Good Cards That You Just Plain Don't Like
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on March 30, 2022, 5:10 p.m. by Niko9
I was thinking about this a bit when I was looking at an older deck of mine and being like, well, Grand Abolisher would be the perfect card, but I can't bring myself to put it it. Maybe it's that the art doesn't appeal to me, or that it cuts out player's interaction (which is one of my favorite parts of the game) or maybe it's just the price tag combined with these other things : )
Either way, I was wondering if you all had anything similar in your play. Like, that card that is actually so good, but you don't play it out of, I don't know, out of sheer dislike.
I think we all have so many cards that we play just because we like them, but what's the other side of it? I'm interested : )
Hall of Gemstone played it once against one of my mates who loves playing gold cards. Made the game almost unplayable for him and a cheap shot from me. Still have it in the deck but won't use it if it shuts out a player.
March 30, 2022 6:45 p.m.
AstroAA Couldn't agree more on Smothering Tithe : ) I used to play it and the few times it hung around, I just didn't want it anymore. It was like, I don't want to keep asking everyone, can I just please sac it for no reason, I thought I wanted to be here but now that I am I regret it.
And I'm so glad I never see Demonic Consultation I feel like that's one of those, you just can't play it nice, cards.
March 30, 2022 7:01 p.m.
Fuzzy003 Oh that's a good one! I haven't seen Hall of Gemstone in forever, and I do hope to keep it that way : )
March 30, 2022 7:02 p.m.
For me, it's the cards that are good enough that they must be run that I distasted the most. It's probably a hangover from the original Mirrodin block that turned tournament competitive MtG into a true nightmare in the mid 2000s. When every damn deck in the tournament is Ravager Affinity then the tournament itself is pretty ridiculous, so it's when these kinds of situations crop up and a card is so good that it demands to be played while warping the meta completely around it just because it exists is generally when I have a major problem with a card. Paradox Engine is one of the cards I hated for that reason. 1 card combo with every other spell in your deck that is colorless so it should go in every deck... Just ridiculous, those cards should never exist because they make the game less fun since everyone is just doing the exact same thing every game.
Mostly it's the eternal style formats where I find this circumstance most egregious. If a card dominates Standard for a bit it will eventually rotate out, and Standard won't be fun for a while, but it's a problem that is resolved post rotation. Where as in the eternal formats if something is a problem then it will be a problem from now until the end of time. Hullbreacher and Opposition Agent are two of the more recent cards that go on that list for me. Boseiju, Who Endures could become one of those cards. Don't get me wrong, I play all this stuff, and the winning feels great as a competitor, but it doesn't feel like it's worth the "price of my soul" and I usually feel like I need a shower after gaming with cards I dislike from a philosophical standpoint.
March 30, 2022 10:25 p.m.
golgarigirl says... #8
I can't STAND Sensei's Divining Top. In my experience, the card merely serves to extend games. And not necessarily in the caster's favor...half the time it doesn't even seem to make a difference. Maybe some of my ire comes from how hard it is to remove... I have plenty of decks it would slot nicely into, but I just can't do it.
March 31, 2022 12:51 a.m.
I agree about Sensei's Divining Top. I have two of them and feel like an idiot because I don't run them in anything. But it seems to make games pretty one-sided.
Mindslaver and, because of Mindslaver, Academy Ruins. Pretty much ends a game if its 1v1 and makes it pretty hard to stop even in multiplayer because part of it's potency is on a land. I have playsets of both and never put them in anything any more. And if you are running those two then you might as well run Spine of Ish Sah, Metalworkers and your Darksteel Forges. Then you end up with a deck gathering dust on a back shelf because of how much self-loathing it can make you feel when you play them.
March 31, 2022 1:32 a.m.
plakjekaas says... #10
I have a personal vendetta against Gilded Drake. But that's because I'm literally always the one who has the coolest creatures and therefor gets the 3/3 flyer. It's such a low cost, low effort and a low downside for a Control Magic-type effect, and I've been building that Marwyn, the Nurturer up all game, just keep your dirty drake-talons off it. I literally bought a Homeward Path solely because of that card being the bane of my existence.
