So funnily enough there is an error on the explanation on Wheel Of Misfortune. The person who picks the highest number ALSO gets to wheel, theyre just the only one that loses life equal to their number
It's kind of bizarre how mutate was affected by COVID. I played the set exclusively online. This made Mutate much easier to handle, since Arena had safety rails. I'd consider it more confusing if there had been more tabletop play with the set
I was out of magic for 10-15 years and came back to play online on that set and it was interesting to see all the YT vids re: the confusion but Are a really helped show how it worked and how powerful it could be
Yes. But also no. Bear in mind this was when Spelltable was at its peak. It was confusing enough to explain when internet audio wasn't always great, but adding in cloning opponents' stuff and it became hell on earth. Of course the easy answer was to not clone opponents' things, but when they have one permanent with a ton of abilities, it'd also be a bad play choice to not copy it sometimes (even if you add clones to your deck only originally intending to use on your own things).
On Wheel of Misfortune, the people who picked the highest number also get the wheel effect in addition to the damage (unless everyone picks the same number). It genuinely is quite confusing.
Based on my use of it on MtGO, I nominate Choice of Damnations. Target opponent chooses a number. You can choose whether they lose that much life, or sacrifice all but that many permanent. I swear, half the people I hit with it chose zero. Which resulted in their entire board exploding.
When Nethroi showed up in #8, I thought he's going to talk about how Nethroi's ability to count to 10 total power can also interact with zero and negative numbers, making it possible to reanimate an absurd amount of cards.
Yeah, Nethroi is the obvious choice for a Mutate creature because of that additional wrinkle of how it interacts with Characteristic-Defining Abilities. Also, he messed up by saying that the Mutate stack has the power and toughness of the creature on top and the abilities of the creatures underneath it, as a Mutate stack IS the card on top, including its abilities, as well as the abilities of the cards beneath it, somewhat similar to clone effects that add abilities to the creature cloned; wherever you place a Mutate creature in the stack, the resulting mutation will always have all abilities of every creature enclosed in the stack.
I would've thought the Mutate confusion would be around how it interacts with Exile effects. The mutate stack separates and each creature in the mutate stack is effected separately. Blink a stack and each returns as its own creature. Hit a three creature stack with Etrata's ability each creature gets a hit counter instantly triggering the alt win condition.
@@gassiresloot4220 Honestly that makes a lot of sense to me. What would happen to the other cards if only the top one was exiled? Mutate is such a crazy mechanic to have debuted in a standard set though
There could also be multiple people that don't wheel with Wheel of Misfortune. If the numbers chosen are 3, 3, 4, and 5, then TWO players chose the lowest number and each player that chose the lowest number does not get to wheel.
You’re slightly wrong about mutate, you still get the abilities of the top creature in the stack in addition to all the other ones, you mutated onto. So the only real choice is what creature types and power toughness you want to have and making that the card on top.
My pick goes to Blink from the Doctor Who commander decks. Blink is a Saga with 4 chapters. The odd numbered chapters share the exact same rules text with each other. The even numbered chapters also share the exact same rules text with just each other. The chapters are listed 1 > 3 > 2 > 4 on the card, but they resolve 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 during gameplay. And to boot, like all Sagas, the chapters are marked with Roman numerals. If you know the episode Blink from Doctor Who, you get the joke. But even if you get the joke, the card is still confusing as hell to read and parse. I think I gave myself a headache writing this comment.
I also love that they referenced the show in the rules for this card. Notes and Rules Information for Blink: People often assume that Sagas are a strict progression from top to bottom, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey . . . stuff. That is, the rules support chapter abilities that appear to be out of order, like those on Blink. The first ability triggers when the first and third lore counters are added. The last ability triggers when the second and fourth lore counters are placed on it. (2023-10-13)
One thing to note that wasn’t made entirely clear in the video: the player who chose the highest number for Wheel of Misfortune also gets to wheel in addition to taking the damage.
Panglacial Wurm can be easily fixed by giving it a triggered ability that reads something like: Whenever you search your library if this card is in your library, exile it. You may cast this card from exile as a sorcery until the end of your turn. I would love to see it also have an ability that moved it from the graveyard back to the library but maybe that's asking too much.
@@ClockworkWyrm That wouldn't work either. The reason why players can interact with cards in the graveyard and/or in the exile zone (i.e., play cards, use activated abilities, see triggered and static abilities, etc.) is because the cards in those zones are public information. Cards in the library, regardless of whether you actually know the cards are in there or their position in the library, are not public information, so you can't interact with them. As per your suggestion, it would basically go like this: Player 1: ~ searching their library as an effect resolves ~ Okay, I'm searching my library, so my Panglacial Wurm's triggered ability triggers. Player 2: What ability? You don't have a Panglacial Wurm anywhere. Player 1: It's in my library. Player 2: You can't tell me what's in your library. That's not public information. Player 1: But Panglacial Wurm's ability is triggering, so I can share that public information. Player 2: What ability? You don't have a Panglacial Wurm anywhere. -repeats-
I really wish that Wish effects just said what they do, and that it was universal instead of varying between sanctioned and unsanctioned play. That's a massive errata that I'd be happy to see. To be fair to Panglacial Wurm, Magic *does* have a rule that states that card text supersedes game rules when needed. So technically it works, but it just...makes weird things happen. Nethroi also functions neatly with cards with negative power, so it's kind of a double-whammy as the mutate stand-in since that can be confusing.
"I really wish that Wish effects just said what they do, and that it was universal instead of varying between sanctioned and unsanctioned play. That's a massive errata that I'd be happy to see." They do, and you can't have a universal rule between sanctioned and unsanctioned play, because there are fundamental differences between the two. edit: Sanctioned play is just different format with its own rules, just like Commander. It is not the default for the game.
The "cards contradict rules" rule is very weird. Intuitively it helps people understand that card text just works and every card can be an exception. But practically, the rules already cover everything, it's incredibly easy to misinterpret it, and there ARE hard rules that can never be contradicted by card text, such as playing a land outside your turn.
Love the part in the Sphinx of the Second Sun segment where you basically (if accidentally) go “Magic players can’t actually read a card if it doesn’t feel right.” Not wrong… Obeka is probably up there. So confusing that people build around her in ways that her card directly explains don’t work since they don’t bother to read her reminder text ever.
Nethroi scores extra point for having its specific Mutate ability being confusing as well The way the MTG math works, creatures in graveyard with *negative* power are effectively a net gain for you, so if you have - say - Char Rumbler or Spinal Parasite, you can bring back even more creatures on top of them
Blood Moon should be high on the list. Reading it does not explain it at all. You need to know that becoming a mountain removes other land types, and that losing land types for some reason removes their other abilities. And even after that there's a whole bunch of silly layer stuff that might come up.
