Worst of the Worst: Magic Card Mechanics So Bad They Were Never Ever Used Again! 

"Blast From The Past" Full Deck Reveal - A new Doctor Who Commander Precon for Magic Gathering: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_5gqXG_PPjk.html

This is not The worst mechanic in magic This is just a tribute

celebration was so bad, they haven't used it since wilds of eldraine

Ironically, if there was a Sweep card that read "Draw a card for each Island returned to your hand" I'm sure it'd be a Commander staple.

It's so wild that blue didn't get a sweep card, considering the whole thing with the moonfolk was that they bounce your lands

The best mechanics are the worst ones that you can make work together in a unique commander deck.

To be fair, a green Sweep card that returned lands to your hand, then put that many lands into the battlefield tapped would be hilarious in Landfall decks.

The thing I find most funny about Sweep is that there was a return-lands-to-hand theme in blue in Kamigawa, but none of the Sweep cards are in blue.

I still contend that banding was never 'bad'... just incredibly confusing. The ability to control how combat damage is dealt to your creatures is underrated, tbh.

I think there's room for a colorless boardsweeper in the form of a 7 mana card that gives all creatures Wastehome until end of turn.

Epic might be an iffy mechanic, but in order to mitigate it Wizards also introduced Channel in the same set, giving creatures with Channel a spell-like ability that ignored the Epic restrictions. So, in a roundabout way, the Epic cycle gave us Boseiju, Who Endures and all the other useful channel effects from Neon Dynasty.

I remember playing kamigawa limited. The sweep cards werent good, but they interacted with the other kamigawa mechanic that checked if you had 7 cards in hand. It was a reliable way to get back to 7 in the late game if you flooded out.

You know it might be fun having an Unset where they put all of these bad mechanics, but make the effects Funny/gamebreaking.

Sweep exists because original Kamigawa had a "hand size matters" theme going on, and the most common way they allowed you to accomplish that was bouncing your own lands to your hand. The sweep cards were far from the only cards to do this. How well did the "hand size matters" cards perform, you ask? I have no idea and I only know of the contents of the sets because I've spent too much time looking at card lists.

I absolutely love terrible mechanics in magic. They're unironically something that I love about the game that brings all new levels of jank and cool interactions!

Sounds to me like Radiance could've used a "...That player controls" clause to prevent what you mentioned. so if you cast it on your opponent, ONLY your opponent's cards that fit the criteria are affected and vice versa if you cast it on your creatures. I think Radiance could actually work out pretty well if that were the case so that it prevented accidental blowback and/or overlap

It's crazy cause Sweep would have a huge and powerful impact on Landfall Decks if it actually did good effects

Y'all remember in Future Sight when they made Slivers with buncha weird abilities such as *fateseal* and *absorb* ?

I want to see a Sweep card that lets you cheat a land from hand for each land you returned. Like a weird Scapeshift.

When he said no one wants to return their islands for a mediocre effect, I thought gush, daze, or foil was going to pop up on the screen

+1/+1 on your whole board for picking up your lands sounds like a decent finisher, and I know a lot of landfall decks that can easily cheat them back onto play for extra value (thank you mama Wrenn). No wonder they didn't let green have any cards with sweep!

I've used "Charge Across the Araba" before as a finisher. Wouldn't touch the other ones though. Additional: Saviors was a block that wanted you to have a large number of cards in hand, so something that let you refill your hand size for an effect does make sense design-wise.

I actually use radiance cards in my Enrage EDH deck. If i ping my commander, i get to enrage everyone AND i might blast some of my opponents' creatures.

Enduring Ideal was the first card I brewed around and the first deck that was truly my own creation. It was also pretty powerful since there are a ton of gamewinning enchantments out there that lock your opponent (Dovescape, Mindcage) or win the game (Day of the Dragon). So Epic has a special spot in my heart. I understand why it was never used again though.

Enduring Ideal was a competitive Standard Deck, used to get Form of the Dragon and other control enchantments.

