Top 10 overrated HL cards

[Tiggupiru]

I've kinda wanted to do this for a while now. Took me sometime to figure out all of the cards I wanted to talk about.

The order of these is pretty abstract, so please don't comment about that. That is beside the point. Comments about something being better than I give it credit for are welcome. Flame away

And please note that with the exception of one card in the list, I think all of these are playables, but they just aren't as good as generally believed.


10 ) Sensei's Divining Top

I know I am one the people who tends to do this, but just because I like to point out how I think it should be in pretty much any deck, doesn't mean it is generally overrated. Sure, having it most likely makes your deck better, but you can still beat players that play it on their first turn even if you don't have the luxury.

On the other hand, it's kinda underrated card as well. People are hastily pointing out how it rewards play skill, and that is only kinda true. If your opponent doesn't know when is the proper time to not to use it (when they want to tapout to a spell), or when they want to use it (they don't want to tapout for something or have nothing to tapout into), you gain advantage. It's not exactly an overly complicated card to figure out how to operate once you get some games with it, so that isn't too big of an issue. Most of the time I see someone playing it wrong, is when the player has played the game for less than couple of years. Just because you need to take account a number of things before deducting what is the best card to draw next turn, doesn't mean the decision is especially hard.


9 ) Blood Moon

The reason this being here is the fact that many players consider this a card they lose to every time it's played. Unless you run five or four colors and/or don't keep in mind that you just mostly splash for the third color, you can easily make Blood Moon not a very threatening card.

I would not play this in monored aggro simply because it is bad against good portion of the decks and even against the decks it's supposed to be good, it can just be a dead card. If they are ahead on the board, you need to have something good as a follow up even if this card were to shut down the rest of their deck.

There are certainly a number of times where I find myself relieved when my monored opponent plays Blood Moon on their third turn shutting down my second main color rather than applying more pressure on the board.

The reason it's not any higher on the list, is because I am a minority on this case, but I well and truly believe it's not a very good card.

Magus of the Moon I don't like to play either, but at least he can smash face. Oh, and Price of Progress is the absolutely best way to punish non-basics in a red deck. It does whatever you are already trying to accomplish, isn't dead later in the game, and much harder to play around or to counter.


8 ) Baneslayer Angel

Once acclaimed as a card that shouldn't have been printed just isn't that good anymore. Wizards themselves printed this card just to see how good you can make a card if it doesn't grant card advantage. Turns out the creatures that give the card advantage are just too good to ignore. Baneslayer dominated standard for a while, but then they printed effective answer for it: Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Quickly after that, Stoneforge trumped Baneslayer as the default white creature card of the choice after the dawn of Caw-Blade.

It's still decent card, but against non-aggro it's unimpressive if your opponent just taps out to play a Titan or Wurmcoil on their next turn. Being a five mana card does give it a good spot on the curve, though. There are not very many good five mana creatures in white, so if you have a Pod deck, or you just want to tap out on turn five to play a legimate threat, she can certainly still deliver.

My point basically is: don't play this in aggro. If your opponent has a Bribery, it's really bad and even if they don't, you are usually better off playing a hasted creature, or a burn spell. And they don't usually cost five.


7 ) Counterspells

Not Counterspell, but them in general. Mana Drain, Cryptic Command and Force of Will excluded. The rest of the counterspells are certainly playable, but you need a game plan that backs them up in order to run them. Standard hasn't been a format where blue mages get to play the game on the opponent's turn for ages, and that reflects to HL because the same cards that have seen play in the last three to four years in standard have become a significant part of the HL.

Counterspells are bad because they don't allow you to turn a bad situation into a good one. The creatures nowadays are usually perfectly capable of winning the game themselfs in a matter of turns. If one of them slips through, you need to be able to deal it quickly. It doesn't help that those cards sometimes even provide something when they come into the play, making the blue mage lose card advantage which is excatly the opposite of their game plan.

They are good, obviously, because they are answer to anything and they are really good when you are already winning, or the opponent is running a scary card that you just lose to. After the FoW, CC and Mana Drain, the quality of the counters drop significantly. Black discard does mostly the same thing, costs less, and provides information, so I think you are generally just better off tapping out with your blue deck.


6 ) Ghostly Prison/Propaganda

I understand the appeal of these cards, but as a HL player, I have plenty of mana to spend on this when it is profitable to do so. If this doesn't come in bundle with mana denial, slowing aggressive people down is just a noble effort. An effort which can be achieved close enough with a spot removal and that might even take the pressure off completely. Removal in general costs less than this and is mostly instant speed, which have been known to be relevant. Once you want to attack, removal can also clear the path, so they are not restricted to be purely defensive spells.

