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Post Hilariously Broken Cards of any TCG

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wildfire

Banned
Might not be in the exact spirit of the OP, but the first thing that came to mind was...

tumblr_n03k1h2VBq1qcgpnpo1_500.jpg

I'd rather be forced to film, write, produce and direct the sequel to Battlefield Earth than try to think of a way of conveying this correctly.


27.png


Since not many people are familiar with Overpower (which was an old Marvel and then DC card game), I'll explain.

First, each of those stats, Energy, Fighting, Strength, and Intellect, is usually between 1-8. It determines what attack cards of those types you can use. Most characters have a couple mid/high stats and a couple mid/low stats. Batman was 2/7/4/7 for comparison. Beyonder can play any card of any strength.

Second, each character had specific 'special' cards. These were cards that represented the specific special abilities, techniques, powers, gadgets, etc, that the character could do. Some were attacks, or heals, or buffs, that sort of thing. But a character could only use the special cards for them. Cyclops could only use Cyclops special cards. Batman could only use Batman special cards. As you can see, the Beyonder can use *any* special card.

LOL at this garbage. It's like the original version of the Jedi class in Star Wars Galaxy only without the veneer of meaningless limits. Why design games if you introduce something that screws all the rules?
 
I always kind of chuckle when Mana Drain gets passed around, because originally we used the mana to play Juggernauts, Mahamoti Djinns, and Serra Angels. It's still not that scary of a card in the format where it is playable-really good , yes, but not really broken.

I still contend that they could unban it in Legacy and it wouldn't be completely awful. God forbid people resolve cards that cost more than three mana in that format without cheating. They could even reprint it in a non-standard set, it's not on the restricted list.
 

linsivvi

Member
That Microprose PC game had a deck like that, with Timetwisters and Wheel of Fortunes. It was basically shuffle your deck over and over while taking extra turns until your enemy was dead from burn (oh, and there used to be blue burn, too; remember Psionic Blast?) to the face.

Oh yeah I remember playing that game non-stop despite the AI totally sucked since that's the only way I could play with those cards.

In real life I played against friends with power 9 and, instead of using their first turn to kill you, set up a stasis lock to slowly grind you to death. Obnoxious I must say.
 

ChrisD

Member
How fucked up is the Pokemon TCG when Feldon's Cane is considered overpowered? I know when I played Pokemon cards like Bill and Professor Oak were completely busted. Oak is honestly the most ridiculous card I've ever played with in any CCG.
Dude... you are basically resetting the Duel with that Card!

And the best part that went unmentioned -- the card has been banned to give people the time to figure things out before the World Championships take place two months from now. Because that card was in EVERY deck. A Pokemon card hasn't been flat-out banned in something like 12+ years in the Pokemon TCG. Errata'd, yes. Pokemon Catcher was a guaranteed enemy switch and it now requires a coin flip. But it's still playable (and played). LTC? Gone. Poof.

The reason Lysandre is so broken and even surpasses Professor Oak is that you can burn through your entire deck in a matter of two or three turns and then simply Trump Card it all back in for another go. And these cards you're going through weren't built with refreshes in mind. I think it's actually called like, the Cancer Engine? I've seen the name thrown around a few times.

The main thing is that it made resource management unneeded.

But yeah. I was going to post the exact card.
 

Cagey

Banned
Anyone starting to notice a pattern with MTG?
Fuck Blue.

The story of Magic: the Gathering is designing blue in a way that isn't broken because their mechanics are "draw lots of cards and counter your shit" and designing red in a way that doesn't result in everyone getting demolished by turn 3-4.
 

espher

Member
OP you posted the wrong Jace.
Image.ashx

I got out of the game before Planeswalkers and tbh I need to wrap my head around the mechanic to 'get' how OP it is, but based on what I do know, this seems ridic and now I know why it was $$$.

Image.ashx


Banned in modern, banned in legacy limited to one of in vintage and no one saw it coming.

Is/was there a good way to accelerate this in Standard? I can see Legacy/Vintage being a wreck (and wow what a hilarious card) but I haven't really played since Time Spiral block so...
 

El Topo

Member
The story of Magic: the Gathering is designing blue in a way that isn't broken because their mechanics are "draw lots of cards and counter your shit" and designing red in a way that doesn't result in everyone getting demolished by turn 3-4.

