We Ranked EVERY Keyword of Magic: The Gathering 

Banding love? Anyone?

​@@matteorossi1172what banding does is genuinely kind of cool in any creature heavy format, like limited. It's just not quite interesting enough to be worth the giant text box to get it to work in the rules. It's easier to explain what it does flavorfully than to cite the rules for it, minds like Chains of Mephistopheles

@@matteorossi1172 Banding is very cool for its ability to do things like preventing Trample damage I also love that Wilds of Eldraine has a punch spell that has Banding's wording - "Any number of enchanted creatures you control and up to one other creature you control deal damage equal to their power to target creature you don't control."

@@abbygaleforcewind from now on, I will always play a Mishra's war machine in all of my commander decks

Islandhome is LEGIT. :D

Said no blue player ever.

Ah, but what about a Dimir player? Things like Kaito Shizuki's +1. @@thomassynths

@@thomassynths as a person whose blue decks are all aggro decks gotta disagree.

@@thomassynths What is Merfolk?

@@Graatand Alex Trebek: This creature type is a disgrace to its original color.

would be nice if menace had this downside too for flavor reasons but i get why they didnt go that way

But fear sucked back in the day if you were a non black player. The artifact thing didn't matter so much it was your other friends who were at a disadvantage to the black player.

they're s+ if I'm playing them, f- if you're playing them.

Strorm is better than dredge. It unlocks a unique playstyle. Graveyard decks exist minus dredge.

Dredge as a mechanic is kind of lame. There's no real way to balance self-milling mechanics because it end up feeling really sacky. Storm, at least, is an easy S mechanic... Wizards just did a really bad job balancing it because they seemed not to take into account how quickly you can build mana and draw/search effects.

Storm is actually fun and flavorful, just overtuned. Wizards has done a lot to make storm a fun and balanced Izzet archetype with janky fun cards like Thousand Year storm, and also expanded it to other design space like ooze tokens with Aevee. That's completely different than dredge, which is just broken and completely wrecks the basic rules of the game. I mean, replacing every card drawn with multiple cards in the bin is such an absurd play patter that often means you don't even have to play lands.

Yeah giving Storm an F killed me taking this video seriously. It's an S+ mechanic in the right hands.

This is so true

I totally agree with Day/Night, but how does „any order“ mess up paper? Imo it makes the game fo faster in both digital and paper, because arranging the bottom of your library never matters and costs a lot of time.

@@djentleman37now I have to make sure to remember and take the time to randomize it, where before I would just put it down there in whatever order it happened to be in when I was done looking at it

I don't even think it's good on Arena. It's a clunky mechanic that ends up catching people off-guard the majority of the time.

@@djentleman37 I was saying the shift from "any order" to "random order" was bad for paper, as you can forget to shuffle cards you put on bottom. The "in a random order" just removes a step for resolution in Arena, but leads to potential rule violations in paper for something nearly completely irrelevant.

Bats.

Shelob also has an arm span wide enough to reach some treetops lol. That's almost always the Reach criticism; the thing is simply too big not to be able to reach creatures that smaller creatures can reach. Because we overwhelmingly move on the horizontal plane (excluding things like swimming and flying of course) which informs our vertical displacement by the grading of the landscape, creatures that hang low to the ground but can much more easily access vertical movement often appear smaller to us bipeds than they actually are. Tarantula's don't look all that tall until they start scaling a vertical surface. Shelob would tower several meters in her normal stance and probably dozens of meters if, for example, reaching vertically.

@@kylegonewildIt's always wild to pump some horrendous amount of mana into a neverwinter hydra, with the art that makes it look mountain-sized with a statline to boot and have a dragon fly straight over it.

​@@ArrzarrinaThat gave me a good laugh: thanks.

But, can't you fly over the trees?

Ok but would this not be the best usage of RU-vid Shorts ever? A little snapshot of every mechanic when it comes out - like a shorts series! I'm so about this idea XD

Or have people vote on them too would be fun

I absolutely love 1 hour videos. They would be even better if it were made as a podcast. (ie: the mechanic was verbally named instead of only shown on the screen) That said, with content like that, I would even love 2 hour videos or longer, as I could just listen to it while travelling. I hope the Cardmarket team will consider a podcast among things they could try. It would not take up much more resources and if you keep it audio only, there isn't a lot of editing needed. I would certainly enjoy listening to Karl, Jamin and Thoralf rambling about magic related subjects. (possibly even a bit of commentary on other interesting media)

everything is just kicker, duh!