March 31, 2022 3:37 a.m.
ClockworkSwordfish says... #11
I have a real loathing for all the "kitchen sink" cards that have been cropping up more and more lately - the type that give you a ton of fiddly little incremental advantages. Strixhaven was especially bad for this. Things like Magma Opus, Culmination of Studies, Multiple Choice, Pestilent Cauldron Flip, Scale the Heights... there's being versatile, then there's being overdesigned and obnoxious.
The same goes for creatures with a number of "might as well" abilities that are likely to never come up in actual gameplay. Questing Beast is perhaps the worst offender, but Moritte of the Frost, Vadrok, Apex of Thunder, Koma, Cosmos Serpent, Graveyard Trespasser Flip, Orvar, the All-Form, any double-sided creature... these things aren't even fun to read.
March 31, 2022 5:21 a.m.
I remember playing my first game in high school where mana cost was almost equivalent to power/toughness and abilities made it cost more usually...
I look at cards like Questing Beast and think "How does that not cost like 12 mana or some other ridiculous amount?"
March 31, 2022 5:48 a.m.
This is probably MTG sacrilege, but I'm not a huge fan of Kenrith, the Returned King or Edgar Markov
I think Kenrith is too focused on paying a ton of mana, and I'm not into that. And I just prefer Strefan, Maurer Progenitor to Edgar.
March 31, 2022 9:27 a.m.
It's funny you mention Grand Abolisher. That card has been in my binder forever. Maybe I should trade it for an Esper Sentinel. Drawing cards is more fun than stax.
A card I hated and rejoiced when it was banned was Golos, Tireless Pilgrim. Much of my hate stems from it ruining standard when it had been good, and one of my favorite standard decks was Orzhov Vampires in Core 2020 standard simply because I could wreck Golos/Field of the Dead decks right and left. I also feel like Golos was bad for commander, because there was little incentive to run other five color decks. Also, he has no real flavor. Urza, Lord High Artificer may be broken, but he has tons of flavor and it makes sense. Golos is basically the tin man from the wizard of Oz becoming some sort of god, like he replaced the wizard or something. If its going to be broken and warp the format at least it should be epic. At any rate, I'm a low ban kind of guy who wants them to unban more stuff, but Golos and Paradox Engine are the two bans that made me happy.
March 31, 2022 9:29 a.m.
griffstick says... #15
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Oko, Thief of Crowns. I hate this card soo much. If this comes down early I will not be casting many spells especially my cmdr.
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Dockside Extortionist I hate seeing this and refuse to play it. I think the card is busted. No one playing it plays it fair.
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Omnath, Locus of Mana, seeing this card just aggravates me so much. I think the card breaks the rules of magic and I refuse to play it.
Those or my top offenders.
March 31, 2022 10:14 a.m.
When Oko, Thief of Crowns was in standard it was so boring to play against it. You only had a couple of good strategies to beat it and building to beat it left you with a slower deck. I loved killing that card.
I think Questing Beast was Wizards trying to keep Green players playing the game. Green had such a narrow group of ways to win. And used to or usually outright loses to good midrange/control decks. Still, really dumb card.
March 31, 2022 10:55 a.m.
I'm going to be honest, I kind of forgot that Oko, Thief of Crowns exists, just because when he came out my playgroup made a big collective, pfft nope.
And I totally agree with Questing Beast and things like it being too pushed. It's the kind of multiple effects that are so ridiculous that you can sometimes forget them all when you play them, and that's when it goes too far. When you are like, oh yeah, this also has deathtouch, or something. That kinda thing happening on either side of the table makes me cringe so much : )
March 31, 2022 11:05 a.m.
freezerboy says... #18
I don't see many people playing it anymore, but Consecrated Sphinx would make my list. Times when multiple copies were on the field became a "Wait, how many cards did you draw? 4? Okay I'm gonna draw 8. Oh you drew 15, okay I'll just draw my deck...now where did that combo end up? Hahahaha sorry, I have too many cards."
