The Comboist Manifesto: Looking Back at Fame and Shame [Article]

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
There are plenty of concepts for long-form content that I could reasonably choose from to write about, Comboist Manifesto style. Since I’m not a reasonable man, I’m choosing something stupid instead. Feel free to suggest better topics, so that I might ignore your cogent suggestions and do a deep dive on my favorite flavor texts from Homelands. I’m only kind of kidding. We might get there. Some day. Not yet! Instead, I have something else planned.

Whenever I find myself in the “General CPA Stuff” forum, I notice that two old threads are “stickied” and show up first. On any sane website, those stickied threads would be reference threads, either important material for newcomers to see or perhaps curated list threads cataloging useful links. This is the CPA, and sanity is a dubious concept here. Why are those old threads stickied? Because they were active catalog threads over a decade ago! So, with over a decade behind us, I’m struck by the impulse to write a retrospective on these long abandoned projects, the CPA Halls of Fame and Shame.

Most of the links in the stickied threads have been rendered broken, and the threads don’t include all of the relevant links anyway. What I’ll try to do is dig up the relevant threads myself and try to go through the developments in each Hall chronologically. Now, this is all just for fun anyway, but I should probably note that my goal here isn’t to take anyone to task or dispute opinions from over a decade ago (but I'll still do that). In reviewing these threads, I’ll be covering some arguments that took place, but I want to try to keep that presentation generally historical, rather than attempting to reignite old disagreements or whatever. I’m not so interested in how wrong Ransac was about something back in 2007, although I might be a little bit interested in why I disagree with some of my own old choices. All of this should be taken with a grain of salt and with the understanding that choosing the best “casual card” from each set is inherently subjective.

Beginning the Hall of Fame
I found a few old threads about ranking cards or asking members to select their favorite cards, etc. But the genesis for what became the “Casual Card Hall of Fame” was this thread in February of 2006: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/omg-we-shouldve-done-this-years-ago.13616/

It didn’t take very long for the concept to evolve into its better-known form, but Killer Joe’s early idea was a bit different from what we ended up actually doing. He proposed a 3-person rotating monthly committee to vote on casual cards nominated by CPA members throughout each month. He also floated the idea that if someone’s card selection was chosen by the committee, then the person who nominated it would rotate onto the committee or would stay on the committee if already on it. Limiting card nominations to one per member was not initially stated, but could have been implied. There was no mention of organizing this by set. I had totally forgotten this. So, if things had gone differently, we might have just been nominating our favorite cards willy-nilly with no real structure. It’s easy to see how the Hall of Fame would have looked very different if we’d adopted that approach.

Within that initial thread, we started nominating members for the first committee. The first round of nominations went like this.
-Killer Joe nominated Spiderman.
-Spiderman nominated Limited.
-Ransac nominated TomB.
-BigBlue seconded the nomination for Spiderman.
-I nominated Orgg.
-Limited thirded the nomination for Spiderman.
-Nightstalkers nominated Train.
-HOUTS seemingly attempted to nominate himself, but made a typo and never actually did.

So, we had five nominees for the new committee. Killer Joe created another thread with a poll. This one: http: //www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/selection-committee-poll.13617/

I should mention that these old polls all display nonsense results because of a forum software change in 2010. I'll be linking to poll-containing threads a lot here, but the poll results themselves are, I believe, universally gibberish. The initial committee consisted of Orgg, Spiderman, and TomB. I’m a little unclear on how the committee’s role was supposed to work at that time. Both Killer Joe and Spiderman provided some description, and their instructions, while compatible, were different. I think that KJ was trying to simply note what the committee needed to do and that Spiderman was trying to summarize what he and his fellow committee members had already agreed upon, putting things in context. Killer Joe told the committee...

Killer Joe said:
Your directive is simply this:
Agree on a way we the members can submit a card that is worthy of being on the CPA's Casual Card List then let us know and you three will agree amongst yourselves how to choose a card. Maybe one-card-per month can be added to the list or whatever since you're the first ones to be on the selection committee.

The committee can stay the same or one member can be changed each month or whatever. Again, you're the first committee you can pretty much make up whatever is best.

Use this as your foundation: Select a submitted card that best defines the term casual amongst yourselves.

Good Luck!!!

one last thing: I'd use the PM's to communicate
To this, Spiderman added the following.

Spiderman said:
Here's the tentative guidelines that the committee has so far:
  • Card submissions for a week.
  • The committee deliberates and chooses one for the week.
  • Nominations for a new person to take the place of the oldest serving committee member are taken for a week (in the case of the three starting committee members, the one with the least votes goes first). The person leaving the committee cannot be nominated again for at least a month (so in effect, they have a two month minimum absence from the committee)
  • Voting on the nominations takes place for a week.
That way, new people come on board and serve for at least three months (except for the starting members).
Credit for the by-set format would seem not to go to the initial committee, but to BigBlue, who started this thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/casual-card-nominees-1.13640/

Spiderman thought it was a good idea, and the rest of us just kind of went along with it.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Limited Edition
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/casual-card-nominees-1.13640/

Winner: Two-Headed Giant of Foriys

Nominees
BigBlue: Raging River
DarthFerret: Manabarbs
Oversoul: Chaos Orb
Ransac: Two-Headed Giant of Foriys
Mooseman: Raging River
Mikeymike: Howling Mine
Zigathon: Black Vise
WickedBoy6: Dingus Egg

Committee: TomB, Spiderman, Orgg

Highlights
BigBlue started things off with Raging River, but appeared to misunderstand the card and came to regret the nomination, stating that the Oracle text was weaker than the printed text on the card. I’m curious on this point, as the current Oracle wording is simply a cleaned-up and systematic version of what the original card appears to say it does. But this seems like a card that might have had unfortunate Oracle text in the past. Whatever the confusion was, BigBlue didn’t retract his nomination, but did admit that he was persuaded by Ransac’s pick.

Ransac actually started off nominating Dakkon Blackblade, probably because the notion of starting off with only cards from Limited Edition was still being established at the time. Ransac delivered an interesting little piece on why to vote for Two-Headed Giant of Foriys.

Ransac said:
My rationale for Two-headed Giant of Foriys.

This card isn't nominated for it's playable purposes, though it is a nice creature. To me, this card represents the format that was made popular through casual circles: Two-Headed Giant. In fact, that format is the ONLY format, besides Type 2 constructed, that I've done well at. AND, I credit that success to the casual aspects of the format. Two players teaming up with a theme in mind and defending each other shows the ideal of comradarie(crap, where's my dictionary?) that I hope to find in a casual format.

Besides that argument, the name itself is quite hilarious to me. I don't know how anyone else pronounces "Foriys", but I pronounce it "Four-Eyes". I think that's the case, and I may just not be aware that it's an obvious pronunciation, but I still find it hilarious that a two-headed giant be from a place called "Four-Eyes".

