This has been some kind of a topic over in the Constructed subforum; also I found it hilarious that we have a best carfs thread, but no worst cards thread.

I looked at the card list and picked 3 cards out of each set that I believe are among the worst ones in Duels:

Starter Box: Siegecraft, Chorus of Might, Stonework Puma
ORI: Tainted Remedy, Bellows Lizard, Animist's Awakening
BFZ: Prism Array, Gruesome Slaughter, Fertile Thicket
OGW: Abstruse Interference, Unity of Purpose, Untamed Hunger
SOI: Vessel of Volatility, Equestrian Skill, Invocation of Saint Traft
EMN: Lunar Force, Distemper of the Blood, Campaign of Vengeance
KLD: Dramatic Reversal, Curio Vendor, Ruinous Gremlin
AER: Deft Dismissal, Take into Custody, Consulate Turret
AKH: Hazoret's Favor, Onward // Victory, Luxa River Shrine

I'd love to hear what you think are the objectively worst cards. Quite possible I missed some.

I cannot believe how much Fertile Thicket I see on the ladder. It blows my mind.

Barney used to have a competitive deck with Bellows Lizard. Yumi used to give me a hard time over it

Distemper of the Blood can't be that bad, can it? I don't hate it at all.

A few of those cards, while I wouldn't call great, can't be the worst in their sets. St. Traft is ok (tolerable) in some builds - I've even seen CGB use it (possibly in one of the tourneys, in a UW spirits deck iirc). I've never used Distemper, but I've seen it in vamp decks and I feel like there HAS to be worse cards than it from it's set. I built with Prism Array back in its season and it was one of the better cards in 5c Converge decks. Granted you shouldn't build 5c Converge decks, but I feel like there are worse ORI cards.

D: Dehydration, Siegecraft, Stonework Puma
ORI: Fiery Conclusion, Animist's Awakening, Rabid Bloodsucker
BFZ: Voracious Null, Fertile Thicket, Gruesome Slaughter
OGW: Abstruse Interference, Loam Larva, Roiling Waters
SOI: Emissary of the Sleepless, Vessel of Paramnesia, Murderer's Axe


More to follow. This is tough; lot of bad cards I would never play with...

You take that back.

Using your format of three per set, here are my candidates:

Starter: Stonework Puma, Strider Harness, Goblin Balloon Brigade
- Puma: Gray Ogre is not playable, even when colorless
- Harness: Garbage equipment is garbage. Not worth a card, not worth the equip cost.
- Brigade: Typically an unplayable 1/1 for 1, sometimes-flying doesn't help redeem it.

Origins: Tainted Remedy, Veteran's Sidearm, Meteorite
- Remedy: "Those life gain decks are getting out of control! Better put a safety valve in." - Origins design team, probably
- Sidearm: Garbage equipment is garbage. Not worth a card, not worth the equip cost.
- Meteorite: Oh boy, terrible removal stapled to ramp/fixing at the low, low cost of 5 mana!

BFZ: Ondu Rising, Blighted Steppe, Eldrazi Devastator
- Ondu Rising: Straight lifegain is never playable, and this is rarely more than that.
- Blighted Steppe: Bad for the same reasons as above, but even worse because its sac ability is only really effective when you're already ahead.
- Devastator: Too expensive for a card that does nothing when it comes down and has no way to protect itself.

Oath: Call the Gatewatch, Visions of Brutality, Bone Saw
- Call: Planeswalkers are best when cast on curve so you can snowball their loyalty and ability advantage. Taking a turn off for this puts you on the back foot, and your opponent knows what's coming and can adjust accordingly.
- Visions: This is only removal if you're winning the race. Guess who's not winning the race by taking turn 2 off?
- Bone Saw: Garbage equipment is garbage. Not worth a card, not worth the equip cost.

SoI: Furtive Homunculus, Vessel of Volatility, Warped Landscape
- Homunculus: Does great when your opponent has massive creatures and is beating your face in. The other skulkers at least had other abilities to justify skulk, but this bloke wasn't so lucky.
- Vessel: This card is fantastic! Assuming your opponent has, you know, zero interaction to interrupt your all-in plan.
- Warped Landscape: When spoiled, I thought this might actually be kinda neat. Turns out the ability to tap for colorless doesn't justify an Evolving Wilds that costs 2 to activate.

