We Used Science to Find Magic’s Best Mechanic 

3 Decks with the Winning Mechanic: bit.ly/439fcA3

Commenting before they reveal banding as the best mechanic in the game

Kicker is obviously best because everything is kicker

Ohhh I thought you were playing an actual mini tournament between decks built around specific mechanics but this was also fun to watch! Also, I totally agree, Ninjutsu is a real gem

everyone gangsta till storm hits the table

9:11 "Morph has almost zero flavor" looks like _someone_ hasn't read Tarkir lore

Devotion is more fun than Meld because you actually get to use it....

That first round pairing is unfortunate. Monarch and Landfall both feel like top 4 mechanics.

Honestly, the by far funniest and most interesting mechanic is Madness, just Faithless Looting into two Madness spells and casting them for nearly nothing instead of losing them is so much fun! Great video, keep on the great work!

I haven't even watched the video but I LOVE landfall, it combines ramp which is necessary with game advantages.

I haven't watched this but i know kicker is going to win ... Because everything is kicker Damn

You should've played this out as a real tournament with decks, where every nonland card either features the mechanic or obviously synergizes with it.

Squee is a really dubious example of the Monarch mechanic at 14:20.

I have never seen anyone resolve a meld!

I have to agree that Ninjutsu is the most fun. I was playing Historic in Arena yesterday and I lost to a UB Ninjutsu deck, but I still had a blast! Not knowing what I needed to play around and seeing my opponent get in extra value was TONS of fun! Edit: I'd also like to add that in Modern, I had a sweet Grixis Ninja deck that was my absolute favorite to play with!

I think you guys underestimate how long I could hear you guys talk. Honestly, you could have just recorded yourselves getting to these last mechanics in the video and just uploaded the audio as a podcast, and the video would be a shorter version of that like you did here, or you have to go from the podcast to the RU-vid video to find out the finale. I would listen to every single episode!

Can’t forget about the flanking mechanic 🎉

Would love to see you build a deck that focuses on each mechanic and then play matches against each other Just as the other Best Deck series :)

I'm saddened that my two favorite mechanics aren't on the list, annihilator and dredge

Hi Cardmarket team! Do any of you remember Tiny Leaders? It was a 1v1 singleton format with 49 card decklists, a 3 mana value limit to cards, and one commander that was popular in the mid 2010s. People left it because it played too similar to Legacy, but it's kept kicking under the name Tiny Leaders Reborn and has developed a very unique identity since the Commander boom due to the sheer number of new commanders that Wizards has printed recently. I would love it if you tried it out one day-- it's really a blast and is my pet format.

Honestly, before even watching the tournament I would have answered ninjutsu so I can't argue with the result!! Ninjas are just one of the most fun mechanics ever, neon dynasty was one of my favorite sets, and it's just such a flavorful and tactical mechanic to play with and against.

What a bout Mutate? that is honestly the most fun mechanic i have ever plyed with

Ninjutsu is really cool, I agree Always look for your new videos, they are so interesting and magic oriented but also really comforting! You awesome!

Ain't no way Monarch is more fun than Landfall. Monarch is fine, but it's just "draw a card" with additional steps at the end of the day.

This vid made me wanna make a meld commander deck lmaoo

nice tournament, cardmarket!

Showing "Squee, Dubious Monarch" as a Monarch card has me feeling slightly dubious...

When monarch won over Landfall, I straight up checked to see if this was an April Fools video, lol.

To make the process more scientific, I suggest you assemble decks that showcase each of these mechanics exclusively then lock both Jamin and Carl in a room. The one who emerges half-mad while grinning ear-to-ear gets to choose the winning mechanic. The loser gets to have Thoralf sign his admission slip as he wheels him into an asylum.

Horsemanship gonna win this ez

I've always been a graveyard gremlin and loved the undergrowth mechanic when I started playing around the time of the Guilds of Ravnica Block, so for me it was like christmal when I learned about stuff like delve and dredge :D

I think we need a finals-match with the two finalist mechanics! Of course, the winner is the one that has caused the most fun at game end.

Meld should have easily beaten monarch when it comes to the "most fun" mechanic imo. Few things compare to the feeling of power of having a giant card on the table, and almost all of the meld cards wildly swing the game in your favor. Plus, like you all said, being able to meld a card is so unlikely in the grand scheme of things that it's something that you remember and talk about for a long time afterward

I would love to see this played out with decks.

