The Comboist Manifesto: Looking Back at Fame and Shame [Article]

[Oversoul]

Nemesis
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-nemesis-casual-card.14275/
Winner: Saproling Burst

Nominees
Oversoul: Saproling Burst
Killer Joe: Treetop Bracers
Limited: Blastoderm
Mooseman: Wandering Eye
Melkor: Moggcatcher

Committee: DarthFerret, Spiderman, Ransac

Highlights
Well, there were only five nominations again, so those dropped off pretty severely. Anyway, there was this exchange.

CRIMINY! Are you even AWARE that magic has four other colors?!?

Blue, Light Blue, Aqua marine, Teal, ......... oh yeah, colorless...... right?

The nomination and selection processes were both pretty quiet, but Saproling Burst generated some buzz in the Hall of Fame discussion thread.

Again, the committee didn't feel any of the cards nominated were really worthy of Hall of Fame status. However, having to vote, the unanimous winner of the Nemesis casual card is Saproling Burst.

Saproling Burst is TRUELY a "tourney" card, so why'd it win?

I would guess that's why.

Well, here was my thinking:

It was a tourney card in that it comboed well with certain other cards. However, on its own, having Saprolings are pretty casual ala Thallids and fading. And faced with the other nominees, it was the strongest; the others were narrow in application and while most were indeed casual, none were worthy of Hall of Fame status.

And like I said in the Hall of Fame thread, none of us were very happy with the nominees anyway. But Burst was the best choice out of all of them.

Exactly what Spidey said. Saproling Burst was a great tourney card, but only if you combined it with Fires of Yavimaya or Pandemonium and the like. By itself, it was a pretty fun card. I was kind suprirsed that Shrieking Mogg wasn't nominated. That woud've been a vote from me.

Actually, the nominations have been done only by a few people, so the choices are limited.
Also, I don't really think I understand what criteria is being applied to the choices. The first few choices didn't seem to be ever played in a tournament deck, but lately it seems that is not the case..........

I'll still nominate, but am resigned not to having one chossen.....

I agree, which may mean that makes this whole exercise kinda pointless.

I think we're getting into expansions where people knew more about Magic and how to "abuse" cards, etc., so right now, good cards in casual play have also seen play in tourneys.

Would it be appropriate to revisit what makes cards "casual"?

Perhaps it would. I guess one of my main problems is that I have not seen the tourney scene for so long, and have been stuck playin just a couple of people, so I don't know these killer combos, or what has been in tourney. I just go based on what I feel about the card itself.

Well, if there's "guidelines" on what makes a casual card, then there's really no need for a committee.

Everyone has their own idea of what casual means, so when the three members of the committee meet, it's how those three ideas mesh to get one card. And of course that's taken from who people nominate what they think is a casual card.

Unless you're talking about that, what kinds of cards people should be nominating in the first place. Which again all goes back to being subjective anyway…

I think every "committee" has done an awesome job for each set and the results HAVE varied due to who's ON the committee. When I was a member I had my own criteria but listened (read) the opinions of the other two at the time of chossing a card and/or ranking the cards as was the case during my tenure.

That's what makes the whole process work and unique! Technically, no chosen card could be totally wrong. As long as the chosen cards are justified by a committee member as was the case here. Unfortunately when I was a member I didn't always defend our choices, my bad

As for criteria, well, since everyone is different then all of the criteria would be different. Perhaps a "template" is needed, a sort of "Casual Prisim" if you will.

What actually MAKES a card casual? To me, a casual card is a card that hasn't been in a significant number of decks in PTQ's like Wrath of God, Kokusho the Evening Star, Counterspell, Eternal Witness, Wildfire, etc...

I also consider the impact a card has in any given game I've seen it in. The lower the impact the better, imo.

Perhaps Nominated committee members should post a quick blurb about what kind of "Casual Prisim" they use when considering what makes a card casual? You know, a "Stump Speech" kind of thing. I've stated mine so do you still want to vote for me? Maybe you agree with my kind of idea for casual cards, maybe you don't.

Maybe a "Sticky" can be made and folks can go there before voting for a member.

Saproling Burst is okay and I whole-heartedly accept it to the CCHOF!

Thanks guys for putting time into this whole process, sometimes it's a pain in the butt but we all do appreciate it.

Well, that was a journey. Mostly good points all around, I’d say. I wonder if the members involved in that discussion still feel the same, or if their views have shifted.

My thoughts now
It occurs to me that in this one respect, Nemesis is a pretty strange set. I mean, go and look at it. There are some very strong cards, most of which don’t have any special casual appeal I can discern. And there are a bunch of weird, mediocre cards that I also wouldn’t want to play in my casual decks. I recall liking this set when it was new, but I’m at a loss to identify a roster of great casual cards here. The best I could do would be to point out the cards I’ve used successfully or witnessed doing powerful things, and that’s not the same as “Casual Card Hall of Fame” material.

I’m reaching here, but casual standouts I’d consider include Flowstone Overseer, Overlaid Terrain, Belbe’s Portal, Kor Haven, Saproling Cluster, and Predator, Flagship. If I chose a casual card today, I’d stick with my original choice of Saproling Burst.

 

[Oversoul]

Prophecy
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-prophecy-casual-card.14317/
Winner: Celestial Convergence

Nominees
Killer Joe: Spore Frog
Mooseman: Avatar of Woe
Limited: Avatar of Might
Oversoul: Avatar of Woe
DarthFerret: Celestial Convergence
Melkor: Squirrel Wrangler

Committee: Spiderman, Ransac, TomB

Highlights
Most discussion in the card nomination thread was centered around Avatar of Woe, which Mooseman and I both nominated. It didn’t occur to me to point out that Avatar of Woe was being dismissed as too powerful and not an appropriate casual card for this set, while Spore Frog was apparently fine, even though Spore Frog was far more prominent in actual tournament play.

I offered this pitch in defense of Avatar of Woe.

