MTG Top 10: WORST High Mana Cards | Magic: the Gathering | Episode 295 

"Hmm, this big creature needs a drawback." "How about costing nine mana?" "That's a good start I guess." "How about having no protection from removal?" "Getting there..." "How about it also destroys your resources?" "PERFECT!"

Nizzahon when he makes a point: I mean SURE

The Unspeakable seems like a very cool card to build a deck around... not good, but very cool

No matter how bad they were, having stuff like Leviathan or the infamous Polar Kraken in your deck made you the the coolest guy in school back in 1995. There was no downside big enough to prevent you from putting a creature in your deck that was bigger than 3 polar bears or even a building. Still love those cards today, even though I wouldn't use them in a deck anymore.

ive seen the unspeakable go off in draft, and boy is it majestic

Man I've been slack on checking for these notifications, mostly because I've been rather ill with a head cold, or maybe it's COVID-19. I'll mention that I actually run The Unspeakable in my Kami tribal deck, as well as the three Arcane spells required to cheat it out. I have played many, many games with that deck, and have not summoned him *once.* Not by hard casting it, not by cheating it out. It's fucking awful, and I've attached it to my deck like a voluntary tumor. Somehow, this is my segue to "Top 10 Vintage Cards (Minus Power 9)" though.

The unspeakable was in one of the duel decks, and in that deck he could be cheated out relatively consistently

You should do a top 10 list comparing competitive vs. EDH usage of cards, like top 10 cards that are useless in competitve but popular in casual.

Aladdin's Lamp is just so funny to me... if it was *one mana*, I probably still wouldn't play it in even my jankiest EDH decks.

Casting those three spells to bring out the unspeakable reminds me of summoning Spirit of the Night by sacrificing feral shadow, breath stealer and urborg panther...the good ol days of magic..😊😊

Forget sleep it’s time for another MTG top 10!

Top ten overcosted creatures that die to doom blade for 2

My biggest problem with The Unspeakable is the weird vagina orifice it has. It doesn't even have that "innuendo horror" aspect to it (like xenomorphs or the gaping dragon in dark souls), it just looks goofy. When Niz said his favorite thing about it was the design I nearly spit out my water before he went on to talk about it's mechanical design.

I've been keeping my lamp in my "Good Cards" trade binder for the last 8 years and refuse to get rid of it! I tell people its the worse card WOTC has ever printed, and i take pride in it Lol. I'm glad it made the list

Rampage and Lure effects makes Teeka Dragon pretty cool actually. Still 11 mana for one way board wipe, but someone wanting to make bad cards playable could have some fun with it.

Since Dichotomancy is in Blue, it's not unreasonable to imagine a deck that suspends it for 3, then at the end of the opponents' turn right before it goes off, cast a spell that taps a lot or all of your opponents' creatures.

Back in the day I loved using animate artifact on the lamp to make a 10/10 creature lol

When I was reading I thought maybe, just maybe, you'd get to cast those 7 cards 🤣

To be fair Zodiac Dragon could see some serious play in the new Purphoros lists - a hasty 8/8 for 3 every turn is good and can be abused with altars and such... The problem is that Zodiac Dragon costs way too much due to having only one print, in P3K. If it was a 1 dollar card, as it should be, it would see plenty of play in the new Purphoros lists.

As soon as I read the title I said “Leviathan has to be on here somewhere” and I was far from disappointed. Great video!

Oh man, Dichotomancy was the first rare I ever opened 4 copies of. I was always tempted to make a deck out of it because of that, but even then I knew it couldn't be good.

Dichotomany in EDH?? I.. guess it could find a bunch of pack rats or seven dwarves?

slapping Lure on Teeka's Dragon is 1 of my fav things to do in mtg. I have the original Aladdin's Lamp n played it in a mono blue control deck but ya I noticed how lack luster it was

The Unspeakable... such great memories I have of turbo arcane on my casual table lol

Whenever i see Leviathan all I can think of is that the picture of Leviathan is him screaming after he just stubbed his toe.

I use three of these card, in actually quite decent decks: Teeka's Dragon is in my Zirilan of the Claw EDH deck. I mean, it's from Mirage (same set as Zirilan and Crimson Hellkite) and has super cool artwork. Auto include flavorwise. Polar Kraken and Thing from the Deep are both in my oathbreaker sea monster deck (Kiora/Whelming Wave). There is no better feeling in MTG than to attack with a beefy Polar Kraken!

