Okay, you got me.
Nothing rhymes with orange.
So Land Boy, where on EARTH are you going with this one? Ah, there is a method to my madness.
So hang in there and you'll discover what it is very shortly.
Ready? Good, let's get rhyming.
Just like nothing rhymes with orange, there are Magic cards that don't seem to be good for anything.
You look at them and look at them and the only thing you can come up with is, "What the heck were they smoking when they made this card?" Let's take this card as an example.
Kaervek's Spite If you check out the card, you pay 3 black, sacrifice all your permanents, discard your whole hand and target player loses 5 life.
Now, I don't know about you, but I can think of better ways to inflict 5 life's worth of pain on my opponent.
I mean this card is just flat out BAD.
But then a funny thing happened.
WotC came out with something called Barren Glory and suddenly, between that card and Oblivion Ring, tossing in old Kaervek, you had a pretty cool combo where, on your upkeep, you had no permanents except for Barren Glory and you won the game.
How neat is that? Okay, what's my point? Well, for starters, things aren't always as they appear.
Something may look absolutely HORRIBLE at first glance but then, combined with other things or looking at other factors, that absolutely horrible thing isn't so bad and may even be quite good.
In addition to that, you can't judge anything in a vacuum, especially not when it comes to Magic.
I have seen cards that were never played for years and years and then suddenly, because of the creation of another card, became a Vintage or Legacy staple.
See, WotC, when they make new cards, they really don't check to see how they're going to interact with old cards.
They just don't have the time or the manpower to do so.
Think about all the thousands of cards that have been printed and you'll understand why this is an impossible task.
So what they do is JUST test for the current environment, mainly Standard constructed, limited and block.
Everything else is fair game to be busted to hell and back.
And it has been.
In fact, just recently, Griselbrand has been banned in Commander.
Personally, I always look for the next "new" card that's going to make some old unplayable jank a busted combo.
It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's SO much fun to watch as players start complaining about what eternal format just got wrecked by yet another 1 drop.
I'm looking at you Mental Misstep.
Heck, 1 drop? You can cast the darn thing for 2 lousy life in ANY color deck.
Yeah, that wasn't too much of a mistake in eternal formats where there are a ton of viable 1 CMC cards that are staples of the format.
Thank goodness for the ban hammer.
Anyway, the next time you look at your favorite "worthless piece of crap" card and think that it'll NEVER see play ANYWHERE, just remember that right around the corner is a card developing team that's just chomping at the bit to throw that reality right out the window.
Nothing might rhyme with orange, but Kaervek's Spite is absolutely playable.
To YOUR Magic the Gathering Enjoyment, Steve "Land Boy" Wagenheim
Nothing rhymes with orange.
So Land Boy, where on EARTH are you going with this one? Ah, there is a method to my madness.
So hang in there and you'll discover what it is very shortly.
Ready? Good, let's get rhyming.
Just like nothing rhymes with orange, there are Magic cards that don't seem to be good for anything.
You look at them and look at them and the only thing you can come up with is, "What the heck were they smoking when they made this card?" Let's take this card as an example.
Kaervek's Spite If you check out the card, you pay 3 black, sacrifice all your permanents, discard your whole hand and target player loses 5 life.
Now, I don't know about you, but I can think of better ways to inflict 5 life's worth of pain on my opponent.
I mean this card is just flat out BAD.
But then a funny thing happened.
WotC came out with something called Barren Glory and suddenly, between that card and Oblivion Ring, tossing in old Kaervek, you had a pretty cool combo where, on your upkeep, you had no permanents except for Barren Glory and you won the game.
How neat is that? Okay, what's my point? Well, for starters, things aren't always as they appear.
Something may look absolutely HORRIBLE at first glance but then, combined with other things or looking at other factors, that absolutely horrible thing isn't so bad and may even be quite good.
In addition to that, you can't judge anything in a vacuum, especially not when it comes to Magic.
I have seen cards that were never played for years and years and then suddenly, because of the creation of another card, became a Vintage or Legacy staple.
See, WotC, when they make new cards, they really don't check to see how they're going to interact with old cards.
They just don't have the time or the manpower to do so.
Think about all the thousands of cards that have been printed and you'll understand why this is an impossible task.
So what they do is JUST test for the current environment, mainly Standard constructed, limited and block.
Everything else is fair game to be busted to hell and back.
And it has been.
In fact, just recently, Griselbrand has been banned in Commander.
Personally, I always look for the next "new" card that's going to make some old unplayable jank a busted combo.
It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's SO much fun to watch as players start complaining about what eternal format just got wrecked by yet another 1 drop.
I'm looking at you Mental Misstep.
Heck, 1 drop? You can cast the darn thing for 2 lousy life in ANY color deck.
Yeah, that wasn't too much of a mistake in eternal formats where there are a ton of viable 1 CMC cards that are staples of the format.
Thank goodness for the ban hammer.
Anyway, the next time you look at your favorite "worthless piece of crap" card and think that it'll NEVER see play ANYWHERE, just remember that right around the corner is a card developing team that's just chomping at the bit to throw that reality right out the window.
Nothing might rhyme with orange, but Kaervek's Spite is absolutely playable.
To YOUR Magic the Gathering Enjoyment, Steve "Land Boy" Wagenheim
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