You can erase 1 card from the game: which?

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Originally Posted by Megadeus

I disagree with your argument about Goyf and True name. Goyf sucks because every two drop printed now is almost completely invalid because goyf exists. And True Name is miserable just because of how fucking dumb it is. It's the Griselchimp of fair decks. Allows complete chimpanzees to just ignore their opponent completely and just ravage people like the mongoloids that they are.

That said, leotard is just fucking miserable as well. The best chains variant ever printed, in blue, but not symmetrical, that also draws you cards. Seriously what the fucking shit. Fuck you wizards. Basically fuck this whole format at this point

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You could apply your logic to every single card actually relevant in legacy, the card pool is supposed to be made by the best 200ish prints out of 20000ish, and for a 3 drop to be playable it takes quite a lot of benefits apparently.

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Originally Posted by Noctalor

You could apply your logic to every single card actually relevant in legacy, the card pool is supposed to be made by the best 200ish prints out of 20000ish, and for a 3 drop to be playable it takes quite a lot of benefits apparently.

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I mean, it's probably because I've finally been playing long enough to see 3 drops that other people thought were power creeping older stuff (KOTR to the old Terravore) out of the format now creeping things I enjoy out, but I think at least in the case of Goyf it can be said that the raw efficiency of the card invalidates most other two drops, and in his case I feel like it even makes many 3 and 4 mana creatures unplayable

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Originally Posted by Megadeus

I mean, it's probably because I've finally been playing long enough to see 3 drops that other people thought were power creeping older stuff (KOTR to the old Terravore) out of the format now creeping things I enjoy out, but I think at least in the case of Goyf it can be said that the raw efficiency of the card invalidates most other two drops, and in his case I feel like it even makes many 3 and 4 mana creatures unplayable

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If you are looking for raw power at the moment we are stuck with Delver/Tarmo/Angler, maybe in the future even those guys wont make the cut.

But in the format there are still a lot of decks that are not looking for raw power, and there are plenty of 2 drops played over tarmogoyf, tarmo is an auto include basicly only in delver decks and BUG shells, because both those decks need a good enought punchline and BUG dont really have one (in fact you can see tarmo going away from some BUG midrange decks because you can just play the nemesis game, and leovold is good enought to fill as the other half of the punchline), most green decks that are not bug don't even bother with a vanilla 2 drop.

And for the same exact reason one could argue that plowshares is basicly going to make every single white spot removal spell not relevent for the rest of MTG, the same is true for most of the currently played cards in legacy, most of them were design mistakes in the first place, we are not getting something better than glimpse and order for example, and is not like those cards are not pushing the format in a direction in a way, order used to be played in most fair decks because it was a brainless autowin because nothing could hold a proggy back, then terminus happened, but now that top is banned i can easily see order being the top 4 drop green will ever have again.

And it's also unfair to say that kotr is dead, it is at least played in a tier1/1.5 which keeps doing fairly good, and it's not like kotr is bad or anything, the main reason why we dont see as much of it is because if you want to play GW you had to play aggro loam during those years, kotr was fine and it is a strong play for maverik as much as it is for aggro loam, but the rest of the deck couldn't keep it up with the format, yet again there is a chance that new GW based decks will rise thanks to the banning.

I don't dislike power creep when a card, supposed to do x, is outclassed because another card just does x much better, the real bs is when a card is so good at doing y that trying to do x just becomes idiotic, pretty much what terminus did to creature based decks.

I'll never forget the day they printed Show and Tell. Made me quit Legacy for 2+ years. Only now does it feel like a stable format again.

Fetches, although I do like them and think they add something to the format, would be interesting to see the development of legacy without them. Is DRS still a card, is brainstorm still good, how do you make a 3/4 color
manabase, etc.

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Originally Posted by KevinTrudeau

I'll never forget the day they printed Show and Tell. Made me quit Legacy for 2+ years. Only now does it feel like a stable format again.

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I find this a puzzling response. Show and Tell was printed in 1998, but "Legacy" became a thing 2004. Are you saying that you stopped playing 1.5 from 1998 to 2000?

