A booster of Magic: The Gathering can come filled with cards that are more likely to help your opponent than the pers??on casting them. It also features many cards that would prove so much more powerful than what their designe?rs had intended that they had to be banned from most? formats.

This is a list of cards so ridiculously powerful that they completely?? dominated the game for a while �until they got banished into the shadow realm.

Skullclamp

Equipment cards are meant to grant strength, defense, or extra abilities to the equipped creature �or so you'd think. The most powerful use of equipment in? the history of the game is one that requires you to sacrifice your own creatures to draw more cards. Skullclamp's negative toughness modifier will kill any creature tha?t has one toughness and will immediately grant its user two cards.

Skullclamp was an incredibly broken card, ironically much more powerful than it would be if it were to grant +1/+1 to your creatures. It started showing up in way too many decks because, as an artifac?t, it didn't require any specific type of mana to be? playable. Skullclamp more than earned its ban in the Modern and Legacy formats.

Oko, Thief of Crowns

Planeswalker cards are meant to be incredibly strong, but there's incre?dibly strong, and then th??ere's Oko strong. Though he lacks an obvious game-ender ability that would out him as an amazing card, he does have one. But first, let's look at all the other elements that make him excellent. He costs three mana and starts with four loyalty points, which is a rather low cost for a pretty high count in loyalty.

Oko is also very useful as he can create food tokens while gaining two more loyalty points and can swap control ??of creatures between its owner and the opponent. Still, Oko's game-breaking ability is the one that turns any creature into an ability-less 3/3 Elk creature. That seems like something you can use to buff your 1/1 creatures into becoming stronger Elks, but it's even better at severely debuffing the opponent's best creatures.

Best of all, that ??extremely useful ability doesn't cost him loyalty points, but instead, it nets Oko one more point. Oko naturally became on??e of the most dominating cards in the history of the game, and had to be banned everywhere outside of Commander and Vintage.

Time Walk

This sorcery is part of the famed "Power 9", MTG cards so ridiculously powerful that you could argue they were made at a time when Wizards of the Coast couldn't be bothered with balancing st??uff at all. Spoilers: a bunch of them will show up on this list.

Time Walk is as simple as it gets: you play it, then you get a whole extra turn as soon as this one is over, with no drawbacks. It would've been an incredibly overpowered spell even if it didn't just cost two measly mana.

Balance

Plot twist: the one card named Balance is actually anything but fair an??d balanced.

Despite its claims to even out the game, Balan??ce allowed for the sneaky player who kept it in its hand to dictate the pace of the game. If you had Balance in your hand, you could play slowly, wait for the player to get greedy and put all the?ir might in play, then destroy everything he had.

Even worse, Balance is extremely low cost, meaning that you don't even need?? to keep a lot of mana in check so that you can use it. If anything, Balance taught us that there's no such thing as neutrality when it comes to war �then it got banned everywhere outside of Vintage, where it's just restricted.

Ancestral Recall/ Treasure Cruise

Buying cards is one of the best things both out and inside the game of MTG. There are many overpowered cards when it comes to getting players to draw cards, but nothing comes close to Ancestral Recall. This member of the "Power 9" is an instant that, for just one blue?? mana, allows you to pick a player? to draw three cards.

When Wizards later tried to come up with a successor to Ancestral Recall, they came up with Treasure Cruise. To help you realize how powerful An??cestral Recall really was, Treasure Cruise asks that you pay eight ??mana �unless you can exile seven cards from your graveyard, in which case it will cost the same as Ancestral Recall. Unsurprisingly, Treasure Cruise ended up banned in all but the Vintage format, where it's restricted. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Demonic Tutor

Cards ??that allow you to draw cards are some of the most powerful cards in the game because they speed up?? your game while raising the odds that you'll get what you need to finish off your opponent. Demonic Tutor takes it a step further by allowing you to search for exactly the card that you want, then putting it in your hand. It's like unlocking teleport in a marathon.

Demonic Tutor ended up banned, and MTG later released a similar card, Vampiric Tutor, which requires players to pay two life and only put the card in question on top of the library, but it only cost one mana and was an Instant. All in all, Vampir?ic Tutor ended up nearly as overpowered as its originator and also ended up banned outside of Vintage, where it is restricted.

