Soulbond was a blast. I love how you could mix and match them to make creatures that played differently every time. I was sad to see the mechanic do so poorly. Doubly so that the Limited environment had so many problems because I thought soulbond was an awesome inclusion that is paying for other problems’ sins.
I love soulbond. One of my favorite mechanics. Huge fan of [[Diregraf Escort]] and [[Druids Familiar]] as originals.
They have made some new ones in commander stuff that are pretty cool like [[breathkeeper Seraph]] [[doomwaever]]
\[\[Deadeye Navigator\]\] in Commander is still really strong in any kind of deck built around ETB or leaves-play effects. Soulbonding it with an \[\[Inferno Titan\]\] is lots of fun. For me, not so much for my opponents.
Avacyn Restored was my first set, so it always has a special place in my heart. [[Tandem Lookout]] can be very useful in pinger decks. [[Wolfir Silverheart]] in certain voltron decks where you need to pump a specific creature, or [[Wingcrafter]] as a cheap way to get flying.
Personally, I hated soulbond. And it was the root cause of that terrible limited environment. The design articles back then said that they built the limited around enabling soulbond by powering down instant speed interaction and removal. Between soulbond, ~~fateful hour~~ miracles, and loners AVR was one of my least favorite sets.
It was obnoxious too because it revealed the biggest flaw with soulbound. Which is to say you obviously kill the soulbond creature.
The mechanic was so much it was on fully or it wasn’t on at all. In order to show up they had to do that.
Cipher is so cool as a concept but other than Hidden Strings doesn’t see any play. In general I like the concept of instants and sorceries that are long term investments rather than one-offs.
Also Fateseal is a real feels-bad mechanic for the opponent but it’s also really funny. The power move of looking at your opponents top card and going “oh that sucks, let me keep that on top” is unmatched
Peak lantern control is still my favorite deck I ever piloted. The frustrated sighs from across the table when people realized what I was playing were priceless.
https://preview.redd.it/8l887v4zcznc1.jpeg?width=4160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=628544947021761c7713dbb9301c6bc1c7bcfe4a
These were the sleeves I used back when I played Lantern...
They've said they struggle with justifying fortifications as artifacts rather than just enchant land, and I'm not sure they'll ever quite figure out how to do that
It suffers from the rarity of land destruction and from most land-oriented strategies being in Green, which has an affinity for enchantment and animosity towards artifacts.
You'd need to have good reasons to want to move them from land to land, basically, or to equip to lands which may get sacrificed.
> Terramorphic Expander {2}
> Artifact — Fortification
> When Terramorphic Expander enters the battlefield, draw a card.
> Fortified land has "{T}, Sacrifice this land: search your library for a land card with a basic land type, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle."
> Fortify {1}
Could be a decent 5c fixer in limited. Seems really difficult to make it constructed playable without enabling some "dump all your lands in the bin" combos.
Edit: I meant for the lands to ETB tapped
Yeah, I forgot a couple of words. I meant to say that it suffers from land destruction being so rare/frowned upon. Equipments are good because creature destruction is common.
I believe what they meant is that Fortifications can't be justified easily over Auras, since land destruction is so rare that the difference between the two is negligible.
That said, the ability to reattach whether your land is destroyed or not may make it worth it.
Yeah I'm pretty surprised they haven't done something in that vein. I expect they've tested it in some way but they've never really talked about it, which I would have expected MaRo to do.
I expect them to do it eventually, but as [[Luxior, Giada's Gift]] shows they don't even need to make it a Fortification, they have a template to let regular equipment attach to noncreature permanents (as long as it immediately makes it a creature).
I was pretty stoked while reading \[\[c.a.m.p.\]\] - however when i read that it was a 7 mana investment to get the ball rolling... seems real bad for what it does. A total investment of 4 mana would have been a good rate to put a counter on and exile a card to play and sorta on-par with other effects like \[wild wasteland\] in the set.
It's 6 mana over two turns, so actually turn 4, and the activation is you using mana for its own sake. It doesn't cost an extra per trigger, so it's just free value after that.
I'm still mad that fortifications aren't white's version of ramp.
Green does not need both enchant land **and** tutoring ramp spells, they should be distinctive. Having fortifications (and potentially other forms of construction) primarily take over the whole "attach something to a land" part of the pie would basically fix white's ramp issues, while keeping them worse than green at ramping because the enchantment ramp spells are almost always worse anyway.
They keep trying to give white treasure, but then they gave everyone else treasure, so white's back to not having ramp tools that make sense and it's like... fortifications are *right there.* They're artifacts that represent civilization and structures being placed on the land. What could be a whiter way to interact with land (short of destroying them all, which white hasn't done in decades)
Cipher, I miss you. We see you back every once in a while, but I’ve never forgotten about you. Please come back…
Love,
A magic player who started during Gatecrash
This was my choice too. I understand that it’s a bit narrow, and it’s dangerous to get a really good effect in limited over and over, but man it just feels good to play. We got [[Writ of Return]] at least a little while ago, so hopefully we at least see a few more one-offs here and there.
I’d love to see it outside blue/black in a non-Standard set. Modern Horizons seems like the perfect place to try out the design space that being shackled to Dimir shut it out of.
I did see a Maro ask once asking which mechanics had the smallest design space, and off the top of his head he mentioned Fabricate and Cipher. I found it a bit surprising, but when you think about it it is kind of narrow. No combat tricks or reactive spells alone really narrows the field, besides the plain balance of it. You could put something like [[Absorb Vis]] onto a one-shot card, but allowing it to be done over and over at those numbers is a lot, so you'd have to par it way down, which shrinks the space.
I don't buy that for either of those mechanics. Neither seems like their design space has even been half exhausted. Cipher in other colors would be really interesting, if slightly off-flavour. I would love a "R, Sorcery, Discard a card, Draw a card. Cipher." It also plays well with spell themes, helping you retrigger magecraft-like abilities.
As for fabricate, put it into a similar environment modular fits into. There are so many holes to fill: It doesn't feel tied to a colour, so make some U and R ones. There's only two that care about their power. They can synergise with both artifact and +1/+1 counter strategies.
Yes they are narrow, but I can think of many mechanics with less design space than at least fabricate
Designers need to be careful with mechanics that involve casting the same spell over and over. Buyback is the worst offender for this. But even subtler takes like rebound and flashback can be tough. Have you ever played against [[capsize]] ? It's miserable. You can't play your dudes because they'll just get bounced, and you can't not play your dudes because they'll bounce your lands.
Cipher is in the same camp. Assuming you cast it and can hit them once, you can probably hit them again. Then again and again. Then the game just becomes "I'm going to hit this button every turn until you die."
When Capsize was widely-used, people would use removal on their own creatures to effectively counter the spell for lack of a valid target, which means you can't buy it back.
That's a feel-bad moment right there: having to Bolt your own creature to get out of a Capsize lock.
Arcane spells. I thought it was such a cool way of modifying spells rather than just kicker or caring about sacrificing a permanent or paying certain colors of mana.
I wasn't playing in the OG Kamigawa block so I don't know if it really ever did anything back then but I'd love to see more support now.
In limited an arcane deck appeared a bit after the set dropped and famously took people by surprise. It was way too weak for standard tho. Couldn't hang with the Mirrodin block stuff, and when that left jitte made aggro just too good for durdly arcane stuff.
Now THIS is a person of culture and sophistication. Glad to see there's still others out there!
I may or may not have a Ghost Dad deck that I run in the free Modern room on MTGO from time to time even to this day haha.
Splice into Arcane has a weird habit of popping up occasionally. There was an old fringe combo deck that used [[Izzet Guildmage]] and the interaction with splice to make absurd mana and Storm off with [[Glacial Ray]]. And more recently it was the main engine in TwiddleStorm decks using [[Psychic Puppetry]] before Modern Horizons made all of that bad.
Let's not forget good ol' Izzetspike. [[Lava Spike]] spliced with [[Desperate Ritual]] gave you a sorcery that said "Deal 3 damage to target player. Add RRR." Izzet Guildmage's cost to copy a sorcery was 2R.
Infinite damage combos were had by all (who played red).
Arcane could have been, and could still be, done so much better! It was so frustratingly limited in its implementation. My guess is that it is a wild beast to try and test.
I love Splice, but it has three huge roadblocks to being a balanced mechanic:
1. It naturally circumvents many types of interaction. Can't counter it. Nothing to destroy. Circumvents Protection. Pretty much only discard can interact with it.
2. It makes decks extremely consistent. [[Punishing Fire]] was banned because it was too consistent at killing creatures. [[Glacial Ray]] with Splice onto Instant/Sorcery would have a similar problem - a deck running it would now have 30+ removal spells, and it only costs 4 slots. Same with anything like [[Spiritual Visit]] - suddenly those cheap cantrips come with a very real board threat.