Funny thing. I actually run leviathan in my tromokratis sea creature deck. That deck has lots of ways to cheat the leviathan in with artifacts like quicksilver amulet, or enchantments like quest for ula's temple. From there, the leviathan's main role is to contribute devotion for things like nykthos or nyx lotus. Generally it also has the secondary effect of completely disarming people. Once they see such a bad card in your deck, they no longer think of you as a threat. Thanks to that, I actually managed to get some surprise kills with the thing.

lol, I played Polar Kraken for awhile. I forget how I got it into play. Once someone cast ‘desertion’ on it. It turned out to be far bigger when it was sitting in the other side of the board. I’m sure I was generally trying to reanimate it. .and I had to find Some way to get it in the graveyard. I remember there was Tefari’s Familiar. They say, if you do nothing, sometimes you can discard it as a ‘my hand is full’ discard on turn 2.

Don't forget that with flying, Teeka's Dragon's rampage is already a lot less useful that it otherwise could be.

I'll admit, I have a soft spot for a lot of these cards from the past myself. Polar Kraken and Leviathan especially. Oh, and memories of putting Lure on Teeka's Dragon. Simpler times.

Denying wind, copied 2-3 times or so... Thats a game changer

I've seen the Aladdin's Lamp played in several Old School-decks (format with only 93/94-cards legal). Combine it with Basalt Monolith/Power Artifact it has been in winning lists in that format more than once. Also in Treasure Island-decks (also Old School-decks where you utilize Ring of Ma'rûf) it is played. Therefore I do not like it on the list... Also in the old days I saw several reanimator decks playing Polar Kraken. Sure it eats your land, but not until you have attacked at least twice with it - and how many attacks do you need with a 11/11 trample? I do not understand though how Dichotomancy is played in EDH? Is it not singleton? How can you get any effect from it then? :o Nice list though. I expected to see less creatures on it, since the always do "something" and maybe some insane red sorceries instead :P

Okay, I have to know, who are the thirteen people running Dichotomancy in EDH decks?

I actually had a deck with Leviathan, Polar Kraken, and The Unspeakable in it, but also Fling. I believe I also used black for various reanimation effects. Needless to say, it was a deck purely for fun with friends.

Nizzahon seeing Leviathan back in the day: T H I C C

M: well guess it's sleep time. Nizzahon: posts Me: well..........10 more minutes won't hurt

I have to admit, Sneak Attacking a Zodiac Dragon sounds fun. Basically an 8/8 with Dash 1 Red that gets around several types of removal. Then with Enter the Battlefield payoffs in a Dragon Tribal deck, could be better then it appears.

Okay, The Unspeakable is cool! Never heard about it until now. I mean, it's not super good, but the combo to bring it out just feels... weirdly exciting!

When I was a kid, I had a deck centered around cheating out Teeka's Dragon, making it lose flying, then tossing a lure on it. It.... Sometimes worked? It was one of those "I know this can work!" decks from when we were kids.

Leviathan was my first big pull when I was little. It took many games for me to realize its lack of worth. Of course, if it starts on the battlefield when you're playing the MTG Shandalar game, it's pretty awesome, but no other context.

Dichotomancy seems like a fun Against the odds type of build around card. Just Sleep the opponent the turn before it comes off suspend or some kind of prison deck seems fun.

Teeka's Dragon!!! Mega OP!

Zodiac seems amazing for a Kaalia deck. You can use it to block or attack and you can always cheat it into play from your hand with Kaalia. Your opponents will know you have an 8/8 blocker that is willing to trade with anything they swing at you.

Why on Earth did _thirteen people_ put Dichotomancy in their EDH decks? Even in "bad card tribal," I'm pretty sure you'd want a card that actually _does something_ in EDH...

You’re on fire with these “worst” lists. Always very entertaining.

It's a stretch but dichotomancy combined with sleep or similar tap effects does work I've done it before

An aspect of Magic Wotc seemed to not understand for a long time is that mana cost scales as a cost exponentially, not linearly. Yes, the number scales linearly. However, as a card's mana cost increases, not only are you spending more mana, you also can't play the card for longer throughout the game and you have to draw more lands and mana sources and play them. All these factors make it so that the difference between 4 and 5 mana is greater than 1 and 2, for example. Thankfully, wizards seems to recognize this now. 5, maybe 6 mana seems to be the cap for draft chaff and those cards are starting to get better or have alternate uses which require less mana. Cards which cost more than 6 are usually designed to guarantee value or be incredibly powerful if not dealt with. This isn't true for them all of course but overall card quality has improved from this a lot.

Omg I need Denying Wind in my Yennett deck! :D I don't play much anymore but I'm sure most metas have some combo decks and getting it for no mana would be cool!