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Originally Posted by ramanujan

I find this a puzzling response. Show and Tell was printed in 1998, but "Legacy" became a thing 2004. Are you saying that you stopped playing 1.5 from 1998 to 2000?

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I guess its point is that show and tell was printed in rise of eldrazi.

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Originally Posted by Megadeus

I disagree with your argument about Goyf and True name. Goyf sucks because every two drop printed now is almost completely invalid because goyf exists. And True Name is miserable just because of how fucking dumb it is. It's the Griselchimp of fair decks. Allows complete chimpanzees to just ignore their opponent completely and just ravage people like the mongoloids that they are.

That said, leotard is just fucking miserable as well. The best chains variant ever printed, in blue, but not symmetrical, that also draws you cards. Seriously what the fucking shit. Fuck you wizards. Basically fuck this whole format at this point

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Learn it, live it, love it. Megadeus for prez.

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Originally Posted by Noctalor

I guess its point is that show and tell was printed in rise of eldrazi.

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I can't even remember anything played SnT (or Sneak) before Griselbrand.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G935F met Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by Bobmans

I can't even remember anything played SnT (or Sneak) before Griselbrand.

Verstuurd vanaf mijn SM-G935F met Tapatalk

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People played Emrakul, Progenitus, Woodfall Primus (if i remember correct) etc.

Griselbrand made it tier 1.5 status.

OT: Ancient tomb and/or gitaxian probe.

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Originally Posted by Quasim0ff

OT: Ancient tomb and/or gitaxian probe.

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It's interesting to me that Tomb's getting some hate. I hadn't ever really heard this until Eli Kassis called for it to be banned after SCG Worcester.

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Originally Posted by Stuart

It's interesting to me that Tomb's getting some hate. I hadn't ever really heard this until Eli Kassis called for it to be banned after SCG Worcester.

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Ancient enables every single archetype I dislike. I don't mind chalice, of it takes some serious deckbuilding constraints for examble, but 6 sol lands just means there's basically no problem is just jamming them into your otherwise stompy deck.

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Originally Posted by Bobmans

I can't even remember anything played SnT (or Sneak) before Griselbrand.

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There was a time when S&T was used to put Hive Mind into play. Long before Omniscience and Griselbrand.

Dream halls was played a bit too

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Originally Posted by KevinTrudeau

I'll never forget the day they printed Show and Tell. Made me quit Legacy for 2+ years. Only now does it feel like a stable format again.

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Was legacy a thing in 98? Def do not remember that

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Originally Posted by Megadeus

I disagree with your argument about Goyf and True name. Goyf sucks because every two drop printed now is almost completely invalid because goyf exists. And True Name is miserable just because of how fucking dumb it is. It's the Griselchimp of fair decks. Allows complete chimpanzees to just ignore their opponent completely and just ravage people like the mongoloids that they are.

That said, leotard is just fucking miserable as well. The best chains variant ever printed, in blue, but not symmetrical, that also draws you cards. Seriously what the fucking shit. Fuck you wizards. Basically fuck this whole format at this point

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Leovold is a good design in the absolute wrong colors. As a BW card we might be talking about 1-2 other decks added to Legacy as it would've allowed another axis to fight the cantrip-consistency engine other than just Chalice. The inexcusable part is that they KNEW this card would only ever be legal for serious constructed in Legacy, Vintage, and EDH. Well, it's already banned in EDH and while I don't think its quite bannable in Legacy and Vintage, it appearing in different colors would have lent some variety to the metagame rather than just slotting into the pretty stock BUG deck. It's been long enough since Chains and Rayne, Academy Chancellor that shifting those abilities to other colors would have been more interesting.

While there are good arguments for/against TNN, Goyf, Delver, and DRS, I'd like to add the Eldrazi to all of those. Almost all of them are shit for gameplay from Emrakul down to Eldrazi Mimic.

The right answer is probably fetchlands as they break pretty much everything and render the mana system almost meaningless.

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Originally Posted by jandax

Was legacy a thing in 98? Def do not remember that

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Kind of. It was called Type 1.5 at the time. Up until the separation of the lists, everything restricted in Vintage (then Type 1) was banned in what is now known as Legacy. Show and Tell was garbage until probably around 9-10 years ago.