Keep in mind that this is not a particularly strong set. It has a lot of overcosted cards or cards that are generally not very good. It does have some fun cards too. In order for a card to be a good casual card, it should be playable. Avatar of Woe is quite good, but doesn't really strike me as broken or a tournament powerhouse, which is probably part of why it was reprinted as a Timeshifted card. It's big and useful and I remember so many multiplayer games when I'd ask, "How many creatures are in all graveyards right now?" even though everyone else would know what that meant. The other nominees don't at all inspire unpleasant memories, but none of them seemed or seem as cool as the Avatar of Woe.

The sentiment seems to be that Avatar of Woe is too overpowered to be a casual card, but I'd say Prophecy is one of the few sets where its most powerful card is also a good candidate for its best casual card.

The committee unanimously chose Celestial Convergence. Oh, and there was this exchange.

If they were the only ones nominated, they'd be my top choice.

That's pretty obvious

I just thought that was funny.

My thoughts now
One crucial aspect of Prophecy that was lost on me as a casual scrub was that the set was highly experimental, and that the deliberate emphasis on lands being tapped or untapped and on effects that played around with that was meant to explore the space of a highly strategic environment based around different principles from previous sets. That experiment had some horrible flaws. This was a small set in a block that didn’t really support such an extreme mechanical departure. Hypothetically, it might have played out well in some specific setup, like a Duplicate Sealed pool featuring mostly Prophecy cards and core set cards. But no one was actually playing that way. Now, what this means for a Casual Card Hall of Fame is interesting. The set has a couple of novel card cycles built to fill splashy roles in this special environment where mana and land manipulation matters so much. Those splashy cards did some unprecedented things, and make for great casual cards.

Looking over the set now, I’m seeing stuff like Plague Wind, Overburden, Infernal Genesis, Dual Nature, Excavation, Reveille Squad, Searing Wind, Rhystic Deluge, Avatar of Fury, Mageta the Lion. Those are all good, at least for casual play. And there are some other pretty nice cards too. But Prophecy doesn’t get a bad rap because of its cool cards. It gets a bad rap because it’s chock-full of cards that you have to puzzle over for a second, reading an above-average amount of text, only to realize that they’re unplayable junk. The exceptions are fine, but they’re exceptions. So the set is nearly universally loathed, and not without reason.

I like Celestial Convergence, but I only ever saw it in action in a single deck. I played against that deck a whole lot because it was my best friend’s favorite deck in 2000. I might someday run across it in EDH or something, but so far, I have not. I’ll forever associate Celestial Convergence with games played in the back of a van going across the country on I-90 or I-94, using pillows as playmats. I was desperately looking to destroy the Celestial Convergence before it counted down to my demise. It was epic. And for that, I’d want to agree with the committee and pick the card. However, there’s a reason I’ve never seen Celestial Convergence anywhere since then, and it’s that the card just isn’t strong enough to warrant a slot if one is practicing good deckbuilding. It’s fun, but WotC pulled back on the power level when they made it because alternate win conditions were too scary at the time or something. So if you want to use the card, I wish you the best of luck. I’ll throw it in an EDH deck at some point, but that’s because I deliberately play with bad cards. It’s not worthy of being in the Hall of Fame, not even to represent such an awkward set as Prophecy. So today, if I chose a card from this set, I’d go with my original call. I’m sticking with Avatar of Woe.

 

[Oversoul]

Invasion
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-invasion-casual-card.14333/
Winner: Mages' Contest

Limited: Devouring Strossus
DarthFerret: Mana Maze
Oversoul: Yawgmoth's Agenda
Killer Joe: Recoil
Mooseman: Dueling Grounds
Melkor: Mages' Contest

Committee: Spiderman, Ransac, TomB

Highlights
This one pretty much just flew by, with the main distinction being that multiple people listed multiple cards before ultimately nominating one. Along with the actual nominations, we saw nods toward Armadillo Cloak, Cauldron Dance, Reya Dawnbringer, Cinder Shade, Shivan Emissary, Rout, Twilight's Call, Charging Troll, Frenzied Tilling, Phyrexian Infiltrator, Sleeper's Robe, Spinal Embrace, Captain Sisay, Coalition Victory, Obliterate, and Rith, the Awakener. So although the actual number of nominations was smaller than what we’d seen in earlier sets (due to a drop in participation), there was some real enthusiasm for the selection of casual cards on offer with this set.

The committee didn’t say too much, but I do see that Dueling Grounds was a close second choice for them, but that the confluence of a red counterspell and a life-bidding war pushed Mages’ Contest over the edge for them.

My thoughts now
Empress Galina, Fires of Yavimaya, Phyrexian Altar, Spreading Plague, Urza’s Rage, Planar Portal, Seer’s Vision, Juntu Stakes, Artifact Mutation. Invasion was quite the set. WotC hit on something extraordinary, going almost three years without printing any new multicolored cards, then releasing the set all about multicolored cards and combining colors. In terms of design, this set represented a departure from the past, although in the lore it was supposed to be the climax of the ongoing Weatherlight Saga. The combination of various factors made this a memorable, high-impact set, despite a paucity of tournament staples that have stuck around in any meaningful capacity. Invasion is a casual wonderland, full of cool cards that I’d think should appeal to CPA members. And Mages’ Contest is not one of them.

Hey, this whole Hall of Fame concept is subjective and we’re bound to disagree at times. That’s what makes for lively discussion and stuff. I’m not surprised or mad that I totally disagree with this one. I am a bit weirded out. From my perspective, in a set with what might be more strong candidates for Hall of Fame material than anything before it, we managed to induct one of the least interesting, ugliest cards in the set. Do people actually play this card? I don’t get it. I’d have thoughtlessly dismissed it as a poor attempt at designing a counterspell for red and utterly ignored it. The only remarkable things about it that I can see are that it is a bit weird (it lets all players bid life, but the outcome is the same unless you win the bid, so unless they’re outbidding you, all they’re doing is bidding for the privilege of being the one to lose life) and that it was selected for this Hall of Fame. But hey, if you like it, then more power to you. I’m baffled, but it’s good to be baffled every once in a while.

I’m a bit torn and this is one of those sets where my own pick might vary from day to day. If I chose a card today, I’d go with Dueling Grounds.