Dryad arbor almost made me rage quit in a tourney one time. Oponent has a goyf. I cast Liliana of the Veil, -2 to edict. Sacrifices Dryad arbor hiding among his lands.
one of the more confusing parts about Sphinx of the second Sun is how it doesn't cause sagas to trigger twice. the reminder text on sagas says As this Sega enters and AFTER YOUR DRAW STEP add a lore counter so you would think they would trigger after your second beginning Phase but they don't because Sagas actually say at the Start of your Precombat Main Phase in the rules text EVERY SAGA has the wrong Rules text
It also behaves weirdly with extra combat phases. Added phases happen in the reverse of the order they were created in, so if you give yourself another combat phase during your postcombat main phase, you don't get your extra beginning phase until after combat is over. If the extra combat phase is followed by an extra main phase, Sphinx triggers again but you get two beginning phases in a row after your third main phase.
As someone who played with a lot of Howling Mine effects in Commander, I remember how difficult it was to explain to playgroups that the very first thing to happen as they enter the draw step was drawing a card for the turn, even before any triggers went on the stack. When I read the explanation of Sagas for the first time, my first thoughts was "... AFTER the draw step? How tf do they expect anyone to know how to resolve this correctly?"
I always thought it takes a minute to double check, but after that it makes sense. It's still a little tricky because it's all replacement effects though.
It's much more clearer if you replace the text box with a flow chart. Anyway I'll try to explain it: Instead of drawing you rummage. If you can't rummage because your hand is empty, you mill instead of drawing. Your first "natural" draw ignores Chains.
@@Welverin That's still miles ahead of Panglacial Wurm, which isn't confusing at all. There's a big difference between looking at a card and going "this shouldn't work" and going "what am I even supposed to do here?" All Wurm does is make an exception to the rules in a way that no other card does, and in a way that the rules don't actually account for properly.
To be fair, Mutate works the same as Bestow, which also resolves as a creature spell if the creature is killed that it was targeting as a bestow spell. At least mutate is always a creature spell.
Also, there's a bunch of cards and effects that have you cast a spell as part of their resolution; those spells just sit on the stack and wait for the current spell/ability to resolve. Casting the Wurm from your library as you search is novel, but the casting in and of itself isn't the worst thing in the game. ...of course what is heinous is all of the stupid, hilarious, and dubiously legal shenanigans that Panglacial Wurm can be a part of, but that's outside the scope of this video.
I feel like the Venture Into the Dungeon mechanic should be here. The reminder text for Venture is "Enter the first room or proceed to the next room", which isn't nearly enough information, and I bet not even a judge could explain the entirety of what Venturing into the dungeon does without needing to look it up.
As someone who also plays Yugioh, our most confusing card is actually Pot of Greed, despite having very few words, almost nobody knows what it does. They explain it constantly in the anime as a result.
I'm sure in going to regret asking this without doing prior research, but why is drawing two cards confusing? Or is this like a storm crow joke for Yu-Gi-Oh? Edit; checked out the meme, it's a storm crow.
That is the most confusing card in yugioh. Like magic had 3 cards for the price of one, and it was the first card game, mistakes were made and we get it. Pokemon was like "we can do one step more stupid, we can draw 2 for the price of nothing." That was a really weird choice not to learn from a popular existing card game. Then yugioh comes along and is like "hold my beer, we are also making the exact same dumb mistake for the third time, this time will be different."
Wheel of Misfortune: All players who picked the highest number take that much damage, then all players who did not pick the lowest number discard their hands and draw 7.
My pick goes to Kroxa because someone decided it needed a triple negative in its rules, instead of saying "each player who discarded a land card or couldn't discard a card this way loses 3 life,"
The double whammy of Mutate and ability counters in Ikoria was really a watershed moment in the game becoming way more mechanically and logistically complex.
2:10, I REALLY like the Wurm. One of the most played kinds pf cards, are spells and abilities that let you look ip and fish for what you need; isn't that the whole point of a Toolbox Deck. Well, now you can get something into your hand or draw for next turn, AND, ADD TO THE BOARD!!!
I feel like several of the cards lower on the list were more confusing than the ones higher on the list. Hell, sphinx of the second sun doesn't even need a second reading, it just needs 1 complete reading (it being on the list at all feels a little anecdotal to me). There are a small handful of mechanics in recent years that not even their reminder text actually explains the effect in full.
As someone who would love to put panglacial wurm in my favorite edh deck, the interaction with Selvala, Explorer Returned is really a good reason why the wurm is confusing
I wasn't even surprised to see a mutate card make the lost list. Wotc got really lucky that the set released during the pandemic. I'd wager most of us figured out mutate thanks to Arena handling almost everything for us, especially if you clone a mutate stack. If bouncing then you bounche the whole stack, if you blink it, they all return to play as separate cards again. Also with the alternative art versions being more common to see in paper they have no reminder text at all, and a common thing people forget is you need to both own and control the mutate spell, and the creature you're trying to target, and it must be non-Human. Theres also a couple of other quirks. Legendary status, Token/Nontoken status, and other card types like Artifact are all modified depending on whatever is on top. It means in Commander you can theoretically end up with a nonlegendary creature that is still considered your commander, or things like animated lands or Planeswalkers thwn things get even more silly and complicated.
In addition to the wheel and mutate mishap, there is another error at 3:30. There are cards that let you play cards from your library like future sight, bolas's citadel or similar effects for lands and creatures. It's simply the top card of your libary. The weird part about the wurm is simply that it's while the library is being searched while a spell or an ability is resolving.
The reason Sphinx of the Second Sun is worded so strangely is because (for some reason) they wanted the ability to trigger at the beginning of your post-combat main phase, not after. This means that Sphinx of the Second Sun needs to be on the battlefield before your post-combat main phase begins or the ability will not trigger. It also means that if Sphinx of the Second Sun is removed from the battlefield during your post-combat main phase, you still get the additional beginning phase. If the card was re-worded to your suggestion, the ability would trigger at the end your post-combat main phase instead of the beginning. I'm not sure why they wanted to prevent that ability from triggering at the end of the post-combat main phase, but it seems specifically worded for that purpose.
I need to watch the older video! Back in '93-'95, my playgroup and I would give anything we opened in a pack a try in a deck. Of course, that doesn't mean the cards that didn't work out well or were too confusing stayed in our decks for long... :-)
I really like this mechanic, they could call it something like Auger or Fracking. Related to mining, digging or drilling. Also, Flash, and something like Split-Second, so it can just come down and not be interrupted. Then, scine there tacking it onto another spell, give it a thing like Fortell or morph, were it comes in without abilities or with -X/-X counters, to make it weaker scine you were inherently playing two spells for one.
I think Warp World is one of the craziest and most confusing cards, the effect sounds like it is somewhat simple but it really isn't, especially in how it interacts with cards that will be coming in
Huh... didn't know Sphinx of the Second Sun functioned like that. It's always been understood and accepted by my playgroup that you basically get a restart on your turn with this card. Still, quite powerful, as you do get to leave your turn with additional card draw, your mana untapped, a doubled upkeep trigger volley, and the ability to play cards at instant speed if you so choose.
Quick question about the Sphinx... If the sphinx gets removed during your 2nd main phase you should stil get the additional beginning phase, right? Because the ability did trigger at the start of said main phase when the sphinx was stil on the board... ? And that would no longer be the case if the wording was "At the end of your postcombat main phase, you get an additional beginning phase.", right.... ?
