Channel (Repaint)
Channel is a 2-mana green sorcery from Alpha (1993), and one of the most infamous and powerful Magic cards ever printed. At the cost of one life each, you may add colorless mana to your mana pool until end of turn. It’s one of those cards that teaches you immediately why resource balance matters, since trading life for mana can be completely broken if the payoff is big enough. It can enable game-ending plays on turn one or two for just two mana, without any setup required. Channel defined the first ever “broken combo” in Magic, namely Channel-Fireball. These decks were dominant in the earliest days of Magic (1993-1994). Before tournament restrictions existed, this combo was known for ending games before they began. Its raw power level led to Channel being restricted and then banned in nearly every competitive format. It’s restricted in Vintage and Old School and banned in every other competitive format. In Vintage today, Channel occasionally appears in casual or nostalgic combo shells. As for Old School (93/94), Channel-Fireball is a historical archetype, representing one of the very first combo decks ever built. Nowadays it’s not consistent enough compared to other decks. Channel is not on the reserved list, and has been reprinted several times (Iconic Masters, From the Vault: Exiled, Mystical Archive).