This got me thinking about how the set's been influenced by sci-fi and pop-culture, so I reached out to Andrew Brown, a Game Design Architect from Wizards of the Coast who worked on the set, to learn more
Though, you may be asking yourself, Why would I want to play a card that imposes a restriction on myself when I can just play strong cards that only provide me upside? That is an incredibly fair question, this style of card certainly isnt the clearest on the surface as to how they can be used to your own advantage
Scalding Tarn You don't need to be a breakneck-speedy spellslinger deck to appreciate Scalding Tarn
There is at least one website where you could order high-quality counterfeit Magic cards from China as recently as last Thursday The site is not hard to find
Its not as easy to defend it with countermagic, but a fresh hand and 6 mana is still really good
Heres an example of the kind of deck that got Mind Twist banned: Creatures (2) Lands (21) Spells (37) 4 Mana Drain 2 Counterspell 4 Swords to Plowshares 1 Sol Ring 1 Regrowth 1 Mind Twist 1 Demonic Tutor 1 Braingeyser 1 Time Walk 1 Ancestral Recall 2 Red Elemental Blast 1 Jayemdae Tome 2 Disrupting Scepter 4 Disenchant 1 Recall 2 Moat 1 Mirror Universe 1 Timetwister 1 Black Lotus 1 Mox Emerald 1 Mox Jet 1 Mox Pearl 1 Mox Ruby 1 Mox Sapphire Thats right, one of the most famous, most influential decks of all-time, The Deck, was a Mind Twist deck until Mind Twist was banned