EMN: Lunar Force, Emrakul's Influence, Geier Reach Sanitarium
- Lunar Force: Guess it's ok if you sandbag it till your opponent only has meaningful spells left in hand? Aren't you glad you effectively mulliganed to enable that?
- Emrakul's Influence: Hahahahahahaha.
- Sanitarium: I see many people using this, and it still looks terrible to me. A symmetric benefit that, at worst, leaves you behind on mana. At best, you're roughly at mana parity by saving some on madness spells.

KLD: Curio Vendor, Torch Gauntlet, Demolition Stomper
- Curio Vendor: How did this even make it to print?
- Gauntlet: Garbage equipment is gar- you know what, I don't even know why WotC makes equipment any more.
- Stomper: This would have been...well, not good, but at least not embarrassing if it had Trample. Daunt is so much worse.

AER: Universal Solvent, Consulate Turret, Planar Bridge
- Solvent: Improvise never made it, so this is just awful removal.
- Turret: This is to Dynavolt Tower as Sky Skiff is to Smuggler's Copter, except Skiff is at least passable in starter decks.
- Planar Bridge: Stop. Never use this. If you really want a specific card, just use Diabolic Tutor and avoid the 8(!) mana cost to actually cast it.

AKH: Hazoret's Favor, Kefnet's Monument, Luxa River Shrine
- Favor: Again, how did this see print? One fantastic use - use it to sac that Curio Vendor that you didn't want anyway.
- Monument: Slots right into my blue-based creature deck. Oh wait.
- Shrine: A collateral victim of Duels ending. Imagine the jank if this and Crested Sunmare were allowed to meet. Glorious.

EMN: Stensia Innkeeper, Make Mischief, Cultist's Staff
Stensia Innkeeper - Hill Giant is better because it doesn't even pretend to offer additional benifit, and I appreciate honesty.
Make Mischief - lol no thanks; you want Fight Club mischief and this more Dennis the Mennace mischief...
Cultist's Staff - so bummed we never got Good equipment for a Weapons Trainer deck. This is among the worst of the mostly trash we did get.

KLD: Hightide Hermit, Torch Gauntlet, Accomplished Automation
Hightide Hermit - probably wouldn't even be worth it if it gave you 14 energy when it entered play.
Torch Gauntlet - more trash equipment
Accomplished Automaton - is it really an accomplishment that you spent 7 mana on a vanilla fatty, especially in a set that was loaded with cheap servo chump blockers?

AER: Deft Dismissal, Defiant Scavenger, Cogwork Assembler
Deft Dismissal - I mean maybe if it cost 2 mana...
Defiant Salvager - Sorcery speed crats: not even once.
Cogwork Assembler - what are you even going to copy for a single turn that's worth the 7 mana activation / 10 mana investment?

AKH: Compulsory Rest, Kefnet's Monument, Liza River Shrine
Compulsory Rest - thanks for the out, especially if I'm playing a deck with death triggers or lifegain matters stuff (actual things that happened in the last 2 games an Opp cast this on me - helping me flip a Lone Rider one game and giving me 2 clues and 4 1/1 tokens in a Annointed Procession / Ulvenwald Mysteries deck another game). Thanks for not running any of the myriad better removal options.
Kefnet's Monument - I actually tied to use this in a deck one. Imagine my disappointment when I realized I had read it wrong and it doesn't tap the creatures first.
Luxa River Shrine - I can't even this card.

This has definitely spiked some controversy. Explanations for some of my picks:

Prism Array: That card is not a payoff. Paying 4 mana to draw a card is already on the verge of being too expensive, paying 5 for a similar (IMO slightly worse) effect doesn't do it and tapping up to 5 creatures doesn't make up for it as the initial cost for this card is WAY too high.

Invocation of Saint Traft: I don't think Auras are very good in general, and this one pretty much is "When this creature attacks, defending player loses 4 life" except you can interact with the lifeloss. I guess there are ways to be cute to make the card more than that (Valor in Akros/Spectral Procession), but it still is an Aura and I don't think it's worth the risk getting 2-for-1d.

Distemper of the Blood: Playing this as a 2-mana sorcery is horrendous, playing it as a Madness combat trick is not reliable enough IMO as you don't always have the resources to dedicate to throwing that away; and when it's (R: Deal 2 damage) most of the time, why not play cards that do this under less conditions (Temper/Alms of the Vein)?


Some awesome calls you have made are Goblin Balloon Brigade, Kefnet's Monument and Torch Gauntlet. In hindsight, these should probably make my list. Might edit them in later.


That being said, some of your "terrible" cards I think are solid:
Fiery Conclusion: Its upside over Splinters is instant speed. You can leave this up alongside a different way to sac your creature (Vampiric Rites for instance). It's not amazing, but far from terrible.