Necropotence

At first, many looked at the downsides of skipping one's draw phase and having to pay one life for every card they wanted to buy as absolute deal breakers. Then, players began to realize that, when paired with sorceries that would drain life from the enemy, getting cards mostly just at the co??st of your opponent's expense was a great deal.

If Necropotence was great by itself, it became a godlike enchantment in many combos that completely dominated the game for a short while. After its early '00s reign, it inevitably got banned everywhere outside of Commander and Vintage, where its usa??ge is restricted.

Tolarian Academy

Unlike Ice Age, the set that contains the amazing Necropotence and little else, Urza's Saga is one of the best sets in the history of the game. Outside of the sets containing the "Power 9", it'??s hard to beat Urza's Saga, as it f?eatures top-tier cards for pretty much all colors in the game.

Urza's Saga is known for l??and cards such as Gaea's Cradle, which you can turn to give you one green mana for each creature you have in play. That's neat, but instead of synching up with creatures, Tolarian Acadamy synchs with artifacts, and there are a bunch of useful artifacts in the game that cost as little as 0 mana to enter the game.

It's n?ot entirely outside of the realm of possibility that Tolarian Academy will grant you four blue manas in your very first turn, which makes it the most busted land in the history of the game. Tolarian Academy is so busted that it's banned everywhere outside of Vintage, where it's restricted.

Black Lotus

This is the most famous and most expensive card in the history of the game. Even if a lot of that value might perhaps come from shady tricks to get it priced higher, there's no denying that this is the best card in the history of MTG.

Think about it. A card that, for the price of nothing, will grant you with three mana that you can?? use on anything. With one black lotus, you get to cast Necropotence on your first turn, or Ancestral Recall plus Time Walk. How crazy is that? Well, it's crazy enough to only be banned everywhere outside of Vintage, where it's restricted.

Cards that play for ante

And what could be even worse than a Black Lotus? Well, back in the old days, MTG featured a bonkers mechanic called Ante. This? mechanic didn't really give players an advantage but rather upped the stakes of the game to ins??urmountable levels. Ante cards made it so that the result of the game would cause the losing player to pass IRL ownership of a card to their opponent.

Though it sure did up the ante of the game �em>Final Fantasy VIII's Triple Triad style �this mechanic made MTG go from a trading card game to a gambling card game, so these cards all just had to go in all formats.

If all ante cards seem to hav??e somewhat of a cursed aura t??o them, that's likely because they might very well be.

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For a big chunk of Magic: The Gathering's existenc?e, creatures just weren't that big a thing. Most of the really strong ones were hard to put in play, and many came with crippling drawbacks. Times have changed, and non-creature spells no longer rule the game.

MTG is now home to a bunch of extremely powerful creatures no one? would've believed could see competitive pl?ay 20 years ago. Let's look at the best of the best.

Morphling

I summoned Morphling here to give you perspective. He's not a really powerful creature by today's standards, but he was the first amazing creature the game had ever seen. Though it came at a high cost for a 3/3 creature, itdidn't have to stay a 3/3, and came packed with abilities that made him both extremely hard-hitting and nearly unkillable. This kind of versatility was a never-before-seen thing back in the day and is rare even in today's absolutely roided-up MTG creatures.

Progenitus

Summoning Progenitus in the OG way might prove a challenge. It's as specific as it gets in its incredibly high mana cost, but he's more than wor??th it. "Protection from everything" is an absurd ability that, outs??ide of a forced sacrifice, will not only make it impervious to any threat but also pretty much guarantees it will always deal 10 damage if it decides to attack.

If that weren't enough, even after b??eing sacrificed, Progenitus doesn't really die. It will always make it back into your deck right before it reaches the graveyard. Progenitus is just like us in one of those nightmares that you wake up from right before you die, except it's a 5-headed world-eating serpent.

Snapcaster Mage

This wizard doesn't hit hard but will lead the way to pure imme??diate destruction. He might not look like much for newcomers who think strength and toughness are what makes a creature strong, but this one comes with a much more important ability.

