Arch of Orazca

Land

Ascend (If you control ten or more permanents, you get the city's blessing for the rest of the game.) T: Add ◊ to your mana pool. 5, T: Draw a card. Activate this ability only if you have the city's blessing.

Discussion (51)

Ehsteve on Lord Windgrace Sits Behind A Chasm

1 week ago

More Commander Legends

I would say that this is an easy replacement for Spire Garden. If only they had brought this out before Zendikar Rising so it could have potentially been an expedition. The mix of green/black is a lot more prevalent in this deck, with red being incidental. Only issue I see is that this would reduce the overall red splash in this deck down to about 5 sources, 2 of them tapped (Gruul Turf & Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle), 3 of them fetchable. That said, all red costs in this deck are just single pips so it shouldn't hurt too much so long as the fetchable land count doesn't drop further.

There is a constant battle between these kinds of effects: Arch of Orazca, Castle Locthwain and now War Room. Which is better? Honestly they all end up costing a lot. Arch has that high mana cost, Castle has the downside of being very painful when you're digging for the right thing with a full hand and War Room would cost you 3 every time you used it and taps for colourless. So the question is which one is best? Depends, every time I look over this I come to the same conclusion: generally it isn't really worth it. The deck has a limited resource in its life total that needs to be put towards Glacial Chasm among other things, so Castle and War Room just feel rather taxing, and Arch and War Room are colourless, so they hurt colour fixing. All in all I would consider maybe giving this a pass because having to tap 4 lands and pay 3 life to draw a card just isn't worth it.

Interesting, but this card just draws too much attention. It would take you many turns to burn down an opponent even doing 7 damage a turn, giving them plenty of time to find an answer. Using this on a creature of planeswalker isn't particularly exciting either due to the timing, you can't really using any tricks to maximise the effect.

With Glacial Chasm you can very much abuse this card's effect. It deals damage, Glacial Chasm prevents damage. The choice is made as the card resolves so if your opponents try any shenanigans you can change your choice to something safer. You have every opportunity to utilise this to its full effect. Mind games are also fun so you might try to lowball it at say 5-10 life to see if anyone is betting that you'll choose some ridiculously high number to guarantee you'll get to wheel.

Giving your opponents choice isn't the best. Skip.

No real interaction with landfall but this is a very powerful card for black. I would recommend this just based upon power level alone to annoy opponents, but do so at your own peril, because you will draw a lot of hate from it.

Now this is an interesting choice here. Bringing back cards from the graveyard is what this deck likes to do, sometimes more than once a turn, so you can get a lot of potential value from this card. However the issue becomes that it is on a creature body. It's interesting, not amazing.

Forgot this one when I was doing green. Interesting effect, but the issue remains that you usually won't be attacking to win, and at 8 mana, he is not cheap to cast at all. I would only recommend this in a Rude Awakening style deck.

Drcfan on Devotion to White Angels

1 week ago

@Gloglok

• Gideon of the Trials is a very versatile card on its own but i had to swap it out because Runed Halo has no synergy with any planeswalkers. Runed Halo showed to be just too good to be swapped out. (It only struggles if you always play against new brew decks)

• Skyclave Apparition is an option i'm testing at the moment (Works quite good). It would fit way better if it were an Angel or Human though (for Caverns and Deck flavor). You would have to swap out Wall of Omens for Charming Prince then for the additional interaction.

• Linvala, Keeper of Silence I keep her in here because i have someone who plays Slivers in my playgroup with a value combo Dormant Sliver and later Necrotic Sliver. If she enters the battlefield, it's game. Lyra Dawnbringer is really nice but its ability need a lot of Angels on the battlefield. She works way better if the Angels are cheap, like 2 - 3 mana drops. I've not seen a non lifegain Angel that low except maybe Serra Avenger

• Giver of Runes is insane and would be a great addition, because i cannot deal with Path to Exile myself. I tried it with Ranger-Captain of Eos a while ago but somehow the deck got slow i lost one match after the other. Not sure how i could include Giver of Runes at the moment. I have a Eight-and-a-Half-Tails Sideboard against control which you can fetch.

