Pick and Choose - Breakable cards that haven't found a place

[Sytupal]

There are Fourty Four released sets in Magic(including Arena and Chronicles, excluding the portal sets, unhinged, unglued and vanguard). Take away the repeat sets(some base and chronicles) and you're down to Thirty Eight different sets with some or most nonrepeating cards.

I'm offering a challenge to all of you out there to bring to this thread at least one card from each of you that looks like it could be broken in Vintage however Separately we cannot find a complementary card or combination of cards.  

All of us know that in some way or another each recent set has been studied for usable Vintage cards, but maybe sets before Urza's Block or some cards lost in the Invasion or Masques cycle could be more intricately studied.  

This is the number one Vintage site on the internet and by far the best minds in Vintage.  Knowing this, i decided to post this thread here in hopes to start up a list of cards which all of us could view and study in order to find something that, up to this point, has been lost to us.   I can only offer one card to this list right now but it only seems fitting that this card can be broken or usable.


Rats of Rath    1B     - Tempest
Summon - Rats
2/1

B: Destroy target artifact, creature, or land you control.  


I simply have no idea how this could be competitively usable in type one but maybe some sort of combo with disciple of the vault or something?  Maybe an additional way to toss rector into the graveyard?  I simply don't know, but it looks so intriguing.



Here's the list of cards that seem reasonable so far:

Retraced Image  U
Sorcery

Reveal a card in your hand, then put that card into play if it has the same name as a permanent in play.



Gamble R
Sorcery
 
Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then discard a card at random from your hand. Then shuffle your library.



Holistic Wisdom 1GG
Enchantment

2, remove a card in your hand from the game: Return a card that shares a type with the removed card from your graveyard to your hand.



Mystic Remora U
Enchantment

Cumulative Upkeep: 1
Whenever target opponent successfully casts a non-creature spell, you may draw a card. That player may pay 4 to counter this effect.



Tolarian Winds 1U
Instant

Discard Your Hand, Then draw that many cards.



Hammer Mage 1R
Creature-Spellshaper

XR, Tap, Discard a card from your hand: Destroy all artifacts with converted mana cost X or less.



Shattered Dreams B
Sorcery

Target opponent reveals his or her hand. Choose an artifact card from it. That player discards that card.

[Jacob Orlove]

Moved to newbie.

[martyr]

I would say that there probably is a niche for the Rats, but it's very narrow. Generally, you don't want to spend mana just to sacrifice permanents, especially when you can generally play something else that actually gives you something for it (Phyrexian Tower, Ravager, etc).

Generally the cards that are truly amazing when broken are ones that don't break quality rules but do break basic rules of the game. I'd say the #1 breakable-but-not-yet-broken card on my list is Holistic Wisdom.

Holistic Wisdom
1GG
Enchantment
2, remove a card in your hand from the game: Return a card that shares a type with the removed card from your graveyard to your hand.

Obviously, this becomes a solid engine with cards like Accumulated Knowledge, and courts broken-ness in a hypothetical combo/control build that can build up its mana before it goes off.

[Marton]

I would definately put future sight in the list. It's not unused but there has got to be a way to abuse it. There some sidebord cards too, stuff like carpet of flowers that could be used against energy flux (althought the decks flux hurt the most don't play green). There's also [card]wheel of knowledge[/card] that's pretty abusable in my deck. I mean this thing usually draws me at least 6 cards.


For reference, here is the deck I am referring to:

Budget (as-in no power 9) HyperMUD
*****
4x mishra's workshop
4x ancient tomb
3x city of traitors
1x tolarian academy
4x wasteland
1x strip mine
1x dust bowl / rishadan port / petrified field
2x darksteel citadel

1x sol ring
1x mana crypt
1x mana vault
1x grim monolith
1x voltaic key
1x candelabra of tawnos (yes ! )
4x metalworker

4x trinisphere
4x smokestack
4x tangle wire
4x chalice of the void
3x crucible of worlds

1x memory jar
3x wheel of knowledge
3x staff of domination

2x sundering titan
1x triskelion                  (metagame)
1x karn, silver golem     (metagame)

[VGB]

Any card on this list that isn't mainstream T1 is a good start.