These are not horrible cards per se, but unless you plan to deal with opposing lands quickly, making them spend some mana isn't excatly the greatest of plans. These suffer from the same problem as the rest of the "opponent chooses" - cards. They can choose not to deal two damage and improve their board, which saves you two damage, but that is because it's worse for you than him or her playing something else.

Just don't play these in your average UW-control deck, and get your face smashed in with a Kitchen Finks equipped with a Sword of Feast and Famine.

Also, planeswalkers.


5 ) AEther Vial

If a card is good legacy, it should be noted and tested in HL, BUT it shouldn't be something you mindlessly slam into your deck. This point comes up surprisingly often in this list.

Vial is card disadvantage, so pure aggrodecks run out of gas faster in they have an early vial. This is especially relevant when both players gets the spoils mulligan and tend to trade resources and grind small advantage over the course of several turn. Rarely the games are just pure blowout and tempo doesn't play as huge role as it does in other, especially in older formats.

There are decks that unquestionably can make use of Vial. It's not unplayable by any means. Those decks are usually blue and tend to be some form of a fish deck. I don't think it's a card you want to play in your average Bant-list, for example.

This is card is great in legacy because most of the legacy players are allergic to lands and the format is all about mana efficiency. In HL, we usually have the time to drop titans so Vial is not nearly as important here.


4 ) Moxes, Chrome and Diamond

All right, all right, I preach about card advantage all the time, but believe it or not, it's a cornerstone of the "how a game of Magic: The Gathering is won" - theory. I love me some Noble Hierarchs and other green one drops, so acceleration is very close to my heart, but the moxes give away a card and they do not even attack or wield swords after I am through tapping tapping them for mana.

Mox Diamond is just the saddest of the pandas when you are stuck on land. Every time a general "good stuff" - list plays this, I frown. Just like Vial, the tempo it generates just isn't big enough to justify playing it in a deck that just looks to cheat a few mana symbols here and there. If you want acceleration, play green one drops. If you are some sort of stax list that tries to kill every land in play at some point, I can understand running this. They usually want to drop another mana artifact on turn one anyway.

Chrome doesn't have that many downsides, but it's still a card that should only be played if you have a good reason to do so. Eating a non-land card is significant, but at least it's not like a insult to injury when mana screwed. Again, a card I reserve only when playing a certain kind of combo or in a deck with lots of Armageddons.


3 ) Progenitus

Again, the same legacy argument here. Natural Order into Progenitus is a serious threat, sure. It's probably the hardest of all the creatures to remove, but not impossible in HL, as opposed to legacy where it usually cannot be dealt with before sideboarding. Wrath of Gods and their variants, Damnations, Phantasmal Images/Metamorphs are popular cards that deal with it, so it's not like you can rely on it to survive indefinitely.

On the other hand, it gives you the worst topdeck of your deck and it gives opponent card advantage if they manage to remove it. Primeval Titan, and Terastodon to lesser extend, are both not only castable, but also usually more than enough to win the game if Natural Ordered into on turn three (or turn ten). They both also give CA as soon as they hit the board. Both of those things combined means that I much rather have a card that is easier to remove, but provide very close to the same end result.

In short, Natural Order isn't overrated, but Progenitus as it's target, is.


2 ) Rancor

This just shouldn't be in any list. +2/+0 just isn't that big of a deal and if the opponent is not tapped out, you might just get two-for-onned. If they can't remove your guy... well let's just say that the dudes we get to play these days can do the deed by themselves. Why not to run another one of those instead of this? No potential card disadvantages and certainly not dead on an empty board.

Rancor is like a bad Bonesplitter, which doesn't give trample, but trample isn't the thing why Rancor was a good card in the past. Oh, and bonesplitter is pretty awful also, so don't get any ideas there.

Time hasn't treated this card well enough. I mean, if you really want this type of effect play a sword. Any one of them will do. For example, Sword of Light and Shadow used to be such a good card, but people don't play it anymore because we have better options. The same should apply to Rancor.


