MTG Top 10: The WORST Cards in Magic's Most POWERFUL Set | Magic: the Gathering | Episode 643 

What I find amazing about A/B/U is how there can coexist cards that say "pay 2 mana: take an extra turn" or "pay 1 mana: draw 3 cards" and other that say "pay 7 mana: prevent 2 damage" or "pay 6 mana: turn a land into a swamp".

I think it's so funny when you see a list of the worst Alpha cards and one of them's like "you can pay six mana to turn a single land into a Swamp, this card costs 2500 dollars" just because it's so old and never reprinted.

This is not a slight at the designers at all, but it's funny to me how cards back then were basically designed like 5 year old me would think about the game: "if this one card does one damage to my opponent every turn, then I'll just win the game in 20 turns! It's basically an auto win! So better make it really expensive and clunky" so funny how far we've come. 😂

True story - long ago in the couple months between the release of Fallen Empires and the creation of Type 2 tournaments, I had a tournament deck that ran Pure Lace because it ran 4 Black Knights and 4 Orders of the Ebon Hand as it's only creatures. The deck did decently well but Magic was weird in those days.

Living artifact was annoying in the Shandalar game tho. Sometimes, enemies begin with artifacts and the green enemies somehow always find a way to stack 4 of them to the artifact, regenerating more than the damage you deal them every turn. Its not very powerful or anything but it just drags fights on.

I was struck by the art on nearly every one these cards. On Power Leak, moldy splotches surround a vague outline of a human doubled over in pain. It's blurry, soft, mottled, and brown and white and red. Someone PAINTED this. It conveys a feeling, not a thing. The art on the Lace cycle depicts the abstract idea of what each color in magic is about. A dove, an eye, a skull. It's nothing happening and it's no one, but instead it's a thought. An embodiment, a significance. This is the art that made me fall in love with the game as a child on a picnic blanket with my friends in the summer. Today, the art of Magic is more often exactly and rigidly what is described by the title of the card. I view it on a computer. It is made on a computer. The lines are perfect and it is always a wizard, monster, explosion, or beam of light. There is no picnic blanket and I am no longer a child. I am an adult between meetings and chores. Today's Magic art makes me think something. I miss art that made me feel something.

The worst thing about the laces is that they sit in the rare slot, ugh.

Feedback does have that fantastic Quinton Hoover art, at least.

One use for Purelace, use it as a bird token.

Cyclopean Tomb wasn't as bad early on, because Landwalk was a much bigger part of the meta back then. Being able to turn an opponent's land into a swamp on turn five could put your opponent on a two turn clock at that point.

“Enchantments are the least prevalent non-planeswalker permanent type in the game” Battles: 😢

When we started playing back in 93 a lot of these cards where great in a vacuum. When the card pool wasn't deep at all. We only had about 300 cards to choose from.

I'd love a top 10 on bad, weird and unusual rules text. One that came to mind was the Revised Edition printing of Blessing. The text just says W: +1/+1.

White Ward is funny to me in the fact that, going by the text on the original printing based on current rules, it literally enchants a creature to give it pro white then falls off since the aura is white. It wasn’t until it’s last printing in 4th edition where it gains text specifying that the protection does not remove white ward.

Thanks for pumping out content for our enjoyment, Nizzahon.

Creature bond maybe has some combo potential, it's kinda like a reverse fling. Boost their creature's toughness with for example Aegis of the Heavens or Refuse to Yield and deal like 10 to the face

Interesting how much Blue interacted with enchantments in Alpha.

I played Laces and Elemental Blasts, because that would destroy permanents at interrupt speed. (Though there's a very strong possibility we had the rules wrong at the kitchen table back in the mid-90s.)

Man, I miss Magic art work like this.

Farmstead.... an aura so bad CARIBOU RANGE beat it out. At least THAT makes bodies and you can sacrifice them whenever.