I haven't followed MTG much in the past four (or maybe more) years, but before I left I don't think there was ever a point where people were seriously worried that Red would demolish everyone in a few turns.
With Blue it's not just a problem of their fundamental core mechanics. Even when they tried to branch out they screwed things up often enough. Remember how fun Fairies were? Are they still around?
 

Cagey

Banned
I got out of the game before Planeswalkers and tbh I need to wrap my head around the mechanic to 'get' how OP it is, but based on what I do know, this seems ridic and now I know why it was $$$.

I picked up Magic Online again after a several year layoff when Zendikar came out. Law school boredom. I knew I hated Planeswalkers from both a play standpoint and an assault on your wallet because Mythic lol! standpoint. But they weren't all encompassingly stupid yet.

Then Worldwake released and introduced Jace, the Mind Sculptor and his $100 pricetag and I shook my head and gave up.
 

Toxi

Banned
The story of Magic: the Gathering is designing blue in a way that isn't broken because their mechanics are "draw lots of cards and counter your shit" and designing red in a way that doesn't result in everyone getting demolished by turn 3-4.
You forgot playing shit for free. A lot of Blue's most broken cards are ones that subvert the cost of something: Tinker, Show and Tell, Dream Halls, Gush, Mind's Desire, "free" spells from Urza block, etc. Hell, even Khans of Tarkir continued that trend with Treasure Cruise.

Also, Wizards has been pretty successful with keeping Red in check outside of Onslaught Goblins.
 

Firemind

Member
Then Worldwake released and introduced Jace, the Mind Sculptor and his $100 pricetag and I shook my head and gave up.
Actually, Broken Jace has consistently stayed around $50 until Bloodbraid Elf, Maelstrom Pulse and Blightning rotated out. It wasn't until then that there basically weren't any answers to him besides scooping.
 

ultron87

Member
Is/was there a good way to accelerate this in Standard? I can see Legacy/Vintage being a wreck (and wow what a hilarious card) but I haven't really played since Time Spiral block so...
There are some decent graveyard fillers like Satyr Wayfinder and Fetchlands in Standard, but you aren't firing off Turn 2 Ancestrals with Treasure Cruise like you were able to in Modern or Legacy. So it can be a good card in Standard, but isn't nutso.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
I picked up Magic Online again after a several year layoff when Zendikar came out. Law school boredom. I knew I hated Planeswalkers from both a play standpoint and an assault on your wallet because Mythic lol! standpoint. But they weren't all encompassingly stupid yet.

Then Worldwake released and introduced Jace, the Mind Sculptor and his $100 pricetag and I shook my head and gave up.

Jace, the Mind Sculptor was banned in Standard and banned in Modern. He shouldn't be banned in Modern though, he's not even that good there.
 

Fj0823

Member
You didn't even follow your own rule.
I know, it was suggested by other poster and I edited my post and explained in a later post.

To get more recent with YGO
In YuGiOh! your hand, your graveyard and your field have lots of options for you.

Then your opponent Synchro summons this bitch.

Removed from play (now simply called banished) cards are pretty much gone for the rest of the game unless your deck focuses on playing around that.

I was so happy when they banned it. Stay dead.
 
Gust of Wind was old Pokemon Catcher. I think it was banned.

I don't know when Pokemon Catcher came out but I was surprised Gust of Wind made a comeback. Then again, the power creep was getting out of hand so I guess it made sense at the time. But they ended up nerfing Catcher so I guess it's still overpowered.

Lysandre is pretty bonkers though. I haven't played much since the XY expansions, but the metagame definitely seemed to be favouring card draw tactics to burn through your deck. I've won games where I stalled out my opponent. Lysandre just makes that impossible.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
I always kind of chuckle when Mana Drain gets passed around, because originally we used the mana to play Juggernauts, Mahamoti Djinns, and Serra Angels. It's still not that scary of a card in the format where it is playable-really good , yes, but not really broken.

I still contend that they could unban it in Legacy and it wouldn't be completely awful. God forbid people resolve cards that cost more than three mana in that format without cheating. They could even reprint it in a non-standard set, it's not on the restricted list.