1 ) Tarmogoyf

As long as the format is not Legacy or something akin to that, Tarmogoyf just isn't that impressive. Aggro can't usually make this guy big enough, fast enough for it to be good. Two mana, two powered vanilla guy just isn't hugely dominant threat. They often hit 3/4 or 4/5 soon enough, but at that point the slower deck is just about to play something that impacts more than any two or three drop. The fact that this gets bigger later is of course good, but almost always it comes with a scenario "Tap two of my seven lands, play a 5/6 Goyf. Your turn." Mana efficency just isn't that important in late game of HL. Legacy players want to hold their lands to get extra value from Brainstorm, so they rarely have more than four-five lands in play even if the game goes long. Tarmogoyf wasn't bonkers in standard and was overrated there after it got the recognition in legacy and extended.

Tarmogoyf also forces you to play cards in a way you don't want them to be played. Wasting a removal at a creature you don't otherwise want to, just to make this bigger is often the right play, but you can't be ecstatic about the deal. Especially if the opponent then proceeds to kill your Goyf.

In control, you are just better off trying to play cards that do something immediately when played to squeeze some advantage out of it. This is the direction I want to go with most of my aggro decks as well these days.

The fact that it's bad against GY-hate is irrelevant at this point, since nobody are playing them, but that might make this even worse card if Innistrad impacts more than I expect it to. I think good old Tarmo is good against red aggro, but if you want to hate specifically that deck, you have plenty of better options, especially in green.

Goyf is a playable card, but an aggro card it's not. Control with green usually can find better alternatives, but there still are decks that want to play this. They just come in less numbers than majority thinks.

[Maqi]

Nice post!

I agree with most of the following:

Sensei's Divining Top
Blood Moon
Baneslayer Angel
Counterspells
Propaganda / Ghostly Prison
Chrome Mox
Progenitus

I don't agree as much with these:

Aether Vial
Mox Diamond
Rancor
Tarmogoyf

@Aether Vial:

Card-advantage theory only takes you so far. There is more to Magic cards than just their CA value.  Aether Vial has many of these "other" things. Let's name them:

1. Aether Vial gets dudes into play without paying mana. This significantly increases your "actions per turn". Its value lies not in its acceleration (because it doesn't accelerate you really) but in its ability to do more stuff at a time. Backed up by CA (Dark Confidant, Stoneforge Mystic, Ancestral Vision, Jace TMS etc.) Aether Vial provides a strong method of translating CA into board presence / board control / pressure, however you want to call it.

2. Aether Vial gets around Counterspells. Not very relevant in many matchups. But in those matchups where it is relevant, it is often gamebreaking. Resolving Aether Vial on turn 1 vs. MUC, UR or UW is very strong.

3. Aether Vial creates uncertainty. This is mostly relevant in Aggro mirrors. Attacking into an "open" Vial can lead to devastating results and may outright lose you the game.

4. Aether Vial helps to abuse ETB-abilities via bounce. Blue decks can utilize this the most. Riptide Laboratory, Crystal Shard, Venser Shaper Savant, Repeal, Man'o'War etc. help at reusing your utility creatures for value. Other colors have tools, too. Eternal Witness comes to mind, as does Imperial Recruiter for example. All of this is rather mana intensive and clunky but becomes very elegant and easy with Vial on the board.

5. Aether Vial grants your creatures pseudo-haste. Dropping Jace TMS, for example, on an otherwise empty board becomes a dangerous endeavour for your opponent because you can drop an attacker eot.

I agree with you that pure Aggro decks usually don't want this. WW, Mono Red, Boros and the like can dump their guys quickly enough to not need this. They also lack efficient CA to really get Vial going.

@Mox Diamond:

This one really shines in 4C / 5C-Aggro. Providing rainbow colored mana while accelerating you is quite good. You have to play the Mox carefully though. It is dangerous to keep a Mox-hand on the play without having any direct means to "rebuy" your card-disadvantage. Turn 1 Land, Mox, Stoneforge Mystic is very good. Even better most of the time is Dark Confidant. Land, Mox, Watchwolf however is sketchy. Your hand might then easily fall apart, should your opponent be able to take care of your early pressure.

Having Mox on the draw is often very good, even without serious CA. You need to make sure that you have enough business though.

Mox will allow for starts, that are otherwise impossible. I remember the following scenario because it was just hilarious: Turn 1 - Land, Mox, Lotus Cobra; Turn 2 - Fetchland, crack for 3, play SoFi, equip and swing for 6; Turn 3 - Rafiq of the Many ftw!

Mox Diamond can win you games out of nowhere. I will admit though, that Mox Diamond can also lose games when used improperly or when topdecked at the wrong time.

I guess its about personal preferences here. Do you want to stay solid, or do you want brokenness and therefore more free wins, while living with more losses due to instability.

