History Main / UselessUsefulSpell

** Several cards are specifically designed to counter a very powerful card, and potentially reverse its effect on the opponent. Gryphon Wing counters Harpie's Feather Duster, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Anti-Raigeki counters Raigeki]], Call of the Dead counters Monster Reborn, etc. However, those powerful cards are either Limited or banned, and these specific counter cards are [[CripplingOverspecialization absolutely useless in any other situation]]. It's often simpler to negate powerful plays with more general-purpose effect negations.

# Some are [[HighlySpecificCounterplay very situational]], only seeing use to counteract a single type of enemy/ability or only working in certain environments. These are annoying, since you may need these spells to win, but you barely use them outside of rare, very specific circumstances.

** ''Magic the Gathering'' also has a fair share of InstantWinCndition cards -- as in, they actually SAY "You win the game" or "Target player loses the game". However, they're either highly situational, require a certain action that will almost certainly get interrupted, or are just ridiculously expensive.

** For Grey Knight Paladins, Feel No Pain. Paladins are Terminators that have 2 wounds, and with Feel No Pain can virtually double that survivability because statistically half the wounds of small arms fires will be ignored. Looks great on paper, not so much in practice. The Apothecary upgrade needed for that FnP costs 75 points, enough for another Paladin to join the squad (note that this upgrade does not give the unit another body, it just makes an existing Paladin an apothecary). On top of that, because of their high armor save and 2 wounds, Paladins are scared shitless of any AP 2 or Strength 8+ weapons already, which are the only things that will now stop their Feel No Pain, turning them from once being possible targets to now Tankshell magnets. Several who argued that Feel No Pain was considered a GameBreaker later had a serious case of DidNotThinkThisThrough.

** ''Magic the Gathering'' also has a fair share of "instant win" cards -- as in, they actually SAY "You win the game" or "Target player loses the game". However, they're either highly situational, require a certain action that will almost certainly get interrupted, or are just ridiculously expensive.

** What about Mudhole, a card that removes all the lands from a player's graveyard which is flat-out inferior to cheaper options (including Tormod's Crypt, an artifact with a 0 mana cost!) which just remove their entire graveyard? The only practical use would be to get around removing a specific non-land card in your opponent's graveyard to screw over some bizarre combo that doesn't even exist yet.

** This trope disappearing can be a source of competitive advantage in Limited formats. Magic has only so much design space, so abilities tend to get re-used with minor tweaks between sets. It's common for a card ability that has historically been to gain a new twist that makes it good in Limited. A canny player will identify this shift and have easy access to the effect at a draft table as everyone else ignores the good card for its resemblance to bad ones.
*** An example is the ''Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty'' common Suit Up. For 3 Mana, it overwrites a creature's stats to 4/5 and draws a card, all at Instant speed. The usual version of this card cost 2 and didn't draw a card. It turned out that the ability to suddenly outsize an opponent's creature in the middle of combat and come out up a card was worth much more than 1 extra Mana.

** Super Polymerization was this for a while, despite being a central card in the series. Unlike regular Polymerization, it cost a card from your hand and couldn't fuse cards in the hand (which makes trying to Fusion Summon with it very slow). Its first advantages (can't be negated and a Quick-Play) were okay, but its main attraction (can use opponent's cards in the Fusion) was less so. Simply put, it was highly unlikely that your opponent would have the right Monster on the field for you to fuse, unless you were trying to Summon a card with very vague requirements. As a result, Super Polymerization ended up being a much costlier, much slower version of Polymerization (which wasn't a very good card in the first place)... [[TookALevelInBadass until Fusion monsters with very flexible material requirements, like the Attribute Heroes and Shaddolls, came out, resulting in the card becoming limited.]]

# Some are indeed quite powerful, like spells that significantly buff a character's attacks, but are so easily countered through dispell effects that it's not worth the investment. This is even worse in games where there are dispells that steal the spell and give it to the caster or their allies, or characters who feed upon enemy magical enchantments to power up their attacks.

# Some are difficult to cast. They may cost a ton of MP or other resources. Or they may take forever to activate, making your character (and perhaps the entire party) vulnerable and giving the enemy an opening to attack unhindered. Those spells also telegraph themselves to smarter enemies, making it easier for them to set up a counter to them. Others might only function with specific other spells, requiring the user to complete an elaborate setup to get any use out of them at all.