Mana Drain is my favorite counterspell.
 

Cagey

Banned
You forgot playing shit for free. A lot of Blue's most broken cards are ones that subvert the cost of something: Tinker, Show and Tell, Dream Halls, Gush, Mind's Desire, "free" spells from Urza block, etc. Hell, even Khans of Tarkir continued that trend with Treasure Cruise.

Also, Wizards has been pretty successful with keeping Red in check outside of Onslaught Goblins.

True, it's the combo of the card draw and ability to do things for free/cheap, which is what I referenced earlier in my describing the surprise at hearing people thought Treasure Cruise was going to be bad. An easy means of cheaply casting a spell that draws extra cards? Other colors will means to avoid a standard cost but they're not typically getting effects as powerful as Force of Will, Gush, Mind's Desire (a variant on the card draw), etc.

I think it was Pat Sullivan or Mike Flores who wrote about Magic and Red and having to keep the cards weak enough to where they don't combine into a hyperefficient steamroller. Red's easy enough to keep in check because it can be kept relatively weak by card design, but then you see the relatively weak cards that will fill out an occasional RDW-variant deck that flares up that wins some tournaments out of nowhere and realize just what Wizards needs to do to ensure Red isn't a menace.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
Don't worry, they banned it and Splinter Twin is the best deck again
 

Tecl0n

Member
I know, it was suggested by other poster and I edited my post and explained in a later post.

To get more recent with YGO
trishula__dragon_ice_barrier_by_eagleone984-d3bp8lm.png


In YuGiOh! your hand, your graveyard and your field have lots of options for you.

Then your opponent Synchro summons this bitch.

Removed from play (now simply called banished) cards are pretty much gone for the rest of the game unless your deck focuses on playing around that.

I was so happy when they banned it. Stay dead.

dem brio/trish combos.
 

shoplifter

Member
You are barely even touching why it was ridiculous in standard but essentially yes. The set it was a part of exacerbated the problem tenfold though.

Yep, Affinity made it absolutely stupid.

Frag is right that Mana Drain isn't broken, nor has it ever really been. It was definitely a swingy card when printed, letting you play a fatty (or fuel a Brainstorm) early. It's always been a 'win more'.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
I was just about to ask why this card is so powerful... and then it clicked.

Play Skullclamp. Equip to X/1 creature. Creature becomes X/0 and goes to the graveyard. Draw two cards. Skullclamp is still in play. Repeat for as many X/1 creatures and mana you have available. Enjoy huge card advantage.

That's how this works, isn't it? You use it to kill your own creatures for cards.

Yup. It was pretty fucking stupid
 
Just to add some more variety to the topic, there have been a few cards in Cardfight!! Vanguard which are or have been considered broken within the life of the game. This one in particular is one which I personally love, but recognize that it's unhealthy to the future of the game.

BT04-015EN-RR.jpg

Commander Laurel is a powerful card which can allow for your Dimension Police Vanguard to restand should its attack hit for the simple cost of resting four of your five possible total rear-guards. This is powerful for a number of reasons:

1. You get another attack with your Vanguard, which is typically the strongest attack you make each turn. Additionally, all Vanguards have the ability to Drive Check, which grants you additional cards in hand, with the chance to "Trigger", which means Checking into one, two, or three (depending on the Vanguard) out of sixteen cards in the deck that can grant you more power and a number of other effects (i.e. more damage, another draw, standing a rear-guard, and even healing damage).

2. While Laurel isn't the only restanding effect in the game, it's the only one which doesn't require you to pay hard resources such as discarding, counterblasting, soulblasting, etc.. It's also the only card which can turn any unit into a restander, thus giving them their own effects to work with as well.

3. Dimension Police is a clan which focuses on high-powered Vanguard attacks that, when a specific power quota has been met, grants additional effects. Most commonly, this is additional damage.

4. Combine this card with units like Metalborg, Sin Buster or Daikaiser, and you can prevent or bypass your opponent's attempts to guard your attack, meaning you will likely hit, get to restand, and attack again while carrying any trigger effects on top of your guard restriction/busting capabilities.

