Hall of Shame Nominations: Legends

[BigBlue]

Which one of these Legends, is a legend for all the wrong reasons...

Because of the multitude of Multicolor spells... I'm not doing colors for these links, sorry.

Abomination
Acid Rain
Active Volcano
Adun Oakenshield
Adventurers' Guildhouse
Ærathi Berserker
Aisling Leprechaun
Akron Legionnaire
Al-abara's Carpet
Alabaster Potion
Alchor's Tomb
All Hallow's Eve
Amrou Kithkin
Angelic Voices
Angus Mackenzie
Anti-Magic Aura
Arboria
Arcades Sabboth
Arena of the Ancients
Avoid Fate
Axelrod Gunnarson
Ayesha Tanaka
Azure Drake
Backdraft
Backfire
Barbary Apes
Barktooth Warbeard
Bartel Runeaxe
Beasts of Bogardan
Black Mana Battery
Blazing Effigy
Blight
Blood Lust
Blue Mana Battery
Boomerang
Boris Devilboon
Brine Hag
Bronze Horse
Carrion Ants
Cat Warriors
Cathedral of Serra
Caverns of Despair
Chain Lightning
Chains of Mephistopheles
Chromium
Cleanse
Clergy of the Holy Nimbus
Cocoon
Concordant Crossroads
Cosmic Horror
Craw Giant
Crevasse
Crimson Kobolds
Crimson Manticore
Crookshank Kobolds
Cyclopean Mummy
Dakkon Blackblade
Darkness
D'Avenant Archer
Deadfall
Demonic Torment
Devouring Deep
Disharmony
Divine Intervention
Divine Offering
Divine Transformation
Dream Coat
Durkwood Boars
Dwarven Song
Elder Land Wurm
Elder Spawn
Elven Riders
Emerald Dragonfly
Enchanted Being
Enchantment Alteration
Energy Tap
Equinox
Eternal Warrior
Eureka
Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore
Fallen Angel
Falling Star
Feint
Field of Dreams
Fire Sprites
Firestorm Phoenix
Flash Counter
Flash Flood
Floral Spuzzem
Force Spike
Forethought Amulet
Fortified Area
Frost Giant
Gabriel Angelfire
Gaseous Form
Gauntlets of Chaos
Ghosts of the Damned
Giant Slug
Giant Strength
Giant Turtle
Glyph of Delusion
Glyph of Destruction
Glyph of Doom
Glyph of Life
Glyph of Reincarnation
Gosta Dirk
Gravity Sphere
Great Defender
Great Wall
Greater Realm of Preservation
Greed
Green Mana Battery
Gwendlyn Di Corci
Halfdane
Hammerheim
Hazezon Tamar
Headless Horseman
Heaven's Gate
Hell Swarm
Hellfire
Hell's Caretaker
Holy Day
Horn of Deafening
Hornet Cobra
Horror of Horrors
Hunding Gjornersen
Hyperion Blacksmith
Ichneumon Druid
Immolation
Imprison
In the Eye of Chaos
Indestructible Aura
Infernal Medusa
Infinite Authority
Invoke Prejudice
Ivory Guardians
Jacques le Vert
Jasmine Boreal
Jedit Ojanen
Jerrard of the Closed Fist
Johan
Jovial Evil
Juxtapose
Karakas
Kasimir the Lone Wolf
Keepers of the Faith
Kei Takahashi
Killer Bees
Kismet
Knowledge Vault
Kobold Drill Sergeant
Kobold Overlord
Kobold Taskmaster
Kobolds of Kher Keep
Kry Shield
Lady Caleria
Lady Evangela
Lady Orca
Land Equilibrium
Land Tax
Land's Edge
Lesser Werewolf
Life Chisel
Life Matrix
Lifeblood
Living Plane
Livonya Silone
Lord Magnus
Lost Soul
Mana Drain
Mana Matrix
Marble Priest
Marhault Elsdragon
Master of the Hunt
Mirror Universe
Moat
Mold Demon
Moss Monster
Mountain Stronghold
Mountain Yeti
Nebuchadnezzar
Nether Void
Nicol Bolas
North Star
Nova Pentacle
Osai Vultures
Palladia-Mors
Part Water
Pavel Maliki
Pendelhaven
Petra Sphinx
Pit Scorpion
Pixie Queen
Planar Gate
Pradesh Gypsies
Presence of the Master
Primordial Ooze
Princess Lucrezia
Psionic Entity
Psychic Purge
Puppet Master
Pyrotechnics
Quagmire
Quarum Trench Gnomes
Rabid Wombat
Radjan Spirit
Raging Bull
Ragnar
Ramirez DePietro
Ramses Overdark
Rapid Fire
Rasputin Dreamweaver
Rebirth
Recall
Red Mana Battery
Reincarnation
Relic Barrier
Relic Bind
Remove Enchantments
Remove Soul
Reset
Revelation
Reverberation
Righteous Avengers
Ring of Immortals
Riven Turnbull
Rohgahh of Kher Keep
Rubinia Soulsinger
Rust
Sea Kings' Blessing
Seafarer's Quay
Seeker
Segovian Leviathan
Sentinel
Serpent Generator
Shelkin Brownie
Shield Wall
Shimian Night Stalker
Silhouette
Sir Shandlar of Eberyn
Sivitri Scarzam
Sol'kanar the Swamp King
Spectral Cloak
Spinal Villain
Spirit Link
Spirit Shackle
Spiritual Sanctuary
Stangg
Storm Seeker
Storm World
Subdue
Sunastian Falconer
Sword of the Ages
Sylvan Library
Sylvan Paradise
Syphon Soul
Takklemaggot
Telekinesis
Teleport
Tempest Efreet
Tetsuo Umezawa
The Abyss
The Brute
The Lady of the Mountain
The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
The Wretched
Thunder Spirit
Time Elemental
Tobias Andrion
Tolaria
Tor Wauki
Torsten Von Ursus
Touch of Darkness
Transmutation
Triassic Egg
Tuknir Deathlock
Tundra Wolves
Typhoon
Undertow
Underworld Dreams
Unholy Citadel
Untamed Wilds
Urborg
Ur-Drago
Vaevictis Asmadi
Vampire Bats
Venarian Gold
Visions
Voodoo Doll
Walking Dead
Wall of Caltrops
Wall of Dust
Wall of Earth
Wall of Heat
Wall of Light
Wall of Opposition
Wall of Putrid Flesh
Wall of Shadows
Wall of Tombstones
Wall of Vapor
Wall of Wonder
Whirling Dervish
White Mana Battery
Willow Satyr
Winds of Change
Winter Blast
Wolverine Pack
Wood Elemental
Xira Arien
Zephyr Falcon