The Legacy banned list is also useful in this sort of gleaning.

My vote goes to Words of Wisdom.  

[andrewpate]

I know that I have been trying to break Gifts Ungiven since it came out.  My first thought was Dragon, since with a Bazaar out, Gifts lets you go off right there.  The problem is that you need at least three cards with different names that all do what you are trying to do in order to use it properly.  Gifts for some combination of Wheel of Fortune, Timetwister, Tinker, Diminishing Returns, and Time Spiral seems like a possibility as well.  Just like Intuition moved us to the paradigm of 3-ofs we could Demonic Tutor for in blue, Gifts could create a paradigm where we use 3 different names for the same thing instead of three copies of it, especially in decks that are as happy to get a certain card in the graveyard as in the hand (such as Dragon or Slaver).

[ascribe]

My vote goes to:

Mystic Remora
U Enchantment
common
 
Cumulative Upkeep: 1
Whenever target opponent successfully casts a non-creature spell, you may draw a card. That player may pay 4 to counter this effect.

[Frappie]

IMO Rhystic Tutor is underplayed. It can be X4'd and it only costs one more then Demon, It should be played in combo. I think i will test it in belcher as another search card. Plus with the mana curves so tight on most deck, and some of them are aiming at dropping things every turn then why not run it? That and its a bulk rare.

[VGB]

I know that I have been trying to break Gifts Ungiven since it came out.  My first thought was Dragon, since with a Bazaar out, Gifts lets you go off right there.  The problem is that you need at least three cards with different names that all do what you are trying to do in order to use it properly.  Gifts for some combination of Wheel of Fortune, Timetwister, Tinker, Diminishing Returns, and Time Spiral seems like a possibility as well.  Just like Intuition moved us to the paradigm of 3-ofs we could Demonic Tutor for in blue, Gifts could create a paradigm where we use 3 different names for the same thing instead of three copies of it, especially in decks that are as happy to get a certain card in the graveyard as in the hand (such as Dragon or Slaver).

What breaks Gifts in 5-color is the infinite turn combo it makes of Regrowth, Restock, Time Walk, and Recall.  The reason it is banned is because it let's you fetch Contract and a way to replay it (Recoup), the same as Intuition - and instead of redundant cards, you pack 2 other effects such as Regrowth/Restock/Reclaim.

The infinite turn trick just isn't broken enough in T1, being slow and easily countered, and Will (or any other card for that matter) is no Contract from Below.  Thus its use has to be in some sort of graveyard dependent combo deck, where the card advantage or extra card tutoring of Gifts makes it somehow superior to Intuition.

[Sytupal]

There's also [card]wheel of knowledge[/card] that's pretty abusable in my deck. I mean this thing usually draws me at least 6 cards.

Do you mean Well of Knowledge?

[card]Well of Knowledge[/card]

[Bram]

[card]Tolarian Winds[/card]

[PipOC]

[card]Tolarian Winds[/card]

or the ever better [card]flux[/card]

[Das_Boot]

Skullclamp
While it has found good uses, there has to be a broken deck, or at least tier 1, out there with this card.

[AggressiveDude]

In the Eye of Chaos

[andrewpate]

The infinite turn trick [with Gifts Ungiven] just isn't broken enough in T1, being slow and easily countered, and Will (or any other card for that matter) is no Contract from Below.  Thus its use has to be in some sort of graveyard dependent combo deck, where the card advantage or extra card tutoring of Gifts makes it somehow superior to Intuition.