5. The Legion and Stride mechanics happened, making a more powerful and consistent Vanguard.

Laurel was limited in Japan to a maximum one-of copy, but remains untouched in the English version. He likely won't get hit, given that Dimension Police still has issues maintaining advantage and lacks the ability to superior call. However, the card was designed during the early sets of the game before restanding was common and more properly costed. At some point, he will likely be banned (a first for the game), it will just take the right card to do it.
 
Also I fondly remember this card as being beyond broken:

You've mentioned Professor Oak, but ere is the whole combo from Base Set:

You'd start by playing Squirtle on Turn 1. Your goal here is to try and fish for Pokemon Breeder and Blastoise. So, on turn one you can also play Bill to draw into more cards. You'll also add one Water Energy card to your Squirtle on the first turn (you can only play one Energy Card per turn in Pokemon, unless you have some other means around that... such as Blastoise's Rain Dance power). Once Blastoise is out, you can use his Rain Dance ability to attach as many Water Energy cards as you wanted per turn - it made it super easy to max out Blastoise's attack, letting you do 60 damage per turn. Keep in mind, Blastoise has 120 HP which was the maximum amount in the game at that time and 60 damage per turn killed 90% of all starting Pokemon in a single hit. Each time you kill an opponent's Pokemon, you get to draw a card, and after killing 6 Pokemon, you'd win the game.

On Turn 2, you begin digging hard - if you have Pokemon Breeder and Blastoise already in your hand, you play the Pokemon Breeder to evolve Squirtle directly into Blastoise. Normally, you can only evolve one stage per turn, so it'd take until turn 3 to have Blastoise out (Squirtle turn 1, evolve to Warturtle turn 2, and then evolve to Blastoise on turn 3).

In your starting hand, if you have only one of the two cards (Breeder or Blastoise), you can play a Computer Search to go through your deck and find the other one you need. If you don't have Computer Search, you can play your Bill card to draw more cards. If you have neither Computer Search or Bill, you use your Professor Oak to grab another 7 cards.

Pokemon decks contained 60 cards. You started with 7 and drew 1 more each turn. You could have 4 of any single card in your deck, so out of your 60 cards, 4 were Bill, 4 were Professor Oak, and 4 were Computer Search. You had a 26% chance to start the game with at least one of those - if you got any of them (especially Computer Search), you had a great chance of getting Blastoise out on turn 2. All this card draw also gives you a great opportunity to have plenty of Water Energy to max out Blastoise's ability.

The broken card in all of this? The Trainer cards (Bill, Professor Oak, and Computer Search). The draw capabilities of these three together was unreal; I would frequently draw through the first 30 cards in my deck by Turn 2 when running all of these. Eventually, I believe a limit was placed so you could only play 1 Trainer card per turn, which was a huge nerf to this type of cycling. Before that nerf though they added even more stupid cards (Energy Search and Imposter Professor Oak) which both acted as card cycles - you could literally fill up about 33% of your deck with just card cycles, letting you draw through your entire deck in a single turn if you wanted to/were just slightly lucky.

 
You've mentioned Professor Oak, but ere is the whole combo from Base Set:

You'd start by playing Squirtle on Turn 1. Your goal here is to try and fish for Pokemon Breeder and Blastoise. So, on turn one you can also play Bill to draw into more cards. You'll also add one Water Energy card to your Squirtle on the first turn (you can only play one Energy Card per turn in Pokemon, unless you have some other means around that... such as Blastoise's Rain Dance power). Once Blastoise is out, you can use his Rain Dance ability to attach as many Water Energy cards as you wanted per turn - it made it super easy to max out Blastoise's attack, letting you do 60 damage per turn. Keep in mind, Blastoise has 120 HP which was the maximum amount in the game at that time and 60 damage per turn killed 90% of all starting Pokemon in a single hit. Each time you kill an opponent's Pokemon, you get to draw a card, and after killing 6 Pokemon, you'd win the game.

On Turn 2, you begin digging hard - if you have Pokemon Breeder and Blastoise already in your hand, you play the Pokemon Breeder to evolve Squirtle directly into Blastoise. Normally, you can only evolve one stage per turn, so it'd take until turn 3 to have Blastoise out (Squirtle turn 1, evolve to Warturtle turn 2, and then evolve to Blastoise on turn 3).