Nominations are due by Monday 8/1 Midnight EDT.

 

[Oversoul]

This set has some terrible cards. At least some of the worst cards ever printed, if not a majority share of the bottom ten. Adventurer's Guildhouse wastes a land-drop on nothing. Great Wall is an enchantment that does nothing. Glyph of Delusion is a cheap but useless instant. Shelkin Brownie is a 1/1 for 1 with a useless ability, making it one of the least effective creatures ever printed. The list goes on and on...

But the worst Magic card, period, in any set, just might be...

...Wood Elemental.

I know I've already said this in older threads, but I still believe it. Other cards are bad because they're so situational or because they're so inferior to other things that can be used. The last card we inducted into the Hall of Shame was Rakalite. And we consider it bad because of something it has in common with Great Wall, Adventurer's Guildhouse, and almost any other bad card one might name. It's not that it literally doesn't do anything, it's that the situations in which Rakalite are worth playing are too implausible, unlikely, or rare for it to be considered a useful card. That's why it's too situational. It's also too inferior by comparison because there are other cards that can do the same thing, only more effectively.

Wood Elemental is one of the few cards so bad that it doesn't even fit into this paradigm. It's designed so that even in situations where it could actually do something, it is a waste of resources. It costs mana AND untapped Forests. The cost is so steep that there is no point at which is becomes worthwhile. Forests make mana. Mana is useful. Sacrificing Forests is a prohibitive cost. Sacrificing untapped Forests is even worse. Paying mana in addition to sacrificing those Forests is even worse.

It's such a drawback that even though we can get an arbitrarily large creature, each untapped Forest we sacrificed more than cancels out the point of power and toughness on our Wood Elemental. The more you pay, the worse it is. The best choice for how many Forests to sacrifice is always zero. At best, Wood Elemental is a 0/0 creature that costs four mana.