I love that the reprint scale for mechanics is called the storm scale, yet they've definitely printed storm on things since it was invented. RABIAH HAS A CHANCE EVERYONE!

I kind of like Barrel Down Sokenzan in mono-red Landfall (something I've seen players calling Doomfall). It can be hard to find ways to keep making your land drops in mono red so being able to deal a bunch of damage while setting up to keep playing lands on your following turns is kind of nice.

The big issue with a lot of Kamigawa cards, including the two mechanics you mentioned, is that for some reason they wanted to encourage you to have lots of cards in hand. They apparently forgot that having cards in hand means you are not casting cards, which is what you are generally meant to do to play Magic.

The Takenuma sweep card has seen actual competitive play! In pauper, its part of Rites of Initiation combo.

Radiance might be interesting if there were some colorless cards with it. Would be a lot easier to design around and include in decks if you don't have to balance around them hitting yourself and your opponent(s)

I was hoping Daze and Gush made an appearance at the end as you were talking about returning islands to hand.

I actually love epic spells, I run them in my chaos deck and would recommend anyone that runs chaos decks to do so as well. They combo with the all star hive mind pretty well and the best part is that even if they manage to kill you off the game the effect is permanent for the rest of the game because hive mind made everyone else cast it as well, so the effect is technically theirs. It is hilarious to watch everyone cast the blue epic spell and pass their deck around while they draft your deck for cards and vice versa.

Great video, I’d love to see more in this style. Keep up the good work

Radiance seems surprisingly easy to fix. Simply forcing each effect to target either a creature you control or a creature an opponent controls, then adding a "that player controls" clause at the end. The only "cost" of this change is that you can't choose to strategically buff your opponent's board, which will pretty much only ever matter in commander.

I personally run rally the righteous and brightflame in my general ferrous rokiric boros deck, and it ends up being super fun. Rally the righteous is generally a war flare for cheaper, and brightflame can be a late game board wipe that also gives tons of health! Love it

"No one wants to return lands to their hand for lame effects" -Meloku has entered the chat

Surprisingly, I used Barrel-down sokenzan in my Borbyrgmos enraged deck. worked great as a finisher in the late game.

holy balls im early! I love these videos, as an amateur game designer i always enjoy watching what worked and what didn’t - and why! Thanks for the video Prof! ❤❤

I honestly like radiance. Sure it means you got to think about what you are doing when you cast them. But especially Brightflame is one of my favorite cards ever!

I actually really like the radiance mechanic u.u I have a kitchentable colorless deck with which I use the removal spells to easily wipe boards. It features Eldrazi and morph spells, so I can definitely see it used in a Tarkir setting with many multicolor cards as well as morphs to make use of it correctly.

Great video! I am running Barrel Down Sokenzan as finisher in my new Imodane deck 😂 if you have a damage doubler it can win the game. Return 7 mountains to hand to deal 14, that damage is doubled to 28 then Imodane sees 28 dealt then is doubled dealing 56 to each opponent 👍

Prof: "No one wants to return their Islands to their hand for a lame effect!" Gush: Stands in the corner looking around awkwardly.

How about a blue green sweep card that allows you to, for each land you return to your hand, to place a number of lands with different names onto the battlefield? Almost a flicker effect, but triggers landfall, allows you to reuse mana, and stops you from going overboard with just 20 basics or whatever. Vaguely viable, or probably not?

Can't wait for banding video. I started playing in 94 and I remember thinking I was dumb not understanding how banding works... I am relieved to know that all these later, that it was perhaps banding itself that was the problem.

What is it that makes the Prof so engaging? Is the faux-sincere campy opening lines? A wardrobe that burns your eyes out of your sockets? The skid row hairstyle? Maybe it's his dubious taste in friends? The gripping videos that consist entirely of hands open packs of cards and showing them to the camera one by one? Innovative camera work and set design? Amazing CGI? The body that makes women cry? There is something that keeps me checking the site daily to see if there is a new video yet. But what is it?