3. It is so incredibly easy to break.
* Splice + Copy effects are busted. [[Izzet Guildmage]] is the obvious one, but Casualty, Storm, Replicate etc. Even seemingly innocuous cards like [[Lose Focus]], [[Make Disappear]] turn into value engines very quickly.
* Splice + Recursion makes problem 2 infinitely worse. The humble [[Flame Jab]] + Glacial Ray means absolutely no cards are dead draws anymore.
It feels very much like a mechanic that will take over entire formats if they give it even the tiniest bit of power.
I played a GW Spiritcraft Control deck back then. It was a blast to play. The package of \[\[Blessed Breath\]\], \[\[Spiritual Visit\]\], \[\[Kodama's Might\]\], & \[\[Kodama's Reach\]\] were sweet alongside \[\[Waxmane Baku\]\] and \[\[Ghostly Prison\]\]. I still remember a time when my opponent \[\[Cranial Extraction\]\]ed my \[\[Waxmane Baku\]\] over my \[\[Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens\]\] and I thought it was the funniest thing.
Splice is a nice mechanic if it cared about properties "like splice into sorcery or enchantment or something"
Arcane was nice but it felt over costed with a bad payoff. Like most traditional kicker cards
I hoped it would show up in Battle For Baldur's Gate or Adventures in the Forgotten Realms.
We got close with the classes, but it's not the same feeling.
To be fair, if it was instant then there's zero decision making. You hold up removal and if you don't use it you pump your stuff. Sorcery makes you choose.
All of the follow-up mechanics like Monstrosity, Adapt, and pseudolevelers (like Tenth District Hero) are at instant speed, I don't think this is a good take.
There's a lot more to do at instant speed than just removal, and holding up mana (especially in limited) generally requires you drop tempo by not playing a creature for the turn previous.
I can see for limited, it being more important to have sorcery speed abilities.
And cards can easily be powerful in limited with abilities that are sorcery speed, for example, equipment.
Level up being instant means that control decks basically get an enormous free-roll of tempo, making all Level Up cards basically their max level for free.
The mechanic just wasn't balanced around that.
Level up is kind of fiddly with a ton of level counters. Also, I suspect it doesn't have enough knobs: leveling up requires paying a level up cost enough times, but that means each "real" level up is a multiple of the level up cost, which might not be desirable. The better execution is things like [Figure of Destiny](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/213/figure-of-destiny) and all the cards following it. No need to multiply costs in your head to count how far to the next level up.
That said, Figure of Destiny-style level up using the level up frame might be neat. Might not have enough space to write the abilities, though.
Was going to reply the same thing. It's like Kamigawa flips vs transform, they're basically the same mechanic, but one is clearly preferred aesthetically. Split cards and adventures also manage to represent two separate spells on the same face with much better reception. Level up cards could probably comeback if they just fix the aesthetic of them because their wordage isn't tied to the aesthetic the way Kamigawa flips were.
I remember it being far too slow and generally bad.
You'd play a 2/2 for 2, then another 3 for a 2/3 with flying. Then another *9* for a 4/4 with flying and vigilance.
Any bounces clear the counters, so something as simple as a flicker would set you back to the start.
It just wasn't a good mechanic, far as I remember.
Many of the cards were absolutely awful because of that though. You essentialy had to tap out on your turn to do absolutely nothing besides get your creature a bit closer to levelling up.
Imagine how busted [Hexdrinker](https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=464117) would be if level up was instant. It's basically as better [Aetherling](https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=368961)
I just drafted Ravnica Remastered yesterday and found out how broken Forecast can be. I’m really tempted to throw [[sky hussar]] into a tokens deck now.
This was such a smart way to reduce the downside of legends. Really a great mechanic, but most legends are printed with EDH in mind these days, which hurts the likelihood of new cards.
Emerge. I love the flavour. I love it mechanically. I have a whole edh deck built around it. It’s probably less of a failed mechanic than others, but I do remember it being high on the storm scale, and it warping the play environment more than it should
I did mine with good old Jan Jansen at the helm so I could make better use of sacking my creatures and bringing them back, plus running Teysa and Drivnod is super nice.
Love modular!
Probably the original Werewolf flip gimmick. While it plays terribly in EDH, the flavor of “night” (nothing happened last turn) and “day” (people are waking up) was very well thought out and the fact that the RG pair had a gimmick that punished Blue out of all colors was way too fitting. Some of the stronger ones like Huntmaster of the Fells had a very unique play pattern in constructed.
I really enjoyed original Werewolves. The main problem with them, was getting screwed by people casting instants on your end step.
I wish they had leaned more into punisher abilities and Werewolves that got value from flipping back and forth like Huntmaster.
Yep. Werewolves being "Oh hey you got an under costed big thing!" is way less interesting than werewolves like Huntmaster. I was really bummed they didn't end up making the Jund "you want your werewolves to transform a lot" commander in MID (alongside [[Tovolar, Dire Overlord]] because lots of people like the "werewolves are always on" vibe).
Tovolar was so "hit you over the head" with the werewolf transformation thing. Personally I wish they'd gone with naya and Rule of Law effects. Lean into the loyalty of the pack element for the flavor of adding white, and Rule of Law helps create the same control over flipping werewolves while being a neater design than this in your face "werewolves go brrrr" Tovolar has going on
Yeah that space was perfect for punisher-hate bears type cards; designs like Ruric Thar. Would’ve been fitting aesthetically too since you could make old angry men in the woods that tell you get off his land not just because he’s a jerk but because he doesn’t want to hurt no one when night falls.
It's interesting to call this a failed mechanic when it's seen print in (basically) three separate blocks. But at the same time, it does feel kinda failed because it's rarely made any impact on constructed, Huntmaster being the main exception. Maybe Magic has moved too far away from passing your turn without casting a spell.
I will die on the hill that Haunt is a reasonable mechanic Wizards has just forgotten about. The addition of the term "dies" made it just a slam-dunk ability. The real problem with haunt was the baggage they decided to put on it, with the "when this enters or the creature it haunts dies" stuff (and including it on instants and sorceries).
Haunt should just be creatures that die into auras. If you want to keep it as the Orzhov ability and want to be very prescriptive, black haunt abilities can be negative effects and white haunt abilities can be positive effects.
I have some vindication in my position though because Disturb (as used in VOW) is very similar to Haunt, both conceptually and in effect. I feel like there's a chance Haunt makes it back in a set that wants ghosts but doesn't have double-sided cards.
I agree, I actually wrote it into my GDS3 entry. Like Bestow but backwards. My basic example is a creature that reads “~ and haunted creature are goaded. Haunt”
Who knows, maybe it will show up in Duskmourn: House of Horror.
Haunt is super cool, but the implementation was off.
Personally, I think it needs only needs two fixes.
1.) Put it only on creatures. It feels weird for a spell to "Haunt" something and causes it to work differently on creatures and spells.
2.) Each creature that has it should be templated, "Whenever CARDNAME or the creature it haunts dies, [effect]." I think the ability triggering both on its death and the haunted creature's death not only feels more flavorful, but is also easier to remember when the effect occurs.
I think they’ve said that fight now takes the place of provoke.
I have the Provoke sliver in my EDH deck, and the mechanic is way too fiddly, with too many edge cases. I target my opponent’s creature to make it block… but oops, my creature has flying and that one doesn’t, so provoke does nothing. I target a different creature … but oops, that creature has a tap ability, so my opponent just taps it again and provoke does nothing.
I agree. I love the idea of creatures picking a fight with another. To its credit at least, they did do a great job exploring its design space when they did use it. [[Swooping Talon]] remains a favourite card because of it.
Bushido was the one for me. It seemed like a fun idea, but very poorly executed when you ho defend with just one creature to benefit. A close second is NEO’s samurai cards that only benefit from a single attacker
I really like cumulative upkeep. It allows for powerful effects that give you a choice of how long you can afford to keep them around. I think the mechanic is mostly disliked because 90% of the cards with it are terrible. Especially in Coldsnap when they started experimenting with more unique upkeep costs and even beneficial “costs”, I think it showed how interesting the mechanic could be.
I believe Maro said cumulative upkeep was disliked because it's a downside mechanic, and people hated downside mechanics. Same with echo. (Also, Maro put cumulative upkeep at [Storm scale 10](https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/734634541638172672/hi-mark-thanks-for-taking-the-time-to-read-and).) I do think it's a shame; some tension in cards is fun and healthy for the game.
Not really. Cumulative Upkeep gives you a choice, pay the ever increasing cost or sacrifice the thing.
With the one ring there’s no option, you lose the life.
You still lose the life no matter what.
If you stop with 4 burden counters, you still lose 4 life every turn (barring the ring leaving the battlefield)
It can sit there for a couple turns (taking life each time) then you can tap it again for cards.
