Why is Hermit Druid BANNED? 

How supremely boring.

​@NecromancyForKids dude why is that boring? It's a Wincon. Is dealing 40 damage more exciting? Alternative wincons are dope

​@@ToadboyVlogs it's an *overused* wincon, and it also happens to be one that has minimal interaction, beats all of your opponents at once, and is particularly exploitable by fast strategies that threaten to turn MTG into Yugioh. I get why some people don't like it.

@AndrewFullerton magic came way before yugioh and has always been faster at it's peak degeneracy. UK what's a over used wincon...reducing life total to zero. 2 card combos should win the game when not interacted with...wanna stop thoracle? Be goofy and make then draw from a empty library...or stifle the ability...or play so many stax peices they never get it off.

@@ToadboyVlogs It's the most used wincon in competitive circles to an extent where it dominates entire formats. You mentioned a few ways around it, though they have to be at instant speed. Versus other strategies, how effective is making your opponents draw extra cards? How efficient and useful is stifle outside of this specific combo, and is it worth running? Can you protect your stax pieces and still have a deck that functions while under their effects? Can those stax come online fast enough to reliably stop Thoracle? The answer, so far, has been no. If you play against a thoracle combo deck, be ready to lose without interaction.

I used to run it in stickfingers, and it was crazy good,

I will never unsee this.

Naban is another variation of Jason Momoa btw :p

Exactly what I saw 🤣

I love it

@@maxf2417 correct, though Dragon Breath came out later in Scourge.

@@maxf2417 i also ran Dragon Wings in that deck to help with evasion. It had mixed results NGL. At least Wings had cycling so i could toss in if needed

With how much early MTG art has characters very much seeming like they were modelled after real people, it's surprising that THIS one, which looks very much like Jason Momoa, is just a coincidence lol

​@@sallomon2357 just a coincidence, Jason Momoa in the late 90's had short hair

But he is of native Hawaiian and Samoan ancestry which comes around full circle 😂

Winter Sky from Homelands looks like Adam Driver.

There were fetches in Mirage, which entered tapped.

Onslaught WAS printed when the ban came down.

@@andrewsparkes6275 as nice as those effects were, they really saw no competitive play. ETB tapped really hurt it so bad :(

@@bluedestiny2710 I never said they did. I just said fetch lands existed before Onslaught was printed. People used fetch lands before Onslaught was printed.

But you named the problem. You can just put hermit into your deck and have no restrictions at all. There are tons of legacy decks that don't play any basics anyway. So putting hermit into your deck doesn't really hurt. You could also tutor for it with green sun's, which is a big upside. So in the end you don't have to go all in on the combo, but if you happen to have a hermit, you could win on the spot. It's pretty much a cheap 1 mana combo card.

Indeed. Green Sun is a much better card than those wizardcycling cards Cephalid Illusionist combo decks use. And it’s a single card combo. But having to wait for the second turn for 1/1 to live is rough, especially in the current meta filled with Orcish Bowmasters. And everybody has graveyard hate in sideboard. I don’t think it would be broken. Necrodominance combo is getting lots of turn 1 kills today and they don’t ban it either.

Also 100% nonbasic land mana base is a real restriction in legacy. Wasteland, Blood Moon, Magus, Back to Basics and the new blue Magus all all played. So Hermit Druid in control shell would need to be able to beat all of these and all the sideboard graveyard hate. And make 1/1 live over a turn cycle. It’s strong, but I don’t think it’s broken at all.

@@sebbbi2 It's not about winning turn 1. It's about winning. And a card, that can just win by itself is just too risky. Sure, it got to live for a turn, but if it doesn't, it's not too bad if hermit ain't your plan a anyway

Hermit Druid requires 9 slots in the deck: 4x Hermit, 3x Narco, 1x Dread Return, 1x Oracle. That’s 5 completely dead draws and you have to play 100% nonbasic land base, which is a big liability. Most decks want to play couple of basics (fetchable) to avoid scooping to blood moon and series of wastelands. Hard to say whether Beanstalk would play Hermit Druid over Uro and Forth Eorlingas. Cephalid Breakfast also just got Nadu as alternative win con that doesn’t die to graveyard hate. Control already has more reliable win conditions. Hermit would indeed be faster and requires immediate answer, but it requires also 2x more slots than current win conditions and forces you to play a risky mana base. Reanimator is currently the most played deck by far (26%), which means that graveyard hate is everywhere. I don’t think Hermit Druid fits control shells, but green + black scam deck with Green Sun Zenith toolbox would likely be very strong. Reanimates would bring Hermit Druid back too and Green Sun offers protection against Leyline.

How else do you think cards get banned? 🤨

That is so so powerful

​@@WhatSmadathat is so so powerful

@@HappyZugZwangthat is so so SO powerful

Oh, it says only one BASIC land.

@@deletedTestimonynow the basic part doesn't even matter since there are MDFC lands

it was banned far before thassa's oracle but i do agree its a silly card and should be banned in edh at minimum