No Reservations II, pt. 12a: Weatherlight

{First of its kind, now fallen by the wayside.}

Abeyance 200¹

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Abeyance was powerful and unique when it first came out, but that was 21 years, 11 months ago, as of the time of this writing. A lot has changed in that time: creatures got better (for the better of this game), instants and sorceries got nerfed (also for the betterment), and the landscape just isn't what it once was. World Wars I & II are perfect analogies: WWI was fought, at least initially, with the mindset that the old, pre-machinegun, pre-chemical warfare rules were still in effect, and look at where that mindset got people. Likewise, WWII had many Admirals' thinking stuck in the era of the battleship, when it was the carrier and air superiority which would win the day.


Abeyance's Listed status may be a relic of its times, but its power and versatility is still high enough, even now, that it still deserves its printed rarity, even if that printed rarity isn't actually displayed, because reasons.²

{Gerrard was never any good at betting.}

Aboroth 63

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Because of the absolutely necessary rules change to cumulative upkeep, Aboroth is now just a goofy-ass card. Before the rules change, the only way to keep track of cumulative upkeep was by memory. Yes, really. Back then, Aboroth was the only card with cumulative upkeep that actually used counters to keep track for you. Now, it's one of only a scant few cards that utilize multiple types of counters.


I'm still hoping for a Commander with a "counter types matters" theme, so supplemental reprinting it is.

{What do you get when you combine the power of too much card selection with mediocre design?}

Ancestral Knowledge 139

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As evidenced by the Gatherer comments, players will go to any great lengths to get card selection/filtering, no matter how convoluted the path nor terribad the steps. Soothsaying does everything 1Ancestral Knowledge1Ancestral Knowledge does, just in a much simpler, more effective way. Ancestral Knowledge was named so in order to piggyback onto Ancestral Recall, but nobody's buying it, as it's a disgrace to the name.


Yes, there's Food Chain/Misthollow Griffin/Eternal Scourge/Squee, the Immortal shenannygoats available with Ancestral Knowledge, but that's kinda the point of weird combo decks; what's utter, unplayable jank anywhere else has the potential to be banworthy in a stupid-ass combo deck. Corner cases like that aren't any reason to change my ruling.

{I once had the idea for a deck called Tamanoa³, Avizoa, Oh-er No-a. It...never got past the naming phase.}

Avizoa 140

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At first, I was all set to remention the old Chronomantic Escape/Chronosavant combo, but then I read the Gatherer comments, and the comment by Aquillion made me reexamine Avizoa's wording more closely. If it skipped whole turns, it would actually be more powerful and more useful, but as it only skips untap steps, it's a piece of garbage.

{"I got my best suit and my tie, shiny silver dollar on either eye."}

Bone Dancer 64

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Bone Dancer is obviously powerful, but it's also obviously pretty fragile on its own. In a Mono- Control shell, where it's the only creature (or one of the very few) among kill spells, discard/hand disruption, and other reanimation spells, it could be frustratingly difficult to play against, but there are still ways around it.


There's only two things keeping me from recommending a Standard reprint: the old style of saboteur design, where you have to choose between combat damage or getting the effect; and caring about the graveyard order, which is just too fiddly to matter 99% of the time.

{There are now better options, but it's not terrible enough to Burn.}

Bösium Strip 65

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Graveyard order, too fiddy, etc., etc., etc.

{"No butcher, no baker, no candlestick maker, and me with a look of a fine undertaker impressed her as a jester?"⁴}

Toin off de bubble machine! 201

A'wun'erful, a'wun'erful!




I love games with cluttered board states, complicated lines of play, weird card interactions, and convoluted paths to victory, so Bubble Matrix is right up my alley. In fact, I was inspired to design a card specifically to combo with it. Is that cheating? I don't know, but ask me if I care.

{"But I'm not dead yet! Ih-in fact, I just wrote an article for Redbook." "Hey listen, I did a favor for you!" "Yes, master."⁵}

Debt of Loyalty 202

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Yes, regeneration has been retired in favor of indestructible, but Debt of Loyalty is so good, so well made, so flavorful, that it's worth bringing regeneration out of retirement for it.


Individually, the different aspects of the card break 's share of the Color Pie: isn't normally supposed to get creature-stealing. However, just like Form of the Dragon, when taken together, the aspects make a cohesive, flavorful whole, that can oftentimes tell a story.


And speaking of story, Debt of Loyalty is probably Wizards' first attempt at a Story Spotlight card, or at least our first encounter, alphabetically by set chronologically, of the concept.

{Rule #3: If it was colorshifted in Time Spiral block, it's safe for Standard.}

Dwarven Thaumaturgist 203, downgraded from to , to match Planar Chaos' example.

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The combo to beat at the Planar Chaos prerelease was Merfolk Thaumaturgist/Serendib Sorcerer, which could take out pretty much anything. That's about as interesting as Dwarven Thaumaturgist is ever gonna get.

{Phasing gets Piled.}

Ertai's Familiar 141

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See the spoiler heading above.

{Some people just want to watch the world burn.}

I don't want to set the world on fire 60

I just want to start a flame in your heart.


Firestorm is just too o.p. The only mitigating factor is the fact that as X increases, the mandatory number of targets also increases, but that's not enough of a limit to its power. Rolling Thunder did it right and fairly.

{Wood Elemental is so bad, any attempt to improve it also produces unplayable garbage (ok, Foratog isn't so bad).}

Fungus Elemental 142⁶

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MaRo himself has gone on record as saying that Fungus Elemental was a huge mistake. Who the fuck are you to disagree with him?

{Bad cards are bad, and I'm tempted to review them both together.}

Gallowbraid 143⁶ & Morinfen 144 (Fitting, since they're both grossly terribad.)

Price & Price




Way back when I first started playing Magic, way back in around 2000 (when the rocks were just slightly yielding to the touch), one of the first related purchases I made was The Complete Magic Encyclopedia. I used to spend hours upon hours pouring over every page, getting my earliest homebrew design ideas from the cards therein, but Gallowbraid and Morinfen never made any sense to me, even then, and they make even less sense now. There's scant lore on the two, and what there is makes them seem like Magic's own answer to the the goldfish poop gang.

{Footnotes}