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Originally Posted by maharis

While there are good arguments for/against TNN, Goyf, Delver, and DRS, I'd like to add the Eldrazi to all of those. Almost all of them are shit for gameplay from Emrakul down to Eldrazi Mimic.

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Ding, ding, ding!

If I wanted to make the format more interactive, I would ban the following:
1. Every Eldrazi besides Displacer
2. Show and Tell
3. Griselbrand
4. True-Name Nemesis

There are no reason for those cards to exist. Everything else that contributes to occasionally miserable experiences (e.g. Blood Moon, Chalice of the Void) at least punish greedy deckbuilding.

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Originally Posted by lordofthepit

Ding, ding, ding!

If I wanted to make the format more interactive, I would ban the following:
1. Every Eldrazi besides Displacer
2. Show and Tell
3. Griselbrand
4. True-Name Nemesis

There are no reason for those cards to exist. Everything else that contributes to occasionally miserable experiences (e.g. Blood Moon, Chalice of the Void) at least punish greedy deckbuilding.

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I agree with your picks except, of course, for Eldrazi. How is Thought-Knot Seer not interactive?

I haven't played Legacy for a while but during my stint of playing competitively two cards that drew a lot of my annoyance were:

Delver of Secrets and True Name Nemesis.

Why did Blue have access to the best evasive threat and early flying threat? But I never liked the idea of blue fair decks in general. I'm sure if I was still playing more I'd hate Leovold too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KevinTrudeau

I'll never forget the day they printed Show and Tell. Made me quit Legacy for 2+ years. Only now does it feel like a stable format again.

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At the time of its printing, Show and Tell was only really used for dropping a Dream Halls into play (later used for Yawgmoth's Bargain after it got printed), but Dream Halls and Yawgmoth's Bargain both got banned within a year so I don't know why you took 2 years off.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by KevinTrudeau

I'll never forget the day they printed Show and Tell. Made me quit Legacy for 2+ years. Only now does it feel like a stable format again.

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the heck you talking about? Show and Tell was a bulk rare for years.

#1 Show and Tell
#2 Emrakul

Either one of those 2 really, there's nothing fun into T1 Emrakul go ahead and play your land into 1 drop that wont matter ugh.
It just feels like im losing from a chimp deck.

S&T into Omniscience into cunning wish/Emrakul is even worse as it finishes the game on the spot. (nice karakas mate)

I would be complaining less about S&T without emrakul or omniscience, at least with griselbrand you feel like having a chance. Yes they draw 14 cards, yes its extremely likely they get to have a hand full of counterspell backup + fatty 2/3, but I can live with that kinda stuff. At least Grisel is a 3 turn clock, can be stalled with flyers, removed, bounced with karakas, activated ability can be shutdown etc etc.

Emrakul is just not a fun card to play against, the only time *I feel* its ''allowed'' is after durdling 7-10 turns with my Enchantress deck to hardcast it, as the opponent had a chance spread over multiple turns to kill me before I cast the damn thing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lordofthepit

Ding, ding, ding!

If I wanted to make the format more interactive, I would ban the following:
1. Every Eldrazi besides Displacer
2. Show and Tell
3. Griselbrand
4. True-Name Nemesis

There are no reason for those cards to exist. Everything else that contributes to occasionally miserable experiences (e.g. Blood Moon, Chalice of the Void) at least punish greedy deckbuilding.

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I like these choices. I agree that these cards are all frustrating and don't typically make for the best games. Especially Show and Tell + [insert random EDH Timmy I-WIN card here] -- and I'd argue that Omniscience is essentially just as bad as Emrakul and Griselbrand. I realize that there are plenty of ways to fight against SNT, and the deck is NOT an unstoppable Tier 0 problem... but netting 15 mana for 2:u: puts a lot of stupid constraints on the format, particularly for non-Blue decks.

The Eldrazi are dumb in tandem with the Sol lands. I just think that they're not very well designed, and Thought Knot Seer is a good example of needless ham-fisted power creep.

