Top 10 Worst Burn Spells in Magic 

The reason backdraft says it only works on sorceries may be due to old Magic speed system, in which instants beat sorceries and interrupts beat instants. Seems like they wrote that to keep in flavor that card and its ability to respond to a burn spell. Granted, why that's not an interrupt is beyond me.

Backdraft was afaik meant as a way to punish Hurricane and other damage based mass removal sorceries that were (infrequently) used in the very early days of MtG. A player casting a Hurricane with X = 3 to remove 3 flying creatures in a duel would deal 15 total damage (assuming no other flying creatures) since it also hits players, a Backdraft in response to this would then hit that player for 7 damage (on top of the 3 they took from the Hurricane). A reasonable enough rate, but not good enough to see competetive use since damage based sorcery removal wasn't much of a thing outside casual play.

Fun fact: Backdraft was given its name due to the constant times you would see it cycle back to you in drafts.

For another Boulderfall comparison, it has the exact same effect as Bogardan Hellkite, except without the hellkite.

A pattern that I noticed is that most spells on this list are bad not because of the effect, but because they are too expensive to be useful in any way. I do have an impression that wizards don’t know how to create good burn spells with CMC greater than 2. With 1 mana, they have lbolt as a standard to design the card around, but as they increase the cost, it seems that they think they need to add drawbacks for every upside, even if the card is already costing too much.

In defense of Scorching Spear, it's a card from the first Portal set. It was a set designed for beginners, containing only basic lands, creatures and sorceries. Probably they thought Magic novices would find 1 mana removal unfunny, so they designed it terrible on purpose.

Edit: The card is Chain Reaction, not Chain Lightning, I'm a fool. Funnily enough, Backdraft might actually have the biggest impact on Commander in theory, it's just that in practice the situation is fairly niche and a bit of a breach of the social contract. Two of the most popular board wipes in Red are Blasphemous Act and Chain Reaction, with the former being near ubiquitous. Act deals 13 damage to each creature and costs 1 less for every creature on the battlefield, so while its mana value is 9, you'll usually cast it for just R because 8 creatures is really easy to reach. Reaction, on the other hand, always costs 4 but deals damage equal to the number of creatures to each creature. And since they're both sorceries, Backdraft can turn into an instant kill on a player who plays one of these into a big enough board. Now here's the problems: First, you need an opponent that's playing Red. Second, they have to play one of these specific spells instead of any other wipes in their color identity. And finally, your payoff is killing the player who probably just saved the table from the biggest threat, which is generally something people try to avoid. Now, if you can set up a board state where the damage gets redirected somehow, maybe you could cast your own Act and then use this to kill someone else, but I'm pretty sure even those decks would rather run anything else other than Backdraft.

11:15 You know the card is bad when TheDuelLogs is calling it trash. And I love how TheDuelLogs is just showing better options left and right.

I do notice that several of these spells come from the Odyssey block, which was considerably lower on the power curve compared to its predecessor, Invasion block. Others are also from lower-tier sets like Kamigawa block (compared to Mirrodin) and Ice Age (an early set when they hadn't quite figured out a lot about power curves). So the power curve of the overall set seems to be a factor in why these are all terrible burn spells.

Scorching spear works great with the izzet ping commander from the Warhammer set. As he only fires if you deal exactly one damage and you can give him deathtouch meaning it can be better than bolt for killing creatures in very specific circumstances.

I really enjoy your videos. I haven’t played in many years but I love the format and seeing how things have changed. I think it’d be fun to see a video based on card artwork good or bad.

Backdraft reads “you win the game” if cast in response to a card like Blasphemous Act, Star of Extinction, or even smaller damage based board wipes like Burn Down the House or Hour of Devastation. It has actual reason to see play in Commander - red decks in Commander use these as their board wipes, so it basically reads “kill target red player who wiped the board this turn”. Green has similar cards that hit flyers like Nylea’s Intervention.