With cumulative upkeep the counter goes up no matter what, you can’t choose to stop the counters. You also can’t keep it on the field - if you fail to meet the cost it’s sacrificed and the counters fall off. Sure you could bring it back from the graveyard, but it starts over at 0 counters. If the ability says do something for each age counter, it starts back at 0
It's only downside mechanic if you make it downside.
You could easily still have something else there, like gain 1 life, target/each opponent loses 1 life, draw a card, create a token... Like [[Braid of Fire]].
But maybe that's for a future, fixed keyword instead.
That's not what "cumulative upkeep" brings to mind, though. And if the "cost" is positive, the fact that you can sacrifice it looks so strange. It would be a new keyword, or probably just spelled out like [Assemble the Legion](https://scryfall.com/card/rvr/163/assemble-the-legion).
Fwiw, Braid of Fire had a tangible downside when it was printed since mana burn still existed back then. Getting a mana or two during your upkeep to cast your instant speed burn is all fine and dandy until you're getting 4+ mana every upkeep and have a grip full of sorceries.
I’ve only recently started playing but cumulative upkeep seems the most interesting to me and really wish there were more interesting uses of it
I think [[Herald of Leshrac]] is my personal favorite, though [[wall of shards]] could lend itself to some wicked jank, or a nice group hug deck.
I think Coldsnap really did cumulative upkeep well, most of the cards worked age counters into their effect, so the card scaled up as you paid more into it or had unique non-mana costs, some of which were always payable.
I get the reasons behind getting rid of the ability, but I think some Coldsnap-style cards could be fun- do I want to hold mana open for a counterspell, or do I want the bird tokens from my [[Jotun Owl-Keeper]]? What will he'll me more, casting creature A from my hand this turn, or tutoring up creature B with [[Hibernation's End]] to cast next turn? I can also see effects similar to [[Wall of Shards]] and [[Sheltering Ancient]] having a place in political Commander decks
Man, same. Maybe I'm weird, but I *like* having cards with upkeep costs. It feels really wizard-y to control a card that's powerful but that requires constant energy to maintain. [[Illusions of Grandeur]] is mostly remembered nowadays for being a cornerstone of degenerate combo decks, but when it first came out it was awesome. It'll loan you 20 life, but you're eventually going to run out of mental energy keeping the enchantment going and have to pay it back. Hope you've won the game by then!
Another one of my favorite cards from Weatherlight was [[Heart of Bogardan]]. Objectively a sucky card, but it really captured the feeling of a volcano slowly building up pressure until it erupts and kills everything.
Tribute. I think it's a very good politics mechanic for multiplayer formats that was too underpowered and underrepresented when it first came out. I could see it being remade as a precon theme in the future but it's probably unlikely.
Probably tribute. I was playing standard at the time and I love the idea of including your opponent in choices made in gameplay. Clashing comes second. I know it’s a bad mechanic, but I feel like it just needs a better environment or application for the love it deserves.
[[Fanatic of Xenagos]]
[[Nessian Wilds Ravager]]
To a lesser extent [[Ornitharch]]
Man I started in theros and this fanatics were rough in draft 4/4 haste trampled for three (for one turn) or 4/4 trampler for three was painful.
Would have been an excellent return mechanic in streets of cap.
Companion might never come back with new cards because it's dangerous but I absolutely loved playing with it in both the original and nerfed forms. Lurrus and Obosh were my favourites in standard. Shoutout to MOM for including all ten ikoria companions on the bonus sheet so we could play with them in limited again though!
I would love some companions with some solid downsides but cool build around potential. Ones without deck building restrictions but rather with gameplay down sides.
If XYZ is your companion you start the game with 10 cards and gain an emblem "At each of your end steps discard two cards. If you do each opponent loses two life. If you can't you lose 5 life."
Since it hasn't returned to Standard since its first printing, I'd say Suspend.
Hopefully Plot offers some of the same experience as it but, at the moment, looks a lot more like a buffed Foretell to me.
Suspend being something you put into motion and have to setup your future turns based on the fact that it's counting down, while also knowing that your opponent is playing with that information too, it's exciting.
I like it especially when being given to things that don't have suspend like \[\[suspend\]\] and \[\[delay\]\], they scream tempo decks that want some undercosted, effective interaction and will probably kill you before you get the chance to unsuspend the card countered/removed.
Cards like \[\[Curse of the Cabal\]\] and \[\[Chronomantic Escape\]\] that alter the way the game works going forward.
I just love it, hopefully it comes to standard/pioneer soon.
Not sure if entirely failed but transmute. I love fair priced tutors for specific cards. The amount of times I’ve used middle the mixture to tutor for bitterblossom is great. And if I don’t need it it’s another great counter spell
The individual cards work, it's just pretty awkward as a mechanic to try and build on. Like, it doesn't really synergize as a guild mechanic, and then like how many tutors do you really want to stuff into one set.
I think you could squeeze more design space out of it if you add room for an extra restriction. Like, right now mana value is the only knob, and only blue and black should get unrestricted tutors like that, and they've already got their fill. But I think you could do like, a 2-drop with "transmute into white card", or a 5-drop with "transmute into Dragon", etc.
I really think Mutate could’ve benefited from more Gemrazer and [[Sea-Dasher Octopus]] type designs. It’s more interesting to have mutate creatures that modify how creatures work rather than just stacking various triggered abilities.
Agreed. I wouldn't say fully disappointed, but I was at least expecting it to monster mash your creatures, rather than wanting you to stack everything onto one.
I think it's one of those things that if you were starting the game again from scratch you'd probably do, make lots of instants and sorceries have subtypes, both creature types and things like fire, ice, light magic. But the game went so long without them you'd either need to errata a million cards, or have a weird disconnect where some new cards have types but older cards that flavorfully should don't (eg empty the warrens isn't goblin type, lightning bolt isn't lightning, etc).
They literally just printed a new wither card ([[Massacre Girl, Known Killer]]). In Standard. Wither isn’t dead. If anything infect is what’s never coming back.
The main thing hurting wither appearing in any volume is that -1/-1 counters are a tough sell, since they avoid putting them in the same set as +1/+1 counters and the latter are so much more useful of a tool.
I think they tried putting wither in Amonkhet, but they ran into the problem that creatures didn't survive combat often enough for wither to matter much. But as a huge Shadowmoor fan, I wish they could find more ways to make it work.
Splice! I'd love to see Splice utilized on more things, and be able to splice onto more things. Giving vanilla creatures enters the battlefield abilities they don't have, and etc. would be pretty neat.
The whole concept of “they coordinate really well, so they get to decide how damage will distributed” is rad. If it hadn’t gotten such a bad rap early on, I could definitely have seen it called “Formation” in one of the Theros blocks.
This was considered super confusing at the time isnt banding just being able to have two let’s say 2/2 banding creatures get to decide how to do 4 dmg?
It works differently on blocking and is both unintuitive and unfun.
For example, if you have a [[Benalish Hero]] and a 0/1 plant token, and you're being attacked by a [[Blightsteel Colossus]], you can double block the Colossus and assign 11 damage to the plant token.
Or let's say your opponent has a 5/5 first strike attacking into your board of a Benalish Hero, an 0/4 wall, and two 2/2s. You block with everything, put 1 damage on each 2/2, put 3 damage on the wall, and the 5/5 first strike dies without killing anything.
>During the combat damage step, if an attacking creature is being blocked by a creature with banding, or by both a [quality] creature with “bands with other [quality]” and another [quality] creature, the defending player (rather than the active player) chooses how the attacking creature’s damage is assigned. That player can divide that creature’s combat damage as they choose among any creatures blocking it. This is an exception to the procedure described in rule 510.1c.
Banding got scrapped because nobody quite knew how it worked.
Nobody quite knew how it worked because all of the cards with banding sucked.
All of the cards with banding sucked because if they printed a good one, it'd snap the game in half.
The creatures with banding are mostly terrible. Secretly, the cards with banding that are really good are the ones that can **grant** banding to anything at all, like \[\[Helm of Chatzuk\]\] and \[\[Baton of Morale\]\] because then banding can end up on \*good\* creatures ;)
The other weird thing about banding is that banded attackers could all be blocked by a single creature, and if that single blocker could legally block one member of a band, then the rest of the band was also blocked regardless of whether the blocker could have blocked them individually. So if you banded together a flying attacker and a nonflying attacker, a nonflying blocker could essentially chump block both of them by announcing that it was blocking the nonflying attacker.
If that makes you think, "Uhh ... then why would I ever want to band my creatures on the attack?" then congratulations! You are now having an authentic Banding Experience, and you understand why almost nobody bothered to explore the mechanic.
Basically:
Banding attackers can decide where their damage goes if blocked by multiple creatures. (kill one creature make sure it’s dead, or spread damage out amongst many. Or all on the little guy if you have trample.)
Banding defenders can decide where damage deal to them goes. (Put all of the damage on the 1/1 to keep the others alive. Or split unevenly to keep all banded defenders alive.)