TNN would probably be okay if it cost 1WW or 1GW and was some other creature type. It just doesn't seem to make sense for this guy to be Blue. Blue-based Aggro-control really didn't need yet *another* Wall/Finisher hybrid to crap on non-Blue creature decks (Tarmogoyf being the original example). I think it'd be fine to give Wx creature decks a hard-to-kill threat as a way to attack control and midrange decks.

A few other tweaks I'd recommend for balance:

A) Leovold should've cost :w::g::b: instead of BUG. This would have given non-Blue decks like Maverick and Junk a method of fighting Blue and various forms of Combo that isn't just (easily) adopted by Blue decks themselves.
B) Delver of Secrets should've cost either :r: or :b: instead of U. Flavor-wise, this card makes more sense as either of those colors. It would still be played in Blue tempo decks, but it'd require a bit more work to maintain a high enough Blue-count for Force of Will.
C) Deathrite Shaman should have only 1 toughness, and probably also have 0 power. This would balance it better against creatures such as Goblin Lackey, as well as make it more susceptible to various hate cards (e.g. Darkblast; Forked Bolt; Electrickery; Engineered Plague, etc.) And yet it'd *still* be arguably better than Birds of Paradise as a 0/1.
D) Fetch-lands -- I'm ambivalent about removing them entirely, but perhaps they should've been capable of searching up *only* basic lands. I wonder if the designers at the time were even considering their interaction with Dual lands? More thought would be put into designing a deck's manabase, and 3-color decks would be a bit weaker and thus more balanced. I think the game is conceptually designed to make it so that there's supposed to be an actual opportunity cost to playing more than one color. Perhaps this adjustment would make it so that 2-color decks would be a more legitimate consideration?
E) Counterbalance is mostly a non-issue now that SDT is banned, however I think that this card should be nerfed a bit: either it could cost a tad more (1UU maybe?) or alternatively, it's ability could only be triggered once per turn. In the latter case, it'd still function as a powerful control element with the potential of generating long-term card advantage and inevitability, and deploying multiple copies would then be meaningful instead of (typically) needlessly redundant.
F) Batterskull -- perhaps the bounce cost should be 5 instead of 3? And does it also need to grant Vigilance?
G) Umezawa's Jitte -- given that it's arguably more powerful than the various Swords of X&Y, maybe Jitte should follow their pattern and cost :3: to play and/or only trigger its token generation upon inflicting combat damage **to a player**.
H) Brainstorm as Sorcery would still be powerful, widely played and format-defining, yet it would make the card a LOT weaker. Players would need to plan for their opponent's turn in advance instead of in reaction to whatever action they take, and discard spells such as Thoughtseize would be made quite a bit more powerful. I think it being an Instant is a HUGE aspect of why the card is so busted.
I) Tarmogoyf -- I don't think most players are too concerned about ol' Goof anymore, but there are several methods I can think of to better balance him: one is to make him an X/X instead of X/X+1; another is to look at *only* its owner's graveyard in terms of determining the value of X. Another way would be to re-balance his cost as GG or :g::b: instead of 1G, making him still easily playable in the sort of the decks that want him, yet a bit harder to splash elsewhere.
J) Jace, the Mind Sculptor: his Brainstorm ability should definitely have been -1 Loyalty instead of costing 0; his Fateseal ability should perhaps have been only +1 Loyalty *or* his Ultimate should have been removed entirely or changed to something less absurd.
K) Snapcaster Mage: :1::r:
L) Monastery Mentor: perhaps the tokens could be 0/1 with prowess or 1/1 without it. Alternatively, adjust the cost: 1WW or perhaps 3W. It still seems like it'd be an absurdly powerful card.

Just a few ideas, feel free to disagree. Legacy is obviously based around design mistakes, and part of the charm is playing busted cards against other busted cards. Still, I think some of the ideas presented above might make for a slightly better balanced format. For most of these suggestions I tried to keep the card competitively playable while still knocking it down a few notches.

edit:

If I could straight up just delete a single card, I think it'd be Gitaxian Probe. It's not broken by any means; it just bends a few rules of the game that should require a few more hoops to jump through to achieve: it's blue, it costs no mana to cycle yet still generates storm, and it provides perfect information. I don't really like what it's done for combo decks in Legacy, mainly defeating all sense of drama during the critical turn.

