Hall of Shame Nominations: Portal

[Oversoul]

I am not BigBlue, but let's see if I can do this...

Which of these is worthy of the Hall of Shame?

Alabaster Dragon
Alluring Scent
Anaconda
Ancestral Memories
Angelic Blessing
Archangel
Ardent Militia
Armageddon
Armored Pegasus
Arrogant Vampire
Assassin's Blade
Balance of Power
Baleful Stare
Bee Sting
Blaze
Blessed Reversal
Blinding Light
Bog Imp
Bog Raiders
Bog Wraith
Boiling Seas
Border Guard
Breath of Life
Bull Hippo
Burning Cloak
Capricious Sorcerer
Charging Bandits
Charging Paladin
Charging Rhino
Cloak of Feathers
Cloud Dragon
Cloud Pirates
Cloud Spirit
Command of Unsummoning
Coral Eel
Craven Giant
Craven Knight
Cruel Bargain
Cruel Fate
Cruel Tutor
Deep Wood
Defiant Stand
Déjà Vu
Desert Drake
Devastation
Devoted Hero
Djinn of the Lamp
Dread Charge
Dread Reaper
Dry Spell
Earthquake
Ebon Dragon
Elite Cat Warrior
Elven Cache
Elvish Ranger
Endless Cockroaches
Exhaustion
False Peace
Feral Shadow
Final Strike
Fire Dragon
Fire Imp
Fire Snake
Fire Tempest
Flashfires
Fleet-Footed Monk
Flux
Foot Soldiers
Forked Lightning
Fruition
Giant Octopus
Giant Spider
Gift of Estates
Goblin Bully
Gorilla Warrior
Gravedigger
Grizzly Bears
Hand of Death
Harsh Justice
Highland Giant
Hill Giant
Horned Turtle
Howling Fury
Hulking Cyclops
Hulking Goblin
Hurricane
Ingenious Thief
Jungle Lion
Keen-Eyed Archers
King's Assassin
Knight Errant
Last Chance
Lava Axe
Lava Flow
Lizard Warrior
Man-o'-War
Mercenary Knight
Merfolk of the Pearl Trident
Mind Knives
Mind Rot
Minotaur Warrior
Mobilize
Monstrous Growth
Moon Sprite
Mountain Goat
Muck Rats
Mystic Denial
Natural Order
Natural Spring
Nature's Cloak
Nature's Lore
Nature's Ruin
Needle Storm
Noxious Toad
Omen
Owl Familiar
Panther Warriors
Path of Peace
Personal Tutor
Phantom Warrior
Pillaging Hoard
Plant Elemental
Primeval Force
Prosperity
Pyroclasm
Python
Raging Cougar
Raging Goblin
Raging Minotaur
Rain of Salt
Rain of Tears
Raise Dead
Redwood Treefolk
Regal Unicorn
Renewing Dawn
Rowan Treefolk
Sacred Knight
Sacred Nectar
Scorching Spear
Scorching Winds
Seasoned Marshal
Serpent Assassin
Serpent Warrior
Skeletal Crocodile
Skeletal Snake
Snapping Drake
Sorcerous Sight
Soul Shred
Spined Wurm
Spiritual Guardian
Spitting Earth
Spotted Griffin
Stalking Tiger
Starlight
Starlit Angel
Steadfastness
Stern Marshal
Stone Rain
Storm Crow
Summer Bloom
Sylvan Tutor
Symbol of Unsummoning
Taunt
Temporary Truce
Theft of Dreams
Thing from the Deep
Thundering Wurm
Thundermare
Tidal Surge
Time Ebb
Touch of Brilliance
Treetop Defense
Undying Beast
Untamed Wilds
Valorous Charge
Vampiric Feast
Vampiric Touch
Venerable Monk
Vengeance
Virtue's Ruin
Volcanic Dragon
Volcanic Hammer
Wall of Granite
Wall of Swords
Warrior's Charge
Whiptail Wurm
Wicked Pact
Willow Dryad
Wind Drake
Winds of Change
Winter's Grasp
Withering Gaze
Wood Elves
Wrath of God

Yeah, that took kind of a long time to make. How does BB do it? I'm thinking he's a witch (and so we should burn him)...