 

[Oversoul]

Planeshift
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-planeshift-casual-card.14356/
Winner: Shifting Sky

Nominees
Oversoul: Terminate
Mooseman: Shifting Sky
DarthFerret: Hull Breach
Limited: Thornscape Battlemage
Spiderman: Skyship Weatherlight

Committee: Ransac, TomB, Melkor

Highlights
This one was pretty uneventful. There was some commentary on the set being kind of bad.

I wouldn't nominate a card I'd never use, and Planeshift really seems to kind of suck. It was the set I was most disappointed with when it came out.

Didn't seem like there were a lot of great options in this set. It basically came down to either Skyship Weatherlight, or Shifting Sky, and I felt that there were already too many cards that did something similar to the Skyship, and that Shifting Sky offered up something unique and allowed you to make certain decks that you might not have been able to before.

I realize that a lot of people are pretty down on this set, however, this set is a key element in one of my "nasty" decks. I used to use the skyship in it a lot, however, it evolved away from that. The main powerbase of this set seems to focus on the couple of decent artifacts, and the global enchantment options that it offers!

Also, there was this, which was pretty cool.

By the way! I had my professional Operatic debut on Friday singing the role of Paris in Nashville Opera's "Romeo et Juliette" by Gounod.

But yeah, no substantive discussion for this set.

My thoughts now
I was maybe just slightly too hard on Planeshift. Maybe. But only barely. A few other sets were more disappointing. Now, if you’re looking for novel, big, splashy, Timmy-Power-Gamer stuff, this set fails. Almost all of the good cards here are just efficient workhorse cards, a bit different, but fine for what they are. Cards like Flametongue Kavu, Meddling Mage, Fleetfoot Panther, an Orim’s Chant are good, but not the sort of thing that I have in mind when I think “Casual Card Hall of Fame.”

I’m not too keen on most of our nominations. Shifting Sky was ostensibly special, but the use Mooseman cited as an example of how unique it was could have easily been replicated by Darkest Hour, which is just a better Magic card. Skyship Weatherlight was probably OK in its day, but strikes me as extremely clunky. Going over the set myself, I’d now prefer Warped Devotion, Dralnu’s Crusade, Urza’s Guilt, Lashknife Barrier, or even Diabolic Intent. Limited’s nomination of Thornscape Battlemage is pretty cool and a tempting choice, but trying to single out a single card from this set as my favorite casual card, I’ve got to go with Cavern Harpy. Sure, I’ve mostly just used it in Aluren decks, but its interaction with Wirewood Savage is pretty great too.

 

[Oversoul]

Apocalypse
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-apocalypse-casual-card.14376/
Winner: Brass Herald

Nominees
DarthFerret: Legacy Weapon
Oversoul: Pernicious Deed
Spiderman: Brass Herald

Committee: Ransac, TomB, Melkor

Highlights
The major point of interest here was that we were all the way down to three cards nominated, which was quite the letdown to everyone involved. My spiel for Pernicious Deed was bizarre.

If I nominated Disk for 1st edition, I absolutely have to nominate Deed for Apocalypse.

As a reminder, my first nomination was Chaos Orb, not Nevinyrral’s Disk. Did I misremember my own nomination and not even bother to go back and check? I have no idea. Anyway, the committee unanimously chose Brass Herald.

My thoughts now
Having only five nominations was bad enough, but dropping to three was brutal. There was talk of shutting the Hall of Fame down. I don’t know how I feel about my Pernicious Deed nomination. I wasn’t the person to balk at “tournament cards” and I still am not, but this thing was quite the multiformat powerhouse. I think it’s a reasonable nomination, but I can see how the CPA might want something more off-the-wall. And Apocalypse did have such cards to choose from.

Going through the set for cards that look like worthy nominations, I’m spotting Overgrown Estate, Yavimaya’s Embrace, Goblin Trenches, Quicksilver Dagger, Dragon Arch, Wild Research, Squee’s Revenge, and Guided Passage. But if I chose a card today, my pick would be DarthFerret’s nomination. Legacy Weapon is awesome.

 

[Oversoul]

Odyssey
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-odyssey-casual-card.14409/
Winner: Innocent Blood

Nominees
Mooseman: Battle of Wits
Oversoul: Innocent Blood
Ransac: Iridescent Angel
Orgg: Werebear
DarthFerret: Squirrel Nest
Limited: Braids, Cabal Minion

Committee: TomB, Melkor, Killer Joe

Highlights
This one featured some goofing off with the nominations. Killer Joe attempted to nominate Moment’s Peace, but his position on the committee was discovered and the nomination was withdrawn. There were a bunch of posts with people listing the nominations, but changing text color and size as a kind of gag. It was a little bit funny, maybe? DarthFerret drew an ASCII squirrel to campaign for Squirrel Nest.

The committee unanimously selected my nomination of Innocent Blood “after a bit of debate.” Unless TomB happens to remember that “bit of debate” it’s probably lost forever to the deleted private messages of the CPA message board system. Well, that might not be entirely true. Ransac did ask for the rationale behind Innocent Blood winning, so all three committee members did explain their own perspectives.

To me: I considered the "effect" it has on the "casual - multiplayer" environment, that's not to say that duels aren't considered "casual" but for me "casual" conjures up a group of sweaty guys sitting around a kitchen table in somebody's Mom's basement playing mulyiplayer Magic where creatures are abound and one silly little 1cc card makes everybody dump a creature, even Timmy Power Gamer who's locked up the game with his single creature Platnium Angel in front of him has to bow to it. And why is that "casual"? It just is, to me.

The others had their own reasons.

Well, my reasons pretty much mirror KJ's...By being what I would think would be a staple in black multiplayer decks it's both casual and good, which to me defines what a CCHOF card should be - casual AND good.

You guys don't agree?

You always walk the edge of a knife with Spiderman, too little praise and we don't get his good ideas and effort, too much and he begins to forget that with great power, comes great responsibility.