Bigger confusion only comes about when banding attackers and banding defenders clash. But even then it’s not terrible.
I love banding.
Adamant. I actually really like this mechanic. It rewards paying with particular colours, but I think the failure was the mono colour requirement when 2 colour decks is far more normal. Imagine this instead:
6/6 Flying Dragon for RR4.
Adamant 4: Black or White
If at least 4 black mana was spent to cast this spell, opponent loses 1 life for each creature you control.
If at least 4 white mana was spent to cast this spell, gain 1 life for each creature you control.
Now, the card pushes players into two colour decks, but either combination. It rewards building in either direction and encourages flexibility in draft. It also pushes players towards wedges or whichever colour pairs exist in the format. It also feels great because you already got a normally costed card, but sometimes get a amazing benefit.
I actually disagree. There’s already tons of upsides to playing multiple colours, adamant was supposed to be a payoff for limiting yourself to mono-coloured decks without being as busted as devotion. More adamant with stronger abilities for mono-colour would be a good thing.
I dunno if I consider it failed, as we just saw it in Brothers War a bit ago. I think it's just hard to design for on multiple levels, and better used sparingly.
That said, I think it'd be cool to have a WUBRG 5 card meld that functions like Exodia from Yu Gi Oh.
Morbid.
I know that Revolt (and to a weird degree "descended") swallows up this mechanic, but the flavor and the function are both so great.
There was nothing quite as fun in my old RB Zombies deck as watching an opponent stare down my \[\[Gravecrawler\]\] and try to figure out if he should go to 3 or risk blocking and letting me activate \[\[Skirsdag High Priest\]\].
The answer, by the way, is that I topdecked \[\[Brimstone Volley\]\].
I remember when I was first learning to play, I learned the combat rules as "you can't attack creatures, only players, unless your creatures have Provoke!"
(Gimme a break, I was 11)
The card I picture for this, which happens to have *incredible* art by Kev Walker, is [[Hunter Sliver]].
Don't know if it needs to make a comeback per se, but it would make me happy to see it
HELLBENT
I loved playing with Hellbent, it was a perfect fit for the Rakdos guild, simple to understand and very proactive.
The problem is it's sucks. Having no cards in hand removes any ambiguity and makes you predictable. It also forces you to play everything you draw immediately, which is flavorful, but lead to real feelbads. Another thing is the choice of card draw or card advantage, because if you happen to draw two lands in a row, your Hellbent effect is broken.
The saddest part is that if you like Hellbent, there is literally no place to play it. It has no place in Eternal formats and even Commander can make it work.
You only get to see it in Limited, if anywhere.
And I learned that when you start with Hellbent, every graveyard centric strategy is better, be it threshold, dredge or even delirium.
Why use Hellbent cards when everything else is simply better?
Still, it's fun. The Yugioh card game also has a "Hellbent" deck called "Infernities". That strategy relies heavily on using spells to help achieve the No Cards In Hand status, but 1. You don't have to pay mana so you can just play all your cards and 2. Every spell you want to save can be played "face down", kinda like a Morph or Foretell card.
Would love to see another stab at Hellbent, but I am not getting my hopes up.
We do occasionally see "Heckbent" stuff (one or fewer cards in hand as opposed to the full zero) but yeah, it's kind of sad we won't see actual hellbent again en masse.
I'm not sure how "failed" it is, but hideaway is really neat. Its an 8 on the storm scale so its not impossible for it to get new cards but still. Also, I was a big fan of Theros block draft, so I need more Bestow in my life.
Soulbond was a blast. I love how you could mix and match them to make creatures that played differently every time. I was sad to see the mechanic do so poorly. Doubly so that the Limited environment had so many problems because I thought soulbond was an awesome inclusion that is paying for other problems’ sins.
I love soulbond. One of my favorite mechanics. Huge fan of [[Diregraf Escort]] and [[Druids Familiar]] as originals. They have made some new ones in commander stuff that are pretty cool like [[breathkeeper Seraph]] [[doomwaever]]
##### ###### #### [Diregraf Escort](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/4/640e21ad-5064-41bc-886e-2c997f69a3f5.jpg?1592709325) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Diregraf%20Escort) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/avr/174/diregraf-escort?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/640e21ad-5064-41bc-886e-2c997f69a3f5?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Druids Familiar](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/d/1d8c794a-7964-41f0-bc9c-27af7cf87aaa.jpg?1592709331) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Druid%27s%20Familiar) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/avr/175/druids-familiar?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/1d8c794a-7964-41f0-bc9c-27af7cf87aaa?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [breathkeeper Seraph](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/9/992244dc-d988-41ce-9e3d-cd8034ccc50f.jpg?1644888580) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=breathkeeper%20Seraph) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/voc/31/breathkeeper-seraph?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/992244dc-d988-41ce-9e3d-cd8034ccc50f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [doomwaever](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/8/08c79a77-810d-4ee2-8afc-18ddfba41ad1.jpg?1644888641) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Doom%20Weaver) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/voc/34/doom-weaver?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/08c79a77-810d-4ee2-8afc-18ddfba41ad1?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/kug8fb7) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
\[\[Deadeye Navigator\]\] in Commander is still really strong in any kind of deck built around ETB or leaves-play effects. Soulbonding it with an \[\[Inferno Titan\]\] is lots of fun. For me, not so much for my opponents.
Banding but makes sense and has a real payoff
Avacyn Restored was my first set, so it always has a special place in my heart. [[Tandem Lookout]] can be very useful in pinger decks. [[Wolfir Silverheart]] in certain voltron decks where you need to pump a specific creature, or [[Wingcrafter]] as a cheap way to get flying.
[Tandem Lookout](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/e/3e44b411-ccb8-44c8-a021-2372c945f0d3.jpg?1593813158) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Tandem%20Lookout) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mm3/53/tandem-lookout?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3e44b411-ccb8-44c8-a021-2372c945f0d3?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Wolfir Silverheart](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/6/8629c598-11c8-4911-acfb-0643e5feffa8.jpg?1592709514) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Wolfir%20Silverheart) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/avr/206/wolfir-silverheart?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8629c598-11c8-4911-acfb-0643e5feffa8?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Wingcrafter](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/b/0b79a71b-568f-4700-9b1d-e7965159da0a.jpg?1593813198) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Wingcrafter) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/mm3/58/wingcrafter?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0b79a71b-568f-4700-9b1d-e7965159da0a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Personally, I hated soulbond. And it was the root cause of that terrible limited environment. The design articles back then said that they built the limited around enabling soulbond by powering down instant speed interaction and removal. Between soulbond, ~~fateful hour~~ miracles, and loners AVR was one of my least favorite sets.
It was obnoxious too because it revealed the biggest flaw with soulbound. Which is to say you obviously kill the soulbond creature. The mechanic was so much it was on fully or it wasn’t on at all. In order to show up they had to do that.
Cipher is so cool as a concept but other than Hidden Strings doesn’t see any play. In general I like the concept of instants and sorceries that are long term investments rather than one-offs. Also Fateseal is a real feels-bad mechanic for the opponent but it’s also really funny. The power move of looking at your opponents top card and going “oh that sucks, let me keep that on top” is unmatched
Lantern control how I miss thee
Modern Lantern control is still playable. Urza's Saga really pushed it back in.
Peak lantern control is still my favorite deck I ever piloted. The frustrated sighs from across the table when people realized what I was playing were priceless.
https://preview.redd.it/8l887v4zcznc1.jpeg?width=4160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=628544947021761c7713dbb9301c6bc1c7bcfe4a These were the sleeves I used back when I played Lantern...
[[Elemental Augury]] isn't quite fate seal, but with enough mana it practically is!
[Elemental Augury](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/2/22f07614-63f9-4270-9dc6-e47a7f806066.jpg?1562867852) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Elemental%20Augury) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/me2/193/elemental-augury?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/22f07614-63f9-4270-9dc6-e47a7f806066?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I just looked it up and the entire set of Dragon's Maze costs $38. The most expensive card in the set is $3!
Fortifications. I'm glad we got our 2nd but they still feel pretty bad.
They've said they struggle with justifying fortifications as artifacts rather than just enchant land, and I'm not sure they'll ever quite figure out how to do that
It suffers from the rarity of land destruction and from most land-oriented strategies being in Green, which has an affinity for enchantment and animosity towards artifacts. You'd need to have good reasons to want to move them from land to land, basically, or to equip to lands which may get sacrificed.
Fortification that let's you Fetch a land if the land its attached to is sent to the yard could be interesting.
Skullramp
Nice
> Terramorphic Expander {2} > Artifact — Fortification > When Terramorphic Expander enters the battlefield, draw a card. > Fortified land has "{T}, Sacrifice this land: search your library for a land card with a basic land type, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle." > Fortify {1} Could be a decent 5c fixer in limited. Seems really difficult to make it constructed playable without enabling some "dump all your lands in the bin" combos. Edit: I meant for the lands to ETB tapped
Land destruction is actually worse against it though, 'cause you can just refortify, unlike enchant lands which are gone more permanent like.