Compulsory Rest: 2 life is a very weak consolation prize if this just hit your big game-winning flier. Yes, Duels has access to better removal, but this still is removal.

Ondu Rising: The 2-mana effect is indeed very narrow and there are not many decks that want it. As a 6-mana 4/4 haster that has everything gain lifelink until EOT though? I think there are worse cards.

Geier Reach Sanitarium: This is the mention that probably surprised me the most. Worst-case this is a manasource, and it has a lot of potential upside. You already mentioned Madness cards, with which this card is straight-up card advantage (expensive, but card advantage). But even if it is not, you get to choose when to activate it and what to discard to it. Excess land? Fattie to reanimate? First copy of Take Inventory or Galvanic Bombardment? You'll take all of these. I agree you don't just want this in any deck, but there are many, many decks in which one of these is so much better than a basic Mountain/Island/Swamp. (Mill, Reanimator, all but the most aggressive Madness decks, some Control decks).

Geier Reach Sanitarium is not in the worst card category by any means! on the other hand is there anything worse than Stonework Puma? I don´t think so
PS:Hide this post from Joker because he may find hilarious to make us build decks with this piece of crap cards!

Compulsory Rest probably isn't one of the 3 worst cards in its set, but because of the recent experiences having it cast on me that I mentioned, it was in my head as a bad card. If you're really concerned with having a 2 mana white spell that can stop a late game flying bomb, run Reprisal (or just pay an extra mana you should have plenty of by the time a fatty drops for the white Enchantments like Thopter Arrest or Revoke Privileges that don't allow your Opp to crew vehicles or give a sac/lifegain out that can play into Opp deck strategies).

I've built many a crats deck and Fiery Conclusion isn't solid enough to make the cut ever. I still say Bone Splinters is better because even tho it's sorcery speed it kills anything that isn't indestructible. I've had opps play splinters against me many times but I've never seen Conclusion cast ever in Duels. The fact that my head can't help but compare it to Goblin Grenade skews me pretty hard against it. It doesn't even have goofy jank appeal, which cards like St. Traft, Tainted Remedy, Lunar Force, Visions of Brutality, Universal Solvent, Planar Bridge, Hazoret's Favor, and Bone Saw have. While I wouldn't say any of those are good cards, the fact you can build JFF decks around them keeps them from being worst cards in the game IMO - I think worst cards dont have a place in any deck ever.

invocation of Saint Traft has fun synergies you've mentioned, goes on unblockable doods to fun effect, and even was in a tourney deck CGB ran (I'm 99.9% sure I'm remembering that right). Yes auras have inherent weaknesses, but if you play smart you can usually get an Exquisite Firecraft effect out of it, which is pretty sweet for spells in .

I've built JFF decks with Tainted Remidy and Jorubai Murk Lurker as focal pieces - and SuperLadMan has a deck built around it too I've seen him stream.

Lunar Force has goofy synergies with Auramancer, Sigil of the Empty Throne, and Emeria Shepherd. It would have been better if we had gotten Starfield of Nyx in Duels, but I've used it before in decks that while aren't anywhere near top tier have been entertaining at least.

I have a decklist in my sig called Come-At Me Bro that uses Visions of Brutality as a key piece anlong with Infectious Bloodlust and Heliod's Pilgrim to tutor up the combo - and it was also part of SuperLadMan's afore mentioned Esper Tainted Remidy deck.

CGB built a mono red Eggs deck with Universal Solvent in it, and I built a Rakdos version inspired by it and another users Rakdos Eggs deck shared in constructed subforum that ran a single copy - every once in a while it'd lock down games being chained endlessly with Scrap Trawler and Pia's Revolution in play. I know the card has been our running joke here, but it can do work in the right situation and had all star moments when I was playing that Eggs deck.

I've lost games (plural) to Planar Bridge, so while I've never built with it myself, I wouldn't call it the worst card from its set - once you hit 8 mana you tutor into play whatever you need to win, and keep doing it every turn until you do.

I have a goofy steal and sac deck in mind for Hazoret's Favor - just haven't gotten around to it yet. I also think it could go into a red aggro deck and not be the literal worst.

Bone Saw was a key piece to several decks I've seen played or tried myself - SuperLadMan and Thelona have YouTube vids of it in decks with the 5/6 serpent that gets cheaper by artifacts in play, and Thelona also used it to fun effect in Boros equipment decks (two different versions in 2 different seasons IIRC).

None of those cards are what I'd call good, exactly, but they can contribute to fun deck ideas that aren't exactly terrible.