I think the point of casting Blessed Wind is to try to make your opponent laugh themselves to death.

I think denying wind in EDH makes a lot more sense when you realize a lot of decks are built around fishing out a combo and winning off it. Mana's also a lot easier to come by, especially if you're also playing red (Dockside Extortionist gets *a lot* of mana of everyone's rocks) or green.

A bunch of old creatures, and spells from Prophecy? Honestly the only surprise on this list is Dichotomancy, because, wow that card truly is hilariously awful, to the point that I had no clue it existed at all

Teeka's Dragon could be kinda interesting with a lure effect... maybe. Give it deathtouch and firststrike and its a boardwipe... though lots of setup for small reward

Tbh, I fight with myself about building decks around The Unspeakable and the Arcane combo that shortcuts it into play. It is terrible for sure, but it is always hilarious to play 3 spells and get a free giant flyer as well as draw some cards and even get an Arcane back. It also builds a nice Storm count, even though it is kind of a terrible way to do it 😅 Also, it should be noted that Teeka's Dragon might be a budget alternative to Draco in some Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow lists because it is a huge CMC creature that doesn't have downsides and even comes with evasion. Not that I think it is amazing, I just think that could be why it is in so many lists besides dragon tribal.

Teeka's Dragon Lure combo was epic back in the day. but yeah, very expensive and with selective use.

There would be a really easy fix for Aladdin's Lamp to turn it from bad into possibly worth the 10 mana. Whenever you draw a card, you may instead search your library for a card and put it into your hand. EDIT: Obviously afterwards the library would be shuffled.

In defense of the rampage mechanic, I believe there is a worthwhile use when enchanted with an effect to make all defending creatures block it. Niche, but Teekas Dragon thusly is good for effectively wrathing the opponents board to clear a path for your other dragons, in addition to likely trampling through regardless

Denying wind? That card can wreak havoc on EDH decks. Some decks are unable to win after being subjected to it. Weird choice for this list.

in 1998 big creatures for reanimators were very rare. I used to run merfolk looter and animate dead into 4 copies of Lord of the Pit ffs.

I know Friday starts at 12 but damn 12 AM sharp is impressive... I'm still watching now

I was totally expecting there to be some big dumb chaotic demons in the mix. Your Lord of the Pits and Infernal Denizens. Its weird how much nerfed all their giant creatures back then.

I think it would be cool to see worst lists for the representative races and iconic creatures for each color

Before the rules clarification errata, Zodiac Dragon was an infinite source of discard cost, since the OG text doesn't specify dying, only being put into the graveyard. You could just discard it over and over again infinitely.

I ran dichotomancy successfully even with suspending it. I ran a deck with twiddles and it worked out really well most times. It's just very specifically useful

POLAR KRAKEN!! I love that thing. IIRC it was the biggest creature around when it first came out

Yo! You should do a video on the top 10 mythic-rare lands. I've only been playing for 3 or 4 years now and prior to the current spoiler season, I'd never seen a mythic-rare land. Even though I know Bazaar of Baghdad exists. I know. Anyway, I think that'd be a cool video. Love the content! Keep it up, ya beautiful mensch.

It shows how different the vanilla test has become that a 9 mana 9/9 is not considered to pass the vanilla test.

Had a kracken deck ran clones and unstable shapeshifters 😂😂 super slow but fun

Krosan Cloudscraper from my favorite block sets Onslaught.

Oh yeah my favorite type of videos, really shows how the game has changed.

Time for the 3 colored guilds to begin.... maybe with bant or temur... Thanks for the great content

Top ten wolves? (Without werewolves) Top ten four mana 4/4? Top ten snakes/serpents? Man this series will really never run out of topics

Denying wind have got to be the most underrated card of all time. It can literally shut down decks, especially in singleton formats.

I know it doesn't always cost that much, but you need, like, 3 creatures in play for Volcanic Salvo to even be worth casting.

One of my favorite things to do in TCGs in general is to take a bad card, and magnify its effect to see what it takes to make it playable or even good without breaking it. Two of the cards in this video are cards I'd like to give this treatment: Blessed Wind 7WW Sorcery Target player's life total becomes 100. I think magnifying this effect fivefold makes it an interesting timmy-magnet, but it still won't win you a game on its own. The effect is quite powerful defensively, but, if it matters that much to you, you're probably still losing the game. Dichotomancy 7UU (same regular effect) Suspend 3 - 1UU Whenever a time counter is removed from Dichotomancy while it's exiled, tap target permanent: that permanent doesn't untap during it's controller's next untap step. This is now a card that is mostly guaranteed to copy at least one thing, and it isn't completely worthless while suspended (and also suddenly combos pretty well with Jhoira of the Ghitu in much the same way Aeon Chronicler does).