• Emeria, Shattered Skyclave is a must include for this deck even if you cannot fetch it. Every white deck i own has it now. Ondu Skyruins is not really needed, i included it because i play a lot of multiplayer at the moment.

• Secluded Steppe + Mistveil Plains gives Weathered Wayfarer the ability to tap and draw a card for 4 mana (Activating Mistveil Plains cost 1 mana. At least some card draw engine, you can try Arch of Orazca if you like it more. I like the land fetch ability more XD).

What i really need for this deck is 3 drop removal better than Oblivion Ring. Grasp of Fate is strictly better but not modern. Banisher Priest and Fiend Hunter die easily to removal. I hope some day a set will bring something printed on an Angel

Kind Regards -Drcfan

Gloglok on Devotion to White Angels

1 week ago

Hi Drcfan! I have a few questions/remarks for you :)

• What happened to Gideon of the Trials? He has been tougher and tougher for me to play, the amount of threats being too high in aggro decks at the moment and him only being able to deal only with one per turn and coming at turn 3/4 (and being unprotected by Runed Halo).
• What's your opinion on Skyclave Apparition? Greater devotion than an Oblivion Ring, and they never get the card back, but on a creature which can be worse than an enchant.
• What's your opinion on Linvala over Lyra?

• What's your opinion (again haha) on the inclusion of 2xGiver of Runes and 2xRanger-Captain of Eos, since you've removed the Wrath of God for Settle the Wreckage?

• I also believe that you can't fetch Emeria's Call  ^Flip or Ondu Inversion  ^Flip with your Weathered Wayfarer after putting it back inside your deck via Mistveil Plains (or even before), as per the rules from Zendikar Rising, as the front face of these two double-faced cards aren't the land face:

Why you can't tutor Emeria's Call by searching for a land Show

From the "Zendikar Rising Mechanics" on Wizards' site, September 1, 2020

"Most of the rules that govern how transforming double-faced cards apply to the new modal variety. While a modal double-faced card is in your hand, your graveyard, or exile, it has the characteristics of its front face only. So, if you're searching your library for a land card, you can't find a modal double-faced card whose front face isn't a land card. If an effect allows you to cast instant spells from your graveyard, you could cast Valakut Awakening, but you couldn't play Valakut Stoneforge."

But also for your interest:

From the "Zendikar Rising Release Notes" on Wizards' site, Septembre 10, 2020

"If an effect allows you to play a land or cast a spell from among a group of cards, you may play or cast a modal double-faced card with any face that fits the criteria of that effect. For example, if Sejiri Shelter / Sejiri Glacier is in your graveyard and an effect allows you to play lands from your graveyard, you could play Sejiri Glacier. That effect doesn't allow you to cast Sejiri Shelter."

• You could theoretically do a draw once per turn with Secluded Steppe and with your Wayfarer and Mistveil. It's less than Arch of Orazca (which you've told me in the past was too expensive to your taste, and too situational with the ascend mechanic), albeit colored mana and disruptable via destroying the Wayfarer. What do you think?

I love the Settle the Wreckage suggestion, have copied it in my deck! Works very well with the instant speed, with the lands fetched by the opponent and our Wayfarer, it keeps our board, and it exiles which prevents graveyard shenanigans. Only issue over a Wrath of God is having to target our opponent (and the lands given, indeed), but I prefer it this way.

I'm also glad you've lowered your average CMC, deck looks much smoother like this. I will try Mistveil Plains and Secluded Steppe in my deck, will keep it if it's good! :)

Thank you for your time!

TheSlowestBro on Norin Naughty Nonsense

1 week ago

Hello, Great list! Thank you for the upvote and suggestion you left on my own. I think I'll have to add in Humble Defector and Homeward Path, perhaps also Starke of Rath while I'm at it. These kinda janky cards feel right at home with Norin. I see you've already decided against Mirror March, which I totally get, just figured I'd highlight how awesome it can be with stuff like Grinning Ignus and Cloudstone Curio, both of which I think can be justifiable even without the MM. Also the newish War Room is vastly better than Arch of Orazca in my opinion. +1

plakjekaas on Arch of Orazca

2 weeks ago

Cutting lands for spells you'd rather play, is the worst deckbuilding advice, period. You need lands to play your spells, make sure you include enough, depending on your mana curve. Consider your color requirements when deciding how many colorless utility lands you can play. (More Forests over Bonders' Enclave when you play Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig over Rhonas the Indomitable )

With that out of the way, of course you're also playing Endless Atlas if you're playing War Room, they're good in the same decks for the same reasons and purposes. But this is 100 card singleton and you're not going to guarantee those cards will ever be in your hand, so you play more of the same effect to increase the chance to have drawn one of them by the time you need them.