Briefly on the actual playability of the card. It's a 4/4 trampler for 5 mana, which only 1 has to be specified. That's not bad, to me!

And last, its casual playability. What does every casual player hope for (BESIDES showing off that hard to think of, rather cool combo they've developed). They which to draw out a game longer, since playing the game is all that matters (OKAY, winning is cool, too). Let's say you've got little life and no creatures and are being stared down by two creatures that can end the game. You top-deck this random buddy that blocks both of them.

Please induct this icon as the first CPA Casual Card.
My thoughts now
I normally think of Magic’s original base set as being a mixture of strong, versatile staples, ludicrously overpowered cards, and underpowered junk from a more primitive age. But picking a card as the casual all-star is kind of tricky! Almost everything in this set is either too overpowered to be casual or too bland to be interesting. I mean, cards like Wheel of Fortune, Regrowth, Sinkhole, and Nevinyrral’s Disk are among my favorite cards of all time. But they’re all pretty simple and straightforward. They’re good cards, but when I think of the words “Casual Card Hall of Fame” those aren’t really what I had in mind. The trouble is, nothing else in the set is either!

Two-Headed Giant of Foriys holds up pretty well compared to most of the set, but it’s also kind of bland. A mechanically similar card printed today would probably draw no substantial attention. Ransac’s claims that this card was the basis for the Two-Headed Giant format and that its name is a pun lend some notion of importance to the card, although it seems likely that both of those claims are apocryphal.

I argued for Chaos Orb, and I do think that the card is iconic and stands out in the set. Raging River is really cool and I’m disappointed that BigBlue didn’t stick to his guns on that one, but the card is a bit obscure for a Hall of Fame. Howling Mine and Black Vise are strong cards and seem like reasonable choices. Dingus Egg is a bit lackluster and its main claim to fame seems to be that it was once restricted from tournament play in an early attempt to rein in land destruction decks. None of the choices here strike me as bad, but if I had to choose one of these cards today, I’d pick Manabarbs.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Arabian Nights
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/casual-card-nominees-for-arabian-nights.13667/

Winner: Bottle of Suleiman

Nominees
Ransac: Ring of Ma'rûf
Killer Joe: Island of Wak-Wak
DarthFerret: Shahrazad
Oversoul: Ring of Ma'rûf
BigBlue: Bottle of Suleiman
Mooseman: Shahrazad

Committee: TomB, Spiderman, Orgg

Highlights
Killer Joe argued for Island of Wak-Wak largely on the basis that he thought the card had a funny name. I shamelessly appealed to one of the judges by pointing out that Ring of Ma'rûf could pull any dwarf card from outside the game. Ransac offered a more serious defense of it. We all got a bit off-topic on Shahrazad. Orgg attempted to nominate two cards, but was only allowed to nominate zero cards at the time. BigBlue appealed to the casual feel of coin-flip cards and to the allure of a cheap 5/5.

BigBlue said:
I nominate Bottle of Suleiman... coin flips are very casual... Who can resist the lure of a 5/5 flier for 4? Even with a chance of 5 damage…
My thoughts now
Well, this was back in 2006, and my opinions on these cards would have been pretty much the same in almost all of the time since then, but recently, my outlook has changed. I spent much of last year and this year collecting Arabian Nights cards. I’ve been trying to play with them more. My outlook on the set has shifted and I have more appreciation for some of these old goodies. The cards we nominated were OK, but it’s sad not to see any nod to Old Man of the Sea, Oubliette, Rukh Egg, Singing Tree, and some other great cards. Without a doubt, my pick today would be Guardian Beast.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Antiquities
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/card-list-for-antiquities.13689/
Winner: Atog

Nominees
BigBlue: Atog
Oversoul: Ivory Tower
Train: Shapeshifter
Mooseman: Goblin Artisan
DarthFerret: Cursed Rack

Committee: Spiderman, Orgg, Ransac

Highlights
It appears that Ransac seconded BigBlue’s nomination, but should also have been ineligible to do so, as he was also replacing TomB on the committee at this time. Probably just a timing issue, although Ransac’s attempted nomination did ultimately win. Not a lot of discussion on most of these cards, and Atog was apparently a big hit. DarthFerret was mildly disappointed with the result, in part because Atog had seen multiple reprints and didn’t feel like a strong representative of this particular set. Spiderman, who was on the committee, noted that the only real competition within the committee had been between Atog and Shapeshifter.

My thoughts now
I definitely agree that Atog is a cool card, and the art is probably some of Jesper Myrfors’ best work. I notice that the consensus in our discussions was that although this card became powerful and explosive as time went on, that it would have been weaker when Antiquities was still a fresh set and options for artifacts were more limited. This appears to be an underestimation of Atog’s power. The Atog deck in Old School ‘94 is known to be potent. The early restriction of Mishra’s Workshop and lack of restriction on some other cards at the time probably contributed to the low usage of Atog in old tournaments. In hindsight, Atog was one of the strongest cards in the set.

I don’t know why my own nomination of Ivory Tower didn’t garner any discussion. There’s a lot to like about the card and although it doesn’t really have a niche in any popular format these days, that kind of adds to the casual appeal of the card. So today, my pick would still be Ivory Tower.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Legends
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-legends-casual-card.13717/
Winner: Takklemaggot

Nominees
DarthFerret: Time Elemental
turgy22: Takklemaggot
Oversoul: Giant Slug
TomB: In The Eye of Chaos
Limited: Halfdane
BigBlue: Master of the Hunt

Committee: Spiderman, Orgg, Ransac

Highlights
There was some discussion of the idea of nominating an entire cycle of cards (such as the elder dragons), but it was unpopular. One thing that was cool about the discussion for this set was that there was a lot more analysis by members of each other’s nominations. Although the discussion was brief, it seemed as though no one really liked all of the nominations and that everyone liked at least a couple of them. So there weren’t any big arguments, but this set showed how different members interpreted the idea of what kind of card merited “Hall of Fame” status. Time Elemental was a bit polarizing. No one commented on my nomination of Giant Slug, which never seemed to be a contender. It was deemed too expensive even for casual play.

My thoughts now
Collecting this set and trying to use it in EDH has made Legends my favorite set of all time. So I’m a bit biased here, and I really do appreciate that the Hall of Fame finally got some meaningful discussion once they came to this set. But yeah, I’m disappointed. Sure, Giant Slug isn’t really a strong card, but neither is Takklemaggot!

I was on another site and saw someone’s Takklemaggot avatar, so I was confused and thought it was Turgy. I’ve come to associate the card with him. Takklemaggot is fun. Halfdane is fun. Even Time Elemental is fun. Master of the Hunt is, um, weird. In the Eye of Chaos is powerful in a sense, but never really seemed to have a niche in any format I’ve played.