Teeka’s Dragon and “all creatures able to block target creature do so” tribal.

Honestly I can see Aladdin's Lamp having some potential. Sometimes you go infinite but just can't do anything with it. But if you could just had just one draw card you can pull whatever you need to finish off the game. I could see commander potential with it.

As a new player back in 95, I too was lured in by those huge stats on Leviathan when I got one. I don't think I actually ever resolved one in play. So terrible. Also tried to play with Deep Spawn a lot, which was also awful. Strangely, Deep Spawn is actually a better card now due to the massive number of ways to use the graveyard as a resource in the modern game...although its still awful. I am not sure how Dichotomancy could do anything in EDH.

The Unspeakable mechanic was in the worst Duel Deck ever released. I didn't understand how they launched this, the deck stood no chance against the other one.

Why would Dichotomancy ever be in those 13 EDH decks? It's a singleton format, you couldn't possibly find a nonland permanent with the same name. Is there some rogue strat you could use with it?

Zodiac Dragon is a "must have" for literally Purpherous Bronze Blooded which is a new "legendary creature" in Theros beyond deeeth where your never casting the zodiac dragon for more than 3 mana.

Thing from the Deep does have nice art though.

okay but Teeka's Dragon + Nemesis Mask is the most swag way to beat an infinite token combo that didn't get to attack immediately ...except it only works on flying tokens! Yeesh.

Teeka's Dragon + spell which makes enemy block with everything + trample = expensive and weird anti-token wining combo.

Aladdin's Lamp was over priced, but I'm not sure that it's ability is overpriced. Think of it this way. Suppose the text read: Whenever you would draw, before the draw you may pay X. If you do, you may Scry X. That sort of effect would be played. You'd just have to find a fair price for the containing object.

Polar kraken is in my top 10 artwork of all time

Denying wind sounds powerful as you can know exactly every card in your opponents deck that kinda information is insane right?

man I love Teeka's Dragon. definitely on my list of "favorite bad cards"

My brother made a deck waaayyy back in the day that was "mono-red" and would play Furnace of Wrath and Pandemonium. Then he'd use Triassic Egg to through down Leviathan. Every one laughed at a) this big blue guy in a red deck b) that he no way to hard cast it or untap/attack with it. They stopped laughing when Leviathan dealt the 20 damage from Pandemonium and inn multi-player dealt another 20 damage with Fling

Playing the shandalar magic game you could put paralyze on leviathan and pay 4 to untap

The best mtg youtuber is back at it again!

I want to know what's going on with those 13 EDH decks that play Dichotomancy.

Dichotomancy feels like it was specifically made to fuck up aggro decks to steal all those creatures the opponent hasnt played yet, although it does so very unpredictably. Maybe your opponent already played his 4 copies of some stuff, maybe he didn't tap whatever you want to steal from him, maybe (by turn 10 when you have enough mana to cast it) all his creatures already dealt so much damage that you've basically lost.

Zodiac Dragon is from a starter's set, it was almost impossible to deal with once played

Colossus Of Sardia^^ I was sure it would be on this list

My guess: Who//What//When//Where//Why My backup guess: Draco. At best it's a 6 cmc 9/9 flyer, at worst it's a 16 cmc 9/9 flyer with a 10 mana upkeep.

Bet jokulmorder is here

Dichotomancy could be fun if you force tap out your opponent on the last turn before suspend goes off. But its very gimmicky.

Back then: 9 mana 10 10 with a ENOURMOUS downside. Now: 5 mana 10 10 without down or upside

Teeka's Dragon is not that bad. What about Colossus of sardia?

I like dichotomancy. I understand that it isn't in EDH and it really has nothing to do in that format. I have no idea why 13 decks use it. But in other games it has its clear uses. If you for some insane reason have 9 mana you can just cast it. I have done this, and its fun. More realistically you're using suspend. If you have timebugs, you tap your time bugs and voila - copy stuff. If you don't have time bugs it buys you a round of little activity from your opponent as they don't want to tap things. I think this alone can be worth three mana. But also, you're blue. And blue means Turnabout, Blustersquall, Cryptic command, Deluge and Ensnare. And probably more. Instant speed, 3-4 mana "tap everything others have". And then Dichotomancy happens. As a two-card combo it's not super powerful, but each piece is fine on its own anyway.