Vedalken Orrery or Barracuda of the Tide?
Commander Deck Help forum
Posted on April 5, 2020, 10:42 p.m. by DemonDragonJ
I have Vedalken Orrery in all of my EDH decks, because it is too awesome of a card to not have in them, but a new card named barracuda of the tide was recently revealed, so I am wondering if I should replace the orrery with the barracuda in any EDH deck that contains the color blue.
The barracuda has several advantages over the orrery:
-The orrery does nothing on its own, but the barracuda is a creature, so it can attack and block.
-The barracuda is very useful for politics in games with more than two players; while allowing other players to cast spells as if they had flash may be risky, the fact that it does not allow spells to be cast during its controller's turn is a useful check to that ability.
I actually have Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir in several of my decks, so I shall likely not put the barracuda in those decks, because his ability would counteract the barracuda's ability, but I definitely shall put the barracuda in my Kynaios and Tiro deck, because that deck focuses on helping its opponents so that they attack each other instead of me.
What does everyone else say about this subject? Should I replace Vedalken Orrery with barracuda of the tide?
DemonDragonJ says... #3
hejtmane, I know that creatures are easier to remove than are artifacts, but I am willing to take that risk for a greater benefit.
April 5, 2020 11:07 p.m.
Like I said I see it's benefits but I still think it is deck dependent card.
April 5, 2020 11:12 p.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #5
hejtmane, in that case, as I said, above, I shall not put the barracuda in any of my decks that contain Teferi, but there is no reason to not put it in my Kynaios and Tiro deck.
April 5, 2020 11:32 p.m.
I don't think giving all players access to flash in a competitive multiplayer setting is ever going to be ideal. That strikes me as a counterproductive line of play in almost every scenario I can think of. I definitely don't want opponent's wheeling at an end step, saving mana for interaction rather than casting mana dorks/rocks then being able to cast the dorks/rocks any ways when no one does anything in the turn cycle that needed to be interacted with, or flashing in creatures as combat tricks.
The most useful thing the Barracuda seems to do is protect your own turn, but there are already cards that do that and do it better at a cheaper mana cost like Grand Abolisher and almost every deck that wants this kind of protection is a deck with access to white.
If it's just casual multiplayer I think it could be an interesting group hug card that says "Ok, everyone gets to have fun, but no one does anything nasty to me or we turn this car around and no one gets to go to Flashland."
April 6, 2020 2:40 a.m.
DemonDragonJ says... #7
jaymc1130, in that case, as I said, above, the barracuda will be perfect for my Kynaios and Tiro deck, but I am wondering about my other EDH decks. Most of my EDH decks contain Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, who would work against the ability of the barracuda, so I will not be putting the barracuda in those decks, but I do have three other decks into which I am considering: my red/blue/green deck, my Atraxa, praetors' voice deck, and my five-colored deck. Should I put the barracuda in any of those decks, or is that not a wise decision?
hejtmane says... #2
No creatures are easier to remove; artifacts are probably second on the list unless you are looking for redundancy but I say leyline is still better as while.
I can see this in a deck that helps you with protecting wincons during your turn like big x spells or a political style deck.
Could be fun in the right janky deck as while but personally I think it is ok that is my view
April 5, 2020 10:53 p.m. Edited.