There are just better cards and they didn’t really get nominated. Boomerang, Field of Dreams, Spirit Link, Juxtapose, Sword of the Ages, All Hallow’s Eve, Underworld Dreams, Arboria, Caverns of Despair, Concordant Crossroads, Eureka, Mirror Universe, Rabid Wombat, Hell’s Caretaker, Kismet. Despite a plethora of duds, this set has some great cards, and they generally weren’t nominated. I’ll admit that I have almost no actual experience with Takklemaggot. Anyway, if I were to pick today, I’d go with Underworld Dreams.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
The Dark
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-the-dark-casual-card.13748/
Winner: Uncle Istvan

Nominees
Oversoul: Fellwar Stone
Limited: Preacher
Istanbul: Psychic Allergy
Spiderman: Festival
Gizmo: Witch Hunter
Killer Joe: Uncle Istvan
DarthFerret: Ball Lightning
BigBlue: Eater of the Dead
TomB: Mana Clash
Apollo: Tivadar's Crusade

Committee: Orgg, Ransac, Mooseman

Highlights
Right out of the gate, I started the nominations by largely dismissing the quality of this set. So of course, everyone else nominated cards. We had a whopping 10 nominations, more than for any other set up to this point. Arguments for the various nominations were all over the place. DarthFerret made a convincing case for how iconic and special Ball Lightning is, while Apollo pretty much nominated Tivadar’s Crusade on the basis of his personally using it against his friend. Most of the justifications were brief, and no one really evaluated anyone else’s picks. So that fell to the committee. The competition there was between Uncle Istvan and Eater of the Dead.

My thoughts now
Wow, I was hard on this set. I’m glad that the majority of members involved had better experiences and gave this set a fair shake. The Dark isn’t that bad. There are plenty of interesting cards here. Now, Fellwar Stone was a fair bit more unique in its function back when this set came out than the card would be today. There are so many “mana rocks” now that it is one of many similar cards. I think that the nominations here were great, except for Tivadar’s Crusade, which is way too narrow and uninteresting. Festival and Preacher are both really cool casual cards. But if I were to pick one card as the casual representative of this set today, I’d concur with the committee and choose Uncle Istvan.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Fallen Empires
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-fallen-empires-casual-card.13803/
Winner: Thrull Champion

Nominees
Killer Joe: Goblin War Drums
BigBlue: Thelonite Monk
DarthFerret: Fungal Bloom
turgy22: Ebon Praetor
Orgg: Thrull Champion
Limited: Thrull Champion
Lythand: Breeding Pit
Gizmo: Breeding Pit
TomB: Orcish Spy
Oversoul: Order of the Ebon Hand
Spiderman: Thallid Devourer

Committee: Orgg, Ransac, Mooseman

Highlights
Wait, how did Orgg nominate a card if he was on the committee? Anyway, BigBlue got trilobites and troglodytes mixed up, which has nothing to do with Fallen Empires, but that was a thing that happened. Gizmo initially nominated Seasinger, but switched to seconding Breeding Pit. TomB’s use for Orcish Spy sounds both fun and incredibly frustrating if one did end up on the wrong side of the interaction. In the end, it came down to Fungal Bloom and Thrull Champion, with the Champion winning out in the committee.

My thoughts now
Lately, most of the commentary I’ve seen on other sites regarding Fallen Empires has been pretty harsh. The set gets a bad rap, and I’m pleased to see that it was viewed much more positively at the CPA. Thrull Champion is a decent card and one that I’ve actually used myself. But I don’t really think that it’s as cool as Ebon Praetor or Breeding Pit. My own nomination was predicated a bit on a dedicated mono-black aggro deck, which is a bit too narrow, I think. It’s still a great card, but not an exciting casual card, and I like all of the other nominations better. I’d say that this set lacks a decisive coolest casual card, and has probably a dozen or so strong candidates, any of which I might rate #1 on any given day. If I were to pick today, I’d second Spiderman and go with Thallid Devourer.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Ice Age
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-ice-age-casual-card.13855/
Winner: Lhurgoyf

Nominees
Turgy22: Hyalopterous Lemure
BigBlue: Chub Toad
Nightstalkers: Illusions of Grandeur
Orgg: Chaos Lord
Oversoul: Jester’s Cap
DarthFerret: Skeleton Ship
Ferret: Brainstorm
Spiderman: Lhurgoyf
Gizmo: Enduring Renewal
Lythand: Necropotence
Killer Joe: Musician

Committee: Ransac, Mooseman, Limited

Highlights
This one was kind of cool to look back on because the nominations were all over the place and the justifications, while not compelling, were fun to read.

turgy22 said:
Can you tell how much of my criteria is based on art? He's cute and fuzzy and he can fly. I used to always put this card in any black deck for that reason alone.
BigBlue said:
This nomination is for a young friend of mine... He fell in love with the Chub Toad. So much so, that it became his nickname. He started collecting every copy of the card he could possibly attract and had over 500 of them when I last heard…
Nightstalkers said:
I'd like to note that Illusions of Grandeur is always funny.
orgg said:
I've played with this guy. He's not actually "good." He's annoying as all get-out... but undeniably Casual with a capital "C."
DarthFerret said:
I nominate Skeleton Ship. It is only fitting that the first Hall of Fame card from the Ice Age set be a gold card since this set is when they first came into being. Also, this nicely combined the colors correctly. However, I have only seen it used casually, (although it was used REALLY well) and have never seen it in a tournament at all. It takes the essence of black (the -1/-1 counters) and the essence of blue (first, it is a ship, second it dies without Islands in play) and blends them into a workable card. It also has the effect of screaming out the word "TARGET" in almost any casual game. If played in a multi-player game, it has an effect similar to a first turn black vise or royal assassin. All-in-all, of all the multi-colored cards, this is the foremost casual one I could think of.
turgy22 said:
So who's going to nominate Snow-Covered Plains? I know somebody's thinking about it.
Gizmo said:
My Butterfly deck (Enduring Renewal/Giant Caterpillar) was a staple deck I had constructed for about 5 years, just mixing cards in and out as I thought of them.
Ransac said:
If I play my cards right, everyone'll think that Spiderman is just crazy.... yes.... Ransac didn't make any mistakes! Lythand's nomination is right there! wait a sec...... why am I typing this?!?!?! WHAT THE HELL!? Why am I still typing!?!?!?!? STOP IT!!!!!! ARGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
Killer Joe said:
Okay, I'm with the Musicians Union and I have to vote for "Musician"
My thoughts now
I don’t know what it was about this set that had everyone but me giving justifications that were either entirely personal or just silly. I imagine that at the time, I probably thought I was the only one making a serious case, but looking back now, my justification is kind of boring. And yet, it’s all a bit strange, with Ice Age representing such a turning point, a kind of touchstone, that there was so little discussion of the actual gameplay merits of the cards. This would have been the first big non-reprint set for which most, if not all, of us generally had access to everything. Surely, this set was formative for the experience of playing Magic in the 90’s, and I’d have thought there’d be cards people really wanted to go to bat for. Anyway, Lhurgoyf is a fine pick and if I were to make my own pick today, I’d go with that.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Homelands
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-homelands-casual-card.13903/
Winner: Didgeridoo