Fun Note on Breena: Her effect triggers PER PLAYER which is one i see trip players up a lot. So if I am at 10 life and all three other players are at 20 and one of them owns Breena I will draw 2 cards and Breena will add 2 stacks of 2 +1/+1 counters to a creature because I have less life than the other 2 opponents of the Breena player. This works this way because Breena checks if you are attacking one of her opponents, not one or more.
Mythos was the only one that never tripped me up. I read it first time and thought okay, black creature kill spell, or abzan nonland permanent destroy spell. For me it's kroxa that gets me. "Each player that didn't discard a non land card loses 3 life". I have to constantly verse in my head "if I discard a land or have an empty hand, I lose 3 life" otherwise I get lost in the negatives.
I have Wheel of Misfortune in my red black discard deck. What I like to do is say ‘I will say this once and only once’ then read the text as fast as possible
Panglacial wurm is the lynchpin in my CEDH raggadragga deck. I love seeing other people realize how awful the rules around it are. The worst situation is with an opposition agent in play, then it gets real funky
Lol, you know a card is confusing when the person presenting the card is slightly incorrect about how the card works. Wheel of misfortune says "...Each player who didn’t choose the lowest number discards their hand, then draws seven cards." The thing is, because the highest player isn't the lowest, that player draws cards in addition to taking damage. So it goes: -lowest, nothing -middle, just wheel -highest, take damage and wheel ruling (2020-11-10): "The number of players choosing the highest number doesn't change how much damage is dealt. For example, if the four players in your game reveal 4, 7, 7, and 7, Wheel of Misfortune will deal 7 damage to each of the last three players and those three players will discard their hand and draw seven cards." Personally, I love wheels in edh but my opponents often don't. So I run this as sort of an "opt in" wheel, where basically we ignore the "secretly" part of the card text, and have everyone choose 0 or 1. If you pick 0, nothing happens to you and if you pick 1, you wheel and take a damage. It also dramatically speeds up the cards resolution.
Re: Wish effects The problem is that there is no good way to reword the cards without breaking those rulings put forth for unsanctioned events and limited. Also, even in your explanation of Wheel of Misfortune, you got it wrong. It also wheel's any players that take the damage - it's *only* the players that chose the smallest number that don't get the wheel effect. If the number choices are 1, 3, 4, 4, the two players that chose 4 take 4 damage and the players that chose 3 and 4 get to wheel.
Panglacial Wurm feels a lot like Madness, in that the ability feels very simple but is a rules headache because you suddenly start casting spells while in the middle of doing other things. It probably could be resolved the same way: rewrite the ability to allow the player to exile it while searching, and then cast it from exile afterwards.
There are edge cases where the proposed change to Sphinx makes a difference. If the opponent somehow removes Sphinx between the start of the post-combat main phase and the end, as worded the extra beginning phase still triggers (unless there's some weird ruling saying it doesn't). In the proposed revision it would not, as it would need to be in play at the end of the step specifically for the phase to trigger. Idea for silver-bordered wheel card: Wheel of not unmisfortune. Same game then Wheel deals damage equal to the second highest number to each player who didn't choose the lowest number and each player who didn't choose a number that was not the highest keeps their hand while every other player discards their hand and draws seven cards. Flavor text: "I think you just have to pick 0."
shit i've completely misunderstood sphinx of the second sun. i had it in a shrine deck and used it to get extra upkeep triggers which still works but i cannot use the results of those triggers to do anything really as the turn immediately passes
So more than one person may not end up wheeling with wheel of misfortune. It says that each player that chose anything other than the lowest number wheels, so if multiple people pick the lowest number, none of those people get to wheel but the rest do.
Thank you for including Breena. I don't know what it is, but every time I play her, nobody else can wrap their heads around what she does. I have to just summarize it as "The bird likes this attack" or "the bird doesn't like that attack." The part they never believe is that the bird can like two attacks in the same combat and trigger twice if both defending players qualify.
My mistake. in my haste I just skipped to the list. Love all your content tho! I’ll make sure to be more thorough the next time I make such outlandish claims lol
Hm, I guess I'm just really experienced with parsing card text. Most of these were just plain intuitive to me on the first read. Then again, I have a banding deck and actually know how it works, so I guess I'm a lunatic.
I’ve been thinking about an edh deck w Saruman as the commander and the game plan is just making a bunch of copies of all these dumb cards like tidal influence and chains of Mephistopheles etc. I mean I’m never gonna make it in paper but it’s a fun idea haha
The problem with panglacial wurm isn't that there aren't rules of how to cast things from libraries, that's what card text is for, to create exceptions to rules - normally you can't, but you can here. The problem is the framework for casting spells isn't designed to account for spells being put on the stack while an effect is resolving, no player has priority DURING the resolution of an effect, and therefore no spells should be cast at such instance. As such there are no rules to determine whether panglacial wurm resolves before or after the search effect finishes resolving, or if a player can respond to a spell being cast while no one even has priority to begin with. But again, just adding some text to the card could fix that.
I believe Mythos of Nethroi is templated the way it is because targets are selected before costs are paid. The GW clause isn't an alternate or additional cost or a modal choice, so unlike kicker or similar mechanics, the intent to pay it isn't announced before targets are announced. Alternate costs and such are checked in step B of casting, targeting is checked in step C of casting, but the GW clause only occurs in step I of casting, which is checking modifiers to the spell and resolving it.
I think Sarumon is straight forward enough. The only spell during the abilities resolution is the second spell you cast that turn. Press the Enemy is more confusing imo. I had to read the card several times and still wasn't sure if the "equal or lesser mana value" clause was referring to PtE or the targeted spell or permanent.
I love Breena. She powers up my Voltron commander VERY quickly, and my opponents are put in the awkward position of choosing betweeen risking making my commander too big too quickly and passing up on free cards.
My vote for a card I didn't see here is definitely Dark Salvation. To this day I haven't figured out which player's zombies are counted and even gatherer didn't have answers for me
I was in an 8 player casual free-for-all and someone played Knowledge Pool and once everyone at the table understood what was happening we all just agreed to scoop and start a new game.
Another relativement counter intuitive thing with Mutate piles is that if you blink it each creatures return separately, as opposed to returning as a Mutate pile or only the top creature returning ...Honestly it was probably only conter intuitive to me
For me it's Hardened Scales. I read it a dozen times and the "plus one plus one plus one" just melded into "+1/+1". I had to ask someone else why the card was so good before my brain could finally read it properly.
Yeah, if I was to design a card like Wheel of Misfortune it would read: Each player secretly chooses a number greater than 0. Players reveal those numbers, then each player who chose the highest number takes that much damage, discards their hand, then draws 7 cards. Then each other player discards their hand and draws 3 cards.
I actually have a question on Mutate that no one has been able to answer. I mutate a creature onto Heliod, Sun-Crowned while he's a creature. Later, I lose devotion and he goes back to being just an enchantment. What happens to the creature mutated onto him depending on whether it's over or under Heliod?
