Worst rare card ever

A

arhar

Guest
Recently I build a lot of decks for multiplayer, browsing through my old collection and putting unplayable rares to good use. But I encountered some cards that TOTALLY, ABSOLUTELY could not be played under ANY conditions! I mean, don't get me wrong, I play with Keeper of Tresselhorn, and although I have 2 Ancient Silverback, I play with Scaled Wurms... but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't find a use for...

....

...

drum roll, please
..

MERCENARIES!!!!

For those of you who were fortunate enough not to buy any packs of Ice Age, here's what the card does:

Mercenaries 3W
Summon Mercenaries
Rare

If it damages any player, that player may pay 3 to prevent that damage.

3/3

Flavor text - something about blasted amateurs :)

Flow of Maggots (2/2 for 2B with innate Fear and Cumulative Upkeep) ran close second :)


So what's your pick for WORST RARE EVER, unplayable in any format, being it Limited, Constructed, T2, Fallen Empires block.... And be very strict here: Apocalypse Chime is an AWESOME cards in Homelands constructed ;)
 
G

Gizmo

Guest
Ah! But Mercenaries are one of only two cards outside Masques that you can search for with the Masques Mercenaries, the other being Rogue Skycaptain from Alliances.
(I think that`s all).

But wouldn`t the obvious one be:
Great Wall, Enchantment, W2
All creatures with Plainswalk may be blocked as though they did not have this ability.

What - ALL the creatures with Plainswalk? Not all of them, surely! I mean...that`s such a good card, it totally shuts down the Plainswalking decks! That can`t be the worst card ever because it actually has a good ability - I mean it`s got to be good in some format or other.
Cards affected by Great Wall:
1. Aysen Highway
2. Righteous Avengers
3. Giant Slug
 

Ed Sullivan

CPA Founder, Web Guy
Staff member
Hmm.. If I'm recalling correctly, back in Beta/Unlimited (a long long time ago, in a galaxy far away...), I believe that there was one island that got randomly placed in the rare slot. :( And there wasn't anything special about it -- same pic, same everything! ugh..

-mike
 
T

theorgg

Guest
Well, the Island is the one I was going to vote on.

and how many Mercenaries do you have? I personally like them. would you trade them for 50c each? you know why Flailing Soldier is played on the second turn somtimes, don't you? to tie up you opponant's mana. The same is true for the merc's.

and gizmo is ALMOST right. you can also search for Arnold Shwartznaegger(soldier of fourtune) with the mercenary ability. B/R with Mercs in chaos? sounds good to me. don't forget the crossroads and Arc mages to be able to use the drawn IA mercs.
 
Z

Zadok001

Guest
There were WAY more than 1 such basic land. In Revised, the print run on some boxes were such that basic lands ignored rariety, and were inserted into Boosters. Result? Rares became basic land.

"I got two myself..."
 
T

The Magic Jackal

Guest
What about that one enchantment, i can't recall its name, that makes all snow covered lands regualar lands.

OMG! please don't play that, then i can't have cool snow covered plains :(
 
D

Duel

Guest
Well, I think Farmstead was pretty nasty. But Pale Moon is definately up there. I mean, even rag man serves it's purpose (bounce-kill) but Ugh! Also, I think that Snow Hound was a rare:
Snow hound
2W
Summon Dog
1/1
2:tap, return Snow hound and a green or blue creature you control to their owner's hand.

Yeah, I know.
 
U

Ura

Guest
I personally always hated getting laces. Besides having some decent art work, I could never make a good deck out of them, though I came close with a basic white/black knight deck.
Otherwise, I didn't like those stupid R6's from alliances, Urza's Engine, Sol Grail, and whatever the other one was called. And pale moon is lame everywhere but extended and even there its pretty useless.
 
C

Chaos Turtle

Guest
Wait! I liked Snow Hounds! They could save your green or blue critters! or themselves, if you controlled a green or blue critter! People used to play more than one color and this would have been a decent Limited card.

I think the Laces should win by default...
Melting at least could keep you from using one of Gargantuan Gorilla's abilities.
 

Spiderman

Administrator
Staff member
I thought Flow of Maggots was an okay card. I threw it in with other "not so great" black cards (the assassin dude from the Mirage block, a couple of Rats from Ice Age/Mirage blocks, etc) and thanks to his Fear ability he got through a couple times to make it worth it. The cumulative upkeep wasn't that bad either; he was a blocker or if the Phyrexian Ghoul got out I could sac him to it.

I don't know about worst rare overall... most overhyped one so far would probably be either Jester's Mask or Grinning Totem. I only have one of each but they never came out and when they did, I never got to use them. :)
 
M

Mr_Pestilence

Guest
My vote for worst rare ever goes to Infernal Denizen from Ice Age. Totally unplayable.
***************
 
C

Captain Caveman

Guest
I'm not sure what the worst Rare is but when
I pull Taniwha it makes me a little mad.

Taniwha
3UU
7/7
Phasing, trample

At the beginning of your upkeep, all lands
you control phase out.
 
D

Duel

Guest
Actually, I had a geddon/god deck planned out for Taniwa with artifact mana.

And infernal denizen works nice with either donate (Wow!) or sneak attack, because the creature never leave your control when denizen dies. It becomes R: gain control of target creature.

[Edited by Duel (03-27-2000 at 11:12 PM).]
 
M

magicman_moe

Guest
you guys are forgetting one big one....grizzly bears! what the hell can you do with them everytime i get a booster pack i get like 2 to 3 of them and yet no special abilities man oh well i think leviathan isnt that good at all 10 to put it out and 2 to still have it out(during your upkeep mind you) then sacrifice 2 just for it to attack basicly your gonna have to use almost 6 islands up just to get it rolling then it just gets worse oh and urzas engine is a cool card man
 
I

Istanbul

Guest
I thought this was about the worst RARE? Grizzly Bears are uncommon.

I'm gonna go with Lifelace. Wow! Now my...creatures...get the bonus from...Kaysa. Yeah. Woo.
 
U

Ura

Guest
I thought Grizzly Bears were common?
Grizzly Bears are better than several cards though. Such as Pearled Unicorn, Scath Zombies, and Goblin Heros. Why you ask?
Because Grizzlies only cost 2 mana while the rest cost 3. A 2/2 for 2 isn't to bad at all. :D
 
W

Wizard2000

Guest
The Grizzly Bears are actually pretty cool. I used to use them a lot when I didn't have many cards. 1G for a 2/2 was easy to put in a multicolor deck and was strong.

He is common btw.

Worst rare... I only know tempest-current wel... so I have to say Pale Moon was about totally worthless. I also hated that Thalakos Drifters from Exodus... a rare shadow creature that cost a small fortune. I never did like shadow much, but I do remember using a few here and there in my black decks.
 
G

galtwish

Guest
I'm going to have to put a vote in for Ayesha Tanaka;

WWUU
2/2
Tap to prevent target artifact with activation cost from activating unless it's controller pays W.

Legends (of course)

I'll vote for this because Pale Moon might have some stalling use in some deck (?)
Erik
 
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