Worst Set in Magic History?
General forum
Posted on Oct. 29, 2013, 10:37 a.m. by MonsterFinder221
What's your opinion on the worst set in Magic History and why?
Mine's Fallen Empires, Nothing useful to me that much, except Delif's Cone
, Goblin Grenade
and Icatian Moneychanger
.
You better not be hating on Apocalypse Chime and Heart Wolf
October 29, 2013 11:04 a.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #7
Worst thing ever was when they required at least five Homelands cards to be played in a Standard deck. Serrated Arrows made up 4 of my slots.
October 29, 2013 11:12 a.m.
I think Kamigawa had a very low number of constructed playables, no real fixing, and a general lack of depth. Homelands was bad, but Kamigawa was worse, considering that R&D had a much better understanding on how to make fun and powerful blocks.
October 29, 2013 11:16 a.m.
SharuumNyan says... #9
Here are my thoughts in the form of a Haiku.
The complete Scars block. Because of infect, that's why!Infect made me cry.
October 29, 2013 11:16 a.m.
@SharuumNyan: I'm kinda sad that your Haiku got lost in formatting.
October 29, 2013 11:24 a.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #11
I consider the Urza and original Mirrodin blocks to be the worst blocks. Combo Winter and everyone quit because of Affinity being my proof.
October 29, 2013 11:27 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #12
Homelands is famous for a ton of really weakly designed cards, but almost every one of them tells a home run level flavor story. Same thing with Fallen Empires. It was cards like those that got me interested in the game in the first place.
I'm really glad Dallie brought up Kamigawa block. Not only was there a bit too much dumb stuff, but the major mechanics were almost 100% insular (not working with anything else in the game) and the basis behind the flavor/mythology was only really accessible to the most hardcore otaku in the target audience.
Speaking of inaccessibility, all of Time Spiral block was almost completely impenetrable to anyone who hadn't already been playing 7+ years. At the time, playing any Time Spiral limited format was basically the same as every game of Magic I had ever played in my life, but to a newer player it must have been horribly complicated and confusing to no end.
October 29, 2013 11:27 a.m.
SharuumNyan says... #13
@Dallie - I guess the guys at TO are poetry haters ;)
October 29, 2013 11:31 a.m.
Hehehe....
SharuumNyan hates the scars block because of infect...
Everyone else hates Homelands...
Homelands had Leeches ...
Go figure!
Homelands as a set wasn't all that great. Yet there are a few cards that have made it into combos or other interesting decks....
Memory Lapse (used in some EDH decks to "tuck" commanders.
...and now, with the Minotaurs in Theros, I'd love to see a Didgeridoo reprint.
Oh... and the lands (though slow) were decent mana fixing for their time.
October 29, 2013 11:39 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #15
FYI, you can use two spaces and a carriage return at the end of a line to make single-spaced line breaks.
Like this
and this
Not thisor this
October 29, 2013 11:40 a.m.
actiontech says... #16
HTML pro-tip: use the tag < br > (remove the spaces) to force a carriage return at the end of any line. Useful for listing cards, like in a trade for instance. Or publishing a Haiku. < b > for bold, < u > for underline, < center > for .. well obviously. Just be sure to close your tags with < /b >, etc.
Because of infect, that's why!
Infect made me cry.
October 29, 2013 12:15 p.m.
I say that the worst set ever is the set that you like best because it has mechanics that are dumb with a ridiculous flavor that doesn't make any sense and I think you can safely point to that set and say the quality of Magic is declining.
October 29, 2013 12:20 p.m.
HarbingerJK says... #18
@SpammyV that doesn't make any sense, so I'm going to have to assume you are trolling.
Kamigawa Block for sure
October 29, 2013 12:37 p.m.
Hallowed_Titan says... #19
I enjoy every set because it's a story. But, the one I enjoyed the least was probably Kamigawa.
October 29, 2013 12:49 p.m.
KnightsBattlecry001 says... #20
Looking back at all the years I've been playing, Kamigawa probably is the worst one in my opinion. Nothing really worked with other sets which was a pain. I did however like the samurai cards.
October 29, 2013 1:10 p.m.
@ fluffybunnypants, why the Urza block? That is by far my favorite and think it was one of the most important blocks for magic. To each their own but there are most certainly weaker sets to pick on... like Homelands... no love for poor lil ol Autumn Willow
October 29, 2013 1:18 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #22
The Urza's Saga block was so poorly planned that they had to ban a card before it was playable (Memory Jar ). I think that is reason enough. We could also go with the answer that it caused a mass exodus from MtG.
October 29, 2013 1:20 p.m.
Kamigawa may have been trash lore-wise and standard play-wise, but it still gave us some EDH gems like the dragons, 8.5 Tails, and Top.
October 29, 2013 1:21 p.m.
