5 Cards That Have Never Been the Same After they Changed the Rules 

Want to relive some of the nostalgia and see other examples, read Tobi Henke's wonderful article here: www.cardmarket.com/Magic/Insight/Articles/Famous-Rules-and-Card-Changes-in-Magic-History

Tunnel vision was changed slightly another way. After the Borborygmos vs. Borborygmos Enraged incident in 2017 with pithing needle, communication rule requirements around naming cards was altered slightly, which also changed that card. Not an important change, but an interesting one.

One of my earliest Magic memories is hearing people discussing the rules change for Indestructible. Completely brand new player, didn't know how priority worked, barely knew "untap, upkeep, draw," but gosh darn it, I knew Indestructible was now a keyword!

My thought for Boros Charm was similar to what happened with Esper Charm. Somebody said “Esper Charm, targeting myself” meaning they wanted to draw the cards. However, the only mode on Esper Charm that targets is the discard mode. Judge got called, the player had to discard instead of draw. I thought somebody said “Boros Charm, target myself” meaning they wanted to give their creatures indestructible but instead dealt 4 to themselves.

Dark Ritual changed twice. Originally, "mana source" wasn't a card type, and Dark Ritual was an interrupt. This meant that you couldn't respond to it with an instant, but you could counter it with an interrupt.

It's the same change to boros charm, but there was a second relevant thing that change did. When they made indestructible a keyword, it also stopped boros charm's effect from affecting new permanents that entered AFTER the casting of boros charm. It used to just be a general statement about all your permanents for the turn. But now it applies things to the currently in-play permanents and later played stuff aren't affected. Making the card instantly worse.

In addition to the stuff with cascade, split cards with isochron scepter could be imprinted using the low mana value side and the copy could be either side.

@Cardmarket - Magic: The rules change that should have never happpened, IMO is the type change for Daru Stinger. When the Change to Creature Types was made and a seperation was made between a tribe and a job or career (e.g. human or elf is a tribe and soldier or druid is a career/job) a lot of older cards were changed according to this. The Daru-Creatures from Legion where changed to be humans at that point, which obviously enabled new synergies (e.g. you can play Grim Lavamancer in a Human Tribal deck now). One mechanic, where this was actually kind of interesting was Amplify, because some of the creatures with this ability got a new type, which made Amplify a lot more potent. This meant, that for a realtively short Time you could play Daru Stinger in pauper and reveal Humans to pump it, which was actually kind of cool, IMO, because there are obviously a lot of humans you happen to play accidentily and this card ist actually complete garbage if you can make it like a 3/3 or bigger (compare this to Heavy Ballista, aka a very strong common back in weatherlight). WOTC didn't like that though, because it was obviously designed to only work in a soldier tribal deck and not a human tribal deck, so to my knowledge Daru Stinger is the only creature, that got retro actively changed twice and lost it's primary tribal and only has a career now and thus will probably never show up as a niche Sideboard card in pauper, which it otherwise could have. Sorry for the long post, here is a potato 🥔

That was a really cool change with regards to tunnel vision. I was thinking it had something to do with choosing not to find a card or something.

Tunnel Vision technically had another change related to Naming Cards: At a certain tournamnet where someone named a card (Borborygmos) which was not the card name they intended when naming (that was Borborygmos Enraged) and everyone knew it was not the card they intended to name but at the time the card you named was the one you meant. After this tournament I believe the rules were changed so that an ample description of the card is all you need when naming a card, which would also affect cards like Tunnel Vision where you no longer have to perfectly name the card you mean. But I'll take my 6 points and thank you for another great video!

Important context for Oracle + Pact is that you have to be playing a singleton deck for it to work. Otherwise you'll hit two of the same named cards with your Pact and you won't get to the oracle on the bottom. People also apparently did it with Lutri, because that way you could cast your pack twice, finding your oracle with the first one and exiling the rest of your library with the second.