@Rancor:

This card is just very good in every Aggrodeck that supports Green. Leveling up Kird Apes, Birds of Paradise and Watchwolfs is exactly what you want.

Trample activates SoFi even if your opponent has blockers. Also costing only mana makes it really cheap, unlike Swords which are somewhat clunky. I've won many games with just a "Juggerwolf" and some disruption.

A very common scenario for Rancor to shine is the "Wall-opening". Opposing Goodstuff decks drop their Wall of Blossoms / Roots and shut down your early critters. Here Rancor can force an opening.

The fact that your opponent can 2-for-1 you is rather irrelevant. It just seldom happens. I can't actually tell you why that is, but my play experience here is really unambigious. It might be that way because many decks don't run that much instant removal. Also most of the time games will go like this: drop dude, attack, drop another dude attack, opponent kills the bigger one, you drop your third dude and Rancor it, while your opponent is tapped out or has resolved the only instant removal he had in his hand.

@Tarmogoyf:

He is very good. I'm not saying he is insane, but he is definitely very good. And that is because he is never bad. You want him in Aggro as a quick and eventually large beater, which is easy to cast. You want him in Goodstuff to apply pressure vs. Control and to "wall" against aggro. As you stated, he really shines vs. Mono Red and in the Aggro mirror.


It seems the cards I disagree with you are rather "aggroey". This might be a consequence of different metagames. If I'm not mistaken Finland has a rather controllish meta. While in Mannheim many Aggro variants are present. Therefore I might emphasize the value of cards "in an Aggrodeck" or "versus an Aggrodeck" (for example the "Open"-Aether Vial-point, which is rather irrelevant in longer games, where applying immediate pressure isn't as relevant as building up CA).

[MarcMagic]

Although I agree to most things there are a few things I would like to add:

1. Aether Vial: This card is probably overrated but in heavy colored (4-5) decks (even straight aggro) this card is manafixing as well. It is no autoinclude for me but it makes a different if I play 2 colors or 4.

2. Chrome Mox: There are decks with no real way to get a faster start when you need it. A good example is MUC: because U is lacking cheap removal/anti aggro cards (except Force Spike) its crucial to get asap to 4-5 mana (in heavy aggro MUs). Playing lots of ramping 2-mana artifacts can lead into tapped out scenarios which aren't cute. I don't think Chrome Mox is really overrated because it does not see that much play and all ppl to whom I talking to and discussing about adding Chrome Mox or not are very skeptical in general.

All in all good job on writing down this list!

[coldcrow]

Yup, same for MBC. It needs any cheap acceleration it can get and that would be moxen, petal, rituals and the pitch spells. But MUC and MBC run alot of CA generating cards - either draw or mass removal. 

[so_not]

If highlander had same kind of metagame fluctuations as real formats, different cards would be good in different tournaments. Progenitus, Blood Moon, Baneslayer, Vial, counterspells would all be good in their respective metagames.

At the moment I would not leave home with a blue deck without at least Counterspell, Spell Snare, Spell Pierce and Glen Elendra Archmage on top of already mentioned ones. Of course your game plan and the expected meta greatly affects your card choices here so I wouldn't blame someone with a different kind of counter shell.

I can't understand why anyone would play Mox Diamond in an aggro deck. Chrome is perfectly acceptable in WW/rdw. Rancor should be replaced by Sword or another creature in most of decks. Propaganda effects have not been good in years.
I still like Tarmogoyf very much. Lands are always in graveyards. With black you play discard that's good with goyf. With red you play burn which also happens to work with it and so on.

Some other cards I think are overrated:
Pestermite
ManoWar/Aether Adept
Armageddon/Winter Orb
Maze of Ith
Regrowth
Sword of Light and Shadow

[Maggot]

I can't understand why anyone would play Mox Diamond in an aggro deck. Chrome is perfectly acceptable in WW/rdw.

I disagree with that evaluation.
In an Aggro deck the gained tempo of MD makes up for the possible missed landdrop, but the card(spell) disadvantedge of Chrome is more relevant, because it is harder to make it up.

In a dedicated rdw, boros or Stax I still would play both, because the draws with them are very good and the gained speed is hard to handle for many decks.

[so_not]

I can't understand why anyone would play Mox Diamond in an aggro deck. Chrome is perfectly acceptable in WW/rdw.

I disagree with that evaluation.
In an Aggro deck the gained tempo of MD makes up for the possible missed landdrop, but the card(spell) disadvantedge of Chrome is more relevant, because it is harder to make it up.