Nominees
BigBlue: Baron Sengir
TomB: Eron the Relentless
Oversoul: Sengir Autocrat
Gizmo: Giant Oyster
DarthFerret: Giant Oyster
Turgy22: Baron Sengir
Spiderman: Serra Aviary
Orgg: Truce
Ferret: Serrated Arrows
Killerbob: Didgeridoo

Committee: Ransac, Mooseman, Limited

Highlights
Killer Joe attempted to nominate Autumn Willow, but only did so in the general thread for discussing the Hall of Fame, and not in the nominations thread for this set. Oops! The arguments put forth during the nomination process were pretty tame, as nothing in this set is really that great. TomB offered an enthusiastic justification for Eron the Relentless. I notice that Gizmo and I were pretty much in agreement on this set, which is a bit unusual as I mostly remember the two of us disagreeing on things.

The real action came after the winner was announced. Relative to other announcements, this one drew more disgruntled responses from members. I jokingly referred to the Didgeridoo victory as an “upset” because no one other than Killerbob had even mentioned it and there seemed to be more enthusiasm for some of the other cards. Ransac explained the committee’s decision.

Ransac said:
Truth be told, It came down to Giant Oyster, Didgeridoo, and Baron Sengir. Each of us had ranked the three completely differently and we debated on them for the entire week. I pushed for Didgeridoo and Giant Oyster the most out of the three and argued strongly for Didgeridoo in particular.

I disagreed adamantly on Baron Sengir and did so from the beginning of the vote. I don't feel that there is anything casual about that card, other than it's name-sake. Wizards pretty much forced that card on us as the icon of the set and I feel that there needed to be a better reason for selecting a Hall of Fame card other than "Wizards made it the icon".

The vote was split between G.O. and Didg. I flip-flopped back and forth on these two and eventually picked Didgeridoo. Limited argued that it had more or a Homelands vibe to it and that minotaurs were commonly associated with Homelands. That tipped my scale in it's favor and I stuck with that decision.

I stand by the selection. I feel that it represents the Homelands set well. if you guys think that the card sucks........ doesn't it represent Homelands, then
Ransac also managed to get the last word by pointing out that none of us bothered to nominate Dwarven Pony, which is a fair complaint.

My thoughts now
It’s going back and seeing discussions like this that make me glad I decided to write a retrospective on the Hall of Fame. Homelands is widely and rightly reviled as the worst Magic set of all time, but here at the CPA, we found several cards to endorse, putting a positive spin on a bad set. I’m glad that Serrated Arrows got some love. The card’s main claim to fame was becoming a tournament staple on a technicality, but it’s actually fun and I’ve made good use of it in EDH. Serrated Arrows pairs wonderfully with the “proliferate” mechanic. I still think that this should have been a contest between Giant Oyster and Sengir Autocrat. It’s interesting that Didgeridoo won, as minotaur options were so much worse in 2006 than they are now. The card is still not good, but back then it was virtually useless. Ultimately, I actually like my own justification on this one and if I were to make my own pick today, I’d agree with myself and go with Sengir Autocrat. Well done, 20-year-old version of me.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Alliances
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-alliances-casual-card.13957/
Winner: Phelddagrif

Nominees
Ransac: Arcane Denial
Gizmo: Krovikan Horror
Oversoul: Varchild's War-Riders
Orgg: Rogue Skycaptain
DarthFerret: Helm of Obedience
TomB: Phelddagrif
Reverend Love: Lord of Tresserhorn

Committee: Mooseman, Limited, Killer Joe

Highlights
Hey, Gizmo and I completely agreed again. Huh, I totally thought that we’d argued with each other in most of our interactions on the message boards, but I guess there was probably just one bitter argument that I mentally superimposed over everything else. Well, this was mostly a great set and that seems to have been the consensus here.

Killer Joe summarized the committee’s thoughts.

Killer Joe said:
Okay, this was a "fun" thing to do especially since there were several GREAT cards to choose from such as Lord of Tresserhorn who is a very good card but less than spectaclar which is reason enough to be considered. Blue, Black & Red are certainly favorites of mine in that 3-color combination and looking this 10/4 legend did seem like a good choice. However, for me, the twinge for me wanting to put in one of my more agressive decks swayed me sleighty away from it.

Another consideration, and fiercely at that, was Arcan Denial. What other countermagic spell can you play and not TOTALLY *Tick-off* your opponent? You're basically saying: "I'm sorry, that spell of yours is not appropiate for me right now but I promise I'll let you get a chance at possibly getting another copy of it, compilements of Me" Of course, you too, get a chance to draw into either another copy of Arcane Denial or a better counter magic spell like Force of Will! Okay, FoW and Arcane Denial are way far apart from each other but related nonetheless. Same type of outcome *NO!*, from same set, same color, and so on........

I voted for Phelddagrif for several *casual* reasons:
1.) A gold legend of the three *good* colors (good as in good vs. evil) Blue, Green & White. To me, those colors represent what a casual player might play.
2.) The card was named in honor of Phd. Garfield (Phelddagrif), c'mon, the creator of the game is payed homage via a card from his own game? not casual but I don't many serious tourney players caring about that.
3.) The creature is friggin' PINK!, with green wings for cryin' out loud.
4.) It's a good card but not THAT good, it can't *house* your opponent, in fact it sorta can assist your opponent by either Life gain, draw a card or a 1/1 hippo token.

The vote went down, I think 3 - 0 ( but maybe one of those votes was a twisted arm vote
Also, this will come up again later, but I’ve spotted the first instance of what I’ll call the Tournament Card Paradox. I wrote about this later, thinking of a different argument, but it looks like the first instance came up here in Alliances (unless I missed an earlier example). The card in question was Helm of Obedience.

DarthFerret said:
However, the game mechanic itself is enough to scream out casual. Again I will call upon the powers that be (the committee I guess) to see the logic behind this. This card will NEVER see a tournament. It is never suggested as a "power card". In fact, it is almost as detrimental to the user as to the opponent.
Gizmo said:
And Helm Of Obedience was a staple in UW Millstone decks during IA/Alliances period Type-II. Its ability to rapidly mill out an opponent or give you one of their creatures as another win condition made it a valuable competitive card. Certainly more competitive than either the Riders or Krov.
So, DF nominated Helm of Obedience as a casual card. Gizmo mostly took exception to DF’s verbiage, which seemed to imply that other nominations weren’t sufficiently casual. But he also pointed out that Helm of Obedience was a successful tournament card, in a tournament environment that DF probably wasn’t acquainted with.