MinscAndBoo says... #24
Fallen Empires was at least cool and flavorful. It even produced a broken card, Hymn to Tourach . One of my all-time favorite decks is old-school Saprolings with all the Fungus cards.
Homelands is a veritable piece, even Wizards have admitted it to being an all-time low. Rumor is the designer got canned.
October 29, 2013 1:23 p.m.
HarbingerJK says... #25
@fluffybunnypants Scars block also caused an exodus, maybe not on the same level of Urza's Saga but most of my playgroup stopped playing when Scars came out and they didn't come back until Avacyn Restored
October 29, 2013 1:27 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #26
Except for the dip in tournament attendance that occurred during the worst parts of Caw Blade's dominance, Scars block was counted as a success in terms of attracting and retaining players. The biggest offenders for driving players away were Urza block (poorly developed, busted-ass cards), original Mirrodin block (same), and Time Spiral block (insanely complex).
October 29, 2013 1:31 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #27
I agree, Scars was not nearly as bad as the original Mirrodin block (Skullclamp Affinity anyone?) and Urza's Saga.
October 29, 2013 1:39 p.m.
DimirQueen says... #28
Haven't been around for very long, but my boyfriend said that Kamigawa is the worst thing ever. He described it like a war story.
October 29, 2013 2:18 p.m.
Its allready been concluded by Wizards that Kamigawa, Although my personal favorite, was the least popular and least earning (based on %) of all the magic sets.
October 29, 2013 2:35 p.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #31
I'd like to see card sales versus estimated players at the time between Homelands and Kamigawa block.
October 29, 2013 2:38 p.m.
Homelands. My buddy starts in Beta, has the power 9, Lib of A, and a million of cards so I say... ok, I'll play and I get... Fallen Empires AND Homelands?!?! WTF.
At least Fallen Empires had Hymn to Tourach that at 4x could occasionally screw over his deck Big Blue for a little while before I got stomped.
Remember, back then there was no damn internet to release the card list before a set came out. Fuck I still need therapy after opening two boxes of that dog shit expansion they called Homelands and seeing nothing but garbage.
October 29, 2013 2:59 p.m.
Homelands might actually have some treasures in the form of Minotaurs. Kragma Warcaller and such. :D
October 29, 2013 3:37 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #35
My most hated set... Hmmm, for the sake that fallen empires and homelands is taken already (both of which I hate tremendously) I would also like to say alliances. Yeah I said it. Seriously, besides FoW and hymn to tourach, name another good card from that set... It's cool, I will wait.
Alliances sucked... I would even go as far as saying that the entire ice age block sucked. It sucked so bad that wizards made a huge gap between alliances and cold snap in hopes that everyone would forget how shitty of a block it was. Even I was excited about cold snap in the beginning, and then I was like... Oh yeah, it's a part of ice age... Shit.
Ice age itself was okay, at best. Alliances was a terrible excuse for a set. And cold snap was not much better.
Soapbox done.
October 29, 2013 3:43 p.m.
gnarlicide says... #36
Never mind, hymn is not in alliances... Which makes it suck that much more.
October 29, 2013 3:47 p.m.
gnarlicide at the time it was released Alliances was really well received and I enjoyed it. Of course Force of Will became the most famous of cards from the set, but there were others that were pretty cool for the time. Balduvian Horde was considered overpowered (see the effect of power creep into creatures). Lim-Dul's Paladin used to make my friends squirm. Helm of Obedience was fun. i liked my Kjeldoran Outpost in my white-weenie deck. Pillage was a more diverse Stone Rain . Yavimaya Ants with Ball Lightning Blood Lust and Berserk would make the unwary cry. Soldevi Excavations was the original scry. And Rogue Skycaptain was hilarious in large group games where you got to "give the bird" to someone out of range to attack you.
Last but not least, who can forget the very odd Phelddagrif
Alliances was fun.
October 29, 2013 4:02 p.m.
Lololol @ fluffybunnypants I guess we will just agree to disagree cause it sounds like you hate it for the reasons I love it. It was such a broken set with amazing cards... I dont follow mtg as in depth as to even pretend to know anything about planning the sets or r&d, I just play wth the cards they print. Urza's Saga caused people to quit because of the ridiculous combos and just the op decks in standard... sounds like a bunch of sore losers to me. Instead of complaining or quitting I put together a pretty solid Sneak Attack deck that held its own at sanctioned events :)
October 29, 2013 4:03 p.m.
and how could I forget Lake of the Dead ? Mono black loved it!
October 29, 2013 4:04 p.m.
fluffybunnypants and Panda213 I retired at Urza's Saga (not because of the set, because friends I played moved on to other things), but I wish I stuck with it. I would love to have a full playtest of Show and Tell and Gaea's Cradle (and not just one). Ugh, was out just a little too soon.