Not only is Snapcaster Mage capable of showing up at any time courtesy of "flash," but he also has the ability to bring any spell from the graveyard and give it that ability as well. MTG has a lot of very specific combos, but Snapcaster mage is the rare card you can use in combination with pretty much any non-creature spell you'd like. Go crazy �??or go lethal.

Whenever you find "Eldrazi" in the creature type box, you know you're about to see something wild. Remember Morphling? He had five abilities and required a lot of mana to achieve his famous peak versatility. Ulamog requires twice as much mana as Morphli?ng to come into play, but we have many more mana options available nowadays and alternative ways to get a creature into play. Also, Ulamog features four game-ending abilities that don't really need its owner to move a muscle---or land.

Blightsteel Colossus

If you think nothing can look scarier than Progenitus, then I need you to meet Blightsteel Colossus. I don't mean that be?cause it has one more point in strength, but because on top of it being indestructible, it features both trample and infect.

That's a very dangerous combo, as infect causes poison damage to other players, and it only t??akes 10 of those to kill someone. This means that if you get hit by the Blightsteel Colossus' full might,?? you will always die in one hit, regardless of how much HP you have.

Meddling Mage

Though it comes from Planeshift, arguably the dumbest, wackiest and most confusing set ??in the modern history of the game, Meddling Mage is one of the best creatures in the game. For two mana, you get a 2/2 creature th?at prohibits the adversary from playing any one nonland card of its owner's choosing.

That's an extremely powerful ability made even better by the fact that the Meddling Mage isn't a legend, meaning that you can have four in play at the same time, which allows you t?o ban the adversary from playing up to 4 different cards. Most decks ??rely on one mechanic that hinges on a specific card, so it's highly likely that you'll lose against someone playing under such prohibitive conditions.

Back in the old days, getting a 4/5 for four mana without a massive drawback would have certainly been at??tributed to a typo. On top of not having any drawbacks, Sheoldred has three excellent abilities that require nothing from t?he player. Having Sheoldred on your battlefield is a blessing, and having it on your opponent's battlefield is a guaranteed headache. No wonder why this is one of the most valuable creature cards nowadays.

Griselbrand

At 8 mana, Griselbrand might feel too costly for a 7/7 creature in the world of today's MTG, but he's not. Not only is Griselbrand incredibly strong physically, he's an absolute game-changer. Griselbrand gives you the ability to draw seven cards if you pay 7 health. This might also look like a steep price to pay, but Griselbrand is also great at giving you life back, not to mention that Griselbrand??'s ability doesn't require you to tap it, meaning that you can spam it until you get whatever card you want so long as you still have HP t?o pay for it.

Tarmogoyf

This Lhurgoyf is as simple as it gets. For just two mana, you?? get a creature that will inevitably grow to humungous proportions, even when it's not in a deck meant to send as much stuff as possible to the graveyard just to feed it.

Tarmogoyf might not look like much at first glance, but Tarmogoyf nearly broke Magic when it first showed up and has the distinct honor of standing at the top of MTG's podium of best creatures i??n the game for the longest time.

There are a few versions of Emrakul, each more powerful than most creatures in MTG, but Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is, without a doubt, tops all the ch??arts. Putting it into play by paying its mana cos?t is quite a challenge, but there are other ways to do so. Emrakul isn't just great at killing its opponents via its immense brute strength, it's also fantastic at destroying everything they own, and even at messing with time itself by giving its owner extra turns. Oh, it's also not very keen on dying, as hitting a graveyard will cause it to go back into the deck.

Sending Emrakul back in time to show it to the people playing MTG back in the early '90s would likely cause a reaction no less shocking than what you'd get from showing Cyberpunk 2077's first trailer to a caveman.

If you're not too big on MTG lore, think of Emrakul as basically Sin from Final Fantasy X, a huge flying sentient stronghold that'll ine??vitably destroy everything for reasons we cannot comprehend.

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Magic: The Gathering is a challenging game, one that might accidentally make itself feel even less approachable by featuring some incredibly disturbing artwork in many of its cards. Still, over the years, the game has been home to various gat sets that feature not only great jokes but also some hilarious abilities that would completely turn the game on its head if they were ever to see competitive play. Let's look at some of the funniest cards in the history of MTG, shall we?

