Whats the most broken (pre-nerf) card ever made?

Mburn7

With all the calls for nerfs and balancing, I thought it would be nice for a reminder of how bad it could be.  So, what is your favorite (or least favorite) broken card of all time?

GrizzoMtGPQ

Runaway Carriage

I voted for 1 because at the time we had very few ways to deal with it. And it was dumb not to use it in most decks. Still a good card even post nerf.

sjechua

Gonti's Aether Heart

Unlimited AI turns are not fun to play against ...

speakupaskanswer

Baral, Chief of Compliance

The neverending Baral decks were truly horrible because you just had to sit and wait until the game was over. 

khurram

Undergrowth Champion

There just was no way you could kill an undergrowth Champion with reach, except to bounce it but it cost 12 so with green gem convertors that didn't do much. And then came sphinx of the final word to be its best friend.

Carriage also comes close.

Mainloop25

Runaway Carriage

Runaway Carriage. At least with Baral you had to pay to use him pre-nerf. 

Thuran

Baral, Chief of Compliance

Anyone want to include a rundown of what each card was like pre-nerf?

Anyway, Baral infinite spell decks that locked you in for 20+ mins were just the worst due to their RL implications ><

morgue427

Baral, Chief of Compliance

electrostatic was a close second for me only because it was a new mechanic and so few except the top players could energize realiably so when it came out it was a killer

khurram

Undergrowth Champion

I just saw that Avaricious Dragon has been included? 
I disagree that it was nerfed. Its much more useful in the current form. It used to cost 18 and gave 3 Mana to each card you drew. 

Theros

Baral, Chief of Compliance

baral hands down. runaway was strong but you had more options to deal with it and games were long. with baral you would lose before you get any chance to play any counter measure

blacklotus

Runaway Carriage

i vote runaway carriage. most op card in a pre-nerf mode. And it's an uncommon, so almost everyone can pull it quite easily.

it even makes Gideon1 extremely good.

pre-nerf runaway carriage: hexproof, first strike, trample 5/1 critter.

IM_CARLOS

Baral, Chief of Compliance

Baral define the meta pre-nerf and even Greg went "infinite" with this machine.

But I am here since a year, so every other other card I didn't play pre-nerf. 

At this time I would nerf cycling or at least new perspective and drake haven. It's just like mirrodin cycle in paper magic with scullclamp: you have to play or you have a very tough time to go top. 

THEMAGICkMAN

Baral, Chief of Compliance

I selected Baral but I think that gontis Aether heart ties with it. I lost one turn one to the PVE encounter that used it (Tezzeret in whatever AER's PVE event was) that was not fun. Funny, but not fun.

DaddyO

This is a good list. The obvious choice is Baral given the grinding misery of living thru a never ending turn. However, Baral was killable with every deck I played. It was out for a long time before the brokenness began to be exploited and it lost more than it won. The Carriage and The Champion impacted the game the very first time they came into play and really required no synergy with the deck to win. I pulled the Undergrowth Champion early and felt like I had acquired the most powerful card in the game. 

Stormcrow

Runaway Carriage

Carriage edges out Baral for me just slightly because Baral was a P2W mythic whereas Carriage was an uncommon.

Undergrowth Champion was one of my first mythics, I abused the hell out of him pre-nerf, but back in those days the scariest card around was Drowner of Hope, which was stupid good and dealt with UC no problem. Hixus also shut him down pretty easily. So even back in the day he was counterable and didn't do anything to prevent people from taking turns.

I don't remember Avaricious Dragon getting nerfed, and I've had one for a pretty long time. What did it do pre-nerf?

bk1234

Runaway Carriage

Runaway Carriage, hands down. I found an email exchange with someone from Hibernum about that the other day. It was a card with absolutely no solution. 

Mburn7

bken1234 said:

Runaway Carriage, hands down. I found an email exchange with someone from Hibernum about that the other day. It was a card with absolutely no solution. 

Its funny, I had actually proposed a fairly easy solution back then.  I said make it lose prevent damage when blocked AND WHEN BLOCKING (emphasis on what the change is, not for obnoxiousness).  But getting rid of it all together wasn't awful.

I'm surprised nobody has said Harness or Season's Past, since they were also AI piloted infinite engines long before Baral

bk1234

Runaway Carriage

Day's Undoing is also not on the list. It was INSANE before it was nerfed. 

Mburn7

bken1234 said:

Day's Undoing is also not on the list. It was INSANE before it was nerfed. 

What was the nerf?  I don't remember that.  Must have been before my time

klobberer

Easily Baral. Computer hit the combo and you had to quit the game. It would literally go for 10-20 minutes before the turn would end. It made the game unplayable.

James13

Runaway Carriage

Runaway carriage for sure.  No contest.  The set even came with skeleton key to prevent his one potential weakness.