@@lordmatz3435 Or Horsemanship!

​@@SalterThe or haste

​@@deadded5793or deathtouch

Hexproof was a step backwards from shroud. No clue why they thought it was the "fixed version". Ward is a massive improvement over both of them.

one of the worst parts of power creep for me has been seeing downsides disappear entirely, and great cards with downside flavor being overshadowed by strictly better versions by virtue of not having downsides, turning downsides into upsides is also super fun so it's a shame this design space is withering. a great example is demons, demons used to be amazing but with huge downsides, now 90% of demons are all upside, at worst you might lose 1 or 2 life to draw a card or something.

Yeah he got it reversed

Yeah, I think Aura Swap is a mechanic that would be great to bring back, especially in an enchantments matters set. Maybe if/when we go back to Eldraine after Wilds, it would be a very good mechanic to use thematically. I think the main problem was there was only one card with it.

The fact that Eldrazi conscription is the only aura you would ever want to swap to was the problem with it. I think that if it had been reversed and the one in your hand had to have aura swap, it would have had more design space.

@@seandun7083 Conscription was the best aura to swap with but not the only one worth it. Corrupted Conscience or Colossification are also good gotcha cards for the "archetype", it's just that it plays best as a combo piece than a value one, but I imagine it was designed as a value mechanic where you'd attack with your evasive creature, and after no blocks were declared, you'd swap the Flying for a buff or double-strike or maybe an aura with combat damage triggers.

​@@seandun7083colossification was my personal favorite to instant speed win with commander damage in tuvasa

yea that’s the best thing about ward is that it opens a lot of space for unique wardings

You say it's a two-for-one until someone flying loxodon smiter, or some other card that goes to the field if an opponent's effect discards it.

I think "fixed" is a pretty generous way of putting it, even a Ward 2 can be kinda rough sometimes, and some of these unique Wards might as well be hexproof. They're very similar mechanics that often have similar play patterns, I guess Ward is a little more flavorful.

Reason not to put Ward into s+ is lack of flavor because WOTC just puts it randomly on cards, with deathtouch, flying or even first strike you usually are able to argue why that creature has it, but ward is just slapped on creatures that would be worse without it.

Ward is so annoying. It's often meaningless if you're doing well and have the resources to pay it, or just as good as hexproof (and therefore way too common) if you're a little behind and struggling to pay it. If they could just dump ward in the trash and go back to carefully using hexproof, I'd be a lot happier.

its kicker 0 mate, get your facts straight

Flash is problematic and breaks the fundamentals of the game. It is at best an A but I could see it being way lower. That and Hexproof are probobly the worst ever greens.

​@@vicdark8807playing at instant Speed Is part of the fundamentals of the game, flash doesn't break anything

Blue should not have flash on creatures, otherwise it is fine.

@@vicdark8807 found the hearthstone player!

I love intimidate. But only in multi colour draft enviroments.

I kinda like the "soft evasion" abilities. It's a cool upside that is still easy to interact with and usually doesn't involve overcosting the creature

They also missed ability counters from ikoria

I think they also missed Boast from Kaldheim

Is "Planeswalk" too specific to be mentioned? "Saga", while not actually a keyword, worth discussing I think

The ring tempts you and squad

They literally mentioned triple strike and didn’t cover its ranking. 9 power for 5 mana is bonkers

I think the biggest problem with this mechanic is that there was never a good card with it, at least from what I can remember from the standard at the time

Agreed, but it definitely seems like it could a card printed in a modern horizons set with a new and unique twist Maybe on a creature?

Honestly, I think cleave would also be a cool fit for either Azorius or Dimir for similar flavour reasons.

I hate addendum for the following reasons: - It incentives you to play your cards in a worse, less fun way. Flash is one of my favorite mechanics and I think most of the coolest things you can do in magic rely on the stack and responding to things at instant speed. It felt super lame in it's draft format. - It's terribly named. An "Addendum" is an an extra piece of material such as an edit, correction or additional information put usually at the END of a document. The mechanic addendum makes you play your cards in the MIDDLE of your turn. The name has an Azorius feel because its a term referring to documents used a lot in law, but it should've been called something else. There's a card called "Closing Statement" from Strixhaven that costs 2 less if you cast it during your end step. It's the only card in magic that has done this. IMO this is more appropriate to call Addendum.