Yep. Same thing for a creature that isn't Human when the Mutate happens, so it's legal, but it then becomes Human after the Mutate. The card is only checking for the non-Human clause when it's mutating. We had a level 1 judge get stumped on this and there were like 5 of us who know the rules well discussing it. We figured it out eventually lol. Mutate itself at a base level is super simple, and dare I say, intuitive (at least if you've been playing card games for a while). It's when all of these different interactions happen that the problems roll in.
I know Sunfall isn't that confusing, but I've seen many opponents make a creature indestructible after I cast it. As a newer player, I had to look up exactly why it doesn't work.
Suprisingly i'd say wheel om misfortune is not that much of a problem in commander, simply because it is played more than you'd think so people mostly know how it works. Also everyone, including the one who choose the highest number, except the one who choose lowest gets to wheel.
I play Panglacial Wurm in my Prime Speaker Vannifar commander deck, and I am ALWAYS looking to cast it in the middle of her effect. Yaknow, sac and tap, ooh what creature will he get this time, and then I say with an ominous voice "While I'm searching my library..." No one expects Arboreal Grazer to turn into a giant frickin' wurm. When you mentioned Shining Shoal, I always think of Deflecting Palm - another card that affects "a source of your choice", except Palm doesn't actually target anything!
I remember when that stupid sphinx came out it was selling for 25$. Made bank with it simply cus people didn’t know how to read 😂. Packed 1 and knew straight away some people would fall for it.
Even after your explanation, I still didn't quite understand how some of the cards perform. I would suggest using real-play scenario examples for each of the presented cards so that the viewer can see how each card works.
I'm pretty sure at the kitchen table you *can* indeed get any card you own from outside the game with Wish effects. It's just that obviously you can't make that work in competitive Magic
The difference between these "confusing" cards and early confusing cards is massive. Outside of Panglacial Wurm, all these cards work exactly as written within the rules. Sure, the Wishes got errata'd for gameplay reasons, but otherwise the functionality of these cards can be fully determined by the rules at the time. Cards like Illusionary Mask and Ice Cauldron required the players to determine what was INTENDED, regardless of the rules. Different players may determine different intents, which led to confusion that these modern cards will never see.
"It works just because they say it does, despite contradicting pre-existing rules." But isn't that all of MtG, though? Doesn't that count for Haste, too? Isn't that the case with Flying?
Yeah, basically. I was really disappointed when he was talking about that, seeing as how he is into history and has been playing for a bit. The rule has always been that if a card contradicted the rules, the card took precedence.
I think a lot of players give the "golden rule" far more weight than it is meant to have. Just because a card has text doesn't mean that card functions. A card that says "you draw two cards instead of one" is very different from a card that says "you can cast this in the middle of another spell's or ability's resolution."
Another odd thing about mutate. Cloning only copies the copiable values of a card and not any modification(unless directed by the copying effect). For example, if there an aura that give lifelink to the attached creature, any copy won't have lifelink. This also included modification via cards like magical hack(Instant: Change the text of target spell or permanent by replacing all instances of one basic land type with another.) that don't leave any mark of it's change like a counter or something. So, you copy a mutated creature. Since it the card on top with it's text box modify by every card under it, you create a copy that just the card on top, right? No, your copy is a brand new card that has a super long text box.
I don't think these are that confusing but maybe that's just me and I've only played arena a few years ago, only really confusing parts are wish effects (they should really errata those), the dryad arbor (purely because that reprint makes it look like a non-creature land), and mutate for its weird rulings (though that makes a bit more sense when you consider it isn't changing its card type when casted that way, unlike say adventure cards). I pretty much understood what all the cards are putting down, though I did have to check if mutated creatures on top lose their abilities, not sure if you intended this but you made it sound like the top card doesn't get its abilities but it does. Sphinx would be way more confusing without the reminder text though, they could probably just say it does all those three steps instead.
Wheel of Misfortune is essentially like a bid. The person who bids the most, "wins" and has to pay the amount of life they bid. They get to wheel, UNLESS everybody picked the same bid, then everybody "wins" (Loses because they lose life and get nothing). Essentially, you bid a lot, if you need a wheel and can afford the life. You can guarantee yourself not to wheel or lose life if you choose zero.
So funnily enough there is an error on the explanation on Wheel Of Misfortune. The person who picks the highest number ALSO gets to wheel, theyre just the only one that loses life equal to their number
Yes
Was gonna say this as well
Only 1 person takes damage. Only 1 doesn't wheel (given no ties)
You know a card is confusing when the explanation gets it wrong
@@ncucomore than one person can take damage if they tied
@Lanceweilder but the card doesn't get it wrong. It's literally right there in the wording: "EACH PLAYER who didn't choose the lowest number."
It was poetic that I came here to explain the error in the explanation of the confusing card that confused Nizzahon's explanation.
It's kind of bizarre how mutate was affected by COVID. I played the set exclusively online. This made Mutate much easier to handle, since Arena had safety rails. I'd consider it more confusing if there had been more tabletop play with the set
I was out of magic for 10-15 years and came back to play online on that set and it was interesting to see all the YT vids re: the confusion but Are a really helped show how it worked and how powerful it could be
Yes. But also no. Bear in mind this was when Spelltable was at its peak. It was confusing enough to explain when internet audio wasn't always great, but adding in cloning opponents' stuff and it became hell on earth. Of course the easy answer was to not clone opponents' things, but when they have one permanent with a ton of abilities, it'd also be a bad play choice to not copy it sometimes (even if you add clones to your deck only originally intending to use on your own things).
On Wheel of Misfortune, the people who picked the highest number also get the wheel effect in addition to the damage (unless everyone picks the same number). It genuinely is quite confusing.
The irony that the most confusing card is misexplained :)
That card has always confused the shit out of me!
One time all the players at the table chose the same number, so we all took the damage and got no wheel. Good times.
BAHAHHAHAH @@watapon3415
It’s not confusing at all though.
Based on my use of it on MtGO, I nominate Choice of Damnations.
Target opponent chooses a number. You can choose whether they lose that much life, or sacrifice all but that many permanent.
I swear, half the people I hit with it chose zero. Which resulted in their entire board exploding.
happened at a prerelease, zero was chosen by an expert player in our group. He was like WTF?
I feel that's mostly on them though. They really think a 7 mana sorcery lets you lose 0 life and sacrifice 0 permanent?
When Nethroi showed up in #8, I thought he's going to talk about how Nethroi's ability to count to 10 total power can also interact with zero and negative numbers, making it possible to reanimate an absurd amount of cards.
Yeah, Nethroi is the obvious choice for a Mutate creature because of that additional wrinkle of how it interacts with Characteristic-Defining Abilities. Also, he messed up by saying that the Mutate stack has the power and toughness of the creature on top and the abilities of the creatures underneath it, as a Mutate stack IS the card on top, including its abilities, as well as the abilities of the cards beneath it, somewhat similar to clone effects that add abilities to the creature cloned; wherever you place a Mutate creature in the stack, the resulting mutation will always have all abilities of every creature enclosed in the stack.
@@collinbealby messing up he proved his point 😂
I would've thought the Mutate confusion would be around how it interacts with Exile effects. The mutate stack separates and each creature in the mutate stack is effected separately. Blink a stack and each returns as its own creature. Hit a three creature stack with Etrata's ability each creature gets a hit counter instantly triggering the alt win condition.
