Can we appreciate Mystic Denial, where Wizards couldn't resist printing a generic 3 mana counter in a set where instants didn't even exist.

I love the idea that Time Valut was so broken that trying to fix it led to it being broken in a completely different way 😂

the title needs an errata

Impulse didn't get its errata when it was reprinted in standard. The errata actually happened almost immediately as it was never supposed to have the shuffle text on the card in the first place, but it was too late to catch the printing, so the announcement was made once the set was released. Judges actually announced the correct wording at sanctioned limited events when Visions first came out. There's probably still a KZfaq video of it being stated by commentators while ProsBloom was being played on camera since it caused so much confusion.

Time Vault should be number two. The companion cards were the #1 biggest errata bar none. Not only for the unprecedented errata of an entire mechanic, but the fact that now none of the cards actually work anything like what's printed on the cards

I have to mention the fix for the Flame Fusillade/Time Vault issue. At first, WotC tried to implement a "time between turns" that was meant only to decide if you wanted to skip your turn for Time Vault. You could activate mana sources in this period, because at the time you could activate mana sources whenever you wanted. This meant you could activate Wall of Roots between turns, and since you weren't technically in a turn, you could do it as many times as you wanted. So congratulations, you have infinite green mana. And since phases/steps aren't ending, you can keep it through your untap step. But since you don't get priority during your untap step, you have a Stasis in play so that infinite mana doesn't empty at the end of the step, and in your upkeep, you win the game with a huge Magma Mine. It was the very short-lived "Wall of Boom" deck and since it required severe rules lawyering to work, it didn't last long.

My favorite errata is one that came up for me in PT Charleston (Ravnica Block Team Constructed). Bottled Cloister as printed reads "At the beginning of each opponent's upkeep, remove your hand from the game face down. At the beginning of your upkeep, return all cards removed from the game with Bottled Cloister to your hand, then draw a card." I was playing a WUR deck with Dream Leash, somehow managed to tap my opponent's (playing WR) Bottled Cloister, and gain control of it with Dream Leash. I then called a judge to ask what happened to the removed cards. The judge ruled, based on the printed wording, that I would get all my opponent's cards in my hand. Ridiculous Hat, my teammate, looked at the judge and said "that CAN'T be right", but the opponent did not appeal the ruling, and the judge did stuck with it. I killed my opponent with his own Lightning Helixes. The Oracle text has been updated to read "At the beginning of your upkeep, return all cards you own exiled with Bottled Cloister to your hand, then draw a card." This is what should have happened at the PT, cards from one player's deck should not go in another player's hand (pretty sure there's a line in the Comprehensive Rules about this), but the card as written broke that rule, and given that one of Magic's rules is that card exceptions trump normal rules, it's easy to see how the ruling was gotten wrong, thus the errata. I'd like to think that this interaction is why the errata was made, but according to Gatherer the errata predated the Pro Tour by a few months. This confuses me, since the judges actually had to go check the wording on Gatherer during the judge call, because the card wasn't in English! Perhaps they missed that the Oracle text and printed text were different, or perhaps Gatherer looked different back then, I have forgotten some details. Good video!

Hostage Taker was another day 0 errata like Marath - since the original text allowed it to exile a creature on ETB, that would return when Hostage Taker left the battlefield. This meant that if Hostage Taker targeted itself, you had infinite ETB and LTB triggers. It was quickly switched to target 'other creature's. Also, not really an errata, but Camouflage reminds me of Animate Dead, and just how much text was required to make "Enchant Dead Creature" actually work within the rules of Magic.

You should’ve mentioned the “step between turns” and Wall of Boom when it came to Time Vault, an entire one card infinite mana combo existed because of one of the ways they tried to fix Time Vault

All Hallow's Eve was originally supposed to have been printed as an enchantment. The sorcery type was a misprint. The errata to make it an enchantment was there just to correct this mistake. Once the suspend mechanic was created, they went back and changed the errata so that the card was typed as printed. Which is fine for the English versions of the card, but the Italian versions are printed with the type "Enchantment". Since a card's English Oracle text is the "correct version" it's all OK.

