Pattern Recognition #169 - Orcs

Features Opinion Pattern Recognition

berryjon

24 September 2020

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Hello everyone! This is Pattern Recognition, TappedOut.Net's longest running article series as written by myself, berryjon. I am something of an Old Fogey who has been around the block quite a few times where Magic is concerned, as as such, I use this series to talk about the various aspects of this game, be it deck design, card construction, mechanics chat, in-universe characters and history. Or whatever happens to cross my mind this week. Please, feel free to dissent in the comments below the article, add suggestions or just plain correct me! I am something of a Smart Ass, so I can take it.

Anyway, this week's article came as I was browsing Gatherer, hitting the "Random Card" button when the site gave me Orcish Artillery. This caused me to pause, as I tried to remember when I last saw Orcs in the game, and from there I started to do some research because apparently they were in Core 2021 as well.

So let's back up here and explain just why I was reminiscing about the old days.

Orcs were one of the creature types in the original Limited Edition Alpha, with just two creatures and a single enchantment to their name. Namely, they were Ironclaw Orcs, Orcish Artillery and Orcish Oriflamme. These three cards were, a were many things back then, quite random and eclectic at times. Ironclaw Orcs was a Bear with a drawback of not being able to block creatures that could kill it strictly by the numbers. The Artillery was direct damage with the drawback of also damaging you, but as many people, including myself can tell you, that's not much of a drawback when you're killing something important and you survive. Lastly, the Oriflamme is a ...

Battle standard for the French King during the Middle Ages, and was a signal that no prisoners were to be taken while raised. It also had distinctive pointed ends to it to help identify it on the battlefield.

Uh... good to know then. Back to the subject at hand then! The Oriflamme in Magic is an Enchantment that gives your attacking creatures more power (something that helped a lot of Kobold decks back in the day, let me tell you), which helped encourage attacking.

Orcs were a constant and consistent theme throughout earl magic, hitting a sort of High Tide around Fallen Empires and The Dark, though they did persist through Ice Age (and by extension, Coldsnap) and in Core Set reprints until 10th Edition.

But Orcs were never a huge thing. There seemed to be issues with designs for them that only really become something I can see in retrospect, so allow me to point out what I think caused them to get dropped from the game.

First, is that was crowded with creature types. You may be confused here, but you have to consider that at the time, Orc was a tribe that was sharing space with Dwarves like Dwarven Patrol (chosen for it's WTF-ness), Goblins with Goblin Chirurgeon, Dragons with Shivan Dragon and Elementals with good old Fire Elemental.

Orcs, when looking at the whole at the time, seemed to be designed to bridge the gap between the comedy and cheapness of Goblins and the less hilarious and more expensive Dragons, while maintaining a contrast with the Dwarves.

And they failed.

It's been pointed out to me that after the game started to settle down, Wizards looked to pare down the number of creature types in the game, and with so many in , the decision was made to go cheap and go expensive, meaning that Goblins and Dragons became the de-facto Tribes for even as there was a rotation of 'guest' Tribes in that colour.

It didn't help any that you had cards that were literally, actually Goblins, but that they had Orc in the name and creature type. When you're looking at Orcish Artillery, Orcish Settlers (Obligatory Classical American Art Reference!) and Orcish Conscripts. Oh, and Orcish Librarian. Look, what I'm trying to say is that Orcs were a redundant tribe, and were removed from the game as more than a legacy tribe.

So, Orcs died, and honestly, there was no real reason to have them.

Then came Tarkir. Here, Orcs came back with no fanfare. They maintained their core colour identity of , but they wheeled hard into as a secondary colour - with a dash of for Zurgo Helmsmasher, Mardu Roughrider and a couple of activated abilities.

And yes, I totally meant that pun.