@@gassiresloot4220 Honestly that makes a lot of sense to me. What would happen to the other cards if only the top one was exiled? Mutate is such a crazy mechanic to have debuted in a standard set though
There could also be multiple people that don't wheel with Wheel of Misfortune. If the numbers chosen are 3, 3, 4, and 5, then TWO players chose the lowest number and each player that chose the lowest number does not get to wheel.
Small note on Wheel of Misfortune: the player(s) that chose the highest number also get to wheel in addition to taking damage.
I was going to say this too. At least that's what I got from reading it.
Unless everyone chose the same number. If everyone chose 5, everyone takes 5 damage and nobody draws cards.
@@RibusPQR yeah I think that's also true. No wonder that one is #1. 😋
You’re slightly wrong about mutate, you still get the abilities of the top creature in the stack in addition to all the other ones, you mutated onto. So the only real choice is what creature types and power toughness you want to have and making that the card on top.
My pick goes to Blink from the Doctor Who commander decks. Blink is a Saga with 4 chapters. The odd numbered chapters share the exact same rules text with each other. The even numbered chapters also share the exact same rules text with just each other. The chapters are listed 1 > 3 > 2 > 4 on the card, but they resolve 1 > 2 > 3 > 4 during gameplay. And to boot, like all Sagas, the chapters are marked with Roman numerals. If you know the episode Blink from Doctor Who, you get the joke. But even if you get the joke, the card is still confusing as hell to read and parse.
I think I gave myself a headache writing this comment.
mad props to you
I also love that they referenced the show in the rules for this card.
Notes and Rules Information for Blink:
People often assume that Sagas are a strict progression from top to bottom, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey . . . stuff. That is, the rules support chapter abilities that appear to be out of order, like those on Blink. The first ability triggers when the first and third lore counters are added. The last ability triggers when the second and fourth lore counters are placed on it. (2023-10-13)
One thing to note that wasn’t made entirely clear in the video: the player who chose the highest number for Wheel of Misfortune also gets to wheel in addition to taking the damage.
👆🏻🤓 grown adult with an anime pfp
@@ezaf5989Brotha, this is a magic the gathering video
@@ezaf5989grow up
I always think that Panglacial Wurm was one of the weird experiment cards from Time Spiral block until I realize that it isn't.
Considering that Coldsnap released right before Time Spiral, and is also set on Dominaria, I think it counts.
Panglacial Wurm is apparently where the Golden Rules of games is used. Not sure how often that happens in MtG.
Panglacial Wurm can be easily fixed by giving it a triggered ability that reads something like:
Whenever you search your library if this card is in your library, exile it. You may cast this card from exile as a sorcery until the end of your turn.
I would love to see it also have an ability that moved it from the graveyard back to the library but maybe that's asking too much.
@@ClockworkWyrm That wouldn't work either. The reason why players can interact with cards in the graveyard and/or in the exile zone (i.e., play cards, use activated abilities, see triggered and static abilities, etc.) is because the cards in those zones are public information. Cards in the library, regardless of whether you actually know the cards are in there or their position in the library, are not public information, so you can't interact with them.
As per your suggestion, it would basically go like this:
Player 1: ~ searching their library as an effect resolves ~ Okay, I'm searching my library, so my Panglacial Wurm's triggered ability triggers.
Player 2: What ability? You don't have a Panglacial Wurm anywhere.
Player 1: It's in my library.
Player 2: You can't tell me what's in your library. That's not public information.
Player 1: But Panglacial Wurm's ability is triggering, so I can share that public information.
Player 2: What ability? You don't have a Panglacial Wurm anywhere.
-repeats-
I really wish that Wish effects just said what they do, and that it was universal instead of varying between sanctioned and unsanctioned play. That's a massive errata that I'd be happy to see.
To be fair to Panglacial Wurm, Magic *does* have a rule that states that card text supersedes game rules when needed. So technically it works, but it just...makes weird things happen.
Nethroi also functions neatly with cards with negative power, so it's kind of a double-whammy as the mutate stand-in since that can be confusing.
"I really wish that Wish effects just said what they do, and that it was universal instead of varying between sanctioned and unsanctioned play. That's a massive errata that I'd be happy to see."
They do, and you can't have a universal rule between sanctioned and unsanctioned play, because there are fundamental differences between the two.
edit: Sanctioned play is just different format with its own rules, just like Commander. It is not the default for the game.
The "cards contradict rules" rule is very weird. Intuitively it helps people understand that card text just works and every card can be an exception.
But practically, the rules already cover everything, it's incredibly easy to misinterpret it, and there ARE hard rules that can never be contradicted by card text, such as playing a land outside your turn.
Love the part in the Sphinx of the Second Sun segment where you basically (if accidentally) go “Magic players can’t actually read a card if it doesn’t feel right.” Not wrong…
Obeka is probably up there. So confusing that people build around her in ways that her card directly explains don’t work since they don’t bother to read her reminder text ever.
Nethroi scores extra point for having its specific Mutate ability being confusing as well
The way the MTG math works, creatures in graveyard with *negative* power are effectively a net gain for you, so if you have - say - Char Rumbler or Spinal Parasite, you can bring back even more creatures on top of them
For someone who often uses Belbe often, Breena makes perfect sense.
Blood Moon should be high on the list. Reading it does not explain it at all. You need to know that becoming a mountain removes other land types, and that losing land types for some reason removes their other abilities. And even after that there's a whole bunch of silly layer stuff that might come up.
This list isn't for cards older than 20 years.
Fun fact: the first printing said: "All non-basic lands are now basic mountains" which actually does communicate its effect at least somewhat.
I had a friend get crushed by this card in a game.
He built his entire commander deck with non-basics.
Dryad arbor almost made me rage quit in a tourney one time.
Oponent has a goyf. I cast Liliana of the Veil, -2 to edict.
Sacrifices Dryad arbor hiding among his lands.
At least it's now illegal to do so.
The fabled Ninja Dryad Arbor 😂
one of the more confusing parts about Sphinx of the second Sun is how it doesn't cause sagas to trigger twice. the reminder text on sagas says As this Sega enters and AFTER YOUR DRAW STEP add a lore counter so you would think they would trigger after your second beginning Phase but they don't because Sagas actually say at the Start of your Precombat Main Phase in the rules text EVERY SAGA has the wrong Rules text
It also behaves weirdly with extra combat phases. Added phases happen in the reverse of the order they were created in, so if you give yourself another combat phase during your postcombat main phase, you don't get your extra beginning phase until after combat is over. If the extra combat phase is followed by an extra main phase, Sphinx triggers again but you get two beginning phases in a row after your third main phase.
As someone who played with a lot of Howling Mine effects in Commander, I remember how difficult it was to explain to playgroups that the very first thing to happen as they enter the draw step was drawing a card for the turn, even before any triggers went on the stack. When I read the explanation of Sagas for the first time, my first thoughts was "... AFTER the draw step? How tf do they expect anyone to know how to resolve this correctly?"
I always thought Chains of Mephistoles was super confusing
I always thought it takes a minute to double check, but after that it makes sense. It's still a little tricky because it's all replacement effects though.