Cheatyface

I hate cheaters - unless they make me laugh hard. Cheatyface is one of the best creatures in the game because he's supposed to cost exactly zero mana because its main mechan??ic revolves around players trying to sneakily put him into play when your adversary isn't paying attention.

From now ??on, whenever you look at your opponent's side of the play area, and ??you see a Cheatyface, know that it's on you. Stay vigilant!

Chaos Confetti

Chaos Orb, the artifact that Chaos Confetti riffs on, is already hilarious enough. We're talking about an artifact that the owner will physically throw at the table to immediately destroy the cards that it comes in contact with. It's a pretty wild ability, even for old MTG.

But Chaos Confetti is even funnier. You can only use it once because you need to destroy the card IRL. Why? ??Because you need to tear it into many pieces that you'll then throw at your enemy's cards to have what the shrapnel comes ??in contact with destroyed. Good thing it's a common card.

Old Fogey

Poor Old Fogey isn't a creature from 65 million years in the past. He coexists with the inhabitants of Dominaria in the game's mainline story, but he's just very, very old. Fogey is a T-Rex, so he comes with incredible strength and toughness, but his advanced age causes him to also come equipped with pretty much all drawbacks an MTG creature can have. Fogey has Phasing, an ability that makes him available to fight this turn but not in the next, which is beautifully analogous to an old person's need to take a long big nap. That'd have been hilarious on its own, but, best of all is how he also comes equipped with "fading 3", w?hich means that his old life will inevitably end after three turns.

Throat Wolf

Throat Wolf is like the Ermac of MTG. This car?d began life as a hoax way back in '94 when Internet trolls and fools began popularizing an overpowered card that totally existed but was just too rare for you to ever find.

Much later, Wizards actually ended up printing Throat Wolf, though as a joke, obviously. Throat Wolf is incredibly overpowered in combat, a creature that has "Firstest Strike," an ability that can easily kill creat?ures with "first strike." It's so strong, in fact, that it even creates a never before - or since - second combat phase where only one creature of its owner's choosing can attack.

Goblin Haberdasher

Cards that give creatures of a certain type extra abilities or stats aren't rare. Cards that discr?iminate against creatures that don't wear hats, however, are a completely different thing. Goblin Haberdasher somehow makes it so that your creatures that are seen wearing a hat get "Menace," a very useful ability that forces players to assign at least two creatures to defend against an attacking hat-wearer if they want to avoid damage.

I have no idea why they went for "creatures wearing hats" specifically, but I'd like to believe that Wizards just wants to stir a fuss and get pl?ayers to fight over whether or not soldier helmets count as hats.

Farewell to arms

Many cards in MTG joke sets are great when it comes to breaking the minds of your opponents. What?? makes Farewell to Arms one of the best cards in the history of the game is how it excels at breaking the opponent's mouth, but also their body. Forcing your opponent to make sure one of his hands is behind their back the whole time to avoid discarding their play hand is a vile and beautiful move.

Staying Power

Though it might not look like much, Staying power is one of the most powerful cards in the history of the game. It breaks some of the most important rules of MTG, and its introduction in serious games would dramatically change 99% of MTG encounters. I'd really love to see a tournament where Staying power is on the ??table by default.

Staying Power feels less like an actual card and more like one of those glorious GTA cheats that turn the game upside down.

Infernal Spawn Of Evil

While I find the joke that a cutesy rat is actually an ultra-powerful monster a relic of cringe '90s humor, I absolutely love the Infernal Spawn Of Evil's ability. It's a creature so powerful that it can deal damage to your opponent even before hitting play, all the while messing with their mind by saying the most ominous thing imaginable in every goddamn turn. MTG needs these kinds of mind ga??mes in its serious sets.

Pygmy Giant

Pygmy Giant sucks when it c??omes to attacking players, but it's incredibly powerful when it comes to attacking other creatures - especially when you sacrifice it to that effect. It states that you can turn any number used in any creature's text box into the damage that the Pygmy Giant will deal to another creature, and it just so happens to have the number "487" in ?its very own flavor text. How convenient.

I think it's hilarious that the flavor text features the number 487, specifically, something high enough to destroy even the B.F.M, the most ridiculously strong creature? in the history of joke cards, four times over.