A suggestion: Ten oldest playable creatures.. Excluding Mana dorks. Maybe should even be creatures used as "creatures" instead of just for their ability. I suspect Lord of Atlantis may be one of the oldest but may be there are others from that age that still see regular play where legal. As for a possible "worst burn spell" I was thinking Ragefire from Ravnica Allegiance. 1R at SORCERCY speed for just 3 damage to some target creature. Ok, maybe not as bad as what show up here but even in it's own block it compares poorly to Jaya's Greeting which has the same targeting but is Instant speed and allows Scry 1 as well or Lava Coil which would deal 4 damage instead and exile the target. Guess that was just a horrible time for burn overall.

Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!

I was surprised I didn't see Death Spark. It's an instant for R that deals 1 damage, and can return from the graveyard to the hand under very narrow conditions.

3 - I could almost get the cost if it came out in the Scourge set, the one with ample "reward the high cost" effects. But that was a year later. I don't know what was happening here.

I was wondering if Unyaro Bee Sting might end up on this list, but it didn't. It's a green sorcery for 4 mana that deals just 2 damage to any target. Yes, it's a color pie break, but only 2 damage for 4 mana is still a bad rate.

I feel like Backdraft _could_ see usage in Red Aggro decks, as a way to counter board wipes. Like, if you've got 10 weenies on the field, and your opponent plays End the Festivities or something, you could respond with Backdraft and smack them in the face for 5. Not ideal, but at least you got _some_ value out of those creatures. Of course, that assumes your opponent is playing sorceries that deal damage, as opposed to a Wrath, but it's still _A_ possible use.

Your videos are great Maybe Parallectric Feedback could be good in Commander but burn doesn't work so well there.

9 is easy to fix, there are cards like bag of holding that puts discarded cards under it or there are a few ways to bring back what u discarded & even a way to draw cards for each thing u discarded. I think u could build around it & fix the problems I see with the right cards out & make it cost 1 less even.

If we're gonna do staple effects for the colors, how about worst blue draw spells or worst green pump spells

thats a lot of old bad magic cards

I'd love to see this type of video for Mill

I would say another candidate for this list is "Fires of Undeath" from Dark Ascension. It costs 2R and deals 2 damage to a creature or player, but it's flashback costs 5B and doesn't even get any benefits to casting it for such a ridiculous cost.

amazing!

I was looking through my old Theros cards and found two copies of a rare called firedrinker satyr. Top ten best cards that shoot their owner in the face as a downside (if there are even that many). or top ten best/worst satyrs

Boulder fall vs Tolling thunder actually makes a lot of sense. Costing effectively 1 more to deal damage at instant speed tracks. There's a card for XRR that's basically fireball as an instant for one more red mana.

For commander X spells are amazing with magus lucea kane as ur commander. Add some untap and make however many copies on top of doublers ive had games where im dropping turn 7 or 8 3 64/64s on top of what ive played previously

Hanabi Blast can work with Madness and Containment Construct, so basically you could build around it or at least mitigate some of the downside. If it were cheaper like Shock it would be better. Paralletric Feedback is a card that could do some work in Commander. I have been in tons of situations where people are casting 8+ mana spells. Would be really fun to see someone try to cast a X spell for a ridiculous amount and then die because of Feedback. PF should be lower as in further away from worst because it does have a higher ceiling in Commander.

I feel like Parallectric Feedback might work against a sneak and show type deck, where you target a big creature they cheated out, like an Emrakul.

While flaming gambit definitely *should* be on the list I do think it's better than the number 2 slot. It at least has the chance to be situationally useful depending on what's on the opponent's side of the field. I'd probably have bumped it up to number 8.

Could backdraft deal a ton of damage from a blasphemous act or am I thinking about it wrong?

Would Parallectric Feedback work better in commander?

When I saw Backdraft I though of red board wipes. When your opponent deals lots of damage to each creature, you can really punish them. Example: Say 4 creatures on the board, opponent plays Blasphemous Act, 13 damage to each creature. That's a total of 52 Damage. In this case Backdraft can deal 26 damage to your opponent.