Actually, I initially championed Braids, because I felt that the effect was powerful but not overly so, and increased player decision making. But I didn't really have a strong attachment to any of the cards, and some I was against. So basically the fact that it was a classic sort of multi-player card (cheap to cast, but big effect when multiplied over multiple players) carried the day.

That was kind of cool to see, even though the decision was unanimous. Perhaps it’s nerdy of me, but I’d kind of like to read statements on these cards, along the lines of judicial opinions.

My thoughts now
Well, Ransac didn’t like Innocent Blood because it could kill his precious Iridescent Angel. But seriously, in 2007 I was not as well acquainted with this set as I am now. I claimed that the set came out just after a pause in my Magic gameplay. But I didn’t have the release dates for these sets right in front of me when I made that claim. I did have them when I wrote the first post in the “Magic Memories” thread for Sun Titan. And that jogged my memory. I actually purchased a few packs of Odyssey just after the set came out, and I think it was the last set to come out before the closure of the local game store that I’d been attending in Kent. It was Torment that I missed out on, although I didn’t really get into Odyssey much until many years later.

I was unfairly hard on this set in my assessment in 2007. So now I’m a bit torn. On the one hand, I really do like Innocent Blood and I was really happy that a common finally got inducted into our Hall of Fame. On the other hand, this set didn’t get a fair shake from me or from the CPA as a whole.

Going through the set, some of the interesting candidates might be Cultural Exchange, Mirari, Vampiric Dragon, Wayward Angel, Stone-Tongue Basilisk, Chance Encounter, Time Stretch, and Seton, Krosan Protector. With some reservations, I’m going to stick to my guns on this one. If I chose a casual card from this set today, it would be Innocent Blood.

 

[Oversoul]

Torment
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-torment-casual-card.14426/
Winner: Radiate

Nominees
Ransac: Radiate
Oversoul: Cabal Coffers
Mooseman: Skullscorch
DarthFerret: Parallel Evolution
Orgg: Radiate
Spiderman: Transcendence

Committee: TomB, Melkor, Killer Joe

Highlights
This one was pretty uneventful.

The Torment card has been declared to be Radiate...Our reasoning was best summed up by Melkor: "You can use it as an Armageddon, an Earthquake, a Prosperity, you can work off of your own spells and your opponents spells."

My thoughts now
Yeah, this was the first set since Portal 3 Kingdoms that I didn’t really follow at all when it first came out. I had moved across town, the LGS I’d formerly frequented closed down (or was about to), and my friends all went to a different high school. I don’t think it mattered too much because I got to play against the cards in this set in casual games while it was still fairly recent. But I don’t have fond memories of most of these, and I really, really like Cabal Coffers.

Let’s take a look, though. Going over the set, some nice casual cards I see are Devastating Dreams, Shade’s Form, Krosan Restorer, Dawn of the Dead, Nantuko Cultivator, and Nostalgic Dreams. But really, most of those only evoke a “I guess that’s cool” reaction, not a “Hall of Fame!” reaction. Your mileage may vary. I still think Cabal Coffers is a strong choice, but these days it might be seen as overpowered and the $30 price tag hurts. Parallel Evolution seems cool, but I haven’t seen it in action that I can recall. Transcendence is nice and I’ve toyed with it, but it has limited applications, while Radiate is good for all manner of shenanigans. It’s close, but as of today, I think my choice for this set would be Radiate.

 

[Oversoul]

Judgment
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-judgement-casual-card.14448/
Winner: Browbeat

Nominees
Ransac: Worldgorger Dragon
Mooseman: Browbeat
Oversoul: Death Wish
DarthFerret: Mirari's Wake
Spiderman: Epic Struggle

Committee: Melkor, Killer Joe, Limited

Highlights
Spiderman misspelled the set’s name. He didn’t fix it or anything. It’s still like that. Ransac pointed it out, but Spiderman still didn’t fix it. What a monster.

My thoughts now
Ransac and DarthFerret are two members who both spoke out against tournament-worthy cards for the Casual Card Hall of Fame. They nominated Worldgorger Dragon and Mirari’s Wake respectively. Ha! Seriously though, Epic Struggle is a great choice. I love gorging me some worlds, but I never thought of that combo as casual. Maybe it is?

I already whined about Mages’ Contest, but the Browbeat one is a bit different. I thought Mages’ Contest a boring and inelegant card. I think that Browbeat is a bad card. Now, “casual does not mean bad” but it also doesn’t mean not bad, or something. So I’m a bit less put off by this, but ugh. Your opponent is just always going to choose the least bad option every time! Did Mooseman also nominate Skullscorch for the previous set? What’s with him and red cards that give opponents options?

Going over the set, some of my favorites are Genesis, Phantom Nishoba, Hunting Grounds, Guiltfeeder, Anurid Brushhopper, Elephant Guide, Spurnmage Advocate, Krosan Wayfarer, Scalpelexis, and Solitary Confinement. I have a soft spot for Guiltfeeder and Scalpelexis, as detailed in the Magic Memories thread for Scalpelexis. But out of all the choices, the one I’m most drawn to today is Epic Struggle.

 

[Oversoul]

Onslaught
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-onslaught-casual-card.14467/
Winner: Biorhythm

Nominees
Orgg: Goblin Sharpshooter
Oversoul: Future Sight
DarthFerret: Biorhythm
Ransac: Grand Melee
Mooseman: Grand Melee
Spiderman: Kaboom!

Committee: Melkor, Killer Joe, Limited

Highlights
Mooseman picked like ten different Odyssey cards before Limited pointed out that Onslaught is a totally different set. Senility was blamed at the time, but in Mooseman’s defense, both sets start with the letter “O.”

The committee unanimously chose Biorhythm, a card I’m on record as severely disliking. Oh well.

My thoughts now
There’s a lot that I disagree with the Commander Rules Committee on, but their complaint that Biorhythm is the sort of card that players think will be fun, but isn’t, rings true. And I think that our committee fell into that trap. In theory, the card presents a vast array of possible outcomes. In practice, you either happen to get the right opening for the card and kill everyone with an eight-mana sorcery, or you don’t get an opening and you have dead weight in your deck. No thanks.

