The cards in JP's article maybe broken, but there is another fact to consider. Are they broken enough? What I mean by this is, even as a four of, would four of these be enough to run a deck around and make a decent mark on the metagame. Crucible affected everyone, would Voltaic Key? Mind's Desire makes combo decks ridiculous, would Time Spiral havethe same inpact. Goblin Welder allows you to cheat casting costs. Would the 4 mana more Dream Halls (with double U) rival it in terms of speed and efficiency.
I belive that these are the equivalant of rusty engines. Powerful in there day, but not nearly as powerful in relevance to today. They were definately all quite feared when they were played. But take a modern deck back in time and try it against one of those.. What is going to happen?
Mind Twist, of course, is the most controversial card on Steve's list. Duh. It's so brutal when it hits that it simply shouldn't be unrestricted. The two expensive blue bombs are at least sort of symmetrical, but Twist is not. It may have fallen out of favor, but it's just so nasty that it probably should stay where it is. When a single card generates a large CA swing by itself then it should probably be/stay restricted.
I think that in the big sceme of things, Dream Halls is the biggest threat for unrestriction, not Mind Twist. Twist has a game ending affect, if played right, but if your a smart player you shouldn't have as much a problem. Setting yourself up at the time Twist is cast can save you and with all the cards run today that isn't card. A simple brainstorm can set up cards for you to get yourself into better shape. The simple mathematics of mind twist make it slow card.
Mind Twist CC / I'd Rather Play
B / Duress - Twist nets you 0, duress nets you a selective 1
B1 / Duress - Twist nets you 1 at random, duress nets you 1 of choice
B2 / Hymn To Tourach -Twist costs more
B3 / Mind Twist - You should have already won.
Based on my example of cost effectivness (which I fear may not make any sense but bear with me
) By the time you get enough mana to play a good mind twist you should have probably already one. I think even at the point that I get to four mana in which I'd wanna play twist I'd still rather play Cranial Extraction.