I think Conservator by itself isn't number 1 bad, but in a way it's the worst card on the list. Life gain, color hosing, dealing damage, all things with some sort of payoff available. Preventing damage has absolutely no synergy with anything, which is probably why it's the least played on EDHrec of the whole terrible list. It's not a case of "there's better cards that do this available" it's more "no one would ever want to do this in the first place."

4:28 We’re already accepting that Battles are not going to ever come back, eh?

I like the artwork on Cyclopean Tomb and Farmstead.

So many of these cards being auras is interesting. They definitely didn't understand how devastating it could be to be 2-for-1'ed, but I also think they were also scared of repeatable effects becoming oppressive. Look at Homestead and Conservator, for example. As another example, early attempts at equipment-style artifacts were usually massively overcosted both in casting and "equip" cost, plus they thought they needed to saddle them with "if the targeted creature dies, so does your artifact" clauses.

The thing about Creature Bond is that early MtG had a lot of high toughness walls. Creature Bond could be quite useful when using another seemingly useless card: Tunnel.

I had actually considered Conservator... then I realized it had been errat'd from 'prevent life loss' to 'prevent damage'. The former would have at least been a relatively unique, if still over costed effect. The latter has who knows how many ways to do it better.

"Enchantments are the least prevalent non-planeswalker permanent type in the game" Battles: Are we a joke to you?

To be fair, color hosing was the way the color pie interacted in Alpha and Beta, and somewhat in Revised.

I would rank the laces as better than Farmstead. Sure it's magical Christmas land thinking, but if you can actually get a lace AND a color hoser together it COULD lead to a blowout. It's absurdly unlikely, but it's a higher ceiling. Farmstead, however... is doing the same overcosted nothing in each and every situation.

The most baffling thing about the Lace cycle is that when they were printed, pretty much the only reason you'd even want to change colors is to get *around* Protection without adding another color to a deck (remember Black Knight+White Knight were uncommon and are decent creatures by today's standards and even better in their day). The Laces can't even do *that* because they can only make a card the color of mana you already have!

That was an interesting view from modern Magic. Some of these cards were actually played to great effect in the first few years of the game. It would be cool to see a list from the viewpoint of when the game was only Alpha. Powercreep and changes in gameplay tactics drastically changed the usefulness of these cards. Some, like the laces, were more reviled at the time due to being Rares than being "terrible" (which they are).

I remember opening revised packs and get a lace card for the rare was the worst feeling ever

You can enchant your opponents' artifacts with Living artifact, so you don't necessarily have to have one yourself. Not a great idea, but something ive done, way back when we had no idea what we were doing.

Your top tens have been part of my weekly routines for years keep it up

The damage auras were much more powerful in the early 90s. That effect (without need for a permanent to target, of course) has been costed at 2 mana more recently and up through today, and has still proved fringe playable to okay in limited. I don't think they really merit a spot on this list. If you were drafting early Magic, for example (not that anyone did or should), these cards would be much more impactful than a 1 mana 1/1.

Please, start making this Top10 worst cards for the other sets too!

It's so weird seeing near mint graded alpha cards for 20 bucks

All great choices 👌🏻

Love the Top 10 Lists!😅

Nizza,not sure if we're getting a vid tomorrow so I'll get it in now. Go longhorns! (Thanks for the video)

1993 Trisket here, I don't know what this "Alpha" is, but one of the worst cards in the game Magic is probably Black Lotus. 3 mana of any color once? What am I going to do with that? Summon a Stone Giant on turn one? Anyway, I have 3 Black Lotus and an Ancestral Recall, and I really want a Shivan Dragon, anyone looking to trade?

I remember being a kid having just started playing and finding a lot of these bad rares in a bulk box. I was young we were on vacation and the art of the wards and laces spoke to me 😅 I wish I had grabbed some of the mana drains instead, but the ugly art and mana burn (this was 97) didn't appeal to me... 😂😂😂

Isn't White Ward (one of the protection auras in tenth) just completely unplayable? It's a white aura that grants protection from white, which would just cause it to immediately fall off.