Mystic Denial sounds like Yu-Gi-OH's Counter Counter, which is supposed to negate Counter Trap cards, being initially printed as a Normal Trap card, which cannot respond to Counter Trap cards

Missed one of the most famous Erratas of all time: The original wording of Abeyance says "Abilities requiring an activation cost", not "Abilities that aren't mana abilities". As printed, it was functionally a 2 mana unrestricted Time Walk in Standard (T2) as you could cast it during your own "End of turn" phase and your opponent could not tap lands (or anything else) for mana during their turn. It even cantrips (to maintain the extra draw a true Time Walk would give you)... Got errata SUPER quick for that one... but ONLY once people put it together with the "End of Turn trick"! Amazingly, it working against lands was pretty much accepted until a full-combo version was built to fully exploit the effect in a prison shell and use it to stall just long enough to use paradigm shift and such to assemble what was very effectively infinite turns.

Thought I was going to see Rukh Egg on here. In Alpha the card said if it went to the graveyard (it didn't say from play), create a 4/4 flying Rukh. People would use Bazaar of Baghdad, and discard 3 of them to get 3 Rukhs on their first turn. It was changed to say it had to go to the graveyard from play.

Lifeline was errata's back and fourth as many times if not more than Time Vault, changing which players can bring their creatures back, who has to control a creature for the effect to happen, and back and fourth for a good decade before settling on the current oracle text.

Companion deserves a spot in this list. Isnt it the only existing power level erata?

A simple man, I see mana logs, I watch mana logs.

Marath is no longer accidental combo fodder, now she is intentional combo fodder.

How funny would it have been if, instead of changing Mystic Denial's card type, it had simply been errata'd to be a Sorcery *with the Flash keyword?*

It's "STATE-BASED ACTIONS". Not "stated" or "stat" based actions.

companion is by far the biggest errata bar none, feels very weird to leave it out of this video.

cool video! great glimpse into MtG history

I don't think Yasharn stops paying life from Sylvan Library, but there are cards has a payoff only whenever you specifically pay life.

I'd love to see this list either given a part two or redone as a top 25. There are a lot of cards and mechanics that have been majorly overhauled because of rules stuff. My favorite one is Fireball. I think it's the only non-Un card in Magic's history to be officially printed with the "Y" variable in its mana cost (in the Beatdown boxed set).

A good time to point out: errata is already plural! So, "erratas" is redundant and not really correct

Illusionary mask is the true #1. It went from a cool affect for its online reprint to a neutered husk with the 30th Anniversary print

One of my favourite errata that I just learned recently was Aura of Silence. I have the original copy in a Stax deck in commander which says "Artifact and enchantment spells cost target opponent an additional 2 to play." Suffice to say when I saw someone else play it and not declare a target I was confused, until I read now it just says "Opponents" blankly lol

Loving that number one card introduction!

Oh gosh, that camouflage solution was pretty wild. I'd imagine that wording like from Goblin Game or as if it were from an un-set would have worked better. My out of the box solution would have been to cover each possible blocking creature with an identical cover (i.e. bicycle poker cards).

Impulse: The french, as well as the german version of the first print (from 'Vision') were already printed without the "shuffle your library" effect. So these versions were already correct at that time.

Zodiac Dragon from Portal 3 Kingdoms received errata. It used to state "whenever put into a graveyard from anywhere, return to your hand" now it only returns when it dies

Ranar The Everwatchful was absolutely destroyed by errata. I bought the whole deck just for them to change how the card worked with RIP and Samurai of the Pale Curtain.

False Dawn just mirrors the effect of Celestial Dawn from Mirage. Celestial Dawn was an enchantment, False Dawn a Sorcery that had the effect only last a just and also cantrip. But otherwise they do exactly the same thing and have the same errata.

I'm surprised flash didn't end up on the list

A bit of insight into Oubliette: At one point in the past, Oubliette was errata'd to phase out the target. WotC later decided that a.) Phasing was a bad mechanic they didn't want to use, and b.) the spirit of the effect didn't phase, so they errata'd it to exiling while keeping track of counters. WotC eventually reversed course again in 2020, and decided that phasing could be reimplemented into the game with some rules updates and cleaning. One month later, Oubliette was printed with its current rules text.

Don't forget that Time Vault's first erratum was also necessary because in the first version of the rules, abilities of cards with the type "Mono Artifact" didn't work when they were tapped. And because Time Vault is a mono artifact, people could interpret it that Time Vault's inability to untap itself also got turned off while it was tapped, meaning it COULD untap as normal!

