Yeah, but I'd cube this way before Myriad Landscape because there's no shortage of colorless ramp spells compared to lands that create giant game winning demons.
I think this should be tested. The opportunity cost is rather low with a land that makes mana and doesn't come into play tapped. Colorless mana can even be thought after if you run the colorless mana package and mana bases, while not as good as in constructed decks, are often good enough to run a few colorless lands.
The closest equivalent is Grove of the Guardian, which was probably better and hasn't really performed. That doesn't bode well for this card.
Ehhhh, grove is a lot narrower (color-wise) and the creature is a lot less impressive, albeit much easier to get into play. I'm not sure if grove is better.
1.) Color restriction / massive guild competition.
2.) The 8/8 vigilance token is easily dealt with and can be chumped for days.
3.) The demon is much harder to kill, can't be chumped blocked, and lifelink > vigilance on something that huge.
Not to mention the haste, which is HUGE and enables the Demon to dodge a lot removal that could otherwise kill it before it can have an impact, like O-rings, Man-o-War, ect.
Evasion, Haste and Indestructible make this a lot better than Grove of the Guardian. I am also glad I have a seperate utility land draft, cards like this have a much better chance of sticking.
Ehhhh... 5 creature+ board stalls are quite rare in powered cube.
Cashing them in for a creature that is vulnerable to exile spot removal, may also not be desirable.
This. If you're having 5 creatures on the board, you're probably already winning anyway. In that case, I don't understand why you would want to risk your board state into it. Tapping 6 and sacrifice 5 dudes in order to get it transform seems a lot. Maybe it could act like a decent colorless source for those who seek for some more. All in all, I'm not impressed. I personally prefer to combo out into Dark Depths.
The flavor text of this card should say "Sometimes Myr Battlesphere just isn't enough...."
Speaking of the flavor text, can anybody translate the flavor text on this? Is he one of Liliana's 4 demons she's indebted to?
Roughly, After the disappearance of Gristlebrand, the priests of Skirsdag looked forward to another demon worthy of their devotion. Ormendhal did not let them wait long.
Thanks, that helps a lot! On topic, I am excited to hear the test results on this card. It feels like Inkmoth Nexus in power if there is any sort of consistency in transforming in cube drafts.
I've played it in a BUG deck at the pre-release, featuring wolf and vampire tokens, and the card felt insanely powerful. Don't know if it's really cube material, but it seems interesting at least. Very strong land for those who run the colorless package.
I played it in the pre-release and got to transform it once. I had a creature to spare because I knew he had a To the Slaughter in his deck, but he was still able to blow up my fodder and then slaughter my Ormendahl. Small sample size, but cube is a very removal heavy format and there's plenty of ways to sacrifice / exile Ormendahl which seems discouraging. Still worth testing though, but right now my last testing slot is occupied by Blinkmoth Nexus.
I think the quality and abundance of exiling in Cube makes this guy significantly worse than in SOI limited. In SOI limited, I got WRECKED by this dude twice, I saw it coming and couldn't do anything which was sad. I done got did. The indestructible wasn't too bad but the Trample and Haste was killer. Going all in on this guy in SOI limited seems like a solid plan but 6 for 1'ing yourself with this guy, your timing would want to be pretty epic, i.e. a miracle top deck as if they see this coming, you can get wrecked.
I played it in the pre-release and got to transform it once. I had a creature to spare because I knew he had a To the Slaughter in his deck, but he was still able to blow up my fodder and then slaughter my Ormendahl. Small sample size, but cube is a very removal heavy format and there's plenty of ways to sacrifice / exile Ormendahl which seems discouraging. Still worth testing though, but right now my last testing slot is occupied by Blinkmoth Nexus.
Got the "pleasure" of playing against this in Two-Headed Giant today....the turn before my teammate is like why don't I kill off the opponent's Farbog Revenant with Murderous Compulsion as our board state is otherwise locked. I'm like, nah, not worth it. Next turn she draws Westvale Abbey and sacks her team to make Ormendahl....crap. We were able to race it with damage between the two of us and win, but it was a nailbiter.
I think the cost is too steep for the effect in cube though. Unless your sacrificing tokens for this you're not necessarily coming out ahead. If this guy had hexproof it would probably be worth the extreme cost, but without it I think it's a great limited card.
I managed to avoid getting blown out at the prerelease by waiting for the right moment to transform. The thing is, if you have the ability to transform, you also have the ability to sit back and make more tokens instead. So against my W/R opponent that had been looting all game, I held off transforming and attacked with flyers while gumming up the ground with tokens until he was forced to use his malevolent whispers just to survive and the next turn Ormendahl was able to kill him in one attack. In another game I just won with the tokens instead.
So all in all my opinion of the card went up. Sure, it's dangerous to go all in, but the card doesn't require it by any means.
This will end up being a pet card for cubes that many accept as perfectly OK to run. I can't wait to read all the cube stories with this card as a come from behind stun for the win.
No negatives. This card has won quite a few games for me since I put it in. More often than not tokens aren't produced with it, but they have come in handy a few times when the situation is right. My group loves this card so I don't see myself cutting it anytime soon.
If you're willing to dedicate a colorless spot to a card that is kind of underpowered but often makes MDs and can win games, then it's fine. Definitely easy to include in the largest cubes. It often doesn't flip, but when it does gg thanks for coming. I would not question leaving it out at all, but inversely understand why someone would want to run it too.
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Unlike Dark Depths, this makes mana.
Unlike Foundry of the Consuls or Gargoyle Castle, this doesn't need to be sacrificed to make a token.
Unlike Mirrorpool, this doesn't come into play tapped, and doesn't require C to activate.
If this makes a cleric to chump block or carry a sword once in while, and breaks a stall with a demon once in a blue moon, this might be worth it.
Ehhhh, grove is a lot narrower (color-wise) and the creature is a lot less impressive, albeit much easier to get into play. I'm not sure if grove is better.
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1.) Color restriction / massive guild competition.
2.) The 8/8 vigilance token is easily dealt with and can be chumped for days.
3.) The demon is much harder to kill, can't be chumped blocked, and lifelink > vigilance on something that huge.
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Not to mention the haste, which is HUGE and enables the Demon to dodge a lot removal that could otherwise kill it before it can have an impact, like O-rings, Man-o-War, ect.
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This. If you're having 5 creatures on the board, you're probably already winning anyway. In that case, I don't understand why you would want to risk your board state into it. Tapping 6 and sacrifice 5 dudes in order to get it transform seems a lot. Maybe it could act like a decent colorless source for those who seek for some more. All in all, I'm not impressed. I personally prefer to combo out into Dark Depths.
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Roughly, After the disappearance of Gristlebrand, the priests of Skirsdag looked forward to another demon worthy of their devotion. Ormendhal did not let them wait long.
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Sounds like you did. OPP doesn't have trample.
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I managed to avoid getting blown out at the prerelease by waiting for the right moment to transform. The thing is, if you have the ability to transform, you also have the ability to sit back and make more tokens instead. So against my W/R opponent that had been looting all game, I held off transforming and attacked with flyers while gumming up the ground with tokens until he was forced to use his malevolent whispers just to survive and the next turn Ormendahl was able to kill him in one attack. In another game I just won with the tokens instead.
So all in all my opinion of the card went up. Sure, it's dangerous to go all in, but the card doesn't require it by any means.
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