It makes Farmstead, Pyramids, and Rakalite look like powerhouses. At least those cards don't hurt you when you play them. Even if you wiped the text out of the textbox on Rakalite, Wood Elemental would STILL be worse because at least the ability-less Rakalite would stay in play.

 

[DarthFerret]

My nomination goes to ....

Tobias Andrion

The biggest thing about this set was the multicolor thing. All of them were really good, and everyone wanted a full set..Until they got this about 500 times. Way over printed, way over costed, and no effect whatsoever. Plus...blue-white at that time was extreemly weak. And the artwork is horrible. Definately gets my nomination.

 

[BigBlue]

Wood Elemental.... Definately sucks... What elemental boosters are there which could even remotely make it worth it? Anything? for 4 in a Green deck + lands, I want something cool... Even if it cost G... I think it's expensive with it's additional cost... And talk about Unsummon fodder... Maybe give it shroud... then it'd be in the realm of possibility....

Wood Elemental - GG, 0/0 - Shroud. When ~ cip, ~ gets a +1/+1 counter for each forest you sacrifice. (Fixed version)

Tobias Andrion.... Vanilla 4/4 for 5.... and legendary to boot... ok, but at least it's "reasonably" cost... Many of the vanilla legends are way worse... (I always liked UW builds... but I would never have included Tobias).

From left field... I'm going to nominate....

Forethought Amulet... 5 upfront, then 3 per turn so that you can make instants and sorceries only do at most 2 to you... to me, that's expensive... even if you paired it with Inferno (for an insane cost)... For that much expense, it should prevent all damage to me for those sources.

Dishonorable mention... this isn't due so much to the card which is "ok" if overcosted at 3RRR... but is it Fire or Earth (the components of Red) which creates a "Frost Giant"? It should be a different color... Or maybe it should have been gold as a Red/Blue giant... The picture doesn't match the name... it doesn't look cold...

 

[Shabbaman]

North star is pretty bad. But the Bands with other lands are definately the cream of the crap. They're not that bad in a deck of only legends though, but it still wastes a land drop. Within the legends set it even makes (some) sense.

So North star it is: for 8 mana you can pay colorless mana for a spell instead of the required colored mana. Hurray...

Otherwise I might be tempted to go with Wood elemental. However, you can win a game with a wood elemental, not with north star (or adventurer's guildhouse). Oversoul's explanation is almost perfect. In a situation where your opponent has no blockers or removal, a 5/5 wood elemental wins you the game in four swings. This can't be the worst card of the set.

It might be the worst designed card of the set. They were surely very frightened to make a strong card. Especially the untapped clause makes no sense.

 

[BigBlue]

I think the point of North Star within the set was all the gold cards... It made it so you could play 3 colors without duals (they only had one set of duals, and at that point in time, they were truly rare.... And hard to come by.)

Combine them with the all-powerful Urza's lands from Antiquities... and you have some mana to play w/ North Star...

(I'm just sayin'... )

And, the Cream of the Crap is about the funniest thing I've read all week...

 

[Melkor]

I'll be the one to nominate Great Wall. Completely useless, when it was printed, there was exactly 1 creature with plainswalk and that was in the same set. Today, after a million more sets have been printed, there are still only 4 creatures with plainswalk. Thank god we can block them now.

 

[Oversoul]

Tobias Andrion: It sounds more like DF's vendetta with this card is that he kept opening up packs and finding it. Tobias Andrion certainly isn't good, but he's on par with other crappy creatures from this set. They're generally playable, just boring because they have no abilities and inefficient because they cost too much mana. Although they're inferior, especially compared to cards in later sets, they're not too situational. In limited formats they would probably have been considered decent picks. My favorite of the bunch just might be Sivitri Scarzam. Huge mana cost. The picture has this pretty cool dragon. The flavor text suggests that Sivitri Scarzam is a force to be reckoned with. And what is she? A 6/4. Scary.

Forethought Amulet is so close to something that would be useful. What were they thinking when they gave it that upkeep cost? We wouldn't want anyone to actually try to use it?

At least it does something other cards don't generally do. Decks with Fireball would have hated this card. I'd say a fixed version of Forethought Amulet would be the card Energy Field. That card is awesome.