I've always hated Griselbrand, Emrakul and Blightsteel Colossus to a lesser extent. Creatures with text that amounts to "you win" in a game full of ways to cheat creatures into play make games significantly less interesting.

Furthermore, to me it seems ridiculous that Bargain is banned, but easier-to-cheat-in Bargain with upside is alright.

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Originally Posted by WashableWater1

Furthermore, to me it seems ridiculous that Bargain is banned, but easier-to-cheat-in Bargain with upside is alright.

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But forcing you to draw 7/pay 7 life in one batch is THE downside :wink:
ikr..

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Originally Posted by Mr Miagi

But forcing you to draw 7/pay 7 life in one batch is THE downside :wink:
ikr..

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Luckily he has lifelink to compensate, otherwise that immense downside would be too much and make the card almost unplayable :eek:!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mr Miagi

But forcing you to draw 7/pay 7 life in one batch is THE downside :wink:
ikr..

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B-b-b-but R&D tested the card at 7 mana and found it was too big of a problem. 8 mana is totally not broken!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wcm8

I like these choices. I agree that these cards are all frustrating and don't typically make for the best games. Especially Show and Tell + [insert random EDH Timmy I-WIN card here] -- and I'd argue that Omniscience is essentially just as bad as Emrakul and Griselbrand. I realize that there are plenty of ways to fight against SNT, and the deck is NOT an unstoppable Tier 0 problem... but netting 15 mana for 2:u: puts a lot of stupid constraints on the format, particularly for non-Blue decks.

The Eldrazi are dumb in tandem with the Sol lands. I just think that they're not very well designed, and Thought Knot Seer is a good example of needless ham-fisted power creep.

TNN would probably be okay if it cost 1WW or 1GW and was some other creature type. It just doesn't seem to make sense for this guy to be Blue. Blue-based Aggro-control really didn't need yet *another* Wall/Finisher hybrid to crap on non-Blue creature decks (Tarmogoyf being the original example). I think it'd be fine to give Wx creature decks a hard-to-kill threat as a way to attack control and midrange decks.

A few other tweaks I'd recommend for balance:

A) Leovold should've cost :w::g::b: instead of BUG. This would have given non-Blue decks like Maverick and Junk a method of fighting Blue and various forms of Combo that isn't just (easily) adopted by Blue decks themselves.
B) Delver of Secrets should've cost either :r: or :b: instead of U. Flavor-wise, this card makes more sense as either of those colors. It would still be played in Blue tempo decks, but it'd require a bit more work to maintain a high enough Blue-count for Force of Will.
C) Deathrite Shaman should have only 1 toughness, and probably also have 0 power. This would balance it better against creatures such as Goblin Lackey, as well as make it more susceptible to various hate cards (e.g. Darkblast; Forked Bolt; Electrickery; Engineered Plague, etc.) And yet it'd *still* be arguably better than Birds of Paradise as a 0/1.
D) Fetch-lands -- I'm ambivalent about removing them entirely, but perhaps they should've been capable of searching up *only* basic lands. I wonder if the designers at the time were even considering their interaction with Dual lands? More thought would be put into designing a deck's manabase, and 3-color decks would be a bit weaker and thus more balanced. I think the game is conceptually designed to make it so that there's supposed to be an actual opportunity cost to playing more than one color. Perhaps this adjustment would make it so that 2-color decks would be a more legitimate consideration?
E) Counterbalance is mostly a non-issue now that SDT is banned, however I think that this card should be nerfed a bit: either it could cost a tad more (1UU maybe?) or alternatively, it's ability could only be triggered once per turn. In the latter case, it'd still function as a powerful control element with the potential of generating long-term card advantage and inevitability, and deploying multiple copies would then be meaningful instead of (typically) needlessly redundant.
F) Batterskull -- perhaps the bounce cost should be 5 instead of 3? And does it also need to grant Vigilance?
G) Umezawa's Jitte -- given that it's arguably more powerful than the various Swords of X&Y, maybe Jitte should follow their pattern and cost :3: to play and/or only trigger its token generation upon inflicting combat damage **to a player**.
H) Brainstorm as Sorcery would still be powerful, widely played and format-defining, yet it would make the card a LOT weaker. Players would need to plan for their opponent's turn in advance instead of in reaction to whatever action they take, and discard spells such as Thoughtseize would be made quite a bit more powerful. I think it being an Instant is a HUGE aspect of why the card is so busted.
I) Tarmogoyf -- I don't think most players are too concerned about ol' Goof anymore, but there are several methods I can think of to better balance him: one is to make him an X/X instead of X/X+1; another is to look at *only* its owner's graveyard in terms of determining the value of X. Another way would be to re-balance his cost as GG or :g::b: instead of 1G, making him still easily playable in the sort of the decks that want him, yet a bit harder to splash elsewhere.
J) Jace, the Mind Sculptor: his Brainstorm ability should definitely have been -1 Loyalty instead of costing 0; his Fateseal ability should perhaps have been only +1 Loyalty *or* his Ultimate should have been removed entirely or changed to something less absurd.
K) Snapcaster Mage: :1::r:
L) Monastery Mentor: perhaps the tokens could be 0/1 with prowess or 1/1 without it. Alternatively, adjust the cost: 1WW or perhaps 3W. It still seems like it'd be an absurdly powerful card.