Who’s right? This strikes me as a lose-lose situation. Gizmo had the tournament knowledge and experience to point out that Helm of Obedience had been a potent tournament staple. DF wasn’t coming at this from a tournament perspective at all. I’d later write about this as a kind of paradox or unsolvable dilemma.

Oversoul said:
If we say that one side is right, it's tantamount to telling a casual player, "Tournament players get to dictate to you what is and is not casual." If we say that the other side is right, it's like saying, "Your experience and knowledge decrease the value of your opinion here." So it's a lose-lose situation.
I just checked, and this discussion was about six months after the release of Guildpact, so the Helm of Obedience + Leyline of the Void combo was technically possible to pull off at the time of this discussion, although I don’t think anyone was using the combo in tournaments yet.

My thoughts now
Some nice discussion and insights in these old threads. Wow, for its time, Alliances was a great set. I mean, there are some excellent casual cards to choose from, but the set as a whole is solid. It’s innovative, fun, and reasonably balanced. Hard to believe that WotC pulled this off in 1996, especially when measured against some of these other sets. I like most of these nominations and could comfortably pick one of several other cards too. We never mentioned Nature’s Chosen, Soldevi Adnate, False Demise, Nature’s Blessing, Martyrdom, etc. This one really could be a tossup, and I have my biases. If I picked one card today as the casual representative of this set, I think I’d go with Krovikan Horror.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Mirage
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-mirage-casual-card.13997/
Winner: Bazaar of Wonders

Nominees
Ransac: Urborg Panther
Oversoul: Kaervek's Torch
Gizmo: Hakim Loreweaver
Orgg: Illicit Auction
DarthFerret: Bazaar of Wonders
Ferret: Amber Prison
Turgy22: Polymorph
TomB: Reparations
Spiderman: Waiting in the Weeds

Committee: Mooseman, Limited, Killer Joe

Highlights
The selection process this time around had some issues. Up to this point, the winner for each set had either been a unanimous decision or had been decided by a 2-1 vote in committee. For the first time, the committee was deadlocked. The juicy details were confined to private messages, but the discussion on the message boards shifted away from the cards themselves and toward how the committee needed to handle this. Not having seen the private messages, it appears that what happens is that Mooseman got the other committee members to do a kind of ranked-choice elimination process. The contenders were said to be Polymorph, Waiting in the Weeds, and Hakim Loreweaver, all edged out by Bazaar of Wonders.

My thoughts now
I can’t believe I nominated Kaervek’s Torch! I mean, I like the card and explained my history with it in a Magic Memories thread, but it’s not Casual Card Hall of Fame material! Anyway, I’d say that Mirage is second only to Legends for its dramatic distribution of some of the most overpowered cards ever and some of the weakest cards ever. Despite a plethora of excellent casual cards, there should really only be one clear winner here, and I must conclude that two out of three committee members (I do not know which two) were stupid poopy-heads. Looking at most old sets, I’ve noted that I might choose different cards on different days. Not so for this set. Turgy was right and I was wrong. My pick now is, should always have been, and should always be Polymorph.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Visions
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-visions-casual-card.14026/
Winner: Teferi's Puzzle Box

Nominees
Ransac: Ovinomancer
BigBlue: Ovinomancer
Mooseman: Phyrexian Walker
Turgy22: Ovinomancer
Oversoul: Vampiric Tutor
DarthFerret: Quicksand
TomB: Teferi's Puzzle Box
Spiderman: Kookus
Killerbob: Stampeding Wildebeests
Orgg: "the chimeras"

Committee: Limited, Killer Joe, Gizmo

Highlights
What a mess this was! I’d almost characterize Visions as the more lean, better version of Mirage. Really, they’re practically the same set. This makes sense, since we now know that both sets were created from a prototypical set WotC was working on called “Menagerie.” The result was that while Magic’s first “sequel” set (Alliances) was full of innovation, the second attempt at this was almost wholly devoid of innovation. And yet, Visions is a pretty nice set. It was one of the first sets I learned with, and has a lot of good cards, both for tournament players and for casual players. Why was the nomination process such a mess this time around? Well, let’s just go through it.
-Ransac nominated Ovinomancer “hands down.”
-BigBlue seconded Ransac’s nomination.
-Mooseman nominated Phyrexian Walker and said that “almost every casual deck from that era” had one. What? Why? I mean, I’ve used the card in my own decks, but that was because I was doing broken Urza’s Block artifact shenanigans. This notion of Phyrexian Walker as a popular casual card is entirely alien to me.
-Turgy thirded the Ovinomancer nomination and claimed that if it didn’t win, there was something wrong with our definition of a great casual card.
-Ransac chimed in again to alert us all that the CPA was being taken over by sheep tokens.
-I nominated Vampiric Tutor because I promised Killer Joe that I would. This must have been some weird joke, and I can see my post, but it doesn’t seem funny anymore, probably because some of the context has since been lost.
-DarthFerret nominated Quicksand.
-TomB nominated Teferi’s Puzzle Box and gave a nod to Sands of Time as his second favorite choice.
-Spiderman conceded that Ovinomancer was the logical pick, then nominated Kookus for fun and variety.
-Killerbob nominated Stampeding Wildebeests.
-Ransac alleged that Stampeding Wildebeests was a tournament menace for its combos with Wall of Blossoms and Uktabi Orangutan. I’ll note that although tournament data from that era is sparse, this appears to be a blatant exaggeration, at best.
-Orgg flagrantly violated the rules and nominated an entire cycle of cards. Even though this wasn’t allowed, his nomination was posted.

So, we somehow wound up with three nominations for a bad card, an insincere nomination by me, an illegal nomination by Orgg, and two pretty bland nominations (no offense, but Phyrexian Walker and Quicksand just aren’t interesting). The only nomination that was really justified in any meaningful way was Stampeding Wildebeests, and no one present even spelled its name correctly. Ovinomancer was the crowd favorite. The committee was down to two people (Gizmo had gone missing), and they went with Teferi’s Puzzle Box. Wow.