I actually far prefer Chroma over Devotion, since Chroma can count mana symbols from anywhere instead of only ever your permanents. The flexibility of counting in other zones or narrowing the count was far better IMO. Also, Chroma is a much more plane-neutral name for the mechanic than Devotion. Radiance is a neat idea, but the facts that it debuted in a block full of multicolor and hybrid cards, and that it always applied to _all_ applicable permanents, really hurt. I feel like if the mechanic debuted in a monocolor focused set or block, like original Eldraine, it might've been better. It also could've been better if each instance specified "you control" or "your opponents control" or such.

I never thought that I would be glad about having some horrible cards, but I legitimately considered using a card with Sweep in a deck and I have at least three of the four, so I got the question of what it did correct.

Chroma was a mechanic I know very well. I had built a friend a deck around the Chroma effect of Primal Crux. He could have it out as a 25/25 as early as turn 3. Back when we didn't run a lot of interaction it stomped the table.

If they had made a green sweep card it might have actually seen Commander play as a way for the landfall decks to bounce their lands back to hand to get more triggers.

I think something like Tribute can work with a bit more tweaking on the costs. Lets say the regular cost gets you both the counters and the effect, but a lesser cost option allows the opponent to choose one of them instead.

I thought Cascade would be on this list not realizing that it had been brought back a couple of times. I thought I had heard somewhere that Cascade was never to see the light of day again. And of course banding isn't the worst keyword, that title belongs to Bands with other.

damn next time someone says im gonna sweep the board im gonna respond with "you're gonna return all your lands into your hand?"

I would love some sweep for Forest or Islands for a funny tech card in my Gretchen Deck, I'm already playing a bunch of Soratamis. A forest sweep card would be especially cool for Sasaya. And to be honest I was disappointed that Neo didn't had Bushido, or a Samurai Mechanic that was synergistic with it, in it.

Chroma, Radiance and Sweep are ability words, not mechanics nor keywords. I think that makes a huge difference because these examples ended up being in this list because of card design rather than the idea behind the ability itself. As Prof pointed out himself, Chroma had such good potential, WOTC shaped it into Devotion. A Sweep card would probably shine with a game ending effect, like overrunning by pumping your team based on the number of forests you control.

What about Fortify? That mechanic was only used on 1 card and then never seen again 😄 (Ok, I know it was because Future Sight had an ‘alternate reality’ kind of theme, hence the weird offshoots, but still, 1 card!)

Excellent video ive been looking for new deck ideas

Sweep being on 4 cards is hilarious 😂 I agree with everything you said about Epic, but I still wish they’d printed 1-5 new Epic spells in Neon Dynasty or Neon Dynasty Commander. I think something like Kaya the Inexorable’s Ultimate or Eerie Ultimatum with Epic could be fun.

I liked banding.

I quite like Banding actually. I think a Banding/Bushido deck would be interesting if the mechanic still existed by Kamigawa's time.

Loving the tie prof! Where can I get one with that pattern myself?

I use snake of the golden grove in Bilbo Birthday Celebrant. I also built a combo deck around the epic mechanic. I made a video about it called: Never before seen Atraxa Combo!

That Dandân shout out was classy as hell Prof. Sam deserves all the love. His channel is so culturally significant to the MtG community. His work deserves ALL the exposure it can get. Keep being a champion of the MtG community!

ALWAYS a GREAT day when Tolorian uploads❤

I love Enduring Ideal. In my Go-Shintai commander deck, a common win con after getting a couple shrines out is to Enduring Ideal into Dovescape, then just win the game slowly over a few turns through shrine effects as the opponents cant stop/interact with me and I get 7 birds every turn

I'm ready for the banding video. The power to divide combat damage without killing creatures is a power I believe you underestimate. With the caveat that I think there's only viability in commander. Helm of Chatzuk and Baton of Morale are powerful combat tools in the hands of a mage willing to wield them.