I totally agree with this.  It does seem possible to set up combos with it though, such as Worldgorger Dragon/Necromancy/Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead.  Perhaps a Mindslaver deck, with like (this is very crude) Mindslaver/Bringer of the White Dawn/Goblin Welder/Reanimate?  This would be similar to Cerebral Assassin.  Probably you would get handed Mindslaver and Goblin Welder, so you cast Welder and use it to go off with Slaver.  If you already had a Welder, you could have Tinker in there, possibly to let you get Crucible of Worlds and go infinite with Darksteel Citadel.  It seems the next best bet.

[Ifflejink]

[card]Gamble[/card]

At one mana, this is essentially red's Demonic Tutor. The discard can be avoided, to an extent, by running this in a welder deck. Plus, they're cheap.

EDIT: Forgot to use the [card] tag.

[BigMac]

Dracoplasm and Lifeline

And Bram, our minds think alike hehe. I was thinking of tolarian winds as well as it is in the to try out on our deck pile.

[Marton]

yes the card is well of knowledge. my mistake. In the deck I listed it generally nets me quite a considerable amount of cards.

[hellswarm]

[card]retraced image[/card]!¡
their  got to be some explosive deck out their the lets this be abused.. some what... not sure u would do with a second copy of somthing for cheap but it could work.

then there is this one..
[card]Telekinetic Bonds[/card]

limited niche utility..but if u build for it, the card turns into a stall mechanic all while drawing+ discarding to find the win condition.
my take on this card was to use compulsion to be the draw/discard focus triggering bonds to either tap a threat or untap a land.
the land part being the combo mechanig: land+ wild/fertile = more mana+ deeper into the deck.
the bonus being that this became a threat nutalized for a turn.
with  4 wilds/fertiles stacked on a land u could draw out your deck with 5 growth/fetile u generate +1 mana each cycle eventually u get enough mana to urza's rage twice for the win.

I first broke(more like abused violently...turn 3/4combo)  it in  t2 format with this build neting a bunch of first places !

007- Bond,James Bond. (61 cards)    

Sells  

4  [card]Circular Logic[/card]  
4  [card]Counterspell[/card]
3  [card]Cunning Wish[/card]
2  [card]Deep Analysis   [/card]
4  [card]Fact or Fiction[/card]
3  [card]Force Spike    [/card]
2  [card]Moment's Peace    [/card]
2  [card]Nostalgic Dreams    [/card]
1  [card]Urza's Rage    [/card]

Enchantments  
4   [card]Compulsion    [/card]
4   [card]Fertile Ground    [/card]
3   [card]Telekinetic Bonds    [/card]
4  [card]Wild Growth  [/card]  

Artifacts  
1   [card]Legacy Weapon [/card]  

Lands  
11  Forest
5  Island    
4 [card]Yavimaya Coast   [/card]

    Sideboard     (15 cards)  
2   [card]Bind    [/card]
1   [card]Divert    [/card]
3   [card]Gainsay    [/card]
2   [card]Krosan Reclamation   [/card]
1   [card]Moment's Peace[/card]    
1   [card]Opportunity    [/card]
2   [card]Ray of Revelation    [/card]
3   [card]Seedtime  [/card]

 new ideas for breaking this again would be for a land that gives 2 blue or varation of colored  to speed this out... so u could used [card]teferi's isle[/card] for example...explosive(but limited) 3 turns to finally use it. just about any land that gives 2 mana +a fertiled/growth to reduce the need for in play components.  the ultimite land for this if it could stay in play is "[card]lotus vale[/card]" but u first need in play 3 lands other options could be a [card] high tide[/card] or [card]bubbling muck[/card]

hellswarm
other underused good cards
[card] Oath of Lim-dul[/card] bb to draw a card is great.... hey look a bubbling muck deck

edit : added card tags...finally figured out the format for them figured it be similar to mtgnews... or the like.

[Sytupal]

Hey Guys,  please refrain from putting a card name up without giving us a link to the actual card or you can just simply tell us what it is.