I'm really digging all the content you guys have been making lately, it scratches the itch I've had ever since LSV stopped doing Magic TV

With Tunnel Vision, can you name yourself if you have Form of the Approach of the Second Sun ? Do you reveal yourself or cease to be a card ?

Technically, Tunnel Visions received another "nerf", but just for edh. Actually, when a commander is moved in any area different from the battlefield, such as in the bottom of the library, the owner can put it in the commander zone. In the past this action could be done only when the commander was put in the graveyard/exile, so it was possible to put opponent commander at the bottom of its library and tunnel vision him to mill all its deck

i thought the tunnel vision one was going to be a reference to the commander rules changes where you can't fateseal or otherwise tuck someones commander to the bottom of their deck anymore. I remember a lot of people playing tunnel vision with those kinds of effects to mill someone out since you know the deck is singleton

My guess for Tunnel Vision was the change to Commander with the 'tuck' rule. You used to be able to Hinder someone's commander, which was just a great play in general, then later in the game hit them with Tunnel Vision and mill them out. I think I stpped seeing this combo played back when the Eldrazi were released, since a lot of mill strats went out the window. While you can still do this by tucking some other card, it's not nearly as effective as being able to deny a commander, then use that later in the game as a wincon against that player (That you know their bottom card).

I thought tunnel vision ruling change was the old commander rule where if your commander was put in your deck stays in your deck, so if your opponent put your commander in the bottom of your deck and cast tunnel vision, he mill you out of the game.

Biggest rule change that messed up my favorite casual deck: The token ownership rule change. Used to run Hunted Horror and Forbidden Orchard, and get rid of the tokens with despotic scepter and tel-jilad stylus. the rest of the deck was 'swap' stuff, like gilded drak, vedalken plotter, etc (and then put 'my' stuff on the bottom). But losing the ability to sink the tokens really hurt.

Back when I was just starting to get into formats beyond standard, I found this deck using breaking/entering and isocron scepter to cast both sides at once. It seemed great, and a perfect example of the intricacies of the rules of magic... and then they changed it before I could scrap enough together to play the deck 😂

Also for Boom//Bust, I think there use to be a rule where multi target spells would fizzle even if only one target became invalid. Though that was before it's printing, I believe.

Phyrexian Metamorph used to be a kill spell and a reanimate target for Sharuum under the old legendary rule

Tunnel Vision: It used to not affect nonbinary players.

There was another change related to Tunnel Vision that was my guess. I don't know if it counts as a "rules" change though. A player played Pithing Needle naming "Borborygmos" when he meant to name "Borborygmos Enraged". Because Borborygmos is an actual card, the opposing player called a judge, asked if he could still use the abilities of "Borborygmos Enraged", and proceeded to win. The rules were changed so that the "Name a card" didn't need to be so specific, if it was clear to both players what you meant, that was good enough. This was game 3, he had seen a "Borborygmos Enraged" in game 1 and/or game 2, it was obvious to all the judges and the opposing player what he meant.

Surprised to not see a breakdown of the legend rule change. Nothing changed the collectivity of Gaeas cradle when BOTH players could play a copy

You two have great energy. I'm a Magic newbie but enjoyed this video anyway.

The Tunnel Vision tules change I thought of was the commander tuck change where Hinder into Tunnel Vision was the wincon of choice.

If you count cards that were printed one way, then due to rules change became overpowered, then through subsequent rules change went back to the way they were, you should totally include Mogg Fanatic and Thawing Glaciers.

Serum Powder seems like it may have been a better card/hint for #5

I was Tunnel visioned into tucking how that changed in EDH. Back when tucking was good and everyone did it, Tunnel Vision was okay player removal. Do companion rules change in some episode, I am sure Carl would get that.

Carl, your collection of cool jackets and vests is insane.

Title has a typo, should be "...After They Changed..." Typo fixed, thanks!

There's another change for Tunnel Vision, though I don't think it could ever be useful. It used to be you could name any card, including cards not legal in the format.

