Conflux Preview Card: Exotic Orchard
Conflux is coming. We have a preview card. This one is good.
Over time, the most consistently good – both in terms of playability and value – rares in a set have generally been the multicolored lands. Look at some of these – they have all been high value over time.
Our preview card is a multicolored land.
And those are all pain lands – but they were all $10.00 or better in thier day. Of all of those, Grand Coliseum was the worst, mainly because it came into play tapped.
I promise that the land won’t come into play tapped.
Those multicolored lands that are less painful, but more conditional, also have value. All of these have seen tournament play. Seriously – even Rainbow Vale saw play in combo decks.
So what does Conflux provide? Here you go.
Tap, add to your mana pool one mana of any color that a land an opponent control could produce.
No pain. No comes into play tapped. No if you do, this does not untap. Not depletion counters. No limited uses.
You just get the mana, immediately.
The catch, of course, is that your opponent needs to be playing the right colors. Let’s look at how likely that is. We’ll start with the easy stuff.
Prismatic
Well, duh. If your opponent is not color screwed, neither are you. The card will go in every prismatic – as a four of, unless you are playing Prismatic Singleton.
Multiplayer
Again, this is an automatic. Some opponent will have what you need, unless you are playing in some weird “It’s St. Patrick’s Day, so everyone plays green.” Well - even in that case, you are getting the color you need.
Just plain good.
Shards Block
Block format is primarily Shard related – except for the mono-white Elspeth deck. I don’t expect that deck to continue once Conflux is added to the mix. Assuming that the new metagame has four or five Shards, then this will always overlap at least one color, and often several. Since it does not come into play tapped, if the format speeds up much at all, this will be better than the comes-into-play tri lands.
If the format degenerates, to the point that we have one solid Shard, or a two deck metagame with overlapping Shards, then this will be an automatic three or four of. About the only downside would be playing a mana-screwed opponent, or one that is playing a seriously off color deck in the hope that he can mana screw you via the Orchard. That seems unlikely – at worst, this will play like an unbroken Panorama.
The spoilers are just starting, but Conflux looks to have an all-five-colors theme. (For example: Fusion Elemental: WUBRG, Creature- Elemental. 8/8.) If block has good five color cards, expect everyone to be splashing for everything – making Exotic Orchard amazing.
Standard
This is tougher to call. Against anyone playing Vivid Lands and Reflecting Pool, this is a pain-free City of Brass. However, it is a basic Plains against the last of the Kithkin decks. It will never be dead, but it might not be all that good. The biggest problem is that the Vivid Lands plus Reflecting Pool have already given us the best mana base in the history of the game, and I’m not sure that this will add all that much too it. It’s not that Exotic Orchard is bad – it is that Vivids plus Reflecting Pool is simply amazing. That combo is so good that Aaron Forsythe, of Magic R&D, listed it as one of the top three – and possibly first – of the problems he might consider fixing in Lorwyn, if he had a time machine. (Along with Bitterblossom / Faeries.)
Extended
This will be a bit of a mix, but so long as
Engineered Explosives is in the format, even the “mono-blue” Faeries builds splash to four colors. Against Zoo and the like, this is always going to tap for any color your need. That seems pretty darn good.
Note that if more people start playing Exotic Orchard, they get even better. While I haven’t seen the FAQ to verify, I have every reason to expect that if two opponents both have Exotic Orchards, they should both be able to tap for any color mana.
Pauper
Sorry, guys – it’s a rare.
Classic
I’ll have to test. The fetchlands plus duals are pretty much all you need.
Conclusions
This is a very, very solid land, and I expect to see at least one or two in every multicolored deck in Standard while it is legal, and in Extended for years.
I want mine already! Let’s bump the release date up some. Today would be good, but I’d settle for tomorrow.
PRJ
“one million words” on MTGO
12 Comments
When your oppenent has Exotic Orchards and no other lands in play, your own Orchards will probably NOT be able to produce any mana - similar to when you have two Reflecting Pools and no other lands. Just my understanding of the Orchard's wording (similar to the Pool's wording) and the rules.
Wow, a land version of Fellwar Stone...
I'd like to see Wizards keep claiming they weren't promoting 5-color decks now. *rollseyes*
I couldn't agree more. The proliferation of color fixing and five-color decks is really annoying to me.
I'd hit it :)
Great card! Absolutely fantastic. And of course WoTC is promoting 5 color decks. It is a five color set with domain cards.
I was referring to comments made by WotC people (I can't remember if was Rosewater, Forsythe, Turian, or all of them specifically) when referring to the Reflecting Pool-Vivid Land interaction that birthed 5C control and then was just made more prevalent by Shards of Alara. They claimed that they didn't mean to promote 5C this way, and they didn't believe people would be able to put Pools/Vivids together to great effect.
If both have Exotic Orchards only, no one produces any mana. But if one of the players has a island for example, all the Exotic Orchards will tap for "U".
No, that is not true. If you read the card it says any mana an opponents land "COULD" produce and those lands "Could" produce any color. So if those are the only lands in play on both sides. They will produce any mana. It is like having a Gemstone cavern in play with out a luck counter with a reflecting pool. Even though the Gemstone doesnt provide any color the reflecting pool still does, because the gemstone again "Could" produce any color.
But now that I think about it have only 2 reflecting pools in play will not allow you to produce any 2 mana. So now that I think about that. I really wonder.
Because I know for fact that a gemstone with out a luck counter will allow a reflecting pool to tap for any color.
I would think that Wotc did not expect the mana fixing to allow 5c immediately at shards. Shadowmoor block was somewhat promoting mono-colors and shards was supposed to be promoting 3... 5c has to be supported for all the 5c stuff in conflux. Orchard is getting very good response now but it might end up producing 1c against some decks. Good in block cos everyone plays shardlands but not sure how well it'll do elsewhere.
orchard vs orchard = no mana. Neither side can produce any usable mana.
So, a worse reflecting pool that won't give you decent mana fixing and that won't give you decent turn 1 plays (wow I have a thoughtseize but, you know, just no black mana cause I cut 2 shocklands for these two crappy orchards, and my opponent is playing monoblue faeries)... If this is going to be very expensive, then it will be a sign of the fact the magic market has mental illness. This card won't probably see play in eternal formats and extended, and pool is just better in standard... Why do they bother printing this crap? at least the 5c land that can make mana just for creatures is funny!