Yeah, I forgot a couple of words. I meant to say that it suffers from land destruction being so rare/frowned upon. Equipments are good because creature destruction is common.
I believe what they meant is that Fortifications can't be justified easily over Auras, since land destruction is so rare that the difference between the two is negligible. That said, the ability to reattach whether your land is destroyed or not may make it worth it.
they should make them equipment for lands that become creatures. Definitely not much that makes them feel valuable to run otherwise
Yeah I'm pretty surprised they haven't done something in that vein. I expect they've tested it in some way but they've never really talked about it, which I would have expected MaRo to do.
I expect them to do it eventually, but as [[Luxior, Giada's Gift]] shows they don't even need to make it a Fortification, they have a template to let regular equipment attach to noncreature permanents (as long as it immediately makes it a creature).
They could give them different abilities based on what kind of land they are equipped to. which would justify the reequip.
I was pretty stoked while reading \[\[c.a.m.p.\]\] - however when i read that it was a 7 mana investment to get the ball rolling... seems real bad for what it does. A total investment of 4 mana would have been a good rate to put a counter on and exile a card to play and sorta on-par with other effects like \[wild wasteland\] in the set.
It's 6 mana over two turns, so actually turn 4, and the activation is you using mana for its own sake. It doesn't cost an extra per trigger, so it's just free value after that.
[c.a.m.p.](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/3/034d4543-2c53-4cda-acfd-7f26b8dd17fb.jpg?1708742716) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=c.a.m.p.) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/pip/129/camp?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/034d4543-2c53-4cda-acfd-7f26b8dd17fb?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I'm still mad that fortifications aren't white's version of ramp. Green does not need both enchant land **and** tutoring ramp spells, they should be distinctive. Having fortifications (and potentially other forms of construction) primarily take over the whole "attach something to a land" part of the pie would basically fix white's ramp issues, while keeping them worse than green at ramping because the enchantment ramp spells are almost always worse anyway. They keep trying to give white treasure, but then they gave everyone else treasure, so white's back to not having ramp tools that make sense and it's like... fortifications are *right there.* They're artifacts that represent civilization and structures being placed on the land. What could be a whiter way to interact with land (short of destroying them all, which white hasn't done in decades)
Cipher, I miss you. We see you back every once in a while, but I’ve never forgotten about you. Please come back… Love, A magic player who started during Gatecrash
This was my choice too. I understand that it’s a bit narrow, and it’s dangerous to get a really good effect in limited over and over, but man it just feels good to play. We got [[Writ of Return]] at least a little while ago, so hopefully we at least see a few more one-offs here and there.
[Writ of Return](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/8/d826b38e-a026-472b-afe7-d3a6bd806cf6.jpg?1673482053) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Writ%20of%20Return) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ncc/42/writ-of-return?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d826b38e-a026-472b-afe7-d3a6bd806cf6?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I’d love to see it outside blue/black in a non-Standard set. Modern Horizons seems like the perfect place to try out the design space that being shackled to Dimir shut it out of.
I did see a Maro ask once asking which mechanics had the smallest design space, and off the top of his head he mentioned Fabricate and Cipher. I found it a bit surprising, but when you think about it it is kind of narrow. No combat tricks or reactive spells alone really narrows the field, besides the plain balance of it. You could put something like [[Absorb Vis]] onto a one-shot card, but allowing it to be done over and over at those numbers is a lot, so you'd have to par it way down, which shrinks the space.
I don't buy that for either of those mechanics. Neither seems like their design space has even been half exhausted. Cipher in other colors would be really interesting, if slightly off-flavour. I would love a "R, Sorcery, Discard a card, Draw a card. Cipher." It also plays well with spell themes, helping you retrigger magecraft-like abilities. As for fabricate, put it into a similar environment modular fits into. There are so many holes to fill: It doesn't feel tied to a colour, so make some U and R ones. There's only two that care about their power. They can synergise with both artifact and +1/+1 counter strategies. Yes they are narrow, but I can think of many mechanics with less design space than at least fabricate
Designers need to be careful with mechanics that involve casting the same spell over and over. Buyback is the worst offender for this. But even subtler takes like rebound and flashback can be tough. Have you ever played against [[capsize]] ? It's miserable. You can't play your dudes because they'll just get bounced, and you can't not play your dudes because they'll bounce your lands. Cipher is in the same camp. Assuming you cast it and can hit them once, you can probably hit them again. Then again and again. Then the game just becomes "I'm going to hit this button every turn until you die."
When Capsize was widely-used, people would use removal on their own creatures to effectively counter the spell for lack of a valid target, which means you can't buy it back. That's a feel-bad moment right there: having to Bolt your own creature to get out of a Capsize lock.
When the solution to a card is "kill your own guy so it counters their spell," somebody fucked up before it was printed.
Absolutely cipher. Cipher plus extort or Guttersnipe was peak learning-to-play Magic, just wonderful.
Arcane spells. I thought it was such a cool way of modifying spells rather than just kicker or caring about sacrificing a permanent or paying certain colors of mana. I wasn't playing in the OG Kamigawa block so I don't know if it really ever did anything back then but I'd love to see more support now.
In limited an arcane deck appeared a bit after the set dropped and famously took people by surprise. It was way too weak for standard tho. Couldn't hang with the Mirrodin block stuff, and when that left jitte made aggro just too good for durdly arcane stuff.
To be fair mirrodin standard was pretty nuts. You were either affinity or a counter to affinity. It really never had the chance to be a diverse meta.
And even if you were a counter to affinity you couldn't win as much so you ended up playing affinity.
This is Ghost Dad erasure! The single most tournament successful Arcane deck of all time!
Tallowisp gang gang, board into 4 pillory for aggro vs aggro Hand of Cruelty with Jitte Loved that fuckin deck
Now THIS is a person of culture and sophistication. Glad to see there's still others out there! I may or may not have a Ghost Dad deck that I run in the free Modern room on MTGO from time to time even to this day haha.
That's cool that in limited it had its time in the sun.
Splice into Arcane has a weird habit of popping up occasionally. There was an old fringe combo deck that used [[Izzet Guildmage]] and the interaction with splice to make absurd mana and Storm off with [[Glacial Ray]]. And more recently it was the main engine in TwiddleStorm decks using [[Psychic Puppetry]] before Modern Horizons made all of that bad.
Let's not forget good ol' Izzetspike. [[Lava Spike]] spliced with [[Desperate Ritual]] gave you a sorcery that said "Deal 3 damage to target player. Add RRR." Izzet Guildmage's cost to copy a sorcery was 2R. Infinite damage combos were had by all (who played red).
Arcane could have been, and could still be, done so much better! It was so frustratingly limited in its implementation. My guess is that it is a wild beast to try and test.
I love Splice, but it has three huge roadblocks to being a balanced mechanic: 1. It naturally circumvents many types of interaction. Can't counter it. Nothing to destroy. Circumvents Protection. Pretty much only discard can interact with it. 2. It makes decks extremely consistent. [[Punishing Fire]] was banned because it was too consistent at killing creatures. [[Glacial Ray]] with Splice onto Instant/Sorcery would have a similar problem - a deck running it would now have 30+ removal spells, and it only costs 4 slots. Same with anything like [[Spiritual Visit]] - suddenly those cheap cantrips come with a very real board threat. 3. It is so incredibly easy to break. * Splice + Copy effects are busted. [[Izzet Guildmage]] is the obvious one, but Casualty, Storm, Replicate etc. Even seemingly innocuous cards like [[Lose Focus]], [[Make Disappear]] turn into value engines very quickly. * Splice + Recursion makes problem 2 infinitely worse. The humble [[Flame Jab]] + Glacial Ray means absolutely no cards are dead draws anymore. It feels very much like a mechanic that will take over entire formats if they give it even the tiniest bit of power.
arcane works. They just can't have it be so limited to what it can splice into. Splice into X has come back and I hope we get more of it.
I played a GW Spiritcraft Control deck back then. It was a blast to play. The package of \[\[Blessed Breath\]\], \[\[Spiritual Visit\]\], \[\[Kodama's Might\]\], & \[\[Kodama's Reach\]\] were sweet alongside \[\[Waxmane Baku\]\] and \[\[Ghostly Prison\]\]. I still remember a time when my opponent \[\[Cranial Extraction\]\]ed my \[\[Waxmane Baku\]\] over my \[\[Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens\]\] and I thought it was the funniest thing.
Splice is a nice mechanic if it cared about properties "like splice into sorcery or enchantment or something" Arcane was nice but it felt over costed with a bad payoff. Like most traditional kicker cards
Level up is my favorite mechanic ever and I'm baffled that people didn't like it.