In a dedicated rdw, boros or Stax I still would play both, because the draws with them are very good and the gained speed is hard to handle for many decks.

Aggro decks already tend to be on the lower side with lands and you can't replace a land in your deck with Mox Diamond (Chrome can do this). That means you have to put it on a spell slot so you are down a spell always when you draw diamond. Mox Diamond also makes mulliganing sometimes very awkward. With aggro decks you usually try to optimize your curve by just keeping couple of lands and low curve creatures. If you get a low land hand you can't probably keep the Mox because you need to dig deeper for land. On the other hand if you get like a 5 land+mox+spell hand, mulliganing would probably be much easier(or more effective) with any other spell in moxes slot. At least I don't like these kinds of risks in mulliganing since mulligan decisions in highlander already have such a huge impact on games.

[Sephiron]

I also agree with you on the most part, but have some comments as well:
Moxes: I agree with so_not chrome mox is ok as long as you need fast mana and it usually replaces a land. There are quite a few decks that want this card, but it acually is overrated since most people just slam the moxes as autoinclude. Diamond on the other hand is goon only in combo (havent seen any combo decks that would want this though)and superfast 4 or 5 color aggro: even though it could be played there, even so it's not that good and I wouldn't play it since as so_not said it takes slot of the burn and is only good in starting hand. If you compare Gemstone caverns is better but better on the draw when you need the speed and if you are on the play you don't need to use it thus not losing relevant spells. So I would prefer gemstone carverns to diamond, and you don't see caverns in these decks.

Tarmogoyf: I disagree with evaluation on this card. For aggro this is a 2 mana guy that beats for 3-5 which is good enough for aggro. While in control decks this is excellent blocker since it's evry hard for aggro to kill him and he can beat down there as well. So My opinion is that goyf is autoinclude in all non-combo green decks, even if this isn't as good as in legacy it's still good enough.

Here are some overrated cards:
Wraths: I think people overrate mass removal. I'm not talking about control decks, since you usually want to play wrath in those (although i wouldn't play anything besides wrath and doj even in those). Mainly it's wrong to play wraths in goodstuff decks because your deck should be good enough to match creatures from aggrodecks and wrath is useless against control.

Bribery: Only good target is progenitus. Most decks that play progenitus have answers to them. In addition to that players are finally starting to notice that you shouldn't play progenitus. Making bribery much worse since cards it gets are mainly titans, acidic slime or mulldrifter (you don't want to be casting bribery against aggro), but unsummon effects aren't uncummon which nullifies advantages given by bribery initially.

[Tiggupiru]

@tarmogoyf

I knew I would meet heavy resistance with this claim. To me, Tarmo is fine, but nothing more than fine. If I don't get to attack for three the turn after I play this, I feel like I've wasted a card for a vanilla guy that is behind curve. I am all about utility and card advantage when it comes to HL. I am more than happy to play a card that hasn't got as much power/toughness, but has an relevant ability.

In my experience, playing aggressive strategy can and will be hated when opponent has done even some testing with their deck. Monored excluded as it can put and keep the pressure up, if not screwed by their draw steps. This has lead me to shift my focus with aggro to more midrangey (nice word, bro). Meaning that I still play aggressive cards, but I tend to play only those creatures that have other uses as well.

Whenever I play green aggro (well, any green deck really) I also play full suite of the mana dorks, which means I mostly want to play three drops on my second turn, which in turn reduces the number of two drops I put in the deck. I haven't been including Tarmogoyf as one of those for a while now and I've been happy.

The fact that I don't really get to test against other aggro because of the metagame in Finland, is most likely affecting my judgment on this case. Tarmo is hard to deal with in aggro mirror. On the other hand, cards that generate CA are very good in those matchups also, so even if I would test aggro MU's more, my somewhat biased view of the matter might still be unaffected.

What comes to playing it in control, I mostly agree, it's a good dude in defense, but saying that this is autoinclude in any non-combo is something that I can't accept. I want to have more options even when playing bunch of aggro dorks.

@chrome mox

I could have made more clear that I consider this the superior mox, but like Sephiron said, people still autoslam this and then wonder where all their business's went. Tempo in general feels overrated as the mulligan allows you to have those early drops, so people can and will mostly trade cards or the game reaches stalemate. Unless opponent is unprepared and/or unlucky not to have early game, it's not long when the tempo gain from a mox is nullified and it's time to see which player has more active cards.