Kicker and Horsemanship will win because every keyword is kicker or Horsemanship

I have a ninja/rogue deck with Yuriko as the commander (of course) that focusses on just stealing everyone else's cards. One fun thing is to cast Theiving Skydiver with kicker to steal some artifacts just to ninjutsu them out next turn to do it again. If you can give her haste too, you can even do it on the same turn. Casting her at instant speed with Leyline of Anticipation is also fun. You can have her steal an artifact creature that's attacking to remove it from combat.

Ninjutsu is easily my favorite mechanic. It's the reason why I chose Neon Dynasty as the first set to buy a box of when I first came back after a years-long break from Magic. However, my favorite deck I've ever had was a Moonfolk/Landfall deck. I probably would have put landfall through to the finals since it has so many great applications for any format or deck.

Butts. I forgor to submit tu-tu the 2 blue +2/2 equipment

0:42 The controller becomes the monarch, not the owner. 2:33 I wouldn't say convoke generates mana, because it perpetuates the confusion caused by its incorrect reminder text. It does not generate mana, it allows you to tap the creatures _instead_ of paying mana. 6:50 All double-faced cards are pooled together, except for meld? And I'd say Disturb is much more like Flashback, than the other double-sided cards.

Ninjitsu is way more interesting and complex than even represented and it still won. It's amazing. If your ninja has double strike, it can deal damage, then you can ninjitsu another creature in to deal regular damage before the first strike damage was dealt. There's more tricks... It still won without these even being brought up

10:14 My favorite Monstrous card is Splitting Slime. It's a 3/3 with Monstrous 3, which creates a copy of itself that isn't Monstrous... So you can make a new 6/6 and a new 3/3 turn it into a 6/6 and make a 3/3... Forever and ever. It's not cheap though but I sure do have fun with it

I've gone almost exact opposite on all of these 😅

when i read the title, i thought it would be a tournament with decks that mostly or only use their keyword

My fave is tap. idk why... I just love tapping

"Ninjutsu makes you friends" and then loses them when you played Yuriko and reveal a Blightsteel or Eldrazi.

Seeing monarch reaching the finals when it should've lost on round 1 is weird. Landfall offers so many options, it rewards you for simply playing the lands which is what 99% of decks do. It draws you cards, creates tokens, put counters and tons of other things. On the contrary, the only thing monarch does reliably is drawing you single card at the end of the turn you introduced it to the game. And then it weirdly shifts the focus of the game where instead of attacking the player who is the biggest threat players attack the monarch just to get the freaking crown. Also, you can introduce the monarch to the game, then get it taken from you and never get it back because your opponents either have strong defense or just wipe your creatures so you don't have a chance to attack them, thus all you did is gave cards to your opponents. And what is even worse (for me personally) - you cannot remove the monarch once it has been introduced to the game, which is just bad design taking into account how easy is it to do so. Mechanics should have countermechanics. Things like planeswalker emblems at least require some preparations (protecting your walker for several turns before ulting or getting counter-doubling effect prior to playing your walker etc.). Monarch is just "play a card that gives you monarch, and then everyone is stuck with the crown existing till the end of this game."

I was with you until the second semi finals. The winner of that has a lot less variety in the playpatterns than the loser and as such the latter never stops creating amazing stories while the first one eventually becomes "I got [mechanic'd] again"

Imo Annihilator is also absolutely nuts. Like, imagine a 2cmc 1/1 annihilator 1. It would be rough in fast formats.

POV you got heartstone werbung before a magic video

No cascade, no goad, no idea how this list was constructed because that’s definitely some of my favorites. Happy to see cycling make the list though! Underrated for fun, it’s surprisingly powerdul

ninjutsu into becoming the monarch. Boom

I feel mutate would have done well in this bracket. 100% needs to be another video show casing the many other abilities. Madness, Haunt, Mutate, Storm, Dredge, (even if those two are not the most fun they are still popular mechanics) Crew, Metalcraft, evolve, level up, proliferate, initiative.... just to name a few

7 seconds in and I already have opinions :D you guys know how to keep me watching. One thing I have opinions about in MTG is landfall... landfall and dredge, okey two things landfall, dredge and cascade... I´l start again... among things I have opinion about are such diverse mechanics as.... (its a Python joke everybody :D)

What episode did jamin meld Urza in?

Since everything is kicker it is guaranteed to win, in fact it simply can't lose

I'm totally sure conspire is the best mtg mechanic. It's so good that Richard Garfield once said it was a design failure. I've made a commander deck with Wort, the Raidmother as commander so I know what I'm talking about.

I'm gonna try and try again to meld Mishra in my stupid 111 card modern deck it will happen some time with neoform / eldritch evolution thanks to unearth I can sac the small one to get mishra.