This set has tons of good cards we didn’t discuss. Long before I’d even consider Biorhythm, I’d happily choose Blatant Thievery, Enchantress’s Presence, Patriarch’s Bidding, Insurrection, Weathered Wayfarer, Lavamancer’s Skill, Dragon Roost, Ebonblade Reaper, Annex, Symbiotic Wurm, Rotlung Reanimator, Wirewood Savage, Words of Wilding, Catapult Master, Starlit Sanctum, Slate of Ancestry, Aggravated Assault, or Brightstone Ritual. It’s a tough call, but if I have to make one now, I’ll go with Goblin Sharpshooter.

 

[Oversoul]

Legions
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-legions-casual-card.14489/
Winner: Phage the Untouchable

Nominees
Ransac: Phage, the Untouchable
DarthFerret: Krosan Cloudscaper
Oversoul Mistform Ultimus
Mooseman: Clickslither
Melkor: Wirewood Hivemaster
Spiderman: Scion of Darkness
Orgg: Mistform Ultimus

Committee: Killer Joe, Limited, BigBlue

Highlights

Hear ye, hear ye.

Let it be known, that from this day forward, Phage the Untouchable is inducted in the Hall of Fame dedicated to Cards of the Casual Inclination, and thusly entitled to all rights flowing therefrom.
And let it be known, that it was only careful deliberation of the Committee of Cards of the Casual Inclination that she was selected. Both the Scion who rules the Darkness and the Slither that Clicks came very close and even caused disunision among the Committee.

My thoughts now
Legions is still one of my least favorite sets of all time. It does have some cards I really like, such as Chromeshell Crab, Wirewood Channeler, Caller of the Claw, Windborn Muse, and Havoc Demon. The nominations were all fine too. My choice now would have to be Scion of Darkness. I’ve grown to really like that card.

 

[Oversoul]

Scourge
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-scourge-casual-card.14512/
Winner: Pemmin's Aura

Nominees
DarthFerret: Day of the Dragons
Oversoul Tendrils of Agony
Mooseman: Pemmin's Aura
Ransac: Form of the Dragon
Spiderman: Forgotten Ancient

Highlights
I made a brief, solid case for Tendrils of Agony. But no one else seemed interested in that one. I knew it was a long shot. There was some weird joke in which Ransac and I were pretending that Spiderman was going to nominate Eternal Dragon, and I’m pretty sure that the idea was that it was the most prominent tournament card in the set, which is hilarious now because the card is in my EDH decks and is generally considered jank. Times have changed.

According to the main Hall of Fame thread, Pemmin’s aura was picked 2-1 over “the Dragons card.” I have no idea what that means! Form of the Dragon or Day of the Dragons? Both were nominated. Eternal Dragon? Not technically nominated.

Well, FOTD was the best card, anyway. You guys just didn't want to have to let another one of MY cards win.

As has been said before... This is only the first round of Casual Cards... FotD will have another chance…

Heh. Nope.

My thoughts now
So I found this.

I've never liked Pemmin's Aura. If I want to play Morphling, I play Morphling. If I want to go around enchanting creatures, I play Armadillo Cloak or something. It seems like some dream one of the designers had (what if we made a card that could turn any creature into a morphling?) and for some reason nobody pointed out that it was too corny to go in an actual set. What next? "Aura of the Pheldagriff"? And the name doesn't help either. If I wanted to play with anagrams, I'd play some sort of game that's supposed to, I don't know, maybe involve anagrams.

And I completely disagree with it. But I don’t want to go back in time and fight myself. It’s actually kind of refreshing. I did not remember writing this about Pemmin’s Aura at all, but now that I found it, I can kind tap into my attitude at the time. It’s nice to know that I can change my mind, and I think that some of my opinions are better than they were in 2007. So that’s cool.

Pemmin’s Aura probably deserved the win here. Attempting to shelve my own bias for a minute here, I think that the committee made the right call. I can get behind this. Pemmin’s Aura would be my pick today.

 

[Oversoul]

Mirrodin
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-mirrodin-casual-card.14528/
Winner: Platinum Angel

Nominees
DarthFerret: Isochron Scepter
Oversoul Isochron Scepter
Ransac: Mindslaver
Mooseman: Rule of Law
Killer Joe: Solemn Simulacrum
Spiderman: Platinum Angel

Committee: Limited, BigBlue, Orgg

Highlights
I remember that we had some inactivity issues that plagued these Halls and that this was why the concept eventually died off, but I forgot how it was really a slow burn. All the way back during the nomination process for Apocalypse we were down to just three cards nominated, but that wasn’t really the beginning of the end. We recovered, at least partially. And we’d had issues where a committee member forgot to show up for a while and missed the selection process. But this was the point at which Orgg went missing. Ouch. Also, this was the first instance of a hypothetical “no card” selection. The committee were never explicitly told that they could select “no card.” But they also weren’t told that they couldn’t. Ultimately, BigBlue and Limited were able to agree on the selection of Platinum Angel.

*After 145 recounts, the results consistently came back as 2-0 for Platinum Angel..... well, except for the one time that it came out 214-83 and the one time that Pat Buchanan won.*

My thoughts now
Well, this set has quite the reputation. I think a lot of casual players had adverse reactions to Mirrodin because of all the hyperefficient tournament stuff associated with it. But the fact is that this set has some excellent casual cards, which were mostly overlooked. Pentavus, Auriok Bladewarden, Lightning Coils, Spikeshot Goblin, Shared Fate, Tangleroot, Krark’s Thumb, Blinkmoth Urn, Oblivion Stone, Duplicant, and Mesmeric Orb all come to mind. I think that Spiderman got it right the first time, so my pick today would be Platinum Angel.

I disagree with the idea of a “no card” selection, by the way.