I agree with you on Ondu Rising and Geier Reach Sanitarium. I've used both in various decks throughout Duels existence and they're not the worst cards you can build with.

It's too late. I was writing a post here yesterday, something like "A lot of material here ", then i decided not to since i'm seriously thinking about it

I like Timh's list a lot. They are some seriously bad cards that made me lol.

We had it coming

And the nominees for this year's razzies are:

Starter box:
Aeronaut Admiral (overcosted creature to give flying to Vehicles, when the best ones already flying? Never seen it played)
Kapsho Kitefins (worst 6 drop in Duels? Not even the AI touches this... Well, not entirely true... But the AI isn't a very good at deck building is it?)
Necromantic Thirst (worst aura candidate. 4 mana and it doesn't even put the Creature into play?)
Stonework Puma ( got to agree with this one, a colorless grizzly bear ally is never going to be worth 3 mana)
Ainok Guide ( This replaced the seemingly over-powered ranger and, never found its way into any deck, ever... Good work wizards!)

Origins:
Totem-Guide Hartebeest (don't we have a cheaper way to do the same thing? Never seen it played)
Aspiring Aeronaut (1/2 flyer for 4... Oh, and you get a thopter... Wow! They don't come much worse than this...)
Dehydration (it seems like wizards just ran out of ideas with each new set and just kept making variants of this card. They all suck and this one is probably the worst of all. 4 mana and it doesn't even tap the Creature?)
Tainted Remedy (obviously a combo card that we never got the rest of the pieces for. Useless...)
Consecrated by Blood (another bad aura. At least this one actually pumps your creature for the 4cc, but Oh my... Sacrificing 2 creatures for regeneration? Really?)
Rabid Bloodsucker (another prime 5-drop. AI only stuff)
Nissa's Revelation (awesome if you happen to hit Ulamog and friends on the scry, but honestly, how often is that gonna be? At 7cc, you'll probably lose before being able to cast it.)
Guardian Automaton (Warning: if you have any deck with this card in it, replace it with filigree familiar immediately!)

Battle for Zendikar (here we go..):

Courier Griffin (do WotC hate griffins? I can't remember them ever printing a playable one?)
Ondu Greathorn (bad is bad)
Kor Entanglers (see Ondu Greathorn)
Cryptic Cruiser (Eldrazi processors should probably be all in this list. Yeah, I'm just gonna put that Scrapheap Scrounger into your graveyard that I just cast declaration in stone on, so I can tap your zombie token if you don't mind...)
Wave-Wing Elemental (Yet another awe-inspiring 6-drop. Please slit your wrists before playing this.)
Guul Draz Overseer (Wasted rare slot? You bet! 3/4 flying for 6... How exciting!)
Processor Assault (Sorcery, doesn't hit face or walkers, really, really conditional removal? This is probably as bad as it gets.)
Valakut Invoker (I guess we have worst stats for 3cc, but it may as well have been a vanila 2/3, because I'm guessing nobody has ever actually used the ability yet...)
Unnatural Aggression (Green removal is always bad, but here they added to a costed card just to exile instead? So not worth it...)
Brood Butcher (This card has meh written all over it.)
Fertile Thicket (A Land that can guarantee your next top deck is Land, fanf@ckingstastic! Worst Land in Duels? Probably...)

Oath of the Gatewatch:
Stoneforge Acolyte (ok, so the stats for 1 drop aren't the worst, but you've got to admit that playing allies to be able to dig for all those wonderful equipments in our cardpool is not exactly a game winning strategy.)
Expedition Raptor (The support cards all suck, but this 2/2 flyer for 5 takes the cake)
General Tazri (perfect for your 5-color allies deck!)
Abstruse Interference (about as useful as gonorreia)
Roiling Waters (Sorcery speed bounce is not so good, drawing 2 cards is ok, 7cc is a joke)
Press into Service (adding support and increasing the cc of already existing cards doesn't help.)
Bonds of Mortality (this could be a sideboard card, or maybe not. At least its a cantrip...)

Shadows over Innistrad:
Emissary of the Sleepless (wasn't there some guy who said this was the best card of the set? Lol)
Lamplighter of Selhoff (well the art is kind of interesting... Such a dull card though...)
Wolf of Devil's Breach (5/5 for 5 isn't up to snuff. That useless ability doesn't help, Mythic rarity is insulting.)
Skeleton Key (It doesn't look that bad in theory... Evasion plus a copterish ability... I wonder why nobody plays this card?)

To be continued...
(if all of these cards magically disappeared from our cardpool, you wouldn't even notice...)