It's much more clearer if you replace the text box with a flow chart.
Anyway I'll try to explain it:
Instead of drawing you rummage. If you can't rummage because your hand is empty, you mill instead of drawing. Your first "natural" draw ignores Chains.
It is, until you understand it. Then it makes complete sense.
@@Welverin That's still miles ahead of Panglacial Wurm, which isn't confusing at all. There's a big difference between looking at a card and going "this shouldn't work" and going "what am I even supposed to do here?" All Wurm does is make an exception to the rules in a way that no other card does, and in a way that the rules don't actually account for properly.
To be fair, Mutate works the same as Bestow, which also resolves as a creature spell if the creature is killed that it was targeting as a bestow spell. At least mutate is always a creature spell.
The most complex limited sets could also be a neat Nizzanotes video.
#9 THE RULES, are ALWAYS USURPED by the TEXT. So if the wurm wants to be cast during a resolve, that card will simply HAVE to wait.
Also, there's a bunch of cards and effects that have you cast a spell as part of their resolution; those spells just sit on the stack and wait for the current spell/ability to resolve. Casting the Wurm from your library as you search is novel, but the casting in and of itself isn't the worst thing in the game.
...of course what is heinous is all of the stupid, hilarious, and dubiously legal shenanigans that Panglacial Wurm can be a part of, but that's outside the scope of this video.
I feel like the Venture Into the Dungeon mechanic should be here. The reminder text for Venture is "Enter the first room or proceed to the next room", which isn't nearly enough information, and I bet not even a judge could explain the entirety of what Venturing into the dungeon does without needing to look it up.
As someone who also plays Yugioh, our most confusing card is actually Pot of Greed, despite having very few words, almost nobody knows what it does. They explain it constantly in the anime as a result.
WHAT DOES POT OF GREED DO?
Grot of Peed
I'm sure in going to regret asking this without doing prior research, but why is drawing two cards confusing? Or is this like a storm crow joke for Yu-Gi-Oh?
Edit; checked out the meme, it's a storm crow.
That is the most confusing card in yugioh. Like magic had 3 cards for the price of one, and it was the first card game, mistakes were made and we get it. Pokemon was like "we can do one step more stupid, we can draw 2 for the price of nothing." That was a really weird choice not to learn from a popular existing card game. Then yugioh comes along and is like "hold my beer, we are also making the exact same dumb mistake for the third time, this time will be different."
@@MegatronYESif you thought Perrin's Pills were bad then try Perrin's Insoluble Suppositories and hit rock bottom.
Wheel of Misfortune: All players who picked the highest number take that much damage, then all players who did not pick the lowest number discard their hands and draw 7.
This video should make the Top 10 Most Paused Nizzahon Videos list
My pick goes to Kroxa because someone decided it needed a triple negative in its rules, instead of saying "each player who discarded a land card or couldn't discard a card this way loses 3 life,"
It's just a double negative, not a triple.
No it isn't not 😅
Mutate feels like an attempt to do Unstable's hybrid creatures "for real" that added too many complications.
The double whammy of Mutate and ability counters in Ikoria was really a watershed moment in the game becoming way more mechanically and logistically complex.
2:10, I REALLY like the Wurm. One of the most played kinds pf cards, are spells and abilities that let you look ip and fish for what you need; isn't that the whole point of a Toolbox Deck.
Well, now you can get something into your hand or draw for next turn, AND, ADD TO THE BOARD!!!
He is very expensive, tho
I feel like several of the cards lower on the list were more confusing than the ones higher on the list.
Hell, sphinx of the second sun doesn't even need a second reading, it just needs 1 complete reading (it being on the list at all feels a little anecdotal to me).
There are a small handful of mechanics in recent years that not even their reminder text actually explains the effect in full.
As someone who would love to put panglacial wurm in my favorite edh deck, the interaction with Selvala, Explorer Returned is really a good reason why the wurm is confusing
I wasn't even surprised to see a mutate card make the lost list.
Wotc got really lucky that the set released during the pandemic. I'd wager most of us figured out mutate thanks to Arena handling almost everything for us, especially if you clone a mutate stack.
If bouncing then you bounche the whole stack, if you blink it, they all return to play as separate cards again.
Also with the alternative art versions being more common to see in paper they have no reminder text at all, and a common thing people forget is you need to both own and control the mutate spell, and the creature you're trying to target, and it must be non-Human.
Theres also a couple of other quirks.
Legendary status, Token/Nontoken status, and other card types like Artifact are all modified depending on whatever is on top. It means in Commander you can theoretically end up with a nonlegendary creature that is still considered your commander, or things like animated lands or Planeswalkers thwn things get even more silly and complicated.
In addition to the wheel and mutate mishap, there is another error at 3:30. There are cards that let you play cards from your library like future sight, bolas's citadel or similar effects for lands and creatures. It's simply the top card of your libary. The weird part about the wurm is simply that it's while the library is being searched while a spell or an ability is resolving.
The reason Sphinx of the Second Sun is worded so strangely is because (for some reason) they wanted the ability to trigger at the beginning of your post-combat main phase, not after. This means that Sphinx of the Second Sun needs to be on the battlefield before your post-combat main phase begins or the ability will not trigger. It also means that if Sphinx of the Second Sun is removed from the battlefield during your post-combat main phase, you still get the additional beginning phase.
If the card was re-worded to your suggestion, the ability would trigger at the end your post-combat main phase instead of the beginning. I'm not sure why they wanted to prevent that ability from triggering at the end of the post-combat main phase, but it seems specifically worded for that purpose.
I need to watch the older video! Back in '93-'95, my playgroup and I would give anything we opened in a pack a try in a deck. Of course, that doesn't mean the cards that didn't work out well or were too confusing stayed in our decks for long... :-)
There's nothing better than playing the EDH Otrimi mutate deck and having to regularly look up rules with the funkiest of interactions. :')
By the time you finished explaining Saruman, I'd already forgotten that the ability even triggered off of you casting your 2nd spell...
I really like this mechanic, they could call it something like Auger or Fracking. Related to mining, digging or drilling.
Also, Flash, and something like Split-Second, so it can just come down and not be interrupted.
Then, scine there tacking it onto another spell, give it a thing like Fortell or morph, were it comes in without abilities or with -X/-X counters, to make it weaker scine you were inherently playing two spells for one.
Top Ten Confusing Comments
Some of the doctor who cards have confusing wording like: “Target creature's owner shuffles it into their library”
I think Warp World is one of the craziest and most confusing cards, the effect sounds like it is somewhat simple but it really isn't, especially in how it interacts with cards that will be coming in
Huh... didn't know Sphinx of the Second Sun functioned like that. It's always been understood and accepted by my playgroup that you basically get a restart on your turn with this card. Still, quite powerful, as you do get to leave your turn with additional card draw, your mana untapped, a doubled upkeep trigger volley, and the ability to play cards at instant speed if you so choose.
Quick question about the Sphinx...
If the sphinx gets removed during your 2nd main phase you should stil get the additional beginning phase, right? Because the ability did trigger at the start of said main phase when the sphinx was stil on the board... ?