Prof have you heard of the lesser known mechanic banding? I feel like it would have been perfect on this list.

I watched up to the sponsorship, and now I'm wondering what number Energy will be.... BTW, Professor, it is "a criterion" and "muliliple criteria". ;-) Love your stuff!

I never had any problem with Radiance, i remember to have a really neat time playing it with great effect, Boros guy here of course. Charge across araba can be a deadly finishing move and that lonely red spell is a win condition using Seismic Assault.

First off, one correction, Sweep wasn't in Betrayers of Kamigawa, it was from Saviors of Kamigawa (Betrayers had a shuriken for a symbol, Saviors had the lantern). Secondly, Chroma actually looks fairly interesting to me, especially the one that has power/toughness for all black symbols in your graveyard. That would go perfect in my old Kamigawa-era rat deck. Third, regarding Islandhome, there's a very simple way to get around an opponent's lack of islands, Phantasmal Terrain which turns any land it enchants into the basic land type of your choice

Nah, it's toxic+proliferate.

As a player that has been playing since the Khans block, I learned a while back about Banding, because of commander, and I almost died when you brought it up at the beginning😂

Great theme for videos! Lookin for the best ones.

Love the trans colored tie. Love your energy and what you provide the community, Prof.

Banding.

Gotta love this original video idea. No one has ever done that! Nice video nice thinking!

Oh wow. I completely forgot about Sweep. Yeah, completely agree with you. Oh yeah, the rest of this list too. Thank you for the video!

18:50 I have a great idea for a blue sweep card: Daze above Minamo. {0}. Instant - Arcane. Sweep - Return any number of Islands you control to their owner's hand. Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1 for every Island returned this way. :)

I used to have a red deck that did some burn, but then used Barrel down the Sokozan to return all my mountains to my hand, then discard using seismic assault. It was not very effective but fun when it caught people off guard.

I didn't know about Sweep, but it reminded me of some blue cards in Mercadian Masques, where you could bounce your islands as an alternative casting cost. I seem to remember that Gush actually saw play in Standard back then (in the Blue Skies deck, which was kind of blue aggro, so I guess at some point you didn't mind bouncing lands to refill your hand).

I feel like Epic has some design space if it went about restricting your plays rather than full-on removing any possible plays, by letting you choose cards to exempt from the keyword. For example, "At the beginning of each upkeep, reveal your hand. The player whose turn it is chooses a card from your hand that can be played. You may play that card without paying its cost, ignoring the Epic restriction." This essentially lets you cheat out stuff at the restriction of only playing one card per turn. Meanwhile, if you limit the amount of cards you have that can be played during opponents' turns, they may be forced to let you play some strong ones. Or "At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal up to three cards from your hand. Secretly choose one. Target opponent chooses one. You may play up to 4 copies of that card this turn. If both of you chose the same card, you may play up to 2 copies of each card this turn." Or to be more in line with the original designs, we could buff the existing ones so the green one could be "Put a 1/1 green Snake creature token into play for each card in your hand. For this turn, you may play cards from your hand that have CMC equal to the number of creature tokens put into play this way." or something Alternatively, we could give players a way to remove the Epic, either at a cost, or after meeting a difficult condition, or as a balancing tool. For example, "At the beginning of your upkeep, reveal your hand. You and target opponent each choose a card. You may play a copy of each chosen card without paying their costs. If both of you chose the same card, you may end this Epic's effects." Or, "Put a 1/1 green Snake creature token into play for each card in your hand. If the amount of Snake creature tokens you control is equal or greater to all opponent's Health, you may end this Epic's effects."

I really like the idea behind Radiance and honestly I do think it'd be sick for a retool that includes some rider about only affecting the side of the board the first target's on. Also here's my awesome blue sweep card [sic]. It's a 0 cost instant with sweep that says Return any number of islands to your hand. Counter target spell unless its controller plays X mana where X is equal to half the number of Islands returned this way

4:00 Specifically for the Dandan format "Landhome" is an awesome mechanic. The flavour behind it, especially for water based creatures is absolutely on point. yes, it is kind of stupid in most formats, but for a specifically curiated format like Dandan it's the perfect mechanic.