My thoughts now
Well, that was a fascinating read. Moving beyond the weirdness, it is interesting to think about how casual Magic has evolved. Teferi’s Puzzle Box is well-known in EDH, and if EDH players were asked to vote on the coolest casual card in this set, they would almost certainly not be kind toward Teferi’s Puzzle Box, which is infamous for locking players down. This is not to say that TomB was wrong! He made his nomination many years before Notion Thief and such existed. So Puzzle Box would probably be a poor choice in 2021, but in 2006, it wasn’t associated with ruining games. I find it remarkable that Ovinomancer was such a popular choice. On the one hand, of course sheep tokens are funny and I used the card myself for that reason. On the other hand, Ovinomancer is so bad that I don’t really want it in the Hall of Fame. It’s more like Hall of Shame material. In hindsight, it’s too bad that Stampeding Wildebeests didn’t get more recognition. But looking through the set list, I know that if I were to pick a card from this set today, it’d have to be Crypt Rats.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Weatherlight
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-weatherlight-casual-card.14047/
Winner: Bone Dancer

Nominees
Oversoul: Abyssal Gatekeeper
DarthFerret: Bubble Matrix
Ransac: Goblin Bomb
TomB: Well of Knowledge
Killerbob: Call of the Wild
Mooseman: Desperate Gambit
Gizmo: Aether Flash
Melkor: Bösium Strip
BigBlue: Bone Dancer
Orgg: Benalish Infantry
Spiderman: Gemstone Mine

Committee: Limited, Killer Joe, Gizmo

Highlights
We had a bunch of nominees, but no substantial discussion. Posts shared a theme of noting that this set has a lot of good cards, but that’s about it. My own post effectively summarizes Weatherlight.

Oversoul said:
For me, this one comes down to a dozen or so cards that are good but also perfectly balanced. None of them stands out as being a better candidate than the others. So I'll just go with the one I've found to be the most useful…
There was some kind of miscommunication with Gizmo, but Limited noted that Bone Dancer was the top pick for the other two committee members and was in Gizmo’s top three, so the decision stood, albeit perhaps not a unanimous one.

My thoughts now
Weatherlight constitutes a unique kind of inflection point. Look at some cards, and you’ll see the last examples of old, abandoned mechanics. Look at other cards and you’ll see the precursors to the large expansions of the late 1990’s, the origins of something new. Taken together, it’s simultaneously appropriate to call this the last set of Magic’s early years and the first set of the “Weatherlight era.” The nominees reflect this dichotomy, split roughly between the final examples of old stuff and some early versions of the sort of thing we’d expect from late 1990’s Magic. I think that the nominees here are all pretty good choices, but I could just as easily go with Fervor, Veteran Explorer, Winding Canyons, Gaea’s Blessing, Strands of Night, Fire Whip, or Peacekeeper. I don’t find myself strongly preferring one of these over the others. So, with no real impulse to contradict it, I’ll just say that if I made my pick today, I’d concur with the committee and choose Bone Dancer.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Tempest
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-tempest-casual-card.14073/
Winner: Booby Trap

Nominees
Ransac: Ertai's Meddling
Oversoul: Humility
Limited: Kezzerdrix
DarthFerret: Lobotomy
TomB: Unstable Shapeshifter
Orgg: Squee's Toy
BigBlue: Grindstone
Melkor: Furnace of Rath
Spiderman: Booby Trap
Killerbob: Overrun
Mooseman: Thalakos Mistfolk

Committee: Killer Joe, Gizmo, Turgy22

Highlights
This discussion was dominated by arguments over the meaning of “casual.” In the past, we’d already seen some debate over whether certain individual cards counted as casual cards, but it took Tempest for that debate to spill over onto the topic of the Hall of Fame as a whole. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Relative to previous sets, this one pushed the power level of some things in new directions. I was going to say that Tempest “modernized” things, but of course that has a different connotation in Magic.

Here’s how it played out. Ransac nominated Ertai’s Meddling, as he’d already said he’d do early on if he turned out not to be on the committee. I don’t know what it is about that card, but it has its fans and its fans are die-hard. Then I nominated Living Death. Limited nominated Kezzerdrix. Turgy attempted to nominate Humility and Gizmo attempted to nominate Helm of Possession. It turned out that they were both on the committee and ineligible to post nominations. Ransac complained about Living Death being a Standard tournament staple and asked how I could consider it casual. DarthFerret nominated Lobotomy. TomB nominated Unstable Shapeshifter. Spiderman pointed out the error in Gizmo nominating a card. Orgg nominated Squee’s Toy. Turgy realized that he was also on the committee and withdrew his nomination. BigBlue nominated Grindstone. Melkor nominated Furnace of Rath. I defended my nomination of Living Death and, in the same post, pondered changing my nomination to Humility. Spiderman nominated Booby Trap. Killerbob nominated Overrrun and mentioned how some of the nominations probably saw very little play. Spiderman opined that it was about quality, rather than quantity. I officially changed my nomination to Humility. Mooseman liked the “shadow” mechanic and wanted to represent that in the nominations, so he nominated Thalakos Mistfolk.

Discussion continued, and there was some disagreement over how tournament usage affected the worthiness of a casual nomination. Melkor and I both emphasized that a card might see play in both casual and tournament decks and be good, whereas a lousy card that didn’t see tournament play might not be interesting in casual play either. Ransac championed the stance that a sufficiently prominent tournament staple card shouldn’t be considered casual. Gizmo’s stance was a bit nuanced, but he didn’t elaborate on it anyway. Spiderman and Killerbob mostly quibbled over some unrelated technicalities. Spiderman left the thread open for further discussion, but it had already died down. Turgy summarized the committee’s decision.

turgy22 said:
I can't speak for the other committee members, but I liked Booby Trap because it's such a unique card and a win condition, as well. It just screams to have a deck built around it, it takes creativity to exploit, and it has a powerful effect when you get it to work. It is also the only card in Magic to have "Booby" in its name (although not in the art) and I'm immature like that. I'm also expecting a lot more casual Booby Trap decks to show up after Time Spiral is released (Hint: Booby Trap + Mishra = PAIN).

BTW, my top 3 were Booby Trap, Humility and Ertai's Meddling, although not in that order. I liked Humility because it has a powerful, yet offbeat effect, especially in multiplayer and because it's a consistent rules problem and I have a fondness for cards that confuse players. I liked Ertai's Meddling because it introduced a different take on counterspells and possibly inspired the new Suspend mechanic.

Booby Trap was the only nominee to start out as a top choice for every committee member and after a brief discussion, we felt that it was the best choice for the set.
My thoughts now
There’s a lot that could be said about this one. An issue that was left untouched in the discussion, but which Gizmo mentioned after the winner was announced was the idea that a “negative” card shouldn’t win. Humility stops your opponents from using their creatures in the way that they’d like to, which isn’t fun for them, and therefore isn’t casual. This seems like a kind of precursor to the “Rule 0” concept in EDH. I mean, it’s not identical, but it’s similar, at least.