I love stuff like this, its those odd fringe pieces of info about magic that is just cool

Idea for the next ones: Cards that needed day 1 errata for rules or combo reasons. Invert//Invent and Marath, Will of the Wild come to mind. Or had mistakes on the printings like the Corpse Knights from the Brawl deck.

17:30 For this to work with tainted pact, you'd also have to be running all different lands. A normal mana base (depending on format) would have multiple of the same fetches, shocks or basic lands.

The best part about this channel is that this dude is like 95% Ted Mosby from how I met your mother.

So proud of myself for seeing the correct indestructible one from Boros Charm

When your buddy Carl shows up in a mtg video after you haven’t seen him for over a decade. You’re looking great, dude!

I actually hated the removal of interrupt speed back in the days as "interdict" was one of my favorite blue card. It used to stop every other annoying card like morphling or killer bees, but becoming vastly weaker after the change. It would still stop a disk or even something that has hexproof but that was only a fraction of its glory before the rule change.

Sakura-Tribe Elder had a significant nerf on standard when damage stopped being put unto the stack. Arcbound Ravager got hit too, but it really wasn't affected as much and continued to dominate the format.

Toralf describing the mulligan made me feel like he was casting doomsday as a pregame action XD

I didnt know about the mana source rule. I didn't know about the infinite flip for huntmaster and i completely forgot about indestructibility being a keyword. This was a lot of fun though haha.

The only place I've ever seen Tunnel Vision was in a combo edh deck with Vendillion Clique. Which just made them toss a card to the bottom then Tunnel Vision to mill them out. So I guess I mostly got it right? Not specifically the mulligan but the idea of putting something on bottom to throw away the library, this case just your opponents instead of yours.

The one who suffered the most is Fanatic Mogg. Poor goblin was never the same after you couldnt assign damage anymore!

2:30 Before there was mana source, which was invented in 1998 I believe with the stack and stack damage (soon later was removed as a special non-stacking card type as well as stack damage), cards like dark ritual couldn't be played as "interrupts", so you could never used dark ritual to help pay for a power sink.

Here I thought this was goin to be like "Ghost Council of Orzhova used to be way stronger when damage went on the stack" but these are some deep cuts. Good content!

Reconnaissance became very strong after the changes to combat damage

I thought there would be the question for battle damage on stack and mana burn, but still a nice video. Thanks for sharing something so interesting.

Tunnel vision doesn't say "until the named card is revealed IN THIS WAY". So could you name, say, "lightning bolt" then wait until their library has no cards and literally REVEAL a lightning bolt from YOUR OWN HAND to make your opponent deck their entire library?

Great video again, really like your content! One thing though... It would be great if you could put the same effort into your website's UX/UI! Any chance there will be changes in the near future?

Can someone explain to me the bonus points on huntmaster of the fells, I didn't understand What Tofel said.

Oh man... that Dark Ritual one took me back. I started playing back when the Rath cycle was first coming out and had the little pocket rulebook to remember all the little timings. The changing of Mana Source and Interrupt to Instant, as well as the removal of batches in favor of the brand new stack, was a major streamlining of the rules when 6th Edition came out. I do have to admit, I'm one of the old-timers that misses mana burn and combat damage on the stack since I felt they added extra layers of strategy, though I do understand why they were removed. Still, I'll always remember the time I played in a massive group game at my LGS and dropped out Upwelling with another player having out Mana Flare... everyone decided to keep us alive since they loved all the mana, but I loved the look on all their faces when I disenchanted my own Upwelling and killed most of the table with mana burn.

watching this really shows me how out of touch I am with Magic now, I had no idea about half of these rule changes

Yeah, i got 2....only the dark ritual one...but it was really nice! Liked the video a lot!

As soon as I saw Tunnel Vision I thought it was going to be about the command zone. You used to be able to mill your opponents entire library by putting their commander on the bottom of library

Can you explain the transform change to huntmaster (the second change you talked about)? I'm not sure I followed what you meant. What is the situation where huntmaster used to transform back and forth that no longer applies?