Backdraft should have been a counterspell.

Boulderfall seems fixable too. I remember an enchantment that lets u play a spell for free from the grave each time you cast a spell. So u just discard Boulderfall & then play other stuff will having that out. If I could fully remember the card I am thinking of.

You should do Top 10 Best Burn Spells

Video suggestion: best creatures with Unearth

Wouldn't backdraft instakill a person who uses a damage based boardwipe in EDH?

Would Backdraft even work if the sorcery is only dealing 1 damage to something?

I actually think meteor shower would have been neat if you got to target X cards to do X damage. Maybe XX if thats more balanced but 6 to do 5 damage 5 times doesnt seem too wild as long as theyre separate targets

Funnily enough, I actually think using something like backdraft in commander isn't completely unreasonable, at least in my playgroup where blasphemous act is a pretty common card. If the actually wipe anything off the board, backdraft will kill them.

Do Top 10 Elves

Couldn't you use Backdraft against someone casting a huge Blasphemous Act in Commander? I mean it's not good but it's a use for the card at least and it'd be funny to see the Blasphemous Act player burn themselves lol.

Ember shot was made to see how bad a burn spell could be before people wouldn't play it in limited. People played it in limited.

For #5 i wonder if it'll be devastating against delve deck

The only reason i could see they would print backdraft is if giant x burn spells were really really good but not game ending good. Like a fireball for 8. Backdraft could do 4 damage for 2. The thing with big x burn spells is they are typically meant to win the game.

EMBERSHOT ! I know that Sheet , I know that card. I was not a fan of using it I thought , drawing a card for no punishment because red is angry and fury , made it expensive , aside from " 3 damage " . I even thought it's expensive , because you can only put 4 cards of same name in deck and maybe one day , when it's late game , 3 damage will be helpful + draw a card. But price is too high . 7 mana is nuts. better 2 normal + 3 red . or sth like that.

While this is an absurdly niche situation, couldn't Backdraft be used to nuke a player casting Blasphemous Act, Chain Reaction, or other similar spells? Also, a little surprised that Rhystic Lightning wasn't on the list.

6:09 Oh, Look, It's Sparks

Scorching Spear is the Sparks of MTG

Oh, man. I’ve seen Flaming Gambit played. . . I think that was the flashback/burn spell I’ve seen played. I think. It probably beat me.

Did you use a different microphone or maybe didn't use a pop shield this video? The plosive sounds on your p and b's are very noticeable

Don't think they realized that you can oneshot in commander with Backdraft if someone casts a Blasphemous act or something similar, honestly i have a copy of it just to be able to spite some of my mono red friends from time to time, and the best part is, they usually never see it coming as they don't really care if their 1 mana Blasphemous or 4 mana Chain reaction gets countered as it isn't that much mana but damn Backdraft wrecks face in the right situation, plus in commander you three times the amount of chance to run into a damage boardwipe due to the multiplayer format

Parallectric Feedback seems like a hilarious card for Commander. not a GOOD card, but really funny. I can see it being used to just irk anyone trying to play a big boardwipe or eldrazi. and even then, it'd only be usable in a spellslinging copy deck, where that damage can be done multiple times in one (effective) casting.

I'm pretty casual, but I'm surprised Lava Axe isn't on this list. It's gotten so many reprints I thought it was noob trap, or was it used as a finisher in burn decks for a while?

Bogardon Hellkite is the same thing as Boulderfall but with a 5/5 flyer attached

i personally would put fireball as an honorable mention. its a great mana sink finisher, but as soon as you hit more than one target, it absolutely sucks

Looking at Backdraft and then seeing that Fork is {R}{R}, can respond to instants AND sorceries, and lets you choose any target for the copy of the spell is just... sad.

My beloved Hanabi Blast, SLANDERED by being put on this list...!

When the Red player in your Commander pod plays Star of Extinction. Time to meme them with Backdraft. :^ )

Odyssey block really hated burn players, didnt it? Gave them Grim Lavamancer and literally nothing else good.

