near dirge
Below is a list of what I believe to be extremely under rated cards. Whether it is the Professor or other MTG based YouTube channels, I have not seen majority or all of these either played or mentioned! None of them are on the ban list, and many of them I think could be great upgrades to any deck (while some are more specialized upgrades)
Let me know your thoughts!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jewO6JHSWSjHhwDusLe7mXGkX_ylrCQRl0C-w3M3nSc/edit?usp=sharing
tough seal
The booby trap tech is interesting but there’s way better options than most of these cards that do the same thing
Like
Why caltrops over ensnaring bridge?
Why booby trap over telepathy?
Why ugins conjurant and the sunburst guy over prime hydra or any of the other hydras?
near dirge
Why caltrops over ensnaring bridge?
It is a 3 Drop with guarantee effects, it does not have a "will never impact others if ___" (card you suggested, if you have no cards in your hand, it does nothing and if you have more than 1 card in your hand, it limits what could be impacted by it), etc.
near dirge
Why booby trap over telepathy?
That is a blue mana specific card where booby trap is not blue specific so it can be included in far more deck types. If you are running a blue deck, it is viable to have Telepathy for sure, but if you do not run blue, Booby Trap is definitely what could be looked at.
tough seal
That is a blue mana specific card where booby trap is not blue specific so it ca...
In black you’ve got thoughtseize, inquisition and the ilk
near dirge
Why ugins conjurant and the sunburst guy over prime hydra or any of the other hy...
Similar to Telepathy where you could only run it if you are running a blue colored deck, when it comes to those two examples, it offers decks who lack said colors the ability to run them. I think personally speaking, Ulgin’s Conjurant can be great when comparing it in that way. However, I can agree that comparatively speaking, Solarion may fall short to certain types of hydra cards even though it seems very good for cost and potential.
tough seal
It is a 3 Drop with guarantee effects, it does not have a "will never impact oth...
[[ensnaring bridge]]
rough ravenBOT
near dirge
In black you’ve got thoughtseize, inquisition and the ilk
I think this is what is different compared to your examples: "Whenever target opponent draws any cards, he or she reveals those cards to all players." The effect is more of a lasting type effect versus a quick and painful one.
near dirge
When also thinking about decks that rely heavily on drawing more and more cards even with effects of cards that allow them to draw more cards on opponent's turns, I think that Booby Trap can be very useful. Plus, it could help with politics during a game if said opponent is a threat. Maybe it can also just be there to quickly deal 10 damage to an opponent who are forced to reveal the card on top of their deck prior to drawing it. I do think your examples are powerful cards, some again color specific, but I still think Booby Trap should be considered much more than it has been in general. 😇
And 6 mana is fairly hefty for such a card, but with the different stacked effects, even copying it enhances its overall power depending on the color you are using and cards to combo to make said copy of it. But I think it is more about its potential as a card and that it could essentially fit in any deck due to high mana cost but no specific mana needed.
tough seal
It’s just not that good dude
Like compared to what else I could be doing with 6 mana
Like if you wanted to talk about underrated cards I can see Final Parting being quite strong
near dirge
True, but underrated doesn't always mean broken. 😉
Do you agree with my pick of Caltrops?
tough seal
Right but to be underrated it has to be a good card
tough seal
Do you agree with my pick of Caltrops?
No
near dirge
Is it due to it only being 1 damage to each creature instead of more?
I just do not see an alternative which could fit with every color which would be 3 or less mana cost. o-o
tough seal
Like I said, ensnaring bridge
There’s also meekstone
Now meekstone is criminally underrated
[[meekstone]]
rough ravenBOT
near dirge
I can agree that meekstone is really powerful 😮 BUT, at least Caltrops effects all creatures regardless of size. 😄 But yes, if I was running a deck and had to choose, I would probably choose meekstone over Caltrops.
tough seal
Caltrops does affect all creatures
But it only matters if the creature has like 1 toughness
near dirge
"Whenever a creature attacks, Caltrops deals 1 damage to it."
tough seal
Right
So if it has 2 toughness it’s still alive
Or if it’s like
A 6/6
It’s still very much alive
near dirge
But it still does 1 damage. So if you have a 6/7 as a blocker, the opponent because of it may choose not to attack.
tough seal
Yeah but that’s really an edge case
Like think about what you wanna be stopping
The point of caltrops is to stop creatures hitting you right?
zenith abyss
I read the list of cards and all of these seem just mid at best a card I dont see get used nearly as often as it should is [[Early harvest]] thats the kinda card I think of when I think cards that should see more play or conversation but basicly everything on the list has a better option or is just a very mid card
rough ravenBOT
zenith abyss
and even early harvest is limited to being only basics but in a mono/dual colored landfall/big mana deck its got some pretty cool opportunities and can even be used in a politics setting by giving someone else thie basics back so they can respond to another players spells
but something like caltrops is a very niche help with it only being good against decks that swing with 20 1/1 tokens assuming their token deck wont just buff the tokens to survive the attack
opal surge
But it only matters if the creature has like 1 toughness
Unless you give it deathtouch. It's really good in [[Sydri]], making you essentially immune to combat for WUB every turn, but honestly kind of garbage in mostly everything else.