 

[Oversoul]

Darksteel
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-darksteel-casual-card.14548/
Winner: Darksteel Colossus

Nominees
Mooseman: Darksteel Colossus
Oversoul: Ageless Entity
Killer Joe: Vex
Ransac: Sword of Fire and Ice
Spiderman: Eater of Days

Committee: Limited, BigBlue, DarthFerret

Highlights
This one is pleasantly surprising because, just now, I had to look up my own nomination. At some point, I forgot that Ageless Entity existed! The card was even reprinted in a precon just a few months ago. I think it’s a very cool card and seems like a sensible nomination, but yeah. It apparently didn’t make much of an impression, or perhaps I was hit on the head. Or I’m just getting old? I don’t know. Anyway, I like it. Should throw that in an EDH deck.

In other developments, Spiderman attempted to nominate Bronze Bombshell, a card that isn’t in this set. And once again, Limited came to the rescue to point out that someone had nominated a card from the wrong set. Dissension and Darksteel both start with “D.” So the moral of this story is clear: Wizards of the Coast should not print sets with names that start with the same letters as each other.

When prompted to talk about the selection process, Limited gave us some insight.

The fact is that I don't like cards that are too good. So cards like Sword of Fire and Ice will never get my vote/nomination. But no matter how I looked at the cards, and rearranged the picks, I just had to put Darksteel Colossus on #1.

It is very good and has seen a fair amount of tournament play. I like to think that one of the reasons Tooth and Nail became a keycard in a tournament deck is because it could fetch DC. And yet.. its the Timmie in me that is still in awe of this card. 11/11 trample. Indestructable's posterboy. With built-in reanimation-prevention.

On the other hand, I've seen this guy wreck casual games too many times. A lot of my pre-Darksteel decks simply didn't have any answer to an 11/11 indestructable. It was the reason Grab the Reins was in every deck that could possibly cast it.

But I think that this bitter taste stems from one guy in my playgroup who dished out a lot of cash to get himself a playset and played the deck a lot. He would bring two or three decks to a game-night so we were bound to see his Mycosynth Golem + Darksteel Colossus + Loxodon Warhammer a lot. Sure, sometimes he'd change some of the other cards around, but this was always the core. Even recently he managed to rebuild the deck (he had taken it apart) but now it also include Mishra, Artificer Prodigy. Whats more fun than one Colossus? You guessed it, two Colossi!

But in the end I decided that my problem was not with the card (the Colossus is just cool) but with that player. So #1 it remained.

My thoughts now
Sword of Fire and Ice? Darksteel Colossus? Like I said, I’m not one to balk at tournament cards. But I forgot the extent to which the people who did draw this distinction seemed to flagrantly violate their own principles. If that sounds like harsh criticism, I assure you that I don’t mean it that way. I didn’t object to those nominations and don’t object to them now. I’m just kind of curious if it was down to personal inconsistency or if there was some nuance that was lost on me with this stuff.

I’d have gone with Skullclamp, myself. No, I’m kidding! Let’s see. Some nice casual cards I see in this set are Greater Harvester, Echoing Decay, Geth’s Grimoire, Genesis Chamber, Coretapper, and Pulse of the Fields. But I’m still blown away at rediscovering Ageless Entity, so that’s my pick (again).

 

[Oversoul]

Fifth Dawn
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-5th-dawn-casual-card.14573/
Winner: Relentless Rats

Nominees
Limited: Cosmic Larva
Oversoul: Eon Hub
Ransac: Silent Arbiter
Spiderman: Relentless Rats

Committee: BigBlue, DarthFerret, TomB

Highlights
There wasn’t a lot of discussion on this one. Mooseman missed the nomination process, but voiced support for Eon Hub. Relentless Rats was the decisive winner in committee.

My thoughts now
I didn’t care for the Relentless Rats selection at the time. My view has evolved, but I am now in the odd position of stating that it was a good selection at the time (in 2007), but feels lackluster now. As was noted in the discussion thread, Relentless Rats is technically a throwback. When Richard Garfield originally created Magic, the rules specified a 40-card minimum deck size, but there was no limit on copies of a single card. The increase to a 60-card minimum deck size and the 4-card rule on copies of a single non-basic card were vital improvements to long-term health of the game, but this did awkwardly leave some of the original commons in a rough spot, as they’d been designed under the assumption that players might build decks with many copies of them. The two biggest casualties of this were Benalish Hero and Plague Rats.

Relentless Rats was a cute idea to revive the “Plague Rat deck.” So it’s a nod to an early moment in Magic’s history and a “fixed” version of a defunct, sad, old card. That’s pretty cool. Also, this was the very first card in the game to use the mechanic now known colloquially as “Relentless.” It has since been used on some splashier cards like Shadowborn Apostle and Persistent Petitioners. It has also been used on Rat Colony, itself a kind of hybrid update to both Plague Rats and Pestilence Rats. Although Relentless Rats was the first card to employ this concept, and might be considered special for that reason, I find myself having the opposite reaction toward it. Newer cards like Pack Rat and the aforementioned Rat Colony play around in this space in more interesting ways. The other nominations for Fifth Dawn have more enduring appeal, at least to my tastes.

We only got four nominations and totally omitted some iconic casual cards. Door to Nothingness, Solarion, Helm of Kaldra, Etched Oracle, Beacon of Immortality, All Suns’ Dawn, Fist of Suns, Vedalken Orrery, and Doubling Cube would all have been good nominations. I’d never have thought of it at the time, but the near-ubiquitous use of Wayfarer’s Bauble to ramp mana in casual EDH has proven the potency of that card too. I’m torn on what to pick. Some other day, I might make a different choice, but for now, I still want to throw my support behind Eon Hub.

 

[Oversoul]

Champions of Kamigawa
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-chk-casual-card.14600/
Winner: Marrow-Gnawer

Nominees
Oversoul: Sakura-Tribe Elder
Killer Joe: Kokusho, the Evening Star
Limited: Marrow-Gnawer
Mooseman: Reverse the Sands
Ransac: The Unspeakable
Spiderman: Isamaru, Hound of Konda

Committee: BigBlue, DarthFerret, TomB

Highlights
I was way too hard on this set.

Wow. This set really sucks. No wonder I don't know anything about it. Must have been the backlash from the last block being so overpowered...