Just a few ideas, feel free to disagree. Legacy is obviously based around design mistakes, and part of the charm is playing busted cards against other busted cards. Still, I think some of the ideas presented above might make for a slightly better balanced format. For most of these suggestions I tried to keep the card competitively playable while still knocking it down a few notches.

edit:

If I could straight up just delete a single card, I think it'd be Gitaxian Probe. It's not broken by any means; it just bends a few rules of the game that should require a few more hoops to jump through to achieve: it's blue, it costs no mana to cycle yet still generates storm, and it provides perfect information. I don't really like what it's done for combo decks in Legacy, mainly defeating all sense of drama during the critical turn.

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I agree.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wcm8

I like these choices. I agree that these cards are all frustrating and don't typically make for the best games. Especially Show and Tell + [insert random EDH Timmy I-WIN card here] -- and I'd argue that Omniscience is essentially just as bad as Emrakul and Griselbrand. I realize that there are plenty of ways to fight against SNT, and the deck is NOT an unstoppable Tier 0 problem... but netting 15 mana for 2:u: puts a lot of stupid constraints on the format, particularly for non-Blue decks.

The Eldrazi are dumb in tandem with the Sol lands. I just think that they're not very well designed, and Thought Knot Seer is a good example of needless ham-fisted power creep.

TNN would probably be okay if it cost 1WW or 1GW and was some other creature type. It just doesn't seem to make sense for this guy to be Blue. Blue-based Aggro-control really didn't need yet *another* Wall/Finisher hybrid to crap on non-Blue creature decks (Tarmogoyf being the original example). I think it'd be fine to give Wx creature decks a hard-to-kill threat as a way to attack control and midrange decks.

A few other tweaks I'd recommend for balance:

A) Leovold should've cost :w::g::b: instead of BUG. This would have given non-Blue decks like Maverick and Junk a method of fighting Blue and various forms of Combo that isn't just (easily) adopted by Blue decks themselves.
B) Delver of Secrets should've cost either :r: or :b: instead of U. Flavor-wise, this card makes more sense as either of those colors. It would still be played in Blue tempo decks, but it'd require a bit more work to maintain a high enough Blue-count for Force of Will.
C) Deathrite Shaman should have only 1 toughness, and probably also have 0 power. This would balance it better against creatures such as Goblin Lackey, as well as make it more susceptible to various hate cards (e.g. Darkblast; Forked Bolt; Electrickery; Engineered Plague, etc.) And yet it'd *still* be arguably better than Birds of Paradise as a 0/1.
D) Fetch-lands -- I'm ambivalent about removing them entirely, but perhaps they should've been capable of searching up *only* basic lands. I wonder if the designers at the time were even considering their interaction with Dual lands? More thought would be put into designing a deck's manabase, and 3-color decks would be a bit weaker and thus more balanced. I think the game is conceptually designed to make it so that there's supposed to be an actual opportunity cost to playing more than one color. Perhaps this adjustment would make it so that 2-color decks would be a more legitimate consideration?
E) Counterbalance is mostly a non-issue now that SDT is banned, however I think that this card should be nerfed a bit: either it could cost a tad more (1UU maybe?) or alternatively, it's ability could only be triggered once per turn. In the latter case, it'd still function as a powerful control element with the potential of generating long-term card advantage and inevitability, and deploying multiple copies would then be meaningful instead of (typically) needlessly redundant.
F) Batterskull -- perhaps the bounce cost should be 5 instead of 3? And does it also need to grant Vigilance?
G) Umezawa's Jitte -- given that it's arguably more powerful than the various Swords of X&Y, maybe Jitte should follow their pattern and cost :3: to play and/or only trigger its token generation upon inflicting combat damage **to a player**.
H) Brainstorm as Sorcery would still be powerful, widely played and format-defining, yet it would make the card a LOT weaker. Players would need to plan for their opponent's turn in advance instead of in reaction to whatever action they take, and discard spells such as Thoughtseize would be made quite a bit more powerful. I think it being an Instant is a HUGE aspect of why the card is so busted.
I) Tarmogoyf -- I don't think most players are too concerned about ol' Goof anymore, but there are several methods I can think of to better balance him: one is to make him an X/X instead of X/X+1; another is to look at *only* its owner's graveyard in terms of determining the value of X. Another way would be to re-balance his cost as GG or :g::b: instead of 1G, making him still easily playable in the sort of the decks that want him, yet a bit harder to splash elsewhere.
J) Jace, the Mind Sculptor: his Brainstorm ability should definitely have been -1 Loyalty instead of costing 0; his Fateseal ability should perhaps have been only +1 Loyalty *or* his Ultimate should have been removed entirely or changed to something less absurd.
K) Snapcaster Mage: :1::r:
L) Monastery Mentor: perhaps the tokens could be 0/1 with prowess or 1/1 without it. Alternatively, adjust the cost: 1WW or perhaps 3W. It still seems like it'd be an absurdly powerful card.

Just a few ideas, feel free to disagree. Legacy is obviously based around design mistakes, and part of the charm is playing busted cards against other busted cards. Still, I think some of the ideas presented above might make for a slightly better balanced format. For most of these suggestions I tried to keep the card competitively playable while still knocking it down a few notches.

edit:

If I could straight up just delete a single card, I think it'd be Gitaxian Probe. It's not broken by any means; it just bends a few rules of the game that should require a few more hoops to jump through to achieve: it's blue, it costs no mana to cycle yet still generates storm, and it provides perfect information. I don't really like what it's done for combo decks in Legacy, mainly defeating all sense of drama during the critical turn.

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<3

Seconded!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by useless

luckily he has lifelink to compensate, otherwise that immense downside would be too much and make the card almost unplayable :eek:!

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why the fuck doesnt he make you skip your draw step

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lord Seth

At the time of its printing, Show and Tell was only really used for dropping a Dream Halls into play (later used for Yawgmoth's Bargain after it got printed), but Dream Halls and Yawgmoth's Bargain both got banned within a year so I don't know why you took 2 years off.

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Don't forget Mind over Matter for your Tolarian Academy.

I'm just getting back in from a long time off, so I've missed a lot but I'm just going to say planeswalkers as a whole, with the recent monster sized creatures as a close second (Marit Lage creators/combos, Elderazi, Emrakul, etc). Maybe the format is just faster now and can deal with these things on the next turn, I don't know. But I can usually deal with a 5/5 drop with no immediate response. I can't deal with a 13/13 time walker or whatever. Especially if it can't be countered, has protection from everything, shroud, no downside/upkeep for the owner, etc then what's the point? If there was a way to make them not be able to be cheated into play, then fine. But it just seems like an uncreative way to win or develop cards. Or I'm just bad at Magic, either one :).

I do agree with what others have said about the fetchlands though.

I wish the storm mechanic would have never been done.