Fountain of Renewal shows how bad Living Artifact and Farmstead are. Fountain is always online, it doesn't require you to have anything else around to gain the life, and it can be cashed in for a card when you have plenty of life. And Fountain of Renewal isn't even that good. It saw play in a few control decks in standard, and I run it in my Historic and Pioneer Mardu Prison lists, but it's only mid there.

I love your videos, also so perfect for when drunk as I’ve just learned

Farmstead was one of the rares in my first starter. Don’t remember the others. It’s probably worse than the laces, but I hated the laces more because they took up 5 rare spots instead of 1.

Creature bond would make a really cool non-aura enchantment. I think an enchantment that says “whenever a creature dies, it deals damage equal to its toughness to its controller” would become a commander staple and maybe a popular sideboard card in 60-card formats. No idea what it would need to cost to be balanced.

For the Laces, can they add Draw a card. Then they could be okay.

Whoo hoo 1st Top 10 I've owned everything on, to add insult to o Jury half the cards were rares including the Laces, which still were a better result than the rare Island. I'm surprised the ante cards like contract from below didn't get onto the top 10

Opening a pack of Alpha or Beta and pulling a lace from the rare spot. The ultimate feel bad.

It's pretty telling that even with such insanely awful cards as these, they still cost $50 plus. Guess that's the power of being full of cards that could make it onto "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)"!

At least Thoughtlace has a home in an Orvar deck

2:10 White Ward wouldn't fall off as soon as the creature gets protection from white?

And if I'm not mistaken, wouldn't the White Ward remove itself? Or was that later when the DEBT of protection was clearly defined?

4:09 A blue burn spell, interesting.

Correct me if im wrong but wouldn't the White Ward on #10 just fall off after it resolved attached to a creature?

OK, let's see if I can guess the set and guess the worst. It's either Alpha, one of the Urza or Mirridan ones or Throne of Eldraine. Alpha is like 90% crap, Urza and Mirridan are collectively powerful blocks rather than single sets so.... my guess for #1 will be Roving Keep. But it could well be Alpha so second guess would be the laces minus the blue and red ones, you can use them for elemental blasts.

How does Power Leak not work okay against Ryhstic Study or Land Tax which a lot people consider staples?

The only other mana filtering card I can think of that is good is prophetic prism in pauper

These are cards you truly need the Alpha printings for.

I successfully predicted that the 5 laces would take the #1 spot.

What about Slight of Mind and Magical Hack

I think thoughtlace sees play in edh Orvar

I have many of these as their 4th edition versions. It makes me sad.

Animate wall doesn't seem any better than the other white enchants that made the list...

Man there is so much bad cards with arts by Amy Weber which makes a lot of awesome card arts, such a shame

isn't battle a permanent type less common than enchantement ?

Hear me out: Serra Avatar, donate it to an opponent, enchant with Creature Bond and blow it up!

Would say that Farmstead is the worst card printet, ever.

Poor Anson Maddocks, illustrating so many of these...

"Enchantments are the least prevalent non-planeswalker permanent type in the game" pretty sure Battles and Tribals are rarer tbh, which makes enchantments 'the fourth least prevalent permanent type' which sounds a lot less like a relevant criticism

Yep! These cards have always been bad, even back then!

I was so expecting Healing Salve or Earthbind to be on the list!

I'm glad Lich wasn't included - I think it's a terrible card, but I love the flavor.

Alpha wasnt the „most powerful“ set. It was just unbalanced in the most broken way possible.

100th like sweet

You really should say 100 card commander. Cuz the commander technically counts as part of the deck. Which is important because playing commanders like Partners or Backgrounds means that you only run a 98 card deck.

Man, MtG art used to be so fucking good... nowadays barely any card is worth looking at for more than half a second.

Imagine dropping Ragavan in Alpha standard.

To be fair, Deathlace would work with Exorcist, but at that point you could just play Darkest Hour