CardsplainFamous names that lose games. These cards look exciting, especially to a Tolkien fan, and beginners take them early.
- Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver (mythic , 3 to cast, equip 3). It gives +2/+2 and , plus when the equipped creature hits a player. You spend 6 mana over two turns before it adds any damage, and you can't equip it at all without a creature on the battlefield. Online drafters took it around pick 2 on average, and it won 50.0% over 1,744 games, against Crude Bent Blade's 60.4%.
- Sting, Bilbo's Sword (rare Equipment, 2 mana, , equip 3). When it enters it gets a +1/+0 counter for each creature the opponent controls and attaches to one of your creatures. That adds damage but no protection, so your creature as easily as before. It won 49.0% over 2,658 games. Draftsim's draft guide put it bluntly, writing "Sting, Bilbo's Sword is awful".
- Gigantic Big Bear (rare, 7 mana). It has and and can't be , but it has no trample, so a 1/1 can block it every turn. Seven mana means turn 7 at the earliest, and by then the game is often decided. Hexproof doesn't stop Crude Bent Blade either, because the Blade makes the opponent and doesn't target the creature. It won 51.5% over 3,322 games.
- Beorn, Reluctant Host // Till and Tend (common, ). A 5-mana creature with 5 power, trample and nothing else. The half only lets you play an extra land that turn. Beorn wins only 52.6% in Ferocious Wolves, the deck whose cards want a creature with power 4 or more (50.8% overall). Draftsim's review before release was mildly hopeful about it (4 out of 10). After a week of play their guide wrote, "Crude Bent Blade puts immense pressure on green fatties in the format".
Look for the same shape in cards not on this list. An expensive creature that does nothing the turn it enters, or an Equipment that needs a lot of mana before it matters, loses to cheap and cheap creatures.