 

[Ransac]

Geeze..... I'm not sure I can make a good opinion of this set. I did play it when it came out and bought some packs, but I'm not too familiar with the overall card pool....


Um... Burning Cloak, maybe? It'll pump your creature, but makes it more susceptible to chumps killing it. It'll also kill a weenie, but at sorcery speed.

It has versatility, but it's very slow. I'm not finding many BAD cards in this set. Just very simple cards.


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Spiderman]

I don't really consider this a "set" as it's supposed to be introductory and not have the full range of Magic types, but I'll put whatever the "winner" is in the Hall...

 

[Oversoul]

I don't really consider this a "set" as it's supposed to be introductory and not have the full range of Magic types, but I'll put whatever the "winner" is in the Hall...

Well, I mean, I didn't do a full count of how many original cards it has (I wasn't bothering to only list the original cards and maybe I should have?), but I'm pretty sure it has more original cards than some small sets. Some of the cards were anxiously picked up when it became a tournament-legal set (Jungle Lion, for example). And at least a couple of them are pretty bad...

 

[Spiderman]

<shrug> Hey, like I said, I'll post whatever the winner is...

 

[Melkor]

We will somehow truck on and come up with something I'm sure

 

[DarthFerret]

Can I nominate every card? Seriously, I avoid portal with a passion. Maybe because I am a crotchety old fart, but I never agreed with the production of or the reasoning behind portal. In light of this fact, maybe I had just better stay outta this one.

 

[Mooseman]

Sorry, but I'd have to nominate "None of the Above" for this intro set..... they just aren't that bad or that good......
Burning Cloak may be the worst, but 2 damage for R, even at Sorcery speed isn't that bad......

 

[BigBlue]

I'm not nominating anything for Portal at this point... Maybe that'll change if I look through the list. While it was an introductory set... It brought about one of the coolest changes in Magic Card Design... what we not so nicely referred to as "tard" lands around here (Local, not this website) at first...

IMHO, it is not fair to judge the set intentionally made with Vanilla Creatures and no Instants against standard cards, even though they are now tournament legal.

 

[BigBlue]

OS - it takes me like 10 minutes... but I'm a witch.... (actually a warlock)... or maybe a wiz(ard) when it comes to using Microsoft Excel.


How do I do it so fast?

Go to Gatherer - select the set I want, change the output to "Text Checklist", set it to sort by color and click search.

This brings up a table of all the cards. I highlight the whole thing and copy it.

Past that into Excel. I clear the contents of the first column (card #). Usually I have to delete a row at the end which is a merged cell across all the columns with no information.

Change the colors to the colors I use when posting (White to SandyBrown, Artifact to Silver, Land to Brown, and Multicolor to Gold) - to do this, you can use find/replace - or you can manually type it in the first cell, then autofill it down to where the color ends.

I use the following formula (you have to take out the extra spaces I added to keep the forum for parsing it.:

="[ url=http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?name="&<cardname>&"][ b][ color="&<color>&"]"&<cardname>&"[/color][/b][/url]"

That goes in the first cell (where the card # used to be). Cardname is the cell where the cardname is and color is the cell where the color is. Autofill this formula down to the bottom. You can sort it by cardname afterwards or before you do the formula it really doesn't matter.

Now that I've told everyone how... I'll have to get a hair sample to work on my next spell... To force a meteor to fall on Ransac's head. (or something like that.)

 

[Mooseman]

That is basically how I do it too. But I have a sheet set up to do this without a lot of hand editing.....

 

[BigBlue]

I don't use macros... or I'm sure it'd be very easy.

 

[Ransac]

So....... Burning Cloak?


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Oversoul]

It brought about one of the coolest changes in Magic Card Design... what we not so nicely referred to as "tard" lands around here (Local, not this website) at first...

Yeah, we has a label for them here too and I think it was "retard lands." But how was this a cool change? Some changes I've gotten used to, but I still prefer the old basics. They actually say what they do, like any card in the game should. I don't see how a giant mana symbol was supposed to be friendlier to new players than the cards actually saying what they did.

OS - it takes me like 10 minutes... but I'm a witch.... (actually a warlock)... or maybe a wiz(ard) when it comes to using Microsoft Excel.


How do I do it so fast?

