Top 8 Bad Cards in Standard

Well, there's a new set out with Dragon of Tarkir and with it a whole bunch of sweet new cards are hitting Standard play.  However, instead of looking at the new good cards, today I went and put together my Top 8 list of bad cards that see Standard play.


Top 8 Bad Cards in Standard

8:  Evolving Wilds

This card keeps managing to sneak its way into real Standard decks and every time it does a part of me dies a little.
Unfortunately, the current Standard mana base is god awful and Evolving Wilds remains a necessary evil.


7:  Foundry Street Denizen

I have chosen this pass out draft common as the poster child for the current available 1 drops for the hyper aggressive red deck.  Dragons of Tarkir have introduced 2 great red 1 drops in Zurgo and Lightning Berserker but the synergy with Hordeling Outburst is unfortunately still keeping the old Denizen in decks.


6:  Satyr Wayfinder

I get it.  It’s an enabler.  That doesn’t change the fact that this is a 2 mana 1/1!
Is this card needed in the decks that run it? Yes, it probably is.  Does it still suck? Absolutely!


5:  End Hostilities

Five mana wraths are awful.  Yeah they’re all we have but they really are bad.
End Hostilities gets the nod for the list here over Crux of Fate because I do like the dragon win con synergy Crux allows you to build into your deck.


4:  Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

Every time I play against a blue-black control deck and my opponent smugly plays one of these one turn 3 I let out a sigh of relief, untap, play a Rabblemaster and kill my opponent.
I have no idea why people still include this Tibalt level planeswalker in their decks but I’m ok with it!


3:  Outpost Siege

See my previous blog entry regarding the specifics on this one.
Additionally, I feel that with DTK hitting standard, Outpost Siege has gone from bad to outright embarrassing.  There was so much main deck and side board enchantment hate already and the addition of Dromoka’s Command made it even worse.  That coupled with the fact that Thunderbreak Regent is now a standard legal 4 drop make this siege a very bad idea.


2:  Ashcloud Phoenix

This.  Card.  Sucks.
There are roughly a million exile effects being played but all the top tier decks (Chained to the Rocks in RW, Abzan Charm in all forms of Abzan, Perilous Vault in control, Banishing Light in GW Devotion, Silence the Believers still comes up from time to time) that all crap all over this card.  Couple that with the fact that token decks are a very real thing at the moment and that it has 1 toughness and you end up with one unplayable bird.
This card’s always been bad and Thunderbreak Regent firmly closed the door on ANY excuse you had to still be running this.


1:  Every card in the Blue-White/UWR heroic deck

Was there ever any doubt?
The top spot here cannot be given to any single card but instead goes to this entire deck.
I’m not saying the deck itself is bad, apparently it STILL puts up results… , but it cannot be denied that almost every card in it is an atrocity and an affront to constructed magic.
There have been other successful draft commons/uncommons decks in the past, current season mono red, last season’s mono blue ect, but none of them come anywhere close to this deck’s level of jank cards.
This is not a draft commons deck.  With all start like Aqueous Form, Lagonna-Band Trailblazer, Stratus Walk, Battle Mastery and even the format defining Mortal Obstinacy often making the cut, it truly is the first constructed playable draft passouts deck.