I had 12 points before the rule change, now I only have 4

With the redirection to planeswalkers rule change, a bunch of cards got worse, namely Volcanic Fallout and Slagstorm. Slagstorm would sometimes be kept in vs control decks because it would kill planeswalkers, namely JTMS that just brainstormed

I've only ever seen tunnel vision used in jank combos to mill opponents.

There was also a rule change in regards to naming cards. Before you had to be super specific with the name you stated for the card. Now you don't even need to know the specific name, but it needs to be understood and agreed upon which specific card by both players.

For huntmaster of the fells, didn’t the change about redirecting damage to planes walkers also nerf it? That was my first thought.

I could have sworn Tunnel Vision was the card naming rule change prompted by Borbor. But I actually remember specifically mentioning the potential function of Tunnel Vision after I first heard about the London Mulligan. So I should have still been able to figure that one. Alas. Cool way to cover some rules updates though, and how they can affect the game in weird ways.

My boy *Kokusho, the Evening Star.* I had two copies of him in a *Reanimator* deck that also featured *Bladewing, the Risen,* as well as *Footsteps of the Goryo* and *Bogardan Hellkite.* But then they changed the Legendary rule... 😒

On the topic of Indestructible / Dress Down. Last I knew you could put instance of regeneration on something and it stayed there until end of turn (or phase) or until the creature was destroyed. If you used regeneration in response to Dress Down, would a Day of Judgement still kill the creature?

The major rules change to affect a card that *I* remember has to do with a Coldsnap card that had a cumulative upkeep of *gaining* mana, because mana burn was a thing. Once that was removed, the card just gave you an endless fountain of mana.

Thought the last one had to do with when naming a card, if the chosen name is incomplete in some way but "should be" clear to both players which card is referred, then it counts as using the correct name. I remember an instance where a player named "Borborygmos" instead of the full name "Borborygmos Enraged" and got in trouble

I only got 4 points, knew the first one, and got the next two with hints. The last two I had no idea. Once you explained that final rule interaction, I thought it was very clever.

11:55 Wait, I have questions. 1. A Clone would come in as a 0/0 after a Dress Down was played, right? 2. So what layer does "can't be blocked" reside in? Layer 1? And wich layers do cards like Dress Down actually touch? On a similar matter: 3. A Magus of the Moon has an ability regarding e.g. Petroglyphs' effect, but it retains the ability after a, let's say, Darksteel Mutation? Even though that enchantment takes away all other abilities, right?

A relevant story about the change to indestructible being a keyword. Back during Return to Ravnica standard, one of the big beatstick win conditions was avacyn, because only exile would remove her. Before the rules change, Turn and Burn, one of the premier U/R removal spells at the time, wouldn't kill her because she stayed indestructible. after the rules change she became a lot worse.

I used to tunnel vision myself for Living death all the time in 5 color ante. One of my favorite 1 card combos.

What I like about these videos is it's like hanging out with your group talking MTG. Just shooting the shit about your favorite game. Damage should still use the stack. I will die on this hill.

I never heard of 'mana source' before. I remember back in the day, it was Interrupt, Instant and Sorcery speed. So, Dark Ritual, could only be interfered with by another Interrupt.

I like the new format changes for this video.

Not an MTG player. I used to play YGO I guessed the reasons why, so I got full marks. Last one was pretty hard, however, I have seen That Oracle card in various commander games, and I knew Mulligan is a thing in mtg, so I realised it, it took me a while though.

I was so confident the last one was about the Borborigmos "name a card" ruling

I got the first two, and Nothing after that! XD I DID have a completely Bat-Shit crazy guess on the last one, where I thought that cards in different languages used to count as "Different Cards" for naming purposes, so "Grizzly Bears" and "Grizzlybären" would count as different names, even though they're the same card. Even though that makes no sense in modern play, I could see a world where that MAYBE made sense to some people at some point.

Tunnel Vision has a synergy with things that put stuff from the grave to the bottom of libraries... Specially if you can put something from an opponent's graveyard back into the bottom of their library. In a commander game, it's a very nice way to "tutor" them a card... And leave them with nothing but one card in their decks.

