Cards you refuse to use

[Aetherium Slinky]

I refuse to use counterspell cards.

Would you like to elaborate a little? Why are you skipping blue removal, an integral mechanic to the game?

[MisterDalek]

I absolutely will not use the absurdly power-crept Modern Horizons Card. The monkey, Murktide Regent, Urza's Saga, Unholy Heat, etc.

Generally I love what the two sets added (Esper vial with Soulherder is probably my favourite deck) but there are some cards that were blatantly designed to be good and sell packs and so I will never purchase those packs or cards as I feel they're bad for the long-term health of eternal formats. This isn't so much a problem for me with a card like Urza that just ended up being an insane combo piece but is more so an issue in my eyes when WOTC just decides to make a one-mana murder for red or gives blue the best two-mana beater there is because they are so obviously going to warp formats and are just designed to say fk the colour pie, buy new packs.

[ApothecaryGeist]

I absolutely will not use the absurdly power-crept Modern Horizons Card. The monkey, Murktide Regent, Urza's Saga, Unholy Heat, etc.

Generally I love what the two sets added (Esper vial with Soulherder is probably my favourite deck) but there are some cards that were blatantly designed to be good and sell packs and so I will never purchase those packs or cards as I feel they're bad for the long-term health of eternal formats. This isn't so much a problem for me with a card like Urza that just ended up being an insane combo piece but is more so an issue in my eyes when WOTC just decides to make a one-mana murder for red or gives blue the best two-mana beater there is because they are so obviously going to warp formats and are just designed to say fk the colour pie, buy new packs.

The mere existence of these cards is not bad for the long-term health of the game.  What is bad for the game is that WotC insists on only putting such cards into premium priced booster packs, and never into $4 packs that all the players can afford.

[BoBWiz]

Hi, interesting thread.

In case of unholy heat i've to say: It is quite cheap to buy.

I got no problem with playing any cards BUT I know that my playgroup got a hard life to deal with certain cards and combos. So when I build a deck, that is too strong, there is no fun for all. So I don't do it.

I'm more at the janky side of life, so I barely use gamechanging cards anways for the reason written above.

I do not play Rules Lawyer, it seems to be op.  (Yes, it is possible in my playgroup!) 

Are the streetfighter cards actual printed? Wanna have and play!!!!

best

[ApothecaryGeist]

Are the streetfighter cards actual printed? Wanna have and play!!!!

best

Yes.  They are.  They are a Secret Lair.  Mine was delivered a couple weeks ago.  Been trying to decide what deck to build with them.  I was never a fan of Street Fighter.  But they have some interesting mechanics. 

[stuffnsuch]

I don't think there are any cards I won't use, per se, but I won't use a card just because it's really good, unless it has some greater synergy with my deck.  For instance, I wouldn't run Cyclonic Rift in a bantchantress deck, but I'd absolutely consider it for a spell slinger deck.  Even then, if I'm trying to combo off, I still would probably cut it, but if I was trying to win off of prowess triggers and combat, I'd keep it in.  It has to be not just good, but good for my deck.

I also want to comment on the universes beyond thing, but not to say they're all out.  MTG has always been a "universes beyond" style game, whether they had a name for it or not.  One of the first sets in was Arabian Nights, and right at the beginning of the modern era we had the Kamigawa block, and then before the infamous Walking Dead Secret Lair, we'd just had Throne of Eldraine.  Each pulls cards right from actual, real-world stories that aren't in the MTG cannon.  There are dozens of examples of Magic doing this over the years, but whether it's Greek Mythology, Gothic Horror, or a Fairy Tale, all the tie ins up to that point had three things in common: they were set in a land without modern (or futuristic) technology, they all had some sort of magic at the core of their stories, and they all involved fantastic beasts and creatures.  I imagine, since it meets the criteria, the upcoming LotR sets will fit in a little more nicely with the established game, but things like Dr. Who and Warhammer, will still feel out of place, though, I , personally, am about playing the game more than the flavor of specific cards.  It's never made sense for a goat token to drive a plane and then to get blocked by a big spider.

[Devix]

Blood moon.

[The Golgari Guy]

In casual, I tend to avoid the most powerful tutors, since I feel like they reduce variance too much and make the experience of paying EDH. I stress that this is about my personal experience and I won't fault anyone for running them, although I may get tired if someone wins the same way for the 4th time because they tutored for their wincon.

So, I don't play:

Demonic Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Worldly Tutor
Mystical Tutor
Enlightened Tutor
Diabolic Intent

[mynameiscalled]

I'm jumping forward in time and say I'm probably not gonna use the stickers/sticker cards - other than that, everything has their rightful place and is a fair game. (Besidest those Fortnite cards - just can't get over those :')

[Bizarro Soapy]

Let's see...

Cards I won't use unless they are very on-theme for a deck (Rhystic Study in a Quesa deck for example):

Rhystic Study
Smothering Tithe
Esper Sentinel
Swords to Plowshares
Beast Within
Path to Exile
Chaos Warp
Pact of Negation
Propaganda
Ghostly Prison
Demonic Tutor
Cyclonic Rift
etc.

I just think there are some cards that are too good, and that means they're a one-size-fits-all solution that are auto includes in most decks. That reduces variation, results in repetitive gameplay, and negates much of the deckbuilding challenge. It also means that many more interesting cards get left by the wayside, and fun interactions are sacrificed because using the technically superior card is the "correct" thing to do. This is all with a quite narrow focus on EDH games of course.

[Slyvester12]

I like Magic, and I like a lot of the UB properties like Street Fighter, LotR, Warhammer, etc... But I don't want them in the same game. If I were playing a Warhammer game and Nicol Bolas showed up to fight some space marines, I would be unhappy. If I were playing SF and Gandalf magically suplexed Zangief... Okay, that would be sick, but fighting games commonly have guest characters and goofy nonsense to begin with.

...Did you mean to quote me?

[12aptor1nfinity]

I refuse to play ugly cards.

At first, I struggled with even the “new” borders that came with 8th edition. But in the past few years that I have gotten back into mtg, there are now so many new prints and borders and extended arts and alternate arts, I just gave up on consistent format. Now I just use my personal taste to decide which card version I like most for my deck.

Gameplay-wise, I don’t really refuse anything, but I try very hard to steer away from mechanics that make the game longer in tedious ways, like tons of shuffling effects. I have a lot of +1/+1 counters in my deck, and even though I have a bunch of cool little dice for them, even they are sometimes a bit annoying to manage.

I hope I live long enough for augmented reality mtg games where a computer/AI auto manages these for us. Even better if you can upload your deck and have it fully managed (shuffling, life and damage, etc.) - we could stop having to play human computers and enjoy the decision making more.

[stuffnsuch]

I really like playing "broken" cards completely fairly (yeah, I've cast Thassa's Oracle just for card selection more than once), so there's not a lot I won't play.  I will, however, outside my one cEDH deck, almost never use like 90% of the counterspells out there.  I will use those that are a little more niche if they fit the theme of my deck, but, I would almost always rather let someone else play what they want to and loose than to counter something and win.

[Cosmic_Insight]

I avoid anything too expensive unless I'm putting together a deck I intend to use for a while. If I want a Smothering Tithe or a Rhystic Study, they'll be for a deck I love to optimize, not for a random budget list.

Oh, and I hate playing blue because I like fun commander gameplay. Arena is my space to play mono blue tempo, not my lgs.

[WWolfe]

The mere existence of these cards is not bad for the long-term health of the game.  What is bad for the game is that WotC insists on only putting such cards into premium priced booster packs, and never into $4 packs that all the players can afford.

This is the issue I have with them.