@@ericmilligan6603 Addendum does feel like a bad name. More like an effect that would be added on if a card had been played before it this turn, or maybe specifically you had played at least one card before it this turn. You could even have a scalability of power with Addendum X: If you've played X cards this turn get [extra effect]

Horsemanship is S-tier because it's the better flying.

why was it a terrible idea?

@@alicepbg2042they thought it was

Even though it makes me sad.

Right? Bitter End wouldnt be $10 if it was f tier

​@@underpaidoverworked4250i don't think you understand how this ranking works

@@xolotltolox7626 it doesnt work, their opinion of some of these keywords is garbage

Cards where you could pay Phyrexian mana for the abilities as well teeter on the edge of too good or too bad. Norn's Annex seems flexible but rarely does it save you. Hex Parasite and Vault Skirge aren't the most relevant cards but if they had 2023 power creep stapled on or the ability was more value over a very niche role then they would be too pushed imo. It's hard to find the sweet spot with this mechanic where it feels rewarding enough without being way too good.

Did you miss mental misstep being banned to the shadow realm

I disagree. First: There is only one "cantrip" amongst those cards, but Mental Misstep and Cranial Extraction can also be huge problems at times. Second: Immolating Souleater can also be a problem at times because even just phyrexian fire-breathing can be a headache. The mechanic is certainly very interesting and arguably very flavorful, but it's also really busted at its core. And sure, any such mechanic can (and often has been) watered down to such an extent that it no longer matters, but that doesn't take the danger away from stronger designs inherent within that design space.

I think Phryrexian mana is strong but as long as it's on abilities or permanents it's fine. I think fireballing people with Souleater has story potential and I think Birthing Pod is awesome but it's borderline unplayable nowadays even in Commander

It's basically channel but more restrictive. I think channel being above it makes sense

I agree hands down the best ability from 2023 and maybe even the last couple of years

I say switch exert and backup rating.

Yes, that's correct. Toxic is just an effect of damage, like lifelink or infect.

Also there is more than just the Sliver with Poisonous. (At least one Aura irc)

Snake Cult Initiation@@yaenne888

​@@yaenne888I looked it up, you're right, Snake-Cult Initiation. Those are the only two though, and they're both future sight "future" cards

Ok so fading is vanishing with one extra turn

that's why vanishing is B and fading is F I guess.

They're the same with one number adjusted to make it a little more intuitive. You're technically right there's a difference, but they're the same otherwise and could both contain all cards of each other's mechanics with just what amounts to a typo correction in the text box.

So reword Vanishing 3 as Fading 2. Too many redundant mechanics make the game more difficult than it should

Unless you have something that cares about counters, they are functionally the same.

Yes

Agreed. Backup is great and very versatile. They could make cards with backup 0 .. to illustrate what else can be done with it than +1/+1 counters..

Yeah once people see it a couple of times it's not too hard to grasp, the rules wording is just super intimidating.

Banding is also very (too?) strong in creature combat, and makes opponents trade math too hard

The flavor of banding is amazing, and it's really easy to explain with an example, but the rules text is just a mess. And it's also not that good overall.

I think another thing people tend to forget is that if you block with 2+ creatures that have banding you still get to assign combat damage instead of the attacker. That can lead to some much more favorable combats

@@snoozbuster I tell people to think of Banding kinda like Odric except instead of choosing *what* blocks you choose *how much* each thing blocks, and it works whether you're attacking or blocking. Not perfect but it's a starting point.

Love Two-Headed Giant. Needs a whole deck built around it, though. You literally can't cast it without "any color" mana rocks, at least until they finally release Hazel basic lands.

Yeah I think it should have been rated a little higher because it was specifically designed for limited team formats and was excellent for what it did there

It's especially weird because creatures with Fading actually last one round longer than creatures with Vanishing of the same value.

Not to mention the effect it can have on deck building in two-headed giant.

There's also the fun side effect of letting people shuffle if they want.

It's also faaaar more flavorful than normal Partner

The thing with "Partner with" is that they could stop 4 color decks using 2 dual color commander

Partner is my least favorite EDH mechanic of all time. To me, the format is about building thematic decks around specific concepts meeting specific restrictions. Open-ended partners are just the antithesis of that, and push you towards things like 4color goodstuff piles bc they tend to have just generically useful effects. Partner With completely rectifies this by giving you multiple commanders designed to work with each other while maintaining the usual restrictions otherwise. If the multicolor partners never existed (especially the glaring ones like Thrasios), I might like them more, but even then I still find individual commanders or parter with duos far more interesting in terms of deckbuilding.