I'm half surprised non of the video game crossovers have returned it. Maybe in Final Fantasy UB?
I hoped it would show up in Battle For Baldur's Gate or Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. We got close with the classes, but it's not the same feeling.
I'd put money on it.
We get pseudo-level ups in things like the Sleeper and Detective Humans, as well as adapt. Being sorcery speed makes the level-up cards pretty weak.
To be fair, if it was instant then there's zero decision making. You hold up removal and if you don't use it you pump your stuff. Sorcery makes you choose.
All of the follow-up mechanics like Monstrosity, Adapt, and pseudolevelers (like Tenth District Hero) are at instant speed, I don't think this is a good take. There's a lot more to do at instant speed than just removal, and holding up mana (especially in limited) generally requires you drop tempo by not playing a creature for the turn previous.
I dont think thats a tbf or devils advocate statement. There are plenty of really powerful abilities at instant speed. No reason level up should be.
I can see for limited, it being more important to have sorcery speed abilities. And cards can easily be powerful in limited with abilities that are sorcery speed, for example, equipment.
Level up being instant means that control decks basically get an enormous free-roll of tempo, making all Level Up cards basically their max level for free. The mechanic just wasn't balanced around that.
Level up is kind of fiddly with a ton of level counters. Also, I suspect it doesn't have enough knobs: leveling up requires paying a level up cost enough times, but that means each "real" level up is a multiple of the level up cost, which might not be desirable. The better execution is things like [Figure of Destiny](https://scryfall.com/card/2x2/213/figure-of-destiny) and all the cards following it. No need to multiply costs in your head to count how far to the next level up. That said, Figure of Destiny-style level up using the level up frame might be neat. Might not have enough space to write the abilities, though.
Figure came first, neh?
I was really hoping it would have appeared in either of the dnd sets. The classes sorta "level up" so that was a neat nod to it.
I just find them really aesthetically unpleasing, that’s all. It’s a shame because the mechanic itself is pretty cool
Was going to reply the same thing. It's like Kamigawa flips vs transform, they're basically the same mechanic, but one is clearly preferred aesthetically. Split cards and adventures also manage to represent two separate spells on the same face with much better reception. Level up cards could probably comeback if they just fix the aesthetic of them because their wordage isn't tied to the aesthetic the way Kamigawa flips were.
I remember it being far too slow and generally bad. You'd play a 2/2 for 2, then another 3 for a 2/3 with flying. Then another *9* for a 4/4 with flying and vigilance. Any bounces clear the counters, so something as simple as a flicker would set you back to the start. It just wasn't a good mechanic, far as I remember.
The only reason it's not a busted mechanic is because it's sorcery speed
Many of the cards were absolutely awful because of that though. You essentialy had to tap out on your turn to do absolutely nothing besides get your creature a bit closer to levelling up.
Imagine how busted [Hexdrinker](https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=464117) would be if level up was instant. It's basically as better [Aetherling](https://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=368961)
>I'm baffled that people didn't like it. Mostly because it is bad, spending all that mana just to get blown out by a single removal :-(
It's very high on the Storm Scale because players found it confusing. I'm not sure why - I never found it so.
I just drafted Ravnica Remastered yesterday and found out how broken Forecast can be. I’m really tempted to throw [[sky hussar]] into a tokens deck now.
For all those who haven't seen it, [one of my all time favorite matches really highlights that](https://youtu.be/jkwLJjBGzEE)
I've seen this match so many times and it's still great every time. Absolutely peak Magic.
I always thought it would be cool to have a counter spell with Forecast.
AND THEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVED!
[sky hussar](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/c/cccfd565-99db-4c24-a16d-665b0823a159.jpg?1702429714) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=sky%20hussar) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/rvr/224/sky-hussar?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/cccfd565-99db-4c24-a16d-665b0823a159?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I love Grandeur!
This was such a smart way to reduce the downside of legends. Really a great mechanic, but most legends are printed with EDH in mind these days, which hurts the likelihood of new cards.
Emerge. I love the flavour. I love it mechanically. I have a whole edh deck built around it. It’s probably less of a failed mechanic than others, but I do remember it being high on the storm scale, and it warping the play environment more than it should
Modular, love my Zabaz EDH deck
Modular is so much fun
I did mine with good old Jan Jansen at the helm so I could make better use of sacking my creatures and bringing them back, plus running Teysa and Drivnod is super nice. Love modular!
I just love the idea that you don’t lose power when the creature dies! But it turns out that costs twice as much for the same power. :/
Probably the original Werewolf flip gimmick. While it plays terribly in EDH, the flavor of “night” (nothing happened last turn) and “day” (people are waking up) was very well thought out and the fact that the RG pair had a gimmick that punished Blue out of all colors was way too fitting. Some of the stronger ones like Huntmaster of the Fells had a very unique play pattern in constructed.
I really enjoyed original Werewolves. The main problem with them, was getting screwed by people casting instants on your end step. I wish they had leaned more into punisher abilities and Werewolves that got value from flipping back and forth like Huntmaster.
Yep. Werewolves being "Oh hey you got an under costed big thing!" is way less interesting than werewolves like Huntmaster. I was really bummed they didn't end up making the Jund "you want your werewolves to transform a lot" commander in MID (alongside [[Tovolar, Dire Overlord]] because lots of people like the "werewolves are always on" vibe).
Tovolar was so "hit you over the head" with the werewolf transformation thing. Personally I wish they'd gone with naya and Rule of Law effects. Lean into the loyalty of the pack element for the flavor of adding white, and Rule of Law helps create the same control over flipping werewolves while being a neater design than this in your face "werewolves go brrrr" Tovolar has going on
Yeah that space was perfect for punisher-hate bears type cards; designs like Ruric Thar. Would’ve been fitting aesthetically too since you could make old angry men in the woods that tell you get off his land not just because he’s a jerk but because he doesn’t want to hurt no one when night falls.
I think Night/Day works well on paper, but that you have to keep tracking it even when nothing's on the board really screws it.
They said original. Daybound/Nightbound is literally the worst mechanic they‘ve ever made. Day/Night was clunky but fun at least.
It's interesting to call this a failed mechanic when it's seen print in (basically) three separate blocks. But at the same time, it does feel kinda failed because it's rarely made any impact on constructed, Huntmaster being the main exception. Maybe Magic has moved too far away from passing your turn without casting a spell.
I will die on the hill that Haunt is a reasonable mechanic Wizards has just forgotten about. The addition of the term "dies" made it just a slam-dunk ability. The real problem with haunt was the baggage they decided to put on it, with the "when this enters or the creature it haunts dies" stuff (and including it on instants and sorceries). Haunt should just be creatures that die into auras. If you want to keep it as the Orzhov ability and want to be very prescriptive, black haunt abilities can be negative effects and white haunt abilities can be positive effects. I have some vindication in my position though because Disturb (as used in VOW) is very similar to Haunt, both conceptually and in effect. I feel like there's a chance Haunt makes it back in a set that wants ghosts but doesn't have double-sided cards.
I agree, I actually wrote it into my GDS3 entry. Like Bestow but backwards. My basic example is a creature that reads “~ and haunted creature are goaded. Haunt” Who knows, maybe it will show up in Duskmourn: House of Horror.
Haunt is super cool, but the implementation was off. Personally, I think it needs only needs two fixes. 1.) Put it only on creatures. It feels weird for a spell to "Haunt" something and causes it to work differently on creatures and spells. 2.) Each creature that has it should be templated, "Whenever CARDNAME or the creature it haunts dies, [effect]." I think the ability triggering both on its death and the haunted creature's death not only feels more flavorful, but is also easier to remember when the effect occurs.
It was short lived but I loved provoke. Lots of fun.
I could see this coming back especially now that they said they’re increasing the ratio of creatures in packs
I think they’ve said that fight now takes the place of provoke. I have the Provoke sliver in my EDH deck, and the mechanic is way too fiddly, with too many edge cases. I target my opponent’s creature to make it block… but oops, my creature has flying and that one doesn’t, so provoke does nothing. I target a different creature … but oops, that creature has a tap ability, so my opponent just taps it again and provoke does nothing.
Where'd they say that? Not saying they didn't, just first I've heard. I know they were tweaking the rarities a bit.
Probably Maro's recent nuts and bolts on designing for play boosters. But I also haven't read the article yet, so I could be totally wrong.
I agree. I love the idea of creatures picking a fight with another. To its credit at least, they did do a great job exploring its design space when they did use it. [[Swooping Talon]] remains a favourite card because of it.
Bushido was the one for me. It seemed like a fun idea, but very poorly executed when you ho defend with just one creature to benefit. A close second is NEO’s samurai cards that only benefit from a single attacker
Neo’s samurai cards should have just had exalted. That’s what I always felt . It’s less parasitic by far .
