The worst ever had to be losing to a turn 3 Braids (I think the general was ghost council) someone played in a four player game. Nobody could do anything and ended up with 0 lands as braids beat us all down. Really lame. Probably the lamest way I've killed someone was a turn 6 kill with Kor Duelist and a Jitte swinging at one guy. I've also Obliterated while having Myojin of Infinite Rage and slowly killed three other guys.
I hope they have some new non-basics. Buried Ruin is sort of cool for EDH but in a lot of cases you already have Academy Ruins which is repeatable but slightly slower and restricted to blue.
What did you expect from decks that include Deadly Recluse, Chartooth Cougar, Guard Gomozoa and other crap and you're playing stuff like Maze of Ith, Mind's Eye and actual mass removal.
Wow counterpunch really really sucks... I mean Deadly Recluse, I would never put that crap in an EDH deck ever. Same with Aquastrand Spider, Penumbra Spider (what's with the crappy spiders and lack of Silklash?), Hex (usually not that great... ) Death Mutation, Spawnwrite. There's really nothing to be excited about playing in here.
Someone said that each rare is only in one deck? I guess that rules out Mind's Eye being in every deck (I remember buying one of those for $.50, now they're $5.00), bummer.
it's going to be a terrible, completely unused mechanic. Who would use it?
If you are winning, why would you play it, you don't need it.
If you are losing, the other players are winning, and don't need it, so they all pay 0 mana.
You could play it when others are tapped out or have significant amounts of their lands tapped so you benefit more. I don't think it's going to be as bad as you've made it out to be.
It wouldn't surprise me if a few of the new cards were boring, underwhelming mana fixing. Because not everything in these decks is going to be as awesome as Sol Ring. I do think that Darksteel Ingot is a good bet to be in these because they're harder to find in stores now and are a good staple.
From the promo art that's been released so far, the 5 planeswalkers are the face of M2012 that Wizards is pushing. The Titans could be in it though there's no final confirmation either way though the idea of making them rare is interesting like what they did with Protean Hydra, the difference being the Titans are actually good.
I'm not really sure they want to go the whole land destruction route anyways as it's kind of annoying. There are only a few lands that truly need to blown up like Academy Ruins, Urborg/Coffers, Maze of Ith, Gaea's Cradle, Volrath's Stronghold. Not sure if Wasteland is really that necessary. Personally I'd rather have a Dust Bowl. They could also just use Tectonic Edge which is more recent and cheaper as other have said.
I use this guy in EDH for a few one drops like Scute Mob, Figure of Destiny, Serra Ascendant, and my personal favorite Kor Duelist (seeing the looks on people's faces when they get beat down by a Kor Duelist with a Jitte, Sword of Kaldra or Argentum Armor in EDH is pretty funny). I also need to get the Dragonmaster Outcast who could be pretty epic provided he doesn't die immediately.
You could play it when others are tapped out or have significant amounts of their lands tapped so you benefit more. I don't think it's going to be as bad as you've made it out to be.