, which leads to the annoying factor. I remember back in the day when people SWORE up and down the rulebook that banding allowed you to pull together a 'blockerball' with only one creature with banding, allowing you to kill the beast while one sprite soaked up all the damage.
Thank God for the internet and easy access...
Uh...........
I'm pretty sure that's true, isn't it?
Quote from rule 702.21j »
During the combat damage step, if an attacking creature is being blocked by a creature with banding, or by both a [quality] creature with “bands with other [quality]” and another [quality] creature, the defending player (rather than the active player) chooses how the attacking creature’s damage is assigned. That player can divide that creature’s combat damage as he or she chooses among any number of creatures blocking it. This is an exception to the procedure described in rule 510.1c.
"blocked by A creature with banding" - only one creature needs to have banding to make it a band block.
"defending player chooses how attacking creature's damage is assigned" - can choose to assign it all to one creature.
Red and green need to get more creative. Fight and Tims can work, if you have Basilisk Collar or something like that; conversely, you can give something with deathtouch Thornbite Staff for a machine gun.
Or just play Stax. It's not like annihilator's cheap.
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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!
Regarding protection, the only things that can bug me about it are pro-creatures (which basically stops ) and True-Name Nemesis. It is hard to explain to a new player, though.
As for annihilator, why is it so hard to include removal? (...) Counterspells in general (...)
Wow gee, thanks. Removal. Good call. I was totally not aware of that. And counterspells!
Man, if only counterspells would also help to deal with hexproof...but sadly, there seems to be no way to deal with Hexproof. Nowayatall.
Riku of Two Reflections - Copy, then copy again | Shattergang Brothers - Token Sac&Recur | Gahiji, Honored One - Multiple attack steps | Karametra, God of Harvests - Landfall, Creaturefall, Shroud | Ruhan of the Fomori - Stop hitting yourself | Zurgo Helmsmasher - Equipment&Wraths | Crosis, the Purger - Dragon Tribal Reanimator | Derevi, Empyrial Tactician - No stax, just tap and untap fun | Anafenza, the Foremost - Enduring Ideal Enchantress | Sharuum, the Hegemon - Sphinx Tribal Control | Noyan Dar - Spellslinger | The Mimeoplasm - Counterpalooza
Lists can be found here.
Still convinced the guy on Beseech the Queen is wearing a Mitra-type hat. Wake up sheeple!
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Tamanoa - Welcome to the Jungle
Lists can be found here.
Early Trygon always makes me hate flying, too.
(U/B)(U/B)(U/B) JUMP IN THE LINE, ROCK YOUR BODY IN TIME
(R/W)(R/W)(R/W) RISING FROM THE NEON GLOOM, SHINING LIKE A CRAZY MOON
(U/R)(R/G)(G/U) STEALIN' WHEN I SHOULD HAVE BEEN BUYIN'
Tamanoa - Welcome to the Jungle
Lists can be found here.
Annihilator is nasty yes, but the creatures that have enough of it to really hurt cost a lot of mana and should have a devastating impact.
Animar, Soul of Elements is particularly annoying since he's also a very dangerous engine/combo piece and can also-also easily win off of commander damage. Combine that with the low mana cost and he ends up feeling very unfair if you're only playing black and/or white, unless you're just playing boardwipe tribal.
Oversoul of Dusk is probably the most annoying non-legendary with this effect, but it's not as egregious there since it's not commander damage.
- Rabid Wombat
Cards with all upside or too much upside, is the source of this game's decline. Shroud and older mechanics like protections were at least a double edge sword that one must measure "when" to use such creature, hexproof is drop-and-forget, know it's safe from targeting and could be voltron up later. Indestructible shares the same problem, though most indestructible creatures are either higher cc, with a downside, or with additional cost.
Given that I playtest against Nahiri, the Lithomancer most of the time, I find protection to be very annoying due to the deck able to fetch whichever equipment that fights against respective colors.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
I've never even seen anyone play oversoul. Doesn't look like much of a commander card to me. It's hard to imagine what sort of deck would want to play it (although I do have on in my collection just in case I figure that out).