In fact, Oubliette is currently one of my favorite black cards because of its current text. It's really good in flavor aspect. I'd include it in each of my Commander black decks of course.

I think Animate Dead deserves a spot on the list for the most „the original text was easier to understand“ card, as well as the weird „Substance“ mechanic they tried to pull with it.

All Hallow’s Eve’s type was a print error. It was supposed to have been an Enchantment to begin with (see the Italian printing). The original errata was there to correct that mistake, but at some point in the early 2000s WOTC decided to go with original printing as much as possible. And since English prints take rules precedence over other language printings, All Hallow’s Eve was stuck with it’s awkward Sorcery type. Luckily the Suspend mechanic set a new precedent for cards being cast from exile.

Waylay has several errata when it first came out it could be cast during your opponents end of turn and then used as three 2/2 attackers on your following turn. It was first changed to be only playing during your opponent combat step and the changed again so that the tokens went away during the clean up step which did not exist when the card was first printed.

Amazing!

Very surprised to not see illusionary mask and mox diamond on the list.

I love how he pronounced island fish jasconius

Honorable Mention goes out to Dark Ritual, a card that has held multiple defucnt card types over the course of the game, going from Interrupt, to Mana Source, to Instant. Only one other card in the entire game was ever printed with type Mana Source: Culling the Weak, a card whose only physical printing still bears that defunct type. :)

Another card that has had it's type errata'd as much as All Hallow's Eve is Dark Ritual. It was originally printed as an interrupt, then changed to a mana source, then when both those card types where removed it became a instant. I believe it might be the card that has been errata'd to the most different types.

Me : "Dark Ritual. No longer a Mana Source or Interrupt." Video : Lol

Another notable errata is elixir of immortality. The old text said shuffle it and your graveyard into your library. The new text says shuffle your graveyard into your library and shuffle it into its owners library. We had a funny interaction in edh with the original printing. And as it worked it got shuffled into my opponents library after they took control of it.

I recently pulled a Doomsday from the list, it's printed with the original headache inducing text... Glad that got erratad

The errataed False Dawn doesn't actually change the color of permanents you control, though as printed it would make permanents white if they had any colored mana symbols in their mana costs. This was a huge deal as Invasion block was a color-maters block full of color hosers and effects that count the number of colors among permanents you control.

You know... This video gives me idea for an EDH deck titled "read the card explain the card", with as many cards with erratas as possible

Could a sorcery have flash? Making mystic denial work as a sorcery.

Twiddle. The card is Twiddle. Twindle could well double the effects of twiddle, but hasn't been printed yet.

Oath of Druids is one i always think about. Its original text is far more understandable but the errata works within the rules of the game even if it sounds like word salad

My favorite spell from Alpha is Twindle.

Inquest magazine loved throwing in All Hollows Eve into many combos throughout the card listings as if to remind you of how broken it was. If Inquest magazine saw what cards did today from the late 1990s, they would love how right they were.