Hurloon Wrangler

You thought denim was the coolest fabric you could wear in the '90s? The old history books seem to agree with you, but not when it comes to MTG players.

Did you ever consider that the specific kind of pants you were wearing could prove a serious hindrance when playing a trading card game? Big mistake if you haven't, as the Hurloon Wrangler cannot be blocked by creatures summoned by a player wearing any piece of clothing made of denim. Do you want to win badly enough that you'd take off your pants just to stop this 2/2 menace? That's one of the most important questions asked by the Ungl??ued set, I think.

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Magic: The Gathering invites players to experience a game filled with many intentionally funny cards, which is a great thing to think about when trying to blow? off steam after losing a game due to lack of mana.

I love those, but the cards that make me laugh the most are those that come with abiliti??es that are just baffling---and that are still intended for serious competitive play. Let's look at some of the strangest cards in the history of the game, shall we?

Force of Savagery

Achieving success in a match of MTG might involve engaging in perilous behavior and the employment of straight-up suicidal?? creatures, but Force of Savagery is a completely different beast.

Ev??en though it has a cost of three and comes with 8 strength, that counts for nothing by itself because landing on the battleground as is will cause it to die immediately, splattered on the pavement. Force of Savagery isn't a card that merely works better as a combo piece---it's that very rare card that depends on combos to even stay alive, let alone be useful.

Goblin Bomb

The only predictable thing about goblins is their troublemaking ability. Goblin Bomb is hilarious because it makes? the result of a game that's meant to be about mental wits hinge entirely on luck. Its owner will only have to pay two mana, which is pretty low for something that could obliterate the opponent in 5 turns, but it's highly unlikely that you'll get the desired outcome out of five coin tosses in a row, considering how they're meant to be 50/50.

Though Goblin Bomb will hardly prove a rel??iable killing-blow m?achine, it might very well work wonders in terms of making your opponent feel highly anxious.

Mogg Assassin

And yet another coinflip, but this time in true hardcore goblin mode. With Mogg Assassin, losing the coinflip won't cause you to merely delay the detonation of a bomb that will destroy the opponent but actually light the fuse that?? will result in its owner's undoing.

Paying three mana for a 2/1 creature that can end up destroying every single one of its owner's creatures is a ridiculous gamble that only a true goblin-hearted pl?ayer would go for.

Divine Intervention

MTG is like ??tennis: It's very expensive, and every match has a decisive result. I mean, unless you're playing with Divine Intervention. This is the only card of the game that might force a game to end in a draw. Imagine trusting your deck and abilities so little that you put in a card that isn't meant to help you win, but also trusting luck so much that you believe you'll make it until yo??u have the eight mana required to make it work.

Goblin Game

Though Planeshift was conceived as a serious expansion set, I suspect it's but a greates?t hits collection of the dumbest ideas for cards that the people at Wizards had ever come up with. So many of the Planeshift cards are bizarre to the point of feeling like someone forgot to mention that they're not meant t??o be serious, and Goblin Game is the best of the bunch.

Did you come to play a card game? Too bad, because Goblin Game forces players to go look for objects, hide them, and t??hen reveal all the concealed objects at once. The one who reveals fewer objects ends up losing half of their HP but rounded up, meaning that no one can ever lose the game to th??????????????????????????is---but they will never recover their dignity.

Shahrazad

This card has one of the longest texts in the history of the game, but going through the effort of reading and trying to understand it is more than worth it because of all the confused laughter you'll get out of it. Long story short, Shahrazad has players pausing their current game to start another MTG match ?inside that o??ne with their remaining cards. All that just to have the winner halving the HP of the adversary.

The best part about it is how there are no rules to stop the madness in case any of these players have more Shahrazad cards, meaning that they can trigger up to eight MTG subgames deep.

Raging River

At this point you're probably already aware that long texts tend to mean just dumb and confusing abilities. I'd love to have the infamous Sorrow's Path here, but I've previously talked about it in an even more fitting list, so it's time for Raging River to get the spotlight. For s?ome reason, this enchantment has both players picturing a river, then dividing defending and attacking creatures among the river's two margins to make the process way more convoluted for everyone involved.

