Top 10 Cards You Don’t Cast in MTG

The way to get the vast majority of cards into play where they can actually do something is by casting them. However, there are a few cards that, for whatever reason, see heavy play but are almost never cast. So today, we’re going to go over the most powerful cards in the game that people don’t cast.

Script and Editing by Pumkinswift
├ The List
Intro: (0:00)
10: Archon of Cruelty: (0:14)
9: Progenitus: (2:10)
8: Narcomoeba : (4:14)
7: Street Wraith: (5:53)
6: Kaldra Compleat: (8:30)
5: Leyline of the Void: (10:28)
4: Elvish Spirit Guide: (12:01)
3: Omniscience: (14:05)
2: Emrakul, the Aeons Torn: (15:27)
1: Griselbrand: (16:59)

#mtg #tcg #magicthegathering

[werbearjack]

Since the focus of all these -Logs channels is usually people who are not well versed in the game at hand I believe this is the perfect channel to explain the different formats. Since there are so many officially supported formats it could even be in the form of a Top 8 list to keep it more appealing to the YT overlords.

[deadnoobie]

11:40 one clarification about Leyline of the void: it only prevents 'cards' from going to the graveyard. Tokens are not considered 'cards' and still technically hit the graveyard before vanishing. Therefore Leyline of the Void does NOT prevent death triggers of tokens.

[SirChocula]

Love how you explain the rules/interaction while showing all the other cards that you've mentioned! Super helpful for players, even veterans :)

[TheEmeraldboy]

Emrakul is a also key piece for the modern deck Calibrated Blast, where the namesake card deals damage to target creature, planeswalker, or player equal to the mana value of the first nonland card you revealed from the top of your deck using its effect. Emrakul's mana value is 15, which is the largest among all cards legal in the format, meaning that it can OTK (or two-turn kill) your opponent if they go down as low as 15 life. The deck was built around several high-mana-value cards in order to hit them more consistently. With the game can end as soon as turn 5, it's virtually impossible to cast her.

She's also a key piece in an old legacy deck Four Horsemen, where it's a combo deck involving milling your entire deck until you mill three Narcomoeba with Emrakul being used to reset the milling should it fail.

[shepherdsgamingrun]

I would've expected Bridge from Below to be on the list... while every card on the list could still be cast by hook or by crook for some effect, Bridge is actually the one card that does absolutely nothing when cast.

Anger and Wonder are also cards worth considering for their time period.

[jacksonstein]

Lands, no one has ever cast a land, yet they’re heavily played!

[zacharymcvicker]

Been a Duel Logs fan for a while now! Great to see the expansion into another fantastic game!

[apoena-allnitemusic]

I don't play anymore but seeing elvish spirit guide there made my day. I was playing it back in the days (4th edition) to cast Ernan Djinn turn 1 or sengir vampire turn 2 and I felt like a boss 😂

[honorableintent]

Fun fact I learned recently: Progenitus was legal in Standard at the same time as Elvish Piper briefly, so they were cheating that bad boy into the battlefield in Standard.

[comcody]

I love using Progenitus. I summon it with Quick Silver Amulet, Maelstrom Archangel, or Defense of Heart.

[karfsma]

I have hardcast many a street wraith in games that were grinding to a halt. Turns out that sometimes swampwalk is relevant

[williambarnes]

The best thing about Leyline of the Void is its interaction with Living End. All their cards that died? Gone. Their grave is empty. All their cards trying to enter the grave? Also gone. You get your stuff, they get ZILCH.

[JudgeRelleb]

I would add Worldgorger Dragon as an honorable mention. Too expensive to cast and horribly bad if you cast him normally, but use a reanimate aura and it's an easy two card infinite combo.

[jaxsonbateman]

I personally play an explorer legal Omniscience combo deck, where I reanimate it with Repair and Recharge (new card from BRO, 3WW that returns an artifact, enchantment or planeswalker from the graveyard to the battlefield, as well as creating a powerstone that's useless for the combo). Previously used Invoke Justice for it, which could return any permanent but had a much more color intense cost (1WWWW). Fairly strong; can go off on turn 5 in the Esper version I run, or even turn 4 if you run the Jeskai version.

[dannybeane]

16:15 chief among them being utterly powerless against 15 flying squirrels.

[TheEmperorGulcasa]

I think Emrakul used to be hardcast in Tron decks back in the day, although I think its fallen out of favor for cheaper options in more modern times (15 is still a high bar to hit). Colorless mana cards have so many options to turbo though.

[AprilInDismay]

I used to Run 4 of the white layline of the meek. It killer with my saproling tokens with doubling season. Just subbed, I enjoy you Yugi content as well😎

[soldancer]

I appreciate that this list only has a few cards that are dedicated reanimation targets. It's cool seeing a variety of reasons for something not to be hard-cast: cycling, ramp, "put from hand", etc.

I think Bridge from Below should supplant Emrakul, though. Tron/Locus decks actually DO hard-cast her and get that sweet, sweet Time Walk trigger.

[alexandersmerage]

My favorite deck back when I played mtg arena actually played omniscience for its full cost. It was called overflowing omniscience and it used overflowing insight to force your opponent to draw cards, and gaea’s blessing and nexus of fate to let you do so infinitely. Was super fun until they banned nexus, was when I stopped playing

[Tera_GX]

I was worried this video would just be all Elvish Piper stuff, I'm glad some not so big stuff made the list.