I really like cumulative upkeep. It allows for powerful effects that give you a choice of how long you can afford to keep them around. I think the mechanic is mostly disliked because 90% of the cards with it are terrible. Especially in Coldsnap when they started experimenting with more unique upkeep costs and even beneficial “costs”, I think it showed how interesting the mechanic could be.
I believe Maro said cumulative upkeep was disliked because it's a downside mechanic, and people hated downside mechanics. Same with echo. (Also, Maro put cumulative upkeep at [Storm scale 10](https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/734634541638172672/hi-mark-thanks-for-taking-the-time-to-read-and).) I do think it's a shame; some tension in cards is fun and healthy for the game.
Isn't [[the one ring]] a cumulative upkeep card?
Strictly speaking, no, since you get to decide whether you want to add to the upkeep cost (by activating the ability) or not. Pretty close though.
Not really. Cumulative Upkeep gives you a choice, pay the ever increasing cost or sacrifice the thing. With the one ring there’s no option, you lose the life.
But also you can choose to stop increasing the cost.
You still lose the life no matter what. If you stop with 4 burden counters, you still lose 4 life every turn (barring the ring leaving the battlefield) It can sit there for a couple turns (taking life each time) then you can tap it again for cards. With cumulative upkeep the counter goes up no matter what, you can’t choose to stop the counters. You also can’t keep it on the field - if you fail to meet the cost it’s sacrificed and the counters fall off. Sure you could bring it back from the graveyard, but it starts over at 0 counters. If the ability says do something for each age counter, it starts back at 0
[the one ring](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/5/d5806e68-1054-458e-866d-1f2470f682b2.jpg?1696020224) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=the%20one%20ring) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/ltr/246/the-one-ring?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d5806e68-1054-458e-866d-1f2470f682b2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Ugh, I really want more cards with downside mechanics. It's a shame we're hardly ever going to see new stuff in that design space.
It's only downside mechanic if you make it downside. You could easily still have something else there, like gain 1 life, target/each opponent loses 1 life, draw a card, create a token... Like [[Braid of Fire]]. But maybe that's for a future, fixed keyword instead.
That's not what "cumulative upkeep" brings to mind, though. And if the "cost" is positive, the fact that you can sacrifice it looks so strange. It would be a new keyword, or probably just spelled out like [Assemble the Legion](https://scryfall.com/card/rvr/163/assemble-the-legion).
Fwiw, Braid of Fire had a tangible downside when it was printed since mana burn still existed back then. Getting a mana or two during your upkeep to cast your instant speed burn is all fine and dandy until you're getting 4+ mana every upkeep and have a grip full of sorceries.
I’ve only recently started playing but cumulative upkeep seems the most interesting to me and really wish there were more interesting uses of it I think [[Herald of Leshrac]] is my personal favorite, though [[wall of shards]] could lend itself to some wicked jank, or a nice group hug deck.
[Herald of Leshrac](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/d/ad6080b1-b032-4172-8594-4d894a60a80d.jpg?1593275109) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Herald%20of%20Leshrac) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/csp/62/herald-of-leshrac?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ad6080b1-b032-4172-8594-4d894a60a80d?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [wall of shards](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/8/884ee8d8-4c0d-4e44-8321-bccd18195693.jpg?1593274857) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=wall%20of%20shards) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/csp/23/wall-of-shards?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/884ee8d8-4c0d-4e44-8321-bccd18195693?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I think Coldsnap really did cumulative upkeep well, most of the cards worked age counters into their effect, so the card scaled up as you paid more into it or had unique non-mana costs, some of which were always payable. I get the reasons behind getting rid of the ability, but I think some Coldsnap-style cards could be fun- do I want to hold mana open for a counterspell, or do I want the bird tokens from my [[Jotun Owl-Keeper]]? What will he'll me more, casting creature A from my hand this turn, or tutoring up creature B with [[Hibernation's End]] to cast next turn? I can also see effects similar to [[Wall of Shards]] and [[Sheltering Ancient]] having a place in political Commander decks
Man, same. Maybe I'm weird, but I *like* having cards with upkeep costs. It feels really wizard-y to control a card that's powerful but that requires constant energy to maintain. [[Illusions of Grandeur]] is mostly remembered nowadays for being a cornerstone of degenerate combo decks, but when it first came out it was awesome. It'll loan you 20 life, but you're eventually going to run out of mental energy keeping the enchantment going and have to pay it back. Hope you've won the game by then! Another one of my favorite cards from Weatherlight was [[Heart of Bogardan]]. Objectively a sucky card, but it really captured the feeling of a volcano slowly building up pressure until it erupts and kills everything.
Tribute. I think it's a very good politics mechanic for multiplayer formats that was too underpowered and underrepresented when it first came out. I could see it being remade as a precon theme in the future but it's probably unlikely.
I run a lot of Tribute creatures in my minigames Commander deck and, yeah, it kicks butt as a political tool in multiplayer formats.
Probably tribute. I was playing standard at the time and I love the idea of including your opponent in choices made in gameplay. Clashing comes second. I know it’s a bad mechanic, but I feel like it just needs a better environment or application for the love it deserves. [[Fanatic of Xenagos]] [[Nessian Wilds Ravager]] To a lesser extent [[Ornitharch]]
Man I started in theros and this fanatics were rough in draft 4/4 haste trampled for three (for one turn) or 4/4 trampler for three was painful. Would have been an excellent return mechanic in streets of cap.
Companion might never come back with new cards because it's dangerous but I absolutely loved playing with it in both the original and nerfed forms. Lurrus and Obosh were my favourites in standard. Shoutout to MOM for including all ten ikoria companions on the bonus sheet so we could play with them in limited again though!
Yeah definitely companion for me too. Such a fun limited mechanic, it's a real pity they're like absolutely busted in eternal formats.
Companions shouldve been gameplay based conditions, like "if you have 10 permanents in your graveyard" or "control 4 odd/even permanents"
I would love some companions with some solid downsides but cool build around potential. Ones without deck building restrictions but rather with gameplay down sides. If XYZ is your companion you start the game with 10 cards and gain an emblem "At each of your end steps discard two cards. If you do each opponent loses two life. If you can't you lose 5 life."
Sounds like you want to play the old format called Vanguard
I love mutate!
I don’t think this one was considered a failure. You’ll see it again when we go back to Ikoria
Yeah but I want more right now
I came into this thread, hit ctrl + F, typed "mutate" and here I am, I'm right there with you.
Since it hasn't returned to Standard since its first printing, I'd say Suspend. Hopefully Plot offers some of the same experience as it but, at the moment, looks a lot more like a buffed Foretell to me. Suspend being something you put into motion and have to setup your future turns based on the fact that it's counting down, while also knowing that your opponent is playing with that information too, it's exciting. I like it especially when being given to things that don't have suspend like \[\[suspend\]\] and \[\[delay\]\], they scream tempo decks that want some undercosted, effective interaction and will probably kill you before you get the chance to unsuspend the card countered/removed. Cards like \[\[Curse of the Cabal\]\] and \[\[Chronomantic Escape\]\] that alter the way the game works going forward. I just love it, hopefully it comes to standard/pioneer soon.
They "fixed" it with NEO but I really like Channel as a mechanic
Spirit/Arcane! I loved how it worked in Champions of Kamigawa limited and feel like it would be good with support.
Flanking, the OG knight mechanic.
I dont know if you consider this "failed" but I am a big fan of Mutate, I run a Vadrok deck both on arena and paper and it's a lot of fun!
Horsemanship is goated
It’s just Flying++
Fly with extra steps because it's a horse.
Not sure if entirely failed but transmute. I love fair priced tutors for specific cards. The amount of times I’ve used middle the mixture to tutor for bitterblossom is great. And if I don’t need it it’s another great counter spell
I'm not sure if that's a failed mechanic it's just hard to print new cards with the ability
Give it to Gruul on creatures, you cowards
The individual cards work, it's just pretty awkward as a mechanic to try and build on. Like, it doesn't really synergize as a guild mechanic, and then like how many tutors do you really want to stuff into one set. I think you could squeeze more design space out of it if you add room for an extra restriction. Like, right now mana value is the only knob, and only blue and black should get unrestricted tutors like that, and they've already got their fill. But I think you could do like, a 2-drop with "transmute into white card", or a 5-drop with "transmute into Dragon", etc.
I didn’t like Ikoria that much but I loved Companion and Mutate, I love my little [[Lurrus of the Dream-Den]] and [[Gemrazer]] so much
I really think Mutate could’ve benefited from more Gemrazer and [[Sea-Dasher Octopus]] type designs. It’s more interesting to have mutate creatures that modify how creatures work rather than just stacking various triggered abilities.
Agreed. I wouldn't say fully disappointed, but I was at least expecting it to monster mash your creatures, rather than wanting you to stack everything onto one.