Chaos Orb

Did you ever think wind conditions could stand behind you becoming the greatest MTG player of all time?

This is the only serious card in the history of the game that you need to actively drop on top of the opponent's side of the play area, but that's not all. Players will also have to hope that it does a flip during its fall, because only then will ?it destroy all permanents it comes in contact with. Chaos Orb is such a dumb card from the early days of the game that even Wizards went on t??o spoof it in the Unglued set.

Illicit Auction

You gotta wonder just how confident the people behind making MTG in the early days were when so many cards just took you away from the actual game. This time, we have Illicit Auction, a card that turns a match into a s??illy bidding contest that will culminate with the "winner" paying a likely unreasonable amount of HP to gain ??or maintain control of a creature. Absolutely none of this is worth it in any way.

Quarum Trench Gnomes

A 1/1 creature for the price of four mana is qu??ite a lot---unless it comes equipped with an amazing ability. Quarum Trench Gnomes' ability is extremely topical, but also annoying to the point of getting the ri??ght opponent to ragequit. These little fiends can render plains incapable of producing white mana, which is just a vile ability that doesn't exist in any other creature against any other type of land.

Whoever came up with the idea for Quarum Trench Gnomes must have really hated the color White---or was perhaps trying to warn us about the serious dangers of fracking. ??In that case, then kudos for the incredible foresight and satirical abilities on display.

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Over the years, Magic The Gathering has had various joke sets featuring hilarious artwork. Those are marvelous, but this isn't about them �it's just not as fun when it's intentional. This is not about cards whose artists sneaked in actually harmful depictions of problematic elements, either.

This is about cards with inexplicably hilarious artwork that somehow bypassed all supervision and got printed to the absolute bafflement of millions of fans. Some would say ??the cards below have bad artwork. I say that all honest MTG art is beautiful, and some o?f it deserves to be celebrated for its superior levels of weirdness.

Weakstone (Antiquities)

Let's start with a not-too-egregious example.

Is that a dog? A crocodile? A crocodog? That's not the point, because we all know MTG is home to much weirder creatures than this. The problem here �besides the fact that it probably shouldn't have human-like hands �is that this looks like either an unfinished sketch, or MTG fan art that made it to print. It doesn't even do a really great job of conveying the strange creature's weakened state �just look at those buff and ripped arms! Th??ose are by far the most detailed part of this image!

Amulet of Quoz (Ice Age)

Interestingly, artist Dan Frazier put way more work into drawing the random hand holding the Amulet of Quoz than into drawing the artifact itself. The thing looks incredibly goofy, though?? that actually goes along really well with the card's silly ability.

Remember the creepy Behelit from Berserk that Griffith uses to trade the lives of all of his fr?iends to get unimaginable powers? This is its dumb brot?her, probably.

Giant Strength (Antiquities)

Ok, so I get it that it's cool for a dwarf to become strong enough to pull one hundred heavy metal-looking carriages worth of nondescript rock and metal. But, if you think about it, having the carriages in the picture being also kind of small undermines this bit, doesn't it? Ok, that's all I managed to say about it before joking about the incredibly unflattering? picture of this very hardworking creature. Giant Strength gets extra weirdness points for featuring flavor text by none other than William Shakesp?eare. Old MTG cards were just something else.

Idestructible Aura (Antiquities)

Is that a man wearing an animal mask - like King from Tekken, or the Hotline Miami crew - or is that a bird that made the dumb decision to exchange their wings for some human arms? I can't find an ??answer to that question, and even ??that is likely easier to answer than whatever question about this creature's strange chest that might arise.

Even though it looks incredibly dumb, I gotta give it to this card. When you're such a heathen chimera but you still manage to s?trike a pose with that much confidence, then no one can deny that you really do possess an indestructible aura.

I have absolutely no proof to back me on this, but I decide to believe that this was the first instance of the birds with arms meme.

Reverse Polarity (4th Edition)

I don't know if people who aren't accustomed to video games will understand exactly what I'm talking about, but I'm damn sure gamers will. Do you know when you begin a conversation w??ith a character?? before their textures are loaded? That's what this artwork looks like, but it has been put to print back in '94, so I don't know how long I can keep holding my breath waiting for those textures pop up.