Another very important errata I think would have been worth mentioning (and of course, feel free to use this if you make a sequel) is Lion's Eye Diamond. For reference and for those who do not know, I will tell you how it currently reads. Name: Lion's Eye Diamond Mana Cost: [0] Card Type: Artifact Set: Mirage, Vintage Masters (MTG:O Exclusive) Card Text: Sacrifice Lion's Eye Diamond, Discard your hand: Add three mana of any one color to your mana pool. Activate this ability only any time you could cast an instant. Originally, LED as it read back in Mirage, could be activated at any point you could use a mana ability because the original card said "Play this ability as a mana source," which made its activation have the timing of a mana ability (which it still technically is, but without the current oracle text's timing restrictions) instead of the now in-place oracle text that limits its timing abilities. The original text allows the activation timing of a mana ability, which would let you follow up with cards in your hand before you would have to discard them to the LED's activation cost of discarding your hand. Now, since the timing window is limited to just at a time you could cast an instant, you can not play spells from your hand with the mana LED provides. One sort of half exception is with cards that have madness, but that's a different story. For anyone wondering about how an activated mana ability's timing (like pre-errata LED and other regular mana abilities) differs from the timing of the activation of an ability at instant speed (like post-errata LED), I will help you understand. Post-errata LED is still a mana ability, it just has that timing restriction, so it still doesn't use the stack, it resolves immediately after activation and adds the mana to your pool without waiting for or passing priority as a card that uses the stack would. However, to activate an ability that can only be activated when you could cast an instant you need to have priority. Mana abilities can be activated at any time no matter if you have priority or not, so if you wanted, you could activate a regular mana ability in the middle of declaring a spell to be cast since declaring a spell to be cast actually comes before paying for the spell (Assuming you have the resources to cast the spell, otherwise it's an illegal play.). Since you need priority to use LED, you can't use the mana to cast a card in your hand before LED resolves. The process of casting a spell passes priority to your opponent. To quote the Gatherer website's page on LED, "yes, this is a bit weird." The need for errata arose when 6th Edition rolled around and rules changes restructured how casting a spell worked. Originally, you needed the necessary mana already in your pool to declare a spell to be cast, but then they changed it to be otherwise in the ruling I mentioned above. I am unsure if there was ever a time frame in which LED was able to be used to cast a card in one's hand. I can confirm that 6th Edition released on April 27, 1999, but I can't find the date when LED got the errata. I cannot confirm if the notes for LED on the Gatherer website is when the errata was issued, but it says October 4th, 2004. All in all, LED is still VERY useful in decks that want cards in the graveyard, Storm decks (where they can cast a tutor, activate the LED while its on the stack and adding that tutored card to hand to cast with the LED mana), or in madness decks which do have a niche existence in the Legacy format.

I am loving the expansion from YGO to other card games. Hope will see CCGs like Legends of Runeterra and maybe Hearthstone as well!

if you talked about false dawn, why not group it ( or mention) Celestial Dawn?

Can't wait for the video title to be erratta'd

So question, if you have a card that cares about sorceries but not instants, would the version of Mystic Denial count as a sorcery in its portal printing and as an instant in any future printing or does the game always default to its most updated version/rules?

they should have given, mystic denial - flash. Then they could keep it as a sorcery with out problem or confusion & keep the original theme, or did they ever re-print it?

Actually dealing 0 damage with Marath now would also be an issue thanks to cards like Torbran and Embermaw Hellion, cards that do not multiply the damage it would do but add to it, turning it into actual (and infinite) damage. The first two abilities also, with the advent of Theros, meant infinite heroic triggers. Add cards that get effects when they are targeted, and even without a specific combo existent free infinite activated abilities are impossible to future-proof.

shout-out for somwhow companions not being on this list, that was really cool

I find it interesting that Counterspell was not on this list. Formerly, an interrupt spell that could counter any other card before instant spells could be resolved, now an instant card that can be halted by Mana Short which is another instant spell.

Mystic denial is essentially a sorcery with flash. Thats how many games deal with interrupt type abilities instead of a different card type.

Oubliette never exiled, it specifically says "is considered out of play" not that it is removed from play. It tells you how you permanent phases out before the phasing mechanic was fully introduced 3 years after it was printed. if it actually exiled the card it would have just said "is removed from the game" since that was already a mechanic.

I always thought lord of Atlantis was a pretty huge errata that still has lots of relevance today

Zodiac Dragon was a huge power-level errata.

It should have been mentioned earlier, but False Dawn was a day 0 erratum, so it never functioned using the printed text. Chroma and Devotion weren't a factor for the change, since they didn't exist at all yet. Even if it did function as printed, it wouldn't work as intended, and would require some heavy rules knowledge to play it properly. Here's a summary of what a rules manager said at the time: 1. It would turn everything white, except things that didn't have colored mana symbols in their costs or things that had their color changed some other way. 2. It also "fixed" your mana by making it all white, but only if it used a mana symbol and not a color word (such as non-basics from Urza's and Masques block). Since your spells need white mana now, those sources are only usable on generic costs. 3. It didn't actually allow you to pay white mana for every cost. For example, Soul Burn uses color words to require only red or black mana to be spent on it. Since all your mana is white, and it now has a white mana symbol in its cost, you wouldn't be able to cast it at all even if you used those non-basics mentioned earlier.

1 erratum, 2 errata

There were so many other ways they could have updated camouflage. Just add text saying "this doesn't count as flipping the card face up" and/or "these do not count as 2/2 creatures while face-down," or something else along those lines.