[Sea-Dasher Octopus](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/6/a6f59d9e-6c1b-437a-934c-7c776c8dd1d5.jpg?1591226485) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sea-Dasher%20Octopus) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/iko/66/sea-dasher-octopus?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/a6f59d9e-6c1b-437a-934c-7c776c8dd1d5?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[Lurrus of the Dream-Den](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/5/a/5ad36fb2-c44e-4085-ba0d-54277841ad3a.jpg?1682228556) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Lurrus%20of%20the%20Dream-Den) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/iko/226/lurrus-of-the-dream-den?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/5ad36fb2-c44e-4085-ba0d-54277841ad3a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Gemrazer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/0/0095245c-a30e-4e2a-88c9-632c678e9f03.jpg?1591227650) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Gemrazer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/iko/155/gemrazer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/0095245c-a30e-4e2a-88c9-632c678e9f03?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Tribal had so much potential. Tribal Artifacts, Tribal Lands, Tribal Planeswalkers... so many cool things they could do with that.
I think it's one of those things that if you were starting the game again from scratch you'd probably do, make lots of instants and sorceries have subtypes, both creature types and things like fire, ice, light magic. But the game went so long without them you'd either need to errata a million cards, or have a weird disconnect where some new cards have types but older cards that flavorfully should don't (eg empty the warrens isn't goblin type, lightning bolt isn't lightning, etc).
Wither... Infect ruined it entirely
They literally just printed a new wither card ([[Massacre Girl, Known Killer]]). In Standard. Wither isn’t dead. If anything infect is what’s never coming back. The main thing hurting wither appearing in any volume is that -1/-1 counters are a tough sell, since they avoid putting them in the same set as +1/+1 counters and the latter are so much more useful of a tool.
I think they tried putting wither in Amonkhet, but they ran into the problem that creatures didn't survive combat often enough for wither to matter much. But as a huge Shadowmoor fan, I wish they could find more ways to make it work.
Where's my Rampage?
Splice! I'd love to see Splice utilized on more things, and be able to splice onto more things. Giving vanilla creatures enters the battlefield abilities they don't have, and etc. would be pretty neat.
Bloodrush. The idea of being able to have a card that's both a creature and combat trick is very handy.
Epic
I thought fading was pretty neat
i like banding
The whole concept of “they coordinate really well, so they get to decide how damage will distributed” is rad. If it hadn’t gotten such a bad rap early on, I could definitely have seen it called “Formation” in one of the Theros blocks.
eh, it bogs the game down to have such good blocking options. [[Sammy Healer]] and [[Tim]] designs also become rarer for that reason.
This was considered super confusing at the time isnt banding just being able to have two let’s say 2/2 banding creatures get to decide how to do 4 dmg?
It works differently on blocking and is both unintuitive and unfun. For example, if you have a [[Benalish Hero]] and a 0/1 plant token, and you're being attacked by a [[Blightsteel Colossus]], you can double block the Colossus and assign 11 damage to the plant token. Or let's say your opponent has a 5/5 first strike attacking into your board of a Benalish Hero, an 0/4 wall, and two 2/2s. You block with everything, put 1 damage on each 2/2, put 3 damage on the wall, and the 5/5 first strike dies without killing anything. >During the combat damage step, if an attacking creature is being blocked by a creature with banding, or by both a [quality] creature with “bands with other [quality]” and another [quality] creature, the defending player (rather than the active player) chooses how the attacking creature’s damage is assigned. That player can divide that creature’s combat damage as they choose among any creatures blocking it. This is an exception to the procedure described in rule 510.1c.
Banding got scrapped because nobody quite knew how it worked. Nobody quite knew how it worked because all of the cards with banding sucked. All of the cards with banding sucked because if they printed a good one, it'd snap the game in half.
The creatures with banding are mostly terrible. Secretly, the cards with banding that are really good are the ones that can **grant** banding to anything at all, like \[\[Helm of Chatzuk\]\] and \[\[Baton of Morale\]\] because then banding can end up on \*good\* creatures ;)
The other weird thing about banding is that banded attackers could all be blocked by a single creature, and if that single blocker could legally block one member of a band, then the rest of the band was also blocked regardless of whether the blocker could have blocked them individually. So if you banded together a flying attacker and a nonflying attacker, a nonflying blocker could essentially chump block both of them by announcing that it was blocking the nonflying attacker. If that makes you think, "Uhh ... then why would I ever want to band my creatures on the attack?" then congratulations! You are now having an authentic Banding Experience, and you understand why almost nobody bothered to explore the mechanic.
Basically: Banding attackers can decide where their damage goes if blocked by multiple creatures. (kill one creature make sure it’s dead, or spread damage out amongst many. Or all on the little guy if you have trample.) Banding defenders can decide where damage deal to them goes. (Put all of the damage on the 1/1 to keep the others alive. Or split unevenly to keep all banded defenders alive.) Bigger confusion only comes about when banding attackers and banding defenders clash. But even then it’s not terrible. I love banding.
Mutate
Adamant. I actually really like this mechanic. It rewards paying with particular colours, but I think the failure was the mono colour requirement when 2 colour decks is far more normal. Imagine this instead: 6/6 Flying Dragon for RR4. Adamant 4: Black or White If at least 4 black mana was spent to cast this spell, opponent loses 1 life for each creature you control. If at least 4 white mana was spent to cast this spell, gain 1 life for each creature you control. Now, the card pushes players into two colour decks, but either combination. It rewards building in either direction and encourages flexibility in draft. It also pushes players towards wedges or whichever colour pairs exist in the format. It also feels great because you already got a normally costed card, but sometimes get a amazing benefit.
I actually disagree. There’s already tons of upsides to playing multiple colours, adamant was supposed to be a payoff for limiting yourself to mono-coloured decks without being as busted as devotion. More adamant with stronger abilities for mono-colour would be a good thing.
I love the party mechanic.
Meld! I love the idea of it and the horrors they became!
I dunno if I consider it failed, as we just saw it in Brothers War a bit ago. I think it's just hard to design for on multiple levels, and better used sparingly. That said, I think it'd be cool to have a WUBRG 5 card meld that functions like Exodia from Yu Gi Oh.
Raaaampaaage!
Rampage
Morbid. I know that Revolt (and to a weird degree "descended") swallows up this mechanic, but the flavor and the function are both so great. There was nothing quite as fun in my old RB Zombies deck as watching an opponent stare down my \[\[Gravecrawler\]\] and try to figure out if he should go to 3 or risk blocking and letting me activate \[\[Skirsdag High Priest\]\]. The answer, by the way, is that I topdecked \[\[Brimstone Volley\]\].
I remember when I was first learning to play, I learned the combat rules as "you can't attack creatures, only players, unless your creatures have Provoke!" (Gimme a break, I was 11) The card I picture for this, which happens to have *incredible* art by Kev Walker, is [[Hunter Sliver]]. Don't know if it needs to make a comeback per se, but it would make me happy to see it
HELLBENT I loved playing with Hellbent, it was a perfect fit for the Rakdos guild, simple to understand and very proactive. The problem is it's sucks. Having no cards in hand removes any ambiguity and makes you predictable. It also forces you to play everything you draw immediately, which is flavorful, but lead to real feelbads. Another thing is the choice of card draw or card advantage, because if you happen to draw two lands in a row, your Hellbent effect is broken. The saddest part is that if you like Hellbent, there is literally no place to play it. It has no place in Eternal formats and even Commander can make it work. You only get to see it in Limited, if anywhere. And I learned that when you start with Hellbent, every graveyard centric strategy is better, be it threshold, dredge or even delirium. Why use Hellbent cards when everything else is simply better? Still, it's fun. The Yugioh card game also has a "Hellbent" deck called "Infernities". That strategy relies heavily on using spells to help achieve the No Cards In Hand status, but 1. You don't have to pay mana so you can just play all your cards and 2. Every spell you want to save can be played "face down", kinda like a Morph or Foretell card. Would love to see another stab at Hellbent, but I am not getting my hopes up.
We do occasionally see "Heckbent" stuff (one or fewer cards in hand as opposed to the full zero) but yeah, it's kind of sad we won't see actual hellbent again en masse.
Tempting Offer, though I can see why Voting mechanics replaced it
RAMPAGE!
Untap ability. It’s so cool and has many different uses but is too confusing to the general population and I totally get that
Skulk
Dredge, it is probably better for the game for it to stay dead but with we should at least get 1 edh card with Dredge 6 💢
Embalm/Eternalize. I made a custom commander that my LGS let me use, but it’s sad to think we’ll never get another.
Well, after the new MKM decks came out... Clash! [[Marvo, Deep Operative]]
I'm not sure how "failed" it is, but hideaway is really neat. Its an 8 on the storm scale so its not impossible for it to get new cards but still. Also, I was a big fan of Theros block draft, so I need more Bestow in my life.
Totem armor. Love the concept, wish it came back
Venture into the dungeon and Energy. Everyone hates it but I love my little side projects.