North star is pretty bad. But the Bands with other lands are definately the cream of the crap. They're not that bad in a deck of only legends though, but it still wastes a land drop. Within the legends set it even makes (some) sense.

So North star it is: for 8 mana you can pay colorless mana for a spell instead of the required colored mana. Hurray...

Otherwise I might be tempted to go with Wood elemental. However, you can win a game with a wood elemental, not with north star (or adventurer's guildhouse). Oversoul's explanation is almost perfect. In a situation where your opponent has no blockers or removal, a 5/5 wood elemental wins you the game in four swings. This can't be the worst card of the set.

Well, I would still argue that Adventurer's Guildhouse and friends are worse than North Star. You say they're not that bad in a deck of only legends, but that implies two things: that this deck of only legends is going to live long enough to waste land drops on these cards and that the bands with other legends ability is actually going to be worthwhile. Bands with other is such a crappy ability that having it, even supposing one does have lots of legendary creatures out, won't even matter.

As for a 5/5 Wood Elemental, it is true that it will kill an opponent with no blockers and no cards that can stop creatures. I dislike this reasoning because it automatically assumes that any creature with at least one point of power can't ever be the worst card in a set because it could eventually kill an opponent. That shouldn't be how cards are judged. Rakalite can't ever kill anyone, but I don't think that was why people voted for it. They voted for it because it's bad at what it does do. There are bad damage prevention cards and bad damage causing cards. Wood Elemental happens to be a really abysmal damage causing card.

A 5/5 Wood Elemental, huh? That's going to take nine Forests, five of which get sacrificed WHILE UNTAPPED. This "situation" if a fantasy. If I have nine Forests, five of which I'm better off throwing away than keeping to actually play spells that aren't crap, AND my opponent has no way to stop a 5/5 creature, the game I'm playing is not Magic as I know it, but maybe some twisted spinoff where I get nothing but Forests and Wood Elementals while my opponent gets nothing but Swamps. It's like a variant of Magic designed specifically to make Wood Elemental useful.

And with nine Forests out, one could actually use North Star to play some nongreen spells that would do a better job of winning than Wood Elemental. You could even play Sliver Queen. As manafixers go, North Star is overly expensive, but more in a Sivitri Scarzam way than a Wood Elemental way.

 

[BigBlue]

One other thing w/ Wood Elemental... you could combo it w/ something that untaps forests... it'd come out faster that way.

It could also combo w/ Ernham Djinn to get rid of your own forests... Or Armageddon if you knew you'd be destroying 'em anyways... With Land Tax - you could then get lands...

Still a crappy card... but, at least there are some uses for it...

I think designers (or was it designer=RG?) were more into the "flavor" of cards than their actual abilities. This is how you end up with these things... Wood Elemental - comes from forests... that just makes all the sense in the world... His Flavor Text should have been "Timber!" (which was the text on Orcish Lumberjacks as I recall... or something to that effect).

 

[Spiderman]

I thought I remember reading that Legends was inspired by a lot of the designers D&D play sessions...

 

[Oversoul]

One other thing w/ Wood Elemental... you could combo it w/ something that untaps forests... it'd come out faster that way.

So the "combo" is to use something that untaps Forests so that you can lose all of your own Forests in order to play a vanilla creature? A two card combo that gives you a 4/4 (and kills your Forests), huh? How broken.

It could also combo w/ Ernham Djinn to get rid of your own forests... Or Armageddon if you knew you'd be destroying 'em anyways... With Land Tax - you could then get lands...

It can't combo with Ernie because you can't sac the Forests used to pay for Wood Elemental. You'd need that killer combo with Wood Elemental and a card that untaps Forests just to make the interaction with Ernham Djinn viable.

With Armageddon, you'd need nine lands to get a 1/1 creature. But at least your opponent would lose all of his lands too. Then the beatdown could commence.

As for Land Tax, yes Wood Elemental can act as a one-shot way to lower your land count (but only for Forests) to reactivate Land Tax. And you even get a creature as an added bonus. This means in the category of cards that let you get rid of your own unwanted lands, Wood Elemental is the worst one. But at least it CAN do it. So if a magical barrier won't give you access to the probably hundreds of other cards that you could use to kill your own lands, and you only need a one-shot card that only kills untapped Forests, Wood Elemental is the card for you.