And that would no longer be the case if the wording was "At the end of your postcombat main phase, you get an additional beginning phase.", right.... ?
Fun Note on Breena: Her effect triggers PER PLAYER which is one i see trip players up a lot. So if I am at 10 life and all three other players are at 20 and one of them owns Breena I will draw 2 cards and Breena will add 2 stacks of 2 +1/+1 counters to a creature because I have less life than the other 2 opponents of the Breena player.
This works this way because Breena checks if you are attacking one of her opponents, not one or more.
I’m surprised Sovereign Okinec Ahau didn’t make the list, man that text box takes several tries to read before you understand it.
I had it on the list at one point, but it got bumped. It definitely could have been there.
Mythos was the only one that never tripped me up. I read it first time and thought okay, black creature kill spell, or abzan nonland permanent destroy spell.
For me it's kroxa that gets me. "Each player that didn't discard a non land card loses 3 life". I have to constantly verse in my head "if I discard a land or have an empty hand, I lose 3 life" otherwise I get lost in the negatives.
To me Kroxa makes a lot of sense intuitively. Either you lose some juice or 3 life, he always gets his money worth.
Ah, I remember a game where I had 2 Breena's, and 2 other players both had one... It was a lot of fun trying to figure out who how draws cards
I have Wheel of Misfortune in my red black discard deck. What I like to do is say ‘I will say this once and only once’ then read the text as fast as possible
Panglacial wurm is the lynchpin in my CEDH raggadragga deck. I love seeing other people realize how awful the rules around it are. The worst situation is with an opposition agent in play, then it gets real funky
Lol, you know a card is confusing when the person presenting the card is slightly incorrect about how the card works. Wheel of misfortune says "...Each player who didn’t choose the lowest number discards their hand, then draws seven cards."
The thing is, because the highest player isn't the lowest, that player draws cards in addition to taking damage. So it goes:
-lowest, nothing
-middle, just wheel
-highest, take damage and wheel
ruling (2020-11-10): "The number of players choosing the highest number doesn't change how much damage is dealt. For example, if the four players in your game reveal 4, 7, 7, and 7, Wheel of Misfortune will deal 7 damage to each of the last three players and those three players will discard their hand and draw seven cards."
Personally, I love wheels in edh but my opponents often don't. So I run this as sort of an "opt in" wheel, where basically we ignore the "secretly" part of the card text, and have everyone choose 0 or 1. If you pick 0, nothing happens to you and if you pick 1, you wheel and take a damage. It also dramatically speeds up the cards resolution.
Re: Wish effects
The problem is that there is no good way to reword the cards without breaking those rulings put forth for unsanctioned events and limited.
Also, even in your explanation of Wheel of Misfortune, you got it wrong. It also wheel's any players that take the damage - it's *only* the players that chose the smallest number that don't get the wheel effect.
If the number choices are 1, 3, 4, 4, the two players that chose 4 take 4 damage and the players that chose 3 and 4 get to wheel.
Panglacial Wurm feels a lot like Madness, in that the ability feels very simple but is a rules headache because you suddenly start casting spells while in the middle of doing other things.
It probably could be resolved the same way: rewrite the ability to allow the player to exile it while searching, and then cast it from exile afterwards.
Always love these kinds of top 10s!
There are edge cases where the proposed change to Sphinx makes a difference. If the opponent somehow removes Sphinx between the start of the post-combat main phase and the end, as worded the extra beginning phase still triggers (unless there's some weird ruling saying it doesn't). In the proposed revision it would not, as it would need to be in play at the end of the step specifically for the phase to trigger.
Idea for silver-bordered wheel card: Wheel of not unmisfortune. Same game then Wheel deals damage equal to the second highest number to each player who didn't choose the lowest number and each player who didn't choose a number that was not the highest keeps their hand while every other player discards their hand and draws seven cards.
Flavor text: "I think you just have to pick 0."
shit i've completely misunderstood sphinx of the second sun. i had it in a shrine deck and used it to get extra upkeep triggers which still works but i cannot use the results of those triggers to do anything really as the turn immediately passes
So more than one person may not end up wheeling with wheel of misfortune. It says that each player that chose anything other than the lowest number wheels, so if multiple people pick the lowest number, none of those people get to wheel but the rest do.
Thank you for including Breena. I don't know what it is, but every time I play her, nobody else can wrap their heads around what she does. I have to just summarize it as "The bird likes this attack" or "the bird doesn't like that attack." The part they never believe is that the bird can like two attacks in the same combat and trigger twice if both defending players qualify.
'This attack does not spark joy.'
Chains of Mephistopheles must be so traumatic everyone forgot about it. I mean cmon! It needs its own dang flow chart to be understandable!
It's in the video I mentioned in the intro.
My mistake. in my haste I just skipped to the list. Love all your content tho! I’ll make sure to be more thorough the next time I make such outlandish claims lol
Hm, I guess I'm just really experienced with parsing card text. Most of these were just plain intuitive to me on the first read. Then again, I have a banding deck and actually know how it works, so I guess I'm a lunatic.
I’ve been thinking about an edh deck w Saruman as the commander and the game plan is just making a bunch of copies of all these dumb cards like tidal influence and chains of Mephistopheles etc. I mean I’m never gonna make it in paper but it’s a fun idea haha
Raging river and wheel of misfortune, plus literally every attraction card. Still no idea what the heck they do
The problem with panglacial wurm isn't that there aren't rules of how to cast things from libraries, that's what card text is for, to create exceptions to rules - normally you can't, but you can here. The problem is the framework for casting spells isn't designed to account for spells being put on the stack while an effect is resolving, no player has priority DURING the resolution of an effect, and therefore no spells should be cast at such instance.
As such there are no rules to determine whether panglacial wurm resolves before or after the search effect finishes resolving, or if a player can respond to a spell being cast while no one even has priority to begin with.
But again, just adding some text to the card could fix that.
I believe Mythos of Nethroi is templated the way it is because targets are selected before costs are paid. The GW clause isn't an alternate or additional cost or a modal choice, so unlike kicker or similar mechanics, the intent to pay it isn't announced before targets are announced. Alternate costs and such are checked in step B of casting, targeting is checked in step C of casting, but the GW clause only occurs in step I of casting, which is checking modifiers to the spell and resolving it.
13:49
You forgot to mention highest number also wheels
I think Sarumon is straight forward enough. The only spell during the abilities resolution is the second spell you cast that turn.
Press the Enemy is more confusing imo. I had to read the card several times and still wasn't sure if the "equal or lesser mana value" clause was referring to PtE or the targeted spell or permanent.
I love Breena. She powers up my Voltron commander VERY quickly, and my opponents are put in the awkward position of choosing betweeen risking making my commander too big too quickly and passing up on free cards.
tbh until now im still confused where the dmg will go, treacherous link + pariah
My vote for a card I didn't see here is definitely Dark Salvation. To this day I haven't figured out which player's zombies are counted and even gatherer didn't have answers for me
I don't run Wheel of Misfortune for this very reason.
I was in an 8 player casual free-for-all and someone played Knowledge Pool and once everyone at the table understood what was happening we all just agreed to scoop and start a new game.
