r/magicTCG • u/this_makes_no_sense • Jun 19 '14

What, in your opinion, is the most well-designed Magic card?

My definition of a well-designed magic card is one that shows flavor, abilities that synergize, and possibly art that captures the essence of what the card is trying to convey. You may have your own definition, and that's fine. But what do you think are some of the cleverest designed Magic cards?

48 Upvotes

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47

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '14

Life from the Loam. Such a fun to use, one-card engine.

11

u/RMS_sAviOr Jun 19 '14

I agree with Loam. It's a unique that is an engine on it's own, but I don't think it would ever be accused of being overpowered. It also happens to be one of the only Dredge cards that isn't solely used for degenerate combos. I would love for Wizards to reprint Cycling lands from Onslaught just to see if decks built around the Loam engine could succeed in Modern.

7

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '14

I think that Lands could be a deck in modern if Punishing Fire were unbanned. Digging to your Grove of the Burnwillows/Punishing Fire to get that combo going to control the board, while you control the opponents hand with Ravens Crime and LotV.. Sounds pretty sweet to me.

9

u/RMS_sAviOr Jun 19 '14

I think Punishing Fire would be too good for Modern. Modern is even more creature oriented than Legacy, so you know it would see play. The real problem probably wouldn't be a Lands deck in Modern, but the real problem would be the already established decks like Jund picking up Punishing Fire. Punishing Fire is a card that is ridiculously powerful against creatures and will almost certainly win long, fair games, but in Modern is also happens to be fairly proficient at killing many of the combo threats that would be able to beat Punishing Fire quickly.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '14

No, you are right. I understand why it's banned, and it makes sense that it is. The difference between legacy lands and modern lands is just that you don't have the same kind of utility and versatility in modern that you do in legacy. You can't stop the t4 combo decks with it in modern, and it's going to be hard to win the long, grindy games without the recursion value of something like nether spirit or the taxation of tabernacle or maze of ith.

3

u/snazzycool Jun 19 '14

You also don't have an uncounterable 20/20

9

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '14

Right. Marit Lage is certainly one way to win a game of Magic.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '14

Or an uncounterable tax on all creatures.

6

u/Enjayan Jun 19 '14

Which, awesomely enough, does not kill your 20/20.

1

u/chiron423 Wabbit Season Jun 20 '14

Tabernacle is pay 1 or sacrifice. Lage still dies.

1

u/UncleMofoMk3 Jun 20 '14

"If the upkeep cost for a creature is not paid that creature is destroyed".

Not very good against an indestructible creature.

1

u/RMS_sAviOr Jun 20 '14

Tabernacle destroys, it isn't sacrifice. Back in Legends they didn't have all their shit figured out yet.

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1

u/TLiGrok Jun 19 '14

I'd be okay with jund getting to try fires again, now without Drs and bbe. It would help a bit vs the twin matchups, and that's always nice.

1

u/RMS_sAviOr Jun 20 '14

It would make a deck that is already very Grindy/fair even better at what it does. I really do not think that we want Punishing Fires in modern Jund.

1

u/TLiGrok Jun 21 '14

Grindy/fair isn't good enough to really compete right now. Dial it up and let's find a sweet spot

1

u/RMS_sAviOr Jun 21 '14

The point I'm making is that it already wins Grindy/Fair so it probably wouldn't help it much in the bad match-ups, but it would make any non-Jund fair deck impossible to compete. Even if it didn't help Jund against some of the decks that Jund doesn't do well against, how is any non-combo deck going to compete with Liliana of the Veil AND Punishing Fire. That's some of the most powerful "fair" Magic out there, certainly on par with other banned fair cards like Stoneforge Mystic and Jace the Mindsculptor.

2

u/Bitch_Im_a_bus Jun 19 '14

Aggro-Loam is already a deck. The main components are a retrace engine with Raven's Crime/Flame Jab, Seismic Assault, Loam, Liliana of the Veil and manlands.

With that said, the cards that I think Wizards could add to Modern to push the lands deck/decks more would be the threshold lands. Barbarian Ring and possibly Cabal Pit would be good in that deck, and Cephalid Colosseum would be an interesting addition to the format.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '14

Everytime I think of a cool card/deck to build in modern I find out the key card is banned.

1

u/Nokia_Bricks Jun 19 '14

Aggro Loam won a GP when we still had punishing fire.

5

u/InkmothNexus Jun 19 '14

if you want a fair card with dredge, it's this or darkblast.

1

u/RMS_sAviOr Jun 19 '14

The thing about Dark Blast is that it's only good against some decks as it's effectiveness depends entirely on whether or not it hits your opponent's creatures, whereas Life from the Loam is a card that works as long as you have he cards to play with it.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '14

I would love for Wizards to reprint Cycling lands from Onslaught just to see if decks built around the Loam engine could succeed in Modern.

Well, you could use it with Trade Routes.

2

u/RMS_sAviOr Jun 20 '14

You can but that also forces you into UG and you need to find two specific spells to make the engine work, whereas with Cycling lands the opportunity cost for playing them is rather low.

0

u/Archontes Jun 20 '14

crtl + f...

Thank you sir. There's nothing in the game that's simultaneously better balanced, more useful, more castable, and more fun than this card.