Example:

Gamble
R
Sorcery
Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then discard a card at random from your hand. Then shuffle your library.

  Other than that, I've found a few more cards that could find a use in type 1, mostly metagame dependant however.

Hammer Mage   1R
Creature-Spellshaper

XR, Tap, Discard a card from your hand: Destroy all artifacts with converted mana cost X or less.


Seems really good in a Slower metagame hate deck or a low grade ponza nock off.. hehe.      Hell, nevermind, I lied, it sucks.

Shattered Dreams  B
Sorcery

Target opponent reveals his or her hand.  Choose an artifact card from it.  That player discards that card.  

It caught my eye as a sideboard card or maindeck depending on the metagame against TnT decks or some random artifact aggro stuff.    Though it may be way too narrow of a sideboard option unless you really really know your metagame.  Still, carry a few in your box when heading to a tournament if you have time to check out opposing stuff.  


Thanks for everyones posts, I'll add a list to my first post so anyone can take a look.

[Ifflejink]

[card]Tainted Pact[/card]

Although it has been used a bit, I'm surprised that no one has managed to make effective use of it. It's, to me, like a more reliable Spoils/Consultation.

BTW, Sytupal, don't be hypocritical.

[Sytupal]

How am i hypocritical?   i haven't put up any card without giving info on it or a link to it.      Other than that i don't see how hypocritical works?   i put you up as a positive post idea.

[Fominian]

[card]Grinning Totem[/card]

In all honesty, I have yet to figure why this card is not run more then it is (not at all from what I have seen )  Though it can only take one card, and its activation cost is somewhat bleh (Mostly its the tap not the 2 that bothers me), it pretty much adds insult onto injury.

[card]Jester's Mask[/card]

All right this card is innately broken - its one huge draw back is - CIPT.  And that is the reason it is never sees play (and probably will not ever see play).  Its playability is low, but I still love its ability

[card]Imi Statue[/card]

If done right, its a nice slow lock in itself - and its a first turn droppable.

[card]Uba Mask[/card]

Simply put - I believe all it will take for this card is an engine key, that’s it and all.

[Ripcord728]

Anyone have any other ideas?  How about Thran Turbine?

[Sauron]

I like Tainted Pact a lot, but its really more like Impulse in the early going, and how much play is Impulse seeing? At least Impulse can also be pitched to FoW.

Having played with it a lot I can tell you its not a more reliable Spoils/Consult, since they can get you the card you want right now (with the obvious drawback of killing you sometimes and letting Slaver ruin you), whereas Pact is generally gets you a (not even neccessarily the best one either) card in the top 6 or so.

[ELD]

Tainted Pact has seen play in Highalnder style decks.  I think there are a lot of cards that are being mentioned that are not worth looking at.  Just because they printed Grizzly Bear doesn't mean that it can be broken.

[Sauron]

Er, yes, Tainted Pact is great in Highlander. However Eld I did assume this was with a view to vintage, having been posted in a Vintage Forum?

[Robert the Swordsman]

Perhaps its more commonly used than I thought, but I think [card]Chains of Mephistopheles[/card] fits this category quite well.

Turn one: Land, Mox, Chains.

Isn't that really, really good against most decks?

[Pern]

That'd be why he said Highlander style decks,
not Highlander decks.

There are a number of Type 1 decks that are nearly Highlander.

Anyway, yah, Uba Mask is just waiting for a deck.
I had a fairly potent mono black build
involving the classic land/hand disruption.
If you haven't got the mana when you draw under Uba Mask,
you just lose the card.
Planar Void makes sure you're not getting it back.

There's also a viable green/white Parfait-ish build using
Sylvan Library, Scroll Rack, and so forth.

Rack makes a decent kill, since nobody cares when you drop it early,
and if you get a Mask through, they will end up with an empty hand.

[c hurrle]

I've seen Tolarian Winds used in budget Welder decks. It's a little too inconsistent, though.