Well, most of this set is complete crap in every way. There are some cards I really like. Most of them are cheesy, rare, legendary creatures with some rocking ability. I'm tired of those.

disagree about there being a lot of good cards from this set. Isamaru is very good and an excellent nomination. The dragon spirits are also nice. But the flip cards are generally annoying to set up. I've never played against the hondens, but they don't seem powerful enough. The myojins are too expensive to bother with. It just seems like this whole set is full of inefficient cards that take too long to become useful or outlive their usefulness quickly. As much as I like the idea of a big, indestructable creature that doubles as a powerful spell, by the time I get 10 mana or whatever, I can do other things with better cards from other sets--specifically, things that win the game outright.

Kind of reminds me of Prophecy.

Melkor shared my sentiment.

I agree that certain inefficiencies bug the hell out of me. When you put certain abilities on big creatures, for instance. I don't need a 5/5 blue creature that lets me look at the top 3 cards and put them back in any order for UU5. Also huge creatures with mediocre tap abilities. I want to attack with my 7/7, not tap it to put out a 1/1 creature. As for other cards, I enjoy making a card work, but sometimes WotC makes it harder than it should be and I just move on to other cards, or stay with the decks I currently have.

I won’t say that I was entirely wrong, but I was too harsh. Still, my nomination of Sakura-Tribe Elder was good, despite my lack of appreciation for the set. The committee liked my choice too, although they ultimately went with Marrow-Gnawer.

"In a 2-1 decision, Marrow-Gnawer has been selected. Sakura-Tribe Elder was a very close 2nd, garnering 3 2nd place votes.

The Casual power of the Rat has spoken..."

My thoughts now
For many years, this set held the record for the most legendary creatures of any set, only recently dethroned by Commander Legends. One quirk of EDH as a format is that it shines a light on these legendary creatures. Most of them are mediocre, but a few have really made names for themselves. 2007 was still just a bit too early for that information to sink in. I suspect we’d have seen very different nominations in 2010. Despite all that, Sakura-Tribe Elder is a great card. And hey, Reverse the Sands could be kind of fun in a way, and its unique, splashy effect grants it a casual feel. I could list a bunch of legendary permanents that make sense to me as potential candidates to represent this set in the Hall of Fame. Four strong legendary cards from this set were nominated. Others include Azusa, Godo, Yosei, Horobi, Azami, Minamo, and Hall of the Bandit Lord. It’s a tough choice, but I think that if I picked a card from this set today, I’d go with Kokusho, the Evening Star.

 

[Oversoul]

Betrayers of Kamigawa
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-bok-casual-card.14630/
Winner: Day of Destiny

Nominees
Oversoul: Ninja of the Deep Hours
Ransac: Ornate Kanzashi
Killer Joe: Lifegift
Ephraim: Budoka Pupil
Spiderman: Day of Destiny

Committee: DarthFerret, TomB, Mooseman

Highlights
This one was pretty quiet. Ephraim nominated a card though? So there’s that. What else? Let’s see…

If another rat wins this round, I may vomit.

Ransac doth protest too much. He was feigning repulsion to hide what was really going on between him and Ink-Eyes.

What's so great about Day of Destiny?

I asked flippant questions like this a lot back then, and I sometimes notice that when I go back and read my old posts. Sorry about that, guys. In this case, though, I think it’s a legitimate question. What is so great about giving your legendary creatures +2/+2? From a practical standpoint, you probably aren’t playing all that many legendary creatures anyway, and if you are, there are other cards that can pump your team. This card costs four mana, so even in some kind of flavorful legend-based deck, it’s kind of mediocre. It looks like Spiderman nominated it because he knew a player who made good use of it, so I’m glad that at least someone found a niche for this card.

My thoughts now
I’ll be honest. I don’t think I had to look up more than two cards for any set up to this point to have a pretty good idea of what they did. For this set, I had to look up all of the nominations except my own. I didn’t realize how poorly I know this set. Going through the nominations, I’ll admit that Budoka Pupil, Day of Destiny, and Ornate Kanzashi all strike me as being mediocre, uninteresting cards. Lifegift is OK, but not especially good. It appears that I was out-of-touch with what the CPA liked about this set in 2007, and that I still am.

Other than my own nomination, some cards I think could be good entries from this set are Heartless Hidetsugu, That Which Was Taken, Genju of the Realm, Patron of the Moon, Goryo’s Vengeance, Mirror Gallery, Mark of the Oni, and Ransac’s paramour, Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni. But my pick has to go to a card I started using last year after realizing that I should probably have been using it this whole time: Kami of False Hope.

 

[Oversoul]

Saviors of Kamigawa
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-sok-casual-card.14654/
Winner: Erayo, Soritami Ascendant

Nominees
Ephraim: Measure of Wickedness
Ransac: Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
Oversoul: Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
Spiderman: Pain's Reward

Committee: DarthFerret, TomB, Mooseman

Highlights

I nominate Measure of Wickedness. I have never had a card that awoke the Johnny spirit in me quite like that card did. It's the sort of card that makes one wonder, "How could you possibly win with a card like that?" Then, when you see it happen, it's such a marvel that you can't look away.

I'm also a fan of Arcane Laboratory. And despite usually spurning flip cards and the slough of legendary creatures in this block with crappy names, this one is basically cooler than Arcane Laboratory. So I nominate Erayo, Soritami Ascendent.

You have earned yourself the wrath of 1,000 angry Dwarven Ponies and Pearled Unicorns.

Erayo won in committee with a 2-1 vote, although we didn’t see what the other contender was.

My thoughts now
When I saw the winner, I immediately wondered what knucklehead picked a card that is used to lock opponents out of ever being able to resolve spells. So of course that turned out to be me. Not letting opponents cast spells could be casual!

Anyway, this was one of the worst sets of all time, but it has a few gems. Mikokoro is a really cool card and definitely my favorite out of the nominees we had to work with. Some other nice cards from this set are Freed from the Real, Overwhelming Intellect, Tomb of Urami, and Sakashima, the Imposter. After a bit of waffling, I am going to take an extreme stance here and take Enduring Ideal as my own selection for this set.