Fuse is S+ because it's real kicker.

Thank you :) I'm happy you enjoyed it!

Agreed, it's much more than 1/1 counters

It's basically sorcery speed ninjutsu in a way, and fixed ETB put counters on creatures to be not only fun but flavorful. I want to see it again. S

That's actually the part of the video I found frustrating, because they switched between rating based on how it feels to play against, play with, personal preference and how objectively good a mechanic is between mechanics xD

Imagine they made 250+ single keyword based decks and had a battle Royale

still annoyed we never got swimming/burrowing as variants on flying/horsemanship.

Just know that we are missing one 😅 spell mastery was somehow clicked over. If you look it up, let me know what rating you would give it :)

@@CardmarketMagicspell mastery definitely goes in a

​@@CardmarketMagicI think you missed "For Mirrodin!" too(maybe you missed more, but this one is from the top of my head) - kinda like Living Weapon, but waaay more flavorful

Alliance from New Capenna is also missing, basically the creature version of Landfall and Constellation. I assume it would be put in roughly the same spot as Landfall.

@@CardmarketMagic Not sure the qualifications for what you're ranking, but all the Transformers mechanics were also missing. "more than meets the eye", "convert", and "Living Metal" (which is a neat way to make a vehicle a weapon on your turn only)

Agree. I love a good comeback story or game!

They didn’t even discuss the real problem with it, that being that it can easily create terrible gameplay where neither player wants to risk putting the other under that threshold. There are so many dogwater cards that become insanely good when they’re turned on, so it’s just a case of you can’t win either way.

Thank you :) that's very kind of you to say

The larger flavor fail is that your army consists of one creature...

@@Kettwiesel25 someone wants it to be a pack rat token

@@Snailing_Suika No I just want to have the choice to put the counters on a new creature.

@@Kettwiesel25 Play changelings! While no creature has Army as a creature type printed in the typeline, if you somehow control multiple Armies, you can just choose any of them. Any way of giving the type to a creature works - changeling is the easiest one.

For Mirrodin! is essentially just a new take on Living Weapon tho

It's easy to describe in a generic sense, but difficult to word in a way that works with the complexity of the game as a whole, thus making it feel more complicated than it really is.

@@cameroncorrado3935 Sure, especially considering that back then most keywords were very simple compared to banding

Yeah and if it doesn't go your way you guys concede at like turn 3, Gitrog says hi btw.

@@WhatisAPaladin Imagine being so salty that you have to reply with bile when someone is just celebrating something they like about the game. Sounds like you’ve been a victim more than a few times. Maybe just put a Gaea’s Blessing in your deck and take a chill pill, my dude. It’s just a game. ☮️

That is the difference, but in practice it means vanishing 2 is the same as fading 1 in almost every scenario

It didn't show hour in the list of mechanics Jamin used. Or it was a copy-,pasting error. Either way saga would indeed be S+

@@CardmarketMagic I don't think its in lists since the wiki has it as enchant-saga and not a ruling which is why I asked. S+ Hype

Rhythm of the Wild Ruling: If a creature enters the battlefield with two instances of riot, you may choose to have it get two +1/+1 counters, one +1/+1 counter and haste, or two instances of haste. Multiple instances of haste on the same creature are redundant, *but we're not going to tell the Gruul how to live their lives.*

You can talk down to pioneer, modern and standard but please don't talk down to pauper :P it's the format of the people

Hear me out... Pauper Commander...@@CardmarketMagic

Hopefully the video also was good after watching it :)

@@CardmarketMagic Yes it was a banger! Unrelated question: Are some of you going to "Der andere spieleladen" for the prerelease? If you do, when? Im for the weekend in Berlin and would love to meet you guys :)

@chadjehebej2258 oooh! I know Jamin will be going to the pre-release at Spiel Film Musik. Thoralf will probably do the pre-release at the cardmarket office if he does one, I'll be doing that one as well since I'll be out of town for the weekend. But we'll likely meet you at any future Magiccon or commander fest :)

And Magecraft which is in my Izzet deck is also missing. Which just shows that over the course of time Magic has accumulated a lot of abilities. 😂