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
I used to play Oversoul in my Krond deck, as a good beater who just became ridiculous when pumped with auras. I swapped it out eventually for something else, I think one of the Theros gods, though I can't remember for sure right now. It was okay in that deck, but since I swapped it out, I don't think I've even considered playing it anything else. I also used to run Shield of the Oversoul in Krond, but eventually swapped that out, too.
As strange as it seems, I've actually had complaints about flying commanders before - specifically Bruna, the Fading Light. I guess I can see how if you're running mono green it's a problem you don't have a lot of answers for. I guess it's just a case that evasion on a commander is strong, and I took it as constructively as possible when the complaint was made. Any sort of evasion on a commander is a strong pro.
Valid point - Glissa, the Traitor has probably the most favourable keyword soup out there combat wise. Especially given her CMC. And hexproof means nothing against sweepers, which are prevalent in the format.
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!
Hear me out: first off, EVERYONE will ask "What does that do?" So, you'll be explaining it a lot. Secondly, chances are you're gonna explain it wrong(because you forget something). So you gotta go back and double-check yourself, and 90% of the time, explain it AGAIN, correctly.
My pod has a bunch of old farts that like using old cards to show it off...but God help us, when cards with banding come out...
Beyond that, I would say Annihilator as well. I try to run Sigarda or Tajuru Preserver in every deck I can just in case...nothing like watching your board get wiped clean every opponent's attack phase. :\
EDH decks: 1. RGWMayael's Big BeatsRETIRED!
2. BUWMerieke Ri Berit and the 40 Thieves
3. URNiv's Wheeling and Dealing!
4. BURThe Walking Dead
5. GWSisay's Legends of Tomorrow
6. RWBRise of Markov
7. GElvez and stuffz(W)
8. RCrush your enemies(W)
9. BSign right here...(W)
Of course without Annihilator, I probably would not be playing Eldrazi Tribal.
UB Vela the Night-Clad BUDecklist
WBG Ghave, Guru of Spores GBW
WUBRGThe Ur-DragonWUBRGDecklist
protection is probably the single most annoying ability, not necessarily because of in-game mechanics, but rules baggage. protection is basically 4 abilities mashed into one (i think); 1. can't be dealt damage by; 2. can't be targeted by; 3. can't be blocked by; 4. can't be enchanted by auras (of that colour/subtype, etc). who the hell has time to remember all that? it's probably better now than it was back then, when my black knight isn't killed by a semi-targeted spell like wrath of god, but is still causing tonnes of mis-plays by people in my meta.
hexproof is annoying in that it can't be targeted, but it's a simple rule that can't be misunderstood.
Legacy - Solidarity - mono U aggro - burn - Imperial Painter - Strawberry Shortcake - Bluuzards - bom
I think it was somewhere in this forum where I was informed of using the acronym DEBT to understand protection: Damage, Enchanted, Blocked and Targeted. I've used that to explain it to a number of people in my playgroup, and they instantly get it(of course, then the search turns to the card to see if it actually targets, lol).
EDH decks: 1. RGWMayael's Big BeatsRETIRED!
2. BUWMerieke Ri Berit and the 40 Thieves
3. URNiv's Wheeling and Dealing!
4. BURThe Walking Dead
5. GWSisay's Legends of Tomorrow
6. RWBRise of Markov
7. GElvez and stuffz(W)
8. RCrush your enemies(W)
9. BSign right here...(W)
Banding really isn't that hard to understand. Im surprised to see it in commander because the creatures with it are rather weak, but II run a crap cube that has most of the banding cards in it and its never caused problems. When it gets played, it plays well, and people get what it does, even when attacking with multiple bands. Banding makes rampage better BTW, and that's funny. Maybe I could see a few in creature based pillowfort because of how much they improve group blocking.
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!
At my lgs, definitely storm. Between playing mind desire regularly myself and losing to the copies in my playgroup about as often, it's actually difficult to answer [not "hexproof difficult", instead think "I hope you have flusterstorm mainboard" difficult]. Horsemanship is also pretty busted until someone copies your Sun Quan.