October 29, 2013 4:07 p.m.
lord_of_the_snakes says... #41
why do people hate on kamigawa, kamigawa was awesome
October 29, 2013 4:32 p.m.
@bantam1234: I think the idea of Kamigawa was good, the set and the mechanics just didn't work out. Also, names were way too difficult, I mean, remember that card that's just like Divination , but from CoK? No. No one does.
October 29, 2013 4:42 p.m.
(That card is Counsel of the Soratami , for anyone wondering)
October 29, 2013 4:43 p.m.
Kamigawa had external balance problems, meaning the set didn't combine with anything else outside of the block. It was one of my favorite block formats, though. The block by itself had some interesting mechanics and flavor. Unfortunately, they messed up with the legendary mechanics in the set. There's only a few playables in the set, specifically Gifts Ungiven and Sensei's Divining Top .
Fallen Empires is amazing. None of its good cards were at rare, but the commons and uncommons enabled a lot of decks. Hymn to Tourach , High Tide , Icatian Javelineers , Goblin Grenade , Night Soil , Order of Leitbur , just to name a few. No other set at the time offered a better percentage of playables at common the way Fallen Empires did. A lot of the negativity about Fallen Empires came from the fact it was printed in massive quantities and few of its rares were good. This meant paying $2 for 75 cents worth of cards to most people, since all they wanted were the non-rares.
Homelands is one of the worst sets in terms of balance. It wasn't designed by experienced people in R&D, but rather designers from D&D who had a stronger background in roleplaying. The mistake was that they didn't get any guidance from any of the experienced designers like they should have. The set has a really cool story, but lacks any compelling playables, outside of Serrated Arrows . Magic entered somewhat of a dark age until The Weatherlight came around.
October 29, 2013 6:03 p.m.
MonsterFinder221 says... #45
@sylvannos, I agree, especially now that a pack costs about $4 and you obviously don't want to waste your money on 8 cards a pack that doesn't have a lot of "chase rares". But Kamigawa wasn't that bad, the Bushido effect was somewhat the opposite of the Exalted effect, the upside-down cards were nifty to say the least, cards like General's Kabuto and Bushi Tenderfoot / Kenzo the Hardhearted were pretty good, but there's just a lack of samurai in Magic for some of it's effects to mingle with other sets. And yes, there were some playable cards from Fallen Empires and Homelands.
October 29, 2013 11:16 p.m.
I wouldn't say Kamigawa, because many cards have become staples from it for Modern. Overall I would say the worst set is a set that did not have sensible lore and did not have any cards that could see use in different formats. I am going to have to go with a set many will agree with...Mercadian Masques.
October 29, 2013 11:29 p.m.
I have a beef with Tempest. It had some good and interesting cards, to be sure like Licids and plenty of others that I still use in a few decks. My beef is that it made too much of a sudden change to the game for the average player at the time who had settled on their favorite color and adopted the game as something within their budget. The sliver deck which chewed most (or maybe all) the longstanding decks required a much more enormous investment in dual lands (a thing that budget players could scoff at buying in the past because mono colored decks (or dual even) were strong enough to outrace most multicolored decks). A lot of people, when demanded to pay more and change their entire investment and meaning of the game for them - didn't - they just quit.
At the same time, I can see how the Tempest cards sort of laid the foundation for what MTG is today and if you don't like making continuous investments and expiring your cards and dealing with big archetype upsets then you should play something else other than standard. Nowadays there are other options and I think the developers make slightly less sudden and drastic changes to the way the game is played. It sounds like Infect was a similar game-changer for many people but I think it had less of an impact on the player base in general because Infect was readily accessible to anyone unlike the multi-colored sliver decks at the time of Tempest. Yes, Infect blew up the game for some people but imagine how much worse it would be if the only people who could run it were the ones who could pay for the most expensive lands in the game, instead of rotating out 1 out of 3 at a time with careful consideration of balance - they just made a set that was "strictly better" in every way so you just had to use the new set effectively even if officially you could use your old cards that were no longer good, and no one had accepted the idea that you couldn't play the same black night / demon deck or goblin deck for all the rest of your life like building a Warhammer40K army up over painstaking years of work that has lasting value ... I don't know - maybe I'm just too old and you would have had to have been there to know how much it changed the game at the time.
It changed the game so much that the reason I quit for a while was that all the people I knew who had played the game a year or two quit and gave me all their cards (or sold them off) and I had no one to play with any more! ... that and I caught myself becoming addicted when I suddenly got so many more cards than I had ever imagined owning ...
October 30, 2013 12:17 a.m.
fluffybunnypants says... #50
I did some research for an article I'm writing, and I've got to tell you that Legends really looks like a pretty shitty set at this point as well.
ArtificerTawnos says... #2
Homelands
October 29, 2013 10:38 a.m.