March 31, 2022 12:30 p.m.
freezerboy Oh wow, I never considered more than one Consecrated Sphinx on the table. Probably feels great for the players with them, but everyone else must be like, mmmmhm, ooookay : )
March 31, 2022 1:40 p.m.
Big ol' "That's just like, your opinion man" disclaimer on all of these but:
Rhystic Study: Makes the gameplay experience awful. Constantly interrupting everyone is neither cute nor funny. Not to mention burying the table in card advantage because they committed the grave sin of not having a disenchant in hand.
Sensei's Divining Top: Makes the gameplay experience awful. Grinding things to a halt while one person looks at their top three cards and no, the game can't proceed like with shuffling a deck because they MIGHT have a relevant response. There's a reason it's banned in Modern and Legacy and it can stay there.
Thassa's Oracle: The most boring and least interactable win condition. Oh look you found one of the many ways to get rid of your deck and now it's counterspell or bust. Go you. Your creativity and skill are staggering me.
March 31, 2022 1:51 p.m.
I agree on Thassa's Oracle and Demonic Consultation and other boring win cons that everyone runs. If you are going to do combo, at least be creative and have a wide variety of ways to go about it.
Also, I hate any cards that can combo and win the game but are otherwise horrible on their own, like Triskelion and Phyrexian Devourer. These cards are just horrible if you are not using Necrotic Ooze or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed to win with them, and I hate cards that are bad on their own and will sit uselessly in my hand until I can win with them. It was good to get that off my chest.
March 31, 2022 2:11 p.m.
SpammyV Why bother with a Counterspell if some one attempts a Thoracle line? Doesn’t seem like fair punishment for the transgression. Instead, respond with an Angel’s Grace or Trickbind and show them no quarter. “That’s a mighty fine lose condition you played there Mr. Fish player.”
;-)
March 31, 2022 2:21 p.m.
I'll definitely throw in on Thassa's Oracle It's just so, it's just so of course the card to put in a deck, and that's lame.
I gave oracle way too much thought in my deck that uses Leveler combo, but then decided that nope, I just didn't want to.
March 31, 2022 3:35 p.m.
Grubbernaut says... #24
I don't mind Thoracle. I get way more annoyed losing to Gitrog combo than anything else, other than stax. It's incredibly awkward to interact with.
March 31, 2022 3:38 p.m.
Grubbernaut Best bet against Gitrog is generally exile effects and standard graveyard hate. Your Deathrite Shamans, Rest in Peaces, or even just an Endurance in a pinch. If you can exile the Eldrazi Shufflers the combo dies an agonizing death and they have to resort to creature beats.
March 31, 2022 3:43 p.m.
freezerboy says... #26
Thankfully cards like Sadistic Sacrament exist to ruin nonsense.
March 31, 2022 3:45 p.m.
I agree with Guerric on the whole idea of combo pieces that are trash on their own. That's one of the reasons I refuse to run infinite combos in any deck, unless they end up in there by accident.
I'll also add my voice to the Thoracle hate on this thread. As SpammyV implied, it's just not at all creative.
But the one card that really rashes my rear is Cyclonic Rift. It's basically like "here's a couple more turns worth of boredom for the rest of y'all, whilst I sit here with my perfectly intact board state and pick you all off one by one."
Now, I will (and do) play cards like In Garruk's Wake and Ruinous Ultimatum, so maybe I shouldn't judge. I suppose it could be simply that CyRif is so common to encounter. Like hating The Beatles because they're overplayed. But I think it's more annoying somehow to have everything bounced rather than destroyed, because then everyone has to take the extra time to try to figure out what to recast, only to just lose anyway because they're too far behind.
March 31, 2022 4:21 p.m.
freezerboy says... #28
Epicurus it is probably because Cyclonic Rift is blue. You've been dealing with a controlling blue player the whole time, Counterspell-ing your attempts to play, and finally after much work and playing around all that counter magic you've got a somewhat decent board state...oh wait nevermind.