Trepanation Blade is pretty meh. There are way better equipment out there for just buffing your creatures a lot, and just better ways of buffing your board if you're focused on big combat. If you want a functioning version of the Dingus Staff combo, just play a Syr Konrad deck.
Ulgin's Conjurant is bad. Isn't this just a objectively worse Stonecoil Serpent? Which is a good but not amazing card in specific decks. Your opponents aren't going to need a way to remove this creature, since they can just chump it with whatever until it's small enough to handle. Having a 10+/10+ in late game doesn't really matter without evasion or trample.
Signal Pest is good.. But is talked about plenty in the right deck. For example, it's an excellent card in Yuriko because it's a 1 drop with evasion. The problem with 1 drops is that they're usually not worth that much in a commander deck. The vast majority of playable 1 drops (outside of decks like Yuriko) are either mana dorks or strong utility creatures. The exceptions have to be very good creatures like Ragavan, and signal pest isn't that.
rough ravenBOT
Legendary Creature — Human Artificer
: Target noncreature artifact becomes an artifact creature with power and toughness each equal to its mana value until end of turn.
: Target artifact creature gains deathtouch and lifelink until end of turn.
2/2
opal surge
Solarian is garbage. 7 mana to get a 6/6 that you can only attack with after two turns is a really bad rate. If you're playing 3+ colors, you have way better cards to fill your deck with. And once again, this thing doesn't have trample or evasion, so it can just be chumped. A 24/24 after 4 turns of investment isn't a monster, it's just.. Bad.
Jangling Automaton is.. Yeah pretty bad. If you're in a position where you need to defend your board... This thing is going to get blocked to death. You get one trigger out of it, and there's better ways to give pseudo vigilance. If you're in an untap-value strategy, there's way better cards out there. I just re-read it, and it's even worse. It's defending player. Meaning you don't get to untap ANYTHING, just your opponent. This only works in Jon Irenicus decks, lmao.
Table of the Guilds is garbage. If you're in lifegain, you have better options. If you're in anything else, why do you care about lifegain? I could see it being a cute pick in a budget "multicolor matters" deck, but in anything else it's just a waste of a slot.
Howling Golem only really works in decks that care about opponents drawing (Xyris, Nekusar) and those decks (you guessed it) have better options. Politicking to victory doesn't work if you give everyone resources, it's far more effective to give one or two opponents resource. Protecting yourself by boosting everyone else isn't a viable strategy, because once they're done with the other two they just have a stronger board than you and you're an afterthought. There are exceptions (like Vazi decks), but those don't want this thing.
Golem-skin Gauntlets is just a (really) bad Nettlecyst. Let's say you do you have 3 equipment attached to your Voltron creature.. Would you rather give it +3/+0 or attached another meaningful piece of equipment to it that probably gives more than that. 3 mana is quite a lot, especially since equipment decks are already strapped for mana.
Sorry if I came off a little condescending, but I really don't think the majority of these cards are worth talking about. Outside of Signal Pest and Caltrops which have a place in very specific decks.. THere's just better cards out there, even on a budget.And most decks just don't have space for X-cost creatures that exist just to block or artifacts that just gain you life. You only have 65~ cards available for non-lands, so between your actual strategy, ramp, card draw and interaction, where do you slot something like Solarion?
tough seal
Unless you give it deathtouch. It's really good in [[Sydri]], making you essenti...
I mean yeah, if you give the caltrops deathtouch then it’s gonna perform well. However that requires quite a bit of setup and in the vast majority of cases a meekstone or ensnaring bridge will perform functionally the same without needing so much mana or multiple cards to function
opal surge
I mean yeah, if you give the caltrops deathtouch then it’s gonna perform well. H...
I mean, with that specific commander it requires basically no setup, that was my point. It's the commander + caltrops + wub. That's very low investment. For that specific commander, caltrops is probably better than those other options. For everything else, it's garbage.
tough seal
I mean, with that specific commander it requires basically *no* setup, that was ...
Fair enough
thorn depot
Anyways how the hell is rabbit batteries not on the list
Edhrec says energizer's mascot only shows up in 1 percent of decks but I can think of a ton of situations where paying 1 red mana, 2 if it isn't already in the table, to give a combo piece haste can be the difference between getting wrathed, murdered, etc etc times the 3 different opponents with hands full of cards and thoughts of their own, and either winning or executing a back breaking combo
And I can also promise you batteries belong in far more lists than any of this triviality
tough seal
[[rabbit battery]]
rough ravenBOT
Artifact Creature — Equipment Rabbit
Haste
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 and has haste.
Reconfigure 
(: Attach to target creature you control; or unattach from a creature. Reconfigure only as a sorcery. While attached, this isn't a creature.)
1/1