I'm glad nobody thinks Siege Mastodon and Rotted Hulk are bad. It's hard not to appreciate the sweeper-dodging abilities of these format regulars. The Hulk is even immune to Dusk // Dawn. It's like an unspelled ability; you'd think the card is vanilla, but the veterans know it's not.

Also both immune to the most common removal in duels as well, grasp of darkness, fiery impulse and deft dismissal - these bombs stick around forever!

They do not stand up to the power of the top two SOI cards though.

http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/M ... sp?c=69714

Twins of Maurer Estate and Emissary of the Sleepless

Twins are great! I used to play those chicks a bunch

Trashing vanila creatures is too easy... Its when they add useless unplayable keywords and overcost the cards that makes me dislike them. I also used the "never seen used in actual deck" as my main criteria, which I guess also applies to most of the vanila stuff in our cardpool.
You could also include most of the defender cards, which, with the exception of maybe Thermo-Alchemist are totally unplayable too and so on... But putting together a list of every meh card would just be boring... Lets just Concentrate on the really bad ones.

Eldritch Moon:
Certain Death (bad 6 mana removal will probably never save you from... Certain death)
Abandon Reason (playing this card certainly is abandoning reason. Most madness cards are good/ok, but this effect, even for the madness cost is laughable.)
Make Mischief (paying 3 mana for a 1/1 with flash that deals 1 damage when it comes into play and another when it dies is not a good deal.)
Emrakul's Influence (Oh yeah, now we're Talkin'! 4cc do-nothing Enchantment that only plays off when you cast 7+cc cards! Not easy to be worst than that...)
Campaign of Vengeance (I wasn't even totally sure of how this card worked until Modulo clearly that up. I guess it could do work in an orzhov token deck as a finisher, if there weren't dozens of better options for that particular deck)

Kaladesh:
Skyswirl Harrier (wizards loves giving white completely overcosted flyers for no apparent reason)
Engineered Might (its a damn Sorcery! 5 mana for either of the effects is iffy at best...)
Accomplished Automaton (what exactly is the point of this card?)
(kaladesh has surprisingly few really bad cards)

Aether revolt:
Aerial Modification (see Aeronaut Admiral in earlier post. Making Vehicles creatures only makes them more vulnerable and the best ones already fly, so this aura is completely useless and over-costed)
Dawnfeather Eagle (did I mention white has loads of overcosted flyers? Remember razorfoot griffin? I guess it started a trend...)
Night Market Aeronaut (black has its fair share too...)
Sly Requisitioner (I've looked at this card lots of times, trying to figure out how to break it with some johnny combo and never came up with anything... Conclusion: its just plain bad)
Spire Patrol (you also have an azorius crappy flyer! Yay!)
Consulate Turret (I used to think this was just a slightly inferior Dynavolt Tower, until I read the card properly and realized it doesn't zap creatures... Bad!)
Filigree Crawler (So not worth the cc)

Amonkhet:
(Plenty of overcosted white flyers, but I won't bore you with those obvious choices)
Naga Oracle (Yep, I'm gonna waste my 4cc slots with a 2/4 pseudo-scry. Not!)
Oashra Cultivator (if the ramp is gonna cost you 3 mana and your gonna have to sacrifice it anyway, why not just play one of the other ramp spells?)
Hazoret's Monument (I thought it could actually be good. I was wrong)
Kefnet's Monument ( I never had any doubts about how bad this one is though)
Luxa River Shrine (it'll take you 3 turns and plenty of mana to get it working at maximum capacity and even then the pay-off is far from being worth it. Steer clear of this one.)

And the winner is...

The worst card in Duels is...









La la Land!
(just kidding)

Imo the worst card in Duels is Processor Assault. Why? Well, 90% of the time you won't even be able to use it, so it'll do absolutely nothing. In the other 10% of times it may actually kill something nasty, but can potentially benefit your opponent a lot and backfire on you. It is the most situational removal spell in all of Duels and all of the stars have to line up perfectly it to be effective, not to mention the abundance of better options available. So to put it simply, it is utter crap.

I once lost to a Prism Array deck. it was the only time I've ever seen the card. It made the difference - tapped my creatures at critical points in the game. I can't remember what deck I was playing, but I was closing in for the kill until this thing popped out.
Hats off to the deck builder.

I run Spire Patrol in my Azorius spirits/tempo deck and it's decent. The ability is a smaller version of Reflector Mage, the 3/2 flying body is better than the Mage. Definitely a very much playable card. Haven, you should play less RDW