Another relativement counter intuitive thing with Mutate piles is that if you blink it each creatures return separately, as opposed to returning as a Mutate pile or only the top creature returning
...Honestly it was probably only conter intuitive to me
For me it's Hardened Scales. I read it a dozen times and the "plus one plus one plus one" just melded into "+1/+1". I had to ask someone else why the card was so good before my brain could finally read it properly.
Yeah, if I was to design a card like Wheel of Misfortune it would read:
Each player secretly chooses a number greater than 0. Players reveal those numbers, then each player who chose the highest number takes that much damage, discards their hand, then draws 7 cards. Then each other player discards their hand and draws 3 cards.
Oh shit, I have been playing #2 wrong
Are you sure Karn can't get artifact cards from exile? I was pretty sure it could, is that something that was changed recently?
Karn specifically says “from outside the game or in exile” that’s why
@@cowisiontv6611 Oh, I see 😅Thank you for clarifying.
I actually have a question on Mutate that no one has been able to answer. I mutate a creature onto Heliod, Sun-Crowned while he's a creature. Later, I lose devotion and he goes back to being just an enchantment. What happens to the creature mutated onto him depending on whether it's over or under Heliod?
Heliod's ability applies to the whole thing. It's only a creature while you have the Devotion. The pile doesn't come apart or anything.
Yep. Same thing for a creature that isn't Human when the Mutate happens, so it's legal, but it then becomes Human after the Mutate. The card is only checking for the non-Human clause when it's mutating. We had a level 1 judge get stumped on this and there were like 5 of us who know the rules well discussing it. We figured it out eventually lol.
Mutate itself at a base level is super simple, and dare I say, intuitive (at least if you've been playing card games for a while). It's when all of these different interactions happen that the problems roll in.
I definitely thought "Lagrella, the Magpie" would be on the list. I opened like 4 of her in my Capenna packs and barely understand what she does.
I know Sunfall isn't that confusing, but I've seen many opponents make a creature indestructible after I cast it. As a newer player, I had to look up exactly why it doesn't work.
Surprised that Lagrella, the Magpie didn’t make the list. I still see that played wrong, especially in EDH.
Is it true that in a 1v1 situation Breena's ability stops working?
The counter part matters, but the other part doesn't.
You know that now you have to make a Top 10 cards whose effect starts a minigame that is completely different from regular Magic gameplay.
i was a long time confused by card which does: unspend mana becomes x . i didn' know what this mean .
you could have done made this into two topics! confusing mechanics (i.e. mutate) and confusing cards (I.e. Goblin Game). keep up the dope videos tho!
I already did confusing mechanics.
I see the thumbnail and I agree. Also, Chains of Mephistopheles?
Suprisingly i'd say wheel om misfortune is not that much of a problem in commander, simply because it is played more than you'd think so people mostly know how it works.
Also everyone, including the one who choose the highest number, except the one who choose lowest gets to wheel.
I always have to read Lantern Flare like 5 times. Was that in consideration, or am i just dumb?
I play Panglacial Wurm in my Prime Speaker Vannifar commander deck, and I am ALWAYS looking to cast it in the middle of her effect. Yaknow, sac and tap, ooh what creature will he get this time, and then I say with an ominous voice "While I'm searching my library..." No one expects Arboreal Grazer to turn into a giant frickin' wurm.
When you mentioned Shining Shoal, I always think of Deflecting Palm - another card that affects "a source of your choice", except Palm doesn't actually target anything!
And cripes, I've misunderstood Sphinx Of The Second Sun's effect until now, thanks!
I remember when that stupid sphinx came out it was selling for 25$. Made bank with it simply cus people didn’t know how to read 😂. Packed 1 and knew straight away some people would fall for it.
I have to explain the Sphinx to people every so often because they think it gives you an extra turn.
Even after your explanation, I still didn't quite understand how some of the cards perform. I would suggest using real-play scenario examples for each of the presented cards so that the viewer can see how each card works.
I'm pretty sure at the kitchen table you *can* indeed get any card you own from outside the game with Wish effects. It's just that obviously you can't make that work in competitive Magic
The difference between these "confusing" cards and early confusing cards is massive. Outside of Panglacial Wurm, all these cards work exactly as written within the rules. Sure, the Wishes got errata'd for gameplay reasons, but otherwise the functionality of these cards can be fully determined by the rules at the time. Cards like Illusionary Mask and Ice Cauldron required the players to determine what was INTENDED, regardless of the rules. Different players may determine different intents, which led to confusion that these modern cards will never see.
"It works just because they say it does, despite contradicting pre-existing rules."
But isn't that all of MtG, though?
Doesn't that count for Haste, too?
Isn't that the case with Flying?
Yeah, basically. I was really disappointed when he was talking about that, seeing as how he is into history and has been playing for a bit. The rule has always been that if a card contradicted the rules, the card took precedence.
I think a lot of players give the "golden rule" far more weight than it is meant to have. Just because a card has text doesn't mean that card functions. A card that says "you draw two cards instead of one" is very different from a card that says "you can cast this in the middle of another spell's or ability's resolution."
Wheel of Misfortune made sense to me, but maybe I'm just different.
I think Belbe could have at least made honorable mention
Another odd thing about mutate. Cloning only copies the copiable values of a card and not any modification(unless directed by the copying effect). For example, if there an aura that give lifelink to the attached creature, any copy won't have lifelink. This also included modification via cards like magical hack(Instant: Change the text of target spell or permanent by replacing all instances of one basic land type with another.) that don't leave any mark of it's change like a counter or something.
So, you copy a mutated creature. Since it the card on top with it's text box modify by every card under it, you create a copy that just the card on top, right? No, your copy is a brand new card that has a super long text box.
Yeah Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief absolutely abuses this rule as a commander.
Well, I think Panglacial Wurm is a funny card BECAUSE it doesn't fit the rules. And I love the effect.
I don't think these are that confusing but maybe that's just me and I've only played arena a few years ago, only really confusing parts are wish effects (they should really errata those), the dryad arbor (purely because that reprint makes it look like a non-creature land), and mutate for its weird rulings (though that makes a bit more sense when you consider it isn't changing its card type when casted that way, unlike say adventure cards). I pretty much understood what all the cards are putting down, though I did have to check if mutated creatures on top lose their abilities, not sure if you intended this but you made it sound like the top card doesn't get its abilities but it does. Sphinx would be way more confusing without the reminder text though, they could probably just say it does all those three steps instead.
I'm so glad you put mythos on here it confused the hell out of me at the prerelease lol
A Nizzahon video in which he reads the text on the card?
Has there been another Nizzahon video in which he does that?
Wheel of Misfortune is essentially like a bid.
The person who bids the most, "wins" and has to pay the amount of life they bid.
They get to wheel, UNLESS everybody picked the same bid, then everybody "wins" (Loses because they lose life and get nothing).
Essentially, you bid a lot, if you need a wheel and can afford the life.
You can guarantee yourself not to wheel or lose life if you choose zero.
I always thought Chains of Mephistopheles, Ice Cauldron, and Dead Ringers were confusing.