In your starting hand, if you have only one of the two cards (Breeder or Blastoise), you can play a Computer Search to go through your deck and find the other one you need. If you don't have Computer Search, you can play your Bill card to draw more cards. If you have neither Computer Search or Bill, you use your Professor Oak to grab another 7 cards.

Pokemon decks contained 60 cards. You started with 7 and drew 1 more each turn. You could have 4 of any single card in your deck, so out of your 60 cards, 4 were Bill, 4 were Professor Oak, and 4 were Computer Search. You had a 26% chance to start the game with at least one of those - if you got any of them (especially Computer Search), you had a great chance of getting Blastoise out on turn 2. All this card draw also gives you a great opportunity to have plenty of Water Energy to max out Blastoise's ability.

The broken card in all of this? The Trainer cards (Bill, Professor Oak, and Computer Search). The draw capabilities of these three together was unreal; I would frequently draw through the first 30 cards in my deck by Turn 2 when running all of these. Eventually, I believe a limit was placed so you could only play 1 Trainer card per turn, which was a huge nerf to this type of cycling. Before that nerf though they added even more stupid cards (Energy Search and Imposter Professor Oak) which both acted as card cycles - you could literally fill up about 33% of your deck with just card cycles, letting you draw through your entire deck in a single turn if you wanted to/were just slightly lucky.
I was just looking at my blastoise and saying to myself that it's effect sounds broken.
 
Yep, Affinity made it absolutely stupid.

Frag is right that Mana Drain isn't broken, nor has it ever really been. It was definitely a swingy card when printed, letting you play a fatty (or fuel a Brainstorm) early. It's always been a 'win more'.

Mana Drain was also printed when Mana Burn was still a thing, wasn't it?
 
The article describing what went wrong with Skullclamp's development, BTW.
Image.ashx


I'm surprised no one brought up the other Legacy-warping recent blue card, though this hasn't been banned and it seems like the format has largely adapted to it.
Image.ashx


The funny thing is that apparently they had absolutely no idea that it would be format warping. They just thought it would be a fun card in a multiplayer (3+ players) product.

And an explanation on Jace:
Image.ashx


First, planeswalkers enter the battlefield with a number of loyalty counters equal to the number in the lower right. Once on each of your turns, at sorcery speed, you can activate one of the listed abilities by adding or removing the number of loyalty counters listed. You can't remove more counters than you have. When the planeswalker runs out of counters, you put it in the graveyard. Opponents can remove loyalty counters by dealing direct damage ("Deal 3 damage to target player" can be redirected to planeswalkers for backwards compatibility) or having creatures attack the planeswalker as if it was a player.

The thing that makes Jace, the Mind-Sculpter strong is you can completely stop your opponent from doing anything. Make his or her draws bad with his first ability, make your own draws better with the second, and stop opposing creatures with the third. Remember that these abilities cost no mana, so you can still cast counterspells and such.

EDIT:
Image.ashx


I think it got banned pretty quickly too.

Uh, no. It's only strong in Commander. It sees no play elsewhere, and is legal in all formats.
 

Angry Grimace

Two cannibals are eating a clown. One turns to the other and says "does something taste funny to you?"
yep! But it wasn't really a big deal in practice. You funneled the extra mana into your disrupting scepter or jayemdae tome activation. ::kreygasm

edit: also mishra's factories.

Mana Drain isn't even played much these days. A lot of Vintage decks are fair right now. You just get away with Force if you're playing Oath or something, but even Oath hasn't been a terribly good deck in a while.

Image.ashx


I think it got banned pretty quickly too.

Doubling Season was never illegal in any format and got reprinted in the first Modern Masters set, actually.
 
And no one here has posted the stupid game killing Duel Master card Ive been trying to remember.

I is sad.

There are some pretty nasty Duel Master cards out there. One which always stood out to me was King Alcadeias, Holy Gaia, thanks to this broken ability.

latest


Whenever your opponent would put a non-multicolored creature into the battle zone, put it into the graveyard instead.

While this guy was apparently released during a time where most units were multicolored, it rendered any deck which wasn't, be it past, present, or future, useless.

Then there's Bombazar, who actually made it to the short-lived English release.
 

Firemind

Member
You'd start by playing Squirtle on Turn 1.
Dark Zapdos oneshots OG Squirtle. :D

Poor Electabuzz. Evolution cures paralysis.