 

[Oversoul]

Ravnica: City of Guilds
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-ravnica-casual-card.14683/
Winner: Doubling Season

Nominees
Oversoul: Doubling Season
Train: Bloodbond March
Ransac: Eye of the Storm
Melkor: Warp World
DarthFerret: Master Warcraft
Spiderman: Chorus of the Conclave

Committee: TomB, Mooseman, Ephraim

Highlights
My nomination of Doubling Season seemed to be popular from the start. In committee, the contest was between Doubling Season, Bloodbond March, and Chorus of the Conclave. Doubling Season edged out the other two.

My thoughts now
The three contenders in committee were all fine choices, and I’d be happy with any of them. Master Warcraft is nice too. I have never understood the appeal of incredibly clunky, semi-random cards like Warp World and Eye of the Storm. Now, over the years I’ve long known that those sorts of cards do have their fans. But I don’t get it.

We had a nice range of candidates from this set. I’d also consider Plague Boiler, Pariah’s Shield, Phytohydra, Grozoth, Hour of Reckoning, Cloudstone Curio, and Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion. But I think I still have to go with Doubling Season.

 

[Oversoul]

Guildpact
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-guildpact-casual-card.14707/
Winner: Gelectrode

Nominees
Oversoul: Dune-Brood Nephalim
Spiderman: Ulasht, the Hate Seed
SeFRo: Gelectrode
Ransac: Tibor and Lumia
Train: Killer Instinct

Committee: TomB, Mooseman, Ephraim

Highlights
I nominated a card and Spiderman nominated a card, then the nomination period was supposed to be up, and Spiderman asked if we should shut down the Hall of Fame due to lack of nominations. Fortunately, the deadline was extended and we got some more nominations.

People seriously didn't like this set? I figured it would be a casual playground thanks to RG being prominent. Not saying folks here, just that I notice most casual groups have a fondness for either B or G or GR, with the newer or low-cardpool players favoring GR by a longshot. I actually liked it a lot, and ironically, the downside were the crappy keywords in the set. Totally hate bloodlust or whatever its called.

Yeah, I’m kind of with him there.

People seriously didn't like this set? I figured it would be a casual playground thanks to RG being prominent. Not saying folks here, just that I notice most casual groups have a fondness for either B or G or GR, with the newer or low-cardpool players favoring GR by a longshot. I actually liked it a lot, and ironically, the downside were the crappy keywords in the set. Totally hate bloodlust or whatever its called.

Hmm. I like the name and creature type, but I think it's really just a "Tim". I guess because it's red/blue and the abundance of instants and sorceries make the second ability useful though?

That's the reason I like it, Spidey. I have a RU deck in which the only critter was Gelectrode, and it won a couple battle circles, as well as doing pretty well in duels. When you think about it, he's a Tim that does so much more, and that's tack on an extra 2 damage to direct damage spells (yikes!) or makes your draw spells into super captrip damage. Or, worst yet, makes your counterspells capable of killing things as well as countering a spell. Its the untap ability that made it really fun for me, being a Tim I could tap for not 1 damage, but 2-3 or more almost every turn. And come on, every casual player who hated blue but secretly admired it probably did so for Tim. This is one you don't have to feel ashamed of using.

I don't mind another Tim, he's definitely casual. It's just that when I'm on the committee, one of the things I look for is if the card does something "new and groundbreaking", as opposed to just rehashing old abilities or themes.

If there aren't any, then I go back to name, flavor, and a cooler rehashed ability

I think it's an okay pick and the name may send it over the top, it just wouldn't have been my first choice.

My thoughts now
I guess I like the winner better than Spiderman appeared to at the time. I didn’t say much about it at the time and I can’t remember what my thoughts were, but I find myself concurring with SeFRo’s analysis now. Taking a look at the set, some other spicy cards include Ghostway, Stitch in Time, Yore-Tiller Nephilim, and Teysa, Orzhov Scion. Failing to find any of them especially more compelling than the others, I guess that if I chose a card today, it would be Gelectrode.

 

[Oversoul]

Dissension
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-dissension-casual-card.14724/
Winner: Evolution Vat

Nominees
Ransac: Bronze Bombshell
Oversoul: Magewright's Stone
Train: Biomantic Mastery
SeFRo: Dread Slag
Spiderman: Evolution Vat

Committee: Mooseman, Ephraim, Killer Joe

Highlights
This looks a bit confusing at first glance, but I’ve parsed it. What happened was that the nominations for this set started, but we had an extension on nominations from Guildpact, so with Spiderman moving some posts across threads, the flow of posts is a bit disjointed. Train’s nomination of Killer Instinct came up, but that was from the previous set. Gelectrode also came up, which was also from the previous set. SeFRo wanted to nominate Angel of Despair, which was also from Guildpact, but he misremembered its name and put “Desolation Angel.” We almost had more cards from outside this set get brought up than from within the set!

SeFRo never actually stated that he nominated Dread Slag, but expressed interest in both Jagged Poppet and Dread Slag, and from the context Spiderman must have gathered that Dread Slag was the intended nomination. I don’t know the details, but Evolution Vat won in the end.

My thoughts now
Most of my Ravnica Block cards are ones I inherited from when my collection was merged with my friend’s collection, and that old collection seems to have contained several pack’s worth of cards from the first two set, but nothing from Dissension. To this day, I think almost every single card I own from this set is something that was picked up as a single card for someone’s tournament deck or something I bought in the past couple years for EDH. This is one of the sets I have the least experience with out of anything in the 00’s. This set came out right around the peak of what I called my second “lull” in playing Magic. Since then, I’ve really come to learn the strong cards, but my knowledge is a bit weak when it comes to the stuff that doesn’t see much play.

Looking over the set now, well, I see a lot of cards I didn’t really remember at all. This is tough. Um, some cards that look cool include Ratcatcher, Proper Burial, Sprouting Phytohydra, Walking Archive, and Experiment Kraj. I’m sure I missed something cool, but I really did comb through the set list this time, hoping to find some really exciting card, something cooler than anything we nominated back in 2007. Alas, if I were to make my pick today, I’d concur with Spiderman and the committee and choose Evolution Vat.