If it was a white card, then maybe it wouldn't feel so hateful.
March 31, 2022 5:05 p.m. Edited.
Not to derail this thread but when did Consecrated Sphinx become so expensive? Must be a commander staple for Blue nowadays?
March 31, 2022 5:28 p.m.
MagicMarc Ha, derailing is half the fun : ) But I think I remember seeing Consecrated Sphinx on some episodes of Game Knights and that always pushes cards for commander, for sure.
March 31, 2022 6:28 p.m.
FormOverFunction says... #31
I periodically take the one-sided land destruction, like Flashfires and Tsunami, out of my natural disaster decks because (even though they’re EXTREMELY effective against some) I keep finding myself just holding them because I don’t want to shred just one of my opponents like that. That being said, I’ve found that I never look at planes walkers as they get released/spoiled because I really don’t like them even existing in M:tG. I’ve been convinced to use three, currently, but I never seem to enjoy those pluses/minuses. It’s an unreasonable Old Man(tm) disdain, for certain, but I really can’t get over it.
April 1, 2022 5:19 p.m.
FormOverFunction I hear what you are saying about planeswalkers. I have a superfriends deck, but people tend to hate on them even when they aren't that powerful, and they are squishy and hard to protect. The best ones are the ones without worrisome ultimates that just give you some utility like any other cards. Some of the green and white ones that mostly help creatures or generate tokens are the best, as usually their ultimates aren't a big deal and you have creatures to protect them.
April 1, 2022 5:34 p.m.
You know, I still wonder how Oko, Thief of Crowns would play out if his second ability was a -1. With that one little change he would go from being able to elk at will to absolutely needing protection from an elk, which is also kinda fun flavor. Like, he could change you into something that's a threat to him. That's interesting. As is though, uggh, I feel like all of his numbers just don't make sense.
April 1, 2022 7:05 p.m.
Also, and this might be the first time I disagree with FormOverFunction who is awesome : ) I really like planeswalkers just because of the flavor they add. As someone who always wants to play more creatures, they kind of feel like spells that look like creatures, and that makes them way more appealing to me.
April 2, 2022 8:27 a.m.
FormOverFunction says... #35
Niko9 don’t worry - we can still agree that “It’s an unreasonable Old Man(tm) disdain, for certain“. I remember when this was all fields, summoning sickness was a result of actually being pulled from your home plane and thrown onto a battlefield, and the two players were the only planeswalkers present. Consarnit. Dag-nabbit. Et cetera. LOL
April 2, 2022 9:47 a.m.
CastleSiege says... #37
Cyclonic Rift. It's too one-sided. I can't bring myself to put it in my blue decks. I'll play something like Evacuation instead.
April 22, 2022 3:39 p.m.
I agree with you about Cyclonic Rift. I put that card in every deck I have running blue and I find myself letting it rot in my hand because casting it is just going to put every one back to turn 0 kind of and I don't always have a game finisher to follow it with. It also makes you extremely unpopular at the table.
This may be more a failure of my deck construction skills than a problematic card maybe but between resetting the table and the bad politics I have started not including it in my decks.
April 22, 2022 7:37 p.m.
I really don't like Temple of the False God. It's too slow for me. I want lands that help me ramp out in the early game, not late. Sure, if you've got in a green deck getting 5 lands out isn't an issue, but in any non-green color, it's way too slow.
AstroAA says... #2
Demonic Consultation because it's boring. Doomsday is where it's at as there is more interaction and possibility to screw your own win up; it's a much more exciting card.
Acidic Slime because it cannot be casted with Aluren.
Land ramp in general just cause I prefer fast mana like dorks and rocks. Although, I don't particularly like Smothering Tithe because I think it's one of those cards that people just know to target. It comes out and eats a removal spell as soon as it resolves - if it resolves at all. If I was going to bait a removal spell, I'd rather do it with a cheaper card CMC-wise like Esper Sentinel.
March 30, 2022 6:29 p.m.