I thought for sure you would discuss Flash

Ikoria companions probably deserve a spot on the list but I like the mention of them with time vault as another power level errata. Since companions as written dominated every format, I think it's the biggest errata. But this"time between turns" thing I'm hearing about does sound awful.

Imagine if they'd wanted to allow just a single counterspell effect in portal, but didn't want counter wars, so had added the line "mystic denial can not be responded to (in this way?)". Split second conditional counter for 3 mana :P

Surprised Ranar isn't on the list considering his first errata made one of his abilities not work properly and they had to errata him again

I was waiting for Hostage Taker

if Camouflage kept its face down flipping function there could have been some spicy combos with cards that care about flipping

Was disappointed when I didn't see Time Vault on the list because of the Time Counter thing. So I was quite pleased to see it come in at number one! I remember playing way back in 1997 when this was a thing and remember thinking the card was pretty useless because of that errata. Happy they eventually changed it back to its original form even if it combos with Voltaic Key.

Couldn't camouflage be changed to keep the original text with the condition of "Any cards already face-down on the battlefield remain face-down"?

Hostage Taker was errataed before it was released; originally being able to target itself.

Surprised "Humility" didn't make it on this list.

shocked no Companion errata...

Never forget what they took from us. The only sentient card with a will and choice in all of Magic.

Illusionary Mask should have at least made the list, and probably belongs in the top 3. The rules are basically made-up wholesale because the card doesn't make sense as printed. Sands of Time is a pretty interesting one since it didn't work as intended when it was first printed because tapped artifacts with continuous effects were turned off while tapped. It would tap itself and then stop working. It had to have errata to fix that problem--until the tapped artifacts rule was eliminated many years later, making the errata obsolete. As others have said, Impulse was a misprint, not a change in functionality. It was never supposed to shuffle your deck.

Ponder i happened to know that one because I had a friend use an old version while I had a recent one lol

The dumb thing is they could re-errata Mystic Denial back to being a Sorcery, and give it Flash. That'd be closer to how the card was originally printed.

Time Vault could easily be "fixed" by a line saying it couldn't be tapped or untapped except by it's own abilities.

Illusionary Mask is another card with wacky erratas. It lets you play cards face down, and flip them face up when something would interact with them

I still want to see top 10 Ninjas in MTG. They're such a fascinating creature type

I still find Sylvan Library a weird card. For instance, you could cast Brainstorm in your upkeep, then when Library triggers you'd have the option of putting back any of the six cards you've drawn this turn. What if a player shuffles their hand around after resolving the Brainstorm (as many of us do)? There's no way to verify that they put back cards that were actually drawn this turn.

I'd like to suggest a video on the top 10 things we're thankful no longer exist in Magic. In a time where so many controversial decisions are being made we could use a reminder of what terrors lurked in the past. Whether it's the incredible push for colors matter cards like the laces to cards that use piles on the battlefield or divide the battlefield. (Obligatory "screw Space Beleren for reminding us of that".)

I wanna mention a very minor one which is that Regal Behmoth was changed from a Lizard to a Dinosaur which means it can be flipped with Gishath's ability now

Surprised Flash wasn't on the list, but then again lots of Magic players are familiar with the story anyway.

I love falling asleep to your voice.

Note that Yasharn doesn't stop Library even though the video alludes to it - one doesn't pay the life to activate abilities nor cast spells.

How is Abeyance not on this list?!? It was literally an instant speed counter and de facto time walk. Is it because the wording wasn't changed but how the card interacted with spells on the stack was?

Marath, Will of the Wild would not be able to make infinite 0/0 tokens because removing counters from it is part of the cost of the ability. The costs of activated abilities must be paid before the effect can even go on the stack.

I'm shocked that companion didn't make an appearance

Mystic denial would actually be an interesting synergy piece if they kept it as a sorcery and the text got the errata instead to be "this card can be played anytime your opponent casts a creature or sorcery" while keeping the sorcery type. There are a handful of sorcery synergies that don't trigger on instants that could get value from it, and as card text generally overrules general game mechanics, it would still function.

I go beyond to say that wizards knew they would print equipps but especifically chose that obliete would not exile equips because creatures that go to prison have to give their equipps to guards >D

Funny, I would have had number 1 be the whole class of Interrupt spells, that was one of the biggest changes in Magic.