THIS. It's not only confusing, its part of the "all upside because noobs get sad when they run into drawbacks" trend that is hurting the quality of the game. Hexproof is the biggest offenders, but nu slivers are close. And **** their art. The entire endeavor reeked of soulless market testing. It's a great way to attract people unfamiliar with the game, because its generic and easy, but it sucks at getting those people to buy in deeper, because its generic and easy. People are drawn magic because its a fantasy card game. They stick with magic because its challenging and nuanced, with aesthetics, themes, and ideas that make it unique. Slivers were the best example: its a hivemind race (familiarity for genre fans draws them in) with a unique and instantly recognizable design (magic differentiates itself and provides something special, making players engage more deeply), with a mechanic that benefits you for running more slivers (easy to build around and a clear deck building path appeals to new players), but also benefits your opponents slivers (drawback intrigues players looking for a deep game and causes memorable games and plays, getting players to engage with the hobby more deeply). Being generic and easy is great for attracting a wider group of people to the game, but poor at retaining them. Being unique and challenging attracts fewer people, but is better at engaging them and creating long term fans.
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!
I doubt there's a keyword that trumps all others in terms of game superiority. Especially in EDH, which is extremely subjective and meta-dependent. I find more that it's a combination of keywords that really can be tough to deal with.
Cases in point:
Narset, Enlightened Master - strong in combat, hard to interact with.
Glissa, the Traitor - very strong in combat, cheap to recast even if she dies.
Gishath, Sun's Avatar - comes out swinging immediately - exactly what his deck needs to do, high chance of trading well in offense and defense.
Bruna, the Fading Light - Flying and vigilance is a strong combination. Guilty here myself.
Akroma's Memorial or Eldrazi Monument - game winners in combat based decks.
Aside from these creature based keywords, storm is clearly so overpowered it's stupid. There's plenty of other spell copy effects that are strong like buyback, flashback, rebound, but storm is crazy on the right cards - Grapeshot, Mind's Desire, Bitter Ordeal, Tendrils of Agony, Hunting Pack could all be win cons in the right time and place. I wouldn't call it annoying per se, but it's a strong enough mechanic to end the game on the spot, which I guess it frustrating.
@OneRing: Yeah, I know it's not hard to understand, but you ALWAYS have someone who remembers it wrong, which leads to the annoying factor. I remember back in the day when people SWORE up and down the rulebook that banding allowed you to pull together a 'blockerball' with only one creature with banding, allowing you to kill the beast while one sprite soaked up all the damage.
Thank God for the internet and easy access...
EDH decks: 1. RGWMayael's Big BeatsRETIRED!
2. BUWMerieke Ri Berit and the 40 Thieves
3. URNiv's Wheeling and Dealing!
4. BURThe Walking Dead
5. GWSisay's Legends of Tomorrow
6. RWBRise of Markov
7. GElvez and stuffz(W)
8. RCrush your enemies(W)
9. BSign right here...(W)
I'm pretty sure that's true, isn't it? "blocked by A creature with banding" - only one creature needs to have banding to make it a band block.
"defending player chooses how attacking creature's damage is assigned" - can choose to assign it all to one creature.
So....yeah?
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
Invisible Stalker, Asceticism, Sigarda, Host of Herons, and Siege Behemoth are all things.
Regarding protection, the only things that can bug me about it are pro-creatures (which basically stops blocking, fighting, Soul's Fire-type effects like Pandemonium and Chandra's Ignition, Pestilence Demon, Tims, Inferno Titan...Did I mention blocking?) and True-Name Nemesis. It is hard to explain to a new player, though.
As for annihilator, why is it so hard to include removal? You want to know how to deal with annihilator?
W Swords to Plowshares, Path to Exile, Pacifism, Oblation, Reprisal
U Counterspells in general, Pongify, Reality Shift
B Doom Blade, Hero's Downfall, Go for the Throat, Tragic Slip after killing something, Ravenous Chupacabra, Seal of Doom, Executioner's Capsule
Red and green need to get more creative. Fight and Tims can work, if you have Basilisk Collar or something like that; conversely, you can give something with deathtouch Thornbite Staff for a machine gun.
Or just play Stax. It's not like annihilator's cheap.
On phasing:
Man, if only counterspells would also help to deal with hexproof...but sadly, there seems to be no way to deal with Hexproof. No way at all.
Well, except, y'know
Tamanoa - Welcome to the Jungle
Lists can be found here.