But yeah, the most broken cards were the trainer cards. There was a card named Rocket's Sneak Attack that was specifically designed to take your opponent's trainer cards, but I believe it ended up getting banned too. :lol
 

Regiruler

Member
That lysandre card confuses me in how it's broken. Is the discard pile analogous to the graveyard? How would shuffling it back be broken?
Someone mentioned drawing out your entire deck but surely those draw cards are the issue, not the shuffler?
I don't have a huge amount of Yugioh knowledge, I think I played the GBA game or something but isn't this card literally broken? Like not just super cheap way overpowered, but like if your opponent has nothing on the field you just win?

That's because if they have no hand an no field, there was no way back in the day for them to come back.

Now there are answers to it that are in the graveyard only, so depending on the deck you might be able to come back, but yatalock would still be a win under most cases.

SpellbookofJudgment-MP14-EN-ScR-1E.png

Spellbook of fucking judgement, quite literally the most intentionally overpowered card in any game

Most spellbooks search more spellbooks, so you're going through a cycle of cards that will get an extra one in the end of the turn, allowing you to set your hand and then get a full refresh plus a monster. It was only around for a format, thank god, but it was going toe to toe with these:

BlasterDragonRulerofInfernos-CT10-EN-ScR-LE.png

1044008.jpg


There were 4 sets of these, each at 3 in their heyday. The babies were fuel in the graveyard, and since it didn't trigger the big ones' hard once per turn, you could use the big ones' effects in the graveyard. When used as fuel, the big ones get another copy of themselves or a same attribute tech card (usually just a copy of themselves though for consistency reasons). The attack restriction doesn't matter, as you would just shit out rank 7s with it like dracossack or number 11. To make matters worse, super rejuvenation would let you draw into a completely new hand of cards after using a bunch of babies, giving the deck a fuckton of speed and power.

Even after the babies being banned a few months after, the big ones stuck around even after going to 2, then 1, until they eventually got banned about two years later.
 

Fj0823

Member
big-dragon-rulers.jpg


Look at these Fuckers, they have like all the effects.

They revive themselves.
They can summon themselves
They can be discarded to use another effect.
They can be used for Xyz Summon. They can be used to stall.

They're always there, laughing at you.

Fuck these guys. Well deserved ban.
 

HarryKS

Member
None of those Yu-Gi-Oh cards are broken.

There is need for adequate conditions and setup for them to work optimally.

They're just very powerful when used correctly.

Nothing broken about that.
 

BlackJace

Member
I wonder what the stresses of balancing TCGs are like. Must suck to know that one or two cards can completely throw things off.
 
Trainer cards were broken before they were split into Supporters (can only use one per turn), Ace Spec (can only have one per deck), and Items/Tools (no limit).

That lysandre card confuses me in how it's broken. Is the discard pile analogous to the graveyard? How would shuffling it back be broken?
Someone mentioned drawing out your entire deck but surely those draw cards are the issue, not the shuffler?

It's broken because all your cards are back in your deck to draw from. With no mana or limits to the number of cards you can play per turn, you can burn through most of your cards in your deck in a few turns.

Lysandre basically eliminates the cost of discarding. Some cards require you to discard other cards to work, some attacks discard Energy, etc. If you get everything back (so that you can draw/discard again) there's little consequence involved.

One of my favourite decks to use a couple years back was a Rayquaza EX/Eelektrik deck. Rayquaza EX did 60 damage for every Energy you discarded: with 3 Energy you could KO almost any Pokemon in the game. Eelektrik's Ability allowed it to attach a discarded Energy to a bench Pokemon. Put 3 Eelektriks on your bench, have 2 Rayquaza's in play, and use a Stadium card to nullify the retreat cost of Rayquaza. 180 damage, next turn put the Energy on your benched Rayquaza, swap, 180 damage again.
 

Fj0823

Member
None of those Yu-Gi-Oh cards are broken.

There is need for adequate conditions and setup for them to work optimally.

They're just very powerful when used correctly.

Nothing broken about that.

Are you kidding? Dragon Rulers were the definition of broken.

Trishula I can agree with, now. But not back when it was banned.
 
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