This, like pretty much everything else in MtG - theory, isn't universal. If you can regain that lost card with the cards you play off of mox, playing it is obviously fine. Elementary stuff, but I better point this out before someone posts about this again.

Despite all of this, I think these are quite overrated. Diamond more than Chrome, but both are equally guilty.

@counterspells

I kinda forgot to include Glen Elendra Archmage as one of the better ones. I also find this very close to an autoinclude.

@bribery

I think this an okay card. Five mana titans are perfectly acceptable and that also takes away one of the really good topdecks from your opponent. Naturally, behind curve against really aggressive aggro, so need to be aware when and what deck is running it. But I wouldn't consider this like seriously overrated.

Some other cards I think are overrated:
Pestermite
ManoWar/Aether Adept
Armageddon/Winter Orb
Maze of Ith
Regrowth
Sword of Light and Shadow

I agree with everything. Well, SoLaS I haven't seen played after Mirrodin Besieged, but whatever.

I would have put Regrowth and Maze of Ith on the list, but I kinda forgot about those.

Maze being a missed land drop when drawn and needed makes it way less good. Against an aggressive start, this can save you some damage, but when it comes in cost of a land drop, the damage overall before you can stabilize is likely to be greater. Good in late game, but it also makes opposing Wasteland pretty brutal. Late game is time for Titans and Mazing them every turn isn't very exciting to say the least.

Regrowth is the best spell you've cast as of yet for two mana. Much, much later in the game it can proxy Demonic, but before that it's just a three mana Lightning Bolt or something. Gifts not being in the format makes this way worse. In short, Regrowth is reserved only to a handful of decks. Snapcaster should replace it everywhere, because why would you play regrowth, if you are not running blue?

Pestermite is pretty weak as an aggro card. Three mana evasive 2/1 for three mana is too bad of a deal seeing that the ability is potentially irrelevant, especially later on. In before someone comes in and points out how they tapped opposing Maze of Ith/blocker and attacked for exact lethal next turn which this makes it the best creature ever.

I think Man-o'-War and AEther Adept are still seeing play, because people haven't re-evaluated these. No way Gray Ogre with bounce is good enough any more, but positive feelings towards a card that has been good in the past can be a bit of a trap. I cut these even from my High Tide -list and I haven't regretted that decision since. They might still be okay in a deck that can repeat these abilities somehow, or in a fish, but I would not get my hopes up.

[Sephiron]

@Tarmogoyf
I see where your point about him, and maybe in time I will change my opinion. But in my meta there are a lot of aggro/midrange decks and goyf was from medicore to very good against those, so I don't think I want to be cutting him, at least yet.

@Bribery
You said yourself that it's okay, but most people seem to think of this as an autoinclude. I'm just saying there are a lot of blue decks where you don't want to play Bribery. Playing some titan or some other finisher instead of bribery is more consistent, since against good  decks bribery has high chance to fizzle. For example in finnish HL nationals I was beating my opponent with primeval titan and some random guy, he played bribery hoping to get progenitus or sun titan, but I didn't play proge and titan was in my hand which led to him taking slime to destroy my land: not exactly best result. Other examples that happen quite often is when opponent tries getting titan or mulldrifter I just bounce it to my hand with command, roil, jace, etc.
In the end my point isn't that bribery is bad card right now, but good highlander decks have few targets for bribery, making it very inconsistent. And since most people put Bribery in as a finisher, it gets quite awkward.

[Mir]

I would like to comment some cards:

Sensei's divining top
I agree its overrated. Mostly people use it to check top of library every turn, while every turn there is mostly only 1 new card. It works better in decks which tutor or at least shuffle the library. Then it works as hell. Also there are few combos like with Counterbalance. Its pretty strong if your mana curve match with your opponnent, but still quite random. Also combo with Future sight and

Aether vial
For my own deck it has one special meaning. With patron wizard or voidmage prodigy I need to play wizards but not to spend too much mana in order to keep possibility to counter spells. Aether vial is able to fix this for me.

Bribery
Its only as strong as oponnents have in decks cards with extreme high mana cost and apropriate power level. Eldrazi for example. Against goblin/elven deck it was waste of mana.

Tarmogoyf
People use to remember only games when it hit table on 1-3rd turn. Thats really problematic, but not as big problem as it seems.

Moxes
They are valued for chance of having a lot of colored mana in 1st turn. Many times played as autoinclude for this reason to make deck "competetive".

Generaly all low mana artifacts with strong effect are autoincluded into deck just because it can be cast at almost any situation.