If you're playing in a meta that frequently punishes nonbasic lands, yeah, then you make a conscious, meta-depending choice to run less of those. I can see how you'd then rather have a Divination in hand than a Arch of Orazca in play. Although an actual Wastes will not help you more than the Arch when your opponent has Blood Moon or Magus of the Moon in play, and Divination will help you a lot less if your opponent has the Archon of Emeria.

Activating your Arch on turn 8 to find the Nature's Claim for an opposing Omniscience just feels so much better than staring at the Harmonize in your hand. That makes those lands worth it. It happened more times than the Arch actually color-screwing me. It might seem like the Arch-like lands feel like too desperate to play, I can understand that, but there's a lot of desperate moments in multiplayer Magic, and I've never regretted my decision to include them.

Your mileage may vary.

MagicMarc on Arch of Orazca

3 weeks ago

They may not be the best forms of card advantage, but getting utility off of lands should never be completely disregarded.

Especially if they are in decks where man-fixing is not a major need of the deck. For me, the fact they tap only for colorless is more of a disadvantage than the costs of getting the extra card.

In decks where tap for colorless is not a big weakness, I can only think you get more value from Arch of Orazca and War Room than a basic land. If they entered play tapped, they would be rated a lot worse but since you get mana from them the turn you play them and gain the utility of additional draws, I would consider them options.

Mcat1999 on Arch of Orazca

3 weeks ago

How do people feel about Arch of Orazca? It's basically to draw a card. Yes the cost is but you also tap the land itself, meaning you lose a total of mana you have access to.

Obviously it's not a very good trade off, however it is a steady form of draw and most players don't attack lands, meaning it's relatively safe.

So is it a "good" choice for decks who routinely run out their hand or lack sufficient draw, or no? And I think we can disregard the Ascend ability. You'd be at 10 permanents by the time you'd be using the draw ability.

Optimator on Giant's Deck

2 months ago

Next step is card-draw and card-advantage. Unfortunately, the Boros colors are the worst at drawing cards. Graveyard recursion is a type of card advantage, so Colfenor's Urn can count. I've never seen that card before! Nice find and good instincts!

Here are some options for you.

First up, the cards I own that I'm willing to part with:

Seer's Sundial - Staff of Nin - Farsight Mask - Key to the City - Infiltration Lens - Mask of Memory - Tome of Legends - Outpost Siege - Khorvath's Fury - Humble Defector - Chandra, Flamecaller - Magus of the Wheel

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Cards I don't have that you should consider:

Tectonic Giant is mandatory! He's so good! Protector of the Crown is on-theme too--highly recommend.

Bonders' Enclave would be worth picking up, I think.

Browbeat - Loreseeker's Stone - Arcane Encyclopedia - Vance's Blasting Cannons  ^Flip - Ignite the Future - Reforge the Soul - Wheel of Fate - Mind's Eye (used to be the gold-standard! Very mana-inefficient though) - Icon of Ancestry (interesting choice since it has the anthem) - Rogue's Gloves - Well of Lost Dreams (great choice with your commander!) - Coveted Jewel (ramp and draw! Unreliable and mana-expensive, but chaotic and fun!) - Mangara, the Diplomat - Runehorn Hellkite - Dragon Mage - Knollspine Dragon - Herald's Horn - Endless Atlas (a bit suspect in two-color decks unless your colors are very skewed or you have lots of Renegade Map-type cards) - Bag of Holding - Arch of Orazca - Geier Reach Sanitarium - Mazemind Tome

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Underworld Breach, Sunbird's Invocation, and Stolen Strategy might count as card-advantage, should you feel jaunty. Stolen Strategy is definitely a fun card and get you fodder for Brion's throwing.

Howling Mine + Inspiring Statuary is kinda funny. Probably not worth it though.