Flash (Mirage)

When it comes to straight up bizarreness, this ca??rd probably takes the cake for me because I cannot for the life of me understand what it is trying to show. Looking into the card's description for help, we learn that "flash" is about putting a creature in play in an instant, likely when it's not expected. Ok, so does that refer to the huge praying mantis-like thing that's in the middle of the screen, or to the person who seemingly just popped up and is blocking the attempt at taking a picture of that huge cryptid?

Mold Demon (Antiquities)

I genuinely love this card's artwork because I already find mold one of the scariest things in existence, and artist Jes?per Myrfors managed to make it even more terrifying. It looks incredibly simplistic - childish, even -maybe to the point of raising suspicion that this was something bravely made by the artist's young's 4-year-old child when the father was bedridden due to actual mold-related allergies. Still, that's exactly the amount of effort that the artwork of such an incredibly terrible creature deserves.

Sorrow's Path (Dark)

This is historically one of the most clowned-on cards in the history of the game. So??rrow's Path is a legendary joke both for its utter uselessness and baffling artwork. I, for one, agree that the ?card itself sucks, but I actually respect the artwork choice a lot.

Staying true to the card's ability, you absolutely cannot comprehend what the hell is happening �other than the wizard dude's robe �which is clearly there to slay.?? I also love the dragon that's sitting out the battle out of bafflement for the dumbass humans who decided that a bridge was definitel?y the best place to fight.

Unholy Strength (7th Edition)

I really don't think this one requires much in the way of explanation. 7th Edition's Unholy Strength is one of the most off-putting depictions of a human body in the history of the game art, and one of the laziest ones as well. This makes Rob Liefeld's most infamous drawings look like masterpieces. Yes, I mean it. Pay close attention, and you'll realize that this thing has a mist in place of whatever body he should have below his waist. We don't require full frontal nudity, of course, but this thing should at least have legs, otherwise no amount of strength will ever make him that intimidating. Even Liefeld doesn't shy away from drawing anything other than feet.

Even worse, this isn't the first, nor second, design for this card. Unholy Strength was already a staple of MTG at that point, and every other artwork is so much better.

Balduvian War-Makers (Alliances)

I'm sorry, but I just don't feel very threatened by the Balduvian War-Makers. They look less like serious barbarians, and?? more like rotoscoped images of your average heavy metal concert-goers with weapons dra??wn in place of their beer bottles.

What makes this an all-timer for me is that this card has two different designs in the same set, and they ??both suffer from the exact same problem. Like, if I had to say something good about this, then I'd say props to the one on the right for at least having an actual background projected onto that green screen!

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If you're into Magic The Gathering, You likely already? have a good idea of what the most overpowered MtG cards of all time are - at least until the next big power creep peak comes. But what about cards so bad that having them in your deck woul?d actively make it worse?

This is the kind of ancient knowledge that’ll make?? you look like a wise sage to people who haven’t been playing t??he game for long, or at least a source of great laughs.

Wood Elemental

Everything about Wood Elemental is just bizarre. It has a 4 mana cost and it requires players to sacrifice at least one untapped forest if its owner doesn't want it to die upon summoning. This means that if you want it to be an ability-less 4/4, for example, you'll need to waste 8 mana in one single turn, burning 4 forests in the process. It's an actively terrible card that even seems to go against its own concept. Why would a green elemental require you to destroy green lands? Aren't these elementals meant to live to protect their ele??ment? Did they mean, like, chopped wood elemental?

Wood Elemental's artwork is what gave me the idea to come up with this list in the firs?t place. That's because, as a card, Wood Elemental is about as good as its artw?ork. Brian Snoddy's work usually owns, so maybe he knew beforehand what card he was making the artwork for.

Apocalypse Chime

This is likely MTG's first foray into the world of ?Meta gameplay. This serious but very self aware card will ask players for four total mana if they want to destroy all cards from its own set. Problem is, Homelands, the set in question, was never known for its very powerful cards - even less so today.

The Apocalypse Chime was never any good, but ?it gets even worse by the day. Right now I'd say it's like a nuke that only kills creatures that have long gone extinct.