Go to Gatherer - select the set I want, change the output to "Text Checklist", set it to sort by color and click search.

This brings up a table of all the cards. I highlight the whole thing and copy it.

Past that into Excel. I clear the contents of the first column (card #). Usually I have to delete a row at the end which is a merged cell across all the columns with no information.

Change the colors to the colors I use when posting (White to SandyBrown, Artifact to Silver, Land to Brown, and Multicolor to Gold) - to do this, you can use find/replace - or you can manually type it in the first cell, then autofill it down to where the color ends.

I use the following formula (you have to take out the extra spaces I added to keep the forum for parsing it.:


That goes in the first cell (where the card # used to be). Cardname is the cell where the cardname is and color is the cell where the color is. Autofill this formula down to the bottom. You can sort it by cardname afterwards or before you do the formula it really doesn't matter.

Now that I've told everyone how... I'll have to get a hair sample to work on my next spell... To force a meteor to fall on Ransac's head. (or something like that.)

Ah. Yeah, that's a better than the way I did it.

Anyway, I guess I have my nomination. When I first got my Portal starter thingy in 1997, it had (I think) two rares. So my two first ever rares in Magic were Fire Dragon (overcosted, but it still works) and Capricious Sorcerer. I was quite puzzled for a brief period when I noticed that it was one of my rares and that it didn't seem to be any good, not yet being familiar with the concept of "crap rares." But then I got some Fifth Edition cards and saw Prodigal Sorcerer and understood.

I really think Capricious Sorcerer is a whole lot worse than Prodigal Sorcerer and other variants (Zuran Spellcaster, Rootwater Hunter, Thornwind Faeries, etc.) because the instant speed part of the ability is so incredibly important. And Capricious Sorcerer managed to inspire two functional reprints, both uncommon, in future Portal sets. I don't know how that happened. But at least those guys are uncommon. The original is perhaps the epitome of a crap rare and the fact that completely superior commons were printed long before it only makes the whole thing more absurd.

 

[BigBlue]

Ahhhh... so Oversoul began his Magic Career w/ a crap rare in portal... I now see how come he wants this set to have a hall of shame card.

My first starter was Revised - and it didn't suck (although I didn't know it at the time).

I only recall 2 rares... Bayou and Roc of Kher Ridges...

 

[Ransac]

Nominees:

Burning Cloak
Capricious Sorceror

Both of them are "eh." I still give the edge to the Cloak simply because the Sorceror can potentially use his ability multiple times throughout the game AND can give damage to the dome.

So..... Burning Cloak?


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Oversoul]

Well, Burning Cloak, while kinda crappy, can at least be used either offensively (pump one of your big creatures) or defensively (kill an opponent's small creature). It should, of course, be an instant.

Capricious Sorcerer is just about as limited in its ability as it can get. And with no advantage over other cards like Prodigal Sorcerer.

 

[Ransac]

Perhaps, but each way to use the Cloak carries a negative with it. You CAN pump up your creature, but you make it easier for smaller guys to chump and kill (or easier for anything with first strike). Additionally, the removal version of the spell is isolated to the creature that MUST be used on your turn. A sorcery version of Shock would be a god in comparison.


Ransac, cpa trash man

 

[Spiderman]

It should, of course, be an instant.

I don't think that should be part of the consideration because there aren't any instants in the set on purpose.

For the same reason, you can't really judge the set against "normal" sets. You have to really just compare the cards within the set (or the other Portal sets, if they don't have instants either).

 

[Oversoul]

I don't think that should be part of the consideration because there aren't any instants in the set on purpose.

But it really does matter.

For the same reason, you can't really judge the set against "normal" sets. You have to really just compare the cards within the set (or the other Portal sets, if they don't have instants either).

I can't? Jungle Lion is better than Mtenda Lion. There, I just did.

Really, I don't see the problem. The cards were always intended to be part of the same game. The play guide thing that came with my Portal starter set even said so. I think I still have the thing somewhere. I do think they did a bad job and dumbed things down too much. And they improved on that the second time around, but it's not like Portal is the first badly designed set we've done for this Hall of Shame.

If people don't want to bother with starter sets in the future, that's fine. I just started this because we skipped a set before and this seemed like an easy set to forget.