An argument that came up, but which wasn’t really fleshed out, concerned whether the specific role a tournament card plays matters in calling it a casual card. I suspect that we would not have resolved this argument. But I might as well expound on it here. The objection to Living Death was that it was such a prominent tournament staple, a defining feature of a first-tier competitive archetype. And this fact was never disputed. But where’s the line with this? No one objected to Lobotomy, which was both a utility card and the kill condition in the iconic “TurboZvi” deck. I maintained that Living Death was merely a useful tool in a deck that was already potent, and other cards (some of which have been banned) were the real culprits. Is a card that was a roleplayer in any fashion in tournament Magic forever tainted as a casual card? How successful must a tournament deck be? Does it matter which format a card was used in? These might be subjective questions, but the validity of most of the nominations hinges on the precise answers to them. It’s an issue that can’t be ignored.

Booby Trap is a cool card and I remember having some fun with it in high school. So, at least I can acknowledge that something fun ultimately won out. But I have to note that I take issue with the idea of a Hall of Fame in which Living Death is disqualified as too spiky while Kezzerdrix, a boring and mediocre card, is a candidate to represent one of the most important sets in the game’s history. I can appreciate that a casual Hall of Fame should emphasize cool cards in favor of blandly efficient tournament staples, but casual does not mean bad. Anyway, for reasons I’ve already mentioned in a Magic Memories thread, I think that my choice today for Tempest would have to be Overrun.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Stronghold
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-stronghold-casual-card.14100/
Winner: Sliver Queen

Nominees
Limited: Mogg Infestation
Ransac: Fling
Melkor: Rolling Stones
Mooseman: Ensnaring Bridge
Force of Will Smith: Fling
Orgg: Bullwhip
Spiderman: Reins of Power
TomB: Jinxed Ring
YoungBeard: Invasion Plans
Oversoul: Sliver Queen
DarthFerret: Megrim

Committee: Killer Joe, Gizmo, Turgy22

Highlights
The nominations were introduced with little justification or discussion this time around. Spiderman noted an apparent lack of nominations, but it seems that really he just jumped the gun on that, and the eventual number of nominations was pretty typical for the time. The only real event of interest here was that my nomination won for the very first time. Also, I guess Turgy noted that he had voted for Jinxed Ring in the committee.

My thoughts now
I’ve played with all of the nominations, and all of them are fine cards. Sliver Queen has a special place in my heart, though. I’m glad it won and if I were to choose today, I’d change nothing. Sliver Queen for life!
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Exodus
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-exodus-casual-card.14139/
Winner: Mogg Assassin

Nominees
Limited: Mogg Assassin
Oversoul: Spellbook
Ransac: Ravenous Baboons
Mooseman: Coat of Arms
Orgg: Onslaught
Melkor: Pandemonium
Spiderman: Seismic Assault

Committee: Gizmo, Turgy22, DarthFerret

Highlights
The first thing that catches my eye here is that my own explanation of my nomination makes no sense. I mean, I know that I’ve been wrong before and I’ve found myself disagreeing with my old opinions before. But I am at a loss to grasp what I was even thinking with this one. Anyway, I nominated Spellbook and made a bizarre, nonsensical case for it. DarthFerret attempted to nominate Coat of Arms, but was reminded that he was on the committee.

The justifications were terse and discussion was virtually nonexistent on this one before it went to committee. Gizmo delivered the committee’s unanimous decision to select Mogg Assassin as well as their unanimous decision to express their disappointment at the nominations, noting the absence of, for example, Jackalope Herd, Equilibrium, and Erratic Portal. I meekly stated that I regretted not having nominated Equilibrium, as I had thought about but worried that it would be seen as an overpowered card and not casual enough. From there, we simply moved on to the next set.

My thoughts now
Yikes. This set didn’t see a lot of nominations or discussion at the time, but now I have a whole lot to say about it. Firstly, reading my old nomination here is surreal.

Oversoul said:
I nominate Spellbook. Exodus has some cool power rares that would also be contenders for me. But Spellbook was the first (with the non-notable exception of Anvil of Bogardan) and best at doing something many players (myself included) found to be particularly special. There were all sorts of spells that could load you up on cards, but for those that want to have some fun and keep those cards around for a while, Spellbook has consistently remained one of the best options.
I’m trying to think about where my head was with this one. I did use Spellbook quite a bit, especially in artifact-based strategies like Academy decks. I had a fondness for zero-drop spells, and I can see why Spellbook would have stood out to me. But I called Anvil of Bogardan “non-notable” and I distinctly recall that I got blown out by a deck using the card in 1999 or 2000 and became a bit obsessed with it, seeking to pick up a copy for myself. I loved Anvil of Bogardan and I still do. It’s a great card. I can’t imagine calling it “non-notable.” It’s right there in my post, but I know it can’t be right. I think that I just didn’t say what I meant there. Worse still, this post implies that I totally forgot about the existence of Library of Leng. Now, if this had been back when I first started playing with Spellbook, I can see how I might have made such an error. But 2006? No way. Something was off about the way I wrote this post. And it bugs me that I can’t ascertain how I got this so very wrong.

And then there’s the matter of the committee’s rebuke. I remembered that this happened in the Hall of Fame at some point, but I thought it didn’t come up until later. Perhaps I was embarrassed at my own lackluster nomination at the time, but taking a retrospective look at this 15 years later, the committee’s decision to issue a rebuke on the quality of nominations comes across as really insulting. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that I’m bitter now or anything. It didn’t really matter. But I did remember, before I started reviewing this, that something like this happened. Actually reading the posts, yeah, I regret not having said something, failing to call this out. It’d be one thing for a committee member, as an individual, to note that the cards nominated for a set weren’t the same cards that the committee member, as a player, would have wanted to see. But doing so as a committee is taking advantage of the asymmetric nature of this setup to send a message outside of the normal bounds of the committee’s purpose. It was the committee’s job to select a winner. It wasn’t the committee’s job to chastise everyone else. I don’t mean to sound too hung-up on this. It’s our own fault for setting this whole system up so haphazardly. The committee were never given guidance that officially declaring sentiments on the quality of nominations as a whole was inappropriate. I now believe that perhaps that should have been made clear from the beginning.

Finally, I am a bit bewildered that Mogg Assassin won, especially with cards like Coat of Arms and Seismic Assault to choose instead. I realize that I just got done criticizing this old committee for criticizing other people’s selections and the irony isn’t lost on me. Again, my beef isn’t with voicing disagreement, but with being given a kind of formalized role and explicitly using that role as a platform to put forth an opinion unrelated to the performance of the role. And I’ll admit that I totally forgot what Mogg Assassin does and had to look the card up. If I were to make my own selection for this today, I’d go with Seismic Assault.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Urza's Saga
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-urzas-saga-casual-card.14160/
Winner: Temporal Aperture

Nominees
Oversoul: Serra Avatar
Limited: Humble
Orgg: Waylay
Mooseman: Congregate
YoungBeard: Temporal Aperture
Melkor: Greater Good
Istanbul: Somnophore
Ransac: Goblin Lackey
Spiderman: Sleeper Agent

Committee: Gizmo, Turgy22, DarthFerret

Highlights
This is another one of my favorite sets, so I was a bit sad to see so little discussion of the cards here. In fact, although most nominations got a short paragraph of justification, there was hardly any talk beyond that. Melkor pushed back on some of the recent statements by committee members along the lines that some nominations were too powerful to be casual. And that was about it. It appears that a committee member went absent, so we were down to a two-person committee for this one.