Top ten worst artifacts would be neat Everyday I always find an artifact and ask why? There are so many clunky artifacts.

Some video ideas for top 10s: * Spells with X in the cost * Counterspells * Lands that always enter tapped * Cycling cards * Confusing card mechanics * Cards whose oracle text got more confusing over time (e.g. Animate Dead) * Significant rules changes that created/destroyed meta decks (split cards now have mana value equal to the sum of the halves rather than whichever side benefits you at that moment) * Cards you want to stay in your library

Oh my - I forgot that Bogardan Hellkite has Flash! Strictly better 99.9% of the time than Boulderfall!

Imagine if Natalie Ryan was actually good at disc. It would be a much more blaring issue if her win rate was higher. Part of Natalie's argument was "well I don't win THAT much..." like bruh💀

This dude is legit yo

Power creep exists: the RU-vid list video.

Odyssey Block was a particularly bad time for burn spells. They were over balancing burn spells to be super weak and pathetic around this time to the point of being utterly unplayable. Many of the worst cards from Odyssey block were the pathetic red burn spells that block had. One card that defiantly should have been on this list was Swirling Storm. A spell that doesn't even have an effect if you don't have Threshold (7 cards in your graveyard) and even then it's effect is mediocre. So any cards from those sets, Swelter, Liquid Fire, Acceptable Losses, and several others are other examples of very bad burn spells in those sets.

I remember playing duels of the planeswalkers on my 360. First time exposed to magic. I saw ember shot in the red deck and even as a brand new player, I knew it was instantly shit. In fact, every deck in that game had at least one terrible card in it.

I’ve never seen the card backdraft and I never want to see it again

I'm so in to run backdraft in a blasphemes act meta

So backdraft can kill a player if they cast act of blasphemy that turn. Act of blasphemy is a 1 red deal 13 to all creatures. (Yes it does cost more but there usually is enough creatures to cast it for 1 red.) And backdraft would send back damage from each target added together then halfed. That's the only use I can think of and it's not great but it's funny.

I will say in defense of backdraft, if you play this in a game of commander after somebody plays a blasphemous act it will be the funniest magic moment of all time

10 mana: dealt 2 damage to your opponent if they have no green cards and if it’s Tuesday

#6: Otherwise known to some players as Sparks.

Top 10 easiest ways to deplete all a player's life points in a single turn?

5:55 Lightnig Strike lol

Here for ember shot

I am surprised (And pleasantly so!) That Book Burning wasn't on this list. It appears on a lot of these kinds of lists, and it shouldn't, because it actually had an important niche usage when it was originally printed.

Backdraft does not even stop the damage. the target of the burn spell still gets hurt.

Maybe Backdraft is meant to be used against a huge Fireball? Still not good, though

Funny thing is that these cards can be found in a home called draft

Hanabi Blast was decent in limited actually. Was good for the format

I miss the days when he knew as much magic as me (almost 0 beyond the basic mechanics) so actual MtG players could do videos with him of "can a YGO player guess if these cards are any good?"

Scorching spear should be higher in the list, it is wat better then the cards before. I think every meta red deck would play this over the other cards.

If you flip flaming gambit's effects it's a little better... not much, but a little.

the best use I could think of for backdraft is a self burn deck but even in a self burn deck it's not very good

The 10 best counter spells printed in the past 10 years. (No reprints if possible)

Meteor shower takes 3 MANA to deal 1 damage.

The big takeaway: Balance in old MTG is weird.

Fun fact, Hanabi means fireworks in japanese

I think the most shocking thing about Hanabi Blast is that it's uncommon.

Lots of Odyssey block cards.

The narrator's voice... where have I heard it before? A wow channel is it?

if shooting star doesnt make the list im gonna be mad

i havr no sound on the video

Where's flare?

Backdraft… deals 6 damage to someone who cast Blasphemous Act, I guess

I see someone talking bad about doo doo red deck cards. I click like