Tunnel Vision is still a very situationally powerful card for blue self-mill decks in commander. Scry 1 and this can become a "Mill your entire library" card. I run it with Kwain, where one of my win-cons is having no library. Just being able to suddenly go down to one card in library when I have a Laboratory Maniac out and with Swiftfoot Boot or Lightning Greaves is *incredibly* powerful. Especially if you already have a card-draw doubler out and can immediately tap Kwain to win the game. It does suck when you drop Opt or whatever and it's a basic land, though. One reason why I always wait for a higher scry value in practice. Augury Owl is the typical one I use, but there are several good ones. My favorite is Condescend for 0 as the X. It's a very funny one that makes your opponents go "huh?" right before you pull a "My entire library is gone" stunt.

I think Grenzo, Dungeon Warden is a better example of the mulligan rule changing cards. You can guarantee a hit by stacking the bottom of your deck.

I didn't get what they meant with the second one about huntmaster of the fells. What did they mean???

I have two other interesting cards that got worse after rules changes: warp world and Flame Fusillade. Both were only indirectly affected but it made them a lot worse up to even unplayable

So... Changeling Outcast is in play, Dress Down is played in response to it being declared an attacker, can it be blocked or not? It sounds like the answer is "no," and we have a Humility type problem where the card doesn't do what it looks like it does.

I understood how Tunnel Vision and the new mulligan rule interact, but I didn't understood what changed with the card. Was it banned? Or is it just overall stronger and that's it? (I'm confused because basically all the other 4 cards were "nerfed" so I'm thinking Tunnel Vision also got nerfed somehow?)

Tunnel vision is actually great. In commander (or any singleton format) you can put a card on the bottom of an opponent's library, and then name that card with tunnel vision, effectively milling every card in their deck apart from that one.

Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

Really thought Mana Drain was going to make the list, but I guess that would've been a tad too easy.

"damage on the stack" used to make certain cards way better-- my favorite that I remember from Type II circa 2007 was Ghost Council of Orzhova. Ghost Dad was a threat to be reckoned with back then

Tunnel vision and junk troller is such a mean combo in commander. Can deck yourself and then win with multiple cards like oracle or jace. Can also deck an opponent

As somebody who plays tainted pact in historic with Jace still, proud to say I got the tunnel vision one. First two mulligans are always free if you know you are in a matchup that they won’t interact with you

I didn't get the Tunnel Vision one, and yet the first time I saw the new mulligan rules my first thought was "Tunnel Vision tho?"

Okay, I paused on Tunnel Vision. My guess is that you can now in EDH (or any deck with 1-of's) mill your entire deck except the last card with it because London Mulligan lets you bottom a card from your hand? This could also work when they did the Scry mulligan rule if your deck, including lands, is 1-of's Time to see if I'm right.

I remember when Radha went from one of the greatest 2 drops to almost completely useless right after the block it was released in concluded and they changed the rules for how mana is conserved over steps and phases.

Does this change for Grenzo, Dungeon Warden too? Becouse i would allways mulligan to get a card under the libery.

I feel like the last one should have been about the Borborgymos change for naming cards. Makes a lot more sense for the first card.

Instantly knew the Boros Charm change specifically because of the wording. Wizards is a lot more picky with their words now than they used to be. Something as simple as "are" instead of "gain" or "has/have" mattered a lot.

I didn't quite get how the transform once per turn rules change was before the change. Could someone give me another example on how one could abuse it?

I used to use Junktroller with Tunnel Vision to put a card on the bottom of the opponents library from their graveyard, then tell them to dig for it...mills the whole library except that card in commander.

I remember back in the day you could Dark Ritual though a Nether void without having to play the extra 3 because it was a mana source.

Could someone help explain the second change on Huntmaster? About it flipping multiple times?

Tunnel vision can also be a combo kill in commander if you utilize things like junktroller to manipulate the bottom of your opponents library.