My thoughts now
I get a kick out of seeing that Ransac regarded Living Death as being too much of a tournament card for the Hall of Fame, but nominated Goblin Lackey just a little bit later. That guy! Also, bless Istanbul’s heart for nominating Somnophore, a card that meant a lot to me as a kid, but which really isn’t very good. If this were just the “Oversoul’s Feeling Hall of Fame” then Somnophore would totally win. There’s also a case to be made for Waylay as a CPA-specific standout, thanks to the card’s strange history and connection to the website, but I don’t think that should count.

In hindsight, I do think that my own nomination of Serra Avatar was the best choice. But 2006 was before power creep on creatures made Serra Avatar feel a lot less special and a lot more clunky. Other creatures can do what it could do, only better. That wasn’t true back in 2006. From a strict retrospective framing, I think Serra Avatar would be a great pick. It would no longer be my choice in 2021. Time just hasn’t been kind to the card. There are some great options, including some that weren’t nominated. Victimize, Abundance, Exploration, Gilded Drake, Fecundity, Pariah, Worship, Argothian Elder, Lifeline, Planar Birth, and Phyrexian Processor come to mind. If I were to choose a card today, I’d go with Greater Good.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Urza's Legacy
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-urzas-legacy-casual-card.14198/
Winner: Deranged Hermit

Nominees
Orgg: Beast of Burden
Ransac: Quicksilver Amulet
Limited: Deranged Hermit
Oversoul: Defense of the Heart
Train: Weatherseed Treefolk
Mooseman: Bouncing Beebles
TomB: Repopulate
Melkor: Pyromancy
Gizmo: Deranged Hermit

Committee: Turgy22, DarthFerret, Spiderman

Highlights
YoungBeard attempted to nominate Goblin Gardener, which is not in this set. Apparently, there was an error on Gatherer at the time causing Urza’s Destiny to show up when searching for Urza’s Legacy

There were some solid nominations with succinct justifications here. In the committee, it came down to Deranged Hermit vs. Defense of the Heart. Turgy delivered his minority opinion.

turgy22 said:
I vote for cards based solely on how they are designed. The following things are what interest me in a casual card:
1) Does it do something that has never been done before?
2) Does it inspire new ideas and decks to be built around it?
3) Did it influence other casual card designs?
4) Will it have a big impact in games?
5) What is its effect on alternative formats?

There might be other things, as well, but those are the primary things that go through my mind. I don't think I have enough tournament knowledge to disqualify a card based on its use.

I didn't vote for the Hermit because I felt that introducing the creature type "squirrel" was its only redeeming casual quality. Similar to the Beeble vote, I don't find new creature types important enough to warrant a casual induction.
My thoughts now
I’d have appreciated a bit more good discussion, but the nominations here were solid and I liked Turgy’s explanation of his approach to voting in the committee. I’d have been happy with most of these picks, but I still maintain that Defense of the Heart should be the winner for this set.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Urza's Destiny
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-urzas-destiny-casual-card.14218/
Winner: Donate

Nominees
Ransac: Donate
Limited: Bloodshot Cyclops
Mooseman: Fodder Cannon
Oversoul: Donate
TomB: Goblin Gardener
Killer Joe: Thorn Elemental
Istanbul: Pattern of Rebirth

Committee: Turgy22, DarthFerret, Spiderman

Highlights
No one seemed sure whether Goblin Gardener was nominated here or not, as all that happened was that TomB quoted YoungBeard’s erroneous nomination for the card in the Urza’s Legacy thread. There were only six cards nominated this time, but they’re pretty good. Except Fodder Cannon. Mooseman, what’s up with that? Oh, I think he just loved the flavor text, which is admittedly pretty great.

This was an uneventful set for the Hall of Fame. The selection was unanimous and I guess that the committee was on the same page as the rest of us.

My thoughts now
I have a significant personal history with Donate, so I wanted to give the rest of the set a fair shake, as I think it’s a very nice set. I can’t complain that a card I nominated and loved won. I do find it a bit amusing that the “tournament cards aren’t casual” gang seemed absent for this one. Ransac nominated Donate, a card from an infamous tournament deck. Istanbul nominated Pattern of Rebirth, another tournament deck centerpiece. No one complained about that, and I certainly wouldn’t either: I love those cards. But it does seem to demonstrate a lot of inconsistency in this whole philosophical issue. I think it’s too bad that Repercussion, Taunting Elf, and Apprentice Necromancer didn’t come up for discussion. But my choice today would still be Donate.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Mercadian Masques
Nomination thread: http://www.casualplayers.org/forums/threads/nominations-for-mercadian-masques-casual-card.14245/
Winner: Hunted Wumpus

Nominees
Moosman: Puffer Extract
Limited: Hunted Wumpus
Oversoul: Conspiracy
TomB: Bargaining Table
Reverend Love: Dawnstrider

Committee: DarthFerret, Spiderman, Ransac

Highlights
There were only five nominations! I believe that was a record low up to this point. We were kind of hard on this set.

Spiderman said:
The committee didn't feel any of the cards nominated were really worthy of Hall of Fame status. However, having to vote, the winner of the Mercadian Masques casual card is Hunted Wumpus by 2-1.
Melkor said:
A lot of almost unplayable rares. Good cards and bad cards can both be casual, but they need to be fun. I didn't have a lot of fun with Masques, I felt the seemingly extreme overreaction to the power of the Rath and Urza's blocks really limited deck building. It also took the fun out of buying booster packs, because you were almost certain to get something horrible. It seemed to me like they had made the set, then decided to make almost every card worse somehow by either adding to the mana cost, restricting you to using it once a turn, letting your opponent use it, something. I enjoy the creative aspect of deckbuilding, but with Masques it felt more like work.
My thoughts now
This set did have some serious problems, but it was basically just panned in our discussion, and there are some great casual cards to be found. Along with our nominations, I’d cite Coastal Piracy, Cowardice, Black Market, Noble Purpose, Thrashing Wumpus, Power Matrix, Vine Dryad, Ley Line, Delraich, Renounce, Charisma, and Trade Routes. It’s a tough choice, but if I picked just one of those today, I suppose I’d go with Cowardice.
 
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