As you were getting ready to mention Sweep, I was sitting here thinking, "don't you dare say Splice..." Talk about a mechanic that has a lot of design space available. In Kamigawa it was limited to Splice Onto Arcane, but imagine if they printed instants that spliced onto artifacts, creatures, or planeswalkers as a sort of, "choose your own ETB effect."

Not a mechanic as such, but revised version of abilities get a bit frustrating - like Poisonous/Infect/Wither/Toxic, hexproof/shroud, flying/horsemanship, or fear/intimidate/menace

Interesting list. I always liked banding. It made a good impression on me when i started the game. (being able to group my attackers and change how blockers were declared always felt promising.) Sweep looks like it could be a useful mechanic in my attempts at a landfall deck. I'm always wanting an excuse to bounce a land. And being able to bounce multiple for a benefit above and beyond my landfall triggers feels like it should be promising. Too bad it's not an effect that can target any land. Sweep non-basics would be nice.

Love to see Chisei in the background there!

Dude, I didn't even know the tribute keyword. Now i know why. Thanks Prof!

I love banding! I know it wasn't on there but damn it i stand by it. Ive used a couple of those things in jank decks before like enduring ideal where I'd copy the spell multiple times then run out my best enchantments. I even used sweep in a landfall deck a couple times. Screw tribute and landhome and also mega-morph

14:24 Id just like to say endless swarm, blue draw spam, phyrexian altar, and that one mono black from kamigawa block who deals direct damage to a player based on amount of mana spent to cast him. Especially if you combo it’s effect with progress tyrant.

At first I thought it was _Soulshift_, but when you showed the name without the effect I immediately knew what it was. Since I started to play Magic, when "Future Sight" was released, I have a foil copy of "Charge Across Araba" in my bulk so I see it from time to time when searching for cards for new decks or the kind of "elite bulk" some decks my friends made need.

I played competitive and collected during the original Kamigawa block. I vaguely remembered Epic, once you started describing it. But even though I KNOW I have all of the Sweep cards, I still don't remember the mechanic and know I never saw it played.

You already made a video on banding, also I highly recommend "Banding: A Defense" by Sam Huggins. -Landhome would be a great curse mechanic to hose opponents, "Blue creatures have islandhome" would be a great red enchantment. -Tribute cards were weak because overcosted and one option generally weaker, the mechanic was ok, forcing your opponent to chose between two evils is a classic effect in black. -Radiance just needed a distinction between your creatures and your opponent's creatures and it works great. Really easy fix but be careful to not hose mono colored deck too much, like a certain angel... -Epic cards are hilarious if you can copy the initial cast one or more time, or if you have a twinning staff -the sweep mechanic would be great as an alternative casting cost for spells with X, "you may return any number of islands to reduce the cost by {2} by island", a similar but less drastic effect would be convoke.

I just started the video and haven't finished it yet. I really hope you covered Shahrazad.

I love the colors of the professor’s tie and buttonup today.

Fun video. Wondering if devotion will be a mechanic in the return to Lorwyn set a few years from now as a nod to big brother Chroma.

I was so amused when Brightflame went up as the example card for Radiance because I actually do use it in a commander deck. That deck has a number of cards that prevent damage to my creatures, though, so it's not usually a problem

14:00 I run Wojek Embermage in my Toggo & Kodama deathtouch rocks deck. Works great with deathtouch for limited board wipe,

There are some keywords I would love to see more of/return: Flanking, Battle cry, Provoke, just to name a few.

I have a love for banding.😆 its flavorful and distinctly white. Yeah it never so competitive play but when you see it work its beautiful.❤️

I don't think I am alone in still wanting a video on banding :)