Shawn "Fruan" Poulsen

It's a fundamental truth of being a #MagicTheGathering player that you end up with a terrible pet card you always wish you could make do good things.

Back in Lorwyn/Alara standard I had a Glaze Fiend eggs deck that was sweet, but not nearly sweet enough to complete with Faeries and Jund.

What's your terrible pet card? (Don't try to lie to me, you have one.)

Jul 16, 2023 at 2:13amWeb
Show threadThirty Ravens In A Man SuitJul 16, 2023
@Fruan
Its stupid, large and with a terrible cost, but it was my first rare and I love him.
Show threadShawn "Fruan" PoulsenJul 16, 2023
@yourdemonicfather That is a text box that dares you to live the dream, and a cost that doesn't let you.
Show threadThirty Ravens In A Man SuitJul 16, 2023
@Fruan Pretty much. I lay this guy down and I get laughs. "You spent 10 mana, and he doesnt even have trample?" Yes, yes I did.
Show threadJustin D-ZJul 16, 2023
@Fruan I am forever reading spoilers for the day I finally turbo-break Land Equilibrium.
Show threadShawn "Fruan" PoulsenJul 16, 2023
@justindz Oh wow. I don't think I've ever seen that card before. Legends was wild.
Show threadJustin D-ZJul 16, 2023
@Fruan One of my earlier decks was a prison deck with Land Equilibrium, Armageddon, Disenchants for opposing mana artifacts, and I won by decking opponents while keeping myself from decking by skipping draw steps with Island Sanctuary.
Show threadShawn "Fruan" PoulsenJul 16, 2023
@justindz That sounds absolutely miserable! I love it.
Show threadJustin D-ZJul 16, 2023
@Fruan My other dark tech was forcing the opponent to kill their own creatures with Nova Pentacle, since I didn't have any legal targets of my own. It worked maybe 35% of the time, but I loved it.
Show threadNaps 🏳️‍⚧️Jul 16, 2023
These guys were in every one of my red decks in high school as I tried so so hard to make them good... I believe the last place I played them was a Najeela deck
Show threadmister_nibblesJul 16, 2023
@Fruan I dunno if it's terrible, but I keep trying to make a good modern deck around Omnath Locus of Rage. It never quite seems to get there.
Show threadShawn "Fruan" PoulsenJul 16, 2023
@mister_nibbles I remember Locus of Rage being quite hot when it was printed, but time has not been kind.
Show threadWoFJul 16, 2023
@Fruan I super loved Sunbond for some reason. Not sure why, but it was hilarious on a Charging Badger.
Show threadShawn "Fruan" PoulsenJul 16, 2023
@WoF Charging Badger is a pretty good bad card too, now that you mention it.
Show threadWoFJul 16, 2023
@Fruan I made a standard deck for that Game Day that had a turn 4 kill - T1 Charging Badger, T2 Ordeal of Heliod, T3 Ordeal of Heliod on main 2, T4 Sunbond attack for 25/25 trampling BADGER
Show threadShawn "Fruan" PoulsenJul 16, 2023

@WoF That sounds like the spiritual cousin to the Glaze Fiend deck I was nostaglic for that made me post in the first place! T2 glazefiend, t3 play 10 artifacts.

It's a great game plan if your opponents don't play removal.

Show threadRethinkJeffJul 16, 2023
@Fruan It's not traditionally terrible, but I have resolved so many copies of Life From the Loam and lost so many games because of it lol.
Show threadShawn "Fruan" PoulsenJul 16, 2023
@RethinkJeff Any card can be a bad card if you play it wrong! 
Show threadRethinkJeffJul 16, 2023
@Fruan The memes are slowly becoming dreams! Boseiju and the blue land that bounces a creature _almost_ get us there!
Show threadSkye WolferJul 16, 2023
@Fruan I was introduced to magic via pauper, and one of the first decks I brewed was a temur control list featuring this as its wincon. spikeshot is currently the worst card in my ghyrson deck and forced adaptation is in both lila and tayam
Show threadShawn "Fruan" PoulsenJul 16, 2023
@biolard I don't know much about pauper, but that honestly looks pretty sweet.
Show threadSkye WolferJul 16, 2023
@Fruan its not the worst deck I've ever made but as it turns out, making your wincon something that dies to every removal spell in the format and has to sit on the board unanswered for 4 or 5 turns to start being a threat is not good deckbuilding
Show threadPolytakosJul 16, 2023
@Fruan Not a terrible card per se, but every deck I have tried to work this in has been observably worse bc of it.
I love me frozen boi
Show threadZakJul 16, 2023
@Fruan
Terrible? Glaze Fiend is sweet (I miss Alara draft).
At the time I really loved Sedraxis Specter. I even built a janky wet-Jund deck with this, Blightning, and Sygg River Cutthroat. I mean look at this! It's Hippie! But it comes back! And has three power!
Show threadShawn "Fruan" PoulsenJul 16, 2023

@corpocracy I forced 5-colour green SO MUCH during Alara-Alara-Conflux, and I'll do it again given even half a chance.

Sedraxis Specter was another card I thought was cool but just never went anywhere. I blame Bloodbraid Elf, so your plan of cascading INTO Specter seems neat.

Show threadZakJul 16, 2023
@Fruan Yeah, and the 3 power triggered Sygg. It seemed cool and synergistic! But it turns out 4 colors is harder than 3 colors in a deck, lol. It was still fun though and one of my first "real" Standard decks.
Show threadLordRintJul 16, 2023
@Fruan during innistrad/rtr standard I loved the Orzhov tokens deck and tried to make it work in early Modern to mixed success. Doomed Traveler was my pet card I love to play everywhere.
Show threadEsper QuinnJul 16, 2023
@Fruan my very first rare had cool Brom art, there was no way I wasn’t going to love this awful creature
Show threadShawn "Fruan" PoulsenJul 16, 2023
@espercontrol And they're not even actually a Lion!
Show threadSerifinaJul 16, 2023
@Fruan When I was young I had an obsession with Verdant Force. I basically built a deck around powering it out and then recurring it if I needed to (my mono-green deck had a way to loop recurring cards back to hand from GY), then finishing with Overrun.
Show threadAshJul 16, 2023
@Fruan the first thing that came to mind for me was a synergy rather than a single pet card, and one I loved and tried to make work when I first started around scars of mirrodin and it's obviously terrible but I still think about it fairly often.
Show threadAshJul 16, 2023
@Fruan oh wait the other answer is definitely progenitor mimic. It's so slow but I love that if you flicker it after you've made a copy of something and you copy the copy it has the text multiple times so the next upkeep you create more, and then you can recur that multiple times if you do it over turns. I top 8'd a game day somehow with a baby coloured deck using progenitor mimic and wayfaring temple (I'm pretty sure I mostly won not with that synergy)
Show threadShawn "Fruan" PoulsenJul 16, 2023
@EternalRoxas oh my, that is spicy.
Show threadhylkeJul 16, 2023

@Fruan With all of the artifact token generators that have been printed in the last few years I feel like Glaze Fiend has gotten a lot better. Like with Academy Manufactor you can regularly get this to be a 6/7.

As for mine, I did legit have to think about it but I feel like mine is Godsire. There are inevitably way better finishers in Naya but I just love this big goober.

Show threadKelderanJul 16, 2023
@Fruan Forbidden Crypt from 6th edition. I really want to do something with it some day.