Orcs slid into the set with good intentions and good results. They were a solid addition to the Mardu Khanate, then later under the banner of Dragonlord Kolaghan. Here, they actually stuck the landing with the design promise that I saw in the early game, being a solid mid-range tribe, and adding to their identity worked out a lot. In addition, they took their art cues more from the Lord of the Rings Movies and the Uruk-Hai rather than WarHammer 40K (Yes, I said that!) which meant that they were now more serious in nature, creating another separation between themselves and Goblins which was needed.

But one set does not a success make, and seeing the lack of concern with Tarkir, Wizards pushed the experiment a little further and used Orcs in Ixalan. Sure, there were only 9 of them, but they helped reinforce their current existence as mid-range creatures, a way to help anchor those colours together.

But you know what's really fun? You could make the very small allegation that Orcs are a Tribe with a Tribal Mechanic. Very small though. But what's fun is that in their two major appearances, they were both part of groups that had Raid as a mechanic. Orcs sure do love their raiding, either as Mongols with the serial numbers filed off, or as openly pirates.

I... legitimately have no issues with Orcs being either, really.

And this was good enough for them to reach Core Set Status! With Vengeful Warchief, Gruesome Scourger, and Dire Fleet Warmonger we see Orcs still exist in the game, and it's not something that Wizards has forgotten. They're definitely Deciduous at this point. They will come back.

But before I talk about their obvious future, I want to point out that this development for Orcs has carried them right out of one competitive design space and right into another.

Orcs are now in competition with Minotaurs. They are both creatures that tend to start at converted casting cost, they both are in and and they share the same aggressive tilt as creatures. When I see one, I recognize that they are functionally the same. Well, sure, they are different creature types, and Minotaurs have a bit more Tribal support from Theros. But they still take the same design space in the game from a more abstract perspective, much like Kavu and Werewolves do (well, in theory as Kavu are pretty much absent from the game).

But I don't see much of a problem here as while originally Orcs were in the same sets as its colour competitors, there is little-to-no reason for there to be Orcs and Minotaurs in the same set, unless it's something like a pre-constructed Commander deck or something. They have their own flavour and Wizards can switch between the two tribes depending on which version better suits the world they are creating.

Yet, on the horizon, I see a world they are not creating. I'm seeing, next summer, Faerun. The Dungeons and Dragons set. And you know that the meta-memetic enemy is in D&D?

There is an Orc standing in a 10' by 10' room guarding a chest.

I think we're going to see Orcs come back in that set as a low-key enemy tribe. Or at least more creatures in and .

Yet there's something else, something else about Orcs that I think may be forgotten in all the other aspects to their existence. I looked. You know what Orcs have a lot of? Something that's been getting some nice support recently, if not for a while now?

Orcs tend to be Warriors. Out of 58 Orcs (including Silver Border), there are 21 that are Warriors.

There is a legitimate Commander deck here (or rather as legitimate that I can make one) that uses Zurgo Helmsmasher as the Commander with all sorts of bonus-granting creatures. Chief of the Edge, Chief of the Scale, Raiders' Spoils, Herald of Dromoka, Rush of Battle, Kargan Warleader, Honored Crop-Captain and the like. A pure smashing deck that while I think would be nice, I tried to paper-brew it but the deck didn't jell. I'm sure someone else can take up the banner - sorry, the Oriflamme - though and create a neat Vorthos deck for Warriors.

And hey, Warriors are part of a Party as well! There are also a couple of Rogues, but only Orcish Healer and Dire Fleet Ravager to cover Cleric and Wizard.

OK, here's a question for you all. To make a party, which Orcs would you choose to fill out the Warrior and Rogue slots? Comment below!

But that's that for Orcs. They came, they left, they came again and are here to stay as they have a place in Magic now. I don't mind them, and I won't mind seeing them again, that's for sure.

So, join me next week then I talk about something new. What, I don't know yet. But until then, please consider donating to my Pattern Recognition Patreon. Yeah, I have a job, but more income is always better. I still have plans to do a audio Pattern Recognition at some point, or perhaps a Twitch stream. And you can bribe your way to the front of the line to have your questions, comments and observations answered!