I think designers (or was it designer=RG?) were more into the "flavor" of cards than their actual abilities. This is how you end up with these things... Wood Elemental - comes from forests... that just makes all the sense in the world... His Flavor Text should have been "Timber!" (which was the text on Orcish Lumberjacks as I recall... or something to that effect).

Yeah, but Arabian Nights was full of flavor AND the designers presumably had less experience with the concept of making balanced cards, yet they still managed to put out a somewhat playable set. Legends is full of crap and the flavor kind of doesn't even make sense sometimes. At least they introduced multicolored cards. Homelands is another set that focuses on flavor but has generally mediocre cards.

 

[BigBlue]

I wasn't implying they were "optimal" combos... Just pointing out there are some applications for it...

I'm not trying to convince anyone to build a wood elemental deck, nor am I attempting to derail your nomination... I was just playing devil's advocate and pointing out it has a few uses, if very limited.

 

[Oversoul]

Oh, I understand that. I'm just saying that I find those situations too fantastic. But of course there is no card that is absolutely 100% useless in every single situation...

Falling Star, also from this set, is probably the closest thing to such a card. But there's a random element that could make it pretty powerful (which might be why no one nominated it--I don't know).

 

[BigBlue]

What amazes me so far with the nominations... not one Ante card... Or banned card (Chaos Orb)

Some of them are powerful and useful (Contract from Below is very very broken)...

But Darkpact? Demonic Attorney? They never seemed that useful to me... Jeweled Bird? Add another ante for another draw - well, and put your ante into your GY... but why bother when you can simply not have the bird and get another card... the extra draw is pointless.

Falling Star falls into this category to me... I think banned cards = shameful... so they are sort of ignored by default.

Chains of Mephistopholes... not broken or shameworthy per se... but damn confusing to read and comprehend what exactly it does...

 

[Spiderman]

I've played several ante games back when I started Magic and always put in Jeweled Bird so I could swap out my ante card if I needed to.

 

[Oversoul]

Chains of Mephistopheles isn't broken, but it is pretty powerful in a niche role. The guy who got second place in the first SCG power nine tournament made good use of it.

 

[BigBlue]

As near as I can tell after re-reading it a zillion times...

If something would give you an additional draw during any turn, you have to discard a card before you can draw one? Or is that not it?

So, If I play Ancestral Recall during my own turn... I'd have to discard a card before my first draw, discard a card before my second draw, then discard a card before my 3rd draw?

If I play Ancestral Recall during your turn - and haven't had any other draws... I'd get to draw a card (my first), then discard a card before my 2nd draw, and discard a card before my 3rd draw?

Is this right?

AND... since I'm highjacking my own thread...

To recap, the nominations thus far are:

Forethought Amulet - BigBlue
Great Wall - Melkor
North Star - Shabbaman
Tobias Andrion - Darthferret
Wood Elemental - Oversoul

 

[Mooseman]

If a player would draw a card except the first one he or she draws in his or her draw step each turn, that player discards a card instead. If the player discards a card, he or she draws a card. If the player doesn't discard a card, he or she puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
The only draw you get without a discard first, is the draw in your draw step..... Since it doesn't use the stack, you have to draw it first thing in your draw step.......

During your opponents turn, all draws are preceded by a discard.... or you would mill a card.

This would work well with dredge.......

 

[TomB]

If a player would draw a card except the first one he or she draws in his or her draw step each turn, that player discards a card instead. If the player discards a card, he or she draws a card. If the player doesn't discard a card, he or she puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard.
The only draw you get without a discard first, is the draw in your draw step..... Since it doesn't use the stack, you have to draw it first thing in your draw step.......

During your opponents turn, all draws are preceded by a discard.... or you would mill a card.

This would work well with dredge.......

I played someone once that used it with Howling Mines, land destruction, and Necropotence...I won with a very lucky Mishra's Factory that somehow lasted long enough to kill him, but he almost ran me out of cards with it...

 

[Oversoul]

Oh, it's also fun to get two copies of Chains into play...

I played someone once that used it with Howling Mines, land destruction, and Necropotence...I won with a very lucky Mishra's Factory that somehow lasted long enough to kill him, but he almost ran me out of cards with it...

That's awesome. They don't make 'em like they used to...