The irony of showing Thassa’s Oracle when talking about how fun devotion is, when it is a very salty card that very rarely is played because of its devotion effect.

Holy cow man this is the first time I have realized since the set came out that it’s Ninjutsu and not Ninjitsu! 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️ hearing Jamin say it correctly is the first time I’ve ever heard it said correctly and my brain always put Ninjitsu there when I saw it 🤣🤣🤣

Before watching the winner has to be Kicker or Horsemanship. Every mechanic is either Kicker or Horsemanship.

What song is that at 4:30??

"Monarch is just a commander and pauper mechanic" Forth Eorlignas: "Am I a joke to you?"

Why does Carl on the thumbnail always remind me of Mr Beast? 😂

Monarch is boring and overpowered: Fight me.

I could write an essay on why Double faced cards should’ve won the whole thing.

As a yuriko player I rooted for ninjutsu the entire video

Saying that Morph is flavorless is nuts

i agree with the end results, i think.

Counter Argument with Cycling... there is no mechanic in the game that gives me tiny laughs like my opponent going "In response I cycle Lonely Sandbar"

I think you could have done videos leading up to a finals. I'm not sure you picked the top 16 for this tournament. You could have picked Monarch, Enter the Dungeon, Ascend and The Ring (Tempted by the ring) as a division to see which one moves on. They're all game altering affects. So many subgroupings that would match to more interestingly to me. Day/Night, Transform, Meld, and Morph... Thanks for giving us some fun anyways.

played today my landfall commander against 3 ninjutsu-decks xD

it's all kicker. even ninjutsu. :)

I love my MMNM semifinals

Spike died so Timmy could live.

The unfun part in double faced cards is taking them out of the sleeve, to see what the other side does 😅

I really like miracle, too.

Is it weird that I thought the tournament was going to be people playing with decks themed around the mechanics? XD

Everything is kicker though

Make magic great again, bring back madness.

Ok, from 8 1st rounds only 3x hit the same opinion as me (and actualy started 3x other then me, so i was thinking if i can go 0-8 :D )

All mechanics are kicker. Living weapon is kicker.

There should be a Timmy disclaimer 😂

NGL the video itself felt pretty awkward with the constant change of position (in front of the camera, in front of each other, in front of each other with a table). Hope this style doesn't stay around. It felt like you could't decide what the post position was for shooting and just threw every idea into the video. That said, the idea is pretty cool and I enjoyed it! You could also do an opposite one, a bracket with the worst mechanics :-D

So must fun deck is UB faeries in pauper

My favorite mechanic is legendary landwalk

Kicker wins regardless because everything else is kicker.

Let's go amass!

Yay! A mechanic where there is no possible interaction with! Fun... Sarcasm off

Once again proving that Yuriko is the best commander

Landfall !

I came for science and left unfullfilled. ;{)

Love the video, y'all! But for me personally, the whole left side of the bracket is scuffed 😂😂 My opinion, but: I can't believe that "draw a card" made it to the finals 😂 I think the result for my bracket probably still would've been the same but it would've 100% been Landfall over Monarch, Living Weapon over Landfall, then Meld over Living Weapon. Also just an observation; I don't know if the results and all the bracket pairings were pre-planned but I got this vibe that something was off. At some points it felt like even the debating was a little scripted, or like, "well, the winner for each pairing has already been chosen so there's really no point in debating, but let's throw a couple points back at each other for show" Something just felt a little inauthentic, I can't really put my finger on what it was though. Maybe you guys were trying to do a quicker video, or maybe you didnt feel like setting up the board meeting setup (1 person sitting at the table while the other(s) sit off to the side) and have a real time discussion about which mechanic is more fun, idk 😂 I just want you guys to have the best content possible with the most success possible, and I feel like feedback is the only way I can help 😂 aside from saying some controversial things and farming engagement for y'all 😂

you should do the same tournament but in a real game. set some rules like: each deck need to have at least 8/12 cards of that word. and chose a format like modern or pioneer to fill the rest of the deck

Yall probably don't know it but meld came from duel masters,I guarantee that they use duel masters as a testing ground for future magic mechanics you should do a video on it

ninjutsu is one of, if not the least favorite mechanic from bad memories when it first came out. still liked the video though

Disappointed to see meld not win. Meld definitely is the best mechanic

you forgot the TRULY fun mechanics, dredge, storm, madness....

The issue with ninjitsu is that yuriko exists

And ninjas win again! LET'S GOOOO!!!!

can you do a video on watching the world champion of 2019 where tolaf one and became world champion