Juju Bubble

Ima?gine coming up with such beautiful art only to see it in su??ch a terrible card.

Juju Bubble is a great card, but only for high schoolers looking to scam third graders who're trying to get into the game. It looks great and offers a source of healing, which newcomers will likely think is just an amazing thing. It's not, especially when said healing comes at the cost of not just slowing down your play flow, but completely stopping it at some point. That amount o?f healing isn't worth the cost, let alone when you basically have to stop playing the game to keep it. This card would've been terrible even if it weren't for its cumulative upkeep, which means you have to pay 1 more mana each turn to keep this already awful charade going.

Bargain

Let me remind you once again not to fall into the "gain life" trap. Having life points is all well and good, but gaining health alone is only going to delay the inevitable. In this case it's even worse, as Bargain costs its owner 3 mana to gain life and have their opponent draw a card �the much better end of the deal. Had this card ??had the opposite effect, it would be pretty good. This way, however, it is just the worst possible bargain for the player who casts it.

Aladdin's Ring

Dealing 4 points of damage to any target is pretty neat, but not when it costs goddamn 8 mana to pull off. Even worse, this thing costs another 8 mana to put into play, making ??it one of the least cost-effective damage options in the history of the game.

I remember Aladdin not having an expensive ring that he could use to burn his enemies in the classic tale, but maybe h?e just never got the chance to put this cumbersome piece to good use.

Mudhole

For 3 mana, Mudhole will remove all land cards a player has in their graveyard, meaning that it's very good at destroying lands which are already destroyed. Sure, bringing lands back from the graveyard ??is a possibility, but hardly ever the biggest threat at your opponent's disposal. Worst of all, this is a rare card. The thrill of spending $5 on a Odyssey set booster in the hopes of not getting this was the real deal.

What's the point of this? Making sure the forests buried in you opponent's graveyard won't turn into extrem??ely valuable oil a million years later?

Sorrow's Path

This is arguably the most legendarily baffling land in the history of this game.?? A land that produces no mana and serves only to swap blocking creatures. That would've been pretty unremarkable by itself, but there's also the part where this land will deal you and e?ach of your creatures 2 damage each. Please note that this card belongs to the Dark set, thus was meant for a time when creatures wouldn't automatically heal at the end of the turn.

Zephyr Spirit

Zephyr Spirit is yet another contender for the worst creature in the game, and he doesn't even have the excuse of being an "old" card. At 6 mana, Zephyr Spirit has an enormously huge cost that's comparable only to its incredibly awful ability. While you'd think that coming back to the player's hand is cool to preven??t it from dying, having a creature that costs so much to do so little �and only once before you have to pay for its cost again �feels like just one big joke. The only thing preventing this from being a contender for the worst creature in the game is the fact that it is a common, so your $5 wouldn't be entirely wasted if you happened to find one inside a booster back in '05.

Alabaster Leech

And here we have it, a crappy creature that, for the measly price of one mana, will make the game much harder for its owner �and its owner alone. Alabaster Leech would only ever more or less make sense in a de??ck where it's the only White spell, but it just isn't worth it simply for the extra 2 points in defense that it has over the regular 1 mana cost creature. For maximum effect, try to have four in play at the same time. The fourth one will be costing you 4 mana and bring no upsides whatsoever!

Alabaster Leech ha??s a sick design, though it really doesn't look like a creature that should? belong in White. It really does feel like a tapeworm that some evil psychic Necromancer tricked the good guys into believing was a creature worth enlisting in their army.

Break Open

This is yet another one of those cards meant to?? work only within their own block. "face-up" and "face-down" creatures refers to creatures w??ith the "Morph" ability, which allowed a select few creatures to go face down and become 2/2 creatures with no abilities.

Notice how the card's artwork shows a Barbarian breaking a shield only to reveal a cute and seemingly defenseless Octopus inside? Well, thing is, the very very large majority of morph creatures are actually way stronger when facing up. Even worse, many of these creatures have abilities that get activated once?? they get turned upside. Imagine not knowing the Onslaught set and keeping on using Break Open on creatures facing down in the doomed hopes that one day they won't be just wasting mana to greatly help the enemy.

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